gluten free recipe

Taking a little detour tonight…talking about food.

While Seth and I do not have celiac disease, we are both wheat intolerant and follow a gluten free diet. Eating gluten free has helped Seth’s environmental allergies (either that or he grew out of them) and it also greatly improves his demeanor. The main change I have noticed in myself since eliminating gluten from my diet is a huge decrease in sugar cravings. I haven’t researched it, and I am not sure that is typical or if it is even related! At any rate I honestly can’t say I am thrilled about eating this way, in fact I would even say I have done a bit of grieving over it, but I am assuming that most people feel that way when they have to eliminate such a staple from their diet. If it weren’t for Seth, we would not be doing this. I very much miss wheat, most especially the bread I used to make from my freshly ground wheat. My grain mill now mainly hosts brown rice. I have learned to make the best of this though, and also hold on to hope that one day maybe we will be able to afford those expensive allergy treatments (we would like to have NAET) and once again be able to eat wheat. In the meantime, after reading that a blogging friend was recently diagnosed with celiac disease, I thought I would put together a post of what we have found that we like best in the gluten free food world.

Regarding our diet in general, it is very heavy in beans, which is good because they are high in fiber and getting enough fiber can become a bit of an issue when you eliminate wheat. Beans are also inexpensive which helps offset the cost of the gluten free foods. I especially love plain old black beans over quinoa with a bit of hot sauce for a simple dinner. We eat a lot of quinoa which I buy in bulk (here’s a great summer quinoa recipe) and white rice (yes white, I have a Liberian son!), although I mix in brown rice sometimes, which was our staple before Gabe joined our family. I bake with brown rice flour that I grind myself, combined with alternative flours such as tapioca and potato starch that I buy at a local international market (much cheaper than buying those at large chain stores.)

I want to point out that while we strive to eat locally and organically, I have resorted to ordering several gluten free foods on Amazon to make it affordable. By purchasing in bulk and signing up for their subscribe and save program I save a lot of money of foods that would otherwise be far more expensive. Our food expenses have really grown since going gluten free. I find it too difficult to feed a family of seven two different diets though. So with the exception of store bought wheat bread (until I can afford a second grain mill for wheat) and semolina pasta (on pasta nights I simply make two separate pots of noodles), we all eat gluten free.

Anyway, the main thing I wanted to do here is make a list. So here it is:

Gluten-Free Baking Classics
I abosolutely love this cookbook and have been happy with every recipe I have tried. I haven’t felt the need to purchase any other gluten free cookbooks because I find it easy to make most recipes gluten free, and the only niche I needed to fill cookbook wise was the baking one. I really like the flour blends that this cookbook calls for, and find them easy to make myself. The sandwich bread recipe relies heavily on millet flour which I grind myself, and I find that it gives a nice flavor to the bread as opposed to other brown rice flour heavy recipes. I have made cakes (there is an excellent lemon cake recipe), cookies, muffins, and even hot cross buns from recipes in this book and have been very pleased.

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients
There is a small but good gluten free section in this book. If you like their technique for making ahead and storing bread dough in the fridge and want a gluten free version, this book has that. I go through phases where I like to make bread this way.

Pamela’s Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix, 4-Pound Bags (Pack of 3)
While making our own flour blends is cheaper, this is a staple at our house because I don’t always have time and this mix eliminates lots of steps from gluten free recipes as it contains xantham gum, baking powder, and even salt I think. It has a really nice flavor and makes great pancakes, waffles, muffins, brownies, and other quick breads. We use Amazon’s subscribe and save program for our Pamela’s mix.

Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Whole Grain, Rolled Oats, 32-Ounce Bags (Pack of 4)
This is the cheapest gluten free oats option I have found, ordering through Amazon’s subscribe and save program in bulk.

Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix, 16-Ounce Bags (Pack of 4)
This is also my favorite easy pizza crust mix, also ordered on Amazon.

I do buy gluten free sandwich bread because Seth got hooked on it while I was out of town earlier this year, and I haven’t been able to replicate the sandwich bread qualities of this. We find that my homemade gluten free bread tastes great, but doesn’t hold up well for long and seems to absorb things like jam. I have a friend who orders Udi’s whole grain bread by the case from a local health food store. I think that it is pretty available if you ask around and you can save a little money buying it by the case and keeping it in the freezer. Here’s a link to the Udi’s website:

Udi’s gluten free whole grain bread

And finally, Schar pasta is my definite favorite gluten free pasta, although not their regular stuff, only the multigrain penne. I buy this at the supermarket.

If you have any good gluten free food tips or favorites please leave them in the comment section! Thanks guys! And thanks for all your super nice comments on my first day of school post. I am going to try to hang onto those good feelings as long as I can!

{ 0 comments }

My sister asked that I record here all the ways that our family celebrates Easter each year. We have a few things that are the same each year, and of course some things change year to year. Here’s a run down of some of the highlights of our Holy Week this year: Wednesday night we attended a musical production of The Tale of Three Trees put on by children from our parish school. Our children all enjoyed this, and it was short enough that even Beatrix was entertained well enough to be able to sit in one of the front rows and not cause too much trouble. On Good Friday we went to church for Stations of the Cross. I have a color 5 x 7 inch set of the fourteen stations laminated and carried those with us. During each station, my children took turns studying the picture while listening to the readers.

On Saturday we ate homemade hot cross buns (gluten free recipe from this super awesome cookbook) and drank tea, followed by coloring about five dozen blown out or boiled eggs. Inspired by Rechenka’s Eggs, My kids have used this kit the past few years to make Ukranian Easter eggs. To be honest, I don’t really get involved to see that they create fantastic works of art, I just provide them with the materials they need, turn them loose, and tell them that whatever they create is marvelous and beautiful.

Finally, on Saturday evening we read the Easter story in the Bible and made resurrection/Easter story cookies.

(en route to Mass-Keats hates getting his picture taken so I was trying to be sneaky. He noticed-hence the dirty look.)

On Sunday morning we of course attended Easter Mass, and let me just say that we were so prepared and on time this year (Easter Mass is a bit different in that so many people attend that we can’t meet at our church, but rather Mass is offered at our local Expo center and it is a little bit crazy.)

None of their shirts were tucked in, but I did iron them the night before (rather than the morning of-this is why we were on time.) The girls wore matching dresses that were a gift from my mom. I was so on top of things which is so not typical.

After Mass and lunch we had our traditional Easter egg hunt. I hid all the eggs that the kids had dyed on Saturday, in the woods next to our house. The boys are given a limit on how many eggs they can find so that Larkspur gets a fair chance.

It’s funny how much kids love to search for eggs. Larkspur will continue to hide eggs (she has a set of wooden ones) in the weeks to come, I’m sure.

Beatrix was napping during the main hunt, so when she woke up, the other children hid their eggs around the backyard for her to find.

As she placed each egg in her little basket she said, “done.”

After the egg hunt, it was time for our annual Easter scavenger hunt. We do the scavenger hunt in lieu of Easter baskets because our kids love it.

Beginning with an oral clue, our kids search for their gifts using written or picture clues that are located with each gift. The above clue was simply two signs indicating an American sycamore tree and an American holly tree. There is a certain area near our house that hosts both of those species of trees almost side by side and our kids figured out where to go quickly.

One of the rules of the scavenger hunt is that there is to be no running to each site in order to make sure that the slower kids don’t miss out on the clues and the fun. They have a hard time following that rule.

At the the last stop of the scavenger hunt, rather than a gift, there are homemade peanut butter cups and lemon cupcakes (cupcake recipe in the same cookbook as the hot cross buns). We don’t give any candy, so these are the big treat. This evening after all the “festivities” Jonny took all the kids to the river to play while I got caught up around the house.

We had a wonderful Holy Week, and a very blessed Easter. I hope you all did as well!

Peanut Butter Cups:

1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup peanut butter (we use natural)
3/4 cup cookie crumbs (we use crushed mi-del gluten free animal cookies, you could use graham crackers)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk
12 foil cupcake liners

Melt butter over low heat, add peanut butter, and sugar, stir until well combined. add cookie crumbs and stir.
Spoon about 2 Tbsp of p.b. mixture into each of the cupcake liners and place in freezer to harden.
Combine chocolate chips and milk in a saucepan and melt over low heat stirring frequently (or use your method of choice for melting chocolate here) until smooth.
Remove peanut butter cups from freezer (they should be firm by now) and spoon melted chocolate over each. Return to freezer to harden.
I keep these in the freezer until we are ready to eat them. They are great cold.
This recipe makes about a dozen cups, but I always double it because twelve isn’t enough!

{ 0 comments }