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.

Chili and Cornbread {Gluten Free}

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... everywhere is snow! When it's chilly outside, our family loves to eat chili. We recently served chili at our church, and there were no complaints. This chili appeals to the masses with its milder flavor.

Chili Ingredients:

plain chili, before anything else is added

1 pound ground beef
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 (14 ounces) cans of diced tomatoes-- if, early in fall, we have any garden tomatoes on hand, we peel 'em and cut 'em and throw 'em in the pot.
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon coriander
1 cup tomato juice
1 Tablespoon honey
1 (16 ounces) can of navy or Great Northern Beans

From Drab to Doily

All credit goes to my creative mother on this one. I am merely the messenger telling you what she did for this easy, DIY furniture refashion.

I do not have a picture of the original, bare wood bookshelf, so you will have to imagine it. It  was a very reddish stain, and it did not go with anything. The first step in the bookshelf's transformation was a black bath. It looked so much better painted black, but it was rather plain. My mom decided to dress it up with some doily designs.
She repainted the top of the bookshelf tan, as well as the very top of the sides. ("Sauteed mushroom" is the official name of the color, in Lowe's Valspar latex enamel interior/exterior paint) and it's the same as the neighboring walls. She also bought paper doilies from Wal-Mart and used them like stencils. Sticking them in place with tightwad's double-stick tape-- single-sided masking tape rolled into a double-stick loop-- she eyeballed the placement of the doilies. On each end of the bookcase half a doily hung over the edge. The other half, of course, was on the horizontal top surface.
Next, using a foam paint brush, she painted around the doily edge, and in all the little holes.

 

The paper plate you see in the picture is where she kept her paint. This was one of those on-a-whim late night projects, so I am excited that I have all these pictures of the process. Most, if not all, of the 'during' pictures were taken by my talented sister. Can you tell she loves close-ups?

Pinterest

I created a Pinterest for this blog, but I'm technically challenged, so bear with me while I try to set up a "Follow me on Pinterest" button to link you to my boards. Simply searching Left and Write on Pinterest brings up too many results which are not me. Try this link: http://www.pinterest.com/source/writingleftandwrite.blogspot.com/

The Outback Steakhouse: Restaurant Review

First of all, The Outback Steakhouse did not pay me to review their restaurant. Several days ago I went there of my own free will and curiosity.

I knew from looking it up online that The Outback has a gluten-free menu. If you want you can take a look at it here. At the restaurant, I requested and received the gluten-free menu without any hiccups. The menu has most of the items that are on the regular menu, with details about what is and is not gluten-free. Next to the salads, it advises, "ask for no croutons." The Outback does not offer gluten-free bread or buns, so if you want a burger, ask for no bun. The main dish I ordered was also on the regular menu, and by default came with Aussie fries. The gluten-free menu alerted me that Aussie fries are not gluten free. I am not sure if the fries themselves have gluten, or if the fries are fried in the same oil as battered-and-fried foods. Either way, I opted for a different side. When I ordered, the waitress asked, "Are you the gluten-free one?" I said yes, and she made some note on her paper. I suspect that cook took some precautions with my food. See if you can guess what I ordered from the picture:

Carrot Cake {Gluten Free}

September is always busy, but every year I seem to forget that fact, and am surprised how quickly it passes. The 15th was my grandpa’s 80^th birthday, but it’s the first day of October as I am finally posting about it! We celebrated with extended family and gluten-free cakes.

I was surprised the carrot cake was more of a hit than the chocolate cake.

We found the recipe on Elana’s Pantry, a paleo blog. (For some of you who don’t know what the paleo diet is, it excludes all grains, so it is even more restrictive than eating gluten-free. Many of Elana’s recipes are almond-flour or coconut-flour based, rather than using rice flour.)

We followed the carrot cake recipe to the letter. Not. I’m always giving my mom a hard time for modifying recipes before she even tries them.

Crunchy-edged Crepes {Gluten Free}

My mom made these for my birthday. Today is my birthday. It does not seem real. It takes me about ten months to get used to my age and then two months later I have to start all over again.

But about the crepes. 

They are crunchy around the edges but soft and spongy on the inside.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk**

2 eggs

 ½ teaspoon vanilla

2 Tablespoons melted butter

1 ½ cups Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix

Multi-name, Multi-fame Pancakes {Gluten Free}

As the title implies, this recipe has many names. It's fame has been passed around in my family. Many times I have heard the story of my late Great-grandmother,"Grandma Willow," making silver-dollar size pancakes for her grandsons Mark and Tim. Those boys are now my Uncles and proud grandparents in their own right. I have a fifty-fifty chance of remembering correctly which one would win those pancake eating contests. I do know for sure the recipe I am going to share is an adaptation of Uncle Tim's pancake recipe.
So why not call it Tim's pancake recipe? My dad acquired this dish, and tweaked it, adding more eggs, among other things. The most recent adjustment made it gluten free. Another name for this recipe could also be buttermilk blueberry pancakes. These are not flat, flavorless pancakes. They are hearty, stick-to your-ribs oat pancakes.
Call these pancakes whatever you want, except late for breakfast!
Directions: Mix together

1 ½ cups rolled oats

2 cups buttermilk

Beat in ½ cup Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix *be sure there are no lumps*

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

4 eggs, beaten

2 bananas, mashed

 Fry up on the griddle. 
Yield: Approximately 25. It depends on how large you make the pancakes. My dad's pancakes are more typical in size, not like the silver dollar ones my Great-grandma cooked up so long ago.

Another funny tradition we had, which

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing

I am going to switch from the chronological narrative of my last post in order to discuss the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, or BEP for short.  Their ticket system is not logical, nor is it explained on their website.  It has government planning written all over it! I will spare you our confusing story, and stick to the fundamental facts.

D.C. Gluten Free

The primary focuses of this blog are eating gluten free, and writing, so I am going to combine the two and write about how I ate gluten free in Washington, D.C. I am also going to cover sights we saw, and things I wish I knew beforehand, and generally compile helpful tidbits from books, guides, maps, and websites I used.

We traveled to D.C. on Sunday, and got in to our hotel late in the evening. We stayed in Alexandria, Virginia (not to be confused with Arlington, VA, which is just to the north of Alexandria.)

On Monday, we took advantage of the free shuttle to the Van Dorn Street Metro. Several nearby hotels offer this service to their patrons.

Fried Rice {Gluten Free}

I realize I have been posting mostly dessert recipes, so I am going to post a main dish today. When my mom was describing this meal to someone, she called it “A marriage between Indian and Chinese rice.” The American melting pot would be more accurate! The seasonings are loosely based on Indian Biryani rice, but the dish is not spicy. At all. I have had rice at an actual Indian-family-from-India’s house, and they said they toned down the spices, but my mouth was still burning! There are also fried eggs mixed in this recipe, which is a Chinese thing. We generally refer to it as fried rice. 

Ingredients

1 ½ cups rice

3 cups water

1 carrot

1 teaspoon salt

~1 cup raisins

~2 cups cooked chicken

1-2 beaten eggs

coconut oil

~1 cup frozen peas.

1 teaspoon coriander 

1 teaspoon turmeric

 ½ teaspoon chili powder

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

Directions

Measure 1 ½ cups rice and 3 cups water into a pan, and bring to a boil. 

While it is heating up, peel and slice a carrot. Once the pot is boiling, add the carrot, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. 

If you don’t have any leftover cooked chicken you can pull out of the fridge, now would be a good time to start cooking some chicken to serve with the rice. For our family of six, we need at least 2 cups. 

When the rice is almost done, fry one or 2 beaten eggs with coconut oil in a large fry pan, and add ~1

Blueberry Muffins {Gluten Free}

In case you hadn’t noticed, I have a thing for muffins. They are less messy because they are conveniently wrapped in their own personal muffin cup. I can grab one to go faster than, say, banana bread, because I don’t have to slice it, or get a napkin. Plus, I just feel that they are healthier.  This particular recipe is sugar-free, dairy-free, and packs some protein from almond flour, coconut flour, and eggs. (See the more detailed breakdown below) Here’s the blueberry muffin recipe:

Combine Dry Ingredients:

1 cup Pamela’s Artesian Flour Blend

1 cup almond four

½ cup coconut flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon baking soda

Mix wet ingredients:

6 eggs

½ cup honey

¾ teaspoons vanilla

1 ripe banana 

Natural Mosquito Repellent

I love the internet, but I hate it.  As Abraham Lincoln so wisely pointed out, “The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity.”

But seriously, we found this natural mosquito repellent recipe somewhere on the internet, and now I do not know which website it is originally from because this picture (left) and recipe are on

Mosquitoes and Wasps and Bites, Oh My!

The word “mosquitoes” brings other words to mind. Bugs. Blood-suckers. Real-life vampires. Disease-carriers. But for most of us in first-world countries, they’re just annoying. Itchy. Stop! Don’t scratch your

Banana Bread Brownies or Bars {Gluten Free}

These are delightfully moist due to the bananas and sour cream. We actually found this recipe on Facebook (looks like that content is not available anymore) but we had to modify it to make it gluten free, like almost everything, and we reduced the sugar. (While you’re at it, like my page, Left and Write.)

Wet Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream

½ cup butter, softened

 2 eggs

1 ¾ cups or 4 very ripe bananas, mashed

2 teaspoons vanilla extract