King Arthur - Gluten Free

Before going gluten free I fell in love with King Arthur flours. Now I love their gluten free products. Seriously, the gluten free chocolate cake is really pretty amazing. And I like to make a basic vanilla frosting to go over it. You can hardly tell the difference. Sure, I can learn to make my own mixes, but sometimes a boxed mix is just easier and faster.

Another great thing about King Arthur Gluten Free products is that they are free of the 8 most common allergies, so it's totally safe for me and so many others. I don't have to worry about soy flour or soybean oil solids. It's great to have a safe product to go to when I'm craving a snack.

Hot Chocolate Recipe

It's been quite chilly and rainy this weekend in L.A. So, I wanted some hot chocolate. I didn't want to have to worry about gluten or soybean solids in a packet. So I looked it up and Martha Stewart hooked me up. I used this recipe. I would recommend making some fresh whipped cream to go with it. I would have, but I had run out of heavy cream. It tasted so rich and full. I'm sure if you want you could use a different type of milk, but we used whole milk as it said.

When boiling it, I added a dash of natural vanilla extract to it to balance flavors. Depending on your preference you could add more or less. Stay warm out there!

Gluten Free Creamy Chicken Soup with Vegetables

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• 1/2 Onion, finely chopped
• 1 Button of Garlic, minced
• 1 chicken breast, chopped into bite size pieces or smaller.
• 2 boxes of Pacific condensed Cream of Chicken soup (this is gluten free)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cans of veggies, or bag of frozen veggies
• Salt and Pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour olive oil into a deep frying pan. On low you can add the garlic and oil and let them cook up until aromatic.
2. Now add the raw chicken and cook until done. Make sure it all blends with the garlic and onions.
3. Once cooked through add the condensed soup and milk. You can adjust the amount of milk depending on how thin or creamy you want your soup to be. Play with it.
4. Season with some salt and pepper. A good sprinkling is a good place to start.
5. Add the drained or frozen veggies and stir together to heat through.
6. Once it's all warmed through you're done and ready to eat.

If you don't care about being gluten free you could probably just use regular condensed soups.  So it's not a fancy soup, but it worked great when I was craving a creamy soup. You could add rice or even some noodles to this to make more out of it.

Gluten Free

For health reasons I decided I needed to try to give up allergens for real this year. On January 1, 2013 I gave up soy. Including regular chocolates with soy lecithin. I haven't had a candy bar since then, at least not the standard ones. I did find some chocolate chips that are soy free, so that's been exciting. On January 6th I decided I needed to try going gluten free too just to see what would happen. So, I've been soy free and gluten free since then. Holy cow! Talk about a life change. Actually that's not true. It has been a reasonably easy transition. It makes going out to eat very tricky, but it's okay and less expensive to just eat at home. In n Out and Poquito Mas has been a life saver though. It's fun learning to cook differently. I'm learning new things and trying new recipes. It's really awesome. I still crave things that are normal, but I have to find a new way to make it or find recipes. It's not too hard, but I have fun. So, I think a lot of my posts from now on will be recipes and products I've found and tested myself. Just because you can't eat the standard American diet doesn't mean you have to miss out on favorites. That's for sure!!

So, challenge me. Ask me for ideas and recipes. I'd like to share as much as I can.