Living Without Magazine

Living Without Magazine

I’ve been meaning to start writing more about food, but have been hindered by the fact that I just can’t seem to come up with a witty food blog title. It seems like all the good ones are already taken … I mean, “Book of Yum?” Awesome.  “Smitten Kitchen?” I like. And the title “Gluten Free Girl” has been held for years by someone far better qualified to the position. Besides, while I might like a nod to the food issues, I really wouldn’t want them to dominate. So please help me. If you’re reading, and it would surprise me if many are, but play along here … if you’re reading, then do please throw out some ideas. Then again, I might just keep things here and keep it nice and simple.

A friend recently stated that I’m a bit obsessed with food. This is no overstatement … but I have a reason for thinking about food all the time, I do! I have food issues. I know, I know. White people and their food issues. Long story short, I can’t eat foods containing the proteins gluten (found in grains like wheat, barley, rye, and so on) and casein (found in milk). I’m also not too great with Soy. All this means that many of the foods I used to know and love are either totally off-limits, or else have to be substituted into an unrecognizable form.

Enter Living Without Magazine.  Living Without is a magazine devoted to helping those with food allergies and intolerances educate themselves about foodstuffs and feed themselves with style and grace. Excellent articles nothwithstanding, I find that the advertisements are actually useful. Not all Gluten and Dairy free products are available in all local stores, and it’s helpful to find out about new brands of prefab foods and flour mixes – though in general I use them rarely. Each issue also comes with a fairly extensive substitution guide, including recipes for various flour blends. We have a local gluten free bakery (Gluten Free Creations) that makes a few fantastic mixes, which I confess I find far easier to use than mixing everything from scratch eatch time I like to bake, but I love knowing how to blend various flours to achieve different flavors and textures. My favorite part of this particular magazine, though, is that they very frequently have recipes that are both gluten and casein free. While many people who are gluten intolerant also can’t process dairy, it can still be difficult to find such recipes. They are usually tagged Gluten Free / Casein Free (GF/CF in my categories) and I have found that Vegan Recipes, Autism Spectrum Disorder Groups, Specific Carbohydrate Diet sites, Kosher (for non-dairy) sites, and of course Gluten Free recipe collections can all be good resources.

Full disclosure: Living Without is fond of exploring the wide world of hard to find and expensive but gluten free flours … and I have often had to change things up by making my own substitutions. BUT I fully intend to make and review recipes from Living Without, which will be tagged as such.Because I simply can’t leave well enough alone and usually view a recipe as a fluid guideline (even – gasp – when baking), I’ll probably fidget with things … but I’ll clearly mark my modifications and list the recipes as originally detailed in the magazine.

First up, from the new February/March issue which arrived this morning, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free CHOCOLATE dessert recipes. I’ll see if I can find some yummy deliciousness to serve at our prospective Valentine’s Day Symposium. With raspberries. Husbands like raspberries.