Another Change

I have a lot of cookbooks. (All but the five newest ones are pictured here. Scroll to the bottom for the big picture.) See? I have a lot of cookbooks. I actually use some of them. One of the projects on my to-do list is to go through them and weed out the ones I will never use again, but that project is way down the list. I have other priorities.

I have grocery shopping to do, meals to plan, and easy, healthy snacks to stock up on. Eating real food means a lot more prep work. The vegetables arrive in my kitchen in their whole forms, the milk has separated and needs shaken, the yogurt and buttermilk need to be cultured, the eggs need to be picked up from the farm, the meat needs cooked, and the grains need to be ground (and sometimes soaked, but more on that later, in another blog post.) And that doesn't include housework, or laundry, or errands, or yard work...

It is sometimes a challenge to convert our favorite recipes to more healthy versions of their former selves, but it has been a challenge that I have welcomed. (Don't tell anyone, but it's actually kind of fun!) This past week, though, my long-time suspicions were confirmed, and I added a new kind of challenge to my adventures in cooking.

My red-headed two-year-old son has a wheat allergy. He's also allergic to barley and rye. That's the easiest way to explain it, but he's really only allergic to the bran of each grain, and only if he actually eats it. While I am relieved that it is not a gluten allergy, or even an allergy to the rest of the whole grain, I am beginning to recognize how much time and effort it's going to take to work this little "hiccup" into the way I cook. I am also grateful that I do not have to eliminate oatmeal, wheat germ, or whole wheat pasta from our pantry, and we can even still eat out if we're so inclined.

My first step this week toward making our favorite recipes still usable was to substitute ground oatmeal for whole wheat flour when a recipe called for it in a small amount, since I already have oatmeal on hand. That's worked pretty well so far. I am also beginning to experiment with soaking the whole wheat flour every time I use it, which is actually better for all of us anyway. (Read more about soaking grains in this blog post from Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking. Or just wait. I'll get around to talking about it here...eventually.) Wouldn't it be neat if what is good for all of us ends up being something Mr. Adorable can eat too? (Please notice that I didn't say easier...just neat!) If soaking the wheat flour doesn't neutralize the bran enough for Mr. Adorable's system to process it without a reaction, then I will begin to experiment with alternative flours and grains.

My red-headed Grandma had a wheat allergy, too, which I actually never comprehended as a child. When she ate piles of frosting off of family members' birthday cakes, I thought she just really, really liked frosting, and I thought it was pretty cool that she could get away with doing that. I wonder now what she would have given to be able to eat a piece of cake, too.

Mr. Adorable is going to have his cake, and eat it too. Because I have the resources and the willpower to make sure it happens, no matter what kinds of flour end up inside that cake!