I would just like to say that just because I like it doesn't mean that you will, but I have tested these items on my daughter and my husband and gotten a thumbs up review. My husband does not have celiac and likes his bread, so finding things that he is okay with is important.
First let me say that the bread, pizza crusts, and muffins you can buy from UDI's are wonderful, I wish we had the products in my grocery store! I am thinking of petitioning a local store to get their items in. If you do not live near a store with these products, you can buy online, but shipping is a bear! http://www.udisglutenfree.com/
I am also a fan of going to the local Asian markets to get their rice pasta. Many of their products are just made from three ingredients and have English labels. I find that their rice pasta is great and much, much cheaper than going to the gluten free section of the grocery store to get rice pasta. I swear gluten-free labeling is code for "we can charge you whatever we like!" I do however like Mrs. Leaper's rice pasta. If I spelled that wrong, sorry, but it is shaped rice pasta so children will like it. It cooks up the best out of the supermarket brands.
Glutino products are great. They have frozen pizza shells, cereal, snack bars, pretzels... and much of it tastes like regular gluten-based food. I could eat a whole bag of their pretzels! When my daughter was younger I gave her the Glutino version of Cheerios and she loved them. I found a website that sells their products, but many of them can be found in the grocery store.
http://www.glutenfree.com/index.cfm?dsp=public.products.search_results&by_fixture=&by_style=&by_brand=&by_price=&search_text=Glutino&gclid=CK_9sM6Xr6ECFU8K2god2RPRAQ
Here is the official site: http://www.glutino.com/
Chex cereals are now almost entirely gluten-free. Obviously the wheat ones are not, but you can find rice, corn, chocolate and cinnamon gluten-free Chex in the cereal isle. Betty Crocker also has cake mixes and chocolate chip cookie mixes that are gluten free. Yum!
For great chicken, Bell and Evans has a whole line of gluten free chicken. It tastes great and since my daughter's daycare serves chicken nuggets, I can send them along so she does not feel left out. Here is the link: http://www.bellandevans.com/index.cfm?act=gluten_free
I have found that you can use many of the above items in regular recipes and they taste great. When I make pasta dishes, I use rice pasta or Mrs. Leaper's pasta instead of wheat pasta and it tastes just as good. Glutinos pizza crusts are great for making pizza. For spaghetti sauce I like to use Delgrosso and can usually get it on sale.
Of course you all know that fruits and veggies are gluten free and since the weather will be improving, we can enjoy several months of great local produce. For dessert, nothing beats Breyer's ice cream. The vanilla has very few ingredients and all of them are gluten free.
For those who are super sensitive to even air born particles, read the labels. Many companies are getting better about listing possible allergens.
I hope this helps. I will continue to post items when I find them, so check back soon!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Gluten free recipe: arroz con leche (rice pudding)
I found a recipe for Arroz con leche on Foodnetwork.com. The recipe I liked the best was from Ingrid Hoffmann. I made it for my students because they were taking the PSSAs (standardized test in PA) and I wanted to make sure they had full tummies while testing. I tripled the recipe but only used two cans of the sweetened condensed milk so it was not as sweet. I took in granulated Splenda for those students who just had to have it sweeter. I served it warm but it is good cold too.
Ingredients:
1 C long- grain white rice
2 cinnamon sticks
1 Tbsp lemon zest
3 whole cloves
4 C water
1 egg
3 C whole milk
1 (12 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 C raisins, optional
Soak the rice, cinnamon sticks, lemon zest and whole cloves in the water in a heavy saucepan for 1 hour. After soaking, bring the rice mixture to a boil on high heat, uncovered. When it starts to boil, lower the heat to medium and cook for 10 to 12 more minutes or until water is almost evaporated. While rice is cooking, beat the egg in a bowl. Add the milk and stir well to mix. Add the egg mixture, vanilla extract and condensed milk to the rice and cook over medium-low heat, stirring carefully, until it thickens slightly or until desired consistency, about 25 to 35 minutes. Let cool uncovered.
My students think that I'm more like a mom now and it was such a comfort food to them that I think they did better on the test. The best part is that I could eat with them and not say, "I'm sorry, I'm allergic."
Ingredients:
1 C long- grain white rice
2 cinnamon sticks
1 Tbsp lemon zest
3 whole cloves
4 C water
1 egg
3 C whole milk
1 (12 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 C raisins, optional
Soak the rice, cinnamon sticks, lemon zest and whole cloves in the water in a heavy saucepan for 1 hour. After soaking, bring the rice mixture to a boil on high heat, uncovered. When it starts to boil, lower the heat to medium and cook for 10 to 12 more minutes or until water is almost evaporated. While rice is cooking, beat the egg in a bowl. Add the milk and stir well to mix. Add the egg mixture, vanilla extract and condensed milk to the rice and cook over medium-low heat, stirring carefully, until it thickens slightly or until desired consistency, about 25 to 35 minutes. Let cool uncovered.
My students think that I'm more like a mom now and it was such a comfort food to them that I think they did better on the test. The best part is that I could eat with them and not say, "I'm sorry, I'm allergic."
Friday, April 16, 2010
The fun continues...
I do not understand why people need TVs when they have 2-3 year olds in the house. MM is so full of hilarious adventures that I do not miss those tired sitcoms. Here are a few from this week:
1. On Sunday, MM was in a dress and decided to go commando. This however was not enough, she went outside, lifted her dress and then peed on the driveway. My husband was outside talking to the neighbor who alerted Andy to MM's show.
2. MM was walking around saying "Hmmmm, where is it, hmmmm, where is it?" so I replied, "Hmmmm, I don't know." She turned to me and said, "Hey, that's my line!"
3. Upon waking from an afternoon nap crying from a dream, she informed me that the "Damn monster" was after her! Thank you potty mouth daddy.
4. Before leaving the house, she must give her father a "Mooch" (smooch) and gets upset if she can not also give one to "baby brudder."
5. MM has always liked showers and did not want a bath. I recently got her back into a bath because she was really dirty from decapitating flowers in the backyard. I got her to lay back so I could work on the dirt in her hair one time, so now she wants to lay back all the time. She puts her fingers in her ears to keep out the water (she did this on her own) and sings because she likes how it sounds half submerged. She will also "swim" in the tub and calls it her "pond."
6. She has figured out that the sound "suh" refers to color in Chinese from watching Kai Lan and she knows red and green in Chinese. The other day she had two toys in her hand- one red and the other blue. She said, "Look mommy, hun suh (red)...pause... and blue suh!" She will randomly say things to me in Chinese and Spanish, luckily I have watched the shows with her so I know what she is saying!
7. I am still pumping breast milk for BJ and start each morning at 5:45 am so that I can pump and get ready for work. Yesterday MM got up at 6 am, stood at the top of the stairs to yell down to me "Mommy? You pumping your meatballs?" I have not figured out why my breasts are meatballs, but I am the only one who has them.
8. After seeing her brother trying to roll over, she told him to watch her she would show him how to do it.
9. When I got her a coloring book with crayons, she spent two hours not coloring her book, but arranging and rearranging her crayons so that she could knock them down in different patterns and on different surfaces.
10. She decided to color in the TV screen while watching a shape matching game during intermission on Nick Jr. I know this because she smiled at me and told me she colored in the circle for Moose and Zee. I love magic eraser.
11. She turns on my radio clock and dances in front of my bedroom mirror like she is in Fame or Splash Dance.
As I said before, I am trying to find the blessings in all she does because I want to keep my blood pressure down.
Update on BJ: he is finally sleeping better and less fussy. I am hoping to get him off medicines in the next month or so. He is also smiling and cooing more. His favorite time is, of course, 3 am.
1. On Sunday, MM was in a dress and decided to go commando. This however was not enough, she went outside, lifted her dress and then peed on the driveway. My husband was outside talking to the neighbor who alerted Andy to MM's show.
2. MM was walking around saying "Hmmmm, where is it, hmmmm, where is it?" so I replied, "Hmmmm, I don't know." She turned to me and said, "Hey, that's my line!"
3. Upon waking from an afternoon nap crying from a dream, she informed me that the "Damn monster" was after her! Thank you potty mouth daddy.
4. Before leaving the house, she must give her father a "Mooch" (smooch) and gets upset if she can not also give one to "baby brudder."
5. MM has always liked showers and did not want a bath. I recently got her back into a bath because she was really dirty from decapitating flowers in the backyard. I got her to lay back so I could work on the dirt in her hair one time, so now she wants to lay back all the time. She puts her fingers in her ears to keep out the water (she did this on her own) and sings because she likes how it sounds half submerged. She will also "swim" in the tub and calls it her "pond."
6. She has figured out that the sound "suh" refers to color in Chinese from watching Kai Lan and she knows red and green in Chinese. The other day she had two toys in her hand- one red and the other blue. She said, "Look mommy, hun suh (red)...pause... and blue suh!" She will randomly say things to me in Chinese and Spanish, luckily I have watched the shows with her so I know what she is saying!
7. I am still pumping breast milk for BJ and start each morning at 5:45 am so that I can pump and get ready for work. Yesterday MM got up at 6 am, stood at the top of the stairs to yell down to me "Mommy? You pumping your meatballs?" I have not figured out why my breasts are meatballs, but I am the only one who has them.
8. After seeing her brother trying to roll over, she told him to watch her she would show him how to do it.
9. When I got her a coloring book with crayons, she spent two hours not coloring her book, but arranging and rearranging her crayons so that she could knock them down in different patterns and on different surfaces.
10. She decided to color in the TV screen while watching a shape matching game during intermission on Nick Jr. I know this because she smiled at me and told me she colored in the circle for Moose and Zee. I love magic eraser.
11. She turns on my radio clock and dances in front of my bedroom mirror like she is in Fame or Splash Dance.
As I said before, I am trying to find the blessings in all she does because I want to keep my blood pressure down.
Update on BJ: he is finally sleeping better and less fussy. I am hoping to get him off medicines in the next month or so. He is also smiling and cooing more. His favorite time is, of course, 3 am.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
You can tell you have a toddler living with you if...
It has finally happened. I have finally started to do some of those things I said I would not do if I ever had a child. All the mothers of older children are now saying to themselves, "See, I told you once you had your own chidren you would understand..." Well, I still am not using food as a bribe (yet) but I have found myself crumbling to the temper tantrum of a 2 year old. As you all know, it is just easier than an epic battle especially when time together is so precious.
So, you can tell we have a toddler in the house because of a few clues...
1. You begin telling time by the shows on Nick Jr. As in, "when did you last change/ feed the baby?" "Oh, the Wonder Pets had just come on." "Was it the first one or the second show?"...
2. You say to your two year old "The Backyardigans just went off, you know it is bed time."
3. You get your child to brush her teeth because Dora the Explorer says to.
4. What is served for dinner is determined by whether or not it will pack easily for lunch at daycare the next day.
5. You find yourself humming the theme song of the Wonder Pets even when the children are out of earshot.
6. You learn to sleep in the most contorted positions to accommodate the two year old who needs to sleep between you and your husband after 3 am nightly.
7. You learn to savor any chance you get to go to the bathroom in peace and quiet.
8. You find out from the newspaper the next day about breaking news because you have not been able to watch an adult show in months.
9. M & M's are the best way to get your child to use the potty. Oh, shoot! I guess I am bribing with food afterall!
So, if you see me out in public, please forgive me if I have no idea what major news events have occured or if I can not use language that even a two year old can understand. I've been told I will grow out of it!
So, you can tell we have a toddler in the house because of a few clues...
1. You begin telling time by the shows on Nick Jr. As in, "when did you last change/ feed the baby?" "Oh, the Wonder Pets had just come on." "Was it the first one or the second show?"...
2. You say to your two year old "The Backyardigans just went off, you know it is bed time."
3. You get your child to brush her teeth because Dora the Explorer says to.
4. What is served for dinner is determined by whether or not it will pack easily for lunch at daycare the next day.
5. You find yourself humming the theme song of the Wonder Pets even when the children are out of earshot.
6. You learn to sleep in the most contorted positions to accommodate the two year old who needs to sleep between you and your husband after 3 am nightly.
7. You learn to savor any chance you get to go to the bathroom in peace and quiet.
8. You find out from the newspaper the next day about breaking news because you have not been able to watch an adult show in months.
9. M & M's are the best way to get your child to use the potty. Oh, shoot! I guess I am bribing with food afterall!
So, if you see me out in public, please forgive me if I have no idea what major news events have occured or if I can not use language that even a two year old can understand. I've been told I will grow out of it!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Flowers
Spring is in the air and flowers are blooming. I have been anxious to see what kinds of flowers will be blooming around my house. At my old house, I knew that there would be tulips, daffodils, hyacinth, crocus, lilacs and a few others that I can not remember the name of. From early spring until late fall, I made sure my garden was full of beautiful flowers and smells. At this new house, I have a much larger canvas to work with. In the city, I had a very small garden in the back of the house and a ten by ten flower bed in the front. At this new house, my front yard is twice the size of both the back and front yards of my city home; I will not get into how big the back yard is. So you can imagine my excitement over mapping out what flowers I could expect to see. I expecially like the view from my kitchen window. I can look out that window and see nothing.
Well, not exactly nothing. I can see what used to be flowers. I recognize the stems and leaves of crocus, daffodils and tulips. If I close my eyes, I can remember their colors before they were decapitated.
My husband has been in the backyard removing a tree and the piles of junk left hidden underneath that tree. Once the tree was down, MM was in the yard "helping" him. What that really means is that she was popping the flowering heads off. I have a lovely bowl of floating heads: daffodils, tulips, crocus, and a few azaleas. She has successfully removed every flower out of the front and back yards. If I had not been careful, when we went for a walk in our development, the neighbors' would have lost their flowers too. Lucky for me, she also likes to pick dandelions so neighbors should be okay with her picking those flowers as long as I keep her away from the others!
The hand continues to heal, but typing still hurts!
Well, not exactly nothing. I can see what used to be flowers. I recognize the stems and leaves of crocus, daffodils and tulips. If I close my eyes, I can remember their colors before they were decapitated.
My husband has been in the backyard removing a tree and the piles of junk left hidden underneath that tree. Once the tree was down, MM was in the yard "helping" him. What that really means is that she was popping the flowering heads off. I have a lovely bowl of floating heads: daffodils, tulips, crocus, and a few azaleas. She has successfully removed every flower out of the front and back yards. If I had not been careful, when we went for a walk in our development, the neighbors' would have lost their flowers too. Lucky for me, she also likes to pick dandelions so neighbors should be okay with her picking those flowers as long as I keep her away from the others!
The hand continues to heal, but typing still hurts!
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