I’m also going to have recipes and show EVERY brand of EVERY food I eat… plus WHERE I purchased that brand. I hope it can help someone out there!

I’ll have a link set up on the side. Don’t forget to check it out!

So first… get some sliced Genoa Salami (you can get it from the deli at the grocery store), cream cheese (regular or whipped… doesn’t matter), and some celery or green onions (both taste good).

Spread a bit of cream cheese on some salami.

Then wrap the salami around the celery stick or green onion.

That’s it! Easy, huh?! And super tasty.

Edited to add: Salami is Boar’s Head Genoa Salami.

And the people at Triumph Dining are making it SO easy to get something for free… and help out a great cause. You can go here, and get yourself a free dining card from Triumph Dining. I have some of these already, and they are cooler than cool!

You take them with you to restaurants (you can also order them in different languages!), and you can just whip one out, and hand it to your server. No more feeling uncomfortable about talking to the restaurant people about our special diet.

Triumph Dining makes it so easy!

And get this… if they get 15,000 people to sign up for free dining cards, Triumph Dining will make a $10,000 donation in support of the National Celiac Disease Awareness Campaign! WOOHOO!

So come on… what are you waiting for?! Free dining cards AND helping out your fellow Celiacs… you have the whole month of August. Get going!

I’m finally in Austin, working, living in my new apartment, and getting settled. *Just* got the internet hooked up, but my computer is on the floor (no furniture yet), so I don’t go on often.

So I’ll post a more substantial post when I get a *bit* more settled. Hope everyone is well and eating super-tasty GF food!

I’m sure you can share the feeling… our eyes are trained to see those words in a sea of ingredient lists and labels… especially, if it’s on the front of a package. My mind quickly registers, and I think, “Why the heck would they put “GLUTEN FREE, WHEAT FREE” on an ice cream label? (or dairy-free frozen dessert label) I get a bit closer to see what it is. And what to my wandering eyes does appear? Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream… along with no fear.

No fear because it already says “GLUTEN FREE” right on it (on the removable “freshness” label). I quickly grab it, let out a little squeal (I’m sure onlookers were scared), and toss it in my cart.

I actually waited until *after* I ate my tacos to taste it. And it was divine! And this was at my regular grocery store in the dairy-free dessert section! But I’m sure many health food stores carry it. Okay, if you’re still reading this and haven’t yet gotten up to run to the store to get some, do it now. You won’t regret it!

Thank you, Purely Decadent. We heart you! A lot.

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!

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…).

Moderated chat sessions will be held at least once a month. We’ll send out a message, letting you know what time to join us.

If you have any ideas for topics of discussion, please drop us line, using the “Contact Us” link to the right! ;o)

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.