Searching For Pancakes

Imagine this: It’s a leisurely Saturday morning, and you’re sitting at a table in the corner of your favourite brunch spot.  You’re near enough to the window that you can feel the morning sun warm your shoulders while you catch up with some friends, sip your morning cup of coffee, and dig into your order of pancakes (and, maybe, sneak a taste of someone else’s Eggs Benedict!).  Does this dreamy brunch scene sound familiar to you?  If you’re a celiac, probably not.  Chances are that you don’t go out to a restaurant for breakfast or brunch very often- and even if you do, your choices are usually limited to a boiled egg or some fruit salad, at best.  Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “OK, now hang on a tick.  Eggs are gluten-free.  What’s stopping me from just sitting down in any ol’ diner and ordering a Western Omelette?”   Well, the hard, cold, fact of the matter is that those eggs are probably cooked on the same surface used to fry up pancakes, or French toast.  The average brunch spot simply doesn’t have the right controls in place to prevent cross-contamination of your food with sources of gluten.

A Smoother Start

At this point, we’ve talked about some pretty yummy gluten-free eats, but I haven’t once mentioned any tasty breakfast beverages.  Coffee, juice, and most hot chocolate and teas are all gluten-free though, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to find something safe to quench your thirst in the morning (unless, of course, you’re in some sort of alternate universe where barley malted Ovaltine’s your only option).   Me?  I usually stick to calcium-fortified OJ or apple juice during the weekdays, and the occasional cup of coffee on the weekend while I’m perusing the newspaper.  But sometimes I’m inspired to kick things up a notch in the breakfast beverage department, and this is when I bust out my blender and start making smoothies. 

Cereal Roundup

I can honestly say that I enjoy my gluten-free diet, and for the most part, I don’t feel deprived in any way at all.  For real.  The only time I really feel any pangs of jealousy is when I’m making my way through the grocery store, and I happen to stroll down the cereal aisle.  In the days before my diagnosis, cereal was just about one of my favourite things to eat.  It’s the perfect midnight snack, and it was my go-to for a quick breakfast.  I especially liked these crunchy little squares, and even these “bales of hay”, topped with some brown sugar and fruit.  I know, pretty wholesome and boring.  The veritable Leave It To Beavers of cereal.  But that’s the way I like my breakfast cereal.  And now, it’s seriously tough finding something to pour in my cereal bowl that’s whole-grain, high in fibre, low-sugar, AND gluten-free.

Eggs For The Ego

I have a list of dishes that, when I make them properly- I mean, really get them just spot on- make me feel pretty darned proud of myself.  They just give me that little boost that makes me feel as though I’m ready to take on anything that comes my way.  Cold fusion?  Sure.  Be right there.  World peace?  No problem.  I’ll get that fixed up by noon. For me, this list of ego-enhancers includes pork chops, chocolate chip cookies, and any sort of eggs.  For a long time though, the eggs, especially, seemed to elude me.  And of all the egg dishes, omelettes were the trickiest.  I can’t tell you how many times they quickly became scrambled eggs instead.  And when you’re a celiac, egg-cooking skills are pretty valuable, since eggs are one typical breakfast-ish food that’s naturally gluten-free.

Picture Perfect

photo from simply breakfast

Sometimes routines can be exactly what you need to get you through the day.  Maybe it’s that mid-morning cup of coffee, or that escape into a super-addictive teen read on your evening commute home from work or school.  However, sometimes routines can just get, well, boring.  (Like eating toast every day for breakfast, which is why I’m sitting here talking to you in the first place, remember?)  So what’s the best cure for boredom?  Ideas.  Lots of ideas.  And as it turns out, us celiacs may be in need of even more gluten-free food ideas than I’d imagined.

Pump Up Your Breakfast

I think fall is just about my favourite time of the year.  Compared to the lazy and carefree, patio-sitting, beach-going days of summer, I guess fall is a bit more straitlaced, ushering students back to school and generally reminding everyone of deadlines and responsibilities.  So I can see how it gets its bad rap.  But still.  It’s so much more!  How about swishing your feet through colourful, crunchy leaves on the ground?  Or smelling that faint hint of hickory from someone’s fireplace in the cool crisp air?  Maybe it’s just me…but surely you can’t deny how fantastic the tastes of fall foods can be!  You know, those foods that just make you want to get cozy and curl up in a blanket.  In my books, this basically includes anything featuring caramel, spicy-sweet flavours, root vegetables, apples, and especially pumpkin.

Running With Breakfast

Does anyone else out there sometimes feel like you’re in training for some sort of strange new Olympic sport when you’re getting ready for the day?  Jump in the shower [you’re going to have to rinse faster next time…it’ll shave 20 seconds off your best time!], brush your teeth, comb your hair [You’ve got two hands- do ‘em at the SAME TIME!], throw on your clothes [dig deeper in that sock drawer…matching ones’ll get you a higher score!], and you might just barely have time to grab something to eat.  Whew.  Well, that’s how my weekday mornings often unfold.   What can I say, I just don’t move very quickly when I first roll out of bed.  And it’s always been that way- in junior high, I think my dear, patient mother ended up driving me more often than I took the morning school bus because I missed it on a regular basis.  So what’s a breakfast-loving girl to do when sometimes she just can’t fit the most important meal of the day into her early morning routine?  Easy- breakfast to go!

Grateful For Granola

It’s funny what kinds of things you start to miss when they’re suddenly not around anymore; things that you maybe took for granted because you figured they’d always just be there.   Maybe, if you’re a cooking nerd like me, it was when this magazine’s very last issue hit the newsstands…or if your sense of humour is anything like mine, when you found out this wonderfully pie-filled TV show was to be canceled.  Well, when I found out I had celiac disease, the thing I ended up missing most of all in my new gluten-free diet was oatmeal.  Before my diagnosis, I think I had a bit of a Goldilocks Complex- there were days when I’d eat a bowl of oatmeal topped with some raisins and a splash of maple syrup for breakfast, and then again for lunch.  And sometimes again for dinner too.  I’m not kidding!  Not surprisingly, I had some pretty low days during my oatmeal withdrawal.  But after a while, I adjusted to my new oat-free world and was able to move on.