Week 1 completely gluten-free dairy-free

First, I need to say, Monday doesn't count. Not at all. We were traveling and it is difficult to eat gluten-free dairy-free on the road.

So today it started for real.

I have to say, the hardest part is the mental part. You know the part of me that is screaming "WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T EAT CAKE AND MAC&CHEESE AND PIZZA EVERY DAY?!?!?"

Not that I eat that way every day, but it is a different mindset. There are so many things that are naturally gluten-free & dairy-free but most of it isn't convenience foods. I could do mac&cheese but instead of 3 for $1 it will cost more like 3 or 4 dollars.

I have got to learn how to cook again while avoiding what I need to avoid. I know I have problems with gluten and I suspect my daughter does. My son has problems with milk (I may too but I don't really crave it so it isn't a big deal for me.)

So here is our meal plan for the week and if you notice, none of it is really weird. Recipes and results will follow.

Tuesday - Shepardless Pie
Wednesday - Chicken Cacciatore
Thursday - Layered Vegetarian Enchiladas
Friday - Sloppy Joe Potato Skillet
Saturday - Mexican Cornbread
Sunday - Beef Stroganoff

The gluten-free is a challenge, but I am finding the dairy thing to be almost more of a problem. I can work around the wheat thing - I think - but some things just seem to scream "I NEED CHEESE!" like pizza and really I like having it in Mexican Cornbread.

I also would like to have yogurt, without paying an arm and a leg (and I do fee ok with making it at home if I can just find a starter.)

Anyway, that's the plan. Any ideas and suggestions would be appreciated.

Comments

Sourdough Herb Boule

Sometimes when developing recipes, it has to be tried several times and tweaked. Other times it just all falls into place but you never quite know which way it will go. A few weeks ago, Living Without sent a newsletter with a recipe for a sourdough bread and we had been wanting a sourdough. Yum. So I called Daisy in to help me mix up the starter, mainly so she could see that it wasn't a big deal. It isn't a long complicated thing, it just takes a few days. Four days later we had a loaf of sourdough bread with supper and Daisy took one bite and said "contest bread!" We had been experimenting with some yeast bread and had pretty much picked one out but once she tried the sourdough, she loved it. I had seen a beautiful round loaf on Pinterest that had herbs baked onto the bread crust as decoration. Daisy and I thought it looked beautiful and since the judges won't actually taste the food (worries of food poisoning), it needs to look as good as possible.

White and Dark Chocolate Dacquoise

This is what my 11 year old daughter made for youth fair. So you could do this. What is a daquoise? it is a meringue cake (usually the meringue has nuts but this one doesn't) that usually frosted somewhat like a normal cake. This one has a white chocolate and dark chocolate buttercream that goes between the layers of meringue and then is topped by a ganache. uh-huh. The buttercream is not the typical birthday cake buttercream that is just butter and powdered sugar, in fact the dark chocolate has a bit of the bitter taste of dark chocolate (enough so that my kids didn't like it without the meringue). Anyway, it is wonderful! but it is also incredibly time consuming. This is something to make for a big anniversary dinner, not a I-feel-like-having-chocolate Thursday. The first step is to make a meringue. And here is the cast of characters that play in the meringue: And yes, buy the 18 pack because you will only have 2 eggs left - and a freezer full of yolks. Unless you

Score two for me!

As I have said, my kids are less than delighted with our new diet. In fact they have complained about it a fair bit but today I redeemed myself in their eyes. I made pancakes and chocolate cookies. I actually made 2 batches of pancakes, one a Bob's Red Mill and the other a variation on Alton Brown's Dutch Oven Hoecakes . I made the Bob's Red Mill according to the directions using vanilla soy milk but then needed to add a bit more milk because it was too thick. The hoecakes I added 1 tablespoon of sugar and didn't put in the corn (someone thinks he doesn't like corn.) Daisy loved the hoecakes although she did say that if they were very big, they were too cornbready. I agree with her, the cornbread flavor is more noticeable on the larger one. It seems the good size is silver dollar pancake size. She also liked the Bob's Red Mill pancakes, she said she would be happy with either one. Junior prefered the mix but his hoecake was pretty big so that may be the

Kitchen Chaos

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