Chinese Chicken Salad, gluten & dairy free

 I love Chinese Chicken salad and I especially loved the old recipe I had. Unfortunately it called for Top Ramen noodles and the Oriental Spice pack that comes with them. I know the noodles have gluten in them and can pretty much guarantee that spice pack has gluten as well as tons of msg and all sorts of other stuff that has an infinite shelf life, so I knew I couldn't use that recipe. 

I did some searching and came across a recipe on cooks.com that looked pretty good and I changed it a little bit so it'd be just right. It was soooo good, Kevin loved it too. I think it is equally as good as my old recipe, if not better. Plus it doesn't have an infinite shelf life, which I think is a plus:) 

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into chunks (I poached mine)
• 3 tbsp gluten free teriyaki sauce
• 1/2 head iceberg lettuce
• 1/2 head cabbage
• 3 stalks green onion, I used the green & white parts
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
• 3 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• 1/4 package maifun noodles (cook according to package directions, these are messy but so fun to watch puff up and cook, my whole family was quite entertained!) I used the Sun Luk brand, found them at Fred Meyer in the Asian food section. 

Dressing:

• 1/8 c sesame oil (I didn't have any, just used Omega 3 Vegetable oil)
• 1/8 c grapeseed or olive oil 
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper

Directions:

1. Cook chicken and cut into chunks. While preparing the salad toss the cooked chicken with teriyaki sauce and let cool. 
2. Wash and chop lettuce and cabbage and mix together. 
3. Add sliced green onion and cilantro. 
4. Toast sesame seeds & almonds (I toasted them together at the same time). Let cool, then mix in with salad. 
5. Make dressing, set aside. 
6. Make maifun noodles according to directions. Let cool on a paper towel for a few minutes. 
7. Toss salad together and add maifun. 
8. This salad is best served cool, enjoy! 

Pamela's Gluten & Dairy Free Bread Mix

I was making corn chowder the other night and wanted some biscuits to go with it. I've tried a lot of different recipes for biscuits but haven't found one that I love yet. I decided to try Pamela's mix and I LOVED them. My whole family did. I made them in cupcake tins so they came out like little muffins. They were great with the chowder, but they are also really good with Nutella on them (what isn't though!). Kevin says they taste like a chocolate donut when you put Nutella on them, not bad!

*Unlike Pamela's baking mix, the bread mix is also dairy free which is a nice bonus! (Nutella however, is not.)

Valentine Candy List

This blogger always does a great job looking up gluten free candy for every holiday season. Here is the link for Valentine's Day candy. 

http://celiacfamily.com/gluten-free-valentine-candy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CeliacFamily+%28celiacfamily.com%29

AMAZING DEAL on gluten free products (or on any food Amazon Fresh sells)

Amazon Fresh is having a deal for first time customers today, you get 50% off your entire order. I just ordered over $100 of gluten free products for 50% off and they will be delivered to my doorstep on Saturday morning!
**This deal ends at 4pm today (Feb 3rd)

Check it out:

http://www.seattlemomsdealfinder.com/2011/02/new-amazon-fresh-customers-save-50.html

Almond Berry Muffins! Gluten, Dairy, & Egg free!

I found this recipe over a year ago on some website, printed it and tucked it away. I recently came across it in my recipe notebook and decided to make them and WOW! They are hands down my most favorite gluten free muffins I've ever made. My kids devoured them and so did I. I didn't use blueberries because I didn't have any, but I had frozen blackberries left from this summer, so I substituted those and they were fabulous! 

**I buy my almond flour at Trader Joe's, it is so much cheaper than anywhere else. 

Blueberry Muffin Recipe with Almond Flour (Gluten-Free)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.

Whisk together:

1 1/3 cups almond meal

1 cup sorghum (or brown rice flour, if desired)

1/2 cup tapioca starch or potato starch (not potato flour!)

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

Beat in:

1 1/3 cups organic light brown sugar

2 tablespoons light olive oil

1 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer whisked with 1/4 cup warm water till frothy

1/2 cup warm water, more as needed, up to 3/4 cup

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat the batter until it is smooth, like a slightly thickened cake batter.

Add in:

1 pint fresh berries, washed and patted dry (I used blackberries, the original recipe I had called for blueberries, I think any berry will work just fine). 

Stir gently and briefly.

Plop the blueberry muffin batter into the twelve lined cups. You'll probably have some extra- for a baker's dozen. We made tiny mini-muffins with our extra better. 

Bake in the center of a preheated oven for 23 to 25 minutes, until golden and firm to the touch. A wooden pick inserted into the center should emerge clean.

Cool the muffin pan on a wire rack for five minutes. Gently pop the muffins out to continue cooling on the rack (don't cool them in the hot pan- they'll get soggy).

Full Circle

We joined Full Circle and got our first shipment this week. We LOVE it so far! We pick up our box at a local farm just a few miles away and the kids had so much fun. There are horses and pigs to visit, which makes it pretty exciting! They even have 15 minute riding lessons for $15 so we might try a few out in the spring. The kids couldn't wait to get home and open the box, they totally acted like it was Christmas. We've had fun enjoying all the yummy organic fruits and veggies this week! 

I highly recommend joining, there are lots of options so you can totally personalize it to meet your families needs. Check them out here. If you do happen to sign up, mention my name (Valerie Kok) as the person who referred you, I'll get a discount on my next order and I'll be forever grateful:) 

Sausage and Potato Bake

I found this recipe in a magazine and made it the other night. I altered it a little bit and it was really good. Kevin & I both agreed it's actually more of a breakfast type food than a dinner one. It'd be perfect for a brunch, and adding egg would make it even more "breakfasty". 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Ingredients:

• 1 small yellow bell pepper, cut into small pieces
• 1 small orange bell pepper, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 sweet onion, slided
• 3/4lb red potatoes, quartered (I cut them into small slices just because I wanted to make sure they cooked all the way through)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• pepper to taste
• 1 lb ground sausage (make sure it has no fillers with gluten, I used an all natural one)

Directions:

1. Brown sausage in a skillet. 
2. In a large bowl toss all ingredients together and mix well. 
3. Spread sausage on top of potato and pepper mixture and mix in. 
4. Bake for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are soft, stirring once or twice while baking.

Enjoy! 

**Kevin sprinkled cheese on top of his and loved it:) 

Can't wait for it to arrive!

I ordered this book today (used my $20 Amazon gift card that I got for $10 on Living Social last week- yahoo!) and I can't wait. I've heard nothing but great things about it! I'll report back on what I think, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it. 

Rocket Donuts! Yet another reason to LOVE Bellingham!

We went to Rocket Donuts this weekend in Bellingham. It is the first gluten free donut shop I've found. I called ahead and asked if they use a separate fryer for the gluten free donuts and they said yes. They were also in their own case to help eliminate cross contamination. I was very impressed. The donuts were yummy and Lauren & I were pretty excited to get to go to a donut shop with Kevin & Ben since we usually stay home when they do that sort of thing! 

They also had gluten free quiche, I didn't try it but I was excited to see it on the menu. I highly recommend stopping by Rocket Donuts if you are ever in Bellingham! 

**They also had vegan donuts for anyone reading that it is vegan. I don't think they vegan donuts were gluten free though. 

This reallly bothers me

I know this blog is supposed to be about all things gluten and dairy free, but I feel like this needs to be posted here. When I started eating gluten and dairy free I really started to notice all the fillers and chemicals that are added to so many ingredient lists. I found this to be gross and disturbing and have started to buy a lot more organic and more whole foods. But organic is expensive so I usually kind of weigh out the price difference. If the Organic is .20 cents more per lb I buy it, if it is $2.00 more per lb I don't. But after reading

this article that a friend of mine posted on Facebook yesterday: http://www.rodale.com/methyl-iodide-0

specifically this part below, I will be buying as much organic as I can. Check out the part I highlighted in yellow. How disgusting is that, and we wonder why there are so many health and reproduction issues these days? Hmm...could it be all the junk that is added to our food?

WHAT IT MEANS: One more reason to buy organic. While it is unlikely that methyl iodide injected into strawberry fields pre-planting will wind up on or in the nonorganic strawberries you buy at the store, rest assured those conventionally grown berries could be teeming with other toxic compounds. That's because many chemical farmers rely on a cocktail of pesticides to help compensate for chemically destroyed soil quality. For example, according to Pesticide Action Network's What's on my food? tool, which uses U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Pesticide Data Program numbers, 55 percent of conventional strawberries contained residues of the fungicide Captan, a probable human carcinogen, according to the EPA. In total, tests turned up 54 pesticide residues on strawberries, including eight known or probable carcinogens, 24 suspected hormone disruptors, 11 neurotoxins, and 12 developmental or reproductive toxicants.


I was happy to see that Washington State does not allow methyl iodide to be used in this state, but I'm sure we have plenty of these other chemicals in use. But still, way to go Washington! 

**If you read the full article (which you should), there is a link at the end to sign a petition to stop the use of these chemicals. I signed it, you should too.