Vanilla Sugar cake

Vanilla Sugar Cake

Rating: 4/5

Ingredients:

-1 3/4 cup flour # 1

-1 cup sugar

-1 tsp. flax seed, ground in a coffee grinder

-2 1/4 tsp. baking powder

-1/2 cup butter or margarine

-2 eggs or egg replacer

-1/2 cup milk or substitute

-1/4 tsp. salt

-1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

1. Sift flour (or stir with fork) to break up clumps.

2. Mix dry ingredients.

3. Add butter, eggs, milk, salt, and vanilla.  Beat until well mixed. 

4. Spread in a 9x9 pan (greased).  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.

This cake was yummy, though the way we made it was interesting.  My dad put it into a 9x13 pan and had to spread it around to completely cover the bottom of the pan.  It rose quite a bit in the oven, but it was still pretty flat.  It tastes really good.  The taste is actually exactly like sugar cookies!  My dad also tried to make his own powdered sugar, which half worked.  Then he added orange juice and made orange frosting, which I do not recommend.  We actually got the recipe from my great grandma's cookbook, the Joy of Cooking, but we altered the flour to make it gluten-free.  For the first cake, it was pretty good!

Quinoa - Potato - Peanut Stew

Quinoa - Potato - Peanut Stew

Rating: 4/5

Ingredients:

-3 tablespoons peanut oil

-1 large onion, peeled and chopped

-2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

-1 tsp. ground cumin

-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

-2 tablespoons salted natural creamy peanut butter

-1 large potato or sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1-inch cubes

-One 14-oz. can diced tomatoes, drained

-Two 14-oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed

-4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

-Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

-2 cups cooked quinoa (see my post on how to cook it)

-1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

-Lime juice

Directions:

1. Set a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add the oil.  When the oil moves around the pot easily, add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and starting to brown, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the cumin and cinnamon and cook for 1 minute.  Add the peanut butter and stir it into the onions well.

2. Add the potato and stir well.  Cook, stirring frequently, until the potato starts to soften, about 5 minutes.  Stir in tomatoes and beans.  Pour in the stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer the stew for about 20 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste, then stir the stew and let it simmer 5 more minutes.  When serving, put 1/2 cup of quinoa at the bottom of the bowl.  Top with cilantro and lime juice.

I liked this soup a lot, even after I learned that peanut butter was in it (I do not like peanut butter!).  It gets thicker when it is a leftover, but my sister said it was still good.  This would be really good in the winter.

Chocolate cookies

Chocolate Cookies     

Rating: 5/5, very good!

Ingredients:

-1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter (or margarine, or ghee), softened

-1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

-1/4 cup granulated sugar

-1/2 tsp. gluten-free vanilla extract

-1 egg or egg substitute

-1 cup flour mix # 1 (see below)

-1 1/2 tsp. xanthum gum

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 cup cocoa powder

-1/4 tsp. salt
-Powdered sugar, if desired

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Cream together butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla in a mixer.  Add the egg and mix well.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, xanthum gum, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt.  Combine bowls and mix until well blended.

4. Using spoons, put dough balls 2 inches apart on a baking sheet.  

5. Bake for 5-10 minutes.  Let cookies rest 5 minutes.  Transfer onto a cooling rack.  If desired, roll cookies in powdered sugar.

 Everybody loved these cookies! They stayed moist overnight and they are chocolate-y, yummy, and (the best part) they taste like normal cookies! This was a huge accomplishment after our first try, in which the cookie dough was black.  These cookies also save well if you store them in a container. 

All-Purpose Flour Mix # 1

We got to use our WonderMill to make these flours!  It is cool because we can make our own flour.  We made our own rice and oat flour in this recipe.  My dad loves the WonderMill, and now he is making flour out of everything!

Ingredients:

-1 1/4 cup rice flour

-3/4 cup oat flour

-2/3 cup corn (or potato) starch

-1/3 cup potato starch

-1 large tablespoon Tapioca flour

-1 tsp. xanthum gum

All of the flours were ground in the WonderMill!

The Food Log

Today I started a Food Log.  I am going to keep track of everything I eat.  It will help us stay on a rotational diet.  If I get a headache, we can see if it is related to something that I am eating.  It takes a while to write everything down.  Here is an example of what it looks like:
 8/5/13-Mix Mash day
Cheerios, Rice milk, Yams, Bok Choy, Chicken, Strawberries, Blueberries, Grapes, Spinach, Basil, Chocolate cookies, Vanilla chamomile tea.

As you can see, it takes some time and effort, but i think it is a good idea.  That is only breakfast and lunch, too! 

Food Surprises

Here is a list of some things and what are in them.  It is mostly stuff I am allergic to: corn, soybean, dairy, wheat.

-Pesto.....Soybean oil

-Powdered sugar.....Corn Starch
-Fake syrup.......Corn Syrup

-Marshmallows.....Corn Syrup
-Oreos......Flour

-Margarine......Whey 
-Some hand sanitizers...... Wheat ammino acids
-Imitation crab.....Wheat Starch
-Salad dressings.....Various

I will keep adding to this list when I find unexpected no-no food surprises.  (I hope this list does not grow. :) )

Milk Substitutes

Because my favorite drink/food is milk, the no-milk rule has been hard.  My dad tried coconut milk and liked it, but I tried it and it was disgusting!  Coconut milk is too sweet.  If you like vanilla milk, you might like it, but I thought it was sickly sweet.  

Almond milk is better, but you can taste an obvious nutty flavor.  I also did not like that one because nuts are not one of my favorite foods.  

I recently got vanilla enriched Rice Dream milk, and I thought it was much better!  The vanilla flavor is not super strong and it masks any rice-y flavor.  Original rice milk is also good, but you can taste a kind of strange aftertaste.  I like original in cereal but vanilla to drink.  Normally I have water.  It is better for you and less expensive.  I am also trying caffeine-free herbal tea.  I tried cinnamon apple tea, but it was gross.  Vanilla chamomile is pretty good!

Flour # 2- Riceless

My dad made another flour today, but riceless!  It is good if you are doing a rotational diet.  

Flour # 2- Riceless

-1 cup oat flour

-1/2 cup tapioca flour

-1/4 cup potato starch

-1/8 cup garbanzo flour

-1/16 cup flax seed (ground in coffee grinder)

-1/16 cup quinoa seed (ground as above)

 The way my dad did this one is by filling 1 cup in layers, so 1 cup was just oat flour and another cup was everything else.  It is kind of approximate, so if it is tweaked it will not make much difference.

By the way, quinoa is pronounced KEEN-wa, not kwi-NO-a.  Weird!

The First Pancake!

The First Pancake!

Ingredients:

-1 cup all-purpose flour mix # 1 (see the post on how to make this.)

-1 Tb white sugar

1 Tb brown sugar

-2 tsp. baking powder

-1 beaten egg or mixed egg replacer

-2 Tb oil

-1/4 tsp. salt

-1 tsp. vanilla extract 

-1 cup substitute milk of your choice (we used coconut)

Directions:

1.  In a large bowl mix dry ingredients.  Add wet ingredients.  Mix well, but do not overmix.

2.  Pour batter onto a lightly greased griddle on medium heat.  NOTE: Ours did not bubble like normal pancakes so we had a hard time knowing when it was time to flip them.  Turns out that they cook really slowly, so leave them on for a long time.  Flip them when you think it is time.  

These were pretty good (though it is hard to judge when they are undercooked).  I thought they were so-so, but the rest of my family loved them.  Best with fruit, or berry syrup.

The doctor said that I would be noticing some changes, but I haven't.  I do not feel better, or worse, or different.  I am just hungrier.  Since I have only been on the diet a few days, I guess that makes sense.  Another thing I learned was that eating out is hard.  We went to a sushi place, but everything had something!  The main problem was imitation crab, because we realized it has Wheat starch, corn starch, soy, and egg whites, all of which I am allergic to.  Eventually I had teiryaki with rice.  Later, I had a stomachache, but I don't know if it was food-related or not.  Anyway, we will always eat at home now.

All-Purpose Flour mix # 1

My dad wants me to write down the flour mixes we make, so here is the first one!:

All-Purpose Flour Mix # 1

Ingredients:

-1 1/4 cup rice flour

-3/4 cup oat flour

-2/3 cup corn (or potato) starch

-1/3 cup potato starch

-1 large tablespoon Tapioca flour

-1 tsp. xanthum gum

Just mix all this stuff together and you get flour.  We used it in some pancakes and it worked great.

The Doctor

Today we went to the doctor and got some really good information.  The doctor told us a lot about what I can eat, can't eat, eating programs, and stuff about guts.  He said that  for 6 months I have to go completely gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free.  Apparently, if you eat things that you have allergies to your intestines get inflamed.  Small proteins, like gluten, can get through the intestine and into the bloodstream.  This makes you weaker, so dairy might slip through.  All the things that "get through" are new things so your body makes antibodies and treats it like a virus.  Then, you get these intolerances...
  
It takes 6 months for the intestines to heal.  So in 6 months I should be pretty healthy again! Until then, I have to have a super strict diet so I heal as fast as possible.  In six months I will have the test again to see if the levels go down.  If they do, we know we are eating right!

Another thing:  The whole eat-rice-every-day thing that we were doing is bad, because if you eat so much of something then you develop an allergy to it.  You try not to eat things in the same food group for 4 days, in a rotational diet.  Our ancestors ate things when they were in season, so they did not eat the same thing every day.  That prevented them from getting allergies, so it will work for us too.

Now we have our questions answered, and my dad & sister are also getting tested.  That could complicate things.