Recipe: Tuna Pasta Salad

I work full time
I get home from work around 6pm, sometimes as late as 10pm
I'm starving when I get home and I'm not great at planning/cooking ahead
One of my favorite go-to meals is pasta salad

So us allergic folks have to get a little creative

Most imporant is noodles!!
I have found my favorite:
Ancient Harvest Quinoa Pasta
I love this stuff, it is a corn/quinoa blend
Even non-allergic "hates all my hippy food" hubby loves it!

Here is my "recipe"
(I don't measure, it drives people crazy but I just can't do it, too much work)

Tuna Pasta Salad:
Pasta noodles, boiled
Mixed veggies, cooked
Mayo of some type ( I love the new olive oil mayo)
Tuna ( I prefer chunk light)

Mix things together, it's super tasty if you can remember to make it in the morning so the flavors can mingle
It's not pretty but it sure is tasty!!

Gluten Free/Dairy Free Ice Cream Cones

Dole whip and Gluten free ice cream cones

Don't you love summertime? It's fun to reminisce about all the fun things we used to do as kids. I lived 1/2 mile from the local Dairy Queen, it was such a treat to ride our bikes as a family up there and get ice cream cones.

Then came the allergies...

Gluten free and dairy free people need love too!

Meet your new love, the dole whip ice cream cone

Fist thing first, the cone

Goldbaum's gluten free ice cream cones:

These things are great, I have not had a cone in many many years, but it is exactly what I remembered!! They can get a bit drippy if you take too long to eat. I savor every bite!!

Next, Dole Whip.

Now, this is gluten free but its not 100% dairy free. I've been dealing with my allergy for many years, so I know what I can handle. I can have tiny amounts of casein, but not whey.

I'm very lucky in that there is an ice cream shop about 6 miles from my house that sells Dole Whip. Call around, bug your local parlor until they start selling it!! It comes in many flavors, the favorite in my family is Pineapple.

It's my own personal trip back to Hawaii every time I eat it!

Cooking with Bette - Cream Soup and Biscuit Mix

Cooking with Bette Hagman


Don't look here for Bette Hagman's recipes. go buy her book "Gluten Free Gourmet"
I'm too cheap to buy anything and I bought this book.
You will make every single thing in this book.

I will post from time to time tips and tricks for following her recipes.



Cream Soup Base:

I got my neat glass containers at IKEA, $2.99 and $3.99 depending on the size
To make my cream soup base dairy free I used store brand soy-based infant formula. Seems odd but it works!

Biscuit Mix:
I used the infant formula again and the tool you need to make this is a pastry cutter.
You will thank me.
Keep cutting the shortening until you just have a crumbly mix, not globs.
Make sure you store this in the fridge!

Baking - Hamburger Buns- gluten free/dairy free

Every gluten free guy or gal usually starts out the summer with the bun less hamburger. A good ole meat patty perhaps wrapped in some lettuce, cut with a knife, eaten with a fork.

No more my friends!
We must stand up and fight this!
We deserve a hamburger bun!

So, as with everything else in our world; we take to the kitchen.

Meet your new friend, Kinni-Kwik:


All you do is mix this stuff with milk (or soy, rice, almond, hemp milk for the no moo-juices folks like me) and then bake in whatever format you need.

I needed hamburger buns so I looked around to see what I could use:

Ramekins! What are these things for anyways? We all have them, and I don't know one person who makes Crème Brule anyways.

So you bake according to the instructions on the back and this is what you get!

They taste somewhere between a bun and a biscuit.

Now what on earth can I use to bake hot dog buns??

Product review - Trader Joe's Gluten Free Brownie Mix

mmmm, brownies

In the old days of evil wheat flour, I loved to make scratch brownies. My gluten free scratch baking attempts are still in the learning phase. So whats an allergic scientist to do?

Mixes.

Ahh yes, the insanely expensive gluten free mixes. So when I spied this baby at Trader Joe's I had to get it, gotta love their prices!

I added chocolate chips to the batter, and used all applesauce instead of oil.

seriously delish!

Hubby ate several, and he hates gluten free food

Gluten Free Boy loved them as well; I brownie bribed him to get him to help me out with some gardening

I ate a lot...

...worth every calorie!

Gluten free??

I shall now be known as the gluten free scientist. Actually, the dairy free, gluten free scientist.

After MANY trials and tribulations with my health, my neurologist of all people recognized that I may have an intolerance to gluten. So I've been gluten free for a week now, with some occasional "oops, I didn't read that label good enough."

I'm feeling better. Not great yet, but better. I kind of didn't want this to be the answer, like what is left to eat??? But I'm doing good, granted I have spent about $300 in a week on food and supplements, but I like to eat!

So here's the plan according to the doc (who spent over an hour in the room with me and I seriously love, she made me feel normal when everybody else made me feel crazy!)

1. maintain my dairy free diet
2. additionally, go gluten free
3. drink copious amounts of water
4. take 4 prescription fish oil pills every day (they are good, no fishy burps!)
5. take B-12 supplement
6. take Histidine supplement (its an amino acid)

So that is in addition to my heart medicine, and my vitamins and as healthy a diet as is still available to me!

I've done a lot of cooking/baking/eating

Verdicts so far:
Bob's Red Mill GF Flour (all purpose) not for making cookies!!!! It's very "beany" the aftertaste is the strangest thing EVER

Pamela's Products GF bread mix is heaven sent!! I made it in my bread machine today, Oh Pamela, I love thee!

Glutino Flax bread, in the freezer at Hiller's - decent, like dry multigrain bread, good with a nice dollop of mayo, black pepper, turkey and an insane amount of lettuce. Would make a terrible PB &J tho

More to come, this scientist needs to go to bed, busy day in the lab tomorrow!