by Lyra Bloom

A lot of people ask me, “Why don’t you eat bread? Everybody eats bread!”
When I tell them that my body has a problem with the gluten in wheat and other grains, some ask me, “Oh, do you have Celiac Disease?”

I actually don’t know. In Celiac Disease, gluten causes an inflammation of the small intestine resulting in food absorption problems.

Testing involves a six-week gluten-heavy diet to see if you get really sick–a process I didn’t want to go through. I was having digestive problems and after I cut gluten out of my diet they went away.

Celiac is one of the most commonly misdiagnosed diseases, often mistaken for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. People of Irish and other Celtic ancestry are particularly at risk, but it’s estimated that 1 in 133 people have it. A much higher percentage of people (1 in 7) have some gluten sensitivity.

Gluten is a protein in grains like wheat, barley, rye, and oats. It’s the gummy stuff that makes dough sticky and stretchy, helps make bread and pizza dough rise in an airy, puffy way, and helps cakes and muffins hold their shape.

Living gluten-free is tricky in this culture, where half the food is served between two slices of bread, or on a sesame seed bun. But there are alternatives:

Baking—Use gluten-free flours, such as rice, buckwheat, potato, soy or nut flours. (Add eggs or xanthan gum to make up for the lack of gluten).
Pasta—Use rice- and corn-based pasta. Polenta (corn) goes well in any Italian recipe. Also, try the Asian section for tasty rice or yam noodles.
Cooking—Instead of bread, serve rice pilaf, roasted potatoes, or exotic grains like amaranth or quinoa.

Watch out! Many “veggie meat” substitutes get their chewy meatiness from gluten. Avoid kamut, spelt, and triticale, which are actually heirloom wheat varieties.

Read ingredients! Wheat flour is added to everything from Buckwheat pancake mix to Potato gnocchi.

You can find more info and recipes at my blog:
www.glutenfreehippie.blogspot.com

Recipe:
Mini Polenta Lasagnas with Rosemary Tapenade

Ingredients:
One tube sundried tomato and roasted garlic polenta, thinly sliced (available in the pasta section of the supermarket)
Half a red pepper, cut into matchsticks
1/2 c. frozen spinach, thawed with a little lemon juice
1/3 c. favorite marinara sauce
100 grams mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Put some olive oil on a cookie sheet, and arrange polenta with four cloves garlic (for tapenade) and bake.
After about 10 minutes, take out the garlic for use in the tapenade, and flip the polenta. Bake about 10 more minutes, until lightly browned and crispy.

Rosemary Tapenade:
Throw the following ingredients into a blender and puree until smooth.

12 black olives 12 green olives
1/4 c grapeseed oil
1/4 c white wine
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, de-stemmed
fresh ground lemon pepper to taste
4 large cloves garlic (roasted with the polenta)
splash of water if needed

Layer the browned polenta, with the spinach, peppers, marinara and cheese. Swizzle the tapenade over each layer. Bake at 450 for about five minutes.