Mixed Berry Muffins

A Recipe adapted from Gluten Free Goddess...absolutely delicious. Almost taste like a hybrid between a bran muffin, and a delicious dessert muffin made from white flour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-muffin pan.

Whisk together the dry ingredients:

3/4 cup Corn Flour
1/4 cup Buckwheat flour
1/2 cup Sorghum flour 
1/4 cup Brown Rice flour
1/2 cup Potato starch
2 teaspoons Baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons Xanthan gum
3/4 cup Brown sugar
1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add:

1/4 cup light olive oil

1 tablespoon raw honey

2 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla

2 eggs

3/4 cup warm water

Stir in:

1 rounded cup frozen berry mix (blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries!)

Plop the batter into twelve muffin cups and smooth the tops. Gluten-free recipes don't take shape like "normal" recipes do. The way you put them in will be the way they stay- so shape them up! I love to sprinkle a tiny bit of brown sugar on top of each muffin!

Bake in the center of a pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes. Do the toothpick test to check doneness.

Cool the pan on a wire rack for five minutes then remove the muffins from the pan and cool them directly on the rack.

Makes one dozen muffins.

A Gluten-Free Kitchen

Starting up a gluten-free, dairy-free kitchen can be a bit of a commitment. You want to have yourself set up to be successful, with many opportunities to create the most wonderful, delicious meals, and treats for yourself and your family.

Basics to have around the cupboards:

• White Sugar
• Brown Sugar
• Honey
• Maple Syrup (The real stuff. Don't buy the poison. Keep it in the fridge or it will go moldy!)
• Sorghum Flour
• Rice Flour (brown or white, whichever you prefer)
• Tapioca Flour
• Corn Flour
• Millet Flour
• Buckwheat Flour
• Potato Starch
• Corn Starch
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Yeast (Both rapid-rising, and not)

All flours I have found at Whole Foods. Most of them are made by Bob's Red Mill- Whole Foods does have some in bulk (rice and buckwheat).

Great spices to have on hand:

• Cloves
• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Nutmeg
• Turmeric
• Curry Powder (check the ingredients labels before buying!)

For the fridge/freezer:

• Fruits and Veggies. I cannot stress the importance of having these around to snack on!
• Fresh salsa! Grab some at your local farmer's market or deli! Fresh is best!
• Kale!!!! Kale chips....so good. Try using red or black kale for a bigger crunch!
• Frozen berries for smoothies!
• Unsweetened Almond Milk (The Silk brand is just terrible. Try Almond Fresh)
• Gluten-free Soy Sauce (Kikkomen makes it! Available at Safeway!)
• Chef's Natural Sausages (Available at the Vancouver Farmer's Market! Try Apple and Pork)
• Soy Good Frozen Dessert (ICE CREAM!!!!)
• So Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk (AKA YOGURT! This is BETTER than the real stuff. Available in Strawberry, Blueberry, and Vanilla. Just try not to get addicted)

For the cupboards:

• Vegetable Oil
• Olive Oil
• Balsamic Vinegar (Get both your Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar from an international market or deli! You'll absolutely find the best quality there.)
• Natural Peanut Butter (Try Adam's 100% Natural Crunchy! A little tip out there...next time you're buying peanut butter, check out the ingredients label on Skippy brand- one ingredient in there you probably didn't expect...)
• Rice pasta- vermicelli, as well as your standard penne, rotini...find a variety of brands at your local Whole Foods!
• Rice! Lots of it! Those who know me know that rice is my absolute favourite food.

Canned Foods:

• Black Beans
• Corn
• Campbells Chicken and Rice Soup. Great for a quick lunch.
• Young Sweet Corn (Stir Fries, and Curries)
• Bamboo Shoots (Thai Curries)
• Coconut Milk
• Dalla Terra Roasted Pepper Antipasto (Put on grilled chicken, mix into your thai curries...so versatile...so delicious)

Just a note: don't buy canned tomatoes. If you're going to: find them in glass jars. The acid in tomatoes leeches the metal out of the cans and creates an unhealthy metallic balance for you to consume. Google it.

Snacks

• Blue Corn Tortilla Chips
• Annie Chun's Seaweed Snacks (Try the sesame flavour)
• Rice Cakes
• Rice Crackers
• Make some of my OMG Bread and keep it on hand for sandwiches and toast!

I'll continue to add to this list as I discover new products! As of right now I've got most of this on hand. The baking ingredients may seem like a bit excessive- but all gluten-free baking uses a variety of flours versus just one to create a great product. Different flours for different recipes for different baked ingredients!

Ginger-Molasses Cookies

After having the most delicious ginger cookie at the Vancouver Farmer's Market, I absolutely had to make my own! These turned out fantastic, and actually were better the next day!

Here's my recipe:

Gluten-free, Dairy-free Ginger-Molasses Cookies

3/4 cup shortening

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup molasses

2 1/2 cups GF flour blend

- 1 1/4 cup sorghum flour 

- 3/4 cup rice flour  

- 1/4 cup potato starch 

-1/4 cup tapioca flour 

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon nutmeg

White sugar (for rolling)

Combine first four ingredients into a large bowl.

Fold in the rest!

Cover and refrigerate until firm (1 hour).

Preheat oven to 350.

Roll dough into balls and roll in white sugar.

Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet, and bake 9-13 minutes (depending on the size...I would suggest golf ball size balls at 11 minutes).

Let cool before eating- these cookies will need to "set".

Enjoy!

What do I do with that chicken!?

This post is the first of a couple that I'm going to make today, and it deals with the question above.

When you're stuck for dinner, one popular thing to do is to pick up one of those supermarket roasted chickens, right? I recently did this last week for my if-i-get-even-slightly-hungry-i-think-the-world-is-going-to-end boyfriend, who truly thought he would die if he didn't mean now. So, I went out and bought a chicken.

If you're like me, I don't really like tearing it apart. I go straight for the goods. The chicken breasts on top.
Once those are gone it's definitely a bit of work to get the rest.

So what do I do with that chicken carcass!?

The answer: SOUP!

As I posted before, soup is so rewarding. I really should make it more often.
Here's my (loose) recipe for Supermarket Roasted Chicken Leftovers Soup:

Ingredients:
Chicken carcass with meat/skin/bones/all that's leftover from the pickings.
Water
1.5 medium yellow onions
Several garlic chives
Coarse Sea Salt
Rosemary
Oregano
Peppercorns
1.25 cup (approx), cooked jasmine rice
One long skinny leek- sliced thinly.
4 small/medium carrots- sliced thinly.

Put chicken carcass, bones/skin/everything, into a very large pot. Cover with water, and bring to a boil.
Once boiling, add 1.5 medium yellow onions cut into 1/4s.
Add 2 tbsp sea salt, 1 tsp rosemary, 1 tsp oregano, and 1 tbsp peppercorns.
Boil boil boil!!!
Add a small handful of garlic chives.
Boil boil boil!!!

(I boiled for over an hour. Up to you. The longer, the better, in my opinion)

Strain everything from the pot, into another large pot so all the liquid and solids are separate.
Time to sort the junk from the good stuff.
Pick out all the pieces of chicken, and discard skin, bones, cooked onions and chives, and other unidentifiables.

Add the good stuff (chicken pieces) to the liquid and put on medium heat.
Add leek, carrots and rice.
Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Cook until the carrots can be pierced with a fork.

Enjoy!

Vancouver Farmer's Market- Earth Day Post

Vancouver has some wonderful Farmer's Markets, and lucky for us, even in the dreary, wet winter, we still have one! This "Winter" market is located right near Nat Bailey Stadium, and there is a moderate amount of parking facilities available. Lots of bike parking- so if you can, ride your bike there!

 I decided I absolutely had to go visit the market this weekend after watching a thought-provoking documentary called "Farmaggedon" on Friday evening. It focusses on the debate over raw milk (which I can't have anyways...but you lactose-intolerants apparently can!)...and how it is illegal in Canada and in some states in the US. It was eye-opening, but what really got to me was the idea of buying local.

Of course, of course, we all know it's better to buy local, but without proper planning, we find ourselves at the supermarket time and time again without knowledge of where our food is travelling from, and how far it had to travel to get to our plates. It's self-explanatory that local food is better for the earth. Think about all the emissions that go out into the atmosphere every day just getting food to people's plates. Even "every day" type veggies like cucumber, and lettuce travel thousands of miles- why?! It just seems so silly if you think about it.

 The Vancouver (Winter) Farmer's Market had an exceptional number of stands and a very happy crowd slowly moved their way around the market.

I managed to pick up:
cucumbers
apples
carrots
leeks
tomatos
wild pink salmon
sashimi-grade wild tuna loin
GLUTEN-FREE ginger cookie (inspiration for baking them later today...)
GLUTEN-FREE apple and pork sausages
and more.

There was so much available- all sorts of lettuces, peppers, dried fruits, juices, all sorts of meat. Mostly organic, all local. It really makes you feel good supporting these farmers. Supporting the local economy. Knowing where your food comes from.
Whether it's all psychological that it tastes better, or not, is up to you...but in my belief, these products not only are better for the earth and better for your body, but they taste better, too.

I wanted to make a shout out to a couple of vendors:

1. High-Crow Gluten Free. They were the ones who had several baked goods on hand at the market, including the chewy ginger cookie that I purchased. Honestly, this was probably one of the best cookies I've ever eaten in my life. Their products are available at the farmer's market, and Edible Canada Bistro on Granville Island uses some of their products. Their website is: http://www.highcrow.com/

2. Chefs Natural Sausage. A wide variety of sausages, made with locally grown meats. All are gluten-free, no MSG, and no nitrates. I purchased a pack of 4 apple and pork sausages for about $6. Great price- delicious sausages!

If you want to find out more about the farmer's markets in Vancouver check out eatlocal.org

Markets are available all over the city- so look to see when the one nearest you is opening. Until then, check out the one on Saturdays at Nat Bailey!

Being healthy and allergy-free, and eating delicious foods is easy. All it takes is a little extra planning.

Curried Cauliflower

YUMYUM!

I bought a cauliflower this past week knowing that I wanted to experiment with it. Cauliflower is a great vegetable- especially cooked. It's so neutral that it can be made with anything. If you haven't done mashed cauliflower as a heathy replacement for mashed potato, you absolutely should. It's divine. And you feel especially healthy eating it.

Tonight's recipe I call:

Curried Cauliflower and Chickpeas over Jasmine Rice

1 medium yellow onion
2 tsp yellow curry paste (I used Thai Kitchen- found at Whole Foods)
1 1/4 cup chicken broth (replace with veggie broth if you're a vegetarian!)
1/2 cup coconut milk
Olive Oil
1/2 jar Dalla Terra Roasted Pepper Antipasto (found at Whole Foods)
15 baby yellow potatoes
1 head of cauliflower, chopped into medium-large bite size chunks.
1 medium tomato
1 can chickpeas
3 cups cooked jasmine rice (I prepared with 1 cup jasmine to 2 cups water)

Over medium-high heat, heat up a small amount of olive oil in a large wok or pan.
Cut all baby potatoes in half, and add to pan. Cook 5 minutes.
Add chopped onion. Cook 3 minutes.
Add cauliflower. Cook 3 minutes.
Add to pan, chicken broth, curry paste, coconut milk, and antipasto. Cook 5-7 minutes.
Add chickpeas.
Once all veggies are tender, add fresh tomato.

Serve over rice!

Since the antipasto and curry paste have so much flavour to them...I found the final dish needed no extra seasoning!

Fantastic!

Dinner Idea: Baked Chicken Kebabs!

Tonights dinner: Baked Chicken Kebabs.

The great thing about this recipe is that it can be entirely customized with your favourite veggies, meats, or marinate some tofu and make it vegetarian!

The vegetables I chose:

White Mushrooms
Red Onion
Red Pepper
Yellow Pepper
Orange Pepper
Zucchini
Cauliflower

and for protein:

Chicken Breast

So simple...cut everything into bite size chunks...and skewer. I lightly olive oiled my veggies and chicken before I skewered them, and once skewered seasoned with salt and pepper! You can choose to make a marinade if you'd like, but I wanted the veggies to shine on their own!

Bake in the oven on the lowest shelf possible at 425.
After 10 minutes, flip!
Bake for 10 more minutes and you're done!

Serve over some jasmine rice, and with a delicious salad with balsamic and olive oil! I served the kebabs with some hot sauce, for dipping!

Easy Salmon Dinner

Let's talk about butter.

Butter is one of those things that I eat with no problems. I've done some research and while there is casein in butter, it is in very very trace amounts. I've got a casein allergy, but seem to have no issues with it...and margarine is scary stuff. I prefer butter over margarine anyway.

With that in mind...I made a simple, delicious dinner tonight that I wanted to share!

Baked Dill Salmon with Leeks and Red-Skinned Mashed Potatoes.....

Ingredients:
20-30 baby red-skinned potatoes
1/2 cup UNSWEETENED Almond Milk
One generous dollop + 2 tbsp of butter
One salmon Filet (mine was approx 1 inch thick)
2 Leeks
Salt
Pepper
Dried Dill

To prepare:

POTATOS:

Boil a large pot of salted water.
Add 20-25 baby red-skinned potatoes.
Boil the hell out of them until they are easily broken apart with a fork.
Strain.
Mash with 1/2 cup UNSWEETENED Almond Milk, and a generous dollop of butter!
Season with salt and pepper


SALMON:
Preheat oven to 450.
Take 2 leeks and slice the dark leaves and end tips off.
Rinse.
Slice the leeks lengthways.
Rinse again.
Slice the leeks one more time lengthways.
Fan out, and rinse.
Place fanned leeks on a large sheet of tin foil.
Melt 2 tbsp of butter- and pour onto leeks and salmon.
Lightly season salmon and leeks with salt.
Lightly sprinkle salmon with dried dill, and place face down on the buttered leeks.
Close up the tin foil to make a neat little package.
Bake for 16 minutes- DO NOT OVERCOOK SALMON. It is so sad when it is overdone.

I also served the meal with some sautéed mushrooms! Yum!


This was so easy peasy and it was absolutely delicious. No gluten ever!

OMG Bread.

Gluten-free bread. Also Egg and Dairy-free.
I DID IT!
Homemade.
Delicious.
No seriously.
Delicious!!!!!!!!!

I hesitate even defining it as gluten-free because even though it is entirely gluten-free....it's not "gluten free", if you know what I mean.

WOW.

Make this recipe now. I adapted this recipe from another site seen here:
http://aprovechar.danandsally.com/?p=228

But below are the EXACT instructions that I did.

Recipe for 2 loaves:

In a large mixing bowl combine:

1 1/2 cups millet flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup cornstarch
1 cup potato starch
1 cup tapioca flour
4 tsp xanthan gum
1 Tbsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp active dry yeast (not rapid rise)

Add:

4 tsp olive oil
3 1/4 cup warm water (not hot)

Mix well- don't worry about "toughening" the bread...that only happens when Gluten is involved. Mix away my pretties! When you finish mixing, the bread dough will be more like cake batter than traditional bread dough.

For the best rising: While mixing the bread, create a proofing box in your stove. Put a bowl of water in the stove, and heat it at your absolutely lowest heat- MUST be less than 100 degrees F. Pour the bread dough into two well-greased loaf pans (I use and reuse those cheap shiny ones from the supermarket...work great). Tuck the loaves into the oven with the water. Allow to rise until batter extends a bit over the top of the pan. It took mine about 50 minutes.


Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove loaf pans from oven and cover with aluminum foil. Return to oven and bake for an additional 35-50 minutes, depending on your oven. To test doneness: Insert a toothpick or knife into the center to see if it comes out clean or doughy. Clean is good.

Remove bread from oven, and let cool in pan for about 10 minutes- then remove and put onto a well ventilated area (I put mine on top of my strainer to cool).

Never refrigerate this or other bread—it will get dry and hard if you do. If you leave the bread on the counter (wrapped), it will be good for all purposes for a couple of days. Or freeze if you take your time eating it, like I do...

I'm not kidding you this bread is amazing. On the other site, some people went so far as to saying it brought tears to their eyes. It's so good. In fact, I'm going for another piece right now.



So, I just took this picture of a half-loaf, and I'm considering going back for a third piece. Unbelieveable.

Make it.
Do it.

All flours are available at Whole Foods- save yourself some money by buying the other ingredients somewhere else.
OMG.

Let's Eat Guilt Free Bakery

While I was in Nanaimo a few weekends ago, my Dad took me to a bakery that he had heard about called, Let's Eat Guilt Free. It's a tiny, hole-in-the-wall bakery, attached to a European deli. We were greeted by an incredibly enthusiastic saleswoman, who pushed on us a sample of nearly every product in the bakery...

and I'm glad she did.

Seen below is their "Dried Tomato and Herbs Bread", which is one of the many varieties of loafs they have!


We tried so many things...muffins, breads, cookies...all the delicious treats that someone who can't eat gluten isn't allowed to.

They offered sugar-free and dairy-free options, while everything was gluten-free. GLORIOUS! My Dad and I ended up leaving with 3 loafs of bread, and a half-dozen cookies...although I wish I had left with more.

They don't have a website, but they do have a Facebook page, so check them out- and if you're ever in Nanaimo, absolutely make a visit. I know now that my visits to Nanaimo won't be without a trip to this fabulous bakery.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lets-Eat-Guilt-free/368655409824935

My struggle to find a good gluten-free bakery in Vancouver continues. I have been searching for somewhere that makes their own gluten-free loafs...not just sells some other companies frozen ones.

Earlier this week I went to Quejo's Cheesebuns on Main St. I arrived just as they were pulling out the Soy (non-dairy) options right out of the oven. It smelled amazing, but I was sorely disappointed with the final product. I purchased 4 buns from them (traditional Brazilian cheese buns made with tapioca) in a variety of flavours, and carried them home to be consumed!

When I cut open the cheese bun, it looked like an uncooked, gooey mess. That's the tapioca. You know the "bubbles" in bubble tea? Well, It looked like a colourless, mashed up version of those in the middle of what was supposed to be my delicious lunch.

Taste-wise- not. good. I was hoping for bread- and what I got was jello bread. Nasty.

I don't necessarily blame the work of the bakery- but the product itself.


Anyways- the search continues for a gluten-free bakery in Vancouver that competes with what I had in Nanaimo.
I even tried making my own loaf of bread earlier this week---to have another fail. It just didnt rise. and no rise= a dense block. HOWEVER- I plan on trying again...and we'll see what happens!


Today I plan on making some Cinnamon buns- so there should be a post..unless they fail...which there will be no post.