Waffles: I knew it wouldn't be this easy.

Oh my where to start... The Hodgson Mill Gluten Free Baking Mix DOES NOT make good waffles. In fact I feel sick. The search is still on, but I have some ideas. (Hodgson Mill does have a pancake/waffle mix but I'm going to move away from mixes.) The next waffle task:

http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2008/05/monday-mornings-are-for-waffles.html

But until I build up my arsenal of different flours I'm going to put this mission on hold.

The Hodgson Mill Gluten Free pasta is however very good! It's more expensive than all the others though so I don't see an advantage to it yet.

Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, I decided that today I would pick out the dessert I will make for next weekend for my birthday. Today I made both chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cake.

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Chip cookies
These were very easy to make, combine the mix with butter, eggs, and gf vanilla. They cook for 8-10 minutes and are done. They came out delicious and tasting just like normal chocolate chip cookies. The only issue is that when they first come out they are very flakey and difficult to get off the pan in one piece, but after they cool they stick together much better and are scrumptious.

Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Chip cookies
These also had only a few of the normal ingredients, butter eggs etc. They came out more cakey than cookie like though. Also, you could tell that they were gluten free, meaning that they had a different taste than normal chocolate chip cookies. They were okay, but not high on my list of baked goods.

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Devil's Food Cake Mix
I haven't had a slice yet, but have been picking at the pieces and it seems to taste like normal cake. The cake did not really rise like most do, so it ended up being to fairly thin circles of cake, but once I put one on top of the other it will be more like a single layer cake. The recipe called for butter, eggs, and water which compared to the other chocolate cake I have had is a very easy recipe. The ultimate test will be to see what the boy thinks of it, the last chocolate cake I made tasted different, not good or bad, just different and he didn't really like it because of that. So I am hoping that this one will fair better because it is no fun eating your birthday cake alone. :)

Gluten Free Pantry Decadent Chocolate Cake
This was the cake made at the boy's house for Easter, the website doesn't give the same ingredients so I am not exactly sure, but I do know that it called for yogurt and some other weird stuff which was odd and ended up making the cake more expensive. It had a different taste to it like stated above, but it did rise unlike the betty crocker cake. I am not exactly sure which cake wins in this fight, but for me I would choose Betty Crocker for being inexpensive and it's good taste.

So in summary, Betty Crocker wins! :) For me at least, you may have to try these yourselves and make your own decisions though. But the good news that comes out of this is that you can have those delicious desserts that you are used to and get the taste to be pretty close to what you are craving!

My breakfast today

I was thinking maybe it would be helpful to post ideas for yummy, simple gluten-free food. I'll start posting pictures at some point, I guess.

OK, so breakfast today was both yummy and easy. I chopped a sweet potato into about quarter inch pieces and sauteed it with some olive oil, salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin and a smidgen of cayenne pepper. Once the potatoes were soft, I moved them to the side of the pan and fried an egg over easy in the remainder of the spices and olive oil on the pan. When it was almost done I sliced a very thin slice of cheddar cheese on the potatoes to melt it. Put the egg on top, put it on a plate and then, because I am a glutton for punishment, I topped it with Sriracha hot sauce. Salsa would be just as good. Took me maybe 10 minutes in total.

Easy, peasey gluten-free breakfast.

Product Review: Ancient Harvest Quinoa Rotelle Pasta

This was delicious. I both oiled and salted the water when I cooked it. I paired it with a fresh tomato I'd taken the skin off of and smooshed, spinach from the farmer's market, a bit of Trader Joe's pasta sauce, feta cheese and spices. Delicious.

Darrell knew it was gluten-free pasta, but couldn't tell by the taste or texture. He really liked it. Success!

It's on sale at my Whole Foods right now 2 for $4. Well worth it. Glad I stopped there on my way back from the farmer's market!

Cati gave me these awesome awesome tips!

Letter from Cati F when she found out that we are also doing the no gluten jig! So awesomely helpful! Enjoy!!


This was my guiding light during the first few months:
http://www.amazon.com/Living-Gluten-Free-Dummies-Danna-Korn/dp/0471773832

Here's a good blog, she's also written a book on the subject and her and her chef husband are writing another one with better recipes.
http://www.glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/

Tinkyada rice pasta is fairly good (although a little chewy)
http://www.tinkyada.com/

My favorite pasta currently is Bionaturae it's from Italy so we know it's good ;)
http://www.bionaturae.com/gluten.html

I've had less luck with GF bread...most of them have such a strong flavor that it overwhelms everything else but I actually had a decent roll this past week from a bakery in Glastonbury . If your family is still in Tolland, tell them to take a drive down to:
http://www.deesonesmartcookie.com/

Betty Crocker actually just started a GF line and they're actually really good:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/gluten-free-baking-mixes

This is another local bakery out of CT, not as good as Dee's but there stuff is available in Stop and Shop in CT. I buy their gluten free crutons and smash them up for bread crumbs :)
http://www.aleias.com/

I live on Amy's GF frozen meals at work...or just when I'm super lazy. I love the Penne pasta, rice mac and cheese, enchiladas and veggie lasagna:
http://www.amyskitchen.com/products/search_results.php?form_glutenfree=1

last week the Advocate had a really good article on GF places in CT (sorry I know you're not out here but it will be good when you come visit!)
http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/dining/gluten-free-ct

Ok, I'll stop my little Gluten-free product seizure for now...more to come :)

Gluten-Free Deli Meat

Did you know that most deli meat has gluten in it? It's not one of the things that I would think would, but I'm learning there is no assuming in gluten-free eating.

There are two brands I know for sure do not have any gluten in their deli meat: Applegate Farms and Boars Head.

There may be others and some brands may have some items that are gluten-free, but Applegate Farms and Boars Head deli meat are all 100% gluten free.

Breakfast is the worst

Finding tasty breakfast's to eat gets very difficult. The cereals that I thought I could eat don't taste good at all. Oats are a no-no, they are usually made in places with other gluten products and there are still studies going on to determine whether oats actually affect people or not. Well unless it was the yogurt I was eating it in, oats do not work well with me. Maybe I should find some gf oats. Anyways, the most amazing thing I have found so far are Van's gf toaster waffles. The same brand also makes pancakes and does all different flavors of them. When you put a tiny bit of syrup on them they taste exactly the same as regular waffles, and they only take toaster time to cook! I used to eat two every morning, but I have been getting away with eating one, and being able to get more breakfasts out of the box. Gluten free stuff isn't the cheapest unfortunately. Although some of the big brands of stuff have sections on their websites for gf stuff. For example, cheetos and cheez doodles and stuff are gluten free which I found out by searching the frito lay website. It was exciting news when I found out! :)

But I don't have any gluten free pasta!

I came home tonight CRAVING some pasta with bacon and cheese.

After ignoring the craving and taking the dog to the park I couldn't put off making supper any longer. So I pulled out the rice cooker and threw in a serving of rice and a couple tablespoons of bacon bits (I got a huge bag of real bacon bits at costco a while ago. It's perfect to throw into things like this, or a side of vegetables or a scrambled egg, The best part is that I don't have to worry about cooking bacon before it goes bad!) then I loaded it with my aged cheeses!

It easily fixed my craving!

Special K is a no-no

Today I sadly learned that special K is a big no no... Today will be the last day I eat special K with strawberries. You might think wait aren't those corn flakes? Well yes, technically they are as the first ingredient is CORN, but the second is Whole grain wheat and the third? Wheat Gluten. Though obviously the presence of Whole grain wheat implies wheat gluten is there anyway.

This cereal now belongs to Dusty and I am jealous.. no more buying giant family size boxes at Costco!

New Task: Find real Corn flakes to put in my yogurt that happen to be gluten free!