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Gluten-Free Items for Passover

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 2 Comments

With Passover beginning next week, Tuesday, March 30, grocery stores are getting stocked with matzo and other traditional Passover food items. Unfortunately, most of these items are full of wheat and of no use on a gluten-free diet.  Technically, according to Jewish law, one must eat matzo on the first night of Passover, and real matzo must contain wheat, barley, rye, spelt, or oats, which has to do with the method of cooking and amount of time needed for the matzo to rise.  By Jewish law matzo must be made in under 18 minutes from the time it is started to the time of the finished product, being that it is forbidden to eat any grain that is leavened.

I even read from one source that if wheat-filled matzo doesn’t cause us “too much discomfort” one should be eating it in observance of Passover, which is obviously not a safe solution for observant celiacs.  Thankfully, there are some companies that keep gluten-free eaters in mind and provide Passover items at this time of year. As with wheat-filled matzo, it is required that when using gluten-free oats they are supervised by a rabbi throughout the entire process to be sure the flour does not come in contact with water and start leavening and monitor the 18-minute regulation, which again is a requirement of Jewish law in order for it to be considered real matzo.  This, unfortunately, means that gluten-free matzo is not necessarily cheap.

Gluten-free oat matzo and matzo meal are also available by Gluten-Free Oat Matzos based in the UK and can be found worldwide, and provide a list of worldwide distributors. These are currently the only gluten-free matzo produced in a dedicated gluten-free facility.

Being from New York City, I have always loved matzo ball soup and was so thankful when I came across a gluten-free matzo ball soup mix by Paskesz a few weeks ago at the Gluten-Free Trading Company in Milwaukee.  This has always been one of my favorite soups.  Paskesz offers many kosher gluten-free foods that are available seasonally as well as year-round. Currently, the gluten-free Trading Company carries matzo ball soup mix, matzo crackers, chow mein noodles, bread crumbs, cereals, cupcakes, and more.  Products are available while supplies last and can be purchased by mail order from their website.

They may not be as cheap as wheat-filled matzo, but at least those who observe Passover can feel comfortable that they can participate with proper gluten-free matzo and other kosher holiday foods.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Tuna Salad Rolls

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

I don’t know what my fascination is with tuna salad, but I love it in many forms. I love it sandwiched between 2 pieces of gluten-free toast, I love it on a gluten-free English muffin, topped with cheese & then broiled until all melty and I love it on top of a spinach salad. I also have a fascination with the spring rolls at Pei Wei.

The Vietnamese Chicken Salad Rolls are gluten-free (without the peanut sauce; just sub sweet Thai chile sauce). I love the rice paper the rolls are wrapped in and bought some last week at the store. I was searching for what I wanted to wrap up in the rolls & decided to try tuna salad.

Tuna Salad Recipe:

  • 1 can or 1 pouch of tuna (packed in water)
  • 1-3 tsps. Greek yogurt (I like Oikos. To your own taste…I like 1-1.5 tsps)
  • Squirt of spicy brown mustard
  • 1 tsp of sweet pickle relish
  • Sriracha sauce (to your taste….very spicy so add a little at a time…a little goes a long way)
  • chopped celery (1-2 TBSP)
  • chopped water chestnuts (1-2TBSP)
  • Squirt of lemon juice
  • Fresh ground pepper
  • Cheese of choice
  1. Place all ingredients in a bowl & mix well. Taste to make sure it is to your liking. Add more of whatever you like. Remember, start with less, you can always add more.

Other fillings:

  • Carrots
  • Zucchini
  • Celery
  1. Chop all of the above into matchstick shapes to roll up with the tuna salad inside the rice paper wrappers.

Rice Paper Wrappers:

I found mine at Wal-mart, but you can find them in most mainstream grocery stores or on Amazon.com.

  1. Follow directions on the package. They should be something along the lines of soaking a wrapper for a few seconds in warm water to soften. Place wrapper on the plate & then fill. Fold & roll. Serve. So simple & so good!

This recipe for Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls on All Recipes also looks really good and got good ratings. All of the ingredients listed should be able to be replaced with gluten-free versions.

These can be served for a snack, appetizer or a light lunch. I can’t wait to have these again.

Gluten-Free Medications for Motion Sickness

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Both of my kids were unfortunately blessed with car sickness. I never had any problems with motion sickness while growing up, so it never dawned on me that my kids would. I feel bad that Jon suffered before I figured it out. I specifically remember when I finally figured it out. We were driving to the other side of town & Jon was sitting in the back of my van (3rd row). About 20 minutes into the trip, he complained about not feeling well. I thought he was trying to avoid going to school later in the day, so I didn’t pay much attention. He got progressively worse until we got to our destination. Once there, Jon improved quickly. We got back in the car & things went downhill quickly. It was then that I knew. Ever since then, I have medicated him on any trip more than 60 minutes long.

There are many different motion sickness medications or methods out there. I haven’t tried the wristbands I read about; I usually use one of the OTC medications on the market. I have verified that Benadryl is gluten-free and this was our medication of choice for car sickness until last fall. In order for any medication for car sickness to be effective, you have to give the medication before the trip begins. Another medication, that I think works a little better than Benadryl is Bonine. I found this medication accidentally one day. Hannah was feeling sick & I couldn’t give her Benadryl (an antihistamine) because she already takes Zyrtec (an antihistamine) daily. I spoke with the pharmacist and he recommended Bonine (chewable) – which can be taken along with Zyrtec safely. It worked like a charm!

I emailed Bonine to ask about the gluten-free status and got this response:

Yes, the product contains no gluten.

Best Regards,
Insight Pharmaceuticals
Consumer Affairs Dept.
1-800-344-7239

Some other tips for helping to prevent car sickness include:

  • Not sitting in the back of the car (back of vans or SUVs
  • Fresh air
  • Being able to see the horizon & focusing on it
  • Stopping frequently
  • Eating a light snack or meal on empty stomach tends to make car sickness worse

I always keep some towels & larger Ziploc bags in the car, just in case. In the event that all the methods above fail, you want to make sure to have some tools available to handle any mess that may occur.

For more information on gluten-free medications, please click here.

Get Creative with Gluten-Free Chicken

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 2 Comments

We eat a lot of chicken at our house. Some times we get bored with it so I try and make up different versions of chicken dishes to enjoy that don’t take a lot of work on my part. I didn’t avoid the kitchen in our house for the first sixteen years of our marriage for no reason. Before I was diagnosed with celiac disease, I rarely cooked except during the holidays and on weekends when I occasionally made pancakes from a mix.

Recently, I was in a rush to throw dinner together and all I knew going in was that skinless chicken breasts were involved. After a quick survey of the fridge, I pulled out the BBQ sauce, spicy brown mustard and white American cheese. Had we had sliced cheddar I would have used that, but as always, I use what we have on hand. I mixed up two thirds BBQ sauce to one part mustard and brushed it on both sides of the chicken. Those went into a baking dish that was sprayed with canola oil. When the chicken was almost done, about 20 minutes later in a 375 degree oven, I topped the breasts with cheese and returned to the oven until it bubbled. My husband concluded that this dish should be added to our rotation of chicken recipes and I agreed. It was super simple to make and delicious to eat.

One of our favorite chicken dishes was from a now closed Virginia Highlands restaurant called Capo’s. Recipe Zaar has the Chicken Diablo recipe posted, which I was thrilled to find out when Capo’s was no more. However, this recipe is fairly time consuming so more often than not, we save it for special events. It’s a very wonderful recipe and really impresses dinner guests. Another similar dish, albeit with different ingredients and flavors is much easier to make and tastes excellent as well. For lack of a more creative name, it’s simply called “Bleu Cheese Chicken”.

One day when I really wanted to do something different with my plain old chicken breasts, I created a stuffing mixture with crumbled bleu cheese, softened cream cheese and fresh chopped spinach that turned out surprisingly tasty. Ingredient amounts vary based on how many chicken breasts you have to stuff and how much cheese you want in them. My mixture was about 1/3 bleu cheese, 1/3 cream cheese and 1/3 finely chopped fresh spinach. After pounding out the chicken breasts quite flat, I put a scoop of the filling in the middle of each one and wrapped the chicken around cheese and used toothpicks to hold them closed.

Depending on how much time you have for prep work, you can flour the wrapped chicken or not. Plain rice flour works fine and a flour blend works great as well. Whether you use flour or not, sauté the chicken in a little olive oil on each side until brown before placing them in a 375 degree oven. This dish usually takes about 20-25 minutes to cook thoroughly. Though most bleu cheese seems to be gluten-free, not all makers of it will state whether theirs is or not. Therefore, I like using brands that will declare their bleu cheese is gluten-free. Many bleu cheeses are gluten-free these days, but it’s tough to kill outdated info in cyberspace.

When I feel like I just can’t come up with another chicken recipe on my own, I look to the zillion chicken recipes on Recipe Zaar. Most of them will be able to be modified to be gluten-free, without losing anything in terms of taste or texture. There really is something to be said for eating lots of chicken instead of overdoing it with red meat. Since heart disease runs in my family, we eat plenty of fish, chicken and turkey and that diet really seems to agree with us both.

Recipe: The Easiest Gluten-Free Lasagna

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 7 Comments

I love lasagna, but I don’t love the kitchen, and I don’t have time to make complicated meals with several ingredients. I really like this simple lasagna recipe and it has served me well. This is a great recipe for a large family or when company comes over, mostly because you can’t tell that it is gluten-free!

The ingredients needed are :

  • 1 box of DeBoles lasagna noodles (no boiling!)
  • 2 jars of Prego Roasted Garlic and Herb sauce (see this link for the gluten-free Prego sauce list, I sometimes use Ragu Parmesean Romano, click here and scroll to the bottom for their GF info)
  • 2-3 large bags of shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1 pound of hamburger meat
  • 1 large container of cottage cheese. I buy walmart brand cheeses because they are labeled “gluten-free.”

The recipe itself is really easy. Brown the hamburger meat. I use 97/3 hamburger meat (extra lean) and save the fat as extra flavoring. I make the “meat mixture” by mixing 1 jar of sauce, 1 bag of cheese, the large container of cottage cheese and the hamburger meat. Set that mixture aside.

I use the second jar of sauce to line the 9×13 glass dish with a layer of sauce, then 4 dry noodles- 3 noodles along the length of the dish and 1 noodle along the width of the dish.  Then top the noodles with 1/3 of the meat mixture, then sprinkle shredded cheese, then repeat with another layer of noodles.

I usually get 3 layers out of the meat mixture, and then the final layer of noodles on top. Make sure to cover each noodle completely with meat mixture or sauce between layers, so that it can soak up the moisture while baking. I gently push the noodles down to be sure all of the ridges are making contact with moisture. I top the final layer with the rest of the sauce, making sure to fill in sauce in the corners and all of the edges. Save some cheese for the last few minutes of baking.

Bake the lasagna for 1 hour at 350 degrees. After one hour top with remaining shredded cheese and bake until cheese melts. Total time is about 90 minutes, including browning the meat. This recipe takes a little more time than I usually spend in the  kitchen, but it is so easy and so good!