Things I wish I would have known before Thanksgiving!

I can't wait to blog about my first gluten free Thanksgiving but in the mean time here's some info to file away for next year. Just put it in the what I needed to know but didn't file! Thanks for the email gluten intolerance group of Utah. Next year I will read my email BEFORE Thanksgiving!!!!!!

You need to find a turkey that does not have gluten injected into it in the broth or have a gravy packet stuck inside which can introduce contamination. All fresh turkeys usually meet this requirement, but so do many frozen ones. The best sale I have seen on turkeys this season is at Smith’s. I called Kroger foods yesterday and spent a half hour on the phone talking to their nutritionist, who assured me that their Private Selection brand is gluten free. It contains no gluten, either in the broth injected nor does it have a gravy packet in it. So there is one possibility for you. If you cook your turkey in a cooking bag, make sure you coat it with any gluten free flour.

Do not stuff the turkey with regular bread stuffing. You can cook the turkey unstuffed, and cook your favorite stuffing separately in a cooking bag for the gluten eaters among you. You can use your favorite stuffing recipe with gluten-free bread. I have also heard that if you like your stuffing on the dry side, Glutino bread sticks make an excellent substitution for bread.

There is a description of how to cook a gluten free turkey at: http://www.ehow.com/how_4589922_cook-turkey-gluten-free.html
It is pretty good, except they say you can use a turkey with a gravy packet in it and just throw the gravy packet away. My experience in our pre-GF days tells me that I have removed a lot of gravy packets that had tiny punctures in them and had spilled the gravy mix into the body cavity of the bird.

Gravy: Swanson broth is GF, use cornstarch or potato starch as a thickener.

Potatoes, yams, & cranberry sauce are fine unless someone does something creative to add gluten. Pumpkin pie filling if made from scratch usually does not contain gluten. There are gluten free pie crust mixes available as well as two recipes at the end of this email that I have not tried. I have also included a roll recipe that I do like.

There is a really yummy looking pumpkin-pie like dessert recipe at http://kitchenparade.com/2008/11/pumpkin-cheesecake-bars.php. It will be gluten free if you can find gluten free graham crackers or substitute GF animal crackers or other cookie for the crust.

FEATHERLIGHT BISCUITS http://forums.glutenfree.com/topic4561.html1 ¾ CUP Featherlight Mix 1 tsp Xanthan Gum 3 tsps Baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 2 tsps sugar 1 tsp salt 2 tsps to 1 Tb of Flax meal (opt) 6 Tbs shortening 1 cup of buttermilk ** (or 1 cup of milk with 2 teaspoons lemon juice.) Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients and whisk to mix. Mix the shortening until the mixture resembles crumbs. Add the liquid and gently mix until the dough forms a ball. Turn out onto a floured surface (sweet rice flour) and pat to ¾” thickness. Cut the dough into 2 ½” squares or use a biscuit cutter. Place 1” apart on an ungreased baking pan (or pizza stone) Bake for 10-12 minutes. Makes 8 large biscuits **I have found if I sub 1 cup of yogurt, it makes a very light biscuit. FeatherLight Mix 3 cups (4c) Rice Flour 3 cups (4c) Tapioca Flour 3 cups (4c) Cornstarch 3 Tbs. (4 Tbs.) Potato flour (I haven't tried this with arrowroot to make it corn free) I have used this flour mix with the biscuits and made a very light biscuit that my family loves for me to use. Multi-Grain Flour Blend: 1 1/4 c. garfava flour 1 3/4 c. super fine brown rice flour 2 c. potato starch 2 c. cornstarch 1 c. tapioca starch flour 1 c. sorghum flour or amaranth flour (I used sorghum)

Someone else used Wendy Warks mix and liked them,

7 gluten free appetizer recipes are at: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipes/gallery/0,28548,1848223_1685975,00.html

TWO GLUTEN-FREE PIE CRUSTSTender Gluten-Free Pie Crust(Adapted from Karen Robertson)Ingredients:1 ¼ cup gluten-free flour blend (+ up to 1 tablespoon more as needed)¼ cup tapioca starch¼ cup potato starch1 ½ teaspoon guar gum or 1 ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum, not both2 teaspoons fructose9 tablespoons Earth Balance Vegan margarine or shortening*1 large egg + 1 egg yolk1 ½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar or cold water(if using shortening, add ½ teaspoon salt)Directions:
Mix together dry ingredients, then cut in margarine or shortening carefully until there are no lumps larger than pea-size.
Beat together the eggs, and water or vinegar.
Make a well in dry ingredients and add egg and liquid mixture, stirring carefully with fork to combine.
When dough is just barely beginning to hold together, turn out onto a floured surface and flatten and fold, and flatten and fold again. Do not overwork dough.
Roll out carefully between wax paper.
Remove top sheet of wax paper, and invert crust into pan. Using wax paper, press crust into pan and form, then remove wax paper. Use a similar technique for top crust if using.
SOY-FREE, EGG-FREE OIL-BASED PIE CRUST(Adapted from Betty Hagman’s recipe)Ingredients:1 cup gluten-free flour blend½ cup potato starch½ cup sweet rice flour3 teaspoons xanthan gum1 teaspoon salt2 teaspoons fructose3 tablespoons cold rice milk2/3 cup vegetable oilDirections:
Mix together all dry ingredients, then mix together rice milk and oil.
Make well in dry ingredients and add rice milk/oil mixture, stirring gently with fork to combine.
Proceed as directed in previous recipe.
t a chance to read. I have learned my lesson and will stay on top of it next year, but untill then I will stash this info safely on my blog. Being my first Gluten free thanksgiving I think it went well. I never really made any fancy dishes before our gluten free days so the chances of the food being unedible really were high so I'm ecstatic that no one got food poisoning, gluten poisoning, or refused to eat. Actually, I beat out stove top in a side by side taste test at the dinner table. Enjoy the info:

Have you been looking for a place for other celiac kids to get to know each other? I've heard of R.O.C.K. (raising our celiac kids) but have never attended anything. If anyone out there has gone to a meeting our outing in Northern Utah especially I would love to hear you're experience. But, I thought I would post their link so you could find a chapter close to you. They are a national organization. You can also check out their winter and summer gf camps.
http://gfutah.org/ROCK.htm

Taco del mar YUM

Taco Del Mar!!

taco del mar is by far my fave place to eat ! If we are eating out as a family it is probably going to be at Taco del mar. Almost everything there is GF. and I can have them hold the cheese for my little dairy allergy child. My favorite is the Super meat nacho. It's so big I can only eat a 1/2 size but it is so filling and surprisingly healthy. They make everything fresh that day including their guacamole! If you have a taco I suggest the soft corn they actually use 2 tortillas so they can hold up. Just remind them to put down foil on the tortilla press before they put the tortillas on there. Payson loves to share nachos but looks forward to having a kids meal chicken taco. Their kids meal is only 2.29 and comes with chips and a drink.
the following items ARE NOT GF
enchilada sauce
shredded pork meat
flour tortillas DUH!!
check out their website www.tacodelmar.com to find a location or to look at their gluten free menu. DELISH!!!!

McDonalds kids meal

I think I've blogged about this before but we do love Mc Donalds. A new one just opened up near us in Clinton and it has such a great playland. Anyways, what I love also is how great they are in preparing Payson GF happy meals. I've really found that educating the managers of the store and the shifts really makes a difference. It's really important to them that you are getting great service and quality and they try to make sure that you keep coming back. So if you don't know them by name and they don't know you by name then I encourage you to build that relationship. That holds true for any restraunt you really like or plan to go to alot. So here is how I order a GF happy meal:

soft drink/milk
fries/apple dippers ( I have had no issues with the caramel dip ) Yes, the fries are GF again !!!!!!
fruit parfait no granola ( I actually just save the little packet of granola and give them to one of the other kids)
I remind them to put the parfait in the bag ( sometimes they forget and put it on the side and that just ruins the excitement of opening the box and seeing your food)

If they can't figure out how to ring that up they ring up happy meal and either do a grill slip that says no onion, bun, ketchup,pickle etc....
or the easy way is to put ASK ME or just yell it out to the cooks. all of the above work.

You can also order a GF double cheese burger no bun if they change their gloves. Again that is why it is important to become BFF with the managers. Have FUN!!!!!

food schedule

Just a helpful hint. We have found that Payson needs to be on a very strict eating schedule. I don't know if this is common for celiacs but since Payson is in all day school he needs to really have something every few hours. At his school they eat lunch at 11:10 and don't get out until 3:30 so by the time I get through with carpool it's 10 min to 4 or later some days. We have Payson eat at 7:30 in the morning with a very big breakfast then at 11:10 -11:30 he has lunch then at 2:00 he has snack in the office. I provide them with a box of Envirokids rice bars and he gets to bring a friend to the office to eat it and then he goes out to recess. When we get home he has a 4:00 snack and dinner is at 5:30- 6pm. If it's a wild day or he's going to bed after 8pm he also gets a bedtime snack. Here is a sample menu:

Breakfast
Bacon or sausage
eggs or omelet
bowl of cereal ( his DR. says that kids should be drinking the milk from the bowl because that's where alot of the vitamins from the cereal can be found. just FYI)
juice or milk
a little fruit if still hungry like a hand full of grapes or a couple of slices of apple

Lunch
school lunch or if I'm packing it the following:
Sandwich with double meat and cheese or wrap up etc..
cottage cheese and fruit ( i love the cottage doubles!! or I make my own version.)
string cheese
chips
veggies with ranch or fruit
GF cookie or mini size snicker something treat like

2pm snack
Enviro kids rice bar

4pm snack
apples with fruit dip or fruit cup or applesauce
tortilla chips and salsa or bean dip
a meat wrap or two or peanut butter on Glutino crackers YUM!!

Dinner
main meal
veggie or two
rice side or potato side

Bedtime snack when needed pike one:
Quaker snack size rice cakes
yogurt
corn tortilla quesadilla roll up.
popcorn
cheese stick
fruit
raisins

This schedule has really helped Payson with his moods and energy levels. I also give him a multi vitamin ( gf of course) and most days a vitamin milk drink. The reason I thought about sharing this with all of you today is because Payson forgot to have his 2 pm snack because they had inside recess due to weather and was a wreck after school! When we got home he had a total meltdown and then admitted that he had forgot about his snack and didn't feel very well. We had a small snack right away and had dinner early at 4:30 with seconds! and a bed time snack. Wow did missing that snack change his behavior. It was validation to me that this schedule is working for his little body.

Hayley's faves!

This is from my friends blog and I thought I would share her favorites! Her baby is only a few months old so he doesn't have any faves ....YET!!!

LIVING GLUTEN FREE - It's not that bad...
CELIAC
For all you Celiacs out there, I've listed some of my GF eating favorites below. See the helpful hints on the side of our blog as well if you're interested.
Learning to live a gluten-free lifestyle can be challenging, but not impossible. Celiacs are increasing in number regularly, and if we can help each other, then I say, "Knowledge is power!" I hope this information is helpful to you. Good luck with your health and well-being. Hayley

HAYLEY’S GLUTEN FREE FAVORITES

BreakfastCereal
CerOs RaspberryErewhon brand – Crispy Brown Rice (great for Rice crispy treats and rice crispy chicken)
Puffins – Honey RiceBakery on Main (Granola – both Cranberry and original)

Pancakes
Pamela’s Pantry PancakesI think Glutino Pancakes are good, too.(I haven’t tried any other brand.)

Snacks/Desserts
Kinnikinnick Blueberry muffins (already made-frozen)Glutino Muffin mix – (with a little butter, honey, or your favorite jelly) These muffins taste like sugar cookies.
The Gluten Free Pantry (Excellent brand)Brownie MixChocolate Chip cookie mixCroutons
The Craving Place Peanut Butter Cookies (add more water and butter)
Pamela’s Pantry Simplebites – Mini chocolate chip cookiesLundberg Rice Chips (my favorite is Southwest flavor)
EnviroKids (good brand)Rice bars (I like the peanut butter and berry, but they also have chocolate flavor.)
Glutino Pretzels – (wonderful for my Pineapple Pretzel salad recipe)
Mission corn chips are gluten free (we use these for taco salad or nachos)
Frito’s are gluten free (we use these to go with our gluten free homemade chili)
Charlotte’s Gluten Free Rice Bread (It’s the closest I’ve found to the real thing.)

Meals
Mrs. Leepers box mix (just like hamburger helper – I think I like it even better.)
Chicken AlfredoBeef Lasagna
Tinkyada Noodles (all kinds)
Bob’s Redmill All purpose Gluten Free Flour (This flour is a great substitute for any recipe.)

Chicken Chilli Taco Stew

By far the best I've ever made or tasted. My kids gobbled it up!!! I'll be using this recipe for the ward chili cook off !

Ingredients:

1 8oz can of tomato sauce
1 14oz can of diced tomato with chilli's
1 14oz can of diced tomato with or without chilli's depending on how spicy you like it
1 package of taco seasoning ( gluten free of course )
1 can of kidney beans or pinto
1 can of black beans
1 can of corn ( drained)
2 boneless chicken breast

Place all ingredients in slow cooker and place on high for 3 hours. 30 minutes before eating take out chicken and shred and then stir in and serve.

You can also do this with hamburger meat.

serves alot!