Time Saving – in thriver words

Gluten-Free Friendsgiving

Help your gluten-sensitive friends out with a gluten-free Friendsgiving. Using slight alterations, you can keep a traditional menu while making it safe for your gluten-sensitive friends. Here are some quick tips and tricks.

Overhead view of table with rolls, pumpkin pie, roll plates, hands, and maple leaves.

Make cornbread stuffing instead of bread stuffing. Cornbread stuffing is more common than bread stuffing in the South so this substitution is not a total break from tradition. Be sure not to add wheat flour to the cornbread or use a GF cornbread mix.

Use gluten-free soup in green bean casserole. You can make the soup or purchase a canned gluten-free version. Top the casserole with crushed potato chips or potato stix to add the crunch you’d normally get from French fried onions.

Leave off the bread crumbs. If another casserole calls for bread crumbs, substitute gluten-free ones, potato chips, potato stix, or cheese (if appropriate).

Offer vinegar and oil with salad. In addition to your favorite bottled dressing, include vinegar and oil as a safe gluten-free option.

Serve gravy on the side. If you don’t want to worry with gluten-free gravy, just serve it on the side rather than atop the food.

Use corn starch to thicken. Gravy and pie filling can be thickened with corn starch rather than flour and you probably already have some in your pantry. In reality, many pie filling recipes won’t have to be altered. And if you don’t want to use corn starch in gravy, get some sweet white sorghum flour to substitute for wheat flour.

Buy gluten-free dinner rolls. Truth is, most of us who are gluten-free are used to being flexible. You don’t have to have rolls available, but you can find yeast rolls on the Katz website https://katzglutenfree.com/ or at stores like Natural Grocers if you want to put some on the table.

Purchase a pre-made gluten-free pie crust. Don’t worry about buying gluten-free flour and making pie crust. There are several brands and several kinds of pre-made crusts available including cookie and graham cracker-like versions.

Make banana pudding. Desserts don’t get much easier than banana pudding. Use instant vanilla pudding, (check the label for safe ingredients) substitute heavy whipping cream for half the milk, layer the pudding and banana with gluten-free vanilla wafers or animal cookies. Boom – delicious dessert in minutes. If you want it to look fancier, you can always add some whipped cream on top.

Take a photo of the label. If you aren’t sure how to spot things that contain gluten when you’re reading a label, just take a photo of the label before you leave home with your dish so you can share it later if someone asks about ingredients.

Friendsgiving is about enjoying connections and expressing gratitude. Luckily, you don’t have to spend tons of extra time in the kitchen. Make these easy adjustments and enjoy your party!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Soup it Up and Save

Cold weather is time to soup it up and save! Not only is soup warm and comforting, it’s a great way to cut down food waste. With the high cost of food, it feels painful to even waste a morsel. If you’re not in the habit of making soup, we have a few tips to keep it delicious, nutritious, and budget friendly.

Three gold soups in small white bowls sitting on whitewashed board. Hand garnishing middle bowl.

Save vegetables

You may be in the habit of throwing away veggie waste, but some of it can be saved to add nutrition to soup.

Here are some commonly discarded items you can use.

Woody stems of asparagus
Mushroom stems
Misshapen ends of bell pepper
Outer leaves of brussels sprouts
Celery leaves
Carrot tops
Beet greens
Large broccoli stems
Cauliflower stems and leaves
Large stems from greens like chard or collard
Greens that are beginning to wilt
Stems of herbs

Save meat or poultry

If you’re wanting to create a flavorful broth, you can save fatty trimmings from chicken, beef, or pork to add to your pot.

You can also add leftover meat to soups and stews. Just chop and place in the pot for the last 15 minutes of cooking.

Save broth and pot likker

Save broth left from cooking beans, peas, greens, or potatoes. This can be used as a base for your soup or for additional flavor.

Save Time

It’s not necessary to chop veggies like broccoli stems or celery tops into bite-size pieces. You can use items to flavor the soup then remove them before serving.

Use a slow cooker. Soups are best when they have a chance to slowly simmer. That doesn’t mean you have to be home to enjoy the aroma. Throw everything in a slow cooker and go away. You’ll have a flavorful broth and tender meat when you return. Any vegetables that are too done for your taste can be removed with a slotted spoon. You can then transfer your soup into a pan, bring to a boil, add frozen vegetables, and cook for five minutes before serving.

Start with boxed chicken broth, beef broth, or vegetable broth. You don’t have to cook from scratch to make a delicious, hearty soup. Begin with store-bought broth, strained tomatoes, tomato juice, or canned pumpkin. Make potato soup using mashed potatoes from the store. With sufficient herbs, spices, and vegetables you can dilute these bases with generous amounts of water, milk, or cream to create a flavorful soup.

When there’s no time to simmer, use the microwave, boxed broth, rotisserie chicken, and frozen vegetables. Or make a quick tomato soup using strained tomatoes, and Italian spices. Add a few leftover meatballs for more umph.

Change it up

Soups are versatile and easy to change with minor adjustment. Rev up basic chicken soup with a bit of coconut oil, curry powder, honey, and frozen English peas.

Add a peeled, thinly sliced sweet potato to chicken soup. Allow it to break down and thicken the soup.

Consider seasoning soup with fresh grated nutmeg, ginger root, turmeric root, cilantro, pesto, bay leaves, lemon, lime, honey, maple syrup, or balsamic vinegar.

Add some milk or cream to tomato soup. Top soup with a pat of butter for added richness.

Serve a cold soup when least expected as long as there’s a cozy fire to warm the room.

Add rice, noodles, or lentils to give the soup a new feel.

With winter approaching, upcoming holiday gifts to buy, and high grocery prices, there couldn’t be a better time to soup it up and save!

Consider Subscription

As the price of gluten-free products increases and availability decreases, it may be a good time to consider subscription.

I can’t tell you how many times recently I’ve looked at the gluten-free bagels, cookies, or crackers available locally and left them out of my shopping cart. I simply can’t justify the high price.

What I tell myself is that I’ll just cook or bake whatever I was considering. Then a day or two later when I’ve dropped everything to handle a crisis or meet a deadline and I have no breakfast to grab quickly, I wonder what I was thinking.

Sometimes it’s not that we can’t do. It’s just that we can’t do as quickly as we thought. In those moments, it’s great to have something handy to tide us over. There are different ways to make sure there’s something on hand without breaking the bank.

I can freeze portions when I bake. I can wait until things are on sale or come with a great offer. I can buy in bulk when doing so reduces costs. And I can consider subscription services.

Subscriptions to food services mean food arrives regularly. I like the certainty of that much more than the frustration of finding no gluten-free brands on the shelves except those that contain sunflower oil or high histamine ingredients. As inventories evolve, I increasingly value certainty.

Before its acquisition by Misfits Market, I subscribed to Imperfect Foods. I had a great experience! I loved the selection, the filter options that made tailoring my orders easy, and the food. I looked forward to delivery day.

I even looked forward to confirming my order and the chance to add new, exciting discoveries. I’ve never gotten the same feeling from shopping online at Walmart, Target, or Amazon (including Whole Foods). Imperfect was faster, easier, and more pleasant. I miss it.

My subscription to Jim’s Organic Coffee began in 2018. It’s even easier than Imperfect in the sense that I don’t think about it at all unless they send me an email, which they do sparingly. The service has been reliable and stable. And Jim’s Sweet Love Blend makes each morning better.

In my six plus years with Jim’s, there’s only been one price increase. That’s pretty amazing! And they’re great to work with. Early on, there was a month when they sent me five times as much coffee as I ordered. When I contacted them to see how to return the extra, they told me to keep all it for free. It really doesn’t get any better than that and that’s the only error on an order to date.

I’m exploring subscription options for gluten-free baked goods to fill some availability gaps and address price concerns. While I haven’t landed on the perfect thing yet, I’m enjoying the learning process.

Subscriptions are easiest when the system has you confirm your order right before shipping or when you use a predictable amount. That means they won’t be appropriate for everything. But subscriptions are worth considering for both reliability and price consistency at this time when everything else seems uncertain.

Deconstruct It

When you need a meal to cook faster, deconstruct it! And who doesn’t need a meal to cook faster? I set my own schedule and I still always feel behind. Sometimes I just need things to go quicker than they normally go.

That’s when I like to think of my kitchen as a fancy restaurant where they don’t hesitate to deconstruct things and charge me more for them. Don’t have time to worry about keeping heavier ingredients from falling to the bottom of the salad? Don’t toss it. In fact, don’t even stack it. Just put everything side-by-side on a beautiful platter and serve.

I love the presentation possibilities of a deconstructed salad. And things go faster because I can leave the eggs in halves or quarters rather than chopping them smaller. The carrots, squash, and cucumbers can be left in long strips as can chicken or steak. I can throw on some leftover asparagus, whole banana peppers, cherry tomatoes right out of the garden. Such yummy freshness!

Don’t have time to bake meatloaf for an hour+? Deconstruct it. Sauté onion and green bell pepper until onion clears. Move to the edge of pan. Place a long, flat layer of ground beef. Allow to brown for a few minutes on one side of the layer. Sprinkle the uncooked top of the meat with salt, pepper, garlic. Add a tablespoon or two of your favorite meatloaf topping. Crack an egg over it. Cover with a thin layer of gluten free bread or cracker crumbs. Gently fold toppings into meat and mix in onion and pepper. Continue to cook until meat is lightly browned.

Reconstruct it. Spray microwave safe dish with olive oil spray. Press mixture into dish and top with your favorite meatloaf topping. Microwave about 5 minutes. Serve hot. This version may not compete with the best meatloaf you’ve ever made, but it has the same satisfying flavors in less than half the time.

You can also take a deconstructed approach to chicken and rice. Instead of raw chicken in a pot of rice and cooking it, use microwave rice bowls, rotisserie chicken, and boxed chicken broth. Microwave the rice and pull the chicken off the bone. Place in a pot with a little chicken broth and any herbs or spices you desire. If you want to add some veggies, throw in some frozen English peas or a mixture of carrots and peas. Heat until vegetables are cooked and chicken is heated through. Serve.

Even dessert can be deconstructed. Sprinkle crushed vanilla wafers or graham crackers over a jar of lemon curd and top with whipped cream. Or make it fancy and layer lemon curd, vanilla wafter, and whipped cream in individual glasses.

If you’re not fond of lemon, use cherry pie filling and crushed Oreos along with whipped cream. Or mix the whipped cream with cream cheese for a deconstructed cheesecake feel.

Deconstructing allows you to use food in different quantities than you may normally. And when food is deconstructed, everyone’s plate can be different. This can mean a great opportunity to empty the pantry of small items you’ve been saving.

If you’re tired of battling against time every meal, consider doing what I do and deconstruct it!