Gluten-free challenge - day one

Perhaps I underestimated this a bit.

I thought going gluten-free for a week would be easy.

Who needs wheat anyway?

Me, apparently.

Last night, as Coeliac Awareness Week drew nigh, I got out my gluten-free brown bread mix and set the breadmaker.

The result looked slightly like a housebrick on the outside and a pale car sponge on the inside.

I thought I'd better try a little slice at breakfast to see what it was like.

Hmm, not the tastiest bread I've ever eaten.

My gluten-free porridge oats were better.

I wasn't sure if they would taste much like my usual porridge so I threw in some coconut along with my usual sultanas and I could barely taste the difference (except that there was less if it thanks to the smaller measure of milk required by the cooking instructions).

My usual Activia yoghurt was no problem, which pleased the cat (she likes to lick the lid for me).

By lunchtime I was looking forward to my homemade, gluten-free (and vegan, incidentally) butternut squash, chickpea and spinach soup with chilli and coconut.

I only remembered as I was heating it up that it would be accompanied by a chunk of housebrick-car-sponge rather than my usual delicious bread roll.

Have you ever tried dipped the world's crumbliest bread into soup?

I ended up with pretty crumb-filled soup.

Next came afternoon snack time.

I opened my Graze box to see what snacks I had left.

I opted for sour mango, lime sultanas and pineapple and made a mental note to take in an alternative snack tomorrow as I only had granola left in the box.

Teatime to look forward to next.

My plan changed a bit from last night.

When I went to the freezer I realised there were some tuna steaks in there.

So, grilled tuna steak topped with tomato and lemon creme fraiche and samphire, served with gluten-free pasta, veg and pesto, mange tout, a flat mushroom and a flatbread on the side.

Hmm, the flatbreads.

I tried making my usual recipe, swapping the wheat flour for gluten-free flour.

Then I added a teaspoon of cornflour (having checked it only contained maize corn) because we thought it might help bind it.

I had a look a few minutes in and there wasn't much binding going on so I added an egg.

Eventually, after a bit of experimentation with quantities of flour and water, it formed a dough.

It smelled a bit funny (essence of cement, I think it was) and it didn't look all that appetising when I flattened it out but i the end it tasted okay and even Gary ate it without complaining.

It was certainly a bigger success than the load.

I don't fancy crumb-filled soup for lunch tomorrow so I've made myself a prawn, quinoa salad (having looked longingly at the cous cous I more often have).

I might go try toasting some of the loaf and having it with scrambled egg for breakfast to see if it's any better like that.

Wish me luck.

In the meantime, I'd better do a workout tonight after all of that food.