Fab. Fillling. Fast.

While I'm not one to ever recommend eating fast food - yuck, I also know that sometimes you need to grab something quick while on the run.  Here are a few things to keep in mind... Rice is your friend.  Rice is readily available in most areas, quick and easy.  Can you eat it whilst driving - no, duh... but you can wrap it in a corn tortilla with how about some beans, chicken or carnitas add some nice pico de gallo - yum.  I'm hungry just thinking about it.  What I'm saying here people is Mexican can be your friend - no flour tortillas, no cheese or sour cream but it's still fab, filling and fast.

Another reason rice is your friend - sushi!  Yummy.  The only thing you need to be careful of here is the crunchy stuff, possibly the tempura.  Sometimes it's rice crunchies/tempura and sometimes it's flour crunchies/tempura.  Just ask.


Oh, and watch the sauces - there's usually a gluten substance hidden inside the sauce.  Get something without sauce.  AND, unless the soy sauce says GF- it's not.  You would think something made from soybeans wouldn't have gluten in it, but it does.  Just flip to the back of the bottle to check.


Salad is also your friend.  Get some tri-colored greens (because it's good for you and very pretty- at least as far as salad goes), throw on a protein like chicken or tuna, beans or eggs... how about some veggies like carrots, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers.  Add some starch maybe some peas or corn.  Instead of croutons grab some sunflour seeds.  Dab on some oil & vinegar (because most dressings are not GF), shake a little salt & pepper in there and ta da! lunch is served!


For other helpful suggestions or tips check out my What Can I Eat? tab.  


Have a great lunch!

MONSTER COOKIES!

While most pastries require some sort of flour element (and probably dairy) to them, I found a couple recipes that have managed to successfully create a work around.  What I'm saying here people, is that these monster cookies don't have any flour in them!  And they're super easy to make.  And just to prove it to you I had a five year old help me do it.  And she did great!

Here's what you need:
1 1/2 c natural peanut butter
1/2 c butter alternative
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 1/2 c GF quick cooking oats
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c GF chocolate chips
1/2 c GF M&M's


Here's a couple things to note on your grocery shopping trip: 


One- I know the natural peanut butter is more expensive, however it's better for you and it works much better in this recipe.  Once you try it, you'll never go back.  


Two-not all oats are made equally.  Make sure the package says gluten free, otherwise assume it's not.  It's a great way to make yourself sick and bloated if you make that mistake.


Three-Most chocolate chips and M&M's contain dairy.  Look for the dark chocolate which is usually safer.


Four- the better quality ingredients the better quality the cookie.  If you're going to go through all of the work to make cookies they should taste good in the end, right?!


Onto the fun part!


Mix the peanut butter, butter and both sugars.  Beat in both eggs.  Beat in vanilla.  Mix dry ingredients (oats & baking soda in a separate bowl).  Slowly combine the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.  Hand mix in the chocolate chips & M&M's.  (NOTE:  The mixture will end up being quite crumbly - that's perfectly ok, because it will glue itself together in the baking process.)


Drop heaping spoonfuls two inches apart.  Bake for 14 minutes.  Allow to slightly cool before eating (just so you don't burn your mouth!)  

Happy Eating!

Not All GF Food is Good

I decided to try to make a GF/DF pizza last night.  I used a recipe for the crust from a GF cookbook.  The crust ended up being this weird green color, even though I used red cranberry juice (weird, right?).  I baked it for a bit and it was massively mogul looking (google it).  Well, you never know if something is good unless you keep trekking forward right?  So, I cut up three different kinds of tomatoes, and basil.  Added some balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt.  So, essentially it should've come out like bruschetta.  Well, I put the tomatoes on top of the green pizza crust, just like Christmas, and popped it into the oven for 20 minutes until I could smell the tomatoes roasting. 

Well, it wasn't pretty- but it doesn't have to be.  I took a couple of pieces and it was ok.  The water roasting out of the tomatoes made the crust soggy.  One to never give up, I tried something else.  Knowing that similar ingredients are in another fav dish of mine I tried a tuna puttenesca pasta.  (I also read recipes like novels- which helps.)

I boiled up some GF corn noodles and threw them into a new pan once cooked.  I scrapped the pizza toppings into the noodles, added a can of tuna, some capers, and a few olives.  Ta da!  New meal - or so I thought - and while I did eat ALL, yes ALL of it, I'm not sold on corn noodles.  I still prefer the quinoa noodles to anything I've tried in over a year.  

Moral of the Story - Keep Trying!  Not everything works in the GF world, but you don't know that if you don't even try.  This is true not only with food, but with everything in life.  You might turn green, or get all soggy but then try to turnit into something new and exciting.  You never know where it might take you - and that, my friends, is the fun part!  Happy testing.

My New Favorite Drink!

My new favorite tea is seriously awesome.  I start each day with one of these now.  And, it's not too terrible for you.  Here's how you do it:

1 c water

1 c soy milk (hemp milk, coconut milk, or your milk preference)

2 black tea bags

1 tsp cocoa

1 tsp raw sugar

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

Bring the water & milk to a boil.  Remove from heat and steep the two tea bags for 2 to 5 minutes.  Remove tea bags.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  ENJOY.  Makes my morning, hope it makes yours too.

Gluten-Free is NOT a Diet, People!

Seriously, gluten-free is not a diet!  It's an auto-immune disease.  What is wrong with you people who actually thing that not eating gluten is a good way to lose weight?  I'm sure that you didn't research that most people who try to go gluten-free (because it makes them sick - let's just be clear here) actually gain weight at first.
Gluten-free products can vary greatly in the amount of fat, protein and other nutrients they contain.  Some gluten-free breads have up to 13 times more fat and 16 times more protein than others, according to a recent study that compared 11 different gluten-free breads. (Eating Well, Feb 2012).


The reason Celiacs are so skinny is because all the years we digested gluten are bodies weren't actually absorbing the nutrients we needed - which (again, just to be clear) is really unhealthy.  Personally, I think that diets are unhealthy.


It's all about your life style - your activity, what you choose to put in your body.  For example, I started mountain biking with a friend of mine and started to get stronger and healthier.  When I went to eat I thought, well I'm not going to throw a bunch of junk in my body now that I've worked so hard to get to where I am.  So, I'd reach for something healthier - like tuna or cashews.  One begets the other.


The "experts" say to not cut out gluten unless you have a gluten intolerance or have Celiac.  It's really hard to do it when you are forced to.  I can't imagine doing it out of choice.  


Happy and healthy eating!

Buckwheeeee... wait, what?

I was introduced to Buckwheat while in Asia, (there it's called soba).  It's a grey looking noodle, served cold that does not look appetizing at all.  A friend of mine had ordered it for me and I looked at her like what in the...  But, being the adventurer that I am, I tried it anyway and IT WAS AWESOME!  


Now, present day with Celiac, I see some in the grocery store and I'm thinking buckwheat, there's no way this is gluten-free and the packaging doesn't help at all.  Spending money like I'm a superstar (seriously who pays $5 for noodles?), I pick it up anyway and decide that it will make a good blog post to figure it out.  So I'm here to tell you that after my extravagant noodle purchase and some research, Buckwheat IS gluten-free!  Yeah!  It is approved as GF in Canada, Australia, and Europe.  Buckwheat is not actually a wheat, it just physically looks like it is.  It's technically harvested from the fruit of the plant.  It's high in protein and fiber.  Win and win.


Here's the rub - Sometimes buckwheat is grown in the same field as wheat and can become cross-contaminated.  Also, sometimes buckwheat is processed on the same manufacturing equipment thereby becoming cross-contaminated.  So, here is my disclaimer - I am going to eat my buckwheat noodles, however, if the packaging doesn't say GF you probably shouldn't eat it.  

How do you eat buckwheat noodles?  You boil them like normal noodles.  Rinse them off in cold water so they cool.  I eat them cold with GF soy sauce or you can make a soba sauce with 2 cups of dashi, 1/2 c GF soy sauce, 1/2 c mirin.  All these products you'd probably find at an Asian grocery store, as they are Japanese staples.  Then you dip the noodles into the sauce (also cold).  Enjoy!

Christina's Appley Crisp

So, I'm going to trust my sister on this one that she didn't actually kill anyone with her cooking.  She has a friend who is GF, so as a courtesy, my sister makes their get together meals all GF.  Thank you sis!  She swears by this apple crisp recipe so I thought I'd share it with you:


7 tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
4 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 c brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 c GF rolled oats (not all oats are gluten free!)
1/4 c alternative soy butter (or alternative butter of your choice), room temperature


1.  Preheat over to 375 degrees.  In bowl combine apples, lemon juice & vanilla.  Toss to combine.
2.  Layer sliced apples in a 9 x 12 inch baking pan.
3.  Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and oatmeal in a bowl.  Cut in the soy butter.  Sprinkle sugar mixture over apples.

Cut in the butter

4.  Bake 45 minutes or until topping looks crunchy and apples are tender.

How it should look before baking

Serves 8.  Serve with dairy-free vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy Christina's Appley Crisp