I waited until the last minute to get together something for my son’s Mother’s Day Tea Party. Wanting to make these cookies as healthy as possible by avoiding all sugars, even maple syrup, I decided to check out Pecanbread.com, a website devoted to helping folks following a Specific Carbohydrate Diet. There I found a handful of recipes. One in particular peaked my interest because I had all the ingredients for it on hand. This was my first attempt to bake cookies without any flour or sugar and I was very surprised at the results. The kids loved them, and for anyone not familiar with the SCD diet, as it is often referred as, this recipe is gluten-free, corn-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and Feingold approved. Oh, and one last thing I forgot to mention–delicious! (more…)

We like to make oatmeal once a week, now that we’ve been gluten-free for a year. There is a lot of controversy on the use of oats in a gluten-free diet, but several new studies have proved that as long as the oats are Elisa batch tested and are certifiably free from cross-contamination they are perfectly fine for celiacs.

Today there are several companies offering gluten-free oats in both Canada and the States, so do check out whether or not your local grocer would be willing to carry one or more brands for you. This dish is great for a weeknight. Yes, you heard me right. I said weeknight. Just simply dump all the ingredients into a 2 quart slow cooker just before you go to bed; set it on low and in the morning your breakfast is ready. This is the favorite breakfast dish in our house.

Our version is naturally corn-free, soy-free, and dairy-free. (more…)

This year for Dad’s birthday he had only one request: carrot cake. He’s not exactly gluten-free, but the rest of us are, so I decided to roll up my sleeves and get to work. I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It is a “from scratch” recipe, as sure sign that my gluten-free confidence is building. A year ago I would have never attempted such a feat. I researched ‘best’ carrot cake recipes of the traditional gluten variety and I finally settled on a game plan when I found a tried and true recipe from All Recipes.com that seemed to get the highest ratings from viewers. (more…)

I often joke that a year ago we could have been considered the “Mc Talty” family for all the times we would frequent McDonald’s. My then two year old was so familiar with the place that he felt compelled to point it out whenever we passed one in our travels. We’ve made a complete turn around since then, thanks in large part to our oldest son’s diagnosis of a chronic tic disorder and our subsequent discovery that he is allergic to wheat and corn and highly sensitive to gluten– three foods we since eliminated and made all the difference for him in his recovery.

This recipe is unique. What makes it special? It is not so much about the ingredients as it is about the preparation. You see, this Little Chef Salad is literally a salad made by my little chef, age 3, a former chicken nugget man turned foodie, a fella not diagnosed, but gluten free through association, and loving it. (more…)

No matter how you eat, whether it’s a restricted diet or not, it’s easy to get in a rut. We broke out of our rut with a “Spring is Coming” Salad Nicoise. Salad Nicoise is a French salad that traditionally includes hard boiled eggs, tuna and green beans.

While I often include tuna — a high quality Italian one packed in oil — this time I didn’t happen to have any, so I left it out. (more…)

Our church is hosting an annual pancake breakfast in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. Everyone congregates in a large meeting hall and socializes while several volunteers stand elbow to elbow flipping endless flapjacks for an hour and a half. Volunteer bakers supply dozens of loaves of Irish soda bread and there are endless pots of coffee available to all. Sounds like a fantastic time, unless you happen to be on a gluten-free diet. These gluten, corn, and casein-free shamrock pancakes are designed to make the child in your family get just as festive as everyone else, and perhaps make the other kids a little green with envy…

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Potato Leek soup seemed like a good idea when I saw leeks on sale this morning at the store. I’ve never attempted it before but we’re in the middle of a cold spell with more snow planned. I knew I wanted a nice hot soup after the boots, hats and mittens come off. I loosely modeled this leek soup after Emeril’s version. It is spicy, but I completely left out the dairy and instead added more of everything else. In the end I had a 2 quart slow cooker brimming with a delicious soup that took only 1/2 hour to throw together and about 3 hours to simmer. The kids loved it, and so I thought I would add this one to the collection. It is gluten, corn, soy, egg, and dairy-free.

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Here is a quick healthy snack that will use up that leftover salmon from last night’s dinner. The kids and I whipped this up in five minutes and it was polished off in about the same time. The boys all gave this one a perfect score. My oldest thought it deserved 15 out of 10 points. That is a record for sure! I’m wondering if the judges were just a little biased since they were also the in-house chefs?

This snack includes about 1 1/2 cups of raw veggies and is Gluten, Corn, Egg, Soy, and Casein-free. Here is what we did…. (more…)

These moist, cake-like Brownies are not overly sweet. I used fructose sugar (which I’m told is always derived from corn these days). But if you are not corn-free, I think it is a good replacement for standard refined sugar. I used Baker’s brand chocolate in my version but there are several casein-free brands out there like Elite (which is a Kosher product that is also soy-free), Enjoy Life (GF, CF, MF, soy and Nut free), and Tropical Source (which is also found at Whole Foods and is vegan too).The entire dish takes under an hour to prepare and probably even less to polish off because they are so delicious. This recipe is only gluten-free as listed but can be modified to be dairy and corn-free as well with a few suggested substitutions. (more…)

Just in time for the Holidays, here is a fool-proof stuffing recipe from Mia. It was originally published in Sphere in 1975, and according to Mia has been a family favorite for years. Mia says, “This stuffing mix can be made a day in advance and stored in the refrigerator until you are ready to stuff the bird.” Thank-you Mia for offering up this great dish option for those of us who need something other than Stove-top Stuffing. This recipe is gluten-free, corn-free, can be dairy free with a simple substitution, and it is Feingold stage 1 as long as you are careful with your broth choices. (more…)