Allergy-free Eating - Post #3

Our family used to be HUGE on pasta.  We would eat whole wheat spaghetti at least once / week, and pasta was one of my favorite from-scratch things to make.  Needless to say, since we have stopped eating Gluten, the Kitchen-Aid pasta attachments have not gotten much use.

We have found with eliminating foods containing Gluten and Gliadin that many replacements are rice-based (at least in the packaged grocery realm).  Rice pastas (spaghetti, macaroni, penne types) taste "okay" but are VERY tricky to cook.  Another issue I have with straight rice pasta is insuring that we get enough variety in our diets.  I've read that by substituting another grain, you can actually develop allergies to that one from over-exposure (one of the many theories as to why we have wheat protein allergies to begin with -- too much of these things in the Standard American Diet (aka SAD)).

This multigrain pasta has become a staple:

In addition to the rice, it contains quinoa (super food!) and amaranth (another high protein good-for-you grain).  You have to be careful when cooking it that you use a large enough pot, or the noodles will break each other under their own weight (we found this out by trying to cook multiple boxes as once - they need space!).

Ron and I have been eating a lot of rice noodles pad-thai style (with chicken, thai spice / sauce, bean sprouts, etc).  These types of rice noodles are on the other hand EASY to cook.  The kids have grown to LOVE these noodles (a little less nutritional value in my opinion, but good to change things up).  They eat them plain or with marinara sauce.  You can of course buy them in the Pad Thai kit ala:

Or, you can buy just whatever ones you can find in your store plain ala:

There are a zillion brands.

This is how we do pasta.  Enjoy!