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A Little Advice About Cooking

Karen · 12 Comments

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Many years ago FabGrandpa and I used to hang out with a bunch of people who got together two or three times a week for pot luck suppers. It was at a different person’s home each time. Every family that came brought a dish to share, and whose ever house it was at cooked the meat, whether it was weiners on the grill, a pot roast, fried chicken, or whatever.

It was in the days before I found out I had to eat gluten free, so the things I made and took to share were always full of gluten. I made this one squash casserole that I had been making for years, the one that I had adjusted the original recipe to make it MINE. The one I used to make and tell my children it was pie, and they could have some if they ate their dinner. The one that I took to family reunions and other family get togethers, and people would sidle up to me and say, “Karen, that squash casserole is better than the ones your mother makes. How do you make them?” And I would always tell them the ingredients that I use to make it. And the next time I saw them, they would say “Karen, I made my husband a squash casserole using your recipe and he didn’t like it. What am I doing wrong?”

The conversation would continue, with me asking questions like “did you cook the squash with butter?” And they would say, “Yes, I did.” And I would ask “What brand of butter did you use?” and they would say “Country Crock” or “Parkay” or whatever else brand of margarine that they had used. And then I would ask “Did you use club crackers?” and they would say “Yes, I did” and I would ask “What brand of club crackers did you use?” and they would say, “Well, I used saltines.”

And then I would tell them, if you didn’t use real butter, and you didn’t use real club crackers, then your finished casserole will not ever taste like mine and your husband will never like it. And they don’t get it.

So, what I am trying to say here, is that if you ask ME for MY recipe, and you don’t follow it to the letter, then what YOU end up with will never be the same as what I made. Get it?

And so now that I have got that out of my system, I have to say that whenever a recipe is given out, here or anywhere else, you can certainly make substitutions for any and all of the indgredients. Just don’t expect what you make to be the same as what the original person made.

What made me think of this today is that FabGrandpa and I have been talking about changing to a mostly vegetarian diet. This discussion has come about because we watched a documentary on TV last night about healing your body through changing your diet.

As we discuss this between us, we have talked about whether or not we want to continue to eat chicken, fish and seafood, cheese, and eggs as a part of our new eating plan. And this is important to talk about. Because tonight for dinner we had Black Bean Nachos. We really enjoy this particular combination of foods. But, if we decide to cut the cheese (hahahaha, I said cut the cheese!) out of our diet, we could no longer have Black Bean Nachos. We would have to substitute something for the cheese. And we probably wouldn’t like it as well as we like cheese.

So, if you have changed your diet as part of a new eating plan, to improve your health, what substitutions have you made? What things did you cut out? Do you like your new way of eating? Do you feel better now that you have made the changes?

I’ll go first: I cut gluten out of my diet in April of 2007. I have substituted rice flour, tapioca flour, corn starch, buckwheat flour, and sorghum flour for the wheat products I used to use. I cut out everything that is made with wheat, rye, and barley. I do like my new way of eating. It took a while to get used to it, but since I feel so much better than I used to, it is easier to eat the things I need to eat instead of the old things I used to eat.

So, there it is. An informal survey of the peeps who read my blog. Feel free to email me at fabgrandma@gmail.com with any suggestions you may have as we work out this new eating plan.

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Filed Under: Fabgrandpa, Gluten Free

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Comments

  1. Susan says

    February 3, 2009 at 6:49 pm

    Interesting. If you leave off cheese, don’t you have to leave off all dairy such as milk, etc. Also, just curious….how did you feel before becoming gluten-free? What has the difference been in how you feel? I’m also wondering how one knows if they are gluten intolerant. You’ve made some big changes so far. Luckily, FabGrandpa is supportive!

    Reply
  2. Lori says

    February 3, 2009 at 8:17 pm

    I use soy cheese, and although as a plain slice of cheese it is not the same,, when mixed with other things, it works just as well. I can no longer eat hamburger, so I buy a veggie version of it, and when I make taco salad, it tastes just a good. I really want to make pizza, and one of these days I will as you can get gluten free pizza shells, and ‘fake’ pepperoni, but it costs twice as much as buying the regular stuff.
    The only dairy I eat is eggs, and even those I someitmes substitute for EggBeaters, but as I said, mixed into other things you can’t tell the difference. I cook two complete different meals though, as my “other” can tell the difference, so we end up with the same supper (or what ever meal it is) but with completely different ingrediants.

    Reply
  3. Karen says

    February 3, 2009 at 8:42 pm

    Susan: To see a detailed answer to your question, look over on the right hand side of my blog, under “Most Popular Fab Posts” and click on Why I Eat Gluten Free.

    Lori: Does the soy cheese act like regular cheese, like does it melt the same when heated?

    Reply
  4. Cathy says

    February 4, 2009 at 7:02 am

    Many changes here – the most difficult for me was switching from coffee to green tea but it made a huge difference in how I felt. I use coconut, almond or rice milk in place of cow’s milk when baking and for hot chocolate.
    I don’t use cheese. I am not a strong believer in the health benefits of soy so I have never used it as an alternative. We switched from factory raised meat and eggs to free range meat, chicken and eggs that we buy from a farmer. This has been huge. I feel very comfortable now eating all of these and now get a little grossed out by the light colored yolks of factory eggs. Like you I don’t eat gluten. We have added many of the flours you do – quinoa is one of our favorites. We use only olive oil or coconut oil for frying or in recipes. We have made a lot of changes over the last 5-6 years and I believe all of them have improved our health as a family. My son no longer has leg pains and the puffiness in his eyes has disappeared. My daughter’s eczema went away almost immediately after changing foods. My rheumatoid arthritis which is a work in progress, has improved about 85% since changing our diet. Good luck with your changes.

    Reply
  5. deserthorses5 says

    February 4, 2009 at 7:03 am

    Yes. I HAVE radically changed my eating habits! Last spring, I had headaches EVERY afternoon, I was fatigued, I was coming home from school and taking a 2 hour nap, and THEN doing to bed at 8:00 p.m.!!! I FINALLY said, “This is ridiculous!” and cut out ALL dairy products and red meat and processed foods. Guess what? Within a week, no more headaches and my energy level returned. I’ve documented all this on my blog: http://rawfoodjourneyca.blogspot.com/ I eat LOTS of fresh fruits and vegetables and raw foods like sunflower sprouts and broccoli sprouts. I make LOTS of stir-fry dishes with portabello mushrooms and seasonal vegetables. GOOD LUCK! I think you are on the right track. Oh, and I’ve lost 22 pounds so far…about a pound a week! I cannot BELIEVE how much better I feel now!
    ~~Cheryl Ann~~

    Reply
  6. LindaSue says

    February 4, 2009 at 9:07 am

    Mornin This is about your previous post. I know what you mean about using your RV oven. I have been told by many long time RVer’s to place tiles or brickets in the bottom of the oven. It helps to distribute the heat more evenly.Tiles like the unglazed mexican tiles you can pick up at the hardware store. The brickets they told me to get were the kind that you use in a gas grill. Not the black kind that you burn in a charcoal grill. These are the grey ones that you can pickup at the hardware store too. You lay them on top of the metal plate that is over the flames. Am I making sense. It seems like all RV oven’s have that problem. I don’t think they were designed by women, just men who don’t cook in them.
    Before I did the above I would turn the oven up higher like you were talking about. I ended up with stuff burning on the bottom. The tiles fixed that problem. Good Luck Linda

    Reply
  7. Lori says

    February 4, 2009 at 9:17 am

    It melts the same, but I have only tried the cheddars style. There is a mozzarella that I have yet to experiment with.

    Reply
  8. Christine says

    February 4, 2009 at 10:26 am

    There are many good recipes out there for vegetarians. My brother is a vegetarian. I have usually make chili when he comes. I use fake ground meat. I cannot tell the difference. I make a great vegetable soup as well. As you go along you will develop new ways of cooking and explore new ingredients and before you know it, you become comfortable with it.

    I had to make lots of changes due to my cholesterol issues. I have learned to adapt and have come up with some new great recipes. I agree with you that things are not the same with substitutions. I simply do not make those things unless I plan to feed them to somebody else! LOL Low fat cheese is not the same as the regular fatted cheese. In order to get around this, I will eat something with high fat cheese on occasion. Those are very rare occasions. I also eat to target my problem so most of my foods must be high in fiber, omega fats and antioxidants. Daily foods are blueberries, fresh ground flax and oatmeal. I manage to control the HDL and stay of medications.

    Each person is so different and needs to design their diets to their needs. Mu hubby has kidney damage so I have to be careful with his sodium potassium and phosphorous. Some times his meals look a little different than mine.

    Reply
  9. Talina says

    February 5, 2009 at 4:57 pm

    We are slowly but surely trying to go all organic and all natural with our diet. It is WAY harder than you would imagine.

    Everything theses days has a growth hormone or some mystery preserving solution injected in to it.

    Produce is sprayed with all sorts of crap and we are working to get that stuff out of our diet.

    This means we read the label of every meat product we buy, they do disclose injected solutions but don’t yet disclose growth hormone info (and should have to).

    We steer clear of stuff that is not locally grown when we can and we’re always looking for organic stuff.

    It is expensive and sometimes inconvenient but we do feel way healthier and have more energy. Plus we’re getting sick way less.

    Reply
  10. Linda's Place says

    February 5, 2009 at 11:47 pm

    does healing your body include not smoking? just wondering…not trying to be one of those “ex-smokers” here, but you know what I mean also, I stopped drinking coffee about 8 years ago…one of the best things I have done so far. I drink white teas that are infused with blueberry, pomegranite, pinealpple or guava.

    Reply
  11. Karen says

    February 6, 2009 at 12:33 am

    Talina: Yes, buying healthier food in many instances is more expensive, but I think in the long run, since you are healthier and need less in terms of medical care, it is LESS expensive to eat the healthier choices.

    Linda: Yes, I think it does include quitting smoking. I have discussed THAT with FabGrandpa, too, because it seems like a big fat joke to me that someone who still smokes cigarettes would be more concerned with eating cheese than he would be with puffing on a ciggie. I would only hope he would stop that too. I quit 8 years ago and think that was one of the best things I have ever done for myself. I haven’t given up my coffee yet. One thing at a time.

    Reply
  12. Magpie says

    February 7, 2009 at 3:18 pm

    people really said that about the butter – that the brand of “butter” was parkay? wow.

    i try to eat less, not so much differently. because i don’t eat badly, just too much.

    Reply

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