Homemade Gluten Free Hamburger Helper

Do you like Hamburger Helper? It's okay to say, "yes". There's no judgement going on here from my end. I'm doing a whole blog post on it so I have no room to judge. I won't tell anyone if you do say, "yes". Your secret is safe with me.

If you did say, "yes", definitely keep reading on. You don't even have to be gluten free. I started making this as a non gluten free recipe and just decided one night that I wanted it so I adapted it to be gluten free, which wasn't hard at all.

I'm not quite sure how my mother ever convinced me to try Hamburger Helper with as picky as I was. She did though and it's now one of those guilty pleasures of mine. When I decided I wanted to eat a little more consciously, this is one of the things I took a look at. We didn't eat it often but when we did, I knew there were absolutely no redeeming qualities about it whatsoever and looked to see if I could change it. 

My first move was to replace the Betty Crocker brand with the Annie's brand. Annie's was made with more natural ingredients and I felt better serving it when we did have it. I was buying it at Target and then it disappeared. I would check every time I went in and it never showed back up. I was quite disappointed because it was actually so much better than the Betty Crocker brand. It had a really decent taste to it, no matter how bad it looked in your bowl. I did see it still on the shelves of one of the supermarkets here. However, they wanted over $5 a box for it. There was NO way I was paying that much for a box that had a little itty bit of pasta and a pouch of seasonings in it. No way, no how. I decided to see if I could make it at home. Of course I could.

I made it a few times and again, so much better than the Betty Crocker brand. Who knew in all those years that I'd been eating that brand that there were alternatives out there that were not only better for you, but tasted better too. When you are making it right from the start in your own kitchen, you have control over every ingredient in it and that is a huge plus when you are trying to eat more consciously. I was happy to have found my way to making homemade Hamburger Helper.

Fast forward to my current eating limitations. I hadn't thought about Hamburger Helper of any sort in a while until I had wandered into an odd lot store a couple months ago. They had a gluten free version of it put out by Sam Mills. I love, love, love Sam Mills gluten free corn pasta so I grabbed a couple boxes. They were due to expire within the next 6 weeks so 2 were more than enough. We tried it and it was pretty darn good. More like the Annie's brand than Betty Crocker in flavor. I searched around to see if I could find this anywhere else with better sell by dates but it just wasn't happening so I forgot about it.

That was until this week. I got a craving. I know, a craving for Hamburger Helper? Yeah, it happened. What can I say? I know most people crave things that are much more distinguished than slop like this. Tomorrow I may very well be craving something much more hoity-toity but for now I'm running with the Helper.

I pulled up a search for "homemade cheeseburger Hamburger Helper" and they all came up. They're all very similar but I used this one from Food.com:

Homemade Cheeseburger Macaroni Hamburger Helper  

This is what I did differently:

-The most obvious, in my case, would be to swap out the regular pasta for gluten free. I used DeBoles Corn Pasta and it turned out quite well. I only cooked it for about 8 minutes instead of the suggested 12. It was tender at that point and I didn't want to risk over cooking it to the point where it completely disintegrated. I won't be buying this brand again though as there is no mention of it being GMO free on the box or their website.

-I used grass fed ground beef. Luckily, we have a store right in our city that sells this for a pretty reasonable price. I always have a few pounds in my freezer for main meal dishes similar to this or to make a few burger patties with. 

-I used organic cornstarch so that I could be sure that the corn was not from GMO sources. It is so hard to avoid food with GMO's in them so when I can, I grab every opportunity to buy ingredients that I know do not have them. 

That's pretty much it.  I didn't bother taking a picture of it. We all know what it looks like and we all know it's not pretty. I would like to encourage you to actually try this and I'm pretty sure any picture I could take would only do the opposite. 

So, if you are a proud Hamburger Helper lover, a closet Hamburger Helper lover or just a brave soul who is willing to give something new a try, give this a whirl. If someone presented this recipe to you as a one skillet dinner recipe with no knowledge of Hamburger Helper ever existing, it might not sound too bad, right? Maybe? Enjoy!

Woodman's of Essex

I received the phone call about my celiac diagnosis on a Thursday morning. That weekend we were supposed to take a day trip up to Maine. We kind of, sort of eat our way through Maine. Don't get me wrong, we love the ocean, the rocky coast, the lighthouses...all that coastal Maine has to offer. We also love the fried seafood, Stonewall Kitchen, Brown's Ice Cream and Congdon's Donuts too.  

I contacted one of the places we go to for fried seafood because I saw on a message board somewhere that they will do your fried seafood gluten free. I was ecstatic. I wanted to confirm this though. I was new to all of this and really wasn't sure about much of anything. They got back to me right away and told me that while they can adapt their fried seafood coating to be gluten free that they do still fry it in the same oil as the seafood that's coated with flour and they cannot guarantee anything to be gluten free as flour is "flying in the air" in their kitchen. Hmmph. They fry chicken and other non seafood items in their French fry fryer for those who have shellfish allergies so they weren't able to fry any gluten free seafood in that fryer either. 

I was going to go for it since it was only a couple days after my fated phone call. However, It turned out that we did not go up there that weekend. My husband had spent the day before traveling home from a business trip and was much more wiped out than he thought he'd be. I thought I lost my one and only chance to ever have fried seafood ever again. After that point, I was not going to mess with my gluten free diet.

That was until the next time we decided to go up to Maine. I was searching around online to see, if by chance, there was any hope of finding gluten free fried seafood up that way. There are clam shacks on every corner, it seems, someone had to have gluten free fried seafood. Amazingly enough, I found nothing in Maine but I did find something in Massachusetts. Woodman's of Essex.

Most people who are into fried seafood, particularly fried clams, and who are also familiar with the Boston area, are aware of Woodman's. We had never been ourselves because there had not been much reason for us to head out that way but, I have had a catered Woodman's clam bake before at a house party. They are reportedly the creators of the fried clam. Parts of the movie Grownups was filmed there. It's a not a very fancy place at all located along a road filled with antique stores. And...it has gluten free fried seafood. 

In fact, everything on their menu just happens to be gluten free expect for their onion rings, clamcakes and sandwiches. Holy Cow! When I read this I was so flipping happy. I truly thought that I'd never find gluten free fried seafood.  

We have been twice now.  The first time we went there was shortly after I'd been diagnosed. I was still extremely hesitant about eating out. The menu on Woodman's website made me feel confident about ordering there. I was so very pleased with the ease of ordering and not feeling like I had to worry about getting sick after eating there. 

Both times we've been I indicated to the cashier that I was gluten free before placing my order. Because you get both fries and onion rings with your order, you are then asked if you would like double fries or coleslaw instead of the onion rings. I have picked double fries both times. I noticed after the cashier rang in my order that she rang in something on the cash register to indicate that the order was "gluten free". 

When it came time to pick up the order, my plate was separate from the other two plates in our order. They don't use trays, instead they use Budweiser beer boxes for your orders and mine was sitting in it's own box. The person at the pick up counter slid my box forward and told us that it was "gluten free".  

The first visit here this was so very comforting to me. I felt even a little emotional about it all. Someone cared enough to provide such an easy gluten free fried seafood experience for me! Well, for me and everyone else who requires gluten free fried seafood. I guess it wasn't just for me, but it did make me feel very special to be eating something I thought I had to give up forever.

Eating at a place like Woodman's makes you feel "normal". Completely normal. 100% normal. There's really nothing all that different about your plate than that of the person sitting next to you. In fact, because I hate onions SO very much, I'd ask for double fries anyway.  

I'm grateful to have Woodman's in my region. It's a little bit of a ride and we have to make a day trip out of it but that is fine by me.  If it were much closer I'm afraid I'd be in jeopardy of never losing this extra weight I'm carrying around. If we make it there a couple times a year it will be just perfect. I know they have a Budweiser box with my name on it waiting for me!   

Gluten Free Apple Crisp

This has always been my go-to apple crisp recipe with a bunch of tweaks. I'm not super fond of apple crisp. My idea of dessert does not always include something that has fruit in it, even if the fruit is surrounded with all kinds of not good for you stuff. However, this has enough not good for you stuff that I can tolerate it. 

I wondered if I could do this gluten free. I figured apple crisp would be one of the easier things to convert since there are easy substitutions for the gluten containing ingredients that it does contain. I gave it a whirl and I do believe I have success. 

I had Bob's Red Mill gluten free oats on hand so those were used for the oats. Oats are gluten free but from what I understand, they are almost always processed on the same equipment as wheat so it's very important that if you are using oats to make sure at they are gluten free. I also understand that some people with celiac disease have a hard time tolerating oats as well. I've not found this to be the case so far for myself, luckily.

The flour I used was a mixture of the little bit of Trader Joe's gluten free all-purpose flour I had left and a little bit of King Arthur's gluten free all-purpose flour. 

In keeping with the original purpose of my blog of buying more consciously, I did do a few things to go along with that. I used Cabot butter because they are a farmer owned company and free of growth hormones. While the apples I used were not organic, they were Eco-Grown apples. This method uses less pesticides and less toxic ones at that, as I am I understanding from their website. I also used real organic maple syrup. I love that BJ's, my area warehouse store, has this at such an excellent price. I feel very fortunate about that.

If you're not gluten free you can certainly make this with non gluten free ingredients.  I did for years. Throw some vanilla ice cream on top and enjoy it, gluten free or not!

 

Gluten Free Apple Crisp

Adapted from:  Maple Apple Crisp at Allrecipes.com

- 5 medium apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I slice them and throw them in the baking dish to see how it's filling up and add more as needed)

- 2 tbsp gluten free all-purpose flour

- 3/4 tsp cinnamon

- 1/4 tsp nutmeg

- 3/4 cup pure maple syrup (not pancake syrup)

- 1 cup gluten free all-purpose flour

- 1 cup gluten free whole rolled oats

- 1 cup brown sugar, packed

- 1 pinch salt

- 1 stick butter (please don't use margarine, the taste will be so much better)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Put prepared apples into a large bowl with flour, cinnamon and nutmeg and toss until apples are coated with flour and spices. Place apples into an 8x8 baking dish. Pour maple syrup evenly over apples. Set baking dish aside.

Wipe the apple mixing bowl dry and put the flour, oats, brown sugar and salt into it. Stir together until everything is thoroughly mixed together. Cut butter into about 8 pieces and put the pieces into the bowl. With your hands, get in there and mix it all up until it's completely combined. 

Top the apples in the baking dish with the dry mixture. Make sure to evenly cover it, get the corners. Everyone needs their fair share of topping!  

Pop this in the oven for about 35-45 minutes, or until the apples are tender. It will get very bubbly but I've not had a problem with the juices flowing over. If you do notice that it looks like that's going to happen, just slip a baking sheet under it.