The diet was coming along well, everyone in the family was improving (including poor Brian who was just put on special diet, too), but our bodies were not satisfied. No, our genes demanded more.
We cannot be normal; of course not. Our bodies must be unique, different, special!
Our bodies must be a pain in the ass.
Dang it, dang it, dang it. We were doing so well, really we were, and then the kids started having problems. So I got on the research train again and found another food issue to explore: Fructose malabsorption. Oh joy.
Now, this is NOT a fruit thing. Yes, fructose is in fruit, but it's also in grains and vegetables and legumes and the entire darn edible world, essentially. Except meat. Carnivores everywhere rejoice, I'm sure.
The real issue for this condition is the ratio between fructose and glucose. Higher percentage of fructose compared to glucose, higher likelihood your life is gonna suck like a hoover for the next few days. The medical sites all discuss the 'gut' symptoms of this. That's their concern.
The parents whose kids have this? The majority I've read about didn't really notice the gut symptoms at first. They all discuss the fact that fructose malabsorption made their children lose their freaking minds. It changes the children's behavior to such an extent that the parents are contemplating infanticide just to get one, drama-free moment in their day.
And why is that?
When a person doesn't digest the majority of the fructose they consume, it moves happily on down the gut, and its presence interferes with the absorption of tryptophan. Since your body needs this to make serotonin and melatonin, you'll be short on these two for a day or so after you get too much fructose. And you will feel like crap as a result.
I am right there with all the parents. I wasn't noticing any gut issues, but the mood issues were through the roof! Nearly every time my kids had a lot of fruit, or coconut, or broccoli, or agave syrup, or honey - life exploded. And then there'd be times they'd lose their minds for no reason I could figure out. It's truly hard to describe how I can tell it's not just a normal 'bad day,' but there is an intensity, and an inability to regain control, that always goes along with this.
It's like pure angst has been poured into their veins and is bleeding out the pores.
Every tiny little thing sets them off. They wake up in a foul mood and stay that way for the rest of the day. Angry outbursts, huge bouts of weeping, no frustration tolerance, ADHD-like symptoms, difficulty sleeping. And then a day or two later, and it's gone.
It was happening so often, and from so many foods, that I was tearing out my hair trying to figure it out.
But then I happened across Fructose Malabsorption (dietary, not inherited), and woah baby does it fit the bill.
Lots of the kids' outbursts correlated to foods on bad list for this condition. And to add to the likelihood of their having it, in studies, 30-40% of people with any gut symptoms test positive for this. And celiac disease and food intolerances are considered possible causes for this, although the study results on that are more correlation than causation, at the moment.
In Australia, it's on the 'automatic test for this' list when people come in with gut symptoms. And here in the States...I've never heard of this in my life. Doctors don't usually even consider it. In fact, I was just reading from a FructMal gal and there is only one lab in her entire state that will do this test.
Once again, I'm so proud of my country's medical community. It brings a tear to my eye. Literally.
So, guess what we have to add to our list of things to consider?
This Diet
So far, my kids seem like they have mild levels of fructose malabsorption, with my son reacting more than my daughter. But now that I'm aware of what has too much fructose and what doesn't, and have been attempting to adjust the diet accordingly, things have been SO much better.
I swear, I might as well become a Dietician at this rate, I have to find out so much about food and nutrition!
For anyone interested in this condition, here's a few good links:
Fructose Malabsorption Yahoo Group - This group is Australia based, but has some great resources, research, and information, especially for parents!
Fruct Mal Blogger - This gal is great. She's had this condition for years, long before the medical community had identified it, so she has a lot of information and personal experience.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Meatloaf
I am getting more energy, so I am trying new foods. Really, really odd new foods, but necessity is the mother of invention, isn't it?
And didn't that just make me sound like my Nana, eh?
So today I made...meatloaf! Not for the kids, but meatloaf for ME. Which was rather like figuring out how to make ice cream when all you can eat is milk and snow peas.
It's not pretty, but wow was it awesome to eat. This sucker is gluten free, tomato free, sugarcane free, and egg free, but I imagine the flavor is mild unless you've been on a limited diet for a while like myself.
GF, tomato free, sugarcane free, egg free Meatloaf
What you need:
2 pounds ground meat (I used buffalo)
1 large sweet potato or yam, cooked and puréed (I baked mine like a baked potato)
1/2 cup uncooked, or 1 cup cooked, whole grain (I used quinoa and amaranth)
sea salt to taste
What you do:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Get out a loaf pan. You can oil the bottom of it or not, your choice. I didn't bother since I have limited oil I can use.
2. Mix the meat, the salt, and the puréed sweet potato together. If you have any other seasonings you can use, this would be the time to add them in.
3. If you prefer to use uncooked whole grain, pour them into the bottom of the pan and spread them out until they evenly covers the bottom. If you prefer to used already cooked grains, mix them into the meat mixture.
4. Press the meat mixture into the pan and pop that sucker into the oven. Depending on the grains used, the size of the sweet potato, and your altitude, it can take from 45 - 70 minutes to cook. Mine was done about 50 minutes.
The texture is soft, and the flavor was like an extremely mild BBQ sauce added to the meat. Some grains go better with the meat than others. Rice does very well, quinoa does all right, but amaranth doesn't blend well, flavor-wise, with certain meats.
Rotation Diet Tip
It's not perfect, but you can use this while you are on a rotation diet, as well. I have only one meat, but two grains, so I put one grain in half the meatloaf, and one grain in the other half. Then I could eat it more than one day in a row, and it really cut down on cooking. Of course, there will be a little mixing of the food in the juices, but I was willing to cheat a bit on that.
I think it could be made so that the juices didn't mix, however, if you put a little tinfoil barrier in between the two different grains, or perhaps use two different grains and meats both and enclose each half in tinfoil and put them in the same pan together. Always nice to cook once and eat twice.
7/3/10 - An additional tip. Use the red sweet potatoes as opposed to the pale fleshed ones. The taste is much better!
And didn't that just make me sound like my Nana, eh?
So today I made...meatloaf! Not for the kids, but meatloaf for ME. Which was rather like figuring out how to make ice cream when all you can eat is milk and snow peas.
It's not pretty, but wow was it awesome to eat. This sucker is gluten free, tomato free, sugarcane free, and egg free, but I imagine the flavor is mild unless you've been on a limited diet for a while like myself.
GF, tomato free, sugarcane free, egg free Meatloaf
What you need:
2 pounds ground meat (I used buffalo)
1 large sweet potato or yam, cooked and puréed (I baked mine like a baked potato)
1/2 cup uncooked, or 1 cup cooked, whole grain (I used quinoa and amaranth)
sea salt to taste
What you do:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Get out a loaf pan. You can oil the bottom of it or not, your choice. I didn't bother since I have limited oil I can use.
2. Mix the meat, the salt, and the puréed sweet potato together. If you have any other seasonings you can use, this would be the time to add them in.
3. If you prefer to use uncooked whole grain, pour them into the bottom of the pan and spread them out until they evenly covers the bottom. If you prefer to used already cooked grains, mix them into the meat mixture.
4. Press the meat mixture into the pan and pop that sucker into the oven. Depending on the grains used, the size of the sweet potato, and your altitude, it can take from 45 - 70 minutes to cook. Mine was done about 50 minutes.
The texture is soft, and the flavor was like an extremely mild BBQ sauce added to the meat. Some grains go better with the meat than others. Rice does very well, quinoa does all right, but amaranth doesn't blend well, flavor-wise, with certain meats.
Rotation Diet Tip
It's not perfect, but you can use this while you are on a rotation diet, as well. I have only one meat, but two grains, so I put one grain in half the meatloaf, and one grain in the other half. Then I could eat it more than one day in a row, and it really cut down on cooking. Of course, there will be a little mixing of the food in the juices, but I was willing to cheat a bit on that.
I think it could be made so that the juices didn't mix, however, if you put a little tinfoil barrier in between the two different grains, or perhaps use two different grains and meats both and enclose each half in tinfoil and put them in the same pan together. Always nice to cook once and eat twice.
7/3/10 - An additional tip. Use the red sweet potatoes as opposed to the pale fleshed ones. The taste is much better!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Simple Soup for Allergy Sufferers
I don't know why I never thought of this before, but I didn't. I can make soup. As in, soup that I can actually consume vs. soup the family eats but I avoid like the deadly plague that it is.
I have meat. I have a few veggies. I have water - why not make soup?
Today, I finally did it for the first time. And it is awesome. Real soup. I haven't had soup in 6 months. This is...beyond cool. Wonderful. And I think it is easily adapted for most high allergen diets.
For any other cooking-challenged, multi-allergy sufferers, here's the basic recipe idea:
Simple Soup
What you need:
A meat source - beef, chicken, buffalo, etc...
A few vegetables - if you have a veggie that can be boiled, you can stick it in a soup.
Whatever seasonings you can use - mine is salt, yee ha.
What you do:
1. Chop everything up and stick it in a big pot. Add the seasonings. Add water to cover, and then add that much again.
2. Bring to a boil and then lower this to a simmer, leaving the cover off. You want to boil this down until a broth develops with a nice flavor. Reminder: that means that whatever seasonings you add will be concentrated, so you don't want to add too much, too early.
3. Cook until it reaches the desired flavor. This is typically 1-3 hours, depending on what altitude you're at.
Points for Variety:
--I didn't mention fish or shellfish in the meat category mostly because I don't know much about them, and because so many people have allergies to them. If you used seafood, I have a feeling that you might have to put it in a little later in the process so it didn't get too rubbery/chewy by the end of the cooking. Or put it in early, scoop it out once cooked, and put it back in after the broth has concentrated, just long enough to warm it through.
--You may have to experiment with what veggies you can have, to find the right taste combination. There are definitely a few that don't work out so well, LOL. Beets, for example, will turn everything an interesting shade of bright purple-pink. Tomatoes, if you can find them, are almost always a nice addition.
-- You can add beans, hominy, or lentils to the equation as an addition, or as an alternative protein source (probably tofu, as well, although I don't know how well it would stand up). If you get dried beans or hominy, soak them in water overnight and then add them in at the beginning of cooking. The higher altitude you are, the longer it will take to cook the beans. For lentils, look up cooking time for them and add when you have that much time left. Small red lentils (like these) typically take 5-10 minutes or less to cook and make a pretty addition.
--You can add cooked grains to individual bowls just before serving. Rice and quinoa both do well in the soups I've tried, although I needed a stronger flavor to go well with the quinoa.
--Something from your local environment might be edible too! For example, I live in a desert in the SW United States. We have local trees called Palo Verde, and most people don't realize that when their seeds are still green, they can be cooked and eaten just like peas. Checking out the more exotic 'wild' foods in your area may be worth a try if you are reacting to everything under the sun, like myself
--A bit of sour, like lemon/lime juice, or vinegar, can add a little zing to your soup if you add it after you've boiled the soup down and turned off the heat.
--If you like sour and can't have citrus or vinegar, you might want to check out Amchur powder (you can find it here). It's powdered mango, used in Indian cooking, and adds a pleasant sour flavor to the food. It will need to be a cooked just a little to impart the flavor nicely. You can find it at Indian grocery stores, as well.
--Same with a bit of plain yogurt (dairy, soy, or coconut), if you can have it, added to the soup after it's in the bowls. The sour goes well with strong but darker flavors (especially lentils).
--If you are VERY limited in your diet right now but can have a few root vegetables, I recommend checking out your root vegetables fully on-line. Many of them have edible tops, if you buy the organic kind (the non-organic often have higher pesticide concentration in the greens, I understand). Carrots and beets are two good examples of those with edible tops.*
*a small percentage of people have a contact allergy to green tops of carrots. If touching the greens gives you the tingles or a rash, obviously these aren't the foods for you.
As for what soup I made? This would be the recipe for my particular diet, for those who might need something similar.
Simple Buffalo Soup
What you need:
2 pounds ground buffalo
4 carrots, scraped(or peeled) and roughly chopped
chopped carrot tops (greens) from half of 1 bunch of carrots
1 yellow sweet potato, chopped
sea salt to taste
What you do:
1. Dump all of these in a big pot. Pour in enough water to cover, and then add that much again.
2. Turn the heat on high until it reaches a boil and then turn it down to a simmer. Reminder again to not put the lid on so the water evaporates and helps with getting the broth concentrated. There'll be a bit of foam on the top of the water, usually. You can skim it or not. I don't, because I need every nutrient I can get, and I figure there's gotta be something in that I can use. It'll mix back into the soup eventually, anyway.
3. Simmer until the soup meets your taste requirements. At about 3,000 feet, it took me approximately 2 hours to cook it down so the broth tasted like soup instead of flavored water. The sweet potatoes lose a bit of their flavor, so they tasted more like regular potatoes to me, which I liked. The broth is rather rich, in my opinion, but then again, I haven't had any broth in a while, so that may be affecting my perception of it!
Of note in both recipes: The veggies are VERY soft after all this cooking, obviously. I liked them that way, and I wanted the flavor to enter the broth, so I kept them in from the beginning.
However, if you didn't want that, I would suggest making a veggie-broth first with your own veggies (Do everything the same but omit the meat/protein source, then strain out the veggies. Mash them through a sieve to get every last drop of liquid out.). You could then use the broth, add more meat and veggies, and simply cook until they were cooked through.
Enjoy!
I have meat. I have a few veggies. I have water - why not make soup?
Today, I finally did it for the first time. And it is awesome. Real soup. I haven't had soup in 6 months. This is...beyond cool. Wonderful. And I think it is easily adapted for most high allergen diets.
For any other cooking-challenged, multi-allergy sufferers, here's the basic recipe idea:
Simple Soup
What you need:
A meat source - beef, chicken, buffalo, etc...
A few vegetables - if you have a veggie that can be boiled, you can stick it in a soup.
Whatever seasonings you can use - mine is salt, yee ha.
What you do:1. Chop everything up and stick it in a big pot. Add the seasonings. Add water to cover, and then add that much again.
2. Bring to a boil and then lower this to a simmer, leaving the cover off. You want to boil this down until a broth develops with a nice flavor. Reminder: that means that whatever seasonings you add will be concentrated, so you don't want to add too much, too early.
3. Cook until it reaches the desired flavor. This is typically 1-3 hours, depending on what altitude you're at.
Points for Variety:
--I didn't mention fish or shellfish in the meat category mostly because I don't know much about them, and because so many people have allergies to them. If you used seafood, I have a feeling that you might have to put it in a little later in the process so it didn't get too rubbery/chewy by the end of the cooking. Or put it in early, scoop it out once cooked, and put it back in after the broth has concentrated, just long enough to warm it through.
--You may have to experiment with what veggies you can have, to find the right taste combination. There are definitely a few that don't work out so well, LOL. Beets, for example, will turn everything an interesting shade of bright purple-pink. Tomatoes, if you can find them, are almost always a nice addition.
-- You can add beans, hominy, or lentils to the equation as an addition, or as an alternative protein source (probably tofu, as well, although I don't know how well it would stand up). If you get dried beans or hominy, soak them in water overnight and then add them in at the beginning of cooking. The higher altitude you are, the longer it will take to cook the beans. For lentils, look up cooking time for them and add when you have that much time left. Small red lentils (like these) typically take 5-10 minutes or less to cook and make a pretty addition.
--You can add cooked grains to individual bowls just before serving. Rice and quinoa both do well in the soups I've tried, although I needed a stronger flavor to go well with the quinoa.
--Something from your local environment might be edible too! For example, I live in a desert in the SW United States. We have local trees called Palo Verde, and most people don't realize that when their seeds are still green, they can be cooked and eaten just like peas. Checking out the more exotic 'wild' foods in your area may be worth a try if you are reacting to everything under the sun, like myself
--A bit of sour, like lemon/lime juice, or vinegar, can add a little zing to your soup if you add it after you've boiled the soup down and turned off the heat.
--If you like sour and can't have citrus or vinegar, you might want to check out Amchur powder (you can find it here). It's powdered mango, used in Indian cooking, and adds a pleasant sour flavor to the food. It will need to be a cooked just a little to impart the flavor nicely. You can find it at Indian grocery stores, as well.
--Same with a bit of plain yogurt (dairy, soy, or coconut), if you can have it, added to the soup after it's in the bowls. The sour goes well with strong but darker flavors (especially lentils).
--If you are VERY limited in your diet right now but can have a few root vegetables, I recommend checking out your root vegetables fully on-line. Many of them have edible tops, if you buy the organic kind (the non-organic often have higher pesticide concentration in the greens, I understand). Carrots and beets are two good examples of those with edible tops.*
*a small percentage of people have a contact allergy to green tops of carrots. If touching the greens gives you the tingles or a rash, obviously these aren't the foods for you.
As for what soup I made? This would be the recipe for my particular diet, for those who might need something similar.
Simple Buffalo Soup
What you need:
2 pounds ground buffalo
4 carrots, scraped(or peeled) and roughly chopped
chopped carrot tops (greens) from half of 1 bunch of carrots
1 yellow sweet potato, chopped
sea salt to taste
What you do:
1. Dump all of these in a big pot. Pour in enough water to cover, and then add that much again.
2. Turn the heat on high until it reaches a boil and then turn it down to a simmer. Reminder again to not put the lid on so the water evaporates and helps with getting the broth concentrated. There'll be a bit of foam on the top of the water, usually. You can skim it or not. I don't, because I need every nutrient I can get, and I figure there's gotta be something in that I can use. It'll mix back into the soup eventually, anyway.
3. Simmer until the soup meets your taste requirements. At about 3,000 feet, it took me approximately 2 hours to cook it down so the broth tasted like soup instead of flavored water. The sweet potatoes lose a bit of their flavor, so they tasted more like regular potatoes to me, which I liked. The broth is rather rich, in my opinion, but then again, I haven't had any broth in a while, so that may be affecting my perception of it!
Of note in both recipes: The veggies are VERY soft after all this cooking, obviously. I liked them that way, and I wanted the flavor to enter the broth, so I kept them in from the beginning.
However, if you didn't want that, I would suggest making a veggie-broth first with your own veggies (Do everything the same but omit the meat/protein source, then strain out the veggies. Mash them through a sieve to get every last drop of liquid out.). You could then use the broth, add more meat and veggies, and simply cook until they were cooked through.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Stupid, meet Stupider
Yesterday I cheated. I'm out, I'm starving - which is no excuse and I know it - and I got Terra Brand Sweet Potato Chips. Just sweet potatoes and one of three oils. I can eat sweet potatoes, I can eat those oils without too much reaction, I thought. What's the harm?
Hunger and stupidity took over, rather like Keanu in the movie Speed, where a bomb will go off if the bus drops below 50 miles an hour. My hunger was yelling in my ear, "I'm hungry! Don't stop eating! Grab it now and keep going! EAT!"
I felt So Damn Sick afterward. Darn it! Sicker than I've been in a while.
So today while I was reading up on various chips and such, I come across this information: Terra chips are not made on a dedicated line, so are not safe for little hyper-spaz-reactive bodies like mine. Might explain why I felt like death reheated in a microwave after eating them. I've tried all three of the oils involved, and had mild reactions, so I really wasn't expecting it.
It's a good reminder: when your body is freaking out, don't let there be any doubt. Call the company up. I need a catchier slogan so I can remember. Anyone still recall that 'give a hoot, don't pollute' slogan from decades ago? I need one of those to tattoo on my arm.
When in doubt, don't freak out.
Except that has no meaning whatsoever, so I suppose I'll have to file it under work in progress and carry on. Let's hope I can move on while keeping to my diet.
At the moment, I'm trying to help with that by putting my silly little post-it's around the house, haranguing me at every turn.
"Family is worth the effort." - Did I mention I become the wicked witch of the west with some of my bad foods?
"Bowl of glass" - Yes, thinking of the 'bad' foods like a bowl of glass DOES help. Sometimes.
"You're health is worth it. Don't cheat. Idiot." Well, the idiot is implied, usually.
If I move these around so that they don't become too familiar, it helps me think before something like this happens.
So does eating before I leave the house.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Lifestyles of the Tired and Cranky
The last week has been filled with cooking - imagine my surprise - but not so much energy. I'm sure every parent has weeks like this. You stay up late to finish something you've been trying to do for days now, and the next morning, you're up bright and early to cook for your 'day of errands.'
But that's okay, you'll just go to bed early and catch up on your sleep, right?
Ha ha, very funny.
Kids don't fall asleep on time when you need them to, do they? I believe it's a corollary to Murphy's laws. And just to ensure that a parent remains sleep deprived, one child wakes up with a nightmare in the middle of the night, then the other wakes up a few hours later with the same, and before you know it, it's morning again.
And on it goes for the next night, and the next, until you are hallucinating that your house phone called 911 without human help and the police show up at 3am to make sure everyone is all right. Except, of course, that you're not hallucinating. It really happened - it's just so Twilight Zone that it should be a hallucination.
Not kidding on that one. My house is calling for help. I wonder what that says about my housecleaning?
Needless to say, with the downturn in energy levels, desire to cook has dropped like a stone. We still did it though. We made hordes of food, like Gluten-free dairy-free egg-free pancakes, dairy-free smoothies, GF sugarcane-free puffed millet snacks and even a GF lasagna (I'll thank my husband for that one.).
And they didn't turn out too badly. Here, see for yourself.
Shauna's food montage
GF DF egg-free Pancakes
We made these ones using a homemade GF flour mixture (3 parts brown rice flour, 3 parts tapioca starch, 2 parts sorghum flour, and 1 part millet flour), water, salt, and agave syrup. We can't use baking powder, so we substituted cream of tartar and baking soda.
The pancakes did much better if we kept them small - 1/8 of a cup of batter. They turned more easily if they cooked a bit longer than normal pancakes. Also, letting them rest a bit first helped the baking soda and cream of tartar react more and gave more bubbles.
We've tried this with orange juice instead of water, and it gave a nice flavor! Although I think we should have cut down on the cream of tartar - the extra acidity of the juice really set off the baking soda. It was like pancake-baking soda volcano.
DF Smoothie
1 cup each frozen pineapple, frozen strawberries, and frozen mango
1 baby banana, frozen (Those tiny, exotic ones. Their name? Um...banana Jr? *slinks off* Half a normal banana should work, too)
about 2 cups orange juice (Simply Orange brand doesn't add any corn syrup, etc...)
Mix together and blend like a crazy person until you reach desired consistency. Makes about 2 monster servings, or 4 normal servings
GF sugarcane-free Puffed Millet Snack
This is one of those 'throw together and hope for the best' type of snacks. For ingredients, our first attempt had puffed millet cereal, sunbutter (sunflower butter - processed in a peanut free facility), and agave syrup. The result is a bit soft, texture-wise, but not too bad. It sticks together well. I think pressing it into a pan and cutting that into bars would do all right.
We tried toasting to remedy the softer texture.
Not something I'd recommend. Burnt sunflower butter is not something you forget any time soon.
We've also added cacao nibs and dried fruit, and we were thinking of toasting the millet ahead of time, but haven't done so, yet.
GF lasagna
This turned out wonderfully, but I don't know how often we'll get to make it in the future.
We've added in dairy to our diet, as small amounts look okay for the kids, so we were able to use that here. Tomatoes were our latest addition, but the results for them weren't as positive. We'll have to stay away from them and try again later.
For the lasagna, we used Tinkyada brand rice lasagna noodles, Amy's organic family marinara pasta sauce (it is the only one that is sugarcane free), mozzarella and ricotta cheese (we splurged), and browned ground buffalo meat. We mixed the meat and sauce together, we mixed the cheeses together, and then we layered noodles, sauce, and cheese on the way up.
Some notes about the lasagna:
1. You don't have to cook the noodles first! The package directions say that you should, but as long as you cover the top layer of noodles with sauce and cheese, there is usually enough moisture in the lasagna to cook the noodles just fine. If you are worried there won't be enough moisture, I would add a little liquid to the sauce to compensate.
2. If you can't have dairy, the best dairy substitute we've tried for lasagna has been soft tofu, mashed with a fork and mixed with a few seasonings, like salt and oregano. You use it just like you would use the cheese.
If you are interested in some of the products we listed above, here they are...
Product Recommendations:
Simply Orange Orange Juice - We find this at our local grocery store. There are many variations, one of which has added calcium, so that may be a good choice for people who need some calcium help after going dairy free. Especially in the beginning, when you're still figuring it all out. It is also one of the cheaper juices that does NOT come from a concentrate.
Sunbutter - This stuff is made in a peanut free facility, according to their PR. The jar looks just like your regular ole peanut butter jar. It's a bit less thick than peanutbutter, and not quite the same taste, but not too bad as a substitute. If you can't find it at your local healthfood store, here's their website: http://www.sunbutter.com/ You can order small tubs, too.
Arrowheadmills Puffed Millet Cereal - This is millet and absolutely nothing else. The company makes a few other puffed cereals as well, such as puffed corn. I have found the corn and wheat versions often, but the puffed millet can be harder to find, so you might need to buy on-line: http://arrowheadmills.elsstore.com/
Tinkyada brown rice lasagna noodles - We've liked many of the Tinkyada products - good texture, no after-taste. For any of their pastas, if you stop the cooking a few minutes early, drain them, and dump the sauce in for the last bit of cooking, the noodles will absorb the sauce. This helps avoid the 'tasteless' flavor of rice pasta. However, currently they do not sell from their website, so if you can't find it at the healthstore, you have to look for on-line grocery stores. Googling Tinkyada+price will often get you a good site. Their website is useful for seeing what products they make, however: http://www.tinkyada.com/
Re: Amy's pasta sauce. Once again, I am not - entirely - recommending it. The taste is fine. If you don't have gluten issues, it's probably a pretty good choice. However, I am still finding accounts of people who have reacted as though glutened to Amy's GF products. So, I'm erring on the side of caution and not recommending this for people on a GF diet. If you do wish to find Amy's products, however, here's the website: http://www.amys.com/index.php
But that's okay, you'll just go to bed early and catch up on your sleep, right?
Ha ha, very funny.
Kids don't fall asleep on time when you need them to, do they? I believe it's a corollary to Murphy's laws. And just to ensure that a parent remains sleep deprived, one child wakes up with a nightmare in the middle of the night, then the other wakes up a few hours later with the same, and before you know it, it's morning again.
And on it goes for the next night, and the next, until you are hallucinating that your house phone called 911 without human help and the police show up at 3am to make sure everyone is all right. Except, of course, that you're not hallucinating. It really happened - it's just so Twilight Zone that it should be a hallucination.
Not kidding on that one. My house is calling for help. I wonder what that says about my housecleaning?
Needless to say, with the downturn in energy levels, desire to cook has dropped like a stone. We still did it though. We made hordes of food, like Gluten-free dairy-free egg-free pancakes, dairy-free smoothies, GF sugarcane-free puffed millet snacks and even a GF lasagna (I'll thank my husband for that one.).
And they didn't turn out too badly. Here, see for yourself.
Shauna's food montage
GF DF egg-free Pancakes
We made these ones using a homemade GF flour mixture (3 parts brown rice flour, 3 parts tapioca starch, 2 parts sorghum flour, and 1 part millet flour), water, salt, and agave syrup. We can't use baking powder, so we substituted cream of tartar and baking soda.The pancakes did much better if we kept them small - 1/8 of a cup of batter. They turned more easily if they cooked a bit longer than normal pancakes. Also, letting them rest a bit first helped the baking soda and cream of tartar react more and gave more bubbles.
We've tried this with orange juice instead of water, and it gave a nice flavor! Although I think we should have cut down on the cream of tartar - the extra acidity of the juice really set off the baking soda. It was like pancake-baking soda volcano.
DF Smoothie1 cup each frozen pineapple, frozen strawberries, and frozen mango
1 baby banana, frozen (Those tiny, exotic ones. Their name? Um...banana Jr? *slinks off* Half a normal banana should work, too)
about 2 cups orange juice (Simply Orange brand doesn't add any corn syrup, etc...)
Mix together and blend like a crazy person until you reach desired consistency. Makes about 2 monster servings, or 4 normal servings
GF sugarcane-free Puffed Millet Snack
This is one of those 'throw together and hope for the best' type of snacks. For ingredients, our first attempt had puffed millet cereal, sunbutter (sunflower butter - processed in a peanut free facility), and agave syrup. The result is a bit soft, texture-wise, but not too bad. It sticks together well. I think pressing it into a pan and cutting that into bars would do all right.We tried toasting to remedy the softer texture.
Not something I'd recommend. Burnt sunflower butter is not something you forget any time soon.
We've also added cacao nibs and dried fruit, and we were thinking of toasting the millet ahead of time, but haven't done so, yet.
GF lasagna
This turned out wonderfully, but I don't know how often we'll get to make it in the future.We've added in dairy to our diet, as small amounts look okay for the kids, so we were able to use that here. Tomatoes were our latest addition, but the results for them weren't as positive. We'll have to stay away from them and try again later.
For the lasagna, we used Tinkyada brand rice lasagna noodles, Amy's organic family marinara pasta sauce (it is the only one that is sugarcane free), mozzarella and ricotta cheese (we splurged), and browned ground buffalo meat. We mixed the meat and sauce together, we mixed the cheeses together, and then we layered noodles, sauce, and cheese on the way up.
Some notes about the lasagna:
1. You don't have to cook the noodles first! The package directions say that you should, but as long as you cover the top layer of noodles with sauce and cheese, there is usually enough moisture in the lasagna to cook the noodles just fine. If you are worried there won't be enough moisture, I would add a little liquid to the sauce to compensate.
2. If you can't have dairy, the best dairy substitute we've tried for lasagna has been soft tofu, mashed with a fork and mixed with a few seasonings, like salt and oregano. You use it just like you would use the cheese.
If you are interested in some of the products we listed above, here they are...
Product Recommendations:
Simply Orange Orange Juice - We find this at our local grocery store. There are many variations, one of which has added calcium, so that may be a good choice for people who need some calcium help after going dairy free. Especially in the beginning, when you're still figuring it all out. It is also one of the cheaper juices that does NOT come from a concentrate.
Sunbutter - This stuff is made in a peanut free facility, according to their PR. The jar looks just like your regular ole peanut butter jar. It's a bit less thick than peanutbutter, and not quite the same taste, but not too bad as a substitute. If you can't find it at your local healthfood store, here's their website: http://www.sunbutter.com/ You can order small tubs, too.
Arrowheadmills Puffed Millet Cereal - This is millet and absolutely nothing else. The company makes a few other puffed cereals as well, such as puffed corn. I have found the corn and wheat versions often, but the puffed millet can be harder to find, so you might need to buy on-line: http://arrowheadmills.elsstore.com/
Tinkyada brown rice lasagna noodles - We've liked many of the Tinkyada products - good texture, no after-taste. For any of their pastas, if you stop the cooking a few minutes early, drain them, and dump the sauce in for the last bit of cooking, the noodles will absorb the sauce. This helps avoid the 'tasteless' flavor of rice pasta. However, currently they do not sell from their website, so if you can't find it at the healthstore, you have to look for on-line grocery stores. Googling Tinkyada+price will often get you a good site. Their website is useful for seeing what products they make, however: http://www.tinkyada.com/
Re: Amy's pasta sauce. Once again, I am not - entirely - recommending it. The taste is fine. If you don't have gluten issues, it's probably a pretty good choice. However, I am still finding accounts of people who have reacted as though glutened to Amy's GF products. So, I'm erring on the side of caution and not recommending this for people on a GF diet. If you do wish to find Amy's products, however, here's the website: http://www.amys.com/index.php
Monday, January 25, 2010
The most interesting people
I'm a talker. It doesn't really matter if I'm meeting someone at a party or standing in line at a grocery store - I'm happy to chat, about anything. Comparative knife sharpening techniques, why methane really is a likely gas for a planet with alien lifeforms, whether Sylar is a great bad guy because he's an ass or because he's a sexy ass...and most often these days: food.
I pump people for recipes, for ideas, heck, even for whether a food I just made tastes good at all. And at health food stores, I meet so many other people who seem to have the same goal, as long as it's about their pet food issue. It's been funny at times, and frustrating at times, but always, always fascinating.
Take cilantro. Did you know cilantro cures cancer? And, apparently, everything else, including alien albino brain worms (okay, so I made that last one up.). I found that out in the market where I was cornered by a lovely little old lady who corralled me in the produce aisle.
Or did you know that normal organic almonds are evil incarnate, because they are irradiated which, if I understand correctly, puts them on par with Rosemary's baby. Only imported Italian almonds will do. Yes, thank you massively wealthy couple who can afford to buy those. I will remember these words when I next win the lottery and can buy everything imported from Italy. Including their swim team.
Oh, or did you realize that all buffalo is not grass fed? It used to be, but no longer. Now, some is grain fed as well, which means it could have GMO grains in it. Not so good. I learned that from this overly-talkative woman with two kids who...
Oops. That was me telling this to the butcher at whole foods.
*hits head against the desk a few times*
Yes, I have become one of the people who hordes these little facts and passes them on in the health food stores. Terrifying, isn't it? I had no idea I would become this (I'm sure my family will chime in now with rolled eyes. They knew, I suspect).
I'm also one of another fun group, the 'small percentage.'
Where most people don't react to 'such and such,' but a 'small percentage' do. Joy.
Then again, starting down this path, where oddball, tiny little things set me off and send me into a tailspin, I have to study up on food quickly or I'll pretty much starve to death.
I'll be honest, I'm starting to get nervous. I've lost enough weight that I am 3 pounds from my ideal weight. And I still lose about a pound a week. Never thought I'd be worried about getting TOO skinny! Never been an issue for me!
But...enough about that! Push it back, and on to the trivia!
--You didn't think you'd get to avoid the trivia, did you? Of course not!--
You might think I simply listen to the lovely informative and sometimes crazy folk I meet, but I got above and beyond - I check it all out. Hey, sometimes you find out some truly interesting stuff! So, for the above mentioned folk, here you go!
Cilantro - the nutrition and wonder of cilantro. Actually, it wasn't a bad little herb. This is just a quick rundown of the basic nutrition.
http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/cilantro.html
Irradiated Food - Okay, I'll admit it, I always thought worrying about this seemed rather stupid. And then I checked it out, and yeah, it's an issue that should have further study, I believe. I don't know if I trust many of the studies that are more than 40 years old, because I don't know what their methods were, really. But it DOES seem to destroy some nutrients in the foods that are irradiated, so I figure we should be aware, yeah? I got the following information from http://www.citizen.org/print_article.cfm?ID=12340 . I don't know if I agree with the tone, but the information seemed interesting enough to repeat.
Some nutrients affected by irradiation(it depends on the level of radiation):
Vitamin A· 4-50% loss
Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) - 11-95% loss
Vitamin C - 20-90% loss
Vitamin E - 17-91% loss
And now...I will go to eat my non-irradiated, non-cilantro buffalo meat for dinner. :-)
I pump people for recipes, for ideas, heck, even for whether a food I just made tastes good at all. And at health food stores, I meet so many other people who seem to have the same goal, as long as it's about their pet food issue. It's been funny at times, and frustrating at times, but always, always fascinating.
Take cilantro. Did you know cilantro cures cancer? And, apparently, everything else, including alien albino brain worms (okay, so I made that last one up.). I found that out in the market where I was cornered by a lovely little old lady who corralled me in the produce aisle.
Or did you know that normal organic almonds are evil incarnate, because they are irradiated which, if I understand correctly, puts them on par with Rosemary's baby. Only imported Italian almonds will do. Yes, thank you massively wealthy couple who can afford to buy those. I will remember these words when I next win the lottery and can buy everything imported from Italy. Including their swim team.
Oh, or did you realize that all buffalo is not grass fed? It used to be, but no longer. Now, some is grain fed as well, which means it could have GMO grains in it. Not so good. I learned that from this overly-talkative woman with two kids who...
Oops. That was me telling this to the butcher at whole foods.
*hits head against the desk a few times*
Yes, I have become one of the people who hordes these little facts and passes them on in the health food stores. Terrifying, isn't it? I had no idea I would become this (I'm sure my family will chime in now with rolled eyes. They knew, I suspect).
I'm also one of another fun group, the 'small percentage.'
Where most people don't react to 'such and such,' but a 'small percentage' do. Joy.
Then again, starting down this path, where oddball, tiny little things set me off and send me into a tailspin, I have to study up on food quickly or I'll pretty much starve to death.
I'll be honest, I'm starting to get nervous. I've lost enough weight that I am 3 pounds from my ideal weight. And I still lose about a pound a week. Never thought I'd be worried about getting TOO skinny! Never been an issue for me!
But...enough about that! Push it back, and on to the trivia!
--You didn't think you'd get to avoid the trivia, did you? Of course not!--
You might think I simply listen to the lovely informative and sometimes crazy folk I meet, but I got above and beyond - I check it all out. Hey, sometimes you find out some truly interesting stuff! So, for the above mentioned folk, here you go!
Cilantro - the nutrition and wonder of cilantro. Actually, it wasn't a bad little herb. This is just a quick rundown of the basic nutrition.
http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/cilantro.html
Irradiated Food - Okay, I'll admit it, I always thought worrying about this seemed rather stupid. And then I checked it out, and yeah, it's an issue that should have further study, I believe. I don't know if I trust many of the studies that are more than 40 years old, because I don't know what their methods were, really. But it DOES seem to destroy some nutrients in the foods that are irradiated, so I figure we should be aware, yeah? I got the following information from http://www.citizen.org/print_article.cfm?ID=12340 . I don't know if I agree with the tone, but the information seemed interesting enough to repeat.
Some nutrients affected by irradiation(it depends on the level of radiation):
Vitamin A· 4-50% loss
Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) - 11-95% loss
Vitamin C - 20-90% loss
Vitamin E - 17-91% loss
And now...I will go to eat my non-irradiated, non-cilantro buffalo meat for dinner. :-)
Friday, January 22, 2010
Roast Beef
I have a confession to make. I have never made a roast - turkey or beef. I have roasted chickens; that I've done. And I've gone so far as to roast a turkey breast, but never the whole turkey, or the beef.
My family wasn't really a big beef-eating clan, before all the food issues smacked us in the face. Now? I'm grabbing whatever food I can get, and meat seems to be a big part of it.
So last night, for the first time in my life, I made a roast. My expectations were low. Nerves were high.
There is simply something about a great, big hunk of meat that is intimidating. The temperature worries, the bacteria worries, the odd smell of raw flesh that I worry is smelling 'off' because it always smells 'blech' to me anyway. I don't understand meat. Breads, I get. Which helps me not at all, now that I'm gluten free. But meat? It feels like it requires 'Alien Cooking for Dummies' to make it turn out well. It doesn't seem like a comprehensible food to me. The food's version of Apple Computers: pretty end product, but how it's all put together originally is a mystery.
I find meat a bit scary.
So imagine my surprise when my first attempt at roast beef turned out great! For my family, that is. Almost for me, too. I was staring at it, all pink and juicy looking, and it was really, really hard not to try a piece and risk the reaction. I had a slice on a fork and was thinking about finding a plate to put it on when my husband gave me the 'Don't be stupid' look and I put it back on the platter. And then scuffled across the kitchen pathetically to go eat my avocados and ground buffalo meat.
Man but it looked good, though. I'd show you a picture, but it was consumed down to small pieces already. Flattering, but hard to photograph!
The best part about this, though, was how easy it was. It took a long time to cook: almost three hours. With an hour out of the fridge beforehand for it to get up to room temperature. But I had about one minute of prep time, five minutes of clean-up, and no mid-roasting duties but the thermometer at the end. Considering how much time I spend on cooking these days, this was heaven!
I found this recipe at SimplyRecipes.com, here:
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roast_beef/
I omitted the garlic slivers, because, as it has been noted, I am lazy. And everyone was going to be hungry soon, so I just rubbed it with olive oil, then sprinkled salt and pepper. Woo hoo, ready for the oven in no time!
I don't know if everyone else in the world is used to just slapping meat on the oven rack, but it was a new thing for me! When I took it off, I got a heavy washcloth, pulled out the rack with my hot pad, and just wiped off the mess from the rack immediately. It came off with no trouble at all; double word score for this roast beef!
The one thing I did note, however, was that rack placement was key. I had mine in the middle, and the top of the roast was more done than the bottom, so next time I'm scooting this sucker's rack down a peg.
In any case, enjoy the roast beef if you care to try this one. We most definitely did!
My family wasn't really a big beef-eating clan, before all the food issues smacked us in the face. Now? I'm grabbing whatever food I can get, and meat seems to be a big part of it.
So last night, for the first time in my life, I made a roast. My expectations were low. Nerves were high.
There is simply something about a great, big hunk of meat that is intimidating. The temperature worries, the bacteria worries, the odd smell of raw flesh that I worry is smelling 'off' because it always smells 'blech' to me anyway. I don't understand meat. Breads, I get. Which helps me not at all, now that I'm gluten free. But meat? It feels like it requires 'Alien Cooking for Dummies' to make it turn out well. It doesn't seem like a comprehensible food to me. The food's version of Apple Computers: pretty end product, but how it's all put together originally is a mystery.
I find meat a bit scary.
So imagine my surprise when my first attempt at roast beef turned out great! For my family, that is. Almost for me, too. I was staring at it, all pink and juicy looking, and it was really, really hard not to try a piece and risk the reaction. I had a slice on a fork and was thinking about finding a plate to put it on when my husband gave me the 'Don't be stupid' look and I put it back on the platter. And then scuffled across the kitchen pathetically to go eat my avocados and ground buffalo meat.
Man but it looked good, though. I'd show you a picture, but it was consumed down to small pieces already. Flattering, but hard to photograph!
The best part about this, though, was how easy it was. It took a long time to cook: almost three hours. With an hour out of the fridge beforehand for it to get up to room temperature. But I had about one minute of prep time, five minutes of clean-up, and no mid-roasting duties but the thermometer at the end. Considering how much time I spend on cooking these days, this was heaven!
I found this recipe at SimplyRecipes.com, here:
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roast_beef/
I omitted the garlic slivers, because, as it has been noted, I am lazy. And everyone was going to be hungry soon, so I just rubbed it with olive oil, then sprinkled salt and pepper. Woo hoo, ready for the oven in no time!
I don't know if everyone else in the world is used to just slapping meat on the oven rack, but it was a new thing for me! When I took it off, I got a heavy washcloth, pulled out the rack with my hot pad, and just wiped off the mess from the rack immediately. It came off with no trouble at all; double word score for this roast beef!
The one thing I did note, however, was that rack placement was key. I had mine in the middle, and the top of the roast was more done than the bottom, so next time I'm scooting this sucker's rack down a peg.
In any case, enjoy the roast beef if you care to try this one. We most definitely did!
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