Wholey Cow!: BLOG 2 Sept 26

GOOD EVENING LADIES! It's WEDNESDAY which means we're half way through the week, woohoo! You girls already to impress your husbands with this week's recipe?! Trust me, it'll knock their socks off! This week’s theme? “GLUTEN FREE.”

EXPLANATION: Although relatively rare, some people are unable to eat gluten which makes it difficult to make meals at home and practically IMPOSSIBLE to go out to restaurants. This gluten allergy manifests itself as celiac disease.

WHY CAN’T PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM CELIAC’S CONSUME GLUTEN?
For people with Celiac Disease (about 1 in 133 people have this) eating gluten triggers an autoimmune response that results in inflammation and damage to the cells of the intestine. Other people are sensitive to gluten, but don’t have the autoimmune response characteristic of Celiac Disease. For people with Celiac Disease or those who are sensitive to gluten, eating gluten causes the following signs and symptoms:

unexplained iron-deficiency anemia
fatigue
bone or joint pain
arthritis
bone loss or osteoporosis
depression or anxiety
tingling numbness in the hands and feet
seizures
missed menstrual periods
infertility or recurrent miscarriage
canker sores inside the mouth
an itchy skin rash called dermatitis herpetiformis (1)

Can you imagine all the foods you would have to give up?! NO THANK YOU. Gluten is found mainly in baked foods and pasta made from wheat and rye flour but may also be found in everyday products such as medicines, vitamins, and lip balms. When people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity eat foods or use products containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging or destroying villi—the tiny, fingerlike protrusions lining the small intestine. Villi normally allow nutrients from food to be absorbed through the walls of the small intestine into the bloodstream. Without healthy villi, a person becomes malnourished, no matter how much food one eats. Celiac disease is both a disease of malabsorption—meaning nutrients are not absorbed properly—and an abnormal immune reaction to gluten. Celiac disease is also genetic, meaning it runs in families. Sometimes the disease is triggered—or becomes active for the first time—after surgery, pregnancy, childbirth, viral infection, or severe emotional stress depending on the individual (1).

Some of the symptoms…

SHOULD WE ALL GO GLUTEN-FREE? No, besides the hassle, you can end up with serious nutritional deficiencies. "Gluten-free doesn't necessarily equal healthy, especially when people yank vitamin-enriched and wholegrain foods from their diets and replace them with gluten free brownies," says Shelley Case, R.D., author of Gluten-Free Diet: A Comprehensive Resource Guide and a medical advisory board member for the Celiac Disease Foundation. In fact, research suggests that those who forgo gluten may be more likely to miss out on important nutrients such as iron, B vitamins, and fiber.

This is where careful meal planning comes in, which may explain why some people feel so good when they go G-free: They're eating real food instead of ultraprocessed packaged fare. "If you skip the gluten-free goodies and focus on fruits, vegetables, lean protein, dairy, and gluten free grains like amaranth and quinoa, this can be a very healthy way of eating," says Marlisa Brown, R.D., author of Gluten-Free, Hassle Free. "But you can't just wing it.” (2)

As you can see, not being able to consumer gluten can make life hard! But…not tasteless! Gluten-free meals can have A TON of flavor depending on what ingredients you decide to combine. I don’t know how many of you have tried QUINOA before but it is AMAZING. I use it in a lot of the veggie meals I make when I need a filler or something to add to the dish so it won’t be straight vegetables. I got the idea to start using quinoa from a friend that has celiac. She uses it in a lot of her meals as a grain replacer. It’s like rice but with a little different flavor.

YOU GOTTA TRY THIS!

Recipe: I picked this recipe because it’s DEEEEEELICIOUS plus, all of its ingredients can be found at a normal grocery store which means frugal!

Quinoa Spinach Bake (1:30 hours)

Olive oil cooking spray
1 pound spinach leaves, picked and washed
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 yellow onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves of garlic (add another if you’re a garlic fanatic like me)
1 tablespoon picked fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon rosemary
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 cups cooked quinoa (about 1 cup uncooked quinoa), made according to package directions
1 cup nonfat cottage cheese
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8x8 inch glass or ceramic baking dish with olive oil spray.

2. Fill a large bowl with ice and water, set aside. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add spinach and blanch (see definition below) until bright green- about ten seconds. Transfer to ice bath. When spinach is cold, remove from bath, squeeze out all water, and finely chop. Set aside.

3. Cook Quinoa according to package directions.

4. Heat the olive oil in a medium sauté pan. Add onion, garlic, thyme, rosemary, and sauté until translucent, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a medium bowl.

5. Add spinach, quinoa, cottage cheese, pepper, and eggs to the onion mixture, and stir until well combined.

6.Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish and place in the over. Bake until set and edges are brown, 60 to 70 minutes.

7. TA-DA! Put it in your mouth and eat it all!

Blanching is a cooking process wherein the food substance, usually a vegetable or fruit, is plunged into boiling water, removed after a brief, timed interval, and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water (shocked) to halt the cooking process (3).

*If you like a little kick- tastes GREAT with hot sauce!

Soooo…..did you like it?!?!