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Hi again!

Here is what I wrote up to answer one of the respondents to my "wellness on
a gf diet" post...since reading about the end-stage Celiac disease, I
thought this was especially pertinent.

It seems daunting (to say the least!) to "restrict" our diets even more
than just that of Gluten avoidance...but in actuality, going meatless and
later vegan (no animal products at all including eggs and dairy/cheese)
opened up the world of food to us more than ever!

Before Celiac disease we ate the same 10 things over and over.  Then after
CD, we modified those same 10 and added another 2-3 and ate those over and
over.  The rest of the story is in my letter below:

================================

HOW TO GO VEGAN WHILE GLUTEN-FREE:

Thanks for the nice feedback!  First, I started getting more and more
grossed out with meat.  I began teaching Once-A-Month Cooking classes and
using "whole" things like whole chickens...really sickening.  I was trying
to "simplify" my life and actually started sicking myself out!

Then, we started looking into what is actually up with the meat industry
and what we found was awfully yucky.  Of course, you have to actually look
into what you read on the internet, etc. to be sure of the least amount of
exaggeration, but even still, meat is not made in a nice way no matter how
nice it is presented.

We ended up feeding the last of our Once-A-Month meats in the freezer to
the dog.  (BTW, in "real" OAM cooking you freeze whole meals, but I didn't
since we are gf and it saved a lot of time just having the meats done.)

We found that we overate cheese, eggs, and milk to the max...like they
filled in for the missing meat.  Consequently, it seemed like that can't be
"healthy"...so we substituted bit by bit.  I got sicked out easily by eggs
at that point as well.  Tofu was a big BLECHHHH! at first, but s-l-o-w-l-y
we learned how to (and how NOT to) cook with it!!!

Lastly, I read up on the dairy industry (killing baby boy calves for veal
after boxing them in small crates for a couple of months and feeding them
"milk replacer", repeatedly impregnating mom cows so they would lactate
then killing them when they didn't produce a lot, and all the chemicals,
antibiotics, hormones, and *PUS* in the final product) and wished I had
quit dairy BEFORE meat!!! LOL!

====================

So, how to do it...start slowly, keep trying things (just like when you
first went gf and it seemed insurmountable then got easier), check out LOTS
of cookbooks from the library, join a list, and read, read, read!

What we eat is so amazing now.  We don't have the "constraints" of
meat-and-potatoes with meat as the centerpiece.  On a typical evening we
might eat acorn squash, honeydew melon, and a salad with some roasted
almonds.  I try anything that is gf and vegan.

I bought dollar store lidded jars (1, 1.5, and 2 quart) for all my rice,
beans, grains, flours, nuts, seeds, and noodles.  I keep them on a
restaurant rack that I bought at Lowe's.  I write on the lids, sometimes
even the cooking instructions or put the package inside with the beans or
whatever.

We mail order flour or travel to a Wild Oats or other health food store to
buy gf flours.  Occasionally we buy gf cookies and other "convenience"
foods a case at a time and get a 10% discount.  I love to browse "natural
food"  and grocery stores and see what I can find that's new.  Oh, and we
buy noodles - lately mostly the corn ones by Mrs. Leeper's.  We cook them
to taste - NOT the time on the package!

We shop at the coop (once a  month ordering and picking up at a church
basement) - most towns have them...I get almonds, cashews, pistachios (all
raw) and roast them myself in the oven on a cookie sheet (350 for 15
minutes) then put them in a jar when they are completely cool.  We also buy
seeds (sprout mix, sesame, sunflower, poppy) and all our spices at the coop
(WAY cheaper!) as well as rice nuts (bulk) cereal and boxes of Maple
Buckwheat Flakes.

Also from the coop, we get HUGE bags of TVP (texturized vegetable protein -
sub for ground meat...cook onion, garlic, etc. add spices, then tomato
paste, then enough water for TVP, then stir in TVP when boiling, turn off
heat and cover for 5 minutes, voila taco "meat"), nutritional yeast (looks
like fish food flakes, tastes like cheese, sprinkle in soups by the
cup-full, make broccoli-rice with "cheese" sauce, add to gravy, etc. - said
to be a good source of B12 for vegans), and brown rice flour.  I keep these
three items in 5 gallon buckets.

I have three giant tupperware-type containers for veggies (modern fridges
are for MEAT AND CHEESE with teeny-tiny veggie drawers) - I don't use
plastic baggies at the store (too much trash) and just place them together
in the large containers without washing them...then try to rotate to make
sure nothing is wasted.  We eat mostly organic produce: cauliflower,
broccoli, carrots, baby carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, fresh greens.  I
don't refrigerate potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, and most fruit
(I do refrigerate kiwi, lemons, and limes).  And tomatoes and avocados are
left on the counter as well.

I like tofu in a lot of forms.  We love tempeh.  Of course, I am sure
seitan (wheat meat) would be great, but we can't have it!  And we drink soy
milk.  We make smoothies with organic frozen fruits and soy milk and we
make "ice cream" or sorbets with soy milk and/or fruits (I have a freezer
thingie that you just pour in the liquid and it freezes without stirring,
then you transfer what you haven't eaten to a freezer container).  :-)

I am sure I am forgetting something, but just ask about what you would like
to know.  I am happy to help.