Today I developed my own “get well soon smoothie” since i have been fighting a cold/sore throat for several days. This smoothie really helped me feel better, so I hope it helps you too!
Ingredients:
6-8 ice cubes
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 green banana
1/4 – 1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 tsp salt
a dash of cayenne pepper
Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until the ice is broken up and blended with the rest of the ingredients. You can start with the smaller number of ice cubes and the lesser amount of coconut milk if you want the smoothie thicker and then increase the amounts to thin it down if you desire.
Enjoy! and Get Well Soon!
This is the easiest cookie recipe you will ever find. It is not exactly inexpensive, but if you are crunched for time or resources, these are prefect. They taste amazing, and you can get whatever flavor you want! Provided you can find a gf cake mix in that flavor. 🙂
Ingredients:
1 gluten free cake mix of your choice
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup oil
Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease baking sheet.
Combine ingredients in a bowl.
Drop by spoonfuls into the baking sheet and slightly flatten with your fingers.
Bake 10-12 minutes.
Let cool a couple minutes, then remove from pan to finish cooling before serving.
Here are some variations posted by Just Love Mom.
or a hand full of dried cranberries and a hand full of slivered almonds.
Ingredients:
8 large potatoes, about 4.5 lbs – i didn’t peel mine, but you can if you want to
2 large onions, peeled & quartered
7-8 eggs
1/2 cup potato starch
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup parsley
4 tbsp canola oil
Preheat oven to 350. Pour 2 tbsp oil in the bottom of a 9×13 glass baking dish. Brush up the sides and set in oven for 5 minutes.
Using a food processor with a grater wheel, grate potatoes and onions together. This helps keep the potatoes white. Pour potato/onion mixture into a colander and squeeze out remaining liquid.
Beat eggs, potato starch, salt, black pepper, parsley, and 1 tbsp oil in a separate bowl. Add to potato/onion mixture and mix until thoroughly combined.
Remove the hot dish from the oven and pour mixture in. Sprinkle final tbsp oil over the top.
Bake on 350 for 1 hour, or until the top is golden brown.
Let cool at least 15 minutes before cutting into squares.
Note: This recipe can be made several hours ahead of time. It is easy to reheat and even tastes good cold! I like to make a pan of this and keep in in the fridge. Then in the morning, my husband and I will take out a portion, fry it in a skillet with eggs for breakfast. It’s super quick and easy since the hash-browns are already cooked!
Ingredients:
3lb apples
1 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch nutmeg
1 1/2 cups water
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1. Chop up apples in cubes by hand or in a food processor.
2. Add all ingredients to a pot. Bring to a boit over a high heat. Then cover and reduce to low heat. Simmer 20 minutes, or until the apples have softened.
3. Stir frequently. Add water if needed.
4. Mash with a potato masher or blend in the blender for a smoother consistency.
Makes about 8 servings.
These pancakes are mine and my husbands favorite Saturday morning breakfast. We eat them almost every week. They are delicious hot or cold, with or without syrup.
Ingredientes:
2 bananas, mashed
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon maple syrup
2 eggs
1 cup oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Beat together wet ingredients in a medium size bowl.
Add dry ingredients. Stir until dry ingredients are combined. Do not over-mix.
Let the batter sit 10 minutes.
Heat a skillet over medium-low heat with just enough oil to grease the bottom of the pan.
Once the pan is hot, drop about 1/4 cup batter in and flatten it out with a spoon. The batter will be too thick to spread out on it’s own.
When the edges of the pancakes are brown, carefully flip to the other side and cook until golden brown on both sides.
Adjust the heat as needed and add oil to the pan between batches.
Makes about 8 pancakes.
This recipe is taken from Cookie and Kate, with a few changes of my own.
This recipe is adapted from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef. And they are easy to make and taste simply amazing! You will definitely not want to share.
1 medium onion, very thinly sliced
4 teaspoons garlic salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup tapioca starch (or potato starch)
1/4 cup oat flour (or rice flour)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon paprika
2-3 cups vegetable oil for frying
Toss sliced onions, garlic salt, and pepper in a large bowl to completely coat the onions in seasonings. Pour the buttermilk over it all. Make sure the onions are submerged. Let this sit for 2 hours.
Combine the starches, flour, garlic salt and paprika.
Dredge the buttermilk-soaked onions in the flour, flipping them over and over to make sure that everything is coated. Shake off the excess and lay these on a plate.
Set a deep pot on medium-high heat. Pour in the canola oil and let it heat up to a rolling boil.
Drop the onion rings in a few at a time, turning to brown all over. When they are nice golden brown, take them out and let them drain on paper towels.
Yield: 2 servings
This muffin recipe is a huge favorite. Mostly because it is so versatile. The core recipe is so basic that any number of things can be added to make almost any muffin you wish.
Main ingredients:
2/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups flour blend*
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted, or applesauce
1. Grease your muffin pan, or line with paper baking cups.
This recipe makes about 12 standard size muffins.
Note: I do not preheat my oven at the point, I will explain why later.
2. Combine: milk & cider vinegar in a small bowl. Let stand about 10 minutes.
You can use pretty much any type of milk you wish; rice, almond, buttermilk, etc.
If you decide to use buttermilk, add a teaspoon of baking soda to the dry ingredients mixture.
3. Combine: flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, & salt in a medium bowl.
4. Add milk mixture, egg, vanilla, & butter to the flour mixture. Stir until just moistened. Batter should look thick but not lumpy.
5. Let stand 10-15 minutes.
In my experience, the end result is better when the mixture has been allowed to stand before going into the oven. The flours and starches seem to combine better and make a fluffier, less crumbly result.
6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. While the oven is preheating, fill each muffin cup about half full with batter.
8. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top.
9. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly brown.
10. Remove muffins from pan to cool completely.
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OK. That’s the basics. Here are the options that I have come up with so far.
Surprise muffins: Spoon about 1 tablespoon batter into each muffin cup. Drop 1 teaspoon of jam, jelly, or preserves into the center of the batter in each cup. Top with the remaining batter.
Blueberry muffins: Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries to the dry ingredients mixture. Don’t use cinnamon in this recipe. Sprinkle the tops with plain sugar.
I don’t know about you, but my budget is tight. And gluten-free flours and ingredients are usually quite pricy! When I first went gluten-free, I was very intimidated, by the complexity of gluten-free baking and also by the prices! I thought I would never eat bread, cakes, cookies, or any other baked goods ever again. Thankfully, I had an awesome grandma who provided my first flours and baking mixes so I could start experimenting, but I was still skeptical. Now that I’m married and have my own kitchen and a husband to feed, I was determined to figure out this gluten-free baking thing and not break the bank. So, instead of sticking to a specific flour blend and other ‘must-have’ items, I will do my best to show you how you can cook and bake gluten-free with whatever is in your cupboard.
There are a few things that I always try to keep stocked in my cupboard.
- flour – right now i have oat flour. This is, actually, my favorite type of gf flour. It has a smoother texture and mimics a whole wheat flavor. I have also used brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, sorghum flour, almond flour and several gf flour mixes (which i will talk more about later).
- starch – right now i have corn starch. I actually prefer tapioca starch(or flour) because it helps baked goods to be light and fluffy instead of the dense and gritty gf baked goods tend to be known for. I have also used potato starch.
- baking soda
- baking powder
- apple cider vinegar
- honey
- mashed potato flakes (for yeast breads)
- yeast
You probably noticed that xanthan gum is not on my list. I don’t typically use it anymore. When I first started baking gluten-free, I did. Everything that I made came out with a slightly gritty texture. I didn’t like that. So I started trying different flours and starches to get rid of that texture, but nothing seemed to work until i finally left out the xanthan gum. That was it! Now, when I use a recipe that calls for xanthan gum, I just leave it out. I don’t substitute anything or add anything; I just leave it out. So far, it seems to work just fine!
The exception is baking mixes. Since almost all of them include xanthan gum, I don’t like to rely heavily on them. That’s the main reason. I’ve also found that some of the combinations don’t always taste that good in everything or the texture is off. But, that being said, I do find them helpful, especially when I’m in a hurry or don’t have the money to buy a bunch of flours and starches.
Here are the ones I have used:
- Hodgson Mill Multi-purpose Baking Mix – very inexpensive, great texture and flavor. This is my favorite gf mix to use. It contains xanthan gum.
- Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour – fairly pricy, and it has two types of bean flour that add a strange flavor to everything. Makes great tasting flour tortillas, tho! And I was able to make brownies with it, because the cocoa covered up the bean flavor. It does not contain xanthan gum.
- 1-2-3 Gluten Free, Inc. Olivia’s Outstanding Multi-Purpose Flour Mix – inexpensive, great texture, awesome flavor. I have used it to make muffins. Amazing. It contains xanthan gum.
- Maple Grove Farms Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Mix – inexpensive, but not my favorite… contains xanthan gum.
- Pamela’s Products Gluten-Free Baking and Pancake Mix – a little more expensive than I would typically pay, but this mix makes the BEST pancakes you will ever eat! Totally worth it if you still haven’t settled on a pancake recipe from scratch. It does contain xanthan gum.
Speaking of recipes, something that I have found helpful are cookbooks. There are two that I like, in particular, for gf baking: You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free by Robyn Ryberg and 3 in 1 Gluten-Free Cookbook by the Editors of Favorite Brand Name. I do need to put out a disclaimer . . . although I do love my cookbooks, I use them more like a guideline. Of course, I always use whatever happens to be in my cupboard, and I usually fudge things to get the taste or texture that I think would be best. So, this blog is kind of my challenge to myself to keep track of the changes I make and how I do things, in order to record the actual recipe that I make for you! I will give you the original recipe and where I got it from; and then explain what changes I made and why I made them (if I have a reason…)!
Please comment with questions or thoughts or your stories on how the recipes turned out for you! I’m always looking for new variations or ideas! And thanks for letting me share my journey with you!
