“There’s a growing awareness that gluten intolerance is a disease,” Hamelink said. “A diagnosis like that can be devastating at the time but there are many, many resources out there and it’s not impossible to eat gluten-free.” From an article on MLive.

Your diagnosis of celiac or gluten intolerance truly isn't the end of eating delicious foods however it is the beginning of a new way of thinking about food. You will need to adjust your thoughts to "whole, real foods" nothing processed and certainly nothing from the bakery at a grocery store (I keep hoping though). The way we think about eating now is one or two ingredient foods. Like apple, banana, lettuce, beef, chicken, pepperoni; these are all single ingredient foods that when cooked are delicious. You will find herbs, various oils (olive, flax, sesame) and butter to be your friends. You will eat a rainbow of colors and textures while being gluten free. Your ability to cook will soar and your taste buds will find natural flavors enticing. It isn't a life sentence to cardboard tasting foods, it's a glorious new beginning to eating foods that are rich in natural flavor.

Join us on this journey and try some great new foods.

Pizza Dough

Okay, this was one of the hardest things I was giving up so I thought I should share it right away. When my husband told me of his wheat allergy I thought garlic bread, pasta and then it hit me, no more pizza. Well that was truly unacceptable...really how unAmerican is that. So my quest was to find a pizza dough that would work for both he and I. The packaged doughs just were not good. They would come out hard, like I'm going to break my teeth off on this crust hard. But this past weekednd I found it, the holy grail of pizza dough for those suffering from celiac disease or a wheat allergy. Here is the recipe:


2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Baking Flour
1 (1/4 ounce) envelope yeast
1/4 cup of Potato Starch (Bob's Red Mill is what I used)
1/4 cup of White Rice Flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 cups hot water

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients together (Flours, Yeast, Starch, Sugar, Salt) in a large mixing bowl. I actually stirred them up with a wooden spoon.

Add Oil and Water

With a mixer, scraping the sides of the bowl, mix the ingredients until they have thickened up. I did have to add a few more tablespoons of starch and flour but if you do this, add it slowly because it thickens up quickly.

This won't get like pizza dough you can throw in the air but it does thicken

Grease a cookie sheet and pour in the dough

Cook for 15 minutes in a preheated 425 degree oven or until slightly browned on top

Add your toppings and cook an additional 15 minutes

Whala, you have pizza that has a chewy dough center, wonderful toppings and easy to make.

Now I haven't tried making the dough and freezing it. I will try that soon and let you know because that would make for an easy mid week dinner with a salad and a glass of wine!!!

Bon Appetit and God Bless!

Why this blog was created

They say you can't choose who is the one true love for your life. I would never have guessed that my true love would have allergies to the outdoors and to food. He has a wheat allergy and a dairy allergy so my cooking passion must change to accommodate. At first I was at a loss, what can I cook, what will make him sick, what type of diet do we go on, it was very stressful. I was scared that anything I would cook would send him over the edge and into migraine headache world and in fact I learned that there are many things that cause the allergy to flare up. Yes, I learned the hard way and it was hard on both of us, my guilt and his pain. But I think we have it down now, only when he doesn't know about foods will he get a flare up. For instance, meatballs that look perfectly round mean they are probably the frozen kind, thus filled with fillers that have wheat. We basically are eating the diet for Celiac Disease with the added bonus of no dairy. However, thanks to soy, we have soy cheese, milk and yogurt to be able to cook with also. What you will find in this blog are recipes we have tried and liked. We will share what we liked about the recipe and what we changed from the original recipe. We may also share that which didn't work for us and why. You may have some ideas to make it better and help others along the way. We are excited to share our journey with you. We hope you will gain a new lease on life and be able to enjoy eating again.