Yummy premade bread

My mom buys bread from Kinnikinnick that is pretty darn good. We made grilled "cheese" sandwiches with it, and we had toast. We really liked it. Most pre-made gluten free breads are super crumbly and gritty. This bread is chewy and not at all gritty. I'm going to have to find where I can buy it in Denver. I didn't get a picture of the bread because I didn't think about it until we had already eaten all of it!!!

Gluten Free Pantry muffins

This morning I made muffins for everyone. I used Gluten Free Pantry's muffin mix. I added fresh bluberries and orange zest. I made them with olive oil and soymilk. They were yummy!

Almond Cake a l'Orange

Tonight I tried another recipe from Gluten-Free French Deserts and Baked Goods by Valerie Cupillard. It turned out really well. We put a little apricot preserves on it, but I would like to have had orange marmalade. I couldn't find any at the store that didn't have corn syrup in it. I think it would be really good with it though.
1/3 C vegetable margarine
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C finely ground blanched almonds
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
3/4 C white rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp orange zest
Melt margarine. Stir in sugar, almonds, and vanilla. Mix in eggs, one at a time. Then mix in the flour, baking powder, and zest. Pour into an oiled bread pan and bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Raise the heat to 425. Bake for 13 more minutes.

scratch cookies!!! finally

I tried a recipe from Wheat-free Recipes & Menus by Carol Fenster tonight for chocolate chip cookies. These are the first scratch cookies I've made since going gluten-free. They were pretty darn good. I'm going to have to check this cookbook out. Someone gave me this recipe. I have eight children in my house tonight (four of which are mine and four of which aren't), and they have all eaten the cookies and asked for seconds and thirds. I'd say that's a "thumbs up." Trey liked them, too. This picture is of the second batch I cooked. The first batch looked better, but the kidlets ate them up before I could get a picture! I made these a little bigger, and they really should have been smaller. They were a little more gooey than the first ones.

Here's how I made them:
1 1/4 cups Bob's Red Mill all-purpose GF flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 extra large egg
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream shortening and sugar. Beat in vanilla and egg. Mix remaining dry ingredients together and beat into everything else. Now stir in chocolate chips. Drop cookies by tablespoonfuls onto greased pan and bake for 12 minutes.

Waffles, graham crackers, cookies, noodles and beer

Dinner was a little boring. I just cooked some potatoes, garbanzos, and frozen green beans with jarred dopiaza sauce and served it over basmati rice with turmeric. So, I thought I'd talk about some gluten free products that I've tried.

First, we tried Van's gluten free, vegan mini waffles. We were at Whole Foods, and my daughter saw them and asked if we could try them. I said sure. Yesterday morning, we all decided to have breakfast in bed and watch The Sound of Music. We put them in the toaster, put peanut butter on them, and enjoyed. They were pretty good. I think I'm going to use them for miniature pb & j's for the kids' bento lunches.

Outside the Breadbox is a gluten free baking company in Colorado Springs. They make gluten free, dairy free graham crackers that are really yummy. They're not as crumbly as regular graham crackers. They have a very similar taste though. I made a graham cracker crust with them once, and it turned out really good. It wasn't as light as a normal graham cracker crust - definitely heartier, but I liked the taste of it. My parents like these graham crackers, too. Actually, I just bought two packages of them to send them on Monday.

We went back to City O' City last night and bought pizzas to take to the drive in theater with us. This time, I bought us some cookies. The first picture is of a coconutty/chocolate cookie called a scout cookie that was really good. It was chewy and thick. All of the cookies were not only gluten free but vegan as well.

I bought a chocolate chip, lemon poppy seed, and sugar cookie. The chocolate chip cookies was kind of weird tasting. I liked the other two. Trey didn't really like the sugar cookie. The lemon poppy seed tasted good, but it fell apart really easily.

I have been trying to special order these noodles from Whole Foods, but apparently I have some bad noodle karma or something. Eden Selected Buckwheat Soba noodles are made from only buckwheat. Most soba noodles have buckwheat and wheat. I have this package of noodles that my parents sent me. I guess I'm going to have to take the package in to Whole Foods and show it to them, so they can order me the correct thing. I went by today - again - to get the noodles that I was told were there. They ordered the wrong thing! Gah. I really want to be mad at them, but darn it, they were so nice, and they gave me a $10 gift card for all my trouble. It just takes the steam out of my ranting. *sigh*

I have a recipe for buckwheat crepes that calls for beer. Beer has gluten in it, so I had to go online and find a gluten-free beer and where to buy it. Bard's Tale Beer is made from sorghum, so it's gluten free. I had to call six different liquor stores from the website to find one who had a valid phone number and knew what I was talking about. Trey went and got it for me. I'm not a big drinker, but now that I'm a part of team gluten free, I figured that I might as well "take one for the team." So, I popped one open, and it's not bad. It's a little sweeter than regular beer, but it tastes pretty good.

Whole Foods sucks/Tofutti rocks

Okay, Whole Foods doesn't completely suck, they have really friendly employees, but I'm really pissed at them. First, I special ordered a case of Eden Foods buckwheat soba noodles. They called me yesterday to tell me they were in. I stopped by tonight to pick them up, but they couldn't find them. I was at Whole Foods tonight for almost an hour. The chick who came to tell me that, "Sorry ma'am, but we can't find them" tells me that I should call when a manager is in and talk to him. Well, that won't really do me a whole lot of good because it was a manager who called me to tell me they were in! I asked her what exactly I needed to do to make sure someone would be able to find them the next time I came in because I wasn't too keen on making a special trip across town - again - with gas at $4 a gallon. Gah!

Second, Whole Foods has decided to stop carrying Tofutti "ice cream." What the heck?!?! There is exactly one - yes, that's right, ONE - type of vegan "ice cream" that is any good, and that would be Tofutti. There is exactly ONE vegan "ice cream" that is creamy, and that would be Tofutti. So, these buttheads decide to stop carrying it?!?! I am so angry. I left my name, and they are going to call me. I'm going to get everyone I know to call and complain and hopefully we can get them to carry the one and only good vegan "ice cream" again. They, of course, sell their own brand, which is as hard as a brick, but creamy Tofutti they stop carrying. Ridiculous.

Tonight we had "brinner," so nothing really to report. I took a picture of last night's dinner though to add to my "food porn" collection. Trey has really been missing hot dog buns. We've found one type of veggie hot dogs that are gluten free, but we've yet to find a good hot dog bun. When I was at Vitamin Cottage yesterday I saw that Outside the Breadbox makes a hot dog bun. I decided to buy a pack, so we could try them. As much as I would like to write a good review about them, I just can't. They didn't have a bad taste, but they were really hard and dry and fell apart as soon as I cut them open and put stuff in them. This deejay on the radio was talking about having a hot dog in a lettuce leaf. She was doing it because she was on a low carb diet, but it actually sounds like a good idea. I think I'll try that next time. I had my veggie dog with ketchup, mustard, dill relish (because sweet just sucks), sauerkraut, hot peppers, tomatoes, and celery salt. I also made french fries with cashew cheese, and giardineira.

Vegan, gluten free mac and cheese

Our dinner tonight was fabulous! We have finally figured out a gluten-free, vegan "mac and cheese." We bought Mrs. Leeper's gluten-free animal pasta, and then added a cashew "cheese" sauce. I got the base recipe from a fellow veggie blogger. Here's my version:
3 C raw cashews (rinse well)
1 1/4 C water
1/3 C lemon juice
2 tsp sea salt
1/2 C nutritional yeast
7 cloves of garlic
1 jar (4 oz) pimientos
Blend in high powered blender until smooth.
Mix the sauce in with the pasta. We put Rawmesan on top of it. We had steamed broccoli and green salad with it. The kids wanted us to have a "restaurant" tonight, so they served us, set the table, helped make the food, and even made us an appetizer. Beth Ann made the appetizer. I'm not sure how she came up with this, but she heats up two corn tortillas, spreads some vegan mayo, BBQ sauce, Tapatio, and Cholula on it.

She made a tortilla for Louis with vegan mayo on it. He loves it!

One of our servers!

I also made another yummy vinaigrette for lunch today.
1 tsp flax oil
3 tsp olive oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp fig vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp thyme
Shake and serve.

Veggie-Flax Burgers

Tonight's dinner was a big hit with the kiddos. I made sauteed chard with garlic and lemon juice, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, veggie burgers, and gluten free golden gravy. I wasn't very sure about the burgers when I was making them, but they tasted pretty good. My family really liked them though. Ray ate three of them! Trey said he definitely wanted me to make them again. Success! The original recipe came from Delicious Living. This version is doubled and slightly different but not much.
1 1/2 cans (8 oz) artichoke hearts packed in brine not oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 C chopped green onions
6 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
6 tbsp flax meal
4 tbsp raw tahini
lots of black pepper
1 C cooked rice (the original recipe called for brown rice, but when I went to cook that - I didn't have any brown rice. The basmati I had worked well though.)
Pulse in a food processor until well blended (I had to do mine in two batches because there was so much). Form patties and cook in a little oil. The heat needs to be fairly low because they need to cook a few minutes on each side. I used an ice cream scoop to make the patties, and they came out a good size.

My gravy has been a work in progress since we went gluten free. Everyone really liked tonight's version. It had Earth Balance, onion powder, garlic powder, "chicken" broth powder, soymilk, dried parsley, salt, a little chili powder, and brown rice flour. The thing about making gravy with brown rice flour is that it is a sweet flour. Adding the chili powder took care of the sweet taste though. Also, the rice flour takes a while to thicken up. You don't want to add more though because then it will get way too thick. You just have to be patient with it.

Summer Rolls and Gluten Free Pantry Brownies

Tonight's dinner was awesome! I love summer rolls although they are a little time consuming to make. They're worth it though. The whole family loves them. They're made with rice wrappers, and they are super healthy. I serve them with a mildly spicy peanut sauce. Here's how to make them:

First, get all your ingredients together. I cook up my own tofu. Most of the packaged baked tofu has some sort of gluten in it. It's healthier to make my own anyway. I drain and press the tofu then chop it up in strips. Cook it in olive oil and Bragg liquid aminos. Tonight we also had cucumber, carrot, red pepper, avocado, and mango. I also had lettuce leaves.

Soak the rice papers one at a time in a bowl of hot water. I put one in, and when it's softened take it out and put in a new one. When I take one out, I gently shake it to get the water off. The wetter they are, they less sticky they are. They need to be at least partly sticky to be able to wrap them.

Lay the soaked rice paper on a plate. Lay down a lettuce leaf and pile on what you want for the filling. Other ideas for filling are zucchini, green peppers, papaya, chopped peanuts, sprouts, etc.

After you've put all the filling in, wrap it up in the lettuce leaf, and then do a burrito wrap with the rice paper.

Here's our dinner: summer rolls, peanut sauce, and salad. It was yummy. For the peanut sauce I usually put peanut butter, warm water (I usually have to warm that together to get it to mix easier), lime juice, garlic powder, Bragg Liquid Aminos, and cayenne.

For desert, Trey and Beth Ann made Gluten Free Pantry Chocolate Truffle Brownie Mix. These are relatively easy to make. You just add eggs and margarine. They're definitely pretty gooey in the middle, but I prefer that to cakey brownies anyway. Cakey ones are icky! These are really tasty.

Coconut Cakes

I'm going to blog more in depth about a cookbook called Gluten-Free French Desserts and Baked Goods when I have more time. Let's just say that it is a fabulous book, and I highly recommend it. I made the Coconut Cakes out of it tonight. I made them once before and they were good, but they needed tweaking - mostly in the cooking times. My husband really liked them. They taste sort of like a macaroon. The picture of them isn't great, but trust me - they are good! Here's my version of them:
1 C grated coconut
2/3 C sugar
2 egg whites
1/3 C white rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
about 1/3 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 420. Mix coconut and sugar then mix in egg whites. Add flour and baking powder. Grease a muffin tin. Fill the muffin tins about 1/3 full and pat them down a little. Bake for ten minutes at 420. Lower heat to 390 and cook for 8 more minutes. Melt chocolate and dip half of each cake into the melted chocolate. Let cool and enjoy!!!

For dinner tonight we just had baked potatoes and a salad. The salad looked so pretty though I had to take a picture. I was a food nerd before, but blogging has sent me over the edge!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

One thing I have really missed since going gluten free is baking. I used to make everything from scratch, and now I have to completely relearn how to bake. I love this flourless chocolate cake. It is fabulous. It's moist and chocolaty and oh so yummy. Here's the recipe:
1 can of black beans, drained (the original recipe says you can use chickpeas, but I haven't tried that yet)
1/4 cup orange juice
4 eggs
3 ounces chocolate, melted (the original recipes says two ounces, but how could more chocolate be bad? Also, it says to use bittersweet, but I like it with bittersweet or milk chocolate.)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
powdered sugar, for garnish

Put beans and oj in food processor and process until smooth. Add eggs, pulsing after each one. Then add chocolate and pulse again. Add dry ingredients and pulse until just blended. Put in a prepared 8-inch round cake pan and bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool 15 minutes before taking out of pan. Dust with powdered sugar.

Glutino Frozen Pizza

I don't have a picture today because I can't find the attachment to my camera to download pictures! I had four extra kids at my house on Friday, so I decided to make them all pizza. Kids love pizza! I found a gluten free frozen pizza from Glutino at the health food store. It's pretty good. The crust is a little chewy, but it's not bad. I wasn't crazy about the sauce, but again, it's not bad. All in all - it was a pretty good experiment. It's something I would buy again. My husband finished it off tonight, and he liked it, too.

Mi-Del GF Arrowroot Cookies

One of my purposes with this blog is to talk about the different gluten-free products that we've tried. One product that we really like is from Mi-del. They make gluten-free Arrowroot cookies. They are animal shaped cookies, and my kids really like them, especially my youngest. I like them, too. They have a nice flavor, and they're nice and crunchy. Mi-del has quite a few gluten-free products, but this is the only one that we've tried. It gets a thumbs up from us.

Chip Chip Hooray!

Our local Vitamin Cottage has new gluten free frozen cookie dough in two flavors: Chip Chip Hooray! and Chocolate Minty Python. We put them in the oven this afternoon and cooked them for the recommended 20 minutes. They were a little crunchy. I think next time I wouldn't cook them over 18 minutes. I wasn't crazy about the Chocolate Minty Python and neither was my son. My youngest daughter liked them though. All of us liked the Chip Chip Hooray! flavor. I've posted a picture of them with a cold class of soymilk.

Organic Sunshine Burgers

I saw this yummy looking veggie burgers at Vitamin Cottage - Organic Sunshine Burgers, Southwest style. Unfortunately, they were not any good. It's too bad, too, because they are organic, vegan, soy free, and gluten free. Blech. I also have the BBQ style. I'm going to try them, but my hopes are not high. Why is it that Vitamin Cottage carries this crap, but not something yummy like Whole Soy or Tofutti ice cream! Oh well. I like homemade oat/pecan patties better anyway!

Outside the Breadbox

There is a gluten free bakery in Colorado Springs called Outside the Breadbox. They make several kinds of crackers, pies, pizza crusts, breads, and graham crackers. They're graham crackers are fabulous! They are larger and denser than regular graham crackers, but they taste really good. I sent a package to my mom and dad in Arkansas, and they love them, too. We've also tried the pizza crusts. They're about the size of personal pizzas. They're okay - very chewy. We tried the garfava bread, and I could do without it. It wasn't bad. Toasted with a little margarine it was okay. It reminded me of crumbly, white bread. Basically, it was a waste. There really wasn't any nutritional value to it, and it wasn't that good. The graham crackers are great though!

Mary's Gone Crackers

Well, I have to say, this gluten free thing can be a real pain in the butt! I bought some powdered probiotics, and when I got home and read the label closer, I found out one of the ingredients was barley grass. I searched the Internet, and apparently barley grass doesn't contain gluten like barley does, so that is good.

We tried Mary's Gone Crackers brand gluten free crackers, and they were so gross. We threw the box away we were eating, and I'm giving the other box I bought away.

We had a hit this morning though. We tried Lifestream, gluten free, buckwheat, wildberry, frozen waffles. They were really good. Dh even liked them, and he tends to get a little pissy with gluten free stuff. They kids loved them, too, even the baby. They are also vegan. We try not to rely on a lot of processed food, but it will be nice to have a box of these in the freezer for those morning when we're running late! Plus, I have not even begun to come close to mastering making gf waffles, and my family loves waffles. It's nice to have this option.