French Toast

I'll warn you now, the next few days I'll be posting about various foods that include bread! When bread is in the house, we find a way to include so it doesn't go to waste. At $7.95 a loaf, there's no joking around.

Sunday morning, I made french toast for breakfast. I combined three beaten eggs, about 1/3 cup of milk, dash of cinnamon and a sprinkle of nutmeg.

I think the Little Aussie bread browned rather well and looked pretty normal. The loaf the was actual size of wheat filled bread too. Usually the loafs are miniature for some reason. I scattered the finished product with powdered sugar and topped with some syrup. (There was some butter spray on there too.)

I think GF bread always tastes better toasted, so of course the french toast tasted delicious!

One final comment about the flaxseed bread...is well, the flax. Flaxseed contains high fiber, which I don't necessarily appreciate. Don't want to gross anyone out here, but it's the truth when you talk about GI issues. Being a celiac you pay more attention to your bowels. The flaxseed makes them less firm. 

Bread

I forgot to mention that when we were at the Little Aussie Bakery on Saturday, I picked up two loaves of bread. We hadn't had any bread in a while. The commissary doesn't carry Udi's, which means we only get it about once a month when we head elsewhere to shop. We stopped at the Little Aussie Bakery after a 10k walk we did at Fort Sam Houston for Fiesta.

It was so hot outside, definitely in the high 80s. I'm not sure what I was thinking, and forgot about sun screen resulting in some red shoulders. We did buy some sweet "Texas Wanders" shirts from the walk.

The bread came in a loaf and we had to slice it ourselves. Supposedly the bread is, "the best gluten free on the planet." The version we bought was the flaxseed bread, which normally I'm not a big fan of flaxseed. The bread was very soft and spongy. It wasn't grainy, yet it was a little chewy.

It Justin made the best club sandwich. He would often make them pre-diagnosis and I haven't had one since then! Just take a look.

This might be a better view.

There are three pieces of toasted flaxseed bread, bacon, a slice of tomato, swiss cheese, co-jack cheese, bread and butter pickles, mustard, oven roasted turkey, ham, and lettuce. Is your mouth watering yet?

Baking

Blogging is therapeutic for me, a way for me to reflect on living GF. I really enjoy reading other GF blogs because I can relate and often learn something new. I read an entry from Gluten Free Gobsmacked about a month ago that really resonated with me. It was about baking called ratio rally.

Kate wrote it perfectly, "But this rally?  This one is for YOU.  That little part of you that is fearful of getting in to the kitchen and trying your hand at baking again.  It is intended to quell the little voice of doubt in your head that prevents you from just tossing what you have into a bowl and making breakfast for yourself and your loved ones without fear of failure or the sense of disappointment." For me this really struck home. I have been afraid...afraid to bake. I used to bake all the time, trying different recipes and sending Justin to work with goodies for his co-workers. It has been months since they have received something. I don't know much about the various flours that are out there. I'm not a box baker either, I find satisfaction in making it from scratch.

I make excuses saying I don't have enough time to try baking GF, but the truth is I'm avoiding it. It's scary to try to bake something and have it flop. It sucks when you bake for hours and then the cookies doesn't taste even close to the ones I used to make with wheat flour.

I began taking my first steps after reading the entry on March 2. I went through my pantry to rid myself of my wheat containing flours. Back in September, after being diagnosed I went through the closet and gave many items to my brother-in-law. But why did I keep my flours? I guess I thought I would still bake with these items. I don't like having any gluten in the house period, but yet I had these flours still...

You may have noticed I haven't blogged about baked goods. I still have not taken that first step to get back in the kitchen. My sister Kristen even bought me The Almond Flour Gluten-Free Cookbook, but no baking yet.

This weekend, brought the idea back into my mind. So what did I bake? Well I did not bake anything, I bought some amazing baked goods from The Little Aussie Bakery.

A vanilla cupcake that was light, moist, and airy. 

Doesn't it look like a regular cupcake? My only critique would be that the frosting was a little tasteless. I'm not usually a big frosting person either, but I think a little more would have made the cupcake even more enjoyable.

Vanilla Mocha Cake, another hit. It was also moist and tasty. There was a hint of coconut, which I don't usually like but it seemed to compliment the mocha exquisitely.

Chocolate Ganache Cake

Justin requested I buy some type of chocolate cake. He even responded, "I feel like we're cheating." These cakes were that amazing, that you couldn't even tell they were gluten free.

I'm changing my mind set. I've become inspired to learn to bake GF.

New Diet Mountain Dew

Have you seen the commercials to pick the newest Diet Mountain Dew flavor? I'm all about trying new products. I couldn't wait to try both flavors! Justin and I looked at a couple places before we came across these at a Valero gas station.

The two contenders:

• Voltage: raspberry citrus flavored
• Supernova: strawberry melon flavored

 I chose...







...neither! I know, it is quite surprising because I usually like fruity flavored things. But these were too sweet for my liking. (Which I never thought a day would come when something is too sweet). Justin and I thought they tasted like melted Slurpees. They might be okay with something salty to balance the flavor.

The two choices Mountain Dew produced deserve two thumbs down. I think I'll stick with original.

Bisquick Pizza

I'm a Bisquick fanatic for breakfast foods. We recently tried to make pizza crust from the GF Bisquick. It was fairly simple:

• 1 1/3 cups Bisquick Gluten Free mix
• 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/3 cup of oil
• 2 eggs, beaten

I mixed all the ingredients together to get a soupy mixture. I figured it would be a little runny because that's how the waffle and pancake mixes are. I was finally able to use my brand new Pampered Chef pizza stone. I wasn't sure how thick to spread the dough. I think I should of spread it out a little more. I cooked it at 425 for 15 minutes. The dough started to crack, but the box stated it would probably do that.

After 15 minutes, I pulled it out of the oven and topped it to make a Hawaiian pizza. It had a mountain effect because it started to bake up in the middle like a cake. Like I said, next time I need to spread it out more and evenly. We topped it with ham, fresh pineapple, red onion, and bacon. Then it cooked for 10 - 15 more minutes.

The dough was a tad too thick, but not bad. I think Udi's pizza crust is better. But this was fairly simple and we always have Bisquick on hand. I would try it again, making those small changes. I loved my pizza stone!

I ate the left overs for dinner yesterday. I even warmed the pieces up in the oven. I usually don't complain about leftovers, but it was a little soggy. The crust reminded me too much of a pancake. I do not recommend leftover pizza crust from Bisquick.

It started with a coupon

I'm a crazy coupon lady, with an organizer and all. With my shampoo and conditioner running low, I noticed a coupon for Aveeno in the recent circular.

When at the commissary I noticed something on the front of the bottle, wheat protein. "Hmm," I said to Justin disappointed, "I guess I can't get this stuff." Then I began to question if any of my products at home contained gluten. I had read about it, but honestly for some reason didn't think anything of it since I don't ingest it.

Later that night I began to investigate. I checked out my beloved Aveda Hang Straight (which actually is not made anymore). My bottle is near empty, but I wondered about my favorite straightening product.

Right there: plain easy to read, "wheat" is printed two times.

Then the wheels began to turn and I started to make a connection to events that were happening in January. All through January I would wake up with swollen fingers. I researched it online, of course diagnosing myself, that it was connected to gluten. I began to question everything I was eating. I had extensive conversations with Kristen, having her check my peanut butter and other various products in this book she has. I still couldn't make any good reasonable connections.

So I blamed my favorite tea.

Around the same time my fingers began swelling each morning, Justin and I had started a routine of drinking a cup of tea before bed. I would enjoy this liquorice peppermint tea that I had bought a case of online. My sister Jill introduced it to me pre-celiac diagnosis, because it reminded us of the stuff they serve at Aveda salons. Organic tea was my culprit?

I stopped drinking the tea, but the swelling continued. It was so annoying, because I couldn't fit my wedding ring on in the morning. I had to wait until right before I left and would squeeze it on my finger. I even emailed the company and received a prompt response.

Dear Karen,

Thank you for contacting us.

All of our teas are gluten-free. We have the information on some of our literature, but I know we’re also working to get it up on our website and other material.  The tea is not closed with any glue and our facility only processes tea, so no gluten is present.  We appreciate your patience, and in the meantime, you can rest assured that all of our teas are free of gluten.

If you have any other questions, please let us know.

Kind regards,

-- 

Katie Bouchard
Customer Service
(206) 525-0051 ext 10 | choice@granum-inc.com

Eek! Tea was not causing my sausage fingers. It was not until this week that I finally discovered the cause. I haven't straightened my hair in a couple months because I badly need a hair cut. My ends are split, but don't look that nasty when I wear my hair curly. My curly products are safe, so I haven't experienced the finger bloating lately. During the January time period I was straightening my hair a lot. I had started taking showers before bed and would load up my hair with Hang Straight.

Everything is so clear. Now I need to find a new GF straightening product. I also need a haircut, but love my Aveda Salon. I'm sure this will make me put it off even longer...because it means reading all the labels before I get shampooed and cut!

But this discovery all started because of a coupon.

Chobani

I love greek yogurt in my lunch! We usually buy Oikos but it's 3.99 for a 4-pack which can add up quickly. I'm not a fan of the big Chobani flavors. 

But I became overly excited when I saw these 4 packs of Chobani at the commissary! Sure they're made for kids, but that didn't stop me from checking them out. The flavors were honey-nana and verry berry.

The cups are 3.5 oz each and were nice and creamy. I don't like big chunks of fruit in yogurt, so these were perfect for me! The berry flavor reminded Justin of boysenberry. The honey nana was different but a nice switch to my usual honey vanilla greek yogurt.

These new yogurt flavors are certified GF too! It only cost $2.49 for the 4-pack as well.