Gluten free and breakfast

It's a beautiful Fall Saturday morning, and what better way to start the day than a good breakfast.   If you've read the first post in this blog (probably 3 people that incidentally already know all of this, but in the case that anyone ever stumbles across this information later on...) you may be wondering why food has caused such a detrimental time in my life.  A large part of the whole shebang is a little thing called gluten.  I owe a lot of what I know about this protein to my mother, who cared about my welfare more than most mothers would, and who did a ton of research in a quest to find out what the hell was wrong with me.  To make a long story short, I obviously had all of the symptoms of  gluten intolerance which, if you don't know, is a digestive sensitivity to a protein called gluten that is contained in all wheat, barley, and rye products.  Take a moment to think about how many of the foods you eat that have these things in them, especially wheat, and get ready to gasp.  Quickly, symptoms include but are not limited to: depression, fatigue, lack of concentration, diarrhea, bloating, cramping, lack of nutrient absorption, abdominal pain, joint pain, general pain, not going to school and acting like a jerk....OK you get the point.  So let's move on because at this point, it's coming up on ten years since I was lucky enough to find out that I was sensitive to gluten - so I have well adapted to not eating foods that contain it, even though I do slip on occasion I have lately devoted to not making any exceptions.  You will notice that none of the recipes I include or will include have a traditional bread item in them, and one reason for this is to do away with refined carbohydrates, the other reason being gluten intolerance.  So this morning I have included a new recipe of mine which is gluten-free pancakes from scratch - they were actually incredible to my surprise.......here ya go

1 Cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour

1/2 tbsp Peanut oil

1 large egg

2 tbsp honey (in place of refined sugar)

1/2 cup water

1 tsp baking soda

This made (8) 4 inch pancakes so we'll call one serving 4 pancakes

The Red Mill flour is made of garbanzo bean flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, white sorghum flour, and fava bean flour.  Do not taste the batter!! It is not representative of the finished product.  We use 100% pure maple syrup for our pancakes - that's just one ingredient - pure maple syrup- which has 210 calories and 53g carbohydrates per 1/4 cup - so if you're cutting calories you are out of luck, but if you're cutting refined calories you're fine!

Finally-for each serving - 7.5g fat, 325 calories, 9g protein, and 61g carbohydrates - then add your syrup and screw the whole carb./calories thing up right!!  Keep in mind that peanut oil has 7g fat per 1/2 tbsp, but 2.5g of that is polyunsaturated fat, and 3g of it is monounsaturated, 0 trans fat, and only 1.25 g saturated fat, not that there is anything wrong with saturated fat - it tastes good I know that!!  Well that was a lot to read, I hope you try the pancakes -

The plot

The Plot

It needs a little weeding right now, a lot of rain (which it is getting right now), and some compost.  All said, here is my garden plot.  Right now it has some winter squash, several varieties of lettuce just coming in, collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, lots of english peas, turnip greens, and the remnants of things grown this past summer season.  Plans for this winter include getting a load of fine ground mulch to till in and break up some of that nice SC red clay, and extending the plot another 15 or so feet.  No, it's not a professionally groomed, perfectly balanced, elegantly planted or charmingly beautiful garden, but it grows unprocessed, raw, nutrient rich, and to add a cliche....healthy food.  Salads, peas, broccoli, and squash coming up!!

Winter Squash

Cayenne peppers anyone?

In addition to the garden...

Ok, I love to cook.  Part of learning how to eat inevitably includes the aspect of providing food for yourself.  Do we really want to know, or even start to think about what is in the food that we consume when we go out to eat?  Not to mention how over processed most of it is.  Finally, if you do go to a restaurant that claims that they serve fresh produce etc. etc., how much does a meal cost?  So, I'd like to share the meals that I cook along with total calories, total fat, total carbs, and total protein in these meals.  Most of the figures are close estimates, and we can all go to one of those calorie counting websites that will help us calculate the calories in almost anything we eat.  If you buy something in a package from the supermarket, this info. will be printed right on the nutrition facts label.  Enough blah, blah.  Main point being, if you're looking at this page you are probably trying to eat less meat if any, more veggies, and most importantly the minimal amount of processed, refined, industry provided "foods" as possible right?  I'm not anywhere close to perfect, and I'd love to get to a point where I did not eat any meat whatsoever, but tonight was not that point.  All said, this was a cheap meal, and a super easy one to prepare, so here you go:

5 oz. top sirloin filet (my wife had about 4 oz.) pan seared and cooked in the oven in cast iron skillet.

1.5 cups steamed cauliflower with 1 oz. melted cheddar cheese (real cheese)

2 cups mixed organic baby greens w/ shredded carrots

2 tbsp. pickled beet vinegar, honey, olive oil, lemon juice dressing (homemade)

Alright, dinner grand totals: 719 calories, 53 grams of fat, 30 grams carbohydrates, 52 grams of protein - Just some basics.  More importantly, this meal contained no artificial preservatives, (and really no preservatives at all except whatever they do to the meat and the other things they don't have to tell us, but relatively speaking, none) a small or appropriate portion of meat, and a large portion of veggies...real veggies, and lastly the whole meal for 2 was under 10 bucks. 

Coming up....pics of the fall crops

The beginning

It all started in high school.  I was falling asleep during exams, unable to focus on school, I had no motivation to do anything, and depression was taking over my life.  After I almost didn't pass high school, and I flunked out of college, food was the last thing I would have thought of to be the reason for all of this ugly mess I was in.  It turns out that food was claiming sole responsibility for all of it.  So this was the beginning of the quest to learn as much as I could about the food I was eating.  From food allergies to sensitivities to preservatives it's easy to feel alone when one first sees how their body is reacting to the hundreds of substances present in what we call processed foods, and the basis for many of our diets today.  I have landed here for now, investigating all of the possibilities of the home garden and how it can affect everyday life and long-term health.  I am not a scientist (yet), and I am going through this process with the use of a little common sense, and mainly trial and error.  So the growing and hopefully the eating starts here.