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Sam

Miss that Chinese take-out?

About a month ago, I made a meal that had Rob raving for weeks. I'd been looking for some high protein meals online and stumbled across this recipe for Bourbon Chicken. As I was making the menu for this week- a good money saving tip- I decided I'd make bourbon chicken again, since it was such a hit last time. All week Rob was talking about how he couldn't wait. He'd go look at the menu on the fridge- I guess to make sure it was still on there? Tonight was bourbon chicken night, but instead of just doing plain old bourbon chicken we had bourbon chicken lettuce wraps. Delish! I just made the chicken as the recipe says (plus a little onion powder and maple syrup) and put it on a romaine lettuce leaf.

We added some fried rice and roasted broccoli to the meal. It felt like we were eating some awesome Chinese take-out but it was 100% gluten free! Now I just need to figure out how to make some gluten free crab rangoon...

Company is a-coming!

Today we have some friends from our university coming to stay with us on their way to Chicago. I'm pretty excited about this visit for many reasons. 1. I get to see people I haven't seen in a long time. 2. I will get to meet some new people. 3. It's a secret of mine that I love to entertain. 4. I get to make a delicious cheesecake (That would be Rob's favorite reason).

I follow the Kraft Foods Classic Cheesecake recipe. But I don't use graham crackers for my crust. We are on a serious budget and buying a whole box of Gfree graham crackers for this crust isn't economical enough for us. So instead, I improvise. I make a chocolate chip cookie crust. Here's my recipe. Doubled, this recipe is also the best Gfree Chocolate Chip cookie recipe I've had.

Note: I always make the cookie crust the day before so it is completely cooled. It seems to work better.

1/4 c. butter or margarine softened
1/4 + 1/8 c. sugar (I realize that's crazy a measurement, I just eyeball it)
1 egg
1 tsp. Gfree vanilla extract
1/4 c. white rice flour
1/4 c. brown rice flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 c. Gfree chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla, mix. Add flours, baking soda, salt. Mix. Stir in chocolate chips.
Pour cookie mixture into Springform pan. Spread out to edges. Bake for 12-15 minutes until cooked all they way through.

Follow the cheesecake recipe Add the cheesecake mixture to the springform pan. Bake as directed in cheesecake recipe. Let the cake chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours before chowing down!

Enjoy!

A quick one...

My little brother and his girlfriend are coming today for a visit. I'm so excited! My brother has never come to visit us without my parents, so this should be fun! They'll be here soon, so I'm going to make this quick. Last night, Rob and I did something we haven't done since the Celiac diagnosis 11 months ago (Coming up on one year. I'll have to celebrate... any ideas?) QUESADILLAS!!

We LOVE Mexican food. Tacos, burritos, tostadas, tamales, chips and salsa... you name it, we love it. We got this handy dandy quesadilla maker for a wedding gift. It makes quesadillas easy squeeze-y!

I make my own taco seasoning. A friend of ours was looking at the ingredients on the kind we used to use and told us that it has the stuff they put in diapers in it- silicon dioxide. I haven't actually done any research into that, but we decided it's probably better for us to make our own anyways.

2 T. ground cumin
2 T. chili powder
1 T. paprika
1 T. onion powder
1 T. garlic powder
Pepper to taste
If you like a little more kick to it add some crushed red pepper in there too.

We did chicken quesadillas so I cooked the chicken then chopped it up in my food processor. That just made it easier to have in the quesadillas. You don't have to chop it up though.

Then, we add all the fixin's to our quesadillas. Corn, black beans, salsa, sour cream. We were out of lettuce or we would have added that too! Easy and delicious!

What are you having for dinner tonight? I'm always looking for ideas!

Sometimes I'm a bad liar...

Wow, where has February gone? I've got to tell you, I'm not sad it's over. I find February to be a pretty sad month. It's always so cold, dreary and snowy- I'm not a fan of any of those things. It's March 1st and I am thrilled. I just checked weather.com and we have a few days of warm-ish and sunny weather. I'll take it! But, I do have to apologize to you friend. It's March and I still haven't posted those snow storm recipes. I am so far behind lately. So sorry. I hope that the delicious-ness of this first recipe makes up for it!

I'm calling this recipe Baked S'mores. One night I was REALLY craving something sweet, but I didn't want to make brownies or a cake because I'd eat the whole thing. These Baked S'mores were the perfect solution. Easy, small and DELICIOUS!

You will need:
Kinnikinnick Gfree Graham Crackers (crushed)
1 T. melted butter
Jet Puffed Marshmallows (I've used the little ones and the big ones, I think the little ones work better)
Gfree Chocolate Chips (I'm partial to the Ghirardelli)

Preheat oven to 350. I crushed up those graham crackers in my handy mortar and pestle while I melted the butter in the microwave in a small oven safe CorningWare dish. Then I mixed the butter and crushed grahams together in the CorningWare dish. Add in the marshmallows and chocolate (I like the chocolate on the bottom then marshmallows on top-- I think it tastes better). Set CorningWare on cookie sheet and place in oven for 5-10 minutes or until the marshmallows are melted and toasted.

Seriously, this stuff is so good! I added peanuts once and that wasn't so good so I don't recommend that step. I love the toasted part of the marshmallows. It's a little crunchy and totally takes me out to a summer night in front of a campfire.

I'll post about the other dish very soon. Promise. :)

Enjoy!

A gluten free snow storm

Champaign was just hit with the "storm of the decade!" Sounds scary right... it wasn't. The weather men talked this up WAY more than necessary. Yes, we have a 3 ft drift outside our front door. Yes, there is quite a bit of snow on the ground. And yes, yesterday I drove with a friend to Decatur to pick up a rug. I think the storm of the decade got lazy after Chicago and didn't want to continue on down to the C-U. Fine by me. I hate the stuff. If I moved somewhere that it never snowed I'm not too sure I'd miss it all that much.

Anyways, on to the purpose for this post. As I was preparing for the storm of the decade, I was hit with a conundrum. People who can eat gluten go to the store and get bread and crackers and cookies and cereal and beefaroni. I can't do that business. So what do I get. I should add that we are on a major budget so I don't often buy GF bread, crackers, cookies etc. Too expensive and really not that good for me either. So how do I prepare for something that may or may not happen. Here are the items in food emergency kit:
Rice cakes (love 'em! So inexpensive and versatile.)
Peanut Butter and Jelly (for the rice cakes of course!)
Canned fruit (peaches are my fave, but also pears and pineapple and, of course, applesauce)
Cans of Bush's Original Bakes Beans (I can eat these suckers cold)
Canned Veggies (Anyone else have an insane love of green beans?)
Diet Coke and Captain Morgan's (If the power goes out and it gets too cold we need a way to stay warm right?!)

As it turned out, the power stayed on and we didn't have to worry about any of this. So instead we ate some delicious creations of mine. I'm not a recipe followerer unless I'm baking... and even then I hate measuring. So, it's a loose kind of follow. So when I put recipes up here, take all measurements loosely. I'll post those recipes later today. Here are some pictures to get you interested! :)

A Quick Dinner Idea

Tonight for dinner we needed something quick and that we could eat on our way to small group at Confluence Church (confluencechurch.org). I wanted to do stuffed peppers but that would be impossible to eat in the car, so I modified it to "Stuffed Peppers On-The-Go". Here's what I did...

1 lb. Jimmy Dean Original Sausage browned (yep, it's GF! Love!)
2 c. cooked quinoa
2 whole green peppers chopped into bite size pieces
2 whole onions chopped into small pieces
2 cans tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes (or you can use fresh tomatoes... I just didn't have any)
1 cup water
Chili Powder to taste
Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a skillet and cook until green pepper is tender! Enjoy your super tasty, super easy meal!

Have a great day!

Sam

Maybe, just maybe...

I think I finally have it down. I'm finally to the point of my gluten free experience that I'm not constantly thinking about being gluten free. I'm not constantly paranoid about touching this or breathing that. I'm not constantly in fear of accidently having some tiny morsel of gluten sneak past my guard dogs. (Speaking of guard dogs... I need one. Check this out--http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/pets/dogs/2011-01-11-pettalk11_ST_N.htm)

I'm pretty pleased with where I am. I've been GF for 9 months now. And honestly, I haven't felt better in such a long time! I feel so blessed that I got my diagnosis so quickly and got on the road to recovery so fast. Granted, I was derailed by the Claddagh Irish Pub in Plainfield, IN when they served me a dish that claimed to be gluten free. It turned out to be not even close to GF. So, we're fighting but only because I don't want other people to get sick. However, I'm thrilled with where I am.

Recently, I started taking a probiotic called Align. (http://www.aligngi.com) I'm on week two of taking the pill and it's helped my digestion SO MUCH! And I think it's helped my lactose issues get a little better... which is always good. I love cheese far too much to be lactose intolerant! If you have Celiac and are still having GI upsets look into Align. It takes a week or two for it to really get good... my sis said 3... but after a few days I was already starting to experience healing! Gotta love that!

In other news, the Packers won. My husband is a HUGE Packers fan so, since my beloved Colts are out, I've been rooting for his Pack. It takes me back to a few years ago when the Packers beat the Colts and I lost a bet. I had to dress in Packers junk for an entire day. It was terrible! Here's a pic to show you just how terrible.



I'll post later in the week with some new recipes I've discovered! :)

I don't miss gluten a bit-- but sometimes I crave it.

You know. As hard as the gluten free life style is sometimes, I don't miss gluten one bit. Now, I must clarify, that doesn't mean that I don't sometimes wish I could swing into a McD's and pick up a burger and fries. It does mean that it no longer consumes my thoughts. HA! Maybe that sounds pathetic, but you should try giving up your guilty pleasure. Sometimes, it sneaks back it. Also, I should clarify that I will NEVER knowingly ingest gluten to satisfy a craving. It's not worth it.

So, when that delicious looking McD's commercial pops on the television and we're left salivating, how do we handle the cravings? Well, here's what I do. I choose to focus on the positive things rather than dwelling on "if I ate that I'd be in SO much pain" all the time. Doing that will definitely get you down. First, I think about how I can totally make something that tastes even better than McD's AND (bonus!) it's healthier! Next, I think about how much money I save by saying no to all those enticing ads. (My husband loves this one in particular) Finally, I think about why I want that burger? What need will it satisfy? Hunger? Not really. Pleasure? Nope. Happiness? Hardly. Shoot, I don't even need that McD's!

Now, if only I could apply this principle to why I should use my new running shoes for more than running to the mail box...

Who ever said Celiac's had to miss out on the delicious holiday food?

Before the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years) I was in a near panic over all the great foods and traditions I would be missing out on. No delicious Hilligoss rolls, no pie (my MIL makes an AWESOME apple pie-- my fave), no traditional white choc. chex mix, no chocolate covered Oreos, etc. I was so upset about all the things I would have to miss that I forgot to look at all the recipes I could try out and all the great gluten free food that could easily fill these holes in the delicious menu. Until a few weeks before Thanksgiving. My MIL and I worked to make the ENTIRE meal (minus the pie-- I couldn't ask the in-laws to give that delicious stuff up, nor would I want to) gluten free! And it was DELICIOUS! We changed some things in her scalloped corn recipe to make it GF, I made GF cornbread stuffing, we used GF flour to make the gravy, and I made a GF red velvet cake for my dessert (I wasn't the only one who ate it though!). Otherwise, everything was a piece of cake for T-day! And so delicious!
Then Christmas rolled around. This was our first Christmas since getting married at my parent's house, a house so full of memories and tradition-- thus sending me into yet another small panic. However, a little planning and experimenting resulted in a weekend of fabulous gluten free food for all!
Christmas Eve: My family always does "snacky" foods on Christmas Eve. You know, chips and dips, potato skins, pizza rolls, cheese sticks, meatballs, shrimp cocktail, hot dogs and Vienna sausages in bbq sauce, veggie trays, etc. A few weeks before Christmas I started researching and planning and came up with some great GF alternatives to almost all of these things! It worked like a charm.
Here are a few recipes of things I made that night...
Homemade BBQ Meatballs: (SO easy) 2 lbs. ground beef or turkey. Flax seed to thicken. Garlic Powder. Onion Powder. Rolled into balls and baked on a foil lined sheet for 20 min. Cover in Sweet Baby Ray's Honey bbq, add half a jar of grape jelly (yeah, weird but so good!), season with garlic, onion, salt and pepper to taste, ENJOY.
Cheesy Bacon Dip and Tostitos: One brick of reduced fat cream cheese, one cup Helman's Mayo, one cup GF sour cream, one cup (or to taste) Moz. Cheese, 1/4 cup Parm. cheese, Bacon tidbits-- Eat with Tostitos or GF crackers
Homemade Potato Skins: Boil potatoes until they are slightly more firm than for mashed potatoes, cut in half, scoop out center, fill with cheese, bacon and green onion, serve with sour cream and salsa.
Christmas dinner was at my Granny's house. At first she wasn't sure about how gluten free would work but everything turned out great! So great in fact that my aunt and uncle admitted they had thought I was starving because I can't eat gluten-- but boy were they wrong! We ate a delicious meal of rump roast, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, scalloped corn, watergate salad, and lettuce salad with red velvet cake for dessert. YUM!
New Years Eve was another situation entirely. Rob and I decided to have a whole bunch of friends over for a NYE party. I was pretty excited to try out some new recipes in cookbooks I had received for Christmas. We had the meatballs again, spinach and artichoke dip (HUGE hit), cheesecake with a GF chocolate chip cookie crust, margarita pie (with some Jose Cuervo), turkey roll ups (a Rob creation), and a homemade devil's food chocolate cake for a friend's birthday. Needless to say, I don't think anyone missed gluten too much that night!

I hope you had a great holiday too. I've developed a new appreciation for Celiac Disease. It allows me to be creative and flex my "cooking" muscles a little bit. I've always loved to cook and being gluten free has provided me with a unique opportunity to experiment and enjoy being a little different!

If you want any other recipes let me know. I'm totally up for sharing! Good things are meant to be passed around!

Peace!