When I was in high school I went vegan for a time. I only made it about four months before the delightful smell of buffalo wings reached my nostrils and I ended up caving. Luckily, in that time, I had learned about organic and free-range meat choices and never had to go back to the awful fake meat products (or “feat” as I called them) which were the only things available at the time.

Recently I came about the Neat meat replacement mixes because they weren’t made out of tempeh and tofu. Instead, these mixes are made from pecans, garbanzo beans, gluten-free oats and cornmeal, and spices. I had seen quite a few raves on Amazon and couldn’t believe that something people liked so much could be 100% vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, and not contain any GMOs.

There are four flavors of Neat: Original, Mexican, Italian and Breakfast. Original is to be used as a replacement for ground beef in burgers, chili, and Sloppy Joe’s. Mexican is to be used as a replacement in tacos, nachos and enchiladas. Italian can be used in pasta and meatballs while breakfast is a replacement for sausage in dishes like sandwiches and quiches. Click to continue reading »

For busy households like mine, snack mixes that you can trust are gluten-free are an absolute must for the pantry. Paleo People has a snack line of Fruit & Nut Cluster snacks that are not only certified gluten-free but also grain-free, sodium-free, soy-free, dairy-free, non GMO, and made from all natural ingredients.

These snacks are available in four flavors: Cacao Nut, Apple Crisp, Cappuccino Crunch and Banana Nut Crunch. While often compared to a granola, these cluster snacks are a bit more moist and chewy, though there is still a distinctive crunch.

The Cacao Nut is perfect for a chocoholic. The raw cacao powder is lightly dusted on all the almonds, raisins, pumpkin seeds and various other nuts and adds the robust but not overly sweet taste of the cocoa nibs mixed in. If you add this to yogurt it really brings out the chocolate flavor. Click to continue reading »

After long stints in front of the TV with all eyes on Brazil, we’re still thinking about its cuisine. Here’s a delicious gluten-free recipe for Pao de Queijo.

Pao de Queijo is a small, baked cheese bread that is popular in Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador, often eaten for breakfast or for a snack. These buns are made with tapioca flour and the inside is very chewy and moist because there is no leavening and air pockets expand inside of the dough when cooking. The Japanese have a similar bun called Dekasegis made with rice flour instead of tapioca starch. If you have trouble finding tapioca flour (try Whole Foods) and have rice flour instead, try making the Japanese version as it’s an even exchange in the recipe! Click to continue reading »

At Finnriver, cider making isn’t their only venture, but it sure is one of the tastiest. Finnriver Farm is a 33 acre organic family farm, artisan cider, and event venue located in on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. They are a certified organic and salmon safe farm where you can find an assortment of berries, vegetables, flowers, honey bees, chicken, ducks, pigs, and goats as well as heirloom apple orchards. From those apple orchards comes the apple juice that is fermented through the winter using both traditional and contemporary methods to make the Finnriver Cider. Click to continue reading »

I scraped through the cupboard recently in an attempt to avoid the grocery store before an upcoming vacation. I grabbed a couple eggs, peapods from my garden, an onion and pulled the meat off of leftover dry rubbed pork ribs. I also fished out some Asian cellophane noodles and a bottle of gluten-free teriyaki sauce. I tossed it all together and dinner was made!

It got me wondering why we don’t talk more about Asian noodle options in the gluten free community. While we talk a lot about gluten-free Italian style pastas, Asian-style noodles can also be a great addition to gluten
free menus. Click to continue reading »

A few years ago my parents turned their in-ground swimming pool into a garden. My mother had just retired and this garden soon became her new hobby. We’ve benefitted greatly from the bounty of things she’s grown and when I saw this recipe, I knew we’d make it often.

Shaved Zucchini Salad with Lemon, Almonds, and Asiago

Serves 6

Credit: Bay Area Bites

Ingredients

• 5 or 6 small zucchini, trimmed (about 1 1/4 lbs total; I like to use a mix of different colors)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 lemon
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 oz. Asiago, Pecorino, Parmesan, or ricotta salata cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler
• 2 or 3 tablespoons chopped roasted, salted almonds; toasted pine nuts; or chopped toasted walnuts

Directions

Using a vegetable peeler, shave long strips of zucchini from the stem end to the blossom end into a shallow serving bowl or plate. As you shave ribbons, rotate the zucchini until you’ve shaved down to the center core of seeds. Discard the core (or shave it as far as you can!).

Shave edge of cheese with a vegetable peeler to create thin strips.

Drizzle with a little oil (1-2 tablespoons), squeeze the lemon over the top, and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat the ribbons evenly. Sprinkle with the cheese shavings and nuts and serve.

If you’ve seen the online ads for “meal in a box” services such as Blue Apron or Plated and wished there was a gluten-free option available, you may be in luck. Pairdd is a new Wisconsin-based company that will ship you gluten-free ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes each week so you can cook your own gluten-free meals without any hassle.

With Pairdd, you decide which meals you would like to make for the following week and pay for them on the website before each Sunday. On Tuesday, your ingredients will arrive at your doorstep, pre-measured with the recipes you chose from gluten-free bloggers, chefs and businesses. All the prep work is taken care of ahead of time so you can have your meal on the table in under an hour.

You can choose to make the meals the day you receive your box or keep them refrigerated for up to five days for meat-based dinners or two days for seafood-based dinners. The Pairdd boxes are sent to you with FedEx PeriShip, which is tailored to perishable items so there’s no need to worry about a box getting delivered to your home while you’re at work.

Pairdd has six weekly menu options either a la carte for $15 a serving, though each order is two servings, or through a weekly subscription of $50 for two meals (4 servings). This company takes a lot of the legwork and guesswork out of eating gluten-free. Sometimes a product is not clearly labeled gluten-free, or a manufacturer makes other products that contain gluten, resulting in cross-contamination. Pairdd double checks the ingredients in its meals whenever possible.

“We’re reading all labels and we also attempt to make phone calls to manufacturers to make sure that they are prepared in a place that doesn’t have any gluten around,” Casey Lanto, one of the company’s founders, said. “There’s certain products, say blue cheese, where it can be grown on gluten containing bread. Some blue cheese isn’t clearly labeled on whether or not there’s gluten in it.”

Also convenient is that Pairdd offers up their past recipes of a la carte items on their website so if you have already cooked your meal for the week, you can easily find inspiration for the rest of your dinners.

Unfortunately, Pairdd only serves the Wisconsin area right now but hopefully will be expanding soon! If you’re lucky enough to live in the delivery area, get your first week free by signing up on their website though you do have to pay shipping fees.

With plenty more summer weekends coming up, one of my favorite ways to relax, hang out with friends, and fit in a bit of exercise is to go camping and backpacking. Sometimes when we go, we will get a campsite or cabin which allows us to go car campingand bring an assortment of different gluten-free foods for meals and snacks. However when we go backpacking, it is important to only carry essentials in order to not get weighed down; it is a delicate balance between not carrying enough and carrying the right amount of food to keep you full and energized. Click to continue reading »

Crohn’s and celiac disease are often confused with one another. With a common symptoms list that includes abdominal cramps/pain and diarrhea, it is easy to assume you have one or the other before visiting a doctor. That’s not where the similarities end either, and in both, the immune system is reacting to some sort of environmental stimulus. “In celiac disease, we know that stimulus is gluten, but we don’t yet understand what the environmental stimulus in Crohn’s is,”says Karlee Ausk, MD, a gastroenterologist with Swedish Gastroenterology, part of Swedish Medical Center in Seattle.

Research shows that people with celiac disease seem to be at an increased risk for inflammatory bowel disorders like Crohn’s disease when compared to people who do not have celiac. One study shows the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease is up to 10 times higher in a person with celiac disease compared to someone without celiac,says Dr. Ausk. Click to continue reading »

On June 3 we posted  about trying to enjoy a summer fair or carnival while eating gluten free. I listed all of the fried and breaded foods I found at the fair and decided to eat before I left or once I got home.

Thanks to our great readers I now have some ideas of what types of foods to look for when I go to my next summer event. Here are some of the foods our readers said they felt safe eating at the fair:

-        Kettle corn

-        Baked potatoes

-        Chocolate dipped frozen fruit on a stick

-        Fresh fruit

-        Carmel apple Sunday

-        Cheese curds (not fried)

-        Rice

-        Tacos on corn tortillas (depending on filling)

-        Grilled meats (depending on seasoning and preparation)

-        Corn on the cob – it’s often grilled in its own husk and you can opt for the butter or not

-        Salad

-        French fries – specifically the station at the fair where you can watch them slicing the potatoes and tossing them in oil. And that’s all they make there so you don’t have to worry about cross contamination.

-        Ice cream or shakes if the flavors are appropriate and there’s no cross contamination from filling cones Click to continue reading »