Gluten Free Eye Round Roast and Tangy Homemade Steak Sauce

Natural Gluten Free Eye Round Roast

Food can be a very tricky facet of our lives. Beside the actual buying and painstaking preparation of your jars and bushels and packages and bags of sustenance we have a whole host of social and familial implications to contend with. Maybe you're lucky and you don't haul emotional food issues around along with your spare tire. Maybe your family was ultra pragmatic (and completely outside the realm of the "normal" American family, read: dysfunctional) and never ascribed hives of emotional longing and investment into your Grandmother's spaghetti sauce, zucchini bread or borscht. Maybe your aunt never praised you to the rafters for cleaning your plate (even though you were stuffed to your earlobes and about to explode into a geyser of mashed potatoes). Maybe you've never told yourself "That's IT, food is evil, I'm only chewing on ice cubes for the next 5 days." If you are someone who has escaped the inner hell of food obsession and fully grasped the meaning of "I'm eating to live, not living to eat", I applaud you. If you're one of the rest of us, still hunkering through the battle of emotional eating, I offer you Gluten Free Eye Round Roast for meals without a second thought.

Gluten Free Thai Ginger Chicken

Delicious Thai Ginger Chicken

We recently watched Food, Inc. in two sittings no less because my blood pressure was rising to a dangerously molten level after the first half. If you've seen it you know why and if you haven't, well...watch it, discuss it, talk about it, share it with friends, make changes in your life. Or have the immediate reaction I did and paw through your fridge and cabinets, scanning the labels on every jar, box and bag for mutant GMOs, and the viscous poison of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Even though you know your entire loft is a GMO and HFCS free zone and your boyfriend is lounging on the couch, watching you swivel around the kitchen, calling out "that's all natural!", "minimally processed!", and "I ground that meat myself, it all came from a single source!" and indeed, he did. For that is what butchers do, part time or otherwise. And so naturally, even though I know everything we buy is natural or organic and minimally processed and all that jazz, I was pretty sure I never wanted to eat anything purchased at the store ever again and promptly began making mental plans to hang large planters from the ceiling in which to grow my own bounty. Until, of course, I came home to this Thai Ginger Chicken - this local, organic, free range chicken.

Gluten Free and Dairy Free Lasagna

Gluten Free Dairy Free Lasagna

People are out in full force around Santa Monica. Bikers in skin tight racing gear or ambling along leisurely on beach cruisers dot the streets, the parking structures along 4th street are buzzing with perfect-spot anticipation and the beach front is filling out with the toweled squares of families and friends laughing with reckless abandon in the constant ocean wind. Girls strut down the promenade in their Uggs, bright sundresses billowing and snaking around their tanned legs, weighed down with the happy satisfaction of spring packaged up in boastful bags. And they keep saying "it's spring, spring is here!". Which, I suppose it is. Technically. So what else is there to do but make a Gluten Free & Dairy Free Lasagna?

Simple Gluten Free Ingredients for Your Kitchen

Lately I've felt very...how to say this...well, "eh" about food. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say I've been feeling pretty lukewarm on the whole traditional dinner front. You know, chicken - vegetables - sauces. Maybe just meat in general. I go through phases like this, you see. I will be intense and unrelenting in my need for pasta with a meat sauce and then BAM the next week the very thought of such a dish will launch me down a sickly yellow sea of nausea. Bottom line? I'm pretty much like a pregnant woman nixing that whole womb-invasion thing. Thank God. Still, salvation remains. I have in my posession a solid list of Gluten Free go-to ingredients to punch up, dish out and tuck in to almost any dish - whether you're feeling culinarily lethargic or ready to take on a round of Chopped.

How to Navigate Gluten Free College Dining

 

It's difficult, writing with a little kitten snoozing on your shoulder. You'd really like to have full arm movement in order to type properly, (your 6th grade typing instructor would be so proud) but one look at that tiny little nose, a sweep of velvety fur across your cheek, a single plaintive mew - you resign yourself to a state of half-body petrification. Ahh, that's better. He has removed himself to melt into the top of the couch, clutching his favorite green feather. At last, I can comfortably write about the biggest decision Gluten Free college students are confronted with: how am I going to eat Gluten Free in College?

So Delicious Coconut Milk Gluten Free & Dairy Free Ice Cream Review

Coconut Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Gluten Free Dairy Free Ice Cream

Alex and I play this little game almost every time we approach the frozen food aisle at the grocery store. You know, the one where he asks me a question even though he knows exactly what the answer will be. We amble down the aisle (or super-sonic speed walk around the mid-aisle displays sending cosmic shockwaves through the store and shattering the tortilla chips if he's feeling antsy and wants to "just get this over with") In any case, despite our speed of approach, he invariably turns to me and says, with such a sly and casual tone, "so, you want to get some ice cream?" UM. So this is the part where I pretend to think about it very seriously, weighing the options, considering the Pure Pantry cookie mix already in the cart. As if this decision is going to either make or break the week. But really, don't most of us need a little more Gluten Free Dairy Free ice cream in our life?

Gluten Free Chicken Noodle Soup

Before I moved to California I tried to comprehend how it would be even possible to be sick here. Arching blue skies, layered clouds stretching off into the distance, the constant ebb of the ocean, a fresh, smooth air billowing with life. No, no smog here in Santa Monica. But it happens, we have gray days, sometimes the outlines of far off buildings are smudged with haze, maybe even the heavy clouds will oblige us with some rain. And sometimes you get sick. But there's always Gluten Free Chicken Noodle Soup. Or vodka. either one.

Tinkyada Gluten Free Pasta Review

People love to talk about food they just can't live without. You know -  people. The sort who haven't ever doubled over in gut drilling pain after scarfing down a delicious hunk of fill in the blank. The kind of people who don't have to think twice before hopping in the car for a sunny Saturday of far flung exploring. Those same people who say, "oh, so you can have wheat bread - right?" There were a whole host of things I thought I couldn't live without - pizza, onion rings (okay, anything fried) smartfood popcorn, hummus...you get the picture. But when food becomes the enemy and your body starts to attack, you start whittling things down - and quickly. If there's one excellent thing Celiac Disease has taught me, it's that there isn't anything edible on earth that I can't live without. Except maybe Tinkyada Gluten Free Pasta.

Mediterranean Crispy Stir Fry

Okay, you've found me out. My secret is scattered all over the internet. It's true, I'm a squash fiend. And yes, this is yet another recipe including those awkwardly shaped little beauties. But can you blame me? For most of you it's winter out there, bone shattering, muscle cramping cold. I get it, I lived in it for the first 22 years of my life. You want stews, you're craving gravy drowned comfort foods. But it might as well be summer here in ethereal southern California, and my plate begs for a light and tangy mass of noodles and veggies. I just love me some Gluten Free noodles and veggies in a crispy stir fry, it can't be helped.

Attune Probiotic Chocolate Bars Review

I've only ever met one person who doesn't like chocolate. She also professed to hate books, movies and music though, so she was clearly derranged. And really, what are you suppose to talk about with someone like that? Answer: nothing, you turn around and walk away. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that most of my readers are A. lovers or at least likers of creamy, smooth, deep chocolate and B. not fans of bloating, stomach pains and general digestive issues. If you fall within the center of this ven diagram of success, you're in luck: Attune Probiotic Bars will soothe your cravings and give some love to your tummy. Oh, and did I mention they're chocolate bars?

Homemade Gluten Free Dairy Free Chocolates

Chocolate making is uncontrollably messy and sometimes painful, but isn't that what love is all about? The instantaneous delight which ricochets around the room after opening a box of personalized chocolates is well worth the stained table cloths and sticky-melty-chocolate burns you will potentially endure. If your snugbuddy has spent whole shopping trips sorting through the chocolate aisle trying to find a safe dairy free and gluten free chocolate with a delectable filling with no luck - well you can just go ahead and clear your calendar because there's going to be some love a plenty.

Love is Thicker Than Gluten: How to Live With a Gluten Eater

It's getting late,  the corners of our loft are softened by the mellow golden light melting out from frosted glass and crinkled paper. After a long day of mind grating web related work I'm perched on the couch, contemplating dinner while Anthony Bourdain curses with brass in the background. Alex won't be home for several hours, the oven timer sounding as his keys struggle in the lock. We'll pad the floor with oversize pillows and wade through another episode of Lost as we tuck into Creamy Garlic Chicken, mashed potatoes and crisp salad. Yes, foil wrapped dressing chicken...that sounds good, I'll make that. I'll make it for someone I love, who I know will appreciate it - whatever it is.

Udi's Gluten Free Bread Review

I am canceling my bread mix subscription through Amazon. My beloved Breadman Pro will now deliver scrumptious pumpkin breads and blueberry strewn loafs instead of thick, rustic sandwich slices. This review is either going to be short and sweet or a horrible mess of rambling because, really, how many ways can I say that Udi's Gluten Free Bread is kick-ass, life altering, and so stunningly far outside of my previous realm of Gluten Free possibility that I would really rather be eating it than crafting this review?

Gluten Free Sweet and Sour Orange Glazed Wings

I don't do sports. And I don't just mean in a strictly no thanks, I'd prefer not to have merciless balls thrown at me in a manner which makes it impossible to defend myself while I run pointlessly in a tiresome circle listening to my teammates groan about my physical ineptitude sort of way.

6 Simple Ways to Save on Your Grocery Bill

Confession time: I'm dirt poor. Okay, maybe not 1920's Depression-era, living in a truck tire poor, but the whole 'breaking even monthly' thing has been a challenge. I'm feeling okay about it though; I'm just out of college, Alex and I are both employed and have additional skills we are looking to pursue for income, but most of all - we're on top of it. We have a budget. We plan, we save, we know where our money is coming from and where it's going. Basically, we're walking through a land of uncertainty with our eyes wide open.

Custom Choice Cereal Review

There's nothing quite like the stinging terror one feels as you realize the meal you are constructing for guests has totally disintigrated right before your eyes. Literally, disintigrated. Alex and I had a good non-gf friend over for brunch this weekend, a good friend who happened to bring along his own good non-gf friend whom we had never met before. After a plethora of mimosas and general giddyness it became apparent that our slightly experimental eggless banana waffles were...well, flacid. They did that thing where you open the lid of the waffle maker and each side puts on a game of tug-of-war, both plates getting half of your now-shriveled mass of semi-cooked batter. Awesome.

Gluten Free & Dairy Free Pizza

Hi, my name is Jessica, and I've been off pizza for two and a half years. Grudgingly. Bitterly. Even with the occassional pout. You see, all sorts of restaurants and maufactuerers want to provide a Gluten Free pizza. They know the electrifying hold these sweet little triangles have on us. They know some of us will do anything to sink our teeth into that ooey, gooey - slightly crispy - landscape of yum. But do they ever think to themselves, these white-aproned chefs, that we GF folks might need a Gluten Free, DAIRY FREE version of their tasty little pie? No, I'm saddened to say, rarely. And so, I've gone without, watching others pile into cheesy rounds of delight - GF or not. Until now. And hell, am I making up for it.

Top 10 Ready Made Snacks for GF College Students

You know that dream nightmare almost every Celiac admits to? The one where they are enjoying a giant sub or a tasty slice of pizza and suddenly, to their infinite horror realize they are eating GLUTEN? I will join the ranks, I have indeed experienced this dream, more than once in fact. There's been a few times when I've munched down on a new discovery and suddenly stopped chewing, scanning the label...is this....Gluten FREE? Some of the foods that make it onto this list are those 'I can't believe it's not GF' products - you know, the ones my non-GF friends in college would mow down on when they came over to my room.

Gluten Free Breaded and Grilled Squash and Zucchini

I've always been a vegetable fan. A lover, admirer of vegetables even. Their perky, verdant hues highlighting my plate (always huddled together in their own zone, if there is to be any mixing of food it will be on my terms, deliberately chosen to couple on my fork).  I never understood, as a child, my anticipated role as an enemy of broccoli. Pile it on and pile it on high. Little bit of butter, little swish of salt, please and thank you. "Greenie Beanies", contingents of potato in all size and formation, stack the ears of corn up in my room if you have to, I wanted it all. And then we moved to Utah. To live on a farm. And subsist on vegetables we pulled from the ground. And I met squash. And knew what it was to choke down a vegetable.

What Every Celiac Should Know: Probiotics

I'm going to make a controversial statement. Many of you have probably heard this, sat at a lab bench and heard a white coat drone about it. People just don't like to talk about it (unless we're talking yogurt). Here it is: You have bacteria in you! And some of it is really, really good and necessary! But, because of Celiac Disease, you probably don't have enough. Have you been GF for a while but have started to feel terrible again? Bloating? Discomfort? Trouble after you eat? Come on, you can admit it. Don't immediately think you have developed an intolerance to every edible item on earth. Stop a moment. Take a breath. And read this little ditty. I'm going to kick this off with something near and dear to my heart (and stomach): Probiotics.