E Mealz

I used to be completely in love with a meal planning website prior to going to gluten free. I had a weekly menu as well as a grocery list to drastically reduce the time spent on my menu planning. An added bonus? The meals were delicious! They were based on the sales at our local grocer, which made it even better. Then, we had to change our diet and I sadly canceled our account. Imagine my joy when a friend called me recently to say she had heard of a meal planning site that offered a gluten free menu! I was even more joyful when she shared with me that it was e-mealz! I immediately signed back up and have been happily using their menu plan. I admit, some of the meals don't suit our family, but the majority do, and the benefits of having a complete, healthy meal laid out for me are beyond expression. No more menu planning for me!

I posted a link up button on my side bar if you'd like to give them a try :)

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving went wonderfully. My daughter was able to enjoy her favorite foods with no fear of a tummy ache. We had dinner with my in-laws on Friday and it wasn't as successful. We tried to avoid obvious offenders, but something snuck in (or wasn't shared when prompted), and she was sick. Although, I think she would say it was worth it for the wonderful time of fellowship with our family. The hardest part is that when you explain the factors of being completely gluten free most people think you are taking it to the extreme or overreacting. "You can't share mayonnaise?". Ha! "A bread crumb can't possibly make you sick!". So, recipes that would be gluten free in our home aren't coming from a gluten filled kitchen.

We have moved into our Christmas decorating and baking season. I haven't started baking yet, but my first goodie will be peppermint meringue cookies. They are completely gluten free, and a regular treat in our home, which is what we like - things to be normal. I'll share recipes and pictures once we get started. Hopefully, you'll enjoy them as much as we do!

Trials and errors

I love to cook. I once dreamed of opening a bakery with all my delicious desserts to tempt customers. That was back in the days of only 2 children. In God's infinite wisdom we were blessed with more daughters, and my dreams of baking were put on the back burner in place of necessity. You know, things like boxed mac and cheese and frozen pizzas since that was all I could manage most days. When we learned of the diagnoses of gluten intolerance I was very overwhelmed at the prospect of having to cook everything. I think overwhelmed might be an understatement. I was completely devastated. After about a week of letting it all sink in, I started to get seriously excited about cooking, awakening a desire that had long since been extinguished. I have actually come to enjoy creating many of our dishes, and now, I don't even consider the time invested - it's obviously worth every effort to keep my girl healthy. We've also switched to a more whole foods diet, without even knowing!

All that being said, there are still some nights that I just. don't. want. to. do. anything. Especially come up with a meal from scratch that is gluten free. It's those nights that the wonderful frozen food section has come to my rescue. We've only experimented with a couple of things, due to the cost, but they are still life savers. To that end, I thought I would share my finds with you, in the hopes of saving you some money (and perhaps time on one of those nights). Our favorite so far has been a frozen pizza by Glutino. Unfortunately, our local grocer has already stopped carrying the variety we enjoy, so we tried another, Amy's. It was not nearly as good, and not worth the price. We've also tried the frozen rice bread. We tried it plain, we tried it toasted, we tried it covered in peanut butter - it was still un-edible. Hubby and I had a date night the other evening and I was in a hurry, so in desperation I grabbed a box of french toast sticks, made by Glutino. They were fabulous! My girl ate to her hearts content and loved every bite. My husband even snagged a couple and said they were delicious.

That's our recent trials and errors, hope they can bless you!

Another Cookbook

I was recently blessed by a friend at church loaning me a gluten free cookbook that her family has been using. It had many pages turned down which made my idea search a bit easier :) This book is a much simpler, kid friendly cookbook with a ton more recipes than the first one I purchased. Many of the recipes are simply conversions of our everyday favorites. I also like the fact that the ingredients called for are fairly typical, not exotic things that I rarely purchase (or want to spend money on). I like it so much that I have it saved in my cart on amazon.com to purchase very soon! All of the recipes are aimed at children, advising them to ask for an adults help in preparing certain items. That being said, I thought it was perfect for me! I do think I could simply tell my older girls what we were having for dinner and they'd be fine preparing it without my help. So, if you are looking for another option in Gluten Free recipes, definitely take a look!

Just so you know, this is not a paid endorsement, I simply wanted to share this resource in hopes that you find something to make your journey a little easier. If you click on the cookbook image above you'll be taken directly to Amazon.com .

Holiday Baking E-Book

Yes, I fell off the face of the blogging earth. I just haven't had much to say lately! Today, I found something well worth blogging about! I just came across this Holiday Recipes ebook and had to share - the recipes look simply delectable and simple enough for the girls to help. Those are two requirements for most holiday baking around here! Anyway, here is the link -


I showed my daughter and she was thrilled at the prospect of baking, a truly cherished tradition for us. Thank you, The Baking Beauties, for making this free for all of us!

Menu Plan Monday

I'm back to a Monday Menu Plan! It seems that Friday's are turning into super busy days around here, and Monday's are my computer and catch up days. We survived the fall festival at church by not eating the buns. We've even managed to sort the candy and find many gluten free options. Unfortunately, we did get a belly ache the next day which I am assuming is from the candy that my oldest assumed was fine and ate a bunch before realizing. Thankfully, her attitude about it was wonderful.

I made the decision to remove #1 (my oldest) from her cooking class. They are making quite a few dishes that contain gluten, and it is not fun for her to participate and not eat the creations. On top of that, the other kids all take part so she feels somewhat left out. I thought this might be an issue and I'm surprised it took 3 more classes before she became upset enough to change. It's a fairly big decision since she will be moving from the group with 6th & 7th graders to 4th & 5th graders. We prayed about it and all of us feel it is the right choice. Thankfully, we have some wonderful people leading our co-op and they were completely supportive of our decision.

I am in the process of starting to plan our Thanksgiving dinner. I normally plan it fairly far in advance simply to catch the sales on foods, but this year I have to plan early because it is so much more in depth. My oldest wants pumpkin pie, so I am going to make one for her, but I have to find a good crust recipe to go with it.

Here is our menu plan -

Dinner menu

Monday - Tostadas
Tuesday - Beef Stew
Wednesday - Baked Ziti
Thursday - Baked Chicken w/ rice pilaf
Friday - Dinner party
Saturday - Baked omelet w/ bacon
Sunday - Roast

Menu plan Monday!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a bit - we've all been fighting off colds.

My daughter had her first sleepover since becoming Gluten Free and I think it went exceptionally well (at least as far as the food!). She brought her own pizza, cookies, and cereal. She said she didn't feel uncomfortable at all eating her special foods. I was so proud of her! Again, preparation is key.

This is our menu plan for this week. You can probably tell I wasn't feeling so hot when I made this plan, hence the many easy meals. I'm thinking a few will change once I get more energy. I'm only posting dinner. Everything else is "fly by night" until we are well. :)


Dinner menu
Sunday - black beans and yellow rice with cornbread
Monday - hot dogs and baked beans
Tuesday - shrimp fritters
Wednesday - beef stew
Thursday - cornbread sandwiches and soup
Friday - steak and potatoes
Saturday - Church fall festival, eating there!

I've checked out a couple of more cookbooks from the library and I haven't been as excited about them as with my first one. I'll let you know if I find anything wonderful. The thing that bothers me about all these GF cookbooks is that their recipes depend on the book's specific flour recipe, which costs additional money to make when I already have mine. I would like them to be more generic so I could use my own mix.

Hope everyone has a blessed week!