Tonight I had just a few minutes to get a tasty meal on the table.
Thank goodness I take after my mom! She taught me to always have pasta and some simple things around the house so dinner can be "poof done".
So when we got home from violin lessons and just wanted to eat, I started this dinner.
Organic brown rice spaghetti topped with a walnut, cream, parmesan and parsley sauce served with garlicy sauteed kale was on the table in 1/2 hour. YIpee!
If you want to make this wonder,
Use one package of Trader Joes or Tinkyada spaghetti and cook it according to the package.
Drain and leave it in the colander as you make the sauce.
Use 1/2 pint of half and half, 1 cup of walnut pieces, one bunch of chopped parsley and 1/2 cup of parmesan.
Put these into the hot pot and stir to warm.
Add back in the pasta, stir to coat and serve.
Yes it is very simple. Even my daughters can make this one if I drain the pasta.
The greens are just as simple.
Use one bunch of kale of your choice.
Chop the stems separate from the leaves.
Saute the stems 1st for 1 minute in 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
Then add 6 chopped cloves of garlic. Stir for another moment.
Add the chopped leaves and stir and cook till wilted.
serve on the side of the pasta.
Enjoy!
My daughters are truly amazing young women. They were invited to a Harvest festival today at their school . It should be lots of fun with games, a bouncy house, cider pressing and a cake walk.
But they have the last soccer game of the season at 4pm. So they won't be going.
But we were asked to donate gluten-free goodies for the cake walk since there are a bunch of gluten-free children at the school.
So Thursday we made these using a Bob's Red Mill Chocolate cake mix. I whipped up a batch of my favorite frosting.
Best of all we were sent some Necco wafers to sample that were perfect for the decorating. Did you know that Necco wafers are made in the USA with no artificial colors or flavors. I loved them as a child and still like them now. This was my twins first try and they adore them. I had to hide the bag.
I am hoping to use them to create Turkey tails for Thanksgiving.
We used them for eyes, noses, bases of the spiders and the tombstones. See that orange cupcake on the bottom 2nd in on the right. It is a graveyard with RIP on each tombstone.
I apologize for the photos, somehow my camera's macro feature has been disabled. Now to find the book to fix it.
And my frosting recipe in case you need to make some too.
I have never been sure why an Irish-Catholic family decided to have a classic British Christmas feast, but that is my family's tradition.
Perhaps its because my father HATED turkey, perhaps Mom just wanted a change.
All I know is that for as long as I can remember, we have had a wonderful beef roast, popovers, mashed potatoes, plum pudding complete with hard sauce, and when my mom was the cook, lots of slightly overcooked vegetables.
So now we are gluten free and I wanted to keep up the traditions, except for the overcooked veggies.
The Beef roast was not a problem. One of the roasts created from our grass fed gift was a standing rib roast.
Mashed potatoes are blissfully gluten free naturally. Thank goodness our family seems to be able to digest the dairy!
But the popovers, what to do about them? Ethereal, crisp little sprites waiting for the gravy, how?
I had the cast iron pan, seems like my mom made sure all of us got one of those.
So at least I had that lead on creating them, but what about the batter?
When in doubt 'round my house, I reached for my trusty 1946 edition of The Joy of Cooking.
Another gift from mom, we kids(all six of us) each left the house as teens or young adults with a copy in tow. My mom didn't like any of the changes made by Ms. Becker when she started to "help" her mom out. So we all have Ms. Rombauer only vintages.
For anyone not familiar with popovers, they are created in a hot oven by pouring a pancake like batter into greased and heated cast iron or custard cups. The intense heat of both the cups and the oven allow for the puff. Together it creates a shell of crunchy, crispy dough and a soft and delicately stranded interior. Scrumptious!
To enjoy, you break one open, fill the insides with gravy and eat as many as your body can hold.
Leftovers (a rare but possible treat)are wonderful for breakfast with jam in the middle.
Rombauer's recipe starts out with a lovely vignette of a young woman rushing up to her to say that "They popped". That is exactly what I wanted so I changed the ingredients to be gluten-free but not her method.
THEY POPPED! YIPPEE! My daughters even demanded a new batch the next day for breakfast. You know it isn't all that difficult to mix a batch up for breakfast. These are now part of our Saturday morning breakfast rotation.
Enjoy!
Popovers
½ c tapioca flour
½ c white rice flour
¼ c sweet rice flour
2 T amaranth flour
¼ t xanthan gum
1 cup milk
2 T butter-melted
3 eggs
1/8 t salt
1 T sugar
Preheat oven to 450. Heat cast iron pan for at least 10 minutes in oven. Oil each cup.
Beat together mix for at least 2 minutes. Pour in pre-oiled pans.
Bake in oven 20 minutes or till popovers pop and brown well.
Enjoy with gravy or jam.
Reading cookbooks that spark my creativity is one of my guilty pleasures.
Often, late in the evening I can be found with a stack of gorgeous picture-filled books by my side, a composition book in hand and my favorite pencil, sketching plating ideas, or variations of friends recipe to make them appropriate for our gluten-free life.
Sometimes, I don't even have to vary the recipe, it is perfect as is.
It is a joy to see people I've known for a while succeed, to publish their work for others to enjoy.
Today's recipe is one of these perfect as is recipes. Robyn Webb, is one of my favorite references for newly diagnosed diabetic patients.
I was sent an advance copy and added it quickly to my Amazon pre-order list for addition to my clinic library.
This recipe for Apple Cider Chicken is naturally gluten-free and so tempting for these cooler nights.
I love the ease of preparation and have added this to my rotation for Meal Trains for friends and new moms. By including the sour cream and parsley to stir in after reheating, I can leave it out for my dairy free friends.
The chicken freezes and reheats perfectly, moist and tender and redolent of savory herbs.
2 tablespoons salt for adding to the cooking water
Directions:
Click on through to the Idaho Potato Commission site for the directions.
https://idahopotato.com/recipes/idahoc-potato-gnocchi-in-pimento-herb-cream-sauce
As a proud Idaho Potatoes Food Blogger, I was compensated to develop this recipe.
Ever since childhood, potatoes have been my favorite food.
Makes sense, my Irish roots are truly showing.
I love potatoes in all forms, but especially in quirky spots like inside the filling and dough of cake that is perfect with a dark cup of coffee.
I know the recipe looks a bit daunting, with three different components to make and combine.
It's not.
Use a leftover boiled potato to create the fragrant sweet filling or take the 15 minutes to boil one fresh. A quick mash through a sieve and stir in the rest. The filling is done in 15 minutes.
The dough comes together just as quickly.
Best of all, once the combination is rolled together, it can be frozen in slices for super simple creation in the future.
This is one of my favorite ways to have a warm pastry on a weekend. I just pull out the number of slices I want to use the night before and let them thaw and rise overnight in the fridge.
Sometimes the simplest foods are the most missed when you go gluten-free. Although there are quite a few crackers available in the markets, the flavors of most are quite bland and their cost is typically double other crackers.
Crackers are almost a food group in my house.
With twin teen athletes balancing busy schedules, these crispy flavorful bites are almost inhaled as soon as they are cooled.
The buttery flavored potato flakes work wonderfully sandwiched with peanut butter and jelly for a quick snack.
My daughters adore the four cheese flavor topped with a bit of tomato sauce as mini pizzas.
The Roasted garlic flavor is their favorite hummus dipper.Enjoy making all the flavors, I bring a batch to most potlucks since they stir together so quickly.
Simplicity itself, this recipe has two ingredients. Well, as long as you don’t count salt and pepper, and I never count those.
I created this for a dairy allergic friend who had a big birthday event. This makes any meal truly special.
The coconut milk combines with the natural starch from the potatoes to create a creamy sauce without any work on your part. So if you are the one making sure that the red, white and blue theme is perfection, you’ll have plenty of time to get everything else done.
Tip: If you need to feed more people, you can easily double this recipe, using a 9x12 pan, 4 pounds of potatoes and two cans of coconut milk.
Tool Tip: A Mandoline is a simple hand tool with a very sharp blade, and a measured gap to create uniformly thin slices.
I love my Oxo handheld simply because it slips into a kitchen drawer with ease.
This is my go to sauce for those late night dinners, stirred together quickly to feed the hungry tummies. It can be used on any protein- from tofu to steak with equal ease.
Recipe: Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free Teriyaki Sauce
Ingredients
¾ cup (200 grams) gluten free tamari sauce
½ cup pineapple juice (200 grams)frozen concentrate- or substitute any fruit juice cooked down by 1/2
3 cloves of garlic- or more to taste-finely minced
2 tablespoons fresh ginger root (a 1” thick piece approximately)- or more to taste- grated
¼ cup (50 grams) sesame oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
In a small pot over medium heat, blend together all ingredients.
Cook the sauce for 3-5 minutes till small bubbles form at the edges and the sauce begins to thicken.
Let cool and use to season stir fries, tofu or chicken.
When you have those lonely brown spotted Appaloosa bananas on the counter, do you feel a pang?
My frugal soul cringes just a bit when I have a few bananas that look like these.
I know I could mix up a batch of pancakes, or muffins.
But my long time goal has been a crisp crusted, tender hearted bread that could stand up to a smear of peanut butter.
And I have had failures. Lots of tender crusted and soft center breads.
Maybe part of the problem has been my desire to avoid xanthan and guar gums.
When your husband reacts to both with a response identical to the one he gets when he gets glutened, it’s important.
Doubly so when you realize that there is NO organic xanthan gum and that most is grown on GMO corn.
Perhaps part has been my desire to eliminate the sour cream so prevalent in other inspiration recipes since I’m discovering that dairy is not my friend.
It got so bad that my daughters would plead for muffins instead of another attempt. They would hid the darkening bananas from sight, till I would find them limp and oozing in the bottom of the fruit bowl.
They are hoping for lots more speckled bananas now.
They’ve even learned where Fred Meyer’s puts the marked down ones, hoping I "have" to mix up another loaf of this bread.
Got to love working through a problem recipe.
Crunchy crusted and tender hearted, this is the Banana bread I've be striving to make for years. Not damp in the center. A lovely crown atop the brown sugar sweetened center scattered with toasted walnuts. This is the banana bread of my dreams.
Even the girls adore it, but they would add some chocolate chips to it. :)
Ingredients
50 grams (⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon) walnuts
3 eggs
3 bananas- very ripe and speckled with dark spots are the best.
10 grams golden flax seeds -ground to a fine powder
5 grams chia seeds- ground to a fine powder
2 grams psyllium powder
20 grams (2 teaspoons) raw buckwheat flour- ground to a fine powder
Instructions
preheat oven to 350 degrees(180 C or gas mark 4)
Grease a standard bread pan 8x4x4.
Place walnuts onto a cookie sheet in a single layer.
Bake for 5-8 minutes or till lightly browned
Remove from the pan into a terry cloth towel.
Rub the nuts briskly to remove some of the skins on the nuts.
Allow to cool.
Combine the eggs, bananas and olive oil in a bowl.
Beat till the bananas are almost smooth.
Add the remaining ingredients except walnuts
Beat well to combine
Stir in walnuts
Pour into prepared pan
Bake for 60-70 minutes or till an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf reads 190 or higher.
Check the loaf after 40 minutes to see if it is browning too fast
If it is, cover loosely with foil.
I’ve discovered that flax seeds, chia seeds, psyllium powder and raw buckwheat flour all have different binding qualities.
It makes sense, they are all different seeds. Each one has a different fat profile, different fiber content.
When used in different proportions, I can manipulate the result.
Ok, so I’m a geek this way.
Just have a great time baking again without the nasty gummy residues.
Enjoy cooking with real food.
The second set of pictures here on the right shows the recipe above without the 20 grams(2 teaspoons) of RAW buckwheat flour.
This list is of foods that newly diagnosed gluten-free folks typically forget have gluten, creating an exposure and reaction.
1. Soy Sauce – Most soy sauce contains wheat, which means any food made with soy sauce is gluten-full, including things like Barbecue and Teriyaki sauce. This is the reason that I don't encourage patients to eat at Chinese restaurants early on while gluten free. Almost all those sauces contain wheat.
2. Soups, Sauces, and Gravy – Most creamy gravies, soups, and sauces have wheat flour as a thickener. Any food made with a prepared soup as an ingredient is likely gluten-full.
3. Oatmeal – Naturally, oatmeal does not contain gluten. The growth rotation of farmers sometimes has oats following wheat in the fields and unless precautions are made, the oats travel in trucks that carry wheat, are processed in mills that also handle wheat, and get contaminated with gluten along the way. Look for certified gluten-free oats.
Newer exposures include the mechanically separated oats included in Cheerios, and other cereal products.
4. Beer – Barley is the reason beer is gluten-full. Some beers also contain wheat.
5. Vegan Meat Replacements are typically made with wheat gluten. Choosing a Vegan gluten-free lifestyle means being very careful of your product choices.
6. Sushi Soy sauce in the dipping sauce is obvious, but much sushi uses some soy sauce in the seasoning of the individual pieces of filling as the rolls are being made. If inexpensive sushi is made from faux crab or fish, that is also gluten-rich.
7. Rice Crispies – Yes there are gluten-free rice crispies, but the ones used to make the pre-made treats or used in bakeries to give a bit of a crunch to cookies or pastry are not that kind of rice crispies.
8. Tortillas – Corn tortillas are naturally gluten-free, but many restaurants use the newer wheat and corn blends or fry their chips in a fryer that is also used for battered items, contaminating the chips with gluten.
9. Chocolates and Candies – Flavorings, rice crispies (puffed rice), and sweeteners can all contain gluten. Also, watch for malt powders.
10. French Fries – Although you would expect French fries to be just potatoes and oil, many have a flour coating to make them crisper or to allow spices to stick. The other concern is the dreaded cross-contaminated fryer, used to fry battered foods as well, leaving tiny bits of wheat dough all over your fries. Make them yourself at home.
—
Gluten-Free living is incredibly complicated, especially when you are listening to outdated, incorrect information about what is safe to eat or not eat.
Over the eight years I’ve been writing about thriving gluten-free, I’ve found some pieces of celiac lore that just won’t die, even once completely disproven.
The reason so many of these urban legends continue to have life is because folks are searching for answers. They understand that they have to avoid wheat, rye, and barley but don’t know the other names that can be on the label instead.
Dr. Google is a lousy diagnostician and historian. Everything on the web lives forever, so if you choose just the right search terms, you will pull information from long before the research was updated.
Now that many people go to communities and groups in social media, the spread of inaccuracies happens in real time as people share what they have heard "somewhere" once again.
Some of the groups have fabulous administrators who vigilantly ferret out those inaccuracies and correct them. Others don't, and occasionally some will assist in the spread of them.
Be really careful about who's information you are following.
I’ve gathered my list of proven, accurate sources for celiac and gluten-free living to share with you.
When you have a question about an ingredient, search these sites first, then ASK these sites your question if you can’t find the answers. The folks who write these sites go back to the medical literature to find your answer, they don’t have financial ties to labs or drugs, they just want to help.
From the archive files: Research from American Journal of Epidemiology. Jul2014, Vol. 180 Issue 1, p76-85.
Document Type:
July 2014
Association of Maternal Education, Early Infections, and Antibiotic Use With Celiac Disease: A Population-Based Birth Cohort Study in Northeastern Italy.
suggests that having repeated infectious episodes treated with antibiotics under twelve months old provide increased risk for celiac disease.
Having three or more parental-reported infectious episodes, regardless of type of infection, during the first six months of life was associated with a significantly increased risk for later celiac disease, and this remained after adjusting for infant feeding and socioeconomic status (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-2.0; P=0.014). The celiac disease risk increased synergistically if, in addition to having several infectious episodes, infants were introduced to dietary gluten in large amounts, compared to small or medium amounts, after breastfeeding was discontinued (OR 5.6; 95% CI, 3.1-10; P<0.001).
Take Home Message:
Prevent infections in newborns
Hesitate to use antibiotics
Introduce gluten in small amounts, preferably while breastfeeding.
Getting dinner on the table some days seems like the most difficult task in the world.
Especially if you work late or have children waiting for your second job of cook to be finished.
I'm so fortunate to live in an area where fabulous wild fish is the norm and not the exception.
One of my patients is a reefnet fisherman and happily lets me know when I can purchase some incredibly fresh salmon.
Tea time, a book group meeting, brunch with your family, heck just because.
But for us gluten free folk, it isn't as easy as stopping at the local bakery to pick up a wonderful treat.
Luckily, this variation of a classic sponge cake bakes up in a short 6 minutes, and you can cool and fill it within 25 minutes.
So the next time a friend calls to say that they are popping by, stir up this quick cake and listen to the ooohs and ahhs.
Lemon Marmalade filled sponge cake without cream, perfect for the dairy free.
As a naturopathic physician, I love to keep people healthy.
When I first made the choice to be a naturopath rather than a medical doctor, I was hoping to make a difference in people's life by helping them heal without having to take a poly-pharmacy of drugs.
In part, my choice was driven by watching my first husband die of cancer, then my mother die of cancer and my father dying from heart disease and high blood pressure. All of them ended up in the downward spiral of diagnosis, initial treatment, then treatment of the side effects of the original treatment and on till the end. I thought, and still think, there has to be a better way.
My work involves many aspects of health-dietary intake adjustments, exercise and movement dynamics, interpretation of laboratory samples, assessment of medication interactions, discussion of spiritual beliefs and concerns, and patient's goals for health.
One benefit of seeing me is that my typical first visit is 1 1/2 hours. Part of this is because I don't bill insurance at all. I do provide a super bill for insurance so my patient can bill for themselves, but by not performing the billing myself, I can keep costs low.
Each visit includes a comprehensive assessment of where they stand right now, including running tests and evaluating the results, assessing dietary intake, balancing supplements and pharmaceuticals to assist in healing.
Over and over, I have patients come in who talk about the frustration of seeing another physician, possibly being diagnosed with celiac but not getting any additional support post-diagnosis.
No suggestions about which foods would work to heal their damaged gastrointestinal tracts.
No answers to the questions about how to travel and eat gluten-free.
No guidance toward safe restaurants for eating out.
No explanations about which brands are safe to eat and which have cross contamination.
No prescriptions for supplements to reduce inflammation, or to get out of a depleted nutritional state.
Many of these questions can be answered remotely without need for a personal visit.
Since so many people have a hard time finding a physician like me, I take a bit of time daily to pop into Facebook groups to answer questions.
And by taking the time to visit a variety of Facebook groups, I've been able to share research that remains unavailable to lay folk behind firewalls, and to realize that some of the groups don't share very accurate information.
But in order to take this much time out of my day to answer folks questions, I'm asking for support. https://www.patreon.com/DrJeanLayton
By contributing monthly, you will receive the skilled physician advice you've been looking for years.
This review study gathered information from 40 different studies, all looking to see whether the invasive biopsy is truly necessary for celiac diagnosis.
Their conclusion?
“There is no single test — not even jejunal biopsy — that can conclusively diagnose or exclude CD in every individual. Therefore, we propose the following two-step diagnostic procedure: The first step is the combined, simultaneous determination of IgA anti-dpgli and IgG anti-dpgli + IgA anti-tTG and/or EMA. The vast majority of patients will have either three positive or three negative results, obviating the need for a biopsy. The second step, jejunal biopsy, should be performed only in patients with discordant antibody results (i.e., in patients whose CD status cannot be classified by antibody tests alone). In any case, effects of a gluten-free diet must be controlled.”
Take Home Message:Celiac Diagnosis
If you have symptoms, or first degree relatives who have celiac disease, convince your doctor to run a complete celiac blood panel to see. The needed tests are IgG anti-dpgli + IgA anti-dpgli + IgA anti-tTG. No longer is the anti endomysial antibody considered essential for diagnosis.
For all the Geeky folks like me, here is the original research and citation
A long time ago, I lived in Greenpoint Brooklyn, well before it became the hot and happening place it is now. My first husband and I had a two story loft right on Greenpoint Avenue in the center of the rough and ready neighborhood.
It was a beautiful place to have lots of space, great neighbors and wonderful Polish food.
This was so long ago, I wasn't yet following a gluten free diet.
I went back to the old neighborhood this winter with my family to realize you truly can't go back again.
Missed the rich yeasty smell of rye bread that filled the air throughout the neighborhood each morning.
Keilbasa and sauerkraut were the lunchtime scents, redolent with garlic.
But dinner was my favorite, pirogies!
Tender pockets of dough, stuffed with mashed potatoes, sauerkraut or potatoes and cheese.
Always served with sour cream and occasionally applesauce.
Talk about convenience food, Dinner was ready in as short as 10 minutes when I purchased fresh at the market.
I loved that when I entered a store, I was welcomed in Polish before the storekeeper switched to English, almost as much as being able to enjoy fresh (not Smoked) Keilbasa and freshly fermented sauerkraut to enjoy with my pirogies.
Now that I'm gluten-free, those simple joys of picking up a quick and easy dinner has changed.
So many of my quickly cooked dinners have become a bit more complicated.
Thank goodness, these gluten free pirogies are quickly created when you make the dough before you leave for work and fill just before dinner.
2 pounds of red, yellow and blue Idaho© potatoes. (Southwind Farms is my favorite supplier) approximately one bag of small potatoes or 6 medium
Tool Tip: A Mandoline is a simple hand tool with a very sharp blade, and a measured gap to create uniformly thin slices. 
2 pounds of red, yellow and blue Idaho© potatoes. (Southwind Farms is my favorite supplier) approximately one bag of small potatoes or 6 medium
Tool Tip: A Mandoline is a simple hand tool with a very sharp blade, and a measured gap to create uniformly thin slices. 
I know I could mix up a batch of pancakes, or muffins. 
Doubly so when you realize that there is NO organic xanthan gum and that most is grown on GMO corn.
Each visit includes a comprehensive assessment of where they stand right now, including running tests and evaluating the results, assessing dietary intake, balancing supplements and pharmaceuticals to assist in healing. 
Each visit includes a comprehensive assessment of where they stand right now, including running tests and evaluating the results, assessing dietary intake, balancing supplements and pharmaceuticals to assist in healing. 
There's always a reason for cake. Tea time, a book group meeting, brunch with your family, heck just because. But for us gluten free...
As a physician who diagnoses celiacs frequently, there is a sequence of cautions I give whenever we have our laboratory review and initial d...
Top 10 Inadvertent Gluten Exposures This list is of foods that newly diagnosed gluten-free folks typically forget have gluten, crea...
It is that time of the year, Time seems to be moving in double time as we get ready for the holidays, setting up our decorations, buying an...
Organic brown rice spaghetti topped with a walnut, cream, parmesan and parsley sauce served with garlicy sauteed kale was on the table in 1/2 hour. YIpee!
If you want to make this wonder,
Drain and leave it in the colander as you make the sauce.
Use 1/2 pint of half and half, 1 cup of walnut pieces, one bunch of chopped parsley and 1/2 cup of parmesan.
Put these into the hot pot and stir to warm.
Add back in the pasta, stir to coat and serve.
Yes it is very simple. Even my daughters can make this one if I drain the pasta.
The greens are just as simple.
Use one bunch of kale of your choice.
Chop the stems separate from the leaves.
Saute the stems 1st for 1 minute in 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
Then add 6 chopped cloves of garlic. Stir for another moment.
Add the chopped leaves and stir and cook till wilted.
serve on the side of the pasta.
Enjoy!