Meal plan: check

I know I said I was going to stain the bed frame yesterday or today, but that hasn't happened yet- I've been busy working on a meal plan and shopping list to use after we move. I've done very little cooking in the last 2+ years, so cooking every single day is going to take some getting used to. I'm not a fan of complicated recipes with tons of ingredients. Simple, quick, and easy is the what I go for.  In the interest of making a smooth transition, I'm starting out with a bunch of crockpot recipes (which are quite easy and don't use lots of ingredients), and then we'll go from there.

When I made up my meal plan I used a lot of recipes from Make it Fast, Cook it Slow by Stephanie O'Dea. I also used a few from The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone and some from The Flexitarian Diet by Dawn Jackson  Blatner. The crockpot recipes were already gluten free, and I picked naturally gluten free recipes from the other two books. The recipes I picked use a lot of fresh produce and very little processed items, so hopefully they'll be healthier than some of the meals I've cooked in the past.

The meal plan I made is for seven weeks of dinners (each a unique recipe, allowing one night per week for leftovers or pizza), but I only did the ingredient and shopping list for the first two weeks. Since the recipes are ones I haven't used, I really don't know how they'll turn out or if there will be lots of leftovers or none. Hopefully after two weeks I'll have a better idea of how well things are working and what changes need to be made. I also have a list of breakfast and lunch recipes, but I didn't chart those out for x number of weeks, so there's a lot more flexibility with them. I did make an ingredient and shopping list for all of them, though.

It was all quite time consuming, but being the OCD control freak that I am, I do feel more prepared to jump back into daily cooking.

On another subject:
Mr. M heard from the company he was working with this fall - they have a couple positions available that they think he might be a good fit for. Too funny that everyone's got openings now that he's a got a job. The one he took is the one we wanted, so at least there's no buyer's remorse (or the equivalent).

'Make it Fast, Cook it Slow' and 'The Kind Diet'

In my search for new gluten free healthy recipes I've been reading quite a few cookbooks. Two I recently read are 'Make it Fast, Cook it Slow' and 'The Kind Diet'.

'Make it Fast, Cook it Slow' by Stephanie O'Dea is a book of crockpot recipes that originated in the author's goal of making something in her crockpot every day for a year. I found it interesting- they weren't all meat and potatoes recipes, and they weren't all dinner recipes either. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, even a few crafty ideas. A big bonus for me is that the author has celiac, so the recipes are all gluten free already- I wouldn't have to do any tweaking. I don't plan on trying them all, but there is a good number of recipes I'd like to try.

Another book I've read recently is 'The Kind Diet' by Alicia Silverstone. She has lots of information about the environment and why veganism is the way to go, and does a good job of documenting where she gets her information. However, she does make the statement that celiac is very rare and uncommon (and doesn't document a source for that statement), and basically brushes off gluten intolerance. I wish it were that easy.

In any case, the real reason I checked out the book was for the recipes, not the philosophy. I've been looking for healthy bean recipes and recipes that use a lot of veggies and aren't full of refined crap. I knew I'd find those in a vegan cookbook, and I did. I'm definitely not going vegan (I like my meat and dairy products too much), but I don't mind using recipes that are healthy, regardless of whether they come from a mainstream cookbook, a vegetarian cookbook, or a vegan cookbook.

Next up: using all the recipes I've found to make up a preliminary menu for a month or two of meals and a shopping list to go with it. That way I'll be ready to cook healthy meals for us as soon as we move, and not 2 or 3 weeks later, during which time we've been eating whatever I can find or whatever Mr. M talks me into getting from restaraunts (not cheap or healthy).

Chebe cinnamon roll mix

photo credit

Tuesday night I made some brown sugar almond sticky rolls, using the Chebe cinnamon roll mix. The recipe was on the package, and I followed the instructions as written.

The end result tasted fine, but the texture was a bit gummy. Not sure if they needed to cook longer, or what. The top edges that were cooked through tasted good and weren't gummy. The overall flavor was good- I like that they added cinnamon to the mix.

I'd like to try this product again, but I think I'll follow the alternative directions that suggest rolling the dough into thin ropes and twirling it into spiral. I think it might cook better that way.

Ok, so I'm a bit upset right now

I bought some Reese's bells for a quick and easy gift (put them in a whisk with a tag that says "We whisk you a merry Christmas!'), and I sampled a couple while I was putting it together. A little bit later, my throat started to swell up a bit- my body's cue that I ate some gluten. So I started going over what I ate for lunch- all ok, no cross-contamination. The only other thing I'd eaten was two of the Reese's bells. Last time I checked, Reese's peanut butter cups were gluten free. But I checked the package anyway, and lo and behold, there's wheat flour in them. Seriously??!! Come on, it's not in the regular cups, so why does it need to be in the bells?

I'd also bought a bag to put in stockings, so I guess I'll be taking it to the in-laws house to fill stockings there (since my parents' house is now a gluten free house).

It's frustrating, since I hate the reaction I get- it's uncomfortable, and I don't want the gluten in my body. I know I need to be better about reading labels- everyone says you always have to read the labels, since you never know when they'll change the ingredients of something- but it's such a pain and I always forget. Hopefully I'll be able to remember to read labels from now on.

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.