Thanksgiving can be rough for people who can’t tolerate gluten or who are choosing to eat gluten-free food.  Traditional recipes for pie crusts, dinner rolls, and stuffing all contain flour or bread that contains gluten.  However, there are gluten-free options available, and a recent article in the New York Times included the following recipe for gluten-free stuffing.  What are your favorite gluten-free Thanksgiving dishes?  Share them with us!

Wild Rice and Brown Rice Stuffing With Apples,   Pecans and Cranberries

Like many Thanksgiving dishes, this pilaf combines sweet and savory foods. Apples and cranberries are high in phenolic acids, which are believed to have antioxidant properties.

1 1/2 cups wild rice

3/4 cup short-grain brown rice

6 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock or water

Salt to taste

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 small or medium onion, finely chopped

1 cup diced celery

2 garlic cloves, minced (optional)

1 tablespoon butter

2 apples, cored and cut in 1/2-inch dice

1/3 cup lightly toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1. Combine the wild rice with 4 1/2 cups stock or water in one saucepan and the brown rice with 1 1/2 cups stock or water in another smaller saucepan. Add salt to taste and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer the brown rice for 35 to 40 minutes, until the rice is tender and all of the liquid has been absorbed. Turn off the heat, place a clean kitchen towel over the pot and return the lid. Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Simmer the wild rice for 40 to 50 minutes, until the grains have begun to splay. Drain through a strainer if there is liquid in the pot, and return to the pot. Place a clean kitchen towel over the pot and return the lid. Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes.

2. While the grains are cooking, prepare the remaining ingredients. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet and add the onion. Cook, stirring often, until the onion begins to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the celery and a generous pinch of salt, and continue to cook until the onion is completely tender, another 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook, stirring, until it is fragrant, another 30 to 60 seconds. Remove from the heat and transfer to a large bowl. Add the cooked grains and stir together.

3. Return the skillet to the stove and heat over medium-high heat. Add the butter, and when the foam subsides add the apples. Cook, stirring or tossing in the pan, until lightly colored, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and add to the bowl with the grains. Add the remaining ingredients and stir together. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a lightly oiled or buttered baking dish and cover with foil.

4. Warm the stuffing in a 325-degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.

Yield: Makes about 8 cups, serving 12 to 16.

Advance preparation: The cooked grains will keep for 3 days in the refrigerator and can be frozen. The stuffing benefits from being made a day ahead.

Nutritional information per serving (12 servings): 188 calories; 1 gram saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 milligrams cholesterol; 33 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 21 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 4 grams protein.
Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”

Today is not only the first day of a new month (can you believe it’s JUNE already??) but also the first Wednesday of of the month! As some of you already know – and more of you hopefully find out – we at Custom Choice Cereal do our best to make this day also known as Dr. Wangen Wednesday because our friend and advisor Dr. Stephen Wangen answers any question you might have about celiac disease, gluten intolerance and living gluten-free!

Suffering from celiac disease himself, Stephen understands the challenges of a gluten-free diet from both a personal and professional experience. Most importantly, he is very passionate about helping others like you. This passion was a call that he answered by co-founding The IBS Treatment Center in Seattle, WA, blogging as The Gluten Free Doctor, and serving on the Board of Trustees for the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America. We invite you to read more about Stephen and his books in our introduction to our advisors.

Dr. Wangen is going out of his way to provide this wonderful service, and we appreciate your understanding that out of respect for Dr. Wangen and his time we have to limit each session to 5 questions on a first-come, first-served basis. Please join us at Custom Choice Cereal in thanking Stephen for taking the time off his busy schedule to address your questions.

Asking what YOU want to know is easy and can be done in just 4 simple steps:

1. Post your question as a comment to this blog entry
2. We send all questions to Dr. Wangen
3. Dr. Wangen answers and we publish what he says in reply to your comments
4. Check back for the answer to your question a few days later or simply subscribe to our blog

Don’t be shy – there are no “dumb questions” except for those you don’t ask Besides, we learn a whole lot from what you want to know every month and are curious to see your questions!

If you’ve come to our blog you most likely know that we want to make living gluten-free a fun and enjoyable experience. Besides offering you the largest variety of custom gluten-free cereal (over 2.5 billion combination possibilities anyone?!), we at Custom Choice Cereal also see it as part of our mission to raise awareness for celiac disease and gluten intolerance. And since it’s Celiac Awareness Month, we figured we highlight one of the great resources for the gluten-free community (this and more can be found in the left sidebar).

Suffering for many years and unsuccessfully consulting 22 physicians until number 23 (!) finally diagnosed her with a rare autoimmune disease called celiac disease, Alice Bast founded the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) in 2003 out of “the desire to spare other families from needless heartache and suffering” that she went through. As a national 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, it is the organization’s goal to raise awareness for celiac disease among the general public and the healthcare community. In addition, the NFCA aims to facilitates research to better understand the causes, mechanisms, and treatment of celiac disease. After all she has accomplished with her organization, Hajo was understandably thrilled to personally meet Alice at the Gluten-Free Labeling Summit in Washington, DC, last week.

Not only is everyone on the the NFCA’s team a great advocate for increased gluten-free food safety, the organization and its website are also outstanding resources for the newly diagnosed as well as support group leaders and celiac “veterans”. What we consider some of the most useful features are the printable guides, including a celiac disease symptoms checklist, celiac disease and women’s health, several great documents on restoring health after diagnosis and helpful advice to manage everyday gluten-free living. We frequently check their website for updates on the gluten-free industry and new research and highly recommend you join the NFCA’s mailing list.

Have you visited the NFCA’s website before? Maybe you let us know what you found most helpful or interesting? We can’t mention everything on this awesome website but we certainly are always eager to learn!

Puuuh. Now this was a week of intense travel for me representing Custom Choice Cereal! It all started with the Charlotte Gluten-Free Expo last Saturday, which was truly awesome and great fun.

This week then continued with the long anticipated Gluten-Free Labeling Summit in Washington, DC, where the world’s largest gluten-free cake was assembled to raise awareness for the lack of clear standards in gluten-free product labeling. The FDA was also there, and I think the mission to make them aware how important food safety is for people who suffer from celiac disease or gluten intolerance was accomplished. We at Custom Choice Cereal are so proud to have donated to this much needed and wonderful event!

It was awesome to see friends from the community such as Jules Shepard, Nancy Ginter from the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA), and Tinsley Meloy from Celiebo again. On top of that, I finally also had the chance to meet 1in133.org co-initiator John Forberger, Jill Brack from Glow Gluten Free, Dr. Alessio Fasano from the Maryland University’s Center for Celiac Research, the NFCA’s founder Alice Bast, and many more. Everyone was excited to be there, and watching the cake grow to 11 feet and 2 inches (!!) throughout the day was great fun!

You can watch a video of the cake being built on the Custom Choice Cereal facebook page. And I am just wondering: when was the last time you needed ladders to build a cake?!?

Yesterday, I finished my travel-intense week with a sweet “little” 586 mile trip from DC to Wilmington, NC, to speak to a local celiac disease support group. I always love meeting people in those groups! This one was a particular joy though because it was local for us in North Carolina. Not so local was the 9.5 hour drive DC-Wilmington-Chapel Hill… But at least it was a gorgeous day, and meeting others in the celiac community is what I love most about my job. Hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!