Gluten Free Mom

Gluten Free (and Casein Free) Crepes

2009-11-07T10:36:21-08:00

We try a lot of recipes and I cannot say that they all work out.

I actually had a less-than-stellar-mommy-moment this week when trying a new recipe. It was a different one for crepes (not the one below which works beautifully). The recipe called for one egg, 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup water plus the various dry ingredients.

When I mixed it together, it looked and tasted like clay - dry, gray, tasteless clay. Nothing near the somewhat runny consistency of a delicious crepe.

So I added another 1/2 cup of almond milk.

Then another 1/2 cup of water.

Then another egg. Still clay-like.

Then another 1/2 cup milk.

More water,

Two more eggs.

Still thick and just plain bad.

Right as I am about to dump it in the garbage,

The family walks in after school, work and soccer practice-

starving!

This was when I had my "little-less-than-stellar-mommy-moment."

Yes, I uttered some less than desirable words. Okay, I am not the recent come to fame Julie from the Julie and Julia movie hit of the summer (anyone who has read her book knows what I am talking about). In our house, stupid and shut up are "dirty words."

Nevertheless, I was uttering some of these bad words, along with "why do I have to cook dinner every night" and a few, "why can't we just eat McDonald's" when my family walked in the door.

All of this is just to let you know that we do try and re-try every recipe before we post it, and as happy and positive as I try to be on this blog, I do have my bad moments.

So what did we have for dinner - the recipe below. It has worked every time we tried it, takes minutes to whip out and it is very good.

The first time we made it, I left out the sweet stuff and wrapped the crepes around ham and onions. The second time, we made them with all of the sweet stuff left in, wrapped around blueberries and topped with a little honey. Delicious!

Thanks to Susan for sharing this great recipe!

Gluten Free (casein free) Crepes

4 large eggs
1 C milk (rice, almond, or soy may be used)
2 T butter, melted ( we used Earth Balance)
3/4 C GF flour mixture
1 tsp vanilla
1 T brown sugar
pinch of salt

In medium bowl mix eggs, milk, and vanilla. In a crepe pan, melt butter and add to egg mixture whisking vigorously. Make sure the butter is not too hot so that it doesn't cook the milk and eggs. Add dry ingredients to liquid and whisk again.

In hot crepe pan pour about 1/4 C mixture and swirl to coat pan.　 Cook both sides.　 You'll need to re-whisk mixture before pouring next crepe into pan.

Yields about 12 crepes. Once cooled store in a ziploc bag in the refrigerator.

GF FLOUR MIXTURE

2 C brown rice flour
2 C white rice flour
1 1/3 C potato starch
2/3 tapioca flour

Mix together and store in freezer.

Some notes on the recipe:

Susan noted that she has made these in a 10" skillet to use as tortillas and it worked great. She also uses them for sandwich wraps, breakfast & regular burritos, and dessert.　 For dessert she fills them with chocolate chips and strawberry jam or pie filling and whipped cream.　

I have never made crepes before and do not own a crepe pan - I made them in a small skillet and they worked great. In addition, the first time I made them I just used the GF flour mixture that I had in my bin, and they worked great so I think these are pretty easily adaptable to any GF flour mixture.

We'd love to try your favorite recipes!!

Gluten Free Halloween Cupcakes and Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

2009-10-30T11:15:35-07:00

It is going to be a very mellow Halloween at our house this year as "the flu" has ravaged my family over the past three weeks - the Middle Child and I had it first (along with about half of her school), no sooner had she returned to school then it hit The Six Year Old and then, amazingly the man who never gets sick, The Weekend Chef (although he is slowly losing that title). The worst part of the flu is the coughing. I took the Six Year Old to the doctor convinced he had come down with pneumonia. Thankfully his lungs are clear and the doctor suggested a spoonful of Honey to soothe his cough.

I have been making a lot of Chicken Noodle Soup and trying to keep the Gluten Free Teen healthy - she is the only family member to have escaped its' path at this point. Now that we are passing three weeks of someone ill, I am praying she remains healthy.

To spread a little cheer while the men of the house were down and out, the Girls in the family came up with these Halloween cupcakes. A little messy but fun.

We went the easy route and used Pamela's Products Luscious Chocolate Cake Mix, for the cupcakes which were amazingly tasty. While they were cooling we made the spiders:

Chocolate Spiders

2 cups gluten free chocolate chips (we used Sunspire Tropical Source chocolate chips for casein free as well)

3 T milk (or almond milk for casein free)

1/2 cup crispy cereal or peanuts (we used some Enviro Kids Leapin Lemurs cereal)

1/2 cup gluten free pretzels (we used Glutino Gluten-Free Pretzel Twists, )

Make the spiders by combining the chocolate chips and milk in a glass bowl. Microwave on high for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until smooth.

Reserve about one-third of the chocolate mixture for the spider legs. Stir the peanuts or cereal into the remaining chocolate.

Form the spiders by dropping teaspoons of the chocolate with the cereal or nuts mixed into it onto waxed paper. Let cool.

While the spiders are cooling, frost the cupcakes with white frosting:

White Frosting

1/2 cup shortening (we used Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening)
1/2 cup margarine (we used Earth Balance for casein free)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
5 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk or less

Cream together first four ingredients. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Gradually whip in milk until you reach the desired consistency. Beat until fluffy.

Once the cupcakes are frosted, placed a spider body from the wax paper on top of each cup cake. Warm up the remaining chocolate mixture in the microwave. Break the pretzel sticks to form curved legs and stir in the chocolate to coat. Attach the pretzels as legs. (the kids did this part - it was very messy and involved lots of licking!)

Not feeling up for the challenge, here is an easier Halloween Recipe that is a family tradition at our house. Every year while we are carving our pumpkins, I roast some pumpkin seeds. It is amazingly easy and a fun crunchy, naturally gluten free snack:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Snack:

1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds
2 teaspoons melted butter or olive oil

salt to taste

Optional additional seasonings: garlic salt, cayenne pepper, chili powder

Preheat oven to 300º F.

Rinse the seeds - it is O.K. to leave some strings and pulp on your seeds but clean off any major chunks.

Toss the pumpkin seeds in a bowl with the melted butter or olive oil, add seasonings and spread in a single layer on a greased baking sheet. Bake until golden brown - about 30 minutes.

Crunchy Brown Rice Chicken Pot Pie and the Whole Foods Recipe Library

2009-10-19T08:21:45-07:00

Wow what a difference a week makes. Last weekend was a spectacular fall day - sunshine with the cool crispness that tells the birds to fly south, the trees to drop their leaves and the Moms to get ready for flu season (more on this last one in a bit). Also known to some around my house as football weather.

We took advantage of our Indian summer's final furry and went for a boat ride from downtown Seattle to Blake Island. Really, it was so beautiful at Elliott Bay that we could of just sat there on the boat and been totally contented.

But we needed to get the boat out to top off the gas tanks for the winter, so we made the short trip over to Blake Island. Blake Island is a beautiful state park that offers views, sometimes only seen on TV, back towards Seattle.

The kids immediately scattered to search for sea glass and build drift wood forts . . . an already perfect afternoon, when we saw it.

That first splash and the huge fins of the unmistakable orca whale. Then another commotion in the water a little further out as God treated us to a spectacular demonstration of his creations. Having spent as much time as possible boating in the San Juans, we have seen enough whales that at times my kids won't even look up from their books (sad I know). But never have we seen so many and in such playful spirits. They were breaching and blowing, arching high in the air. They seemed to be enjoying their last day of summer as much as we were. I know this is "gluten free" blog, but I have to share this photo:

Earlier I said "what a difference a week makes" because no sooner had we reached our driveway after a day on the beach, when my Middle Child said she did not feel good. By bedtime her temperature had reached 101 degrees and what followed was a long week in bed, with "the flu." It hit our school so hard that at one point our small elementary school had 50 students out. Far be it from me to let a germ pass through my house without first testing my immune system ( in other words I have been down and out as well). And the Indian Summer replaced with "did I hear thunder today" and, of course, rain. Our summer was so beautiful that I had almost forgotten that I lived in Seattle.

What does all of this have to do with Crunchy Chicken Pot Pie - two words, comfort food.

When fall finally let it be known that it had arrived in combination with us being down and out with the flu, I was craving something comforting. And I was tired of everything we always make.

I was sitting in the carpool line at school to pick up the Six Year Old boy (who has an immune system coated with iron - he rarely gets sick) and I downloaded the Whole Foods Recipe Application for my iphone. It is a really cool app that lets you search by course, such as main dishes, salads etc. and by category such as quick and easy, family friendly. Even more impressive, it also lets you search by "Special Diets" which includes gluten free. With a few touches of the screen, I had a new recipe for dinner. You can search through what appears to be the same recipe library on the Whole Foods website.

Even better yet, it was tasty and satisfying. We all loved it. Next time I will definitely double the recipe and stick one in the freezer.

From the Whole Foods Recipe library here is:

Crunchy Brown Rice Crust Chicken Pot Pie

Serves 6

This is a delicious gluten-free and healthy alternative to traditional chicken pot pie. The Parmesan melts into the rice to create a tasty crust, but omit the cheese, if you like.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more for greasing
1 tablespoon butter (we used Earth Balance for Casein Free)
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 pound sliced button mushrooms (we left out the mushrooms)
2 teaspoons chopped thyme, divided
1 large carrot, chopped
1 rib celery, thinly sliced
1 small yellow onion, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1 1/2 cups low-sodium gluten-free chicken broth
1 cup whole milk (we used Almond Milk for Casein Free)
1 cup cooked brown rice or brown and wild rice blend
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (we left this off the casein free one)
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 cup frozen peas

Method

Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie dish with oil; set aside. ***Since half of use are casein intolerant as well, I made one with the Parmesan Cheese and one without.

Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink, 4 to 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, 1 teaspoon of the thyme, carrots, celery, onions, salt and pepper and cook until just tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add broth and milk, stir well and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until very thick, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine rice, cheese, paprika, remaining 1 teaspoon thyme, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.

Stir peas into chicken mixture then season with salt and pepper and transfer to prepared dish. Scatter rice mixture evenly over the top then arrange dish on a baking sheet to catch any drips. Bake until bubbly and crust is crisp, about 30 minutes.

Has anyone else tried any of the other Whole Foods Recipes? What did you think?

Cooking with Jules All Purpose Gluten Free Flour

2009-10-15T13:05:13-07:00

Last spring (that shows you how behind I am) I had the pleasure of attending a cooking class with Jules Shepard who makes a great All Purpose Gluten Free Flour.

Before we get to the flour and recipes, I have to tell you about Jules. I really enjoyed meeting her and being in her class. You leave her class feeling like you have a new gluten free friend. She is a Mom of two, has been gluten free for over ten years, and is completely devoted to "the cause." That is, making life better and easier for everyone on the GF diet.

She shared a lot of great tips, but two things that she said, actually that she lives by, stuck in my brain:

Regardless of whether or not we ever try the recipes, it is Jules' goal that everyone leave her GF baking class feeling inspired to try new things and with a general feeling that "we can have our gluten free cake and eat it too." That living gluten free does not mean leaving without. That we can have good baklava and scones and bread.

Second, that eating gluten free does not mean you have to eat bad food. Okay, how many of us have bought and consumed bad GF food? I know we all have because, in all honesty, there is a lot of it on the market. And sometimes it seems the only choice.

Jules implored us to STOP eating bad food!!

Not eating bad food is a lot easier to do with her flour which makes baking gluten free extremely easy - yes I said easy.

Now to the flour - Jules has formulated a great gluten free all purpose flour. If you are looking for that one bag of GF flour to put into your counter-top flour canister for everyday use, then you should give this flour a try. For most recipes, you can substitute this flour one-for-one for wheat flour.

During the class, Jules demonstrated the flour by making a chocolate cake, biscuits, scones and bread. We spent the next week trying out the flour ourselves. First we made the scones and they were delicious! They have actually become a family favorite and our easy to play with to change to your taste. We have added chocolate chips and blueberries (not together). I also add a couple tablespoons of ground flax and rice bran just to up the health factor. They are great warmed and drizzled with honey.

JULES' SCONES / SHORTCAKES

This family favorite produces a light, semi-sweet scone that does not crumble, and is good on its own for breakfast or tea, or in milk or berries for a shortcake-type dessert. As with many of my baking recipes, yogurt is used for moistness, but it shouldn’t be overlooked for flavor. There is no reason to use plain yogurt in a baking recipe! Take advantage of the opportunity to liven up your creations by experimenting with yogurt flavors, and try some of the great new coconut or soy yogurt out there if you are avoiding dairy.

Ingredients:

2 cups Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour

1/4 cup granulated cane sugar

2 tsp. gluten-free baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

4 Tbs. butter or non-dairy alternative (I like Earth Balance® Shortening or Buttery Sticks)

2 large eggs (or egg substitute)

3/4 cup vanilla yogurt (dairy, soy or coconut work best)

1/2 cup fresh or frozen berries; raisins; orange rind; chopped nuts; chocolate chips; etc. (optional for shortcakes)

cinnamon-sugar to sprinkle on the tops before baking

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Whisk together all dry ingredients in a large bottom bowl. Cut butter into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter or two knives. Stir in the eggs and yogurt.

If making scones, add to final mixture any berries, nuts, raisins, etc. Scoop heaping tablespoonfuls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10 -12 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned and there are no uncooked portions peeking through. Do not overcook, though.

If making shortcakes, roll out onto a surface dusted with Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour to a thickness of about ¾ inch. Cut into circles or other shapes with biscuits or cookie cutters. Place onto a greased cookie sheet and brush the tops with butter or non-dairy substitute and sprinkle with a pre-made cinnamon and sugar mixture. Bake for 8-10 minutes, just until the tops are lightly browned. Do not overcook!

NOTE: We make these with the coconut yogurt and they turn out great.

After trying several of her recipes, we had to put the claim that you can use it as a one-for-one exchange with wheat flour recipes to the test.

The ultimate test was my Grandma's Sugar Cookie recipe. These are the cookies that I baked with my Grandma, sitting in the nook of the cabinets on her counter, at her picturesque farm in Iowa. These are the cookies that she lovingly baked for me and mailed to me when I went away to college, individually wrapped in saran wrap in a shoe box. I mailed the same cookies back to my Grandpa after she died.

I have tried these before using my own flour combinations. They turned out great, but are a very delicate, fragile cookies.

With Jules flour, they were even better. In fact, everyone that I feed them too absolutely praised and loved them.

GRANDMA'S SUGAR COOKIES WITH JULES' GLUTEN FREE FLOUR

· 1 cup butter at room temperature (Earth Balance for CF) ***the butter really needs to be at room temperature. If it is too melted, your cookies will turn out flat.

· 1 ½ cup sugar (I use fine baking sugar but I am sure regular would work )

· 2 eggs

· 1 t GF baking soda in 1 T milk (Almond Milk for CF)

· 1 t lemon juice

· 1 t vanilla

· 1 t salt

· 3 cups Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Stir together the GF baking soda and milk and set aside.

Cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, baking soda mixture, lemon juice and vanilla, and beat well.

Combine the salt and GF flour. Add to the creamed mixture and mix until just together.

Drop in walnut (you can tell this is an old recipe) shaped balls on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes.

WHERE TO BUY JULES GLUTEN FREE FLOUR:

You can order it through Jules' website. Join her weekly recipe email list while you are there.

If you live in the Seattle-area, you can purchase Jules GF flour at Savory Moments in Redmond.

WHERE TO FIND JULES:

If you live in the Seattle area, you can catch a class with Jules at Savory Moments in Redmond, October 23 - October 25th.

Appetizer and Wine (21 and older) Friday October 23rd from 6:00-9:00 pm　　　　　　　　　　　

Kid's Baking Class (ages 6 and up) Saturday October 24th from 1:00-4:00

General Baking Session Sunday October 25th from 2:00-5:00

　　Call Savory Moment for more information and to reserve your space at (425) 867-1516

Gluten Free Halloween Candy - 2009

2009-10-01T09:13:38-07:00

Our Indian summer vanished on the turn of a dime and we have been greeted head on with fall - it is cooler and most notably wetter here in Seattle. And as October 1st approaches what is on the minds of my kids (especially my six year old boy who has asked me repeated "when can we order his costume?"), Halloween of course.

With Halloween comes . . . you got it, candy. We still employ the same technique we did in the very beginning for weeding out the "can not haves." We generally trick-or-treat with friends, then all of the kids come back and splash their candy on the family room carpet. After carefully sorting and counting, they engage in a wall street-type exchange with everyone ending up with what they can have and more importantly want. While this newly acquired commodity is treasured for a day or two, come Easter I inevitably find a bag of Halloween candy stashed away in the pantry that I throw away.

On to what is safe for this year.

THIS IS JUST A STARTING POINT - ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK ALL INGREDIENTS YOURSELF. OF COURSE, IF YOU FIND ANY ERRORS PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

THIS LIST IS BY NO MEANS EXHAUSTIVE!! Some candy manufactures offer more gluten free products, such as Hershey's, but the following items are the only ones they would confirm in a list-type format over the phone. SEE THE LINKS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Topping our list this year is Old Fashioned Candy Corn by Zachary candy company:

I am in receipt of your letter in regards to the Zachary Confections Candy Corn.　 We currently do not use any gluten containing ingredients in the manufacturing of our candy corn.　 I hope that this information is helpful to you.　

Ce De Candy

"Smarties® and our entire line of products are gluten free. If the UPC number on the packaging begins with "0 11206", you can be assured that it is manufactured in a facility that is gluten free and safe to eat if you have Celiac Disease."

Smarties, Smarties Lollies

Hershey 1-800-468-1714 The company will only confirm that the following items are GF. For other candy they recommend reading the label which accurately list all of the big 8 allergens such as wheat. The label will not indicate gluten that is derived from a source other than wheat, so you are advised to call if you see a product that has an ingredient that may contain gluten and they can verify over the phone the source of the ingredient.

jolly rancher hard candy and lollipops

kisses (milk chocolate)

milk chocolate bar (original w/ almonds)

york peppermint patty

Just Born

"The modified food starch that we use in our candies in corn starch. We are in the process of updating our package labels to reflect products that are gluten free. Our gluten free brands are:

MIKE AND IKE® Brand Candies,

HOT TAMALES® Brand Candies,

PEEPS® Marshmallow Candies,

PEANUT CHEW® Brand candies,

TEENEE BEANEE® Jelly Beans and

JUST BORN® Jelly Bean.

This information pertains to all Just Born candies that we make and package at our two manufacturing locations (Bethlethem, PA and Philadelphia, PA) and are in their original packaging. Please be aware that we do sell some of our products in bulk to other manufacturers who may be repackaging them in another facility. We encourage consumers to read the labels carefully for any gluten information on products that might be packaged elsewhere. For further questions, we recommend consumers call our Consumer Relations Team toll-free at 1-888-645-3453."

Nestle:

NESTLÉ^{® BABY RUTH®}

^{NESTLÉ® NIPS®
(Regular and Sugar Free)}^{NESTLÉ® BIT-O-HONEY®}^{NESTLÉ® OH HENRY! ®}^{NESTLÉ® BUTTERFINGER®
(NOT including Butterfinger Crisp and Butterfinger Stixx)}^{NESTLÉ® RAISINETS®}^{NESTLÉ® MILK CHOCOLATE}^{NESTLÉ® SNO-CAPS®}^{NESTLÉ® GOOBERS®}^{WONKA® PIXY STIX®}^{WONKA® LIK-M-AID® FUN DIP™}^{WONKA® LAFFY TAFFY®
(Laffy Taffy Rope and Fruitarts Chews)}^{WONKA® SPREE®
Necco

781-485-4500}

necco wafers

mary janes

mary jane peanut butter kisses

canada mint & wintergreen lozenges

haviland thin mints and candy stix

clark bar

skybars

haviland peppermint & wintergreen patties

talking pumpkins

squirrel nut caramels and squirrel nut zippers

banana split and mint julep chews

ultarmints

^Tootsie

"All Tootsie products are gluten-, peanut-, and nut product-free. Tootsie does not use wheat, barley, rye, oats, triticale, spelt, or any of their components, either as ingredients or as part of the manufacturing process."

charleston chew

charms blow pops

dots

tootsie pops

tootsie rolls and fruit rolls

junior mints

double bubble bubble gum

sugar babies

sugar daddy

Spangler

　Dum Dum Pops

Saf-T-Pops

Swirl Saf-T-Pop

Marshmallow Treats

Candy Canes

Cane Classics

Dum Dum Canes and Dum Dum Chewy Pops

"do not contain the gluten protein found in wheat, barley, rye, or oats.

We have contacted our suppliers on the ingredients we use, including sugar, corn syrup, citric, malic, lactic acid, ascorbic acid, artificial flavors & colors, starch, release agents, and processing aids. These products do not contain the gluten protein that causes a problem for people with Celiac Sprue."

For more lists of Gluten Free Candy see Associated Content and MyGlutenFacts.com. For gluten and casein free candy see GFCFdiet.com.

Two Thumbs Up to Betty Crocker Gluten Free Mix and a Streusel Cake You Will Love - Plus a giveaway!

2009-09-18T10:31:15-07:00

Wow - what a title, but you have to read to the bottom for the giveaway.

First, I have to give Two Thumbs Up to Betty Crocker for their four new Gluten Free Mixes - a Yellow Cake Mix, Devil's Food Cake Mix, Brownies and Chocolate Chip cookies. We have tried them all thanks to some samples received from MyBlogSpark and were very pleasantly pleased and surprised.

Honestly, I did not expect much out of these mixes. We have all seen the proliferation in gluten free products and when I read Betty Crocker was getting into the picture I just figured it was a mainstream manufacturer throwing together some rice flour and calling it good.

I was wrong.

We tried them all and they are very tasty. The Chocolate Chip cookies taste like, well Chocolate Chip cookies. And have you tried making chocolate cookies from scratch? It is not that easy.

The cake mixes are moist and pleasant.

Really the only criticism we could offer is that the Brownie mix is a little light on ingredients - one box makes a very flat 9 x 9 brownie. I will probably use two boxes next time around in the same 9 x 9 pan. Maybe this is a further statement on how much we liked them. One box was just not enough.

All of the Betty Crocker mixes are made in a gluten free processing facility, so no need to worry about cross-contamination. They are also easy to make casein free. We just substituted our favorite dairy free products - Almond Milk and Earth Balance - but you can find butter free directions on the Betty Crocker website.

There has been a lot of buzz on the web about how much butter the mixes call for. Of course you can try to cut back on the butter and replace it with other healthier options, but remember you are making cookies! Plus this is mainstream manufacturing - Betty Crocker does not make any claims for organic ingredients or non-GMOs which those of us in the gluten free world have grown to appreciate. These mixes are what they are - great Gluten Free mixes, made by a major manufacturer for mass consumption through chain grocery stores at reasonable prices.

There has also been a lot of chatter about the need to continue to support those original gluten free "founding" companies such as Pamela's. I say again these mixes are what they are. In a side by side comparison with cookies made with Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix, Pamela's won hands down. We used the recipe right on the side of the bag. The Pamela's cookies were plumper, moister and just tasted better. But wouldn't we expect that? Pamela's has been perfecting gluten free mixes for years (and done a great job of it) and, of course, I would buy Pamela's brownie mix first. But according to Betty Crocker one in nine US households watches, reduces or avoids consuming gluten - that is a lot of households and specialty products like Pamela's are just not available to all of those households yet.

So I say Thumbs Up to Betty Crocker - thank you for developing a safe, affordable, easily available GF product that is actually pretty darn tasty.

Shelly's Streusel Cake

Now to the Streusel Cake. First I have to introduce you to Shelly. She is a gluten free mom from the south and my very dear cyber-friend. Yes, we met on-line through my website and had shared much information together before I actually saw her face two years later when we became friends on Facebook.

I love Shelly - she is great Mom, working hard to advocate for the gluten free life and always seeking great gluten free products. She inspires me to keep going!

This is Shelly's Recipe for Streusel Cake using the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix

1 pkg Betty Crocker Yellow GF cake mix

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 Cup Cooking Oil (Wesson/Crisco)

4 eggs

1 Cup GF buttermilk (for dairy free we used 1 cup soy milk with 1 T of lemon juice)

2 tsp GF Vanilla

2 Tbs Brown Sugar

2 tsp Cinnamon

Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon and set aside. 　

Grease and flour a bundt pan.

Combine remaining ingredients well and pour a little more than half into the bundt pan.

Add the Brown Sugar/Cinnamon mix in a complete circle, careful not to touch the inside/outside of pan or it will burn. (We were not that careful with ours and it turned out just fine.)

Cover with the remaining batter.

Cook at 350 for about 55 minutes or until light golden brown on top.

Remove from pan and let cool.

We topped ours with Vanilla Frosting.

Finally for the Give Away:

The first person who posts a comment with their review of the Betty Crocker GF mixes (and a recipe using one of them would be nice) will receive a Betty Crocker Sweet Moments prize pack complements of MyBlogSpark.com.

Back to School Gluten Free

2009-09-03T21:43:23-07:00

We are back -

Back from our summer travels,

back to school,

back to work, and

back to blogging.

While I missed the connection to the gluten free community during the summer (and had endless ideas on new things to post about), I had a splendid summer with the kids.

Maybe it is their ages (all older than 6 now),

or the fact that we seem to have this diet at least somewhat under control,

or the long-warm days of summer that we were blessed with this year,

but we really had a better-than-ever summer.

Okay, I am no saint - there were a few instances when "mommy could just use five minutes, please." But I was met with mixed emotions on the day before school started.

Honestly, my heart skipped-a-beat when I thought about the few hours of peace and quiet that awaited me. But this brief sporadic moment of happiness occurred in the middle of when I was sitting at the gas pump waiting for the meter to read full, tears streaking down my face. I am pretty sure it was the thought of summer ending that caused the emotional meltdown and not the thought of all of the hours I was going to have spend in the car driving my kids to soccer practice, ballet, piano . . ... But I was actually sad, for awhile.

This was on Monday, on Tuesday we went back to school and after dropping them off and reconnecting with the other somewhat haggard Moms, I actually came home and did a little dance while I unloaded the dishwasher.

I do have a lot to share - more on this later, but I learned to eat again this summer! We also tried some fantastic new GF products and traveled to London and Paris. I will write on all of the above, soon, but I received the following email today and thought it the perfect re-entry into the new school year.

The following is from Joanne:

Hello, my daughter has Celiac Spru also, she's 16 and was diagnosed this past Feb. She has been sick for 3 years now and last year I put her in cyber school because of it. During the summer I had a few visits with the District Foods Superintendent and informed me that she would have alot of options that were gluten free in the school cafeteria. Today she went back to school and had a problem getting something she could have to eat. More or less a salad (lettuce only) and a drink. What can you pack a celiac kid for lunch? I'm clueless!!! Especially since the breads taste so terrible.

Thank you, Joanne

One of the things that I find most frustrating about the GF diet is the broken food promise. We have all experienced it - you go out of your way to make sure there will be something to eat and then you arrive to find nothing safe or a bowl of plain lettuce, with some vinegar and oil. It just happened to me Wednesday. I went to a luncheon meeting. Normally I eat before going to anything but at this one they specifically assured me, in person, the day before that they would have something I could eat. When I arrive, you guessed it, no nada, nothing. And the meeting lasted 2 1/2 hours long - I thought I was going to die by the end of it.

I am not sure I can fix the broken food promise, but I can provide some suggestions for school lunches.

The Gluten Free Teen takes her lunch to school everyday – long gone are the cute bento box lunch boxes, she prefers a brown paper sack (without smiley faces on it!).

Over the years, we have come to eat fewer sandwiches. I don't think she ate a single sandwich all summer. Now that we are back to school, she will start eating GF sandwiches again. Kinnikinnick is still her favorite. She likes the Kinnikinnick bagels, toasted with cream cheese. She also likes the Kinnikinnick White Sandwich bread, toasted then topped with butter and cheese.　

In lieu of sandwiches, I will make some kind of muffin, often blueberry or banana (which I add a little flax seed to) and she will pack a muffin, some yogurt, fruit, chips.　

Quinoa salad is also a favorite, as well as chilled tomato soup with some ZeroGrano crackers.

My younger daughter, who is not GF but has gotten used to not eating much bread, will take some salami and cheese, with some rice crackers.

My son, who is also not GF but has eaten that way his entire life, likes what we call the Luke Special. It is a Mission corn tortilla, smeared with cream cheese and topped with cheese and ham. You then roll it up and slice it into little pieces. The cream cheese helps hold it all together.

Once a week or so I will cook some kind of a treat for dessert. Chocolate Cookies are always a favorite. We also just found the most amazing cookies at PCC. They are made by Lucy and they are so good. They are crisp and light, with a great taste.

Here is the recipe for the Gluten Free Teens Favorite Quinoa Salad - she adapted it herself from a recipe on Recipezaar.

Quinoa Salad

1 cup dry quinoa (or 1/2 c quinoa & 1/2 c millet)

8 cups water

1 pinch salt

1/2 cup grapes, sliced in half

1/3 cup green onions, thinly sliced minced

1/4 cup roasted almonds (optional - I like the almonds, the GFT does not)

Dressing

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons gluten-free soy sauce (San-J Wheat-Free Tamari Soy Sauce)

Boil the water in a large pot. Add salt and quinoa and boil for 10 minutes. Drain the water. (Not so easy to do as the quinoa will go through most strainers. I drain it by holding the lid over the pot and letting out as little water as possible. Another thing you can try is a flour sifter basket). As an alternative, I cook my quinoa in a rice cooker. Just follow the directions on the package for the amount of quinoa, water and salt, turn it on and let it cook.

Prepare dressing in a large bowl, toss with the cooked quinoa and remaining ingredients.

I know there has to be other ideas for lunch out there and I would love to hear them. Can you give some more suggestions to Joanne? What do you pack for your gluten free child? What do you take to lunch?

For more tips on navigating school gluten free, including a letter to the school, visit Gluten Free Mom.com.

Gluten Free Bread baking at Da Vinci Bakery, Greenwood

2009-07-09T11:01:11-07:00

I have a hundred things to write about - I've been trying the new Betty Crocker mixes, went to a baking class with Jules and tried her gluten free baking mix, sampling new restaurants. But as the title notes, I am also a "Mom" and for the summer that is times three.

So between the "Mom can you drive me to tennis camp?"

"Mom I am hungry."

"Mom can you pump up my bike tire?"

"Mom can Gianna spend the night?"

"Mom will you play cards with me?"

"Mom can you braid my hair?"

"Mom Alex just crashed on her skateboard (only a small fracture thankfully)"

Well, there just has not been much time to sit down and compose a blog post.

I wanted to briefly let you know that Kalli at Da Vinci Bakery is organizing a gluten free bread baking class for this Monday, July 13th, at 6:00 pm. The class will be held at her bakery at 10003 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle - (206) 782-5735. You can call Kalli to register or email her at wheatlessinseattle@yahoo.com I believe the class is $25 and limited to 10 individuals.

If you have not tried her bread, it is wonderful!!!!! Actually, everything Kalli bakes is delicious. I can't wait to learn her secrets.

You can have your gluten and casein free quiche and eat it to!

2009-06-20T10:43:13-07:00

I have written many times about the joy of spending an afternoon in the kitchen with the gluten free teen. This time together has truly been one of the blessings of celiac disease.

Yesterday started like most evenings with me pondering, what's for dinner tonight? How many times have you had the same question? Will it be tacos, or quesadillas, too late for anything marinated and grilled, maybe spaghetti? Nothing was sounding too appealing.

Then the Gluten Free Teen saved the day once again (how did she get so smart?). She said Mom "I feel like quiche."

"Quiche?" I replied.

Who knows why this particular craving hit on this day. We had not had quiche in years.

"Quiche" I asked again.

And, by the way, we are gluten and dairy free and how was I to make a dairy free quiche that tasted good?

If we would not have had frozen gluten free pie crust in the freezer, I would of ditched that idea from the start.

But we had the crust and came to the compromise that if she made the standard Quiche Lorraine (loaded with cheese), I would make a dairy free quiche.

And so the contest began -

Whisking our eggs elbow to elbow, we each created our own quiche.

Can you tell which one is diary free?

And so another lesson was learned - don't let your diet stop your cravings, you can have your quiche and eat it too!

Now for the recipe.

If you are lucky you will be able to purchase a ready made crust. I say lucky because with the crusts already made this is a very easy recipe.

I also say lucky, because the supply of ready made gluten free crust is pretty limited.

Whole Foods Bakehouse has a gluten free crust, but it unfortunately has dairy in it.

If you live in Seattle, Flying Apron has a gluten and dairy free crust but it is not our favorite.

Our favorite, as we noted before, is the Bavaria Mills gluten free and casein free crust. They are absolutely beautiful, reasonably priced and they taste great. You can purchase them at Savory Moments in Redmond or you can call Mike at 1-360-571-7611 and order them for delivery. I bought a dozen last time and stuck them in the freezer.

If you live in another part of the country and know of other great pre-made gluten free pie crust, please add your information to the comments below.

To make your own crust, try this recipe for Gluten and Casein Free Pie Crusts. I have not tried it but have heard that the Gluten Free Pantry Pie Crust mix is also pretty good.

Now for the insides:

For the dairy version, the Gluten Free Teen made the standard Quiche Lorraine:

4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional of course - you can also use chopped ham)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 small tomato, thinly sliced
The GFT sprinkled some rosemary from the garden on top
1 8 - 9 inch gluten free pie crust, unbaked

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F

In a small bowl, beat eggs and milk with a fork until blended. Season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle a thin layer of Swiss cheese in the pie crust.

Add the bacon and then pour the egg mixture over the top. Sprinkle with the remainder of the cheese.

Sprinkle with rosemary or thyme, and arrange the sliced tomato on top.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue to bake for an additional 30 minutes or until crust is browned.

Now for my version:

The Gluten and Casein Free Quiche

1 cup coconut milk
4 large eggs
2 t ume plum vinegar (if you are regularly cooking dairy free then this should be standard in your kitchen. It adds a great salty cheese-like quality to cooking)
1 minced garlic clove
1 t nutritional yeast (optional but strongly recommended as it once again adds a great cheese flavor to casein free food)
1 t dry mustard powder
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 - 2 green onions, chopped
1 8 -9 inch gluten free pie crust (unbaked)
thinly sliced tomato for the top

Optional add ins - I call these optional, because you can add anything you desire at this point. For a vegetarian quiche add 2 - 3 cups chopped vegetables. Meat lovers will love this quiche with some crumbled and cooked GF sausage. I added Beelers Maple sausage and it was delicious.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

With fork, mix together the coconut milk, eggs, vinegar, garlic, yeast, mustard powder, salt and pepper. The powdery substances will be a little lumpy but just mix as well as you can. They seem to dissolve while baking.

For a vegetarian quiche, saute the vegetables over medium heat until softened. This will only take a few minutes.

For a meat quiche, crumble and cook the sausage until done.

Add either the veggies or the sausage to the gluten free pie crust, add egg mixture and top with the green onions and thinly sliced tomato.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Okay, have you figured out which one is the dairy free quiche yet?

It is the one on the left and, for the record, the Weekend Chef liked it better!

Gluten Free and Casein Free Frostings

2009-06-09T09:40:42-07:00

How does a Gluten Free Mom celebrate her birthday! With lots of love and a gluten free birthday cake of course!

Despite the fact that the Weekend Chef left for London in the early afternoon, I actually had a wonderful birthday.

The celebration started on my Birthday Eve with dinner with great friends at Bis on Main in Bellevue. They were very knowledgeable about gluten and all of the places it can hide. They served me a wonderful dinner; for an appetizer we had Pepper Crusted Ahi Tuna with fresh ginger and wasabi in lieu of the sauce. For dinner I had the special which was a delicious Grilled Pork Tenderloin. I skipped the standard gluten and casein free dessert of fresh berries and opted for the traditional italian dessert of grappa.

The next morning, I was pleasantly surprised to wake up and find that while we were at dinner, the Gluten Free Teen was busy (hopefully watching the other kids) and making me a birthday cake. The act itself was enough to make me cry - my daughter actually made me a cake!

If you can't read it, the chocolate chips on top spell out "MOM." The frosting poured over the sides because the cake was still hot when she frosted it. But it was filled with love and tasted delicious. She used Pamela's Chocolate Cake mix which I would highly recommend and our own recipe for the frosting.

Gluten Free and Casein Free Frosting

o 1 pound box of confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar and confectioners' sugar are the same)

o 1/4 cup milk (use almond, soy or rice for casein free)

o 1 t vanilla

o 1 stick butter (use Earth Balance for casein free)

Beat with an electric mixer, scraping the bowl often, until it reaches the desired consistency. Add milk or a non-dairy substitute to thin.

This makes a ton - store extra in the freezer and you will be ready for the next round of frosted cookies.

Chocolate Frosting

Add 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder.

Seven Things You May Not Know About Me

2009-05-30T10:15:26-07:00

I am not very good about the "social" part of blogging. I have a lot of blogs that I read, but when it comes to commenting, tagging, joining in on recipe projects, etc. Well I just barely have time to write a weekly post and keep up with all of the emails that I receive. And as the name implies, I am a "Mom" first and foremost.

But when I finally took the time to look at my Twitter account today, I saw this one and thought "why not?" I was tagged by Heather at Celiac Family to reveal “Seven Things You May Not Know About Me.” The rules are simple. Link to your original tagger and list these rules in your post. Simply share seven facts about yourself in the post. Tag seven people at the end of your post and let them know they’ve been tagged. And have fun! So, here it goes:

1. After a horrible battle with the adoption court, we finally brought home our third child, a boy, from Guatemala about five years ago. I had terrible pregnancies (my second daughter weighing in at almost 11 pounds), but it was nothing compared to the struggles we went through to get this kiddo home.

2. Sometimes I wish I could just live on coffee, chocolate and wine.

3. I love clothes - I know so shallow and vain, but my creative side likes to "decorate" everything around me, including myself.

4. My favorite book is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. After that it would be East of Eden.

5. I love old things ~ old wood furniture, old houses, old traditions, old quilts . . .

6. I have way too many hobbies and interest ~ painting, running, cooking, boating, gardening, scarp booking, blogging, Pilate's, drawing, photography, skiing, hiking. If only I didn't need to sleep.

7. Tomorrow is my birthday and I will be 44.

8. Bonus fact: My favorite moment this week was sitting outside of Starbucks on a sunny morning, drinking my green tea, and eating their new GFCF orange cake!

Tag your it!

1. Diane at The Whole Gang

2. Melissa at Gluten Free For Good

3. Jennifer at Gluten Free Good Life

4. Jean at Gluten Free Organics

5. Ann atSwede at Heart

6. Erin at Gluten Free with a Purpose

7. Linda at Gluten Free Homemaker

Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets by Applegate Farms and more new products

2009-05-20T11:27:10-07:00

Every time I turn around these days there seems to be a new gluten free product or a new restaurant now offering gluten free food.

This is a little hard to read, but it is a sign in the Microsoft cafeteria offering Gluten and Wheat Free Products.

What can be bad about that?

Not much at first glance but I had two bad experiences last week that I want to share as a warning.

It was the Middle Child's tenth birthday - she does not need to eat gluten free. She is tall, healthy and full of energy. Nevertheless, she wanted a gluten free birthday cake so the entire family could join in her celebration. I normally make my birthday cakes, but a new company was offering gluten free birthday cakes and I just had to try it. I called ten days in advance to order the cake and went over the fact it had to be gluten free etc.

On the morning of her birthday I go to pick it up, and thank goodness I asked, but they had not made it gluten free! It was a beautiful cake but deadly to half of the family.

That same week, I decided to try out a new restaurant. Not only did this new restaurant offer gluten free menu items, they had a separate printed gluten free menu.

I was worried from the beginning when my waiter had a hard time with english - I do not mean this to be derogatory in any way, but it is hard to communicate your special dietary issues when you cannot communicate at all. I asked for the manager but she was not there yet. So not feeling terribly confident, I went ahead and ordered.

My lovely entree came out with a glutenous wheat spring roll plopped right in the middle!

All of this is to say, that yes it is wonderful that so many gluten free options are newly available, but I honestly worry that some places are just popping a gluten free label on things without taking the time to really learn about cross contamination and other issues such as hidden ingredients.

We are our own advocates so wherever you see something offered that is "gluten free" it is up to you to confirm that they truly know what they are doing and that the offered item is safe. If we all take the initiative to offer a little on the spot training, the gluten free world will be safer.

Now the buyer beware lecture is over and her are some new products that we found and have added to our list of favorites:

Applegate Farms Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets -

Applegate Farms is now producing a gluten free chicken nugget. The chicken is organic and antibiotic free and breaded with a blend of rice and corn. I have to admit that my kids love chicken nuggets and I love the convenience of being able to pop a quick dinner in the oven every so often. My favorite nuggets are by Bell and Evans but that is because they are more like breaded chicken breast than nuggets. I have to say that the kids loved the Applegate Farms nuggets - we tried one box warmed in the microwave. Two minutes until dinner was ready. They were fine this way, but much better when we took the time to warm them in the oven.

As to the warning above, thank you to Applegate Farms for taking the initiative to ensure the gluten free status of their nuggets. According to their website:

What procedures are in place to ensure that Applegate Farms can validate its gluten-free claims?

The gluten-free breading used on our chicken nuggets will be tested for gluten before entering our plant and will be accompanied by a Certificate of Analysis. The finished product will be tested for gluten again before leaving our plant, and will be held until an analysis determines that the product meets our gluten level specifications.

A winner all of the way around.

Sjaak's Organic Chocolate Bar -

We are in love with Sjaak's chocolate bars! I guess you would describe them as gourmet organic chocolate bars. I love them because they taste wonderful for starters, but they are also produced in a gluten free facility. In some ways these bring back the romance of chocolate - eating one of these reminds me of "old days" when you could not find Hershey's on every corner in every convenience store. When eating a chocolate bar was a special treat at Christmas or after church (okay maybe I have read too many Laura Ingalls Wilder books with my kids). My kids love the gold wrapping. The Middle Child liked it so much she did want to open hers. We had them for dessert on Mother's Day and they brought back that feeling that chocolate is a special treat. The Gluten Free Teen loves the Raspberry Truffle Bar. I am crazy for the Dark Chocolate with Almonds which is also casein free. You can order them on the Sjaak website or check out Organic Vegan Chocolate Bar Assortment on Amazon.com.

Earth Balance Natural Peanut Butter -

Yes I know that most peanut butter is naturally gluten free, but I like this peanut butter for the other healthy attributes and the taste. Earth Balance has blended peanuts with flax seed and agave syrup to produce an easy to spread and tasty natural peanut butter.

GlutenFreeda Gluten Free Burritos -

I have not tried these yet, but the makers of the delicious Real Cookies GF frozen cookie dough is introducing a frozen single entree gluten free burrito. In addition to being gluten free, they are made with natural ingredients and without any of nasty GMOs, trans fats etc. Can't wait to try them.

What new favorites have you found lately?

Celiac Disease in the News - Elisabeth Hasselbeck's New Book

2009-05-08T08:23:58-07:00

Elisabeth Hasselbeck

If you are tied into the gluten free community, you know there is a lot of buzz right now about Elisabeth Hasselbeck's new book The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide . I have not had a chance to read the book yet, but apparently it includes some misperceptions about celiac disease. Wednesday night on the Celiac List Serv Elaine Monarch of the Celiac Disease Foundation posted this letter in response to Elisabeth's new book:

Celiac Colleagues:

I am writing to call your attention to the current publicity surrounding the
new book, The G-free Diet, A Gluten-Free Survival Guide by Elisabeth
Hasselbeck, co-host of The View. While it is important to call attention
to celiac disease, the information must be accurate - the inaccuracies in
this book are potentially dangerous and detrimental to celiacs and to those
yet to be diagnosed if people self diagnose and start eating GF. Our mission
is to assist in getting people accurately diagnosed and the message in this
book could defeat this mission. It appears that this book is being marketed
as a fitness diet - eat g-free and feel so much better. Celiac is
incorrectly referred to as an allergy not an autoimmune disease.

The GF diet is the medically mediated prescription that controls the
condition for a diagnosed celiac. Several items in the book are misleading
and inaccurate and place further limitations on the GF diet. The
gluten-free lifestyle is a lifelong commitment for the diagnosed celiac, not
an option, not a fad diet - adhering to the GF lifestyle requires patience
and persistence. This lifestyle can not be trivialized.

Thank you.

Elaine Monarch

Celiac Disease Foundation
Founder & Executive Director
13251 Ventura Blvd. Suite 1
Studio City, CA 91604

Like I said, I have not read the book but I did watch the interview of Elisabeth on Larry King Live last night. I thought she did a good job, but you can click here to watch the interview yourself and reach your own conclusions. She begins talking about celiac disease 12:55 into the interview.

Martha Stewart Magazine:

On a less controversial note, Martha Stewart Magazine also had an article on gluten free living which includes recipes for a delicious looking chocolate cake. Thanks to the Internet you do not have to buy the magazine to read the article. Just click here and it will take you to Martha's website.

Health Magazine

I was waiting for my daughter flipping through a Health Magazine and ran across an article on addressing causes of tiredness in women. Guess what? Celiac disease was mentioned as one of the causes. Sorry I could not find this article on line.

What about in your area?

A Few Words from a Gluten Free Teen

2009-05-06T20:47:58-07:00

I have a guest writer this week - the Gluten Free Teen. Even though I try to make life as"normal" and as happy for her as I can, I know that her diet still bothers her at times. Like most normal teens she just wants to be like everyone else, so having a special diet is something she'd rather forget about.

No matter how hard I try to provide her with gluten free options, as she gets older and more independent, there are more and more instances that I just don't know about. Mom bringing special brownies into class just doesn't work in middle school.

At the same time, she really does not like to talk about her diet. So when she offered to write my blog post for this week, I was more than excited to accept her offer. It gave me a chance to see that things are still tough at times. It gave me a look into her life. Maybe one of our kids will read it and find some solace in the connection as well.

Hi this is the gluten free teen or Alex. There are a few things I wanted to tell you about being a gluten free teen.

Sometimes, well actually most of the time, things can be pretty tough food wise. I have encountered many incidents outside of our home, where I was left with no food and feeling left out. But I have also experienced people who have taken the time to make sure that I can participate and have something to eat. I have had heartbreaking experiences, and touching experiences.

One of the many tough times that I have experienced was in math. I know this sounds weird and might not sound like a big deal but it really does hurt. My math teacher’s wife loves trying out new recipes and then giving them to her husband’s students to test. I was taking a math test and he asked the class if anyone was allergic to nuts or chocolate. We all said no. The next thing I saw was a bag of delicious looking cookies being passed out to the whole class. Of course I didn’t eat them. I’m a good girl and don’t want to get sick. So I told him I couldn’t eat them and he didn’t even care. I was fighting back tears and it was really hard but I survived and ate some yummy ice cream when I got home. But still, it hurts.

Another experience that pierced my heart was in sixth grade when everyone had coffee cake. I love cake, and I love coffee, so you can imagine hard it would be to not be able to eat coffee cake. Well it looked delicious and I was incredibly sad because all I had to eat was 2 teeny tiny stale and disgusting, gluten free cookies. While my whole class was pigging out on coffee cake I was eating gross food. It was a small incident but still incredibly painful.

Now that I’ve managed to depress you thoroughly I will talk about some of the touching experiences. At school we read the book Alice in Wonderland. Of course, after reading this we just had to have a Mad Hatter Tea Party. I was deeply bummed because I figured that once again, I would be left out. But surprisingly enough my English Teacher bought me a gluten free chocolate dome and some delicious gluten free cookies. They were amazing and she even had the correct kind of drink for me! I was so touched and greatly thanked her.

My Journalism class had a party once the yearbook was finished. I was going to bring in some popcorn for me to eat, but of course I forgot. I figured that I would have to put on my happy face and act happy while everyone was eating yummy brownies and cookies, but that is the opposite of what happened. Two of my friends brought in chips that they made sure were gluten free for me. I was so grateful and ended up having a genuine smile on my face! It was truly great.

As you can see, being a gluten free teen has some major rough spots. But it can also make you feel incredibly loved and thankful for the people that truly care about you. Even though you might feel very alone and sad about being gluten free, there are good things that come out of it. It might be amazingly hard to think of them (it was for me) but there is a reason for it. People love you and those who truly care about you will show it.

Gluten Free Cobb Salad and Honey Mustard Dressing

2009-04-30T10:49:50-07:00

Spring in Seattle is beautiful. Seattle may be known for its evergreen trees but the beautiful blooms of spring – azaleas, rhododendron, cherry trees, dog woods, these are a heavenly site.

I love it when the gray fleece blanket of cloud cover that is our constant throughout the long winter lifts to reveal once again the glory of the sun - aahh the temperature has raised a few degrees from the winter norm of in the 40s to the spring kiss of 60 degrees, the sun has moved closer so that when it poops through the clouds you can feel its warmth on your skin, the moss starts to dry up, the wood pecker returns to send out its mating call from the metal liner of my chimney, and everything blooms!! I know the rain will be back, but there is a promise of something new and brighter.

It makes me stop for a moment and gaze out my family room window.

This may be a sad metaphor for celiac disease, but it is similar to our recovery. After living in the grayness of feeling tired, the brain not quite functioning right, the stomach aches, we awoke to a new beginning. As we started to heal the sun started to shine in our lives again – new energy abounds, new discoveries are made.

Seeing our new "spring" we stopped to gaze at our lives for a moment and be thankful for our new beginning.

Okay, so much for the reflective moment – another thing that the new warmth brings me is a desire for a good salad. After spending our winter drinking hot chocolate and cozying up to comfort foods, I am ready to shed the fleece and have a light hearty healthy salad. The salads will be even better in a few months when we can pick the lettuce from our garden, but I can’t wait that long.

I remember when we first went gluten free there was a lot of talk about salad dressings and whether or not they contaminated gluten. One of the main concerns was with vinegar. We now know that balsamic, cider and wine vinegars are all safe. The distillation process removes the gluten from the vinegar. The only exception to this would be Malt or a Barley Malt vinegar.

Another concern with salad dressings is that they may contain gluten as a thickener, although I honestly have not checked into this myself.

Initially being overwhelmed by all of the changes required by our new diet, I went with our philosophy of it is easier, and the end result will taste better, if I just make it from scratch. That is especially true with salad dressings.

With a few simple ingredients on hand, you can whip up a salad dressing in five minutes. And the taste . . . even a very simple homemade dressing is leaps and bounds better than dressing out of the bottle. Really, if you have not tried it, you will be shocked. Often times after we have company over to our house for dinner, the one recipe they request when they leave is for the salad dressing!

Our favorite dressings change with the season - in summer when you can get fresh spinach and strawberries you will love the Strawberry Spinach Salad. Since I cannot have dairy, I have come up with a simple dairy free replacement for Ranch dressing. The Gluten Free Teens favorite dressing is the following Honey Mustard Dressing. She adapted it from Red Robins dressing. It is not necessarily low fat, but it taste great with chicken nuggets and is perfect on a Cobb Salad.

Cobb Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing

1 – 2 heads of romaine lettuce, washed and chopped

2 ounces tomatoes, chopped

1 avocado, chopped

3 strips of bacon, cooked and broken into pieces

2 – 3 hard boiled eggs, chopped

2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced (to save time try Hormel Natural Choice carved chicken breast)

2 ounces of your favorite shredded cheese (leave off for casein free)

2 tablespoons of chopped olives

Add altogether and toss with the following dressing before serving.

Honey Mustard Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise

3 T sugar

3 T honey

1 ½ T regular mustard

1 ½ T Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard

1 ½ T white vinegar

1 ½ T olive oil

Mix together with a wire whip or fork. Store in the refrigerator.

Gluten Free Bottled Salad Dressings:

Okay, you had to know I would not leave you hanging. The Gluten Free in San Diego Group has put together an extensive list of GF salad dressings. Remember, you should always double check yourself, but this list should get you started.

Here is the link to the Gluten Free in San Diego Page - Gluten Free Salad Dressings *** I tried five times to get this link to work and it keep coming back with an error message. But if you click the link, then on the left of the web page there will be a search box. Type in "salad dressings." The page with the list of salad dressings was the second search result for me. Sorry for the extra steps.

The Best Bread Machines for Gluten Free Bread

2009-04-22T10:27:31-07:00

I received three emails this week asking which was the best bread machine for gluten free breads, so this must be on your minds. This is a photo of the Gluten Free Pantry Favorite Sandwich mix made with my old Breadman machine:

First I have to admit that I do not use my bread machine that often. With my new bread recipe only taking 30 minutes to rise, I find it just as quick and easy for me to make bread "the old fashioned way." However, I am a stay-at-home Mom, so I realize it is easy for me to be around to watch to make sure it does not rise too high and turn the oven on. What if you can't be at home? Or better yet, you are not as nostalgic as I am about watching bread rise. That is where the bread machine comes in.

My first bread machine was the Breadman - it worked fine with standard mixes like the Gluten Free Pantry Favorite Sandwich Bread Mix, but because all of the cycles on it are automatically programmed (in other words, you cannot set the rise and knead cycles yourself), it did not work well with some standard mixes such as those by 'Cause Your Special and other recipes that I wanted to try.

If you do any sort of research, you will soon find that the favored bread machine in the gluten free community is the Zojirushi BBCCX20 Home Bakery Supreme Bread Machine

The main benefit of this bread machine is that you can program the cycles so it will work with a vast array of gluten free mixes and recipes. It also makes some fancy automatic adjustments to get the dough to rise and bake correctly that are based on things such as the humidity in your house and the ingredients in your bread.

Buying the right bread machine from the beginning will save you time and agony and the expense of buying a second machine, but this is just the start. For a detailed guide to making gluten free bread in a bread machine, I recommend Annalise G. Roberts book Gluten-Free Baking Classics for the Bread Machine. It has everything from great recipes, specific directions on how to set your bread machine and tips for when things just don't go right (and they will not go right at times, it is almost guaranteed so use that bread for bread crumbs!).

I'd love to share Annalise's recipe with you, but I think she might prefer it if you buy the book! I'd share one of my own, but have not developed one yet, and in all honesty Annalise has spent much more time perfecting bread recipes than I have, so I am sticking with hers for now.

We have slowly but surely moved away from mixes, but we still like the Toro White Bread Mix and the Gluten Free Pantry Favorite Sandwich Bread Mix (although this one is moving down on our list of favorites). You can purchase both of these from .

We also like the "Cause your Special Home style White Bread Mix.

What are your favorites?

This and That Gluten Free - More Gluten Free Options

Just a few more details to add this week:

** Starbucks: You may have heard this already, but Starbucks is going to start selling a gluten free Valencia Orange Cake for $2.25 at it's US stores in May!! Love you Starbucks for catering to our special diet!

** Bi-Aglut Pasta: Our favorite Bi-Aglut pasta is back for sale in the US. We love this pasta for its taste first - it just taste like wheat pasta. And for its texture second, it is not starchy at all, holds up great in pasta dishes like macaroni and cheese. It may seem pricey, but we can get two meals out of a bag of bi-aglut spaghetti while a bag of de boles spaghetti was not enough to give my family one meal. You can order it from .

Another fun source is Quattrobimbi which imports gluten free products from Italy. Italians have been gluten free much longer than us, and they seem to have an upper hand on the gluten free products. If you order from Quattrobimbi get the ZeroGrano crackers. They are so much like wheat crackers you will not believe it. Perfect with tomato soup.

** More Gluten Free Cereals from General Mills:

Thank you for contacting General Mills with your inquiry. Along with Rice Chex, General Mills is reformulating the following Big G Cereals to gluten free status:

o Corn Chex

o Honey Nut Chex

o Strawberry Chex

o Chocolate Chex

o Cinnamon Chex

Production for this cereal has begun and you should begin seeing these cereals available on store shelves soon. All products listed should be available by June 1st, 2009.

As with any reformulated product, both products may be on the store shelves at the same time so consumers are encouraged to read labels/packaging carefully. Consumers should carefully examine the product packaging to ensure that the cereal inside the box is in fact the new, gluten free product. Look for "NOW GLUTEN FREE" or "GLUTEN FREE" on the front/side/back panels. We hope you find this information helpful. Please let us know if we can help you again.

** Smoothies R My Life blog:Lastly, looking for something different for a snack or for breakfast. Then you should try a smoothie.. Actually, I am not sure how you could be gluten free and not have an occasional smoothie as they are a great breakfast item and a perfect snack. Check out Smoothies R My Life blogthat list a new smoothie every day. As far as I can tell, they are all gluten free. Dairy free? No problem, most are dairy free as well. Try # 39 - it taste just like a pina colada. (Ok, I am still day dreaming about Kauai).

Kauai Gluten Free

2009-04-16T09:45:03-07:00

Greetings fellow gluten free friends. Sorry for the absence, but from the title of this post you can probably guess where I have been. The Blogging for Dummies book recommends that you post when you will be out of town, but the Weekend Chef was not too keen on my announcing to the world that we would be gone. Although, I told him I'd be happy if someone would break in and clean my house!

So we have gone and come back, and the gluten free information that I have to share on Kauai will be relatively brief, mostly because we stayed at a condo and cooked most of our own meals.

When we first went gluten free I mourned the fact that we would no longer be able to travel. We actually went camping about one week post diagnosis, and not knowing enough at the time, we starved by only eating grilled hamburger without the bun and yogurt and fruit.

Back then, I could not comprehend how we would ever fly anywhere again with our restricted diet. I could not understand how God had given me this innate desire for travel while at the same time making it so hard.

Over time and with confidence, we realized we could travel again but that it would be easier to stay at condos instead of hotels. I have to admit that I also mourned for the luxuries of a hotel – I know I sound spoiled, but have you ever seen the hotels in Hawaii with their beautiful meandering pools and, better yet, pool side service, morning breakfast buffets . . .? To me, I served everyone at home so while on vacation I wanted to be served.

All of my past preferences being stated, I have fully converted at this point – we travel plenty and I have grown to prefer the convenience, space and savings offered by staying in a condo.

Yes, being gluten free requires planning ahead – you have to go on-line before you travel, seek out the places you can eat, and contact them before you go.

We also travel with a suitcase of our favorite gluten free pastas, bagels, muffins etc.

And, yes, I have to cook. But we go with easy meals and at least I am cooking in paradise. Moreover, the setting from the balcony on our condo in Kauai was quiet honestly more beautiful than any setting that a restaurant had to offer.

Lastly, when you are traveling with a family, a condo will give you twice the amount of space for the same dollars and you can save a bundle of money, I mean a bundle, by being able to prepare your own meals.

So what about Kauai gluten free??

Once again we felt blessed and taken care of, as our condo was within walking distance of the only gluten free bakery in the state of Hawaii.

Sweet Marie's is a dedicated gluten free bakery on Kauai. As the name implies, it is owned and operated by the most charming and sweet Marie. Marie is an east coast native (that is of the mainland US) who moved to Kauai almost 20 years ago. Being gluten free herself, she opened Sweet Maries just under two years ago. She bakes the most amazing muffins – our favorite was the Tropical muffin with toasted coconut and pineapple. She also had to die for chocolate brownies. Even better, she will prepare gluten free meals for you during your stay on Kauai.

I emailed Marie before we left and we were able to stock up on muffins, cookies and brownies the first morning after our arrival. Of course, we went back later in the week for more! Marie is also very helpful with information about where to shop and dine on Kauai, and I feel like I have a new friend on the beautiful Island of Kauai.

At her recommendation, we ate our one meal out at Verde’s. It is set in a strip mall behind the Shell station in Kappa. What was lacking in atmosphere was made up for in delicious Mexican food. This is authentic Mexican food, not your taco bell type, in huge portions. They were also very knowledgeable about all of the ingredients and cross-contamination. You can eat at the restaurant, or order carry out.

There are other places to eat out on Kauai, but we had the rest of our meals at the condo – getting ready to travel yourself? Here was our condo menu:

Breakfast – Sweet Marie muffins (so many muffins we do not need to eat any for a long time); eggs, yogurt, fruit, a box of Koala Crisp cereal

Lunch – (usually ate at the beach) salami, cheese slices, fruit, chips, quinoa salad, ham and cheese rolls ups (take a slice of ham and roll it around a mozzarella cheese stick)

Dinner – quesadillas with Food for Life brown rice tortillas that I packed; pork chops, Lundberg farm risotto and veggies; Bi-aglut spaghetti with some bruschetta bread from Bavarian Mills; grilled lemon chicken with Bi-aglut noodles and a salad; Pizza (Kinninnick now sells mini square pizzas that were perfect for traveling); Cobb salad and hot dogs for the kids

What I brought along – Food for Life tortillas, bread, Kinninnick bagels and pizza crusts, Bi-aglut pasta, Lundberg Farms risotto, bruschetta from Bavarian Mills, quinoa, tamari soy sauce

Grocery list when we arrived – olive oil, cheese, salsa and chips, pork chops, chicken, hot dogs and hamburger meat for the spaghetti sauce, spaghetti sauce for spaghetti and for the pizza, butter, eggs, ham, cheese sticks, yogurt, avocados (for guacamole) onion, tomatoes, lettuce, two lemons, mustard and green onion, plus miscellaneous snacks like ice cream!

For more on traveling gluten free, check out my website at Gluten Free Mom.com. So how do you travel gluten free?

Gluten Free Calzones - Easy Enough for a Kid to Make

2009-03-29T18:06:08-07:00

I have talked before about one of the Silver Linings of Celiac Disease being the quality time that I spend with the Gluten Free Teen in the kitchen. You can live GF without cooking as much as we do, but cooking is a very creative process and we have so much fun together in the kitchen experimenting with new recipes and ingredients.

As I mentioned before, it is also the time when the "walls come down" and while the GFT is stirring some flour together I hear about "who likes who" at school, who has cell phones and who doesn’t, what subjects are hard and what are easy. Almost without her noticing, I get the chance to enter into the life of GFT and find out what’s going on. What a blessing!

Recently, I have discovered a new silver lining – my Gluten Free Teen can prepare a complete meal from scratch all by herself!

And she loves it!

And it taste wonderful!

It was Thursday afternoon at 4:00; I needed to take my Six Year Old to karate (a sport I highly recommend for energetic focused kids). As we were getting ready to go, I pondered out loud "what’s for dinner tonight." Seeing as though nothing was defrosted and this was the first time that day I had considered the evening meal, I was about to resort to scrambled eggs and orange slices when the GFT said "Don’t worry Mom, I will cook dinner."

We spend a lot of time together in the kitchen, but I was leaving and the dinner menu was a blank slate, and we were getting low on provisions, so I asked "Are you sure?"

"Yes, Mom. I will do it all," she answered as she started to leaf through our latest issue of Living Without to find a new recipe. Coming up empty, she started pulling various cook books off the shelves and then finally, located my file with recipes I am working on.

She found a Calzone recipe I have been testing and refining from Tiffany's Healing Foods, and said she wanted to make it. Mind you, this was a hodge podge recipe of notes written on sticky tabs and stuck to a piece of paper.

As I was hustling my six year old out the door, she asked "do we have all of the ingredients." Again, with the overly protective "are you sure honey," I answered yes and with that I left the house.

The Gluten Free Teen is a really good cook for a Thirteen Year Old, but my expectations were still low.

What a treat and yet, another Silver Lining of Celiac Disease.

The Treat?

Dinner that night.

The calzones were wonderful, delicious, and scrumptious. She personalized each calzone just the way we like (mine dairy free of course) and then carved our names on the top so we could tell them apart.

And I did not have to do a thing – I came home just in time to take them out of the oven(the GFT may cook, but has a healthy fear of hot ovens), pulled a salad out of the refrigerator and we all set down to a great dinner. (I just may have to buy her that cell phone she wants)!

The Silver Lining??

The GFT can cook a wonderful meal all by herself! That may sound so simple but . . . well actually that is it. You see, in this crazy world we live in these days, kids go to space camp and write programming software, but they cannot make their own beds, much less prepare a meal. And I am not sure that is good. So yes, the Silver Lining is just simply that, my GFT can cook.

If she can make it, so can you. So here is the recipe!!

Gluten Free Calzones

1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)

2 T sugar

1 pack active yeast

1 1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup sorghum flour

2 cups tapioca flour

1 t xanthan gum

1 t guar gum (if you only have xanthan gum then just use 2 t of it)

2 T rice bran (this is optional, but I like the brown flakes and the additional fiber)

2 t salt, plus additional sea salt for sprinkling on top

3 T olive oil (plus additional olive oil for sprinkling on top)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. This is a yeasted calzone, but you do not need to let the dough rise.

First you want to proof your yeast - The most important part is getting the water to the right temperature. I have found that the easiest way to do this is fill a two cup glass measuring cup with 1 1/2 cups water and microwave. After experimenting with my microwave a few times, I have found that 55 seconds gets me the perfect temperature of 110 degrees F. Once you figure this out, you never have to worry about checking the water temp again.

Warm up the water, add in the sugar and yeast. Give it a quick stir and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. If it is working properly, you will get a tannish foam on top of the water.

While your yeast is proofing, mix together all of the dry ingredients. The idea is to get all of the different gluten free flours to mix together in such a way that they become one flour. Adding all of the dry ingredients to a gallon size zipper bag works well or you can add all of the dry ingredients to the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk them together well.

Once the dry ingredients are well mixed, add to bowl on your stand mixer. Add the proofed water-yeast mixture and olive oil. Then mix until a firm dough ball is formed. This will not take too long. I mix until the point that my mixer cannot handle the dough anymore. If the dough is not holding together add more olive oil as needed.

You are probably thinking, now we let it rise. This recipe is actually adapted from one I got from Tiffany Pollard, and you do not let it rise. The yeast adds a more bread-like flavor and texture, but you do not need to let it rise before you proceed.

Next roll out the dough – again if it is too dry add more olive oil – until it is about 1/8 inch thick.

I try not to buy too many kitchen tools, but there are two tools that make every baking project easier. The first is my World Cuisine 25.37-Inch x 17.5-Inch Non-Stick Pastry Mat (03505) Dough rows out wonderfully on this mat. Using it, you do not have to sprinkle the surface with flour. The second is Oxo Good Grips Pastry Scraper. You can use it to cut bread sticks, wipe veggies off a cutting board, but it is excellent at transferring cut out items to the cookie sheet.

Cut out the calzones – the easiest way to do this is with a medium round mixing bowl. Simply use it like a cookie cutter.

Now the fun part, fill the lower third of the circle with your choice of fillings. Some favorites:

Pizza or pasta sauce,

cheese of course - cheddar, mozzarella, goat cheese or are favorite non-dairy cheese alternative,

olives, onions, red pepper, mushrooms,

pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon,

salt, fresh basil, parsley.

Once the toppings have been added, simply fold the calzone in half bringing the exposed edges together. Press to seal and move to a cookie sheet.

Give them a brush of good olive oil, a sprinkle of sea salt and bake for 20 – 25 minutes at 400 degrees.

Caution – the insides will be extremely hot, so let cool before you dig in.

Happy gluten free eating!

Campbell's Gluten Free Food List - February 2009

2009-03-23T19:25:00-07:00

I recently received the following and thought you might find it helpful. If you have a hard time reading the list, you can click on the page and a larger version should appear or you can email me for the original document.

Savory Moments in Redmond to Have a Gluten Free Open House

2009-03-19T18:24:01-07:00

As a quick follow up to my last post, Savory Moments in Redmond will be having a gluten free open house to introduce their new gluten free menu.

The open house event will be next Sunday, March 29th from 12:00-4:00, at Savory Moments, 18005 NE 68th Street, Suite A-115 in Redmond, Wa.

The open house will be your opportunity to sample and purchase or pre-order entrees, side dishes, desserts, breads and muffins while you learn about their chef prepared gluten free meals.

Additionally, they will be joined by Mike and Marie Smith, owners of Bavaria Mills, and Jennifer Nelson of Wow Baking Company.

Here is an excerpt from the press release:

The first ready made chef prepared meal provider of its kind in the US, Savory Moment of Redmond, WA, is pleased to introduce gluten free entrees, side dishes and desserts. The decision to focus attention and culinary talent on this line extension comes from the request of current customers and the overwhelming response we received from the general public. With special training from NFCA (National Foundation for Celiac Awareness) and some simple ingredient modifications, we are able to make the majority of our meals gluten free without any compromise to our excellent quality.

10 years of experience creating delicious meals to be enjoyed in the convenience of your own home is now available to the growing number of individuals and families who believed great meals like these were a thing of the past.

These delicious entrees, sides, desserts and more can be delivered anywhere in the state of Washington or picked up at the Redmond store. Savory Moment accepts cash, credit cards, checks and gift certificates and is a Prime card vendor. Savory Moment is located at 18005 NE 68th Street, Suite A-115 in Redmond, WA (425) 867-1516

Visit our website

They are requesting an RSVP if you plan to attend so they can have sufficient samples. Please click the link below. Hope to see you there!

PRESS HERE TO RSVP