One Month Gluten Free!

Today is one month gluten free for me! Wow! I am really getting the hang of this. My biggest "wow" is how awake I am. I thought because of my chronic pain I would always be tired--trying to escape, I guess. I stay awake so late now that it's really messing with my days! Once I start teaching again in the fall, I will really have to remedy this situation.

I have also found how to bake bread with gluten-free flour as opposed to using wheat flour. Here's what I've found:

• You do NOT kneed the dough...if you do, which I found out, you get bricks instead of bread. Yuck.
• You use a whisk attachment (I use my standing mixer for this) to mix the dough. It does not have the consistency of regular bread dough, but rather the consistency of banana bread batter.
• After it rises 1 1/2 hours in a warm place, you beat it again and put it in a loaf pan to rise for another 1 1/2 hours. 
• But here's the most interesting piece of information I've found: Put a broiler pan in the oven while preheating 1/2 hour before baking bread. Immediately before putting your bread in the oven, take a cup of cold water and pour in the hot broiler pan. It immediately steams, and you place your bread in the oven and bake. What a glorious loaf I had when I finished! Dense, but holey. YUM!

Although my pain is better, I still use my Tips for Managing Chronic Pain when I need them. But I feel more alert and receptive. I am glad that I trudged through the gluten withdrawal. I do hope that my pain lessens with time.

Enjoy your day, all! Namaste.