Day Five: Rice Spaghetti

Okay, so today had two big hurdles for me:

A) Cook dinner. I've pretty well copped out so far, eating out two nights, getting my husband to cook tacos the next, and eating crackers last night. Tonight, I was determined to make something specifically gluten-free.

B) Bake something. I had kind of figured I would just avoid that whole baking department for awhile, despite the fact that I have always loved baking, but it's just easier that way. Until I remembered there's a potluck at work tomorrow, and (sigh) I signed up to bring a dessert.

So, I tackled dinner first. My other half had to get some blood tests done today that required fasting all day, so he was ravenous at 4 when they finally sucked out some of his blood. That meant he raced to a drive-through, and had already eaten by the time I got home. Ah well, I told him, I was making pasta anyways, and right away too, because I had to bake before bed.

So I pulled out the package of rice spaghetti we bought, and studied the instructions. I was worried it would all be different, but it's really quite the same. Started a pot of water boiling, and heated up a pan for ground beef. At least I can still eat meat and tomato sauce.

The odd foam on the rice pasta

My usual simultaneous cooking of pasta and meat sauce began, and all was normal until halfway through the pasta cook time. The pot had a fondness of boiling over, so I had to stir more than usual, and then an unusual foam built up. The hubs said that's normal for rice, it happens with normal rice if you don't rinse it, it was just weird.

Also, when I drained the pasta, a thick white liquid coated the bottom of my sink. I guess it's just the rice, and it wasn't off-putting as much as unusual. The kind of thing longtime gluten-free people don't tell you, because they're just so used to it.

The finished product was okay though. It looked a little whiter than normal pasta, and it was a little more al dente than I usually cook it, but other than that, once it was smothered it my meat sauce, it tasted just fine. My husband didn't eat much, but he blamed that on having already eaten. He insisted it tasted fine. Oh, and my dog quite liked it.

Rice Spaghetti With Tomato and Beef Sauce

Piper enjoying gluten-free pasta

The very next hurdle was baking. When I signed up for this potluck, I actually selected a specific dish, being of course unaware at the time that I would need to be gluten-free. So I pulled open that cookbook and checked the ingredients. The only possible offending ingredient was oats, so I ran out and bought gluten-free oats, and the butterscotch chips I needed.

It's really a simple recipe, and I didn't have to substitute anything, and I won't have to call it "gluten-free anything" tomorrow. It's just simple. So actually, this wasn't that big of a hurdle.

I'm going to have to tackle brownies or cookies soon, because I do have gluten-free flour, and the sooner I get over using it, the easier this will all be.