Bean's dip

Plain potato chips are gluten and casein free, so are fresh veggies...but most dips for them are not.

I found this vegan non-dairy, GFCF "sour cream" several weeks ago and asked Bean if he wanted to try making a dip out of it. Bean accepted the challenge and he created a dip that the entire family loves!

My 13 year old chef will not reveal his exact recipe but I know that he uses minced garlic, onion powder, garlic powder and dried basil. He made some dip tonight to take to Bart and Claudia's house and it went over quite well. The container was emptied.

I think it helps to involve the kids in making foods that are on our GFCF plan.

GFCF Easter

The pressure was on. I hosted the family Easter dinner today. It had to be gluten and casein free and it had to be GOOD. Especially dessert because I had to make sure nobody missed the milk chocolate bunnies. I decided to make a strawberry trifle.

I baked a gluten free yellow cake and then cut it into about a hundred little pieces. I pretended I was hosting a party for a hundred supermodels. Do you think they'd even eat a piece of cake that big? Yeah, probably not.

Then I whipped up some non-dairy, casein and gluten free whipped topping. We use Healthy Top. It's made from almonds and cashews and it's delicious.

I sliced 3 cups of strawberries and heated them in a saucepan with 3/4 cups water and 1 1/2 cups sugar. I heated the strawberry sauce to boiling and then boiled it for 3 minutes.

I removed the sauce from heat. Then I mixed together 4 Tablespoons of cornstarch with 3/4 cups cold water and added it to the heated strawberries. Heat again until thickened.

Bread slabs

My new GFCF cookbook, Cooking for Isaiah, has a recipe for bread slabs. I had never baked anything referred to as a slab before but they looked like a great alternative to buns or sandwiches made from slices of gluten free bread so I made some. The recipe is incredibly easy. It uses the flour mix recipe given in the cookbook and a few other ingredients that include yeast, egg whites and olive oil.
You simply stir together the dough and then let it rest for 30 minutes under plastic wrap before cutting it into 4 squares. Meanwhile, heat a baking stone in a hot oven (450 degrees).

Place the dough slabs on the hot stone and bake for 10 minutes.

That's all it takes! 10 minutes! They poof up and brown up all nice and crispy on the outside. They even smell good while baking (not all GF bread does).

They make a great PB & J. Bean loves PB & J sandwiches. Java isn't a real bread eater so I cut hers in half before packing it in her lunch.

I ate the other half. It was good. Not just "I can tolerate this as a bread substitute good" but really GOOD!

Baked Kale Chips- addicting!

Leafy green vegetables aren't exactly my kids' favorites but today I heard words like "Amazing!" "Addicting!" "They taste like potato chips!" about one.

Kale.

I washed a bunch of kale and removed the large stems from the leaves. Then I dried the kale completely. You can do this with one of those salad spinners but I don't have one so I used paper towels.

For the first batch we used olive oil and sea salt. For the second batch we added some nutrional yeast. (This is not an active yeast. I bought it in bulk at the local food co-op. It has a nutty, cheesy flavor and is a great source of protein and B vitamins.)

Bake for 20 minutes at 300 degrees and the leaves become crisp like a potato chip! We ate the entire two batches! A leafy green vegetable addicting? Believe it!

Pizza crust- we have a winner!

I think I found a winner in our quest for a gluten free pizza crust recipe! I won't post it here because it is in this cookbook ("Cooking for Isaiah") and if you are living GFCF you really need to buy the cookbook. Treat yourself. You won't be disappointed.
Also in the cookbook...a recipe for a creamy garlic sauce. We used it to make our chicken garlic pizza. This nummy garlic sauce and some cooked chicken on the baked pizza crust, baked again for about 15 minutes. So good. Who needs cheese?! (OK, I still miss cheese but this was still darn good without it.)

We also had a Chicken Thai pizza. I've posted about that favorite of ours before.

Chicken Thai pizza has a peanut Thai sauce (gluten free, purchased), cooked chicken, shredded carrots, chopped peanuts, green onions and cilantro. Both pizzas were delicious!

GFCF whipped topping

I am so excited! I found a delicious substitute for whipped cream! I ordered a case from Amazon and it was just delivered. I had to try it. It whipped up just like cream but it is made from almonds and cashews!

So tonight's supper was a little breakfast-y. And it was goooood.

Gluten free waffles topped with casein free whipped topping. GFCF good eatin'.

Sneaky source of veggies

Venti was out with friends so I didn't get his opinion, but Java and Bean loved last night's supper. Bean had two BBQ sandwiches and thanked me several times for making them. He said he liked the sweetness of the BBQ meat so after he ate his first sandwich I told him what the secret was...

Along with ketchup and mustard, sweet onions and chopped peppers, there was also creamy butternut squash soup in the BBQ meat mixture. I've started keeping a carton of this in the refrigerator and heating up a mug of it during the day when I might otherwise reach for something not as healthy. It's been a great sweet craving satisfier for me and now it's a sneaky source of veggies for the kids. I win.

Java begged me to buy a watermelon yesterday. Obviously watermelon aren't growing in these parts yet so it's been trucked up from goodness knows where...but it was good. So were the fresh green beans that were most likely on the same truck. The other dish shown is the mac and cheese made with Quinoa shell noodles, almond milk, Earth Balance "butter" and Daiya "cheese". It's one of Java's GFCF favorites.

Baking with office supplies

The last time I made hamburger buns I had a hard time shaping the tin foil to bake them in. The buns ended up rising a little high and were kind of hard for the kids to eat. Although they managed. I found a perfect sized form to make the tinfoil molds in the office supply section of the local dollar store. I formed six baking cups around this little desktop stuff holder and sprayed the inside of each tinfoil cup with non-stick baking spray.

I made a loaf of GFCF bread and another batch of GFCF bread dough for the buns. I divided it between the 6 tinfoil molds and let everything hang out in a warm, moist, dirty oven.

After about an hour I brushed egg white on the top and sprinkled sesame seeds like I was the sesame seed fairy.

They baked up golden brown and were the perfect size and shape for tomorrow night's BBQ sandwiches.

I just hope nobody gets into them before tomorrow night.

Freezer foods

Meatballs are a regular stand-by meal around here. I usually make them up dozens at a time, cook them, and then freeze them for quick and easy meals. Tonight I just made enough for one meal plus leftovers. (Leftovers are usually tomorrow's breakfast or lunch.) I don't always use the same ingredients and I never measure them so it's hard to give an exact recipe but the meatballs consist of ground beef, an egg, ketchup, some GFCF crumbs (purchased or made from crackers of ends of bread), garlic, minced onion or onion powder, salt, pepper and whatever other spices look good. Roll into balls and bake until cooked through.

Meanwhile, boil some GF pasta and open a few cans of Hunt's 100% natural tomato sauce. I don't bother with fancy spaghetti sauces, I just sexy up this stuff with some garlic and Italian seasonings. (Always check seasonings to be sure they are GFCF.) Cover the cooked meatballs with sauce...

...and stick it back in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Serve with pasta. Enjoy!

After supper tonight we took out a few frozen pieces of cake that I had hidden away and we topped them with the strawberries that were left over from lunch. The cake is a Betty Crocker gluten free yellow cake and it's pretty darn good. (As long as I'm reviewing gluten free cake mixes here...we also like the Namaste brand chocolate cake mix but the Namaste vanilla cake didn't go over as well.)

I am using my freezer now more than ever before.

Simple and kid pleasin'

Today's lunch had to be quick, easy and kid pleasin'. We've had some recent temptations and the kids needed a little boost. And StarBUCK is sick so my time in the kitchen was not without interruption. Lots of it. This meal was very do-able even with constant interruptions. This is our favorite store bought GFCF barbeque sauce. Sweet Baby Ray's. Mmmm, mmmm, good. The kids especially like it on chunks of chicken. (*Note: the size of the chicken chunk is important...too big and they don't look kid friendly, too small and the little gluten free darlings think they need a bun.) I baked the chunked up chicken until the pieces were just done, then I added the sauce and baked another 10 minutes.

Complete the meal with some Ore Ida Tator Tots (they are GFCF!), ketchup (several brands are GFCF), a pitcher of cold lemonade and strawberries. (Remember: simple and kid pleasin' was the goal for this meal. We'll work a little more nutrition in as we get over this recent hump.) ♥

Random noodle & supper post

It's kind of random but I have to tell you about my new favorite noodle of all time. Quinoa linguine! I ordered a case of it last week and it's going fast. Java had three bowls of it one night so I had to make up an extra box! The rest of us had a spaghetti meat sauce on ours, but she ate hers just with our vegan "butter". Soooo much better than regular old spaghetti noodles! This is what we are having for supper tonight. Rice with sausage, onions, garlic and carrots.

I used GF chicken broth and some spices to give it a bit of a kick. Even doubtful Bean liked his taste test.

Good eatin'. Fairly inexpensive, too!

Kabobs

We'll probably be having shish kabobs a lot this summer. It's a GFCF meal that everyone in our family loves, even the adult children who don't seem to come home as often for meals now that we're GFCF. I marinate the mushrooms and chicken separately in a mix of canola oil, red wine vinegar, honey and GF soy sauce. Then I wrap the chicken in bacon.

For the beef kabobs, I cut up a few rib steaks (from our quarter beef...otherwise I almost never splurge on steak!) Then I rub the beef cubes with olive oil and some sea salt. I made a few just veggie kabobs, too.

Grill, throw together a fruit salad, and you've got my favorite GFCF meal...so far!