Gluten Free Goodness

I hope you all had great New Year’s celebrations and look forward to seeing the yummy food that went along with it!

This week’s theme is soup, because I love soup. Soup is the best part of winter months. It’s also the silver lining to colds and sore throats. At the risk of sounding like the shrimp scene from Forrest Gump, there are so many great kinds of soup! Tomato soup, chicken soup, turkey soup, sorrel soup, red pepper soup, beef soup, Asian ginger soup…and those are just the ones I’ve eaten this past month. I’ve gone through most the supply in my freezer that was supposed to take me through the winter. I guess that just means that it’s really time to kick this cold!

The heart of really good soup is amazing broth. While I make some great vegan soups, I have never mastered the art of a really good vegan broth, mostly because the key is older veggies and using the skins, and that tends to cause my mold issues to flare. So most of my experience making broths are chicken and turkey based. They’re as easy as can be–it just takes time (a lot of it!)

Here’s a link to my GF newsletter for January, which is on label reading and the “may contains” statements. There’s a comment period for FDA which expires Jan 14th, so if you have an opinion, time is short!

Monday:
Turkey soup with cabbage
Turkey cutlets (maybe)

Tuesday:
Vegan
Garlicky quinoa and broccoli, with an avocado

Wednesday:
Buffalo burgers and roasted peppers

Thursday:
Curry chicken with roasted cauliflower

Friday:
Leftovers

Saturday:
CHICKEN SOUP!!!!!

Baked goods:
Sugar free peppermint meringues and a Chai breakfast cake

Let’s have a peek around the web:
Elizabeth, of A modern gal is joining us for the first time (welcome, Elizabeth) and the intent to clean out her freezer! I should really try that, and my DH would be all over the Indonesian spicy rice, so I hope she shares the recipe!

Wendy from Celiacs in the House has a crock pot heavy week, which is such a great way to get things done easily in the winter. Her black bean soup sounds delish. She’s new to MPM, too, and hopefully will stick with our happy little group. It really DOES help organize things!

Esther drops in with a great looking menu and  and she’s juggling a small one, school and life.  Easier said than done!  As usual, she draws her inspiration from different cookbooks and is focusing more on baking since GF foods are so expensive!  Hopefully she’ll share results with us.

M-Elle of Cooking and uncooking is in the midst of snowy weather.  She  is also back to work and school, so she’s keeping things basic.  M-elle, you can come for dinner if I can have a falafel sandwich!

Seamaiden of Book of Yum joins us with a luscious looking piece of pumpkin bar and a beautiful cat pic to boot.  I’m intrigued by the grilled fennel, because I’m currently braising fennel and I’ve never tried grilling!  She’s also recently posted her Daring Baker Yule log, too, which looks gorgeous.

Manda is sporting a new blog look this week.  She’s not a soup kind of gal, but she does appreciate a good stew.  She does, however have Mulligatawny Soup on the menu which I’ve always been tempted by but never made.

Kimberly at Gluten Free is Life has joined us, too (wow, full house this week!).  She just happens to be making crockpot taco soup.  Her goal is to make a recipe from Carol Fenster’s 1001 GF recipes cookbook a week…which should hold her a good long time.

Angela is quite the soup and crock potting gal, and she joins us with a yummy looking week.  I’d take the smashed cauliflower, the dijon chicken…you get the idea.  She’s also got a nice new look on her site.

Ginger of Fresh Ginger had me drooling from the first soup picture.  Her Vietnamese style fried rice with lemongrass sounds intriguing.

Karen from GF Sox Fan is joining us again! (yay!)  She’s got a beautiful onion soup recipe with a nice picture, too.

By the way, if anyone wants to host, just drop me a line…

Cat says: Lizard watching is better than the Olympics.  To each his own…

This week is hosted by Wheatstate Celiac and the food is tofu.  Since I’m allergic, it’s not on the menu.

I have an un-plan for this week. I’ve had more and more stomach discomfort for the past week, and no matter what I ate, my stomach would hurt or I’d get nauseous. This happens on and off, usually with stress, and generally it goes away after a few weeks.  And yes, I’ve done the conventional doc and alternative medicine route.  Then I had one of those light bulb moments. Why, exactly, am I continuing to eat when it causes discomfort? So I fasted for most of day, and now am having blended veggies, coconut water and broth and I must say, my GI tract is much, much happier. I can’t believe that in the last 4 or 5 years that never occurred to me before!  I do make a point of eating mindfully, but usually, I feel that *of course* I have to eat. But now I’m leaving it up to my body for the next few days. I am feeling better and so I will probably start more typical food soon, but I’m making a point to plan NOT to plan. It feels really liberating to not have to follow any rules about making something because it’s dinnertime. Fortunately, DH is out of town, so I’m free to eat as strangely as I please.  It’s not in any way a long term solution, but it’s nice to find another way of approaching the situation.

But since DH is away, I hope I’ll be making some of the things that he’s not really a fan of in his absence:

• Broccoli raab with sauteed garlic and pine nuts
• Seared tuna steak with caramelized onions

I’ll also be doing a remake of Ricki’s Spicy Cauliflower soup for Adopt a GF blogger, since my camera ate the last round of pictures.  At least someone in this house currently has a healthy appetite!

So instead of a real meal plan, feast on a roundup of GF news.  As a dietitian and someone who is GF, I’m always immersed in the GF world of events.

News:

There’s new research by Dr. Fasano on where and how gluten causes damage in the intestines of people with Celiac Disease. Here’s an article summarizing the findings.

There’s also an interview from one of the top Celiac docs on the differences between CD and Gluten intolerance

The rules, they are a changin’

In the past, traveling abroad poses some challenges, since many countries follow guidelines known as the Codex Alimentarius, which defines under 200ppm as gluten free (most experts in this country recommend under 20 ppm). However, it’s been reported that they’ve decided to lower their limit to 20 ppm.

Canada has become more proactive as well, and has announced new proposed regulations that all gluten sources must be labeled.

Speaking of the new limit, the official ruling on what can, and can’t, be labeled GF in the US is due out in August, 2008, so stay tuned! However, unlike Canada and abroad, in the US the new ruling is ONLY voluntary. Essentially, if a company wants to label something as GF, they must comply with the rules, but most of our food supply will still not be required to have gluten information on the label.

Local Events:

The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NCFA) is hosting a special Celiac Awareness Night on Saturday, August 16th for a game against the Colorado Rockies.

Products, etc.

Triumph Dining is giving away their dining cards. But it gets even better! If enough people take them up on it, they’ll donate to a Celiac related charity.

Good news for multi-allergic chocolate lovers! Enjoy life has new gluten/dairy/soy/nut free chocolate bars that will be at Whole Foods in August. There’s even a crispy rice bar!

Heartland’s finest has closed!  If you are a fan of their pasta or Cereos, you’ll have to act quickly to stock up.  Allergygrocer has some in stock, and you may be able to find in other places, too.

Recipe and info round-up:

We’re seeing GF recipes in the mainstream more and more! Emeril had a recent episode, with recipes that are gluten free, dairy free, egg free and nut free! The included a brownie, wraps and more.

And, of course, Adopt a GF blogger for July is coming to a close, so please send me your pictures and links.