Gluten-free experiment, days, uh...13-18
This week went by very quickly, so I'll just do some summarizing.
There have been lots of Lärabars, since I found them on sale at the co-op. I haven't had much time to cook, but Saturday night I made dinner with a friend--mashed potatoes and braised kale with marinated tofu cutlets and portabello mushrooms with some merlot and this amazing chocolate for dessert. One screw-up: I threw shoyu into the marinade without thinking and didn't remember that it contains wheat until I was halfway done eating. Oh well.
Lunches have largely been courtesy of Amy. They really should be commended for making good stuff that's gluten free. For two days I also had a combination of dolmas and marinated gigandes beans, rounded out with an apple and PB.
Last night I got Indian take-out and crossed my fingers that I was guessing right on gluten content rather than interrogating the employee. We had pappadums, an appetizer sampler of which I ate the vegetable pakoras (it specifically said chick pea flour, so I'm hoping they didn't mix it with wheat flour) with tamarind chutney, and aloo bhindi with rice.
I'm finding that the things I miss most are beer and the ability to easily get take-out. I did recently see that the place nearby that makes good vegan pizza has introduced a gluten-free crust, but even without that the food is so expensive I usually consider it out of bounds. But no falafel sandwiches, and I've been avoiding the veggie Thai place on the assumption that there would be wheat in the soy sauce they use. Even Ethiopian places nearly always make injera with a mixture of teff and wheat flour, so I figure that's out.
Anyway, I'm going to keep this up through the weekend and then hit non-wheat gluten forms pretty heavily for a couple days. If I don't react to that I'll add wheat back in and see if there's any difference. My hunch is that I'll decide to generally avoid large amounts of gluten in my diet (like having seitan as a significant portion of a meal, which I typically have avoided in the past anyway) and try to eat a good diversity of starches, but not worry about the small stuff. It would suck if it turned out that I needed to avoid it completely, but at least now I've got the experience to know that it certainly is doable.
There have been lots of Lärabars, since I found them on sale at the co-op. I haven't had much time to cook, but Saturday night I made dinner with a friend--mashed potatoes and braised kale with marinated tofu cutlets and portabello mushrooms with some merlot and this amazing chocolate for dessert. One screw-up: I threw shoyu into the marinade without thinking and didn't remember that it contains wheat until I was halfway done eating. Oh well.
Lunches have largely been courtesy of Amy. They really should be commended for making good stuff that's gluten free. For two days I also had a combination of dolmas and marinated gigandes beans, rounded out with an apple and PB.
Last night I got Indian take-out and crossed my fingers that I was guessing right on gluten content rather than interrogating the employee. We had pappadums, an appetizer sampler of which I ate the vegetable pakoras (it specifically said chick pea flour, so I'm hoping they didn't mix it with wheat flour) with tamarind chutney, and aloo bhindi with rice.
I'm finding that the things I miss most are beer and the ability to easily get take-out. I did recently see that the place nearby that makes good vegan pizza has introduced a gluten-free crust, but even without that the food is so expensive I usually consider it out of bounds. But no falafel sandwiches, and I've been avoiding the veggie Thai place on the assumption that there would be wheat in the soy sauce they use. Even Ethiopian places nearly always make injera with a mixture of teff and wheat flour, so I figure that's out.
Anyway, I'm going to keep this up through the weekend and then hit non-wheat gluten forms pretty heavily for a couple days. If I don't react to that I'll add wheat back in and see if there's any difference. My hunch is that I'll decide to generally avoid large amounts of gluten in my diet (like having seitan as a significant portion of a meal, which I typically have avoided in the past anyway) and try to eat a good diversity of starches, but not worry about the small stuff. It would suck if it turned out that I needed to avoid it completely, but at least now I've got the experience to know that it certainly is doable.