Gluten Free Deals!

Simpler Squares Sample Pack with Free Shipping. Pay $7 dollars for a sampler pack of 3 Nut and Honey Confections: Coconut, Rosemary, Sage. All with Free shipping and five dollar coupon included! 


The fine print: Online redeem online, offer expires 12/31/11


Go here to buy your sample pack today. 

Pan fried Swai Fish Fillets

I wasn't planning on making fish today, but walking past the fish counter at the grocery store today my oldest son said, let's get fish!  I saw a sign for Swai $3.27 a lb. I said sure...Three fillets please.

My total was $3.18. Not a bad deal for dinner. Since I've never heard of Swai before I asked the fish guy is it like Tilipia or Cod? He said I guess...I've never had it. An adventure I like it. Looking on the internet for recipes with Swai left much to be desired so here's my gluten free, dairy free version.

Pan Fried Swai Fish Fillets

1 lb of Swai patted dry
1 cup of gluten free corn flakes
3 Glutino vegetable flavored crackers crumbed up
2 eggs
1 tsp of water Salt and Pepper to taste.

I used the food processor to grind up the corn flakes and then added the Glutino Crackers. I keep these in the house and enjoy them with tuna, egg or chicken salad. They have a nice flavor and give a good taste to the bread crumbs. I mix up the egg and place the eggs in one pie dish and the bread crumbs in another (once they are in a nice consistency. This might take a while as the Glutino crackers take a while to crunch up into a nice fine bread crumb. Add some salt and pepper to the bread crumbs after you put them in the pie plate.

Add about tsp or two of water to the eggs...they just need a little extra liquid to adhere to the fish. Melt about a tbsp of Smart Balance (or some other dairy free buttery spread) in a large frying pan. Dip the fish in the egg then the bread crumbs and right into the hot pan with the melted butter. This will get mess so try to only use on hand for the dipping. Once you have all the fillets in your pan let them cook on each side for about 3-4 minutes.  It will only take 8-10 minutes to cook the fish.

My bread crumbs did not adhere as much as I would have liked but I ended up with enough on the fish for them to taste delicious. I served mine with petite medley potatoes and corn on the cob. My kids LOVED this meal. Healthy, gluten free, dairy free, and kid approved. We'll have Swai again some time soon.

Granita

Recently we were invited over to a friends house to have dinner. Since we all have several allergies (corn, peanut, tree nuts, dairy and wheat!) things get a nutty. Luckily I had some frozen fruit and a big watermelon in the fridge when my friend asked me to bring dessert. I made watermelon granita, peach granita and cherry granita. They were all yummy and I even enjoyed the watermelon and peach together. Super sweet but tasted like summer to me. They are super easy to make especially if you have frozen fruit that your not sure why or what you were buying it for.

Watermelon granita:

A large (heavy for it's size) seedless watermelon cut into chucks
1/4 cup of sugar
2 tbsp of lemon juice (fresh or bottled)

Take the cut up chunks of watermelon and place in a food processor. Liquify the mixture and add the lemon juice and sugar. Taste. Place in a swallow baking dish. ( I used a 9x13 dish) Place in the freezer for 30 minutes. Scrap down the sizes after 30 minutes and continue to freeze. Scrap down the sizes every 30 minutes for 4 hours or so. Once it's the slushy consistency you want, place in an air tight container and back into the freezer (or enjoy!)

My kids loved these and thought they were thicker Slurpees. Easy to do and a great way to sneak in a little fruit to picky eaters.

For the peach granita I did the exact same recipe as above but let the frozen peaches thaw for a half hour before I placed them in a food processor. This was yummy and used a little less sugar. Go easy on the sugar when you know the fruit is sweet.

For the cherry granita I used a whole bag of frozen pitted cherries. I cooked these down in a 1/4 cup of sugar and about 1/4 cup of water. Added the lemon juice and then pureed them in a food processor. Adding the granita to a 9x9 square baking dish. These cook down a LOT so we didn't end up bringing them to dinner with us but they were sweet and delicious after they froze up a bit.

Gluten free deals!

This week deal is a great one! Pay $10 for $20 worth of gluten-free banana bread, pumpkin muffins, brownies, and more from Main Line Baking Co.

 From the website: 

Happy customers agree that their products taste as good, if not better, than products made using traditional ingredients like wheat flour and butter. Main Line Baking Co. is certified kosher and parve, and is a dedicated gluten-free, dairy-free (casein-free) and peanut-free establishment.

Yum! The fine print: Voucher not valid for shipping and taxes, One voucher per customer and Voucher expires on August 31, 2011, Voucher only accepted on online orders only. No in-store vouchers can be used.  

Boy dies after an allergic reaction

A 17 year old boy in Liverpool goes out to dinner at a place he's eaten at before eating the same meal he's eaten before and has a severe allergic reaction to his meal and dies. This is a real eye opener for those of us with food allergies. Restaurants will change the recipes from time to time, food handlers will not change their gloves or even wash their hands between preparing meals.

Each and every time we eat out or have someone else make our meal we have to be diligent about asking the questions again and again. Does this have my known allergy in it? Do you change gloves when preparing my meal? Do you change utensils when scooping out my portion?

My heart goes out to the family in Liverpool. I hope the restaurant can educate the food handlers at their stations to make sure this never happens again.

New Gluten Free deal!

This week's deal is edible cupcake toppers for cakes, cupcakes, cookies and brownies from Cake Sugar Designs. Pay 10 dollars for 20 dollars worth of Edible toppers. What a great and fun way to celebrate. 

The fine print:  

Minimum purchase is 20 dollars. Value expires April 31, 2012 (1 year from purchase) Limit one voucher per website transaction. You may buy up to 2 vouchers (limit 2 vouchers per household)

Peanut Butter goodness

Lately I've been craving peanut butter like crazy. I've made a few batches of my Chocolate Peanut butter cookies . I have scooped and piled on peanut butter on apples, gluten free toast and just eaten it from a spoon. It's all satisfing my craving but leaves me wanting some peanut butter candy.

I've wanted peanut butter brittle or peanut butter chews. One of my favorite candies as a kid were Peanut Chews. (yum! But not dairy free!) So this week when I popped into Roots to pick up some of my stock items of the week, I found these sweet little peanut butter brittle goodness. (I could have done cartwheels in the aisles I was so happy!)

Granny's Griddle Vegan Peanut Brittle are perfectly portioned out for just enough of a treat after dinner and they are DELICIOUS. I don't even miss the dairy. I tried to find them online to link back to them but could not find a website for them.

If you find these in the store buy some or two. (don't take the last bag! I might be out.) Enjoy!

Google's new recipe search

Google's blog just announced a new feature for their web searching site. You are now able to search for a recipe, narrow down the ingredients you have and find recipes, pictures of ratings of the available recipes. I am so excited about this new feature. Not only can I tell Google I have chicken, mushrooms, and non dairy milk in my fridge but it can give me all the available recipes on the web who have those ingredients in them.

You are able to customize your searches to show recipes with your ideal ingredients, cook time and calorie count. This is going to be so useful for folks with multiple allergies and food intolerances. Go check it out for yourself. Hooray Google! 

Gluten free deals!

Dealcoop.com has just launched  Gluten free deals. They will offer a gluten free deal once a week through April 2nd! This week save on Glenny's Fruit and Nut Bars.


$15 for $30 Worth of Gluten-Free Fruit & Nut Bars from Glenny's.com!

I can't wait to see what other offers they'll have through the month of March!

Oh how I've missed you

Garlic butter pasta something I've missed that I finally made for myself. Made with Gluten free pasta, Earth Balance butter and roasted garlic. Life is good.

Kids and Allergies

My kids are very aware of all my allergies. They reminded their teachers on Valentine's day that I could not have chocolate and the chocolate dove candies the teachers were passing out for the parent's Valentine's were not going to work for me. They are constantly asking me what is in the food to see if I can share it with them. They are aware of what's in food and where it comes from. 


Recently Woody (my oldest son) has friended a child in his class that has a severe peanut allergy. He asked me to read the labels on the candies in the store before we bought his Valentine cards, he wants me to pack his lunch peanut free so he can sit with his Kindergarten friend at the peanut free table. He is aware of what's in the food and what's not and how harmful it can be for his friend to have peanuts. 


This all makes me wonder. With the percentages of gluten free, dairy free, peanut free, tree nut free, folks in the United States rising where are all these allergies coming from? There are plenty of articles on line where doctors try to explain why the rise in allergies is steadily increasing. This is a good one. The main reason being an increased awareness of the problem by physicians and patients. While I also personally believe it's an increase in convenience foods and over processed foods. (do we really know what's in our foods?) 


I am grateful that my children do not suffer from food allergies and that my boys accept the food I eat when I make it for them. I'm grateful that they will enjoy soy, almond and cow's milk in their lives. That they will understand the difference between wheat flour and Gluten free flour. I am happy that the one great thing that came from this allergy is that I am aware of what's going into my body and what I'm feeding my boys.

Naturally gluten free??

 Here is an interested (and disturbing) article about the contamination of naturally gluten free grains. What puzzles me is what happens now? How will we know how to label products that are 'suppose' to be gluten free. Is the 20 parts per million enough? Should it be 10 ppm? 1 ppm? When is it enough to know just how much gluten is in our gluten free products?

Will a consumer ever truly know what journey their products go through to get to their front door? Should consumers ever buy a product from a company that they know makes gluten free and gluten products?

The questions perplex me and I'm not sure how the FDA or CSA should proceed with this information. While it's useful to know it makes me want to cook my own meals, grow my own food and live on a farm somewhere. (while the idea sounds nice I will move out to the middle of nowhere).

It will be interesting to watch to see what happens next in the Gluten free community.

Traveling

When I first found out I was allergic to Whey I thought this won't be so bad. I was cooking everything myself, not going out and avoiding fast food, restaurants and ready to eat meals.

Then my husband and I took our 2 kids (3 and 2 years old at the time) across the country. We drove from Maryland to Colorado up to Yellowstone over to Minnesota up to Chicago and back home to Maryland. It took us a month. It was a wonderful trip and I loved every minute we were not in a restaurant ordering food.

I ate a lot of fruit that trip and stayed afloat with gluten free dairy free pretzels and fruit. It was hard. I can remember the first breakfast out on the road crying in the bathroom because everything was cooked in a butter/oil spray. It was all over the grill so cooking up an egg would make me very sick with all of the whey in the butter. It sucked.

Anyone that tells you it's easy to eat out with allergies is wrong. It's hard.

You learn to adapt.

Quickly.

Last week we were at Disney for a full week. We stayed at a Disney resort that supplies a mini fridge. The night before we hit the parks for the week we stock up on food for the family. We packed all our own lunches and tote them with us through the park. As the day goes on the backpack got lighter.

I had caramel corn rice cakes (the large sized ones are gluten and dairy free! the snack ones are not so beware) with peanut butter, apples, bananas, almonds, gluten free dairy free pretzels, and fruit leather. Over all I was pretty stocked up. I was only a little sad the three days the boys got chocolaty ice cream but it was a hot day and they did have pineapple popsicle for me but the thought of pineapple on a ice pop. (ew)

The best advice I got from a fellow gluten free dairy free friend was to never ever look at the appetizers. You can't eat them don't fantasize about them. They will make you sick. Do not even look or think about them. Look away.

Stick to the salads at most food joints and hope that the grill that they put the chicken on is not placed next to the fried buttered up chicken on the grill. Stay strong. Life is getting better.

Restaurants are popping up all over the country for gluten free dairy free eating and one of my all time favorites is PF Changs. If your local to Montgomery County in Maryland the Great Sage is vegan and they have gluten free options. It's a great place and the food for dinner and brunch are awesome. The brunch is so yummy. The carrot cake from Great Sage is worth the wait and delicious. It's always my request for my birthday.

Wildfire restaurant in Tysons Corner has a gluten free menu and there food is exceptional, AND they serve RedBridge beer.

I post about new restaurant offerings on my facebook page. You can find all the updates here.

Good luck the next time you go out. Stay strong know that your there to enjoy yourself, sit back and enjoy your friends or family with you.

Starter seeds

This year I finally remembered to start my starter seeds. I planted spinach, beets, and carrots. I eat a lot of spinach and carrots and I'm curious to try new things with beets this summer. 

I'm hoping to keep this food for myself and not let my sneaky rabbit living under my deck swipe it. We'll see how well my construction skills are for making a container garden bunny proof. 

Green beans with Almonds

This is something I make a LOT with my meatloaf or just as a easy side dish that is yummy.

1 1lb bag of frozen (or fresh) green beans
2 tbsp of Smart Balance Vegan Butter Spread
1/2 Cup of sliced almonds

Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a saucepan and place green beans in pan. Saute until the green beans are soft. Add 1 tbsp of butter (or less depending on how much butter sauce you want) add almonds. Blend the beans with the almonds mixing while the butter spread melts.

That's it. This is delicious. You can add sliced onions to this and/or salt and pepper but it tastes great with out seasonings.

Enjoy!

Meat pies part I

I don't make pizza crust except crust that is not gluten free, dairy free. Since I can not enjoy the cheesy goodness of pizza I choose not to make it for myself. I have however been craving meat pies. Crusty, doughy sandwiches filled with meat.

Here are my recipes for gluten and gluten free crusts.

Pizza crust for my kids (not GF)

2 1/4 tsp of active dry yeast
1/2 tsp of brown sugar
1 1/2 Cup of warm water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp of olive oil (+ a little more to coat the bowl)
3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

In a large bowl dissolve yeast and brown sugar in water. Let sit for 10 minutes. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution and mix in 2.5 cups of the flour.

Turn dough out onto a clean well floured surface and start to knead. Knead in more flour a 1/4 cup at a time until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl and cover with a cloth. Let rise for 1 hour. Punch down after an hour and form a tight ball. Let relax a minute or two before rolling out to make meat pies.

Gluten free all purpose flour mixture:

1 Cup of white rice flour

1 Cup of potato starch

1 Cup of sorghum flour

1/2 Cup of corn starch

1/2 Cup of tapioca flour

4 tsp of xanthan gum

I triple this recipe each time I make it. I keep it in a big over sized tupperware container in my basement. I make it about once a week. 

Gluten free Dairy free Pizza crust:

1 1/2 Cups of all purpose gluten free flour

3 tbsp of coconut milk powder (or vegan milk powder, soy milk powder)

1/4 tsp of garlic powder

1/2 tsp of salt

2 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast

2 egg whites

2 TBSP olive oil

1/2 tsp of vinegar (I use red wine but you can use white, cidar, champagne, etc)

3/4 Cup of warm water

Mix wet ingredients together in a mixer slowly adding dry ingredients. Combine. Turn the mixer on high for 4-5 minutes to combine ingredients. This crust will be very sticky and may need to add more all purpose flour to bring the dough together. 

Meat Pie filling

1 lb of ground beef

1 Carrot

1/4 of a yellow onion

1/2 tsp of all spice

1 tsp of garlic powder

1/2 tsp of garlic salt

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 tsp of corn starch

Cook ground beef until it is no longer pink. Shred the carrot and the onion into the mixture. (I shred the vegetables as my kids will not eat something with vegetables integrated into the mixture) If you want to you could add cut up carrots, peas, onions, peppers to this mixture. Add the all spice, garlic powder, garlic salt, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until you can smell the seasonings blended. Add the corn starch when you've finished cooking to thicken the sauce. You will want 1/4 cup of meat mixture for each meat pie. 

I will form the meat pies, cook them and finish with my results. Stay tuned for part II.

Laughable moments

I went into the hospital Friday morning for a routine procedure and when the nurse gave me my allergy bracelet I laughed.

Sulfa, dairy, cats, gluten and whey. It only heard myself laugh out loud but it's amazing how much of difference 3 years can make. Going into having my children four years ago my bracelet said cats and sulfa. 

Luckily my sweet friend Sabrina gave me some wonderful Sweet Sin Bakery Snickerdoodles during my recovery. Which I am already half way through. Hooray for vegan and gluten free treats! Yum. 

Garlic Shrimp over rice

Did I mention I make a lot of seafood this time of year? Garlic shrimp is something I make during Lent and through out the year as an easy weekend dish. It is easy and you can make it. Quick and easy.

2lbs of thaw raw shrimp. De veined and De shelled.
2 garlic cloves minced
Garlic salt
5 tbsp of Smart Balance Vegan butter spread
1/2 tsp of parsley flakes
2 slices of lemon

3 cups of rice
3 cups of Gluten free chicken broth

Cook rice in a rice cooker with Chicken broth instead of water.

Melt 2 tbsp of butter in a saucepan when the rice is almost done cooking. Add garlic salt. Stir together. Add Shrimp and 2 tbsp of butter. Let cook for almost 2 minutes and flip shrimp over. Add one more tbsp of the butter spread, add minced garlic, the slices of lemon and parsley flakes. Add more or less butter depending on how much sauce you want with the rice.

Cook until shrimp is curled and opaque. Serve shrimp over rice with butter sauce in the pan.

Sometimes I make this dish with mushrooms. If you enjoy mushrooms, garlic and shrimp you'll like adding it into this dish. Cook the mushrooms first in the saucepan with the butter and garlic salt until the mushrooms are almost cooked through. Add the shrimp and 2 tbsp of butter and cook with the mushrooms in the pan. Add one more tbsp of the butter spread, add minced garlic, the slices of lemon and parsley flakes. Add more or less butter depending on how much sauce you want with the rice. Serve the mushroom and shrimp over the rice.

This dish goes beautifully with asparagus and almonds. Place raw asparagus in a roasting pan with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and slice almonds. Mix well. Make sure that every slice of almond and asparagus are covered in oil.  Roast asparagus in the oven at 425 for 8-10 minutes. Turning once or twice.

Serve with garlic shrimp. Enjoy!

My favorite GF Crab cake

Now that Lent is here I cook a lot of breaded fish myself, crab or shrimp. This recipe is something I cook a lot of and will make a big batch to keep in the fridge to make a little crab cake when I'm in the mood for one at lunch.

Crabcakes

1 pound of crab meat (buy the good stuff do not buy the claw meat)
1 egg
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp dry mustard
2 TBSP Mayoonnaise
1 tsp lemon juice
1 TBSP of melted Smart Balance Butter spread
1 tsp of parsley flakes
1 tsp of Old Bay
1/2 Cup of Nature's Path Corn flakes ground until fine

Combine all ingredients except crab and mix together. Once mixed slowly blend crab into the mixture. Try to be gentle but mix to make a nice consistence. Place in refrigerator for at least a half an hour to have the flavors blend.

Add 1 tsp of oil (peanut or light virgin oil) to a pan with 1 tsp of butter spread. Take about half of a cup of mixture in your hands and make a crab patty. Fry the crab cake until golden brown on each side. Cook as much as you need and put the rest in the fridge. I keep my mixture for about a week, if it lasts that long!

I enjoy this on top of lettuce with some tartar sauce.

As a side note I like to grind an entire box of Nature's path corn flakes at one time and keep them in an air tight container. That way every time I want to make a breaded dish I can easily without bringing out the food processor each time.

Enjoy!

GF Meatloaf

I'm a little nervous about sharing this as it's one of those recipes that I make for people a lot. (for all those new moms in the neighborhood) It's an easy dish that is so comforting and warm to eat on a cold winter day. I love this meatloaf and so do my kids. My oldest son will eat it with his veggies because as he said it makes the green beans taste better mommy. I hope your kids like it too.

Gluten free meatloaf

3/4 C of Nature's Path Corn Flakes Cereal
1/2 tsp of garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp chipotle pepper (or cayenne)
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 onion roughly chopped
6-8 baby cut carrots
2 whole cloves or 2 tsp of pre-chopped garlic
1 lb of ground chuck
1 lb of ground sirloin (if you can't find sirloin try the 93% fat free ground beef)
1.5 tsp of salt
1 egg

For glaze:
1/2 C gf Ketchup
1 tbsp of gf Worcestershire sauce (add more to taste)
2 tbsp of honey

Heat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a food processor grind up the corn flakes and garlic powder until they look like bread crumbs, add the black pepper, chipotle pepper, and thyme. Pulse to blend. Pour into a large mixing bowl. Add your carrots and onion to the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add to your mixing bowl with your garlic. Mix well. Add your beef and chuck meat and salt the meat before blending. (Add the beef to the bowl and salt directly over the meat.) Mix gently and add your egg last. Try not to squeeze the meat to much as you want to keep all the moisture inside the dish.

Pack into a 10 inch loaf pan.

Combine the ingredients for the glaze. At this point I taste the glaze if it needs more sweet add more honey, more sour add more Ketchup, more flavor add more Worcestershire sauce.

Place the meat in the oven at 325 and cook for 10 minutes. Take the meatloaf out of the oven and put the glaze on top of the meatloaf. Cover well so all parts of the loaf get covered with glaze.

Cook until the meat reaches 155 degrees. (should take about 50-60 minutes) I serve this with dairy free mashed potatoes and green beans. Enjoy!