Month: March 2016

Banana Chip Snafu

A few weeks ago I bought a bag of banana chips at Aldi’s, one of my favorite shopping places. I never got around to them until the other day, home recovering from a twenty four hour stomach bug.  The thing is, if you have celiac, you tend to take a bit longer to get over that which used to be 24 hours.  One’s tummy just doesn’t rebound like it used to.  More time, lighter fair and less stress are called for.  So banana chips seemed like a suitable snack.  I ate a lot of them.  And within an hour I was fairly ill with that familiar burning pain of being glutened.  It isn’t the same as a tummy ache.  Just to be clear, not the same area nor the same feeling.  Not fun.

banana chips

After several days for my digestive system to recover from the setback I am mostly better this week, finally back to exercising, and almost able to eat as before although it will be a few more days before I attempt anything too spicy!  Learned my lesson…the packaging didn’t say gluten free.  It didn’t list wheat or any type of gluten on the package.  Nor did it say processed on equipment that processed wheat.  But somehow it had been cross contaminated and that was a real shame for my health and my peace of mind.  I had been feeling so comfortable with Aldi’s foods.  Now I need to re think them and make more careful choices.  I won’t stop shopping there but no more banana chips and I suggest you avoid them if you have celiac disease. If you suffer from it as I do, you know how easily we can become ill from a tiny amount of gluten.  It is no exaggeration but hard reality. So be cautious when you are snacking and look for that gf label folks. There are lots of safe snacks available from fresh produce to homemade snacks and store bought processed items.  Just read the packages and be safe.

Kitchen Sink Muffins for Breakfast

This fun and healthy muffin recipe is my own mixture of muffin recipes from Annalise Roberts’s wonderful cookbook: Gluten Free Baking Classics and some morning glory muffins I saw somewhere, maybe King Arthur Flours.  They are breakfast muffins so not that sweet, great texture and totally yummy.  I also love them for snacks. They are healthy; less sugar, more fruit and no sugary topping.  If you want to add extra sweetening use my oatmeal topping from my chocolate chip banana muffin recipe.

Because they lose moisture if they sit around I freeze any I won’t eat in 2 days; I love using a Ziplock freezer bag for this but cool them first.  Eat within a month.kitchen sink muffins and spring flowers 001

kitchen sink muffin 001

Kitchen Sink Muffins

2 cups brown rice flour mix (see below)

1/2 c granulated sugar or coconut palm sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1 cup finely shredded carrots

1 c finely chopped fresh apples

½ c flaked coconut (I used sweetened)

½ c raisins

½ c walnuts, chopped

2 large eggs beaten

½ c milk, 1 or 2 percent

½ c canola oil

Directions:

Heat oven to 375, placing the rack in middle of oven.  Spray muffin pans with cooking spray.  One batch makes 14-17 muffins.

Mix all dry ingredients in bowl of stand mixer or big bowl

Add fruits and nuts; stir to coat them with dry mix

Combine milk and oil, beat in eggs.  Add liquids to big bowl; stir until blended.  Note: If you used coconut palm sugar you will need to add an extra 2-3 tbsp. of milk.

Fill muffin pans 3/4 full.  Bake 20-24 min until golden brown. Do not overbake or they will be dry.  Remove immediately from the pans and cool on a rack.   Freezes well for up to 3-4 weeks and keeps in fridge (well wrapped) a few days.

Brown Rice Flour Mix base mix
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour