Help me, I'm having a cuisine crisis. (long) GF content

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

As I've mentioned before, all four of my sons were diagnosed with celiac disease in 2006. I still have not regained my equilibrium in the kitchen! I can't seem to create a "food culture" to replace the food culture we'd owned pre-diagnosis.

 

Our family food culture was 100% German American. My recipe box and skills came from my Great-Grandmother and all the women in the family know how to cook these foods, these ways. I grew up learning to roll out dumplings and shred cabbage for sauerkraut. I was making apple pie by age 10, and roasting chicken by myself by age 13.

 

Off the top of my head, here are the family foods that show up at every family dinner and that all the women can cook in our sleep:

 

Chicken and dumplings, egg noodles, wurst, saurkraut, cole slaw, potato salad, beef stew, pan-fried chicken, meatballs, cabbage rolls, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, potato soup, green bean salad, green beans with bacon and onions, pickled beets, pickles, deviled eggs, potato bread, pork schnitzel, pork tenderloin, yeast rolls, pretzels, apple kuchen, stollen, and Christmas cookies such as springerele, pfefferneusse, and spritz.

 

This food culture does not translate to gluten-free. It just doesn't. And I can't seem to find our niche.

 

I would love to latch onto a certain cuisine, a certain flavor for my children to remember about Mama's gluten-free cooking. I am mostly drawn to Italian and Mediterranean-style, but I can't seem to find the courage to step out and commit.

 

We've been living on fairly plain meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and lots and lots of brown rice or potatoes and beans. We eat pasta twice per week (tinkyada). I have a vegetarian cookbook that has totally saved my bacon (LOL) titled, "366 Ways to Cook Rice, Beans, and Grains." Her recipes are from around the world and we love them.

 

Obviously, our diet is very healthful and pretty frugal. Still, I always feel as if I'm repeating recipes too often and have too many different 'styles' to my GF cooking. I don't like tex-mex one night, pizza the next, and an Indian dish on Wednesday. That is too helter-skelter for me. Not grounded. I am flying by the seat of my pants and I don't like it.

 

I think if I could really learn how to cook GF Italian/Mediterranean foods as the culture of my kitchen, I'd be able to keep our favorite recipes from my Rice, Beans, and Grains book. The best ones are from all around the Mediterranean.

 

My most often used herbs and spices are basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, parsley, cumin, peppers, and chilis. We love tomatoes, onions, and garlic, and we love beans.

 

If any true foodies are still reading, what I need is direction. If I could start with 6 breakfast menus, 6 lunch menus, 6 supper menus, and a handful of appetizers, snacks, and desserts, I could build from there.

 

Can you recommend any cookbooks? Any authentic, delicious, frugal, whole foods favorites of the Italian/Mediterranean persuasion? Can I start anew with our family's food culture or is that too big a thing to attempt?

[Jean in Newcastle]

Looking at your list, aren't these gluten free?:

 

Coleslaw, potato salad, beef stew, sauerkraut, cabbage rolls, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, potato soup, green bean salad, green beans w/ bacon and onions, pickled beets, pickles, deviled eggs, pork tenderloin.

 

I'd try finding a way to make things like breadings and/or meatball type things with gluten free crackers or gluten free breadcrumbs for special occasions.

 

I also saw some recipes for gluten free egg noodles online but have not tried them.

[meggie]

I don't have any GF ideas, but wanted to recommend this website for your menu planning. It will keep all the recipes you like and you can create a menu plan and it will automatically create a shopping list for you. Hopefully it can make your life a bit easier and take away some of the stress.

[Carol in Cal.]

Maybe your children will remember at the core that you made really good food that was healthy for the family. It can come from a variety of cultures.

 

I have a German-American background, but my mother hated to cook. She made the 'bland American diet' and her treat foods were either rarely purchased expensive meats (that she made us miserable by emphasizing so much) or ersatz 'German' foods (like canned saurkraut) that put me off German food for years, because I never really had any that was any good.

 

An aunt gave me a Sunset French cookbook when I was a young adult that was a revelation to me. Finally, food that was really, really good! I learned to enjoy cooking it and eating it. I had always liked Chinese food, and added Japanese and Greek foods to my repertoire by experimenting at home and at restaurants. Now I will cook and eat anything that tastes good, and I can enjoy food anywhere. That's a great thing! I want that for my family. I don't want them to feel tied to a particular food culture, except for a culture of eating food that is tasty and enjoyable. (If it's also healthy, great!)

 

Regarding your specific issue: My inclination would be to sign up for a CSA (I'm in one now, and I love it) and try to focus on seasonally available fresh veggies whereever possible. This is the most healthy food around, and it's so much better than the stuff in grocery stores that it really is enticing. Establishing seasonal food as the primary basis of your cuisine will be healthier for you, more environmentally sound, and very replicable for your children when they grow up. Also, look for the filling items on the list. Fennel bulbs, raw carrots, daikon, artichokes, a big ol salad with a little sharp cheddar cheese in it, a large plate of fresh asparagus, some yellow bell peppers and garden tomatoes with fresh mozzerella cheese, olive oil, and basil--these are filling to the point where the noodles and fatty meats are more of a condiment to the meal instead of the main attraction. Also, you can use veggies like spaghetti squash or shredded zucchini much like pasta in some dishes.

 

Now that I'm in a CSA, I cook at home more. I use seasonal produce a lot. One of the main bases for my cooking is having good salad dressing makings around all the time--3-4 special vinegars, a couple of good oils, lots of different types of dried herbs--and eating salad almost every day, meal size. I also try to use up the food 'in the box' and although I do fail most weeks at this endeavor, I am eating far more produce than ever before.

 

To this end I recommend the vegetable cookbooks from Shepherd Seeds. They have dishes built around an abundance of some garden veggie, and they are really, really good. "Food To Live By" from an owner of Earthbound Farms is really good, too. I understand that she has a second cookbook, but have not seen it yet. I would start with those.

[Carol in Cal.]

BTW, I have never solved the dessert thing. Every dessert that is 'healthy' except angel food cake with chocolate syrup leaves me cold. I don't think that a halfway measure works with desserts like those cookies. Either you have them or you don't, but the substitutes just make you crazy and are not worth bothering with. JMO.

[Plucky]

Have you mentioned using gluten-free quinoa? You can use that in place of any rice in a meal and it is very easy.

[Mom0012]

Looking at your list, aren't these gluten free?:

 

Coleslaw, potato salad, beef stew, sauerkraut, cabbage rolls, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, potato soup, green bean salad, green beans w/ bacon and onions, pickled beets, pickles, deviled eggs, pork tenderloin.

 

I'd try finding a way to make things like breadings and/or meatball type things with gluten free crackers or gluten free breadcrumbs for special occasions.

 

I also saw some recipes for gluten free egg noodles online but have not tried them.

 

That's what I was thinking. And GF meatballs are really easy to make. No breading is necessary. I cook up large batches and keep them in the freezer.

 

Lisa

[Unicorn.]

 

Off the top of my head, here are the family foods that show up at every family dinner and that all the women can cook in our sleep:

 

Chicken and dumplings, egg noodles, wurst, saurkraut, cole slaw, potato salad, beef stew, pan-fried chicken, meatballs, cabbage rolls, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, potato soup, green bean salad, green beans with bacon and onions, pickled beets, pickles, deviled eggs, potato bread, pork schnitzel, pork tenderloin, yeast rolls, pretzels, apple kuchen, stollen, and Christmas cookies such as springerele, pfefferneusse, and spritz.

 

This food culture does not translate to gluten-free. It just doesn't. And I can't seem to find our niche.

 

QUOTE]

 

In response to the bolded part: Yes it does.

 

Chicken and dumplings, take out the dumplings, add rice- you have a lovely chicken soup instead

 

wurst, saurkraut, cole slaw, potato salad, beef stew, (I don't see gluten here at all)

 

pan-fried chicken, you can fry chicken w/ just seasonings and no breading- still delicious!

 

meatballs- don't add bread or crackers, you can use oatmeal run through a food processor if you need to. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but I don't ever add bread or crackers to mine.

 

cabbage rolls- unless you are rolling them in egg roll wrappers- no gluten here either

 

mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, potato soup, green bean salad, green beans with bacon and onions, pickled beets, pickles, deviled eggs, pork tenderloin, - again, no gluten

 

Apple pie- don't make a crust, and don't add flour as a thickener. Just spray a pie plate, put in your apples, sugar, and spices, and bake. Yum!

 

potato bread, pork schnitzel, and all those lovely cookies- well, there's a problem..... I know there is a really good peanut butter cookie recipe that doesn't have any flour at all, but I don't know where it is right now.

 

:grouphug: and good luck!

[Ellesmere]

I'm not sure if this cookbook, The Wheat-Free Cook or her other Italian one would help you.

 

The author was food writer that got diagnosed with celiac. She has an impressive resume. We are just wheat-allergic, not celiac, so I haven't gotten as far with GF cooking. Not sure if those resources will help, but thought I'd toss them out for consideration.

[Slartibartfast]

I would practice dumplings until I found a good GF recipe. There are GF mixes, have you tried those?

 

I am allergic to dairy and some stuff I cook practically the same except for a few substitutions. There are a lot of choices now. :)

[KatieJ]

Look for some Carol Fenster cookbooks. She is GF for a very long time and her cookbooks are wonderful. Best ones I have found for GF stuff. She has many but 1,000 Gluten Free is huge! I got 100 GF recipes for Mother's day from one of my DD's and I can't wait to try some new stuff!

 

She is the first person I have found that uses Sorghum flour instead of rice flour. ( I am supposedly rice intolerant along with wheat).

[Sebastian (a lady)]

BTW, I have never solved the dessert thing. Every dessert that is 'healthy' except angel food cake with chocolate syrup leaves me cold. I don't think that a halfway measure works with desserts like those cookies. Either you have them or you don't, but the substitutes just make you crazy and are not worth bothering with. JMO.

 

I had a tasty dessert a few years back that I think would be GF.

 

It was a large bowl in which frozen raspberries, crumbled merengue cookies and fresh whipped cream (not Cool Whip) had been layered. I think that there were three sets of layers. It was placed in the refrigerator and was cool and soothing (but not still frozen) when served.

[Margaret in GA]

Maybe your children will remember at the core that you made really good food that was healthy for the family. It can come from a variety of cultures.

 

I have a German-American background, but my mother hated to cook. She made the 'bland American diet' and her treat foods were either rarely purchased expensive meats (that she made us miserable by emphasizing so much) or ersatz 'German' foods (like canned saurkraut) that put me off German food for years, because I never really had any that was any good.

 

An aunt gave me a Sunset French cookbook when I was a young adult that was a revelation to me. Finally, food that was really, really good! I learned to enjoy cooking it and eating it. I had always liked Chinese food, and added Japanese and Greek foods to my repertoire by experimenting at home and at restaurants. Now I will cook and eat anything that tastes good, and I can enjoy food anywhere. That's a great thing! I want that for my family. I don't want them to feel tied to a particular food culture, except for a culture of eating food that is tasty and enjoyable. (If it's also healthy, great!)

 

Regarding your specific issue: My inclination would be to sign up for a CSA (I'm in one now, and I love it) and try to focus on seasonally available fresh veggies whereever possible. This is the most healthy food around, and it's so much better than the stuff in grocery stores that it really is enticing. Establishing seasonal food as the primary basis of your cuisine will be healthier for you, more environmentally sound, and very replicable for your children when they grow up. Also, look for the filling items on the list. Fennel bulbs, raw carrots, daikon, artichokes, a big ol salad with a little sharp cheddar cheese in it, a large plate of fresh asparagus, some yellow bell peppers and garden tomatoes with fresh mozzerella cheese, olive oil, and basil--these are filling to the point where the noodles and fatty meats are more of a condiment to the meal instead of the main attraction. Also, you can use veggies like spaghetti squash or shredded zucchini much like pasta in some dishes.

 

Now that I'm in a CSA, I cook at home more. I use seasonal produce a lot. One of the main bases for my cooking is having good salad dressing makings around all the time--3-4 special vinegars, a couple of good oils, lots of different types of dried herbs--and eating salad almost every day, meal size. I also try to use up the food 'in the box' and although I do fail most weeks at this endeavor, I am eating far more produce than ever before.

 

To this end I recommend the vegetable cookbooks from Shepherd Seeds. They have dishes built around an abundance of some garden veggie, and they are really, really good. "Food To Live By" from an owner of Earthbound Farms is really good, too. I understand that she has a second cookbook, but have not seen it yet. I would start with those.

 

:iagree:

Instead of feeling out of whack because you have Mexican one night and Italian the next, you will have the common thread of fresh fruits and vegetables. That's our anchor. Meal planning at my house is a nightmare since one kid is a vegetarian, one is a carnivore who is dairy free, and I am gluten and dairy free. I begin every meal plan with what is in the garden (or available at our farmer's market).

 

Good luck!

Margaret

[texasmama]

I have had fabulous success with subbing in a gf flour mix in regular recipes. It is 2 cups white rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch flour and 1/3 cup tapioca flour. Add a teaspoon of zanthan gum per cup of flour. You would need to experiment to see if it would work for things like dumplings.

[Tess in the Burbs]

well, we don't have a food culture in our kitchen but my kids love and can't wait to learn to cook the food I cook. We basically took all our favorite meals and adapted them to my GF and my ds allergies. It took some experiments. Some things weren't good :tongue_smilie: But now we have foods from most cultures as part of our food....mexican, american, asian....anything my kids want we make our own at home.

 

I will say some things we haven't been able to copy. I still don't have a great GF cake recipe. I want this so badly! Same with biscuits. They are just okay. Other breads no problem. But Monkey Bread has been impossible. Some things just aren't worth the trouble either, lol.

 

Just keep cooking. Find a recipe you like and try to substitute. I had to be willing to use mixes at times to make things work. We are limited in the GF mixes b/c of my ds allergies :-( Otherwise I think we would have most everything covered....his food issues are so much harder than my GF.

 

don't give up. It's been years for us eating special diets and there is rarely anything now we can't have...I have found we can duplicate most things.

[Spy Car]

I guess I'm with those who think you could preserve an authentic German American cuisine with a few tweaks and substitutions.

 

Cooked red cabbage, coleslaw, sauerkraut, stuffed cabbage and other cabbage dishes are no problem. Then add more greens to round out the mix.

 

All the potato dishes still work. Do you make German hot-potato salad (no mayo)? My German American Grandmother made that as a specialty along with almost daily Coleslaw (also no mayo).

 

I've never made gluten-free Spaetzle, but there are lots of recipes online. GF egg noodles too.

 

Eat more beans (from dry). They are healthful and economical.

 

There are German rice dishes, but even basic brown rice won't stick out I'd the surrounding foods are " German."

 

Yams and sweet potatoes.

 

Apple "pie" just baked without crust.

 

I think you could work some new things in (while working gluten out) but still preserving the essence of your food culture.

 

Do you have any Juniper berries. A small amount of Juniper makes almost anything taste "German" to me.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill