Yum Yum! Amy's makes such good and tasty products. These veggie burgers were so moist and yummy. Lots of flavor in each bight. I still have not found a good hamburger bun, but this was yummy all the same. Enjoy.
A few weeks ago we had spaghetti and meatless meatballs for dinner. The sauce was made this past summer from things in our garden and then frozen so we could thaw it out for quick meals. Bear loves meatballs with his spaghetti and these were so delicious. A friend was over that night and has been teasing me non stop since then, but Bear and I think that they were delicious. A definite repeat. Enjoy!
This is an incredibly delicious GF meal. I miss Naan bread and have not attempted a gluten free version yet. I had some left over Mac 'n Cheese (click here for the recipe) and stirred in a box of pre-made Mutter Paneer by SWAD to make the mac 'n cheese a little spicy. 
It was delicious, fast, cheep, and a definite repeat. It was spicy, but not to spicy, creamy, savory, and just plain good. The perfect soul food for a cold winter day. Enjoy!
This is a post for Kevin's Friend. So your Gluten Free! Don't worry; your life is not over. I heard you were having a hard time finding Pizza and lamenting the loss of beer. FEAR NOT! There are several places that make a good Pizza and several alternative alcohol beverages that are all safe to eat and drink. Biaggis, Zebra Pizza, and some God Father's make excellent GF' pizza's. What Bear and I have taken to however, is making our own. Udi's makes a pre-made crust. They come two in a bag. This crust is absolutely yummy and does not crumble apart. Every Wednesday is pizza night at our house.
There now. Don't these look lovely? Mine is a white pizza made with Classico Alfredo sauce, mushrooms, black olives, fresh basil, oregano, savory, and four different types of cheese. Absolutely indulgent. Bear's pizza is made with Pastorelli Italian Chef Pizza sauce, 70% fat free turkey peperoni, black olives, pizza seasoning, and four different types of cheese. The cheese we use is a soft Mozzarella, extra sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded Mozzarella, and Parmesan. It's fun to make your own pizzas, healthier, and in the long run cheaper.
Tomorrow I will be going in for oral surgery. I am quite scared. I am posting a message similar to this on all of my posts today. If you pray then please do; if not, then please send your love and warm wishes. I have a rather scary infection a mere 3 inches away from my brain. Tonight I am treating myself to one of my favorite comfort foods before I have to start fasting. It is Mac n'cheese made like my Mum made when I was little with a Gluten Free twist. You will need
This is the most amazing gluten free Angel Food Cake. It is sightly heavier than the store bought variety, but has the weight, texture and taste of homemade Angle Food Cake. Anyone would be hard pressed to tell the difference between this and non-gluten free. It's that good. It's made by the Twisted Bakery. I made it to bring for the 4th of July for my family and it seemed to be a hit. Mum actually introduced me to it a while ago. It's wonderful. We topped it with strawberries, blue berries, and cool whip (yes I know, ready whip or homemade whip cream is best but it makes my stomach hurt). It made for a wonderfully patriotic looking dessert. Making it was super easy and fun. There are three packets for ingredients. All you need to add is egg whites and almond/vanilla extract. I had a good laugh over this because the recipe tells you which packet to add but not what is in the packet. I told everyone that there was no sugar in this cake, there was only packet B. It made us laugh. There is a lot of sugar however (as most cakes have) and I over indulged with two slices and paid for it shortly after; of course that could have been the mountain of cool whip I had as well. After dinner I was extremely dizzy and tired. The price we all must pay for over indulgence 'eh? Enjoy!
These are an incredible Tea time treat. The filling between the wafers is so moist and creamy it's almost like frosting, yet the wafers stay crisp. My favorite of them is the lemon flavored wafers. There is a sweet candy lemon flavor and then a zing of tartness. The chocolate are my second favorite, they are comparable to Kit Kat bars. I have missed them since going GF so these wafers were a lovely surprise. The strayberry ones are ok, but they remind me of those fruity cereals from the 80's that always had to much sugar in them and made our parents have to peel us off the ceiling after breakfast. I have to end here, I am fighting a horrid migraine today. Bear almost had to take me to the hospital. Typing this has worn me out even though I am typing from bed on the lap top. Good night, and enjoy.
KinniToos have finally come to the store where I shop. I've been wanting to try them as a gluten free Oreo cookie alternative. Well Oreos these are not. They are good with tea or milk, but on their own they are dry and sharp. That's ok. I enjoy having a little treat with my tea and have found a new tea cookie. They are made by Kinnikinnick Foods and are cookies are gluten free/ wheat free, dairy/casein free, egg free, and trans fat free. They come in Vanilla and chocolate flavors. Enjoy!
Wait for the rice to cool slightly before you start on the rice balls. You still want it quite hot, just not so hot that it burns your skin off. Lay a piece of saran wrap over your rice bowl. Add a tiny sprinkling of water and salt. Then add in your rice till it is loosely filled to the top of the bowl. Press the rice to the sides of the bowl till you have a nice indentation. Don't indent all the way to the bottom of the bowl. Then fill the rice indentation with your filling. Don't over fill it. Just use enough to fill the indentation. 
Next, pull the edges of the saran wrap up to form a bag around the rice. Mold it into whatever shape you like. I prefer a triangle shape. Dip a piece of Nori (seaweed wrap) into water to soften it and wrap in around the bottom of the rice ball and up the sides. I like the flavor it adds, but it also helps to keep your fingers clean while eating the rice ball. Once they are done you can wrap them up in saran wrap and store them in the refrigerator for a few days. They are a wonderful substitute to sandwiches. They keep well and are a nice treat for a pick-nick or to tuck into your loved ones lunches.
Ginger Chicken Recipe
Vegetarian Sushi, can life get any better? I'm looking to find ways to raise my carb intake to appease my dietitian I've settled on eating more rice. Usually I only buy brown rice but until I get better at making rolls and rice balls, white will have to do. Be careful in buying white rice. It is often enriched and may contain wheat products. To celebrate our tax refunds finally coming in we decided to celebrate by picking up some tasty treats from Byerly's. Bear went for a ham and brie sandwich. I went for Spring rolls, vegetarian sushi, and seafood salad. The spring roll is made with a rice spring roll wrapper, cucumber, avocado, carrots, and green lettuce. The vegetarian sushi rolls are made with rice, carrot, cucumber, avocado, and seaweed. The sea food salad is a rare treat and I will not be trying to replicate that recipe... As for the other two. I have already replicated the spring rolls and will be posting how to make them shortly along with ginger chicken stuffed rice balls... But that's later, for now, Enjoy!
It was a cold rainy day on Friday. I wanted soup and I still had a whole bunch of Morels left. First I heated up a can of Progresso Cream of Mushroom soup. Then I sauteed the morels up with butter and green onions. I was going to put some of them aside but then I figured "what the heck" and tossed the whole lot of them into the soup. I mixed it together and sat down to enjoy while listening to the rain spatter against the windows. I died and went to Heaven and came back only to find that the cup was empty. It was more like morel stew than soup because of how thick it was. Delicious. Just the thing to warm me up on a cold day. Enjoy!
I realized that lately I have been posting all the not so healthy things we eat. It's easy to eat Gluten Free with fruits, veggies, meats, rice and so forth; it's the treats that you have to be creative with. I guess that's why I've been posting them. So this morning I decided to post my breakfast as a GF breakfast example. 4 yummy strawberries. Two slices of Udis Gluten free Whole Grain Bread toasted, and two scrambled egg whites with sauteed morel mushrooms. The mushrooms we gathered this past weekend (you can read about that "Here"). With the toast and the sauteing I probably used half a table spoon of butter. That is the only cholesterol in this meal (the cholesterol is in the yolk of an egg not the whites). This breakfast had 29 carbs. Sigh* hitting 45 carbs per meal is hard.
This decadent chocolate cake can be made in five minutes. Yes just five! But remember, just because it can be made every five minutes doesn't mean it should be ;) There are several recipes out on the web for this cake and they are all almost the same. I found it to be slightly bland so I took it and made it my own (small surprise there). I also made a simple frosting for it. Use a large mug (or bowl). It will rise quite a bit and the larger the mug the more likely it is to stay intact.
We found another Pizza we like. I know I know, What IS up with gluten free people and Pizza? Well we like it, 'nuff said. I'm just glad that I don't have the dairy problems that usually go with it.. Knock on wood. Anyway about Zebra Pizza, the staff there was wonderful. They also offer gluten free deserts. I think the woman in the back nearly split her sides laughing when I found out about the deserts. If you put the words cherry and chocolate cake in the same sentence I can't help but smile. Ok, smile and beg to have some. The pizza crust was the closest I've had yet to a 'real' crust. They make their own dough so it's fresh and you can taste it. The crust is the perfect mixture of a crunchy outside and bread-like inside. It does not cut your mouth, or fall apart while you are trying to eat it. It felt and tasted like any wheat based flour crust, only better. The sauce was slightly spicy (I've had better, but this was pretty darn good). They also load the toppings on the pizza. Other than homemade pizza I've yet to see anyone else put this many toppings on a gluten free pizza. Yum Yum and yum! The Cherry chocolate cake we did not get around to till the next day but it was also delicious. It is about 6" in diameter but a little goes a long way. We had it with tea in the morning. It was the perfect combination. The cake is extremely moist and chocolaty. It does have the grainy gluten free texture but the moistness covers it up nicely. 
This would have been perfect with some cool whip, but I don't often buy that type of thing. All in all, this was a WONDERFUL pizza place! We will defiantly be trying them again soon and with all the work we are doing around the house having a quick pizza place nearby is going to come in handy. Enjoy!
It was raining hard when I woke up. I decided that this was a perfect morning for a naughty breakfast. I picked up some Udi's lemon streusel muffins the last time I was at the store. They are gluten free, soy free dairy free, and nut free. I love Udi's bread so I figured I would try some of their other products; and this was just the morning to do it. The muffin was light and moist. I warmed it up in the microwave for a few seconds and sat in my bay window to watch the storm rage. The muffin had 43 carbs I drank one cup of almond milk with it, which had 2 carbs. This brought it to the perfect 45 carbs per meal that my nutritionist wanted me to work on. I feel stuffed. Next time I might try cutting the muffin in half and having some fruit with it. I was so excited when she told me my carbs were low and I needed more. Now, I'm not so sure. I feel like the Stay Puft marshmallow man. I feel bloated. I'm not sure how eating like this is going to help me Loose weight. I think that my dietitians main concern was getting my Hypoglycemia under control instead of loosing the weight; but shouldn't the two go hand in hand? Just my rambling thoughts. I'm sure this is not the type of breakfast she had in mind for me. Usually I avoid this type of sweet, but it was so yummy. We will see what happens in the days to come. In the mean time I'm going to pour myself a cup of tea, lean back, and watch the lightning shatter jagged cracks in the sky. I love a good storm, don't you? Enjoy!
Easter Sunday/ our one year Anniversary we went to the Original Pancake house I would not recommend them to anyone ever. When we were seated the ice in our glasses had already melted; which tells me that it had been sitting there a while. Not once during the entire meal were any of our glasses refilled. Bear had called ahead to ask specifically about the menu and mentioned my pork allergy and gluten intolerance's. We were reassured that they had a wonderful menu and that they would and could accommodate us. The gluten free menu is small. I mean small as in a 4" by 3" laminated piece of paper. Over half of the menu had sausage, bacon, or ham. We sat for a good 45 minutes before our waiter turned up to take our order. We tried telling him that I am a allergic to Pig and needed the grill cleaned off and free of pork products. The food defiantly was tainted when it arrived. After we left my lips and tongue got all tingly, a massive head ache set in and I was unable to stay awake for more than a few seconds before crashing again and again, but not before an emergency trip too the bathroom. They are darn lucky it was only a small exposure or I would be slapping a hospital bill on them. From the time we ordered till the food came it took at least another hour. Lucky for us I had an emergency health bar in my purse to keep my starving four year old niece from eating the table. Seriously people, if you know it's going to be that long of a wait and you see that the party has a small child with them, for the love of God bring out some crackers! When the food came, my sister in law's order was wrong. She had ordered Strawberry crepes and they brought out strawberry pancakes. I ordered three gluten free pancakes, hash browns, and sunny side up eggs. The hash browns were surprisingly good and that is all the credit I will give them. The eggs were so runny that they were practically raw. The pancakes I am sure were contaminated with gluten and I am paying for it today. I spent the rest of the day quite miserable and constantly crashing from pork, and hurting from gluten. Happy Anniversary indeed.
Biaggi's you've done it again. Bear and I absolutely LOVE your restaurant. This still remains one of the few places that's safe for me to eat that has a real menu and not a scrap of paper listing three salads that they remove the croutons from. Easter Sunday is our One year anniversary and we have been wanting a special occasion to go back to Biaggi's (instead of just getting their take out pizza which remains one of my favorite GF pizzas). Since we did not want to fight the Easter crowd we went a little early. Our waitress was Charis and all we can say is Hat's off to you. Biaggi's was quite full this time and while we saw her here there and everywhere she did not seem rushed at all when she spoke to us. She even gave us the heads up that Biaggi's will be getting a GF cakes soon. Yummy. All of the staff there are splendid and will do everything within their power to make sure you have a wonderful time. I posted a picture of Bear's dinner this time because honestly, if they are going to go through that much effort to make every meal into a work of art it should be noted. He had the Filet Mignon. While I hate the taste of cow, the sautéed mushrooms I snatched from his plate were absolutely amazing. Bear who does not like tomatoes loved the sun-dried tomato cream sauce he even liked the fresh cherry tomatoes. I snatched one of those as well. Mmmm delicious. It was also served with asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes which Bear happily devoured.
I was torn from wanting to order Linguini and Clams (which I had last time) or the Alfredo. For the sake of something different I ordered the Farfalle Alfredo with Grilled chicken, bowtie pasta, roasted peppers, sautéed red onion and peas. I had them leave out the crispy Italian cured ham since I am allergic to pig. I will admit that I was slightly disappointed that the bowtie pasta turned out to be the same Linguini I had with the Clams last time. Aside from that it was delicious. The Alfredo sauce with Asiago cheese was light and creamy not the heavy thick stuff that you get out of a can at most other restaurants. I happily ate every last bit of it, but probably should not have. We were pleasantly full but not stuffed when we finished. By the time we got to our car we both realized we ate to much and were stuffed. Sigh, and I was looking forward to the GF chocolate cake Bear had gotten us from Trader Joe's for dessert, Oh well, there is always tomorrow. Heck our Anniversary is not till Sunday. Sunday we will be going to the Original Pancake house. We hear they have a fabulous GF menu and the staff was more than helpful when we talked to them on the phone. I will defiantly be posting about them then. Till then THANK YOU BIAGGI'S.
Bear and I finally got around to testing our flour recipe. It was wonderful. We made pizza and banana bread. The banana bread had the texture of moist corn bread and was absolutely delicious. It did not have the slightly metallic taste of other gluten free breads. This is defiantly a repeat. The pizza was a pleasant surprise. The crust has a slightly crumbly feel but held together like brick oven pizza crust. It even had a slight brick oven taste. It was not 'bready', to thin, or even soggy like other gluten free pizzas. Bear and I can't wait to make more flour. We even found a stone flour mill for $27. More on that when we get one. I'm only listing our Banana bread recipe but I posted a picture of the pizza so you could see it's crust (the peperoni is 98% fat free turkey, I think it makes up for the over abundance of cheese). Enjoy!
In the past we have mixed different pre-made GF flours; but this is our first attempt at grinding our own flour from the raw materials. Our recipe is 3 cups brown rice, 2 teaspoons Xanthagum, 2 cups Tapioca starch, and 1/4 cup of Flax seeds. We used a Hamilton Beach coffee grinder that can also grind herbs. It has different settings for different levels of fineness. Using the espresso setting the flour still had the texture of beach sand. I've been grinding it by hand using a motor and pestle. There are flour mills available but they can cost $300 or more. The motor and pestle work nicely even if it takes some time. It's stored in the fridge in an air tight jar to make it last longer. So far we have not had the time to make any bread with it. I will post again when we have, but the texture and 
smell of the flour are wonderful. We have been hard at work expanding our garden and spring cleaning. During the cleaning I broke our camera. How do you like the pictures taken with our new camera?
This past weekend we tried our hand at homemade marshmallows. They turned out alright, but I think they needed to set more. Our next batch will be better. I am looking forward to making smores with them over our outdoor fireplace; although ironically I don't like marshmallows in my coco because it makes it to sweet. We used one of the many recipes online for homemade marshmallows and substituted Tapioca starch in place of Corn starch. The coco is our own recipe and it can compare and surpass any gourmet coco on the market. Compare our 48 calories, 11 carbs, and 5.3 grams of sugar to the store bought average of 182 calories, 32.4 carbs, and a whopping 21.3 grams of sugar per serving and you can see why we choose to make our own coco. It's smooth and still sweet. Our secret is Truvia. I will never use Splenda, but have found a new friend in Truvia. You can add powdered coffee flavors but it jumps those numbers right back up there with the store bought varieties. Enjoy!
These Gluten Free Crackers are an excellent alternative to Ritz crackers. They are slightly more crunchy; but I think that makes them taste better than Ritz. They are made with corn starch and white rice flour. Hmmm I wonder if they have one with brown rice flour ;) Enjoy!
These Apple Cinnamon Muffins made by Hodgson Mill are simply scrumptious. They are made with milled flaxseed, whole grain millet flour, dried apples, whole grain sorghum flour, brown rice flower, cinnamon, monocalcium phosphate, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, eggs, sugar, butter, and milk. It's suggested that you use 2% milk, but I don't drink cow milk. I used Almond milk and that coupled with the chunks of apple was perfect. They were similar to a biscuit in texture and full of flavor. We had them for breakfast with some home made coco and it was simply divine. Enjoy!
Happy New Year!. This fabulous bread mix is made by the Gluten-Free Pantry. Last night Bear made us Calzones and then he made focaccia bread for today. It was so yummy. For the bread Bear added sliced olives, grated Parmesan and mozzarella cheese, basil, and garlic. They were wonderful and quite filling. Fast, easy, and tasty.
