Gluten Free Eating Just Got Cheaper!!

Gluten Free Eating Just Got Cheaper!! Aldi now has a full line of gluten free products! Aldi a German company has always clearly labeled their foods as gluten free (if they are) and that has made for easy shopping for me. I just glanced at the label and if it said gluten free I bought it. No more searching the ingredient list. The new US labeling laws have been passed but not yet implemented by food manufactures across the board.

Aldi now has gluten free Mac N Cheese, granola bars, cake mixes, granola cereal, cookie mix, pizza crust mix, cornbread mix, pizzas, brownie mix, baking mix, stuffed sandwiches (like Hot Pockets), lasagna, stuffed shells, pancakes, soft baked cookies, chicken nuggets and pretzels.

Now mind you these are not available in all areas and I also can't find the ingredients for these products to check for other allergens. Sorry about that, I will have to go to Aldi and I don't have one near me, but I will go check it out in the near future because chicken nuggets sure sound good!

If you have seen or tried these products let us know what you think.

Thanks,
Moe

Happy Celiac Awareness Month!!

Happy Celiac Awareness Month!! Not really happy about it. lol. But that is ok, cause I feel so much better off gluten!  What are you doing to Celebrate? I'm teaching a gluten free cooking class called Bread & Sweets. Can't wait!! Lots of goodies cooking in the oven as I type.

Hugs,

 

Stop by my blog

http://adoptivemomhomeschoolinganonlychild.blogspot.com/

20% off Gluten Free Goodies!!

For a limited time, ALL Gluten Free products in the Hodgson Mill Store are 20% off. That's right: 20% off! At checkout, enter code GLUTENFREEDOM to get your discount. This is a great opportunity to try and enjoy the brand new Hodgson Mill Gluten Free CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES not sure if it's dairy free or not with the chocolate chips.

Head on over to the Hodgson Mill Blog to find this recipe to make Gluten Free Chocolate Tarts with Chocolate-Hazelnut Mousse for your gluten free sweetheart on Valentines Day!

 

What do I plan to buy with my 20% off?

Milled Flax Seed I use it in my peanut butter cookies, desserts and homemade breads, adds a nutty flavor and also fiber.

Pasta

Gluten Free Seasoned Coating Mix,

 

I use these weekly in my home. The kids that visit

our home never know that the pasta or the chicken nuggets are gluten free, they just gobble it all right up!

 

Some of the products do contain corn so please read labels before buying.

 

Enjoy!

Moe

p.s. I was just relaxing in the recliner getting my evening IV antibiotics and though of all my readers :O)

Recipe for Labor Day Weekened!

Herbed Turkey Burger w/ Zucchini Buns

 

Recipe for Labor Day Weekend!

 

This looks WONDERFUL! I'm thinking with Labor Day Weekend coming upon us that these will be on the menu! Stop over at Queen Of Quinoa's blog to get the recipe, there is no Quinoa in this recipe  ;0)   She has a nice listing of recipes and they are all gluten free. Many can be easily made corn free and dairy free too.

 

Enjoy!

Moe

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!!

School is fast approaching and I wanted to give you one of my all time favorite websites for cooking during the school year  the Crockpot 365 blog.

The entire site is gluten free, but the recipes are for everyone!  Look under the Slow Cooking tab and click on Index for a listing of the recipes. She also gives a review along with reader comments after each recipe.
We love the  Baked Oatmeal, Chicken Teriyaki , Rotisserie-Style Chicken (this is WONDERFUL! and tastes like the expensive store bought). After I make this one I add about a cup or so of water to the chicken broth in the bottom of the crockpot and then I freeze it for later use YUM!
Check it out for easy meals during the school year.
Moe

Happy Independence Day!!

I am blessed to live in this wonderful country know as the USA!!
It's been a busy time for all of us I am sure. I've not been feeling 100% as I think I have been getting traces of corn in my diet somehow, the culprit may be some brown sugar that I bought from Kroger, the ingredients should have tipped me off, it just said BROWN SUGAR. Guess what? You can't grow brown sugar, so it must have something else in it. I called and they can't tell me if it contains corn, but said it could. THANKS FOR NOTHING! So they have lost my business.

So since I know that we are all busy this time of year, I thought I would post a few blog postings that have really touched my heart. And this one sure did. It revealed to me that I needed to ask our son for forgiveness in the area of being snappy when he wants my attention through out the day. I get engrossed in something like cooking, reading labels or trying to find something to eat that is gluten free, corn free and any of the other things that I am allergic too free....lol...besides a celery stick or carrot stick...hahaha.

Doing or Being? is the name of the blog post article. Read it and put it to good use this summer before school starts again and we get super intense on getting things done. I think that this hit me hard as I just read in my daily devotions of Martha/Mary and how Jesus responded to Martha, he made time for her, listened to what she thought she needed and did not get snappy with her, even though he was busy teaching with Mary and others at his feet.

Luke 10:38-42
^{38 "}Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
⁴⁰ But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
⁴¹ And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
⁴² But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

Happy Independence Day!
Moe

Sugar & Spice & every thing nice

My frugal gal friends have given me a tip about Penzeys.com a wonderful looking spice company. They have a very nice catalog that you can request, they have coupons and specials. They also have retail stores, none near me, but you might look them up. The catalog is not just a selling point for their products, it contains readers stories and recipes. It's well worth requesting.
I have not ordered from them as of yet, spoke with a helpful customer service rep today regarding gluten/corn in their products and I was referred to an email address. So I am waiting to hear back from them.

I cooked up one of the recipes Classic Saffron Rice and it was WONDERFUL! I used some ground Saffron that I got from a friend that went on a missions trip down to Grenada, I plan to take her a bowl of it to sample when I see her tomorrow. Everyone here liked, had a nice mild flavor, next time I think I will add a touch more. The recipe can be found in the latest edition Spring 2012 catalog. I don't have permission to post the recipe, so just call or email them and ask for a catalog. The issue that I got offers a coupon $5.00 off a purchase of $10.00 or more! I plan on using that if I get good news on the products not containing corn/gluten.

Recipes can be found here for many yummy looking dishes.

Please let my readers know if you have ever bought anything from Penzeys Spices.

Thanks & Bon Appétit,
Moe

Cooking Flops & how to unflop them!

Going to attempt to make a loaf of bread today without corn. That is a hard one when you are gluten free as corn is such a wonderful ingredient. I've not had a slice of bread in over a month and must have one! lol. So here goes!

Well......I'm back....lol. No bread!  I ended up beating the egg whites for too long, so I made Meringue Cookies instead!

These were really good! The kids kept coming back for more, so you know that they were good! lol.......Kids won't come back for seconds on something that does not taste good. I used farm fresh egg whites and they are filled with chocolate & peanut butter chips......YUM!

Onward to the bread, here it is cooking in the oven. I won't be able to taste it for several hours since the recipe says that it's way too gummy to eat when warm, so it's suppose to cool for a few hours.

I'm hoping for a taste as good as Panera Breads......but since it's gluten free, I won't get my hopes up. The best gluten free bread I have ever had was from Schar, but it's around $8.00 per loaf and I just won't pay that price for bread. My husband works way too hard to waste almost an hour of his paycheck for a loaf of bread!! I might just have to snag an end off this bread and try it when it comes out of the oven. YUMM!

Gluten Free Easter Candy link

Gluten Free Easter Candy check this out and find out what goodies you can have for Easter. Of course they don't have a corn free listing, but those of you who can eat corn, enjoy your Easter treats.

According to Hershey, they are corn free and gluten free.

Moe

Corn FREE & Gluten FREE products

Corn FREE & Gluten FREE products

I do need to add a small disclaimer here, this product does contain Xanthan Gum & Citric Acid, which can contain corn and can cause allergy issue with those that are very sensitive to corn products.

Awhile back I was at the Amish Salvage store and I came across a jar of Grandma Hoerners All Natural Pumpkin Butter, it was 18.2 oz for $1.25. The ingredients looked safe, but with corn you just never know, so I bought it figuring my guys could eat it if I was wrong. I called the company the other day and they were very quick in getting back with me. I spoke with Matt Beyer and asked my normal corn questions.....lol. Since I call so many places and they are clueless about corn allergies and tell me "Why would we put corn in our product?" They are thinking corn as in corn on the cob........hahaha.  Well Matt knew exactly what I was talking about and even shared some other corn free products that they sell. I did a little happy dance while on the phone with him, I'm sure he thought I was bananas
(oh wait, I can't be bananas since I'm allergic to those too!). Here is the website to check out the products Grandma Hoerners carries, now they do have some products that do contain corn, so make sure to read the ingredients.

Tomorrow I will do a review of the Grandma Hoerners All Natural Pumpkin Butter. I plan on making some cupcakes and then using my Cuisipro Cupcake Corer that I bought from Amazon.com. Love that thing! It really perks up gluten free cupcakes!! I will bake the cupcakes and then core out the middles and fill with the pumpkin butter, sounds good? We shall see.


Have a blessed day and remember what the Easter season is really about.
Moe

Gluten free & Corn free listing

Came across this great listing today and thought I would share. Gluten free & Corn free listing.
Of course double check to make sure that these are still correct as manufacturers are always changing ingredients and suppliers.

Moe

Changing things up a bit.

Had some time to mess around on here tonight. Changed some pictures while my dear sister-in-law took our son for the evening after we went out for all you can eat fish fry.......lol. I ate my allergy free chicken pot pie and crustless pumpkin pie, but had fun socializing with the all you can eat fish fry eaters. Ran in to our neighbor who has cancer and shared with us that he will be going to The Cancer Treatment Centers of America this month for a 2nd opinion, prayers for him and his journey would be appreciated.

I've taken Kiara's idea and started thinking more about what I CAN eat instead of what I CAN'T eat. Grocery shopping is still hard since corn (one of my main allergies) does not have to be listed on the label. I actually called Kroger foods today to find out if their cream cheese and brown sugar were corn free, the lady acted as though I was an alien....lol. She told me that cream cheese in itself does not have corn in it, but Kroger cannot control what the cows that provide the milk for the cheese eat in the field, they might eat corn.........LOL.  I shall be calling again on Monday to speak with yet another helpful agent.

I did get an interesting allergy sheet in the mail from my doctors office regarding corn allergies. Yet another laugh out loud fest. The first item that is listed is milk and it's only to be bought in glass containers, ah, yes, where am I to find that? Then there is the listing of "not to be consumed from waxed cardboard containers." Yes corn is really in everything. I'm thinking that is what a large part of the health issues in America are all about gluten and corn.

Today I went for blood work and I don't know how many vials of blood that they took, but it was a lot! They are doing more allergy testing through blood this time. I go back at the end of the month, so we shall see what the doctor says then. I'm not really noticing any difference besides not having a flushed face during or after I eat. I also think potatoes factor in somewhere as my joints ache the day after I have eaten them.

Big grin here, I can hear little baby peep cheeps coming from the basement chick nursery, so sweet.

I've found some great allergy-free cookbooks that I will share next time. I'm reading through them to see which ones are worth heading on over to my favorite hang out Amazon.

Have a great weekend!
Moe

How to save money when eating Gluten Free (or on any special diet)

I got this listing from a gluten free group that I frequent. Some great ideas here! Sometimes I know we feel like a prisoner to our required diets, so I thought this cartoon was cute!
Moe

Here are some tips from Teri Gruss on cutting costs while eating
gluten-free.

How To Cook Gluten-Free on a Budget - Cut Gluten-Free Food Costs Now!
By Teri Gruss, MS

Here are 6 practical tips and resources to help you save money on the
extraordinarily high costs of gluten-free foods. Plan ahead and you
really can save on your monthly gluten-free food costs- and at the
same time eat delicious, healthy gluten-free foods.

1. Focus on cooking with foods that are naturally gluten-free

Fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, dairy products, nuts and seeds, meats,
poultry and fish are all healthy, delicious, gluten-free foods. Focus
on planning a gluten-free menu based on these naturally gluten-free
foods. Pound for pound these foods offer a lot of nutritional value
for the buck, compared to refined, processed gluten-free products.

2. Make your own gluten-free foods rather than buying expensive,
processed products

Savings can be substantial when you make your own gluten-free foods,
especially breads and snack foods. Another advantage in making
homemade gluten-free foods is better flavor and healthier ingredients.

3. It is convenient to keep a few packages of commercial gluten-free
mixes on hand. But you can save a lot of money by making your own
mixes. Measure, mix, package and refrigerator or freeze and you have
created your own fresh convenience mixes. Along with saving money,
when you make your own gluten-free flour mixes, you can customize them
to your own tastes and nutritional needs.


4. Join forces with other gluten-free families and friends to lower
costs. Websites like amazon.com and Shop Gluten Free Grocers sell
gluten-free foods in multi-pack cartons, including pastas and flours.
Amazon's Shop Gluten-Free Groceries website offers free shipping on
orders over $25. Bob's Red Mill sells 25 pound bags of several of
their gluten-free products, including tapioca flour and all purpose
gluten-free baking mix. They also sell 4 bag cartons at discounted
prices.

5. Join a local support organization. You'll meet other people, who
like you, are battling the high costs of gluten-free foods- join
forces, buy in bulk and save money.

6. Use coupons

Nancy Lapid, About.com Guide to Celiac Disease recently blogged about
a website that offers printable coupons for gluten-free products.


Tips:

Once a month prepare your favorite gluten free convenience mixes. I
like to make 3 pound bags of all purpose baking mixes. This amount
generally lasts for several weeks. Use it to make homemade breads,
pancakes, waffles, cookies and pizza crust. Making mixes ahead of time
is SO much more convenient than making mixes every time you need a
gluten-free flour blend for a recipe.

Once a week bake your favorite gluten-free breads, wrap them up and
freeze. Remember, making homemade gluten-free bread is like mixing a
cake batter. Combine ingredients in a mixing bowl. Beat. Pour in a
bread pan, let rise and bake. Homemade gluten-free bread is faster and
easier than making traditional wheat-based yeast breads. So don't
shudder at the thought of making gluten-free bread every week. It
requires less time than you think! The savings, not to mention
superior taste and texture make it worth the minimal effort!

Make gluten-free cookie batter and refrigerate or freeze to use as
needed. There is really no need to buy expensive, ready-made mixes.
Mixing and storing cookie dough, like making bread is faster and
easier than you may think.

Make and freeze gluten-free pizza and pie crusts, which become
economical convenience foods, ready when you need them. Use a food
processor and this task is very fast and again, much easier than you
imagined.

Develop a dependable gluten-free recipe file. This will save you not
only money, but time and disappointment. I have a constantly growing
"favorites" recipe file- my "go to" recipes that I know work and taste
great. This not only saves money, it's healthier.

What You Need

Dependable, favorite gluten-free recipes
Gluten-free raw ingredients- purchased in bulk if possible
Homemade gluten-free flour blend mixes
Motivation
Shop with a grocery list and don't shop when you're hungry!
Consult with an accountant to see if you can deduct a portion of your food costs

Gluten Free Rotisserie Chicken recipe

In keeping with the pantry challenge theme I'm are shopping from the freezer this week. I have 1 whole chicken and 1 cut up chicken left. So today we are having either Rhodie (a Rhode Island Red rooster) or Freddie (a Leghorn), both were 4-H Grand Champions in 2010. These chickens fit nicley in a crockpot.

Gluten Free Rotisserie Chicken

4-5 lb chicken (I think we are using a 3lb one today)

2 tsp kosher salt or more if you like it salty like the store bought ones, I skipped the salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp onion powder (I would go 2 tsp next time)

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp Italian seasoning (I would make this 1 tbls next time)

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I think I will skip this next time it was a bit spicy for me)

1/2 tsp black pepper

pinch of chili pepper (if you want) I used chili powder (too much spice for me)

4 cloves garlic

1 yellow onion quartered

Skin the chicken if you want to (I don't)

Remove all the goodies from the cavity

mix all seasonings and sprinkle inside and outside the chicken

put garlic and onions inside chicken cavity.

Put bird in breast side DOWN in crockpot.

DO NOT ADD WATER-no liquid is needed for this recipe.

Cover and cook on high 4-5 hours or low up to 8 hours. The longer you cook this the more tender it is. I am also going to put a few washed/scrubbed potatoes in the bottom of the pot to cook. YUM!

For safety sake when I have the time, I put the crockpot on high for the first hour to make sure that the temperature gets good and hot and then I turn it to low for the rest of the day. Always cook thawed chicken in the crockpot NEVER frozen since the inside of the bird stays at the wrong temperature for too long while in the crockpot and bacteria can start to grow.

This was pretty good, both my guys liked it, but it was too spicy hot for me, I like a bit of heat, but this was really warm. So you can see my changes for next time in (   ).
If you are not daring enough to try this recipe, just sprinkle your chicken with Lawyr's Seasoning Salt and turn the crockpot on. YUM!!! But way too much sodium for this body  :O( 

Moe

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Bars recipe

I found this recipe over on the Tessa the Domestic Diva: Wholesome, Allergy-Friendly Living blog here is a link to the recipe: chocolate peanut butter cookie bars, I plan on making these this weekend

The above photo is from http://tessadomesticdiva.blogspot.com/. check out her site for other gluten free and dairy free recipes. Lots of yummy & kid friendly recipes over there.

Have a great weekend,
Moe

Pantry Challenge Day 9 How is it going?

Just checking in to see how it's going. Remember you can still buy groceries, but do your best to eat from what you have in the house, it's like FREE food!! I'm needing some raisins, but I fear stepping into the grocery store and buying more stuff! lol. If you see a great buy on something, feel free to stock up on it, but also use what you already have too.

My doctor put me on a diuretic this week and I was told to really be watching my salt. So that has made things interesting on the pantry challenge to say the least. So I got some low-salt cookbooks from the library (we love that place!), found a recipe for no salt cream soup (not great, but it was OK). I had ground beef in the freezer, rice in the pantry and celery in the fridge, also had all the ingredients for the 'cream of no sodium soup'. I used coconut milk to make that, it was the unsweetened kind, but it still had an odd sweetness to it (oh well, at least I am using it up in the pantry challenge). I made beef & rice casserole for myself (gluten free) and then I made the guys a regular one using up 2 cans of Campbell's cream soups from the pantry. I also had made some wild rice from the pantry and used that in their recipe.

For desert I made a apple buckle (some call it apple betty) using gluten free flours, apple pie filling and Rice Bran flakes to add some fiber without changing the taste or texture.

Apple Buckle with yummy coconut ice cream to go with it.

Have you been having fun with this? Make it fun, have the kids go into the pantry and make some sort of fun meal. Our meals don't have to look like Julia Childs (loved watching her as a child with my mother). Any creative meals come across your table this past week?
Moe

What is for dinner?

Frugal Beef Stew-Donna Rollison

 To get the recipe click on the title. If you look around on the site, please be mindful if you need to be GF/CF only look under the username Writermom77. If you are not gluten free then you can look all over the site for yummy recipes from other homepages.

This was really good!!! I think that the GF Worcestershire Sauce really made it tasty!!

I had some surplus canned goods too I did tweak it a bit :O)

Our local grocery had canned veggies on sale last month for .44¢ and I stocked up, so I added

2 cans of corn

2 cans of greenbeans

1 can of sliced mushrooms

1 can of rinsed Cannelli Beans (not sure how to spell those? They are by Progresso)

4 cups GF broth

Three of us ate on it for lunch, my guys loved it so much that I decided to make more right then and there. So I added 4 more cups of GF broth, another tablespoon of GF Worcestershire sauce and another batch of the above veggies & beans. So I have a HUGE pot of yummy soup instead of a stew!

This ended up being a blessing since my Dh informed me that a family from church had a need, so I plan on taking a container of this soup over there with some store bought dinner rolls.

No title needed for this one

Oh, is that a gluten filled wheat cookie? lol.  Some days I feel like this.

Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

You too can have that same strength, with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He is knocking at the door of your heart, will you open it?

Recipe: Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Applesauce Muffins

Mini muffins

I just took these out of the oven!! They are YUMMY!! I made a pan of mini and also a pan of regular size. I like to keep things like this in the freezer for grabbing a quick snack or a quick dessert for me at church fellowships. I tweaked it a bit, I used canola oil instead of coconut, added 1 cup of sugar instead of 3/4 (we like sweet stuff around here ;-) and left out the nuts.
These are NOT grainy or gritty like some I've made. I got them from the Gluten Free Homemaker blog

Regular size muffins

Try these out they are wonderful! A great fall treat.

Leviticus 26:4

Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. We are in the rainy season of the year and the trees are abundantly full of apples, what a way to celebrate fall.

UPDATE ON THESE IN THE FREEZER! 10/5/11
So good! I've been eating them frozen and they are great, they have an awesome taste and texture.

Gluten Free disaster! lol

Well I have been trying some new recipes. I found one for a cranberry quick bread, I made the 1 1/2 lb loaves. Our son was watching it rise in the bread machine and he asked "Mom do you think that it's going to go over?" I looked, it still had a few inches before going over the top. I figured it was fine. A little bit later he comes back and says "Mom, the bread machine is smoking!!" Yes indeed the bread had gone over and spilled on the heating element. So I told him to start the oven and get a bread pan out. The cranberry bread got baked in the oven, it caved in, but it tasted good. I spent the rest of the afternoon scraping burnt bread off the inside of the machine.

I think I will make a 1 lb loaf next time.