Spring 2020 Upcoming Classes

The Community Colleges of Spokane will be hosting Gluten-Free Living classes at the following dates, times, and locations:

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.

Upcoming Class at Crave! NW

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

Upcoming Gluten-Free Classes through Community Colleges of Spokane

Thinking of going gluten-free? Don’t know how or where to start? Get the help you need from a veteran. Take the guess work out of how to shop, eat, and travel gluten-free in this informative two-hour course. Advanced registration is required to prevent cancellation of class. Register by contacting the Community Colleges of Spokane ACT 2 program at (509) 279-6030.

 

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

Free Gluten-Free Classes to be Held in North Spokane

Spokane, WA — April 24, 2018 — Award-winning writer and gluten-free blogger K.S. Brooks will present a free 45-minute “Introduction to Gluten-Free Living” class on the third Monday of each month at Cole’s Bakery and Café, 521 E. Holland, Suite 20, Spokane, WA 99218. The first class will be held May 21, beginning at 6 p.m.

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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I Ate These So You Wouldn’t Have To

That’s right. And you’re welcome.

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.

Tres Latin Foods Chicken & Cheese Pupusas

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.

 

Dr. Praeger’s Gluten-Free Broccoli Cakes

If you’re having a hard time getting someone you know (not me, of course … riiiiiight) to eat their vegetables, here’s the cure.

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.

Oscar Mayer Gluten Free Delifresh Honey Smoked Turkey Breast & Recipe

Finally. Cold cuts that actually say they are gluten-free, right on the package. Yay! And keep in mind, I have coldcutslimeophobia. YES, that is a REAL thing! And that means if the cold cuts are the least bit slimy or sweaty or what-have-you, they turn my stomach and then go in the trash. So when I tried this Oscar Mayer Delifresh Honey Smoked Turkey Breast, I was not only pleasantly surprised, but extremely pleased. They’re not filled with gristle or fatty pockets. They have excellent texture and flavor, and they keep in the fridge for a surprisingly long time after you’ve opened them. Much longer than cold cuts you get at the deli counter. Those are usually over the top of my slime-meter within three days.

And the news gets even better.

Kozy Shack Gluten-Free Flan

I like flan. It tastes good. And this Kozy Shack Flan has everything a good flan should have: perfect flavor and consistency. It melts in your mouth. It’s just right as an after-dinner pick me up. Cool, sweet, and refreshing. It’s also very light. So light that I always feel like I could eat a second one. So I recommend it more for after you’ve eaten a really full and satisfying dinner and you just want that one light, sweet treat for afterwards. This won’t make you explode, by any means. It makes a great summer dessert, or in-between meal snack, since it is so light and cool.

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

QuestBar Gluten Free Protein Bar

Welcome to another episode of “I ate it so you wouldn’t have to.” You’re welcome.

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