Veggie Burritos

There is nothing more satisfying than chomping into a big burrito stuffed with all your favorite vegetables.  The other night my roommate and I made the most mouth watering burritos using Food for Life brown rice tortillas, and filling them with beans and rice, kale, sweet potatoes, mushrooms and avocado.  These brown rice tortillas are so versatile-I use them for just about everything, but you must steam the tortillas for a few minutes so they are flexible enough to wrap up the burrito.  I love burritos, because you can put anything in them that you wish.  Try grilling some chicken or fish, or putting in some sauteed peppers and spinach or corn and tomatoes- whatever your heart desires!  

Ingredients

• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons of Mexican seasoning (read the ingredients label to make sure it is safe for you)
• 1 container of mushrooms, sliced
• 1 can of cooked beans- black or pinto are best
• 2 cups of steamed rice
• 1 bunch of kale, trimmed
• 1 large sweet potato, chopped into bite size pieces
• 1 ripe avocado
• half a lime
• Food for Life brown rice tortillas
• (Shredded soy/rice/almond cheese if you like)

Directions

1. Saute the chopped onions in a pan with olive oil on medium heat.  Add sliced mushrooms after a few minutes.  Cook until both are soft and golden.
2. In a pot saute the garlic and add the beans.  Cook on medium heat until beans are soft.
3. In a bamboo steamer (or any steamer) steam the sweet potatoes for about 15 minutes, and steam the kale for about 8 minutes.
4. Slice up the avocado into bite sized pieces and squeeze the lime on it.
5. Once all fillings are ready, steam each brown rice tortilla in your bamboo steamer for about 5 minutes or less.  If you want to melt some cheese, sprinkle the grated cheese on top of the tortilla as it steams.
6. Once the tortilla is soft, remove from the steamer and fill with any combination of ingredients.  
7. Tightly roll up the burrito and enjoy with your favorite salsa!

Pumpkin Muffins

For weeks I've been envisioning baking cornbread muffins with all the jars of cornmeal I thought I had stored up in my pantry.  But when I poked around my pantry shelves I found only corn flour and lot's of masa harina that I am saving to make tamales sometime soon.  Standing on a stool in my kitchen with a tub of gluten free flour in one hand and muffin liners in the other, I was stopped in my tracks not knowing what to do.  All the momentum drained out of me and I sat down to re-access my options.  This was a familiar situation.  Lately I keep making big plans like traveling to Japan, but then out of nowhere an obstacle shoves itself right in my way.  As in these situations, I knew that I had to let go of my cornbread dreams and be creative with what I did have in my pantry.  I looked around and saw a can of pumpkin that I was saving to make a pumpkin pie that never happened and I quickly mastered a new plan: pumpkin muffins.  I even had walnuts and and sugar/dairy free chocolate chips all ready to be used in this recipe.  Everything I needed I already had- what a thought.  If only I could apply this to the rest of my life.  These pumpkin muffins came out very soft and chewy and sweet.  For some reason they deflated a little when they came out of the oven.  But they still tasted like a delicious pumpkin pie with all the spices and maple syrup, yum....cornbread can wait.

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 cups of gluten free flour (I like a mix of brown rice flour, sorghum flour, buckwheat flour)
• 1/2 cup of tapioca flour 
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of ginger
• 1/4 tsp of nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp of ground cloves
• 3/4 cup of maple syrup (or agave, or other sweetener)
• 1/4 cup of canola or grape seed oil
• 2 large eggs (or egg replacer)
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 can of cooked pumpkin
• 1/2 cup of soy/rice/almond milk with a tablespoon of orange juice
• 1/2 cup of walnuts
• optional:  half a cup of w/s/d free chocolate or carob chips 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients (minus the walnuts or chocolate chips.)
3. In another bowl mix together all the wet ingredients.
4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients into one bowl.  Add the walnuts and chocolate chips.
5. Fill each muffin cup generously.
6. Bake in the oven for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of a muffin.
7. Enjoy!

PS:  Below are the only chocolate/carob chips I have found that come close to being wheat/sugar.dairy free.  They are sweetened with barely malt so they are NOT gluten free, but are dairy and sugar free.  I am working on making my own wheat/sugar/dairy free chocolate chips, stay tuned....

                      

A few of my favorite things...

I love how so many new gluten free, dairy free, and sugar free products keep popping up at the grocery store.  Here are just a few of my current favorite products (also check out my shopping list page):

I am obsessed with Udi's granola!  Udi's has several gluten free products.  The breads, bagels and desserts all have sugar in them, but their granola is sweetened just with honey.  And the ingredients are simple: gluten free oats, honey, vanilla and almonds.  I am addicted to this delicious granola!

Imagine soups is a brand I have loved even before changing my diet.  Their butternut squash is amazingly creamy and sweet-but dairy free.  I love to throw in fresh spinach leaves and walnuts to my soup.  Most of their soups are vegan and gluten free.  Also their chicken and vegetable broths have no sugar or gluten or dairy in them, which is actually hard to find.  Imagine that.  

Food for Life is one of my absolute favorite gluten free brands.  I swear by their rice flour tortillas, and when I am in the mood for bread, I enjoy their brown rice bread a lot.  They sweeten their breads with fruit juice and are dairy and egg free.  It is best to toast the bread slices so they are soft and fresh.  

It is very hard to find deli meats that have no sugar or gluten in them.  But Applegate Farms Turkey is not only gluten and sugar free, but also nitrate and hormone free and made from ethically raised turkeys.  I layer the turkey on top of slices of Food for Life bread with mayo and lettuce and avocado...yum!

It is also very hard to find tomato sauces that have no sugar or dairy (or sometimes gluten) in them.  I always buy Muir Glen's plain tomato sauce in a can.  It is free of sugar and made from simply good ingredients.  I love to eat it over Tinkyada rice pasta!

Amy's has a new line of rice flour crust pizzas, and even non-dairy ones.  There is a delicious spinach and soy cheese pizza and if you don't like soy (or imitation cheeses) they also have a rice crust pizza with just sauce and veggies on top. (FYI: Both of these pizzas have a little bit of evaporated cane juice- so if you don't eat sugar ever, then this product is not for you.)

Miso Noodle Soup

Lately I have been taking it easy, sleeping in, getting massages, and eating lot's of comforting foods.  One of my favorite and easiest dishes to cook for myself is miso soup.  People think miso soup is hard to make, but it is so simple: you just add miso paste to hot water.  When I'm sick its about the only thing I feel like eating, and about the only thing I have energy to make.  Miso broth alone is very nutritious, but when I am up for it I love to put in shitake and anoki mushrooms, seaweed, scallions and daikon sprouts.  You can put in tofu, edamame, noodles, veggies or whatever you like.  Here is a recipe for rice noodle miso soup:

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups of water
• 4 tablespoons of good miso paste
• 1 tablespoon or so dried wakame seaweed flakes
• 1 large carrot sliced
• 1 bunch of fresh shitake mushrooms,sliced
• 1 block of firm silken tofu, cut into cubes
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 1 bunch of cleaned baby spinach
• 1 bunch/cup or so of cooked rice noodles 

Directions:

• Boil 2 1/2 cups of water in a pot.  But add the wakame seaweed and carrots in before you even turn on the heat.
• Once the water starts to boil take a large spoonful of the water and place it into a bowl.  At this point add the mushrooms, tofu, onions and spinach to the pot.
• In the bowl, slowly add each tablespoon of miso paste, mixing it together so it's smooth not lumpy.  If you need to add more water into the bowl you can.  
• Once you've mixed in the 4 tablespoons of miso in the bowl, turn of the stove, add this smooth miso/water mixture into the pot, but make sure the pot is not boiling anymore (miso loses it's nutrients if boiled.) Mix in the miso into the pot and add the rice noodles.  
• Garnish with scallions and sesame seeds and enjoy!