Gluten Free Mom

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

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. 

Gluten Free and Casein Free Frostings

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.

Seven Things You May Not Know About Me

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Campbell's Gluten Free Food List - February 2009

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

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

Celebrate your Gluten Free life in Seattle

The Gluten Free Travel site may have voted New York City as the World's Most Celiac Friendly city, but I have to say that Seattle comes in at a close second.  Yes, we love New York and the wonderful cupcakes from Baby Cakes and the bread sticks at Risotteria, but have you checked out Seattle lately?   I think we have not one, not two, but at least four dedicated gluten free bakeries, great restaurants that will cater to your GF needs, local GF celebrities . . . where does one end the list?

If you live in Seattle, consider yourself lucky and read on.

If you do not, then why not come to the Gluten Intolerant Group conference this year and then stay a few days and try some local favorites.  The GIG Conference will be in Seattle June 5th and 6th.  In addition to great food samples, there will be discussions on topics from shopping gluten free to gluten free bread baking and more.  Click HERE for more information.

Okay, we will start with the bakeries:

Da Vinci Cafe and Bakery, 10003 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle - the very first completely gluten free bakery in Seattle and still absolutely wonderful.

Flying Apron 3510 Fremont Ave North, Seattle, WA (206) 442-1115 A gluten free bakery with "your good health in mind." Baked items are made using the finest organic ingredients; whole grain wheat free flours and organic non hydrogenated oils.

Haley's Corner Bakery 10216 SE 256th St. Suite 111 Kent, WA 98030 (253) 852-4486 Next on my list to try (so sorry I have not made the journey yet) 

Sunny Valley Wheat Free 22035 SE Wax Rd #10 Maple Valley, WA 98038 425.413.9493 Recommended by a reader.  They even have gluten free ravioli and pasta dishes.

And there is more, the following is a list of bakeries that are not dedicated gluten free, but prepare and sell gluten free goods.  Make sure and double-check the status of the their gluten free items, in particular it is also good to question them about cross-contamination issues:

New to the list:  SweetCakes Bakery 128 Parkland Kirkland, WA 98033 425 821 6565  I have heard the gluten free cupcakes are fabulous.  Dare I say, even better than Baby Cakes in NYC??

Cinnamon Works, Specialty Bakery 1536 Pike Place, Seattle (206) 583-0085 Selling gluten free cookies. The perfect place to grab a gluten free cookie after a stroll through the market.

Great Harvest Bakery, 4709 California Ave SW, Seattle 98116 (206) 935-6882 Introducing gluten free baked goods including buckwheat and brown rice breads, cookies, rolls and other items.

Cake Fixation Also new to the club, featuring over-the-top gluten free cakes for that special occasion.

Are you hungry yet?? 

How about some gluten free pizza??

.Garlic Jim's Now serving delicious gluten free pizza and adding new locations weekly.  

Pizza Works14130 Juanita DR NE STE 109, Bothell, WA 98011 ( 425) 821-1300 Has been serving gluten free and dairy free pizza on the Eastside of Seattle for the last two years.  They have a separate prep area and oven for the GF pizzas.  They also serve GF spaghetti and meatballs, as well as desserts from Sunny Valley Bakery.  They have a variety of sizes and even offer a yeast free crust.

Romios Pizza 8523 Greenwood Ave. N. Seattle (206) 782-9005 Gluten free pizza, pasta, pita bread and desserts supplied by Da Vinci's gluten free bakery. Some of the Romios on the eastside, including the one in Redmond, is now serving GF pizza.  You need to double check on the cross-contamination issue.

Savory Moments 18005 NE 68th Street Suite A-115, Redmond, WA 98052 (425) 867-1516 in Redmond is also now offering take and bake gluten free pizzas, as well as other gluten free entrees.

Need more!!  Check out The Seattle Page on my website for more gluten free restaurants.

And now the local gluten free celebrities:

I know, this is what you have been waiting for, but this is not People magazine.  I am sure there are more, but Seattle is the home of:

The Gluten Free Girl who, in some ways, started this whole gluten free blogging trend.  Read more about her experiences in her book Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back...And How You Can Too

Dr. Stephen Wangen, a local naturopathic doctor who has made great strides in the the gluten free arena.  He just recently published Healthier Without Wheat: A New Understanding of Wheat Allergies, Celiac Disease, and Non-Celiac Gluten Intolerance. which pushes the gluten issue beyond the confines of celiac disease.  I highly recommend the book if you do not have celiac disease, but have ever wondered if you still have a gluten intolerance.

Okay, I feel like this post is becoming a public servicemessage so I will stop here! 

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies~Cooking with Expandex

It was one of those perfect chocolate chip cookie afternoons~

We were all exhausted from the week . . .

The Middle Child worked hard this week to perfect her role as Narrator 5 in the school production of the Merchant of Venice,

The Gluten Free Teen was busy, well, just being a Gluten Free Teen,

The Weekend Chef was slammed at his day job (join the crowd these days),

And Mom was just plan tired.

In lieu of skiing we decided to stay home and rest and recuperate from the week.

Then it started to snow.

We have seen our share of snow this year (and this is Seattle, it really is not supposed to snow that much here)

But no matter how much it snows, it is still fun.

Everything gray, or green since this is Seattle, becomes covered in the purity of whiteness.

Everything is brighter,

And I love how quiet it is  . . ..

The kids went out to play in the snow,

The Weekend Chef lit a fire in the fireplace,

And I put my apron on.

I ordered some Expandex a few weeks back and I was dying to try it.

If you have not heard of it before, it is a modified tapioca starch that is claimed to enhance gluten free baking. According to others, it will make your gluten free baked goods rise better, brown better and just plan taste better. More like wheat baked goods.

Jules has made a flour blend that contains it and has become a rage to some gluten free bakers.

Several gluten free bakeries are already using it and they produce some tasty treats.

Even Carol Fenster has included some recipes using it in her book 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes

So I had to try it.

I have to add a word of "I wonder about this" before getting to the results.

The entire "modified" part is a little concerning to me. Like most of you, the transition to a gluten free diet has ultimately resulted in the transition to a much healthier diet – I know I am not the first one who has started noticing all of the other questionable ingredients on the labels of some processed foods such as high fructose corn syrup and GMO’s which are genetically modified ingredients. If you don’t know about these two ingredients, you should.

If I am going to work so hard to feed my family good food, then it is going to be reasonably healthy as well. Not that Chocolate Chip Cookies are healthy, but my home made ones are not going to have GMO’s in it.

Thus, I am not sure where I stand on whether or not Expandex is an okay ingredient. All that is clear about it is that it is modified in some way – how, with what is yet unknown. I have sent Expandex the link to this post and am hoping they email me back with some information. Do any of you know anything more about this ingredient?

That being said, I have to admit that the cookies were absolutely fabulous. I used a recipe off the Expandex site, but I modified it considerably since it was listed in volume and it contained high fructose corn syrup, and the first batch was slightly flat.

My family absolutely loved these cookies – there is no way that anyone could tell the difference between these and a good old Nestly Tollhouse cookie.

So it is up to you to decide how you feel about Expandex, but I can guarantee you that these are fabulous cookies –

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies made with Expandex

1 ½ cups Expandex Modified Tapioca Starch

½ cup sorghum flour

½ cup brown rice flour

¼ cup corn starch

1 t xanthan gum

1 ½ t baking soda

1 t salt

1 1/4 cup butter (use Earth Balance for casein free)

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

2 t vanilla extract

1 10 ounce package chocolate chips (Use Tropical Source or Enjoy Life for casein free)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Thoroughly mix all dry ingredients. Either add them all to a one gallon size bag and shake, shake, shake or add all of the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix with a whisk.

Cream the butter (or Earth Balance) until it is white and smooth. Add the sugars and cream for 5 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix for one minute on a medium blender speed.

Gradually add the dry ingredients on a low or "stir" speed.

Fold in the chocolate chips by hand.

Put the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to let it firm up – go ahead, have a lick, it is delicious (actually the dough has raw eggs, so lick at your own risk but we could not help ourselves)

Use an ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, place dough on the cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.

For us, 11 minutes produced the absolute perfect cookie.

Follow this link for information on where to buy Expandex.

Raising A Gluten Free Teen

I do not have a recipe, product review or new research to share today. Instead today I have only a life event and a story to share.

The Gluten Free Kid is officially a Gluten Free Teen –yes, this weekend she crossed that inevitable line from being a kid to being a teen.

A beautiful, oh so healthy, sometimes snippy, but amazingly happy these days, teen who can almost stand toe-to-toe with me and look me in the eyes.

Who wears the same size shoe as me and is starting to borrow my clothes.

Who loves her cell phone and completely ignores me when she is around her friends.

A wonderful healthy normal teen.

Of course, it is a milestone that all kids cross, but to have a healthy normal teen is in itself a gift when you have a kid who has been so sick.

A kid who used to get so dehydrated from vomiting all of the time that she had to get IV's to rehydrate;

Who seemed so unnaturally unhappy that you were debating taking her to a psychologist,

Who was addicted to Pepto Bismal,

A kid who is lucky to be one of the few diagnosed with celiac disease. I said lucky because only 5% percent of people who have celiac disease are currently diagnosed. I can’t even imagine what the Gluten Free Teen would be like by now if she was not diagnosed.

So how is it to live with a Gluten Free Teen?

It has only been a day, so we will have to figure that one out together.

But I have noticed that, like most teens, she just wants to fit in and, to a certain extent, be like everyone else.

For her that has meant that she wants absolutely nothing to do with celiac disease. If you have checked her website lately, you will notice she has not updated it in a long time. They are starting a Celiac Teen group in our area and she absolutely does not want to have anything to do with it. She still loves to cook and eat, but prefers not to think about the fact that it is gluten free.

And that is fine – if we have reached the point in our lives where we can live gluten free without even having to think much about it, then we are pretty well off. If she can live day to day without having to constantly think about what she puts in her mouth, then that is great.

Lastly, this brings me to an email I received this week. I get a lot of emails, but this one brought me back home this week. Back to where we started:

A little over a week ago, my 5 year old daughter, was diagnosed with Celiac.  Of course, a million things ran through my head, but at first I didn’t think it was too big of a deal until I looked for something for her to eat.  I have been in panic mode since.  I feel confused, angered and just plain helpless.  I have been reading anything I can get my hands on to understand what our lives will be, how you live with Celiac, and how just to become normal again.  I have found a lot of great information online but I have to say that yours has been the most appreciated.  Being from a mother’s perspective, it has calmed me down a bit to realize things will improve.  For me, it’s like a step program for beginners to take to a life of a new normal.  So I just wanted to write to say Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

That is it isn’t it – the point we have reached, the "life of a new normal." A new normal where we can eat and be gluten free without having to dwell on it every breathing moment.

Oh, we have been through plenty of the confused, angered and helpless days. I remember initially I thought about food constantly – every morning started with "my goodness what will eat today?" Trips to the grocery required huge manuals and lists and seemed to take an eternity.

Every school event, party or dinner invitation had a new meaning, a new level of work that was required, and a new adjustment.

Yes, it was crazy tough at times, but we made it through and we are okay with our new normal. Even better than we were before because no one is sick now.

Speaking of our "new normal", I have to share one last thing. It is the Gluten Free Teen’s birthday cake. Before going gluten free, birthdays at our house were celebrated with a cute, very sugary, decorated cake from our local grocery store. Thus, the gluten free birthday cake was another big adjustment in our new lifestyle. We all like our new tradition of making and decorating our own cakes. I would not call the cakes we create beautiful, but they were fun to make.

But this year, when I was presented with the opportunity of buying a gluten free and dairy free decorated cake, I had to take it. Here is the cake!  

It is funny how much this cake meant to my kids. They were thrilled to have a cake which was "like the cakes we had pre-gluten free." A cake that was, to their minds, just like everyone else’s. A cake that just looked "normal." Well, actually better than normal because it was gluten free!

This cake was made by Stephanie at CakeFixation.com. This was Stephanie’s first gluten free cake and she did a fantastic job. My other kids have already put in their request for their birthday cakes.

I’ve been having the most wonderful time. I feel as though I’ve emerged from a dark tunnel and found myself in the middle of a carnival. I don’t particularly care for carnivals, but after the tunnel, it’s delicious.

From The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Gluten Free Brown Bread Recipe

Finally we have a winner in our gluten free bread recipe competition.  We have tried a lot of different recipes (some successful, others complete failures) and have learned a lot along the way.  Mostly we have gained confidence and understanding of different flours.  In the end, most Gluten Free bread recipes are variations on a common theme but the exact blend that will be your favorite is largely dependent on your taste buds.  If you are experimenting as well, I have added links to some of the bread recipes we tried below.

This is the recipe that satisfied all of our criteria:

1.  Easy enough for me, and hopefully the Gluten Free Kid at some point,  to make it once a week.  (This recipe rises very quickly making it easy to add into our weekly schedule).

2.  Somewhat nutritious - no white rice flour with a bunch of starch.  If I am going to make homemade bread, I want it to have some health benefits. That is why I added the rice bran for added fiber.

3.  It has to taste good!!  .

4.  It needed to be moist - no more dry bread!

5.  When sliced, it needs to be sturdy enough to stand up in the lunch box challenge.

The recipe was a creation of our own that came about as a fluke.  I was talking to a chef about how to get some moisture in the bread and she recommended adding apple sauce.  I did, but this made the texture more like a quick bread than a sandwich bread. For the next loaf, I added some more protein flours, but was out of apple sauce so I added apple juice.  I am not a chemist, but the chemical reaction worked.  At about 25 minutes into the rising time, something activates and this bread rises like crazy.  Better yet, the beautiful air pockets that are created during this process manage to stay through the baking and cooling process. 

I hope it works for you.  If you try it, please let me know what you think.  Especially, if you have any suggestions.

Gluten Free Brown Bread Recipe

1 ¼ cup milk or almond milk

1 T sugar

1 package yeast

¾ cup brown rice flour

¼ cup sorghum flour

1 cup potato starch

½ cup tapioca flour

½ cup rice bran (you can substitute ground flax seed)

1 ¼ t xanthan gum 

1 ¼ t guar gum  (if you do not have guar gum you can use an additional 1 1/4 t xanthan gum)

2 T brown sugar

3 eggs

3 T canola oil

2 t cider vinegar

2 T honey

1 T 100% apple juice

Lightly spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray and dust with rice flour.

Prepare a Warm place for Bread to Rise:

I have found that my oven is a great place for bread to rise. When I start making the bread, I turn my oven on to its lowest setting. For my oven it is 135 degrees. As soon as the oven preheats to this temperature, turn it off. By the time everything is mixed together and in the bread pan, the oven is at a perfect temperature for the bread to rise.  Caution – be careful with this procedure.  If you put your dough in a place that is too warm, it will cook and not rise.

Proof the Yeast:

The thought of proofing yeast was overwhelming to me at first. Before going gluten free, I was "challenged" in the cooking department and as such, had never even considered the idea of making bread and proofing my own yeast. But for you first timers, it really is not that scary.

The most important part is getting the liquid to the right temperature. I have found that the easiest way to do this is to fill a two cup glass measuring cup with 1 ¼ milk and microwave it. After experimenting with my microwave a few times, I have found that 55 seconds gets me the perfect temperature of around 110 - 115 degrees F. Once you figure this out, you never have to worry about checking the temp again.

Warm up the milk, add  1 T sugar and then sprinkle the yeast on top and give it a quick stir. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. If it is working properly, you will get a tanish foam on top of the liquid.

.

While yeast is proofing, thoroughly mix together 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. Some recommend sifting the flour to achieve this. I have adopted Donna Washburn’s method in The 125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes  Simply add all of the dry ingredients into a large gallon size freezer bag. Shake the bag around to mix the flours together. Mixing them all together with a whisk also works well.

Once the dry ingredients are well mixed, add to bowl on your stand mixer.

In a separate bowl, mix together the 3 eggs lightly beaten, oil, vinegar and honey. Mix well then stir in the apple juice.

To the dry ingredients, add the wet mixture and then quickly add the proofed yeast.  Mix until blended, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl. Beat at high for 4 minutes. Don’t be surprised if the dough does not resemble your idea of wheat bread dough. It will be just a little thicker than cake batter.

Spoon into the prepared baking pan, spray a piece of saran wrap with cooking spray and lightly cover. Put in a warm place (around 75 degrees) to rise.

Please note that this bread rises very rapidly. Thirty minutes is generally all it takes. Only let it rise to the top of the bread pan or the bread will lose its strength and not be strong enough for sandwiches.

Once it has risen to the top of the bread pan, remove the saran wrap and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until an internal temp of 200 degrees is reached.

Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then let cool on a bread rack. This bread is super moist so if the sides and bottom of the bread seem "wet" simply turn the bread on its top to rest and the sides and bottom will dry out nicely.

We tried a lot of recipes along the way and incorporated what we learned into this recipe.  It is Carol Fenster in 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes who recommends using a combination of xantham and guar gum.  Here are some other recipes we tried.  This is an all star list of gluten free recipes and you cannot go wrong with any of them. In the end, we just came up with the our own recipe that works best for our family.  Hoping all of this information will help you do the same.

1.  The Gluten Free Girls Bread Recipe

2.  The Food Philosopher's Bread Recipe

3.  Jules Sheppard's White Bread Recipe

4.  Rebecca Reilly Bread Recipes

5.  Celiac Chicks Gluten Free Bread

The Best Gluten Free Pizza Shells, Pie Crust, Hamburger Buns and more ~ Bavaria Mills Gluten Free Bakery

Generally I try to write a new post once a week, but every once in a while I run across something so good that I cannot wait to share it.

Before I go on, please know that for every recipe, product and book that gets written about on this site, many, many,oh so many more are rejected!  Because I truly appreciate anyone who tries to make our gluten free world a little better, I try to stay away from negative reviews.  But believe me, we are a very picky group here and we have tried many products that go straight into the trash without any mention.  That being said, here is the story of Bavaria Mills.

It all started with Garlic Jim's gluten free pizza - as you know we loved it!  It was not only the convenience of it, but the taste of the pizza shells.  Anyone who has tried them knows how wonderful they are.

Then all of a sudden, the pizza crusts changed.  And they were not as good - as a matter of fact, my kids did not like the pizza.  The crusts had reverted back to that gritty rice texture that we all know so well (so much for no negative reviews).

You have probably figured this out by now, but I am not one to just let things drop - we had found the pizza of our gluten free dreams (okay I am being a little dramatic here) and we were not willing to just let it slip away.

After a little research, I found the answer to the pizza crust mystery and what is now our favorite gluten free pizza shells.

Bavaria Mills is a Gluten Free Wholesale Bakery located in Vancouver, Wa.  It is run by a lovely couple and, you guessed it, the makers of the gluten free pizza crusts that we love. 

Marie was studying to be a Holistic Nutritionist and her husband, Mike, was an Industrial Process consult when they both discovered they had celiac disease.  After eight years of perfecting gluten free cooking, Marie and Mike opened Bavaria Mills.  The bakery distributes gluten free goods in Washington and Oregon, and supplies restaurants with gluten free fare.  As you guessed it, they suppy Garlic Jim's with those wonderful pizza crusts. 

After a short conversation with Mike on the phone, we soon received a huge box loaded to the top with gluten free baked goods. 

These are absolutely the best pizza gluten free crusts!! 

I was worried that the pizzas would not taste as good as the ones from Garlic Jim's - how much of the   novelty would be lost by making them at home?  Would they taste as good cooked in a normal oven?  No worries - my kids actually liked the home cooked pizzas better (and there are no concerns about cross contamination).   If you have the shell, you can whip together a homemade pizza in about two minutes - just add sauce, cheese and whatever other toppings you like and bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.  How easy is that?

We are lucky enough to live within a two hour drive of a great place to snow ski and we spend many of our weekends skiing at Steven's Pass.  The Weekend Chef recently made pizzas with these shells. After taking his first bite, my six year old son declared "I didn't know Garlic Jim's delivered to the mountains." 

Okay, can you tell how excited we are about these crusts.  And for the final icing on the cake, they are extremely reasonably priced. 

 

The pizza shells come in 8, 10, 12 and 14 inch and they are gluten free, corn free, soy free, dairy free, no trans-fat and, because of the healthy flours they use, high in fiber. 

As to Garlic Jim's, I believe they are once again using the Bavaria Mills pizza shells.  It is up to you to make the requests if they are not.

We were happy to discover that Bavaria Mills makes many great products. 

The gluten free hamburger buns moved to the top of our "best" list.  They are actually sturdy enough to hold together a hamburger.  How many times has your gluten free bun crumbled under the weight of a juicy burger?  Better yet, they were very moist

.

Then the muffins arrived - these are not wimpy little muffins.  These were Costco sized.  We sampled four different kinds - Lemon Poppy seed, German Chocolate (basically like a cake in the shape of a muffin), Blueberry and Apple Cinnamon.  They were all wonderful - ironically enough we could not agree on one favorite.  It seems that everyone had a favorite and we were all different.  The Gluten Free Kid loved the Blueberry muffin.  My six year old of course liked the German Chocolate one - who wouldn't like cake for breakfast?

  

Other things you will want to try include an absolutely beautiful 9 inch pie shell, dinner rolls and of course, their breads. 

Did I mention that their products are both gluten and soy free.    Most of the products are also corn free and dairy free and because of the products they use, they are high in fiber, antioxidants and essential oils.  And they are extremely reasonably priced.

How do you order these great products? 

Because they are a wholesale bakery, you need to call them at 1-360-571-7611.  Ask for Mike, and tell him I said "Hi."  You can also send them an email at bavariamills@earthlink.net

They request that orders be a minimum of $50.  The prices are so good, that you can get a lot of food for $50 so load up the freezer!! 

Bavaria Mills will hopefully be selling their products in the Seattle area soon. 

Gluten Free Valentine's Day - Chocolate Fondue and Pound Cake

It all started with the obligatory wedding gift - the fondue pot from Crate and Barrel.  Come on - I am sure there is more than one of you out there who received a fondue pot as a wedding gift.

 

I am not sure if we actually asked for a fondue pot, but we did love going to the Gaja's Cafe and eating fondue when we lived in Chicago.

In those early days of our marriage, we may have eaten fondue but we certainly did not make it.  The pot was stored on the top of the back shelf in our kitchen in Chicago, backed and moved to Kansas City where it assumed the same distinguished place in my kitchen, then packed and moved again to Seattle to our first house and then our second house. 

Finally one year when we realized Valentine's Day was not the day to go out to dinner, we started eating at home and out came the fondue pot.  Not to cook dinner in (though you can make wonderful cheese dips and fried meats) but for dessert - oh, that delicious melted chocolate dessert.

And so it began, our tradition of having chocolate fondue on Valentine's Day . . . and as each new member of our family was added, they joined the celebration around the chocolate pot. 

Now, it is a tradition - regardless of the main entree, dessert on Valentine's Day is chocolate, lots and lots of chocolate with bananas, strawberries and pound cake. 

And it is extremely easy to make.

And, technically, you really do not need a fondue pot.  It is just the added bling.

And in these economic times, traditions are free, but priceless to a family.  As a matter of fact, my family loves this tradition so much that I am certain some day I will be looking down from heaven and watching my kid's, kids eat chocolate fondue on Valentine's day. 

If you are casein free, read on - I actually have made a casein free chocolate fondue. 

Chocolate Fondue

• 12 ounces good quality semi-sweet chocolate  (try Enjoy Life or Baker's)
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

Serve with bananas, strawberries and pound cake.  Ener-G sells a pound cake, 123 Gluten Free has a pound cake mix,  or you can make the recipe below.

Glutino Voluntarily Recalls Organic Chocolate Peanut Bars

Due to the expanded Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) recall of last Friday, Glutino is voluntarily recalling its Organic Chocolate Peanut Bars item UPC 678523 030929 (specific lots 0358A, 0368A, 1338A, 1968A, 1978A, 2548A, 2558A, 2908A, 3368A).

The recalled Glutino Organic Chocolate Peanut Bars come in 5 oz packages (5 bars per box) and are sold nationwide as well as on ww.glutenfree.com. It is important to note that there have been NO cases of illness related to these bars. The products and lots in question have been tested for salmonella and were NEGATIVE but Glutino is nonetheless voluntarily recalling this product as a precautionary measure since the safety of our customers is of utmost importance to us.

Please note that the recall is ONLY related to the Glutino Organic Chocolate Peanut Bars and does not affect the Glutino Organic Chocolate Banana Bars or Glutino Organic Wildberry Bars or any of the Glutino Breakfast Bars.

All our products are gluten-free and the recalled bar in question is gluten-free; this recall is strictly in response to the peanut recall in the USA.

Consumers, who have purchased this product and still have not consumed them, can return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact the Company at 1-800-363-3438.

Consumers and representatives of the news media may obtain more information about Glutino, as well as any updates on this recall notification on our website: www.glutino.com, or by contacting customer service at the number listed above.

Gluten Free and Dairy Free "Cheese" Option and Gluten Free Lasagna

As you may recall, a month or so ago I decided to try dairy again in the hope that my now-healed intestine could handle it.  After a week of experimenting, I called it quits on the dairy.  Definitely not worth the pain and suffering it caused. 

Sometimes dead ends just lead us to look in different directions. 

First I tried goat cheese -  I feasted on a GF calzone (recipe to come soon) stuffed with mushrooms, red peppers and goat cheese. 

I know in your mind you are thinking "give up on it lady" and the morning after I ate the goat cheese I wished I had.   Yes, I felt terrible again (why do I do this to myself).  Honestly, just the thought of goat cheese makes me nauseous now.  

Another dead end, another new direction. 

I have heard about nutritional yeast and how you can make a cheese-like option out of it.  Reading the recipe, I had little hope it would work.  I cooked with tofu so it was not totally unfamiliar but "nutritional yeast?"  I went to my local health food store and asked for the nutritional yeast.  Note this is not the same yeast you bake with - as it is deactivated, it will not even make anything rise.  It is purely a nutritional yeast containing B-complex vitamins.  (My I have traveled a long ways from my days of drive through McDonald's).

 I added the ingredients to my food processor, gave it a whirl and tentatively dipped my finger in for a taste -

 The road I had been traveling down straightened out and ran for miles ahead of me - curving through pans of GF lasagna and homemade calzones. 

In other words, it was great!! Really great!!  I am actually making a lasagna with it tonight!

For those of you  who already eat tofu and make smoothies with your soy protein, this recipe will be a piece of cake.

For those of you who get confused between what a vegan and a vegetarian is, have no fear!!  You can do this and you will be so happy with the reward. 

Gluten Free and Dairy Free "Cheese" Option

2 - 3 cloves minced garlic

1 pound medium to firm tofu

3 T good olive oil

3 T ume plum vinegar

4 T nutritional yeast

1/4 t kosher salt

additional optional spices such as rosemary or thyme

Press the water out of the tofu by holding it between two paper towels and pressing it out.

Add all of the ingredients to a food processor except the optional spices.  Process until smooth and creamy.  Taste and add more salt if needed.  Add optional herbs and pulse until combined.

Serve as a dip or use as a cheese substitute in lasagna or calzones.  Not sure how cheese alternative will work in baked foods like a scallop potato but we will be trying that next. 

Yields about 2 cups

Gluten Free (adaptable for Casein Free) Lasagna

Lasagna is pretty straight forward, but with all of this talk of a dairy substitute for lasagna, I should add a quick recipe.

2 T olive oil

1 cup chopped yellow onion

2 minced garlic cloves

1 1/2 pound sausage (you can use turkey, pork or chicken - we like it with a breakfast, which is sweeter, turkey sausage)  Beelers is gluten free

1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree

1 6 ounce can tomato paste

1 T dried parsley or 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 T basil leaves or 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

optional - 2 cups packed, de-stemmed chopped kale

kosher salt

pepper

1 box Tinkyada gluten free lasagna noodles (De Boles makes a no cook gluten free noodle. Using these eliminates the need to cook the noodles first, butI have heard they tend to be a little dry so you'd want to add more tomato sauce.  Add a comment below if you have tried these and how they worked).  They seem to sell Tinkyada everywhere now, but you can also order them from glutenfree.com. 

15 ounces ricotta cheese

6 ounces Italian blend shredded cheese  use the **dairy free "cheese" option for casein free

1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Cook noodles until just done according to package directions - do not overcook.  Rinse with cold water and sprinkle with some olive oil to try and keep them from sticking.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.  Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.

Add the sausage and cook until it is no longer pink ( 8 to 10 minutes).  If you are going to use the Kale, add it about 5 minutes into cooking the lasagna.  It really does not change the taste of the lasagna, but if your kids will eat something that is "green" this is a great way to sneak in some very healthy veggies. 

Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley, basil, 1 1/2 t salt and 1/2 t pepper.  Simmer uncovered over medium low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.

***Note - if you want to make this really easy, then replace the tomatoes and spices with a good gluten free spaghetti sauce such as Amy's Roasted Garlic.  Then reduce the simmer time to 5 minutes.

In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, all but 1/4 cup of the Italian cheese blend, egg, 1/2 t salt and 1/4 t pepper.

Ladle 1/3 of the sauce into a 9 x 12 inch rectangular baking dish, spreading the sauce over the bottom of the dish. 

Next add the layers as follows:

half the pasta (if it is sticking add some olive oil to loosen)

half the cheese mixture, **use 1/2 the dairy free "cheese" option for casein free

one third the sauce,

rest of the pasta,

rest of the cheese mixture, **use 1/2 the dairy free  "cheese" option for casein free

rest of the sauce. 

Sprinkle with 1/4 cup Italian cheese blend. **for casein free, top with a thin layer of the dairy free "cheese" option.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs if you have them. 

Bake for 45 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling.

I made two versions tonight - one with the dairy free "cheese" for me and one with the full mixture of ricotta etc for the rest of the family.  They both turned out beautifully.  The rest of the family taste-tested mine and actually thought it was very good.  The fake cheese had a very creamy texture and great flavor.  Unfortunately, the kids did pick out all of the "green stuff"  aka kale.  Better luck next time on that one!

Update on our Gluten Free Bread Baking Challenge

For those of you who are following our progress, we are still working on a great gluten free bread recipe.  We have had a few total flops, a few okay loaves and one great one.  But we are not ready to share the recipe yet.

I have heard that Annalise Robert's cookbook Gluten-Free Baking Classics is really great so want to try a couple of her recipes before we find a winner.

We also want to try Carol Fenster's recommendation of adding  Expandex -a modified tapioca starch to our baked goods, so we are waiting for that shipment to arrive. 

Have a great gluten free week and, remember, don't let your dead ends stop you.  Just change directions and see what is over the top of next hill - it might just be a great view.