I like novelty. I like to travel and move and meet new people and try new foods. But at Christmas I like tradition. Part of my Christmas tradition as a little kid was date balls. My grandma made them. Your grandma probably made them. They were one of those things that only grandmas made and only at Christmas. The gluten in original Rice Krispies has kept me from enjoying date balls for almost a decade, so I was thrilled to be able to buy (cue angelic choir) gluten free Rice Krispies. If you make these make sure you use the gluten free Rice Krispies (clearly marked on the box). Regular…
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Basic Gluten Free Banana Bread
Every week we buy bananas. It’s what responsible grown up people with children do. And some of the bananas get eaten. Maybe 3 of the bananas. The rest of the them sort of sit on the counter waiting to be eaten.
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Roasted Winter Vegetables, Vegan, Gluten-Free
Meeting multiple dietary needs in one family (or one person) can be a challenge. In our house, I’m gluten-free and my daughter has recently gone vegetarian, for health reasons. She’s always struggled with just not feeling well, and by experimenting a bit with the food she was eating she has been able to identify meat, fat and sugar as the main culprits. Her decision to cut out meat has changed things up in our kitchen. When we all have dinner together as a family, I make a main dish that is both vegetarian and gluten free, usually a fancy vegetable dish, and then have sides of meat and vegetable based…
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Gluten Free, Grain Free Cashew Flour Pancakes
I am incredibly happy. I have finally found a grain free pancake recipe that I LOVE!! When I was a little kid my dad would make pancakes from scratch. Amazing fluffy, sweet pancakes. And we didn’t eat them with cheap old table syrup. We’d eat them with butter and lemon juice and a little bit of icing sugar.
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Peanut Butter Caramel
This caramel uses only 2 ingredients and is done completely on the stove. You just pour two cans of sweetened condensed milk into a sauce pan, bring it to a slow boil over medium-low stirring constantly, until it’s nice and thick and bubbly (like a thick cake batter). (This step is easy, but it takes FOREVER) Then remove it from heat and stir in a cup of peanut butter. Pour it into a parchment lined cake pan and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. This caramel is really hard to mess up. Even if you slightly burn the bottom and have little brown flakes floating around in it, you just…
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Chicken Noodle Greek Salad
We had company last night. It was way too hot to cook so we ordered McDonald’s for some; but for me, and everyone else who wanted, I made salad. This salad was inspired by my craving for spaghetti coupled with my heat induced laziness. I had some left-over grilled chicken, tomatoes, cucumbers and onions. For the noodles I used individually packaged mung bean vermicelli (because you can soften it with hot tap water- no cooking), one pack per person, but you can use rice vermicelli instead, about 2oz or about 1/2 cup per person.(Unless you’re starving. Then throw in as many noodles as you want. No exact measurements here.) I…
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How to make Polenta
We started eating polenta when we moved back to the United States from Malawi, Africa. In Malawi we ate a corn mush called Nsima with a sauce made of fresh tomatoes and onions. Nsima flour is hard (but not impossible) to find in North America, but Polenta is in almost every grocery store. Even though polenta has a grainier texture than nsima it is an excellent taste substitute. Polenta is also a great pasta substitute, especially if you use pasta simply as a vessel to transport sauce to your mouth. It’s amazingly easy to make, keeps well, and is even better fried in oil the next day. click here to…
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Brown Bag Lunch Chickpea Salad
Taking a lunch to work or school is one of the biggest gluten free struggles. If you have access to a microwave it’s easier, you can take left-overs from the night before. But what if you don’t? Or what if you’re going to an event and you know the food will be full of gluten and you want to bring your own? My friend Joyce introduced me to this fast and easy chickpea salad that has the flavor of that pasta salad your mom used to make for picnics. I used tomatoes, cucumbers and green onions for the vegetables, but you can use whatever you have on hand, even left-over…
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Gluten Free Coconut Quinoa Porridge
My parents are coming to visit from Canada in two weeks!! We’re all very excited here; we haven’t seen them for six months. My mom is also gluten free, and she’s dairy free, and she’s one of those people who needs to eat breakfast every day. Living in Canada she has access to gluten free cereal and rice milk. Unless she’s going to survive on eggs, Thailand is going to be a bit of a breakfast challenge. I’ve only seen gluten free cereal at one grocery store. It’s ten dollars a box. So, I’ve been experimenting with quinoa. This morning I made a quinoa porridge with coconut milk and raisins.…
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How to Make Quinoa
Here’s a quick easy tutorial on making Quinoa. I’m not a huge fan of plain quinoa, but I cook it ahead and use it in other recipes with !FLAVOR! as a side dish or a breakfast cereal. Basic Quinoa Measure out quinoa and place in a strainer. You will cook it in twice as much water. (1 cup raw quinoa, 2 cups water makes 3 cups of cooked quinoa). Rinse the quinoa in a fine strainer. This removes naturally occurring bitter soapy stuff that the plant produces. Place quinoa and water into a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Quinoa is done…
