My blog is simply about Life, Gluten Free. It includes everything from some of our favorite GF products and recipes, to talking about life a as a GF Teenager. I keep blogging because of the support of this great GF community. My readers understand what it is like to be sick or have someone you love that is sick. They are people just like me who stand in front of the refrigerator with the door open wondering “what should I cook for dinner tonight?” It is my desire to make Life, Gluten Free easier for my readers and it is their support and encouragement that keeps me blogging.
The following is such a simple recipe that if you never made it before, you will wonder why.
I never made homemade chicken and noodle soup before going gluten free - why would I when you could buy it in a can for less than a dollar, and as I recall it tasted pretty good.
Well this taste even better - wonderful in fact and adored by all in my family.
It will leave your house smelling delicious.
And it is so easy!
Before I get to the recipe (for those of you worried about my sanity), I just want you to know that I am feeling better. I really do believe I was watching way too much TV. After having kids in the house for 12 years my youngest finally was off to kindergarten and I filled the silence with TV. Since I have always been a news junkie, and there is so much in the news these days, I was watching Fox and CNN all day long!! No wonder I was feeling a little off balance!!
But I have turned off the TV and am living much happier in my admittedly uninformed bliss. Although I am sad to report that I did watch another episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta - (ugh what is happening to me!) If you have any envy of wealthy people just watch this show and you will get over it quickly.
I also signed up for a week long painting workshop in November. I am so excited. I have not picked up my paint brushes in a while and, thanks to all of the encouragement from the Gluten Free Kid (she asks me everyday after school if I started painting again yet) I will soon be back to smearing glistening layers of oil paint across the canvas.
Okay, so hear comes the recipe. And please let me know if I am sharing too much these days, and if you'd rather I just stick with the recipes and facts.
Delicious Homemade Chicken and Gluten Free Noodle Soup
1 packageTinkyada lasagna noodles (Tinkyada is not one of my favorite brand of noodles, but they hold up excellently in soups)
salt and pepper to taste
Cover the chicken with water in a large soup pot.
Add the chicken broth, celery, onion, carrots, garlic and spices.
Boil until the chicken is cooked through.
If you are using a whole chicken, remove, debone and place the chicken meat back in the pot. If using chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces and return to the pot.
Add equal amounts of water and chicken broth so that you have enough liquid to boil the noodles - I usually add 2 cups water and 2 cups chicken broth.
Return to a boil - add salt to taste.
Break up the Tinkyada noodles into large pieces and add to the pot. Cook until done (around 15 minutes).
Add more salt as needed and pepper to taste.
Serve with Glutino crackers.
They sell Tinkyada noodles at just about every grocery store that we shop at.
So what started our journey down the path to find the best recipe for gluten free apple pie?
Actually it was an email from one of you asking for a recipe. And even though we have made many gluten free pies over the last several years, I was not satisfied with the crust. Sure, they all tasted good, but what a pain the crust was to work with! After experimenting, we have come up with our favorite pie crust recipe and a great apple filling.
But before I get to this, I just need to sound off for a few minutes. If you are only interested in the recipe, then skip this section.
I have not been writing as much lately because, honestly, I have not know what to say. This is such a strange time for our country. With the kids gone at school during the day, I have flipped on my kitchen TV way too much and have been watching way too much news. It has made me feel off-balance.
Yesterday, I decided enough was enough - apparently we are on our way to "global recession" and unless something dramatic happens, Obama is our next president.
Instead of the news, I flipped over to Bravo yesterday and sadly watched an episode of the The Real Housewives of Atlanta - it was sickening how wrapped up they were in money. Money and lives wasted on things so trivial and meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
This morning instead of the news, I decided to flip on the Today show while I was unloading the dishwasher. Again, it was about how to shop on layaway so you can still afford all of those things that the media is telling you you need to feel fulfilled.
I do feel for those who have lost their homes and jobs, and you have to understand that my point of view is influenced by the fact thatt we live in one of the most affluent areas in the world, but I am tired of how so many people are wrapped up in spending, spending, spending.
Aren't their things more important to think about than this. Can't we all just take a break and slow down, appreciate what we have - the fall leaves, our health, our children.
Instead of going to the mall or to a movie or out to dinner, go for a walk with your kids, play a game on the living room floor, or, better yet, stay at home and bake a pie with your kids. You will have fun playing in the dough with your little ones, the wonderful satisfaction of creating something yourself, a great dessert and all for only a few dollars.
We have to take the good that we can out of our situation and, to me, this is yet another silver-lining of celiac disease. This diet has increased our appreciation of what we already have - our good health, our family time, home cooked meals shared together. If you feel this way as well, then you too have been blessed in ways that so many others who can eat anything are not.
Okay, so back to the pie. We really have tried numerous pie crust and they all have tasted good, but anyone who has made a gluten free pie crust knows how hard they can be to roll out. The crust just simply falls apart and you end up pushing it into the pan.
I have tried so many recipes in this book, and they have consistently worked.
Gluten Free Pie Crust
For a double crust:
11/2 cups gluten free flour mix - ***For the gluten free flour mix we used 2 cups brown rice, 2/3 cup potato starch, and 1/3 cup tapioca starch. We actually triple this recipe, add it to a big container and use if for almost everything.
3 T sweet rice flour (you can get this from Ener-G)
2 t sugar
1/4 t salt
9 T cold unsalted butter (we used Earth Balance to make it casein free)
1 jumbo egg
1 T cider vinegar (Rebecca's recipe called for 1 1/2 T but that made it smell way too vinegary, so we dropped off 1/2 T - reduced the smell and it worked just fine)
Mix together the gluten free flour mix, sweet rice flour, sugar and salt.
Cut the butter into chunks (this is the part my son liked) using your fingertips work the butter into the dry ingredients until you have a coarse meal.
Make a well in the middle and add the egg. Add the vinegar and using a fork, mix from the center out until you have a soft dough.
Divide in half and refrigerate if too soft to roll out.
The Apple Filing
3 large Granny Smith apples
4 large McIntosh apples
1 T lemon juice
1 t lemon zest
3/4 cup plus 1 T sugar
2 T gluten free flour
1/4 t grated nutmeg
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/8 t allspice
1/4 t salt
1 egg white
Adjust oven rack to lowest position and place a baking sheet on it. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
Roll one half the dough to a 12 inch circle and transfer to the pie plate. Traditional recipes would call for you to roll it out on a lightly (rice) floured work surface. We have found it is easier to transfer the dough to the pie plate if you spray a piece of saran wrap with cooking oil and roll the crust out on the saran wrap. Refrigerate the dough lined pie plate.
Peel, core and quarter the apples. We have several apple trees on our property so last year we bought Back To Basics Apple and Potato Peeler. It is great fun for the kids and makes this job very easy.
Toss the prepared apples with the lemon juice and zest.
In a medium bowl, mix 3/4 cup sugar, flour, spices and salt.
Toss the dry ingredients with the apples and turn into the chilled pie shell. Slightly mound in the center.
Roll out the second piece of dough to a 12 inch circle and place over the filling. Trim and flute the edge to hold together with a fork. Cut 4 slits in the top of the pie. (This is a home made pie, so it doesn't have to look perfect.)
Brush the top with a lightly beaten egg white and sprinkle with 1 T sugar.
Place on the cookie sheet and lower the oven temperature to 425 degrees. Bake until the crust is golden, about 25 minutes.
Rotate the pie and reduce the temperature to 375 degrees. Continue baking until the juices bubble and the crust is a deep golden brown, 30 minutes longer.
Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
Serve with vanilla soy or ice cream.
Okay I have a few last comments about our current economic situation and if you are tired of listening to my soap box, then you can stop reading now.
My parents (jokingly) blame it on HG TV - everyone wants their homes to look like those on TV.
More seriously, I think God puts his thumbprint on anything that we worship more than Him (you can draw your own conclusions from this).
Lastly, "things" you can buy will never leave you feeling satisfied, but on the other hand, a home made gluten free pie . . ..
I have to say that Halloween is one of the easier holidays to celebrate gluten free - mostly due to the fact that there is an abundance of gluten free candy.
Marie Antoinette may have declared let them eat cake, for our gluten free kid it is "let her eat candy."
We actually have a very healthy diet, but this is one holiday when it is easy to let your gluten free kid just be a kid.
Our Halloween tradition includes some of our closest friends - we gather for a big pot of White Bean Chicken Chili and gluten free Pumpkin bars for dessert. I have to admit, the ladies generally stay behind by the fire while the "dads" take the kids trick or treating.
The houses in our neighborhood are very far apart, so the kids end up putting in several miles before they return home with frosty fingers and pillow cases full of candy.
We greet the returning crew with hot buttered rum for the dads and hot chocolate for the kids, and then the trading begins.
All of the kids dump all of there candy into stacks, sort it and then start the negotiating. We started the trading the first year when our gluten free kids could not eat all of the different kinds of candy - now it is a tradition with some hard bargaining amongst the kids involved. They all enjoy it, and without anyone really noticing the gluten free kid ends up with a heap of candy that is all safe for her.
The night of, I arm her with a list of the "safe" candy to keep handy during the negotiation, and, inevitably, we end up on line checking out a few last minutes things.
GLUTEN FREE CANDY
There is honestly so much safe candy out there, that it is hard to list it all (what a blessing). But here are a few of our favorites.
THIS IS JUST A STARTING POINT - ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK ALL INGREDIENTS YOURSELF. I AM ONLY HUMAN AND THEREFORE PRONE TO ERR, SO RELIEVE MY WORRIES BY USING THIS ONLY AS A STARTING POINT AND CONFIRMING EVERYTHING YOURSELF.
OF COURSE, IF YOU FIND ANY ERRORS PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
"Smarties® and our entire line of products are gluten free. If the UPC number on the packaging begins with "0 11206", you can be assured that it is manufactured in a facility that is gluten free and safe to eat if you have Celiac Disease."
"The modified food starch that we use in our candies in corn starch. We are in the process of updating our package labels to reflect products that are gluten free. Our gluten free brands are:
MIKE AND IKE® Brand Candies,
HOT TAMALES® Brand Candies,
PEEPS® Marshmallow Candies,
PEANUT CHEW® Brand candies,
TEENEE BEANEE® Jelly Beans and
JUST BORN® Jelly Bean.
This information pertains to all Just Born candies that we make and package at our two manufacturing locations (Bethlethem, PA and Philadelphia, PA) and are in their original packaging. Please be aware that we do sell some of our products in bulk to other manufacturers who may be repackaging them in another facility. We encourage consumers to read the labels carefully for any gluten information on products that might be packaged elsewhere. For further questions, we recommend consumers call our Consumer Relations Team toll-free at 1-888-645-3453."
"All Tootsie products are gluten-, peanut-, and nut product-free. Tootsie does not use wheat, barley, rye, oats, triticale, spelt, or any of their components, either as ingredients or as part of the manufacturing process."
"do not contain the gluten protein found in wheat, barley, rye, or oats.
We have contacted our suppliers on the ingredients we use, including sugar, corn syrup, citric, malic, lactic acid, ascorbic acid, artificial flavors & colors, starch, release agents, and processing aids. These products do not contain the gluten protein that causes a problem for people with Celiac Sprue."
Most meals were cooked on the barbecue and complemented by produce fresh from the garden.
With the cooler weather and shorter days, I have returned to my kitchen. As I shared before, I was not much of a cook before going gluten free. Now I love the satisfaction of providing my family a home cooked meal - nothing processed or out of the box. Just good food stirred with a lot of love.
Here is a chicken recipe you will love!
Make this and you will never long for the fried greasy stuff that you used to pick up on your way home.
Gluten Free Oven-Fried Chicken
chicken - you can use 2 chickens cut into eight serving pieces. To make this easier, I use 3 - 4 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 quart buttermilk (for dairy free use almond or soy milk mixed with 1 T lemon juice)
1 cup gluten free flour (you do not have to be too picky about the flour, but use some kind of a blend. Any store brought blend will work or use our favorite gluten free flour blend.)
1 cup Kinnikinnick Gluten-Free Crispy Chicken Coating Mix (this coating makes the chicken extra tasty. If you do not have it use an additional cup of gluten free flour)
1 T kosher salt
1 T black pepper
vegetable oil
Add the chicken pieces and the buttermilk (or diary free alternative) to a large zip lock bag and refrigerate for a few hours, but overnight is better.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the gluten free flour, Crispy Coating Mix, salt and pepper and place in a large flat container (a pie pan works well).
Pour the oil into a frying pan to a depth of 1 inch and heat to 360 degrees (a large heavy-bottomed stockpot works well for this and will keep the stove clean).
Dread the chicken through the flour mixture and fry on each side for about 3 minutes, until the coating is a light golden brown (it will brown more in the oven). Fry the chicken in batches. Reheat the oil to 360 degrees before frying the next batch.
Place the chicken on a metal backing rack on a cookie sheet (a broiling pan also works well) and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until no longer pink inside.
Serve with some green beans. Your family will love this meal.
I am not a doctor, nutritionist or a psychologist. All of the opinions expressed in this blog are merely my own based on our gluten free lifestyle. The information provided is for educational purposes only. In no way should it be considered as medical advice. At times I do recommend products and restaurants. Always independently verify that a product or a restaurant is gluten free before trying. Ingredients are always changing and we cannot guarantee the absence of cross-contamination or misinformation from suppliers.
. It is great fun for the kids and makes this job very easy.
