Gluten-free Cooking 'Scratch' That

When first told to take gluten out of their diet, most people feel like something you see in the cartoons. The ground beneath them is suddenly gone. They're hanging in mid-air waiting to fall. The struggle to cook gluten-free wasn't like that for me. I had already learned about dealing with a dairy-free diet and I had fell head-over-heels in love with heath food, herbs, and the vegan diet.

During the ninety's I worked in a health food store where I learned about the vegan diet. It felt so good. Veganism naturally reduces gluten, corn, and bake goods from the diet, and incorporates a larger variety of foods into the diet. Unable to stay on the diet I continued to have health issues.

So, for me, the bottom didn't fall out. It more at slowly crumbled. It started with starch. Starch, with its high pectin content, is the quickest, easiest, and seemingly best substitute for gluten. Gluten provides quite a bit of the nutrition and the strength to hold a rise in breads and cakes. Starch's lack of nutrition lead me to develop a number of my recipes free of it. Although, cakes, breads, and cookies can be made without starch, pie crusts, crackers, tortillas, and biscuits don't hold together,crisp up or roll out with it's absence.

It was after embracing starch I hit that emptiness. Potato and corn starches have larger starch molecules. The larger the molecules the better it works as a replacement for gluten. They also tend to be cheapest. Well, what do you do if you're allergic to potatoes and corn. First there is tapioca starch. It's too close to the potato family. Crossover allergy problems happen there. So, scratch that. Arrowroot starch is an excellent corn starch substitute. Turns out, it's not unusual for manufactures to cut potato starch into a batch of arrowroot, if they are a little short during bagging. Well, scratch that. Kuzu starch made from the kudzu plant costs 7USD for 3.5 ounces. Are you going to stick a cup of it in your baking? I think not! Scratch that.

With so many foods scratched from my diet, it has been an ability to cook from 'scratch' that has been the biggest help in my struggle to live with, not only a large number of allergies, but to also put together a family meal which considers other family member's allergy concerns. It helps with remembering the ingredient combinations needed to make a cake rise, or to take out out one nutritious food and replace it with another. It makes me brave enough to can my own food, so I can avoid the starch not listed on a food label, but used to make factory canning machines work smoothly without oil.

What has helped you the most in your struggle with gluten/allergy-free cooking?

This weeks highly recommended website for understanding gluten sensitivity.

The World's Ultimate Resource On: Gluten Free Diets, Gluten Free Research, Gluten Free Help, Celiac Disease, and Gluten Free Recipes. Gluten Free Society

Setting Goals

I want to be active participant in the quality of life I will lead as I get older. I was born with health problems that went untreated for 47 years. Doctors shrugged their shoulders and told my parents, “Well, she has allergies. We just don't know what.” When I went to doctors, they always gave me pat answers that didn't resolve my problems.
It has been through thirty years of study and alternative medicine that I found answers. I feel that I am, now armed with knowledge that will help me move in a positive direction of healing and health.
While waiting for my wrist to heal I gained 5 pounds. I have begun walking twice a day. Last week, during one of my morning walks I became determined not only to take the weight off , but I set a couple goals. No more wishful thinking. I'm writing it all down in this blog to motivate me into keeping my word. If it's in writing in a public place maybe I will be too embarrassed not do my best at trying to accomplish them.
Next week, I'm switching to walking two times a day, three days a week, and doing Praise Moves (A Christian answer to yoga,) three times a week. Gradually, I will go from walking to running. In a month, the weight should have come off, I will include weight training. It's time to get rid of those old lady wings I've been growing. Ultimately, my goal is to be able to run a 5k marathon by the time I'm 51.
This is one of those things I've always wanted to do. It was more dreaming then taking the time to actually try. I have a long list of longings (things I long to do,)I just don't see them happening. Trying to live healthy and training for a marathon is something that doesn't take money I don't have.
The reason I want to do these two things? I think that if I have the ability and energy to do a marathon, then I will have the energy and ability to do what ever task God may send my way. I find that I want Him to send me something important in my elder years.
I'm not forgetting that God is in charge of whether or not I will be able to accomplish this goal. I'm praying that as He has given me the desire, so he will see me accomplish the goal.

What most of my blogging will be about

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My blog will focus on meeting the cooking and budget needs of those with health and allergy problems. I am partial to this subject because I have allergy and health problems that have a way of absorbing my thoughts, time and energy.

It started with my first born son. At three weeks old he developed a rash on his cheeks. When I look at his baby pictures it amazes me that he was such a happy baby. This rash itched a great deal and eventually spread to several places on his body. He looked like he had strawberry jelly all over his cheeks up until he was three years old, but it was the rash, cracked and bleeding and sometimes oozing. We went through a lot trying to find a cure, or a fix. When he was 5 months old my Hubby's grandmother suggested we go to a chiropractor. Within minutes of treatment the rash went from bright red to pink. The rash didn't completely go away. Twenty-nine years later this rash re-appears on his body somewhere, every spring.

While at that chiropractic visit the chiropractor suggested maybe my son is allergic to bleached wheat. I walked away stunned at the idea that wheat was bleached. At the time I had no idea what was being done to our food by the food industry, and by ourselves. It started my journey into health food and learning how to deal with allergies. I have since learned a great deal about cooking to meet the needs of setting a table for each individual at the table. All three of my kids and I have allergy problems.