No more chicken salad...

An easy meal, various salads (tuna, chicken) wrapped in lettuce (or spread on rice cakes) have been a staple of the gluten-free diet. Here's a recipe using salmon I made this morning.

I'm not a big fan of salmon, but this salad has enough other ingredients that the salmon flavour is calmed down, and the texture has a nice crunch to it. It tasted "summery." I plan to spread it on tomatoes, but it is hearty enough to eat with a fork!

The dressing isn't a must, but I do like the sweet honey and dill flavour. It's not too heavy, on a salad that's already full of flavour.

Devil's cake INDEED!

My mother made a cake using



We have come a looooong way, baby. This cake lives up to the company's promise:

"This cake is so rich and decadent, you can serve it to anyone and we guarantee they'll be asking for more (wheat-eaters included!)"

I couldn't believe my mouth! The epitome of moist, a chocolate flavour neither lacking nor overwhelming...I had a two-layer, with strawberry jam in the middle, and a buttercream frosting.

I ate it for breakfast the next two days, it's perfection.

Schnacks

I certainly don't recommend them for breakfast, like I did, but T.G.I. Friday's "Mozzarella snack sticks original flavor" are no where near as bad as one would expect.

Despite a strong waft of something pouncing my nose when I opened the bag, the experience was otherwise fairly crunchy, powdery and taste-wise, non-descript. Consistency (though smaller size) of those "cheesy poufs," or "cheese doodles."

Certainly nothing like battered and deep-fried sticks of cheese.

One of my most common snacks is hummous. The grocery store varietyis OK. Kroger recently had them ten for $10, quite a reduced rate from the usual $4ish.

Original is the best*, with roasted garlic coming in second. The Greek Style tastes meaty, somehow. And sort of...fizzes, like those Dorito lime chips, on your tonuge.

Rice crackers
tomato slices
carrot sticks
sandwiches
rolled in a corn tortilla shell

Hummous is very versatile and healthy.

Definately more so than "mozzarella snack sticks."

*I don't follow a recipe, I get a bowl and mash up chickpeas, fresh garlic, olive oil, tahini and lemon juice - sometimes olives - until it tastes good. I like it chunky.

Orgran rice & corn pasta

Delicious!! GF pasta sure has a come way. Now, not only is it delicious, but it comes in fun shapes like tortelli! It cooked up perfecto in about ten minutes. Not crunchy, or "thick" tasting like old GF pasta could be.

Dare I say, "Tastes like I remember??"

I dare! A lovely change from the standard spaghetti or elbow macaroni shapes.

Namaste muffins

Namaste makes my favourite pizza mix, and their sugar-free muffins are a great plain muffin. I've yet to add anything, such as fruit, or a cinnamon and sugar topping, I like them just plain, toasted with butter. They're super easy to make - though I would like to try and use applesauce, or some alternative to the 1/2 cup of oil called for.

They're a little on the sweet side, more like a...dinner bread, than what I think of as a "muffin," but very tasty.

They don't keep well, though. I made my first batch to take camping, stored them in a tupperware-type container, and after about 2 days they'd started to mold.

They were good, though, dry with a cup of coffee in the mornin'!

Enjoy Life granola

This cereal is HORRIBLE. I apologize if any of the creator's read this, but this cereal is just terrible.

The smell. The taste - or lack thereof.

I tried it with milk. Soy milk. Yogurt and added fresh fruits.

The phrase "like cardboard" is bandied about often, referring to bland food, but this cereal actual does taste like chewing cardboard.

The funny thing is, I was talking to my mom and she mentioned she'd tried a granola recently, that was just horrible. It was this one!

On the back of the box, there's a muffin recipe. Unable to eat it anymore as a cereal, I thought, "Why not? It can't be any worse!!"


Smells bad cooking, too. Followed directions to a T (even adding the salt, which I've never done with recipes), and mixing things seperately.

Used soy milk, it said milk or "milk substitute. The recipe suggested adding fresh fruit, so I stirred in some frozen fruit.

I turned off the oven at 30 mintues (recommended time), they didn't seem quite done. I figured they'd contine to cook as the oven cooled (and I took a shower), so I just turned the oven off and went out.

I returned home later and pulled them out of the oven. They looked like mini fallen souffles. Too much fruit? The recipe didn't give an exact measure, so I added the whole bag. Tasted retty much like the cereal.

Maybe toasted, with some butter, they'd have that "healthy" taste to them...like, they're not bad, they're just good in a "healthy tasting" sort of way.

The next morning I baked them a little more, but it didn't change anything. Still mushy - not uncookedy, just mushy.

I just tossed the rest of the batter, and will toss the reast of the cereal - all crumbs, now. Bad taste. Bad texture. Bad buy.

Cedarlane enchilada pie

Waste of money. Not bad-tasting, but Amy's is better, and making your own is still the best (financially speaking).

Glutino breakfast bars

Glutino makes the best GF cereal I've yet to have, their "cheerios." I tried one of these bars - as you'll have read earlier, I'm not really into the whole energy bar schtick - because, of course, it was on sale.

Huh, it's chocolate. No, wait, it's like a fig newton sort of thing. Wait, is that some sort of...jelly filling? Maybe I shouldn't have refridgerated it. Not unpleasant to eat. We'll see how it staves the hunger off.

It ended up doing a better job than any other "meal replacement bar" I've had (which, fairly said, is not that many), and it was enjoyable - in that "healthy" tasting sort of way.

Orgran buckwheat pancakes

These are the first GF pancakes that made me think, "Good." Not just, "Good enough."

More crepey, though, than "buckwheat" would make one think. Fairly bland on their own, they make an excellent base for toppings.

I added sliced bananas to the batter prior to cooking, and topped with peanut butter.

Plain, I enjoyed with butter and jelly.

These are #2, after GF Pantry's brown rice mix.

Aaron's Favorite Rolls

Growing up Southern-style, you just don't eat a meal with out bread. Toast in the morning, biscuits, dinner rolls...one thing I miss, especially at big family gatherings (not to mention fancy restaurants with ooo-la-la butters) is dinner rolls. Crunchy - barely - on the outside, fluffy bits of cloud on the inside...

These rolls do not disappoint!

Granted, it is a bit daunting, what with the yeast and the rising, but well worth the effort! "Just like I remember..."

And that's about the highest compliment a gluten-free bread can get!

South Beach "protein" bar

A co-worker offered me one of these. Protein and snack bars, your average variety, are hard to find. Not mention, not terribly tasty or filling.

This bar was surprisingly tasty. Chewy, but not rubbery and tasteless. Sweet, but not in a candy bar kind of way.

I'm not really into snack bars like this (if I want a snack, I'll eat something good for me, that will help with the hunger rather than satiate an urgent yen), and I wouldn't, personally, shell out the money for my own box, but it certainly was an enjoyable mid-afternoon treat.

It is manufactured in equipment that processes wheat.

"Veggy Singles"

From Galaxy Foods.

"Mozzarella flavor" lactose free, gluten free, trans fat free, preservative and cholesterol free. Vegan.

How is it, then, that they make the best grilled cheese sandwich?? There is a disclaimer, "contains milk and soy ingredients, may contain trace amounts of lactose."

How is it, then, they can claim lactose free??

One claim is true: "delicious slices."

It melted like "real cheese," tasted good and is an "excellent source of calcium."

Too bad they're nearly 4 dollars, for eight slices (I got it because it was on sale).

Recommended.