The Start of Something New

Ever since I started on my gluten free diet I have been feeling much better than I have in a long long time. Unfortunately, I still feel like I am not back to my normal, happy, pain free self. While I do not have the intense stomach pains that I used to have, my stomach is never content, there seems to always be something slightly bothering it. I am often exhausted, depressed, and my joints ache, all for no apparent reason. So after starting to read "Gluten Free Girl" (thanks Di!) I am realizing that I may not have been vigilant enough about being gluten free.

I make sure that whatever I eat has no apparent gluten in it, but I have not worried about the possible cross contamination in processed foods, the hidden gluten, and the possible gluten in things like tooth paste and moisturizers. I am hoping that for the next month I will turn a new leaf. I will be eating only fresh foods that have one ingredient or foods that specifically state that they are gluten free. I am going to go through my toiletries and make sure that I am using acceptable products.

The point of all this is that I will have quite a bit more new recipes to post and will hopefully be doing that more. Tonight I made dinner for myself and my mom. I cut up my first whole raw chicken and froze the breasts for later use. I blanched the whole chicken with onions, garlic, leeks, celery, thyme, parsley, and bay leaves. I then removed the legs and thighs and simmered the rest for a few hours.

Along with the chicken we had cranberry sauce (recipe below), sweet potatoes chopped and broiled and then drizzled with honey, and swiss chard with tamari and feta cheese. Dinner was absolutely delicious and I cannot wait to make something else tomorrow!

Cranberry Sauce

12 oz fresh cranberries

3/4 cup pure maple syrup

1 cup apple cider

1 apple, peeled and chopped

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Simmer the cranberries, maple syrup, and apple cider until the cranberries pop and the mixture thickens. Add the apple and the walnuts and stir. Can be eaten hot or cold.

2010: Day 1 Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

12 Days of Cookies Begins!!

Day 1: Paula's Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

For a simple and irresistible cookie, Paula dolls up chocolate cake mix with cream cheese and butter.

Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 (22-ounce) box King Arthur Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Mix minus 1 cup.
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon sized balls and then roll them in confectioner's sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and "gooey." Cool completely and sprinkle with more confectioners' sugar, if desired.

Be careful not to overcook. Put on the timer!!

Delicious Gluten-Free Walnut Cookies

I came upon this recipe while putting together a menu for a feast I prepared for my mother-in-law, who is Armenian. This recipe comes from Simply Armenian, a wonderful cookbook by Barbara Ghazarian. These cookies were a hit and are delicious with coffee and/or ice cream.

Walnut Cookies

Barbara Ghazourian

Simply Armenian

Makes about 30

Ingredients:

Non-stick cooking spray (I just rubbed the cookie sheet with butter)

1 large egg

1 cup powdered sugar, plus more for topping

2 teaspoons baking powder

Zest of 1/2 lemon or more to taste

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups ground walnuts (I ran them through the food processor)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a few cookie sheets with cooking spray and set aside

2. Beat the egg and one cup powdered sugar together with an electric mixer until combined. Add the baking powder, zest, vanilla and ground walnuts. Mix well. The dough will form a firm but sticky paste.

3. Form small spoonfuls of dough into balls the size of small walnuts and roll in a dish of powdered sugar

4. Arrange the powdered dough balls 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared sheets

5. Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes or until golden. Remove immediately to a wire rack to cool.

Happy cooking!

Rudi's Multigrain Bread

I will just start by saying... WOW

This bread is unbelievably good, I was able to make myself a grilled cheese sandwich this morning that actually tasted like grilled cheese. I loved it so much that I went online to see if there is anywhere closer that I can get it and THERE IS!!! According to Rudi's site I can buy it at the gluten free store near the house!

I am looking forward to trying their "original" bread which according to the site is like the typical gluten filled bread. More to come!

Catch-Up: Buckeyes

I'm realizing that I haven't posted in a while and I have come up with a fun way to redeem myself!

The food network each year has done their 12 days of cookies. Which I look forward to each year. Ok wait that isn't true I definitely completely forget about it until I get the e-mail from them reminding me that it's almost time. What happens is that you get 12 recipes in your e-mail, spread out over time. I'm not sure what the frequency is but they're always very good.

We'll do a gluten-free 12 days of Christmas! This is a huge promise but I'll try to convert each recipe to a gluten-free recipe and hopefully we'll get a few recipes that are amazing! (I'm hoping for a little assistance from the rest of the Lunmans since I'm sure others will want to try some recipes too!)

Let's start with a family favorite to tide us all over until then. I don't even need to experiment with this one!

BUCKEYES (Grandma Teed's Recipe!)

1 lb powdered sugar
3 cups GF rice crispies
2 cups peanut butter
⅓ pound butter
12 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips (Nestle Tollhouse is safe)
⅓ bar paraffin wax


Mix together first four ingredients until evenly combined.

Roll into small bite-sized balls.

In a double boiler melt chocolate and wax until smooth. The wax is to make the balls shiny and finished looking. You could skip this and they are just as delicious. You might instead want to get a special dipping chocolate which will also dry shiny but I can't promise they would be gluten free.

Use toothpicks or slotted spoon to dip balls in the melted chocolate, completely coat. Set chocolate on wax paper to cool.

Enjoy! You'll want to freeze or refrigerate these otherwise the Crispies will get soggy because the peanut butter will soften. They do freeze wonderfully and the freezer is also a perfect hiding place.

Mrs. Leeper's Creamy Tuna and Mac and Cheese

I am very behind on my posting so much more should be coming soon. I recently took a trip to my local Ocean State Job Lot and found both the creamy tuna and mac and cheese for $1.50. I had never seen this brand before but figured you can't go wrong for $1.50. Boy was I right.

For one person, these boxes contain too much product for even a dinner. It was wonderful because I was able to get another dinner out of it. (They still taste great reheated)

The creamy tuna has an alfredo type sauce with it, which goes great with the tuna. I was a little weary because I do not usually like tuna in anything other than tuna salad, but this was delicious.

The mac and cheese had a slightly different taste than the typical "blue box" mac and cheese. But it was still delicious and it seems as though one box of Mrs. Leeper's mac and cheese contains about three times the pasta that a box of kraft macaroni and cheese contains. For much less as well.

Now you must be weary... In Stop and Shop yesterday I saw the Mrs. Leeper's brand again for somewhere between 3 and 4 dollars. At this point you could probably create something just as good for less, but for the convenience it might still be worth it.

Frito-Lay products

I think I need to apologize in advance for this post. I just wanted to double check that Smartfood popcorn is gluten free (IT IS!) and ran into this amazing interactive list and this amazing comprehensive list.

Every frito-lay item and its allergy information.

Oh man.. Oh man..