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

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

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!

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!

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.

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!