A couple weeks ago a recipe in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye (this is my all-time favorite publication, and, yes, they do occasionally have recipes!). They called it Smoky Strata, and it's a fairly simple recipe combining bread, eggs, tomatoes, onions, milk, ricotta and Parmesan. I decided to adapt it to be gluten free, of course...and also added chicken sausage for extra protein and flavor. I also omitted harissa, so my version isn't really "smoky" or spicy. It's a bit like a lasagna but with bread instead of lasagna noodles...and a lot more eggs than a lasagna would have (however, it's not an eggy breakfast dish, but rather a hearty lunch or dinner). Most of these ingredients you will probably have on hand already, and the others are easy to find. Here is my adaptation of this rustic, tasty meal that is sure to please everyone... Ingredients: 3 Tbsp butter 1 large Vidalia (sweet) onion, finely chopped 2 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp black pepper 1 tsp paprika 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, drained 2 large chicken sausages (or 6 smaller link style sausages), diced or crumbled. You can also use pork sausage if you prefer. 1/3 cup... Read more →
Gluten free meal preparation
Well, we're a month into the New Year...a challenging time for many of us who had good intentions to once again eat healthier this year, only to find preparing healthy gluten free meals is easier said than done on most nights. Whether you're rushing home from work, taking the kids to a practice, or attending a meeting in your community, dinner plans can get squeezed. You may find you don't always have time to plan and shop for your menus, much less prepare a variety of nutritious gluten free meals each week. And if you're trying to lose weight or achieve other health goals (build lean muscle, reduce body fat, lower blood pressure), you're probably wondering how you should change your dietary habits to achieve your various goals. It can be frustrating, but believe me, you’re not alone. Sticking to a healthy, gluten free eating plan isn’t always easy. But the good news is that, no matter where you live, you can now access the help of a trained professional who can remotely guide you in your health, fitness, and dietary goals. The Follow My Nutrition Plan lets you work remotely with a trained professional to create a custom meal... Read more →
I'd never really tried Eggplant Parmesan until I was well into adulthood, so it's no surprise my sons won't give it a fair shot. But I love it. So when I saw some beautiful eggplants in the grocery store last week, I got a craving. I rarely make it, and I figured I'd go to the effort even if my husband and I were the only ones who would enjoy it. The great thing is...I almost always have all the ingredients for this recipe on hand, except for the eggplant. I'd gotten a fantastic tip from an Italian friend years ago...she told me to slice the eggplant thin and let it soak in milk for at least several hours before preparing the recipe. This is supposed to take the bitterness out of the eggplant. And it totally works! The recipe that follows is just adapted from the recipe we use for Chicken Parmesan, and I essentially "wing it." So I don't have measurements. It depends on how much you're making. I found that one eggplant is plenty to make a 9 x 12 casserole of Eggplant Parmesan for four people. Here are the steps I follow. 1.) Preheat oven to... Read more →
Our son has been gluten free for over 12 years now, after a diagnosis with Celiac Disease in April 2005. We have dined out considerably since then...and traveled extensively in the U.S. and to many major European cities. There have been ups and downs along the way -- both pleasant surprises and occasional disappointments. I've written in the past about the Top 10 Mistakes Restaurants Make When Trying to Provide Gluten Free Meals. Don't get me wrong...even as the founder of GlutenFreeTravelSite and the Dine Gluten Free mobile app -- along with this Blog -- I'm actually not particularly hard on restaurants that at least make an effort to serve our gluten free community. And frankly, our 14-year-old son is pretty easy to please as well. As long as there are a few options on a menu -- and they are prepared safely and with optimal taste in mind -- we are happy. At this age, he is content with a juicy steak, a burger on a decent gluten free bun, simply prepared gluten free pasta, most gluten free pizzas, and any chocolate dessert that can claim it's gluten free! My Top 10 listing from months ago hits on how... Read more →
In my opinion, it's okay to get help from some store bought products to short-cut your nightly dinner prep. After all, who has the time to make a from-scratch meal every night? I'm just happy to get a good-tasting, healthy, gluten free dinner on the table for my family most nights. Judging from the multitude of "cheat" and "hack" recipes out there, I'm in good company! So here's a quick and easy down-home Southern dinner that you can make in about an hour, with a little help from Aleia's, Bisquick, and Gillian's -- and a recipe found on the Internet that I adapted to be gluten free. Having been a fan of Aleia's gluten free cookies, stuffing, and pre-made breadcrumbs and Panko coating for a long time, I was thrilled to recently find their "extra crispy" Coat & Crunch mix (similar to Shake-n-Bake) to use on meat. So I set out to make a dinner with this healthier version of "fried" chicken, baked in the oven. And what's the perfect companion to crispy chicken? Why, biscuits, of course! I can't say I've tasted a better gluten free biscuit than the ones I've made using the recipe on Bisquick's own gluten... Read more →
It's been a few months since I've shared a recipe, so I thought it was time for another family favorite. I first came across this recipe for Lemon Thyme Pasta way back in 1998. I think a friend passed it along...it's from Country Home magazine, which is no longer published. It was a recipe I made regularly when my husband and I were first married, and I often made it for friends as well. Because all the ingredients are gluten free, with the exception of the pasta, it was easy to adapt once our son's Celiac diagnosis necessitated a gluten free diet. Last night, I made it with RP's Pasta gluten free fettuccine (I mixed one package of the regular variety with one package of the spinach). RP's is a favorite of ours, and because it's fresh pasta (found in the refrigerated section -- at stores listed on their website), it cooks up in only about 3 minutes. However, you can use any gluten free pasta. Our other favorite is Jovial Foods gluten free capellini (or other shapes). Jovial is a line of brown rice-based pastas made in Italy. Their pastas are extremely low in levels of arsenic, which, as... Read more →
We're a decade into the growth of the gluten free "marketplace," thanks to increased awareness of Celiac Disease and gluten sensitivity -- and improving rates of diagnosis. Not only has "gluten free" become a household term, in many cases it's become a dietary "trend." For those of us personally affected by Celiac or gluten sensitivity, this is a mixed blessing -- as many have discussed in recent years. While demand for gluten free meals in restaurants eventually gives us more choice, the situation does come with pitfalls. First and foremost is the need to ensure that any restaurant with a gluten free menu knows not just what ingredients are used in their recipes...but how to safely prepare the meal without putting you at risk from gluten cross contamination. Another less serious -- but still frustrating -- challenge is being able to separate those restaurants that make the most basic (and often less-than-appetizing) substitutions or omissions to claim that a menu item is gluten free from restaurants that work hard to surprise and delight their gluten free diners with well-thought-out, flavorful offerings. (Check out the creative layered Beet Salad, with goat cheese, candied walnuts, and caramelized onions from Burtons Grill, below.)... Read more →
This post is long overdue. I've been meaning to share some of our family's near misses -- and one actual "glutening" episode -- for a while. All have been a result of wonderful gluten free products whose packaging just happens to look almost exactly like the same company's non-GF version. I want others to be aware of these products so we can all be super-vigilant as we rush through our favorite grocery stores quickly loading up our carts with our favorite gluten free staples. I'm also hoping that bringing this blog post to these companies' attention might get them to reconsider their packaging choices. Don't get me wrong...all these companies and their products are favorites of ours, and we are so grateful they have chosen to offer gluten free varieties. But the mistake is easy to make when grocery shopping, and I'm sure our family wasn't the first to experience these "near misses." Exhibit #1: Annie's Mac-n-Cheese varieties Annie's makes some wonderful varieties of mac-n-cheese. They have different shapes of pasta, both yellow and white cheese sauces, gluten free and regular pasta, and even vegan gluten free and non-gluten free varieties. It's easy to think you're grabbing one thing on... Read more →
I have a ton of cookbooks...and I tear out recipes from all the gluten free magazines I read each month. I also have several binders full of recipes, including a lot of old family favorites that I adapt to make gluten free (like my husband's and my favorite lasagna recipe). So another cookbook is not necessarily something I desperately needed. But am I glad to have gotten a copy of Carol Kicinski's new Simply Gluten Free 5 Ingredient Cookbook! The premise is that all the recipes include only 5 ingredients (not including things like water, oil, salt, and pepper) and take only about 15 minutes to make. For a busy mom juggling a business, that's music to my ears. I make dinner most nights, and sometimes it can take an hour or more to prepare. So I like the sound of easy, as long as it's healthy and my family will eat it! So I opened the cookbook and started paging through it. The difference between this cookbook and others is that I dog-eared about every third page! Everything sounded so delicious -- and there were some really cool and creative recipes. Since I wanted to enlist the help of... Read more →
As I brainstormed ideas for this blog post, I pondered over what was happening in our family's "gluten free life" right now. It dawned on me that a big part of my own gluten free planning right now centered on working with our son Ryan to plan what food he would pack for a few upcoming camps and camping trips this summer. This isn't our first rodeo...our son has been to overnight boy scout camps for the past few summers, a week-long hockey camp, and many boy scout weekend camping trips in which they prepare their own food. While it's always more work for Ryan to take his own food, we're all getting it down to a science. So I thought I'd share some tips and thoughts, especially with those of you who are doing this for the first time. First off, my recommendation: If you have a choice of where to send your gluten free kid to camp, you may want to peruse our list of summer camps on our CAMPS page on GlutenFreeTravelSite. Each year we add to the list and update the information for the current year. What started as a handful of camps willing to work... Read more →
Whenever our family dines at our local Chinese restaurant, we take along a bottle of San-J's gluten free, low-sodium Tamari Sauce. The chef is happy to use it and knows to make our order in a clean wok using the tamari as a substitution for traditional soy sauce. The taste is indistinguishable. (The cool thing is that San-J also sells individual-sized travel packets of their gluten free tamari, which is perfect when you don't want to -- or can't -- haul your own bottle of tamari around. A while back, San-J also came out with a full line of gluten free cooking sauces that make creating an Asian-inspired meal at home a breeze. I've used their Orange Sauce and Thai Peanut Sauce before, both as a dressing/marinade for chicken -- with great results. Last night, I decided to use their Mongolian Sauce to make Mongolian Beef, which I figured would be a hit with my family. The "recipe," if you even want to call it that, is right on the back of the bottle of San-J Mongolian Sauce. All told, I used 7 ingredients to make dinner: Asian stir-fry oil, corn starch, beef pre-cut for stir fry, the Mongolian sauce,... Read more →
If you're gluten free, it's hard to beat the sheer thrill of discovering gluten-free friendly destinations. It's absolute heaven to discover a destination where you can dine on gourmet gluten-free specialties for every meal without worry. If it's in Tuscany, Italy, it's even better…. Some of you may recall the week-long gluten-free culinary events hosted by Jovial Foods (maker of divine gluten-free pasta and sauces) at a historic 18th century Tuscan villa. They hold these events once or twice a year -- Fall and late Spring -- and every time I write about it, it's pure torture. That's because attending one of these unique gluten-free culinary weeks is on my own personal Bucket List. Unfortunately, however, these gluten-free getaways are typically scheduled during times of the year when our kids are in school. But someday, perhaps…. If you're lucky enough to have the flexibility to travel in October, a particularly beautiful month in Italy, you'll want to consider treating yourself to this special vacation. And, in fact, you may not need to treat yourself…Jovial Foods may just treat you to a complimentary visit. Between now and June 30, 2015, you can enter their drawing for a free week (airfare and... Read more →