Oatmeal Breakfast

There are very few breakfast cereals that are safe for Celiacs. Most of the General Mills Chex line are safe (although some Celiacs seem to react to an unknown ingredient in Chex, so even that isn't a given). Envirokidz (a division of Nature's Path) makes a line of kid-friendly "sugar cereals" (although the sugar content is not as high even as many "healthy" cereals on the grocery store shelves). There are a handful of other companies which make cereals without gluten or barley malt, but most of them either make no guarantee at all about cross-contamination in manufacturing, or there have been too many reports of quality control problems for me to feel comfortable with them.

And so we bring forth the humble Oatmeal once again.

I know what you're going to say next: "But I don't need instructions to make oatmeal!" And you're right. But after considerable thought I have come up with a recipe which has a few extra ingredients to make oatmeal a special friend to Celiacs.

Ingredients (Serves 3):
1.5 c. Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Quick Cooking Rolled Oats
3 c. Water
1 TBSP Slippery Elm Powder
1 TBSP Coconut Oil
3 TBSP Brown Sugar

Ok, um... what's up with the Slippery Elm Powder? What is it, anyway?

Slippery Elm Powder is soothing and healing to the gut -- and Celiac disease damages the intestinal tract. Adding Slippery Elm Powder to your diet is supposed to help it heal. The way you're "supposed" to take it is mixed into tea or boiled up as if it were a tea, and drink it. It has a kind of interesting, sort of nutty smell that is not unpleasant. But I have yet to figure out how to make myself drink it every day. Maybe it's just that I hate tea, which could be a big factor, because the Slippery Elm itself really doesn't taste bad. But I just can't bring myself to get my daily dose of Slippery Elm.

Then I had an "Aha!" moment. The instructions on the bottle say to boil it in water, and then drink it. Well... you have to boil water anyway to make oatmeal, right? So here's what I did:

• In a saucepan, combine water and Slippery Elm. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
• Reduce heat to low and stir in oatmeal. Add Coconut Oil and Brown Sugar. Cover and simmer for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Remove from heat and serve. Add favorite oatmeal toppings.

I added coconut milk and a handful of Craisins. My son decided to add a dollop of peanut butter, a trick he learned from his grandfather (and it's surprisingly tasty that way).

There are a number of great health benefits to Coconut Oil as well, and those of us with compromised digestion and absorption issues can use all the help we can get! In this recipe, I used Nutiva brand Virgin Coconut Oil, which I purchased from Amazon.com.

The oatmeal comes out quite good -- much more flavorful than just boring oatmeal with sugar added at the end. You don't really taste either the Slippery Elm or the Coconut directly, although I think they both add a richness which is pleasant.

What about Frozen Family Dinner Night?

One of the scariest things about moving your family to a special-needs diet is the realization that your old lazy-day standbys just aren't going to work for you anymore. No longer can you turn to a Stouffer's frozen lasagna to bail you out when you really need to take a sick day.

This is one of those days for me.

I don't really have much on hand at the moment, either. So I sent a text message to my husband at church and asked him to pick up chili ingredients. Problem is, he's not going to get home soon enough and I need to get started. The cool thing about chili that I've discovered is that you can start it going and add to it in stages.

I started by getting a couple of packages of lean ground beef out of the freezer and putting them on defrost in the microwave. Usually I like to brown my meat before I put it in the chili, but this is just not going to work for me today. I feel pretty crummy. (The beef is from some locally raised cow; it would behoove you to befriend a local farmer and buy your meat in bulk. You get better quality stuff for a lower price compared to what you can find in a grocery store.)

Next, I chopped up some bell peppers. Today I used two green, one red, and one yellow. I placed the peppers in my crock pot and moved on to the onion -- one large white onion, chopped to bits.

By the time I was done chopping, my meat was pretty much defrosted. Since it was still a bit frozen, I further chopped it up into small bits, and added it to the crock pot. On top of that, I added a large can of diced tomatoes (organic, from Trader Joe's).

Normally, I would now move on to the spices and things, but I was absolutely spent for the moment. So I turned on the crock on high and settled in to wait for the husband to get home with further ingredients.

About an hour later, he came home with some fresh cilantro and a large (approx 15 oz) can of mild chili peppers. He chopped about a cup worth of fresh cilantro and added it to the chili, chopped up the entire can of chili peppers in the food processor, and added that (juice and all), and then started rummaging through the spice cupboard. So including what I'd already thrown in, the chili now has:

3 lbs very lean ground beef

1 large (20 oz) can of diced tomatoes

4 bell peppers, chopped (green, red, and yellow)

1 large white onion, chopped

1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1 large can of mild chili peppers, chopped

2 cans (8 oz each) tomato sauce

1/2 cup dry sherry

1/8 cup minced garlic (I keep a jar in the fridge at all times)

2 TBSP paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

3 TBSP dried oragano

1 tsp dried thyme

We continued cooking in the crock pot on high for another 5 hours -- so 6 hours total from the time I put the meat in it. The chili goes beautifully with corn bread, either southern fried (which is naturally gluten free) or Bob's Red Mill gluten-free corn bread mix. But tonight, we served with warm corn tortillas.

This is a flavorful but mild chili. I didn't use anything spicy at all in it today, simply because I wasn't in the mood for spicy. Some chili powder or a jalapeño or two would give it a kick, if desired.

Who says fresh cooking can't be easy? Ok, it was a little more work than popping a frozen lasagna in the oven, but not much. And it's a whole lot better and healthier. Plus, the leftovers get better with age. I always make enough to freeze portions for later and put some in the fridge for lunch the next day. In fact, we will probably only eat half the chili tonight (at the most, if the boys are really hungry). I will divide up what I freeze into at least two portions. They can be re-heated and eaten alone, or mixed with a can of pinto beans to stretch them further. So next time I need a "sick day," I really will have a frozen meal to heat and serve!