Testing the waters

I've spoken before about my denial of having any reaction to gluten, despite the obvious and I think even when I found out that I was a coeliac I didn't really think that there would be that much of a difference in my overall health. Thankfully I was really wrong! It's funny how you get so used to feeling run down, tired and you get used to the puffer fish that it just becomes your normal.

I was keen to start the diet straight away and headed to the supermarket to stock up on as many gluten free products as I could. Not that there was that many! My first choice of cereal was gluten free cornflakes with berries (blaah!! rather tasteless!), I later resorted to GF coco bombs, not the healthiest alternative but they had some flavour.

I stuck to the diet, starting cooking with GF flours and started to feel better. It wasn't as hard to pull up my jeans and I could go out without the fear of the puffer fish emerging! People started commenting on how good I looked and the bags under my eyes started to disappear!

It was a few weeks into the diet when I decided I would test the waters and see how much of an effect gluten had on me, I ate 1 chicken nugget.  Within 30 minutes the puffer fish emerged, the pains and wind started and I felt like crap! I forgot what it was like to be so bloated, it feels like you need to relieve the pressure in your stomach by poking it with some pins (please don't try this!). My husband and I had planned to go on a date night and see a movie, put I couldn't fit into my pants and even with the old pull up style pants I looked 4 months pregnant and was just feeling too crap to go out. So I put the tracky (sweater for USA readers) pants on and we stayed in a watched a DVD!

Theory well and truly proven, I definitely had a massive reaction to gluten. Before I started the diet I could have eaten a nugget and had not nearly the effect on me that it did after the diet. I guess the build up of gluten in my system just meant that I was so used to it. I'm sure that it would have been affecting me and doing some damage though.

Diet works, and no intentionally eating gluten for me! I'm amazed when I hear that people occasionally will eat a McDonalds cheeseburger and deal with consequences of eating gluten! Of all the things that you could possibly eat with gluten in it, a McDonald's cheeseburger! Seriously WTF!

Morale of the story folks stick to the gluten free diet, it's not worth the consequences.

Recipe of the Day
Creamy Chicken Pasta

Serves 4 adults
Ingredients
2 Chicken breasts, chopped
150g diced bacon
6 mushrooms (medium sized), sliced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Olive oil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme
Pepper
1/4 cup chopped butter
1 cup cream
3/4 cup shredded or shaved Parmesan cheese

Method
Coat the bottom of a large saucepan with olive oil, heat, add garlic and bacon on medium/high heat for a few minutes. Add chopped chicken, oregano, rosemary, thyme (add more herbs according to your taste) and pepper to the pan and put lid on saucepan. Add mushrooms to pan and reduce heat to low.

Sauce: Melt better in a saucepan, add cream and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add Parmesan cheese and stir in well, ensuring cheese melts. Add pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of rosemary (season to taste, adding more pepper and rosemary if you like).

Drain the oil from the chicken, return to stove top and add extra herbs and pepper to taste. Add the sauce to the chicken dish and mix through on low heat.

Serve with rice noodles or gluten free pasta. I made this dish for my husband, sister and brother in law, I cooked them normal pasta and myself rice noodles. Cook rice noodles or pasta as per instructions on packet, rice noodles are best if soaked in boiling water for at least 5 minutes.

Place pasta or noodles in pasta bowls and top with creamy chicken.

Enjoy

Food for thought and to eat!

For all my readers a big apology, the blogger sight has been down all day yesterday and I couldn't write anything! It did show me how addicted I have become to this whole blogging world! I'm loving it!

As promised I'm going to include the 'Recipe of the Day' and 'Restaurant of the Week', though my plan is when I get a little bit of assistance to have a separate button at the top of the page for the recipes and restaurants, so there isn't too much info in the blog posting. But please be patient with me as I get it all started.

I have been thinking about what restaurant to feature in restaurant of the week and thought I would share a mayhem experience of mine, dining as a coeliac. As those of you who can't eat gluten or indeed have any allergy know, it's all about the attitude of the people at the restaurant, the chef and their understanding of what is gluten or the food your allergic too. I've been to places which actually advertise a Gluten Free Menu, I was very excited! That meant I didn't have to agonise over the menu and figure out what I could eat then go into discussion about it with the waitress. I ordered a risotto at this venue (I won't name and shame just yet), aside from the fact there was way to much in the plate, by the time I finished it didn't even look like I touched the sides, but as we were sitting chatting, my stomach started to gurgle.

 The pufferfish slowly reared it's ugly head and I had to unbutton my jeans in the restaurant, then the pains started. By the time we left I really wasn't feeling good, we called in at my sister in laws on the way home, my first stop was the bathroom. Kind of embarrassing.............

So my conclusion was yes  there was gluten in the risotto despite the claims that there were not! I figured that the most likely source was the stock as most stock, unless specified (I buy Massel), has gluten in it. Surprisingly I did venture back to eat there some months later, rather reluctantly and I did voice my concerns to the chef. What annoyed me was her attitude, she may not have even been working there when I had the reaction, but she was so defensive claiming that it was the Parmesan cheese that had gluten in it! (never heard of that before). But to mean the most appropriate response is to apologise and reassure the customer.
Restaurant of the Week
I've had a few thoughts as to what would be the first restaurant to feature here and I'm going with something that I only ate yesterday. The Argyle Inn in Camden. I had lunch with a girlfriend yesterday, a  $10 steak with chips and a salad and the deals on weekends too. Admittedly there wasn't that much I could eat on the menu but I decided on the steak. All the sauces that go with it have gluten in it, so the waitress and chef were very accommodating and made me some mushrooms, and put them on top of the steak. The meal was massive but most importantly no reaction! I would have every faith that whatever else you ordered on the menu would be prepared with care and ensured that no little bits of gluten were in your meal!

Recipe of the Day

Butterscotch Pudding

Pudding
70g butter softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 1/3 cup flour (combination of rice flour and gluten free cornflour, or other gf flour in the pantry)
2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 tablespoon milk

Butterscotch Sauce
1 cup cream
1/2 cup brown sugar
20g butter

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Cut butter into small cubes and place butter and sugar into bowl/mixmaster etc, mix until pale and creamy. Add egg and mix well. Sift flours into a separate bowl, making sure the flours are mixed well and add flour mixture and milk to to butter mixture and mix until just combined.
Put mixture into a baking dish (I use a small lasagna/baking dish) and bake for 20-25minute (until the skewer comes out clean).
While the pudding is cooking, combine all ingredients for the sauce in a saucepan on medium to low heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce has slightly thickened.
Cut the pudding into appropriate serving sizes, place in a bowl and drizzle the sauce over the top. Serve with ice cream or cream
Enjoy
xxxxx

Let the games begin

It was officially, I had coeliac disease and most importantly an answer to my problems! (well some anyway). See apart from the puffer fish syndrome (previous post refers to massively swollen stomach as puffer fish), a side affect of being a coeliac is being anemic. And that I certainly was, there were times at work were I would be laying down in storerooms after sculling a power aide to get some energy and knowing that I was too tired to even get in the car and drive home. I remember visiting my god daughter in the hospital and the pictures of me holding her look like I was the one that gave birth a few hours before, pale faced, massive bags and then I nearly passed out at the front of the hospital.

So I guess you might understand when I say that I was kind of excited to know that there was a reason why my body was behaving how it was, and that I finally had a solution!

Most people will say that when they find out they are a coeliac or gluten intolerant that they are completely overwhelmed by the amount of food that gluten is in! I thought okay, bread, pasta, pizza and flour was definitely out and that was about it. But boy was I wrong! I remember thinking that I was sorted for breakfast as I had already converted to rice bubbles after I had the wonderful experience of the visit from channel 9 and 7 camera crews! After coming home from the specialist I thought I better check the ingredients of the beloved rice bubbles just in case,  and I was shocked to read 'gluten containing cereals' (barley)! WTF!!!!!! Once I got over the shock of that I realised I could eat porridge, nice and healthy, right! Ba Bomb! wrong again Although this one I didn't discover until an appointment with the dietitian 4 weeks later!

And then there's the bread!!!!!!!! Words can't really do gluten free bread justice! Aside the fact that it will send you broke (the itty bitty small loaves from the supermarkets will set you back about $5.50!!!), it's holy (not in the religious sense), small and goey like in texture! The most tolerable way to eat gluten free bread is toasted, but be advised that the dial on the toaster needs to up fairly high, then the crust burn (I've frequently set the smoke detector off) but the bread often isn't cooked properly! I think cooked gluten free toast tastes a bit like a crumpet (ahh crumpets remember those!!!), but I'm sure that if they came up with a vaccine (it is something scientist are trialing) and I could eat a crumpet again I would think that I was nuts by making this comparison. 

This talk of bread reminds me of the motivation I had to start this blog, to share not only my experiences but places where you can get gluten free food. I have yet to find a bakery in the Camden/Narellan area that make gluten free bread. However my parents have found some great places in Wollondilly that sell some great gf bread. I can't find the exact name of the bakery, but the bakery at Tahmoor in the Woolworths Shopping Complex, sells gf bread, it's made to order though, so place your orders in and the bread is baked on Wednesday's. The other place is the Common Ground Bakery at Razorback (the former Wool Away Wool Shed), this is seriously the best gf bread I have tasted! Mum picked me up 2 loaves of apple, rum and raisin on Sunday and I only have 2 slices left!!!! (small loaves remember, so not that much of a pig).

I hope that this helps some people and I promise next post I will start to share some recipes.