Sazon blend I like

This is a Sazon or seasoned salt that I love to use where I need a touch of flavored peppers to re-enforce the salt flavor on a meal

Ingredients:

• Course Pink Himalayan sea salt  (50% of resulting mixture)
• Other 50% should come from a mixture of:
• Grains of Paradise
• Brown Mustard seeds
• Black Tellicherry Peppercorns
• Ground Ancho and Guajillo Pepper

Instructions:

• Using a spice or coffee blender, blend the salt, Grains or Paradise, mustard seeds, and peppercorns.   Once well powdered, add the ground ancho and guajillo peppers and pulse in spice blender for a second or two to combine thouroughly.

Visit to a local GF expo /event today

So this posting will not be a recipe but a list of some resources I found at a local GF expo I attended today.

This is meant to be an extension of my general resources page until I either start using them as a general use.
http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/06/resources-i-wanted-to-start-resources.html

Now I focused on gluten free, grain free, dairy free, sugar free and nut free products that fit into my general leaning toward paleo.  I do not have nut allergies personally but my wife does so all recipes and products have to include that limitation. 

Many companies and vendors at this expo were focused on gluten free products using many different alternative grains or processed sugars in their products.   Sure the were certified GF, but for me that is not adequate.  

A couple I'd like to mention though for folks looking for the grain free lifestyle.  

JP's pastry. Jpspastry.com, www.facebook.com/jpspastry.com

So this company already has a paleo product or two including breads,  but I wanted to challenge them to make one nut free as well.  He indicated he just took delivery of casava root for future products.  

Gluten free by Sara.   http://www.gfwithsarahb.com/

First met her at the wake forest farmers market and she's been willing to work with me on making a bread that meets my dietary restrictions. 

Roots
hummus product that can be found at whole foods.  Pretty good list of ingredients and a very decent price.  I stopped by whole foods on way home to pick up a couple flavors that I sampled at the event.  Thai and Chipotle flavored humus current favorites.

Produce box.  www.theproducebox.com.   T
his is a NC delivery of farmers products to your door.  Cool if you aren't close by a farmers market or don't have time for going to one.  One of the things that drew me to find this resource prior to this event was the fact that they carry Imagine That GF product line which does not currently sell directly to consumers today.

Relayfoods.com.
Online grocery story for organic produce and products. Need to check this one out myself in more depth. 

Thrive bites.  Thrivebites.thrivelife.com.
Freeze dried fruits and veggies.  Alternative location for organic fruits and veggies for smoothies during off season.  Ok this is also prepper heaven probably if into prepping. 

Allergic traveller.  Www.allergictraveller.com.  
International dietary and allergy alert cards.  

The gluten & grainfree gourmet.  Ggfgourmet.com.
She had a great talk about grain free lifestyle. Her chocolate chip cookies I received as samples  were pretty good.

Rikkos inc.   Www.rikkosinc.com.
Great plantain and cassava root chips.  Bought a couple bags :).  They do have a local store in Raleigh they sell through.  

Honorable mentions of larger companies:  
Got swag (free samples) of kind bars, lära bars, and enjoy life chocolate chips.  

Introduction Post

For my first post for this blog I wanted to do two things,  Introduce myself and the reason that I am on my this journey with food.

My name is Michael Huber and I have chosen to do a blog with the name 'Drumming up a better meal' based on some recommendations and pushes from my friends.    The name comes from two sources, when I go to relax after a stressful day of work I head either to my kitchen or more occasionally to my drums both of which I feel the stress of the day disappear.  

About 10 years ago I started to feel pain in most every joint of my body, and it hurt to breath and walking up a flight of stairs could take me 10 minutes or more on a bad day.  A couple years later I decided to start working with doctors to find out what was causing this problem.   After 3 years of random testing and considerable money out of pocket the doctors were no closer in finding out why the pain, though they were prescribing stronger drugs.

One day I read about how fibromyalgia sufferers were improved by simply removing gluten from their diet, I figured I could try it for 6 months having nothing to lose at that point.    So three years later after eliminating a few more foods then Gluten, I am now running up stairs when I want, practicing the martial arts again in limited capacity and in general I have days where I don't have any pain that stops me from doing what I want when I want to.

During my journey I have seen a ton of posts on the gluten free and whole foods eating groups about how difficult it is to eat healthier, how much more expensive it is and how much more time and effort it is to cook meals.   I would like to work on changing mindsets and dispelling these myths.   I spend far less time in the kitchen now and a lot less money, then I did in the years before I started my food journey.

So I am not a chef (never went to school for culinary arts), nor am I a nutritionist.   I will be posting recipes I make for myself, my family, and those fortunate souls who happen to show up for one of my parties I like to host occasionally.    These recipes will be simplified and geared toward reducing the money and time that is spent in the kitchen actively doing prep or actively cooking.

The recipes I post will be Gluten Free, and mostly grain free, nightshade Fee, and cows milk Dairy Free.   I have issues with many inflammatory causing foods and have eliminated quite a few in the first years.   As for nightshades the only ones I can take in small amounts are potatoes, sweet potatoes, and spicy peppers. 

I will occasionally cross-link to other blogs that may have good recipes that contain one of those ingredients purely to share a great idea or explain how to modify the recipe based on food sensitivities unique to me.

Spicy unfiltered apple cider vinegar

I make this every so often.   This vinegar I use for a number of things, but one of the best uses is for flavoring meals that require a spicy vinegar.

Ingredients:

• Braggs unfiltered/raw Apple Cider Vinegar
• 2 whole Ghost Peppers
• 1 small horse radish root (roughly hand sized)
• 1 piece of fresh ginger root (roughly hand sized)
• 1 piece of fresh turmeric root (roughly hand sized)

Instructions:

• Take out out 1/4 of the vinegar from the bottle, try and place as many of the ingredients as whole as possible in the bottle.   Replace vinegar until full.  Place any leftover into another closable bottle for use.
• Let sit for a few months (as much as 6 if you can wait).
• Remove the ingredients from the vinegar, should now have some good flavor and kick.

Some people believe that this is a good vinegar to add to teas to assist with removing colds.  I keep it around for that for more personal use but use it for many recipes for additional flavor kick when Apple Cider Vinegar is called for.

Resources

Resources:

 

I wanted to start a resources page to assist people in finding the spices and ingredients I use in my recipes.   I will continue to update this page as I get questions about specific items and as I think of a good place and or product that I have found crucial in making my life easier.

 

First:  Most of my grocery budget is spent at the local famers, though I do occasionally shop at traditional grocery stores to supplement what I can get from the local famers especially during the winter months where famers markets are limited. 

 

Second: All of my spices come from two places. 

• Savory Spice Shop (http://www.savoryspiceshop.com/), for local folks in NC the storefront is located in Lafayette Village.
• local Latin American, Indian, and Asian markets for ingredients not found in normal grocery stores.  

All my ground spices all from savory spice shop because I know their Gluten Free Spices and occasional dried whole chilis or canned pastes or whole chiles come from various local markets based on the culture purchased from.

 

Third:

Do not be afraid to make your own spice blends.   I buy bulk whole spices as well as ground base spices which I then turn into my own blends that I use for my meals.   I will share those as I continue blogging.

• Here is a BBQ sauce I love to make:  http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/06/my-favorite-homemade-bbq-sauce.html
• Here are some salt blends I make that I love to use: http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/06/salt-blends-i-love.html
• Here are some BBQ rubs I have made that I love to use both on the BBQ and on the stove or oven.   http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/07/bbq-spice-blends-i-love.html

Other Resources:
As much as I love to cook from scratch,  I also love to go out and eat and try food at restaurants.   To that end, I post reviews on Yelp, Foursquare, and Find me GF on local restaurants that have GF options or whole menus that are Gluten Free.

Salt blends I love.

First of the spice blends I wanted to mention are some basic flavored salts (Sazon).   I use these frequently do I make a quick blends to save time from having to mix in small batches as needed for meals..

Simple salt and pepper:

Fill spice grinder 1/2 way with tellicherry black pepper berries and grind until powder

Mix with Himalayan pink sea salt fine ground
Great for basic meals that ask for Salt and Pepper.   Can be used as a table mix as well once balanced to your taste with pepper to salt ratios.

Szechuan salt and pepper:

Fill spice grinder 1/2 way with Szechuan pepper berries and grind until powder

Mix with Himalayan pink sea salt fine ground
Great for Stir Fry's or any meal that requires a bit of Szechuan flavor.  
 

Mixed peppers salt:

Fill spice grinder 1/2 way with a four corners blend (mix of white, black, pink, and green) and grind until powder 

Mix with Himalayan pink sea salt fine ground

Great for basic meals that ask for Salt and Pepper.   Can be used as a table mix as well once balanced to your taste with pepper to salt ratios.  I personally prefer this to just tellicherry black pepper berries due to the complexity of flavor.
 

Garlic and onion sea salt:

If you get onion and garlic flakes or even the scallions or dry the green tops of a scallion.  Fill up spice grinder and create a powder.  Not you can buy onion and garlic powder as well no need to grind. 

Mix with Himalayan pink sea salt fine ground
Great for mashed or roasted potatoes, vegetables, and even making a garlic bread from scratch.

Rosemary flavored sea salt:

Same as garlic and onion but add in dried rosemary. 
Great for mashed and roasted potatoes or fries.   Because rosemary can be a stronger flavor that does go well with potatoes in my opinion I primarily use this for my potato dishes as appropriate.

Spicy Grains of Paradise finishing salt:
Fill up spice grinder 1/2 way with the Grains of Paradise seeds and grind until powder.
Mix with Himalayan pink sea salt fine ground.
Great for a floral spicy note to food.  Use as a finishing salt to add another layer to African or middle eastern style meals.