Sweet potato fries are very trendy these days and very easy to make.
Ingredients:
Sweet potatoes
Olive oil
Salt
Cumin
Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into thin fry-shaped strips. Place them with a bowl and drizzle them with olive oil (just a bit, you're only keeping them from sticking, not frying them), salt, and cumin to taste (or any other spices you feel like trying - cinnamon is good too). Mix this well to make sure that the olive oil and seasoning are evenly distributed. Spread them out in a single layer in a baking dish or on a cookie sheet. Bake them at 450 F for about 20-25 minutes, until the outsides are crisp and the insides are soft. The outside will start to turn yellow (rather than orange) when they are done.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
"Deep Fried" Zucchini
Not actually deep fried at all, and made with whole grain flour!
Ingredients:
Zucchini
Brown rice flour
Water
Egg
Salt and pepper
Garlic powder
Chili powder
Make a batter out of water, egg, and brown rice flour. It should have the consistency of a pancake batter. In fact, this whole process is a lot like making tiny pancakes that just happen to have a little slice of zucchini inside them. Add garlic powder, chili powder, and salt to taste to the batter. Slice the zucchini into 1/4 inch slices. Coat the zucchini slices in brown rice flour (to help the batter stick), and then dip them in the batter. Cook small batches of zucchini slices in a single layer in a heated frying pan with a little bit of sunflower oil (or whatever you like to use. Just enough so that they don't stick.) Cook for a couple of minutes on each side, until the batter is cooked and lightly browned. The zucchini inside will be soft but not mushy. They're very good with ranch dip or mango chutney.
Ingredients:
Zucchini
Brown rice flour
Water
Egg
Salt and pepper
Garlic powder
Chili powder
Make a batter out of water, egg, and brown rice flour. It should have the consistency of a pancake batter. In fact, this whole process is a lot like making tiny pancakes that just happen to have a little slice of zucchini inside them. Add garlic powder, chili powder, and salt to taste to the batter. Slice the zucchini into 1/4 inch slices. Coat the zucchini slices in brown rice flour (to help the batter stick), and then dip them in the batter. Cook small batches of zucchini slices in a single layer in a heated frying pan with a little bit of sunflower oil (or whatever you like to use. Just enough so that they don't stick.) Cook for a couple of minutes on each side, until the batter is cooked and lightly browned. The zucchini inside will be soft but not mushy. They're very good with ranch dip or mango chutney.
Broccoli Salad
Ingredients:
Broccoli
Bacon (optional, can leave out for vegetarians)
Raisins (also optional. If you don't like raisins, try dried cranberries or slivered almonds.)
Sugar
Vinegar (I use white wine vinegar, but plain white vinegar also works)
Onion
This is my version of the classic broccoli-bacon-other stuff salad, created by studying numerous recipes for it and picking out the ideas and ingredients that I liked.
Before you do anything else, cook 4-5 slices of bacon until crisp and set on a paper towel to dry. Drain the bacon grease, but don't clean the pan. Finely chop one onion and cook it in the bacon pan. If you're making a vegetarian version, heat a bit of olive oil in pan to sautee the onion. Let it cool. Meanwhile, wash and cut about two cups of medium broccoli florets. Immerse the broccoli florets in boiling water for exactly one minute. Immediately drain the broccoli, rinse it in cold water, and then stick it in the freezer for about 5 minutes to stop it from cooking any further. While the broccoli is in the freezer, make the dressing. Take the onion pan, and mix in some sugar and white wine vinegar until it has the taste and consistency that you want. Take the broccoli out of the freezer and drain it again, because more water will have come out of it. If you happen to have a salad spinner, you could probably throw it in the salad spinner. Put the broccoli in a large bowl, crumble the bacon over top of it, and add some raisins if using. Pour the onion-dressing mixture over it and mix well. Refrigerate for about an hour before serving to let the flavors mix. If you like really crispy bacon, don't add the crumbled bacon until just before serving.
Broccoli
Bacon (optional, can leave out for vegetarians)
Raisins (also optional. If you don't like raisins, try dried cranberries or slivered almonds.)
Sugar
Vinegar (I use white wine vinegar, but plain white vinegar also works)
Onion
This is my version of the classic broccoli-bacon-other stuff salad, created by studying numerous recipes for it and picking out the ideas and ingredients that I liked.
Before you do anything else, cook 4-5 slices of bacon until crisp and set on a paper towel to dry. Drain the bacon grease, but don't clean the pan. Finely chop one onion and cook it in the bacon pan. If you're making a vegetarian version, heat a bit of olive oil in pan to sautee the onion. Let it cool. Meanwhile, wash and cut about two cups of medium broccoli florets. Immerse the broccoli florets in boiling water for exactly one minute. Immediately drain the broccoli, rinse it in cold water, and then stick it in the freezer for about 5 minutes to stop it from cooking any further. While the broccoli is in the freezer, make the dressing. Take the onion pan, and mix in some sugar and white wine vinegar until it has the taste and consistency that you want. Take the broccoli out of the freezer and drain it again, because more water will have come out of it. If you happen to have a salad spinner, you could probably throw it in the salad spinner. Put the broccoli in a large bowl, crumble the bacon over top of it, and add some raisins if using. Pour the onion-dressing mixture over it and mix well. Refrigerate for about an hour before serving to let the flavors mix. If you like really crispy bacon, don't add the crumbled bacon until just before serving.
Leftover Beef and Mushroom Stew
Another one from the old food blog, with minor tweaking to make it gluten free.
Ingredients:
Leftover pot roast (or other leftover meat. You can use stewing beef if you don't have any leftovers to work with.)
Mushrooms
Water
Beef broth (check ingredients)
Salt
Soy Sauce (check ingredients)
Dried minced onion
Cornstarch
Shred the beef. You can do this however you want, but I just used my hands to pull it apart into thin pieces. If you are starting with uncooked stewing beef, you can just cut it into chunks and brown it. Slice the mushrooms. Put them in a saucepan with dried minced onion (you could also use fresh minced onion if you felt like chopping onions). Cover with water (or beef broth if you have it, or some combination thereof, or add powdered beef broth...), and add a bit of soy sauce and/or salt. Simmer for about an hour, until the mushrooms are soft and the broth has started to thicken. In a small bowl, mix together some cornstarch and water. Stir this into the the stew, and continue to simmer until the stew has thickened. You can serve over rice, noodles, or mashed potatoes, or with a side of gluten free bread if you have some.
Ingredients:
Leftover pot roast (or other leftover meat. You can use stewing beef if you don't have any leftovers to work with.)
Mushrooms
Water
Beef broth (check ingredients)
Salt
Soy Sauce (check ingredients)
Dried minced onion
Cornstarch
Shred the beef. You can do this however you want, but I just used my hands to pull it apart into thin pieces. If you are starting with uncooked stewing beef, you can just cut it into chunks and brown it. Slice the mushrooms. Put them in a saucepan with dried minced onion (you could also use fresh minced onion if you felt like chopping onions). Cover with water (or beef broth if you have it, or some combination thereof, or add powdered beef broth...), and add a bit of soy sauce and/or salt. Simmer for about an hour, until the mushrooms are soft and the broth has started to thicken. In a small bowl, mix together some cornstarch and water. Stir this into the the stew, and continue to simmer until the stew has thickened. You can serve over rice, noodles, or mashed potatoes, or with a side of gluten free bread if you have some.
Apple Butter
Not butter at all. Make this in the fall when the farmer's market is overflowing with apples.
Ingredients:
Apples
Brown sugar
Cinnamon
Salt
Peel, core, and chop about two pounds of apples into small pieces. Place the apple chunks in a slow cooker and cover with about two cups of brown sugar. Add a pinch of salt and some cinnamon to taste. Cook on high for about half an hour to an hour, then cook on low for about 10 hours (overnight is good time to do this). Take the lid off. You will have a melted sugar-apple juice mixture small apple chunks floating in it. Using a hand blender (and being careful not to splatter hot sugar stuff on yourself), blend until smooth and no apple chunks remain. Leave the cover off and cook on high until the apple butter has thickened to a spreadable consistency (this may take 2-3 more hours). Refrigerate or freeze. You could also seal it in jars for long-term storage. You can use this like as a spread like jam, as an ice cream topping, as a filling for pies or tarts, as a compliment to meat and fish, as a dip for celery sticks, etc.
Ingredients:
Apples
Brown sugar
Cinnamon
Salt
Peel, core, and chop about two pounds of apples into small pieces. Place the apple chunks in a slow cooker and cover with about two cups of brown sugar. Add a pinch of salt and some cinnamon to taste. Cook on high for about half an hour to an hour, then cook on low for about 10 hours (overnight is good time to do this). Take the lid off. You will have a melted sugar-apple juice mixture small apple chunks floating in it. Using a hand blender (and being careful not to splatter hot sugar stuff on yourself), blend until smooth and no apple chunks remain. Leave the cover off and cook on high until the apple butter has thickened to a spreadable consistency (this may take 2-3 more hours). Refrigerate or freeze. You could also seal it in jars for long-term storage. You can use this like as a spread like jam, as an ice cream topping, as a filling for pies or tarts, as a compliment to meat and fish, as a dip for celery sticks, etc.
Slow Roasted Root Vegetables With Jalapeno-Raspberry Garlic Butter
Found this on my old pre-celiac food blog. I really love roasted veggies and I'll probably have a lot of different recipes for them on here.
Ingredients
One turnip, peeled and diced
Three carrot, peeled or not and cut into 1/4-inch slices
Three parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
Half a green cabbage, thinly chopped
One finely chopped onion
Two thinly sliced green onions
Sauce ingredients:
1/4 cup of butter (use olive oil if you're dairy free)
1/4 cup of raspberry salad dressing
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce (check ingredients, Heinz is usually safe - also note that most kinds are not vegetarian - there's anchovy paste in it, so it out or substitute some red wine vinegar if you're making this vegetarian)
2-3 pickled jalapeño slices or more if you like it spicy (mince them using a garlic press)
6-8 minced garlic cloves
salt and pepper to taste
You can change the vegetables around if you want. Put the vegetables in a medium roasting pan. To make the sauce, melt the sauce ingredients over medium-low heat until well-blended. Pour over vegetables in roasting pan and mix well. Roast at 325 degrees until all vegetables are soft, about 90 minutes. Stir every 20 minutes or so to make sure the sauce is well-blended into the vegetables and to keep the cabbage from burning.
Ingredients
One turnip, peeled and diced
Three carrot, peeled or not and cut into 1/4-inch slices
Three parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
Half a green cabbage, thinly chopped
One finely chopped onion
Two thinly sliced green onions
Sauce ingredients:
1/4 cup of butter (use olive oil if you're dairy free)
1/4 cup of raspberry salad dressing
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce (check ingredients, Heinz is usually safe - also note that most kinds are not vegetarian - there's anchovy paste in it, so it out or substitute some red wine vinegar if you're making this vegetarian)
2-3 pickled jalapeño slices or more if you like it spicy (mince them using a garlic press)
6-8 minced garlic cloves
salt and pepper to taste
You can change the vegetables around if you want. Put the vegetables in a medium roasting pan. To make the sauce, melt the sauce ingredients over medium-low heat until well-blended. Pour over vegetables in roasting pan and mix well. Roast at 325 degrees until all vegetables are soft, about 90 minutes. Stir every 20 minutes or so to make sure the sauce is well-blended into the vegetables and to keep the cabbage from burning.
A note about baking by weight
I am not primarily a baker. I'm much more into the non-dessert, non-bread aspect of cooking, but I do bake sometimes (especially pizza crust and flatbreads). Other people who are much better at baking than I am (including Shauna over at http://glutenfreegirl.com/) have found that gluten free baked goods come out much better if you measure flours by weight rather than volume. This also makes it easier to substitute one flour for another, because they can have quite different densities.
Weighing things may seem really sciencey and intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. I find it easier to do because you can just stick your mixing bowl on the scale and zero it each time you start adding a new flour, and you don't have to bother with measuring cups and sifters. I strongly recommend that you bake by weight, and all of my recipes for baked goods will include weights. You don't need some sort of fancy high tech scale either. I bought mine at Canadian Tire for $10, and as an added bonus I can also use it split skeins of sock yarn in half by weight, so it's a multipurpose piece of equipment.
However, I know that some of you will absolutely refuse to bake by weight. I will try to also include approximate volume measurements, but if I ever don't, this is an approximate conversion you can use:
140 grams = 1 cup
105 grams = 3/4 cup
70 grams = 1/2 cup
35 grams = 1/4 cup
Hopefully you can interpolate a bit from there. This will also help you convert regular wheat flour recipes to gluten free recipes if you're really into baking. Just use 140 grams of gluten free flours for every 1 cup of white flour a recipe calls for. I really want to emphasize, though, that your will get much better and more consistent results with your baked goods if you bake by weight.
Weighing things may seem really sciencey and intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. I find it easier to do because you can just stick your mixing bowl on the scale and zero it each time you start adding a new flour, and you don't have to bother with measuring cups and sifters. I strongly recommend that you bake by weight, and all of my recipes for baked goods will include weights. You don't need some sort of fancy high tech scale either. I bought mine at Canadian Tire for $10, and as an added bonus I can also use it split skeins of sock yarn in half by weight, so it's a multipurpose piece of equipment.
However, I know that some of you will absolutely refuse to bake by weight. I will try to also include approximate volume measurements, but if I ever don't, this is an approximate conversion you can use:
140 grams = 1 cup
105 grams = 3/4 cup
70 grams = 1/2 cup
35 grams = 1/4 cup
Hopefully you can interpolate a bit from there. This will also help you convert regular wheat flour recipes to gluten free recipes if you're really into baking. Just use 140 grams of gluten free flours for every 1 cup of white flour a recipe calls for. I really want to emphasize, though, that your will get much better and more consistent results with your baked goods if you bake by weight.
Black Bean Soup (Can be vegetarian)
Bacon and hot peppers are optional. Serves 2-4.
Ingredients:
1 large onion, diced
1-2 tsp oil or butter
1 large can black beans (or equivalent cooked dry black beans)
1 cup water or broth (make sure to read the ingredients if using commercial broth)
1/4 cup salsa or tomato sauce (again, read ingredients)
Minced jalapeno to taste (I take canned jalapeno slices and put them through a garlic press. Leave this out if you don't want it hot.)
Optional garnishes: Salsa, chopped fresh tomatoes, crumbled crisp bacon, sour cream, grated cheese, sliced green onions or chives, crushed corn tortilla chips (watch out for non-gluten free multigrain chips)
In a large saucepan, sautee the onion in oil or butter until it becomes translucent. Add beans, water or broth, and tomato sauce or salsa. Simmer over medium heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently. Add more liquid if you want a less chunky soup. Ladle into bowls and top with garnishes of choice.
Ingredients:
1 large onion, diced
1-2 tsp oil or butter
1 large can black beans (or equivalent cooked dry black beans)
1 cup water or broth (make sure to read the ingredients if using commercial broth)
1/4 cup salsa or tomato sauce (again, read ingredients)
Minced jalapeno to taste (I take canned jalapeno slices and put them through a garlic press. Leave this out if you don't want it hot.)
Optional garnishes: Salsa, chopped fresh tomatoes, crumbled crisp bacon, sour cream, grated cheese, sliced green onions or chives, crushed corn tortilla chips (watch out for non-gluten free multigrain chips)
In a large saucepan, sautee the onion in oil or butter until it becomes translucent. Add beans, water or broth, and tomato sauce or salsa. Simmer over medium heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently. Add more liquid if you want a less chunky soup. Ladle into bowls and top with garnishes of choice.
Watermelon and Feta Salad (Dairy Free Option)
Light and refreshing for a summer day that's too hot for cooking and eating. Amounts are variable. Just mix thing in until it tastes good. Allow 1/2 cup to 1 cup per person as a side dish, depending on what else you're serving.
Ingredients
Fresh watermelon in bite-sized chunks
Crumbled feta cheese (try shredded coconut if you don't eat dairy)
Chopped fresh mint or crumbled dried mint (optional, leave it out if you hate mint)
White wine vinegar (can substitute other vinegars, but this one is my favorite)
Mix the watermelon, feta or coconut, and mint together in a serving bowl. Drizzle white wine vinegar over top and serve.
Ingredients
Fresh watermelon in bite-sized chunks
Crumbled feta cheese (try shredded coconut if you don't eat dairy)
Chopped fresh mint or crumbled dried mint (optional, leave it out if you hate mint)
White wine vinegar (can substitute other vinegars, but this one is my favorite)
Mix the watermelon, feta or coconut, and mint together in a serving bowl. Drizzle white wine vinegar over top and serve.
What is gluten and where is it hiding?
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and sometimes oats. The problem with oats is two-fold. Most oats are milled using the same equipment that is used for wheat, and so they are contaminated with pieces of wheat. Therefore, we can't eat them. It is possible to get wheat-free oats (they're pretty expensive), but that doesn't work for everyone because oats contain a protein called avenin that is similar to the gluten in wheat, barley, and rye. Some celiacs have no problem with it, but some react to it. For that reason, most dietitians will recommend that you avoid oats for a year or so after you are diagnosed before trying them to see how you do. And if you are having a celiac over for dinner, I would recommend just avoiding oats entirely because they wheat-free ones are pricey and sometimes hard to find, and you wouldn't want to go to all of the trouble of getting them only to find out that your friend reacts to wheat-free oats and can't eat what you made.
Of course, like everything in life, avoiding wheat, barley, rye, and maybe oats is not always so straightforward. You need to read the ingredients on everything, even if it's something you've bought before, because ingredients can change. I even read the ingredients of things that are in my cupboards before I use them because it's such a habit for me by now. Some people think that's obsessive, but I once ate a couple of pieces of non-gluten free cereal and was sick for about a week, so there's no such thing as being too careful.
This is not a complete list, but here are a few things to watch out for:
-Anything made with wheat flour (white bread is still made from wheat, even though it doesn't say "whole wheat" on the bag
-Some corn tortillas have wheat flour added to them (but corn tortillas without wheat flour are okay)
-Wheat-based pasta
-Gravy is usually made with flour, although it's very easy to substitute cornstarch or rice flour if you're making it from scratch
-Anything breaded
-Couscous (it's made from wheat)
-Barley malt extract/malt extract/malt flavoring
-LINDT TRUFFLES have barley malt extract in them, so don't eat them (but some of the Lindt chocolate bars are okay, just read the ingredients)
-RICE KRISPIES have barley malt extract in them. You'd think they would be okay because they're rice, but they're not. Same with corn flakes and basically every mainstream cereal, except gluten-free Chex the new gluten-free Rice Krispies if you're luck enough to live somewhere where you can get them.
-Soy sauce usually has wheat (in Canada, VH soy sauce is okay as of right now)
-Chinese food usually has gluten in it because of the soy sauce issue, so make sure to ask about the ingredients before eating it
-Canned soup (tomato soup has flour, cream of mushroom soup has flour, it's actually pretty hard to find a can of soup without flour in it)
-Sausages/hot dogs/burgers/meatballs often have bread crumbs in them
-Veggie burgers and veggie meat substitutes often have wheat in them
-Beer is made from barley and/or and contains gluten (unless it's gluten-free beer and it's clearly market as such). Some people mysteriously thing it's still okay to cook with beer, but I think they're confusing alcohol with gluten. The alcohol cooks out, but the gluten does not.
-Brewer's yeast is a bi-product of beer making and is not gluten free
-Malt vinegar is made from beer and is not gluten free. Other vinegars are fine.
-Worcestershire sauce sometimes contains malt vinegar and/or soy sauce depending on the brand, so read the ingredients carefully.
-Powdered broths and flavorings are not always gluten free.
-Imitation bacon bits are usually made from a combination of soy and wheat flour, so read carefully.
-Bulgur is a form of wheat
-Salad dressings can sometimes have gluten ingredients, especially "Asian"-type ones because of the soy sauce
Feel free to comment if I've missed a frequent source of hidden gluten, but those are the ones that I seem to encounter most frequently.
So what can you eat? Anything without gluten! There are gluten free versions of seemingly every gluten containing food out there, but a lot of them are expensive and full of sugar and starch and fat, so I mostly eat things that are naturally gluten free. This includes, but is not limited to:
-Vegetables
-Fruit
-Nuts and seeds
-Meat, fish, etc
-Eggs
-Dairy products
-Brown rice pasta
-Quinoa
-Millet
-Rice
-Teff
-Corn
-Beans
-Lentils
-Chickpeas (they're beans, but I love them so much that they get their own line)
-Tofu and soy products (I mostly avoid them because too much soy seems to give me stomach cramps, so you won't find too many tofu recipes on here, but you can eat it)
-Buckwheat (despite the name, it has nothing to do with wheat)
-Sugar
-Chocolate (read the ingredients)
-Tapioca
-Gelatin (I've met a number of people who haven't realized that it was safe, but it is)
-Potatoes and sweet potatoes (some people get gluten mixed up with carbs, but potatoes, rice, etc are all fine)
-Arrowroot (not those arrowroot cookies, because they have wheat flour in them, but you can cook with arrowroot starch)
-"Glutinous" rice - it's only called that because it's sticky
And many more things. Leave your favorites in the comments!
Of course, like everything in life, avoiding wheat, barley, rye, and maybe oats is not always so straightforward. You need to read the ingredients on everything, even if it's something you've bought before, because ingredients can change. I even read the ingredients of things that are in my cupboards before I use them because it's such a habit for me by now. Some people think that's obsessive, but I once ate a couple of pieces of non-gluten free cereal and was sick for about a week, so there's no such thing as being too careful.
This is not a complete list, but here are a few things to watch out for:
-Anything made with wheat flour (white bread is still made from wheat, even though it doesn't say "whole wheat" on the bag
-Some corn tortillas have wheat flour added to them (but corn tortillas without wheat flour are okay)
-Wheat-based pasta
-Gravy is usually made with flour, although it's very easy to substitute cornstarch or rice flour if you're making it from scratch
-Anything breaded
-Couscous (it's made from wheat)
-Barley malt extract/malt extract/malt flavoring
-LINDT TRUFFLES have barley malt extract in them, so don't eat them (but some of the Lindt chocolate bars are okay, just read the ingredients)
-RICE KRISPIES have barley malt extract in them. You'd think they would be okay because they're rice, but they're not. Same with corn flakes and basically every mainstream cereal, except gluten-free Chex the new gluten-free Rice Krispies if you're luck enough to live somewhere where you can get them.
-Soy sauce usually has wheat (in Canada, VH soy sauce is okay as of right now)
-Chinese food usually has gluten in it because of the soy sauce issue, so make sure to ask about the ingredients before eating it
-Canned soup (tomato soup has flour, cream of mushroom soup has flour, it's actually pretty hard to find a can of soup without flour in it)
-Sausages/hot dogs/burgers/meatballs often have bread crumbs in them
-Veggie burgers and veggie meat substitutes often have wheat in them
-Beer is made from barley and/or and contains gluten (unless it's gluten-free beer and it's clearly market as such). Some people mysteriously thing it's still okay to cook with beer, but I think they're confusing alcohol with gluten. The alcohol cooks out, but the gluten does not.
-Brewer's yeast is a bi-product of beer making and is not gluten free
-Malt vinegar is made from beer and is not gluten free. Other vinegars are fine.
-Worcestershire sauce sometimes contains malt vinegar and/or soy sauce depending on the brand, so read the ingredients carefully.
-Powdered broths and flavorings are not always gluten free.
-Imitation bacon bits are usually made from a combination of soy and wheat flour, so read carefully.
-Bulgur is a form of wheat
-Salad dressings can sometimes have gluten ingredients, especially "Asian"-type ones because of the soy sauce
Feel free to comment if I've missed a frequent source of hidden gluten, but those are the ones that I seem to encounter most frequently.
So what can you eat? Anything without gluten! There are gluten free versions of seemingly every gluten containing food out there, but a lot of them are expensive and full of sugar and starch and fat, so I mostly eat things that are naturally gluten free. This includes, but is not limited to:
-Vegetables
-Fruit
-Nuts and seeds
-Meat, fish, etc
-Eggs
-Dairy products
-Brown rice pasta
-Quinoa
-Millet
-Rice
-Teff
-Corn
-Beans
-Lentils
-Chickpeas (they're beans, but I love them so much that they get their own line)
-Tofu and soy products (I mostly avoid them because too much soy seems to give me stomach cramps, so you won't find too many tofu recipes on here, but you can eat it)
-Buckwheat (despite the name, it has nothing to do with wheat)
-Sugar
-Chocolate (read the ingredients)
-Tapioca
-Gelatin (I've met a number of people who haven't realized that it was safe, but it is)
-Potatoes and sweet potatoes (some people get gluten mixed up with carbs, but potatoes, rice, etc are all fine)
-Arrowroot (not those arrowroot cookies, because they have wheat flour in them, but you can cook with arrowroot starch)
-"Glutinous" rice - it's only called that because it's sticky
And many more things. Leave your favorites in the comments!
How To Use This Blog
If you are newly diagnosed or if you're on here because you're trying to cook for someone else who can't eat gluten, don't panic! Look over on the side to the list of labels, and click on the one called "no special ingredients". This will give you all of the recipes that don't require special flours or xanthan gum or things you haven't heard of. There will be some complicated recipes on here, because sometimes I like to figure out how to make complicated things, but for the most part the recipes on here will be simple and healthy. Sometimes ingredients are approximate, because that's how I cook. I'll try to go back and add pictures in as I cook things, but for now I'm just posting all of the recipes in my repertoire so that they're out there for people to use. If you have questions, leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer!
What is celiac disease?
First of all, celiac disease is different from a food allergy. It's an autoimmune disease, and in order to have it, three things must occur: you must have one of the genes for celiac disease, you must have eaten gluten, and something must have happened to trigger your body to start reacting to gluten. I'll get into what exactly gluten is in another post, but basically it is a protein that is found in wheat, barley, rye and sometimes oats. If you have celiac disease and you eat gluten, your body thinks it is some kind of foreign invader and responds by destroying the lining of your small intestine. As you can imagine, this causes all kinds of bad things to happen.
For a much better description of all of the details than I could give you, check out this website: http://www.celiacdiseasecenter.columbia.edu/A_Patients/A01-HOME.htm and go through all of the links on the left side of the page. Dr. Peter Green is one of world's leading experts on the disease and has written an excellent book called "Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic" that I recommend if you are really interested in learning a lot more. However, keep in mind the following very important consideration:
IF YOU THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE CELIAC DISEASE, YOU NEED TO SEE A DOCTOR BEFORE CUTTING GLUTEN OUT OF YOUR DIET. This is very important. I am not a doctor (although I will be in a few years, I still won't be able to give you medical advice over the internet) and a recipe blog is not a substitute for medical tests. In order to be properly tested for celiac disease, you must still have gluten in your diet. If you are not eating gluten, the test results will be meaningless because once you have been off of gluten for long enough, the damage in your body is repaired and the tests won't find it. The reason this is so important is that some other medical conditions can cause similar symptoms, and you need to know if your problem is celiac disease or something else so that you can be properly treated for it. I met someone in an online support group who thought she had celiac disease, so she stopped eating gluten, but after a year she wasn't really improving so she decided to go to her doctor and get tested. She had to eat gluten for about two months so that the tests would be accurate. It turned out she had an intestinal hernia. She was treated for that and now she's fine, but if she had just gone to her doctor in the first place she could have saved herself over a year of being sick needlessly. Some people still need to eat gluten free because they have a wheat allergy, or non-celiac gluten intolerance, or another medical condition that's helped by eating gluten free, the path to finding out why you're sick will be a lot easier if you get tested first before you cut gluten out of your diet.
About Me
I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2008. I was sick for nearly 20 years, but no one could figure out what was wrong with me so I think most people eventually decided I was faking it. But in fall of 2008, I went to a new doctor because I was just tired and sick all of the time, and it seemed to have been getting worse, and I had a history of hypothyroidism and iron-deficiency anemia. She did some blood tests, and found out that my iron levels were very low. After putting me on increasing levels of iron supplements and seeing my levels just keep dropping (at one point I was taking 900 mg of ferrous sulfate a day - that's a lot!), she knew something else was going on and tested me for celiac disease. Mystery solved! That sounds somewhat anti-climactic, but it really changed my whole life. I had been sick for so long that I didn't even really know how sick I was. It's hard to describe if you haven't been through it, but things that I thought were just normal because they had been that way for as long as I could remember (having stomach cramps all the time, not being able to sleep, being anxious all the time, going to the bathroom 6-8 times a day) suddenly changed. It really was incredible.
I was also able to lose weight for the first time ever. The stereotypical person with celiac disease is skinny and can't gain weight, but I had the opposite problem. Even though I didn't eat very much, I was really overweight. I figured it was just because of my thyroid problem. But turns out it wasn't. I was at my heaviest weight when I was diagnosed with celiac disease, and I've lost quite a bit of weight since then and I'm still losing. Lately the number on the scale has leveled off a bit because I've been doing some strength training, but my pants still keep getting smaller. Most of my recipes are pretty healthy and contain a lot of vegetables (but there will be some deserts, because we all get asked to bring desert to a potluck from time to time and you want to bring something you can eat!). I'm not a vegetarian, but I eat like one sometimes. And most of my recipes will be dairy free or have a dairy free option because I'm slightly lactose intolerant and so I limit my intake of dairy products. It is important to get enough calcium in your diet if you have celiac disease because you're at an increased risk of osteoporosis from the years of malabsorption you've probably had, but there are lots of non-dairy sources of calcium. By the way, if you do have celiac disease, it's very important to see a dietician so that you know what you can and can't eat and to make sure you're including sources of all the nutrients you need in your diet!
Aside from cooking gluten free food, I enjoy knitting, crocheting, reading, writing, swimming, running/walking, yoga, playing the violin, drawing with pastels, and dancing. I'm pretty good at some of those things and not-so-good at others, but I have fun with all of them. I'm starting medical school in a few weeks and I have a PhD in astronomy.
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