Gluten Free Favorites

I wanted to do a quick blog to tell you about some of our favorite gluten free brands for certain things. Here we go:

 This is our favorite pizza crust. So much so that when we make pizza now we all eat it on this crust. Even my 5 year old eats it. It's pretty pricey but it's one of those things that is quick and easy and nice to keep in the cupboard. We get this at Sprouts Market.

This bread is available at the Costco by us and I can't tell you how much it has changed the way I eat. Before I wouldn't eat Gluten Free bread unless I absolutely had to but with this I actually have toast and sandwiches! I love that they sell it at Costco because it is only $7.99 for 2 loaves which is a great deal for Gluten Free.

This is my newest discovery. While wandering Trader Joe's I found this little gem and decided to try it. I got the cranberry maple nut and LOVED IT! I eat it dry but I bet it would be good in yogurt or with milk. It is pretty reasonably priced and has a really good shelf life!

These have been great for my 2 year old who is Gluten Free. They are a lot like cheese its. Warning: they are pretty salty, but no more than regular gold fish crackers and a great alternative. I get these at Sprouts Market and they are usually on sale. We've tried the other flavors but these are our favorite.

If you want to know what else I eat, just ask. I make lots of substitutions that I don't even think about which make it so I can eat pretty normal. Still trying to find the perfect Gluten Free donut though. If you find that be sure to let me know!

Black Bean and Cheese Enchiladas with Ranchero Sauce

This was a very interesting meal. First off, I was able to find the dried ancho chiles at Sunflower  market with a little help and they were not what I expected. I think next time I come across an ingredient I am unfamiliar with I will call upon my good friend "google images." Once I found the chiles I realized this was going to be a very different taste than I was expecting as they smelled a little like raisins. I was pleasantly surprised with the flavor though. It ended up pretty close to an authentic mole sauce (as much as we remember since the word authentic and mole haven't been used in the same sentence since we left California) with a yummy sweet flavor. Not too much spice and we actually did not miss the meat at all. We opted not to use the oregano just because but I think next time I will add a little cilantro on top. We also split this into two 8 x 8 pans and froze one for next time. 4 out of 5 stars.

Source: Cooking Light

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 2 dried ancho chiles stemmed and seeded
• 2 cups water
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion
• 5 garlic cloves sliced
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 cups organic vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
• 2 tablespoons no-salt-added tomato paste
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans rinsed and drained
• 2 cups (8 ounces) preshredded reduced-fat 4-cheese Mexican-blend cheese divided
• 3 thinly sliced green onions divided
• Cooking spray
• 12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
• 6 tablespoons light sour cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Combine chiles and 2 cups water in a saucepan; bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes. Drain chiles in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid.
3. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Add onion; saute 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium; add garlic and salt. Cook 5 minutes or until golden, stirring occasionally. Add broth and next 3 ingredients (through cumin); cook 8 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally.
4. Pour onion mixture into a blender; add chiles and reserved liquid. Remove center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in lid. Blend until smooth; stir in lime juice and red pepper.
5. Combine the beans, 1 cup cheese, and half the green onions in a bowl. Spread 1/2 cup sauce in the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray. Warm tortillas according to package directions. Spoon 3 tablespoons bean mixture down center of each tortilla; roll up. Place, seam-side down, in prepared dish. Pour remaining sauce over filled tortillas. Top with the remaining cheese. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Sprinkle with remaining green onions; serve with sour cream.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 302

Fat: 12.9g

Cholesterol: 32mg

Sodium: 574mg

Fiber: 6.4g

Protein: 17.3g

Classic Pesto

We found a basil plant at sunflower market a few weeks ago and since "he" needed to be pruned we decided to try to make a pesto. There's really not much to this but it tastes really good. I did add an extra clove of garlic because my mama taught me you can "never have too much garlic" and she was right. 5 out of 5 stars.

Source: Cooking Light

Serves: 3

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped walnuts or pine nuts
• 2 garlic cloves peeled
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 cups basil leaves (about 4 ounces)
• ¹⁄₂ cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Drop nuts and garlic through food chute with food processor on; process until minced. Add oil; pulse 3 times. Add basil, cheese, and salt; process until finely minced, scraping sides of bowl once.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 58

Fat: 5.3g

Cholesterol: 3mg

Sodium: 125mg

Fiber: 0.6g

Protein: 2.1g

Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies

We stumbled across this at Sunflower Market and fell in love with it. We have a lot of recipes that call for diced tomatoes with green chilies and we use to just buy any brand we could find at Walmart or another store thinking they were all the same. Not true. We made the same recipe with just any old tomatoes and then with these and these took it from a 4-4.5 to a BIG 5 stars. Find them and use them. They are great.

Panko Bread Crumbs

In the previous post I mentioned Panko (Japanese bread crumbs) which you will see in a lot of our recipes and I got a question on what they are like. Panko are a lighter, crispier bread crumb that doesn't soak up grease or liquid as easily and stay crunchy longer. They are more of a flake than a crumb and make food taste less heavy and greasy. One of our favorite recipes containing Panko is our Chicken Parmesan but we also use it to top any of our casseroles that would require bread crumbs. We get ours at Sunflower Market but they can be found at any Asian market or specialty grocery store and possibly in the Asian food section at a regular grocery store. Try them out and let us know what you think!

Rustic Crust

There's more to food than good recipes; you have to have good ingredients. This is a pizza crust we found at Sunflower Market and have fallen in love with. We started out making our pizzas with Boboli crust and will never go back after trying this. It's healthier and still as yummy. We do a lot of pizza in our house so it is good to keep this on hand. Big thumbs up from us.

(Also found at Whole Foods, Smiths and various other grocery stores in case you don't have a Sunflower Market in your area)