Emily is Gluten-Free

The Bachelor - TV shows that suck (but are addictive)

2012-02-07T22:04:00.002-05:00

This is a re-post from GirlMeetsLife.com. Why? Because I too get sucked into the Bachelor and this is exactly how I feel about it!

you know what monday means.

Guess what? I shamelessly get sucked into this crap every. single. season.

(…although, wine barrels? really?)

Thankfully I can safely say that it has nothing to do with the “love” aspect and everything to do with seeing what these crazy broads will do next. Because…let’s be real…the day I ski down a mountain in a bikini to win a date is the same day I give you permission to throw me off the edge of that mountain.

Oh, and on an even more shallow note, does Ben’s hair make anyone else uncomfortable?

Let’s discuss.

Superbowl Snacks

2012-01-29T15:26:00.006-05:00

Who are you rooting for in the Superbowl? I live in New York, but I've never been a huge Giants fans so I'm not sure!!!

Snacks are an important part of a fun at-home Superbowl party especially if you're going to be drinking. Last year, I was one of only two people that made it to work the next day after the Superbowl party that I went to. I think we had music videos playing more time than the actual game. This year, we're taking it down a notch and focusing more on cooking and less on partying.

Here are my top 5 Superbowl snacks from my blog and others.

1) Hummus and veggies....

This is a great homemade Hummus recipe. I made it for the Superbowl two years ago and it was perfect. You can serve it with veggies or with Glutino crackers. It's simple and fun to make!

Ingredients

2 (15-ounce) cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed (reserve liquid from cans)
5-6 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed (you will probably need two large lemons to get enough lemon juice)
1/3 cup sesame tahini. Interestingly, this is just ground sesame seeds... something I learned from this recipe :)
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
Pinch of cayenne
Olive oil

Directions

Start by draining the garbanzo beans into a bowl. You will need to save the liquid from the cans to use later in the recipe

Put the liquid from garbanzo beans aside. Rinse the beans in cold water

Squeeze the lemons to make lemon juice, mince garlic and measure tahini

Place the garbanzo beans, lemon juice, tahini and garlic in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth

If the mixture is too thick, use the reserved liquid from the garbanzo beans and add a small amount, a little at a time, until the mixture blends smoothly. I probably used about half the reserved liquid

Remove from blender and add salt, pepper and cayenne

Place in a serving bowl and drizzle a small amount of olive oil on top

2) Elise's Perfect Guacamole...

Chips and Guacamole are always a great Superbowl snack! If you're gluten-free you just have to make sure that the chips are made purely of corn so they don't make you sick. I usually try and stay away from eating too many chips but for the Superbowl, Guacamole is a must-have snack!

Ingredients

2 ripe avocados
1/2 red onion, minced (about 1/2 cup)
1-2 serrano chiles, stems and seeds removed, minced
2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of fresh lime or lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
A dash of freshly grated black pepper
1/2 ripe tomato, seeds and pulp removed, chopped

Directions

1 Cut avocados in half. Remove seed. Scoop out avocado from the peel, put in a mixing bowl.

2 Using a fork, mash the avocado. Add the chopped onion, cilantro, lime or lemon, salt and pepper and mash some more. Chili peppers vary individually in their hotness. So, start with a half of one chili pepper and add to the guacamole to your desired degree of hotness. Be careful handling the peppers; wash your hands thoroughly after handling and do not touch your eyes or the area near your eyes with your hands for several hours.

Keep the tomatoes separate until ready to serve.

Remember that much of this is done to taste because of the variability in the fresh ingredients. Start with this recipe and adjust to your taste.

3 Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole to prevent oxidation from the air reaching it. Refrigerate until ready.

4 Just before serving, add the chopped tomato to the guacamole and mix.

Original Recipe

3) Gluten-Free Soft Pretzel

I haven't tried this one yet, but when I saw the recipe I knew it had to be on the list.

Making gluten-free pretzels for the Superbowl is a great idea especially since people who are gluten-intolerant can't eat them at the Stadium. I am including a dairy-free soft pretzel recipe below from Jules Gluten-Free. I am definitely going to be making these on Sunday!

Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 65 minutes

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons All Purpose Gluten-free Flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp. granulated cane sugar
1/3 cup warm water (110 F)
1 Tbs. honey or agave nectar
1 egg
Canola oil
(2/3 cup baking soda for soda bath)
Melted butter or Earth Balance Buttery Sticks to brush onto tops of pretzels
Coarse sea salt or other toppings for pretzels

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix warm water, sugar and yeast and let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk together the remaining dry ingredients and set aside.

Add half of the dry mixture to the wet mixture bowl, together with the egg and honey. Beat on low speed of an electric mixer for one minute, or until well-blended. Add in the remaining dry ingredients and blend until well-mixed. If the dough is too dry, add an additional 1/2 to 1 teaspoon warm water.

Gently roll chunks of dough to approximately 3/4 inch diameter thickness and shape into pretzel twists using gluten-free flour to dust the rolling surface.

Place on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet. Brush the pretzels liberally with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and proof for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Preheat the oven to 375 F (static) or 350 F (convection).

5 minutes before the proofing is completed, prepare a soda bath by adding 2/3 cup baking soda to 10 cups of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir until the soda is completely dissolved.

Once the soda bath is boiling, gently submerge pretzels individually into the bath for 25 seconds, flipping over after about 15 seconds. Drain the pretzels and replace onto the parchment-lined baking sheet.

Brush the pretzels with melted butter or Earth Balance Buttery Sticks and top with coarse sea salt or other toppings. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until light golden brown. Do not overbake.

Makes approximately 6 traditionally shaped pretzels.

Original Recipe

4) GF Vegetarian Thai Spring Rolls

I'm loving Thai Spring Rolls as a Superbowl snack because they are healthy but don't stick out like a sore thumb with other snacks. I would definitely include these in your game day menu especially if there are going to be a lot of heavy or fried foods where you're going.

Thai Spring Rolls
adapted from The Gluten-Free Vegan, pg. 101

Ingredients

3-4 ounces rice noodles, chopped into 1-2 inch pieces
1 cup julienned snow peas
1 large avocado, peeled and sliced very thinly
2 medium-size carrots, sliced thinly lengthwise
1 large cucumber, sliced length-wise thinly
1/2 cup chopped water chestnuts
8 rice tortillas (hemp tortillas work as well)
Peanut sauce. I use San-J Gluten-Free Thai Peanut Sauce

Directions

First, prepare the rice noodles. Bring a large pot of water to boiling. Remove the pot from the heat and place the noodles inside. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, promptly remove the noddles and drain in cold water
Rice Tortillas: If you are using rice tortillas, you will have to dip them in warm water then set them out to dry. This is the part of the process that I had the most trouble with because I let the rice paper dry on paper towels and they got stuck together. From what I've read, the best surfaces to use for drying rice paper are wood, a silpat sheet, marble or a tea towel. I'll let you know which surface works best
Place the vegetables, avocado and water chestnuts in a large bowl and toss them together. Add the cooled rice noodles and mix together
Hemp Tortillas: Soften them up by heating a large skillet and turning it up to a moderately high temperature. Add a small drip of oil, then a tortilla, and swirl it around until it softens up. Remove from the heat
Place some of the vegetable mixture in the middle of the tortilla - hemp or rice - and roll it up
Continue this process until you have used all of the tortillas and mixture

Serve with peanut sauce. Makes 8 servings.

5) Mexican Superbowl Salad

I love this recipe because you can bring it to a party and serve it with chips or as a salad. It's very versatile but also healthy and filling.

Mexican Quinoa Salad
adapted from The Gluten Free Vegan, pg. 47

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa
1/2 cup chopped red and yellow bell peppers
1 small red onion
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 (16-ounce) jar or 2 cups salsa
1 tablespoon canola oil
Juice of 1 lime
Freshly ground pepper
Sea salt

Directions

Heat 1 1/2 cups water to boiling. Add quinoa. Lower heat and cover. Cook until liquid is absorbed, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat to cool
When the quinoa has cooled, add the peppers, onions, tomatoes, beans, cumin, salsa, oil and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper and salt and toss
Chill before serving

Sesame Asparagus Salad

2012-01-23T22:29:00.001-05:00

In honor of the Chinese New Year which was today, I wanted to share this Asian inspired asparagus salad. I really enjoy it as it is light, and I love asparagus. The recipe is from The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen by Donna Klein.

Today I had an interesting day! I woke up to all kinds of celebrity gossip from Page Six: Seal and Heidi Klum are separating? Kristin Cavallari is pregnant? omg.

I went to an earlier yoga class than I usually take. The teacher, Sigrid, started the class by instructing us on how to breath. If you were feeling overwhelmed and had a lot running through your mind, take short inhales and longer exhales. If you were feeling sluggish and had to drag yourself off the couch for class, take longer inhales and shorter exhales. I was in the longer inhales category.

I got home and made this salad. It was a great refreshing treat for the night!

Sesame Asparagus Salad

Ingredients

1 pound medium asparagus, tough ends snapped off, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon light sesame or peanut oil
1/2 teaspoon toasted (dark) sesame oil
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
3 scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced
1 medium tomato (about 6 ounces), cored, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
Salt and freshy ground black pepper to taste
4 cups mixed baby greens

Directions

Bring a large stockpot of salted water to a boil.
Prepare an ice-water bath. Boil the asparagus until crisp-tender, 2-3 minutes. Drain and immediately refresh in the ice-water bath for about 5 minutes. Drain again.
In a medium skillet, heat both sesame oils over medium heat. Add the sesame seeds and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the scallions and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds.
Transfer to a large bowl and add the drained asparagus and remaining ingredients, except the greens.
Toss well to combine.
Serve at room temperature, over the greens, or cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours and serve chilled.

Sesame Asparagus Salad

Peach and Almond Soy Smoothie

2012-01-22T21:23:00.002-05:00

This smoothie is delicious. I made it for the first time this past week. Even though it's winter, I am excited to have a go to smoothie recipe that I can work off of.

I was inspired to make smoothies by other bloggers. In particular, Chocolate Covered Katie has a Cake Batter Milkshake that is raw and sugar-free. Don't use xantham gum though! It contains bacteria.

Peach and Almond Smoothie
adapted from The Gluten-Free Vegan, pg. 162

Ingredients
4 large Medjool dates, pitted and chopped
2 cups soy milk
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
8-10 almonds, chopped
3 cups pitted, chopped peaches
1-2 cups ice cubes
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend on high until smooth, 2-3 minutes.

Serves 4

We Bought a Zoo

2012-01-10T16:12:00.001-05:00

I went to see the movie We Bought a Zoo this past weekend with one of my friends. I wasn't planning on seeing it but it's what we ultimately settled on. Truth be told, this was a great movie for a lazy Sunday :)

The story of We Bought a Zoo is that Matt Damon's wife dies and he and his family decide to start over by moving out of the city to a zoo. The movie is set in Southern California. It's based on the personal memoirs of a Journalist, Benjamin Mee. The actual story took place in the UK, so I'm not sure why they moved it to SoCal. In the movie, Benjamin's son gets expelled from school and in the process of finding his family a new home / school district to live in they end up moving to a zoo outside the city.

The movie is pretty sweet but there are definitely some plot holes. I expected the movie to be funnier than it was, but it's actually more heartwarming. Elle Fanning, Dakota Fanning's sister plays a c-r-a-z-y 13 year old girl that has a crush on Matt Damon's son. She actually asks Scarlett Johansson, who plays the zookeeper / Elle's aunt at one point "do you like people better or animals?"

I liked We Bought a Zoo and if you like lighthearted fun movies, I'd recommend that you see it too!

Carnevivo, Las Vegas

2012-01-05T12:35:00.023-05:00

Carnevivo is a Mario Batali restaurant located in the Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. According to its website the restaurant is also owned by restaurateur Joe Bastianich who is part owner of Del Posto in New York City with Mario Batali.

I went to eat at Carnevivo recently with some friends. I was a little concerned about eating at a steakhouse since I'm vegetarian but I knew that there would probably be sides that I could order. What I did not expect was a 35 dollar grilled vegetable plate, but then again this is Vegas and it was a Mario Batali restaurant.

Backing up... we arrived at Carnevivo on time and starving. We were escorted through about 3 rooms before we got to our table. The waiter was really friendly and chatty and didn't mind taking our picture all night. When I looked at the menu, I knew I'd have to ask about gluten-free items. Carnevivo does not have a separate gluten-free menu.

The waiter told me that they could make their pasta dishes gluten-free so I started with rice pasta with marinara sauce and broccoli. Carnevivo is an Italian Steakhouse, which serves pasta as an appetizer. I think this is probably because it is a Mario Batali restaurant and pasta is what he's best known for.

Orecchiette Pasta

What I technically ordered was the Orecchiette pasta with sweet sausage and broccoli rabe but obviously they left off the sausage and substituted gluten-free pasta.

I was a little confused when I ordered my pasta appetizer because I asked if they could do a pasta with marina sauce and mushrooms, but they wouldn't deviate that much from the menu so I ended up getting the broccoli rabe.

For my main course, I had a mixed vegetable plate that as I mentioned above was $35. I was not happy about this, but I knew I had to order something or I would be hungry later on. I didn't take a photo of my vegetables because I was too busy eating them! Seriously, these were the best grilled vegetables ever. I would definitely come back here and order them again :)

all of us in the Palazzo lobby

Carnevivo is located in the Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas, NY. This is their website: www.carnevino.com and the phone number is (702) 789-4141

Las vegas airport --- here we go again

2012-01-02T14:43:00.002-05:00

When I fly in and out of Vegas, I have to bring food with me or pick something up at the airport, eat before I fly because the flight is 5 hours, and they don't serve you any food! So in my most recent trip to McCarran, the Vegas airport I gambled on Baja Fresh.

Instead of asking, which would have been smart, I ordered corn tortillas with veggies and a Baja Ensalada without tortilla strips or cheese. It turns out that these items are gluten-free (see below), but I was still taking a silly risk by not asking.

When I eat Mexican food, I usually can't eat the chips even if they are gluten-free because they give me a stomach ache and I often feel like I've been glutinated. I think Baja Fresh offers a good explanation below that chips can be cross-contaminated.

I took this from another website, but it explains which items at Baja Fresh are gluten-free since they don't list this info on their site.

Baja Fresh doesn't list what their gluten content is on their menu online. So we asked for it and this is the response we got.

From: "Kyle Durkan" KDurkan@lasalsa.com

Gluten:

Thank you for taking the time to contact Baja Fresh with your inquiry regarding gluten (wheat, barley, rye and oats).

The following menu items contain gluten:

Flour Tortillas

Tostada Shells

Flautas

Tortilla Soup

Breaded Fish

Raspberry Iced Tea (where available)

Churros

Keep in mind that we use only one fryer in each restaurant to fry both gluten and non-gluten items; Chips, Taquitos, Flautas, Tostada Shells, Breaded Fish.

The following do not contain wheat gluten-

Baja Tacos made with corn tortillas
Any "Bare style" burrito our Baja Ensalada, with choice of steak, chicken, grilled shrimp or Mahi Mahi, grilled vegetables, carnitas, rice & both varieties of beans
All of our dressings and salsas contain no gluten

The above information is based on standard product formulations and is current as of January 15, 2009. Variations may occur due to differences in suppliers, ingredient substitutions, recipe revisions, or product assembly at the restaurant level. We use only one fryer in each restaurant to fry both gluten and non-gluten items; Chips, Taquitos, Flautas, Tostada Shells, Breaded Fish.

Gluten Free Dressings

- Ranch

- Chipotle Ranch

- Olive Oil Vinaigrette

- Chipotle Glaze

Kin Shop

2011-12-15T20:28:00.008-05:00

I went to eat at Kin Shop in Greenwich Village recently. Kin Shop is a Thai Restaurant opened by Chef Harold Dieterle and Alicia Nosenzo last year. I hadn't been to Kin Shop before, but I had walked by it several times since it's in a pretty central location. When I called Kin Shop and told them about my dietary restrictions (gluten-free/vegan) they told me it was no problem.

My favorite thing about Kin Shop is the drinks. I ordered the Autumn Khing Fizz with soda water instead of ginger soda.

Autumn Khing Fizz: tito's vodka, domaine de canton, cider, bartlett pear, thai basil & fever tree ginger soda.

For dinner, they didn't have a ton of gluten-free options. I started with the Crunchy Sprout & Bibb Salad which comes with sunflower seeds and apple slices.

I wanted to order the Simmered Rice Noodles and Stir Fried Beans for dinner or the Sour Yellow: Roasted King Oyster Mushroom. Unfortunately, these options aren't gluten-free*. I ended up getting the Northern Thai Style Curry which the waiter said they could make safe for me. I didn't love it because it wasn't what I ultimately wanted to order. I wish Kin Shop would have made substitutions so that I could order one of the dishes I liked more.

Overall, the menu at Kin Shop is pretty small so there aren't a lot of options for Celiacs :(

Kin Shop ● 469 6th Avenue ● NYC 10011 ● (212) 675-4295

*I can't quite remember why the King Oyster Mushroom isn't gluten-free

Macelleria

2011-12-11T14:43:00.002-05:00

We went to eat at Macelleria which is a Steakhouse in Meatpacking, NYC last night for dinner. It was two of my friends birthdays so of course we had a big group dinner except that they lied about the time so everyone was late except for me and I had to wait 15 minutes before the first birthday girl showed up.

When I looked at the menu for Macelleria online before we left for dinner, I didn't think that there would be much I could eat. I thought I would probably end up getting some of the sides and be hungry after dinner. It turns out though that Macelleria has rice pasta so there is an alternative for someone who is gluten-free and doesn't eat meat. I ended up ordering the Branzino with a salad. My food was good. For a steakhouse, I thought that the options at Macelleria weren't bad and the kitchen was accommodating.

Maelleria doesn't have a separate gluten-free menu, but when we got the bill I noticed that there was a note under my entree saying that I was gluten-free. Thanks, Macelleria :)

Prosecco with pomegranate seeds

Mixed Greens Salad: The Branzino doesn't come

with anything so I asked Macelleria to make me a salad.

Happy Birthday Jenn and Jackie!

Why I decided to change my blog name

2011-12-07T02:40:00.000-05:00

So if you've been following my blog you can see that I've changed my blog link back to what it used to be emilyisglutenfree.blogspot.com. For the past year, I had a custom domain www.egfblog.com which I was not able to renew (that's what happens when you have an expired credit card haha). Anyway, I'm changing it back because I didn't love the past year (actually, it sucked) so I'm hoping I can get a fresh start with a familiar name :) Happy Holidays

Terri for Breakfast

2011-12-01T14:47:00.001-05:00

I previously wrote about a vegetarian take-away place in the New York Health & Racquet Club called Terri which is located at 60 West 23rd Street between 5th and 6th Ave. Terri is a great restaurant for vegan food, especially wraps and sandwiches. They also have great smoothies!

This past week, I went to Terri for Breakfast which I hadn't tried there before. It turns out that Terri has a lot of yummy breakfast items. Terri serves breakfast all day including a breakfast scramble wrap that can be made safe for Celiacs by substituting a gluten-free wrap, an organic oatmeal cup, an oat date bar which they say is wheat-free and a soy yogurt parfait which I ordered!

Soy Yogurt Parfait: Vanilla soy yogurt layered with wheat-free

granola, raspberries and blueberries

Are Girl Scout Cookies Gluten-Free?

2011-11-25T20:52:00.003-05:00

when will they make gluten-free girl scout cookies? answer: probably never

(click on image to enlarge)

Angelica Kitchen

2011-11-20T11:18:00.003-05:00

I have to vent. I was having a conversation with one of my managers last week and this person was like "Hey are you on Facebook" and I was like oh no I actually don't use Facebook. And s/he was like "Well, do you want to be on it". Me: "Well I had Facebook I just don't use it anymore". And basically what I realized is that people today are OBSESSED with Facebook. But what annoys me is the question "Do I want to be on it". I went to Penn and back in 2004 when I was heading to college and first started using Facebook it was us, Harvard and the other ivy league schools on it. and I didn't use it much then either.

I went to Angelica Kitchen in the East Village earlier this week for dinner. I've been to Angelica Kitchen a few times before, but it's definitely been at least a year since the last time I ate here.

Angelica Kitchen is a vegan restaurant - they serve nothing with animal products, dairy or eggs.

Angelica Kitchen has Daily Specials on their menu which for Thursday were dishes with names like "Occupy Wild Rice," which I ordered and "we are the 99%," which my friend ordered even though he said knew what none of the ingredients were.

I started with the hummus...

We were sharing so the bread is not gluten-free, and I had to eat around it.

For my main dish, "Occupy Wild Rice" came with wild rice-tofu cakes including arame, sauteed onions, celery & tofu cheese; served over roasted leeks glaze & drizzled with sweet potato-tahini cream. Accompanied by broccoli & roasted turnips; garnished with mustard greens, escarole, arugula & teenage lettuce. I am not including a photo because the sweet potato-tahini cream / "fake cheese" looks a little gross but the dish wasn't bad.

For Dessert I ordered a blueberry Kanten which is a "Light, soothing gelled dessert made with apple cider, agar, kuzu & fruit". This was also ok.

Overall, we enjoyed dinner. Angelica Kitchen is not an upscale restaurant like Blossom but the food is still pretty good and it's not expensive. I've been here a couple of times and will probably go back again. Angelica Kitchen only takes cash and they don't accept reservations.

Angelica Kitchen tells you which of the Daily Specials are gluten-free so for example "Occupy Wild Rice" and "Thursday's Noimaki" as well as the "Thursday's Salad" were all gluten-free as was the black-bean soup.

On it's regular menu, Angelica Kitchen doesn't list which items are safe for celiacs. You have to request the gluten-free menu which they'll bring you in a binder.

Angelica Kitchen ● 300 East 12th Street ● NYC 10003 ● (212) 228-2909

More Yoga

2011-11-15T13:35:00.004-05:00

AAAh! I have been so tired lately. I feel like the world is closing in on me. Everyone says that I have SAD (Seasonal Adjustment Disorder). I probably do ~ I hate when the sky isn't blue and I can't go outside. Lately, I haven't even had time to cook I've been so busy. We've also been eating out a ton. I cannot remember a time when I had this many dinner/brunch reservations in a row. For example, this past weekend I had to move my dinner reservation on Sunday to a different restaurant because I was going to the same place on Saturday!!!!!

One thing that I have had time to do is workout. Not that it's doing anything for me with all the food I've been eating. Mostly, I do running and yoga. I think that I'm going to incorporate bootcamp at some point, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Back in September I wrote my "What are the Benefits of doing Yoga? (Part One)" post. Today, I am doing part two. Even though I recently pulled a muscle in my chest from getting overly-stretched in an upward dog by a yoga teacher, I am still promoting yoga's health benefits for flexibility, improving breathing and relieving stress.

What are the benefits of doing yoga? Part Two¹

Yoga helps with Flexibility:
The series of yoga poses called asanas work by safely stretching your muscles. This releases the lactic acid that builds up with muscle use and causes stiffness, tension, pain, and fatigue. In addition, yoga increases the range of motion in joints.

Yoga can reduce Stress:
Focusing on breathing can help with anxiety. For example, they say that if you practice really slow deep breathing it is impossible to feel anxious at the same time as you are breathing. In addition, meditation during yoga can help quiet stressful thoughts that may be going through your head.

Yoga can improve Concentration:
Apparently, this one is harder to research scientifically, but many yoga students say that they can focus better after practicing yoga! They also say that they tend to be happier after practicing so it's possible that yoga can improve your mood as well.

--
1 http://www.webmd.com/balance/the-health-benefits-of-yoga

More Birthdays!

2011-11-06T12:54:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was birthday day! I feel like there are so many birthdays this time of year. It's like one after another after another. It's fun though!

This was my outfit for the birthdays that I went to last night. Basically, I had this black Ella Moss dress in my closet. I bought it for a party in college. It's size XS and too short, but I wanted to wear the dress one more time before giving it away.

Right now, I am currently focusing less on cooking and baking and more on budgeting. I feel like with the holidays approaching this is a great time to take a second and set a budget. I know for me there are so many times when I look at my bank statement and I'm like what is this... this can't be right...

With that in mind, I came up with three tips for cutting back on spending during the Holidays:

(1) Buy gifts early! Buy them now! Take advantage of sales before Thanksgiving. If you start early you have more time to think about what to get your friends and family and less rushing means better gift ideas!

(2) Plan for the worst - Use the extra $500 rule which is this: I am going on vacation. I know how much the hotel, flights, and concert (etc) tickets cost. Now I am going to add $500 to my budget for the trip in anticipation of stuff I didn't account for like dinners out and shopping.

(3) Anticipate future costs! I keep check from my friends without cashing them if I know that I am going to owe them money later.

Babycakes NYC

2011-11-04T14:25:00.000-04:00

I went downtown after work on Tuesday to check out a gluten-free, vegan bakery called Babycakes, which I had heard great things about. Babycakes has locations in New York, Los Angeles and Orlando.

The bakery is located in the Lower East Side at 248 Broome St. at Ludlow.

Storefront, has to be taken at an angle because

there is a huge parking meter in front!

Inside, Babycakes is actually pretty small, but they have a lot of gluten-free cupcakes, donuts and candies! I definitely recommend you check it out.

Blossom

2011-10-27T09:18:00.001-04:00

I had my half-birthday at Blossom earlier this month. I picked the restaurant because I know that it has great organic, vegetarian food, and an organized celebration is one of my few chances to get all my friends together at a vegan restaurant.

Blossom has 2 locations: in the meatpacking district at 189 Ninth Avenue at 21st Street and uptown at 466 Columbus Avenue at 82nd street. We went to the downtown location...

Blossom Ninth Ave.

Blossom Cafe Columbus Ave.

Even though Blossom doesn't have a ton of gluten-free options, they do have a separate menu that you can order off of that tells you which items are prepared gluten-free and which can be made gluten-free using substitutions. I started with the Field Greens Salad with mixed greens, grilled pears & candied walnuts.

I had wanted to order the Sweet Potato Spring Rolls with shredded coconut, jicama, carrot, red and yellow peppers, scallions, avocado that has to be served without the almond ginger dipping sauce in order to be gluten-free, but unfortunately they were out of it!

For my main course, I had a really interesting tofu dish. All of the food at Blossom is vegan and some of their dishes are also raw. Even though it was cooked, my tofu main course reminded me of raw food meals that I've had in the past.

Pistachio & Pepper Dusted Tofu: root vegetable crepe, lemon truffle emulsion, frisée in red beet vinaigrette. Prepared gluten-free without the crepe.

I previously blogged about Blossom and their to-go location on Ninth Ave. Read the post here!

Food Poisoning. Again?!

2011-10-21T02:10:00.002-04:00

I am learning more about my food intolerances every day. It's funny. Sometimes I SUCK at standing up for myself. Like SUCK at it completely. So my body stands up for me. By getting sick.

Gluten is an absolute intolerance for me. No matter what I'm gluten-free and if I eat any gluten at all I'll get a headache. But with dairy it's different. If I'm feeling OK I can usually tolerate trace amounts of dairy. But if I'm not feeling OK then I can't stomach it.

Something I learned from one of my doctors is that the reaction my body has to dairy actually stays the same. What differs is my stress level. If I'm more stressed then my pain tolerance goes down. If I'm less stressed then its higher. This is true for all kinds of pain. I used to have back pain often and I learned to tell that the times when it was worse had to do with when I was stressed. So the lesson is that avoiding dairy is important at all times because only sometimes can you handle having a migraine. I guess I have to be more careful in the future.

Pumpkin Risotto

2011-10-16T05:32:00.007-04:00

It's October! That means Fall is finally here :) What is everyone going to be for Halloween?

I love so many things about fall including: (1) days when it's cold outside but not too cold that you need a coat (2) Fall colors (3) Fall foods like pumpkin especially in pumpkin spice lattes. I didn't even realize that you can cook easily with pumpkin puree until I made this recipe for pumpkin risotto. The recipe comes from the cookbook Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Cooking by Susan O'Brien.

I made this for dinner last week and it lasted several days which was amazing. It tastes soo good :)

Pumpkin Risotto

Ingredients

1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 large red onion, chopped finely
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 (14-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
3/4 cups arborio rice
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (I skipped this but suggest using vegan)
1 clove garlic, minced
Dash of freshly ground pepper
Dash of red pepper flakes

Directions

In a large skillet or Dutch Oven heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute until soft, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute 1 or 2 minutes longer. Add the arborio rice, and stir to lightly brown.
Heat the vegetable broth in a small saucepan until it boils. Keep it hot, and add one ladleful of broth to the rice mixture at a time stirring until each is absorbed before adding another ladleful. Continue this process until all of the broth has been added and the rice is cooked through. *It took me about 3 cups of heated broth until the rice was cooked through.
Add the pumpkin and Parmesan cheese to the mixture and stir until well blended. Add the red pepper flakes, ground pepper and nutmeg. Stir until blended.

* I also added sauteed mushrooms and asparagus to this risotto recipe. I just sauteed them separately and added them at the same time as the pumpkin puree.

Serves 3

Jumbo Cupcakes

2011-10-10T18:32:00.003-04:00

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

In addition to all the amazing stuff that people do in October to raise awareness of Breast Cancer like the Race for the Cure and the 3-day race which I recently learned about, make sure to encourage friends and family to go for an annual mammogram.

I came up with the idea to make cupcakes because it was my half-birthday this past week. The recipe I used is actually for a vanilla cake, but because the batter is really dense I think it works best as jumbo cupcakes.

These cupcakes were a ton of fun to decorate. I used pink frosting and sprinkles in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month to encourage my friends to “think pink”. I’m not sure I would bake this recipe again though. The cupcakes taste great, but I fear that they may be high in calories!

Vanilla Cupcakes
adapted from Allergy-Free Desserts by Elizabeth Gordon, pg. 95

Ingredients

6 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal
1 cup well-shaken unsweetened coconut milk
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
3 1/2 cups Betsy's Baking Mix *see below
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup organic palm fruit oil shortening (I used vegetable shortening)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°.
In a small bowl, combine the water and flaxseed meal and allow to thicken (3-5 minutes).
In another small bowl, make "buttermilk" by combining the coconut milk and cider vinegar.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the baking mix, baking powder, baking soda, and xanthan gum.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the sugar and shortening until they are light and fluffy.
Then blend in the flaxseed mixture and the vanilla.
Alternatively stir in the dry ingredients and the "buttermilk" starting and ending with the dry mix.
Grease large muffin tins with vegetable oil. Turn cupcake wrappers inside out and use them to line the bottom of the muffin pans.
Pour batter into the muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

makes 12 cupcakes

*Here are the proportions for Betsy's Baking Mix (from pg. 88 of allergy-free desserts). The baking mix can be stored for up to 3 months in a sealed container. To combine, first stir well with a wire whisk and then shake in an airtight container. Whisk the baking mix before each time you use it!

3 3/4 cups garbanzo bean flour
2 1/4 cups potato starch
1 1/2 cup tapioca flour

Bond St. Restaurant

2011-09-25T02:44:00.017-04:00

We went to Bond St. for dinner last night. I had actually forgotten that this wasn't my first time at the restaurant - my friends and I came here for restaurant week about a year ago!

Dinner at Bond St. is a lot better today than it was then. Bond St. now carries Tamari sauce, a gluten-free soy sauce substitute so they have been able to expand the menu options they offer to diners that have gluten intolerances.

My food was amazing! I feel like I used to have better stories from my experiences eating out. After a couple of years, being gluten-free has gotten to be so routine. Hi, I'm gluten-free what are my options? do you have a gluten free menu? yes, please check with the kitchen. every time. I think there should be a law that all restaurants must carry gluten-free menus so that I don't have to pay attention when I order to make sure the restaurant doesn't accidentally poison me.

Anyway, Bond St. delivered an amazing 3 courses. First, they brought us edamame and it was delicious, maybe the best I've ever had.

I stared with the tofu miso soup and the artichoke trio & fuji apple salad without prosciutto.

tofu miso soup

artichoke trio & fuji apple salad

I love anything with apple! The salad was particularly good. For my main course I ordered arugula crispy potato rolls.

arugula crispy potato rolls

This was a really fun dish. When I ordered rolls, I thought I would get traditional sushi (with potatoes somehow). I was glad that Bond St. turned the arugula crispy potato rolls into a legitimate main course because many of the other main course options contained gluten or were not vegetarian. This was really good!

When we got the dessert menu, I politely passed, however I ended up ordering dessert for my dinner date so I picked out the Mochi Ice Cream.

mochi ice cream

Put a fork in me im done. This dish was heaven that I even got to try a little bit of it. I LOVE mochi, which if you don't know is a japanese rice cake made of glutinous (different from gluten) rice. What Bond St. did for the mochi ice cream which comes in Strawberry, Black Sesame and Green Tea (strawberry was my favorite) is they put the ice cream inside the mochi. Even though I still couldn't eat all of the ice cream, I at least got to try it and it was delicious!!

Bond St. ● 6 Bond St. ● NYC 10012 ● 212-777-25000

Eppa Superfruit Sangria

2011-09-17T16:28:00.013-04:00

I recently received my first bottle of EPPA sangria. EPPA is the first Superfruit Sangria that comes in a bottle. It is certified organic and contains antioxidants which can help with health problems such as heart disease and diabetes. EPPA is delicious and just drinking it you know it's going to be good for you.

EPPA blends premium Mendocino Cabernet Sauvigon and Syrah wine made from organically grown grapes in the Northern Coast of California. This creates a delicious flavor that is sweetened by the infusion of real pomegranate, blueberry, blood orange and acai berry.

EPPA was first sold in Miami but it will soon be available in most states. In the meantime, you can buy EPPA on their website: http://www.eppasangria.com/. I love this drink! It's one of a kind.

Breakfast Muffins

2011-09-11T10:59:00.001-04:00

I like to eat these in the morning. They have a lot of different fruits and nuts so they are a tasty choice for breakfast or a snack. The recipe is a lot easier to make than it sounds. I can't wait to try these again!

Breakfast Muffins
adapted from Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Cooking, pg. 40

Ingredients

1/3 cup garbanzo bean flour
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup arrowroot powder
1/4 cup gluten-free millet flakes, crushed (I used crushed gluten-free cornflakes)
1 1/2 teaspsoons ground cinnmaon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup agave nectar
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup chopped apple
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped finely
1/3 cup chopped dates or dried cranberries (I used cranberries)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400° F.
Spray large muffin tins with vegetable oil spray (I only had regular vegetable oil so I greased the tins using oil).
Combine the flours, arrowroot, millet flakes, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Blend well and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the oil and agave nectar until fluffy. Add the eggs and beat well.
Add the grated carrots, applesauce and grated apple and stir.
Combine with the dry ingredients.
Add the walnuts and dates.
Mix until blended, but do not overbeat.
Fill muffin cups until 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Breakfast Muffins

What are the benefits of doing yoga? (Part One)

2011-09-02T16:14:00.002-04:00

I wanted to do a post on the benefits of adding yoga to your workout schedule. I was curious because yoga is different from traditional cardio exercises like running on a treadmill or biking. There is a lot more stretching in yoga and sometime you even go upside down!

Here are some of the benefits of doing yoga that I found from researching the subject online:

(1) Yoga helps build strength: Standing poses build leg strength while inversions build arm strength. This is excellent for me personally because I hate lifting weights.

(2) Posture improves with Yoga: because yoga builds core strength which helps you to keep from slouching.

(3) Yoga helps with lung capacity. I didn't know this before I starting looking into it. If you've even taken a yoga class you know that it's all about breathing. Apparently, all of this focus on your breath actually pays off because yoga can increase lung capacity. This is awesome if you're a runner or do other sports.

Carribean-Style Sweet Potatoes and Black Beans

2011-08-06T15:29:00.004-04:00

I made this recipe for dinner a couple of nights ago, and I really enjoyed it. It has sweet potatoes, orange juice and black beans which means it's high in Vitamins A and C and protein.

Caribbean-Style Sweet Potatoes and Black Beans over Brown Rice
adapted from the Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen, pg. 125.

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
3/4 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon jerk seasoning
1 teaspoon ground cinnmaon
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cups hot cooked brown rice

Directions

In a large saucepan, bring the potatoes and enough salted water to cover to a boil over high heat.
Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until tender but not falling apart, about 10 minutes.
Drain and set aside.
In the same saucepan, whisk together orange juice, cornstarch, jerk seasoning, cinnamon, and cumin.
Bring to a boil over medium heat.
Boil until thickened, whisking constantly, about 1 minute.
Stir in the sweet potatoes, beans, salt and pepper.
Cook, stirring, until heated through, about 3 minutes.
Serve warm, over brown rice.

I added grilled tofu to the dish.

Is Coconut Water really good for you?

2011-08-01T17:36:00.000-04:00

I've been drinking a lot of coconut water lately. I see it everywhere. It seems to be a lasting drink obsession along with juice diets. I wanted to find out if drinking coconut water is actually better for you than drinking regular water.

I actually have 2 questions that I want to answer with this blog post: Is coconut water good for you and how does it compare to regular water? Also, what about once you add the flavor / sugar?

Here is the nutritional information for coconut water without any added flavor:

There's obviously a lot of potassium and also sugar. For context, coconut water is the liquid found naturally inside of young green coconuts. It later gets absorbed by the coconut and replaced with coconut meat as the coconut matures. So somewhere they are picking a lot of coconuts to make all this juice that we're drinking. It turns out that the region with the greatest coconut production is Southeast Asia.

Where does the sugar in natural coconut water come from? I guess it's similar to how other fruits contain sugar. So drinking coconut water is better for you than chugging a different brand of energy drink but it still has more sugar than water. It's better to drink coconut water occasionally than to substitute it for spring water.

What about the fruit infused waters like Mango and Passion Fruit? These taste so much better; I actually don't love plain coconut water it has to be mixed in with other juices or have flavor added if I'm going to drink it.

Flavored coconut water has about 20 more calories per serving and 10 more grams of sugar than natural coconut water. 20g of sugar is like 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar. So replacing water with coconut water only works if you add a LOT of sugar to your water. Which none of us do.

I like coconut water, but I'm glad I researched it. If it were really healthier than regular water, I probably WOULD drink it all the time. But it's not. So better to have it in moderation!

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

2011-07-29T21:48:00.005-04:00

I made the recipe on the cover of Allergy-Free Desserts recently. The book, by Elizabeth Gordon has a lot of dessert recipes for people with food allergies. The photo on the cover is of Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes. This is the first recipe I've made out of this book. I picked it because I'm looking for a delicious vanilla cupcake recipe (she only has chocolate) and the recipe on the cover is usually the best in the cookbook. This was no exception.

The recipes in this book are pretty complicated. I've been hesitant to try them because some seem like they are beyond my cooking skills. The Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes were not that difficult to make and they came out amazing. Seriously, these are so delicious :)

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes
from allergy-free desserts, page 101

Ingredients

1/2 cup vanilla rice milk
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups Betsy's Baking Mix (see bottom)*
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup organic palm fruit oil shortening (I used vegetable oil shortening)
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups unpeeled grated zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)
24 cupcake foils

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°.
In a small bowl, combine the rice milk and cider vinegar to make a buttermilk mixture.
In a large bowl, whisk together the baking mix, cocoa powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, allspice, cinnamon and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the oil, shortening and sugars until they are light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla and beat for 1 minute.
In 3 additions, alternately add the dry mixture and "buttermilk" mixture. So add half of the dry ingredients, then all of the buttermilk, then the rest of the dry ingredients. Stir well after each addition.
Fold in the grated zucchini.
Scoop the batter into lined cupcake tins and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the cupcakes cool in their tins.

Makes about 24 cupcakes.

3 3/4 cups garbanzo bean flour
2 1/4 cups potato starch
1 1/2 cup tapioca flour

Stockpiling

2011-07-24T09:47:00.001-04:00

I've been stockpiling food in my cupboard lately. Maybe because it's so hot outside or maybe because the grocery store near me closed, but it just seems like I've been "buying in bulk" without the discount lately. Maybe I should join Costco?

My first two stockpiling purchases are Glutino gluten-free crackers (yum!) and Starbucks Vanilla instant coffee (yum! yum!).

What about you? Do you stockpile? If so, what do you keep in your cupboard?

Sambuca

2011-07-13T17:45:00.005-04:00

My friends and I went to eat at Sambuca recently. Sambuca is an Italian restuarant located in the Upper West Side near Central Park. When my friend invited me to dinner I thought I recognized the name of the restaurant. I felt like it was one of the gluten-free friendly restaurants in New York City but I also thought that it was a Thai food place. It turns out I was right about the menu but wrong about the cuisine!

When I arrived at Sambuca, they had an extensive gluten-free menu that they brought out with the regular menu. Because I have a lot of dietary restrictions, don't eat meat, and try really hard to avoid dairy, I ordered the Pasta Primavera and my friend and I split the Chopped Salad.

Sambuca uses an elbow-shaped rice pasta called Tinkyada which I hadn't heard of before. The Pasta Primavera was good but since it has a cream sauce I didn't eat a lot of it. We also liked the salad but didn't think it was anything special.

Overall, we liked Sambuca, but I didn't think it was amazing and probably wouldn't go back if I wasn't gluten-free. Here is a link to the restaurants website: Sambuca NYC and I uploaded their gluten free menu to my Tumblr!

Co-op at the Rivington Hotel

2011-06-22T14:43:00.003-04:00

My friend and I went to eat at Co-op a couple of weeks ago. Co-op is a restaurant that just opened in the Rivington Hotel. I was pretty excited to try this new spot, and the atmosphere was a lot of fun when we got there.

We sat down at the table and I immediately quizzed our waitress about what food I could and could not order. Even though the Rivington Hotel doesn't have a separate gluten-free menu, the waitress was good about asking the chef which dishes were ok for me to eat.

To start with I ordered the Black Cod on Butter Lettuce and the Co-op chopped salad.

Black Cod

Chopped Salad

These were delicious but afterwards, I was still hungry. I was stupid and of course I ordered sushi. Sushi is always risky in restaurants because it can give you gluten poisoning. We've debated why and one explanation I've heard is that the seaweed paper can be soaked in chicken stock which contains gluten. Regardless, I ended up with a headache after dinner.

Even though it ended badly, I would still recommend Co-Op. The first half of dinner was delicious :) I really liked the Black Cod dish and would definitely suggest ordering it. I just wish they could do it with more lettuce!

CO-OP Food and Drink
107 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002

Eataly (Gluten-Free)

2011-06-15T15:27:00.005-04:00

I paid a visit to Mario Batali's Eataly last week. Eataly is a giant Italian foods market near Madison Square Park. It has a lot of pasta but also produce, restaurants, even a cookbook shop. Eataly has several places to sit and get food in the market as well as a rooftop restaurant/beer garden called Birreria that recently opened. The grocery store close to my apartment closed :( so I stopped by Eataly to pick up some fresh ingredients for dinner.

Along the way, I discovered Eataly's gluten-free aisle....

In the past, I had looked for gluten-free pasta at Eataly, and I did not find anything. They have a whole shelf now as you can see in the picture. Unfortunately, it's all products by Schar. What's unique about Eataly is that the ingredients it carries are high-quality, local, handmade. Schar is just a chain, the same as you can find in Duane Reade. This makes me sad. I'm still hoping that Eataly finds some original gluten-free pasta but I'm not holding my breath.

In the meantime, I'll be buying fresh veggies and ingredients when I shop at Eataly. But how do I keep them fresh when I get home? These days I'm using Clearly Fresh Bags with BreatheWay technology to allow fresh produce to breathe naturally so it lasts. This way your fruit and vegetables slowly ripen and stay fresh longer.

Chili's Gluten-Free

2011-06-09T11:24:00.001-04:00

I snapped this photo of Chili's gluten-free menu at their restaurant in the Las Vegas, NV airport. They had a binder of dietary/nutritional information including this page. It looks like they went through several iterations of the menu.

I ordered a House Salad, no crutons and sides of rice and fresh vegetables (they brought me broccoli). It was really good. I'm glad to discover that I can now eat at Chili's :)

Asellina (NYC)

2011-05-21T21:19:00.000-04:00

We went to eat at Asellina last weekend, the newish restaurant in the Gansevoort Park Hotel. Asellina is an Italian restaurant with Marco Porceddu as its head chef. Before we went to the restuarant, I thought the menu looked good. When we arrived, the space is actually really big and it was packed which is surprising because we were there pretty late.

Asellina didn't have a separate gluten-free menu, but when I asked, the waitress went through the menu with me and pointed out which items are gluten-free. The food was good. I started with the Field Greens salad and then ordered the branzino and a side of asparagus. My friend got the Eggplant Parmesan, and I tried a little - it was fantastic, the best dish by far.

I thought my food was OK but the problem I ran into is that it was too rich. One of my friends ordered the same dish as me - the fish and while I said the sauce was too strong, she didn't think there was sauce on it at all!

Overall, I'm glad that I came to Asellina with my friends, and I think the food is good but it isn't a great pick for me.

ASELLINA
420 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10016
(212) 317-2908

Brunch Bellini!

2011-05-19T23:25:00.001-04:00

Here is what you'll be making (or requesting that restaurants make for you) at brunch this weekend!

The Brunch Bellini

Ingredients

a handful of raspberries
2 tablespoons icing sugar
1-2 mint leaves
Prosecco

"To make the bellini, in a food processor blend the raspberries with sugar and mint, then pass through a sieve. Spoon a teaspoon or tablespoon of raspberry puree in a champagne glass and top with chilled Prosecco. A few raspberries may be added for decoration. Serve immediately."

I got the recipe online from Gourmantine's Blog. This was my first time using a food processor and it was really effective. I'll let you look at Gourmantine's Blog for a view of the final Bellini because the photograph is so beautiful.

Blueberry Muffins

2011-05-10T19:22:00.003-04:00

These blueberry muffins are vegan and gluten-free. The recipe comes from the book Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Cooking by Susan O'Brien. Blueberry muffins is the first recipe that I'm trying from this cookbook, and I loved them! The muffins came out light and delicious :)

Here is the recipe for these dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free and gluten-free blueberry muffins...

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

1/4 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons agave nectar
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sorghum or brown rice flour (I used brown rice)
1/2 cup arrowroot
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 cup blueberries

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375°F.
In a large bowl or electric mixer, combine the oil and agave nectar. Add the applesauce, water and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, arrowroot, baking powder, and salt and mix well.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until well blended.
Fold in the oragnge rind and bleuberries and stir.
Pour into greased muffin pans and bake for 18 - 20 minutes at 375°F.

Makes about 6 muffins.

The recipe takes about 10 minutes to prepare and then 18-20 minutes in the oven so its quick and easy to make. It calls for 6 muffins because they last only a few days after you bake them (though longer if you refrigerate). I used muffin foils because I like them better than greasing the pan. Enjoy!

I joined Tumblr!

2011-05-07T01:07:00.004-04:00

I joined Tumblr recently. Tumblr is a blog hosting platform similar to blogger or wordpress but its geared more toward posting rather than writing.

You can find my Tumblr page "Gluten-Free Emily" at glutenfreeemily.tumblr.com.

Here's a snapshot of what you see when you go to my Tumblr:

What I hope to do with Tumblr is post photos that I like but aren't able to use as blog entries. I've also created two tabs on my Tumblr - highlighted below -

So you can that there are white boxes with pink font and arrows pointing to the tabs. The first tab is a link to a page about recipes where I hope to post my recipes. The second tab links to a page where I plan on adding gluten-free menus that I've gotten from restaurants. The gluten-free menus tab is available directly at http://glutenfreemenus.tumblr.com:

As you can see I've already uploaded the first gluten-free menu from Tao NYC. I'm hoping that joining Tumblr will be a fun way to organize my blog and share photos that you wouldn't get to see otherwise!

Dinner Escapades

2011-05-05T09:49:00.000-04:00

I decide to start a new thing where I cook dinner more often and frequently. That's redundant but I don't cook homemade meals enough. It's hard when it's so much easier and less expensive to pick something up. But I'm never going to get better at cooking if I don't practice.

So tonight for dinner I picked a recipe out of one of my books and got to work...

The recipe I picked is Antioxidant Risotto. I previously made Asparagus Risotto from the same book, The Gluten-Free Vegan by Susan O'Brien. To accompany the Antioxidant Risotto I made my favorite Quinoa Vegetable Salad.

Here is the recipe for the Antioxidant Risotto:

Ingredients

1 red onion, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons organic extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped broccoli
1 cup peeled, seeded, and diced butternut squash
1 cup cleaned and halved mushrooms
2 cups washed and chopped spinach
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
1/4 cup white wine
1 (32-ounce) carton organic vegetable stock
3/4 cup uncooked arborio rice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Directions

In a large pot or skillet, saute the onion in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 2 minutes over medium-high heat, then add the broccoli and butternut squash and continue to saute until the vegetables begin to cook but are not mushy. If the vegetables stick to the skillet, add more oil.
Add the mushrooms, spinach, garlic and ginger and continue cooking for about 5 minutes.
Add the pine nuts, herbs and wine and saute until most of the wine is absorbed.
Remove from heat and set the mixture aside.
In a 3-4 quart saucepan, heat the vegetable stock to boiling. Keep it simmering while you prepare the rice.
Heat a second large pot over medium-high heat. Pour in a small amount of olive oil (maybe 1 tsp) and add the rice.
Stir the rice so it is coated with oil. When the rice begins to brown lightly, add the hot vegetable stock one ladleful at a time. Each time you add the stock, let the rice absorb it completely before you add another ladleful. Keep stirring the mixture as it cooks. The process takes about 30 minutes in all.
After you have added all of the vegetable stock and the rice is cooked through, stir the cooked vegetable into the rice and season with salt and pepper.

Serves 4-6

Antioxidant Risotto

Quinoa and Vegetable Salad

Recipe adapted from The Gluten Free Vegan, pg 85

2011-05-02T18:37:00.004-04:00

I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. - MLK Jr.

Spring Street Natural

2011-04-30T13:42:00.001-04:00

My friends and I had dinner at Spring Street Natural restaurant recently. Spring Street Natural is an organic, natural / healthy foods restaurant in Soho in New York City.

I always order the same thing when I go to Spring Street Natural, and I always like the food. Spring Street Natural is a big restaurant. Dining is casual. I went with a group of girls who eat meat and they all loved it! The meat dishes at Spring Street Natural are prepared as organic and hormone free as possible. I got many compliments on my restaurant choice from the meat lovers, which I was not expecting :)

Here's what I order:

ORGANIC CHICKPEA HUMMUS with toasted pita bread (v) - I ask for veggies instead of Pita Bread

CHOPPED SALAD mesclun, romaine and iceberg lettuce, roasted corn, feta cheese, red peppers, chopped tomatoes and herbed croutons tossed with red wine-mustard vinaigrette: with choice of tofu or grilled free range chicken... with tofu and some minor modifications

I love this restaurant :) The food is fresh and delicious. I definitely recommend trying it.

Spring Street Natural
62 Spring Street
New York, NY 10012
(212) 966-0290

Prepare to Drool

2011-04-23T22:55:00.003-04:00

These cupcakes are from tu-lu's gluten-free bakery in the East Village. I got two kinds for my birthday: both vanilla cake, one with chocolate and one with vanilla frosting.

I've never been to tu-lu's bakery itself, but it is located at 11 Street and First Avenue in NYC. Actually I may have stopped in there once, but if so, it was a long time ago.

I looked at the website for tu-lus, and they have a great menu of gluten-free goodies! Everything from cakes and cupcakes in all kinds of flavors to muffins and even paninis! Tu-lus delivers so if you want to send someone a special gluten-free gift on their birthday or other occasion, this is the place to call.

Tu-Lu's Gluten-Free Bakery
338 East 11th Street
between 1st and 2nd Ave.
New York, NY 10003
(212) 777-2227

Summer Season Cocktail

2011-04-19T23:31:00.000-04:00

With summer approaching, strawberry season upon us and the NBA playoffs underway, I thought I'd post a cocktail that can be used to celebrate all 3. This recipe from Marcus Samuelsson relies on a strawberry puree which you make by melting sugar in water and then coating strawberries in the syrup before putting it all in the blender. It's delicious :)

Summer Season Cocktail

2 ounces mezcal

2 ounces strawberry puree, recipe follows

½ ounce lime juice

½ ounce Campari

sprig of mint, to garnish

In a cocktail shaker, combine mezcal, strawberry puree, lime juice, and Campari with enough ice to fill the shaker. Shake well and strain into a low-ball glass filled with ice. Garnish with mint.

Strawberry Puree Recipe

1 pint of strawberries

½ cup sugar

½ cup water

In a medium pot, dissolve sugar in water over medium heat. Add the strawberries and mix to completely coat the strawberries in the syrup. Puree the strawberries and syrup in a blender.

Birthday Month!

2011-04-10T14:52:00.002-04:00

I celebrated my 25th birthday this past week and unlike most of my birthdays which tend to be small this was a week long affair.

I started in Dallas with a dinner with my parents at the French Room.

Followed by dinner on my actual birthday at ABC Kitchen. I'm going to have to post on ABC Kitchen the next time I go because I didn't take any pictures at dinner!

Finally, my girlfriend and I had a joint birthday last night with a dinner beforehand at Spring Street Natural in SOHO. Guess who was responsible for picking the restaurant?

I didn't go all out with my birthday outfits this year, but I did get this spring/summery Halston Heritage dress which I wore last night with an old pair of heels from Nine West.

I'm super excited for the coming year because I'm planning some great things. For example, I'm going to cook a lot more dessert.

I recenetly bought two new cookbooks:

The first, Allergy-Free Desserts by Elizabeth Gordon has a photo of delicious looking cupcakes on the cover so I'm hoping I'll overcome the challenges I've faced baking cupcakes with this book.

Also, I spotted a recipe for Double-Stuffed Chocolate Chippers on her blog, My Allergy-Free Life, so I might need to make these right away.

The other book I got is Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Cooking by Susan O' Brian, the author of my favorite cookbook, the Gluten-Free Vegan.

I'm sure these recipes will be delicious and can't wait to try them!

French Room in Dallas, TX

2011-04-06T12:53:00.003-04:00

We went to French Room at the Adolphus Hotel for dinner this past weekend. I was excited to try French Room because I haven't been since becoming gluten-free. Two other restaurants we looked at: Abacus by Kent Rathbun and Screen Door which my parents liked.

I told the restaurant I was gluten-free while making the reservation, and they said no problem. When we arrived, they didn’t have a separate gluten-free menu but they did have a vegetarian menu.

The first amuse bouche was an avocado salad (adjusted for me to be vegetarian)

The menu is a tasting menu so you order a first course, second course and dessert. My first course was the Heirloom tomato salad.

For my main course I ordered the Branzini, Yukon Gold Potato Crust, Roasted Baby Root Vegetable, Romesco Sauce.

It was good, but a little too heavy for me (because I rarely eat fish). They did tell me that the sauce for the Branzini contains cream. Because I'm dairy-free, the French Room brought me extra potatoes to make up for not being able to eat the sauce. This restaurant has amazing service.

Finally, for dessert I ordered Fresh Fruit. The food at French Room is great. My only complaint is that I had to eat afterwards because its one of those places where you fill up on bread and since I can’t do that, I came home still hungry. However, I would definitely recommend this restaurant for non-gluten free diners. It has great service... our waiter even gave me flowers :)

The French Room

1321 Commerce Street
Dallas, TX 75202-4202
(214) 742-8200

Peeps, Easter is coming

2011-04-03T17:54:00.002-04:00

I have 2 (very different) gluten-free products for today’s review!

First, just in time for Easter, are Just Born/Haribo Peeps. I know what you’re thinking: those sugar marshmallow things they sell at CSV? Yep, those! It turns out they are gluten-free.

I discovered this when I was standing in line at Duane Reade and gave into temptation, grabbing a box of orange peeps. I looked at the box, and they are labeled gluten-free.

multi-colored peeps

The second product is Thai Kitchen Rice Noodle Bowls. See, I said both products would be different. The Thai Kitchen noodle bowls use rice noodles that are gluten-free. All of the instant noodle soups by Thai Kitchen are gluten-free. I love them in a pinch for dinner because they aren’t frozen and don’t require a microwave to cook.

Thai Kitchen has a gluten-free recipes section on their webpage. In addition, they have a table posted under the "diet/allergy information" tab which tells you which products are gluten-free and which are dairy free. Here's the link.

NUTRITION FACTS (PEEPS): Serving size: 5; Calories: 160; Total fat: 0g; Total carbs: 40g; Sugars: 36g; Protein: 1g.

*No surpise these are sugary. The ingredients listed are sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, preservatives, yellow dye and carnauba wax eyes.

*I'm guessing that peep are dairy-free but not vegan?

NUTRITION FACTS (THAI KITCHEN): Nutrition info for Garlic and Vegetable Instant Rice Noodle Soup (rated a C on caloriecount.about.com): Calories: 190; Total fat: 3g; Sat fat: .5g; Sodium: 740mg; Total carbs: 37g; Sugars: 3g; Protein 3g.

*So these lose points for being high in sodium. I eat mine without adding the oil when I cook it but I don't think that addresses the sodium issue. Maybe I will have to cut back on these. Here's hoping Thai Kitchen makes a sodium-reduced version :)

*CalorieCount.About.com lists nutritional information for many Thai Kitchen products, and it ranks them by how healthy they are.

More granola bars!

2011-04-01T02:24:00.002-04:00

I had the opportunity to bake Shirley of Gluten-Free Easily’s granola bars this past week. It was really exciting for me because I love to try new recipes, and these bars have gotten great reviews!

I started by tracking down the ingredients for the recipe. Shirley uses almond and coconut flour in an attempt to make the granola bars healthier though she says a gluten-free flour blend would suffice. I was able to find all of the original ingredients except for Coconut / Palm Sugar. It took me 2 grocery stores but nowhere in NYC has it. Apparently, Palm Sugar is a natural sweetener that is a bit healthier than most sugars. I would have loved to bake with it but had to use brown sugar instead.

Since this is not my first time baking granola bars, Shirley’s recipe was pretty easy for me. What I love about this recipe is that it calls for the addition of crispy brown rice cereal which makes the granola bars lightly crunchy ☺

Tofu for Dinner again

2011-03-26T23:44:00.005-04:00

I discovered www.findingvegan.com thanks to a tweet from the Lunch Box Bunch. I finally checked it out today and basically, it seems like you submit vegan recipes to the website (with photos), and they post them!

Looking at www.findingvegan.com for the first time, I immediately spotted what I wanted to make for dinner. The recipe comes from www.vegalicious.org and is orginally titled "Spicy Tofu with Pea Pods, Bell Pepper and Orange Sauce". Very descriptive :)

I made the recipe with a few modifications for dinner tonight. Here is the version I made:

Orange Tofu
Serving Size: 2 or 1 very hungry girl :)

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. spicy tofu pieces
1-small sweet red bell pepper
3/4 cup snow peas (the recipe originally called for pea pods)
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1 organic orange, a few pieces of zest and juice
1/2 cup vegetable bouillon (I didn't see where I was supposed to add this so I didn't use it)
1 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons gluten-free tamari sauce
salt and pepper to taste
dash cayenne
dash ginger
1 tablespoons cornstarch (I used 1/2)

Directions:

Slice the bell pepper in thin strips.
Chop the onion.
If the snow peas are small, leave them whole, if they are large, slice on the diagonal in half.
Zest the orange, then juice it.
Make the sauce by combining the orange juice, zest, soy sauce, cayenne, ginger and cornstarch.
Mix well to make a smooth liquid.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan.
Add the pepper pieces and begin to saute until soft.
Add the onion rings and saute.
Add the pea pods and tofu pieces.
When the pea pods begin to soften, but are still bright in color and crunchy, add the sauce.
Season to taste with salt and pepper
Turn down the heat and stir until the sauce is clear and thick.
Serve over rice.

I usually don't re-copy recipes that I find online, but this time I am because I changed it a little. Not only did I cut the recipe in half, but I also tried to make it "a little more healthy". So my sauce had only 1 tbs tamari sauce, and I only used 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch. I can see that it would have been tastier if the sauce were thicker, but I am happy with my "healthy" version. Thank you to the author for sharing this recipe. It was delicious! :)

The sauce... (before adding to the stir-fry)...

My version...

Link to the photo that compelled me to make this recipe within an hour of spotting it online :)

Crosby Street Hotel

2011-03-25T13:04:00.009-04:00

So unfortunately, I don't have a waffle maker to cook waffles from scratch this morning for WAFFLE DAY! I do have Van's Gluten-Free Waffles though :)

We went to eat at the Crosby Street Hotel on Sunday for dinner. I wasn't planning to blog about this artsy hotel in SOHO, but it turns out that they have a fantastic gluten-free menu.

What I like the most about the Crosby Street Hotel is the decor. It's fun to just walk around because the interior design is so interesting :)

When I arrived to dinner, I was seated between two tables, both talking about politics. I think they might have been from DC. My friend arrived shortly after I did, and we took a look at the menu which is gluten-free friendly.

I ordered the House Salad to start...

and then the "Flatbread, hummus, smoked eggplant dip, guacamole, olives," which is delicious on its own. BUT what's amazing about Crosby Bar is that they have gluten-free bread and pasta so they were able to substitute in gluten-free bread for the flatbread and it was really really good...

I love this bar and it has been added to my top places to eat in NYC if you're gluten-free :)

Role Models

2011-03-22T13:59:00.001-04:00

There are a lot of really amazing girls out there that are blogging. They are a big inspiration to me, and one idea I got from another blog (Gracie's - www.girlmeetslife.com) is that sometimes your friends/readers want to know what you're thinking when you tweet something. So here is one of my tweets:

With this one, I was thinking that Lady Gaga is a role model for millions of girls and that by putting up highly photoshopped images like the one in this picture, she sends a bad message. I've seen pictures where she's smiling and looks natural, and I like them a lot better.

Daniel / Cherimoya

2011-03-19T00:35:00.006-04:00

I tried making cupcakes today but they didn't come out great so I decided to post an oldie but goodie... my review of the restaurant Daniel.

I wrote this post when I had a major headache from food poising that I got after eating at the restaurant. I mostly wanted to post pictures because the food there is really beautiful so I thought I'd give it another shot tonight.

When we went to Daniel, I ordered the Gazpacho soup and the polenta with black trumpet mushrooms. For dessert, I had the Cherimoya sorbet. Everything I ordered was great, but I think the polenta may have had gluten in it and that's where I got sick. Maybe someone can confirm if polenta should be gluten-free or if it can get cross-contaminated. Here are a couple of photos I pulled from the restaurant's website (they're so beautiful)...

The flavor of the sorbet I got is Cherimoya, which they told me is similar to lychee. I looked it up and it's a fruit from South America. Interesting. It was quite good.

Pure Food and Wine

2011-03-15T01:22:00.011-04:00

I went back to Pure Food and Wine for brunch this weekend. I have historically been a mixed fan of Pure - sometimes I love it and sometimes I never want to eat raw foods again. This weekend, I was in the mood for something healthy. We headed to Pure which luckily for us serves brunch until 4pm!

The brunch menu at Pure is new. According to One Lucky Duck, Pure just started serving brunch in February. Here is a screenshot of the menu:

As you can see, Pure doesn't list which of it's brunch items are gluten-free, but when I asked, they were able to tell me right away. 2 items on the brunch menu were off-limits for me: the Spinach Florentine contains gluten and Pure was out of the crepe. Since my friend ordered the Quiche, I went with the Fruit Parfait and it was delicious!

Pineapple fruit parfait at Pure

Tofu Chili

2011-03-11T00:04:00.014-05:00

Watch and enjoy: The Dallas Mavs are playing the New York Knicks at home in Texas :)

Tonight for dinner, I made Tofu Chili. I really enjoy this dish because its tofu heavy and I love tofu! So much so that I've actually made it myself.

I have a sinus infection so it was nice to have a quiet night at home and cook something new. Here is the recipe ~

Tofu Chili
Adapted from the Gluten-Free Vegan, pg. 102

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
1 pound (equivalent to 1 carton) extra-firm silken tofu, cubed
2 (15-ounce) cans beans (I used red beans)
1 (28-ounce) can diced or crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon chile powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper

Directions

Saute the onion, pepper, garlic and carrots in olive oil using a deep skillet or Dutch oven, over medium-high heat.
Once the onion is soft, about 4-5 minutes, add the tofu and continue to saute for about 8-10 minutes.
Add the beans, tomatoes, chile powder, cumin and red pepper flakes.
Bring this mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and cook for 30-40 minutes until cooked through.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.

This is the chili base...

And the finished dish ready to serve...

I served the chili under rice with avocado on top. The reason that I did this is the avocado complements the chili because the chili is hot and avocado is cool :) I picked to make rice with the chili because rice is easy for me to throw on while the chili is cooking. The author of the cookbook suggests serving her chili with cornbread.

Mardi Gras Cocktail

2011-03-08T00:58:00.008-05:00

What are your plans for Mardi Gras?

I'm making Poinsettia Cocktails. The recipe is one of Emeril's. It's light, refreshing and easy to make. It's a little bit sweet and incorporates champagne so it's great to celebrate with!

Ingredients

1 shot vodka
1/4 cup Champagne
1/2 cup cranberry juice
Crushed ice
2 strips orange zest, each about 1/4-inch wide and 2 inches long

Directions

Combine the vodka, Champagne and juice in a large-stemmed red wine glass.
Add crushed ice and stir until the mixture is well chilled.
Twist the orange strips over the glass, drop them in, and serve.

Poinsettia Cocktail

National Blueberry Pancake Day - I am celebrating!

2011-03-05T02:12:00.017-05:00

There are many pancake related holidays around this time of year. National Blueberry Pancake Day was January 28 and Shrove Tuesday / Mardi Gras is also known as Pancake Day! That's March 8, this coming Tuesday.

To celebrate, I gave my first shot to gluten-free pancakes. This recipe is buckwheat based and 100% gluten, dairy and egg-free.

Adapted from the Gluten-Free Vegan, pg. 110

Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer whisked together with 4 tablespoons warm water
1 1/2 cup soy milk
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil, plus extra for frying
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup blueberries

Directions

In a medium-size bowl, whisk the egg replacer and water well, until it bubbles and the powder is completely dissolved. Add the milk, oil and maple syrup. Mix. Add the applesauce and stir.
In a small bowl, stir together the buckwheat and brown rice flours, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Stir, then add the blueberries.
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Pour in a small amount of oil. When the skillet is hot, pour in a ladeful of batter. Cook until done, flipping halful through the cooking process. If your batter is too thick, add a small amount of milk or water to thin it out. (I didn't have to do this)

First two...

Last three... things had gotten messy

~ Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes ~

POP Chips

2011-03-02T19:38:00.002-05:00

Yes, this post is on pop chips. Why? Because I just *discovered* them today, and they are amazing. I've been trying to pay more attention to labels so what I mean by discovered is I took a close look at the label and I saw this...

No gluten ingredients and VEGAN. That's perfect. They are also pretty healthy; the little bag of sea salt and vinegar chips only has 100 calories (other chips that size and flavor have as many as 250). Plus, they're good!

Not all flavors of pop chips are vegan, but they are all gluten-free. If you're like me, you noticed that the label says "made on equipment shared with wheat". So far, I've been okay with that. It's not the best, but I don't think you can rule out these foods because if you did there wouldn't be much left you could eat! What do other gluten-free people think? If something is processed on equipment shared with wheat, do you stay away?

Nutritional Info: per 23g/18 chips. Calories: 100, Calories/fat: 30, Total fat: 3g, Sat/Trans fat: 0g, Chol: 0mg, Sodium: 210mg, Total carbs: 16g, Sugars: 1g, Protein: 1g

Heart-Shaped Sugar Cookies

2011-02-27T23:22:00.004-05:00

I found this great recipe online from Adventures of a Gluten-Free Mom for Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Cut Out Sugar Cookies.

The cookies are in celebration of Valentine's Day, even though I am a few weeks behind. I bought the cookie cutters around that time as well as the cooling racks thanks to a gift certificate from CSN stores!

This was my first time baking homemade gluten-free sugar cookies, and I had a lot of fun with it! We used to do sugar cookies when I was little so I remembered some of the rules - put flour on the rolling pin, re-refrigerate the dough etc. The cookies taste like regular sugar cookies!

I thought this recipe was pretty user friendly. I didn't have to make any modifications, but there were a couple of things I had to figure out in order to get it right. (1) For these sugar cookies, you actually make the flour blend first and then add it to the cookie mix. You will have a little bit of flour blend left over if you follow the instructions correctly. I used it to help cut out the cookies. (2) When the recipe says add dry ingredients, it means the flour blend plus the Baking Soda and Cream of Tartar. I missed this the first time around.

Heidi of Adventures of a Gluten-Free Mom also has an icing recipe in her post which I used adding 6 drops of red food coloring to decorate the cookies! I will definitely make them again :)

Granola Escapades

2011-02-15T01:18:00.009-05:00

I came up with the idea to make homemade breakfast bars when I couldn't figure out what to eat for breakfast now that Greek Yogurt is out (I'm dairy-free).

When I couldn't find a recipe in one of my cookbooks, I turned to the internet with the inkling that other bloggers could help me out. Sure enough, I was right and I found 2 great recipes first from Karina Allrich of Gluten-Free Goddess and second from Kim of Cook It Allergy Free.

Karina had a recipe for Quinoa Breakfast Bars with Blueberries and Kim for Granola Oatmeal Cookies Bars which according to her post are breakfast bars in disguise :)

This is Karina's quinoa mix before I put it in the oven. Basically, when it came out it tasted like a really delicious cake. I felt like it was something I could bring to a party that my non gluten-free friends would love but maybe not a very healthy breakfast.

I had a little bit more fun making Kim's Granola Oatmeal bars because the recipe is a bit unusual. It calls for seeds and flour, dried fruit (I used blueberries) and nuts but instead of blending everything together you pour the liquid ingredients into the dry mix and then squish it into a cake pan. Fun!

Finished product

I added chocolate chips because even though they are an optional ingredient in the recipe, I think they make the granola bars that much more delicious!

I'm learning - Celiac Disease Research

2011-02-11T03:09:00.008-05:00

I had an hour free today so I did some research. This used to be one of my favorite things to do when I first was diagnosed with a gluten-intolerance because there is so much to learn about food allergies such as what triggers them, how allergies and intolerances are different, and what kind of effects intolerances have on your body.

I was inspired to write this post by an article from the New Yorker on food allergies. The article, entitled "The Peanut Puzzle" looks at the causes of food allergies, specifically, the peanut allergy and says that though the prevalence of food allergies is increasing, doctors don't know what causes them. This may be true for peanut allergies but it doesn't ring true to me for a gluten-intolerance. Right off the bat, I can name two triggers of a gluten-intolerance: stress and genetics. I think generalizing food allergies without a caveat for intolerances which are different is a bit irresponsible.

What I was really interested in learning for this post however is about the blood tests to determine whether someone has Celiac or is likely to be gluten-intolerant. I vaguely remember that there were a lot of different tests - including yes/no tests for Celiac and vitamin level tests. I also remember that you have to keep eating gluten in order for the tests to be accurate so I was interested to learn why this is the case.

What my research taught me is that the Celiac tests look for blood antibodies. Specifically, "there are two classes of antibodies seen in untreated Celiac disease. Antibodies directed against a fragment of gluten called gliadin, and antibodies directed against a particular tissue in the body itself".1

Not everyone that has a gluten-intolerance has Celiac. In fact, "a small proportion of Gluten intolerant people will test positive to Celiac Disease test... ~.5% of the population".2 I think that means .5% of the total population not .5% of the population with a gluten intolerance. Apparently, as much as 15% of the general population could have a Non-Celiac gluten-intolerance. That's really high. What I don't understand is why it is still so difficult to maintain a gluten-free diet. At least for me. But I'm vegetarian.

1 "How accurate are blood antibody tests" from Celiac.com
2 "Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease" from www.foodintol.com

Kittichai NYC

2011-02-09T20:19:00.007-05:00

Last week my friend and I went to Kittichai in the Thompson Hotel for Restaurant Week. As I've been told, Kittichai has been open for several years, but I still hadn't had a chance to try it so my friend and I were excited to go.

When I called the restaurant to tell them I'm gluten-free they were really nice to me on the phone and even remembered us when we checked in for our reservation.

The restaurant week menu was pretty simple (I guess that's the point), and I photo documented all of it:

First Course: Roasted Japanese eggplant, bell pepper and pickled ginger salad

Second Course: Pan seared Bronzini, Shanhai shoots in a spiced chili broth

Branzino was my favorite fish in college (I know that's weird - but just trust me on this). SO since I actually have started eating fish again - in little amounts and not that often - but rarely, I was OK with ordering it though I actually had to stop after a few bites because I started having eating meat problems. Because I really liked this restaurant, I want to say that they would have provided a vegetarian option had I requested it :)

Third Course: Sorbet! Because I didn't feel comfortable with what was listed on the menu.

Kittichai
60 Thompson Street
b/t Spring and Broome
www.kittichairestaurant.com

I also had to link the Chef's webpage because he has restaurants in other parts of the world ~ www.ianchalermkittichai.com!

Announcement

2011-02-07T19:38:00.002-05:00

We are going to be working with CSN stores for a third time! This is always exciting for me because I get to test out new stuff for my kitchen and then review it in my blog. CSN has 200+ online stores, and they are growing everyday. Some of their websites even sell office furniture such as home office desks.

I'm dying to get some more baking supplies so look for new recipes with better kitchen equipment coming soon. In particular, I really want to try a recipe for homemade breakfast bars.

Subway launches gluten-free bread; starts in Tyler, TX

2011-02-05T15:48:00.005-05:00

Copied from www.kltv.com.

Subway testing gluten free menu in Tyler/Longview

Jan 20, 2011

Released by Subway Restaurants:

TYLER, TX – SUBWAY® Restaurants, known for their Fresh Fit™ menu, is taking it to another level by testing a gluten free roll and gluten free brownie in the Tyler-Longview market starting the week of January 17th. The gluten free roll and brownie will give Americans with gluten sensitivities, gluten intolerances, and Celiac Disease another alternative to their diet.

Celiac Disease (CD) is a lifelong inherited autoimmune condition affecting more than three million American children and adults. When people with CD eat foods that contain gluten, it creates an immune-mediated toxic reaction that causes damage to the small intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed.

Elizabeth Smith has lived with Celiac Disease for five years. She is the creator of The Dallas Celiac, a blog documenting her struggles and triumphs with the disease.

"Right after my diagnosis, my husband and I couldn't go to any fast food restaurants because they didn't know what celiac meant. Restaurants are now starting to catch on. Subway is the go to place for a sandwich, so it will be nice to go there for my husband and now myself," says Smith.

Gluten is found in traditional flour, wheat, oats, barley, rye and malt. Even small amounts of gluten in foods can affect those with CD and cause health problems. Decreasing the amount of gluten in foods can also help those with diabetes to lower their blood sugar level, while increasing their energy level.

All gluten free rolls and brownies being used during the test come prepackaged and individually wrapped. Sandwich Artists are instructed through a tutorial video to cut the roll with a pre-wrapped knife and only use once.

The same sandwich artist will prepare the order from beginning to end, so only one set of hands will touch the sandwich, eliminating cross contamination. The process is extremely thorough to ensure a 100% gluten-free product. Extra measures are taken to make certain gluten does not contaminate other ingredients such as meat, cheese and vegetables.

"There is a level of trust when it comes to others preparing your food. It has to be completely sealed off. I'm glad to hear that Subway is taking precautions to make the food safe. If they didn't, I wouldn't be able to eat it," adds Smith.

SUBWAY® looks forward to seeing Tyler-Longview residents take advantage of the new menu items during this testing period. Their hope is to offer gluten-free products nationwide.

Dramaa, Oprahhh, and Raw Foods

2011-02-04T05:07:00.011-05:00

There has been so much drama lately. I am not sure if I am or am not a drama person but I can remember a few really specific incidences which tell me I am not. I think the problem is that I'm too nice to people. I know that's a weird thing to say but it's what I've been thinking to myself lately. I also really miss my friends and don't go out as much anymore because I'm stressed all the time. This sucks. I guess it's a winter thing.

Speaking of winter ~ Oprah and her staff are going Vegan for a week. 300+ people. That's insane! I hope that many of them do not cheat and eat meat at night :/ I had to get on the internet to see what time The Oprah Show is on so I could hear her take on the meat industry and how she promotes Veganism. I could not figure out what time the show is on online. I had to check the TV Guide. I think they assume you know...

Anyway, I missed Tuesdays's episode but caught Wednesdays and Veganism was not mentioned. This was disappointing for me, personally because I love Oprah and wanted to hear how she talked about going Vegan but also disappoiting from the perspective of someone who does not support the meat industry.

I have been vegetarian for a few years and ate vegan for a part of that. To me, veganism is a little more challenging than vegetarianism but honestly nothing compared to the gluten-free component. Taking gluten-free out of the picture, I do like to have eggs once in a while especially at brunch - it makes ordering so much easier :) - and also I do have the occasional dairy though it does give me headaches in larger quantities.

The diet that I have just started to explore is actually the raw foods diet. I first learned about the raw foods diet when I read a blog post about a woman who soaked her oatmeal overnight so it would be ready by the next morning because she wouldn't use hot water. This was really surprising to me. "Who has time for that?" I thought.

The second time I explored the raw foods diet was when my father and I ate at Pure Wine and Foods, a raw foods vegan restaurant in NYC. I thought the food was good, but it still wasn't my favorite.

Today, I tried a raw burrito from Blossom Du Jour. The burrito itself is gluten-free because it's made from flax which is a plant (interesting... like buckwheat). Apparently, flax has omega-3 fatty acids, helps lower cholesterol and helps to prevent diabetes. Hmm, the burrito was good too :) Tasty, and completely vegan down to the cashew sour cream.

Raw foods burrito from Blossom Du Jour

Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry

2011-02-03T03:15:00.004-05:00

I was pretty excited to make this recipe. And apparently it's the Chinese New Year so it's appropriate for the occasion.

I took a recipe from the Gluten-Free Vegan, pg. 81 and added tofu. It turned out really great and was fun to make. I'll definitely do this one again.

Vegetable Stir-Fry with Tofu

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups chopped broccoli
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup chopped Savoy cabbage
1 cup cleaned, stemmed and sliced mushrooms
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon red curry paste
2 teaspoons wheat free tamari sauce
Cubed soft tofu

Directions

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and pour in the oil.
When it is hot, add the onion and saute until the onion begins to soften.
Add the broccoli and carrots and continue to saute for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the cabbage, mushrooms and red bell pepper and continue to saute.
In a separate frying pan, add a little bit of oil and saute the tofu until lightly cooked. I usually just taste a bit. It doesn't take long for the tofu to warm up.
Add the garlic to the vegetables and saute for 1 minute.
Add the red curry paste and tamari sauce, and saute until the veggies are crisp-tender.
Add the tofu to the vegetables, saute for a little bit and remove from heat.

Makes 2 servings. I served the tofu over steamed rice.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-01-29T19:54:00.002-05:00

This recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies actually worked better the second time I made it.

Adapted from the Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen, pg. 183-184

Ingredients

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/4 cup salted butter, softened (I used Earth Balance vegan butter)
1 egg
1 teaspoon gluten-free pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup potato starch flour
1/4 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup semisweet vegan chocolate chips

Directions

In a large bowl, beat the sugar, baking powder, and butter with an electric mixer until creamy.
Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on low speed for 1 1/2 minutes.
Add the potato starch flour and rice flour; beat on low speed for 1 minute.
Stir in the chips until evenly distributed.
Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour, or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Drop the dough which has been chilled on a lightly greased baking sheet, leaving about 3 inches between each cookie.
Bake for about 8 minutes, until lightly browned.
Set on wire rack to cool.

Makes about 24 cookies

Breaking the habit

2011-01-29T16:47:00.004-05:00

I knew something was tripping me up. I finally figured out what it is this morning. Basically, I woke up and was just like I want diet coke - hmm, more like I need a diet coke! So that's not bad unless you've done this before, and I have. After graduation, I spent a year traveling and what became very obvious throughout my trips was that I am a diet coke addict. When your friends have to translate "where is the diet coke" into Chinese you know you're in trouble. I gave up diet coke while traveling and also became vegan.

it wasn't that big of a deal to give up drinking diet soda the first time around you just have to kinda slow down a little - and I did. This time it'll be the same. No more 5 mile runs just elliptical and walking until these unhealthy Aspartame cravings go away.

Gluten-free beggars can't be choosers unless we go to Whole Foods

2011-01-27T23:10:00.010-05:00

UPDATE 1/28 - Daiya emailed me and their cheese is supposed to melt to bring out the flavor. I tried it and it's much better that way :)

My mom and I are in a fight over who is going to fix my camera. It broke before Christmas, something with the shutter, not something I can fix myself. Normally, this would affect the picture quality of my blog but truthfully, I take a lot of pictures on my blackberry. I need to walk over to best buy and get it fixed. Soon.

Today, I was craving cheese and crackers. I came up for the title of this post when I was looking for soy shredded cheese at the health food stores around me and didn't find exactly the type that I wanted.

Here are the two brands that I picked up - Daiya mozzarella style shreds and Follow Your Heart vegan gourmet cheese alternative...

I picked Daiya up first because it is the style that I wanted but when I saw that it was soy-free, I looked for a second soy-based alternative. What I came across was the Follow Your Heart brand which is soy based. Ultimately, I didn't really enjoy either brand. I think when you're legitimately craving cheese all that's really going to satisfy you is the real thing.

I go shopping at Macy's

2011-01-26T22:13:00.014-05:00

I will spare you the narrative on how my life is not always easy and my job search has been a challenge. I am determined to find a position in the New Year! Today I was at Macy's for many hours - that is an exaggeration and I won't go into it. What I did come across was this cutting board...

Front Back

Basically, it is teal blue with a grip on the back so it sticks to your counter. It's by Martha Stewart. I'm really excited about it! It's kinda heavy but only $14.99 so a pretty good deal. I love that it will add color to my kitchen!

Available here ~ http://bit.ly/hvfgT0. Also in red and orange.

I respond to my haters and bake homemade cookies

2011-01-25T00:23:00.013-05:00

I feel like I get attacked every second I show weakness. Its literally everything from when I do something wrong to when I actually tell people I need help with something - bam! weakness! attack. I know that I'm a pretty girl, and I know this plays into it. I do get a lot of stuff for free but I don't ask for it and it's never anything too significant. There's a downside though - everyone notices me, everyone seems to care about me. I follow someone on twitter it's like this big thing. I tell a guy that I'm not interested in him anymore and he stalks me for the next two years. Everything I do I feel like theres this small minority of people that are attacking me. I know its because they are insecure or crazy, but it still brings me down way more than it should :(

I guess there is nothing I can but learn to be stronger and try to move on. I started out on a really positive note with these cookies. I used to bake a lot when I was younger and was craving homemade cookies. Everything was going great until I noticed something off about my twitter and sure enough, my stalker hacker is back! Sadly, this isn't the first time I've dealt with this - nor will it likely be the last. I learn to deal with it and I know that in the end, i'll be really happy and this person... well, who cares.

SO on a POSITIVE note, here is the recipe for my cookies! I got this out of the Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen by Donna Klein which is one of the two gluten-free cookbooks I have. The recipe is gluten-free but contains eggs. I made the cookies dairy-free using vegan butter and chocolate chips. Let me give you the recipe before I tell you how that substitution went :P

Ingredients

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/4 cup salted butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon gluten-free pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup potato starch flour
1/4 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup semisweet vegan chocolate chips

By the way, I had never used potato starch before on my own and didn't really how soft and powdery it is... much lighter than regular flour - very interesting to work with!

Directions

In a large bowl, beat the sugar, baking powder, and butter with an electric mixer until creamy.
Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on low speed for 1 1/2 minutes.
Add the potato starch flour and rice flour; beat on low speed for 1 minute.
Stir in the chips until evenly distributed.
Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour, or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Drop the dough which has been chilled on a lightly greased baking sheet, leaving about 3 inches between each cookie.
Bake for about 8 minutes, until lightly browned.
Set on wire rack to cool.

Makes about 24 cookies

Cookies out of the oven!

So full disclosure - I made the dough last night and then refrigerated it overnight and put the cookies in the oven this morning. I may have eaten almost all of the chocolate chips in between :)

The cookies came out well! I had originally modified the recipe to say vegan butter (in the book it has normal butter). Unfortunately, since they are not perfect substitutes, if you have regular butter I think that works better. The cookies came out ok with the soy butter but the baking process was not as seamless as it would have been using normal butter (Vegan butter tends to melt).

YAY! Cookies :)

Blossom Du Jour

2011-01-23T01:28:00.008-05:00

I ate at Blossom a while ago with my friend Maggie from high school. I didn't blog about it at the time but definitely remember really liking the restaurant. The menu is not 100% gluten-free friendly, but they can definitely tell you what is safe and what isn't.

Blossom has two locations and most recently opened a "to-go" / fast-food location on Ninth Ave called Blossom Du Jour. The two main restaurants are at Ninth b/t 21 and 22nd and at Columbus Circle. The to-go location is across the street from the Ninth Ave. restaurant.

Blossom is a vegan restaurant and has really good cuisine. Their mantra is that they are animal caring and "know that eating an organic vegan diet encourages a health conscious lifestyle".

Blossom on Ninth...

Blossom Du Jour, the to-go shop, is near me so I've grabbed food from there a couple of times. Since it is more fast food oriented, the menu is different from the main Blossom restaurant. They have really great wraps - very healthy and delicious, and one of these can be made gluten-free! Haha they are looking to expand the menu for gluten-free people. The wrap that's gluten-free is the Hummus Cucumber wrap.

They say they are working on making more of the wraps gluten-free. They also have gluten-free bread for sandwiches and salads. I say stop by and get the Cucumber Hummus wrap - I'm definitely going back!

Gluten-Free Chocolate in Miami

2011-01-20T00:01:00.001-05:00

My aunt bought me this new brand of Gluten-Free chocolate that apparently they sell in South Florida. The brand is called Romanticos, and its gluten-free. I am not sure if chocolate is a problem in general for gluten-free people. I personally do not hold back when I eat chocolate (big surprise). But it's still good to know that the Romanticos brand is safe. As gluten-free Kiwi points out, its always a good idea to check the label to make sure a product is allergy-free if you aren't sure.

Here is a photo of the chocolate bars ~

Muffins in a Minute

2011-01-18T03:46:00.007-05:00

I received the book 101 Recipes for Gluten-Free Microwave Mug Cakes by Stacey J. Miller in the mail a little while ago. The concept of the book is to provide recipes for single serving cakes that you can make in the microwave in 10 minutes or else. The cakes are really fun to make so I was excited to try out a recipe and show off one of my new mugs as well. I ended up taking the book home with me, and my mother and I tackled the "Giant Orange Microwave Mug Cake" recipe.

We popped the cake out of the mug and frosted it on all sides...

Ingredients:

1 egg
2 tbsp French Vanilla yogurt (we added vanilla extract to plain yogurt)
2 tbsp orange juice
2 tbsp oil
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp xantham gum or tapioca flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tbsp light brown sugar
4 tbsp white rice flour (make sure gf)
4 tbsp all-purpose flour (make sure gf)
1 tbsp potato starch
2 tbsp orange Jell-O gelatin powder

Directions:

Coat the microwave mug lightly with cooking spray
Mix the ingredients in a small bowl. First beat the egg and mix it with the other liquid ingredients. Then add dry ingredients and continue to mix
Pour the batter into the mug, filling halfway and smooth the top with a spoon
Bake for 3-4 minutes
Let sit for 2 minutes. Tip mug over onto plate and then flip cake over. Your microwave mug cake will look like a slightly overgrown muffin

There is also a sample recipe on her website so you can try another for yourself.

My mom and I had fun making the cake. We had a little bit of trouble finding the ingredients because some of them were pretty specific e.g. apricot gelatin and baby food from a different recipe.

It was fun to watch the cake in the microwave because the batter kept rising above the cup and then settling back down when the time was up. They did only take about 10 minutes to make. Here is the first out of the microwave...

I frosted the other cake with soy yogurt...

And there you go. I'm excited to make more of these :)

"The Test"

2011-01-14T00:24:00.001-05:00

I did "the test" today to see if I still had Celiac. You know, the one where you eat gluten on purpose and then wait and see what happens. Other non-gluten intolerant people led me to believe that this was a good idea. Let me tell you that it was not. I am currently experiencing a massive headache and feel dehydrated. On top of that its freezing cold out. Thank god I am getting to the South this weekend.

Mr. Chow

2011-01-12T01:02:00.001-05:00

121 Hudson Street
at N. Moore
212-965-9500

We went to eat at Mr. Chow about a week or so ago right before the New Year.

This was my first time eating at Mr. Chow so I was excited but also skeptical to try it. I had heard mixed reviews...

This is a picture of the interior

So it's really nice. Basically, the entire experience was a pleasant surprise.

In particular, I really enjoyed my food. I settled on lettuce wraps and veggies and rice.

Eating at Mr. Chow reminded me that I really like lettuce wraps. I have been ordering them lately - a great gluten-free food if they can be made without meat.

Apparently, Mr. Chow is in London, Beverly Hills, New York, Miami and coming to Vegas. I would definitely eat here again in New York!

Beauty & Essex

2011-01-09T23:04:00.005-05:00

We went to Beauty & Essex tonight, the new restaurant by Chris Santos of the Stanton Social. I had never been to Stanton Social so while I had an idea of what to expect, I didn't know for sure what I would get.

I definitely enjoyed the atmosphere at Beauty & Essex and thought it was fun. The food, I didnt like. Beauty & Essex does have a separate gluten-free menu but because of the type of cuisine - American, tapas style - there were not many options without dairy or that could be adjusted.

All in all, I would recommend Beauty & Essex for drinks not for dinner. The atmosphere was fun, but I didn't love the food.

Here is a shot of the gluten-free menu...

click to enlarge

Beauty & Essex
146 Essex Street at Rivington
New York, NY 10002

Loews Hotel, Miami Beach: Year two

2011-01-05T01:14:00.003-05:00

We stayed at the Loews Hotel again this year despite my strong objections and insistence that we stay at Epic because I wanted to check it out. A legitimate problem I had with Loews last year was the lack of gluten-free food. I have a lot of trouble with large resorts and last year was no exception. This year went a little bit better. I had better luck ordering off the menu even though I was often told that I was ordering "loads of food". Loads of food = salad + veggies + rice. I don't know. That sounds light to me.

Once again, the Loews hotel had gluten free muffins. This year though I am dairy-free so cannot eat much of them. This year was much better though in terms of happiness and ease of knowing what to order.

Here are the muffins featured in this blog for the second year in a row:

and here is a fresh looking fruit salad that I also had for breakfast:

Seasons 52 in Miami

2011-01-01T12:37:00.004-05:00

During our extended stay in Miami, we had the opportunity to try the restaurant Seasons 52. Seasons 52 is a chain in Florida that has several other locations including one in Plano, TX! The idea of Seasons 52 is that they change their menu every week. In addition, the location we went in Coral Gables said that everything on the menu was under 475 calories... including the desserts.... of which they brought 9. (do the math)

In terms of being gluten-free, Seasons 52 does have a separate gluten-free menu that does not appear to change with the seasons.

Seasons 52 Gluten-Free menu

I broke my typically strict vegetarianism and ordered some fish because I thought it would be good, and it turned out I was right. Specifically, I ordered the Grilled Boneless Rainbow Trout and a mixed greens salad. The mixed greens salad was actually amazing. I believe it came with some kind of roasted pine nut, but it was the best greens salad I've ever had, and that's saying a LOT.

My main course was good as well. Since I'm not a big fish eater, I had a little bit of the trout and then ate a lot of veggies. I would definitely go back to Seasons 52, especially if I'm going to get something different each time!

This was my food, I am drooling

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-01T12:20:00.001-05:00

Cocktail Hour

2010-12-29T11:20:00.001-05:00

I firmly believe in drinking in moderation. No, thats not true at all. But I do usually wait until the afternoon before I'll consider having a drink. The big exception is by the pool. And since were in Miami on vacation when I saw this drink by the pool at our hotel, I had to try it.

Yum! right? So unfortunately, it's not dairy free so I could only have a few sips and then try to lick the chocolate off the sides. But here is the drink. Its from the Loews hotel and called the Beach Mudslide.

Beach Mudslide: Satisfy your craving with this combination on Finlandia Vodka, Kahlua, Baileys Irish Cream and vanilla ice cream.

I guess we have to figure out the proportions ourselves!

My cookies get criticized: A lot has changed in the past year

2010-12-19T14:09:00.001-05:00

Remember when you first started eating gluten-free how everything tasted so bad? Remember thinking that you'd never adjust. Well, I have. And it's only been a year.

Last night, I had several holiday parties to attend in various parts of NYC. Including Brooklyn.

For the events, I decided to bake sugar cookies. I didn't have the time (or recipe!) to go the homemade route so I relied on Cherrybrook Kitchen, a brand who's products I had not tried before.

I started with the Gluten-Free Dreams Sugar Cookie Mix. I wanted to top the cookies with vanilla frosting and green sprinkles for the holidays but they only had chocolate frosting so I used the Chocolate Frosting Mix. I have to make my own frosting because of my dairy allergy.

The baking process for the Sugar Cookies was pretty seamless. I just added 1/4 cup melted soy butter (I use Earth Balance), 1/2 cup soy milk and 2 1/2 tsp vanilla to the Sugar Cookie mix.

When the cookies came out of the oven, they were smaller than I expected, but I tried one and it was still good.

Cookies out of the oven

Once the cookies were out of the oven, I let them cool and started on the frosting. The frosting was pretty easy to make. It just required adding 2 sticks of soy butter and 2 tbsp of soy milk to the mix. I only made half the mix because its intended for frosting a cake, and I was just decorating cookies.

The frosting process was fun! I used a technique that I learned from a cooking show which is that you pour the sprinkles into a bowl and then you frost the cookies and dip them upside down in the bowl.

Frosting the cookies

The finished product was quite nice! I put the cookies in festive bowls and took them to the first party. I left the first bowl at the first party (picked up a plate from a potluck back in October) and took the second bowl of cookies to my second party. This is where they ran into criticism, and I came to the realization that gluten-free food doesn't taste so bad to me anymore.

The finished product!

Cookies pre-frosting

Set-up for frosting the cookies :)

Lesson learned: never go to a restuarant once it's closing

2010-12-18T17:19:00.001-05:00

Last night, we had dinner at Tabla, which is an Indian restaurant by NYC restaurateur, Danny Meyer. Danny has other restaurants in New York like The Modern (LOVE), Union Square Cafe (dress nicely), Gramercy Tavern (love?), Shake Shake (no-go allergies) and 11 Madison Park which is at the same location.

Last night was not my first time at Tabla so I had high expectations. At the end of the night, only my expectation of not paying very much was met. We capitalized on the Foursquare free drink special and each got a free drink (if this doesn't make sense to you - ignore). My friends got the tasting menu but because I am gluten-free, vegan and poor, I opted to order off the menu.

The food I ordered was a beet salad, Basmati rice and the Roasted Romanesco Curry. I think the problem our table had was less with the food and more with the service (epically bad). We had a dinner reservation at 9pm and weren't seated until 10.

As for my food, if you have time to make it to Tabla in the next 11 days (it closes on Dec 30) - and I would still recommend going they were ultimately very accomodating and I liked my food:

The beet salad is good but very beet heavy
The rice was good
The curry was good
I had some of their Chickpea Masala (this is what I'm guessing it was) and it wasn't bad

And the drinks were fantastic!

Tabla
11 Madison Ave.
212-889-0667
Closing Dec 30

Tropicana 50 is 50% water

2010-12-13T20:19:00.002-05:00

I have a cold. It really came on last night / this morning I think from a long weekend of Birthdays and events. Anyway, at Whole Foods yesterday I picked up a thing of OJ. I went for the cheapest container figuring that it's all the same. This is what I got:

Tropicana 50 - 50% of the calories and sugar of regular Orange Juice. Ladies and Gentleman, I did not read the ingredients, but I can tell you that means 50% water. Dear Tropicana: WOW. Fail.

Suffice it to say I'm drinking Green Tea right now.

Tao Gluten-Free Menu

2010-12-09T22:09:00.005-05:00

Tao is an Asian restaurant in New York City. When I ate at Tao recently, they gave me a gluten-free menu which I brought home so I thought I would share it with you (the menu is small - its not like I walked out with anything legit).

Here it is:

click on image to see full-size

At Tao, I ate the Vegetarian Brown Rice. It was good; I had no complaints. If I remember correctly, the waiter was very knowledgable - he actually told me that the sushi isn't gluten-free because they soak the seaweed paper (or whatever they use to wrap it) in Chicken Stock which has gluten in it. I found this interesting because that means that even their Vegetarian Sushi isn't vegetarian.

Tao is located at 42 East 58th Street between Madison and Park. The phone number for the restaurant is (212) 888-2288, but you can also make a reservation on opentable.com.

Starbucks - how to save money

2010-12-07T23:33:00.004-05:00

I love Starbucks. I go there like 12 times a day. SERIOUSLY.

So in an attempt to save money and because once you go somewhere that much you get really specific with your order, I have been ordering a Grande Soy Misto with a shot of {insert syrup}. I usually get Gingerbread. A latte like the White Mocha without even adding the extra charge for Soy Milk is over $5.

My drink... $2.83. That's almost a reasonable price for what I'm getting :)

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-05T18:53:00.003-05:00

Happy Holidays from EGF where we are actively recruiting corporate sponsors for 2011.

York Peppermint Patty for the Holidays: 120 calories, calories from fat: 20, total fat: 2.5g, sat fat: 1.5g, total carbs: 27g, sugars: 22g*

*gluten-free but not dairy free

Fifth Ave decorated for the Holidays

Wolfgang Puck ~ Five Sixty

2010-12-04T18:08:00.002-05:00

We went to eat at Wolfgang Puck's 560 Restaurant when I was in Dallas over Thanksgiving. 560 is located at the top of Reunion Tower and is named because the building is 560 feet tall. I thought that the restaurant could also be named 360 because, as anyone from Dallas knows, the ball on top of Reunion Tower is a restaurant and the restaurant is constantly spinning.

So my understanding of Reunion Tower before dining here was that the ball moves so slow that you don't even feel it. The point is that the restaurant has an amazing view of the city and you get to see all sides. Let me tell you, I was nauseous for the first 45 minutes of dinner. Like seasick. It was not a pleasant feeling to be continuously moving and because only the outside of the circular restaurant rotates you're never in the same place with regards to the exit/hostess/bathroom.

When we sat down to dinner, I told me friend who I was eating with that wouldn't it be funny if you were on a dinner date and your date went to the bathroom and couldn't find his way back because the restaurant was moving too fast. He said anyone that stupid I would be better off if they didn't find their way back. Later, I had to yell at him as he walked past our table.

Anyway, the food at 560 was delicious. The staff was very professional and made me my own gluten-free menu.

We started with Hamachi & Tuna Sashimi, Daikon-Kaiware Salad, Sticky Rice, Yuzu Ponzu, which was delicious.

Then I ordered vegetable rolls from the Sushi menu which were very fresh.

Overall, both me and my friend thought the food at Five Sixty was really good but that it is a restaurant best reserved for special occasions. As a gluten free diner I didn't have any problems.

Dinner at Pure

2010-11-19T20:21:00.003-05:00

Pure Food and Wine
54 Irving Place at 17th Street
New York City

I had dinner at Pure last night. I have been wanting to try this organic and raw foods restaurant for a while now. With raw foods, the rule is that nothing can be heated above 118 degrees. E.g. no pizza, cookies etc at least not as we traditionally know them. All of Pure Food and Wine is dairy-free and vegetarian. They do have a separate gluten-free menu, and it seemed comparable to the regular menu to me (e.g. you don't lose much by being gluten-free at this restaurant).

To start with we ordered the Cheese and Rosemary Crisps appetizer. I wish I had photographed this but I didn't! The rosemary crisps were really good, and they were definitely gluten-free. The cheese had the flavor of real cheese, and being dairy-free and having had my share of soy cheese, I really enjoyed it! Pure's cheeses are made from Tree Nuts, which is pretty cool. I might get some for myself.

My main course wasn't very good. I ordered the Porcini Ravioli with Truffle Cream Sauce, Baby White Asparagus which was my first experience with real raw foods (e.g. when you're used to it being cooked but its not).

Not as good as regular ravioli, and the sauce made it worse

All in all, I think that I would come back but try a different main course. I feel like this one was a miss but that another option could be really good like the cheese plate was!

Gluten-free Cereal

2010-11-11T22:39:00.001-05:00

We all know how much I love cereal! Well here is a new gluten-free cereal for all my gluten-free readers out there :)

Nature's Path Whole O's. They taste like Cheerios, but I actually like the taste better :) maybe i'm getting used to the taste of gluten-free foods

More likely though I just don't like Cheerios because they were the first food I ate after having back surgery, and I ended up throwing them up. Anyway, so glad I never have to try them again! Nature's Path is the best!!

I eat these a lot

2010-11-06T16:40:00.001-04:00

Basic potato chips, totally gluten-free. I get them at Chop't Salad Co.

Pizza

2010-11-02T19:16:00.003-04:00

Lately, I find myself eating Pizza for dinner almost every night. So bizarre. I've found 2 kinds of pizza that meet the needs of a gluten-free vegan.

First, Spinach Soy Cheese Pizza by Glutino with Brown Rice Crust

Even though this has Spinach, which I generally try to avoid - it didn't give me any problems. This pizza has 480 calories. It also contains eggs.

The other pizza I tried was Amy's Roasted Vegetable Pizza. This pizza has mushrooms, artichokes and red peppers on top. The single serve version has 430 calories. The large version has 840 calories (280 / serving).

A general piece of advice is that instead of eating the whole Pizza which I guess is a decent meal as far as calories go, I usually don't eat all of it and have it with a salad or a tofu or quinoa dish with vegetables instead to maintain a more balanced diet. Both pizza's are delicious though. I can't believe as a gluten-free vegan pizza is back in my diet!

Hale and Hearty Soups

2010-10-26T23:16:00.003-04:00

I've heard rumors that Hale and Hearty makes gluten-free soups for some time now. In fact, I was under the impression that ALL of their soups are gluten-free. I finally went by a Hale and Hearty earlier this week and tried their 10 Vegetable Soup.

I did not photograph my soup, which in hindsight was dumb because Hale and Hearty makes so many soups that I could not find a picture of the 10 Vegetable Soup online.

I took my soup back to my office and went online to confirm that it was gluten-free before eating it. It took me a while but I found this list on the Hale and Hearty website.

click on image to enlarge

It looks like almost all of Hale and Hearty's soups ARE gluten-free!

Enjoy Life Round Two

2010-10-22T23:19:00.005-04:00

Pretty soon my blog will celebrate its one year anniversary! This is really exciting and just came to my attention when I looked back to a post that I wrote in December about Enjoy Life Cocoa Loco Bars; I did not like them.

Reminiscing about my first year sans wheat (and by sans wheat I mean except when it was giving me allergic reactions and making me sick), I inadvertently gave Enjoy Life a second try with mixed results.

I was at the local natural foods market on 6th Avenue looking for some breakfast bars when the Enjoy Life "Very Berry" granola bars caught my eye.

They looked soo good on the box! But when I took them out of the wrapper they were weirdly shaped, small and generally unappealing to look at. They did not taste very good either. I'm not sure why I see the Enjoy Life brand in so many places.

In the same trip, I also picked up some Enjoy Life Gingerbread Spice cookies. These were much better, and I do recommend them if you're looking for a gingerbread cookie :)

Are you a Foursquare addict?

2010-10-20T11:28:00.002-04:00

Foursquare is the new, hot social media obsession. It rewards people with points and badges for posting online when they go to a store or shop or even home, called "checking in".

If you check into a place more than anyone else you become its Foursquare "mayor". 10 Mayorships unlocks the Super Mayor badge.

I've been using Foursquare for about 2 months now, and I'm concerned that I may be an addict. I am currently working on 2 Foursquare badges (first bad sign): The not-so-illusive Barrista Badge, which you get if you check into 5 different Starbucks locations and the slightly-more-difficult Gym Rat Badge which you get for going to the gym 10 times in a month.

Yesterday, I was walking home and I passed by a Starbucks that I haven't been to before. Out of nowhere, I was like "I have to go get a latte and check in on Foursquare". 5-10 min and $3-4 later I was checked in and on my way. I hope I at least get a free coffee when I finally "unlock" the Barrista Badge," thats Fourqsuare terminalogy for getting the badge.

I've seen further signs of Foursquare addiction in some of my close friends. For example, going to Eataly every morning in order to keep your mayorship. OR checking in when you return from a trip.

As with any addiction, it's important to nip it in the bud before it requires a 12-step program. My Foursquare solution: Moderation! I will only work on 2 Foursquare badges at a time.

Cake!

2010-10-18T20:39:00.002-04:00

Pamela's Classic Vanilla Cake Mix

I made a cake this weekend! I was going to use my new muffin tins from Cookware.com but they hadn't come yet :(

I started with a gluten-free cake mix by Pamela's which I got at Whole Foods. It was super easy to use; I just had to add oil, eggs, water and some almond flavoring.

Mixing the cake batter together...

I put the cake in the oven and started on the frosting. For the frosting I used an organic frosting mix from Whole Foods and added soy butter and milk.

The first cake out of the oven

Finished Product!

Summer Salad with Smoked Tofu from Soy Cafe

2010-10-17T16:22:00.003-04:00

Update 3/26/11 - i don't think the smoked tofu is gluten-free after all :(

Summer Salad with Smoked Tofu from Soy Cafe

I hope the smoked tofu is gluten-free :/

Ankle Sprain

2010-10-16T18:32:00.003-04:00

I have chronically bad ankles. My sports therapist, who is amazing, says that when I run my feet collapse over my arches so they hit the ground rotating my ankles in. This hurts.

So last summer I sprained my right ankle really badly and that's when I met my physical therapist in Texas. I moved to New York and found a new place for my 4 - day a week therapy where they taught me a lot of strengthening exercises many of which I have now forgotten. And someone remind me to go back and re-learn them.

Another thing they taught me at Physical Therapy was that some people can hold their feet in position while they run so that even if they have weak arches, their feet stay in the position of a person with a normal arch. So at the time I couldn't do this and had no idea how to.

Because I couldn't hold my arches up myself, I had to put arch support orthotics in my shoes which are really uncomfortable and hurt my back. I've had these for about a year.

I recently bought new shoes and put the insoles in as I had them before. Since I've been running with the new shoes both of my ankles and one of my knees are giving out.

I've always had problems with both my ankles and with one of my knees, but this is ridiculous. I feel like I'm 40 years old when I'm on the treadmill when I'm actually only 26! When I'm running, the only thing I pay attention to is positioning my foot so that my ankles stay in the right position facing forward. It makes running so much less fun and I don't even feel like I'm getting a workout.

I'm definitely going to go back to physical therapy but in the meantime I'm taking my insoles out because I think what happened is that I started compensating for my poor arches on my own so the extra support is unnecessary and now my ankles are rolling out instead of in!

Thai Spring Rolls Take Two!

2010-10-14T22:56:00.005-04:00

I don't know if you guys remember but my first take at making spring rolls didn't go perfectly. I gave it a second try (and updated the picture on my first post).

I also answered the question I posed on my original post of what is the best surface for wrapping spring rolls on. I learned the first time around - it is definitely NOT paper towels.

This time I came prepared to wrap the Spring Rolls. I did some research on google, ordered a Baking Mat from Cookware.com and set up my new kitchen table :) to answer this question.

The three surfaces I tested are: Kitchen Towel, Cloth-like Placemat and Baking sheet.

And the winner: the Placemat! It was the easiest surface to roll the spring rolls on by a mile!!

Blogging Hiatus

2010-10-13T00:11:00.002-04:00

I've been thinking about taking a blogging hiatus. Lately, I feel like it's the it thing to do. Plus, professionally, I deal a lot with other, more successful bloggers and I've noticed that many of these bloggers are tweeting constantly throughout the day but many of them aren't even posting to their blogs.

I've been dealing a lot with my food issues recently. Two big changes have occurred: (1) I've decided to incorporate a little bit of fish into my diet and (2) I broke up with someone because he told me that he was on a diet where he eats only "lean meats" and it made me so sick I couldn't stand to look at him... weird.

I haven't been vegetarian for that long... only 2 years, but the thought of eating meat is still really unappealing to me. Some people say they crave it. I don't. Sometimes I feel like I need more protein in my diet and that's why I'm going to start to eat fish but the thought of eating meat again is revolting. I guess this makes me a pescatarian :)

Anyway, I actually like my blog. And I feel like I still have a lot of great recipes and restaurants to try so I won't stop posting anytime soon :)

Chef Donna Gluten-Free

2010-10-08T23:55:00.001-04:00

A colleague sent this to me:

Click on the picture to go to the video :)

Amy's Frozen Food

2010-10-04T00:42:00.001-04:00

For those of us allergic to just about everything in Lean Cuisine

Yes, I used to eat Lean Cuisine before becoming a Gluten-Free Vegan. I'm not proud of it, but there is something so convenient about those tiny little frozen dinners. And god knows, I didn't know how to cook at the time.

Now I try to cook frequently, but I'm still not fantastic at it so often a frozen meal is in order. The best I've found of the gluten-free variety are Amy's Frozen Dinners. I blogged about Amy's Bistro Veggie Burgers back in November of last year when I was still discovering what foods I could eat.

You can do a search on Amy's website ~ http://www.amys.com/products/search.php for products that are suited to special diets. So, for example, when I go on the site, I check "Gluten-Free" and "Vegan" (there are also "dairy-free", "lactose-free" etc.)

The Gluten-Free / Vegan search pulls up a list of 60+ products. Wow! I usually just shop what is in the frozen foods section of my local supermarket (and typically at least a few if not many are offered that I can eat).

Here are some of the Amy's Frozen Meals that I've tried:

Chili & Cornbread: I picked this one to go first because it is neither gluten-free nor vegan until you take out the cornbread which is easy to do. The rice and beans are good.

Teriyaki Bowl: I like anything with rice, tofu and veggies. ESPECIALLY when they're in one neat package. This dish isn't bad... I didn't love it though :(

Brown Rice & Vegetables Bowl: The Teriyaki is better. I wouldn't try this one again because I actually thought it was bland (and coming from a Gluten-Free Vegan, that says a lot!)

Baked Ziti Bowl: I haven't actually tried this one, but ooh! I want to

Asian Noodle Stir-Fry: This is good. Probably one of my favorites

Thai Stir-Fry: I liked this one despite not feeling 100% about the picture on the box

Tofu Scramble: I did not like this. It did not taste fresh

So as you can see, I have tried many of the Amy's products. In fact, I'm a little shocked myself with how many of them I can say that I've had. I guess they are good in a pitch and many are quite tasty and filling as well. Let me know your favorite if you have one :)

Mexican Food in the West Village

2010-10-02T19:41:00.008-04:00

Remember back in March when I made my list of top Gluten-Free Cuisines and Mexican Food was #3. Well I realized that I haven't blogged about any Mexican restaurants yet, and I actually found one that I like.

Tio Pepe, located at 168 West 4th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues, has been open for almost 30 years which explains why their cuisine is good. Tio Pepe also owns Las Ramblas which is a Tapas place next door.

I've been to Tio Pepe a couple of times and the food is really authentic. I go back because they have corn tortillas, which I believe are gluten-free. You can substitute these into dishes if they aren't already listed on the menu.

In terms of eating Vegan, I always order the Fajitas Vegetarians with corn tortillas. It comes with rice, beans and guacamole. It's very good! As are the Margaritas :)

Tio Pepe

168 West 4th Street

http://www.tiopepenyc.com/

Thai Spring Rolls: Fall Appetizer

2010-09-28T11:29:00.010-04:00

September 22 marked the first day of Fall and sadly, also the day that the pool at my gym closed :(

I don't know what season spring rolls are typically associated with, but when I noticed that the football games had started I thought that spring rolls would make a great appetizer to bring to a game watching party. I would also recommend that you try my Homemade Hummus which I made for the Superbowl.

I brought these Thai Spring Rolls to a dinner party on Sunday and they were a great hit!

Thai Spring Rolls
adapted from The Gluten-Free Vegan, pg. 101

Ingredients

3-4 ounces rice noodles, chopped into 1-2 inch pieces
1 cup julienned snow peas
1 large avocado, peeled and sliced very thinly
2 medium-size carrots, sliced thinly lengthwise
1 large cucumber, sliced length-wise thinly
1/2 cup chopped water chestnuts
8 rice tortillas (hemp tortillas work as well)
Peanut sauce. I use San-J Gluten-Free Thai Peanut Sauce

Directions

First, prepare the rice noodles. Bring a large pot of water to boiling. Remove the pot from the heat and place the noodles inside. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, promptly remove the noddles and drain in cold water
Rice Tortillas: If you are using rice tortillas, you will have to dip them in warm water then set them out to dry. This is the part of the process that I had the most trouble with because I let the rice paper dry on paper towels and they got stuck together. From what I've read, the best surfaces to use for drying rice paper are wood, a silpat sheet, marble or a tea towel. I'll let you know which surface works best
Place the vegetables, avocado and water chestnuts in a large bowl and toss them together. Add the cooled rice noodles and mix together
Hemp Tortillas: Soften them up by heating a large skillet and turning it up to a moderately high temperature. Add a small drip of oil, then a tortilla, and swirl it around until it softens up. Remove from the heat
Place some of the vegetable mixture in the middle of the tortilla - hemp or rice - and roll it up
Continue this process until you have used all of the tortillas and mixture

Serve with peanut sauce. Makes 8 servings.

Veggies pre-noodles

Veggies and noodles

These were a big hit!