People always comment when I mention where we usually shop for GF stuff that it must be really expensive to have to live GF.  I know there must be cheaper ways to cook GF, and next summer I plan to explore them.  But in the meantime, I’ve come up with an analogy to explain to people exactly how expensive GF food generally is…

Imagine if Girl Scouts were the only people selling groceries.

The ingredient of the week is lemon.  When I shared this info with my eldest the first words I heard were, ”Good, we can have salmon.” Followed shortly by, “And lemon smoothies.” :-D  Next to bananas, lemons are the fave fruit around here.  Seriously, the kids eat them raw, sans sucre.

Monday–Salmon w/ Yogurt-Lemon Sauce (modified from this recipe), Peas, Baguette

Tuesday–Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Bread, Lemon Strawberry Smoothie (modified from this recipe)

Wednesday–McD’s–There was a day when this sounded like a good dinner.  Since I’ve been cooking at home even In-N-Out tastes blech, so McD’s is way down there.

Thursday–Shrimp and Tofu in Lemon Sauce, Stir-Fry Veggies

Friday–Tacos, Corn

Saturday–This weeks “borrowed” recipe is from Aprovechar.  SF, GF Sorta Thai, etc. that I think I’ve made before but maybe I was just imagining ‘cuz the first time I read the recipe it sounded very good and I was very hungry.  It could have been a dream…

Check out all the other menus at Gluten Free Mommy.

Last month when I made my trip to Whole Foods (hey, I know how to live it up on Valentine’s Day, eh?) I picked up a box of Ian’s Soy Cheesy French Bread Pizza to try.  To be honest, I did not think I would be the one trying it.  I thought I’d force it on one of the kids when I thought they were hungry enough to eat at least one piece.  My experience with store-bought, gluten-free pizza, has been unpleasant to say the least. 

Today, however, I was hungry enough (and out of anything interesting for lunch) so I popped the two small pieces into the oven and figured that if I didn’t eat it my dh was sure to–he’ll eat anything, he always fell for those “starving children in China” lines his parents gave him.

Well, I’ll be picking up a few more boxes of this on my next trip.  It was, by far, the best GF pizza I’ve ever had.  The bread was nice and crispy and, to be honest, it tasted fairly close to it’s glutenous counterpart.   The two small pieces were just enough for a lunch, if that’s all you’re eating.  You could split with one other person if you have a salad or something else with it.  I would recommend the full cook-time of 20 minutes else it will be still a bit chilly in the middle.

Third edit: Yep, it really is going to be one of those weeks.  First I forget it’s Easter, then I forget where the menu swap is being held.  I give up on the rest, declare the week to be a complete wash and will go off to take a nice long nap.    OK, that was a nice thought anyway.  Instead I’ll load the troops into the van and go off to piano lessons.  

——————————-

This is going to be one of those weeks when I just don’t get many naps.  Shoot, I’m even going to have to get up before 8 every day.  I don’t know how I’ll make it. hehehe. 

Monday–Tacos, Corn, Fruit Never got to the store.  Ended up with Cheepizza instead.

Tuesday–Widow’s Dinner–No, I’m not a widow but my dh is a Deacon so we attend a dinner they have for the widow’s (and widower’s) in our church. (Still debating this.  We’ll see how I feel at the end of the day.)

Wednesday–Drive-thru McD’s.  Yes, it’s gotten so bad we can’t even have a sit down meal at McD’s. lol. 

Thursday–Curry Tofu Crumble–my “borrowed” recipe for this week is from Adventures of a Digestive Diva.  Hey, she loves to dance so her food must be the best.

Friday–Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread

Saturday–We’re going to attempt last Saturday’s recipe again.  I’ve been so busy I am going to skip Tristan and Isolde (sniff) and just take it easy.

Sunday–Oh, that’s right, it’s Easter.  I guess we’ll do something Easter-ish.  Although, I’d prefer just take my two oldest to go see John Williams.  Why do they have all this stuff on a holiday weekend?

Check out all the other menus at Book of Yum.

 A week and a half ago I was called away suddenly and, as I was packing, I realized I hadn’t stayed home for a full week for nearly the whole month of February.  Fortunately, the rest of March looks clear.  Travelling doesn’t favor my digestive system and travelling to the middle of nowhere (Central AL) doesn’t favor a gluten-free diet.  Boy I sure feel for folks outside the city now.  I’m truly spoiled.  Fortunately, I did not have to take my Celiac on the trip.  Next time I will, but we’ll have time then to get to the Whole Foods near Birmingham so the kid won’t starve.  

  Another way I’m spoiled is all the gluten-free blogs I have found.  I joke that I don’t need to buy any more cookbooks, I can just use the recipes I find online.  I tend to get overwhelmed easily, however, by all the recipes available and trying to figure out when to use which one.  I’ve decided the remedy for this is to just go down my GF Blog list and try a recipe from each blog.  To this end A Gluten Free Guide (and her new blogsite) will be my first.  I was tempted by her French Apple Pie recipe but I thought my dh might balk at buying a $150 pan just to make a pie.  (Is there a gift giving holiday coming up? lol)  Instead I thought I’d try her Seared Pork Tenderloin with Cocoa Spice Rub.  I’ve always wanted an excuse to buy one of those fancy sea salts I see at Henry’s and Sprouts, and since sea salt seems to be less expensive than cooking pans…

  I’m also going to finally make Chop Suey.  I fell in love with this dish shortly before I discovered that the sodium intake of the restaurant food was causing me to poof up like the Goodyear blimp.  Seriously, I lost 20lbs just from water retention after we stopped eating out.  Scary, eh?  (I discovered as well, that, not unusually, the docs were wrong, I wasn’t carrying my weight in my gut and therefore predisposed to a heart attack, instead, I’m actually equally fat all over. :-D)

  Well, enough chitter-chatter, the kids need the computer for school.  And I should really go and do something exciting like clean the kitchen.  Don’t forget to check out all the other GF Menu ideas this week at Gluten Free Mommy.

  Monday–Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Bread

  Tuesday–Beef Stroganoff, Salad, Fruit

  Wednesday–Tacos, Corn, Fruit

  Thursday–Chop Suey, Rice

  Friday–Crock-pot Chicken, Rice, Stir-Fry Veggies

  Saturday–Seared Pork Tenderloin, French Green Beans, Bread

  Sunday–Leftovers

As I sat to plan my menu for the week I had all sorts of fun ideas using recipes from other sites. Unfortunately, I began to realize that it’s going to be a very busy week. So, instead of great creativity, I’m going to stick with mostly tried and true quickies and add a couple of new recipes that look pretty quick overall.

  The ingredient of the week is Banana.  That’s an easy one for us since it seems to be the core of our fruit portion of the pyramid.  We have bananas every day.  Unfortunately, again, the fanciest thing I’ll have time for this week is a Banana Smoothie.

(Note:  Good thing I wrote this out yesterday.  No food sounds good when you have the stomach flu.  Everything here is now subject to whether or not my dh feels like running the kids to all their activities AND going to the grocery store AND making dinner.  That does sound kind of funny, doesn’t it? ;-})

Monday–Spaghetti with Salad & Garlic Bread

Tuesday–Baked Halibut with Spinach, Cottage Cheese & Fruit & probably Garlic Bread

Wednesday–Tacos with Corn

Thursday–Cheepizza (aka Quesadillas) and whatever we find laying around (might even make a quick trip down to Whole Foods since I’ll be in the vicinity and pick up some of their yummy Sandwich Bread)

Friday–Swiss Steak (love recipes that can sit on the stove for a few hours while you do something else–in my case, leave the house entirely…don’t worry, my dh will be here in case anything catches on fire)  Cauliflower, Yogurt & Garlic Bread

Saturday–Chili’s (Started thinking about this last night and I may just have us eat at home.  Don’t know if I want to eat out this week.  Stomach flu will do that to you.  Of course, maybe I’ll be feeling so good by Saturday I’ll make a Banana Cream Pie…)

Sunday–Leftovers, soup, sandwiches

Be sure to check out all the other menus at Gluten Free Mommy.  It’s not up yet.  I hope she’s not sick like me.

This was just too funny.  I’m still laughing over it.  This quote “Severus Snape is irritable, mean and often arbitrary in his rages” certainly describes our adorable little Celiac prior to diagnosis.

When we decided to leave our old pediatrician last year after several unresolved issues with their really-super-awful-rude office staff we thought it would be a good idea to question any potential docs about CD.  Here’s my visit on Tuesday which I took my 2nd to.

Me:  Do you have any experience with Celiac Disease?

(very aged) Doc:  In all my years as a pediatrician I have only seen one case of Celiac Disease.  While I do think it’s under diagnosed, I think it is extremely rare.

Keep in mind that during this conversation I am standing next to my child with a birth defect that at 1 in 2,500 is considered only somewhat rare.  I think we’ll keep looking.

We took the whole family out on Tuesday to finally see how Chili’sGF menu was.  It’s actually not too bad for a non-picky 4 yo Celiac.  They had their kids’ burger & cheeseburger (sans bun, obviously) & ribs on the menu.  There were quite a few other interesting picks.  For the picky eater, however, there is corn, on or off the cob.   

They were very accommodating, printing out the menu for us when we asked and making, maybe a bit too sure, we didn’t get anything that wasn’t on the menu.  The waitress was looking for the chocolate shake under “beverages” and wouldn’t let our son have one ‘cuz she couldn’t find it, it’s actually under “desserts.”

My dh will vouch for the taste of the loaded mashed potatoes & Memphis Dry-Rub ribs and I’ll do the same for the Salmon w/Garlic & Herbs.  Their veggies were also delish.  I asked for a side of butter ‘cuz sometimes restaurants like this have kinda gross veggies, but they didn’t need it.  They were steamed perfectly.

All in all, this is our new fave restaurant.  It’s too bad they don’t have one closer or we’d order ahead and eat there on our necessary Wednesday’s. 

Chocolate?!?  The ingredient of the week last week was chocolate?!?  Man, what a week to take a vacation.   

This weeks menu’s are hosted at Gluten Free Sox Fan’s Blog.  That’s as good as chocolate.  Well, unless you’re a Yankees fan, but if you are, why are you reading my blog?    

Monday–Homemade Pizza with salad and Glutino Baguettes (yep, we’ve been to Whole Foods…actually, that was part of our vacation.   Weird, I know)

Tuesday–Don’t really know yet.  We have to eat out for sure so maybe we can find a Chili’s near where we’ll be.

Wednesday–Grilled Cheese (using Whole Foods Sandwich Bread) & fruit

Thursday–Beef Stroganoff with Roasted Butternut Squash with Sage (Will make an attempt at True Yeast Bread from GF Gourmet as well)

Friday–Spaghetti with veggies

Saturday–Tamale Casserole with salad and corn

Sunday–Leftovers