Simple Sauce

Last night was spaghetti night. It is the most easy gluten free meal anyone can prepare. It was thrown together in 5 minutes and simmered on the stove for 15 minutes to create a fantastic meal for two. Here is the recipe:

1/2 jar of gluten free spaghetti sauce (we use the store brand because upon reading labels, it was totally clean, don't get pulled into the marketing schemes of some companies stating you have to by this gluten free product. There are plenty of cheap gluten free regular shelf items)
1/2 of a zucchini, peeled and sliced
1/4 of a green pepper, diced
1 chicken breast (pan fried in butter, because butter makes everything taste better)
1 clove of garlic, crushed (I like to use real garlic for the additional flavor)
Italian Seasoning to taste (this is basically basil, thyme and rosemary mixed together)

We let this simmer for 15 minutes but truly the longer it simmers the better. The veggies were a little crisp but I like them on the crisper side instead of mushy. This is a taste preference.

For the noodles we boil up a bunch of water with salt and olive oil in it. We used spiral brown rice noodles last night but check out your local grocer, they probably have a wide variety of rice noodles to choose from. If your grocer doesn't carry it, I would request it at the customer service desk. Usually grocers are pretty accommodating to try a new product to see if it sells in their area. One tip on the rice noodles, the package says 12 minutes for cooking time but I've found that they are usually done in 8 -10 minutes. On the rare occasion that I left the noodles on for the full 12 minutes they were mushy and stuck together.

I hope this helps with your cooking tonight!

Bon Appetit

Pizza Dough

Okay, this was one of the hardest things I was giving up so I thought I should share it right away. When my husband told me of his wheat allergy I thought garlic bread, pasta and then it hit me, no more pizza. Well that was truly unacceptable...really how unAmerican is that. So my quest was to find a pizza dough that would work for both he and I. The packaged doughs just were not good. They would come out hard, like I'm going to break my teeth off on this crust hard. But this past weekednd I found it, the holy grail of pizza dough for those suffering from celiac disease or a wheat allergy. Here is the recipe:


2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Baking Flour
1 (1/4 ounce) envelope yeast
1/4 cup of Potato Starch (Bob's Red Mill is what I used)
1/4 cup of White Rice Flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 cups hot water

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients together (Flours, Yeast, Starch, Sugar, Salt) in a large mixing bowl. I actually stirred them up with a wooden spoon.

Add Oil and Water

With a mixer, scraping the sides of the bowl, mix the ingredients until they have thickened up. I did have to add a few more tablespoons of starch and flour but if you do this, add it slowly because it thickens up quickly.

This won't get like pizza dough you can throw in the air but it does thicken

Grease a cookie sheet and pour in the dough

Cook for 15 minutes in a preheated 425 degree oven or until slightly browned on top

Add your toppings and cook an additional 15 minutes

Whala, you have pizza that has a chewy dough center, wonderful toppings and easy to make.

Now I haven't tried making the dough and freezing it. I will try that soon and let you know because that would make for an easy mid week dinner with a salad and a glass of wine!!!

Bon Appetit and God Bless!

Getting Over This Is Too Hard

So when I started dating my now husband and realized that he had food allergies I thought what am I getting myself into. He can't eat any dairy and cheese makes everything taste better. He can't eat wheat. Wheat seemed to be a mainstay of my diet. He was all organic. I ate what was on sale organic or not. I thought this was going to be too hard to overcome. Well, I'm here to tell you, it isn't hard. My first attempts at cooking were very rudimentary. I would pan fry a couple pieces of chicken, a baked potato and some steamed green vegetable. I couldn't get past the fact that nothing I normally made would be alright for him to eat. It was the most bland portion of my cooking life ever. I was afraid of most combined spices because most contain wheat. Everything is different so reading ingredients is essential to gluten free cooking. However, I found a taco seasoning brand that works and we were able to add mexican food back into the menu plan. In the past three years of cooking for my husband, I have since become much more versitile in cooking. My ahh-ha moment came when I realized that truly gluten free cooking is making everything from scratch so you know exactly what is in your meal. Yes, there are still times when the chicken, potato and steam veggie are all I can manage to prepare but I have come to realize that they don't have to be the mainstay diet at our home.

Why this blog was created

They say you can't choose who is the one true love for your life. I would never have guessed that my true love would have allergies to the outdoors and to food. He has a wheat allergy and a dairy allergy so my cooking passion must change to accommodate. At first I was at a loss, what can I cook, what will make him sick, what type of diet do we go on, it was very stressful. I was scared that anything I would cook would send him over the edge and into migraine headache world and in fact I learned that there are many things that cause the allergy to flare up. Yes, I learned the hard way and it was hard on both of us, my guilt and his pain. But I think we have it down now, only when he doesn't know about foods will he get a flare up. For instance, meatballs that look perfectly round mean they are probably the frozen kind, thus filled with fillers that have wheat. We basically are eating the diet for Celiac Disease with the added bonus of no dairy. However, thanks to soy, we have soy cheese, milk and yogurt to be able to cook with also. What you will find in this blog are recipes we have tried and liked. We will share what we liked about the recipe and what we changed from the original recipe. We may also share that which didn't work for us and why. You may have some ideas to make it better and help others along the way. We are excited to share our journey with you. We hope you will gain a new lease on life and be able to enjoy eating again.