During our time in Maui this summer, I had the opportunity
to do a fair amount of reading. Wheat
Belly is one the titles I perused from the comfort of my poolside lounge
chair. As someone with a budding
interest in nutrition, I’ve found that some of the recent revelations like fat
won’t make you fat (even Time magazine is exposing that myth) and that our food
pyramid heavy with grains may need to be turned on its head, are very
fascinating to me. Nutrition tends to be pretty even handed in our household,
so I’m not one to jump on the bandwagon of the latest fad. As a mostly vegetarian, I’ve never been
committed enough to go vegan.
Especially while traveling, my husband and I embrace our flexitarian
ways, getting fresh sustainable fish when we can and rarely slipping in a bite
of other meats when they are organic, local, and free range.
Wheat has been a part of our diet. Most mornings we have a homemade cereal and whole-wheat
flour and sometimes wheat bran have been among the ingredients. We get a loaf of sourdough or squaw
bread at the farmer’s market most weeks.
We occasionally have flour tortillas around to serve with bowls of chili
or beans. While sandwiches are not
a staple for us at lunchtime we sometimes grab a baguette with some cheese
and vegetables for a lunch on the go every other weekend. So after reading Wheat Belly, I
started to wonder what effect (if any) the wheat in our diet is having on
us. I read a few passages aloud to
Greg and he replied, “ I used to
think I had a beer belly, but now I think I have a wheat belly.” Then in true Greg fashion he
recommended we take on a challenge.
“We should try going gluten-free.” Try to understand that all of the
life changing challenges we have taken on have been Greg’s idea. “ We should take yoga. We should be vegetarians. We should climb Half Dome.” And the list goes on. Greg comes up with these grand ideas
and then I end up running with them.
When I clarified that most beer is made from wheat, Greg revised his
statement. “Well, lets just try it
for a month.”
So here we are on day one of going gluten free. I’ve decided at the bare minimum to
share what we eat each day, in case anyone else out there is looking for gluten
free meal ideas or would like to join us in this challenge. I do have one disclaimer. Individuals who go gluten free because
they know they have a gluten sensitivity or even more serious celiac disease
will need to be more careful about gluten exposure than we are going to
be. So while we won’t be eating
bread, wheat products or anything else we are aware contains gluten, we are not
going to obsess over product labels that read something to the effect that a
product has been processed in a facility that also processes wheat. We aren’t going to stress over trace
amounts. Yet we understand that
many individuals do have to be very very careful about wheat exposure, and our
hearts go out to you because wheat is in so many things!
Here was our first attempt. Day One Gluten Free:
Breakfast
Overnight oats
¼ cup rolled oats (Bob’s Red Mill has great gluten free
products)
½ cup raw milk whole fat milk
1 tsp chia seeds
sprinkle of cinnamon
(Place these ingredients in a covered jar in the fridge
before bed. The next morning, heat
until warm. I stir in a drizzle of
local honey and top with fruit.
This morning we had farmer’s market peaches on top!)
Lunch
Stuffed avocado with egg salad, rice crackers and melon
balls
I got the rice crackers at Trader Joes. (They are made
mainly with rice flour and sesame seeds).
Egg Salad (I
made a lot so we can have leftover for lunch later in the week)
7 hardboiled cage free or pastured eggs (chopped)
3 tablespoons yellow mustard
2 tablespoons pickle relish
1 rib celery (chopped)
10 chives or skinny green onions (finely chopped)
salt and pepper to taste
5 basil leaves (thinly sliced) for garnish
I mixed all of the ingredients for the egg salad together
(except the basil) and chilled it.
I arrange 10 crackers along side a handful of melon balls on a small
plate. I filled ½ avocado with the
egg salad mixture and garnished with basil. We scooped the avocado filling onto the crackers.
Dinner
Grilled Eggplant marinated in balsamic vinaigrette served
with dirty rice and Burrata cheese
(fresh tomato, basil and green olive garnish)
Dessert
I made peanut butter fudge. There is a lot of sugar in this dessert, but no gluten. We all must make compromises
sometimes. I’ll post this recipe
later this week! Stay tuned!
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