Bread

Today marks day #2 of my new eating regime. So far, so good.

On the milk front, I've discovered that I enjoy a good soy latte, as well as a rice milk one too, if I have to. Rice milk doesn't really make a yummy thick latte, but it'll do. I am cutting out all yogurt, milk and creams, but will allow myself cheese as a topping or butter, in sparse amounts, mainly because I'm trying to be 100% gluten-free. I figure I'll take it one stage at a time, if need be. Who knows, maybe just cutting down majorly on the dairy will help without having to go hog wild.

On the gluten front, well, that's been interesting. When I decided to go this route, I figured that if I was cutting out a lot of the grains I ate, that I'd be increasing the amount of fruits and veggies, which would be good. I knew that I might not find good bread, you know the kind you enjoy eating. I have some brown rice bread, that toasted and topped with peanut butter is sufficient for filling that toast w/ peanut butter craving I have in the morning. But I figured I'd just be cutting out tons of carbs, in general, instead eating brown rice and quinoa, which I truly think are delicious.

But any runners out there know that sometimes you just need bread. Not just any bread, but good bread. And, I am happy to say that I have hope in the bread department. And it comes in the form of my Kitchen-Aid stand mixer and these plastic bags.

I also found some hope after reading the book, "Gluten-Free Girl" by Shauna James Ahern, which I had checked out from the library on a whim. It's kind of funny, but as I was reading it, my dear friend Jess pointed out to me her website, and specifically the chocolate-chip cookie recipe there. So, anyway, Shauna shares tons of recipes and pictures that look good, and she has a genuine love of food, and I tend to respect the opinions of someone like that. So I copied down a couple of recipes from the book, one of them being her Chocolate Banana Bread recipe, which uses Teff flour. I had to hit a couple of stores in town to find it, but I did, and with three black bananas, I knew today was the day to try my first gluten-free bread recipe.

It smelled divine while it was baking, and it honestly wasn't a ton more work to actually mix up than "normal" banana bread. I cut into it with expectation and some salivation...

I've cooked with whole wheat flour for a while now, so I like the nuttier taste of non-white flours, anyway, but I just wasn't sure about all these gluten-free flours.

It was wonderful. Simply wonderful.

I love it. My hubby likes it and my seven-year old likes it. The jury is still out on the five-year-old.

I have hope! And I'm starting to view this change in my lifestyle & diet as a little adventure.
Bring it on!