Actually it’s the naturally gluten free veggie of the summer.

Actually, all veggies are naturally gluten free.  (That is, in their natural state, and barring any preparation styles using gluten, of course.)

Score!

Zucchini is an incredibly prolific vegetable in the summer.  Around here, it’s everywhere-which is great, because it’s local, in season, tasty, and less expensive than some other veggie counterparts.  It’s also an incredibly versatile vegetable.  I wrote about one use of it here in my post about shredding it up with some carrots. It has an extremely mild flavor, and it takes on the flavors of whatever you cook it with.

So it can be used in both savory and sweet applications.

Double score!

Once again at the market this weekend I found myself face to face with some gorgeous huge organic zucchini.  And they were cheap!

There were some mushrooms that looked lovely, so into the basket they went.

And tomatoes.  I love me my tomatoes.  (Yes, I know they are a fruit, technically so is zucchini, but lets not split hairs shall we?)

I had cooked up a couple pounds of pork tenderloin the other day, so I knew that would be my protein source for dinner.  Why cook one pound when you can cook extra and have leftovers?  Prepare ahead and set yourself up for healthy gluten free eating success.)

Now as you may know, I don’t generally follow recipes.  I’m really bad at it.  I forget to measure all the time.  That’s why I do “not-really-recipes.”  A guideline, a template for which to alter as you see fit and with what you have on hand.

This is great, it creates a sense of freedom and creativity.

Sometimes it also creates spectacular cooking fails.

D'OH! Courtesy The Simpsons and apchabraja

I decided I wanted to make zucchini pancake type things.

Without consulting any resources (which I should have done) I proceeded to shred the zucchini with a box grater.  I thought I was so smart when I remembered to salt it to draw out the water and squeeze it dry.  I decided it would be fantastic to add in the chopped mushrooms to give the zucchini a bit of a meatier texture.  I threw in some sea salt, garlic, hot sauce, one egg (beaten,) mixed it up and called it good.

Heated up my pan with a bit of coconut oil (from the Misto-love that thing) and proceeded to form little round piles of goodness.

And what to  my wondering eyes did NOT appear?

Browning.  They were steaming and cooking, but no lovely carmelization and browning.  The pancakes weren’t sticking together.

The mushrooms.  They also have a high water content.  Too much moisture=no browning for Erin.  Between the mushrooms and the zucchini, I was toast.  (Figuratively)

Undeterred, I mixed it all up into a pile and cooked it.  And boy was it tasty!

So the moral of the story is this:

Sometimes Not Really Recipes don’t work out the way you think, but taste good anyway.

Sometimes that may happen with real recipes-not to worry!

There are a bunch of great zucchini recipes out there.  Here are a few of my favorites:

The right way to make zucchini fritters at Cook it Allergy Free

Melissa at Gluten Free For Good makes a zucchini tomato basil bake (gluten free zucchini au gratin)

Shirley at Gluten Free Easily’s awesome gluten free Chocolate Zucchini Bread/Cake

And lots of ideas from Eating Well

For more cool free information on eating well and healthfully gluten free, check out GF and Fit 101.

Bring on the zucchini!  What’s your favorite way to prepare it?

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What do you mean it’s too hard to make them taste good?

It’s really not hard if you keep an open mind and take advantage of what is available.

I am very lucky to have a nearby market where they feature locally grown and mostly organic produce.  I stop by there on the weekend and pick up whatever looks and smells good to me.

Last weekend, there was a bunch of beautiful bright orange carrots and some zucchini (aka summer squash-as I understand it summer squash can be either yellow or green, and the green variety is zucchini.)

It’s in season now, and was very reasonably priced.  I loaded up my basket with those and some other goodies.  Had I a clue of how I was going to prepare them?  Nope.  But, I knew I could figure something out.

Eat Yer Veggies!

In my opinion, that’s a key to preparing your own gluten free and healthful food.

Keep your options open if you are at a market such as this. See what looks good and is reasonably priced.  When you start with fresh, local ingredients, generally you will have a much more flavorful start to your meal than if you are starting with something that has been shipped and/or processed.  You won’t need fancy sauces or preparation methods to make them taste good.

Diane at The Whole Gang dedicated 30 days of recipes to this idea.  It was seen in Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” TV program.  It makes cooking less scary, more accessible, and better for you to boot.

So here I am with my zucchini and carrots.  My Dad is in town for Fathers’ Day, and Jeff is at work, so it’s dinner for me and Dad.  It was Sunday, so it’s my cook ahead for the week day.

I had been marinating chicken breasts in lemon juice, fresh garlic, and lemon pepper seasoning (this is my favorite) for most of the day.  That would be our protein source.

I remembered seeing an idea to make pasta-ish ribbons from zucchini using a vegetable peeler.  I thought that sounded good, so I scrubbed my veggies with water and a veggie brush and pulled out the peeler.  2 peels into it I decided that would take far too long.  I am definitely not that patient.

I do have a mack daddy food processor which I love.  I pulled it out and gave myself a quick tutorial on how to use the shredding blade.  It worked fantastically.

I had a beautiful big pile of shredded zucchini and carrot.

Now what to do?

My theory is you can never go wrong with some fresh garlic.  Not in the amount that would protect you from vampires, but just a touch for some flavor.

I poured a tablespoon of coconut oil into my pan, and let it warm up over medium high heat.  Then I used my garlic press on 1 medium clove of fresh garlic and added that to the pan, stirring frequently as not to burn, just get that toasty garlic aroma floating through the house.

This is when my Dad was drawn into the kitchen by the smell of garlic, and I chased him off.

The chicken was in the oven cooking away while I was doing all this, and some sweet potatoes were keeping the chicken company in the oven.  Especially in Florida in the summertime, if you’re heating up the oven, you may as well make the most of it.

Add the shredded zucchini and carrots to the pan, and stir.  They cook quickly, about 5 minutes or so is all you need.  I added a couple shakes of sea salt and grinds of black pepper, and that was it.

Shredded veggie goodness

We had a lovely meal of chicken, the shredded veggies, and sweet potato.  All naturally gluten free.  All wonderfully full of flavor, and easy to prepare.

Dinner is almost served...

You can see in the photo the eggy breakfast casserole in the background, and the pot in which I was cooking rice.  You can do this also, and get a bunch of good food prepared ahead of time.

What’s your favorite way to prepare vegetables?  If you have tricks, please share!

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It’s hot here in South Florida.  Tropical hot.  Steamy hot.  Stupid hot.  Days like this, you don’t want to heat up the oven and by extension, the kitchen.

And so we grill.

Grilling is an incredibly easy way to get a whole bunch of flavorful and healthful food prepared at the same time.

I’m a huge believer in preparing ahead for healthy gluten free eating success. If you are cooking, you might as well cook big.  By cooking big, I mean so that you have lots of food leftover, and ready to package into your own takeaway meals.

Case in point—I made a reduced fat version of scalloped potatoes last weekend.  It was awesome, very flavorful, and by using smaller amounts of flavorful cheese and a lower fat cheese all the cheesy goodness was maintained.  I also used about 3 pounds of potatoes.  That’s a lot of potatoes.  However, we had plenty of food for a few days.

Grilling imparts that wonderful smoky flavor to food.

Probably I could eat a shoe if it was marinated and grilled.  Or not, I don’t know for sure, and let’s not test that out.  Anyway-everything tastes better on the grill.  Think you don’t like a particular vegetable?  Betcha you’d like it grilled.  This weekend I experimented with jicama on the grill.  In all fairness, I like jicama raw, but grilling it brought out even more sweetness and yumminess.

Generally, we grill a bunch of meat.  If there’s room on the grill, I’ll add on some veggies.  Summer squash, mushroom, onion, and bell pepper are my favorite veggie kabob.  Stone fruits, like peaches, are incredible grilled.  I’ve heard you csn grill romaine lettuce, although I admit I’ve not yet tried it.

The grilling process starts a few hours before the actual onset of grilling.

In the morning I’ll trim and clean whatever meat will be grilled.  In this case, it was several pounds of chicken breast and a flank steak.  I then use zip top bags to hold my marinade.

Marinades:

Happily, most marinades you make at home are naturally gluten free.  However, if you are trying a store bought marinade, be sure to read your labels very carefully.  Also check your spice mixes.

• Steak: garlic, steak seasoning spice mix (I use Montreal Steak,) fresh squeezed lime juice, 1 TBSP of coconut oil
• Chicken: garlic, lemon pepper seasoning, fresh squeezed lemon juice, 1 TBSP coconut oil
• Veggies: fresh chopped basil or thyme, sea salt, cracked pepper, minced garlic (or use a garlic press,) dash of coconut oil
• Put the ingredients of the marinade in the bag, shake to combine.  Add your meat/poultry/veggies.  Fish generally doesn’t need to marinade as long, so you could get away with doing the fishies just before grilling.

Grilling guide:

• Stick these babies back in the fridge and go have fun doing something active.  Or cleaning your house and doing laundry, which seems to happen so often on weekends.
• When grill time comes, pull your food out of the fridge and it’s ready to go.  Let your meat come to room temperature before grilling, and also pat it dry.  Drying the surface will help it sear.
• Grill for appropriate time.
• Enjoy cold gluten free adult beverage of choice while food is cooking.  Or water or iced tea.  But it’s the weekend, kick back and have an adult beverage if you’d like.

Love the grill marks.  Awesomeness.

You’ve now created not just a great meal for the night, but great food for a couple days.

Package it up in some portable containers, make lunch for work, have it ready for grab and go.

You’ve now made it easier to make more healthful choices.

When you have easily accessible real food, you will be much less tempted to grab a convenient but less nutritious snack.

A resource for more grilling ideas is Eating Well.  I read the magazine and visit the site often.  Many of their dishes are naturally gluten free—score!

For more tips on eating gluten free and healthfully, check out Gluten Free and Fit 101. If you’re looking for a step by step system for living more healthfully gluten free, check out my new ebook!

I’d love to hear your tips and experiences with grilling!  What’s your favorite thing to grill?  Share it below in the comments!

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You may say to yourself-”Self-I thought London Broil was a method of cooking, not a cut of meat.”

I’m right there with ya.

Being a mostly health conscious person concerned about getting the most nutrition for my caloric buck, I like to learn about food. And I like to eat. And I like to eat food that is both good for me, and tastes good. The two are not mutually exclusive, despite what you may have heard. Promise.

Photo credit: julosstock

According to recipetips.com, “Although the top round steak is flavorful and a bit more tender than other round cuts, it should still be marinated first if it is to be grilled or broiled. It is sometimes referred to as a London Broil, which is also a name given to a flank steak.”

Top round is a lean cut of beef, and is also fairly inexpensive. I use it a lot. I actually consider top round to be separate from flank steak, despite what recipetips and others call it. Flank in these here parts is a little more expensive, and to me, a little more flavorful and tender. I’ll tell you about my favorite way to cook flank steak in another post.

For now-the london broil AKA top round. As per Wikipedia (is there any other source of information-really?) “London broil is a North American beef-based food dish usually made by broiling or grilling marinated flank or round steak and then cutting it against the grain into thin strips…Although many American butchers will label a cut of meat “London broil”, the term does not refer to a specific cut.”

And yet-there are cuts of meat at the butcher labeled London Broil, no?

Anyhow-semantics. Just know that although London Broil technically is a pan-frying and strip-cutting preparation method, you sometimes see it as meat-which is round or flank steak.

Who cares, how do you eat it, right?

The other day I saw what looked like an awesome recipe at EatingWell.com. London Broil with Cherry Balsamic Sauce. All things I like. I’m in.

From EatingWell.com :
Ingredients

* 1/3 cup dry red wine
* 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
* 2 tablespoons cherry preserves (I had a jar of strawberry open-so that’s what I used)
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* Freshly ground pepper, to taste
* 1 1/2 pounds London broil, trimmed (see Ingredient note)
* 3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
* 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
* 2 teaspoons butter

Preparation

1. Whisk wine, vinegar, cherry preserves, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Place meat in a shallow glass dish. Pour the marinade over the meat and turn to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator, turning several times, for at least 20 minutes or up to 8 hours. (Yeah-I let it marinade for 2 days-it’s been my experience longer is better for this cut of beef. YMMV)
2. Remove the meat from the marinade. Pour the marinade into a small saucepan; add shallot and set aside. Brush a ridged grill pan (see Tip) or heavy skillet with oil; heat over medium-high heat. Add the meat and cook for 10 to 12 minutes per side for medium-rare, depending on thickness, or until it reaches desired doneness. (It may appear that the meat is burning but don’t worry, it will form a pleasant crust.) (I put it under the broiler-12 minutes per side) Transfer the meat to a cutting board; let rest for 5 minutes.
3. While the meat is cooking, bring the marinade to a boil; cook over medium-high heat for 5 to 7 minutes, or until it is reduced to about 1/2 cup. Remove from the heat; add butter and whisk until melted.
4. Slice the meat thinly against the grain. Add any juices on the cutting board to the sauce. Serve the meat with the sauce.

Nutrition

Per serving: 216 calories; 8 g fat (3 g sat, 3 g mono); 41 mg cholesterol; 7 g carbohydrates; 25 g protein; 0 g fiber; 260 mg sodium; 429 mg potassium.

Yeah buddy! This is the picture from Eating Well-I was so hungry I forgot to take one of mine.

I’ve had leftovers of this beef on top of salads, and it’s really flavorful and tasty. The balsamic marinade ties it in well with a balsamic dressing-whisk together some dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar, and you have a simple, low fat, no-unpronoucable ingredient salad dressing.

For information on how this food (among many others!) can fit into a healthy and gluten free eating plan, click here.

What’s your favorite way to prepare round steak? Share in the comments below!

I’ve mentioned before my love for chocolate. I really, really like chocolate. To the point where I don’t think I’ve ever even had a flavor of ice cream that wasn’t some kind of a riff on chocolate. Really.

When I plan on having a splurge, it always involves chocolate. I follow the 90/10 rule for the most part-if I eat well 90% of the time, the other 10% I can have whatever I want and it won’t have negative repercussions on my health or physique.

Many people will do just fine taking this to 80/20.

On that splurge, I don’t worry about calories. Many times a small amount of “real” ice cream is much more satisfying than a larger amount of “fake” ice cream. And to me, a bit of really dark chocolate is a square of heaven.

But sometimes you want something sweet, but maybe you don’t want to have a full-on splurge. You may want to keep it somewhat “healthy” and yet still quench the sweet tooth.

For that, I have some answers.

For the Superbowl this past weekend I made two items that fit that bill to perfection.

Mmm...chocolate....

I was inspired by Shirley at Gluten Free Easily and her recipe for Flourless Oatmeal Cookies. I actually stayed very close to the original recipe. The only substitutions I made was that I subbed out a bit of nonfat Greek yogurt for half of the butter, and used egg beaters. This recipe does not use much sugar, but you could also use stevia-I did not this go round.

If you do, let me know how it goes!

Flourless Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (Thanks Shirley!)

-3 TBSP unsalted butter
-scant 1/4 c of nonfat plain Greek yogurt
-1.5 cup gluten free oats
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/4 cup packed brown sugar
-1/8 tsp sea salt
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1/4 c egg beaters
-2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

-Preheat oven to 350 F
-Melt the butter. Let it sit while you combine and whisk together the oats, sugars, and salt.
-Cream the butter and yogurt with an electric hand mixer. Add the vanilla and egg beaters.
-Add the wet to dry and combine with a wooden spoon. Add in the chocolate chips and combine.
-Chill in the fridge (Supposed to be 30 minutes, I was impatient and gave it about 15)
-On a baking sheet lined with parchment, place small rolled balls of dough and flatten slightly.

Fun tip-a baker friend of mine told me a long time ago she uses a tablespoon measure that looks like an ice cream scoop to measure out her drop cookies so they are uniform. It works great!

-Bake for 12-17 minutes. Mine took 17, which was odd, but I’m OK with it.

These were awesome. I admit I did taste the batter, but for the most part they made it into the oven and to the party.
They were a huge hit-they were crunchy and wonderful. I was the only gluten free person in attendance, and everyone loved them. Given that they are treats, they are relatively healthful as well.

The second treat I made was Black Bean brownies. Various versions of this recipe have been floating around for a while now, but I saw this one at Lean Bodies Fitness, which is a community I am a part of. If you’ve never tried these, I highly recommend. I didn’t tell anyone the “secret ingredient” until after they tried, and raved about, the brownies. They couldn’t believe it. These make a very dense, fudgy brownie. Not a cake-like brownie. The next time I make these, I am going to substitute nonfat Greek yogurt for the bananas. Banana flavor is good, but I’d like to see what they are like without it. Made with this current recipe they are actually vegan.

Mmmm...more chocolate...

Black Bean Brownies

-Preheat oven to 350 F
-Rinse VERY well one 15 oz can of black beans.

Combine in food processor-
-Rinsed black beans
-2 bananas
-1/3 cup agave nectar (or any sweetener of your choice)
-1/4 cup cocoa powder
-1 tsp vanilla

Process very well until smooth. I added 1/4 tsp of spoonable stevia also.

-Add 1/4 cup gluten free oats and process again

Put mixture into a nonstick-sprayed 8×8 pan. Bake for 30 minutes.

These are great ways to feed the sweet tooth without expanding your waistline. However, they do have calories, and just like anything, moderation is key. If you eat the whole batch in one sitting it defeats the purpose a bit.

For more sensible information on setting up a healthy gluten free way of eating, click here.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

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