Wheat Gluten: pet killer

My dog is my baby, and she will be my puppy till she passes on. Even though I never see her because she is back in Texas, I want the very best for her. That includes food.
From when they are this big









To this big










isn't she cute? that's mybabies, baby.


I bring pets up (in all their adorableness) because there has been a case of pet food poisoning and killing pets, dogs and cats. I was flipping through the channels today and saw it on FoxNews. I don't typically watch any news station, but when it has to do with pets dying...well I tune in.

Anyhow, the connection between the poisoning and my blog topic are very close. According to MSNBC.com there is a huge recall of over 100 brands of the "cuts and gravy" pet food. So what's the culprit that has caused the death of cats and dogs? The FDA thinks it might be Wheat Gluten. The food manufacturing companies, based in New Jersey and Kansas, use wheat to thicken the gravy sauce.


So there we have it! Gluten isn't meant for humans, so it sure as hell isn't made for pets. How are they possibly meant to eat such a thing in nature? Cut down the stalk of wheat with their claws?


I think it's time more places offer gluten-free foods for humans and pets, because frankly whole foods and trader joes type of stores aren't available to everyone. So come on Ralphs, Vons, Publix, Cost-Co, Sam's Club, etc. get with the program and feed your customers and stop denying them their nutrients!!!

Major Slip Up

I just had a wtf moment.












So i bought these cookies thinking they were gluten-free, and i've been eating them over time for about a week now. I was looking at the box and noticed that I didn't see "Gluten Free" anywhere on the box so I check the ingredients. Yep wheat flour. Granted, it's organic unbleached wheat flour....

WOW. This explains why i've not been feeling so great intestine wise and all bloated up. I can't believe I did that. Wow...just wow

I guess I'm going to be extremely careful from now on. I'm angry though, because I spend all this time being careful with what I eat. Here I am just unknowingly destroying my insides, when I know I can prevent it. So frustrating!!!

Beer=Bad ?

I wrote this post already, but in the internet's infinite wisdom, it got erased. So here it is again, nicely rewritten.

So, I called my brother on Sunday to see how he was and how his St. Patrick's Day went. He told me he had been hung over till about an hour before I called him (which was at 4:30pm mind you). He and his roommate had thrown a party, but a small party. Only one keg.

hmmm... keg? meaning beer. beer=wheat=bad.

Oh boy! but no! I asked him about it and he said he had bought sorghum based beer. A six pack for $7. Not too badly priced. I asked him how it was and he said it was pretty tasty. I asked him if he had tried the new Anheuser Busch brand of GF beer.
He had.

My brother is just so on top of things! Recently Anheiser Busch came up with a line of gluten-free beer called Redbridge.









photo courtesy of celiacchicks.com


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I assume everyone knows the texture and taste difference between corn tortillas and flour tortillas. Frankly, flour tortillas are way better (in my opinion anyhow). However, flour tortillas are derived from wheat. So why should we have to suffer?! No longer, today's recipe is:

Flour Tortillas









Ingredients:
2 cups gf flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup warm milk
2-1/2 Tablespoons vegetable oil


Directions:
In a medium bowl, combine the gf flour with salt and baking powder. In a separate bowl, combine the warm milk with the oil. Using an electric mixer, beat the flour mixture low speed. Gradually add the warm milk and oil mixture until all the liquid is absorbed. Increase the mixer speed to medium and continue to beat for about 1 minute.

Gather the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl; cover and let sit for 45 minutes.

Cut the dough into 8 equal portions. (Keep remaining dough covered while working with each piece.) Roll out one piece of dough on a gf floured surface until it is about 6-8" in diameter. Place a plate on top of the dough and cut around the outer edges. This will give you a nice round tortilla shape. Continue with the remaining pieces of dough until you have 8 tortillas. Cover the tortillas with a clean dishcloth.

Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. Lightly grease the pan with vegetable oil. Place one tortilla on the hot skillet and cook for 1 minute. When the tortilla begins to bubble in places, flip and continue to cook for 1 additional minute or until it slightly bubbles and browns in places. Place finished tortilla’s under a clean, damp dishcloth.

mmmmm

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The mold used for blue cheese is grown on bread.
Blue cheese, blue cheese dressing, etc. is not gluten-free.

Crazy Delicious

So i'm not really an avid fan of licorice (in fact, black licorice makes me wanna throw up a little), but every now and then a little red twist every now and then is nice. Say, at the movies...

Well I was in my Universities little pit stop (ya know the convenience store type of place that pumps us college kids with late night soda, candy, hot pockets, etc.) and I was looking around at the candy just curious about the nutrition facts. Naively I glance down at the allergen info.












Ingredients go as follows: Corn Syrup, Wheat flour, Citric Acid, Articfial Flavor, Red 40


ooooooook. WHAT the HELL?!?! Now, i thought soy sauce was random as hell to have wheat in it, but LICORICE?!?

That's absurd, reeaaaallly absurd. This means last weekend when I had a few twists of Red Vines, I poisoned myself. wow.

WOW.

All this work for nothing. I wasted my eating of wheat on something I really don't even like. I'm a little angry. At myself. At red vine. I should've been more careful, but I never ever thought licorice would have wheat.


siiiigh


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On Another Note.
I made Gluten-Free brownies today









Bob's Red Mill GF Brownies.

My friend Molly and I went into the only kitchen available for students use, and since they had no pans I made brownie cupcakes. If I had camera, there would be delictable pictures of the whole process. However, I have camera phone pictures. Beautiful, stunning quality I must say.














Mmmm....Brownies with Walnuts.












This was my first experience in GF cooking, and it was pretty successful I'd say. Soy milk + GF Brownie= Crazy Delicious!
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Thank Jesus for my Wii. It's the only thing keeping me entertained right now

Every Cause Needs One

CNN Anchor Heidi Collins

Such a beautiful PSA funded by CNN to help the National Foundation of Celiac Awareness. PSAs are meant to go on air, so all one has to do is contact their local television. To learn more about it, visit NFCA right here.

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it's pretty cool to stand in line at Whole Foods and the woman's basket next to you is full of GF foods

Big Help

I just want to say how encouraging it is to see that other people are reading my blog. Other people I don't know (and those I do).

For my work, I have to set up these dinners that hollywood insiders (i.e. producers, screenwriters, visual effects supervisors, etc.) go to and meet with various students. Sometimes I have to sit in on the dinners. Last week, being one of those weeks. The dinner planned was a penne pasta with shrimp.






WOAH now! That is a huge No-No. So I spoke with the waiter, Frederico, and asked him if there was any way the kitchen could cook me up something that I could eat. (By the way, I work for my Universities Film school and the dinners are catered by the same company who runs the cafeteria here. Sodexho.) I had to explain several times to my hard to understand latino friend what gluten was and what I could not have. Eventually I just asked if I could have a chicken dish with no pasta. He obliges and I receive a (not so great) chicken breast over mexican rice. It was not the best combination of flavors or fantastic tasting, but it was GF.

Tonight I thought I'd have to sit in on the dinner again, and I ran into Frederico in the cafeteria at lunch. He introduced me to the chef who would be cooking the dinner for tonight, and he, Louis, asked me what I would like. Isn't that nice? It ends up that tonights dinner is GF anyhow, and that we have enough students to sit in on the dinners. It's still nice to know they are happy to help me out.


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This ones good for St. Patrick's Day. Being that it's green and all.

Spinach & Artichoke Dip









recipe found here

Ingredients
2 cups shredded gf mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup gf sour cream
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated & divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 roasted garlic cloves
One 14 ounce can gf artichoke hearts (in water), drained & chopped
16 ounces gf cream cheese
5 ounces frozen spinach, thawed, drained & chopped
gf tortilla chips (most are)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups mozzarella, sour cream, 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, pepper, garlic, artichoke hearts, cream cheese and spinach. Stir until thoroughly blended.

Spoon mixture into a 1-1/2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown on top.
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Fruit is naturally gluten-free.
It's also naturally fantastic.

Gluten a Different Sort of Drug.

Autism. I have family friends whose children are anywhere from slightly autistic to severely autistic. Austism basically makes them a little off beat. They have trouble communicating with others and communicating their feelings and emotions. They can be socially awkward or appear to have no social skills. Often times they are amazing musicians or artists but not so good conversationalists.

So where does Autism and Gluten meet? Well they have a nice little rendez-vous in the treatment quad. According to autism.org, a popular treatment method for Autistic children is to put them on gluten free/casien free diets. (casein is a protein found in all dairy products). According to the thousands of parents that have put their kids on a strict gluten/casein free diet, they have seen dramatic differences. One site, glutensolutions.com, goes so far as to state that gluten and casein are pretty much poison to most autistic children. These proteins leak into their guts (remember my last post about leaky gut syndrome?) completely undigested and attach to what is called the opiate receptors of the child's brain.

That kind of sounds to me like these wheat and milk products are acting like a drug such as morphine, cocaine, or heroine.

If you know any one who's child is autistic, talk to them about trying out a gluten/casein free diet.

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www.bakeryonmain.com


I went to Whole Foods today (I love that store, always have) and bought my parents a bag of gluten-free granola. Yes, that's correct. I bought them something. I was talking to my mom on Sunday when she was in the Whole Foods in Houston, I was telling her about this FantTASTic granola. Apparently they didn't have it at their whole foods, so I bought them some and plan on sending it out tomorrow. I've never had any granola this good, never.





Available in five amazing flavors. My personal favorite?
Apple Raisin Walnut


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What makes Glacéau Smart Water smart? It's not all that shocking...

mean little protein

Oh? So you want to know another side effect that occurs when someone who is sensitive to Gluten ingests the protein? I'm glad you asked!!

Well, my dear, according to enzymestuff.com it causes our cells to inflame, to swell, to get bigger. BAD NEWS! It can also lead to what some refer to as a Leaky Gut Syndrome. Sounds delightful, does it not? And what exactly is this leaky gut thing? As the bodies white blood cells go into kamikaze full attack mode on the body, they attack the lining of the gut and essentially destroy the blockers that keep food out of the blood supply and let nutrients in. yuck.


So with all this bad that happens as a result of eating gluten how come so many people STILL don't know about it?! Why is it that my brother is only going gluten-free for four months and if he doesn't see any changes then he won't stay on the diet? (this may be because he loves his beer). The fact that this is an issue that causes so many health problems later on in life and still so many people or completely unaware of the proteins existance even is astounding. The medical community has a job to do, and that is to ensure the over all health of the citizens they serve. Right now, they are totally sucking at it.


I feel like a recipe today. A recipe for some comfort food. Soup.
surprisingly most soups have flour in them. it's used as a thickening agent.
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Baked Potato Soup
recipe found on www.glutenfreeda.com











Ingredients
1-1/4 pounds baking potatoes
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons gluten-free flour
3 cups milk
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup green onions, divided
3 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

Directions
reheat oven to 400°F.

Pierce potatoes with a fork; bake for 1 hour or until tender. Let cool.
When cool, peel potatoes and coarsely mash; discarding skins.

In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; whisk in gf flour and cook until combined. Slowly add milk, whisking constantly until blended. Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring frequently, until thick and bubbly, about 8-10 minutes. Add mashed potatoes and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese. Adjust seasonings to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Remove saucepan from heat and stir in sour cream and half the green onions. Return saucepan to low heat and cook for 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not let boil).

To serve, sprinkle each serving with crumbled bacon and remaining cheese and green onions.
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don't lay out in the sun in southern california for 2 1/2 hours with out sunscreen.

Not so super market

Living in Southern California, there is an abundance of the same stores within a few miles of each other i.e. Ralphs, Starbucks, Del Taco, Rite Aid, etc

In fact there are two Ralphs on one street near my school. The difference for me is that one Ralphs carries gluten-free cereal and the other doesn't. But that's just it. Cereal. Nothing else gluten-free. Shouldn't a big, chain, supermarket carried food for everyone?

Grocery stores back home in Sugar Land, TX carry gluten-free foods.

I'd always thought of California as more health aware and food forward, especially orange county.

So come one Ralphs!!! Stop disappointing me and feed me!!

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Today's Plate!

Brunch: Omelet with sausage, mushroom, onion, and cheese. Hashbrowns and tea.

Dinner: Crispy Brown Rice Cereal with Mixed Berries***and a Non-Fat, Sugar-Free Vanilla Steamer froms Starbucks. Followed later by a dark chocolate caramel from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.


***

















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Somedays your meals just aren't balanced

I'm Hungry

It's 1 am and I'm very hungry. Looking at food websites and recipes isn't really helping me either.

If I were Hiro (yea, from NBC's Heroes) I would teleport myself either to Greenwich Village or Seattle. Why? Because they have gluten-free restaurants.

In a MSNBC article from 2005, the restaurant Risotteria is featured as a Celiac friendly, restaurant. An Italian restuarant at that. Half the menu is for all you wheat eaters and the other half is for us sensitive to the grain. They offer risotto, Neapolitan style pizza, huge salads, panini (grilled & pressed sandwiches), cookies, cakes and their signature "fudgies". So this may not sound like any big thing to you non-gluten sensitives. When EVERY item listed above is something completely and utterly off limits to you, and then you find a place you can walk in and order it all? With a beer to chase? It's like heaven on earth.

Bigger chain restaurants such as Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba's Italian Grill, PF Chang's, and Pei Wei offer a gluten-free menu, but they do not offer gluten-free pasta and garlic breadsticks.

Today, no recipe.
Today, no list of what I ate.
Today, I want to go here.

Risotteria













photo: Gregory Bull/ AP File


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If Oregon, Washington, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Florida can have gluten-free restaurants then California needs to get on the ball!

The Truth Is...

Amen!

There is NO reason for wheat to be used in fake crab meat or soy sauce! That limits my sushi choices sooooo much! Like my friend Kei said, you can tell the quality of a sushi restaurant by how good the California Roll tastes. Well, I guess someone else will have to tell me since they have fake crab meat in them.


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Who wants to hear that I ate cottage cheese, peanut butter, and a banana for brunch? Not me...
If I had an oven, this is what I would have made...

Banana Chocolate Chip Scones
recipe taken from notjustdinner.blogspot.com




3 cups Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp butter
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
4 extremely ripe bananas
1/2 of a 10-oz package of Enjoy Life chocolate chips
Turbinado sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the baking mix, 1/3 cup sugar, and baking powder in a bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles crumbs. Beat the egg and milk together, then mash the bananas and add them to the egg and milk. Pour the wet mixture into the dry. Mix together and then add the chocolate chips.

Drop by 1/2 cupfuls on a greased cookie sheet and sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar. Bake for 16 minutes, until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle of a scone comes out clean.

Makes 10 scones.


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If gluten went to middle school, he'd be a bully

A Heart Full of Love and Fistfull of Change

I was sitting in my friend's dorm room tonight after a rehearsal for a friends directing class (my face and eyes are all red, watery, and itchy, because aside from being gluten intolerant I am also cat intolerant.) and I wasn't particularly hungry, but as I watched her eat those chips ahoy cookies, I just wanted to grab them from her and shovel them in my mouth.

Lately, I find I want the things I can't have more and more. I almost say, "what the hell?! a little gluten now and then can't hurt, right?" Of course I know that is a horrible idea. I feel that if more gluten-free options were easily available I wouldn't be creepily staring at my friends bag of dry and not so tasty chip's ahoy. It's really quite difficult being gluten intolerant and living in the dorms. While the cafeteria does offer gluten-free, white rice bread, the bread is unfortunately somehow not as good as the bread I have in my fridge. Even though it's the same brand, Food for Life, my brown rice pecan bread holds up so much better. My cafeteria needs to try harder.

Today I went in to the restaurant services office with recipes and demands in hand. I was all ready to declare war on wheat and the SodexHo representive for my school with much to say about how little they have done to help me when they promised me so much, but then the representative, Mr. Nargi, wasn't there. Figures. So I left him the recipes and a note. If there are warnings on our entrees that list "May Contain Pork" and "May Contain Peanuts", then there needs to be labels declaring what is safe and gluten-free. really now is this symbol so difficult to place?





I think not. I plan on e-mailing Mr. Nargi tomorrow to ensure that he received my note. None of the recipes I gave him included ingredients that the cafeteria does not already have. These came from the book Living Gluten-Free for Dummies.
So I'm hoping to see these meals integrated into mass servings. Not just for me. How cool and educational would it be for a meal to be made en mass that glowed with the gluten free logo that all my school would see? They'd be wondering what it meant as they devoured the delicious and nutritious meal.

Until I have a home of my own I can't cook things like Pineapple Salsa Chicken Enchiladas




I got this recipe from a fellow gluten-free blogger at glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com


2 cups of your favorite salsa
3 cups cooked chicken, torn or shredded pieces
Juice from one fresh lime
sea salt and ground pepper, or Lemon Pepper
olive oil, as needed
8 corn tortillas
1 cup chopped pineapple
1 4-oz. can chopped green chiles
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
hot red pepper flakes, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Pour about a half cup of salsa into the bottom a lightly oiled 9x12" baking dish.

Squeeze lime juice all over the cooked chicken; season with sea salt and pepper and toss well to coat.

Heat a dash of olive oil in a skillet, and heat one corn tortilla until softened, turning it over once to coat with oil. Place the tortilla into the sauced baking dish; fill with 1/8 of the chicken, and roll up seam side down, placing it at the far end of the dish. Repeat for the remaining tortillas, adding more oil, if needed.

Pour the remaining salsa all over the rolled tortillas. Top with the pineapple, then the chiles. Sprinkle with cheddar and red pepper flakes.

Bake in a 350 degree F. oven until the enchiladas are bubbling and heated through, about 30 minutes.

This recipe is easily doubled [with a larger pan, or use two pans].

Serves 3 to 4, depending upon appetites.


I'd say that beat whatever I ate today...
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Stop eating gluten and you may no longer need that Adderral.