Wheatless Foodie

This no-bake cheesecake is perfect for summer.  The cold, creamy dessert can be topped with fresh fruit or your favorite fruit pie filling.  I usually use Kinnikinnick gluten free graham crackers, but other gluten free graham crackers would work also, as would crushed gluten free cereal. No-Bake Cheesecake (gluten free) Crust: 1 box Kinnikinnick Gluten Free Graham Crackers (220 grams) 1/2 cup sugar 1 1/2 sticks butter (¾ cup), melted* Crush graham crackers.  Combine ingredients and press into 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking dish Filling: 2 8-oz packages cream cheese (room temp) 1 cup powdered sugar 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 2 8-oz containers Cool Whip Combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and half the Cool Whip.  Mix in remainder of Cool Whip and spread over crust. Top with pie filling or fresh fruit.  Chill thoroughly before serving.   Printable Version   Layering the filling wi...

This gluten free macaroni and cheese is quick and easy and made entirely from pantry ingredients.  It's for those times when you didn't plan ahead and purchase cheese, or you're running low on fresh milk, or on time and energy. Or maybe you just don't feel like having to make a dish that requires cooking the pasta, draining it in a colander (then having to wash the colander), then making a cheese sauce from scratch... Gluten Free One Pot Mac & Cheese from Pantry Ingredients 4 cups water 1 pound brown rice macaroni or fusilli 1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk ⅓ pound (5.3 oz) Velveeta processed cheese, cut into ½ inch cubes ⅔ cup shelf stable grated Parmesan cheese ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon ground mustard pinch of ground white pepper To make this Mac & Cheese, bring water to a boil in a large saucepan or a Dutch oven.  Stir in evaporated milk and 1 pound of brown rice macaroni or fusilli.  Continue cooking pasta, stirring occasionally to keep i...

My family enjoys having soft tacos for dinner.  The guys have flour tortillas, and Laura and I eat corn tortillas to avoid gluten.  Store bought corn tortillas aren't that great, so I've been making homemade corn tortillas.  At first, I tried making them by hand, which didn't work well at all.  I also tried flattening them with the bottom of a pan, only to discover that the pan was slightly warped (raised in the center).  So I've been rolling each tortilla out with a rolling pin, which works alright but is kind of a slow process. I just purchased a tortilla press, and making those tortillas is so quick and easy! To make corn tortillas, combine 2 cups masa flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 1/4 cups water.  Mix until the dough holds together, adding a little more flour or water if necessary.  It will feel kind of like Playdoh when it's ready. Next, section the dough into 16 sections, and form each into a ball.  At this stage, I also like to ...

People who can eat anything sometimes ask, “What can you eat?”   Here’s what my family is eating this week.   Naturally, we’ll be enjoying gluten free versions of those foods that would ordinarily be made with wheat. Sunday:   Sausage and Mushroom Scramble ; gluten free pancakes made with Pamela’s Gluten Free Baking Mix Monday: Chili and Gluten Free Cornbread Tuesday: Roast Chicken with potatoes and carrots (roasting extra chicken to use on Thursday); Orange& Hazelnut Salad (without the turkey) Wednesday: Spaghetti, garlic bread and green salad Thursday: Chicken Soft Tacos (using leftover chicken from Tuesday) Friday:   Beef Pot Pie (homemade with gluten free crust) Saturday:   Soup and Sandwiches on Gluten Free Whole Grain Bread What are you planning for this week? Cindy

This Orange Cranberry Pork Roast is a delicious hot dish for a cold day and makes good use of leftover cranberry sauce after Thanksgiving. I make this pork roast in a Dutch Oven, but if you don't have one, you can brown the roast in one pan and roast it in the oven in another. First, season the meat with salt and pepper, then brown the pork roast in a little oil. Next, combine 1/2 cup brown sugar with 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar. I used Tangerine Fig Balsamic, because that's what I had, but any balsamic vinegar is fine.  Pour the mixture over the pork roast. Peel and dice one large orange. Top the pork roast with the orange pieces.  I really like this homemade cranberry sauce . Pour the cranberry sauce over the pork roast. Pour 1/4 cup water into the bottom of the Dutch oven/roasting pan. Cover and place into a 350 degree F. oven for 1 hour, then roast uncovered for 30 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the pork is at least 145 d...

  This recipe for gluten free pie crust makes a double crust. If you’re not making two pumpkin pies, you can freeze the second crust for later. To do this, roll out the crust about half way to the size you’ll need, wrap it well and freeze. Defrost in the refrigerator for at least a few hours before rolling out. I use the Libby’s recipe for the pumpkin pie filling , but with less ginger and cloves, but the pie in the photo was made with fresh pumpkin from our garden. Oh, and just to confuse things, while the following recipe for gluten free pie crust makes two crusts, the recipe for the pumpkin pie filling is for only one pie. Tip: I’ve found that gluten free pie dough rolls out better and is easier to work with if you make it at least a few hours or up to a day ahead. The extra time in the refrigerator seems to help it hold together better. Step-by-step photos of pie crust in progress can be seen in my post about Gluten Free Orchard Fruit Pie. Gluten Free Pie Crust (d...

Summer brings us an abundance of fresh fruit.  Most of this fruit is consumed raw, but sometimes we buy more that we are able to eat while it's still fresh.  This Orchard Fruit Pie is a good way to use up excess fruit and is a delicous gluten free dessert.  Here's how it's made: For the crust, combine the dry ingredients.  Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter until crumbly. Mix together the egg, 1 tablespoon of the water, and the vinegar.  Work into the flour/butter mixture, adding an additional 1 tablespoon of water if needed for the dough to hold together. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured silicone baking sheet or on parchment. Place pie dough in a 9-inch pie plate, trim off the excess (or roll under for a thicker edge) and crimp. Place the pie crust into the refrigerator to chill. For the filling, combine the sugar and cornstarch, then stir the mixture into the fruit. This pie contains cherries, blueberries, and nectarines. Make the...

I just tried Domino's Pizza with gluten free crust.  It was soooooo good!  I ordered pizza for my family via the Domino's website, and the gluten free pizza crust is one of the crust options when ordering.  As soon as I clicked on the gluten free crust option, this disclaimer popped up letting me know that my gluten free pizza would be prepared in the same kitchen where the regular pizza was being prepared, meaning there would be a chance for cross-contamination. Since I'm willing to trust that the chance of contamination is small, and this isn't a serious allergy situation, I'm OK with that.  I know there are people with Celiac that must adhere to absolutely no gluten whatsoever in there diet.  I've found that I'm OK with "under 20 ppm", so I took my chances. So far, so good. And the pizza was excellent.  The gluten free crust is thin and crispy, but without being overly dry or cracker-like.  Most of Domino's pizza's can be made o...

I'm currently hosting a giveaway of Shaklee Sports Nutrition products at my other blog, Sidetracked Artist .  Please enter there. Cindy

Jules Gluten Free makes a really good gluten free all purpose flour. It’s my favorite gluten free all purpose flour and I’ve been substituting it in some of my gluten free recipes with good results. I’ve also tried substituting it for regular (white flour made from wheat) flour in some regular recipes as well. I substituted Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour in the Nestle Toll House Cookie recipe to make delicious chocolate chip cookies. They did spread a little more on the parchment lined pan than I remember them spreading with regular flour but they were delicious. Interestingly, the cookie dough that I stored in the freezer baked up better, spreading less. So next I tried the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe on the Jules Gluten Free website . Some pans of cookies still spread slightly more than I would have liked, but it seemed to be related to which type of pan they were baked on.  The douple layer cookie sheets without sides resulted...

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.                                                                 ~ Berthold Auerbach Working in the kitchen is tedious sometimes.  I haven't always felt like this.  I used to love playing with food, trying out new flavor combinations, learning what worked and what didn't.   But after decades of  following recipes, developing recipes, or just throwing things together, I'm kind of tired of the whole thing. OK, I'll admit that being tired most of the time anyway doesn't help, but preparing food frequently feels more like work than the play.  Nevertheles...

My childhood Thanksgivings always included canned jellied cranberry sauce.  You know, the kind that you can push out of the can and slice.  There's nothing wrong with canned cranberry sauce, but making cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries is so easy.  And I think it tastes better.  I like the chunky texture of my homemade cranberry sauce and the not-too-sweet tartness of it.  And best of all, it can be made a couple of days ahead of time. Cranberry Sauce 1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries (nearly 2 cups) 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/2 cup water Combine ingredients in a 2-quart saucepan.  Cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.  Remove cover, stir, and simmer (uncovered) for 5 to 10 minutes.  Mash cranberries with the back of a large spoon.  Allow to cool, store in the refrigerator in a covered container. Printable Version

“Have you tried Udi’s bread?” is the question going around the gluten free community. Udi’s Whole Grain Gluten Free Bread is unbelievably good. It is not just “good for gluten free bread”. It is good bread. It is also sometimes hard to find. I appreciate the convenience of being able to buy good gluten free bread and other pre-prepared gluten free foods. However, with both my daughter and myself avoiding gluten, it’s good to be able to prepare gluten free foods at home as well. This is especially true of bread, since we usually eat breakfast and lunch at home and can go through bread quickly. With the Udi’s Gluten Free bread in mind, I developed a recipe for Gluten Free Whole Grain Bread. It also makes really good sandwich rolls. I wish there was some way to share the delicious fragrance in my house when the bread came out of the oven. The whole house smelled like homemade bread, real bread.   When I worked as a food scientist developing products for the food industr...