Gluten Free Goodness

The summer months are a great time for uncooked meals. Fresh tomatoes and an avocado. Peaches and cashews. Tuna, green apple and arugala with some balsamic. Quick, easy and perfect!  I’ve always been a fan of the simple stuff, but never delved much into more involved meals and desserts.  This has given me a bunch new great ideas!

Here’s a roundup of what all of you DIDN’T bake:

Naomi at Straight into Bed, Cakefree and Dried is the the founder of GAHIGF.  She’s treated us with a lovely gluten free, dairy free, basil pesto recipe.  I can’t wait until my basil gets big enough!  Naomi has a great bunch of SCD recipes, and just gorgeous pictures.

Hannah, from Hannah’s Harvest, is joining us for the first time.  She has a beautiful Candy Apple Fennel Salad, which is great sweet treat, and a good way to use up fennel!

Lauren, the Celiac Teen, waltzed in with some no-bake cheesecakes. She’s celebrating 6 months gluten free, so let’s all raise a glass of…err…non alcoholic beverage… in her direction!

Cindalou, of Cindalou’s Kitchen Blues, is taking a minute off from her cloud of newly married bliss to share her Purslane, Plum and Avocado Salad. I grow purslane, and am always looking for new ways to use it, so I’m jazzed!

Rachel, the Gluten Free Mama has graced us with a gorgeous, seasonal Kiwi Strawberry Salad with Citrus dressing. It was her way to make great use of an abundance of lettuce and spinach in her garden.

After a few raw desserts that didn’t quite work as planned, I pulled together a yummy, tangy, peach ginger ice cream.  This was the first ice cream I’d had in years, and so I was delighted.

Last but not least, Rachael of the Crispy Cook limboed under the deadline with her Striped German Tomato Salad.  Not only is the tomato from her garden, but it’s the first of the season, which makes it even more exciting!

She doesn’t have a purty picture, but M-elle of Cooking and Uncooking has a Mango Avocado salad posted.  Since mangos and avocados are my favorite foods, it sounds just about perfect to me!

We must all be on the same wavelength, because Karina, the Gluten Free Goddess, posted recipes for greenwiches (uncooked lettuce wraps).  Yum!

So I think we hit everything, from appetizers, to salad, to main course, to dessert.

If you had fun with this, please be sure to check out this month’s Adopt a GF Blogger, which is runs from July 28 - Aug 11.

And, of course, be on the look out for the next month’s edition of Go ahead, honey, it’s GF.  This just in!  Rachel, from the Crispy Cook will be hosting, and her theme is seasonal veggies.  Also, you can check out the main page at Naomi’s blog!

I planned to make a simple peaches and cream ice cream as a fun raw recipe for July Go Ahead, Honey, It’s GF “UNCOOKING” edition, but the fates had something more interesting in mind.

It was a bit of a comedy of errors. My first two recipe attempts–banana macadamia candies– were okay, but underwhelming, and time was running out. So I decided to go for one more attempt, peach ice cream, and as usual, I figured I could could wing it. I used young coconuts for a creamy texture, and blended in a few peaches, but you could barely taste them. Coconut milk is wonderfully creamy, but it takes a strong flavor, like chocolate, mint, berries, etc. to mask it. So I hastily ran out to the Farmer’s market, and pureed some more peaches. You could taste the peach, but still it wasn’t prominent.

Hmmm. So I had a vat of yummy, peach goop, and I needed inspiration. Pecans? Extracts? And then I realized, of course! Crystallized ginger.

The ginger and peach pairing worked really well, with the sweetness balancing the sharpness of the ginger. I would make vanilla ice cream again, and have chunks of peaches, but I wouldn’t do peaches by themselves again. I would try it with pineapple or banana in the future, and will certainly tinker with this recipe again!

You live, you learn. May all my “mistakes” be this yummy!

Makes a batch for a 4 quart ice cream maker

“meat” of 2 young coconuts
4 cups of water (I assume you can sub 2 cans of coconut milk for the coconut and water)
2 tablespoons of raw cashew butter
1/2 cup agave nectar
7 peaches
1 cup crystallized ginger, chopped
vanilla or almond extract, if desired

Puree all ingredients, except ginger, in batches. Stir together in a big bowl. Chill for 1 hour. Add in ginger chunks, and put in ice cream maker and follow instructions.

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen??  Nah.  Stay in the kitchen, honey, just turn off that stove an oven and we’ll have some yummy, summery, home un-cooking.

Un-cooking can be anything, from pineapple salsa or black bean salad to a your favorite smoothie…maybe a super yum pesto sauce, a fresh melon soup or maybe you’re a raw food kinda person and have favorites to share!  Hungry yet?  I am! I’m thinking of making banana ice cream, but will likely change my mind a few times (as usual).

I’m  the happy host for July’s edition of Go Ahead Honey, it’s GF as started by the Naomi of the drool worthy Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried.  You can send your entries to Cheryl (at) eharrishome (dot) com by July 27thJuly 31st. Let the fun begin!

Everyone has that go-to meal for long days and times when there’s just no time.  This is one of my favorite last minute standbys.  It is ready in less than 20 minutes, and it’s a healthy, tasty, simple meal. I really enjoy it, there’s something that’s very ‘comfort food’ about its simplicity for me.  And it’s easy enough that my husband has made it, too.

I tend to be a very “cook it from scratch” kind of gal, but there’s a time and place for canned and frozen foods, too.  Especially when paired with herbs from my garden, you never know the difference.  For the protein, I have used ground chicken, turkey, or beef, though I’m sure soy crumbles would work too.  When DH is out of town, I half the amount of protein, the same amount of veggies and cut back a bit on the herbs.

In the summer months, the peppers are usually from my garden, and it’s a good way to use up those green peppers that are too harshly flavored to eat on their own.  One of the peppers for this one was this summer’s first (sorry, I forgot to take his picture).

We serve this with steamed broccoli, brown rice (thawed from frozen) or avocado, which is my personal fave. Also, for variety, sometimes we add black olives, sometimes garlic powder, sometimes a little parsley, etc. It mostly depends on my mood.

1 lb ground turkey, chicken, beef, etc.
1 14 oz can of Eden or other diced tomatoes (if you are using tomatoes with chilis, leave out the cayenne)
2 medium sized green peppers, torn coarsely
1/3 cup fresh herbs–combo of thyme, oregano and a little marjoram, rosemary, and basil
OR
2 Tablespoons of mixed dried spices
1/4-1/2 teaspoon of cayenne, to taste
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
1 can sliced black olives (optional)
Parm cheese or almond slivers (optional)

This is my entry for this month’s “Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten Free” blogging event, started by Naomi at Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried. This month’s host is Carrie over at Ginger Lemon Girl, and the theme is one pot meals.