Send Me Gluten Free – September

So excited! I got a great coupon for ‘send me gluten free’ and here is my first box.

Send Me Gluten Free - September 2014

Send Me Gluten Free – September 2014

Contents:

  • Lots of coupons for the stuff inside.
  • Soap box natural soap – Not tried yet
  • Extra virgin coconut oil – Not tried yet
  • Soy joy bar – Not tried yet
  • Shaar Honey Grahams – Really good!
  • Three different spice blends – Not tried yet but smells awesome!
  • Giddy up & Co granola – LOVE
  • Lovely candy. . The best!
  • Liquid both concentrate – Really good stuff!
  • Bean and rice chips – Just OK to me
  • Go picnic ready to eat meal. Super excited about this one!  – Turned out really good! Bought more of these!
  • Pamela baking mix
  • Chop sticks

 

Some coupons were as large as 40% off!  Thanks guys!

 

The Best Gluten Free Pastas

If you’ve ever tried to use Gluten Free Pasta, then you know it can be pretty tricky.  It can be hard to get the consistency you want as well as the flavor.  Gluten free pasta’s can be most commonly made out of Rice, Corn and Quinoa.  Depending on what you are trying to cook, really depends on which type of pasta works best.

 

Spaghetti & Baked Pastas

For Spaghetti & Baked Pastas, you need something that will hold up better.  Corn and/or Quinoa pastas work the best for this.  For my Gluten Free Homemade Spaghetti I use Shaar’s Gluten Free Pasta

For baked Pasta’s I like either the Quinoa  or the corn based Sam Mills Pasta.

 

Pasta for Soup

For pasta used in Soup, I really like to use the quick cooking Asian Rice Pasta. This is the pasta I use in my Turkey (or Chicken) and Noodle Soup!

 

The rice pastas that are for Spaghetti I found just get too mushy or are just plain weird in texture.  What’s your favorite pastas?

The Best Gluten Free Chocolate Chips

We have recently found the Enjoy Life Chocolate chips!  They are allergen friendly, including gluten free and have only 3, yes 3, ingredients!  Evaporated Cane Juice, Natural Chocolate Liquor (non-alcoholic) and Non-Diary Coca Butter.

I have used these in gluten free chocolate chip cookies, my double delicious cookies as well as our peanutbutter cup sandwiches.  I haven’t found anything yet they aren’t good in!

 

Enjoy!  🙂

 

Gluten Free Sausage

When you are Celiac and want to eat sausage, you really have to look carefully at the ingredients. There can be hidden gluten in them! I’ve recently found out that MSG (monosodium glutamate) can sometimes be made from Gluten. MSG in general isn’t good for you and it’s hard to find sausage without it or with it being one of the last ingredients.

In our local Krogers, I have found a really good sausage that has very little MSG and tastes great! The biggest plus is I can eat as much of it as I want and have no symptoms! In recently looking at their website, they state that the ‘sausage’ only products do not have gluten in them. Just the obvious ones like the sausage sandwiches, etc.

I get this in the roll like below in the fresh sasuage isle:

And they have awesome frozen patties in the frozen meat section of Kroger. Those are great to keep around. You just throw them in a pan and cook them straight from frozen! Here’s a Sausage Sandwich I make frequently for us.

Enjoy!

Pillsbury Gluten Free Pie Crust

If you don’t have the time or patience to create your own Gluten Free Pie Crust, Pillsbury’s Gluten free Pie Crust is a pretty good substitute.  I will say it’s not as flaky as the homemade crust recipe above, but it is pretty tasty and works well for bottom only pies!  I’ve recently made a Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie with it that was delicious!

Our favorite Gluten Free Pizza Crusts

We have four different gluten free pizza crusts we really like.  The Udis Granola Gluten Free Pizza Crustis great for a thin crust type of pizza.  It’s the crust I use in my Gluten Free pizza that tastes like delivery recipe.

I can find this at our local Krogers for about $7 per two crusts.

If you are looking for a puffier crust, then we recommend Kinnikinnick gluten free pizza crust.  This one comes in a pack of four and it is rectangle pizzas found in our Kroger’s Frozen Organic isle.  I make this one using the same sauce and topping ingredients as the Gluten Free pizza that tastes like delivery recipe.

 

If you are looking for a deep dish style pizza, we really like to use Glutino’s English Muffins.  See our Mini Gluten Free Pizzas recipe.

I haven’t tried any refrigerated or homemade dough yet.  I’ll let you know if I do!

Yummy Gluten Free Doughnuts!

While we aren’t big doughnut eaters, sometimes they are good for a treat.  When our oldest was part of their ‘Today Show’ at school and I found out they always bring doughnuts for a treat on Fridays I didn’t want him to be left out.  So I found Kinnikinnick brand Gluten Free Doughnuts in our local Kroger’s freezer isle.  These doughnuts are pretty darn good!  We’ve tried both the cinnamon and the vanilla glazed varieties and both are very tasty.  Their texture is also very close to a normal doughnut.  They are more like the ‘cake’ variety that you can get in the doughnut store rather than the fluffy glazed kind.

Our Favorite Gluten Free Bread

I’ve tried probably 4-5 gluten free breads.  Some to OK to some awful.  Our favorite by far is Udi’s Gluten Free Bread.  I like their White and their Whole Grain versions.  Even though the kids were used to ‘whole wheat’ bread and preferred it to regular white bread, they like the white version of Udi’s best.

What I love the most about this bread is you can’t tell it’s gluten free when it comes to taste, texture and the ability to hold together!  I have made the following items with it with no noticeable difference between how it works and tastes for these food items.  In fact, some things taste better with this gluten free bread!  The kids would even request me using the gluten free bread for French Toast for example, before I made the house completely gluten free!

What’s your favorite gluten free bread?

Our Favorite Gluten Free Chicken Tenders

Some gluten free substitutes for breaded items have a weird texture and taste.  We’ve found at our local Krogers the Saffron Road brand to make excellent chicken tenders!  You can’t even tell they are gluten free!  The texture is great and works best when you put them in the oven.  We like to use our toaster oven for these so we aren’t heating up our big oven to bake them.  I hope you like them!

The great thing about these is they are Certified Gluten Free!

Saffron Road Chicken Tenders

Saffron Road Gluten Free Chicken Tenders

Saffron Road Gluten Free Chicken Tenders

Gluten Free Pizza – Tastes like Delivery!

One thing you might miss when going gluten free is Delivery Pizza!  This is actually pretty simple to do at home if you just make one simple tweak to how you normally make pizza at home!

First I start with Udi’s Gluten Free Crust.  I can find this at our local Kroger’s for a pretty reasonable price (almost the same as gluten crust!)


Next I use a very simple, jarred pizza sauce.  By simple I mean something with very small number and natural ingredients.   I like to use Mid’s pizza sauce.  It’s usually just a few dollars in our Krogers.


Next you can put on any toppings you like.

Here’s how I made the pizza below.

Delivery tasting Gluten Free Pizza

Delivery tasting Gluten Free Pizza

Ingredients:

  • 1 Udi’s Gluten Free Pizza Crust
  • 1-3 tbs Mid’s Pizza Sauce
  • Shredded Cheese (sometimes I use Mexican style…no seasonings.., sometimes just mozzarella)
  • Hormel Pepperoni
  • Fresh Green Pepper
  • Canned Mushrooms (I prefer canned to fresh for some reason!)
  • Cooked Bacon (I just use leftover I’ve frozen or refrigerated)
  • Garlic Powder to taste (optional)
  • Onion Powder to taste (optional)

Preheat oven to 375.  Layer pizza sauce, garlic & onion powder, cheese, then toppings onto gluten free pizza crust.  Bake for 7-10 minutes.  Once cheese looks nice and melted and toppings hot, switch your oven to broil for 1-2 minutes.  It’s important to keep an eye on the pizza at this point!  Watch until the cheese really starts to bubble and the edges of the pizza turn a golden brown.

Optionally: When you get ready to switch to broil, add a sprinkle of fresh cheese on top to help hold all the toppings together.

Ultimate Taste Test!  So for our oldest’s birthday party, I made these Gluten Free Pizzas for all the kids.  They were simpler with just cheese or pepperoni since that’s what they preferred.  I got lots of compliments from the 10-11 year olds on the pizza!