French Toast

If you're the only one in your house that is gluten/allergen free, eating a whole loaf of bread before it goes bad can be a challenge sometimes. Well, this tasty solution will take you back to the pre-gluten free days when food didn't have nearly as many strange textures or taste just plain weird.


Ingredients:
Egg substitute or egg whites
Soy milk (I use 8th Continent Light Vanilla)
Cinnamon
Vanilla
Cooking Spray (make sure it does not contain milk)
Shallow dish (I like to use a shallow square tupperware container)


Pour enough egg substitute/ whites into the container so that it would cover a slice of bread. Add a little soy milk, probably no more than a couple of tablespoons. I add about a capful of vanilla - you can add more or less depending on how much you like vanilla, and then sprinkle some cinnamon on top (I like lots) and mix it up - I use a fork but a little whisk might be more productive - just be sure not to whip your eggs.


Turn on the stove and start heating up your skillet, it is best if it's warm before you start cooking your french toast. After everything is all mixed up set one slice of bread in the mixture and press down so it is completely covered. Let it sit there for a couple of min to soak, then flip it over and let it soak on the other side for another minute. By now your pan should be hot, so just place it in and flip every few min until the egg is cooked. I sometimes press down on it in the pan to make sure no egg squishes out. While the one slice is in the pan make sure you are soaking the next one in the egg mixture.

Picture was taken on my phone - will post a better one next time I make french toast.

*NOTE: The cinnamon may try to float of to the sides and stick to the walls of the container, just scrape it off and remix it back in.

Hot Bologna & Cheese

This sandwich is super easy to make, and a very tasty lunch. I used Shar gluten-free multigrain bread (one of the few store bought breads that does not contain tapioca), "Tofutti" American cheese singles, and Oscar Meyer turkey bologna.


Ingredients:
2 slices of gf bread
1 slice of cheese
2 slices of bologna
buttery spread (or non-dairy alternative) and/or salt


If you know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich you're pretty much golden. Either butter or salt the outside of your bread - I like to butter it because it makes the bread a seem little less dense and have a more normal texture. Layer the bologna and cheese between the two slices of bread, place in a skillet on the stove and grill away! It should take about 5-10 min, and be sure to flip it occasionally (because not everyone enjoys burnt grilled cheese sandwiches like my mother).

Corn Bread

I used this cornbread recipe for "Popcorn Stuffing" and it worked amazingly! This recipe is adapted from "Gluten Free Mommy" (original recipe here), and even my gluten eating family agreed that this was a very tasty rendition of real cornbread, however it did seem a bit grainier that gluten cornbread. Being gluten free though we sort of just become accustomed to things not being quite the same texture as their gluten counterparts. Additionally, this cornbread is entirely edible by itself, however it is quite tasty with jam, butter, or honey.


Ingredients:
1 cup white rice flour
3/4 cups cornmeal (I've heard cornmeal can contain gluten - but if it says its 100% corn it should be fine, I always check to be sure. Boxed cornbread mixes are NOT okay.)
2 1/2 Tbps sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup melted butter (I use "buttery spread" made from oil - dairy free)
1/3 cup egg substitute or egg whites
1 cup soy milk (I used light vanilla soy milk)
Cooking spray (check to make sure it does not contain milk)


Preheat the oven to 400º. Mix together all the dry ingredients, and the wet ingredients in separate bowls, then pour all the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. Spray either a 10" cast-iron skillet or an 8-9" round baking pan with the cooking spray. Pour the batter into the skillet or pan, and bake for 15-20 min or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.

Popcorn Stuffing

Stuffing is a staple at Thanksgiving, but when you can't eat bread finding a recipe that actually tastes good is difficult to find. Last year my family and I made a quinoa stove top something - I love quinoa, however this "stuffing" was not very tasty. However, this "Popcorn Stuffing" adapted from Mr. Food's recipe (original recipe here) was absolutely amazing. My dad even asked for seconds - being that it was allergen free I got the last bit left.

Ingredients:

6 cups crumbled corn bread (recipe posted soon)

3 cups air popped popcorn

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 3/4 cups chicken broth* 

1/2 cup butter (I use "buttery spread" made from oil - no dairy, there is also non-dairy butter available at some supermarkets)

1/3 cup egg substitute or egg whites

1 1/2 tsp dried rubbed sage

Craisins to taste

Preheat the oven to 375º. Mix everything up with your hands in a large mixing bowl until it becomes a squishy mass that holds together pretty much on its own. You can either then bake it in an 8" square casserole dish, or what we did was put it in a silicone cupcake mold - creating individual servings and they were fun shapes (ours were flower shaped). Bake for 40-50 min.

*NOTE: If you use bullion make sure you read the ingredients many bullion cubes are not gluten free - I use "Better Than Bullion - Vegetable Base", and that's what we used for this recipe as well

Casein Free Pumpkin Pie Filling

This took some researching to figure out, but I honestly cannot tell the difference between this filling what I remember allergen loaded pumpkin pie tasting like. My boyfriend (who does not have allergies) agreed that it tasted very normal as well. The recipe is very similar to that on can of pumpkin mix you get from the store.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar or sugar substitute
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 cup egg substitute or egg whites
1 15 oz. can 100% pumpkin puree (not the kind with spices in it - check the label it should say it only contains pumpkin)
1 13 oz. can coconut milk
pie crust (see recipe here)

Preheat the oven to 425º. Mix up all the ingredients until its a smooth mixture - may be a bit runnier than normal pie mix but it'll turn out quite tasty. Bake pie for 15 min at 425º, then reduce the temperature to 350º and back for another 40-50 min.

I actually way overcooked my pie the first time I made it and the crust burned - but it still tasted just fine. I would suggest testing the middle of the pie with a toothpick though before taking it out.

Cupcake Pie Crust

I was very excited when I found this recipe, I had made a cake using the Betty Crocker Yellow Cake mix but it came out very dry and I did not want to eat it; but being that allergen free food is so expensive and I don't like being wasteful this recipe was the prefect solution. However, this recipe is not my own creation, I have to thank the "Babycakes" cookbook (which I highly recommend) but please note that even though all of their recipes are vegan, some do use spelt (distant cousin of wheat and not considered to be gluten free).

Ingredients:
6 unfrosted vanilla cupcakes
2 Tbps coconut oil
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 tsp salt


First use your hands to crumble the cupcakes into fine bits. Then add the coconut oil, agave nectar, and salt. Mix everything together and press it into your pie dish making it about a 1/4" thick. I have not tried cooking this crust prior to putting in the pie contents but I do not think it is necessary to pre-bake it. 


If you do experiment with this recipe please let me know!
Will post a picture next time I make a pie.

Gluten/Casein Free Pizza

Due to my intolerance to tapioca, I cannot eat any of the pre-made pizza crust mixes (that I've found). However, I have found Bisquick's gluten free mix to be very versatile, and through numerous attempts, the following pizza recipe is the best one that I have made with it.


Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups gluten free bisquick
1 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 cup water
1/6 cup of olive oil
1/3 cup egg substitute or egg whites
Toppings of your choice


Mix everything together and it should look like thick sticky cookie dough. Pre-heat the oven to 425º and grease a cookie sheet or pizza pan. Spread the dough out to about a 1/8" to 1/4"- I find it helps if I spray my hands with cooking spray (make sure the spray does not contain milk if you are dairy free), pinch up the sides to give it a crust, or just spread it out flat if you want just a thin crust type pizza. 

 Bake just the crust for about 15 min, the crust make come out looking cracked, as shown on the left.










Once it has finished baking, take it out and decorate it as you wish. I like to put the toppings under the cheese. 










The cheese in the picture below is "Tofutti" Mozzarella (it is very smelly when it cooks). I have found that Follow Your Heart Natural Foods - "Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella" is quite good although it can get kind of soupy when it's hot out of the oven, but it does melt and is not smelly.

Chex Mix

While I was at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago they had Chex Mix seasoning packets, however, I have been unable to actually make it due to finals (I am currently studying for my Masters). Having the day off from work today, I decided today would be as good as any. 

Using the recipe on the back of the packet as a guide, I made some alterations. 

The packet recipe is as follows:

6 Tbps of butter

1 packet of seasoning mix

3 cups corn chex

3 cups rice chex

3 cups wheat chex

1 cup mixed nuts

1 cup pretzels

1 cup bagel bites broken into 1" pieces

My version (pictured on left):

2/3 cup of butter

2 packets of seasoning mix

3 cups corn chex

3 cups rice chex

2 cups honey nut chex

2 cups gf cheerios

2 cups gf pretzels

First, I mixed up all the chex, cheerios, and pretzels in a large separate mixing bowl. Then in a second, microwave safe bowl, melted the butter and mixed in the packets of seasoning mix. The original recipe says to melt the butter, in a roasting pan, in the oven first, and then mix in the seasoning, however, I just melted it in the butter in a bowl in the microwave then mixed in the seasoning packets. I then poured in half of the mixture into a large glass pyrex dish and added several cups of my cereal mix and used a spatula to start covering everything, slowly adding more cereal. After all the seasoning mixture seemed to be all mixed in I poured the rest on top of the cereal and then mixed it up again adding in the rest of the cereal. Then I baked it for 1 hour at 250º, taking it out every 15 minutes to stir it. Once it's all done, scoop it out onto paper towels and let cool, then store in an air tight container. The final product should look something like this: