Gluten Free Lunches/Snacks

A while ago Kate at Gluten-Free Gobsmacked asked about the type of gluten free lunches people take to work, being tired of mainly salads herself.  I sympathize with her plight as there are many times I would LOVE to be able to just grab something as I run out of the house and not have to plan ahead.  So I was thrilled to see these GOPICNIC boxes at my local Target. 

I first encountered GOPICNIC at a small airport when I was desperate for anything gluten-free.  The GOPICNIC box I found was fun, delicious, and safe.  Since then I have been asking all of the local grocery stores to carry them and I guess Target finally listened!  I bought as many gluten free GOPICNIC varieties as they had in stock.

At this point I should qualify that I am only planning to use these in an emergency.  At $4 a box, they are too expensive for me to use very often.  But just knowing they are in the pantry makes it easier to plan a regular lunch-to-go.

And that brings me back to Kate's request: what do I plan for lunches?  Here is a picture of some of my regular supplies:

The one I turn to most often is peanut-butter rice cake sandwiches (do not add jelly or honey to these; however nutella works well).  A close second (not shown) is a scrambled egg-and cheese quasadilla.  I also like to freeze fruit like peaches and berries when they are in season in muffin tins.  Then I store them in gallon bags, for an easy addition to some homemade yogurt (the frozen fruit keeps the yogurt cool until lunchtime).  My protein muffins are a favorite as well, but there are rarely enought leftover from breakfast to take for lunch.  I also love to bring some soup or casserole in a thermos if there is any available.  And with any lunch I add either some fresh or dried fruit, and maybe some nuts, cheese or pepperoni for an extra bit of protein if I am famished.  If it is going to be an extra-long day I might throw in some chocolate milk or pineapple juice for a pick-me-up.

There are some occasions where I need to travel for a few days and I like to bring along a meal as a "just-in-case" provision.  My favorites in those situations are Pacific's soups and ready rice, rice cakes and individual packages of peanut butter, and oatmeal with nuts/dried fruit.

As a final note I want to mention desserts.  The longer I have been gluten-free and eating healthy, the less satisfied I am with the typical M&Ms or candy bars.  So for a small bite of something sweet I take along a piece of quality dark chocolate or one of these fortune cookies.  There is something about a ridiculous fortune that tops off a meal perfectly.

Happy gluten-free eating!
'Chelle

Gluten free German Chocolate Cake

This recipe is adapted from David Lebovitz's german chocolate cake recipe.  It is so moist, so delicious!  The best chocolate cake I have ever had.  Next time I might decrease the amount of sugar by 1/4 C though.  We don't tend to go for really sweet stuff.  I didn't use David's recipe for coconut filling, mostly because I was out of cream.  So I used the recipe in Crazy about Cupcakes for coconut filling, and everyone loved it. 

German Chocolate Cake
2 oz bittersweet chocolate
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
6T water
8oz butter, unsalted
1C sugar
4 egg yolks
1/2 C each of oat flour, tapioca flour, rice flour and buckwheat flour
1/4 C flax meal
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 1/2 t salt
1C yogurt
1 t vanilla
4 egg whites and 1/4 C sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour (I used cocoa powder) two 9 inch round cake pans.
Melt the chocolate and water together.  Let cool.
Beat the butter and sugar together until light yellow and fluffy.  Add in chocolate and then the egg yolks.
Mix the flours, flax, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.  Mix in the chocolate and the yogurt/vanilla in batches until smooth.
Beat the egg whites and sugar until double volume.  Fold into the batter.  Pour batter into cake pans and bake 45 minutes.

Coconut Filling:
one can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 t vanilla
2 C coconut
1 C chopped nuts (we used walnuts)

Combine the milk, sugar, butter, egg yolks and vanilla in a saucepan.  Stir constantly over medium heat until thickened and golden brown (this took forever).
Toast the coconut and nuts in a 350 degree oven.  Mix in with cooled carmelized mixture.

Chocolate Icing:
8 oz chocolate bittersweet
2T corn syrup
1 1/4 oz butter
2/3 C cream

Combine the chocolate, corn syrup, butter in a bowl.  Heat the cream until boiling, then pour it over the chocolate mix.  Let it sit one minute, then stir until smooth.

To put together:
On top of one cake layer spread the coconut filling.  Place other cake over it.  Spread the rest of the coconut filling on the top.  Spread the icing around the sides.
You won't regret making this cake!
Chelle

Desserts

Note: I typed this before Christmas, but then forgot about it with all of the holiday hussle.  The gingerbread was delicious and the key lime pie was a hit with all at Christmas dinner.  Sorry this is so late in getting to you!
During the holidays we have been trying one new (or not used in a long time) dessert each day.  The first day we made a GF cinnamon bun cake from Kim at Cook it Allergy Free.   It turned out great!  Then we made a GF vinegar chocolate cake, combining recipes from here and here.  It turned out okay; I like the chocolate sheet cake from Gluten Free Mommy better (though I find the xanthum gum unnecessary).  Tomorrow we are making the key lime pie from Cook's Illustrated (a favorite).  But today we are making gingerbread houses!  This is always so much fun.
The recipe I use for the kids is one handed down from my stepmother.
2/3 C butter
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C molasses
2 t ground ginger
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground cloves
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3T water
3C flour

Cream butter and brown sugar.  Add molasses and spices, mixing well.  Mix salt and baking soda in the water and dissolve it; then add it to the butter/sugar mixture.  Add the flour and let the dough rest in the refrigerator at least an hour.  Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness, a bit at a time on parchment paper and cut out shapes.  It helps if you have cut out the wall and roof shapes from paper before hand, so that you can be sure you get your dimensions right.  For big cookies like the walls, I usually just take away the extra dough from around the walls and just put the parchment directly on the baking sheet.
Bake 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes.

(To make it gluten free for myself, I used 1 C sweet rice flour, 1C buckwheat flour, 1 C almond flour, and 1/4 C flax meal instead of the wheat flour.  I also added an egg.  I rolled them out between two pieces of parchment paper and then used cookie cutters.  It worked just fine!)

I love this holiday tradition.  I hope you do too!
Chelle

Pear juice

We love pears in this family.  So while the pear season is here, we are having pear muffins or pancakes in the morning, pear slices during lunch and dinner, and an occasionaly pear crumble.  In addition I have frozen away alot of pear slices to make pear/applesauce in the winter.  All of this has led to LOTS of pear cores around the house.  I hated to see them go to waste, so I tried dumping them in a crockpot, half full of water.  Then we let it cook all day, after which we collected the juice.  It has been a huge hit.  It is not as sweet as the juice from the grocery store, but since we rarely buy juice at all the kids think this home made stuff is a big treat.
Anyway, just wanted to pass on this tibit.
'Chelle

Sweet and Sour veggies

I have never been a pickle lover.  I never even liked coleslaw, because of all the vinegar in it.  But as I have gotten older, my tastes have changed, and now I love homemade vinegar-based veggies (I still can't stand the canned ones).  The recipe below I have used for red cabbage, cucumbers, and carrots (not all at the same time).  It not only gives the veggies a delicious taste, but it makes them last forever in the refrigerator.   Though I sometimes eat these veggies just by themselves as a side dish, my favorite way to eat them is in a Korean beef pot (recipe coming soon) or heaped onto stir-fry.  The sweet flavor contrasts nicely with the salty stir-fry.

Sweet and Sour Veggies
1 Cup water
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup vinegar
1/2-1 teaspoon salt
Chopped or shredded cabbage, cucumbers, or carrots

Boil the water, sugar, vinegar and salt in a saucepan until everything is dissolved.  Let it cool.  Pack the veggies in a jar and pour the vinegar/sugar solution over the veggies.  Keep in the refrigerator.

Hint:if you are using cucumbers, slice them as spears and cut away most of the seeds. 

Enjoy!
Chelle

Melissa's Power Bars

I have been eyeing this recipe for a while, and finally decided to make them.  Can you say yum!?  These are better than Lara Bars.  Even the kids loved them.  I got the recipe from Melissa at Gluten Free For Good.  I love her blog, especially the interesting science/nutritional information she gives on occasion. 

Melissa used pecans, almonds, and apricots in her recipe.  I only had pecans at home, so I just doubled the amount of pecans called for and subsituted 1cup of dried cranberries for the apricots.  Instead of a gluten free flour mix I used 2 tablespoons each of rice flour and buckwheat flour.  And instead of maple syrup I used agave nectar.  So the final version was:

2 cups pecans
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup GF oats
2 tablespoons rice flour
2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
4 tablespoons ground flax
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

I will let you check out Melissa's site for the directions.  They were so good they were gone within hours.  I don't think you can go wrong with these bars, no matter what you substitute.
Enjoy!
-Chelle

Seasonal Soups

Mmmmm...soup.   I love soup.  It is a great comfort food.  So where to start?  Do I make chili, or chicken vegetable, or carribean soup, or coconut chicken soup, or thai chicken soup?  All of these are favorites here.  However the Go Ahead Honey its Gluten Free challenge this month is SEASONAL soup, meaning something that is in season in your area.  Right now we are getting sweet potatoes and spinach in our farming co-op box (btw, if you live in Alabama, check out GrowAlabama; it is a great co-op).  So that brought to mind two other soups I love: Korean spinach soup and West African sweet potato soup.  I was unable to decide which one to make, so I made both.  Which is a good thing because I think I am coming down with a cold, and there is nothing better than soup when you are sick.
So enjoy (without the colds)!
-Chelle

West African Sweet Potato Soup (adapted from one of the Cook's Illustrated Books)
1 Tablespoon butter
1 onion, chopped
2 minced garlic cloves
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
3 cups chicken broth (I make mine without salt; if yours has salt you may not want to add extra)
2 cups water
2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced
3 tablespoons peanut butter

Saute onion in butter until soft.  Add sugar through cayenne and stir for about 1 minute.  Add rest of ingredients and bring to boil.  Simmer 30 minutes until sweet potato is soft.  Use a hand blender to puree the soup.  Serve with fresh cilantro.

Korean Soup with Spinach (adapted from Faye Levy's International Chicken Cookbook)

1/2 lb ground beef 95% lean
1 large garlic clove, minced
salt/pepper
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 cups chicken broth (if your chicken broth is without salt, make sure you taste the soup as it is cooking to see if you need more salt)
2 cups water
8 cups packed fresh spinach leaves (or more, if you can't get enough spinach like me!)
1 green onion, chopped

Saute beef in a large saucepan until almost done.  Add garlic, salt, and pepper.  Once beef is done, add soy sauce, broth, and water.  Bring to boil and add spinach.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Serve with green onions sprinkled on top.

Vegetable Lasagna

This is one of our favorite lasagnas.  A friend gave us the recipe ages ago; I think she got it from Southern Living.  Speaking of which, what is the etiquette of posting recipes from books or magazines?  Should you not do it, or is it okay as long as you site the source?
Anyway, I digress.  This lasagna is relatively low fat and the vitamin C in the sweet potato allows your body to absorb the iron in the greens to a larger extent.  The flavors are fantastic.  You can make it with gluten-free lasagna noodles.  However the only GF lasagna noodles I have found are rice noodles, and I really don't like the taste of rice noodles.  In many lasagna recipes I use polenta instead, but that does not work in this recipe because it turns out too runny.  Instead I get some corkscrew or elbow corn GF noodles and just put them on the bottom of the dish.  You don't get the traditional lasagna layers, but you have all the same ingredients and tastes there.
-Chelle

Vegetable Lasagna

6 oz gluten free corn or quinoa noodles
1 1/2 obs fresh mustard greens or spinach
1 C minced sweet potato (use a food processor or grate it)
1/2 C finely chopped onion
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 C tomato sauce (canned works better than fresh in this recipe)
6 oz tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 C small curd cottage cheese, drained
1/2 lb mozzarella, grated (you may want to use more; but with no layers in this recipe you can get away with this amount)
1/4 C parmesan or asiago cheese, grated

Saute onion in oil until almost tender; add the sweet potato and continue cooking until all is tender, not brown.  Stir in greens and tomatos and oregano.
Cook the noodles according to instruction.
Put the noodles in the bottom of a 9x9 pan.  Then add tomato mix, then cottage cheese, followed by the other cheeses.  Bake 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Cincinnati Chili

For February's Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten Free challenge I decided to make Cincinnati Chili.  It has chocolate in it, a must this month, but is a wonderful savory dish instead of sweet.  Cincinnati Chili has long been a favorite of my husband's.  (he says one of the reasons he married me was that he knew that even if the marriage was a bust, he would be well-fed.  ;-)  Thankfully we have a great marriage as well).  It is traditionally served over spagetti, with beans, cheese, and diced onions (if you want to get romantic, you might want to leave off the onions).  Though you can use gluten-free noodles I like to make a batch of polenta and eat it over that instead.  Add a good salad and you have a great meal!
ps-sorry for the lack of photos; as I am sure you have noticed, I am not very good with getting photos taken much less loaded onto the computer.
-Chelle

Cincinnati Chili
1 lb ground beef
2Tablespoons Chili Powder
1 bay leaf
3 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
1 ounce unsweet chocolate
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
2 teaspoons vinegar
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
6 ounces tomato paste
1-2 cups water

Brown the meat and drain any fat.  Add all of the other ingredients and let simmer for a couple of hours.  Serve over pasta or polenta, with beans, cheese and chopped onions.

Easy Crumb Pie Crust

This is the pie crust we use for almost anything but chicken pot pie.  The surprise ingredient is chex cereal.  Either rice or corn is good.  I like to use the chex cereal for crumbs for three reasons: it gives the crust a yummy taste, it is less expensive than buying GF cookies, and we almost always have some chex cereal around (I can't say the same thing for cookies).  It is so simple to just pour some chex cereal in a blender and make crumbs with it.  It also gives me something to do with the few tablespoons of left-over cereal crumbs in each box.  The most common pie I make with it is pumpkin pie; I use the Libby's recipe but with fresh (or frozen) pumpkin from my co-op box and with 1/3 the sugar.  I don't feel guilty with that pie since it is giving the kids some milk, eggs, and squash.  Another pie we like is a yogurt custard pie; again, fairly healthy.  For a real indulgence we make key lime pie.  It is my kids' absolute favorite, but it is loaded with sugar.  I use the Cook's Illustrated recipe.  It is better than any store-bought pie.

Speaking of which, can someone tell me the etiquette for posting recipes from cookbooks online?  I don't see it done very often, so I suspect it is not allowed.

Thanks!
-Chelle

Crumb Pie Crust
1 1/4 Cup chex cereal crumbs
5 Tablespoons butter, melted

Mix the cereal and butter.  Press it into the bottom and sides of the pie pan.  Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Allow it to cool before gently pouring in the pie filling.

Citrus Stir fry with Chicken

I rarely get to watch any TV shows these days, between watching 3 kids, working part time, and keeping a house in order.  So it was a treat to catch even the last 10 minutes of a cooking show on PBS last week.  I don't know which chef it was, but at the end of the show he quickly showed some of the things you can do with citrus fruit.  One in particular struck me as sounding yummy, which led to the following recipe.  I happened to have leftover chicken which I used in it, but you could use any meat you like.  My husband and I both loved the flavors in this dish.
-Chelle

Citrus Stir Fry
vegetable oil for stir fry
1 medium onion, quartered and sliced
1 large or two small bell peppers, seeded and sliced
2 small oranges, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
1/2 cup sugar snap peas
2 cups cooked chicken
2 Tablespoons gluten-free soy sauce
2 Tablespoons vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 Tablespoon water
1 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Combine the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, water, and cornstarch.  Set aside.
Heat oil in a wok or skillet.  When it starts to shimmer add in the onions and peppers.  Stir constantly, until onions begin to become translucent.  Add the oranges, peas, and chicken.  Stir for 1-2 minutes until everything is heated.  Add the soy sauce solution and remove from heat.  Serve with brown rice.

Gluten Free bread

I am not a big bread eater.  So going gluten free four years ago was not a tramatic experience.  The things I missed the most were pizza and pancakes, for which I fairly quickly found recipes.  I didn't, and mostly still don't, miss bread.  I find savory pancakes or corn tortillas are great substitutes for bread when making sandwiches.  However my daughter loves toast and though I let her have wheat, I try to keep it to a minimum.  So I have occassionally played with gluten-free bread recipes (my favorite is from Gluten-Free Mommy).  The problem with all these recipes is that they contain xanthum gum.  I have never enjoyed xanthum gum.  I know it is supposed to be fine to eat, but there is something about bacterial slime that is not appealing to me.  I keep waiting to hear that large quantities of it are dangerous, similar to the history of aspartame.  So a while back when I was changing around Shauna's biscuit recipe and turned out a biscuit that held together really well, I thought it might work for a small loaf of bread.  And it does!  This bread uses the congealing ability of buckwheat, flax, and oats to hold it together.  Because it uses so many whole-grains/seeds, the resulting product has alot of flavor.  And it is so easy to make!  The main thing you have to be careful about when making this bread is letting it rise too much; you want it to only increase in size by about half, instead of the usual double.  If it rises too much you end up with a crack running horizontally through your bread.
-Chelle

Guten Free Brown bread

1/4 C warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 C ground flax seed
1/2 C oat flour
1/2 C buckwheat flour
1/2 C tapioca flour
1/2 C white rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
3/4 C buttermilk or yogurt (milk will work as well)
2 Tablespoons butter

Mix water, yeast and sugar.  Let it sit until it is bubbly; when that happens, mix in the flax seed and continue to stir it for about 2 minutes.  It will be like a slurry. 
In the meantime mix together the oat, buckwheat, tapioca and white rice flour along with the baking powder and salt.  Mix in the egg and buttermilk/yogurt.  Mix in the yeast slurry.  Lastly, melt the butter and mix it into the bread dough.  It should have the consistency of thick cake batter.
Pour it into a greased loaf pan.  Cover and let it sit until its size has increased by half.  Then bake it in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.  Let it cool before you take it out of the pan.

Protein Muffins

Okay, here is our favorite muffin recipe.  We use this for breakfast, snacks, and desserts.  From all of the eggs it has alot of protein.  From the pureed fruit or squash it has some nutrients.  You can change around the fruit/squash you use, and try adding various spices like cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.  We haven't had a bad batch yet!  And if you want to save dirty dishes, you can mix it all up in a blender (if you do this blend the liquids, then add the dry ingredients and blend them as well).
-Chelle

3 eggs
2 Tablespoons milk
2 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons molasses
1/4 Cup applesauce or some fruit/squash puree
1/3 Cup buckwheat flour
1/3 Cup white rice flour (this is found in the mexican isle in my grocery store; if you use Bob's Red Mill flours you want the sweet white rice flour)
1/4 Cup nut flour (optional) (this can be almond flour, hazelnut flour, or pecan flour)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Blend the eggs, milk, and molasses in a bowl.  In other bowl mix the dry ingredients and add them to the egg mixture.  Lastly melt the butter and mix it in.  Pour into mini muffin tins and bake at 400 degrees Farenheit for 15 minutes (we found the muffins tended to stick to the tin if we used regular sized muffin tins).

Gluten Free nutritious brownies

This is my first time attempting the Go-Ahead-Honey-Its-Gluten-Free Challenge started by Naomi at Straight into bed cake free and dried.  This month it is being hosted by Lauren at Celiac Teen and she chose the theme of a January Calendar Holiday.  This was a hard challenge, mostly because of the multitude of choices!  January is national oatmeal month, soup month, slow cooking month, and has several chocolate days.  My favorite comfort foods fall into these catagories.  But after much debating, chocolate won (again).  These brownies are my take on the Sneaky Chef brownies by Missy Lapine.  They have never failed, and I don't feel guilty letting my kids eat them.  One note though: since we don't eat much sugar we enjoy these brownies with less sugar than alot of people.  If you like things sweet, you may want to double the sugar in the recipe.
Enjoy!
-Chelle

Gluten Free nutritious brownies
6 Tablespoons butter
3/4 Cup bittersweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup purple puree (we call it chocolate enhancer to keep the kids from getting suspicious)
1/4 Cup oat flour
1/4 Cup sorghum flour (note: you can also use ground up rice chex here)
2 Tablespoons ground flax
1Tablespoon cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler.  Let it cool.  In the meantime mix the eggs, vanilla, sugar, puree.  Fold the chocolate into the egg mixture.  In a separate bowl mix the flours, flax, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.  Mix this into the wet ingredients.  Pour all of this into a greased 9x9 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 min.

Purple puree:
3Cups spinach, cooked 10 minutes
1 1/2 Cups blueberries
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3-4 Tablespoons water
Blend all of this together.  Freeze it in 1/4 Cup portions in muffin tins, then for convenience place all the portions in one big ziplock bag.