Tomorrow is my father-in-law, Mack’s, birthday. We won’t share how old he is going to be, only that we all know that you get better with age, just like a fine wine. 🙂 We met FIL and MIL out at Molly Woo’s Asian Bistro for dinner. It was really good. They have a nice size gluten-free menu, so Jon and I had a nice selection of choices. I chose the Black Pepper Steak (added in snow peas to the mushrooms & green beans) with brown rice and a couple of chicken lettuce wraps for an appetizer. Jon had Pineapple Chicken with brown rice. After we had a nice dinner, we came back to our house for coffee and dessert. I made an amazing Chocolate Cake that I found on Carrie’s, Ginger Lemon Girl, blog. It is called “Everyday Chocolate Cake” and it truly was amazing. The directions were super easy and the cake took no time to make at all. I frosted it with a chocolate frosting recipe from the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa can.

Hershey’s Chocolate Frosting
**From the Hershey’s Cocoa Can

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), melted
2/3 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup milk (I used 1%)

Melt butter and mix in with cocoa until smooth. Add vanilla and then alternately add the powdered sugar and milk until the frosting is the right consistency. I had to add a little more than 1/3 cup of milk. Just do it a little at a time. Frost cake. This made enough for 2 layers, so for this cake, you may want to cut the recipe in half.

Enjoy!

Serve cake with ice cream. I had Edy’s Slow-Churned Pumpkin with mine, Hannah had Edy’s Cookies & Cream (not GF) with hers.

Not really on the topic, but I was nominated for the Blogger’s Choice Awards! WOOHOO!! You can vote for me by going here. Then search “gluten-free” and I am on page 2 under “Gluten-Free is Life”. How exciting!

When I was growing up my Mom used to make us these amazing warm sandwiches in the fall. I remember looking forward to fall so I could have a hot pastrami & cheese sandwich (or should I say “samich”, as Jon used to say when he was little). My Mom would take deli pastrami (we lived in New Jersey at the time, and those of you who live there or have visited, know that there is nothing like deli pastrami from Jersey), cheddar cheese and a kaiser roll, wrap it all up in foil and stick in the oven for a period of time. Not sure what temp, not sure how long, I just know that when it came out, the cheddar cheese would be melted to perfection on top of the steamy, hot pastrami. The kaiser roll would be all warm and toasty. This, to me, was heaven on a cool & crisp fall day. I can’t exactly replicate this sandwich today. I have yet to find a kaiser roll that is GF and tastes like my old favorite or even comes close to the texture. Also, living in Ohio, I don’t quite have the deli options that we had available in Jersey. Yes, there are delis here. Being GF, I don’t get my deli meat from the deli due to cross-contamination risks. I buy pre-packaged deli meat for the most part. We use a lot of Oscar Mayer, a Kraft company, because they will declare all gluten, if present, on the label clearly. The Deli Fresh line is very good, with many varieties.

What do you do when you want something you can’t have? You get creative and make new favorites. One of my favorite sandwiches since going GF has been a tuna melt. I have made these on Kinnikinnick bagels in the past, but now I usually use homemade bagels made from Pamela’s Wheat Free Bread Mix or Trader Joe’s GF French Rolls. My tuna salad has evolved from your basic tuna, relish & mayo to a spicier version with some crunch added. Yesterday I had mine topped with grape tomatoes and sauteed spinach on the side (spiced with garlic, salt, pepper & nutmeg).

Tuna Salad Melt

1 can tuna in water, drained
1 – 2 tsp Hellman’s Canola Mayo
1 -2 tsp sweet pickle relish
chopped celery (to taste)
finely chopped walnuts (to taste)
Frank’s Red Hot (to taste)
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
Top with cheese (some of my favs are cheddar or muenster)
Bagel or French Roll, toasted

Mix first 7 ingredients together. Place tuna mixture on toasted bagel or roll and top with cheese. Broil until melty & bubbly. YUM!! Enjoy!

I have also used the Chebe Roll Mix to make buns (recipe on their site) and then I will make a deli meat & cheese sandwich with the bun, wrap in foil and place in the oven at 350 until the cheese is all melty. Roast beef & cheddar (topped with some horseradish) is especially good like this, as is ham & swiss (topped with spicy dijon mustard).

So, when you can’t have your old favorites due to a food allergy/intolerance, don’t fret. Make lemonade from your lemons and get creative! Keep positive and try not to worry about what you can’t have. Focus on what you can have. There are plenty of wonderful options out there.

Okay, so my plan really starts on Sunday, so it really should be called “Menu Plan Sunday”. It just sounds so much better when you say “Menu Plan Monday”. Don’t you think? Whatever. Hockey is ramping up, fall is here, the busy season is among us. This usually means Mom runs around like a chicken with her head cut off. Jon had his first set of 2 scrimmages this morning beginning at 7:40 AM. Yes, I said AM. Yes, it is Sunday. 7:40 is actually not early when you are talking about hockey and ice time schedules. You want early? How about having to be at the rink at 5:30 AM? Thank goodness the rink is 5 minutes from our house and that is where we usually play or have practice.

Jon goes Wednesday morning to get this current cast off. Thank God. If you have any idea how bad hockey equipment smells, then you know what his cast smells like. No, I am not getting my nose up real close like and smelling it. I can smell it from the other side of the room. Okay, so it isn’t that bad. But, if you sit close enough to him on the couch you can detect an odd odor coming from his area. Hopefully he won’t have to get a new cast. That will all really depend on what the x-rays show. At the very least, if he does have to get a new cast, at least it won’t stink right away. Give him a few weeks to stink it up really good.

Somehow this chatter isn’t getting me any closer to my menu plan. Sorry. The 2 glasses of Cabernet I had probably aren’t helping matters. They did help me relax. 🙂 So, simple is my theme this week. No complicated or “new” menu items. Can’t handle it this week. Will I bake? Proabably b/c I have to get my sweet fix and I ran out of my Trader Joe’s Chocolate Meringue Cookies and TJ’s is too far away. Also, my Edy’s Slow-Churned Pumpkin Ice Cream is almost gone. Yeah, I could get more. Wal-Mart up the street carries it. Do I really need it? Ask me tomorrow. Today my sweet treat was a Heath Bar. YUM! I haven’t had one since last Halloween. I had the full-size baby too! I considered having half after lunch and then half after dinner and then reasoned with myself that I deserved the whole thing (went to the gym this AM) and that if I ate all the calories right then after lunch, I had a better chance of burning them off the rest of the day. Like my reasoning? Works for me.

Here we go:

Sunday ~ Burgers (with mushroom, bacon & cheddar), sweet potato fries, broccoli & salad

Monday ~ Grilled Garlic & Dill Salmon, brown rice or quinoa, roasted brussel sprouts for moi, mixed veggies for the picky ones

Tuesday ~ Grilled BBQ Chicken Breasts, spaghetti squash, sauteed snow peas in sesame oil & salad

Wednesday ~ out with Inlaws for FIL’s b-day

Thursday ~ Apricot Glazed Pork Loin, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Brussel Sprouts & Salad

Friday ~ Homemade Pizza with Fenster’s Crust (topped with veggies for me & pepperoni for the kids & DH), steamed carrots & salad.

Saturday ~ Sweet & Sour Chicken with broccoli & brown rice.

Baked Goodies

Work on creating a Cranberry Cream Cheese Bread or Muffin
Chocolate Crinkles
Some kind of Coffee Cake for Jon
bagels from Pamela’s Mix
Pamela’s Bread (baking right now..YUM)

Don’t forget to check out GF Goodness for more GF menu plans. Thanks Cheryl for hosting. 🙂 Also, you can check out Org Junkie for even more menu plans, GF and not GF.

This is usually the first thing out of peoples mouths when I tell them that I can’t eat any gluten. Actually, it is more like the 2nd thing, after they ask what exactly gluten is. I don’t usually run around telling everyone I meet that I can’t have gluten. It most often comes up in conversations pertaining to my son when his friend’s parents want to have him over or take him out to eat. Talk about a way to scare off new friends in a hurry! LOL! It has also come up at restaurants when servers or managers get curious and ask what I eat since I can’t have bread and pasta. I love to educate people on Celiac and the gluten-free diet. The more people that know about it, I feel, the better off all of us who have to follow a gluten-free diet will be. Not only that, but for those who ask about symptoms and how we figured out we had Celiac, they are now more aware of the disease and if it might be something that effects them or their friends & family. Now, my husband does not share my love of educating the public on Celiac and the gluten-free diet. He rolls his eyes and smiles (a little fake-like) when he detects me going into my spiel to the server, manager or parent of Jon’s friend. What can I say, I am passionate about things that involve myself or my family, and I like to help people.

Anyway, back to the question. What do you eat? When I first started my blog, I came up with a list of favorites for Jon & I. This shares more of the foods we use to replace the gluten-filled ones we can’t have. It doesn’t really show what we eat day-to-day. So, I thought that I would share a menu and some photos of what I eat day-to-day.

First up, breakfast. Breakfast for me is usually the same every day. What can I say, I am a creature of habit and I don’t like change. I typically have 2 brown rice cakes topped with either Skippy Natural Peanut Butter or Almond butter and some kind of 100% fruit spread. This picture shows me also having a bowl of fresh fruit with it, I have stopped that b/c the fruit was bothering my stomach for some reason. I now have 2-3 egg whites and grape tomatoes topped with fresh basil.

Jon usually has pancakes or cinnamon toast. Here are a picture of some pancakes. I usually make these once a week and package into individual ziplocks, 3 per bag, and freeze.

Snacks for me are usually one in the AM and one in the late afternoon. I usually eat every 3 hours or so. 3 bigger meals and 2 snacks. I find this helps keep my blood sugar stable and I don’t end up absolutely starving by my next meal. I also find that I need the energy to keep going. I usually go to the gym 6 days a week and I have to keep refueling throughout the day. Snacks vary day-to-day. I like cereal (Rice Chex, Envirokidz Gluten-Free Cereals, GF Oatmeal), Lara Bars, Cheese & Crackers (Diamond Nut Thins and Laughing Cow Swiss is my fav) or Enjoy Life Snack Bars. Jon will have cereal, Lara Bars, cookies, Nabisco Fruit Snacks or Carnation Instant Breakfast.

Cream Hill Estates GF Oats with Enjoy Life Granola & Blueberries

Lunches also vary day-to-day, but most times consist of sandwiches, veggies, salads and maybe some chips of some sort. If we have leftovers, sometimes I will eat those. I make my sandwiches on Pamela’s Amazing Wheat Free Bread most of the time. If I have bagels or GF French Rolls from Trader Joe’s, I will use those for melts or a bigger sandwich. Here is an example of what I had yesterday. I made a sandwich on Pamela’s Bread with cream cheese, Hillshire Farm Ultra Thin sliced Cracked Pepper Turkey and fresh spinach; on the side I had a veggie medley of okra, zucchini, yellow squash & grape tomatoes; I also sliced up a garden tomato and topped with fresh grated parmesan and fresh basil and completed my meal with some Smart Puffs, Wisconsin Cheddar, made by Robert’s American Gourmet.

Afternoon snacks are much like the ones in the AM. Sometimes I will get a non-fat Latte from Starbucks or Caribou as my “snack”. Like now, they have the seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Dinners obviously vary day to day. There are so many options out there that I never get bored and often find myself faced with too many choices and recipes when I do my weekly meal planning. I try to plan out meals on Sundays (watch for the weekly posts on Mondays) and then go shopping for the week. I start by seeing what meats I have in my freezer or what meats are on sale and build my menu around those. This helps me from buying too much food or letting things go bad b/c I forget they are there. We eat lots of brown rice (jasmine, short grain and basmati), potatoes (baked, mashed, sweet, roasted) and veggies. I make corn bread, foccacia or rolls to go with our meals if needed. I try to serve a meat or meat substitute, 1 -2 veggies and/or rice/potato. One staple that doesn’t change is salad. I will eat a salad with dinner 9 times out of 10. It is a great way to get a good 2-3 servings of fresh veggies for me and I love them! I use spinach mixed with other darker salad greens or romaine and add in all kinds of fresh veggies like mushrooms, tomatoes or grape tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, cucumber, green beans, black beans and occasionally cheese. I switch up my dressings to keep it interesting. I really like Kraft’s Light French dressing. I also use T. Marzetti’s Light Honey French (YUM), Kraft’s Light Ranch, Balsamic Vinaigrette and Ken’s Steakhouse Raspberry Walnut Spray. Here is a shot of a typical salad with the Light French dressing:

Desserts are not every night treats, but we do have something several times per week. I like Trader Joe’s Meringue Cookies or Edy’s Slow Churned Ice Creams (Pumpkin is a current fav). If I have been a baking fool, we will eat those goodies for dessert.

So, as can be seen here, there is plenty for those who have to follow a gluten-free diet to eat. I don’t miss many (read: any) meals. When I was first on the gluten-free diet, I easily got discouraged and frustrated when it came to eating and found myself eating the same thing every day….brown rice, black beans, cheese and tortilla chips. I quickly realized that I couldn’t live on that forever and embraced the opportunity to concentrate on all of the foods I could have. 🙂

Last week I wrote a post about my 6 year old diva daughter. Well, this week, the “divaness” has transferred over to my 12 year old son. I am sure a lot of what is going on with him is typical, pre-teen boy behavior and the laziness that come along with all of that. That does not make living with him any more pleasant. Maybe some of it is my fault. I try to do what I can to make things easier for him, right up until he starts to take advantage of the situation. I have really been doing a lot for him lately b/c of his broken hand. (He goes to the dr next Wednesday, let’s hope that the cast can come off and he can be re-instated to his position as my servant..ahem…I mean to do his chores.) So, in my helping him out over the past few weeks with chores, homework, getting his snacks & food that he is normally able to get, he has become increasingly comfortable with ordering me around and depending on me for everything. He is becoming more lazy, if that is even possible.

He wants us to write his math problems out for him, which in and of itself is not that big of a deal, (his teacher is only requiring him to do about a fourth of the problems) until he wants you to do all the problem solving for him! Then he gets mad and says that we are being mean and won’t help him with his homework even though he has a broken hand. He is playing us like cheap fiddles! I keep reminding him that his brain isn’t broken, just his right hand. I have also pointed out to him that he has a perfectly good left hand that he has repeatedly bragged about being able to use better than his right! Sigh. Calgon, take me away!

Wednesday morning it was raining outside and it was kind of chilly out too. I was in the middle of making breakfast for Hannah and packing her lunch. Jon is walking out the door and walks right back in and tells me (not asks) that I have to drive him to school. I asked him why. He said because it was raining. I told him that I couldn’t leave, I was busy making breakfast/lunch and waiting for Emma to be dropped off. Plus, I couldn’t leave his sister alone and she was no where near ready to even attempt to go anywhere. He said, again, that I had to take him. He went on to say that he couldn’t get his cast wet. Okay, put your sweatshirt on, pull up your hood, and put your hand in the front pocket (you know the ones like kangaroo pockets). He says he can’t. WHAT? I told him that they make these things called “Umbrellas” for people to use to keep the rain off of themselves when it is wet outside. I told him to go get his umbrella or get mine out of my car. He refused. Then he proceeded to tell me that it is going to be all my fault when his cast gets ruined from the rain. Sigh. By this time I am counting to 10 (make that 1000). He finally decided to put on his sweatshirt (YAY…his brain does work!) and pull it over his cast and put his hand in the front pocket.

When he came home later on that day his cast was just fine. Guess good ole Mom will get off without being blamed for ruining anything for Jon on that day. 🙂

I frequently browse other gluten-free blogs looking for dinner ideas for my family. My family is difficult to cook for b/c not only are they picky, but Jon and I can’t have gluten. I can’t eat onions, but those are easily omitted from recipes or subbed with garlic. They typically won’t eat casseroles; there are a select few. Actually, I believe that lasagna is the extent of the casserole love in this house. Me, I love casseroles. My Grandma (Dad’s Mom) used to make an awesome casserole that she called “Dorito Casserole” b/c you actually use a bag of Doritos in it. I believe the correct terminology is actually “Chicken Sopa”. It is good. Aaron and the kids hate it. 🙁 I may sneak it in again sometime soon b/c I am craving it!

The other day I came across an amazing looking recipe on Gluten-Free Mommy’s Blog for Chicken Broccoli Cheese Casserole. I decided to make this tonight and cross my fingers that the fam liked it. I made a few changes to the recipe. I added some Frank’s Red Hot to the white cheese sauce; I used more than 1 cup of brown rice, more like 1.5 – 2 cups; I used crumbled toasted pumpkin muffins as my bread crumbs and topped with fresh shredded parmesan cheese. It was amazing! The fam (except Hannah) loved it. Jon asked that I leave the broccoli out next time, not going to happen. Aaron went back for seconds! WOW!! Hannah ate the chicken out of it and had some raw carrots. She refused to eat anything else; weird since she likes cheese, rice & broccoli. Over half of the casserole is gone! YAY!!! A success!! I made some sugar snap peas sauteed in sesame oil to have on the side. Here are some pics:

Jon and I had pumpkin ice cream for dessert. He had his topped with chocolate chips. I topped mine with nothing tonight, but the other night I put my pumpkin ice cream on top of some pears and topped with some Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup. YUM!!

This drink is right up my alley. I love all things pumpkin, so when my sister mentioned the pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks, I was all over it. The benefit to Starbucks is that all of the syrups are GF. The only thing (other than the food) that are worrisome for those who have to be GF are the Frappacinos and chips. I stick to lattes or mochas (iced or hot) and black coffee. The pumpkin spice was pure heaven. If you haven’t had a chance to get there yet to try it, make it #1 on your list. BTW, I got it non-fat with no whip and it was still amazing!!!

Where have I been the last whoknowshowmanyyears that spaghetti squash has been around? Why has this veggie never been introduced to me? I bought my first spaghetti squash about a month ago and followed the directions on the sticker on it for baking. When it was done, I thought I had done something wrong b/c there were seeds everywhere. Apparently I was a little confused about what from the inside needs to be scooped out and tossed and what stays. I ended up tossing the squash and Aaron told me that I was never buying it again. Ok, fine. Well, I happened to see a Rachael Ray show the other day where she showed how to cook a spaghetti squash and discovered that I had not scooped out all the needed to be scooped and I decided I really needed to try again. I am a veggie lover and can’t see how I couldn’t like spaghetti squash. So, I took the plunge and when I made the kids and Aaron spaghetti tonight, I made my self another spaghetti squash. I scooped all the correct parts out (seeds and stingy pulp). I placed the squash, sliced side up in a baking dish with 1/4 cup of water in it. I covered with saran wrap (don’t get me started on that product) and microwaved for 12 minutes. I let it sit for 5 more minutes and low and behold, when stroked with a fork, the “meat” turned into spaghetti!! OH.MY.GOD. I did it right!! I did a little happy dance (it may have been a big happy dance if I had had my wine before dinner 😉 ) and made my big plate up of spaghetti squash topped with yummy meat sauce topped with fresh grated parmesan cheese. I sat down and was a little hesitant to try it, but WOW…..it was really, really good. Talk about a comfort food. This could possibly be one of my new favorites. Who needs gluten-free spaghetti when you have spaghetti squash? Now, I didn’t say that I didn’t need my mac & cheese or lasagna, just spaghetti. I could see topping this stuff with pesto, alfredo, veggies with a touch of butter and parmesan…..the list could go on & on. I really feel as if my head has been buried in the sand for a long time. I could kick myself for not trying this sooner.

For anyone who is interested in learning how to make spaghetti squash, there is a nice written explanation here. There is also a yummy looking recipe for Southwest Spaghetti Squash that looks very good too.

OH.MY.GOD! I really could say that 100 times. I wish I could take credit for this recipe, but, I can’t. I checked out a bunch of books from the library a few weeks back and one of them was Cooking Free by Carol Fenster, PH.D. I have been meaning to make this for a week or 2, but on top of being intimidated by making something like this from scratch, I just plain ran out of time. Today, I commited, and boy, am I glad that I finally did. It was super easy. Much easier than I pictured it being. It also reminded me of the crust from a gluten-filled pizza crust. It was chewy and thin. It was flavorful. It was…..P.I.Z.Z.A!!!!!! So, Carol Fenster, whereever you are, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart (and my son Jon’s too….he couldn’t stop drooling over the pizza).   You can find the recipe here.

**I topped mine with Prego 3 Cheese marinara, mozzerella, mini portabella mushrooms, baby spinach & tomatoes. I shredded fresh grated parmesan on top. I am sorry that I don’t have pictures. I was way too involved in eating. LOL!!

Jon said that he likes this much better than Pamela’s Wheat Free Bread Mix as pizza crust. He said he loves that mix for bread & bagels, but to PLEASE use this recipe for pizza from now on. FYI, this needs to be doubled, in my opinion. It technically serves 6, but Jon and I split it. I do have 1 piece left, but that is it. You can freeze the crust after the initial 10 minute baking period for a later date. I will definitely be doubling this recipe from now on. Hannah had a frozen, non-GF pizza for dinner. She wanted ours, but no luck. I told her next time she could have as much as she wanted.

This week things really pick up for us. Hockey season has started and even though they don’t have the teams picked yet, they are heavy into evaluations. Right now Jon has at least 2 evaluations this week (Monday & Tuesday nights) and Hannah has ice skating on Wednesday night. Looks like I better break out the gloves, scarf and parka, huh? I hate being cold. Don’t get me started on the temperature in the ice rink. Yes, I know they are trying to keep a large piece of ice from melting, but what about us poor Moms (and Dads and siblings) that spend countless hours watching our precious offspring slam into each other there? At least the location where most of Jon’s (and all of Hannah’s) practices & games take place, has a mezzanine that is enclosed & somewhat heated.

Anyway, dinners this week must be quick, easy and/or be able to be made in advance. Not a lot of time for baking either. Cheryl at Gluten-Free Goodness is hosting Menu Plan Monday and has selected Pears as the featured ingredient. Thanks Cheryl! We received a gift basket from Harry & David’s last week that had 5 pears in it, so this will be part of dessert or snacks for us this week. 🙂

Sunday ~ Homemade Pizza (I am going to make the dough as soon as I post this); mine will probably be pesto, kids marinara, steamed veggies & spinach salad.

Monday ~ Spaghetti with meat sauce (I will have spaghetti squash), steamed green beans, spinach salad. Dessert will be vanilla ice cream with pear slices & caramel sauce.

Tuesday ~ Sweet & Sour Chicken (recipe from Carrie ~ Ginger Lemon Girl’s blog), brown rice and broccoli

Wednesday ~ Cheeseburger in Paradise (Hope to have the turkey burger if I can verify it is GF; the GF menu does not specify the alternative burgers (veggie & turkey)).

Thursday ~ Hamburgers on GF Buns, sweet potato fries, veggies and salad.

Friday ~ Chicken Broccoli Cheese Casserole, salad & foccacia bread.

Saturday ~ Breakfast for dinner (omlettes & pancakes, bacon, toast and fruit salad with pears, bananas, mandarin oranges & grapes)

Baked Goods ~ Jon has been begging for a coffee cake, so I really need to make one. I think Snickerdoodle Cookies are a must for this week too.

Off to get that pizza dough started.

Don’t forget to check out Orgjunkie for more fun weekly menu plans.