I have to say I have become quit skeptical with the product availability of all these “fantastic gluten free products’ that have started to seep onto the market.   This one though has me TRULY hopeful!

REALLY!!   Reading fine print…   I phoned the General Mills Customer Service number in the states and they provided me with the Canadian number  1(800)767-5350.   I have to say, I REALLY liked the US customer service line.  The were NONE of the automated ‘ press 9 for this in swaheeli’ recordings.  Straight to a young and friendly voice!

My enthusiasm faded when I hit the Canadian ” customer service” line.

I regret to inform CANADIANS that this product is not available in Canada.   * sighs*

Steeps is a great Tea Shop on 17th ave sw.  The last time I was there I was THRILLED by the Simple Simon Gluten Free Lemon Crumble and their Apple one looked divine!  I stepped into their shop yesterday with hopeful salivations.

Denied.

Simple Simon, as it was explained to me, is currently reconsidering his Gluten Free line and is questioning it’s viability.   This saddens me. I spent a few stolen moments with the operator on some quick resources to fill that hole in her suppliers.  (Sugar and Spice in Airdrie being the first to fall off my lips.  Her Banana Bread is appearing in more and more shops and is well deserving of it’s price!  MMMMMMMM)

I recognize that it is difficult for coffee/tea shops to carry gluten free options as their shelf life and cost make them a challenge and a huge potential in overhead/write-off costs.  As a business owner it is a huge struggle to be able to offer a product to a portion of your customers.

Why only a portion?  Because sadly Gluten Free Goods has obtained a stigma of also being Flavor Free Goods.  This has been rightfully earned as the Pioneers of Gluten Free Products just battled to find something that could be eaten and often had to sacrifice taste to make it so.  ( Yes, wheat is still a very nummy thing and does bring out flavors.)  The Pioneers, companies such as Celimix and Kinnikinnick, have done a great job at bringing basic foods and mixes back into every day homes.  Regrettably, they are still NOT comparable to a piece of Cheese Cake Cafe’s seven layer chocolate cakes!

So how can a business bring in MARKETABLE and Reasonably Priced goods into their businesses when private homes even struggle?  I would initially pass on some suggestions that I also offer to friends and families:

1) Keep a Loaf of Wheat Free Bread in the Freezer.  What would I recommend with PRICE and TASTE in consideration?  Kinnikinnick’s tapioca bread or brown bread ( which is currently being used by Chianti’s Restaurant in NE Calgary with their vinegar and oil! mmmmmm) work well as a lightly toasted sandwich.  Pastrami on their brown bread….ooooo now that is good.

2) Healthier Luncheon Meats  – Deli meats are sneaky but grocers are getting wise to the market!  More and more everyday meats are being swapped out for products that don’t use wheat filler. Black Forest Hams, pastrami’s and Roast Turkey meats are just a few that are available in completely Celiac friendly forms and for insignificant price differences IF any!

3) Fresh Veggies are Gluten Free ( duh right?).  A good rule of thumb I heard was ” If it came straight from mother nature it doesn’t need a Food Information Table on It”.  Oranges contain 100% oranges.   Carrots contain 100% Carrots.   A wonderful thing to offer is to swap out a side dish of unknown content with some simple cut veggies and/or fruit.  The offer is often seen as very considerate and openly welcomed.

4) Watch what it’s cooked WITH!!!!   Please use a separate toaster for our breads though!  A walmart $20 special is fine.  Clearly labeled NO WHEAT!!!!!  Even crumbs are enough to set off an allergy.  Are chicken fingers deep fried in the same oil as your french fries?  Is the sandwich press used for wheat breads and rice?  Consider a smaller “home use” deep fat frier for special orders or parchment paper for presses and baking sheets.

5) ASK US!    We are so used to dealing with the what we can and what we can’t that we are pretty good at being creative.  Any chance that we can enjoy a meal out with friends in a public setting AND get to eat along with them and we are THRILLED.  What does this mean? Bigger tips and willing to pay the extra few bucks! NOT to mention fabulous word of mouth!

That being said I still carry Wheat Free soy sauce in my purse for Sushi impulses and recognize that sometimes those dreaded green salads are the only options! I still appreciate family, friends AND restaurants who are willing to make that extra strep to help encourage me to come back again… and bring friends!

Movie after movie sneak little hints at how amazing Turkish delight is into their scripts.   In the Chronicles of Narnia Edmund sold himself ( and his siblings) for a silver tin of this “sinful” treat.  Yet my memory of the stuff was from an old boyfriend’s Lebanese grandmother.  “Sitti” would point her finger at the plate of goodies and urge me to eat more… eat more, her broken english softened with a mischievious grin.   I don’t remember the taste but I remember eating it because it made her happy.

So today I stepped out of my comfort zone and bought myself two inexpensive boxes of this mysterious treat.   Nervously, I popped a piece of the rose flavored powdered sugar puff in my mouth.  I braced myself.  Chewed.  Opened an eye.  Chewed.  Opened the other eye.   heyyyyy….  that’s pretty good.

I had to put the box away so that there would be some for my boys to try!

Mint, Lemon, Rose and Pistachio turkish delight now sit on my counter and I fight to not sneak just ONE MORE piece from the boxes.  I am pleased to find another food that is sweet and nummy and SAFE!!!!

ok.  Maybe just one more piece… of each flavor…

It’s overcast and that means it’s a great day for baking.  Summer always adds that challenge of timing the turning on of the oven with the weather forecast.

Roarke all but erupted when he heard it was baking day.  He lunged for recipe books to flip through photos.  I managed to convince him to stick with some old tried and trues.

Chocolate Chip Cookies have turned me into my grandmother.  I remember being amazed at how she would rattle recipes off from memory, an entire book of them archived behind her salted brown hair.  She seemed so wise.

In her honor:

Wise Guy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

• 1/2 c   Margarine (opt dairy free)
• 1/2 c  Shortening
• 1 c  White Sugar
• 1 c   Brown Sugar
• 2 eggs

Remaining:

• 1tsp baking powder
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1tsp zanthum gum
• 4  1/2 c Flour Alternative ( see previous post)
• 2c chocolate chips

Mix together till creamy then add “remaining” ingredients in order.  Drop on cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven at 325′c for 10 minutes.

This is a standard around here.  Careful though.. this many chocolate chips makes for gooie fingers!

I drafted this post in June… Now it is the end of July and I am wondering what the heck has happened to the summer already!   Have I really gotten that wrapped up in life that I forgot my online world?   The answer is a gleeful  YES!

This summer has begun with some amazing gluten free finds.  The bakery in Cochrane has become a regular excuse for motorcycle jaunts and the saddle bag on the bike has officially been dubbed the Bread Basket.   If you haven’t made the trip yet… DO!

The best compliment I can think of was watching a 10 year old boy sink his nose into the middle of a slice of their bread and inhale deeply.  “  It’s BREAD!!!!”  He proceeded to munch on the morsel from the inside out.  Was hard to give him heck…  it’s what I did with my first slice of this bread.

So here we are at the end of July.   Warm sweet evenings after rich sinful days remind me of Grandma’s fresh bread.   The indulgent middle was ALWAYS the best part..

Finding wheat free soya sauce has been a challenge but is getting easier and more economical with Superstore’s President’s Choice line having gone wheat free ( read labels carefully!).  The challenge, though, is “ What do you do when you are allergic to SOY too?”  Soy free Soya Sauce?  ummmm

Some online searches came up with some options including Marmite and Vegamite blends but I am not a fan of those, regardless of the number of Marmite Sandwiches a friend used to make.

What did we come up with?  A reasonable facsimile.

1 cup Molasses
1/3 cup Balsamic Vinegar
1.5 cups Beef Broth
3 – 4 Tbsp Salt

The trick here is the SALT.  Keep in mind, it’s NOT soya Sauce.  NOTHING is going to taste exactly like soya sauce accept soya sauce.  This, however, seemed a very reasonable replacement for stir frys and other uses.

My brother is down visiting and this brings with it Added Allergies to the list.  Soy and Dairy. My drive is to get my little brother (6′ 4″) from his current weight of 135 pounds on the path of good food that won’t kill him and a target weight of 170 minimum!

A noble mission… and one that will have me hitting the treadmill and carrot sticks when he leaves!  Until then?   I am one happy girl! Why?  Due to meals like this!

Hubby has mastered the art of Deep Fried Chicken fingers. Crispy seasoned outer breading with moist tender strips of chicken inside.  Wheat Free, Gluten Free, Soy Free, Dairy Free but certainly NOT free of great flavor!  He is promising me the recipe to post here to share.

Now, most people would toss some plum sauce, carrot sticks and maybe some fries on the side but what did I get to have? 

Deep Fried Mushrooms! Now both of these were Wheat Free, gluten free, dairy free and soy free (sunflower free too but that is simply the matter of choosing the right oil for deep frying).  These bad boys brought back memories of the Burger Baron in my home town.  Early eight’s – deep fried, pre-transfat craze, everything bad for you but a hint of a veggy in there – mouth scalding bites of heaven.  Some plum sauce to help cool them down and they disappeared into my mouth one right after the other, long past the point of need and deep into the heart of dietary greed!  Every sinful moment a delight!

This is the man that knows the way to my heart.  He is NOT allergic to wheat but has committed himself to this cause 100%.  He lives in a wheat free home and never complains.  He challenges out food like a true scientist.

Now to nag… I mean.. “encourage” him to get those recipes posted for us!

“Millet is gluten-free. It is not Grain Free!”

Just to not confuse new people to the disease and diet.”

Millet, common name for several species of the grass family (see Grasses), and for their small-seeded grain.

Millet is highly nutritious, non-glutinous and like buckwheat and quinoa, is not an acid forming food so is soothing and easy to digest. In fact, it is considered to be one of the least allergenic and most digestible grains available and … usually contains less protein than wheat or rye and more protein than rice.

Fundamental Flour Facts has a lot of info on this topic.

Still, much confusion seems to swirl around the word flour… The Concise Oxford Dictionary offers “any fine powder” as one of the definitions of the word “flour”.

Wheat is a cultivated grass, just like corn and rice.  … it became imperative to divide flours into categories: gluten containing grass flours, gluten free grass flours and flours from other plants. I have been able to further sub divide the flours from other plants into ground nut flours, seed flours, legume flours and root or vegetable flours.

This is some of the information I have amassed through extensive reading and careful research. If it contains any inaccuracies, omissions, or errors please bring it to my attention, so I can correct the information. I am not a specialist of any kind, just one woman searching for a way to better understand the foods I eat, so that I can recover my health.

The Grass Family of Plants:…

Gluten Free Grasses or grains:

• Corn / Maize Flour or Meal
• Millet Flour
• Rice Flour – all varieties, white & brown
• Glutinous Rice Flour ( also know as sticky rice or Mochi )
• Wild Rice Flour ( the seeds can be cooked whole or ground into a dark flour )
• Sorghum Flour
• Teff Flour – dark and ivory
• Sugar Cane
• Bamboo
• Job’s Tears / Hato Mugi / Coixseed / Adlay / Adlai ( barley like in appearance, grain that is gluten free and can be ground into flour)

Please check out her site for MUCH MUCH more information!

Summary?  Use with care!  Determine if it is GRAINS you are allergic to, modified grains ( the genetically altered ones we use so commonly today) OR if it’s the glutens themselves (aka Celiac).  If it makes you ill… DO NOT EAT IT.

I miss soups! While I really enjoy traditional Campbells soups and their economic addition to cooking for a family, I now venture to find affordable alternatives.

Knorr has caught on.  Not only can you get some of their soups in ready to serve sizes for a hungry man or two ladies for lunch, you can also get pouches for approx $2.50 each.  Two of these and some Red Mills Pizza Dough makes a great lunch for my family of 5. 

That brings a family meal in at approx $10. Reasonable!

_______________________________

Items that you might not recognize on the ingredients list.  To Wikipedia!

maltodextrin - can be derived from any starch. In the US, this starch is usually rice, corn or potato; elsewhere, such as in Europe, it is commonly wheat. This is important for coeliacs, since the wheat-derived maltodextrin can contain traces of gluten. There have been recent reports of coeliac reaction to maltodextrin in the United States.[citation needed] This might be a consequence of the shift of corn to ethanol production and its replacement with wheat in the formulation.

Other authorities on gluten maintain the source does not matter because maltodextrin is such a highly processed ingredient that the protein is removed, rendering it gluten free. If wheat is used to make maltodextrin, it will appear on the label. Even so, the maltodextrin will be gluten free.

note: Soups may contain milk ingredients

You are standing in the grocery store wondering “Now what?”.  Your eyes are moving through the bakery ( strategically placed just inside the door to entice you with succulent smells of sweet baked goods.) and see mounds of buttered goodness you now can’t eat.  What used to take you an hour to whip through ( for small families) now finds you an hour in holding the 5th can of tomato soup in your hand wondering why they would put Wheat Flour in tomato soup?  or Beef Broth? or one of a million other staple foods that you used to trust.

Shopping is now an adventure ( or hell, depending on the day).  This will get easier and  less discouraging.  I have  a wheat free home that houses 3 boys soon entering teenage hood!  There is hope!

Early in  highschool we were taught that the HEALTHIEST way to eat was by only shopping around the OUTTER circle of any grocery store. Why?  Less prepackaging, less additives and MORE primary food group items.  THAT is where we will fill the majority of our shopping cart.

The Outer Elites – Produce, Meats, Dairy and Baked goods.

The Bakery – These are an entire weeks worth of posts and so we will set those to the side today and consider them, for the most part, out.  So lets move on to the Produce.

The Produce – How often to you see a label on an orange saying ” may contain traces of peanuts”?  Good!  So, we get to eat a little healthier on this journey too. When I began shopping “enlightened”  I was so overwhelmed I just set aside the Organic for the time being.  I want to feel I have CHOICES first.  I do not function well on feelings of deprivation.

Tips:  Avoid packaged to start! Salads with croutons in little cello packs,  sliced fruit in syrups, and anything that has that Label of Ingredients – read!

Meat Department – Here it’s not as clear cut.  Watch out for;

• sausages, smokies, and hotdogs - toasted wheat crumbs, flour and other forms are often used as fillers, seasonings, and coatings to keep things looking fresh and enticing.  Johnsonville and Butcher’s Choice both have lines of sausages, Top Dog and President’s Choice has a line of hotdogs
• Deli Sliced meats - Ask to see the unopened package, box or tube.  If they can’t produce the packaging, smile in appreciation and decline.  All Beef” just refers to the MEAT content and not the additives.  Sobey’s has a leaflet on their counter listing ALL the wheat/gluten free options!  If you don’t see it there, ask and they are very helpful!

Dairy Department - Milks and cheeses contain just what they say.  Milk and cheese ingredients  but do not assume that MARGARINE does not!  Whey  and Casinate are two ways of saying ” Dairy”.

Dairy Free Alternatives to get you started :

• Butter - SuperStore’s Celeb Margarine,  Fleishman’s Lactose Free Margarine ( double check, there are two that say LF but one has whey!),
• Cream/ whipped cream - Nutriwhip cartoned ‘cream’ ( there is ONE!  It is a great replacement for many recipes or desserts that call for cream, including Alfredo !)
• Milk - Almond Milk.   It comes in chocolate, vanilla or original.  The Vanilla gets used in a lot of cooking and baking here as it is a very mild vanilla taste.

For the most part the Dairy, Meat and Produce aisle are not going to be the biggest challenge so start there!  Give yourself that pick me up of a GOOD cut of steak, a rosy piece of salmon or some treat of the GOOD cuts of chicken.  Plan for some lunch nibblies by  picking up some extra thick slice ham or thin sliced pure roast beef to wrap around cheeses and spreads to make ’sandwich wraps.

You can do this.  You just need some basic items to build from.