Gluten Free [Cooking School]

I need your help!  I was perusing the gluten free cookbook section of Amazon last week and was dismayed to see how many of the cookbooks had negative feedback. Can you imagine how discouraging it must be to start a gluten free diet and have the first cookbook you buy turn out to be a dud?

Since this site is about learning to cook gluten free foods, I am going to write up a guide for good cookbooks for the gluten free diet. There’s no way that I can test all the gluten free cookbooks or even all of the regular cookbooks that have great naturally gluten free recipes. And that’s where I need your help.

If you’d like to help your fellow gluten-free eaters, please leave a comment listing your favorite cookbook for the gluten free diet. It doesn’t have to be a “gluten-free” cookbook, it just has to be one that works for you as you cook gluten free. After a few weeks, I’ll close the comments on this post and compile a list of your (my readers’) favorite cookbooks.

By the way, even if someone has already listed your favorite cookbook please leave a comment too. If a cookbook keeps appearing in the comments, then we’ll know that it is a good one!

P.S. I haven’t done a Monday Mommy brag in a while. Here’s David newest hiding place.

Dear Readers,

There are so many things that I should tell you about this gluten free Red Velvet Cake.  I should tell you about how I baked it this morning while wearing a wrap dress, floral apron, high heels and pearls and looked like I had stepped right out of the 1950s. I should tell you how much my co-workers enjoyed this third cake that I could not bring myself to eat even though it is so delicious. (I am sugared out!). I should tell you how tender, moist and perfect this cake was and how no one could tell that it was gluten free.  I should…but it’s 11:00 PM and it’s time for this gluten free cook to head to bed.  Enjoy the recipe, especially those of you who are planning on making it for your birthdays! Continue Reading »

Tags: cake, dessert

If you haven’t guessed by now, most gluten free bread recipes are a bit scarce in the nutrients we’re accustomed to seeing in wheat bread. One reason is that wheat breads are usually fortified with vitamins and minerals during the manufacturing process, and the other is that gluten free breads depend heavily on starch flours to achieve a (somewhat) normal taste and texture.

For years I assumed that there was no way around this, but recent requests from readers nudged me into a series of experiments with the Flat Bread that is ubiquitous in our household. Our usual Flat Bread recipe is based on the Gluten Free Wraps that Kate posted at Gluten Free Gobsmacked. I say “based” because John recently read the recipe, which we keep posted on the refrigerator, and realized that we don’t follow the instructions at all. Those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while will not be surprised that I completely skip the 40 minutes rise and the 30 minute cool down.

The Wrap recipe is delicious but the brown rice flour and corn starch are not high in fiber or iron, two of the measures that I’m most concerned with. I decided to reduce the brown rice flour and completely eliminate the tapioca starch. In it’s place I added Garbanzo/Fava Flour and Teff Flour, both of which are high in fiber, protein, and iron. And while I was at it, I made the recipe yeast-free and egg-free. Continue Reading »

Tags: bread, multi-grain

Have you ever wished there was someone you could call when your bread falls in the middle for the umpteenth time? Or maybe a friendly voice to offer encouragement and guidance during those first few gluten free months?

Starting later this summer, I will be offering Gluten Free Coaching (by phone). Until then I’d like to do a few practice runs to work out the kinks. If you’d like to be a guinea pig, send me an email (using the link at the bottom of the post with your desired time slot. Depending on the demand, I may have to draw straws to determine who gets the first round of open time slots. But, I’ll probably do another round of calls the following week and those who missed out will get first shot at the time slots for the second week.

How Does It Work
I’m still thinking through how this will work, but this is what I’d like to try for the first week:

1. You can sign up for a thirty minute time slot on June 16 or 18th at:
- 7:30 P.M. CST (June 16th slot taken)
- 8:15 P.M. CST (all slots taken)
- 9:00 P.M. CST (all slots taken)
- 9:45 P.M. CST (June 16th slot taken)

2. Make a list of questions that you’d like to ask or have a general idea of what you’d like to discuss. If you want you can email me the questions beforehand.

3. Be near a phone (I’ll get the number confidentially beforehand) so that I can call you at the appointed time.

4. We’ll talk about whatever you’d like for approximately 30 minutes.

Have you ever seen the pineapple mango salsa at Whole Foods? In the store near our house, it’s almost always out for sample in the produce aisle and we almost always make sure we stop for a bit. We never bought it, though, until I decided that I needed a treat before starting Eat to Live.

I grabbed it out of the bag as soon as I got home, called John into the kitchen and we eagerly dug in with our tortilla chips. Ten minutes later, we had finished the half cup of salsa off and were somewhat disappointed that $4.76 of salsa had gone that quickly. I decided that I needed to make this myself. Continue Reading »

Tags: fruit