Gluten Free Italian Pasta Salad - Back To School Side Dish

It's school time again and parents are beginning to prepare for the year's lunch challenges.

With the option of sandwiches on our favorite bread by Udi's Gluten Free Bakery my daughter likes to have a side dish to accompany it. And instead of just throwing some Utz chips in each and every time, I like to serve a side of gluten free pasta salad with some fruit to accompany it. Our favorite pasta for pasta salads is Farmo corn & rice Fusilli. But if you have a corn allergy to deal with, then Mrs. Leeper's Rice Vegetable Twists work nicely. I buy either brand at Healthy Home Market or Earth Fare in the Charlotte area.

This recipe is a take-off from the one on glutenfree.com and makes enough you can send it for a few lunches or to serve the next night for dinner. It's even better after a day of marinating in the fridge:-)

Gluten Free Mediterranean Pasta Salad

4 cups (uncooked) pasta, cooked according to package directions

3/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives, coarsely chopped

20 cherry tomatoes, quartered

3/4 cup roasted red peppers, coarsely chopped

3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, if tolerated

1/2 cup of minced red onion

1/2 cup of celery
3/4 cup of shredded carrot

4 teaspoons Italian seasoning blend

1/2 cup prepared Italian or Greek dressing (more if desired)

Combine all ingredients. Toss to combine. Chill for 1hour. Serve and enjoy.

Taste before adding salt as the feta and the olives are salty.

Kid Friendly Gluten Free Alternatives That Are Healthier & Easy

Two of the mothers of some of our R.O.C.K. Stars had an email thread going on recipes which I found to have some very good ideas for gluten free kid friendly treats. It is hard to find good ideas for inexpensive and easy gluten free recipes for kids which they adore and to also fill in the gaps so that they don't feel they are missing out on old favorites. If your kids are like mine, they eat pigs in a blanket or pizza rolls regardless of warm or cool...

And just think - You can actually make two options that are usually laced with questionable ingredients in a healthier way:-)

Gluten Free Pigs In A Blanket

One package of Chebe Pizza Dough

One package of Gluten Free Smoked Cocktail Sausages - There are many brands available in major grocery stores like John Morrell smoked sausages available at Bi-Lo. If you are nitrate free there are many available for mail order online:-)

Optional addition is cheese or cheese filled sausages

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the gluten free sausages on a pan and stick into preheated oven for about 10 minutes to precook them.

Prepare the Chebe dough mix as directed on their package but add a little more milk until the dough becomes slightly gooey.

Cool the sausages and then wrap a small bit of the Chebe dough around each one - A little goes a long way. (Wrap the cheese around them first if you want to add it)

Then place the dough wrapped sausages back into the oven for around 15 minutes or until the dough lightly browns. Serve with gluten free katsup, mustard, BBQ sauce or plain - Whatever you desire:-)

Click to view actual label of ingredients and nutritional values or lack thereof in Totino's Pizza Rolls

Gluten Free Pizza Rolls (Better Than Totino's)

Use Chebe Pizza Dough Mix to make "Totinos" pizza rolls...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare Chebe Pizza Dough Mix as suggested on package.

Roll it really thin, cut in rectangles and place pizza toppings in the middle of rectangle. Close up the rectangle by bringing ends together to make a "pizza pocket".  Bake for only about 10-12 min.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Spells Out Common Issues For All Parents

This season on ABC, Jamie Oliver is taking on a small town in Huntington, West Virginia in order to try and change the American school lunch system on the show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution which airs on Friday evenings at 9/8 Central time.
It is a very admirable and daunting task at hand and yet his winning spirit is shining through.

As a gluten free parent, I have hopes that if the school lunch programs were changed from processed food, that my daughter would be able to find healthy alternatives at school rather than in a packed lunch. I am sure that most parents would feel better about school lunches if that were the case. I think we forget that most parents are facing very similar struggles each week when the school lunch menu is revealed.

However, while watching the show there are a few facts that are shatteringly clear:

1. Not only are our gluten free children better off in the long run than on a regular school lunch program, but processed food could have been a catalyst for the onset of their medical issues to begin with. After all every immune disorder has to have a catalyst. How many of us were innocently opting for processed food all along from our children's conception to the time of their diagnosis? The question lingers for me quite often since diabetes and celiac are linked in some cases and other food allergies often accompany a celiac diagnosis.

2. Our children are blank slates begging for the knowledge of experiencing new things which includes starting a healthy relationship with their food by getting involved in the cooking. They are proven to be less likely to form negative opinions once they are taught about a new vegetable or food and then cook that very same food themselves - They will invariably at least try it.

3. Convenience and affordability outweigh the average consumer's viewpoints on food's nutritional values. Perhaps this is why movements like Slow Food or Food, Inc. have taken some time in becoming popular and only reach a certain faction of the general public. Thank goodness for people like Oprah and Jamie Oliver for at least making the subject matter more mainstream.

4. For gluten free parents, the struggles with providing nutritional alternatives are normal in the overall challenges that many parents face. The myth that the schools are providing our children with the right nutritional choices has got to be put to rest and we all need to get more involved with that process. The old saying, "It takes a village to raise a child" is clearly having to be revisited for parents everywhere when they watch The Food Revolution.

Kudos to Jamie Oliver for tackling the challenges and bringing the realities back home that we should have been aware of all along.

Here is a preview of one episode:

Watch The Food Revolution every Friday night on ABC.