Pages

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Gluten Free Basics

Store bought items:
Pamela's mixes are the best (breads, cakes, cookies, muffins, etc)
Glutino's pizza crust
Glutino's pretzels (are the bomb)
Udi's gluten free bread
Kinnikinnick buns (hot dog and hamburger)
Trader Joe's Gluten free spaghetti, penne and rotini
Trader Joe's brown rice tortillas
Cherrybrook Kitchen mixes are good
Chebe mixes are good (pizza dough is good, but has to be baked beforehand)

Eating out:
We've been doing this now for a few years and have found a few safe places to eat that everyone in our family can enjoy. Chinese food places and mexican food places and generally safe (just ask lots of questions and use substitutions if necessary, ie ask for a corn tortilla instead of a flour one)

PF Changs and Outback Steakhouse have gluten free menus
Olive Garden now has a gluten free pasta option
In and Out (Order your hamburger protein style and they wrap it in lettuce for you. Their fries are also gluten free (most places' fries are not))
Cookies From Home now has a line of cookies and brownies that are gluten free
Picazzo's (A pizza place) has a gluten free pizza crust and dessert (I think a cookie). You can also buy pizza dough from them.

Cookbooks and Recipes:
Most cookbooks are stupid because they say things like, "Use your favorite gluten free flour mix." That's not helpful. However my favorite gluten free flour mix happens to be equal parts tapioca starch, brown rice flour and sorghum flour. I use this mix when I'm changing a glutenful recipe and substituting. I find Sunflower has pretty good prices on these flours if you buy them from the bins and bag them yourself. Also, buying a wheat grinder or vitamix is helpful. We use our grinder to make our own brown rice flour all of the time. It's cheaper that way. You will need Xanthan Gum for all of your baking so just suck it up and buy it. Without it nothing has the right consistency.

I find I get most of my recipes on blogs and in a great magazine called Living Without. I highly recommend getting a subscription to that magazine. You can pick it up at Whole Foods or Sunflower to check it out before buying it. I also have a lot of luck with Vegetarian Magazines as most recipes are gluten free.

My favorite gluten free blogs are:
http://glutenfreetogether.blogspot.com (This is actually my friend's blog and she, myself and another girlfriend of mine share gluten free advice and recipes on it.)
http://www.elanaspantry.com/
http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/
http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/
http://www.thehealthycookingcoach.com/ (I've taken a class from this woman and have her dessert cookbook. Her stuff is delicious. She's local too and offers classes often.)

Here are links to my favorite, most used Gluten free recipes...
Brownies http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2007/05/brownies-gluten-free.html
Chocolate Chip Cookies http://gingerlemongirl.blogspot.com/2009/08/gluten-free-chocolate-chip-cookies.html
Gluten Free Bread http://iamglutenfree.blogspot.com/2006/04/homemade-gluten-free-bread.html

Ryan’s Favorite Gluten Free Pancake Mix (we adapted this ourselves from one of Becky's recipes)

1 C brown rice flour
3T tapioca flour
1/3 C potato starch
1T sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2t salt
½ t xanthan gum

Mix a large batch of dry ingredients and keep in a canister. When ready to make pancakes use:

1 C dry pancake mix
1 egg
1 ½ T oil
Milk until smooth

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the shopping list! And, yes, Glutino's pretzels are bomb. I have to hide them from my non-GF family. My mom always asks for some when she comes over.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do take issue with the tortillas, though. I don't think they're worth the trouble. I'd rather just do a corn tortilla, but that's me. I've been toying with the idea of making my own flour tortillas...

    ReplyDelete