30 Days of Real Food Challenge

ARE YOU READY???

Tomorrow we kick off 30 Days of Real Food, gluten free style!

I have wrangled up some real food eating friends over on Facebook in a new, “Gluten Free & Good For Me” closed group and you should join us too!

Here’s a little “Real Food 101” so we’re ready to go…

• Know where we’re headed!
  • Check out the rules for our real food challenge — just remember that Lisa and her family are not gluten-free, so just ignore the “whole wheat” and know that means whole grains for us, like brown rice, sorghum, etc. I have used several of their recipes as ideas and inspiration and any that are not written as gluten-free are easily converted.

• Plan ahead!
  • Don’t let yourself get hangry. ALWAYS carry snacks.
  • Write out your menu for the week and make a grocery trip.
  • Look at your calendar for any upcoming social events and see if you can choose a restaurant with real food, meet for coffee instead, eat before you go, etc.
• Try new things!
  • Let this month be an experiment in new-to-you foods.
  • Check out all the real food ideas on Pinterest. (be sure to modify them to be GF)
  • Dig out some of those recipes you’ve tucked away but been meaning to try, then share them with us!

• Breakfast ideas
  • Anything Goes Egg Cups
  • Morning Monkey Mocha Smoothie
  • Overnight Oats (please use GF Harvest oats!)
  • Oatmeal Raisin Breakfast Bars
  • Banana Nut Oatmeal Bites (breakfast cookies!)
  • Pumpkin Spice Granola (or omit pumpkin spice and just do cinnamon and have this with plain Greek yogurt sweetened with honey or maple syrup)
• Lunch ideas
  • Spicy Tomato Dill Soup 
  • Potato Leek Soup
  • All kinds of satisfying salads
• Dinner ideas
  • Zucchini Planks 
  • Simple Shrimp Skillet with Chive Potatoes
  • Italian Chili (people LOVE this one!)
  • Grilled Asparagus with lemon (top with a fried egg!)
• Snack ideas
  • Peach “Sorbet” (ONE ingredient!)
  • Almond Joy-like Lara-like bars 😉
  • Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Mock Ice Cream 
  • Four Ingredient Hummus
  • BLT Bites (if you can find bacon sans sugar)

See? You’re set for the first few days!

TO-DO LIST

• Add yourself to our Gluten Free & Good For Me page.
• See the RULES here. 
• Leave a comment below with any questions or real food recipes to share!

I know we can do this! (I did over 50 days of real food in the fall and survived, so this will be totally do-able, I promise!)

Tuesday To Do List — what to buy, spy, and try! (or sometimes cry about)

Tuesday To Do List is my newest attempt at bringing you tidbits from the gluten-free world each week. This will continue until my mind-that-doesn’t-rest comes up with another way to entertain you guys. You can read my very first to-do list here. Cross your fingers I am back here next Tuesday with another list…

Checked off the list from last week: made the un-pumpkin spice from Alton Brown and the pumpkin puree. (why have I never done this before? THE best.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you spy my lasagna stuffed spaghetti squash over on Prevention Magazine online? Yipeeee!

Too many fall recipes to choose from? I hear ya. Luckily you can see an entire carnival of fall recipes HERE. (I added my pumpkin spice granola!)

I’ve been trying recipes from Yummy Supper. Not only is the book full of gorgeous photos and stories, but the recipes are simple and made with real food. I made Sunshine Soup with ingredients from my own garden — if you don’t garden, this may not seem like that big of a deal, but for me, I get giddy over garden fresh goods. Always have. I think part of it was growing up with a family that gardened. I learned early on that it is hard to beat the flavor of a warm-from-the-sun tomato at peek ripeness, plucked from vine and eaten like an apple. I brought the book with me to our last GF Get Together dinner and my GFFs drooled over it, especially our vegetarian. Maybe you should add it to your list to buy? (or stop by for Sunshine Soup and borrow mine!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Try these. No-bake donut holes. (thanks Johnna!)

 

Follow up from last week: the FDA is now investigating reports of illness due to the new “gluten-free” Cheerios. You can see last week’s post HERE, including posts from others in the community. Please read up. Since last week, I have had several people tell me they got sick from Cheerios — pretty please contact the FDA (as well as General Mills) to let them know. You can follow the steps listed here.

Because my mama and dear friend Shirley, from glutenfreeeasily.com, don’t have Instagram, I’m going to try to do a recap of the week’s photos here too. (the first two photos are Shirley’s flourless, gluten-free pizza — make it ASAP.)

So, I spy from Instagram…

(follow along: @celiacinthecity)

dreaming of London: my 1st doughnut from Borough 22 (now available at Selfridges!)

garden fresh = THE best.

#realfood50 dinner: Korean bbq marinaded venison & spicy-sweet garden green beans

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

quickly become my fave flave: melon & grapefruit (with frozen melon cubes) just add Tito’s. 😉

caprese eggs — waiting for balsamic drizzle

cinnamon glazed popcorn mix from 100 Days of Real Food (my pumpkin spice version was even better!)

coffee lovers: add pumpkin spices to coffee grounds before brewing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s NATIONAL COFFEE DAY — check out yesterday’s post (yes, I know, a day early) for all kinds of coffee treats! Speaking of treats…I owe Lincoln some treats for this sweet photo. 😉

 

As much as I wish I were getting paid big bucks to add these links to my page, I’m not. They are not affiliate links. I’m just sharing to share. (because I love you guys. and coffee.) 

Tuesday To Do List — what to buy, spy, and try! (or sometimes cry about)

Every year or so I brainstorm to come up with a new way to share quick tidbits of information for readers.

This summer’s attempt is my “Tuesday To Do List” with all kinds of goodness I find on the web, gluten-free or otherwise, and want to share with YOU.

It could be things to BUY like these gluten-free oats that are perfect for your overnight oats or grandma’s (no flour!) monster cookies. 

Or things I SPY on the web and am curious about — have you heard about this gluten-free coffee flour situation? Tell me more!

And it might be something new we should TRY. Anyone else have a yard full of mulberry trees? Which one of these recipes should we make first? (they aren’t all GF, but easy to convert.)

And because life isn’t always a birthday party with unicorns… there may be things that make us CRY and we just need to vent about. Like this food judging business that’s going around and has been for years. Pam from I’m a Celiac wrote the perfect piece on why gluten-free junk food happens sometimes and in moderation and we’re all still alive and there’s no need to put down another GF friend for how they eat.

I’m going to try (maybe that should be on this week’s list?!) to make this a weekly occurrence if you promise to come back each week to look over the list and let me know your thoughts or maybe even share a link for others to spy, buy, try or even cry about. (this could most definitely include crying tears of joy over cute puppies)

 

So… here goes!

 

Tuesday To Do List — what to buy, spy, and try! (or sometimes cry about) 

• Anyone else spy the new gluten-free products from Special K? My mom and nephew were in the middle of making gluten-free Special K bars and sent me a photo. And I texted back, “I’m sorry, but WHAT?!? I didn’t even know Special K had gluten-free items!” But now I do know. And you do too. 😉
• Tracy from Shutterbean often posts simple recipes that are either already gluten free or easy to convert — who wants to try grilled pineapple? (with honey lime yogurt on top!)
• I neeeeeeeed to try these banana coconut chocolate chip muffins from FrannyCakes! Leave it to a late night  baking session (realizing you are out of sugar!) to come up with something new and tasty.

• Buy this book if you are new to the gluten-free adventure. Even if you’re not, it’s full of real life recipes that you can whip up on a weeknight — my celiac sista is a fan of the book as well, we both were wishing we had it over seven years ago when we were diagnosed. (although I will say that being diagnosed with celiac disease at the same time as your best friend sister is pretty swell)

• Want to try these two ingredient Banana-Nutella popsicles with me? I think they should have a more fun name like Bananella popsicles or Nutellana pops, yeah? It’s the second one on the list in this post — there are several on the list I want to try.

• I spy THE cutest berry picker. Ever. In the history of all berry hunts. (makes me a happy auntie to introduce my nephews to new foods — bring on the black raspberries and mulberries!)

 

If you end up buying, trying, or spying something new (or from the list) be sure to leave a comment to tell me. Always on the lookout for new ideas.

Stop back next Tuesday to see what makes the list!

 

As much as I wish I were getting paid big bucks to add these links to my page, I’m not. They are not affiliate links. I’m just sharing to share.