Easy Gluten-Free Tomato Soup

Did you know that regular tomato soup has wheat flour in it? We keep the ends of gluten-free bread in a bag in the freezer, just for recipes like this.

Ingredients:

1 can whole peeled tomatoes
1-1/2 cup gluten-free broth or bullion
1 small carrot
1/2 onion
1 slice toast, chopped into cubes
1 tsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt


Directions:

1. Chop up the carrot & onion.
2. Dissolve 1-1/2 tsp. bouillon powder into 1-1/2 cup boiling water (if using bullion)
3. In medium saucepan, pour in the can of tomatoes. Using a potato masher or a pair of scissors, break the tomatoes into smaller pieces. You don't need to be too precise, because it's all going in the blender at the end.
4. Add the bullion or broth and the carrots, onions, spices, and toast.
5. Bring to a boil, then let simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes.
6. Pour the whole thing into a food processor. You might want to use a ladle to start with, because getting splashed with boiling hot soup is no fun.
7. Blend for about 20-30 seconds until smooth.
8. Some people like pepper, sour cream, parsley, butter, or other toppings on top!

Ham+Cheese Soup

Since everyone in our family has been down with a cold, we decided a warm soup would be nice.  My mom found this recipe from the blog My Gluten-Free Kitchen, and it is a favorite.

Ingredients:

1¾ cups water
2 cups peeled, cubed potatoes (cubes about ½" to ¾"), we like red potatoes but any works
½ cup sliced carrots 
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. salt
¾ tsp. garlic salt
½ tsp. pepper
¼ cup butter
¼ cup cornstarch
2 cups milk
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese (cubed or shredded)
2 cups frozen or fresh corn
2 cups cubed ham (cooked)


Directions:

1.  In a large pot, bring water, potatoes, carrots, and garlic to a boil. Stir in salt, garlic salt, and pepper.
2.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until potatoes and carrots are tender. Add the ham cubes and frozen corn. Reduce heat to lowest setting.
3.  Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt the butter, then whisk in the cornstarch.  Add the milk to the butter/cornstarch mixture and whisk together.
4.  Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.  Add cheddar cheese cubes or shreds and stir until melted.
5.  Pour creamy contents of medium saucepan into the large pot of ham and vegetables. Heat through over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until read to serve. Taste a little to see if you would prefer additional seasonings.

Classic Pancakes

I was scrolling through my posts when I realized, to my horror, that our classic panckae recipe has never been published!  At long last, here it is.

Ingredients:

1 cup All-Purpose Flour Mix #6.5 (get recipe here)
1 Tb white sugar
1 Tb brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten well
2 Tb vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk, increase amount if necessary

Directions:

1.  In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients.  Add wet ingredients.  Mix well, but do not over mix.
2.  Pour batter onto a lightly greased griddle on medium heat.  When bubbles come through to the surface, flip pancakes.  It usually takes a little longer than wheat pancakes.

Growing!

Just an update about me: I am growing! (yay!)  Here's a look at my growth chart thing:

Not only am I growing, but my headaches are almost all-the-way gone.  I still get the occasional headache, but only once every few months at the most.  I feel so much better all the time.

Sushi-o-rama: Making the Sushi

After you cooked the sushi rice and, if you wanted, the cucumber salad, you can start making sushi! A lot of sushi making if finding the toppings you like and figuring out good combinations.  You do need some basic ingredients and supplies, though.

Necessary Ingredients

seaweed, in sheets, or rice paper (most are gluten free)
some kind of sushi rolling device, we have bamboo place mats that work great.
saran wrap
sushi rice (see my sushi rice post to see how to make it)

Then you need fillings.  There are tons of different foods you can use, here are the ones we use.

Fillings

--We have used these--
Cucumber sticks, plain or Japanese cucumber salad sticks.
baby shrimp (we buy them cooked)
avocado
fake LOBSTER- do not use fake crab, it has wheat! For some reason, lobster does not. *UPDATE: we recently bought gluten free fake crab!  Just check the label when buying fake crab/lobster*
smoked salmon
cream cheese
mango or papaya

--We haven't used these, but they would be yummy--
real crab
fish eggs
asparagus
shredded carrots
red bell pepper
Feeling adventurous?  Try raw meat, but it's not my fault if you get sick.

Again, decide on a few toppings that taste good so you don't have tons of shopping to do.

Making the Sushi

--Prep--
1.  Prepare sushi rice and cucumber salad.
2.  Put all the ingredients in little bowls for easy access.  Lay out the sushi rolling mats and cover with saran wrap.  Get rice vinegar to put in little bowls.  If you are handling the rice, you need your fingers wet with vinegar so it doesn't stick to you.

--Sushi--

1.  Lay out sushi seaweed (or rice paper, I am going to say seaweed) on the saran-wrap covered mat in front of you.  The seaweed has a shiny side and a matte side (I don't know how rice paper works).  Lay the matte side up.  Also, there are lines on the seaweed, make sure they are vertical.
2.  Get a spoonful of rice and put it on the bottom of the seaweed.  Spread it on the bottom 3/4 of the seaweed.  Leave a "groove" just above the first quarter.  The groove will be where you put the ingredients.  Try to spread the rice more than squish it.
3.  Choose your fillings, I recommend three ingredients.  Lay them horizontally across the groove, making sure they go all the way to the edges.
4.  Roll the sushi.  This is the "hard part", but once you get the hang of it, it is really easy.  I am ok at it, but my rolls turn out really fat.  My mom has ninja-sushi rolling skills, we don't know how she does it so perfectly.  She has a strategy to her rolling. Here are her instructions:

• Pull sushi down to the very bottom of the mat.  Then, grasp the sushi, saran wrap and mat and push it forward in a rolling motion.
• Once the sushi folds over, pull back the mat and saran wrap in a kind of flicking motion.  
• Continue to roll the sushi, also continuing the flicking.

To watch the rolling, skip to 2:00 on the video above. 

5.  Get a sharp knife and cut the roll into inch-and-a-half slices.  Ta-da! Sushi.

Baking flour mix #1 (ATK)

My dad really likes the America's Test Kitchen How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook, mostly because of one thing: non-fat powdered milk.  Including this in a flour mix helps the bread's structure, and also helps it brown, giving it a more traditional appearance.

We call this the ATK mix, even though they only use rice flour.

2 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup white bean flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1-1/2 tablespoon nonfat milk powder

This gives just under four cups. If you need four cups for a recipe, just add more rice flour. We keep a container labeled ATK, because a lot of baking recipes just use 3 cups, and the extra then goes into storage.

This mix is used in our coffee cake recipe.

Coffee Cake

I'll make this short so you can bake this as soon as possible (because you NEED to)~ this is the best coffee cake I have ever had.  That includes before GF diet.  I know I have said before that "this doesn't taste GF", but this takes it to a whole new level.  It is really, REALLY good.  My mom says, "Seriously, best coffee cake [I've] ever had, even before gluten free.  Loved it!"

Ingredients:

Cake:

4 eggs
1-1/2 cups sour cream and/or plain yogurt
3-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-2/3 cups Baking Flour mix (see ATK flour recipe)
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 stick butter (unsalted), cut into pieces & softened
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Topping:

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons softened butter
1 cup powdered sugar
5 teaspoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1.  In medium bowl, whisk eggs, then add 1 cup sour cream and 1 tablespoon vanilla and whisk again.

2.  In large bowl, mix all dry ingredients, except the spices, together. Add remaining half-cup of sour cream and the butter. With an electric mixer, mix for one or two minutes. Use a pastry knife to break up big pieces if you have any. Slowly add the egg mixture, mixing on high for another minute.  Batter should end up thick but fluffy.
3.  Preheat oven to 350. Grease a bundt pan (round cake pan with tube in middle).
4.  Put one cup of the batter into a small bowl, and pour the rest into bundt pan.
5.  Add in the remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, the tablespoon cinnamon, and the nutmeg to the cup of batter in the small bowl.  Stir well to make a nice dark batter!

6.  Drop a tablespoon of the cinnamon batter onto the top of the batter in the bundt.  Continue around in a circle, probably making 8 blobs of the cinnamon batter around the top of the regular batter. Using a butter knife, swirl each blob so that it gets mixed up in the column of batter directly below it. It doesn't matter too much how messy you are because this will be covered with the toppings. Basically, you want pockets of cinnamon within the cake. Do your best!

7.  Bake cake for about 50 minutes on bottom rack, until skewer comes out clean. Remove from oven, and let cool in the pan for 30 minutes on a wire rack. Then remove from pan (carefully), and let cool another hour.
8.  While cake is cooking, get the nuts ready. Chop the walnuts finely, mix with the cinnamon, sugar, and softened butter. Spread on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Stick this in the oven for about 10 minutes on the top rack while the cake is baking. Open & close door quickly to keep oven hot! Stir after five minutes.
9.  In small bowl, mix the cup of powdered sugar with the milk and vanilla extract until smooth.

10.  Once cake is completely cool, pour the glaze over the top.  It's good to have it drip off the sides!
11.  Spread the nuts on top.
12.  Let sit for 20 minutes or until glaze is somewhat set.

(This recipe is based on the America's Test Kitchen How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook, p. 56.)

Spicy Baked Chicken

This is my mom's go-to chicken recipe, so I figured it should be posted!  This chicken always turns out great and isn't super dry like a lot of chicken.

Ingredients

1 3-pound broiler-fryer chicken, cut into pieces 

1 chicken bouillon cube 
1/2 cup boiling water 
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 
2 cloves garlic, minced 
1 tsp. curry powder 
1 tsp. dried oregano 
1 tsp. salt 
1/2 tsp. dry mustard 
1/2 tsp. paprika 
1 teaspoon Tabasco pepper sauce (for less spice: 1/2 tsp.)

Directions
1.  Preheat oven to  375°F.  Place chicken pieces, skin side down, in a large, shallow baking pan.  
2.  In a measuring cup, dissolve bouillon cube in boiling water.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
3.  Spoon mixture over chicken and bake for 30 minutes.  Turn chicken over and baste with juices (pour juices on chicken) in pan.  Bake another 20 to 30 minutes or until chicken is done.

Classic Sandwich Bread

This bread is just the best, no doubt about it.  Before I talk more about it, let's take a second and appreciate how our bread looks like the picture in the book (America's Test Kitchen, the How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook). 

Impressive!

This morning for school, this is the bread I ate.  No embellishments, like you need with Udi bread; just butter.    

My mom says, "It's the first bread that has reminded me of the bread we used to have.  It's not as starchy as a lot of the other breads".  My sister, a girl of few words, says, "Yummy."  My dad, the baker, says, "One of the easiest GF recipes I've tried."

As you can see, this bread is a winner!

Ingredients:

2 cups of warm water (110° F) 

2 large eggs 

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted         

   and cooled 

1 1/2 cup rice flour

1/2 cup millet flour 

1/4 cup quinoa flour

1/3 cup tapioca flour

1/2 cup potato starch

1 1/3 cups gluten-free oat flour 

1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder 

3 tablespoons powdered psyllium husk* 

2 tablespoons sugar 

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

1.  Spray 5 x 9" (about) loaf pan with vegetable oil spray.  Whisk water, eggs, and melted butter together in bowl.  Using a mixer, mix all the flours, potato starch, milk powder, psyllium, sugar, yeast, baking powder, and salt together on low speed until combined.  Slowly add water mixture and let dough come together for about one minute.  Increase speed to medium and beat until sticky and uniform, about six minutes.  (Dough looks like cookie dough, but does not taste like it.)

2.  Cover and let rise at room temperature until dough has risen by about a third in volume.  This takes about an hour.

3.  Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat oven to 350°.  Spray loaf with water.  Bake until top is golden brown, crust is firm, and loaf sounds hollow when tapped, about 1 1/2 hours, rotating pan halfway through baking.

4.  Move pan to wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.  Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack, about two hours.  Eat with butter, honey, or jam.   

*Psyllium husks are tricky to find.  We found ours in a Natural Grocers type store in the bulk section.

How to Cook Quinoa

Quinoa is world-renowned for being a healthy superfood.  In fact, it contains all nine amino acids (amino acids are essential in most bodily functions).  My family cooks quinoa (keen-WAH) pretty often, and every time we go to cook it, we forget how to make it.  It's a nice, healthy break from rice, which is at practically every meal.  Here is the basic how to for making regular old quinoa.

Directions:

For every one cup of quinoa, use two cups water. (1-2, 2-4, 3-6, etc.)

One cup of dry quinoa makes about three cups when cooked. 

1.  Combine quinoa with double the amount of water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. 

2.  Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes.  

Note: you can rinse the quinoa first, it makes it less bitter.