2 Gluten-Free Mentions on Rules of Engagement, CBS Show

TK Kenyon, the Celiac Maniac, is amused to tell you that one of the writers on Rules of Engagement, an excellent CBS show, must be a celiac or gluten-free.

A season or two ago in Episode 2.9, when Adam's hippie mother visited and drove Jennifer to distraction, Jennifer said that Adam's mother only ate gluten-free food, and she wasn't sure what gluten was, but she was pretty sure that she liked it.

Yes, Jennifer, you do like it.

Then this week, Timmy and Russell fly somewhere, and Timmy brings a brown bag lunch. He says that he has dietary restrictions and isn't sure the airline will be able to provide him with gluten-free food.

No, Timmy, the won't.

Then Russell vomits on his GF lunch.

That's GF-funny!

Will a Gluten-Free Diet Help Me Lose Weight?

Gluten-free diets are not for weight control. They are a medical diet for people whose immune systems have become reactive to the wheat/rye/barley protein gluten. Celiac disease is the common term for this condition.

If you want to lose weight, eat less and exercise more.

Strike that.

Eat a lot less and exercise a lot more.

Don't eat things that are fried or otherwise loaded with fat. Eat whole grains, lean protein (in the forms of legumes, egg whites, or very lean meat,) fruit, and a lot of vegetables.

Exercise a lot, mainly resistance training. Cardio is good for your heart and will give you more energy, but strength training burns fat.

If you go GF, you might lose weight at first, just because you don't know what to eat. Any time that you cut a major food group out of your everyday life, you'll lose a couple pounds.

After that first trip to the health food store, however, you'll load up on all that fake GF food: GF bread, GF donuts, GF waffles, GF cookies, etc. Then, you'll be right back where you started.

Indeed, I'm a celiac, and when I went GF, I gained a few pounds, because my body started absorbing nutrients from food. I lost two dress sizes because my abdomen wasn't horrendously bloated.

NO: don't go GF to lose weight.

Chelsea Clinton's Gluten-Free Wedding Cake

TK Kenyon, the Celiac Maniac, is excited to tell you that reports are that Chelsea Clinton's spectacular wedding cake was gluten-free because Chelsea was diagnosed with gluten intolerance as a teenager, which would be while she was living in the White House.

While much of the meal was also vegan, the cake itself was GF but contained eggs. Hey, it's hard enough to make a GF cake.

Good job, Chelsea, for having your gluten-free cake and eating it, too.

GF Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake

A deep dark chocolate naturally GF dessert worthy of company but easy enough for every day? Wow!

I don't usually post links to recipes on other blogs, esp when I haven't actually made the recipe in question, but this looks scrumptious.

The flourless dark chocolate cake swirled with cream cheese looks wonderful. I think I'll make this soon.

Glutino Gluten-Free Multigrain Bagels -- Review

I have a hankering for a bagel, so I tried Glutino's Multigrain Bagels.

When I took it out of the bag, it felt heavy for its size. That's good in a cantaloupe, but bad in bagel. It kind of looked like it had been poured into a mold and flash frozen.

Then I defrosted it in the microwave. When it was done defrosting, it was warm, yet just as hard as when it was frozen solid.

Bad sign.

I tasted it. Given the aforementioned data, you might think this was unwarranted, but I gave the bagel the benefit of the doubt and took a nibble.

EEEEE-yuck.

This is one of the worst GF products I've had. The texture was sawdust and talcum powder. No sponginess. No softness. No bagelness.

Looks like it's back to the cookbooks for me. This bagel isn't worth your money. Eat Van's GF Waffles or Mesa Sunrise's GF Waffles instead.

Glutino makes wonderful pretzels, but these bagels aren't any good at all.

NOW Xanthan Gum is Fluffy -- Use 1 - 1/2 times GF recipe amount

So, my GF bread recipe suddenly stopped working. 


I had this wonderful, scrumptious, moist-but-not-soggy, fluffy-but-not-foamy, rich, wonderful sandwich bread recipe. It is so great that sometimes, it pushed up the top of the bread machine. It's high and mighty.

And then, about three months ago, it stopped working.

EEEEEEEEK! 

The loaves came out half the height that they used to be. They were dense and soggy. They were awful.

What the hell had happened?

I bought new yeast, thinking maybe my yeast had died. I bought new flours, thinking they might've gone stale or something. I varied everything in the recipe, trying to bring back my wonderful bread.

What I had done was this: I bought a different brand of xanthan gum. Son of a gun.

NOW brand Xanthan Gum is fluffier -- less dense -- than its counterparts. I put 1.5x the recipe amount in, and voila! My bread is back.

Can I get a hallelujah?