 Homemade Ketchup ~ a simple way to reduce your sugar intake! A gluten free diet makes reading ingredient lists on food labels a necessity. These days, it’s not only allergens we’re searching for on food labels. Ingredients like preservatives, sodium, and SUGAR are a focus for many of us. New research related to sugar and its negative impact on our health surfaces almost daily. Some say “natural” sugars, like honey, agave nectar, and pure maple syrup, are better than granulated refined white sugar. Others claim foods made with honey, pure maple syrup, or palm sugar are “sugar-free”. Regardless of where you stand on the sugar issue, you probably agree LESS IS BEST when it comes to the sweet stuff. This week's recipe can help do just that! Add Comment  Naturally Gluten Free Roasted Veggies are a terrific way to add tasty nutrition to your GF diet! Roasting vegetables is a simple way to intensify the natural flavors that otherwise go unnoticed in foods like cauliflower. This simple How-To applies to most veggies... broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, eggplant, etc. Use your imagination and find YOUR favorite roasted veggie dish! Gluten Free Gigi's Roasted Cauliflower (with Cajun Spice) 1 head cauliflower (substitute any veggie you like here!) Juice from 1 lemon 1 Tablespoon Olive oil (or other oil of your choice) 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning (salt, pepper, cayenne pepper) Preheat oven to 400F. Line a large baking pan with foil. Remove outer leaves from cauliflower. Separate cauliflower into florets, wash, drain. Add oil, juice from lemon, and florets to a large bowl and toss, coating all florets with oil, juice, and seasonings. Pour contents of bowl onto prepared pan. Place in oven and roast for 40 minutes. Turn half way through roasting, at 20 minutes. Remove from oven when done, edges will become dark and slightly crisp. Serve hot, or cool to room temperature. Roasted cauliflower is even excellent served chilled! Then, try this... 
Gluten Free Quinoa Stuffed Peppers ~ a simple, affordable, delish Slow Cooker dish!
Even though I'm not vegan or vegetarian, many people on a gluten free diet are one or the other. That's why this is among the top nutrition questions I receive: "How can I get enough protein if I don’t eat meat (or dairy)?" The answer is simple, and gives us another reason to LOVE living gluten free! My answer also provides great information for EVERYONE, not just those who don't eat meat (or animal products). Adding healthy variety to our gluten free diet keeps it interesting and tasty! (Find out more about how to add nutritious variety to your gluten free diet in my article on "Taste Groups".) Incorporating certain gluten free whole “grains” into our diet is a fantastic way to get healthy protein on our plate, and much, much more! Today’s focus... QUINOA! What is Quinoa? Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), while referred to as a whole grain, really isn’t a grain at all. It’s a tiny seed from a plant in the Goosefoot family. Some familiar relatives of quinoa are beets (check out my most recent article on beets), Swiss chard (find my healthy, nutritious gluten free Cannellini Beans with Chard here), spinach (try my simple gluten free vegetarian Spinach Squares), and amaranth. Like its familiar relatives, quinoa is a great way to add nutrition to our gluten free diet! Check out some of the health benefits of quinoa...  Quinoa is a terrific high-protein nutrition-packed food to add to your gluten free diet! For the full "how-to" on quinoa's health benefits and how to use it, read my "A Side of Science" article about Quinoa. Gluten Free Slow Cooker Quinoa Stuffed Peppers 4 medium bell peppers, washed and dried 2 cans (14.5 ounces EACH) organic diced tomatoes 1 can (14.5 ounce) organic tomato sauce 1 cup quinoa flakes 1 cup chopped onion 1 cup chopped mushrooms 1 cup water 2 teaspoons Italian herbs 4 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 eggs, lightly beaten (or use an appropriate egg alternative - for ideas CLICK HERE) First, prepare the peppers: Cut tops only off peppers to remove stem and expose inside of pepper. Gluten Free Gigi Tip! Don't throw away money!! After you discard the stem, you can dice the top portion of the peppers. Store it in the fridge in a covered container to use in another dish. From 4 peppers, you may get up to 1/2 cup diced pepper for another use! Remove the seeds and white membrane from inside peppers. Seeds and membrane can be discarded. Set the peppers aside and get your slow cooker ready by turning it on high. Add the 2 cans of tomatoes, tomato sauce, and 1 teaspoon of the Italian herbs and garlic to the slow cooker. Stir. Now, prepare the filling... In a mixing bowl, combine quinoa flakes, onion, mushrooms, water, eggs, 1 teaspoon Italian herbs, salt, and 1 cup of the tomato mixture from the slow cooker. Stir filling ingredients until well-blended. Divide filling evenly between the 4 peppers, filling nearly to the top. The mixture will puff slightly when it is cooking. Carefully place the filled peppers in the tomato sauce in the slow cooker. Cover, and cook on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until filling appears dry on the top and peppers are fork-tender. ~g~ Join me in the kitchen and try more of my gluten free recipes. Click here to see all of the recipes I have for you! Living gluten free tastes so good... you'll see! To receive every new gluten free recipe right in your inbox each week along with my latest “A Side of Science” articles like this one be sure to click here to SIGN UP for my FREE E-LETTER! Let's Connect! Do you have Comments about a specific post or recipe? Please share in the “comments” section below! Do you have Questions? Click here to check out my ALL NEW FAQs and you might just find your answer! If you don't find your answer in my FAQs, email me: mailbox (at) glutenfreegigi (dot) com. I’m always happy to hear from you, but need to ask for your understanding and patience when it comes to responding. I receive lots of email these days, which I love, but it can be challenging sometimes to respond to each one. I answer as many of your questions as possible in my How-To videos and posts so everyone can benefit. Keep watching my videos and website for my answer to YOUR question! Follow Along... On Twitter and "Like" me on Facebook! You can also check out my boards on Pinterest and find out what I’m posting on Google+! These are places I like to go have fun and share what’s going on in the Gluten Free Test Kitchen and in my HOME Kitchen! I love following you, too! Make sure you let me know you’re out there! ~g~ Thanks for taking time to visit! Come back for my weekly recipe and how-to video posts on Tuesdays and useful "A Side of Science" articles on Thursdays. If you don't, I'll miss you! My mission here at GlutenFreeGigi.com is to share my experience and knowledge to make gluten free living easy and accessible for everyone. I can help you navigate your gluten free life with ease and confidence because I understand how challenging it can be! Click here to learn more about who I am and my gluten free story. I’m super-excited to have YOU here! The journey's fantastic when you're sharing it with folks who have things in common... I'm glad you're sharing the gluten free journey with me!! P.S. -- Click here to sign up for my free e-Letter so you don't miss a thing! xo, Gluten Free Gigi 
Pretty in Pink Gluten Free Granola ~ Easy, affordable, healthy, and delish!
Will you be my Valentine? I made granola for you. Not just any old granola, either. For you, only the very best gluten free healthy granola. Except, it doesn’t taste healthy. It tastes like guilty granola. It’s magic...sort of. Gluten Free Valentine's Day Treats! 02/13/2012
Some say LOVE is all you need...  CLICK IMAGE for Gluten Free Red Velvet Cake recipe I say gluten free CAKE is important, too! Try my Gluten Free Red Velvet Cake, or how about...  CLICK IMAGE for Gluten Free Coconut Cake Recipe this gorgeous Chocolate Glazed Gluten Free Coconut Cake?  CLICK IMAGE for Gluten Free Jelly Doughnut Muffins recipes Or maybe you'd rather have Gluten Free Jelly Doughnut Muffins! But let's not stop here... there's much, much more... 
Isn't it just beet-iful?! Naturally Gluten Free Beet Fluff
It's time we get to the heart of the matter when it comes to naturally gluten free beets. What better time than during the month of LOVE?! After all, I promised you a month filled with ways to love living gluten free! Beets wear the color of LOVE year-round, and you have to admit, it's one sexy shade of pink! If this rosy root isn't at the top of your grocery list, I understand. It's not always love at first sight... or at first bite. I'm not asking you to rush out and buy a bundle of beets, but I do want you to read on. What you discover might surprise you! In this month of loving, why not give beets a chance? 
Giving up favorite foods is no fun. Neither is reading a label then wondering if “natural flavor” or “spices” may be covering up hidden gluten. An email I recently received from Kathy C. in Wisconsin helped me realize it was time to share a favorite recipe with all of you. Kathy wrote: “I’m so tired of playing hit-and-miss with foods since going gluten free. I love canned chipotle sauce in all sorts of dishes, and even when I buy the brand that doesn’t list wheat as an ingredient, I still get sick. The only ingredients are chipotle peppers, tomato sauce, garlic, onion, salt, and spices. Do you think there could be hidden gluten in there? I’m so tired of giving up things I used to eat! Thanks so much for all you do for us trying to live gluten free!” This note caught my eye for two reasons: (1) I absolutely love chipotles in adobo! (2) Not long after going gluten free over 4 years ago, I’d had the same issue as Kathy not knowing which canned chipotle peppers were “safe” for me to eat. After some investigating, I found some companies add wheat as a thickener to the sauce. Occasionally they even list wheat as an ingredient. Unfortunately, gluten can go in the can without ever showing up on the label. A few possible hiding spots for gluten in canned chipotle peppers are: (1) tomato sauce (added to thicken it) (2) natural flavor (depending on source and processing) (3) spices (depending on processing, if blended, and packaging)  Whatever, Debbie! Gluten Free Gigi's Oatmeal Cream Extreme Pies I never really thought hers were very tasty. They were sweet, soft, chewy... almost gooey in the center. But they lacked chocolate. I always wondered about that Debbie, not wanting chocolate in her oatmeal cream pies. Didn't you??  Fudge-y filling spread onto each cookie before adding the marshmallow creme is essential! I've never missed those cellophane-wrapped cakes, but one evening Little Chef and I were in the kitchen (always!) chattering away (always!) about food. Our topic: Snacks from my childhood versus those she eats. How times have changed! You see, Little Chef doesn't really know Little Debbie all that well. Even before I went gluten free, Debbie was rarely invited to our house. So, in our kitchen chatter, I told Little Chef how, when I was a child, everyone seemed to have a cupboard full of boxes with that rosy-cheeked girl smiling out at you. I could tell she was imagining how delicious those sugar-y treats really are. You know, there is huge kid-appeal in the box alone, not to mention how attractive they make the cakes look with all that waxy "chocolate" and those funky shapes. I told her they really aren't that good. "But didn't you eat them when you were a kid?" she wasn't buying it. "Yes, but... I didn't really like them. They were just there," it was true. I told her if I had been Little Debbie, I'd make something extreme, something magnificent, something with chocolate that was brimming with so much sweet filling no cellophane wrapper could contain it! She turned on the oven and said, "I'll help you." A Side of Science: Love Living Gluten Free with A Reader Recipe Makeover ~ Gluten Free Cake! 02/02/2012
 Have your (gluten free) cake and eat it, too! My Little Chef made those candy hearts and shared some to accent my cake! Love! February. Hearts, flowers...LOVE! Don’t you feel it in the air?? I do! I’m sharing the love with YOU all month long with 4 more weeks of all-new heavenly gluten free recipes and information. I want to help you love and appreciate your gluten free lifestyle more each and every day! You know by now there’s more to special diets here at GlutenFreeGigi.com than simply omitting an offending food. Just as I did before eliminating gluten (and dairy, soy, and nuts) from my diet, I continue to take a "lifestyle" approach to health, focusing on nutrition as fundamental to long-term wellness. That doesn't mean there isn't room for favorite foods like cake! Foods we love need not be left behind, even on our healthy gluten free diet. |  
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Visit Debi, an Autism Specialist, offering a transformational system for children with ASD.  Give the most UNIQUE and HEALTHY holiday gift anywhere... Avocados! My friends at California Avocados Direct simply have THE BEST! !  Visit the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness by clicking here!archivesFebruary 2012 categoriesAll  |
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