Category: Grains and Additives

Do the Quinoa

Quinoa

So is hubby, the hard sell! He eager squirrels away left overs for lunches the next day. Tiny bento tubs of precious tastes snuck out the door at 7am. MUAHAHHAHAHahahhaha

Imagine my excitement then when I clicked on a random link and found a GLORIOUS site filled with easy to read Quinoa recipes! Squee! Must Share! more

Like Clockwork?

potty

How about some nutrition not just ‘pipe purgers”. Flax instead of jars of metamucal? A smoothy in the morning sounds like easy medicine to take. more

Quinoa Who?

Quinoa

It is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a broad leaf plant rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family. Quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds. more

Wheat Grass Wheat?

wheat-grass-easter1

If you have a wheat allergy – which can occur with and without celiac – you have reason to avoid wheatgrass regardless of gluten content. more

Glutino ™ Corn Bread

Glutino Corn Bread? I’ll Pass… it was a fail! more

Not Soya Sauce

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.

soyasauceWhat 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.

Millet – Clear as Mud

“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.

Twitter, Facebook and Websites … Oh My.

Well, it’s a whole new language out there now that I have gotten started with reaching out to this world of networking.  One could make a full time job of it.  So, here goes.

twitter – I can be added as WheatFreeMe

Facebook – there is a Calgary Coffee group to keep up to date on where we are going to meet up.

Questions to consider in the near future?  We all are of the obvious villains in this wheat free world – Flour, Barley, Rye… etc etc – but what about questions like;

  • Baking Sodas?
  • Baking powders?
  • Sugars?

What other ingredients are we baking with daily without a second thought.  Worse yet?  What are we getting suckered into paying MORE for just because the market is suddenly aware that it’s a Catch Phrase?!  ( Saw ‘Now Wheat Free’ on a jar of jam in the Grocery Store!  Wha?! )

So.  Will look into that tomorrow morning with coffee.

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