Since I am still recovering you will see a lot more product reviews and a lot less cooking/baking from me for a short while. Part of this is because I am supposed to be taking it easy, the other part is because we received a very generous gluten-free care package from some friends and there are all kinds of gluten-free products to try and review in it!

Today I am going to review PerkyO’s Apple Cinnamon Cereal. This cereal is supposed to be similar to Cheerios. It has been so long since I have had Cheerios that I can’t honestly say if they taste anything like them or not. I can tell you that the PerkyO’s are very good. Not only do I like them, but Jon LOVES them! He begged for another box at the store yesterday. They are made from whole grain sorghum and have a nice apple cinnamon flavor. They are gluten and NUT free and vegan, too boot! They have 140 calories per 3/4 cup with 2 grams of fiber and 7 grams of sugar. I was also impressed by some of the vitamin stats….Calcium 30% of the RDA, Iron 20% of the RDA. While they are priced a little high in the local store I frequent ($4.99/box), they are very good and a nice, healthy treat.

In our care package that we received last week, we got a real special treat: An Apple Pie/Crisp from Gillian’s Foods. What a perfect fall dessert and easy to prepare! Just pop into the oven for an hour and 20 minutes and it is done! The house smelled heavenly while it was baking. My Mom put it in the oven right before the kids started Trick or Treating on Friday night. After our dinner, both Jon and I dug into the apple goodness. The pie crust edges were a little too crisp, but the crust in the pie dish, topped with the apple mixture, was very good. This is a great go-to dessert. Nice to have on-hand in your freezer for a quick dessert with no work on your part. We topped with Cool Whip (the new stuff, in the can!), but ice cream would be yummy too!

Still sore and taking it easy here, so nothing elaborate for us on the menu this week. I haven’t even done my grocery shopping yet for the week, so that has got to tell you something. We do have lots of meat in the freezer, so I may just need to make a quick stop in for fresh veggies (assuming I can chew them sometime again), milk and lunch meat for the kids. I am flying by the seat of my pants with this menu plan….haven’t put one ounce of thought into it until I sat down at my laptop right now. So, let’s have at it!

Sunday ~ Oh, that was last night. Guess I don’t have to plan for that, huh? 😉
Monday ~ Spaghetti & meat sauce. I may do spaghetti squash since I have one that has been sitting here for 1+ weeks. The kids & DH will do Tinkyada. I would love to have salad, not sure I am there yet. I will make one for the kids & DH.
Tuesday ~ Grilled Chicken, brown rice and butternut squash.
Wednesday ~ Ice Skating & Hockey; out to dinner, maybe soup at Panera or Cheeseburger in Paradise
Thursday ~ Roast Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, veggies and cornbread.
Friday ~ Breakfast for dinner (eggs/French Toast/bacon/sausage)
Saturday ~ Homemade Pizza and salad (If I can’t eat a salad by then, I will cry)

Baked goods ~ HA! I do have a bunch of mixes that were sent in a care package, I don’t see it happening. I would like to try the Soft Pretzel’s (Miss Roben’s Mix) ASAP.

Make sure to pop over to Angela’s Kitchen (Thanks for hosting, Angela!) for the Gluten-Free Menu Swap and to Org Junkie for lots of other menu plans.

The other day we were sent some gluten-free items in a care package, which was very much appreciated. In the package were some gluten-free ice cream cones. The cones are made by Barkat. I have never eaten anything made from this company, but they looked good. Let me start this out by saying that I was never a huge ice cream cone fan before I went gluten-free, so I may not be the best judge for these. If I ate cones before, they were always the sugar cones or the homemade waffle cones, the ginormous ones you get at Cold Stone Creamery or TCBY. Jon, my GF child, did not care for the cones. I don’t know that he had ever eaten a cone before going GF, so he may not be the best judge either. Hannah, my non-GF child, LOVED these cones. She devoured her cone with Edy’s Slow-Churned Peanut Butter Cup ice cream on top. She is 6 years old and very picky, so that has got to stand for something. 🙂 I tasted the cone, but wasn’t impressed. It tasted like a cake ice cream cone, you know the ones you feed goats out of at the zoo? I am not saying that in a bad way at all, if you like those cones, you will like these, a lot. Hannah begged for another, but I had to put my foot down and make her wait until tomorrow. The downside to these (as is probably to all ice cream cones, gluten-free or not) is that they crumble/crack easily.

Hannah ate hers so fast that I didn’t get a picture of her eating the cone, just the box they came in! 😉

Not sure how much sense that all makes, because isn’t Halloween all about comfort food, at least in the form of candy?? Anyway, my Mom and Step Dad came up to stay with us this weekend to help out. I had some minor surgery on my neck (salivary gland) on Friday and was told by the docs to take it easy for 5 days….yeah, right. My Mom is here to make sure that I don’t do too much, so she cooked one of my favorite childhood meals tonight for dinner and made it gluten-free! I was literally taken back 25 years tonight with this amazing beef pot pie that she made. I think it may have been even better tonight, gluten-free, than it was back in the day. Along with the beef pot pie she made some baked cheese grits, another childhood favorite and comfort food. YUM!! Of course grits are naturally gluten-free, but I haven’t had this recipe for them since I was little. I happened across it this afternoon while looking for another old recipe for my Mom. We decided that it would go wonderfully with the pot pie and be easy for me to swallow, too. We rounded out the meal with Parmesan Broiled Tomatoes. For dessert we all had Edy’s Slow Churned Ice Cream….we had Mint Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin and Peanut Butter Cup to choose from. My Mommy loves me and takes care of me when I don’t feel well. Hopefully I will be back on my feet in a day or 2. It is hard to sit still for so long. Here are some pictures and the recipes will follow:

Grits

Tomatoes

Beef Pot Pie

**Recipe for Pie Crust from Pamela’s, see below

1.25 lbs beef stew meat
1 lb carrots, cut to bite size pieces
4 medium potatoes, peeled & cut to bite size pieces
4 stalks celery, cut to bite size pieces
1 medium onion, chopped **I omitted due to intolerance
2 TBSP Kitchen Bouquet
3 TBSP Cornstarch
2 TBSP Vegetable Oil
3 cups water total, divided
1 10oz box package frozen mixed vegetables
Salt & Pepper, to taste
Thyme or Marjaram, to taste, approx. 1 tsp

1. Cut beef into bite size pieces. Heat oil in pressure cooker; brown meat. Remove meat from pressure cooker to insert cooking platform/basket; add ½ cup water and add beef to basket. Seal pressure cooker and cook for 10 minutes after rocker/pressure is reached.
2. Cool pressure cooker to remove lid. Add all veggies (including frozen ones), salt & pepper, add another ½ cup water; seal pressure cooker, bring to pressure, cook 5 minutes. Cool pressure cooker to remove lid.
3. Dump basket of food back into pressure cooker pot.
4. In gravy shaker add 2 cups cold water, 3 TBSP cornstarch, thyme or marjoram & Kitchen Bouquet and shake well.
5. Bring pressure cooker to boil then add cornstarch solution. Stir until boiling & thickened. Taste, add more seasonings if necessary.
6. Pour into prepared pie crust (see additional instructions).
7. Top with remaining crust
8. Bake at 350 for 30 – 40 minutes or until crust is nicely browned.

Pie Crust for Pot Pie

3 cups Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix
4 tsp sugar (omit for savory crusts, like pot pie)
8 TBSP unsalted butter
4 TBSP vegetable oil
½ cup ice water

Yield: 2 9-inch pie crusts or 1 9-inch top & bottom

Combine mix & sugar (if using) in bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture with 2 knives until butter is in very small pieces. Add oil, then ice water, slowly until dough comes together, not sticky. You may not need all of the water. Roll dough between sheets of parchment or wax paper. ***We were able to press this right into the pan for our pot pie without rolling and then form the top on a piece of wax paper without rolling. Foil can be placed along the edge of the crust to decrease the edges browning.

Baked Cheese Grits

½ cup grits in 2 cups water & 1 tsp of salt
Stir in 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
¼ cup butter or margarine
¼ cup milk
1 beaten egg
½ tsp garlic powder

1. Pour into 1 qt greased casserole. Bake at 350 for an hour.

Okay, I am off to be a good little girl and lay down. At least I am in the middle of a good book, Twilight. I can barely put it down!

If you have been gluten-free for any amount of time, whether it be a few months or many years, you are well aware that a gluten-free granola bar can be hard to find. There are many “bar” products, but I have seen very few that are granola, mostly because gluten-free oats are expensive and have only become more readily available. Some companies make them without using oats at all, like the granola bars made by Bakery On Main. I found these the other day at Raisin Rack, my local health food store. They were not cheap, $5.99, but were on sale for $3.99, so I decided to give them a shot. I bought the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip variety, as PB & chocolate are 2 of my very favorite things. These bars were suprisingly very good. Both Jon and I have blown through a whole box in less than a few days. They aren’t like the Nature Valley Chewy Granola bars that I used to eat in my pre-GF days, but they were a nice treat. Not only are they GF, but they are casein free and dairy free, as well. They are 140 calories and 4.5 grams of fat per bar (no trans fats) and do have 1g of fiber per bar. A very nice grab & go treat to have on hand.

Also, Bakery On Main has 2 other varieties of the granola bars that are GF and bags of granola in many flavors. I actually have a bag of the Extreme Fruit & Nut in my pantry just waiting to be opened! I will make sure to write a review on it after both Jon & I try it out. 🙂

This is my all-time-favorite fall treat. Pumpkin bread. I remember my Mom making it when I was younger and I would eat it for breakfast or for snack when I got home from school. I would spread a little Country Crock (b/c that is what my Mom bought) on it and chow down. YUM! I have now modified the recipe that my Mom used to be gluten-free. I am in heaven! I even “gifted” some to a neighbor today for helping me out and she loved it! 🙂 BTW, she isn’t GF and didn’t realize the bread was GF until I told her. I froze the remaining 1.5 loaves so that I wouldn’t eat them in one sitting, b/c I could easily do so. I plan on sharing with my Mom when she is here this coming weekend to visit. I am thinking about topping it with Edy’s Slow-Churned Pumpkin Ice Cream and maybe some Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup. Oooooooh!

Pumpkin Bread

2/3 cup shortening
2 2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 can (1 lb pumpkin)
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cup flour (I used a rice flour, potato starch, tapioca flour mix)
3 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsps baking soda
1 ½ tsps salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
2/3 cup coarsely chopped nuts
2/3 cup raisin

Heat oven to 350. Grease 2 9x5x3 inch loaf pans or 3 8.5×4.5×2.5 inch loaf pans. In large bowl, cream shortening & sugar until fluffy. Stir in eggs, pumpkin & water. Blend in flour, soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon & cloves. Stir in nuts & raisins. Pour into pans. Bake about 70 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Halloween is quickly approaching. Soon those little ones will be Trick-or-Treating and bringing home all kinds of treats. Melonie over at the Yahoo Silly Yaks group compiles a list of Gluten-Free Candy each year so that we know what is safe for us and our kiddos to eat. I am so thankful for this list. Having it all in one place makes life so much easier. You don’t have to call or email the companies or be put on hold. Thanks Melonie for all of your hard work, it is much appreciated.

Gluten-Free Candy List 2008

Editing to add that several people told me the link wasn’t working. It should be working now. Please let me know if it isn’t.

Another busy week ahead. Hockey practice, ice skating, hockey games and I am having surgery on Friday, hopefully in the AM. It is an outpatient procedure, so I hope to be home before the kids get home from school. I have to have my left sub-mandibular salivary gland removed b/c I have a small cyst on it. Apparently the only way to tell if the cyst is malignant or not is to remove it. Nice. Anyway, enough about that. My focus this week is just on getting through the week. Tonight, Sunday, we had leftovers. 🙂 There is no “main” ingredient this week. I am planning on 2 desserts/baked goods to have made before Friday. That way I have treats, along with candy from Halloween, to snack on while recovering. 😉

Sunday ~Leftovers (pork loin roast, creamy pumpkin brown rice & veggies)

Monday ~ Salmon (most likely grilled), sweet potatoes (probably baked), steamed green beans & salad

Tuesday ~ Filet Mignon on the grill, baked potatoes, sauteed zucchini & salad

Wednesday ~ Eating out after skating & hockey

Thursday ~ Roast chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, veggies & salad

Friday ~ Whatever my Mom makes or gets take out, maybe Pei Wei.

Saturday ~ My Mom is making her homemade beef pot pie, gluten-free. I can’t wait!!! 🙂

Baked goods for the week:

Pumpkin Raisin Bread
Homemade Chocolate Pudding (recipe by GingerLemonGirl)
Pumpkin Pudidng (this is a Jell-O mix that I came across…..you all know I am a sucker for pumpkin!)

Today I went to Panera bread to meet up with a couple of friends. I am always leary of places like this because there is such a large potential for cross-contamination with gluten due to all of the bread in the place (and in the name of the establishment 😉 ). However, I received an email the other day from a nice woman, named Pat, at Panera Bread who gave me a list of items on their menu that would be safe for me to eat, proper precautions taken to avoid CC, of course. It was nice to have a choice of what I wanted to eat and drink, not be “forced” to make a decision based on the one or two things that were GF. Here is a list of what gluten-free items they have:

GLUTEN FREE LIST – Panera Bread **

**Although we do our very best to meet your special requirements, we cannot rule out the possibility of cross contact between these items and gluten-containing foods in our bakery-café.

Salads: (including the salad dressing)
(source of modified food starch is corn)
Greek Salad
Fandango Salad
Caesar Salad (without croutons)
Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad (without croutons)
Asian Sesame Chicken Salad (without Won Ton noodles)
Classic Cafe Salad
Strawberry Poppyseed Salad
Strawberry Poppyseed Salad with Chicken
Fuji Apple Chicken Salad
California Mission Chicken Salad
Orchard Harvest Chicken Salad

Soups:
Low Fat Vegetarian Black Bean
Cuban Black Bean and Lentil
Vegetarian Roasted Red Pepper & Lentil
Vegetarian Butternut Squash
Creamy Tomato (without croutons)
Low-Fat Vegetarian Southwest Tomato & Roasted Corn
Turkey Chickpea Chili
Summer Corn Chowder

Salad Dressings:
Balsamic Vinaigrette
Caesar
Greek
Poppyseed
Raspberry Vinaigrette
Asian Sesame Vinaigrette
White Balsamic Vinaigrette
Roasted Garlic & Meyer’s Lemon Vinaigrette

Beverages:
Coffee
Juice, both apple and orange
Lemonade
Milk
Soda, fountain and bottled
Tea, regular and Chai Tea
All lattes & Frozen beverages
Strawberry Smoothie

I ended up enjoying the Low Fat Vegetarian Black Bean Soup and Half Asian Sesame Chicken Salad (sans wontons & sesame seeds) and a Chai Latte to drink. It was amazing. I know that may seem silly, it is just soup and salad. I think it was more the experience. I have been gluten-free almost 3 years and have never eaten at Panera during that time. I am glad I took this step and have another choice to add of my list of establishments that I can dine out at. BTW, I have never had a Chai Latte before, anywhere, and it was TDF! I will be chosing that to drink more often, for sure!