Gluten Free Cooking At Stir Kitchen Store

I am very excited about my upcoming gluten free cooking class at Stir Kitchen Store in Burlington. The class is being held on Thursday April 19, 2012, from 7:00pm to 9:30pm and the menu will include a hearty minestrone noodle soup, ceasar salad, pizza, pesto pasta, and chocolate chip cookies. Class size is small so that everyone gets to participate and all questions regarding anything gluten free can be answered! We will be eating what we make and enjoying the company of people who are cooking and eating alike. As well, the recipes are yours to take home at the end of the evening. The cost is $69 and there are only a few spots left. If you are interested in joining us in this unique evening of everything gluten free, call Stir Kitchen Store at 905-333-0522.
I look forward to cooking with you!

Help Send a Gluten Free Child To Summer Camp

In the spirit of the giving season, I want to bring your attention to a fundraiser I’m helping promote this week for a great gluten free cause.
This week through to Sunday December 25, Gluten-Free Saver has partnered with Van's Natural Foods to raise money to send gluten free children to next summer's CDF (Celiac Disease Foundation) sponsored summer camp. Van is matching all donations up to $1000. The goal is to raise $2000.
I speak from personal experience when I tell you what an amazing gift this is for a child, because last summer my daughter had the opportunity to go to a summer camp that was gluten free. It truly is a wonderful experience and an amazing opportunity for these children.
This week, I have seen many blogs just like mine put out this very important information and I think it is great to see the whole gluten free community coming together for such a great cause.
I feel honored to be a part of this special fundraiser.
Happy Holidays!


Gluten-Free Saver

Healthy Gluten Free Chocolate Oatmeal Muffins

This recipe is a great combination of chocolate, which I love, and oatmeal, which I want to love because it is so good for my health! It looks like a chocolate muffin, but it is not overly sweet like a piece of cake. The oatmeal, and other healthy ingredients like zucchini, orange juice, and walnuts, help neutralize the richness of the chocolate!

Ingredients
1/2 medium zucchini (approximately 1 cup cut up)
1 cup gluten free rolled oats by ONLY OATS
1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
3/8 teaspoon Bob's Red Mill Xanthan Gum
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup walnuts that I put in the food processor

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 375F. Spray the muffin pan with Cooking Spray by Spectrum. I use Grapeseed Oil Spray.
2) Add the walnuts to the processor until they are ground, approximately 15 seconds and set aside.
3) Grate the zucchini in the processor and set aside.
4) Process the rolled oats, gf all purpose flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder until finely ground, about 30 seconds. Add the egg, orange juice, coconut oil, and vanilla. Process for 20 seconds or until it is completely blended. Add the zucchini that you set aside earlier and process for 10 seconds. Add the ground walnuts and process with a few quick on/off pulses just to combine.
5) Fill each compartment of the muffin tin and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a few of the muffins comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins and freezes well.

Gluten Free Asian Style Cooking Class With Marni Wasserman

I am very excited to be working once again with Natural Chef and Holistic Nutritionist Marni Wasserman. This class is Asian Style, using whole foods and all organic, delicious ingredients.
The menu for the Gluten Free Asian Style Cooking Class includes miso soup, brown rice nori rolls, tempeh stir fry with rice noodles, napa cabbage salad, edamame dip with brown rice crackers, and chocolate + green tea bliss balls.
The class is on Wednesday October 19, 2011, 6:30pm to 9:30pm.
It is a hands-on class, in Marni's commercial style kitchen in midtown Toronto. Space is limited to 10 people per class, so reserve a place early if you would like to join us.

Canadian Living Salad Recipes

Every spring, as the weather starts to get nice and the days longer, I get ambitious and decide to plant and grow my own vegetables. However, I don't really know what I am doing in the garden and then I am not very successful. This year, I have decided to have At Home Organic Farms do my garden professionally. They build the garden, plant the vegetables, ones that my family and I get to choose, and come two times a month to fertilize it and take care of it for me. I mentioned that I saw a squirrel in my garden and the next day pest fencing was installed! They weren't kidding when they called this garden, a "just add water" farm. I even got to name my garden; Jo's Best Ever Kitchen Garden, it doesn't get more exciting then that. Well, actually it does. On Mother's Day, I woke up to seedlings in my garden!
Anyways, tonight I tried two new salad recipes that I got from the June Issue of the Canadian Living Magazine that just arrived the other day. I decided on these recipes because they had all the ingredients that I just planted in my new organic garden. Both were delicious and easy to make. The first was Spicy Greens With Maple Soy Vinaigrette and the other one was Roasted Beet and Feta Salad. These recipes are gluten free, assuming you use tamari or gluten free soy sauce.
I can't wait to see what becomes of my beautiful organic farm that is growing right in my very own backyard and, as for my fabulous Canadian Living Magazine, I will be making the Sticky Glazed Grilled Chicken With Cucumber Salad for dinner tomorrow night!
Here's to delicious, healthy, gluten free eating! Cheers!!!!

Bakery on Main Gourmet Naturals

A couple of weeks ago I received a sample package of a variety of gluten free products from Bakery on Main. With a very dear friend of mine, we tasted the various products. There were a large selection of granolas, soft and chewy granola bars, and gluten free granola bars to choose from. All are gluten free, dairy free, casein free, and kosher.
The granola came in 5 flavours; apple raisin walnut, rainforest, extreme fruit and nut, nutty cranberry maple, and cranberry orange cashew. Our personal favourite was the apple raisin walnut. It was naturally sweet with a nice mix of different flavours. I liked the nutty flavour in the nutty cranberry maple. The Extreme Fruit and Nut was a little sweet for my taste, but I enjoyed the texture of it and I loved the cranberries in it!
The soft and chewy gluten free granola bars came in 3 flavours; peanut butter and jelly, chocolate almond, and apple cinnamon. Our personal favourite was apple cinnamon. We both really enjoyed the chewy texture and it had just the right amount of apple and cinnamon combined. It also smelled delicious! The chocolate almond was nice and we found the peanut butter and jelly to be a strong tasting combination, but it may be great for those missing peanut butter and jam sandwiches!
The gluten free granola snack bars came in 3 flavours; cranberry maple nut, peanut butter chocolate, and extreme trail mix. Our personal favourite was the cranberry maple nut, however, the peanut butter chocolate was a close second!
I want to thank Bakery on Main for sending me tasty, nutritious, gluten free snacks to sample. It is nice to have such a large variety of gluten free granola and granola bars as an option at snack time, and to know that they are healthy and safe to eat.

Surround Yourself With Good People

I am always trying to teach my children and my clients, and anyone else who will listen to me, to surround themselves with good people and this world will be a better place. When you have specific dietary requirements, like gluten free, dairy free, or life-threatening allergies, some people around you "get it" and some people do not. I appreciate it so much when family and friends take it seriously and go out of their way to help anyway they can. Sometimes it's a phone call to let us know what is being served at an event we are going to, sometimes it is an email letting us know about a new gluten free product, and sometimes it's ordering us a gluten free pizza at a birthday party so we can just come to the party and not have to worry about the food.
Yesterday we received a letter from a woman who was my daughter's teacher three years ago. She has since retired from teaching and moved away, but she sent us a note saying hello and four new gluten free recipes, all of which looked delicious! I can't tell you how excited we all were from this act of kindness. I can now pass along these recipes to clients, friends, and family and the gift keeps on giving!!! Thank you Mrs. Green for keeping us in your heart and I will pay it forward.
Things like this make me know that I am teaching my children that surrounding yourself with good people is such a big lesson and I will continue to stress that in our everyday lives. Little things make a big, positive impact on other people's lives, so continue to do the little things because they truly are appreciated!!
Have a great gluten free day!