Vegetable Soup

Vegetable Soup

3/4 cup dried Great Northern beans
3 cups water
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1 cup tomato puree
1 1/2 cups carrots, sliced
1 1/2 cups potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 1/2 cups fresh green beans, broken into small pieces
1/2 cup gluten-free spaghetti
1 1/2 cups zucchini, sliced and quartered
1 leek, white part only, cleaned & sliced
1 tsp dried basil
1 Tbsp dried parsley
2 cups baby spinach, chopped
10 oz frozen peas
1/2 cup mushrooms, ground (opt)
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
3 qts GF vegetable stock



Soak beans overnight; drain. Cook in 3 cups of water for one hour;
reserve cooking water.

Sauté onion, garlic, and leek in 1/2 cup water.
Add crushed tomatoes and pureed tomatoes; cook for 3 minutes.
Add vegetable broth, carrots, potatoes, celery, basil and parsley;
cook for 15 minutes.
Add zucchini, green beans, Great Northern beans and cooking water.

Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer approx. 30 minutes.

Break spaghetti into pieces and add, along with spinach and peas.

Simmer until vegetables are tender; add sea salt and pepper to taste.

Tomato Soup

Tomato Soup


1 small onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, sliced
28 oz tomato sauce
2 1/2 tsp raw honey
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbsp rice flour
2 cups GF vegetable broth
1/2 tsp sea salt



Place onion, celery, tomato sauce and seasonings in a large pot and
simmer for 15 minutes.

Pour half of the mixture into the Vitamix and puree on low speed, holding onto the lid tightly, until completely smooth. Repeat with the other half.

Blend the flour with some vegetable broth in the blender. Add to the original pot, heat for a minute or so , then whisk in the remaining broth until smooth. Stir in the tomato puree, add sea salt to taste, and simmer until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.

Fun Junk Food

GracieGirl was having a tough time not eating wheat when there were so many goodies around over the holidays. I wasn't feeling well enough to do any baking, but I decided to try this quick and easy idea, knowing that we'd pay for the effects of the artificial colors later! We did, but they had so much fun that it was worth it.

We made Marshmallow Pops by inserting extra long
lollipop sticks into marshmallows and dipping
them in melted white and/or dark chocolate.
The kids then rolled them in their choice of sprinkles.

Easy enough for me to handle, and the kids loved them!

If I was a wealthy purist, I would have made homemade
marshmallows and used natural sprinkles.

But I'm not,
so I didn't.
:)

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Szechuan Stir-Fry

Szechuan Stir-Fry

1 1/2 lbs extra-firm tofu, cut in strips
Tamari
1 bunch broccoli stems, julienned

1 tsp ground ginger
2 garlic cloves, peeled & minced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup snow peas
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
8 scallions, chopped
8 oz water chestnuts, sliced
3/4 cup GF vegetable broth
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp Tamari
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder

Gluten-free linguini or rice noodles, cooked



In a medium bowl, combine tofu and tamari; set aside.

In a wok, heat water or oil. Add pepper, snow peas, mushrooms, garlic, ginger,
broccoli, scallions, and water chestnuts; stir-fry 5 minutes.

Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add more oil or water to wok, add tofu mixture; stir-fry 5 minutes. Stir in remaining
ingredients except linguini and cook until sauce is thickened.

Return vegetables to skillet; add linguini; heat through.

There hasn't been too much cooking going on this week because I've been sick. Nick did make Chicken Croquettes, after some begging from me. Three hours and 32 pans later, dinner was ready. :) All four kids loved them, which is a rare event. I liked them, too. Nick wasn't as impressed. He kept saying that they needed more chopped veggies, and lots more spices and garlic. I told him that that's not how croquettes are supposed to taste, but he stood his ground. He served them with mashed potatoes and green beans. So good.

There are so many new products on the market since we did GFCF when Jay was younger. I always used Tinkyada pasta, but Nick tried Mrs. Leeper's corn pasta because he thought that the kids would like the shapes. Another hit. He made garlic bread with some bread he'd made using Kari's recipe. Another hit.

Kari's bread was a big hit. Since our bread maker has been buried for years now, Nick just made it in the oven. He followed Kari's recipe, substituting coconut oil for the olive oil, and baked it at 375 degrees for around 45 minutes.

Since we transitioning (again), he got lots of treats for the kids like Enjoy Life cookies, Original Tings corn sticks, Nature's Promise Veggie Sticks (not safe for E), and Kinnikinnick Vanilla Glazed Donuts. GracieGirl liked the donuts but since they were processed with sesame seeds, they didn't work for E.

Going Gluten-free...Again!

GracieGirl and E went bowling on a school field trip yesterday. Before they left, the school secretary called me to see if it was okay for E to have a soft pretzel. Well, when they got home, GracieGirl lifted her shirt, saying, "Look what happened after *I* ate the soft pretzel!"

Her tummy was covered with itchy, red bumps! I gave her some B-dryl, and before long, the bumps were gone.

I'm spending the day today making lots of gluten-free foods for her. Since timing is everything, I'll add that just last week, we went through our huge tote full of different GF flours and threw away at least 50 pounds of flour after discovering lovely weevils in them! I thought that they would be safe in zip-locks inside of the tote, but apparently not. Ugh.

Nick got new flour yesterday and I'm ready to start cooking. GracieGirl isn't too happy about this, and she already has food issues, but I'm going to do my best to have a lot of options for her so she doesn't feel deprived in the beginning.

Also, when we got E his Allerbling allergy alert bracelet, it came with two bracelets. Since E isn't allergic to wheat, we gave the extra bracelet with the wheat charm to GracieGirl.

Let the fun begin! :)


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Adventures in Cookie-Making

I continue to hang on to Normal Rockwell imagines, especially when it comes to the holidays. One would think that I would have given up on that years ago.

We decided to make Christmas cookies. Roll-out cookies, to be precise. I pictured candles burning, Christmas music playing, the family gathered around the table, laughing and making cookies together.

It was originally Jay's idea to make cookies, and he'd searched online for a recipe. He found one and printed it out, and was later devastated to learn that it was a regular sugar cookies recipe, not a roll-out recipe. (Totally not his fault; the recipe pictured roll-out cookies!)

Meltdown #1.

That was a couple of days ago. We made them anyway, with the promise that we'd also make roll-out cookies.

It took me two days (recovering from making the first batch) to make the roll-out cookies. Jay and I made the recipe, and then we all sat down to roll out the cookies. Within minutes, I noticed that GracieGirl became agitated. Then, she started flipping out, scratching at her arms, crying because they itched so badly. It was driving her crazy, and we quickly gave her medicine and took her upstairs for a bath.

As a baby, GracieGirl couldn't handle gluten. She didn't have gluten for several years, and then we reintroduced wheat. It wasn't a conscious effort, really, more just laziness on my part. She seemed to do fine with it, but slowly started having some symptoms again. The allergist was sure that she had Celiac Disease, and he ordered a blood test. He was very surprised when she tested negative.

In the past week, she's had some symptoms again, although we hadn't associated them with gluten. One day, she came in with a huge hive on her face. I gave her medicine and it went away. The same thing happened the following day, again, just one hive. Another time, she started crying because she said that she itched all over. Again, we gave her medicine and a bath, and she seemed to be okay. The backs of both of her legs are covered with eczema, which comes and goes but is currently back with a vengeance. She's also had a lot of GI issues.

This latest incident just kind of firmed up that it must be the wheat. She was fine until she started rolling out the cookies, using wheat flour to roll them out.

She's feeling better now. I made some Monkey Munch for her, so she wasn't too sad about not having the Christmas cookies.

Time to go pull out my GF cookies recipes!


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