Blog Archives

Benefits Of Lemon And Cucumber Water

3/31/2015

I'm a huge advocate of drinking lots and lots of water. I like to slice up fresh organic lemons and cucumbers every day and add them to the reusable Starbucks cup that is permanently glued to my hand. Not only does the combo of lemon and cucumber taste great, it has major detoxifying benefits as well.

First reason to flavor your H2o is that lemons and cucumbers are both alkaline forming foods that will balance your body's PH levels. Disease cannot thrive in an alkaline body.

Second, this combo offsets some of the damage we do to our bodies from drinking alcohol. Citrus flavonoids found in the lemons stimulate and purify the liver.

Third, lemons are a loaded with Vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant, which aids the body in weight loss. Antioxidants are known to remove toxins (such as fat cells) from the body, which is why lemon water is such a good aid in weight loss.

Fourth, cucumbers and lemons both contain anti-oxidants that act as an immune system booster. These same antioxidants also help your skin stay clear and beautiful.

Fifth, cucumbers aid in reducing blood pressure, and thus reduce your risk for a number of diseases like stroke, heart attack, kidney disease, or vision loss. By drinking cucumber water you’re staying hydrated, and helping your blood pressure thanks to the 4% DV of potassium cucumbers contain.

So slice up and enjoy!

— The Healthy Celiac

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12 Fridge Staples For Quick And Healthy Lunches

3/31/2015

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For someone with celiac disease, making a quick lunch isn't as easy as whipping up a sandwich. I always keep these 12 salad ingredients on hand for this very reason. These simple grocery store items offer endless ways to create great salads. I especially love these ingredients because they don't make my salads soggy when I prepare them ahead of time. Here are my go-to items that I keep stocked in my fridge each week for lunches:

• A big box of greens — I prefer arugula
• An English cucumber
• 7 roma tomatoes
• 2 containers of gluten free hummus — my favorite substitute for traditional dressing
• 4 avocados (in a variety of ripeness)
• A bottle of Follow Your Heart Vegan Creamy Garlic sauce — a yummy dressing that doesn't make salad soggy
• A can of tuna
• 2 large organic boneless, skinless chicken breasts — I cook these ahead of time
• A bottle of sriracha sauce (combine with Vegenaise to make this awesome sauce)
• A can of chickpeas — these are great if you want to make your salad vegan
• A bottle of Vegenaise -— perfect for sauces and combining with tuna
• A bag of short grain brown rice — I pre-make 2 cups and keep it in the fridge

I use these 12 ingredients to whip up all kinds of salad bowls — there are literally endless combinations. In the above photo I combined tuna and Vegenaise and threw it on a bed of arugula and topped it with fresh veggies and hummus. For all those who are busy, or at a loss as to how keep lunch time healthy, try experimenting with these 12 grocery store staples to create your own salad bowls.

— The Healthy Celiac

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The Sauce I'm Putting On Everything: Creamy Vegan Sriracha

3/30/2015

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Lately I have been homemaking this creamy vegan sriracha sauce, and I have been putting it on everything! The recipe for it is very simple:

• 1 tbsp of Vegenaise®
• 1 tsp of gluten free sriracha sauce
• 1/2 tsp of olive oil
• sea salt and pepper to taste

I mix up this sauce and then put it on salad, chicken, fish — just about anything I happen to be cooking up. Pictured above is a veggie and rice bowl tossed in creamy vegan sriracha sauce and topped with fresh arugula and hummus. It's super easy to keep the ingredients for this sauce in the fridge, and only takes about two minutes to make. I buy my sriracha sauce from Whole Foods, and it is labeled gluten free.

Enjoy!

— The Healthy Celiac

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Sea Salt and Vinegar Roasted Chickpeas

3/19/2015

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These Sea Salt and Vinegar Roasted Chickpeas are one of my go-to snacks! Both healthy and delicious, these will most likely become your new favorite. Besides being an excellent vegan and gluten-free source of protein and fiber, chickpeas also contain exceptional levels of iron, vitamin B-6 and magnesium. They take about one hour to make, and store well in a covered container for days.

Ingredients
• 2 cans of organic chickpeas
• 1 pint of white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of coarse sea salt

Method
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Drain and rinse your chickpeas with water.
• Add chickpeas to a saucepan with the vinegar, and bring to a boil. Once the chickpeas and vinegar have come to a boil, remove from heat and let them stand for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, drain the chickpeas in a strainer and toss them in olive oil.
• Place the chickpeas in a roasting pan and mix in the sea salt.
• Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring every ten minutes.

Enjoy!

— The Healthy Celiac

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Why I Typically Don't Buy Gluten Free Cookbooks

3/15/2015

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image via eater.com

Gluten free cookbooks started hitting shelves a few years ago, and they have now become wildly popular with the celiac disease and gluten free community. A quick search on Amazon for 'Gluten Free Cookbook' yields 3,770 results. While I think it is wonderful that there are more and more resources out there for gluten free cooking, and I fully support more people publishing recipes and information on how to cook gluten free, I don't tend to buy these books — here is why.

I don't buy explicitly gluten free cookbooks because often the gluten free adaptations of traditionally glutenous foods are just that — adaptations of heavy, glutenous dishes. If you are in the market to learn how to make streusel filled cake or a gluten free sausage roll, then I would definitely go purchase a popular gluten free cookbook. However, if you are just looking for everyday recipes that will make for delicious and healthy dinners, then I would look to the more health conscious cookbooks that are NOT explicitly gluten free. For example, love her or hate her, Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbooks are full of healthy recipes, many of which are inherently gluten free. She uses whole ingredients, and you wont find twelve different kinds of gluten free flour listed in a recipe (who actually keeps sorghum flour on hand?).

When first diagnosed with celiac disease, I made the rookie mistake of excitedly wanting to try anything and everything gluten free I came across. Whether it was a recipe for gluten free brownies or a gluten free pizza — I wanted to try the new options that I had as a celiac. I feel like this same thing happens when cooking from a gluten free cookbook. You see that it's possible to make a gluten free coffee cake and so you feel a certain gluten free foodie obligation to make and eat a recipe that your normally may not have eaten.

After working off the gluten free lasagna and homemade pizza, I came to the conclusion that just because a recipe makes something gluten free, doesn't necessarily mean it's the healthy option. My goal is to stick to recipes that have limited ingredients (no flour blends please), whole grains, fresh and minimally processed ingredients. Of course, there is always room to make the occasional adapted gluten free dessert once in a while.

Here are my favorite cookbooks to find healthy, easily-made-gluten free, recipes. While not all recipes in these cookbooks are gluten free, they can for the most part be made gluten free with a few minor adjustments.

Happy cooking!

— The Healthy Celiac

My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness

Jerusalem: A Cookbook

IT'S ALL GOOD: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great

Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi

The Oh She Glows Cookbook: Over 100 Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out

Aida Mollenkamp's Keys to the Kitchen: The Essential Reference for Becoming a More Accomplished, Adventurous Cook

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Cocktail Hour: What Can a Celiac Actually Drink?

3/15/2015

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One of the most common questions I hear from people with and without celiac disease is 'what can you drink?'. It's a good question, because there is a lot of controversy out there about what is and is not safe for a celiac to drink.

Gluten free alcohol tends to be a pretty heated topic because many people believe that due to the distillation process, gluten is removed from glutenous grain based alcohols. For example, people claim that scotch is gluten free, even though it is made from barley. The logic behind this is that a drink is technically considered 'gluten free' if it meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's proposed standard of less than 20 parts per million, and that distillation removes the harmful gluten proteins. The Celiac Sprue Association however does not recommend any form of Scotch or whiskey; instead, they advise those following the gluten-free diet to stick with potato vodkas, rum and tequila, all of which are made from non-gluten grain sources.

The Celiac Sprue Association makes this recommendation because it is possible that distillation doesn't remove 100% of the gluten (studies have been mixed on this point), and that small amounts of gluten are potentially added back into the alcohol as a part of processing after distillation. Additionally, many alcohol manufacturers add caramel coloring to their alcohol, which may contain gluten.

While you need to make a decision for yourself, I would suggest staying away from barley-based drinks such as scotch, or drinking a cocktail made of wheat based vodka. Recently, there has been a lot of discussion online as to whether Corona beer is gluten free. Gluten Dude broke down the logic on this debate perfectly:

Corona is not a gluten-free beer.
But it has been tested to under 20ppm, so it is a gluten-free beer.
Yet it’s made with barley, so it’s not a gluten-free beer.
But according to the FDA, since it’s under 20ppm, it is a gluten-free beer.
But then according to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, it can’t be labeled gluten-free because it’s made with barley. Let me make one thing perfectly clear here. I will never drink Corona. Or Bud Light. Or Heineken. Or any of the other beers that some celiacs are convincing themselves they can drink. Why? BECAUSE IT HAS GLUTEN IN IT.

So what can a celiac safely drink? Here is my list of gluten free alcohol that I stick to. This list is certainly not the be-all-and-end-all of gluten free alcohol, but these are the brands / drinks that I know I can drink safely, and I stick to.

Hard cider: I like Angry Orchard, but there are ton of brands out there that are gluten free. However, always check for yourself before drinking!
Vodka: You have to be very careful with vodka, triple check the brand to ensure that it is a potato based vodka and not a wheat based vodka that is claiming to be gluten free through distillation. I stick to Chopin Polish Vodka, Ciroc (not the flavored vodka though, only the original), and Crater Lake Vodka.
Tequila: I stick to Patron and Don Julio tequila. My rule of thumb with tequila is to always stick to white tequila. Make sure that whenever you have tequila, the bottle says "made with 100% agave".
Gin: I stick to Hendrick's Gin.
Skinny Girl Margaritas
Campari
Red wine
White wine
Prosecco

Champagne

There is a lot of misinformation out there on what alcohol is safe to drink for a celiac, so be sure and do your research discerningly!

Cheers!

— The Healthy Celiac

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My Go To Meal Of The Moment: The Chicken, Rice and Veggie Bowl

3/13/2015

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I am definitely a creature of food habit — when I find something I like, I tend to make it a lot. Inspired by the Le Bowl from Zinque, I started making my own dairy free version of the dish. A relatively complete and healthy meal, I love this bowl for lunch or dinner. The best part is you can easily change up the veggies or protein based on what is in season, or what you're in the mood for. Here is how I make my bowl:

• Cook a cup of brown rice (you will have some left over). Once the brown rice is cooked, serve it at room temperature.
• Pan cook some organic, free-range chicken breast.
• In your bowl, start with a layer of brown rice on the bottom (again, as much or as little as you want). I then do a light layer (1/2 tbsp) of Heart Healthy Vegan Creamy Garlic sauce (which I find at Whole Foods) — This sauce is amazing and I love that it's vegan (and gluten free, of course).
• On top of the rice layer, I add arugula, one diced roma tomato, half an avocado and half a cup of diced cucumber. Then I add the chicken on top and do another 1/2 tbsp of the Vegan Creamy Garlic.
• I then top the bowl off with two scoops of hummus.

The best part about this meal is that I can pre-make the rice and chicken and have lunch or dinner ready to go for days. Sometimes I also like to take the chicken out of the recipe, and I opt for a little more hummus or add in chickpeas, making the dish entirely vegan.

Hope you enjoy!

— The Healthy Celiac

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These are a few of my favorite (green) things

3/12/2015

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Eating enough green vegetables has a huge impact on overall health. Of course, for those with celiac disease, eating the right green vegetables can really help aid digestion, and keep the gastrointestinal tract running smoothly (or at least smoother) and increase your overall health. Sometimes when in a celiac health slump, I forget just how great I feel after eating lots of greens at each meal. While almost all greens do different wonders for the body, the following veggies are my go-to as a celiac.

Zucchini: Has a very high fiber content, and thus has cleansing effect on the digestive tract, especially the intestines. Zucchini acts as a mild laxative, cleaning the walls of the intestines and preventing carcinogenic toxins from settling in the colon. Tip: I also add zucchini to my dog's food to keep her digestive system healthy!

Asparagus: This vegetable is a prebiotic food, meaning that it contains a type of fiber that probiotics feed off of to multiply — making your efforts to eat yogurt or take probiotic supplements that much better!

Avocado: While not technically a vegetable, avocados make the list because they are an absolutely awesome fruit. Considered a super-food, avocados are packed with potassium and heart-healthy monounsaturated fatty acids and also contain a lot of great soluble fiber. A 100 gram (3.5 ounce) serving of avocado contains 7 grams of fiber, which is 27% of the recommended daily amount.

Arugula: One of the best leafy greens (in my opinion), arugula has very few calories, and is a rich source of certain phytochemicals that have been shown to combat cancer-causing elements in the body by supporting the immune system. Arugula also has an array of minerals and high levels of Iron and Copper — making it a good substitute for spinach.

Broccoli: Another great source of fiber, broccoli is also packed with very high levels of vitamin C, potassium, B6 and vitamin A. Broccoli is also packed with phytochemicals (which again support the immune system) and antioxidants.

— The Healthy Celiac

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