More GF Shopping

Guess what folks!! Incase you haven't noticed on your own, Walmart has come on board the GF bandwagon!!  They have a tiny little section of Gluten Free foods.  The best part of it is their pasta!!  It is pretty inexpensive!!  (comparitively speaking!)  You can get spaghetti, penne, elbow and lasagne that I know of.   

In MY Walmart (in Nampa) it is located in the section with the specialty foods, like the Asian food.  Seems like a strange place, but I managed to find it!  So check it out!
Let me know if anyone finds any other places that are carrying stuff!  It's great that it is getting easier to find.

I also order from Azure Standard online.  If anyone is ever interested in ordering bulk, let me know. It's best to order together because you need to have minimums and we can share shipping.  They have pretty good prices. They have all the flours, plus pasta and plenty of other things.  You can go to their website, azurestandard.com and check it out. 

Happy shopping!!

Berry Cream Pie

Okay, start by making 2 fabulous GF pie crusts.

For the cream pie filling:
1 16 oz cool whip
8 oz pkg cream cheese (softened)
1 cup powdered sugar.
Beat together really well.

Line your baked pie crust with a thin layer of the cream.  Save most of it for the top though!

Add whatever berries you want.  You can do canned pie filling (cherry, blueberry, etc...)  but my favorite is to take frozen straweberries, raspberries or the mixed berries you get at costco.  The strawberries you have to cut up of course but the mixed berries are ready to go, just throw a little sugar on them (not too much) and  let them thaw out for awhile.    This is what I do.
Boil 1 cup sugar, 1 1/2 cups water and 1 Tbls of Cornstarch.  ( I add the cornstarch to my cold water before I boil it.  Bring it to a boil and it will thicken.  Then I pour it over my berries and add it to my pie! 
You will want to put the pie in the fridge to cool down for awhile before adding the rest of the cream to the top.  It will be easier to spread the cream.  But if you are in hurry then just layer it on!  It will be nice and colorful!!  I've done it both ways. Either way tastes delicious!

GF Pie Crust

I've never been much of a pie fan.  My mom always said she made the best pie crust around, and I guess comparitively speaking it was pretty good...for pie crust.  I could take it or leave it...I mostly left it!
Until now!  HOLD THE PHONE!  This pie crust is soooo good!  I actually like pie!! I actually MAKE pie!  And the real clencher - my husband likes it!  I have my friend, Felicia, to thank for this pie crust.  She found it, so I can't take credit.  But I will put it on my blog for all to enjoy!  It is fantastic!!

GF Pie Crust

3/4 C Brown Rice flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/3 cup butter (room temp is fine but not too soft)
1 tsp honey
2 Tbls cold water

Stir flour, salt and xanthan gum together really well. 
Cut in butter.  Add the honey and stir with a fork. 
Add the water a little at a time until a ball is formed. Don't mix it too much.
Roll out the dough between two sheets of wax paper (or aluminum foil)
Peel off one side then set the dough back down on the paper.
Flip it and peel the other side off.  Then flip it into your pan. It's easier to peel it before you put it in the pie plate! This is really flakey dough so just push it back together when it tears!
This makes a 9" pie.  Poke holes in the bottom with your fork and
bake @350 for 15 minutes or until brown.
Now go make a yummy pie!!  Tell me how it goes!

Pumpkin Bread

Okay, another of my favorites at the holidays is that amazing smell of Pumkin Bread!  MMMMM I can smell it now! Oh that's cuz I just made some!!  :)
I took my original gluten FULL recipe and lowered the sugar and the oil and made it gluten free and even better than before!!  It is amazing! (if I do say so myself!)

Okay, I better tell you first, this batch I make is a jumbo because that is how I have to bake for my family!  So you can 1/2 it if you want, or just make extra for your friends and neighbors!

Pumpkin Bread
1 large Can pumpkin (stick to Libby's, it really has the most flavor!)
1/2 C ground flax seed (you can get it at Costco now! also called Flax meal)
3/4 C oil
1 C applesauce
2 1/2 C sugar
5 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla (mexican vanilla is best!)
Mix that really well. Then add dry ingredients:
4 3/4 C gf flour mix.  (I usually use 1/2 brown rice mixture and 1/2 rice powder mixture, or use all brown rice mixture because the rice powder mix makes it too fine.)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbl each - ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves

This makes 3 large loaves or 6 medium. I got some disposable medium size pans at Walmart that I reuse. I also make muffins with them.

Bake @ 350 for about an hour.  The large loaves take an hour.  The smaller I start checking at 50 minutes, but remember it always takes things made with rice flour longer to cook than normal!  so don't worry!
muffins take about 15-20 minutes.  minis take about 12. ENJOY!

Holiday Baking!

It's the holidays!!  My favorite baking season!!  And let me tell you, you can make some AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS goodies for the holidays!  I've been looking for a minute or two to share some of my favorites with you!   But what to start with...hmmmm.  Well, at our house, when we went gluten free, we started in the month of April.  I was doing fine, learning to make some good treats and I really didn't miss very much.  But then, the holidays came! And with the holidays comes a tradition in our family....Dad's sugar cookies!  He makes them, bakes them, and decorates them.  Well, he lets the kids help, but he doesn't just frost them, he literally decorates them!  So not only are they delicious, but they are beautiful! And we aren't just talking at Christmas!  For the Super Bowl he makes helmets with both teams colors and names on them.  At Halloween, we get ghosts, cats, pumpkins.  At Thanksgiving we get Turkeys and Pilgrims.  And of course at Christmas we get everything Christmassy!!  Even stockings with our names on it!!  I thought I was going to die with the first batch!  So after feeling sorry for myself, I got to work!!  And now, Dad still makes his, but we also have Mom's sugar cookies!!  They may not be as beautiful (I'm not quite as patient as Scott!  That's why he decorates all the birthday cakes too!!) but they are delicious!!  So for nestagia's sake, I will start with sugar cookies! 

Here is a picture of Scott's that he just made to send to our son, Tyler, who is on a mission in Guatemala.

Mine are equally FANTASTICAL,  I believe!

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

3/4 C shortening (even tho I am NOT a fan of shortening, it makes a difference if you don't use it!)

3/4 C butter softened

2 C sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla (mexican vanilla being my favorite!!)

Mix well, then add dry ingredients

5 C gf baking flour made with the RICE POWDER!  very important!!  if you don't know what that is, refer to the post about the baking flours. 

1 Tbl xanthan gum

1 Tbl baking powder

2 tsp salt

Mix together well.  Dough should be sticky.  Refrigerate 1 hour then roll out and cut!

Bake @ 400,  6-8 min

We frost them with your basic powdered sugar frosting.

A little butter (like a tablespoon maybe), a little milk,  a swig of vanilla and enough powdered sugar to make it thick!   ENJOY!!



WHITE BREAD - making it a little healthier!

White Bread - a little healthier!!


Okay, this is my latest go with my white bread. I like to try new ways to make it more healthy but make sure it still works out well. This one is great! I've only changed 2 things. I'm using honey instead of sugar, and millet flour instead of extra tapioca flour. So here is the new recipe:

Gluten Free White Bread


In mixer put:

3 C GF flour mix

1/2 C millet flour

3 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum

1 1/2 tsp salt


Mix together quickly then add on top - DO NOT MIX IN

1 1/2 Tbs yeast

In a seperate bowl mix together

1 ¾ C warm water

¼ C oil

¼ C honey
1 tsp rice vinegar (i use white or apple cider vinegar)


Pour this mixture on top of yeast and let it sit for about 3 minutes or until the yeast gets bubbly

Then add 3 eggs and mix. Scrape the sides and mix on HIGH for 5 minutes.

You can make 2 smaller loaves (for this I use my glass loaf pans) or 1 larger loaf (for this I use my stone loaf pan). I just like to make the smaller loaves. I feel like my kids don't waste so much bread that way!!
Spray your pans with pam and divide the dough among the pans. Put in a warm oven (170) for 30 minutes to rise. Then don't touch the pans, but turn your oven to 375 and bake for 40 minutes. When its done take it from the pan immediately and cool on a rack. Rub the top with butter. Let it sit atleast 15 minutes before trying to cut into it!

If your bread sinks, then you aren't mixing it enough. My bosch is really powerful so it's getting mixed well! If you have another mixer you may just want to mix it a little longer.

Mexican Chicken over Rice

Oh my jeepers!  I made the BEST dinner!!  It's always a toss up when I try something new if anyone will eat it or not.  I never use a recipe, I usually just start throwing things together!  At my house I rarely venture from the mundane, everyday list of meals my family will eat!  But this day all started when my daughter wanted a can.  A can you say?  Yes, she was fixing up her locker (that we have out in the garage) for school and she needed this little can which happened to have green chilies in it.  So I told her to go ahead and open it and I would use it for dinner!!  PLUS - now this is the bonus - I have been putting zuchinni in EVERYMEAL for the last few weeks!!  No one knows and it's a great way to use it!!  I usually put it in my little food chopper and chop it up fine.  I stick it in hamburger, in my tuna noodle casserole (no joke!) and everything!! 
So this is what I did...(and EVERYONE loved it and ate every drop!!)

Start with a crock pot -
put in 4 or 5 chicken breasts (I have 9 kids at home eating plus Scott and I and that's what I use)
throw on the green chilies
chop up an onion, zuchinni, peppers (the last of the little sweet peppers I had in my bag) and throw that on top of the chicken.  Then I poured on a little salsa (homemade by my husband!!) and then put in enough water to almost cover it all.  I threw in 4 chicken bouillion cubes (gf ones I get at winco). 
I started it about 1:00 in the afternoon and it cooked all afternoon on high. 
Then right before dinner I made a roux.  I used about 1/2 a cube of butter.  But I accidentally burned it!  I was so bummed!!  But did you know that burnt butter doesn't taste burnt?  So guess what?  I actually used it!  I then put in about 1/2 cup of rice flour and stirred it for a couple of minutes.  Then you slowly add milk to make a roux as thick as you would like.  But then I added that to the sauce in the crock pot.  I took the chicken out to cut it up into little peices ( or shred it) and made the sauce then added it all together!  It was yummy!
I served it over rice with quinoa.  I put1 cup quinoa and 3 cups rice in my rice cooker.  I did just white rice.  It is so yummy with the quinoa.  cook it the same as you would regular rice!  It's great!!

It really was yummy (did I say that already?).  You can use it as the insides of chicken enchiladas too!  That was the plan but I ran out of time. 
Anyway, good stuff!  If you don't try it, atleast I now have it written down for posterity!!