Adopt-A-Gluten-Free-Blogger: Gluten-Free Gigi

Naked Berry Spread on Pancakes

Have you met Gigi, yet?  We met through Brittany Angell (mastermind of Real Sustenance) several months ago and the food wavelength we share is amazing.  It’s really funny how I’ll be thinking about making something and then she goes and posts something similar.  Well, that means I really have to make what I was thinking, right?  Right.  My Lemony Slaw was one such dish.  We both love simple and she really masters simplicity.  As I declared on Twitter, Gigi is a genius.  Just call her Genius Gigi.

I think this adoption is the most I ever made from one blogger.  It was everything I kept telling myself I have to try and just never got around to it.

Last week Saturday Chaz was in Illinois for his Japanese Tea Ceremony class and I happened to open at work that day instead of close.  I came home and washed berries I bought earlier that week for my Berry Beet-O-Full Juice and still had plenty left.  I left them to dry while I soaked in a bubble bath.   I made Gigi’s Naked Berry Bread Spreadwith those berries – blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.  Her recipe states it’s best if the berries have never been refrigerated, but these were and I was just trying to use them up before they went bad.  The beauty of the spread is that it

Kale Chips with Rosemary & Sea Salt

is just the berries.  Nothing else.  No added sugar or sweetener.   I had to try it right after making and wound up toasting an Udi’s hot dog bun.  Yes, a hot dog bun.  Chaz ate all the hot dogs without the buns so I was just trying to use up the buns.  The spread was incredible.  I immediately decided the spread needed pancakes.  So, the next morning I made pancakes from Elana’s Pantry and topped them with the spread.  I sat outside on the lanai with my book and a cup of coffee.  Best lazy breakfast I’ve had in a long time.

I’ve been wanting to make kale chips for a while.  Especially after seeing a small amount on sale at Whole Foods for $7 and some change.  Ridiculous!  My best friend, Stick, makes them and we discussed her method along with getting a dehydrator.  I would love a dehydrator, but another small kitchen appliance is not in the cards for me right now after having to replace my crock pot.  Lo and behold, Gigi made Kale Chips with Rosemary and Sea Salt that were savory and easy.  Meaning, I didn’t really have to think about it.  I made about double the recipe and it was hard not to eat them all in one sitting.  Yay for healthy snacks!

If you follow Gigi, you know she’s been playing with avocados and using them in baked goods and raw foods.  I decided to

Choco-AVO-late Brownie with Raw Nut-Free Fudge as frosting

pair her Choc-AVO-late Brownies with her Raw Nut-Free Fudge.  I fixed the fudge while the brownies were cooling and then used the fudge as a “frosting” on the brownies.  I also did a sub in the brownies.  I used coconut crystals instead of sugar.  Coconut crystals made things less sweet for me, which I love.  As a whole, the brownies and fudge came out bittersweet, which is how I prefer my chocolate these days.  Chaz saw the recipe for the fudge a few days before I made it and said something like, “Avocados in fudge?”  Then he joked about what is traditionally in fudge.  To his credit, he did try the brownies and fudge, but I was at work when he did.  He didn’t care for it.  But he’s still hooked on sugar so I knew it wouldn’t be sweet enough for him.

Last but not least I made Gigi’s Tarta Marathoriza with her Basic Press-In-The-Pan Pastry.  I was in heaven while pressing in the pastry.  One of my favorite things to make before going gluten-free was quiche and pies.  I loved making the pastry crust, rolling it out and setting it in the pan.  I got that same pastry smell while pressing in Gigi’s pastry crust as I would get when rolling out gluten-full pastry.  The same.  The taste wasn’t the same, but I think that’s more due to the tapioca flour I have than the fact that it is gluten-free.  The aroma was the same though and that is what mattered.  If you’ve ever seen a conversation between me and Gigi, you know how much we love coconut creamer.  I use it for everything that calls for heavy cream.  Everything.  The Tarta Marathoriza was like having real quiche again.  I’ve had crustless quiche,

Tarta Marathoriza

but to me, crustless quiche is just a frittata.  Quiche is all about a flaky crust for me.  No offense to anyone out there who makes crustless quiche!  I know several of you do and I’ve made them, they are wonderful, but just not quiche to me.  This was quiche.  In fact, I want to make her pastry crust again and change up the ingredients for more quiche!

Yes, Gigi is a GENIUS!

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Guest Post: Trailblazing With Tenacity

If you haven’t heard by now, May is Celiac Awareness Month.  In honor of this month, my friend Andrea (Rockin’ Gluten-free) is doing an A-Z celebration of Celiac (and gluten intolerance).  She asked me to be a part of it and I enthusiastically said yes.  I got to meet her in person while we were at the Gluten and Allergy-free Expo last month.  After all the craziness was over we really got to sit and talk for a bit to get to know each other better.  What do we have in common besides a pesky diagnosis?  Our love of rock music.  Since she’s from the Chicago area, she’s a fellow Hammerhead.  If you don’t know what a Hammerhead is, you need to check out the band, Lovehammers.  Great local band.

Go to Andrea’s blog and check out my post on Trailblazing With Tenacity.  What does that mean?  GO READ AND FIND OUT!

An Open Letter to Meghan Casserly

Dear Ms. Casserly,

I am appalled at your recent post, What We’re (Not) Eating: A potential Danger of Gluten-Free.  I find it highly irresponsible to portray the gluten-free diet as “restrictive” and a “danger” even if your intent was to shed light on those who are using it as a cover for an eating disorder.   Being on a gluten-free diet because it causes ill-health and using a diagnosis to continue a destructive pattern of anorexia or bulemia are two totally different things.   I know the seriousness of eating disorders.  I have a degree in Psychology and had the fortune to learn from a professor who is a contributor to the DSM specifically on eating disorders.  Eating disorders are no joke.  Neither is having to eat gluten-free because it has caused numerous health problems throughout your life.

I suffered with migraines my entire life.  Something I resigned myself to living with for the rest of my days.  I was even tested for Lupus after the migraines became daily occurrences in 1998.  I started having vertigo spells in college.  Chest pains and heart palpitations started after college and stumped doctors.  I was diagnosed with IBS in 2000 after repeated testing turned up nothing.  Then, in 2009, I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism, Anemia, Iron Deficiency, and Vitamin D Deficiency when I found myself fatigued every single day.  I worked 15 hours a week and I still crawled into bed when I got home from work and I stayed there until I absolutely had to get up.  After starting Synthroid, feet and leg pain started and my fatigue was worse.  Thankfully, my Naturopath connected the decline to the Synthroid and I was able to get off the Synthroid, on supplements and start improving.  However, I still wasn’t all better.  Spending a day at Disneyland with my best friend and her family wiped me out.  Doctors told me to get more exercise to improve my energy, yet more exercise just made it worse.

Finally, I went off gluten after researching the connection between gluten and chronic illnesses like Hypothyroidism.  I did it a little backwards, I know.  But after so much testing, if taking a simple protein out of my diet would make me better, I was willing to do it rather than go through more invasive testing.  Besides, I was already eating whole foods.  A diet where a lot of gluten was already naturally removed.  A diet that may look restrictive from an American perspective because I wasn’t eating packaged or processed foods with the exception of sprouted grain breads/buns and whole wheat pasta.  I wasn’t deprived at all.

Just six weeks after being gluten-free, I had only one symptom of my Hypothyroidism still sticking around.  Cold hands and feet/getting colder faster than others.  No vertigo.  No migraines.  No chest pain.  No heart palpitations.  No nothing.  I felt better than ever.  I actually gained health I never had through removing gluten from my diet.

This is a serious diet and too often, mainstream media demonizes the diet because some people are using it as a fad.  Now you have demonized it because some are using it as a cover for eating disorders.  This only serves to misinform the general public, most of whom have no idea what gluten is, what it is in, and why some people have to remove it from their diet.  This is why the “general public has come to see [gluten] as bad.”  The gluten-free community is NOT happy when anyone speaks out against this necessary diet for those of us who cannot tolerate even a crumb of gluten.  Quite frankly, you pissed me off.

In trying to make your point, you used the following quote from a site:

“Hi all. I wanted to share my secret with all of you. I told everyone I was going to the Dr. because I was having stomach issues. I never went and then a week l8r I told everyone that it was suspected that I was gluten intolerant. It’s extremely common and Gluten is in EVERYTHING. It’s in almost all salad dressings, it’s in most marinades, soy sauce, breads, noodles, beer, oatmeal, almost All cereals just everything. You can’t eat out because you can get glutened through cross contamination as well. You can’t eat anything at fast food places except salad. Even Mc D’s chicken on salad has gluten. My sister has it and she lost a bunch of weight because there is nothing she can eat and it’s just such a common allergy no one 2nd guesses me. Hope u guys are all well and good luck!”

And you ended your post with:

“What’s left to eat?

Next to nothing. And for some, that may be exactly the point.”

Yes, gluten is in a lot of salad dressings, marinades, soy sauces, non gluten-free breads, some noodles, non gluten-free beer, non-certified gluten-free oats, most cereals.  But it is most certainly not in “EVERYTHING.”  Eating out isn’t impossible because of cross-contact.  Many of us eat out.  Some fast food places have more than just salad options that are gluten-free.  What’s left to eat?  Next to nothing?  You are so wrong.

Fact #1: The only restriction on a gluten-free diet is no gluten.  This is only as “highly restrictive” as you perceive it to be.

Fact #2: Fruits and vegetables, which are found in abundance in grocery stores and farmers markets are gluten-free.

Fact #3: Fish, meat, and poultry (also in abundance) are gluten-free (as long as your local grocer isn’t padding their ground meat with flour)

Fact #4: Cheese, milk, milk alternatives, and most dairy are gluten-free.

Fact #5: Nuts and seeds are gluten-free

Fact #6: There are more gluten-free grains than gluten-full grains.

Fact #7: Many restaurants (especially chains) have gluten-free menus now and do everything they can to eliminate cross-contact in the kitchen.  Most restaurants that do not have gf menus will work with you in order to proved a gf meal if you take the time to explain your needs.  Also, there are many ethnic foods that are naturally gluten-free.

Fact #8: There are still no labeling standards for foods which may or may not contain gluten because the FDA still has not completed them.  This would make buying packaged foods, personal care products, and medications easier for those of us who have to be gluten-free.

Fact #9: There is more gluten in today’s crops of gluten-full grains than there were hundreds of years ago and our bodies weren’t meant to process as much gluten as we are exposed to today.

While your intent was one thing, it came across as completely different to those of us who live gluten-free for health/medical reasons.  You could have chosen a title that was more about eating disorders than the eating gluten-free.  You could have, you could have, you could have.  Yet, you didn’t.  Now you have the ire of an entire community of people because of how you portrayed a diet that is life saving to us.  Yes, life saving.  I felt I was at death’s door a little over 2 years ago.  Now, I have no need for thyroid medications or supplements.  All my tests are within normal limits with no use of meds or supplements by simply removing one little protein.

So what’s left to eat now?

A whole hell of a lot.  Point taken?