So, you WANT to eat or HAVE to eat gluten free?

 

What is Gluten?  It is the protein found in wheat, rye, and barley.  Some people have an allergic reaction to it to others with Celiac Disease...it is toxic.  For Celiac patients it damages the lining of the small intestines and interferes with the absorption of nutrients.  And GLUTEN is so common in the American diet, if you are trying to eat gluten free you have a big challenge ahead of you.  And there is no cure for Celiac Disease, it is in your hands to NOT eat the gluten causing you to be sick. 

Be thankful your diagnosis did not come 20 years ago!  CD is/was very difficult to diagnose but now we have so many tools at our disposal!  I am going to just give you a few: 

1.   www.celiac.org is a wonderful organization promoting awareness 

2.   www.celiac.com is a great website for diet information
3.   www.celiaccentral.org is a website for facts, figures, news, community ect.
4.   www.mayoclinic.com is a great place to start with what's allowed in your new diet
5.   Try not to get caught up in the glutenfree.com sites and so forth as you can shop for GF products from them, we have many wonderful places such as Sprouts, Drug Emporium and health food stores in our own city where all of these products can be purchased.  Although www.glutenfree.com does have some wonderful recipes
6.  www.nearlynormalcooking.com  is a fabulous website from an author who has been diagnosed with CD and has perfected the art of baking and living well.  This site is full of tips, products, recipes, and her book
7.  www.glutenfreemall.com is a place where you can order those little GF items you may not find anywhere else
8.  www.glutenfreedrugs.com is an informative site that will list MOST drugs whether prescription or over the counter (OTC) that may contain gluten as a filler, otherwise always check with your pharmacists
9.  www.glutenfreerestaurants.org has a great list of places which offer gluten free menus but let me just say here in Lubbock we have Johnny Carinos, Pei Wei, Funky Door, West Crust Pizza, Olive Garden, Joe’s Crab Shack, Chili’s, Chick-fil-A,  Logan’s Roadhouse and many more.  So don’t be discouraged
10.  www.glutenfreedrinks.com is obviously a great source for you beer drinkers, there are brands you can consume
11.  www.patientsconnect.com is a place where you can talk to other CD patients on a forum
12.  Sign up for helpful websites such as Living Without and Gluten Free Club with Angie to get daily recipes sent to your email address
13.  Books which are helpful are:  The First Year: Celiac Disease by Jules Shephard, The G-Free Diet by Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Peter Green, and Real Life with Celiac Disease by Melinda Dennis
14.  If you have a smart phone PLEASE download the following applications: ‘gluten free restaurant items’, ‘is that gluten free?’, and ‘find me gluten free’.  Some are free downloads and some not, but SO worth it!
15.  You can always search for  gluten free recipes on google
16.  Right off the bat, head to Sprouts or Drug Emporium and get a bread mix in a box-not bad!
17.  And when you are just too frustrated to look something up, call your trusty physician or dietician
 

Here is the thing about my BLOG, I am new to this.  I have only been diagnosed for 3 months and I am learning.  If I tell you a recipe is gluten free, it is up to YOU to make certain you check your ingredients (i.e. baking soda, baking powder, cooking sprays ect) to make certain it is TRULY GLUTEN FREE.  I am not a physician, a nurse or a dietician.   I am doing the best I can with the information I have obtained. 

Sometimes I make a meal thinking it is GF and end up sick because of cross contamination.  Sometimes I make a meal that is GF and it is too horrible to even eat!  But we can certainly work together, communicate and do our best to be healthy together.... I hope this has been some help to you! 

Best Wishes, 

Lisa 

      IT'S NOT ABOUT LIVING WITHOUT, BUT CHANGING HOW YOU LIVE...

Gluten Free Banana Oat Muffins

These muffins are so quick and if you have ripe bananas can be made in about 3 minutes! 

 As I have stated before, I have Celiac Disease and am now eating Gluten Free.  My family is mostly eating gluten free; because I have chosen to continue to make their favorite recipes and alter what I can for myself.  I have had a great deal of difficulty learning about this "thing" called GLUTEN and this is actually a recipe that worked the FIRST time I tried it. 

Every ingredient I use is labeled gluten free and mostly purchased at our local Sprouts and health food stores.  Bob's Red Mill has been a literal life saver for me!  So enough jabber, let's get going:  

2 1/2 cups of oats
1 cup of plain low fat greek yogurt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 ripe bananas 
1/2 tsp of vanilla  and a dash of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400, spray muffin tin with non stick spray, put all ingredients in a blender, and process until smooth.  Pour into tins and bake until golden brown on the top.  Makes about 18 muffins.  Told you it was easy!

 My daughter was dying to     have another bite!

I'm fat enough but I'm certain this would be great with frosting!  Let me know if you do that :)

Honey Cinnamon Apple Pancakes

1 apple will make about 12 pancakes, core it and slice it VERY thin

As always I don't measure, but put about 2 Tablespoons of butter, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and about 3 Tablespons of honey in a skillet and melt it over a medium low heat

When melted add your thinly sliced apple rings and simmer until just soft

While they were cooking I put some bacon in the oven to broil and made my pancaked batter

When your apples get tender, spray your grittel with pam and place your apples on top and cover with batter

This is what they will look like and don't worry they are easy to turn

Or if  you'd like you can place batter, apple and more batter to "hide" the apple ring

.

Sarcasm Note:  "This is not tasty, & you won't want to try it,"  take the left over apple stuff, i.e. butter, cinnamon and sugar in your pan and add syrup to it.  Heat it up and it will add a little flavor to your syrup for the pancakes.   

HAPPY FALL!!!

Honey Butter Pork Tenderloin

Not many ingredients but here is what you need. 6 tablespoons butter, 8 tablespoons honey.  Black pepper and Cajun seasoning to taste and whatever size pork tenderloin you want.  (I chose two) You will also need a pan that is oven safe for your tenderloin

Use the Cajun seasoning and the black pepper to coat the tenderloin, (don't be shy) NO oil, but on a medium heat brown the tenderloin on all sides. While it  browns in a separate pan....

Melt your butter and honey on a medium heat, and then pour it over your tenderloins when they are brown.

After browning and pouring honey butter over them, put them in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes, then remove, slice it on the diagonal and place on a separate dish to rest.  

 

 

Some of my thicker pieces were a little pink but that is okay because you are going to cook it on the stove a bit.  While it is resting add 1/4 cup of water to your butter and honey mixture.  With a fork stir it pulling up the pork bits from the bottom.

Bring it to a soft boil, at a med heat until it is about half cooked down.

After it has cooked down add your pork and cover...YOU HAVE TO BE PATIENT with this part.  Keep your heat at a medium low heat and let it ride!  Because it has butter in it, it will not stick!  Seriously, this takes about 20-30 minutes.  But it is so worth the wait!

That is NOT burn, it is crusted honey.  Heaven if you will.   I served it with candied carrots and a salad.  It was yummylicious, Overall the pork took about and hour to fix but I wasn't continuously working on it.

 

 

 Sarcasm Note- Your Jewish friends are gonna love this one!

No Sarcasm Chocolate Cake-it deserves reverence...

2 cups of flour, 2 cups sugar, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon is the beginning of heaven...So add all of this together in a bowl and set aside. Later it will be combined with heavenly goodness.

Now in a saucepan over a medium heat at first add 1 cup of butter, 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 cup cola cola, and 1/2 cup buttermilk.  (pictured below) Whisk continuously and raise temp to a boil and then removed immediately!

It won't look too good until after the boil and then magic happens.  After bringing to a boil, add to your dry mixture and add 1 tsp vanilla extract and 2 eggs to the mixture.

Here is a tip, to keep your eggs from rollling off the counter:  give them a little tap on the counter and it will hold them in place without the eggs coming out!  Otherwise you will have  a HUGE mess on the floor!

Bake your cake in a 9x13 GREASED pan at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  I did 25, just make certain a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  While in the oven you will make your glaze.

Combine 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder and 1/2 cup coke in a sauce pan and again; bring almost to a boil and turn burner off.

Then slowly add 4 cups powdered sugar.  (hey I never said it was healthy or fat free) Just heavenly...   When you take the cake out of the oven pour the chocolate glaze over it and add pecans if you so choose.

Half of my family loves pecans and the other not so much.  So as you can see I only laid pecans on half of my cake and then poured my glaze over it.  Before I set the bowl down there were children behind me with glasses of milk.  SO BEWARE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken Broccoli Bake

This recipe is so easy and so good, even your kids will eat the broccoli in it!  

I won't give you measurements, because I want you to decide how much you need/want

in each serving. 

No recipe can ever be bad if it starts with bacon.  This one does!  I counted on 2 pieces per chicken breast, but you can use more if you so desire. 

Next you need to get shredded cheese and ranch dressing.  (again, I did about 1/2 cup on each breast except for my daughter who wanted more!) 

I used one large bunch of fresh broccoli and 1 chicken breast per person.  As you can see these breasts were HUGE so I cut them in half; placing the 'toppings' in the middle instead.

So, salt and pepper your chicken, cut into if you so desire and top with broccoli, bacon, cheese and how ever much Ranch dressing you want.  About a tablespoon is what I used.  Then I placed the other half of the chicken on top of the mixture and wrapped it up in foil.  Each person had their own foil packet.

This is what it looked like before putting it in the oven at 400 Degrees for 30-40 minutes...

This is what is looked like after I removed it from the foil and slid it on the plate.  It was such a great meal.  Easy and here comes the sarcasm....next time I won't use bacon.  HA (I'll use more)

 In the words of my son, "bacon is fairy dust for food".

Buffalo Chicken Blue Cheese Tacos

Here Goes! This is so easy it is ridiculous....1 chicken breast will make 3-4 tacos so you decide how many you make

This is the MAGIC bullet.  Tuong Ot Sriracha---------it's Chinese for DANG THIS IS HOTT!

So, while your chicken is grilling, cut up anything you want on your tacos.  I used tomatoes, shredded lettuce, green onions, jalapenos, and an avocado.  Oh, and don't forget the CRUMBLED BLUE CHEESE! Grill your chicken breasts and coat it with the buffalo sauce.  When you turn it, coat it again! 

THIS. IS. IMPORTANT.  When you take it off the grill and cube it, squeeze 1/2 a lime on it.  THEN...if you want it hotter, put it in a pan and add more sauce heating it slowly.  I didn't because we are pansies in this house!  I served all of this on a corn tortilla, but let's not kid, those things fall apart so you decide if you want a corn or flour tortilla.

This sauce is ridiculously good, and (sarcasm note*)  so easy to clean up!

Bring out the big guns for your cutting board!

 As you well know if you follow my blog, I never get a picture of the 'plated' dish!  I live with savages.  But they are my savages and they love this dish.  Throw a few chips and hot sauce out and you've got an easy meal!