Another Kind of Survival Pantry

The walls are unpainted.

One of the nerve racking problems with having a lot of allergies, mostly with a corn allergy, is that buying packaged foods is a crapshoot. You cannot trust something as simple as a bottle of water, cooking oil that claims to be just the oil listed on the bottle, or frozen strawberries that claim to be just strawberries.

Food is neatly stored.

How can bottled water be a problem? In the bottling process it is not unusual for manufactures to use corn starch as a lubricant in the machinery. Since it is not an actual ingredient of the product it is not listed as an ingredient on the label. For someone with a body as sensitive as mine this means finding out too late that another packaged food item is not safe. It creates not only a situation where I often waste money, but it means pain for as much as three days.

The broken ceiling allowed mice in.

When do I find a packaged food item that works, I, then, find the store is frequently out of that item. To resolve this I took an old coal room, I had been using for a dysfunctional pantry, and made my husband turn it into a decent pantry. I can, now, buy food by the case. 

Wood panel sealed the holes.

 I'd like to conclude this post with a recipe that uses many of the type of items stored in a pantry.

Sweet Potato Soup

Optional and alternatives ingredients are in parentheses.

2 c diced sweet potatoes (butternut squash, pumpkin)

1 large diced apple

(1 Tbs minced onions)

1 stalk mince celery

Water to cover (apple juice can be used in place of an apple and water)

Cook until tender. Turn off and cool for handling. Place a cup or two at a time in the blender and blend until smooth. Return to the pot and cook on medium low heat. Add:

½ tsp Italian seasoning

½ tsp ground rosemary

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

(¼ tsp pepper)

1 c almond milk (any milk or cream, or milk or cream alternative)

Simmer 30 minutes or until thick and creamy. Top with roasted and salted sunflower seed. I like to roast the sunflower seeds myself and add Italian seasoning and salt at the end of the roasting.

Alternative roasted toppings:

pumpkin seeds

almond slices

chopped pecans

sesame seeds

croutons

Serve with Millet Bread.

A sweet alternative, instead of Italian seasoning and salt try cinnamon or pumpkin pie spices and 2 Tbs of your choice of sweetener. Then top with one of these choices:

raisins

sauteed apples

shredded apples

applesauce

shredded carrots

candied nuts

candied seeds

dried cranberries

Serve with:

sweet crackers

in bowels made from pie crust

a couple of sugar cookie
s

Steamed Vegetables

Mosquito Creek ran through our back yard. It was a great place to sit and think.

One year my dad plowed an acre of land. Several of us, in an assembly line fashion, were planting the field with potatoes when my mother's toy poodle, Snoopy, was discovered following behind us, digging the potatoes up. It was odd little things like this that lead us to start calling our common family farm, “Colonel Carten's Funny Farm.”
If events were common or not, what vegetables we grew were the typical vegetables grown. There is a certain amount of acceptance of the common vegetable on a farm, but it was never seen as the main source of your diet. We foraged for fruits, nuts, and herbs from the wild around us, but it was dairy, beef, pork, and chicken that was thought of first when planning a meal.
It took learning, on my own, about herbs, nutrition, and allergies to consider the idea of being vegetarian. While working in a health food store I tried the food others were sharing and were insisting this food, this diet, was far superior than the average American diet. It gave me more energy. My gut wasn't constantly bloated and my weight was much easier to control.
Pure foods, those untainted by chemicals, barely cooked, and eaten fresh by themselves are sweet and juicy. The flavor comes out and stands on its own, to be enjoyed and cherished. It's easy to fall in love with food that loves your body. It's food I want over and over again.
At a Christmas party for the health food store we went to a restaurant that served only vegetarian. I ordered a dish of something, the name of which I no longer know. It was lightly saute´d vegetables and pine nuts over a bed of fettuccine floating in olive oil and basil. When it arrived I thought can this be good? All that oil. It was heavenly.
Here is my version of that dish I fell in love with so long ago. The base of this recipe is just a bunch of basic vegetables. Onion, garlic, carrots, and celery cleaned, chopped, and tossed into a steaming pot and then steamed until desired tenderness.
From this point you can change the combination of vegetables and add other food items. Toss it with olive oil, a sauce, or gravy. Place it on a bed of rice, potatoes, or pasta. Top it with nothing more than salt and enjoy it like that.
I find that I like it best with a handful of canned, black beans, and a tablespoon of basil sprinkled on top, to be steamed with the vegetables. I place this all, along with some cooked rice fettuccine noodles, into a fry pan with plenty of olive oil sautéing until the food is well coated with the oil and the oil is well heated.
As a potluck item you can add chopped meat and complementary spices and herbs. Rutabagas, potatoes, and parsnips are nice additions when using beef. A quick white sauce tossed in will work well with chicken.
Try cabbage, carrots, and ham steamed together for a quick nutritious dish when you are in a hurry for dinner. My family wouldn't eat this one, but I would if I could have pork.

Black Bean and Steamed Vegetables
Serves 2
One large carrot sliced on a diagonal to make the slices large.
One small onion chopped into large chunks.
Three cloves of garlic each cut in half the long way.
One stalk of celery chop them into ½ inch chunks.
1/3 cup of canned black beans (rinsed)
1 tablespoon of dried basil
2/3 of cooked rice or rice fettuccine noodles

I place each item into the steamer, except rice or noodles, in the order given above. I toss the vegetables once or twice during cooking. If the rice or noodles are leftovers from a previous meal I include them on top of the vegetables for about 2 minutes of steaming before tossing with olive oil. I don't measure the oil; I guess it would be 2 or 3 tablespoons. I would drowned it in oil if I thought my gall bladder and my effort to maintain proper weight would tolerate it. On days when I need to avoid the fat I drizzle on Tamari (gluten-free soy sauce), or lemon juice.
Finally, saute´ all ingredients together in a fry pan and until the oil is hot and has absorbed a bit of the flavor and aroma of the basil.

Anything You Need Muffins

This another long post, but I think it is worth your time. if you are interested in learning the ins and outs of successful gluten/allergy-free cooking.

I first learned about universal recipes from book two of the Tightwad Gazette's three book series, written by Amy Dacyczyn. I have used its muffin recipe so often that the book naturally opens to that page. Ms. Dacyczyn now has the six years of her Tightwad Gazette in one book. I understand from Fun Foods on a Budget, that there are more universal recipes in The Complete Tightwad Gazette. This is exciting to me, because I find this recipes easiest to convert to to my allergy free needs. So, as soon as I am done with my present stack of books from the library, I will be borrowing The Complete Tightwad Gazette as a part of my next stack.

Ms. Dacyczyn's universal muffin recipe, in the second book, was designed to help her readers create a muffin that is cheapest in their area of the country, and to meet their individual dietary restrictions. I personally don't like to call them restrictions. There are far too many other choices to enjoy; to leave yourself in that place of loss you felt when you first learned you had to go without some food. Or as in my case many favorite foods.

In todays blog I hope to further the ability of my reader to create an allergy-free muffin recipe. Because gluten-free bake goods tend to dry out don't make more than you can eat in two to three days. If they do go dry don't throw them out. Break them up into a bowl, top with fresh fruit and a milk of your choice, just like you would a bowl of cereal or strawberry shortcake. I will give a shorthand version of the recipe at the end of this posting.

Gum: Let me start with the important ingredient in gluten-free baking, Guar gum and/or Xanthan gum. These two gums work like a glue, binding the gluten free flours together, so they will hold the air bubbles needed to make light and fluffy bake goods. Guar gum is my favorite because it is corn free. However, for those Celiac's that have trouble with diarrhea, this may not be the right choice, as it is also sold as a laxative. For those with corn allergies, Xanthan gum may not be the right choice, because it is a substance scraped off the fermentation of corn.

Grain: Use 2 cups any combination of flours from the many gluten free grains.

• brown rice

• Sorghum flour

• quiona flour or flakes. Flakes will not work well by them selves, you must have flour as your base ingredient.

• almond meal

• millet flour

• teff seeds

• bean flour

• corn flour

• cornmeal, this one will not work well by its self.

• or flake cereal, this one will not work well by itself.

You can, also, substitute 1 cup cooked grain for 1/2 cup of the dry flour and decrease liquid to 1/2 cup. My favorite mix: 1 cup rice flour, ¼ cup quiona flakes, ½ cup millet flour, and ¼ cup Garbanzo bean flour.

Milk: Use 1 cup of any milk of your choice. You can use buttermilk or sour milk (add a tablespoon of vinegar to 1 cup milk). If you want to substitute fruit juice for part or all of the milk you will have a need to raise the protein content. I do this by adding 1 tsp of unflavored gelatin. Raising the protein can, also, be done by using bean flour or nut meal as part of the flour mix.

Fat: You can use

• up to 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Choose a light oil such as canola, safflower,or sunflower.

• Another choice is to use 4 tablespoons melted butter,

• margarine.

• If using a butter substitute keep in mind these are usually lower in fat than butter and will effect the moisture of your muffins.

• The fat can be reduced or omitted with fair results if using a "wet addition,” like mashed bananas.

• You can also substitute any crunchy or regular nut butter for part or all of the fat.
  
  

Egg: Use 1 egg or choose one of the following substitution choices:

• Ener-G Egg Replacer - follow directions on box.

• 2 tbsp cornstarch, or arrowroot starch, or potato starch = 1 egg

• 1 heaping tbsp soy powder + 2 tbsp water = 1 egg

• 1 tbsp soy milk powder + 1 tbsp starch + 2 tbsp water = 1 egg.

• 1 banana = 1 egg in cakes, so they make a good low fat choice here.

• 1 tbsp milled flax seed and 3 tbsp water = 1 egg. Light, fluffy cakes!

Sweetener: Choices

• between 2 tablespoons to 1/2 cup sugar

• up to 3/4 cup brown sugar

• up to 1/2 cup honey or molasses

Baking Powder: Use 3 teaspoons. If using cooked grains, or more than 1 cup of additions, increase to 4 teaspoons. If using buttermilk or sour milk, decrease to 1 teaspoon and add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. For those with corn allergies there are many websites that have a corn free baking powder recipe. This works just as well as the store bought, except when you haven't used it in a while. Just be sure to shake the container to reactivate it, this my grandmother taught me was the way she did it, back in her day.

Salt: You can omit or use ½ tsp.

The following ingredients are choices and a clear example as to why you should not think of your allergies as simply restrictions. All combinations use no more than 1 1/2 cups. If using more than 1 cup of wet additions, decrease the milk to 1/2 cup.

Dry Additions: Nuts, sunflower seeds, coconut, dried fruit such as raisins, cranberries, or apricots, and so on.

Moist Additions: Blueberries, chopped apple, freshly shredded zucchini, shredded carrot, and so on.

Wet Additions: Pumpkin puree, applesauce, mashed cooked sweet potato, mashed banana, mashed cooked carrot, and so on. If using 1/2 cup drained, canned fruit, or thawed shredded zucchini, substitute the syrup, or zucchini liquid for all or part of the milk.

Spices: Use spices that compliment the additions, such as 1 teaspoon cinnamon with 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg or cloves. Spices could include a teaspoon of parsley and a pinch of marjoram. Another great flavor is 2 teaspoons grated orange or lemon peel.

Jellies and Jams: Fill cups half full with a plain batter. Add 1 teaspoon jam, or jelly and top with 2 more tablespoons batter.

Topping: Sprinkle cinnamon sugar, or poppy seed on the batter in the tins.

Non-sweet Combinations: Use only 2 tablespoons sugar and no fruit. Add combinations of the following: 1/2 cup shredded cheese, 3 strips fried-and-crumbled bacon, 2 tablespoons grated onion, 1/2 cup shredded zucchini, 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese.

Anything you need muffins

2 cups of you choice flour or flour mix

1 teaspoon Guar gum or Xanthan gum

3 teaspoons baking power

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup more or less sweetener

2 tablespoons fat

1 egg or egg substitute

1 cup milk of your choice

To make muffins, combine dry ingredients, and then mix in wet ingredients until just combined and no longer dry. Grease and flour a muffin tin and fill the cups full. Gluten free does not rise like glutenous, so you needn't worry about it overflowing here. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes (give or take 5 minutes).

Turning Gluten Free

When one first goes gluten free one feels overwhelmed. What's left to eat? Your old favorite recipes are now your worst enemy. Some pans and utensils are permanently contaminated with gluten and your cupboards and fridge are full of things you cannot eat. Learning about cooking without gluten feels daunting. Don't forget the feeling that you are in this alone. One search on the internet and you will be of whelmed again. The net is loaded with gluten free information, so where do you start.

For me it wasn't that daunting, at first. I had made changes in our diet 27 years earlier when I learned of my son's allergies. I learned about allergies, nutrition, and herbs with a bit of relish. I found studying about such things exciting. I had made changes before I can make them again. I had wanted to go back to being a vegan anyway. During the early 1990's I was working in a health food store, then, and I felt great on the diet(there was less gluten in it.) While pregnant for my daughter I found that I needed more protein than I was eating so the old American diet again crept back on me as my life became more hectic and more stressful.

Like I said, I did it before, I was sure I could do it again. It was my daughter's love of fast foods and my desire for a good old fashion sandwich that challenged me. I will tell you more about my re-education in baking bread next week. What I have for you this week is an ingredient that may seem like a secret, but is used, now, by gluten free cooks. Gum, not the kind you chew. When I first made the switch to gluten free a friend of mine sent me an article from Taste For Life January 2008 issue, written by Lisa Murry. The gluten I now can't have is the glue in glutenous bake goods, but guar gum provides that glue for gluten free bake goods.

So, I picked an easy recipe to start this new baking experience. Pancakes! It work very well, and since then, I have made my pancakes in various ways. I feel that I have my pancakes down pat and my family likes my gluten free pancake better than they had liked my old buttermilk whole wheat pancakes. While my first pancakes were of just rice flour I have settled on a rice/millet combination that I can whip up quickly (Millet helps provide a crisper crust.) Although, I use soy milk, any milk with at least 3g of protein should work, but water will not work. You can use 1 teaspoon of unflavored gelatin to compensate for this protein need, if you want to omit milk.

Gluten Free Pancakes

3/4 cup of Rice flour (or any flour blend you can imagine)
¼ Millet flour
½ teaspoon of Gar Gum
¼ cup of sugar or less (this is pretty sweet but helps with the browning of the cake)
2 teaspoons of gluten free Baking Powder (Rumford’s is GF, but not corn free)
¼ teaspoon of salt
1 ½ teaspoons of vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup of milk

Mix all the dry ingredients together then add the wet ingredients. Mix well. The batter will be thin at first, but will become very thick in a minute. You want it to be thick, that is a sign that the gluten is retaining the air that makes baked goods rise and you'll have fluffy pancakes that way.

Spoon about a ¼ cup of batter on a hot griddle. They do not bubble like regular pancakes when ready to flip. There will be bubbles beneath the surface and a slight drying along the edges when they are ready to turn.