Condiments

A friend calls her allergy and gluten-free lifestyle  a Freedom (free from) Diet. 😃

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Alfredo Sauce, Wheat-Free

2 tablespoons soy-free margarine
2 - 3 tablespoons gluten-free all purpose 1 for 1 flour or 3 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
2 cups plant milk
1 cup dairy-free shredded cheese 

Melt margarine in saucepan. Then stir in gluten-free flour until it becomes pasty. Pour in plant milk and stir the roux in. Keep cooking until it thickens slightly. Dump in shredded cheese and stir until melted. Remove from heat and pour over cooked pasta. Stir in, eat and enjoy!

Travel Tip: I made up a batch to take with me on vacation and stored it in a wide mouth, 24- ounce canning jar in a cooler and then put it in the refrigerator when we got to the Airbnb. One large jar makes two batches of wheat-free pasta. To heat the sauce up after being in the fridge, I melted some margarine in a sauce pan, spooned out half of the sauce and added more plant milk until it melted down into a gooey sauce, dumped in the pre-cooked pasta and mixed it altogether. It was yum!

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Blender Mayonnaise 

2 large pasteurized eggs

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

pinch of salt

1 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

Optional Herb:

1/2 teaspoon dried dill 

Add the eggs, mustard and salt into a blender container. Pour the oil over the previous mixture, then the vinegar, water and cornstarch.  Whirl on whip setting until frothy and white like mayonnaise. Blend until thickened and combined. Add any seasonings at the very end. Store in a wide-mouth canning jar in the frig for up to four days. 

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We have not been able to find a low-sodium, garlic or onion-free stock, so this is my solution for making my own. 

Meal Prep: Low-Sodium Homemade Stock Tip 

Save any bit of water from boiling or slow-cooking meats into a canning jar. Let it sit in the fridge overnight and the next day scoop off the thick fat that rose to the top of the jar. Add the fat to an empty vegetable can that you saved for that purpose and put the can into the freezer to be thrown out on your next trash pickup day.

Save the meat liquid in 1/2 cup Souper cubes in the freezer. When the stock is frozen, push out the cubes and place the "bricks" into a gallon size zippy bag to save for soups and other meals to add a bit more flavor.

Keystone Meats have been cooked in the can. I remove the white fat from the can and save the liquid that comes with the meat for gravy later. Yum! 

One of my girlfriends said she makes stock from beef or chicken bones that she has removed the meat from and several vegetables like carrots, celery leaves, etc.  She boils the mixture for about an hour, then lets it simmer all day to cook down and concentrate, then adds the strained liquid to a Souper Cube to freeze it. 

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Tip: Olive oil and red wine vinegar makes a great salad dressing! 

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What are Little Girls Made Of? Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice!

 ⮞ Variety may be the spice of life, however, ⮜
 there is no garlic or onion here! 

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Dried Celery Powder - 1 substitute flavor for garlic or onions

If you have a home dehydrator, wash, then chop up several stalks of celery into about 1 inch pieces and dehydrate. 

I purchased a container of dried celery pieces from Amazon. When it came I dumped the dried celery out into a bowl, saving the container and lid for later and then ran the dried celery several times through my Magic Bullet blender until it became powdery. To make sure there were no large bits in the powder, I dumped the powder through a sieve into a bowl after the blender step and anything that was caught in the sieve went back into the Magic Bullet. When all the celery was pulverized, I dumped it all back in the original container and screwed back on the lid. I use it from time to time in my foods to give it added flavor. 

Amazon: Dried Carrot Pieces

Amazon: Dried Red Sweet Peppers

Grind same as for the dried celery powder. 

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🔴 Low-sodium tip: I can’t use Mrs. Dash as it has garlic (allergic), onion (intolerant), and pepper (GERD restriction) in it. I read somewhere online that one can use nutritional yeast instead, so I’ve been sprinkling it on top of my plated food. It is yum and I don’t even miss the salt. 

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SMALL JAR TIP: I have a collection of small glass jars. I use them as containers for the spices and herbs I purchase in bulk from Amazon, county or state fairs, ethnic, farmer's markets, or organic grocery stores, street markets, vendor shows, etc.

I also have collected a number of different lids for the jars. My most helpful ones are the flat sealing lid and ring (canning jar Genie vacuum sealer), white plastic lids, and shaker lids. 

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Salt-Free Herb Blend

1 bottle dried thyme

1 bottle dried sage

1 bottle dried rosemary

1 bottle dried marjoram

Buy one bottle of each (about the same size) of the herbs above and dump all of them into a bowl, saving the bottles, shaker lids, and bottle lids. Set aside. Stir all ingredients together, then grind a small amount at a time in a Magic Bullet or other small blender until the herb mixture is a fine powder. Dump the powder into another bowl and continue to grind until the first bowl is empty. When all the herbs have been ground into a fine powder, return spoonfuls of the mixture into the saved bottles, using a small funnel as needed. When each bottle is full, snap the shaker lids back on, cover with a saved jar lid and label. Sprinkle over foods as you would salt. Yum!

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Shelley's Baking Powder Recipe

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Equals 1 teaspoon baking powder. 

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