Wheatless Foodie

I’ve become interested in the concept of “functional foods”, that is, foods that offer specific health benefits above and beyond providing our bodies with calories, macronutrients and micronutrients. A great deal of research is being done on a great many functional foods. It’s an interesting field of knowledge. Coconut oil is one of the new foods in my family’s diet. Up until recently, I’ve used mostly canola oil or olive oil, and occasionally butter when preparing meals. Over the past few months I’ve noticed that several of my favorite food bloggers use coconut oil in their recipes. Most of the food bloggers I follow are interested in healthy foods, so I began doing some research on coconut oil. Coconut oil is an edible oil extracted from the meat of mature coconuts. There are several means of extracting the coconut oil, and the method used determines the quality of the finished coconut oil. I’m using organic, extra virgin coconut oil from Nutiva , which is cold pressed and mini...

Apples are a sure sign that autumn is underway. We are blessed to have an apple tree in our backyard. The apple variety growing on our tree isn’t very good for eating fresh out of hand, but it’s great for baking. I began working on this apple cake recipe last year and after several attempts, I still felt that it just wasn’t good enough to share. I’ve made it several more times this fall, and I’m finally happy with it.  Recipe development is like that. Sometimes it can take a dozen revisions, as was the case with this recipe for apple cake. I don’t have the energy I used to, either, so as happened with this recipe, it took over a year to make it enough times to get it right. It makes me miss those days of working in product development when I had a staff of technicians to which I could hand the recipe revisions (and who cleaned up afterwards). About the topping: I’ve made the cake several times with the topping added to the batter before baking and with the topping added abo...

My husband loves meatloaf and has developed an especially delicious recipe that we all enjoy.  He tried several recipes then chose what he liked most and combined them into one fabulous meatloaf recipe.  He uses quick cooking gluten free oats instead of breadcrumbs.  Gluten free breadcrumbs would probably work, but the oats give the meatloaf a nice texture, as well as the nutritional boost of whole grains. Quick cooking oats are more finely cut than old fashioned oats.  If you don't have access to quick cooking gluten free oats, you can pulse old fashioned oats in the food processor. Fred's Meatloaf (gluten free) 3 lbs ground meat (we use two parts lean ground beef to one part ground turkey) 1 ½ cups Gluten Free Quick Cooking Oats 2 cups milk of your choice (we use almond milk) 2 eggs 2 Tablespoons canola or olive oil 2 medium onions, preferably sweet, chopped 2 cups mushrooms, chopped 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon Balsa...

Gravy is easy to make if you have some stock, broth, and/or pan drippings to work with. But if you don’t or just want the convenience of canned gravy, it can be difficult to find ready-to-serve gravy that doesn’t contain gluten. I’ve found one brand of gluten free ready-to-eat gravy, and my entire family likes it. Imagine Foods’ Savory Beef  Flavored Gravy comes in shelf stable cartons, contains no gluten, and it’s delicious. I buy Imagine gluten free Beef Gravy locally at the Bellingham Food Co-op , but it’s also available directly from Imagine Foods . (I'm not receiving any form of compensation for this blog post.  I just really like the product.) Cindy