lpellegr

Without knowing more about the bread mix or the breakmaker, I'd suggest double-checking the mix to see if it is suitable for a breadmaker and whether it is meant to be split into two loaves. When I make homemade bread, one loaf usually calls for around 1 cup of water, which makes me suspect this was meant for two loaves or one really huge one. Even though you have a 2 pound breadmaker, there could be some size problems when you try to use it. And you'll have to go back and carefully read your breadmaker's instructions. First times with gluten-free bread are frequently disasters, or at least circuses, and it sometimes takes some trial and error to get it right, so don't give up. Remember that most bread disasters can be cut up and dried out in the oven, then turned into croutons or bread crumbs in the blender or food processor, so it isn't a total waste if you can't slice it for sandwiches.

Most things we can suggest for breakfast might be too messy to eat in the car but if you can wait until you get to work, that might give you more options. When I used to commute by train, I would drink tea out of my thermos and eat cereal and raisins out of a bag (no milk, just dry cereal, Cheerios being my staple). Combining Rice Chex, nuts, and raisins would make something you can eat out of a cup in the cupholder and would have protein and fiber to get you through the morning. Homemade Chex mix would also work. You could make up several daily servings in plastic bags on the weekend, then grab one each day and dump it into your traveling cup. No refrigeration or cooking required before heading out the door. Any kind of sandwich you can make would also work. If you have time to toast a frozen waffle and smear it with cream cheese, that will also hold you.

One note about the shared snacks: I taught the kids to not stick their hands inside the bags (because they don't remember to wash them) but to pour out their portion so they don't comtaminate the rest. My paranoia keeps my guts safe.

Most pots and pans can still be shared - just make sure to really scrub a pot after regular pasta to make sure that ring of starch gets removed. If non-stick pans are in good shape they should be okay, but it's still good to designate one or two just for gluten-free foods. Definitely need separate colanders/strainers, because it's impossible to clean all of the gluten out. Don't use old cast iron because gluten will be stuck in it. You need separate sets of wooden spoons for gluten and gluten-free. I mark my gluten-free spoons with a black ring around the handle drawn on with a Sharpie, and keep them in separate crocks. You need to label things until people finally learn which items to use for which foods - bright red tape on the handle or something that won't get washed or burned off. I keep a scissors just for cutting open gluten-free packages and a separate can opener, because both of those can carry cross-contamination. Anything that can be completely washed by hand or in the dishwasher can be used for any food (glass, metal, ceramic). If something has too many nooks and crannies to clean completely, don't use it for gluten-free if it has been used for gluten (like my beautiful cookie molds, sigh).

Appliances: do you really need a waffle iron or can you make do with frozen Van's gluten-free waffles? You definitely need separate toasters. If you can make sure to clean it completely after each use, a mixer or blender can do for all foods.

Food: you need separate jars of anything that gets spread on bread: mayo, jelly, peanut butter, margarine, butter, etc. I got green stickers and wrote "gluten-free" on them, and red stickers that say "not gluten-free", and after labeling several pages of each have been using them on all duplicate foods for the past 7 years. Squeeze bottles (like ketchup) are fine to share if you can train everybody to NOT TOUCH THE FOOD when they use them.

I designated one drawer in the fridge and one shelf in the freezer to gluten-free foods for me and smacked anyone who went in them. . I got a big Rubbermaid container for keeping gluten-free goodies that I didn't want to share (MY Pirate Booty!) - out of sight, out of mind. I also keep the bags of various flours in there.

I don't have to feed gluten-free teenagers, so I may not need to have as much stuff on hand as you, but I hope this gives you an idea of what you need.

It's also possible that you are accidently ingesting hidden gluten, either in the ingredients of what you are eating, or as cross-contamination from kitchen utensils or other sources. Don't use a strainer that has been used for regular pasta, or wooden spoons or cast iron skillets that have been used for gluten-containing foods. Don't use a shared jar of mayonnaise or margarine or peanut butter that has been spread on regular bread. Don't use a toaster that gets used for gluten breads. Don't eat foods with malt flavoring (like cereals) or soy sauce (like beef jerky or Chinese takeout, unless it's explicitly gluten-free soy sauce). Read all of the FAQs on this site and make double sure that you're not consuming any gluten without meaning to.

Bread caving in is a very common problem. Try: add less liquid than the recipe calls for. Lower the oven temperature by 25 - 50, e.g. bake at 375 instead of 400. When the timer goes off, check the top - if it sinks in easily when you tap it, give it another 5 minutes, and another 5 if necessary until the top feels firm.

I have made little pizzas using hash brown patties as "crust", and the family (who had been given english muffin pizzas) all stared at my plate and demanded to share. Bake them as directed on the package, then top with sauce and cheese and bake until the toppings are hot.

I had decided not to eat any of them now that they make the pretzel ones, from fear of cross-contamination. If they really do label like this, it will be a relief.

Rice Guy's likely right. If you substitute different things, the loaf you get will be different from the original recipe. This could be good or bad, depending on how it turns out. If you're planning to make most of your family's bread, you'll eventually have to experiment to get these breads to come out right and you can expect some failures while you experiment. I tried a lot of recipes before settling on a few for specific uses - one for crumbs, one for sandwiches, etc. Expect a few of them to not work out, but remember you can always take a stupid loaf and make it into bread crumbs or croutons while you try again. You might also find it easier and cheaper to eat less bread - if you depend on bread less, than you can bake for pleasure instead of as a chore. Good luck!

Here's one from Bette Hagman's cookbooks. It is moist on the inside and crusty like a biscuit on the outside. You could skip the caraway seeds if you want.

1-1/2 c gluten free flour mix (Bette Hagman's is white rice, tapioca, cornstarch, and potato starch flour, but probably any would do)

1/2 c tapioca flour

1-1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbl sugar

1/2 c butter

1 T caraway seeds

1 c sour cream

1 T milk

Combine all the dry ingredients except caraway seeds in a bowl. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Add caraway seeds and sour cream. Beat with a mixer about a minute. Form the dough into a round mound in a greased casserole. Brush top with milk. Bake at 375 for 50-55 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack. Slice when completely cooled.

If it was that simple to get rid of gluten, we wouldn't need this forum. Unfortunately, gluten proteins cause an immunological reaction in your body when an antibody recognizes the sequence of amino acids in the protein, and even when they have been broken into small pieces they can still cause trouble. Heat can unravel the protein without breaking it down, and even if it does break it down, it will still have pieces with the triggering sequence and it's still going to cause the same reaction.

Breakfast this week will be CHEESECAKE. Yeah, I know, but the rest of my meals will be salad and vegetable lasagna. Besides, cream cheese has protein, right?

This flour is used because it has a relatively high protein content. I think you could probably use any other bean flour (including soy) if you have it, or sorghum or millet. If you don't have these around (because everyone always has these around, right? ) you could probably use brown rice flour. You might want to add a little more protein in the form of 1 t of gelatin or 1/4 c of dry milk powder, or increase the xanthan gum slightly (1/2 t - 1 t) to help it hold together.

By the way, the Bob's Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal can also be substituted for cornmeal when making corn muffins, if you like a sandier texture (which I do). And it is mighty tasty as a hot cereal, especially with butter and brown sugar. But for texture, Cream of Rice is closest to Cream of Wheat, but I'm not sure I'd trust Nabisco's Cream of Rice not to be cross-contaminated with other things they make.

This is a common and frequent problem with baking gluten-free bread, so it's possible it isn't even related to the egg substitution. Try adding less liquid than it calls for. You probably subbed some liquid for the missing eggs - that may have altered the bread chemistry. Also try putting the bread in a regular oven rather than a breadmaker - you will have more control over how long you leave it in. Don't let it rise above the top of the pan before you put it in. When the timer goes off, touch the top of the loaf. If it's too springy, it needs to bake more. Give it 5 more minutes, test again, and keep testing until the top is firm. You could also poke it with an instant-read food thermometer - it should be 190F before you consider it done. Another option is substituting ground flax seed for the eggs - I'm not sure of the proportions, but you mix the flax seed and water and let it sit before you add it in and it holds the batter together like the eggs would. You should be able to look it up on this site or the web.

I saw a suggestion in the past that you cut the cupcake in half like a layer cake and put the icing in the middle before freezing (no icing on top). It wasn't specifically for gluten-free, but it seems to be worth a try.

If you're planning on getting tested (there's a blood test for antibodies that's easy) for celiac, don't start eating gluten-free because it could mess up the results. Ask for the antibody test, and if it comes back positive, then start eating gluten-free. If it's negative, you can still try eating gluten-free and see if it makes you feel better, because you can still be sensitive to gluten without having celiac disease.

There's simple stuff you can keep around to make things easier when you don't have time to cook: tuna, Oscar Mayer lunchmeats, prepackaged cheeses (beware the deli slicers and possible cross-contamination), Nut Thins crackers, hummus, raw veggies, fruit, frozen Amy's rice mac and cheese, Kozy Shack tapioca, Rice Chex, Yoplait yogurt (without any crunchy toppings), greek yogurt, peanut butter on celery or apples.

Remember that you can't go partially gluten-free - it has to be all or nothing or you might never feel better. Good luck!

I eat the french fries all the time with no problem. Crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside - I gave up all other frozen fries once I found these.

It's really good, isn't it? However, I once did a calorie calculation based on 14 slices per loaf, and found it was around 200 calories/slice, so be careful!

Ask lots of questions. Like Mamaw says, is the fryer dedicated? And if your teenage server looks confused, ask: is anything else cooked in the same oil as the fries, or is it nothing but potatoes going into that fryer? If they say, yes, onion rings or chicken fingers go into that fryer, then no, you can't eat the fries. So if you find that the fryer is safe, then ask: is there any seasoning on the fries? Would it be possible for me to see the list of ingredients? If they can't answer or balk at going to the effort, then be safe and just skip the fries. But be sure to ask even at chains that are known to generally have dedicated fryers, like Chik-Fil-A or Red Robin, because an individual franchise could decide to do their own thing. And even when fryers are dedicated, I've read stories here about the oil from all of the fryers being filtered together at the end of the night and then divided, so the oil could still be contaminated. Eat fries at your own risk.

In my experience the problem with homemade bread isn't mold, but that the bread gets stale and crumbly really fast. Some recipes are better than others and are good up to 4-5 days at room temperature, but for most recipes the bread is only good textured on the first day, so that's the day to slice and freeze it. I hardly ever eat bread any more, so I really need to freeze it in pairs of slices once I go to the trouble of making it. Look up Ginger Lemon Girl's favorite sandwich bread online for the recipe that lasts longer than any other I've tried. Lots of ingredients, but worth it.

I signed up with www.thefreshloaf.com, which is a bread baking forum, to see if I could learn more about breadmaking in general. They have a section for gluten-free and other "special needs" breads (vegan, sugarless, etc), and they appear to have a need for people who actually know what gluten-free means to chime in once in a while and answer questions, because boy, there are a lot of people out there with some really wild ideas of what does and does not have gluten. I'm going to do my best to give people good answers there, because there is a lot of guesswork and inaccuracy so far in what I've read. Maybe some of you with experience can do the same. My handle over there is "gfyarnnerd". The gluten-free posts are not frequent or copious so I'll probably only check in once in a while. I got used to dealing with knowledgeable people here, so it was quite an eye-opener!

This is adapted from my grandmother's recipe.

Sour Cream Blueberry Cake

Cream together 1/2 c butter and 1 c sugar. Add 3 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift together:

2 c sifted flour (I use Bette Hagman's original blend, but any white rice/tapioca/cornstarch or similar flour should work)

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 t xanthan gum

Add the dry ingredients to the egg-sugar-butter in several batches, alternating with 1 c of sour cream, ending with flour.

Stir in 1 t vanilla extract. Fold in blueberries, about 1-1/2 cups fresh or canned. If fresh, toss them with a little flour first, to prevent them sinking to the bottom.

Spoon into cupcake papers. Bake at 400 for 15 - 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. You could also put this in a 9 x 9 pan and bake for about 55 min. Either way, cool it and freeze cupcakes or pieces of cake.

Can you have dairy? I find that a bowl of plain yogurt with fruit or honey to sweeten it and a handful of nuts will keep me full a long time. I think the protein in the nuts is an important part of that. And like other posters said, don't limit yourself to traditional breakfast foods. Make a casserole and scoop some out for breakfast. Have tuna with crackers or leftover meatballs. If you eat protein and fruit or veggies, it will keep you full longer than if you eat just grains for breakfast. This is from personal experience as well as dietary science.

It should be fine. Glutamate refers to chemicals similar to glutamine, an amino acid, not to gluten. I don't know what carex is (brand name?), but the tetrasodium glutamate diacetate is not gluten-related.