Farmer's Market

Its been a while since I last posted here. The past few weeks I finally was able to get myself down to a farmer's market. The first one I went to was the Farmer's Market that is located at the hospital where I am a Registered Nurse. It is at NUMC at East Meadow, Long Island NY just off Hempstead Turnpike and Carmen Avenue. This is new for this year and they had 5 different stands. A bakery stand (off limits for me of course), a homemade soap stand, a greek pastry stand (looked delicious but again cant have), a pickle stand, and the best of all stands the vegitable stand.

This farmers market is open to mid november and I hope to get my ass there more often. I bought a red onion, 2 yellow onions, and a small super sweet watermellon. The watermellon was so sweet and dark red in color and the shell of the watermellon was darker then the ones in this picture. The only draw back was the seeds but other wise the best watermellon I ever had. The red onion I added to the meatloaf I made for dinner a few weeks ago and its sweet fresh flavor added a nice aroma and taste that the store bought onions dont bring out.

Then I discovered after I went to that one that the town where I live has a Farmers Market on Wensdays from 12 noon to 7PM. This is the Long Beach Farmers Market located in front of City Hall on West Park Avenue adjacent to the LIRR Station. Now I usually work at this time so i never got a chance to go here but since i was off this week I finally made it there. This one was more crowded with a local long Island seafood stand, a hudson valley NY Organic baker, 3 fruit and veggie stands, a cookie stand, and a dept of labor stand. Now this organic baker I forget the name from upstate NY the line was used and the bread smelled so good. I checked if they had and gluten free bread and of course they didnt have any. But I did buy a pound of suger plums and regular plums which where small but so sweet. The sugar plums tasted like pure sugar. I also bought a red tomato and 4 ears of corn. These I didnt eat yet. Life is great going to a farmers market.

Good Morning Sunshine Gluten Free French Toast

When I went to Uncle Guissipe's afterwork today I saw this new product on the selves that was on sale. It is all natural and gluten free. Its a line of Barbaque Sauces. I decided to buy the Mexican Fajita one cause it reminded me of my recent honeymoon to Mexico and I love Mexican Food. The price was $2.79 and so I tried it by marinating my porkchops with it for 30 minutes. I then cooked them on my George Foremen Grill. The smell feeling my entire co-0p and the taste did taste like a meal I had in Mexico. It was good but on tasting it I remembered the taste wasnt one of my favorites but it was good none the less. I would like to try some of the other flavors. You can go to www.willysfood.com.

Good Morning Sunshine Gluten Free French Toast

Ingredients:

2 Large Eggs

8 Pieces of Ener G Corn loaf (or any other GF Bread or even regular bread)

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract

1 Tablespoon of Cinnimen

1 Oz of Milk (I used lactose free milk)

Nonstick Spray

Directions:

1. Spray Griddle with nonstick Spray and then place over medium heat.

2. In large or flat bowl mix all ingredients except bread.

3. One slice at a time dip both sides of the bread into the bowl then place on griddle.

4. After a few minutes check for darkening and then flip over.

I often make this on Saturday mornings because it is quick and all so tasty. I often top it with grape or strawberry jelly, pure maple syrup, and on rare occassions powdered sugered. I use pure maple syrup because it is deviod of any chemical additives such as high frutose corn syrup.

Gluten Free Crockpot Sweet & Tangy Chicken

INGREDIENTS
1 (18-19 ounce) bottle Gluten Free barbeque sauce
1 (15 ounce) can pineapple chunks
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 Chicken Drumsticks

DIRECTIONS
1. In a large bowl, mix together barbecue sauce, pineapple with juice, green bell pepper, onion, and garlic.
2. Arrange the six drumsticks in the bottom of a slow cooker. Pour the bowl of mixed ingredients over the chicken.
3. Cover, and cook on Low for 6 hours.

I usually make this for dinner on days when I go to work so that we can have a nice dinner waiting for us when we get home.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Good Eats!

Ever since I became diagnosed with Celiac Disease (back then it was still called Celiac Sprue) I have become obsessed with food. A Foodie you may say, I go to the cooking websites and constantly watch cooking shows especially those on the Food Network. I will admit that I will never be a gourmet chef but cooking for my wife and myself I do feel like I am slowly but surely make modest improvements.
Right away a person with Celiac Disease is told the restrictions of what they cant have which is Gluten. Gluten is the protein found in wheat, barely, rye and oats. When a person who is intolerant to Gluten ingests one of these four things the lining of the small intestine causes an auto immune response to attack its own body. This causes many uncomfortable symptoms such as bloating, gas, abdominal cramps and pain, diarhea, and severly itching rashes. It also leads to the permanent flating of the villi of the small intestine and can even affect the enamel of your teeth causing cavities and dental problems.
But in the almost four years I have been diagnosed I am learning that so many great new foods are out there to be discovered from all parts of the world from main street America to small villages in Riveria Maya Mexico to Thailand. I have discovered Arepas from Venezula to corn pasta from Italy. I want you to be able to sample the goodness of the new and often natural foods that are out there that we can enjoy and tastes great.
I will also try to make a recommendation a day of a product that actually tastes like or even better then the "real" counterpart. When I mean real in this blog I am referring to the original product that contains gluten.
The Cheap in this blog's title referres to the expensive nature of most gluten free and organic products. The way my personal economy is at the moment is the cheaper something is the better and we are all entitled to taste the rich flavors of more expensive products.
So lets become new friends and start to enjoy our "Cheap Good Eats."