Cheap Gluten Free Good Eats

Buffalo is Naturally Gluten Free

2010-06-06T12:42:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I went to the Pow Wow at Floyd Bennit Field in Brooklyn NY for the Native American Festival. While I was there I was hoping to get a chance to eat some Indian foods. I wanted to eat the fry bread but of course I could not since it contained glutened. So what did I have which was very heathly and all natural and gluten free. The Buffalo Stew which contained bullalo meat, carrots, corn and pototoes. It was light and summerly and tasted great on that nice summer afternoon. Buffalo tastes just like beaf except its leaner. No way if i was blindfolded would I tell any difference between buffalo and regular beef.

Product of The Day

2010-04-28T21:58:00.002-04:00

This past Monday evening after work I decided to go to our local natural food market called Wild By Nature. This store located in Oceanside NY is King Kullen's version of Whole Foods AKA Whole Paycheck. I really enjoy going to this store because compared to whole foods the prices are more reasonable and even cheaper in some items then other surronding supermarkets. It is about the same size as whole foods but I believe have much more gluten free products.
Any way while I was there I came across a new brand of gluten free baking mixes by a company called Simply Organic. I bought there Coco Cayenne Cupcake Mix and their Honey Pot Ginger Cookie Mix. Well the past two days I kept thinking about the Coco Cayenne Cupcakes so I decided to make it for desert today. I was a bit skeptical that the Cayenne pepper would make it to spicey so after I made the batter I licked the mixer attachment like I normally do and it was hot. So then I got scared that maybe I would not like these. So after I iced them with Betty Crooker Vanilla Icing (I do wish i had organic icing to go with this 100 percent organic and fair trade product) I tasted one. It was pure delight. You couldn't feel the heat until after I finished eating eat but then washed it down with some milk. Pure delicious. I made ten cupcakes with the mix and it only required some water, 2 large eggs, and a table spoon of butter which is much less then other mixes require. You must trully check them out at your local market or online at www.simplyorganicfoods.com

The Food Revolution

2010-04-25T15:27:00.003-04:00

There has been lots of discussion lately of this "Food Revolution" that many people think is led by Jaimie Oliver. His show on ABC was wonderful by the way. People should need to see this show in addition to the Fast Food Nation and Food Inc.
What does the food revolution mean? It means clean simple eating. What is good for you is often just as good for the environment. It means staying away from processed foods that containing many different additives and preservatives. A good example of this is "If your grandparants wouldn't recognize a product as a food then don't eat it." Do not go to the local supermarket to buy a tv dinner that is full of ingrediants that a chemistry major wouldnt even recognize. Being gluten free we have to look at ingrediants in products all the time but next time we go grocery shopping and we pick up a cereal that doesnt have gluten but has things in it that a five year old child would not be able to say then put the product down no matter how cheap or good the product tastes.
Here is where it helps the environment. You need to shop local. I do that by going to farmer's markets, farm stands, and natural food stores that sell locally grown produce, meats and poulty. The food tastes so much better and there is less of a carbon foot print.
People need to eat out less and cook from scratch more often. Instead of buying products laced with chemicals and preservatives make it your self and you will save money and feel better at the same time. In this vein instead of buying chinese "take out" hot mustard make it your self like I did last night for dinner.

Chinese "Take Out" Hot Mustard *
Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon Hot Mustard Powder
1 Tablespoon Water
Preparations:
Take both ingredients and mix in a small bowl.
Let sit for 1 hour.
Refrigerate for up to 30 days.
Makes 1 serving for one person.

Shoppers Haven is Gluten Free Paradise During Passover!

2010-03-23T07:57:00.002-04:00

On Sunday I went to the St Patricks Day Parade in Pearl River NY with my wife, family and friends. It was a gorgeous spring day. After the parade we deciding to go to nearby Monsey to the Shoppers Haven Shopping Center. In there there is a place called Rockland Kosher Supermarket.
I have realized in years past how Passover is a great time to be a Celiac but this store was amazing. I spent over dollars one different gluten free Kosher for Passover products. I bought coating mixes, potatoe starch, small bags of chips and potato sticks, and other things I cannot remeber this morning.
So for the best product I have eaten is made by Noam Gourmat. They make the best gluten free Pizza Bagels. I even dare to say it is just as good as Joans Gluten Free Bagels. This product actually tastes like any normal pizza bagel you would find in a freezer section of a store. I wish they would make this product all year long. They dont have a website but you must have to look in stores for this "good eats".

Spring Time is Happiness!

2010-03-06T10:08:00.003-05:00

Even though it is still only the first week of March here in Long Island NY I am happy cause I know spring is just ahead. How do I know this? Why am I so happy? Its because of three major holidays. St Patrick's Day, Passover, and Easter are all holidays friendly to people with Celiac Disease.

Let me start first with St Patrick's Day. This is the day where every one is smiling, even people like me who do not even have any Irish descent. Corned Beef and cabage is a meal that is definately gluten free. I highly recommend usings Freirich. It is the tastiest cornbeef out in the supermarkets and clearly states Gluten free on the packaging.
Being a nonreligious Jewish person, Passover never really meant that much to me except getting together with family and friends for the main dinner. But since being diagnosed with Celiacs, I have a new found love for Passover since due to religous requirements of not being able to eat leavened bread, there are many kosser for passover products that do not contain gluten. There are cake mixes, desserts, frozen tv dinners, frozen products, packaged baked goods such as cakes, cookies, waffles, and breads.

Let me review one such kosher for passover product. After going grocery shopping at Stop & Shop after work I was to tired to cook dinner. So since my wife had eaten all ready I decided to make a tv dinner by a kosher company called Meal Mart. This Passover Edition Salisbury Steak in Gravey served with Mashed Potatoes and seasoned carrots. The price was a little steap at 6.99 but being Kosher that was to be expected and living gluten free what isn't costly. In my prior gluten eating life I used to love eating the Banquet and Swanson salisbury steak dinners. I know tv dinners arent healthy because of to much sodium but hey they are "good eats." So how did it taste. Well the gravey was excellant. The meat was a snip to tough but tasted great. The carrots where supposed to be seasoned but you could not really taste it but I still gobbled them down really quick. The mashed potatoes remained steaming hot even after I had eaton every thing else and they tasted like any other frozen meal. So in summary I would give this meal a "A" and except for the price level couldnt find anything wrong with this tasty meal.

Now we go to Easter. What is more gluten friendly then Hard boiled eggs. They are tasty and naturally gluten free. Candy is major component of Easter and what is more tasty then Marshmellow Peeps by the Just Born Company out of Bethelham PA. They even came out with new Chocolate flavered ones but I have yet to purchase one.

Dog Is Gluten Free!

2010-01-03T10:43:00.002-05:00

No I am not talking about Dog The Bounty Hunter which is a favorite show of my wife and I. I am talking about the furry, loveable, flea bitten, man's best friend variety. I know you are thinking it is gross and I am a hundred percent in agreement with you. I was up last night at 1AM and not being able to fall asleep I started to flip the channels and caught a program on National Geographic Channel called Taboo. This episode was about foods that were taboo in some cultures and eaten in other countries. Guess what dog was one of them. They had a market in Hanoi, Vietnam where they had all the dog bodies like any butcher would have meat. It was sick I tell you. They also had people eating snake in resturants and people who make snake wine. The last topic was about this puffer fish which i forgot what it is called thats common in Japan but you can die from its deadly toxins.

A Decade of Hope

2010-01-02T10:55:00.004-05:00

Well the last decade saw me become diagnosed with Celiacs Disease and therefore not being able to eat any gluten. But with my Hannakah gifts I got this year from my beautiful, loving, sweat, smart and funny wife I have hope for the future. She read my mind (and my many hints) and got me a Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer. Like the one pictured here. Plus she got me some attachments like the pasta maker with meat grinder, the vegitable slicer, and the citrus juicer.

How do I feel about the mixer. It is a heavy duty all man power piece of machinery. I have used it with great results from making cookies to spahgetti. It is great for making the often very thick gluten free doughs.

In addition she got me The Good Eats The Early Years cook book by Alton Brown. Alton Brown is definately food networks greatist host with The Good Eats TV show where he makes foods and often tells you how to make utensils or where to go to get the cheapest things. He talks about the science and history of what he is making. He teaches you in a way that is fun to learn.

This leads me to some bad news. In the New York Tristate area there is a dispute between Cablevision and The Scrip Network so HGTV and The Food network was taken off the air on New Years' Day by Cablevision. I am so upset i love those channels especially The Food Network since I am such a Foodie. Its a dispute about money and how much Cablevision should pay Scrips to carry them. I hope it gets settled soon cause I love Dinners, Drive In and Dumps with Guy Fieri and Iron Chef America and Unwrapped with Marc Summers.

Another unconfirmed good news is now Nathan's Famous Hotdogs are gluten free. They where the only major brand that had gluten. Now i can have there hotdogs with their awesome fries.

Its Been A Long Time....

2009-10-24T13:03:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to say its been quite a while since I last posted. I went to Disney World in September and they where very good with dealing with my gluten intolerence. The first night we went to the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show at the Polyneasion Hotel which is where we stayed. The food was humogous. I had gluten free dinner rolls which tasted amazing. Barbaqued ribs , Hawian style, grilled chicken, salad and white rice. Since I couldnt have any of the volcano cake they made me a fruit salad. Every place I went I got to talk to the chef and they would make me something from scratch warm and tasty. I had a delicious double bacon cheeseburger on a gluten free hamburger roll with fries and gluten free cookies at Peco Bills at The Majic Kingdom. I had Amy's Gluten free peperoni piza at Disney Studios. So many good meals I cant mention at this time.

Summer is Finally Here (well almost)

2009-05-19T22:27:00.002-04:00

With Memorial Day Weekend being the unofficial start of the summer season I will talk about one of my favorite outdoor passions which is shopping at Farmer's Markets. The Kenndy Plaza Farmer's Market in West Park Avenue in my beautiful city by the sea Long Beach NY has opened up the beginning of May but I must regrett I have not been able to stop by yet cause its open every Wensday from 11A-7P which is the hours when I must be at the hospital. Another smaller one is the one at the hospital where I work. It is the Nassau University Medical Center's Farmer's Market. This one opens up June 5th and is open from 7A to 1P. There is nothing like the fresh taste of fresh fruits and vegetables.

What is a Johnny Cake?

2009-05-04T21:41:00.000-04:00

I heard of televison shows being a bad influence on kids but come on I am gonna be 35 next month and I always resisted peer pressure. When the Soprano's were still producing new episodes there was an episode where Joseph Gannascoli, whom played gay mobster Vito Spatafore met a short order cook at a New England Dinner where he ordered Johnny Cakes from the charactor Jim “Johnny Cakes” Witowski . I always wondered what a Johnny Cake was from that moment on till tonite where I made one from a recipe I got.

Basically, the Johnny or "Journey" cake is made from cornmeal and depending on how its made can be similer in texture and taste to regular cornbread or made into pancakes made with corn instead of the usually wheat flour. In Jamiaca it is made like small rolls or bisquits. The recipe I made was more like a cornbread and tasted delicious. I found the recipe in "The New Glorious American Food A Collection of Classic And Quintaessentlu American Fare" by Christopher Idone. Im sure copies of the book can be found online.

What other tv shows will inspire me to cook gluten free? Scooby snacks, anyone?

Betty Crocker Returns Into Our Lives!

2009-04-02T20:57:00.000-04:00

What can I say I have not made a post since last summer and a lot has happened since then. I bought a bread maker and bake my own bread now. I have been baking cakes, breads, brownies, cookies and suprisingly they all tasted great. I have been cooking better meals for dinner and I even had success with home made pizza that has tasted pretty darn good.

Then a few weeks ago a fellow blogger at http://www.killthegluten.blogspot.com/ received samples from Betty Crocker of Gluten Free yellow cake mix, angel food cake mix, chocolate chip cookie mix, and brownie mix. All to great reviews. How she gets free food samples and this great blogger does not get any (hint hint) I do not know lol.

Well stay tuned for more Cheap Good Eats........

Farmer's Market

2008-08-22T11:01:00.000-04:00

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

2008-08-08T23:09:00.000-04:00

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

2008-08-03T12:41:00.000-04:00

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!

2008-08-01T21:38:00.000-04:00

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."