Snowy Day means lots of fun cooking!!!

Well, I just love food, so any excuse to cook yummy foods is fine with me. So when our light flurries turned to more and more snow... I decided to some cooking!

I have experimented with a few goodies this week.

I was in the mood for a quesadilla, but also in the mood for italian, so I made an italian quesadilla - my son informed me that it would not be called a quesadilla in that case, well, whatever you call it - it was delicious! I sauteed a boneless skinless chicken breast in olive oil with sliced sweet and red onions, added some sweet basil. I then took my all time favorite brown rice tortilla and heated that in my pan, added some sliced mozzarella cheese, some Prego sauce with mushrooms, once the cheese was melted, I added the chicken mixture, folded it over and enjoyed - it was delicious!

I was also in the mood for a sweet treat today - so I made my all-time favorite blueberry crisp. I topped it with yogurt - I'm on 2 antibiotics - so yogurt is a must for me! As always, it hits the spot!

For dinner, I made myself Au Gratin Potatoes - with rice milk, rice flours and cheddar cheese - not completely dairy-free! I also added a sliced sweet onion among the layers as well as some fresh spinach. I also tried making baked macaroni and cheese - I made some extra cheese sauce, cooked up some Tinkyada shells - I baked it for a bit in the oven until it was browned on top. Both were yummy. I made my white sauce a bit too thin, but still delicious.

I think that is it for todays special cooking! These snowy days.... I also did a craft project - that was fun too!

Fish Quesadilla and Blueberry Crisp

When I was uploading my banana blueberry bread pictures, I realized I had some others there too! Last week I had made myself a fish taco and of course, more blueberry crisp - yes, I am addicted to blueberry crisp! I have used a variety of the flours I have on had to make the topping too. It's been fun and delicious.

Fish Quesadilla - I baked some fresh Haddock, with a little butter, salt, pepper, a squeeze of fresh lime juice and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. I had some brown rice tortillas from Trader Joes - I was not crazy about Trader Joe's as a store for gluten-free products. I prefer the Hannaford in Portland or Whole Foods - I don't like to have to read every package of food to find what is gluten-free - I have to read enough to keep out my other "food allergy" foods. The brown rice tortillas were great, I warmed the tortilla in my GF pan, added a touch of shredded cheese - this was last week before I decided I needed to stop with the cheese - crumbled some of the baked haddock, added my own sauteed onions, peppers, tomato salsa, with some cabbage too. It was delicious - I need to find other flavorings now, since, you guessed it, tomatoes, onions, peppers, cabbage are out right now. I did enjoy this!

Then of course, I found more blueberry crisp pictures, I know, they all look the same, but each had a different topping. My latest and greatest is using Hodgson Mill Multi Purpose Baking Mix - I used 1 cup, 1/2c brown sugar (a lot, I know, will find out how to sub for this too), 1/2 tsp each baking soda and baking powder, 1/2-1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4cup softened or melted butter, mix well with hands until crumbly - yes, it's okay to lick your fingers afterwards!!! I sprinkle this on top on top of the prepared blueberries. To prepare blueberries - first, put a light coating of butter inside a casserole dish - about a 6x6 or loaf pan, mix a little of the flour mix with the blueberries, put in pan and than add the crumble mixture. I bake for 30 min in a 375 oven. It is so good!!!
Sorry, my recipes aren't very organized! I am excited about finding some good, healthier versions of my favorite foods! Happy Eating!

Banana Blueberry Bread Bake-Off

I am on my dirt and rocks diet again - I need to clean out my poor body and dump some of this weight too! I don't feel healthy anymore. I am allowing myself any fruits that I did not test "allergic" to, as well as sweetener - I will be careful here! lol I am a sugar-fanatic. Cutting out dairy will be a challenge, but one I'm ready to face, it will be a bumpy ride, but I can do it, I am worth it, I am blessing my body with good health!

Due to this change in my diet, I decided I needed to bake something.....

So, as I was pouring over Jessica's new cookbook, I decided to try the banana bread recipe from Baby Cakes. I thought it would be fun to test it against my favorite - Eleanor's Banana Bread by Gluten-Free Baking, I substituted flax meal mix for the eggs. I did add blueberries to both recipes - I just love banana and blueberry together!!!

The results, I haven't heard from Frank yet, he's been busy on the phone. My house smells wonderful! I think I overcooked the Baby Cakes version, the batter was splendid. I had to substitute for the Bob's Red Mill Flour mix( which has potato starch and I can't have potatoes right now), I only had Hodgson's - which is a more "whole grain" version of a gluten-free flour (millet, sorghum, brown rice flours). I do have to say, with testing the batters - I really liked the Baby Cakes batter best, it uses agave nectar as a sweetener. See below!

When I tried Eleanor's batter, I got an instant headache from the sugar. In the end, I really prefer the taste and texture of Eleanor's, but I like the fact that the Baby Cakes one doesn't have sugar in it. My goal - find a way to substitute the agave nectar for the sugar. I took pictures to post! See below!
The voting is in - we both like Eleanor's Banana Blueberry Bread the best. In defense of the Baby Cakes recipe - I do think I overcooked it, which gave the other an unfair advantage. So, all in all - I will work on my own recipe - taking the best of the best! I am excited to try more vegan recipes, using agave nectar. So, my goal to drop some pounds may go slower than expected!!! Oh, but baking is so much fun!

Blueberry Crisp and then some....

I have been craving blueberries - I found a great recipe for blueberry crisp on glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com - I modified her recipe to work for me and for what I had on hand! It was so good!!! I almost ate the whole thing in one sitting!




I also made some yummy quesadillas. I had some taco meat - with homemade seasonings I must add, I took out my Food For Life Brown Rice Tortillas. I put the tortilla on my fry pan w/ a little olive oil, added shredded cheddar mix, some taco meat & taco sauce. I was so delicious! Today I had some chicken, so I made a chicken quesadilla - yum!!!

I am totally addicted to eating delicious gluten free food! I will continue to try different recipes and different products and report on them here.

I want to make gluten-free eating a joy for those who choose to eat gluten-free - it's not hard, it's so easy, it's so delicious!

More reviews from this month

I had the opportunity to try several new-to-me gluten free foods this month. I did not get to take pictures of many - they were just too yummy! lol

My favorite store-bought cookie is the Vanilla Cremes from Glutino - they remind me of Vienna Fingers - just irresistible little treasures - I did manage to capture a photo of these babies.



I also tried Bell & Evans Gluten Free Garlic Parmesan Breaded Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts - these are wonderful! A bit pricey - I think it was about 6.00 for the package of 2 - they were large chicken breasts - about 5 oz each. I heated them up in the oven, served over Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta with Paesana Sicilian Gravy (spaghetti sauce). Being the cheese lover that I am, yes, I added some Shredded Parmesan and slices of Mozzarella Cheese. SO good, I could have easily overindulged on these beauties.

I found all of these products at Whole Foods in Portland.

Waffles....

Today I tried Gramma Mills Gluten Free Pancake and Waffle mix - I was so disappointed. They just didn't measure up. The texture was okay, the flavor was flat - they almost tasted like there was bean flour in the mix, they needed salt and sweetener. We all had different ways to eat them this morning - our friend added homemade Raspberry Preserves, my husband added butter and maple syrup, I added lots of butter, sauteed apples w/cinnamon & homemade, unsweetened whip cream.

I guess nothing can even come close to my all time favorite: Really Great Food's Pancake and Waffle mix - they are light and fluffy, delicious flavor, very easy to make too! My goal is to be able to have extra mixes from Really Great Food in stock so that local folks in Maine can buy some of these yummy treasures!

Have a happy gluten free day!

Gluten-Free Reviews for 2011

Today I had the best gluten-free bread ever, it tastes like bread that I remember! I know, it’s been almost 8 years…. I had my first slice of UDI’s multigrain bread - I toasted it in my pan, I do not have a gluten free toaster yet. It was so good - I was dancing in the kitchen! I also had a UDI’s gluten free blueberry muffin - it was good - nice and moist but, it needed more blueberries - it was a regular size muffin, it only had 3 little blueberries! Being from the state of Maine, I look for lots of blueberries, not only that, from my childhood, I remember Jordan Marsh’s fresh blueberry muffins! So good. These were the best so far. I also had Al Fresco Country Style Chicken Breakfast Sausage, these were delicious too. All in all, it was a wonderful breakfast.

I will post pictures later!

Happy Gluten-Free Eating.

Theresa - the happy gluten-free momma