Febe's Foods

Every fall, my family goes apple picking.  We have a great time, but then we go home with tons of apples that I don't know what to do with. This year, I found a gf apple muffin recipe.  Even my picky "I don't like anything gf" husband liked them!  It's easy, kind of healthy, and most of all yummy.

Every time I want to make anything gf and don't have the slightest idea as to how to do it, I always consult Carol Fenster's Gluten-Free 101 cookbook.  While I rarely follow a recipe exactly, I find her recipes give me a running start.  Pretty much every gf cookbook uses its own flour blend.  She uses sorghum flour, potato or corn starch, tapioca flour, and corn, almond, bean or cehstnut flour.

Personally, i usually use a combination of brown rice flour,  tapioca flour and potato starch.  This time, I also added some almond flour as well.  When you're baking gf, a combination of 3 or more flours usually turns out the best results.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:  2 1/3 c flour blend (1 c brown rice flour, 1/2 c tapioca flour, 1/2 c potato starch, 1/3 c almond flour); 2/3 c sugar; 1 tbl baking powder; 1 tsp gf vanilla; 1/2 tsp cinnamon; 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum; 1 tsp salt; 1 c milk; 1/4 c canola oil; 2 large eggs; 1 c diced apples, 1/4 c chopped walnuts (optional).

Preheat oven to 375.  Put paper or foil liners in muffin tins.

Whisk together dry ingredients in large bowl.  In separate bowl, whisk wet ingredients until smooth.

Make well in dry ingredients and add wet ingredients.  Combine until evenly mixed.

Fill baking tins with batter 2/3 high.  If using, sprinkle walnuts on top of each muffin.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until muffin tops are lightly browned. 

Posted by margie at 03:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1844) | TrackBacks (0)

Halloween is supposed to be fun.  But for celiac children and children with other allergies and dietary restrictions, Halloween can be stressful for kids and parents alike.  Here are a couple of suggestions to make the day a little easier.

Trick or Treating?

1. Keep trick or treating to a minimum. 

2. Check the nfca website to get a list of gluten free Halloween candy.

3. Buy gluten free candy or small Halloween theme toys (i.e. pencils, erasers, etc.) so that you can trade with your child. (I also do this with birthday party goody bags).

4. Throw out the gluten candy as quickly as possible, and also when your child is not around.

Other Halloween Ideas

1. Host a party for your child's friends or even get the neighbors together to help.  Do a craft, set up a scavenger hunt mystery (hide clues for solving the mystery/crime).

3. Set up a neighborhood parade.

4. Look in local papers for other fun Halloween events that do not focus on candy.

Posted by margie at 01:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1024) | TrackBacks (0)

We all know that gluten is hidden in ingredients lists.  But did you know that gluten can be found in the fluoride treatments in your dentist's office?  I didn't, until I found out the hard way.  This was a couple of years ago, but it is still worth mentioning. 

I had taken my daughter to the dentist for a checkup, at which time, she received a fluoride treatment.  Two days later she is on the floor moaning, running to the bathroom with diarrhea.  This lasted for 6 days. 

I could not think of any food she had eaten, so I thought she might have a virus.  I took her to the pediatrician who did not think she had a virus at all.  He thought it was a gluten reaction.  Her other gluten reactions did not last more than 3 days.  So this was odd. 

Later on that day, I remembered that we had been to the dentist.  So I called the dentist, got the names and numbers of the brands of toothpaste and fluoride that he had used.  The toothpaste company was confident that there was no gluten in their product.  But the fluoride company said that while they did not use any gluten ingredients, the equipment and process they utilized may have contaminated the product.

I'm guessing that I was not the only one who called with this problem, because a year later, they guaranteed that their product was gluten free.  My daughter hasn't had a problem since.  But I always ask the dentist before he does anything to confirm that he hasn't changed brands, etc. 

Posted by margie at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1592) | TrackBacks (0)

I don't know how I got so lucky, but this year, my daughter's school decided to provide a gluten free menu at the cafeteria. In our very small district, there aren't more than 10 gluten free children divided among 4 schools.  Pretty amazing, I know.

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Over the weekend my daughter was playing at a friend’s house.  When I went to pick her up, she and her friend were begging for her to sleepover.  After I got over the initial shock that my 7 year old now feels comfortable enough to sleep at other people’s houses, I started to panic about the food.  And so did the other child’s mom. 

The other mom showed me what she was making for dinner – chicken and rice.  Seems simple enough, until…she showed me the spices she was putting on the chicken – Not McCormick, which is the only brand I feel comfortable with.  And the plain white rice was left over from the day before, but she had cooked it with a buillion cube, always an iffy ingredient.

So what to do?  I went home and heated up Bell & Evans chicken nuggets and some French fries.  Unlike other brands of chicken nuggets, these are made from raw chicken, so take about 20 minutes to cook, plus preheating time. For breakfast, I brought a cream cheese sandwich – no toasting required. 

It all worked out fine.

Tip: I find it is best to leave a bag of gluten free pasta at good friends’ and families’ houses for those spontaneous visits.

Posted by margie at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2366) | TrackBacks (0)

It’s Friday.  Many of the moms I know do take-out on Fridays.  I do too, but it’s not quite the same as it used to be.  If I order a pizza for the rest of the family.  I have to coordinate making a homemade pizza for my celiac daughter.  This is sometimes easy, as it was tonight.  After placing the order to have it delivered, I preheated the oven, and made pizza using Kinnikinnick frozen pizza crusts.  The whole process takes about 30 minutes. The gluten free pizza was ready just a couple of minutes before the gluten pizza was delivered – perfectly timed!

But it is not always so simple.  A few weeks ago, I had to pick up my kids from gymnastics, then pick up the pizza, go home and make the gluten free pizza, all while my celiac child whined about being hungry.  And there is always the decision – do I let my non-celiac child eat the pizza before the gluten free pizza is ready?  If I don’t I’ll have 2 kids whining.  Either way, I’m screwed.

Tip: Pizza night works best if you’re home to make a gluten free version while waiting for the gluten one to be delivered.

Posted by margie at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1612) | TrackBacks (0)

We just planned a trip to Disney, and decided to stay in a hotel outside of Disney, against everything everyone has told us, because the rooms with kitchens were prohibitive.  I’ve heard from various people that Disney restaurants cater to food allergies, it is still not that simple.  I spoke to a customer representative who informed me that all Disney sit-down restaurants will accommodate gf needs if you speak to them in advance.  That means if you or your child decides that it is snack or meal time, you cannot get gf food spontaneously or quickly.  No snack bars, etc.

So, we’re doing what we always do.  We’re getting a hotel room with a full kitchen at Caribe Royale in Orlando.  It’s a mile away from Disney and provides shuttle buses all day.  So, it should work out fine.  We’ll be close enough, but will have the convenience of being able to prepare food to take with us to Disney.  Then, we’ll be able to just get a quick lunch for the rest of us, while my celiac daughter eats her bag lunch.

Tip: always take a cooler bag and ice pack with you on vacations or really everywhere.

Posted by margie at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1141) | TrackBacks (0)

Vacations used to be a source of excitement and anticipation of relaxation.  Now vacations are a source of stress.  What and how will I feed my 7 year old daughter?  We can’t just stay in any hotel anymore.  We have to stay in more expensive hotels that have kitchens.  And not with just a refrigerator and a microwave.  While we might be able to deal with that for a day, any extended trip will require a way to boil water for pasta, and make grilled cheese.

I have found the best thing to do is to make her simple food like pasta, hotdogs, and grilled cheese in the hotel room to take with us to restaurants.  We get her a drink, and if we feel there is something on the menu that would be safe, and that she would eat, we order it as well. For instance, shrimp cocktail, without the sauce, is always safe, but not always what she wants.  Often, she would rather have a hot dog.  That’s why most restaurants have kids’ menus.  Kids don’t want pasta primavera.  They want pasta with butter.

Posted by margie at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (575) | TrackBacks (0)

Even though it is tedious and time consuming, there really is no substitute for calling food manufacturers.  However, there is a caveat.

Many times I have talked to customer service reps who were so vague or just didn’t exude confidence in their statement that a particular product is gluten free.  When that happens, I follow my first line of advice – “when in doubt, leave it out.” 

Over the last 5 years, however, more and more companies are coming on board with the gluten free thing—whether they have made their product gluten free or just are more self-assured in their statements, one way or the other.  In general, I have found bigger companies to have policies that make sense, whereas smaller companies, change so much that they have a harder time committing to gluten free.

Before my daughter was diagnosed, I had been trying to eat more organic food, but afterwards, I found companies like Kraft to be my friend.  I have called Kraft many times, and they always assure me that they never hide gluten in their ingredients lists.  So if a Kraft product lists natural flavor in its ingredient list, I feel confident that it doesn’t contain gluten.

So keep calling, but beware.

Posted by margie at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (582) | TrackBacks (0)

Gluten free eating is challenging.  We all know that.  I’ve been managing my daughter’s diet for 5 years now.  And although I am generally not one to brag about my talents, I do have an expertise in the gluten free world.  I’m a researcher by nature, so when she was diagnosed, I sat down at the computer and googled and googled and googled.  I checked out every site I could find on celiac disease.  I read gluten free associations’s websites (celiac sprue association, national foundation for celiac disease), chat room chatter, specific food company websites, and anything I could find on gluten free diets.

It didn’t take me long to find out that chat room info was very unreliable, so I spent whole days on end calling food companies.  I compiled my own lists, mostly in my head.  It’s amazing how much trivial information a person can fit inside one’s brain.  I don’t know everything that is or isn’t gluten free, but I know certain brands that my family consumes are ok.  For instance, I know that Classico tomato sauce is gf, but I have no idea if Ragu is.  I know that Trident gum is fine, but I have no idea if Orbit is.  I basically just called the companies for the brands that I generally used.  If those brands were gf, they stayed on the list, if those brands were not gf, I had to find another one that was gf. 

There are several steps to becoming entirely gf.  You can’t just decide one day, “ok, today, I’ll go gf.”  A lot of research and understanding of the ingredients’ names is necessary.  This blog will start by giving some general advice as to how to start a gluten free diet.

Today’s advice is, “when in doubt, leave it out,” or call the food manufacturer.

Posted by margie at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (468) | TrackBacks (0)