Day 133 ~ frozen waffles and chocolate cookies...the good and bad of g-free

Today I pulled out some frozen waffles from 2 different batches of g-free waffles (different recipes) I have made over the weeks. As usual, (it seems) even though they were great fresh made...they were truly terrible reheated! So sad...I used to love having frozen ones on hand. I threw them all away. I hope I don't clog the landfills with the bad g-free breads I have made!

This is getting a little discouraging. I believe you can find good bread product recipes for gf cooking...but I have only happened on a couple so far!

Not to be totally gloomy though, here is a picture of a delicious, chocolaty, different but still good cookie that I made last week:  Flour-less, Butter-less, Very Chocolate Cookies

Here is how I made them:

the ingredients are cocoa, powdered sugar, egg whites, vanilla, and chocolate chips--that is it! All that is simply stirred together.

The cookie scoops out in blobs, but bakes up crisp and shiny.

They are a little odd though, with hollow backs and holes--the batter bakes sturdy and crisp--sort of meringue like. But the good news (besides that they taste good!)? They are good the next day, and they freeze just fine! So this is a keeper for me!

Day 119 ~ Banana nut bread that I will repeat!

I have made so many recipes that I know I will never make again. In fact, most of the baking recipes are that way! But I finally came upon a banana nut bread that is not only delicious and has a"normal" texture, but it tastes good the next day too! All my other bread and muffins were so dry the next day. I put some of the bread in the freezer--so we will see how that is when I defrost it. Freezing has not worked well for any baked goods so far.

This new recipe calls for Teff flour, (a nutritious g-free flour) and for cream cheese. Maybe it is the cream cheese that makes the difference.

Day 112 ~ Freezing g-free baked and processed foods

Last week I made a couple g-free things for the freezer, to have on hand for company. I was a little disappointed in the results after freezing, particularly with muffins, and a noodle casserole. The muffins were wonderful straight out of the oven--very delicious. As soon as they cooled, I packaged them up and put them in the freezer. But when I later thawed the muffins out and reheated them, they were very dry. The noodles developed a problem too.  The casserole tasted wonderful when first made, but once frozen and later thawed, the noodles became soft and mushy when reheated.

Gluten-free food is always a challenge.

Day 103 ~ The 3 1/2 month evaluation

For months now, people have been asking me if I feel any difference since going g-free. My answer has been, "Not really--not yet anyway." But last Tuesday, I realized I did feel better. But I thought it was a fluke--a good day--so I gave it another day, and another....till I have decided that I really do feel better. My arthritis in general is better, less joint pain, and I have a more energetic interest in my day, instead of just pushing myself through the day and the things I want to do.

The odd thing though, is that last Monday I actually felt very bad--achy and draggy--worse than normal. So when Tuesday came and I felt great, it was a surprise. I don't know what that would be all about, but maybe it was the last of the system getting cleaned out or something--who knows!

From all I have read, it seems that inflammation caused by gluten can take about 3 months to begin to calm down. So it seems that might be true in my case too. I am curios to see what 6 months without gluten will do.

Day 99 ~ A perfect cookie

I sometimes need to serve a little dessert or sweet to company that I don't particularly want to explain my g-free diet to. So I try to find a gluten-free food that will not make people question. Now that is easy with a meal--there are lots of naturally g-free meals: such as steak, baked potato, salad--all g-free, and no one would think a thing about it. But desserts and breakfast are just a little bit harder to hide what's going on.

So this week I needed a g-free cookie to serve a guest on Friday--and I wanted no suspicion about it's ingredients. I wanted a crispy oatmeal, pecan cookie--one like the one I like to make in "What We Cook". So I searched the internet till I found a g-free oatmeal cookie that had a similar ingredient list, except with all the g-free flours and gar gum--which you have to have to take the place of gluten. Well, my cookie worked! It was 95% the same as it's wheat counter part. The only concern was that the cookie breaks apart into crumbs very easily, so it is rather delicate. But the taste and crispness is perfect--so I am happy!

Day 96 ~ G-free motivator

One thing I like about my g-free project, is that it has become my motivator to say no to most sweets--since most sweets have flour in them.. Like last night--there was a plate of brownies sitting before me at a dinner party--normally I would have eagerly taken one, then eventually, ate a second one also. But I didn't eat any. Then today at Sunday School--we always have a table of Shipley donuts (really awesome looking, fragrant donuts) of every flavor, but I resist week after week.

I don't know why I found it hard to just say no to sweets before, but it was quite a struggle. Now, I just feel a bit sad, but it is not hard to do without. Of course, I have found ways to address my sweet tooth--chocolate candy, and ice cream are two things I didn't eat much before, but have on hand now as my quick go to for something sweet. So maybe I have not improved anything, just changed out my bad habits to new bad habits!

Day 92 ~ A slow finale after 1/2 of a burger bun...

Yesterday, David wanted to celebrate selling our house by going to Whataburger for dinner. I have been ordering salads at every fast food place there is for the past 3 months. I know who has the good ones, and who has the moderately good ones. Surprisingly, I have not had any bad salads. But I was tired of salad, and wanted to celebrate too. Not being comfortable jumping into a burger with 2 gluten-laden buns though, I decided to just go for one gluten-laden bun. In my purse I had stashed a slice of g-free brown rice bread I made a while back. Unfortunately  the bread was still frozen when I swapped out one of the burger buns with it. But even being cold, that burger really did taste good to me! And I felt fine last evening and night. I will say my system feels a bit sluggish and slow today though--I am wondering if it was the celebratory bun.