Gluten Free On the Go: You Can Take It With You

By Mary McGrane

This collection of Gluten Free recipes includes delicious food you can make at home and take with you on the road to work, traveling, conferences, picnics or family gatherings, combined with inspirational stories of observations and daily life adventures that inspired each dish. This book can help ease the adjustment of Gluten Free living with foods you can eat. So just add a little inspiration to your cooking or gathering ingredients and stir your soul with the stories and photos in this collection of Gluten Free recipes

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781716369223

Book preview

Gluten Free On the Go: You Can Take It With You

Gluten Free On the Go: You Can Take It With You

First Edition

Copyright © Mary McGrane 2020

All Rights Reserved

ISBN 978-1-716-36922-3

A Guide to Gluten Free Living On the Road

It is a dark and rainy night, somewhere between winter and spring. Things are quiet, somehow dulled by the sound of the rain, as though the rain takes over our normal perception of night and dark. Storms have their own energy source it seems and sometimes are invigorating – like the times when there are high winds and a sense of electricity in the air. Sometimes I like to walk along the boardwalk nearby in the rain, enjoying the moisture in the air and the feeling of the wind, somehow making you feel alive. Other times you want to stay home and curl up with a blanket and a good book, and good food.

Food – it nourishes, comforts and fills us, often satiating desires, often uplifting and eases hunger. In a time of fast foods and prepared foods, it is good to spend some time cooking or preparing your own food. Especially on a night like this with the rain heavy on the roof, and you can’t yet sleep, and all is quiet, yes, but you are somehow restless. So on nights like this I often cook. Making something simple or special, depending on the mood or need. I make a batch of something that I can savor for days or even weeks if it can be frozen. And so you create something out of nothing. That somehow soothes the soul or a restless spirit - to create something and to nourish.

Make a batch and then mix and match. Finding creative ways to prepare and eat food that is not only wholesome but also meets dietary requirements for those of us who are restricted from things like gluten.

The question of how to eat gluten free is one concept, but another whole arena is to be gluten free on the go when you are at work or traveling. And yes it requires a little effort and some planning and cooking, but the result is rewarding as well as healthy.

Also important is to consult your doctor before changing your diet.

Against the Grain

Not to become too scientific, but it seems important to include some basic information regarding gluten – especially if the reader is new to a gluten free way of life.

Gluten, which comes from Latin, or glue, is actually a group of proteins, namely prolanins and gluteins, found in various cereal grains, including wheat species of plants, like barley, rye, oats, spelt and wheat. Glutens help to give dough an elasticity and help breads to rise.

In some people, gluten can trigger inflammation and or autoimmune reactions – some having an allergy to or sensitivity to gluten, and a doctor’s advice should always be sought if you suspect you have any kind of sensitivity or reaction to foods. This writing will not address celiac disease, which is much more serious and debilitating in many ways than simply being intolerant or sensitive and definitely needs the advice and counsel of a doctor. But the tips and recipes here and suggestions for taking food with you that are gluten free can certainly be helpful, for it can be challenging to adopt a gluten free lifestyle, and it is often hard to determine which foods, especially prepared foods, are gluten free, and so I make my own food and eat as much fresh produce as possible.

The recipes here can be taken and eaten cold, or you can use a thermos. Of course some cold foods need to be in a cooler or bag with a cold pack or ice, especially if the foods contain eggs or dairy.

So, ever the researcher and scientist of life, I found some ways to prepare foods to take with me so I’d be sure of the food’s ingredients. And I thought why not share it with others? And cooking became something more than just cooking dinner, as you will see as these stories unfold.

I was a bit worried when thinking about the important presence of wheat in this country, those amber waves of grain, feeling foolishly unpatriotic somehow. But then I discovered that wheat was not endemic here but was brought to this country by travelers.

But where did wheat begin? It has been written that wheat originated and the area of the Tigris and Euphrates River Valley near Iraq, which is often referred to as the Basket of Creation, where the earliest civilization was born and flourished. This part of the tale gives an ancient and mysterious origin to such a tiny grain that has fed so many people. In ancient Rome wheat was protected by the Roman goddess Ceres, and from Ceres we derive the generic term of cereal.

Wheat being born as a grain in that ancient civilization also gave me a feeling of something tribal, traditional, but also mysterious. Why would wheat have originated and grown here, and why would it survive in being brought to other places? It was the red wheat variety that thrived here in America, hardy and strong enough to withstand a cold climate. Was the grain a tougher version of wheat and not endemic that would cause a sensitivity – or more likely our own immune systems becoming delicate and rejecting certain foods – worsened by the stresses of daily life? We no longer even grown our own good but purchase it in the supermarket.

Some sources claim that Christopher Columbus brought wheat with him during his voyage to America, while other sources state that wheat was brought from Spain to Mexico in the 1500’s and spread to southwestern America.

In colonial times farmers first grew wheat as a hobby crop. George Washington was supposed to have grown wheat at his farm in Mount Vernon, Virginia.

It seems Kansas is the number one state for the production of wheat. I have been to Kansas – at the border of Kansas and Missouri for a work training session, but all I remember was