The Completely GREEN Dinner. Pea and Basil Soup: gluten free and dairy free

We had a completely GREEN dinner that was first and formost quick, free of gluten, cows milk, eggs, soy, and vegetarian this evening and the kids were thrilled!

One of my most favorite things to cook with and eat is basil. Naturally, one of my favorite recipes is one by Giada De Laurentis that I link to below. It contains olive oil, onion, peas, chicken broth, cream (which I replace with almond or rice milk), salt and pepper. I replaced the butter with olive oil and pecorino romano instead of mozzerella. I mixed some pecorino in the soup as well as put it on top. It's like pesto soup really. It tastes very fresh, clean, and yummy. I've used dried peas and frozen peas with this recipe. I served it up with Asparagus with Shallots (see below).

All very healthy, and very green.

Pea and Basil Soup linked here.

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
I top the soup with Pecorino Romano, sheeps milk cheese.

Asparagus with Shallots

by Kendra Hubbell

Ingredients:

a bunch of asparagus

a shallot

olive oil

salt and pepper

Directions: 

Wash your asparagus. Cut your asparagus in little circles and cut up your shallot. Put some olive oil in a saute pan on your stove on medium - high heat. Add your shallot to the pan and cook a bit, then add in your asparagus and sautee until just slightly crispy still.

Today, my six year old son and I made my Pumpkin Muffins: Gluten, dairy, egg, soy, citrus and nut free. together. I read him the ingredients and he measured, poured, and mixed the ingredients together. He really did most of it himself. I am so proud. They turned out so good. This time we used Bob's All-purpose gluten free flour instead of what I usually use and they turned out great!



Mayonnaise: gluten free, dairy free, citrus free, vegan

Every Thursday is Grandma/Grandpa Day. After preschool both boys go to Grandma & Grandpa's house for lunch and play time. They have a very specific routine that they treasure. They play board games, build train track and they always have tuna sandwiches, fruit salad & hot cocoa for lunch.When faced with DS's new food limitations it seemed like tuna would be impossible. Did you know that most vegan mayo in stores contains lemon juice? That's fine for vegans, not fine for the citrus-sensitive. After some research and lots of taste tasting...and a screw up with rice milk...I came up with this recipe. Now Grandma and I both make it so the boys can have vegan citrus-free tuna sandwiches...on gluten-free/egg-free bread, with a side of organic hemp milk cocoa.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups safflower oil

1 cup plain soy milk (you must use a high protein milk for this...rice milk will not work. Coconut milk may.)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Directions:
Combine all ingredients except apple cider vinegar in a food processor until smooth. Slowly add vinegar until mixture thickens and emulsifies.

If you can eat citrus, replace the apple cider vinegar with lemon juice for a fresh flavor. 

Note: I tend to add a little bit more Dijon and salt to mine to get the flavor I like. Season to your liking. 

Newbie Frustration

Let me introduce myself...I'm the other BFF. I'm the newbie to gluten/egg/dairy free cooking.

We discovered last month that my oldest son is highly sensitive to wheat, gluten, rye, spelt, dairy, eggs, citrus and garlic. Am I forgetting one? I might be. I will just start by saying that so far I find this process extremely frustrating. We are a foodie family. I love cooking. I love mastering family recipes and creating new ones. I love finding a recipe that sounds irresistible, shopping for the ingredients, working magic in the kitchen and watching my family enjoy the end product. I love to cook with butter. I love to make savory cheesy dishes. Over the last year I have taught myself how to cook eggs in every way imaginable (perfectly scrambled, perfectly hard boiled, perfectly soft boiled, perfectly poached, etc.). Two months ago I finally found a pie crust that was simple, fun & easy...and made for a killer chicken pot pie.

My incredible, inspiring, funny and creative BFF has been there for me through thick and thin for almost 15 years. So I was not surprised at all to have her full support and enthusiasm when I called her about DS's new found food issues. She has started this blog to post her favorite tips and recipes...and she answers countless questions when I'm standing in the grocery store aisle or in my kitchen totally overwhelmed and confused.

Right now I just feel frustrated and annoyed. It is very discouraging to spend almost $5 on a bag of gluten-free flour to have a recipe completely fail. Or when I thought I'd buy some "mozzarella style shreds" so DS could feel like the rest of us on pizza night....only to discover none of us could stand the taste or texture.

But I am determined to keep trying, failing and succeeding. And hopefully, someday soon, cooking and baking will feel fun again. I'm starting small and making sure I open a bottle of wine or brew a pot of coffee before I start. My goal for now is to try at least one new recipe a week. My first was egg-free citrus-free mayonnaise. This week I tried a banana bread recipe and next week I think I'll tackle homemade bread...again. I'll update when I can about how things are going and how our family is adjusting to so many dietary changes.

I hope reading about my journey (challenges, successes and everything in between) will help you if you are just getting started.

Bon appetit!

Valentines Day Cupcakes and Heart Sugar Cookies: gluten free, egg free, dairy free, nut free

I can definately call Valentines Day a success! The Kindergarten class, with every allergy known to us, were able to enjoy a special treat. Check out the gluten, dairy, soy, nut, citrus free cupcakes and frosting that I made. I used Gluten Free Pantry's Chocolate Cake Mix simply because I found it on sale for $1 box and I couldn't make my regular recipe for that price. I used 3 tbsp apple sauce plus one tsp baking powder per egg, to replace each egg. I made frosting myself.

Frosting: Gluten, dairy, egg, soy free

Ingredients:

2 cups powdered sugar

2-3 tbsp earth balance

1 tbsp vanilla

1/4 cup of a liquid such as rice milk, coffee, lemon or orange juice (if citrus is tolerated), apple juice, or tea.

You can add food coloring if you wish. I recommend a natural coloring like India Tree Natural Coloring.

Directions:

Start with Earth Balance and vanilla in the mixer and combine. Add in powdered sugar. Then add the liquid as needed until you are at your desired consistency.

After a few failures, I figured out that putting the frosting into a baggie, cutting of a tip and pipping the frosting on the cupcake in a swirl and then dipping it into the various sprinkles did the trick and it did it quite nicely I must say! Take a look!

The Kindergarteners were so sweet, as I walked around refilling waters, many of them said, unprompted by their teacher, "Thank you so much, these are so good, or these are the best cupcakes ever." One of the parents thought I bought them at the store because I brought them in a plastic container. I went to the bakery at Safeway and asked to buy two of the cupcake containers. They sold them to me for .50 cents each. That sure make it easier to carry them to class.

I also made my gluten, dairy, soy, nut free sugar cookies, from a previous post, for a few of the students in my daughter's second grade class. She's dairy free and there were other with gluten and dairy issues.



They were the perfect texture. Many people said they tasted just like sugar cookies. Well, that's what they are!  I hope your Valentines Day was enjoyable!

Almonds, Almonds Everywhere! Almond Meal, Almond Flour, Almond Milk

BFF calls me today and says, "I found a gluten free recipe that called for almond meal on Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and I found Almond Meal at Trader Joes!" I hadn't seen that site before (I need to check it out further) but I HAD discovered almond meal, especially at Trader Joes. That's a good one to get.

Almond meal was one of the first flours I started to work with after finding out that Little D couldn't have gluten, almost a year ago. It is also one of my favorites as a "main flour". A post is to follow on my favorite flours and how I use them. Almonds are a great source of magnesium, vitamin E, monounsatuated fat, and fiber amond other things. If you or someone you cook and bake for has trouble with tree nuts, don't use almond flour. 

My mom actually is the one who told me about it. She is a total Vitamix Addict and was able to make her own flours among other things. Since then she was amazingly generous and bought me my very own Vitamix and I've joined her at Addict Status ever since I opened the box. Thanks Mom! xoxox

Almond flour is made by grounding up blanched almonds, or almonds without the skins. Almond meal and almond flour are great baking alternatives to wheat, if you aren't allergic or intollerant to nuts. I have to remember not to share my almond flour treats with those friend who have kids with nut allergies. I can't pack anything for my son at school that contains nuts or dairy because of kids with major allergies to those specific ingredients.

Almond meal can be made both with whole or blanched almonds and is more dense like cornmeal. To blanch almonds you basically put almonds in a bowl, pour boiling water over them, until they are covered,and let them sit for a minute or so. Then drain and peel off the almond skins. You can use this stuff in baking, and cooking. You can use it in cookies, breads, and even as a topping on casseroles and lasagna. Use it in place of bread crumbs when called for in a recipe.

Almond Milk is one of my most favorite substitutions for cows milk next to Rice Milk. Use rice milk, soy, or coconut if you or someone eating your food is allergic or intolerant to almonds or other nuts.

Here is a great website for recipes using the stuff that helped me get started:

You can use Almond Flour or Meal in most recipes that I post. When subsituting wheat flour for a gluten free flour in any recipe, say 2 1/2 cups flour, simply try replacing with the flour of your choice (such as almond flour), or make a mixture. For example: 1 1/2 cups almond flour, 1 cup tapioca flour. The one flour that I found is a bit more challenging is the Coconut flour. Bob's Redmill says, "You can replace up to 20% of the flour called for in a recipe with Coconut Flour, adding an equivalent amount of additional liquid to the recipe." Use more than that and it is dry as wood chips! Coconut Flour tends to soak up more of your liquid ingredients, which is why they say to add an equal amount of additional liquid to the recipe.

You will always need to add xanthan gum to any recipe where you aren't using a flour with gluten in it. It is recommended that you ad 1/2 tsp xanthan gum per cup of flour in your cakes, cookies or muffins and 1 tsp xanthan gum per cup of flour in your breads. I find I mostly go with the 1/2 tsp per cup in most everything.

Elanaspantry

Elana gives great information on how she uses Almond meal. I bought the brand she suggests on Amazon.com. She doesn't seem to get the same results using the Bob's Redmill Almond Flour. Elana also just came out with a gluten free cupcake cookbook: Gluten-Free Cupcakes: 50 Irresistible Recipes Made with Almond and Coconut Flour.  Check her out!

Pancakes: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Soy Free

I was just on the phone with my BFF who was saying that she saw a really promising looking gluten free pancake mix and wanted to buy one to make pancakes this weekend for the kids but didn't because it was $7.00 for a little bag! I thought I'd better get the recipe that I've been working on up here just in time for the weekend.

 

There are so many great gluten free mixes out there for things like pancakes, muffins, cakes and cookies. More and more continue to come on the market all the time. Bob's Redmill, Bisquick (just saw it for the first time at QFC),Pamela's, Cherrybrook, Gluten Free Pantry, Arrowheadmills, to name just a few. Seriously!
The problem is that they tend to be super pricey! We are using pretty basic ingredients here that we should have in the pantry anyway, if we are doing this type of baking.
I've tried the Pamela's and Cherrybrook. I liked the Cherrybrook lane mix the best. The Pamela's was great but I realized to late that it had buttermilk in it.

 

Pancakes are a tricky recipe to make gluten free, dairy free and egg free. I think the pancakes miss the eggs the most! I have been working so long on trying to perfect this recipe. I've had so many failures. This one isn't 100 percent yet but I want to post it so you can try it and give me some feedback. What worked, what didn't. I apologize for not having a picture. I'll make them this weekend and will post one. :-)

 

Here's what has worked best at this point for me.

 

Pancakes: gluten free, dairy free, eggs free, and soy free (revised)
by: Kendra (Mrs. Substitution)
2 1/3 cup Gluten Free Flour Mix: 2 cup GF Oat Flour plus 1/3 cup potato starch or tapioca flour. You can use your favorite All Purpose Gluten Free flour mix if you wish.
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp flax plus 3 tbsp warm water (or 3 tbsp apple sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp unrefined sugar or honey
1 1/2 cup Rice Milk (or soy, cow, almond, or coconut) mixed with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.
1 tbsp vanilla (or more, depending on how much you like vanilla.)
Earth Balance as needed for frying pan

Directions:
Mix your flour mixture in a large bowl and whisk with a wire whisk or sift to combine.
Add in baking powder, xanthan gum and salt to the dry flour ingredients.
In a small cup mix your flax and water and let it sit for a minute or two.
In your measuring cup add Rice milk plus apple cider vinegar and let sit for 1-3 minutes or so.
In another bowl or your mixer, Vitamix, or blender, add rice milk, flax and water mixture, sugar or honey, oil, and vanilla. Blend or Mix on high until well combined.
Add in flour a bit at a time and mix until well combined, 3-5 minutes usually does the trick. You don't need to worry about mixing the batter too long as you would when using wheat flour because you won't have any gluten build up. The batter should look runny, likw pancake batter.
Cook in a frying pan on medium to low heat, as you would regular pancakes. Use your canola cooking spray, or something like Earth Balance in bottom of the pan just for the first pancake. Pour about a 1/4 cup scoop of the batter in the pan. (optional: Sometimes at this point we put some chocolate chips on top.)

Once bubbles start to form at the top, check to see if your pancake is ready to flip. Once it's on the other side, cook until that side is cooked all the way through. Top with your favorite butter replacement, 100% maple syrup, or jelly. I like to put Sunflower butter on them and make them into a sandwich. Serve immediately or let cool and refrigerate for up to 4 days or freeze in a ziptop bag. You can thaw in the toaster, frying pan. Leftovers make a great quick breakfast during the week. :-)

Enjoy!

Farinata Bread at Café Piccolo in Seattle

My parents took us out to Café Piccolo for dinner so we could give their Farinata, bread made with chickpea or garbanzo bean flour, a try. It's always nice to find a restaurant where our non-intolerant, the dairy intolerant and gluten and egg intolerant family members can go out and eat together. They were super accommodating and their Farinata was good. I must say that my Dad's version is the best though!

What I liked was that they poured the Farinata mixture into a cookie sheet and baked it so it was flat and cut it into squares the size of sliced bread. They also use baking powder and baking soda. The more you use, the cakier texture the bread will have. The less you use, the more cracker, crust-like the texture will be. Little D, my gluten sensitive son, ordered the gluten free fettichini alfredo. It was "real" alfredo sauce (he can have cow milk, my daughter and I can't). The funny part was he said the he likes his Mimi's (grandmas) version better. She makes it with tofu, Parmesan, garlic and a few other things. The bummer is that he's off soy for right now.

Here's a sample of their gluten free options from their menu:

http://www.piccoloseattle.com/glutenfree.html

Bob's Redmill Gluten Free Homemade Wonderful Bread

When you are new to the whole gluten free thing and aren't quite ready to start making flour mixes yourself, you should check out Bob's Redmill Gluten Free Homemade Wonderful Bread mix. If you have been doing this a while and know how long it can take to make a loaf of bread from scratch, you may want to try this out too.

I have tried many other mixes of various brands that didn't seem to work as well as I expected. I myself have been mostly dairy free for over 15 years now so I knew how to substitute well for that. The whole experience of trying new mixes is what forced me to start figuring things out on my own, to start making my own flour mixtures. I look at the labels of what others are putting in their mixes to get ideas of what works. Different ratios of flours produce different results. The crust on this bread is yummy. I suspect it's the fava bean flour. I know, that sounds kind of funny, but you'd be amazed at the variety of flavors you can get from various flours. I'll post more on flour mixing eventually.

 

When I made Bob's Redmill Gluten Free Homemade Wonderful Bread mix. I used the "Baking Instructions By Hand". Here is the recipe on the bag. The text in red is what I did instead:

1 2/3 cups 110 degree Milk (cow, rice, or soy)

1 whole egg plus enough egg whites to make 3/4 cup. I used 2 tbsp flax meal with 6 tbsp warm water up to enough to make 3/4 cup. You could use any egg replacer method. (I'll post on that in the future too.)

1/4 cup melted butter or vegetable oil. I used 1/4 cup good quality olive oil.

1 tsp. Cider Vinegar.

I sprayed the pan with cooking spray.

I followed the instructions on the bag, first proofing the yeast by letting it sit in the warm rice milk for 5 minutes. I mixed everything in the mixer well, for three minutes. The longer you mix the better with gluten free baking.

I used my Pullman Loaf Pan to make this bread. It was super small at the bottom of the pan but rose very well as I let it sit in a warm spot for 40 minutes before putting into a 375 degree oven for 60-65 minutes. I did what they said and covered it with foil after 10 minutes so the loaf didn't burn.

Little D loved it! Even his sister, who is only dairy free. :-)

With Bob's Redmill Gluten Free Homemade Wonderful Bread I made Little D a salami and pecorino romano (sheeps milk) cheese sandwich for lunch yesterday.

Thank you Bob's Redmill! 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Sugar Cookies: Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Soy, and Nut Free

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! Being a parent means there are class Valentine Day parties to prepare for. When you are a parent of a child who can't have certain foods, you either make something special for them, instead of what the other kids are having, or you volunteer to make the treats for the class yourself. I seem to be doing that a lot these days along with many of my friends, which is how this post was born.

I got a call last night from a friend, urgently looking for a dairy free sugar cookie recipe. Her son is allergic to dairy, so she's making the class cookie. My BFF is also in need of a gluten, dairy egg, soy, nut and citrus free version. I quickly got out my husband's "The New Betty Crocker Cookbook" (yes, it's really his) and took a look at what that recipe looked like to give me a starting point. The recipe called for flour, butter, eggs, and milk, which I had to replace. From there I made several alterations, to every ingredient in the recipe, and this is what I came up with. Betty wouldn't even recognize it.

Sugar Cookies by Kendra Hubbell

No gluten, soy, eggs, dairy, or nuts.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp apple sauce (or other fruit puree) mixed with 1 tbsp baking powder. This replaces the egg.

1 cup Earth Balance (I used the Earth Balance Soy Free in the tub.)

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp vanilla

½ tsp almond extract (Optional)

3 cups Gluten Free All Purpous Baking Flour (I make my own with 1 1/2 cup Gluten Free Oat Flour, 1/2 cup Tapioca Flour, and 1 cup Potato Starch)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 ½ tsp xanthan gum

Granulated sugar (This is for sprinkling on top of the cookie before baking.)

  

Directions:

In your mixer, add apple sauce plus 1 tbsp baking powder and mix until combined. Allow this sit for a minute.

In another large bowl, combine your dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and xanthan gum. You can sift or mix with a whisk to combine.

Back to your mixer, add Earth Balance, powdered sugar, vanilla, almond extract (optional) and mix, creaming the ingredients until well combined, approximately 3 minutes. 

Add in flour, baking soda and cream of tartar and mix until well combined, about 3- 5 minutes.

Cover the dough and refrigerate at least 2 hours. After two hours was up, the dough seemed softer to me than I expected but it baked up great. This is why the 2 hours or longer in the fridge is very important to keep the dough cold. When I was ready to bake the dough, I was thinking that it looked too wet, so I tested it by baking two cookies. When you are baking gluten free, doughs will not look like what you are used to. They will be sticky and more wet than you would expect. 

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet.

Scoop out a chunk out of the dough with a big spoon and plop it on your rolling surface that has been "floured with powdered sugar and some of the flour you used. You may need to work some of the flour into the dough if it feels too sticky to work with. You will need to return the dough that you aren’t using into the fridge as it will melt quickly. Roll (I find the best success using a kids rolling pin) dough to ¼ inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with cookies cutters and place on a cookie sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper.

Sprinkle the cookies with granulated sugar even if decorating with icing or frosting.

Bake in 350 oven for 7 minutes. Cool on rack. Serve as is or decorate with icing or frosting and sprinkles.

Here are some options for decorating:

Icing:

Ingredients:

1-2 cup confectioners' sugar

1-2 tablespoon light corn syrup

2-4 tbsp water

Food coloring to desired color is achieved

Mix all ingredients together. You will need to re-mix in between uses so the consistency remains smooth.

Frosting:

Ingredients:

2 cups powdered sugar

4 tbsp earth balance

1 tbsp vanilla

1/4 cup of a liquid such as rice milk, coffee, lemon or orange juice (if citrus is tolerated), apple juice, or tea. If making a simple stiff vanilla frosting, you can add more Earth Balance and leave the liquid out or just use a bit of water until you reach the right consistency. 

Start with Earth Balance and vanilla in the mixer and combine. Add in powdered sugar until combined. Add liquid as needed until it reaches desired consistency. Cover in airtight container until use. I also store some in the freezer.

Enjoy!

Garbonzo Bean Flour Pizza Crust or Cecina (Farinata)

I have to thank my Mom and Dad for this recipe. They have been experimenting with this for quite some time now. Farinata (which literally means made of flour in Italian) is a thin, crisp, pizza-like pancake from Liguria, Italy. Variations are eaten in many different Mediterranean countries and beyond.

My Mom buys dried garbanzo beans in bulk and makes flour from them in the dry container for the Vitamix. They served it for our family Sunday Dinner last weekend and the kids loved it so much that they asked for it tonight. I finally gave it a try for myself  and he's how I did it. It was so simple and delicious! This dish provides a great meatless protein source as well.

Here's the picture of the one my Dad made on Sunday. It had sun dried tomatoes, crushed garlic, basil, pecorino romano, prosciutto, salt and pepper on top. :

I made two basil and tomato and one cheese only for tonight's dinner.

Ingredients: (Made three 10 inch pizzas!)

• 2 cups Garbonzo Bean Flour
• 2 cups water
• 2 tsp sea salt
• extra-virgin olive oil
• freshly-ground black pepper to taste
• (optional) Pecorino Romano

(If a more cake like texture is desired, you can add 1 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda. I've had it both ways and I think I like the more traditional, basic version.)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour and slowly add the water with a wooden spoon making sure to mix well. Add the salt. The mixture should be smooth and look just like the perfect pancake batter.
3. The trick is to let the mixture sit for an hour or so. You could even let it sit overnight. I put it in the fridge for 1 hour before cooking.
4. I used a round oven safe frying pan (metal handle). You can use any oven safe pan with boarders. Pour some olive oil into pan for the bottom of the pan, or use cooking spray. Add the mixture, as if you are pouring crepe batter into a pan, about 1/2 inch thick. You can sprinkle some Pecorino Romano on top if desired or leave it without.

5. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-30 minutes.
6. The crust is done when it pulls away from the sides and it looks fully cooked.
7. Add fresh ground pepper to the top and or Pecorino and enjoy as is or add toppings.
8. I removed the crust from the pan with a spatula and put it on a cookie sheet, added tomato sauce, Pecorino Romano, fresh basil and tomato slices and baked for 12 more minutes.

Enjoy!

What's In My Pantry and Icebox?

This should help with your shopping list.

Please check with your doctor. Always double check labels and know what you are supposed to avoid. Watch out for the "Gluten Free" products if you can't have dairy or other things. I find a lot of pre-packaged gluten free products have dairy in them therefore I can not have them.

 *

This is a list of items that I find helpful living with two cow milk free and a gluten, egg, soy free family member.

• Xanthan Gum (Essential ingredient in Gluten and wheat free baking.)
• Gluten Free Oat Flour
• Sweet Sorghum Flour
• Flax Meal
• Tapioca Flour or Potato Flour (tapioca and potato starch is the same thing).
• Garbanzo Bean Flour (You can also get dried beans and blend if you have a Vitamix or other powerful blender)
• Bob's Redmill Pizza Dough Mix
• Chocolate Chips (read label) "Enjoy Life" is an allergy free brand. I like Guittard but it has Soy Lecithin in it if you are avoiding soy. Soy was on Little "D"s list to avoid but soy lecithin is in everything. Some say that you can have soy lecithin with a soy allergy. Talk to you doctor.
• Organic sugar (I get it at Costco.) I personally have trouble stomaching Xylitol so I am choosing to bake with it.
• honey (preferably local to help with allergies)
• Spectrum Shortening
• BBQ Pirate Bootie (Read labels on the various flavors. I find all of us can only have the BBQ.)
• Enjoy Life Bars
• Lara Bars (contain nuts but gluten and dairy free)
• Rice Cakes
• Rice Crackers
• Quinoa Pasta
• Quinoa (use insead of rice and pasta in dishes)
• dried white beans, black beans, pinto beans, and lentils
• Rice
• Tinkyada Rice Pasta
• Gorilla Munch Cereal
• Gluten Free Steel Cut Oats
• Chex Cereal (The kids eat cereal for breakfast or snacks.)
• Braggs Aminos (Gluten Free Soy Sauce) Contains soy.
• Chicken Broth (Pacific Foods Organic)
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Molasses
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil and or Coconut Oil
• balsamic vinegar
• corn tortillas (It's hard to find good rice tortillas. They bake well but don't work in the microwave!)
• Almond,  (Blue Diamond),Rice, or Coconut Milk (So Delicious by Turtlemountain)
• Earth Balance, soy free
• Sunflower Butter (If you can't have peanuts or nut free school. I like Sunbutter brand.)
• hummus
• Polenta in a tube or from the bulk eisle.
• Pecorino Romano (Sheeps Milk Cheese)
• Goat Cheese
• Aidell's Chicken and Apple Smoked Sausage
• frozen or fresh fruit for smoothies.
• LOTS of fruits and vegetables. Think of those as the main part of the meal.

* I will post the recipe for the ginger radish cookies soon. We buy our groceries through Amazon Fresh and with our "Radish Status" got the gift of a radish cookie cutter. :-)

Sandwich Bread for Pullman Loaf Pan: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Soy Free

I make this bread once a week for my son. Having bread the correct size for his reusable sandwiche boxes for school lead me to the discovery of the Pullman Loaf Pan, which I bought off Amazon.com. This pan also has a lid that you can get to go with it to make a perfectly square bread. I don't use the lid since I like the top of my bread to be allowed to rise. The even greater part about this recipe is that my daughter actually loves it too, even though she can have wheat.

Allergy Friendly Sandwich Bread: No gluten, dairy, eggs, soy or nuts.

by: Kendra Hubbell

Ingredients:

• 2 cup Gluten Free Oat flour
• 2 cup millet flour  
• 1 cup tapioca starch
• 4 teaspoons xanthan gum
• 3 teaspoons sea salt
• 2 packets instant dry rapid yeast
• 2 1/2 cups warm water (at 110 - 111 degrees, using a thermometer .)
• 2 tablespoon flax meal added to 8 tablespoons warm water.
• 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 4 - 6 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

Directions:

 

1. In a bowl, mix all dry ingredients and sift. If you are feeling too lazy to sift, you can mix the ingredients using a wisk. I usually opt for the wisk.

2. In the Kitchenaid mixer (using paddle attachment) combine the flax meal and warm water for 3 minutes. Let sit for a bit to allow the mixture to thicken.

3. Add the honey, lemon juice (or vinegar), olive oil and mix until well combined, about 3 - 5 minutes. This creates an emolsion with the oil.

4. In a Pyrex measuring cup, heat water to 110 - 111 degrees. Once you've confirmed the water is 110-111, add the yeast in the cup. Stir and allow it to sit for 5 minutes.
Caution: If your water is too hot, you will kill the yeast. This can happen very easily and your bread will flop.

5. Back to the Kitchenaid mixer, I added a bit of the dry ingredients and a bit of the water and yeast combination, from the Pyrex cup, to the wet ingredients in the mixer, using the paddle attachment, a bit at a time until all ingredients were combined, for approximately 5 - 7 minutes in the mixer.

Here is what to expect the dough to look like. It doesn't look at all like bread dough made with wheat.

6. I then put the bread into a Pullman Bread pan, which is double the size of a standard bread pan, sprayed with canola oil non-stick spray. The dough will be very sticky and it will look like you don't have enough dough to accomidate the pan. Trust me, you do. I just smear the dough into the bottom of the pan with a kitchen scraper and cover it with plastic wrap.

Let it rise for 45 - 60 minutes (or more, until the bread is at the top of the pan) in the microwave or other warm place.

Reminder: don't turn the microwave on. ;-) I may occasionally take the bread out, re-heat the water in the Pyrex, then put the bread back in to rise some more.

7. Cut a few diagnal slits on top of the bread. Sprinkle a few sea salt flakes on top. 

8. Bake it in the oven on 350 degrees for 1 hour. Aften 10 - 15 minutes, you may want to add a tent of aluminum foil so the top doesn't burn.

9. The bread is done when you can tap on the top and it "feels" done. I'm having trouble explaining that one but you'll know what I mean. If you stick a toothpick in part of it, it should come out clean. Remove the bread immediately from the pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack for 20-30 minutes.

You can make this into Rosemary bread by adding 1 1/2 -2 cups fresh rosemary leaves when mixing your dough.

There you go, gluten free, dairy free, egg free, soy free sandwich bread! Sounds impossible, but clearly it's not.

 

Enjoy!