Gluten Free Resources

There are lots of resources out there for eating gluten free. As I run into people who are wanting, considering or heading into the gluten free world I want an easy place to point them. Since I have had the opportunity to try some I thought I would share my thoughts on a few. Not that I am an expert, not even close, just learning like everyone else.

Websites & Cookbooks I am smitten with:

• Dish Towel Diaries - This is Silvana Nardone website. Author of Cooking For Isaiah Gluten and Dairy Free
• Gluten Free Girl - Shauna is living with Celiac. I like her love for food and cooking. She is passionate. Author of Gluten Free Girl and The Chef

Products I am smitten with:

• Udi's - They have the best bread I have found thus for. It is the only bread I can make a pb&j with and send with Micah to school. All other bread is only good if heated or toasted.
• Pamela's - They have a good pancake/waffle mix. It doesn't have an aftertaste like some other mixes.
• Bob's Red Mill - I use there white rice flour and potato starch (I use these flours to make my own all-purpose flour, using Silvana's mix). However, I have found that I do not like their All-Purpose flour.
• Kinnikinnick - They have K-toos, their version of Oreo's, animal crackers, and a pretty decent bread.
• Envirokidz - They have great granola bars, rice bars and cereal. My kids love these.
• Shiloh Farms - I buy their tapioca flour in bulk online. It is an ingredient in the all-purpose flour I use.
• Deboles - I use their rice pasta. Rice pasta can be a bit gummy, so always cook aldente, never overcook.
• Ancient Harvest - I buy their quinoa pasta. It most resembles regular pasta to me.
• Amy's - This has got to be my favorite brand thus far. Last but most certainly not least. I buys their frozen meals, soups, vegetables, pretty much anything I can find that they make I will try.

With all of these products, I would add that, they are expensive. They are small packages and make small portions. If you have time, scratch is always better tasting and less expensive. I make nearly everything from scratch. It can break the bank to buy a small bag of cookies for $5 and my kids eat them in 2 days time. However, if your short on time, these are good go toos.

Grocery Stores I shop at:

• Super Target - I can get nearly everything at Target. They have a great selection.
• Earthfare - I tend to only go here for the Ancient Harvest quinoa pasta, Earth Balance butter (we are also a dairy free household), Udi bread and Bob's Red Mill cornmeal.
• Trader Joe's is good too.

Hope these help. Please let me know if you have questions or comments.

Artsy

As a way of condensing my blogs, I will put my artsy craftsy things on this blog as well. Here of a few things I've done. There are diaper tags, custom letters, invitations, thank you cards and birth announcements. Enjoy!!

Chicken Rice Tetrazzini

On Monday night I began what we shall deem Keva & Silvana a journey through cooking good Gluten Free and Dairy Free foods.

I will give a scale of 1 to 5 for two categories; one for taste and one for difficulty. 1 being; never make again and 5 being; make it every wk (that's a tough one for me since I rarely make the same thing two wks in a row(so shoot me, I love to cook and try new things)). For difficulty; 1 being; simple and 5 being; grandma's 12 layer chocolate cake would have been easier to make.

I began with Chicken Rice Tetrazzini. Chicken Tetrazzini is a favorite in our house, but I used to make it with pasta, which I still can (rice or corn pasta) , but I wanted to give Silvana's recipe a try, it is slightly different than mine, from Southern Living.

Taste:

Keva - 3

Trevor - 4

Micah - 2

Isaac - 0 (he doesn't like anything unless there is chocolate involved)

Difficulty: 2

Chicken Rice Tetrazzini by Silvana Nardone

1 cup rice cereal crumbs (I used Rice Krispies)

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard (I used honey mustard)

3 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley

2 Tbsp EVOO

8oz sliced mushrooms

2 Tbsp Silvana's all purpose flour (or regular if your not GF)

1/2 cup white wine (or rice milk or water)

1/2 cup rice milk

2 cups water

salt and pepper

2 packed cups of chopped rotisserie chicken

Sauteed the mushrooms

The rice crumbs, parsley & mustard in a bowl; shredded chicken in a bowl;

rice in the baking dish.

Final dish Chicken Rice Tetrazzini

The Good Ole Days

"What's for breakfast?" asks Ike. "Muffins," I said. "BLUEBERRY!!" exclaimed Micah. "Yep, blueberry," I said with a smile. "Ahhh, just like the good ole days," said Micah.

Right then that kid melted my heart and it gave me great joy to know I was able bring back some of those Saturday comfort foods of ole, without compromising his diet. Ahhh, the good ole days.

City Church & Good Food

Last night City Church gathered in our house for dinner, prayer and "syllabus" talk. We hope to meet every Monday night and enjoy a meal and bond as a church learning and praying about how God is going to build His church.

ANNNNDDD, since this is my outlet for food talk, lets get right to it. I was excited to make an entire meal & dessert gluten and dairy free and see if anyone even noticed. I think it went over really good (or yall are a bunch of liars....and in that case we as a church are NOT starting off to a good start).

Dinner was Gumbo & Cornbread Muffins: The Gumbo was not a Silvana recipe, but the cornbread was (check previous post for how to's).

And last but not least....DESSERT!!! I know yall are probably thinking I made some grand 7 layer cake, but I didn't and YET, I am still as stoked about, Silvana's, Super Fudge Brownies. You see, we used to have out of the box fudge brownies, nearly every week with college students. They were good and they were easy. However, since the new food change NObrownies in our house, until now.

Taste: 5's all around (which means YES I would make these every week, but we would all balloon up and that would NOT be good)

Difficulty: 2

Super Fudge Brownies by Silvana Nardone

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 Tbsp water

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup Silvana's All-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

Sunday Brunch

Well our family has officially moved to the Saturday Night Campus at our church. We are excited to be serving at this campus again and working alongside some of our really good friends. This move will allow Trevor to work closely with the campus pastor for his church planting residency.

All this means, this left Sunday wide open for cooking. It was really nice to have the whole day together. However, I did have to begin making this meal at 9:30am...eek! It required two 1hr refrigeration's. But they were very good, and worth the effort.

Pan-fried Shrimp and Caramelized Scallion Rice Cakes

Taste:

Trevor - 5

Keva - 4

Micah - 4

Isaac - 4

Difficulty: 4

Pan-fried Shrimp and Caramelized Scallion Rice Cakes by Silvana Nardone

Makes 8 Prep time 10 mins (plus chilling) Cook Time 1 hour

5 Tbsp EVOO

6 scallions chopped

1 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 cup Arborio rice

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup water

8 ounces medium shrimp-peeled

deveined and cut into 1/4-inch pieces

1 tsp hot sauce

Salt & Pepper

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Nut Butter -n- Jelly Cookie Cups

As I was driving yesterday, the thought popped in my head as it so often does..."I want cook." Yeah I know I already cook, but I would love to find an outlet for doing it on a larger scale. I have always wanted to do this (in college I wanted to go to culinary school...but it was to expensive and would have required me moving to a BIG city...which terrified me then). But as I have been going through Silvana's cookbook, it has sparked it in me again. I don't desire to be a chef in a restaurant kitchen, that scares me to death. Rather a cook for events or individuals...heck I don't know.

Okay well on to yummy Cookies.

On Monday night I made Portobella-Rice Quiche & Nut Butter -n- Jelly Cookie Cups.

I will spare you the Portobella-Rice Quiche. After City Church left for the evening, my husband looked at me and said very tenderly, "What did you think about the quiche?" I said, "It was okay. It was a little over cooked and it needed more salt and maybe some more spices, but it was still okay." "Why? Did you not like it?" Trevor said, " I couldn't eat it. I took one bite and couldn't take another. I don't know, it may have been a mental block, but I didn't like it."

The eggs overcooked, so it was tough. The risotto was mushy and it needed more taste.

So you have been spared the recipe.

However, the Nut Butter -n- Jelly Cookie Cups where delicious. They tasted like a thick peanut butter cookie with some yummy sweetness in the middle.

Nut Butter -n- Jelly Cookie Cups

Taste: 4's all around.

Difficulty: 3

Nut Butter -n- Jelly Cookie Cups by Silvana Nardone

Makes 16 cookies Prep Time 25 minutes Cook Time 14 minutes

1/2 cup Silvana's All-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup peanut butter or almond butter

1/4 cup all-vegetable shortening at room

temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 lrg egg

Strawberry jelly

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted

2 Tbsp rice milk

Sick Days & Pumpkin Muffins

We have been a house full of sickies this week. Micah was sick, Sunday-Tues; Isaac was sick, Monday-Wed; Trev was sick, Monday-Wed. Thank goodness it never struck me. I felt a little bad one day but I think it was exhaustion...haha!

So we had lots of time to do nothing, but lay around, play games and watch TV. One morning

even though it was 9am when I started, I decided to try a new recipe of muffins. Usually when its something new, it ALWAYS takes me longer than the recipe says it'll take. By 10am we were enjoying our yummy muffins. I snapped some pictures of the kiddos helping this time. Although they are always in the kitchen with me, stirring, mixing, pouring, I usually forget to snap pics of them.

Make these on a Saturday morning, keep any leftovers in the refrigerator

and eat on them for breakfast for days to come.

Isaiah's Pumpkin Muffins with Crumble Topping by Silvana Nardone

Makes 12 Prep Time 20 minutes Cook Time 25 minutes

topping

1/4 cup Silvana's All-Purpose Flour

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp pumpkin spice

4 Tbsp all-vegetable shortening

muffins

1 3/4 cups Silvana's All-Purpose Flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

3/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

Confectioner's sugar for sprinkling