Hi everyone,
Many thanks if you’re still reading my blog! I took an unofficial hiatus, because I’ve been trying to figure out what direction I want to go with gluten-free stuff. I’m not doing a wedding consulting business anymore, but I’ve been doing a lot of canning, and I’m going to be doing more. I’m going to learn how to use a pressure cooker!
Thanks for bearing with me, thanks for your patience, and we’ll get going again!
I’d like to apologize for not having blogged…practically all summer. It’s been a busy one! Updates soon.
That said, I’d like to write about a wonderful product I tested at the beginning of the summer, and have been meaning to tell you about, and now I finally am!
Occasionally, I just really need some chips that are…well, cheesy. Being allergic to dairy, though, gone are the days of sour cream & onion chips, or any other dairy-flavored chip. So when I get this hankering, I just buckle down, and remind myself that feeling that awful just isn’t worth it.
Enjoy Life Plentils have solved that problem for me. They sent me a box of four (that’s right — FOUR) different flavors. The Margherita Pizza flavor is my favorite. It’s SO delicious, but there are no dairy products! You can see in the photo that they print right on the bag: Gluten free, & free of the 8 common allergens.
Not only that, but they also have lentil flour in them! They’re quite a bit healthier than your average chip. A win in all categories.
Go check them out! You won’t be sorry. http://www.plentils.com/index.php
Excuse me while I go buy some more of those Margherita Pizza chips…..mmm….
I consider myself to be very lucky in that I’m not allergic or intolerant to soy. Many people are, though, so chocolate is a problem. Go look on almost any package of chocolate you have nearby, and you’ll see the ingredient “soy lecithin.” Yes, even that small trace amount can negatively affect people who can’t tolerate soy.
That’s what I consider to be the GREAT news about Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mega Chunks.* They’re soy-free! (I take for granted that they’re gluten-free and dairy-free, or else I wouldn’t be eating them. Anything else is gravy for me.)
I just had to bake them into chocolate chip cookies.
The cookies turned out really well, and I really like the mega chocolate chunks. They’re about twice as big as a regular chocolate chip.
I asked my dad (who, to my knowledge, doesn’t have any food issues) if he could taste a difference between these and the popular brand of semi-sweet chocolate chips he keeps in the freezer. He said he couldn’t, which I took to be a good thing.
Between my inability to eat gluten, dairy and corn, that cuts out the vast majority of processed and pre-packaged goods. When I see a product that only has three ingredients (Evaporated Cane Juice, Natural Chocolate Liquor (Non-Alcoholic), Non-Dairy Cocoa Butter), I’m thrilled. In my book, the fewer ingredients, the better.
The cookies (and just the chunks themselves!) disappeared so quickly that I’ve already made a second batch of cookies with them (and had to supplement with regular chocolate chips)! They’re delicious…in or out of cookies.
If you’re local to Utah County, you can find them at Good Earth. You can also find them at Enjoy Life Foods Where To Buy.
* In the interest of full disclosure, Enjoy Life contacted me and asked me to review these two products. They are not paying me, and I’m writing what I actually think.
My dad is a HUGE fan of snickerdoodle-type cookies, and always has been. He has very specific requirements. He likes them to be crunchy, and there needs to be the right cookie-to-cinnamon ratio. (Most commercial snickerdoodles don’t have enough cinnamon for him.)
That being said, he LOVES these cookies, and so does my husband.
If they didn’t know they were gluten-free, they wouldn’t know they were gluten-free, which really is the ultimate compliment in baked goods.
They’re also dairy-free. (Go to their site here: Dr. Lucy’s)
My personal cookie preferences differ a little than this particular recipe. I prefer chewier cookies, and I don’t particularly care for any bean flour in my baked goods, but there’s only a little, and trust me — I ate several. My dad and husband didn’t even notice the bean flour and ate plenty themselves.
If you’re a crunchy cookie person who likes a few extra nutrients to go along with it, this cookie is for you! Enjoy!
I have discovered a product that I really like:
So Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk. I have missed yogurt since going dairy-free, which is funny, because I didn’t love it when I could eat it.
My stomach’s delicate enough, though, that I’ve been looking for a way to get more probiotics into my system to help it out as much as I can. (I do take Align, but wanted even more.)
I tried Silk soy yogurt, but it has a lot more sweetener than I would like. Individual yogurts are pretty expensive and take up a fair amount of room in the fridge, so I was looking for something…else, even if I didn’t know exactly what it was.
I tried the strawberry first, since I don’t love coconut milk. It’s very good! I’ve purchased several of them, and it really does help keep things moving. After getting strawberry a few times, I tried vanilla on a whim. Also very good, and unlike its strawberry counterpart, it isn’t too sweet for my husband. So today I got two — strawberry for me, vanilla for my husband. They have less sugar per serving than other brands and types of yogurt, and they don’t take up too much space in the fridge.
I buy them here in Utah at Good Earth Natural Foods, and they cost $4.65. For me, they’re completely worth it.
Once upon a time, my dad served an LDS mission to Spain. While he was there, he discovered several “new” ingredients — mostly fresh ones, like prosciutto ham and garlic, as two examples.
Then, many years later, he discovered two Italian importing companies/delis in Utah: Granato’s and Caputo’s. He discovered that you could get really good prosciutto ham, fresh mozzarella cheese, kalamata olives, balsamic vinegar and fresh baguettes there.
He would buy these ingredients, bring them home, acquire fresh basil and fresh Roma tomatoes, and we would have sandwiches! I have loved these all my life.
To make a long story short, my diagnoses of Celiac Disease and other food allergies (especially dairy) have made it so I can no longer order caprese salads and sandwiches. That hasn’t stopped me from trying to find an acceptable substitute, though.
Another thing I had to give up when I found out about my food allergies was the classic pizza. There are many companies that make a decent gluten-free pizza crust mix. There are even pizzerias that are starting to figure out how to serve gluten-free pizzas in their restaurants (despite them being VERY expensive, in most cases), but CHEESE as a main ingredient makes it moot.
I had one such mix floating around in my pantry from before my food allergy diagnoses.
I decided to use it instead of just watching it stare at me, mocking me for the gooey cheese that I can no longer eat without getting sick. It would not defeat me.
I’ve never cared much for marinara sauce, and usually substituted it with some kind of alfredo sauce. That doesn’t work anymore, so I decided to try pesto. Many restaurants put pesto on pizza. Why not me? (I used the pesto recipe in The Gluten-Free Vegan, but you can use any pesto recipe that you love.)
So far, so good. Then I added fresh Roma tomatoes…
…and baked it. For this crust, you add toppings before you bake, and it results in a very bread-y pizza. After the main baking was done, I added…
…fresh prosciutto ham (which I acquired at Costco). It’s a very, very delicate meat, so I only put it back in the oven for another 3-5 minutes.
Those who can eat dairy and wanted to, added a bit of fresh mozzarella cheese (also obtained at Costco).
That pizza is really, really, really, really good in and of itself, but if you want that extra touch, you add some of this liquid goodness: Balsamic vinegar.
When I drizzled it over the pizza, it sort of bounced off the prosciutto ham, went onto the plate, and soaked into the bottom of the crust, which was the perfect touch.
Success! Caprese is back in my life, minus the mozzarella. Though I really miss fresh mozzarella, it was heavenly even without it.
I had enough ingredients left over from making it the first time around that all I had to do was buy another crust (this time from the Namaste brand), and we had another caprese pizza. It was amazing.
We ended up liking the Namaste brand crust better, anyway. It has some Italian seasoning in it, and it’s much less bread-y. It’s baked before any toppings are put on, so it’s more crunchy and resembles a “normal” pizza crust. The second time, we didn’t bake the prosciutto at all, and I liked it even more.
While the ingredients are definitely more expensive than regular pizza ingredients, even when purchased from Costco, the pizza was amazing, and worth every penny. My dad has purchased fresh basil plants, and I’m sure that when they get bigger, we’ll be having this pizza again. Can’t wait!
I’m excited to get serious about my reviews, and happy to say that these Enjoy Life Sunbutter Crunch bars were my first purchase specifically for this purpose!
My blood sugar will sometimes suddenly drop when I’m out and about, so it’s nice to have something in my bag that has at least a little protein, and doesn’t take up too much space. These bars fit the bill.
I was initially hesitant to give these a try, because I don’t usually like protein bars. (Full confession: I think Larabars are gross.) I’m skeptical of anything that has dates or date syrup as an ingredient, because I don’t particularly care for the flavor, but I’ve heard of many people who like Sunbutter (sunflower seed butter) as a peanut butter substitute, so I decided to go for it.
Much to my surprise, I like them quite a bit. I enjoy the unique flavor of Sunbutter, and I like the texture of the bar. It’s perfect for keeping in my bag when those low blood sugar moments hit.
I bought this box of five for around $3.99 at Whole Foods, and I’m glad I did. I’m looking forward to trying other flavors, and I’ll definitely be keeping some of these around!
One of my new favorite recipes in Canning For a New Generation is Candied-Pickled Apples with Star Anise. They’re sweet and sour, and they taste especially wonderful on pork.
Apples, spices, sugar, vinegar
The finished product
It took me too long to get around to these, because I thought I could only find star anise at Williams and Sonoma. Not true! I ended up finding some in the Mexican spice section at the grocery store. The other spices are really easy to find. Peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, and a couple of others.
Definitely fills my need for Sour Patch Kids — but real food, and no corn syrup!!
Twitter is a wonderful place for gluten-free and food allergy or other food issue people. I have “met” so many cool people there that I hope to meet in real life someday.
One of them is Brittany Angell of Real Sustenance.
She tweeted about a Butterfinger recipe she created, which immediately drew my attention. I miss them SO much.
I bought myself a candy thermometer and the (few) ingredients I was missing, and gave it a shot. I LOVE this candy, and I have lost track of the number of times I’ve made it.
sugar, agave nectar & water
"finished" product
I put “finished” in quotation marks because I haven’t actually broken the candy into pieces, you can see that I was…impatient, and wanted the peanutbuttery goodness before it cooled all the way. This is also my stopping point. I know I’m supposed to dip it in chocolate, and I know they’re supposed to be thicker, like Butterfingers are, but I love them just like this. Seriously, so so good, and super easy. Brittany has several little alternate suggestions, which is awesome.
As you can see, I use crunchy peanut butter (Adams brand), and I use agave nectar (which I buy at Costco).
MUCH easier than you think it’s going to be! Try it! You won’t be sorry.
October, November and December are all about events. October is about Halloween parties, November has the big (and sometimes ominous) Thanksgiving, and December is about Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and others. Parties galore!
For the last few years around Christmas, I’ve struggled. With Celiac Disease and other food allergies (especially milk and corn!), most holiday goodies are on my “bad” list. Bowls of candy set around the room? Nope. If they don’t have milk, they have corn syrup. (Candy canes, anyone?) Corn chips and salsa? Nope. Most baked goods (that I’m not bringing myself) have gluten in them. I’m having a tough time coming up with things to list here since I’m so used to not having them.
When I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, I was self-conscious about letting people cook or bake for me, for two main reasons. 1- It’s very difficult to do gluten-free cooking and baking correctly, without any cross contact and 2- I hate putting people out. Ever since the other food allergies made themselves known, I’ve just assumed that any party I go to won’t be able to accommodate me, so I eat beforehand. It’s habit, now.
The holidays are especially difficult because it seems that all of a sudden, people are very emotionally tied to their food! People usually have at least one dish, without which, it wouldn’t be Christmas or Thanksgiving or what-have-you. It also can’t be just any rendition of the dish, it has to be Grandma’s recipe. (This is true for my family and pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.) It also seems to suddenly be that if a food is eaten, then the maker of the dish understands that you like it, and that you appreciate their efforts. Not eating someone’s dish is just not okay!
To help everyone understand each other a little better, I’ve come up with a few suggestions. The level to which these work is dependent on how well the host and guest know each other, so please adapt accordingly.
* Guest: Please don’t be offended if your host doesn’t accommodate your food issues. If they haven’t had to deal with any, they might be intimidated at the thought of attempting something and then having you get sick anyway. If they’re going to try, and you’re comfortable with their efforts, consider it a gift.
* Host: If the guest says they’ll eat beforehand, please don’t be offended. They’re looking out for their health, not condemning everything you cook or will have at the event. Take it as a BIG compliment that they’re willing to come, even though they won’t be able to eat anything.
* Guest: Don’t try something you know isn’t safe for you just because you’re feeling pressured to do so. Getting sick isn’t worth it. Just politely decline and mention you have food allergies. In my experience, people are pretty understanding.
* Host: If your guest is more comfortable eating beforehand, don’t force the issue. It’s not code for “please try harder.” It usually means that they don’t want to put you out, and would rather make food a non-issue.
* Guest: Understand that your host and the other guests mean well, even if you’re uncomfortable. Most people care very much, but aren’t used to dealing with food issues, and may not be aware if they’re saying something insensitive. It’s also been my experience that most people are seeking to understand something they’re unfamiliar with. If you’re comfortable, be willing to talk about your food issues. We can increase understanding in others if we are willing to talk about food in a calm and positive way.
In this season of holidays, parties and events, may we all be more considerate and deferential to each other. May we find ways to love each other and to appreciate the people who care for us. May we especially be kinder to ourselves.