I hadn’t eaten a peanut butter cup since I was diagnosed with celiac disease… until my aunt Ellen sent me a homemade one of her own.  It was to die for. Rich, creamy, with the right balance of peanut and chocolate. The chocolate is high quality, melt-in-your-mouth-delicious. The best part? It was completely gluten free.

Ellen has been making chocolates for several years, and she recently began selling them locally around Farmington, New York. She understands gluten free cooking because both her mother and daughter must follow a strict gluten free diet. So, when I received her package in the mail, I knew that her chocolates would be safe and free of any cross contamination.

Along with the peanut butter cups, she sent me a box of chocolate covered gluten-free pretzels. Usually I’m not a fan of gluten-free pretzels, but cover them in chocolate, and they’re suddenly quite tasty. Somehow the chocolate on Ellen’s pretzels remains creamy, so the pretzel tastes more like it was just dipped into melted chocolate than like it was shellacked with the hard, crunchy chocolate of most commercially available varieties. In fact, she has sent me two boxes of pretzels now, and I must confess that I have shared only a couple of bites with Drew and have hoarded the rest for myself. They are completely addiction worthy – it’s something about the crunchy, saltiness of the pretzels combined with the sweet, creaminess of the chocolate.

She also sent along some chocolate covered turtles with pecans and caramel and some nut clusters that were amazing. I mean, how can you really go wrong with nuts and chocolate?

Ellen doesn’t have to be your aunt in order to get your hands on her delicious chocolate. You don’t even have to live in New York to get them because she has recently started selling her chocolate online at Ellen’s Chocolate Creations! I can vouch for the fact that it ships well because it has arrived to me in Iowa perfectly intact and tasting delicious as ever.  A couple of suggestions for ordering: Ellen’s chocolate covered strawberries are perfect for weddings, and her peanut butter cups and gluten-free pretzels make perfect birthday and holiday gifts. But if you’re like me, then diets be damned: any day is occasion enough for delicious chocolate.

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Our friend Jack from Atlas in Iowa City recommended this delicious Jamie Oliver recipe for Tender and Crisp Chicken Legs and Sweet Tomatoes. We tried it, and it was so fabulous that we made the dish for my family’s Christmas dinner, which we hosted this year. The flavors are rich, but the dish is fairly light. The thing that bothered me, though, is that none of the vegetables are in season here during the winter and spring. So, I created two other variations of the dish both to accommodate the different seasons and to keep us from getting tired of eating the same thing every week. Yes, I have literally been making a variation on this dish once a week because it’s so easy, tastes amazing, and it makes several servings (4-6). It’s also incredibly healthy because it’s rich with vitamins and fiber. Also, if you prefer white meat, you can substitute chicken breasts for the hind quarters.

Artichoke, Chicken and Olives

• 4 bone-in chicken thighs
• 4 bone-in chicken drumsticks
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 can artichokes, drained
• 8-10 roma tomatoes, quartered
• 1 chopped red onion
• 1 chopped jalepeno
• 1 jar pitted Kalamata olives
• ¼ tsp dried thyme (or fresh)
• 1 head of garlic (broken up, leave cloves whole)
• salt and pepper to taste (a generous amount of each)

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Season your chicken pieces all over and put them into a snug-fitting pan in one layer. Throw in all the vegetables and olives, then chuck in your tomatoes. Scatter the garlic cloves into the pan and drizzle over some olive oil. Mix around a bit, pushing the tomatoes underneath. Place in the oven for 1½ hours, turning the tomatoes halfway through, until the chicken skin is crisp and the meat falls off the bone.

This recipe makes a lot of broth, so you may want to serve it over pasta or rice.

Seasonal Root Vegetables and Chicken

• 4 bone-in chicken thighs
• 4 bone-in chicken drumsticks
• 3 beets, peeled and chopped
• 2-3 sweet potatoes, chunked
• 1 leek, sliced
• ½ onion, chopped
• 1 parsnip, chopped
• 1 rutabaga, chopped
• 1 head of garlic (broken up, leave cloves whole)
• salt and pepper to taste (a generous amount of each)

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Season your chicken pieces all over and put them into a snug-fitting pan in one layer. Throw in all the vegetables and olives, then chuck in your tomatoes. Scatter the garlic cloves into the pan and drizzle over some olive oil. Mix around a bit, pushing the tomatoes underneath. Place in the oven for 1½ hours, turning the tomatoes halfway through, until the chicken skin is crisp and the meat falls off the bone.

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Recently my sister discovered that she is allergic to gluten (but does not have celiac disease), and she introduced me to Schär, a line of gluten free products that only recently became available in the Midwest. My mom bought me some of their gluten free pizza crusts and penne pasta which I am looking forward to trying. The pizza crusts do not need to be frozen or refrigerated, which seems pretty rare as far as I can tell.

Drew and I made pizza using the Schär gluten free pizza crusts the other night. We were a little skeptical when we removed them from the box. They were the color of cardboard and the texture seemed a little weird (dry, flaky, rubbery). But, we were up to the challenge so we pushed forward.

We first brushed each crust with olive oil, then layered sliced fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, diced garlic, pepperoni, diced yellow onion, and diced jalapeño on top, with a little sea salt to taste. Then we drizzled a little honey around the edge of the crust and put them in the oven on a pizza stone.

The result was nothing short of amazing. The crusts were fluffy and soft on the inside and crisp on the edges. The texture was perfect, not grainy at all. It tasted like real hand-tossed pizza crust. It was so delicious that we each ate a full pizza (each box contains two crusts). Success!

The Schär website is terrific. They have a bunch of gluten-free offerings, including bread, crackers, cookies, and mixes. I will definitely be going back for more!

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A couple of weeks ago, Drew and I visited with Anna Sobaski, creator of Breads From Anna, and took a tour of her production facility. We even got to sample a new mix that she’s perfecting (in our opinion it’s delicious already). Anna shared with us some tips for gluten-free baking, her favorite recipes for the holidays, and a few mixes to try at home.

Breads From Anna makes nutritious, affordable mixes, and their product line includes bread, pancake, muffin, and piecrust mixes. They are amazingly delicious and the bread has a light, fluffy texture that is disarmingly similar to bread made with gluten. We especially love the piecrust mix.

Anna is interested in the idea of food as medicine, and her culinary degree came from the Natural Gourmet Institute, which focuses on nutrition and health. All of the Breads From Anna mixes contain healthy grains, and the resulting products contain a lot of protein and fiber without any fillers or a lot of sugar. These breads are nutritious and delicious for anyone—not just for those of us with dietary restrictions.

Breads From Anna mixes are all gluten, soy, nut, and rice free, which is great for people with multiple allergies. Many of the mixes are also yeast, dairy, and corn free as well. The production facility is setup to ensure that there is no cross contamination between mixes.

For the purpose of quality control, Breads From Anna bakes a loaf of bread from each batch of mix that they prepare and package (they mix in small batches—only enough for 100 loaves at a time—to ensure high quality). Because Anna bakes a loaf of bread every day, she has tested many bread machines over the years. Her favorite is the Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme Breadmaker, which would be a terrific addition to your Christmas wish list.

Anna also gave us some great ideas about how to use her mixes for the holidays:

• Make a savory Chicken Pot Pie using the Pie Crust Mix.
• Make the Classic Herb Bread Mix into stuffing (this is what we plan to do for Thanksgiving). I baked a loaf of this bread last week and it was so good that just thinking about it makes my mouth water!
• Make a triple berry pie with the Pie Crust Mix and filling it with a mixture of fresh cranberries, raspberries, and blueberries and a little sugar or maple.
• Add walnuts to the Pumpkin Bread Mix and make the batter into muffins. Finish with cream cheese frosting.

Anna gave us a Pumpkin Bread Mix to make at home, and although I’m not much of a cook, the muffins came out moist and delicious. I followed her suggestion and added walnuts. I was inspired by the quality of Anna’s mix to create a higher quality frosting. So, I adapted my old frosting recipe using better quality ingredients, and the result was nothing short of amazing. Here’s my new recipe for cream cheese frosting:

Cream Cheese Frosting (makes more than enough)

• 8 oz. cold cream cheese (Philadelphia is gluten-free)
• 5 Tbsp. softened salt-free organic butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla (Nielsen-Massey’s Madagascar Bourbon Pure Organic Vanilla – it’s certified gluten-free, and it’s simply the best)
• 2 C. organic powdered sugar
• pinch of Kosher salt

Beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until combined (but do not whip). Add salt. Gradually add powdered sugar with the mixer on slow until the desired consistency and sweetness is achieved.

Visit the Breads From Anna website for more great recipe ideas!

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We’re mostly do-it-yourselfers in the kitchen—we usually make our own pizza crust, bake our own muffins, and bake our own gluten free bread or make our own alternatives. We do this because we just don’t love a lot of the gluten free packaged bread products we’ve tried on the market today.

Udi’s Gluten Free Foods sent us several gluten-free items to try and review here on GlutenFreeHub.com. We were excited to receive the care package, but we also wondered to what degree these products would resemble cardboard like many of the other gluten free bread products we’ve tried.

Gluten Free Muffins

First up were the Lemon Streusel muffins. We took one of the muffins out of the freezer, warmed it, spread a little butter, closed our eyes and took a bite.

“Wow,” was all Drew could muster with his mouthful of the moist, flavorful muffin.

Wow indeed! We were really impressed with everything about the muffins: the texture is amazing, the flavor is great—honestly these are great muffins period, not just when compared to other gluten-free alternatives.

Gluten Free Whole Grain and White Sandwich Breads

The next morning I toasted some of Udi’s Whole Grain Bread to eat with my breakfast. I expected something spongy or cracker-like. That’s not at all what I got.

Both the Whole Grain Bread and White Sandwich Bread have excellent texture and a nice flavor. These are now one of the few packaged gluten free breads I will recommend—and I will recommend them to everyone!

Gluten Free Pizza Crusts

This was the real test for us—we love our homemade pizza crust, and it’s gotten legitimate compliments from our gluten-eating friends as well.

Drew wanted to make something that highlighted the flavor of the crust, so he made a Mediterranean-style flat bread with olive oil, goat cheese, sautéed onion, spinach, Kalamata olives, capers and a little Italian-style pepperoni from a local farm.

The first thing that surprised us was that we could put the Udi’s Pizza Crusts directly on the oven shelf at 450° F. Heather from Udi’s says you can put these pizza crusts on the grill as well, which Drew is really excited to try. The pizza baked evenly, and was done in about 12-14 minutes.

As you can see from the picture above, this pizza looked really great. But the question of flavor still remained. One bite and we both looked at each other with surprise (although we shouldn’t have been). The crust is delicious!

The flavor of Udi’s Pizza Crust is good, the texture is great, and it holds up really well (no fork needed). Also, while these crusts are on the small side, they are packaged in twos. We found that one crust was enough for the two of us, so we have an entire pizza leftover!

We are very impressed with Udi’s Gluten Free Foods, and if you haven’t tried their products, you now have our blessing! You can find Udi’s products in your grocer’s gluten-free freezer section, or you can order them online at UdisGlutenFree.com.

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Celiac disease requires more than a gluten-free diet, it requires a gluten-free lifestyle. In an effort to cultivate a gluten-free lifestyle that is both happy and healthy, I do a lot of reading. Blogs, websites, books, podcasts, and videos provide tons of tips and ideas, but there are only a few to which I return time and again. Here are three of my favorite online resources to which I continually return for quality information:

The Gluten Doctors

Written by Dr. Vikki Petersen, founder of HealthNOW Medical Center and author of “The Gluten Effect,” The Gluten Doctors is both witty and informative. Petersen provides a wealth of medical information about celiac disease. She answers questions like: What is gluten?  What should I eat if I have celiac disease? Her most recent post discusses the link between depression and celiac disease. This blog has terrific information about everything from gluten-free nutrition to the latest research on celiac disease. I read it every week.

Organic Jar

Organic Jar is a Mecca for all things healthy and organic. Whether he’s exposing unsavory cropdusting practices in the Midwest or finding the best tearoom in San Francisco, our friend Jason Cairns gets to the bottom of what’s really good for you. I was inspired by his article about the preparation and nutritional value of quinoa, which is a delicious gluten-free grain that Drew and I now eat all the time. Jason also recently posted an article about reading food labels, which as you know, can be quite tricky for those of us with celiac disease. I have also learned a lot about superfoods, raw foods, nutrition, and the benefits of going organic by reading this blog.

The University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center Website

The Celiac Disease Center provides tons of great information about the gluten-free diet. Topics include healing the gut, ingredients to avoid, safe (gluten-free) ingredients, and creating a safe cooking environment. I use their list of ingredients to avoid to reference ingredient lists of foods from the grocery store. They also list many other resources and provide avenues for advocacy (e.g., how to approach your child’s school about gluten-free lunches). I highly recommend exploring this site.

So now that you’ve read about three of our favorite celiac resources, what are your favorites?

Photo credit: lady_lbrty

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We make most of our meals using naturally gluten free ingredients, but there are several gluten free products in our kitchen we just can’t go without. Here are five of our favorites (in no particular order):

1. DeBoles Gluten Free Corn Spaghetti Style Pasta
2. Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix (check out how we doctor this to make Gluten-Free Red Velvet Cupcakes and Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes)
3. Kinnikinnick KinniToos Chocolate Vanilla Sandwich Cookies (Just like Oreos!)
4. Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
5. Kinnikinnick Cheese Tapioca Rice Bread (Makes excellent garlic bread to serve with the corn spaghetti)

What are your favorites? Leave a comment and let us know!

Photo credit: the_moment

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Recently I discovered Ecco Bella cosmetics, and I am thoroughly impressed. I received a bottle of Age Antidote Day Cream and Vanilla Herbal Body Lotion from the company to review.

I love the Age Antidote Day Cream. It is light and not greasy. It doesn’t sit on top of my face like a lot of other moisturizers, so it provides an ideal base for makeup. It contains SPF, which I love because I have very sun-sensitive skin. I even went for a long run on a hot, sunny day, and the Day Cream completely protected my face from the sun without any additional sunscreen. Ecco Bella Day Cream is a new part of my daily skincare routine. I have been using it for about two weeks now, and I have noticed a decrease in skin breakouts and blemishes. It also provides a nice, natural glow. This is my new favorite skincare product!

The Vanilla Herbal Body Lotion has a great texture and consistency. It moisturizes my hands very well, again, without being greasy. It also absorbs quickly and easily, unlike many other organic lotions. I like to rub it into my hands and cuticles before bed. You’d have to really love vanilla in order to put this all over your body, but I find it to be perfect for my hands and feet.

The best part about Ecco Bella is that most of their products are organic, gluten-free, and preservative-free. They never test any of their products on animals. The skin care products contain anti-aging vitamins, lutein, lycopene, astaxanthin, CoQ10, vitamin E, and vitamin C.

You can purchase Ecco Bella online. However, after I received products in the mail, I noticed that my local organic grocery store sells them, so I will definitely be going there for more!

For more information about gluten-free cosmetics from Ecco Bella and 23 other companies, visit our new site: GlutenFreeCosmeticsList.com. Our list includes over 500 gluten-free products, and we’re constantly adding more. The list includes 34 product categories, including toothpaste, lipstick, lip gloss, lip balm, and nail polish!

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Celiac Disease Insights: Clues to Solving Autoimmunity by Alessio Fasano contained so much terrific information that I couldn’t fit it all in one post. Today I will discuss the highlights related to the three causes of celiac disease and the cutting-edge treatment research currently underway.

The Big 3: Factors that Give Rise to Celiac Disease

Susceptibility to celiac disease, and the activation of symptoms involve a combination of environmental, genetic, and immunologic factors: 1) the presence of gluten in the diet 2) a genetically-based predisposition for the immune system to overreact to gluten; and 3) an unusually permeable gut (i.e., “leaky gut syndrome,” but more on that later).

What’s the Issue with Gluten?

Most protein molecules are broken down into to their amino acid components during digestion, but gluten is not well digested by the gut and isn’t broken down like other proteins. There is no known difference between those with and without celiac disease in their ability to break down gluten molecules during digestion.

Repeated exposure to gluten causes the fingerlike structures lining the small intestine (called villi) in those with celiac disease to become chronically inflamed and damaged, leaving them unable to break down food or carry nutrients from the intestine into the bloodstream.

This damage is completely or almost completely reversed and gastrointestinal symptoms are resolved if sufferers stay on a strict gluten-free diet.

The “Celiac Genes”

There are two genes that contribute to a heightened immune sensitivity for gluten, and 95% of people with celiac disease have at least one of them compared to only 30-40% of the general population. Thus, these genes are necessary but not sufficient to cause the disorder.

These genes code for proteins that act as markers to activate the immune system. In people with celiac disease, tissue transglutaminase (TTG), TTG leaks out of damaged intestinal cells in an attempt to heal the surrounding tissue.

TTG also attaches to gluten and causes it to bind with these proteins. This complex is what activates the T cells of the immune system.

T cells, when activated, also release cytokines and chemokines, which ratchet up the immune response. This response would be helpful if you had a bacterial infection, but in the case of gluten, it serves no purpose and, in fact, results in mucosal damage of the small intestine.

Patients with celiac have other genetic abnormalities that include hyperactive immune cells and a tendency to overproduce immune stimulants.

Intestinal Permeability

Although this was controversial at first, researchers now agree that many autoimmune diseases, including celiac disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, involve increased intestinal permeability.

A protein in humans called zonulin increases intestinal permeability by loosening the complex structure of tight junctions between the cells of the intestine. It is thought that this is the result of the abnormal immune response in those with celiac disease.

Cutting Edge Treatment Research

Dr. Fasano believes that removing any one factor in the celiac disease trinity (the environmental factor, the genetic factor, or the leaky gut) would be enough to stop the disease process. Right now, a strict gluten-free diet is the only way to treat celiac disease because even a small amount of gluten sets off the immune reaction described above. However, adhering to a lifelong gluten-free diet can be very difficult, so researchers are attempting to find other ways of treating celiac disease.

Here are some potential new treatments that are currently being developed:

• drugs to break down gluten peptides completely, which researchers expect would prevent the immune response
• drugs to inhibit TTG, which would intervene in the chain of events that cause the immune response
• interventions to dampen the genetically controlled factors that lead to the oversensitive immune system (though gene therapy has not been explored)
• drugs to block intestinal permeability (the results of pilot studies appear promising)
• gluten-free diet for the first year of life may prolong or prevent the development of celiac disease among high-risk infants
• probiotic treatment

Reminder: The University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center is offering free blood testing on October 10, 2009. Go to www.celiacdisease.net for details.

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Celiac Disease Insights: Clues to Solving Autoimmunity by Alessio Fasano, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, appeared in Scientific American this month. Dr. Fasano raised several fascinating points about celiac disease, including how it was discovered, its signs and symptoms, and its causes. My goal is to break down the article into digestible bits, and today I will talk about the history part.

Discovery of Celiac Disease

The emergence of celiac disease began 10,000 years ago when humans, previously nomadic, learned about agriculture and started planting seeds and domesticated crops for food. The nomadic diet had been free of gluten up to that point.

Celiac disease was first labeled as such in the first century A.D. when a Greek physician named it after the word for “abdomen,” koelia.

In 1887, Samuel Gee, a British physician, attributed the chronic indigestion associated with celiac disease to “errors in diet,” yet he did not identify gluten as the source of the problem and often prescribed a diet of toast for his patients. Yikes!

Gluten was identified as the trigger for celiac disease following a shortage of bread in the Netherlands after World War II, which caused the death rate among children affected by celiac disease to drop from 35% to zero, an astonishing result.

Signs and Symptoms of Celiac Disease

The classical outward signs of celiac disease include persistent indigestion and chronic diarrhea, but these only occur when large or important sections of the intestine are damaged. If only small portions are dysfunctional or the inflammation is mild, as is true for the majority of people with celiac disease, then the symptoms may be less severe or atypical in presentation.

Impaired nutrient absorption by the small intestine associated with untreated celiac disease can lead to anemia, a variety of neurological problems, osteoporosis, joint pain, chronic fatigue, short stature, skin lesions, epilepsy, dementia, schizophrenia, and seizures. Wow!

These symptoms can be prevented if celiac disease is detected early, and gluten is removed from the diet completely. This highlights the importance of early detection and treatment. The University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center is offering free blood testing on October 10, 2009. Go to www.celiacdisease.net for details.

Photo credit: glennwilliamspdx

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