Ratatouille

Raise your hand if you've ever watched the movie Ratatouille, and wondered what it was all about! Raise your other hand if you kept misspelling ratatouille while trying to write this blog post!

Sorry guys, I have no hands left to write this deal,  I'll have to use my elbows. Toes? Nose maybe? It's just sitting there taking up a whole lotta room on my face, being completely useless so... I guess it can get a job.

This is not going in the direction I expected..but when do these posts ever make any sense, ya know?

hashtag rambling.

Gluten Free Chicken Pot Pie

Remember how I had that whole ordeal with internet shopping, that left me with a box full of pie crust mixes? I remember, because I'm the one with a cupboard full of them.

I have successfully used one mix so far, now only five more to go! ugh.

So this week, for bag numero two-o I made a chicken pot pie.

Chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot pie!

Gluten Free Stuffing

Thanksgiving is coming! Only a week and a half away, and my mouth is already salivating over all of the delicious foods I will be partaking of. And as I am your favorite gluten free blogger, I am here to bring you some delicious holiday recipes.

The turkey may be the headliner of the meal, but Thanksgiving side dishes are definitely the stars of the show.

Stuffing, mashed potatoes, pie and...well that's all I really care about actually.

Growing up, I hated stuffing. To me, it was just a bunch of mushy bread mixed with other things I don't care for mixed in. And, stuffing from inside the turkey?! I would rather eat dirt. Dirt would actually probably be healthier then the unsanitary turkey juice. Really, lets not get me started on the unsanitary business of stuffing from a turkey.

But stuffing, (its not dressing, dressing is what goes on salad.) never really appealed to me, until I suddenly couldn't have it anymore. What was even the point of Thanksgiving, if all I could eat was turkey and potatoes? Even though thats all I had been eating for Thanksgiving, all my life.

Tell me I can't have something.... you know how that works out.

The first couple of years being GF, I made some delicious cornbread stuffing-that made those boxes of wheat stuffing cry. I mean, never had I enjoyed a stuffing so much.

Then, turns out that little thing called corn is my major migraine trigger, and I decided I would not like to be sick over the holidays. How could one go shopping on black friday, if they are painfully locked away in a dark room. One cannot.

So, fresh bread was baked and stuffing was born again.

You want the recipe now, don't you.

* For the bread, follow these instructions. Add in fresh herbs to batter, and cook in a 9/13 pan (larger, if you have it!) let cool, then cut into cubes. Lay cubes out flat overnight to harden.

Enjoy!!

and stay tuned for more Thanksgiving recipes this week!

Dinner in a Pumpkin

It's almost the end of October all ready, how did that happen?!

We got our first real rain fall today, which makes it finally start to feel like fall around here.

I mean, us Californians; the first little sign of cold weather and we bring out our thickest sweaters, scarves and boots. It also must be noted that I ate soup for both lunch and dinner, and am currently drinking a large mug full of apple cider. Because I can.

Halloween is coming up this week, a holiday which I have never been the hugest fan of; but its starting to grow on me a little.

Every Halloween growing up, my mother always made the same thing for dinner on Halloween: Dinner in a pumpkin.

And every year, I had the same reaction: a turned up nose, and candy for dinner.

Last year, I made the infamous dinner in a pumpkin meal for the first time. I added my own ingredients, and changed the original recipe up a bit. Then I ate it. For maybe the first time ever.

Something must of worked for me, because I made it again this year. 

Heres the Recipe:

When serving (if in 1 large pumpkin) make sure to scrape out some of the pumpkin sides along with the filling! Also, I served over rice last year, to make it a little more exciting :)

This festive holiday meal was also served with fresh applesauce, 

in case you were wondering.

Along with dinner in a pumpkin, we would always have caramel apples for dessert while we watched whatever Halloween special was on TV (and by that I mean Casper the friendly ghost: the Hilary Duff edition) 

What are some of your holiday traditions?

 Enjoy!

and Happy Halloween!

Food Find Friday: Jovial Foods Gluten Free Pasta

So I have been sitting here staring at this screen for a good hour now trying to knock this post out.

I keep getting distracted by dilly-dalling, and cannot seem to focus on writing this post.

Also Blurred Lines is playing right now, and one cannot just sit still with that song busting out.

Not possible.

Part of my distraction is also that I have barely seen the glow of a computer for the last week, I mean I come back to cyber world and royal babies are being born, bachelorette mens tell all has already happened, and five million emails are sitting in my inbox.

Remind me to not go off the map again. 

Or remind me to do it again, I'm not quite sure yet.

Before all the craziness and visitors arrived last week, I had a mission to test and begin reviews for the eight hundred boxes of products I have received over the last couple weeks. I wanted everything to be done and gone in time for the festivities, if for any reason but to clear the boxes out of my hallway.

I mostly succeeded, at the very last minute. 

The fine folks at Jovial sent me a couple boxes of their gluten free pastas last week, and due to my ever expanding love of pasta; I couldn't wait to try them out.

Jovial is not a brand I see to frequently around these parts, especially not in the pasta section. I have seen a couple of their cookie products lining the shelves and assumed desserts where what they made. Boy was I surprised when I opened up a box of noodles!

And man was I even more surprised when I learned the majority of their products are pasta, or pasta related!

Jovial (which means happy, or cheerful. In case you where wondering.) has both wheat and gluten free products, all completely organic. In their gluten free corner, they have noodles, cookies, olive oil and canned tomatoes.

The noodles are all made in a dedicated allergen free facility (yay dedicated facilities!) and their cookies are made on sanitized equipment on designated days.

I can't wait to get my teeth into some of those cookies ;)

The first pasta I tried out was the tagliatelle. 

Tagliatelle if you don't know, is a traditional egg pasta. The ingredients are so incredibly simple with just brown rice flour and eggs listed. 

Because I had received two types of noodles, I wanted to try one cold and one warm.

The tagliatelle went for the cold.

I kept it simple by just adding lots of vegetables and a light roasted pepper sauce, and letting all the flavors meld together in the fridge for a couple hours.

This is really a catch all dish, no "recipe" needed (other then the red pepper sauce, click the link above for that) so you can throw in anything you want.

I added lightly steamed broccoli, red onions, bell peppers, spinach, and cherry tomatoes. 

It was yummeroo!

The noodles absorbed all of the flavors so wonderfully, just like real wheat noodles do. You may have noticed in your own endeavors that gluten free noodles tend to just get soggier in time, not more flavorful like glutenous noodles do.

But these Jovial noodles did not get all soggy and gross. Win!

Besides that, what do you really say about a noodle, ya know? It had good texture, and it took on flavors well. 'nough said.

 Next up was the spaghetti noodles.

I felt the only way to go with traditional spaghetti noodles, was to make a traditional spaghetti with meatballs. Right?

 For the spaghetti sauce in this dish, I roasted some tomatoes, garlic and bell peppers (roasted tomatoes forever!) in the oven to make the base of the sauce.

Have you ever roasted whole garlic bulbs? I do it all the time. Its delicious.

What you do, if you've never done it before; is cut off the top of a whole garlic bulb, and wrap the rest of it in foil. Bake for about a half an hour, or until the garlic has gotten all juicy and delicious.

Yum!

So after baking all that goodness up, you'll throw the tomatoes, peppers and garlic insides into a saucepan, along with a jar of tomato sauce. Add a little fresh basil and red wine vinegar, and call it a day!

Pre-made sauce made better.

Also, try not to forget you have meatballs in the oven during that whole time. They won't thank you for it later.

Now that you're digging into your spaghetti and meatballs, you'll notice how wonderful it tastes. Aside from the delicious sauce, or the too tough meatballs; there is a perfect noodle base. Firm noodles that hold their own against all of the other flavors and textures, and best of all don't shatter to a million pieces when you twirl your fork around them. All I want is to have a little Lady and the Tramp action going on when I eat spaghetti. 

Jovial succeeded in that.

Enjoy!

Amy's Organic Kitchen Review

Time for another food find review!! 

You are all jumping in your seats, I can tell. (insert winky face here)

Today I am discussing some products, for your tasting pleasure, from Amy's Organic Kitchen.

If you've ever been to a grocery store in the last several years, you've probably seen these products.

I know for a fact, that every store in my town carries at least one of Amy's products.

While this brand has like a million different products, not all of them are gluten free; so make sure you check before you buy. I have made that mistake before. Even though its so clearly labeled gluten free in big bold letters on the front, the non-gluten free items are not labeled "not gluten free", thus I have come home with inedible items several times. Such is the life of the nonobservant.

Actually, I am really quite observant-I just unintentionally pick and choose what I am going to pay attention to. 

Now you know.

I had the opportunity this week to try three of Amy's Gluten free products.

I tried black bean chili, GF/DF Mac and cheese, and GF/DF chocolate cake.

Let's start with the chili:

This particular chili that I tried, was the Low-Fat Black Bean. This flavor is labeled as medium spice, which I chose over the spicy spice for some unknown reason. I always convince myself in stores that I don't like what I like. I have seriously deep conversations in my head sometimes, battling out a ongoing pro/con list. End of the day, I thought spicy would be too spicy, and medium would be just right.

 I was sorta right.

The chili was great, it really was. Nice flavor with a hint of spice, good texture to the beans and the sauce. {nothing worse than chili thats super mushy, or in a sauce thats too liquid--this guy didn't break either of those rules.}

I just found myself wishing for a little more spice. Thats just me though. Overall, this is a great can o' beans. Most likely I will buy the spicier flavor next time, and most likely at that time I will be craving this particular chili. There is no winning with myself.

Moving on...

Chocolate cake. Gluten free, dairy free, vegan. What's in it anyway?

This cake, as the majority of Amy's products do; comes in the freezer section. This entails, as you can only imagine, that the cake is frozen. To unfreeze it, you have to thaw it out in the fridge. To make it easy: I just threw it in the fridge after buying it until I was ready to eat it. (the next day)

Now, I don't know if it was my thawing technique or what-but I did not really enjoy this cake.

It looks beautiful, and appears super moist and chocolatey. It was moist, and it was chocolatey, but it was also incredibly grainy, bitter, and crumbly. The chocolate flavor was there, but not nearly enough.

To dress it up a little, I topped it with some strawberries and homemade coconut whipped cream. You know the super easy recipe thats all over pinterest, that all you have to do is chill a can of coconut cream, whip it up, and your set with whipped cream that tastes just like the real deal? It doesn't. It's gross. Between the gritty cake, and the nasty coconut cream; I left this dessert pretty disappointed.

Now that all said, A few days later while discussing this cake with my mother; she pulled out a fully frozen piece of cake and ate it. She loved it. I was shocked, so I tasted some. It was not all that bad, much better than it had been thawed. A few more days later, my nephew was over and graced by the presence of gluten and dairy full cupcakes, that he couldn't eat. So I pulled out a piece of that chocolate cake for him (again fully frozen) and he loved it.

Moral of the story: this cake is good when frozen, and its also a super convenient item to have on hand for emergencies. 

What emergency involves eating cake? I bet you can figure that out. (insert winky face)

For the main course of this review, I tried out the gluten free, dairy free, soy free Mac n' cheeze.

This product you really have to pay attention to at the store; Amy's has a billion different Mac n' cheese varieties. Regular, low sodium, gluten free, gluten and dairy free, lactose free, and whatever else they have.

This macaroni dish though, is what makes me excited about life. A gluten free product that is also dairy free, and doesn't have soy?! Unthinkable, is what that is.

I loved this dish. It tasted just like macaroni and cheese should: creamy, cheesy, soft, smooth and yummy. The sauce does leave kind of a slimy feeling in your mouth, but it didn't bother me much.

Definitely home comfort at its finest.

At the end of the day, I enjoy Amy's products. In addition to these three, I have also tried some burritos,  freezer meals, soups, and pizza. Most of them where tried back in the beginnings of my Celiac journey, before I avoided dairy, corn and soy--so not all of them are free of all that bizness. 

Amy's website however, has a really convenient allergen search on their website, here. 

This pizza by the way, which I haven't had in a very long time, is super scrumptious.

Enjoy!

{Disclaimer: While the products tested today where provided for review, no monetary compensation was exchanged for this post. All opinions are mine without further influence.}

Bold Organics Pizza

So....Pizza.

As you probably know by now, pizza is one of my top five favorite food items. What the other five are, I'm not so sure, but I know pizza is in there somewhere.

When I first went gluten free, I had no problems just subbing in my favorite food items with less gluten filled ones. I could buy pre-made pizza crusts, or make one from scratch and it didn't really matter how it tasted, because the mountain of gooey cheese on top covered it up. Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about. You do.

Once I eliminated dairy from my diet, life was a lot harder to enjoy my favorite foods. Still to this day, I struggle with the lack of cheese in my foods. It just instantly makes food better. 

I went through all the steps after burying dairy six feet under my memories. 

Denial

 (I don't reaaaaly have a problem when I eat it..)

check.

Anger

(why do horrible things happen to meeee!)

check. 

Bargaining

(cheese: I will eat you if you don't make me sick. Ok?)

check

Sadness 

(I miss you cheese.)

check. 

But I have finally reached the final step, and accepted my pizza will forever be cheeseless.

R.I.P cheesy deliciousness.

But as luck would have it, some wonderful people solved my problem for me. 

Gluten free pizza. With dairy free cheese. That tastes fantastic. 

Who are these marvelous people? The folks at Bold Organics, thats who.

They make the perfect pizza crust, topped with delicious toppings and daiya dairy free cheese. (cheese that I usually find to taste like rubber, but for some reason it doesn't on this pizza! win!)

All they make is pizza and all are gluten free, dairy free, egg free, and made from the freshest, organic ingredients. I mean, the name is Bold Organics.

The four flavors of pizza are: vegan cheese, veggie lovers, meat lovers, and deluxe.

Something for everybody.

I was able to try two varieties of pizza, which where the veggie lovers and the deluxe.

The veggie lovers was the first one I tried, and It was love at first bite. It has a thin crust, that is both crunchy and soft, a light spread of sauce covered in the perfect layer of "cheese" and topped with delicious veggies.

As you can tell from the photo, the veggies it has are red peppers, onions, and shiitake mushrooms. Not necessarily the veggie explosion I would like, but it still tasted so good.

 I have bought other frozen pizzas in my life, that rudely had all the cheese and toppings bunched up in the middle of it. This little guy had them all spread out perfectly.

The sauce is nicely seasoned and provides the majority of flavors to the pie, while the the roasted peppers give it a nice flavor boost. The cheese, which back in the old dairy days, I would have loved piled on; was limited to perfection. The dairy free cheese does not really taste the same as the real deal, so a small amount gives you the elusion and the texture as cheese would, but without a over-strong soy taste.

The deluxe pizza was next to try. It has all the same toppings as the veggie lovers, with the addition of pepperoni and italian sausage.

I mean, just look at that^^^

This pie had a thicker crust, and more toppings than the veggie lovers does; but it still has the same light spread of cheese, flavorful sauce, and perfect crust.

It also has pepperoni, and I love pepperoni. Especially this pepperoni, it was good stuff.

The sausage was also good, but I would have really liked it better if it had more flavor to it. But that's just me, and me is a red pepper sausage addict.

One of my co-testers however, in trying to sound all smart and fancy; described the sausage as "delightful, very well aged hamburger." Okay then....

The pizza as a whole had a little spice to it, that the other did not. Just enough to kick up the flavor, without burning down your mouth. Just how I like it.

Overall, I loved these pizzas. They are sure to cure any pizza craving for the gluten free eaters and the gluten lovers alike.

They are not corn or soy free, and are a little but pricey; so they won't be an everyday meal. But as dialing up a pizza to my door stop is no longer possible, one waiting in my freezer is a perfect alternative.

One secret to making this pizza the best it can be, is to broil it after cooking. It does suggest to on the box, but you have to actually do it. I believe its what makes the cheese that much more bearable than it is other times. 

So my lovely readers, if you want to learn more about these scrumptious pizzas, click on over to Bold Organics website, here. You can also go here, for a dollar off coupon for any Bold Organic pizza!

Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: While the product tested today was provided for review, no monetary compensation was given in exchange for this post. All opinions on this site are my own, without further influence.)