How to Make Your Own Gluten-Free Spaghetti Sauce

When my daughter, Annie, was first diagnosed with celiac disease, I had to learn how to make everything from scratch. My mother had always used pre-made, store-bought spaghetti sauce. And in those early days, I had no idea that Ragu offered gluten-free sauces. I went through a time where I was afraid to feed Annie anything at all, if I didn't make it myself.

Of course I don't mind opening a jar of Ragu these days, but quite honestly, I now prefer my own, home-made spaghetti sauce to anything pre-packaged.

So here's the recipe I use:

Ingredients

2 lbs. hamburger
2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
fresh parsley
4 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 cup diced onions
1/4 cup diced peppers
4 med. white mushrooms, sliced
salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions:

Brown hamburger in a frying pan and drain the excess fat. Add onions and mushrooms. Fry for an additional minute. Add tomato sauce, parsley, chili powder, and onion powder. Mince or crush garlic cloves and add this as well. (For some people, 4 cloves might be too strong, but my family likes a lot of garlic.) Simmer. At the last minute, add peppers and simmer for 30 seconds until peppers are al dente.

To make spaghetti, of course, you just cook noodles according to package directions and pour this sauce over your cooked noodles. Our favorite brand of GF spaghetti noodles is Tinkyada, because this brand cooks up al dente.

Gluten-free Breakfast on the Go!

The Domestic Geek made this wonderful video, showing us all how to make spinach and tomato frittatas, potato roasties, and almond breakfast bites. Each of these is made in a muffin tin, so they're handy to take with you in the morning. Thanks for this great video, Domestic Geek!

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!