Living Gluten and Dairy Free

We have gotten closer to a whole foods diet without trying than we ever did when I gave it a lot of conscious thought.  Our mainstays now for supper are a meat of some sort, usually fish and a vegetable.  I think because of this, we are all healthier.  B and S are growing and strong.  DH is losing weight.  I wish I could say the same but I am working on it. 

 The change was a slow progression that basically stemmed from being horrible at cooking rice (I hate that that seems to be the one thing I can’t cook decently.  I used to but somehow lost that skill.), and not wanting the fat and salt that many other sides provide.  Chicken and fish are our mainstays and are usually grilled “naked” or with a few herbs.  Three of us love salmon and all of us enjoy mahi-mahi.  We usually steam some sort of veggie to go with the meat of the night.  We rarely use a condiment or salt.  Garlic is often used heavily.

When I stopped concentrating on stuff being gluten-free, the whole foods aspect seemed to come easier.  Breakfasts are still, at times, pretty processed but usually organic.  Lunches tend to be a spot we struggle with the most.  They are healthy and inexpensive but are rarely whole foods and, especially with the prices going up, sometimes not organic. 

Now my challenge is to eat more local foods.  There is a campaign in my home state here to get more local food consumed locally.  Some local brands have even cut prices in local markets to help this campaign long.  I live a good ways from a farmer’s market with local produce.  But, I want to start eating more of it.  So, I need to get a routine going whereby I can get up there weekly.  Right now, that seems impossible, especially since gas prices are still so high here.

I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I posted a recipe.  It’s been a year full of changes.  One big change is rather than trying to duplicate items with alternative flours, etc., we are searching out recipes naturally gluten-free.  Here is one of my favorites:

 http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/creamed-corn-cornbread-recipe2/index.html

It is gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free.  It can be egg free, dairy free, and vegan. Now, this has eggs in it.  I use egg beaters in it.  But, I accidentally left them out one time and aside from a slight taste change, you could hardly tell.  They were a little crumbly.  I also use salt-free canned creamed corn.  I have used a variety of things in place of the buttermilk.  I have used buttermilk (which is really good, unfortunately).  I have also had good success with regular milk and lemon juice, almond milk and lemon juice and chicken broth.

 This is fabulous with chili or as a crust for a southwest type casserole.  I also have a great lunch recipe I use it for.  That I will post soon.

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I have posted.  It has been a very event filled year and I won’t bore you with details.  Skip forward to today.  We are experimenting with gluten.  I cannot have it.  I try because I miss some things dearly but I can’t.  I regret it every time.  B and S are doing okay but S has a place on her face that won’t heal.  I am thinking it is gluten related and are going completely gluten-free again to see how that effects it. 

 Our diet has changed somewhat after some health issues.  That’s one of the reason we were experimenting with gluten.  It was overwhelming to try to incorporate some of the other changes we had to make into being gluten-free.  Now that I am getting every thing else down, doing it all at once doesn’t seem so challenging.  I plan to be posting some recipes here shortly.

This has been an eventful summer.  I am now working from home and we have had some health issues that have forced even more dietary changes.  I will post more later.  I have to have a bunch of new recipes to post as we are trying them out.  Time is short but I will get something up soon, I hope.

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Well, despite being home full-time now, with all the summer parties and BBQs, etc. I am actually finding it harder to get back to the way I want us eating.  I was able to go the other day and spend 2 hours alone in a bookstore.  I searched through dozens of cookbooks (sadly not The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook as they did not stock it) and decided to get Cooking the Whole Foods Way. Some of the recipes looked just divine.  I did not buy it from the store as sales tax in the city is so high and I new I could get is cheaper online.  I did find it Much cheaper on ebay and it should be here early next week. 

 But, back to challenges.  Being gluten-free now seems like second nature.  But, it is still presenting challenges.  I tend to get complacent sometimes and forget to check a label on something I assume would be GF. Luckily, the twice I was wrong it was me that suffered and not my girls.  But, it has made me more careful again. 

I have been dairy-free off and on for years, since I was a child.  But, I actually find that much more challenging.  I do not like soy and want to avoid it.  I do like Almond Breeze but it is so expensive and not organic.  But, it is actually cheese and ice cream I am having the hardest time with.  We all love cheese.  I have the Uncheese Cookbook and every recipe has been wonderful.  But, they are a bit time consuming and expensive.  And, while wonderful, they don’t replace the cheese I am missing. 

 I am also finding we get stuck in ruts.  I am trying to vary our diet and I am hoping the new cookbook with help.  I am also going back to Cooking Gluten-Free! by Karen Robertson and cooking from it.  It is the best GF cookbook I have found.  It is not dairy-free but I have never had an issue subbing any of the dairy in it. 

 One day soon, when I have more time in my life (like when?), I am going to detail what I know about grinding alternative grains for flours and what their characteristics are.  I will go through both the flours available commericially and what I grind.  The freshly ground flours do act differently in baking.

In the last few weeks, I have really been examining the way we eat. Compared to most Americans, we eat fairly healthy. But, we are not where I would like us to be. So, I am doing research to get us on healthier diets with more whole foods, more vegetables and fruits and less sugar. It will be a slow process. If you have any input, I’d love to hear it. Do you know of any good allergen-free whole foods cookbooks, ones you have personally used? Please drop me a note.

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 sweet pepper, chopped (optional)
3 tbsp garlic, minced
1 lb. lean ground meat (any will do)
1/2 cup tomato ketchup
1/2 cup or more picante sauce
1/2 can kernal corn, drained (or more, DH is not fond of corn)
1/2 cup or more black beans
1 cup milk of choice (buttermilk would work well if tolerated)
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tbsp hot chili powder
1/2 cup cheese, shredded (optional, leave off for dairy free)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit 
2. In a large skillet, sauté onion, pepper, and garlic in olive oil until translucent.
3. Add meat to skillet and cook until browned. Drain excess fat from the pan.
4. Pour tomato ketchup, picante sauce, corn, black beans, and milk into the skillet. Heat through, stirring often.
5. Stir in cornmeal and chili powder.
6. Pour into greased 2-quart casserole dish and cover with foil or lid.
7. Bake for 30 minutes covered. Uncover and bake for 20 minutes more.

Serve with side dish of choice. Cheese may be used as topping if tolerated. Great over corn chips.

This month marks the four year anniversary of Samantha being gluten free. I can’t believe it. I still feel like I am learning so much. She has gone from being a chubby breastfed toddler to a happy independent kid. It was easier to keep her gluten free when she was a toddler. She didn’t know what she was missing. She just loved to eat anything I gave her. Now, she sees friends with Oreos and grilled cheese sandwiches. She notices all the bright cereal packages in the store.

 One thing that helps is we are cooking together, all us girls. Both Beth and Samantha love baking and cooking. Measuring and chopping are favorites for both of them. Initially, finding out what went into a recipe was a little disconcerting for them. Neither one likes coconut milk but they love the way it makes some recipes taste. Now, they are happy to find new ways of putting things together. Samantha likes liberal uses of sugar.

 Overall, I am glad they are healthy.

1/2 lb gf italian sausage
1/2 lb ground meat (I used turkey and have used deer (we are hunters))
italian seasonings to taste
gf pepperoni
chopped onion (I used a half an average size one)
chopped green pepper (1/3 of one since my DDs don’t like it much)
cheese of preference for pizza

Brown sausage and meat together in over proof pan (I used large cast iron skillet). Drain. Add 1/2 of onion and all green pepper. Saute until onion is translucent. Turn off heat on stove. Turn on oven to 350F. Add remaining onion to pan along with spices. Top with pepperoni then cheese. Pop in oven til cheese is bubbly. Serve over noodles, bread or plain.

Note: This is not enough for my family. I have to double the recipe for the four of us by my girls eat like adults.

Also, you may add flax seed meal and nutritional yeast to this.

This was a hit last night.

• 2 cups of cooked favorite noodles (We used Mrs. Leeper’s animal shaped ones)
• 1 or more cups cooked chicken, chopped (We had leftovers from rotisserie chicken from Sunday)
• 1 can green peas, drained or frozen
• 1 can kernel corn, drained or frozen
• 1 cup cooked carrots (I left these out since I had none last night)
• onion to taste
• olive oil
• poultry seasoning
• cajun spice
• salt
• pepper
• garlic, minced
• chicken broth

Boil noodles according to package directions. In soup pan, saute onion in olive oil. When translucent, add chicken and vegetables. Add poulty seasoning, cajun spice, salt and pepper to taste. Cover with chicken broth and simmer until noodles are cooked. Drain noodles and add to soup. Add garlic and serve. I also added cooked quinoa and flax seed meal to mine.