Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake

The last of the Betty Crocker Gluten Free mixes. This one is the yellow cake and we made cupcakes. Like the chocolate ones, they are fantastic. I used the rest of the Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate frosting. I still don't know what happened to the Brownies. I must have measured something wrong. My husband things I used the wrong powder to water ratio for the egg replacer. He might be right so we'll have to try them again. Other than that, I highly recommend the Betty Crocker mizes. The cookie and cake mixes were delicious even with the egg replacer and I have a feeling we'll be making them often. You could bring all of these to an event with non-GF/allergy people and they wouldn't even know they're gluten free.

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

Amazing. Simply amazing. Betty Crocker's gluten free devil's food cake actually tastes like cake. We used egg replacer and put Betty Crocker's milk chocolate frosting on top. They were really moist and had a normal cake texture which is so unusual for gluten free cake. I was a little concerned since the brownies didn't come out so well but we didn't have any issues with these. I will definitely make them again and can't wait to try the yellow cake which we already have in the house. Now I'll be able to make Little Man a birthday cake when the time comes that's safe for our family and really good.

Should we test everyone for celiac disease?

A new study by the mayo clinic found that celiac disease is far more prevalent today than it was 50 years ago and that those with undiagnosed celiac disease are more likely to die earlier. It raises the question of whether we should be testing everyone for celiac disease like we do for cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. Here's the link to information about the study:

http://newsblog.mayoclinic.org/2009/06/29/celiac-disease-prevalence-and-mortality/

As someone who struggled for my entire childhood and into my early twenties, I believe we should test everyone for celiac disease. It should be part of our preventive care. It may not be a yearly test like cholesterol but maybe it could be something we test every five years or whatever length of time seems appropriate. I can think of several people off the top of my head that I'm fairly sure have undiagnosed celiac disease. I know for some the diet is a huge challenge but I choose to look at it as such an simple way to be well. Could people avoid other autoimmune diseases, infertility, and just missing out on life if we could identify celiac disease earlier?

Have Crock Pot, Will Eat

When you have a new baby, are pumping, working, and feeding the family allergy free, the crock pot becomes your new best friend. Thank goodness I discovered the Crock Pot Lady's blog shortly after Little Man was born. She has tons of awesome, easy, gluten free recipes that allow us to put dinner in the crock pot in the morning and have it ready when we're ready. On days like today, I don't know what I would do without it. Today we're taking Little Man for his 6 month check up (6 month's already - I can hardly believe it!) and won't get home until close to his bed time. Plus, just a hunch, but I don't think he'll be his usual happy self after his appointment since he's getting a few shots. (Yes, we vaccinate. We feel the good outweighs the bad especially considering he's in daycare and therefore exposed to more. )

So today we made our very first roast in the crock pot. It's not one of Crock Pot Lady's recipes although she's taught me so much that now I can be a little more creative - not that a roast is creative. We prepped everything last night so all I needed to do in the morning was throw it all in. We added onions, carrots, and potatoes. My husband and I always laugh because people will say to me constantly "it's ashame you can't eat anything." My allergy free food is ten times better than what I used to eat before. If they only knew...

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownies

Since the Betty Crocker Gluten Free cookies were so good, I was really looking forward to making the GF brownies. They were really easy to put together. I again used the Ener-G egg replacer but the brownies call for two eggs whereas the cookies only needed one so I was replacing even more. I had to press the mix into the pan a little bit since it was really crumbly. We baked them for the time listed on the box but they were pretty much liquified and boiling so we left them in the oven for another 5 minutes. After that, they were still bubbling a lot so we let them cool for a while. Once they were cool, they became more like a cookie consistency. They taste good but they're really hard and not brownie-like. I'm not sure if it's the egg replacer or something else. I'm going to try the cake mixes next once I find a safe frosting. Hopefully those don't get as dried out.

Betty Crocker Gluten Free! About time...

From the time I went gluten free two years ago, my husband has said that mainstream companies should get on board because it would be a good business venture for them. We never understood why most gluten free products were organic, free from preservatives, etc. Don't get me wrong, I like to eat healthy and don't feel at all deprived by not being able to have heavily processed food. But, bread that doesn't have to be frozen or pancake mixes that don't cost a fortune and then ended up tasting like chalk would be nice (btw, stay away from Arrowhead Mills pancake mix).

So today I say a big hooray for General Mills. Not only did they change their Chex recipes to make them gluten free, they now have a line of Betty Crocker gluten free cookie and cake mixes. Since I have a baby and can't go to 10 different stores, I sent my mom on a hunt for these things. Six supermarkets later, she found them at Pathmark. We were very excited. She bought me all four so I have the Yellow Cake, Devil's Food Cake, Brownies, and Chocolate Chip Cookies. All gluten free. I still can't believe it.

I decided to try the cookies first. All you need to add is butter, water, and an egg (or in my case egg replacer), mix it together, and bake. Like a gluten-full cake mix! I was a little concerned while I was combining the ingredients because like most gluten free recipes, it was not turning into dough. I'm sure the egg replacer wasn't helping. I decided the only way it was going to work was if I just used my hands. Worked like a charm. I then used my hands to roll the dough into small balls and put them on the cookie sheet. I think I ended up with about 30 cookies. And man, they are good. Definitely the best gluten free chocolate chip cookies by far. I can't wait to make the rest of the Betty Crocker gluten free mixes. Too bad gluten free doesn't mean calorie free. I wonder how much more breastmilk I would need to pump to burn the calories in a cupcake...?

Yum, Pizza

When I first went gluten free, I mourned the loss of pizza. Then slowly, I discovered I could make decent pizza crust and eventually found a pre-made crust that was really good. We even have an organic pizza place nearby now that makes really good GF pizza. All of these have eggs in them. So, when we found out about Little Man's allergies, I knew I would need to begin another search for good pizza. It didn't take long. I came across Rustic Crust Gluten Free Pizza Crust (check them out at http://www.rusticcrust.com/). It was only $3.99 for two personal pizza size crusts which is really cheap in the GF world so I figured I wasn't investing much if they were terrible. But, they were really good. We used Bertolli Garlic and Olive Oil sauce, Hormel Pepperoni, jarred roasted red peppers, and of course mozzarella cheese. We're also big fans of oregano and garlic powder so we added generous amounts of those. I was really pleased with the outcome and we will definitely be buying more of these crusts. One of the best things about them - unlike most GF products, they don't need to be frozen so they're always ready to bake. (And no, I wasn't put up to this by the company, I'm just excited to find good pizza that's safe for my family.)
Follow Up 6/28 - I sent feedback to Rustic Crust about how great their crust was and they let me know that coupons are available on facebook and twitter or at their website http://www.rusticcrust.com/ if you want to try it out. For those who can eat gluten, they have a full line of "regular" crusts too - no idea what they're like but thought I'd throw it out there.

Sunbutter is Squishy

Today I made my first replacement version of PB&J. I used my gluten free bread that I made with egg substitute, sunbutter, and strawberry preserves. When I opened it up at work, it had squished out everywhere and the bread looked a little like soggy dense pound cake. But, it was actually really good. Messy, but good.

Finding a New Bread

I don't find the gluten free diet to be all that challenging. Most things can be substituted and taste as good (or better) than their gluten equivalent. That is not the case, however, with bread. It took me a long time to find a decent bread that I didn't have to bake myself. For the past year, I've been eating a few different kinds of bread from a company called the Grainless Baker. Their breads and other products are fantastic. But, they have eggs in them so I won't be eating them anymore. That left me in search of a new bread. Before I discovered the Grainless Baker, I used Whole Foods and Gluten Free Pantry's sandwich bread mixes which are pretty good. These also call for eggs in the recipes. I made one today using Ener-G egg replacer and it came out really well. I still hate making bread though. I feel like it takes half the day between putting the ingredients together, letting it rise, and baking it. But, at least I have an option. Here's a picture of the final product. I had a piece with sunbutter (since peanut butter is now a banned substance). Not the best snack in the world, but it'll do.