Pineapple Cilantro Sauce

May 27, 2009 By


Like many of you, I struggle to find new and exciting ways to serve our everyday food. Dinner is especially tough because that is where I like to mix it up a bit. The boys could live off of GFCF pancakes and fruit if I let them, but we can’t eat that for every meal. So Larry and I try to find GFCF foods the boys will eat and are still interesting and nutritious.

This weekend Larry wanted some fish, and being the typical man on a warm weekend, he wanted grilled fish. So we found a nice piece of halibut and decided to throw it on the grill. But how do we make that interesting to both us and the boys? We decided on a pineapple cilantro sauce. It was simple to make and was unbelievably delicious. Matthew ate every single piece of his fish with this sauce on it.

Pineapple Cilantro Sauce
1 can of pineapple chunks in natural juice (reserve the juice for next ingredient)
3/4 cup of the reserved pineapple juice from above
2 teaspoons lime juice
1 tablespoon water, cold
2 tablespoons corn starch or arrowroot
3 tablespoons cilantro leaves, minced
1 tablespoon jalapenos, minced (optional)

In a medium saucepan mix the pineapple chunks, pineapple juice and lime juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. In a small bowl mix the cold water and corn starch to make a slurry. Add slurry to saucepan and cook until thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the cilantro and jalapenos (if using). Serve warm over fish.

We also thought this would be wonderful on chicken or pork. It certainly brought a taste of the islands to our meal. We served dinner with grilled corn and broccoli in lemon, olive oil and red pepper flakes.

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Rice Pasta with Roasted Veggies

May 9, 2009 By

I recently went to a biomedical support group meeting and was talking with one of my friends there, another mom of an autistic child, and she was telling me that she is struggling with the gluten free/casein free diet. Not that it is so hard, but that she gets tired of the same old thing and has a hard time coming up with new foods, or even those easy foods like grilled cheese, which we all used to fall back on before we cut dairy and wheat from our children’s lives. So I thought I’d try to start sharing some of my favorite recipes and hopefully inspire you to try something new. Don’t forget that it can take as many as 20 times of offering a new food to your child before they will taste it and start to enjoy it. Try not to get too discouraged if they don’t want to eat it right away. And if you have any great recipes please feel free to share them in the comments below!

1 lbs rice pasta – I like Tinkyada penne for this recipe

1 purple eggplant, cubed
2 medium white or yellow onions peeled and quartered
1 pint of white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 red pepper sliced
1 – 2 yellow or green squash, cubed
1 – 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 -3 cloves of garlic, chopped or crushed
1 cup beef broth (may need more if you use more veggies)
salt to taste
pepper to taste
rosemary to taste
1 tsp dried mint

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a covered roaster, I like the covered roasters by pampered chef, mix all the veggies, garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary and mint. Pour enough broth in to come 1/4 to 1/2 up the veggies. Roast for at least one hour. Check to see if veggies are soft and broken down into a ragu. If not, roast longer. The veggies should not be watery but should not be dry either.

Cook your pasta and serve veggie ragu over the penne. Yummy, and a great way to use the great veggies starting to become available.

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GFCF Chocolate Avocado Pudding

March 29, 2009 By

I know, this sounds a little weird, but really it is yummy. I first encountered this dessert at a Maryland Biomedical Group Meeting (maryland_biomedical@yahoogroups.com) where one of the mom’s made it so that we could try yummy GFCF treats for the winter holidays. I made a GFCF Upside Down Pumpkin Pie. But recently I picked up Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious from the library hoping to add a little more nutrition to my children’s food. The boys love their pancakes and fruit, but often will not touch proteins such as meat and eggs, and certainly won’t eat the dreaded vegetable. So I was hoping her book might give me a few ideas for hiding nutritional foods in some of their favorite items. She has a version of Chocolate Avocado Pudding in her book, and I decided to try it out after making a few minor changes.

1/4 cup coconut oil (I use Spectrum)
1 cup of pureed avocado (about 2 Haas avocados) – I mash in a bowl with a fork then put in a food processor and get it really smooth
1 cup of confectioners sugar – if you are staying away from corn make your own confectioners sugar by grinding granulated sugar with arrow root
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder – I use Ghirardelli, but you can try Scharffen Berger or Hershey’s
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract – make sure it is GFCF, I use Frontier
1/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot starch if you can not tolerate corn.

In a medium saucepan melt the coconut oil over low heat. Add the avocado puree, sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla. Cook until the mixture is well combined and thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the cornstarch. Use a hand mixer and beat until smooth.

And these are the results of your hard work, happy children with pudding on their faces.

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GFCF Marshmallows

March 26, 2009 By

Today I thought I’d offer up some yummy homemade GFCF Marshmallows. They are actually easier than you think and they taste so delicious. The ones in the picture were made with regular store-bought corn syrup, but recently I found Wholesome Sweetners Organic Corn Syrup and will be using that in my next candy making adventure.

My father, who is a self proclaimed marshmallow expert, said that these were so good that he doesn’t even want to eat store-bought marshmallows ever again. And he and my mother both want me to make bunny shaped marshmallows (cut using a cookie cutter) so they can make chocolate covered marshmallows for the boys for Easter. So yummy!

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 3 packages unflavored gelatin
  • 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 cup light corn syrup
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract – you can also add peppermint extract for the winter to add to hot chocolate.
  • Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Preparation:

Combine thegelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and allow to sit while you make the syrup.

Meanwhile, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat. With the mixer on low speed slowly pour the sugar syrup into the dissolved gelatin. Put the mixer on high speed and whip until the mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix thoroughly.

With a sieve, generously dust an 8 x 12-inch non-metal baking dish with confectioners’ sugar. Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan, smooth the top and dust with more confectioners’ sugar. Allow to stand uncovered overnight until it dries out.

Turn the marshmallows onto a board and cut them in squares. dust them with more confectioners’ sugar.

Yield: 20 to 40 marshmallows, depending on cut size

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