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Of course you’ll want to start with peeling and roughly chopping 4 medium sweet potatoes.

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Boil those suckers for about 25 minutes, until they are very soft.

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After they’re drained, I like to mash them up just a little so that things go easier with my hand mixer later on, but you can skip this step if you don’t mind huge chunks of sweet potato being violently flung around your pot.

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Now the important part. Add in 1/3 cup of Minute Maid orange juice (and sadly, yes, the brand is important. There are brands of orange juice with gluten in them, horrifying as that is…) In general, you may or may not need to avoid orange juice that has been fortified with calcium in the form of calcium lactate. What it boils down to is, most calcium lactate sources in the US are derived from non-dairy sources, but foreign-sourced calcium lactate could very possibly be made with whey, and some food manufacturers in the US do use the whey form as well. The only way to be sure is to contact the manufacturer, and always check your labels!

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The second key ingredient is 1/4 cup of honey. And that’s it! Now all you have to do is get out your hand mixer and whip those sweet potatoes into oblivion.

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Now why, I ask you, would you ever restrict something so scrumptious to just one holiday? Aside from being tasty, sweet potatoes are also very healthy, and deserve to be eaten year-round. Some people prefer to make them a little less healthy and melt a layer of marshmallows on the top. I’m morally opposed to it myself, but only because I don’t particularly like marshmallows. If you go that route, I believe Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows are gluten-free, but like I said, I don’t have occasion to check up on that particular food product very often, so you’ll want to double-check before you buy. 

By the way, you see that other colorful pile in the background? That’s nothing but a bag of frozen “fajita vegetables” (i.e. red peppers, green peppers, and onions) with a couple handfuls of frozen corn thrown into the mix. Instant side dish! I made this post a two-fer to try to make up for my sporadic summertime posting. It’s a busy time of year, and I’m sure some of you out there are looking forward to Back to School time just as much as I am.

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Happy Eating!

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Sweet Potatoes

4 medium sweet potatoes
1/3 cup 100% orange juice
1/4 cup honey

Pepper Medley

1 bag frozen fajita vegetables
1 cup frozen corn

The subject at hand: birthday cakes. Depending on how far along you are in your GFCF journey, you may already be able to whip up a delectable gluten-free cake that your non-GF guests will love. At the very least, anyone can use one of the many decent GFCF baking mixes out there, and it’s my experience that as long as there’s sugary frosting on top, the kids are not going to pay much attention to what’s underneath anyway.

But what if you’ve got extra allergies to contend with, like eggs, nuts, soy — or all of those and more? Or what if you’re still really brand-new to all this, and you’re just not up for baking yet, but you can’t exactly skip your kid’s birthday? Well I say, don’t let The Man tell you what is or is not a birthday cake!

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This, ladies and gentlemen, isn’t just a birthday cake. It’s Better Than Birthday Cake.

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Start with the biggest watermelon you can possibly find. If the only thing you can get in your area are those little “personal” watermelons, you can still do this, but you’re going to need at least three of them. First, cut out a circular slice about two inches wide. Ideally it will be as big around as possible, but will come from slightly off to the side of dead center. This is going to be the base, so make sure it’s nice and level. Watermelon actually trims really easily, just run a sharp knife flat along the surface until it’s evened out.

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Next, cut a very thick slice from the center (that is, from the larger of the two halves you are now working with.) It should be at least 4 inches wide. If you’re using multiple smaller watermelons, this will have to come from the second watermelon. Run a knife vertically around the edge to cut the rind off, and pop the center out.

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It’ll probably come out angular and a little ragged, but again, a sharp knife will carve off any rough edges with the barest of touches.

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Stack your extra tall layer on top of your base, and then repeat the whole process with another smaller section from closer to the end of your watermelon. Go ahead and pry out any seeds that are close to the surface for a little added polish. Speaking of seeds: in a really large watermelon, the seeds may be quite abundant in the middle, and the smaller your rounded layers get, the more “middle” will be showing. I have, on occasion, gotten one of the personal watermelons just for the upper layers, because the middle of my gigantic watermelon looked like a pock-marked war zone.

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As you get close to the end of your watermelon, you may find it’s easier to cut the rind off in sections and sculpt from there, rather than try to cut straight down in a small circle.

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Lay out thin banana slices around the base, and use toothpicks to decorate with whatever small fruits you like on the upper layers. I will warn you, however, that no matter how much you may love strawberries, they just will not look good next to the red watermelon. Trust me, don’t go with the strawberries.

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Now for the best part. Pineapple stars! If you’re extra lucky, starfruit will be in season, and you can just cross-cut a couple of those and be done with it. But us plebians can make do with a pineapple. First, hack off the ends of that beast, and cut the peel down from the sides.

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Don’t worry if you leave a few bits from the rind around the edges. Next, slice your giant cylinder into rounds about a centimeter thick.

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Mark out your star shape with toothpicks to make sure it’s nice and symmetrical before you start cutting. It’s easiest if you do it in two parts: first arrange five toothpicks in an even pentagon surrounding the core, and then add the five outer points to make a triangle coming off each side of the pentagon. Slice off the bits in between and you’re left with a perfect star. Lather, rinse, repeat.

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Attach them to the sides of the cake with a toothpick through the middle, just like you did for the smaller fruits. Then it’s time to sit back and let all the other parents marvel at how creative, and fun, and healthy your kid’s birthday cake is. In fact, you don’t even have to tell them it’s because he’s on a special diet if you don’t want to, because this really is better than birthday cake.

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Happy Eating!

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The author’s pretty proud of herself, even going so far as to name and patent her “new cooking method.” Who knew that all those frontier settlers using their dutch ovens in the 1800s were guilty of copyright infringement? Anyway, even if her “revolutionary” method is nothing particularly new, it’s still a great collection of very easy recipes, and the vast majority of them happen to be GFCF, or are very easily modified. (Who cooks hulled barley, anyway? Just substitute rice.)

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This is a variation on a recipe in the book called Cajun Fish, which turned out so delicious that it made me rethink my position on sweet potatoes — which prior to this meal had been, at best, indifference. First, peel and cube one sweet potato, and layer it in the bottom of your greased dutch oven.

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This recipe introduced me to another new experience as well: eating whole cooked cloves of garlic. Not for the weak of heart (or kids, for that matter,) but they’re easy to remove after cooking if you want to. I really do recommend trying it at least once though. You might be amazed like I was. Either way, just snip the ends and peel about 6-8 whole cloves of garlic, and toss them on top of the sweet potato pieces.

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Lay 1-2 pounds of fish filets over the garlic, and sprinkle them liberally with McCormick cajun seasoning blend. Do be aware that other brands of seasoning blends might contain gluten as an anti-caking agent, so you can’t just pick one willy-nilly. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without warning, so always check your labels!]

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Next, cut two roma tomatoes into quarters.

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You can cut the little stem connections off, but leave the insides and seeds, because that moisture is going to add to the steaming factor inside the pot.

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Layer about 1 cup of frozen green beans over the fish, then place the tomato quarters face down on top. Cover with the lid and cook in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes.

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I wish I could do the texture of these sweet potatoes justice with my description here. They are soft, yet not mushy; savory, but still retaining a little of their natural sweetness… and most amazingly, they are completely and totally smooth, not a single string to be found. It’s really quite amazing. Oh, and the rest of the meal’s pretty darn tasty, too.

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Happy Eating!

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Cajun Fish

1 sweet potato
6-8 whole cloves garlic
1-2 pounds fish filets
1 Tbs McCormick Cajun seasoning blend
1 cup frozen green beans
2 roma tomatoes

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Oh, you didn’t know there’s a right way and a wrong way to prepare asparagus? Well there certainly is. I mean look at those things. They’re not appealing in the slightest, and right now, they taste the way they look. But we’re going to fix that.

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There are two key steps to making asparagus taste much, much better. First, you have to get rid of the hard, under-ripe part at the bottom of the stalk. To do this, don’t just cut it with a knife and hope you got it right. Instead, pinch the stalk at the very bottom, and bend it with your hands. The stalk will naturally break just where it begins to go soft, which is precisely where we want to separate it. Some may snap very close to the bottom, while others may snap halfway up the stalk, which just goes to show, you don’t want to estimate this stuff with a knife. Unless you like eating under-ripe food, I guess.

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The second key step is to peel the asparagus. That may sound silly, but trust me, it’s important. The outer skin tastes as different from the inside as a potato skin tastes compared to the inside of a potato. If I were a fancy food writer, I’d talk about how the skin tastes “woodsy and bitter,” but instead I’ll just tell you it’s gross. Eating unpeeled asparagus is the main reason most people think they don’t like asparagus.

Anyway, just lay the stalk flat on the cutting board, and run your vegetable peeler down the length of the stalk repeatedly as you slowly roll it along. It goes surprisingly fast.

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Steam them, covered, for about 7 minutes.

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Take a moment to notice the color difference between the cooked and the uncooked asparagus. Isn’t that beautiful? To serve to kids, just cut them into short pieces like green beans, saving the funny little heads for the grownups’ plates. Some of my kids even prefer asparagus to green beans, believe it or not.

A word of warning: if you’re in the habit of squirting lemon juice on your asparagus, you should know that without the tough outer skin, that lemon juice is going to change the color of the stalks, almost like bleach. It will still taste fine, but maybe save the lemon juice for the last second before you eat them so it’s not all splotchy-looking.

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Happy Eating!

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All of which is to say, your onions need not be quite so thoroughly sauteed as mine are here. If you’ve got the luxury of leaving your diced onion on the lowest heat setting for upwards of 20 minutes (or if you, too, have bleeding offspring to attend to,) then have at it. But normally, you’d just want to sautee this onion in a little olive oil until it’s just starting to turn translucent, nothing major.

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Meanwhile, warm up 3 1/4 cups of gluten-free chicken broth in a small pot. Pacific Foods is one safe brand. Just keep it at a simmer until we’re ready to use it. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change ingredients without warning. Always check your labels!]

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After your onions get to somewhere between translucent and sauteed-to-death, add 1 teaspoon each of basil, parsley, and minced garlic. (That’s roughly two cloves for those of you who do your garlic the real way.)

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Also, dump in an 8-ounce container of sliced mushrooms…

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…And 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.

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While the mushrooms start to soften, measure out 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice. As you can see, my funny little measuring cup indicates this is approximately 16,000 grains of rice. The other side is even funnier, with things like “volume of the brain of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.” I don’t get to use it as often as I’d like because it has a hairline crack in the bottom and is no good for liquids, but I love it just the same.

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Now, add 3 Tablespoons of oil to the pot. Because we’re putting in so much, I’m actually using grapeseed oil here, because it’s got a milder flavor than olive oil. Any oil will do, really, but a healthier oil is always preferable to basic cooking oil.

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Now pour in your arborio rice, and stir everything thoroughly. This species of rice is what makes a risotto a risotto, by the way. Could you make this recipe with another kind of rice? Yes, but then it would be a rice casserole instead of a risotto, and that doesn’t sound nearly as impressive. If you do substitute, you’ll definitely want to use a short-grain, stickier rice rather than a long-grain dry rice.

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Now, there is a type of chef out there who will tell you that in fact, to properly make risotto, you have to add the boiling liquid a tiny bit at a time, and stir quickly and constantly for as much as 45 minutes straight to get it all absorbed. But I firmly believe that this type of chef has only fooled himself into believing that his food tastes better just because he worked harder for it. Me, I can tell that it tastes just as good this way.

The reason they say you have to do all that stirring is that arborio rice is so soft, if you throw it in a rice cooker it will just congeal into one large mass. What we’re doing here with the oil is similar to what we do with Mexican Rice: we’re sealing each grain of rice by cooking it in hot oil before boiling it. With regular rice, this makes each grain dry and distinct. With arborio rice, this gets it to a sticky-but-separable consistency, without all the stirring.

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After the oil in the pan has been mosty absorbed, pour in your chicken broth, which should still be happily simmering away in your side pot.

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You can also toss in about one cup of frozen peas if you want. I love peas, so I always want to add them to things.

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Put on the lid, and place the whole thing in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. If you don’t have any ovensafe cookware, you can also do everything up to this point in a normal pot, and then pour the whole mixture into a 9×13 glass baking dish and cover it with foil.

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Doesn’t that just look so warm and inviting? If you can’t convince your family that a meatless item counts a main dish, you can also place some boneless chicken pieces right on top of the whole thing before putting it in the oven, and it becomes that great family classic, chicken and rice casserole. But you and I will know it’s really a risotto.

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Happy Eating!

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Easy Mushroom Risotto (aka Chicken and Rice Casserole)

3 1/4 cups GF chicken broth
1 medium onion
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp basil
2 cloves minced garlic
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbs grapeseed oil
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1 cup frozen peas
boneless chicken pieces (optional)

Making your own jello — er, excuse me, your own flavored gelatin — is so incredibly easy, y’all. Also, it’s cheaper. Oh, and healthier, too. Did you know gelatin is good for digestion? Jell-O used to advertise that on their products back in the 50s, but then their devious marketing guys figured out they could sell more if they promoted it as fun for kids! instead. No offense to Bill Cosby, I’m sure he’s not devious.

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Most people don’t even know you can buy this stuff, but every grocery store will have it in the baking aisle. It’s just plain gelatin. Basically, it’s a box of Jell-O, but without the chemicals, dyes, and artificial sugars. Well, actually it’s like four boxes, since it comes with four envelopes. And yet it costs less. Crazy, huh?

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And here I have a bottle of Not Artificial Flavoring. Look how sneaky I am, tricking my kids into eating vegetables yet again! That’s another advantage of making it yourself, you can put in whatever blend of juices that you want. And every drop of real juice you put in is a whole drop more than that Jell-O box would have had. Just because they put a picture of a cherry on the box doesn’t mean there’s a single molecule of actual cherries in there.

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Pour one cup of your juice into a decent-sized bowl, and sprinkle one packet of gelatin all over the surface. Let it sit there for a minute. Meanwhile, heat another cup of plain water in the microwave. About one minute ought to get it to boiling, conveniently enough.

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Notice that I’m holding the glass with an oven mitt, because it does contain boiling water, after all. So be careful. This is exactly what you’d be doing with a box of Jell-O, by the way: put the packet in the cold liquid, then pour in the boiling liquid. You are expending zero extra effort by making your own, and getting a whole ton of benefits.

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Now, if you’re making your gelatin with a fruit juice, there’s no need for extra sweetener. But if, like me, you’re secretly foisting purple vegetable juices upon your kids, you may want to add a Tablespoon or two of honey just to make it convincingly dessert-like.

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Once everything is thoroughly stirred together, just pour the whole bowl into a 9×9 glass baking dish. I’m proud to say I do not now, nor have I ever owned a jello mold — but if you do, hey, go for it!

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Place it in the fridge for 3 hours, and voila! If you want, you can go all crazy with fun cookie cutter shapes, or you can just cut the whole thing into cubes like boring old me.

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This recipe actually makes a pretty firm gelatin, because I like to pop several of these cubes into my kids’ lunchboxes, and I don’t want them reduced to slush by the time they’re ready to eat. If you want a softer result, just add another 1/2 cup of juice to the recipe, or even a full cup if you’ve misplaced your dentures, or had your wisdom teeth pulled recently. Of course, you could also pour them directly into tiny serving cups before chilling, so they’d be ready to throw in a backpack or purse at a moment’s notice.

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Happy Eating!

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Non-Branded Gelatin Dessert

1 envelope plain Knox gelatin
1 cup boiling water
1-2 cups fruit or vegetable juice
1-2 Tbs honey, if desired

Let’s face it. There are a lot of gluten-free substitutes out there that individuals who have been eating gluten-free for awhile will insist, “Oh, it tastes just like the real thing, you can’t even tell the difference!” We all know they’re delusional, plain and simple. They’ve forgotten what the originals tasted like. A lot of gluten-free stuff tastes good in its own right, so that’s fine — but don’t give me applesauce and try to convince me it tastes just like mashed potatoes, you know? There’s nothing wrong with applesauce tasting like applesauce.

The point is, I would read about these fabled kale chips, and all I could do was shake my head in pity at these pathetic people who had somehow convinced themselves that cooked lettuce could taste like a chip. How badly must they want to eat chips, I thought, to be able to pretend this stuff tastes good at all, let alone like anything resembling a chip?

Let me cut to the chase, here: I was wrong. Boy, was I ever wrong. These things are completely amazing. They shatter in your mouth, like a wafer-thin potato chip. They don’t quite taste like potato chips, but they definitely don’t taste like a leaf. The predominant flavor is the salt, just like with a potato chip. But of course what really matters is the kid-test. And I am here to tell you, Girl Scout’s honor, my kids have been wolfing these down since the first day I made them. I had to sneak-force the first bite into the GFCFBoy’s mouth, that’s the kind of resistance he was putting up… and after the look of surprise wore off, he started grabbing them straight off the pan.

Seriously, y’all. I’m not making it up. My two children under the age of four are eating fistfuls of baked kale. It’s insane.

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It’s important to note this can only be done with kale, because it has such a naturally dry, dense leaf. You absolutely cannot make this with spinach, for example, because it will just wilt. So first, wash your kale leaves, making sure to get the middle of the stem where the dirt tends to hide.

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Next, run your knife along each side of the main stem to remove it. We just want the leafy bits.

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Crosscut them into chip-size pieces. You could also tear them with your hands, precision isn’t really important here.

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Now, this is important: after you cut all your pieces, let them sit until the leaves are completely dry again. You’ll know they’re ready when that ashy-white color has come back. You could speed it along with a towel or a salad spinner or something, but the best thing to do is just give it time to fully evaporate. It’s critical that these things be as dry as possible in order to cook right. Then, and only then, pour about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil into the bowl, and work it all around with your hands.

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And I mean really work it. You want every square millimeter covered with oil. I actually find that it’s kind of a waste of time to do it in the bowl, because these curly leaves always manage to hide their inner surfaces. Instead I work it around the bowl for maybe 30 seconds so my hands are nice and oily, then I rub each leaf flat between my palms as I lay them out on the baking sheet. It’s messy, but it goes fast.

So. Critical step number one is they must be totally dry when you start. Critical step number two is they must be saturated with oil over every membrane. And critical step number three is: don’t crowd the pan. You want lots of shiny foil showing up between the leaves. I spread one head of kale over at least two large baking sheets.

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Put them in a 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. They’re done when the leaves are dark and stiff, but not yet brown. You can literally just stick your hand in the oven and brush it very lightly across the tops — if they feel stiff like autumn leaves, they’re ready! But if they’re brown like autumn leaves, they’re burnt, and don’t even try tasting them, because they will be nasty. Better to pull them out too early than too late, trust me.

UPDATE: I have since settled upon a much more effective cooking method, if you happen to have a convection oven (this sometimes masquerades as a “speed bake” button on the front panel.) Basically the convection function turns on a fan inside the oven, which dries out the air — generally resulting in things cooking faster, but the drying aspect is the key here. Cook the kale chips at 250 degrees, with the convection fan on, for 25-30 minutes, stirring once. They will come out perfectly even, and you will never have to worry about burning them even a little.

Sprinkle them liberally with salt, and possibly other seasonings if you’re feeling adventurous. Garlic powder is a popular choice, and some kale chip mavens even go for things like paprika or dill. I like just plain old salt, though. You must not salt them before they go in the oven, though, only after, because otherwise the salt will drastically shorten the cooking time (by drawing the moisture out faster) and it will be almost impossible to catch them in that narrow window between cooked and burnt.

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See how they’re shiny, but dry? It’s almost like they’ve been fried in the olive oil. They’ll keep in an airtight container at room temperature for more than a week. I’d like to tell you exactly how much more, but I can’t, because I swear to you, my kids keep eating all of them! And these are not children who appreciate anything of a leafy variety, not at all. I know exactly how skeptical you’re feeling right now, but give kale chips a chance. I’m so glad I finally did.

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Happy Eating!

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Kale Chips

1 bunch of kale
2-3 Tbs olive oil
salt

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Thankfully, I have this thing called the grocery store that keeps me stocked up year round. I like to use about 10-12 roma tomatoes for this recipe because they’re firmer, but you could use a smaller number of larger tomatoes if you wanted. Cut them in half and scoop out the insides with a knife, spoon, thumb, or whatever you have available.

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Lay them out on a kitchen towel and sprinkle the insides liberally with salt. This will help draw the moisture out a bit.

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Then turn them upside down on the towel so they can drain. Sure, you’ll have to wash the towel after this, but I’m such a messy chef that I have to break out a fresh kitchen towel almost every night anyway.

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While the tomatoes drain, mix up your filling. Start with 1 container of coconut milk yogurt, and add 1 teaspoon of basil, 1 teaspoon of parsley, and 1 teaspoon (or 2 cloves) of minced garlic.

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No need to use a separate bowl, just mix it all right there in the container.

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Turn your tomatoes onto a baking sheet with parchment paper, and liberally brush the herb yogurt mixture into your little canoes. We’re not looking to fill them all the way, because the end result would be extremely messy. Just a thick coating should be good.

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Now crush up about a cup of Rice Chex. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change recipes without warning. Always check your labels!] I used to do this in a ziplock bag, but my bags always got little holes poked in them as I was crushing and then chex dust would leak everywhere. It works much better to just gently punch it in the bowl with your hand.

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If you’re serving these to guests, you might want to be more diligent in your crushing so they don’t necessarily know your bread crumbs are really Rice Chex. But I’ve got nothing to hide.

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Once they’ve all got a good crumb coating, give each tomato a very quick drizzle of olive oil. But be quick about it — I hesitated on this one trying to get the action shot with my camera, and it ended up with too much olive oil. You want less than what’s in the picture.

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Then just pop the tray in a 400 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. The end result can be served several to a plate as a side dish, or individually as appetizers. Not that we ever deal with that sort of thing around here, but maybe some of you still have a social life that involves entertaining non-relatives in your house. But if not, don’t worry, these things will still disappear from your kitchen like ninjas, even if you’re the only one eating them.

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Happy Eating!

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The GFCF Lady’s Roasted Tomatoes

10-12 roma tomatoes
1 container So Delicious coconut yogurt
1 tsp basil
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp minced garlic
1 cup Rice Chex
olive oil

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The good news is, cauliflower is the ninja of the vegetable world. Nevermind how much it makes me want to gag, I have to admit it’s really rather bland when you get right down to it. You can hide it in just about anything. First, though, you need to cook it. I usually buy mine frozen, because I’m lazy, and cutting up a head of cauliflower makes a gigantic mess on the countertop. But whether it’s fresh or frozen, just boil it in a pot of water for a good 15 minutes or so, until it’s very tender.

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When you drain the pot, save the water in a separate bowl, because you’ll probably need some of it back in a minute for consistency’s sake. You should be able to mash the big pieces up with a fork quite easily.

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Add in a Tablespoon or two of Fleischmann’s Unsalted Margarine (not the Original salted flavor,) because that always improves the taste of just about anything, really.

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Then beat everything to a fine pulp with a hand mixer (or even a blender, if your kids are very sensitive to texture,) adding some of the reserved cooking water back in a little at a time until it’s approaching smooth. You could use fresh water if you wanted, but the cooking water contains whatever nutrients you lost in the boiling process, so why not use it?

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Eventually you will get something that kind of resembles mashed potatoes, but not really. I actually once tried to serve this to the kids straight up, pretending it was mashed potatoes, but they weren’t fooled. However, mix it into a full batch of real mashed potatoes, so your ratio is only maybe 30-40% cauliflower, and they’ll have no idea. Other places you could hide this ninja vegetable puree include soups, smoothies, or any strong-flavored dish with a thick sauce base. Start with just a tablespoon or two if you have to, and before you know it they’ll be eating cauliflower by the floret.

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Happy Eating!

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Mashed Cauliflower

1 head of cauliflower, or about 12 oz. frozen
1-2 Tbs Fleischmann’s Unsalted Margarine

You can get sweet rice (also sometimes called “sticky rice”) at Asian markets, but to be honest, I’ve never been able to taste the difference, myself. You could make this with any short-grain rice and it would work just fine.

Put one cup of it in your rice cooker, along with 1 and 3/4 cups of water. If you are using sweet rice, they say you should let it soak at room temperature for at least 20 minutes. I usually do, but only because I’m busy getting other stuff ready at the time.

This can of coconut milk was more separated than most. Yuck.

I had to actually dump the whole thing into a separate bowl to get it reincorporated without making a giant mess. But eventually it started looking like coconut milk again.

Now, pour 1/2 cup (or 1/4 of the can) of coconut milk into the rice pot, and set the remainder aside for a minute. Add 1 Tablespoon of brown sugar…

And 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Give everything a good stir, and begin cooking the rice.

Meanwhile, pour the rest of the coconut milk into a small saucepan on the stove.

Add 1/4 cup of sugar. I prefer brown sugar, but it does give the final sauce a slight beige color, so if you think your kids would prefer something frosty white, just use cane sugar instead. Useful tip: if your brown sugar has become hard as a rock in the container, microwave it for 10 seconds at a time, and it will loosen right up.

Also add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Liquid vanilla extract is one of those things that might have gluten in it, because it’s distilled with alcohol and the manufacturer might use a grain alcohol. So you can hunt down a safe brand, or use this powdered vanilla that says gluten-free right on the bottle. Either way, it’s still one teaspoon.

While the sauce is warming, prepare your mango. I’m using a bag of frozen mango pieces, but you could certainly cut up a fresh mango or two if you want. But did you know that at certain times of the year, frozen fruits and vegetables can actually have more nutrients than fresh? That’s because when you’re buying something like mangos out of season, they’re most likely traveling to your store from a place where they are in season, like South America. The farmers know that the produce is going to take 2-3 weeks to get to its destination, so they pick the fruit early, letting it ripen on the trip over so it’s just right by the time it gets to you. But ripening on a truck is not the same as ripening on the vine; it’s not getting any additional nutrients as it develops, it’s really just dying slowly. If the fruit is destined to be frozen, however, the farmers leave it on the vine until it’s perfectly ripe, then pick it and freeze it immediately. Some nutrients are lost in the freezing process, but not as many as are lost by picking the food so many weeks early. Moral of the story: buying frozen fruits and veggies isn’t unhealthy, and might even be healthier than fresh depending on the food and the time of year. (Canned, however, is never going to be the best option.)

Okay, enough with the nutrition lesson. Let’s get back to our dessert that’s loaded with carbs and sugar, shall we? Whisk your sauce gently with a fork to make sure all the sugar is dissolved. You want the sauce to be warm, but try to avoid boiling it, otherwise all that sugar will start to carmelize.

Because we don’t want the coconut milk to reduce by boiling, we’ll need to thicken it just a bit with 2 teaspoons of corn starch (or potato starch, or arrowroot) dissolved into 1 Tablespoon of water. Once the corn starch is totally dissolved in the water, then it’s safe to add it to the pot without fear of lumps. Make sure to keep stirring as it thickens.

Round about this time, your rice should be done cooking. Gently fold in your mango pieces. (If you started with frozen, you will want them to be thawed before you do this.)

Serve with frosting — er, I mean, coconut sauce drizzled on top. Seriously, this stuff is sweet enough to put you into diabetic shock. But that doesn’t stop me from putting on way more than a drizzle, if you know what I mean. It’s just so delicious! You could also make this with bananas, or even pineapple, if your kids aren’t into mangos.

Happy Eating!

Mango Sweet Rice

1 cup sweet (or short-grain) rice
1 3/4 cups water
1 can coconut milk
1 TBS brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt

1-2 mangos
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cornstarch