I have been doing a low carb program for the last couple of weeks. I have found that even with exercise I have not been able to lose weight. I have the joys of a thyroid condition and celiacs, making it difficult to lose weight.

Years ago I had successfully lost almost 50 lbs doing a doctor monitored low carb diet. The problem arose after losing the weight my doctor suggested that I start adding wheat to my diet and over an 18 month period not only started gaining the weight back dramatically, but I got sicker and sicker.

I was diagnosed with celiacs and felt so much better. But, as such with life, I kept the weight on. I took the time to learn about living gluten free, and allowed both my system and my soul to heal. Now I feel better than ever. I walk daily and participate in a ladies weight program twice a week. I would like to lose some more weight so I have decided that for the summer, with all the fresh veggies available, I will cut out the carbs
.
You will be seeing a lot more salads and meats on the blog for the summer. I am sure once the cold weather creeps into Calgary that I will start adding carbs in slowly. I am thinking low carb on the weekdays and a little carbs on the weekends. We will see if this plan works out.

I do miss my lovely flax bread toasted for breakfast from GF Patisserie. After discovering this lovely bakery in Cochrane I was able to get delicious gluten free bread… so now I definitely miss it.

Here is a lovely salad I got out of the “Ultimate Chicken” magazine issue. Again I am making my own dressings and was thrilled to find a Vietnamese salad recipe. I of course, have modified it a little, with bbq season here.

1 pkg jumbo raw shrimp
3 chicken breasts
1 pkg rice vermicelli noodles
3/4 cup olive oil
¼ cup + 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 tsp salt and pepper
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp crushed red pepper
1 Tbsp grated lime peel
3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
½ tsp chili powder
2 Tbsp sugar
3 heads romaine lettuce, shredded
1 cup shredded carrots
1 large bunch cilantro, chopped
1 cup crushed unsalted peanuts

In a bowl, combine 3 Tbsp of the olive oil, the 2 Tbsp of lime juice, cilantro, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, and cayenne pepper.Add chicken to bowl and marinade in fridge for 10-30 minutes. Remove from marinade and Bbq til chicken is done.Remove from Bbq and slice chicken thinly.

In a small aluminum pie plate, add peeled shrimp, a Tbsp of olive oil, and I like to put ½-1 tsp chili powder and mix around. I then place pie plate on bbq and cooked the shrimp for 3-5 minutes until done.

For the dressing in a large salad bowl, whisk together the remaining ½ cup olive oil, ¼ cup lime juice, lime peel, vinegar, chili powder, sugar, salt and pepper.

Add to bowl, chopped lettuce, carrots, cilantro, peanuts, chicken strips, and shrimp.
Toss altogether.

**Now as an option you can add rice vermicelli noodles to salad. I am doing low carb, so there were no noodles on my plate. But my family enjoys the noodles.
Prepare according to directions while the chicken is marinading.

This easily could serve 6 people for supper.

One of the things I have discovered being celiac is I prefer making almost everything I eat from scratch. This way I know exactly what is in the food I eat. And one of things I am most enjoying from scratch is salad dressing. I hate to say it, but pre-diagnosis all salad dressings I used were store bought. The difference in taste between homemade and store bought is actually beyond words. The fresh flavors just pop in my mouth.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing is now one of my favorites. I literally make a new batch every week. The recipe for this dressing is thanks to my fav gluten free girl. I cannot believe I am now just discovering this wonderful salad dressing.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing recipe

1 cup buttermilk
1 cup mayo (I use the olive oil mayo)
1 cup full fat yogurt (I use plain greek yogurt)
1 tsp dried dill and oregano
1 tsp garlic puree
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp salt and pepper

Mix everything together. I use a canning jar for the mixing and storing-thus eliminating washing another bowl. I put all the ingredients in, close the lid, and SHAKE!!

With fresh summer herbs here now, I add whatever herbs I have on hand, such as basil, cilantro, or parsley. Do not be afraid to chop a lot in-the flavor is worth it!

This is one of the salads I love to make. I cut up chicken breasts into slices, coat them with spices, fry them up and top them on a veggie salad. Then add the buttermilk dressing. Yum!

Hmmmmm… the smell of this pork cooking over the day in my slow cooker was fabulous. The whole house smelled of spices, smoke, and meat! This is a great recipe anytime of the year. Pork shoulder is relatively inexpensive here right now. In fact at Superstore they were carrying small roasts of pork for $6.00. And it was enough to feed the 4 of us, with some leftovers. Now, for me, that was a great deal!

To cook in a slow cooker is so so easy. The trick, really is to be prepared the night before. You cannot take meat out of the freezer on the same day, and cook it, to be ready for supper. It just won’t happen. However, you can let the meat unthaw during the day-and then cook it in the slow cooker overnight. Thus having it ready for lunches. The only caution I have with this is…you can have a hard time sleeping smelling all that goodness waffling through the house.

I discovered another great blog. This one only deals with the slow cooker. In fact for 1 year, it was the only means of cooking in Stephanie O’Dea household. She even wrote a book called “Make it Fast, Cook it Slow” by Stephanie O’Dea. Check out her blog, there are a lot of fun recipes for everyone to try. And of course, the bonus is, ALL recipes are GLUTEN FREE!!!!!

This is her recipe for Cajun Pulled Pork. I hope you try it out!

4 pounds boneless pork shoulder
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cumin, garlic powder, onion powder,
1 tsp red pepper, smoked paprika, black pepper
½ onion, chopped
1 Tbsp butter
1-2 Tbsp liquid smoke
2 cups water

Put meat into a large plastic zipper bag with brown sugar and all spices. Seal well and shake to coat. Pour contents of bag into stoneware.
Top with chopped onion, butter and liquid smoke. Pour in water.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until meat shreds easily with a fork.

I like to put my pulled pork onto a heated corn tortillas.
This is the brand that I like to get here in Calgary at my local Mexican store.

** a hint on using your corn tortillas is to heat them up individually in a frying pan(no oil), flipping over to heat thoroughly. Then wrap them up right away in a large tea towel. The tortillas will stay soft and warm for quite awhile.**

*** the only other variation I have with the pork, is I like to brown my meat before I place it in the slow cooker. I then added the spices to the slow cooker. I like my meat to be browned when I eat it.

****a new change to this recipe is the use of pork loin. I really am not a fan of the fat associated with pork shoulder. The COOP here had a sale on pork loins so I thought I would try it out. Man, oh man, the meat was so tender and delicious. I actually prefer the pork loin to a pork shoulder.

While cruising the aisles of Amaranth Whole Foods Market I discovered a new gluten free product: Falafel Chips. While they were quite pricey (almost $6.00) I decided to give them a try. And I was not disappointed.

These chips are described as high fiber, high protein, and full of flavor. And the description is correct for all. Just looking at the list of ingredients will tell you, how much flavor will be in the chip.

Falafel chips are made with corn, chickpeas, fava and black beans, and so many spices and herbs I was excited to try them. I loved the flavor! There are 2 kinds- original and spicy. And spicy they are!

So, what do you have with Falafel chips? Well, I make homemade salsa. Something I am making every week now, that I am finding fresh, organic vegetables at the farmers market.

Here is my salsa recipe for today. Please play with your own recipe. This is what I had on hand today, so this is todays salsa. Last week, I used more peppers and less tomatoes. Have fun with it!

Salsa

3 mini jalapenos
1 red chili pepper
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
Juice of 1 lime
Rind from 1 lime
Handful of cilantro, basil, and parsley
14 grape tomatoes
10 2 inch tomatoes on the vine

**Make sure you wear latex gloves when cutting up jalapenos, and chili peppers.

In food processor, add cut-up jalapenos, chili pepper, red and yellow pepper. Process until it looks like salsa. Add juice and rind of lime.
Add basil, cilantro and parsley

Process again.

Add tomatoes and pulse 3-5 times until tomatoes are finely chopped.

And now, the easy part…dip a falafel chip into the salsa and enjoy!

I am so, so excited I can hardly stand it!

I have been experimenting with making gluten-free pizza ever since being diagnosed. And to tell the truth, the first pizzas I made … well, we ate them … because I did not know what gf pizza was supposed to be like. I do think, as Celiacs, we initially lower our expectations about food. There is a lot of really bad processed gluten-free food. And if we don’t push the boundaries for what we really want, we will be stuck with what I call “cardboard” food. I grew up in a household of really good flour-y foods, and everything always tasted fantastic! So I guess I’m just not willing to lose flavour for flour.

Hence the reason for my blog. Yes I want to share my experiences with you all, but I have found that, more than anything else, this blog has pushed me to be better! It has raised my expectations and I guess there really is no going back.

Case in point: I was at the Celiac Market here in Calgary a couple of weeks ago. And, frankly, I was disappointed to see all that “cardboard” food out there for the newbies! I really wanted to scream, “Don’t buy those cardboard cookies! You should want better than that!”

In fact, I bought a chocolate cupcake from one vendor and, to tell the truth, I had one bite and I threw the rest away. It had no taste – nothing! And the icing – oh my goodness! Awful! Now, of course, I disguised my reaction, but to me it was sad what some Celiacs here in Calgary settle for.

So. Back to pizza. Today, while at Chinook Mall, I stepped into the wonderful world of Williams-Sonoma. I love that store. Kitchen things just make me smile! While cruising the displays, I spotted a new cookbook called Grilled Pizzas and Piadinas (Priebe & Jacob). Inspired, I decided that grilled pizza was on the menu tonight and set forth to try out a new recipe.
WELL I DID!

(Pick up the book Gluten-Free Italian by Jacqueline Mallorca – just for the pizza recipe alone [below].)

Quick rice flour pizza dough
1/3 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup white rice flour
½ cup tapioca starch
1 Tbsp dried milk powder (not instant)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 cup water
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 425F degrees.

Combine the brown rice flour, white rice flour, tapioca starch, milk powder, salt, baking powder, and xanthan gum in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together water, vinegar, olive oil.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir briefly to make a smooth batter.

Yields 2 individual pizza crusts.

Here’s where I went rogue:

I used aluminum pie plates for my individual pizzas (I planned to put the par-cooked pizzas on the barbeque). Pour 1 Tbsp olive oil on each pie plate.

Transfer half the batter into each pie plate and, with greased fingers, pat down the dough.

Place pie plates into the oven and bake for 9 minutes.

I then removed the pie plates and had everyone top their own pizzas.

Place each pie plate onto the barbeque grill, starting on low heat. (My barbeque is getting old and the temperature is a little wacky. So I ended up having to raise the heat to get the pizzas to cook.) Cooking time will vary depending on your barbeque. (Mine took around 10 more minutes for the toppings to cook and the cheese to melt.)

Oh my goodness! Doesn’t that gloriously grilled crust look magnificent!

Ahhhhhh…..the sweet crunch of homemade granola, combined with the best mediterranean yogurt. What a combination! I love this mixture for breakfast! In fact, it is a great evening snack too!

Here is an easy, delicious granola to make. What is great about this recipe is that whatever you have in your cupboards you can add to the oats. If you only have almonds and raisins around-use that. If you only have some sunflower seeds and craisins-use those. The flavor comes from the slow roasting-very little sweetener is used.

I thank Ruth in Germany for this recipe. When my daughter Alyssa was backpacking through Europe years ago. She had stayed at Ruth and Hanz’s place in the Black Forest in Germany. Alyssa came home with this recipe and I thank her and Ruth for it.

Granola

3 cups rolled oats (I used Only oats brand for there is no cross contamination)
2/3 cups slivered almonds
½ cup shredded coconut
½ cup pumpkin/sunflower seeds
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
¼ cup unsalted butter
6Tbsp honey
6 Tbsp maple syrup
1 cup mixed dried fruit (craisins)

In large bowl stir together oats, almonds, coconut, pumpkin seeds, and salt.
In small pot, melt butter with honey and maple syrup over low heat-then stir in vanilla. Pour butter mixture over oat mixture and stir until well combined.

Spread evenly in large cookie sheet.

and bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Stirring every 7 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheet.

Stir in dried fruit.
Store in air tight container for up to 2 weeks.

Here I took layered granola and yogurt to go for a quick breakfast on the run.

By the way, my favorite yogurt is by Liberty-there Mediterranean style is the best!! You can get such flavors as strawberry, lemon, coconut, plain, vanilla, orange mango, etc. Check out Amaranth and Planet Organic in the NW for these flavors.

Homemade bread.
Homemade bread.
Homemade bread.

Can I say enough about homemade bread?

Pre-celiac years, baking bread was a no-brainer for me. I could literally whip it up anytime of the day or night.

Anyone want cinnamon buns?
Anyone want cheese buns?
Anyone want fresh, hot, whole-house smell, yummy bread?

Oh ya! I could make it anytime.

But guess what? I cannot eat wheat anymore. Initially, I pretended that this was not a problem. What was the big deal? So, I cannot make bread with wheat, I will just make it gluten free. How hard could that be?

YIKES!!! Was I in for a shock!

Gluten free bread is NOT an easy project-and I have thrown out, many failed loafs of bread. That is why, when gf patisserie bakery opened in Cochrane I was so thrilled. I could finally have an incredible loaf of bread again. But, I was not going to give up the effort of trying new recipes.

On the blog www.thebakingbeauties.com I have found a Canadian gluten free blog that I quite enjoy. Recently she had a photo and recipe for gluten free cinnamon bread, so I thought I would give it a try. I was so very pleased with this recipe that I thought I would share the recipe with you. Please give it a try. I was! I still go to my favorite bakery and get my flax bread-however, it is nice to find a recipe for bread that worked out so well-that I will make it again.

Here is the recipe from www.thebakingbeauties.com

Gluten Free oatmeal cinnamon raisin bread

½ cup gf rolled oats
1 cup raisins

Place oats and raisins in a bowl and cover with hot water. Set aside and let soak for 10 minutes. Drain water using a strainer.

Wet ingredients
¾ cup- 1 cup warm water(start with ¾ cup and add up to ¼ cup)
2 Tbsp white sugar
1 Tbsp instant yeast
2 tsp cider vinegar
2 Tbsp veg oil
2 eggs
2 egg whites
Combine water,sugar and yeast. Stir and let sit until foamy on top. Then add the cider vinegar, veg oil, eggs,and egg whites.

Dry ingredients
1 cup brown rice flour
½ cup potato starch
½ cup tapioca starch
¼ cup milk powder
2tsp cinnamon
1 ½ tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
Combine all dry ingredients together in the bowl of a stand mixer until mixed.

Add the soaked oats and raisins to the dry ingredients. Turn the mixer on low speed and slowly add the wet ingredients. Once combined, scrape down sides of bowl with spatula. Turn mixer on medium and beat for 4 minutes.
Spoon prepared dough into greased loaf pan. Let rise,in warm place, uncovered for 25 minutes.
Place bread in preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
Remove loaf from oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Doesn’t this look so so good?
Well, it was!!!
Warm and full of cinnamon!

I love opening my emails in the morning and seeing what new recipes my fellow bloggers have come up with.

One of my new favorites is Tartelette.

First, her photos are spectacular! You just want to reach into the photo and eat her goodies. She now cooks gluten-free, so that is even better for me. I can hardly wait to try out her recipes myself. Recently she had a photo of rhubarb crisp that she had made. The photos of the freshly baked crisp with sauce oozing over the sides was more than I could take. I had to make this RIGHT AWAY! So I did.

I grew up with fruit crisps. It was a regular staple in our house. We would use whatever fruits were in season. Peaches in the fall, rhubarb in the spring, apples in the winter.

Here is my take on her recipe-with the frozen fruit I had on hand. Please feel free to PLAY with the recipe. Have some fun – they are always yummy!

300 g.(10 oz) bag of frozen cut-up rhubarb
Small container of fresh strawberries(cut-up)
1 cup frozen raspberries
¼ -1/2 cup w sugar(I like things on the tart side, so I use ¼ cup)

**Mix fruit and sugar together and put into casserole dish. (I used 2 small rectangular dishes for mine)

2 cup “only oats” oats(this brand is free of cross contamination)
1/2 cup sw. rice flour
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 T. cinnamon
Sprinkle of nutmeg

In a separate bowl, mix the oats to nutmeg.

Spread this mixture over the fruit.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes.

Serve the warm crisp over vanilla ice cream.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

I have now made these a couple of times. And every time the verdict is 2 thumbs up! These are very easy to make and oh so delicious.

Recipe

2 ¼ cups gf icing sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp espresso powder (optional but good. I found it at Williams Sonoma)
1 cup cocoa powder( I use Bernard Callebeaut choc-I like to use good cocoa)
3 large egg whites
2 tsp gf vanilla
**I added 1 cup of walnuts to the batter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease baking sheet(I prefer to use a silpat on my baking sheets)

Stir together all of the ingredients til smooth. (the mixture is quite thick and heavy).

Drop the dough onto the prepared cookie sheet in balls about the size of ping pong balls(I use my ice scream scooper for this. Because the batter is quite thick, once on the sheet, I pushed down the ball lightly with my fingers)
I sprinkle the cookies, before baking, with some icing sugar.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes.
Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool.

If you enjoy these make sure you comment below!

One of the first things that start lacking in a celiac’s diet is fibre. Pre-celiac days, most of us ate whole wheat products. I used to buy the highest whole grain bread I could find.

And never had any problems with my fibre intake.

When you are a celiac, fibre is much harder to find. A lot of the packaged gluten free foods are made with white rice flour. And not only does white rice flour have NO fiber, it has no nutrients either. So, fiber became for me, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. That in itself is a good thing, but I still was looking for something “quick” that I could grab, that was healthy and had fiber.

The packaged granola bars in the grocery stores, are NOT gluten free. Even if you find one that does not have wheat in it, the cross contamination in regular grocery store granola bars, are something a celiac should not eat. And to tell you the truth, I do not like to buy pre-packaged food. I prefer to make things myself-homemade, and with good quality ingredients, low in sugar, and of course-gluten-free.

I discovered this recipe for granola bars on one of my favorite blogs Smitten Kitchen

Here is the recipe.

Chewy Granola Bars

1 2/3 cups rolled oats(I use the brand only oats-no cross contamination with this product)
½ -3/4 cup white sugar(I find ½ cup is plenty)
1/3 cup oat flour
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
2-3 cups dried fruits and nuts(*)
1/3 cup peanut butter(**)
1 tsp vanilla
6 tblsp melted butter
¼ cup honey
2 tblsp corn syrup
1 tblsp water

*some examples are dried cranberries, goji berries, walnuts, raisins, almonds,pecans, sesame, flax, sunflower seeds, dark choc chips,etc
**You can use almond butter, dark chocolate peanut butter, crunchy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray 8×8 pan with cooking spray and then line pan in both directions with parchment paper(You need to line both ways, so when the bars are cooled, you can lift the whole thing out of the pan to cut)

Stir together all the dry ingredients, including the nuts and seeds. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted butter, honey, peanut butter, corn syrup and water. Add the dry to the wet and mix well.

Spread in the pan, and press firmly down(I wet my hands to prevent sticking)

Bake bars for 30-40 minutes(I found 35 minutes was perfect)

Remove from oven and let cool completely.(I stress this firmly, if you try to cut the bars when warm they will fall apart. Let them cool completely and then cut up).

After cutting up the squares, I wrap each square with saran wrap.

They easily last 2 weeks in the fridge. Just grab one and go!!

****Please check out www.smittenkitchen.com for the recipe.