Henry & Cloud Star Dog Treats

Poor Henry.

                                More like "poor Jack" in this photo...

This blog used to be all about him. He'd cameo each food shot, be a feature on Fridays - and stories often revolved around him. And then Jack came along: taking up my time and fulfilling my need for daily dancing and snuggles (sad fact: I used to pick Henry up and make him dance with me.. now I do the same to Jack).

I feel bad for Henry, and then I don't, because the day that Jack was born was the best day of Henry's life. You see, when Jack eats, Jack shares (with Henry). We try not to allow it; moving Henry to another room when we're eating dinner, but regardless of whether he's in the room or not, Henry gets the scraps (we're just not that on top of things; we don't clean up the food on the floor before Henry gets to it).

So, where am I going with this? Cloud Star sent me four bags of their Dynamo Dog treats (Hey! They're gluten-free! And grain-free, and full of good-for-your-dog stuff) and while I know Henry loves food, I was worried he might turn his nose up at the treats because he's been so used to people food for the last year. No worries though, according to Henry - these things are pretty darn awesome.

Even my parent's Dog Elsa was loving them too. 

They come in four different flavors: Bacon and Cheese, Chicken (both for hip and joint issues), Salmon (for skin and coat), and Pumpkin and Ginger (for tummy troubles). Cloud Star was really thoughtful in their formulations: each treat includes vitamins and foods that are known to help humans and dogs with the three issues above.

Here's the coolest part of this post: You could win Cloud Star dog treats! Simply:

1. Comment on this post and tell me about your dog (or the dog you'd like to win the treats for).

2. Like The Good Eatah on Facebook and leave a comment telling me you've done so.

3. Like Cloud Star on Facebook and leave a comment telling me you've done so.

This contest will run until 11:59pm on Monday, June 10th. Please leave a valid email address with your comments. I will pick a winner using random.org.

Whenever I see this photo montage of Jack and Henry, the song "Let Me Tell You 'Bout My Best Friend..." comes to mind.

Photo Friday: Henry's Aged

During my 6 month blogging hiatus, I swear Henry has aged years. He looks so... mature here.

Not Dead...

...just overwhelmed with end-of-the-semester projects, half-marathon training and roller derby stuff (we have our first bout in less than a month!)

Oh yeah, and my husband's home from deployment -- his LAST deployment. I am beyond relieved.

Updates and recipes will be up once I'm able (or want to procrastinate from school work).

And if you need some Henry in your life, here's some trouble he recently got himself into...

Photo Phriday: Oh Henry

Whipped cream. On his nose. Poor fella.

Photo Phriday: Christmas Toys

My niece and Henry playing (er, chewing in Henry's case) with their new Christmas toys.

On another note, a big shout out to the Boston gluten-free girls whom I had dinner with last night. We went to Burton's Grill ; they have a gluten-free menu and take it seriously. It would have been my photo Phriday picture, but I forgot my darn camera. We'll just have to do it again soon!

Photo Phriday: A TJ's Package

The closest Trader Joe's to here is a good 2 1/2 hour drive without traffic. My mother is well aware of this and my longing for Trader Joe's (how lucky I was in Boston with two within a half hour drive...) and sent me an amazingly awesome package full of Trader Joe's gluten-free goodies and a few other things not in the photo. She's pretty much the best mom ever.
Henry thinks so too.

Photo Phriday: Anti-Rain Photo

It's pouring here and has been since yesterday morning. So in order to cheer myself up (oh, and I use my HappyLite too!) I will share a photo taken recently on a nice day... one of the last one's of the year I'm afraid. That's my niece and of course, Henry. He almost looks angelic. Though, I'm pretty sure shortly after the photo was taken he decided to chase a squirrel up a tree and bark his head off.

Photo Phriday: Sad Henry

Not food-related at all. But this was Henry for the majority of the car-ride after we dropped off the A-man to leave for his deployment. I swear animals can sense feelings.

Little Nuggets of Joy

So far this summer has been much busier than I thought it would be. I left my job right before I got married and thought I would be twiddling my thumbs most of the time before I start graduate school, but I've been traveling quite a bit, entertaining friends, and surprisingly, keeping pretty busy (and I've managed to get sick for about a week and a half as well). That's not to say I couldn't squeeze in more blog posts; I've certainly been cooking a lot and I have quite a few reviews to post, but I know once I settle into my new life as a graduate student come mid-August I will be more frequent in my posting. So I wanted to take this time to share with you all a neat pan the A-man and I received.

Getting married has meant my kitchen supply has grown immensely. I've received some pretty awesome tools, including this one: an ebelskever:

It's basically a pan that you can use to make filled pancakes. And on a lazy Sunday morning served with a side of bacon, it's pretty awesome. We filled ours with with a strawberry-rhubarb compote (strawberries and rhubarb cooked with a bit of agave) and a vanilla pudding (take 3 cups of almond milk, 1/2 cup agave, and 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of corn starch, whisk together and bring to a boil. let simmer for five minutes stirring constantly until thick, take off heat and then add one teaspoon vanilla extract).


The recipe we used for the pancakes is one adapted from the recipe that came with the pan. We made it gluten free and dairy free of course. It makes a lot, and the process of making these takes some patience, but it's a lot of fun if you enjoy these types of things.

Filled Pancakes (gluten-free, dairy-free)
serves 4-6

2 cups gluten free flour mix (I used 1 cup superfine brown rice flour, 1 cup montina flour blend -- my new favorite)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs agave, or sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 3/4 cups non-dairy milk (I used almond milk)
4 tbs earth balance buttery spread melted, plus more for pan

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the agave, egg yolks, milk and melted "butter." Add the wet ingredients into the dry until well combined. Then, using an electric mixer beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form (about two minutes) and fold into the batter.

In the pan, put small pats of butter in each well, add 1 tablespoon of batter, then 1 teaspoon of your filling, and cover with one more tablespoon of batter. Wait a minute or so and turn with chopsticks or wooden skewers.

A great video on the ebelskever technique can be found here.

Enjoy with maple syrup. They're even good cold the next day as I just discovered. And of course Henry's a big fan.

Gluten-Free Handmade Dog (and cat) Treats

How cool is this? Sugar Selections Gluten Free Dog Treats.

My sister passed this Etsy seller along to me with the heading "Henry's getting a wedding present!" so I have a feeling the little guy will be taste-testing these for you all soon. Here's what the baker has to say about her liver and flax seed biscuits:

Made with the folowing human grade ingredients:chicken livers and ground flax seed meal. Completely free of wheat, other grains containing gluten, corn, and dairy. Each biscuit is approximately 1.5" wide and each batch is made to order. Biscuits are very lightly baked and then popped into the dehydrator for 12 hours. The result is a fantastic treat for your dog with the taste (and stink!) of liver and all the health benefits of flax seed.

I'm sure you have all heard about the poisoned wheat gluten in dog food a few years back; that surely got people on the anti-gluten bandwagon, but there's another reason to stay away from it in my opinion: dogs aren't meant to eat wheat -- much like many humans. Sure, a lot of people do, and a lot of dogs do -- and they're just fine. But when you think about it, no dog would take down a stalk of wheat and nibble on it. It's just not edible in that form and they, of course, do not have the means to turn it into an appetizing cake or cookie (though that would be a funny sight -- cathcing Henry in the kitchen whipping up a pie).

I'm certainly not knocking people for feeding their dogs commercial dog food. I feed Henry the commercial stuff (though his is gluten-free) and in this economny when you have to decide between feeding your children healthily and feeding your dog healthily -- choose your kids. I'm simply saying that the less fillers (including gluten) that you feed your dog, the better.

And instead of leaving you with a photo of Henry enjoying these treats, I'll post one of the Etsy seller's adorable pooch enjoying one of her treats:

Red Sweet and Sour Cabbage

Finally! A recipe! After tasting the delicious sweet and sour cabbage over mashed potatoes combination a few weeks ago, I've come up with a super simple and healthy way to make it myself.

The jarred variety that I recently had was good, but a bit too sweet for me and it was made with red cabbage (and corn syrup - yuck). I didn't have any on hand, and I knew that aesthetically speaking, regular cabbage simmered would be kind of ugly, so I threw in a shredded beet and it gave the dish a beautiful color. This recipe calls for only a handful of ingredients and only takes a few minutes to put together, but FYI, about an hour to simmer.

Red Sweet and Sour Cabbage (gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan)

(serves 4 as a side dish)

1 medium sized cabbage, shredded
1 small onion, sliced
1 beet, peeled and shredded
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons agave (can use brown sugar instead)
freshly ground salt and pepper (about a teaspoon of each)
1/2 teaspoon ground all spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

In a saucepan on medium high heat, add all of the ingredients, mix and bring to a boil. Cover and turn down heat to a simmer over low-medium. Continue to simmer for 45 to 55 minutes and check occasionally and stir. Serve immediately warm, or chill in the refrigerator and serve cold over mashed potatoes.

Photo Phriday: Practice

It's rare that I go a week without posting but the giant work project that I'm dealing with AND the wedding planning have taken a toll on my blogging and cooking. However! Henry is still being Henry and the A-man got a little taste at what it's like to deal with a tired pooch this past weekend:

Food for Friends

I had a ridiculously busy week last week work-wise, with jobs that trickled into my real life, so that's reason number one for not posting much. The second reason is that I realized I am three months away from getting married: there's no problem in the man department, he's one-in-a-billion, but the planning stuff -- the invitations, the color schemes, the centerpieces, well I'm not too good at figuring everything out. So once I realized that my "to do" list was significantly longer than my "done" list I got a wee-bit stressed. So, this weekend I still had work to do, but I also made time to do some yoga, take a bootcamp workout class (I'm still sore) and have some friends over. Nothing relieves stress for me more than cooking and friends, so I'm feeling back to my old self. On the menu for my pals was marinated flank steak (I was able to grill is because it was actually warm out!), bacon and spinach salad, grilled asparagus and roasted red potatoes. Oh, and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. The flank steak and salad require actual recipes, but the grilled asparagus was simply that (grilled on a panini press for about three minutes with fresh lemon squeezed on top) and the roasted potatoes were red potatoes, cut into small wedges, drizzled with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and roasted at 375 for thirty minutes, turning once mid-way. The photos taken are of the leftovers; I failed to take photos during the actual meal.

Marinated Flank Steak (gluten-free, dairy-free)


(serves four)

1 large flank steak
1/2 cup Worcestershire Sauce (Lea and Perrins is gluten-free)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper

Place the worcestershire sauce, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper in a large zip-loc bag, add the flank steak and marinate for one and a half hours (the longer, the better). Grill the steak, about five minutes on each side over medium heat. Let rest before serving and cut against the grain into slices.

Warm Bacon and Spinach Salad (gluten-free, dairy-free)

(serves four)

1 bag of baby spinach
1/3 of a red onion
6 pieces of bacon, fried with bacon fat reserved
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon agave nectar (or sugar)
freshly cracked salt and pepper

Place the bacon fat in a small saucepan on low heat, whisk in the vinegar, mustard, and agave. Toss in a large bowl with the spinach, onion and crumbled bacon and add freshly ground salt and pepper.

This is a rare moment: Henry is not at all interested in the steak near him. I'm guessing there was a squirrel outside.

Video Friday

This video was recorded right after Christmas at my future in-laws house in Maine. Henry wasn't completely comfortable with his new boots...

Cinnamon Chicken?

Yup. You read that right: cinnamon chicken. I was a little weary to combine the two ingredients, but really, it turned out quite well.

After reading in various periodicals that cinnamon is both an appetite suppressant and quite good for you, I was ready to try it on chicken. Here's what an article in Women's Health magazine had to say: "Research has linked the copper-colored stuff with reduced blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in people with type 2 diabetes, and a recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that adding a little more than a teaspoon to rice pudding even helped tame blood sugar in people without diabetes." Even more of a reason to add more cinnamon to my diet.

Cat Cora, of Food Network fame had this recipe published in the latest issue of Health magazine. I modified it slightly (mainly just by using boneless, skinless chicken breasts, omitting the wine and by halving the recipe) and then served it over some delicious tinkyada brown rice pasta. Here's a play by play of what I did.

Cinnamon Chicken (gluten-free, dairy-free)

serves two for dinner

1 tsp cinnamon, salt & pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup chicken broth
3 tbs tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano

First, mix the cinnamon, salt and pepper in a bowl and rub chicken with cinnamon seasoning. Then heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium high heat. Brown chicken for 4-5 minutes. Lower heat to medium high, add onions and garlic and cook for about three minutes. Then add 1/4 cup of broth to pan and scrape down chicken and onion bits. When the stock has evaporated, add the water, rest of broth, tomato paste, oregano and more garlic. Cover and simmer for one hour. You should be left with two perfectly cooked chicken breasts and lots of tasty sauce.

Henry couldn't keep his eyes off of it.

Banana Nut (Coconut Flour) Muffins

I've spoken about the health benefits of coconut flour here before: it's high in fiber, low in carbs and just plain delicious. And I've certainly made it known that I adore banana bread: my mother's banana bread is something I dream about. But I had yet to combine the two -- I didn't know what I was missing.
I made these last night and based the recipe from the Tiana Organic Coconut Flour website. I added more banana (a tip my mother always told me when making banana bread), reduced the egg by one, used agave instead of sugar, omitted the almond extract and doubled the vanilla. Well, and made them muffins instead of bread.

The result is a tasty breakfast or dessert muffin that's both moist and sweet.

Banana Nut Muffins (gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian)

makes 12 regular sized muffins

2 ripe bananas, mashed
7 eggs
1/2 hemp milk (or cow's, almond, coconut...)
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 coconut flour, sifted (this is a must -- coconut flour clumps easily)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 325 F. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray. Combine the bananas, eggs, milk, agave, vanilla and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the sifted coconut flour and baking powder. Slowly add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until all lumps are gone. Then, fold in the nuts. Pour evenly in muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before transferring to a rack.

This is a picture of a photo shoot gone wrong. Normally taking photos of food gives me an opportunity to work with Henry on his ability to "sit" and "stay." Today, Henry could not deal with having the muffins at eye level and stole a half while I was attempting to photograph it.

Oh Henry.

Photo Phriday: Devil Horns

If you bottle up the energy that Henry and my parents dog Elsa have when they are together, I think you could fuel a car for a cross country trip. This picture, taken about a month ago, catches them during their chasing game. I think Elsa's ears look strangely like devil horns in this shot.

Photo Phriday: Dog Sled

We learned this past vacation that Henry and Elsa (my parents dog) probably don't have any Husky in their genes. The A-man decided to MacGyver up some rope and attach it to the dog's harnesses and see if they could bring me around on a sled. It didn't quite work, but it sure was fun trying. I have first-person video of the ordeal; perhaps that will make it for next week's Video Phriday.

Photo Phriday: Sleepy Henry

Henry's really great in the car; when we travel short distances he tends to curl up next to me in the passenger seat with his head resting on my hand, falling asleep peacefully. Well, he had his first significant road trip (5+ hours) after Christmas. The A-man and I drove up to Maine to visit his family for a few days and we had to get a barrier to keep Henry from coming to the front seat and distracting us. He didn't mind being in the back too much, except for this one time when he was so lonely back there that he rested his head on the barrier and fell asleep standing up.

Oh yeah, and there was that other time during the trip when he just stared at us for twenty minutes straight:

7 Randoms

My sister of a k8, a cat, a mission fame recently tagged me to do a "7 Random Things" meme and I'm currently procrastinating, so here it goes:

1. Throughout the years I have been diagnosed with a long list of ailments: scoliosis, asthma, raynauds disease, a heart murmur, a short eustachian tube, a hyperactive thyroid and borderline high blood pressure.

Luckily, my scoliosis doesn't really bother me anymore (I was diagnosed with it in junior high). My lung capacity isn't great, but my asthma (diagnosed as a child) has pretty much gone away. The raynauds disease is basically just a nuisance. The heart murmur was only discovered three years ago during an annual physical and (hopefully) has no serious repercussions. My short eustachian tube makes flying painful and annoying and caused me to perforate my eardrum when scuba diving (I could get surgery for it, but I don't miss scuba diving that much). My hyperactive thyroid was discovered by a GI doctor a few years ago, but was never treated (it's not terribly overactive, just slightly) and my blood pressure hasn't been checked since cutting coffee out of my diet three weeks ago, so hopefully that made a difference.

Medically, I'm just strange. But I count my lucky stars that all of these ailments are easily lived with.

2. I'm the runt of my family at 5'5 1/2. My sister is 5'8. My mother is 5'8. And my father is 6'0.

3. My wedding is exactly five months away today. I've already had nightmares regarding the ceremony and forgetting my vows. I'm worried about it raining (it's supposed to be outside) and I haven't even sent the save-the-dates out yet. But! I know how lucky I am to be marrying the love of my life; if there's a hurricane, if I completely flub up my vows, if the save the dates get lost in the mail, it won't really matter as long as we're standing there together, saying "I do."

4. I get really pissy if a few days pass and I haven't worked out.

5. Henry and I went for a walk today that was only supposed to be 45 minutes. It ended up being 1 1/2 hours long because I forgot my keys, got locked out of my place, and my mother had to drive from 15 miles away to open up the place with her extra set of keys (reminder: my parents are saints).

6. My sister is acting as the celebrant (ie she's marrying the A-man and I) at the wedding. Massachusetts has a great law that let's individuals get one day liscenses to marry people. I did the same for her wedding.

7. I own close to fifty sweaters. I think it's time to donate some.

I tag everyone that reads this, and especially my favorite twenty-something, female, gluten-free bloggers: Jenny of Sugar and Spice and My Gluten Free Life, Ali of Sorry I Can't Eat That, Marlow of Gluten Hates Me But I'm Surviving, and Jill Elise of Hey! That Tastes Good.