DH and I have finally managed to get rid of old pots, pans, plastic containers, the toaster, wooden spoons, etc., plus most of the remaining gluten-containing food.
Since our adopted babies, Matthew and Emma, are really my biological grandchildren, they have a chance of having problems with gluten because I have celiac disease and their cousin Carly (my other granddaughter) has celiac disease. But I just found out recently that the kids biological father, Marcus, may have gluten issues himself, and that his brother had MS and celiac disease! The babies have the double whammy (celiacs on both sides of the family)!
Emma has the HLA DQ2 gene, so she definitely has a chance of developing issues with gluten. Both she and Matthew have skin problems, specifically eczema and keratosis pilaris, which can be associated with celiac disease.
Also DH has just been diagnosed with psoriasis, which is an autoimmune disease, so he should probably avoid gluten, too.
So I've decided that the WHOLE FAMILY will be gluten free from now on! We went to Whole Foods and bought gluten free crackers and chicken nuggets, and since I've now started making gluten free bread I think we're all set!
Therefore, when I encounter crumbs on the table, I'm no longer worried that they might gluten me! :)
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
So far, so good
I have actually stuck to my menu plan thus far! Yay!
Things are going fairly well. I haven't been glutened lately (it helps when you're cooking all your own food and you've actually created a gluten-free environment in your kitchen!).
The Thai Chicken Curry turned out very well. We all had it for dinner on Monday; Matthew loved it and even Emma ate a little bit, and she is PICKY! :)
I had some for dinner tonight, too! Yum!
A little side topic...dinner tonight was a nice ending to a TERRIBLE commute home. I live in Southern California, in Los Angeles County, so these things happen. But this was the worst I had encountered in a long time.
I had a doctor's appointment late this afternoon; I left the doctor's office at 5:00pm. I got home at 8:15pm. Please note that I live only 15 miles from my doctor's office!!!
There was an accident on the 210 freeway this morning....a tanker truck turned over and spilled tar all over the freeway. They closed the freeway in the morning and didn't re-open it until nearly 5:30pm. So every surface street for miles around was moving at approximately 1 mile per hour; after they re-opened the freeway, the freeway was moving at maybe 2 miles per hour.
I tried EVERY street, every different way to get home that I knew of and no matter what I did I was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic.
AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Sorry, I just had to VENT!!
I'm really glad tonight was leftover night!! :)
Things are going fairly well. I haven't been glutened lately (it helps when you're cooking all your own food and you've actually created a gluten-free environment in your kitchen!).
The Thai Chicken Curry turned out very well. We all had it for dinner on Monday; Matthew loved it and even Emma ate a little bit, and she is PICKY! :)
I had some for dinner tonight, too! Yum!
A little side topic...dinner tonight was a nice ending to a TERRIBLE commute home. I live in Southern California, in Los Angeles County, so these things happen. But this was the worst I had encountered in a long time.
I had a doctor's appointment late this afternoon; I left the doctor's office at 5:00pm. I got home at 8:15pm. Please note that I live only 15 miles from my doctor's office!!!
There was an accident on the 210 freeway this morning....a tanker truck turned over and spilled tar all over the freeway. They closed the freeway in the morning and didn't re-open it until nearly 5:30pm. So every surface street for miles around was moving at approximately 1 mile per hour; after they re-opened the freeway, the freeway was moving at maybe 2 miles per hour.
I tried EVERY street, every different way to get home that I knew of and no matter what I did I was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic.
AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Sorry, I just had to VENT!!
I'm really glad tonight was leftover night!! :)
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Gluten Free Menu For This Week
I've never tried this before, but here goes! I'm inspired to do this by Erica's blog, and others I've seen who are organized enough to actually PLAN meals! :)
Monday: Thai Chicken Curry in the Crockpot, served with brown rice
Tuesday: Gluten Free Franks and Bush's Baked Beans, salad
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Gluten Free Pasta with Marinara, Salad
Friday: Crockpot Honey Lentils
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Broiled Lamb chops, salad
The Thai curry and the honey lentils will probably make a significant amount of food, enough for leftovers for another dinner and even a couple of lunches at work, I suspect. Which is why I'm planning two nights of leftovers during the week.
Tonight I'm making barbecue chicken gluten free pizza with Erica's gf crust. Click the link and scroll down to Saturday, and follow the link found there.
Let's see if I'm disciplined enough to follow this menu plan and whether or not I post another one next week! :)
Monday: Thai Chicken Curry in the Crockpot, served with brown rice
Tuesday: Gluten Free Franks and Bush's Baked Beans, salad
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Gluten Free Pasta with Marinara, Salad
Friday: Crockpot Honey Lentils
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Broiled Lamb chops, salad
The Thai curry and the honey lentils will probably make a significant amount of food, enough for leftovers for another dinner and even a couple of lunches at work, I suspect. Which is why I'm planning two nights of leftovers during the week.
Tonight I'm making barbecue chicken gluten free pizza with Erica's gf crust. Click the link and scroll down to Saturday, and follow the link found there.
Let's see if I'm disciplined enough to follow this menu plan and whether or not I post another one next week! :)
Temporary Change of Plan
DH and I are temporarily off the low-carb diet; we decided to stretch our grocery budget by eating up some of the gluten free food we already have in the pantry, such as beans, lentils and rice, instead of going to the store and purchasing lots of meat for the Atkins diet. I will be combining the meat that we already have with beans, etc., to stretch things as well.
We will still be trying to lose weight, by watching portion sizes and calories, but it will probably be a slower process.
In any case, this is just a temporary setback. We will be doing low-carb again very shortly!
We will still be trying to lose weight, by watching portion sizes and calories, but it will probably be a slower process.
In any case, this is just a temporary setback. We will be doing low-carb again very shortly!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
I hate men! (or how the diet is going)
DH has lost 11 pounds since we started the diet on Saturday! I've lost 2 pounds!! :(
It's not fair! He's even cheated more than I have!
Oh well....at least I've lost 2 pounds. It's better than gaining 2 pounds!
We've been eating eggs and bacon a lot for breakfast, or those low-carb cheese muffins I mentioned in the previous post. For lunch we usually have leftovers and for dinner we've eaten broiled lamb chops and broccoli (Saturday), ranch chicken and salad (Sunday), and last night we had a wonderful lo-carb gluten free pizza! The crust is made with cheese, eggs, and cream cheese (I know it sounds weird but it works); here is the link to the recipe: Deep Dish Low-Carb Pizza.
Anyway, I did cheat a little last night for the first time....we have some leftover gluten free chocolate chip cookies in the house and I just couldn't resist them.
But DH has eaten some of them since we started dieting and he STILL lost ELEVEN pounds!!
It's a bit frustrating, to say the least.
It's not fair! He's even cheated more than I have!
Oh well....at least I've lost 2 pounds. It's better than gaining 2 pounds!
We've been eating eggs and bacon a lot for breakfast, or those low-carb cheese muffins I mentioned in the previous post. For lunch we usually have leftovers and for dinner we've eaten broiled lamb chops and broccoli (Saturday), ranch chicken and salad (Sunday), and last night we had a wonderful lo-carb gluten free pizza! The crust is made with cheese, eggs, and cream cheese (I know it sounds weird but it works); here is the link to the recipe: Deep Dish Low-Carb Pizza.
Anyway, I did cheat a little last night for the first time....we have some leftover gluten free chocolate chip cookies in the house and I just couldn't resist them.
But DH has eaten some of them since we started dieting and he STILL lost ELEVEN pounds!!
It's a bit frustrating, to say the least.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Sunday Chicken Dinner and other stuff
I made a very simple, gluten-free and fairly low-carb dinner tonight.
I started with 4 very large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (maybe 1/2 lb per breast) that I cut in half.
I found out recently that Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (Original flavor) is gluten free, so I added 2 T. of Pamela's Baking Mix to about 1/2 C of HVR dressing.
Next I dipped the chicken breasts in the dressing mixture, placed them on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray, and sprinkled them with a mixture of grated sharp cheddar and Parmesan cheeses.
I baked the chicken breasts for about 25 minutes at 375 degrees, and served them with a salad on the side. Yummy! If I do say so myself! :)
Another recipe for cheese muffins that I made recently uses coconut flour. As it turns out, coconut flour is very low carb! There is a book out by Bruce Fife (Cooking with Coconut Flour) which has TONS of recipes that use coconut flour as the ONLY flour, so those recipes which have no added sugar (such as his cheese muffins) are OK for the low carb diet! In fact, according to my calculations, each muffin has about 2-3 grams of digestible carbohydrate. Not only that, but coconut flour is high in fiber, which is also very helpful to those of us on a low carb diet.
So it would seem to be possible to still have "bread" occasionally and still be low carb and gluten free!
Hooray! :)
Here's the recipe:
Cheese Muffins
3 eggs
2 T butter or coconut oil, melted
3 T coconut milk (I used heavy cream instead)
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder (I used more like 1/4 tsp)
1/4 tsp onion powder (I used a tablespoon of dried onion flakes instead)
1/4 C sifted coconut flour
1 C sharp cheddar cheese, grated (I used a bit more than that)
Blend together the eggs, butter or oil, coconut milk and seasonings in a medium bowl, then add the coconut flour and mix until there are no lumps. Fold in 3/4 of the grated cheese, and distribute the batter amongst 6 well-greased muffin cups. Top the muffins with the remaining cheese and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
These muffins may even be legal on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, since I know that both coconut flour and coconut milk are legal, and these particular muffins do not use sugar or baking powder.
I started with 4 very large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (maybe 1/2 lb per breast) that I cut in half.
I found out recently that Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (Original flavor) is gluten free, so I added 2 T. of Pamela's Baking Mix to about 1/2 C of HVR dressing.
Next I dipped the chicken breasts in the dressing mixture, placed them on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray, and sprinkled them with a mixture of grated sharp cheddar and Parmesan cheeses.
I baked the chicken breasts for about 25 minutes at 375 degrees, and served them with a salad on the side. Yummy! If I do say so myself! :)
Another recipe for cheese muffins that I made recently uses coconut flour. As it turns out, coconut flour is very low carb! There is a book out by Bruce Fife (Cooking with Coconut Flour) which has TONS of recipes that use coconut flour as the ONLY flour, so those recipes which have no added sugar (such as his cheese muffins) are OK for the low carb diet! In fact, according to my calculations, each muffin has about 2-3 grams of digestible carbohydrate. Not only that, but coconut flour is high in fiber, which is also very helpful to those of us on a low carb diet.
So it would seem to be possible to still have "bread" occasionally and still be low carb and gluten free!
Hooray! :)
Here's the recipe:
Cheese Muffins
3 eggs
2 T butter or coconut oil, melted
3 T coconut milk (I used heavy cream instead)
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder (I used more like 1/4 tsp)
1/4 tsp onion powder (I used a tablespoon of dried onion flakes instead)
1/4 C sifted coconut flour
1 C sharp cheddar cheese, grated (I used a bit more than that)
Blend together the eggs, butter or oil, coconut milk and seasonings in a medium bowl, then add the coconut flour and mix until there are no lumps. Fold in 3/4 of the grated cheese, and distribute the batter amongst 6 well-greased muffin cups. Top the muffins with the remaining cheese and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
These muffins may even be legal on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, since I know that both coconut flour and coconut milk are legal, and these particular muffins do not use sugar or baking powder.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
First Post of 2009: Recently-tried Gluten Free Recipes
Besides the leftovers from Christmas (Christmas Eve dinner consisted of Chicken Enchiladas Verdes and Christmas Day dinner was HoneyBaked Ham and Turkey plus lots of nice side dishes), I tried a crockpot recipe this week from the Crockpot Lady, Stephanie. Actually, this recipe was given to her by Rachel Ray when she appeared on Rachel's show last summer....in any case, it's Crockpot Chicken Curry (Indian style) and boy was it good! I served it over brown rice. Check out the link to get the recipe and see a picture.
I love Stephanie's blog because all of the recipes are gluten free (one of her daughters has celiac disease).
The only modifications I made were (1) I used more chicken than she did and used chicken breast meat instead of thigh meat, and (2) I added 2/3 C of apple juice mixed with 1/3 C cornstarch and 2 T sugar at the very end to thicken and sweeten the sauce just a tad. It made a LOT of food, so we've been working on the leftovers for days now!
I've also tried two more gluten-free recipes that are now among my absolute FAVORITES: one is a recipe for bread, and this turns out SO much like "real" bread it's amazing, and the other is a recipe for gluten-free chocolate chip cookies that is also very hard to distinguish from the regular Toll House recipe.
Well, I won't be using those for myself and DH, because we will be trying to be low carb, but for the kids I do need to make bread from time to time, so I'm glad that I found a good recipe.
In any case, a Happy and Healthy New Year to All!
I love Stephanie's blog because all of the recipes are gluten free (one of her daughters has celiac disease).
The only modifications I made were (1) I used more chicken than she did and used chicken breast meat instead of thigh meat, and (2) I added 2/3 C of apple juice mixed with 1/3 C cornstarch and 2 T sugar at the very end to thicken and sweeten the sauce just a tad. It made a LOT of food, so we've been working on the leftovers for days now!
I've also tried two more gluten-free recipes that are now among my absolute FAVORITES: one is a recipe for bread, and this turns out SO much like "real" bread it's amazing, and the other is a recipe for gluten-free chocolate chip cookies that is also very hard to distinguish from the regular Toll House recipe.
Well, I won't be using those for myself and DH, because we will be trying to be low carb, but for the kids I do need to make bread from time to time, so I'm glad that I found a good recipe.
In any case, a Happy and Healthy New Year to All!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)