Gluten Free Central

We both have good ole’ 9-5 office jobs and sometimes need quick, no-prep lunch options. We’ve scoured our local grocery stores and these are some of the best meals we’ve found.

• Hormel Chili (with or without beans) – hearty and filling, good with fritos!, a bit high on sodium, they do have an online list of all their gf items
• Dinty Moore Beef Stew/Southwestern Style Chicken Stew – meat and veggies in a creamy broth, filling, again a bit high on sodium
• Thai Kitchen Noodle Bowls – lots of great asian flavors, no meat so it’s a little lighter
• A Taste of Thai Noodle Meals – similar to thai kitchen in variety, new gf formulations (according to their chart it looks like every product except for 2 are gluten free!)
• Amy’s Kitchen – lots of frozen entrees, our favorites are the cheese enchiladas, rice mac & cheese, and shepard’s pie
• Glutino Frozen Entrees – we’ve only tried the chicken penne alfredo, not our favorite but still good
• Gluten Free Cafe – great frozen fettuccine alfredo, just showed up in our store a couple months ago
• Annie Chun’s Sushi Wraps – something fun and different, great rice, DON’T use the soy sauce that comes with it

And as promised…our super fantastic sushi sauce! We never use exact measurements when we make it, a lot of it depends on taste preference. Start with about a cup of mayo. Add equal amounts of spicy chili sauce and honey a spoonful at a time. It should be the color and consistency of thousand island dressing. You can add more chili sauce or honey if you want it spicy or sweet!

We’re always looking for cool new tips and recipes to share on the show. So email yours to tips@gfcentral.com.

Downloads

Gfcentral Episode #13

For some reason I’ve always been slightly intimidated by the idea of making my own soups. It seems that some of my favorite soups have SO much work that has to go in to making them that I usually just say, Oh forget it! But not this soup! Egg drop soup is quick, easy and really tasty.

Egg Drop Soup

• 4 cups gluten free chicken broth, divided
• 1/8 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbs chopped green onion
• 1 1/2 tbs cornstarch
• 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk

Measure out 3 1/4 cup chicken broth into a pan and bring to a rolling boil. Add ground ginger, salt and green onion to boiling broth.

Tip!: We use Progresso Chicken Broth because it’s clearly labeled gluten free!

Place the other 3/4 cup chicken broth in a small bowl and add the cornstarch. Stir until it is completely mixed in. (The cornstarch will tend to clump at the bottom.) Then add the cornstarch/broth mixture to the pan. This will help thicken the soup a bit.

Wisk together the eggs, then using a fork, slowly drop the egg in small dribbles. It will cook immediately into smooth ribbons. You want to keep the drops small so you don’t end up with huge chunks of egg in your finished soup.

This is a really easy recipe to manipulate to your liking. You can add more of any of the ingredients to get the taste you want. It’s also great to double or triple the recipe and make a huge pot of soup at once. It keeps well in the refrigerator and can be saved for lunches or snacks throughout the week!

We’re always looking for cool new tips and recipes to share on the show. So email yours to tips@gfcentral.com.

Downloads

Gfcentral Episode #12

I don’t know about you, but I don’t always have time to make all our gluten free food from scratch, especially when it comes to baked goods. That’s where store bought mixes come into the picture. They take the guess work out of putting together the perfect flour blend for your baked goods. But which mixes are the best?

To start things off, we thought we’d share our two favorite brownie mixes. The first one is Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Brownie Baking Mix. Our local Trader Joe’s just opened in Nashville a few months ago, and this brownie mix was one of the first things we tried. It makes an 8×8 pan of moist, rich, chocolatey brownies. My only word of warning: while they are moist, they don’t hold together all that well as you’re trying to get them out of your baking dish. The only downside to this mix is that Trader Joe’s doesn’t sell their products online, and their stores are only in a few select locations.

Which brings us to our second mix: Namaste Foods Brownie Mix. Namaste Foods products can be found in lots of different natural food stores across the country (we get ours at Whole Foods), and can be purchased online! The ingredient lists for these two mixes are identical, but they use different proportions and call for slightly differing measurements of egg, oil and water when preparing the mix. The Namaste mix will give you a rich, moist brownie as well, and I think that they stay fresher longer than the Trader Joe’s mix.

Either way, these mixes are great to have handy when you just don’t have the time to whip up a fresh batch of homemade brownies. And like I said, these two mixes are just the beginning! If you’ve found other great gluten free mixes let us know…we’d love to try them out!

We’re always looking for cool new tips and recipes to share on the show. So email yours to tips@gfcentral.com.

Downloads

Gfcentral Episode #11