What I learned from trying gluten-free cooking

You didn’t expect to see the words “gluten-free” on this blog, did you??

Mr. FG has had some persistent inflammation/pain problems in his arm/shoulder/neck for quite some time, and in researching the problem, he came across someone who said that giving up gluten helped a lot.

Since he’s tired of being in pain, he decided to give it a shot for a few months to see if he noticed any difference.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), giving up gluten didn’t bring any improvements and going back on gluten brought no setbacks.

So, on the downside, his pain problems aren’t fixed.   But on the upside, he doesn’t have to have the headache of avoiding gluten for the rest of his life.

The kids and I did not eat gluten-free during this time period, but I did have to adjust my shopping/cooking a fair amount to help Mr. FG.   And based on that experience I have a few observations.

America’s Test Kitchen is, once again, a life saver.

I got two of their gluten-free cookbooks from the library, and they were quite helpful.   I learned a lot about cooking and baking without gluten, and I was able to make my own flour blend, using their recipe.

The cast-iron cornbread is good, the pancakes are nearly indistinguishable from regular pancakes, and the pan pizzas were pretty good (the regular pizza was less impressive.)

In those cookbooks I also learned that you can use potato flakes in place of a panade (a bread/milk mixture) when you’re making gluten-free meatballs and hamburgers.

The cookbooks also contain reviews of different products, like gluten-free pastas, gluten-free prepared breads, and so on.

The cookbooks focus a LOT on baking, but they do also contain some main dish recipes.

Aldi has some decent gluten-free stuff.

Not everything is tasty (the chocolate snack bars are terrible!), but the pretzels were really good. And the gluten-free wraps are very handy when you need a tortilla-ish product that holds together better than corn tortillas.

It’s tastier and easier to focus on eating naturally gluten-free foods.

I did make a fairly decent pan pizza with an ATK recipe, but it still wasn’t nearly as tasty as Pad Thai, which is naturally gluten-free.

It’s more enjoyable to eat a hamburger in a lettuce leaf than to suffer through a crumbly gluten-free bun.

Potato cubes or rice make a tastier side than a gluten-free baked good.

Plus, fixing foods that are naturally gluten-free is just simpler. You don’t need to make any weird substitutions or use special techniques. You just make the food like anyone else would!

Naturally gluten-free foods are cheaper.

You can make or buy baked goods, yes, but you will almost always pay more, even if you make your own flour blend.

But when you focus on making non-specialty foods that just happen to be gluten-free, you can save a lot of money.

Corn tortillas are a God-send.

I love me some Tex-Mex, and being able to use corn tortillas meant that I could keep serving up tacos and enchiladas and quesadillas (you just have to be a bit careful when you flip the quesadilla!)

Gluten-free is easier without celiac or allergies.

If I’d had to cook gluten-free in addition to avoiding corn or dairy or nuts, that would’ve been a lot harder!

And if I’d had to be religious about making sure nothing got contaminated with gluten, that would also have made things harder.

Cooking gluten-free pushed me in a good way.

I discovered that Jasmine rice is really tasty (and that Aldi carries it in big bags!).   I cooked more with potatoes.   We tried burrito bowls.   We ate more main-dish salads.

Gluten-free eating is not automatically healthy.

While going gluten-free takes a lot of unhealthy foods out of the running, there are plenty of unhealthy foods that are gluten-free (Doritos, anyone?).   So, I don’t think gluten-free eating on its own is necessarily a path to a nutritious diet.   You still have to be mindful not to replace unhealthy gluten-filled treats with unhealthy gluten-free treats!

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P.S. Several of you had trouble using the Ting link yesterday.   That’s because I coded it wrong.   Sorry! Here’s a link that should work properly for you.