The Gluten Free Pantry: Gluten Free Cooking in the Real World Where Time and Money Have Limits

By Vanessa Burgess

The Gluten Free Pantry is a cook book focussing on creating a pantry of whole grain, gluten free foods that areappealing for all members of a household. Money and time factors are addressed tofacilitate the gluten free diet as an easier way of life for the individual and their family as families struggle to accomodate the celiac in their home or the celiac who is visiting. Also interwoven into this book is a deep consciousness of the inter-connection between our food choices and the rest of the Earth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 12, 2007
• ISBN: 9781467831567

Vanessa Burgess

Vanessa was born in the northern Canadian town of The Pas. After attending the University of Saskatchewan, she moved to the Pacific Northwest. While living in Saskatchewan, Vanessa was diagnosed with Celiacs at a time when there were few gluten free resources available. She has spent years using her creativity and skills to create gluten free food and experiment with new recipes. Vanessa has spent thirteen years homeschooling her children in different capacities and is currently a student at Western Governor’s University completing a dual license in Special Education and Elementary Education. She lives with her husband, Jonathan, five children, a small dog and a cat on the Olympic Peninsula.

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© 2009 Vanessa Burgess. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 10/13/2009

ISBN: 978-1-4343-2262-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4678-3156-7 (e)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

The Hidden Glutens

What Is Grain?

The Gluten Free Pantry

The Basics

Breakfast

Soups, Stews and Chilis

Salads

Meatless Main Dishes

Main Dishes

Pilafs and Other Sides

Dips, Dressings and Sauces

Baking

Sources

About the Author

Preface

The Gluten Free Pantry: Gluten Free Cooking in the Real World Where Time and Money Have Limits arose from the very real need to have good, inexpensive food to feed more than one person. In the past few years several gluten free and whole food cookbooks have come out, however, they fail to meet some needs in the real world.

Time is a precious commodity. As it was necessary for me to feed more people who had high needs for attention I had to develop many skills to meet the need for healthy food that could actually be eaten. Breakfast is the most important meal I needed yet first thing in the morning I seemed to have no time to prepare anything. Another huge issue I discovered and needed to share was how to take your gluten-free lunch with you without the bread.

Paying someone else to prepare food has never been a financial option for me and is probably a limiting factor for many people when you approach gluten-free food. Costly gluten-free products are also a difficult proposition. Adding cost for products strains finances in any home.

The Gluten Free Pantry is not a result of an expert chef or dietician. I write from the simple humbleness of a home. I often read a recipe and think, That is a great idea, but out here in the real world that may not work. Who has the time or money to do elaborate cooking with scarce resources on a regular basis? I realize money is no object for some people, but most people have limits on what they actually have to spend. Credit creates an illusion of resources but debt is not a sustainable manner to get through life.

The Gluten Free Pantry is also a result of watching my husband and mother struggle to create gluten free meals. My husband willingly cooks when the need arises, however, he is very structure oriented. He cannot, like many people, imagine what would go well in something. After some practice, I could create and add things on the spot but to recreate it was difficult and to tell someone else to recreate something proved to be impossible. Writing down what I did to create something was necessary to recreate the exact combination of what I had made. Recording recipes eventually turned to the idea of writing a book.

My mother’s dilemma is probably more common. How does one accommodate a celiac coming to dinner or to stay for a week? Converting favorite recipes to a gluten-free version does not happen simply by substituting rice flour, rice noodles or even gluten-free baking mixes. My mother has also attempted making food ahead for a visit and discovered there is no simplicity freezing cooked gluten free products. Practice or trial and error are required to facilitate this, yet having someone come to stay for a few days does not always warrant a lot of practice. Many of the recipes are based on whole foods and purchases. Different meals are easily created for several days using foundations of things like black beans and rice, quinoa or millet that meat can be added to easily if desired.

Pantries are a concept that is older than I can imagine. Creating a supply of whole foods to draw on is a subject I have not found anything written about for the celiac. Perhaps the idea of a pantry is taken for granted in some areas, yet to a woman who grew up in an era of computers and where education for a dream career was the focus instead of homemaking, a pantry was a revelation to me. I believe many in my generation had very little training in homemaking because we were becoming educated and involved in a variety of activities that were going to make us into better adults. The idea of a pantry is something that escaped my thoughts most of my life and I do not read about. What I have to get around that learning curve is something I want to share.

I do not spend my entire day cooking or preparing food nor could I. The Gluten Free Pantry has been written in the hope that it will help my husband, my mother and others who hope to create a whole-foods diet for those with gluten sensitivity.

Acknowledgements

No book is written without support and help. A book written by a woman with four children under the age of six has an especially great number of acknowledgements to make.

First and foremost acknowledgement goes to my husband Jonathan for giving me the time and space to write this book. He also gets the acknowledgement of having eaten all of the experiments along the way to arriving at the good food.

My mother deserves recognition. Although our ideas about food now differ she gave me a high standard of good food to rise up to.

There are several women were in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan when I was who need recognition for their contributions. Crystal Showers, Jennifer Sweitzer, Shannon Persicke, Teresa Larsen and Crystal Gobeil carried me in the time before I was diagnosed with celiacs when I fell flat on my face. If they had not risen to the occasion I could not have arrived at a point in my life where I actually began to soar instead of exist.

Doug Robertson and Gladys Ullberg also deserve acknowledgement. I have always had little dreams of writing and having books published. Their encouragement and comments at difficult times in my life added fuel to the sparks of my dreams. These people believed in my potential and spoke their belief.

The Hidden Glutens

I spent a great deal of my recovery time trying to figure out where all the hidden gluten is. Nearly two years went by until I felt I had mastered the gluten ingredient list because different sources talked about different things and no list seemed to be complete. Gluten goes by many different names and can be disguised in many forms. I have compiled a list of hidden gluten that I have found in my search for better health. Please note that when you look at whole foods, many of these hidden gluten sources are not there because you have the food the Earth grew.

Modified Food Starch

Modified food starch seems to be in many processed foods. Starch could come from corn, tapioca, potato or wheat. If you are not clear about the starch, it is better not to eat it. Many products that five years ago had labels that said modified food starch now say modified corn starch. Products that are not from the United States or Canada have different food standards and labels may not be accurate.

MSG (monosodium glutamate)

Many sources would not include MSG in the gluten list. I have read, however, that MSG can come from corn or wheat. I see MSG listed in many ingredients, but have never seen the source. After reading what MSG does normally regardless of the source, it is best to avoid MSG. MSG does not really fit in a whole foods diet anyway.

Flavorings and Extracts

Many flavorings or extracts include a gluten based grain alcohol. These are best avoided.

Candy

Candy usually includes ingredients, however, what is not listed is what the candy comes down the conveyer belt with. Something is required with many candies to prevent the candy from sticking to the conveyer belt and the most available choice is wheat flour.

Rice Syrup

Rice syrup seems safe, but some rice syrup contains barley.

Caramel Color

Caramel color can be made from a variety of sources, including malt syrup coming from forbidden barley or starch hydrolysates that are forbidden wheat. Contact the manufacturer or consider the place of artificial color in a whole foods diet.

Dextrin

Dextrin can be made from many grains including wheat. Avoid dextrin unless you know the source. Malto-dextrin is a preservative and flavor enhancer. Products packaged in the United States should have the maltodextrin from corn, however, not some countries use maltodextrin from wheat. Another reason to eat whole foods and shop locally.

Distilled Vinegar

Distilled vinegar comes from wood