eggs with smoked salmon, ricotta and lox.

This is one of my go-to breakfast recipes. It's fast, easy, healthy, and gives the taste of bagels with cream cheese and lox, without having to eat a GF bagel (which I have yet to find a good one).

Ingredients:

Eggs

Ricotta (I had leftover from making the squash blossoms in the previous post)

Chives

Smoked Salmon/Lox (any store-bought is fine, but it should look somewhat like this:)

Recipe:

1. Chop salmon and chives into fine pieces and set aside. Separately.

2. Whisk eggs in bowl with salt and pepper and add to hot pan

3. Scramble into almosssst ready.

4. Add a few tablespoons of fat-free ricotta

5. Kill heat and mix well, stirring in chives.

6. Top with salmon and enjoy!

I usually use about 2-3 eggs per person and then eyeball the rest.

Should look a lil something like this:

Serve with a piece of Millet Bread, toasted 2-3 times (takes a while to toast it well). This is my favorite kind (Made by Food for Life):

squash blossoms

In my humble gluten free opinion, squash blossoms are the best food on earth. AND they are SO easy to make GF, even your non GF friends wont know. They are in-season mid-late Summer (and hard to find the rest of the year).

Squash Blossoms are the flower that blooms directly off the squash. They are orange and beautiful AND delicious. Win-Win:

A Blossom of SQUASH!

They can be eaten in many ways, but obviously my favorite way is to deep fry them.

Squash Blossoms ready to be COOKED


Step 1: Make The Filling

1 cup ricotta cheese 
(use non-or low fat to cut down calories)
1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
Handful of fresh chopped mint
(dried mint is not nearly as yummy, but can be used in a pinch)
1 egg yolk to bind
freshly ground black pepper

Mix everything together until blended.

Step 2: Stuff 'yo Blossoms!

This part is pretty tedious. BUT it's so worth it. Just think about how delicious they will taste. About 2 spoonfuls of the filling per blossom works. Dont over-stuff and make sure you can slightly (and gently) twist the ends off once they are battered. Here is what they look like once they have been stuffed:

Stuffed Blossoms!

Step 3: Make Batter!

Here is the magical GF step of our recipe - Gluten Free Batter (which you can use to fry almost anything). And it couldnt be easier!

3/4 cup Gluten Free Flour.
You can use rice flour, but for the EXACT same taste as normal I use Cup4Cup which was developed by famed French Laundry chef Thomas Keller and is the first GF flour on the market that can be exactly substituted for regular flour.
1 cup seltzer or club soda (COLD!)
WHISK TOGETHER!
Sometimes I like to get fancy and throw some extra grated Parmesan into the batter. This is up to you. Make sure you are twisting the end of the flower before you batter so the insides stay inside and the batter stays outside.
I batter all mine at once and put on a plate. Here they are ready to be fried post batter bath:

Blossoms Post Batter.

NOTE: If you know you will be pressed for time, you can stuff and make batter and refrigerate. Then cover with batter and fry when you are ready to eat. 

 Step 4: FRY!!!!!!!!!!

This is my favorite part, mainly because it means all the work is behind me and I can eat soon. Fill a heavy bottom pan (I use cast iron, but use what you got) with about 2-2.5 inches of Canola or Vegetable oil. Dont use olive oil bc it wont work! Place blossoms in HOT oil (to test, drop the tiniest pinch of flour in the oil, if it sizzles, oil is ready). Make sure to give them a little room to breathe don't jam it full, it usually takes me 2-3 batches.  Flip them 1/2 way through, and make sure they are GOLDEN BROWN before removing from oil. Here they are frying:

Squash Blossoms Mid-Fry

Remove and place on a paper towel to soak up any extra grease and cool slightly before serving. Serve immediately!

Et voila! Serve with marinara sauce for dipping (optional) and be prepared for your dinner guests to oooo and ahhhh over your culinary genius. Don't worry if some of the cheese gets out, they will still taste the yummiest. Here are my completed blossoms in all their delicious glory:

Final Product

And, because this picture kind of sucks, here is a professional image of the final product:



Image credit

Pasta Y Basta

The hardest part about going Gluten Free for me was giving up pasta. Pasta is my comfort food, my quick-fix and generally just my favorite thing to eat. I tried many brands that promised to be juuust like real pasta, and each was more disappointing than the next. Until Ancient Harvest! This is a god send of pasta. First, instead of being made of rice flour, it's made of corn and quinoa, so it's a bit healthier AND more filling. It cooks fast, holds sauces, comes in tons of types (they even have mac & cheese!). Buy it now. I'm a big fan of buying GF products in bulk online, as some can be expensive and buying in bulk cuts down on costs, plus you dont have an excuse for cheating if you have everything on-hand.

Click HERE to buy!!!

Substitute this for ANY pasta recipe (just make sure whatever sauce you use is GF) and you'll never miss regular pasta again. I'll share some specific fast, easy and healthy recipes using this in coming weeks.

Here We Go...

Living Gluten Free really sucks. I have been on and off for a few years, but I am finally trying to do it 100% of the time, and hoping that blogging about what I eat will not only help me stay on track, but help share some tips among other GF people. There is nothing I love more than bread and pasta, and cheating is SO easy, but I have started to find/create recipes where I can make a GF version of anything I might be craving. Hope these can help you live a healthier life, too! 

(NB: I do not have celiac, so if you do, adjust recipes accordingly!).

Happy Eating!