Some New Gluten Free Finds

February 28, 2014March 1, 2014 kristenannLeave a comment

I don’t know how long I’ve been overlooking this bread, but I have a feeling it’s pretty new to the scene, but boy has it made a splash. I’d say about half the time I go searching for it, there’s none to be found:

This is Olivia’s Super Free Baguette and that picture is from their site: http://oliviasuperfree.com/home.html. I’ve been making garlic bread with the baguettes~ olive oil, Tuscan salts, garlic, 425 degrees for 10 minutes, and it turns out really lovely. I can imagine making a big sub sandwich with these too. The texture is great, the flavor is good, and the lightness makes it easy to use in meals (as opposed to being so heavy that all you can do with it is slice and eat it.) The kids whole-heartily approved.

The other bread I’ve found lately is Flying Apron’s new white bread which tastes even better than their old one and they are actually finally making enough that you have a decent chance to buy one on white bread days, (bonus!), which at the Redmond location are Tuesdays and Thursdays.

This is a hearty loaf made with quinoa, oat, and I think sorghum flour though I could be wrong about that last one. It has the whole grain goodness of stand-out healthy grains which is so rare in a gluten-free loaf. I love this bread but surprisingly, my sons are not full-on excited about it, though my oldest adores the white rolls made from the same ingredients~ go figure. I think they have gotten so use to the fluffy lightness of gluten-free breads that this denser loaf seems strange to them, like a child who’s been eating regular white bread suddenly tasting a whole wheat loaf~ not exactly the same thing. That’s fine for now because it means more for me! I’ve been making veggie sandwiches with this bread~ one side gets hummus spread on it, the other gets avocado, and in between goes spinach and lettuce, tomatoes, red peppers and whatever else I can find. I haven’t had a fulfilling sandwich like that in so many years I can’t even begin to remember~ until last week that is, at which time I started having them almost every day. Seriously, if you are in the Seattle area and haven’t tried this loaf because you aren’t in the habit of buying a ‘white’ bread~ this loaf will surprise you.

Those two breads above are also vegan, soy, and nut free~ it can be done!

The last product is a granola bar from KIND. These are not the same bars that have been around for a long time, they are different~ flatter and wider for one thing, but the best part is at least one flavor, the oats and honey, is nut free.

This pic is from their website.

Trying to find a gluten-free, dairy-free protein bar that doesn’t have any nuts in it, especially almonds, is extraordinarily difficult. We eat some bars from Nugo and Enjoy Life Foods, but having a new one to throw into backpacks for snack time is extremely welcome at this point.

If you have any new gluten-free favorites, let me know~ I’d love to hear about them.

dairy free · Food allergies · food allergy blogs · gf bread · gf foods · gluten free · gluten free bread · gluten free food · gluten free foods · gluten intolerance · gluten intolerant

Gluten-free Vegan Cornbread

October 30, 2013 kristenann2 Comments

I made these to go with some chili but they were all eaten before the chili was even ready. Now I know to make a double batch, and intend to do so later today. For now I thought I’d share the recipe which is an adaptation of Annalise Roberts’ recipe in her book, Gluten-Free Baking Classics. I changed a few things to make it vegan, and changed the flours slightly, and also eliminated the xanthan gum because I always try to eliminate the gums that gluten-free recipes call for, and most of the time I find they perform well without them. Xanthan gum and guar gum are often added to gluten-free recipes without thought, but they are one of those food-like items (not a real actual food) that I try to avoid in my own baking. Some people react to the gums adversely, and although neither my boys nor I seem to have immediate reactions to them, why eat them if they are not needed…? Xanthan gum sounds like an opening band for Metallica, not something that I want to ingest on a regular basis. So, here’s the recipe:

Cornbread (Gluten free and Vegan)

1 cup cornmeal

2/3 cup Brown rice flour

1/3 cup Tapioca Flour

1/4 cup sugar

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt (I use Real Salt)

1/4 cup oil (canola, sunflower, whatever is in your cabinet)

3/4 cup coconut milk or other milk alternative (or you can use regular old cow’s milk if you are from hearty Northern European stock and can digest the stuff)

1 Tablespoon flaxseed meal + 3 Tablespoons of warm water (mix these together in a separate bowl and let them sit a moment)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the ingredients until just mixed, no need to overdo it. Pour into muffin pans that have been sprayed with oil, or oiled in the old-fashioned way because if you happen to be avoiding soy you shouldn’t be spraying your oils. (There seems to be soy lecithin in every oil spray I can find which doesn’t really surprise me.) I used small muffin pans in the shape of owls and they held together excellently, but I imagine if you try to make big muffins they might be crumbly, so keep them on the smaller side. Cook for 20-25 minutes. The above recipe made 12 small muffins and 3 happy bellies.

dairy free · Food allergies · food allergy blogs · gf bread · gluten free · Gluten free eating · gluten free food · gluten free foods · gluten free lifestyle · gluten intolerant · picky kids

Fall Weather = Good Food

September 25, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

I’m officially out of my food-funk, thanks to the Fall weather which opens up the door to a whole new pantry of foods. Soups can be found stewing every Sunday once again, while old favorites like pumpkin scones bake in the oven. My oldest keeps bringing up food that summer had me out of the habit of making, like croutons, kale chips, and carrot cake muffins. Great ideas! My youngest is still enamored with garlic bread sticks made with Trader Joe’s flatbreads, and considering how often I go there and find nothing but a gaping hole, I can only assume he’s not the only one. In fact, each time I buy 7 or 8 packages (because I put them in the freezer too) the cashiers inevitably ask what I do with them, and then they always share what they do with them; one uses them for Panini’s, another toasts them, and they all love them. Here they are again:

Just be sure to leave 7 or 8 for me in the case, because I’ll be needing them again soon. In fact, they just might be my next crouton base. Back to the kitchen!

gf foods · gluten free · gluten free lifestyle · gluten free symptoms · gluten intolerance diagnosis · gluten intolerance symptoms · gluten intolerant

Olympic Peninsula Travel

July 8, 2013July 8, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

Traveling with food intolerances to the Washington coast is not something to be done without your car full of groceries. You can always find grocery stores, but they aren’t going to be the kind with a ‘gluten free section’ and restaurants are pretty typical gluten/dairy laden places. We stayed at Seabrook and my sister saw that the menu at the restaurant there did include gluten-free options, but I did not inquire if they were also dairy and egg free. We had enough corn tortillas, rice, and beans to keep everyone fed enough until we hit our next destination on the north side of the peninsula where we knew there would be more to choose from. (The ocean was phenomenal by the way, despite some drizzly days and cooler temps then we ideally wanted. It is called Juneuary here though so I wasn’t too surprised. We enjoyed it anyway.) Between Port Angeles and Port Townsend is Sequim, and we found at least gluten-free options in all three places, plus in Port Townsend there is a great Co-op with which to stock the car back up with groceries, if that be needed. In Sequim we ate twice at the Sunshine Café where there was a great gluten-free, egg free, soy free, dairy free bread from a nearby bakery. I meant to get some bread before heading leaving Sequim but forgot. It was a great place though, for breakfast and lunch. In Port Townsend which is a beautiful Victorian town on the water we ate at the Owl’s Spirit Café which had a great menu and tasty food, but it wasn’t the best choice for children. The adults all had delicious meals though and you can get fresh juices there also while you wait for your food which is a nice bonus. In Port Angeles we ate at Next Door which boast gluten-free buns and notes foods that are gluten-free. Other than that we ate in our “fake homes” as my youngest called them and although it took a bit more planning, we made it a whole week without anyone being too upset over any food issues. Yay! Another thing I’ve noticed with this whole food intolerance thing is that my both my sons are surprisingly ok with the fact they are for instance the only ones who can’t eat the pizza at a get-together, or the cake at a party. I just tell them I’ll make whatever it is for them when we get home, and that seems to satisfy them, and more often than not they don’t even ask for whatever it was later. It makes me think about how often we just mindlessly eat whatever is in front of us. The other day at a party my son would have eaten pizza, cake, ice cream and rice crispy treats. Instead he ate the protein bar I had packed him and the rice crispy treats. He was a little sad, but I assured him I could make him pizza and ice cream (what he most wanted) at home, and then he happily forgot about it all. Just an observation. Another thing that’s been very obvious is both the boys’ skin issues are clearing up fast. My youngest has had red bumpies on his cheeks since he was about 4. I always suspected food issues but the pediatrician and dermatologist both insisted it was Keratosis Pilaris, something 1/3 of the population has on the back of their arm, and kids can have it on their cheeks. “It’s hereditary,” they said. “It’ll go away.” It hadn’t by age 7, but now it is indeed going away~ his skin is looking beautiful and his eyes are even brighter. My other son had bumpies on this arms and back, probably the same thing, and they are going away too. A friend of mine told me this happened to her husband after going off gluten also, plus his asthma completely cleared. Pretty amazing! It makes me wonder if 1/3 of the population has gluten sensitivity…

children · dairy free · Food allergies · food allergy blogs · food sensitivities · gluten free · gluten free foods · gluten intolerance · gluten intolerant

Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free Fish and Chips

June 16, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

My oldest does not want to exist in a world without fish and chips so I figured I better start experimenting before we went to a restaurant and he got the bad news that breaded fish is generally gluten and egg covered. I searched the internet but was dissatisfied with what I found, so I decided to just give it whirl myself, and he loved how it turned out (yay!), so here’s what I did. I put about 1 cup of brown rice flour in a big Ziploc bag and added black pepper and Mediterranean salt. The cod I used was frozen so I had to let that defrost in the fridge for about a day and a half, but when it was thawed I cut it into smaller pieces. For the ‘chips’ I just used Whole Foods brand frozen French fries, the skinny kind, which both my kids love, so those went into the oven about the time I started working on the fish. After cutting up the cod I poured canola oil into a pan to cover it about 2 centimeters deep~ this was not a deep fry, but I wanted enough so that when I turned the fish over there was still oil for that side. I put the fish in the rice flour bag, a few at a time, and made sure they were fully covered, then put each piece into the already hot pan until all the fish was used up. I turned the fish several times in the pan, cooking for at least 10 minutes, and just took them out and placed them on paper towels when they looked finished. It worked well~ no egg needed and no bread crumbs (gluten-free or not) needed either. Easy!

dairy free · gluten free · gluten free bread · gluten free food · gluten free foods

Survival Food

June 8, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

This week survival food has had nothing to do with the freeze-dried packs you can get at REI. It does have everything to do with garlic bread sticks, enough to ensure lifelong protection against vampires, protein bars, and corn tortillas. I actually made a food plan for next week and I’m really hoping I’ll look back on it in a few months and laugh at the lack of variety, but for today I was pretty pleased to imagine a few meals that didn’t include garlic bread and would still, very likely, make it into my youngest’s picky little tummy. I also spent some time making a new dish today that at least everyone else in the family likes, so that was a nice score. It’s a lentil dish, and I realized that as often as I’ve made lentil soup, I’ve never just cooked up a batch of lentils, so I did and they are awesome. I cooked them with a small onion, two garlic cloves, two chopped carrots and one chopped leek, plus a bay leaf and some veggie stock. After about 25 minutes I drained the excess water and added Tuscan salt (a blend I buy at whole foods), pepper, olive oil, red wine vinegar and squeezed some lemon over it all. It was surprisingly good~ as my oldest said when he asked for his second bowl of it, “I didn’t expect it to be so tasty since it is healthy.” I ate mine with gluten-free bread that I made fresh today. I used Manini’s brand but substituted the eggs with applesauce since I learned I have a severe intolerance to eggs. The bread was really good, and it was a great accompaniment to the lentils. (No pic of the lentils b/c they just aren’t that photographic.) For my youngest, he has at least been trying new things on a daily basis. He has found a new cereal he likes, a new gluten-free cereal bar (glutino), pepperoni, and although he wasn’t thrilled to do it, he ate half of a veggie dog tonight. He first asked if it came from a live animal or not, then double checked that it really, for sure, indeed did not. I’m not sure where he thinks bacon and pepperoni come from, but until he eats beans and /or nuts, I’m not going to mention it.