Celiac Speaks » gluten

Gluten Free Pantry

Jessika — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:20:01 +0000

Gluten Free Pantry White Bread Mix

Made some more bread this week! This time I tried a different brand by the name “Gluten Free Pantry” for Sandwich bread mix. To compare it to the Bob’s Red Mill Mix for the equivalent, I liked that I did not have to use cider vinegar (since I didn’t have any around). Also it made a 2 lb. loaf compared to the 1 and a half lb. I made before. I have not made the white bread mix by Bob’s Red Mill yet, however I do plan on it sometime soon.

The bread turned out wonderful. I will admit that last time I made a mistake and did not mix the yeast into the mix after everything had been mixed. I misread the baking directions and thought they meant to leave it ontop on the mix, and that the bread maker would do the rest. This time I mixed it in and it turned out great. It raised just like it should, making for a bigger loaf of bread that is nice and soft. The Gluten Free Pantry Bread is delicious!

Delicious Bread

Needed Materials:

Entire bag of Gluten Free Pantry “Favorite Sandwich Bread” mix
1 and 3/4 cup lukewarm water or milk (I used water)
4 Tbs. melted butter or vegetable oil (I used butter)
2 large eggs, or 1 egg and 2 egg whites lightly beaten (I used 3 large eggs)
Bread Maker for up to 2 lbs.

Skin Reactions

Jessika — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:33:16 +0000

Allergic reaction on my arm (faint-but itches like crazy)

So I have not updated much this past week due to getting sick from I believe, something I ate. Tuesday night my husband and I stopped at Rally’s…little drive in/sit outside to eat it kinda thing. This was our first time eating there, so I did not know what kind of “seasoning” their seasoned fries had…and shame on me for not asking. I was pretty hungry and not really in the mood to go through explaining what gluten was since they didn’t exactly understand why I wanted a burger with cheese and no bun. So later that night my skin kind of felt itchy and I thought I was just coming down with a cold…made sense because I usually get sick in September. I was not able to sleep well Tuesday night and felt like I had a fever.

Wednesday I got up and figured I would take a shower to get rid of the fever with a cold shower, however when I stepped out my skin was burning. Then I realized my arms had a faint red rash under my skin all up and down my arms. Normally I got those if I used any type of tanning lotion (I’m very allergic to those) or any lotion with wheat. I believe this is a extremely mild form of dermatitis herpetiformis…aka a rash (although different from your average rash). I found a good article overview of dermatitis herpetiformis by Jami L Miller, MD. on webmd.com if you care to read more about this. (Note: photos in article are a full out reaction…mine never was this sevre…although my grandmother had this all over her skin and they never knew what it was. They thought Lupus…but all tests came back negative…this is what I believe she had)

Also before I was diagnosed I would get what I believe now to be dermatitis herpetiformis on my lips and face…like little raised blisters with clear fluid. It was pretty embarrassing. They would also appear on my face and be extrememly itchy. However now six years later after healing when I do ingest gluten- this is when I believe I get the mild form of dermatitis herpetiformis. Because now it only forms under the skin. However if I use a lip gloss with gluten they will almost immedietly blister up just as bad before I was diagnosed and lasts about a week. Hence I avoid almost every lipgloss or chapstick like the plague…and only use the known safe brands!

Anyway, pretty much this whole week since tuesday I have felt awful, fever, itchy skin, no energy, nauseous, problems sleeping, joint pain, stomach aches, horrible headaches… the whole thing.

Still taking some time to feel better!

Craving Gluten

Jessika — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:03:15 +0000

Tonight I went to Knott’s Berry Farm (theme park) and walking around I couldn’t help but smell all of the wonderful foods that the different shops were cooking. They were everywhere with their pizzas, cinnamon buns, pretzels, etc. Normally I’m alright being able to not crazy gluten foods, and normally if I am out somewhere when I stop to eat with people I’m able to generally order something else off the menu or request a “special order” without the bread and so forth. But It’s pretty frustrating being at a theme park around dinner time and there is really nowhere to find safe foods unless it’s at a sit down restaurant outside the park.

Some days are harder than others not to be tempted – Once I did try to eat a piece of gluten pizza (about a year after going gluten free)… I got the bright idea to just “chew a piece of pizza…then spit it out”…ugh, horrible decision! I got very sick and only had myself to blame… never again would I try to “just chew and spit” for the taste! Not recommended!

Gluten Free Brownies

Jessika — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:00:34 +0000

Tonight I am making Gluten Free Brownies for a snack since my mom sent me a bunch of different gluten free mixes, and tonight it will be the brownies that get made. I would highly reccommend these for a brownie mix, made by “Gluten Free Pantry”, they taste just like gluten free brownies. Generally you can add things to them, like nuts… however I am banned from adding nuts since the last time I made them, I went a little too crazy with the walnuts and they became walnut brownies, instead of brownies with a little bit of wal nuts. Also the baking instructions are incredibly simple: 2 Eggs, 7 Tbs melted butter, and of course the box mixture. They are a great snack and can last for days, provided you cover them to keep them fresh.

Everything you need to make the brownies

Finished Brownies

You Take Your Chances

Jessika — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 04:26:09 +0000

Yesterday I talked about cross contamination with gluten and gluten free foods. Last night I went out to eat at “Doubles” which serves breakfast all day long, and knowing that eggs, sausage and hash browns are pretty much all gluten free I ordered them for my dinner. At first I was pretty excited that we finally found a restaurant that both my husband and I could both get dinner at, after driving by many different restaurants I knew were not gluten free or had made me really sick. However to my dismay I could see how they were making the food, they had bread everywhere, grabbing it without gloves then picking up the sausages to put down onto the grill, right where some buns had just been! So realizing I would not be able to safely eat the sausages I had ordered I thought,”OK, well I still have eggs and hash browns that must be made separate”. But then they made the hash browns right where they took the rag they had just cleaned where the buns were and cleaned the grill where they threw the hash browns…so there goes that idea. The only thing I could see that was made separate were the eggs. I did eat the eggs, but only the eggs not touching the hash browns or sausages.

Eating out you always take chances of possibly getting glutened. And it is frustrating when the employees don’t understand why you need to have a burger without a bun (and sometimes just take the bun off, not to go through the effort to make a new one). But that is the society we live in… those who have food allergies, and those who don’t and don’t understand (or care) why or how eating something that once had a bun will make one sick.

On another note, I am out of chocolate chex…time to go grocery shopping.

-Jessika

Gluten Cross Contamination

Jessika — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 03:10:54 +0000

Being newly married, we are just getting to setting up things in our apartment, picking out furniture, buying food etc. Being that my husband is not gluten intolerant and can eat whatever he wants, does make it hard to cut out or cut down what gluten foods can be in the house. Growing up and living with my parents and sister after getting diagnosed, they got rid of almost all gluten foods from our house, seeing as how easy it is to cross contaminate things. Even something as small as someone eating a bagel then using the computer without washing their hands, then if I used the same keyboard and say touched my mouth or ate somthing, I would then get sick and my lips would blister up. After I began healing they did keep gluten foods in the house, but they stayed on a separate shelf along with other kitchen appliances, like the toaster. We had to buy a separate toaster so if I wanted a gluten free bagel…I could toast it and not worry about cross contamination. Even things like washing the dishes, we had to make sure the dishes and utensils were completely washed before I could use a knife that may have once cut bread, or a pan that baked a gluten pizza. And, of course, not double dipping (wich did make me sick quite a few times if we had family over who didn’t know better). We had to make sure that if a jar of mayonayse was being used to spread onto gluten bread, that it never touched the bread and went back into the container, leaving it with cross contamination… not always easy to remember! This also leads to why eating out is always risky…because you never really know what goes on unless you can see it being made, and even then its hard to tell.

So now out on my own, I have the challenging task to feed a husband who can eat gluten, and isn’t always to thrilled with eating chex cereal or some gluten free muffins for 3 meals a day and would more like to eat a burger with a regular bun and all the stuff that comes with it. Although he is sweet about it and does eat some of my gluten free foods, it is challenging to go into a grocery store and have 5 things to pick from, unless he eats one meal and I eat a totally different meal, making two different meals at one time, yet not cross contaminating anything.

Complicated