Why does 2010 have to begin with such cold weather?  I thought when I moved to Georgia, I would experience warm winters and balmy weather.  Instead, since I relocated to Atlanta, we’ve had torrential rain, flooding, a tornado, and now freezing weather.  Aside from less than ideal weather patterns, Georgia has been a great place to live and I’m happy to be here at the start of 2010.

While I’m definitely not a cold weather person, I must say that I love an excuse to make hearty soups and stews, a perfectly fitting meal for this season.  Soups and stews are a particularly great meal to serve when entertaining a large group.  You can make the soup earlier in the day and then just let it sit on the stove, reheating when ready to serve.  We have a small apartment with a small dining room table, so people can enjoy this meal on their laps.  A good stew and a glass of red wine.  Perfect!

Last Saturday I made Heidi Swanson’s Chunky Lentil Soup for a group of seven.  I always double soup recipes and freeze the extra because they reheat well and make for an easy weeknight dinner.  This is one of my favorite soup recipes and it is so easy, especially when I enlist David to be my sous chef and do most of the chopping.  On Saturday night I served the chunky lentil soup with Gluten Free Girl’s Cornbread and we snacked on cheese and GF crackers as well.

Chunky Lentil Soup (adapted from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking)

Serves 4 to 6 (I just double all of the ingredients if I want to make extra.)

• 1 ¼ cups lentils, picked over and rinsed (Any variety is fine.  I used a combination this time.)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 2 ½ cups diced butternut or winter squash (1/4 inch dice) (This is the most intensive component of this recipe.  The rest is very easy.)
• 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup water or vegetable broth/stock
• 1 teaspoon fine grained sea salt
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• Grated parmesan cheese for garnish

Bring 5 cups of water to a boil in a large saucepan, add the lentils and cook for 20 minutes, or until tender.  (I turned down the heat to medium-low once I add the lentils.  They’ll continue cooking when you add them to the stew too.)

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a heavy pot over medium heat, then add the onion and sauté until tender, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the squash, tomatoes and water/broth, and continue cooking until the squash is tender, about 12-15 minutes.

Drain the lentils and stir them in, along with salt, pepper and chili powder.  Let the soup return to a gentle simmer, then taste and adjust seasoning if need be.  Serve, topped with parmesan.

Sadly, David is out of town this week so I made a double batch to have some easy meals in the fridge.  Last night my friend Meredith came over for dinner and I just reheated the soup and cornbread.  Still delicious!

I’ve also been wanting to try making Brussels sprouts recently (after eating perfectly prepared ones made by my friend, Laurel) so I decided to try experimenting with Brussels sprouts to serve with my leftover chunky lentil soup.  I thought it would add some nice color to the plate.  I figured if my sprout experiment was a total failure, we still had enough food for a meal.

Of course I went back to Heidi Swanson for guidance preparing the Brussels sprouts.  I love that this recipe is so simple, using the natural flavors of this odd vegetable, that often gets such a bad reputation.  I love recipes that only involve four ingredients, including olive oil!

Golden Crusted Brussels Sprouts

• 1 pound Brussels sprouts (or however many you have)
• 1 tabelspoon extra virgin olive oil, plus more for rubbing
• Fine-grain sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/3 cup freshly grated cheese of your choice (I used parmesan to go with the parmesan on the lentil soup.)

Trim the stem ends of the sprouts and remove any outer leaves that have browned.  Cut each sprout in half, from stem to top and rub in olive oil.  (Be gentle, so they don’t fall apart.)

Heat the 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Be careful not to overheat or the outside will cook to quickly.  (I actually put stove top on med-low.)

Place sprouts in pan, flat side down, sprinkle with a couple of pinches of salt, cover and cook for about 5 minutes.  They will start to brown some on the bottom.

Taste to see if done, If not, let continue cooking for a few more minutes.

I stopped here and sprinkled with parmesan cheese and more S & P.  They were delicious.  If you have more time and want to cook them more, continue with Heidi’s remaining steps:

Once just tender, uncover, turn up the heat and cook until the flat sides are deep brown and caramelized.  Use a metal spatula to toss once or twice to get some browning on the rounded side.  Sprinkle with cheese, S & P.

Serve immediately.  Even if you are skeptical of Brussels sprouts, you should try this recipe!  Meredith and I ate all of our sprouts.  (I told her she didn’t have to.)  Don’t they look pretty on the plate?  Stay warm this week, wherever you are!

As a follow up to my last post, I wanted to pass along this article from Huffington Post, entitled Gluten: What You Don’t Know Might Kill You.  The author, Dr. Mark Hyman, offers some shocking information regarding the prevalence of Celiac and gluten intolerance in Americans, as well as the dangers associated with letting these medical conditions go undiagnosed.  Dr. Hyman gives the daunting statistic that 3 million Americans have celiac, but 99% are still undiagnosed.  Also, according to studies, 30% of people of European descent carry the gene for Celiac (HLADQ2 or HLA DQ8).  That’s a lot of people!

People with celiac are often misdiagnosed or doctors identify certain conditions that are caused by celiac in their patients, but don’t acknowledge celiac as the source of the problem.  Dr. Hyman states, “Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity masquerade as dozens and dozens of other diseases with different names.”  Many people who have been told they have IBS, osteoporosis, cancer, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis or depression might also have celiac or a gluten sensitivity.  It’s definitely worth checking out the possibility of gluten intolerance, if you suffer from one or more of those conditions.

Celiac can manifest itself in many different ways, and there’s not one particular symptom too look for with gluten intolerance.  Dr. Hyman writes, “We used to think that gluten problems or celiac disease were confined to children who had diarrhea, weight loss, and failure to thrive. Now we know you can be old, fat, and constipated and still have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.”  It’s true.  People with celiac come in all shapes and sizes and it can expose itself in different ways, such as stomach issues, night sweats, fatigue and even numbness in hands and feet.

I was surprised to see that Dr. Hyman recommends the elimination diet because often, doctors oppose this method of diagnosis, and prefer the biopsy or blood test (which is not all that reliable).  I’ve always been conflicted about what the best route towards diagnosis is, but with Dr. Hyman’s statistics about the damage that gluten can do to people who just have gluten sensitivity, not full blown celiac, it seems that many people can benefit from trying the elimination/reintroduction method, as the biopsy might not provide positive results either for those without full blown celiac.

Reading this article is a sad reminder to me that there are so many people out there who are undiagnosed and suffering.  People continue spending lots of money going to doctors, when their medical problems could be solved by a change in diet.  Dr. Hyman mentions that individuals with undiagnosed celiac spend 30% more in medical expenses than those with diagnosed celiac.  I can definitely attest to the validity of that statistic from my personal experience.

While some people think that Celiac is just a hip and trendy fad, studies looking at blood samples from today and 50 years ago, actually show that incidences of “full blown celiac” are 400% more likely today.  Wow!  It looks like this ‘trend’ is not just a rise in diagnosis, but an actual rise in the disease itself.  Of course this statistic brings about many more questions regarding why the disease is more prevalent but as we try to figure out those answers, we might as well get people diagnosed and healthy.

I know it can seem overwhelming to think about cutting gluten out of your diet, but it just might solve those persistent health problems that you’ve been trying to resolve.  The gluten-free life is a great one, that is full of delicious food, energy, and health.  It’s definitely worth thinking about hopping on the gluten-free bandwagon.

Is Celiac becoming trendy?  Who would ever think of a disease as being trendy?  Is trendiness a bad thing, especially when it leads to a heightened awareness of my disease and need to be gluten free?

I’ve been thinking a lot about these questions recently.  There is a rise in Celiac diagnoses in the U.S., thank goodness!  It’s helping alleviate a lot of pain for many people and solve seemingly complex medical issues for individuals.  Most likely, you too are hearing about celiac more and you know more people that have celiac or are going gluten-free.  The Washington Post even recently listed Celiac Disease as ‘In’ on their ‘In & Out List’ for 2010.  (Peanut allergies are apparently ‘out.’)

What does this heightened ‘gluten-free’ attention in the media and awareness mean for those of us with Celiac?  Well, it means there are more gluten-free items and products to buy.   There are even gluten-free bakeries and blogs.  When I go to restaurants my waiter most likely won’t look at me like I’m speaking a foreign language when I mention gluten and celiac.

On the other hand, is there a negative side to my disease becoming ‘popular?’

Last night I ate at a restaurant and when I told my waiter that I have Celiac, he responded with a couple of interesting statements.  First, he said, “Let me guess, you were diagnosed within the last 3 or 4 years.” Yes, 2 ½ years ago, to be exact.  Then, he said, “That sucks.  What a sh&*y way to be.”  I attempted to explain that I try not to think about my celiac as a negative in my life since I feel so much better when I’m gluten-free.  He wasn’t buying my optimism.

Then our very chatty and opinionated waiter declared, “Celiac is getting diagnosed all over the place.  I have at least two people here every night with celiac.  It’s what ADD was in the 90s.  It’s becoming doctors’ easy out diagnosis.  It’s their cure all for everything.”

Hmm.  Now you can imagine I didn’t love these statements.  I wanted to respond to him by asking if he thought HIV was trendy in the 80s.  I decided to bite my tongue and agree to disagree.

I think it’s great that more and more people are being diagnosed with celiac.  In fact my 82-year old grandmother was just diagnosed in November.  I still don’t believe enough doctors know about celiac yet or think to diagnose their patients with it.  I also support anyone who decides to be gluten free, even if they don’t have celiac.  I believe more and more people are going to find that they feel better when eating gluten-free.

My concern with this feeling of ‘celiac being trendy’ is that people, such as our waiter last night, won’t take our dietary needs seriously.  I was thrilled that our waiter knew what celiac was and I must say that he took great care of us (after David and I told him multiple times that it’s really important everything I eat be gluten free and free of contamination).  I hope that people in the restaurant industry will continue to respect our need to eat gluten-free, even as more and more people who are dining out have a celiac diagnosis.

Celiac is not the Atkins diet.  It is not something that will go away for me when the 2011 Washington Post ‘In and Out’ list is published.  I like that Celiac is ‘popular’ enough to be mentioned on the 2010 In and Out list but let’s remember it is a disease that should be treated like any other disease, not simply a year long trend.