[May is Celiac Awareness Month, and I’m giving away copies of my ecookbooklet: So What CAN You Eat? Gluten-free Paleo Vegan (mostly) Recipes for Health and Weight Loss, to all who join the mailing list. Visit the homepage here. 19 fast, easy recipes!] Here are two kids who know what they like and more important, what they DON'T like to eat. Watch them sample two equivalent gluten-free pastas made with jarred (but delicious) sauce plus a little sprinkle cheese. Do note that the Trader Joe's is $1.99 for a 16 oz bag, and the Bionaturae is $4.26 for a 12 oz bag. Just sayin.
[Corley agreed to participate in the video only if I gave a plug to HIS website: http://mastermagicianslearnmagic.weebly.com/magic-tricks.html He and his peeps are all about magic these days, and they've amassed quite a following in the tween set.] [May is Celiac Awareness Month, and I’m giving away copies of my ecookbooklet: So What CAN You Eat? Gluten-free Paleo Vegan (mostly) Recipes for Health and Weight Loss, to all who join the mailing list. Visit the homepage here. 19 fast, easy recipes!]
I've been thinking about my high school math teacher a lot lately. I expect high school is difficult for everyone, or at least it feels that way. For me, my homelife challenges seemed enormous, my older brothers who had been my anchors were moving on and moving out, and I was feeling pretty alone. Because my school district was small, I had the fortune of having this gifted math teacher for 7th grade and then again for Algebra 1 (10th grade) Algebra 2 (11th grade) and some other higher math thing (Algebra 3/Trig?) for my senior year. Plus, when I dropped out of Chem 2 because of an unresolved conflict with another student, I signed up to be her teacher's aide for that open period. In addition to teaching me most of what I still know about math (I made a sine wave joke at a staff meeting at my Day Job yesterday and got good laughs from the other former math nerds in the room), I have no doubt that this wonderful woman, who took an interest in me and encouraged and supported me through some of my most difficult times, helped shape my future in astounding ways. I know I wouldn't be where I am today without her help back then. I saw her 10 years ago when I went home for my class reunion, but other than me sending her holiday cards intermittently, we haven't been in touch. She taught thousands of kids over the years and I know from my friends who were my classmates that she was very inflential in their lives also, so it's okay that we aren't penpals or anything. But when someone crosses my mind as much as she has been lately, I know I need to take some sort of action. This morning I dropped a postcard in the mail to thank her again. It made me feel good. You have probably heard that there is some science to confirm that the practice of gratitude can boost your mood. I've known it for awhile now, but I've gotten out of the practice of it. Today I stepped back in. I invite you to do the same. [May is Celiac Awareness Month, and I’m giving away copies of my ecookbooklet: So What CAN You Eat? Gluten-free Paleo Vegan (mostly) Recipes for Health and Weight Loss, to all who join the mailing list. Visit the homepage here. 19 fast, easy recipes!] We had a little bit of a dust-up in the comments on my blog post Gluten-free product recommendations from an expert. Since I was passing along the recommendations from another writer, I couldn't defend the recommendations made, which makes them no less valid but certainly tougher to discuss beyond acknowledging the differing opinions. After GF Dougie's guest blog post about compliance challenges as a kid with celiac, I thought it would be helpful to have real live kids do short gluten-free product reviews on video. I have two kids who do not have celiac and whom do not live gluten-free, though they are very supportive of me. They bring with them to the testing a totally typical kid palate and they will be able to honestly rate whether the food really tastes good and not just "tastes good for gluten-free." The goal is to find stuff that is genuinely enjoyable, not just edible. So here is our first in a series, comparing Barbara's Puffins to EnviroKids Gorilla Munch, both comparably-priced corn-based gluten-free cold breakfast cereals. (A special thanks to my 8-year-old son Scott for giving it a whirl. My 10-year-old son Corley isn't a cereal eater, so it didn't make sense to do this review, but as we move into pizza, pasta and mac and cheese, he will definitely be part of the conversation.) I won't spoil the result, but after the taping Scott went on to eat another bowlful of the winning cereal. I have to say I agree with his recommendation! [May is Celiac Awareness Month, and I’m giving away copies of my ecookbooklet: So What CAN You Eat? Gluten-free Paleo Vegan (mostly) Recipes for Health and Weight Loss, to all who join the mailing list. Visit the homepage here.
19 fast, easy recipes!] 1) I'm cooking most of my own food, so I know what goes into it 2) I'm more likely to just get a salad (with dressing on the side) when I eat at a restaurant that doesn't have a gluten-free menu, helping me meet my weight management goals 3) I can't succumb to the temptation of workplace pizza or doughnuts when they appear 4) I'm more mindful of the nutritients and calories I'm putting into my body 5) I've gotten to experiment with new foods and have found some new things to add to my list of favorites, and they are healthy (Beets! Brussels sprouts!) 6) I've befriended nutritional yeast as a replacement for some of the B vitamins I lost with enriched carbs, and I LOVE it! 7) I've come up with new ways to prepare vegetables and make them satisfying as the MAIN dish 8) I've begun using condiments in interesting ways (yellow mustard on broccoli is delicious!) 9) Nuts and beans are great protein sources, AND they make good dips, spreads and hummuses (or is that hummi?) 10) (This should be number 1!) I generally feel so much better and have so much more energy! What gifts have you found from having to live gluten-free? [May is Celiac Awareness Month, and I’m giving away copies of my ecookbooklet: So What CAN You Eat? Gluten-free Paleo Vegan (mostly) Recipes for Health and Weight Loss, to all who join the mailing list. Visit the homepage here. 19 fast, easy recipes!]
When I first went gluten-free, I had a little help from a friend about what to buy, but mostly I looked at the shelves and freezer cases of the gluten-free replacement products and didn’t know where to begin. Corn pasta or quinoa? Tapioca bread or some mixed grain thing? More often than not, I let a major deciding factor be that of price. I figured if I started with the least expensive and kept moving up the scale until I found something palatable, then I would eventually identify my go-to purchases. With the exception of Udi’s bagels, I had very few Eureka! moments (well, other than if you add enough milk, eggs and cinnamon to make bread pudding a girl can actually choke down a loaf of tapioca bread…). If I had to do it over again, I’d have sought out the advice from a real gluten-free foodie, bought what they buy, and just stuck with those except when feeling adventurous or wanting to try something new. Not long ago I asked the celiac listserv for their recommendations for stuffed pastas and egg noodles and got some great suggestions. One woman who replied gave me this feedback on the new bread from Kinnikkinnick. She and her daughter, both gluten-free for more than 10 years, are passionate about food. They have done lots of product reviews and, in fact, her daughter was once gluten-free food editor for Foodista. I asked if she would share their go-to gf recommendations and she gladly put together this list, asking for no credit or attribution, but just wanting to help people navigate the world of gluten-free products for maximum enjoyment and satisfaction. Here are her suggestions (and note her full disclosure for being a sales rep for Glutenfeeda) and also my full disclosure that I haven't tried most of these suggestions, (but I plan to!): Hi Claire: Here is my very short list of the gf essentials in our house. We are foodies and do like to cook. We are not huge bakers but do bake! And in the interest of full disclosure, while I have been a Celiac for over a decade I do work for a manufacturer as a sales rep... Glutenfreeda. Our favorites in the pantry: pretty slim but we are foodies and this is all we truly need * Jules Gluten Free Flour (for anything and everything using standard recipes) * Kinnikinnick Panko Crumbs * Pamela's Cornbread ( I use the traditional recipe but bake it in a iron skillet) * Pamela's Pancake Mix (but generally we make crepes with corn starch or I use almond flour) * Better Batter Brownie Mix (in a pinch but I prefer my old Ghiradelli brownie recipe using Jules Flour) * Gluten Free Mama's Pie Crust Mix (truly fabulous) * Better Batter Flour nice to have on hand if you make homemade egg rolls, or Fry Bread..the rice blend lends itself very well for frying * Dakota Lakes Gourmet Coating .. just nice to have on hand . I often mix it with the Panko Crumbs for a spiced coating on chicken tenders or baked fish.. Frozen: * Feel Good Foods Egg rolls and dumplings * Garlic Jim's pizza when I am too lazy or in a hurry to make Pizza Dough with Jules Flour Bread and Pasta: * Kinnickinick Buns and Bread (frozen) * La Veneziane pastas (pantry) * Orgran Spirals (pantry) We're Jewish so... * Eena Kadeena Mock-zah Ball Mix * Eena Kadeena Mandel Cookies Not marketed as gf but essential for our lifestyle (aka to busy to make from scratch): * Cream of Buckwheat (Wolffs') * Wolff's Kasha * Sweet Rice Flour * Rice flour wrappers for sushi and spring rolls * Corn Starch for crepes (sweet and savory) * Almond flour (mainly because I prefer almond flour pancakes) * Lundberg's Risottos and Rice blends If I had kids at home still: I would probably also stock the K-Toons, or the plethora of cookies out there but now I just make up batches of my favorite recipes , roll them into balls and freeze for bake on demand. And I do eat our oatmeal often, as well as the burritos and pizza wraps Glutenfreeda Oatmeal, Burritos, Pizza Wraps and Granola :-) That's it...I cannot think of one thing that I cannot make with the above on hand. I use any recipe I come across from Liebowitz's "to die for" German Chocolate Cake to Curtis Stone's Cheese Biscuits. So Thank you, anonymous gluten-free food aficianado for sharing your list and hopefully making life easier for others! |
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