I'm coming back!

Hold your horses! I'm coming back!!!!

Next week: Fresh Peach Pie!

My mouth is watering already.....

See you soon.

Gluten Free Bisquick

I am starting to feel like a normal eater again; Bisquick, bread, cupcakes for my birthday and so many restaurant choices. It seems like I notice some new every week! I've been waiting all summer for Gluten Free Bisquick to come out and finally I saw the little box on the shelf at King Soopers. I was like what to make! I first thought of pancakes, because that's what we always used it for when I was little. But I also remember that always making me sick. So no pancakes. Plus, I like the Bob's Red Mill Mix for that. Then I remembered my mom used to make strawberry shortcake with it but I wasn't having people over anytime soon so nix that idea too. So I went onto the Betty Crocker website and looked for recipes they made. I decided on Easy Sloppy Joe Pot Pie. I went to Whole Foods and bought some all natural BBQ sauce and ground turkey (beef would have been better) . It was very easy, just mix up the Bisquick and a few things, then put over cooked meat and bake. The Bisquick rose on top of the meat and had a pretty good texture. Not so much a good flavor though... I might make this again with beef just to see if it's better. But next I want to try biscuits or shortcake!


Easy Sloppy Joe Pot Pie
Makes 4+ servings

1 LB ground beef
1 onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 can (15.5 oz) original sloppy joe sauce (I used an all natural BBQ sauce)
1 C cheddar cheese ( I didn't put this in and was too scared to use the fake stuff)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 C milk (I used almond)
1 C Gluten Free Bisquick

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Lightly grease bottom on 8x8 (2 quart) glass baking dish.
3. Cook beef and onion in skillet till browned. Drain.
4. Stir in sloppy joe sauce and cheese.
5. Spoon into baking dish.
6. In medium bowl, stir together eggs, milk and Bisquick.
7. Pour over beef mixture.
8. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!
From bettycrocker.com

Gluten Free Fair and Tour

A lot has been going on in the last two weeks. And a bunch of gluten free stuff happened the week before that but I'm just getting to blogging about it now. But I'm here and I ready to spill it all. The Denver Chapter of the Celiac Sprue Association (CSA) hosted a Gluten Free Food Fair a few weekends ago. It was so great! There were about 90 vendors there, all with gluten free food! It ranged from Mom and Pop places to huge companies like Udi's, Maggianos, Chipotle. There was so many samples to taste and people the push threw. The space was not big enough for the amount of people that were there! They passed the number of expected attendees for the whole thing in the just the first hour! We gluten frees are taking over the world! There was so much food I could not possibly stomach all of it. Much of the food was kind of junky because gluten is in breads, cookies, cakes and sweets like that. I don't each much of that stuff but I took the chance to try things I've seen at the store but have never bought because it was expensive and I didn't know if it was good. Some examples were Udi's Bagels, Kinnikinnick Donuts, Canyon Bakehouse Cinnamon Bread. I promptly bought the cinnamon bread next time I was at the store! Yum! After I filled my bag with coupons, samples and a free loaf of bread from Rudis! (Not so great, crumbly) I volunteered at a table handing out samples. If you're in Denver be sure to look for it next year! Not to be missed, but get there in the first hour.
I went to another gluten free event. I've been seeing "Gluten Free Store Tours" at many Whole Foods recently. Finally, I decided to go on one. I knew I'd probably already know of everything but what the heck. So I get there and am waiting. The tour guide comes and gives us really nice Whole Foods bags (the kind at the check stand) and says we can choose 3 GF items to take home with us in the bag! NO WAY! So we walk around the store, I chime in on a few things and then I get my free items! I chose a frozen pasta (was not good), Canyon Bakehouse Muffins (good!) and a quinoa cereal. Look out for these at your local Whole Foods. I see them every month now.

Beer and Olive Garden

Wow a lot of gluten free happenings in the last week. Where to start... Brian and I plus 2 other couples (the girls are both my friends) decided to have a dinner party last weekend. Basically it was so we could meet each others boyfriend/husband that we always talk about so much. We made sushi. A good thing to make for a group of people. But the gluten free part of this was I bought the raspberry beer I mentioned earlier in the summer. New Planet 3R Raspberry Ale My GF friend and I split the large bottle. It was okay..... as my boyfriend said, it doesn't taste like beer but it's good. It's very light and I think if I was a beer drinker I would like dark beers. So I won't buy that again. Sticking to cider and wine.

I tried a new restaurant. I wasn't planning on it but I went back to my college town to visit a friend for the weekend and her sister and her friends were visiting also. So we were deciding where to go to dinner and they all screamed Olive Garden! I was like shoot I don't think I've EVER been there. There isn't one in my home town and during college I didn't eat out much. Then I was like SHOOT what I am going to eat. Thinking I could just get a burger or some other kind of meat.... I then remembered that Olive Garden has gluten free food! So I looked up the menu online and sure enough they about about 8 items. Now I wasn't expecting much from a huge chain restaurant like that with the cross contamination issue and such. We went and I asked the waiter about their cooking procedures (DeAnna would be proud) He was like "well yeah you have to cook the food in the separate stuff because it's an allergy" I was like CORRECT. But he went back and checked with the cooks to be sure. He said the food was so I felt better. They only had 1 dish of pasta and it had veggie sauce. The rest were meat dishes. Which is kind of weird because I can get a meat sauce at Maggianos..... That tells you the meat they put in the pasta isn't very pure.... The pasta and sauce were ok. Nothing special. I didn't feel sick so that's always a plus. But nice because all of the other people in the group could get something good. I guess sometimes I just have to take one for the team! So I wouldn't go there just for the gluten free pasta but not a bad place to eat if other people want to go there.

Ok well I have two more things to blog about but it's getting late. Look for the posts this week!

Eating Out

It was my boyfriend's graduation this weekend and his family came to Denver to celebrate. Needless to say, we ate out a lot. I find it so interesting how wait staff responds to food allergies. I have two examples.

Example #1: One night we had dinner at Maggiano's. Now, Maggianos is on my list of good gluten free restaurants to eat at. Yes, I have a running list and some places don't make it. Maggiano's does have a "reservations necessary" clause though because their waits are outrageous. So when we went there last week we were informed their menu had changed. There used to be 2 sizes of pasta, half and full. Now they only have one size and they "send some home with you". What a business plan. I have never heard of that! So weird! Guess they want you to keep thinking about Maggiano's even after you leave.... They even offered to give us a different kind to take home. So we got the food and of course the size was smaller. Kind of lame. Another problem we came across was is we told the waiter that we needed a gluten dairy free dish. He responded with "Is this an allergy or a preference?" UH it doesn't matter! You should do the best you can to serve what the customer requests! That was disappointing. Finally, we received our pasta only to find out they changed the kind of pasta. The old one was really yummy and the new one is not. And my boyfriend and I's stomach were not to happy after. Magganio's you are officially OFF my list!

Example #2: My boyfriend, his dad and I were up at Blackhawk, a gambling town outside of Denver. It became dinner time so we looked at the menu at the current casino we were in. They had a few things I could eat. A salad, hamburger and salmon. This was kind of dive place. Cafe style, nothing fancy. I ordered the salmon with a baked potato and veggies. I explained I am allergic to gluten and dairy so no butter or breadcrumbs on the food. (I like to give examples for clarity) The waitress came back two times to clarify things about my order. The cook even suggested to steam the veggies instead of sauteing them. The meal turned out really well and I felt fine after!

Now let's compare and contrast these two examples. One high end restaurant and advertises their gluten free meals and one dive cafe. The cafe was better than the high end restaurant?! Yes it was. Who knew!

Gluten Free Fruit Crisp

Exciting foodie weekend for me. I finally got my act together and made it to the Cherry Creek Farmer's Market on time Saturday. Too bad it was a record 102 degree high that day. It made for super hot shopping :( I haven't been yet this year so I was excited to see the gluten free offerings. The only stand that really interested me was one with gluten free cookies, breads and brownies. I went up and looked at the menu and saw it was all junkie sugar stuff and was about to turn away. But then the attendant caught me and said hi. I made a comment about how the bread she had out to sample was crumbly, like all gluten free stuff. She thought I was being mean and responded "it's been out in the hot sun for a while" I was like, right because gluten free stuff also melts (it really does). Then I explained that I am gluten free and I know everything crumbles and that's what sucks about it. So then we were talking for bit and finally I felt like I had to buy something. So I bought a piece of lemon poppyseed bread and it was pretty good actually. Don't think I've had poppyseed something for awhile (that used to be my favorite kind of muffin). After that stand I came across a FABULOUS FIND. Remember I mentioned those tamales from Boulder in my last post. Well, they were there! In Denver! So great! They even had frozen ones I could take home too. I bought some bean and spinach ones. And I had one tonight. So good! I will be going to the Farmers Market every Saturday now!
Peaches are just coming into season right now. So I bought some at the farmer's market, the famous Palisade Peaches. As well as some cherries and decided to whip up a fruit crisp for dessert. I made this recipe many times last summer but I never blogged about it. It was very good and my boyfriend liked it too. Not too sweet or crunchy. I also like this recipe because the flours are basic ones I always have. The crisp part would work with any fruit too! Here's the recipe.

Gluten Free Fruit Crisp
(Makes 4 servings)

2-3 Cups Fruit (I used blueberries, peaches and cherries)
1/2 C white sugar
1 1/2 TBS cornstarch
3/4 C brown rice flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 C brown sugar
1/2 C crushed Enjoy Life Very Berry Granola
1/3 C butter (I used Vegan Earth Balance)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Prepare fruit by cutting and/or pitting. Can use frozen but thawed and drained fruit.
3. Place fruit into 9x9 pan, spread evenly.
4. Sprinkle fruit with white sugar and cornstarch.
5. Toss mixture to make sure evenly distributed.
6. In bowl, mix brown rice flour and xanthan gum.
7. Add brown sugar, mix again.
8. Add smashed granola.
9. Cut butter into the flour mix. The topping should look like coarse, crumbly cornmeal when ready.
10. Pour topping onto fruit in pan. Layer evenly.
11. Bake for 50 minutes. The fruit juices will be dark and bubbling. With a browned topping when it is done.
12. Enjoy a la mode or plain!

GF at Coors Field

Hi All, summer time = baseball games. Here in Denver the Rockies play at Coors Field in downtown Denver. My boyfriend and I and a few friends headed out for a game this weekend. It was a great game with many home runs and big hits. I was also excited to go because Coors Field started having GF food last season. So I checked it out. They had a special cart with GF hot dogs, burgers and chicken. As well as cookies and beer. Even with it's own condiments (some were even organic). It's so great people are providing so much for our community! I didn't get anything from the cart... because I ate before I came and don't like GF beer.... But I'm sure it was good!