Pizza

We love our pizza in this house. That is one of the things we figured we'd miss the most now that we've moved to gluten-free dining.

We did try Mellow Mushroom's gluten-free crust when we were travelling a few weeks ago. However, compared to Mellow's regular crusts, we were disappointed. Oh, it was edible enough. It was good, but it honestly only made us miss our lovely wheat crusts.

More than the pizza we get in restaurants, we were crestfallen that we would no longer be able to make our own favorite homemade crust. Not only did this recipe call for flour, but also Landshark beer. Neither of those are gluten free!

Today we discovered that Red Mill makes a gluten-free pizza mix. Wary though we still are about gluten-free products, we were pleasantly surprised with the outcome. We even substituted the warm water with warm gluten-free beer.

It might not be up to our usual pizza standards yet, but I think with a few adjustments, we'll get it. In the meantime, it's nice to know we don't have to give up all our favorite foods.

Gluten-Free Noodle Soup

In our journey into a gluten-free diet, I have discovered how much I love pho noodles. Especially in chicken noodle soup. While a lot of gluten-free noodles try and fail to have the texture and taste of wheat noodles, these wide rice noodles are not ashamed of what they are and are more delicious for it.

Our recipe is simple. In a saucepan, heat up a small splash of oil and chopped ginger and garlic. Then in the same saucepan, we boiled chopped carrots, mushrooms, and celery in gluten-free chicken broth. Some shredded boiled chicken would also be a great addition.

We cooked the noodles in water (not the chicken broth) according to the package instructions. When the noodles are drained and done, and the veggies are softening, that is when we add the noodles to the chicken broth along with some chopped fresh green onions.

It smells wonderful, tastes even better, and is healthy. Hello, veggies!

The Gluten-Free Adventure

Up until a few weeks ago, phrases like gluten-free seemed like buzzwords used by marketing professionals to sell products to the health food and organic only crowd. I do have a friend with a gluten allergy (as well as several other food allergies). Even still, it wasn't something I had to deal with daily.

Until my husband started having stomach trouble.

It took two months of various doctor visits and diet changes for us to narrow down what what wrong. Being the analytic type that he is, he tracked the timing of his symptoms to the sandwich he ate for lunch daily. He suggested we cut gluten and dairy from his diet for a few weeks and see if that helped. We were desperate for any solution to let him finally feel well for more than a few days!

Would you believe we started to see his health improve almost immediately? We still haven't gotten this confirmed with an allergist, but if eating gluten-free lets him feel normal then God bless it!

If anyone reading this had ever tried to transition into a gluten-free diet, you know it isn't easy. Every label has to be checked and double checked. It's worth it to have a healthy family. We're actually both eating healthier meals because of it.

Here's one of my favorite recipes we've tried so far. I adapted it from this Apron's Simple Meal.

The ginger paste was already gluten-free, and all I had to substitute was a gluten-free flour for the coating. Easy and delicious!

Does anyone out there have any gluten-free recipes that they love?