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?!?!
...we sure did!
Come on! What's the worst that can happen?! Scared of being TOO healthy?? I promise you'll LOVE it!
I hope you
ALL enjoy and comment! Thanks so much for checkin it out!
The Food
Enthusiast,
Aly
Sources
Cited:
33. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanching_%28cooking%29
Ingredients
