Enjoying Gluten-Free Life

2011-12-07T14:40:00.001-06:00

Shirley Braden of gluten free easily (gfe)

Sharing her enjoyment of gluten-free life.

Shirley has been gluten-free since she was diagnosed as gluten intolerant in 2003 and shares her belief that eating gluten-free can be easy on her popular blog – glutenfreeeasily.com. She’s currently hosting “Home for the Holidays, Gluten-Free Style” there with fabulous giveaways and mouthwatering recipes.

Year-round, Shirley puts the notion to rest that this is a difficult diet to follow through her advice and many delicious recipes including the one for “Magic Oat Bars” which I have a photo of and link to below.

(Photo and graphic courtesy of gfe)

Shirley gives us a stocking full of ways for gluten-free life to be easier during the holidays. And beyond.

The busy holiday season is upon us, a time when many get overwhelmed with all they have to do. Eating gluten-free can be time consuming due to the food prep. How can we make gluten-free life easier when life is hectic?

I’ve always focused on simple dishes and recipes versus lots of packaged stuff and when I went gluten free, after a "stutter step" or two of "what on earth am I going to eat?" I just stuck with that approach. I’ve kept the focus on real food and recipes that are naturally gluten free, a few mainstream "ready-to-go" products, and a very few gluten-free specialty products. That's the essence of my gfe approach. It's been logical and a lifesaver for me and my family, and so many others have written to tell me that this approach has been the ideal choice for them as well.

Looking through your list of 50+ Meals That Are GFE, I see many that could be made ahead. Do you have any tips for making food ahead?

It’s always been three of us, and now only two of us, so making food ahead in general has always seemed to result in more waste in my family. But I do like to freeze components for meals. For example, I’ll brown ground meat (e.g., beef, venison, turkey) in one-pound quantities and use later for chili, tacos, etc. I also will save cooked turkey and chicken (such as grilled or baked chicken breasts that I’ve frozen on a baking sheet) in freezer containers for quicker meals/salads. Leftover rice goes in the freezer in two-cup containers. I also freeze pumpkin puree and grated zucchini in the same manner. The meals and recipes come together very quickly with some of the most time-consuming steps out of the way.

During the holiday season, it seems there’s a reason to celebrate around every corner – many where mystery foods (is there or isn’t there gluten?) are the only option available. Hors d'oeuvres at parties could easily trip us up. Is there anything we can consider safe? Or should we pull out a snack we’ve brought and ignore the goodies around us?

I’m an anomaly when it comes to these kinds of questions. I almost never take food with me. I often have nuts and an apple in my car, but rarely have to eat them due to a social situation. If I know that there will absolutely be nothing I can eat, I eat something ahead of time and just enjoy a beverage. But shrimp cocktail is usually a safe bet. (Be cautious on steamed or spiced shrimp though as it may be steamed in beer.)

When it’s an occasion such as sit-down dinner or a potluck where we can take something, what could we take that others will enjoy and doesn’t scream gluten-free?

I’d say that almost nothing that I make “screams” gluten free. That is part of my whole gfe approach. I want the flavors and textures to be the same or better. I go for traditional recipes, but often make them flourless and crustless. More recently, I’ve been making my recipes healthier by using low-glycemic coconut sugar and super healthy coconut oil versus butter. Nobody is any the wiser because the recipes taste just as good or better. I have lots of meal ideas, treat ideas, etc. in my gfe tip sheets.

Grabbing a quick bite to eat while we’re out, whether shopping or watching a child’s Christmas play, often isn’t an option. Should we eat before we leave home, check on restaurants in the area in advance, make do with snacks? None of the above?

Again, I’m probably an anomaly in this area. I just go with the flow. I choose not to panic because I’m gluten free and just consider all the naturally gluten-free options available. If I were going to a child’s Christmas play in my gluten-full days, I would have eaten something before I attended such an event, so the same holds true now. There are usually no food options at such events and they tend to run longer than anticipated. I was never one to stop to eat while shopping so I tend to do the same as before, either eating something before I leave or relying on a snack I’ve brought in the car. Folks get tired of me saying that I eat the apples and/or nuts, but I usually do and that’s nothing new. I love the combo for a sweet, naturally gluten-free protein boost. My gluten-full husband has always appreciated this habit of mine, too. All that said, we are creatures of habit. We tend to know where we can eat safely in an area. If my husband and I are out shopping and running errands and get seriously hungry, we just go to one of our standby spots where we know I can eat safely.

I host an annual cookie exchange at my house in December. How should someone who’s a celiac or gluten intolerant respond to a friend or acquaintance who wants to bring something “safe” for them to eat?

That is a much tougher situation that is best answered by that dreaded reply “It depends.” There are very few folks whose cookies I would eat. They include some family members and a very few friends, who after 8 years of seeing me be gluten free (and what happens to me when I accidentally get gluten) and hearing me talk about cross contamination, lack of knowledge, etc. have learned to feed me safely. If we all think back to when we first went gluten free and what we didn’t know and how it took some time to learn the gluten-free language, “de-contaminate” our kitchens, etc., then I think we’ll realize that the number of folks who can feed us safely is a very small one. So for most folks, I’d say something to the effect of “Thanks, but that’s okay. I realize that you are not gluten free and even a little bit of gluten in your kitchen can cause me to be very ill. I really appreciate the thought though!” It can be a touchy situation, but it can be done correctly. Of course, people who truly care about you will not be offended if you pass up their food, because those people want you to stay safe and well.

Each of us comes to our gluten-free life from different backgrounds and with different lifestyles. We may enjoy cooking. Or not. We may have kids, be a couple or single. We may work in a job outside the home or have a home business. How can we find our own gluten-free rhythm of life where it all makes sense and works?

Well, first and foremost, I’ll give the advice I give “newbies” all the time. Stop and examine all the foods, recipes, and meals that you are eating and enjoying right now. See which ones are naturally gluten free and which recipes/meals just need a little bit of tweaking to be gluten free. Back to the "creatures of habit" thing, we tend to eat our favorite foods and meals over and over, so once we have the gluten-free ones down pat, we can just go down that same type of path.

As far as those who don’t enjoy cooking, well, I’m a big advocate of cooking. I think that perhaps many who say they don’t enjoy cooking have not had the proper exposure to cooking. Maybe they didn’t have the right teacher or no teacher. Maybe it was made too complicated for them. Maybe they were chastised for messing up the kitchen. That last situation was my case as my mom was fastidious about her clean kitchen, so I didn’t learn to cook until I was away at college and on my own. But all those things can be resolved/overcome by just getting into the kitchen and doing simple cooking. I pride myself on my gfe recipes being very easy to make and, of course, delicious. So I think these recipes can show folks that they really can cook after all, they can cook successfully, and finally, they can cook gluten free safely.

Cooking empowers one on so many levels and you really know what’s going into your dishes when you are doing the cooking with real food. Oh, and it’s much more of a stress reducer than many other activities, but you have to give it a try and keep doing it until you find that rhythm that you speak of. One final note … I get more than a little annoyed when folks say that there is no time to cook. We waste A LOT of time doing things in our society today that contribute nothing to ourselves or our families. If we truly have no time to cook, we only have to drop one or two these activities to have that time. But to be clear, I don't spend hours in the kitchen. Most of my recipes come together in about 30 minutes or less.

Magic Oat Bars

My husband Larry (also gluten intolerant) took one bite of these cookies and got a very happy look on his face. He loved them so much that he really didn’t want to share but we still took them to a church potluck where many commented on how good they were. I made them with gluten-free quick cooking oats because that's what I had and it worked well.

2011-12-07T11:08:00.001-06:00

Coming Soon!

An interview with Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery. With three types of bread (love the cinnamon raisin), and both hamburger and hotdog buns, they’ve got you (or rather your sandwich fillings) covered. A recent addition of pizza crust helps you turn out a thin crust pizza in fast food drive-through time.

2011-12-06T14:26:00.003-06:00

Coming Soon!

An interview with King Arthur Flour. With “glutenfree” mixes that include pizza crust (made either thick or thin), a cookie mix (add chocolate chips, raisins, or whatever), and a multi-purpose flour, they’re experts in gluten-free baking.

2011-11-29T16:57:00.001-06:00

Cookbook Author Shreve Stockton

Enjoying her gluten-free life.

Shreve Stockton didn’t like to cook. Well, that might not be strong enough. She flat out didn’t cook. But she became extremely sick and the cure was eating gluten-free. Hello kitchen. This cooking-phobe not only learned to cook; just a short time later she wrote and published a cookbook. Meet “Eating Gluten Free: Delicious Recipes and Essential Advice for Living Well without Wheat and Other Problematic Grains.” Diagnosed while living in San Francisco, she now lives in rural Wyoming.

The recipes in her book are generally simple and straightforward so they should be good for both beginners and those more used to the kitchen. Shreve covers everything from breakfast through lunch, dinner and dessert. And I can vouch for the macaroons below. (So can everyone who ate them: my husband – who loved them and honestly didn’t want to share but did anyway, a co-worker of his with a sweet tooth, and my mother-in-law – a woman who knows her sweets.)

Shreve and Charlie
(Used with Permission. From "The Daily Coyote.")

Spend some time with Shreve as she talks about her interesting journey.

When you first learned you had to eat gluten-free, there weren’t any plates in your cupboards, and your oven was being used as a handy storage area. Many who’ve been diagnosed can relate to your situation. What steps did you take to learn not only to cook but cook gluten-free?

It was trial by error. I did not have the time or money to take cooking classes, and was so frustrated by the few gluten-free cookbooks that were on the market at that time - this was 2004. They were so complicated and unhealthy - one bread recipe used 7-Up as an ingredient! No thank you! So, at night, when I'd come home from working on the docks all day, I'd experiment in the kitchen. Sometimes, my experiments were failures, and I'd cry, but sometimes they turned out wonderful, delicious, healthy staples that I use to this day. I learned to look at it less like a chore and more like an opportunity to be creative. That helped my learning curve and my attitude.

Did you immediately buy everything you needed – pots, pans, flours, etc.? Or did you fill your cupboards with essentials more slowly?

Slowly - I'm still in the process, actually. I just got a microplane a few months ago (love it!). No one NEEDS five different baking pans - sure, it's handy, but one 9x9 pan can cover a lot of ground. I don't have a fancy stand mixer and generally mix everything with a spoon by hand. People have been cooking for centuries without all the gadgets that we might think are essential. I try to keep a stash of flours at this point, but when I started out and was living in the city, I would buy flours as needed from the bulk section - easier on the budget and handy during the period when you're learning which gluten-free flours you like and which you don't really like. [EGFL Note: some experts advise not using bulk products because of possible cross-contamination.]

Is there a dish or two that you’d recommend a beginning cook make first to build confidence?

Stew! A lentil/veggie stew or a beef stew is a fantastic place to start. A) it's impossible to screw up. B) it lasts for several days with no additional work. C) it's very inexpensive and also healthy and satisfying.

I suspect that not all of your attempts at cooking were successful. It’s reassuring when we’re learning something new to discover that someone else has been there. Could you give a couple of examples of cooking or baking attempts that didn’t work the first time?

Oh, I so vividly remember opening the oven and discovering that my biscuits were hockey pucks, like not even possible to bite through.... It was agony - I was working 12 hour days doing manual labor at the time and so, so poor, and here I had just spent two hours cooking in the middle of the night plus the money for the ingredients and had nothing to show for it! It was devastating. But the failures added to my stores of knowledge and were helpful in the long run. But even knowing that doesn't make anyone feel better in the moment!

I doubt you immediately thought “I’m going to learn to cook and write a cookbook” but within a couple of years you had. At what point did you realize you wanted to write one?

It was actually about six months after making the switch to gluten-free. I was having great success in the kitchen and feeling better than I'd ever felt in my life, and was also navigating all the psychological/emotional/social issues that crop up with the switch. I wrote the book that I wished I had had to help me through that first difficult period, which for some is four months, for others one year, it varies.

You lived in San Francisco when you first went gluten-free then moved to New York City. You could find most if not all gluten-free supplies locally. You’re now living in a tiny town in Wyoming (and authoring the blog, “The Daily Coyote.” How is living a gluten-free life different in these two very different locations?

Actually I moved from SF to Wyoming (I had planned to move back to NYC but Wyoming stole my heart!). I'm glad I started my gluten-free life in SF. I could walk to the health food store every few days and get bits of this and bits of that to try and to experiment with, and had tons of produce from the farmer's markets to feast on. And I didn't have New York pizza joints torturing me at every corner - oh, that would have been SO hard! Here in Wyoming, it's an hour round-trip drive to the grocery store and so one has to plan ahead. It would have been hard to learn in these conditions. Most of the gluten-free items I use I order in bulk online every month or two.

If you were to write another gluten-free cookbook today, I imagine you’d include new equipment and/or foods you didn’t know about then. Is there anything new that’s become essential to your gluten-free life?

This is probably the opposite direction of what you might expect, but I now love to cook on and in a woodstove. Lasagna baked in a woodstove is beyond compare! I love making stews on my woodstove in the fall and winter, and cooking in the coals of an open fire outside in the summer. It's a great skill to know; I think if I wrote another cookbook I'd have to include a bit about cooking with fire, without the assistance of electricity or propane.

Did you get to a point where you were happy with what you’d learned about cooking so stopped trying new things or are you still exploring in that once unfamiliar room with a stove?

Always trying new things, always! In cooking, and in all realms of life!

MACAROONS

2 ½ cups shredded coconut

1/3 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons gluten-free flour*

2 egg whites

½ teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350°. Mix the coconut, sugar, salt, and flour together. In a separate bowl, froth up the egg whites with a fork. Add the vanilla to the egg whites, then stir into the coconut mixture. Drop spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown.

*“Most gluten-free flours are suitable for this recipe: sorghum, millet, tapioca, rice, premixed flours – use your favorite, or whatever you have around. Avoid corn, soy, garbanzo, and quinoa, however, as their flavors are too powerful.”

I used tapioca flour and unsweetened coconut - which seems to be much drier than the sweetened. It drank the liquid, reminding me of coconut flour, so I added an extra egg white and everything was great. My husband had been asking for chocolate chip cookies so I added some chips to about half and those were the clear winners. I’m making the chocolate chip version for a cookie exchange party I’m hosting this weekend, my first since I went gluten-free.

Update: I made the macaroons for the cookie exchange but made them with a small cookie scoop instead of the larger one I'd used on the earlier batch. In the smaller version, they don't have as much of the soft inside to the baked outside. I really liked that about the bigger cookies so, from now on, I'll make them with the larger scoop. (I've only been using cookie scoops for a couple of years and love how easy they make cookie baking.)

(Recipe used with permission from Shreve Stockton. "Eating Gluten Free: Delicious Recipes and Essential Advice for Living Well without Wheat and Other Problematic Grains") (I have to state that if you click on the Amazon link below and buy this cookbook, I receive a small money.)