Category Archives: Food

Gluten Free Luxembourg

I was a little bit fed up with searching for “authentic local also gluten free” food, so in my planning for Luxembourg, I just went with whatever works… and that ended up being Indian!

First night we ate at Everest because it was just down the street from our hotel, which was having difficulty finding keycards for guests and couldn’t check anyone in for awhile.The food was fine and the waiter made some recommendations that would be OK for me to eat.We enjoyed stuffing ourselves silly before heading back to the hotel to check in.The crispy bread was apparently made from lentil flour, so it was also OK. Kay also ordered a garlic naan at my insistance, with mint, but it wasn’t the best naan ever. He said it was a bit dry.Breakfast at the Radisson Park Inn was pretty good. I had my fill of mushrooms because Kay hates them, as well as a mix of bacon, sausages, tomatoes, a bit of scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, and freshly squeeze orange juice. They had a funny juicer that looked like it took a ton of work to clean, but the juice was great!

On Saturday we also stopped at Adriano for some ice cream. Ice cream was very necessary for coping with the heat.We stopped for a cider at a pub. We never do things like this in Zurich because of how much it costs, so midday drinking or even just drinking outside the house seems like a luxury on trips like this. On Saturday night we didn’t feel like going far walking. We didn’t have a car in Luxembourg, so we just went to Taj Mahal for some more Indian.I wasn’t really wowed by the food, but it was fine. It filled me up.

Walking to and from the restaurant was a little scary though. There were several guys who looked like they could be dealers making  coded gestures to each other and I didn’t want to be around that. I didn’t want to find out if they were planning on mugging us or if they were just into drug dealing. We kept our heads down and got back to the hotel as fast as possible.The next day breakfast was more of the same. I am still eating like twice as much as Kay and don’t know where I am putting it. I am skinnier than ever!After visiting the the casemates, we wandered around quite a lot to find a place open for early dinner. We would up at Restaurant Brasserie G L’Beguin Sàrl, which had some divine scallops and risotto. Risotto is my old gluten free go-to and it went perfectly with some rose and ice cream for dessert.

Once again, I’m getting a little hungry thinking about all this food again. I cannot seem to get food off my mind lately.

Gluten Free Lemon Bars

Awhile back I made lemon bars from The Everything Gluten-Free Baking Cookbook and they turned out very well. Go get this cookbook, it’s not half bad!I’ve tried out lemon bars a few times now before going gluten-free and while I have made my sister’s recipe with a gluten free flour mix, I think the crust here turned out better using the proper ratio of flours.Maybe it also had something to do with lining the pan with parchment, but these were a lot easier to get out of the pan than some lemon bars.Look at them fresh out of the oven! The picture of joy.

Lemon bars are perfect in the summer when you want a cool, tangy treat. I made them the night before a dinner with neighbors and they matched the dinner wonderfully.Sometimes past recipes have turned out insanely, really too sweet, but I liked the level of sweetness here. Very sweet of course, but not over the top and perfect when they are coming out of the fridge.We left the rest of the bars with the neighbors, but I’m honestly already thinking about making some more… it’s just a lot of sugar! These also have eggs in them, but still no problems with those, so now I’m wondering if I was just having phantom egg problems. That would be lovely, because there are a ton of egg-based desserts that I am dying to try out!

Are you a fan of lemon bars?

Gluten Free Belgian Waffles

Lately I’ve slowly been trying to get on the eggs train again and introduce them into my diet. I really miss eggs because they spell waffles and pancakes, and who doesn’t love those?

I’ve played around with a few gluten free waffle recipes, but my original gluten recipe for Belgian waffles actually works pretty well.

Although in the last round of making these, the batter was a little thick and it ended up making less, denser waffles instead of more lighter waffles. Two waffles really filled me up. Four had me stuffed. 😉We were extra indulgent with butter, maple syrup, fresh blueberries and whipped cream. Kay and I eat so healthy during the week, I can’t help but indulge a little on the weekend.

After all, we usually don’t have lunch, so these brunch waffles substitute a lot of calories for the day.

Ingredients:

  • 1  3/4 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 2 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
  • 1 3/4 cups gluten free flour
  • 1 Tbs baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions:

  1. Separate egg whites and yolks. Put yolks in a big bowl and add milk and oil. Mix.
  2. Add flour, baking powder and salt to the wet ingredients.
  3. Whip egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into waffle mix.
  4. Spray waffle iron with cooking spray on both sides and make according to waffle iron instructions.

If your batter is too thick, you can add in more milk or a bit of water until it’s more runny. You might have to adjust your liquid to flour ratio depending on your flour mix, but this is a good starting point.

Happy waffle making!

Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake

Last year for my birthday I received The Everything Gluten-Free Baking Cookbook and while I haven’t made so many recipes from it, instead relying on Cooksmarts and Pinterest, I decided to turn to this book when I came up with the idea to make strawberry shortcake for my FIL’s birthday.

It was a pretty good cake, so while I won’t post the recipe here, I will recommend you buy the book and make some yourself. The book also has lots of othe recipes for things like waffles, pancakes, cookies, and more. I plan to try out some more of the cake recipes and see if they are good.The cake itself set up nicely in both the muffin cups and in the baking dish. Below, it looks very similar to the pound cake my mother would make for strawberry shortcake.We enjoyed it the whole week of my FIL’s birthday by heaping strawberries and fresh raspberries from the garden on top, finishing with whipped cream and fresh peppermint.Of course below is how I really ate it… my family knows how obsessed I can be with whipped cream. If only we could buy Cool Whip here!To be fair, at the end of the week, the cake was drying out more, so I needed that extra whipped cream.

Are you a fan of strawberry shortcake?

Gluten Free Pizza

Sometimes I really get a hankering for pizza that the gluten free frozen stuff won’t cut. I need the real deal, so I turn to the Minimalist Baker for an easy gluten free dough recipe.Lately for pizzas, I’ve been plundering the garden for fresh herbs like oregano and basil.After baking for 20 minutes, I pulled that pizza out and started laying on the toppings, starting with the sauce.Depending on the flours you use for the dough, it will have different tastes. I forget now what I used the first time I made this, but it had a nutty flavour that I liked. This time I used the basic Migros Aha brand because it is a nice simple flour, but the crust turned out a little denser than I would like.It was a really pretty pizza though. I piled on our slow cooker BBQ pulled pork leftovers, mozzarella, and Gorgonzola.The final product tasted great and I’m getting hungry again just looking at these photos. Ahhh pizza, one of my great loves, only now so hard to be with because of gluten! Making our own pizza is a must on a gluten free diet. You just cannot stop the pizza urge sometimes and nothing is really better than homemade food anymore.

Do you make your own pizza? Is it better than what you can get in a restaurant?