September 2018 – Gluten-Free Philippines

Quick Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce

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We’ve got another quick and delicious gluten-free pasta recipe for you. This is great for when time is not your friend, since it only takes minutes to prepare! Using gluten-free canned ready meals like some of the gluten-free items of Amy’s brand of organic food, cuts your meal prep time in half. Try this for your lunch this weekend! Definitely, yummy!

INGREDIENTS

1 can of Amy’s Gluten-Free Tomato Bisque

1 pound dried Gluten-free Pasta (Fusilli, or Penne should work nicely)

4 tbsp salted butter

3 tbsp gluten-free flour

2 cups whole milk

1 cup shredded cheddar

½ pound sliced button mushrooms

3 medium sliced shallots,

A few stems of fresh thyme, washed and dried

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

DIRECTIONS

Prepare gluten-free pasta as instructed in the pack. While boiling, move on to prepare the sauce.

In a sauce pan, melt butter in low heat and slowly whisk in the flour, and then the milk a little at a time, until fully combined. Adjust heat to medium to simmer, making sure to keep an eye on the mixture to avoid burning, whisking continuously.

Empty the can of gluten-free tomato bisque soup in the sauce pan, and let simmer. Add the cheddar, salt and pepper, and set aside after 1 minute. Cheddar is a gluten-free cheese, lucky us! Only, be careful to use real cheddar and not processed cheddar to avoid any additives that can contain gluten.

In another pan, sauté shallots until translucent, and then add the mushrooms. You can do a few pieces of mushroom at a time so they have enough space in the pan to get sufficiently browned. You’ll get much more flavor in the dish, this way. Add salt and pepper to your liking.

When the pasta is al dente. Mix in theother ingredients: tomato sauce mixture, shallots and mushrooms. On medium heat, allow to simmer to let the water evaporate, leaving you just enough liquid so that your pasta is creamy but no longer runny.

Serve and enjoy!

Recipe from Amy’s, adapted and made gluten-free.

Fight Hunger Pangs Safely with Gluten Free To-Go Meals

One of the more challenging things to confront when dealing with food intolerance and sensitivities are the moments when your caught unprepared hungry. (You know that feeling when you just have to eat something or you’ll pass out?) This occurrence is pretty common and sad to say, this is also when we’re more susceptible to ingesting gluten, because there simply isn’t time to be picky!

Avoiding this can be done with sufficient meal planning, and always having your go-to food item in your fridge, or in your bag, prepared wherever you may be. Here are some terrific ideas you can try so that the next time your stomach grumbles, you’re covered.

Food Wraps

This is terrifically easy to make in advance. Make 4 to 5 wraps, put them in a lunch pack, or a zip lock bag, and save them in your fridge for later. Lettuce wraps, with seasoned and sauteed meat, and seafood, with a little gluten-free dressing, is a convenient option.

gluten free wrap — Image: EatingWell.com

Here’s a great recipe from Eating Well that you can try out: Gluten-Free Peanut-Chicken Cabbage Wraps.

Sandwiches

Gluten-free sliced bread is heaven sent for these food grubbing moments. If you have gluten-free spreads on hand, just slather it on your bread and you’re good to go. There are a lot of excellent gluten-free spreads options around, more common are are peanut butter, gluten-free chocolate spreads.

gluten free sandwiches

A great selection of gluten-free breads and spreads ise available here.

Gluten-free bite-sized cookies and muffins

glutenfree muffins

Bite-sized snacks are great to take with you wherever you go. You don’t have to worry about them spoiling even days at a time in your bag. Put a jar of cookies on your desk at work, or a bag of muffins in your gym bag. Rice cakes or breads made with almond flour or sorghum flour instead of wheat are great. Delicious for nibbling, and guaranteed won’t make you sick because they are already tried and tested.

Naturally Gluten-free snacks

If you want to minimize processed food, it is a smart thing to go with naturally gluten-free food so that you also don’t consume way more sugar, salt or additives that aren’t really necessary, just to address your hunger pangs. Have a piece of fruit handy in your bag, those that pack easily in your bag like an orange of a piece of apple. Try also bags of unseasoned nuts or seeds.

apple and orange gluten free snacks

Meal Plan

If you know exactly what you are having daily for the next few days, and already have them prepared during the weekend, then you can definitely minimize the risk of untimely hunger. Having complete sets of meals for the day already planned out: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in between, will make sure you’re complete satiated for the rest of the day.

The Celiac Disease Foundation has on their site a 7-day gluten-free meal plan that you can use as guide for your own planning.

Excellent! So next time you are feeling hungry, save yourself from another episode of enduring effects of gluten ingestion.

Was this list helpful? If you have your own suggestion from experience of how to safely coast through the day gluten-free, give us a shout out in the comments! 🙂 Have a great weekend, everyone!

Cholesterol-Free Bolognese

SPAGHETTI-BOLOGNESE-2 We’ve heard about Quorn^TM, an excellent meat-free protein alternative for vegetarians, and vegans. It tastes just like meat and with it you can make practically any dish that usually comes with meat, but without the cholesterol. But did you know that it’s also a great ingredient if you are going gluten-free? It’s made of Mycoprotein (part of the fungi family), that is a more sustainable and it only has 2% saturated fat, and it contains no gluten. Here’s a fantastic recipe to try that you can share with your whole family, if you are watching your gluten intake.

INGREDIENTS

200g Quorn^TM Meat-Free Grounds
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 piece Onion, minced
2 cloves Garlic, crushed
200g Mushrooms Porcini
or Chanterelle, diced
1 tbsp Tomato Paste
1 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
400ml Tomato Basil Sauce or crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp Vegetarian Worcestershire Sauce
1 piece Vegetable Bouillon Cube, dissolved in 150ml hot water
1 tsp Dried Oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
300g Spaghetti, cooked
Hard cheese (Parmesan or Grana padano)

DIRECTIONS

In a pan, sauté the onions, garlic over medium heat until translucent. Add in the mushrooms. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add the Quorn Grounds, tomato sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, vegetable stock, and season with salt, pepper and oregano to your liking. Stir to combine well, on high heat. Cover and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.

Serve sauce over pasta with grated Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!