Celiac Disease & Gluten Free Diet Resources
Sep 2 2010

Recipe: Chicken Tostadas

Since we are on the go a lot now that school is back in session and the kids have activities 4 nights a week, fast dinners are the way I survive without fast food. Not only is fast food mostly unhealthy, but eating gluten-free at a fast food restaurant can be challenging. One of my staple menu items is Mexican Pizzas. I try to come up with new, creative recipes for them so that I am not serving the same thing week after week. My kids probably wouldn’t care, as they love them, but I like some variety.

Sometimes I call these “Mexican Pizzas”, sometimes I call them “Tostadas”. I decided that now was a good time for me to find out what the difference is in the name, if any. Turns out that “Tostada” is a Spanish word that means “toasted”. In Mexico it refers to a flat or bowl-shaped tortilla! Aha! The tostada originated when tortillas became stale and were no longer fresh enough to roll into tacos, but still okay to eat. LOL! I can assure you that is not why I “toast” my tortillas. ;) When I was growing up my mom used to call Mexican Pizzas “Chalupas”. I looked up “Chalupa” and found that it is a tostada platter in Mexican cuisine! My mom must have know what she was doing, huh? I believe that I started calling them “Mexican Pizzas” when my kids turned up their noses at the food in front of them that was called a “Chalupa”.

Chicken Tostadas
1 lb chicken breast, cut into chunks
Old El Paso Taco Seasoning – Original is gluten-free*
Corn tortillas
Refried beans (Taco Bell, Ortega, Old El Paso are all gluten-free)
Red, orange or yellow bell pepper, chopped
Tomato, chopped
Sliced black olives
Shredded cheddar cheese
Other toppings to consider: sour cream or Greek yogurt, shredded lettuce, salsa, jalapenos

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Cook chicken breast chunks in a frying pan until cooked through. Once cooked, add seasoning packet & water, as directed on the package. You could also use your own blend of Mexican spices, such as cumin and cayenne, some garlic and a little salt & pepper.
3. Lay corn tortillas out on a baking sheet sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. Spray corn tortillas with spray. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes, keeping a careful eye not to over cook.
4. While tortillas are baking, heat refried beans on the stove or in the microwave.
5. Spread warm beans, chicken, peppers and olives on the baked tortilla. Top with shredded cheddar & bake until melted.
6. Top with tomatoes, shredded lettuce & hot sauce, if desired.
*I use only 1/2 of the packet of taco seasoning to cut down on sodium and it is plenty for good flavor

The kids often make their own tostadas or Mexican pizzas so they can choose toppings. This gives them a sense of ownership and makes it much more likely that they will eat the meal. ;)

  • No Comments... Speak up!
  • RSS
  • Tweet This
Sep 2 2010

Gluten-free Pizza Ranks Second in Regular Pizza Contest in Vegas!

Photo copyright Tiffany Janes (pizza not from Willie O's)

When dining out, one of the most sought after meals for the gluten-free set is pizza. While many will settle for any pizza pie as long as it’s gluten-free, others of us are a little more particular. We are looking for not just gluten-free pizza, but excellent tasting gluten-free pizza. Pizza made with a lackluster crust does not impress me in the least. I’d rather have a wonderful salad than a bad tasting pizza any day. If I can make a pizza at home better than one at a restaurant, I’ll save my money, time and energy and do just that.

There are excellent crusts available from Mozzarelli’s, Udi’s and Island Gluten Free Bakery (to name a few). For a super thin crust, tortillas from Sandwich Petals or LaTortilla Factory are great options. Please note that LaTortilla Factory makes both gluten and gluten-free products. The truth is that because we can have excellent gluten-free pizza at several places in our area, we don’t make pizza at home very often.

As great as our gluten-free pizza options are here, I’d love to be able to try the gluten-free pie from Willie O’s Pizza & Grille. Apparently, the crust the owner makes is one to be reckoned with. Not only did it claim first prize in the non traditional pizza category, it placed second in the regular pizza competition at the International Pizza Contest in Las Vegas. That’s right – a gluten-free pizza pie beat out every competitor – including gluten crusts – except for one. Thank goodness the news about Willie’s win didn’t say in Vegas!

Gluten-free customers in and around South Haven, Michigan can enjoy gluten-free pizza, sandwiches and desserts at Willie O’s Pizza & Grille. Exciting changes are coming from the company too, so stay tuned for regional and possibly future national distribution news. Willie’s big win was earlier this year so I’m not why the news took so long to show up in the Google alerts via the Grand Rapids online article.

The story about Willie O’s Pizza gluten-free pizza beating out many gluten pizzas in the International Pizza Contest reminds me that we all deserve fantastic pizza – whether we can eat gluten or not. Thanks Willie, for taking taste into account when creating your gluten-free products. I sure hope to be able to try your creations one day!

  • 1 Comment... Speak up!
  • RSS
  • Tweet This
Sep 1 2010

Glutino’s new gluten-free yogurt and chocolate covered pretzels

Yesterday I had the pleasure to receive complimentary samples from Glutino of two of their newest gluten-free products.  As if their pretzels weren’t addicting enough, they have now introduced their delicious pretzels in two new varieties, chocolate- and yogurt-covered.

As soon as I opened my package, I knew I had to break open the package immediately to try them.  Before being gluten-free, I always loved snacking on yogurt-covered pretzels and really missed being able to do this.  It was perfect timing because I had been painting the living room and was more than ready for a snack.

I started out with the yogurt-covered pretzels and was not disappointed.  These were delicious and even more addicting than their original pretzels. The perfect mix of sweet and salty. I could not stop at one, or five, or ten.  I shared them with my gluten-able mom, husband and daughter and they unanimously agreed that they were amazing and tasted no different from the “regular” yogurt-covered pretzels.

Next, I tore open the chocolate-covered pretzels and again, I was dazzled by these amazing pretzels.  My gluten-able family agreed and we could not decide which ones we preferred, but we knew we couldn’t get enough of either.

I love that instead of just plain pretzel these have the added bonus of yogurt or chocolate to give it some extra something, something.  These would make a great dessert in your child’s lunches and adults, as well.

They come in 5.5 oz packages for $5.99.  This includes 5 servings per package (9 pretzels) at 160 calories per serving.

One thing worth noting is that if it is the middle of summer and you are experiencing really high heat like we are now, they may not be something you want to store in your car or purse and can easily melt.  But trust me, they won’t last long in your purse, because you won’t be able to resist them.

As soon as I see these on a grocery store shelf they will be in my cart!

  • 2 Comments... Speak up!
  • RSS
  • Tweet This
Sep 1 2010

Product Review: Helen’s Kitchen Tofu Steaks

I had the pleasure of trying a couple of different products courtesy of Helen’s Kitchen a few weeks back. Typically I don’t eat a lot of soy products, but I am always open to trying new things, assuming they are gluten-free, of course. When I first started on the gluten-free diet over 4 years ago, I thought that soy was causing some of my stomach issues. In reality, I think my body was just trying to heal. In the past year I have been trying more foods that are either soy-based or contain soy and have had no issues. I still don’t eat a lot of soy, but it is nice to be able to add some extra non-meat protein to my diet when I am training for a marathon.

First I tried the GardenSteak. I served the “burger” on an Everybody Eats deli roll and had an amazing meal. I was very pleased with the taste and texture of this product. It really did have the texture of a burger – something I was not expecting. Check out some of these great details about the GardenSteaks:

Image courtesy of Helen's Kitchen

Next up I tried the Meat Free Chicken Steaks. These were just as good, if not better than the GardenSteaks. Again, the taste & texture were great! These would also work well in a casserole dish, fajita, wrap or salad. I have so many ideas of what I can do with these! For recipes using Helen’s Kitchen products, click here. The details on the Chicken Steaks:

Image courtesy of Helen's Kitchen

Helen’s Kitchen was named after Helen Moore. Helen is the mother of Stephen Moore, the founder of Helen’s Kitchen. Helen prepared vegetarian meals from scratch to rave reviews. No one could believe they were eating tofu, much like I said above! To read more about the story of Helen’s Kitchen, click here. In addition to tofu steaks, Helen’s offers a nice variety of meat alternatives, entrees* & burritos*. To find a store where Helen’s Kitchen Tofu Steaks are sold close by, click here. *Not all of Helen’s products are gluten-free, so take care when purchasing.

  • 2 Comments... Speak up!
  • RSS
  • Tweet This
Sep 1 2010

Recipe: Gluten-free Zucchini Muffins

After finding out about the Pamela’s contest at the Georgia National fair, I have been thinking about attending the event and possibly even entering something in the contest. My baking skills leave a lot to be desired so I have no chance of winning anything, but I would just enter something for the fun of it – and to support such a great event.

There was a lone zucchini in the fridge that was on its last leg so I decided on a whim to make gluten-free zucchini muffins. As usual, I searched Food.com for a gluten recipe and then modified it to be gluten-free. I made enough changes to the original recipe to call the new one my own. Though some tweaking could definitely help the muffins out somewhat, they are as good as any zucchini muffins I’ve made to date They’re actually shockingly delicious, but don’t have a large crown like gluten muffins usually do and the texture of the muffins is delicate as well.

Gluten and Dairy-free Zucchini Nut Muffins

Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup sugar in the raw (was out of brown sugar)
  • 1 heaping cup grated zucchini
  • 1 ½ cup Pamela’s Pancake & Baking Mix flour
  • 1/2 t. baking soda
  • 1/4 t. baking powder
  • 1 t. cinnamon
  • ¼ t. ground cloves
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts
  • ½ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  • Beat eggs until they are light and foamy.
  • Add the sugar, oil and zucchini.
  • Blend well with a sturdy spoon.
  • Whisk the dry ingredients together and add to the egg mixture
  • Blend wet and dry mixtures well and fold in optional nuts and chocolate chips.
  • Spoon into greased muffin tin – filling each one only 2/3 full.
  • Bake for approximately for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
  • Cool muffins in pan for a half hour and then transfer then to cooling rack.

The batter yields approximately 15 regular sized muffins. Normally, I use nutmeg in zucchini muffins and bread, but I used cloves instead just to be different. The recipe I modified called for a lot more cinnamon and no nutmeg or cloves. In the future, I will use brown sugar (instead of sugar in the raw), but I was totally out of it after having bags and bags of it from a 2 for 1 deal at Publix a while back. Using paper liners in the pan would have worked well, but the muffins came out of the pan quite easily without them.

The texture of the muffins was really light, which I liked quite a bit. My husband ate two shortly after they came out of the oven, due to the smell of them driving him nuts as they baked. He said they were some of the best gluten-free muffins I’d ever made and the best zucchini version of anything I’d made, period. I’m rarely impressed with anything I bake unless it’s from a mix where I just follow the directions. But I have to admit, these are some pretty good muffins and I’d gladly serve them to gluten eaters any day!

  • 3 Comments... Speak up!
  • RSS
  • Tweet This
Aug 31 2010

Review: Heartland Gluten and Dairy-free Pasta

Recently, I received several packages of gluten-free pasta from a company called Heartland to review. The pasta is made in Italy – always a plus in my book – and is a combination of rice and corn. It is hard to believe that corn pasta made from U.S. corn can’t touch the level of greatness of corn pasta from Italy. Hearing a corn farmer in Iowa say “we don’t eat the corn we grow” in the documentary King Corn explains a lot about the quality of much of the corn grown and sold in the U.S. today.

We have only tried the spaghetti from Heartland so far and the pasta is seriously delicious. It looks, cooks and tastes like wheat based pasta. The spaghetti is also thin, which is something I love and rarely find in gluten-free pastas. When we ate gluten, we used vermicelli to make spaghetti and many gluten-free spaghetti noodles are too big for my liking. The Heartland pasta also reheats very well – an added bonus.

Heartland gluten-free pasta is currently sold at Walmart, but hopefully it will roll out to other stores soon. There are three shapes available – fusilli, penne and spaghetti. I’d love to see a Fettuccine from the line eventually because I still order that type of pasta online. When I checked the product locator page, it indicated that none of the gluten-free pasta from the line was sold near me, even though the product spec sheet says the pasta rolled out to stores in May of this year.

About 80% of Super Walmarts carry the Heartland gluten-free pasta, regardless of what the store locator indicates. Some regular Walmarts stock the products as well. The pasta is supposed to retail for around $2 at Walmart and approximately $3.99 when it hits the Gluten Free Mall and Amazon. The company is looking to get into Safeway stores eventually as well.

There are many recipes listed on the Heartland website – some are gluten-free recipes and others are for their regular gluten pastas. In most cases, gluten-free pasta could be subbed out for regular and as always, you need to use all gluten-free ingredients. I’m guessing the gluten-free pasta from Heartland won’t taste great for cold pasta salad, but I’m testing my theory when I make the fusilli next weekend.

Website excerpt:

At Heartland, we know healthy eating is a priority for you and your family. We also know taste is equally as important. That’s why we created Heartland Gluten Free, an easy way for your family to enjoy great tasting, wheat free pasta. With the perfect blend of corn and rice, Heartland Gluten Free matches traditional pasta in color, flavor, texture and performance. Your family will never be able to tell that its gluten free!

There are many great gluten-free pastas on the market, but not all of them are easy to find or very affordable. The gluten-free option from Heartland is most definitely up there with the better tasting options  and with the great price point, it will definitely be a staple in our pantry as soon as it’s available on Amazon. There is a chance that Heartland will eventually offer a gluten-free lasagna noodle – if there is enough interest in that option. I’ve tried three gluten-free lasagna noodles and while one option will do, none of them are anything to get excited about, in my opinion.

*Special thanks to Laura at Heartland for my tasting samples!

  • 4 Comments... Speak up!
  • RSS
  • Tweet This