What's For Dinner?

Here's a recipe my family LOVES. Julie sent it to me, I changed it up a little, and you can do the same as well depending upon your family's tastes.


Lettuce Wraps

2 T. plus 2 t. sesame oil
1-1/2 lb. of raw chicken or turkey (finely chopped)
1 small red pepper, seeded and diced fine
½ cup fresh cilantro finely chopped
4 green onions, sliced
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. garlic powder
2 T. low sodium or lite LaChoy soy sauce or GF Tamari sauce
2 t. Asian Fish Sauce (Taste of Thai) (If you don't add this, add a little salt, but we like it)
2 T. Asian Sweet Red Chili Sauce (Taste of Thai or Thai Kitchen)

10-12 Ice Berg lettuce leaves – washed and patted dry

SAUCE:
¼ cup creamy peanut butter
¼ cup low sodium or lite LaChoy soy sauce or GF Tamari sauce
¼ cup fresh lime juice
1-1/2 tbs. brown sugar
1 tbs. rice vinegar
½ tsp. ground coriander
¼ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (optional but worth it)

1. Heat the 2T. oil in a large fry pan or wok. Add the meat and cook for about 8 minutes until done. Transfer to a plate.

2. In same pan, add all ingredients – except lettuce and sauce ingredients. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the peppers and green onions are soft.

3. Combine sauce ingredients in a microwaveable medium size bowl. Heat on high power about 1 minute or until peanut butter melts. Remove from microwave and stir until smooth and peanut butter is blended into the sauce.You can also pour the sauce into the chicken mixture and heat a few minutes.

4. Assemble lettuce wraps and top with a spoonful of sauce if you didn't put it on the chicken mix. Top with soy sauce and/or chili sauce.

Orange Oily Pooh: The Case for Digestive Enzymes in the Gluten Free Diet

Most of you are probably wondering what the reference to "orange oily pooh" was about in the last blog article. Well, for those of you who know the story, sit tight, there is a purpose in my repeating the gory details for all to know.

Several months ago I purchased and fed my family some Orange Roughy fillets for dinner one night. The next morning, my oldest son came to be and announced that when he went to the bathroom, the end result was orange oily pooh. Because Samuel had already received the nickname, "dram," short for "drama," I dutifully ignored his presentation and went about my task wiping the remnants of last year's debris and dirt out of a silverware tray inside the drawer. Later that afternoon, he returned to announce that the orange oily pooh had struck again, and this time, quite unexpectedly, if you know what I mean. Well, this starting to alarm me and I did what any good mother would do. Ignore him, and when he wasn't looking, start Googling "orange oily pooh" at breakneck speed. At first I found nothing. But then I found a story some radio announcer put online about his experience.

The story began as he was taking a nap on his office floor and awoke to this nasty smell. He figured he passed a little gas while passed out and proceeded to use the copy machine. Here at the machine he smelled it again, and then again at the water cooler. Deciding the only common denominator was indeed himself, he hiked straight the bathroom, where much to his horror he had orange oily pooh that had already left an oil slick in his pants. Embarrassed, he went home and called his doctor who could not help him. He researched on the Internet to no avail, and then desperate to confirm that he was not in fact dying of some strange disease one oil slick at a time, told his entire listening audience the next day of his dilemma. One listener called in and suggested he'd eaten some type of fish found off the coast of China. After some research, the guy realized that he had in fact eaten this fish called Escolar, and that for a long period of time, the FDA had disallowed its import for fear of health complications. Turns out the unhealthy fish is not all that harmful (that didn't stop me from bathing Samuel in chlorophyll) but is often caught and passed off as other types of fish like Orange Roughy since it is a cheaper fish. It's still outlawed in Japan, by the way. Needless to say, I sped back up to Woodman's, swiped a package of "Orange Roughy" that to this day is still for sale there in a bin in the frozen seafood isle, and headed to the meat counter. After explaining to the butcher our experience with this fish, he looked at the back of the package and said, "Oh, yeah. That doesn't surprise me. It's from China. They'll do things like that!" He did give me my money back and pretty much acted like having orange oily pooh leaking out your caboose was no big deal and not all that abnormal.

Well, I wondered why Samuel was the only one of us who suffered from this malady, but then I remembered that Eli had not eaten dinner that night, and the rest of us because of Celiac Disease and/or occasional flatulence take digestive enzymes, which evidently helped our bodies process the nasty oil excreted from the Escolar more efficiently. It made me realize how important digestive enzymes are in a person's diet, no matter how healthy you eat. As we age, the enzymes our bodies make naturally decline in production. That is why Great Aunt Ethel was prone to tooting when she thought no one could hear it and eventually stopped being able to control it at all. What a gas! And people who are gluten intolerant especially have a need for extra enzymes in the diet. If you're interested in scoring some, let me know! You certainly don't want to be the butt of jokes when you walk out of the room!

This article in no way seeks to diagnose or treat any health problem.

The "Buck" on Buckwheat

In spite of those five nasty little letters w-h-e-a-t in buckwheat, it is not related to the wheat family at all. In fact, it more closely resembles a sunflower seed with a single seed inside a hard outer hull. As such, it contains NO gluten, but eater beware! According to the Gluten Free Bible by Jax Peters Lowell and other sources, buckwheat "is almost always contaminated by unsafe grains at the growing, milling, or processing stage." Sound familiar? (Oats!) Another reason to be careful--China is the largest supplier of buckwheat in the world and much of our buckwheat is imported from there. (Remember orange oily pooh?!) Yep, pretty much anything can be found in buckwheat coming from China. If you do want to add this healthy grain to your diet (it is rich in protein, amino acids, minerals, and antioxidants) then buy from Bob's Red Mill or Pocono as they are considered safe sources. You may want to consider that when buying questionable grains like buckwheat or oats, you buy from sources having the gluten free certification symbol of "GF" with a circle around it. Oh, and one more thing: don't let the fact that buckwheat is primarily used as "green manure" scare you away from the health benefits of it. It really isn't as poopy as you might think. Farmers use this nutrient rich grain to return nutrients to the soil that other crops strip away when raised. The buckwheat is not even harvested but plowed under for the next crop rotation. I think I'll go make some buckwheat green manure pancakes now.

Next Gluten Intolerance Group of Lake County meeting is on Monday, November 24th.

Newsflash!!! Pieros Pizza in Highland Park and Northbrook is reported to have 10" gluten free pizzas. Check out their website at pieropizza.com They don't mention gluten free, but hopefully the info is valid. I have to check that out!! The website says you can take and bake one home too!

Welcome to GlutenFreeMommas! We are a group of women who are desperately trying to figure out how to be gluten free whether we're having dinner at home, at our mom's house, touring Washington, DC, or eating out. Feel free to post recipes to this blog if you have tried them and think we would enjoy them too. Also, if you have product tips or sale finds, please share that as well. I hope and pray this will be a useful tool in helping our families to be healthier by being gluten free!