Apple-berry crisp - Gluten Free and Vegan!

My sister made this fantastic crisp for a dinner party, and being a good sister, she made it gluten-free and dairy-free for me!

It was so fantastic,  I had to make it myself. My sister is quite the baker, (check out her blog here), and she simply made up the recipe herself, to accomodate my dietary needs. Here are the directions she gave me, noting that they were all approximate:

1 bag frozen mixed berries (no strawberries because they are too watery)
1 cup oats
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
Pinch of salt
about 1/3 cup of sweetener
cinnamon

The topping mix should be dry. Cook at 350F until the fruit is bubbling and condensed, and the topping is browned, about 40 minutes to an hour.

Being an improvisor myself, this is what I did:

1 bag Trader Joe's cherry berries
2 small apples, diced into small/medium pieces
1/2 cup certified gluten-free quick oats (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 cup certified gluten-free almond meal (I used Bob's Red Mill)
2 Tablespoons safflower oil (I was out of coconut oil)
a couple grinds of Himalayan sea salt
1/3 cup of sweetener dehydrated maple syrup granules
a few dashes of cinnamon
a few dashes of cardamom
Tablespoon of vanilla extract

I accidentally baked it 450F for the first 25 minutes, and then had to take it out, to go do something. 2 hours later, I baked it for another 30 minutes on 350F. It came out fantastic! 

The cardamon and the vanilla added amazing dimensions to the tart-sweet flavor. I highly recommend using these spices - I use them in pretty much all of my desserts these days!

Variations to try:

• Use ghee! This is not vegan, but you can get ghee that is lactose and casein free. 
• I might try it with a bag each of blackberries and raspberries. I am not the biggest fan of the cherries and blueberries. 
• Add a little more topping. 
• Bake in individual Pyrex dishes in order to easily pack for lunch! 
• Use peaches in the summer, instead of apples. 
•  Try palm sugar, 1/2 a cup, for the sweetener. 

If you try it, please let me know how yours worked out in the comment section!

Cherrybrook Kitchen Cake Mix

Some day soon, I'll make a grand comparison of the different gluten-free baking mix brands. For now, I've got to try them out one at a time. This week I tried Cherrybrook Kitchen's cake mix and frosting.

I found this brand, which is new to me, at Target! I was stocked, and especially stoked to find gluten free frosting that wasn't fully of hydrogenated oils.

One of the great things about this brand is that, as you can see on the label above, their products are made in a dedicated gluten-free facility. Most "gluten-free" baking products do not say this on their label.

I set out to whip up this mix, with excitement, and of course some apprehension. In my new gluten-free life, I've been disappointed often. My last cake mix was very disappointing.

Making this mix was super easy. Just measure out the oil, water and vanilla. Then mix with the contents in the box and Voila! I chose to make cupcakes, since they are way more fun than cake. I poured each cupcake holder about 2/3 way full for 12 cupcakes. That's all the mix there was. Since no eggs were required, and their was no egg-like ingredient in the mix, I was worried that this wasn't going to be enough batter to make a nicely filled cupcake.

I was pleasantly surprised to see this:

This cupcake had a very pleasant, slightly fluffy, moist consistency. The chocolate flavor was that of a dark chocolate - nicely bittersweet. I was very pleased! It's been a long time since I ate a real cupcake, but as far as I can tell, this is nearly normal.

The frosting on the other hand was very disappointing. It had a strange, hard gooey consistency and tasted like sugary wax. Unfortunately, I won't be buying that again (I ended up running out and getting horribly processed Betty Crocker frosting). I wish I took a picture of the frosting for you to see, but I didn't get around to it before trying it and consequently was not interested in ruining another cupcake with this icky icing.

On a final note, while the frosting was no good, this was a really nice cake mix. The ingredients are simple and relatively pure. The flavor has a nice grown up, not too sweet taste. The consistency is pretty great for a gluten-free, vegan cake!

Happy Celiac Awareness Day!

September 13th is Celiac Awareness Day.

You might have heard this statistic already: that 1 in 133 people have Celiac disease. That might not sound like very many to you, but if you think of how many restaurants are Celiac friendly, it's more like 1 in a waaaaaaaay too many!

How to celebrate Celiac Awareness Day?

1. Take your favorite Celiac Diva (that would be me for most of my readers!) out to one of the few Celiac friendly restaurants. If you don't know which restaurants can be trusted, you can check out:The Gluten Intolerance Group's list of restaurants that have their gluten-free food service accredidation.
My personal favorite restaurant right now is Asquew Grill.

Or just ask said Celiac Diva and s/he will be happy to tell you.


2. If there aren't any great choices, a home cooked meal is a good way to go. Just make sure all utensils, dishes and surfaces are cleaned well (no bread crumbs). Gluten-contamination is a huge issue even in food items labeled "gluten-free."  To be safe, only cook with raw ingredients or items that are Certified Gluten Free. Items that you might never think twice about, like ketchup, are things that this Celiac diva makes sure to get certified gluten -free. One of my favorite brands is Organicville.

How to continue to support your Celiac friends?

Besides celebrating, let's create more awareness about gluten-free issues! The mainstream knowledge of gluten-free is tainted with an imagine of fad dieters. Often, when I tell people I don't eat gluten, they think I'm doing it for weight loss. The reality is, that Celiac disease is a very serious health condition that requires much stricter adherence to a truly 100% gluten-free diet. Unfortunately, the mainstream idea of gluten-free is more aligned with Trader Joe's (not a Celiac friendly place) clever phrase "no gluten ingredients used." Just because there are no gluten ingredients used, does not make it gluten-free! My new term that I will be using now, rather than "gluten free," is "Celiac friendly." Spread the word!


Stay tuned for future blogs:

• My latest favorite recipes!
• Gluten-free baking mixes, which ones are the best?
• Celiac reactions to other grains and foods
• Co-incidence of allergies
• Other EO product reviews
• Making your own digestive herbal remedies

Thanks for reading and happy Celiac Awareness Day! 

EO Body Products: Certified Gluten Free!

Gluten free body products??!! Wah? Do we really need to worry about that?

I say, any gluten you put in or on your body is not good for Celiacs. Some doctors say that the concentration of gluten that would be found in body products is too low to have an effect. But if I can find good gluten free body products, that makes me happier. There is a good article on this issue at Celiac.com.

Where would one find gluten in a body product? I think the most concentrated source of gluten in body products would be wheat aminos that are often put in hair conditioners. Upon scouring the ingredients of several conditioners and leave in hair treatments, I found that many have wheat aminos. Some just say "aminos," and you have to wonder what kind. Some products do have soy or quinoa aminos. You can't just believe the front of the label though; for example, Aveda's Quinoa hair products actually have more wheat aminos in them than quinoa.

Another common gluten ingredient is wheat germ oil, although this should theoretically have all the gluten proteins filtered out, it's possible it could have some in it. Additionally, oats could be contaminated. 

EO is a brand I've known about for a long time, but never was impressed with their products, mostly because they were expensive and the scents didn't intrigue. I recently bought their lavender lotion, to use lavender to help me relax at night. However, the lotion itself is incredibly silky and luxurious. I can't believe I never tried it!

My most recent purchase is a product that I had tried before, and liked. I bought it again, gleeful in my knowing that it is gluten free. It's a great product, making your hair silky smooth. One key thing, that I think is necessary with lots of all natural products, is to emulsify the hair product before putting it in your hair. I pump out a dime sized amount in my hand, then pour some water and get it all mixed up. Then I distribute it through my hair. The wild lime & ginger scent is one of the EO ones that I do like, though it's subtle.

EO is not paying me to write this review. Certified gluten free products are few and far between, and I want to support them, so they persist and create more demand for certified gluten free.

Nuts for Gluten-Free Nuts at the Farmer's Market

Today at the Upper Haight Farmer's Market, the lady selling a plethora of nuts, flavored, salted etc, looked at me like I was nuts for asking about whether hers nuts possibly were exposed to gluten. As I asked her a few more questions about how the nuts are processed and packaged, she seemed annoyed by me and finally walked away suddenly to help another customer. She clearly thought I was NUTS and didn't want to waist more time with my silly questions.

I walked away without buying anything.

This situation may be due to both our ignorance. I certainly don't know a lot about how nuts are handled, processed and packaged. I have heard that I do need to be careful about that, because sometimes nuts are processed in the same facilities as wheat or other gluten. While I was told raw nuts usually aren't cause for concern, one can never be too careful. The great thing about Farmer's Markets, is you can speak to the employees or owners. You don't always get an immediate answer. At the Inner Sunset Farmer's Market, I asked one of the guys at the nut stand about their nuts, and he didn't know. He said he could check with his boss when she got back from vacation, and I told him I would come back in one of the following weeks.

This guy did mention that at least one of their nut products was seasoned with a gluten ingredient, and I would guess this would be the case for the nut lady at Upper Haight. However, as I walked away from her stand, I found a fruit stand that also sold raw almonds. I asked the cashier if the nuts could have been exposed to gluten. She wasn't sure, so she asked her boss, and he said they went straight from the tree, into the bags, and there was no gluten in the facility. Eureka! I bought a 5 pound bad for $20.

As an end note, some people may think I am NUTS for nit picking over the details about how the food I eat is processed. Well, they won't get my business. My health is not a trivial manner. If these people knew how bad I feel for months if I am exposed to a tiny bit of gluten, maybe they would get it. I do need to make myself more aware about how the foods I want to buy are processed. I welcome any comments - if anyone knows how nuts are generally processed, both for raw nuts and salted nuts. I'm specifically curious about Trader Joe's - one of these days I am going to do research on their policies and procedures and write a blog about that.

Gluten-free vegan Apple bread

This is a documentation of my attempt to make the recipe at: http://www.sheletthemeatcake.com/2010/09/gluten-free-and-vegan-apple-bread/#.T69efL8zJ6F



I had some apples that needed to get used before they went over the edge. While I'm not vegan, only dairy free, I was excited to find this recipe which is not only gluten-free and vegan but very focused on coconut which I am very into these days. No refined sugar is a plus too! I went into this experience knowing this wouldn't be decadent delight, but a good snack or an emergency breakfast.



The recipe given on the website, with my adaptations in parenthesis:

1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour mix (1/2 cup Gluten Free Pantry mix and 1 cup coconut flour)

2 tsp organic cinnamon (have you tasted the difference?)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp sea salt

2 1/2 tbsp of ground flax combined with 3 tbsp warm water (ground Chia)

1 cup coconut sugar (I used coconut crystals - I think that's what they meant)

1/2 cup melted coconut oil, plus more for brushing

1 cup peeled, shredded apple (I put 1 1/2 apples in the food processors, which was more than 1 cup, all of which I put into the batch)



My batch:

The ground chia seed and water combination was very thick, but mixed okay with the apples. I'm sure ground flax seed would work much better, but I didn't have any. The apples smelled like a great apple cider, the cinnamon was fragrant. I was getting excited about the potential. Once everything was mixed together, the dough was not as I expected. I was never a big baker until I went gluten free and have recently been making muffins and brownies with pre-made mixes. These have been much more liquid. Worried about how dry the dough was, first added 1/4 cup almond/coconut milk. I added another 1/4 cup. Still not as fluid as I thought it should be, but I was afraid to add anything else. At this point I was able to smooth it out in the pan decently, so I threw it in the oven. After the recommended time, I felt it needed more. It started to brown on the edge, so even though it seemed very moist still, I took it out. After my friends and I sampled some, I'd say it's good but amazing. I'd be willing to try it once more using flax seeds.

About Me and My Blog

Hello readers.

I am gluten-free. This is not a choice. I'm not following a fad. I'm not trying to lose weight. A doctor diagnosed me with Celiac disease and explained to me how eating even tiny amounts of gluten could cause me to develop cancer, osteoporosis or other serious health issues.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder, where the immune system attacks the small intestine when gluten is present. This damage causes malnutrition, and can result in a variety of complications as mentioned above, including more immediate symptoms: stomach pain, lethargy, depression and anxiety, irregular bowel movements, brittle bones, tooth decay are some of the common ones. 

When I was recently in the phase of getting a diagnosis, which took a long time and was not easy to diagnose, many people asked me if I had ever tried a gluten-free diet before. Well, yes, I thought I had. But with my recent education on gluten-free issues, I realized that I probably hadn't been 100% gluten free since there is so much hidden gluten and gluten contamination is a huge issue for Celiacs. Additionally, I had only tried it for about a month, but as it turns out, it can take 3-6 months for the small intestine to recover after eating gluten.

It has been very hard to be assured that I am 100% gluten-free if I eat out. Because of this, I am avoiding restaurants more and more and focusing on cooking at home. I always enjoyed cooking, but never was a great cook. I am creative and can make stuff up, but since going gluten-free, I have been trying several recipes and wanted to share what I've learned from these experiences. Additionally, I wanted to share with you my experiences looking for gluten-free products, including bath and beauty products.

Also note, I cannot tolerate dairy and the Paleo diet has been recommended to me by several health practitioners.