Out Of The Rut

Do you ever feel like you are in a rut when it comes to cooking.  I do.  I often feel like I cook the same things and fall back on those menu items that are most familiar.  It wasn't always that way.  I was adventurous........once.  Now, especially now that we are gluten free, adventure is often out of the comfort zone and definitely not in the get-dinner-on-the-table-quick realm. 

A couple of months ago, I re-instituted "New Menu Night" at our house each Thursday night.  It has been great!  I have tried some new recipes and found some new favorites, but I have really relied more on adapting old favorites than really diving in and being adventurous.  This month I decided to test some new recipe books out at the library to find my new menu options.

Our library has quite a few gluten-free recipe books, so I brought home an armful and dove in.  I even tried several budget friendly non-gluten-free books thinking that maybe I could adapt them. 

Okay....So Cutting For Stone has nothing to do with cooking, but gosh, a girl has to have a little fun!

There were so many good and delicious sounding recipes that I finally decided to dedicate the month to one particular book to find my new recipes.  Next month, I will try a new book.  It seems a little less overwhelming that way.  So this month I made recipes out of  Roben Ryberg's book You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free.

There are several things I like about this book.  First, it has 500 recipes.  That could keep me busy for a while!  Second, she has more than one recipe for many of the items so that it is more versatile if you have other allergies.  Third, she is not gluten intolerant and even claims to be a "food junkie."  She says her palate is not influenced by eating a restricted diet and so she tastes and bakes accordingly.  Her comments for each recipe reflect her taste as she strives to have recipes taste like the real thing.  I also enjoyed her comparisons of recipes for the same item if it could be made more than one way.

The array of recipes is great!  There are so many I want to try!  The first one I did try was her Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry.  It was absolutely delicious!

It was so good, that I actually ordered the book that night.  Since then, I have spent more time perusing and planning.  Tonight, I must admit I was a little excited when I found her recipe for that Thanksgiving favorite: Green Bean Casserole.  She has the recipe for the onion topper and the cream of mushroom soup.  For all you dairy free people out there like me......the cream of mushroom soup is DAIRY FREE!!!!!  I will be making this one soon!

Tonight I found that sense of adventure I have been missing.  I was excited that tonight was new menu night!  I was eager to try something new.  Tonight we had Pork Chops Smothered with Apples and Onions from  Ryberg's book along with whipped potatoes and peas.  Yum!

Even Cinnamon has been looking at my new book and making plans of her own.  I hear Gluten-Free Fortune Cookies are in the works!

The Hard Way

Sometimes it seems you just have to learn the hard way.  There is no "easy button" for life.  I sometimes wish there was such a button, but then again, I would miss out on those ah-ha moments or the sweet sense of victory after overcoming obstacles.  It reminds me of Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken.  I love the last three lines:

Two roads diverged in a wood and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Sometimes choosing that road is hard, but often it is worth the rough patches, steep inclines, and challenges.  Homeschooling was one such road; a road I am blessed to have taken.  Another such road is our gluten free lifestyle.  It is a blessing to be sure, but it is not without challenges!  We have had to learn a lot of things the hard way.

This week that "hard way" lesson was definitely evident in our house.  Cinnamon, after the big bail a little over a week ago, discovered she really does need to be on a gluten free diet.  I am not sure if it was the fatigue, the mental fog, or the canker sores that convinced her, but she is back on the gf trail....happily, I might add.

I also ventured out to try something new.  I really wanted to see if I could make bread cheaper by buying different flours and combining my own mix.  I decided to try Bette Hagman's Four Flour mix found in this cookbook.  A little intimidating at first using weird flours like sorghum and garfava flour, but this was going to be an adventure!

The bread turned out lovely and it was good!  A nice springy texture, fluffy, soft, and it tasted like bread.  Not much of a bean taste either.

Everyone loved it.  The only problem was that I ended up with a stomach ache.  I read how you sometimes have to adjust to bean flours, so the next day I tried another slice.  I ended up with another stomach ache, this one slightly worse.  So, what did I do?  Naturally, I made these delicious cinnamon rolls using the flour.

Of course I had to eat one, even though my stomach still hurt from the bread I had earlier.  Wow!  Big mistake.  Here was the epitome of having to learn something the hard way.  I apparently cannot handle fava bean flour!  Who knew. 

Today, I started over.  I made a new batch of flour, this time avoiding any and all bean flours!  I made the Featherlight Rice Bread from the same book.  It was springy and fluffy, not grainy at all, and had that yummy homemade bread taste.  

 

This one I will make again.  I was able to make it for $5.23 a loaf which is better than the $6.92 it was costing me for the other bread I was making.  I can cut the cost even further by buying the flours and a few other ingredients in bulk.  My family all loved it.  Best of all, no stomach ache! 

So, sometimes I guess we do have to learn things the hard way.  Cinnamon learned she needs to be gluten free and I learned to stay far away from strange sounding beans.  Taking the road less traveled can be an adventure, but do you ever stop and wonder, where the heck you are?