Words cannot describe my son’s reaction when he found out that Tom Brady eats gluten-free food. I wish I had it on video. A six year old boy with celiac disease who lives about 20 minutes from Gillette Stadium, as you can imagine, it was filled with pure joy and excitement. Although Tom does not have celiac disease, that I know of, it is still great for my son to know that someone he looks up to, eats like him.
We don’t exactly #eatlikeagoat, as you can see if you read my blog. We eat a lot of meat, vegetables, fruit and some processed foods (for much needed sanity and convenience). I am trying to get more seafood into our diet, but find it challenging, since I need to buy the fish the day or day before I’m going to cook it and I only go to the store once a week. It takes some planning and coordination. I am trying to get the habit of buying larger quantities that were not previously frozen so that I can freeze some to take out, when the timing works. This Baked Lemon Cod recipe from Food.com is one of my go to recipes. I just substitute gluten-free flour for the all-purpose flour. If you have any leftover, try my fish stick recipe!
Our food habits have not changed that dramatically since our whole house went gluten free about 3 years ago. We are still a meat and potatoes kind of family. More habits have been added however. I make more from scratch and more in bulk to freeze. We eat less fast food, order take-out less and eat out less. I save chicken bones and vegetable scraps in the freezer to make stock from scratch a couple of times a month. I keep the ends of all of our bread in the freezer, as well, to make croutons or bread pudding because that $6 loaf of bread definitely needs to be used in its entirety!
Gluten free Bread Pudding
Ingredients
About 2 to 2 ½ cups of stale bread, cut into cubes
2 Tablespoons of melted butter
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of cardamom
1 cup of milk
½ cup of heavy cream
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup of brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of cardamom
Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Toss bread, butter, ¼ teaspoon of sugar, ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of cardamom and spread out on a sheet pan. Toast in oven for about 15 minutes, mixing once half way through. Whisk the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl. Place bread in a casserole dish and pour mixture over it. Let sit for 15 minutes. Place in a water bath and cook for 45 minutes, until set. Serve with your favorite ice cream!
The eating and cooking habits we have added are all good. Are they all easy? Not always, but it has become our normal. Eating 100% processed foods, gluten-free or not, is not healthy. Eating 100% all natural, whole foods may be healthy, gluten-free or not, but not always convenient for everyone. Everything in moderation is what I try to follow for my family. I don’t judge anyone for how they eat or cook. Everyone does what they can, with what they are dealt with. If you have any questions about going gluten-free, please feel free to contact me, mammascooking@gmail.com or comment on this post! More ideas for St. Patrick’s Day and Easter coming up next week!
