Corn bread

A healthy and quick corn bread is easy to make. Great for snacks.

BLOG UPDATE: Please note that this recipe was updated Nov. 1, 2007. I found this version to me much better.

Ingredients
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1/3 cup corn meal
1/3 cup tapioca starch
1/3 cup sorghum flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
pinch sea salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp syrup -- cane, maple, honey, etc.
2/3 cup water

Heat oven to 350. Grease 8x8 pan with organic vegetable shortening. Mix dry ingredients. Add liquids. If too lumpy, add more water. Spread evenly in pan. Bake for 12 minutes. That's it.

Garlicky chicken

I've read how garlic is a natural detoxifier and I try to work it into as many recipes as possible. Others to consider, and read about on your own, are cilantro and cumin. Back to garlic. This dish is very simple -- Garlic Chicken.

Ingredients
-----------
2 chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into strips or nuggets.
2 tsp canola oil
1 tsp sea salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
tapioca starch

OK, this takes no time at all. Cut the chicken and put in a mixing bowl. Add the oil and stir to coat. You just want enough oil to coat the chicken, not drench it. You don't add oil to the pan. Next, sprinkle the sea salt and enough tapioca starch to coat, maybe a couple tablespoons. Stir the chicken to get that light coating on. This isn't a coating like a chicken nugget, just a very light starch coating. As the pan's heating to medium high, crush the garlic and chop. When hot, toss the chicken in along with the garlic, mixing it around. Stir to cook all sides evenly. Serve.

Farmer's breakfast

I don't have a photo of this but may add one later. This is a great weekend treat and a chance for the whole family to eat together. Some of this depends on whether you can eat eggs or not. If you can't, just delete it. Make the rest. It'll still be great.

Ingredients
------------
2 eggs per person
2 sausage links per person (pork or turkey is fine -- check out Wellshire Farms products for some excellent allergy-free, nitrate-free options, or if you wish, buy from a local farmer)
AND/OR 2 strips bacon (same options here has with sausage, and check out Applegate Farms products for another option)
Pancakes -- see recipe here
Pure maple syrup, honey, Smuckers jam or agave syrup, etc.
Rolls
Mellon, oranges, bananas, etc.

Enjoy your family!

Taco Pie anyone?

My kids love Taco Pie, which is a recipe in Lisa Lewis' Special Diets for Special Kids Two. We call this pizza, because it looks like deep dish pizza. And, I've modified the recipe a little in a way that actually creates a "cheesy" texture to the inside. So, to get the original recipe, you'll have to buy the book. Here's my version:

Ingredients
------------
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 medium onion, chopped
taco seasoning mixture -- see recipe below
1 cup milk substitute (I use Darifree)
2 eggs (I use Ener-G egg substitute)
1/2 cup flour baking mix -- see recipe below
1/4 cup salsa (either homemade or I also will use Tostitos brand milk salsa. Frito Lay claims this is GF, CF, MSG free, soy free and egg free. See the company's allergen info here.)

So, first, cook the beef over a medium heat with the onion.

While it's cooking, make the taco seasoning. This is 2 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp crushed dried red pepper, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1 tsp sea salt, 1/2 tsp tapioca starch, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp cumin. Mix well.

Heat oven to 400.

Now, make the flour baking mix. This is my version.
- 2.75 cups gf flour (3/4 cup sorghum flour, 1 cup tapioca starch, 1 cup potato starch)
- 1/8 cup baking powder
- 2 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2-3 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 cup canola oil
Mix the dry ingredients well in a bowl. Pour in oil. Then mix well with a beater to blend oil in.

Grease a pie plate. I use Spectrum organic shortening.

Drain meat mixture. Pour into pie plate and spread around.

Top with salsa, as much or little as you want. I do it in blotches. If I don't have salsa, I pour a little ketchup here and there.

If you're using egg subs, make them first and let sit a few minutes.

In a bowl, combine milk sub, egg (or egg sub), and baking mix until blended. It may be a little lumpy and that's OK. It will be liquidy. Pour over the meat mixture.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out cleanly.

Easy variations of this are hamburger pie, by eliminating salsa and taco seasoning. You could add an onion seasoning mix to this if you wanted.

Pancrepes!

Ever had pancakes? How about crepes? What about pancrepes?

No, well then you'll just have to try these. This is a homemade recipe (I'm sure you can tell). I normally make pancakes using a gf flour base that's equal thirds potato starch, tapioca starch and chickpea flour. I'm trying to cutback the bean. So, I eliminated it and made the base half potato and half tapioca, just to see what would happen.

Anyway, here's the recipe. I wrapped these immediately around a teaspoon of jelly, using the jelly to help seal them. You could use, of course, any filling.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup tapioca starch
- 1/2 cup potato starch
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp syrup (I used Steen's cane syrup. You could use maple or agave or honey.)
- canola oil
- 1/3 cup water
- Smuckers jelly or other filling

I heated a pan with a little oil. Mix all the ingredients well. You'll have to work through the starch well as it's tough. When hot, drop a tablespoon of batter into the pan at a time. This cooks quickly, so flip when the edges start to turn. Fill with a tsp of jelly or other filling, folding the pancrepe together or rolling.

Grind away

So, I've been experimenting again. This time with flours. My goal is to find other flours that work in the recipes I use most. I rely mostly on chickpea flour and, in some sweets, sorghum flour. I mix those in with tapioca and potato starches.

I bought some quinoa grain at $2 a pound and some amaranth grain. Mind you, quinoa flour sells for $6/1.5 lbs. Amaranth, just as much.

Anyway, I threw the grain in my coffee grinder on a fine setting and let it rip. Worked out very well. I made my pancake recipe using the quinoa flour -- turned out perfectly. The amaranth is courser and I haven't used it yet.

This opened my eyes to the world of grinding. Grinders of all types are sold. You'll want a stronger one if you plan to grind corn and nuts, etc. There's a nice comparison of grinders at the Walton Feed website.

It's yet another economical way -- in the long run -- to stick to the GFCF diet.

Asian chicken

Another real easy chicken dish. I had made too many recipes based on a seasoning mixture of chili powder, sea salt and cumin that I decided to go another route altogether. This worked nicely.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast, cut up
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tbsp canola oil
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp cane syrup (I use Steen's. You could sub honey, real maple syrup, Agave syrup, etc. I used Steen's because of the "dark" flavor it has that lends itself well to Asian dishes.)

OK -- heat a pan on the stove. Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Toss into pan. Heat until chicken's cooked (or precook chicken and then just heat to serve). Serve with a favorite veggie.