Tag Archives: gluten

Food

Steak and Eggs as Cheap and Easy Breakfast

Leave a comment

There’s nothing quite like a hearty breakfast to start the day off right, and there’s something special about the way steak and eggs wake you up in the morning. Well, steak isn’t particularly cheap, but the eggs are! So between the two, you can enjoy a great meal with plenty of fat and protein for about a buck and fifty cents. That will hardly buy you a cup of coffee at a retail eatery!

Here’s two tricks to making pan-fried steak and eggs into an easy meal:

Butter, butter, butter the pan

Without a bit of real butter on the pan, those eggs get sticky. If they’re even slightly overcooked, cleanup can become a huge pain! So make sure to thoroughly grease the pan with some butter or olive oil before cracking the egg and cooking it up.

Get some thin cut steaks

There’s two advantages to the thin cut steak. First, you have cheaper and smaller portions: you can eat the “whole piece” and still only consume 2 to 3 ounces. With a $4/lb steak, that’s just about $1 worth of meat for a very decent breakfast.

The other distinct advantage of using thin cut steaks when frying steak and eggs is that they cook as quickly as the eggs do. There’s nothing worse than having the perfectly cooked egg and seeing a bloody piece of meat that needs more time or a higher heat!

For the last few weeks, I’ve been enjoying this meal for breakfast almost exclusively. Once in a while I’ve switched in some fried pork and vegetables, but the egg and meat combo is still one of the best ways to start a day!

Food

More Brownies – Gluten Free Pantry Brand Review

Leave a comment

I read somewhere that Betty Crocker was considering (or possibly was in the process of implementing) a line of gluten-free baking mixes.  Now, I’m not the biggest fan of baking – but I do love some gluten-free cookies and brownies.  Inspired by the hope of convenient gluten-free cakes, I stopped by the baking aisle of my local Walmart.  While I didn’t find a Betty Crocker gluten-free baking mix, I did find one from a little brand called Gluten-free Pantry.

I picked a box up immediately and the first thing I noticed was the price.  I had cooked gluten free brownies before, but this new brand was about 2 and a half dollars cheaper.  Not one to sneer at frugality, I ran to make sure I had enough eggs and butter in my cart to pull this extra dish off.

When I made the brownies, I had one deviation from the box’s plan:  The baking pan I was using was a bit longer than the recipe called for.  As a result, the mix ended up being a little bit thin and my first attempt yielded somewhat crispy brownies.  My girlfriend said they were the best ever, but on my second try I compensated by cutting the baking time down by about ten minutes, and now I think they’re even better than they were before.

With any brownies, I like to add some crushed walnuts and make sure to add some chocolate frosting to the top.  It adds a nice layer of sweet chocolate – don’t tell me that’s redundant because its just as essential as any other ingredient!  No word yet if the lady agrees about the lower cooking time and fluffier brownies – I’ll keep ya posted with updates as available.

Food

Gluten for Christmas

Leave a comment

I don’t even know when it hit, but without fail I started feeling the effects of gluten soon after leaving town for the holidays.  Maybe it was some of the snacks I ate on the way, maybe it was kitchen cross-contamination or traces of wheat in something that seemed innocent and gluten-free.  Whatever it was, I ended up sleeping most of Christmas and now I’m still in the phase where the itch is crawling all over my skin.

And its not just getting sick that makes holidays and travel difficult, there was also this odd sense of being incredibly hungry while being surrounded by the most delicious food.  Oh I’d love some of that meal you’ve cooked up – but I really shouldn’t. Pies, cakes, cookies?  You can’t just hop in the car to Walmart to get a gluten-free version (Publix near here does have some great gluten-free cookies, though they’re incredibly expensive.)

Here’s another unique dilemma faced by the gluten-intolerant at Christmas:  gifts containing gluten!  I mean, of course I like chocolate, but not the kind with barely malt in it 🙁

Families tries to accomodate and I love them for it, but I can barely keep track of my own ingredients and kitchen space when I’ve got such a huge incentive to do so.  I think next year, I’m bringing some gf brownies…

Random Stuff

Anti-vaccinationists give Gluten-Free a bad name

2 Comments

Greetings Orac,

I thought this might be of interest to you in particular because you seem quite up to date with the mercury/autism/naturalism noise that is circulating the internet.

My name is John and I’m fairly new to blogging. I’m a big fan of http://scienceblogs.com particularly because there is so much skepticism of untested medical theory that passes as “wisdom” so often on the internet.

However, when it comes to my pet medical cause, Celiac Disease, I’ve noticed that the gluten-free diet often ends up associated with anti-vaccinationists and other sorts of medical quackery. Gluten returns as a search result 20 times on scienceblogs.com, almost exclusively in relation to tainted Chinese products or the latest fads in autism quackery. Celiac only returns three times: once as a user comment, once in a list of digestive conditions, and once in reference to the celiac trunk and not celiac disease at all.

What I would love to see for once, is a story about Celiac Disease and the medically verified effects of a gluten-free diet.

from my site https://www.glutenblog.com:

The University of Chicago estimates that as few as 3% of all affected Celiac Disease patients have been correctly diagnosed – and on average, those “lucky” few have waited 11 years from the onset of symptoms until the diagnosis was made.

Random sampling and records from nations with universal screening indicates that Celiac Disease affects between 1 in 90 and 1 in 133 people.

This meets the World Health Organization’s frequency criteria for universal screening, but we barely ever catch it. Everyone thinks of allergies: hives, asphyxiation, swelling – but the symptoms of intolerence are completely different.

The patient may be underweight or overweight, constipated or constantly suffering diarrhea. There might be an intensely itching skin irritation, or exhaustion, or symptoms of malnutrition and dehydration. Then again, there may be no symptoms at all.

The University of Chicago says there are over 200 possible symptoms of Celiac Disease and some of these include neurological disfunction or impaired development. Statistically, it makes sense for autistic patients to be tested for Celiac Disease but legitimate scientists shy away from the subject because of its exploitation by profiteering quacks. Maybe I’m wrong about testing autistic individuals for Celiac, but since the WHO says everyone should be tested for Celiac Disease, it would be a cost-effective compromise to at least test chronically ill patients for the disease.

Food

Wheat and Celiac Disease – Gluten Protein as a “Killer” Plant Defense

1 Comment

What is Celiac Disease?

Celiac Disease is basically an intestinal condition caused by a negative auto-immune response to gluten, a protein that can be found in wheat, rye, and barley. This is distinct from an allergic reaction to wheat, but it is no less dangerous. The criteria for diagnosing Celiac is traditionally a small intestine biopsy: flattened villae indicate a positive confirmation. The intestines are damaged by auto-immune chemicals sent by the body to fight the protein, and eventually the intestine loses the ability to absorb food. The tissue damage also increases the risk of malignancies developing later on…

Although the condition has been historically defined by the status of the intestines, it really is a whole-body auto-immune condition. The emphasis has been shifting toward blood testing – and more patients are finding the diagnosis they need.

Untreated Celiac Disease is a killer, with mortality and malignancy rates out-pacing the general population by significant margins. Its also fairly common, affecting about 1% of the population.

Symptoms:

The symptoms are open-ended. The patient may be underweight or overweight, constipated or constantly suffering diarrhea. There might be an intensely itching skin irritation, or exhaustion, or symptoms of malnutrition and dehydration. Then again, there may be no symptoms at all.

Diagnosis Rates:

It shouldn’t be surprising then that it has been extremely under-diagnosed in the United States. The University of Chicago estimates that as few as 3% of all affected Celiac Disease patients have been correctly diagnosed – and on average, those lucky few have waited 11 years from the onset of symptoms until the diagnosis was made.

Random sampling and records from nations with universal screening indicates that Celiac Disease affects between 1 in 90 and 1 in 133 people. This is about 2.5 million Americans – and yet only about 75,000 are diagnosed.

Gluten Protein: “Killer” Plant Defense

Plants need to defend themselves, too. I think gluten is a great example of this plant defense, even if most of the human population has by now adapted around it. The protein is an incredibly complex chain of amino acids that includes a significant dose of opioid peptides (mimicking the effect of opiates in the brain) and phytohormones. In “normal” digestive systems, these are no problem – but in a compromised digestive system often accompanied by “leaky gut” you can start to see how the protein wreaks havoc on an unprepared immune system.