Wednesday, March 11, 2020 at Magnuson Hall, Room 121, from 9-11 a.m. (parking fee required)

Thursday, April 30, 2020 at the Colville Campus, from 2:30-4:30 p.m. (free parking)

Saturday, May 2, 2020, at Magnuson Hall from 12-2 p.m. (free parking)

Registration in advance is required – classes must meet a student quota or will be cancelled 1 week prior to class date – so make sure to call and get yourself a spot! Classes cost around $7 per person. Call 509-279-6030 or 800-845-3324 and choose option 1 to be connected to a registration agent.

On Saturday, the 13th, I’ll be teaching a class for Gluten-Free Living at Crave Northwest. Crave! is a 3-day celebration of food in Spokane Valley at the Centerplace Regional Event Center. My class is free with admission to the Grand Tasting. It will be my first time at Crave! and I look forward to checking it out! Hope to see you there. For more information on CraveNW!, go to CraveNW.com. #food #glutenfree #CraveNW

The upcoming class schedule is as follows:

SPOKANE
Magnuson Hall, SFCC, 2917 W Fort George Wright Drive, Spokane, WA 99224
Thursday, August 23, 2018 11:30AM – 1:30PM
Cost: $8.00 (There is a charge for parking at this location.)

COLFAX
Whitman County Library, 110 S. Main Street, Colfax, WA
Thursday, October 4, 2018 4:30PM – 6:30PM
Cost: $8.00

NEWPORT
Newport Center Campus, 1204 W. Fifth St., Newport, WA 99156
Thursday, October 18, 2018 2:00PM – 4:00PM
Cost: $8.00

SPOKANE VALLEY
CenterPlace, 2426 N. Discovery Place, Spokane Valley, WA 99216
Thursday, October 25, 2018 9:00AM – 11:00AM
Cost: $8.00

The class will cover the basics, and will take the guesswork out of eating, shopping, and traveling gluten-free.

“Cole’s Bakery and Café is the perfect location for this,” Brooks, who teaches “Gluten-Free Living 101” for Community Colleges of Spokane, said. “It’s the only dedicated gluten-free restaurant within hundreds of miles.” Almost immediately after being diagnosed with wheat intolerance in 2006, Brooks began blogging about it to help others struggling with their own journeys. In 2016, she began recording video tutorials to help newbies shop gluten-free.

Jeanine Smith, who opened Cole’s Bakery and Café back in 2014, was diagnosed with celiac disease nearly 15 years ago. “We wanted to put together a free class to provide folks with some guidance. There are a lot of people out there having difficulties with going gluten-free. Hopefully this will make it easier for them,” Smith said.

For more information on the free classes, contact Cole’s Bakery and Café at 509-413-1739. Learn more about Cole’s at http://colesbakeryandcafe.com. K.S. Brooks’s gluten-free blog is at https://glutenfreegusto.wordpress.com.

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Here’s a round-up of some foods I can’t recommend. In fact, I shudder to think of them. Here you go:

Okay, I’ve had seaweed before, and I like it, honestly. But this… I don’t know what this was. It was everything I could do to choke one of those cellophane-thin wafers down. I really thought it tasted and smelled like raw sewage. Conversely, I gave them to a friend who absolutely loved them and asked me to buy out every package they had in the store. So, go figure.

These John Soules Foods Seasoned & Thinly Sliced Beef Steaks – “fully cooked restaurant quality” mind you – literally made me sick. I was shocked. They were not spicy in any way – in fact, they were non-descript. I was stunned that they even had seasoned on the packaging. I was especially surprised by this because I have really enjoyed this companies chicken products. I sauteed them (just like I do with the chicken) with sweet onions, and then put them on a Mission gluten-free tortilla with shredded cheese and sour cream. Even with all that yummy stuff – I don’t know where these went wrong, but they did, and in a big way.

After letting it sit – it never absorbed the water….

Bob’s Red Mill is usually a great brand, but this gluten-free oatmeal with flax and chia was nasty, nasty, nasty. I like thick and hearty oatmeal – this was runny and never seemed to absorb the boiling water the way it should. I followed the directions, and even let it sit a little longer in hopes it would thicken up. Nope. And the taste wasn’t great either.

And this stuff goes into the NOT HAPPENING category. I couldn’t make myself eat more than three bites – that’s how nasty this is. I was really disappointed, because finding a gluten-free high-protein meat snack is not easy, as you probably know. Beef tastes good, and elk is great – so what they did to this to make it taste so rancid is beyond me. I thought maybe if I wrapped it in cheese, that would overpower the horrible fake sweetener taste, but the cheese was no match for the foul, pungent flavor. Done. Trash. Buh-bye. *shudder*

So there you have it. If you try these foods and don’t agree with me, please let me know. I want to be fair. But I also want to be honest so…. YUCK.

Preheating the toaster oven.

Well, perhaps my expectations on these are the problem here. When I saw the box, and the description on it, I got excited. Something different, and it appeared to be low carb (compared to everything else, mind you), so woot! But I didn’t read the box carefully enough. If I had, I would have realized that 4 servings in this box would mean each serving was small.  One pupusa per serving. So, no, it’s not a standalone meal. My bad.

What is a pupusa, you ask? Well, it was my first time, and in this case, it is a stuffed corn tortilla (thicker than I’m used to) with seasoned chicken, mozzarella cheese, and beans. There seems to be a wide variety of how these are prepared, so it could be completely different wherever you live.

You can either cook these in the frying pan or in the oven, so I chose to use the toaster oven. I have to say, the flavor is excellent. The corn shell is crispy on the outside and smooth (sometimes grainy) on the inside. The chicken filling is not shredded, it’s more pulverized, but it is savory. Next, I tried in the frying pan. I mean, fried is always better, right? And it was good that way, too.

I think this would be great as a side or as a snack, but not as a meal. You can learn more about Tres Pupusas (they have 5 different flavors, and some of them are vegetarian-friendly) on their website at http://trespupusas.com/.

RECOMMENDED

Cooked in the toaster oven.

Going in I thought they might be a little light on flavor, so I was standing by with some Litehouse OPA Bleu Cheese dressing, but these little cakes are robust enough on their own. I wasn’t expecting them to be as hearty as they are, either, as they were a bit smaller than I expected.

As I ate them (2 cakes per serving per the packaging), the pepper started to build up in my mouth, eventually burning my tongue. Of course, you normal people won’t have a problem with it. I started out eating with a fork, but they are sturdy enough that you can just eat them with your hand, like an English muffin.

INGREDIENTS: broccoli, potatoes, onions, expeller pressed canola oil, oat bran, potato flakes, egg whites, arrowroot powder, sea salt, garlic, black pepper.

STATS: 130 calories, 6g fat, 0 cholesterol, 16g carbs, 3g dietary fiber, 4g protein.

I baked these in my toaster oven, the manufacturer’s preferred method, and I did have to cook them a few minutes longer than they advise. But they came out dry and a little crisp on the outside, and moist and hot on the inside. Great combination.

Since these come individually wrapped, I think next time I will make just one and have it instead of toast with scrambled eggs. I think the flavors will complement each other well. For more info: drPraegers.com

And the news gets even better. These are 98% fat free, with 60 calories, 1 gram of fat, 520 mg sodium, 3 carbs, and 10 g protein.

I usually get just about five servings per container, so the value is pretty good at a price of around $3.99 for 9 ounces. They do also offer family-size packages. It’s great in sandwiches and salads. Check out my salad recipe below. There are 38 different Delifresh flavors – but I’m not certain ALL of them are gluten-free, so make sure to check the top of the package. Learn more at http://www.oscarmayer.com/cold-cuts#deli-fresh

RECIPE:

Kat’s Gluten-Free Salad

• Bag o’ Salad
• Oscar Mayer Delifresh Cold Cuts sliced up
• Black olives, chopped
• Cucumber, sliced
• Mandarin orange pieces, chopped
• Nuts (cashews or almonds)
• Juanita’s gluten-free tortilla chips, crushed (for topping)
• Litehouse Pear Gorgonzola Vinaigrette Dressing
• Optional: bacon bits, hard-boiled egg, other vegetables of your choice.

Simple, easy. Mix everything together. Top with the nuts and the tortilla chips for a nice crunch factor. Drizzle with the awesome Litehouse dressing (gluten-free, of course!) The mandarin oranges add a nice tang and more moisture so you use less dressing (although, this Litehouse dressing has only 50 calories and 2.5 g of fat per serving!).

ENJOY!

You can get this flan pretty much anywhere in your grocer’s refrigerated pudding section. The picture on Kozy Shack’s website looks a lot nicer than mine. It didn’t exactly slide out of the cup for me. I guess practice will make perfect on that, and I’m willing to sacrifice eating a bunch until I get it right.

As in all Kozy Shack products, the flan contains natural ingredients: Reduced fat milk, sugar, caramel syrup (sugar, natural flavor, xanthan gum), eggs, contains less than 2% of carrageenan, locust bean gum, salt, natural flavor, annatto extract (color).

Next time you need a light, gluten-free dessert, try out Kozy Shack’s flan. You’re welcome.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Okay, call me silly, but I saw cinnamon rolls on the outside of this package (cinnamon roll flavor), saw that it was 4g net carbs and 20g protein, saw that it was made with whey and milk protein instead of soy, and I thought – WINNER! Well, write this down, people: I was wrong.

The consistency is akin to an old squeeze-tube of astronaut food that’s starting to solidify. (Check out the beef and vegetables in a tube in case you were born after 1964. Smart aleck.) At least you can sink your teeth into these, so I can get by the borderline grittiness of it. And never mind the color. We won’t even go there. I could get past that, too. But the flavor? It was nothing like cinnamon. Honestly? It tastes like SOAP.

But that’s not all! Silly me went and bought two at the same time because they were on sale.

The double chocolate chunk tastes like chocolatey soap and is more tolerable.

In a pinch, you could get by with these. They’re certainly better than starving. But I will always go back to my Lara Bars if I am given the choice.