PodCasts: Using New Technologies to Learn to Cook Delicious Gluten-Free Meals

 Upon first diagnosis, many people with celiac disease think that eliminating wheat, barley and rye from their diets is a curse and the worst possible thing that could ever happen. They think they will never again consume greasy New York-style pizza or indulge in luscious desserts. WRONG!

Ok, so I’m a total hypocrite. I definitely was that drama queen who called my mom crying because I couldn’t eat delivery pizza at 3am with all of my friends and I certainly couldn’t drink beer at the bars. So there I sat…sober and hungry, all because I had celiac disease.

It took about six months and a big shove from the amazing NFCA Executive Director Alice Bast to whip me into shape. She plotted with my mom to convince me to start exploring my grandmother’s recipe box and constantly reminded me that, for the first time in my life, I was healthy. It didn’t take long to figure out that having a positive attitude, along with adding a little bit of creativity to the recipes to eliminate gluten, resulted in delicious gluten-free meals and a much happier outlook on life.

Fast forward nearly two years…I pooled together 150 of my favorite recipes and came up with my favorite tips for living a happy and healthy gluten-free lifestyle, and in September 2006, published Beyond Rice Cakes: A Young Person’s Guide to Cooking, Eating & Living Gluten-Free. Did you know that 100% of the proceeds from the book are donated to the NFCA?

On November 21, 2006, CNN Newsroom Anchor Heidi Collins and CNN Medical Correspondent Christy Feig aired a cooking segment featuring several recipes from Beyond Rice Cakes. This was by far one of the most exciting days of my entire life! The lights, cameras and excitement of being filmed for television were incredible! Click here to watch the segment.

The response to the segment was positively overwhelming and after receiving more than 200 emails requesting more in-depth segments, NFCA and its Board of Directors decided to expand on the two-minute cooking segment and produce an entire series of gluten-free cooking PodCasts. The video
segments will first be aired individually and, eventually, edited together into a full-length DVD cooking package.

Now, hold on…Many you are probably wondering what on earth is a PodCast?? According to the definition on Wikipedia, a PodCast is:

A media file that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers. Similar to radio, it can mean both the content and the method of syndication. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. The term "podcast" is a portmanteau of the name of Apple's portable music player, the iPod, and broadcast; a pod refers to a container of some sort and the idea of broadcasting to a container or pod correctly describes the process of
podcasting.

Basically what this means is that by simply visiting www.CeliacCentral.org, iTunes, YouTube or Google Video, you’ll be able to download full-feature video podcasts that will teach you to cook scrumptious gluten-free meals from the comfort of your own home!

Over the next year, there will be a series of podcasts, featuring yours truly and several guest celebrity chefs…Carrie Levin of Good Enough to Eat and Jehangir Mehta of Partistry, just to name a few. CNN Newsroom Anchor Heidi Collins and her son will also put on their cooking aprons to share some of their favorite gluten-free recipes!

Here’s a sample of the cuisines you’ll learn to cook:

American Classics    Mexican Cuisine    Snack Time    Dinner in No Time
Italian Cuisine    Decadent Desserts    Party Time    Goal = Leftovers
Spanish Tapas    Chocolate Heaven    Bar Tab    Cakes
Chinese Cuisine    Fruit Sensations    Kids Corner    Pies
Japanese Cuisine    Carb-o-licious    Guide to Gluten-Free Flours    Cookies
Thai Cuisine    Baked Goods    Spices    Toppers

Calling All Cooks!

Do you have a favorite recipe that fits into one of these categories? If so, submit your recipe to PodCast@celiaccentral.org. You’ll hear back promptly if your recipe is selected to be featured in a podcast! 

Calling all sponsors and food vendors:

Each podcast will feature a variety of gluten-free products. If you would like to become a podcast sponsor and see your products aired in the series, please contact me at Vanessa@celiaccentral.org or by phone at 215-692-2639.