Gluten Free Summer Chopped Salad with Garbanzo Beans

Feta cheese is one of my favorite ingredients. If a recipe has feta in it there’s a very good chance I’ll love it. It just tastes so fresh and delicious!

Some of my favorite feta-containing foods are Greek chickpea salad, copycat Fuzzy’s tacos, and Greek frittata. I also love adding it to things like Brazilian haystacks, cucumbers, and quesadillas. My kids love eating it plain. It’s just so good!

And now I’ve found another favorite recipe with it and I’m in love!

Summer Chopped Salad with Garbanzo Beans

It’s basically the same idea as this Greek chickpea salad, with a few differences (including the colors. The one above is so pretty).

Both are delicious and healthy!

I actually forgot to take a picture until there was hardly any left. I was too busy enjoying it. See:

It comes from Mountain Mama Cooks. What a beautiful blog! (And for my Utah readers, she lives in Park City. Lucky, huh?)

It’s an easy recipe. Just be sure to make it at least 6 hours ahead of time (preferably the day before). I made it about an hour before dinner thinking it would still be good, and it was okay, but it was incredible the following day!

Summer Chopped Salad with Garbanzo Beans

Ingredients

• 1- 14 oz can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 1 english cucumber, diced
• 3 green onions (scallions), diced (I used white onions ‘cause it’s what I had)
• 1 orange or other sweet bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 oz feta cheese, crumbled (optional)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Instructions
Combine garbanzo beans, tomatoes, cucumber, onions, bell pepper, lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, in a large bowl and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Just before serving, stir in feta cheese and basil. This salad is best made the day before serving or at least 6 hours in advance.

This is perfect for the summer. Especially potlucks (except for the fact that you have to share it then…). It’s so fresh and yummy!

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Traditions, Monkey Bread and Peach Muffins

Food can be such an emotional thing, often being attached to meaningful family traditions. If the majority of your family can eat gluten, it can be especially tricky when it comes to those traditions. If your family has traditions that involve gluten-filled foods you can’t eat, it’s important for you to figure out a gluten-free alternative, so you don’t feel left out.

These days, many gluten-filled products have a gluten-free alternative that you can just buy. And for those that don’t, you can either make your own or make something else just as good (or better). Stay positive about it. Remember the delicious foods you CAN have and be grateful for those. More importantly, focus on how great you feel when you don’t eat gluten. There are so many people who constantly feel awful and don’t know why. You do. Be happy about that. Choose to dwell on the positive in your life instead of dwelling on what you can’t have (easier said than done sometimes, I know, but the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it). 

One of my family’s traditions is having “monkey bread” (although we called it butterscotch pull-a-parts until in-laws came in and called it monkey bread) for breakfast every six months before we watch LDS General Conference on Sunday morning. That stuff is good! But it’s definitely not gluten-free.

Luckily for me, I have an amazing mom who is great at creating wonderful gluten-free alternatives for me and my sister.

She’s used the Glutino muffin mix for the past few years (actually, it was just the Gluten Free Pantry when she first started using it for this, but now it’s officially Glutino on the box) and it’s always been yummy, but she perfected it this last time.

Unfortunately, she makes it up as she goes, so when I asked her for the recipe she wasn’t completely sure what she did. Here’s what she said:

I think I just put chopped pecans and dry butterscotch pudding mix (NOT instant) in the cupcake papers.  I'm not sure the amounts I used of butter/brown sugar/cinnamon.....possible 1/2 c butter, 1/2 c brown sugar, 1 t cinnamon.  Melt butter, mix in brown sugar and cinnamon, pour some into cupcake papers, add muffin dough.  I think it also takes a bit longer to bake because of the extra butter in it....maybe 15 minutes?

So sorry.  I really do make it up as I go.  It did seem extra yummy this last time, so I hope this is correct.  I've done it before when I put the sauce in the middle and on top.  This still seemed the best.

Love you!
Mom 

So we’re going to go with this:

Gluten Free Butterscotch “Monkey Bread” Muffins

Ingredients:

• Glutino muffin mix
  • 6 Tbsp softened butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• chopped pecans
• dry butterscotch pudding mix (NOT instant)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put cupcake liners in pan
• Mix up Glutino muffin mix according to directions on box, set aside
• Put chopped pecans on bottom of cupcake liner (however much you want… I like a good layer on the bottom)
• Sprinkle thin layer (or more if you want) of dry butterscotch pudding mix on bottom of cupcake liner
• Melt butter, add brown sugar and cinnamon, then pour into cupcake liners
• Add muffin batter
• Bake 16-30 minutes (I know, I know… big difference between 16 and 30. It says 16 on the box, but we had to bake it longer when we did it because of the butter on the bottom. Test after 16 minutes and decide how much longer it needs.)

The muffins did this cool puffy thing that I can’t really describe. The yummy stuff on the bottom came up on the sides, the muffin puffed up really cool and it was just amazing!!! Sadly, I didn’t think to take any pictures. Next time…

I DO have pictures of some other yummy muffins I made:

They’re these delicious things:

Glutino’s Peaches ‘n’ Cream Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups Gluten Free Pantry Muffin and Scone Mix
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice (or cinnamon)
• 2 whole eggs, beaten slightly with a fork
• 1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt
• 3/8 cup whole milk (May need slightly more if using sour cream.)
• 4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract
• 1 heaping cup, peeled, diced peaches (about 2 medium peaches)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Toss dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Stir wet ingredients together in a medium bowl.
4. Pour wet mixture over dry ingredients and stir well to combine thoroughly.
5. Fold in fresh peaches or use good quality canned peaches, well drained. Fresh nectarines may also be used.
6. Spoon into lined muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees, 15-16 minutes.
7. Or transfer to a lightly oiled 4x8-inch loaf pan and bake 35 to 45 minutes or until cake tester inserted in middle comes out clean.

Yield: 12 to 14 muffins or 1 loaf

I love peaches!

I can’t wait till the peaches from Perry are ripe! I made these ones with canned peaches and they were good, but I will most definitely be making these with the fresh Perry peaches. YUM! (Those of you not in Utah, if you have a chance to come here at the end of the summer be sure to head to the Brigham City/Perry area to try their peaches. So good!)

And if you don’t love peaches or butterscotch, you can always try out some…

Chocolate Cherry Muffins

or

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Or perhaps some banana bread (recipe on the back of the box) or blueberry. Yum! Add in anything you want. Easy and delicious!

Enjoy!

 

What’s your favorite kind of muffin?

A Gluten Free Company that Knows What it’s Doing

As I’m sure you’ve learned, it’s hit and miss when it comes to gluten free products tasting good. Well, if you’re new to doing gluten free, let me tell you… you’ve got it easy. Back when I started living gluten free 6 1/2 years ago there were way more “misses” than “hits.” Every time I purchased a new gluten-free product it felt like I was throwing my money down the drain.

Luckily, my friend who’d been gluten free most of her life was there to help me. She gave me recipes and told me which products were the best.

She told me there was one brand I could always buy without worrying I was wasting my money. That brand was Glutino. She said they’d been around for a long time (since 1983) and knew what they were doing.

And she was right. I’ve never had a Glutino product I didn’t like.

Would you like to hear some awesome news you might not know? How about three bits of awesome news?

Of course you would.

1. Glutino acquired Gluten Free Pantry back in 2004, (I didn’t realize this until a month ago. I just knew that every Gluten Free Pantry mix I’d tried was excellent), and then in 2011 Boulder Brands (formerly Smart Balance) bought Glutino, and they recently bought Udi’s as well! I love Udi’s! That is another company that I completely trust. The point of this is to say, be on the lookout for a lot of awesomeness coming from the Boulder Brands company. They know what they’re doing, and based on the companies they’ve been acquiring, they know what’s good when it comes to gluten free. 
2. Something else great about Glutino and Udi’s products are they’re made from natural and non-GMO ingredients (they’re working with the Non-GMO Project to get verification on their products… some are already done). I believe a huge mistake many people make is they think that if a product is a special gluten-free item, it must be healthy. That’s definitely not true! You need to be selective with the gluten free products you consume, especially if your digestive system has been damaged from gluten in the past. I love that I can trust Glutino and Udi’s to taste good AND be made with quality ingredients!
3. The last bit of news is on a much smaller level, but it’s just as exciting. I’ve been asked to be a part of Glutino’s blogging community!* This is exciting for both me and you. Each month Glutino will be sending me a product to try out and I’ll get to tell you about it and give you ideas on how to use it. And even better for you: I’ll get to do some product giveaways (yay!), so be on the lookout for those.

*I want all of you to know that Glutino has always been a favorite brand of mine and that my opinion of their products hasn’t suddenly changed because of this new relationship with them. Nope. I’ve always loved what they do. The story about Glutino being the first gluten-free brand I trusted is entirely true and I am excited to learn more about the brand and their products.

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!