Thursday, October 22, 2009

Gluten Free Banana Coconut Wonderloaf

OK, so I wasn't quite sure what to call this besides absolutely delicious! This is something everyone will love. No one would ever know it was gluten free, especially with the yummy texture of corn meal and coconut. Mm, I can hardly wait to have another piece.

As they would say on Yo Gabba Gabba... Try it! You'll like it!

Haha, I've lost my mind. But this stuff really is good.

GF Banana Coconut Wonderloaf


Note: This recipe yields 2 loaves.

1 cup Corn Meal
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/5 tsp Baking Soda
1/5 cup white sugar
1/5 cup brown sugar
2 cups shredded dried unsweetened coconut
3 mashed bananas
1 cup milk
1/5 cup water
1 egg
1 egg white
2 tbsp butter

Mix all the dry ingredients first. Then mix in the wet ingredients. When everything is mixed thoroughly pour into two greased or sprayed loaf pans and bake @ 350 until the top looks dried, and the knife test comes out clean.

Let this cool well before serving. It's very moist and if you don't let it cool it will fall apart.

I hope you enjoy it as much as my family did. We love it for breakfast, a snack or dessert. It would be wonderful with vanilla ice cream and some caramel drizzled over it.

Easy, inexpensive, and I didn't have to go to the store to get any of the ingredients to make this tasty treat. Who could ask for more?

Gluten Free Chicken Soup

This was what I needed. It is true that chicken soup heals the spirit. Make this recipe next time you're feeling a little down, a little sick, or a little chilly. I guarantee it will perk you right up.





Gluten Free Chicken Soup


1 box gluten free chicken stock
1 box (from the chicken stock box) of water
4 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 bag frozen cross-cut carrots
1 celery stalk cut into chunks
1 large potato cut into chunks
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
Salt & White Pepper to taste

Pour everything into the crock pot and turn on high. Let it cook for about 2 hours if you like your veggies crunchy, or longer if you like them mushy. I prefer them crunchy. The chicken cooks fairly quickly, after about 1.5 hours.

My whole family loved this soup. It is so flavorful, and very healthy. You could change it up too and add whatever favorite veggies and spices you can imagine. You could even cook up some gluten free pasta and add it at the last minute.

All in all this is a wonderful, easy, fool-proof and inexpensive way to feed a family, and heal some spirits. Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Ginger Peach Chicken (Gluten Free)

Oooh, if you like spicy/sweet food combinations then you're going to love this meal. Its very simple too.



Ginger Peach Chicken



3lbs of raw thawed or fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans of peaches in heavy syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 - 1tsp chili paste
1tsp ground ginger for sauce & 1tsp for chicken
1tsp white pepper
1/2 tbsp of chopped garlic
salt to taste

Rub chicken breasts with 1tsp of ginger, salt & white pepper. Bake @ 350 until juices run clear.


Meanwhile:

Melt a pad of butter @ med/high heat in a sauce pan. Add peaches, brown sugar, chili paste and the other tsp of ginger. Stir thoroughly. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 mins. Add 2tbsp corn startch to a half cup of warm water and stir until corn starch disolves. Add half of cornstarch mixture to peach sauce. Let the mixture thicken. If it's still not thick enough, then add the remaining cornstarch to the sauce and mix. Let the peach sauce continue to simmer.


When the chicken is done cooking, chop coarsely, then mix with peach sauce and let stand (no heat), for five minutes. Serve on it's own with sides, or over rice.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Gluten-Free Food Review #4

If you love tortillas, then I have good news for you.

To my surprise and delight I discovered some wonderful brown rice, gluten free tortillas made by Food For Life, and I think I'm in love. The texture is crispy and amazing, straight out of the package. The flavor is very deep and almost reminiscent of sourdough, but in a new and exciting way.

I used mine to make a quesadilla, something I hadn't had in quite some time. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and I definitely recommend you give these tortillas a try.


Thursday, September 10, 2009

Blackberry Pie

Wow, it's been a while! But here I am, and with wonderful news!

A friend of mine who is an excellent chef made me the luckiest girl in the world today! She took her time and love to make me a gluten free blackberry pie from scratch!

The pie was absolutely amazing. The outer crust was flakey, the blackberries weren't too sweet, there was a bit of a lemony flavor that paired perfectly with the berries, and the bottom crust had a perfectly tender consistency.

Here is a picture of this tasty treat. Try not to drool on your keyboard.


Isn't it gorgeous? It tastes even better!

It was so wonderful to have pie, which is something I haven't enjoyed in a very, very long time. The best part though is that I knew I could trust Summer's cooking because she is licensed and serve safe certified. I know we'll be ordering cakes and pies from her in the future! Maybe you should too!

If you're interested in ordering any of Summer's culinary delights, you can contact her at...

Summer Brashear @ Chef_Summer@hotmail.com

She has also made dairy free pies, as well as gluten free.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Gluten-Free Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

Mmmmmm. This is a good one! I originally got the recipe from Stephanie's A year of Crockpotting website. I switched it up a bit, and cooked it in the oven rather than the crock. But it turned out FABULOUS, and I'd highly recommend it for a switch-up on your old fashioned lasagna.



Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

1 box of ready to bake lasagna (I used gluten-free rice lasagna)
2 cooked chicken breasts
1 jar of prepared pasta sauce
1 cup of buffalo sauce
15oz of ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded cheese (mozzarella or cheese blend)
1 cup shredded parmesan
1 cup of corn
1/2 cup water

Cut the chicken into chunks and mix together in a bowl with the buffalo sauce, corn and pasta sauce. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 3qt casserole dish with your choice of spray or EVOO or whatever you like to grease pans with.

Building the lasagna:
Start with a ladlefull of sauce/chicken mixture. Spread that across the bottom of the dish then cover with a layer of lasagna. Spread a layer of ricotta cheese over the lasagna, then a layer of cheese blend. Reapeat. Then for the top use the rest of the sauce mixture and cover the top of the lasagna with the parmesan cheese. Pour the water around the edge of the lasagna, (it will be absorbed by the noodles as it cooks). Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Let the lasagna sit for 10-15 minutes before serving.

I really, really liked this lasagna. It's even better the next day after all the flavors meld together. It's sort of spicy, perhaps to spicy for kids (depending on their tastes), but it's a great variation from traditional lasagna. Also, it makes a lot and you can eat it all week. So it's really cost concious.

Give it a try! It's easy, cheap, and tasty. Who could ask for more?

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Gluten-Free Banana Loaf Cake

Hello, and I'm sorry I've been gone so very long! But now I'm back, and with a delicious recipe for Banana Loaf Cake from the back of a bag of Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix. It turned out perfect, and was gone about 30 seconds after my kids got their hands on it.

Gluten-Free Banana Loaf Cake

4 TBSP butter, melted
2 Eggs, beaten
1 3/4 Cups Pamela's Mix
1/2 Tsp Salt (I thought it could've done with just a 1/4 Tsp)
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 VERY brown bananas (mine were black)
1 Tsp Vanilla

Melt the butter and add it at the bottom of the bowl, then whisk in the eggs quickly making sure they don't cook from the melted butter. Add the remaining ingredients and mix with whatever mixing contraption you prefer. This will be a very thick mixture, and you will ask yourself... don't I need some liquid? But no, you don't. Just trust me.

Dump all of this into a greased or sprayed 8x4 loaf pan and cook at 350 degrees for about 60-75 minutes. Mine took about 75 minutes total. The result is a wonderful rich, soft loaf cake that tastes excellent with some butter spread acrossed it.



This is such an easy and delicious cake that is great morning, noon, or night. I hope you can enjoy this with your family as much as I did with mine!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Gluten-Free Crockpot Chili Recipe

I'm trying to make a few easily reheated meals for my Husband and children while I am out of town taking care of my Father's passing. I have a tried and true chili recipe but it's loaded with gluten. So I reluctantly threw together this crockpot chili, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best!



Gluten-Free Crockpot Chili

1 lb ground lean turkey
1 bag Trader Joe's Roasted Corn
1 Packet gluten-free taco seasoning (I used Nueva Cocina Chipotle Taco Seasoning)
2 tsp ground Cumin
1/2 tsp ground Tumeric
1-2 Tbsp light brown sugar (start with 1 and add the 2nd if needed)
1 tsp sea salt (or more to taste)
1 tsp Thyme
1 Tbsp Onion Powder
Dash of Olive Oil (I used Annie's Natural Roasted Garlic Flavored EVOO)
1 large can of diced tomatoes (I used organic)
2 cans pinto beans (I used organic)
2 cans kidney beans (I used organic)
I can Rotelle tomatoes and chiles (I used mild, the hot chili expands the chiles and makes it spicy enough for my family's taste)

Cook the ground turkey in a pan sprayed with non-stick spray then dump it in the crockpot. Dump everything else in the crockpot. Mix very, very well. Let the chili simmer on low for 2 hours, then check the taste and if needed add more salt and brown sugar to taste. I like the spicy sweet flavor of the cumin and brown sugar, but if you aren't big on sweet chili then hold back and use just one tbsp of brown sugar.

I let this cook for about 6.5 hours on low, and it was perfect! We are going to top ours with little cheese and sour cream, maybe even some bacon crumbles. The possibilities with chili are endless! That's what I love about it!

I hope you enjoy this warm, easy recipe on a cold and rainy day.

Cheers,

Erin

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Quick Update

I'm so sorry I haven't posted. Sadly, my father passed away on Saturday. I am in charge of arranging all of his affairs, so I've been rather busy.

I promise as soon as this whole fiasco has calmed down I will start blogging again. I have many new foods to review, and fun stories to share (despite the grief).

Have a great week, and keep smiling!

Erin

Rest in peace Larry Mars - October 14, 1948-January 17, 2009
Loving Father, Photographer, and Kick Ass Surfer Dude

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Gluten-Free Apple Cinammon Muffins



After tasting a couple of very bad gluten-free breads I was very nervous about making muffins. But I have heard so many great things about Pamela's Baking Mix, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I'm so glad I did, becuase they turned out great!

Here's my recipe, adapted from the recipe on the back of the Pamela's Baking Mix bag.

Apple Cinammon Muffins
Yeilds one dozen muffins

2 1/2 cups Pamela's Baking Mix
1/2 cup apple juice
1 tsp cinammon
1/2 cup sugar for mix
1/4 cup sugar for topping
2 eggs
3 large apples, peeled and chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray. Mix all ingredients. Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full. Sprinkle sugar on top of the muffins before baking. Bake for about 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Voila!!! Perfection! These are light and fluffy, and just wonderful!

I hope you enjoy them as much as my family did!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Gluten-Free Food Review #3

Well... I've got some good news, and some bad news.

Which would you like first?

The bad?

My pleasure.

Road's End Organics Penne & Chreese Pasta


Now, I'd like to begin by saying that I mostly blame myself for this experience. I didn't realize when I bought this pasta that it was vegan; therefore, I was prepared for the flavor of real cheese. Not...chreese.

The pasta in this mix is fine. It's standard rice pasta that cooks up great, never overcooks and with a quick rinse is ready to be eaten. But, the flavoring packet is where this side dish goes ALL wrong. The um... chreese, as it is called, actually tastes like... well, for lack of a better term I'll just say I've tasted cheese wrappers that had more cheese flavor than this mixture of tapioca starch and organic green lentil flour.

Now, I do feel kind of bad giving this thumbs down review to this vegan pasta side dish. It must be very hard for people who live a vegan lifestyle to find good foods to eat. But this is not good food, even if you can't remember what real cheese tastes like, and perhaps enough honest reviews will encourage this company to make food for vegans that is palatable. See there? I'm not just a critic. I'm a hero! Ok, maybe not, but at least I'm saving you a couple bucks on something that tastes and smells like cardboard brocolli casserole.

So... Ready for the good news? It's really good too!

Believe it or not teriyaki beef jerky is really hard to find if you eat a gluten-free diet. Very hard. But to my delight and suprise I found that Whole Foods Market makes their own beef jerky with gluten-free soy sauce! It tastes great too. Even my four year old really liked it. It's definitely on the sweet side, so if you prefer a beefier tasting beef jerky I'd get a different flavor. But other than that its very moist and not too hard. It tastes very fresh, and the beef is from celebrity cows that dined on fancy grass and were pampered daily in fancy farms all over the world.

So next time you get the hankering for some beefy jerky rest easy my gluten-free friend! Whole Foods once again comes to the rescue! Yay!

I give it 4 stars out of 5! Mmmm beefy!

What can we eat that is safe?

If you can't read a label that says, "Gluten-Free", having bought it at a specialty Market and trust it, then how can you ever trust any product to truly be gluten-free?

Read this article from The Tribune. I hope you're as outraged as I am. I will never buy Wellshire products, EVER!

It really disgusts me and makes me not want to buy anything mass produced. It almost makes me feel paranoid! As if washing my hands every time I feed my cat out of fear of getting a micro-crumb of glutenous cat food wasn't bad enough! Don't add to my neurosis America!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Gluten-Free Food Review #2

This is going to be short and sweet because frankly, I feel like crap. But I just couldn't let this experience fall into the crevices of my bad memory. I must warn you before you fall victim to the temptation of exotic soup.

Thai Kitchen Coconut Ginger Soup


I think I'll rename it Thai Kitchen Coconut Ginger EWW. Yes, eww. It's gross.

As you open the can you are welcomed by a dull sweet smell and a thick layer of coconut milk/grease that sticks to your fingers (I discarded that part). Once you've heated it the house is permiated with a spicy sweet and milky musty aroma (if you'd like to call it that). One taste and it was down the drain. It was so over the top gingery that it burned my mouth and throat. Even after I poured it down the garbage disposal you could still smell it for about 10 minutes.

From start to finish this soup is pure torture. Heed my advice and save yourself the agony of this odd combo of cream and ginger.

Oh, and one parting note: It has leaves in it. Just eww.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Gluten-Free Food Review #1

Yesterday I embarked on a new journey to live a completely gluten-free lifestyle. I began this journey by clearing our house of all glutenous foods and even some appliances that couldn't be properly cleansed of crumbs.

My first shopping stop was Whole Foods Market where I spent nearly two hours reading labels and going up and down the aisles (some of them two or three times). A very helpful man named Jim from the marketing department gave me a great store tour when I arrived and also a free loaf of rice bread! I ended up with a full cart of gluten-free items. They're selection really is amazing, although the prices could be a little lower. After that I went to Safeway for the rest of our groceries. I will buy anything I can gluten-free from a regular supermarket.

Since yesterday I've had the chance to try some of the items that I purchased which leads me to the title of this post. My 1st gluten-free food review! Here I will list the items I've tried, and the honest opinions of myself, husband and children. I will try to include a link to the product when I can so that if you would like to try it you'll know where to find it.

Let the reviewing begin...

Amy's Rice Crust Cheese Pizza


I was very happy to find gluten-free pizza at Whole Foods Market. It was a little pricey at $8.99 for enough pizza to realistically serve two adults. But considering that I don't know of any other place to get pizza at the moment I was willing to pay to try it out.

Overall it was pretty good! My kids really liked it. The bottom of the pizza doesn't get crispy, but the edges do. The crust is very dense, and sort of crumbly. It goes nicely with the cheese and sauce. I drizzled our's with a little garlic flavored olive oil before I put it in the oven. But the sauce and cheese were very flavorful, and had nice texture as well.

I'd buy this again, but I'd pair it with a salad since it's so small.

I give it 3.5 stars out of 5!