There are times when being gluten free can be downright frustrating. For instance, let’s say you all of a sudden have an unquenchable craving for apple pie and yet you live in a town that is sadly remiss in having a gluten free bakery.
Sure you could make gluten free pie crust dough, wait an hour or two for it to chill, roll the dough, cut the apples, flavor them up, assemble it all up and put your pie in the oven for yet another hour and then you can (finally) quell your craving.

While I literally wrote a book on making gluten free desserts, even I don’t want to do that at 6:30PM on a Tuesday night after a long day’s work.  So what’s a girl to do?

Make gluten free apple pie parfaits, that’s what!  Sweet, cinnamony apple chunks layered with maple sweetened non-fat Greek Yogurt (for dairy free you could substitute dairy free sour cream or even dairy free ice cream) and a crunchy, gluten free graham cracker almond crumble.

This simple yet spectacular dessert takes about 20 minutes to prepare, perfect when you want an easy and light dessert that feels and tastes anything but – the perfect thing for when the hankering for apple pie strikes but you haven’t the time or energy to make one.

What really makes this parfait special is the crumble. Seriously, if you want any left to actually layer in your parfait hide it from the kids (and your spouse) until you finish up – otherwise it will all be nibbled away! I took some S’moreables (gluten free graham style crackers from Kinnikinnick) crushed them up coarsely, tossed the crumbs with some sliced almonds, coated with a bit of honey and a touch of oil and baked it for about 15 minutes. I am already thinking of anything and everything I can to top with this awesome mix!!


Gluten Free Apple Pie Parfaits

Ingredients

12 S’moreables (gluten free graham style crackers from Kinnikinnick)
1 cup sliced almonds
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon grapeseed (or other neutral flavored) oil
4 large sweet apples (such as Fuji or Honeycrisp)
Gluten-free non-stick cooking spray
1/8 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup Greek yogurt (non-fat, low fat or full fat)
4 teaspoon maple syrup

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place your gluten free graham crackers in a plastic bag and crush them until you have some crumbs and larger (about ¼ inch) pieces. Combine in a mixing bowl with the almonds, honey and oil. Toss until the honey and oil coat the crumbs and almonds. Spread in an even layer on an un-greased baking sheet and bake for 10 – 15 minutes or until the mixture is crisp, fragrant and browned – it will crispy up a little more as it cools and should be a little clumpy. Let cool.

While the crumble is baking prepare the apples; core and cut into 1 inch chunks. Spray a large skillet with a lid with some gluten-free non-stick cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add the apples, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice and vanilla and toss well to coat. Cover the skillet and let cook until the apples are softened, about 8 minutes, stirring once or twice. Remove the lid, increase heat to high and cook until the liquid has thicken up to a syrup and coats the apples. Let cool.

Mix the yogurt with the maple syrup. For each parfait place a layer of apples into a goblet or dessert dish, top with some of the yogurt and then add a handful of the crumble. Repeat the layers. I think this is best served while the apples are still warm.

A gluten free recipe that makes 4 large or 6 smaller parfaits.

Ready for more dessert?

Simply…Gluten-Free Desserts is now available, with over 135 recipes not featured in my blog.

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Resource:

http://simplygluten-free.com/blog/2012/02/gluten-free-apple-pie-parfait-recipe.html

Chicken and broccoli gluten free recipe. Broccoli and chicken gluten free recipe. {sigh} Healthy, convenient and inexpensive sure, but also kind of boring! Alas! As I opened my fridge, all I saw was chicken and broccoli. Fortunately I have a well-stocked gluten free pantry and was able to turn boring into, well…. amazing.
There is a little Thai restaurant close by to me that I love; the food is great and for the most part gluten free, they keep a bottle of gluten free soy sauce on hand for me in case I order sushi and the atmosphere is friendly and homey. As much as I love it, I don’t always want to go out when I have a hankering for my favorite meal there – Amazing Chicken.

With a little espionage (saying things like “this is so delicious, what goes into the recipe?”) and experimenting I came up with my own version of Amazing Chicken that I can get on the table in less time than it takes to get into the car, drive to the Thai place  – and for considerably less money!

The main ingredient in most Thai Amazing Chicken is peanut butter but I decided to make my recipe nut-free with Sunbutter, a peanut butter alternative made with roasted sunflower seeds. I have grown to really love the depth of flavor it adds to sauces. I used the natural crunch version, but any of their varieties would work just as well.

This recipe is not just gluten free, nut free, soy free and dairy free, quick and easy to prepare, and healthy as all get out, it is also (wait for it…) AMAZING!

The lesson here? Chicken and broccoli does not have to be boring if you have a well-stocked pantry!



Gluten Free Nut Free Thai Amazing Chicken

Ingredients

½ cup Sunbutter
3 tablespoons gluten free Thai fish sauce
Juice of 1 fresh lime
4 tablespoons honey (or agave nectar)
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (more or less depending on how much kick you want)
½ cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated with a microplane grater
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated or mined
Kosher or fine sea salt and pepper
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (3 or 4 half breasts) – cut into 1 inch pieces
8 cups broccoli florets
1 teaspoon sesame seeds – optional garnish

Directions

Combine the Sunbutter, fish sauce, lime juice honey (or agave) red pepper flakes and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large skillet with a lid over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and ginger and toss in the oil for about 15 seconds. Add the chicken pieces and cook, stirring frequently, until browned on all sides, about 8 minutes. Add the broccoli, stir to coat, cover the pan and reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the broccoli is crisp tender and the chicken is cooked through – about 3 more minutes.

Add about ¼ of the Sunbutter sauce to the chicken and broccoli, toss to coat, place in a serving dish and sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired. Serve the rest of the sauce on the side.

Serve with rice or gluten free rice noodles.

A gluten free recipe that serves 6.

Ready for dessert?

Simply…Gluten-Free Desserts is now available, with over 135 recipes not featured in my blog.

Available at bookstores including Barnes & Noble, Borders, Powells, Books-a-Million and Amazon. You can get it also HERE.

Resource :

http://simplygluten-free.com/blog/2012/02/gluten-free-thai-amazing-chicken-recipe.html

I just can’t think about February without thinking about chocolate. Hmmm… I wonder why? Is it because Valentine’s Day is sitting right there in the middle of the month threatening to derail all of our good diet intentions with its bounty of fancy truffles, chocolate dipped strawberries and other fabulous, chocolate-laden gluten free (and many not so gluten free) treats?
It must be a plot of some sort. After all, we start the year with our resolutions – to lose weight, eat healthier, cut sugar out of our diets, eat less fat, exercise more…the list goes on.  So we eagerly get started with great resolve, it is new and we are determined. And most of us, while we face challenges, start to feel better by the end of the January. This keeps us going a little longer. And then right there, smack dab in the middle of February, is a day that basically revolves around chocolate and sugar with some hearts thrown in.

If we just ate a nice chocolate or treat on the day, that would be no problem, but we don’t. We eat half a box (at least) of chocolates because, well, it’s a gift after all and we don’t want to be rude do we? And then maybe we celebrate the day with a special, calorie and fat laden meal that ends with, yep!… more chocolate.  And if we don’t have someone special in our lives to give us chocolates and take us out to dinner, we may fill the void with pints of ice cream topped with fudge sauce or whatever the sugar-filled, fat laden food of our choice is.

If we just stepped off the path of healthier eating for the one day, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal – the problem is that once we meander off the path, sometimes it seems much more interesting to continue in that direction and it can be a very difficult time getting back on it.

Am I saying don’t have chocolate on Valentine’s Day.  NO!  After all that, would be paramount to heresy. What I am saying is eat one of those lovely truffles and hide the rest in your freezer. Have those chocolate dipped strawberries or ice cream with fudge sauce but do it in a more health-minded manner. In other words indulge guilt free.

This is a guilt free fudge sauce that feels and tastes indulgent but is actually refined sugar free and practically fat free! It takes under 10 minutes to prepare and lasts about 10 days in the fridge.

This sauce gets its rich flavor and luxurious texture thanks to a combo of unsweetened cocoa powder, coconut sugar, a touch of instant espresso powder (not essential but it really deepens the chocolate flavor), pure vanilla extract and dark, almost caramelly organic raw blue agave from Wholesome Sweeteners.

Dip strawberries (or any fruit really) into it, spoon it on top of ice cream (for a really guilt free dessert try making a sundae with my almost instant cherry frozen yogurt) or just lick it off a spoon. You will feel all the fudgy chocolate love without bouncing off the walls or derailing all your good dietary progress.


Gluten Free Guilt Free Fudge Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup water
½ cup coconut sugar
½ cup organic raw blue agave (dark agave)
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder (optional)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Combine the water, coconut sugar, agave, cocoa powder and espresso powder (if using) in a heavy sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat stirring until smooth. Boil for 5 minutes or until it starts to thicken. Whisk in the vanilla and let cool for about an hour – the sauce will thicken more as it cools.

Store in a covered container in the fridge for up to 10 days. Serve warm or cold. The sauce can be re-heated for a hot fudge sauce by microwaving for a minute or so on high power.

A gluten free, refined sugar free recipe that makes about 1½ cups of sauce.

Ready for more dessert?

Simply…Gluten-Free Desserts is now available, with over 135 recipes not featured in my blog.

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You may think it is strange for me to be posting a tomato recipe in the dead of winter but before you purists who only eat tomatoes at their peak of ripeness and perfection (late summer) get all up in arms, let me explain.
I guess I need to start with a confession, so here goes. “Hi, my name is Carol and I am a tomato addict. And that’s not all; I have passed my addiction along to everyone in my family.” Seriously, we could be out of milk, eggs and gluten free bread and I am still not hopping in the car to run to the store, but just let us run out of tomatoes and I am off to the market before you can blink. A good portion of my grocery budget goes to tomatoes every week! We have even tried to support our habit by growing our own tomatoes – no luck yet but we are still trying.

So as you can see, I am not going to let a little thing like “out of season” get in my way of eating tomatoes. While tomatoes may be available all year round, they do tend to be pretty flavorless when not in season. The solution? Roasting them!

Roasting is a great way to bring out the natural sweetness of any vegetable and it works great with tomatoes. But for this recipe I took it one step further – in essence I scalloped them. With a bit of balsamic vinegar, garlic and rosemary, the tomatoes become a fabulous winter side dish or vegan main course. In the summer, fresh basil would be a great substitution of the rosemary. All the lovely, flavorful, aromatic juices exuded by roasting the tomatoes are soaked up with Kinnikinnick’s Gluten Free Panko Style Bread Crumbs which also provides a nice crunchy topping.

If you have any leftover scalloped tomatoes, serving with them with a poached egg on top is pure bliss. In fact, next time I make this recipe I am not counting on leftovers – I am making it specifically for topping with an egg because, yep, it really is that good!



Do you have a food addiction?

 
Gluten Free Scalloped Tomatoes

Ingredients

2 pound plum tomatoes
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves, minced or grated
2 teaspoons kosher or fine sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ cups Kinnikinnick gluten free panko style bread crumbs – use divided

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the tomatoes into roughly 1 inch pieces. Place in a 8 inch by 8 inch (or similar sized) baking dish. Add the rosemary, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, minced garlic cloves, salt, pepper and 1 cup of the bread crumbs, toss well. Sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs on top and bake for 25 minutes. Top with the remaining ½ cup of bread crumbs and cook for 10 more minutes or until the top is nicely browned.

A gluten free recipe that serves 6 people.

Ready for dessert?

Simply…Gluten-Free Desserts is now available, with over 135 recipes not featured in my blog.

Available at bookstores including Barnes & Noble, Borders, Powells, Books-a-Million and Amazon. You can get it also HERE.

Resource :
http://simplygluten-free.com/blog/2012/01/gluten-free-scalloped-tomatoes-recipe.html