Gluten-free cooking!

I found out Cohen couldn't eat gluten two days after Mother's Day.

Well, cooking gluten-free was kind of scary at first. 

I didn't want to deprive my 3-year-old of bread and treats.

I made a trip to the WinCo bulk section and bought rice flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, and quinoa almost as soon as I found out about Cohen's gluten intolerance.

I looked up a gluten-free recipe for the bread machine, which I had recently starting using again, thank goodness!

The only troubling thing is that the recipe called for potato starch.  That's not easy to come by.  I checked all the grocery stores near me (about 4 or so) I couldn't find it.  I was trying to avoid the 25 minute trip to Whole Foods Market. 

My mom and I decided to just use plain dry mashed potato flakes.

Well, I made bread, and Cohen ate it, but I can't say it tasted wonderfully.  It wasn't bad, but not good either.  See how the top of the loaf actually looks like mashed potatoes!  Funny!  I won't be subbing that ever again.  I learned I could have used corn starch after I made the loaf. 

I made the trip out to Whole Foods Market.  I figured at this point it was necessary.  While I was there I picked up a "Tapioca Loaf."  It wasn't even called bread.  I figured I would give it a try.  The flavor was decent, but it was so incredibly dry it was unbelievable!  I made Cohen a PB&J with it, and put the left-over half in the fridge in a zip lock, and 2 days later it was still dry.  The peanut butter and jelly didn't even soften it up! 

We took it to church for Cohen to have the sacrament and made special arrangements with the bishopric and everything.

Cohen learned how to stay dry through the night, and I promised him a party with Chocolate Cake when he figured it out.  We've been talking about this party for nearly a year!  I had to follow through!

So, I got a quinoa chocolate cupcake recipe from a friend, who also has Celiac.

It was pretty tricky!  I had never cooked quinoa before.  Once I started making the recipe I realized that I needed to make the quinoa pearls smaller with a food processor.  I don't have one.  So, after I made the batter, I gave it a whirl in my terrible-no-good blender.  I think it might have broken the quinoa down a little....

That's the best I could do though.

Here they are.  Pretty flat.  But that's how they were supposed to turn out.

Frosting makes everything better!

In all honesty, they were good!  I took them to our Memorial Day get together with our friends, the Claytons.  They liked them too. 

This chicken nugget recipe called for "gluten-free flour mix." Hello!!! I looked up the recipe because I didn't know how to do that.... it was kind of funny.  So about this point I realized I needed a baking mix that I could simply substitute in cup for cup for traditional flour.  I looked one up on line, and made some up in my kitchen.  I was so thankful for that.  I figured I could use it in anything, just needed to test it out. 

These chicken nuggets were seriously good.  I froze the few we had left over after dinner for a lunch for Cohen.  I had a clear image though of how bad they are for you.  Frying chicken in oil is just something I never do.  How terrible!  This is why I don't feed my kids chicken nuggets all the time!  I try to make it rare, but I didn't want to never allow Cohen to eat chicken nuggets again.  They are practically his favorite food.

I tried out some of my new wheat-less flour mix on my regular banana bread recipe, and randomly decided to make mini muffins with them.  They turned out great!  Not flat or anything! 

Life can continue!

I also finally found bread Cohen and Josh liked.  It came in the frozen section at WinCo.  It was a tiny loaf for nearly $5, but it was worth it.

I bought gluten-free Bisquick and made pancakes and biscuits.... the biscuits weren't good.

I even made a couple gluten-free pizza crusts to hold our Friday night pizza tradition.

I started making gluten free condensed cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup,

then freezing it.  I was even a couple days away from giving away all of our canned products that had gluten in them.

Two and a half weeks after my gluten-free cooking adventure, the specialist says, Cohen can eat gluten, and that the pediatrician misunderstood the blood work results.

Sigh.

Thank goodness Cohen and I don't have to deal with this forever; but really.... I was just starting to get the hang of it.  If the doctors ever change their minds, at least I'll know what to do.