Gluten-Free

Well, I don't know how many of you out there are struggling with stomach issues like I am but since getting pregnant, my stomach has never been the same. I have been battling nausea and upset stomachs for nearly two years now and finally made my way to a GI doctor recently. While I tested negative for Celiac's, a gluten-free diet has really helped me. It's THE WORST DIET EVEEERRRRR.

But for those of you who are thinking about going with this diet for nutrition reasons or to save yourself from stomach pain, I'm going to try to pave the way a little for you as some other bloggers have done the same for me! I'll be posting new foods and gluten-free brands that I love or hate and different menu items at restaurants.

So far, here's what I've got:

Top left: Trader Joe's GF Chocolate Chip Cookies; 

Bottom left: Udi's GF breads; 

Right: Redbridge GF Sorghum Beer

These are 3 fantastic products that have saved me. I hate to give away my CC Cookie secret but honestly, these are so freaking good, I'd demolish them whether I was GF or not! I buy them in bulk because I pound one of these bags in a matter of a day or two. They are THAT good. 

Udi's is a brand that makes gluten free breads. I was really hesitant to try them as bread made without wheat-flour did not sound appealing. I bought their multigrain bread, bagels, and hamburger buns. So far, I've only tried the bread but wow is it good!! I am a carb-o-holic with the majority of that being breads so I consider myself quite the connoisseur...this stuff will not disappoint! 

Finally, we have the Redbridge gluten-free beer made by (I believe) Anheuser-Busch. My husband picked some of this up for me at Bev-Mo before our trip to Vegas (I'm not big on hard alcohol and was dreading not being able to have a beer). It was not bad at all! It tasted like a good amber beer. Nothing too light but not too heavy and quite honestly, I never would have guessed it was GF! There are a few brands out there that have tried the GF thing and have failed so I was pleasantly surprised by this one!

Another big challenge of this diet is eating out. Holy moly what a pain in the butt! Here is a short list of things I've ordered and really loved at various restaurants (keep in mind, this list is currently short as I've only been on this diet a few weeks and was on vacation for the majority of that time but I'll keep posting my finds):

Islands: Baja Chicken Tacos (with corn tortillas substituted) - SO GOOD. I actually crave these randomly now

In-n-Out: Hamburger (and fries! Yay!) protein style - Thank God we don't have to give up on our In-n-Out! All this is is a regular burger wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun. It's not nearly as good as a regular burger but it definitely satisfies and gets the job done!

Chipotle: Chicken burrito bowl (burrito without the flour tortilla)- now don't hold me to this that this isn't entirely gluten free as I've never asked but I'm only assuming as there's nothing obvious in it and this is one of the few foods I can eat a TON of and not feel like garbage. 

Outback Steakhouse: Grilled Chicken on the Barbie (with baked potato instead of veggies) - I'm not a big Outback fan but my dad and hubby are so this is the best thing I've had. It's a little plain but the BBQ sauce (I get it on the side) is really, really good so it definitely makes it a good meal. Add a salad (sans croutons) and it's a pretty healthy meal!

Macaroni Grill : Pollo Caprese (with gluten-free penne - go MG for offering this!) and a Caprese salad - the salad is especially good!

Another benefit because so many consumers are now on the gluten-free diet, most of these places offer gluten-free menus on their website. 

I also highly, HIGHLY recommend shopping at Trader Joe's. They offer a large amount of items that are gluten-free (including the cookies mentioned above and this is also where I found Udi's breads...as well as some really great frozen tamales I'm obsessed with- pictured below).

They take pride in the fact that they can service those of us on this diet - you can even print out a list of every item in the store that is GF! Check out the site here ~ http://www.traderjoes.com/lists/no-gluten.asp

Feel free to email me or comment if you have places and items you want to add!

XOXO

Sweet Garlic Chicken

I made the BEST CHICKEN EVVVEEERRRR the other night from a recipe I found on Pinterest and let me tell you...it's my new stand-by when I don't want to do much cooking. The prep took about 15 minutes at most, minimal clean-up and only 15 min in the oven. Made some minute rice and a quick spinach salad...dinner is done. Now we're talking!

Sweet Garlic Chicken

4 chicken breasts
4 garlic cloves
3 tbs olive oil
4 tbs brown sugar

(I used 6 little chicken tenders/cutlets. They cook quicker and there's less yucky stuff to clean off of them because they're so small)

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place chicken in a greased baking dish and set aside. Heat oil in a small skillet. Add garlic until brown. Remove from heat and add brown sugar. Stir together and completely combine. Cover chicken with garlic/sugar mix. Season with salt and pepper and put it in the oven. Cook for 15-30 minutes depending on size of the chicken. (The cutlets took about 15 and were perfect!)

SO GOOD!

Chocolate Banana Bites

Today, I was in one of those moods where you want to bake but you don't want to spend your whole day doing it, yanno? So, I decided to do some "fake" baking and came across this recipe on http://nomnomnomblog.com called PB 'Nana  Cream Bites. They are SO easy and SO good! I made them in about 20 minutes. Please excuse my pictures (as mine did not turn out nearly as pretty). 

Here's the recipe according to "nomnomnom":

Chocolate Banana Bites

2 large bananas

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I just used milk chocolate)

2 tbsp-1/4 cup milk

Cut up bananas about an inch tall and swipe some peanut butter on each slice.

 Combine milk and chocolate in bowl and microwave at 15 second increments until they are able to stir together smoothly. (I think it only took two separate increments for me).

Dip the bananas in the chocolate, using fork, until they are covered and set on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper.

Put cookie sheet in freezer until bananas are completely frozen (3-5 hours).

Personally, I found that the recipe called for too much milk...I.E. the chocolate was too thin. (See above). I actually threw them in the freezer like this for about 20 minutes and then went back, melted more chocolate with less milk and covered them again for a thicker covering. Yum!

Green Monster Shakes

For months, I've been hearing about the benefits of Green Monster shakes! What are these things, anyway? I describe them as a healthy shake or smoothie, packed with spinach, and masked by other healthy ingredients that disguise the yuckier tasting stuff: the key ingredient, however, always being that lovely spinach. 

Of course we've always heard how great spinach is for us but really, I wanted to truly know the benefits. Upon research, I found that there are tons and tons including diet aids by aiding in digestion, it's packed full of antioxidants and vitamins including Vitamins A,C, E, and K which help aid in the fight against osteoporosis, promotes a healthy nervous system and brain function, and boost our immunity, and it also helps to fight cancer! On top of all of these benefits, it helps promote healthy skin, hair, and nails! 

I've read that over 90% of our population does not get the recommended amounts of fruits and veggies in their diet every day which is a sad, sad fact. Even worse, I am a part of this statistic so I thought I'd give a Green Monster Shake a try! 

Thanks to the wonderful world of Pinterest, I found an awesome recipe on a blog called iowagirleats.com so I thought I'd pass it along! It's relatively low fat (with the exception of the peanut butter which, I use a light version of anyway) and tastes just like bananas and peanut butter! If you can get past the green look, I HIGHLY recommend these! I've altered the ingredients just slightly but it's basically the same. 

Green Monster Spinach Smoothie

Ingredients:

1/2 sliced banana (may be frozen)

1 Tbs. peanut butter

1/2 cup 0% Vanilla Chobani Greek yogurt

1 cup non-fat milk 

Fill the rest of the blender up with spinach

If it's not sweet enough, throw in a few frozen strawberries!

If it's not cold enough, throw in a few ice cubes. 

Blend, blend, blend until smooth and creamy and devour. 

You gotta do this!

Bubba Burgers

I'm really prone to headaches so every once in a while, when I get a bad migraine, I'm not able to make dinner like I had planned. Our solution? Bubba burgers!!! They are absolutely amazing! They come frozen and all you do is throw them on the grill as is (still frozen). They take about 15 minutes to cook and are honestly some of the best burgers I've ever had. If you find them in your grocery store, please try them! :) They even have low fat ones or ones that come with different spices and flavoring. They're our fall back on those nights where dinner falls through.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Today at Ashton's doctor's appointment, the doctor told me I should pretty much eat anything loaded with carbs and fat because I'm breast-feeding. She said that dieting is like giving him skim milk which = bad. As much as everyone wants to hear "eat all the crap in sight," I've got just a few last pounds I wanna kick to officially get to my pre-preggo weight so this wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear.

My solution was to be sure I'm making healthy dinners but nothing low-cal or low-fat so that my body still feels good and Ash is getting everything he needs. Emeril Lagasse is one of my fav cooks so here's one of his recipes I'm making for dinner tonight!

Mr. John's Meat-Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients

• 6 green bell peppers, tops cut away and seeds removed
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup finely chopped yellow onions
• 1/2 cup finely chopped green bell peppers
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• 2 cups cooked long or medium-grain white rice
• 8 ounces tomato sauce
• Water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling water, parboil the peppers until just tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and dry on paper towels.

In a large saute pan or skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and chopped bell peppers and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the beef, pork, garlic, parsley, salt, black pepper, and pepper flakes. Cook until the meat is browned, stirring with a heavy wooden spoon to break up the lumps, about 6 minutes. Add the rice and tomato sauce and stir well. Remove from the heat and adjust the seasoning, to taste.

Pour enough water into a baking dish to just cover the bottom, about 1/8-inch deep. Stuff the bell peppers with the rice mixture and place in the baking dish. Bake until the peppers are very tender and the filling is heated through, 25 to 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.


I've made it before and it's REALLY good! I do take out the pork and just sub ground beef, so it ends up being a pound of GB total. I'm just not a pork fan and I feel like it's not very healthy (who knows...just grosses me out). I'm just cutting up cantaloupe to go with it on the side for some added healthy stuff and to avoid putting something green with the already green bell peppers (like salad or green beans...ya. I'm weird like that). Pretty quick, super easy, and super good! Gotta love another MSM (Martha Stewart moment)!