Celiac Disease

Official Website of Celiac-Disease.com

You are here: Home / Archives for Gluten-Free Diet / Holidays

Holidays

Gluten-Free Valentine’s Day Candy Choices Limited

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 4 Comments

The very first holiday I encountered after my celiac diagnosis was Valentine’s Day. We went out to dinner and had a wonderful meal, but not a wonderful experience due to the two-hour wait. Back then, I did not know to always have a snack in my purse for such situations. Because I didn’t know about that many places to eat safely at, we chose an out-of-the-way place (that doesn’t take reservations) where the bartender had celiac and her husband was the chef. Earlier that day, I’d made a heart-shaped gluten-free cake (my first ever) and it was so awful we threw it out instead of putting it out back for the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks to eat. It was a good thing that there was a gluten-free dessert on the menu that night.

My husband was as overwhelmed as I was about my new diet since he did almost all the cooking in our house back then. He decided to try and find some Gluten-Free Valentine’s Day candy for me, even though I much prefer flowers over candy. Much to his dismay, no safe candy was to be found so I got gorgeous roses instead. That was more than fine by me, but I felt bad that he felt so bad about striking out looking for a heart-shaped box of gluten-free candy.

Many gluten-free people want Valentine’s Day candy and I’m sorry to report that over five years later, it is still not that easy to find gluten-free candy that is specifically marketed for this holiday. I’m talking about the heart-shaped boxes that line the aisles of every Target, grocery store, and drug store at this time of year. Instead of complaining about the lack of a gluten-free labeling law on this one, my gripe is actually with the companies that wrap these boxes in so much colored cellophane that you could not read the ingredients if someone offered you a million dollars to do so. At least, you could not read them unless you ripped the wrapping off the box. Since you can’t see the ingredients on so many of those heart candy boxes, it does not matter if the product is labeled gluten-free or not.

MP900399599I spotted some cute Peeps Valentine’s Day candy that, like their Easter candy (and I think their entire line), is labeled gluten-free. It’s too bad I don’t care for this line of sweets at all. Necco, the company that makes Sweethearts Conversation Heart candies, states the hearts are gluten-free, but the boxes I checked last week were not labeled as such. I enjoy the Thin Mints from that line which are listed as gluten-free on the company’s website, but also not marked on the box.  Both Godiva and Ghirardelli continue to state their items can’t be considered gluten-free due to the way the products are made.

There is a lot of gluten-free candy out there, but the seasonal candy made for Valentine’s Day is mostly either not gluten-free or is questionable due to how it’s processed. One interesting find that came up in my candy search was this chocolate rose bouquet. It’s even dairy-free as is the entire line. If I get a hankering for something sweet on Valentine’s Day, I’ll make something special that is both delicious and undeniably safe for me to enjoy. Below are several tasty recipes to suit this need. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease

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

Every Christmas a creative guy named Alek Komarnitsky, who has two kids with celiac disease, raises celiac awareness with Christmas lights.  Yes – I said Christmas lights. In addition to raising awareness, over $50,000 has been donated to the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research, due to Alek’s Controllable Christmas Lights. That is a whole lot of holiday spirit indeed!

What is unique about this light display is that online viewers have the ability to control the lights with the click of a mouse. There is even Christmas music on the website, so you can turn on a holiday tune, sit back and enjoy Alek’s Controllable Christmas Lights from the comfort of your own home.

This display is not a virtual one – people in the Lafayette, CO area can drive by and see the lights in person. Since Alek is concerned about the environment, he tries to make his display as “green” as possible. Here is his explanation of what he does to achieve that:

While people around the world (157 countries last year) enjoy seeing the lights ON, environmentalists will be happy to know that they can turn the lights OFF with a click of the mouse. Better yet, this is the 7th year I’m using Wind Power and even though that is “clean” energy, I even did a Carbon Offset contribution for the 0.6 Tons of CO2 for the ~MegaWatt-Hour of power consumed – that’s about the same as *one* cross-country airline trip. Finally, by providing viewing via webcam, you don’t need to burn fossil fuels by driving around to see Christmas lights … Al Gore would be proud!

What is really interesting to me is that many people have asked Alek if he takes donations to offset the cost of the lights (power, etc.) and he continues to reply that he does not. Talk about the holiday spirit! Alek does ask that people who are so inclined donate to the Center for Celiac Research, which is how Christmas lights help raise celiac awareness and a lot of money!

Please be aware that Alek’s controllable lights are rather addictive. There is so much to see – and in this case – there is so much to do.  In the beginning, the lights were not really controlled by online viewers, but eventually, Alek delivered what in the past had been just an illusion. To learn more about that, read this information from the Center for Celiac Research website. Certainly, not all the millions of online viewers from around the world have celiac disease and many of them have probably never heard of the condition. That’s what makes this display so magical in terms of raising awareness!

Surviving a Buffet for Thanksgiving

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

You might wonder why I didn’t post this article before the recent holiday, but before this year I’d not gone to a buffet for thanksgiving (since being gluten-free) so that was not possible. This was my fifth gluten-free Thanksgiving and the first one we have eaten out for. Once I found out we were going out to eat, I had to contact the chef and find out if he knew what gluten-free meant well before Thanksgiving. If I felt confident that he knew how to feed gluten-free diners safely, we could eat there. If I didn’t, we’d need to make alternative plans for the holiday.

Thankfully, the chef knew more about what gluten-free means in terms of ingredients, preparation, and presentation than any other country club chef I’ve dealt with. There were only eight things on the salad and main tables I could not eat and four of them were bread items. Obviously, the dessert table was a different story, but I was able to have both maple crème brulee and flourless chocolate layer cake.

Many people who are gluten-free would not dare eat at a buffet of any kind, but the way a buffet is set up makes up all the difference regarding how safe buffet dining is (or isn’t). For instance, if croutons are in the middle section of a three-deep buffet dish arrangement, the odds are that some croutons were dropped into the dishes around them. Alternatively, if the croutons are at the end of the bar, there are probably not any croutons in the other dishes that are nowhere near the crouton container.

Luckily for me, the setup at our Thanksgiving meal buffet was especially friendly for anyone who had to avoid certain dishes. The only thing on the soup/salad table that contained gluten was the crostini for the smoked salmon and it was placed in a basket instead of on the fish platter. Even the butternut squash soup was gluten-free. Due to the way the hot foods were laid out on long tables with plenty of space between each of the dishes, one would be hard-pressed to use the wrong serving utensil for said dishes.

There was one snafu regarding the turkey on the buffet, but the chef advised me that he’d need to bring me turkey from the kitchen before I even saw the presentation for it. Both the regular and Cajun turkey was laid over the cornbread dressings in the serving dishes, making it unsafe for anyone with a wheat, corn or gluten intolerance to eat. Both the ham and prime rib were fine as they were both gluten-free and at carving stations. I’m not sure I’ve ever had Cajun turkey before, but I think it might be my favorite type of turkey now. It was absolutely divine!

Like most Thanksgiving, I ate too much and almost everything I had was incredible. Did I miss having pecan pie and dressing for the big dinner – or in this case lunch? Yes, in fact, I did. That’s why I took my own Honeybaked turkey, cornbread dressing, pecan pie, and mac-n-cheese to enjoy for dinner that evening. I held off on making green bean casserole with homemade fried onions until later that weekend at home.

I’ve got to say that the green bean casserole was spectacular this year because the new condensed cream of mushroom soup from Pacific Natural Foods is so delicious. Also, the homemade fried onions made with Jules Gluten Flour took the dish to a whole new level! I’m all about taking shortcuts in the kitchen on most given days, but making homemade fried onions (that are much better than the French version in a can) was well worth the thirty minutes it took to do it.

For me, Thanksgiving is partly about leftovers which you don’t get if you go out to eat. Therefore, taking my own food to enjoy at my in-laws made sense on several levels. I had what I consider a true Thanksgiving dinner (with dressing and pie) on Thanksgiving Day and had plenty of leftovers to bring home. Hopefully, all of you had a tasty gluten-free holiday meal as well!

Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Survival Tips

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

One of my absolute favorite things to eat is cornbread dressing. I’ve been making my Grandmother’s recipe for many years and I make a double batch so there is plenty left over to enjoy the week after Thanksgiving. It was with great excitement that I found out that the cornbread made with the Southern Cornbread recipe on the Pamela’s Products website was absolutely divine! In fact, it’s probably some of the best cornbread I’ve ever had. The main ingredient in cornbread dressing is cornbread so as long as you have that, you can make a phenomenal cornbread dressing – ‘nuff said!

Most sweet potato casserole recipes don’t call for flour, but the crumble topping might. We leave the flour out now but you can use a gluten-free flour mix if you really want to use flour in the topping mixture. Some people like candied yams and I’ve never heard of a recipe that calls for any gluten but doesn’t assume something is gluten-free on the buffet table. As always, it’s best to check before scarfing down something seemingly safe and paying the consequences later if the dish contains gluten.

My second favorite Thanksgiving dish is green bean casserole. Obviously, I’m super excited to be able to use the new condensed soup from Pacific Natural Foods for the first time this year. In previous years I had to thicken non-condensed soups down and while it’s easy to do, it’s just one more thing to do in the kitchen and one more pan to clean. Who needs that? The new condensed soups are not quite as thick as Campbell’s so no milk will be needed in the casserole recipe. The good news is that the Pacific Natural Foods cream of mushroom soup tastes much better than the one made by Campbell’s.

If you like fried onions and in your green bean casserole, it’s easy to fry up your own with gluten-free flour. I’ve used the gluten-free Pantry and Jules Gluten-Free flour mixes for the onions and they both work perfectly. I make the onions the weekend before Thanksgiving and store them in an airtight container like the ones from Snapware. They are really good though, so make extra or you won’t have enough for the casserole when you go to make it.

By far, the pie crust for my pecan (pronounced pacon in our neck of the woods, not pee-can as in Paula Deen country) pie was my biggest challenge to reproduce gluten-free. I tried every ready-made gluten-free crust and none of them floated our boat, so to speak. Finally, I tried the mix from Breads from Anna which contains no rice flour. It was wonderful and I’ve used it many times for many pies. Eventually, I settled on the basic crust recipe on the Pamela’s Products website. The almond flour in the mix seems to offer the best overall pie crust in terms of taste and texture (to me) and it’s very easy to work with. To say the crust is better than the frozen Pet Ritz gluten crust I used in the past is an understatement, to say the least.

Basic dinner rolls for Thanksgiving are something we’ve not found a perfect replacement for. When I was growing up, we used those airly white rolls with lines on top. If you want some ready-made dinner rolls, there are a few brands I can recommend highly. Challah rolls from Katz gluten-free are wonderful as are basic dinner rolls from The Grainless Baker. If you want something with a twist, try a Brazilian cheese roll from Sweet Oven and Company, a Georgia-based company.

Though you might read over and over a tip about saving bread that you don’t like to use in your dressing (or stuffing) recipe during the holidays, I agree with the advice in the article from Gluten-Free Living that spoke to that exact tip. If you don’t like a certain gluten-free bread in the first place, there is no reason to think it will taste better in any recipe you use it in. Don’t ruin your dressing by using that trick – just don’t do it.

In the end, remember to enjoy yourself, make sure you have plenty of great food to eat (even if you have to make it all yourself), and have fun with your loved ones. After all, you never know how many of them will be gluten-free next year.

Seeking Thanksgiving recipes? Check out our Gluten-Free Thanksgiving recipes.

Gluten-Free Tips for Earth Day

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

Today is Earth Day and though we try and be “green” whenever possible, it’s nice to make an extra effort to be earth friendly on Earth Day. Not making unnecessary trips in the car is a good idea all the time and something I’ve strived to get better about for a while now. To make sure I get all my errands done in one fell swoop, I make a list of if I’m going to more than three places on one trip. If I don’t, I might end up whipping past the post office without dropping off my outgoing mail.

Excerpt from the Earth Day website:

Earth Day 2010 can be a turning point to advance climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy and green jobs. Earth Day Network is galvanizing millions who make personal commitments to sustainability. Earth Day 2010 is a pivotal opportunity for individuals, corporations and governments to join together and create a global green economy. Join the more than one billion people in 190 countries that are taking action for Earth Day.

When it comes to “green” living, eating locally produced foods is a really good way to be kind to the environment. Local farmer’s markets are popping up in many places these days. To find one in your area, check the Local Harvest website. All fresh fruits and veggies are naturally gluten-free. Clearly, buying tomatoes grown 20 miles from your house is better than buying some flown in from another country. And the locally grown tomatoes should taste better too!

There are ways to cook that are more environmentally friendly as well. Using a crock pot to make dinner instead of the oven will save both energy and money. This is a great way to cook during the hot and humid days many of us are already experiencing or will be experiencing soon. You can even have sandwiches, chips, and salad for a “no cooking required” meal. Udi’s bread is edible with heating or toasting – just open the bag and enjoy great-tasting gluten-free bread!

People on a gluten-free diet tend to have a lot of food in the freezer. The items usually include muffins, bread, pizza crusts, and other various bread items. To keep from going through as many plastic food storage bags as I used to, I wrap items in wax paper and then place them inside the bags. This wrapping and storage method allows the bags to be reused again and again. I much prefer this to have to wash the bags. In our area, the washed bags never seem to get dry – especially in the warm months.

We switched to non-toxic cleaners several years ago. At one time, Seventh Generation products were widely reported online to be gluten-free, but the company does not state that anything in their line is gluten-free. According to their website, the products are made with ingredients that do not contain gluten and also some that might. Everyone should use products that make them comfortable, of course. We absolutely love Seventh Generation products!