Gluten free frog eye salad, part 2

The other day I made a second attempt at gluten free frog eye salad. This one was almost, but not quite, perfect, and I learned a few more things.

The reason it wasn't perfect was because it was too salty. This was due to transcription error, more than anything. Mr. M's mom gave him the recipe for the custard over the phone, but she was guessing on the exact amount of salt- she eyeballs an amount in her palm and throws it in. The guesstimate measure turned out to be a bit too much, so I just need to decrease the amount of salt next time, and it should taste fine.

Some things I learned:

Beat the eggs really well before mixing into the rest of the custard base. Otherwise you end up with bits of cooked egg in your custard.

Use a really fine sieve when rinsing the tapioca pearls, otherwise you'll lose a bunch done the drain.

the two sieves I've used to rinse my tapioca- the left one has mesh that is too far apart

close-up of the larger mesh sieve

the smaller mesh sieve- works great, but the whole sieve is a bit small for rinsing large amounts of anything

I'll post the recipe next time, after I've tried it one more time and made sure it tastes good.

Gluten Free Frog Eye Salad, Part 1

Gluten Free Frog Eye Salad Recipe with Egg Free Option

Gluten free frog eye salad, part 1

The other day, Mr M and I were bemoaning the fact that I couldn't make frog eye salad ever again. Frog eye salad is made with acini de pepe, which is a pasta that is formed into tiny balls. While the gluten free manufacturing companies have come a long way in expanding their product lines, I have yet to find gluten free acini de pepe.

Then we randomly started talking about tapioca, how Mr M loves it and how as a kid I hated it because the only time I'd had it was the one time I was in the hospital overnight, which was not a great experience, and I thought all tapioca tasted as gross as it had that time. I've since realized that it's not all that bad, and can actually be quite good.

In the midst of all this, Mr M said "why not try tapioca pearls in the frog eye salad? They're about the same size and texture, maybe it'll work out."

So,  the next time we went shopping we bought a box of tapioca pearls. I followed the directions on the box for cooking (boil water, then whisk the pearls in, let cook for 17 minutes, then wing it from there). Ok, not really, the only directions they had were for making tapioca pudding, so I used the first few steps and then made it up as I went. After the 17 minute point, I think I cooked it a little bit longer till the pearls were mostly clear. Then I dumped them in a wire sieve and ran warm water over them to rinse the gel off.

I let them drain for awhile, then stirred in some cool whip.

The texture looked right, so I added some drained, crushed pineapple and a handful of marshmallows

and mixed it all together.

We had it for dinner, and we discussed the results as we ate it. It was good, but not quite the same as what we remembered frog eye salad tasting like. I had made this without a recipe because I couldn't find it, and it turns out I'd forgotten the custard. Mr M called his mother and got the recipe so I can try it again.

While the overall taste wasn't quite the same because of the lack of custard, the texture was pretty close. Tapioca is a bit chewier than acini de pepe, but when you're eating it with a spoonful of other stuff (marshmallows, fruit, etc), it's not noticeable. We noticed because we were analyzing the results. The next step is to make it again, this time with the custard.

Gluten Free Frog Eye Salad, Part 2

Gluten Free Frog Eye Salad Recipe with Egg Free Option

Gluten free eating thwarted again

Today we went to Wendy's for lunch while we were out running errands, and I had a rude surprise. They've changed their salad menu, taking out the old ones and introducing four new salads. I understand the need to keep the menu fresh, exciting, blah, blah, blah, but as near as I can tell, none of these are reliably gluten free.

The changes must be really new, since I can't find them on Wendy's website. I thought I'd be able to use the site to confirm everything, but since I can't, here goes my faulty memory:
1. Grilled chicken with apple, bacon, and bleu cheese
2. Grilled chicken with something and bleu cheese
3. Breaded chicken with something
4. Taco type salad with tortilla strips

From what I've read, some bleu cheese is gluten free, some isn't, I'd rather err on the side of caution and not eat it at all (plus, I don't like the flavor of bleu cheese anyway). Since the first two come with the bleu cheese already on the salad, those are a no-go. The breaded chicken in the third one is an automatic red flag. The tortilla strips on the fourth one are the bad guys. Admittedly, the tortilla strips might be packaged separately on this one, I didn't ask- I don't like taco salads, so I didn't even bother with it.

I will keep checking the website to see what the nutrition info says, but I'm not holding out any hope. I'm disappointed because I liked the mandarin chicken salad and it was a good standby if I needed to eat and couldn't find a Chipotle's nearby. Until I find out otherwise, if I eat at Wendy's again I'll be sticking to the baked potato and the mandarin oranges.

Meal plan: check

I know I said I was going to stain the bed frame yesterday or today, but that hasn't happened yet- I've been busy working on a meal plan and shopping list to use after we move. I've done very little cooking in the last 2+ years, so cooking every single day is going to take some getting used to. I'm not a fan of complicated recipes with tons of ingredients. Simple, quick, and easy is the what I go for.  In the interest of making a smooth transition, I'm starting out with a bunch of crockpot recipes (which are quite easy and don't use lots of ingredients), and then we'll go from there.

When I made up my meal plan I used a lot of recipes from Make it Fast, Cook it Slow by Stephanie O'Dea. I also used a few from The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone and some from The Flexitarian Diet by Dawn Jackson  Blatner. The crockpot recipes were already gluten free, and I picked naturally gluten free recipes from the other two books. The recipes I picked use a lot of fresh produce and very little processed items, so hopefully they'll be healthier than some of the meals I've cooked in the past.

The meal plan I made is for seven weeks of dinners (each a unique recipe, allowing one night per week for leftovers or pizza), but I only did the ingredient and shopping list for the first two weeks. Since the recipes are ones I haven't used, I really don't know how they'll turn out or if there will be lots of leftovers or none. Hopefully after two weeks I'll have a better idea of how well things are working and what changes need to be made. I also have a list of breakfast and lunch recipes, but I didn't chart those out for x number of weeks, so there's a lot more flexibility with them. I did make an ingredient and shopping list for all of them, though.

It was all quite time consuming, but being the OCD control freak that I am, I do feel more prepared to jump back into daily cooking.

On another subject:
Mr. M heard from the company he was working with this fall - they have a couple positions available that they think he might be a good fit for. Too funny that everyone's got openings now that he's a got a job. The one he took is the one we wanted, so at least there's no buyer's remorse (or the equivalent).

'Make it Fast, Cook it Slow' and 'The Kind Diet'

In my search for new gluten free healthy recipes I've been reading quite a few cookbooks. Two I recently read are 'Make it Fast, Cook it Slow' and 'The Kind Diet'.

'Make it Fast, Cook it Slow' by Stephanie O'Dea is a book of crockpot recipes that originated in the author's goal of making something in her crockpot every day for a year. I found it interesting- they weren't all meat and potatoes recipes, and they weren't all dinner recipes either. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, even a few crafty ideas. A big bonus for me is that the author has celiac, so the recipes are all gluten free already- I wouldn't have to do any tweaking. I don't plan on trying them all, but there is a good number of recipes I'd like to try.

Another book I've read recently is 'The Kind Diet' by Alicia Silverstone. She has lots of information about the environment and why veganism is the way to go, and does a good job of documenting where she gets her information. However, she does make the statement that celiac is very rare and uncommon (and doesn't document a source for that statement), and basically brushes off gluten intolerance. I wish it were that easy.

In any case, the real reason I checked out the book was for the recipes, not the philosophy. I've been looking for healthy bean recipes and recipes that use a lot of veggies and aren't full of refined crap. I knew I'd find those in a vegan cookbook, and I did. I'm definitely not going vegan (I like my meat and dairy products too much), but I don't mind using recipes that are healthy, regardless of whether they come from a mainstream cookbook, a vegetarian cookbook, or a vegan cookbook.

Next up: using all the recipes I've found to make up a preliminary menu for a month or two of meals and a shopping list to go with it. That way I'll be ready to cook healthy meals for us as soon as we move, and not 2 or 3 weeks later, during which time we've been eating whatever I can find or whatever Mr. M talks me into getting from restaraunts (not cheap or healthy).

Chebe cinnamon roll mix

photo credit

Tuesday night I made some brown sugar almond sticky rolls, using the Chebe cinnamon roll mix. The recipe was on the package, and I followed the instructions as written.

The end result tasted fine, but the texture was a bit gummy. Not sure if they needed to cook longer, or what. The top edges that were cooked through tasted good and weren't gummy. The overall flavor was good- I like that they added cinnamon to the mix.

I'd like to try this product again, but I think I'll follow the alternative directions that suggest rolling the dough into thin ropes and twirling it into spiral. I think it might cook better that way.

Ok, so I'm a bit upset right now

I bought some Reese's bells for a quick and easy gift (put them in a whisk with a tag that says "We whisk you a merry Christmas!'), and I sampled a couple while I was putting it together. A little bit later, my throat started to swell up a bit- my body's cue that I ate some gluten. So I started going over what I ate for lunch- all ok, no cross-contamination. The only other thing I'd eaten was two of the Reese's bells. Last time I checked, Reese's peanut butter cups were gluten free. But I checked the package anyway, and lo and behold, there's wheat flour in them. Seriously??!! Come on, it's not in the regular cups, so why does it need to be in the bells?

I'd also bought a bag to put in stockings, so I guess I'll be taking it to the in-laws house to fill stockings there (since my parents' house is now a gluten free house).

It's frustrating, since I hate the reaction I get- it's uncomfortable, and I don't want the gluten in my body. I know I need to be better about reading labels- everyone says you always have to read the labels, since you never know when they'll change the ingredients of something- but it's such a pain and I always forget. Hopefully I'll be able to remember to read labels from now on.