Bit of an update (and our first gluten free Thanksgiving)

I'm finally starting to feel almost normal.

While I've been working on feeling better, I've been doing some reading (fuzzy brain just isn't compatible with getting lots done, unfortunately). I read Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, and the four Enchanted Forest books by Patricia Wrede: Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, Talking to Dragons. I liked the Patricia Wrede books the best, but the others were good, too.

We (Mr. M and I) went and saw New Moon on Monday. I thought it was better than the first movie. Definitely better than I thought it would be- I find the second book very whiny, but the movie managed not to be whiny. And Jacob is quite nice to look at :)

We finished up our Christmas shopping on Wednesday- just have to wrap and ship now.

Wednesday I also made 6 gluten free pie crusts. 2 became pecan pies (one for us, one for the in-laws), the rest were pumpkin, blueberry, apple, and strawberry. Everyone thought the pie crust turned out good- didn't taste different. I used the pie crust recipe from Easy Gluten Free Baking by Elizabeth Barbonne. Love that book!

I managed to successfully have a gluten free Thanksgiving. At the in-laws I couldn't eat the frog eye salad (we need to write to the GF pasta companies to ask them to make acini de pepe), the stuffing, or the rolls, but everything else was good. My mom made a completely gluten free meal, so I could eat everything without any problems.

Yesterday was a really nice day, so we went for a short bike ride, during which we realized both our bikes really need a tune-up. I also spent some time reorganizing the storage container. It really needed it- it had gotten so you could barely walk inside. Now, everything's neatly stacked again, even our bikes and bike trailer, so there's room to walk in and move around a bit. Can't wait till we move and can unpack- we have a lot of stuff, but until we can unpack and sort it all at once, we really can't get rid of any of it. I do plan on downsizing as much as possible though.

I also reorganized the closet in our room as well as our food storage in the basement. It had been moved around when dad was working on the plumbing for the downstairs bathroom, and has been jumbled together for awhile now. It was nice to have the energy to get that much done.

I'm starting to have more energy- I'm not as exhausted as I was, but I'm still fighting the brain fog- I have to force myself to get stuff done. Yesterday was encouraging- I did a lot of physical work without completely dying.

YUMMY bana bread

This afternoon LMS and I made banana bread (she calls it bana bread) using the recipe in Easy Gluten Free Baking by Elizabeth Barbonne. I knew it was a success when Mr. M said 'Wow, that was really good! What flour did you use?' If Mr. M likes it, it's good. He's endured quite a few of my experiments, and doesn't hesitate to tell me when the results are crap. Like the results of my low-carb baking experiments. They were all gross.

In any case, I followed the recipe as written, except I used super fine brown rice flour instead of white rice flour. I used it because I figure brown rice flour is less refined than white rice flour.

I tried to make banana bread last week, but didn't have quite enough bananas. When I went to the store to buy more, they were all green, so I had to wait till they ripened. This time I ended up with enough bananas for two batches of bread. I made one batch of muffins, and one loaf of bread.

I told LMS that the muffins were cupcakes (she doesn't know the difference since we don't have either very often), and we put a dab of cool whip on top. She loved it!
I added a handful of chopped pecan pieces to the loaf of banana bread. I forgot to do it until after the batter was in the pan, so I just stirred it in right there. Not sure if that's why, but the nuts seemed to float to the top.

Beautiful!

The results were very good- the bread had a nice, even texture- no grittiness, and tasted just like I remember banana bread tasting. My dad and brother weren't here to give their verdicts, but mom, Mr. M, LMS, and I all thought it tasted really good. The crust got nice and crispy, just like I like it. I cut the ends off to eat tonight (the crust is never that nice crispy texture after being wrapped up), then wrapped the bread (we'll see if there's any left in the morning), and I tossed the rest of muffins in the freezer.

look at that lovely texture!

With results like this, this cookbook just moved to the top of my gotta-have list. I have a couple more days before this copy is due at the library, so now I need to decide which recipe to try next.

Some recent gluten free dishes

Bob's Red Mill cornbread muffins

This is the same mix I used earlier to make a pan of cornbread, this time I made them into muffins. I got 16, but considering how much they rose (sorry, no pics!), I could have filled each cup a little less and gotten 18 no problem. I took them to the church Halloween activity last week, then brought the leftovers home, put them in ziploc bags, and tossed them in the freezer. They were super-easy to pop in the microwave for a few seconds to defrost, leaving them in the bag to help keep the moisture in. We then ate them with...

Bob's Red Mill 13 bean soup

It's naturally gluten free. You would think this would be a no-brainer, but it's not. I looked at the bags of beans at wally world (the ones for ham and bean soup), and they all had gluten in them. So I was stuck with the more expensive Bob's bean soup mix, but I think having a variety of beans is a good thing. I couldn't find a ham hock at wally world (you'd think they'd have them, but apparently not), so I tossed in a pork loin instead. It wasn't pretty once it was all cooked up (hence no pictures), but it tasted good. Now if we could just find a way to eliminate the side effects.

 

Chebe pizza crust mix

We made pizza the other night, and I used the Chebe pizza crust mix. I've used Bob's Red Mill pizza crust mix before, but it's kind of bland and it has yeast in it. The only non-yeast pizza crust I've found yet is Chebe. They use a lot of herbs to give it a nice flavor, and the outside edge of the crust gets nice and crunchy. The only thing that's a little off is the part of the crust that touches the sauce gets a bit gummy. It's not super-noticeable, but it's there. I think next time I make it, I'll try cooking it for longer before adding the toppings. Another good thing about this mix: it's quite inexpensive! I think I paid around $2 for it, which is way less than I've paid for any other gluten free mix.

Books I've read recently

Easy Gluten Free Baking by Elizabeth Barbonne

The recipes in this cookbook look really good- can't wait to try them. There's good pictures, and the book is hardcover with an internal spiral binding- perfect for laying on your counter as you bake.

I also like that she lists the dry ingredients in one column and the wet ingredients in another. She said she did this so you could pre-make the dry mix of the recipes you use frequently and then all you'd need to do is add the wet ingredients. How cool is that? Measuring out 4 or 5 flours for a single recipe can be a bit of a pain, so why not do up a bunch of mixes all at once?

She also doesn't have a one-size fits all flour mix, but tweaks it depending on what is being made. Hence the idea of mixing ingredients ahead of time...

At the end of the book is a section titled 'Tastes Like', which has recipes for name brand things like oreos, twinkies, thin mints, graham crackers, etc. This is a section I'm eager to try out!

The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam

Like the title says, the recipes call for almond flour instead of wheat or rice flour. The recipes look good, but again, I haven't had a chance to try them yet. I think the first one I'll try is the cheddar cheese crackers.

This cookbook isn't just baked goods, there's also recipes for dishes like chicken pot pie, turkey burgers, salmon dill burgers, Thai fish cakes, and broccoli pizza.

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

My friend recommended this one, and I have to agree, it's a great book. We're not in a position to do anything with the information right now (no job= no money to pay down debt), but as soon as Mr. M gets a job (hopefully soon, right now he's working with a contracting company on finding a position) and we have a steady income coming in, we'll be using the steps Dave talks about in order to get out of debt, get money into savings, and get our retirement funds fully funded.

Can't wait till we can get going on that- just need to be patient for awhile longer.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

It was finally my turn to check this out from the library, and it was worth the wait. This is the sequel to the Hunger Games, and is just as good as the first. The thing I didn't know till the last page is that there is a third book planned, so we get left hanging on some pretty crucial details.

Not sure how long the wait will be for the next one.

Living with two chronic diseases

This is a post I've been thinking about for while, and am finally finishing.

Back in August, the Meanest Mom, who has a chronic disease of her own, hosted an online Ms. Chronic Disease of America E-Pageant. Basically, you wrote in with all the sexy details of your chronic disease. I thought about entering, but I'm just not as clever with words as some people. The first contestant featured has PCOS, which got me thinking. I don't have just one chronic disease, I have two. I will have to deal with PCOS and gluten intolerance my whole life- they're not going to go away. I can minimize a lot of the symptoms, but if I do the wrong things I will definitely feel worse.

I've been feeling a lot better without gluten. After 10 years of feeling like crap (and sometimes worse), it's nice to feel almost human again. Unfortunately I keep forgetting that just because I've gotten to the root of part of my problem and figured out how to deal with it, doesn't mean that everything is completely better. I still have to deal with PCOS and yeast problems.

Comparatively, the gluten intolerance is way easier to deal with than the PCOS. Supposedly, they can both be controlled with a careful diet, but the results of a gluten free diet are seen much quicker (in me) than those of a PCOS friendly diet. I recently read 'The PCOS Diet Book' by Colette Harris. I was really hoping for something profound, but there really wasn't much I didn't already know: eat a variety of low glycemic index foods- whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies, lean meat, etc. Exercise. Lose weight. Get enough sleep.
The most helpful section was the section about herbal supplements to help with symptoms and hormonal imbalances. I'm trying Vitex to help with my hormones, and I'm taking aloe vera juice to help my intestines work properly.
The thing is is that I've always tried to eat healthy, exercise regularly, and tried (unsuccessfully till just recently) to lose weight and get enough sleep. Despite all that, I've never really noticed my symptoms getting better. Talk about depressing. Maybe that's why I've pretty much ignored it since I found out about it more than 5 years ago. Nothing works, so if I ignore it, it'll go away, right? I wish.

I've been losing weight (20 pounds now!), but it's slowed down the last few weeks. Thinking about fruit and its affect on me also got me thinking about PCOS. I've been ignoring it, but I can't keep doing that. Just because I figured out one cause of my weight problems, I haven't got all the causes of my weight problems taken care of (PCOS definitely causes weight problems, so combined with gluten intolerance, I never had a chance). So now I have to focus on figuring out how to eat to control the PCOS. I need to be more careful about the sugar that creeps into my diet. I need to work on not stress-eating, which I most definitely do (usually chocolate). I need to make sure I'm exercising a bit more consistently than I have been.

Hopefully if I can manage to do all that, I'll finally be able to alleviate some of the symptoms of PCOS, and continue to lose weight.

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.