I'm back!

Bet you all thought I was gone for good, didn't you!  Well... I'm back now!

Life got crazy busy for us there for awhile.  We were sick, which I why I wasn't blogging at first.  And then my piano studio went crazy.  I picked up a bunch more students (four last week alone) and now I have 16 students each week!  Yikes!

The adventures in gluten-free, casein-free, egg-free eating continue.  I just started a loaf of french bread in our bread maker.  This is the first time I've used the bread maker since last summer. I'm hoping the loaf turns out okay.  I'm still trying to figure out the best egg substitute for various items.  I'm using Ener-G egg replacer in this bread mix.  I guess we'll see what happens.  :)

Our car is getting older.  We're going to have to do some repairs on it next week.  We're hoping that will be it for awhile, but it sure is discouraging watching our savings disappear into yet ANOTHER repair bill.  :P

Speaking of savings... we're still trucking along, trying to get out of debt.  I think it has helped that we're getting really close to paying off the car, so it's giving us that extra little bit of excitement that we've been missing.  We'll probably have the car paid off by August, if not before.  Then it's on to the student loans!  :)

That's the update from us!  How are all of you doing?

Oatmeal with Craisins and....

Since we've gone gluten-free and discovered Daniel's egg allergy, breakfasts have gotten more complicated, or more interesting, however you'd like to look at it. One thing we've been eating a lot more of is oatmeal.  But what do you do when you run out of your "standard" toppings?  You have to get a little more inventive.

I've been watching some episodes of Cupcake Wars lately, and one thing that they do a lot is mix two flavors that you might not otherwise put in a cupcake.  So, I decided to try the same thing with my oatmeal yesterday.

Usually I put brown sugar in my oatmeal, but we ran out on Saturday when I made a GFCF apple crisp.

We did have Craisins on hand, and they taste great in oatmeal.  But, I wanted something salty to help soothe my sore throat, balance the sweetness of the Craisins, and give me a little protein with my carbs.

Enter.... BACON.

That's right.  I put Craisins and bacon in my oatmeal yesterday and it was.... GREAT!  I'll definitely be doing that again.  :)

Good (Cheap!) Gluten-Free Eats!

Yesterday I vented a little bit, since I don't know what else to write about MTHFR, but people are telling me I should write more on that topic.  In order to do so, I need your help, so please read that post and leave me your MTHFR questions!  :)

But enough about that. Today I want to tell you about one of our favorite gluten-free products, that you can get for a super awesome deal on Amazon!  (Yes, links will be affiliate links to Amazon.)

Gluten-Free Pantry's Muffin & Scone Mix is a versatile base for muffins and mini-loaves.  In addition to being gluten-free, it is also casein-free, and works well with egg replacers, which is great for people with casein and egg allergies like Daniel! There IS corn in the mix, which is problematic for people on a GFCFSFCF diet, but it's from Canada, so it is not genetically modified. The only soy in the mix is from possible cross-contamination.

We add a bunch of things to ours, like raisins, craisins, chocolate chips, pumpkin, banana, applesauce, and quinoa flakes, but every time, it turns out great!  I'd like to play more with it, and see what it's like just on it's own without a bunch of extra stuff (like the pumpkin, banana, applesauce, and quinoa flakes) but adding stuff to it does make it stretch further.  I think I got 36 regular size muffins out of two boxes.  They were gone pretty quick, so I ordered 12 more boxes.  I'm out of applesauce right now, or I'd have some more in the freezer already!

Oh, that's another thing!  Muffins made from this mix freeze VERY well.  We usually just keep ours in the freezer and pop them in the microwave for about 30 seconds to warm them up.  With everything you can add to them, they make a great breakfast on the go!

*UPDATE* I forgot to mention that this is an Add-On item, which means it will only ship if you order $25 worth of stuff at the same time.  We've ordered ours with Christmas presents, and a few other random things so far.  I may start buying two cases (total of 12 boxes) at a time, and ordering it with my prenatals on a monthly basis.

Delightful Dinner!

We had a lovely time last night with a family we hadn't seen in several years.  They made a great gluten-free, casein-free dinner, and then we all played bingo!  :)

Today I got off to a very slow start (I won't tell you how slow...) so now I have just a little bit of time to get the shopping list down and get it to Daniel so he can buy some food on his way home.  One meal that is DEFINITELY going on our menu is the one we served our company on Saturday evening.  It was a delicious microwave meatloaf that has turned out perfect all three times I have made it.  I think we're going to try doubling the sauce, browning the beef on the stove, and putting it over quinoa to make it stretch a bit further though, since we can't put beans in it (Daniel's allergies...).  Ohhhh... just thinking about it is making me hungry!  :P

Baking!

I think I just did the most baking I've done in a LOOOOONG time.  Daniel's brother wanted some gluten-free, casein-free baking, and I had time, so I offered to do it!  :)  I made pumpkin/applesauce/raisin/Craisin/chocolate chip bread and muffins, and BOY are they good!  I'll make too batches for us tomorrow.  Yum!

An Earth Balance Rebuttal

I came across this article a few minutes ago when a friend posted it on Facebook.  I read it, and I take issue with many of her points.

I'm sorry, but it ticks me off that she mentions Earth Balance at the beginning of the article, but yet, none of the claims that she makes about the ingredients of Smart Balance are true of Earth Balance.

I'm holding our container of soy-free Earth Balance right now.  Right on the top it says "Soy Free".  On the side, it says "No Soy, Expeller-Pressed Oil, Vegan, Gluten-Free, Lactose-Free, Non-GMO".  So, right there, I can point out that by including Earth Balance at the beginning of her diatribe, she is incorrect in her assertion that the canola is genetically modified, because at least in soy-free Earth Balance, it isn't.

I can't speak to her assertion that the olive oil in Smart Balance isn't EVOO, but at least in the original Earth Balance, it is.  I'm not sure about our Soy-free Earth Balance though.  The "natural flavor" in soy-free Earth  Balance is plant derived from corn, contains no MSG, no alcohol, and no gluten.  There is no mention of "artificial flavors" on the Earth Balance tub.

Soy-free Earth Balance does not contain soy lecithin. It contains sunflower lecithin, which I've already established is non-GMO, unlike her claims about soy lecithin.

Soy-free Earth Balance does not contain Vitamin A palmitate, Vitamin D2, or Beta carotene color.  It DOES contain naturally extracted annatto for color.

Soy-free Earth Balance also does not contain Potassium sorbate or Calcium disodium EDTA.

Furthermore, the author of the above linked article goes on to assert that "Butter is Always Best", which in our case, isn't true either!  My husband is allergic to casein, which is the protein in dairy products, including butter. If he eats butter, it will erase all the progress we have made with his healing over the last few months since going gluten & casein free.

I'm sure someone will love to point out that we could settle for ghee... but that isn't really an option either, since it's nearly impossible to get all the casein out of homeamde ghee.

So, What Do You Eat Anyway? (Part 2 of 3)

Last week I told you a little bit about why we've gone gluten, casein, soy, and corn free, and explained what we eat for breakfast.  Some of you may now be wondering,"If they eat oatmeal or pumpkin bread for breakfast, what do they eat for lunch?".

The simple answer:

Leftovers.

Daniel usually takes leftovers from last night's dinner for lunch the next day.  Two days a week, I'm not home for lunch, and the other three days I am home by myself, I either don't eat lunch because I ate brunch instead, or I eat a more typical breakfast for lunch. Usually I'll fry up a couple eggs, and cook some turkey bacon in the microwave and add a piece of fruit on the side.  If we have lots of leftovers, I might eat those too.

This winter, I think I may experiment more with gluten-free, homemade soups, with a side of potato bread on the side. Oh? I haven't told you about potato bread yet?  Well, that's another recipe from the MTHFR family.  It's pretty simple, it's really just rice flour and potato flour mixed together with some water, and then rolled out and cut into circles.  Because it doesn't have any yeast in it, it doesn't rise. It's pretty much a flat bread, but it's oh so yummy with olive oil and spices on it!

Come back next week to find out what we eat for dinner!  If you eat gluten and casein-free, please leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite, inexpensive, GFCF meal is!

So, What Do You Eat, Anyway? (Part 1 of 3)

If you haven't already done so, I would encourage you to read my MTHFR posts, as well as my account of Daniel's health issues back in July. This post will make more sense after you read those.

Since Daniel's allergies came to light, we had to switch up what we're eating. We're now pretty much a gluten-free, casein-free household. We also try to avoid corn and soy. That makes things pretty interesting!

I know many people are going gluten-free these days, but so many of the gluten-free products are cost-prohibitive, we've had to get a little inventive with what we choose to eat.  Here's a little snapshot of what we eat:

Breakfasts: Sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) we cheat on this, and we eat oatmeal for breakfast. Oats ARE technically gluten-free, but usually the more common brands have been cross-contaminated with gluten during processing. I'm hoping to switch us over to certified gluten-free oats soon. I'm still looking for someone local who is willing to split a 25-lb bag of certified gluten free oats with us though, since we don't have room to store that much right now.

If we're not eating oatmeal, we're probably eating pumpkin bread, which the MTHFR family is teaching me to make!  Some of the ingredients include: Gluten-Free Pantry Scone and Muffin mix, coconut oil, quinoa flakes, banana, pumpkin, and raisins.  The coconut oil is really good for you, and the quinoa provides some protein.  This bread is great if you pop it in the microwave for about 25 seconds before you eat it. I'll ask "T" (of the MTHFR family) if I can share the recipe with y'all soon.  I'm sure we'll be making it the first week in December.

Come back next Tuesday to find out what we eat for lunch!  :)

Managing God's Money--Grocery Shopping

Previously I've talked about the importance of getting out of debt, and making wise, educated consumer decisions. Both could be (and probably should be) considered important line items in a budget.

Another important item in a budget is groceries. Everyone has to eat something! Grocery shopping is something that I've struggled with for awhile. In my opinion, it's a necessary evil. We have to eat, so we have to shop. But, if I develop a plan before we go to the store, it generally goes a lot better, and we stick to our budget.

When I was in college, I lived off-campus for two years, so that was when I figured out how much it cost to feed one person for a month. I found that it's about $100/month to feed one person, so when Daniel and I got married, I just multiplied that by two. We've always tried to spend about $200/month on groceries, which for us includes all our paper products, toiletries, and cleaning supplies. Generally, we've been able to stick fairly close to this amount, unless we had to stock up on a bunch of staples all at the same time.

When we were first married, we generally shopped at WinCo, which is one of the cheapest grocery stores in town. WinCo doesn't offer store coupons, but I found the prices to be reasonable, and we were pretty much always able to stick to our budget when we shopped there. Two years into our marriage, we moved across the river, and our shopping pattern had to change. We tried shopping at Wal-mart for awhile, but it was pretty expensive, so we worked out a way to get back to shopping at WinCo.

Then, this summer, we found out about all of Daniel's food allergies, so our plan had to change a little bit. Now, we can still get most of our shopping done at WinCo, but we also pick up a few things (like gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free cheese; egg-less mayo; and bulk quinoa) at Yoke's, which is much more expensive than either WinCo or Walmart. I was worried that this would increase our budget significantly, but to my surprise, it hasn't!  In fact, we're pretty much done our shopping for the next two weeks, and we still have some money left over for more produce.

Trying to maintain a "normal" diet while going GFCF is very expensive. By choosing to eat naturally GFCF foods, we cut down our budget. A good example is GF pasta. Daniel and I can both eat rice, so at first, we had been buying the specialty labelled GF pasta. But, then I was over at the MTHFR family's house, and discovered that they eat rice pasta. We were in WinCo a few days later, so I decided to check the Asian food section, and sure enough, I found white rice pasta in the Asian food section for much cheaper than the labelled GF noodles!

I know most of my readers probably don't have to worry about eating GFCF, so, in conclusion, I would just encourage you to think about what you're eating, what you should be eating, make a meal plan, and stick to it. I think you'll find that it makes a big difference in how much you're spending on groceries!

How do you manage your grocery spending?