5 low fat, gluten free BBQ recipes!

May 29
Posted by: Under: Menus & Item Lists

One of the many great things to love about Barbecue season is that the gluten-free options are many and varied.  The barbee usually features nice tender meat selections and grilled veggies.  Pasta on the BBQ?  Not that I’ve heard of! :)

Cleaning the BBQ of Gluten

One teeny tiny warning – burning the grill may kill off germs, but not gluten.  If your bbq has warmed buns in the past, it will need a thorough cleaning (we’re talking clean as if it was brand-sparkling shiny new metal) or wrap your packets in tin foil to avoid contamination.

Here are some great, easy recipes from Life Made Delicious:

Note – when selecting ingredients, be sure to use pre-packaged gluten free ingredients.  Although it may be tempting to select the olives from the deli bulk bins, resist and buy the safely bottled or canned variety that will not be contaminated with gluten.

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Are pickles gluten free?

Mar 05
Posted by: Under: Menus & Item Lists

Most pickles are gluten free.  But not all.

Pickles are usually made of:

  • cucumbers or other vegetables
  • vinegar
  • seasonings

That’s it!  So the only thing to worry about in there is the vinegar.  Here’s the rule with vinegar:

*******If it is distilled, the gluten is neutralized.*******

The thing with malt vinegars is that they are NOT distilled.  And if the ingredients contain malt, which is usually from barley, then we avoid that completely!

This is the problem with worcestershire sauce in Canada.  Because of some law or other, Canadian worcestershire sauce is traditionally NOT distilled.  In the states, it IS.  So most of my American readers can safely use worcestershire sauce, which you will notice is absent from all the recipes on this – my Canadian site.   :)

This and a couple other questions are googled quite often – I’ll answer them here and post them under the shopping lists & ingredient tips.  Most of the ingredients on this site are also categorized by tags.  So search any ingredient, category, brand, or meal, and you’re likely to find what I have on it.  If you can’t find what you are looking for, let me know and I’ll research the answer and post it for everyone.

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Bakery On Main – SALE

Feb 14
Posted by: Under: Featured Recipes & Content, Menus & Item Lists

For my Vancouver Metro peeps, the Bakery on Main granola bars & cereals are on sale at London Drugs this week – until Wednesday, Feb. 16.  A GIANT bag of granola for $5.24.

More about Bakery on Main:

Mike and I were sent some samples of their granola and granola bars to try.  We tried Cranberry Maple Nut Granola Bars (my fave), Extreme Trail Mix Granola Bars, Fiber Power, and an assortment of Granola cereal.  First, although not the reason I loved them, they are made in a huge gluten-free facility, recently certified gluten free and kosher: every. single. batch is tested.  And secondly, they do not use refined sugar, trans fats, are cholesterol free, casein and dairy free, and low in Sodium and Saturated fats.  We all know that just because something is gluten-free doesn’t mean it is good for you (think chocolate bars and greasy potato chips), but these are both healthy & yummy & safe for the celiac.

All of the flavors are great.  Which is what I love about this brand.  The one I preferred was the cranberry maple nut, because I have a huge sweet tooth and I adore the flavor of maple mixed with sweet dried cranberries – yum!!

If you join their Eat Better Live Better club you also can get a $1.50 coupon.  Join up here.

Enjoy!

~Cathy

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New Fangled Menu

May 02
Posted by: Under: Menus & Item Lists

This is it. Where the rubber meets the road. The test of the future. The thing of the… oh never mind. Its a menu.

Monday
Brown beans and barbecue sauce wrap (vegetarian)
Lasagne (vegetarian)

Tuesday
Egg salad wraps, sliced cucumber (vegetarian)
Chicken Gumbo (soup)

Wednesday
Poached Herb Salmon
Herbed Rice Pilaf
Honey’d Carrots

Thats all I got folks. Changing the entirety of one’s menu is not easy! Keep hangin’ in there. The results are worth it!

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How to select, cut and serve papaya

Apr 19
Posted by: Under: Featured Recipes & Content, Menus & Item Lists
  • papaya
  • milk
  • fruit juice
  • hot cereal
  • main course including protein (egg or meat)

And that, my friends, is a daily breakfast at Rethy Academy in Rethy, Zaire, West Africa.   And happens to be what I ate 5 days a week for 2 years.  I just so happened to stumble across some nice looking papaya at the market last week.

I would tell you how to pick a ripe papaya if I saw any, which I didn’t.  They are supposed to be a uniformly orange-y yellow-y color.  They start green, and turn yellow, then orange.  And then they are ripe, juicy, and sweeeeet.  they are not supposed to be spotted, and definitely not brown.  But, when they’re traveling from some equatorial country all the way to my sweet Vancouver, I can forgive a few brown spots, ya know?

Here are the ones we got.

Note – cut lengthwise, remove seeds like a melon, and cut peel off, serve chilled.  They have a very mild soft texture like a banana, watermelon-y taste, and very juicy.  They have NO strings like a mango, and are never bitter!  They are a very common, easily grown fruit, and available to the masses in tropical countries.  Here’s a few pics to show how to slice it:

whole papaya

slice papaya lengthwise

scoop papaya seeds from center

slice across the width of the papaya

the papaya meat can be scooped out to enjoy - there is very thin peel, the rest can be eaten.

The papaya peel is actually quite thin – like a peach – so you can eat most of the fruit middle.

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Starbucks Replacement Ideas – Orange Cocoa

Feb 16
Posted by: Under: Featured Recipes & Content, Gluten Free Beverages, Menus & Item Lists

Orange Cocoa

Makes 3 servings:

  • 2 Tbsp cocoa
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 3/4 c boiling water
  • grated rind of 1/2 orange
  • 2 c milk
  • whipped cream
  • extra lemon or orange rind for garnish

Directions:

  1. In saucepan, combine cocoa, sugar, and hot water.  Sir to combine.
  2. Add grated orange rind.
  3. Add milk, heat over medium low heat until piping hot.
  4. Strain.  Garnish, if desired. Serve.

This can be done in the microwave as well, if you use single servings, and heat the cocoa and sugar and water first so that it blends.  Then add milk and orange rind, heat until hot.  Strain, garnish, and serve.

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