Some of My Favorite Gluten Free Breads

I've tried a lot of gluten free breads, some of which crumbled and others of which resembled cardboard, but found a few I like. My favorite store-bought bread is Canyon Bakehouse's Cinnamon Raisin bread, followed by their other flavors like seven grain, which you can sometimes find at Meijer. 2021 UPDATE: several years later and I'm still loving Canyon Bakehouse! (Udi's is OK. Past non-favorites include Rudi's and Food for Life brand bread... if you need a way to use up some dry, unappetizing bread, check out this recipe for French Toast Strata, aka Breakfast Casserole or this recipe for speedy stuffing.)

Find Me Gluten Free

Today what I'd like to share with you isn't a recipe but it still has to do with food.

Have you ever wanted to have a fast and easy way of finding gluten free restaurants in your area without playing a guessing game and Googling "Is [restaurant] gluten free?" Or "[Food place] gluten-free menu"? Some places have gluten free menus, but they don't make them easy to find on their website. Or they have a gf menu that is overpriced and not that great *cough* Garden Olive *backwards*. Enter Find Me Gluten Free (http://www.findmeglutenfree.com/)

(I snagged their logo from their home page)

The Simplest Recipe Ever {Gluten Free, Allergy Friendly}

I wish I could say I came up with this, or even tell you who did. I have heard of this recipe both by word of mouth and on the internet, but never with a source. (Darn Pinterest! After some digging, I think this is from Oh Snap! Let's Eat!)

This recipe is the simplest ever because it has only two ingredients, and no measuring.  The only other thing I can think of with few ingredients and minimal measuring might be a frozen banana smoothie. The consistency of a blended frozen banana is like soft-serve ice cream, by the way. If you like recipes that don't require measuring things, these DIY 3 Ingredient Mint Chocolate Covered Pretzels are for you. But back to the simplest recipe ever. Here are the ingredients:

Image likely from Oh Snap! Let's Eat!, via Pinterest

Crepes for tortillas

Recently, I'd had enough with round store-bought place-mats marketed as gluten free tortillas. So maybe they are not that bad, but I have braces right now and I can't chew cardboard. My mom suggested I try using some homemade gluten-free crepes for tortillas. If you Google "tortilla crepes" you'll find that tortillas are often used as dessert crepes, but I reversed that substitution, using crepes as tortillas.

The first time I tried it, the crepes were soft and bendable, but oddly sweet. Omitting the vanilla in the crepes fixed the flavor. These crepes are more oily that typical tortillas due to the coconut oil they are cooked in, but I'm not complaining. They are bendable, but I'm not gonna lie, they do sometimes crack because they are so soft, not because they are brittle.

Oat Baguette Bread {Gluten Free, Allergy Friendly}

I found this recipe for soft and chewy oat baguette bread on Stephanie's Hope For Healing blog. My mom modified it (surprise, surprise) but this time it was not to reduce the sugar, or make it gluten-free because all of Stephanie's recipes are gf, dairy free, soy free, and refined sugar free "as much as possible" according to her bio. Instead, we had to change the recipe because we could not find psyllium husk powder. What is psyllium husk powder? It is the husk of the psyllium ground into powder, silly. Actually, it makes a great thickener. My mom decided to try chia seeds instead.
We had never used chia seeds before, but we had heard them compared to flax seeds, and even used in the place of pectin in refrigerator jam! Generally, we use xanthan gum or potato starch for thickening.

chia seeds

Anyway, I'm sure you all want to know how to make this quick, non-rising, gluten free, dairy free, sugar free bread which does not have eggs, soy, nuts, or yeast either!

Gluten Free Buttermilk Waffles

I have wanted to share this protein-packed recipe for a while now, but my mom kept tweaking it. Her recipe is loosely based on Rice-Soy Waffles recipe found in The Gluten-Free Gourmet Revised Edition by Bette Hagman. (Rest assured the recipe no longer contains soy.) Do I recommend the book? Well, it's funny how I got it. When people found out I had to be gluten free, they gave me gf cookbooks, most of which I skim through and think interesting. But when I want a specific recipe for something, I usually turn to the internet, not the cupboard, for ideas.
Now I give you the tried and true formula for waffles.