We are stepping into the slightly overwhelming world of going gluten free for a couple of our kids who look like they have celiacs disease. If you don't believe celiacs is a real disease, I don't want to hear about it! I finally found out why my almost six year old son has not been gaining any weight (he only weighs about 30 lbs) and has no energy, constant tummy pain and almost constant leg aches. He has been gluten free for about 3 weeks now and I am seeing a world of difference in him! He is starting to regain energy, his face doesn't look so pale, and he is not doubled over in constant tummy pain anymore. I used to have to beg him and drag him out the door for any kind of exercise. Contrast that with yesterday when he was bouncing around on the couch jumping on me wanting to wrestle while I was cuddling his little sister who woke up grumpy from her nap. Finally in exasperation I suggested a walk/bike ride and he was thrilled. He ran and got his own shoes and jacket on, jumped on his bike and we went. Basically he acted like a normal 5 year old boy and it almost made me cry because he feels good! I did not realize he has felt so crummy his whole life. I thought he just had a mellow personality. I mean, I knew he had a lot of tummy aches, but he would just mention it a couple times a day and then go on with life.
So, my sister asked me the other day, "how do you even start with the gluten free life?" I am lucky that for him, it actually hasn't been too difficult. One of his favorite foods was already rice. Popcorn also makes a great snack. He also likes apples, corn, peas, carrots, and will even eat green salad. The only thing he really likes that we have had to cut out is graham crackers. He used to eat them dipped in milk every night before bed, but now he eats Kix or Chex instead. One of his favorite breakfasts was Puffy Pancakes (or German pancakes, or whatever you call them!) and those have been easy to duplicate.
Here's the super simple recipe I use for those:
Gluten Free Puffy Pancakes
3 TBS butter, melted in 8x8 glass dish in 400 degree oven
3 eggs
1/2 cup gluten free all purpose flour (I've been using the Pillsbury brand)
1/2 cup milk
Put all the ingredients in the blender (except the butter melting in the oven) and blend really well. Then dump the batter into the hot glass dish in the oven and bake at 400 for about 15 min.
These don't puff nearly as well as puffy pancakes with wheat flour, but they still taste good. I have also found this gluten free cooking for dummies crepe recipe that he really likes. Again, I just use the Pillsbury GF all purpose flour and leave out the vanilla and almond flavorings and cut the sugar in half, and these taste almost like the ones we are used to, and not bad by any means.
Despite all these things that he will eat, he is still hungry a lot. This caused me a minor panic attack one Sunday when we got home from church at 2 and he told me he was starving and I couldn't think of anything to feed him! So I am now venturing into the world of gluten free baking in the hopes that we can have bread and other foods on hand for those situations.
My challenge now is that the pre-made GF all purpose flour mixtures aren't really all that nutritious. In fact I'm finding that a lot of things being marketed and sold as GF are full of lots of starches and not much whole grain.
One of the exciting things I've learned is that there are so many grains out there! We limit ourselves so much by just eating wheat all the time. So, next week I'll post about some of our adventures trying other types of grains. I still have tons to learn but thank goodness there are many bloggers and others out there who have done a lot of the experimentation and are sharing their knowledge.
So, armed with the internet and my brand new Blendtec Kitchen Mill grinder, we're going to meet this new challenge head on and try new things!
