Delightfully Gluten Free

Last Saturday, I had a couple of friends over for a fun day of baking together.  I had promised Kat a few months back that we would make cookies together.  I finally delivered.

We began our day of craziness with Harvest Chicken and Rice Soup from Mixes from the Heartland (they sent me a few things to try).

The soup was pretty easy to prepare – boil some water (and maybe some chicken broth) and add some cooked chicken.  For those of you with other allergies, Mixes from the Heartland’s facility is “free of wheat, soy, barley, oats, rye, eggs, nuts, and by products.”

The consensus was that the soup was good, but missing just a little something.  Kat, Regina, and I agreed that it needed a little more seasoning, but at the time, we couldn’t figure out what.  I later decided it needed a small dash of paprika, Andy said salt (but I thought it had plenty of salt), and Braden said garlic salt.  It had a nice light, clean flavor.

This is a good shelf-stable soup mix.  The package I have has a date of May 2011 on it, so it would also be good for a food storage-type of need.  You could use canned chicken, if needed, or for easier preparation.

We also had some Spinach-N-Chives Dip Mix from Mixes from the Heartland (made with sour cream) with some Kettle Brand (I think) potato chips.  None of us are really dip eaters, but we found it to be pretty tasty.  Andy, who loves to eat dip, told me (after making it late one night) that “it’s good… has a light flavor… not overpowering” (he texted me the next day).  I’m actually surprised at how much of it I ate.

After finishing up, we perused the cookbooks to see what we wanted to make.  Regina was a bit in awe of my collection.  Her husband had just told her she had too many gluten-free cookbooks.  She took home pictures to prove she didn’t, lol.

We  actually decided on making a recipe from an upcoming cookbook that I had tucked away to try.  Upon looking at the recipe, we didn’t believe it would come out well.  But it did!  Regina said she would definitely use that recipe when the book comes out (and I’ll tell you what recipe and where it comes from when the book does come out ).

Kat, who is 11, was just too cute.  I think every baker needs an apron, so I had my mom embroider one for Kat.

She was really excited about decorating the cookies, and was getting a little fancy with the colors.  Braden later joined her.

Then we made pudding cookies, using vanilla pudding, raspberry flavoring (with a bit of vanilla), and dark chocolate raspberry creme baking pieces.  That was a good use of raspberry filling.  I only baked a dozen of these, and the rest of the tripled batch got rolled into logs, in wax paper, and stuck in freezer bags (some for them and some for me).  This way, we can quickly have freshly-baked cookies without all the fuss, whenever we want.

By this time, we were nearing a sugar coma.  Kat was in “desperate need” of some cheese crackers.  We made a ton of cheese cracker dough (most of it went into freezer bags for later use).  We found that using the Rumford baking powder is very important in this recipe to get the crispy cracker texture (which I can’t find anywhere anymore!).  Also, separating them on the sheet is quite helpful (but we were way too lazy to do that by that time of the day).  The majority of our crackers ended up just a little puffy and soft (but if you follow the recipe exactly, using Rumford, they come out just right).

Oh yeah, that's gonna make a lot of crackers.

We had had to run to Kroger to get some cheese, and while perusing the shredded cheeses (because I don’t own a food processor with a grater and I’m not about to shred, by hand, 3 pounds of cheese), we came across some habanero cheese and just had to have it.  It’s like trick-cheese: you don’t feel the heat until after you swallow.

Carter sneaked a cookie... or 4

All in all, it was a wonderful day, spent talking, laughing, baking, and just plain enjoying ourselves.  We ended up with a bunch of tasty treats and a bunch of dough, too.  I highly suggest having one with a gluten-free friend or two.

A friend and I got together for lunch a few weeks ago, and at her suggestion, we went to On the Border.  I had forgotten they now have a gluten-free menu.  I was worried about the precautions (or lack of) that they might have.  Since my friend waitresses at the location nearest me, she assured me that they had had some really good training on it, and that she would be able to take care of me.

And she did.

She made sure that my yellow corn tortillas got microwaved, to avoid cross-contact on the warming surfaces.  We ordered from the children’s menu, grilled chicken (which they cooked on foil, but it was still very tasty), black beans, and cilantro lime rice.  We made our own fajitas with the tortillas and some queso blanco (the regular queso is not gluten-free).

They did a good job with my meal (thanks, in large part, I feel, to my friend helping me navigate).  It was good and very filling, and I even went back.

We took Braden out tonight to celebrate his being in the spelling bee.  It didn’t go as well as he had hoped.  He rushed right into his first word, receive, and left out the second “E”.  He knew he had misspelled it even before they had rung the bell.  It was pretty tough for him, the next few minutes, but he managed to pull himself together.  (Actually, nearly half of the children got out during the first round.)  He was very happy for his classmate, the only other third grader, as she won the spelling bee.

We were very excited that he had gotten in the bee in the first place – there were only 32 children.  He also handled himself pretty well.  Next year, if given the chance, we will definitely work on thinking more before speaking.  There’s no “erase” in the spelling bee. 

Remember, as always, when you go out to eat, to make sure you feel comfortable with the knowledge of the personnel at your location.  Not all restaurants within a chain are created equal.

Have you ever had a cold or allergies, and all you could taste was chalk?  Yuck.  I had this fickle issue off and on for about three weeks.  It’s a little hard to do reviews or even cook when that is going on.

But I’ve been better for a bit now, and am ready to get blogging again.  I hope you’ve missed me… I’ve missed you. 

I thought many of you would like to know that Braden will be in the spelling bee this Friday.  He and a girl from his class were the only 3rd graders at his school that qualified.  I’m pretty pleased with him, if you can’t tell.

Divine Foods sent me a sample of their PranaBar and Boomi Bar.  My kids (and my husband) have been bugging me to let them eat the bars since they showed up in the mail.  I had to play my “it’s for the blog” card, since there wasn’t enough to go around. 

Boomi Bars have made frequent appearances in my house.  They are basically fruit and nut bars, with some crispies inside, giving them a little something extra.  I got to try the Apricot Cashew flavor, which contains only: cashews, apricots, honey, dates, crisped rice, amaranth, apples, natural apricot flavor, and salt.  It is plenty sweet, without having a sugary taste.  The cashews provide a little crunch (but not a hard crunch, because cashews aren’t hard, lol), and the crispies have a bit of a crackle.  They are tasty, and quite helpful after a hard workout or when you’re strapped for time or food.

The PranaBar, on the other hand, was new to me.  I had seen them before, but never had a chance to try one, until I was sent this Coconut Acai PranaBar.  When I first looked at the package, I must admit, I did not have very high hopes.  It has a lot of wording about the characteristics and benefits of the bar, and, in the past, I have been pretty displeased with some of the raw vegan foods I have tried.  I was pleasantly surprised, though, by the Coconut Acai PranaBar.  It kind of reminds me of a coconut macaroon, smooshed up with a bit of dates (the date flavor is not very bold).
I have a very strange desire to dip it in chocolate…  That would probably be counterproductive to the health benefits of the bar. 

I’ll have to keep a watch for these so I can try other flavors.  Have you tried them?

By the way, I just signed up as an affiliate with Divine Foods (after I first posted this).  That means that if you take the link from one of these pictures (which are banner ads), and you purchase something from the PranaBar store, then I get a little cut of the sale.  It doesn’t cost you anything more than it would normally.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, right?

But names are still important.  That’s why the folks at Enjoy Life Foods recently changed the names of these long-standing gluten-free cereals.

You may know them as Nutty Rice and Nutty Flax. ( I don’t know why they were named that, though I always figured it was to associate the cereal with Grape Nuts.)

Ah, but there are no nuts, and it’s made in a nut-free facility, so the change in name more accurately reflects the mission on Enjoy Life – to provide good allergy-free foods.

I’ve been eating the (now) Crunchy Rice cereal for years.  Generally, I mix it into my yogurt to add some crunch and substance, but I sometimes eat a bowl plain (with milk) or with some added fruit.  On cold days, I like to add the cereal to hot milk, for a soothing, warming way to start my morning.

Crunchy Rice  has a soft, toasted rice flavor.  It is fairly subtle, and is easily obscured by “louder” flavors, especially in a flavored, sugared yogurt.  The cereal pieces are very small, so it makes snacking on the cereal a little difficult (though it hasn’t stopped me, as I’ve been munching on it the whole time I’ve been typing).

I had never tasted Crunchy Flax before Enjoy Life sent me these samples.  It looks like the Crunchy Rice, but it is made with whole sorghum flour and ground flax seed, instead of rice flour and rice bran.  It has 425 mg of Omega-3’s and 6 grams of fiber in each serving (that’s 24% of your daily fiber).  When eating it plain (or just with milk), there is a slight flax-y taste (which is only bad if you don’t like the taste of flax at all – I happen to like it).  When eaten with yogurt, however, I could not detect the flax.

Both cereals are sweetened only with honey and raisin juice concentrate (which is rather strange to me – how can they juice a dried grape?).

They are also certified gluten-free through the GFCO.

My kids really like eating the “little ball” cereals, as Carter calls them.  Thankfully, I can often find them at my local Kroger grocery store.

Enjoy Life sent me these products to sample and asked for my opinion.  I chose to give it via my blog. 

A few weeks ago, I received Gluten-Free Italian: Over 150 Irresistible Recipes without Wheat – From Crostini to Tiramisu, by Jacqueline Mallorca.  Since then, I have had the chance to read it and use the recipes.

And yes, those recipes did delight.  Here are just a few highlights.

Melissa really liked the faux farro, which is a “mellow side dish”, as it says in the book.  The rest of us liked it, but it isn’t anything really exciting (by design, that’s how it’s supposed to be).

But using leftover faux farro, I created the tortino with eggs and cheese, the next day, when my little brother Corey came to visit (I still call him little, even though he is more than a foot taller than me ).

I made two of the tortinos, the first one exactly as it was written.  It was a big hit!  Even though it was fairly large, it was devoured by Corey, myself, and the 2 boys very quickly (mostly by the boys, because Corey and I didn’t think they’d be keen on the addition).  Corice, if you’re wondering, is being very picky lately, and never eats anything that is obviously made with eggs if I give it to her, though she’ll eat them for everyone else.

I had made a huge batch of the faux farro initially, so I had plenty to make a second tortino.  Since I had some Italian sausage in the fridge, after tasting the first one, I thought it would taste great in the second one.  It did, and was almost completely devoured right away, too.

Corey’s wife and I talked a few days later, and she told me about how he came home raving that I was such an awesome cook.  That’s some pretty high praise!

My other favorite recipe was the quick rustic flatbread.  I didn’t have any almond meal, so I use some chopped almonds (some got as fine as almond meal, but some were a bit chunky – but I was okay with that).  This bread was really tasty and would definitely been a great accompaniment to a soup or stew.  I ate mine plain.    I liked the crust so much, that I have decided that the next time I make some (when I get some more almonds), I will try making them thinner to maximize the crust.  Did I mention I really like that crust?

I’ve always wanted to go to Italy, but have not yet been able to go.  I think this book helps bring a little bit of Italy to me.

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*I was sent this cookbook for free, by the publisher, and was under no obligation to review it, nor am I getting paid for this review.
Does this statement cover my rear with the new FTC rules?