Do you remember take-out? My favorite thing to order was Sesame Chicken! Some of my favorite dates with my husband included Chinese takeout and a good movie! Since going gluten-free I haven’t eaten Chinese takeout (clearly their soy sauce is NOT gluten free) even during two gluten-free pregnancies. After a few tries, I have finally gotten a recipe for Sesame Chicken that the family loves. Big Dan probably the most! He literally cried for a second and a third helping. That boy will surpass his big brother any day if he keeps this up.

And speaking of takeout, there is exciting news in the Raleigh area for those on special diets. Rosie’s Plate, a gluten-free catering company, just opened up in downtown Raleigh. Rose Waring decided to pursue this catering business after caring for her two young children with multiple food allergies. She realized that having to cook every meal was a daunting task! [I agree!] Her business model is an interesting one. She rotates her menus every two weeks and you have to give her company a day’s notice of your order. I am very excited about this new opportunity for the allergy community of Raleigh. Her prices are very reasonable.

When I visited Rosie’s Plate on Wednesday, I met a woman who was picking up a menu for her teenager. Apparently, she used to order all her child’s baked goods from Babycakes in New York City. She said that the thing her child missed the most was fried chicken. When I told her it would be relatively easy to make fried chicken, she laughed and said that cooking just wasn’t her thing. Hmmm…maybe her teenager wants to swap babysitting for gluten-free cooking lessons?!

Here is the link to the article in the Raleigh News & Observer (yours truly is quoted) about Rosie’s Plate.

I am submitting this sesame chicken recipe to Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Kalyn’s Kitchen. This blog event invites bloggers to write about a vegetable, herb, or flower. My sesame chicken recipe includes green onions, which are my absolute favorite. I LOVE that you can actually use your leftover bulbs to grow even more green onions.

SESAME CHICKEN

1 1/2 lbs of chicken tenders (cut into thirds/bite size pieces)

1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon of San-J’s Wheat-Free Tamari Sauce

2 1/2 Tablespoons of rice vinegar plus 1 teaspoon (you can substitute another if you don’t have it)

1 cup gluten-free chicken broth

1/2 cup sugar (don’t faint; I am trying to mimic the take-out sesame chicken, so reduce if you feel you must)

1/4 cup cornstarch plus 2 teaspoons

2 egg whites, lightly beaten

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

3-6 dried hot pepper pods

1/4 cup sesame seeds

green onions, chopped

cooked jasmine rice

DIRECTIONS:

In a medium bowl, combine sugar, 1/4 cup of the tamari sauce, vinegar, and chicken broth. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine chicken pieces, remaining 1 Tablespoon of soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Marinate chicken for at least 30 minutes. Once the chicken has marinated, add egg whites and cornstarch and stir until well-blended.

In your wok, heat oil over med-high heat. Cook chicken (in about 3 batches) until golden on both sides- this will take 3-5 minutes. Remove chicken from wok with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Cover with foil to keep the chicken warm. If you have more than a couple tablespoons of oil left in the wok, discard the remaining oil( leave just a few tablespoons in the wok). Reduce the heat to med. Cook the garlic and pepper pods for about a minute. Then add soy sauce mixture. Increase heat to med-high and cook sauce for about 15 minutes. Stir two teaspoonfuls of cornstarch into a little water and whisk it into the sauce. Once the sauce is thickened and bubbly, add the chicken and sesame seeds. Top with green onions and serve over jasmine rice.

Serves 4-6

Notes: Don’t faint when you read the amount of sugar! I tried to make this recipe with less, but it just didn’t feel as much like the take-out version. If you do decide to reduce the sugar or use agave syrup, you may need to use more cornstarch to thicken the sauce. I suggest just thinking of it as dessert!

You could also try adding a tablespoon of dry white wine to the sauce.

Note: Tamari Sauce is well worth the money and completely delicious. If you use soy sauce consider backing off the amount as it has a stronger flavor.

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Posted on June 27th, 2008 by Natalie
Filed under: Chicken Recipes | 23 Comments »

I just went to the grocery store and bought food for the week. I was out of town this weekend and we were completely out of food. Rather than sit down and plan a menu, I went straight to Target and bought my groceries. I thought I would blog about the experience because this happens to a lot of busy gluten-free moms!

When I first went gluten-free, I had a tough time walking into a grocery store and bringing home food for the week. I needed a menu to rely on. Now that I have been menu-planning for awhile, it is MUCH EASIER to go unprepared to the grocery store because I have weeks and weeks of menus in my head!

This is the menu I came up with on the fly!

Monday: Gluten Free Spaghetti

Reasoning: The Target in my area has just started carrying Mrs. Leeper’s Brown Rice Spaghetti (located on the very bottom shelf), so even though I was out of Tinkyada pasta (my favorite gluten free pasta) I could still grab some organic spaghetti sauce for a very quick gluten free meal. When I headed over to the meat section (no vegetarians among my boys) I discovered ground beef was on sale. Assorted red peppers were on sale so I bought a pack of those to go in the sauce. This is a quick meal that everyone in my house will eat. It is a good Monday meal because between going to the grocery store and caring for two toddlers there is not a lot of time for meal preparation (and I also workout on Mondays)! Since many of you buy Tinkyada pasta in bulk, this is a meal you can make in a hurry.

Tuesday: Black Bean Soup with Quesadillas

Reasoning: Inexpensive, quick, easy, and naturally gluten free! I make the Quesadillas with corn tortillas. I make an enormous amount of this soup and freeze it. Since I make the soup with red bell peppers, I thought of this meal when I saw that red bell peppers were on sale.

Wednesday: Sesame Chicken with Jasmine Rice

Reasoning: We loved this last week, but I wanted to tweak the recipe before I posted it. I still had some of the ingredients left over in my pantry, so it would be easy to prepare it again this week. I had some frozen chicken in the freezer (bought when chicken went on sale) so I had to buy very little for this dinner.

Thursday: Flank Steak with Spicy Asian Rice Noodles

Reasoning: With Asian food on the brain, I thought of this dinner. I had sweet chili sauce and tamari sauce at home, so I grabbed a flank steak and a cucumber that was on sale. I still have some ginger root in the freezer in case I want to add that flavor too.

Friday: Gluten Free Pizza

Reasoning: I have gotten really good at making a gluten free pizza crust. It is much faster than making a gluten crust in my opinion. Jude and Dan love pizza, so I make it a lot! It is very simple to make pizza sauce but I keep Muir Glen’s Organic Pizza sauce on hand in case I don’t feel like making the sauce homemade. Shredded Mozzarella cheese was $1.87 this week too.

Other easy gluten free recipes:

Chicken and Rice (good enough for company!)

Lasagna

Thai Chicken Wraps (I make this whenever broccoli slaw goes on sale)

A Simple Paella

Mahi Mahi with Coconut Rice (made simple by making coconut rice in a rice cooker)

Karen of Gluten Free Sox is hosting the gluten free menu swap this week. Everyone is cooking with oregano, which is just overflowing in gardens right now!

My Monday Mommy Brag:

Dan swimming!

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Posted on June 23rd, 2008 by Natalie
Filed under: gluten free menu | 9 Comments »

I wanted to write this post when I first started my gluten free blog in March of 2007. However, I could not do the post justice at the time, so I began by blogging gluten free recipes. I decided that the longer I put off the post the harder it gets to write, so I suppose I will get started on this post and add pieces here and there as I remember my journey of getting started on the gluten free diet.

I was never a particularly healthy kid. I had pneumonia more than eight times as a child, one bout even requiring hospitalization. I thought that allergies and asthma would follow me around my whole life. In the seventh grade, my body started reacting in an altogether different and more frightening way- I began to get hives and angioedema. The swelling and red welts started one day and just never stopped coming back. My parents took me to several specialists over the years at several military hospitals and none of them could determine what was causing the outbreaks of hives. I was given medications to treat my symptoms but even the drugs could not keep the hives at bay. It seemed the hives came and went as they pleased. The antihistamine drugs they gave me messed with my already tender teenage emotions and made me tired all the time. Can you imagine taking the SAT on powerful antihistamines like Benadryl or Atarax? I suffered through high school never knowing if my lip will swell up in the middle of class or on a date because the drugs didn’t work. The doctors were stumped. My senior year of high school something amazing happened- one of my doctors suggested Zyrtec. They casually mentioned that Zyrtec had in some studies been shown to help with hives. I could not even begin to hope that this drug would help me because nothing had worked. There were still no positive results on my allergy tests- other than dust mites, but according to my doctors that would not cause the urticaria. So I took the Zyrtec and it not only prevented my hives, but would clear them up within 15 minutes after I took one. What was even more amazing was that Zyrtec had even fewer side effects than the other drugs I had been taking.

This “pop a pill” solution worked for a few years until my health took a turn for the worse. At first I blamed college food and then I blamed stress because my dad and both my grandfathers died within just a few years. I continued down this spiral of bad health until shortly after my marriage in 2004. I began getting hives closer and closer to the time I ate. On one occasion, I made a made a homemade chocolate cake and had a very severe immediate allergic reaction to the cake flour. My face swelled up once again and made me almost unrecognizable! At first I was confused at what course of action to take, but I decided that an elimination diet (of sorts) with a food diary might help me. All signs pointed to gluten. I wanted to also get tested for celiac disease immediately, but something stopped me. At that time my husband and I were very concerned about qualifying for health insurance coverage because my husband works for his family’s business. Once we did qualify, we were scared a diagnosis might jeopardize our coverage in the future. I decided I would go on the gluten free diet and see if the hives stopped and my health improved- after all, if a diet was the only remedy, what need was there of a diagnosis? I went on the gluten free diet and my hives stopped. Gradually my stomach problems, headaches, and back pain disappeared too. Five months later I was pregnant!

I know that not all of you have been so lucky. My few hardships pale in comparison to some of the stories my readers have shared with me. Now that I have found the gluten free community and gotten a little more life lived, I feel like I should have pursued a diagnosis (if there was one to be had) because maybe that would have made me a better role model for those of you starting your journey. However, I am a mom now and I feel like it would be negligent to pursue a diagnosis when gluten=hives. If I ingest gluten I get hives and that is not something I can live with for any length of time! I just can’t eat the stuff! In my effort to be responsible for my health, I went and had my allergies tested again last week and nothing new came up, thank goodness! No anemia either!

It took me over a decade to figure out the source of my health problems. I know for many of you, it took even longer. The sense of relief quickly turns to panic as you stumble your way through the first few weeks of the gluten free diet. I was lucky that I was a new wife and not yet a mother when I had to change my diet. Many of you have had to change established routines and traditions for an entire family; I can’t imagine how hard that would be. I am here to reassure you that once you become a seasoned gluten-free cook, no one will mind the diet!

I promise to tell you about my first days trying to live gluten free in a future post!

If you are starting your gluten free journey, you may want to check out the NFCA’s Do I Have Celiac? quiz.

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Posted on June 20th, 2008 by Natalie
Filed under: Gluten free diet | 19 Comments »

The ingredient of the week, cherries, was inspired by the Cherry Clafouti I made last week. I am not usually a cherry fan, but they were really good in that recipe. I am tempted to make it again this week! If not, I will be eating cherries as a naturally gluten free snack. The cherries have been wonderful, but they are anything but local! My sweet potatoes, however, are local Carolina Ruby. I am hoping to make it the Farmer’s Market this weekend to see what else made it through the drought this year.

I hope these menu ideas help those that are new to the gluten free diet.

My Gluten Free Menu

Monday: Gluten Free Waffle Night

Tuesday: Sesame Chicken with Jasmine Rice

Wednesday: Pork Tenderloin, Asparagus, and Sweet Potatoes

Thursday: Low Carb Hamburgers and Coleslaw

Friday: Almond-Crusted Chicken Breasts with Wilted Spinach-Orange Salad (from The Quick Recipe)

OTHER GLUTEN FREE MENUS:

Book of Yum: Sea has a beautiful zucchini salad on her gluten free menu plan this week. Her menu is both international and vegetarian. Go check out that pretty salad!

Asparagus Thin: Manda is making Cuban Black Beans with Plantains this week that sounds amazing. Her menu is mouth-watering!

Gluten Free Goodness: Cheryl is making a black bean brownie with cherries this week. She is also finishing off her almond rosewater cookies! She also has some delicious sounding entrees, so go check out her menu too!

Cooking and UnCooking: M-Elle has great ideas for getting through a gluten free week! I especially liked her idea of making a cherry fruit salad.

Monday Mommy Brag:

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Posted on June 16th, 2008 by Natalie
Filed under: gluten free menu | 4 Comments »

I have wanted to make a gluten free clafouti for a long time, but wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. When I passed this recipe a few days ago in The Quick Recipe (The Best Recipe Series) and had fresh cherries on hand, the time had come to give it a go. I was intimidated by what flour to use for a long time because I knew the flavor of the flour would come through in my custard. I ultimately chose sweet rice flour because of its neutral flavor and thickening abilities. I paired the sweet rice flour with an equal amount of almond flour. I was concerned that the almond flour would be too coarse for the custard but I knew it would be the perfect flavor. I used a commercially ground almond flour (I normally grind my own) and the custard turned out smooth. The custard had both a great texture and flavor. With that gluten free adaptation problem solved, I decided to change the recipe further by adding 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the original recipe. I frequently change the amount of vanilla I use in gluten free recipes. I also used fresh cherries in my recipe instead of the jarred sour cherries called for in the recipe. You can pit your cherries with a straw or use an unnecessary (although very fun) cherry pitter.

Note: If you have never tasted a clafouti before, it is reminiscent of a custard pie. If you like custard pie, you will love this recipe.

CHERRY CLAFOUTI

1 1/2 cups fresh cherries, steams removed and pitted (enough to cover the bottom of your pie plate)

6 large eggs

1 cup milk

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup almond flour (needs to be really fine)

1/4 cup sweet rice flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

melted butter for greasing the pie plate

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 1/2 glass pie plate with melted butter. Place a single layer of fresh cherries on the bottom of the pie plate. In a blender, mix the eggs, cream, milk, and lemon juice for about 45 seconds. Add the flour, sugar, and salt to the blender jar. Blend for one minute! Place your pie plate on a cookie sheet (in case of spills in the oven). Carefully pour the batter in the pie plate. Place the pie plate (on cookie sheet) in the center rack in the oven. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour. The clafouti is done when it is puffed and brown. (Don’t worry if your clafouti does not puff too much- they fall when they cool anyway) If the center is still jiggly (tee hee), the clafouti needs longer to cook. If you want to be sure it is done, insert a knife into the center to check. Cool the pie plate on a rack for a minimum of 15 minutes before serving. The clafouti should cut nicely into wedges, so if that is not happening- cool it for longer! You can serve the clafouti warm or chilled- my favorite is chilled, which makes this a perfect make-ahead gluten free dessert recipe for company.

Serves 8-10

I am submitting this to Gluten Free Gobsmacked’s Gluten Free BBQ event. I think I will also bring my favorite gluten free chocolate cake to this virtual BBQ because it looks like everyone’s coming! If you have a favorite gluten free recipe that would be great at a BBQ be sure to send Kate an email about it (non-bloggers too)!

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Posted on June 14th, 2008 by Natalie
Filed under: Fruit Dessert Recipes | 13 Comments »