WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
There are silver linings to every dark cloud, and one of the biggest silver linings to the complex of related diseases that led to my extreme overweight, illness and loss of my health, has been the acquisition of mad cooking skills. Yes, WHEEBLES, you too can learn to cook! All it takes is - well, the Internet, and some patience, and a palate. Most of us have those! Oh yeah and a kitchen. Follow me over the fold to a world of easily-digestible, low calorie, gluten free goodness!!!
I was inspired to write this diary today by the admin of Gluten Free Goodness, who posted on my Flickr photo site an invitation to share my recipe for Mongolian Dumplings, Gluten Free. For anyone who has surrendered the Evil Grain, you know how horrible a transition it can be, and just how intensely the hatred of rice can get while getting used to a world of bad tasting, poorly-prepared food. And for those of us with stealth-celiac disease, i.e. dermatitis herpetiformis, the rampant destruction of the small intestine goes largely unnoticed for years and even decades, with the exception of increasing indigestion, acid reflux, constipation with frequent bouts of diarrhea to punctuate it, the acquisition of new and more exotic allergies. And for me, rampant weight gain. The source of my gluten intolerance, undoubtedly, is genetic and is related to (this is not a scientific statement but a proposal for research) the chromosome abnormalities I was born with. But it makes it no less potent a problem for all that, and in America, with its amber waves of sacred Evil Grain, there are literally whole aisles of a grocery store that represent the human equivalent of rat poison.
Yeah. So what to do? Gluten free food out of a box mostly sucks, and is hugely expensive - I once priced a pound of gluten free rice and tapioca bread in the United Kingdom at 4 pounds sterling a pound. That is $7.75. FOR A LOAF OF BREAD. You'd learn how to bake at those prices. Hand-made, a far superior loaf of GF rice and tapioca bread fresh out of the oven was half that cost at 2 pounds sterling.
And Gluten Free food out of a freezer is a LITTLE less sucky and far MORE expensive. Current cost of the tasty and perfectly acceptable Conte's Gluten Free Gnocchi? $12. That's 45 cents per thumb-sized dumpling.
The real answer is to get out the cookbooks, like the one I am developing from many sources and tweaking to my taste for low-sodium, vegetarian gluten free cooking. For those of you who are gluten free by choice ( god bless you all! for choosing to eat this way!) there is a world of taste out there.
The fact is, for those of us who have to restrict our diets into the bizarre zone and to stay away from the Mainstream of the grocery store, here are a few highlights of what you can learn to make:
Mongolian Dumplings, Gluten Free
Link for recipe for dumpling wrappers:
Asian Dumpling Wrappers - Gluten Free
Buckwheat/Rice Flour Waffles
Sorghum-Millet Oatmeal Bread
Yes, Oats are Gluten Free!
Mama Mia!! It's Gluten Free Pizza!!
Food SHOULD taste good. And you should eat a variety of foods. I have given up, many long years since, being a Food Nazi and lording it over those who still eat grains because they can, as if grains in and of themselves, or breads and cakes, are somehow EVUL. They aren't. Food should taste good, and we should enjoy it as part of a healthy, nutritious diet and life plan.
All of the photos above are of my own cooking and baking, and many from my own sodium-restricted modified recipes. Original recipes for all of my stuff can be found embedded in photo links for various breads, cakes, muffins and main dishes on my FLICKR site:
Louisev's Flickr
Scheduled WHEE diaries:
Feb 21
Sun AM - louisev
Sun PM - Fabian - Restricted Diets and Supplements
Feb 22
Mon AM - NC Dem
Mon PM - WHEE Open
Feb 23
Tue AM - WHEE Open
Tue PM - WHEE Open
Feb 24
Weds AM - WHEE Open
Weds PM - Edward Spurlock (Kolata, Ch. 3)
Feb 25
Thurs AM - WHEE Open
Thurs PM - debbieleft
Feb 26
Fri AM - WHEE Open
Fri PM - Wee Mama (weekly diary)
Feb 27
Sat AM - WHEE Open
Sat PM - Edward Spurlock (Wansink, Ch. 1)
Feb 28
Sun AM - louisev
Sun PM -