Gluten Free Ranch Chicken Bites

An impressive tasting and looking g-f chicken dinner that is really too easy to merit a recipe!  Sept 2013 retro. 

Only THREE ingredients:

 2 chicken breasts (or any part of the chicken, really)
G-f ranch dressing (1/2 cup? maybe more?)
A couple cups of GF breadcrumbs (use your dried GF bread failures! Not such a failure NOW!)

Dip and shake and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes just until the chicken is opaque not dry.

Dip

Shake

Bake

Devour.

G-F Foccacia Wrap Bread Recipe

Reposted as one of my Top Ten Gluten Free Recipes rated for ease, flexibility and speed.
It's easily in the top five for deliciousness!





Flat-bread, foccacia, happiness in 20 minutes, easiest bread substitute we've come across.  

Gluten-free foccacia bread like professionals in minutes.  I have always been impressed with this recipe and just today I dragged it out, dusted it off and mixed a bunch of ziploc bag mixes up for a friend.

With another friend, Lidia, we baked a pan up in less than fifteen minutes WITH prep. and BAKING!  Don't believe me?  Just try it.  But we ate it in less than that when we served it to the family.  Thanks Lidia, you rock!


Last posted March 8, 2009  New UPDATE 4-4-10: College Boy attempts Wrap Bread: Story HERE.

WRAP BREAD

1 full cup brown rice flour or sorghum flour or my wholegrain flour mix. (any GF flour mix works.)
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons xanthum gum
2 1/4 teaspoon dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt

OPTIONAL MODIFICATION:
1 teaspoon italian seasoning (Lidia and I used this and it was great)

Wet ingredients blend together:

1 tsp  cider vinegar or dough enhancer
2 Tbs. canola oil (I CHANGED THIS from olive oil, baked goods preferred oil is canola. I read that online!)
2 eggs
3/4 cup very warm water 


(SOMEDAYS, I USE HALF THIS MUCH WATER) It should not be thin or pourable, but form somewhat of a soft, thicker, ball on the pan.  This time Lidia and I started with 1/2 cup, but ended up using the whole 3/4.

Mix dry and wet ingredients together in a heavy duty mixer. Beat for (three and three quarter) or four minutes on high.

Flatten in 11 x 17 greased pan (I use a sprayed plastic wrap and rolling pin for speed).  Lidia and I topped it with parmesean cheese.  Delish!

We let dough raise 15 minutes. Bake at 425 degrees 10 minutes, or until top is browned.

Cool 2-10 minutes Cut into pieces and store these wrapped tightly.

11-09-08: I was just sent a recipe online from Glutenfreeclub.com... It sounds so good, I printed it off and made it up and WOW! I am really impressed. It tasted so good, better than my last Wrap Bread recipe from Jennifer Cinquepalmi's cookbook, The Complete Book of GlutenFree Cooking.
That's what I have to do, keep evolving, keeping testing, keep challenging myself and be open to new and different recipes. I can't get stuck in the rut!

BUT, then the two recipes comingle in my file and I can't remember which is the good one and which is the old one. I check out the ingredients, hoping for a clue... and find to my chagrin, the recipes are exactly the same.



The only difference? One recommends that it be baked at 350 for 11-15 minutes and the other 425 for 5-8 minutes.

Fool me. Whatever. So since it was sent to me free online, can I reprint here with no compunction? I think so, particularly since I have modified it.

flatbread? flat-bread, flat bread, flatbread

Summer Squash Quick Bread

We have too much summer squash. After like 10 summer squash dishes and then someone drops some off on your porch and your mother-in-law wants you to pick hers and your plant is just starting to produce, we're in for a serious amount of summer squash. We've sauteed it, frozen it, and hidden it in other dishes...

GOOD NEWS.
SUMMER SQUASH BREAD.

Or cake.






Pictured--I put in half the batter then added marshmallows, pecans and chocolate chips. Then poured the rest of the batter on top.




Easy peasy recipe (you can half it if you don't have as much squash as I did...):

2 huge summer squash,
cut up in a blender with
1 cup of vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
and
3 eggs.

Puree it all, pour it in a BIG bowl and add

1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 T milk powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 c sugar (or less if you want it for breakfast instead of dessert)
1 t guar gum
1 T cinnamon
mix it all with 1 cup flour and then wait ten minutes to see how the texture is turning out. THEN add up to 2 ish cups more GF flour blend (I used my 7 flour blend of rice, tapioca, sorghum, millet, potato, cornstarch, buckwheat, recipe here but I'm sure any blend will be fine)--add last and just look for when it makes a nice smooth cake-consistency batter.
Too wet and it will never cook through. Too dry and it will be chalky.


Mix. Preheat oven 350*, pour it into many multiple greased pans (this made a 9" round AND a big bread pan) and cook for 50 minutes or so. Follow your nose and tap it on top when you think it's done. If it bounces back, get it out and let it cool. Undercooked is nasty and I do not recommend it.

This is an easy bread and I'm guessing it would freeze nicely (if we ever didn't finish it/give it to neighbors, Sunday School classes, and friends).

Pao de Queijo (Chebe Bread)

Cheese Biscuits for Thanksgiving?  Everyone will love them, gf and non alike.  Delicious alternative to yeast rolls -- quick and easy, mixes in five minutes and bakes in ten minutes and it's multicultural!



Terina last posted this on 12-12-12 and then again on 10-11-13. 

I just made them with my gal pal Lidia and they are delicious. So here is a new photo:

Quick recipe:

1 1/4 cup tapioca starch (available cheap at Asian stores or Honeyville Grain)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup cheese 

(mozzarella, asiago, cheddar, I've used them all. Or leave it out) 

1 teaspoon seasoning (I've used taco, italian, dill)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of butter/oil

2 eggs

Stir it up and drop/roll into balls.  Bake at 425 for 10 minutes only.

DO NOT OVERBAKE--If these aren't to die for, it's due to overbaking.

Makes about a dozen.

__________________________________________
This recipe had it's beginnings in 2008 - It's also called Chebe Bread or Pao de Quejo and sells for big bucks in the grocery stores.  Really a delicious g-f alternative.  

I trust GF Gobsmacked because her oreos are directly from a heavenly planet, so I tried her recipe for Brazilian cheese bread (chebe) and like she indicated, I found it happiness personified--in only 15 minutes and using only one flour.

The whole story follows so skip to the end if you must:

"ancient file photograph--2010"

When you are on a ski vacation, there is not much time for making or baking food of any kind, so the original plan was to order pizza from Park City Pizza whose owners, Jeff and Nikki Keye have worked to develop gluten-free recipes as good as the original. Jeff was diagnosed with CD six years ago, and is dedicated to preventing cross-contamination.

But I'm a 30 year skiier, who really hates skiing (see blog excerpt below).

"Skiing has its own unique verbiage to disguise its inherent wretchedness. The ski term off-piste means to glide rapturously in deep powder off trail, through snow-covered trees. When I ski off-piste, it happens accidentally, flailing frantically out of control, dodging and ducking trees, ditching skis and poles, and any sharp object that could imperil my ungainly finish.

Most of the time, I ski “piste-off,” fighting the ski position, half bent over, leaning precariously forward, sliding and slipping while all the way screaming, and wildly zipping past signs that say slow."

____________________________
Aug., 2012 update
The new SIL (son in law) tried this recipe and loved it, but recommended that when it says tapioca that one uses flour, not the tapioca that most American's are familiar with, the one that makes it taste like graveled buns.)

_______________________________________________


Long story short, I convinced the husband that I would be so much happier staying in at the homey chalet, keeping the fires burning... and baking.

I recipe experimented over the holiday weekend. First I viewed a standard non-gf recipe at allrecipes, but their Brazilian cheese bread was more a pate choux recipe, like the cheese gougeres (a savory cream puff) that I already make. Delicious, but not new.

So I dug out and snowshoed (obvious hyperbole) to the library and searched the "tried and true" gluten-free community blogs and found this one--another keeper from GF Gobsmacked ( I feel I know her well enough to abbreviate.)

I had to modify (no chives fresh or dried in the country store) and I added an extra egg when I could not get the crumble to stick together in balls. It's a keeper, delicious and cultural--and freezable in balls prior to baking. See this article from the S.L. Tribune if you missed it last week.

Gluten Free Easy Chicken Enchiladas

This is a story of a college newlywed trying to cook for guests tonight while her GF Muse (read: Mom) is "busy." Lots of reality bites in this one, but it still turned out great.

Filling: (ie put this stuff with the chicken inside the tortillas)

can of green chiles
can of corn
can of black beans
can of tomatoes

  Reality Bite: shouldn't have blended the corn and beans into the sauce. Lumpy sauce is awkward for guests. Perfect for children who don't think they like veggies, though (evil laugh*). 

Oh, and the chicken.

Reality Bite: forgot to put the chicken in the crockpot eight hours ago. Well, if I put it on high that should half the cooking time... right...? 6 lbs of raw chicken in the crockpot for four hours on high with 1/2 c water and a couple teaspoons of salt and pepper, I'll just have to come back later and finish... yikes. 

And Sour Cream, which I have none of. ...1 part plain yogurt to 3 parts mayo makes a great substitute?

Reality Bite: Moommmmmyyyy! 

Sauce: (ie put this stuff in the pot, then the blender, and then spoon it over and under the rolled tortillas)

can of tomatoes
onion
olive oil
cilantro, red pepper/chili pepper (what's the difference, anyway?!), salt and pepper, cumin, lime? Sure.

Reality Bite:  have 16 oz of cumin and absolutely no cilantro in the house. Ugh. Borrow some from neighbors...  

Put some sauce in the casserole pan and start frying and filling the tortillas. The sauce helps them stick so they don't unroll. When your pan is full of filled, rolled tortillas, put on a few more spoonfuls of sauce and cover the whole thing in cheese. Mmmm.

Pretty forgiving recipe, turns out. 

100 GLUTEN-FREE FOODS YOU CAN EAT NOW

Checked and modified again

The GF Mantra: CHECK THE LABEL FIRST!!!!

WATCH BLOG DATES
 Don't trust anything two years old!!! DUH!

To start, AVOID WHEAT, RYE, BARLEY and OATMEAL in everything.
Also avoid any other allergies you have already (for now).

Avoid common additives of malt and wheat starch.

100 THINGS YOU CAN BUY AND EAT RIGHT NOW!!!

re-categorized from a CSA support group website.

See: http://csaceliacs.org/ and http://csatulsa.googlepages.com/100Things

All vegetables- keep a relish tray and dressings for dipping. All dressings now state on the label if they contain wheat. Many say gluten-free now.

Most dairy - Milk is g/f

Cheddar Cheese(s) (check label)
Viva Cottage Cheese
Velveeta Cheese (Kraft swears all gluten will be marked on the labels)
Viva Cottage Cheese
Philadelphia Cream Cheese
Crisco
Butter Buds
Parkay

All meats - fresh, like from the butcher, not marinated or coated or injected or processed.

Butterball Turkey
Hormel Pepperoni & Canadian Bacon
Hormel Vienna Sausage
Hormel Canned Chuck Meats
Hormel Fully Cooked Entrees Beef Roast
Au Jus & Pork Au Jus only
Boars’ Head Hickory Smoked Chicken Breast
Oscar Meyer Lunch meats (all hot dogs)
Ball Park Hot Dogs (except corn dogs)
Jennie-O Turkey Breast
Jennie-O Turkey (for Thanksgiving)
Delimex Taquitos
Tyson Chicken Tenders
Hormel Bacon Bits and Pieces
Hillshire Farm Bacon
Hillshire Farm Smoked Sausage (except Fresh Beerwurst & Cheddarwurst)
Little Sizzlers Sausage Links & Patties
Always Tender Homestyle Potroast & Peppercorn Pot Roast
Cure 81 Ham (bone-in, boneless, & old-fashioned spiral)
Johnsonville Sausage Beef Snack Stix

All fresh fruit - I can't think of any fruit with gluten in it. Canned fruit maybe... but I doubt it.

Preserves
Dole dried fruit
Apple sauce (Musslemans & most brands)
Del Monte Canned and jarred fruits
Minute Maid Fruit Drinks
Skippy Peanut Butter
Jiff Peanut Butter
Smucker’s Jams Jellies, Marmalades, Preserves
Hershey’s chocolate syrup
Ice Cream (watch label--they add wheat, go figure) (and NO MALT SHAKES)

Tortilla corn chips (most-but check label--some flavors have wheat!)
Pace Picante Sauce and Salsa (check label on salsas for wheat, some say GF)
Nut Thins by Blue Diamond
Brown Rice Snaps (Edward & Sons brand)
Glutino's Cookies absolutely the best and most like regular food, but exxxxpennnsive!
Kinniknikikinninii (or some such) cookies from Canada
Mydel Cookies (gluten free type)
EnerG Crackers & Pretzels

Many candies: Check the label for malt, wheat starch, modified food starch (wheat)
NO MILKY WAY
NO TWIX
NO LICORICE
Butterfingers and Baby Ruth
Reeces Peanut Butter Cups
Almond Joy
Jelly Bellys (not buttered toast)
Campfire marshmallows
Tootsie Rolls
Snickers
Skittles
M&M’s not crispy

Hunt’s Snack Pack Puddings (all are okay, except cookie added)
Jello Brand Puddings; Gelatin
Warning:  Walmart Sugar Free Gelatin's CHECK LABEL some have wheat.

Guittard chocolates
Kelloggs Fruit Snacks (many other brands are GF)

Eggs – boiled make a good snack, fried makes a good breakfast, in a casserole makes good dinner

CEREALS 
Rice, Corn, Strawberry, Chocolate and Honey Nut CHEX (General Mills) will be your best friend!!
Kix and more!
Health Valley Corn & Rice Crunch-Ums
Fruity Pebbles (watch for malt)
Nabisco Cream of Rice (bland)
Trix-Cocoa Pebbles, (check label)

SNACKS
Act II microwave popcorn (all)
Fritos
Cheetos
Potato Chips (some flavor with wheat)
Lays Stax

Most Fresh Fish -
including Starkist Tuna (except Lunch-to-Go kits)

Quick Cook foods: 
Bean and Wienies - check the label for fillers
Ortega Refried Beans
Dinty Moore Beef Stew
Progresso Cream of Mushroom Soup, Clam Chowder Soup and several others (check label)
Hunts Spagetti Sauce
Prego Traditional Pasta Sauce

Thai Kitchen Stir-Fry noodles w/Sauce
(original Pad Thai, w/ chili and Thai Peanut have wheat) check the label
Hormel Tamales (Beef & Chicken)
Hormel Chili with Beans (not meat only)
Bush’s Baked Beans
(Except Chili Beans & Chili Magics)
Campbells Healthy Request RTC
(RTC Hearty country vegetable)
Giant Food frozen broccoli in cheese sauce

Del Monte canned tomatoes & tomato products (except spaghetti sauce flavored with meat. AVOID TVP or HYDROLIZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN on the LABEL)

FAST FOOD: For comprehensive lists see TriumphDining.com
Always call ahead to be safe: ask about gluten-free options AND cross-contamination.

Wendy’s chili, baked potato and frosty, southwest salad, (WENDYS has a nutrition label on the wall with wheat marked on it!!!) and they'll make you any burger or sandwich without the bun. Sweethearts.

McDonald’s French Fries (should be a dedicated fryer, but is too complicated legally to certify as GF, so I eat them anyway.) I have never had a reaction, but McDonalds sees liability everywhere, so See this link for proof that they aren't GF.

DO NOT GO TO APPLEBYS (Many franchises inject meat with wheat.)
Outback will make you happy with their GF menu.
Spaghetti Factory has GF noodles now.
Carrabas has a GF menu
Jason's Deli has a GF menu (and GF bread for sandwiches!)
Los Hermanos has a GF menu (except you need to get your waiter in a strangle hold and pound into their head: do NOT give me THE SPANISH RICE or the NORMAL BEANS!)
Guru's (in Provo on Center) has a GF menu
CiCi's is trying to make a GF pizza crust. (call them and complain)
Domino's has a GF crust
Pier 49 has a "GF" crust (not really, don't go there)
CHILI's has a GF menu now.
Costa Vida does everything gluten-free except the wheat tortilla, and they are careful about cross contamination.
Pizza Pie Cafe does GF pizza and pasta for just $2 more than the normal buffet, also very careful.
Almost every Thai and Indian restaurant will have several safe (if not an entire menu full of safe) dishes.

Condiments
Mrs. Dash
Pace Enchilada Sauce
Walmart Great Value Red Sauce (see label)
Heintz Ketchup
Heintz EZ Marinader Teriyaki
Herb-Ox bouillion (beef, chicken, vegetable)
Swanson vegetable broth
Cattleman’s Barbecue Sauces
Miracle Whip
Hellman’s Mayonaise (Best Foods)
Valasic Pickles
French’s mustard
Hellman’s Tarter Sauce
French’s Worchestershire Sauce
Hellman’s dipping sauce
McCormick extracts & some packet mixes
Trappey’s Hot Sauces (all)

Carnation instant breakfast
(except Classic Chocolate Malt)
Cremora Non-Dairy Coffee Creamers
Folgers Coffee (all)
Carnation Hot Cocoa
Juicy Juice
Gatorade
Nestea Ice Tea
Stephens Gourmet Hot Cocoa (at Target)

There are many options here that you will not choose when you have been on the diet more than a month or so and are becoming healthier.  But having a list when I was first diagnosed really made life easier.

AS ALWAYS, check labels, recipes do change, and HAPPY EATING.

GF CF Chocolate Meringue Cookies from King Arthur Flours

short and round, but dark and handsome: picture from King Arthur flours

No flour, no dairy cookies? Light and crunchy on the outside yet deep and chewy on the inside? Less than 30 minutes for the whole deal? Only four ingredients??

Yes, please.

Here's the link to the recipe: we just suggest you whip the sugar and egg whites together like any good French chef and THEN add the rest of the ingredients. Can be a pain to scrape off the pan if you neglect some sort of parchment paper or grease.

Gluten Free Spaghetti

Gluten-free Pastas are often soggy and limp. Our favorite is Tinkyada rice pasta, which is true to the promise on weird purple packaging, "Can withstand quite a bit of overcooking without becoming soggy."

We made this pasta ourselves by frying up garlic and an onion, adding carrots and meat, throwing in frozen peas and finally a can of tomato paste and half a packet of sketti seasoning. Then we let the whole thing simmer for half and hour. This can be as quick as you need.

Gluten-Free Fried Rice

A quick and simple fried rice that can get as authentic as you dare. Just remember the GF soy sauce!!

TOFU OPTION: Get firm or very firm tofu and drain all the water off. If you're a purist, weight the thing with a plate and a heavy pan on top to squeeze out even more water while you're getting ready to cook. Then chunk it, season with salt and pepper and roll in potato starch. Fry 'em up in a few teaspoons of canola oil.

The Fried Rice:

 Start with plain (cooked) rice,

 slice up and sizzle the Asian trio:

GINGER

GARLIC

GREEN ONION

 Then throw in the rice, whatever veggies you please, and an egg.

 Cook it around for a bit, then season with fish sauce and soy sauce, both GLUTEN FREE.

Finish with a handful of peanuts and the already-cooked tofu (or other meat) and serve hot. 

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!

Gluten-free Corn Quesadillas

Just three ingredients:

1. corn tortillas 
2. refried beans (canned like me, or fresh if you know how to do that)
3. cheese (sliced or shredded)

Corn tortillas taste like pasty cardboard COLD. Warmed in the microwave, they advance to a state similar to soggy cardboard. Save yourself the misery and pull out a flat grill or frying pan. The minuscule extra labor is well worth the bettered taste and texture.

Modify as you wish: 

 add guacamole, nix the cheese, add sour cream, lose the beans, use mozzarella and marinara to make mini pizzas, switch out the insides for pb&j, add chicken or beef, slice tofu thinly and sandwich it with a peanut sauce, use shredded tilapia or snapper and make fish tacos... The world is your oyster. Ooo, Oyster Tacos?

Less than 10 minutes, less than 2 dollars.

Gluten-Free Recipes: Easy, Fast AND Cheap?

Five easy, fast, delicious gluten-free staple meals that you can eat in the next 30 minutes.

That's right, it's a promise: as a working newlywed with a HUNGRY law student husband, I understand the need for easy, cheap, quick (and delicious) gluten free food.

Is it possible?  YES! 

You're going to want to branch out on some rainy Saturdays when you wind up with an hour or two free, but for now we're interested in getting some calories into that wheat-free belly.
*All of these recipes can be made WITHOUT dairy, soy, meat, nuts, and/or eggs. It just takes some ingenuity!*

corn quesadillas (3 ingredients, 10 minutes, contains cheese)
fried rice (4 ingredients, 15 minutes, super cheap, contains egg)
potato bar (3 ingredients, 10 minutes, cheap as dirt)
spaghetti (2 ingredients, 30 minutes, a little more expensive)
simple stone stew (10 canned ingredients, 30 minutes, cheap as ...a rock)

Look for some recipes and pictures next time I make these favorites (aka within two or three days!). They are so simple and consistent I find myself making them over and over.

What are your "go-to" recipes for when you need to eat FAST? 

Gluten Free Grape Poppy Coleslaw Salad

A gluten-free, sweet and savory potluck summer salad that doesn't weigh heavy on the pocketbook nor the stomach.

1 head of cabbage sliced thinly
2 cups red/purple seedless grapes sliced in half
1 cup sliced almonds (optional)

Dressing

1 cup sugar  (I used 1/4 cup of agave syrup and 1/4 cup honey instead)
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

One 4 oz. bottle of red pimentos (optional)

Mix up dressing and pour over greens.  Allow to marinate in the refrigerator a couple hours or overnight.

Reality Bite:  I used the Grand Island Salad Dressing from Great grandma Bezzants veggie salad and it turned out really delicious.  Sweet and yet savory.

GF Thai Tuna Patties

What fun it was to make this simultaneously with the daughter long distance over the phone last night.  We joked, laughed and cooked together, her modifying the crumbs to whatever she could find in a newlywed cupboard.  Once again, the guys liked it so much they fought over the last burger.  Truly delish!

First posted 1-25-10

My boys loved this recipe! Shock and awe! I called it a tuna burger... that might be why.

1 lb of Ahi Tuna flaked (or you could do like me and open three (5 oz.) cans of Starkist)

1/2 cup bread or cracker crumbs (YAY someplace to use all those stale loaves.) (watch out for dairy)

Mix the following ingredients together then combine all together:

1/2 tsp onion powder (or green onions)

1/4 tsp minced ginger (I doubled this and it was great)

1/2 tsp sesame oil (Sushi Chef most are GF)

1/2 tsp fish sauce (Thai Kitchen  most are GF)

1 Tablespoon GF soy sauce (LaChoy or Kikuman's new GF type)

1 egg

Mix altogether and form into patties. Brown on each side in a nonstick skillet or my trusty cast iron on medium heat.

Serve atop greens with a Cucumber Aiolo sauce (fancy name for a simple sauce)

1 Tbs. mayo

1 Tbs. finely grated cucumber

Delicious! Easy and already to make from the contents of the pantry!!! So this one moves to one of the top twenty easy/fast main dish recipes.

GF Jamaican Black Beans and Rice

Sorry the photo's only available on facebook until I get back to the land of the living wifi.


My dear friend Lisa, married to Gus, a Chinese Jamaican, shared this recipe with me years ago and I'm just making it now again when I unearthed the recipe from the depths of the file.  It was delicious then and it's just as wonderful now.

2 15 oz. cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
one onion chopped,
1/2 tsp cloves
2 tsp minced fresh garlic (I use the bottled stuff)
a  hot pepper diced (I used a serrano, but chickened out and threw away the seeds)
1 cup green pepper diced
1 13 oz can coconut milk (I used powdered from the Indian/Asian store--it's cheap)
2 cups ham diced
3 cups cooked rice

Stir it all up, heat it in a crockpot or in the oven in a hot dish 'til hot in the middle.  I left it all day on low.

Serve it with grated cheese, fresh green pepper and sriracha hot sauce (I shouldn't have thrown away the seeds.)  So Delicious!

It's a very forgiving recipe.

To be absolutely truthful, I did the recipe different because of what I had on hand.  My version:  I took 3/4 pound of dry black beans, and put it in my crockpot on low overnight, cooked it with about three times as much water, garlic, ham, hot pepper and a whole onion studded with 20 whole cloves.  The next morning I drained it, added the coconut milk, cooked rice, another onion and green pepper chopped and it turned out great that way too.     However, the diced ham turns completely black, which makes the family pretty intrigued.

Dairy free: DON'T add cheese.

GF Buckwheat Pancakes

Last night, while conversing with friends, I was reminded of an lil' 'ol hole in the wall up Ogden canyon in Utah. It is renowned for it's delicious old fashioned buckwheat pancakes that were so big and hearty that you could only ever eat one.

Click, click, click, and that's all it takes for all the pieces to fall together and convince me to mix up some old fashioned buckwheat pancakes. It also helped that gluten-free-works send me an email this week with a recipe.

I find that these are delicious and simple with eggs, oil, milk and only one flour. This recipe made more than the three Darcey's could eat at one sitting. Oh, if only college guy were here.