Category Archives: Life Tastes Good Again

Manifest Vegan’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I *love* pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. It’s one of the things I missed the most going gluten-free. Nobody really made them gluten-free at the time, so I got mad and sad seeing them at the store — especially in the fall. No pumpkin cookies. No pumpkin bread. I was bummed.

Then I was introduced to Life Tastes Good Again (eatingglutenfree.com), and I tried the pumpkin roll. It’s a lot easier than it sounds, and it’s so good. My gluten-eating father has told me many times that I need to stop making it, because he likes it too much. My youngest brother “borrows” it from my parents’ house and takes it to his apartment. My sister-in-law (who did the very lovely design of this blog) has to fight with herself not to take some home with her so she can “be good.”

But I digress. I’ve been on the hunt ever since going gluten-free to find a really good gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. It’s Manifest Vegan’s Super Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie (with a slight adjustment — add one tsp. each of cinnamon and ginger, and a 1/2 tsp. of ground cloves). Voila! The gluten-free and vegan version of what I’ve been missing. I love it so much that I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve made it. Tonight I made a double batch. My husband LOVES them. He snarfs them as quickly as I do, and apologizes if he feels like he’s “ahead.” The ultimate compliment: the texture is so great that you probably wouldn’t know they were gluten-free if you didn’t know.

Make these. I promise you won’t be sorry. (Just a note: Make a lot, because they definitely won’t last long.)

The flours and spices
Creamed margarine, sugar and pumpkin
They smell delicious right out of the oven.

Chocolate Trifle with Summer Berries

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We were invited to a little neighborhood barbeque a few weeks ago, which was a lot of fun! We got to spend some time with the people who live immediately around us. I offered to make a dessert, but was having a tough time coming up with what exactly I should make. I wanted to make something that I could have, and that’s a tall order.

There’s a chocolate frosting in the Babycakes cookbook (it’s the one on the bottom) that I’ve thought for a while now would make an excellent trifle pudding. I was right.*

I took that frosting recipe (I’ve posted it on here before), the chocolate cake recipe from Life Tastes Good Again, threw some summer berries in the middle, and came up with this:

Sorry for the glare, but you’re looking at two layers of: cake, berries, frosting.

Topped off with more berries.

Let me tell you guys, it was awesome. I loved it. It worked out great! It was so delicious. The best part was that several people just started gobbling it up! A few minutes later, it did come out that it was gluten- and dairy-free. I think a few people who hadn’t started eating at that point decided not to, which is both good and bad. Good, in the “more for me” sort of way, but bad in the “gluten-free = healthy = gross” kind of way. I wish we could get away from that perception, but all in good time, I suppose.

I didn’t add any sugar to the berries. The cake and frosting were sufficient, without even being that sweet! Seriously, a great dessert, and super easy. With most trifles, the idea is to serve it completely chilled, with the cake cooling all the way. I didn’t have time, though, so I served it warm, and people loved it.

I will absolutely make it again. It’s pretty easy to have the cake ingredients on hand, but the frosting ingredients take a little more searching and planning. Look for a post in the next couple of days about gathering said ingredients. Easy dessert, delicious. Chocolate. What more can you ask for?

*I believe when I last posted about the frosting, I made it in the food processor to see how it did. It’s definitely the smoothest in the blender. For some reason, the coconut flour is tough to get to blend, but keep the blender going, and it’ll become smooth.

Asian Lime Chicken – 365 Days of Slow Cooking

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Tonight, as The Franchise was helping himself to seconds of this dish, he asked me, “Have you blogged about this yet??”

Asian Lime Chicken from 365 Days of Slow Cooking, my friends.

Since I can’t do chicken, we just used a 1 1/2 lb pork roast (and Featherlight mix for the flour), and let me tell you: delicious. The Franchise cannot stop swooning over the sauce. It’s so good. He went up to get some tonight for dinner, and I hear from downstairs, “Ohhhh, this sauce!!” Yes, it is that good.

It’s also super easy. Essentially, throw it all into the slow cooker for four hours, and you’re good. The recipe says 3-5 hours, and 4 hours was perfect for the pork roast. It just falls apart.

It’s gluten-free, allergy-free for me, but definitely not vegan. :)  It’s delicious over rice. It would probably also taste great with cornbread, since it has a bit of barbeque sauce flavor and texture. The Franchise also emphatically recommended having some asparagus with it — sauteed in butter or olive oil with a little lemon. We didn’t plan ahead far enough for the asparagus, but it just seems like the right choice.

This recipe is a keeper, and I’m definitely going to be looking to 365 Days of Slow Cooking for some more ideas.

Happy Celiac Anniversary!

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It was right around now two years ago that I was sitting in my doctor’s office and told that I have Celiac Disease. (It also happens to be Celiac Awareness Month. Cool, huh?) I’m lucky that my doctor also has Celiac. It means he knows how this all works, and isn’t going to prescribe me something glutenous. That day, he ran and got his laptop and gave me a PowerPoint presentation about Celiac Disease — the same one he gives to other medical professionals. He told me that I had to go gluten-free — that day — or I would continue to destroy the villi in my intestines, I would keep my body from absorbing nutrients, and I would probably get lymphoma. Sounds fun, right? The one regret that I have about that appointment is that I talked my doctor out of ordering me an endoscopy. If I had known then how not-a-big-deal endoscopies are, I would have gone for it.**

I can’t really believe that it’s been two years. Two years! Two years ago, I only knew one person (besides my doctor) who had Celiac Disease. She works down the hall from me, and was a HUGE help getting me going in the right direction. She gave me a little pocket-size ingredients book from (I think?) the Canadian Celiac Association that details which bizarre ingredients have gluten in them and which don’t. Two years later, I know that book is in my house somewhere, but I don’t know where right now. I almost never need it anymore.

Even still, I felt lonely. I felt like no-one had this weird disease. I felt ostracized. Going grocery shopping was hard, and took forEVER, since I wasn’t used to checking every. freaking. label. I almost cried in the middle of Whole Foods the first time I went. I bought Shauna James Ahern’s Gluten-Free Girl book, and read her website until my eyes blurred over. Of anything, that probably helped me the most to not feel quite so alone.

My husband, The Franchise, immediately stepped up to the plate and went (mostly) gluten-free with me. This has meant more to me than anything else. He has never questioned that it’s real. He has never complained about the additional cost of eating gluten-free, or about the costs of all my medical tests and procedures and appointments. He’s willing to try everything I make at least once, and sometimes he even likes my gluten-free version better! (Sometimes, though, like with hummus, he thinks it’s gross and can’t understand why anyone else likes it. :) That’s okay.) When he does eat gluten, he makes sure it’s very well contained and doesn’t contaminate my stuff. When those days pop up where I just feel like food controls my life and that I’m never going to feel better, he’s there to give me a hug, hold me, tell me that he loves me and that it will be okay. I’m very lucky to have married him.

My mom, who’s a nurse, was with me and The Franchise at my diagnosis. She immediately sprang into action and had the rest of my family tested for Celiac, since it’s hereditary. In July of that year, my sister was diagnosed after inconclusive bloodwork and a positive biopsy. My parents have gluten sensitivity, but everyone else is clear. My mom dove into finding out everything she could about gluten-free cooking and baking. She’s the one who found Life Tastes Good Again, and at her recommendation, I bought it a few months later.

Life Tastes Good Again taught me that I can still make “the standard” bready things, gluten-free, and have them taste good. I can’t tell you what that did for my ability to feel “normal.”

I discovered the Udi’s line of products, which have also been a lifesaver. Bread for sandwiches that tastes like…bread? Check. Bagels that are lovely when toasted and smothered with cream cheese (Tofutti brand for me)? Check. Blueberry muffins to die for that are also dairy and soy free? Check. I also hear their pizza crust is great, but haven’t tried it.

In the past two years, I have learned:

* How to read labels like lightening (and how to recognize gluten in its various hidings)
* Fresh foods are delicious!
* It’s a lot easier to avoid gluten if I’m eating fresh, whole foods instead of processed ones.
* I still have bad days when I feel like I’m never going to feel better, but that’s ok.
* So many people have Celiac or gluten intolerance. You might be one of them. If your stomach is always upset, that is not normal. E-mail me at cinderellaspear(at)gmail(dot)com. I can help.
* I love to cook! Seriously…I do. I love playing with flavors and textures and colors, and I’m almost to the point where I can make it look pretty, too.
* I don’t love to bake yet, but I’ll get there…someday.
* Life Tastes Good Again bread recipe + KitchenAid mixer = easiest bread ever, with none of my allergens.
* In addition to the Celiac, I have been diagnosed with gastroparesis, and allergies to beef, chicken, eggs, milk, bananas, carrots, and corn.
* When I don’t eat gluten or allergies and I do my best to eat the right foods in the right amounts for gastroparesis, I feel better.
* Ginger tea is my friend.
* Tofutti brand is my friend.
* I love food!
* People generally want to understand, and just one conversation can raise awareness, which is great. I have people all the time tell me that they saw some gluten-free product somewhere and thought of me. :) It makes me happy.
* I still do feel self-conscious about this, but it’s getting better. Most of the time. I think.
* I have the most supportive family in the world. The summer that I was diagnosed, we went up to our family farm in Idaho, and my “aunt” Tammy bought me a HUGE bag of certified gluten-free oats. That was so amazing, because I love oatmeal. Love it. Always have. Always will. Those bags? Not cheap. She did that for me. My grandpa Armando let us come stay with him last year and was brave enough to let me cook for him. So sweet. So sweet of him to let us stay with him. My in-laws are very supportive — especially my mother-in-law. They’re also brave enough to let me cook for them on occasion, and are always sending me articles and things they find about Celiac.
* There is a wonderful community of people with food issues that I would never have had the chance to interact with had these issues not come up. Thank you for your time and efforts and blogs. We are not alone in this, and it’s wonderful to know you. I hope I can meet you in person.
* Whole Foods? Awesome. I could spend sooooo much money there. It’s good for practicing self-restraint as well as all the awesomeness.
* Good Earth? Also awesome. I get bulk flours and other various & sundry items there.

All in all, I feel very blessed. I’m grateful for the opportunity to find a passion for life and for cooking and food that I didn’t know was there. I’m blessed by the people in my life who support me and who are an example to me. I’m grateful for God, who knows who and what I need, even when I don’t, and who leads me to them.

Here’s to a good and interesting two years, and here’s to many more!

**A year after that appointment when I still wasn’t feeling better, my gastroenterologist ordered an endoscopy without me going back to gluten first, and “didn’t see any villi damage,” so according to him, I have latent Celiac. Latent Celiac refers to having a positive blood test but a negative biopsy. Um…hello? I was gluten-free for a year. That’s usually enough time for the gut to heal. So, whatever. I’m not going back to gluten because that would be miserable, and I’m not going to cheat and then have my “latent” Celiac “turn on” and have to get an endoscopy every year to make sure I’m not doing damage. I’ll just keep going on my merry little gluten-free way.

Two attempts at gluten-free recipe (sort-of) conversion

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Hello, dear readers. I apologize for being a little MIA from the land of blogging, facebook-ing and tweeting about food. There is a reason for this absence: I’ve been trying to (sort of) modify a baking recipe into a gluten-free one.

This is kind of a big deal for me since gluten-free baking is complicated. The chemistry is almost completely different from “regular” baking, and I haven’t figured it out yet. I’m mostly okay with that — I’m more interested in cooking, anyway. And truth be told, I don’t really miss bread. I miss quick breads and cakes, but I don’t really miss bread-bread.

So, over at Gastroparesis and Gastronomy, MK posted a recipe for Fast, Fresh, Hot, Yeast- and Dairy-Free Squash Herb Bread.  It looked delicious, and the recipe she originally got it from mentioned it was made using a gluten-free flour mix. So, I tried it with one (Bette Hagman’s GF mix) and it didn’t turn out. It was toasty and hard in the middle, and sounded done when I thumped it, but it was realllly doughy in the middle.

Crunchy outside, doughy middle

After being mixed

Coming out of the oven

[Edit: Both times I made it, I ignored the advice to knead it. Gluten-free bread does not need to be kneaded (haha...). That's why there is no dusting of flour. Both times, I just used my hands to shape it (first time) and separate it into rolls (second time). I also just run cold water over the knife to make the cross.]

Fail. Did not work. Instead of just giving up, though, I wanted to see if I could get it to work, so I decided I would try using the same gluten-free mix, but split it up into little “rolls,” to see if they would bake faster. I disappeared from the blogosphere because I didn’t have time to try it out until tonight, but couldn’t get past it because it was bothering me. So, tonight, I ended up doing two things differently: 
I mixed it by hand (since my husband cleverly thought I might have over-mixed it…):
Mixed by hand

and I split it up into rolls (but then forgot to take a picture until they were in the oven…):

and then proceeded to bake them for approximately the 35 minutes suggested. Really, I just kept checking on them until they were about as browned as I wanted them to be on top:
Up close and personal

When they got out of the oven, I was eager to see how they worked, so I cut one open. It looked a little doughy, but worlds better than the last attempt. Then, I remembered my friend Frieda (who loves bread) told me that sometimes breads like this continue to bake while they’re cooling, and it’s important to let them. So, I did my best to be patient, and then took a peek. 

They look doughy, but surprisingly, they’re done. Mostly. I haven’t decided yet if they’re still a little doughy, or if they’re just soft and moist. They definitely bounce back when I touch them. So, I’m going to label this a success. Also, they taste really good. I especially love the herbs.
So, they’re gluten-free, yeast-free, vegan, low-fat and delicious. Hooray! Maybe next time I’ll try using Bette Hagman’s french bread mix and see if that’s closer to the texture I was expecting.
Even if you don’t have to eat gluten-free, try these. You won’t be sorry.

Ha! Mine is so much better than that!

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This week I went to Smith’s to get groceries, and the first thing I saw when I walked in and turedn toward the produce was a display of cake rolls presumably made by the Smith’s bakery. Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and lemon. For the first time that I can think of, I walked by the display, looked at the rolls, and thought, “my pumpkin roll* is so much better than that.” It felt so good! I actually did not want a store-bought good, and it wasn’t even about gluten. It was about quality.

Writing that out made me think of a similar event just today! This afternoon I was in Whole Foods, getting some essentials, and walked over to where the Udi’s products are kept. I was looking for blueberry muffins, but they were out. They did still have some cinnamon rolls. I looked at them and thought, “I’d prefer the ones I make*. I don’t need these,” and just walked by. Those are even gluten-free!

Even though I was feeling bad about my circumstances while I was at Whole Foods (I was really craving cheese and shredded wheat, but not together), I’m glad that I can look at store-bought baked goods and prefer what I make instead.

The more I cook and bake, the more I try new things, the more satisfaction I receive, and the happier I am. I consider that pretty major progress.

* The pumpkin roll and cinnamon roll recipes are in the cookbook Life Tastes Good Again.

Thanksgiving 2010

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Thanksgiving this year was different than usual.

Well, let me back up.

In most years prior to the gluten-free diagnosis of my family, we had Thanksgiving with my dad’s family. It was potluck-style, with all of us (around 60 people!) gathering at someone’s house and bringing a vast assortment of dishes. I think my grandma usually made the turkey, with sometimes someone bringing another turkey. There were all the classics — green bean casserole, frog-eye (or ambrosia) salad, my mom makes this green salad that everyone loves, several jello salads, pasta salad, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, chips and at least two kinds of (dairy-based) dip, many pies (especially several of my grandma’s speciality — pumpkin), ice cream, dinner rolls, and the absolute must-have, without which Thanksgiving is NOT Thanksgiving — cinnamon rolls!

Now, as you can imagine, for someone with Celiac Disease and multiple food allergies, this is scary. Not only are there many ingredients that could make me rather sick, since it’s self-serve potluck, there is the great potential for cross-contact between the dishes while people aren’t paying attention.

Thanksgiving 2009 was the first gluten-free Thanksgiving, so we opted to withdraw from the family festivities so we could figure out what in the world we were doing. We went over to my grandma’s house “for pie,” so we weren’t social recluses, but even that was scary! We tried to help people understand that you had to use one utensil for the gluten-free pies and a different utensil for the regular pies, but I saw at least one person use one server for all the pie. Which is why I got mine first.

This year, we were social recluses again, but invited over my brother’s in-laws. It was fun! It was smaller, and a lot easier to control the gluten dishes. The trick this year was dealing with my allergies. We had gluten-free turkey, obviously. :) For the mashed potatoes, my mom usually makes them with butter and milk, but she separated a bowl of them for me before she did that that she made with olive oil. She made gluten-free stuffing from Udi’s bread (which I didn’t have, but I’m not really a stuffing person to begin with). The gravy she thickened with potato starch instead of cornstarch. Amazingly enough with that, she liked the end result much better! You know how, when you try to warm up gravy the next day, it’s all globby and won’t go back to that lovely texture? Try it with potato starch instead. It warms up so much more nicely. She makes this wonderful jello salad with raspberry jello and all sorts of fruits inside with a cream cheese frosting. She made me my own little cupful without bananas, and without the frosting! I was tickled. Last year, as much as my dad liked the gluten-free cinnamon rolls, he really missed the regular glutenous rolls from his family, so she made the regular ones (and actually had to go buy regular flour..haha) and I was in charge of the gluten-free cinnamon rolls. I made them using the recipe in Life Tastes Good Again, but used muffin tins and bread pans.The Franchise made green beans with bacon which were a big hit.

When we’re just with my family, my mom makes my grandma’s pumpkin pie and her own chocolate pie. The thing with my grandma’s pumpkin pie is that the filling is actually a baked custard that you cook and refrigerate and only put into the pie crust about 5 minutes before you serve it. At this point, I still hadn’t tried eggs and dairy baked in things, so the pies were out. Instead, I decided to make a dessert I knew I could have.

In Life Tastes Good Again, there’s a pumpkin roll recipe that I love. The main problem, though, is the frosting! Cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. I bought Tofutti brand cream cheese to try it out. I used Nucor margarine (which doesn’t have lactose or casein in it), and just thought that powdered sugar would be no problem. I went to the store, and wrong! Powdered sugar’s ingredients: sugar, cornstarch. No good. I called The Franchise and asked him to Google “making your own corn-free powdered sugar,” and there’s a lot out there! The method I chose was to use a coffee grinder and grind sugar and potato flour together. (Here’s the link if you’re interested: It’s number 5 on the list.) It worked beautifully. I bought a really small coffee grinder, though, so it took a while. The pumpkin roll turned out great! If you choose to go this way, though, make sure you have plenty of time to refrigerate it before you serve it. The Nucor makes the frosting kind of runny, but refrigeration helps it set.

It ended up being a wonderful Thanksgiving where everyone had plenty to eat. I’m definitely thankful for family members and friends who do their best to understand and just roll with things. These people are the greatest blessings in my life.

Dairy, again

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It turns out that small amounts of dairy are okay. That doesn’t mean I will be drinking glasses of cow’s milk or making dairy-based sauces anytime soon, but small amounts seem to be okay.

The other night, I made the chocolate cake recipe from Life Tastes Good Again, and it turned out really well. It’s so moist, and the secret is a cup of sour cream. Make this, and you won’t feel deprived having Celiac Disease…unless even that much dairy messes you up.