Here's the thing....BC (Before Celiac) Rob was the only one who was easy to feed in our house. I'm actually a very finicky eater. I'm not allergic to anything, I just have "textural" issues with things, so there are things that I find revolting and the list is longer that you want to know about and it's kind of random. Then there's Peter and he doesn't like squishy food, but he's getting better. And Jeremy doesn't like crunchy or spicy food, again getting better. Literally a couple of years ago, there was only a handful of items that both kids would eat; chicken nuggets, pizza, fries, hot dogs & corn dogs. Oh, AND spaghetti -- bonus -- if I got whole wheat noodles it's HEALTHY!!!! Man oh man did the wheels come off AD (After Diagnosis).
Let's start with noodles. There are GF noodles. Be very, very careful. Just because they say GF in large letters on the front doesn't mean it's 100% GF. I bought two of these packages at the supermarket at a price not much more that regular noodles and thought I got a great deal. That night I plopped a bunch of noodles in the boiling water and while they were boiling read the back of the package and got boiling mad as I read: "processed in a facility that also processes wheat." !?!?!??!!!!! Yeah -- so there are different levels of GF -- and this particular product didn't contain any glutenous ingredients and passed certain test levels, but it wasn't completely GF. So, if you have a not so sensitive celiac it might be OK, but for Rob, it's not OK. The kids ended up eating those noodles and they weren't that tasty either. Argh! So, what GF noodles do we like? The quinoa (keen-wa) noodles are good. Quinoa is tasty and it's a perfect protein. But, it tends to be a little pricey.
The other noodle option that Rob really likes is spaghetti squash instead of noodles. Just slice your squash in half, scoop out the seeds, oil a cookie or baking sheet and put your squash on it cut side down. Cook until tender at 350 - 400 degrees depending on how much of a hurry you are in. By cooking it this way it will keep the moisture in and steam itself. I like it with just butter, salt & pepper. Rob puts sauce & cheese on it though.
Let's talk sauce. The days of buying your favorite sauce, the sauce on sale, the sauce with a coupon or the sauce the kids like are gone. There are GF spaghetti sauces in the store. However, by the time we figured out which ones they were, I figured out how to can my own and that it was cheaper to can my own. So now we don't buy sauce, we make it. Recipe below.
You can use any recipe you want, but if you are using Grandma Jane's recipe from 100 years ago, you'll need to update it. Current canning standards say that you should not include oil in sauce recipes to increase shelf life because the oil tends to go rancid. You should add lemon juice to the bottom of each jar to ensure the acidity levels of the tomatoes, 1 tbsp per quart or 1 tsp per pint. And if the recipe includes garlic, leave it out. Garlic continues to get stronger while its in the jar on the shelf, so add your garlic after you open the jar. A lot of sauce recipes expect you to have a pot the size your lunch lady at the high school used. I don't have one of those and I don't buy or grow tomatoes by the bushel, so I make sauce in smaller batches.
And then there's the cheese to go on top. No more pre-grated cheese in the green canister! However, we have found that the American Parmesan tastes just as good as the "real" imported stuff. I know that seem blasphemous, but it's a whole lot less expensive. It is worth investing in one of those wheel cheese graters for your Parmesan -- whatever kind you are buying.
Spaghetti Sauce Recipe -- canning
12 lbs tomatoes (I fill up eight 32 oz 7-11 cups as my measure)
1.5 lbs onions
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp oregano
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup canning or pickling salt -- not the same as any other kind of salt!
24 oz tomato paste
Prepping tomatoes -- to peel -- blanch in boiling water for 30 - 45 seconds, then drop in ice bath, skins should peel off. Slice off the tops & then quarter them. Cut up smaller if they are huge. You want the tomatoes to be chunky, but they don't have to be diced. They will break up during cooking and more during canning. To measure the tomatoes I used a plastic drink cup that I got from 7-11 years ago. It's 32 oz and I fill it up eight times. I put the tomatoes into my big pot that I use to make jam. Add to that the onions that got chopped in the food processor, and everything except for the tomato paste. Bring everything up to a boil, reduce to simmer and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add tomato paste. Bring to a boil again. Can according to directions in the latest Blue Book of Canning or another similar reference guide using the appropriate standards for your elevation. Makes 10 pints. I can in pints. We almost always open 2 or 3 pints on spaghetti night, but it's easy to open 2 pints if you need 1 quart. However, you can't open 1/2 a quart if you need 1 pint. And if it's pizza night, we only use 1 pint.
We also use this sauce for homemade pizza. There are some frozen GF pizza crusts that Rob likes. We also like the quinoa lasagna noodles. Now, I refuse to heat up the house in the summer with the oven in the middle of the day, so I either have to make lasagna at 2 am when I'm making bread, or I have to BBQ the lasagna, or make it in the crock-pot. What? You don't use your crock-pot for lasagna? Break out that sucker -- here's your crock-pot lasagna recipe:
Crock-pot Lasagna (not an exact science)
Quinoa lasagna noodles - 2 boxes
hamburger
2 - 3 jars spaghetti sauce -- see above
garlic
GF ricotta cheese -- sigh read the whole label
GF mozzarella cheese -- ditto
GF Parmesan cheese -- ditto again
Brown hamburger & drain fat. Add sauce -- how much depends on how much you think you are making. Add crushed garlic -- if you like garlic, add a lot - if you don't just a little or none. Add a small amount of water to thin the sauce.
Spray your crock pot with GF oil spray or oil/butter your crock-pot. (PAM is NOT GF). Spoon a little sauce in the bottom of your crock pot. Spread a little ricotta onto each quinoa noodle and then put it into the bottom of the crockpot. Spoon some meat sauce over the bottom layer of noodle & cheese. Add some mozzarella on top of that. Add layers of noodle w/ ricotta, sauce, mozz until the pot is almost full, then top w/ Parmesan. Pour any extra sauce into crock-pot. Cook in crock-pot high for 2 hours or on low for 4 hours. Super tasty, feeds 4. Seems like it should feed 8 - 12, but trust me, it only feeds 4.
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