The Quinoa/Oatmeal Bake Results

The Quinoa Oatmeal Bake was turned out well. It may lack a little taste and richness because I did not use the butter, sugar or egg. I substituted stevia for the sugar and did not substitute for the egg or butter other than to add a little extra coconut milk. Overall, it is tasty and will give me at least 3 breakfasts. Take a look at my blog post from yesterday to get the complete recipe. I added my substitutions in parentheses. It does take work to be gluten free and also be free of the 6 other foods that I'm taking out of my diet for 21 days. I welcome your comments and ideas. The 6 other foods I'm removing are dairy, corn, soy, peanuts, eggs, sugar/artificial sweetener. If you've done "The Virgin Diet", please let me know. I would love to know how things turned out.
Verse for today:

Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks. (1 Timothy 4:4 NLT)

My first experience with Quinoa

There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all. (Ephesians 4: 5-6 NLT)

I was looking for a warm breakfast that does not contain gluten or corn and isn't brown rice. I came up with Quinoa? (Pronounced Ken wa) I had never heard of it until a few months ago when I started my gluten free journey. So, I went to my health food store and bought a half pound or so, just to try it. I read that you could cook it in a microwave rice cooker, so that's what I did. I think it turned out okay, I do think I should have cooked it a little longer. It was a little more crunchy that I would have liked. I also think I should have let it sit for 5 minutes or so and that would have helped. I watched a video and read about it on a couple of blogs, but you just never know until you try it. It doesn't have much flavor. I did put a little cinnamon and some strawberries in it, which helped. I also think some warm coconut or almond milk may have helped. I did find a recipe that I will share at the end of the post that I plan to prepare in the morning.

I am looking for such recipes because I am trying to find out if I have a food intolerance to one or more of the 7 foods that are usually a culprit. They are: gluten/wheat, corn, dairy, eggs, sugar/artificial sweeteners, soy and peanuts. I happen to be reading the book by J. J. Virgin called "The Virgin Diet". You stay off these foods for 21 days then add them back to see which ones you can tolerate. I can't give you a good review yet, but will do so when I finish. I already believe that she has the correct concept about food intolerance and hope that she can shed more light on the subject for me. 

Here's the recipe I promised. It is from "Cooking Quinoa" by Wendy Polisi. I will be modifying it because I am taking the 7 foods away. I will put my modifications in parentheses. I can't wait to try it. When I cook dinner, I will probably mix all of the dry ingredients so I don't have so much prep time in the morning. I will try and remember to post a picture and let you know how it was in my next post. If you try it, please comment and let me know how you like it.

Have a great gluten free day!

Baked Quinoa and Oatmeal

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

1/2 cup toasted walnuts ( will probably use pecans)

1/3 cup natural sugar or maple syrup (I will use honey or stevia)

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 cups low fat milk (I will use almond or coconut milk)

1 large egg (I will eliminate the egg)

3 T unsalted butter, melted (I will eliminate butter)

2 tsp vanilla

2 bananas, cut into pieces (Banana's are really sweet and I don't care much for them so I will only use half)

1 1/2 cups mixed berries (Probably strawberries and blueberries)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 and spray olive oil in your 

pan to prevent sticking.

2. Mix together oats, quinoa, half of walnuts, 

sugar (if using), baking powder, cinnamon and 

salt. (Note: this can be done ahead of time.)

3. In a separate bowl lightly beat egg and add in 

milk, vanilla, maple syrup (if using) and half of the 

slightly cooled butter.

4. Place banana slices on the bottom of the 

prepared pan. Top with 2/3 of the berries and 

cover with oat mixture. Pour wet ingredients over 

and make sure the dry ingredients are covered. 

Top with remaining berries and walnuts.

5. Bake for 40 minutes. Drizzle with remaining 

melted butter and additional maple syrup or sugar 

if desired. 

This recipe was adapted from Super Natural Every 

Day.

The Beginning

I firmly believe that what we eat causes many of the diseases that we have. Without getting into the chemistry of it, the wheat that we eat daily has been hybridized (crossing different strains to generate new characteristics). Wheat has changed from the 70's and 80's. It's not what I ate when I was a kid. Wheat was supposedly changed in order to solve world hunger. If you would like to learn more of the politics behind it, I suggest you research it online or read the book "Wheat Belly" by Dr. William Davis. 

I've been completely off gluten for several months. I HAD a terrible case of rosacea.  A couple of weeks after coming of gluten, my face cleared up completely. It has never looked better. It was hard the first couple of days to do without wheat of any kind, but it got easier. Replacing it was not so easy for me. I tried all the frozen, awful tasting breads that are sold in most grocery stores. Some of it was better than others, but I didn't care for any of it. I met a lady in Trader Joe's who told me about baking her own gluten free bread. Then she told me about the processes that grains go through and how it takes the nutrients away. She told me that you can buy your own grains and mill them yourself. So, I started my research. A couple of weeks later I had my own mill complete with some gluten free grains. The mills are not cheap, but not extra expensive either. It was around $170 and has a lifetime warranty. I will post pictures the next time I mill, and maybe do a video. 

So, I had my mill and was ready to go. The process is so easy. Then, I discovered that actually making the bread, letting it rise, kneading it and getting it to turn out right wasn't so easy. I did more research and found bread ovens with a gluten free setting. Some were cheap, some not so. I finally decided on a Zojirushi with a gluten free setting. It was not the cheapest model, but it has a lifetime warranty and is sturdy and kneads very well. I know there are cheaper ones out there, but I read so many reviews on ovens that broke while kneading gluten free dough or that didn't knead it well at all. The bread comes out great! In the future I will post pictures and a video.

That's how my gluten free life began. I am also planning to take away the 7 foods that many people are intolerant of this week. So, stay tuned!

My First Post!!

I want my first post to be special and outstanding, but there's no way of getting around they why's, how's, where's and when's of my new blog. I am on a quest for better health and generally just feeling better. There's so much fatigue and what people see as laziness in the world. I am not a lazy person, but there are many days when I just feel fatigued and almost ill. I feel that many people in our world feel the same way. In fact, I hear people say it everyday. I have headaches, eczema and/or psoriasis, mild rosacea, gas, bloating, joint pain weight gain and... I could go on, but you get the picture. I'm in my late 40's and I'm falling apart. So, I've decided to do somethings to try and restore my health. My better-half also has numerous health conditions, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, joint pain, again, you get the picture.

The NUMBER ONE thing that is wrong with all of us is the food that we eat. Back in the 70's and early 80's when I was growing up there were very few overweight people, much less obese people. I ate frosted flakes, cookies, hamburgers, french fries. I was not overweight nor anywhere near it. I was small if anything. 

So, something has changed in our food since then. If you've ever heard of "genetically modified", then you know one of the things that's happened. Drugs fed to livestock, poultry and other animals affects them and us. And, the good old processed foods that most of us eat every day. All this and more is bringing us down, lower and lower, feeling worse and worse. When does it end. 

I also won't put it all on the food that we eat. We don't get outside, we don't get the sunlight we need, we don't exercise, and I'm not talking about the gym. My parents nor grandparents nor anyone that I knew, other than athletes went to a gym. When I was young, we were outside as much as possible. We worked in the yards, the garden or just enjoyed the outdoors. Now, we are SITTING our lives away. Watching tv, at the computer, playing video games.. you get it. I am guilty as charged. I am not outside nearly enough.

So, this blog is my attempt to help improve my life, health and hold myself accountable for everything that I
do that affects my health negatively. I also hope that it can help at least a few people do the same.

My next post will be about the steps I'm already taking to improve my health.

Do one thing today that you know you  should be doing.