Why I Love P.F. Chang's

We went to P.F. Chang's for our 2nd wedding anniversary this past weekend. Yes, we drove through the snow storm. Three years in a row, including our wedding day, there has been a snow storm. Lucky us. On the plus side parking was easy, there weren't many people there and it was easy to run a few errands at the mall. The bad part, it took us an hour to get there from St. Paul. The reason we chose P.F. Chang's is because of their extensive gluten-free menu found here. They have done an outstanding job of making gluten-free food without sacrificing taste. We had a server explain to us that for them to make the transition to GF was very simple, most of the changes came in the sauces. Say what you want about chains, I can go to any major city and find a P.F. Chang's for dinner. My other fall back is a burrito bowl at Chipotle.

The staff at P.F. Chang's have a good routine for serving gluten-free customers. The GF meals come on different plates so that you can easily tell them apart. They know to bring you GF soy sauce. Many of them have tried the items on the GF menu and even have said that some of the dishes are better GF.

So far my favorite is the GF Mongolian Beef. It's my understanding that this is on their signature dishes. I've had a server them me this dish GF is better then the original. The famous lettuce wraps can also be ordered GF. The flourless chocolate cake is really good.

As a side note, I've noticed that many places we go to that have GF free food still have gluten in their foods. I realize this afterwards when I get a pounding headache. Guess what, not at P.F. Chang's they take GF serious.

Never thought I would say that P.F. Chang's is my new favorite restaurant.

Gluten Free Ice Cream Sandwich

I've been looking for a good gluten-free ice cream treat. Enter Julie's Organic Ice Cream. I've seen Julie's products in every co-op I've ever shopped in. I have only seen these sandwiches in one store. 

They are delicious. I love that they are a reasonable size and it's clear when I'm done. When I buy a pint of ice cream I tend to eat it out of the container and then all of a sudden it's gone! Oops. Having a clear portion is helpful. The cookie doesn't get too hard in the freezer, it's soft enough to bit in to but not so soft that you have cookie all over your fingers when you're done like the big name ice cream sandwiches. The ice cream is delicious. It holds it shape well in the sandwich and doesn't melt all over the place. Like most ice cream treats they are spending, just over $5 for the box. Still cheaper than going out for ice cream. 

To sum it up - I love them!

Babycakes Bakery

Who doesn't want to go this bakery? Babycakes NYC looks amazing. Friends in NYC, LA and Disney check this out and let me know what you think. I wish they had one in the Twin Cities. Everything looks amazing and they ship to MN! They also sell cookbooks.

Pizza a la Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free

 This pizza was an experiment on two levels. This is the first time I have had Glutino's GF frozen pizza crust and dairy-free cheese. Let's start with the crust seen in the picture and found here. I was skeptical because I haven't particularly liked the frozen pizza crust. Especially since baking the crust myself has become so easy. I was pleasantly surprised. I like the size, it's filling without being too much. It rises, not many GF crusts can do that and not taste dry and like cardboard. I thought this one was great. It was a little on the dry side but not enough to stop me from eating it. Thank God too because there are three more crusts in the freezer.

Now the cheese. I'm still not sold on dairy free eating for myself. I haven't seen a huge benefit. My stomach feels a little upset by the dairy but what I want to happen hasn't happened and we'll leave it at that.

This is the kind of dairy-free cheese I decided on. Mostly because I thought rice was safe alternative and it was already shredded. A plus so I don't have to do any extra work. Galaxy Nutritional Foods can be found here. They make a variety of dairy-free cheese including a vegan cheese. So what did I think. It's obviously not the same as cheese but it works. It's fine. I would be just fine if this what I had to eat for cheese for the rest of my life. If your like me and you gauge the pizza's completion based on the melting of the cheese, this alt-cheese will not melt like the real thing. You have to watch it. I've made pizza since and the cheese sort of melts, browns and bubbles. Just be watch it at the end.  

Eating Gluten-Free is too easy now

I'm starting to feel like I've gotten a pretty good handle on what has gluten and what doesn't. And since I don't want anything about my life to be easy I'm experimenting with also being dairy free. Once Christmas is here I'm going to have to eat dairy again - Christmas cookies! There is no way I'm missing out on that fun. I don't know if you know this but my Grandma Phyllis makes the best Christmas cookies in the history of the planet. That might be an overstatement but they're damn good cookies.

I won't go into my digestive details about why I'm doing this dairy-free experiment but people keep telling me that too much dairy can cause digestive issues. In fact one of my doctors said that nearly 75% of the world's adult population have lost some forms of being able to digest lactose - see here on Wikipedia also in the same Wiki article it says,

Pathological lactose intolerance can be caused by coeliac disease, which damages the villi in the small intestine that produce lactase. This lactose intolerance is temporary. Lactose intolerance associated with coeliac disease ceases after the patient has been on a gluten-free diet long enough for the villi to recover (BMJ Textbook of Gastroenterology, Chapter 11, Celiac Disease, Dr.Jamie Gregor & Dr. Diamond Sherin Alidina).


The term coeliac is the Greek work for celiac. Which apparently is the actual spelling and North America is the only place that spells it celiac. Seen here on Wikipedia.


So really I have no idea if this going to help. All I know is that there is a lot of room for improvement. I'm on day 8 and so far no improvement. It only took one week to feel better after starting my gluten-free diet. I hope I learn something soon. The next big step is trying the non-dairy cheese. At least I got the gluten-free pizza dough that tastes amazing. Here's hoping...

Chicken in a bag

This is super easy and tasty. I don't think the photo does this justice. I'll keep working on that.

In a large plastic bag mix:
3 Tbsp of cornstarch
2 Tbsp of GF soy sauce (sometimes I add a little more soy sauce - the kind I have isn't very flavorful so the more the better)
1/4 tsp of garlic powder
1/4 tsp of ginger (I used paprika because I didn't have ginger. It worked out great).

Next, put the chicken in the bag, shake it and than bake however you feel. I usually put in a fry it. I find that frying is an easier way to tell if the chicken is done. Insert lack of FDA oversight joke here. I think the next time I make this I'm going to cut the chicken into strips. I've also thought this would be a good mix with a veggie stir-fry with rice or rice noodles.

I love how simple this recipe is. You can have some fun with it too. You get to shake a bag. Let out that frustration from the day!

Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: gluten-free holiday baking, 2010

Great recipes for holiday treats and a good explanation about why baking using weight instead of volume is so important for GF baking.

Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: gluten-free holiday baking, 2010: "Let's bake, shall we? It's December 2nd. Most of you have probably gathered your recipe cards around you to take notes and make substitu..."

Gluten-Free Thanksgiving

Here is the family Thanksgiving. We traveled to my parents home in Northfield. It was small group of very funny people, my parents, my brothers, my dad's parents, my mother-in-law, and my brother's roommate who happens to have the same name as my husband, it got to be confusing. My grandfather decided to call them Brendan 1 and Brendan 2, which obviously cleared up all confusion.  

In the intrest of full disclosure I don't really care for the Thanksgiving meal. Mostly because I don't like turkey straight and the texture of food is really important to me. So, I don't like bananas and mashed potatoes. As you can see my plate is fairly bare but at the end of the meal I didn't need to unbutton my pants unlike others. I have a salad with cranberries, walnuts and vinaigrette. A rice dish with celery. Turkey. My mom makes this dish with Knox gelatin, apples and celery - it's kind of strange but a big hit with the family. Of course of my gluten-free dinner rolls!

I was really nervous this year because it was my first gluten-free Thanksgiving and there isn't much gluten-free food for this meal. Let's see, the bread, the gravy, the stuffing, those are the big ones that come to mind. Since I don't like a lot of Thanksgiving foods I relied heavily on filling up on bread. That was not looking like it was going to be an option. Luckily, I found a gluten-free roll recipe from The Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef. I made them on Thursday morning - it was a little stressful. I really liked them and so did everyone else. The secret is all the butter. They reminded me of biscuits. It has the crumbly texture to them and the same density as biscuits. They were easy to make. I had never made rolls or bread of any kind and I thought this was a piece of cake. I modified the recipe a little bit because I didn't have all the flour that was listed. However if you can convert a recipe from volume to weight such as grams or ounces you can easily mix and match the flours that you use. Below is a picture of the rolls I made. 

 

Has anyone else noticed that gluten-free breads don't seem to have a dramatic rise to them? I kept waiting for dough to look twice the size but it never happened. I kept waiting but after 90 minutes I had to give up and put them in the oven because I was going to be late for dinner. 

 

 

Best part of all the dessert! I have to say that my grandma rocks because she made me Betty Crocker's Gluten-Free Brownies! Yea! She also made the pies but they weren't gluten-free but I was told they were delicious as usual. I never met another family that has to have banana cream pie for Thanksgiving. 

Even though I'm not a huge fan of Thanksgiving I had day with my family and the food was good. Now I can start getting worried about Christmas.

Cinnamon and Raisin Gluten Free Bread

How does French Meadow do it? This bread is another find in the bakery section at Lund's. Cinnamon raisin gluten-free bread and it was good. I would buy this again. I really like that it's only half a loaf so it's much easier for me to eat it before it goes bad. You can eat out of the bag or toast it. I think all bread is better toasted and with peanut butter. For my peanut allergy friends, butter or cream cheese would also be good - that doesn't help lactose intolerant friends unless you don't have a peanut allergy. I used to love getting cinnamon raisin bagel with plain cream cheese. Is that weird? If you're looking for a flavored bread, check out French Meadow.
I guess French Meadow used to sell direct from their website but they are working with other retail locations to see their products. They have a store locator on their site and a coupon page.

What's a Ring Ting?

I was at Lund's and they have a small display of gluten-free products in the bakery section that I check out on a regular basis. Their bakery had made Ring Tings. I bought them, they were covered in chocolate I figured they can't be bad.

They weren't that good right away. They grew on me. It comes 6 in a box and I paid almost $10 for them I was not about to throw them away. Major downfall about gluten-free food, you spend a lot of money to try something and half the time it's only okay. I was determined to eat all 6, and not in one sitting. Over the course of the week I ate them all. By the end I decided I would be willing to buy them again.

I really like the chocolate coving that Lund's makes and the creamy filling. I'm a sucker for creamy filling. It was the cake that was getting me down. It was dry and crumbly. If you make sure every bit has the chocolate covering or the filling with the cake than your fine. Plus they're the right size for one person.

Buca di Beppo has a Gluten Free Menu?

You heard me right. Buca's has a gluten free menu. I was shocked. We had never been there before and kind of wanted to check it out but I was hesitant because I thought for sure the only thing I would be able to get was a salad. It's not that I don't like salads, I'm irritated by the fact that salads are my only option going out to eat. I want to choose to eat a salad not be forced to.

Buca's reminds me of a lot of chain restaurants. There wasn't anything amazing about the food. It was fine, I wouldn't be opposed to going again. It appears to be a great place to go with a large family. We were only 3 and had enough food left over for a week. The walls are covered with photos of famous Italians, the only one I remember is Sofia Loren.

We slipt the apple gorgonzola salad. It had romain lettuce, granny smith apples, crasins, walnuts with a hint of cinnamon, gorgonzola cheese, and dressing - not clear on the dressing, it was kind of creamy but gluten free.

I ordered the chicken limon. I was shocked when I got my food because I was told that the gluten free menu items came in small portions. This is what I got - 3 chicken breasts! I thought this place is crazy to think that this is an appropriate size for one person. The server clarified and said that the kitchen messed up and gave me a full serving. This is chicken breast with a lemon sauce and capers. It was good and it was good reheated.

They unfortunately don't have any gluten free desserts listed on the menu but they have vanilla and chocolate gelato. Here's my chocolate gelato with the largest spoon known to man. I could barely fit in my mouth.

They love to celebrate at Buca's so go there when you need to celebrate, you'll get a lot of food for a lot of people. I had a good time. It's worth checking out my gluten-free friends.

Quinoa Noodles to the Rescue

Yea for quinoa noodles! Maybe other people can tell the difference between quinoa and wheat noodles but I can't. Than again it's been a year since I have had wheat noodles.

We had spaghetti night with Ancient Harvest quinoa noodles, marinara sauce and ground turkey. I had to watch the noodles so they don't all stick together. You can't cook them too long or they become one big noodle, similar to rice noodles.

I'm happy knowing that I can make noodle dishes without sacrificing taste.

French Meadow Chocolate Chip Cookies

We tried the French Meadow Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are in the freezer section and you have to bake them. They are super easy to make, you take them out of the package, place them on the cookie sheet, bake and volia instant cookies.

As for the taste - they were okay. For being instant cookies they were good. They were on par with gluten free cookies that I have bought at the grocery store bakery and better than a gas station gluten free cookie. I prefer to eat them with a glass of milk. I love the ease of making them. Usually when I make cookies it takes a lot of my time, mixing the dough and baking the cookies.

The difference between these cookies and homemade gluten free cookies is the same difference between store bought 'normal' cookies and homemade 'normal' cookies.

Is the government trying to force us to eat cheese?

A friend shared this on facebook. This makes me sad and yet I'm not surprised. We're continually slammed with mixed messages about everything. Eat a lot of dairy, wait dairy is filled with saturated fat, but we have to support our dairy farmers but we have an obesity epidemic, but we need more calcium, my head is going to explode.

While Warning About Fat, U.S. Pushes Cheese Sales by Michael Moss at New York Times

My Breakfast Sandwich

Deciding what to make for dinner is one of the hardest decisions to make. Especially since after I make a decision I have to do it again the next day. I wake up wondering what to do about dinner. I have years of having to make dinner decisions. Let's not even talk about the actual numbers. I had thought not having a job would help motivate me to want to make dinner. I have time to actually make good food. I'm not walking in the door at 6pm super hungry. I have time now - and still no desire to make food.

Due to my lack of planning this is the sandwich we made for dinner. Eggs, Bacon, Butter and Bread. Nothing special but delicious. You could easily add some cheese and it could be like your real food version of an Egg McMuffin.

We scrambled the eggs but another version would be my own version of over easy. Crack one egg in a small frying pan. Let it sit for a few minutes until the whites start to look pretty solid. Than I break apart the yoke a bite and let it mix more with the white. I flip and let it cook. I prefer this to traditional eggs over easy because non cooked yokes are gross. I never understood my mom and her sunny side up eggs.

Again the sandwich is pretty easy. 1 egg, 2 strips of bacon, gluten-free toast, and butter. I just drooled a little thinking about this sandwich.

Nature's Hilights Brown Rice Pizza Crust

We tried Nature's Hilights Brown Rice Pizza Crust the other day. Not bad. I prefer this to Udi's frozen crust. It's more crispy which I think helps a crust that's not made out of wheat flour. I did find it odd that it gets sticky in your mouth, I guess it's because of the brown rice. It reminded me of a caramelized candy because it kind of gets stuck in your teeth. If can't make your own pizza crust I highly recommend this one. I've heard that gluten-free pizza should be baked on a pizza stone. I don't have a pizza stone and most of my pizzas turn out okay - but if any one wants to send me one feel free. Sadly I have not found a website for Nature's Hilights to direct you to more information or where it's avaliable. I purchased mine at the Mississippi Market on W 7th St. in St. Paul. I've seen it at Whole Foods as well.

This is the crust before I started. I brushed on some olive oil in hopes of making it even more crispy. I put in in the oven for about 5 minutes at 500 degress. Than I add the toppings. See below. I baked the pizza with the toppings at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes or until I think the crust is brown enough and the cheese is melted.

Hazlenut Meal Chicken

Super easy chicken to make especially when buy the chicken pre cut. I hate cutting chicken. You need, chicken, rice flour or all purpose gluten-free flour, egg, salt and pepper, hazelnut meal, and parmesan cheese.

I use 3 shallow tupperware containers, the first one has rice flour, the second has egg, salt and pepper, the third with hazelnut meal and parmesan.

The pictures below walk you through the recipe.

Baked Mac and Cheese

Yesterday was a mac and cheese kind of day. The winds were reaching speeds of 50 mph, the temperature was dropping, it was raining and the skys are threatening to snow. I'm sure you remember. This is the first time we made baked mac and cheese since going gluten-free so it was kind of an experiment. This is a recipe that we got from Lynne Rossetto Kasper's book The Splendid Table's How to Make Supper found here.

I bought the book at a dinner at Cooks of Crocus Hill that Ms. Kasper demonstrated how to make all the food we ate. All the recipes were from her book, How to Make Supper. We bought our spots to the dinner at an auction for Vocal Essence. The choir's conductor Phillip Burnelle was the entertainment for the dinner. He played us music based on the food so for insistance he played Yankee Doodle Dandy for our Mac and Cheese. Than he played Yankee Doodle in every music genre we yelled out at him. It was amazing.

I made a few adjustments to the recipe for 21st Century Mac and Cheese, one obviously being the noodles, I used rice penne. I wanted to use quinoa but I couldn't find it at my grocery store. This is fairly simple to make.

In a blender I mixed:
one egg
buttermilk
small clove of garlic
small white onion roughly chopped (optional)
shredded cheddar cheese
shredded emmental
cream cheese
jarlsberg (the coolest part of this cheese is it looks like this.)
crushed red pepper flakes
paprika
salt
pepper

The major changes were the cheese because I stopped at the store on my way home and had to choose the cheese based on what I thought might be in the recipe.

French Meadow at my grocery store!

The French Meadow Bakery offers a variety of gluten-free treats in the freezer section at my local Whole Foods. I had heard about this from a friend and had to try it for myself. There were so many items to choose from it was hard to know where to start. I picked the brownies and chocolate chip cookies. They also make pumpkin pie, chocolate cake, pie crust, breads, rolls, etc.

This morning I had a nutritious breakfast of two brownies. I stuck them in the microwave for about 30 seconds. When I took them out I knew right away that they would be delicious because they smelled so good. Melt in your mouth good.


Be sure to print off French Meadow's coupon for a $1.00 off any gluten-free product.

The brownies make me very happy.

You can find French Meadow Bakery products at any of these locations within 50 miles of the Twin Cities. This includes GF pizza at Boston Pizza in Faribault for all my southern MN friends. They serve GF products at the cafe at 2604 Lyndale Ave S in Minneapolis see map below.


View Larger Map

Say what? Eating gluten-free contributes to my depression and anxiety, and it's why I can't sleep. Article about sleeping and eating gluten-free on the Huffington Post found here. My mom will be so relieved that I can stop blaming her for my depression and anxiety.

Laura Baker Services Association Gala

Going to events where I don't have much say in what I eat makes me nervous. It has always made me nervous, even when I was eating gluten and could presumably eat anything that was given to me. To my surprise this year the invitation actually told me which food option was gluten-free. Yea! That took a load off of my mind. I didn't have to worry too much. After all this fundraiser was for Laura Baker Services Association, and they are all about making the world more accessible to everyone. You can see how awesome LBSA is here. Their mission states;

Laura Baker Services Association's mission is to respect the life choices and dreams of people with                                  developmental disabilities and help them reach their goals.

We headed down to Northfield to LBSA's annual gala that includes a silent and live auction. 

Here's a horrible picture of the gala, it was held at Severance Great Hall at Carleton College. This is our emcee announcing that some of the silent auction tables are closing.










Once we get seated and I'm looking at the program and I see that we still have appetizers and desserts to eat as well as the main meal and I don't know if any of it's gluten-free! Now I'm nervous. First I read over the appetizers and figured that I would be okay and after further examination of the actually food I decided that there was no gluten.

We have a chicken sautee, various diced fruit in the cup and shrimp with asparagus. It was really good. 

This was the chicken dinner I had and knew was gluten-free. It had a mango sauce with some peppercorn that shocked my teeth royally. Was not expecting that. We also have mashed potatoes and asparagus. 

Finally, dessert. Again read the menu carefully and after looking at dessert decided I could indulge. This plate includes and chocolate truffle with raspberry filling, lemon grass pot de creme, and a lemony chewy thing that had cumin on it. My mouth was on fire after the cumin. Thank God I didn't eat the creme first. I needed all of it to get my mouth back to a normal temperature. 






The food committee once again did an amazing job with the menu. If the silent auction went half as good as the live one I think LBSA had an incredible fundraiser. 

Udi's Cinnamon Rolls

We ate Udi's Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast on Saturday. They come 4 in a box from the frozen section with frosting packets and no directions of how to heat them up. We decided to spread the frosting on before we put the rolls in the microwave so it would be melty and warm. Not sure on the exact time we just kept heating them up until felt soft enough and warm enough for us to eat. Here's how I'll sum it up, I'm hoping and praying there is something better out there. You can find them here. 

I'm really struggling with all these rave reviews that Udi's gets, found here, here, and here. On Udi's website there is a video at a camp for kids with Celiac's about how great the bread is. I'm still so new to eating gluten-free that I can't appreciate the strides that Udi's has made? Is it because Udi's is mass produced and baked goods from a small bakery are always better whether they are gluten-free or not. Are my standards way too high? I've been accused of having unrealistic expectations. Food has always been a source of pleasure for me and it hurts so much every time I eat a bread product that tastes like cardboard. It's as if every piece of gluten-free bread I eat a piece of happiness gets taken away from me. How can there not be something better? I just want a grilled cheese like mom used to make - she still makes it just not for me because of the gluten thing. Seriously, my mom makes the best grilled cheese. 

MickeyD's

How Bad is McDonald's Food by John Robbins found at the Huffington Post.

In related news, I just ate McDonald's and in about 5 minutes after finishing my 'meal' I have a splitting headache and need to rush to...enough said. I didn't eat gluten, that's the telling part.

Pan-Pan in Northfield

While in Northfield I had lunch with my friend Jane at Pan-Pan, an international cafe. They have about 5 things on the menu that are gluten-free. Two of these dishes shown here. Pad Thai on top and I don't remember what Jane had but it was gluten-free. I know, I'm super helpful.

Northfield is a great place to have a restaurant like this. It's super convient, they do take-out and it was fast. It was more money than I usually spend on lunch, but it was much better food than I usually get for lunch.

Yes, I have had better Thai food but I think for what Pan-Pan is this was perfect. I didn't like how much tofu was in my Pad Thai - I don't like tofu.

I'm happy that Northfield has a restaurant that is telling people on the menu that they have gluten-free options. There isn't another place in town that does that. It's made my life much easier.

Field Trip to BitterSweet

I needed GF hamburger buns so on Friday I ventured south to Eagan to BitterSweet. They have a great selection of breads, cookies, brownies, cakes, and take and bake pizza!

The buns were great, my cookie and brownie were really good too.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Being gluten-free brings so much frustration. I have been mourning the loss of amazing desserts. I found a recipe from, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef to make chocolate chip cookies. I figured they had to be good. Everything I have made from her site has been good.

There was a lot more prep involved than my cookies off the back of the chocolate chips. I had to go to the store to get flours I didn't have. Once the dough was made I had to let it sit in the fridge for 36 hours! I couldn't believe it.

When I finally had the cookies made and fresh out the oven my husband ate one before I could test them and he said, "Are you serious?" and "I can't believe these are gluten-free!" I wanted to package them up and send them to every gluten-free person I know. These cookies have given me hope that I can make delicious gluten-free treats. I want to make hundreds of them to hand out to anyone who will eat them.

My next big dessert challenge is a chocolate cake from scratch.

"Normal" Tasting Pizza

I found it! Pizza that tastes like gluten pizza but there's no gluten! All thanks to the Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef by Shauna James Ahern and Daniel Ahern. I don't know what I would do without them. They consistently have the best recipes. I feel so much better about eating gluten-free now that there is pizza that I can enjoy.



However I still need to work on my cooking skills because I don't think I did this quite right. Mine did not look like the pictures in the book. Thank God Shauna and Daniel made a video about the pizza, found here.

I think I know where I went wrong. I didn't use my mixer and I got sick of stirring. I quit stirring too soon and the dough was all sticky and not very pliable. Next time will be better.

Above is their pizza crust, it also doubles as a cracker recipe. Mine turned out more like foccaccia bread (left photo) because I don't think I did it right but it's still delicious.