Gluten-Free Corn Bread

I love winter comfort foods. My favorite thing to pair with a good soup is corn bread, but I have struggled for years to find a good recipe. Today was cold, so I had soup cooking for dinner. On a whim I decided to give corn bread another whirl. It turned out so incredibly great. I played with an old recipe and it ended up being fantastic. Even my husband thinks so, and he’s quite opinionated when it comes to gluten-free breads. I think we’ll be eating this a lot this winter.

Gluten-Free Corn Bread
Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl:
1/2 C. Rice flour
1/2 C. Tapioca flour
1 C. Yellow cornmeal
1/2 tsp Xanthan gum
2 Tbs Sugar
1 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt

In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients:
2 eggs
1 egg white
1 C. plain yogurt
2 Tbsp melted butter (I did pureed beans)
1/4 C. water

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine. Spoon into a greased 8” pan (mine was dirty so I did it in a 9” round pan and that worked well, too) and bake at 400 for 20-25 min. The top should “spring” when you press on it.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have survived moving across the country 5 weeks after having baby #3, and I’m finally ready to start making new things again. Hooray for that! I’ve tried a few new recipes I hope to post soon, but first I am posting this recipe for my favorite Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. I’m kind of amazed that it’s taken me this long to do it, since I’ve had the recipe since 2003. It’s in my recipe binder but suddenly I feel greatly inconvenienced when I can’t pull up a recipe I want online. =) Anyway…These are good cookies. I love them because they’re easy and very forgiving. I’ve used all sorts of flour blends depending on what I have and they turn out great. Also, they don’t require xanthan gum. Because I’m super cheap, that’s important to me. I love these cookies fresh out of the oven or out of the fridge, but my VERY FAVORITE way to eat these is warm with vanilla ice cream on top. Amazing.


Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Combine:
1/4 C. butter (softened)
1 1/2 C. sugar
(beat ‘til fluffy)

Add:
1 egg
1 1/2 C. pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla
(mix well)

In a separate bowl, whisk together:
2 1/2 C GF flour (I used 1 C Rice, 1 C Oat, and 1/2 C. Corn starch, but I’ve used several different combos with Tapioca flour, potato startch, sorghum flour, etc. Use what you have.)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 C. chocolate chips (I like the mini)
1/2 C. chopped walnuts (optional, but super good)

Slowly add dry mixture to wet ingredients and mix well. The batter should be pretty moist. Spoon batter by tablespoon onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 15-17 min.

Gluten-Free Pancakes

• Last year I found a bunch of GF Bisquick on serious clearance at Smith's. I bought 13 boxes. I love that stuff so much. Last week I used the last box and I was so sad. I can't bring myself to spend nearly $5 for 3 cups of pancake mix. I just can't do it. So....I started looking for a new recipe. Lots of GF pancake recipes are too dense or gritty for me. This one has great texture, by my standards. I adapted it from a recipe on allrecipes.com.

Gluten Free Pancakes

• 1 cup rice flour
• 5 tablespoons tapioca flour
• 1/3 cup potato starch
• 1 Tbsp sugar (optional)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 cups milk

Combine dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Mix well. Add eggs, oil and milk and stir to combine. Cook on a well-sprayed skillet....like you would any normal pancake. I feel like a goober writing pancake instructions. Happy breakfast to you!

Gluten Free Tomato Soup

One of the “regular foods” I miss the most in the winter time is canned tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. I’ve tried a few recipes for tomato soup and never quite loved it. This is a mix of several recipes I’ve tried and I think it’s awesome. I made this with my 4 year old daughter one afternoon last week and we had so much fun.

Tomato Soup

3 (15 oz) cans tomatoes (you can use whole, diced, whatever…it’s just going in the blender)

1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce

1 cup chicken broth

1 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp dried basil

1/2-1  cup chopped onion (I only did 1/2 cup but next time I’ll do more)

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup skim milk

Put all ingredients except the milk into large pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes. Pour soup into a blender (I did this in 2 batches) and blend on low for about 30 seconds, until smooth. Return to pot and add milk. Eat with grilled cheese sandwiches. =)

No-Bake Cookies

I was craving chocolate and my daughter wanted to make cookies. To satisfy both of us, we decided on these little babies. I did a ridiculous amount of research to figure out why mine are always either too crumbly or too runny. I guess when I'm pregnant I take cookies pretty seriously. Here's what I learned: it's all in the boiling time. If you boil too long they're crumbly, not long enough they're runny. You have to set the timer for 90 seconds as soon as it starts boiling and then when the timer goes off, immediately remove the pan from the heat. This was my first time trying it this way and they were absolutely perfect. Happy chocolate to you.

No-Bake Cookies
1 3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk (I used vanilla almond milk)
1/2 c. butter
4 Tbsp unsweetened baking cocoa
1/2 c. crunchy peanut butter
3 c. gluten free quick oats
1 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa in a medium sauce pan. Bring the mixture to a boil and let boil for 90 seconds. Remove from heat immediately. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Add oats and stir well. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto parchment paper and allow to cool.

Easy Gluten-Free Pizza Crust

This is my new favorite pizza crust. I have finally stopped buying the packaged stuff because I was able to make something on my own that tasted great AND was really, really, easy. It's even the right kind of texture to roll with a rolling pin, which is a huge bonus, in my opinion. I am looking forward to trying calzones with this because I think it would work perfectly. Original recipe found here.

Easy Gluten-Free Pizza Crust

2/3 c. warm water (or milk)
1 tbsp active dry yeast
2 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Mix above ingredients and set aside while you prepare the rest. In a seperate bowl, combine the following ingredients and mix really well (I do this in my Kitchenaid):

2/3 c. plus 3 tbsp potato starch
3 tbsp sorghum flour
2 tbsp tapioca flour
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cider vinegar
2 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 tsp salt
Rice flour for dusting pan/rolling pin

Add the water/yeast mixture to the mixing bowl and mix well. When the dough is well combined, dust counter or pan with rice flour and roll dough into 12-16 in. circle. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 min. Remove from the oven and top as desired, bake for another 10 min or until toppings are warm/melted.

Chicken Taco Bowls

This is one of my new favorite recipes, so I thought it was a good one to start off the new year. I’m becoming a bigger fan of my crockpot all the time, mostly because I love being able to just dump a bunch of stuff in there and have dinner ready hours later. Awesome. This is that kind of recipe. It’s super easy, really versatile, and tastes great.

Chicken Taco Bowls
2 large chicken breast halves
1 (16 0z) jar salsa
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and well rinsed
1 c. frozen corn
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp oregano
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 c. chopped cilantro (optional)
1/2 c. uncooked jasmine rice
Shredded lettuce (optional)

Put everything except the rice, cheese and cilantro into the crockpot. However you want. Put the lid on and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high from 4-5 hours. About 45 min before you want to eat, prepare the rice as directed on the package. I like to add a Tbsp of Lime juice and some garlic salt to mine.  Remove lid from crockpot and shred chicken. Mix all ingredients in the pot together and replace lid until ready to eat.
We make ours like this: Place rice on the bottom of your bowl. Then top with lettuce, chicken mixture, cheese and cilantro. You can eat it just like that, or I like to throw a little Ranch dressing on top. I have also used the leftover chicken mixture to make taco salads, nachos, or tacos for lunches.
This is so easy and you can tweak it however you want.