gluten-free-wifey's Blog

Today we celebrated Adam turning 30. Whoo hoo! The first time I met him, 10 years ago at Liberty, one of our first dates was celebrating his birthday. He told me his favorite birthday dessert was this no bake cheese cake his Mom made him every year. So from that time on that has always almost been his birthday cake from me...until we found out he had celiac that is. Graham crackers have gluten in them. Until now! When going to Kimberton Whole Foods, I was excited to see that Kinnikinnick has gluten free graham crackers! You really can't tell the difference and that's saying something. Adam was able to have his annual cherry cheese cake for the first time in 2 years and now I will share the recipe with you:

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Adam's Gluten Free Cheesecake

1 8 oz package cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups cool whip

Cherry pie topping

gluten free crust (recipe below)

Mix cream cheese and sugar with a hand mixer until smooth and mix in cool whip. After graham cracker crust is made and pushed into 9 inch pie pan, spoon in cream cheese mixture and top with cherry pie filling. Cover and chill for 3 hrs.

Gluten Free Graham Cracker Crust

1 package Kinnikinnik's Graham Crackers

1/4 cup sugar

6 TBSP melted butter

Crush the graham crackers in a food processor. Mix in sugar and butter and push into a 9 inch pie pan.

Posted by Bethany at 5:25 PM 0 comments

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Car pooling

Friday I experienced one of the most satisfying days so far in my career of motherhood. I took all my kids to school instead of letting them go on the bus. I'm so happy that Alyssa is doing well in kindergarten and even enjoys the long bus rides (she's a social butterfly), but I feel like I lose a whole day with my daughter! She gets picked up at 8:15 a.m. and doesn't get home until 4:30 p.m. sometimes. By the time she gets home she's tired and doesn't feel like answering the myriad of questions I pepper her with.

So on Friday Alyssa, Bella, and Maddy (the neighbor girl) were just waiting around in the living room when I just had the urge to spend more time with them. So I loaded them up along with Andrew in my momma mini van and I had my first experience in the carpool drop off system. Did you know that it done in a clockwise circle where an aid comes to the passenger door and opens it up for the kids and then each parent inches forward? Who knew!

Then I took Bella to pre-school and Andrew did pretty well in his car seat. But, along with carpooling I had another momma realization. My car is filthy! So as soon as I got home and put Andrew down for a nap I immediately went to work cleaning out the empty juice boxes and scraps of sunday school take home papers. I swept out the grass, cleaned the windows and I even went out and bought a car air freshner; the one that has the new car smell. All in all a very satisfying day.

That night Alyssa came home saying for the first time she was the first one in her class room. Score! How do you top that?

Posted by Bethany at 3:02 PM 0 comments

Labels: carpooling, school bus

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar.....

So I joined Weight Watchers the other day. Not so much as to lose weight, but to see how many Klondike bars I'm allowed to have guilt free. I heard that you can use weight watchers even if you're breastfeeding which, may I tell you, is the worlds BEST diet plan. They were having a join f0r 1 week free promo so I signed up to see how many points I'm allowed right now. I'm allowed 26 daily and 35 weekly. I've been so hungry while nursing my thirsty boy that I have indulged my sweet tooth just a little too much and when I see Adam enjoying his dark chocolate Klondike bar (they're gluten free) I tell myself that just one won't hurt except I've been having 2. A Klondike is 6 points by the way for anyone who was wondering. I blew my diet to pieces yesterday by having two and a half. So in conclusion, I can have 1 klondike bar occassionally and I will be cancelling my subscription tomorrow to avoid having my credit card charged. Isn't dieting great!

Posted by Bethany at 1:44 PM 0 comments

Labels: dieting, gluten free, klondike bars, weight watchers

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Geek Dates

Lately Adam and I have been trying to institute a Friday night date night. We send the girls over to the 13 year old neighbor girl and we take Andrew with us on our excursions since I'm still nursing and he refuses to take a bottle. The only drawback is that dates are a lot easier to do when you have cash. So, necessity being the mother of invention, I thought that Adam needed to have the Wegman's experience. For those of you who have never had the experience of going to a Wegman's let me just tell you, it's like the mecca of all grocery stores. It's like a super Walmart on steriods. It's not the actual groceries that are impressive, but all the extra's. They have a humus bar for goodness sake!

So we get in the car and I'm thinking that Andrew will loll off into dreamland, but oh no, not my, baby! He was ticked for having to be in his carseat for 35 minutes so he screamed the entire time! By the time we got to the store we were all in a daze from our ears ringing. But, I have to say, the cheese isle was impressive. There was a round of parmessian selling for $1,200. Adam even said, "Wow, that's a lot of cheese." So I'm interpreting that less than uber enthusiasm as a hint to let him pick the next date location. It'll probably be bass fishing.

But the best part of the night was splitting a strawberry gellato. It's a little denser and richer than ice cream and it's gluten free! Just the take out part of Wegmans is worth the trip so at least it ended on a sweet note. :-)

Posted by Bethany at 5:57 AM 1 comments

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Feed a Cold

Poor Adam has been bravely fighting the cold that's been going around our house like the bubonic plague. And what better way to combat germs than yummy food! After going a little crazy at our local Kimbertons Whole Food store I came across a new gluten free goldmine....gluten free baguettes made with tapioca flour. What luck! So I raced home and snached the last red tomato off the vine in our summer garden, picked some fresh basil leaves and started on my first attemp of making a bruschetta. I was starting to feel quite european in my cold fighting endevors so I added some brie spread, nut thins crackers, and sliced apples to round it out. There...that will keep the doctor away.

I sent Bella to call Adam out of his computer cave a.k.a our bedroom to tell him it was time for lunch. Moments later I could hear heavy footsteps plodding down the hallway. "Bella says it's time for lunch so I came but I'm not hungry." Then he spied the bruschetta sizzeling in the pan. Needless to say he ended up asking for seconds. He even asked how to make it and in between bites said, "Add it to your blog." Take that cold.

Posted by Bethany at 10:12 AM 2 comments

Labels: bruschetta, gluten free, Kimberton Whole Foods

Monday, September 14, 2009

French Cooking and Preschool

Today was Bella's first day of pre-school, so for the first time ever I had two children in school and a baby home sleeping. The sense of freedom was intoxicating. So much so that I thought I would be a little ambitiouse in my kitchen and attempt Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon and for dessert her chocolate mousse with homemade whipped cream. This is of course because I'm still obsessing over the Julie/Julia movie. I had to improvise at the end to make the stew gluten free, but it wasn't that hard. Instead of the 3 Tbsp. of flour I used 3 Tbps. of Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Flour Mix. It works just fine and the mousse was naturally gluten free so that's even better.

But, man, french cooking takes forever! It took me all day to make this beefy stew! I even bought cheese cloth and kitchen twine to make a bouquet garni complete with sprigs of fresh parsley from Nana's herb garden. I think it was worth it. Next I'm going to try a souffle. I wonder how I'll make that gluten free. Hmmmmm.

Posted by Bethany at 3:44 PM 1 comments

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Grand Slam Breakfast

The thing that's so wonderful about breakfast, notwithstanding it being the most important meal of the day, is that it's so easy to cook gluten free. Eggs, cheese, milk, bacon, sausage, fruit and any kind of fried potato is naturally so as is your standard beverages such as coffee, milk, juice, and tea. The flavored coffee creamers even have gluten free labeling on it's sides.

What about the toast? You might ask. Ah, never underestimate or take for granted the wonderful spoils of The Grainless Baker. Their Millet bread is the best. But, you must never make the mistake of using the same toaster or butter that all of the lucky gluten gorgers are eating with abandon. If you are going through all the time, effort and money to go gluten free it would be a shame to get their crumbs on your lovely bread, rendering all your efforts for naught by cross contamination.

I sometimes even make breakfast for dinner which is not only econimical, but one of the rare things that even the little munchkins will eat without complaints.

Posted by Bethany at 11:42 AM 2 comments

Labels: breakfast, gluten free, www.thegrainlessbaker.com

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Cereals We Like

I've just come across Rice and Corn Chex's new gluten free cereal. Yeah! Also, I read the ingredients in Captain Crunch with Crunchberries and Trix and they seem to be gluten free as well. Whoo Hoo!

Posted by Bethany at 6:40 PM 2 comments

Labels: gluten free cereal

My inspiration

After watching Jule&Julia I am inspired to create my own cooking blog. But, mine will be my trials and tribulations of gluten free cooking. I am no inventor of recipes...just a wife cooking for her celiac husband and three children. So not only does it have to be gluten free it has to be kid friendly too. I've got my work cut out for me.

I've noticed that though I could spend a fortune on gluten free cookbooks and ingedients, using what is already naturally gluten free is cheaper and tastes better than trying to make gluten free substitutions. Yet, I do bend for pasta.....

Gluten Free Spaghetti Dinner

Gluten Free spaghetti (I like bionaturae, it is made of rice, potato and soy)

For Sauce

Jar of rague spaghetti sauce

ground beef

parsley

crushed red pepper

bay leaf

oregano

Salad

all vegies are gluten free!

Garlic Bread

Slice a millet hamburger bun and slather it with butter. Then sprinkle on garlic powder and parmesan cheese. Stick in the oven at 350 until brown.

Cook noodles according to directions and set aside. Brown beef, drain and add to sauce. Sprinkle parsley, crushed red pepper, bay leaf and oregano on sauce and simmer. Add to noodles. Sprinklie with parmesan cheese.