Testing

We went to the pediatrician yesterday to see about getting the Celiac panel test for daughter. He ordered it and recommended we go back on gluten for at least a week before getting the test. So last night we had pizza, today a donut and a cheese bagel. I know...not the healthiest options by far. But guess what....nothing so far. Not one tummyache. Now, I realize it may be a day or two for her to have a reaction.

After talking with a friend, who recommended her chiropractor who also does allergy testing, I have decided to give that a try before getting the blood test. We go in on Monday. I'll let you know how it goes.

Oatmeal cookies

I made oatmeal cookies today.

If you can't tell by now I am quite the experimenter when it comes to cooking. I rarely follow a recipe exactly. I improvise a lot, adding in our preferred ingredients and omitting the ones we dislike. Except for making cakes, which I do exactly as the recipe calls for.

All that to say, I experimented again. I used the recipe from Better Homes and Gardens. I didn't have brown sugar so I used honey instead. I replaced the flour with GF flour blend. I added Xanthan Gum.

They taste great. Really, they do. However they did not flatten out like I hoped, staying in their little formed balls. They also have a very powdery texture. I don't think I will make them like this again. But I wrote down what I did so I can experiment in the future and maybe perfect them.

I'm such a rebel, not following the recipes in my GF cookbooks, thinking I can come up with something on my own. Silly I know, but sometimes the challenge of accomplishing something like this drives me.

Main cookbook I have by Carol Fenster looks like it has great recipes, but I haven't purchased enough of the flours to create the quantity of blend she calls for. Each of her recipes that uses flour has a portion of the blend and then some more ingredients to add to it. Right now, I just need to have a little on hand since we are still in the experiment stage.

If anybody is interested in how I made the cookies in detail, let me know and I will post it.

Turkey Loaf Muffins

Sounds gross I know. But they turned out so good and the kids loved them.

I used:
1 lb of ground turkey
1/4 c ketchup
1/4 c tapioca
1 egg
seasoning: salt, pepper, thyme
I just shake some in, but probably about 1/2 tsp salt and thyme, and 1/4 tsp pepper.

Mix all together and squish a hand full into a sprayed muffin tin. One pound made about 7 muffins. I baked at 350 for about 40 minutes. Ten minutes before I topped each muffin with ketchup mixed with a little brown sugar and let it bake on. About a Tbs per muffin. Or just slather it on.

They were so very tasty and the perfect serving size. My only mistake was that I didn't make enough. I keep forgetting that we are a 2 lb family.

A possible reaction to gluten

On Saturday hubby took the kids to lunch. They went to a Hawaiian restaurant and had rice with terriyaki chicken. That evening GFdaughter had bad stomach cramps. I think it may have been the terriyaki sauce on the chicken. I'm sure it was filled with flour/wheat in the soy sauce. He had forgotten about that possibility. It so easy to think of gluten items as being mostly bread a pasta and if you avoid those you will be fine. It's easy to forget that gluten is in so many other things. We will keep going with the elimination and test her in a few weeks so we can have accurate results. But I really do think she is gluten intolerant. She is feeling much better. Her stomach aches have stopped. She is eating a wider variety of foods. If we have bread in the house she will default to bread and eat nothing else. She is also eating more. She seems to be hungry a lot more. She has typically been a really small eater. Did I mention she is also our smallest child. Her younger sister of 2 1/2 years is the same size as her and wears the same size shoes. Now small does run in the family, but I do wonder if she just hasn't gotten the nutrition that she has needed.