Given that the amount of food I can eat has diminished due to either wheat, contamination with wheat products, or it contains barley and rye (the other two gluten troublemakers), I’m focusing on eating 4-5 small meals a day in order to keep full. For snacking purposes (two of those meals), I have discovered:

-carrots dipped in hummus. It’s not pita but it works with the hummus.
-apple slices dipped in peanut butter.
-fresh fruit
-fruit snacks (not ideal but they also don’t have dye issues like other ones do)

Hope this helps those who are trying to come up with meal plans that work around gluten.

If you’re like me, you consider coffee a necessary evil but you can only drink it iced and if it tastes like ice cream. So how do you do this? Well…

My standard order at a coffee chain: iced vanilla latté made with whole milk.

My standard way of drinking it at home: iced coffee with whole milk and Torani vanilla syrup. (Avoid the sugar-free stuff — it tastes horrible and is a chemical _____storm.)

Why do I not do the commercial coffee creamers? Many of them have gluten in them as a thickener. The vanilla soy milk creamer my mom uses says gluten-free on the label and we were laughing at it until I found out *WHY* they very clearly state that. (It was actually pretty good too.)

So how about baked goods? Well, it’s all about labelling and knowing who made things and how they were made. I know that It’s A Grind frequently had locally-made goodies and some of them were gluten-free or egg-free (my other dietary restriction). $tarbux has marshmellow dream bars which are effectively rice krispies treats, except not as sweet at as the Kellogg commercial ones, and that’s my go-to order if I order food there.

One of my guilty pleasures is Kraft Mac n’ Cheese in the thin blue box which I had to abandon due to their unethical use of dyes prohibited outside the USA. (The Kraft Deluxe Mac n’ Cheese with squeezable cheese is a close second.) Of course, I can’t have tyat now due to the whole “wheat pasta = gluten” thing but I’ve found an alternative at Trader Joe’s and Target:

Rice pasta and cheese.

You prepare it the same way you would prepare the stuff in the blue box. The only difference is that the macaroni is made of rice flour instead of wheat. Unfortunately, this means that it tastes better right after it is cooked than it does the next day after being refrigerated. (It’s kind of like how rice is coarser the second day you eat it.)

I mention this for all my mac n’cheese loving readers so that some of you can find something that you can eat that isn’t going to mess with your stomach (or Texas).

It has been a tough day with Daniel waking me up at 5:30 a.m. by using me as a trampoline, dealing with an AYSO coach who was being a jerk (thankfully *NOT* Daniel’s coach), Daniel being a pill all day… Since this is my blog and my whining place (though I don’t do this TOO often), I thought I’d list what I’m craving right now:

-chocolate bars (most use dextrose which is a wheat derivative)
–Arby’s roast beef sandwiches
–Maruchan oriental-flavored ramen
–In N’Out burgers that are not “protein style”
–Round Table Hawaiian pizza
-any of the bistro boxes from $tarbux (without having to pass the crackers on to someone else)
-cake
-chocolate chip cookies (my in-laws brought some home from Panera yesterday and I almost cried)
-bread bowls with clam chowder from Panera
-bagels
-pumpkin cream cheese muffins

Gah. Time for me to try and sleep. (Thankfully, I got a nap this afternoon.)

I thought I’d share recipes that I’ve altered to make them gluten-free so that people have some options for feeding their families who have people with gluten sensitivities. In this recipe, we’re substituting quinoa in place of orzo.

Pesto Quinoa
1 cup quinoa
1 block thawed pesto. (This works out to 1/4 – 1/3 cup.)
1 4 oz. container feta cheese. (I used Athenos which is the only brand I like.)
1 jar pitted Kalamata olives. (I used Mezzetta.)
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts (optional)
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes (optional)

Place the 1 cup of quinoa in a fine strainer and run cold water over it to rinse off any powder. (Rinse untile the water runs clear and make sure it drains well.) Boil the quinoa in 2 cups water, and then turn down to let simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. (This is important or the quinoa will start burning on the bottom.) It will be done when the grains are translucent and the perm has spiraled out. Combine the quinoa with the rest of the ingredients in the bowl and toss together so that the pesto coats all of the quinoa evenly and the rest of the ingredients are distributed evenly throughout the dish.

This works well as a side dish though I’ve eaten it as my main course most of the time.

For those who want my family’s pesto recipe (which makes a lot so be prepared to freeze it), here it is:

Pesto
8 cups basil leaves packed into food processor
1 head garlic or more Peeled and separated.
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup shredded parmesan
1 cup walnuts or pine nuts.

Pack the basil leaves into the food processor. Pulse 8-10 times so that the level starts to drop. Place the garlic cloves in the food processor and press into the basil leaves. Add some of the olive oil and pulse several more times. Repeat adding oil and garlic until oil is completely added and the mixture is a paste. Add the walnuts/pine nuts and pulse several times, just enough to chop and mix. Add the shredded parmesan and pulse several times, just enough to mix. Press into a container and refrigerate for several hours.

Divide into the portion sizes you expect to need, and package in Press’n Seal or Saran Wrap. Put the individual packages into a ziplock bag and freeze.