gluten-free

Easy Salad Prep: A Time-Saving Hack for Healthy Eating

by

Everyone seems to agree that salads made by other people are the best. Whether ordering one at a restaurant or picking one up in the deli section of a grocery store, there’s just something so satisfying about eating all that healthy, crunchy goodness without having to be the one to chop it all up and then see some of it potentially go bad in the fridge. I have had a particularly acute aversion to making salads, especially because I was the only one to really enjoy them in my house, so the prep and waste never felt worth it.

That is, until this summer when I figured out a hack that works for me to avoid waste and to condense the prep time to something more along the lines of soup which I gladly make. This came about through watching my Iranian friend make a similar salad every time we cooked together, and I realized I loved the simple base but wanted to add onto it as I ate through the leftovers for a few days. I thought I’d share, despite the fact we are entering into soup season and leaving salad season behind for now, in case this helps anyone else overcome their salad making block.

The problem for me has always been the fact that if I chopped up all the ingredients and put everything together in one big salad spinner to store for a few days, that the lettuce or mixed greens I used would inevitably wilt, and I’d get sick of eating the exact same salad every day. The simple hack I’ve found is to chop up cucumbers, tomatoes, part of a red onion, and a quarter of a green or red pepper, and store those separately with half a lime squeezed over them, as well as some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, seasoning salts, and some black pepper. That way, I can pull it out when I want and add it to some greens with any protein I have on hand for a salad, or use it in a wrap, with or without leafy greens.

It’s customizable so you can add in whatever salad fixings you like best, like radishes or carrots, or trade red onions for green, or leave out the pepper or double the cucumber ratio. Feta is a great choice to add in either while storing in the fridge or wait until serving, and I like to add fresh herbs to dishes once they are plated in a salad or wrap. Fresh basil leaves or cilantro work great with this base and are my favorites, but peppermint would be a good choice for summer roll inspired dishes.

Here’s my basic recipe for the base:

2 Persian Cucumbers or 1 regular cucumber

1 or 2 on-the-vine tomatoes

Chopped red onion to taste (I like about 3 heaping tablespoons)

1/4 of a green or red pepper

Half of a lime

Olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste (I use about 1 tablespoon each)

Seasoning salts to taste (1 teaspoon is a good place to start)

Ground pepper

I love how this supports variety in my meals and it’s so much easier to do most of the prep work all at once so when it’s mealtime, there are healthy, easy options available because when I’m hungry, easy is an important factor. When I get home from teaching a three hour class with an hour of class prep beforehand and an hour of meeting time afterwards, the last thing I want to do is chop veggies for lunch. Having a choice that is already chopped and ready to just put in a wrap with some falafels and garlic sauce, or spoon on top of greens with some tuna, makes a huge difference.

Meals should be enjoyed stress-free so please let me know your favorite hacks for healthy eating in our time-crunched world.

I’ve been searching for this all my life

by

OK, maybe not ALL my life, but as long as I’ve been cooking gluten-free foods, I’ve looked for gluten-free tortellini and have never found any (other than mail order frozen stuff which never looked appealing.) This is fresh pasta, found in the refrigerator section (although could potentially be found in the freezer section) AND there is a dairy free version as well. Cue the heavenly choir!

Manini’s is a local company here in the greater Seattle area (I’m not affiliated), but they have a wide presence and you can find their products through Amazon Fresh. Their 4 cheese tortelloni (not sure where they are getting their spelling from but I guess I’ll adopt it here) is a favorite with my youngest son and I enjoy it too, although the real reason I have searched high and low for this sort of pasta is to make tortellini soup. My oldest requires the dairy-free version so I plan on making the soup using the dairy free version when he’s home from college over the holidays.

Have a festive Thanksgiving to all those in the U.S. this week. I am grateful for you!!

Updated Muffin Recipe

by
Gluten-free Dairy-free muffins

Fall hasn’t truly set in here but the urge to spend more time in the kitchen has shown up on time anyway. We didn’t need muffins in the house, especially now that we are down to two, but muffin baking beckoned regardless. My original vegan take on Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free recipe for blueberry muffins can be found here, but it never quite right to me. Yesterday, instead of looking at what I’d done before, I started from scratch with Bob’s recipe and modified it anew, but this time I used eggs instead of an egg replacer. If you want these to be vegan, just use your favorite egg replacement. (Mine is simply to use 1 tablespoon of flax seed meal with 3 tablespoons of warm water per egg.) As last time, my recipe does not include any berries because my son prefers baked goods without berries, but 1.5 cups of blueberries can be added, or if you have raspberries, those would be especially good with the vanilla and cinnamon. These muffins are great without any berries though and taste almost like a biscuit, but not quite. (I think the 2 teaspoons of baking powder are also what give it a biscuit-y taste.)

This recipe that I manipulate is right on the back of Bob’s Red Mill’s Gluten-free One-to-One flour which is my favorite gf flour for baked goods. It’s easy to use and it saves me from buying a handful of different flours to mix and match trying to find the perfect blend. The other main thing I do with this recipe is to reduce the sugar by quite a bit, and to use both cane sugar and brown sugar. This might be why my muffins end up tasting somewhat like a biscuit instead of just a pure muffin, but they are still tasty as can be. Whenever I make these, I go ahead and double the ingredients to make 24 muffins, but the following is for 12 regular-sized ones.

Vanilla-Cinnamon Gluten-free, Dairy-free Muffins

(I am affiliated with Mountain Rose Herbs but not with any of the other pages I have linked to.0

2 Cups Bob’s Red Mill GF 1-to-1 Baking Flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup vegan butter

1/2 cup cane sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract (here’s how to make your own!)

2 eggs

1/2 Nutpod French Vanilla Oat Creamer

1.5 cups of optional ingredients such as blueberries, raspberries, or even chocolate chips

Start by preheating oven to 425 degrees and prepping your muffin pan with either paper liners or spray oil. Add the dry ingredients (besides the sugar) together in a bowl and stir. Cream the sugar and softened vegan butter together with a hand mixer. Add the vanilla and mix again. Add the eggs and mix, then add the dry ingredients a bit at a time while mixing, rotating with adding the half cup of oat creamer. At this time, you can add in any other ingredients that you want, such as 1.5 cups berries or chocolate chips, but they taste great just plain. It’s a very thick batter, not runny at all. Scoop the batter into a prepared muffin pan for 12 normal sized muffins. Put the pan in the oven and immediately turn down the temperature to 375 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes, then let them cool on a cooling rack for at least five minutes before digging in.

Gluten-free, Dairy-free Muffins that you can add berries to if you like or eat plain like we do

I hope the call to the kitchen continues and I get back to soup making soon, but where I live has a tiny kitchen compared to my old place which makes it a little less inviting. I shouldn’t complain, and I’m not because honestly, I love where I live and think it’s far better than my old place for many reasons, but cooking just hasn’t been the joy it once was lately. I’m finding joy in other things though, and I hope you too are indulging in joys every day.

Happy fall y’all! 🍂 (And happy spring to those in the southern hemisphere🌷).

Allergen Free Specialty Breads

by

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon My Bread Gluten Free Bakery and since they have styles of gluten-free bread that are rather hard to find, I decided to give them a try although I personally dislike buying groceries online. I figured that they would be a fun treat and that I could then go on with life as before. The good news is that the boys and I love the bread, all the styles we tried are amazing, and the bad news is that I’ve slipped further into the online grocery shopping hole.

You can find this brand in some stores, but the only one near me is in a close by city which I rarely go to. If you look for it at a store, it might be in the freezer section but don’t let that bother you because the bread perks up really nicely. I’m not affiliated with them but I have a referrer code that gets you $3 off your order (and I think they will send me $3 off my next order too~ win-win!) so if you buy online, use this code: http://mybreadglutenfree.refr.cc/kristenschuhmann and this month (May 2021) if you order $50 worth of products (trust me, it’s easy to do) then add Soft Breadsticks to your order, the breadsticks are free! The soft breadsticks are one of the things that we always buy and love so that is a great bonus.

The breads are not only gluten-free, but also dairy free, soy free, nut free, and egg free. We love the baguettes for making sub sandwiches and “cheesy bread”, the soft breadsticks are perfect with salads and soups, and the flatbreads are delicious warmed up like pitas or made into personal pizzas. We make regular pizzas on these with red sauce and cheese (vegan cheese for some of us~ we like Daiya shredded mozzarella and cheddar), but we like even more rubbing olive oil on these and adding grilled chicken, garlic, red onions, artichoke hearts, basil, and oregano, preferably with a side salad.

Flatbread Pizza

In other food allergy news, my sister sent me this article stating that milk allergies are now causing more severe reactions that tree nuts and peanuts. Usually we think of milk allergies as simply causing discomfort, but this article shows that kids are ending up in the hospital and having severe anaphylaxis reactions. Most people do eventually outgrow milk allergies, but they are learning now that the age is generally later than formerly thought. Keep in touch with your doctor about the latest thinking over when to retry milk if you or someone you love has been diagnosed with a milk allergy.

Let me know if you give My Bread Gluten Free Bakery a try! They have other goodies than the ones I mentioned, but those are the ones that are hard for me to find in my usual grocery haunts!

Vegan, GF, Vanilla Pound Cake

by

If you’ve visited here for a year or more, you certainly know by now that I’m not a fan of traditional Thanksgiving foods. Although, I must say that as far as those foods go, the desserts aren’t bad, but if you are looking for something else to add to holiday get togethers (wait, are we going to be able to get together at all this season?) scratch that. If you are looking for an easy dessert to have around the house this holiday season, or to gift your gluten-free and/or vegan friends, this is an easy, yummy recipe and it can be customized according to your tastes. Plus, pound cake in an appropriate breakfast food, right? Add some Greek (DF) yogurt and a satsuma, or an apple with peanut butter, and you have a full meal. Really, a pound cake is basically a muffin in a different shape when you think about it.

I looked for a simple recipe online that I could easily change to gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free, and this one from Dinner then Dessert worked well. It lured me in with an advertised ten minute prep time and hour bake time, and it didn’t let me down. This was the easiest thing I’ve baked lately and my sons and I have enjoyed every bite.

Here’s the recipe, but keep in mind it’s completely customizable to your own dietary needs and tastes. You can add chocolate chips or cinnamon for example, which I considered, but then decided to keep it purely vanilla. If you don’t do dairy but eggs work for you, I recommend using the eggs instead of the flax if you want that pretty golden color that pound cakes wear so well. Mine turned out more of a dull brown than golden but it still shined in taste. Here’s the recipe:

GF, Vegan Pound Cake (Modified from Dinner then Dessert by Sabrina Snyder)

Ingredients:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep a 8×4 inch loaf pan with a coating of vegan butter or spray with coconut oil. Sprinkle a small bit of flour on top of the oil/butter. Also, my loaf pans are 9×5 so the pound cake came out a bit shorter and wider, but it works.
  2. Mix the flax seed meal with the warm water and set aside. I always do this in a mig for easing pouring.
  3. Mix the vegan butter and sugar with a handheld mixer, or in a standing mixer. on high speed and beat until light and fluffy. It takes a couple of minutes for the mixture to get fluffy and really this is the most labor intensive part of the recipe. Trust me, it’s worth the three minutes.
  4. Turn down the speed of the mixer and add the vanilla and the flax mixture (these can be in the same mug), mix a bit and then add the milk alternative.
  5. Add in the flour, baking powder, salt, and anything else you want in your cake and mix until just combined. It’s ready to pour into the loaf pan and bake for an hour. Cool on a wire rack before digging in.

Have a great Thanksgiving if you are in the U.S. and I hope everyone, everywhere, has a lovely start to the holiday season.

Peace and Gratitude to all ☮🙏✨

Gluten-Free and Vegan Not a Recipe

by

I have never been so tired of cooking in my life. I know some people have become inspired by this lock down and groups of friends are exchanging recipes in chain letter fashion, but not me. I was asked to join one of those recipe exchanges and I declined, not because I didn’t want to share a recipe but because the thought of 36 emails coming at me with recipes I had no intention of making was more than I could stomach. (Pun intended.) There are three of us here, two of us eat relatively the same with avoiding gluten and dairy, and the other one is extremely picky, lives on gluten and dairy, and refuses to eat leftovers. Adding to the meal plan disruptions, the boys have taken full advantage of the online schooling and are sleeping until late morning or early afternoon, while I’m still waking up at dawn-ish so our timing is all off. That actually isn’t quite as bad as it sounds because the boys are teenagers and can eat pretty much anytime, all the time. In other words they can have breakfast at 11:AM and lunch at noon no problem. If I let it, this all means I can be in the kitchen making one meal after another all day long and by dinner time I’m not happy about it. In regular times the boys take care of their own breakfasts and lunches on school days, so I’ve tried to keep that going in this strange time, but for some reason it just hasn’t worked like that more days than not. Probably because if I’m making myself food, it’s just not possible to not end up making them food as well. So, the default dinner has turned into either gluten free pizzas, one with dairy and the other not, or gluten free and vegan mac n’ cheese, or its more posh cousin, pasta with Alfredo sauce, also gluten and dairy free. I thought I’d provide an overview of these with reviews in case you too are looking for the easiest way to get dinner on the table with as little effort as possible.

For pizzas, I use Trader Joe’s gluten free flat breads that can be found in packs of two in the refrigerated session. For one son I add Trader Joe’s vegan pesto, shredded vegan cheese, red onions, and turkey pepperoni slices. For the other son I add regular red sauce and shredded mozzarella or an Italian cheese mix. For myself I add 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil to each flat bread (I make each of us two flat breads at a time), sea salts mixed with herbs, extra basil, oregano, and rosemary. I cook these on 425 for about 10 minutes and make up a salad at that time for one of my sons and myself, and cut an apple up for the other.

Makes great bread sticks
Ingredients are gluten, dairy, and egg free
Easy gluten-free focaccia

Whole Foods has a vegan Alfredo sauce that the boys love. I’ve never tried it but they are happy to eat it any time with either Trader Joe’s gluten free penne or fusili. We sometimes get Jovial’s gluten free pastas which are a treat but usually eat the Trader Joe’s versions more often. My gluten and dairy eating son likes all these too by the way. That is saying a lot.

3D23850A-6297-4043-852D-09248F1F0D1A

Daiya’s mac n’ cheese and Alfredo boxes have been my sons’ go to meals of late. Again, both my sons love these which makes my life so much easier. To be honest, I’ve tried these and I don’t really love either one, but my sons think they are awesome so it doesn’t really matter what I think. I can eat them if I really don’t feel like making myself something different, but usually what I do is saute garlic, broccoli, onions, and smoked salmon to eat on top of the Daiya boxed food. (One son eats it all together, one needs them on separate plates.) I put the sauteed food on top of a salad or eat it on some other carb such as leftover rice which we almost always have. Easy enough. (The pics below are off their respective websites because I need to go to the grocery and get more.)

The last gluten free and vegan mac n cheese we have tried lately is Annie’s. This is the kind that needs to be mixed with non-dairy butter and milk, but I personally think this one is better than the Daiya. My sons disagree and since I’m making it for them, I’ll stick with the Daiya, but if you try the Daiya and are not thrilled, give Annie’s a try. I liked it.

Organic Gluten Free Vegan Cheddar Mac

What are your quick dinner ideas when you don’t feel like cooking? Or are you cooking up a storm and loving it? Whether you are relying on boxed foods or letting your inner Julia Child come out to play, do whatever it takes to stay sane during this strange time.

 

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake (GF, Vegan, Soy Free)

by

It’s my son’s ‘sweet 16 in quarantine’ birthday and we decided a cookie cake was just the thing for celebrating. Usually we have traditional (gf) cakes for birthdays but considering we are just three beings sheltering in place without any chance of friends coming by to celebrate, a cake just seemed too much. I suggested a cookie cake to my son and he said he’d never had one (?!) and that it sounded great. That got me thinking…where have all the cookie cakes gone? I seem to recall every mall in the 90’s having a specialty store that sold nothing but cookie cakes. One year in high school I got my then boyfriend one for Valentine’s Day and then somehow ended up carrying it sideways to get it through a small space which of course made it a cookie lump, instead of a cookie cake. Apparently it was still tasty anyway, and of course it was because cookie cakes are ridiculously good no matter what, right?!

I found a recipe on Pamela’s website and intended to use it with Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix, but I realized just in time that there is dairy in the mix and my son has been really trying to keep all dairy out of his diet so that wasn’t going to work. I replaced the mix with Bob’s Red Mill One to One GF Flour and added salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and also substituted the egg with flax and water and the butter with vegan butter. Here’s the link to Pamela’s directions if you want to do a (simpler) dairy and egg version, and below is the recipe that I did with all the modifications.

GF, Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake:

DIRECTIONS

I put a piece of parchment paper in my 9 in circular pan and preheated the oven to 325°. I went ahead and put the flax in a small mug with the water because it take about 10 minutes to thicken into a proper egg replacement. Next I softened the vegan butter a bit before creaming it with the sugars. After that, I added the flax with water and vanilla to the bowl and mixed well. Once everything was fairly well blended, I added the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and blended again until well mixed. Then I added the chocolate chips and 1 Tbs of nutpods creamer because it just looked a tad too dry. You can use any non dairy milk you have on hand if your mix looks dry as well. Pour the dough into the pan and spread it out as flat as possible. Bake for 33 to 38 minutes, checking the middle with a toothpick or fork before taking it out to cool. Mine took 35 minutes and then about an hour to fully cool enough to decorate.

finishedcookiecake

Celebrations are looking pretty different these days but I hope you are all doing well and have something to celebrate in this strange time, even if it’s just the change of seasons.

Health and happiness to you!

 

 

Dairy-free is the New Dairy

by

Moooooove over gluten, dairy is the new star ‘free from’ food.

Is it just me or is the dairy-free food group going through a renaissance just as the gluten-free food aisle did a few years ago….? It sure seems to me like there are new dairy-free options popping up all over the place, and color me happy about it. Neither my oldest son nor I can eat much dairy without it causing problems, and we certainly have company in that arena. I’ve heard that the only people who can successfully digest dairy are those (heritage-wise) from Northern European countries, but I don’t know how accurate that is. It seems some people react to the casein, some to the lactose, and some just to all of it. Dairy is a wide category though and it’s important to note that some people can handle things like yogurt, kefir, and some cheeses because of the way they are made with cultures, and for some people it’s a matter of quantity. They might eat a little cheese a couple of times a week and have no problems, but eat dairy every day and lots of problems. And of course there seem to be more vegans all the time so they are definitely driving this dairy-free trend as well.

We tried Daya’s new gluten-free and dairy-free Alfredo style mac and cheese and were pleasantly surprised by the taste. I added cracked pepper on top and it was quite close to a regular gluten and dairy-full Alfredo. We were impressed for sure! I added stir-fried smoked salmon, broccoli, garlic, and onion on top which certainly made it taste less like it was out of a box, but the next day we ate leftover Alfredo just plain and it was great. I’ll be stocking up on Daya for quick and easy dinners.

I’ve also been making my son pizzas with vegan pesto from Trader Joe‘s and shredded dairy-free mozzarella style cheeses. One is from Trader Joe’s and the other is from a company called Violife whose whole line looks promising. He likes both cheese brands and thinks they taste very similar.IMG_0709

We both like different dairy-free yogurts. He likes the vanilla coconut yogurt from Trader Joe’s and so do I but it has more sugar than I like, so I eat So Delicious‘s unsweetened version of vanilla. I was curious what other dairy free goodies are now out there that I should try out on my son and I, so I checked out what New Hope discovered at Expo West and found some tasty-looking treats to share.

(The following portions of this post was provided by New Hope Network. I am a member of the New Hope Influencer Co-op, a network of health and wellness bloggers committed to spreading more health to more people.)

Culina Botanical Yogurt AlternativeCulina
One of the best nondairy yogurts we’ve ever tasted, Culina won us over with its ultra-creamy cultured coconut base, floral botanical add-ins (the Strawberry Rose flavor was beautiful) and lack of plastic packaging. Instead, each yogurt is packaged in a terra cotta flower pot lined with a food-safe, biodegradeable glaze.

Bla Bla Foods Valling Oat MilkValling

Swedish moms favor giving välling, a thick, creamy oat beverage, to toddlers before bedtime for a filling, healthy boost of vitamins, minerals and calories. Bla Bla Foods’ version features organic gluten-free oats, organic coconut milk powder and organic pea protein. Add two tablespoons to warm water and stir to prepare

Ripple Nutrition Chocolate Dairy-Free Protein Shakeripple
A single-serve, ready-to-drink plant-based beverage that packs in 20 grams of plant protein derived from peas. Sweetness and flavor comes from the addition of organic cane sugar, monk fruit extract and cocoa powder.

Mooala Organic Oatmilk Unsweetened Coconutmooala
Oatmilk was a trending plant-based dairy option at Expo West, and Mooala earns points for launching an unsweetened, USDA Organic blend. This version is blended with organic coconut cream for improved consistency.

Malk Sprouted Organic Oat Malk OriginalMalk
This brand’s dedication to simple formulations and conscious sourcing shine through with this USDA Organic, sprouted oatmilk. Bonus: Malk also pursued The Detox Project’s Glyphosate Residue Free Certification to quell worries about glyphosate-contaminated oats, which is printed on the back of the product packaging.

Milkadamia Macadamia Buttery Spread butteryspread
This beloved nondairy milk brand launched a plant-based buttery spread at Expo West that employs silky, rich macadamia oil to add body and flavor. We also like how no palm oil is used in this formulation.

Wildbrine Plant Based Creamery Cultured Cashew Brie Alternative Beet Blush brie
The fermentation experts at Wildbrine bring their expert knowledge of microbes into the plant-based dairy category with this excellent cashew brie. Tinted with a hint of beets, this USDA Organic plant brie will steal the limelight at cheese parties.

Sprout Living Drinkable Oats Matcha Plant-Based Instant Powder Mix sproutliving
Infused with antioxidant-rich matcha, this oat-based meal replacement also contains nutrient-dense sunflower seed protein, spirulina, golden flaxseed and so much more. We dig the USDA Organic certification, too.

If you try any of these, let me know how it goes! I’m looking forward to trying all of them, especially the brie because brie! and that Culina yogurt because the packaging is superb. If you have a favorite dairy-free food to share, I’d love to hear about that too. Thank you for reading and please share with any vegans or dairy intolerant people you may know.

Cinnamon Almond Granola

by

If you want to make your house smell exceptionally warm and cozy, I highly recommend making this granola. It is short on ingredients and easy to scale up or down or modify to your own particular tastes. I know some people who might want to add cardamom and nutmeg to the mix and honestly I would myself, but my kids tend to like cinnamon on its own so that is what I do. I used gluten-free oats from Bob’s Red Mill, but many celiacsbobs red mill gf oats and people intolerant to gluten cannot eat even certified gluten-free oats. This apparently has to do with the protein molecule being similar in structure to gluten, though it might also have to do with what/how the oats are grown and what has been sprayed on or near them. (Read more about this here or at least look at the graph and draw your own conclusions.) Whatever the reason, listen to your body about eating oats or not. I count myself very lucky to be able to digest oats because I love granola and using oat flour in baking. This recipe is a healthy combination for starting the day because of cinnamon which can help stabilize blood sugar, almonds for the protein and good fats, and coconut oil to keep one satiated longer. Here’s the recipe:

 

 

Cinnamon Almond Granola

3 cups oats (I use gluten-free)

Real Salt

1 cup slivered almonds

1 tbs cinnamon powder

1/2 tsp sea salt (I use Real Salt)

3 Tbs. coconut oil (Somehow didn’t make it into the pics, but very important ingredient!)

1/3 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla extract (make your own!)

Preheat oven to 350. Place parchment paper down on a large, rimmed cookie sheet. Combine the first four ingredients together in a large bowl and mix well. Melt the coconut oil and honey in small sauce pan or just use your microwave for about a minute. Add the vanilla extract to the melted mixture and stir, then pour over the dry ingredients and blend until well mixed. Pour the mixture onto the pan and spread it out as much as possible. Put in the oven for about 15 minutes, stirring every five minutes so that all sides of the granola are exposed at some point. When it turns golden and the kitchen smells mouth-wateringly delicious, it’s ready to cool down and be stored in a glass container, or munched all day long right off the pan.

This is a great addition to smoothies to turn them into smoothie bowls and will be nice to have as an after school snack all week too, if it lasts that long. The other breakfast food I’ve made for the week is a couple of batches of waffles. They are filling and the addition of chocolate chips makes the early morning wake-ups just a tad sweeter for my sons, especially my youngest who is naturally a late sleeper. Waffles are also easy additions to lunch boxes and if you’ve never tried peanut butter or nutella on waffles, you are in for a surprisingly good pairing. These can be especially nice go-to foods for those early days of switching to gluten free eating for newbies, especially for kids, when it suddenly feels like all the comfort foods are out of bounds. Waffles can save the day and I highly recommend employing any and all tactics for making the transition as emotionally comfortable as possible, because changing what you eat in a drastic way is truly life altering and that should be acknowledged. It’s a challenge in other words, and although challenges are necessary and generally for the greater good, so is honoring the emotions as one goes through them.

Thank you for reading and please share with anyone looking for gluten free or just easy breakfast recipes.

Happy October!

spider web

 

 

Throwback to Gluten Free in KY

by

Today I’m sharing a post I wrote several years ago when we were in the thick of food intolerances and avoidance-s. I’m sharing it this week because we are in Louisville again visiting family, and we still do try to mostly eat gluten-free. The only gluten I can eat is in sourdough einkorn and spelt, and my sons feel better off of it for the most part as well, especially my oldest. If you are thinking of visiting Louisville for the famous Kentucky Derby or perhaps to check out the Mohammed Ali museum, you have plenty of gluten free goodies to look forward to. Here’s the post from my old blog:

Photo Credit: Ray Schuhmann
Photo Credit: Ray Schuhmann

Part of the reason I haven’t written much lately has to do with a trip to see my family in Louisville, KY, which turned out to be a very easy place to visit with multiple food intolerances in our crew. The other reason is the sheer craziness of summer with two high-energy boys~ it takes some time to adjust from school year days to summer days and honestly, I’m still adjusting. But, here’s what you will find in Louisville if you head that way (maybe in May…?) It is the Derby City after all.

Annie May’s Sweet Café is a gluten and nut free place that also has a large selection of vegan items. We went there for lunch and immediately regretted having not gone earlier in the trip. My son thought their vegan cream of broccoli soup was ‘epic’ and three of us got sandwiches we very much enjoyed and I was the only one of the three who is even gluten intolerant. The desserts we ate were delicious~ mostly cookies with cream in the middle, some vegan and some not depending on the person. My sons and I had the vegan kind which were dipped in chocolate too and probably the most decadent thing I’ve had in years. I don’t know what the vegan cream was in the middle but it definitely tasted like the real thing and I did not ask because if I knew how to make those things I might never leave my kitchen again.

Just down the road is Bluegrass Burgers which advertises on its sign outside, “Gluten free buns and beers” but it isn’t just buns and beers actually because I asked about the veggie patty and the black bean patty (they have both!) and those were also gluten-free and vegan. They were nice and patient about my questions, something that can be hard to find at restaurants where the going trend is to hate on people with food intolerances. They were extremely friendly and their food was great but there is one warning, their fries are way too good. Seriously, if you don’t want to eat a ton of them, just say no because once you start it’s all over~ they are seasoned to perfection and more addictive than chocolate covered cashews. Highly recommend this place. (And chocolate covered cashews for that matter.)

And of course there’s pizza. There are several places that have gluten-free options, but we chose Blaze Pizza because they have vegan cheese, all the pizza pies are individual size, and they cook them quickly in a wood fire so there (theoretically) isn’t much wait time. I was impressed that when I ordered the gluten-free crusts and vegan cheeses that they asked me if they needed to change gloves when handling those pizzas. They knew what they were doing when it came to allergies and I felt quite safe feeding their food to my kids and eating it myself. We liked the taste but it kind of reminded me of Chuck E. Cheese pizza, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, something about it was just similar…the thinner crust, snappier cheese, slightly sweet tomato sauce. But if that isn’t to your taste, there are plenty of other pizza places that have gluten-free crust options, such as Mellow Mushroom, Impellizzeris, Puccini’s, Uncle Maddio’s, and Cottage Inn Pizza, so basically wherever you are in Louisville you are never far from gluten-free crust.

Something else you are never far from in Louisville are natural foods stores, so in a pinch you can always find allergy free food at Whole Foods, Lucky’s Market, or shop local and visit Rainbow Blossom at one of their five locations.

A surprising amount of allergy-friendly food can be found at the most unusual place of all, and I say that mostly because the town’s name is Santa Claus but also because the amusement park there, Holiday World, is, well, an amusement park (and water park) which generally aren’t hubs of allergy free dining.

holidayworld.jpg

Photo credit: Santa’s Little Helper

This place is about 70 miles from Louisville and well worth the trip if you are traveling with kids or just like rides, water parks, and Christmas music in July. Just check out this list of allergy-free foods that you can get there and you’ll be adding Santa Claus, Indiana to your must-do list. The only thing I caution is to have the list handy with you before you go in to order because the people behind the counter weren’t always up-to-date on the offerings. There seemed to be one person in charge who handled the allergic folks and the rest of them waved her down to deal with us. That was fine with me, as long as there was one person dedicated to keeping us safe I was thoroughly impressed. We also had to wait extra time for the allergy free food so another caution is to go before your four-year old is in low-sugar-sunburnt-over-tired-and-hungry-tantrum-mode, but really it wasn’t too long of a wait, 15 minutes maybe. Of course 15 minutes with a hungry child is a lot longer than 15 minutes with just yourself to worry about, so you’ve been forewarned. But both my sons said the place was better than Disney Land, so check it out.

I’m sure there are plenty of other restaurants that accommodate gluten intolerant people but I just want to highlight one more because their menu is very clear with calling out gluten-free items, along with vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, and whatever other kind of ~ian you want to call yourself, they’ve heard it all before. Ramsi’s Café will fill your worldly cravings when you’ve tried all the gluten-free pizza (impossible!) and eaten all the burgers on gluten-free buns that you can handle. Kids are welcome but if you are going to leave them behind for an evening out with your significant other, this is the place to go. When you are finished with dinner be sure to walk up and down Bardstown Road for some fun shopping and people watching, or grab a movie at the nearby Baxter Avenue Theaters. Enjoy!

If you are interested in pics from this year’s visit featuring a three month old golden retriever puppy, there are a few on my Instagram account. Here are some throwback pics of Louisville trips in the past few years:

WP_20160624_18_44_41_Pro
My sister and oldest son 2 or 3 years ago at parents’ house

WP_20160627_17_26_20_Pro
In this order left to right: me, painted pegasus, BFF (2016) at Captain’s Quarters

InstagramCapture_c69ffbe6-1884-4367-91ea-ba485b63857e
Epic water gun battle at parents’ house

InstagramCapture_5cbeb6b6-a0b0-40ec-8a14-8b208cf98648
Mom and me at Distillery Commons