Pamela's Muffins Altered with Chocolote Chips and CInamon

A friend of mine wanted recipes for breads, muffins, pizza dough etc. Sadly I will say this a lot. I am no cook. It was never my desire to spend more than a couple minutes in the kitchen at a time and cooking from scratch has never been high on my list of hobbies. However, since starting this new diet I am finding new and interesting ways to cook meals and baked goods for my family.

My first recipe and survival tactic for a gluten free diet is Pamela's muffins.

1. Pamela's: http://www.pamelasproducts.com/

This is a brand that makes GF premixed flours. They have mixes for cakes, pancakes, waffles, breads and muffins.

I have found that Pamela muffins work great for lunches, play dates, swim team and just about anytime I need something quick, easy and practical.

Following this link (http://www.pamelasproducts.com/recipes/pamsmuffins.html) and you will get the recommeneded recipe through pamela's website; however, I was unimpressed with this recipe and instead altered the muffin recipe that was printed on the mix for pancakes and baking.

I use Pamela's Baking and Pancake mix. It is a premixed flour combined with dried milk powder and has almond flour in it as well - so not good for nut, soy or milk allergies. I pretty much double the recipe and add on some ingredients.

Muffin Recipe My Version:
3.5 cups Pamela’s flour
.5 cup butter
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsn. vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips

*For flavor and moisture:
4 oz cup apple sauce
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Heat oven to 350. Cook for 25-30 minutes (usually latter end) – apple sauce makes it wetter. This makes up to 20ish muffins.

Make sure all ingredients are GF.

The kids really like it. Of course you put chocolate in anything and it tends to make things more edible. What surprised me is a lot of my non GF adult friends really liked them. I always take that as a good sign that I am on to something.

Because I am not someone who enjoys the kitchen I like the Pamela’s mixes as they are fast and easy. Another mom taught me about Pamela’s and the magic of making muffins and storing them. My mom friend makes them in bulk and then freezes them for usage through out the week or even month. I find I have less and less freezer room since most bread products need to be stored in the freezer. Making it more tempting to someday get a seperate freezer unit!

That’s it for today. I will definitely talk more about breads and flours a rather tedious subject which I have made only barely adequate progress in.

Choosing a Gluten Free House Hold

My daughter has only been diagnosed with Celiac Disease (CD) since late February of 2010. We decided as a family to go GF in our house. We decided this for a bunch of reasons:

1. I want my daughter to have one place in the world where she is completely included. She will spend most days aware she can not have foods that are being serving at school, at a friends house, at an after school activity or at a restaurant. We decided she needed an environment in which she could feel completely comfortable – isn’t that what home is supposed to be?

2. I did not want to worry about cross contamination in my own kitchen. What I find to be the hardest point to drive home to other parents, friends and family is how easily cross contamination can be. My daughter was at a friend’s house and although I had tried to explain CD I was shocked when the other parent cut a bagel and then an apple with the same knife and offered it to my daughter. Don’t get me wrong. Sweetest woman in the world, but she just didn’t understand CD or the implications of cross contamination.

3. I want my daughter to know she has the support of her whole family. That she is accepted, loved.

4. Lastly, I want her too see we can all do this – it is doable! I want to model by example for her as much as possible.

So far in our GF journey I have noticed that many websites, books, articles and resources address the meal planning and food changes in the diet. I have not found any resources yet which address a child’s psychology needs in their adjustment to the GF life style. This seems strange to me, because food is so highly correlated with culture, personal identity, celebrations and even emotions. I would assume having a natural exclusion from foods, specifically those served in social settings, can have a drastic affect on a person psychologically. I am interested in how my daughter will cope with this, how she will personally identify with it. I know for my own food intolerances this can be emotionally draining at times.

I hope to find books that give some guidance to parents on how to help their children cope and internalize their new life style in a healthy way. In the mean time we are just keep it positive.

I have decided to start a blog.

This is a big step for me to go to a more public forum than the typical secure family website. I feel a blog is the next logical evolution in my Internet share site profession.

I have been inspired to blog on a theme. My understanding is there is no such thing as idly blogging anymore. In the past "my" theme was always my children and their various adventures. Yet, as my children get older and form their own identities and opinions, as well as, a certain amount of self consciousness it no longer feels appropriate to utilize stories related to their bathroom habits, most embarrassing episodes or even some of the private little moments they share with their father and I. Not to say I will totally abandon family tidbits. However, I think I will graduate to a more cohesive theme.

Thus, I timidly step out into the Internet left to pick my own topics to explore.

I have decided to attempt a family, health and gluten free living theme. This will not a "cooking" blog, as I am no cook. Yet, there have been people who want to know recipes or other GF families that want to share recipes, so I will include some of what we eat in the house in the form of recipes or online resources. I have found that some GF meals are more labor intensive, but are not all that different from their gluten counter parts.

I would ideally like to provide a peak into our family and our gluten free existence through stories, trouble shooting, short cuts, brand information, label grievances, recipes, on-line resources, book and restaurant reviews.

I hope to occasional offer a laugh, insight, education, article, book or simply something to read and criticize in your own home. I hope to gain writing experience and perfect my grammar to appease my in-laws ;-)

I have always loved sharing parts of my life and my family. Please read, laugh, comment, judge, but at least stop by on occasion. I will try to post updates and comprehensible blogs every week to every couple weeks.