The Devil is in the…Dairy

June 2, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

I knew it would be, but still, the results were harsher than I expected. My youngest is so intolerant to dairy that he can’t even have goat cheese, yogurt, milk which I had recently been relying on. Plus, they are both intolerant of almonds, so there goes the almond milk I use in all my baking, waffle making, etc and it also makes protein bar buying surprisingly difficult. My older one also needs to be off peanuts, eggs, and some other things that don’t really matter for at least six months while their bodies heal from all the damage of ingesting gluten (and dairy) for years. Ah yes, the gluten~ I forgot to even mention that one, but that was a given also. The naturopath thinks my husband is probably also gluten intolerant b/c the kids’ intolerances are so severe. He’s finding out. Fun times at our house. Despite all my prepping for this, I am finding meal times exhausting during this transition period. I know it will get easier, my logical brain was fully prepared for a period of adjustment, some whining and frustration, and some uneaten foods that took a long time to prepare, but my emotional brain can’t seem to keep my own level of frustration in check. When I look at the clock and realize it’s close to a meal time I feel my cortisol levels rise and my mind starts speeding through options~ what can everyone eat so I have to make the least amount of separate meals that gives everyone balanced options and fairly happy and normal and not stressed out while meanwhile I’m stressing out before I even step foot into the kitchen…sigh. I know it will get easier, I really do~ I’m all set to start meal planning with input from every member of the family and to spend some extra time making food such as soups and casseroles that will last for a few days and will be good fall back food, but I don’t feel like I can do that until I have all the bits of information assembled, namely my husband’s and my own intolerances fully understood. We’ll get there, I know. Of course I can say that calmly because it is 1:52PM and I don’t have to make dinner for another 3+ hours…

On a different note, I read a very nice article today that spells out gluten intolerance quite well. For those who have to explain themselves all the time, or are just curious about it, this is a great (short) article to help make that explanation very clear and concise:http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-9739/how-gluten-wreaks-havoc-on-your-gut.html.

dairy free · Food allergies · food sensitivities · gf foods · gluten free · gluten free food · gluten free foods · gluten intolerance

More Gluten-free/dairy-free Discoveries

May 26, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

Besides the garlic bread that I’ve been making with the Trader Joe’s flatbread, I’ve also been making pizzas which my sons have declared better than delivered pizza, so that says it all. For the cheese I’ve been combining two goat cheeses together, one is that hard goat gouda from Trader Joe’s and the other is a mozzarella style that I found at Whole Foods. I combine the two b/c while the mozzarella one does indeed taste like regular mozzarella, it almost tastes too much, like mozz on steroids. The gouda has a much milder flavor and tames the other quite a bit to make a very yummy, kid friendly, cheese pizza. Here’s the empty package:

Today I used Namaste Foods’ pizza crust for the first time and the kids really love that too. I use that same brand for waffles in the mornings (almost every morning for my youngest) and it is wonderfully clean of ingredients that people commonly cannot tolerate. Here’s the package:

I needed to spread the crust a bit thinner, but this is how it came out:

The boys loved it and commented on the pizza crust specifically. I won’t rely on pizza and garlic bread for too long, but for now, during this transition period, it’s so nice to have easy to prepare foods that the kids enjoy. My youngest son has been open to trying more new foods too, just like the naturopath predicted! She said when kids stop eating foods they don’t tolerate well, their taste buds change. So far my son is eating rice again, like he used to when he was younger but stopped some time around 4 years old. He also has been eating granola which he used to turn his nose up at. Not that these additions are kale and quinoa, but at least it’s a step in the right direction. (Actually two steps!) I’ll take it.

celiac disease · dairy free · Food allergies · food sensitivities · gf foods · gluten free · gluten free food · gluten free foods · gluten intolerance · gluten intolerant

Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Care Free too?

May 12, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

While we are still awaiting the actual results from the naturopath on exactly how intolerant we all are, I’ve already been cutting way down on dairy for the kids and myself and I’m happy to report that a. it’s been easy and b. I see good results. My oldest is less clogged in his sinuses, my youngest’s cheeks are looking smoother (he has that pinkish-slightly bumpy stuff on his cheeks that adults get on the back of their arms. No doctor has ever been able to say why, just that it’s something a lot of people have. The naturopath though says it’s a food intolerance and we’ll fix it~ yay for getting to the root of the issue!) and I’m less bloated without dairy in my life. For my oldest, I have switched to almond milk, the vanilla kind (Blue Diamond unsweetened vanilla) that is in the refrigerated section and he likes it just as well as regular milk. For cheese, I’ve switched to goat cheese for quesadillas and cinnamon toast. The goat cheeses were recommended by my friend who is already dealing with a house of four with food intolerances. She gave me two to try from Trader Joe’s, both carrying the Trader Joe’s name: one is a hard cheese called Goat’s milk Gouda cheese. It comes in a fairly big triangular cut and is surprisingly inexpensive. This is what I’ve been shredding for quesadillas lately and my oldest loves it, plus I’ve been slicing it for crackers and it is delightful. The other cheese is a spreadable goat cheese medallion, which comes in small individually wrapped circles. Both cheeses are mild, but the spreadable one is somewhat more like butter than cheese when spread on toast, which is how I ate is yesterday with my salad at lunch. My friend recommended I top the cheese on toast with some cinnamon sugar, so I tried that for my boys and it was a huge hit with my oldest. I’m still working on my youngest on trying new things, but I’m sure it won’t be long before his palate is less picky. For yogurt I’ve been eating Redwood Hill’s goat yogurt or So Delicious’ coconut yogurt. I like the goat kind better because it has a healthier protein to sugar ratio and the taste is more like regular yogurt that I’m used to. The coconut yogurt is good, but less protein and sweeter. I have a feeling that might be what my kids like better though and it would be good to have as many diverse foods as possible in their diet so I’ll have them try it. I asked a couple of employees at Whole Foods what they saw people buying the most of, and they said the almond yogurt, but it has different texture that you have to get used to. I tried it and did not like it at all. The texture is indeed very odd~ not smooth and creamy at all, but to each his/her own. So, that’s how the dairy experiments are going right now.

Here’s a chocolate chip cookie recipe I modified from the Flying Apron cookbook. It’s gluten-free and vegan and so incredibly delicious you’ll never notice the difference. By the way, neither of my kids really like the taste of coconut, but the amount of oil I used in this recipe leaves such a mild coconut taste it’s hard to even figure out what that extra little something is unless you know. And the boys adore these cookies. With that said, use whatever ingredients you have. I don’t believe in that whole “baking must be precise” myth. Experiment!

Gluten Free, Vegan, Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:

2 cups brown rice flour
1.25 cups + 1T gf oat flour
1 cup garbanzo bean/fava bean flour (it’s a Bob’s Red Mill blend)
1t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
3/4 sea salt
1/2t cinnamon
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup coconut oil
1t vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 cup almond milk
1 cup dairy free dark chocolate chips (I like the smaller ones found in bulk sections)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add all dry ingredients up to and including the cinnamon in a bowl and mix with a spoon. Blend the sugar and oils together in a (bigger) bowl with a mixer. Slowly add the almond milk and dry ingredients to the sugar and oil bowl, alternating the ingredients until well blended. Then add the chocolate chips and mix until well-distributed. Scoop dough onto lined cooked sheets and bake for 17-20 minutes. Enjoy!

Food allergies · gf bread · gf foods · gluten free · gluten free bread · Gluten free eating · gluten intolerance · gluten intolerant

Absence and Gluten Free products

April 18, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

There are a couple of reasons I haven’t been blogging much lately. One is that Spring Break hit with such a flurry of activity that I’m now nervous for what summer will bring. Kids need so much stimulation! At least mine do~ they also need a reason to be outside, which I kind of understand considering we don’t live in the sunniest part of the world, but it still bothers me that when it is sunny they aren’t rushing out the door right away. Yesterday when they got home all they wanted was to sit and read and write instead of go to a park, which I can’t really argue with except it was gorgeous outside, so I put out a blanket and let them read and write in the backyard at least. My younger son ended up helping me put new soil in our garden and clean up the yard a bit, but my older son is writing his umpteenth book and when his creative juices are flowing, there’s no stopping him. And that leads to the other reason I haven’t been blogging much lately, I too am in the midst of another writing project (like mother like son) and have been putting the finishing touches on it lately. It is something I’m passionate about, and the best part is I’m working with my very talented friend who is doing the art work. Hopefully I will have some more info and pics next week. But in the meantime, I do have a couple of gluten-free product recommendations. The first I found at Trader Joe’s about a month ago and it seems like a new product:

It is in the refrigerated section and comes in a two pack. It’s very tasty as a pizza crust or garlic bread which is how I ate it last night~ put some pressed garlic into a tablespoon of olive oil and added some Tuscan Salt and oregano, mixed it all together and spread it on the bread then baked in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes. Very good.

Another item I have always passed over because it looked too expensive was Manini’s gluten-free bread mix. The other day I realized each bag is enough for 7 or 8 loaves~ that changes the price equation quite a bit! I am very happy I tried it because it is delicious bread and easy to make, all of which is quite good news since I still have five or six loaves to bake up from the bag! The directions call for a loaf pan but I used a pizza pan instead because I wanted as much hard crust as possible, and that worked out fabulously. I definitely recommend trying the mixes, plus they have several to choose from so you can suit different tastes.

One last thought, Earth Day is Monday~ does anyone have any traditions?

baking · celiac disease · gf foods · gluten free · Gluten free eating

Gluten Free Biscuits

March 27, 2013March 27, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

These biscuits taste as traditional as a gravy-dipped southern morning. Thank the wonderful cooks at Jovial for this recipe, and try their Einkhorn versions too. I used gluten-free oat flour, brown rice flour, sorghum flour and tapioca starch, but feel free to experiment, or just use up what is in your pantry. These are made with kefir which is chock full of those oh so very important probiotics, so once you use some in this recipe, you can add the rest of the bottle to smoothies, mix it with flavoring like cinnamon or chocolate (or both!) or drink it straight. The only thing about these biscuits is I find them hard to cut in half without a lot of crumbling action, which also means they are a bit hard to toast. The broiler works best, but they are also just good straight out of the fridge where I am storing them. Here’s the link: Jovial’s recipe for biscuits.

celiac disease · Food allergies · gf foods · gluten free · Gluten free eating · gluten free food · gluten intolerant · Uncategorized

Gluten-Free Blueberry Cinnamon Scones, Ginger Cookies, and Soup

February 20, 2013 kristenann2 Comments

These blueberry cinnamon scones are, more or less, from the Flying Apron’s cookbook. I used different flours (gluten-free oats, sorghum, and brown rice) and added cinnamon sugar to the tops. My youngest and pickiest child who normally only likes scones with a hearty dose of icing really loves these. They have a nice texture and density~ lighter than you might expect considering how thick they are. I did see this recipe on another site but cannot tell if that site has permission to share it, so I am not going to provide the link, though if you really want to make these scones and don’t have the book, you can find the recipe online. The Ginger Wheels from the same book on the other hand, might be a bit harder to find, but the book is worth the money just for these cookies, if you ask my children anyway. They are like molasses cookies with a zing of ginger, can be used for gingerbread men or nade just as wheels for easy, year round use. I’d post a photo but my kids scarf them down way too quickly for a photo op. If you really want the recipe, comment with your email address and I’ll send it to you. Here’s a gluten-free soup recipe which I can link to from here and it is a weeknight wonder. My husband is not a big chicken fan, but he loves this Tortilla Soup from PCC’s recipe page. I’ve only recently started eating chicken broth and tiny bits of chicken in soup and have to say this is the only recipe with chicken I like at all. (I’ve just never liked chicken~ I’ve tried, but it’s not my thing.) Since you add tortillas on top when serving, I just might get a spoonful or two into my youngest! No guarantees, but I’m going to try. I did add a leek to this soup because soup is just always better with leeks, and really it could handle more veggies in it (a chopped carrot or a chopped celery stalk, or both would make it even healthier.) It isn’t that spicy so you can dial-up the heat with more of that jalapeno it calls for, and I imagine black beans instead of chicken in a veggie broth would make a tasty vegan version. Keep the recipe in mind for your next taco night at home~ it’s sure to please.

gf foods · gluten free · Gluten free eating · gluten free food · gluten free foods · gluten intolerance · gluten intolerant

Gluten Free on the Eastside

February 18, 2013March 3, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

The other day my friend told me about a vegetarian Thai restaurant she and her husband had found in Bellevue that had a lot of gluten-free options which were clearly marked, and many vegan items too. I looked up the place and it was the same restaurant I used to go to in Seattle when I was still at UW and I was so excited I talked my husband into ordering take-out that very evening and drove through a blinding rain to pick it up. When I was at UW we English teachers would usually celebrate the end of the quarter at Araya’s Place, and meat eaters loved it just as much as the vegetarians in the group even though it is strictly flesh-free. The freshness of the produce plus the enlightened awareness of food intolerances makes the place truly a stand out in a world of Thai places on every other block. I had no idea that they had opened up shop in Bellevue, and apparently they have only been here on the Eastside since May 2012. The best thing is, long ago our favorite noodle soup place closed in Fremont, and we have been in search of one ever since. Araya’s soup, finally, ended our search, and it isn’t as far as Fremont. (Though we love Fremont, we usually stay on our side of the bridge.) Another reason we no longer have to go to Fremont, is Flying Apron opened up shop in Redmond~ though that was a good two years ago I think, or maybe even more, I still feel incredibly lucky whenever I go there. For my son’s recent birthday I ordered a cake from there and it surpassed all expectations. It was chocolate cake with vanilla icing, completely gluten, dairy and egg free, and oh my gosh, I don’t know if it’s because I so rarely eat cake, but I thought it the best dessert I’d ever put into my mouth. The rest of the family seemed very impressed too and there wasn’t much left on the plates afterward so I can assume their smiles and thumbs-ups were due to full, happy mouths. So, I guess we’ll only be heading to Fremont when we need our troll fix, since the Eastside now has our soup and baked goods covered, because no one can replicate the troll. Ever.

baking · food · Food allergies · food allergy blogs · food sensitivities · gf foods · gluten free · Gluten free eating · gluten free foods · gluten intolerant

Gluten Free biscuits

November 15, 2010November 18, 2017 kristenannLeave a comment

Saturday I made gluten free biscuits from the Flying Apron Cookbook replacing the berries with 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. As much as I love the berries, we were running low on them and my son has been drinking smoothies in the mornings lately so I saved them for him. Mothers are always sacrificing! But the cinnamon is delicious actually, so it was a good experiment. I’ve been daydreaming of what goodies I am going to make my gluten intolerant friends for Christmas. It is so nice to know other gluten intolerant people with whom to share food! It can be so lonely when you are the one and only at a meal, party, or any other gathering where food and drinks are served. Since I have never really liked meat, I was always the odd one at meals as a child, so honestly by now I should be used to it, but it still bums me out. In fact, Thanksgiving has long been my least favorite holiday, considering I’ve never liked any of that kind of Turkey-ish food, and for last few years I’ve known I can’t eat the bread-ish food (unless I make it). This year I am determined to make it a festive inclusive meal, and since we are hosting that should be relatively easy. I’m putting together the menu this week and I’ll post what I come up with. Really there are such great ideas floating around I’m sure I’ll have more than enough ideas to keep me busy!

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Other-worldly lentil soup

July 22, 2010September 23, 2012 kristenannLeave a comment

Sunday here was cool and cloudy. I looked around at the veggies in the house and realized I had all the ingredients for lentil soup. Normally I wouldn’t think about making lentil soup in mid July, but since our summer weather has been swinging through extremes, soup was actually just right for that day. And the next day. And the next. It was so good that even my husband, who never eats leftovers, ate it for days, and talked about it when he wasn’t eating it! It was so good that I found myself thinking about it with a happy heart after making it, and even though I had to bribe and threaten my sons into trying it, one admitted it was good, and the other one wanted me to add soup to his broccoli after it was (tragically) all gone. So, what made it so delicious? I think it had a lot to do with the weather~ something about cooler weather in the late summer has such a wistful, fallish feeling. It is a love letter from Autumn that is still far enough away to remember only the sweetness of it, and not the rainy winter that inevitably follows. Plus all the veggies were in peak summer condition, so plump and ripe. In fact I’ve never actually seen a leek as large as the one I used, but I heard something about the leeks being exceptionally big this year. Indeed! So, what follows is basically what I did for the soup, but since I just kind of winged it with what I had in stock, there measurements are not exact.
First I put some olive oil in large soup pot and warmed it over med-high.
Then I added about 3/4 of a large white onion and stirred for about 3 minutes.
Next I added about 3 cloves of garlic and the chopped squares of 2 (peeled) potatoes.
A cup or so of broccoli and the chopped semicircles of 3 (peeled) carrots went in next, then the chopped up leek.
I stirred those a couple of minutes while adding about a Tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and a Tablespoon or so of wheat free soy sauce. Next I added 4 cups of veggie and herb stock plus the lentils I had been soaking in water. Once the lentils were completely soft in the soup I added sea salt mixed with herbs, herb d’Provence, thyme, basil and black pepper. That is about it! It was excellent that first day, but definitely better the next. Anyway, time to enjoy a bit more of summer before Fall is here for real. Off to swim lessons!

baking · gf bread · gf foods

Oats: a mystery grain

June 24, 2010 kristenannLeave a comment

What exactly is the deal with oats? I’ve heard they do not have gluten but do have a protein similar to it. And there are those labels on some oaty products that say ‘gluten free oats”. I’m beginning to think oats that are not labeled gluten free are yet another food to add to my do not eat list…sigh. I made granola the other night with plain old bulk oats and it turned out yummy, but the next day I felt bad. It could possibly have been remnants from the other granola I ate, but I have a feeling it is the granola I made so I am going to give it a few days and eat just a tad again to double check. Although, once I associate feeling bad with a food I really have no inkling to try it again, but I do feel like figuring out the truth. Right now I am baking a gluten free bread from the Flying Apron cookbook and I’m so excited to try it. It is the first bread recipe I’ve tried and it smells delicious. I made biscuits the other day and those tasted especially good and not gf-ish at all. I added a little brown sugar and cinnamon on top of those and it really tasted like biscuits made from scratch that I used to eat growing up in Kentucky. Although, to be honest, I ate far more biscuits from a can than from scratch! It is so fun to bake again. I worked at a bakery one summer while in school and really enjoyed waking up in the early mornings and making delicious foods. There is something so fulfilling about cooking, but baking especially is such an interesting combination of chemistry experiment, homey-smells, sweet treats and comfort foods. Twenty more minutes until I can try this bread…I so hope it turns out well. I am imagining a delicious veggie sandwich for lunch tomorrow which is something I haven’t had in many years. Ah, food.