Gone Gluten Free: GF Tortilla Soup...

It's now officially cold here in north-central Texas. Time for chicken soup--TexMex style...Oh and Gluten Free too!

1. Assemble the ingredients: we'll

need a can of chunk white chicken; two cups of chicken broth (stock is fine); a can of Rotel (I used a generic here); three cubes of Pop&Cook brand Cilantro; half a tea spoon of sea salt; I also grabbed the Mrs. Dash for rounding out the flavor (watch this stuff...I nearly burnt The Fabulous Feathermaye's mouth out...this one contains both black pepper and cayenne); Bird's Eye blend (bell peppers, celery, onion blend); an avocado; and of course, a few gluten free tortilla chips (here I'm using some leftover 'South of the Border' brand, which is all corn and totally gluten free.

2. Let's get started: mix canned chicken, rotel, cilantro, salt, Mrs. Dash and veggies in your pot.  Bring to boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes.  I find that it's done when the celery is relatively tender--you be the judge--this is a quicky recipe, so you don't need to go all OCD here... 

3. While the soup's cooking: crunch

best way to cube an avocado
just toss them over the chips

your tortilla chips into your bowl and then cube your avocado...Drop those cubes right on top of the chips.
When the soup's ready, ladle it right over your chips and avocado cubes.  I like to toss a couple of slices of Jack Cheese along side, or even over the top if you want it all melty-like.

*Note* I made this one twice in the last couple of weeks. The first one I took care with the

amount of spice. The Fabulous Feathermaye loved it! She raved about it on facebook.  This last one, I wasn't as careful; I used regular rotel (instead of mild) and found out that the Mrs. Dash I liberally shook into the pot contained the aforementioned cayanne & black pepper.  She was not amused...

I'll used caution from now on with my ingredients,

and not just to make sure they are all Gluten Free, but the correct amount of spice/heat as well.  Otherwise, I'm standing in the three foot flame.  That will burn anyone's ass.  But, that's another blog altogether...

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Gone Gluten Free: Making sure your guests don't panic cause they're eating some gluten free stuff...

We had our good friend Lu drop by for a couple of nights.   She's in the loop with the fact that

Glutens up in the HOUSE!

we've gone gluten free.  But, she wasn't sure what that might entail for her gastronomically speaking, while she spent some time visiting.



Quickly, she found that we were not eating things with 
strange names, that in fact: most gluten free food is as common as table salt.  It's merely food without wheat, or barley, prepared, hopefully, in a facility that does not cross contaminate the two.

So last night, Feathermaye whipped up a Gluten Free, Asian inpired, cajun-like (sorta Jambalaya) dish; she assembled Rice with stir-fry veggies...

Then pulled out the proteins: A fantastic south texas Sausage made by the good folks way down yonder in Houston, known as Holmes, Pecan Smoked All Beef Sausage.  

We've speculated that the good folks at Holmes have hired on a recent AGGIE grad who came up with the brilliant idea that since sausage has no wheat or barley added (at least not in this sausage) it would be a good marketing scheme to add a little label to that effect: Look y'all!  We're Gluten Free!

Keeping with a Cajun-Asian theme, Feathermaye then added some fajita chicken from another supplier of good, wholesome, Gluten Free food: John Soules. 

We showed our guest how it was best to assemble it all

together, and offered up some Gluten Free condiments if she was so inclined: I love that I can chow down on food with Louisiana Hot Sauce,  Wasabi paste, or even Chinese Hot Mustard, without fear of gastric repercussions.

It seems like we watch a lot of the Food Channel show: CHOPPED.  Not long after we had finished with the main course, it was time to make the desert!  

This is one of our new favorites: Feathermaye's Pudding Cake (converted from a glutenous original recipe).  I made this one under her guidance and instruction...

Step One: Gluten Free Cake mix (Betty Crocker shown

Mix with an electric mixer 

here, but we also enjoy Hodgson's Mills, which is an exclusive Gluten Free manufacturer).  You'll also need: 4 eggs, a quarter cup of oil (we use sesame in this one, but olive and others work fine as well), plus a box of Jello Instant Pudding mix (banana cream) along with a cup of Rice Milk.  

Oven preheated, of course

Feathermaye likes to use a coconut oil based cooking spray, which she applied to our round, 9 inch glass pie dish.  

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes until a

Easy frost has no gluten!

knife blade comes out clean, or it looks like this:

And yes, that is a can of Easy Frost sitting just beyond the cake.  Here, I'm just waiting for it to cool down a little.

 On goes the frosting, just shoot some spirals around it, starting from the middle, and let it melt down, sorta glazed doughnut style, until it covers the whole cake.  

I popped it in the freezer for about twenty minutes to harden the glaze before the girls finally demanded to be served!  Warning: Do Not Be Surprised if one of these doesn't make it through the night!

More recipes about going gluten free to come...

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Going Gluten Free: Don't think you're going to miss out on the GOOD STUFF!

Over the course of the last year, Feathermaye and I have found a number of really great, ready-to-go, Gluten Free products that I simply have to share.  It's always good when you find something your really like that fits the bill.

Cookies and cake are one of these--one must have one's goodies!

Our local Walmart stores have started to carry the Immaculate Brand of Gluten Free, chocolate chunk

cookie dough.  This stuff is the BOMB.

Not once, out of dozens of times, have I offered one to someone else and not watched their face as they bit and chewed and made that cookie "Awe!  Man!" sound.  

"That's the best cookie I've ever had!" They say...no kidding, y'all.  To a person, they all moan and mutter those words, and that's before I tell them: "And it's gluten free."

Every now and then I get a few what's that mean?s as they finish chewing.  But those in the know looked shocked, stare at the rest of the cookie in their hands (if they haven't already crammed the whole thing in their gobs) and exclaim, something along the lines of: "You gotta be kidding!"

And NO, the fine folks at Immaculate are NOT paying me for this.  At least not yet, anyhow.  

I'm just happy to pass it along to the rest of my Gluten sensitive readers out there.  Otherwise, how would we ever know?

Gluten irritates joints and can cause all manner
of digestion issues.  Most of us try to ignore it.
But eventually, it becomes too much to ignore.

Glutens are no longer something that many of us can tolerate.  We've grown up eating fine breads and pastries and pasta and...well, what we called wheat, back in the day, no longer exists in that state.  It's been genetically altered into something else, and I, at least, found it was killing me.  

Giving up the good stuff, was a very gloomy prospect for Yours Truly.  I was loathe to spend the rest of my days eating food that I was equating with a sheet of notebook paper.  I wanted taste!  Texture!  I wanted my food to be real!

Immaculate has put it together with this selection.  These cookies are big, they're soft batch-type, and you will get such a taste sensation that your brain will take a moment or two to get a grip on those taste buds.  

(Gulp)  I had to swallow again just telling you this.  These things make my mouth water.

Look for them at your local store.  Ask your store manager to start carrying them if they don't already. Go someplace else if they don't follow up.  It's worth it!

Happy taste buds, my fellow GFers!

Coming up next:  Feathermaye's awesome pudding cake conversion recipe that will send you over the edge.   As Scarlet O'Hara is my witness, it will leave you saying "This Gluten Free stuff is GOOD!"

You know...you all look like you could stand a good cookie.  

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Life without Gluten: Is it really easier to quit Heroin?

We found out I was gluten sensitive by accident.  I had, of course, heard about how we ought to give up gluten; but paid it little attention.  French baguettes, Italian garlic bread and San Francisco Sourdough are among, what I once called, the "good" things in life.  Biscuits and gravy, a good fresh Rye (Jewish or otherwise--I was never all that picky) and all manner of sandwiches, burgers and hotdogs were things I refused to admit were "Bad" for me.

As many of you already know, I was diagnosed with a disease called

Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR)

 a couple of years ago.

A harsh form of Arthritis, it only strikes after age fifty, and with treatment (steroids) it can go away altogether after about five years, or cripple your ass if you do nothing.  I took the 'roids' for a year and a half before I attempted to ween myself off of them.  Not a full week after I stopped taking prednisone I was in severe pain again, worse than ever, and had lost so much muscle mass that I found myself too weak to move without feeling as if I was going to die from the pain.

We were working a resident manager gig down on the Bar-S Ranch in Palestine (Pal-ess-teen) Texas and knowing that I could not just sit around and hurt all day, and the fact that we were without medical benefits of any kind, we opted for some alternative medicine.

Dixie Dorsett L AC, is an acupuncturist in town, in practice with her husband John, a Chiropractor.

Frankenstein with his ass hanging out 

Desperate for some relief, I had Feathermaye take me down to see how I'd do as a pin cushion.  Dixie's very good.  She had me full of needles in no time, some of them even hooked up to low voltage wiring. Feathermaye took pics of it all, of course--I supposed I must have looked like Frankenstein's monster all wired up and waiting for the next East Texas thunderstorm.

The needles gave me some relief, but it was temporary.  So, Dixie, a supportive natural healer, suggested I do some cleansing.  She recommended chlorophyll extract, for daily use, as well as a really good "whole body cleanse" kit which the little health food store down the street sold.  We picked all that up and I listened while Feathermaye read to me all the stuff I could NOT eat during the cleanse: No this, no that, no bread, no pasta...


This sort of thing had been discussed and de-cussed between Feathermaye and Your's Truly.  I never wanted to give credit to anything that didn't come with a prescription or cost billions of dollars in Medical Research.

But, medical science didn't really have much to say about my disease.  "We don't really know much about this disease, Mr. Herndon," my Rhuematologist told me.   "Just keep taking the steroids and if they don't do the trick, we'll discuss putting you on some other cocktail."

Of course we already knew what he didn't say: with even more side-effects!

So, moving ahead...

The third morning of the "cleanse", I woke up, bracing myself for pain--something I was doing as a reflex by that time.  The strange part was at that moment I realized I didn't have any...

"Hey, I don't hurt anymore!" I said as I ate boiled eggs and drank coffee with Stevia, instead of sugar.

Feathermaye smiled and nodded.  "Now all we have to do is pay attention as we add stuff back into your diet."

The next week, I fixed pasta, with my famous sauce and a couple baguettes of French bread.

The following morning I was in pain again.  What the hell?

Before I could say anything, Feathermaye was ticking away on her laptop; she's a marvel at research as well as editing.  In no time she nodded...

"Hmm...looks like you're going to have to stay off the Glutens, big guy."

"Okay," I said, "Tell me again what that is?"

"Bread, pasta, anything with wheat or barley."

"You mean...I can't even have beer?"

She shook her head, "Not unless they have one that's gluten free."

Yes!  Bud makes my new favorite GF beer!

I felt like a heroin addict who suddenly found himself on a deserted island.  "You gotta be shittin' me!"

"No, sir."  She did not look up as she said this part.  "You either quit eating glutens or you remain in pain.  Your choice."


Jumping ahead...

Even heroin addicts eventually get over not having heroin any more.  Hell, that may be easier.  It's not like they have to walk by heroin when they go grocery shopping.  The smells of fresh baked heroin aren't seemingly everywhere, tempting, tempting and tempting.  It's not like heroin is on the menu at every damn restaurant they go to.

No...it's just gluten: Bread, pasta...anything made of wheat or barley...(gulp) including beer--damnit.

I cheated a couple of times after that.  My PMR made me pay dearly for it.

And, I have to say this: no sandwich, no big'o plate of spaghetti or lasagna, no biscuit or cake or cookie is worth THAT kind of pain, folks.  I QUIT!

But wait!  All is not lost!

I am married to the most awesome girl.  She has found so many ways to replace gluten with things I love just as much that...well...I figure I just need to crank up this old blog and tell the world how good it can be going GLUTEN FREE.

You might think you'd really miss a cheese burger, if you go gluten free.  So I'm going to show you, right here, right now, how to have an awesome blue cheese, avocado, bacon and cheddar supreme with jalapenos.

I'm here to inform you that the gluten free bread industry has its issues.  Most that are already made and

sold are crumbly and hardly resemble what we've all come to know and think of as bread.  Hamburger buns are especially difficult to find, but here is the best we've found so far:  

The good folks at Schar make not only buns, but loaf bread as well.  It keeps very well--for a rice flour based bread, but there are a couple of things I've found necessary for Your's Truly:  


This type of bread is a bit crumbly, when you first open and try it.  The stuff will fall apart unless you toast it.  I like to butter and toast it under the broiler.

A little crumbly at first, but don't panic or despair!

Butter the tops and pop 'em under a broiler...

Until they look something like this...

In this case, I've topped with Blue Cheese and Avocado

It IS as good as it looks!

The burgers were brought to us by Bubbas Burgers!
They're not only awesome, they're gluten free...

Lays potato chips are also gluten free and we loaded down our plates with them as well.  And, that's the thing, you'd be surprised at the number of things you already eat that are gluten free.

But the real kicker is: how much weight we lost.  In the picture above, the one where I'm getting poked with

Me on the right at 180lbs.

needles, I was weighing in at a tubby 238.  In the last year of completely gluten free dining, eating three squares a day, I've dropped sixty of those pounds.  We were shocked when I reached 180.  I haven't weighed that since high school, back when I looked like this>

That's right, folks.  I'm back to my fighting weight and I have to attribute it to a gluten free diet.  I also get a good amount of exercise, but it's not like I run five miles a day or anything like that.

180 lbs today

Since I--more or less--had to go gluten free, Feathermaye--by direct association--went along with me.  She lost about 30lbs so far.  Not only that, we just FEEL better!  Neither of us has been sick; no colds, flu, and I find I can eat hot sauce or munch on jalapenos without worry about indigestion since I took the steps to remove gluten from my diet and my system.

Of course, it is easier to be motivated when the alternative is so damn painful.  But, I'd be willing to bet you that if you suffer from gastric disorders, joint pain, even head aches and constant bothersome ailments, you might just find that gluten is at the very least, aggravating it.  I challenge you to try it for yourself and see if it helps.  All you have to lose is some weight, and maybe a little discomfort.  


I'll post many more recipes that we've come across in future posts.

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