Another great gluten free cookbook

I found another really yummy-looking gluten free cookbook! It's not just baked goods- there's recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner too. The author is Australian, so there are some terms that need to be looked up (sago anyone?), and while the measurements are in grams, they also have them in ounces. Can't wait to start trying these recipes!

Some gluten free baking results

Today I made some corn bread using the Bob's Red Mill gluten free cornbread mix. The instructions called for a 9"x9" pan, which I didn't have, so I used an 8"x8" pan.

The cornbread rose nicely (more than I expected, but probably due to the smaller pan), but the center had problems cooking through. If I use this mix again, I'll use a larger pan so the cornbread will be thinner and hopefully not have problems cooking through.

It tasted best while warm- I ate it with some of the cassoulet I made yesterday and it was good and filling. I had some with my dinner, and it wasn't quite as good cooled down- it seemed to get a bit more dense and moist somehow. Not sure quite how/why that happened.

I also made some pumpkin muffins using a recipe from Gluten Free Baking Classics. With all the cold weather we've had this week, I had a hankering for some pumpkin bread.

Unfortunately, for some reason, canned pumpkin is 'temporarily out of season'. Not sure why, but I looked at 3 or 4 different stores, and no one had any. Luckily my mom had some, so I could go forth with my baking experiment.

The recipe made a dozen muffins, and they rose quite nicely. The texture wasn't quite as thick and dense as I remember pumpkin bread being, but I don't think I'll ever have that again, and the result was good, so I can't complain too much.

What we ate for lunch today

Cassoulet with lots of vegetables, recipe from October 2009 Runner's World.

Very good and gluten free without any tinkering. Meat, beans, and veggies. Perfect for a cold winter-y day. It took about an hour to prepare and cook (a little long for a lunch meal, but good for a dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day), and it wasn't till just before it was done that I realized I should have made some gluten free cornbread to go with it. I have a bag of Bob's Red Mill gluten free cornbread in the cupboard, and will mix it up for lunch tomorrow.

It made a lot more than I was expecting, so we'll have some for tomorrow. I think next time I make it I'll add some brown rice or quinoa.

Next sewing project

Now that I'm down with LMS's Halloween costume, it's time to move on to the next project: re-cover a chair I got a great deal on on craigslist awhile ago. It was a good enough deal to mess with re-covering it, so I went for it. I have to wait for LMS to go to bed before I get started though- need the space to spread out, and I don't want her messing with/stepping on/trying to help.
It's been snowing all day- great big, fluffy white flakes. It's a couple degrees above freezing, though, so it's mostly rain by the time it hits the ground. Only a little bit has actually stuck.
I dug out our coats from storage yesterday, now I think I need to go find the chains and ice scraper too. Gotta be prepared!

Avoiding wasting time

Lately I've been trying to cut down on the time I spend mindlessly wasting time on the internet. My friend brought it up recently, and it's a good thing to think about.

I have a number of blogs that I read- friends, family, gluten free, crafty types, and so on, and I used to click through each one every day to see if they posted anything new. Then I discovered Google reader. I think blogger has a similar feature, but it allows others to see which blogs you follow, and I think that's too much information available- I like to keep this as anonymous as possible.

Anyway, I linked all the blogs I follow into Google reader, and I can see at a glance who has posted since the last time I checked. Since I only do it once a day, usually in the morning, I'm not spending time throughout the day checking and re-checking blogs. This has really cut down on the time I spend online and I've been a lot more productive lately.

The only thing Google reader won't let me do is link to password-protected sites, so I still have to look at those individually, but I only have a few of those to keep track of, so it's not too bad.

Little Miss Sunshine loooves using my camera, and is always taking random pictures. Most of them don't turn out, but occasionally they do. This one of lambie turned out pretty good (for her), and since lambie is a frequent subject of her photos, I thought I'd include it. I'll be glad when Christmas comes and she gets her own camera (already bought, on ebay!).

A dress for lambie

This evening I sewed a dress for LMS's lambie. Now she can dress up in a pretty pink dress too.

This morning we got up really early to take Mr. M to the airport. He's flying out to a job fair- hopefully it'll be productive. I didn't get a lot of sleep, so I wasn't as productive as I could have been. I did manage to get the pink dress materials cleaned up (I'm a messy seamstress) and put away. Now I can move on to the next sewing project: recovering a chair for my parents' room.

Yesterday we had a cold front move in and got some snow! It was cold again today, and the reports are that we'll get several inches of snow tonight. Is summer over already?

Food That Should Taste Good tortilla chips

I've mentioned the sweet potato tortilla chips made by Food That Should Taste Good before. I've finally found some other varieties, and thought I'd mention how much I like them.

The sweet potato chips are very good by themselves. The bag offers suggestions for toppings, but I haven't tried any of them yet.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I tried the chocolate tortilla chips. They were good- not sweet, but you could taste the cocoa. The chocolate and corn made a different, but good, combination. Definitely not your every-day tortilla chip.

The cinnamon chips were another that I wasn't real sure about, but they are very good. The bag suggests topping with hazelnut spread, so I tried some Nutella. Sooooo good! Seriously addictive.

The one variety that I've tried so far that I didn't really care for is the potato & chive. They have a rather strong flavor, which by itself wasn't too bad, but they gave me heartburn. So I won't be eating them again.

There's still lots more varieties to try, the problem is finding them at the store.

This week's projects

This week I managed to keep busy. We went walking/running as a family (Mr. M is trying to get back in shape to pass his PT test next month) most days this week. The investigator finally came around to check on stuff (good news, since this means Mr. M's clearance is getting taken care of finally). I finally fixed the bike trailer- it had a bit of an accident when we did the 50 mile bike ride.





Before fixing.

After glueing fabric behind the hole.









After blacking out the dried glue, so it's not as noticeable. It's not perfect, but it should hold pretty well.





I listed some stuff on ebay, and some of the stuff I listed on half.com last week sold- now I just need the rest to sell.

I spent most of the week working on LMS's Halloween costume. I made a Sleeping Beauty dress for her, which she loves.

This is what I was aiming for, and I think I managed to do pretty well.


I started out with some fabric...
It ended up being a bit more fiddly than I anticipated, since I added and changed quite a few details from the pattern. This meant it took longer than I thought it would. Of course, part of the problem was that I worked on it in the evening after LMS was in bed, so I would reach a point where I needed her to try it on, and would have to stop for the night.In any case, I think it turned out pretty good. And while the materials cost almost as much as a store-bought Sleeping Beauty costume (a good one), I suspect that my fabric and workmanship will hold up a lot better than a store-bought one would.

Betty Crocker gluten free mixes

A few weeks ago my sister made a pineapple upside-down cake using a Betty Crocker gluten free yellow cake mix. It was quite good- better than I was expecting.

This week I finally got around to making the Betty Crocker gluten free brownies that I bought several weeks ago. I followed the high altitude directions, and they turned out pretty good, too. A little bland, which is apparently a problem when baking with rice flour, so I think I'll add some vanilla next time. Another bonus: they're about half the cost of the other gluten free mixes out there.

Two really good books I just read

Gluten-Free Baking Classics by Annalise G. Roberts

Awesome book! There are so many yummy-looking recipes. The recipes for pumpkin bread, gingerbread, oreo cookies, cream puffs, apple cider doughnuts, cinnamon bread, French bread, soft pretzels, and fresh pasta dough (I could make ravioli!) are the ones I'm really looking forward to trying.

The author has given cooking classes, and put a lot of effort into making good gluten free versions of a lot of common recipes. They sure sound good, and she gives detailed instructions on how to make them good (not crummy). I haven't tried any of them yet, but they look sooo good.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Good read, interesting, fast paced, no problems getting into it (unlike with Inkheart). Can't wait to read the second book- I'm on the hold list at the library, but it will still be awhile before it's my turn.

Random cloud thoughts

Driving home from town, I saw some towering clouds (thunderheads?), and got thinking about clouds and their names and the fact that I never really learned that much about clouds. I should have learned about them in 8th grade Physical Science, but my teacher was stupefyingly boring. He would stand in front of the class, look down at his book, look up at the class, and repeat word for word what the book said. Dull and boring as all get out.

Even though I sat in the front row, I took to reading during every class. Since it was a science class we had those black top tables with cubbies that were very convenient for hiding a book. The teacher only asked me a question two or three times, and while I had to have him repeat the question (slightly embarrassing), I was always able to answer the question correctly, so he never gave me a hassle. In any case, I can't remember if we covered clouds, skimmed over them, or skipped them entirely. I should do some reading and learn about them.

Photoshopped family photos

I found a great little tutorial for making pictures more interesting here. This site has a lot of cool photoshop tutorials and classes. I didn't intend to, but I ended up using it on all of these photos. These are from the photo shoot we did at the beginning of August.

This is the pose that we ended up buying- we all managed to smile at the same time.

I liked the white background on this pose, but I didn't like my expression (face all scrunched up).

I love the smile on Little Miss Sunshine's face in this pose.

I love LMS's smile in these pictures, too. The top one shows her dimple very well. I think she looks a lot like her cousin who's 6 months older in the bottom picture.

The resolution/size isn't great on this series, but the pictures are too cute not to play around with. I might try doing it again at a different resolution/size.

Ribbon skirts

Yesterday I made a ribbon skirt for LMS's cousin who had her 2nd birthday party today. I've seen them in stores and decided I could make one pretty easily, which was true.

finished skirt

sequins on the ends

the hair band I found already had sparkly pink flowers attached!

Today I made a mini version for LMS's lambie. LMS is quite excited that lambie can dress up too.

What I accomplished this week

Gluten free
The other day I tried a Lindt Lindor truffle just to see if I would be able to feel the effect of the gluten- yep I could. You wouldn't think there'd be that much barley malt in one little truffle, but there's enough to make my throat swell up (my reaction when I eat gluten). Definitely lends credence to those who say that cross-contamination is an issue- small crumbs do have an effect.

We ate at Chili's for my SIL's birthday last night. Before leaving the house I got online and checked their website for allergen information. They have a specific list of foods that are gluten free, so I printed that off and took it with me. I ordered the honey-bbq ribs, steamed broccoli, and black beans. Yum!

I think I've said it before, but the longer I stay away from gluten, the more my body is able to react to other things it doesn't like. In the past, everything was masked by the gluten. Now that that's out of the picture, other things are now recognizable as a problem. Like M&M's. I'm still trying to pinpoint what it is exactly, but I think it's one of the blue food colors they use in the blue and green M&M's. If I leave those ones alone, I seem to be ok. I checked the M&M's website to see if I could just order brown peanut butter M&M's (my fav), but you can only special order regular M&M's. Meh. Not worth the money.

Little Miss Sunshine
I called her my sweetie yesterday, and she responded by saying 'I not tweetie, I punkin!' Her daddy calls her 'punkin', and apparently she's decided she really likes it.

Projects
I finally sorted and restacked our 30 plus boxes of books. The boxes have started to bend, causing the stacks to tip precariously towards the door. Almost two years of being opened and shifted and stacked has not been good for them. So I went through each box, pulled out books that I didn't want to keep, and made sure each box was as full as possible in an effort to minimize box bending. I then restacked the boxes and put away the various items that had been tossed wherever convenient over the last few months. It's so much neater now, and we're no longer in danger of being squished by an avalanche of boxes of books.

I ended up with two boxes of books to sell/get rid of. I listed them on half.com today, and it went quite fast. You type in the ISBN, the condition, and any remarks about the condition, hit enter, and it brings up all the pertinent info, including a picture if they have one available. You decide a price, hit enter, and it's listed. So quick! Some of the books were old textbooks that I should have sold back to the bookstore after I was done with them, but for whatever reason, didn't. Really should have- I would have got a lot more money for some of them. Oh well.

While I was at it, I also prepped some items for listing on ebay- fall type things like a Halloween costume, boots, etc.

I also gathered up stuff for the yard sale my SIL and I are going to do (next weekend hopefully). I'll take the books that are listed for the least amount on half.com ($.75 is the lowest you can go) and see if I can get rid of them at the yard sale. I also have quite a few I couldn't list on half.com because they're too old and don't have an ISBN. It's nice to de-clutter a bit.

Yesterday I finally got my hair cut- the last time was last October. I've been letting it grow out since then, but the ends were just getting yucky, and it needed some shaping. It looks much better now.

Job Hunt
Mr M met with the investigator, so things are finally moving forward on his clearance. In the meantime, we're updating his resume and making plans for him to attend a job fair that should have a lot of companies that we would be interested in. He really needs to talk to representatives in person- it's too easy for resumes to get lost when submitted online.

Labor Day Weekend

We got back a little bit ago from spending the weekend camping. It was supposed to be just Mr. M, LMS, me, and Mr. M's parents, but for some reason, Mr. M's sister, her husband, their 3 kids, and Mr. M's brother's little girl all ended up coming too. A bit too crowded in the trailer for a truely enjoyable experience, but not horrible. We went to scope out where the guys will be hunting this winter. I've been in the general area before, but never that far out (it was waaaay out in the boonies). It's always good to see other parts of the state you live in.... the kids playing in one of the bunks

More Larabars to try

I recently found a couple new flavors of Larabars at our local health food store: tropical fruit tart and peanut butter and jelly. The tropical fruit tart has a strong flavor of coconut, due to all the bits of coconut, but it also has small chunks of pineapple. Yum! The peanut butter and jelly has peanuts and chunks of cherries. The cherries and pineapple in these two flavors really make it worth going back for another one.

I just got back from checking out the Larabar website (where I got the pictures), and it says they now have mini Larabars. I'm going to have to keep my eyes out for those- LMS likes Larabars, but usually only eats about half of one.

Note cards and photos

Wow, what a difference a non-fuzzy head makes! I was actually able to concentrate this afternoon and spent about 5 or 6 hours making thank you cards. It's been awhile since I've been able to stay focused that long. In that 5 or 6 hours, I was able to make 50 cards. I could have made more, but I ran out of precut cardstock (yes, I cheat that way- so much quicker). I don't need them all right now (we have some long-over-due thank yous that need to be sent asap), but now I have no excuse to put off sending future thank yous- the cards all ready and waiting.

I did 10 purple, 10 green, 10 pink, and 10 blue cards, all of the same type.
There's light purple stamped on the light purple paper, but it's hard to see in the photo.

I experimented with different stamps on the backgrounds. I think they all turned out pretty good.

I stamped the inside also, color coordinating to the front.

I did another 10 cards using these stamps. I just found them Thursday night, and I really like them. The top one has the light purple stamped on the background again. The bottom one I left the background plain, so it doesn't have to be a thank you card.

Earlier in the week I finally got around to cutting apart all our pictures (a lot of them) and writing on the back. Tonight I wrote all the thank yous and included the pictures. Once I track down addresses, I can send them off.

This is the family photo we ended up ordering. I liked the white background better, but this particular one had the best expression on LMS's face. She likes to make faces now, instead of cooperating for pictures.

Fruit isn't always good for me

I've been enjoying the in-season fruit a little too much the last month or so. Cherries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, pears, melons.... Sooo good! Unfortunately for me, just because I'm feeling a lot better since going gluten free, doesn't mean that the yeast is gone. So all that yummy fruit has been feeding the yeast in my body, making me fuzzy headed again. And it was just clearing up from eliminating gluten...

It really is a pity about the fruit. I haven't been able to eat much fruit for the last 10 years or so because of the yeast and gluten problems. Anytime I ate fruit, it would go straight to my bloodstream and make me feel like crap. This past month- there really wasn't a noticeable reaction when I ate fruit. And I do love fruit...

So I've stopped eating fruit again, and have been using Five-lac every night to kill off the yeast, and my brain is feeling clearer already. Hopefully in the future I will be able to carefully indulge in fruit without too many side effects. I'm really hoping that the longer I stay gluten free, the more my body will heal and the better everything will work (ie, work like it should), and maybe I'll be able to actually kick the yeast problem completely.

Books and links for learning about gluten intolerance

I've shared this info with a few siblings, and I've posted some of it before, but I thought I'd bring it all together for anyone who's interested in learning more about being gluten free.

Here's the 3 most helpful books I've read so far, in order of most helpful.

Healthier Without Wheat: A New Understanding of Wheat Allergies, Celiac Disease, and Non-Celiac Gluten Intolerance
by Stephen Wangen
****This is the one written by a doctor with celiac disease, so he really understands the issues.

The Gluten Connection: How Gluten Sensitivity May Be Sabotaging Your Health - And What You Can Do to Take Control NOW
by Shari Lieberman & Linda Segall
****This one talked about the myriad of symptoms that can be associated with gluten intolerance.

The First Year: Celiac Disease and Living Gluten-Free: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed
by Jules E. Dowler Shepard
****This one has good recipes and good basic info.

There's lots of good websites out there, too.
For celiac/gluten intolerance info:
www.celiac.org

For recipes and coping strategies:

glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com recipes, and she wrote a book about her experience with celiac disease

glutenfreemommy.com this one has lots of good recipes, as well as links to other good sites.

glutenfreeda.blogspot.com this one also has good recipes

I just recently came across a few more websites that seem really good, though I've only looked through them a little bit.

glutenfreecookingschool.com I found this when I was looking for a gluten free flat bread recipe. Since I can't eat yeast products, I need a good substitute for regular bread.

glutenfreemom.com I found this one when I was looking for a gluten free mac and cheese recipe. There are boxed gluten free mac and cheese options, but the sauce always tastes off. And homemade mac and cheese is sooo good...

Here's some others I recently came across and haven't looked at much, they seem to have recipes, news, etc.

elanaspantry.com
holdthegluten.net
holdthericecakes.com
glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com
celiacchicks.com
glutenfreeforgood.com

I've been experimenting with different gluten free foods that you can find in the grocery store, some are worth the money, some not. My favorites:

For breakfast
*Vans gluten free blueberry frozen waffles (kind of expensive, but worth it)
*Yoplait yogurt
*Eggs
*Corn or Rice chex (They're even labeled gluten free now! They recently switched from barley malt syrup to rice syrup as the sweetener)
*Gluten free rice crispies (I've tried various 'alternative' gluten free cereals, and have to say they were all disgusting. It's nice to be able to find 'normal' cereals that are gluten free.)
*Cottage cheese
*Gluten free pancakes with unsweetened applesauce (there's several brands of mix, so far, they're all pretty good)

For lunch
*Leftovers from dinner the night before
*Tuna on Glutino cheese or vegetable gluten free crackers (the original and multi grain are disgusting)
*Egg salad on crackers
*Plain yogurt with frozen berries, sliced almonds, and agave nectar
*Fruits and veggies

For dinner
Most recipes can be fairly easily adapted: take out obvious sources of gluten such as pasta, bread, flour tortillas, etc. Less obvious ones to be careful of are soy sauce and canned soups. A lot of canned soups have wheat flour as a thickener, and a main ingredient of soy sauce is wheat. Luckily, there are pretty good gluten free versions of most food items. Tinkyada rice pasta is quite good, and there is some decent gluten free bread, hamburger buns, etc out there as well. I haven't found a really good flour tortilla yet, though I just found one in the freezer section that was a lot better than the only other variety I've been able to find locally. The only other one I've found locally is a plastic-y rice tortilla. I found a recipe to make my own, so I plan on making my own tortillas soon.

Snacks/desserts
Here's where you run into a lot of things that aren't worth the money. The ones I will buy are:
*Sweet Potato tortilla chips from Food That Should Taste Good (so yummy!)
*Rice Works tortilla chips
*Lara bars (apple pie are the best!)
*Most of the crackers I've tried aren't great; the Glutino cheese crackers and vegetable crackers are the best, but they're not absolutely delicious. Some of the cookies are ok, but again, not great. This isn't actually a bad thing- I'm trying to lose weight, so not having crackers and cookies to eat is just fine with me.I can still eat chocolate (is that a good thing or a bad thing?). Ghirardelli chocolate is ok, but Lindt chocolate is not- it's sweetened with barley malt syrup, which gets snuck into a lot of foods. So I can't eat the Lindt Lindor truffles (except the white ones), but I can eat the Ghirardelli milk chocolate peanut butter squares (sooo yummy).
Fast food options
There are some options for eating at fast food restaurants, but not a lot. Cross contamination is definitely an issue to watch out for. I've checked out websites for menu items that are ok, and the best fast food options I've found so far are Wendy's and Chipotle, and for sit-down restaurants, Outback and P.F. Changs are the best so far. I've made up a list of gluten free items available at the mainstream restaurants- if anyone wants a copy, let me know.

Books I've read recently

I haven't been reading as much lately, but here's some of the books I have read.


I recently watched the newest version of Pride and Prejudice (finally!) which got me looking around at similar things, and I found Mr. Darcy's Diary. It's the story of Pride and Prejudice told from Mr. Darcy's point of view, and is rather interesting. I liked how Col. Fitzwilliam and Anne actually have some closure- in the original story you just don't hear much about them.







For our anniversary, I bought myself Blood Promise, the 4th Vampire Academy book, which just happened to come out on that day. I liked it, and it left some hope for things to work out still for Dimitri. I think there's one book left in the series, but since this one just came out, it will be a while before the next one comes out.





I tried reading Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, but just could not get into it. This is unusual, but it does happen every once in awhile. I have the movie in my Netflix queue, and thought I'd read the book first. Guess I'll settle for just watching the movie, and hopefully it'll be better than the book.



I did find some children's books by Cornelia Funke that are quite entertaining. They're not your run-of-the-mill fairy tale. LMS likes them and really enjoys looking at the pictures.







Last time I was in the library I glanced over at the new arrivals and saw a new Dick Francis book. I hadn't realized he was coming out with another so soon- his last one came out not that long ago. Probably a result of teaming up with his son. It was a pretty good book- enjoyable to read.








The most recent book I read was Dreamhunter, which was pretty good. I'm really curious to see what happens in the next book, Dreamquake. There's only the two books, so hopefully it will all be resolved in a satisfactory manner.