Living on the Cheap with Celiac's Disease

Sometimes going to Whole Foods can be like a trip to Disney Land for a gluten-free gal such as myself.  These days there are endless options in the aisles of wheat-free fare...gluten-free burritos, ready-bake pizzas, cake mixes, even crackers that look like Ritz!  Almost ten years ago, when I first received my diagnosis, this kind of heaven was just a dream.

But heaven comes at a price...If you've perused the shelves at your local Whole Foods or organic market, gluten-free foods, especially the ready-to-eat kind, can be 5-10x as much as the wheat-enriched varieties.  This isn't an issue for some, but many if us have to be careful with our paychecks...I, for example, have the grad school monster eating up a hefty chunk of our resources.

I'm here to tell you that you can eat gluten-free and do it on the cheap.  But cheap come at a price, as well, and that's your time.  But if you have time on Sundays to prep a little food, you will have grab-and-go gluten-free options to last you the whole week!

Are you ready for some tips?  Here we go!

In which we find we are not only joined by our hearts...

...but our stomachs!

Shug and I have always enjoyed eating the local cuisine when we travel.  Our heads just about exploded over Irish Breakfasts.  And all we lived on in Costa Rica was gallo pinto, avocados, and cacique.  So you can imagine our excitement when we knew we were headed to Paris!

Since the dollar was so weak against the euro while we were in Europe, Shug and I decided to have one "real" meal a day, bolstered with some café au lait and inexpensive snacks.  Our first sit-down dinner in Paris remains Shug's favorite: steak, pomme frites, and haricots verts with an amazing mustard cream sauce.  We shared a lovely bottle of red wine and I ordered the escargots and cheese plate for my gluten-free fare.

Have you tried escargot?  It sounds like the most vile thing a human could ever want to eat: snails.  That green slimy-looking stuff is actually an amazing mixture of pureed garlic, butter, and herbs that have been slathered all over the little slugs!  They taste like a nutty, chewy mushroom dipped in butter and heavensauce!  Shug was a little skeptical at first, but decided to ignore his reservations about consuming an invertebrate and dove right in!  He was more than pleased with the cuisine risk he took, and escargot were ordered at almost every meal we had thereafter! 

On the walk back to our hotel we passed a sign that made the 11-year-old in us giggle:

I suppose that was lost in translation on us!  I am guessing it means served platter-style as opposed to sandwich or wrap-style, but it didn't stop us from laughing...!  I couldn't find the translation in my French phrasebook, either, so maybe the restaurant owners were playing a big joke on everyone who passes that sign!  Who knows?  If any of you speak French, please explain!

I hope you have a lovely weekend.  Are you ready for spring yet?  I know I am!  xo.

Recipe of the Week: Tempeh Fajitas with Adobo-Lime Goodness

Sometimes you gotta have a recipe in your pocket for those nights you get home late.  Your day probably didn't just end late, but it was stacked on waking up waaaay before the sun, working, schooling, freaking out, studying, interviewing, sweating, speeding, interacting, living...You get the idea.

Having to whip up some quasi-healthy grub on some days is a real challenge.  Enter the Tempeh Fajita.  These lil' beauties can be prepped and ready for your facehole in about 15 minutes.  Take THAT Rachel Ray.

Tempeh Fajita with Adobo-Lime Goodness
Serves 4
Ingredients:
One yellow onion, peeled and sliced into large strips
One green bell pepper
One red bell pepper
Once yellow bell pepper
One package of tempeh, sliced into long strips
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Juice of one lime
Two Tablespoons adobo sauce
Corn tortillas
Shredded sharp cheddar or pepper jack
Cotija or sour cream for garnish
Spring greens for garnish

In a large saucepan over medium high heat, saute your sliced onions in a squidge of olive oil and a dash of salt.  As the onions are working, clean and slice all of your peppers into long, thin strips.  You want them to fit nicely in a folded taco, so knife accordingly.  Also, if you only have one color of peppers chilling in your veggie crisper, no worries, just use those!  Add the peppers to the saute pan and make sure the slices get covered with the olive oil.

After about five minutes of sauteing, add the tempeh slices.  You may have to be a little more delicate with the spatula from here on out to keep the slices intact.  Add the juice of one lime and the adobo sauce. Don't add the chiles, just the sauce the chiles be chillin' in (sorry.)  Add more sauce if you like the heat and less if you have a more delicate palate.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and make sure the whole mixture is evenly coated with the adobo-lime goodness.

While the fajita filling is working, warm some corn (or flour) tortillas in the microwave or individually in a dry skillet over medium low heat.  Plate your tacos with a generous amount if the tempeh filling and add cheese and sour cream if desired.  Serve with spring greens to round out your meal.

Enjoy and put your feet up!  You've had a long day!

Recipe of the Week: Moroccan Chicken Stew with Sweet Potatoes

This is a quick-to-whip-up stew that is filling as it is healthy! The acidity of the lemon juice really brightens up an otherwise heavy dish. If you are a vegetarian, tempeh or seitan (mind you the seitan is SO not gluten-free) could easily replace the chicken in this recipe. You could also replace the brown rice or quinoa with traditional couscous (plus it's 20x faster to prepare than the good ol' brown rice, but not gluten-free, either!)

P.S. Pay no attention to the Christmasy wrapping paper! I pinky swear I took down the decorations!

Moroccan Chicken Stew with Sweet Potatoes
Serves 4
Ingredients:
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced into strips (or 8 oz. tempeh or seitan)
Salt and pepper
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 2-inch long piece of peeled ginger
1 cinnamon stick OR 1 t. ground cinnamon
1 can reduced sodium chicken or veggie broth
2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
Pinch of saffron
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 cup of brown rice OR couscous OR quinoa
Fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

In a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot heat the olive oil and add the salt and peppered chicken. Brown on both sides for 4-6 minutes and then transfer to a plate. Add the onion, ginger and cinnamon to the pot and stir until the onions are translucent. Return the chicken to the pot. Add the broth, sweet potatoes, and saffron. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the sweet potatoes can be easily pierced with a knife.

While the stew is simmering, prepare your brown rice, quinoa, or couscous. If using brown rice you should start it well before you begin the stew...it takes a long time!

Remove the cinnamon stick and ginger piece from the pot and add the lemon juice and cilantro. Dump a big ladle of stew over the starch of your choice and don't burn your tongue, it'll be hot!

Recipe of the Week - Acorn Squash Pizza Salad

Yes, this can happen. Just go with it. On our standard American diet weekends, we have been trying to keep the fare a little less "jolting" to our systems. I think it was my non-raw weekend that kicked me into a horrible cold all of last week! I even had to stay home from work! That never happens to me! Boo.

Well, luckily I was feeling better by Saturday to whip up some dinner to eat while watching Frontier House. Which, BTW, is an amazing series! Watch it and you'll be so glad/sad you live in the 21st century! Glad because we have tampons, sad because we don't even know who our neighbors are these days...

So this was a little pizza salad Shug and I have been grubbing on for quite some time...Try it, you'll get addicted!

Acorn Squash Pizza
Serves 4...or 2 depending on how grumbly your tummy is...
Ingredients:
One big ready-made pizza crust, Shug likes Boboli OR one gluten-free pizza crust mix
Tomato or pasta sauce, about 2 cups
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded of thinly sliced manchego cheese
4 T., sliced sun-dried tomatoes, we liked the packed in olive oil kind
4 cups mixed spring greens
1 acorn squash, cut in half and cleaned out
extra virgin olive oil
one fresh lemon
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare your GF pizza mix according to the directions and let it rise if necessary. Cut the acorn squash into 1/2 inch half-moons and throw them on a cookie sheet that has been squirted with some of the extra virgin olive oil. Add some salt pepper and toss well, making sure all the pieces are well-coated. Place in the oven for about 20-30 minutes and get started on your pizza!

Throw the prepared crust or spread out your GF pizza dough and apply the tomato sauce liberally. Leave about an inch of room for a part of the pie you can grab on the outside edge. Sprinkle on the mozzarella and manchego evenly. Then add the sun-dried tomatoes on top. Add a little squirt of olive oil, salt and pepper. Put in the oven with the acorn squash and let it bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is all melty and perfect!

When you can easily pierce the acorn squash slices with a fork, they are done. Remove from the oven and working quickly, take a spoon and separate the rind from the flesh. Your pizza should be finished by now so remove from the oven and throw the half-moons all over the pie. Cut the pie into desired pieces and plate them, then throw the greens on top of all the servings...be generous! Dress with a squirt of olive oil and lemon juice and a tad more salt and pepper. Try not to eat the whole pie.

Raw Recipe - Easy Peasy Cashew Cheese-Stuffed Anaheim Peppers

I know it's going to be difficult trying to avert your eyes from my ample bosom, but this iPhone shot was all we managed to take before we snarfed down our dinner! Before we embark on this cashew cheese journey together, I've got to tell you that eating raw has seriously improved my energy levels! My resolve to eat raw is only for the weekdays, so on the weekends I indulge in all the follies the Standard American Diet (SAD, haha) has to offer. I also had a tuneup on Monday and my blood work came back stellar, HDL, LDL, iron - the whole shebang was looking exemplary. Maybe I'm on to something with this partially raw insanity...

I will say Shug has NOT had the same effects from eating raw that I have enjoyed. Granted, he is eating only one meal a day raw, but he has complained of being tired and fatigued. He also pretty much hated the avocado bisque I made the other night, but the rest of the raw fare he thinks has been pretty tasty. So here's his fav so far...

Cashew Cheese-Stuffed Anaheim Peppers
Serves 4
Ingredients:
4 Anaheim chile peppers
4 T extra virgin olive oil
2 cups raw cashews
Juice of 2 lemons
3 cloves garlic, with the green shoot removed from the inside of each clove
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
1 t sea salt
1/4 cup water

Cut the chiles in half and clean out all the membrane and seeds. Coat the inside and the outside with the 4 T olive oil. In your blender or food processor, blend the cashews, lemon juice, garlic, pepper, salt, and water until smooth. You may have to scrape the sides often, but don't give up until it's smooth! It's worth it! Your mixture should be thick. Once blended, spoon into the halved chiles and set on a bed of greens, spinach, cabbage, whatever! I like a lemon and olive oil dressing on top with a little more salt and pepper, or you can chop up some onion, tomato, cilantro and lime for a raw pico de gallo! Devour.

Macaroon Goodness

Yum!
Anybody have a gluten-free macaroon recipe?
I'd be forever in your debt!

Via LolitaSE.

Gluten Free Gal

When I was 22, I did a study abroad in Costa Rica. My bestest best and I were roommates at a home-stay that had, how shall we say, "strict" rules about meals in the house.

Some of these rules included: No lunches served, coffee was brewed at 5:00am and not another pot until the next calendar day, no beans, and absolutely NO sweets. Well, not NO sweets, they were just locked away in a cabinet in the dining room that could be opened with the proper key or ingeniously bent bobby pin.

We thought we were just being exposed to "normal" Tico (that's how Costa Ricans refer to themselves) eating habits and we should be gracious guests. (And we absolutely should have been and were.) But a few weeks into the trip we realized all of our classmates were complaining of their pants not fitting and their muffin-tops a-rising...Stories of Costa Rican delicacies being served at everyone's home-stay was a favorite topic of conversation...except ours.

Bestest best and I took solace in the form of refined carbs that could be purchased on our route to school each day, mostly from a local bakery chain called Mus-Mani...i.e. the BEST bread and pastries in Central America! Some days we would find ourselves a few loaves deep for a single lunch...

Oddly enough, while my classmates were searching for new trousers a few sizes up, I was wasting away. I kept my complaints of nausea and bathroom carnage to myself. I thought I may have picked up a special Costa Rican form of Montezuma's Revenge and that's just a normal part of traveling. I told myself to buck up and get over my sour stomach.

When I returned to the states I was given an arsenal of anti-parasitic medicines and a prescription to eat as much of the foods I craved as I wanted. These foods, many of them "last meal" status, included: french baguettes dipped in Nutella, homemade mac and cheese with breadcrumbs on top, blueberry muffins, and chocolate cake.

And I was still losing weight. Now, before you point out how this is the BEST diet ever and I am soooooo lucky and shouldn't be complaining, let me illuminate you as to how sick I was. My hair was falling out, I had absolutely NO energy, I wasn't sleeping, and my skin, when it wasn't splotched with rashes, was a pale greenish-yellow hue. I was clearly really sick.

After a few more weeks and quite a few more pounds, panic started to set in. My doctor was saying the "c" word and hepatitis in a hushed tone to the nurses and that's when I decided to get a second opinion. I went to a new doctor who only asked me tons of questions about my diet. Twenty minutes later I had my blood drawn again and the next day I was called back into the office.

I was a little more than panicked, since the first doctor had been uttering some serious stuff that could be wrong with me, but when I sat down at the new doc's desk I was met with a diagnosis I'd never heard of before: Celiac's disease.

"Wha? Does that mean I'm screwed?" I asked. The doc replied, "Well, no...and yes..." We went on to discuss all of the things that I couldn't eat anymore: wheat, barley, any thing with wheat or wheat derivatives, etc, etc, etc. I also worked in a bakery and needed to find another place of employment where inhaling the flour wasn't an occupational hazard.

I was so relieved that I didn't have a giant tape worm dwelling in my gut or a hollow leg. I had Celiac's and this was manageable...I hoped.

And it was. Trust me, figuring out how to order a meal at a restaurant was excruciating and family get-togethers can be harrowing, but now that I know what the deal is, life is soooo much nicer....and puke-free!

Photo via Happy Home Baking.