Gluten Free Mom

Gluten Free and Dairy Free "Cheese" Option and Gluten Free Lasagna

As you may recall, a month or so ago I decided to try dairy again in the hope that my now-healed intestine could handle it.  After a week of experimenting, I called it quits on the dairy.  Definitely not worth the pain and suffering it caused. 

Sometimes dead ends just lead us to look in different directions. 

First I tried goat cheese -  I feasted on a GF calzone (recipe to come soon) stuffed with mushrooms, red peppers and goat cheese. 

I know in your mind you are thinking "give up on it lady" and the morning after I ate the goat cheese I wished I had.   Yes, I felt terrible again (why do I do this to myself).  Honestly, just the thought of goat cheese makes me nauseous now.  

Another dead end, another new direction. 

I have heard about nutritional yeast and how you can make a cheese-like option out of it.  Reading the recipe, I had little hope it would work.  I cooked with tofu so it was not totally unfamiliar but "nutritional yeast?"  I went to my local health food store and asked for the nutritional yeast.  Note this is not the same yeast you bake with - as it is deactivated, it will not even make anything rise.  It is purely a nutritional yeast containing B-complex vitamins.  (My I have traveled a long ways from my days of drive through McDonald's).

 I added the ingredients to my food processor, gave it a whirl and tentatively dipped my finger in for a taste -

 The road I had been traveling down straightened out and ran for miles ahead of me - curving through pans of GF lasagna and homemade calzones. 

In other words, it was great!! Really great!!  I am actually making a lasagna with it tonight!

For those of you  who already eat tofu and make smoothies with your soy protein, this recipe will be a piece of cake.

For those of you who get confused between what a vegan and a vegetarian is, have no fear!!  You can do this and you will be so happy with the reward. 

Gluten Free and Dairy Free "Cheese" Option

2 - 3 cloves minced garlic

1 pound medium to firm tofu

3 T good olive oil

3 T ume plum vinegar

4 T nutritional yeast

1/4 t kosher salt

additional optional spices such as rosemary or thyme

Press the water out of the tofu by holding it between two paper towels and pressing it out.

Add all of the ingredients to a food processor except the optional spices.  Process until smooth and creamy.  Taste and add more salt if needed.  Add optional herbs and pulse until combined.

Serve as a dip or use as a cheese substitute in lasagna or calzones.  Not sure how cheese alternative will work in baked foods like a scallop potato but we will be trying that next. 

Yields about 2 cups

Gluten Free (adaptable for Casein Free) Lasagna

Lasagna is pretty straight forward, but with all of this talk of a dairy substitute for lasagna, I should add a quick recipe.

2 T olive oil

1 cup chopped yellow onion

2 minced garlic cloves

1 1/2 pound sausage (you can use turkey, pork or chicken - we like it with a breakfast, which is sweeter, turkey sausage)  Beelers is gluten free

1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree

1 6 ounce can tomato paste

1 T dried parsley or 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 T basil leaves or 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

optional - 2 cups packed, de-stemmed chopped kale

kosher salt

pepper

1 box Tinkyada gluten free lasagna noodles (De Boles makes a no cook gluten free noodle. Using these eliminates the need to cook the noodles first, butI have heard they tend to be a little dry so you'd want to add more tomato sauce.  Add a comment below if you have tried these and how they worked).  They seem to sell Tinkyada everywhere now, but you can also order them from glutenfree.com. 

15 ounces ricotta cheese

6 ounces Italian blend shredded cheese  use the **dairy free "cheese" option for casein free

1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Cook noodles until just done according to package directions - do not overcook.  Rinse with cold water and sprinkle with some olive oil to try and keep them from sticking.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.  Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.

Add the sausage and cook until it is no longer pink ( 8 to 10 minutes).  If you are going to use the Kale, add it about 5 minutes into cooking the lasagna.  It really does not change the taste of the lasagna, but if your kids will eat something that is "green" this is a great way to sneak in some very healthy veggies. 

Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley, basil, 1 1/2 t salt and 1/2 t pepper.  Simmer uncovered over medium low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.

***Note - if you want to make this really easy, then replace the tomatoes and spices with a good gluten free spaghetti sauce such as Amy's Roasted Garlic.  Then reduce the simmer time to 5 minutes.

In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, all but 1/4 cup of the Italian cheese blend, egg, 1/2 t salt and 1/4 t pepper.

Ladle 1/3 of the sauce into a 9 x 12 inch rectangular baking dish, spreading the sauce over the bottom of the dish. 

Next add the layers as follows:

half the pasta (if it is sticking add some olive oil to loosen)

half the cheese mixture, **use 1/2 the dairy free "cheese" option for casein free

one third the sauce,

rest of the pasta,

rest of the cheese mixture, **use 1/2 the dairy free  "cheese" option for casein free

rest of the sauce. 

Sprinkle with 1/4 cup Italian cheese blend. **for casein free, top with a thin layer of the dairy free "cheese" option.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs if you have them. 

Bake for 45 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling.

I made two versions tonight - one with the dairy free "cheese" for me and one with the full mixture of ricotta etc for the rest of the family.  They both turned out beautifully.  The rest of the family taste-tested mine and actually thought it was very good.  The fake cheese had a very creamy texture and great flavor.  Unfortunately, the kids did pick out all of the "green stuff"  aka kale.  Better luck next time on that one!

Update on our Gluten Free Bread Baking Challenge

For those of you who are following our progress, we are still working on a great gluten free bread recipe.  We have had a few total flops, a few okay loaves and one great one.  But we are not ready to share the recipe yet.

I have heard that Annalise Robert's cookbook Gluten-Free Baking Classics is really great so want to try a couple of her recipes before we find a winner.

We also want to try Carol Fenster's recommendation of adding  Expandex -a modified tapioca starch to our baked goods, so we are waiting for that shipment to arrive. 

Have a great gluten free week and, remember, don't let your dead ends stop you.  Just change directions and see what is over the top of next hill - it might just be a great view. 

 

More gluten free convenient food may be coming to Seattle!

Did you ever think you would see the words convenient and gluten free all in the same sentence??

Seattle is actually very blessed in the gluten free world with great restaurants, bakeries, support groups. 

And now, Savory Moments (formerly known as Month of Meals) is considering adding gluten free items to its menu -

Savory Moments is located in Redmond and provides "restaurant quality meals that require very little effort at home." 

Our meals are prepared and packaged by our professional culinary team with more than 50 years of combined experience. This allows us to provide you with restaurant quality meals that require very little effort at home. Savory Moment meals are not just "assembled"for you to cook later. Making our sauces from scratch, marinating, brining, sautéing and grilling in our kitchen adds flavor to your food and allows you to have a great meal ready in minutes.

The following is from Kay Conley, founder and owner of Savory Moments:

We have had many inquiries over the past few years about gluten-free meals.  Although, many of our meals each month are gluten-free, we have not made an effort to provide a wide variety on every menu.  When I recently discovered a very good friend and long time customer now must go gluten-free, I decided to take a serious look at extending our menu to offer 8-10 gluten-free meal options each month. Before making this addition to our menu we would like to find out how many of our customers are interested in these meals.    GLUTEN FREE MEALS SURVEY

Thank you for participating in this survey.  Please forward it to anyone who you know may be interested in gluten-free meals.

Sincerely,

Kay Conley
Savory Moment

SavoryMoment.com

So take the survey and tell Kay what you think!!

This and That Gluten Free

The post will be abbreviated this week.  This is the second time I have typed this post.  After working two hours on the original post, it was lost to the never, never land that we call the Internet.  Ugh - make that, double ugh!!

The second reason for my brevity, is that our gluten free kitchen has been working overtime this week.

There will be more to come on this in the future, but we have started a bread baking challenge in our gluten free kitchen.  We are searching for MOIST, filling (not just plane white rice and potato starch) gluten free bread, that is not terribly hard to make and, finally, that we can add to our regular diet. 

We have decided to try a new recipe a day - that is a lot of baking but all of the flour is out and doing it regularly will hopefully help us perfect the recipes. 

Sound easy??

Not so easy - because we are not willing to settle for just okay, we are going for great bread.

So far we are 2 for 2, on the losing side.  The first two loaves were terribly disappointing.  It is even more disappointing that the recipes were from a good gluten free cookbook that has a pretty good reputation. 

 

This was supposed to be a gluten free Italian Chestnut bread . . ...

But we have more recipes to try and we have learned from our mistakes.  We will keep trying new recipes and post the winner when we have it. Any and all suggestions, recipes etc are encouraged!

Finally, I am sad to report that my adventure into dining with dairy was a failure!  After a week of feeling basically awful, I have decided that I have too many blessings in my life to spend anymore time feeling bad.  So I am back to my CFGF diet! 

In the meantime, here is an abbreviated version of my original post:

Starbucks Gluten Free Survey

Starbucks is reaching out to get input on adding gluten free food to their stores.  If you'd like to dip your coffee into a gluten free muffin, contact them at Starbucks Gluten Free Survey.

Enjoy Life Coupon

If you like Enjoy Life breakfast bars, they have a coupon for them on their face book at Enjoy Life Facebook.  Follow the link and print the coupon.

The Gluten Free Good Life

Looking for a one-of-kind vacation, go to Gluten Free Adventures.comand charter a gluten free sailing trip.   Michele is also raising money for celiac awareness by sailing 7000 nautical miles!  Thanks to Curtiss Ann for posting this bit of information on her blog.

Update on Bi-Aglut Gluten Free Pasta

Good news for all of you Bi-Aglut pasta fans, according to Bonnie who follows this blog, Bi-Aglut is planning on distributing pasta in the US again in mid-February.  This is our absolute favorite pasta and we have missed it.  Hope it really happens!

Gluten Free Google Search Tool

Lastly, google has a new toy -  the following is a gluten specific search tool.  All you have to do is type in what you are searching for in the gluten free world, and google will narrow the search to only results relating to gluten free or celiac. 

For instance, want to see if Trident is gluten free.  Just type in Trident and the search tool will do the rest.  How cool is that!

Sorry this is much shorter than the original post, but hopefully next week I will do a better job at not losing everything.  Until then . . . happy gluten free living.

Yummy naturally gluten free tomato soup hits the spot - and some thoughts on living casein free

This is totally based on rumor and speculation (if you have any solid research confirming this please pass it along) but I have heard that a celiac's reaction to casein (the dairy protein) may diminish after they have been gluten free for a while.  The rumor goes that dairy products are absorbed by the ends of the villi that line the small intestine.  As we all know, it is these villi that are damaged by celiac disease.  So once the villi heal (from being on a gluten free diet), in theory, the ability to eat casein products should return.   

I have been casein free for three years now - before that I did not even realize that I had a dairy allergy.  I did not like milk or yogurt or cottage cheese, but would still slather the butter on bread and ate plenty of ice cream. 

When our family went gluten free, we started eating more dairy - for the first time in my life I ate yogurt and more cheese than normal.  While going gluten free had the effect of making me feel awesome, a few months into the diet and I started feeling terrible again.  I thought I was going to die.  My stomach symptoms were worse, I had a never ending sinus infection, bladder irritation, but worst of all was the brain fog.  I remember trying to drive to the grocery store, and it was like I was intoxicated - literally, I was in a total and complete brain fog as if I had been partying all morning long (regrettably, my car has some of the dents to prove my alerted mental state).

I was stumped as to why I felt so bad - my regular doctor blamed it on stress and wrote me a prescription for Lexapro.  Believe me my life was stressful, but thought it had to be something more.  So I decided to visit a naturopath.   Much to my surprise, the blood work came back that I was having a reaction to all things casein-related.  Hence, the dairy free phase of my life began (and my symptoms went away.  In fact, my dependence on antibiotics for my chronic sinus infections completely went away).

Back to the present, based on the theory mentioned above, I was hoping to reintroduce some dairy back into my life this year.  I don't really miss milk (almond milk works just fine in coffee and as a baking substitute), yogurt I can definitely live without, and I have even come to "like" soy ice cream (have you tried the Purely Decadent blueberry cheesecake - yes it is gf as well). 

But it is cheese that I miss - melted cheese on a pizza, in a quesdilla, in a yummy cheesy breakfast casserole - quiche!!  And I am sorry, but that soy cheese just does not cut it.  In fact, I find it rather disgusting. 

So I embarked on an experimental diet modification this week and started having a little cheese - just some melted Parmesan on my baked potato skins, a cheesy cracker from Outside the Breadbox(fabulous btw), some Parmesan-laden pesto on my gf pasta.  Hard cheese is not supposed to contain as much dairy protein as other products such as milk.

Oh it tasted so good and I thought everything was going okay. 

It is amazing how I ignored the symptoms. 

Then last night, I was laying on the Middle Kid's bed listing to her practice Shakespeare and lamenting the headache I have had for five days.  I was actually contemplating out loud going to the doctor to see if I had a bacterial infection of some kind.  Then I recounted my other symptoms, a slightly runny nose, stomach ache, bloated feeling, (some other more private symptoms you don't want to know) . . . to which the Weekend Chef commented "isn't this corresponding to you eating dairy again." 

Dah!!!!!!  I so wanted cheese to reenter my life, that I was ignoring the symptoms!! 

I have two more days left of my experiment - I decided to give it a week.  I do think that after not eating some food group for a while, our bodies will react to it when it is first reintroduced.  (Like drinking alcohol - you lose your tolerance for it when you abstain for a while).  So I will give it two more days and see what happens.

And no, I do not recommend this experiment for home use without first consulting a doctor!!

For more information on our casein free lifestyle, see my website at Living Casein Free.

In the meantime, here is a great recipe for Tomato Soup.  The weather in Seattle has been down right frightful.  Some warm soup is the perfect antidote.

 

After all of the holiday cooking and gorging, we are all in mood for some simple healthy meals.  This one is a favorite and it is easily made casein free!!

Wonderful Tomato Soup

• 3 T olive oil

• 1 large white onion

• 2 carrots, chopped

• 3 minced garlic cloves

• 5 large tomatoes chopped - if you do not have fresh tomatoes you can use 2 14.5 ounce cans of diced tomatoes

• 1 T tomato paste (freeze the leftover paste for later use)

• 2 t sugar

• 1 1/2  T dried basil or 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

• 3 cups chicken broth

• 1 T salt (or to taste - we always add a little more)

• 2 t pepper

• 1/4 cup heavy cream (or a casein free alternative such as almond milk)

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium low heat.  Saute the onions and carrots until tender,  about 10 minutes.

Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Add the tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste, basil, chicken stock, salt and pepper and stir well. 

Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes or until the tomatoes are very tender.

Process in a food processor to the desired consistency.  The right consistency is up to you - the Gluten Free Kid likes it chunkier, the Middle Child likes it smoother (this is her favorite soup). 

I get tired of washing the food processor, so I use a hand held stick blender to process it.  I actually love my Cuisinart SmartStick Hand Blender CSB-76   Be warned, you have to be very careful or you will have tomato soup splattered all over you kitchen.

Add the cream or the almond milk at this point.  Since I am the only one who is casein free, I take out enough soup for me and add almond milk to it and then I add cream or whole milk to the rest of the soup.  My family has taste tested both and say they actually like it better with the almond milk - it was more flavorful.

Reheat as needed.

Serve with tostitos or if you are feeling really ambitious whip up some Chebe bread sticks. 

We like this soup so much that I double the recipe so the kids can take the leftovers to school for lunch.

Until next time . . ..  happy gluten free eating!

Gluten Free Kid's Best of 2008

It would be easy this year to focus on the worst.  Even as I am setting here typing this I am looking out at the path of destruction the latest snow storm left in my backyard.   It would be so easy to wallow in news of the bad economy, the burdens of eating gluten free during the holidays, the deceit of some food manufacturers labeling things gluten free when they are not  - well you get the picture.

So it seems like the perfect time to think about the best of 2008- gluten free living has definitely hit main stream, or at least some kind of side tributary.  "Gluten free" has gone from some obscure diet to a new household world.   Now it is commented on in TV series.  Gluten free sections are popping up in grocery stores across the US.  And all of the new products! 

Of course more is not always better but our obsessive compulsive nature drives us to try every new gluten free product that we can find (and afford).   After trying lots (and lots) of new gluten free items in 2008, we have boiled down our best of the best list to the following.  No, not terribly long but longer than last year and we are still sampling:   

Best Donut:  Celiac Specialties  donuts.  The GFK loves the mini-powdered donuts and I was so happy to have some in the freezer when a last minute donut party was thrown at school. 

Best Pre-made Cake:  Shabtai Gourmet Devils Food Seven Layer cake.  As a special treat, my Mom ordered one of these for Christmas day.  The GFK was in heaven.

Best Pasta:  Schar gluten free pasta.  With the disappearance of Bi-Aglut from our gluten free world, we switched to Dr. Schar's.  Order it from

Best Sandwich Bread for a Lunch Box: Kinnikinnick White Sandwich bread. Note, not read the category carefully. It is not the best tasting most delicious sandwich bread (we are still looking for that) it is the kind of bread that you can toast, make a sandwich on in the morning, and it is still edible at lunch time.

For a list of some of our other favorite pantry items go to Getting Started Gluten Free on our website.

Best Gluten Free Restaurant:  Risotteria restaurant in New York City.  The all you can eat GF bread sticks, pizza, risotto, the setting on Bleeker street all combine to make this our over the top choice.   

If you just happen to be in Athy Ireland, we highly recommend the Bay Tree Inn.  We absolutely loved it!

Best Place toTravel Gluten Free:  In the continental United States it would be New York City for us, but if do not live in Seattle, I'd have to place this gluten free friendly city high on places to visit in 2009.  Feeling more adventurous, then Ireland with its huge celiac population is the place to go.

Best Free Newsletter:  NFCA (National Foundation for Celiac Awareness) emails out a monthly free newsletter that is loaded with great tips. 

Best New Found Cookbook:  Not a new cookbook, but new to us in 2008 was Gluten-Free Baking: More Than 125 Recipes for Delectable Sweet and Savory Baked Goods, Including Cakes, Pies, Quick Breads, Muffins, Cookies, and Other Delights.  Filled with great sweet treat recipes. 

Best Bread Recipe:   We tried many but have to leave this category blank as none were worthy of this list.  Dare we say, a new challenge for the new year. 

Best Quick Bread Recipe:  This one was easy, Blueberry bread always makes us smile!  

Best Blog Comment of the Year:  Okay, maybe a little tacky but I still laugh out loud at the suggestion of adding laxatives to the food of those who just don't get the gluten free diet!

Most Touching Email:  All of those received in 2008.  I wish I could share them all so you'd all know that you are definitely not alone in this gluten free world.  My heart really went out to the woman who worked, had a disabled husband and a daughter with celiac disease - that is a lot for one person to handle.  But to all of you, keep writing, together we will make this a better gluten free world!!