Dairy Free Ice Cream, Right From Your Own Blender!

So if you are like me, and about 2/3 of the people living with Celiac Disease, you probably suffer from some sort of lactose sensitivity. I find that I have a lot of trouble with foods with high lactose content like ice cream, or cream. This gets to be particularly hard in the summer because everyone wants ice cream! Thanks to Pinterest (my new obsession!) I have found the best way to make a guilt free, and dairy free ice cream that you will go bananas over!

Get it? Because it's made from bananas!

Simply take 4 bananas, and 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and blend them in a blender until they make a smooth constancy. Pour mixture into a Tupperware container and let freeze overnight.

TADA!

Simple, dairy free, and most importantly, it's tasty! You can always add extra flavors or add ins like cocoa powder, almond extract, or some chocolate chips if you desire. It's pretty fantastic any way you make it.

Does anybody else have any cool dairy free and gluten free treats they would like to share with up for our summer enjoyment? :)

Gluten Free Product Review: Pillsbury Gluten Free Pie Crust/Pastry Dough

Hello everybody! I hope you are all enjoying the summer weather! I love the summer because the produce in the area is always so much better! I can have them fresh, or I can bake something delicious. Which brings me to my new post....

I was grocery shopping yesterday and I came across these new buckets in the cookie dough area of the fridges. Pillsbury has released a new line of gluten free products! When I opened the fridge to get one of the buckets I swear I heard the hallelujah chorus playing. The current products out are Gluten Free Pie/Pastry Dough, Gluten Free Cookie Dough, Gluten Free Thin Crust Pizza Dough. Unfortunately the cookie dough was sold out, but I did grab a bucket each of pie and pizza dough.

I have not tried the pizza dough yet, but I did make a quiche last night and I just had to share with you all! I was HEAVENLY! It was buttery, and flaky, and tasted exactly how I remember regular pie crust tasted. I have eaten an entire half of the Quiche already...

There is enough dough to make either one covered pie, or two open faced pies in each bucket. I assume the pizza dough is quite similar and will have enough for more than one pizza. It was insanely easy to prepare! I have made my own pie crust since I have gone gluten free, and if you want to achieve the buttery, flaky texture, it takes a while to make the dough. This was so much more simple. Although it won't replace my thanksgiving pumpkin pie, it does make a great quick crust for breakfast foods or a last minute baked good.

I hope you all go out and try these new products. I have not seen the cookie dough out anywhere yet. Had anybody tried it? How about the pizza dough? Any good recipes to share? :)

Nutella Brownie Bites

It's been a while since I have shared a recipe, so I thought I would share this one here. I found the base recipe for this on pinterest (One of my new addictions!) and then added my own twist to it. Here's the recipe!

Ingredients:
1 Cup Nutella
10 tbsp Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Chopped Macadamia Nuts
Sea Salt

Pre-heat the oven to 350. Combine the Nutella, Flour, and Eggs in a bowl and mix together well. Distribute the batter evenly among muffin tins. I use mini muffin tins, as I like mine bite sized, but I have been informed that they work well in regular muffin sizes as well. Sprinkle the top of these brownie bites with the macadamia nuts and a pinch of sea salt. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick can be entered in and pulled out clean. Let cool and enjoy!

I made these last week and they were to die for! The pinch of sea salt on top gave these brownie bites a fantastic flavor. They are a lot lower in sugar than the commonly used gluten free peanut butter cookies and they are super simple to make. If you are an avid eater of Nutella, you probably have all the ingredients in your house already!

Enjoy!

Quinoa: The Miracle Grain

Hello again!! As I has mentioned in a previous post, I underwent some surgery this past spring. The surgery confined me to a wheelchair for about 6 weeks, and despite my best efforts I gained some wheelchair weight. I have been attempting to lose some weight by exercise, but with my Physical Therapy limitations, I have only been able to do so much. So I turned to my diet.

I noticed that I was eating a lot of rice and other grains, so my first inclination was to work on that. With much research I found that Quinoa is a fantastic gluten free alternative! Although many consider it a gain, it is actually more considered a vegetable. It's high in fiber, so a little goes a long way, and it's a complete protein.

Quinoa has a rather mild flavor, so you can really flavor it however you would like. My favorite way is to saute some onions and garlic in a pan, add the quinoa and some broth and let simmer. Then you can add anything from chicken to black beans to it. Remember to spice your quinoa when you add the broth. Otherwise it would not absorb the flavor as well.

The ratio of liquid to quinoa, much like rice, is 1 cup quinoa to every 2 cups of liquid. Quinoa is easy to find as most grocery stores, and is an easy grain to make for any meal. It even reheats in leftovers very well!

I hope you explore the benefits of quinoa. It's quite tasty, and has great health benefits!

Long Time, No Post

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I have been MIA for a while. I had to undergo some surgery this year that really threw off my entire spring semester, and some things had to take a back seat to my schooling. But I am back now, and just in time for Celiac Awareness month!

I hope that in my absence, you have been exploring new gluten free restaurants and food items. I know I have found some fantastic things lately that I can't wait to share with you all. I also have some non-celiac but still gluten-free things to share, as my mother has been diagnosed with a gluten-intolerance, but does not have celiac disease. I have learned a lot about that kind of situation and I found a lot of it helped in my diet choice as well.

Please send me an email if you have discovered a new gluten free product or restaurant that you would like to share. Remember to wear green for Celiac Awareness!!

Happy Taste-buds!

One of my favorite things to do is to go out and try new food, especially food that has an ethnic twist on it! Recently, I tried a new restaurant called Happy Jacks. It was amazing!

First off, and most importantly, they have a fantastic gluten free menu! Not only are their entrees that are exotic and flavorful, but there are appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, and dessert! Most restaurants just throw together a few things on an entree menu, so finding a full gluten free menu is always something I get excited about! I also enjoy the fact that they don't just say "order without bun" for things like sandwiches. Instead they serve their sandwiches in a lettuce wrap! It's super creative and super tasty!

My latest visit, I enjoyed the Mahi Mahi dish. It was cooked in a white wine sauce and served with shrimp and scallops. It was a little piece of heaven! I enjoyed every bite of it. The flavors were amazing, which is always important when eating white fish, as it is often bland.

For anybody in the Leominster area, I highly recommend you take a trip to Happy Jacks for a tasty meal! I can't wait to go back and try new food with them! I am hoping their fajitas are just as fantastic as the Mahi Mahi was!!

A New Year and A New Bakery!!

Hello everybody! Sorry I was MIA during the holiday season! My ankle is broken (again) and it has really slowed me down. That and finals just about killed me last semester! x_X

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday full of delicious gluten free foods! I know I had some mighty tasty treats! There's a new bakery in my town that is entirely gluten free! They are a distribution bakery, so I can't go directly to them for the baked goods. Luckily there are a number of places in the area that sell their products!

The bakery is Annie's Gluten Free Bakery, and they have some of the best baked good I have ever tried!! I LOVE their gluten free sugar cookies with chocolate drizzle! And their brownies are to die for! I am sad to say that I have only had the opportunity to try a few of their products. The stores I have been to that carry the products sell out THE SAME DAY they are delivered!! If that's not a voucher for how good this stuff is, I'm not quite sure what else is!

If you live in the Fitchburg area, and would like to try some of these tasty items, here's a list of all the businesses that sell them:

Roots Natural Foods - 100 Crawford St., Leominister, MA
The Shack Cafe _ 101 Independence Dr., Kingston,MA
The Natural Cafe 25 Main Street, Ayer, MA
Bolton Orchards - 125 Still River Rd., Bolton, MA
Donelan’s Supermarket - 248 Great Road, Acton, MA
Donelan’s Supermarket - 236 Great Road, Littleton
Eric’s Garden Center - 68 Boston Rd., Westford, MA
Verrill Farm - 11 Wheeler Road, Concord, MA
M & M Convenience - 1 Front Street, Shirley, MA
Acton Coffee House - 342 Great Rd., Acton, MA
Blackbird Cafe - 491 Main St., Groton, MA
Brew’d Awakening Coffehaus - 61 Market St., Lowell, MA
The Meat House - 120 Chelmsford St., Chelmsford
Weston Nursery & Garden Ctr - 160 Pine Hill Rd., Chelmsford
The Natural Market - 148 Main Street, Groton, MA
Harvard General Store - 1 Still River Road, Harvard, MA
Clover Farm General Store - 9 W. Main Street, W. Groton, MA
Spruce Street Cafe - 5 Spruce Street, Acton, MA