Taco Seasoning

You'd think something as simple as taco seasoning wouldn't contain gluten or dairy. Unfortunately this is not the case and many contain one or both. Luckily it's easy to make your own and it tastes even better.

This recipe is straight from Allrecipes.com: Taco Seasoning I. I make a big batch of this, store it in a air tight container, and I I always have fresh taco seasoning on hand.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper.

Thai Peanut Butter Chicken

The slower cooker has become a staple appliance in our house. Mostly due to the cookbook Make It Fast, Cook It Slow. I love being able to quickly throw some ingredients in the cooker before work and come home to a delicious meal.

This week we tried a Thai peanut style dish adapted from A Year of Slow Cooking. Justin and I both really liked the dish but decided we needed to up the spiciness and add a little more texture.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken, cut in chunks
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used creamy this time but I think chunky would be even better)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and thickly sliced
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 can bamboo shoots (optional)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 lime, juiced
4 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1/4 cup gluten free soy sauce (I used La Choy)
1/2 cup chicken broth

Directions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put the chicken into the bottom of your pot and add the peanut butter. Toss in the vegetables, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Squeeze in lime, add the soy sauce and chicken broth. Stir as well as you can to combine (the peanut butter will be clumpy). Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for about 4 hours.

After cooking it looked like this

Serve over rice or quinoa. We actually served over quinoa noodles. It made the dish very hearty and filling. It was good, but I think it would be better over the rice/quinoa because they would soak up the juices more than the noodles did.

Ancient Harvest Quinoa Noodles

I stumbled across these noodles at Cub one day and I was excited to try another type of gluten free pasta. These are delicious.  They plump when you boil them and there texture is very very similar to that of a flour pasta noodle.

Quinoa contains more protein than any other grain; an average of 16.2  percent, compared with 7.5 percent for rice, 9.9 percent for millet, and 14 percent for wheat. Some varieties of quinoa are more than 20 percent protein.  Sited from Quinoa.net

Another perk about these noodles is the boiling time.  A typical rice pasta noodle can take up to 18 minutes to cook to an al dente texture.  These Quinoa noodles only take about 9-10 minutes!

Picture courtesy of Quinoa.net

We have tried linguine, elbow, and the spiral variety.  All have been a success! You can find them at Cub foods in the gluten free/organic section as well as any local natural food store.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

The title of this recipe should be “Bite Size Taste of Heaven” because that is exactly these taste like. They are a take on the popular Reese Peanut Butter Cups. Who doesn’t love a pb cup?? I received this recipe from my friend Jen Sikes, an amazing vegan and GF baker. I made just a few changes to her recipe and below is the recipe.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Earth Balance
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter (preferably unsweetened and unsalted)
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs. I had great luck with Kinnikinnick brand: S’moreables
1/4 brown sugar
1 cup chocolate chips. I used Enjoy Life’s DF chocolate chips
1/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup chopped peanuts, pecans or almonds

Directions

You can use either a 12-cup regular muffin pan or a mini muffin pan. I used the mini’s and it worked great. Whichever you use, line the tins with paper liners and set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs and brown sugar, mix well. Remove mixture from the heat. Evenly divide mixture, approximately 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon per cup among the muffin cups. Chill for 30 minutes before proceeding to the next step.

Combine the chocolate and milk in another pan. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted. Spoon the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture. Chill for another 30 minutes.

Top with chopped nuts. Place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving to let them set. The hardest part of this entire recipe is the 2 hours you have to wait while these delicious bites set. Mmmmm

**A GREAT side note: Jen confirmed that Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips are DF, as well as vegan! This is a cheaper route than having to buy the Enjoy Life brand of DF chocolate chips.

Chex Mix

Who doesn’t love home made Chex Mix? It is one of my very favorite snacks and it does not last long when I make a batch of it. Mikayla LOVES this snack and would eat it as an entire meal if I let her.

There are thousands of variations of the very popular snack mix that General Mills made popular many years ago. This family recipe is an adapted version of the recipe off the side of the cereal box that I have changed to make not only Gluten Free but also Dairy Free.

Ingredients

6 Tablespoons Earth Balance, melted
5 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
3 Cups Corn Chex
3 Cups Rice Chex
2 Cups Gluten Free Cheerios
1 Cup Gluten Free Pretzels
1/2 Cup chopped peanuts

Directions

Pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees.
In a glass measuring cup, whisk the melted butter, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and garlic powder and set aside.

In a large roasting pan add the Chex cereal, pretzels and peanuts and stir to mix. WAIT to add the cheerios until later. Pour the liquid seasoning over the dry ingredients and stir to coat the cereal evenly. Now you can add the cheerios and stir those to coat as well. (I wait to add the cheerios because they tend to fall to the bottom of the pan, soak up the liquid and shrink and shrivel when cooked.)

Cook the mix for one hour, stirring and shaking table salt over the mixture, every 15 minutes.

Earth Balance

When I decided to take the dairy free plunge there were two things that I thought I was never going to survive without; chocolate (we will get to that in another post) and butter.  I mourned the loss of my buttered cinnamon toast, buttered noodles, and popcorn with melted butter, all of which are staples in my diet. 

Never-fear as those foods continue to be enjoyed with my dairy free love of Earth Balance natural buttery spread.  In my opinion this product comes very close to the taste of natural butter.  It spreads and quickly melts just like real butter. It comes in multiple flavors and in tub or stick form.  You can purchase it at Cub Foods along with any natural food store, making it very accessible for your diet restrictions

We have had great success with using Earth Balance in almost all recipes as a substitute for butter or margarine.  Kristen and Justin have had one big FAIL when it comes to EB: caramel corn.  Somewhere in the process of making a "caramel sauce" with the butter it seems to burn or at least take on a burnt flavor. 

Other than that this product is a must for any kitchen that is dairy free.

Dill Dip

The question I get asked most often is what’s a good appetizer that Justin can eat. Almost every time we go to someone’s house I get an email begging for help. It’s such a hard one to answer too. The easiest thing is chips, salsa, and gauc – of course many of the processed gaucs have milk in them so then I have to explain about label reading. It’s a good thing Justin is a huge Mexican food fan and will always be happy to eat that. Beyond that I struggle - unless you want to go to a co-op or natural food store and pay a mint for 3 gf/df chicken wings or slave over a kitchen all day making your own creations. My goal is to get up some relatively easy appetizer ideas that anyone can make!

And now it’s time to introduce Tofutti. Tofutti makes a wide range of dairy free substitute products. I have a love/hate relationship with it. Some recipes I can’t tell a difference and others are horrid. I will first say I am not a fan of tofu. I know it’s not “supposed” to taste like anything but I disagree. One of the products that we always have on hand is Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream. The best part about Tofutti is we don’t have to go to the co-op to get it. Cub has it in their organic cold section!

Pictures compliments of Tofutti

Here’s a recipe for a great dill dip. I can’t tell that it’s df! We eat it mostly as a veggie dip but it also works as a sauce for meats too.

Ingredients

1 cup Toffuti Better Than Sour Cream
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon dill weed
1 tablespoon Lowery Salt
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1 tablespoon minced onion

Directions

Mix ingredients together and chill.

Hearty Pot Pie

Image courtesy of Betty Crocker

This recipe originally came from Betty Crocker. I adapted it to make it dairy free and also made some of my own adjustments. The flavor of the pie was well seasoned and flavorful. I tend to like my foods with more seasoning and heat than most recipes call for and will usually up the spices. After we made it Justin and I had a couple observations: A 2 quart pan was a bit too small as we had filling spilling over, we wanted more biscuits on top, and the filling need to be thickened more. I am guessing the substitution of almond milk for regular milk caused this. I am including the changes I originally made plus the ones we noted for next time we make it.

Ingredients

Filling:
2 tablespoons Earth Balance
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bag (12 oz) frozen mixed vegetables
1 1/2 cups cup-up cooked chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken)
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon Herbs De Provence
3/4 cup almond milk
5-8 tablespoons cornstarch (Not sure exactly how much but 3 was too few)

Topping:
1.5 cups Bisquick Gluten Free Mix
1 cup almond milk
2 eggs
4 tablespoons Earth Balance
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions

Heat oven to 350. In a 3 quart saucepan, melt the Earth Balance over medium heat. Add onion and cook until tender. Stir in vegetables, chicken, broth, salt, and herbs. Head to boiling.

In a small bowl mix milk and cornstarch with a wire whisk until smooth. Stir into chicken mixture. Heat just to boiling. Pour in ungreased 9X13 (3 quart) casserole pan.

In a small bowl stir all the topping ingredients together except the parsley with a fork until blended. Drop the topping mixture by spoonfuls over chicken mixture. Sprinkle with parsley.

Bake uncovered 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of topping comes out clean.

Gluten Free Bisquick

Picture courtesy of Amazon

This is my favorite new gf product on the market. I have found that with many of the gf prepackaged mixes, there is some flour that has a very strong, appalling flavor to my palate and this is not the case with Bisquick.

I love how easy and convenient it is to make. I first tried making their regular biscuit recipe that was on the box. The biscuits were great and not as dense as many gf biscuits are. There were a little dry and definitely need some butter/Earth Balance or some honey.

I also made a pot pie recipe. (soon to be posted!) My college friend Crystal had some of her recipes published in Betty Crocker’s Bisquick magazine. Besides wanting to see her recipes, I thought this magazine would be perfect for quick and hearty meals. I know most of the magazine is geared toward using the regular Bisquick but I will be trying many of them with the gf mix.

The only downfall so far is I’ve only seen small 16 oz boxes in the store. When I made the biscuit recipe it used almost the whole box! I’d love it if they came out with the bigger 2 lb+ so I don’t have to buy 3 of them at at time.

I can’t wait to try and experiment more with this product!

Creamy Potato Soup

Over the past few years I have fallen in love with making soup.  There is nothing better on a cold winter day then having a simmering pot of soup on your stovetop.  The other reason I love soup so much is because most are incredibly easy to make and equally impossible to screw up. 
This recipe came about on a cold winter day when I craved something warm and comforting.  I melded a handful of different recipes together and also added some inspiration of my own. Between the fresh produce I usually have on hand and the typical ingredients that are in my pantry I was able to whip this soup up without needing to step foot out into the cold winter.


Ingredients

The greatest part about this recipe is that it ends with blending all of the ingredients, this means you don’t need to worry about finely chopping ANY of the ingredients!

5 Russet Potatoes-peeled and chopped in 1 inch chunks
1 cup baby carrots (any type of carrots would be fine, I always have baby carrots on hand)
2 stalks of celery
2 garlic cloves
3 teaspoons seasoned salt
8 cups water or stock-for this recipe I used up the 1 cup of stock I had left and then used 7 cups of cold tap water
3 Tablespoons Earth Balance Spread
2 Tablespoons gluten free flour blend
1/2 cup of dairy free milk (I used Unsweetened Original Almond Milk)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Bring your water or stock to a rolling boil preferably in stock pot.  When a full boil is reached add your carrots, celery, garlic, and seasoned salt. The glory of a blended soup is that these vegetables only need to be roughly chopped.  Let this simmer for 15 minutes and then add your potatoes. Continue to boil the soup until the potatoes are tender. This took me about 15 minutes. The potatoes need to be cooked evenly for flavor so keep those in equal sizes all about 1 inch chunks. 

While the soup is cooking take a sauté pan and turn on medium heat.  Melt the butter and allow it to come to a sizzle.  Then add your flour and stir until it is well blended. Allow this to come to a slow simmer and continue to cook about 1 minute.  After 1 minute slowly add the milk stirring constantly. Turn down heat to low and set aside.  You have now successfully made a dairy-free rue! 

When your potatoes are done take out 1 cup of the broth and save for your thickening agent.  The rest of the soup will be blended.  If you have an immersion blender (you lucky chef you!) blend up your soup until it is the consistency that you like.  I have a counter top blender so I blended the soup in two batches.  I enjoy my soup very creamy so I blended all ingredients up, leaving no chunks.

When the soup is blended add it back into your stock pot and turn the heat to a low-medium temperature.  Take your rue and slowly add the one cup of reserved liquid to the sauté pan stirring constantly. Take this and whisk it into your soup.  Allow the soup to simmer for 8-10 minutes, add salt and pepper as you need, and then enjoy! 

Nana’s Cookie Company

Picture courtesy of Nana’s Cooking Company

Nana’s Cookie Company makes an entire line of all natural snack products. We have tried several, and so far we have yet to try a snack from Nana’s that we don’t like.

We especially LOVE Nana’s Cookie Bars in this house.  The GF/DF Vanilla Berry flavored bars are Mikayla’s favorite while Mallory tends to scarf down the Chocolate flavored bar within just a few bites.

All of Nana’s products contain: No Refined Sugars, No Dairy, No Trans Fat, no GMO’s, No Cholesterol, No Casein, No Eggs, No Wheat, No Corn, No Soy, and finally No Cane or Beet Products. 

The texture of these bars are silky smooth, reminding me of a super soft non-filled fig newton cookie.  I have found Nana's to be at both of our local natural food stores. Check them out!

Gluten Free Flour

This is an easy and an inexpensive of a way to make a gluten free flour blend that mimics your standard all-purpose flour blend. Both rice flour and tapioca starch/flour can be found in the bulk section of your local natural health food store. Xanthan Gum is usually found in the baking aisle—remember you only need 2 teaspoons per 2 cups brown rice flour so buy Xanthan Gum in as small of a pouch as it comes. This recipe only acts as a substitute for the all-purpose flour. You still need to add the baking soda, powder, salt etc. to your recipe.

Ingredients
2 cups white or brown rice flour. Brown rice is healthier and adds a bit of nutty flavor to the flour.
1 cup tapioca starch/flour. These items names are one in the same.
2 teaspoons Xanthan Gum.

Whisk all ingredients together and store in a sealed container as you would other baking goods.

Welcome!

GF/DF: It is not a fad, it is our lifestyle. 

What is GF/DF?  GF stands for Gluten Free.  Gluten is a major starch found in most wheat or grain substances. DF stands for dairy free. We are a couple of women who are trying to survive food allergies in different parts of our lives. With countless recipes, ingredients, products, and opinions at our fingertips we needed a place to store what we know works and what we know keeps our families happy and healthy.  We will use this blog as a reference and a way to organize our recipes and thoughts on products. In addition, we hope we can share our knowledge with all of you.