Food I've Eaten

Ahhh, and here we come to the disaster zone. I will share what I have survived off of in my first three weeks. 


Also, sometimes I eat breakfast for dinner and dinner for breakfast - so how i categorize these foods probably isn't best for the normal person.

Dairy free milks: 
coconut milk - it's alright
rice milk - high in calories
Silk unsweetened vanilla almond milk - i was pleasantly surprised to find that this tastes the most like actual milk and is very low in calories. It's my favorite non dairy milk now. I like Silk brand the best, but Almond Breeze is alright. Almond Breeze leaves a bigger milky aftertaste in your mouth - good for someone who actually likes cow milk since that is similar. UPDATE: HEB off brand is better than either of those!!
lactose free milk - Great Value brand works. Best for baking and what i currently use.


Condiments

• Avoid Walden Farms, they all taste like vinegar.
• Hains Mayo with canola oil is amazing and allergen free friendly!

Beverages: 

• Minute Maid 100% Juice boxes (not with orange juice though)
• juice FAIL: R.W. Knudsen Organic Sensible Sippers in Banana - disgusting!!! 
• coconut water FAIL: ZICO Pure Premium Coconut Water is so disgusting!!!

Snacks: 

• Kettle Brand Sea Salt and Vinegar (or just Sea Salt) Chips
• fruit - blackberries, blueberries, strawberries
• Food For Life Brown Rice Bread (freezer section) + MaraNatha All Natural No Stir Almond Butter Crunchy --I've found that the only way this snack is edible (and quite delicious) is to toast the bread a little, spread the almond butter on, and then heat for about 9 seconds.

Desserts: 

Breakfast: 

• Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Mixed Berries Cereal (pretty tasty!)
• Red Mill Pancake Mix - FAIL.  kinda like eating carpet, but edible.

Lunch:





Dinner:

• Swedish pancakes  (  http://www.transferofhealth.com/recipes/gluten-free-swedish-pancakes  ) Tastes like snickerdoodle pancakes! 

  -- these make a big batch! I ate it for like three days, multiple meals. Little sick of them now.  The pancakes kind of tasted like snicker doodle ones to me. 

• Lettuce Wrap: 

--I got romaine hearts, but I would definitely use iceberg next time. sliced cucumbers, avocado, tomato slices, and turkey lunch meat 
--the turkey lunch meat....sketchy. said it was gluten free, but the ingredient list didn't look like it was real meat...I was desperate, but I need to research lunch meat a bit more.

• Hot Dog - BIG FAIL

--Ener G Tapioca Hot Dog Buns - dear God, can they create worse bread than this? It was dry, rock like, and made me want to gag. I've found that with tapioca breads so far. Plus, any gluten free bread that isn't refrigerated or frozen - AVOID.

--AppleGate Super Natural Uncured Beef Hot dog - also pretty nasty. 

--Walden Farms Ketchup - I'm completely convinced now that all of their products taste like bad vinegar. If possible, avoid this brands condiments. Unless you really like salty vinegar instead of ketchup (or mayonnaise, which i've also tried)

• Some packet of Indian food that was microwavable FAIL- gave off the most horrible smell and ruined my appetite. Couldn't eat more than a bite.

• Mediterrean Quinoa Packet BASICALLY A FAIL- Ok. Quinoa. First experience. Let's just say this: it's a seed. It's  like buying flower seeds at the store and instead of planting them, just shoving the packet in your mouth. I'm sure delicious things can be made, but if you aren't ready for that reality, you're really going to need to adjust.

• Amy's Gluten Free non Dairy Organic Beans and Rice Burrito (freezer section). This is my go to for an emergency food. It's not good though, but can be eaten when nothing else is there. I keep some in the freezer for this reason.

• Boiled Cauliflower with Nutritional Yeast FAIL - nasty. I have a friend who loves it, but I thought it was gross. Nutritional Yeast is supposedly just something that tastes like cheese and is healthy, it comes in a spice looking container. What I found is that it doesn't dissolve well and stays a little flaky and doesn't really taste like cheese. Not what I was expecting anyway. I have heard it's pretty good on popcorn - if you can eat popcorn.

• Boiled Squash - saute some onions in olive oil spray. Peel squash, slice, and put in pot. put a can of chicken broth with water if needed to about 1/2 way up the squash (don't add more chicken broth unless you like the flavor of it - i don't). season with a little sea salt and onion powder, cook until tender. Good.

• Honey Tilapia FAIL - I cooked tilapia in some kind of honey sauce I found online, and it SUCKED. Couldn't even eat it. It was frozen walmart brand Tilapia. Tasted like I was chewing on the Gulf of Mexico. Combine with the honey, and you've got something truly disgusting.

• Lemon Chicken FAIL- again found a recipe online. I marinated the chicken in lemon juice, sea salt, and other stuff in the fridge for a few hours and cooked it. TASTED LIKE A LEMON SALT LICK. Made me gag. I've found that using lemon on chicken when cooking it yourself or buying it at a restaurant generally sucks.

• Gluten Free Bread FAIL - ( http://simplysugarandglutenfree.com/perfect-bread/#comment-28590) Yeah, my bread didn't rise well and tasted like a rice-y rock. It was disgusting, and it took me three hours to realize this.

• Egg in Avocado. Exactly how it sounds. Cut an avocado in half, take out seed, scoop a little out to fit an egg in both halves, put a little sea salt on top and broil it....I had a hard time cooking the whole egg and not burning it. I ended up burning it and then just cutting off the top. It's alright. It's probably better if you actually like eggs and avocado. I broiled mine in a small cake pan, but one of my friends did hers in a cupcake pan and they stayed together and upright much better.

• Spaghetti - I used Tinkyada fettichini which I have heard lots of good things about online, and Walnut Acres Organic Marinara and Herbs (has organic evaporated cane juice). It was alright. The noodles are a strange gummy texture and taste. UPDATE: The best gluten free pasta is Heartland, no contest. Also, the best spaghetti sauce and the cheapest I can find is HEB brand portobello mushroom. 

• Kinnikinnick Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Homestyle Waffles - I know, you're thinking, "brown sugar? She can't have brown sugar!!" You are right. I'm an idiot and somehow didn't read the package correctly. and right in the ingredients on the back it clearly says "sugar, brown sugar." I guess my eyes decided not to read that day. Well, i ate them anyway because they were gluten/dairy/nut free and cost a fortune. Pretty darn good too lol. Must have been the sugar. I put light Agave nectar on top. I've gotten pretty sick of how Agave tastes though.

• Steamed Asparagus - cut the asparagus in half and threw away the ends (the thick part without the bud like tips). I put the asparagus in a pot with a steamer attachment and filled the bottom up with water to the very bottom of the asparagus. Boiled the water for about 15 minutes (?) and then sprinkled them with salt and had a little bit of olive oil to dip them in. It amazed me how strong olive oil is, so be cautious! I only use light olive oil now.

Swedish Pancakes Round 2:
adapted from:
http://bellytofeed.blogspot.com/2011/07/almond-swedish-pancakes.html

Ok, these are amazing.

• 2 eggs
• 1 and 1/2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup white rice flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons melted butter (I used Land o Lakes Canola Oil butter)

Beat the eggs together in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 cup of milk and whisk until well blended. Add in the brown and white rice flour and salt. Whisk until smooth. Stir in the melted butter and the remaining 1/2 cup of  milk. Rest the batter for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Pour batter onto a large, already heated buttered pan (low-medium heat) until the surface isn't shiny, flip and cook the other side (about 2-3 minutes per side). The batter is THIN and will SPREAD. You want them to be super thin, so don't pour too much batter in, or they will come out too thick (for crepes. They can be a super thin pancake though).
**blogger said you could use all purpose flour instead of the rice flours for more "traditional swedish pancake taste" but I have bad luck with all purpose gluten free flours so far. Rice flours taste better to me. 

Gluten-Free Yellow Cake in a Cup

adapted from http://www.heiressintraining.com/2012/03/18/gluten-free-yellow-cake-in-a-cup/

This recipe is gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, and nut-free. Recipe makes one cup/mug of cake.

Ingredients
6 tablespoons brown rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons white sugar -->> subbed pure coconut palm sugar
Pinch of kosher salt --> About 3 decent salt shaker shakes

3 tablespoons olive oil
1/8 cup unsweetened applesauce ->> I added about a TBS more
3 tablespoons rice milk -> I subbed unsweetened orignal almond milk
1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring
1/2 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

Mix dry ingredients together in a mug that holds a least 16 ounces. Combine liquid ingredients thoroughly in a small bowl.

Add liquids to dry mixture in mug. Stir and scrap the sides and bottom until smooth. Microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes (MINE TOOK 1.5 MIN) or until a knife gone through to the bottom of the cake comes out dry. Depending on the size of your mug and your microwave, you might need more time.

Let cake rest and cool for a few minutes before eating.

-->> THIS IS PRETTY AWESOME WHEN YOU CANT EAT ANYTHING ELSE. I was skeptical of the olive oil and the almond flavoring, especially since they both give it a funky smell. but it's realllly good. especially when you want something sweet. The almond flavoring is pretty strong, mind you. This turns out to be a very moist / thicker cake. SPECIAL NOTE: I thought this was a pretty great alternative but my non gluten free sister could barely eat it. So I'm guessing it's better after you have been on a modified diet for a while.