Dessert Time

After dinner I like to have a little something for dessert although I would not say that I have a crazy sweet tooth.  When I have a food craving it is typically for more savory fare as opposed to sweet.  There are a few sweet things I like though.  The first would definitely be peanut butter cups.  The combination of peanut butter and chocolate is pretty much one of the greatest things in the world.  The second thing would be cake.  Being gluten free and having cake do not necessarily go hand in hand unfortunately.

When I was doing the gluten/dairy free thing I did a cake mix into cupcakes and although they tasted good initially while still warm from the oven they did not hold up very well afterwards and they were extremely heavy in comparison to regular cupcakes.  Plus the whole not including milk in it probably didn't help them either.

When I was in California I bought a package of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Cake mix at Berkeley Bowl.  Only cost $3 something as opposed to the $5 something here.  

I made it last night.  It was relatively simple, you add a stick of butter, 2 eggs, milk, water and some vanilla, blend and pour it in a pan or cupcakes like a normal cake mix.  The batter was a bit thicker and stiffer than normal cake batter so I was a bit worried.

I baked them the prescribed time and they certainly started looking and smelling like normal cupcakes.   I pulled them out and waited a few moments for them to cool down before digging in.  I was pleasantly surprised by how light they were in comparison to the other gluten free cupcakes I had made.  They were not super sweet or super chocolately but I was okay with that.  They actually reminded me of costco chocolate muffins without the chocolate chips.  I tend to eat cupcakes without frosting if its just for a post-dinner dessert so I didn't add frosting to these but I think they might be really good with frosting actually.  Sometimes a super sweet cake and lots of frosting is just too much sugar for me, I feel these would be a great middle ground.

My mom and brother also sampled the cupcakes and said they were pretty damn good as well.  Yay!  I still have 16 left so I stuck them in the freezer.  We will see how they hold up.  

Gluten Free Bisquick

Blogging frequently is difficult.  Especially when one teaches full time and has lesson plans to do, papers to grade and general end of quarter business to attend to.  Even though I've been busy, gluten free eating is still going on.  Now that I am on Winter Break for 2 1/2 weeks I will have time to update more.  I will also be doing a lot more experimentation with gluten free cooking since I have a lot more free time.

So last weekend I found gluten free bisquick at my local Foodland.  I was pretty excited because you can do lots of things with gluten free bisquick.  I was not excited because a pound sized box cost $5.99 and that was on sale.  The gluten food markup+the Hawaii price markup=no bueno.  I bought a box anyway, I just had to try it.

From there I perused Betty Crocker's website and found that they have many gluten free recipes (that of course utilize their products.  They aren't exactly fine cooking but they are relatively quick and easy.  I would love to craft lovely gluten free meals from complete scratch but lets be real, I don't have time during the school week plus when you are cooking for one its an awful lot of work.  I used my bisquick on two recipes that I found on the website.  They are detailed below.

Sausage Cheese Balls

Betty Crocker Recipe here

My yum yums below (not the most attractive picture but taste is what matters to me:

Mmmm sausage, cheese and bread, there are a few of my favorite things (see my love of pizza expressed earlier)  I made these with a few alterations.  I doubled the amount of sausage and used chicken italian sausage.  I also used a mix of mozarella/parmesan cheese because that is what I had.  I also did not use the rosemary and parsley because Target didn't have either.  In the end I think that was totally fine because I used Italian sausage instead of just bulk pork so there were some spices and such in there already.  They definitely were not as doughy as they look in the picture. they were more like sausage balls but they turned out good.  The bisquick and milk did a good job of binding the cheese and sausage together.  I also felt that they had enough flavor that they did not need the dipping sauce as the recipe recommended.  I also refrigerated the extras and warmed them on the oven setting of my toaster oven the next day and they turned out pretty similar.  I would definitely make these again! 

Sloppy Joe Pot Pie

Betty Crocker recipe here

My yum yums below:

I was excited to do this to see how the gluten free bisquick stands up on its own.  I again messed with the recipe.  Instead of the hamburger with onion, cheese and canned sloppy joe sauce I mixed the hamburger with cheese, onion, a can of kidney beans and then I added some BBQ sauce that i had in my fridge to the mixture until I liked the taste.  I layered this into my pan and then added the bisquick, eggs and milk mixture on top as the instructions directed.  

It looked pretty nice coming out of the oven.  The consistency of the crust on top was pretty similar to things I've had with regular bisquick.  You could definitely tell that you used several eggs though, the dough had a very eggy taste and texture to it.  And because I'm weird I don't really like the taste and texture of eggs.  Still though, it was nice to have a dish that looked and tasted like the gluten equivalent does.  I might make this again, we'll see.

So after the gluten free bisquick worked so well I went and had my mom buy some more of the boxes on sale.  Its expensive but it's nice to find something so easy to use.  I will be using it over the next few weeks as I do more experimenting and cooking for the holidays.  

Pizza Pizza, now with real cheese!

I love pizza.  Seriously.  Sometimes I totally have the eating taste of a four year but pizza may be one of my most favorite foods in the world.  Unfortunately that business is full of gluten.  No longer can I order a $10 pizza from Papa Johns or Pizza Hut.  Booooo.  Gotta plan ahead if I want pizza or even worse, pay that much for a frozen thing half the size.

So if I want some good pizza I need to do it myself.  I bought a Bob's Red Mill Pizza Crust mix at Berkeley Bowl in CA for only $3.69  (cheaper than I could get it in Hawaii).  Last Sunday night I figured I would bust out the pizza for dinner and then I would hopefully have leftovers for lunch the next few school days.

Here is the mix.  It was pretty simple.  Add the yeast packet to water, blend all the ingredients briefly and let it rise for 20 minutes.  When that's done you are supposed to dump the dough onto a well oiled pizza pan, wet your hands and spread it out.   The dough was definitely much wetter than your average pizza dough, there was definitely no tossing it around and shaping it like a traditional pizza.  It did spread out relatively easily, though I had to avoid not breaking little holes in it if I spread it too thin.  It was difficult though to get it into a perfect circle and I quickly gave up on that since I wanted to eat!

Per the directions I baked the crust for 9 minutes before spreading on my tomato sauce, mozarella cheese and turkey pepperoni (gluten free)!  I cooked it for another 15 minutes and it was done!  Voila!  Tasty, though slightly awkwardly shaped pizza.

So how was it?  The taste was pretty good, couldn't really tell much difference taste wise between it and the other homemade pizza crusts that I have made.  The major difference though was the texture and consistency.  It ended up being way thicker and chewier than other pizzas that I have made.  Kind of interesting as I had tried to spread it thin, but it was breaking apart when I did that.  I do prefer my pizza crust a little thinner and crispier but I am not sure how I could achieve this.  The dough is so runny I don't think I could cook it on a pizza stone or on the rack.    So overall, pretty good, I would definitely use this crust mix again but I will look around for others that might be a little thinner.

I did find this mix on sale on amazon.com 4 packs for $8.48.  You can buy it too here. The packaging looks a little different but the description seems pretty similar.  And can't beat the price, especially since gluten free stuff is so expensive here in Hawaii.   Bizarrely enough, there is a recipe for cinnamon rolls on the package.  May have to try and make a batch of those for Christmas morning.  

Oh yeah, and the leftovers for lunch the next few days.  Kind of gross.  The crust was a tasteless blob of bread with toppings on top.  Not so zesty.  Maybe if I reheated them they might have been better but I couldn't manage to make it to the microwave at lunchtime.  Now I know that next time I should just make a smaller pizza to eat that day and save the rest of the dough for the next time I want pizza.  

The Whole Ox - Honolulu

It's been quite a while since I updated.  I finished the 2 week gluten and dairy free diet as mandated by my doctor.  Took some blood tests and then Thanksgiving break started and I went to California for the holiday and resumed eating gluten and dairy to make life easier while traveling.  Plus I HAD to have In-n-Out.  Didn't feel much difference between eating and not eating gluten.   Once I got back from my trip though I have resumed eating gluten free since it is probably for the best.  Le sigh.  So now I will hopefully continue updating this thing.

Last night I went to see "Life of Pi" with my parents.  It was okay, I didn't think it was really worth all the rave reviews it got.  At least it wasn't as weird as the original book which I started, but didn't finish. Post movie we did the whole "oh where should we eat" go around.  My mom suggested we go to The Whole Ox which is located off of Nimitz Hwy, near Office Max.  It is a restaurant that focus on meat and using all parts of the animal.  She figured I could find something to eat since it is all meat.

Looks wise the restaurant is very casual, set up with large wooden picnic tables that take up a lot of room.  We had to wait a while for a table since they were all full.  I'm sure the tables are a statement and all but I bet they could fit more in if they went for something smaller.

When we were seated we took a look at the menus and debated what I could or could not eat.  We called the waitress over to ask a couple questions and she actually handed up a copy of the menu that had all the gluten free options starred.  Oops, should have asked about that right when we sat down.  Luckily most items on the menu were gluten free with the exception of the burger and anything that had fried potatoes.

My mom and I ordered the steak with a pomegranate sauce and gorgonzola butter and my dad ordered sausage.  I also ordered a creamy polenta with herbs and my parents ordered poutine (which I couldn't eat cause of the gravy).

The polenta came out first and it was pretty tasty!  It was loaded up with cheese and milk so it was about the creamiest polenta I had ever had.  Yummmm.

The polenta came out the same time as the poutine because the restaurant is made to order.  Then my dads sausage came out....then my mom and I waited another 10-15 minutes for our steak.  I get the whole made to order thing and I am glad they are not putting together frozen components to make my meal but I feel that made to order is fancy speak for "too lazy to time our cooking so the meal comes out appropriately".  Finally the steaks came and they were tasty.  The sauce was a little different than other steak sauces but I enjoyed it and of course cheesy butter makes anything good.   Voici the steak.

It was definitely a ton of food, especially since the polenta was so rich.  My dad's sausage was also very tasty and a lot of the other dishes looked really good too.  

So here's the rundown on The Whole Ox

The Good

Tons of gluten free options

Really good food

The Bad

Not a lot of tables

Made to order=food served randomly, might be better to do this place family style

Expensive:  my meal came out to $40 without tax or tip, we forgot to ask how much the steak special was, oops.  Thanks mom and dad!

Skanky waitresses:  Our waitress was dressed a bit skankily and I soon realized that all three were.  Short shorts and lace tops that showcased their brightly colored bras underneath.  Maybe they are doin that to appeal to male customers.  Blegh Have some self respect ladies. 

So there you have it, I would go there again but I would think twice because it is rather expensive.

Eating Out Gluten and Dairy Free in Hawaii

So one of the things that is most difficult about being gluten free is dining out.  And as that is one of my favorite things to do while socializing with friends.  My friend Jen has been gluten free for the last few months and we go out for dinner a lot so I've already had some experience dealing with and looking for gluten free food at restaurants but it can be kind of frustrating.  Add in being dairy free and things get a lot more complicated.  I ended up eating out quite a bit this weekend so here's a summary of the places I went, what I ordered and how my experiences were.  There is not a lot of info out there about gluten free food in Hawaii, so hopefully this might be helpful to others.

Zippys
Went and saw Argo with my parents and afterwards we went to Zippys for dinner.  I consulted with the waitress and we figured that pretty much the only thing that didn't have gluten in any form (including soy sauce was the new york steak.  Okay, that's fine, I love meat.  But side dishes were difficult because the french fries were fried in shared fryer and all their other potato based sides had milk or butter.  So I had white rice and corn.  Woo, thrilling.  The steak was not that good either, but what can you expect from an $11 steak from Zippys.  They gave me A-1 sauce which I slathered everything in, to give it some flavor.  So yeah, that was filling but not super satisfying.

Paina Cafe
This month is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoRiMo) and I am currently in the midst of writing a novel.  I have a writing group that I started meeting with last year during NaNoWriMo and we meet on Saturdays at Paina Cafe.  When I am there I always get the same thing for lunch, the steak plate.  It comes with steak skewers, rice, salad and potato salad.  Typically I get the ranch dressing but I got balsalmic instead.  It also comes with some garlic aioli sauce for the meat.  Typically a garlic aioli is made of mayonnaise, garlic and spices so I figured it was okay.  I asked the dude at the counter to check the ingredient list for me twice and he never got around to doing it.  I decided to risk it.  I didn't feel anything after eating it so that's good.  It wasn't that much anyway.  Skipped the potato salad since I wasn't quite sure what was in it and the people working there don't appear to be that bright.

The Counter
I have found that it is good to do some research before you go into a restaurant for dinner if you are gluten/dairy free.  I went to the Counter's website and saw that they had a gluten free bun.  I had never seen that on the menu there so I figured I would give them a call the morning before we were planning on going.  I talked to a guy who was super friendly.  They indeed had a gluten free bun and he even checked to make sure that there was no dairy in the bun.  He also told me that their fries were fried in a separate fryer so they were safe from gluten.  HOORAY!!!!  Their bun was actually pretty decent and I opted for bacon since I couldn't have cheese and it was pretty good.  I am happy to find one restaurant that I can eat at relatively easily if I am gluten free.  Here is my tasty burger below.

Macaroni Grill

So typically chain restaurants do a pretty good job of having at least some gluten free options.  Probably because that is more common on the mainland than here.  Though I haven't tried to go into a really local place and try to get something gluten free.  I know that will happen at some point soon and it may be a lot more difficult.  So i went to Macaroni Grill's website  and saw that they also carried gluten free pasta.  Sweet!  But when I went there the next day it turns out that one did not.  Lame.  The waiter there seemed rather clueless about gluten free food and brought me this big book with allergen information that was super hard to figure out.  Unfortunately with no dairy my choices were limited to like plain salad and some of the meat dishes.  Kind of frustrating because I didn't really want to pay for a $20 lunch entree.  I ended up going with a chicken dish.  The veggies that came with it had breadcrumbs on them so I had to opt for some other grilled veggies.  Instead of butter everything was cooked with lemon oil.  It was good, but I was still kind of hungry afterwards since I had just done Zumba and didn't have a real breakfast.  The giant loaf of bread at the table was not helping either.  

So there you have it.  I think of all the places I visited the Counter won hands down.  Paina Cafe was good too because I didn't have to deviate too much from what I normally order.  Le sigh.  I could really go for some pizza right now.  

Gluten Free Cooking Wins and Fails

So I've been hacking and coughing for about four days (gross I know) and I probably should have called in sick to school on Monday and didn't.  So on Tuesday night when I was continuing to cough through Obama's re-election I decided to call in sick for Wednesday so I didn't infect all my students further.  After I got a good night of sleep I had some time to do some gluten free cooking.  With uh, a variety of interesting results.

I love kraft mac and cheese.  I know its terribly unhealthy for you but I can't help myself.  Actually I love anything that you can slather in cheese.  Which makes this dairy free business even more difficult. So I bought this at whole foods in hopes of maybe getting something that might slightly resemble mac and cheese.

This tasted like doodoo.  Okay, that may make me sound like a four year old but that is the best way I can describe it.   I took a bite, and then another, and then I dumped that crap down the garbage disposal.  It was that bad.  The taste was just...off.  It didn't taste anything like cheese and what was worst was it had this really strange, gritty, texture.  I try not to waste food but there was no way I could eat a bowl of this stuff.   One reason why it was so bad may have been the fact that I used soy milk which is kind of sweet, but still, I don't think that would have made it flat out nasty.  Oh well, you live and learn.  I can't wait till I can go back to dairy and I can at least make my own mac and cheese if I can't eat the kraft stuff.

After that disappointment I ate a chicken breast with some gluten free teriyaki sauce.  Much better.  Then I broke out the gluten free cake mix!  Sometimes for dessert I will make a cake either from scratch or a box and then I will have pieces of that for dessert sans frosting.  Makes it at least a little bit healthier.  So I used this cake mix to try and duplicate that.  

So this recipe said I could use either milk or milk substitute or water for liquid.  After the soy milk in the mac and cheese I was not sure that I wanted to go with the soy milk again.  So I split the batter in half and made one with soy milk and one with milk.  After baking and comparing the two I didn't find much of a difference so that was good.  

How did they come out?  Well they were a little denser than a normal cupcake.  They tasted pretty good, actually not as sweet as a normal cupcake which could be a good thing.  Warm out of the oven they were pretty good, although later on at room temperature they were not as awesome.  Not bad though, and with some homemade frosting (because apparently store bought frosting has gluten) they would be pretty good.  

So one win and one lose in gluten free cooking.  Guess I will need to get used to that.

Day 2

Just finished Day #2 of being gluten and dairy free.  What is making this way worse is the fact that I have a massive cold.  I was feeling okay this morning but when I started teaching and talking I turned into a hot coughing mess.  If I had know how I would have felt later in the day I would have stayed home. ugh.  Luckily we get tomorrow off and I can sleep in.  So, on to some more gluten/dairy free food.

So for dinner both last night and tonight I made chili and cornbread.  The chili was pretty simple:  ground beef, tomatoes and beans with some cumin, chili powder and garlic powder.  Not very spicy since that is not quite my thing.  I had bought a gluten free cornbread mix but I had to prepare it so it would be dairy free.

I got some earth balance vegan spread sticks (or something like that).  I melted a stick of it and used it in the cornbread in place of the normal butter.  It looked pretty similar to normal butter and melted just like it, maybe it would turn out okay.

The cornbread and chili went very well together.  I was pleasantly surprised at how good the cornbread turned out.  It tasted just like the normal kind although it was a little grittier.  I would definitely use this cornbread mix again, especially when I can go back to the normal dairy.

Other meals this week not so exiting.  Breakfast was some gluten free toast with vegan butter spread and some applesauce.  Meh, will write about gluten free bread later.  Lunch was a cooked chicken thight, some salad and an apple.  Will need to figure out some better school lunches because I feel I am going to get very sick of salad.

I went to a write-in for Nanowrimo and it was kind of frustrating that I couldn't get a pastry or a frappachino but i got a lemonade ice tea which was good.  I had the munchies when I got home so I ate the equivelent of gluten free ramen, woohoo.  It was okay, although I think my sodium levels in my body spiked after eating it.  Maybe only half of the seasoning packet next time.