Ten Down, Two To Go

      The goat and I were talking the other day about how there really isn't too much to be excited about in November. There is the obvious Thanksgiving that we all know and love, but what else? There are the common festivities following Halloween; All Saints Day, The Day of the Dead, Samhain and a few others. There are the general disease awareness that last all month, but other than that....?

      I like to think of November as an organizational month. It's right on the heels of the smallest major holiday, Halloween, has it's own holiday, Thanksgiving, and is followed by December, the grand daddy of all holiday months. November is a great time to get the house ready to go for the holiday festivities and family that you will be sure to have this holiday season.

      Along with the house guests, present wrapping, shopping, baking, cooking, running errands and decorating that we will all be busy with there is the extra stress that can pop up this time of year. Tight budgets all around are the list topper for stress this holiday season.

      So how can we reduce our stress levels and stay on budget? I've compiled a list of great holiday tips to help keep you organized, stress free and on budget!

Grocery Shopping
      You know you need to buy a jillion things at the store for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, so why not just do it already? Get your meal planned out ahead of time and think of what can be bought now like canned goods, flours, frozen items and drinks, and what needs to be bought close to the dinner like fruits, vegetables, fresh spices and herbs and fresh baked goods. Keep an eye out for two-for-one and buy-one-get-one deals at the grocery stores.
      Before you head to the store make a list of things you have at home and a list of the dishes you'll be having and the ingredients you will need. Do not double buy things that you have at home already! This is a major source of extra pumpkin pie cans sitting until February.

Kitchen Organization
      Go through your pantry and icebox and get rid of anything beyond it's expiration date. If you cannot find an expiration date or do not remember when you bought an item, toss it if you haven't used it in the last three weeks. You do not want a house full of sick guests trying to compete for the bathroom.
      Once all the old stuff is gone, organize the remaining goods. This is helpful for when your Aunt just insists on making something; she'll be able to find most everything she needs. This is good for your sanity too – keeping everything on hand and knowing where things are will reduce your running around and time inside the kitchen.
      Another great piece of advice is to make sure things are clean. Wipe out your icebox and freezer from the previous year, make sure all your pie pans aren't covered in dust from sitting on top of your cabinets the whole year, get things shiny in the kitchen before the guests arrive and the cooking starts and you'll have a million less things to do!
      Putting together a charity bag out of your unused and unlikely to be used groceries you have on hand is a great way to help out with those less fortunate this season. This is a good time of the year for toy donations as well. Any unused or gently used toys that your children have lost interest in or out grown would be a great addition to the charity bag!

Quick House Keeping
      I strongly suggest that the floors of closets be cleared out (or at least shoved to the top of the closet) for when guests arrive. It is much easier to have them shove their bags into the closet and out of the way than to leave them out in the middle of everything. Less stuff lying around will feel less stressful to deal with. Make sure extra bedding is available to guests if they need it in the middle of the night. Sleeping on a hard floor is bad enough, but not being able to get an extra blanket because it's locked in the master bedroom is a bigger hassle.

Relax
      Most importantly, don't forget to set aside a little time for yourself in this whole process. Schedule a time out just for you – tell everyone you're shopping for last minute gifts or running an errand – just get away for a while. Even if it's only to your bubble bath, it will make things go much easier for you.
      Remember that you do not have to schedule every minute of the day for your family. Make time for just getting together and having fun. Watching old movies, board games, hiking, ice skating and camping are some great things to do this time of year.

      November isn't so bad after all. Family visits, good food, great memories and time off from work are all things to look forward to this month. October saw me reach a few goals I had laid out for myself and I'm happy about that. What am I looking forward to personally this November? Learning to make chutney, my first gluten-free Thanksgiving, finishing a knitting project for a Christmas gift, my new job and charity work. What are you looking forward to this November?

Continue Reading...

Trial Run

      This will be my first major holiday being gluten-free, so I wanted to practice a dish or two before hand so I fudge as little as possible when it comes down to the line. I want to avoid any last minute scrambles if at all possible. Our grocery stores here are always crowded and busy no matter what time of the day. It is one of the only 24 hour grocery stores in the area so shopping at night is fun and much less busy, but it also increases the chances of getting hit by a car on the bike. I got side swiped in a parking lot just yesterday in broad daylight by someone not paying attention – I was on my way to the grocery store, too.

      Last night I decided to try my hand at gluten-free green bean casserole and it came out pretty good. I was quite intimidated at first that I was not able to use any pre-made ingredients, but it was so easy that I might throw it into the normal rotation of random meals we eat.

      Here's the best part: it's vegan without being weird. Some dishes that you make with milk or butter can turn gross when you try to make them vegan, but this just happened to come out vegan and taste awesome!

Tasty Vegan Green Bean Casserole

1 lb green beans
½ onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, smashed
2 or 3 white button mushrooms
1 ½ C soy milk
2 tbs butter
Dried basil and dill
Salt & pepper
2 heaping tsp gluten free flour blend
½ C water
Olive oil

      Wash green beans, cut both ends off and cut to bite size pieces. Wipe mushrooms with a damp paper towel to remove most of the dirt and grime, remove center stalk (unless you like that part) and cut into small pieces.

      Heat skillet over medium heat and add oil and onions when hot. Cook until browned and softened and add garlic, mushrooms, green beans and spices to taste. Continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes mixing well. Add milk and butter and bring to a slow simmer. Place flour blend in a cup and add water, stir until dissolved. While green beans are simmering, pour the flour mix into pan and turn off heat. Stir well and add water or milk if you need to thin things out. Pour into a pie plate and bake at 350 for about 30-45 minutes or so. This will result in the green beans being still crunchy so if you want them soft, boil them for a while before you add them to the pan or just used canned.

      I served this on the side last night with quinoa stuffed herbed tomatoes. The tomatoes were a no-brainer and were done, start to finish, while the casseroles were in the oven. I hollowed out the tomatoes and sprinkled olive oil, salt, basil and pepper on each and stuck them under the broiler for about 10 minutes before I pulled them out. Added the quinoa and served! Tasty, yum and fast.

      This whole meal came together so fast and easy – I enjoy cooking so much when things just work like that. The goat is always in and out of the kitchen checking in on things and offering to help chop or peel something. Cooking is more than just making something for dinner. It's a process of love that you have to want. Many pregnant women talk about the joys and feelings of sustaining life within them and how much of a miracle the whole process is. I do not have kids and they are not in my foreseen future, but I can relate to this same intimate level when I cook. I sustain not only my life, but the life of those I share the final resulting meal. Each cut of the knife and stir of the pan gives way to warm lingering smells that make their way into each meal that I share with those near and dear to me.

      The miracle of vegetables, grains, fruits and fungus coming together to make a life sustaining experience is a miracle in itself. Sharing it with someone else is like no other feeling in the world.

      How do you share you meals?

Continue Reading...

On Halloween and Label Reading

      With Halloween fast approaching many parents, and kids for that matter, are worried about having a gluten-free ghoul-fest. The good news is that there are many ways to find out what you can have this holiday. There are a cornucopia of lists about gluten-free candy, some are even season specific and post information about those candy hearts at Valentine's Day or the Peeps Ghosts at Halloween time. Good stuff, really.
      Here are a couple to help you start things out: This link from About.com will help you get a good foot hold on the basics of gluten-free candy. It's not my favorite list being outdated by nearly 8 years in some places, but the information is still relevant for the most part. Celiac Central also has a great list of gluten-free Halloween treats that was updated just last year.

      Both of these are great resources, but I still feel like they leave you feeling as empty as bad rice bread. The problem that I see many people running into is that there is usually more than one ingredient or allergen they are looking for on a label. This leads to three lists loaded in your browser, clicking between tabs trying to cross compare lists and still getting that headache you were trying to avoid.
I am on the bandwagon that proper prior planning is key to any successful situation, but there are some real life solutions to this holiday that just might work out better than what you have planned.

1. Let the kid do it.
      Kids know what candies they can have from experience given they are old enough to have that experience and many houses let you grab what candies you want out of a bowl or similar set up making it easy to pick and choose what you want. With this, however, comes the lesson of don't be ugly about it (that goes for parents, too!). It is sad to point this out, but let your kids know that some people will not understand their request to different candy for a food allergy and that is okay. In cases like that, take what they give you and sort it out later. A food allergy button from CafePress and a couple rehearsed sentences for your kid explaining their situation should help out nicely.

2. Sort it out.
      Someone is bound to make homemade cookies for the monsters out that night and you will more than likely end up with a house that only has cookies. So you can do one of two things, walk away empty handed or take it and sort it out later. Some might consider this stingy or greedy, but part of the fun of Halloween that we all remember was how full you could get your pillow case. If there are foods you steer away from sort them out when you get home and donate them. There are county foster homes, homeless shelters for women and children, nursing homes, hospitals, rehab centers, soldiers overseas and the struggling family on your street. Do not forget about others on this day that might not have the opportunity to get any candy at all.

3. Exchange it.
      Talk with your allergy support groups or friends to see about hosting a candy exchange. This is a great way to hold a fun and safe after trick or treating get together and the parents or kids without food allergies will be more than happy to participate in all the glutenous fun that some cannot.

4. Learn to read labels.
      Talk about taking your life in your hands! Reading labels is the key to having a successful diet free of accidental ingestion of your allergen. Do not deal with companies that cannot or will not give you a straight answer. Read, reread and pass it off to someone else to double check and make it a habit! If you rely on someone else to compile all the safe foods you can eat, you will miss out on so much. Lists are only so helpful and then you have to wonder about that candy bar that did not make the list. Did they forget about it? Is it unsafe? Does the company even have an allergen statement? Learn to read a label correctly avoiding things like natural flavoring (natural what?), seasonings and other vague ingredients and teach your children to do the same. They might not know what it all means, but they can and should be able to recognize the shape and spelling of some 'unsafe' words.

      Halloween will probably be one of the lower-stress holidays of the year without too much family to deal with. There is not much cooking or baking to be done this time of year, except for a school party or bakesale. No large meals to prepare for and no family members telling you the mashed potatoes they just dumped an entire family-sized can of cream of chicken into is vegetarian. Take a few minutes to enjoy this joy-filled holiday with your family and remember how much fun this time of year can really be for everyone!

      Don't blink, Thanksgiving is only seven weeks away!

Continue Reading...