day 3 wheat-free

i'm not sure how i feel about this process. on the one hand, i see a lot of food that i really enjoy eating going into the mouths of my family and i feel sad because i cannot join them. on the other hand, i enjoy a challenge. i've been exploring the natural foods sections of the my local grocery stores because i've never really paid attention to the gluten-free offerings. i'm looking into creative recipes (brownies, i found brownies!!). i'm discovering new websites and blogs.

one such blog, The Gluten-Free Goddess has provided a wealth of information as well as some inspiration: she suggests that instead of wallowing about because i miss food i used to eat, i should try rejoicing in all the foods i get to eat. that last bit would be so much easier if i had taken the time to stock up on ingredients before leaping into this elimination, but i'm a do or die kinda chick. an empty of g-f foods pantry wasn't about to stop me once i realised that i needed to do this. i have since purchased some supplies and i would like to share my impressions of these products...

CeliMix Rice Bread Mix

this company operates out of Winnipeg, MB, which excited me because i was born there. birthplace coincidence aside, i can't say that i enjoyed the bread that resulted from this mix. Rice Bread has a very strange texture, one that i can't imagine would improve even i hadn't allowed the batter to over-rise. the bread is grainy and cannot sustain shape long enough for a simple sandwich to survive the distance between my plate and my mouth on the first bite. not good at all. even the weight of enough jam to make the flavour tolerable threatens to completely disintegrate each slice. not sure what i will do with the rest of the mix. maybe i can try mixing it with one of their other breads. i will let you know how that works out.

Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal

i enjoy hot cereals occasionally, but i have to say that i'm more of a cold cereal gal. when it comes time to challenge my body with some, i plan to pour a giant heaping bowl of Shreddies. that said, this hot mixture of corn, brown rice, white sporghum, and buckwheat was really very good. i added a little brown sugar and would've added raisins except that i had forgotten that we don't have any. oh well. tomorrow, i will add strawberries and bananas and see how that goes.

MI-DEL Wheat-free, Gluten-free Ginger Snaps

they taste just like cookies and i love cookies. if someone had served these to me, i would've never noticed anything out of the ordinary about them. very good. i'm eating one right now. mm mmm...

damn. i just read the ingredients and somehow i missed the egg-whites. i don't think i even read the list when i purchased them because most ginger snaps don't have eggs. duh. oh well. i don't think eggs are the problem, but i did want to eliminate them as well just because they are a common irritant.

my friends and family keep telling me that they hope that wheat isn't the problem, but i actually hope the opposite. despite the difficulty in avoiding wheat, i would rather know that i have a concrete nemesis as opposed to moving on to 'the next step'. i have no idea where to go from here.