How to grocery shop gluten free...

I was chatting a bit ago with a friend who has recently gone gluten free, she has been struggling, as I hear a lot of people do, when adjusting to a gluten free lifestyle. I say lifestyle because there is a huge adjustment one must make when becoming gluten free, so much of our socialization centers around going out to eat and consuming food with family and friends. When you suddenly find that your diet is restricted you need to make accommodations in a lot of places in your life. Many restaurants are becoming more sensitive to the needs of the gluten free consumer so luckily while eating out there may now be a few more options available. But lets talk now about  a basic trip to the grocery store, how do you feed yourself throughout the week? especially if you have a busy schedule and can't always spend a whole night preparing a gourmet meal from a gluten free cookbook or blog...

Vegetables: The good news here is when you are in the produce section you can go crazy! Think salads, stir fry, carrot sticks and other sliced veggies for munching on throughout the day. Fruit, lots of fruit! Apples, oranges, whatever is seasonally available.

There are also vegetables that make excellent substitutes, for example thinly sliced zucchini is wonderful quickly boiled and used as a pasta for any marina or cream sauce that you would typically toss a wheat pasta in. I have also heard of spaghetti squash being used for this purpose too but have not done it myself.

Starches: Potatoes, which can be prepared a ton of ways, boiled, mashed, fried, baked, potato salad... don't forget potatoes aren't just russets either. There are baby potatoes and fingerling potatoes, red and white potatoes, even purple potatoes and each is excellent. I love boiled potatoes (any variety except the russet) tossed with boiled green beans dressed in pesto sauce. Serve warm or cold its awesome.

Rice... white rice, brown rice, jasmine rice, wild rice. This is the time to become a fan of risotto. Saute garlic, onions, carrots and other vegetables in a pan, toss in a little white wine, simmer down, throw in your rice, arborio is the rice of preference as it become creamy but you can use short grain regular rice, now add vegetable stock (I'm vegetarian, this would work with chicken or meat stock too I assume.) Once the rice is cooked stir in a ton of Parmesan cheese. Salt, pepper... herbs, anything to taste.

Other excellent and easy uses for rice, make it like mac and cheese, use it as a base under a stir fry, rice pudding, or brown rice cooked up and served like a warm porridge.

Alternative grains like quinoa are great but are not always available at all stores.

Breading: right now my favorite way to bread things for frying or baking is corn. It is fairly easy to find Masa Harina and the grocery store. You'll find it in the Spanish section, it is a corn flour used for tamales or homemade corn tortillas. If you wish to make breaded mushrooms, zucchini or perhaps fried chicken I suggest salting and herbing some buttermilk and tossing the vegetable or chicken into the buttermilk and then rolling till covered in seasoned masa harina. By seasoned I mean salt, pepper, whatever you like. You can fancy it up by adding some garlic powder or paprika, personally I like adding this to the buttermilk and keeping with just a little salt added to the masa, I find it seasons the food but the spices have a tendency to burn. Fry your food in corn or canola oil till crispy and cooked through.

Baking: For basics it helps to have a few things around like butter, eggs, sugar but in place of wheat flour I always keep corn starch, brown rice flour and potato flour on hand, which I use as a blend as a flour substitute  I have an earlier post where I sing the praises of Bob's Red Mill products, if you are not able to find these at your local grocery store you can purchase them online (amazon.com) and also you can use gluten free instant potatoes ground finer as a replacement for potato flour.

If you are not a baker and want something instant I will confess its readily available and not bad, check out the Betty Crocker line of box mixes. http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/gluten-free-baking-mixes The cool part is Betty Crocker's gluten free line is actually way nicer than their other products with none of the weird unpronounceable ingredients. How ironic, eh?

Condiments: be wary of salad dressings and mustards, they can contain wheat... look for soy sauce, wheat germ things like that, do not buy those products. The good news is some very basic brands now clearly label themselves as gluten free. Hidden Valley ranch dressing, gluten free. :) My personal preference is to stick to things like oil and vinegar, toss a salad in a basic herb mixture and then some nice quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar, its very lovely.

Remember soy sauce comes from wheat but Tamari does not and is exactly the same thing. Some folks are using Braggs amino acids, which is a brown sauce, I've never used it but it is popular. I also like things like sriracha and sesame oil for seasoning my Asian style dishes.

You are pretty much safe with all pickles, olives and things of that sort. Heinz Ketsup... yup, its gluten free. http://www.heinz.com/glutenfree/products.html

Salsa, this is always safe, keep a jar in your fridge at all times, can't go wrong with some chips salsa and guacamole, but it is also great scrambled in eggs and topped with cheese in a corn tortilla (breakfast tacos.)

Cheese: Buy blocks of cheese, do not buy grated Parmesan cheese or shredded cheese, there are starches and powders and "cellulose" added that are not gluten free and questionable at best. This is used to prevent the cheese from sticking together, grate your own cheese fresh, it will taste better and be safe. Other than that you are pretty safe, there is some debate on blue cheese so I personally avoid it and don't eat cheeses with beer added, that goes with out saying.

Eggs: Of course eggs are safe... you can make omelettes with veggies and meats or scrambbled eggs to eat with potatoes. Or even breakfast tacos...

which leads me to...

Breads, etc.: I personally like Udi's gluten free white sandwich bread, its also reasonably priced at trader joes. Always keep some corn tortillas on hand. Easy to make a corn quesadillas for lunch or breakfast tacos for, well, breakfast. Also a warmed up corn tortilla makes a lovely side with any breakfast that you otherwise would have had toast with.

Beverages: You should be pretty safe to drink nearly anything. No beer though. Also none of those fancy wine cooler malt beverages. Stick to things like tequila, wine, vodka(potato vodka only, Absolut vodka is made with wheat)... non alcoholic things like juice are safe and all Hansen sodas are gluten free. Beware of carmel color in sodas.

Candies: Watch out for wheat hidden in candy, that means no more jelly beans. There is wheat syrup and gums used in a lot of candies, chocolate are pretty safe but also keep an eye out for things that contain malt. Skittles are gluten free though and you can see that they label clearly which always makes me happy.

Other snacks: potato chips, NOT BBQ, all pretty safe, just check the ingredients if you are getting the seasoned ones. Corn chips, cheetos, SOME but not all Doritos.

Things to avoid, if you see any of this listed in ingredients it either means the product does or could contain wheat or wheat products:

• Cellulose
• Glucose Syrup (can be made from wheat or potatoes, barley or rice, no real way to know if its "safe")
• Soy Sauce (in the US its made from fermented wheat, so if you see it listed as an ingredient its not "soy." Look for this in marinades, salad dressing, etc.)
• Triticum vulgare (wheat)

• Triticale (cross between wheat and rye)

• Hordeum vulgare (barley)

• Secale cereale (rye)

• Triticum spelta (spelt, a form of wheat)

• Wheat protein/hydrolyzed wheat protein

• Wheat starch/hydrolyzed wheat starch

• Wheat flour/bread flour/bleached flour

• Bulgur (a form of wheat)

• Malt (made from barley)

• Couscous (made from wheat)

• Farina (made from wheat)

• Pasta (made from wheat unless otherwise indicated)

• Seitan (made from wheat gluten and commonly used in vegetarian meals)

• Wheat or barley grass (will be cross contaminated)

• Wheat germ oil or extract (will be cross contaminated)

• Vegetable protein/hydrolyzed vegetable protein (can come from wheat, corn or soy)

• Modified starch/modified food starch (can come from several sources, including wheat)

• Natural flavor/natural flavoring (can come from barley)

• Artificial flavor/artificial flavoring (can come from barley)

• Caramel color (now considered a safe ingredient, but if you're in doubt, check with the manufacturer)

• Modified food starch

• Hydrolyzed plant protein/HPP

• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein/HVP

• Seasonings

• Flavorings

• Vegetable starch

• Dextrin and Maltodextrin (both sometimes made from wheat)

Also please be aware that the FDA does not presently monitor what food or standards a product must meet to be considered "gluten free." That means don't trust labeling because that can just be marketing. The industry accepted standard is that the food must fall below 20PPM (20 parts per million.) This means your "gluten free" food product may contain wheat ingredients, so check the nutritional list anyways, if you are like me you will avoid food with wheat in them at all not just 20PPM, that is a personal choice and depends on your sensitivity.

If you ever are not sure call the number listed on the container, most companies will be fairly educated and transparent when you say that you want to know if the product is gluten free. If they can not or will not give you the information don't eat it... companies should be proud of what they are putting in their food and if they don't know or won't tell you then to me that raises a red flag anyways. 

I may think of more things but this is it for now... safe eating, safe shopping and safe consumption. 

xoxo- Iris

Cauliflower pizza crust

Yes, this is all the rage and everyone is doing it. But it's really fairly tasty and worth a shot.

Finished pizza.

Boil one average size of cauliflower. Drain and then squeeze out excess moisture. You can use cheese clothe or a colander for this part. Use your food processor to process the cauliflower. You don't want it to be a paste just broken up fairly well. Add 1 large egg, 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, 1 tsp garlic salt and 1/4 cup brown rice flour. Pulse mixture till a dough forms.

Preheat oven to 350. Oil pizza baking pan and spread the cauliflower dough thinly across the surface. Bake in oven till edges are crispy and golden.

Top with sauce, cheese and toppings on your choice. Bake till cheese is melted and started to show golden spots.

Once you remove the pizza from the oven you need to let it sit and cool for a minute. If you try to just eat the pizza right away the crust may be too soft. I also found this reheats the next day very well.

Pizza crust with garlic slivers on top.

Key Lime Coconut Sorbet & Orange Sparkling Wine Sorbet

Coconut key lime sorbet, pictured
with orange sparkling wine sorbet,
a strawberry sweet wine syrup and
a white chocolate peanut butter heart cup.

Its easy to assume that something like ice cream, sorbet and sherbet would be gluten free, but sadly due to stabilizers with odd scientific names and sweeteners derived from wheat its not so easy to know exactly what you are consuming.

Lately I've been on a mission to not consume anything purchase from a store or restaurant that contains multiple ingedients. I'm hoping this will give wheat less places to hide in my food.





KEY LIME COCONUT SORBET

• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/2 cup key lime juice
• 1/4 cup or more cane sugar (you can add more and determine when the mixture reaches the sweetness level you prefer. 

1. I put all the ingredients into a container and shook it to mix and then dumped the mixture into my ice cream maker. This way when it was done processing I returned it to the container for storage and I had no dirty dishes. 

2. I recommend using the Trader Joes canned light coconut milk for this. When I checked at the store all the other coconut milks had stabilizers and thickeners, including the TJ brand of thick coconut milk. The light coconut milk only had coconut and water as the ingredients so I feel safe eating it. 

This is hands down the best sorbet ever! And also will make for a great popsicle if you do not have an ice cream maker. 

ORANGE SPARKLING WINE SORBET

• 1 can frozen orange juice concentrate (be sure its only ingredients are orange juice)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sparkling white white or champagne (if I had used champagne I would have called this a mimosa sorbet but I just had some sparkling wine left around the house.)

1. Mix together all ingredients and pour into ice cream maker. This mix would not make for a good popsicle because the fizz of the sparkling wine or champagne expands as it freezes. This makes for a great light textured sorbet but would make for a mess in your freezer. If you would like to modify this to make a popsicle I recommend using a sweet white wine with no sparkles. 

I know, its easy and hardly seems like a recipe at all, but I think the best things in life shouldn't be hard.

xoxo- Iris

GlutenFreeda Bean and Cheese Burrito Product Review

 Glutenfreeda Gluten-Free Burrito, Vegetarian Bean and Cheese *** (2.5 out of 5 stars)

I picked one of these up from Sprouts during their large Gluten Free Sale. First off the price on these, on sale $2.50 each is less than impressive. Especially considering the size of the little thing.

Next the ingredients list is a major turn off for me as it has about a million ingredients.

Ingredients:

Gluten-free flour tortilla (white corn masa flour and a trace of lime, water, pregelatinized rice flour, potato flour, high oleic safflower oil, corn starch, xanthan gum and cultured dextrose), refried beans (beans, water, canola oil, salt), rice, cheddar cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes, annatto color), salsa (tomatoes, tomato juice, (water, tomato concentrate, salt, vitamin C), onions, bell peppers, peppers, parsley, garlic, cilantro, apple cider vinegar, spices, sea salt, herbs), GMO free corn, sour cream (grade A cultured cream (milk), enzyme), garlic salt (garlic, salt, garlic oil). Contains dairy (milk).

Once I microwaved it the burrito's tortilla broke up in several places and the texture was all around much more like a corn tortilla than anything flour-like. So essentially its a pale wrapped up bean and rice taco.

OK, so I dwelled on the negative so now lets talk about the positives. Those millions ingredients are all recognizible food products and none that I mind with the exception of the xanthum gum (it reads xanthan gum, is that the same thing?) Anyways gums in general, I don't want in my food! However, the burrito tasted just fine, essentially nothing spectacular and what you would expect of a microwaved store bought burrito but good enough that I was able to eat it.

No, I would probably not ever purchase one again, however if I was somewhere and they were offered as an option and I was hungry I would eat it.

xoxo - Iris

Nutella Gluten Free Cupcakes

This recipe has been making the Internet rounds as brownie bites but I made some modifications and gluten freed it for your pleasure. I was wanting to make something I could frost anyways and luckily my modifications also seem to have made it more cakey anyways.

Preheat oven to 350.

In a bowl beat 1 cup Nutella, 3 eggs till combined. In a separate small bowl mix 5 Tablespoons brown rice flour, 1 tablespoon corn starch and 2 tablespoons potato flour with 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. Combine dry and wet ingredients and mix till thoroughly combined, be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl where Nutella may be hiding.

Line mini cupcake pan with papers and fill with 1 generous tablespoon batter each. Bake for 15 minutes or until the center of the cupcake no longer appears like batter.

Remove from oven and cool.

Meanwhile you can make any kind of frosting you like to top them. I made a Nutella frosting. 1/2 cup Nutella, 3 tablespoons butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, beat with electric mixer till combined, slowly add up to 1 tablespoon milk to achieve appropriate consistency. Now beat the frosting with the electric mixer till it becomes fluffy and the color becomes a shade lighter. This works very well with a kitchen aid and makes a fluffy frosting.

Scoop frosting to bag with tip in place and pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes.

Try not to eat every one!

Xoxo- Iris

Vegetarian Gluten Free Chili Pizza - Quick and Easy

I'm not for spicey foods but I do enjoy the comfort of a good warm bowl of chili. It's the best when it's slow cooked from dry beans and allowed to absorb all the wonderful seasonings, however I am going to give you my recipe for 10 minute chili which can come in handy after a long day.

A few days ago I made this with a friend and she and I had it with French fries. It made enough that I had leftovers which leads us to the pizza part of this story.

To make 10 minute vegetarian chili, sauté half an onion chopped, and 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic in about 3 tablespoons olive oil. Once the onions are translucent and the garlic is golden dump in one 29 oz can par drained black beans and one 29 oz can par drained pinto beans. You can use other beans instead like kidney or another combination of dark beans of your preference. Add one can puréed tomatoes, the 16 oz size. I typically do all my seasoning to taste but here is a break down of what I like in my chili: 1/2 tsp cumin powder, 3 Tablespoons smoked paprika, 3 Tablespoons Ancho chile powder, 1 tsp prepared gluten free mustard (Dijon, spices, whatever) and salt to taste, sneak up on it, your canned beans are presalted. You can also add a tiny bit of cayenne pepper to raise the heat level to where you like it best.

Simmer on stove till heated through. If you are making a salad or fries as a side let your chili cook on a low heat for the duration. Do not overcook as the beans will just dissolve but it's nice to let the seasoning simmer.

Serve hot with grated cheese, sour cream and diced onions on top.

Now for how chili becomes pizza...

You can use your leftover chili for this or buy a can of chili or use whatever other chili recipe you have. Be careful that any store purchased chili is gluten free, many contain wheat protein for texture.

I made my hush puppy batter and let it sit while I preheated the oven to 400. Letting the batter sit lets it thicken. Generously oil your pizza pan with olive oil, do not use one with holes. Spread batter across pan thinly but make sure you have no holes. Allow edges to be thicker than the center.

Bake in preheated oven for approximately 15 minutes or till the crust looks baked through but has yet to reach the golden stage.

Dice a quarter of an onion and grate 1 cup of cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese. Remove crust from oven and top with layer of chili. Do not go too thick with the chili just spread over the crust to cover leaving edge bare. Top with grated cheese and sprinkle with diced onions.

Return pizza to the oven and bake another 10 to 15 minutes until the cheese on top starts to bubble and gets hints of browning. Your crust on the outer edge should also be showing signs of goldening. As long as the cheese is melted you can remove pizza from the oven at any point if it seems like the crust might be getting too dark.

Resist the temptation to slice the pizza immediately and let it rest for about 5-10 minutes, this will make it easier to slice.

Once sliced the crust should be nice and thin but easy enough to pick up and eat the pieces with your hands... Or a fork if you prefer. :)

I enjoyed this with a nice home prepared vanilla cola. (Hansen's cola with torani vanilla syrup over ice)
Xoxo - Iris

5 minute Red Chiliquilles

The first time I ever ate chilliquilles was in New Mexico when I was kid, it's funny because for such a simple food it certainly stuck with me. I think I particularly liked that they have something called "Christmas style" which is when your plate is served with green sauce on one side and red on the other... For those not familiar with chilliquilles, it's a popular Mexican dish of fried corn tortillas in sauce served for breakfast topped with shredded chicken or ham and fried eggs.

I'm calling this 5 minute chilliquilles as I'm sure it's a cheat but it's delicious and fast just the same. heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of your skillet. Toss in 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic. While the garlic seasons the oil cut your corn tortillas into triangles. I used smaller ones so cutting them into four was sufficient but if your have larger tortillas you can cut more.

Toss tortilla pieces into hot garlic oil and sauté until pieces are golden. I used store bought red enchilada sauce, and checked the ingredients to ensure that it was gluten free. Please note Trader Joes enchilada sauce is NOT GLUTEN FREE.

Pour enough sauce into the pan to coat the tortilla pieces and then sprinkle sea slat over and toss again. Serve with fried eggs, chopped cilantro, green onions, a crumbling of quest fresco and sour cream.

It makes for an excellent easy gluten free breakfast but frankly I would eat it for any meal of the day.

Xoxo - Iris