Beyond Rice Cakes

Gluten-Free on Emeril Green Video

I hope you were all able to tune in last night to see Emeril Lagasse teach Pam and Mike to make delicious gluten-free food! It was a great episode of Emeril Green and I am so thrilled that such a well-respected chef took on making gluten-free food!

On the show, Emeril took Pam and Mike shopping through the new Whole Foods to find the best and most fresh gluten-free products. They made several dishes including Gazpacho, Italian Salad, Pizza (white and red) and Pasta Primavera.

I had my one minute and 30 seconds in the spotlight and I have to say it was definitely one of the greatest moments of my life. It was an honor to meet Emeril and to talk to him about how the gluten-free diet has changed my life. He is a wonderful chef and person and I hope our paths cross again in the future!

In case you missed it, here is a video clip of my short appearance on the show!

And, at long last, here are the recipes from the show! 

Emeril's Gazpacho
Emeril's Italian Salad
Emeril's Pizza (white and red)
Emeril's Pasta Primavera

And finally, a huge THANK YOU to all of my family, friends, co-workers and fans who sent me the sweetest messages the last few days! I am blessed to have such a wonderful group of supporters! We had a huge Emeril Green party to celebrate the episode airing! I made all of the recipes from the show plus a few of my own favorite recipes! Here are some photos..check out those stellar cupcakes! Lauren and Emily from the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness were the creative directors and came up with the brilliant idea for the green E!! And, be sure to make the cookies...they are AMAZING!

Gluten-Free Cooking on Emeril Green

Mark your calendar and set your DVR boxes!! On Tuesday October 7th at 8:30pm EST, I'm going to be on the Emeril Green cooking show!! Yes, it is only for about 2 minutes and 3 seconds, but still, one of the best experiences of my life getting to teach Emeril all about gluten-free cooking.

During this episode, Emeril will help a newlywed couple learn to cook delicious gluten-free food. The wife, Pamela, was recently diagnosed with celiac disease and wants to make sure she can make her new hubby awesome food! Emeril takes Pam on a shopping trip through the new Whole Foods store in Virginia and just happen to bump into me in the bakery!

You'll learn to make Pizza, Gazpacho, Italian Salad, and Pasta with fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes and basil!! And, the best part is that I think Emeril might actually take my advice to drink Redbridge beer...but we'll just have to wait and see if that scene made the final cut!

So be sure to tune in to Emeril Green... Tuesday October 7th at 8:30pm!!

And, yes...it did take me about 3 hours to photoshop the photo below...gotta love it!

PBS Show Spotlights Celiac Disease and Gluten-Free Diet

Get ready to set your DVR or TIVO boxes! This fall CNN Newsroom Anchor and NFCA Spokeswoman Heidi Collins will appear on the hit PBS Show Real Moms, Real Stories, Real Saavy! I was at the filming and let me tell you, the episode is going to be amazing!

"Real Moms, Real Stories, Real Savvy™" is a show that celebrates pregnancy and motherhood by informing  and educating women on critical parenting, health and emotional wellness issues. A twenty-six part weekly series, made for public television, the show offers practical advice in an engaging format with segments ranging from breastfeeding to baby nutrition to state-of-the-art baby gadgets, homemade baby food, baby sign language, holistic parenting and now celiac disease!

Heidi Collins is the official spokesperson for the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness and has spent the last two years educating the public about celiac disease and the gluten-free diet. She has used her unique platform as an anchor for CNN to help spread the message of the NFCA to millions of Americans.  She is truly a wonderful individual and the best spokeswoman an organization can have.

On the show, Heidi and the super cool host Emma, talk about Heidi's personal story of living with celiac disease and how the disease has impacted her life as a woman, a professional and a mother. They have an amazing conversation that will help the millions of viewers learn how a simple blood test can truly change your life. And, while they talk, they munch on gluten-free cakes and cookies! The show is scheduled to air mid-October, so stay tuned for an exact air date!

In the meantime, here are some photos from the filming! I was lucky enough to get to go with Heidi, so you'll see me in a photo! And, guess who else was there? Former Olympian and Bronze Medalist Nancy Kerrigan! It was a pleasure to meet her and learn all about her role as a mom!

The Best Gluten-Free Day of My Life

Alternative Appetites: Risotto

Alternative Appetites is a new series that focuses on helping you cook meals for special dietary needs. We will show you how to make gluten-free meals for people with celiac disease, dairy-free meals for people who are lactose intolerant, etc. More episodes to come. Enjoy!

View the Risotto Recipe!

Alternative Appetites: Pizza from Around the World

Oh my goodness, I have a cooking show!!
Alternative Appetites is a new series that focuses on helping you cook meals for special dietary needs.  I will show you how to make gluten-free meals for people with celiac disease, dairy-free meals for people who are lactose intolerant, etc.  More episodes to come. Enjoy!

View the Pizza Recipes!

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.