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| Tilapia with Coconut Curry Sauce- A Favorite of Two of the Celiacs in the House |
A celiac disease diagnosis and a gluten-free diet collided with my ‘food is love’ upbringing five years ago. Coming from a food-loving family full of cooks, professional and otherwise, I immediately set out to replicate our diet with gluten-free options. There was a lot of love in my baking even if it was with white starches and flours and gums. Lucky for my kids, my kind of love was also heavy on the vegetables with twice weekly trips to the farmers’ market through the growing season in Central Ohio. As our gluten-free diet has evolved, we have learned that the gluten-free diet is not ‘one size fits all.’
We have discovered that one of us can tolerate very little starch, gums, or even grains while another of us has no problem at all with massive quantities of carbs in any form. And then there is mom who can tolerate everything in moderation, but middle-age has definitely cut back on the quantities. We have learned that one of us can tolerate very little dairy and one of us has no problems with local milk and organic butter. The variation in the diet of the three celiacs in our house is kind of astonishing, but it shouldn’t be considering all three of us had very different symptoms before diagnosis. The one thing we have learned is to listen to our bodies and follow how we feel after eating. When a meal leaves us energized, we know we’ve hit the right balance and made the right choices. We have also learned that the time spent shopping, cooking, creating and sharing a meal is where the love is in this family. Our dinner plates may not have the same combinations of foods and there is often last minute scrambling to get another side dish or veggie on the table to accommodate a food sensitivity that stretches the patience and humor of all of us, but we know how important the process and the sharing of this gluten-free diet has been to our mental and physical health and the strength of our family.
Since Cheryl, our host for the week, chose Food as Love for our theme, I am going with comfort food and kids favorites again this week. Even now when I tell my younger brother that I made salmon cakes, he will get nostalgic for our favorite childhood meal. We spent a few years of our early childhood with a single mom who worked long hours and yet came home and made beautiful meals on a very tight budget. I know she went without food during some of the worst of that time, but we were well-fed and have happy memories of our little family meals. Well, except the liver and onions, but that’s another post. So salmon cakes are on the menu and a favorite of the eldest. Little sister on the other hand would put them(and all fish) on the list with liver and onions. She will dine on chicken breasts when fish is on the menu and she usually stir-fries the chicken with broccoli and adds lots of Sriracha and garlic.
Asian Chicken Thighs, rice, stir fried veggies
Salmon Cakes, parsley potatoes, french green beans in garlic
Polenta Pot Pies
Greek Turkey Meatloaf, broccoli, risotto using my turkey burger recipe
Broiled Tilapia with Coconut Curry Sauce
Shredded Beef Tacos from the slow cooker with Spanish rice and black beans
Kale, Feta and Pesto Pasta with Tinkyada pasta and frozen pesto cubes made this summer
Visit Gluten Free Goodness for the roundup of Gluten-Free Menu Swappers and the headquarters where you can sign up to join us.
Laura’s Organizing Junkie Menu Plan Monday always has hundreds of menus and weekly menu-planning tips with a few gluten-free choices.
Visit my past posts for more gluten-free meal ideas and family friendly gluten-free recipes.
Hope you have a great week full of love and chocolate.
I definitely felt the love when you tweeted your menu for the week!
I think your statement, “When a meal leaves us energized, we know we’ve hit the right balance and made the right choices.”, is huge. So many times we can leave the dinner table feeling sluggish or want a nap a short time later. Our bodies are speaking to us for sure. What a great mom you are and it’s wonderful that the family has learned to adapt. Flexibility is key in dealing with individual differences. Oh, and as I tweeted, I’m with everyone else on that tilapia! FexEx overnight shipping and dry ice should get it to me just fine. 
Belated happy Valentine’s Day, Wendy! Have a great week!
Shirley
Thanks for visiting the new site, Shirley. That tilapia is our new favorite and it will be showing up on the menu a lot more until we tire of it. One thing my family has learned is how to be adaptable, creative, and flexible with this gluten-free lifestyle. It’s been tough a lot of the time, but I am proud of how they have grown.
Wow new digs. How cool. I love you menu this week!
Thanks Diane. I feel like I just moved house and I have boxes and clutter and no curtains yet. I need to change my name too.
Love the new blog layout! Welcome to wordpress
I can so relate to having to cut back on portions even though I can tolerate grains and starches. Talapia is my go to fish and that looks amazing! Hope you have a great weeks as well!
xo,
c
WordPress and I are getting off to a slow start, Carol. Hope I warm up to it in a hurry. Thanks for visiting and helping me practice with the comments.
So, Shirley says you FedEx. Good. I will take two Talapia for tonight’s dinner and two extra for later this week. Oh, and if you could throw in the tacos and pasta for the end of the week, that would be great. Thanks!
Your new website looks great. It’s bit crazy to do at first, but you will get the hng of it and realize that it is quite fun. Really! I swear! Please believe me. OK?
I love that you go to the farmer’s market so diligently. And you find a way to make food happy and healthy for everyone, even though there is a lot to accommodate. Very admirable. Um, and what Carol said about proportion sizes, Well, I believe that I will live to be at least 150, so I have quite a while before I hit middle age. So, my body just better realize that soon. I’m getting tired of it being in denial.
xoxo,
Tia
Okay guys. I guess I should just stock up on dry ice and go into the gluten-free meal mail order business. The site will probably change a lot before I get it done, but thanks for stopping by and making me laugh about that denial thing instead of crying over WordPress.
Yum. The coconut curry sauce looks good enough to dive into! I have huge admiration for you – how challenging for you to have to accommodate three different appetites! It’s a lot just to have to deal with my own food likes and dislikes (hubs is very flexible and will eat pretty much anything). You go girl. And congrats on the new website. Once you get the hang of wordpress, you’re gonna love it, I predict.
Ellen-That curry is good enough to do the back stroke in. Thanks for the admiration, but I get a lot of help in the kitchen. I am basically the hunter and gatherer and organizer of the pantry. I hope you’re right about WordPress. I almost gave up and wanted to hit delete on both blogs today. If you gals hadn’t been cheering me on, I probably would have.
You are going to fall in love with WordPress. LOVE what you’ve done with your site!
Oh my, I don’t know how you keep track of all of the various sensitivities. Managing mine alone seems to be a full-time job. Your family is blessed to have you!
Thanks Heather. You are so sweet to say that. I’m going to have to start believing all you WordPress fans. Hope the love starts soon.
Love the new look of your site, Wendy! I wish I were organized enough to plan the menu for a whole week. I maybe plan a day or two in advance. I’ve been wanting to include more fish (tilapia being a favorite) in our meals and menu planning would help assure that would happen.
With our schedules and our differing sensitivities, I have to have a basic structure to at least get something on the table and have backup groceries for flexibility. I don’t know how to feed this crew any other way. Thanks for the blog compliment, Nancy. I’m not sure how it will end up looking, but my daughter is glad to see the onions gone.
Wow! What a change. Looks great! I thought I had already commented on the yummy menu you had planned. But since I don’t see it here, I must have gotten interrupted. Hope you’re having fun getting settled in the new place.
Hey Heather. You did comment on the old blog. Thanks for both! I miss my old header, but the rest of the family voted for the new design. I’m outnumbered.