My Cooking Days Are Over?!?

[FoxersArtist]

I certainly hope that this is not the case as I have really been getting into the groove of cooking exotic new dishes, especially the kind that are sweet, doughy, and satisfying. And besides all of that, I was just getting to a point where I felt I had mastered the art of defending my kitchen accessories against the evils of the garbanzo mafia. Unfortunately, I fear that it is true. My world of ingredients has come crashing down, become worthless - layer by layer - like a masterpiece lasagna in the hands of the lover of Mexican cuisine. Ok, forgive me, that was overly dramatic and a bit cheesy, wasn't it? I did try. Ok, ok, let me start over.

When I first realized that I would have to vow to abstain from all gluten containing products for the rest of my life in order to save my life, my future of cooking was in a state of crisis. I had just perfected my skills in cooking every day foods as well as many tasty pastries (if you don't believe me, please see my previous post regarding how to make a pear pie). Admittedly so, I was wildly addicted to candy or any sweet thing and found myself stashing away mounds of goodies so that I had a variety of deserts to choose from after every (single) meal with room for snacking between.

Somehow, I thought that God had graced me with the amazing ability to process the number of calories in any given meal as if each item was the low-fat Atkins menu option. I could order a side salad at my favorite restaurant OR a triple cheese pizza, with 4 different types of pork topping, and 3 lbs of tomato paste, garlic, onion, preservatives, & RED # 40 all heaped onto a deep fat fried crust and served with sugar loaded cinnamon bread sticks and a 64oz soda and the results would be the SAME either way!!! For those who may not know...the red paste found on pizza does not actually contain a REAL tomato ingredient! That's what the RED # 40 dye is for!!! Ok, well - maybe that's not entirely true, but I bet it's at least partially true for some food items. Ingredients should be required to rate for content the way movies do! Rated "E" for Edible or "P" for Poison. Better yet, "P" for Poo - as in, don't eat this, it will surely kill you.

All of this to say, I was rather shocked by the changes my body started to make when I began cooking those healthier gluten free dishes with less fat, less calories, less preservatives & dyes, and less highly processed miscellaneous flours, sugars, and starches that seem to be lurking in everything. If we couldn't pronounce it in a single try, we refused to consume it. I started losing weight along with my bodies tolerance for these inedible items. Was it possible for this already thin girl with the athletic build to lose weight? The very same girl who could not gain an ounce during pregnancy even after scarfing down entire deserts such as brownies, bread pudding and ice cream on a daily basis? Now keep in mind, I did gain some weight here and there over the years and did not lose that weight easily, but this is very typical in adults with my type of build. Either way the weight was minor and seemed to hide itself well both on the scale and on my body.

When I was a kid, I was almost always the top choice among my peers for receiving abuse of all varieties for being the "nerdiest" looking classmate in school. When they were not focused on my visual impairments, one of their secondary targets was directed toward my rear which has always seemed to protrude a little farther than might look natural to a pack of insecure 10-year-olds. This was by all means an unfair topic to tease about, especially since I never considered myself to be large anywhere and was always an active kid. My parents had explained to me that my spine was curved in such a way that it caused my bottom to stick out but it had everything to do with my spine and nothing to do with my weight. I had always looked that way. Now, back to present day, and with all respect to mom and dad's theory, I looked into the mirror several weeks ago after losing a considerable amount of weight and lo-and-behold my spinal deformity was healing! AND to top off that discovery, I had recently noticed while sitting in church that the pews were feeling a bit harder these days. Heck, the sofa was feeling a bit harder. My insta-padding was gone! The secret was officially out today when I took my macaw, Peggy Sue, to a friend for her monthly beak trim. My friend always teases me about my "spinal deformation" or "continental shelf" as she calls it, but today (in shock) she wanted to know where it went and why the world was ending! After all of these years, I have learned something new and amusing about myself. I finally know where all of that childhood candy went!

As is a habit of mine, I have strayed quite a ways off topic here. What I was trying to say is that going gluten free had been a very big shift for us and had changed our eating habits, as well as some other things, in ways we could not have imagined. But what is even more unimaginable is that the changes did not stop there. Shortly after my diagnosis, we learned that Andy was not as healthy as we had previously thought. Dry itchy skin, rashes, acid reflux, bad breath, weight gain, frequent gas, short attention span, forgetfulness, excessive sleepiness at inappropriate moments, moodiness - sorry sweety. I thought these were all pre-requisites for being a man. Was I wrong! These are all things that MANY people suffer from in today

[ShayFL]

Anna the writer....another great story.

I have discovered the yumminess of coconut milk and shredded coconut. It helps with the boredom. I can eat almond flour (meal) which is also good. Whole nuts are very hard to digest.

But like you, I am mostly meats, eggs, veggies and fruits. Thank God for spices!!

[Lockheed]

My co-workers probably think I am nutz now with how much laughing I just did. Excellently written!

on the not baking front.. I'm not really sure what to suggest since you are doing away with rice and nuts as well. Starches are also out.. hrmm.. really limited.. Maybe moving to sauces and reductions might bring some gratification. using veggies and fruits for sauces?

[Juliebove]

I do know the feeling. I was well known for my baking. I once had a plate of cookies sell for $50 at a bake auction and people used to contact me to buy my cakes, cookies and hand painted chocolates.

Then I had to give all that up. Between the food allergies and diabetes, this stuff was out of the question.

I did foray into the world of gluten free, soy free, dairy free baking, only to discover that I couldn't make anything edible. Blech!

I then turned to the world of raw vegan cuisine. Although my current diet is not totally raw, I did find a number of yummy things I could make given our limitations. Like brownies and onion bread. You might try looking for raw vegan recipes. There are a lot on the Internet.

[FoxersArtist]

I made a salad dressing out of olive oil and vinegar with some added spices and I also made a "speghetti sauce" out of veggies, not including tomato. Believe me when I say that the sauce was rather....ummm. Ok, I'll just be blunt. It looked like puke. But it tasted pretty good over noodles and included sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, carrots, lettuce and mango with some added spices. I am sure it will take some time to perfect all of this. I will do my best! In the meantime, knowing that your coworkers are probably giving you funny looks is helpful enough.

-Anna

My co-workers probably think I am nutz now with how much laughing I just did. Excellently written!

on the not baking front.. I'm not really sure what to suggest since you are doing away with rice and nuts as well. Starches are also out.. hrmm.. really limited.. Maybe moving to sauces and reductions might bring some gratification. using veggies and fruits for sauces?

[purple]

I recently found 2 good web sites that maybe you could get an idea from:

1) Open Original Shared Link

it lists a bunch of recipes with the substitutions and a great list of "sauces"

2) Open Original Shared Link

she has gluten-free/cf, vegan/vegetarian, and more recipes and shes very creative

[Sweetfudge]

this multiple allergy thing sure does suck i'm glad you're able to turn it into something entertaining, as i was feeling blue about my latest eliminated foods.

I made a salad dressing out of olive oil and vinegar with some added spices and I also made a "speghetti sauce" out of veggies, not including tomato. Believe me when I say that the sauce was rather....ummm. Ok, I'll just be blunt. It looked like puke. But it tasted pretty good over noodles and included sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, carrots, lettuce and mango with some added spices. I am sure it will take some time to perfect all of this. I will do my best! In the meantime, knowing that your coworkers are probably giving you funny looks is helpful enough.

-Anna

can you share the recipes for the dressing and the sauce? they sound good! i have yet to find a salad dressing that is half decent, and soy/dairy/gluten/canola/sunflower free

[FoxersArtist]

I sure wish I could give you the recipes but I am terrible about remembering things and writing them down. I have it all in my head and nothing is measured out. I have so many people asking for recipes for things I make and I have to tell them, I just don't know how I made it! LOL. I'm pretty mad at myself for making a really tasty breading a while back for fried squid but was not able to re create it the second time.

What I can tell you is that I mixed Olive Oil, with apple cider vinegar to taste. Then I mixed garlic powder and a little onion powder, oregano, marjoram, thyme, basil rosemary, sage and then agave nectar added to taste (until it evened out the bitter vinegar taste). Sorry if that's not helpful. Agave nectar is well worth finding if you have a sweet tooth.

The sauce had all of the veggies I mentioned plus a little water and olive oil, garlic powder, and again agave nectar to taste.

-Anna

this multiple allergy thing sure does suck i'm glad you're able to turn it into something entertaining, as i was feeling blue about my latest eliminated foods.

can you share the recipes for the dressing and the sauce? they sound good! i have yet to find a salad dressing that is half decent, and soy/dairy/gluten/canola/sunflower free

[purple]

I sure wish I could give you the recipes but I am terrible about remembering things and writing them down. I have it all in my head and nothing is measured out. I have so many people asking for recipes for things I make and I have to tell them, I just don't know how I made it! LOL. I'm pretty mad at myself for making a really tasty breading a while back for fried squid but was not able to re create it the second time.

What I can tell you is that I mixed Olive Oil, with apple cider vinegar to taste. Then I mixed garlic powder and a little onion powder, oregano, marjoram, thyme, basil rosemary, sage and then agave nectar added to taste (until it evened out the bitter vinegar taste). Sorry if that's not helpful. Agave nectar is well worth finding if you have a sweet tooth.

The sauce had all of the veggies I mentioned plus a little water and olive oil, garlic powder, and again agave nectar to taste.

-Anna

Here is a good web site for sauces including a recipe for "tomato free "spaghetti/pizza sauce and "soy free" soy sauce.

Open Original Shared Link

click on recipes... then sauces

I posted the web under baking and cooking also.

I found some dressing recipes in a Betty Crocker Summer Salad book from 1986, but I am not sure if I can post them. Is it ok if I post them with the book title and what else...?

Here are the names anyway:

French- oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, dry mustard, paprika

Italian- oil, vinegar, lemon juice, spices-including garlic

Poppy seed- oil, sugar, vinegar, lemon juice, poppy seeds, onion, salt

Clear French- oil, vinegar or wine, salt, garlic

guacamole- avocado, onion, green chili peppers, lemon juice, mayo or salad dressing

Orange- oil, marmalade, lemon juice

Lorenzo- french with chili sauce

sweet french- french with powdered sugar

herb- french with herbs

Lots with mayo

limeade- limeade, honey, oil, celery or poppy seed

honey peanut- honey, pb, lemon juice

ginger- oil, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, ginger

Could be more too...so can I post them over in Baking and Cooking??? They sound so good and we had chef salad for dinner with bottled dressing