Another great gluten free cookbook

I found another really yummy-looking gluten free cookbook! It's not just baked goods- there's recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner too. The author is Australian, so there are some terms that need to be looked up (sago anyone?), and while the measurements are in grams, they also have them in ounces. Can't wait to start trying these recipes!

Some gluten free baking results

Today I made some corn bread using the Bob's Red Mill gluten free cornbread mix. The instructions called for a 9"x9" pan, which I didn't have, so I used an 8"x8" pan.

The cornbread rose nicely (more than I expected, but probably due to the smaller pan), but the center had problems cooking through. If I use this mix again, I'll use a larger pan so the cornbread will be thinner and hopefully not have problems cooking through.

It tasted best while warm- I ate it with some of the cassoulet I made yesterday and it was good and filling. I had some with my dinner, and it wasn't quite as good cooled down- it seemed to get a bit more dense and moist somehow. Not sure quite how/why that happened.

I also made some pumpkin muffins using a recipe from Gluten Free Baking Classics. With all the cold weather we've had this week, I had a hankering for some pumpkin bread.

Unfortunately, for some reason, canned pumpkin is 'temporarily out of season'. Not sure why, but I looked at 3 or 4 different stores, and no one had any. Luckily my mom had some, so I could go forth with my baking experiment.

The recipe made a dozen muffins, and they rose quite nicely. The texture wasn't quite as thick and dense as I remember pumpkin bread being, but I don't think I'll ever have that again, and the result was good, so I can't complain too much.

What we ate for lunch today (Cassoulet)

Cassoulet with lots of vegetables, recipe from October 2009 Runner's World.

Very good and gluten free without any tinkering. Meat, beans, and veggies. Perfect for a cold winter-y day. It took about an hour to prepare and cook (a little long for a lunch meal, but good for a dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day), and it wasn't till just before it was done that I realized I should have made some gluten free cornbread to go with it. I have a bag of Bob's Red Mill gluten free cornbread in the cupboard, and will mix it up for lunch tomorrow.

It made a lot more than I was expecting, so we'll have some for tomorrow. I think next time I make it I'll add some brown rice or quinoa.

Food That Should Taste Good tortilla chips

I've mentioned the sweet potato tortilla chips made by Food That Should Taste Good before. I've finally found some other varieties, and thought I'd mention how much I like them.

The sweet potato chips are very good by themselves. The bag offers suggestions for toppings, but I haven't tried any of them yet.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I tried the chocolate tortilla chips. They were good- not sweet, but you could taste the cocoa. The chocolate and corn made a different, but good, combination. Definitely not your every-day tortilla chip.

The cinnamon chips were another that I wasn't real sure about, but they are very good. The bag suggests topping with hazelnut spread, so I tried some Nutella. Sooooo good! Seriously addictive.

The one variety that I've tried so far that I didn't really care for is the potato & chive. They have a rather strong flavor, which by itself wasn't too bad, but they gave me heartburn. So I won't be eating them again.

There's still lots more varieties to try, the problem is finding them at the store.

Betty Crocker gluten free mixes

A few weeks ago my sister made a pineapple upside-down cake using a Betty Crocker gluten free yellow cake mix. It was quite good- better than I was expecting.

This week I finally got around to making the Betty Crocker gluten free brownies that I bought several weeks ago. I followed the high altitude directions, and they turned out pretty good, too. A little bland, which is apparently a problem when baking with rice flour, so I think I'll add some vanilla next time. Another bonus: they're about half the cost of the other gluten free mixes out there.

Two really good books I just read

Gluten-Free Baking Classics by Annalise G. Roberts

Awesome book! There are so many yummy-looking recipes. The recipes for pumpkin bread, gingerbread, oreo cookies, cream puffs, apple cider doughnuts, cinnamon bread, French bread, soft pretzels, and fresh pasta dough (I could make ravioli!) are the ones I'm really looking forward to trying.

The author has given cooking classes, and put a lot of effort into making good gluten free versions of a lot of common recipes. They sure sound good, and she gives detailed instructions on how to make them good (not crummy). I haven't tried any of them yet, but they look sooo good.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Good read, interesting, fast paced, no problems getting into it (unlike with Inkheart). Can't wait to read the second book- I'm on the hold list at the library, but it will still be awhile before it's my turn.

What I accomplished this week

Gluten free
The other day I tried a Lindt Lindor truffle just to see if I would be able to feel the effect of the gluten- yep I could. You wouldn't think there'd be that much barley malt in one little truffle, but there's enough to make my throat swell up (my reaction when I eat gluten). Definitely lends credence to those who say that cross-contamination is an issue- small crumbs do have an effect.

We ate at Chili's for my SIL's birthday last night. Before leaving the house I got online and checked their website for allergen information. They have a specific list of foods that are gluten free, so I printed that off and took it with me. I ordered the honey-bbq ribs, steamed broccoli, and black beans. Yum!

I think I've said it before, but the longer I stay away from gluten, the more my body is able to react to other things it doesn't like. In the past, everything was masked by the gluten. Now that that's out of the picture, other things are now recognizable as a problem. Like M&M's. I'm still trying to pinpoint what it is exactly, but I think it's one of the blue food colors they use in the blue and green M&M's. If I leave those ones alone, I seem to be ok. I checked the M&M's website to see if I could just order brown peanut butter M&M's (my fav), but you can only special order regular M&M's. Meh. Not worth the money.

Little Miss Sunshine
I called her my sweetie yesterday, and she responded by saying 'I not tweetie, I punkin!' Her daddy calls her 'punkin', and apparently she's decided she really likes it.

Projects
I finally sorted and restacked our 30 plus boxes of books. The boxes have started to bend, causing the stacks to tip precariously towards the door. Almost two years of being opened and shifted and stacked has not been good for them. So I went through each box, pulled out books that I didn't want to keep, and made sure each box was as full as possible in an effort to minimize box bending. I then restacked the boxes and put away the various items that had been tossed wherever convenient over the last few months. It's so much neater now, and we're no longer in danger of being squished by an avalanche of boxes of books.

I ended up with two boxes of books to sell/get rid of. I listed them on half.com today, and it went quite fast. You type in the ISBN, the condition, and any remarks about the condition, hit enter, and it brings up all the pertinent info, including a picture if they have one available. You decide a price, hit enter, and it's listed. So quick! Some of the books were old textbooks that I should have sold back to the bookstore after I was done with them, but for whatever reason, didn't. Really should have- I would have got a lot more money for some of them. Oh well.

While I was at it, I also prepped some items for listing on ebay- fall type things like a Halloween costume, boots, etc.

I also gathered up stuff for the yard sale my SIL and I are going to do (next weekend hopefully). I'll take the books that are listed for the least amount on half.com ($.75 is the lowest you can go) and see if I can get rid of them at the yard sale. I also have quite a few I couldn't list on half.com because they're too old and don't have an ISBN. It's nice to de-clutter a bit.

Yesterday I finally got my hair cut- the last time was last October. I've been letting it grow out since then, but the ends were just getting yucky, and it needed some shaping. It looks much better now.

Job Hunt
Mr M met with the investigator, so things are finally moving forward on his clearance. In the meantime, we're updating his resume and making plans for him to attend a job fair that should have a lot of companies that we would be interested in. He really needs to talk to representatives in person- it's too easy for resumes to get lost when submitted online.

More Larabars to try

I recently found a couple new flavors of Larabars at our local health food store: tropical fruit tart and peanut butter and jelly. The tropical fruit tart has a strong flavor of coconut, due to all the bits of coconut, but it also has small chunks of pineapple. Yum! The peanut butter and jelly has peanuts and chunks of cherries. The cherries and pineapple in these two flavors really make it worth going back for another one.

I just got back from checking out the Larabar website (where I got the pictures), and it says they now have mini Larabars. I'm going to have to keep my eyes out for those- LMS likes Larabars, but usually only eats about half of one.

Books and links for learning about gluten intolerance

I've shared this info with a few siblings, and I've posted some of it before, but I thought I'd bring it all together for anyone who's interested in learning more about being gluten free.

Here's the 3 most helpful books I've read so far, in order of most helpful.Healthier Without Wheat: A New Understanding of Wheat Allergies, Celiac Disease, and Non-Celiac Gluten Intolerance
by Stephen Wangen
****This is the one written by a doctor with celiac disease, so he really understands the issues.
The Gluten Connection: How Gluten Sensitivity May Be Sabotaging Your Health - And What You Can Do to Take Control NOW
by Shari Lieberman & Linda Segall
****This one talked about the myriad of symptoms that can be associated with gluten intolerance.
The First Year: Celiac Disease and Living Gluten-Free: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed
by Jules E. Dowler Shepard
****This one has good recipes and good basic info.

There's lots of good websites out there, too.
For celiac/gluten intolerance info:www.celiac.org

For recipes and coping strategies:glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com recipes, and she wrote a book about her experience with celiac diseaseglutenfreemommy.com this one has lots of good recipes, as well as links to other good sites.glutenfreeda.blogspot.com this one also has good recipes
I just recently came across a few more websites that seem really good, though I've only looked through them a little bit.
glutenfreecookingschool.com I found this when I was looking for a gluten free flat bread recipe. Since I can't eat yeast products, I need a good substitute for regular bread.
glutenfreemom.com I found this one when I was looking for a gluten free mac and cheese recipe. There are boxed gluten free mac and cheese options, but the sauce always tastes off. And homemade mac and cheese is sooo good...

Here's some others I recently came across and haven't looked at much, they seem to have recipes, news, etc.
elanaspantry.com
holdthegluten.net
holdthericecakes.com
glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com
celiacchicks.com
glutenfreeforgood.com
I've been experimenting with different gluten free foods that you can find in the grocery store, some are worth the money, some not. My favorites:

For breakfast
*Vans gluten free blueberry frozen waffles (kind of expensive, but worth it)
*Yoplait yogurt
*Eggs
*Corn or Rice chex (They're even labeled gluten free now! They recently switched from barley malt syrup to rice syrup as the sweetener)
*Gluten free rice crispies (I've tried various 'alternative' gluten free cereals, and have to say they were all disgusting. It's nice to be able to find 'normal' cereals that are gluten free.)
*Cottage cheese
*Gluten free pancakes with unsweetened applesauce (there's several brands of mix, so far, they're all pretty good)

For lunch
*Leftovers from dinner the night before
*Tuna on Glutino cheese or vegetable gluten free crackers (the original and multi grain are disgusting)
*Egg salad on crackers
*Plain yogurt with frozen berries, sliced almonds, and agave nectar
*Fruits and veggies

For dinner
Most recipes can be fairly easily adapted: take out obvious sources of gluten such as pasta, bread, flour tortillas, etc. Less obvious ones to be careful of are soy sauce and canned soups. A lot of canned soups have wheat flour as a thickener, and a main ingredient of soy sauce is wheat. Luckily, there are pretty good gluten free versions of most food items. Tinkyada rice pasta is quite good, and there is some decent gluten free bread, hamburger buns, etc out there as well. I haven't found a really good flour tortilla yet, though I just found one in the freezer section that was a lot better than the only other variety I've been able to find locally. The only other one I've found locally is a plastic-y rice tortilla. I found a recipe to make my own, so I plan on making my own tortillas soon.

Snacks/desserts
Here's where you run into a lot of things that aren't worth the money. The ones I will buy are:
*Sweet Potato tortilla chips from Food That Should Taste Good (so yummy!)
*Rice Works tortilla chips
*Lara bars (apple pie are the best!)
*Most of the crackers I've tried aren't great; the Glutino cheese crackers and vegetable crackers are the best, but they're not absolutely delicious. Some of the cookies are ok, but again, not great. This isn't actually a bad thing- I'm trying to lose weight, so not having crackers and cookies to eat is just fine with me.
I can still eat chocolate (is that a good thing or a bad thing?). Ghirardelli chocolate is ok, but Lindt chocolate is not- it's sweetened with barley malt syrup, which gets snuck into a lot of foods. So I can't eat the Lindt Lindor truffles (except the white ones), but I can eat the Ghirardelli milk chocolate peanut butter squares (sooo yummy).

Fast food options
There are some options for eating at fast food restaurants, but not a lot. Cross contamination is definitely an issue to watch out for. I've checked out websites for menu items that are ok, and the best fast food options I've found so far are Wendy's and Chipotle, and for sit-down restaurants, Outback and P.F. Changs are the best so far. I've made up a list of gluten free items available at the mainstream restaurants- if anyone wants a copy, let me know.