My Quinoa Experience

I have a confession. I have been gluten free for 6 1/2 years now and up until two weeks ago I’d only had quinoa once. And that was because someone else made it. Yeah, I know. Hopefully I haven’t lost my credibility as a gluten free blogger.

And now I have another confession. I actually did make something with quinoa about 3 months ago… only I didn’t realize it till I made quinoa 2 weeks ago. The mystery of the disgusting granola was solved!

Three months ago I’d made some homemade granola with gluten free oats. It usually turns out amazing, but this batch was just gross and I couldn’t figure out why. I did what I always do: add oats, coconut oil, honey, and then whatever other seeds and nuts I can find. Everything was in plastic bags from the Winco bulk section and I just thought the quinoa was some kind of seed (flax, sesame, whatever. I didn’t know). Yeah… uncooked quinoa in granola is not good. Now you know.

So, now that you know how NOT to use quinoa, let me share some helpful info on it.

When I decided I wanted to start incorporating quinoa into my meal plan I turned to the best source ever: my facebook friends. They were very helpful! Here are some things to know:

• Quinoa has a slightly “nutty” flavor (though my husband doesn’t agree with this).
• It will take on the flavor of whatever you cook it in (chicken broth, cinnamon, etc.)
• You cook it the same way you cook rice. For me, that means I use a rice cooker. I don’t like to bother with cooking rice or quinoa on the stove. I like putting the grain in, adding the liquid, pushing a button and not having to think about it till it’s ready to serve at dinner. Awesome.
• Quinoa is super healthy. Since us gluten intolerant people can’t have whole wheat, we need to get our whole grains another way and quinoa is a great option (though, be sure to include a lot of other grains, too).
• Quinoa is extremely versatile. It can be used for a savory dinner or as a sweet dessert or breakfast (like rice, and possibly even more versatile).
• I buy mine from the bulk section at Winco (be sure to properly label it, so you don’t add it to things you shouldn’t ).

So far I’ve cooked the quinoa two different ways and eaten it a few different ways. The first time I cooked it in chicken broth. It added a very subtle flavor to it. You can easily add more seasoning if you want.

Then I put some grilled shish kabob chicken and veggies on top. I loved it!

I used this marinade I found at Macey’s. It said “gluten free” right on it and didn’t have all of the “questionable” ingredients most store-bought marinades seem to have.

The chicken marinated in this stuff was incredible! The veggies were just okay. In the future I’ll save this marinade for just chicken and when I do kabobs I’ll use this marinade again. Both the chicken and veggies are delicious in that.

Once the kabob chicken and veggies were gone, I still had leftover quinoa. So I used it in my salad at lunch.

It had some leftover sweet pork, pinto beans, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, and dressing with the quinoa. It was good.

The other way I cooked quinoa was with some cinnamon and vanilla in the water. Love! My friend gave me this recipe (though, now I’m trying to remember if she cooked it in almond milk or water in the first place… I’ll have to look into the milk thing).

Once it was cooked I added milk, raisins, pecans, unsweetened shredded coconut, extra cinnamon, and (not pictured) apples. It was so good! I had this for breakfast three mornings in a row. On the fourth morning I had it with blueberries, too. It’s yummy stuff. I just keep the leftover quinoa in the fridge, then heat it up before adding the extra ingredients.

There are so many options with this! I’m not doing much sugar right now, so the raisins are a must. I’m thinking once peach days in Brigham City, Utah start I’m going to have to have this breakfast with peaches and cream. Mmmmm….

I like the crunch the apples give this. And coconut is just always good. You can really add whatever you’re in the mood for that day. (Let me know what you try and how it turns out.)

Quinoa cooked this way would be the perfect addition to my rice and oatmeal breakfast recipe. Or it would even be a good substitution in place of either the rice or gluten free oats (I know oats bother many gluten free folks).

So those are the ways I’ve done quinoa.

Here are some recipes and suggestions my friends on facebook shared:

Laura: My kids like this one

Broccoli-Quinoa Casserole

Aubrey: I like to use it in place of rice, like for Hawaiian haystacks or with aunt Stephanie’s sweet n sour stir fry (Mmm!) in our family cookbook. I hear quinoa pancakes are good, hoping to try them soon!

Maggie: Quinoa pancakes are great. I have also cooked quinoa in beef broth and some taco seasoning and used it as taco meat.

Alyssa: This is one of our favorite quinoa recipes-it's so delicious (tastes kind of like pizza to me). We leave out the chicken and use veggie broth instead, but you can do what suits you best.

Chicken and Butternut Squash Quinoa Stew

Alyssa also shared: Here is another favorite. We just ate it tonight--everyone but the 2-year-old, anyway.

Quinoa Salad

And another friend said she has a recipe with fruit that she loves, but she’ll have to find the recipe. I might need to hunt her down .

Thanks friends! (And thanks to MaKayle for the breakfast recipe.)

I’m excited to try all of these and more. I am definitely a fan of quinoa!

Do you eat quinoa? What’s your favorite recipe?

Happy National Pretzel Day (gluten free style)!

Did you know April 26 is National Pretzel Day?  Well, it is.

Being gluten free you might think this doesn’t concern you, but thanks to Glutino, it does.

Glutino’s gluten free pretzels are delicious! So now you can celebrate National Pretzel Day right along side all of your gluten-eating friends.

They have pretzel sticks, pretzel twists, pretzel sesame rings, and (wait for it…) chocolate covered and yogurt covered pretzels!!!

 
Click on picture for more info

I have personally tried all of these, except the chocolate (fudge) ones and let me tell you… I’m a huge fan! I’ll admit, it’s been awhile since I’ve had pretzels, so I can’t promise they’re exactly like the “real” thing, but I can tell you they’re good. And my kids (who can have gluten-filled pretzels) love them. I can also tell you that I’ve had some gross gluten free pretzels. These taste nothing like those ones.

I’m actually quite in love with the yogurt covered pretzels. They’re AMAZING!!! And addicting. I’d go to the cupboard thinking I’d eat just 3… well, you can probably guess the rest of that. Pretty much, I had planned to share them with my sister, but that’s not going to happen until a trip to the store is made. I’m guessing the chocolate ones are the same way. The plain ones taste like pretzels. Which is a good thing.

So, to help you celebrate National Pretzel day on April 26th the way you ought to (besides the help I’ve already given you by letting you know about these delicious Glutino pretzels), here are some recipes that use pretzels and no other flour/gluten products. You can also be lazy like me and eat them plain… well, as plain as you can call yogurt and chocolate covered pretzels… yum!

 

Ideas for Celebrating National Pretzel Day:
the gluten free way
(click on the picture to go to the recipe)

Mustard-Baked Chicken with a Pretzel Crust

This looks so tasty!

 

Chocolate Mint Pretzel Bites

Easy Pretzel Turtles


These are from Our Best Bites, so you know they’re going to be awesome. In fact, the next 3 are also from them.

Dipped Pretzels Rods

Just use the smaller pretzels for these. Still delicious! (And be sure to eat some of the caramel bits plain… they’re my favorites.)

 

Creamy Strawberry Jello Pie (with a pretzel crust)
Wow. I want this now!!!

Candy Crayons

They’ll be skinny crayons, but I’m sure your kids won’t care

 

Peanut-Butter Pretzel Candy

From Martha Stewart and only 5 ingredients

 

Honey Mustard Pretzel Crusted Chicken Salad with Spicy Honey Mustard Dressing
This looks and sounds absolutely incredible!!!!

Loaded Cheesy Pretzel Nachos
True, these nachos were done with pretzel crisps, but I think they’d be awesome with regular pretzels too.

 

Pretzel S’Mores

These MUST be made this summer!

Pretzel Peanut Bark

Valentine Pretzel Buttons

These can be made to fit any holiday. Love it!

Caramel Pretzel Meringue with Fresh Berries

Meringue is such a great gluten free dessert.

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

My sister makes this often and says it’s delicious. I think it’s about time I tried it…

And those were just the first gluten free (besides the pretzels) recipes that caught my eye when I searched “pretzel” on Pinterest. I know there are TONS more out there. Plus, you can make the pretzel recipes that also take some flour and just use some gluten free flour in it. So many yummy possibilities!

Have a happy pretzel day!!!

Do you have a favorite pretzel recipe?

Yummy Quesadillas: gluten free and jam-packed with healthy goodness

I made up a new recipe for dinner tonight and need to share it so that I don’t forget what went into it. It was yummy!
No, it wasn’t pie, even though it looks like it.

They’re quesadillas. Quesadillas packed with healthy goodness.

It mostly came about because I had a bunch of random veggies in the fridge that needed to be used up and I was wanting to use my food processor. My husband gave it to me for my birthday at the end of February. I love it! I love finding meals that use it a lot and this is one of them. This one can be done without a food processor, but it’s really fun and fast if you have one.

I don’t even know what exatly to call these. They’re quesadillas, but kind of different ones. Vegetarian quesadillas, but meat could easily be added. Basically, I’m sharing it to show a different way to make quesadillas and to make them healthier and packed with veggies.

This would even be good as a lettuce wrap. Then you wouldn’t need to buy special gluten free tortillas. I think I’ll have to try that soon.

I didn’t take pictures of the whole process because it was an experiment and I didn’t know it would turn out so well.

Here’s what I did (in the order that I did it with the food processor):

• I grated some cheddar cheese. Probably 1 1/2 cups. I’m actually not supposed to be eating much dairy, so I think I’ll cut back on this next time, even though the 1 1/2 cups wasn’t a lot for quesadillas in the first place.
• I dumped the cheese into a mixing bowl and shredded some carrots. All I had were baby carrots, which don’t work as well in a food processor, but oh well. It worked. I grated those and dumped them into a pan on the stove that already had olive oil in it.
• Then I chopped (in the food processor, of course ) red, orange, and yellow sweet mini peppers. Just a few. They were from a bag of the mixed sweet mini peppers. Love these things. I tend to always have them in the fridge now. I chopped them pretty small, so I could hide them from my kids and then dumped them into the pan.
• Then I remembered I wanted garlic, so I put 3 fresh cloves in the food processor and chopped them. Next time I’ll chop them with the peppers. I added the garlic to the pan and sautéed the veggies that were in it (carrots, peppers, garlic).
• While that was sautéing I put lots of spinach in the food processor and chopped that small. Lots and Lots. More of that than the carrots and peppers combined. Put however much you want in, though. I added the spinach to the sautéing pan.
• I added some seasonings that sounded good. Minced onion (I would’ve added fresh if I’d had some), salt, chili powder, and lots of cumin. Love cumin.
• I sautéed it all for awhile and then added a can of corn (drained), a can of black beans (drained), and a chopped tomato (2 would’ve been better, but I only had 1).
• I let it cool a bit then added the mixture to the grated cheese in the mixing bowl. Then I thought adding feta would be yummy. So I did. And it was.

  

  Looks totally gross. It’s not. It’s really good.

• Then I made quesadillas out of it.
• I added mushrooms as an afterthought to mine and my husband’s. Yum! I also added cilantro to mine. Tasty. 
• I put my husband’s and kid’s on whole wheat tortillas and mine on these gluten free brown rice tortillas:



I really like these. They’re a good price as far as gluten free goes ($3 for 6 tortillas at Good Earth in Riverdale). No, they’re not the absolute best I’ve ever had and they do tend to break apart easily (if you heat them up in the microwave first before wrapping them they work better), but they’re perfect for me.

If you’ve never made a quesadilla before, don’t worry… it’s easy. Put something on your pan first to make it not stick. I prefer butter. Then put one tortilla down, add some of your mixture to it, add any toppings particular to that quesadilla (i.e. cilantro and mushrooms on mine, only mushrooms on my husband’s), then put the 2nd tortilla on the top. Brown it, then flip it over and do the other side. Have the temperature low enough that the insides get nice and warm and the cheese melts without the tortilla burning.

Stick it on a plate and cut it into triangles with a pizza cutter. You can also dip it into anything you want. I used some of the hot sauce from Fuzzy’s Tacos. My husband had ranch and bbq sauce.
Because of how little cheese I used for such a large amount of the mixture, these didn’t stick together quite like regular quesadillas. By the end we were using forks. Especially for my gluten free ones. But they were SERIOUSLY GOOD!!!!! My kids downed them as well. Though if they’re not veggie fans and they’ve never had quesadillas before, you might want to start with something simpler to get them used to the idea (my kids weren’t a fan until we had them at a friends house. Then they were willing to have some with beans and cheese, then beans, cheese, corn, and chopped spinach. Now this .

Oh, and I added avocado to mine as well. (I guess there is a plus to not having as much cheese; I was able to pull them apart to add the avocado to it.)

You can take this idea and make any kind of quesadilla you want. Add anything. Zucchini would be perfect to add. And you can have way less in it than what I put in. I’m just trying to find new ways to pack in the different veggies and this one ended up being perfect.

And just to recap, so you don’t have to read through all of that to see what you’ll need to make this exactly, here are the ingredients I used:

• spinach
• peppers
• garlic
• carrots
• onions or onion flakes
• corn
• tomatoes
• black beans
• cheddar cheese
• feta cheese
• mushrooms
• avocado
• cilantro
• cumin
• chili powder
• salt/pepper
• tortillas (gluten free, of course)
• butter or olive oil (for sautéing the veggies and then frying the quesadillas)

Enjoy!

EDITED TODAY TO ADD: I had the leftover filling today for lunch. I heated it up, then added the avocado, cilantro, hot sauce, and some fresh spinach leaves and ate it like a salad. HEAVENLY!!! You don't even need special gluten free tortillas for this!

Gluten Free Fair and Jazz Game!

Gluten Free “Cinnamon Roll” Tapioca Bread

One of my families favorite foods is Brazilian cheese bread. It’s so good and the recipe is really versatile. If you’ve been a long-time reader, you know I rarely deal with lots of crazy gluten free flours. I prefer to have one big bag of Grandpa’s Kitchen Gluten Free Flour mix (which already has the xantham gum mixed in) and some tapioca flour. I can basically make everything I care to make with those two things (I don’t do a ton of specialty gluten free treats. It costs more and it’s healthier to just stay away from all of the carbs and sugar anyway).

When I make something with the gluten free flour mix, I hoard it all for myself. Even though the mix I use is a good price as far as gluten free flours go, it’s still pricey enough that I don’t love to share it with people who don’t need gluten free. On the other hand, tapioca flour can be purchased in bulk and isn’t a bad price at all. Because of that, I gladly share the Brazilian cheese bread when I make it.

I love adding new spices to the cheese bread each time I make it. I’ll add extra garlic, try different cheese, put parsley in, and once made pizza ones with spinach, pizza seasonings and cut up pepperoni (we dipped them in pizza sauce).

Back at the beginning of September, when I was 8+ months pregnant with my cute little Emma, I craved carbs and sweets big time! I especially wanted a cinnamon roll. Problem was, I had run out of my GF flour and didn’t want to run to the store for more. I was making some of the cheese bread for dinner that night (great as a side for cheesy brocolli cauliflower soup) and I had an idea. Why not try to turn this recipe into a dessert recipe?

So I tried it, and it worked!

Now I’m not going to say that these are the most amazing dessert I’ve ever had and everyone should try them because they’re not. But I really enjoyed them and they fixed my craving.

I took a picture of my changes so I wouldn’t forget them:

Here’s what you do:

Gluten Free “Cinnamon Roll” Tapioca Bread

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup milk 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups tapioca flour
• 2 T sugar
• 1/2 T cinnamon
• Optional: 2/3 cups pecans
• 2 beaten eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Pour butter, water, milk, and salt into a large saucepan, and place over high heat. When the mixture comes to a boil, remove from heat immediately, and stir in tapioca flour, sugar and cinnamon until smooth. Set aside to rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Stir the nuts and eggs into the tapioca mixture until well combined, the mixture will be chunky like cottage cheese. Drop rounded balls of mixture onto an ungreased baking sheet (any size you want, from popper size to cookie size).
4. Bake until tops are lightly browned, 15-20 minutes.

Ready to bake:

All done:

Of course, they need icing to truly make them like cinnamon rolls. I found this icing recipe from allrecipes to dip them in.

Icing

Ingredients:

1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons milk

Directions:

Stir together cream cheese, softened butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and milk.

I softened (aka melted) my butter a little too much, so it was more runny than frostingy, but I liked it that way. I dipped the “cinnamon rolls” in rather than frosting them. You can do either.

Yummy and actually quite addicting!

Now remember, these are made with tapioca flour. Brazilian cheese bread is supposed to have a rubbery texture inside and so these do, too. Make them smaller if you don’t love the rubbery texture on a dessert recipe like this. I don’t mind it. I thought they were really good!

If you take this simple base recipe and a little creativity, you could come up with a lot of great new treats, savory or sweet!

Base Recipe for Tapioca Bread

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2-1 tsp salt (1/2 for sweet, 1 for savory)
• 2 cups tapioca flour
• seasonings of any kind
• 2/3 cups something with substance (cheese, nuts, etc… depending on what you’re going for)
• 2 beaten eggs

I’m thinking I really need to try some sort of a pumpkin treat using this base recipe. Yum… pumpkin…

I think I know what I’m going to do today.

Give this a try and let me know what you think! And if you come up with any other great recipes using this base recipe, be sure to let me know!

Enjoy!

P.S. Tapioca flour can be purchased in bulk at places like Winco and Whole Foods. If you’re worried about cross-contamination in the bins, ask the manager if you can get a new bag.

 

Gluten-free Carrot Cake Using Truvia® Baking Blend

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Truvia® Natural Sweetener for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

(Picture from Truvia site)

I'm trying to lay off the sugar for my health. Actually, a year ago I wasn't eating any sugar at all. I went through the Christmas holidays and new years without having any and was doing great... until I got pregnant.

Nothing sounded good except sweet treats and I started eating sugar again. It made me feel awful eating it, so I started looking into alternative natural sweeteners.

That's when I found Truvia®. I add a packet of Truvia® to my gluten free cereal every morning and it's the perfect amount of sweetness for me. Before I started doing this I would use a lot of sugar in the same bowl of cereal to make it sweet enough for me... and then I'd feel awful within an hour of eating. So glad I found Truvia®!

I'm still trying to get off all other sugar (I'm liking yummy baked treats right now... I'm always hungry from breastfeeding!), but until then I'm glad I found out about Truvia® Baking Blend. It contains Truvia® natural sweetener and sugar and it works the same as regular sugar in recipes, except you need half the amount and it contains 75% fewer calories than sugar (with twice the sweetness). So it might not be entirely no sugar, but it's much less, which is what I need.

I decided to try out the carrot cake with cream cheese frosting recipe that Truvia® provides on their website. I've never made one before and I had all the ingredients (besides walnuts, which I left out), so I went for it. Besides grating 3 cups of carrots by hand (I need a food processor) it was really easy. And it turned out delicious! It's moist, sweet, and the texture is great! The cream cheese frosting on top is yummy too.

Mix up all the ingredients,

bake and let cool while you mix up frosting.

The frosting was super easy. Just two ingredients.

You first grind the Truvia® Baking Blend...

...to turn it powdery for the frosting.

Then mix it together.

SO YUMMY!

Here's the recipe:

Carrot Cake with Truvia Baking Blend

INGREDIENTS:

Cake

• 2 1⁄4 cups all-purpose flour (I used Grandpa's Kitchen gluten free flour blend)
• 1 cup Truvía^® Baking Blend
• 1 1⁄2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1⁄2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1⁄2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups finely shredded carrots
• 3⁄4 cup chopped walnuts
• 3⁄4 cup raisins

Frosting

• 1⁄2 cup Truvía^® Baking Blend
• 8 oz. reduced-fat cream cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350^° F. Spray a 9x13-inch cake pan with nonstick spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, Truvía^® Baking Blend for the cake, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and whisk together.
3. In a second bowl, beat eggs, then mix in canola oil, buttermilk, vanilla and carrots.
4. Add carrot mixture to flour mixture and stir to combine. Fold in walnuts and raisins. Pour batter into prepared pan.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack.
6. Grind the Truvía^® Baking Blend for the frosting in a blender, food processor or coffee grinder.
7. Add Truvía^® Baking Blend to cream cheese and whip with a mixer until light and fluffy.
8. Spread on cooled cake.

I seriously can't believe how moist the cake is! YUM! And it's plenty sweet. Tastes like a regular carrot cake, and that's with less sugar and gluten free flour. Pretty cool.

Visit the Truvia® website for more tips and information on Truvia® Baking Blend

What's your favorite holiday recipe that you could re-create using Truvia® Baking Blend and some gluten free flour?