Over the past few months you may have noticed on the Daily Nosh that I’ve been talking a lot about gluten – whether it be a gluten-free alternative to an older recipe, or a reintroduction of something to my diet with gluten. At the beginning of the year I experienced many bouts of food poisoning while staying in the UK and with that came a host of unexpected side effects including vertigo and numb extremities. Needless to say, it freaked me out a bit. So when it was suggested that my body may not be able to process the gluten due to the food poisonings, I resolved to go gluten free for a couple of months while I tried my best to rebuild the flora in my gut (because, really, I couldn’t imagine not having any gluten for two months, let alone the rest of my life).

One thing I was sure of, though, was that I did not want to go out and find a plethora of gluten-free products to replace my gluten-filled products. First and foremost, I know what wonderful bread and homemade pasta tastes like, and I know gluten-free is never going to match that. Secondly, my husband said he would go gluten-free with me, and many of the gluten-free products out there contain chickpea flour, which he’s severely allergic to. So for the most part I focused on adding more vegetables to my diet, but I did keep a couple of gluten-free alternatives around to squash the cravings for my favored pastas. One was a quinoa pasta, which, while it didn’t soak up sauce the way traditional pasta does, and the texture was horrid leftover, it was quite tasty with my veggie spaghetti.

After two months, I began adding gluten back to my diet, and my husband did the same. Only while it was sitting okay with me, he realized he was doing a lot better without it in his diet. Uh oh! Suddenly mostly-gluten-free was looking more and more like a way of life in this household. So I decided to try Cup4Cup flour which I had seen earlier on in my gluten-free quest, but passed on since my 2 month hiatus was almost up. (more…)

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Gluten free, miscellany by Courtney

A couple of weeks ago I posted my recipe for the buffalo chicken salad, but then I realized I’ve never posted the simplest buffalo chicken recipe of all – wings! I’ve made many different kinds of wings over the years, but I think I discovered my favorite method for making them: simply grilled. No breading. No deep frying. Just a coating of special spices, a bit of time of a hot, smoky charcoal grill, and a toss in a darned good wing sauce. (more…)

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Appetizers, Cooking outdoors, Dinner, Gluten free, Lunch, Wine pairings by Courtney

I have to say this has been one of my favorite west coast food discoveries, so I’m not quite sure where to even begin when talking about the poke bowl. I guess the point of discovery – Pacific Catch. A few years back, while being touristy in San Francisco, I ducked into a Pacific Catch with my family, and decided on a rice bowl topped with this stuff called poke, among many other Japanese-ish ingredients. I was hooked. I had to learn more about the poke. Which is when I discovered it was a Hawaiian dish that could be made an infinite number of ways. The numerous recipes, as well as the fact I needed sushi grade ahi, kept me from exploring how to make this for a long time. Upon feasting on poke in Hawaii, however, I had a renewed interest in learning to make the most common sesame-oil laced version. So after sifting through lots of recipes, I came up with what I deemed to be the perfect poke. (more…)

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Asian, Dairy free, Dinner, Gluten free, Hawaiian, Lunch, Salad, Vegan, Vegetarian by Courtney

I’ve been on a bit of a hot wing kick lately. And while my favorite way to quelch that craving is grilled wings tossed in buffalo sauce, this is quickly becoming my second. A fat salad bowl full of romaine lettuce, buffalo chicken tenders, blue cheese dressing, and every veggie I think is wonderful dipped in blue cheese dressing. All in one bowl.

This mixture was born a few jobs back. Pretty much the only time I would frequent the salad bar at work was if there were buffalo chicken strips, then I would make my rounds and find a variety of vegetables that I liked, and top it all with blue cheese crumbles and ranch (since we rarely had blue cheese dressing on that bar, for some reason). However, I had never tried to make this at home until last week. I had picked up some Louisiana Hot Sauce wing sauce at the grocery store and did not use all of it on my grilled chicken wings. Lucky for me, I realized how easily this could all come together, especially when you already have broccoli chunked up for snacking on and the onion already peeled. I foresee many, many more of these salads happening during football season! (more…)

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Gluten free, Salad by Courtney

This is one of my go-to weeknight meals, and it is a great way to use up any random vegetables you may have left over. Growing up, my mom always dressed up marinara in a jar by sauteing some onions and beef (along with some other spices and peppers and such on occasion) before adding the marinara. I changed that up a bit, decided to forgo the beef and just use every veggie I had on hand. Everything is fair play – carrots, squash, zucchini, spinach, broccoli, fresh tomatoes, kale, peppers – you name it, I’ve tossed it in my drug-through-the-garden spaghetti. The key is to always keep a few things on hand (more…)

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Dinner, Gluten free, Italian, Quick and Easy, Vegan, Vegetarian by Courtney