The Pauley Principle: GF means Great Food for the Gluten Free!

Welcome to The Pauley Principle!

The Pauli Principle, named for Wolfgang Pauli, deals with atoms and electron-sharing that results in new, stronger bonds. Think 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen, a shared delectable (!) electron and VOILA! Water!

Similarly, when you prepare whole food to share with family and friends, especially foods you've grown, something amazing happens. Meals become tastier and healthier. Your soul, not just your stomach, becomes fulfilled. You live life more abundantly as a result. During a shared meal, the bonds that people create grow stronger and become something new: GREATER than the sum of the parts! I give you The Pauley Principle.

Monday, February 14, 2011

GF means Great Food for the Gluten Free!

For people who have to stick with a gluten-free diet, finding the foods that are good for you can be a real challenge. In fact, just finding out that you need to eat GF can be challenging. Randy Armbruster said, "From the time I started exhibiting symptoms, it was probably 2 or 3 months that I was diagnosed and started this new adventure of GF eating...My plan is if I'm not sure,I don't eat it!" For both Jessica Pauley and her uncle Kevin, loss of weight and constant stomach aches led to multiple doctor's appointments and testings before finding the problem.

Complicating matters is that so many food producers are embedding elements that contain gluten. Jessi says to check with the manufacturer to be absolutely sure a food is gluten free or less than/equal to 200 parts per million. Terms such as natural flavors, malt (made from barley), caramel coloring, anti-caking agent (as in powdered sugar), and thickeners, maltodextrin (made with corn in U.S.). With oat and corn products, assume cross-contamination. Roquefort cheese a big NO! It is made by pressing bread against the cheese. Who would know??? Be careful with Dijon mustard, ketchup, cocktail sauce, shampoo/lotion, toothpaste and spice mixes. And of course, avoid sausages, deli coldcuts, and meats from fast foods that contain secret ingredients!

Two links: www.wholefoodsmarket.com/specialdiets and www.livingwithout.com are excellent for finding foods you want or need. Living Without is a magazine designed for people with dietary needs. Another magazine, the March issue of Natural Health, has a compilation of its annual Good Food Awards. The GF foods that make the list in the Pantry Staples category are: Mary's Gone Crackers Original; Lundber Rice Chips Sesame & Seaweed; Kind Bar Mango Macadamia; and Simply Organic Cocoa Cayenne Cupcake Mix. Winners in the Refrigerator Favorites category include Kraft Athenos Traditional Feta Cheese; O.N.E. Coconut Water; and Nancy's Organic Cream Cheese.

My thanks to Kevin, Randy, and especially to my daughter Jessica for their tips on living life gluten free. Our hope is that their knowledge and experiences help others to live their lives more abundantly through good GF foods!

3 comments:

UnknownFebruary 15, 2011 at 11:39 AM
Jessica tells me that readers should become aware of the Gluten Free community on Twitter and also that the GlutenFreeville.com website is excellent. Happy Eating! Thanks for following! I've heard on FB from readers who enjoy eating gluten free just for its purity. Nice thought.
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UnknownMarch 9, 2011 at 8:35 AM
Rachael Ray offers GF suggestions: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2F6yvaX9l&h=5e910
If the link does not take you right there, please copy and paste.
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UnknownMarch 20, 2011 at 8:50 AM
For the largest selection of GF foods, go to Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati where you'll find the largest selection in the Midwest!!!
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Give Yourself the Fast Food Alternative: 1, 2, 3 makes 4 and More

For many people, late night ballgames, church, work and other events make fast food too convenient to resist, but what's in that stuff? I can't begin to answer. Big franchises such as Taco Bell say the 63% or so that isn't beef is made up of "the secret ingredient". If we consume their food, don't we have a right to know what that secret is? And more importantly, what's it doing to our bodies? My plan is worth the effort since meals eaten at home with the family benefit our physical and mental health.

Here's an alternative and my answer to Rachael Ray's A Week in a Day. I call it 1,2, 3 Makes 4 and More. On the fifth day, Friday, make a quick and easy pizza.
In one day, you can make a roast, a hearty soup, and a one-dish casserole to get you through most of the work week.
Meal 1: the roast with salad and a veggie.
Meal 2: the soup served with warm bread or in a bread bowl.
Meal 3: the casserole with a salad.
Meal 4: soup from Meal 2 served with sandwiches using the roast, Meal 1.
Meal 5: homemade pizza.

Plan meals and shop for it. Then take a few hours to prepare the entrees ahead. Start with a roast seasoned to taste. I'm talking real meat. While that's slow cooking, start chopping veggies and meat for a good, hearty soup, one that will be a meal in itself. Get it started and simmering away and then begin a one-pot meal that takes a little more attention.

This week my plan is Day 1, a slow roasted ham with salad and mashed potatoes; Day 2, minestrone; and Day 3, shepherd's pie. I'm making mashed potatoes for two days (meals 1 and 3) at one time on my cooking day. The fourth meal will be ham sandwiches with minestrone. Salads and breads round out the meals for the week. Fruits with cheese make a quick and good-for-you dessert. A truly delicious recipe for shepherd's pie is in my blog.

Be good to you. Be good to others. On days 6 and 7, change it up by going out, having a pot luck with friends and family or grilling out. Remember, live your life abundantly.

About Venison

Venison should taste really delicious! No kidding. It is my favorite meat, except for crab.

Some things to consider though:
*If you wouldn't think of eating a bull, then don't eat a deer that had huge antlers or was in rut. I don't. It affects the flavor and tenderness of the meat.
*Replace the deer fat with beef fat for your ground meat for an 80/20 ratio. Deer fat tends to be slightly bitter and leaves that thick coating in your mouth that, although edible, is not palatable.
*For roasts, sear with butter and olive oil. These impart a wonderful flavor.
*For sausage, use pork shoulder, at a ration of about 3 parts ground venison with 1 part ground pork shoulder.
*Venison by nature is a lean red meat. A good young deer processed properly will give you many delicious meals.
*Anything you would do with beef, except ribs, you can do with venison. Look for my recipe for Shepherd's Pie. Use either beef or venison. Enjoy, share, and live abundantly.

Plan Now for Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is cooked down from sap that you gather from sugar maple trees. There are no other ingredients, not even water. And it's incredibly good. On the market, maple syrups will often have corn syrup, gluten, color and other additives which can stretch profitability and decrease the steaming time required. Since it takes 35-45 gallons of the thin slightly sweet sap to make a gallon of pure maple syrup, doing it the old-fashioned way takes time but the result is pure YUM!

If you have the opportunity to tap into maple trees and decide you'd like to give this a try, plan ahead. If you steam off the sap inside your kitchen, it can strip your wall-paper! Been there, done that, at our old farmhouse. If you cook it down outside with a gas turkey fryer, the cost can end up being around $8 a pint. We began cooking over a wood fire a few years ago, using a tripod and kettle. Oh, and a large firewood supply. Whatever method you choose, proceed slowly and with caution.

Gather your supplies. We use food safe plastic jugs, buckets, and little water line spouts. Maple syrup production houses will collect into stainless steel vats using long water lines but we simply gather the jugs, pour into buckets and bring it to the kettle twice daily. I buy little pint jugs to store it in. Very fresh, very pure. Start tapping the trees when daytime temperatures are going to be above freezing but nights are still very cold. In Ohio, the sap will be running fast sometime in February.

Try my cousin Stephanie Krupla's recipe for Sticky Bun Tea Ring and you'll want to search for maple trees you can tap into yourself!