The Wheat-Free Experiment- Week Three- Cheater, Cheater

So I admit, week three was the week of cheating.   We let the wheat get back into our systems. It's what happens when you leave church late, stop for gas, and notice that there is, conveniently, a Subway sandwich shop attached to the gas station.  The tummy is rumbly, you can smell the bread even over the gas fumes... why not?  Let's get some sandwiches for lunch.

A Subway sandwich may not be a major cheat on a typical diet, but it is, of course, if your diet doesn't include wheat.  We've discovered that there is very little eating out you can do, particularly at any place with a drive-through, when you're not eating wheat. Hamburgers, chicken nuggets, salads with croutons, even McDonald's french fries are coated in a wheat product.  This is one of the better side-effects of being on a wheat-free diet, although it's hardly convenient.  It eliminates so many junk food options right off the bat.

The other day Josh and I were talking about the popularity of almond milk and other almond products, like almond meal for baking.  He asked me about soy milk and I, with great passion, declared that soy milk is a  horrible product and ought not to be ingested by anyone.  The prevalence of soy in almost every packaged product indicates that it is a cheap filler "food"  but has hardly any nutrition... and I believe it's the polar opposite of anything nutritious.  Anything but a pure genuine soy food, like edamame, is not good for you (at least not for anyone in our house).  I went to the pantry to show him just how prevalent soy was in our food. I pulled out a package of rice cakes. Ingredients: brown rice, salt.  Nice, I thought to myself.  I pulled out a box of cereal.  No soy in this particular plain Jane product.  Hmmm.... I glance around the pantry, which is void of pretty much any convenience, pre-packaged food.

"Wow." I said out loud.  "None of this has soy in it."  Why?  Because we have basically eliminated all those easy-peasy snack and convenience foods when we eliminated wheat.  And wheat and soy seem to go hand in hand.  Surely, there are GF foods and lots of so called "health" foods that contain soy.  But I've discovered another great side-effect to this wheat free diet: because I have to make most of our foods, I control exactly what goes inside them.  They come out cleaner, and more natural, than practically anything I could buy in the store already made for me.

Back to the cheating.  Did I feel guilty?  Not really. This is just an experiment, after all.  I ate a brownie at church Sunday night. I also made some Magic Cookie bars with a pretzel crust (we had some pretzels lingering around), and ate some.  But let me tell you. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday my legs were once again, sore.  At first I thought it was just from my workout, but by Wednesday I realized it was that other kind of sore that I would get just by doing daily life.  No wheat since Tuesday and my legs are feeling great again.  Workouts and all.  So I'm calling it.  Wheat is contributing to my sore legs.

I think the "experts" say it takes three weeks to make a new habit or break a bad one.  Well, we've been doing this for over three weeks and it is coming much more naturally.  The benefits, like the ones mentioned above, are becoming more important to me than the extra work.  I'm really thankful that we put the whole family on this diet.  It enabled us to completely empty out the pantry of wheat-full foods and eliminate temptation.  Everyone is getting used to it by now.  We've got one final week left of our thirty day experiment.  Will we continue to keep the wheat out of the house?

I don't know yet.  I think that, for me, the wheat has to go.  I'm not at the end of my own personal food journey, discovering what works best for my body. But this has been a valuable learning experiment.  Josh hasn't had any major, noticeable differences in how he feels.  He has lost five pounds, but his weight fluctuates about five pounds naturally.  If it falls below the current mark, we'll start to conclude that maybe the wheat-free diet is helping him too. However, this hasn't been just a wheat-free change, as I've already mentioned.  Lots of other icky foods and not-so-great habits are being eliminated too.  So perhaps it's not just the wheat that was affecting us.

I really love that the kids aren't eating as much pre-packaged snack food.  The extra work it makes for me is less bothersome now (new habit gained).  I love that they are trying new foods because their default foods are missing.  But this doesn't mean I'll be a Nazi when it comes to what they eat.  I'm sure we'll have goldfish crackers in the house occasionally.  But  maybe just a small bag of them for a treat instead of the giant tub.

I'm anxious to see what this week brings.  The experiment is easier and easier and as our thirty days come to an end, I hope we gain even more insight as to how we want to feed our family.

The Wheat-Free Experiment- Week 2 Wrap Up

We now have two weeks under our wheat-less belts.  And it is getting much easier.  I've discovered more tricks to going wheat-free, got into more of a routine, and I am no longer missing the bread aisle and the ease it brings to my life.

There's not much to report in the way of earth shattering changes. If you read the report from week one, nothing much has changed. Weight loss? Nope (Darn it all!).  More energy?  I don't know. Can a busy, homeschooling, constantly cooking mom of three ever have enough energy?  I will say, however, that I am really starting to believe that the relief of my leg pain is truly due to getting the wheat out of my life.  I mentioned this in my last post, but wasn't yet convinced. After another week of no wheat, I am almost 100% convinced.  At the end of some days, my legs feel slightly tired and I think "Oh, they should really be hurting and achy right now. My knees should be killing me. I should be ready to collapse and not get up." But I haven't experienced this in the three weeks that I have gone without wheat (I started this about a week ahead of the rest of the family).  If this is the only side-effect I experience, it is well worth the extra effort.

Feeding the family is getting easier, thanks especially to the Land O Lakes website, which introduced me to what I feel is the perfect gluten free baking mix.  Two cups of rice flour, one cup of potato starch, and 1 tsp of xantham gum mixed together and kept in an airtight container has been an excellent cup-for-cup replacement for wheat flour in my baked goods. I've made several types of muffins, chocolate chip cookies, pancakes, cornbread, and even a great yeast bread with this mixture.  Tonight, in honor of Pi day, I plan to use their gluten free pie crust recipe to make something yummy.  I honestly want to call the company and give them a huge hoo-rah  because this has made the experiment so much easier.  A week ago I bought three pounds of rice flour for 95 cents a pound.  I had ordered a case (4 -24-oz packages) of potato starch from amazon.  We haven't used all the flour mixture yet, but I'm estimating that for about $5 a week, we were able to have homemade baked goods and the bread we needed.  Considering that a premade gluten free baking mix can cost $5 for one loaf of bread, I'd say this is very economical.  Therefore, sticking to your budget on a special diet CAN be done. I realize the more specialized your diet, the harder it will be.  But expanding your grocery budget to insure your good health via good food is one of the best investments you can make.  Again, what is it worth to me to have legs that aren't killing me at the end of the day?  A lot.

Now that I've found a good bread recipe that tastes more like homemade white bread, I'm not getting as many comments from the kids about where our old food has gone.  One of my favorite things about this experiment, still, is the absence of food that is so easy to overindulge in.  Sure, baked goods like chocolate chip cookies and chocolate peanut butter no-bakes (Josh's favorite) can disappear in a day if we're not careful, but it's awfully hard to overeat rice cakes and peanut butter with a banana sliced on top.  Cheez-Its- that's another story.

One of my favorite recipes from this past week was from the Gluten Free Goddess. She made pizza night amazing!  Her recipe for pizza dough is wonderful. I followed it to a tee.  It was soft and very tasty and when reheated it didn't get rubbery like the usual pizza dough.  I HIGHLY recommend this recipe and would make this over traditional pizza dough every time, it was that good.  And easy, too.

I'm really starting to enjoy this experiment and all I am learning. I love being able to have people over for dinner that have a specialized diet, knowing I can cook for them.  Food allergies and special diets can be socially isolating.  Going to a restaurant with friends could be a nightmare if you are gluten and dairy free.  Taking your children to a birthday party with either or both of these allergies- forget about it.  As a girl who loves to make people feel welcome in her home, being able to cook for a  special diet  brings new meaning to "comfort food".  Food should bring people together, not tear them apart.

The Wheat-Free Experiment- Week 1 Thoughts and Findings

We are nearing the end of our first week going wheat-free as a family.  I'd like to report more astounding findings than I'm going to, but we still have three weeks left.  I'm easing into the menu planning and I've found some fantastic recipes.  I still spend more time in the kitchen, cooking and washing pots and pans, but thankfully we haven't had any loser recipes so far.

Response from the kids:
"When are you going to get our regular bread?"
"Can I have some Goldfish please?"
"Is that the only kind of cereal we have?"
My children are real creatures of habit.  Most are.  My son likes to have both cereal and toast for breakfast. I made a big pan of baked oatmeal one morning and while eating it, he said "Mommy, I like this, but can I still have my cereal and toast?"  He's in a breakfast rut.  Going wheat-free is helping to get out of it.
There have been no major complaints about the missing foods.

Response from Josh:
No huge discernible differences in energy or overall physical feelings.
No drop in weight.
No negative side effects.

Response from me:
My findings are similar to Josh's.  So far I don't notice any huge changes. I still feel like I have my winter weight hanging around my belly.  The one thing that  may be associated is my knees feeling better. I am on my feet most of the day and there are some nights when I sit down to dinner and feel very sore.  My legs and knees are so tired.  I haven't noticed this in the past week and I have definitely been on my feet more.  Again, it may not be related.

I've also found that there is a lot of glorified gluten-free junk food out there, that is just as full of bad stuff as the wheat-full items. The gluten-free label doesn't make a food healthy.  I think that overall we are eating more fruit and vegetables because we don't have the variety of wheat-full carbohydrates around to snack on that we did before.  It's pretty much rice cakes and one other item I've made (see my Pinterest board for some of the recipes we've tried so far.  My comments give the details.)  Then it's homemade fruit pops, cheese sticks, fresh fruit, veggies and dip, smoothies, yogurt.  This part of the experiment is making me happy.

Those are the findings so far. Nothing big yet.  But experiments take time.  Most good things are gained, or lost, overnight.  Or in a week.

The Wheat-Free Experiment- Day 1

The kitchen amid the prep for Day 1 of the Wheat-Free Experiment. It's  work I tell you, work!  The blender, the food processor, the laptop,  popsicle molds, every bowl in the house, all employed to help me get ready.  

Day one of our Wheat-Free Experiment is under our formerly wheat-bellied belt.  Whew.  Let me wipe away the sweat I built up in the kitchen.  Going wheat-free requires a lot of cooking and making from scratch.  By the end of this I will never want to see another bag of Bob's Red Mill anything.  It will be the greatest of treats to buy a loaf of premade bread.

None of this is meant to indicate that Day One was a bad day. It really wasn't, it was great.  Most of my kitchen time was actually spent the day before we started our experiment. I made a loaf of bread using the best recipe I have found so far, this Delicious Gluten Free Bread  from the Gluten-Free Goddess.  She knows her stuff on this topic.  I have made this bread several times, often substituting the sorgham flour for garbanzo bean flour, which I prefer.  While that mixed in the bread maker, I got the bright idea to pull together the dry ingredients for several other recipes since all the special supplies were out.  I now have the dry mixes for another loaf of bread, pizza dough, and banana muffins ready to go.  I also made a batch of granola bars from Smitten Kitchen.  I ground up a  cup of walnuts and used coconut oil in place of butter, and maple syrup. I added dried cranberries and pepitas.

The morning of Day One arrived and the pantry had been mysteriously swept clean of any remaining wheat-full foods.  Mostly some sandwich crackers, breadcrumbs, and graham crackers.  There were two boxes of cereal in the kids' cupboard, rice Chex and corn Chex.  Mister is a cereal addict.  He must have cereal for breakfast. Oh,and then toast about an hour later.  No complaints on my homemade bread from anyone, all day.

There were no leftovers to send with Josh to work for his lunch, but I quickly pulled together a giant Chef salad. I thanked my lucky stars that I had some hard boiled eggs and homemade dressing.  I was feeling a little frazzled already.

Petite had an apple with peanut butter for breakfast, after her usual cup of warm milk.  For mid-morning snack, I brought out the granola bars. They were absolutely delicious, in my opinion, but the dried fruit and pumpkin seeds made the oldest two turn up their noses.  Sigh.  But Petite and I enjoyed them immensely.

I had a leftover baked sweet potato for lunch.  I made the kids open faced grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.  Mid-afternoon snack was homemade juice and fruit popsicles (frozen strawberries and Concord grape juice.)

I was going out to dinner with a friend, but I still had to make everyone else supper.  For them, I made Salisbury steak patties with mushroom gravy, mashed potato and steamed pea pods. Okay, I admit, the only part of this the kids would eat is the potato. For them, nitrate free hot dogs and the usual baby carrots.  They would later have popcorn with their movie night.

My girlfriend and I went to a Mexican restaurant, which is a very easy place to be wheat-free because of the corn tortillas. Not to mention the corn chips on the table while you figure out what you want to eat. And the huge mound of guacamole we ordered to go with it.  Later we hit Target and I just can barely help going into Target without visiting that little coffee shop so often attached.  Yeah, Starbucks.  Buckies, as I fondly call it. At the checkout (where I was purchasing NutCrisp crackers and Archer Farms fruit bars) I got a printed coupon for a free bakery item with an grande or venti drink.  Ooooo, I thought. Free bakery item!  But wait. That's right.  All those bakery items have wheat in them.  So I just ordered my raspberry non-fat mocha and was happy with that. And frankly, I was still overly stuffed from all the tortilla chips and guacamole.

But it's been eye-opening just how prevalent wheat is. And how cheap it is (compared to many other grains).  And how very difficult it must be for those who must be truly gluten-free. Add on top of that dairy free.  Corn free.  Soy free.  Wow, there would be so little one could eat!  Even as I made some homemade mac n cheese (using rice past shells), I realized I couldn't thicken the sauce with the usual flour.  It's in there too.  Rice flour worked just fine, but again, eye opening.

What I have learned so far as the mastermind behind this whole experiment:

It is work. Mental and physical. It takes a thought of thought and planning to prepare meals and snacks that don't contain wheat.  It requires more time in the kitchen as I make my own bread from scratch instead of stocking up from the bread aisle.  I have to be thinking ahead and anticipating not just the food needs of today, but also tomorrow. Case in point, there was no bread this morning for Josh to have his usual toast and peanut butter. So he had oatmeal.

Lunch is the trickiest meal of the day.  Sandwiches can't be the go-to food when bread isn't cheap and as soft and fluffy as the wheat-full stuff.  It's not as challenging for Josh and I, as we eat a much wider variety of foods, but it is a challenge when it comes to feeding the kids.  I have wanted to cheat already by buying regular bread, just to make my life easier. But the research factor makes me want to keep on.

I do really like the fact that better, more wholesome foods are replacing the usual snacks around here.  Fresh fruit, cheese sticks, homemade fruit pops and granola.  And it is much harder to mindlessly east these foods than it is a box of Cheez-Its (my all time favorite cracker).

We currently have three days under our belt.  We've had homemade baked beans, mac n cheese, and made one of the many gluten-free Chex Mix recipes from their website (fun and easy snack to make with kiddos). This morning I made muffins with one of the dry mixes I made, and chili will be going in the crockpot for dinner.  Maybe I'll search out a gluten free cornbread recipe.

I'm already annoyed that life revolves around gluten.  My GF friends, you have my sympathies.

The Wheat-Free Experiment- Preliminaries

I get these ideas into my head.  And I think they are great ideas.  And so The Wheat-Free Experiment begins.  I can’t yet call it The GREAT Wheat-Free Experiment.  Because it remains to be seen…

We are not required to be gluten free or wheat free, but there’s lots of talk and research these days on the benefits of eliminating wheat from the diet. So, why not try it?  After all, I love to cook. I’ve already refined a great wheat-free bread recipe.  And isn’t bread the staff of life?  Indeed, we go through three to four loaves a week of the “staff”.  There is also so much information online about being wheat-free, including a recipe to take the place of every wheat-full one we love.  And the buying opportunities abound as well, enabling me to get the essential ingredients (namely, flours) to make this little experiment work.

Can we live in a world without (wheat flour) cake?

To me, it’s a game. And it sounds just plain fun.  I know. I’m a sicko.  The ones who truly must be gluten free are cursing me right now. They are thinking “Just you wait and see how FUN this really is!”.  I know, I know.  I’m expecting some unfunny moments.  But this is just an experiment.

And it’s not just an experiment on Josh and I. The kids are involved too.  Thursday night, when they have gone to bed, what remains of wheat-full snacks and foods will be packed away and replaced with wheat-free choices.  Yes, Friday morning, March 1^st is the first day of our experiment.  We’ll go the entire month of March, perhaps having a fabulous wheat-less Easter feast on the 31^st, or perhaps deciding we have had enough and having a fabulous wheat-full feast!  It is our prerogative, but in any case, we will be going for at least 30 days without wheat.

I won’t expound on the evils of wheat.  I can’t say I’m even convinced that wheat is the enemy.  And yet, I wonder.  I wonder how we’ll feel after thirty days without this “Frankengrain” as The Wheat Belly Diet calls our current version of wheat.  I wonder if we’ll have more energy.  I wonder if we’ll lose weight.  I wonder if, nothing else, we’ll be able to say we just feel better.  I wonder how the kids will respond.  Physically, but also emotionally. There won’t be a goldfish cracker in the house.  I wonder if, by the end, we’ll be ready to burn every book out there on the evils of wheat and grains.  We shall see.

We’ve decided a few things.  If we go to anyone’s house for a meal, we will gladly eat whatever is set before us. After all, we do not have any known medical reason why we shouldn’t eat wheat.  Therefore, we will be thankful for whatever we are given. This includes the kids eating the snacks that are typically provided for them at church.  And we have also decided not to mention this wheat-free experiment to the kids, for the moment.  But I’m sure the question will arise sometime this month- Where are my goldfish crackers?  Where’s our usual bread?

Last night I did the shopping to get ready for The Wheat-Free  Experiment.  I’m not calling it The Gluten Free Experiment because we will be eating un-certified oats and the like. However, the GF label is very helpful in choosing wheat-free products.  My shopping venture in and of itself was eye opening. I walked down the cracker and snack aisle just to see if there was anything we could eat.  Nope. Nothing.  Wheat in everything.  I didn’t even stop to look at the Oops We Baked Too Much cart, always a favorite. Because, after all, it’s all made with wheat. Didn’t even look at the bread aisle, where I usually buy five loaves of bread. I was just beginning to think I was going to save a ton of money on groceries.  But of course, these wheat-full snacks must be replaced by wheat-less ones.  I had already done some research on foods to buy.  Rice cakes (my kids love them), popcorn (my favorite.  I can never go on a diet that doesn’t allow me to eat popcorn. Or peanut butter.  That’s just the way it is), baked corn chips.  100% grape juice and frozen berries to make slushies and juice pops.  Dried fruits and fresh fruits.  Many of these are staples around here anyway.  But then there were some essential replacements like brown rice pasta and some treats like The Peanut Butter Company’s dark chocolate peanut butter- something special to spread on those rice cakes!  I bought more than the usual frozen veggies and fresh produce.  I was delighted by all the processed foods we just “naturally” can’t have because they have wheat in them.  When all was said and done, my grocery bill was no leaner, but neither was it heftier.  It seemed like the typical amount I spend on my stock up trips that occur every two weeks or so.

But much remains to be seen.  And I think it’s going to be just plain fun finding out if this wheat-less lifestyle works for us.  I’m thankful for a really fun husband who will eat just about anything and really likes my great ideas when it comes to food.  As he said, we eat a lot of naturally wheat-free foods anyway.  He thinks I am cool and interesting.  He likes learning all this foodie stuff from me.  I get  fulfillment out of designing a menu the way he gets fulfillment out of designing a woodshed.

So let the experiment begin (on Friday!).