Gluten Free Spooky Spaghetti

Spooky and child friendly gluten free dinner idea

Want to make a Gluten Free Halloween Meal for your little one.  Don’t want to spend a lot of time on it? 

You can make Black Spaghetti. 

Ingredients

Gluten free spaghetti noodles of choice

Black icing paste (the paste used to color icing)

Water

Salt

Your Favorite gluten free spaghetti sauce

(Orange icing paste can be added to the sauce or you can even make the sauce black as well.)

Prepare your water for the spaghetti as directed.  Add in the black icing paste to the color you desire.

(Note: the amount of paste that you use will determine the color of the spaghetti that you get.  With less color you will get purple noodles, with more you will get a rich black.  Either color works well for this.) 

Boil the spaghetti to the directions

While the spaghetti is boiling heat up your sauce on the stove top in a pan.  If desired add the color you wish to get a spooky effect.

Some people make meatballs that look like eyes to add to this.  Let me know if you wish that recipe?  

Homemade Cleaning Solutions

Cleaners have been known to contain gluten.  That is one of the sneaky ways that it can make its way into your house.  However, there are cheap, green, gluten free ways to clean your house.  Here are common items that you could use.

Vinegar

Water

Lemon

Baking Soda

Cream of tartar

Salt

Oil

A few recipes that I myself use are as follows…

Why Those with Celiac Should own a Crock Pot

With the weather cooling off and the days feeling longer due to less sunlight this means that those of us working full time or more have little energy to cook.  Not only that but with many forms of celiac there is no choice but to cook.  This is why gluten free families should have a crock pot.  Something that you can start in the morning and then eat when you get home.  If that first paragraph didn't convince you.  Then here is a list of reasons why you should own a crock pot.

Semi-Homemade Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

Betty Crocker came up with an easy and Semi-homemade pumpkin bread. In the honor of the leaves finally changing colors, and just in case you haven't gotten sick of pumpkin flavored everything.  Here is the Betty Crocker recipe that is so easy and sounds so good.

Ingredients:

1 box Betty Crocker® Gluten Free yellow cake mix

1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin

½ cup canola oil

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla

½ cup gluten-free semisweet chocolate chips (dairy- and nut-free)

Gluten Free Thousand Island Dressing Recipe

I love Thousand Island dressing.  Not just on salads, but also on burgers or to use as a dip.  The issue is that many of these fantastic dressings contain gluten.  My mother in law pointed out a recipe on food network.  It is gluten free, easy to make and it tastes perfect.  I didn't change a thing.  If you love this Thousand Island dressing make sure you let them know.  

1 quart mayonnaise
1 quart salsa
1 quart nonfat yogurt
1 dozen hard-boiled egg, chopped
green pepper (Add to taste)
green onion (Add to Taste)
sweet pickle (Add to Taste)

Gluten Free lemon Tahini Salad Dressing

So many of the sauces I have been sharing have been heavy.  This is a fantastic and light gluten free salad dressing.  It would also be great as a marinade for fish or chicken.  Also since I am having issues with my computer, I don't have any of the pictures I took.  That is fine.  I will upload them when i get a chance. 

Ingredents

½ cups tahini
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
Juice of 2 fresh lemons (about ¼ cup)
½ cup water
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon agave syrup
2 teaspoons gluten-free soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic, minced
freshly ground pepper (To Taste)

Gluten Free Cocktail Sauce Recipe

Cocktail sauces are well known for containing gluten on the shelf.  Again, there is no reason for the gluten to exist in cocktail sauce.  It is so very easy to make.  It only takes minutes to make the perfect cocktail sauce for your needs.  

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of ketchup
2 tablespoons horseradish
Worcestershire sauce
1 lemon
Tabasco sauce, to taste

Gluten Free Ranch Dressing Recipe

Homemade Ranch Dressing

Ingredients:
1 cup sour cream (make sure it is gluten free)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped chives
1 clove garlic
salt and coarse ground black pepper
additions:
garlic powder
tabasco sauce
worchestershire sauce (some are gluten free already!)
chopped dill

Gluten Free Barbecue Sauce Recipe

One of the items that often contain gluten is Barbecue sauce.  Again this is easy to make and it should only take 10 to 15 minutes.  Bottled varieties contain gluten so that it has a good consistency after being on the shelf for a while. 

1/2 cup Heinz ketchup
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon salt

Gluten Free Tartar Sauce Recipe

Sauces are the bane of any person with a gluten reaction.  This week I will be posting recipes for sauces.  Today I am going to start with Tartar sauce.  I have found gluten in many varieties of off the shelf tartar sauce.  Since this is so easy to make I don't see why most people would buy it anyway.  Here is a basic tartar sauce recipe.  This is the one that I use every time I decide to have fish.  

Ingredients

1 cup Mayonnaise

3 teaspoons Relish (dill or sweet)

1 teaspoon Lemon Juice

1 teaspoon yellow Mustard (optional)

Sesame Crusted Asian Inspired Fish (or Chicken) Recipe

The Chicken Variety

I came up with this idea completely by myself out of what we happened to have in the freezer and spice selection at the time.  Give it a shot.

Ingredients

4 frozen fish fillets
4 tablespoons sesame seeds
4 table spoons GF soy sauce
Sirachia (to taste)
1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 package of frozen vegetables of choice (I like onion pepper mixtures or squash mixtures with this dish)

Preheat oven to 350

In a greased casserole dish add the frozen vegetables
Place the fish fillets on top of the vegetables
spread the soy and Sirachia (optional)  and the garlic powder over the fish and let it dribble into the vegetables
sprinkling the sesame seeds over the fish so that it almost crusts
Bake for 1 hour (check fish for flakiness before serving)

Suggestion: Serve with rice or rice noodles.

This is really good and so easy to switch up.  It is also a great way to add fish to your diet.  My family personally loves the recipe.  Also you can change out the fish for chicken.  Just make sure that you add to the cooking time so that the chicken is finished.  The best thing about this recipe is that you can change it up. Sorry for the picture, my fish version somehow went missing from my camera.  

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

I started out a journey to learn how to make a decent GF pizza crust.  This led me to using cauliflower.  It worked! It was gluten free, not all that hard to make and it tasted pretty good.  Think of all the calories you are saving?  I used my saved calories on a little extra cheese.  I want to share with you the recipe that I used

Tasty Bites - Review

One of the largest issues with being gluten free is the lack of easy meals.  I am not talking a frozen burrito or a pizza; I am talking easy meals that are quick, healthy, and perfect for the week day.  Tasty Bites has come up with a solution to this.  

Rice Chex treats

I love to snack.  But there is an issue; most of what I want to eat, I can't.  I eat a lot of Rice Chex for breakfast.  This got me thinking: I have fruity pebble treats, why not a rice chex treats? It couldn't taste that different from rice crispy treats.

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

This image is Public Domain

It is the first part of strawberry season and nothing screams spring more that using strawberries as a base for your cheesecake.  Also this is a quick and oh so yummy way to eat cheesecake.  You can mix this recipe up by adding caramel or chocolate drizzles to the top or adding GF flavoring to the cheesecake.  You can also mix in chocolate shavings.  Here is the basic recipe!

On-The-Go Accessory Pouch -Review-

The day the pouch arrived!

I hate when I have to only go out for a second and I have lug my phone purse with me.  Or when I am out and I take off my earrings or bracelet since they always end up on the bottom of my purse.  Sometimes I even find them later and wonder how they got into my purse.  Active Accessories has a way to stop this.  The On the go Accessory pouch is made of people who are constantly moving.  I found that it easily held cards, jewelry, a key or five and my cell phone.  It was much lighter and easier to grab then my whole purse when I was only running to the store for a small simple item.  

Semi-Homemade Gluten Free Cobbler

I was in the mood for Strawberry Rhubarb recently.  Only issue with that is that it is the wrong time of year.  Knowing this I found that it was a fantastic time to pull out my gluten free grocery guide and look around for pie fillings that are gluten free.  After I located a few it was off to the store. 

A Cheaper Way to Apply Hair Chalk!

A perfect color pallet, and only around $8.00 for all the colors.

Want to join in the new way to add temporary color to your hair; don’t want to pay the stupid prices for hair chalk?  You can get the same look using pastel chalk (NOT the oils). Most of these products are Gluten free.  They are simply made that way!

What you will need:

Microwave Made Fudge

Microwave Peanut butter Fudge

Ingredients

2 sticks of unsalted butter

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1 lbs powdered sugar

Semi-homemade Christmas Treats

It is the time of year that I bake.  A lot, however, this time I decided to more of a candy rout and less of a cookie and cake rout.  Of course being gluten free can make this a little more challenging. I did make one batch of cookies, but that is a secret recipe!

Haystacks!

Yep easy and gluten free! The amount of ingredients depends on how many you want to make

1 bag coconut

1 bag candy chips (chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch, ECT)

Directions Preheat oven to 325

 Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with aluminum foil. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

 Place the coconut in a baking pan, and toast it in the oven until golden brown. During the toasting process stir the coconut every 2 to 3 minutes.

 While the coconut is toasting, place the chocolate in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave it until it is melted, stirring every 30 seconds.

 Once coconut is toasted and chocolate is melted, in a bowl mix the two using a spoon make a drop or ball out of the mixture.

 Allow the candy to set.  You can wait for 24 hours or you can refrigerate them for 30 to 45 minutes

Coated pretzels

Flavored candy coating (I used chocolate and vanilla)  

Bag of gluten free pretzels

Optional: toppings or flavorings in half of the pretzels I added peppermint and crushed candy cane; sprinkles can be added as well.

Directions preheat the oven to 250

Prepare a baking sheet with foil

Melt the candy coating in the microwave stirring every 30 seconds

Pour the melted candy coating over the pretzels

Bake the pretzels for 10 minutes, stir and bake again for 5 minutes set to cool and then break apart the pretzels.  

Alternative: you can dip the pretzels into the melted candy and then allow to dry on wax paper.  

If you choose to decorate the pretzels do so while they are still hot and the candy is still liquid. 

 

 Fruity pebbles treats

3 tablespoons margarine or 3 tablespoons butter
1 package regular GF marshmallows
6 cups Fruity Pebbles cereal

Melt margarine in large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.

Add Fruity Pebbles. Mix well

Using buttered spatula or waxed paper, press mixture evenly into a pan coated with cooking spray. Cut into Allow to cool and then cut into the size you need!

If you want to do this is the microwave melt the butter and the marshmallows stir after every minute! Make sure that the marshmallow is smooth.

Question of the day!

What is your favorite holiday treat?