After a long night of fielding comments on Facebook from folks passionately defending their stance on (and support of) gluten-free junk-food, I’m worn out. I think my favorite comment was that I supported a “nanny-state” because I felt there was too much gluten-free junk food. I’m not quite sure how that works. As most folks who follow Celiac Handbook know, I promote mostly healthy gluten-free and often-times grain-free options for people with celiac disease or those who are following a grain-free diet for optimal health. I’m not one to say you can’t have your junk food — if you want to eat junk food, that’s your right to do whatever you want to do.

Moving on, here’s another recipe from a new favorite, Zenbelly. It’s another good example of using cauliflower in place of rice and would make a perfect dinner that I’d be willing to bet anyone would like (unless of course you don’t like fish). This is my idea of both a healthy dinner as well as a delicious dinner.

“This salmon just might be the quickest dinner you make this week. The wonderful thing about it, other than being delicious, is that it doesn’t taste like you made it in under 30 minutes. This works with just about any kind of salmon, as long it’s it’s wild. Coho has a lower fat content, which balances the richness of the coconut milk nicely. Serve with cauliflower rice, and chances are this dish will make it into the weekly rotation…”

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Kelly from The Spunky Coconut has adapted a recipe that looks really good. I’m looking forward to giving this one a try.

“I have been a long time fan of Soule Mama. I’m sure many of you are familiar with her. Recently she mentioned she had been making this recipe with rosemary garlic dumplings. The dumplings called out to me. I had to have them—spunky style of course ;-)

After making them and remaking them half a dozen times, I’m finally satisfied, and happy to share my recipe with you. I hope you love them too…”

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“Last night we ended our day with one of the best tasting meals we have EVER had. Some of you may have seen us post about it on Facebook. We (okay, I) made the best chicken we have ever had. Seriously, I licked my plate, and took a spoon to the left over drippings in the pan. I’m not even ashamed of my post-meal actions. I’m proud of it. I actually wasn’t really sure how this recipe would turn out. I knew it would be good, but I didn’t know it would be THAT good. I think it was the mix of the butter with the coconut aminos, the chicken fat, and the garlic all cooking together and caramelizing that made the dish. It almost tasted like a version of (Paleo) General Tso’s chicken… totally unexpected. The slight zing of ginger in the dish made it’s presence in every couple bites as well. I really think we will be repeating this meal every week until we get sick of it….not sure if we ever will. Next time around I may try cutting the chicken up and plating it over riced cauliflower…”

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Cauliflower is one of those things that I grew up absolutely despising, and for the most part I still kind of do. I can’t stand the smell of it and the taste of steamed cauliflower sends me running away covering my nose in disgust. But in the past several years, either my taste buds have simply evolved or I’ve just become more open-minded to food, cauliflower has found a way into my weekly routine.  It really is a wonder-food with limitless possibilities on how to prepare it. From mashed cauliflower (which tastes every bit as good as mashed potatoes) to cauliflower pizza to cauliflower rice to cauliflower “rice” pudding — it’s mind-boggling to think what you can do with it. Every one of these examples that I’ve given are absolutely delicious and so much healthier than the dish they’re replacing (I have another post that I’m working on in regards to gluten-free replacements, you’ll see that soon).

All of this talk on the versatility of cauliflower and I’ve gone off and almost forgotten why I was posting this in the first place. One of the more traditional cauliflower dishes that I have always liked is cauliflower soup.  This one is from Eat. Live. Paleo. and looks like a great choice for an afternoon snack or even an appetizer before dinner (maybe even a meal in itself for some). The crunch of the garlic chips on top would have me pining for more — the garlic would even make a great snack by itself (like I said in a previous post, you won’t be able to kiss anyone after eating these).

“As the starter to our Christmas Eve dinner, I made a cauliflower soup garnished with crispy garlic chips and a drizzle of white truffle oil. This soup is very simple, light, and flavorful — and contains no dairy! It’s an elegant, delicious soup to serve at a dinner party.

For the dinner, I doubled the recipe, as I wanted to make sure we had plenty of soup for seconds. Turned out it was more than enough, despite everyone having seconds. But the soup also keeps pretty well and is great the next day — and who doesn’t love leftovers over the holidays?!…

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This is one of those OMG, I can’t believe this is cauliflower moments. Rice pudding without the rice — who needs the rice when you can make something as healthy as cauliflower taste this good. For me personally, I’d swap out the stevia for some raw honey, but that’s up to you.  Everyone has their favorite sweeteners.

“One year ago, heck even a few months ago- had ANYONE suggested to me eating rice pudding made out of Cauliflower I would have been appalled. Cauliflower can be so.. cauliflowery. It was one of my least favorite veggies. Unless it was roasted with lots of oil and spices. Then I was for it.

Currently I am following an extremely strict diet. I know anyone looking in from the outside would think I have lost it. But let me tell you- I am feeling way better than I have in years. I have more energy than I know what to do with and the food I eat- well it digests. That’s something I thought might not happen for the rest of my life. You can call this diet Paleo, The GAPS Diet, The Specific Carbohydrate diet. Call it what you want- I like to call it “No more food that makes me sick” diet. I’ll follow this until my gut heals…”

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I love, love, love finding new blogs that I haven’t seen before and even better when they have so many great ideas for healthy gluten-free snacks (or in this case a paleo-friendly snack). Zenbelly is one such blog — it’s from San Francisco Catering Chef, Simone Schifnadel. While I don’t miss things like bagels or toast, when I saw this post for Everything Crackers, it did take me back quite a few years and remembering the smell and taste of an “Everything Bagel”.  The strong and beautiful smell of the garlic and onion would make me close my eyes in total bliss as I would bite into it and savor the intense flavors. These are crackers and grain-free crackers at that, so you won’t be getting the soft and chewy texture of a bagel, but for me, the intense flavor is far more important and then knowing that I’m not killing myself by eating something as awful as a bagel make me feel really satisfied with a snack like this. One word of warning though, don’t try kissing your significant other after these — they may not enjoy the second-hand garlic and onion experience nearly as much as you did.

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“There are plenty of gluten-free crackers out there. Some are a bit dangerous to our expensive dental work, while some are no healthier than their gluten laden counter parts. They are often made of rice flour, potato starch, and plenty of other ingredients that we could all live without.

These, my paleo friends, are a whole ‘nother story. Not only are they paleo, but they couldn’t be simpler to throw together when you’re craving something crunchy, or are feeling nostalgic about your cracker eating days. These crackers are very reminiscent of an everything bagel, something this east coast Jewish girl misses quite often…”

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I eat yogurt nearly every morning. Along with my tea, it’s been a ritual that I’ve had for nearly 20 years. Back before my diagnosis of celiac disease in 1999 and prior to my interest in real food, I used to stick everything imaginable in it and more times than not, I wasn’t doing myself any favors in terms of sugar consumption. I also made the mistake of eating non-fat yogurt as that was what I believed to be the best choice. My how things have changed. Most of the time, I eat full fat Greek yogurt with something as simple as blueberries — I could probably live on this if I had to, it’s that good. Beyond the berries, I’ll sometimes make my own granola out of nuts and seeds and a little bit of raw honey and add that as well.  The possibilities are endless.

I just came across this post from Jenny of Nourished Kitchen and needless to say, I was intrigued. As much as I like yogurt, seeing these traditional Scandinavian recipes that vary in consistency has me intrigued. I’ve tried her homemade root beer and it was nothing short of delicious as well as a number of her other recipes. The love and care that she puts into these recipes is admirable and so so obvious — you’d do really well with any of them.

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“Viili, piimä, filmjölk, skyr – all obscure mouthfuls of rolling foreign vowels – that mean but one thing: cultured milk. The Scandinavians, whose ill-tempered northern climate necessitates creative application of food preservation techniques, celebrate soured milks and cultured dairy foods in a manner unparalleled by even the yogurt-loving people of the Caucasus. Indeed, they thrive on all manner of cultured and soured milks which are deeply ingrained into their culinary tradition and heritage, and from their undying love for wholesome, naturally soured milks we can all learn a lesson.

Scandinavia, though offering a remarkable plethora of cold-weathered vegetables, berries and other nourishing, suffers from severe, cold and dark winters characteristic of the north. No other word but harsh seems to better describe the challenges of a Scandinavian winter. Indeed, it ought to for the word harsh itself is of Scandinavian origin, coming to the English language from the Norwegian word harsh…”

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“Sweet Potatoes are one of my favorite vegetables. I like mashed sweet potatoes, sweet potato fries, and most recently I am obsessed with these sweet potato chips. They are super simple to make and only require a few extra ingredients and before you know it you will have a crisp and crunchy snack to munch on! Plus they are a HUGE hit with kids, which is a fabulous plus to this dish because they are eating vegetables without really thinking about it because I call them “sweet potato chips.”

They are quite easy to make you see, once you’ve gone ahead and peeled the skin off the sweet potato with a vegetable peeler, just keep peeling until you’re down to nothing! Throw them on a parchment lined baking sheet and you’re good to go. I’ve gone ahead and added shaved Parmesan, garlic salt, and paprika… but you could easily spice up these sweet potato chips with the addition of cayenne pepper or any other spices that would complement this dish!…”

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While I don’t post a lot of sugary desserts anymore and I’m not a huge fan of sugar substitutes, this dessert recipe from Brittany of Real Sustenance looked too good to pass up.  Made with almond flour, these will taste great and not be too guilt inducing (maybe a little, depending on how many you eat). If you’re going to eat a dessert with sugar in it, this is the way to go.  Like Brittany says in her post, eat well all year long and you’ll have no problem with treats like this.

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“It’s January 2nd. I suppose you might expect me to post a salad recipe.

The truth is, I don’t believe in those extremely silly short term healthy eating plans. They annoy me to be perfectly honest. I believe in healthy eating year round. That can include dessert. You see, following the paleo diet I don’t have to count calories, nor do I have to worry about how much I eat. I enjoy what I eat and wake up the next morning fitting into my skinny jeans just the same as I did the day before.

Its all about choosing the foods that make you feel best. A high protein low carb, sugar free diet is what makes me feel light, clear minded and energetic. No bloated belly, slow digestion nonsense. Once you feel the difference in how you can feel, any desire for old food habits will disappear…”

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Here’s another soup recipe that looks mighty tasty. This one for a Turkey Meatball Soup from Life As A Plate. I love the fact that she’s using a walnut meal as the binder for the meatballs. Meatballs are yet another item that many folks with celiac disease tend to miss out on as they are almost always loaded with bread crumbs. This soup will undoubtedly warm anyone’s soul up on a cold day.

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“This year for Thanksgiving, we did a potluck thing. Each person brought a few dishes and we rented out the very nice clubhouse of my parent’s apartment complex. It worked out awesome (well, except for Miami losing in the last second of the game). No one’s house was a mess and the burden to cook the whole meal wasn’t on any one person.

I brought a few paleo sides and pies but my mom was in charge of the turkey. She had one large heritage turkey and one turkey breast that she cooked and brought. Two days later she called and told me to pick up the stock she had made from it. Almost two gallons, I kid you not. So yes, I made a LOT of soup, see?…”

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