GF Tootsie Roll Recipe

Retro 2011

Gluten Free Club's Tootsie Roll Recipe

I know, there is no feasible reason to make tootsie rolls as they are gluten free. But around the holidays, who among us can be called totally rational?

http://www.glutenfreeclub.com/Recipe.aspx?nid=524&utm_nooverride=1

It's a great kids adventure and who knows but what handmade tootsie rolls would make your holiday absolutely, fantastically perfect.

Reality Bite: How could I be the one to deprive you of that?

GF Koolaid Playdough Recipe

last posted 11-12-11


It's science day and Young Mr. Darcey is building a 3D cell structure. That means playdough--GF playdough.

I've made this for years and really thought that I had already blogged it. SURPRISE, not on the blog--at least, I can't find it in the search bar.

I doubled the recipe, but the original goes like this:

2 cups rice flour

1 1/2 tsp. guar/xanthun gum

1 packet koolaid (unsweetened)

1/2 cup salt

3 Tablespoons oil (I used canola)

1 cup boiling water

We stirred and stirred and stirred and then dumped it on the countertop and kneaded, kneaded, kneaded and it came together beautifully.

Safe, squishy, and not delicious! Perfect.

When the project is done, I'll post it.

Incredible Hulk Soup

Easy In-A-Minute G-F Split Pea Soup

It's almost fall here in OK and the heat has lessened some.  SOUP CALLS and so does my sister who wants this recipe.  There you go KaReen.
______________________

I love split pea soup, but I want it NOW!  Delayed gratification works with food too and I want soup fast and easy.  Grinding grains in my flour mill or in my fav. Blendtec makes split pea soup quick.  Be careful and trade out your grain grinding so the beans won't burn up your machine.  2 cups beans then 2 cups of a gentler grain.

reposted from 3-17-08

Okay, so it's green!!! Really Green!!!! 







Ha! I Got It! The boys (who until lately, were of the opinion that green food should only be photographed, never eaten) loved it! They slurped it up first on Halloween, when I was hoping for something, at least one thing substantial in their bellies before the T or T and I had to whip up more.

Fortunately, that only took two minutes! TWO MINUTE SOUP that they love and isn't prefab? WOW!

2 cups water or chicken broth
3 Tbs. Green Split Pea powder (made by blending or grinding up split peas into a fine flour)
1 T. onion flakes
1 tsp. Lawry's seasoning salt (or some such brand)
1/4 cup Hormel's bacon (already cooked and flaked, I keep it in the freezer to toss in stuff)
1/4 cup heavy cream (or nondairy creamer)

Mix all dry ingredients (except split pea powder) with water and bring to a boil. Whisk in powder and allow to simmer for two minutes--add cream and serve.

DELICIOUS I'm not kidding!

Tips:  Make sure you have ground the peas thoroughly.  Shards of peas take forever to cook.

YUM!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Cross Country Car Food

reposted from 3-02-09

Over the past ten years, we have regularly traveled 1200 gluten-free miles, cross-country in a car with kids. Our last trip was #50 FIFTY!

As we are getting ready to go again, I've resurrected my lists from the depths of my files. I count five different ones. Either I can't ever find them in my file, or I often feel the need to reinvent the wheel.

Here is my consolidated list of travel foods that I pack or, in a pinch, purchase to minimize the mayhem as we travel.

I bake and pack homemade snacks, GF crackers and cookies. Some that travel well are:

Granola bars http://gluten-free-reality.blogspot.com/2008/09/quinoa-granola-bars.html
Ranger cookies http://gluten-free-reality.blogspot.com/2009/03/ranger-cookies.html
Peanut butter bars http://gluten-free-reality.blogspot.com/2008/09/peanut-butter-bars.html
GF Chex Mix http://www.chex.com/Recipes/CategoryView.aspx?CategoryId=447&t=5
Puff rice balls

I pack granola for me and take a box of Nature's Path Mesa Sunrise or Erewhon's brown rice as breakfast cereal for the children. I rely on the milk from the motel's breakfast bar and since we can't eat the waffles, bagles, doughnuts and bread at the continental bar, I don't feel a bit bad as we glug their juice and decimate their fresh fruit supply.

I am not always at my peak for planning and sometimes I race to the store to make fast purchases when I find that time has escaped and my 12 hour packing window has dwindled to two.

baby carrots
raw almonds
Frigo string cheese
Fritos
Cheetos
EnerG pretzels
Blue Diamond Almond Crackers
MiDel ginger snaps

We now limit our stops at Wendys along the way for select salads, potatoes and their chili and frosties after we found that fast food coupled with far distances doesn't bode well for anyone's digestion.

Good luck and I wish you safe and happy travel.

A more comprehensive list? http://gluten-free-reality.blogspot.com/2008/09/as-of-february-2007-disclaimer-verify.html

GF Empanadas

Gluten-free Empanadas, chewy crusts with delicious filling dipped in maranara sauce.  Great!

I began with my college boy GF Pizza Crust recipe--mixed it up and then pressed 1 1/2 inch balls of dough flat onto plastic wrap.  I filled them with a tablespoon of empanada filling, folded them over and forked the edges to seal.

Baked atop a hot pizza stone at 350 about 15-20 minutes.  

FILLING:  Saute
1 cup diced onion and
1/2 lb. ground beef until brown and stirred in
2 tsp. cumin,
1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.

 I spooned a scoop of beef mixture onto the center, used the plastic wrap to fold the dough in half and then crimped the edges with a fork to seal. I coated each with cooking spray, poked with a fork, then lifted each onto a heated pizza stone at 350 degrees F. It took about 20 minutes to bake and brown nicely.

 Can be served with a marinara dipping sauce.

Stromboli:

If you fill them with a chicken/brocolli/cheese filling, they are called stromboli. I wonder what these would be called in China (With the daughter having served a mission there, the query is never too far from the edges of my brain.)

Deliciolista! I do love food superlatives!

Gluten-Free FAST AND EASY Potato Smash

Can't mess up this delicious and FAST kid or teenager filler-upper. Cheap, easy and quick meal for on the go.

When Mr.-then-Boyfriend in college found out I was gluten-free, he didn't stop cooking for me (maybe that's why he became Mr. Husband), but he's anything but a gourmet gluten-free chef. He was a college kid!

He made up this Potato Smash to make on the run. It's flexible, easy, and quickly thrown together and microwaved. Plenty of carbs, starches and calories for hungry celiac bellies.

Nuke potatoes,
add any of the following:
chili, cheese, sour cream, salsa, can of beans, can of corn, leftover soup, spinach, tomatoes, whatever!

Warm it all up and you're done.

The only way you can mess it up is to use rotten potatoes. Trust me, we've tried it ALL!

Domino's GF Crust?

Wait, Domino's now has a GLUTEN-FREE** pizza crust?!

Domino's Pizza retains all rights to this image, and has no affiliation
with Gluten-free Reality

**sorta.

Here is Domino's FAQ page about their new "GF" pizza--which is made in the same part of the kitchen, on the same counter, as the non-GF kind. Phooey.

However, their hand-thrown crusts are thrown with cornmeal, so there may still be hope for us to be able to eat a pizza there! 

As usual, your saintly, hungry college lab rats Brian and Dia are here to test it out for you. Brian has almost been GF for five months now and Dia's a veteran of almost five years (am I 23 or 23?) unless you don't count her mission (which she doesn't, because she ate ... everything... on accident).

Send hopeful thoughts our way! 

G-F Breaded Fish Sticks

G-F Breaded/Baked Fish Sticks
(serves 2 or just me)  (Whew, am I full!)

Boneless skinless tilapia fillets (I used 2 frozen)

1/2 cup g-f flour  -- I used my healthy featherlight mix, but any g-f flour should work as well.
salt and pepper

1 egg, beaten

1 cup g-f bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 400° F.
Cut the fish fillets into fish-stick-sized pieces--about finger width.

Place the flour/salt, egg, and bread crumbs, in individual small bowls. Add a dash of salt and pepper to the flour and mix well.

Dip each  piece into the flour, then drop into the beaten egg, and then lift out and roll in the bread crumbs. Place on a baking sheet.  Bake about 10-12 minutes until light brown and crispy.

I ate the whole batch with a squirt of fresh lemon and the following sauce.

Tartar Sauce

1/4 c. mayonnaise
a dash of onion powder
1 squirt of dijon mustard
1 tablespoon of dill pickle relish (or chop a couple pickles very finely)

Mix everything in a bowl and serve.

Reality Bite:  Too bad I was home alone, because too much food always means I'm going to feel it in the morning.  Still--tonight I'm a very happy girl.

Aspergers & Celiac Disease

ADHD, Aspergers and Gluten Intolerance?

Click for a great article on diagnosis of childhood mental disorders and CD.

As a child, College Guy had a myriad of interesting attributes that I thought all stemmed from being born a boy.

Upon birthing my second son, I finally recognized that it wasn't ALL BOYS who acted like he did; He was Uni-Que--pronounced just like that! Since then, I have since discovered the connection between malnutrition and it's influence in cognitive and social development.

I recall our first years of intimate communication--in a language that only Mom could understand. And until the speech therapist intervened, he and I lived in our own little talking world. For him, speech was not delimiting-- his excited, enthusiastic personality burst every boundary.

He fit most of the symptoms of aspergers, but we didn't discover that until high school, so the label didn't limit him. Early on, he was summed up by educators (at school and church) to be-- in one word: Challenging.

As a child he was always learning, searching, thinking outside the box--and then outside the house, outside the yard and down the street. His wandering mind disappeared around the corners, searching and investigating, without any fear or worry about consequence.

Now as a college guy, he still lives outside the box, sleeps outside the dorms, at the cousins' house and who know where else this week (his phone is on the fritz).

And he's off to Alaska to serve a church mission. He had to pass extra tests and the 20 page questionnaire that I completed that had 200 questions verging from serious to absurd.

"Can he brush his teeth?" Yeah, but does he? I don't know. I did my best, but what can you expect--sometimes Mommy calls the dorm and he laughs at the question, thinks I'm not seriously inquiring! "Well, ARE YOU brushing your teeth?"

What More CAN A MOM DO?

Yeah, he has become fully functional, completely capable, diligent and dutiful and I'm sure going to be a positive missionary in every way, but I did wonder at one point whether this one would even be able to clean a bathroom.

Now he can, the question is WILL HE?

I think the key is that because I didn't know anything was different about him, he was treated with high expectations as if there he was abysmally normal.

I hope society's expectations continue to also be that high.

Reality Bite: And if you get the chance before your delightfully challenging child is grown, watch the movie "Temple Grandin". That woman is marvelously inspiring.

G-F PB Granola Bars

We were in Utah this year--in a Winter without snow? No skiing, so the kids took the men and went camping down South instead. It is the perfect state for outdoor entertainment, whatever the weather.

I'm making these for the upteenth time for another backpacking trip. If I am a party girl, the hubby and children are rockin' guys. Whenever I make and send these on the hiking trip, the conversation goes something like this...

Packer, who is flipping the plastic-wrapped bars from hand to hand, "Dang these are heavy."

Me: "If you don't want them, I can keep them here and freeze them."

Packer, (continuing to squeeze them into every open slot, "Did we eat this many before?"

Me: "Yeeessss?"

Packer, "They are pretty bulky."

Me: (Walking away.)

After the trip:

Me: How was it?

Packer, (whose wartorn body, while exhausted, still exudes a scented hiking glow from every pore,) "Well, we ran short of granola bars..."

The boys call this lembas: LOTR reference: "A full grown man could live for days from a single bite of it."

Yeah, I can't find the link (on my own blog) so here it is again.

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup white corn syrup or honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

Microwave these ingredients 2 minutes and then pour over five cups of any kind of cereal. Press into a greased 9x13 pan or if you want them thinner, a jelly roll pan.

For this batch I used a 6 oz bag of millet puffs, 2 cups rice krispies and 1 cup g-f oatmeal and doubled the sauce on top. I pressed it with a lot of force into a jelly roll pan for good back-packing density (plastic wrap over top to prevent my literally being stuck with going with them.)

I have used rice chex, corn flakes, oatmeal, rice krispies, puffed quinoa, puffed millet, puffed rice, all kinds, all flavors, it's GOOD!

Standard recipe:

5 cups rice krispies

raisins, peanuts or chocolate chips

Wait until the mix cools slightly to add the chocolate chips or they become smero-chocobutter granola bars. Which are also very good.

These freeze great in snack bags and make a great breakfast/lunch supplement for children.

Pigs in a Blanket

Gluten-Free Pigs in a Blanket? Happiness wrapped in wonderful goodness. I think any g-f pizza crust mix would work great.

reposted from 5-2009

I mixed up a batch of pizza crust mix and took a spoonful and handrolled it around a hotdog, then baked them. Okay, they were delicious. We dipped them in marinara sauce and gobbled them up and before I knew it, they were all gone!

What now?

No pictures!

The son's sleep-over friends wouldn't leave them alone. J.T. and Nicholas are not GF kids and cannot begin to understand how precious pigs in a blanket are.

But, since they are high on the request/beg list, so, here I go again, making and baking--and this time, I'm trying freezing. Yum!

Children - Celiac Disease - Psychological Distress

Compliant gluten-free children with celiac disease: an evaluation of psychological distress

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2431/11/46/abstract

Interesting article for parents of celiac or gluten-free kids.

ADHD Awesome, Diverse, Huggable, Dynamic Kids

It’s College Guy off to Alaska on his church mission that is the topic of the posts this week. I'm sorting and packing, both socks and memories. I blogged my angst when the first birdy flit the nest and I'm feeling similarly as this one flies off.

Of my three children, number two (Mission-bound Guy - aka College guy) was the toughest of the three to raise. (Knock on wood as we're only three-quarters begun with #3).

I believe it was in part because he wasn't diagnosed with celiac disease until he was fifteen. I think now that some of his challenges could have been ameliorated with diet. (Google ADHD and celiac disease--1.6 million links can't be all wrong?)

So this week, my topic--interspersed between recipes--will caroon through the years of discovery, and the attributes and diagnosis of celiac disease in children.

Reality Bite: Finding comfort in "To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven."

G-f Granola Bars

This g-f granola bar is quick and versatile because you can use any dry cereal you have on hand and there is no baking necessary.

I re-learned this concept from my sweet niece Cami, who just this summer, substituted semi-crushed Rice Chex in Rice Krispy Treats! Yeah, the one with marshmellows. Delicious!

We G-F'rs now have a wide selection of cereals available, g-f rice krispies, puffed millet, puffed rice, quinoa flakes and g-f oatmeal. I have used any and all of these interchangeably in this recipe.

It might also excite you to know that if you don't like corn syrup, the recipe works equally well with honey. (as I learned with the homemade carmels at Christmas.)

Gluten-Free Granola Bars

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup honey (or white corn syrup)

1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix in a glass bowl, cook in the microwave 2 minutes (unless your microwave runs extra hot like one of mine), just until the mixture is all bubbly. Fold in

5 cups assorted dry cereal

and 1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins or chocolate chips. Wait for some cooling to take place before adding the chips if you want them to stay as distinct chips, not chocolate goo, (which is also delicious).

Press into a 9x13 pan and wait to cool. Slice in bars, wrap in plastic and freeze. These are very shelf resilient. (I'm sending a batch to Hong Kong to G-F China girl today.)

Delicious!

Reality Bite: These freeze fabulous, when you can pry them out of grasping hands and sock them away.

GF Power / Granola Bars Backpacking Food

G-F backpacking and G-F back to school? How are these two related? Well, their commonalities should be obvious!

Each are desperate g-f times that call for desperate g-f measures!

Gluten-free backpacking for a week in the High Uintas and embarking on the first day of school--both require some inventiveness and delicious comfort foods. (AND BACKPACKS, Duh, Mom).

My boys, Alaska-bound guy (formerly college-guy) and the other two Messrs. Darcey went hiking and had to have camp food in gluten free form, and thus far, Mountain House has nothing available that is gf.

The guys ate great and enjoyed the time and as far as I could tell, came home healthy and also ecstatically happy, (my man's perpetual state when out in the wilderness.)

I have listed some ideas for camp food in previous posts--yet backpacking can be a whole different ballgame because of the weight limitations. A list of the minimalist backpacking fare:

• gf gravy mix,
• granola
• potato flakes,
• instant rice,
• dried fruit,
• g-f trail mix,
• summer sausage,
  
• beef sticks-jerky
• dry milk,
• powdered peanut butter
• g-f granola bars,
• g-f cup-a-soups, (Thai Kitchen)
• Smore graham crackers,
• marshmellows (lightweight and immune to crushing.)
• AND more granola bars.

Ah HA! The commonality? These are high in nutrients and so every year I make them for hiking and the first day of school.

Reality Bite: This post is primarily for my benefit as each year I scrounge through the mental faculties to recreate the wheel and I've decided that if the wheel is already invented, I'd better jot down the design this time.

Hong Kong College Girl

Here is the link to the newest blog post by the Gluteen-Free College Girl. She just landed in Hong Kong on Monday and we enjoyed our first telephone call with her last night on Mother's Day. She is having good success with her gluten-free diet there. She carries a card from Triumph Dining written in Chinese characters and her Cantonese is improving by leaps and bounds.

http://sistermissionary.blogspot.com/

College Boy GF Pizza

Here!  A gluten-free pizza crust that is tasty, chewy, crunchy on the edges and not gummy.  Yes, I can pick it up to eat it. 

This adaptable recipe also works with as crust for baked Pigs in a Blanket, and pizza empanadas(pizza rolls). 

Originally posted 6-10-10
Now that Isabella's pizza is no longer available at my Sams Club, the college boy is back to having to create his own. Today, only minutes it seems, from him leaving for college, he's making pizza. Braces are off, pizza on and with those successes... who needs Mamma? 

Boo. Hoo.

Here is the easy mix and recipe

TO MAKE PIZZA Recipe

2 cups of the pizza flour mix

Mix wet ingredients then add to dry:

2 egg whites
1/4 cup canola oil (there is a reason for two types of oil--one makes it crustier!)
2 1/2 tsp. yeast
1 1/2 TBS olive oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup warm water (start with 1/2 cup--see if you need the rest)

Hand mix these ingredients together and keep mixing for two or three minutes until the feel is a lot like pizza dough.  Pat onto a greased pizza pan. Let the dough raise while the oven preheats to 425. If you want it thinner, pat onto a greased 13 x 17 jelly roll pan.

Extra crispy?   Remember to bake half way (about 10 minutes) before you add the toppings.

Add toppings, a scoop of spaghetti sauce from a can, cheese and pepperoni, or add your own. 

NEW Idea! After the pizza has baked part way, slide the pizza off onto your preheated pizza stone! That makes it delightful crusty on top and bottom!

Pizza Flour Mix  I usually make a quadruple batch of this mix so I have lots
3/4 cup rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour/starch
1/3 cup dry milk
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 T. dry egg solids (or an extra egg in the wet ingredients, I guess)
1 1/2 tsp. xanthun gum
1 Tbs. egg replacer  ( I didn't use this today and it turned out great)
1 tsp. italian seasoning
1 T. corn starch or modified food starch (I use MaxiGel brand sometimes)
1 t. lecithin   (I didn't use this either and it turned out fine)

Baked GF Corndogs

I dipped hotdogs in corn bread batter (thicker than usually by holding back 1/3 cup milk).

Baked at 350 for 10-15 minutes until browned. Tasted delicious. I baked the leftover cornbread dough in a small pan that was left over.

I must admit, not as delicious as the deep-fat-fried corny dogs, but the boys still gobbled them up!

GF Corn Doggies

I know, I know. Poison on a stick, but the boys have been without corn dogs for a very long time. So today I'm attempting them.

Irony, while I was on my vacation, I was reminded by my sister that it isn't that hard. Mom made them just like this... many long years ago.

Stick a hotdog on a popsicle stick. dredge it in the dough, lay it in the hot fat and wait. Turn it over and wait more. Eat with ketchup and mustard.

Grame Terry Ann's Corndog Dough recipe (modified for GF)

1/2 cup any GF Flour Mix (I used my Pancake mix--it's complete with leavening.)

1/4 cup corn meal

1 egg

1 T oil

1/2 cup milk (more or less--add it slowly to make a thick dough.)

Stir it all up together until thick and creamy.

__________

Tints and Hips: Nice hot oil, but not too hot. As you lay the dog in, twist it lightly so all sides hit the grease and then the dog doesn't look flat and wide, but round.

Good luck. Don't eat these--except once in a decade. Something so good has got to be deadly!

GF Kid Recipes

Image compliments of Dennis@dennisholmesdesign.com

Here is a great link to GF Kids recipes tested by the Children National Hospital Celiac Unit.

Kid-Friendly Recipes

http://www.children snational. org/Departmentsa ndPrograms/ default.aspx? Type=Program& id=6204&SubType= ResourceForFamil y&SubId=326& Name=Celiac% 20Disease% 20Program& Subname=Gluten% 20Free%20Recipes %20for%20Kids

General Recipes: http://www.children snational. org/Departmentsa ndPrograms/ default.aspx? Type=Program& id=6204&SubType= ResourceForFamil y&SubId=325& Name=Celiac% 20Disease% 20Program& Subname=Gluten% 20Free%20Recipes

I don't know about you, but I would love some foods for kids that don't have to be flown to the table by remote control airplane to make it palatable.