"Gluten Free" - I thought it was silly, until.... Chapter 1

 

 

I don't know when the current "gluten free" craze began, but for the longest time, I thought it was just another trend that would fizzle out.  Now... I've had to repent of that attitude. I have no idea what portion of the population might be sensitive to gluten. It may be that it's being overdone. Nevertheless, I discovered not long ago, that I am gluten sensitive. For a few years, off and on, I had been having episodes of extreme achiness in my body. It was not sore muscles. It didn't seem to be connected to anything I was or was not doing. It "came to a head" a couple of months ago. I was riding with my husband in his pick-up truck one evening. The pain was exquisite and intense and I was thinking "What is this???  I eat a very clean diet. I go to the gym 3 times a week. My bloodwork came back perfect. I really try hard to take care of myself, so WHAT in the WORLD is going on?"  Then it came to me. "Gluten."  Aha.  Yes.  Perhaps... so I went home and eliminated gluten from my diet. Within 2 days, all of that pain was gone. And it has stayed gone. I have been experimenting with making long fermented sourdough bread, and the jury is still out on that. 

I'd like to share with you some of the things that I've been cooking and eating instead of the grains that have gluten in them.  The first chapter is - 

CORNBREAD MUFFINS

1 cup cornmeal (I use the freshly ground from what we grow in our garden)

1 cup almond flour

3/4  teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon sugar

5 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder

1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed (I grind mine fresh and keep it in the fridge. I use a little electric coffee grinder) - this is the egg substiture

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (oil substitute)

1 cup soy milk 

Mix the dry ingredients

Mix the wet ingredients

Combine well

This will make 12 muffins. Bake at 425 F. for about 15 minutes.  Check to see if they are done by tapping the top to make sure there's no liquidy stuff in the middle. I use pan spray on my muffin tin. This is one of two times I ever use oil  in cooking anymore!  The other is when I make Belgian waffles.  I spray a little on the waffle iron. If you have the little paper liners, you could use those.

My favorite way to eat these is with Navy Bean soup. OH... that's heavenly!  Sometimes I put a little honey on a muffin. These keep well in the refrigerator for a few days. My husband likes to break the muffins up into his soup. 

Tiny laundry tip....

 

I ran across this idea online and can't remember where. For some time now, I've been using just "Dawn Platinum" dish detergent to do my laundry. I add only 1 or 2 teaspoons of the liquid to a load of laundry, depending on the size of the load. I am very happy with the results. My clothing is getting cleaner than I think it ever has and also is softer. I don't use fabric softener. I have 4 wool dryer balls. Now, I do need to mention that I have a water softener, so I don't know how well this would work with hard water. I try to buy my Dawn when it's on sale and so each load only costs 2 cents or 4 cents. It's amazing. I do hang my laundry to dry part of the time, but not always. In the wintertime, I use a drying rack near the woodstove. In the warmer months, I have clotheslines outside that I use a lot. However, if there is a streak of rainy weather or I'm very tired or in a hurry, I use the dryer. After all these years of buying and sometimes making my own laundry soap/detergent, I am so happy that I've discovered this.

A tiny tip about bar soap....

Here is a bar of my homemade soap (sitting on a slice of luffa gourd so it can drain.)  This is what I almost always use to wash my hands and face at the bathroom sink.  Now here is an extremely tiny tip. This time of year where we live it gets very warm and humid and the soap absorbs water and can become so soft it will fall apart. When it gets a little soft, all you have to do is just take the bar up in your dry hands and rub it on your skin a little.  THEN add water and lather up. It saves the soap!

 

Using up last year's harvest...

One thing we always grow in our garden is sweet potatoes.  This time of year they are starting to sprout and I am trying hard to use them up so they won't go to waste!

Here is a nice recipe for a lovely pudding that I make with them.  The original recipe calls for cocoa and vanilla extract, but I cannot eat very much chocolate because I am sensitive to the caffeine and theobromine in it, so I use carob powder and almond extract, instead of cocoa and vanilla extract. Carob, of course, does not taste like chocolate, but it is very good in its own right and is also a very healthy food.  

SWEET POTATO PUDDING

In a high-speed blender, combine the following:

2 cups cooked sweet potato, boiled, peeled and mashed

1 1/4 cups plain plant milk (I use homemade soy milk)

8 pitted deglet noir dates (or maybe 4 or 5 medjool dates)

1 teaspoon pure almond extract

1/4 cup carob powder

Blend until very smooth and then refrigerate until cold, covered.

Winter bits from the garden...

We recently had a fairly severe cold snap with below zero temperatures that lasted for several days. When I went outside this morning I went to the garden to see if there was anything at all that could be salvaged.  I actually found some kale and pulled up a clump of onions. I used some of the onions in potato salad today and will be using the rest of them and the kale in some vegetable soup soon. I know there are lots of Jerusalem artichokes out there that could be harvested. It is so nice to realize that even though winter is upon us, there are still fresh things to enjoy.

 

A simple needle book...

 

I have a daughter-in-law whose name is "Elizabeth."  Everyone I know calls her "Beth." The other day I was watching a show where a little girl was called "Betty."  It sounded like such a pretty name.  I asked my daughter-in-law if she had ever been called "Betty" and she replied that someone had long ago. I asked her if I could call her "Betty".  She replied, "I would love that!"

I wanted to do something to celebrate this interaction, and after contemplating it, decided to make her a little needle book.  Do you know what a needle book is? It's a small fabric book where you can store your hand sewing needles. Then, they are easy to keep with your hand sewing project.

So, you see there, above, what I came up with.  She loves "Forget me nots" and so I embroidered a few of those on there and added her name. She said, when it came in the mail, "I absolutely love it!" She appreciates hand made things... it's so nice.

Here are a couple of pictures of the inside of the little book.

More on our plant based lifestyle...

 Dietary advice is one of those things that often causes people's eyes to "glaze over."  Of course diet is not the only subject that will cause us to harden our hearts, but it's certainly one of them. My husband and I have been eating the Whole Food Plant Based (no oil) way of eating for nearly 4 years now. As I mentioned before, his angina is gone. My eyesight has been restored. I have so much more energy. 

In April of last year (2023) I ended up spending two nights in the hospital. I was experiencing some dizziness and my daughters were all concerned that I might have had a stroke.  As it turned out, it was caused by those little crystals that can form in your inner ear and sometimes get lodged in the wrong place.  Anyway... I had, I think, about every scan and test known to man!  I joked that they took enough blood to sell. After all of that, I found out I am in excellent health. My cholesterol, which used to be 280, is now 140. My heart output, measured by an echocardiogram, which is considered normal at 50%, was 65 - 70%. 

I am now 75 years old.  I take no medications at all. I weigh less now than I did when we got married in 1971. (In case you're curious, I am 5' 4" tall and weigh 122 pounds.) This is without going hungry. I never have to go hungry. I never have to "diet". I do go out and walk for about 45 minutes in the woods up and down hills most days, with our two dogs. I do a little weight lifting, as at my age, it surely is true that if you don't use it you lose it!

Please... I urge you to look into it. Be curious. Do what is the very best for your own health.  When I began this, I told my husband, "I am going to do this for ME.  There is no pressure for you to join me. I will cook for both of us.  And so, that's what I did for about 3 weeks and then he said he'd join me. I think he saw what it was doing for me and also he didn't want me to have to work so hard.  He's so good to me. 

Read The Starch Solution by Dr. John McDougall.  Also, go over to YouTube and watch "Forks over Knives." You can watch that for free. 

It's simple, it's easy to do if you want to do it, and it will  SAVE YOU LOTS OF MONEY.  Honestly, for the two of us, I spend less than $60 a week on food.  Truly. The food can be simple and be perfectly healthy. If you want to, you can cook fancy also, but the health results are the same. For my recent birthday, one of our daughters bought me a copy of Be a Plant Based Woman Warrior   by Jane and Ann Esselstyn.  It is great!  There is a whole world of cookbooks out there for plant based eating.  Just be sure you don't eat added oils. Don't eat processed foods.  Eat whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and if your weight is normal, you can have some nuts and seeds, but avoid those if you need to trim down. Same with avocados.  They are good for you, but avoid them if you need to lose weight.

If you have any questions, you know where to find me.