Allergaroo product review

So first of all, let me just say that I am SOOOO glad that our Winn Dixie now has a Gluten Free section. That's freakin' FANTASTIC!!! I can now just go down the street to get a good bit of the stuff that we need for our son and not have to go all the way to the health food store for anything other than Rice Chex and DeBoles rice pastas... we actually have a nice selection of crackers, snacks, cereal bars, flour, and other things they don't even HAVE at our local health food stores (b/c as I have mentioned before, our city apparently does not need a Whole Foods... HA)... among those are the Allergaroo products. Our store has 3 varieties and all of them are Gluten, Soy, and Milk free as well as being free of the top 8 allergens!!! AWESOME.. but how do they taste? Well, they were developed by a mom of a child with a wide array of allergies that was searching for products that she could easily buy for her child that DON'T take forever to make and you don't have to have specially shipped. Let me just say, she hit a HOME RUN with these products. My son went nuts over them, and I felt GOOD giving it to him. The ingredients are simple, non GMO veggies and chicken mixed in instead of red meats. We got him the Chili Mac for his first one and while they are expensive for such a small portion ($3.49 a pop at Winn Dixie), they are very good. We won't be buying them on a regular basis b/c lets face it, that's just not in the budget right now.. but these will be a good alternative when we need something quick that's not a drive-thru salad.

Check them out: http://www.allergaroo.com/

they for sure got a thumbs up from us!!!

vegan/ gluten and casein free ranch dressing!

My son has been SO disappointed to not have ranch dressing.. like.. ever.. so I did a little searching and found a recipe!!! YEA!!!!

1 cup vegan mayonnaise (if you eat eggs, you don't have to make this vegan.. but it can still be gluten and casien free with regular mayo like the light mayo that I use for him)
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp fresh chopped parsley
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp fresh chopped dill or 1/4 tsp dried

Adventures in Gluten free cooking: Shephard's Pie success!

Yum yum! We LOVE some Shephard's Pie in this house! So, it was time to make some that everyone could enjoy. It turned out SO good there was none left!

5 medium potatoes
Smart Balance Light or other gluten free vegan butter
Rice milk (or whatever gluten and casien free milk you prefer)
1.5lbs LEAN ground beef or turkey
1/2 cup cut up carrots
1 medium onion
1/2 cup partially frozen green peas
2 tbsp vegan shortening
1 can beef broth (gluten free!!!)
gluten free all purpose flour
salt and pepper


Peel and cut up potatoes. Place in large pot and cover with water. Set on medium high heat to boil until soft.

While the potatoes cook, place ground meat in pan to cook and cook until brown. Preheat oven to broil.

Place cut up carrots in pot of salted water and boil until soft. Same with onions.

When meat is done and veggies are cooked, place in casserole dish and mix together. Mix in partially frozen peas.

In new pot melt shortening over medium low heat. Add flour a scoop at a time until it makes a thick paste like roux. Slowly stir in can of broth and stir until boiling. By this time it should be thickened. When finished, pour over meat and veggie mixture. Sprinkle the top with salt and pepper.

Drain potatoes and mash. Stir in milk and butter until desired consistency (I used about 3 tbsp butter and about 1/2 cup of milk, but we like ours creamy). Once potatoes are mashed up and ready, spoon over meat, veggies, and gravy mixture.

Place pan in oven to broil. Cook for about 15 minutes or until hot through and tips of potatoes are browned. Remove from oven, scoop in bowls, and enjoy!

Gluten Free Art Supplies (copied from another blog)

Chalk, Crayons, Markers, and Pencils

Crayola (all products gluten free other than Crayola Dough)

Crayola Crayons (all kinds)
Crayola Anti-dust Chalk Sticks
Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils
Crayola Fabric Markers
Crayola Markers (all kinds)
Crayola Pencils (all kinds)
Crayola Pip-Squeaks
Crayola Pip-Squeaks Skinnies Markers
Crayola Washable Markers (all kinds)

Prang (all pencils, crayons)

RoseArt
RoseArt Crayons (all kinds)
RoseArt Chalk
RoseArt Markers (all kinds)
Sanford / Mr. Sketch Scented Markers
Sanford / Mr. Sketch Watercolor Markers

Dough and Modeling Clay:
Colorations Wheat & Gluten-Free Dough (Discount School Supply)
Crayola Model Magic (clay – not the dough!)
Prang
Silly PuttyNote: Play Doh, Crayola, RoseArt Fun Dough, Ross and Amoco Super Dough are NOT gluten free! RoseArt modeling clay is NOT gluten free.

Glue and Paste
Crayola Glitter Glue
Elmer all products other than Finger Paint are gluten free.
Ross all products other than Finger Paint are gluten free.
Ross Glitter GlueRoss White Glue
Ross Glue SticksRoss School Glue
Blick's Mix Instant Papier Maché
Note: Avoid traditional paste as it has wheat/gluten.

Grains and Pasta for Art & Sensory
Beans – kidney, navy, white, etc.
Lentils
Peas, black-eyed peas
Sunflower Seeds
Rice, white or brown
Note: Avoid oats, barley, rye, wheat berries, or using bird seed.
Corn
Pasta (elbows, etc.), DeBola, OrgraNRice Pasta (white and brown), Tinkyada, OrgraNN
ote: Pretty much all pasta that is not specifically rice, corn, or other non-gluten grain will contain wheat flour and not be safe.

Paint:
Crayola all paints including finger paint are gluten free.
Dick Blick Tempera
Lakeshore Liquid Tempera and Washable Finger PaintsPalmer Paint Products (all paints)
Palmer Nature' Hues
Palmer Liquid Tempera (contains corn starch)
Palmer Washable Liquid Tempura
Palmer Face PaintPalmer Glitter Paint
Prang (all paints)
Prism
Brand Acrylic Glow in the DarkPrism Regular Acrylics
Prism Model PaintsPrism Pearls
Prismatone Tempera
Ross (all other than finger paints)
Sargent Art Paints
Note: Elmer's and Ross finger paints is NOT gluten free.

Sands:
Delta Sand (Discount School Supply)
Moon Sand

Soaps & Personal Care Items:
Band-Aid Bandages (all kinds, including character, clear, flexible, etc)
Cascade Dishwasher Soap
Gluten-Free Savonnerie (all)
Purell hand sanitizerSoftsoap (all kinds)

Stickers:
RoseArt
Sandylion brand is gluten free
Smile Makers brand (Staples and Smile Makers online)

Tape:
3M Brand (tapes/office products do not contain gluten, nor casein)
Post-It Notes
Scotch Magic Tape

In general, any art or office supplies that have adhesive should be considered to contain gluten unless one finds out otherwise from the company, so no licking envelopes, no stickers adhered skin unless they are on the list above, etc. Always err on the side of caution.
For those concerned about soy exposure, Prang and Dixon/Ticonderoga both have soy crayons that are labeled as such. Christel King has passed along that all the Color Wonder products, all the Crayola colored pencils, the washable markers, all Palmer products, the oil paints, contain soy.

http://mainely-musings.blogspot.com/2008/05/gluten-free-school-supplies.html

Adventures in Gluten Free Cooking... Gluten free/Casein free Spaghetti and Meatballs!

My kids LOVE spaghetti and meatballs. I usually avoid making meatballs and just do meat sauce, but they were insistant that we needed meatBALLS this time and nothing else would work. So, I made some meatballs... and much to my surprise, they were good! I did do them kinda the "easy" way but they were so yummy and even my husband liked them. Here is what I did:

-1lb lean groud beef or turkey
-1/2 cup gluten free bread crumbs of some kind (this time I used some broken rice bread pieces that I had saved, toasted them, and ground them in the food processor.. turned out perfect!!! I've also used brown rice cereal done the same way... keep in mind that Rice Krispies are NOT gluten free!!!)
-2 tbsp gluten free ketchup (like Anne's Organic)
-2 tsp garlic powder
-1 large egg
-1/2 medium onion, chopped (food processor would be great)
- 1 tbsp italian seasoning mix
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp basalmic vinegar
- red pepper flakes to taste for a little extra kick (optional!)
- some olive oil for the hands

First I preheated the oven to 350. Then I lined the cookie sheet with wax paper.

mix all ingredients together in a big bowl :-) Don't over mix though... just so everything is mixed together.

Roll into balls a little smaller than a golf ball. Place on cookie sheet to bake. They will take about 20 minutes to cook.. longer for larger balls.


While those are cooking, I put some rice spaghetti noodles on to cook.

For sauce, I got a large can of tomato sauce, a medium sized can of Italian stewed tomatoes, and a small can of tomato paste. I mixed all of those together, chopped up the other half of the onion I had used earlier, and put it in the sauce to boil. Seasoned with garlic, italian seasoning, pepper, salt, and bay leaves and left it on to cook until everything else was ready.

My kids all gobbled it down.. even the little one and she's picky! :-) And I loved it too.

Adventures in Gluten Free cooking: first attempt at cupcakes

Okay, I never claimed to be good at baking. In fact, I have long known that I suck.. but this time it was not even the baking part that got me. Actually, the cake part turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. They even tasted pretty good. I got the Glutino Decedant Chocolate Cake mix... and I did it right! Go me! But then I attempted frosting. Oh, the frosting. I bought Cherrybrook Farms and it looked easy enough. Just a simple mix. Even my non baking self can figure out a MIX, right? HA! First of all, no where in my area sells vegan sticks of butter. NO WHERE. I can get TUBS anywhere.. but NO sticks. Well, I figured there was really no difference, so what the heck. HAHAHAHAHA. I ended up with LIQUID icing. Um, I don't think that is going to work. So, we set out after our supper of gluten free spaghetti with ground turkey meat sauce to go to the local health food store looking for some premade icing. Can't screw it up if someone else made it! Welllllll, the didn't carry it. The Whole Foods Market in my MOM's town has it, but that's an hour away and the party is tomorrow. So, I find this stuff called Fast and Fresh. It's Dairy free and Gluten free icing! YEA! just pop it in the microwave and that's it!!! I can do that!! Go me!

So I get home and follow the directions. I pull it out of the microwave and... uhoh.. it's like a liquid. This can't be good. So I follow the directions and pour (yes, I said pour) it on the cupcakes. Um, it went right down the sides and formed a thin layer on the top of the cupcakes. I now have the ugliest cupcakes ever with liquid icing on top that dried later. Cute. Next time, I'll get the premade kind from Cherrybrook Farm. I don't bake.

Adventures in Gluten Free Cooking... fried chicken

Yeh, I'm a southern girl at the core. I hesitate to admit it and I think my husband is going to pass out if he reads that, but I was raised by southern parents with southern values and southern food. When we first decided to go gluten and casein free for our son, while my husband's first concern was what to do about pizza, mine was fried chicken.. LOL. Ironic considering that we are healthy eaters and don't even cook much fried food, but every once in a while some friend chicken just needs to be made, ya know? So, I searched a little on the web for recipes and didn't like any of them... so I said "forget it, I've known how to cook my own for a long time.. I can figure this out." I started thinking about how I could do it. I had a bag of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour. Perfect. I had Rice Milk. That will work b/c I didn't really want to do eggs even though we tolerate them just fine. And I have a cabinet full of spices (McCormick!). Heck yeh, we can do this!!! So here is what I did:

5 boneless chicken breasts (I'm sure you can use bone in or thighs or whatever, but we prefer breast)
2 cup All Purpose Flour
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp cajun seasoning
1 tsp salt
1 cup rice milk
Olive oil (EVOO or Light)

I took the thawed chicken and soaked it in the rice milk. I should have soaked it longer, so I'd recommend soaking it in the rice milk for at least an hour in the fridge.

1 hr later or whenever you come back, Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix spices into flour in a medium sized bowl.

Get a large fry pan and fill to about 1/2- 1 in of olive oil and place over medium high heat.

When you take the chicken out, dredge it in the flour mixture and place into pan to fry, turning somewhat frequently as the color changes. Once the flour mixture starts to brown, take chicken out and place in baking dish. Bake chicken at 450 for about 18 minutes or until done all through (depending on how long you left it in the fry pan).

Serve quickly with yummy sides :-). We did sweet potato fries and green beans. YUMMO!!! All the kids gobbled up their dinner and even my husband was impressed with my fine culinary skills. Yeh, I rock. It didn't look pretty so I didn't take pics, but next time I'll know more what I'm doing and maybe I can make it look as good as it tasted.. lol.