Celiac Teens

I thought it would be cool to share some of the lunches I eat during the week. Perhaps I can give you some ideas. Today I’m having:

A few slices of Genoa Salami, a few slices of cheddar cheese (I just cut them from the block), an apple, and half a cucumber.

Jeremy’s lunch: turkey, Muenster cheese, and mayo wrapped in lettuce; 2 carrots; a plum; yogurt.

I know a lot of you can’t eat dairy, but for those of you who can, it’s a great way to add substance and protein to your meals! Cheese doesn’t always have to be eaten with bread and crackers. Just cut some up and eat as is. A very fast snack, and you can couple it with grapes or any type of veggie for some added nutrition and carbs.

And as promised, here are some ideas for the “heels” of your GF bread loaves (don’t throw those away)! Keep all of them in one of the bread bags. So each time you finish a loaf and have a heel leftover, add it to that one bag.

Let them thaw a bit and toss them in the food processor to make your own bread crumbs.

Use bread crumbs to add to meatloaf.

Bread some eggplant and make Eggplant Parmesan (SO EASY! I’ll post the recipe some time soon. If you don’t want to make it. Have your mom or dad do it for you. Tastes a lot like fried zucchini! Yummy)!

You can also use them as a coating for chicken strips, chicken nuggets or fried chicken. Add some powdered parmesan cheese, Italian spices (basil, oregano, thyme, garlic salt, etc), salt and pepper and roll the chicken in it! Then fry in hot oil or place on a greased baking sheet (325 for 15 minutes, flipping them over mid-way through). You could also just fry them up in a saute pan with some butter (heat butter first).

Make a tasty French Toast Bake! After bread heels have thawed (or thrown in the microwave until they’re soft enough to cut), cut them into cubes. Once you have about 2-3 cups worth. Mix 4 eggs and some milk (like 1/2 cup), a few drops of vanilla extract, and some cinnamon/sugar mixture and beat all together. Grab some of your favorite fruit (a mixture of berries, bananas, strawberry-banana mixture, etc. If you like cream cheese, cut some in cubes and throw that in there too!) and add that to the cubed bread. Dump the bread & fruit into a glass Pyrex dish (square or circle 9″). Then add the egg mixture. Push the fruit and bread down so that the liquid can soak through all the bread. Make sure all bread is touching liquid (it doesn’t have to be completely submerged… just touching and wet). Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until browned. Serve with syrup or eat as is. So yummy. It also keeps well in fridge for a few days and re-heats well.

Hope some of these suggestions were helpful! Happy eating.

*Photo of Jeremy Klein, by Jeremy Klein (cutting the cheese…).

This is our first review! Hooray! I’ll be doing weekly or bi-weekly food reviews, so you can know what kind of stuff is out there (and the stuff you may not want to know is out there… tee hee).

Kinnikinnick is a fabulous company! Based in Canada, you can get pretty much anything you want, and shipping is always $10. We like that.

I have tried MANY gluten-free breads. Okay, let me try to count… err… umm… I’ve probably tasted over ten different GF breads (including homemade). There are so many different companies and flavors, so I really wanted to make the best choice.

This bread is, by far, my favorite! It’s nice and airy… not heavy like most GF breads out there. It needs to remain frozen, but it takes only about a minute in the microwave to bring it to perfection! (I have this “technique” I created to reach maximum eat-a-bility).

I’ve tried the Brown variety of this bread as well, and though I liked it… in my mind, it’s second to the White Sandwich Bread. The brown doesn’t hold together as well… though it does have just a bit more nutritional value. It tends to crumble a lot easier than the white variety.

This White Sandwich Bread is perfect for any type of sandwich you like to make! It can also be toasted and tastes great! The flavor is excellent, and in my opinion, very close to the wheat bread I remember.

In the next blog, I’ll give ideas for what you can do with the heels (ends) of your loaves. I mean, I suppose you could make those into sandwiches, but most people I know just throw them away. I like to take advantage of how great this bread is! Look for those ideas in our next day’s blog!

Technique for making the most of frozen GF bread:

You take two slices and you wrap them each in a paper towel (they can’t be stacked on top of one another). You set them in the microwave for 15-20 seconds (20 if you have a small, lower-watt microwave). Then you flip them over and do another 15-20 seconds. Continue flipping and heating until they are soft all the way through (it’s okay if the middle is not *completely* soft… if you over-heat it, the crust will start to get dry and hard).

Take them out of the microwave and let them sit for a couple minutes. Then add peanut butter and jelly, meat, cheese, veggies or whatever, and you have a great sandwich! This bread tastes much better if you eat it within minutes of coming out of the microwave. If you’re packing this in your lunch for school/work/practice/etc., wrap it in the paper towel you used in the microwave before you put it in a sandwich baggy. This helps it stay fresh.