Quick & Simple Dinner

Sorry, no pictures tonight. It's been months since I've posted a new blog entry, so I figured I'd post my "What's for dinner" (well, what was for dinner) for the night because it was pretty tasty. But it's an afterthought, and I didn't take pictures. And now it's all gone.

We basically had steak, quinoa, and green beans for dinner. The boys are gone for the weekend, so this is a meal for 2.5 people (me, the husband, and the toddler).

I started with the quinoa, and my handy dandy rice cooker. I placed the following ingredients in the rice cooker:

3/4 c. quinoa
8 baby carrots, thinly sliced into rounds
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
A shake of dried cilantro
2 tbsp salsa (from a jar; check ingredients as, surprisingly, not all salsa is gluten or dairy free)
1 1/2 c. water

In hindsight I should have added salt and pepper, too. For some reason I tend to forget that. Salt can be added later, to taste, but I hate uncooked pepper so I did without.

I then put my steamer basket on top of the rice cooker and filled it with frozen green beans. I have found that Costco carries a giant bag of frozen green beans that are actually just about as good as fresh green beans. It's been an amazing discovery. No one in my family ever liked frozen green beans before, and now we eat them for several meals per week. But I digress. I put the quinoa and other ingredients in the bottom part of the rice cooker, and the beans in the steamer, set the cooker to the regular "white rice" setting, and let it go.

My husband simply grilled a pair of sirloin steaks on the gas bbq outside.

And there you have it: Dinner. Super simple. I took a slice of steak and ran it through the food processor for the toddler, who doesn't have any molars yet, but she ate the green beans and quinoa as they were.

Gluten Free with Dee Giveaway

I apologize for not updating my blog lately. Life with an infant makes it surprisingly difficult to document and photograph my cooking! Of course I do continue to make GFCF meals for the family (almost) every day. Last night we had pancakes, eggs, and sausage. Unfortunately, none of us really liked the pancakes; they were adapted to be dairy-free and it didn't really work very well. I am sorely missing the Trader Joe's Gluten Free Dairy Free pancake mix, which has been discontinued. Pamela's comes highly recommended, but contains dairy. I've been trying and trying to make pancakes from scratch, but haven't had any real luck. I made so me last week that my husband and kids liked, but I was unimpressed with them. I'm still looking for the right recipe.

There is another mix out there that I haven't tried yet -- Namaste Foods makes a gluten and dairy free pancake and waffle mix. And what's really cool is that Dee of Gluten Free with Dee is having a Namaste Foods giveaway on his blog right now! Go sign up!

And yes, this IS a shameless plug for Dee so I can enter into his giveaway! But seriously, it's a good blog and worth following. Unlike mine has been recently.

A letter to our "normal diet" friends and family.

You may have noticed that I haven't posted any new recipes lately. I have found as I approach the last weeks of my pregnancy I am frankly just too tired to make any extra effort when it comes to meal preparation; in fact, more and more often, I make no effort at all and my wonderful husband and/or kids end up taking care of dinner for me. I am so blessed to have them in my life!

This does not, however, mean that I have forgotten this blog or my (few and far between) blog followers. I have been considering what to write about in the absence of a recipe, and feeling very discouraged about it. Then, Lo and Behold, a couple of days ago I was chatting with a friend about gluten-free dining, and she was asking if I knew anything about a grain called "Faro" or "Farro" (I don't -- please, if anybody out there has any knowledge of this grain, let me know!). Then she made a side comment to me that she had been talking to another mutual acquaintance, who told her something to the effect of, "Yes, I know Elizabeth; she won't eat anything I cook because she doesn't trust me to understand how to cook gluten-free." (facepalm)

I should mention here, in case you were the person who made this comment, I have no idea who you are. The person who related this comment to me did not tell me who said it, and I did not ask. If you are that person, I must apologize for any perception I might have caused that I do not trust your competence in food preparation; nothing could be further from the truth, and I will try to explain myself better forthwith. But this is a concept I (and other people with severe food allergies and intolerances) run into all the time: "Oh, that so-and-so... so paranoid about food that s/he won't eat anything." I try so hard to tactfully explain my reasons for my caution, but food-sharing is such an ingrained part of human society (cutting across all cultures that I'm familiar with) there simply doesn't seem to be a polite way to decline food that is offered. In fact, I recently heard of a psychological disorder that essentially describes my life: Orthorexia Nervosa. According to Wikipedia, "Sufferers of orthorexia often display symptoms consistent with obsessive-compulsive disorder and have an exaggerated concern with healthy eating patterns." Initial diagnostic criteria may include the following questions: "Do you care more about the virtue of what you eat than the pleasure you receive from eating it?... Does your diet socially isolate you?"

Um. The answers to those two questions are unequivocally "Yes," and "Yes." But please allow me explain why I do not feel my concern for what I ingest is "exaggerated."

I am debating whether to actually go into detail on this blog about the signs and symptoms of gluten contamination in my diet. On the one hand, I feel that if my friends and acquaintances understood exactly what I feel and experience when I accidentally ingest food containing even minute amounts of gluten, they would not make comments that would make me feel even more isolated and embarrassed about my condition than I already am. On the other hand, this blog is publicly viewable to everyone and I really don't want to shock anybody with the "TMI" of what I actually experience. I wish people who knew me would just accept that I have very very good reason for my eating habits and it has nothing to do with an "exaggerated concern" with what is in my food and what my food may have inadvertently come into contact with.

So instead of going into details about my own personal symptoms, please allow me to make some generalizations about the types of symptoms that are typical for the severely gluten-intolerant:

One of the immediate possible combination of symptoms may include:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Abdominal Pain
• Lethargy
• Weakness
• Muscle aches
• Headache

Coincidentally, these symptoms are nearly identical to symptoms of Norovirus. They also closely resemble the symptoms of an E. Coli infection. Symptoms can sometimes be immediate (felt before the meal is even finished) or they may take a day or two to manifest, or anything in between. In my case, if the contaminated meal does not include dairy, I probably won't notice a problem until next time I have a glass of milk (and by then I may not know which of the meals I've eaten in the last day or so were the culprit); if the meal includes dairy I will usually feel the onset of symptoms immediately.

With repeated, long-term exposure, the auto immune system breaks down, and this can lead to more serious problems over the years. Just a few of the possible long-term complications of a Celiac or other gluten-intolerant person who continues to ingest gluten include:

• Chronic pain such as fibromyalgia
• Diabetes
• Extreme weight problems (either underweight/anorexia or overweight/obesity)
• Multiple organ failure
• "Idiopathic" neuropathy
• Vitamin and mineral deficiency of all kinds
• Cancer (most commonly colon cancer)
• Infertility (men and women), miscarriage, and stillbirth (women)
• Death

So... once a person becomes aware that he or she suffers symptoms out of the first list whenever gluten is ingested, that person must also be wary of the second list. (This is true whether the person has ever been diagnosed with Celiac disease or not; Celiac is just one of many manifestations of an auto-immune reaction to gluten). I wish someone would explain to me what an "exaggerated concern" would actually look like in the face of such consequences.

"But I understand all that and I promise what I just made for the pot-luck is gluten-free! Why won't you eat it? Don't you trust me?"

This is where things get sticky. As you can see from the symptoms, ingestion of gluten by a gluten-intolerant individual actually is almost indistinguishable from Norovirus and E. Coli infections. So imagine yourself for just a moment in the shoes of a Celiac or other individual who is unable to eat gluten. In order to do so, let's just pretend that all gluten-containing items (crackers, flour, barley, bread) are actually items that are (or contain) fecal matter from people known to be infected with Norovirus and/or E. Coli.

If I walk into your kitchen and I see bread on the counter, a bin of flour on the shelf, and a box of Wheaties on top of your refrigerator, I do not see a "dirty kitchen." However, I do see a kitchen that is full of items that are just as dangerous to my health as if you walked into my kitchen and saw a bag of feces on the counter, a bin of used toilet paper on the shelf, and a box of dried fecal flakes on top of the fridge. Even if I have never seen your kitchen, I have to assume that there is gluten in your household. If you knew that everyone in my home had an active E. Coli infection, you probably wouldn't eat anything I brought to a pot-luck, either.

Now let's imagine, for the sake of argument, that you actually took the time to move all the gluten out of your kitchen, and wash all your pans and utensils, and you washed down all your counters before you prepared the meal. Then you brought your dish and set it on the table next to all the other gluten-containing foods at the pot-luck and proudly proclaimed that you'd taken extra-special care to bring something I could eat.

If the roles were reversed, you would be looking at a lovely, tempting, and delicious-looking meal sitting in the middle of a table full of food you know to be contaminated with E.Coli. And all the other people have just lined up and dripped sauces and crumbs from the contaminated food into your beautiful and tempting dish, and taken a spoon out of one dish and put it into another, and you have to make a choice between hurting my feelings and taking the risk of becoming violently ill... all while watching fifty other people laugh and chatter and safely enjoy all the food on the table, because somehow all of them are immune to this devastating and sometimes deadly disease. Except you.

And sometimes you might even take the risk anyway, because you don't want to hurt my feelings. And, sometimes it would work out okay and you'd get lucky and not get sick. But sometimes you lose. And the more times you lose, and spend the rest of the day sitting on (or bent over) the toilet, and the rest of the week laying in bed unable to move, you miss work, you get behind in your chores (and your blog), and you kick yourself for taking the chance... the less frequently you succumb to the peer pressure and the "etiquette" that says you must try your friend's dish that your friend specially made especially for you in order to make you feel more "included."

And then your friends take it personally.

Please don't take it personally. It's not about you. We have to be like this with everyone. It's not about your culinary competence, your ability to read and understand food labels, or even the cleanliness of your kitchen. We are all sure that you make wonderful food that is not only delicious but is safe for most people to eat and is prepared with love. But if you really want to share a meal, it would be better if you would allow us to pick the restaurant. Or, if you would be willing to, come to our house and let us prepare food for you instead. And you can smile and lie and say "Oh, it tastes just like the real thing" even if it doesn't, because at least it's not going to make you sick later. Better yet, why don't we go for a walk or visit the mall or see a movie instead. Anything that doesn't involve food.

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!

What's the deal with OATS?

Ok, so if you're reading this blog, you've probably heard that gluten resides in wheat, all its derivatives (i.e. spelt), barley, rye, and sometimes oats.

Sometimes Oats? Is that kind of like A E I O U and sometimes Y?

The short answer: Yes. It's pretty much exactly like that.

I am going to resist the temptation to write a research paper about oats and gluten, and avoid all the technical jargon while I explain this rather confusing concept. I'm trying to make this a user-friendly beginner's guide, not an academic medical journal article, after all.

All grains contain some form of "gluten." Gluten, technically speaking, is just the protein found in grain. But the gluten we are concerned about is the one that comes in wheat, barley, and rye. Why these three? Well, I don't think anybody knows the answer to that yet (and actually there are people who cannot digest ANY grain gluten and must go on a grain-free diet). What we do know is that the "gluten" or protein in these three problematic grains are almost identical and in a Celiac the body reacts to all three in the same way. The part of the gluten that a Celiac responds to is called gliadin, and is only present in these three grain families. There are a few people out there who cannot tolerate wheat gluten but do OK with barley and rye gluten, but for the most part, if you react to one, you'll react to the others (the difference for most people is in quantity, not quality; barley and rye, and even spelt for that matter, contain much lower levels of gluten/gliadin compared to wheat).

So, what does that have to do with oats? Well, oats have a different form of gluten which is similar to the gluten in wheat, barley and rye. But it's not identical. Most Celiacs can tolerate a moderate quantity of oats in their diets with no increase in symptoms and no laboratory evidence of damage. BUT... and there's a big BUT after this:

In modern agriculture, oats are typically rotated with wheat crops in the field. They are then harvested on the same machinery, trucked in the same trucks, milled in the same mills, and packaged in the same plants alongside wheat and other grains. Virtually all oats you would buy off a store shelf are contaminated with wheat gluten. Most celiacs WILL react to eating, for example, your average Quaker oats off the grocery store shelf. They may not react every time, since the level of contamination will vary from one batch to the next, but a Celiac eating oats is kind of like playing Russian Roulette with the intestines.

But oats are healthy and yummy and so versatile! And there is help! It is possible to purchase certified gluten free oats from various sources. If you have Celiac Disease, these oats will probably be safe for you. Remember that some Celiacs will still react to oats because they are fairly similar in protein structure compared to wheat, but most will do okay with them. Also remember that if you have been on a low-fiber diet for a while because you took all the delicious and nutritious whole grains out of your diet, a sudden and drastic change can really upset your digestive system; so take it easy when you start out on the oats!!

And now for a recipe!

Oatmeal Rounds

Please note that I am including brand names with some of my ingredients. This is only to help you with your shopping; you can substitute other brands as you see fit.


Preheat oven to 350° F

Prepare a Muffin Top Pan by spraying liberally with Pam or similar non-stick spray.

In a large mixing bowl, combine:

• 2 c. Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Quick Cooking Rolled Oats

• 1/4 c. Honeyville Blanched Almond Flour

• 1/4 c. Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Buckwheat Flour

• 1/4 c. Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Coconut Flour

• 3/4 c. Brown Sugar

• 3/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp Sea Salt

• 1/2 tsp Arrowroot starch (I have no idea whether this actually makes a difference; try leaving it out if you don't have any)

Stir together, and then add:

• 3 eggs

• 6 TBSP Canola Oil (I think coconut oil might work well, too, but I don't have any at the moment)

Mix thoroughly with your spoon or spatula. Then mix in:

• 3/4 c. Craisins (dried cranberries)

Press into the muffin top pan. It should be just enough for 6 large "rounds" about the size of a large muffin top. If you don't have a muffin top pan, try a 9X9 cake pan and make bars, but you may want to line it with parchment first; these things are hard enough to get out of the muffin top pan without breaking them.

Bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Cool before attempting to remove from pan.

These turned out to be very very good, and disappeared rather quickly. They would be well-suited for a portable breakfast. Care in packing might be in order for long trips, such as a backpacking or camping trip, as they are not super sturdy and will fall apart if handled roughly.

Why am I here?

Now that's a loaded existential question, isn't it?

To clarify, the question really is: Why am I blogging?

After all, there are a million wonderful websites for gluten-free and gluten-free/casein-free cooking, including more blogs than I can count. Why do we need another one?

Well, maybe we don't. But I need another one. I need a blog written by someone like me. Someone who is naturally kitchen-challenged. Someone who once would have cooked everything out of a box if she could have. Someone who used to think that mixing a can of cream-of-stuff soup in with some vegetables and meat actually created a balanced meal.

Someone who, through necessity rather than by choice, has been proven wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I love the contributions of people like The Gluten-Free Girl. I don't know how I could have ever started out on this journey without her, in fact.

But I wasn't a "Foodie" before I went GF; and I'm not married to a professional chef. Sometimes the recipe blogs are just way over my pay grade. Also, I think it would help to learn from other experimenters' failures, not just their successes.

So, this is a blog for other people like me, if they exist. People who are faced with the prospect of cooking everything from scratch, not out of a love of the kitchen, but out of pure, raw necessity. People who have culinary problems to solve, such as:

• What do we eat when we go camping?

• How do I keep from overburdening my family because of one person's special diet?

• What the hell is Kwinoah anyway, and what do I use it for? (Psst. It's spelled Quinoa and pronounced Keen-Wa)

• How do I survive without bread? Crackers? OMG -- PIE!!!!

• But I'm an abject failure in the kitchen! (don't worry -- so was I; well... I still am, much of the time).

• I don't have time to cook!

• But isn't Papa Murphy's an essential food group?

So... This is a general "how do I survive on a gluten-free and/or casein-free diet?" blog. I am not an expert. If you came here looking for expert advice, I will try to get up some links for you later. What I am is a person who has been muddling through the gluten-free world for about three years, and, more recently, the dairy-free world as well. And, so far, not only have I survived, but I eat better than I ever knew was possible before.

So think of this as Beginner's Odyssey in gluten-free cooking. I've learned a lot, but my beginning point was so low, I still have a long way to come. Won't you come along with me and we'll learn together? We'll explore recipes, experiments, kitchen contamination tips, substitute foods, Holidays (THANKSGIVING????), shopping, social implications of the "special" diet, eating out, and all things related to the Gluten-Free lifestyle.

By way of introduction, I will tell you I'm a 30-something gluten-intollerent (possibly Celiac but untested -- we'll get into testing issues some time in the future) mother of 2.5 children (two in high school and one "in the oven"). One of my sons is also intolerant of Gluten and mildly intolerant of Casein; so most recipes will be free of both gluten and casein. I also have an amazing, wonderful, intelligent, and supportive husband who also happens to be a talented cook, and we live on a small hobby farm raising small sheep.