Gluten Free Mom

Gluten Free Vegetarian Pasta Paella

So why is the Gluten Free Kid a Vegetarian?

Could you eat this??  Okay so maybe you could and hopefully you are laughing now, but this is the reason the Gluten Free Kid is a vegetarian.

Having grown up in the Midwest, I love the county fair.  The sounds of the rides mixed in with the whine of the animals, the smell of hot pavement, cotton candy and well, cow manure, brings back so many memories . . .

To pass these memories along to our kids, we visit the local county fair every fall.

Our excursion this past September including riding the Ferris Wheel, spending way too much money on games we could never win and then walking through the animal barns.

I have to exercise a lot of self-control during this part because I love animals.  If not for the time restraints of caring for another being (in addition to the wise advise of my husband), we would probably have a house full of every creature you can have as a pet.

We safely made it past the cute bunnies, the baby goats and we were doing great until we saw the sign, baby pigs for sale, $10 each. 

These were the most darling pigs I had ever seen - only about 10 pounds each, pink, relatively clean, they seemed to happily tolerate our cuddling and fondling. 

The Gluten Free Kid absolutely feel in love with the baby pigs.

Even Dad was starting to bend and talk about a place where we could put them . . .

Then came the very kind farmer who politely informed us that these pigs were not meant for pets - they were bread to be slaughtered and eaten.

And even though they were cute and cuddly today, in a matter of months they would weigh hundreds of pounds and would not be able to move without the assistance of forklift.  He assured us at this point both the pigs and us would be miserable.

So we left the swine barn, somewhat teary eyed. 

Thinking "distraction method", we entered the cow barn only to come to the reality that they too were all meant to be slaughtered, and then the chickens . . .  well you get the picture.

From that day, the Gluten Free Kid has been a vegetarian.  She decided that maybe she could not have a pig as a pet, but she was certainly not going to eat  one.

So here is her Favorite Vegetarian Pasta Paella

1 pound GF penne pasta

1 t ground turmeric

3 T olive oil

2 cloves of minced garlic

1 red onion, chopped

1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped

3 medium carrots, chopped

1/4 pound snow peas (if you do not have snow peas on hand, frozen green beans work well)

1/2 cup pitted and sliced black olives

3 t GF flour (any blend will work)

salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large saucepan of water to boil and add the GF pasta with the ground turmeric. Cook until tender.

Drain, reserving 2 cups of the cooking liquid.

In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic and onion until softened, about  3 minutes.

Add the red pepper and carrots and saute for 3 more minutes.

Stir in the snow peas, black olives and cooked pasta, and cook for 3 more minutes.

Sprinkle with the GF flour and stir until combined.  Cook for 1 minute, then gradually add a little less than 2 cups of the reserved cooking liquid. 

Cook until bubbling and thickened, another 2 - 3 minutes. 

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve while hot.

Adapted from Vegetarian Pasta Cookbook , by Sarah Maxwell.

Okay, here is one more cute animal photo:

All of my recipes are indexed on my website at Gluten Free Mom.com. 

 

Gluten Free on a Budget

Every time you turn around someone is talking about high gas prices and, in turn, high food prices (Oh – if these people only knew what a loaf of GF bread costs!)

Now they are talking about a shortage of rice – the base for so much of our GF food.

As I was unloading another $250 worth of groceries, I thought of ways that we are frugal gluten free gourmets.

Yes, I am frugal.  I may have a list of pricey GF pantry items on my website, but in fact we make a lot of our food from scratch.

So, how do live Gluten Free on a Budget???

Here are some of our methods:

1.       Eat food that is mostly naturally GF such as fruits, veggies and meats.  Yes, fruits and veggies are expensive but an apple is still less expensive than a box of manufactured GF cookies.  I am a big advocate of eating organic, but if organic produce is too expensive, just buy your berries, grapes and items such as those organic and stick with the conventional options for any fruit that will be peeled – such as bananas, cantaloupe etc.  GF cereals too expensive??  Try fried eggs for breakfast or smoothies.

2.       We don’t eat out that often – Traveling is a different story, but when we are at home we don’t eat out very often.  With three kids and the limits imposed by eating GF, we find it is usually easier and much tastier to eat at home.  When we do go out, it is now a special occasion (like it was when I was a kid), instead of a regular occurrence as it has become for some modern families.  Since we do eat at home so much, we try to spice up our meals by lighting candles on the weekend or eating outside around the fire pit in the summer.

3.       We sneak our own snacks into the movies – okay, I admit it; we take our own snacks into the movies.  When we first went GF I called our local movie theater to see if the popcorn was GF.  They weren’t certain but thought it was!!  Not a good enough answer for me.  So they actually advised me to just sneak my own in!! (Yes – truly they did).  That is what we did.  Tacky, maybe, but for a family of 5, it saves us $30 every time we go to the movies

.

4.       Shop in bulk – if you have not tried Amazon.com yet, you really need to.  Since everything is sold in bulk, it only works for food you know you like.  But if you have something you like and the room to store it, this is the way to shop.  For example, my kids like the Koala Crisp cereal.  Right now Amazon has it for roughly $3.50 a box, while GlutenFree.com is selling it for $4.25 a box.  And if you purchase $25 worth of food, Amazon throws in free shipping

.

5.       We don’t waste anything – Maybe it is because I have been to Guatemala and seen true poverty, or because I still remember my Grandma’s stories of surviving the depression as Midwest farmers by selling potatoes and quilts from the back of their pickup, but I have a hard time wasting food.  Leftovers are lunch for me or breakfast for the kids (they love cheese pizza before school).   A little bit of leftover sausage becomes huevos rancheros for breakfast.  Anything leftover is thrown inside a rice tortilla for quesadillas.  Have a hard time throwing away that end slice of bread, put it in the freezer.  When you need bread crumbs, process it in a coffee grinder until fine.  For even drier bread crumbs, put it in the oven at 200 degrees for about an hour then process it.  A bad batch of cookies, throw them in the freezer for a pie crust.

Just this week I was making a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  I was distracted by the kids and did not put enough flour in the mix.  We ended up with chocolate chip pancakes!  They still tasted good but were extremely flat. 

So what did we do?  We pushed them into the bottom of a pie pan, added vanilla ice cream, topped it with Smucker's Magic Shell Chocolate Fudge, and we had an awesome dessert.

For more ideas go visit the Frugal Mom and see how she eats on a budget.

Okay, so what are your ideas for eating GF on a budget??

Gluten Free Blueberry Bread

Blueberry Bread

We have a new favorite cookbook~Gluten Free Baking by Rebecca Reilly

Okay, I know you are going “not another gluten free cookbook.” 

I have tried a lot of gluten free cookbooks and this one takes the lead.  We have made numerous recipes in this cookbook and they are to die for!!  I mean really, really good.  Better than any other recipes I have tried up to this point.

The cookbook was recommended by the Gluten Free Girl at her baking class and is written by Rebecca Reilly.  Rebecca is a Cordon Bleu and Le Notre Patissier trained chef in addition to owning a Café, being an on-air chef for a Maine TV station, and numerous other degrees.  So she knows what she is talking about and she has applied this knowledge to the gluten free life style. 

Just to give you a sample, here is Rebecca's recipe for Blueberry Cake.

I made this for Easter brunch.  It was devoured. 

Rebecca calls this a Blueberry Cake, but I made it in a bread loaf pan because I wanted it to be more like a quick bread.  I like it better as bread than a cake.

Blueberry Bread

·         1 ¼ cups gluten free flour mix **I include Rebecca’s basic GF flour mix below and it is what we used. 

·         ½ cup almond flour

·         1 t GF baking powder

·         ½ t xanthan gum

·         1/8 t salt

·         ¾ stick unsalted butter (use Earth Balance for CF) softened

·         1 cup sugar (I use super fine baking sugar)

·         2 eggs, at room temperature

·         1 T grated lemon zest

·         ½ cup warm milk (use Almond Milk for CF)

·         1 ½ cup fresh blueberries

Lemon sauce (recipe below)

Lightly butter a bread loaf pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Mix together the GF flour mix, almond flour, baking powder, xanthan gum and salt.

Cream the butter until white.   Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes. (yes- really for five minutes)

Add the eggs one at a time and mix well.

Add the lemon zest.

Add the dry ingredients in 2 parts, alternating with the milk.  Do not over mix.

Gently fold in the blueberries.

Let the mix rest on the counter for 30 minutes.  **The original recipe does not call for this, but it was a tip I learned from the Gluten Free Girl’s baking class.  As Shauna explained, gluten free flour needs to hang out together for a while before being popped into the oven.

Preheat the oven to 325 degress and bake for one hour.

Remove from the bread pan and pour the lemon sauce over it.

Lemon Sauce

1/3 cup sugar

3 T lemon juice

Bring to a boil in a nonaluminum pot.

Rebecca Reilly’s Basic Gluten Free Flour Mix

·         2 cups brown rice flour

·         2/3 cup potato starch

·         1/3 cup tapioca starch

Getting Over It and Moving On

We made it through!  My beautiful gluten free twelve year old has regained her smile and the bounce is back in her step.

After sleeping for twelve hours one night and forcing myself to go to the gym yesterday, I am also starting to feel human again.

As I mentioned in my last post, this recent illness was pretty hard for the Gluten Free Kid. 

It was pretty hard for Mom too~

I can't tell you how many times I have held back that poor child's hair while she vomited out all of her insides and then some.  Even though this illness was not gluten-related, being back in that situation again was like some bad deja vu.

But we got over it and we are moving on. 

We try to be as positive as possible about living gluten free and I still see many "silver linings" in our new lifestyle . . .

But there are bumps in the road and sometimes it is just hard. 

Everyone has "why me" moments when you just want to find something quick and easy to eat,

and that is okay.

It is okay to get fed up every once in a while and to acknowledge the hardship of living gluten free,

but then you have to get up,

get over it, and

get your bounce back in your step.

You have to find your own "silver linings" of the gluten free life.

Be thankful for the good health you now enjoy.

Be thankful for your new gluten free friends.

Find the opportunities the diet offers you and dwell on those~

Because living gluten free does not mean you cannot live the life you choose!

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity,Ephesians 5:15 - 16

Is Amoxicillin Gluten Free?

That is the question of the week.

According to the Gluten Free Drug List, amoxicillin is gluten free as are Tylenol extra strength caplets. 

It has been a hard week here as the Gluten Free Kid has come down with a really, really nasty illness.

Two nights of a fever around 103 degrees, sore throat, vomiting.

I took her to the doctor who after several tests, diagnosed her with a kidney infection and some unknown bacterial infection.  Which lead to the Amoxicillin and an anti-biotic shot.

Of course, neither the doctor or the pharmacists knew if the amoxicillin contained gluten.  Thank you to the gluten free drug list for making that part of our lives easier!!

The hardest part for the GFK, the blood draw.  My Gluten Free Kid has a real issue with blood draws.  She had too many one year P.D. (pre-diagnosis), and some really terrible ones during the diagnosis process.  At one point a nurse was digging around in her arm so much that I had to step in and tell her to just STOP.  So blood draws are her worst enemy.  (And she goes in next week for a check up with her celiac doctor.  They did not do a blood draw last year so I hope they skip it this time as well).

The hardest party for me~the "why me" questions??  This is the sickest she has been post-diagnosis and it has brought back too many memories of how things used to be: the vomiting, the no energy, the being stuck inside when everyone else is out having fun.

And this has brought up the why do I have to have celiac question? 

Why is my life harder? 

"It is just not fair"!

Yes, we are happy for a diagnosis, but yes, sometimes it does seem like it is just not fair.

Even though she does have celiac, I tell her how thankful we are that it can be treated with a diet (oh-what a diet but just with a diet).

She likes to write song lyrics for the guitar, so I told her you have to have an interesting life to have something to write about.  She would rather it not be so interesting. 

Even though I can see God working in her through this, that is a concept that is sometimes hard for a 12 year old to get.

But it still is just hard sometimes -