Are you faced with the unique challenge of living gluten free? It might seem like a simple and straight forward task at first, simply not buy anymore foods with gluten in them. Naturally for anyone who has been gluten free for any amount of time, it’s not all that easy. It’s takes a lot of adapting and testing and trial. Here are some of top resources for gluten free living.
In the last several years adjusting to our families gluten free needs I have experimented with many different adaptations to recipes. One of the things that was the hardest to adapt was a basic white sauce that is foundational for so many other recipes through some mistakes and trial and error I stumbled on a very simple way to make a gluten free white sauce with hardly any difficulty. If you can add a gluten free white sauce to your family cooking the French would say you have the first of the mother sauces.
Gluten Free White Sauce Recipe
1/2 cup butter or margarine melted in a sauce pan
1/2 cup sweet rice flour (regular rice flour will not work it must be sweet rice flour)
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
Stir all of the dry ingredients into the melted margarine on medium high heat until the flour is thoroughly coated in the butter
4 cups milk (rice milk to make this GFCF)
Immediately whisk in a small amount of the milk gradually pouring as you whisk to avoid making lumps in your sauce. When all the milk has been added stir continuously for about 10 minutes until the sauce is completely thickened.
Now you are ready for the next steps in your recipes for your meal you have a white sauce that is the mother to all dishes using the béchamel sauce as a base.
Our autistic children have a terrible time digesting gluten. They do not have celiac disease but we have found they function much better on a gluten free diet. The economic situation in general and specifically for our family has made it extremely difficult to afford to buy ready made gluten free bread. We spent years trying different recipes and through combination came up with a bread that is very good. if you are using to eating wonder bread this is not what you are looking for. This bread is GFCF and vegetarian.
Gluten Free Bread Recipe
1 Tbsp. Yeast
1 3/4 cup Warm Water
Activate the Dry Yeast in the warm water making sure to stir it all in.
1 cup Garbanzo Bean Flour (Chick Pea Flour) {you can substitute white bean flour or corn flour}
1 1/2 cup Rice Flour (brown rice or white rice) {do not use sweet rice it ruins the consistency of the bread}
3 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar (substitute Stevia)
Stir all the dry ingredients together mixing thoroughly.
2 eggs beaten
2 Tbsp. oil
1 tsp. vinegar
Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and add to bread maker or use dough hook on your Kitchen Aid mixer to mix thoroughly.
For Breadmaker set to medium and let it bake.
For conventional oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray with baking spray a traditional bread pan and fill with dough. Let it set and rise for 30 minutes to one hour. Bake for 40 minutes or until center is not doughy and crust is brown
For sweet bread like raisin bread or cinnamon bread add 1/2 cup of sugar to dry ingredients. 2 tsp. vanilla to wet ingredients and at the end fold in fruit or spices of your choice. (we really like cinnamon craisins {dried cranberries})
For herb bread add herbs, garlic, onion, or dried vegetables of choice.
Our adult daughters decided to go vegetarian several years ago and for the first few months they were indiscriminate about eating any of the multitudinous choices for vegetarian meat substitutes. The grocery store offered a huge selection and we even frequented Burger King often for their veggie burger. Unfortunately they started to have the side effects of eating a diet that was extremely high in wheat consumption and so it was necessary for us to find other options for them to round out their diet. In addition to avoiding a diet so concentrated on wheat, I was also concerned with finding substitutes that had high protein and weren’t all made for soy products.
My Gluten Free Vegetarian Burgers
I have come up with a recipe for gluten free veggie burgers that has diverse function. The girls frequently have a veggie burger patty for their lunch. However, I also frequently crumble up one of the burgers and fry it for serving with Tacos or Spanish rice or any other meal that calls for ground beef.
Recipe for Gluten Free Veggie Burgers
1/2 pound Black Quinoa (grain that is high in protein) rinse well to remove bitter flavor
1/2 pound Black Beans Soak the black beans overnight in cold water or add beans to boiling water remove heat and soak for one hour.
Cook beans at medium heat until extremely tender. Cook Quinoa in 6 cups of boiling water for 30 minutes.
Drain beans and quinoa and put in Vitamix blender and blend until beans are mostly smooth.
Add 2 eggs (for vegan version leave out egg and add 1 tsp. xanthan gum)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. liquid smoke (you can substitute other spices or seasoning to make more of a sausage flavor)
Our family has a very unique diet. Several of our older children have been vegetarian for years for health and social reasons. We also have two special needs children who need a gluten free diet for the digestive system. So when all of this came together we had to figure out how to remake some of our favorite dishes. I didn’t look online, I just started thinking about how I could make lasagne using vegetables instead of pasta and still have the great flavor. Our family is not vegan so for those of you who do not eat any cheese you may need to modify the ingredient lists to make vegan lasagna gluten free.
Vegetarian Lasagna Wheat Free Recipe
One small onion
Two garlic cloves
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Mince the onion and garlic and sauté in the olive oil.
1 small can tomato paste
1 small can tomato sauce
1 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning
Add to the minced onion and garlic and simmer while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
1 head cabbage
1 small eggplant
1 green bell pepper
10 mushrooms
2 medium tomatoes
Peel cabbage leaves and cut into square the size of a small serving of veggie lasagna. Clean the pepper and and slice into thin slices and cut in half. Slice mushrooms into thin slices. slice Tomatoes into thin slices. Cut Eggplant vertically and then into squares the same size of the cabbage squares. You can also use yellow summer squash or zucchini instead of the eggplant. You can make your gluten free vegetable lasagna with any fresh vegetables from your garden. We have used thin sliced carrots, spinach leaves, celery, etc.. cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking pan with a thin layer of the tomato and onion sauce. Then put in a single layer of cabbage.
24 oz. of Ricotta Cheese (or cottage Cheese)
16 oz. graded Mozzarella Cheese
Parsley
Mix them all together. take half of the cheese mixture with your hands and drop it over the first layer of cabbage leaves in your baking pan for your vegetarian lasagna gluten free. Then add a layer of eggplant or ladle half of the sauce over the eggplant. spread the rest of the cheese mixture over the sauce and add your other vegetables and mushrooms (save the sliced tomatoes for the top). Add a final layer of cabbage and top with 4 oz. of grated mozzarella and top with tomato slices sprayed with olive oil and sprinkled with Italian seasoning. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes let sit for 10 minutes and serve. This is not a thick dish so you may need to serve it in a bowl. You can make your veggie lasagna thicker by using two cans of tomatoes paste and leave out the tomatoes sauce.
Where to Buy Gluten Free Products became an everyday question for us when we found that our ASD children had a gluten intolerance. They do not have celiac disease so we don’t have quite the battle that other parents have, but still we realized that almost everything we were using had some form of wheat or other glutinous grain in it. Where to buy gluten free products when you live in a rural area with a budget is a much different question than where to buy gluten free products in Berkley or some other large alternative city.
Where To Buy Gluten Free Products Easy to Use
If you trying to find where to buy gluten free products that are easy to use, the last two years have seen a significant increase in options. This week I was able to find Gluten Free Products in almost every department of Wal-Mart. We also have other grocery stores that care whole sections of health foods that include many options for gluten free products. Amazon is where to buy items that you need shipped to you that are a little more standard. You can also shop high end at igourmet where you find some very nice gourmet items that are wheat free and gluten free.
Where to Buy Gluten Free Products in Bulk
If you have a large family like we do the prices of gluten free products will cause you to ask where to buy gluten free products in bulk. We have found that our local food coop offers us many options for large volume of the products that we use most frequently. I have also found many listings online for bulk products like xantham gum (substitute for gluten to hold homemade gluten free bread together).
