Here’s how I make them:

1.  Heat the oven to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (to prevent sticking).

2.  Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into strips.

3.  Next I toss the potatoes with a little olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and some finely chopped parsley.

4.  Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes (flipping them over every 10 minutes).  

These are good and quite filling as a side dish and help keep me full for quite a while (it seems like I have a hard time staying  full since going gluten-free).  

Enjoy and let me know what you like making with Sweet Potatoes!

On the Gluten-Free front we are trying to find a good recipe for homemade GF sandwich bread.   We’ve recently tried a Pamela’s bread machine mix and it was only ok.  I’m not a huge fan of the taste of Sorghum flour so I think that is what I didn’t love about it.  The texture was good though and if I toasted it to death and put something on it with a strong taste (like a sandwich with pesto) it was doable.    Here’s what I want – good texture, some nutritional value (fiber and protein) and no weird aftertaste . . . is this too much to ask?    There is fabulous bread at a bakery Portland but it’s a good half hour drive and expensive so I’m hoping to find something I like and can make from home.

Anyone have a great recipe they’d like to share?

• Perky’s Nutty Flax ( or Nutty Rice) :   I started eating this when I realized I was mainly eating cereal without any fiber or protein.    It was an acquired taste for me.  At first I didn’t care for it . . . but with some fruit or nut butter on top it grows on you and is definitely very filling and healthy.    There is also a great recipe for homemade granola bars on the back of the Nutty flax box that has become a favorite for my husband and I (and he doesn’t have to eat gluten free).  Very filling, easy to take with you and much cheaper than buying a bunch of premade bars.

• Nature’s Path GF Fruit Juice Sweetened Cornflakes.   These are just plain tasty!  You’ve got to love an ingredient list that is: Organic Corn meal, Organic grape and/or pear juice concentrate, and sea salt.  Period.    Definitely my favorite cereal right now – again fruit or nut butter on top is even better and more filling.

• Bob’s Red Mill GF rolled oats or steel cut oats.    I make up a big pot of these on the weekend and reheat them in the morning.   All the benefits of oatmeal without getting sick  The rolled oats are also great in oatmeal cookies or apple crisp.

So . . . those are my top three choices for cereal (tasty, pretty healthy and filling).  What is your favorite Gluten Free Cereal??

~ Christine

My teaching  job is about to go from part time to very full time for the fall – so in an attempt to keep posting regularly I am going to have a weekly feature of a recipe each sunday.   Today’s recipe was inspired by our excess of lettuce over the summer from our CSA (community supported agriculture) Box.  Each week we end up with at least two heads of lettuce and, although we enjoy salads, we were looking for something new to do with it.    After ordering lettuce wraps from the gluten-free menu at both Dragonfish and PF changs and loving them, I set out to find a good recipe that the whole family could enjoy and would add some variety to our lettuce eating this summer.

I adapted this recipe from Cooking Light magazine.

3 Tablespoons dry roasted peanuts (I shelled the peanuts and roasted them in a pan over med-hight heat for about 3 minutes)

12 leaves bib lettuce (or any other kind you have on hand)

Marinate chicken in :

6 Tablespoons gluten free soy sauce (I use Dynasty brand)

4  Tablespoons cider vinegar

4 teaspoons wheat free soy sauce (we use Tamari brand – labled wheat free)

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons seasame oil

1 tsp crushed red pepper and 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

You can grill or bake the chicken and then cut into bit sized pieces.

Dipping sauce:  I half the marinade recipe for dipping the wraps.  3 Tbsp. gluten-free hoisen sauce, 2 TBsp. cider vinegar, 2 tsp. gluten-free soy sauce, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp. sesame oil, 1/2 tsp each crushed red pepper and minced garlic.

Serve buffet style .   Lettuce leaves, peanuts, dipping sauce, and chicken.  You can also add cabbage and carrot cole slaw if you want.

Enjoy!

~Christine

~Christine

*Just a little disclaimer – I don’t get any free products or have any motive for sharing the gluten free food I like here.  Just hoping to help others who are just starting out (or have been at this a while) and are trying to figure out what the heck they CAN eat  :)

This crust is from New Cascadia Traditional GF Bakery here in Portland. I buy and big crust and cut it into single serving pieces and freeze them to take out when the mood strikes or the rest of the family is having gluten pizza. My pizza today was topped with a little marinera sauce, homemade pesto and thin shavings of asaigo cheese. Amazing flavors together . . . you cannot feel sorry for yourself about not eating gluten while eating this!! I’ve also got CSA cucumbers and cranberry juice spritzer along with it. Very filling.

We’re off to the farmers market for fresh cherries . . .

~ Christine

In the past year and a half my family has gone through a major change in the way we eat.   During this time I discovered that I needed to eat completely gluten free (not just avoid wheat) and at the same time, and through a number of sources,  became convinced that we wanted to eat more locally grown foods.    Some of our major influences were:   Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food,   Barbara Kingslover’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and   Shauna James Ahern’s Gluten-Free Girl.  After lots of reading and discussion we started buying more and more food at our local farmer’s market . . . we would come home with bags of fresh fruit and vegetables, italian tortes (made with goat cheese, pesto and sun dried tomatoes)  and there is even a asian food stand that, on request, will make fried rice gluten-free for you (they even know to wash out the wok well without me asking them first).

This summer (after a year on the waiting list for the one we really wanted) we started to get CSA (community supported agriculture) boxes from a local farm.    You can check out info about our CSA here. This has been an amazing experience.   In early June we went out to the farm to get a tour and hear about the family that runs our farm.  It was amazing to hear how about 4 years  ago the farm started out with 9 families as a part of it’s CSA and now feeds over 800 families.   It was pretty exciting to hear that this trend is catching on and it was great to see how much this family loves what they do.    We picked this particular CSA because it has a large variety of fruits and vegetables that it grows every year.  We eat a lot of fruit around here so that was important (some CSA’s we researched has only vegetables).  They are also just about 15 minutes away from where we live – so very local

So, from June to October we get to drive out to the farm and pick up our bags of freshly picked produce &  see where our food is coming from and meet the people growing it.   It has been an incredible experience so far.   Here is a picture of what we brought home this week.   It inclueded lettuce, green beans, basil, zucchini, leeks, rhubarb, blueberries and potatoes.

Thanks to my lighter teaching schedule this summer I have enjoyed finding new recipes to make.  It is my new hobby to find ways to cook and eat up (or preserve) everything before the next week’s bags are ready to pick up.    It is amazing how much better everything tastes when it’s picked and eaten right away.  We have gotten some things in our bags that we have never eaten before much less cooked at home like fava beans and kholrabi.  The great thing is that finding ways to use up all these veggies has us making a lot of delisous new recipes and we are eating really well (healthy and tasty foods everyday).   It is a great reminder of the amazing foods I can make and never feel like I’m missing out by not having gluten.   Frittattas, homemade pesto, fresh jam, lettuce wraps . . . . the list goes on and on.

I highly recommend  looking into joing a CSA, growing your own garden or frequenting your local farmers market or stand and discovering some of the foods grown in your area and how great they taste!   It’s a great way to eat well & gluten-free.  You can find what is near you at www.localharvest.org.

What new foods have you been eating lately?

~ Christine

I also have some fun posts in mind for later this week to share some of my favorite resources (and foods) for a gluten-free lifestyle.

For now I’m off to eat a lunch of homemade lasagna with Tinkyada lasagna noodles (can’t taste the difference).  Yum!!

~Christine

So . . . here is the run down of what is coming with me for this trip. 

Nature’s Path Gluten Free Corn Flakes, Homemade granola (made with Bob’s Red Mill GF oats), Bars – Soy joy bars, larabars, and Think Thin creamy peanut butter bars.  Stretch Island Fruit leathers, Individual Servings of nut butter, Rice works chips (in individual bags because I’ll eat the whole bag otherwise!), and Mary’s Gone Crackers.  

Here’s an up close shot of some of bars and nut butters

I hope this list helps those of you heading out on your own vacations gluten free . . . what do you pack with you when you go?

I am hearing all the time about friends, family members, friends of friends, and even the checkout clerk at New Seasons that they are needing to adopt a gluten free life style.  It is incredible to me how many of us there are!

I am not a Doctor, a nutritionist, or anything along those lines.  I don’t always do it perfectly and sometimes I am not careful enough and am still learning things the hard way.   However, I have gotten to the point where I love what I CAN eat & don’t feel sorry for myself for what I can’t.  It took a long time and a huge attitude shift, but it can happen and I hope if you have to eat Gluten Free that I can help you figure out a few ways to make it easier. 

Check back for practical advice for getting through life without gluten, recipes, and reviews of gluten free products that I love.  Let me know if you have any questions you’d like to see me answer on this blog or if you have any of your own advice to pass along! 

~ Christine