2011 May | Whole Nutrition

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How to Make a Recipe Gluten-Free

Posted by Kilee on May 30, 2011 in Gluten-Free, Ingredients, Whole Nutrition | 1 comment

Layla joined me on a fun little nature hike this weekend

It was so "Twilight-esque"

Hi! I hope that you had a chance to relax and kick back a little this past weekend. Having one extra day to finish up the weekend to-do list, lounge around and get out and enjoy the semi-nice weather was great! More importantly, I want to give thanks to the veterans, soldiers and their amazing families. I am humbly grateful for your service and sacrifice.

As you know, I love to cook and am constantly browsing through cookbooks, Bon Appetite and food blogs looking for new recipes to try. Often times, a recipe that looks delicious contains gluten. There are a few quick and easy ingredient swaps that I use the first time that I try a new recipe. Sometimes the recipe turns out fantastic, other times it needs a little more work. Here are some of my go-to ways to turn a glutinous recipe into a gluten-free one.

How to Make a Recipe Gluten-Free

1. Flour - If a sauce or soup call for a little flour, I’ll substitute half the amount called for with corn starch. If it’s a major ingredient in the recipe (muffin or cookie) I’ll use my favorite brand of gluten-free flour, Better Batter. Another blend that I mix myself is: 1 ¼ cup brown rice flour, 1 ¼ cup white rice flour, 1 cup sweet rice flour, 1 cup tapioca flour, 2 teaspoon xantham gum.

2. Pasta – This is an easy one! Tinkyada brand brown rice pasta comes a variety of pasta shapes. The brown rice pasta from Trader Joe’s is excellent too. I have a feeling that it’s actually the Tinkyada one repackaged ;) Play around with the cooking times because I find that gluten-free pasta takes a little longer to cook than regular pasta.

3. Bread Crumbs – There are gluten-free bread crumbs available for purchase, but I have never bought them before. I like to crush either corn flakes or gluten-free crackers in a zip-loc bag with a rolling pin.

4. Soy Sauce – Regular soy sauce contains wheat. My favorite substitute is wheat-free tamari. Tamari is also made from fermented soybeans and tastes very similar to soy sauce. Always start with less tamari than the amount of soy sauce that is called for. You can always add more if you need to.

These are some of my regular ingredient swaps. Sometimes I have to get a little more creative than others, but it’s always fun to try new recipes out! Let me know some of your favorite ways to make a recipe gluten-free?

Go Gluten-Free Guide

Posted by Kilee on May 29, 2011 in Gluten-Free, Whole Nutrition | 0 comments

Happy Memorial Day! I am very pleased to announce my new gluten-free program that I am offering my readers:

Go Gluten-Free Guide

After spending the last three and a half years trying out gluten-free foods, creating delicious gluten-free recipes and learning all about hidden sources of gluten, I have prepared a full guide completely devoted to transitioning into a gluten-free lifestyle. This program gives you the tools that you need to painlessly and deliciously eat gluten-free without missing all of the foods that you used to eat.

I have prepared a list of foods that are naturally gluten-free and a list of foods to avoid at all costs. I typed up a gluten-free grocery shopping list, meal ideas and included some of my favorite gluten-free recipes. Because I want to personally help you make this transition as easy as possible, the program includes a (50-min) phone consultation to address your gluten-free needs and email correspondence for questions that arise on your program. As a bonus, I am including a complimentary restaurant ordering guide that will help you avoid gluten while you are eating out.

Please feel free to check out the program details here and ask any questions using the comment box.

Have a great weekend and I’ll be back with more gluten-free posts later tomorrow.

Take care, Kilee

Gluten-Free Amaretto Cheesecake

Posted by Kilee on May 25, 2011 in Recipe, Whole Nutrition | 0 comments

Hello everyone! I hope that you are having a great day so far. Mine has been good. Layla and I went for a walk after work and I helped my sister make a casserole for her friend. Somehow I always end up in the kitchen at night. Whether I’m cooking something for myself or for others, it is the best place to unwind from my day.

A few days ago, I baked a gluten-free cheesecake for an office birthday party. The birthday girl chose this recipe from Health Magazine and I (of course) altered it just a little to suit my gluten-free needs. This cheesecake is a bit lighter than a typical cheesecake because of the reduced fat content. You don’t have to make the almond brittle, but it adds a nice, sweet crunch to the dessert.

Gluten-Free Amaretto Cheesecake with Almond Brittle

Slightly adapted from Health Magazine

Cake:

Cooking spray
1 1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup organic unsalted butter, melted
3 (8-ounce) blocks 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
2 Tablespoons amaretto (almond-flavored liqueur) or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract + 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 organic large eggs, at room temperature

Brittle:

3/4 cup sliced almonds
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
Dash of salt

Preparation:

1. Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 350°. Coat a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray; set aside.

2. To make cake crust: Place almonds, flour, and sugar in a food processor; process until nuts are finely ground. Add butter; pulse until combined. Press crust evenly over bottom of prepared pan. Bake until golden brown (about 15 minutes). Transfer to a wire rack; cool completely. Reduce oven heat to 300°.

3. Place cream cheese in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Gradually add condensed milk, amaretto or extracts, and vanilla to mixture; beat until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Reduce mixer speed to medium; add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until cheesecake is puffed on sides and slightly jiggly in center (55-60 minutes). Let cool completely on a wire rack. Tightly cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled and set (at least 8 hours or up to 2 days).

4. To make brittle: Increase oven heat to 350°. Place almonds on a baking sheet; toast until golden brown and fragrant (about 5-7 minutes), stirring twice. When cool, push almonds close together in an 8-inch circle.

Heat a medium heavy saucepan over medium heat; add sugar, water, and salt to pan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high; bring mixture to a boil, washing down sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to remove sugar crystals. Boil, without stirring, until caramel is a light amber color, then swirl the pan to even out the color. (The color of carmel should be slightly lighter than in the photo below. I was disappointed that I cooked the brittle about a minute too long and it created a burn flavor in the brittle.)

Immediately pour caramel in a circular motion evenly over almonds on baking sheet, coating well. Allow brittle to cool and harden (about 15 minutes). Break into smaller pieces; place in a large zip-top plastic bag. Crush brittle into 1/2-inch pieces with a rolling pin.

5. To serve, run a knife around inside edge of pan to loosen cake; remove side of pan. Using your palms, coat side of cheesecake with praline pieces; carefully press remaining praline pieces into top of cake. Cut cheesecake into wedges with a serrated knife dipped into hot water; wipe knife dry after each cut.

It was delish and I might play around with some new cheesecake flavor combos in the future. Let me know if you make this dessert. Okay, well I’m off to watch last night’s The Voice on OnDemand. Have a great night tonight :)

How to Make Gluten-Free Lean Cuisines

Posted by Kilee on May 23, 2011 in Recipe, Whole Nutrition | 9 comments

Hi! I hope your week is going good so far! I had a fun, productive and energizing weekend. I’m ready to hit the ground running with some new projects. One of the projects that I did over the weekend was make my own pre-packaged, individual, gluten-free dinners that I can keep in the freezer.

My college roommates will probably recall that I ate a Lean-Cuisine with sauteed vegetables every night for dinner. (Courtney, Rachael… remember all the Lean-Cuisines that I had stocked in the freezer?) They were cheap (5 for $10 on sale,) satisfying (only when you added a cup or two of frozen vegetables) and conveinent to prepare. Oh, how I miss my Lean-Cuisine dinners. I’d complete my meal with a Tofutti Hooray! Hooray! bar and I was a happy girl. After finding out that I needed to eat gluten-free, I was slightly disheartened when I checked the ingredients of every Lean-Cuisine meal in the grocery store to discover that almost ALL of them contain gluten! Mostly in the form of wheat or soy sauce.

My Lean-Cuisine days were over. Today, I avoid Lean-Cuisine frozen dinners for two other reasons: they are chalk full of preservatives and artificial ingredients and I don’t own a microwave. I think you might be able to heat them in a toaster oven, but when I’m hungry, I need to eat within about 5 minutes max. So, I came up with a genius solution: making my own, individual, healthy, gluten-free freezer dinners. If you are interested in making you own, please read my description below.

Homemade Gluten-Free Lean-Cuisines

Ingredients:

3-4 types of uncooked protein (chicken tenderloins, shrimp, steak, tempeh, etc.)*

Frozen veggies of your choice (broccoli, green beans, Italian or Asian themed frozen veggies, etc.)

Prepared brown rice (I like to get the frozen brown rice at Trader Joe’s because I never know if mine is going to turn out or not) or another type of gluten-free starch. Cooked quinoa, beans and brown rice pasta would all work too.

Prepared or homemade gluten-free sauces of your choice (curry, marinara, teriyaki, garlic butter, etc)

Quart sized Freezer Zip-Loc bags

I went to Trader Joes last Friday and bought all of my ingredients. Don’t freak out about how much you just spent in one shopping trip. You are saving time and money in the long run by buying ingredients in bulk and doing the prep work ahead of time. I was able to make 16 dinners out of my food. When you have all of your ingredients and an idea of what you want to make, take everything out of the fridge and place it on the counter. Slice your desired poultry, meat or meat alternative into bite sized pieces. Remember that we are mimicking the Lean-Cuisine and they contain small bites of food. Place each type of protein in a separate bowl and pour whatever type of sauce that you would like to go with it on top. Mix well and set aside.

Now, comes that fun part! Label your Zip-Lock freezer bags ahead of time with the type of dish. Also decide approximately how many calories and grams of protein you would like per bag. Our goal is to fill you up with enough healthy food per bag, so that you are not spending the rest of your evening in front of the kitchen cabinet looking for something else to eat ;)

Next, open your first bag and fill the bottom with one serving of your protein and sauce. If you are adding rice or another type of starch, add a serving on top of your protein. Next we get to my favorite part, the veggies! Try to mix and match different combinations of about 1-2 cups of frozen vegetables. This is a great opportunity to fill up on low-calorie, high-fiber veggies. Remember that the more vegetables you add, the less hungry you will be around bed time.

Push any remaining air out of the bag while your seal it up. Ta-da! You have your own homemade, gluten-free, Lean-Cuisine ready for your enjoyment. You can store them for up to 3 months in the freezer.

To prepare your meal, place the bag in your refrigerator the night before. When you ready to prepare your dinner, simply heat a medium sized sauce pan over medium-high heat. Spray the pan with a little bit of olive oil and add the contents of your bag to the sauce pan. Cook for approximately 5-10 minutes, until your protein is cooked through. Serve on a plate and enjoy!

* If you are planning on microwaving your dinner instead of cooking it on the stovetop, you may cook your protein the day before. Allow it to cool completely in the refrigerator before beginning the bagging process. Follow the rest of the instructions up until the cooking step. Place the contents of your bag into a glass, microwave safe dish and cover. Cook on high for 2-3 minutes, until your meal is fully heated. Serve on a plate and enjoy!

I truly hope that you are able to prepare these pre-made dinners for yourself. We all have hectic schedules and by spending two hours on a weekend day, you can cut your nightly food preparation time in half. I am aware that this meal preparation will not work for a lot of families, but it might come in handy for times when everyone has a different schedule and your children need a quick and easy dinner.

Please let me know if you choose to try this meal preparation method out and how it works for you.

I shared my dinner the other night with one of my fav’s, Gwyneth. She doesn’t do Lean-Cuisines, so I treated her to a salmon fillet with steamed lemon-tahini kale and a glass of Cab. Haha!

Have a great day!!!

Any gluten-free readers in the Portland-Metro area: check out this great blog for tons of gluten-free restaurant review, local events and product reviews: http://glutenfreeportlant.org

How to Not Feel Like You Have to Accomplish a Life’s Worth of Goals This Instant

Posted by Kilee on May 19, 2011 in Advice from the Heart, Link Love, Whole Nutrition | 0 comments

Hi! I hope that you are having a fabulous Friday so far! Here’s a pic of my cute little wheat grass pot in my kitchen. I juiced some the other day and cannot believe how much instant energy it gave me :)

I have spent the last few days re-prioritizing my goals and how I spend my time. As I reflected over the past year, I started to realize that I have been putting so much energy into *making things happen* that I haven’t stopped to smell the roses along the way. My goals that I plan to achieve are grande in size and I have spent the past few years in the mindset that I have to work non-stop, spend all of my free time building my business and go-go-go to accomplish these goals. After taking a few weeks off from this mindset, I have realized that it’s unhealthy to always be in this mode. My mind was constantly thinking of what I should be doing or how much I need to accomplish to create the life that I want. I was striving to be be a super-human.

Then it hit me. I’m never going to be super-human. None of us are. Even Martha Stewart, one of my long-time idols, is not super-human. She built an awe-inspiring media empire, but was not super-human enough to avoid jail-time.

Looking back on different times in my life I started to see a theme. I wish that I would not have worried so much and just gone out and had fun. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had lots of fun, but there has always been a part of me that worried that I wasn’t doing enough to work towards accomplishing my goals. What am I going to do about this? I’m going to change my mindset. Instead of continuing my theme of worrying and always feeling like I need to be doing more, I’m giving myself permission to go relax a little and enjoy life. Even the most accomplished individuals have some fun now and then, right?

The reason why I wanted to share this with you is because leading a fulfilling, healthy lifestyle involves balance. Work and play, healthy, alkalizing foods and indulgent treats, working hard to accomplish your dreams and relaxing. I pledge to keep a more balanced mindset when it comes to achieving my goals. I trust that the universe has an even greater plan for me than the one that I strive for.

Because I just spent the past year working my buns off and am now realizing that it’s beneficial to slow down and enjoy the moment you’re in, I want to share with you my tips on easing off of over-drive. If you are on the other end of the spectrum and feel that all you want to do is lay back and not set any goals, wake up and use these tips to get motivated!

1. Identify your top three goals. Write them down in a notepad or on a dry erase board.

2. Remind yourself that you will accomplish these goals at the right time for you and your journey through life.

3. Trust that the universe has an even better life in store for you than the one you have planned.

4. Create an action plan of how you are going to achieve these goals. Do not become fixated on achieving them a.s.a.p. but instead recognize that you will accomplish your goals when the timing is right. Remember my favorite life quote that I’m sure my friends are sick of hearing from me, “Everything happens for a reason.” If something doesn’t happen exactly when you want it to, trust that there is something greater that is meant to happen.

5. Make time to relax, hang out with friends and family, have fun, treat yourself. Life is too short to only focus on your goals and not enjoy the wealth that you already have: health, loved ones & purpose.

So, I just wanted to remind myself that I’m not super-human. Even though I would LOVE to write a new blog post everyday, at this point in my life, I cannot accomplish that goal. It doesn’t mean that it won’t happen someday, just not today.

Please remember not to be too hard on yourself and realize that your goals will come true if you progressively work towards them. Take some time to have fun and be with the ones you care about.

And, for daily inspiration delivered right to your inbox, check at http://thedailylove.com. I always feel so inspired and enlightened when I read Mastin’s daily email newsletter!

Quote of the Day: “One day at a time–this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering.”