Valentine's Day 2011

I found a great Sugar Cookie Recipe in a cookbook that my mom gave me for Christmas.  I decided to cut them into heart shapes and then pipe a pink frosting heart with sprinles on the top for the kid's class parties.

Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies
from the 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes cookbook by Carol Fenster

Makes 24 servings

1/2 c. (1 stick) butter
1 c. granulated sugar
1 T. packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 t. vanilla extract
2 c. gluten-free flour blend (I used a Sorghum blend from this cookbook)
1 t. xanthan gum
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt

1. Place a rack in the lowe-middle position and another in the upper-middle position of the oven.  Preheat oven to 375.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar fro 1 minute or until smooth.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Gradually add flour blend, xanthan gum, baking powder & salt and beat on low speed until well blended. 

3. Roll out 1/4 of daough on lightly dusted cutting surface. Cut out into desired shapes.

4.  Once you have 2 cookie sheets prepared, bake 12-15 minutes, roatating sheets between racks halfway through baking.  Cool 2-3 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. 

Creamy White Frosting
from Better Homes & Garden New Cookbook

1 c. shortening
2 t. vanilla
1 lb. powdered sugar (about 4 cups)
3-4 T. milk (I use lactose-free)
food coloring (optional)

In a large mixing bowl beat shortening and vanilla on medium for 30 seconds.  Slowly add about half of the powdered sugar, beating well.  add 2 T. of the milk.  Gradually beat in the remaining powdered sugar and enough milk to reach desired consistency.  Add drops of food coloring to get desired color.  Add to prepared piping bag.

Pipe in heart-shape to cooled cookies.  Add sprinkles.

Grace's 7th Birthday - 1.26.2011

Grace always gets super excited about birthdays in general, but most expecially hers.  This year there was 3 birthdays in her class during the week of her birthday.  We decided to make some gluten free cupcakes with frosting from a Pamela's Products.  She had a fun time sharing the cupcakes with her friends and singing Happy Birthday!

On Sunday, January 30th she had her party at the Kodiak Community Pool and invited her whole class.  We had about 14 kids attend.  The kids swam for about 1 1/2 hours and then had cupcakes & ice cream while she opened presents.  I rented the cupcake stand for $5 from Ton of Fun (a local party supply store)



Gluten Free Holiday Favorites

So I know that this time of year would be difficult for our family, especially Grace, but since I was going to have 2 weeks off from work I figured I would have the time to experiment and tweak our favorite Christmas/Holiday recipes for year's to come.


I started by baking my regular goodies with wheat flour, which turned out to be a good thing because I was able to use up all the flour and not throw it out.  I made these goodies for friends & co-workers.


The kid's classroom parties were fast approaching, therefore, the first recipe I experimented with was iced pumpkin cookies from allrecipes.com, all I  did was substitute the wheat flour with a flour blend recipe I found in a Living Without magazine and I substituted milk for lactose-free milk.  Both kids said their classmates really enjoyed the cookies.


PUMPKIN COOKIES V (allrecipes.com)
2 c. shortening
2 c. white sugar
2 c. canned pumpkin
2 eggs
2 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. salt
4 c. all-purpose flour (substitute-gluten-free flour blend - recipe below)
1 t. xanthan gum


Icing
6 T. butter
8 T. milk (I used lactose-free milk)
2 c. confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
1 c. packed brown sugar


Makes 4-5 dozen.  Preheat oven to 350.  Cream shortening, white sugar & pumpkin.  Add eggs and mix well.  Sift together baking soda, ground cinnamon, salt and flour.  Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.  Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.


To make icing:  Cook butter, milk and brown sugar until dissolved.  Cool and add confectioners' sugar and vanilla.  Pour over warm cookies. (I liked my counter with wax paper and set my wire cooling racks on top of the wax paper.  I then poured the icing over the cookies and let harden.  Finally I sprinkled confectioners' sugar over top.)




Next, I wanted to make an apple pie, because our family's Christmas tradition is to have a slice of apple pie for breakfast on Christmas morning.  I had found a gluten-fee pie crust product at our local health food store, I had to several ingredients, but it made 4 single-layer crusts, which could be refrigerated or frozen for later use.

APPLE PIE I (allrecipes.com)

Substituted ingredients to make gluten-free

6 c. thinly sliced apples

3/4 c. white sugar

1 T. butter

1 t. ground cinnamon

1 recipe gluten-free pie crust

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Prepare recipe for two-crust pie.  Wipe, peel, core, quarter and slice apples; measure to 6 cups.  Combine sugar and cinnamon.  The amount of sugar used depends on how tart your apples are.  Arrange apples in layers in pastry lined pie plate.  Sprinkle each layer with sugar and cinnamon.  Dot top layer with small pieces of butter.  Cover with top crust.  Place on lowest rack oven in preheated oven.  Bake 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.  Bake for 30-35 minutes longer.
HINT:  When working with this gluten-free crust, you make have to assemble top crust in pieces on top of apple-filled pastry.

I always make Rice Krispie Treats for the holiday season, but most rice cereal are made at factories with gluten cereals.  My mother-in-law, Debi, suggested I make them with the Gluten-Free Rice Chex that I usually have on hand in my house, so I did and they were super yummy.  My son's friend said if he were blind he wouldn't be able to tell the difference between our Chex Bars and the original Rice Krispie Treats.

CHEX BARS

1/4 c. butter

1 pkg. (10oz.) marshmallows (or 3 c. mini marshmallows)

6 c. Gluten-Free Rice Chex cereal



Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat.  Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted.  Meanwhile, prepare baking dish with cooking spray.  Once melted, remove from heat.  Add cereal and stir until well coated.  Using a buttered spatula, press mixture into prepared dish.  Cool; cut into squares.

We also ate a very traditional dinner that included a roasted turkey (which we won in our bowling league - and gluten-free), mashed potatoes (included sour cream & milk), corn, homemade turkey gravy (Grace could not eat) and rolls (which Grace could also not eat).  We were planning on giving her the Lactaid for the mashed potatoes, but we forgot.  About an hour after dinner, we realized that the dairy had not affected her so maybe we can now slowly start to reintroduce dairy products to her....ALL IN ALL AWESOME HOLIDAYS!!!

 

Also, my mother-in-law sent me a Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free cookbook called Cooking for Isaiah, written by Silvana Nardone, the Editor in Chief for the magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray.  i haven't read through it thoroughly yet, but it does have tons of dessert recipes...yum, can't wait to try some out.

 

GLUTEN-FREE FLOUR BLEND

Living Without magazine

1/2 c. rice flour

1/4 c. tapioca starch/flour

1/4 c. cornstarch or potato starch

I tend to quadruple this recipe and store it in an airtight Tupperware container.

I've still been ordering with the online company azurestandard.com to get a lot of my favorite gluten-free products.

Gluten-Free, Lactose-Free Oatmeal Muffins

I took a base recipe from an old cookbook and updated it to fit our family, thought it would be great Grace to take to school when other students have birthday cupcakes:

GLUTEN-FREE, LACTOSE-FREE OATMEAL MUFFINS
Makes 11-12 muffins.

1 3/4 c. rice flour
1/3 c. gluten-free oats (I prefer Bob's Red Mill brand)
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c. Lactose-Free milk
1/4 c. olive oil
1/3 c. gluten-free oats (I prefer Bob's Red Mill brand)

TOPPING:

1/3 c. packed brown sugar

1 tsp. sugar

Preheat oven to 400.  Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper bake cups; set aside.  In a medium bowl, combine rice flour, gluten-free oats, sugar, baking powder & salt; set aside.

In another bowl, combine egg, lactose-free milk & olive oil.  Add egg mixture to the flour mixture.  Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy).

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups; filling each 2/3 full (mine usually only fills 11 cups).  In a small bowl, mix brown sugar and 1 tsp. sugar.  Top each muffin batter with 1 tsp of sugar mixture.

Bake 18-20 minutes or until golden brown and a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Coo on wire rack for at least 5 minutes.

 I plan on freezing several of these for Grace!

Dealing with Birthday Parties & Holidays...ugh!!!

Well I thought I was beginning to get a handle on this whole gluten-free thing, but apparently not.  Grace had been invited to the birthday party of a little girl from her class and told me that she is getting too old and did not want me to stay at the party (I know the mom and this is Kodiak, so I knew it would be fine).  I told Grace if there was cake and ice cream, she could have the ice cream as long as she took her Lactaid.  Well, when we got to the party they had a huge spread (2 tables full) of delicious food including Pancit (a Filipino noodle dish), which Grace could not have along with many items on the table.  She still insisted that I leave her there, so I did.  They did have steamed white rice so I told her she could eat that if she wanted.  Well, needless to say I did leave a little early to check on her and I was entering the party the birthday girl's mom was calling me to tell me Grace didn't feel well.  It actually turned out that she was severely allergic to something at the party and had an asthma attack when she got home.  During the asthma, with tears in her eyes, she said, "I wish I was just a normal kid", it broke my heart.  I responded, "God made you super special!" 

Another thing I have realized is that even when I make food at home that contains gluten I need to be very aware of cross-contamination with the food we give Grace.  Therefore, whatever we do or wherever we go for the upcoming holidays, I need to make sure that I bring her "special snacks" to avoid the cross-contamination.  I have recently subscribed to, and awaiting my first issue, of "Living Without" magazine, which contains gluten-free and dairy-free recipes and advice.  I can't wait!!!

I have decided that even though she is almost 7 years old (January 26th) I need to stay with her at parties and get-togethers in order for her to stay healthy.  I will say though that she has been feeling much better since being gluten-free and her behavior has also been better, which I assume is because she feels better.

NEW RECIPES/ITEMS THAT I LOVE:
Lundberg Organic Brown Rice Spaghetti Noodles
Gluten-Free Mama's Pancake Mix
Red Mill Bob's Gluten Free Oats
Pamela's Bread Mix
(I have been ordering a lot of these items from azurestandard.com)

Latest Update

Well we had an appointment to see Dr. Demain when he came to Kodiak last Friday, but he was running way behind (the fire alarm that went off at the hospital didn't seem to help either), so we were unable to see him, but we have a standing appointment for his next trip here.  I was really looking forward to seeing him so we could get a better idea of how to cope with Grace's diagnosis.

Grace is taking her diagnosis in stride.  I have noticed a huge change in her behavior, she seems to be feeling better, therefore, she is acting better.  Not as many meltdowns or tantrums and she has said her belly has been feeling better as well.  She gets a little upset when Zach gets cookies or other treats she cannot eat.  Although, we went to a birthday party last week and she was fine with not having any cake because she knew it would make her sick.

We've experimented with several new ways to make our favorite recipes.  For chicken fingers, I dipped the chicken in rice flour (thanks soooo much to my awesome friend, Bronwyn, for grinding up some rice for me), then in egg, and finally in crushed gluten-free Corn Chex cereal and then baked them, both kids loved it.  I had bought some Perfect Blend Flour made by Namaste, I substituted it for the flour in my Oatmeal Cookies recipe and it was disgusting, so we used the rice flour on the next batch and they were very yummy.

All of my friends have been so supportive during this time for our family.  Like I said before my friend, Bronwyn, ground up several pounds of flour for me (she even took apart her grinder and thoroughly cleaned it prior to grinding it).  My friend, Dena, made Grace some special gluten-free pumpkin muffins at a get-together so she would be able to have "snacks" with her friends.  Also, my friend, Patti, found some gluten-free cookie and brownie mixes at the Coast Guard Commissary and bought them for her.

Even though this has been overwhelming, it is good to know what Grace's condition and what we could do to help her.  When we finally meet with Dr. Demain, I think we will have an even better understanding of Celiac's Disease.  I am so very thankful for all the support we have gotten from our friends and family during this time; it's AWESOME!!!

Nutritionist Info

So yesterday we met with a local Nutritionist and received soooo much information regarding both Celiac's Disease and Lactose Intolerance.


Regarding Lactose Intolerance, we learned that she may outgrow this condition, especially with taking her off gluten, and we may be able to slowly reintroduce lactose products to her.  We were advised to wait about 3-4 months before attempting to add any lactose back into her diet.  30% of Celiac's patients develop lactose intolerance because the disease damages the lining of the stomach and breaks down the enzyme that allows us to digest dairy.  We also found out that butter has a very minimal amount of lactose, therefore, she can still have it.


Now on to the Celiac's Disease.  We learned that Celiac's Disease is an allergy to gluten.  In addition to be an allergy, Celiac's is also an auto-immune disease that attacks the lining of stomach.  This will be a lifelong affliction for Grace.  Grace cannot ingest any foods that contain wheat, rye, barley, malt, and untested oats.  We have also been advised that she should not eat soy sauce, malt vinegar, some seasonings, marinades, and broth.  I am basically a crazed label reader when visiting the grocery store.  I realized that most sauces contain wheat products as a filler and/or thickening agent.  


Although, this seems to tough to handle it is rally a lifestyle change for our entire family.  We are actually eating much healthier because we are preparing most of our meals from scratch to avoid cross-contamination of gluten products for Grace.  Most processed foods contain some sort of wheat and possibly a preservative, filler or thickening agent.


Grace seems to be taking it in stride.  Thank goodness God has blessed with her with an positive personality and joy for life.  Although, I'm pretty aware she is tired of attending yet another medical appointment.  She sometimes gets upset and irritated when she can't enjoy some of the foods her brother does, but she is old enough to understand that if she eats certain foods she will get sick.  I'm also trying to stay positive for her sake and know our family will get through this.

1st Day of 1st Grade (August 2010)