GFCF Olive Oil Lemon Drop Cookies

A friend recently gave me a recipe for olive oil cookies, saying they converted easily to GFCF and were very easy to make. I love making drop cookies because they are easy and fast, and this recipe looked faster than most. I was intrigued by the use of olive oil in the recipe - it's different and it makes them healthier than cookies made with shortening. I played around a bit with the original recipe and came up with something that reminds me very much of Lemon Squares without the fuss. These cookies turned out delicate and delicious and they may just be my go-to recipe for cookies from now on.

The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of olive oil. I substituted applesauce for half of the oil, which make the cookies pleasingly puffed instead of flat. Next time, I may try making the cookies with all olive oil and a little bit of walnut meal to give them a different texture. For now, these cookies are great just the way they are.

1 3/4 cup All Purpose Rice Flour Blend
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup rice milk
1 beaten egg
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
2 tsp. lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Spray parchment paper lightly with cooking spray, set aside.

Sift together the flour through the salt, make a well in the center and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the olive oil through the lemon zest. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and beat until well blended.

Drop the batter by generous teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake about 12 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and transfer the cookies to a wire rack. Cool cookies completely before serving. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Casein Free, Soy Free Margarine

UPDATE: Earth Balance now has a casein free, soy free margarine that is available all year round!

Anna misses toast with butter. So do I. Neither one of us really cares for ghee on our toast. A friend recently told me that Whole Foods has picked up an Earth Balance margarine that is vegan and soy free, but I have not been able to find it. Then another friend told me that there is a casein-free, soy-free margarine that is available only once a year during Passover! (Did you know that legumes are not kosher for Passover? I did not! So soy is right out!) I got myself to a supermarket that carries kosher foods and lo and behold, in the frozen "Kosher for Passover" section, there was the elusive soy-free margarine! It's made with cottonseed oil and there's nary a hint of casein, soy or gluten to be found. It's unsalted, but there are ways to deal with that, so I picked up four packages.

After picking up the margarine, I hightailed it back home to make some toast. The margarine has a very mild flavor and it really did need a little salt - I sprinkled some salt on top of the toast and it was pretty good! Anna scarfed her toast up in the blink of an eye and wanted more. But alas, there is no more bread in the house. My new bread machine is still in the box. It has been sitting around for a week waiting for someone to find the time to open it. Maybe tomorrow things will calm down, you never know - Megan is feeling a little bit better and I might actually get something done tomorrow. It's a good thing Anna likes pasta, because that is what she's had for lunch at school lately! Anyway, I'm very happy that we finally have an agreeable margarine in the house, if only for toast!

More Stuff on My Mind

My head is full of thoughts. Stuffed with them, actually. They keep falling out of my head, probably through my ears. I can feel it. Oops, there goes another thought! It may or may not come back! Sometimes if I think of something random, like kittens, they'll come back. But sometimes they are lost for good. This is bad for my grocery list. I've been to the grocery store more times than I want to think about because I forgot to get something. And something else. And oh yeah, that too.

So the girls have been sick for a month. I took them to the pediatrician last week, he put them on antibiotics. Then Megan promptly got sick with something else. Anna most likely coughed on her, and that spelled her doom. Megan's asthma kicked in (yes, the pediatrician is calling it asthma instead of hedging "reactive airways disease"). Then she got a fever 4 days ago. She's not eating, not drinking and not sleeping. She's coughing constantly. I've been giving her more and more Accuneb - the maximum allowed (3 doses at once every 3.5 hours), and it's not helping. Last night she was awake most of the night and I was awake with her, stressed out, wondering if I should take her to the emergency room. She was not responding to the breathing treatments. She was not wheezing, but her breathing was shallow and her heartbeat was rapid. She finally fell asleep for a bit and so did I, but first thing this morning I called the pediatrician's office. Again.

The nurse at the office made the call for Megan to go in instead of heading to the emergency room. I woke Megan up and started her on the 3 dose treatment again because she could not stop coughing. Anna ran into the room and started to flip out that I didn't lay out her modesty shorts with her school uniform. Normally being over-tired, headachy, stressed out about Megan's illness and resenting that I can't care for Megan without Anna freaking out about something, I would have snapped at her. But I held it together and said "Anna, I will get your shorts in a minute. You can go ahead and put your dress on".

"No, no, no!" Anna responded. "I can't! I need to put my shorts on first!". Her hold on her control was wavering, but she looked at me and didn't throw herself on the floor screaming. That helped. Instead of either party getting too frustrated, she was able to tell me the reason for her resistance and I was able to understand that her routine was broken. That was why she was about to flip. That really helped my attitude. The more she communicates with me, the better I feel. On some level, it still surprises me that she's so dependent on her routines. How many does she have, personal routines that I don't know about, that help her govern her day?

So, crisis averted. That felt nice. I dropped Anna off at school and tried hard not to race like a speed demon to get to the pediatrician's office on time - stress is a powerful accelerator. We were there for almost two hours. The verdict is that Megan likely has pneumonia, a complication of her asthma. We've been flirting with pneumonia for some time - every time I have to drag her to see someone because of her breathing, pneumonia is an unseen spectre hanging in the air. This time it materialized. Her right lung is not working like her left lung, which means it is likely filled with fluid. It could aslo mean her lung is collapsed, but the two are hard to tell apart on an x-ray. So we're treating her for pneumonia first and if she does not improve by Monday, we'll get x-rays and think about the possibility of a collapsed lung. The poor girl is so tired that she fell asleep on my lap to the background noise of infants screaming in harmony (it was a bad Friday for babies at the office!). She didn't even wake up when the pediatrician pulled up her shirt and listened to her breathe with his cold stethoscope.

We've been to see the pediatrician a lot this year. He says it's been a bad year for seasonal sickness, but also that Megan gets hit hard - gets quite sick - every time she gets a little cold. Something Anna can brush off will take Megan down. I asked if that's genetic - DH has asthma too and grew up taking oral steroids to control it. The pediatrician laughed at me and said well, we know who to blame! I'm pretty sure oral steroids will be a part of Megan's regimen in the future. Even though the pediatrician says this will get better as she gets older, I think we'll be dealing with this for a long time.

I walked into the house after we got home from the pharmacy and surveyed all the things that need to get done that have not gotten done because everyone's been sick for a month. There are dishes in the sink, the floors need to be swept, the dusting needs to be done, there are piles of clothes to be ironed and mended, the laundry is overflowing, baking needs to be done, the bills need to be filed and there are piles of winter clothes that need to go into storage. And I have a cake/cupcake order for a birthday party to fill tomorrow. And oh yeah, I still need to go grocery shopping. I'm tired and I have a lot of work to do. I also have a lot to think about - I need to go write my thoughts down before they escape me again. Wish me luck.

The Stuff on My Mind

It's that time of year. Spring storms have arrived. The passing of the years does not mitigate my anxiety about severe storms in any way, but it has allowed me to recognize when storms are approaching. Besides the obvious gray sky, there is a peculiar quality to the air. It feels heavy, oppressive in a way that makes breathing more of an effort. Everything goes quiet and still, even hours before the storm arrives. I really think it's the weather and not my anxiety, but maybe the anxiety does color my perceptions. Or hones them. A lot of senses sharpen when you have children.

Along a similar vein of thought, our pediatrician is a long-suffering, wait-and-see, patient sort of man. He has endured regular freak-out sessions from me and handled them with grace. Really. He's called me at least three times personally to talk me off a ledge. The first was after the park trauma with Anna. I called and left a message saying something to the effect that we had a problem and that I was going to do something about it and if he had an opinion about where we went for help he should let me know right away. He did. He told me not to go to the place I was thinking about for an evaluation because they didn't accept insurance. Instead he directed us to a place that did accept insurance, saving us at least $500 right off the bat.

The next time the pediatrician responded to a freak-out, it was because Anna had run out of her OT allowance and we needed more, so could he write a letter of medical necessity on Anna's behalf? He called again - insurance approved more visits and Anna got the OT she needed. The third time was just the other day. I had left a message with his nurse, totally freaking out that both girls have been sick for a month, vomiting, not eating, losing weight and that I was, in no uncertain terms, stressed out and scared! The pediatrician called me personally to tell me that their test results showed parasites are to blame (gross, gross, gross!!!) and that he would call the pharmacy for antibiotics. Our conversation went something like this:

The test results show a common parasite, the pediatrician said.

For real?! Ewww, I replied. From where?

It's a very common parasite and probably most people carry it but not everyone shows symptoms. If you don't show symptoms, there's no reason to be treated. The girls show symptoms so we'll treat them.

Ewwwww, I said, trying to juggle my wallet and the phone and pay for Anna's speech therapy appointment. What about DH and me?

If you don't show symptoms you are probaby fine, he said.

Ewwww. I'm going to see my doctor anyway.

What is your pharmacy's number? I'll call in the script.

Um, it's in my phone, I said as I struggled to hold the phone to my ear while nodding my understanding to the woman at the speech office that I needed to sign the credit card receipt.

Okay, he said, you can text me at this number.

Um...I'm a dinosaur. I don't know how to text! (Pathetic, but true.)

Okay, well hang up and call me right back on this number. It's my cell phone number.

Feeling silly, I hung up then called him back with the number. He said he'll call in for a three day course of antibiotics, after which the girls should be feeling better.

Wait, before you hang up can I ask you another question, I asked. What happens if they don't feel better after three days? Can I call you back?

Yes, let me know if they don't feel better in a week, he said.

I told him thanks and then we hung up. He must think I'm a complete freak, a crazy mother, anxiety prone and a worry-wart. And maybe some of that is true. But you know what? I don't care. So what if he thinks I'm crazy? As long as the end result is that the girls get the care they need, I really could not give two flying squirrels what he thinks of me. Or what anybody else thinks of me for that matter. I tell DH that on a fairly regular basis - I don't care what you think. This is what I'm doing because this is the right thing to do. He's used to it and concedes that most of the time, I'm right. Every so often my ambivalence to other people's perception of me concerns me, but only for a moment. The rest of the time I just don't care. Never have and probably never will. If the end result is personal integrity and reaching my goals - in this case the care and welfare of my children -then a "crazy lady" moniker is worth it.

Broccoli Salad

Whole Foods makes a really good broccoli salad available in their to-go section. I sometimes pine for it, but only rarely indulge as it's fairly expensive. This recipe comes pretty close to theirs - now I can make it at home for much less whenever the mood strikes. The recipe I used as my guide can be found here. My measurements are approximate - toss together what seems appropriate to you and adjust to your taste.

4 slices of bacon
2 good-sized heads of broccoli, crown only
3 tbsp. diced red onion or 4 sliced scallions
1/4 cup sunflower seeds (or chopped walnuts)
1/4 cup dried currants
1/4 cup shredded carrot, if desired
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar

Cook the bacon in a skillet until crisp. Drain on paper towels. I try to remove as much fat as possible. Crumble the bacon and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the mayo, sugar and vinegar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved - the dressing should be thin but not watery. Adjust the sugar and/or vinegar as needed to suit your taste - it should be tangy with a hint of sweetness.

Wash the broccoli and cut the florets into bite-sized chunks. Add the broccoli to the dressing and toss to coat. Add the remaining ingredients - the onion, walnuts or sunflower seeds, currants and carrots if desired. Toss to coat thoroughly. Let sit for a little while before serving to let the flavors mellow a bit, tossing occasionally. Toss before serving - this is good cold or at room temperature.

Indian Spiced Lentil Soup

Every time I make lentils, I think of Neil from The Young Ones. That has nothing to do with this soup at all, I just wanted to mention that lentils conjure an image of Neil in my mind.

1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
4 minced cloves garlic
6 - 8 cups water
2 cups lentils
2 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. sweet or hot curry powder
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tbsp. lemon juice

Heat the olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven. Add the onion, carrots and celery. Cook until the onion is soft. Add the garlic, cook 1 minute more. Add the water and the lentils. Combine the coriander through the cayenne and stir into the soup. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes or until the lentils are soft. Turn off the heat. Stir in the lemon juice, adjust the seasonings as desired and serve hot.

GFCF Multi-Grain, Multi-Seed Bread

So, I have been without my bread machine for the past several days. My Breadman Pro has been a workhorse, baking bread faithfully at least once a week for over a year. But the pan and the kneading paddle became scratched and the teflon was peeling off. That's scary - the girls don't need to ingest teflon with their cashew butter and jam sandwiches! So I ordered a new machine (my only practical option, since Salton does not sell replacement parts!). While waiting for it to arrive, I bought some brown rice bread at Whole Foods - the packaged kind, by Ener-G. It was expensive, dry and tasteless.* The girls would have none of it at all. There was now no excuse for me not to make bread in the oven, which I have avoided since baking gluten free, I guess because on some level I didn't trust myself to get it right.

So instead of using one of my recipes for the bread machine, I thought while I was at it, it'd be fun to try something new. I found a really great looking recipe for Multi-Grain Bread (which reminds me of a peasant bread I used to make) at Gluten Free Goddess, so I printed the recipe and went to work. I modified it a bit, adding another egg and cutting back on the yeast, cutting down on the liquid (using water instead of rice milk) and adding flax and poppy seeds along with the sesame seeds right into the batter (the girls will not suffer adorned bread). I even decided to forgo using the Kitchen Aid and made it all by hand, which was really very nice! I miss making bread by hand and it was cathartic to use my hands again instead of relying on fancy kitchen gadgets. Not only did my bread end up looking beautiful, it tastes excellent! I had so much fun, and the bread came out so fabulous, that even when the new bread machine gets here I will continue to make this bread by hand.


2/3 cup sorghum flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup millet flour
1 cup potato starch
2 tbsp. flax seed meal
2 tbsp. sesame seeds
2 tsp. poppy seeds
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. rapid rise yeast
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 cup warm water

2 beaten eggs
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. honey
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Sift together the sorghum flour through the salt, set aside.

Whisk together the warm water, yeast and sugar; set aside. Allow to proof for about 5 minutes, until foamy.

Whisk together the eggs, olive oil, honey and vinegar. Add the proofed yeast and whisk gently to combine. Add the flour all at once and beat with a large spoon until the flour is incorporated, scraping down the sides as necessary. Then beat until smooth - by hand this took me a couple of minutes, just long enough for my arm to hurt. The batter should be thick but not stiff.

Grease a loaf pan. Pour the batter into the pan, spreading evenly and shaping to a slight rise in the center. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about an hour, or until the top of the bread is about an inch above the pan.

Remove the plastic wrap carefully. Bake the loaf at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Cover the top of the bread with tin foil to prevent over-browning and continue baking another 10 - 15 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Turn the loaf out of the pan and let cool on a wire rack before slicing with a sharp bread knife.

~~~~~~~~~~~
I must take a moment to say a profound and heartfelt thank you to all the gluten free bakers who have worked hard to find alternative flours, making gluten-free healthy, tasty and fabulous! If I had to do this gluten free thing 20 years ago with only rice flour and cornstarch, I would have given up and cried!

GFCF Hot Fudge Sauce

This hot fudge sauce is super easy to make and it tastes so good. I found the original recipe at Heal ~ Balance ~ Live and modified it just slightly. It's good on homemade coconut cream ice cream but it'd also be good as a dip for mock peanut butter cookies! Or chocolate chip cookies! Or biscotti! Or strawberries! Or drizzled over angel food cake (which is next on my list of recipes to tackle)! Okay, I'll stop now - you get my point.

4 ounces semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate, dairy free
1/4 cup rice milk
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Heat the rice milk and sugar together in a small saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Allow to cool a bit before serving over ice cream (which you can see from the picture that I didn't do because I was too impatient, but boy was it good!).

Chex Cereal = Gluten Free

It looks like not just Rice Chex is gluten free anymore... other Chex cereals are being reformulated to be gluten free too! And not only that, their cereals are also soy free (their vitamin E is not soy-derived)! Hooray! Here's the response I got from General Mills when I thanked them for making their cereals gluten free:

From: <Corporate.Response@genmills.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 10:23 AM
Subject: General Mills Web 2009/03/17-4247 AAO

Dear Valued Consumer:

Thank you for contacting General Mills with your inquiry.

Along with Rice Chex, General Mills is reformulating the following Big G Cereals to gluten free status:

o Corn Chex

o Honey Nut Chex

o Strawberry Chex

o Chocolate Chex

o Cinnamon Chex

Production for this cereal has begun and you should begin seeing these cereals available on store shelves soon. All products listed should be available by June 1st, 2009.

As with any reformulated product, both products may be on the store shelves at the same time so consumers are encouraged to read labels/packaging carefully. Consumers should carefully examine the product packaging to ensure that the cereal inside the box is in fact the new, gluten free product. Look for “NOW GLUTEN FREE” or “GLUTEN FREE” on the front/side/back panels.

We hope you find this information helpful. Please let us know if we can help you again.

Sincerely,

Consumer Services

My Mom's Zucchini Bread

My mom's recipe for zucchini bread is the best ever. I've cut back on both the fat and the sugar by substituting a little applesauce, and of course I've kicked out the gluten from her original recipe. It tastes even better than I remember!

3 beaten eggs
2/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup applesauce
1 3/4 cup sugar

3 cups GF flour blend (I used this one)
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup walnut meal
2 cups grated zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two loaf pans, set aside.

Combine the eggs, oil and applesauce until well blended. Add the sugar and stir until combined.

Whisk together the flour through the baking powder. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and beat until well blended. Fold in the walnut meal and zucchini. Pour into the prepared loaf pans. Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Beef and Bean Enchiladas

I was craving Tex Mex the other night but, having bad luck going out to eat lately, I decided to make something at home. I found a recipe for Texas Beef and Bean Enchiladas here and decided to go for it, especially since an enchilada sauce recipe was included (it's impossible to find an enchilada sauce in stores that does not have soybean oil in it!). I modified the recipe slightly and liked the result - it's mild, which is my preference, but you can kick up the heat by adding diced green chiles to the beef and bean mixture and by adding more cayenne or ground chipotle to the enchildada sauce.

Enchilada Filling
1 pound ground beef
1 15oz can black beans or pinto beans, mashed
1/2 cup onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
8 - 10 corn tortillas (6 - 8 inches)

Enchilada Sauce
2 cups hot water
1 60z can tomato paste
2 tbsp. olive oil
4 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. ground chipotle
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray, set aside.

Prepare the enchilada sauce: Whisk together the hot water through salt. Adjust seasonings to taste, set aside.

Prepare the filling: Crumble ground beef in a large skillet. Add the onions, garlic and cayenne pepper and cook until the beef is browned and the onion is soft. Add the mashed beans and stir to combine. Remove from the heat. Add 1/2 cup enchilada sauce to the beef mixture and mix well.

Layer the tortillas on a plate, overlapping slightly, and cover with a damp paper towel. Heat in a microwave for 20 - 30 seconds or until soft. Taking one tortilla at a time, dip into the enchildada sauce, coating thoroughly. Hold the soaked tortilla flat in one hand and with the other hand, spoon a large spoonful of filling down the center of the tortilla. Fold the edges of the tortilla over and lay the tortilla, seam side down, into the prepared baking pan. Repeat until all the tortillas are used.


Add the remaining meat mixture to the enchilada sauce. Spoon the sauce evenly over the enchiladas. Cover the baking pan with tin foil and bake 15 - 20 minutes or until heated through. Serve with rice and guacamole, if desired.

GFCF Chocolate Cupcakes (Egg Free)

Hands down, this is my favorite gluten free, casein free, soy free, nut free, egg free cupcake! I used the gluten free recipes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World as my guide. I really like the peppermint extract in these cupcakes but you can also substitute 1 tsp. orange extract, 1 tsp. almond extract or 2 tsp. vanilla extract for a different flavor. These beauties taste amazing - all of my non GFCF friends swear up and down they'd never know they were free of well, practically everything!

1 cup rice milk or 3/4 cup coconut milk plus 1/4 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 tbsp. flax seed meal
1/3 cup natural cocoa powder (not dutch)
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. rice flour
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. sorghum flour
1 1/4 tsp. xanthan gum
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with baking cups, set aside. (These cupcakes are sturdier than the vanilla cupcakes but they are still delicate enough to warrant using the baking cups.)

Combine the rice milk through the peppermint extract. Add the tapioca flour and the flax seed meal, beating until well combined (tapioca should be dissolved), about 1 minute.

Sift together the cocoa powder through the salt. Add to the the wet mixture and beat until combined. Scrape down the sides, then beat on medium speed about 2 minutes. Pour batter into muffin cups about 3/4 full. Bake 20 - 25 minutes, or until lightly browned and centers are set (toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean).


Remove cupcakes from muffin tin and let cool completely on wire racks. Frost with Mock Buttercream Frosting or dust with powdered sugar. Yield: 12 - 14 cupcakes.

Eating Out and Other Hazards

It's been a very busy two weeks. I don't want to bore anyone with mundane details, but suffice it to say that I didn't get a lot of shopping done (but I did manage to avoid getting the sickness the girls came down with). Our refrigerator was the better part of empty for over a week, but I was too busy to do much about it. So we did some take-out, which is normally a luxury but recently it's been a necessity! And I have to say, eating out while being gluten and casein and soy free really kind of rots! There are not a lot of options, and I'm afraid to take chances. I've decided that unless an establishment has a bona fide gluten free menu (and they can also assure they can make stuff casein and soy free), we just can't go there. Here's a list of things that I thought would be safe, but which bothered me (most likely a gluten infraction):

Tamales at a local restaurant (wheat in the tamale that's supposed to be made with cornmeal?)
Hydrolized wheat protein in the soups and tamales at local markets
Chicken with Broccoli and Egg Drop Soup from a Chinese place (no soy sauce! No idea what was in that!)

Clearly I can't be eating stuff I don't have a list of ingredients for...which is a major pain in the rear (not only for me but for whoever happens to be with me). That leaves like, next to nowhere I can go. And what's even sillier is that the smallest little bit of gluten gives me a reaction - it's worse now than when it used to be when I was eating gluten all the time. And I'm told that I don't have celiac disease and that the antibodies in the blood test to gluten were so low they are practically negative. That has to be a false negative (I've heard of this happening to others too). This is not all in my head. And as far as the casein...that's the only thing that showed up on the blood test. I've been dairy free for about a month and I feel better (more energy, less migraines) but I don't fee like testing the effect of a little dairy intake. I don't feel like I can eat out anywhere (what a drag)!

So a friend and I were discussing hospitals the other week - even if a dietician stops by to get the lowdown on food sensitivities, do we trust the hospital to know enough about food sensitivities to take them seriously? We agreed - no. Of course my friend ended up in the hospital, and I told her not to worry, I'd bring her meals. So all day today I was baking and cooking. I've got nothing new to post right now, but I thought I'd write down what I made and brought to the hospital room for future reference. Everything was simple, sturdy and easily portable. And it is tastier than hospital food!

Hospital To Go List
Cranberry Orange Muffins
Fresh Strawberries
Spinach Wraps with pesto, turkey and greens
Hummus with Crudites
Fritos with salsa
Snickerdoodles
Chili with Black Beans and Sweet Potatoes
Cornbread Muffins
Pulled Pork with sliced avocado and warm corn tortillas
Spring greens with orange bell pepper, cucumber and Ranch Dressing

I brought the above items to the hospital in a heavy cooler and nobody even blinked twice, so no worries there!

Deep Dish Vegetable Quiche

I love quiche. As I was searching for other quiche recipes that don't use cheese, I came across this one at Gluten Free Heaven. It looked so pretty, and I really wanted to make a quiche for dinner. So I took the veggie combination ideas there and used the egg/rice milk ratio found in my leek and bacon quiche here to make a deep dish vegetable quiche. It did not disappoint - we don't miss the cheese at all.

1 recipe No Roll Pie Crust
1/2 large onion, thinly sliced*
1/2 large red, orange, yellow or green pepper, thinly sliced*
1/2 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry*
1 cup chopped tomatoes, seeds removed*
salt and pepper
6 eggs
2/3 cup rice milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. dried parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the pie crust and press it into a deep dish pie plate, fluting edges with the tines of a fork. Set aside (do not pre-bake).

Cook the vegetables in a skillet over medium-low heat, stirring often, until just beginning to soften, about 8 minutes. Spoon the vegetables onto the bottom of the pie crust.


Whisk together the eggs until well blended. Add the rice milk, salt, pepper and parsley and whisk to combine. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the vegetables in the pie crust.


Bake the quiche 25 - 30 minutes, or until puffed and set in the center. Remove from a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve warm.

*Feel free to use different vegetables, such as mushrooms, grated carrots, chopped asparagus, etc. You should have about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of (cooked) vegetables to put in the quiche.

Homemade Tortilla Chips

Anna is feeling better. As in, she has not tossed her stomach in 2 days. This is good, but she's lost weight, which is not good. She didn't have any weight to spare before getting sick. Now she's back to looking thin and frail, and even a little gaunt - like she used to look before going GFCF. Believe it or not, she packed weight on after going on the diet, even without the extra calories that whole milk, butter and cheese provide! (I need to stop calling it a diet - it's not a diet, it's a way of life.)

Working against her right now is the fact that she's obsessing about tossing her stomach. She does not want to eat and re-live that experience. Not that I blame her, it's not pleasant. But DH and I suspect that she's making herself toss her stomach even after getting better, because she's obsessing about getting the "bad food" out of her tummy. We suspect she's done this in the past too. And she's all of 5 years old. Forcing her to eat is not going to work - I don't want to make food a flash point. I'm afraid of what the future portends.

This isn't the only thing she's fixating on lately. She's overly concerned with what foods will "hurt her tummy" or give her "brain fog". I've done my best to explain why we don't eat the foods that some of her friends at school eat. Some food makes us feel bad, other food does not. But even when we go to a "safe house" - to a playmate's house that is also "diet friendly", Anna worries that eating someone else's food (food that does not come from Mommy's Kitchen) is not safe. She's to the point of being rude (although she does not realize it) - "Mommy, I don't want to eat that food! I want to eat my own food!".

I'm not quite sure how to handle all of this yet. I know that fixations come with ASD, I just wish that in Anna's case they were like, trains or astronauts or something, not food. I'm worried that she's not eating enough right now. Hopefully this will pass in a few days and hunger will force more calorie intake. Until then I'm trying my best to make food that is appealing and calorie-laden. Like pudding, which she won't touch. Or omlettes (eh). Or pepperoni, which she's okay with. We have a fairly low-fat diet anymore, especially being dairy free. What else can I do, besides stuff her with bacon? Oy.

The other day I made homemade tortilla chips - extra crunchy, the way she likes them. But she won't touch them, probably because they didn't come in a fancy "chip bag". I need to go grocery shopping for potato chips or something but I've been tethered to the house now that Megan has gotten sick as well. I cannot believe I'm forced to think about ways to fatten up my daughter, like some twisted scene from Hansel and Gretel. DH likes the chips however, which I suppose is something.


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*To make homemade tortilla chips, cut leftover tortillas into quarters. Deep fry in small batches until light brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt. To make them lower fat and crisp them in the oven, see this recipe here.

Butterscotch Pudding

This pudding is not heavy on the butterscotch - it tastes light (although it's not). The original recipe (here) is by Cooking Light, but I torpedoed the low-fat part of it. I used lite coconut milk to replace the dairy, but regular coconut milk would be nice too. I'm just not going to worry about the fat content in the recipe - since going dairy free my girls don't get enough fat in their diets as it is. (Looking for a vegan pudding? Go here.)

2 tbsp. casein free ghee*
1/4 cup regular coconut milk
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. brown sugar
2 cups lite coconut milk*
3/4 cup regular coconut milk
3 tbsp. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. salt
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Melt the ghee in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the 1/4 cup coconut milk and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and continue boiling for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat.

Heat the lite coconut milk in a medium heavy saucepan over medium heat until tiny bubbles form around the edges. Do not boil. Remove from the heat.

Whisk together the 3/4 cup coconut milk, cornstarch, salt and egg yolks. Gradually add the hot coconut milk in a small stream, whisking constantly. Stir this mixture into the brown sugar mixture. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook 1 minute more. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Pour the pudding into 6 individual serving cups. Cover the pudding with saran wrap to prevent a skin from forming on top. Chill in the refrigerator until set.**

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*I used 1 tbsp. canola oil and 1 tbsp. ghee, but next time I'll use all ghee. I also only had 2 cans of lite coconut milk in the cupboard so that's what I used, and added a little rice milk to make up the difference. This was fine, but coconut milk will make it thicker and more velvety so that's what I'll do next time.

**I'll be honest, I didn't wait for this to chill - I poured warm butterscotch pudding over sliced strawberries, and it was divine.

Molasses Walnut Sandwich Bread

I use a Breadman Pro with a gluten free setting to make sandwich bread - my recipes (here, here and here) always turn out great loaves with this machine. I have a friend who has a Cuisinart Convection bread machine with a gluten free setting. She was having trouble with my sandwich bread recipes in her machine - her loaves came out squat and not as pretty as she wanted them to look. So we swapped machines to see if it was a machine problem or a recipe problem. Turns out it is a little of both.

The Cuisinart's bread pan is a little bigger than the Breadman's. The baking cycle is an hour longer than the Breadman's. And the kneading paddle works differently. While making my tried and true sandwich bread in the Cuisinart, I observed that there was not enough bread dough in the pan for the kneading paddle to knead properly. I had to add a fair bit of extra water to the batter in order for the paddle to knead all of the batter, not just the stuff in the middle. Of course I helped things out with a spatula too. The bread turned out okay - a little squat with a small dome in the middle, but not that bad.

So I followed the only recipe in the Cuisinart's instruction guide for a gluten and casein free loaf. This recipe uses more flour and liquid (but less egg, which would make it easier to convert to egg-free). It filled the bread pan better and the kneading paddle did a better job of kneading the dough, although it still needed a little extra water and help from the spatula. This time the loaf turned out fuller, not as squat, and had a cute bellybutton in the top. Here's the recipe that works best in the Cuisinart. I'm sure it will work well in the Breadman too, though I'll test that when I get my machine back!

1 cup chickpea flour
3/4 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
3 tbsp. potato starch
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. gelatin
1/2 cup walnut meal

1 cup warm (not hot) rice milk
1/3 cup lukewarm warm water
3 tbsp. canola oil
3 tbsp. molasses (or honey or maple syrup if you don't like a dark loaf)
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 beaten egg

2 tsp. bread machine (rapid rise) yeast

Sift together the dry ingredients up to and including the gelatin. Stir in the walnut meal. Set aside. Combine the rice milk through the egg. Add the wet ingredients to the bottom of the bread pan. Place the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients. Make a small well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the yeast. Turn the bread machine on to the gluten free setting for a 1 1/2 pound loaf. Help the batter knead with your spatula, adding a little more water if the batter is too thick for the kneading paddle to knead properly. Take the loaf out of the breadpan immediately after the baking cycle is finished. Cool on a wire rack completely before slicing.

(Molasses Walnut bread - sandwich with horseradish spread, ham and lettuce)