Easy Gluten Free Living

Posts Tagged ‘Celiac Disease’

If you have Celiac Disease, you know that the days of dinner in a hurry pretty much came crashing to a halt with your diagnosis.  Gone were the days of coming home and slapping a frozen pizza in the oven or calling the pizza delivery man or if you had half an hour, Hamburger Helper.

However, last week I found a product that has changed all that.  I was in a grocery store that I don’t usually frequent and came across an end-cap that had all Gluten Free products on it.  There was a chocolate cake mix, brownie mix, pasta, cookies and crackers.  All products that I’ve seen before. 

As I looked over the products to see if there was anything new, I came across Hamburger Helper look alike boxes.  Mrs. Leeper’s Gluten Free Dinners. 

Since I don’t have the luxury of being a full time work at home woman, “yet”, I was extremely interested in trying these.  However, since my husband is not a celiac, and not completely gluten free, I asked him if he wanted to try them.

My husband has been so supportive throughout my whole celiac ordeal, so of course he said yes.

We took home the Beef Stroganoff, and the Creamy Tuna (the tuna was my husband’s choice).  We tried the beef stroganoff that night.  It was very good for a boxed dinner.  I’ve become very spoiled in that I really like to cook and bake, so I’m very critical of boxed foods, but these were good. 

We tried the Creamy Tuna a few days later.  I was not too excited to try this because I didn’t think a boxed tuna dinner could taste very good.   But since we didn’t get home from work until late, this would be a quick dinner.

I was pleasantly surprised.  It was very creamy and flavorful.  Since my husband has high cholesterol, we used ground turkey breast instead of ground beef for the stroganoff and tuna packed in water instead of oil for a more healthful meal.  I will definately buy these again and try all the other flavors.

Mrs Leeper’s makes 6 different varieties of dinners:    

• Beef Stroganoff
• Creamy Tuna
• Cheeseburger Mac
• Chicken Alfredo
• Beef Lasagna
• Mac & Cheese       

There are also topping suggestions on the side of the box, that are appropriate for the dinner being made.                    

I would suggest you try these.

Mary Blackburn

Living Gluten Free

December is all about the holidays.  Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or something else, there are always parties to attend or host.

At my house we celebrate Christmas, and it’s all about the true meaning of Christmas, family and good food.  Christmas eve is a really good meal then off to Christmas Eve services.

Dinner is a nice Beef Burgandy.  What makes it easy is I make it in the crock pot.  That way it takes minimal watching and I can concentrate on other last minute preparations.

Now, how do you make sure the food is something you can eat?  If the celebration is at your house, you need to decide, is everyone eating Gluten Free or is there going to be gluten filled food? 

If there is going to be a combination of gluten filled food and gluten free food make sure you prepare your gluten free food first to avoid cross contamination.  Think about making little signs to place on your buffet in front of gluten free food to keep your gluten free food, gluten free.

What if the party is at someone else’s house?  How can you be sure that there is food there safe for you to eat?

1. Remember you’re the guest.  You want to have fun but you won’t have fun if you’re spending the whole time in the bathroom.
2. Call the hostess.  If you’re not going to a close friend or relative’s house who knows your condition, call and talk with the hostess.  Offer to bring a dish.  If the affair is going to be catered, ask the hostess if she would mind you calling the caterer.  If the caterer can’t give you a list or label the dishes, arrive a few minutes early to speak with the caterer about ingredients in the dishes.
3. Keep in mind the possibility of hidden glutenous ingredients.  Just because something looks safe, doesn’t mean it is.  If you’re not sure of ingredients, ask.  Better safe than sorry.
4. If you don’t have a spouse or significant other, maybe ask a friend to help you keep informed of potential hazardous foods.  Extra eyes, and ears will help to keep you gluten free.
5. Eat before the party.  If you arrive full instead of hungry, you won’t be tempted to eat something you might not eat, if you weren’t hungry.
6. BYO Food.  Bring your own dish to share.  Let the hostess know that you would like to bring a dish.  Make sure it tastes good and will add to the buffet.
7. Try to be first in line.  If food is being served buffet style be first, to avoid cross contamination.  If that’s not an option, ask your hostess if you can prepare a plate ahead of time.  Then eat your plate when everyone else does.
8. Stick to food you know.  Eat foods that you know to be safe.  Avoid no no’s like bread, and pasta, and be aware of marinades, dips, sauces, casseroles, and desserts, unless you made them.
9. Be Gracious.  Thank your hostess for being accomodating.
10. Have Fun.  Remember this is a party.  Keep the above tips in mind and enjoy yourself.

Mary Blackburn

Living Gluten Free

My friend, Susanne Myers, The Hillbilly Housewife, is hosting a virtual cookie exchange.  The following cookie recipe is my contribution.  I hope that you enjoy them.

                                        Gluten Free Mock Thin Mints

1 Cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Unsweetened cocoa powder + some extra for dusting
1/4 teaspoon Rumsford Baking Powder
6 Tablespoons butter softened to room temperature
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Large Egg
1/2 teaspoon gluten free Vanilla extract

Sift together flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.  In a separate bowl, cream the butter & sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer.  While still mixing add in the egg and vanilla.  Set mixer on low speed and slowly add flour mixture,  so as not to have it pouf out at you.  Mix on medium high speed until all ingredients are incorporated.

Dough will be very soft so cover bowl with plastic wrap and refriderate at least 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  With a teaspoon,  scoop up a teaspoon size piece of dough and roll in your hands to form a ball.  Place on the cookie sheets 2 inches apart.   

Dip the bottom of a glass into the extra cocoa powder and flatten dough balls into 1 1/2″ rounds (about 1/4″ thick).

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until slightly firm to the touch, rotating cookie sheets half way through baking time.

Transfer cookies immediately to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.

Replace parchment paper on cookie sheets.

                                  Chocolate Coating for Cookies

One – 12 ounce bag semi sweet morsels
1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
1 Tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
1/8 teaspoon salt

In a double boiler or a heat proof bowl,  set over (not in) a pan of simmering water, combine the chocolate morsels, peppermint extract, salt, and the sweetened condensed milk .  Heat,  stirring occasionally until smooth.

When cookies are completely cool, hold each cookie with a finger and thumb and frost with chocolate mixture.  I use the tines of a fork instead of a knife, so as not to get too much chocolate on each cookie.  Coat both top and bottom.  Place frosted cookie on parchment covered cookie sheet and repeat until all cookies are coated.

Place in refrigerator until chocolate has hardened, at least 1 hour.

Cookies can be refrigerated up to 5 days in an air tight container between layers of parchment paper.I hope you enjoy these cookies and all the others that you will find at the Virtual Cookie Exchange.

Mary Blackburn

Living Gluten Free

I thought that I would start blogging more frequently, but I didn’t know just what I would be blogging about. 

Those of you that know me personally, know that I rarely run out of things to say, but I want my blog to be informative and fun.  So I decided that I would have a couple of theme days every week and encourage you to join in.

This will start in full after the holidays.  If you’re like me right now, the holidays aren’t just creeping up on you, they are flying at you with the speed of a freight train.  I can’t believe Christmas is just 10 days away.  I still have shopping to do.  

I have baking to do also.  Because we had a night of freezing rain Saturday night into Sunday morning, church services were cancelled, interstate 376, commonly called here in Pittsburgh, The Parkway, was closed.  That hasn’t happened since the snow storm of 1993. 

 So I thought it would be a perfect day to do some  baking. I made Gluten Free Mock Thin Mints.  If you have a Girl Scout in the family, then you know what Thin Mint cookies are.  I think that was one of the things I missed most after going gluten free.

I will be posting the recipe here later today.  The reason I will be posting later is because my friend Susanne Myers, The Hillbilly Housewife came up with a great idea. 

Since alot of us are work at home moms, she came up with the idea to have a Virtual Cookie Exchange.  So if you are looking for some great cookie recipes check out the Virtual Cookie Exchange.  I think this will be alot of fun.

Feel free to post your favorite cookie recipes in the comments section below.  I look forward to a lot of great recipes.

Also, if you would like some more information on Celiac Disease, be sure to check out my Squidoo Lens.

Mary Blackburn

Living Gluten Free

You would think that after having Celiac Disease for 22 years I would know how to be prepared for being away from home.  Yesterday was not the case.

I spent a large portion of my day yesterday,  hanging out at Armstrong County Memorial Hospital.  My mother-in-law had to have surgery to remove a lesion on her face.  The surgery was done as an outpatient, and as it turns out the lesion was cancerous, but the surgeon feels he got it all, and things should be fine.

Since we had to be up and out the door pretty early, I was really hungry by lunch time.  Usually I would take a couple gluten free snacks to eat just in case there’s no gluten free food available.  I don’t know where my head was yesterday, but I walked out the door with nothing but my notebook so that I could work while we sat waiting, but no food.

At lunch time my husband and I took a stroll down to the hospital cafeteria for lunch.  With all the strides made towards accommodating  gluten free diets, you would think that at a hospital, I would be able to find something gluten free to eat .  Not the case.

All the food looked really good and smelled even better.  There was chicken parmesan served over, what else, spaghetti.  There were wraps, but, made of course, with flour tortillas.  What I finally chose as the lesser of all the evils was the Lean Cuisine chicken & rice, just the rice, steamed broccoli, and french fries.  I’m not sure if there had been any cross contamination, but I’m not feeling any adverse effects today.

Moral of the story, never take for granted that there will be food for you to eat where ever you are going.  Think ahead and be prepared.

Tomarrow I will return to Halloween Treats.

Mary Blackburn

Living Gluten Free

Today I have another recipe to make your gluten-free Halloween delicious.  I also have some more candy that I’ve found to be gluten-free.

• All Just Born Brand candies are gluten free.  That includes their Peep brand marshmellow candies, (all varieties), Mike & Ike, Teenie Beanie Jelly Beans and more.
• M & M’s, all brands except the krispy kind
• Skittles
• Tootsie Roll Industries, posts that all their candies are gluten free
• as does Ferrara Pan Candy Company
• Laffy Taffy
• Betty Crocker Halloween Fruit Flavored snacks
• Heath Milk Chocolate English Toffee small size bars
• Swedish Fish
• Snickers Bars fun size and minis
• Wonka Giant Pixy Stix
• Starburst Fruit Chews
• and Double Bubble Bubble Gum

As I come across more I’ll let you know here.

Here is another homemade treat for your tricksters.

                                            Wickedly Good Popcorn Balls

1. 4 quarts popcorn, popped
2. 2 (1 oz.) squares unsweetened chocolate
3. 2 cups granulated sugar
4. 1/2 cup light corn syrup
5. 1 cup of water

Preset the oven to 200 degrees.  Place popcorn into a large heat proof bowl and place it in the oven to keep it warm.  Put the chocolate into a heavy saucepan over low heat.  Stir constantly, and heat the chocolate for 5 minutes or until completely melted.  Stir in the sugar and corn syrup until well blended.  Add the water and stir to blend in.

Adjust the heat to medium and stir continuously until it comes to a steady boil.  Continue cooking until a candy thermometer reaches 250 degrees or hard ball stage.

Remove the popcorn from the oven and pour the chocolate mixture over the popcorn stirring to evenly coat popcorn.  When the mixture cools enough to be handled, form it into 3 inch balls.  Place popcorn balls on a wire rack to cool.

These popcorn balls are a good change from the regular popcorn balls we all grew up with.  When forming these balls, dip your hand into cold water to keep the popcorn from sticking to your hands.  Wrap the popcorn balls in plastic wrap or for a fancier look, pretty orange and black cellophane paper found at most craft stores, and tie the ends with a halloween ribbon.

We’ll be searching the aisles at the grocery store for more gluten free candy all this week, so check back often.

Mary Blackburn

Living Gluten Free

Having Celiac Disease or a gluten intollerance as an adult is inconvenient, but when you have a gluten free child, whatever the reason, it can be down right heart breaking.  Especially when the holidays roll around.  They just want to be able to be a kid, like their friends.

With Halloween fast approaching, I thought I’d give you some tips, recipes, and gluten-free candy options to help you with your little ones celebration.

When you are choosing your halloween candy to hand out to the little ghosts and goblins, be sure to buy only those that are gluten free.  That way you don’t have to worry if your little trick or treater comes home with only gluten laden candy, or candy that is questionable.  Besides, if your household is anything like mine, we all have a hard time keeping our hands out of the treat basket. 

Make sure your child knows and understands not to eat anything from his or her treat bag until they get home.  Not only is this a good policy to keep your child gluten free, it is also just good sense, in this day and age of “bad guys”.

Check out the treats.  When your child gets home from trick or treating, make a game out of going through the “booty”.  Make a pile for candy known to be gluten free, a pile for candy known NOT to be gluten free, and a pile for candy that you just aren’t sure of.  It may or may not be gluten free.  If you want to take the time you can contact the manufacturer, give it away, or just throw it out.

Remember the old adage:  “When in doubt, throw it out”, because nothing is more important that keeping your child healthy and safe.

Keep it positive.  I know from experience how easy it is to get angry and depressed about not being able to eat the foods that you know and love, but that don’t love you back.  If your child is on a gluten free diet chances are pretty good that he or she will remain on that diet the rest of their lives.  Now is the time to teach them that it’s not the end of the world.  Yes, there are some restrictions, and they will always have to be diligent, but new and better tasting gluten free foods are coming out everyday.  If you show a positive attitude your child will too.

Over the next week I will be telling you about popular candy that is gluten free and also giving you recipes that are gluten free that can be used for school parties or your own Halloween Ghoul Party.

Here’s one such recipe:

                                            Halloween Haystacks

What you’ll need:    

1. 1 (11 oz.) package butterscotch chips
2. 2 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter
3. 1 (12 0z.) jar dry roasted peanuts (optional)
4. 1 (4 02.) package of (gluten free) potato sticks         

How to make the Haystacks

     Place the chips into a large heavy saucepan.  Add the peanut butter to the pan and place the pan over low heat.  Stir constantly and heat the mixture for 5 minutes or until very smooth.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the peanuts until well coated.  Add the potato sticks and carefully stir to coat them well with the mixture.  Line a pan with wax or parchment paper and drop the mixture by teaspoonfuls onto the paper.  Chill the haystacks until firm.

These sweet and salty stacks will have them begging for more.  For school treats wrap tightly in plastic and tie with a Halloween bow.  If you want a more peanut butter cup flavor, substitute semisweet chocolate chips in place of the butterscotch chips.   

Hope you and your little goblins enjoy them.

Mary Blackburn

Living Gluten Free

By now it is Thanksgiving 1987 and I am down to 100 pounds and beginning to feel so weak that I can hardly keep up with my family.  It takes all my strength to get my kids off to school and my husband off to work in the morning.  My house is a wreck, dishes are piling up in the sink.

I am feeling numbness in my face and tingling in my hands.  I am constantly hungry and extremely thirsty.  After I eat, I have extremely bad stomach aches and bloating.  I can’t venture too far from home due to the need of being near a bathroom at all times.

I need to go Christmas shopping for my children, but I am so weak by now that I spend most of my days in my pajamas and robe.  Nothing seems to help and my PCP really can’t tell me what is wrong.

Finally, the last straw for my husband is the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We were at my in-laws for the weekend and I just couldn’t wait to get home.  The diarrhea is almost non stop now.  If I eat, I need a bathroom, period. 

My husband tells me to call my gynecologist.  So first thing Monday morning I do.  Thankfully, he gives me the name of a gastroenterologist.  I call him, go see him, and schedule a biopsy of my small intestine.  This in itself is a miracle, because there weren’t a whole lot of Doctors with any knowledge of Celiac Disease back then.  Thank you Dr. Richard Raizman for saving my life.

The biopsy shows that the villi in my small intestine is pretty much gone.  Villi are microscopic hair like fingers in your small intestine that greatly increase the surface of your intestines so that your body can catch and absorb digested nutrients that your body needs, more efficiently.

The diagnosis, I have Celiac Disease or at that time they called it Celiac Sprue.  Basically, the food I am eating is poisoning me.  I am told I need to cut out all foods with gluten in my diet.  No bread, no pasta, no pizza, nothing with wheat, barley, rye, or oats.  At first, I really have no idea what this is going to mean for my family and I.

Then I go to the grocery store and begin reading labels.  Do you know that gluten or wheat is found in almost every processed food?   Soups, cereal, gravy, soy sauce.  It is hidden in just about everything that I have fed my family over the past 11 years that my husband and I have been married.  I am devastated.

Unlike now, store bought gluten free food is almost non-existant and what is out there is awful.  It tastes like saw dust.  When my husband and I got married I didn’t know how to cook.  His love and encouragement helped me to become a great cook.   Now I have to start all over again and re-learn how to make good food that won’t kill me.

My story continues tomarrow.

Mary Blackburn

Living Gluten Free

The year was 1987, I was a happily married 28 year old mother of 2 children, a son 9 and a daughter 8.  I had just become my daughter’s Girl Scout co-leader and we were off on our first camping trip to Girl Scout Camp Henry Kaufmann in the beautiful Laurel Mountains of Western Pennsylvania.

It was to be a 3 night 4 day trip, we were both so excited.  My family are seasoned campers, my husband and I had been camping pretty much since we first met and our children had their first camping trip when our son was 22 months old and our daughter was 6 months old.  So this was not a new thing, just that we would be staying in tents in a Girl Scout camp instead of a state campground.

Camp Henry Kaufman had it’s own full time cook and all the campers had their meals in the dining hall.  The food was great, and Cookie made all her own homemade breads and rolls for the meals.  I will later come to find out that all those great homemade glutenous breads and rolls are slowly killing me.

After day number 2, I came down with a severe case of diarrhea.  I spent a lot of time in the latrine, and sucking down large amounts of Kaopectate.  This was in the summer of ’87, the month of July to be exact and Pennsylvania was having a pretty dry season that year.  I assumed that I had picked up a case of giardia from drinking the water at camp. 

When I came home my symtoms really didn’t get any better.  I went to my primary care physician and he pretty much confirmed my thoughts on the giardia (without doing any testing).  So he gave me a stronger anti-diarrheal.  It seemed to work.

Now I have to say we were into August by now and my father-in-law had a huge garden that we pretty much ate out of all August and September.  Good things, like, fresh corn on the cob, cucumbers and onions, tomatoes, squash, zucchini,  and things like that.  Not a lot of bread or pasta meals during this time of year.  So my “problem” got better.  My conclusion…, must have been the water at camp.

However, when the seasons changed and we started eating normally again, my problem came back with a vengeance.  So back to the PCP for more anti-diarrhea medication.  Only this time it didn’t seem to work. 

I kept taking the medication, but the problem persisted.  I soon went from a healthy 135 lb woman to a tired, cranky, sick 100 lb skeleton by Thanksgiving.

Tune in tomarrow and I will give you the “Rest of the Story”.

Mary Blackburn

Living Gluten Free

Welcome to Easy Gluten Free Living, a website for Celiacs, by a celiac.  In case you stumbled upon this website by accident, let me explain to you what a celiac is.

A celiac is a person with an intollerance to gluten, protein found in just about every grain except, corn, rice and depending on who you listen to some gluten-free oats, (those processed only in a plant that does not process glutenous grains).  The reason I say depending on who you listen to follows.  I pulled this right off of the Celiac Sprue Association’s website:

“Inconclusive information exists concerning the inclusion of oats in the gluten-free diet.  Some clinical studies indicate that uncontaminated oats may be tolerated by some people with CD.  Other studies indicate that some people with CD have an immune response to oats (avenin).  Currently, there is no way to identify which people with CD may tolerate oats.  Therefore caution is advised when considering the use of uncontaminated oats in a gluten-free diet.”*

When I was diagnosed 22 years ago, I was told no wheat, barley, rye, or oats, period.  So I have basically stuck to that instruction, until recently.  However, I haven’t injested enough oats as of yet to make a decision for myself.  I’ll let you know here if I find that I am having a reaction to the “Gluten-Free Oats”.

This website will be a place for information about Celiac Disease and how to keep you or your loved one happy and healthy on a gluten free diet.

I named this site Easy Gluten Free Living because once you get over the shock and denial of being intollerant, (or as most people say “allergic”) to gluten you will find that it really isn’t that bad, just a bit inconvienient.

I hope that you will find this website informative, helpful and inspiring.  In the days and weeks to come I will be giving you meal/menu ideas to help with mealtime.

Come back often and please feel free to comment or ask questions.

Mary Blackburn

Living Gluten Free