Gluten Free Naturally

Gluten Free Cinnamon Carrot Zucchini Muffins

2011-03-10T19:37:00.000-05:00

Gluten Free Cinnamon Carrot Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients:

•2/3 c oil

•2 large free range eggs

•2/3 c organic sugar

•1/2 c brown sugar, packed

•1 tsp vanilla extract

•2 c Pamela's GF Bread Mix (or other GF Flour Mix)

•1/2 tsp baking soda

•1/2 tsp baking powder

•1/2 tsp unrefined salt

•2 tsp ground cinnamon

•1 1/2 c finely shredded unpeeled zucchini

•1/2 c finely shredded carrot

Preparation:

Grease and flour 12 muffin cups. Heat oven to 375°.

In a mixing bowl, beat the oil with eggs, sugars, and vanilla extract.

Combine the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; add to the wet ingredients; stirring until blended. Fold in the shredded zucchini and carrots.

Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or granulated sugar, if desired. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

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Gluten Free Frosted Cake Donuts

2011-02-27T19:40:00.000-05:00

Gluten Free Frosted Cake Donuts

My children are singing the "Mom Praises" here in my home. With each victory in creating a new gluten free equivalent of the food they used to enjoy, it gets easier to stick with the gluten free lifestyle. As I was shopping in Meijer's one day I spotted an endcap with donut making supplies. Included in this was a large donut making pan from Wilton. I had a little one a long time ago but was unsuccessful in making donuts that weren't dry and hard.

So here's the recipe adapted from the recipe on the pan package:

2 cups Gluten Free Cake Flour
3/4 cup organic cane sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tbs melted butter

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray the donut pan with a nonstick spray.

In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Add in buttermilk, eggs and butter. Beat until combined. Fill each donut cup 2/3 full.

Bake for approx 8 mins or until the top of the donuts spring back when touched. Let cool 4-5 minutes before removing from the pan. Makes 12 donuts.

For the frosting / glaze:

Melt 1/3 cup butter in a sauce pan. Remove from heat and add 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla and stir. Add 1 Tbs of water at a time until the consistency desired is achieved. Dip the donuts upside down in the frosting until coated and sprinkle with decorative toppings if desired.

Enjoy the yummy donuts with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

To your health,

Dr Stephanie

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

2011-02-10T18:03:00.002-05:00

It's been a long time since I posted an entry. The reason? I have been working on finishing my Doctorate in Naturopathy. I am happy to report that I am officially done! So now I can return to the kitchen to bake some treats for my family.

The request this week was for peanut butter cookies. I have made the the flourless kind and they are good but these are better! Today my children had Hot Chocolate made with raw milk and organic chocolate and warm peanut butter cookies.

1/2 Cup Organic Cane Sugar
1/2 Cup Organic Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Organic Butter, room temperature
1/2 Cup Organic Peanut Butter (creamy)
1 Free Range Egg
1 1/4 Cup Gluten Free Flour Mix
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt

Cream the butter with sugars, and egg. Add the peanut butter to the mixture and blend well. In a separate bowl combine all the dry ingredients and mix well. Slowly add the flour to the butter mixture and blend until a play dough like consistency.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Roll the dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place on an ungreased baking sheet about 3-4 inches apart.

Bake for 9-10 mins. Cool on the baking sheets for a minute and then transfer to cooling rack.

Makes 2 dozen cookies (depending on size)

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Enjoy and be well,

Dr. Stephanie

Gluten Free Cheese Ravioli for Lunch

2010-06-04T20:57:00.000-04:00

We tried a new product in our lunches. Gluten Free Ravioli. It was really good. I added some sauce and put it in a thermos for them.

This is their lunch. Cheese Ravioli, Cashews, Strawberries, Cinnamon Muffin and a peanut butter thumbprint cookie for snack time.

And here it is all packed and ready to go.

Enjoy Life's New Allergen Suvival Guide

2010-06-04T11:17:00.000-04:00

I just received a Facebook post from Enjoy life with a link to their online Allergen Survival Guide. It's a great tool to use for people new to this lifestyle as well as for family trying to integrate their food choices with your needs.

Enjoy Life Allergen Survival Guide

To your health... Gluten Free

Stephanie

King Arthur Flour Gluten Free Pizza Crust

2010-06-02T08:52:00.000-04:00

I received an e-mail from King Arthur Flour that showed beautiful images of a gluten free pizza crust recipe. It looked so good! So I decided to make it for supper last night since it was just the kids and I for dinner. I have included images of my outcome. We used a 12 in pizza pan. If I make this again I will use less dough. The dough was extremely crispy and with it being so thick it was difficult to cut through and chew. I think thin and crispy would have been perfect. But the texture was great. I don't have access to King Arthur Flour here in Michigan so I used their flour mixture recipe.

If you are interested in trying this recipe here is a link to the King Arthur Blog where you can find all the details. This recipe is egg free but not dairy free.

School Lunches

2010-05-27T06:39:00.005-04:00

I thought I would share a quick post about school lunches. This is one thing I really hate making. Especially this time of year. It's hot and the kids don't feel like eating a lot. So here is today's *menu*. We use the Bento Laptop Lunch system. We also have the Bento Buddies. The lunch on the left is my son's. His lunch includes strawberries/blueberries, trail mix, applesauce spice bread, pretzels and a cheese stick. My daughter's lunch has strawberries/blueberries, honey roasted peanuts, buttered gluten free applesauce spice bread and cheese cubes.

The Applesauce bread is from Paula Deen and I used Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix flour blend for the flour. It turned out really good!! Very moist.

And now it's time to start breakfast. I think we will have pancakes.

To your health.....gluten free.

Stephanie

What a GF Warehouse looks like....

2010-05-25T13:10:00.003-04:00

I posted in my last blog entry that I kept a warehouse of stuff on hand. I wasn't kidding and just to prove it I thought I would share some pictures now that my DH organized them after a family member did a Trader Joes run for me yesterday. Now when our garden gets going all I will have to buy is meat at the butcher, pick up our milk at the farm, fruit from the farmers market and run to the health food store for eggs. I love the summer months!

Ok, so call me nuts..... but groceries are taken care of for a few months now. With the kiddo's home that is the last thing I want to have to do with them. :)

Gluten Free on a Budget

2010-05-23T13:55:00.015-04:00

"How can I afford to go gluten free?" is the lament I often hear. So day after day goes by and the people who need to remove gluten from their lives the most, hedge bets that things will be OK even though that still small voice inside of them tells them...... It's time. So today's post is for all the people who struggle with budgets for food, for feeding a family of fussy children that only want cereal and PBJ's. There is life after gluten.

I went on a gluten free diet in 2004. I remember the day that the decision was made all too well. I had been at my ND's office and we were discussing my health and diet after cancer treatments. I continued to struggle with gut related problems. I took probiotics and had done a liver cleanse yet there was that underlying issue.....always present. I returned home already stressed out by the cost of medical care wondering how would I work my new diet into the family diet and then there was the budget - OH BOY! I sat at my computer screen and cried as I searched for options. How would I feed my family? Two seperate meals? Then you get sticker shock just walking into the healthfood store and perusing the GF section. $5 - 8 or more is the standard cost of a single mix item. The discouraging thing was that they didn't even taste that great either. Half the time the mixes didn't turn out well and I didn't eat them and threw them away when they were stale. So how was this helping my budget?

This is my basic flour mixture. I use it for all my cookies. There are 12 cups in this batch and each bag I buy at the Asian supermarket for .99 cents / bag. The 1 lb bags have 4 cups of flour in them so the cost to put this together is $3.00.

My toll house cookie recipe uses 2 1/4 cups. That's 19% of the total container or .57 cents for flour for cookies. Add your normal chocolate chips (Aldi's are $1.19 / bag), butter (Aldi's $1.99 4 sticks - 2 sticks in recipe $1) and a few misc items like salt, baking soda and xanthan gum (more on where to get a deal later) and for about $3.00 you have a large batch of gluten free chocolate chip cookies. Cheaper than Oreo's and better for you!

This is my basic cookie flour:

9 Cups White Rice Flour
2 Cups Potato Starch
1 Cup Tapioca Starch / Flour

If you have a Trader Joe's near you, pasta is covered. $1.99 / bag for penne, spiral and spaghetti pasta. We make the *pilgrimage* 2x year 2 1/2 hours to our closes Trader Joe's to stock up. My basement looks like a warehouse.

But if you don't have a Trader Joe's the best way to find cheap pasta is to watch Amazon.com and buy it by the case. I use Subscribe and Save whenever possible. This will give you an additional discount. Don't be scared to sign up your first time. You can always cancel before the next shipment if you don't like it or if you get to the point of shipment and don't need more. I have purchased bags on sale for $1.50 - $3.00 depending on the sale. Once you start buying gluten free on Amazon they will start to e-mail you with specials.

For times that you need something in between sales I have found that Vitacost.com and iHerb.com offer some decent prices.

Xanthan Gum - if you aren't a huge baker this container will work well for you NOW 6 oz for $6.87 at iherb.com and if you bake a lot like I do you will want the industrial size you'll want to check eBay. I just scanned it today and the best prices is $9.99 with $4.97 shipping for 2 lbs. That's about 50% less than through iHerb.

The next flour blend I make is like a pastry flour. It can be used for muffins, cakes and any other

Gluten Free Cake Flour Mix

3 Cups Brown Rice Flour
1 Cup Potato Starch (not potato flour)
1/2 Cup Tapioca Flour
1 1/2 tsp guar gum or xanthan gum

Once again the potato starch and tapioca starch can be purchased at your local Asian grocer for about .99 cents / 4 cup bag. The brown rice is a bit more difficult to get. I have started to grind my own from brown rice in my BlendTec but prior to that I purchased it from Country Life which is local to me - but does ship UPS. I would recommend finding a local Weston Price group. They are a wealth of resources since they advocate baking and cooking from scratch.

Now for your challenge. I will follow up this blog post with more information on changing to gluten free but I need your help. I want you to submit your normal meal plan for a day and I will try to convert it with options that are gluten free and if possible include a cost to make themm. Just e-mail me here.

Until then. Here's to living gluten free.

Stephanie

Make Your Own Coconut Milk

2010-04-30T06:32:00.006-04:00

I saw a video on Tropical Traditions website and then saw a blog post on Elana's pantry blog site about making your own coconut milk. I had purchased a very large bag of shredded coconut and needed to find a use for it. So I figured what did I have to lose. It looked easy enough. So here's what I did.

Tools Needed:

1 - Blender - I used a Blendtec (purchased a demo unit on eBay for under $300)
1 - Cheese cloth - (Bed Bath & Beyond )
1 - 1/2 gallon mason jar with lid
1 - Funnel for a wide mouth jar.
8 - cups filtered water
6 - cups shredded coconut

Heat up water to a very warm temp. I did my blending / straining in several smaller batches - about 2 cups at a time to 3 cups of water so my water amount is an estimate. There isn't a right or wrong way just try to keep about 2 parts coconut to 1 part water.

Place the water and coconut in the blender and blend until very smooth.
Place the mixture in the cheese cloth and twist the top of the cloth and squeeze the liquid out of it.
Put the pulp back in the blender jar with another 1 - 1/2 cups of very warm water, blend and squeeze out the liquid. After this round discard the pulp.
Repeat the steps above with more fresh coconut and water.

I added a little vanilla and sweetener to my coconut milk (to taste)

The milk is great to drink immediately but you will probably want to put it over ice. I put the jar in the refrigerator and the next morning it had separated - there was a large layer of coconut cream. This thrilled me because I love this part the best in the canned coconut. I put it on top of warm oatmeal.

To get it back to the milk return it to the blender and lightly blend. Don't blend too long or it will whip up like whipped cream and become very thick.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Walrus Bread

2010-04-27T11:47:00.007-04:00

What on earth is Walrus Bread you ask? Well, I didn't know. I only knew that I found it on Bob's Red Mill site and that it had garbanzo bean flour which I have an over abundance of. So I figured - why not?

I didn't finish this blog entry the other day because my computer locked up and the only thing it would let me do is publish the blog entry. So now I am adding the picture and will comment that this bread tasted really good, rose well but when it was done backing I had this funny very high, weird shaped bread. Not sure what causes this. But I will be trying this again. I like that there is protein instead of starch as the main ingredient.

Ingredients
1 cup Garbanzo Bean Flour
1-1/2 cups White or Brown Rice Flour
1/2 cup cornstarch or potato starch
3 tsp Xanthan Gum
1 tsp Salt
2 Tb Sugar
1 Tb Yeast, Active Dry
2 Eggs, room temperature
2 Tb Vegetable Oil
1-3/4 cups Water, room temperature
1 tsp. Vinegar, room temperature

Directions (for oven instructions click on the link above to BRM site)
In a large bowl mix the first 7 ingredients together (garbanzo bean flour through yeast).

In another bowl blend together the water, eggs, oil and vinegar. Add wet ingredients to the dry mixture; blend well. Spoon bread dough into the breadmaker bucket.

Set control for basic white bread and start.
Finished loaf should be about 5 inches high.
Yield: 1-1/2 lb. loaf

Number of Servings: 12

Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 12
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 175.0
Total Fat: 4.3 g
Cholesterol: 35.4 mg
Sodium: 226.4 mg
Total Carbs: 29.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.6 g
Protein: 4.8 g

Vanilla Cupcakes - Allergy Free

2010-03-26T21:21:00.003-04:00

These are AMAZING....was the comment my daughter made when she saw me putting the final frosting and sprinkles on the top. The recipe is from the Allergen Free Baker's Handbook. I just sampled 1/2 of one. It was as my daughter said..... AMAZING. She will be taking one to her friend's birthday party tomorrow.

Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook Snickerdoodles

2010-03-19T15:24:00.004-04:00

Today I tried another recipe in my new cookbook The Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook (below). This is an absolutely fabulous cookbook! No nuts, eggs, dairy or gluten.

I have made the Classic Coffee Cake, Cherry Scones and now the Snickerdoodles. My children will be thrilled when they get home from school. They love cinnamon sugar and these fit the bill. If you are trying to stock your library with cookbooks that work and have yummy recipes this is a must!

To your health..... Gluten Free!

Stephanie

Gluten Free Oat and Flax Bread

2010-03-17T13:43:00.013-04:00

This is the very best bread yet! You would never ever, ever know this is not a wheat bread. I was playing around with some ingredients and came up with this bread. It's fun to be able to work without recipes and come up with things that have the ingredients you want.

Try this one! You won't be sorry.

In a large mixer bowl add the following ingredients together. Just dump them all in at once - that's why this is so easy!

1 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1 Cup White Rice Flour
3/4 Cup Oat Flour
1/4 Cup Tapioca Flour / Starch
1/4 Cup Ground Flax Meal
3 Tsp Xanthan Gum

1/2 Cup Milk (warm)
1 1/4 Cup Warm Water
2 Eggs
2 Tbs Sugar
3 1/2 tsp Yeast
1/2 tsp Celtic Salt
2 Tbs Oil

Place the batter in a greased bread pan and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. It should be rounded above the top of the rim of the pan. The bread will not rise too much higher when baking.

Preheat the oven to 365 degrees. You will bake this bread for 60 minutes total. Tent the bread with foil for 50 mins. In the last 10 minute remove the tin foil and let the top brown.

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Enjoy!

Stephanie

Gluten Free Lemon and Almond Meltaways

2010-02-24T12:51:00.001-05:00

I love Facebook! It allows me to be connected to places I never knew existed. One new link surfaced today.

This is a recipe I will be trying soon. My family loves lemon!

Gluten Free Lemon and Almond Meltaways

Best Gluten & Dairy Free Sandwich Bread Yet

2010-02-23T10:48:00.004-05:00

This is absolutely the best gluten free and dairy free sandwich bread I have made yet. I was playing around with various grains I had in my pantry and came up with this mixture. It rose nicely and had a great consistency. My daughter said "This is definitely an improvement." So this recipe is a keeper. I thought I would share with those of you struggling to make a good bread. It's super easy too - especially with a KitchenAid Stand Mixer.

Best Gluten & Dairy Free Bread

1 1/2 Cups White Fine Grind Rice Flour (I get mine at the Asian Food store)

1 Cup Brown Rice Flour

1/2 Cup Sorghum Flour

1/4 Cup Better Than Milk Rice Milk Powder

3 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum

1 tsp Salt

1 Tbs Sugar

2 1/2 tsp Dry Active Yeast

Wet Ingredients

3 Eggs

1 3/4 Cup Warm Water (about 110 degrees)

Preheat oven to 175 degrees and turn off immediately when it reaches the temperature.

Mix all ingredients together in a stand mixer and let it blend for 3 mins. on medium high. Pour batter into a greased large loaf pan. Let rise in the warmed oven for 30-45 mins or until the batter is just above the top of the pan.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Take a piece of foil and "tent" it over the top of the bread for the first 45 mins. In the last 15 mins of baking (total of 60 minutes baking time) remove the foil so that the top of the bread can brown. My experience has been that my bread gets too dark and dries out if not covered for 3/4 of the baking time.

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Remove from oven and cool. Slice and enjoy!

To your health.....gluten free!

Stephanie

Oatmeal Maple Gluten Free Bread - Living Without

2010-02-01T15:57:00.002-05:00

I love making new breads and this one is no exception. It tasted so good. The oats really made the bread have a not so gluten free taste. I recommend this. It makes a very dense and flavorful bread. I did not use Maple Syrup. I used Agave Nectar.

Here is the recipe from the Living Without Magazine - Oatmeal Maple Gluten Free Bread.

Cherry Oat Scones - Allergy Free

2010-01-23T14:46:00.002-05:00

I found a video of Cybele Pascal making Cherry Oat Scones and they looked easy enough to make. Wow where they good. They were easy so don't be scared of trying them. I shared them with others and they have raved about them too. You can watch the video here on Amazon.com .

Montina Gluten Free Flour Blend

2010-01-17T07:57:00.007-05:00

I have been seeing this flour and did a little research. It is an ancient grain that the Indians used. It is high in protein and very good for you. So I found it on Amazon.com and decided to try it.

You can find out more at the Amazing Grains website.

I tried the bread recipe on the side of the bag. It is not for the beginning bread baker and it does require a stand mixer. There are several ingredients to the bread too like powdered milk, apple cider vinegar, 3 eggs - that may not be good for allergy bakers. You must mix the contents, let it rise for 1 - 1 1/2 hours and then you put it back in the mixer and blend for 3 minutes and then you let it rise for another hour and then bake for 1 hour. So all together it is 3 1/2 to 4 hour process of mixing, rising, rising and baking.

But was it good? YES!! A lovely dense bread full of flavor. My family finished almost 1/2 of the bread in one evening.

Here are some pictures of my bread. I will be trying the flour in other recipes from the Amazing Grains website. To me it is worth the effort to have some more nutrients in my bread.

(Hint: If you click on the images below you can see the bread up close.)

Going Gluten Free for 2010 - Top picks

2010-01-06T07:51:00.027-05:00

Going gluten free is always a daunting task. With the cost of the items it is always hard to try something and then not like it. Because of this, I have been meaning to post my favorite things for cooking / baking gluten free. I have included cooking utensils, cookbooks and food items.

I just recently switched to the commercial grade baking pans and they have made a HUGE difference in how my items bake. The pans clean up better and the baked goods are more evenly baked. I bought a KitchenAid mixer when I first started really baking gluten free and have never regretted it. It is a MUST HAVE for busy mom's trying to cook gluten free. You can throw all the ingredients in the bowl and set it to mix while doing something else. I use my mixer probably 10 times a week. I am now drooling over the professional model as I increase my baking skills. I also got a grain mill that fits into it and fear that soon I will need a more powerful motor but at the time I didn't have the money to buy a larger machine.

I buy a lot of my mixes on Amazon.com - I use the subscribe and save function to get free shipping and a deeper discount. You can choose for them to auto ship at 1, 3, 6 month intervals.

Baking Supplies

Small & Medium OXO Cookie Scoop
SILPAT 11-5/8-by-16-1/2-Inch Nonstick Silicone Baking Mat
Chicago Metallic Commercial 18-Inch-by-13-Inch Jelly Roll Pan
Chicago Metallic Professional Mini Loaf Pan, Set of 4
Chicago Metallic Commercial Muffin Pan - 12 and 24 cup
Pyrex Glass 2-Cup Measuring Cup
Pyrex Glass 8-Cup Measuring Cup, Clear with Red Lid
Pyrex Prepware 1-Quart Measuring Cup
Norpro English Muffin Rings (4)
KitchenAid Artisan 5 Qt Stand Mixer
OvenStuff Non-Stick 12 Inch Pizza Pan Two Piece Set
Wilton Silicone Bite Sized Brownie Pan

Grains & Flours
Bob's Red Mill - Teff, Sorghum, Oats, Garbanzo Bean (I buy from local Healthfood store)
Country Life Natural Foods - Brown Rice, Tapioca Starch, Potato Starch, Almond Meal/flour
Asian Grocery Stores - White Rice, Sweet Rice, Potato Starch, Tapioca Starch
Bob's Red Mill - Organic Coconut Flour (subscribe & save)
Rumford Baking Powder
Xanthan Gum - Now Brand, Ebay

Mixes
Bob's Red Mill - Pizza Crust Mix (subscribe & save)
Trader Joes - Brownie, Pancake / Waffle Mix
Bob's Red Mill - Pancake Mix (subscribe & save)
Bob's Red Mill - Brownie Mix (subscribe & save)
Pamela's Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix, 64-Ounce Bags (Pack of 3) (subscribe & save)
Pamela's Products Amazing Wheat Free & Gluten-free Bread Mix 4 Pound Bags (Pack of 3) (subscribe & save) - **Best Bread Mix!!!
Annies Gluten Free Macaroni & Cheese
Mrs Leeper's Dinners (like Hamburger & Tuna Helpers)
Pamela's Cake Mixes
Namaste Mixes (I have tried almost all and they are great!)

Other Stuff (crackers, cookies, pasta)
Glutino Crackers (subscribe & save)
Glutino Pretzels - Lucky Vitamin, VitaCost
Tinkyada Pasta or check out http://www.vitacost.com/ and http://www.iherb.com/
Trader Joes Pasta (Spaghetti, Spirals, Penne)
Sam Mills Corn Pasta
Mrs Leeper's Pasta

Cookbooks
Cookies for Everyone by Enjoy Life
Elana's Pantry Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook
125 Best Gluten Free Recipes
The Best Gluten Free Family Cookbook
Cooking Free
Cooking with Coconut Flour: A Delicious Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Alternative to Wheat

Storage
Don't Fah-get 6.0 Qt Bread Container

I think that covers it. I'll add more if I think of it. But these are the things that will help make your gluten free baking experience easier.

To your health - gluten free in 2010.

Stephanie

Gluten Free Hearty Lasagna Soup

2009-12-30T18:47:00.005-05:00

One of those cold and lazy winter days. I didn't get it together to make a big meal but soup this time of year hits the spot. This is a new recipe I decided to try since I had a coupon for various canned tomatoes. It was delicious and my children gave it the thumbs up. So I am sharing it with you for your family. Check out the link for the Lasagna Pasta - Amazon.com has a sale on it. Enjoy!

Gluten Free Hearty Lasagna Soup

1 lb Ground Beef
1/4 Cup Chopped Onion
1 tsp Minced Garlic
1/4 tsp Dried Parsley Flakes
3 1/2 Cups Beef Broth
1 Can Diced Tomatoes (14.5 oz)
1/4 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 1/2 Cups Gluten Free Lasagna Mini Noodles
1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

Preparation

Cook the beef, onion, garlic and parsley in a 3 qt saucepan over medium-high heat for 10 minutes or until the beef is well browned, stirring often. Pour off any fat.
Stir in broth, tomatoes and Italian seasoning in the saucepan and heat to a boil.
Stir the pasta in saucepan. Reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 10 minutes or until the pasta is tender. Stir in the cheese. Serve with additional cheese sprinkled on top.

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Elana's Pantry Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook

2009-12-30T13:00:00.005-05:00

One of my favorite gluten free bloggers as well as an author of the new Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook.

Elana's giving away her cookbook as well as a 5 lb bag of Honeyville Almond flour. Check it out!

http://www.elanaspantry.com/cookbook/

To your health in 2010.

Stephanie

The Soaked Flour Gluten Free Bread

2009-12-27T14:47:00.005-05:00

My flour has soaked and I used it to make a simple gluten free loaf of bread. I used the Gluten Free Cheese Bread recipe minus the cheese. I did not add any liquid either. Here is the result. I pulled it from the oven, let it cool a bit and then sliced it and slathered with butter. My son begged for more and my daughter wolfed down a slice. I have to admit it was moist and fluffy. Very good and worth the effort.

To soak my flour I took equal parts of water and flour (ie 2 cups of water to 2 cups of flour) and added 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar for every two cups. For one cup of brown rice I added 1 tsp. I don't think there is a right or wrong amount. It will just make it a bit more "tangy" if you add too much.

Another adventure taken and conquered. Now to work on more grains to grind, soak and bake.

To your health!

Stephanie

My New Toy - KitchenAid Grain Mill

2009-12-26T13:26:00.005-05:00

Some may not consider a KitchenAid grain mill something worth getting excited over but to me it is one of the coolest things. There is something very comforting to me about getting back to the old way of cooking. I know that I am doing the very best I can to keep my family healthy with nourishing foods. Each time I attend a Weston Price conference I am more convinced of this. So much vitality and positive *emotion* flows from the people there. It's inspiring.

So now I have a grain mill. Why did I want this? For two reasons. Gluten free flours are more difficult to get quickly. This way I can stock the grains and grind as I need them. No more bags all over the house of 20 different flours. Of course there will be some that still remain like teff and sorghum. But brown rice and white rice are easy now. Second, as I read more I am learning that as soon as the kernel of the grain is broken it begins to deteriorate. The wonderful vitamins and oils within it begin to diminish and go rancid. Since we are eating food to be nourished it makes little sense to use something that is less than optimal. I have also read that rancid oils can be damaging to our bodies. That got my attention!

So now you can see what the grain mill looks like attached to the end of my mixer. A little tip for those of you who may want to buy one. Take your 20% off Coupon to Bed Bath & Beyond and have them order the grain mill for you. If you get it before the end of the year you can send a refund offer into KitchenAid for another 20% off. It's a great deal!

This is the end knob. You can see how it turns 360 degrees around to go from fine to course grind.

This is the top of the hopper - see the rice in the bottom. It's almost finished......

And here it is....... my first batch of freshly ground white rice flour. My next step is to learn how to soak my flour to get it to break down the phylates that make grains hard to digest. Nourishing Traditions book (by Sally Fallon) here I come.......

Keep watching my blog to see how my new adventure with a grain mill goes.

To your health.

Stephanie

Gluten Free Almond Bars

2009-12-19T20:19:00.008-05:00

As Christmas approaches once more my memories return to my childhood of cookies and bars that my family made each year. One of these were almond bars. I loved them. That sweet center of gooey almond paste was hard to resist. But this year (and in recent years past) these old recipes remained a memory as they were loaded with gluten. As my skills have matured in converting old favorites I return to them one by one to re-create them. So yesterday I set out to make these bars. They turned out great and my children fell in love with them. They kept saying "Hmmmm.....Hmmmmm..... These are SOOOOOO YUMMY!" Yes I am raising true Dutch children with a passion for almond paste. So here it is.

Mix Together

1/2 lb Butter - softened

1 Cup Powdered Sugar

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Egg

1 Tsp Vanilla

In a Separate Bowl Sift Together
2 Cups Gluten Free Cake Flour Mix
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Combine sifted ingredients and butter mixture and chill.

Roll out 1/2 of the dough and place it in a 9 x 13" pan. (roll out between two pieces of waxed paper)

Filling - Mix the following together

3/4 lb Almond Paste

3 Eggs, unbeaten

1 Cup Sugar

Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes.

Put tilling on top of the dough in the pan and cover with the remaining rolled out dough.

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Merry Christmas!

Stephanie

Gluten Free Cut Out Cookies

2009-12-12T22:47:00.002-05:00

We made gluten free cut out cookies tonight. I tried a recipe last Christmas but they just weren't like the ones we always made before going gluten free. So I set out to find another one. Google is my best friend in times like this. I stumbled on a recipe on the Land O Lakes website. This is a website I would have never thought to look for gluten free recipes. They turned out delicious! As you can see my children enjoyed piling in the sprinkles too.

Go here to see the "Star Cut Out Cookies" recipe.

Gluten Free Zucchini Spice Muffins

2009-11-23T16:56:00.005-05:00

Great muffin for breakfast, lunch or to accompany soup on a cold day. These are really good and I am quite pleased with the consistency. You'd never know they were gluten free.

GLUTEN FREE ZUCCHINI SPICE MUFFINS

2/3 Cup Sorghum Flour
2/3 Cup Tapioca Flour (Starch)
2/3 Cup White Rice Flour
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Apple Pie Spice
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Celtic Sea Salt

In a separate bowl combine:
1 large egg
5 Tbs Coconut Oil (or butter)
2 Cups chopped or shredded zucchini
1/2 Cup Agave Nectar or sugar

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and blend until well mixed. Pour into greased muffin tins and Bake at 375 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes.

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Wonderful Pumpkin Bran Muffins

2009-11-11T11:05:00.007-05:00

I am heading to the Weston Price Conference this week and am making some food to take along. They have fabulous food and I will enjoy not cooking but you get those early morning and late evening munchies. :)

I used to make these muffins when I was working. I would pop them in my travel bag and eat them for snacks or breakfast. But now I am gluten free and that means I had to convert it. No big deal for me anymore. Bring it on! So here is the final product and they turned out great!!

Wonderful Pumpkin Bran Muffins

1 Cup Rice Bran
2 Tbs Flax Meal
3/4 Cup Gluten Free Flour Mix
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Molasses
1/4 Cup Honey
1 Cup Puree Canned Pumpkin
1/2 Cup Coconut Milk (I used So Delicious - you could also use regular milk)
2 Eggs
4 Tbs Unsweetened Applesauce
1/4 - 1/2 cup Raisins (softened in hot water)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

In a large bowl combine rice bran, flax meal, flour, baking powder and spices, salt.

In the mixing bowl combine the rest of the ingredients and blend. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet until well mixed. Mix in raisins. Spray or line 12 muffin cups and fill with mixture.

Bake 20 mins or until toothpick comes out clean.

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Enjoy!!

Stephanie

Gluten Free Bean & Teff Bread

2009-11-01T17:21:00.006-05:00

I over bought on GarFava bean flour so I was looking for something to make with it. I just got my Teff flour from Amazon.com and it was so wonderful in the last bread I made that I decided to see if I could come up with a new bread "creation". I am so pleased with this bread. Light and fluffy and full of good nutrients from the beans and the teff. I hope you enjoy it too.

Gluten Free Bean & Teff Bread

1 Cup GarFava Bean Flour

3/4 Cup Corn Starch

1 1/4 Cup Tapioca Flour

1/4 Cup Teff Flour

4 tsp Xanthan Gum

1/4 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

3 Tbs Brown Sugar

3 Eggs

3 Tbs Vegetable Oil

1 1/2 Cups Warm Water (110 degrees)

2 1/2 tsp Dry Yeast

Assemble the flour mixture, salt, yeast and Xanthan gum and set aside.

Combine the eggs, apple cider vinegar, water, oil and brown sugar and blend until mixed.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet.

When blended place in a well oiled bread pan and allow to rise in a warm place for 1/2 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 50 mins. If the crust starts to get too brown before the bread is done, "tent" it with aluminum foil.

Curried Pumpkin Apple Soup

2009-10-29T13:02:00.008-04:00

I am on a pumpkin kick. They are very healthy! Check it out here. On my shopping trip yesterday to my favorite Meijer's store (the one with all the organic and gluten free foods) I wandered over to the chef they have making things for people to sample. She was making this pumpkin soup. I tasted it and thought it was really good. It is a deviation from the normal things I eat. So I grabbed a card and made it this morning for lunch. Now I will share the recipe with you.

Pumpkin Apple Soup

2 Tbs Butter
1 C Chopped Onion
1 C Chopped Celery
1/2 Large Apple, peeled & chopped
2 tsp Curry Powder (I used Penzey's Sweet Curry)
3 Cups Organic Chicken Broth
1 1/2 Cups Canned Pure Pumpkin
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 Bay Leaf
1/3 C Heavy Cream (next time I will try coconut milk)
2 to 3 Tbsp Maple Syrup or Honey

1. Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in onion, celery and apple. Partially cover., and saute until onion is clear, about 8 minutes. Stir in curry powder, saute 1 minute more. Stir in 1 cup of the chicken broth and simmer 1 more minute.

2. Transfer onion mixture to blender or food processor, add pumpkin and blend until smooth.

3. Pour pumpkin mixture into saucepan and stir in remaining chicken broth. Add salt and bay leaf. Place saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.

4. After 5 minutes stir in heavy cream and 2 Tbs of the honey/maple syrup. Simmer 2 minutes. Remove soup from heat and ladle into serving bowls.

Per Serving: 230 calories, 21 g carbs, 6 g protein, 14 g fat, 9 g saturated fat, 3 g fiber, 60 mgs cholesterol, 470 sodium

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Gluten Free Pumpkin Teff Almond Spice Muffins

2009-10-28T22:45:00.008-04:00

Wow that's a mouthful. But these muffins are packed with healthy ingredients. I was looking for a good fall recipe for some muffins for the kids lunches tomorrow. I just love pumpkin. These are packed with some wonderful flours. Try it! I know you will like them.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Teff Almond Spice Muffins

Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup teff flour
• 1/2 cup white rice flour
• 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 c brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 c rice milk
• 1/4 c (1/2 stick) dairy-free margarine, melted
• 1 c canned pumpkin purée or cooked puréed pumpkin

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. In a bowl, combine all flours, xanthan gum, baking powder, spices, and sugar.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add eggs, milk, and margarine. Fold to mix, then fold in pumpkin. Mix until ingredients are barely combined and the dry ingredients are wet.

4. Fill 18 lined muffin tins about 2/3 of the way full. (If you prefer not to line them, you can grease the tin, or use a silicon muffin pan.)

5. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until muffins are browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool before removing.

Dark Teff Sandwich Bread - GF/CF/EF

2009-10-17T07:21:00.006-04:00

I made an absolutely fabulous bread. It contains a very nutrient dense flour - Teff. Teff is an Ethiopian grain. I had used it in smaller amounts in various recipes but never as much as this bread calls for.

For this bread I used the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen Dark Teff Sandwich Bread recipe. I did not let this bread rise enough so the next time I make it, I will allow it to rise a bit more. The best part(s) about this bread are that it is gluten free, casein free, and egg free. It tastes a lot like the whole wheat bread you would get at an Artisan bakery. The one down side is that Teff is expensive. One pound at my local health food store was a little over $8. Thank goodness for Amazon.com's subscribe and save program. I ordered 4 bags of Bob's Red Mill Teff Flour from them for $21.

Bake some bread, slice it up warm and enjoy......

Stephanie

Gluten Free Almond Oatmeal Cookies

2009-09-27T17:19:00.009-04:00

I got an e-mail for a recipe for Almond Oatmeal cookies. It looked so good and being that I am of Dutch descent it was even more enticing with the almond paste. So today I decided to try to make them gluten free. It worked! They are a wonderful almond flavored cookie. So here is my creation to share with you.

Dry Ingredients
2 1/2 Cups White Rice Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 cups gluten free oats

Wet Ingredients
1 stick butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 free range organic eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla
7 oz Almond Paste

Icing1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Blend the wet ingredients together in a stand mixer. Mix together dry ingredients in another bowl. When ingredients are mixed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until well blended. Spoon out onto a parchment or silicone mat lined baking sheet. Press the balls down a bit so that they are shaped like a flat but semi thick pancake. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges.

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When cooled, drizzle the icing across the top of the cookies.

Enjoy!

Stephanie

Struggling with Lunches and other Meals

2009-09-19T14:06:00.008-04:00

I thought I would share some tips for those of you struggling with gluten free lunches for your children as well as family meals. I am by no means an expert but have learned a few tricks and found some good tools.

Lunchbox "helpers"

These are called Bento Boxes. You can find them on the Laptop Lunches website. The set on the left is the newest version called Bento 2.0. The contained box on the right is the original version. We have been using the original for the last 3 years. I just love them because you do not need all those ziploc baggies. I forgot to also show that you get real silverware with the box (fork & spoon) as well. We are blessed that my children eat in their classrooms so the risk of throwing items away is reduced. This snap together container fits inside most zip around lunchboxes. I also forgot to picture the little dipping cup that is shown with the other set.

The Bento 2.0 just arrived at our home last week so I have not had time to use it but I am eager to get started as there were many times I wanted lids on all my containers as well as a bigger sandwich container. If you would like to look at some ideas from other moms that use these bento boxes here is a great resource. Flickr Laptop Lunches

Next, I bought thermos after thermos and tried to get one that would keep my children's food warm and was stainless steel. I tried the thermos brand with the cute images on the sides and they were pathetically lacking. They work great for the cold items - we use them for drinks but keeping things hot for 6 hours (the time we needed) did not work. I threw away more food because it was cold. I finally found Thermos' Elements series in the camping section and they keep things hot for 7 hours. This opened up a world of more food options to send with them. They were $20 each at Target. This container was used for a year and has been toted back and forth on the bus in a backpack. It held up well and is still going strong.

Here is a sample meal plan for my week. We are a busy family - running children all over so I try to keep things simple. I do have to bake my own breads and hamburger rolls which you can find in this blog. Hopefully this helps you on your journey.

Meal Planning September 20 - 29, 2009

To your health.....

Stephanie

2009-09-19T12:53:00.003-04:00

This is our favorite pancake and waffle mix.

Living Without Magazine
Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Favorite Pancakes
Serves 4

Brown rice flour and sorghum flour add extra protein and fiber to these tasty gluten-free, dairy-free pancakes. Top them with sliced fruit, warm applesauce, maple syrup or powdered sugar. For convenience, mix ingredients the night before, cover and store overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, remix the batter while your griddle heats up. Don’t over-mix. If batter becomes too thick, add more liquid.

¾ cup brown rice flour
½ cup sorghum flour
¼ cup tapioca flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup milk of choice (plain-flavored rice, almond or soy milk)
1 teaspoon oil of choice

Mix together flours, xanthan gum and baking powder in a mixing bowl.
Add eggs, vanilla and sugar. Add milk slowly, until batter is desired thickness. Do not over-mix or batter will become thick and stiff.
Heat oil in a heavy skillet or non-stick pan. When skillet is sizzling hot, pour in batter or drop by large spoonfuls to make pancakes. Spread batter out in pan if necessary. Cook until pancakes have bubbles throughout and bottom is lightly browned. Flip with a spatula and cook briefly until done.
*TIP For banana-nut pancakes, add half a ripe, mashed banana and 2 tablespoons ground almonds, if tolerated. (Grind almonds with a coffee grinder.) For blueberry pancakes, add ½ cup fresh or frozen blueberries and increase sugar to 5 tablespoons.

Each serving contains 316 calories, 6g total fat, 1g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 106mg cholesterol, 501mg sodium, 59g carbohydrate, 2g fiber, 7g protein.

GFCF Banana Bread

2009-09-19T11:35:00.007-04:00

Gluten Free / Casein Free Banana Bread

Ingredients
1 cup brown rice flour (fine ground is best)

1 cup Gluten Free Flour Mixture

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup oil

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease a bread pan (or 3 small loaf pans). Combine the bananas, eggs, sugar, oil and blend in the mixer at medium speed. Assemble the remaining ingredients and slowly add to the wet ingredients in the blender. Blend until well mixed. Pour into the bread pan(s) and bake for 45 to 1 hour or until the stick comes out clean. (For small loaves check them approx 30 mins into the baking cycle.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Slice and enjoy! You can also add some Enjoy Life Dairy Free chocolate chips.

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To your health....

Stephanie

Gluten-Free / Dairy Free Cinnamon Muffins

2009-08-22T12:05:00.010-04:00

I decided that I wanted to make cinnamon muffins today. My children love the taste of cinnamon so I figured it would be a winner. I scoured the net for a gluten free recipe and I found one. So I gathered all the ingredients, mixed it up and put it in the muffin pan. When the oven heated I popped it in. But...... 15 mins later I smelled something burning. It was the dough oozing over the sides. It had not risen at all and was one big blob of goo. So after it baked I took it out and cleaned up the pan. I decided to try again. I figured I could come up with something better on my own.

And I did!!! This is absolutely fabulous. The texture from the flour mixture is so close to gluten that no one would be able to tell. There is no funny taste either. (Hint: click on the mixture names in the recipe to be taken to the recipes for them)

I hope your family enjoys this as much as mine did. My daughter asked for me to put it in her lunch. Yes that is coming again......

Gluten Free / Dairy Free Cinnamon Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients together and set aside for use in the topping and cake.

Streusel Topping
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup gluten free flour mixture
1/3 cup spectrum shortening, room temperature
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl until a clumpy mixture forms. Set aside.

MUFFIN

1 Cup Better Batter Mix
1/2 Cup Gluten Free Flour Mix
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 free range eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup rice milk (or other non dairy milk)
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. In a standing mixer, place all the muffin ingredients into the bowl and mix for 2 - 3 minutes on medium speed.

3. Pour batter into greased muffin pan. Sprinkle the streusel topping onto batter.

4. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for about 5 minutes before serving.

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More Cookies for Everyone......

2009-08-04T14:03:00.004-04:00

I have been baking and cooking like a mad woman. I will join my hubby tomorrow in Oregon and the kids will be left with grandma and grandpa who are gluten free and dairy free challenged. So I end up doing a weeks worth of work in a few days. I made pizzas, bread, waffles, and cookies... ah the cookies! I am loving the new Enjoy Life Cookies for Everyone. I thought I would tease you with some more.

Page 70 - Positively Pumpkin Cookies. These are very good and good for you. They contain pumpkin, rice bran and flax. Plus raisins if you please.

Then for the sweeter side of cookies.....

Page 59 - Oh So Delicious Sandwich Cookies. When they say to bake until the cookies are crisp you will need to do this or they crumble into bits. I put them back in the oven to get them like oreo's.

I highly recommend this cookbook. It is a must have for the allergy family.

To your health!

Stephanie

Egg & Vegetable Pie Italiano - The Garden of Eating

2009-07-25T20:01:00.008-04:00

A few weeks ago I was approached by a lovely woman (Chef Rachel) about reviewing some cookbooks of hers. I agreed to try the recipes and she agreed to send me her books. Life has been hectic around here lately so I haven't had a chance to make anything but this recipe had jumped out at me due to all the herbs. We had them all in our garden so I could go out and pick them fresh for dinner tonight.

I was actually surprised that my picky son said that this was very good. My husband said it tasted like hot dogs. Not sure where he got that taste on his pallet but it must not have mattered because he took two slices. My ever fussy daughter....ate the herbs off the top and left the dense egg part on the bottom. I guess that's a 7 year old for you. The rest of us enjoyed dinner. It took me about 25 mins to prepare but that was including my trip to the garden for herbs so the estimate of 15 mins may be close to accurate.

You can tell I have been an insomniac lately. Too much Iron Chef watching. My husband laughed at my plate that I put together for my photo. Hey, presentation is everything. :)

A little about the cookbook this came from. It is called The Garden of Eating. It reminded me of a more user friendly Nourishing Traditions cookbook. Chef Rachel has added some great things like seasonal meal plans along with a few pages outlining what her typical eating menus are like. I loved that! Her food is very nutrient dense and includes good fats, grass fed meats and veggies. You can check out her website at http://www.thegardenofeatingdiet.com/.

So here's the recipe:

Egg & Vegetable Italiano

Extra Virgin olive oil, unrefined coconut oil, ghee or clarified butter to grease baking pan.

1 1/2 cups diced fresh tomatoes, or drained, canned diced no salt tomatoes, divided

1 Tbs dried parsley or chives or 1/2 cup washed, dried, minced fresh parsley leaves or chives.

1/4 cup dulse flakes or 1/2 cup dulse leaf or laver (wild nori) sea vegetable, sorted to remove small shells or stones and cut into tiny pieces with shears, optional (I did not add this)

6 medium to large free-range chicken eggs or duck eggs or 8 small eggs

1/2 cup dried, powdered egg whites

2 Tbs dried onion flakes

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp dried basil or 1 Tbs fresh basil leaves

1 tsp dried oregano or 1 Tbs fresh oregano leaves, stems removed

1/2 tsp dried thyme or 1/2 Tbs fresh thyme leaves, stems removed

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 tsp ground chipolte or black pepper

1/2 tsp Natural Liquid Hickory Smoke Seasoning such as Wright's, optional

Place rack in center of and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a 10 inch deep dish pie plate or 9x9x2-inch baking pan. Scatter half the tomato and parsley or chives over bottom of the pie plate. Sprinkle with dulse if desired.
Combine reserved tomato and remaining ingredients in blender. Process until smooth and frothy, stopping to scrape sides with spatula. Do not over mix.
Pour egg mixture over vegetables in pie plate. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until puffy, firm in the center, and lightly golden on top. Cut into 8 slices and serve, or cool, cover and refrigerate for later. If desired, top each serving with 1/4 of a sliced avocado. Use within 4 days.

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Gluten Free / Dairy Free Corn Flake Cookies

2009-07-18T20:13:00.006-04:00

Gluten Free / Dairy Free Cornflake Cookies

2 Cups Gluten Free Flour (click here for mix)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp celtic salt
1 1/4 cup Spectrum Organic Shortening
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten well
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flaked or shredded coconut
2 cups gluten free corn flakes (I used Natures Path)

Sift together first 4 ingredients and slowly add the sugar and beat until light. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and creamed mixture. Add coconut and corn flakes (I crushed a bit). Place rounded dough on a parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 mins or until edges are lightly browned.

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Here is a picture (above) of the finished beautiful cookies. They taste great too!

Enjoy!!

Stephanie

Gluten Free Blueberry Crisp

2009-07-18T19:58:00.007-04:00

We were on a small vacation this week and I came home to find my blueberries in the refrigerator a little less than desirable. So I needed to use them up. What better way than to cook them. So I decided that blueberry crisp would be in order. Here it is. It smells so yummy! Enjoy with coconut milk ice cream for a dairy free / gluten free delight.

Gluten Free Blueberry Crisp

2 Pints Fresh Blueberries - washed

1 cup gluten free all purpose flour (I used Pamela's wheat free bread mix)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup Spectrum Organic Shortening

1/3 cup gluten free oats

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease the bottom of an 8 x 8 baking dish.

Mix the blueberries with 2 Tbs of the flour mixture and place in the dish.

Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, oats and shortening. Use a fork to mix the shortening through the mixture. Hint: the shortening works best if cold / solid.

Pour mixture over the top of the blueberries and bake in oven for 30 minutes or until it bubbles and the crust is browned.

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Enjoy!

Stephanie

Oh Honey Grahams - Enjoy Life ( Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free)

2009-07-17T19:23:00.004-04:00

I recently got the Enjoy Life cookie cookbook. My daughter and I decided to make the Oh Honey Graham crackers.

Ingredients include Brown Rice Bran, Rice flour, Flaxmeal, cinnamon, rice milk.

To get your Enjoy Life Cookies for Everyone click on the title and it will bring you to the Amazon site. You can view the cookbook online too.

These taste like real graham crackers!!

Gluten Free / Dairy Free / Grain Free Red White and Blue Muffins

2009-07-13T14:23:00.003-04:00

I found this recipe at the Nourishing Gourmet Website and just had to try them. I love baking with coconut flour. Some say it is expensive but you use very little of it and it lasts longer than regular flour so it evens out. I buy the 4 bag boxes of Bob's Red Mill on Amazon.com . I used fresh berries - raspberries and blueberries.

Red, White and Blue Cupcakes-makes 10-12 muffins

You can also use all blueberries for a delicious blueberry muffin.

(To make these GAPS friendly, just leave out the baking powder, to make it SCD substitute baking soda. )

1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs, gently beaten with a fork
1/3 cup of honey
1/3 cup of coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup of fresh or frozen raspberries
Preheat oven to 375 degrees

1-In a medium size bowl, place the coconut flour, sea salt, and baking powder. Whisk to remove any lumps.

2-Melt honey and coconut oil in a small saucepan, just until melted (if you have over-heated it all, let it cool before combining it with the eggs so that it won’t curdle it. Combine wet ingredients (eggs, honey, coconut oil, vanilla), and whisk thoroughly into dry ingredients.

3-Fold in fresh or frozen berries. In papered or lightly greased muffin tins, put about 1/4 cup of batter in each muffin tin. Make sure to have some of the blueberries and some of the raspberries in each muffin

4-Bake for 375 degrees until the muffins are lightly browned on the top and a toothpick comes out clean when poked into the middle of the muffin (20-28 minutes)

Enjoy! To your health......naturally.

Stephanie

Gluten Free / Dairy Free Smoothies

2009-07-11T12:02:00.006-04:00

Someone recently asked on a GFCF group I am on for smoothie recipes. So I shared mine and then decided it would be a good blog entry for my GF blog as well so here they are. I also want to comment that when the kids are not looking I will grind up flaxseeds and sneak some into their smoothies for some good Omega 3 Fatty Acids.

Berry Smoothie
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup berries
1/2 cup rice milk or water
honey or agave nectar to taste
Ice if the berries are fresh and not frozen

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
1/4 cup pumpkin
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup rice milk or water
5-7 ice cubes
1/2 tsp vanilla
nutmeg
cinnamon (both spices to taste)
honey to sweeten

Chocolate Covered Banana Smoothie
1 banana
1 Tbs cocoa powder
1/4 cup coconut milk
5-7 ice cubes
1/2 cup rice milk or water

Strawberry Banana Smoothie
1 banana
1/2 cup strawberries
5-7 ice cubes
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup rice milk or water
cinnamon (to taste)
Agave or honey to sweeten a bit (depends on sweetness of berries and banana)

Avocado Blueberry / Peach Smoothie
1/2 avocado
1 peach
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 coconut milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup rice milk or water
Agave or honey to sweeten

To your health!

Stephanie

Gluten Free Cake Flour Mix

2009-07-09T07:20:00.002-04:00

I use this mixture for my cakes. It works very well and creates a gluten like cake.

Gluten Free Cake Flour Mix

3 Cups Brown Rice Flour
1 Cup Potato Starch (not potato flour)
1/2 Cup Tapioca Flour
1 1/2 tsp guar gum or xanthan gum

Sift ingredients together, combining thoroughly. Use in place of flour in cakes and other baked goods. Store in a ziplock bag or airtight container.

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Gluten Free / Dairy Free / Egg Free Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes

2009-07-07T11:36:00.004-04:00

I made another great recipe today. The best part is that these are gluten free, dairy free and egg free and contain a good fat - avocado. My son loved them (my allergy child) saying "mommy these are so good". Yeah! I used a muffin top pan so that is why they look a little odd.

GFCFEF Chocolate-Avocado Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups Mock Better Batter Mix
3/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 Avocado (pitted and peeled)
1/2 cup Maple Syrup
1/4 cup Agave Nectar
3/4 cup So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk
1/3 cup oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 - 3/4 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

Add all the ingredients into the mixer bowl and blend. Put in a cupcake pan and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees. Bake for 25 mins.

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Gluten Free / Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-07-04T16:35:00.004-04:00

Happy 4th of July. We're just hanging around the house. So I decided to bake.

Now for our next adventure in baking......

How do you make a cookie dairy free? Spectrum Organic Vegetable Shortening! This is the basic Nestle Toll House Cookie recipe with the 1 cup of butter replaced with 1 cup of Spectrum Shortening and the chocolate chips replaced with Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips.

Gluten Free Carrot Zucchini Muffins

2009-06-28T21:54:00.009-04:00

It's the time of year for farmer's markets. I went to my first one this weekend and came home with bags of great fruits and veggies. I always over buy. So I need creative ways to use them up. I was thinking of making zucchini muffins but then I began to scour the net and found some carrot and zucchini muffins. I needed to make it not only gluten free but dairy free for my little man. These are really good. I have already polished off 2 while taking pictures. At least I got more veggies in today.

Gluten Free Carrot Zucchini Muffins

2/3 cup sorghum flour
2/3 cup tapioca flour
2/3 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup Agave Nectar

1 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon celtic salt
1 cup coconut milk
1 large egg
5 tablespoons of coconut ghee (or butter)
1 1/2 cups carrots (I put them in the food processor)
1 cup zucchini, shredded

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin tins or use liners. Add all dry ingredients into your mixing bowl. Then add carrots and zucchini. Mix in the rest of the "wet" ingredients and blend on medium for 2 minutes. Spoon the batter into muffin cups. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Do not over bake.

Makes about 15 muffins.

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Living Without Gluten Free Dairy Free Favorite Pancakes

2009-06-26T13:09:00.006-04:00

I got an e-mail yesterday from the Living Without magazine website. They were advertising a recipe for gluten free pancakes. I have been using Pamela's mixes because I couldn't seem to find a recipe that worked well for us. However, my son recently went dairy free due to an allergy and Pamela's contains buttermilk. This recipe looked good so I decided to try it this morning. My daughter had a sleepover with a friend so she got to try them as well. All three were happy and my daughter's friend was not gluten free.

The only thing I would change is to add more liquid (which I did). The batter was way too thick to pour into the pan for pancakes. I also added a bit of cinnamon because my children love it.

Gluten Free, Dairy Free Favorite Pancakes

SERVES 4

¾ cup brown rice flour
½ cup sorghum flour
¼ cup tapioca flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup milk of choice (plain-flavored rice, almond or soy milk) - I added 1/2 cup more liquid.
1 teaspoon oil of choice

Mix together flours, xanthan gum and baking powder in a mixing bowl.
Add eggs, vanilla and sugar. Add milk slowly, until batter is desired thickness. Do not over-mix or batter will become thick and stiff.
Heat oil in a heavy skillet or non-stick pan. When skillet is sizzling hot, pour in batter or drop by large spoonfuls to make pancakes. Spread batter out in pan if necessary. Cook until pancakes have bubbles throughout and bottom is lightly browned. Flip with a spatula and cook briefly until done.

TIP For banana-nut pancakes, add half a ripe, mashed banana and 2 tablespoons ground almonds, if tolerated. (Grind almonds with a coffee grinder.) For blueberry pancakes, add ½ cup fresh or frozen blueberries and increase sugar to 5 tablespoons.

Each serving contains 316 calories, 6g total fat, 1g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 106mg cholesterol, 501mg sodium, 59g carbohydrate, 2g fiber, 7g protein.

Banana Blueberry Coconut Muffins

2009-06-20T19:07:00.009-04:00

Long time "no bake". Things have been crazy here at our house since the kids got home. I have also had to venture into a new land of "casein free" baking. I need something to have on hand that is good for my son who's appetite is slowly increasing. Yeah!!

This muffin recipe was a hit with my daughter too. I was shocked because I never thought she would like the blueberries in a muffin.

Banana Blueberry Coconut Muffins

1/4 cup non-dairy shortening (like Earth Balance - they have a new soy free!)

1/4 cup organic cane sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup coconut cream with a little liquid (this is the thick stuff on top of the canned coconut milk - I use Thai Brand Organic)

1/2 cup of organic mashed ripe banana's

1 Tbs shredded organic coconut

1 cup Mock Better Batter Mix

1/2 tsp aluminium free baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp celtic salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbs Flaxseed meal

3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Cream the vegetable shortening and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well. Mix in the coconut cream and banana's and mix until well blended.

In a separate bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients and then add them slowly to the "wet" mixture. Fold in the blueberries - gently.

Spoon batter into muffin cups - makes 8 full sized or 24 mini muffins. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins or until lightly browned.

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Enjoy..... It's gluten free...Naturally!

Stephanie

Gluten Free / Casein Free Rice Bran & Raisin Muffins

2009-06-16T08:03:00.007-04:00

I got this recipe from a fellow gluten free blogger. I haven't had a bran muffin since going gluten free. These tasted so good! I used NOW brand rice bran. It is in the refrigerated section of your store. I forgot to mention (and have added it) that I added 1 tsp cinnamon to my batch. I love cinnamon and it is anti-inflammatory.

GF/CF Raisin-Rice Bran Muffins
Recipe makes 6 regular-size muffins

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rice bran
1/4 cup sorghum flour (or rice flour or millet flour)
1/4 cup tapioca starch flour
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/3 cup + 2 Tablespoons unsweetened, natural apple sauce
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup of raisens (rehydrate them by putting them in hot water for a few minutes)
1/4 – 1/3 cup cold water

Directions:

1.Preheat your oven to 375F. Spritz the inside of 6 paper muffin cup liners with oil. (This last step is optional, but the muffins may stick to the paper liners otherwise.)
2.Mix together dry ingredients with a whisk: rice bran, sorghum, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt and brown sugar.
3.Mix together wet ingredients: apple sauce, egg, water.
4.Combine wet and dry ingredients. Add raisins.
5.Fill muffin liners 2/3 full with batter.
6.Bake at 375F for 15 minutes or until golden brown and the middle is firm/set to the touch/tap.

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To your health! Gluten free......

Stephanie

A little plug for a book - GFCF Cooking

2009-06-13T09:54:00.003-04:00

In my quest to help my son with his gluten free, casein free, soy free, egg free diet, I received two copies of this cookbook. So I have listed one on eBay. Check it out if you need some fresh ideas.

Special Eats: Simple, Delicious Solution for Gluten Free & Dairy Free Cooking

Gluten Free Mocha Cookies

2009-06-12T07:44:00.004-04:00

I have been working so hard on making things my children would like and not for myself that I decided it was time to find one for just me. I love coffee and was on the hunt for a mocha recipe. These little *pop in your mouth* cookies are just the ticket.

Gluten Free Mocha Cookies

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 unbeaten egg whites

1 cup almond meal

3 Tbs Cocoa Powder

1 1/2 Tbs Instant Coffee or Espresso granules

pinch of salt

1 tsp Vanilla

Put all the ingredients in your mixer and mix until you have a sticky dough.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Wet your hands and roll the dough into mini balls and place on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.

Bake for 11 minutes. Pull from oven, allow to cool on pan for 2 mins and then place on a cooling rack for the remaining time to cool.

Enjoy with a cup of coffee.

Stephanie

Birthdays - Gluten Free Style

2009-06-10T22:27:00.003-04:00

Last week Thursday (6/4/09) was my daughter's 7th birthday. It was our first birthday that was gluten free. We had a family party on her birthday and then we had a party at Build-A-Bear Workshop on Saturday with 4 of her friends. I made a cake for Thursday. It was a white Namaste cake. I added Penzey's Lemon Extract, Lemon Peel and Lemon Juice to it to make a lemon cake as my daughter requested. The theme of her birthday was High School Musical. You can see the cake below. It turned out really good. I love Namaste's cakes. They are so moist and close to a wheat cake.

For the birthday party I decided to make cupcakes for ease of serving with her friends. I decided to try my hand at decorating a new way - with an icing bag. These were Namaste Chocolate Cupcakes with pink frosting. Aren't they pretty?

Overall her first gluten free birthday was a success. As a mom of children with food issues I am relieved that it is over and all were happy.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Muffins

2009-05-30T08:42:00.009-04:00

This recipe was one of my favorite muffin recipes when I was a consultant and travelling. I used to make a batch and then put them in zip loc baggies in my luggage and take them with me. They were my breakfast on many mornings when I ran out my hotel door on early mornings headed to my client. I remembered this recipe this morning when contemplating what to use my rice bran in. They are packed with lots of healthy ingredients and are dairy free (if you use another milk).

Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Muffins

1/2 Cup Rice Bran

1 1/2 Cups Mock Better Batter Mix

2 Tbs Flax Meal

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Xanthan Gum

1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

2 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Sea Salt

1/2 Cup Molasses

1/4 Cup Honey

1 Cup Puree Canned Pumpkin

1/2 Cup Milk

2 Eggs

4 Tbs Applesauce

1/2 Cup Raisins (I put in hot water for few mins to plump them up so they won't take moisture from the muffin)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

In a medium bowl mix all the dry ingredients together.

In your mixer place all the "wet" ingredients and blend. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet. When blended fold in the raisins. Fill greased muffin pan. Bake for 20 - 25 mins or until toothpick comes out clean.

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Organizing My Recipes

2009-05-15T22:42:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to let you all know that I have now categorized my recipes so you can easily find them by type. As the number of them grew I was having more difficulty finding them. So now if you look at the right side of the blog "main" you will see a section with categories.

I also added some new music. My favorite artist Basia is now online. :)

Thanks to all of you who *follow* me.

Stephanie

Pamela's Gluten Free Waffles

2009-05-15T08:43:00.004-04:00

Pamela's Gluten Free Waffles

I have been struggling with making waffles ever since my waffle iron died. I received the iron in 1987 and it had long since passed its prime. I bought a VillaWare waffle iron / griddle with an adjustable control and removable plates to replace it. It was the grand daddy of waffle irons. Deep pocket waffles. But, the gluten free batters I had did not work well in this waffle iron. I fed my trash can and the birds more than my family. So yesterday, armed with a 30% off coupon for Kohl's I ventured into the appliance section. I found a Cuisinart Waffle maker for $39.99 on sale for $33.99 and then with my coupon it was $23.80. I took it home and hoped this would work well. It has an adjustable temperature control. This morning I pulled out my Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix and proceeded to mix up some batter:

2 Cups Pamela's Mix
1 Cup + 3 Tbs Milk
3 Eggs

As you can see they turned out beautifully. The light on the maker lights up green when it is heated and ready for batter and then goes to red when you put batter in. It returns to green when the waffle is cooked. It was easy to remove from the plates and made a wonderfully moist and slightly crispy waffle. My children were pleased and they are my ultimate critics.

This is the unit I bought. Model # WMR-CA.

This is the mix I use. I buy it 3 bags at a time from Amazon.com. Do the Subscribe and Save and it is $34 with free shipping.

To your health ..... Gluten free!

Stephanie

Gluten Free Coffee Banana Bread

2009-05-11T19:54:00.008-04:00

I made a WONDERFUL banana bread today. The recipe was originally from The Moosewood Cookbook. However, the recipe was gluten - again. So I had to do some playing in the kitchen with my flours to see if I could get a good texture. My temptation was to use the "Mock Better Batter" mix but I was looking for something a little less spongy and more light and fluffy like a cake. I hit a winner right away. A friend of mine recommended this recipe. She knew I was a coffee-o-holic and said this was her favorite. I have been forgetting about it until today when the banana's were piling up again and needed to be used. I am tired of the same ole recipes and this fit the bill. It's a little fussy to make and probably not for the rookie baker because there are a few odd ingredients but I will tell you that it is so worth it. My daughter, husband and I all loved it. My son has yet to try it. It was even a hit without chocolate. Now that's an accomplishment.

**I wanted to make a special note that my cinnamon, nutmeg, almond extract and orange zest were all from Penzey's Spices which in my opinion are the best spices on the market. You can order them online from their website or if you are lucky you can visit their retail store.

Gluten Free Coffee Banana Bread

2 C Ripe Banana's, Mashed
1 C Very strong black coffee (room temp)

1 1/2 C Butter, Softened
1 3/4 C Brown Sugar
4 Eggs
2 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Almond Extract
1 tsp Orange Zest
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
2 tsp Cinnamon

3 C Brown Rice Flour
1/2 C Potato Starch (not flour)
1/2 C Corn Starch (can swap for potato starch if issues with corn)
1/2 C Tapioca Starch
2 tsp Xanthan Gum
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 Tbs Baking Powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 350º. Grease the 2 bread pans.

Stir the coffee into the puréed bananas and set aside.

Combine the next group of ingredients & spices in a mixing bowl.

Combine all the dry ingredients in the third grouping.

Gradually combine dry ingredients with the butter/eggs and banana/coffee mixture - don’t overmix.

Spread batter into bread pans and bake for 55-65 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Cool for one hour before slicing.

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Doesn't this look fabulous? How about joining me for a great cup of Java to go with this bread? .................. I'll put the pot on. :o)

If you make this bread please report back on what you think.

To your health..... gluten free!

Stephanie

Gluten Free Chocolate Bread

2009-05-08T14:37:00.008-04:00

The much awaited bread recipe is here. I scribbled notes as I baked so I hope that I have this correct. Enjoy!

Here is the recipe:

Gluten Free Chocolate Bread

3 Cups of Mock Better Batter Mix
1 Cup Sugar
4 tsp Vegetable Oil
2 Tbs Cocoa Powder
3/4 tsp Salt
1 Cup Milk
2 Eggs
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips

Combine sugar, oil, salt, milk and eggs in a mixing bowl and blend. Combine Mock Better Batter, Cocoa powder and baking soda in another and combine. Slowly add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl. Fold in the chocolate chips. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 - 55 mins or until tester is clean.

Stephanie

Processed People

2009-05-06T08:54:00.004-04:00

I am taking a time out from gluten free to share a video I found. This concept is so important to me since good foods that are pure and nutritious are part of what saved my life after battling cancer. Please, if you are not concerned about what you put in your mouth or are putting it off saying "I know I need to do better" - don't put it of. The time is now. Food does matter. My passion is to help others avoid the hardships of poor health physically, emotionally and financially.

Also, you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the blog and hit the pause button on my music box or you will have competing audio with this video trailer.

To your health, naturally.

Stephanie

Starbucks Gluten Free Valencia Orange Cakes

2009-05-04T14:23:00.009-04:00

They're here, they're here! Starbucks Gluten Free Valencia Orange Cakes. Ahhhhh now I can have a little sweet treat with my coffee. I used to drool over the case of goodies and know that the gluten ones would be the end of my day if I ate it. But now there is a safe cake for me and all the other gluten free people out there. This cake was not in the bakery case. They had it in a separate drawer so if you don't see it, don't despair but ask them if there is a cake hiding somewhere for you. As near as I can figure this cake was around $2. I didn't get a receipt to know how much it was. Frankly, I didn't care either. :o)

Ingredients: Whole Eggs, Valencia Orange Pulp, Almonds, Sugar, Orange Peel, Gluten Free Baking Powder (Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Rice Flour), Orange Oil. Manufactured on shared equipment processing peanuts and tree nuts.

Nutrition Information: Calories 230, Calories from Fat 148, Total Fat 16 g, Saturated Fat 2g, Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 125 mg, Sodium 40 mg, total Carbohydrates 32 g, Dietary Fiber 4 g, Sugars 23 g, Protein 9 g

Let Them Eat Gluten Free Lemon Cake

2009-05-03T20:14:00.005-04:00

My daughter told me that she wants a lemon cake for her birthday. Since we are hot on the heels of her June birthday I decided to try my hand at it. It turned out well. I need to make it in a smaller pan but otherwise the taste and texture was good. I played with the flavors to make it a very lemon cake. It turned out more like a snack cake because my pan was too big. But that's OK. It needs some frosting now but it is still warm. The kids had a piece of warm cake.

Gluten Free Lemon Cake

3 eggs

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 Tbs Hot Water

Blend together until smooth.

In a separate bowl combine:

1/2 Cup Sweet Rice Flour

1 1/2 Cups White Rice Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Xanthan Gum

Add the following to the butter mixture:

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Lemon Extract (I used Penzey brand)

1 tsp Lemon Powder (again Penzey's)

1 Tbs Lemon Juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray 11 x 7" baking pan with cooking spray. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until center is firm.

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Gluten Free Hershey's Kiss Cookies

2009-05-02T20:41:00.007-04:00

Get ready for a mouth watering cookie. Remember eating these right out of the oven. All gooey and ..... FULL OF GLUTEN! But I have reworked this recipe for you and now you can enjoy them gluten free. My children watched me as I put the first batch in the oven. They begged me to let them have one for their snack. You will notice an odd shaped "kiss" on the pile of cookies. Well, it isn't a kiss at all but a Reeces Peanut Butter cup. My daughter loves them and even in a peanut butter cookie it isn't too much. These cookies got the *thumbs up* rating from my children.

Gluten Free Hershey's Kiss Cookies

1 3/4 c. Gluten Free Flour Mix
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Celtic Salt
1/2 c. butter
1/3 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Sift baking soda, flour, xanthan gum and salt together. Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars in another bowl. Add egg and vanilla. Beat well. Blend in dry ingredients.

Then shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Take from oven; place a Hershey Kiss in center of cookie. Return to oven for 2-5 minutes.

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Almond Meal Bread

2009-04-30T22:18:00.004-04:00

I was looking for a grain free bread and my favorite blogger Elana's Pantry had one. Hers was made with blanched almond meal. All I had was ground almond meal that still had the hulls on it. That is why my bread is darker than hers. But honestly having the hull is better for you as this is where the nutrients are.

You can check out the bread here: Almond Meal Bread

I recommend this. It is really good. By the way, this loaf of bread was made with a double recipe in a regular bread pan.

Blueberry Coconut Muffins

2009-04-27T18:28:00.009-04:00

I am doing a detox that requires me to be off sugars and grains. So I am on the hunt for something to replace my occasional muffin with my coffee in the morning. I found this recipe and decided to try it. It turned out very good. I have already "sampled" 2 of them. Can't wait until tomorrow morning.

Blueberry Coconut Muffins

¼ cup sifted Organic Coconut Flour
3 tablespoons Organic Virgin Coconut Oil or butter, melted
3 eggs
3 tablespoons honey (I used ¼ cup stevia powder)
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla
⅛ teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup fresh blueberries

Blend together eggs, butter, honey, salt and vanilla. Combine coconut flour with baking powder and thoroughly mix into batter until there are no lumps. Fold blueberries into batter. Blueberries should be dry. If rinsed, dry them off before adding to batter. Pour batter into greased muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees F for 16-18 minutes. Makes 6 muffins.

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Gluten Free Best Banana Cake

2009-04-17T17:22:00.007-04:00

A friend of mine asked me to make a gluten free banana cake for her twins birthday on Saturday. They know that one of their boys already has issues with wheat. When she asked I agreed to try but told her that I had not made a banana cake that was gluten free yet. So I started looking for a recipe that would work. I did a test run on Tuesday and it turned out great. Today was the day for the actual cake. I had a mishap with the size of the cake and ended up cutting off the end and made them into two small cakes for the boys to destroy. I even made the icing from scratch with Wilton's Butter Cream recipe. I highly recommend this recipe.

Gluten Free Best Banana Cake

1 1/2 Cups Bananas, Mashed, Ripe
2 tsp Lemon Juice
3 Cups Gluten Free Cake Flour Mix
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 Cup butter, softened
2 Cups Sugar (I reduced it to 1 1/2 cups)
3 large eggs
2 tsp GF Vanilla
1 1/2 cups Buttermilk (I used 1 1/2 cups raw milk w/ 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar)

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees (yes that's correct)
2. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.
3. In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with lemon juice and set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
5. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla.
7. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
8. Stir in banana mixture.
9. Pour batter into a prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 60 - 75 mins or until toothpick is clean.
10. Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 mins. This will make the cake very moist.
11. For the frosting I used a vanilla butter cream recipe (Wilton)

Gluten Free Cake Flour Mix

3 Cups Brown Rice Flour
1 Cup Potato Starch (not potato flour)
1/2 Cup Tapioca Flour
1 1/2 tsp guar gum or xanthan gum

Sift ingredients together, combining thoroughly. Use in place of flour in cakes and other baked goods. Store in a ziplock bag or airtight container.

Here are the little cakes that are for the boys. Cute huh?

Here is a picture of the cake I made on Tuesday for my trial run. Nice and moist. Hubby says it is moist, good flavor and texture. He joked that I have him evaluating food now. He has to test every new gluten free creation I make ...... poor guy.

Happy Birthday Owen & Ben. I hope your first birthday is great.

Stephanie

Gluten Free Sourdough Bread

2009-04-11T12:44:00.010-04:00

These are the cupcake pan rolls.

These were made in a roll pan.

I started the sourdough starter several days ago and today it is time to make the rolls for Easter dinner. I have not tried this before so it is an adventure. I had to sample one as it came out of the oven and I have to say there is no "sourdough" taste. :( I was hoping for that. But they are very good none the less and will easily be eaten by all. So I will be on the hunt for a sourdough recipe again.

Gluten Free Sourdough Bread

Dry Ingredients
2 C White Rice Flour
2/3 C Potato Starch
1/3 C Tapioca flour (aka starch)
1/2 C Dry Milk Powder (I used coconut milk powder)
3 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
1 1/2 tsp Celtic Sea Salt

Wet Ingredients
3 Eggs
3/4 C Sourdough Starter
1 C Warm Water
3/4 C Ricotta Cheese (I had to use cottage cheese as it was the only thing in the house)
1/4 C Honey
1/4 C Vegetable Oil (I used my coconut ghee oil)
1 tsp Cider vinegar

Add all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. With a mixer on low speed slowly add the wet ingredients until blended. Beat 10 mins.

Place dough in greased bread pans and allow to rise for 1 hour. ( put the dough into a dinner roll pan and muffin pan for rolls).

Bake at 375 degrees for 30-60 mins. Use a toothpick to check for "doneness".

Enjoy!

Have a Blessed Easter. May you rest in the peace of our Lord and Savior.

Mark 16
The Resurrection
1When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. 2Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?"
4But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

6"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' "

Stephanie

Gluten Free Sourdough started for Easter

2009-04-07T10:18:00.008-04:00

It takes 3 days to make the starter for a sour dough bread so I started it today in preparation for Easter. I have not had a great sour dough bread since going gluten free. I used to love Trader Joe's Cheese Peppercorn Sourdough bread. Ahhhh... Warmed with some butter and you think you are in heaven. So I decided to try to make my own. I may make sourdough rolls for dinner since bread is a little harder to deal with at the table with children.

Sourdough Starter

1 1/2 cups white rice flour

1 cup water (110 -115 degrees)

2 1/4 tsp Red Star Active Dry Yeast

Add all ingredients to a 4 cup glass bowl or container. I used my batter bowl with the lid. Mix them well and cover loosely. Let stand in a warm place for 1 to 3 days stirring 2-3 times a day. The mixture starts out thick but will rise and fall over time and become thinner as it ferments. When the starter is developed it will be foamy and may have a liquid layer on top. It can be used immediately or placed in the refrigerator for later.

Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins

2009-04-06T15:04:00.010-04:00

Today I made a new recipe. I found some gluten free English muffins at the store but they were so expensive. I figured I could make them myself. I made some cinnamon raisin and plain cinnamon muffins.

Gluten Free English Muffins

3/4 Cup Sorghum Flour

1/4 Cup Potato Starch

1/2 Cup Tapioca Starch

1/4 Cup Corn Starch

1/2 tsp Celtic Salt

1 tsp Xanthan Gum

1 Tbs Sugar

1 tsp oil

1 scant Tbs Yeast

3/4 cup + 1 Tbs warm water

For Cinnamon / Raisin:

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup raisins soaked in hot water to soften.

Spray the cookie sheet and the English muffin rings with non-stick spray.
Mix all dry ingredients in bowl of mixer
Add water and oil; mix until just blended. Scrape down the sides. Beat on high for 2 minutes.
Spoon dough into rings. Let rise for 20 mins or until double the size.
Bake at 375 degrees (preheated) for 15 minutes. They should be barely brown.
Let cool and split.

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To your health....Naturally!

Stephanie

Eet Smakelijk - Gluten Free Banana Bread

2009-04-05T15:05:00.009-04:00

You are probably wondering what I am doing. Eet Smakelijk is Dutch for Eat Heartily or Well. It is also the name of a cookbook with fabulous Dutch recipes. It is a staple item to be received by every new bride to be. I got mine back in 1985. Yikes! I have always loved the banana bread in this cookbook. I think it is the most used recipe since the book opens to it automatically. But since going gluten free we have had to give it up. Today I pulled it out again and decided to use my new flour combo. I just asked my daughter if she thought it was good and she said "I was thinking I would like another slice". The seal of approval from a 6 1/2 year old is a pretty good review.

Eet Smakelijk - Gluten Free Banana Bread

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

4 bananas, mashed

3 cups Mock Better Batter mix

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Greas 2 8x4x2 loaf pans (or one large and 2 small pans). Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and bananas. Sift together flour, soda and salt. Add sifted ingredients, mixing well. Mix in vanilla. Pour into pans and bake for 60 to 75 mins. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pans.

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Slice and enjoy!

To your health - naturally!

Stephanie

Gluten Free Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

2009-03-28T13:03:00.009-04:00

On my never ending quest for foods that my son will eat, I decided to convert another "regular" recipe to gluten free. I had some mushy banana's and I could not think of making more chocolate chip banana muffins. I need something different. But the mushy banana's needed to be used as the frugal side of me would not throw them out. So that is how the chocolate banana muffins were born.

Gluten Free Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

1 1/2 Cups *Better Batter* Mix

1 cup Organic Cane Sugar

1/4 cup baking cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/3 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3)

1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used my coconut ghee)

1 egg

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In a small bowl, combine banana's, oil and the egg. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill greased or lined muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minus or until the toothpick comes out clean.

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Gluten Free Carrot Pineapple Coconut Muffins

2009-03-22T16:12:00.014-04:00

I needed some new options. I am so tired of chocolate muffins for my kids. They just don't seem as nutritious as other muffins. I decided it was time to make a new recipe. Hopefully the kids will love this as much as I did. I snagged one right out of the oven. They are so delicious. A hint of cinnamon, pineapple and carrot.

Gluten Free Carrot Pineapple Coconut Muffins

2 Cups GF Flour Mixture (I used 1 cup Better Batter and 1 Cup GF Pantry Beth's Flour Mix)

1/4 cup shredded coconut

1 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthan gum

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup cinnamon applesauce

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 brown sugar

4 large eggs

1 1/2 C Oil (I used 1 cup Coconut oil and 1/2 cup Coconut Ghee)

1 tsp vanilla extract

6 oz crushed pineapple

2 cups shredded carrots

Mix together flour, shredded coconut, sugar, xanthan gum, cinnamon, salt, baking powder & baking soda.

Mix together eggs, oil & vanilla. When combined, add crushed pineapple.

Add pineapple mixture to dry ingredients, then add carrots.

Pour into greased muffin tins or line with paper wrappers. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 mins or until the toothpick comes out clean.

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Mock Better Batter Mix

2009-03-22T16:09:00.003-04:00

A gluten free group I am on set out to figure out the ingredients and combinations in the better batter flour blend. They came up with a mix that seems to have worked.

MOCK BETTER BATTER

2 cups brown rice flour
2 cups white rice flour
1 cup tapicoa starch
1 cup potato starch
1/4 cup potato flour
1/4 cup xanthan gum
1/8 cup pectin

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Betty Crocker Goes Gluten Free

2009-03-21T16:24:00.006-04:00

I was given a blog link to a woman who is evaluating Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownie, Cookie and Cake mixes. They look yummy! I can't wait to find them here. I hope they are relatively toxin free and inexpensive. That will be key for me to buy them.

Check them out!

Stephanie

Monster Cookies are Gluten Free

2009-03-09T13:09:00.011-04:00

Monster Cookies are naturally gluten free. I had forgotten this until a friend of mine pointed this out. I finally got all the ingredients in the house after my favorite bloggers - The Baking Beauties (click on the link for the recipe) - posted in their blog about making monster cookies. I didn't even have to look up the recipe. I used theres and they are coming out of the oven as I post.

You can see my beautiful "pile" of cookies. I used the mini baking M&M's.

I am eager to see what my kids think. They have never had these before but they contain their two favorite ingredients - M&M's and chocolate chips.

Gluten Free Flour Tortillas

2009-02-21T20:02:00.015-05:00

Gluten Free Flour Tortillas

2 Cups Tapioca Flour (same as starch)
1 Cup Gluten Free Bread Mix (I used the Pamela's Gluten Free Bread Mix & Flour Blend)
2 rounded tsp of xanthan gum (important to make the dough elastic)
2 Tbs Shortening (I used Spectrum)
1 1/3 cups Whole Milk (mine was Raw Milk)

You will need sweet rice flour for rolling out the dough to keep it from sticking to the rolling surfaces.

Blend all the dry ingredients together. Cut in the shortening. Add the milk and mix well. Take the dough out of the bowl and place on a floured counter. Kneed until well blended and you are able to put into a ball. Place the ball back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough sit for an hour.

After an hour remove the dough and roll it into a snake as shown below:

Cut the rolled dough into 12 equal parts.

Roll the dough out on a counter that is sprinkled liberally with sweet rice flour. Use a mixing bowl to cut around the dough to make a circle.

This is what your circle dough will look like.

Place the dough in a flat bottom heated pan - medium / high - that has been lightly oiled with olive or coconut oil. My pan is cast iron 10" skillet. Heat the tortilla on each side for approximately 30 seconds.

This is the way the first side looks when you flip it over. You can use a regular spatula to flip them over once one side has been cooked.

Store them in a ziploc bag in the fridge or freeze them until you are ready to use them.

That's all there is to it! Looks pretty easy huh? No they do not fall apart either. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

My next project is to make burrito sized tortillas. I am guessing I will get 6 tortillas out of this batch for the larger sized tortillas.

One more gluten free obstacle conquered!

To your health.... naturally.

Stephanie

Gluten Free Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-02-19T14:54:00.010-05:00

I decided I needed a new cookie in the house. I have done my coconut oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies too many times. So I decided to try some chocolate cookies. These are so yummy. Don't judge them by the taste of the raw dough as the bean flour makes it taste bad. When cooked they are good. My kids said they tasted like brownies.

GF Chocolate Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup Garbanzo Bean Flour
1/4 cup Potato Starch
2 Tb Tapioca Flour
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
1/2 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (not Dutch)
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Brown Sugar, packed
1 Large Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup White Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a large cookie sheet or line with parchment paper set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the first 7 ingredients (garbanzo bean flour through salt); set aside. With an electric mixer cream butter (room temperature, not melted) with sugars, egg and vanilla until well-combined. Add dry ingredients gradually; mix only until moistened. Fold in white chocolate chips. Place rounded teaspoons full of dough 2” apart on cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes until puffed and cracked.

Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool. Store in airtight container.

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Gluten Free Cheese Bread

2009-02-15T20:17:00.006-05:00

Making a good gluten free bread is all about taste and texture. The more I play with flours the more comfortable I become with which blends of how much will result in a good product. It was a comfort food day. I had a roast in the crockpot with onions and mushrooms and some potatoes that were begging to be made into mashed and California blend of veggies in the crisper. The perfect dinner.... almost. I wanted bread. Cheese bread. You can see from the picture that it turned out wonderfully! I made 2 with cheese and dill and 2 without -all in my mini loaf pans.

Gluten Free Cheese Bread

2 Cups White Rice Flour
1/2 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1/2 Cup Sorghum Flour
1/4 Cup Dried Milk Powder
2 Tbs Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast
3 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum

Wet Ingredients
3 Eggs
3 Tbs Oil (I used Olive)
1 3/4 Cup warm water (110 degrees)
1 1/2 Cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese - Shredded

Mix the dry ingredients together and add the wet to it. Blend in mixer in medium speed for 3 minutes. Place dough in a greased pan and allow to rise for 1/2 hour in a warm place. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 30 mins.

Enjoy this spongy warm bread with some butter. YUM!

For those who wonder what my mini loaf pans are. I got them from Amazon - Chicago Metallic Professional Mini Loaf Pan (set of 4)

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

2009-02-10T12:25:00.003-05:00

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

I decided to try a new twist to my already popular Chocolate Muffins . In an effort to sneak some veggies in my kids I replaced the cup of applesauce with a cup of shredded (food processor) zucchini. These turned out so good. They are light and fluffy. My kids got them in their lunches so I don't know what their verdict is yet but it is a thumbs up for me.

To your health!

Stephanie

Comfort Food Sunday - Gluten Free Apple Crisp

2009-02-01T16:51:00.005-05:00

GLUTEN FREE APPLE CRISP

6 Tart Apples peeled and diced
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Softened Butter
2 tsp Cinnamon or Apple Pie Spice
1 Cup Pamela's Bread Mix flour
1/4 Cup Bob's Red Mill GF Oats
Optional: Raisins

Butter the bottom of a baking dish. Spread out diced apples in the pan. Work the spices, brown sugar, butter, flour, oats and raisins (optional) together until it is "crumbly". Sprinkle over the top of the apples.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 mins. Reduce temperature to 325 and bake for an additional 20-30 minutes until the apples are soft.

Now where is the organic vanilla ice cream??

Pamela's Gluten Free Bread Mix & Flour Blend - Update

2009-01-30T08:31:00.004-05:00

The plot thickens...... Today when I was making another loaf of bread with the mix I received the other day I noticed that the ingredients on the bag are not what is listed on Amazon.com for this item. So here are the ingredients of the various products for your reference.

Wheat Free Bread Mix

INGREDIENTS: Sorghum Flour, Tapioca Flour, Sweet Rice Flour, Brown Rice Flour, Organic Natural Evaporated Cane Sugar, Chicory Root, White Rice Flour, Millet Flour, Honey and Molasses; Rice Bran, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum, Yeast Packet.

Bread Mix & Flour Blend

AMAZON INGREDIENTS: Tapioca Flour White Rice Flour Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar Brown Rice Flour Sweet Rice Flour Sorghum Flour Xanthan Gum. Yeast Not Included. Sea Salt Rice Bran Molasses & Honey Millet Flour Chicory Root

PACKAGE INGREDIENTS: Sorghum Flour; Tapioca Flour; White Rice Flour; Sweet Rice Flour; Brown Rice Flour; Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar; Chicory Root; Millet Flour; Molasses & Honey; Rice Bran; Sea Salt; Xanthan Gum. Yeast Not Included.

Pamela's Wheat Free Bread Mix vs Bread Mix & Flour Blend

2009-01-28T15:53:00.005-05:00

The Taste Test - Pamela's Wheat Free Bread Mix vs Bread Mix & Flour Blend

Pamela's came out with a new flour mix called the "Bread Mix & Flour Blend". It is available in 4 lb bags. I decided to try it yesterday and made some hamburger buns and a mini loaf. I had made a Wheat Free Bread Mix on Sunday so now was the time to do a taste test side by side.

I posted a picture (above) of the two breads side by side. The small loaf slice is the new bread mix and the larger one (right) is the old Wheat Free version. They look the same. Same color and texture. But would they taste the same?

So I warmed them both up a tad and added some butter. I think the "Wheat Free" was a little sweeter and this is probably due to more sorghum in the ingredients but to be honest. If you gave me both and didn't tell me I would think they were the same thing. It took several back and forth of tasting to even notice the slight difference.

So thumbs up for the new mix. You get 3 - 4 lb bags on Amazon.com for $35 with free shipping.

Wheat Free Bread Mix

INGREDIENTS: Sorghum Flour, Tapioca Flour, Sweet Rice Flour, Brown Rice Flour, Organic Natural Evaporated Cane Sugar, Chicory Root, White Rice Flour, Millet Flour, Honey and Molasses; Rice Bran, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum, Yeast Packet.

Bread Mix & Flour Blend

INGREDIENTS: Tapioca Flour White Rice Flour Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar Brown Rice Flour Sweet Rice Flour Sorghum Flour Xanthan Gum. Yeast Not Included. Sea Salt Rice Bran Molasses & Honey Millet Flour Chicory Root

Gluten Free Coconut Oat Waffles

2009-01-27T09:20:00.004-05:00

On an impulse I bought a package of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Steel Cut Oats. What on earth will I do with them? Well today I figured it out. I made some waffles! These were so tasty and a change from the normal spongy waffle. I think these will definitely stick with me today.

Gluten Free Coconut Oatmeal Waffles

1 1/2 cups Gluten Free Steel Cut Oats (or Oats)

2 cups Warm Water

1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut flakes

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup cane sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbs Coconut Oil

Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and batter like. Add water if too thick. Spray your waffle iron with oil and cook until golden brown.

Great nutritious comfort food on a cold day....

To your health - Gluten Free!

Stephanie

Gluten Free Pumpkin Banana Muffins w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

2009-01-25T18:01:00.007-05:00

I was looking for something different to do with my mushy bananas on the counter. Banana bread is getting too familiar and the kids are not excited to eat it. So what could I do with them? So I decided to try a new blend. I have a can of Trader Joe's Pumpkin and 4 mushy bananas. Let's put them together and top them with cream cheese frosting so the kids will be more inclined to try them. I have a problem with them that if it doesn't have chocolate in them they are not interested. When these were done and on the counter - they started begging to have one. After dinner will be the taste test. I tried them and they are Yummy!

In case you are wondering - the big muffins have some raisens in them. Those I will eat.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Banana Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4 small)
1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°.
In large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.
In separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.
Stir in eggs, mashed bananas, pumpkin, spices, and vanilla until well blended.
Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten.
Pour batter into lined or greased muffin tins.
Bake in preheated oven for 17-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean.

Here are my mini muffins:

Here are my frosted muffins. They are more appealing to my kids. :)

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter at room temperature (1 stick)

8 oz cream cheese

2-3 cups powdered sugar (or add til the consistency you desire)

1 tsp vanilla

Place all ingredients in the mixer and blend until smooth and creamy.

To your health - Gluten Free!

Stephanie

Gluten Free Calzone

2009-01-16T16:40:00.011-05:00

GLUTEN FREE CALZONE

1 1/2 tsp Dry Active Yeast
1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
1 Tbs Sugar
2 Tbs Olive Oil
2 Cups Gluten Free Flour Mix
3/4 Cup Sweet (Glutinous) Rice Flour
2 tsp Italian Seasoning Mixture
1/2 tsp salt

Combine yeast, warm water and sugar. Mix lightly and float olive oil on top of the yeast mixture. Let stand for 10 - 15 minutes. It should be bubbly on top before use.

Mix flours seasoning and salt and add wet yeast mixture. Divide dough into 3 parts (or 2 if you want the calzone bigger) . Lightly dust a surface to roll out the dough. I use parchment paper to roll it out because then you can bake on the paper. Roll into a circle approx 11-12 inches in diameter (or 14-15" if doing 2 calzones).

Spread pizza sauce on 1/2 of the dough and top with fillings (cheese, ham, pepperoni, sausage, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, etc).

With the paper still "attached" gently fold it over and pull the dough away from the paper.

Crimp the sides of the dough to seal the fillings in for baking. Use a fork to do this. Then trim the edges with a knife.

This is what it looks like. Lightly spray the calzone with olive oil. I got a Misto for Christmas and I love it! You can fill it with whatever oil you want and it doesn't contain any preservatives.

Place small slits in the top of the finished pocket (not shown) and bake on the parchment paper for 20-25 minutes (or until lightly browned) at 375 degrees.

Gluten Free Chocolate Muffins

2009-01-15T09:36:00.007-05:00

I must be crazy. I got up at 6 am and started making these muffins. They were out and cooled in time to put them into my kids lunches. Today's lunch is muffins and yogurt plus some GF pretzels and applesauce.

These are GF, CF, SF.

Gluten Free Chocolate Muffins (yields approx 12-14 muffins)

1 cup extra finely ground brown rice flour
1/3 cup potato starch (not flour)
2 Tbs plus 2 tsp Tapioca Flour /Starch
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup agave nectar (I used coconut palm sugar)
1/2 cup coconut oil (melt if solid) - can use vegetable oil instead
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs coconut milk
2 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin pan with paper liners or spray with non stick spray.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, cinnamon and salt. In a second bowl, combine agave nectar, coconut oil, coconut milk, eggs and applesauce. Add the flour mixture to the "wet ingredients" and mix well until fully blended.

3. Divide batter evenly between muffin cups, filling each to about 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Note: I added 3/4 cup of chocolate chips to my muffins too.

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Beef de Roma

2009-01-09T17:47:00.003-05:00

We tried a new recipe tonight. It was so good! Both kids gave it a thumbs up. The hardest part was getting the brown rice to cook. This one's a keeper!

BEEF DE ROMA

1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/3 cup green pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 8-oz cans tomato sauce
3 cups rice, prepared
1 16-oz cottage cheese
Grated Parmesan, to garnish

Brown meat in a skillet; drain. Add onion, pepper, garlic, seasonings, and tomato sauce; simmer 5 minutes. Layer rice, cottage cheese and meat mixture in a greased 3 quart casserole dish. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake 10 minutes longer or until golden. Serves 4-6

Gluten Free Broccoli-Chicken Lasagna

2009-01-07T17:07:00.010-05:00

Tonight's dinner is going to use 1/4 of the chicken that we ate earlier. Trying to keep up with my leftovers is proving challenging.

Gluten Free Broccoli-Chicken Lasagna

1 stick butter

1 cup gluten free flour mix

1 T Chicken bouillon granules

pepper to taste

1 tsp Italian Seasoning

3 cups Milk

1 cup water

3 1/2 cups shredded Italian-blend Cheese

2 cups cooked chicken (diced)

3 cups broccoli flowerets, cooked

6 strips of Tinkyada GF Lasagna Noodles

Melt butter in a saucepan on medium / low. Stir in the flour, bouillon, pepper and Italian seasoning. Gradually stir in milk and water. Cook and stir until thickened. Add 2 cups cheese and stir until melted. Mix in chicken and broccoli. Spread 1/3 of the mixture onto the bottom of a 9x13" pan that has been sprayed with cooking oil. Top with 3 lasagna noodles. Put the next 1/3 of the mixture on the noodles. Place the next 3 noodles on top. Add remaining mixture and top with the 1 1/2 cups of cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Organic Gluten Free Goulash

2009-01-06T17:13:00.010-05:00

I went to the grocery store for the first time since New Years Eve. I was armed with a list and came out with just a few items more. I had two items that I could not get on my list so I will have to do that tomorrow. So far I spent $11.75 at CostCo on a bag of Trail Mix and some bananas. Today I bought a few things at Meijer and the total was $39.95. My other purchases will be around $15 so the total for the week will be under $70. We ate from the freezer and cupboards. This also included breakfast and lunches for the kids.

Gluten Free Organic Goulash
1 lb Grass Fed Beef $3.25
1 bag of Trader Joes Organic Penne Pasta $1.99
1/4 Organic Green Pepper .25 cents
1/4 Organic Onion .25 cents
1 Can Amy's Organic Cream of Tomato Soup $2.29
1/2 Bag Organic Meijer Brand Corn $1.15

Total Cost for a meal and some leftovers for lunches $9.18

The kids also had some homemade applesauce. I get the apples from a local orchard for $8 / peck. I can get 4 quarts from one bag. That's only $2 per quart for no sugar organic applesauce.

Being a Good Steward This Year - The Grocery Challenge

2009-01-03T16:39:00.008-05:00

I have decided that this year I need to be a better steward of my gifts from God. Overall I think I do OK but I want to see if I can improve in the area of meals. My goal is to plan more nutrient dense meals for less. I find myself getting busy, pop into the grocery store, grab a few items and then get home to find out I already have 3 of something and none of something else I needed. I also want to plan things so that those partial cans of things get used in something else, the leftovers are sent with my kiddo's to school or eaten for another family meal.

So here is my first run at 2 meals. Today I baked the Ginger Lemon Girl Favorite Sandwich Bread. I doubled the batch and made 1/2 into 2 mini loaves and 8 hamburger buns. I took the other 1/2 of the batch and made a loaf of bread for sandwiches for the week. By the way this bread does really well on the counter. We had it there for almost a week w/o it drying out. Today I noticed flecks of white mold so the last 3 pcs went to the birds.

Two meals (Chili & BBQ's) Ingredients total $13.20.

Grass Fed Ground Beef (1 2/3 cups) $4.75
Can Organic Kidney Beans $ .99 cents
Can Organic Northern Beans $1.78
Can Organic Beef Broth $2.79
Can Organic Tomato Paste $1.09
Leftover 1/2 of 28 oz Can of Organic Diced Tomatoes $1.45
1/2 Organic Red Onion diced .32

First I made chili. I browned the ground beef and took 1/2 of it and put it in a soup pot with once can of kidney beans, northern beans, beef broth and 1/2 the can of tomato paste plus the leftover diced tomatoes. Then I added 1/4 of the red onion. I seasoned it with 1 Tbs Chili powder, 1 tsp garlic salt, 1 tsp Penzeys minced garlic, 1/2 tsp of cumin, 1 tsp celtic sea salt and some pepper. I also added a few red pepper (the hot flakes) for some "zing".

Next, I made BBQ for the buns I baked. I took the other 1/2 of the ground beef and added the rest of the tomato paste with 1 cup of water. Then I added the other 1/4 of diced onion. For seasoning I add 1/4 cup of ketchup (I use Trader Joes because it uses sugar and not high fructose corn syrup), 1 Tbs Yellow Mustard and 2 Tbs Brown Sugar. I simmer it and add a touch of celtic salt and pepper.

Tonight we had:
Rotisserie Chicken from CostCo $4.99
1/4 the bag of Peas and Pearl Onions $1.25
Au Gratin Potatoes from Trader Joes (no hydrogenated oils) $1.99

Dinner cost: $8.24 for 4 of us but....... 1/2 the chicken was left so it will be used for another meal so really it was only $5.74 for the entire meal.

I currently have a banana bread (Bette Hagman's) in the oven. Thankfully I made up the Four Bean Flour mix for Christmas baking and had leftovers so I put the flour in the freezer. I used 2 very squishy banana's on the counter for my bread. I put it into my mini loaf pans so I can freeze one for later. My kids will need snacks this coming week.

So far so good. No trips to the store since New Years Eve. I will continue to try to be creative with what is in the house for the next few days.

Favorite Sandwich Bread - Ginger Lemon Girl

2008-12-26T14:32:00.009-05:00

Favorite Sandwich Bread

Ginger Lemon Girl

I just love making bread lately. The house just has that "homey" feel when there is the smell of bread baking. I wanted to try a recipe that a fellow gluten free friend recommended. I scanned the ingredients and thought "another time when I have more time". I also needed a few of the ingredients. It is a lot of *stuff* but this bread is well worth it! It is from the Ginger Lemon Girl Blog. I made a few changes to the recipe so here is my version.

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup potato starch
3 heaping tablespoons ground flax seeds
1/2 cup instant non-fat milk
3 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 Tablespoon Sure Jell
1/2 teaspoon salt

Leavening/Proofing Ingredients:
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees)

Wet Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees)
3 eggs, room temperature, beaten
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Directions:

Proofing the Yeast: Mix together yeast, 2 teaspoons brown sugar, and 1/4 cup warm water. Set this mixture aside to proof. It should become aromatic, bubbly, and appear to be "growing" if it's proofing correctly.

In the bowl of your stand mixer whisk together ALL dry ingredients. Whisk or sift ingredients together thoroughly. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl whisk together all wet ingredients. Add proofed yeast to this mixture. If your yeast did not get bubbly and aromatic, start fresh with new yeast.

Using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer on slow speed, gently pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix dough on medium speed for 5-8 minutes. Occasionally use a rubber spatula to push dough down the sides of the mixer bowl. While your dough is mixing, you can prepare your loaf pans. (Finished dough should resemble a VERY thick cake batter)

Heat oven to 200 degrees and CUT OFF immediately. Spritz loaf pan (or pans if you are using smaller 8 x 4 1/2 pans) with non-stick cooking spray or olive oil.

Pour dough into loaf pan (or pans -- dividing evenly).
Spray a sheet of plastic wrap with non-stick spray and gently cover the loaf pan, with the sprayed side facing the dough.

Place covered loaf pans in the warmed oven and let rise for 50 minutes to an hour for large loaf pan, or 30 minutes for 2 small loaf pans. The dough should have risen to the top of the pans. GENTLY remove plastic wrap.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Place risen loaf of dough in the oven. For a large 9 x 5 or 10 x 5 loaf, bake 45-55 minutes. For smaller 8 x 4 1/2 loaves bake 30 minutes. Crust should be light brown in color and a thermometer placed in the middle of the loaf should read around 190 for a finished loaf.

Let loaf or loaves cool completely before cutting.

I store this bread on the counter for 2 days, if there is leftover bread after that point, I refrigerate or freeze remaining slices.

Frozen or refrigerated bread slices and be made soft and pliable again by microwaving on medium power for 10-20 seconds.

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Isn't it beautiful?

To your health - gluten free!

Stephanie

Linzer Cookies Go Gluten Free

2008-12-21T22:03:00.013-05:00

This is a cookie that my mom would make just for Christmas so when I came across a recipe for it made gluten free I was excited. There are no nuts in this recipe which is OK with me since I am not a "nut in things" person. They turned out well. I used a donut cutter I got on eBay to cut the dough. But it is also on Amazon.com .

Raspberry Linzer Cookies

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

4 oz Philadelphia cream cheese (softened)

2 cups Beth's All Purpose Flour (From Gluten Free Pantry)

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder (aluminum free)

1/2 tsp grated lemon peel (I used Penzey's)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon juice

Raspberry Fruit Spread

In a heavy mixer beat butter and cream cheese together until fluffy.

Whisk together flour mix, sugar, baking powder, and lemon peel. Beat 1 cup of flour mixture into the butter mixture.

Add egg, vanilla and lemon juice. Beat in remaining 1 cup of flour mixture.

Cover and chill for 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough in half. On a well floured (rice flour) surface, roll out half the dough to a 1/4 inch thick or less.

Using a 2" cutter cut dough into circles. Cut as many as the dough will allow and bake for 10 mins or until the sides are lightly brown.

Place the center cutter in the circle and roll out the remaining dough and cut "lids" for your cookies and bake them as you did with the bottoms.

When cool, spread on the fruit spread and place a top on them. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

2008-12-21T14:09:00.006-05:00

I found this wonderful looking cookie recipe for these coconut oatmeal cookies but then saw that it needed a special flour mixture only provided by a specific vendor. I don't like recipes that require you to buy their product. But I was determined. I thought "I can make this mixture" since I knew what was in it and if you look at the order you can kind of figure out how much to use. So here is the Coconut Flour mixture I made:

Coconut Flour Mixture

2 Cups White Rice Flour
2/3 Cup Potato Starch
1/3 Cup Tapioca Starch / Flour
1/3 Cup Coconut Flour
1/4 Cup Glutenous (Sweet) Rice Flour

Whisk the mixture together until well blended. Makes a little over 3 1/2 cups.

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

2 cups Coconut Flour Blend
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats
1/2 cup flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl add flour, xanthan gum, baking soda and salt. Whisk together until combined and set aside.

In a stand mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, sugar and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix. Stop mixer and scrape down sides. Add flour mixture one cup at a time until combined. Fold in oatmeal and flaked coconut using slowest mixer speed (or by hand).

Place drops of dough onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for 3 minutes after removing from oven.

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Happy Baking!

Stephanie

Cheesy Crackers

2008-12-19T21:47:00.006-05:00

I thought this recipe looked interesting. Since I was house bound today I decided to try it. I used the center out of my donut cutter and a small star cookie cutter from my grandfathers collection of cutters I inherited. Next time I make these I am going to use Parmesan cheese with rosemary seasoning.

Cheesy Crackers

3/4 c white rice flour
1/4 c tapioca starch or corn starch
3/4 t celtic salt
1/4 t xanthan gum
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t chili powder
4 T cold butter, cut into cubes
8 oz cheddar cheese, grated
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350. Mix flour, salt, xanthan gum, paprika, and chili powder, and cheese. If the dough holds together a little, dump into a bowl and knead with your hands until it holds together. If its too sticky, add a little flour, if too dry, add water a tablespoon at a time until it feels like it won't be all sticky when you roll it out. Once the dough is all kneaded, split it in half and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Stick in the fridge for at least half an hour. Once it's chilled, roll out between two pieces of floured wax paper. Cut into squares or any shape you desire, and bake 15-20 minutes until browned and slightly crispy.

Surprise Package Cookies Go Gluten Free

2008-12-19T19:14:00.007-05:00

I found this great gluten free blog the other day while hunting out new Christmas cookie recipes that were gluten free. It was called "It's Just Not Dinner Without Cat Hair" . So I decided to try it and it was fantastic. I recommend this recipe. The cookie part was wonderful - chocolate was the icing on the cake.

Surprise Package Cookies

½ cup butter
½ cup sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
1 tsp GF baking powder
1/3 tsp celtic salt
2/3 cup white rice flour
1/3 cup tapioca starch
¼ cup cornstarch
2 tbsp sweet rice flour
1 ¼ tsp xanthan gum
1 pkg Andes Candies (I used the Hershey's Limited Edition Mint Mini Bars and broke in 1/2)

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars together. Add the egg and beat well. Add the vanilla.In another bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until completely incorporated.

Refrigerate the dough for at least 3 hours.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Shape a tablespoonful of dough around 22 candies, forming rectangular cookies.

Bake on parchment paper for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cookies just begin to turn golden brown. Cool on wire racks.When the cookies have cooled, melt the remaining Andes Candies and drizzle over the cookies.

Here is the finished product. This one had the white chocolate candy inside. YUM!

Feeling Blue? How about a Blueberry Muffin?

2008-12-19T13:46:00.006-05:00

We are home from school today with the snow so I am baking Christmas Cookies. I wanted to make something that I could eat as well. So I pulled out a recipe I have for Blueberry Muffins made with Almond Meal. They turned out so good!! They are a blueish color because you dump the cooked juice in with the batter. This one is a keeper!

Blueberry Muffins

2 Cups Blueberries (frozen or fresh)
½ Cup water
2 ½ Cups Almond Flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup honey (I substituted Stevia - 1/4 C)
3 eggs

1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a muffin tin with large baking cups.

2. In a small saucepan, simmer the blueberries with the water until the berries release the juice and the mixture has thickened slightly. Let cool.

3. Combine the almond flour baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.

4. Combine the blueberries, vanilla, honey and eggs in another bowl.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well.

6. Evenly fill each baking cup with the batter.

7. Bake for 23 – 30 minutes.

Pepperoni Sausage Thick Crust Pizza

2008-12-18T14:56:00.007-05:00

Another Pizza Crust - Thicker

If you like a thicker crust then this is the one for you. This pizza is one of the pizzas I made the other day when I used my new pans from the case I ordered and then froze. This pizza is a sweet Italian Sausage and Pepperoni pizza. It has Muir Glen Organic Pizza Sauce on it. That is our favorite.

3/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/3 cup garbanzo bean flour
1/3 cup sorghum flour
1 teaspoon xanthum gum
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup whole milk
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
Place all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.
Mix in a mixer for 3-4 minutes until well blended.

Transfer dough to a sweet rice sprinkeled pan or olive oil greased (my personal preference) pan Oil hands with olive oil and press dough (which is sticky ) into the pan.

Bake crust only for 10-14 minutes

Add desired toppings and return to the oven to bake until the cheese is a golden brown. If you want to freeze it then do not back the second time just cover with Saran Wrap and place in the freezer.

Makes 2 - 10 in crusts or 1 12 inch thick crust

I think it looks pretty yummy.

Happy baking!

Stephanie

Italian Soup

2008-12-16T17:48:00.009-05:00

It was a good day for making some comfort food. This is a soup that my family loves. Normally I add cannellini beans but not tonight. I am on a special diet that does not allow starch and sugar. So I adapted. I am not much for recipes. I throw things in my hand and then in the pot. A little of this and that. But I will try.

Italian Soup

1 lb Sweet Italian Sausage
1/2 head of cabbage (chopped)
1 medium onion (diced)
1 can of Glen Muir Organic Stewed Tomatoes with Basil
1 carton of Organic Swanson's Beef Broth
2 tsp Penzey's Italian Spices
2 tsp Penzey's Minced Garlic
1 tsp Celtic Salt
3 cups water

Simmer until the flavors "meld" together. Serve with shredded Italian cheese mixture or Parmesan cheese.

We will have a slice of Pamela's gluten free bread with this.

Here are the ingredients I used. My sausage was from my friends natural food store from a local farmer that raises his pigs hormone and antibiotic free.

It was such a busy day again. I did manage to bake 2 pizza crusts in my new foil pans and then assemble pizzas with sausage and pepperoni and one with ham and pepperoni. They are both in the freezer. My daughter has a pizza party at lunch time on Thursday so I will be baking one of them up for that. But at least I don't have to make it then.

Now to start my Christmas Cookie baking! I bought my supplies today.

Coconut Banana Bread

2008-12-12T11:52:00.008-05:00

Coconut Banana Bread

1 cup Tropical Traditions organic coconut flour
1/4 cup shredded coconut
6 eggs
1 ripe banana (mashed)
2 Tbsp. virgin coconut oil
1/2 cup coconut milk
3 Tbsp. honey ( I used 3 TBS Stevia powder)
1 tsp. aluminum free baking powder
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. amaretto extract
1/2 tsp. celtic sea salt

Pre-heat oven at 350 F degrees. Mix coconut flour and baking powder (put it in separate bowl.) In a mixing bowl, beat eggs gradually, and then add milk, honey, coconut oil, amaretto, vanilla and salt. Continue mixing. Then add the coconut flour with baking powder, mashed bananas and coconut flakes. Blend well. Grease a loaf pan with coconut oil and fill with batter.Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

This recipe made the most beautiful banana bread loaf. It is so spongy - almost like a pound cake and it tastes amazing.

By the way Tropical Traditions has a Buy One Get One free on the coconut flour until 12/18/08.

To your health - naturally!

Stephanie

Gluten Free Herbed Pizza Crust - Wild Oats

2008-12-11T21:43:00.008-05:00

This is my ultimate pizza crust. I love this. I temporarily lost the recipe but just recently got it back. It was listed on the Wild Oats website about 4 years ago when I first went gluten free and now that Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats merged the recipes are disappearing. I wrote to Whole Foods and the nice woman in customer service found it for me. I am so happy!

Gluten-Free Herbed Pizza Crust

This quick and easy crust will satisfy cravings for thin and crispy pizza.

Double the recipe, form into eight individual pizzas, par bake for 10 minutes, wrap and freeze for future use.
Prep Time: 15 minutes,
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Makes: One large pizza or 4 individual pizzas

1 envelope instant dry yeast
3/4 c. Organic Milk, warm (about 110°F)
1/2 tsp. raw honey
1 2/3 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. tapioca flour
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. xanthan gum
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. garlic
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. Braggs apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 425°F. Dissolve yeast in a small bowl with milk and honey. Set aside. Sift together brown rice flour, tapioca flour, cornstarch, xanthan gum, sea salt and herbs. Whisk olive oil and vinegar together. Add to dry mixture. Mix. Add milk and yeast. Mix well. The dough should be soft and pliable. Turn onto a floured work surface (use rice flour) and knead gently for about a minute. Roll or pat dough into a 12-inch round, place on a pizza stone or lightly oiled pan. Crimp edges to hold in toppings. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, add toppings and bake 15-20 longer, or until the crust is lightly browned.

This is what the bottom of the crust looks like after baking.

This is how thick the crust is.

Enjoy!! Tomorrow I will bake it with the toppings I placed on top. It's pizza day at my kids school again.

Tonight I ordered some aluminum pizza pans (12") from buythecase.net plus I used BTCORD1 for my promo code to get $5 off. So the total shipped to me for 36 pans was $32. I will now have a way to make crusts in advance and even full pizza's and freeze them. ALDI'S has 2 gallon zipper bags that I believe will work for these pans. I need to make my pizza Friday's less stressful and also have the pizza's on hand for those nights when we would have ordered a pizza to be delivered.

To your health!

Stephanie