Friday, August 27, 2010

Gluten Free

Duder and I are doing an experiment.  For the past couple years Dustin has had some pretty serious digestive issues.  I've suspected for a while that he was suffering from Celiac Disease, since he's experienced other symptoms of the disease, including a rash on his torso that appeared about a year ago, when we were still working nights, that we lovingly referred to as his "dragon scales".  Fortunately,  with a combination of sunshine and keeping it moisturized it disappeared after about six months.  So, about a week ago we started an experiment to see if gluten was causing his troubles.  


He's had a little improvement, but it has been hard to cut it out completely.  Fast food,  which we had been turning to a lot since our move,   is now almost completely out of the question.  Also, wheat is a sneaky ingredient in a lot of processed foods.  Two days ago I made Rotel Cheese Dip (which so bad for you anyways) and as I was cleaning up, read the back of the "Cream of Mushroom" Soup. The second ingredient: Wheat Flour.  Stupidly, I hadn't read the label before I made it, otherwise I would have left it out.  

It's hard on him because so many of his favorite foods are wheat based.  Specifically, pizza.  So, yesterday, I made my first attempt at gluten free pizza crust.  Since buying all the different flours to make gluten free doughs is a pain in the ass, and since I'm pretty inexperienced at gluten free baking, I opted to go with a mix.  Bob's Red Mill has a great line of gluten free products, including cake mix, brownie mix, and all purpose flour.  We used our new George Forman Grill, with a baking cooking plate, which is awesome.  I made cheese pizza with mexican cheese,  and it was pretty awesome.  

Today was his birthday,  so I made a gluten free birthday dinner: Steak (salmon for me), garlic mashed potatoes, ceasar salad, and gluten free corn bread (Bob's Red Mill again!)  It all turned out pretty well.  

Slowly, we're getting better at excluding gluten from our diet.  I really hope it gives him some relief.  

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