Back on track

Finally got fed up with all the sugar crashes I was having, especially during exercise so as much fun as it was baking gluten free scones and bread, I am back to basics and really working the balance between my proteins, carbs and fats.

I've been struggling to lose about 10 lbs. since returning from a cruise over a year ago and keep getting waylaid by sugar crashes. Decided to go back to what the nutritionist said last year and am eating more food (sorry, Weight Watchers, but your points allowance for me is too low) protein and a little more fat and cutting back some on the carbs. The thing is, I am only eating a little less carb at meals and making sure they are whole grains or starchy vegetables or fruit. I aim for 30g at most meals unless it is right before our Naginata class, in which case I bump it up to 40-45g. If I then eat 3 oz. of protein, some vegetables, and a little high quality fat, I am ok and I don't crash during practice. Which is good.

An added benefit is that I am not so tired, I am not hungry all the time in between meals and I no longer crave sweets after meals. I am back to losing instead of gaining weight, but only a half a pound a week. It's better than gaining or staying the same so I am hanging in there. I am also hoping that it has a positive effect on my headaches—in other words to have fewer of them.

Sample Sunday lunch is featured in the photo: 2-egg omelette with neufchatel cheese, leftover roasted potatoes and eggplant, mushrooms and asparagus sauteed in butter and olive oil. Photo courtesy of my new Nikon 5000!! Yay!

With the new camera I am hoping to be posting more often and with better results.

Karen, herself

French Bread Gluten Free

As promised, I tried my old recipe for French bread with Jules Gluten Free Flour and while it tasted like French bread, it was gummy in the middle and had to be toasted to finish baking! Not deterred, I decided to try another recipe by Annalise Roberts in her Gluten-Free Baking Classics for French-Italian Bread (p. 131). This recipe requires mixing 5 different flours to achieve an artisan-like bread, but the rest of the recipe is very simple, so it really wasn’t so much trouble.

The 5 flour mix was: 2/3 cup of millet flour, 1/3 cup of sorghum flour, 1/3 cup cornstarch, 1/3 cup potato starch, and 1/3 cup tapioca starch. This gives you 2 cups of flour. I blended them together with a whisk in a large bowl and then added the rest of the dry ingredients for the bread: 1 1/4 tsp. xanthan gum, 3/4 tsp. salt, and 4 tsps. sugar. I then proofed 1 packet of active yeast with a bit of sugar in water (110°) and added it to the dry ingredients (by this time in the bowl of a stand mixer) plus 2 tsp. of olive oil and 1 cup water, heated to 110°. The recipe says to beat on high for 3 minutes, then form into a loaf and place in oiled pan (I used a French bread pan) and let rise (loosely covered) in a warm spot for 40 minutes, then bake in a preheated 400° oven for 40-50 minutes. It came out great and made a sandwich to die for. Mine was smoked turkey with brie, dijon mustard and lettuce.

The same morning I made this I whipped up a loaf of Jules’ sandwich bread with her flour.

Here is a closeup on the French bread after I cut into it:

After not having eaten French bread in three years, I sat and ate my sandwich in blissful silence. It was soft inside and crunchy on the outside. Hats off to Annalise Roberts. Buy her book. You won’t be sorry.

Karen, herself

Gluten Free Spinach Quiche

Yesterday I thawed a homemade frozen gluten-free pate brisée and make a spinach quiche with it for dinner. I was once again inspired by Julia Child and used a combination of her recipes for quiche...the Quiche Lorraine (bacon, no cheese) and the spinach quiche (cheese, shallots and spinach). My version had bacon, spinach, shallots and cheese. Of course much butter and cream was involved as well.

It made me so happy to be making this again. I realized that I had not made a quiche in close to twenty years. More importantly, I do not think I have eaten quiche since going gluten free three years ago...not with crust and everything anyway. It was heavenly. Again I must thank Jules Gluten Free Flour for the light and fluffy crust...and all that butter.

I did in fact try making french bread with Jules’ flour and it tasted good, but didn’t totally bake in the center and was incredibly hard on the outside. Too hard for me and my TMJ so I tried toasting it and it did soften up enough to eat. Now the plan is to to try french bread with another flour mixture and see if that is better.

Monday we go back to less rich food, but for now we are indulging. Tonight it is braised veal chops, canellini beans with spinach and sauteed red cabbage.

Happy New Year!

Karen, herself

Cream Scones

So I guess I’m on a quest for the best GF scone. Yesterday’s were made with only one whole egg and an egg white as we had run out of eggs. I also ran out of cream so I decided on a recipe that called for milk instead. This morning I couldn’t sleep so I got up early and having replenished the eggs and cream the day before, set about trying the recipe I really wanted to try from Rebecca Reilly’s Gluten-Free Baking. Although, being the sort who likes to tinker with recipes, I couldn’t resist incorporating some of the ingredients from the recipe I used the day before.

My cream scones turned out better than the classic scones, but it may have been because I had two eggs, etc. I still used Jule’s Gluten Free Flour but I added a quarter cup of hazelnut meal to 2 cups of Jule’s flour (which already has xanthan gum and Expandex in it) and then mostly followed the recipe for Raisin Cream Scones in Rebecca Reilly’s cookbook. I did use 5 tablespoons of butter vs. 4 because that is what yesterday’s recipe called for and I like butter. I also upped the baking powder to 1 tablespoon to match yesterday’s recipe.

The other reason I think these scones turned out better is that this recipe says to mix everything quickly with a fork, rather than use a stand mixer for one minute. I think the lighter handling of the dough resulted in a flakier scone. They were also baked at a higher temperature for less time, so they were less dry. They were also slightly sweeter than the others because of the hazelnut meal and the cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. Bottom line is that yesterday’s (see previous post) are more like biscuits and today’s were slightly more muffin-like, but not too much. My husband and I decided that we like both.

Karen, herself

Gluten-free Scones

Yesterday I gave my friend a 5 lb. bag of Jules Gluten Free Flour for Christmas. She has tried and failed in the past to produce a gluten free scone that met her expectations. I knew she would try again with this flour and I was frankly worried. I was afraid she would try the flour on her scone recipe first and if it wasn’t good, she might give up on the flour. So I made them myself this morning. I have to say that, while they didn’t rise as much as I would have liked, they were otherwise great. I used the recipe in Annalise G. Roberts’ “Gluten-Free Baking Classics” and the results are shown here for you to judge...at least visually.

What made me the happiest was that the dough looked right and handled like a dream, not something you can always say about gluten-free baking.

Big sigh of happiness.

Karen, herself

Gluten-free Christmas Eve

Yesterday on the Today Show, Joy Bauer (of the Joy Fit Club) took a question from a viewer asking what to bring to Christmas at someone’s home who was strictly gluten-free. Her answer took me back because when it came to desserts, she suggested that fruit was the best option, implying that all our favorite holiday desserts would be off-limits to the gluten-free (she also mentioned flourless chocolate cake or buying something ready made). So happy to say “Sorry, Joy, but you couldn’t be further from the truth!”

Not only can you enjoy gluten-free versions of all your holiday fare, but now it is more simple than ever, thanks to Jules Gluten Free Flour and her “almost normal” baking recipes. I heard Jules lecture at the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America’s conference in Seattle last summer and bought a bag of her flour ($20 for a 5 lb. bag, but worth it). The flour has Expandex modified tapioca starch and Xanthan gum already mixed in so you can use it just like all-purpose flour. I have been making Jule’s sandwich bread with it and my husband and I love it. At Thanksgiving I decided to try using it to make my piecrusts and I just substituted it for the all-purpose flour in the pate brisée recipe that came with my Cusinart years ago. The result was so good that you could serve it to the uninitiated and they would not know it wasn’t the usual gluten-laden thing. It was only slightly more tricky to work with, as it broke easier, but since the recipe has egg yolk in it, it pretty much held together. I used it for both pumpkin and pecan pies and we just did it again yesterday for pecan pie.

So be brave and try your old favorite recipes and if you want to make it simple, try Jule’s flour too. I plan to try French bread next. We’ll see. In the meantime, we are enjoying a totally gluten-free holiday with baked ham and cranberry-wine glaze, Julia Child’s Potato Gratin Dauphinois (pictured above and too delicious for words), spinach salad and pecan pie.

Happy holidays!

Karen, herself

Open Face Breakfast Panini

one slice gluten-free sandwich bread

garlic clove (optional)

olive oil

2 oz. roasted chicken

1/2 oz. goat cheese or other mild cheese

peach slices

lettuce or spinach, arugula, etc.

Had the best breakfast today. I wanted a high-protein start to my day and had some roasted chicken thighs left over from a previous night’s dinner. I also had some delicious gluten-free sandwich bread I got from PCC Market the other day: Angeline’s Gluten-free White Rice Bread. I didn't feel like making a real panini which would involve getting out a skillet and rubbing garlic and olive oil on the bread and toasting it in a grill pan, so I just toasted it in my toaster and then drizzled olive oil on it. I was so excited about the whole idea of my creation that I forgot the garlic! I used Olivier’s Lemon Olive Oil, then put some organic lettuce on the toast, then shredded about 2 oz. of the chicken and put it on top of the lettuce, then the peach slices and topped it with a bit of goat cheese. Yum.

Just had to share this. Try it.

Karen, herself