Gluten Free Wednesdays - Muffin Roundup!

I was just thinking that it was time to make some muffins, when I happened to peek at the Gluten Free Homemaker's Website, and saw that she was posting muffin recipes!

My submission is to the Muffin Roundup will be my recipe for Gluten Free, Grain Free, Dairy/Casein Free Pumpkin Spice Muffins:


Here is a recipe for scrumptious gluten, grain, dairy (and sugar) free pumpkin muffins I came up with. I've posted it before, but it's worth repeating!


This recipe makes approximately 21 muffins, if you fill the muffin cups about 2/3 full.

Ingredients:

1/4 C melted coconut oil or grapeseed oil
1 C agave nectar
1 15-oz can pumpkin (100% pure pumpkin, NOT pumpkin pie mix)
6 eggs
3/4 C coconut flour
1 C plus 3 T almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp (rounded) ginger
1/8 tsp cloves

NOTE: 1 15-oz can of pumpkin is approximately 1 3/4 C of pumpkin puree, at least for Libby's pumpkin!

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease muffin pans generously with shortening (I've used both Crisco and Spectrum).

In a large bowl combine the eggs, agave, oil, and canned pumpkin with a hand-held mixer until smooth and "emulsified" (meaning there should not be a skim of oil on top, but the oil should be completely incorporated). In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda and all the spices. Dump the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture; mix together thoroughly, scraping down the sides of the bowl frequently.

Spoon muffin batter into greased muffin pans. Bake at 350 for approximately 21 - 23 minutes, depending on your oven. Allow the muffins to cool in the pans for 10 - 15 minutes, then remove them to wire racks to finish cooling.

NOTE: the muffins will be very fragile just out of the oven, and will feel overly moist, even oily on the bottoms. But as they cool, they firm up and absorb the excess moisture and oil. This is likely due to the absorbent properties of the coconut flour; it allows the muffins to stay moist and delicious for days.

As I mentioned before, I made 21 muffins by filling the muffin cups about 2/3 full. If you fill yours with more batter, you will have larger (fewer) muffins and may have to bake them a bit longer.

(Belated) Gluten Free Menu for Week of April 5th

Yes, here I am again....late with a menu. :(

My excuse is that I'm still under the weather due to multiple serious medical conditions, plus I'm in the middle of an anger/denial/grief/bargaining/etc cycle right now because I'm losing my job.

I'm losing it slowly, by inches...I can't decide if this is more painful or less painful than if I had been suddenly fired one day.

I'm losing my job because I'm sick and can no longer be in the office long enough (for a sufficient number of consecutive hours/days, that is) to complete the large, complex projects that I used to be assigned.

As a result, I'm very very sad.

But it doesn't matter if I'm sad or not, because life goes on, kiddos and hubby need to eat, and therefore I must cook!! It does sort of get my mind off other things.....

As you know, this past Sunday was Easter, and for Easter dinner we had a glazed ham, potato-cauliflower gratin, and honey-spiced carrots, with my grain-free biscuits.

On Monday (yesterday) I made chili. This chili was originally posted as a Crockpot recipe based on a recipe from the lovely Crockpot Lady, Stephanie. But for some time now I've been making the Obama family chili recipe in a Dutch oven on the stove, with very good results. My husband says he likes it better on the stove for some reason. I've now posted my stovetop version on my other blog (Gluten Free Recipe Archive); if you've made the original Crockpot version you will notice that the spice level has increased, but my 3- and 4-year-old kids still eat it. I make a very large pot of chili because I have an 8-quart Dutch oven and we love to have lots of leftovers for lunches, etc., but obviously you can cut the recipe in half and still have more than enough to feed several people.

Even though it's Tuesday, I'm telling you what we had for dinner on Sunday and Monday because I plan to use the leftovers from those meals to make our Tuesday and Wednesday night dinners.

Easter Sunday: Glazed ham, potato-cauliflower gratin, honey-spiced carrots, grain-free biscuits

Monday: Stovetop Chili, corn chips, green salad

Tuesday: Potato-Cauliflower-Cheese Soup w/Ham: add a mixture of milk and vegetable or chicken broth to the leftover potato-cauliflower gratin until it is the appropriate consistency, then add leftover diced ham. Heat through and stir gently but do not boil! Serve with grain-free biscuits.

Wednesday: Twice-Baked Chili-Stuffed Potatoes: cut hot baked potatoes in half, and scoop out the insides, leaving a shell approximately 1/4 inch thick. Mash the potato insides with a little butter and milk or cream, and add a handful or two of shredded cheddar cheese to the mixture. Salt and pepper to taste, of course. Fill the potato shells about 2/3 full of heated leftover Stovetop Chili, then top with mashed potato cheese topping. Return to the oven to bake for 15 or 20 minutes, until heated through and the tops begin to brown a bit. This works great with lots of different fillings, by the way!

Thursday: Mexican Lasagna, salad

Friday: Chicken Stroganoff (Kay), served over basmati rice or cauliflower "rice" (NOTE: Kay's Chicken Stroganoff is NOT gluten free, but you can make it gluten free by substituting sweet rice flour for her "all purpose flour" and making sure that your chicken broth and seasonings are all gluten free.)

Saturday: leftovers

Sunday: Broiled lamb chops, mashed potatoes or faux cauliflower "mashed potatoes", steamed broccoli

We are in the process of becoming more and more frugal right now, trying to find ways to cut our spending as much as possible......because of the job situation, and also because it is good to be frugal!

Tentative menu

I've been a bad blogger again....I know.

Here is a tentative menu; tentative because I don't know how I'll be feeling from day to day anymore. Those of you in the chronic illness community will understand what I mean!

I'm in a lot of pain today, having tried a certain pain medication recently (fentanyl patch) which worked well, but had unacceptable side effects (it interfered with my breathing and swallowing!). I had to quit the medication cold turkey when I realized what was happening, and since I had been on it for only two weeks I didn't have the full blown withdrawal that some people describe. The descriptions of a fentanyl patch withdrawal sound as bad or worse than heroin withdrawal! But I did have some stomach problems for a couple of days and extremely vivid dreams, to the extent of actually falling out of bed and landing on the floor during a dream early Saturday morning in which I thought I was running. Miraculously I didn't hit my head on the way down, nor did I break any bones, but I'm very sore and bruised.

Plus I'm in lots of pain anyway because my doctor hasn't given me a new pain medication yet. So the menu will be mostly easy meals....two meals will be takeout food because we have coupons for Old Spaghetti Factory and our local Z Pizza (Glendora, CA) is having a Monday night special, buy one gluten free pizza get one free! So we're going that route tonight....we can even have them delivered!

Obviously Z Pizza and Old Spaghetti Factory are neither grain free nor low carb. I'm not trying to be completely grain free for the rest of the week either, although some of the meals can be made low-carb and grain free if desired.

Monday: Z Pizza - buy one gluten free pizza, get one free!

Tuesday: Chili, green salad

Wednesday: Risotto with shrimp and mushrooms, steamed broccoli

Thursday: Crockpot Pomegranate Beef, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots

Friday: Baked Chicken with gluten free pasta (takeout from Old Spaghetti Factory)

Saturday: leftovers (the chili is great on baked potatoes!)

Sunday: Crockpot Thai Chicken, rice (or fake cauliflower rice if you want low-carb)

Comfort food....

I've been feeling slightly depressed lately, just a little down....maybe the rainy gray days have been getting to me? Anyway, I've been in the mood for something in the way of "comfort food".

Hubby went shopping recently and, among other things, brought home a package of cooked chicken from Costco. This is chicken meat that comes from their roasted chickens, de-boned and ready to use in sandwiches, casseroles, whatever.

Coincidentally, a friend of mine mentioned in email a couple of days ago that she was planning to make her "gluten-free chicken pot pie".....yum!! So I asked for the recipe.

Well, she hasn't sent it to me yet, but I was REALLY hungry for chicken pot pie, so I decided to make up my own recipe. I was motivated by (a) wanting comfort food, and (b) needing to use up the cooked chicken from Costco. This recipe is not entirely grain free, but is definitely "grain light" compared to other versions of chicken pot pie:

Grain-Light Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:

extra virgin olive oil
butter
salt
Lawry's Seasoned Pepper
1 large onion, diced
2 medium russet potatoes, diced
1 1/2 C sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 C frozen peas and carrots
2 1/2 C diced cooked chicken
2 T sweet rice flour
2 - 3 T cornstarch
1 - 2 C milk (dairy, almond, soy, rice, whatever)
1 - 2 C gluten free chicken broth
Herbes de Provence

1 - 1 1/2 batches of Grain Free Biscuit Dough

Directions:

Put 1-2 T of olive oil in a medium skillet, along with an equal amount of butter, and heat until bubbly. Saute the diced onion in the olive oil/butter mixture over medium heat until soft; add another 2 T butter and allow to melt, and then the sweet rice flour to make a thick paste. Pour in the milk very slowly, while stirring...you will want to add just the right amount to make the consistency resemble condensed soup mix, so it will be very thick. Season to taste with salt and Lawry's Seasoned Pepper and set aside.

Wash and dice the potatoes (you don't have to peel them unless you want to...I didn't). Place in a medium saucepan and add chicken broth just until the potatoes are completely covered. Heat broth until simmering; allow potatoes to simmer until cooked through but still firm. Mix cornstarch into a very small amount of cold broth or water and add to the saucepan. Stir well until thickened; you will want this mixture to be quite thick as it will thin out when the frozen peas and carrots are added.

Add the sliced mushrooms, the peas and carrots, and the chicken, then stir in the onion/milk mixture. Check seasonings; add more salt or pepper, if needed, then add approximately 1 tsp of the Herbes de Provence, adjusting seasonings to your own taste. If you don't have Herbes de Provence handy, you may use 1/4 tsp each dried sage, rosemary, parsley, and thyme.

Pour the mixture into a 7" x 11" Pyrex baking dish; form the grain free biscuit dough into 6 or 8 individual "patties" with your hands and layer over the top of the chicken mixture. NOTE: I used only 1 batch of the biscuit dough but may try 1 1/2 batches the next time. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes, or until the chicken mixture is bubbly around the edges and the biscuit topping is firm and turning golden brown.

Hubby had two helpings, while I was satisfied with one (it's very filling!).....and yes, it was DEFINITELY very comforting! :)

How the low carb thing is going

OK, I know I said I'd do low carb but it's been more like "medium-low". So far.

I generally start out well in the morning....I eat a small serving of protein or two in the first couple of hours after waking up: a handful of nuts, some cottage cheese, or a couple of scrambled eggs with salsa are good ways to begin the day.

I haven't been able to quit coffee, although I've thought about it. I was drinking coffee with stevia but have recently gone back to Splenda. Hey, at least it's not aspartame!! :)

Anyway, as the day wears on I continue to nibble occasionally, mostly on protein; I try not eat a meal until dinner time. At that point I'm really hungry, and ready for a meal. Dinners have not been low carb, so far. In the past several days I've made dinners that will be familiar to you if you have been reading this blog for any length of time....easy dinners like Fish Tacos or Mexican Lasagna or even just steak and potatoes.

So, even though I have NOT been perfectly low carb as on the Atkins diet, I have lost FOUR POUNDS since my last post!! YAY!!

Yes, I'm sure it's all water weight too....

Now that I think about it, what I've been doing is almost along the lines of the semi-low-carb diet made popular by the Hellers, a husband-and-wife team of doctors who wrote "The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet". My impression of that diet is that you basically eat two low carb meals per day and then one "regular" meal. So I'm almost doing the Heller diet except I'm gluten free, of course.

For some reason I've been having a lot of headaches lately....I used to have these before I went gluten free but haven't had issues with constant headaches for a while now.

I wonder if it's the Splenda??

Weighty matters

This is a post about weight and diet in the context of gluten free living. Those of you who are the conventional sorts of celiacs, i.e., those who have trouble gaining weight, may decide to skip this. But approximately 40% of celiacs struggle to lose weight....and this post is for you.

Of course, many of you may not have celiac disease, but may simply feel better gluten free. Some of you may be interested in the gluten free diet because you have Lyme disease or MS or fibromyalgia or some other chronic illness and you've heard that the gluten free diet can be helpful for these conditions.

In any case, whatever your reason for visiting my blog, welcome!

This post is really motivated by my own needs.....it's me talking to me. It helps me to just put things down in black and white, step by logical step, so that I have no way to wiggle out of the final conclusions!!

I desperately need to make changes in my current diet; I'm trying to "psyche myself" up to do it.

I've been dealing with weight issues for all of my adult life.....I've always been at least a little bit overweight. But since being put on prednisone for autoimmune hepatitis, Lyrica and Cymbalta for fibromyalgia, and a host of other meds too numerous to list, I've really packed on the pounds.

I've tried many diets over the years, but the only one that really seemed to work for me was a very low carb, high protein diet....the Atkins diet. I always felt good on that diet too; so much better than on any other diet. Several years ago I actually used the Atkins diet to lose 80 pounds!

Then I got sick....and gained back all of the weight I had lost over the next few years. Anyone who's ever been really, seriously chronically ill will realize how easily this could happen; when you feel bad, it's difficult to cook, difficult to shop, etc. You're in pain, so you tend to eat fast food, comfort foods (which are usually high in carbs), easy-to-prepare foods that you don't have to spend a lot of time on.

Due to my unfortunate metabolism, I don't have to eat a lot to gain weight, I just have to eat the wrong things: breads, pastas, potatoes, etc.

In late 2008, when I was first diagnosed with celiac disease, I finally realized why a low carb diet had always made me feel so much better physically....when you're on the Induction phase of the Atkins diet, you're basically gluten free! This makes sense!

So initially I was hoping that just going gluten free would make the pounds magically melt away....but this turns out NOT to be the case, at least for me. And there's a good reason for that: I began my gluten free diet by merely replacing the wheat flour products like bread, pasta, etc., with similar rice flour or corn flour products. Unfortunately, most of the gluten free flours out there are even higher in carbs and lower in protein than wheat flour!

Needless to say I gained weight instead of losing. :(

When I realized that the gluten free flour I was using had a higher glycemic index than wheat flour, I started looking around for alternatives and discovered coconut flour and almond flour.

Elana Amsterdam's blogsite and cookbook are great resources for cooking and baking with almond flour, entirely gluten free. Elana has also begun to post a few recipes with coconut flour and even combos of almond and coconut flour. Bruce Fife is the official coconut flour guru; his cookbook is also invaluable.

So I started cooking with almond flour and coconut flour, which are WAY lower in carbs than other gluten free flours. Did I lose weight?

No. But I did stop gaining!! Which is an important step in the right direction.

Upon reflection, I believe that my remaining dietary issues involve a couple of factors: (1) I have not cut sugars out of my diet, (2) I decided to allow myself to occasionally eat corn products and potatoes.....a bad decision!

This is partially a psychological issue for me; I think I've been feeling sorry for myself because I'm sick (sick and tired of being sick and tired), so I've been comforting myself with foods that I know are bad for me, weight-wise.

Now I just have to knock it off! In my case, I have to stop eating pretty much everything besides meat, fish, poultry, eggs, fresh veggies, with occasional SMALL amounts of tree nuts and fruits. Maybe I can eat dairy too....I don't know yet.

But this just takes me back to comments I read so often on forums at celiac.com....many of the "veteran" members of the community have posted that they ended up following some version of the Paleo Diet or the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, because nothing else worked. Elana herself admits that she cannot indulge freely in the delectable baked goods she posts about on her blogsite. She says that she has to limit her intake of those things and concentrate on protein, veggies and fruit.

Why has it been so difficult for me to get down to brass tacks and make the leap to this sort of diet? I've certainly been able to do it before!

I think part of my problem is that prednisone seems to make me seriously crave carbohydrates....and then there's the chronic illness issue, feeling yucky makes it difficult to cook, etc., etc.

So what's the solution? I have to have access to easy protein and veggies to make this work. This is really not an insurmountable problem; I can throw meat in the Crockpot or ask my hubby to run out and buy a roasted chicken from the supermarket. I can whip up scrambled eggs or toss a salad in just a few minutes. I just need to stick to it and make it work for me.

Making large quantities and then freezing them should help as well; large roasts or several chicken breasts made in the Crockpot will make a number of meals, and this will help me with the exhaustion factor.

It has been hard to cook lately. I'm so tired all the time. After my shower this morning I felt as though I had run a marathon...I was literally trembling with exhaustion. This (overly long) post took me many hours to compose, because I can't type long before I have to stop and rest. Plus I can't remember words anymore.....it's really bad sometimes! Thank goodness for the online thesaurus!! LOL!

OK, it's time to make some dietary changes, whether I feel like it or not. I'll post more soon to let you know how it's going!

P.S. It has occurred to me that a low carb diet may actually increase my energy levels! I used to have more energy when I followed the low carb regimen before! We shall see....

Struggles......the Beauty of Pain, the politics of faith

This post is an incoherent mish-mash of my thoughts....I apologize in advance for it.

I'm losing it.

I didn't post a menu this week....to be honest, I only managed to cook half of the meals I listed for last week!

For days and days now I have been simply overwhelmed by symptoms: vertigo, double vision, nausea, and photosensitivity to the point I have to cover my face with a folder just to be able to ride in a car to a doctor's appointment. And it hurts to breathe....I may have pleurisy on top of everything else.

I haven't been to work for a couple of weeks now. I haven't even turned in my grades from the fall semester! Well, I did enter them into the online system, but I haven't turned in the paper versions yet, which is NOT good. :(

But I've been reading and re-reading a wonderful book by a friend of mine I met online at a Lupus Support Group. The book is the Beauty of Pain by Judy Dillard. Judy's wonderful testimony helps me, as a Christian, to remember that the Lord can turn anything to the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Even chronic pain and illness. Even that.

I don't know what He has in store for me. I have to take one day at a time now, and trust with a child-like faith that the Lord is in control. Because I am no longer in control of my life, my work, my family, my finances.....so He has to be.

I haven't spoken about my faith much on this particular blog; I do have another blog where I post about these things. But I make it clear in my profile that I am a Christian and I still believe in miracles.

Mind you, I'm NOT a Christian in the sense that's portrayed lately by the American media.....I firmly believe that true Christians should stick together, regardless of party affiliations, and agree to disagree about political issues.

Christians (and everyone else for that matter) should always vote as their conscience dictates and then should pray for our leaders whoever they happen to be.

'Nuff said about that stuff. Don't post nasty comments please.