Reintroducing Foods

Our dietitian has recommended that we start reintroducing eggs.  This was low-ish on my forbidden list and we introduced it 2 days ago.  In the morning I had a muffin with egg ingredients and at lunch I had a stir-fry with scrambled eggs.  We watched for two days and I had no bad symptoms except for a sore back which we suspect was from doing marching in band.  So eggs are back on the chart, but not every day, every meal.  Yay!

Halloween- Dissapointing...

I knew that I would not be able to eat a lot of candy, but I did not realize I would only get about seven pieces.  That's it.  I got two sour patch kids (only one gummy in a package) and five dum-dums.  No candy corn; no Hershey's; nothing.  Definitely disappointing,  but the good news is my dad is paying me for the candy I got so I can use that money to buy a bag of dark chocolate chips, which I can have! 

Ham Soup

This is my lunch basically every day!  Not much to say about it, because it is what it's called, but it is really good and nutritious.  This is my dad's recipe.  It changes every time.

Ham Soup

Notes:

1. All quantities are minimums; add more if you want
2. Adjust seasonings to taste
3. Roughly chop all veggies

Ingredients:

- 2 handfuls dried beans

- 1 cup ham (or at least two cups of ham with bone...the more bone, the more you should put in)

- 2 stalks celery

- 1 medium carrot

- 3 small red or white potatoes

- 1/2 cup wild rice

- 1/4 cup whole quinoa or millet

- 1 cup "soft" vegetables like kale, spinach, cabbage, mushrooms, corn, water chestnuts

- 3 tsp bullion

- 3 tsp spices: salt, pepper, mace, cloves, parsley, coriander, mustard powder, garlic powder

1. Wash beans very well to remove dust.  Check them for small pebbles and remove those, too!
2. Fill soup kettle halfway with water.  Put the beans in, bring to boil, then reduce to simmer.
3. Add ham, bring back to simmer.  Add celery, carrots, and spices except salt, and bring back to simmer.  Add wild rice, bring back to simmer.  After about 30 minutes, add the potatoes and quinoa or millet.  You want the total stewing time to be about one hour, and you want to wind up with beans & rice just cooked and with potatoes that aren't overcooked (beans take about an hour, wild rice about 40 minutes, potatoes & whole grains about 10 minutes)
4. Once the beans & rice are pretty soft, add the bullion and salt.  (Don't add the bullion or salt until the beans are soft, because they slow down the softening process.  It's okay to do this if the potatoes are not yet fully cooked.)
5. Add your soft veggies.
6. Stew it all for five or ten minutes.  Then put about two or three ladles' worth into a food processor and blend on pulse.  Return the processed stuff into the soup, stir well, and serve!

This also saves really well in the fridge!

I CAN Believe It's Not Butter!

 We have found the perfect butter!  Smart Balance Buttery Spread Light with Flaxseed Oil!  This is gluten free, lactose free, non-dairy, and vegan.  It does contain soy(beans), the second ingredient.   Here are the ingredients:

water, oil blend (palm fruit, soybean, flaxseed, canola, and olive oils), Contains less than 2% of: salt, natural and artificial flavor, and then a whole bunch of long weird stuff.  It is very very good!

This is what it looks like!

Growing Chia Seeds

When my dad forgot to put chia seeds in the bread, I decided to use them instead of throwing them away.  2 weeks later: they have grown a lot and are still alive!  They have been living in the bathroom.  It was really easy!  I just put the soaked seeds in a pot and put dirt in it.  Now I want to grow all the seeds in the kitchen!  

Millet Sandwich Bread

Finally, we have a bread that everyone will eat by choice!  This bread does not have the centimeter-thick crust, but instead has a soft, mushy one.  The inside is mushy too!  As you can see in the picture, honey goes with it very well as well as jam and our new favorite fake butter!  It is very good!  I am posting this as my dad makes the second loaf.  Enjoy!

Millet Sandwich Bread

Ingredients:

- 2 Tb chia seeds

- 1 cup millet flour

- 1/2 cup potato starch

- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour

- 1/2 cup quinoa flour

- 1/2 cup brown rice flour

- 1/2 cup tapioca flour

- 1/3 cup flax seed meal

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 tsp xanthan gum

- 2-1/4 tsp yeast

- 2 cups water

- 3 Tb olive oil

- 2 Tb syrup (maple or agave)

- sesame seeds to sprinkle on top

1. Soak the chia seeds in 1/2 cup of the water.  These will turn into tiny squishy eyeballs after fifteen minutes.  That's good.

2. Put the yeast in a large bowl, then add 1-1/2 cups water (should be room temperature or slightly warm).  Add the oil and syrup.  After 5-10 minutes it will look like foamy goo.  That's good.

3. Preheat oven to 425.  Put a "bath" (pan filled with water) on the bottom rack.

4. In another bowl, mix all the dry ingredients well.  Add the chia goo to the yeast goo and mix well.  Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix well.  It will quickly make a soft dough.

5. Grease and dust a bread dish (9 x 3 x 4 or thereabouts.)

6. Pour the dough into the dish.  Smooth the top, and score lengthwise, not quite in the middle.  Sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

7. Put the bread in the oven.  Immediately reduce temperature to 350, then cook for 1 hour 20 minutes.  Reduce heat again, to 300.  Bake for another 25-35 minutes, or until done.

(All-Purpose) Flour Mix #6 and 6.5

The way this works is that you make a giant batch (this recipe makes about 5 cups) and then use it as recipe calls for.  For example, my pancake recipe calls for 1 cup of this mix, so you would just take one cup out of your giant batch.

All Purpose Flour Mix #6

1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup oat flour
1 cup millet flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup black bean flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup flax seed meal

All-Purpose Flour Mix #6.5

1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup oat flour
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup white bean flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup potato starch

Chocolate Chip & Nut Cookies

At last, a chocolate chip cookie that tastes like a real one!  I kind of think of this diet as, instead of B.C. and A.D. (like in history), Before Diet and With Diet.  If that is true, then I can't tell if this cookie is BD or WD!  The best part about the cookie is the real cookie taste!  The texture is not perfect, but still very good!  My mom says: "I like them better than Mrs. Field's cookies!"  My sister says: "They taste like pancakes."  Not sure where that came from, but she definitely still liked them!  I think that they were really good!  My only negative comment was that they were kind of crumbly.  Other than that, delicious!

Chocolate Chip & Nut Cookies

Ingredients:

-2 cups flour 6.5

-1 Tb. chia seeds (soaked in water for 15 minutes)

-1 egg or egg replacer

-3/4 tsp. salt

-3/4 tsp. baking powder

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1 stick fat free butter, melted until soft

-1/2 cup packed brown sugar

-1/2 white sugar

-Chocolate chips (we did about three handfuls)

-Slivered Almonds (we did about 1 handful)

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

2.  In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients well.  In another bowl, mix all wet ingredients well.  

Combine bowls and stir until just mixed.  Add chocolate chips and nuts. 

3.  Put parchment paper on a baking sheet.  If you don't have paper, just lightly oil and flour a baking sheet.  Put tablespoon sized blobs on the sheet.  (Tablespoons make very large cookies!)  Bake for 12-15 minutes.

No Celiac For My Mom

We just got my mom's celiac results back and she does not have it!  Her scores are actually very low- mine were in the hundreds and she had 4's and 5's.  This came as a surprise because when she ate gluten, she complained of stomach pains.  My dad had low gluten scores on the other test (the first one I took that tested for lots of different foods) and my mom does not have celiac, so we suspect that one of them had the gene but it was never triggered.  Or, both of them had it which could expain why my scores are so high.  Because there are two different genes that cause celiac, we don't know if i have dq8 or dq2.  Maye I have both! 

School Lunches

School has started!  At the beginning of being gluten-free, my mom's main worry was packing a school lunch.  Now, we have figured out a lunch that is mostly the same but has some variations. 

We always have a "main course".  This is normally an udi bread, almond butter, margarine, and jam sandwich.  You can use different fillings, too. We also sometimes pack soup.  We found a canned soup that is gluten-free called Amy's Organic Soups.  My favorite flavor is something like english vegetable.  My mom has a special trick for keeping the thermos that we put it in warm: heat a pan filled with water on the stove and put the thermos in.  It works really great!  We have not tried a meal-in-a-thermos yet, but we plan to do one soon. 

Along with this, we always pack these items:

-Lunch meat in a container

-A granola bar

-A fruit cup

-Gluten Free Chips, pretzels

This way, we get protein, energy/sugar, fruit, and a yummy snack.  We have found that this is the best combo because it fills me and I like it!  When I get home, I have hummus as a snack and that usually lasts me a long time.  Now, lunch is one of my favorite meals!