Nutella Hot Chocolate

Yep! Nutella is gluten-free! I wish this recipe was dairy-free too, but it's not. 

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup Nutella

1/4 cup GF chocolate chips

1 Tbsp. GF vanilla extract

dash of salt

Directions:

In a medium sauce pan, on medium heat, add milk, cream, Nutella and chocolate chips. Mix continuously with a whisk until smooth. Turn stove to low and add vanilla and salt, mixing nonstop.

Do not boil milk products. It’s ready to serve when hot.

Have Fun Making GF (Pretend) Waffles for Your Dolls

People who know me in my personal life are aware that I make doll clothes. In fact, I have another blog, ChellyWood.com, where I post my free, printable sewing patterns for dolls.

And I'm a big fan of Froggy, from My Froggy Stuff! I recently discovered this video, where Froggy shows us how to make doll waffles.

The cool thing about this video is that all the ingredients are gluten free, so while you're not supposed to eat these waffles, at least we can be sure we won't be getting sick from PlayDough under our fingernails or whatever. So I thought I'd share this under the category of "Food Projects for Kids".

 

Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Eggs Benedict Recipe

This is one of my kids' favorite breakfasts! I usually make them this special treat before they leave for school on a day when they will be taking a test or going on a field trip, because it's a good, solid breakfast with lots of protein.

Ingredients:

GF bread or GF English muffins

1 Tbsp. bacon grease, lard, or dairy-free buttery spread

1 1/2 to 2 cups soy milk

2-3 Tbsp. GF flour mix (1 part rice flour, 1 part tapioca starch, 1 part potato starch flour)

salt and pepper

GF ham or Canadian bacon

slice of tomato (optional)

1 Tbsp. vinegar (less if your kids don't like the flavor of vinegar)

2 eggs

Directions: 

1. Toast the bread or English muffins.
2. Poach eggs in a water/vinegar fry pan or use an egg poacher.
3. Mix 1/4 cup of the soy milk with 2 Tbs. of flour mix until all the flour lumps dissolve into the soy milk. In a separate bowl or measuring cup, mix the extra 1 Tbsp. of flour mix with 3 Tbsp. of soy milk. Set the smaller portion aside.
4. Place your bacon grease, lard, or dairy-free buttery spread in the center of a sauce pan and melt it at medium-high heat. Add the 1/4 cup soy milk/flour mixture while whisking continuously.
5. When your flour/soy milk mixture thickens, slowly add more soy milk until you have a gravy-like consistency. If you find it becomes too thin, add the 3 Tbsp. soy milk/flour mix, a little at a time, until you've got a gravy.
6. You can add a little yellow food coloring to make the gravy look pretty, but you don't have to. Salt and pepper the gravy to to taste.

Layer the eggs Benedict in this order:

Bottom => toast

Next => ham

Next => tomato (optional)

Next => eggs

Top => gravy

Gluten and Dairy-Free Waldorf Salad (No Nuts)

As you can tell by the title of this post, we have food allergies at our house. Some of us are allergic to pecans; some can't eat walnuts; others are lactose and gluten intolerant. So how do I make a gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free Waldorf salad? Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

4 apples -- cored and diced
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
dash of salt

Directions:

1. Mix mayonnaise, sugar, and lemon juice in a bowl. Add salt to taste. 
2. In another bowl, toss apple, celery, and cranberries. 
3. Fold mayonnaise mixture in with a spatula and stir until apples are well-coated.

Ideas for Gluten-Free Lunch Boxes for Back-to-School

Ideas for Gluten-Free Lunch Boxes for Back-to-School

School is about to get underway again. We parents of kids with celiac disease struggle, every year, brainstorming new things to put in our kids' lunchboxes. There's only so many times a kid can eat a PB & J with Fritos before they lose their minds!

So this is my list of the many great things you can put in your kid's lunchbox. They're all GF, and many of them are things a working mom can just purchase at a grocery store, so you're not spending a half hour every morning, rushing to get that lunch made:

• Glutino toaster pastries
• guacamole dip and chips
• cold gluten-free pizza
• stuff for making mini-pizzas on a GF cracker (Lunchables style)
• home-made GF lunchables (my daughter's favorite)
• GF stick day (GF pretzel sticks, cheese sticks, and pepperoni sticks)
• GF chips and salsa with bean dip
• cookie-cutter mini sandwiches
• bag of GF cereal
• Udi's muffins
• Udi's cinnamon rolls
• Yoplait yogurts (read labels) or Go-Gurts 
• Del Monte fruit cups/jello fruit cups
• plain Jell-o cups
• pudding cups (read labels)
• carrot sticks
• celery sticks
• peanut butter celery sticks
• cream cheese celery sticks (read labels on the cream cheese)
• thermos of soup (see my "soups" recipes for ideas)
• S'moreables graham crackers

• Quaker GF rice cakes
• Glutino breadsticks
• Glutino bagel chips (YUM!)
• GF fruit chew snacks (read labels)
• fresh fruit
• Easy Cheese (but the bacon one has gluten)
• Fritos
• Lays Stax
• cottage cheese
• cheese sticks
• Old Wisconsin beef sticks
• Old Wisconsin summer sausage (check for GF label)
• Hormel Canadian bacon
• Hormel pepperoni slices
• K-Toos (Oreo-style cookies)
• boiled eggs
• deviled eggs
• egg salad with GF crackers to spread it on
• Cheetos
• Juicy-Juice
• Shasta sodas
• raisins
• yogurt-covered raisins
• home-made trail mix (find my recipe on this site under "lunches")
• EnviroKids rice "granola" bars
• Fruity Pebble Treats (now available in stores, always check labels)
• Popcorn
• Popcorn balls made with Kraft marshmallows
• Kraft colored mini-marshmallows
• PB&J made on Glutino crackers
• Jell-o Knox blocks 
• apple slices
• Glutino pretzels or EnerG pretzels
• California roll (sushi nori) home-made with tuna instead of raw meat (for safety)
• beef strips cut from leftover pot roast (send them some BBQ sauce for dipping)
• cold quesadilla on GF tortillas 

I post recipes for some of this stuff on this site, so follow me, and you'll get a new recipe once a month. My specialty is the lunchbox-stuffer, but I sometimes offer recipes for other meals and desserts as well.

Happy lunch-boxing!

Gluten Free and Dairy Free Summer Salad Recipe: Cucumber Tomato Salad

Those of us who garden start to see the fruits of our labor this time of year (or in August for northerly climates), so I thought it would be a good idea to post my cucumber-tomato salad recipe:

Ingredients:
1 medium cucumber, peeled and cubed
1/4 cup red onion (diced)
3 medium roma tomatoes, cubed
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2-3 Tbsp. sugar (to taste)
1/2 cup water
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and leave them in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, to marinade. Serve cold.

Gluten Free Root Beer Float and Easy Variations

So far, my daughter Annie has been eating GF for 10 years, and in that time, we have not yet run across a brand of root beer with gluten in it. However, it's always a good idea to check with the company, read labels, etc...

However ice cream is a different story. Some ice creams do contain wheat, so be very careful. Another problem that often occurs with ice cream is cross-contamination. People dip into the ice cream, place a scoop on their cake, then go back for more with bits of cake all over the ice cream scoop. So be wary of ice cream that has already been opened.

One of the "trusted companies" which seems to label their ice cream well is Dreyer's brand. Their vanilla is pretty tasty, and it comes in French vanilla, along with the ordinary stuff.

So how do you make a root beer float? It's easy peasy!

Ingredients:

• 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream
• 1 can root beer

Directions:
Put the ice cream in your cup. Fill your cup the rest of the way with root beer. Ingest.

Yum!

Variations:

• For a fruity variation, try adding one of Dryer's sherbets to 7 UP or Sprite.
• It's also possible to make colorful sodas by adding vanilla ice cream to any of the Shasta flavored sodas, like grape soda, cherry soda, or orange soda. Last time I called the company, Shasta guaranteed that all of their sodas were GF (but that has been more than a year ago, so beware).

In any case, with summer right around the corner, I thought it was time to add root beer floats to my collection of online recipes! :)

Gluten Free Egg Flower Soup Recipe

My whole family will tell you, if there's one thing I'm good at making, it's Asian food. Or, in this case, Asian-American food.

Egg flower soup is easy as... well actually, it's a whole lot easier than pie! And here we go...

Ingredients:
1 egg
32 oz. GF chicken broth (check labels -- broth and bullion often contain gluten!)
1/2 tsp. minced ginger root
1 small leek, sliced
Tamari (GF soy sauce) to taste
1/4 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup cabbage or bok choy

Directions:
1. Bring broth to boil on the stove in a soup pan. Add leek and ginger root. Simmer 5 minutes. This simmer period helps flavor the broth. If you want your egg flower soup to have chicken in it, I'd add pre-cooked chicken along with the leek and ginger root before simmering.
2. Break your egg into a measuring cup with a pour spout and whip it with a wire whisk. Increase the temperature of your broth to medium-high and stir it in a circle while slowly drizzling the egg into the broth. You should see it create "flowers" (eggs that solidify in wisps) as you add the egg. If it doesn't form "flowers" right away, increase the heat a bit before continuing.

3. Add cabbage and frozen peas. Cook three minutes, no more, so the cabbage is still somewhat al dente, and stir periodically.
4. Add soy sauce to taste before serving.

Serves 2-3

Adaptations:
Instead of eggs, you can add rice noodles. Cook rice noodles, cabbage, and peas for three minutes. This will require another can of broth. When I make this soup, I usually add pre-cooked chicken as well, and sometimes I add veggies like carrots, celery, squash, and spinach.

If you like your soup thicker, add a tsp. of corn starch to 1/4 cup of cold water, and add this to the broth before adding the egg.

Gluten-free and Dairy-free Tuna Noodle Casserole Recipe

I can't eat cows' milk, but like a lot of dairy-free folks, I can eat goat's milk. I used goat's milk yogurt and goat's milk cheese in this recipe, but I bet you could substitute it with soy products instead.

Anyway, here's my recipe for GF and DF tuna noodle casserole. It serves two to three people.

Ingredients:

• 1 can tuna, including the juice
• 1/2 of a 14 oz. bag of Tinkyada "Little Dreams" (other Tinkyada pastas will work fine too)
• 2 Tbsp. goat's milk yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. grated goat's milk cheese
• 1 tsp. corn starch + cold water (see directions for measurements)
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper
• dash of garlic
• dash of onion powder
• 1 cup mixture of fresh veggies of your choice, chopped (I used carrot, cauliflower, onion, mushroom, and broccoli)
• 2-3 Tbsp. Panko GF bread crumbs

Directions:
1. Cook Tinkyada noodles for 10 minutes at a hard boil (9 min. for more sturdy al dente). Remove pasta and drain in a colander. Return it to the pan, but keep it off the direct heat of a burner. This helps keep your noodles warm.
2. Open a can of tuna and drain the liquid into a measuring cup. Set aside. Add tuna to noodles.
3. Add grated goat's milk cheese and goat's milk yogurt to the noodles. Mix. Season to taste with salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powder, while thoroughly mixing the tuna into the noodles. Cheese should melt a bit during this stage, and that's fine.
4. Add fresh veggies to the noodle mixture. Preheat oven to 425 F.
5. Add corn starch to the tuna juice you've set aside in the measuring cup. Add cold water to the measuring cup until it reaches the 1/4 cup measurement. This means you'll have some tuna juice, some water, and 1 tsp. corn starch in a mixture that measure 1/4 cup in total.
6. Add tuna juice/corn starch mixture to the noodle mixture and blend.
7. Put noodle mixture in a greased, fairly deep casserole dish (see my images) and sprinkle Panko GF crumbs on top (crunched up potato chips work fine too). Bake in 425 F oven for 20 minutes.

Gluten-free Ham and Cheese Omelet Recipe

Yeah, it sounds pretty simple. I know. But when I first started cooking gluten-free, I didn't know how to make the most basic stuff because everything I'd ever made had come from a box.

So here's the recipe for a basic, gluten-free ham and cheese omelet.

The key is to make sure your pan, your cooking spray, and your ham are all gluten-free. Read the ingredients on the packaging for the ham and the cooking spray.

Pans can retain some gluten, if they're made of porous material like cast iron, even after they've been thoroughly washed. So watch out for that problem. I like to use non-stick pans best, because an omelet is a tricky thing to flip and/or remove from the pan.

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1 thick slice of ham, cubed
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbs. grated cheddar cheese
cooking oil or spray

Directions:

1. If you like your omelet fluffy, use a wire whisk to really whip your eggs up good. I don't like mine very fluffy, so I usually just whip the eggs with a fork.
2. Heat the oil in a frying pan or skillet, using medium-high heat, and have your ham and cheese ready nearby.
3. Pour the whipped eggs into the pan. As it begins cooking, add the ham cubes to the egg by sprinkling them evenly over the entire circle of eggs.
4. Place a lid on the skillet. This ensures that the eggs cook thoroughly. Cook the omelet for 1-3 minutes. I test mine periodically by trying to lift a corner with a spatula. If it lifts out easily, it's ready to flip. If it seems a little gooey still, leave it in the pan for another minute before testing it again.
5. To flip your omelet, loosen it all around the edges of the eggs. Use a wide spatula to get under the middle of the circle-shaped eggs. Flip quickly!
6. Sprinkle cheese in the center of the omelet, reduce the heat to low, and return the lid to the skillet. Cook it another 30 seconds or until cheese is thoroughly melted. You may wish to add sauteed vegetables to the center of your omelet as well, and this would be the time to do so.
7. Flip the omelet over on itself, making it look sort of like a taco. Remove it from the skillet to a plate and eat it while hot.

Mrs. Kaiser's Healthy Gluten-Free (GF) Breakfast Muffin Recipe

I used to work with a school psychologist, Mrs. Kaiser, who recently went gluten-free. When we ran into each other at the supermarket the other day, she gave me this recipe, which sounds super healthy and yummy!

Ingredients:
2 cups almond meal
2 cups flax seed meal
4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 cup or more of unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted....or other oil or butter
8 large eggs
1/2 cup water
1 T chia seeds

Directions:
Mix the preceding ingredients. Then add 1 cup of Craisins, 1 cup of coconut, and 1 cup of dried blueberries. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Mrs. Kaiser suggested that you store a dozen of them in the freezer while eating a dozen during the week. They make a very healthy breakfast!

I can't wait to try them!

Gluten-Free Corn Salad Recipe

Image: iClipart

Ingredients:
2 cans (15 oz.) whole kernel corn, drained
2 cups grated cheese
1 cup mayo
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 ten-oz. bag of mashed Fritos

Mix the first five ingredients in a bowl and chill. Stir in the mashed up Fritos corn chips right before you serve the salad.