Ian's Mac and No Cheese

I was doing my regular grocery shopping at Super Target this week and I reached into the freezer case to get an Ian's Allergen Free Fish Stick and an Ian's Allergen Free Chicken Nuggets and what did I see right next to them but this mac and no cheese. I forgot to take a picture so I nabbed this pic off their website.

Andy was with me and begged me to buy it. It looks just like the real stuff and was easy to prepare in the microwave. Andy ate it right down - he loved it. I tasted it and it was *okay* but I wasn't buying it for me, I was buying it for him.

I love that Ian's really seems to be adding to their allergen free line of items. While I still prefer making food from scratch, it is so nice to have options.

I also love that my Super Target carries many of them. My primary grocery store is still my local food co-op (Mississippi Market) but Super Target is so much cheaper on some items - Ian's being one of them.

Ian's also seems to be putting out a lot more coupons lately. You can usually find printable ones on the internet. It all helps when raising a gfcf kid.

And if you buy a lot of Ian's foods, don't forget to save the points and let your kids redeem them for fun things. You can also get points for doing all kinds of things - check out their website for more information.

GFCF Lasagne without pasta

I was craving lasagne but I didn't have any lasagne noodles and didn't feel like driving across town to the one store that carries them. I did, however, have eggplant in the fridge.

So I made my usual lasagne recipe and used eggplant for the noodles. I fried up the eggplant in a little olive oil first.

It turned out really great.

I made two smaller pans instead of one large pan and froze the other for later.

Say Cheez by Namaste Foods

We've been trying a lot of new foods lately. The selection of gluten free foods out there really has expanded since we started this diet 6 years ago. Shortly after we went gfcf 6 years ago, I gave up trying to find anything with cheese. Nothing tasted good. Andy really loved mac and cheese before gfcf and I was disappointed not to find a good substitute for him. Now he doesn't even remember ever eating mac and cheese.

My food co-op had a special last month on Say Cheez by Namaste Foods and I had a coupon so I bought a package. Wow, was it a hit. I have now bought it two more times. Andy devours it like I remember him devouring mac and cheese. Is it the rich and creamy mac and cheese that I used to bake in the oven for hours? No and not even close. But it is not a bad imitation of boxed mac and cheese.

Here is a picture of the product - it is in a brown bag - so you know what to look for in the store.

And here are the contents of the bag.

And here is the finished product.

It went wonderfully with grilled Al Fresco sausages!

And Andy ate all the leftovers today for lunch!

If you are not familar with Namaste Foods, be sure and to check out their website for more information. They specialize in foods that are free of gluten, wheat, potato, soy, corn, dairy, tree nuts, peanuts and casein. So if you have multiple food allergies, this is a great company to be aware of.

I really outdid myself tonight!

In the 5 years we have been gluten free I have never attempted to make a GFCF lasagna before. And if I do say so myself, I made a pretty mean lasagna in the past. I think it was the idea of the cheese that intimidated me the most. After all it is hard to find a GFCF cheese that is decent.

So, what led me to try making it today? A friend recently decided that gluten free was not something for her and she gave me a ton of gluten free items that she wasn't going to use and a package of lasagna noodles were included. Well, I'm not one to let anything go to waste and my dear husband was salivating at the idea of lasagna. Andy, has never had lasagna but he sure wanted to try it - after all he knew that Garfield loves it!

And I must say - it turned out wonderful! Really really yummy. It got 3 thumbs up from the three of us! My biggest challenge was figuring out what to replace the ricotta cheese with - I searched the internet (google is my friend) and found several recipes, but none that really seemed to fit what I wanted - most had too much salt or used ingredients I don't have on hand so using them as a guide, I made up my own and I think it turned out wonderful.

Here are the pics of the finished product:

And here is the recipe:

GFCF Lasagna

Step One – make GFCF Ricotta

1 box extra firm tofu (14 oz)
¼ cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon parsley
¼ cup lemon juice
Mash with potato masher to mix – you want it to have the same texture as ricotta so you don’t want to over mix.

Step Two – Prepare meat sauce

1 lb mild Italian sausage (I used turkey)
1 lb ground meat (I used ground bison – manager’s special at $1.99 – normally I probably would have used turkey)
1 yellow onion, chopped (about ¾ cup)
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 - 15 oz cans diced tomatoes (I used Muir Glen, one with tomato and basil and one with tomato and onion)
2 – 8 oz cans tomato sauce
2 Tablespoons dried parsley
2 Tablespoons sugar (I used rapadura)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon oregano
Cook sausage and ground meat with onion and garlic until meat is done and onion is translucent. Drain off all fat.
Add remaining ingredients and simmer for about an hour or until the consistency of runny spaghetti sauce – I wanted it runny since I was using no boil lasagna noodles and wanted the extra liquid for the noodles to absorb.

Step Three – Shred fake mozzarella cheese
I used Follow your Heart brand since it actually melts.

Step Four – assemble the lasagna

I used DeBoles’ Rice Lasagna Noodles

Put a thin layer of meat sauce in the bottom of your dish.
Put a layer of noodles – I used 3 across and then one broken into thirds along the bottom.
Layer 1/3 of the remaining meat sauce
Layer 1/3 of the mozzarella
Layer 1/3 of the ricotta
A second layer of noodles
1/3 of meat sauce
1/3 of the mozzarella
1/3 of the ricotta

Third layer of noodles
1/3 of meat sauce (reserving just a bit for the top)
1/3 of the mozzarella
1/3 of the ricotta
top with reserved sauce – make sure lasagna noodles are totally covered.

Cover pan with foil and bake for one hour at 350 degrees.
Let set for 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

And because I like playing with my software, here are the nutrition facts:

Thai Kitchen Stir-Fry Noodles

Tinkyada Spaghetti

They also make pasta in other shapes. It is as close to wheat as we have found.