Updated labeling at Aldis!

Today I went to do some price comparisons at Aldi's. I was so happy to find out that they are upgrading their labels to include gluten free information!

I have been learning how to do frugal shopping and cooking, to the tune of cutting my GF food bill in half! That is a big deal for us, because we are saving up money for our first home, so cutting that food budget in half is definitely helping.

Before I started aggressively learning to cut my food bill, we would often spend about 1/3 of our take home pay on food.

I am going to start a series of posts on tips to cut your food bill while remaining gluten free and vegetarian.

More on that to come in my next post!

2 great dishes in one day!

I started cooking food to prepare for Sabbath today.

I decided to make GF "Special K" loaf and a vanilla pudding pie with a graham cracker crust. Special K loaf, as the name implies, is a roast made with Special K cereal. Obviously for gluten free people, that is not an option. So this loaf uses crispy rice cereal. Regular Rice Krispies in the store aren't GF. For this recipe, I used Erewhon brand gluten free rice krispies. If I can't buy GF rice krispies, I take General Mills Rice Chex (which is gluten free) and mash it up and it works quite well to make a nice finished product.

So here is my recipe:

Directions:
2-1/2 cups crushed General Mills brand rice chex or gluten free rice krispies
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup olive oil
1-2 TB gluten free, dairy free, msg free McKay's Beef seasoning
1 medium onion chopped
1 pound of firm tofu, mashed

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients well. Put in a casserole dish and cover with
aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes covered, then uncover and bake for another 30
minutes.

This is a delicious roast with a wonderful texture! My finished product is pictured above. We ate some for supper tonight. :)

The pie that we made was delicious also. I used Dr. Oetker's Organic Vanilla Pudding Mix.

It said to cook it with milk, so I used two cans of organic coconut milk with two boxes of pudding mix. Time for the crust! Naturally, it is hard to find a GF graham cracker crust, so we made our own with Kinnikinnick gluten free graham crackers.

We used 1/4 cup of sugar and mixed that with ground up graham crackers and melted Soy Garden butter.
Then we baked it in the oven at 375 for about 8 minutes and let it cool.

It was a delicious pie!

Can't wait for tomorrow! I'm going to try to make gluten free Challah bread for a Friday night dinner.

Butternut Squash Soup

It's fall! Therefore, pumpkin and squash are in season. I confess that I'm not particularly a fan of squash. My dad is an organic farmer and so therefore I've seen more boxes of squash in just a few years than many people have in a lifetime!

However, I'm very glad that I tried this recipe! It came out delicious, thick, and creamy, and full of flavor. I pureed part of the veggies and left some whole. I also added extra fake chicken seasoning. I use McKay's chicken style seasoning and get their gluten free, non-dairy, MSG free version.

So, here is the recipe. I got it from: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/butternut-squash-soup-ii/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, cubed
• 1 medium butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed
• 1 (32 fluid ounce) container chicken stock
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large pot, and cook the onion, celery, carrot, potatoes, and squash 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Pour in enough of the chicken stock to cover vegetables. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 40 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.
2. Transfer the soup to a blender, and blend until smooth. Return to pot, and mix in any remaining stock to attain desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

Gluten free submarine sandwiches

I really miss Subway. I miss it enough that I decided to try making a gluten free sub sandwich bread. I used the basic idea from this link here: http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/finally-really-good-sandwich-bread/

I did modify it, though, to use some of the flours that I had on hand. I made a long form in the shape of a sub roll and baked it. I used Vegan Gourmet cheese, sliced pickles, Vegainaise, spinach, tomatoes, green peppers, and olives. I also put on a honey mustard dressing and a homemade oil and vinegar dressing.

Overall the sandwich was pretty good. But the bread wasn't great.

Does anybody have any recipes for submarine sandwich bread? Or do you know of any commercial ones available that I'm not thinking of?

My personal journey to gluten free

It was February of 2006. I was a newly wed and due with my first child in August of 2006. Towards the end of my first trimester and beginning of the second, I started developing a strange rash. After a matter of just weeks, it had spread and turned into an ugly, painful dehabilitating problem. I tried a dermatologist and a naturopath to no avail.

Just weeks before my due date, I went to an OB (my regular care provider was a homebirth midwife) and they ordered some blood work. I said, "Please, please you have to find something wrong with me. At least if I know what's wrong, then I can fix it." However, to my despair, my bloodwork came back totally normal and I still knew nothing.

My little girl was born that August and my rash did improve, but did not go away completely. I continued on, living with the discomfort and wondering what in the world I could do to get rid of it. I tried the raw food diet and to my surprise, the rash on my hands cleared completely up. Not all of the rash was gone, but it was a good start. Finally my skin seemed mostly back to normal, when my daughter was around 19 months old.

Shortly after, when my daughter was 21 months, we conceived our second child. I was very excited about the baby, but not so excited about going through another skin rash! So when I was about 9 weeks along and my skin started seeming to go south again, I did the "desperation diet." I cut out all wheat, dairy, and most processed foods. I lived mostly on rice, beans, fruits, veggies, eggs, and foods like that. My skin was wonderful and my pregnancy was going great!

But inevitably, I got tired of the dietary restriction. I decided to try adding wheat back in. Within 4 days of adding wheat back into my diet, my skin started breaking out in the same place as my first pregnancy. I cut out wheat immediately and the rash immediately went away.

I went the rest of my pregnancy mostly avoiding wheat and after an extremely healthy and enjoyable pregnancy, gave birth to my son in February of 2009.

In August of 2009, I decided to try cutting out all gluten and did well at that.

My children started having some skin issues and I took them to my naturopath and we all got tests together. As it turns out, we all tested out positive for gluten intolerance. So my kids joined me on the gluten free path as of October of last year.

Since I had never had full medical celiac tests, I decided to do a gluten challenge in February of 2010 and then follow up with medical tests. I got swelling, fatigue, severe headaches, and ultimately wound up in the ER due to stroke like symptoms that were a complication of the severe headaches. I never did end up doing the celiac tests and I never will. My symptoms were severe enough for hospitalization after just 10 days of eating regular food, so that's good enough for me. I will eat gluten free for the rest of my life. Going on gluten for a full 3-4 weeks, as is recommended for celiac tests, is simply too dangerous for me. I have my kids to raise to adulthood, and it's not my right to do irresponsible things that could jeopardize my health. The numbness and speech difficulties that landed me in the hospital were terrifying. I thought that I was having a stroke. I never want to be in that position ever again.

I immediately went strictly gluten free after my release from the hospital and my symptoms started to slowly improve and go away. It took me awhile to feel completely normal, but after a few days off of gluten, I started to feel like myself again.

I know that there are many like myself, who will never be counted among "official" celiacs, and yet struggle with dehabilitating health problems as a result of gluten. My desire is to spread awareness on gluten intolerance and encourage people to keep pursuing answers until they are well and can live healthy normal full lives.

Gluten Free and Vegetarian--an introduction

Hi!

My name is Ruth and I am a 28 year old stay at mom to two kids, a 4 year old girl and a 20 month old boy. We have all been raised living a vegetarian lifestyle and have also gone gluten free since testing positive for gluten intolerance in October of 2009.

I started this blog to share gluten free vegetarian ideas, tips, and recipes and also to get feedback from the larger gluten free community. I always have times where I wonder about certain products or about how to recreate an old gluten containing favorite with safe and appropriate ingredients. There are also times where I make a great dish and need to write down the recipe. Hopefully this blog can become an outlet for sharing and encouragement.

It's also my desire that others who are suffering from gluten intolerance and yet not having "classic" celiac symptoms will find their way to a gluten free lifestyle and thus, better health.

In my next post, I will share my personal testimony of becoming gluten free.