Quick snack- always a favorite!

Three simple ingredients, one sweet and healthy snack, and completely gluten free, of course. Nonfat plain or vanilla flavored Greek Style Yogurt, sliced strawberries, and a sprinkling of dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips. Perfect! This is a great snack for after a workout (great protein source), or for sitting by the pool (easy to pack in a disposable plastic container and put over ice in an insulated bag, or a great choice for an after school or after summer camp snack for the kiddies! Variations are endless: try blueberries, or raspberries or a combination, try peaches over raspberry flavored yogurt for a peach-melba twist. Have fun!

Greek-Style Chicken Sandwich

Crunchy, creamy, cool, flavorful, tangy, and gluten-free...that is how I describe this easy Greek-style meal. Three parts to this creation: the chicken sandwich, the Greek sauce (Tzatziki), and the Greek-style crunchy salad. To make the sandwich, I simply warmed Udi's gluten-free sandwich bread, and a pre-cooked chicken breast lightly seasoned with sea salt and pepper. To create the sauce, I combined Lowfat Plain Greek-Style Yogurt, lemon juice, sea salt, fresh pepper, fresh smashed and chopped garlic, and English cucumbers (both finely chopped and some smashed). To get a nice garlic-infused flavor in a hurry, I made a paste using rough sea salt and fresh garlic and pressed/smooshed them between the cutting board and the back of a large stainless steel spoon before adding it to the mixture. Finally, for the best part (in my opinion), the crunchy salad...chopped cucumbers, tomatoes (I used Roma tomatoes and English Cucumbers), Rice vinegar, olive oil, Trader Joe's Feta Cheese (I crumbled some from a large whole block), sea salt, pepper and lemon juice. My favorite way to eat this is to take the cucumber sauce and spread it over the chicken, top that with the tomato cucumber salad, and then put the sandwich back together and enjoy all the textures, flavors, and temperatures compliment each other. And this follows my general rule about food- the messier it is to eat it, the better it usually tastes! Enjoy!

One of my favorite things: Coconut ice cream

Just had to share this with you all. Coconut Bliss is truly that...bliss. It is worth the splurge every once in a while, both in money and calories...truly heavenly. I also like the Trader Joe's coconut ice creams, too, which are not only gluten free but soy free and dairy free, too! Welcome in summer with some G-Free Joy, ice cream goodness...

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Here is a traditional dish that I played around with one evening...Stuffed Peppers. In my experience, stuffed peppers are usually made with rice. Since going gluten-free, I discovered that quinoa is a very healthful and delicious grain that can replace rice in many dishes, so I thought I would test it out in this creation. Quinoa is amazing on its own...I like it steamed in chicken broth with a touch of salt as a side dish to chicken or as a base for a veggie dish.  I made a couple of peppers with a rice mixture in case the quinoa version wasn't very good but both my husband and I liked the taste of the quinoa version better!

First I placed my prepared pepper halves face down in a glass dish half filled with chicken broth. I let that steam and soften the peppers in the oven at 350* while I made the meat mixture. I browned organic, grass-fed, lean ground beef with diced onions, then added gluten free tomato paste (hunts is currently g-free as is Aldi's generic brand), gluten free tomato sauce (for this I used jarred Ragu marinara), garlic powder, sea-salt, fresh pepper, gluten free organic chicken broth, quinoa (that I had cooked in a rice cooker with chicken broth, Earth Balance, and salt) and parmesan cheese. I turned my peppers over, filled them, placed them back in the oven until the top of the mixture looked browned slightly and the peppers were tender. This was a very easy, healthy and satisfying dinner!