Jessica’s Chicken

Chef Jessica designed this dish while shopping for groceries this afternoon.

It was good : )  and Gluten free. And yummy.  Would have been good with rice too, but maybe next time.

Chicken and beans

step one:

1 can pinto beans

1 C pasta sauce (we used Classico tomato and basil)

Warmed through in a saucepan. Served along side the baked chicken.

Step two:

2 organic, free-range chicken breasts.

Put the chicken in a well oiled baking dish. Spray the chicken with an oil spritzer so that the spice mix sticks.

Mix in a small dish, the following spices:

• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• pinch of ginger
• pinch of lemon pepper
• pinch of salt
• pinch of dill weed
• 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
• another pinch of salt

Sprinkle the spice mix on both sides of the chicken. Add a chopped onion over the top of the chicken in the baking dish. Add 1/4 cup of  chicken broth.

Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until baked through.

CELIAC- things I find useful

Here is a list of things that *help* .   Having them say “Go gluten free, and good luck with that” at the doctor’s office was not helpful. At all. Ever. Still not very helpful over there at doctor central, so I wrote this out for them to give to their newly diagnosed persons.

This list IS helpful. Pass it on.

========================================

• Start here——>   http://www.triumphdining.com/glutenfree/gluten-free-foods.php and BUY the grocery guide. It’s completly worth it, and will save you months of research. Seriously. Make it easy for yourself.

• –Gluten Intolerance Group–

http://www.gluten.net – they have a lot of handouts that you can reprint

• –www.csaceliacs.org

• –Unendingly helpful book: Recognizing Celiac Disease, Cleo Libonati

(www.glutenfreeworks.com)

• --Very helpful book: Celiac Disease, Peter Greene, MD

www.celiacdiseasecenter.org
Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University
Harkness Pavilion
180 Fort Washington Avenue
New York New York 10032
212.342.4529

• –http://www.celiac.com – good reference website for all things celiac

–Best magazine: www.livingwithout.com

--Best cookbook: You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten Free- Roben Ryberg

–More cookbooks, anything by Bette Hageman

–Helpful: Gluten Free, For Dummies. (sadly, it’s pretty helpful)

–http://www.celiacsite.com/index.php3 – they put out a free newsletter that lists mainstream products that are gluten free….. very helpful.

–Amazon.com has 4,000 products in their online store listed as gluten free

–Betty Crocker released 4 new mixes in the baking section, 2 cakes, 1 cookie mix and a brownie mix., all gluten free. And delicious.

–Chex cereals have gone gluten free as of June 2009: Rice Chex and Chocolate Chex as well as Honey-Nut, Strawberry, and Cinnamon Chex are now *safe*

Real Bread, people! REAL ACTUAL BREAD

I love the sandwich buns I make with the wonder dough recipe, and the pizza crust, and I like the flax seed flat bread too… but this is a moment.. seriously. .. to think about SLICED BREAD.

I don’t think there is a mountaintop close enough for me to scream off of… but we have achieved

sliceable/ “REAL BREAD” / PEOPLE!

It baked in a loaf pan just like it knew what it was doing. OMG. and my family said: “it looks like bread.”

Sure it does. Finally.  If you have sunk so low as to actually LIKE the bricks of the substance they claim to be bread on the gluten-free shelf at the store, then do I have a wake up call for you. I am sorry, but having to pay $6 + for a loaf of bread that has to be toasted to be edible, and smells like a wet dog when toasted? yeah. I vote no. And why would I want a shelf life of 4 years on my bread? eew.

Buy a loaf pan. Bake it yourself.  Really.Slice and freeze it once a week would give you sandwiches and whatever, when you wanted it. I made grilled cheese sandwiches for the first time in THREE  years. Yes I am a happy camper.

I am doing a cost analysis on this recipe.  It’s not  completely done, but it’s close to $2.50. Same as the wheat bread that I used to buy off the shelf.  My budget loves me again.

Bread is life

• 1 T yeast
• 2 T sugar
• 1 C warm water
• 1/2 C warm hemp milk
• 4 T oil
• 1 tsp vinegar

Mix the yeast, sugar and water together, add oil and vinegar and all the dry ingredients.

• 3/4 C brown rice flour
• 2 T ground flax meal (gives it that “wheat” look)
• 1 1/4 C potato starch
• 1/2 C millet flour
• 2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg (replaced with flax meal + HOT water)

 Mix well. Pour batter into well oiled and floured (rice flour)  loaf pan. let rise for 20 minutes. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

When completely cooled….. slice and freeze.

***UPDATE***

I tested the “leave it out on the counter” theory.. and I am less than impressed. It seemed dry even though it had spent it’s very short life in a sandwich bag. And, although zapping the slice back to life in the microwave for 8 seconds did seem to revive it, I still recommend slicing the bread and keeping what you might use for a day or two in the refrigerator. Ziplock bags work great for this. But freezing the slices  for bread on demand is even better.

What to do with the leftovers?

Christmas dinner for days. That’s the plan anyway. I think there are enough leftovers to make at least 3 more just “reheat it”  lunches/dinners. How can I reinvent ham and potatoes into other things. hmmmm… lessee….

There is enough at least to make:

• ham and cheese sandwiches, grilled with lettuce and tomato on top
• potato soup will morph from the leftover scalloped potatoes somehow- probably with some chicken stock and more onion
• pea soup…. always a favorite.
• Cabbage and potatoes is good with sausage – there is some of that too…….
• the always popular bento box lunch of rice and rolled ham with a side of green beans

This was 10 pound spiral ham and probably 5 pounds of potatoes … and it’s going to last for weeks. (::::sigh:::::) Maybe I should do this more than once a year, and fill the freezer with pea soup. LOL.not.

Note to self: figure out how to make TVdinners that survive the freeze/reheat cycle. What container would work.     hmmmmm, something to figure out this week.  Those 1/2 cup Gladware containers are great for my lunches.. but I need something bigger for other people who troll the freezer  for food.

So if I add a cabbage to what is already in the fridge and cupboards – I can make any of those ideas and not have to buy any other groceries until the new year. Crazy.

Oats are out!

Oh. my. goodness. No. Not ever.

I can’t eat oats ever again… or wheat apparently… or whatever else it is on “the” list.

Yikes. “Challenge wheat for 7 days” says the doctor for the upcoming test on Monday. My first reaction was”are you crazy? it makes me sick!” then I thought about it.. sure, okay fine… screw up my intestines one more time for old times sakes… let them find all the stupid damage they want to find and *poof*, I’ll be a certified celiac. Gimmeeeeeee a break. I already know all gluten makes me feel totally out of whack – so lets prove it on a test. fine. whatever.

I tried to sneak some gluten into my day at home and actually… there isn’t any here. I have cleaned out the cupboards so well that we only had a loaf of wheat bread. Not noodles, not cookies, not anything recognizable as “test wheat”. So I went out.

Yes. so I went out for a gluten laden lunch yesterday. Ate the whole extra large sandwich. Immediately felt unwell.

Scarfed down a handful of those yummy new Cheetos crackers. Wow are they good with all their yummy MSG, dairy, wheaty goodness. Actually, I can’t believe I used to eat this stuff.

As I TRIED to fall asleep last night, I could feel the burning -actually painful- intestines churning away at the garbage that I had eaten. ::::sigh:::: yeah, I need a test to tell me this is bad for me.

 And then, to further punish myself….I had oatmeal for breakfast- and I felt like I needed to throw up.  (Note: UPDATE: the “gluten free” oats also made me violently ill when attempted in July. At least I tried the alternative oats too. :::::::::sigh::::::: good thing WF is nice about returns!)

Really disturbing couple of days actually. I finally ate some vegetables this afternoon to chase out the other gluten laced things. I hope I feel better tonight.

Bleah. I hope they find a billion flattened villi on Monday. My luck, though, it will be “questionable results”.

I don’t think I can stand the excitement.

Rotating menus

Wow. I didn’t think I would get sick of my spicy lamb meatball curry.. but after three days of eating the leftovers, I am getting really tired of it. Oh well.

Back to the rotating menus.

What I was doing before was easy enough, I’ll just go back to that. I set up a spreadsheet for the week and listed Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks across the top.

Then we just plugged in the various recipe ideas and planned for leftovers to go in the freezer to rotate later. It was easier to see what the grocery list really should have on it rather than wander the store aimlessly trying to concoct menus off the store shelves.  This is impossible to do anymore because of all the restrictions, but old habits are hard to break. “oh, that looks good. I’ll just throw that into the basket and keep shopping” … um.. not anymore without reading the label first. LOL

I actually go to seven different grocery stores, because NONE of them carries the whole line of gluten free, egg free, corn free, soy free everything that I need to create food in this house. Some of it, like coconut milk from the international market I stock up on once a month or so, and so “no ” I don’t actually go to seven grocery stores every week!-  that would be crazy. I just stock up on what each one of them has that works here, and get the fresh veggies once a week. More like that. I can’t wait for the farmer’s market season to open!!!

It is actually getting easier, but keeping a running record of what I do eat along with  the planning ahead menu chart is the only way I can keep it sane. Well, sane enough for me anyway. Your mileage may vary.

The best thing that I have done really is keep track of what recipes work in a large three ring binder.  Some of them just don’t work out. Or they were gross. So it’s a work in progress. Like the muffins that are new this week. That’s a keeper recipe! 

So I keep the recipe until the ingredients cannot be found. What is up with the guar gum anyway? The “how to be corn free” stuff keeps mentioning using guar gum as a replacement for xanthan gum (which is based on corn)……….. where on the planet is this stuff located?? Four health food stores so far, and I am giving up the search for it. Maybe as a last resort, I’ll order some online. The shipping is ridiculous, but then I would have some anyway.

Just as a side note… Plumgood foods – online grocery store that DELIVERS… actually carries the enjoylife choc. chips that I have been looking for!! six months at the store? or two minutes online… let me think. And they deliver. Whoo!