Gluten-free Flour Blend August 20, 2008

I wanted to create my ‘perfect’ mix of flour blends. The flours that I normally keep around the house. The flours that taste most ‘normal’ to our previously gluten-eating taste buds. These are also all flours that I can find LOCALLY and not have to order off the internet (unlike teff, montina, brown rice flour etc)

I also wanted to put it here for saving purposes since I’ve got it written on freezer tape on the flour container currently. As I was changing my mix around, I’d peel off one strip of freezer tape, add or subtract a flour and change the strip of freezer tape for that particular

So here we go:

Meredith’s Flour Mix

2 cups Mochiko (sweet rice flour, it’s like tapioca flour in texture)

2 cups Cassava flour

7 cups Rice flour

4 cups Sorghum Flour

1 cup Quinoa flour

1/4 cup ground flax seed flour

So far we’ve tried this in :

Butter cookies

Snickerdoodles (cookies)

Boys Brown muffins (recipe I invented that the boys loooooove and use for ‘muffin math’ a lot)

Loaf of bread

biscuits

pie crust

It’s turned out beautifully in everything. I added more sorghum flour for the pie crust though, since the sorghum flour seems to make things a bit more crumbly and flaky.

Designing a Room for Little Boys July 17, 2008

So while my boys are at their dads the rest of this month (I’m trying very very hard not to think about how much I miss them, this is the longest we’ve ever been separated from each other, so I’m keeping busy with projects and not talking much)

I’m re-doing their room. Their almost 1 year old sister (on the 22nd of this month) now has her own room, which she adores. But happens to be THEIR old room. They are getting what is currently the sewing room, and the sewing room is moving into MY room (I’ll never get a break from it now! But I might get more done LOL)

So anyways. The plan! is to take all the stuff out of the sewing room this week. Take most of it and put it in my room. This is going to require some moving around of my closets (I have three, 1 is 1×3x1 and the others are 3×5deep, ridiculous) and who knows what other kind of mental gymnastics I’ll be going through.

Anyways, then, once the sewing room is completely emptied, the walls are to painted a dark shiny deep space blue, on orders of Ian and Owyn. I’ll intersperse this with a bit of dark purple and some lighter blue. Then decorate the whole shebang with paint that glows in the dark. I’m hoping for something that actually resembles space. They’ve picked out material that has our galaxy on it. It glows in the dark. For details they’ve got material that has the various constellations on it. Also glow in the dark. Their bunk beds and dresser/bookcase combo are outside awaiting grey paint (and mom details like ‘grills’ and ‘bolts’) to make them appear like they belong in a space station. We have a Solar system that hangs from the ceiling with the sun lighting up and the planets revolving around the sun (including pluto LOL) that comes with a remote control and a dvd to talk to them while they run it. I found a dark purple t-shirt material queen size flat sheet at Airmans Attic that is going to be cut down to make twin size sheets for them, (the sides being in space fabric) and then when they get home they get to add all the glow in the dark stars to their walls (and put their posters back up)

Ian also remembers from when he was a baby (ok well 2-ish) and we lived at Eglin AFB and I had painted a glow in the dark moon-man on his wall. It was invisible by day. But at night. The Moon Man glowed and under him it said “I see the moon and the moon sees me” and Ian wants that on their wall again. Soooo sweet.

Yeah, I miss my boys.

Momma’s ‘Boo-boo Goo’ June 6, 2008

Every year, right around summer time, I make a new batch of my ‘boo-boo goo’. We refridgerate it, so yes, it does last a year. I think this is because the kids don’t want to share it with anyone but family LOL, so we use it sparingly. They don’t want to run out! But they know when I break out the ‘goo’ that the boo-boo is pretty serious, so then they get really proud of their owie in that ‘chicks dig scars’ kind of way LOL.

Every year the Goo is different, depending on what I have laying around the house, what my financial situation is (can I go buy more stuff) and what the exact time of year is (ie: what’s ready for harvesting outside) This year, I’m pretty poor, so no new stuff, and my crop of things isn’t ready for summer harvesting, and spring harvesting was poorly (weird weather). So this years Boo-boo Goo is bare bones. But I thought it was probably time, in the 10 years I’ve been making it to write down the ‘recipe’ (really, it’s a little of this, and a little of that) for posterity!

Momma’s Boo-boo Goo

1 cup solid (ie: cocoa butter, shea butter etc, you can TOTALLY mix and match, I just happend to ONLY have shea butter this time around)

1/2 cup non-solid (ie: safflower oil, coconut oil etc)

2 cups water

1 cup comfrey, dried and slightly crumbled (extreme skin healer)

Vitamin E oil. (I poke holes in capsules and poked holes until I just couldn’t stand it anymore, so about 30)(helps with skins elasticity, and healing)

1/4 cup Aloe Vera Leaves, peeled and diced, and then run through a blender (helps with healing and soothing)

Essential oil for smell (I used lavender, bergamot, and pennyroyal)

Grapefruit Seed Extract (40 drops) (anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and preservative)

3 TB cornstarch/tapioca flour

Tea Tree Oil (anti-fungal and anti-bacterial)

6 Echinacea capsules (healer, anti-bacterial, anti-itch)

2-3 TB dried Calendula flowers (skin soother and mild healer)

Place 2 cups water in stainless steel pot, and put on low heat. Add in the comfrey, calendula and echinacea. Simmer for about 30 min.  While it’s simmering, I put the solid and non-solid fats, plus vit-E oil in a pyrex measuring cup and place it on top the simmering water/herb mixture to melt (hey, I’m multi-tasking right?). Let it sit and walk away for a while (about 15 min).

When you come back, everything should be melted. Pour your fats mixture into a glass jar (I use a wide mouth mason jar). Pour your herb/water mixture into a fine wire sieve (or a coffee filter, it’ll just take a LOT longer) to filter the water from the herbs. Squeeze out as much water as possible from the herbs, and place the water back on the stove to simmer, you want to end up with about a cup of liquid. Take about 1/4 of a cup out of the water mixture and let it cool while you are simmering it. Meanwhile, add your essential oils for smell, your grapefruit seed extract and your tea tree oil to the cooled fat mix. Now add in your blended aloe vera leaves.

Now add the 3 TB cornstarch to the 1/4 cup water, stirring vigorously to make sure it’s completely mixted in and there are no lumps. Add this water mixture, and turn up the heat until it JUST boils, then turn the heat off.  Stirring the whole time. This will make a ‘gravy’. At this point. Add the fat mixture into the water mixture and break out your hand mixer. Whirr those babies together until it starts to cool, then transfer everything to the glass jar again. The cornstarch will ensure that the fats and water don’t separate, plus making it so that the mixture isn’t long lasting greasy on your skin.

As I type this, I put some on an ouchy I had on my stomach (burnt my stomach on a cookie pan yesterday, argh) and rubbed the rest into my hands. My hands ARE NOT greasy. heheheh.

It’s goooood stuff.

Bendy Tasty Flatbread Yay! May 26, 2008

I finally invented a wrap that actually BENDS, and tastes good. PLUS it’s made from OMG ingredients I have in the house. Not things I have to wait until Friday when I get paid, and then wait until they GET here because I had to order them on the internet! Ack. It’s also got actual fiber and protein in it yay!
One of our biggest disappointments around here after getting the diagnosis was no more flour tortilla’s. So we can still have enchilada’s. But no burritos, no wrapped sandwiches, no fajita’s. LOTS of stuff we normally ate has been beyond us. Not anymore!

Here’s the recipe

Bendy Tasty Flatbread
By Meredith Nunn

1/4 c garfava flour
1/4 c ground flax seed
1 cup rice flour
1/3 c corn starch (you can sub tapioca if you like, I just don’t happen to have any atm)
1/3 c sorghum flour
2 tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar (optional)
1 package flavourless gelatin
3 TB oil
1 cup water (I added a couple of tsp’s extra)

Oil
marinade brush
rolling pin
non-stick pan (I use cast iron)

Mix all dry ingredients together well with a wisk, then start stirring in the water. After a while you will need to mix this by hand. Folding and squishing the dough over itself. Add more water a tsp at a time, if you need some more elasticity. (I messed up and added a bit to0 much water, so added in some cornstarch and that worked well too)

When the dough is to a good elastic consistency. Preheat your pan, on medium. Now take your marinade brush and dip it in some oil. Brush it lightly over your surface to be used in rolling out the dough. Then brush it over the rolling pin.
Now break off a 2-3 inch piece, smash it rather flat between your hands. Put it on your surface and get to rolling. You want it about 1/8th to 1/4 of an in thick. If your surface it oiled well enough, it should just peel right up and you can transfer it to the preheated pan. (I cut the odd edges off of it that you will get if you aren’t using a tortilla press and made my rectangular) Cook on both sides for about a minute.
Remove from pan. No need to dust them with cornstarch or place parchment paper between them (but we ate all of ours and never GOT to storing them, so watch them and let me know?)

My boys and their non-celiac friend who was spending the night devoured these. First as a base for hummus and lettuce, then for peanut butter and banana sandwiches. My boyfriend ate one all by itself (and he’s a picky so-and-so) The boys all shared one that was naked. Including the non-silly. Big hit, the boys wanted to know when I was going to make more! (I need to get a tortilla press)

Homemade Cleaning Supplies May 23, 2008

~All-Purpose~

1 TB of washing soda (not baking soda)

2 cups of vinegar,

Afew drops of whatever essential oil I like (right now it’s bergamot and lavender with a couple of drops of tea tree oil) Put them all in a squirty container. I use this to wash pretty much anything that needs it, from counters to doors and walls.

~Copper cleaner~

1 tsp salt

1 tsp lemon juice

Mix together and scrub copper, then rinse

~Silver Cleaner~

baking soda

Add enough water to make it a paste.

Scrub with an old toothbrush, rinse clean

~Mouth wash~

50/50 mix peroxide and water

You can add a couple of drops of peppermint or cinnamon essential oil to the water if you’d like some flavor. I’d recommend rinsing BEFORE you brush instead of after like with the alcohol based products.

~Laundry Soap~

1 bar laundry soap (this is a specific bar, you can buy ready made like fels naptha, or find someone who makes them, like my friend Holly http://homesteadsoap.com/ when they are handmade your laundry smells SO good)

1/2 cup washing soda

1 cup borax

5 gallon bucket

In a gallon pot, put in one gallon of water and shredded laundry bar. Heat until bar is completely melted. Place melted soap in 5 gallon bucket, mix in washing soda and borax, add in 4 more gallons of warm water. Let sit overnight. With some homemade bars the soap mix will be like regular liquid laundry soap, just white instead of see through. With fels naptha and other kinds of laundry bars (including homemade) the soap will be a gel-like mixture. 1/2 cup of this mixture cleans my sons laundry (and they are filthy savages most days). I also use this on my cloth diapers.

~Soap Scum and Hard Water~

Vinegar

Old cloths or a plastic bag

Vinegar removes soap scum and hard water stains like you would not believe. For stains and scum, place old clothes or paper towels (I try not to use paper towels since it’s just money in the garbage) on the spot you need cleaned, soak the cloth, then let sit for about 5 min.

Come back and wipe it up. Say you have a shower door. Soak the cloths in vinegar, place them all over the shower doors, walk away, then come back and wipe up.

For Shower heads, faucets etc. Place vinegar in a bag, tie the bag around the nozzle with the nozzle directly sitting in the vinegar. Soak for an hour or so. Then remove, wipe off if you need too, and run the water for a minute. Hard water gone!

~Window Cleaner~

Squirt bottle

vinegar

essential oil (if wanted)

Vinegar will leave spotless, streakless shine on windows not directly in the sun. (I wonder if this would work in place of JetDry or similiar product? Anyone?)

Busy Cooking Day May 4, 2008

Today I’m busy cooking, well, in between bottle feeding the two smallest puppies (we are talking probably 75% smaller than the 2 biggest, Ozzy and Sarah) and playing with Ms. Kaia KrankyPants (it’s separation anxiety, I can sit in the computer chair, the chair in front of the tv, or the couch, and she can wander, but let me TRY to put her in her high chair or her playpen and watch the howling begin. Can’t think with the howling, so she gets her way…)

Anyways, I made bread, have sliced the bread. Making Alfredo sauce, going to can it in a few. Made maple sausages for the leftover children from the mass sleepover last night. 12 children in my house from 17 to 9 months. Yeah, I have a headache, why do you ask?

Oh and I was out of COFFEE this morning. The horror. My internet also didn’t work until just now. Weirdo Mediacom…

Made tapioca pudding, going to make masses more.

Need to go grocery shopping here in a few, but my head hurts *sigh* Maybe I’ll just go to the one of the local discount stores and see if they have canning jars… I don’t have that many left and they aren’t in the size I want…

I still need to figure out dinner! Wow!

I guess I’ll go ask the boys what they want for dinner!

Puppy cuteness and GF food! April 22, 2008

The five puppies that I have acquired!

Sarah, being held by Ian

Ozzy being held by Owyn

Grumpy being held by Matthew

Tiny being held by Owyn

Peetey being held by me

Homemade gluten free chicken nuggets (they were a big hit)

These are boneless skinless chicken breasts, defrosted, cut into ‘nugget’ size pieces. Some of them had to be cut in half as well as in 2″x1″ pieces. I rolled them around in beaten eggs with Spike (spice mix) and garlic, then in bread crumbs (from a gluten free bread I’d made that wasn’t so successful as bread, but made wonderful bread crumbs and melba toast). I added a light coating of coconut oil (probably any veggie oil would work) to the bottom of a glass pan, then put then in the oven for 15 min at 350. Flipped them after the 15, and let em cook for another 5.

The filling for the ’spring rolls’ that I’m going to fry so they are going to be more like springy egg rolls really. Cooking the pork to go into the rolls now… The filling is marinating

Weekly menu April 7, 2008

I’m going to try something new. Something I’ve seen on gluten-free blogs all over the place.

I’m going to try to *gasp!* PLAN my menu! I do this for several reasons.

1. My son and I got glutened on Saturday and we both feel utterly yucky right now. He’s better than I am, but he’s also got less years of damage to undo. Funny how it seems like even though we’ve only been gluten free for about a month and a half, eating gluten now makes us even SICKER than we were before we quit!

So anyways, after being glutened, I’m sick, I didn’t have the energy to cook last night and we ended up having a find-it finger food frolick (as my son’s call it) where we find all the finger food we can and eat it up that way. MY boys are so sweet, they hooked me up too. Everything from celery with peanut butter and raisins, to baby carrots, to gf pepperoni slices and pickles LOL. I hate it when I don’t cook, it makes me feel guilty, and who wants to feel guilty?

Also, cooking gluten-free can be MUCH more expensive. Especially when you throw in the extra cost of noodles, cookies, gf soy sauce, etc.

So to conserve energy and money, making a menu ahead of time seems like the smart way to go. Plus I’m taking a neighbor of mine who is on SS grocery shopping since she’s been paid. I need some groceries, as well as a visit to the local Butcher Shop.

So Here Goes, My very First Gluten Free Menu

Monday

We are getting down to the wire food wise here, lots of veggies, but not much else besides grains.

Finger Foods lunch (talk about complete nutrition! this includes celery with peanut butter, pepperoni, lima beans, raisins, carrots, snow peas, hot dog slices, cheese chunks, apples and banana’s)

‘Gossipin Beans’ inspired by my Dad T. Leonard Sanders who owns a restaurant in Oroville, CA called Chuck Wagon BBQ Company. I’ve been catering Chuckwagon style (over an open flame in dutch ovens) with him since I was about 12. Look for posts later on the recipe for thatk, since it’s one of my most requested recipes.

Tuesday

Grocery shopping day

Breakfast - Quinoa Flakes

Lunch - our local Mexican restaurant while we are out shopping

Cheesy Chicken Pasta Primavera from Ginger Lemon Girl

Wednesday

Breakfast - Cereal (GF rice chex)

Start in the morning - Crock Pot Bread Pudding - by Crockpot Lady

Sandwich bread from Betty Hagman’s Bread Book

Brianna’s Cabbage, Carrot, Ham and Potato soup (I’ll probably add broccoli to this, since we have a LOT, and Brianna is a friend from down the street)

Thursday

Breakfast - Quinoa Flakes

Start in the morning - pearl tapioca in the crock pot (it’s my own recipe)

Lunch - Sandwiches

Dinner - Dressed up Ramen (see previous post)

I’ll add to this later when my brain is working better, right now, too sickly.. ugh..

Bulleted Entry, for my braining pleasure April 3, 2008

..My 7 yo Owyn old brought me a daffodil and even put it in water in one of my pretty blue glass window bottles for me.

…My 8 yo Ian took out all the dirty clothes in 2 rooms to the laundry room without me asking!

…my 13 yo Morgan played with Kaia so I could get some chores done and actually seemed to be enjoying herself

…We got to hang out with other homeschoolers at a local park a couple of days ago, ok, well not really, but we went to the park, I think I saw them LOL, but I’m shy enough to not want to walk up to some strange women and ask if they are homescoolers. Next time we go it won’t be Spring Break, so the homeschoolers will be a bit more obvious.

…I found more gluten-free products at a local grocery, expensive, but mmmmm

…Brownies!

…I found out that if I take my medical diagnosis, receipts, and a list of what the foods would normally cost, then the difference I have to pay to eat gluten-free, is tax deductible!

…Holly and Jason drove an hour to come till my garden area for me, and it’s beautiful!

…I got to spend quality time with Holly and Kellan (their cutie son), not ENOUGH quality time, but still…

…They brought a TON of extra heirloom seeds that they’ve already started, etc and gave them to me!

…They brought me 5 of Holly’s homemade laundry bars!

…They brought me a brick of yeast!

…The potatoes are above the dirt now!

…Kaia only woke up 3 times last night AND the night before!

…We (all 6 kids and I whew!) are going to the park later today to play with homeschoolers (for real this time) since I know the lady who is sponsoring this one.

…I got a ton of seeds started yesterday while Kaia was sleeping and the sight of all those seeds covered in earth, even now invisibly growing sends little thrilled shivers through me.

…I found a zipper tutorial that really explained the WHY of things. whew!

I’ve got Wulf’s (my BF) 2 girls all day until Friday. Wulf’s got a an hour away and from 8-5 so I’ve got the girls from almost 7 to a little after 6.

I’m also going to try to get in the habit of just going outside as soon as it gets light enough and work my booty off until Kaia needs to come back in. Otherwise when it gets hotter I’m going to be screwed.

Ok, off to my yard chores!

GF ‘Dressed Up’ ‘Ramen’ March 29, 2008

I’m calling this ramen, because of all the things that the boys miss the most from their gluten eating days, it’s Ramen. I would have thought it was bread, but they seem to like Momma’s sourdough bread just fine as a replacement.

A couple of days ago, we went to the local Asian store. I’m pretty sure the owners are Japanese, and most of the food they have seems to cater to Japanese and Thai cuisine. So we spent about an hour walking around the store leisurely. Kaia in her sling, Ian holding the basket and Owyn nicely holding things up for my perusal when I pointed them out.

We found lots of rice noodles, (we got different kinds), tapioca noodles, and mung bean noodles. We also got pearl tapioca (now to make a crock pot full of the stuff! yum! for breakfast tomorrow) anchovies (with heads on and eyeballs in my weirdo little boys)

Four varieties of seaweed, some gluten free soy sauce, and various pre-packaged flavors for ‘ramen’. Won ton, pickled plum and sea (it smells like the ocean I swear!). Plus some Japanese rice cookies with plum filling (I thought they were bland, but the boys loved them) and some sesame seed cookies that were basically sesame seeds and brown sugar. Also loved.

When we got home, it was lunch time, so I set about making ramen for the boys. First, I put in the water to boil, added a Won Ton Seasoning packet, sniffed, then tasted the water. Not enough flavour, so added a Sea flavoured one. Hmmm, that’s pretty good. Then I put in the rice noodles to soak, added some anchovies, snow peas, green onions, 2 different kinds of seaweed (one short and ‘curly’ and one long and fat with curly bits), cabbage, sesame oil and seeds, and some garlic to taste.

The boys ate it until their bellies were distended LOL.

Later that day I cut the rice noodle servings in half, put them in plastic bags with a seasoning packet and some seaweed. Now the boys have individual serving size packets that they can cook themselves. Which is also part of what they missed about ramen, cooking without Momma’s supervision.

Since this particular kind of noodle AND the seaweed, both only need to be SOAKED to re-constitute, only the seasoning packet really needs to dissolve in hot water. So hopefully this is something they can do for school next year when I have to send them back to public school (as per ex-husbands request). This is something I’m stressing about, but I *know* that I tend to overthink things and that they will be fine packing lunches.