the gluten-free monkey

Turkey Day plan

2010-11-15T10:29:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I know because my husband keeps reminding me that I need to go buy a turkey. I keep telling him I need to clean out the freezer before I go buy a turkey. But I guess I had better get cracking on that!

So this years Thanksgiving menu is starting to look like this.

Crudite and stuff for snacking: I'm thinking I'll keep it simple and low-carb and do carrot and celery sticks with ranch, and maybe some olives.

Turkey and gravy: I'll use the same recipes I used last year. They turned out great.

Cranberry sauce: I'm thinking I'll just open a can this year.

Sweet potatoes: I think I am going to try doing these ahead of time, freezing them and then just heating and topping them.

Mashed potatoes: I'm an Idaho girl, so I can make these with my eyes closed and one arm tied behind my back. (Well maybe not with one arm tied behind my back, they'd be kind of hard to peel!)

Something green: I've been participating in Bountiful Baskets food co-op, so I'll probably cook up whatever green veggie I get in my basket that week. I'm hoping for green beans.

Gluten free stuffing: I'm just going to make a little pan this year, it gets too soggy for leftovers. I'll probably use Annalise Roberts recipe in "Gluten-Free Baking Classics" again.

Some regular stuffing: Dad likes it plain, Mom likes it with onions, celery and mushrooms, so I guess we'll have 3 pans when all is said and done. Sheesh.

Rolls: My kids are off school all of Thanksgiving week, so if I'm going to make gluteny-rolls for Dad and freeze them I'd better do it this week while the monkey is not in the house. Thanksgiving is the one time of year that my husband really misses his mom's rolls. I can always just buy rolls at the bakery on the corner. And I'll make the monkey a batch of gluten free rolls on Thanksgiving.

Gluten free/sugar free banana pudding pie is what the monkey and his brother want for dessert, so I'm thinking cookie crumb crust, bananas and boxed pudding.

Not gluten free peach pie: I have bought pie the last couple of years, but they haven't been very good. So this year, I'm thinking I'll buy a frozen pie crust and fill it with some homemade peach pie filling that I have in my freezer.

And if I get around to it I'll make myself a pumpkin pie, but by the time I all this done, I might just buy one!

Gluten Free Parmesan Chicken

2010-08-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

The good thing about not blogging for awhile is that I have a nice, fat backlog of recipes I want to post! Here's one of them. I made it just the other night and it's on the menu again this week. This is an easy recipe for Parmesan Chicken, which can be served the traditional way with pasta and tomato sauce and cheese, or more like breaded chicken. I served it with mashed potatoes and green beans and it was a hit. And the leftovers were delicious the next day on sandwiches.

For heaven's sake don't buy gluten free bread crumbs, just save the crusts of your bread, and any gluten free bread that goes stale, in a ziploc bag in the freezer. Then when you need bread crumbs, just break it into pieces and throw it into a food processor or blender to make crumbs. I was surprised by how much parmesan chicken you can make out of 3 medium-sized breasts.

Gluten Free Parmesan Chicken

1 (heaping) cup gluten free bread crumbs

1/2 c. parmesan cheese

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

2 eggs

3 chicken breasts, about 1.5 pounds

Pound the chicken with a meat mallet until it is 1/4" thick. This is important or your breading will burn before your chicken cooks. I think that the cleanest way to do this is to stick one or two thawed chicken breasts in a gallon zipper freezer bag. Squeeze out most of the air, so it doesn't pop, and seal it. Then pound away. There's no flying chicken juice!

Combine the bread crumbs, parmesan and spices in a shallow bowl. Beat the eggs in another shallow bowl.

Cut the chicken into smaller pieces, about the size of a deck over cards, don't worry if they are not uniform. (If you want chicken "nuggets" do even smaller pieces.)

Heat some vegetable oil in a large skillet (I used canola) over medium heat.

With one hand dip a piece of chicken in the eggs, then into the bread crumb mixture, coating both sides. (This leaves you with a clean hand to turn on the faucet, or use a spatula).

Cook the chicken about 3-minutes on each side, until the breading is golden brown and the chicken is cooked through. Enjoy!

Gluten Free Hamburger Helper (kinda)

2010-08-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

Alright, sorry, I know I've been gone all summer. I've been dealing with some health issues of my own. But I'm hopefully I'm back in all my flaky gluten-free glory. ;)

So yesterday at the store I noticed that Betty Crocker now has two new GF mixes in the Hamburger Helper line: Chicken Fried Rice and Beef Fried Rice. I thought that was cool, but I knew my family won't eat dehydrated vegetables. And I knew that this week's menu featured a homemade version of Hamburger Helper courtesy of Suzanne McMinn's blog Chickens In The Road. She is brilliant!

She had recipes for several versions, and I made Cheesy Chili Mac. All I did to make it gluten free was to sub out the regular macaroni for gluten free macaroni. (I also used extra lean ground beef.) I should have taken a picture before I served dinner but I didn't realize that my husband and boys would snarf the whole pan. My 7- and 2-year-old both ate two helpings. My husband made fun of it, but ate two big helpings, and my 5-year-old, who doesn't like meat, ate his noodles. Anything the kids eat happily is a keeper. I thought it was tasty, maybe a little meaty, but tasty. And all there was left was a little bit the monkey called dibs on for lunch. I'll definitely be making this again and I'm planning on trying her variations.

Happy Momma Award

2010-04-20T23:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a Happy Momma Award lately, but last week I found a product that I knew had to win! Thai Kitchen Stir Fry Noodles are gluten free and they are so good! I made Funky Chicken Sesame Noodles and used the Thai Kitchen stir fry noodles instead of the gluteny noodles and WOW! it was so delicious! Me, my husband and the monkey snarfed them down. They were a little exotic for my youngest two boys, so tonight when I made Funky Chicken again, I just tossed some stir fry noodles with parmesan and butter and reheated some meatballs and they were pretty happy with that, too.

I was also excited to see that there are lots of recipes on their web site at www.thaikitchen.com, including a section of gluten-free recipes. Plus they are really pretty reasonably priced; I paid $2.19 for a box, and it made a large serving bowl full of noodles, enough for at least 4 very generous portions. Thai Kitchen also has a nice chart showing which products are gluten free or contain common allergens; look on the web site under Allergy Information. They have many other gluten free products that we will probably be trying in the near future! Happy snarfing!

Gluten Free Cocoa Brownies

2010-04-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

OK, so this is SO not health food. But everyody needs brownie once in a while.

I bake pretty much everything I bake out of Annalise Robert's book "Gluten-Free Baking Classics." She has a great brownie recipe made with baking chocolate. Sigh. I have issues with baking chocolate. I grew up eating brownies made from Hershey's Cocoa. I hate trying to melt baking chocolate. I forget to buy it. It gets old in my cupboard. I tried to convert to baking chocolate, I really did. But I found myself buying Betty Crocker's new gluten free brownie mix. I like the convenience of a mix; my family likes the way it tastes. The only thing not to like is that it costs $4 a pop. For an 8x8 pan. Yikes. So, I decided to see if I could convert Annalise's recipe to a cocoa recipe.

You can find charts to convert baking chocolate to cocoa; I used one I found in my old Hershey's recipe book. Tried that. Instead of the baking chocolate, I substituted cocoa, butter, and some sugar. That was WAY too much cocoa and butter. So I cut the butter in half, and cut the cocoa back by about third, added a little flour. This was good but a little on the cakey side. And my husband requested chocolate chips in the brownies, please. So I added chocolate chips, cut the flour to make it fudgier, and calculated the carbs for my dear diabetic son. YIKES! So I cut the sugar back, too. Success. (I will not be eating browies for a week or two, I have had way too many lately!)

Anyway, when I compared my final recipe to the original I was surprised that, in spite of all my fiddling and calculating, they are fairly similar. Anyway, here it is....

Gluten-free Cocoa Brownies
3/4 c. brown rice flour mix
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. xanthum gum
1/2 c. Hershey's baking cocoa
1/2 c. melted butter
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
1/2 c. semi-sweet mini morsels

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine dry ingredients (including chocolate chips) in a bowl and whisk together to mix. Add wet ingredients and stir until combined. Spray an 8x8 Pyrex pan and spread batter in pan. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few crumbs on it. Cool before cutting (if you can wait!). Cut into 16 pieces.

Cut brownies freeze well. If you want to make your own mixes, just measure and combine the dry ingredients and the chocolate morsels in plastic containers. Add the eggs, vanilla, and melted butter when you are ready to bake them.

Note for diabetics 1/16 has 28 g. of carbs! Portion control, people!

My conversation with the guy at Kraft....

2010-03-11T09:41:00.000-08:00

Me: Hi, I was just looking at the ingredients on the cheese sauce mix in your original Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and I just wanted to confirm that it is gluten free.
Customer Service Guy: Yes, ma'am, it is.
Me: Well, hey, have I got an idea for you! If your cheese sauce is gluten free, get some rice macaroni and throw it in a blue box, and you've got Gluten-Free Kraft Macaroni and Cheese!
Customer Service Guy: Well, thank you for that idea, I'll pass it along to our product development people. Just so you know, ma'am, Kraft has an unsolicited ideas policy. We do not pay for unsolicited ideas, even if they lead to new products.
Me: Yeah, yeah. Don't worry, I'd be happy to buy GF Mac and Cheese from you.

(Seriously! They have got to make so much of that cheese sauce powder that I bet it is on equipment that makes nothing but cheese sauce. How hard could it be? Well, a girl can dream about gluten-free yellow death that doesn't cost $4 a box.)

How gluten free are we?

2010-03-11T08:52:00.001-08:00

I decided to write this post sooner than I meant to after Jenna's first comment on my last post. She's right, making two meals is crazy! But while we are pretty gluten free, we are not completely gluten free.

The only celiac in our house is the monkey, the rest of us (mom, dad, and two younger brothers) are not. My big main pantry is gluten free, but I have a small cupboard where I keep: Quaker oatmeal instant packets, generic cheerios and graham crackers for my 18-month-old, a box of goldfish if they are lucky, some pancake mix, and regular spaghetti. I have a shelf where I keep the wheat bread, and I keep the gf bread in the fridge. (We also have two toasters, one exclusively for GF bread. They are on separate counters and the GF one is covered with a cozy in an effort to keep it GF.) My fridge and freezer are mostly gluten free, but if I put anything in there that is not gluten free, I make sure it is well labeled with a permanent marker and wrapped so that it will not crumb all over the place. I also have separate butter, peanut butter, jam, honey, and mayonaisse containers, all well-labeled with a permanent marker.

I always make a gluten-free dinner; the only thing close to an exception is spaghetti, where I make gluten free sauce and meatballs, but both kinds of spaghetti noodles. I'm just careful to dish the monkey up first, and then scoop and plop, so that my serving spoon doesn't contaminate the sauce.

My husband makes his own Quaker oatmeal or wheat toast for breakfast, and packs his lunch before any of the rest of us are even out of bed. (I love him even more for being able to feed himself!) Breakfast for me and the kids is usually simple, fast, and made to order (haha) for each person: bowls of gf or Quaker oatmeal, scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, or frozen and reheated oatmeal bars, muffins, or pancakes. I like to make a big batch of GF pancakes, pack them up, make a big batch of regular pancakes, and freeze everything, well-labeled, of course.

I pack the monkey a GF lunch the night before school days. So that leaves the rest of us to eat sandwiches or whatever. If everyone is home, I might make something gluten free for lunch or serve leftovers. Or just make separate sandwiches for everyone.

I have pretty much given up baking anything that is not gluten free (just those dang rolls at Thanksgiving!) and I make our treats gluten free. If for some reason I have a non-gluten free treat for the little boys, I make sure I have a GF treat for the monkey that is as good or better.

As for contamination, I try to keep a clean kitchen and to make sure I prepare his food on clean surfaces. It's been a long time since he's acted like I "glutened" him. And I don't worry about him cheating; he did it once and it made him sick and he's never tried again. So far his doctor has said his blood tests have come back showing that he isn't being exposed to gluten.

When he was diagnosed and we were trying to decide whether or not to go completely gluten free I read Danna Korn's book about raising celiac kids. In her discussion of the issue, she says the world is not gluten free; but the safest and most controlled environment to learn how to deal with a non-gluten free world is at home. I tend to agree with her. The monkey has had diabetes for years, celiac for about a year and a half, and I feel strongly that not only do I have a responsibility to keep him healthy, but a responsibility to teach him how to keep himself healthy. I have no idea what he will do in life, I doubt he wants to take me to college with him, and I don't know if or who he will marry and if she can deal with his dietary issues, so my best option for dealing with those unknowns is to teach and train him to be capable of taking care of himself. (Shopping, cooking, baking GF, counting carbs, reading labels, figuring insulin doses, getting exercise, running his insulin pump, etc. etc. etc.)

How gluten free is your house? Is it for convenience, economics, or to prevent contamination?

Gluten Free and Frugal?

2010-03-09T12:02:00.001-08:00

Eating gluten free can be expensive. But when you have to eat gluten free, you have to eat gluten free, and not sticking to the diet can have its own costs. So what's a gluten free cook to do in this lousy economy? Here are some ideas.

Bake it yourself. Yes, it takes time. Yes, not all GF recipes are reliable. Yes, those little bags of gluten-free flour and xanthum gum are expensive. BUT, in the end it is almost always cheaper to make your own gluten-free baked goods than it is to buy them. For example, I figure it costs me $2.71 (actually more like $2.40 lately, because I got an extra discount on my last case of millet) to bake a 1-lb loaf of gluten free bread. The cheapest (and yuckiest -- those tasteless white, vacuum-packed bricks with a 1-year shelf life) loaves of GF bread start at $4 a loaf. When I looked them up on the Internet, Bob's Red Mill bread mix is $5.19, Pamela's bread mix runs $5.89, and Gluten-Free Pantry mix is $5.99 a loaf, but you probably add at least another 50 cents to each in eggs and oil. So find yourself a dependable, yummy recipe and start baking. I recommend Annalise Robert's "Gluten Free Baking Classics." Check out her introduction section for ideas on making more time to bake and streamlining the process.

You don't have to buy all your groceries at the natural foods store. My point is that you can buy plenty of gluten free items from any old grocery store. There's no reason to pay the "boutique grocery" mark-up on items that you can get at Walmart or Smiths. I'm sure there are lots of groceries with GF products, but I buy most of my groceries at Walmart, Smiths and Sam's Club, and then I fill in the GF products I can't buy at those stores from Sunflower Farmer's Market, a great and economical grocery/natural foods store. (I feel fortunate to live close to Sunflower, many natural foods stores are much pricier.) So buy your dairy products, your fruits and vegetables, your meats, and any mainstream product that is labeled gluten free or has a clear label from the cheapest source. (Not to mention that I keep finding more and more gluten-free products at Walmart, and Smith's has a pretty nice little gluten-free section.)

Buy in bulk if it is cheaper. Sunflower Farmer's Market does not carry millet flour, the main ingredient in my preferred flour mix. But they will order it by the case for me. And when I do buy a case they give me a 10 percent discount. (Actually, sometimes they have given me more than 10 percent off.) If you buy in bulk make sure you store your flours properly so they don't go bad before you get them used up.

If you buy on the Internet, don't forget to figure the shipping into your cost. I have not been able to find gluten-free oats in the store, so I order them online from glutenfreeoats.com. After fiddling with their shipping calculator, I realized that the shipping price was the same for 3 large bags, as it was for 1 bag. I regularly order 3 bags per order to cut my shipping costs. I also took advantage of a free shipping offer they had before Christmas, because even though I wasn't low on oats, I knew I'd be able to use up a second order before they went bad.

Try house brand or generic products. Walmart does a pretty good job labeling their Great Value brand for allergens and gluten. Sam's Club is adding more and more Member's Mark products that are labeled gluten free. Many generic products are as good or better than name brands, and can cost much less than what the name brands cost. (For example, a gallon of 2 percent milk from the local dairy cost $4.28 the last time I checked, while the 2 percent Great Value milk cost $2.18.) If a generic comes labeled gluten-free, or has a clear label, and tastes just as good, why pay more? (I don't always chose generic; if the generic does not have a clear label, or a name brand product is labeled gluten free, or simply tastes better, I'll buy the name brand.)And frankly, part of the price difference on a name brand is because you are paying for them to advertise to you!

Buy produce in season. For heaven's sakes, when oranges are cheap, don't buy grapes that are $3.99 a pound!

Frozen or canned produce might be a better buy. I used to buy fresh broccoli, until I finally realized that it'd been trucked from somewhere, sat on the shelf at the grocery store, sat in my fridge for a few days until I found the enthusiasm to wash it and cut it up, and while it might not have gone bad, it certainly had been sitting around losing vitamins for quite a while. Once I realized this I started buying bulk frozen broccoli from Sam's Club. It's always handy, it's frozen shortly after it's picked and retains its nutritional value and I only cook what I need so I don't waste it. Plus, I DON'T have to wash it and cut it up! That said ...

Think before you pay for convenience
It's cheaper to wash and chop your own lettuce, peel your own carrots, make your own mixes, and portion out serving-sized portions, than it is to pay someone else to do it.

If you can find coupons for gluten-free products or a sale on gluten-free products stock up. I've never been super enthusiastic about coupons, mostly because they are usually for processed foods that are full of gluten or sugar, but my friend Britt recently introduced me to a web site called Grocery Smarts. They match up what's on sale at your store with the coupons from your Sunday paper, and printable coupons on the web. It's magic. The other day I noticed that Smith's had Progresso soup on sale 10 for $10, so I checked, and sure enough there was a printable manufacturers coupon. With multiple coupons (I was able to print two off of each computer) I ended up buying 12 cans of their GF soups for 67 cents each, I normally pay $1.50 a can. Here's a link to GrocerySmarts.com, but there are other sites that have this same service.

Eat lots of meals based on carbs that are naturally gluten free. At our house we eat lots of rice, lots of potatoes, and lots of corn tortillas and beans. They are cheap and naturally gluten free.

Drink water. It good for you and the cheapest drink around.

Watch your portion control. Eating a proper portion of meat or protein (usually 6 oz. per day for an adult) means that you probably don't need to buy a giant chicken breast or a whole steak for each person. While you are at it watch your milk consumption, three 1-cup servings of lean dairy are what is usually recommended. But most milk drinkers I know drink big glasses (more than a 1 cup serving). If you drink more than a 8 oz. of milk at each meal, you are already getting more than 3 servings of dairy, even before you count cheese, yogurt, or ice cream. Bringing your dairy consumption in line with recommendations is healthy and can save you money in the milk aisle. For more information on proper portion size and a healthy diet check here MyPyramid.gov. And of course, eat more vegetables, fruits and gluten-free whole grains!

The whole family might not need to be gluten free. I know this is controversial and it is certainly a decision that each family will have to make for itself. But in the end the fact is that GF food is usually pricier than regular food and the more people you feed GF, the more it will cost you. Yes, you do have to be careful about contamination, but it's doable. (I'll address how and why my family deals with this issue in another post.)

How do you keep costs down?

Gluten-free German Pancakes

2010-03-01T09:03:00.000-08:00

OK, so I was the Beakfast Queen this morning. Every once in a while I get a hankering for German Pancakes. So this morning I tried making it gluten-free, and it actually turned out pretty good. It didn't puff up the way wheat German Pancakes do. But wheat German Pancakes fall almost immediately and the taste and texture of the GF version was very close to post-fall wheat German Pancakes. My boys gobbled it down; we demolished a 13x9x2 pan between the four of us. (My 18-month-old ate a quarter of the pan!)

German Pancakes
6 eggs
1 c. milk
1 c. Brown Rice flour mix (see below)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. xanthum gum
3 T. butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place butter in a 13x9x2 pan and stick it in the oven to melt. Combine eggs, milk, brown rice flour mix, salt, and xanthum gum in a blender and mix on high until no lumps remain and it is light and lemon yellow. Pour batter into the pan and place in oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve hot with pancake syrup, powdered sugar, or whipped cream and fruit.

The flour I used is Annalise Roberts' Brown Rice Flour mix from her book "Gluten-free Baking Classics." It is brown rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca flour. For the Brown Rice Flour Mix recipe you can visit her website.

Note for diabetics: I figured 32g of carbohydrates for 1/4 of the pan, plus carbs for your toppings.

Gluten-free Hawaiian Haystacks

2010-02-25T10:28:00.000-08:00

OK, if you've never eaten Hawaiian Haystacks, I know they sound crazy. But, trust me, they are delicious. Plus I love to serve them because I just put the toppings out in bowls, and people can decide what they want, and EVERYONE ends up happy.

Hawaiian Haystacks (6 servings or so)

3-4 Skinless, boneless chicken breasts
3 cups of chicken broth
3 T. cornstarch
2 c. Japanese rice

Toppings:
shredded cheddar cheese
thawed frozen peas
chopped celery
chopped tomatoes
chopped green onions
drained pineapple tidbits
shredded coconut
salted peanuts or cashews

Cook chicken breasts in chicken broth in crockpot on high for 4 hours or low for 6 to 8 hours. Remove chicken from crockpot. Turn crockpot to high and keep lid on it. Mix cornstarch with a little cold water and then whisk into the broth. Put the lid back on the crockpot. Shred the chicken and return to the crockpot for half hour or so, or until the broth has thickened. (OK, you don't have to do this in the crockpot, you just need to end up with shredded chicken in chicken gravy.)

While the gravy is thickening, cook the rice with 2 2/3 cups water (or according to package directions). Bring it to a boil, cover it and cook over low heat for 20 minutes. (If you don't have Japanese rice, long-grain white rice, or even brown rice works just fine.)

Place a scoop of rice in a bowl, and top with a generous ladle of chicken and gravy. Top with your favorite toppings. Back in the day, before my son was diagnosed with celiac disease we would also top them with La Choy chow mein noodles. When I figure out how to make GF chow mein noodles, I'll let you know.... ;)

My Mother-in-law's Sloppy Joes

2010-02-08T10:14:00.000-08:00

I have been making this recipe since, well, ever since I married my husband. It not only is gluten-free, it tastes better than any packet or canned Sloppy Joe mix I've ever had. I serve them on hamburger buns made from Annalise Roberts' book "Gluten Free Baking Classics." (This is the best GF cookbook, by the way!) My mother-in-law makes it in an electric skillet, but I've made this on the stovetop or in a slow cooker.

Sloppy Joes

2 lbs. lean ground beef or turkey
1/2 c. catsup
1 11.5 oz can of tomato juice (if you use a slow cooker, you might need another can)
1 tsp. dry mustard
2 tsp. white vinegar
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. salt
1 diced onion or 4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 c. Splenda (or brown sugar or a mix of brown sugar and Splenda)

Brown the burger in the skillet with the onion. Combine the rest of the ingredients for the sauce and mix it into the mixture. QUICKIE STOVETOP VERSION: Cut juice to 1 cup, and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until it thickens up. ELECTRIC SKILLET: Use whole can of juice, and simmer for 1-2 hours. SLOWCOOKER: Use one can juice and cook on low for 2-4 hours, OR use a can and a half and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Note for diabetics: This is a little hard to count the carbs on, I figure 10 servings at 6g of carbs using all Splenda and Heinz catsup. Catsup varies wildly on its carb counts from brand to brand. If you use brown sugar it obviously increases the carb count.

Gluten Free Slowcooker Blog

2010-01-31T21:36:00.000-08:00

I was given a new Crockpot for Christmas by my MIL, and I love it. We share our church with another congregation and this is our year for the late session. By the time I gather up my kiddies and husband and visit a little, it's at least 4:30 when we get home. So I have been trying to use my Crockpot every Sunday. I love it, I love it. It is so nice to come home to a house that smells delicious and a dinner that is already made.

So far I've made a pot roast, shredded pork tacos and beef stew, but as I browsed the little cookbook that came with my Crockpot, I was bummed that so many of the recipes are not gluten-free (add a can of cream of mushroom soup...). I was just thinking "Hmmm, I wish I had more GF slowcooker recipes, "when I remembered that my friend Alison had told me about a slowcooker blog she liked. I looked it up and started reading and suddenly realized that the WHOLE BLOG was gluten free! (I can hear "Synchronicity" by The Police playing somewhere in the background.)

Anyway, the blog is "A Year of Slowcooking: A New Year's Resolution to Use the Slowcooker Every Day in 2008" by Stephanie O'Dea. I haven't cooked anything off her blog, yet, but you can be sure I'm gonna! Here's a link http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

GF Shredded Pork Tacos

2010-01-24T22:29:00.000-08:00

This turned out great! I actually made it last Sunday and have been trying to get it posted all week, BUT PEOPLE KEEP INTERRUPTING ME! Imagine that!

Gluten-free Shredded Pork Tacos
3-4 pound pork roast
4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1/2 c. mild green taco sauce (I used La Victoria)
1 c. water
1 package low sodium taco seasoning
OR
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. table salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

If you are not using the taco seasoning, combine spices in a small bowl. Trim roast of visible fat. I used a shoulder roast, but next time I think I'll use a loin roast, just because it is leaner. Place ingredients in a large crockpot, sprinkling the spices over the top of the meat, and cook on high for 6 hours, or until it is so tender that you can shred it. Drain drippings into a gravy separator, and wait for the fat to separate from the drippings. Shred the meat, then stir in enough of your drippings to season and moisten the meat. Serve on corn or other gluten-free tortillas, topped with lettuce, tomato, and avocado.

Some people at my house can't deal with tomato, onion or pepper chunks in their food, so I make "Unchunky" Spanish Rice. You can probably find a GF mix for Spanish Rice, but this is tasty and pretty easy.

Gluten Free "Unchunky" Spanish Rice
1 tsp. onion powder
4 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. cumin
2 T. olive oil
2 c. rice
3 c. chicken broth
1 15 oz. can of tomato sauce
1/2 c. mild green taco sauce (La Victoria again)

Combine spices in small bowl. Saute rice in oil until it starts to brown. Add chicken broth, tomato sauce, and taco sauce. Give it a good stir, and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Once it comes to a boil, turn the heat down to low and cover your pan. Cook for 20 minutes and then stir before serving.

Refried Beans Without the Refry from Allrecipes.com
I love this recipe, it is simple and delicious. I use a small can of mild green chiles instead of the jalapeno, and chop up the onion. It makes a lot of beans, and I divide it into 1 cup portions and freeze them in freezer bags. Then when I want to use them I just put a "bean brick" in a bowl and use the frozen vegetable setting on my microwave to heat them up.

Happy Momma Award

2010-01-21T12:09:00.000-08:00

This Happy Momma Award goes to Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Fast Food Fries! (The prize is a shout out to all my gluten free buddies that I think this product is great!)

We were never huge consumers of fast food. My oldest son was diagnosed with diabetes at age 16 months, and fast food and diabetes are better left unmixed. BUT, every one needs a treat now and then, so we used to hit a fast food place once a month or so. Then came celiac disease. Most fast food is no longer an option, and while we do hit In-N-Out Burger once in a while for a protein burger and fries, we eat even less fast food than we used to eat. BUT, (again with the big but!) I think every diet has a little room for fries. These are my favorite frozen fries. They taste good, they bake up crispy and YES, they are labeled gluten free! (I did my little happy dance in the freezer section when I saw that!) Actually Ore-Ida has quite a few products that are labeled gluten-free: here's a link to their web site. Pass the ketchup, please!

Here's a link to Ore-Ida's web site listing their gluten-free products.

Gluten-free Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

2010-01-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

I think breakfast is the hardest meal of the day to pull off at my house, for several reasons. It's got to be fast on school days, it's got to be something that my son will eat, it's got to be something that won't mess up his blood sugar (like cold cereal!), and it needs to be reasonably healthy. Shortly after he was diagnosed we started buying oatmeal from GlutenFreeOats.Com. and for a long time he ate regular oatmeal, happily, several days a week. But then he just got tired of it. So I started looking around for alternatives and I came up with this recipe. It's my version of baked oatmeal. I cook it the night before, slice it into bars and wrap them up, and then just warm them in the microwave for 10 seconds or so. It isn't overloaded with sugar, and it has lots of fiber and some fat in it, so it burns nice and slow and doesn't mess up his blood sugar, and he really likes it. It makes a cake-like bar that isn't overly sugary, but reminds me of oatmeal cookies.

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Breakfast Bars
Makes 6 bars

2 eggs
1 1/2 c. gluten-free old-fashioned oatmeal
3 T. sugar
3 T. Splenda
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. chopped nuts
1/4 c. raisins
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine ingredients and mix well. Pour into a greased 8" pan. Let it sit for a few minutes while you are preheating your oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. It is delicious warm, but it slices better if you let it cool.

This is a very flexible recipe. If you can find GF quick oats, they make a slightly cakier version. You can use all Splenda or all sugar. You can also use any variety of dried fruit, the nuts are optional. I like it cinnamony, but you can reduce it to 1/2 tsp. or try other seasonings like nutmeg. Happy Breakfast!

Note for diabetics: Slice it into 6 bars, and it has 25 g of carbs per bar.

Happy Momma Award

2010-01-01T15:16:00.000-08:00

This is the first Happy Momma award; I hope to make it a weekly post. The only prize is a shout out to all my gluten-free blog friends that I think this product is great! Why call it the Happy Momma award and not the Happy Monkey Award? Because one of the qualifications for this award is that when I find it I get so excited I do a little dance of joy!

So without further ado, the winner of the first Happy Momma Award is Crunchmaster Multi-Grain Crackers!

When my friend Rachelle told me she had bought yummy gluten-free crackers at Sam's Club, I didn't really believe her (sorry Rachelle!). But when I walked into Sam's Club and saw the giant stack of cracker boxes, I started to get really happy! And when I took the box home and opened it and saw how many crackers you get in a box I got even happier! And when I tasted them and had the gluten-free monkey do a taste test, I stayed happy! We had a great time this weekend trying out various cracker toppings! (Clockwise from top, chicken salad, hummus, olive spread, and guacomole.)

They cost me $7.16 for the box, which contained two 10 oz. bags of crackers. Great price! I always feel really ripped off paying $4 for a 6 oz box of gluten-free crackers.

They are 100 percent whole grain, oven baked, cholesterol free, and low sodium. They are certified GF by the GFCO. (Ingredients: Brown Rice Meal, Sesame Seeds, Potato Starch, Quinoa Seeds, Safflower Oil, Flax Seeds, Amaranth Seeds, Tamari Soy Sauce Powder, Corn Maltodextrin and Salt.) They also contain 280 mg of Omega-3 per serving.

And they really do taste good! These thin crunchy crackers taste less "ricey" than most rice crackers, and they taste slightly nutty, and vaguely like sesame and soy sauce. (Sorry, I'm not a good flavor describer!) I'm not a celiac and I like them, and my oldest, celiac son and youngest son liked them -- the middle one doesn't like anything) and I really wouldn't hesitate to serve them to any one.

If you'd like your own Crunchmaster crackers, try your local Sam's Club or you can contact the maker at www.crunchmaster.com or 1-888-574-7737.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T15:10:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I'm back and I'm resolving to be a better blogger. Well, at least on my GF blog. I'm actually closing down my family blog (sorry, Grandma, but you know as well as I do that I haven't updated since June!) and my birding blog (fun, but a lot of work!). I have some new recipes and ideas and I'm excited for the new year. We had a fun, gluten-free holiday season and we hope you did, too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T22:18:00.000-08:00

I'm as ready as I'll ever be.
I'll do the turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy tomorrow.
My onions and celery are sauteed and my gluten free bread cubes are dried out and ready to be turned into stuffing.
My sweet potatoes are mashed and ready to be heated and topped with toasted pecans and maple syrup.
I made a small waldorf salad at the request of my celiac son, and my green beans are ready to go.
I need to bake rolls in the morning, and at some point my husband needs to assemble and bake his apple pie.
My gf cookie crumb crust is ready and waiting for my son's sugar free banana pudding.
And I have managed not to sample my store-bought pumpkin pie!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The Turkey

2009-11-23T23:42:00.000-08:00

It seems like I should have another week before Thanksgiving, dang it.

Anyway, this morning after my husband reminded me that I needed time to thaw the turkey, I decided I had better go buy the turkey.

It was so simple last year. I went to Smith's, I looked at their $5 turkey and it said gluten-free.

This year, I went to Smith's and instead of Norbest turkeys, their cheap turkeys were Private Selection turkeys, their in-house brand. And dang it, they not only did it not say gluten-free, Modified Food Starch was on the ingredients list. I hate that stuff, it can be anything. They didn't even have a 1-800 number on the package to make it easy to check. So I complained to the manager. And then I reloaded my 3 boys into the car and went home and called Jennie-O.

Jennie O said all her turkeys are gluten free, but her gravy packets are not gluten free (surprise!), and she even seemed to know what she was talking about. I said "It would be nice if you labeled them," and she said, "If there was any wheat, barley or rye in them we would put it on the label." So apparently Jennie-O is a truth in labeling company.

Next, I refueled the kids with gluten free muffins, reloaded the kids, drove to where my son thought he saw a Fresh and Easy store (he's usually right about these things, but not today), drove to where I knew there really was a Fresh and Easy Store and bought a Jennie-O fresh, young turkey for $.99 a pound. I decided that if I had to pay real money for a turkey I was not going to thaw said turkey out in a hurry.

I have also completed almost all my shopping (hubby forgot he needed sandwich bags, so I'll have to make a quick stop somewhere, and I probably forgot something, too). Tonight, I roasted my sweet potatoes, and made my cranberry chutney. Oh and I broke down and just bought myself a pumpking pie. Not a huge one, but I figured it would be one less thing to make, and the gluten-free monkey assured me he is definitely not interested in it. Tomorrow's project: gluten-free dinner rolls, and gluten-free dried bread for stuffing. I might still get it all done....

Roast Turkey and Gluten-free Turkey Gravy

2009-11-22T23:51:00.000-08:00

This is the turkey recipe I use, it keeps the breast meat from drying out. I got it a few years ago from one of my sisters-in-law. She also gave me her gravy recipe and I adapted it to GF last year by using sweet rice flour as the thickener. I was pleasantly surprised that, unlike cornstarch, the sweet rice flour thickened the gravy, but did not turn it into a gelatinous blob when I put the leftover gravy in the refrigerator. I buy my sweet rice flour from the nearest Japanese grocery store.

Roast Turkey

Remove top rack, and put other rack in lowest position in the oven. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Remove giblets from thawed or fresh turkey. Rinse the turkey and pat it dry. Tuck the drumsticks and wingtips under skin flaps. Brush the breast with melted butter (a couple of tablespoons is plenty). Salt the cavity. Set turkey on a rack in a broiling pan UPSIDE DOWN. Brush bottom of turkey with more melted butter (again, a couple of tablespoons, or so).

Roast for 1 hour.
Remove pan, reduce heat to 325 degrees, and rotate the turkey to breast up using clean potholders. Roast until the thickest part of the breast reaches 165 degrees and the thigh reaches 175 degrees, about 1-2 hours. Let it rest 30-40 minutes, before carving.

Gluten-free Turkey Gravy

1 Tbsp. canola oil
giblets and neck
1 onion, chopped
4 c. chicken broth (gluten free!)
2 c. water
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning
3 Tbsp. butter
1/4 c. sweet rice flour
1 c. chicken broth
salt and pepper

Heat the oil. Brown the giblets for 5 minutes . Cook onion for 3 minutes. Cover and cook over low for 20 minutes.

Add broth and water and scrape pan. Bring to a boil. Add poultry seasoning and simmer 30 minutes, skimming foam. Strain broth and hold in a pitcher (in the fridge if you are making it ahead of time).

After your turkey is roasted and resting, melt butter over med-low heat. Whisk in flour. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Bring broth in pitcher to a simmer if it is cool. Gradually add broth to roux, whisking constantly. Simmer until thick 30 minutes. Pour drippings off roasting pan, let the fat rise and separate from drippings in one of those handy fat separating measuring cups, I use a 4-cup one for this job. Deglaze pan with chicken broth and reduce drippings by half, about 5 minutes. Strain into gravy and heat and season.

Turkey Day update

2009-11-12T20:39:00.000-08:00

The big dessert decisions have been made, kinda. My dear husband said he didn't want to buy a pie, and that he'd make one. Which is OK, except that I don't want flour flying around the kitchen while my little celiac is around or while I am preparing other Thanksgiving goodies. SO, I made several pie crusts today while my son was at school and stuck them in the freezer. (I rarely bake with regular flour anymore.) Then I spent a good chunk of time decontaminating the kitchen! I'll let my husband do the rest of the work later. He's still pondering what kind of filling he wants.

I, on the other hand, have decided that since I don't like pie crust, and I was totally grossed out by the amount of butter and shortening I put in the pie dough today, that I'm going to try making a pumpkin custard or a crustless pumpkin pie (it'll be gluten-free, so I'll see if I can convert my boys to pumpkin).

My sweet little diabetic celiac said he wants a banana pie with a Mi-Del gingersnap crust, so my plan is to make him a sugar-free banana pudding pie. (Although, I think I'm going to look around for some GF graham crackers or something instead of the gingersnaps.)

While I was doing my grocery shopping in Wal-Mart, I checked out their turkey selection. Most turkey should be gluten-free (but you never know!) and you can always call the company to check, but I like to support companies who do label so I checked for gluten-free labels. Anyway, they had Jennie-O and Butterball frozen turkeys, neither of which were labeled, and a Honeysuckle White, which didn't say gluten-free, but did say "No added MSG or Gluten," so I'll keep it in mind.

Gluten-Free Thanksgiving, Version 2.0

2009-11-05T20:50:00.000-08:00

Last year was our first gluten-free Thanksgiving. It was just us, at our house, no guests. My husband (he's the best!) and I tag-teamed it and cooked it all. It was crazy! So after the holiday was over, I sat down and wrote myself a plan for this year. It took me awhile to figure out where I saved it, but I pulled it out today and I'm ready to do it again. Hopefully, with a little less craziness!

This year I am going to invite my husband's parents to join us. We'll have two diabetics at the table and one celiac. And everybody needs to feel like they got a Thanksgiving dinner that fit their idea of Thanksgiving dinner.

So here's my working Menu, all tentative and adjustable.

Appetizers to pick at while we cook and wait: Crudite (I love that word!), dip, pickles, olives, nuts, cheese and crackers.

The Main Event:
Turkey with cranberry sauce
Mashed potatoes and turkey gravy
Stuffing
Sweet potatoes with maple syrup and roasted pecans
Green beans
Rolls
Drinks (we don't drink alcohol, so it will probably be diet soda or punch, or maybe just ice water with lemon slices)

Dessert: Pie and pie-ish sort of things

And here's my timeline

Early November: Buy the Thanksgiving Game Every year we get a new board game to play together after the big meal. Last year I forgot to buy it until the day before and I had a hard time finding the one I wanted.
Decide what to do about dessert! I have several considerations here. First, the non-celiacs are going to want "real" pie; last year I ordered it from the bakery around the corner, and I will probably do the same thing again. Second, what kind of pies? Third, what kind of pie does the celiac want and can I convince him to let me make him a dessert that has fewer carbs than an actual pie? (He's one of the diabetics.) Fourth, am I really the only person who likes pumpkin pie? Dang it! And should I get a whole pumpkin pie for myself or should I make pumpkin custard (I'm really not a fan of pie crust) or should I just settle and eat the cherry?
Make the dough for my husband's favorite non-GF rolls, roll them out and freeze them. I want to get this done while my little celiac is at school, so I have plenty of time to decontaminate the kitchen. It's too stressful to do it the day of, and most bread dough's freeze great. I'll just let them thaw and rise and bake them on the big day. It's too stressful to have flour flying around the kitchen on the big day.

Two weeks out: Make a grocery list. Start shopping for shelf-stable items.
Buy a gluten-free turkey: Last year I bought a Norbest turkey from Smith's. It was labeled gluten free. I was also given a turkey by my sweet neighbors, who won two turkeys gambling at a local casino (I live in Las Vegas, if you haven't already guessed). It was not a brand I recognized, it was not labeled gluten-free, and it was treated with broth, so I got on the Internet and did a search for the name of the farm, and found out that they were owned by a large company that I did recognize (I think it was Foster Farms, but I could be wrong). So I called up the large company, asked if the smaller company's turkey was gluten free and found out it was! Yeah, two turkeys! Now, some people just buy as much turkey as they need, but I figure if you are going to the trouble of doing a turkey, you should do a big turkey and freeze your leftovers.

One week out: Make bread for the stuffing, dry it in the oven and freeze it. Last year I waited until the week of Thanksgiving and it just made life hectic, so I'm going to try and make it earlier and freeze it. I use the stuffing recipe from Annalise Roberts' "Gluten-Free Baking Classics." Last year I made cornbread stuffing, but I think I might make regular stuffing this year.
If possible, make gluten-free dessert, and freeze it!
Roast and mash sweet potatoes. The rest of the year, I use the microwave, but for Thanksgiving, I like my sweet potatoes roasted in the oven. I think it kind of carmelizes the sugars and makes them even yummier. I've never frozen it before, but the Internet says you can freeze sweet potatoes, so I'm going to roast, mash and assemble my casserole and freeze it. I'll thaw it in the fridge overnight and then just heat it and top it on Thanksgiving.

Saturday night or Sunday morning: Start thawing the turkey in the fridge. You need 24 hours for every 4 pounds. I like to give myself a little extra time, because nothing is worse than trying to hack the frozen gizzards out of your bird on Thanksgiving morning! Been there, done that!

Monday: Make cranberry sauce. I really like homemade cranberry sauce, and it is easy to make, and it keeps well in the fridge. But if life gets hectic, I'll just use canned sauce. Last time I checked Ocean Spray was gluten free.

Tuesday: Finish grocery shopping.

Wednesday: Prep the turkey.
Make broth from the giblets.
Toast pecans for sweet potatoes.
Saute celery, onions, mushrooms for stuffing.
Make crudite, dip, assemble snack trays.
Make pumpkin custard? Maybe.
Pick up the pies.
Make sure I have ice cubes.
Straighten up the house before heading to bed.

Thanksgiving Day: Roast the bird.
Assemble and bake stuffing (not a big fan of stuffing the bird....)
Reheat sweet potatoes, top with maple syrup and nuts.
Make gravy.
Make mashed potatoes.
Cook the grean beans. I just really feel like you have to have something green, and carb-free, and my kids really like those frozen haricots verde (? the long, skinny green beans). I'll just throw these in the microwave. If my in-laws come and I get ambitious I might make a green salad, too.
Bake GF rolls. (Takes 40 minutes to rise, 20 minutes to bake)
Bake non-GF rolls. My notes say it takes 3 hours for them to thaw and rise, about 20 minutes to bake.

Carve turkey, set table!
Whew! And it will all be gone in 30 minutes or less!

So that's my plan, more or less, I'll fill you in on how it goes, as it goes. And I'm planning on posting my recipes, or links to my recipes, during the next few weeks.

Simple Sweet and Sour Pork

2009-10-04T22:19:00.000-07:00

Simple Sweet and Sour Pork

1-1.5 lbs. boneless pork loin, sliced thin
1 T. canola oil
1 small onion, chopped into narrow wedges
1/2 bag frozen red, green, and yellow bell peppers
20 oz. can of pineapple chunks, drained, juice reserved

Sauce:
1 T. brown sugar
3 T. Splenda
2/3 c. pineapple juice
2 T. cornstarch
2 T. soy sauce
1/4 c. rice vinegar

Combine sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk. Heat oil in pan and stir fry pork in batches. Keep warm. Meanwhile use pan spray on a microwave safe bowl and microwave the onion on high for 1 minute, then add the frozen peppers and cook for two more minutes or until heated through. In the same pan you cooked the pork in, heat your sauce over medium heat, until it bubbles and starts to thicken. Add about a 1/4 c. of sauce to peppers and onions in the bowl, toss to coat. Add pork and pineapple to the pan, and cook just until heated through. Serve over hot sticky rice. Makes 4 servings, although if everyone likes vegetables at your house, you might need the whole bag of peppers and a larger onion.

Make sure you use GF ingredients, especially your soy sauce. ( I have been using La Choy lately, because the Great Value Soy Sauce was reformulated recently and now has wheat in it. Stinkers.) I was going to call this a stir fry, but it's really not. You could use fresh peppers, and stir fry your vegetables and meat, but then it wouldn't be quite so simple, would it! You could also just add your vegetables to the pan with the pineapple and peppers, but certain people at my house do not like onions and peppers, and I find that this makes it easy to humor them. And leaves more vegetables for me. To make sticky rice: Buy a good bag of short-grained Asian-style rice, follow the directions on the bag. It's not that hard. Generally it is 3 parts rice to 4 parts water. Bring it to a boil, turn the heat down to simmer and put a lid on it. Cook for 20 minutes.

Gluten-Free "Fast and Friendly" Meatballs

2009-10-04T00:26:00.000-07:00

"Fast and Friendly" Gluten-Free Meatballs

2 T. olive oil
20 oz. lean ground turkey, not turkey breast
1 egg
1/3 c. gluten-free bread crumbs
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. salt
2 T. Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 glass pan with olive oil and put in the oven while it is preheating. Mix rest of ingredients in a large bowl until well combined. (Use your hands.) Roll tablespoons of the meat mixture into balls. Transfer to pan and bake for 15 minutes. Turn the meatballs over and then bake for another 10 minutes.

I adapted this recipe from a recipe called Fast and Friendly Meatballs that I found on Allrecipes.com. I save the crusts from my GF bread, or any gluten-free bread that has gone stale in a bag in a the freezer. Then when I need bread crumbs, I just break the bread slices into the blender and blend them up. If you want a more authentic meatball, you could use ground beef or meatloaf mix. This recipe makes between 25-30 walnut-sized meatballs. I quadruple the recipe and cook the meatballs on two large baking sheets (I got 117 meatballs this time). Then after the meatballs cool, I freeze them. This makes enough meatballs for about 5 meals. They are great with spaghetti sauce, just thaw and reheat them in the sauce. They are also delicious as an appetizer; cook them on low in a crockpot for about 3 hours with your favorite barbecue sauce.

A pan of meatballs ready to be baked.

Meatballs ready for the freezer.

Gluten-free spaghetti and meatballs is a definite crowd-pleaser at my house.

Making Your Own GF Mixes

2009-08-02T22:59:00.000-07:00

Some of the mixes we took on vacation to Grandma's house: Two bread mixes, a pizza crust mix, a pancake mix, and a Chocolate Chip Cookie mix.

I make a lot of GF mixes to save time and make my baking simpler. I usually mix up a big batch of the Bread Flour Mix A from Annalise Roberts "Gluten Free Baking Classics" and then make a half dozen or so bread mixes that I can keep on hand. I just line up a half dozen containers with lids, and then measure each dry ingredient (except for the yeast) into my containers assembly-line style. (I use powdered milk in my baking so I actually measure in the dry equivalent of the milk, and then just add warm water instead of milk when I mix it up. In my case 3 T. of milk powder equals 3/4 c. of milk.) When you have all your ingredients in put the lids on tight and shake it up. If you don't shake it well and mix all your dry ingredients up, you get dry powdery lumps (probably from the sugar or gelatin). One of the nice things about her bread recipe is that she uses the same dry ingredients for sandwich bread, hamburgerand hot dog buns and dinner rolls, so I can use my bread mixes to make several different baked goods.

My strategy for other baked goods is this: Whenever I bake something that I don't already have a mix on hand for I have made a habit of making a couple of mixes along side my recipe. That way the next couple of times I bake that recipe, I won't have to bother mixing up the dry ingredients. You can make any mix, by combining your dry ingredients (except for yeast) in a container that can be sealed airtight, or a zipper-style plastic bag. Make sure you shake it up well, and label it.

My Mama's Enchiladas (naturally gluten free)

2009-07-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

My mom always made these enchiladas growing up and I love them! My recipe probably doesn't match hers exactly, but it is pretty close. I was pretty happy when I realized that they were easy to make gluten free, and even happier when I made them and my boys gobbled them up! My mom made them with ground beef when I was a kid, but I use ground turkey.

My Mama's Enchiladas

1 medium onion, diced fine
1 pound of lean ground turkey (not turkey breast!) or ground beef
1 15 oz. can of GF enchilada sauce (I usually use Rosarita, a ConAgra brand)
1 15 oz. can of refried beans (Rosarita again, usually green chile and lime, but any flavor will do)
1 small can of sliced black olives
about 12 GF corn tortillas (I usually use Great Value or Mission)
shredded cheddar cheese
pan spray
sour cream for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 Pyrex casserole dish or similar pan. Brown the ground meat with the onion until the meat is no longer pink and the onion is soft. Drain the meat if necessary. In a mixing bowl combine the meat, refried beans, olives, 1/3 c. of enchilada sauce. Stir to combine. Lightly (!) spray each tortilla and pile them up on a plate, cover with a damp microwave safe paper towel, and cook on high in the microwave for 30-60 seconds until pile is warmed through. (This helps keep the tortillas from cracking.) Pour about 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce in the bottom of your pan and spread it around. Let tortillas cool until you can handle them and then fill with about a 1/3 -1/2 cup of filling. Roll up the tortillas and fill the pan. (I usually do a row of 8 or so across, 2 along the side and a funny little square one in the corner.) Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Cover with tinfoil and heat in the oven until warm and bubbly. Remove tinfoil and top with cheese. Return to oven long enough to melt the cheese. Serve with sour cream.

You can also cook these in the microwave. If I'm in a hurry or if I don't want to heat up the house by turning on the oven I often do. The only difference that I can tell is that the edges get a little crunchy in the oven, but not in the microwave. Skip the tinfoil, cover with a microwave-proof paper towel, heat through until bubbly, top with cheese and heat through just long enough to melt the cheese.

It should be fairly easy to find gluten free ingredients for this recipe. I've listed a few of the brands that I use above, check the labels before you use them. I called ConAgra and they told me they label for gluten and the beans and enchilada sauce are gluten free.

Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread

2009-06-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a pretty loaf of gluten-free sandwich bread. I used the recipe from Annalise Roberts' Gluten-Free Baking Classics. This loaf is actually a couple of days old, but it is still nice and soft.

I get so many requests for the recipe, I thought I would come back and post a link to the recipe at Annalise Robert's web site, where you can find a recipe for a slightly larger loaf of sandwich bread than the one in her book, and many other recipes.

Here's a link to the bread pans I use, I find these Chicago Metallic pans don't overbrown the bread like my old non-stick or glass pans did.

Gluten-free Au Gratin Potatoes

2009-04-12T21:36:00.000-07:00

Today we had a gluten-free Easter feast. I made au gratin potatoes to go with the Ridge Creek spiral sliced ham from Sam's Club (clearly labeled gluten free), green beans amd fruit salad. I combined a couple of recipes and replaced the thickening flour with sweet rice flour. I thought they turned out really well. Here's the recipe.

Gluten-free Au Gratin Potatoes

5-6 medium potatoes, peeled and diced in 1/2" pieces, or thinly sliced
1 cup of water
3 T. butter
2 T. sweet rice flour
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Combine potatoes and water in 2-quart glass dish, cover and microwave on high for about 10 minutes, stirring every five minutes, and then uncovered for 5 minutes until potatoes are done and water is gone. (If potatoes are done and water remains, drain it off.) In a sauce pan, melt the butter, and whisk in the flour, salt and pepper and cook briefly. Heat your milk in the microwave and whisk the milk into the flour. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Stir in all but 1/3 cup of cheese. Stir until melted. Pour over potatoes in casserole dish and stir to combine. Top with remaining cheese. Cook uncovered in a 375-degree oven until cheese melts and begins to brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Sweet rice flour is a very handy gluten-free product. I use it to make white sauce, and for thickening soups, sauces and gravies. I find it that it doesn't get gelatinous when it gets cold like a sauce thickened with corn starch. I buy boxes of Koda Farms brand at a nearby Japanese market.

Pears or Apples with Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cobbler

2009-04-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

This recipe uses Annalise Roberts' Brown Rice Flour Mix. The recipe can be found at www.foodphilosopher.com/assets/docs/glutfree.cfm

Pears or Apples with Gluten Free Gingerbread Cobbler
4 medium pears or apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup water
2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup Splenda or brown sugar
1 T. cornstarch
1 T. cold water

3/4 cup Brown Rice Flour Mix
3 T. granulated sugar
2 tsp. buttermilk powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. xanthum gum
3 T. canola oil
3 T. molasses
3 T. hot water
1 egg yolk

whipping cream
Splenda

Spray and 8x8" Pyrex pan with cooking spray. Combine the pears, water, lemon juice and cinnamon in pan and stir. Cook in the microwave for 3 minutes. Stir, being sure to scoop the pears in the corners toward the center of the dish. Cook for another 3 minutes and stir again. Add the Splenda or brown sugar and stir it in. Mix the cornstarch into the cold water and stir it into the apple mixture. Cook for 2 minutes stirring halfway or until the mixture is slightly thickened.

While your fruit is cooking mix up your gingerbread cobbler. In a mixing bowl combine the Brown Rice Flour Mix, buttermilk powder, sugar, baking soda, spices, salt and xanthum gum. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly with a whisk before adding the wet ingredients. Add the canola oil, molasses, hot water, and the egg yolk. Stir just until well blended. Drop by spoonfuls on top of the fruit. Return to the microwave and cook for 5-6 minutes, until the top is no longer wet and a toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool for a few minutes before removing it from the microwave (the fruit will be boiling hot). Whip the cream and sweeten with Splenda. Serve warm or cold.

I love this recipe. It is so easy to make in the microwave and has the texture of a steamed cake or pudding, but the gingerbread isn't gummy. It's the perfect dessert for a cold evening.

A couple of tips for diabetics. I don't like to bake with Splenda, it rarely turns out well. But Splenda works wonderfully in fruit and in whipping cream, so cut your carbs there and use portion control. If you aren't worried about carbs or calories, use sugar in the fruit and whipping cream. You could also use the Gingerbread Cake recipe from Gluten Free Baking Classics, or another GF gingerbread cake mix, but you only need 1 to 1 1/2 cups of batter. It doesn't look like much while it is raw, but the batter expands significantly and you don't want to boil it over in your microwave. (You could always make cupcakes out of the leftover batter.)

GF Microwave Caramel Popcorn

2009-03-27T23:26:00.000-07:00

This recipe was the result of three things. First, my son made a snow globe for a kindergarten 3-D weather project, and after filling it up with corn syrup and water, I had LOTS of corn syrup left over. Second, I have been trying to think of or find recipes that are naturally gluten free. And third, I live in Las Vegas, and I spend the 6 months of the year that are blazing hot trying to avoid my oven, so I'm always looking for ways to use my microwave. I was so excited when this recipe worked.

Decadent 8-cup version.

Microwave Caramel Corn
8-16 cups popped popcorn (see note)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 unsalted butter, sliced into 4 pieces
1/8 c. light corn syrup
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking soda

(If you don't have an air popper, you can pop popcorn in the microwave. Take a brown paper lunch bag, put 1/3 cup of unpopped popcorn kernels in it, roll down the top a couple of times. Place it standing up, not on its side, in the microwave. Use your popcorn setting, or pop it for 2-3 minutes, and listen for the pops to slow down. When there is about 2 seconds between pops, or when you can see that your bag is about to overflow, your popcorn is done. My microwave has kind of a wimpy popcorn setting, so I hit it and then add 20 seconds. That gives me a full bag of popcorn, which is about 8 cups. ) Added 5/12/09: Apparently you can start a fire with a paper bag in some microwaves. I haven't had a problem, but I saw an online discussion where someone had. Anyway, you might want to check your microwave's manual or buy a microwave popcorn popper. At any rate be careful!

Once your popcorn is popped, dump it in a big bowl, shake it a little so the "old maids" fall down into the bottom. Then transfer the popcorn by hand to another large microwave safe bowl, leaving the old maids in the first bowl. Discard the old maids. Spray a large spoon lightly with pan spray and leave it with your bowl of popcorn. Tear off a couple of large sheets of waxed paper or tinfoil and spread them out on the counter.

In a 2-quart glass bowl, combine brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, salt and vanilla. Heat it for 1 minute 30 seconds on high, then take the bowl out and stir it (I use a wire whisk) until it is well combined. Return the bowl to the microwave, and cook it for another minute. Pay attention, you do not want to burn it or let it overflow, you do want it to really boil. Remove it from the microwave and stir in the baking soda. Working quickly, dribble the syrup over the popcorn. Use the spoon you sprayed and stir/toss the popcorn to coat it with caramel. Stick the bowl back in the microwave for 30 seconds, and then stir the popcorn again. Repeat this two times for a total of 1 minute 30 seconds, and 3 stirs. Spread the popcorn out on the waxed paper and let it cool until the coating is set. Store it in an airtight container.

My microwave is an 1100 watt microwave. Microwaves vary. Check the wattage on your microwave. You will have to vary the cooking times accordingly. If your microwave has less wattage you probably will have to cook the caramel and the popcorn longer. If your microwave has a higher wattage, you might need less time, or you could reduce the power and try using the same times. In any event, pay attention to it while it is cooking, use your eyes and your nose. You do not want to burn the caramel or popcorn, if you can help it, because it will make a stinky mess. Be very careful when you are handling the hot caramel; you can really burn yourself with it. You could vary this recipe by adding nuts, or other fun ingredients, to the popcorn.

Yummy 16-cup version.

Note: If you use 16 cups of popcorn you are going to have lightly coated, but still delicious, caramel popcorn. If you use 8 cups you will have decadent, sugary caramel corn. For every day snacking I usually make the 16 cup version, it doesn't mess the local diabetic up much. For a special occasion or holiday treats, make the sugary stuff. It's all really good. You could also double the caramel recipe and pour it over 16-cups of popcorn, however, you have to increase your cooking times by roughly half to get the same result.

Gluten-Free Pizza

2009-03-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

I have made a lot of homemade pizza. Most of it was not gluten free. Every Friday night was pizza night at my house, and every Friday night every one was happy (who doesn't like pizza?), and everyone ate their dinner, it was fun to have my kids help me (read: eat cheese, pepperoni and olives), and it was more economical than going out. It was fun, but it was also a strategy. Pizzeria pizza used to really mess up my son's blood sugar. But if I made it at home and used white whole wheat flour, part-skim mozzarella, turkey pepperoni, and served it with a salad, it didn't affect him more than any other meal. (Well, except for the post-pizza gluten bellyache, but we didn't know that back then.) So when my son was diagnosed with celiac, that was one of the things I mourned: pizza night with the hubby and kids.

During the first few weeks after diagnosis, we tried a few GF pizza crust mixes. They were all nasty. And then I found Annelise Roberts' book "Gluten Free Baking Classics." My husband took one bite of her pizza crust, and said, "Hey, this is really good." And now thanks to her wonderful crust recipe we are back to having pizza night.

Gluten-free pizza toppings.

For toppings, I use generally use Walmart's Great Value pizza sauce, sliced olives, and part-skim mozzarella, with Hormel's turkey pepperoni, and Canadian style bacon. They are all marked gluten free. Of course, your toppings are only limited by your imagination. (Her recipe is half whole grain, thanks to the millet and sorghum. Hormel's turkey pepperoni has been one of my favorite products for years: no one ever guesses it isn't regular pepperoni and it has 70 percent less fat in it.)

A pre-baked pizza crust.

The pizza dough is kind of like a really thick cake mix dough. The hardest part about making the pizza is spreading it out evenly in a circle. I have found that the easiest way to do that is to use a regular cookie sheet, spray it lightly and sprinkle it with corn meal. Then use an offset spatula sprayed with pan spray to spread the dough out. You let the dough rise for 30-40 minutes and pre-bake it. Then you cover it with your toppings and bake it again. The only change I've made to her recipe is to pre-bake it for 10 minutes instead of 15, and then to bake it with the toppings on it for 15 minutes instead of 10. We like our toppings a little more cooked than they were getting.

Piping hot turkey pepperoni and olive pizza.

My kids requested a "Hawaiian" pizza.

Each dough recipe makes one pizza. I usually make two pizzas for dinner. (I'd say they are about mediums.) That feeds two adults, two pizza-loving little boys and leaves ample for left-overs for the little boys' lunch the next day. I've found that you can bake two pizzas at once, but it works better if you make sure that the one that pre-bakes on the top shelf, is on the bottom shelf when you are baking your toppings, and vice versa.

For more information on "Gluten-Free Baking Classics" check out the link to the right to Annelise Roberts' Food Philosopher web site. Or check out my earlier posts about her book.

Note to diabetics: 1/8 of a pizza is 24g of carbs, before toppings. I usually give a combo bolus over an hour and a half and split it half and half.

Gluten-Free Vegetable Lentil Soup

2009-03-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

I feel so healthy when I eat this! And when the diabetic/celiac kid tasted mine and then asked for his own bowl, I really felt like a good mom. This soup is tasty and good for you.

Gluten-Free Vegetable Lentil Soup

1 T. canola oil, more or less, depending on your pan
1 onion, finely chopped
3 carrots, chopped in small pieces
1 potato, peeled and chopped in small pieces
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. of garlic powder
1 15-oz can of diced Italian-style tomatoes
4 cups of chicken broth
1 cup of lentils, picked through and rinsed if needed
2 big handfuls of fresh spinach, ripped into bite-size pieces
1 T. balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste (I don't add any)
Parmesan cheese, grated

First make sure your ingredients are all GF. Heat oil in pan over medium. Add onion, carrots and potato and saute until the onion is soft. Add spices and saute for a minute. Add tomatoes, and chicken broth and lentils, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes to 1 hour. The lentils will be cooked after 30 minutes, but I like them cooked for 45-1 hour, to a softer consistency. Remove from the heat and add spinach and vinegar, give it a stir. Serve topped with Parmesan cheese. Makes about 10 cups.

Going gluten free at Walmart

2009-03-09T22:15:00.001-07:00

After you go gluten free you start figuring out which companies are your friends. Having to read every label, every time you go shopping can be a real headache, not to mention time consuming. And gluten often ends up in products where you don't expect it. So I try to look for brands that I know label their products for gluten, or at least don't try to hide the gluten. I have to admit that I was surprised to find that Walmart does an excellent job of labeling their Great Value store brand products for gluten and allergens.

Pre-diagnosis, I used a lot of Great Value products simply because they were cheaper and I found them to be of very similar quality to name brands. Now I use even more Great Value items because they save me time and stress and money in the grocery store.

Here is a bottle of Great Value pizza sauce, and a can of Great Value sliced olives. Both are clearly marked GLUTEN-FREE in big letters. I used to buy Ragu pizza sauce, but the first time I read the label for gluten I decided it was probably gluten-free, but that I wasn't sure it was gluten free, and that I still had a lot of shopping and label reading to do. So I switched to the Great Value sauce. It's cheaper, it tastes good, it's labeled GF, and the only person in the family who can even tell the difference between the two sauces is my super-taster husband. Maybe some day I'll get around to calling Ragu, but for now I'm happy to use the Great Value sauce.

Gluten-free Shepherd's Pie

2009-03-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

There are probably as many versions of shepherd's pie as there are shepherds. But this is my gluten-free version of the un-gluten free version that I used to make with a can of tomato soup. This is a quick and easy casserole; my kids like it and I always feel good about it, because even the non-vegetable lovers in the family get a healthy serving of veggies!

Gluten-free Shepherd's Pie
1 pound of lean ground turkey, not turkey breast
1 Tbsp. Mrs. Dash, grill seasoning for chicken
1-15 oz can of tomato sauce
1/2 tsp. of baking soda
2-15 oz cans of green beans, drained
4-5 cups of mashed potatoes
4 to 6 oz of shredded cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

First, make sure all of your ingredients are GF. Crumble and brown the turkey in a large frying pan. I run the Mrs. Dash through my pepper mill to make it a little finer, but it'd be ok the way it is. Sprinkle the turkey with Mrs. Dash and cook until turkey is no longer pink. Add the tomato sauce and baking soda and stir. (The baking soda cuts the acidity of the tomato sauce.) Add the green beans, stir and bring it all to a simmer over medium heat. I usually let it simmer for 5 minutes or so, so that it's not too juicy under the potatoes. Taste for seasonings, you might want to add some salt or pepper, I don't usually add salt, but I do like pepper. Pour hot mixture into a 13x9" casserole dish, spread the hot mashed potatoes over the top, and top with the shredded cheese. If your ingredients are all hot, you can get away with tenting the top with tinfoil to melt your cheese. No oven involved. Of course you can heat or reheat it in a 350 degree oven until it is bubbly. If you are going to bake it, put the cheese on during the last 5 minutes.

If my family loved onions like I do, I'd saute half of a chopped onion and add it to the turkey burger. If you don't like canned beans, frozen or fresh green beans work, too. You can make your own mashed potatoes, but fake potatoes make this a really fast and easy dinner (make sure they are GF). I called the Mrs. Dash 1-800 number: All Mrs. Dash products are made with gluten free ingredients and on segregated lines, they are not however made in a segregated facility (they process wheat there on separate lines). This spice blend is great with poultry, but if you don't want to use it, I'd go with a spice combination that includes garlic, pepper, sweet red chili pepper, and Italian seasonings.
Note for diabetics: I usually count a serving as a section of casserole with about a 1/2 cup of potatoes on top. I bolus for 20g of carbs in each serving.

Calculating carbohydrates, and carb counts for Gluten-Free Baking Classics

2009-03-02T23:08:00.000-08:00

Some of you may wonder about my "Notes for diabetics." My son has had type 1 diabetes and has used an insulin pump since he was 16 months old. I calculate his insulin doses based on the number of carbohydrates he eats. Commercial products come labeled. I calculate the carbohydrates per serving on homemade foods. I do this by adding the total number of carbohydrates in all the ingredients, figuring the number of servings, and then dividing the total carbs by servings. That gives you the number of carbohydrates per serving.

I have not yet baked my way all the way through Gluten-Free Baking Classics, so this list is incomplete, but here are my carb counts for some of Annalise Roberts' recipes. I haven't had any trouble with my insulin doses based on these counts, but if they give you trouble you might want to check my math.

Brown Rice Blend, 1/4 cup, 32 g
Bread Flour Mix A, 1/4 cup, 28 g
Cornbread, 1/9 of recipe 32 g
Cornbread, 1/12 of recipe 24 g
Blueberry muffins, 1/12 of recipe 33 g
Banana nut muffins, 1/12 of recipe 36 g
Banana nut loaves, 1/24 of recipe 18g
Chocolate ricotta muffins, 1/12 of recipe 36 g
Pumpkin Bread, made with 1/2 c. sugar and 1/2 c. Splenda, 1/24 of recipe 15 g
Pumpkin Bread, made with sugar, 1/24 of recipe 19 g
Pumpkin Muffins, 1/12 of recipe 38 g
Yellow Layer Cake, without frosting, 1/24 of recipe 29 g
Flourless Chocolate Cake, 1/12 of recipe 31 g
Vanilla Cupckes, without frosting, 1/12 of recipe 26 g
Vanilla Layer Cake, without frosting, 1/24 of recipe 23 g
Chocolate Fudge Cake, without frosting, 1/24 of recipe 25 g
Tart Shell Crust, 1/12 of recipe 15 g
Boston Cream Pie, 1/12 of recipe 42 g
Chocolate Chip Cookies, 51 cookies made with 1 T. cookie scoop, 15 g each
Pumpkin Cookies (from Food Philosopher web site), 4 dozen, 12 g each
Sugar Cookies, 4o cookies with sugar sprinkles, 12 g each
1 pound loaf of Basic or Buttermilk Sandwich Bread, 16 slices, 23 g each
Traditional Dinner Rolls, 12 rolls, 20 g each
Hamburger Buns, 6 buns, 40 g each
Pizza Crust, 1/8 of recipe 24 g
Buttermilk Pancakes, 8 pancakes per batch, about 22 g each

Gluten-free Taco Seasoning

2009-03-02T22:11:00.001-08:00

I started making my own taco seasoning mix before my son was diagnosed with celiac disease, back in the good old days when we were only dealing with Type 1 diabetes. I was concerned about the amount of salt and the additives I couldn't identify in the mixes that you purchase. The first recipe makes enough mix for about 1 to 1.5 pounds of ground meat. The second recipe makes enough for 8 or 9 mixes; I make it in bulk and keep it in my pantry so that I don't have to mix it up every time I make tacos. You can make this without the salt and it tastes fine, I think it tastes better with just a little bit of salt. Make sure your ingredients are gluten free; spices generally are GF.

Gluten-Free Taco Seasoning (Mild)
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. table salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. corn starch
For medium heat add 1/8 tsp. ground red pepper.
For hot add 1/4 tsp. ground red pepper.

Combine in a bowl and stir to mix.
To use, brown about a pound of ground meat (I like to use lean ground turkey. Turkey, not turkey breast, it is too dry.) Sprinkle the mix over the top and add 2/3 cup of water. Cook and stir over medium heat until meat is coated and sauce thickens and clings to the meat. Serve with corn tortillas, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, and chopped tomatoes and onions or any other taco topping that you enjoy.

Big Batch Gluten-Free Taco Seasoning (Mild)
1/2 c. chli powder
3 T. garlic powder, scant
3 T. onion powder, scant
2 tsp. oregano
4 tsp. paprika
3 T. cumin, scant
2 tsp. table salt
4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 c. corn starch
For medium add 1 tsp. ground red pepper.
For hot add 2 tsp. ground red pepper.
Combine in a pint jar with a lid and shake well. To use, sprinkle 2 1/2-3 T. of mix over 1-1.5 pounds of browned ground meat. Add 2/3 c. of water. Cook and stir over medium heat until meat is coated with sauce and the water has cooked down.

This recipe is dedicated to my friend and sister Katie -- who grows a garden to be jealous of and doesn't eat food that has ingredients that she can't pronounce or identify. She is wise indeed.

Gluten-free sugar cookies

2009-02-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

I made the Gluten-Free Baking Classics sugar cookie recipe for the first time the other day. I made a batch of hearts for Valentine's Day for my kids. I thought they turned out great. Don't do it in a rush because you definitely need time to chill the dough. If you like them a little chewy, cut them a little thicker and cook them just till they start to turn colors. Great recipe, it'd be good frosted with pink frosting, but frosting and diabetes just don't mix. Oh well, you can't have it all.

Note for diabetics: I made 40 hearts that were about 2.5 inches across. I used all the dough. I figured a very modest 12 g of carbohydrates for each cookie, including the red sugar sprinkles.

A pan for GF dinner rolls

2009-02-05T23:37:00.000-08:00

Annalise Roberts recommends a square cupcake pan for making her Traditional Dinner Rolls, but I couldn't find one. But I found this "mini-loaf pan" at Christmas-time in Wal-Mart for about $5. It works really well. It might be a seasonal item, though, I did see them on clearance recently. I do turn the oven temperature down 15 degrees because it is a dark pan.

Note for diabetics: I figure that in a batch of 12 rolls, each roll has 20 g of carbohydrates.

Gluten-free Hamburger Buns

2009-02-05T23:13:00.000-08:00

A cheeseburger served on a hamburger bun from "Gluten-Free Baking Classics."

I have a house full of boys and hamburgers are a popular meal. When I started making hamburger buns out of "Gluten-Free Baking Classics" I thought I'd make a half-dozen, and freeze them individually. My celiac son would get a GF bun, and the rest of us would have hamburgers on purchased buns. But the GF hamburger buns smelled and tasted so good none of the non-celiacs wanted a purchased bun, and we haven't bought them since. They really are delicious, and they make your house smell wonderful when they are baking. An added bonus to everyone eating a GF bun, is that there is no way for a non-GF bun to contaminate the GF food. That makes serving dinner less stressful.

A batch of hamburger buns.

A couple of notes on making GF buns, the dough is really a batter, so you need a mold. I've tried making tinfoil molds, but they don't work very well. So I bought this Chicago Metallic muffin top pan on Amazon.com for less than $20. (The price has come down since I first posted.) It is worth every penny. The pan's manufacturers recommend turning down the oven temperature by 25 degrees, but I've found that that is too much and turning the heat down by 15 degrees works better. I spray the pan lightly and instead of dusting them with rice flour, I dust them with finely ground corn meal. After you mix up the dough it takes about 40 minutes for them to rise, and 20 minutes to bake. If you wrap them up well, they do freeze. (We rarely have leftovers!)

I get so many requests for this recipe, I thought I'd come back and add a link to Annalise Roberts web site where you can find her hamburger bun recipe, and many others.

Note for diabetics: I figure that in a batch of 6 rolls, each roll has 40 g of carbohydrates.

A clean muffin-top pan.

Gluten-free Oatmeal

2009-02-05T22:59:00.000-08:00

One of the few things my son was really sad about not being able to eat was a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. So we were thrilled to find Gluten Free Oats. Their motto is "Our celiac family serving yours." This company started out as an Ag project by a boy with celiac who wanted to taste no-bake cookies and has turned into a company. They had great service and a quick turnaround when we ordered and the oatmeal is delicious. I ordered three large ($10) bags and paid $10 in shipping, which seemed like a lot, until I figured out the price per serving of Gluten Free Oats and the price per serving of Quaker Instant Oatmeal packages and realized that they are about the same. This is a wonderful product. There is a link to their web site in the list at the right.

Gluten-free Beef Stew

2009-02-05T22:04:00.000-08:00

Gluten-free beef stew with Traditional Dinner Rolls from "Gluten-Free Baking Classics."

Buttercup's mother hesitated, then put her stew spoon down. (This was after stew, but so is everything. When the first man first clambered from the slime and made his first home on land, what he had for supper that first night was stew.)
-from William Goldman's "The Princess Bride"

I love beef stew. When I was a kid, my mom would make make homemade bread, and then serve it for dinner with beef stew. Stew is comfort food for me. I used to get kind of sad when summer would come and the weather would be too hot to eat it. I got really sad when I read the label on the stew seasoning mix and realized that it had wheat flour in it. But now that I have a from scratch beef stew recipe, I can't figure out why I was using a mix for something I love so much (that has happened to me a lot since my son's diagnosis).

This recipe is a combination of three recipes; the method from my stew mix recipe, and a combination of ingredients from a crock pot beef stew recipe, and a stew recipe off a beef broth web site. I make a simple meat, carrots and potatoes version, but you could always add a chopped onion, a couple of stalks of chopped celery, or a handful of green beans if that is what your family likes. You can use stew meat, but I find that the quality and quantity of fat in it varies widely depending on your source, and so I prefer to buy London Broil (on sale, if I can), trim it, and cut it into bite size pieces. Use 2 pounds if you like it beefy, but if you are feeling frugal, you can get away with a pound and lots of veggies.

Gluten-free Beef Stew
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1-2 lbs. stew meat, or London Broil, cut into bite-size pieces
1/4 cup sweet rice flour, or white rice flour if you can't find sweet rice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
4 cups beef broth (a 32-oz box)
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. paprika
1 1/2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
4-5 medium carrots
4-5 medium potatoes

Put the stew meat, rice flour, salt and pepper in plastic container with a lid (I use a 7-cup Rubbermaid). Shake it up. Heat the canola oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat (I use a 4-quart pan) and brown the stew meat in 2 batches. There will be flour left in the bottom of the Rubbermaid, don't dump it all in the pan, or throw it out. Add garlic powder, bay leaves, and paprika to the leftover flour. When all your beef is browned, add it all back into your pot. Add your broth, and the leftover flour and spices, and the Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil over medium heat. When it comes to a boil, turn it down to a simmer (make sure it is just bubbling), cover with a lid, and let cook for about an hour, stirring occasionally. At that point, peel your carrots and potatoes, chop into bite-size pieces, and add to the pot. Bring back to a boil, turn down to a simmer (make sure it is just bubbling), cover and let it cook, stirring occasionally, for another 45 minutes or until your vegetables are cooked.

To cook in a crock pot: Reduce beef broth to 1 1/2-2 cups, reduce Worcestershire to 1/2 Tbsp., and cook for 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low.

Note for diabetics: I figure 15 g of carbohydrates for each 1/2 cup of potatoes and carrots.

If you haven't read "The Princess Bride," you should. The book will make you laugh even more than the movie. And who doesn't need a good laugh these days!

Gluten-Free Creamy Tomato Soup

2009-02-03T21:20:00.000-08:00

One of the first things that they tell you to do after diagnosis is to clean out your pantry. Because I feed a diabetic and cook a lot of our food from scratch, I didn't have too many gluten-filled convenience items to throw out. But there were a few, and the one I was saddest to get rid of was Campbell's Tomato Soup. Sometimes you just need a grilled cheese sandwich and a hot bowl of tomato soup.

Luckily I have found a delicious and simple recipe to replace it. It's almost as easy, and so much more delicious than condensed soup. This recipe is an adaptation of a Creamy Tomato Soup recipe by Pam Anderson in USA Weekend. You can find the original on their web site.

Gluten-Free Creamy Tomato Soup
1-28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup chicken broth
1-5 oz. can of evaporated milk
salt and pepper to taste

Check your ingredients and make sure they are gluten-free (see note about ingredients). Pour tomatoes into a blender and blend until creamy and smooth, about 30 seconds. Whisk the baking soda into the chicken broth until it is dissolved. Combine the tomato puree, and the broth/baking soda mixture in a large sauce pan. Whisk together and heat over medium heat until hot, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and stir in the can of evaporated milk. Return soup to a simmer if needed (I don't bother). Season with salt and pepper. Makes 4 generous 1 cup servings. This recipe keeps well for a few days in the fridge, and reheats in the microwave nicely. I like a large mug of it for quick and healthy lunch.

A note about ingredients: If you can't find 5 oz cans of evaporated milk, you can double the recipe and use a 12 oz. can. I buy 5-oz cans of Great Value evaporated milk at Walmart. They are marked gluten free (most evaporated milk should be, but I appreciate that they have gone to the trouble of labeling).

Note for diabetics: 1 cup of soup has about 20 g of carbohydrates.

My favorite cookbook: Gluten-Free Baking Classics

2009-02-02T23:33:00.000-08:00

My copy is looking a little worse-for-wear.

Annalise Roberts' "Gluten-Free Baking Classics" is a great cookbook. I checked out every GF cookbook I could find in the public library after my son was diagnosed, and read all the reviews for GF cookbooks on Amazon, and this is the only book I've bought. I have not been sorry, I bake extensively out of this book. This book has made feeding my son and my family SOOOOO much easier. I recommend it without reservation (and if you read her reviews on Amazon.com, you will see that I'm not the only one). There are very few baked goods that I can think of that aren't in this book (maybe pumpkin cookies and peanut butter cookies). UPDATE: Annalise just emailed me to say that there is a new pumpkin cookie recipe on her website. I'm all over that -- 2/5/09.

This book is well written with clear instructions that even a beginning baker can follow. She depends on two basic flour mixes, a rice blend for most goodies, and a millet/sorghum blend for bread, neither use bean flour. She does recommend a specific brand of rice flour, Authentic, because it is ground finer than most other brands. But I have a hard time finding that brand, so most of the time I use Bob's Red Mill brand, and most of her recipes turn out just fine. Occasionally, I notice a little grittiness when I use BRM on some recipes. I also had a hard time finding millet flour, I had to order it by the case from Sunflower Farmer's Market, but it is worth it. I also like that her mixes are half whole grain.

We've tried a lot of GF recipes and mixes, but Annalise Roberts' recipes are among the few that really taste like the wheat version. And because she doesn't use a bean flour in her bread mix, her breads don't have that funky after-taste. My celiac son loves PB&J sandwiches on her bread, my non-celiac husband is partial to her pizza crust and chocolate chip cookies, and I love her hamburger bun recipe, it is so much better than the (wheat-flour) buns that you can buy in the store. We have also enjoyed the cornbread recipe, the blueberry muffins, the vanilla cupcakes, banana bread, pumpkin bread, buttermilk pancakes, dinner rolls, stuffing, and chocolate fudge cake. I even made a GF Boston Cream Pie for my birthday, yummy!

I got it for about $12 on Amazon, but if you want to try some of her recipes before you buy her book, she has her sandwich bread, and quite a few other recipes on her web site, www.foodphilosopher.com. I also e-mailed her with a question and she e-mailed me right back. I'll repeat myself and say: I would recommend this book without any reservations.

Why the blog? Why a monkey?

2009-02-02T23:03:00.000-08:00

I started this blog because I wanted a place to record what I've learned about feeding a child with celiac disease. My 6-year-old son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 16 months of age, and then last year with celiac disease. Both diseases require a lot of effort by myself and my husband to keep him healthy. But it is all worth it -- he's a super kid, and he feels so much better now that he is gluten-free, he's growing like a weed, and his blood-sugars have improved. It has been difficult, but not as difficult as I originally thought it would be. And I have to give him credit, he has done great, and has been so good about going gluten free.

I've been keeping a file of recipes, GF products, ideas, and it was just getting out of control. SO I thought I'd start keeping a lot of those things online, that way I can access them without digging through a giant pile of paper, I can refer family members or friends to them when they need to feed my son, and hey, if I can make life easier for another family dealing with celiac disease I'm all for it. I know how hard the initial shock and adjustment to a life-changing diagnosis can be, I've done it twice.

Why the monkey? Well, for many reasons: I needed a mascot and I didn't have a crocheted yak puppet, my boys and I love Curious George, my boys have been known to act like monkeys, and when I want them to know that I really, really love them, I call them my little pumpkin-monkeys.