It's the pictures that keep me going

When my daughter was young I did child care in my home. I had a good friend who had a dairy farm. We both agreed that when we were too tired to move we got up anyway and did our jobs. I did it for the babies and she did it for the cows. So, it's late and I'm tired, but I look at the pictures and they remind me of the delicious food you can make if you plan ahead just a little. It's all gluten free and healthy. I'm not doing it for the pictures, I'm doing it for you. I know there are people out there who are struggling, not feeling well, pretty sure they ought to try eating gluten free, but who are scared, or don't know where to begin. I guess you are my babies now. I'm pretty sure you're not my cows.

I'm thankful to report that I'm not starving anymore and I've lost a portion of the few pounds I put on during the flare. I'm not thin, but according to my inner fat-o-meter, I'm lookin' better and dancing is more fun. Why? Probably vanity.

These meals are an amazing chicken salad with caramelized pecans and apples, and sea bass with plantains and tiny slivers of nitrate free ham from Trader Joe's.

Chicken Salad for two

Yes, this requires some chopping, but it only took me about 30 minutes from start to finish and I like it so much, it's worth it.

1. half a cup of left over brown rice.

2. one crisp apple chopped without the core, no need to peel.

3. one bunch of washed green onions, everything but the roots and scraggly ends, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces.

4. poached chicken (a whole skinless breast), cut into half inch pieces.

5. caramelized pecans, about 3/4 cup

6. dressing

7. grapes, I forgot the grapes, large and juicy, cut the seed out if necessary. Cut them in quarters.

Poach the chicken

1. rinse and pat dry the two parts of a chicken breast, no bone, no skin.

2. put a teaspoon of margarine in a non stick pan

3. add an ounce of wine or water.

4. turn on the burner and add the chicken breast as they are, meaning, don't flour or cut them.

5. simmer them for a few minutes, say three, turn them over and simmer another three minutes. A cover is good. You don't want them tough and over cooked.

6. take them out, put them on a cutting board. When they're cool enough to touch, cut them gently into pieces, about 1/2 inch square. It they're too pink for comfort, cook them some more.

7. save the juice in the pan for the dressing.

Dressing - make it in a big bowl so you can add all the other ingredients

1. half a cup of mayonnaise

2. the juice from the chicken pan

3. two tablespoons of rice or cider vinegar

4. two tablespoons of a mild oil

5. mix it well. If it doesn't seem like enough you can add more oil and vinegar or a little wine.

Caramelized pecans

1. Put about 2 tablespoons of maple syrup in a non stick pan and turn the burner on medium.

2. Add the pecans, about 3/4 cup

3. Stir pretty constantly. They look like they're going to sit there forever and do nothing and then they burn. Watch them. The goal is a little darkening of color, and a good coating of all the nuts with the syrup.

4. Turn off the burner and dispatch the nuts immediately because if you leave them in the pan, they will stick to it and each other.

Put everything except the nuts together in the big bowl and mix. Add salt and pepper, taste, maybe add more. Then separate the nuts if you can with your fingers and mix them into the salad, not with your fingers. If they have frozen solid into one big nut blob, chop it with a big knife. The pieces will taste just as good, or warm them a little in the same pan, and then they will come apart. Hot caramelized pecans are very hot. Don't put one in your mouth or touch them till they cool a little.

See, chicken salad, something that isn't fried!

I'm not writing the fish and plantain recipes because they are already in other posts.

Email if you have questions.

Life is lovely. Food is delicious. Experiment and enjoy.

Don't Cry Blueberry Pie and Vanilla Banana Vodka Pudding

And to keep a toe on health and function, Scallops and broccoli.

Do you ever have times when you just need some comfort? Sometimes, mostly when I am in the middle of a serious gluten flare, I feel like I will not be able to bear my life one more moment unless something nice happens. I look for something legal, something available, something that hopefully won't make me sicker. Sometimes it works, and I feel better and nothing bad happens. And sometimes, nothing bad happens, but it still doesn't taste good.

The Vanilla Banana Vodka pudding was a hit. I don't have an alcohol problem, so for me it's OK now and then. If you have alcohol issues, don't make this. The Don't Cry Blueberry Pie had some good points - it wasn't hard to make and I stopped crying, but it also didn't taste very good. It looked great on the counter covered in plastic wrap, like it came as a present. So, it had visual and emotional value. That's something.

Pudding:

1. One cup of coconut milk. Real milk is fine.

2. One cup of water.

3. One egg.

4. Two tablespoons, rounded, potato starch. (Corn starch works fine, but because there is always the possibility of contamination with gluten from the shared fields, truck, trains, and so on, I avoid it.)

5. An ounce of maple syrup.

6. Vanilla flavoring, non gluten, like in non-alcohol base, such as glycerin. (If it says alcohol, it is always grain alcohol, unless it claims to be another kind of alcohol, like "brandy" which is from grapes and has no gluten.)

If you've made any of my pudding before, you may be getting the idea.

Whip it with a whisk or blend it gently in a blender. Heat it while whisking until it starts to thicken and bubble.

7. Cut a banana length wise two times, and then slice it cross wise every half inch. That should give you four small pieces with each slice. Scoop 'em up and drop them in the bubbled and thickened pudding and stir them in gently.

8. Add an ounce of 100% potato vodka for one person, two ounces for two people. Trader Joe's has it. It is gluten free and doesn't bother me.

9. Stop cooking it now so the vodka doesn't burn off. Serve. It should make two nice servings.

No recipe for Don't Cry Blueberry Pie as it was a failure.

Scallops and broccoli is my basic seafood and vegetable recipe.

1. Wash the scallops and dry tenderly on paper towels.

2. Flour them with mildly spicy non gluten flour - I like potato starch. Rice flour is OK. I'm so nervous about dried spices as it now seems likely that's why I was so sick for three weeks - garlic powder. But maybe you're not so sensitive, and should just use the spices you like. Fresh though or as Adele Davis said, you may as well be eating cigar ash.

3. Warm a mild tasting oil. Scallops have a delicate taste, easily masked by stronger flavors. Butter or good margarine are fine too.

4. Add the scallops, saute, stir, turn them over gently.

5. I added lime juice because I am crazy about lime on seafood, but the truth is it overwhelmed the scallops and I didn't really get to enjoy their own flavor. Live and learn. Maybe just a little (lime juice and learning).

Baby Broccoli

1. Wash it well.

2. Cut it into 2 inch sections.

3. Chop lots of garlic, as many cloves as you would like. It's good for you and so tasty.

4. Put some olive oil in the pan to heat, add the garlic and broccoli pieces.

5. Stir now and then until it's soft and hot and starting to brown.

Getting better, little by little: fish and greens

I just finished eating it, and still it makes me hungry to look at this picture. I really like Corvina with the gravy that lime juice makes in the pan, a little brown rice to sop up the gravy and with not quite as much affection, the collard greens. They are tasty, but if they weren't essential for health I'd skip them. Because that's the kind of girl I am. If I were eating entirely on whim, I'd eat some protein, lots of carbohydrates, and following every meal, chocolate and sugar in some combination. However, I would shrivel up and die on that diet, so I don't.

Any white fish at all:

1. Rinse it well and pat it dry with paper towels. I made an effort to cut out the back bones and make four more or less equal pieces. It doesn't matter that you get every bone. You will find them as you eat and pick them out. No big deal except for little children. Best to get all their fish bones out before serving. (You can finish that up after it's cooked.)
2. Flour it lightly with spiced potato starch or other non-gluten light flour. (I mix in lots of spices like chili flakes, cumin, turmeric, etc.)
3. Heat a little olive oil in a non stick pan until it's getting hot but not smoking. Gently put the pieces of fish in the pan. In a minute or two, turn them over using a spatula.
4. Wait another minute, then add the juice of two limes. I just squeeze the limes right over the fish pieces, half a lime per piece.
5. Turn the light down and let the fish simmer a couple of minutes in the lime or lemon juice. It sort of glazes, the natural juice from cooking the fish, the little oil, the flour from the fish and the lime juice.
6. If you turn off the burner, put a cover on and let it sit on the warm burner it will stay warm a few minutes.


Collard Greens:

1. Put some cool water in a clean sink. Swish the bunch of collard greens up and down to get them clean.
2. Put the bunch on a cutting board and using a french knife chop off the stems with one fell swoop. Imagine yourself hacking through the jungle with Michael Douglas in "Romancing the Stone." If you're careful of fingers and other things that shouldn't be chopped, you can build some adventure into your food prep time. You can save those stems for making soup stock, or just throw them away.
3. Cut somewhat more carefully through the pile of greens, first in one direction, making strips about 1 inch wide. Then go in the other direction, about an inch apart. Then if the bits are too chunky, chop randomly a bit so you end up with pieces about half an inch by one inch.
4. Heat olive oil in a pan, when it's hot, add the greens, and stir now and then, cover for a few minutes, then uncover for a few minutes. When they are wilted, smaller, and a little brown, they're done.


Rice:
1. I used left over brown rice, and not much, maybe half a cup.
2. Rest the fish fillets on the greens while you stir the rice into the glaze in the fish pan. There may not be much, but it will be very tasty absorbed by the rice. Stir it till it's hot, then serve the rice on the plate.

Serve the fish on top of the rice, and the collard greens next to them. Salt lightly and enjoy.

I have given some thought to why I so often fry food, even though it may not be politically correct. Here's why. It tastes good. There are only so many things you can do with food. I do bake meat, and eggplant parmesan, (but only after the eggplant has been fried). You can boil things like soup, and I do that often. But for individual servings of fish and vegetables, there's not much you can do to prepare it that's faster and tastier than sauteing it. If you use these recipes and you wish for lower calories, use the littlest bit of oil in a non stick pan, and eat smaller portions than I show.

Mango smoothy:

1. A whole ripe mango, without the skin and the hard to separate seed.
2. One ripe banana
3. 7 ounces of coconut milk
4. A tray of ice
5. One glug of maple syrup

Mix it into submission in a blender.

This time I added a tablespoon of nutritional yeast, something my generation revered, but which isn't seen around now. It's a great source of vitamin B and I definitely was less hungry after I drank the drink. It was cold, refreshing, comforting, and apparently very good for me.

I still have two blogs to do in retrospect, so soon the rest of the crazy sick time will be up. Feel free to skip it. I'm over the gluten flare, but so easily tired out. See it does pass, and I did get better and cook fish and greens. If you're having a hard time, don't despair, just make the best choices you can and get help, if you can, to cook some food for you ahead, enough for a few days of rest if you're that worn out. Never let anybody make you feel apologetic. People have said to me, "You're not really sick. You look fine." You just say. "Celiac disease is the most prevalent genetic disorder on earth, one to three out of every hundred on this whole earth. It's real, it's serious. It's in the same circle of autoimmune diseases as MS, lupus, type one diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia." Then you smile sweetly and say, "Thank you for understanding how careful I have to be and how awful I feel when I'm in a gluten flare."