Care Package for GF College Student

College students appreciate care packages, especially around final exams. Most universities make them available for parents to purchase. Unfortunately, most are filled with gluten. What do you do when your student is gluten free? What are some snack foods options to help the gluten free student make the most of their study time?

This is what went in my daughter's care package:

Gf pumpkin bread, Gf chex mix,

Gf muddy buddies, and homemade oatmeal bars

I also sent an assortment of other foods:

Popcorn, beef jerky, some fresh fruit/veggies, individual containers of peanut butter and ranch dressing paired with Gf pretzels/crackers as a quick snack. Trail mix is nice with some GF granola,GF Mac n Cheese, M&M's and dried fruit. I really wanted to make some homemade soups to send along, but that would require dry ice which takes care packaging to a whole other level that I just don't have time for.

I threw in a few other assorted items: hot chocolate, a small, decorative nut cracker, a string of Christmas lights and a few things to make her room feel festive.

I'll ask her which foods she liked the best and which ones didn't get eaten.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

If you've ever had a child choke on celery because of the strings, you'll enjoy this tip. Sometimes the outer stalks on celery are tough to chew. To make it more delicate and easy for a young child to eat, here is a simple way to remove them.

Using a sharp knife, cut into the back of edge of the stalk.

Pull back on the piece, revealing the strings.

Continue pulling to remove them completely. Sometimes it is necessary to go completely around the top edge of the stalk to get them all.

You end up with a pretty edge and a soft-to-chew celery stick.

For more Kitchen Tips, visit Tammy's Kitchen Tips.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

Maybe it's just me, but I like things to come out evenly. If I make a sandwich, you can bet the spread covers every spot on the bread, not just slathered towards the middle. A squirt of ketchup would never do on a burger.

So when it comes to topping a dish with pats of butter, I grate a stick (or however much the recipe calls for) over the top. It looks a bit like cheese, but this is butter.

Head over to Tammy's for more Kitchen Tips.

Kitchen Tips

Have a pen & paper handy when creating a dish. Sometimes a camera isn't enough. I was looking through recent photos. I found delicious looking dishes I had prepared, but I didn't post them on my blog. Nor did I write down what I did to make the dish. Now I can't remember what ingredients I used. I should have written out the ingredients and instructions.

And a bonus tip: Placing grated cheese on a tortilla and popping it in the microwave does not make it a cheese crisp. To be a cheese "crisp" it has to be broiled in the oven. Notice the brown, crisp edges?

And to make it officially a cheese crisp, add slices of green chile, or jalapeno pepper.

Onion and salsa are a bonus.

Stretching Meals

I'm sitting here waiting to see how many are coming for dinner. We will have either 4 of us, Michael, Christina, Ethan, and me or there could be 11 of us. (Could have been 13, but my inlaws already declined.) It is a good thing I'm pretty laid back.

If I was serving a large casserole type dish, it isn't a big deal to invite extras, but I'm grilling boneless pork chops. I have 9 of them. If 11 show up, I will cut the two largest portions in half. Plus, with grilled pork chops, I almost always serve refried beans. (Another source of protein, in case someone arrives who doesn't eat pork.)

Along with that, I have a large salad, baked potatoes, and a vegetable side dish. If a crowd shows up, I will pull out the bagels I have and make garlic toast or garlic bagel chips out of them. I like to keep appetizer items on hand too. Crackers & cheese, salami, veggies & dip, salmon dip or a variety of other things. I've even pulled out an apple and sliced it up real thin. One apple can go a long way. Peanut butter or caramel for dipping? You'd be amazed!

And if it ends up being just 4 of us, I will skip the appetizers and the garlic toast. The leftover baked potatoes will become twice baked for another meal. I will shred up the pork and make BBQ sandwiches, or quesadillas, or chili burros. I will find a way to use it to make another meal.

Often when I am not sure how many I will have for dinner, I put on a big pot of soup or a large casserole. But not always. Sometimes I have a meal planned at as the day progresses, the guest list grows.

Kitchen Tips Tuesdays by Tammysrecipes.com

The last time my son Christopher was home, he helped me cut up vegetables for soup. I noticed he was spending a bit of time peeling an onion. Since I created this food blog mostly for my children, I thought I'd share some kitchen tips that they may not have picked up along the way.

To peel an onion quickly and easily, first slice off both ends.

Cut a slice down one side.


It doesn't matter how deep you slice. Several layers should be sufficient. Then peel off as much as needed. Most onions are not even all the way around. So don't worry about peeling an extra layer off. The other side might still be green or partial skin.


The onion is now ready to be used for chopping, slicing, cooking.

For more kitchen tips visit Tammy's Recipe Blog