Quick & Easy Gluten Free Dinner - Sheetpan Broccoli and Sausage
From Christi Flaherty of Real Food Sanity
Hi friends,
Today I have an extra special treat for you! Meet Christi Flaherty, a chef and cooking instructor who specializes in food is medicine and runs a newsletter Real Food Sanity.
I met Christi recently and instantly related to her and her story as this has been such an important part of my life and work as well.
When my husband had lymphoma in his 30s healthy food was really crucial to his support and recovery.
I think you all know how important it has been for the health of my celiac son.
Also, I work with several hospitals and teach in the culinary medicine program of one, and at a hospital support center for people with chronic and life-changing diseases. (The same one that supported our family when my husband was in cancer treatment.)
All of this to say - I’m so glad there are chefs and cooking teachers like Christi out there. She is really making a difference.
She’s also sharing an awesome recipe with us today! Sheetpan Sausage and Broccoli - I made it for dinner this week and it was a hit!
I can’t wait for you to meet her! Here’s my interview with her and the recipe below!
Enjoy!
Rachel Ciordas
Next Level Gluten Free recipes are tested over and over and scientifically work! Then I walk you through all the details. I’m like your friend in the kitchen, who’s a gluten free expert. Upgrade to a paid membership so we can hang out more and you get to eat more delicious gluten free food.
Q: Hi Christi, can you tell me a little bit about yourself - who are you? Are you or your recipes gluten free?
Thanks so much Rachel for sharing your Substack with me.
I’m a wife and mom first but my kids are grown so for the last 5 years about been reinventing myself. I have been a food blogger since 2005 and a private chef since 2003 but after one of my clients offered her family meals to a friend who had just been diagnosed with brain cancer, I suddenly became the chef people came to when they were chronically ill or had cancer. I just simply knew that food was medicine and that eating the real food I cooked would support them in their health journeys but I didn’t know the why behind it all.
I was honored they would trust me without certifications but this lead me to go back to school and become a Holistic Nutritionist. The nutrition information I learned in school completely lined up with what I felt in my heart was true so I began to use this knowledge as a Board Certified Nutritionist and eventually a Certified Whole30 Coach.
Because I’ve been gluten free since 2008 and almost every client I worked with was gluten free, all the recipes I write are gluten free or have options to be so. It’s just how I think since it’s been almost two decades of eating this way.
Q: So you are a Chef and Cooking instructor (me too!) tell me a little bit about your recipes and what you love about teaching people to cook.
This is totally my passion. As I said, I was a private chef for many years, and besides cooking for families and creating wine pairing dinners (we used to live in Napa Valley…long story and is part of my writing process on my Substack) I taught cooking classes.
You know that proverb “Give a man a fish, you’ll feed him for a day; teach a man to fish you’ll feed him for a lifetime?” I learned over the years that while I loved cooking FOR people, I actually loved teaching them to cook healthfully for themselves as both an act of self-care and and act of love for friends and family even more.
Q: Tell me about your newsletter Real Food Sanity.
Well it goes back to that proverb. My substack has weekly recipe inspo for the kitchen confident and for the cooking averse, I have a second post each week that has mini cooking videos, thoughts on my favorite cooking hacks and more.
Q: You are sharing a recipe with us today (Yay!) can you tell me about the recipe, what do you love about it? Why did you create this recipe?
I have a Sheet Pan Broccoli and Sausage Dinner for you! It’s so easy since sausage is already highly flavored. The entire recipe can be prepped and on the table in under 30 minutes. While I love to serve it topped with fresh in-season tomatoes drenched in good EVOO, if tomatoes aren’t in season I have also included a recipe for Balsamic Syrup since its sweet acidic flavor can somewhat give you what you will miss without the tomatoes. Grocery store tomatoes just won’t cut it for this recipe, so it’s a good hack. The balsamic syrup keeps forever, so it’s just good to have in your hip pocket to use on almost anything. I created this recipe when I was working with a pastured meat company named Greensbury that’s sadly no longer in business.
Here’s the Recipe from Christi (it is SOOO delicious):
Q: Where can we find your work and how can we stay in touch with you Christi?
Real Food Sanity Meal Plans - Besides my Substack, I also have a Weekly Meal Plan Subscription which is 4 easy and flavor-packed dinners using only 2 proteins. Includes a meal prep timeline (this optional 1-2 hours can have dinner on the table in 20 minutes or less), shopping list, and recipes plus a bonus wild card dinner if you’re wanting to try something more adventurous. The meal plans are only $11.99 a month but your readers can get my VIP discount of 50% off the first month using code HALFOFF.
Real Food Sanity Substack –Join from this link for 20% off your first year, to see what I’ve been writing and reach out on chat to ask questions. You of course can be a free subscriber, too and still get my monthly exclusive complete meal recipe plus a peek at all my other posts so you’ll never have FOMO.
Instagram – I’m not as active on here as I am on Substack but you can join me anyway as I do post occasionally.