Celiac Teens

This recipe is one of our favorites! It is SO simple!

Makes 6 servings

2 packages (1/4 ounce each) Knox unflavored gelatin
2 cups boiling water
1 cup cold water
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon almond extract
Fruit cocktail, mandarin oranges in syrup, marachino cherries, or cantaloupe (all good choices!)

1. Completely dissolve the gelatin in 2 cups of boiling water. Pour SLOWLY and continuously stir!

2. Add 1 cup of cold water and one cup of sweetened condensed milk. Then add 1 tablespoon almond extract. Stir well. Pour into a square or oblong baking pan. Refrigerate until solid (several hours).

3. Remove from refrigerator and cut into small cubes. Put in a bowl and mix with fruit cocktail or Mandarin oranges in syrup.

4. Serve in individual bowls.

Thanks to Michelle Greenwald at the The Magical Melting Pot, on Yahoo! Food, for this recipe!

French Toast Bake

A great recipe for those leftover bread “heels” or stale bread you have stored up in your freezer! If you don’t want to wait for bread heels, just use a regular loaf. These ingredients are very “non-exact” because it really doesn’t matter. You can’t screw this one up unless you have WAY too much liquid, and not enough bread to soak it up. If that’s the case, just pour out some liquid or add more bread.

Ingredients:

2-3 cups GF bread cubes

1-2 cups fruit (mixed berries, bananas, peaches, etc)

1/2 cup cubed cream cheese (optional)

4 eggs

1/2 milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp cinnamon-sugar mixture (optional, and you can always skip the sugar)

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 the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and the cinnamon/sugar mixture and beat all together. Grab some of your favorite fruit. (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 (the top 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.

Serves 4-6.

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…).