The frontal lobe of the brain seems to be affected terribly by Gluten…

Here’s a few studies that are proving this:

• Celiac And The Gluten Gut Brain Connection Seen In Reversible Abnormal SPECT Brain Scans
• Gluten causes Brain Disease!
• Your Brain on Gluten
• Memory/Learning: Eating to Learn

I remember every Sunday morning waking up and going with my father in the wee hours of the morning to the bakery to get doughnuts and a soft juicy loaf of potato bread… and the smells were devine as well as the sights!  Sadly fastforward 30 years and I cannot have doughnuts anymore.   But with Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix I can have doughnut holes!  and boy oh boy they sure taste good…

Ingredients:

• 4 1/4 cups Pamela’s GF Baking & Pancake Mix
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup sour creame (we use regular breakstone’s)
• 2/3 cup milk or buttermilk (optional: add 1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice to milk)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup white or brown sugar
• 2 tsp madegascar vanilla
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Step 1 – Preheat oil to 365 to 375 degrees F in deep fryer. You need at least 1 1/2 inches – more is better.

Step 2 – Mix all ingredients together.

Step 3 – Dust counter with additional GF Baking & Pancake Mix.

Step 4 – For doughnuts, scoop out 1/3 cup dough, coat both sides with flour, flatten slightly, and press
hole through center with thumb.

Step 5 – For doughnut holes (easier, as this dough is pretty soft, making for very floppy doughnuts), scoop out 1 inch balls (a little less than 1/4 cup).

Step 6 -Carefully lower doughnuts / holes into oil. Fry for approximately one minute on each side.

Step 7 –  Remove doughnuts from oil and let drain / cool on paper towels.

Step 8 – Eat straight, or roll in powdered sugar first. Yum!

Being Celiac does not mean you have to give up your comfort foods… you just have to be a little more creative!  This recipe is fun and easy and is sure to generate ear to ear smiles…

Ingredients:

• 1 cut-up fryers
• 1 package dry Lipton Onion Soup Mix
• Breakstone Sour Cream Regular (As needed)
• Mashed Potatoes (made from scratch – gluten free products)

Directions:

In a 9×13 inch baking dish, put 1 cut-up fryer. Over the top of chicken, sprinkle 1 package crushed dry Lipton onion soup mix. Cover and bake at 350 degrees, until the chicken is done. Mix equal parts of sour cream and gravy from the cooked chicken. Pour back over the chicken and serve with mashed potatoes or noodles.

Cream of Mushroom Soup Recipe

Remember the days where a good can of Campbells Cream of Mushroom soup would make a great meal – whether in Tuna Casserole or Green Bean Casserole or Chicken/Lipton Soup Casserole, it tasted so darn good…

Well here’s a great Mushroom Soup Recipe to try… and experiment with…

Ingredients

• 1 pound portabella mushrooms, cleaned, quartered or sliced
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter (use Heart Smart Butter)
• 2 Tbsp minced shallots
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock (Gluten Free)
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch (Gluten Free) dissolved in 1 Tbsp water
• Minced parsley for garnish

Directions

1 Coarsely chop mushrooms and lemon juice.

2 Melt butter in (4-5 quart) sauce pan and lightly sauté shallots on medium heat. Add mushrooms, thyme and bay leaf, sauté over moderate heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the liquid that is released from the mushrooms disappears.

3 Add salt, pepper, cream and chicken stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

4 Add cornstarch and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Correct seasoning and add more lemon juice to taste.

Serves 4. Serve sprinkled with a little parsley.

Note: you can freeze this for later use in your favorite Cambell’s Mushroom Soup Recipe!

Mayo Clinic has a wonderful video about Celiac Disease…!

Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and celiac disease specialist Joseph Murray, M.D. describes the findings of Mayo Clinic research published July 1, 2009 in the journal Gastroenterology concerning the increased prevalence of celiac disease and the higher mortality for people who have celiac disease but don’t know it.

Oh wow!  Gluten Free Pasta that actually tastes like Pasta, looks like Pasta and cooks like Pasta!  Bionaturae has a line of gluten free pastas that are just heavenly!

This is one of the first products we tried and oh boy is it good!

Here’s the link:

• http://www.bionaturae.com/gluten.html

Make sure you get the pasta that is in the pink topped packages.  These are the gluten free pastas!

We give this 5 thumbs!

This is such an easy recipe and oh does it taste so good!…

Ingredients:

• 16-18 large strawberries
• 1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) heavy whipping cream
• 2-3 (24-36 grams) tablespoons granulated white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:
You want the strawberries to sit flat.  So if they are a little wobbly with the stems left on, cut the green stems off the strawberries so they will stand upright when placed on your serving tray.  With a small sharp knife, cut an “X” in each strawberry, cutting almost to the bottom of each strawberry.  (The cut should be such that the strawberry will open up but not fall apart.) Gently, with your fingertips, spread each strawberry apart to make “petals”.  Set aside while you make the cream filling.
In a medium sized bowl, whip the mascarpone cheese and whipping cream until soft peaks form.  Add the sugar and vanilla and continue to whip until stiff peaks form.
Spoon the cream into a pastry bag fitted with a large open star tip.  Pipe the cream into the strawberries.  If not serving immediately, cover, and place in the refrigerator until serving time.

Variation:

Add a drizzle of Hershey’s syrup on top of the whipping cream that is inside the strawberries!

Add hazelnut flavoring to the whipped cream!

Sprinkle cinnamon on top of the Whipped Cream!

Well it is Christmas Eve and my daughter and I are discovering that we have Celiac Disease.  For me being 44 and just discovering this opens up so many questions… and for my daughter who is 15, well … she is taking this pretty good considering her favorite food is bagel, whole grain bread, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese and rice crispy treats.

We just got back from the hospital where they ran every test on her due to a severe pain in the right side… and nothing shows up on any test result… we are waiting for the Celiac test results… and I am very suspicious the culprit for all the headaches and stomach aches is gluten.

The doctors put Nicole on Levsin and Prevacid and the pain seems to be manageable now.

This came on from extreme stress from homework at school.  Nicole takes a little longer to get through homework and she had been sick so she missed school a bit and the homework piled up… two weeks of intense homework and tests before winter break… and then two days into Christmas break she got incredible pains on her right side.

As a parent watching my daughter scream in pain and shake uncontrollably because the pain was so bad… I thought appendicitis at best… maybe flu?  Nicole has always been a very healthy girl and 6 months ago she had a right side pain that seemed to be more on the back.. so we thought muscle spasm… the only thing that takes away the pain was morphine which is not good…

How could such a tiny little seed called wheat cause such issues? and it is in everything… luckily I cook from scratch so the battle for me is not too bad… but the fun food… ugh…

We hope this blog will help other mom’s of teenagers discover that having Celiac is not that bad and there are foods now that are really yummy…