Diosa

Let me know how it goes.

That's awesome!! It really does give a bit of a feeling of normalacy when you can have something as simple as bread.

I mixed it with other flours. Unfortunately, one of them was tapioca. It was 3 cups cornstarch, 3 cups tapioca flour, 2 cups garfava flour (it's a combination of garbanze beans (chickpeas) and fava beans and a cup of the sorghum flour. You might be able to replace the tapioca with Teff. Teff is used for Ethiopian breads which I *love*. I've never tried to make it, but I might just have to give that a try someday. Another option for you might be Amaranth, but it is a strong tasting flour. Maybe just try experimenting with cornstarch, garfava and sorghum only in a 3, 2, 1 ratio? I don't know if it could be used alone or not. Might be worth a shot. This is just like in gluten baking - every failure brings you that much closer to success!

I think it was Bob's Red Mill, but I can double check. It wasn't hard to find at all. Whole Foods had it, and I bet any of the gluten-free online stores would carry it.

Totally! I just decided over Christmas to get creative and see what happens. I'd be in a much easier place to do that if I could tolerate dairy or rice or soy flour (or rice or soy milk for that matter). You can buy commercial gluten-free all-purpose flours fairly cheaply, but most are rice flour based. But if you can have it, go for it as it really does help "structural integrity", at least in my opinion. If you can't, I was using a bit more sorghum flour (garfava is great, but a bit "beany" in my taste so I try to use as little of that as I can get away with)

I honestly didn't do anything special, except used lactose-free margarine (Fleischmenns) and used dairy-free semi-sweet morsels (ghiradeli's are wonderful for this). I added a bit more flour and baking powder so the cookies would rise. The recipe I used was Nestle's Tollhouse cookie recipe.

2 1/4 cups gluten-free flour (add more if the dough is a bit runny)

1 Tbsp baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks, 1/2 pound) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated [white] sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs (or egg replacement)

2 cups (12-ounce package) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels, or dairy free morsels

1 cup chopped nuts (OPTIONAL!!)

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts if you are using them. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE in preheated 375-degree [Fahrenheit] oven for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Here's a few others I make. My DH, wwho isn't celiac loves these and regularly inhales them.

Lemon Mustard Chicken

Except for the chicken, the rest of this isn’t really measured, so these are my best guesses. I just chuck a bunch of the stuff together until it “looks right”

2 1/2 to 3 lbs. boneless, skinless, meaty chicken pieces (I prefer thighs, but breasts work well)

2 Tbsp cooking oil or Olive oil

1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

1-2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning

1 1/2 tsp oregano, basil or italian seasoning, crushed

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (I go a bit easy on this)

For better results, marinade the chicken at least 10 minutes in the sauce. If you have the time, marinade longer, up to overnight. If you are REALLY short on time, follow the broiling instructions.

Preheat a skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Place chicken in skillet. Cover and cook about 5-7 minutes each side or until chicken pieces are done. Serve.

If you are broiling. place chicken in the broiler, about 4 inches from the heat. Broil for about 3 minutes then turn. Use the sauce as a glaze and brush ckicken with it. Broil for another couple minutes then turn and brush again. Give it a few more minutes then check for doneness. When done, serve, brushing chicken with any remaining marinade.

Garlicky steak

2 boneless beef top sirloin steaks, or any preferred cut that about 3/4” thick and about 1.5 to 1.75 lbs

1 to 2 tsp bottled minced garlic (around 2-4 cloves)

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp olive oil (or garlic-infused olive oil if you have it)

1 cup beef broth (I use these vegan gluten-free cubes thaat are awesome)

2 tbsp wine

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

These can be done either in a broiler or in a skillet. I usually use the skillet method

Preheat broiler or start heating a skillet with the oil on low-medium heat. Trim fat from steaks. For rub, in a small bowl combine garlic pepper and salt. Sprinkle mixture evenly over both sides of each steak. Rub in with your fingers.

For sauce, in a pan combine beef broth and wine. Cook over high heat for 4-5 minutes or until mixture is reduced to about 1/2 cup. Whisk in mustard. Cover sauce and keep on low heat to keep warm.

Place steaks n the unheated rack of a broiler pan Broil 3-4 inches from the heat until desired doneness, turning once halfway through broiling.

-OR-

Place steaks in heated skillet. After a minute or two, start raising the heat of the skillet. Allow 8-10 minues or so for medium rare, more time for more doneness.

Cut steaks into 4 roughly equal servings if needed. Spoon sauce onto 4 dnner plates. Top with steak. Serve with roasted, blanched or sauted asparagus.

Oven Roasted Beets with Garlic

4 large, fresh beets (2 1/2” diameter, trimmed, peeled and quartered (canned will not work for this, they have to be fresh beets)

6-8 cloves of garlic, quartered

1 Tbsp minced thyme (or the equivalent dried)

2 teaspoons Olive oil

1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp orange juice (fresh if you can)

2 Tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. When you handle the beets, I would recommend using vinyl gloves or those disposable deli-type gloves so the beet juice doesn’t stain your hands. In a glass baking pan or casserole dish, combine the beets, garlic, hlf of the thyme and the oil.

In a small bowl, comine the orange juice and the water. Pour over the beets. Cover with foil and roast until tender 45-50 minutes. Remove the foil and roast 10 minutes longer. Serve, sprinkled with the remaining thyme.

I am so stoked!! I was able to do some baking for Christmas this year. I was a big cookie baker and to me it just wasn't Christmas without a mountain of cookies made. I was able to do gluten-free/dairy-free gingerbread cookies with royal icing (No shapes, just round cookies) and chocolate chip cookies. I bought some of the Bette's Four flour blend and it was fantastic. I made my own flour mix as well, and that's been pretty good as well. I used cornstarch, tapioca, garfava and sorghum. (The flour also worked well for pancakes. )

I just wanted to share my excitement of being able to bake again. Now I'll have to try some bread

Sorry I am still trying to get used to using these boards. I dont mean to take up space on anyone. But yes Diosa please post your receipes. They all sound so good. I could use a little more variety in my meal preparations. We are getting bored of the same ol thing around here.

No problem. The soup/roast is pretty simple. For stock, I freeze the leftover chicken carcasses, and will either save the bits that come in the chicken or buy fresh chicken gizzards. I rinse them and chuck them in a pot of water with the carcass, a whole onion quartered, either baby carrots or regular carrots cut into thirds or so, several stalks of celery, garlic if I feel like it, and the important stuff - fresh rosemary, sage and thyme. I just let it boil away for a couple of hours, pretty much ignoring it. I let it cool down enough to handle and then strain the veggies out of it. Salt and pepper it to taste. Then you add the leftover roast chicken and whatever veggies you have on hand. I typically have summer squash and/or zuchinni on hand as well as carrots and celery. I've been known to lob corn, green beans or potatoes in it. I use the frozen ones and add them in the last 10 minutes if the soup process. I just love chicken vegetable soup, especially in the cold months.

Beef Tenderloins with Red Wine Sauce

4 beef tenderloins, cut 1 inch thick (about a pound total)

1/2 tsp cracked black pepper (more if you like spicy)

1 Tbsp butter or margarine (or any oil)

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup beef broth (I use gluten-free vegan “beef” bouillion in this and it’s great)

1/4 cup red wine

1 tsp dried majoram, crushed

Trim fat from steaks. Press pepper into both sides of each steak. In a large heavy skillet, melt butter/heat oil over medium-high heat. Add steaks, reduce heat to medium. Cook for 10-13 minutes for medium-rare (145F) to medium (160F) doneness, turning once. Transfer steaks to a serving platter, reserving drippings in skillet. Cover steaks, keep warm.

For sauce, stir onions into reserved drippings in skillet. Cook until onion is tender. Remove from heat. Carefully add beef broth, wine and majoram to onion in skillet, scraping up any browned bits from bottom of skillet. Return to heat. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Boil gently, uncovered, about 2 minutes or until reduced to about 1/4 cup. Serve sauce over steaks.

Dancing Mushrooms

2Tbsp olive oil or cooking oil

3 shallots, cut into thin wedges (chopped onion works well here. Think 1/4 cup or so)

1 1/2 t bottled minced garlic (or 3 cloves fresh)

8 cups fresh oyster, crimini or button mushrooms (I use portobella, but feel free to use your favorites)

1/4 cup snipped fresh mixed herbs (such as tarragon, rosemary, basil oregao, and/or parsley) or the equivalent dried herbs (I tend to use a dried Italian herb mixture)

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add shallots/onion and garlic. Cook and stir for 2 minutes.

Add mushrooms; cook for 6-8 minutes or until mushrooms are tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in herbs, salt and pepper.

Chicken Breast Florentine

1 (10 oz) bag triple-washed spinach, rinsed (do not dry)

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced (or more if you like garlic)

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

8 oz portobella mushrooms, chopped

1/2 tsp thyme

4 tsp olive oil

4 (1/4 lbs) boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup dry white wine (or chicken broth)

salt to taste

lemon to taste

Heat a nonstick skillet with a bit of oil. Put the mushrooms in, salt them lightly, and let them cook for about 5 minutes. Remove from skillet. Add the spinach, garlic and pepper. Cover and cook for about 2 minutes, or until the spinach wilts. Let the mixture cool and squeeze out the excess moisture. Add the mushrooms and a pinch of thyme in and mix.

Cut a long thin pocket into the chicken breast. Stuff the spinach mixture into the pockets, then press the edges shut and seal closed with a toothpick. If using boneless skinless thighs, open the thigh up, spread the mixture out, roll it up and pin with two toothpicks.

Heat the oil in the skillet, then add the chicken breasts and brown, turning once or twice. Add the wine, salt and rest of thyme. Recude heat to low, cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Top with any pan juices and serve.

Tangy Green Beans

1 1/2 lbs fresh green beans (frozen works well too)

1/3 cup diced red pepper

4 1/2 t olive oil

4 1/2 t water

1 1/2 t white wine vinegar

1 1/2 t spicy brwon mustard

3/4 t salt

1/4 t pepper

1/8t garlic powder

Place beans and red pepper in a steamer basket. Cover and steam for 7-8 minute sor until crisp-tender. Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Transfer bean mixture to a serving bowl; add vinegrette and stir to coat.

I have a fairly standard rota of food that I make. I make up a weekly menu and then change it every couple of weeks. The current rota is as follows:

Sunday is a roast chicken (I got a rotisserie for Christmas) with roast potatoes and roast vegetables (whatever I have on hand still) and then I turn the left-over chicken into a soup from home-made stock.

Monday is a beef tenderloin in a red wine sauce with dancing mushrooms (sauted portobella mushrooms with garlic and herbs) and roast beets with galric, thyme and orange juice

Tuesday is a Lemon Mustard Chicken with Tangy green beans (green beans and red bell peppers steamed and then tossed with a dijon mustard vinegrette)

Wednesday is Chicken Breast Florentine (Chicken breasts stuffed with wilted spinach, portobella mushrooms (or ham/bacon if you eat it) and garlic) with roasted butternut squash

Thursday is Garlicky steaks with asparagus. Dry rub the steak with garlic, salt and pepper and saute in a skillet. Part of the asparagus is roasted for the DH and I have mine either sauted or blanched, depending on what I feel like.

Friday I make either all-beef burgers or cut up some chicken into strips, coat them in cornflakes or cornstarch, and fr them up then add the gluten-free/DF/SF honey bbq sauce and the DH makes up a nice plate of fries (We got a nice deep-fat fryer for our wedding, so we make our own chips, er fries. )

Saturday is usually leftovers or the soup.

I can post the recipes if anyone is interested.

I should probably mention, most of the recipes I use only take 10-15 minutes to make. The exceptions are the soup (takes about an hour - the stock takes a bit though) and the roasted veggies.

I'm allergic to gluten, soy, rice, dairy, nuts (deadly allergic to all of them), and aspartame. I'm not a huge fan of fruit, but *love* my juicer. I've discovered I can eat almost any veggie so long as it's roasted. I still eat beef and chicken, but very little fish (except the occasional salmon) due to the DH not liking fish.

I think the food I miss the most is dairy. I've not been able to tolerate dairy in about a year. I miss cheese and sour cream on tacos. I found gluten-free taco shells and make my own taco seasoning, but it's CHEESE. Le sigh...

I used to miss PopTarts and the like til I remembered what they did to my waistline. Suddenly any urge for them was gone.

Another thought... did you use baking powder? Some baking powders have gluten in them. You might check to see if yours does. I have been extra careful to get only gluten-free baking powder.

I'm sorry they made you so sick. Hope you feel better.

I *just* started baking again, using a mix of corn starch, tapioca flour, garfava and sorghum. I can't tolerate rice at all, so I have to be a bit more creative with flour blends.

Can your son have dairy? What about an ice cream cake? You can check the ingredients to see if the ice cream is all gluten free.

Don't know if this would work, but I experimented with a flourless chocolate cake recipe that came out like a fluffy mousse or "souffle" if you will with a fresh raspberry sauce. Can he have eggs? There was no dairy in it - I used DF chocolate and DF margarine.

This is a serious question to all the long-time pros of handling this disease... How do you go so long without getting glutened?? How do you still go out to eat, go to friends' houses for meals, and such? In other words how can you have this disease and still have a life?

I'm not asking in a sarcastic way, believe me. It's just that whatever I'm doing right now isn't working as I can't seem to go a month without getting glutened accidentally. I try to not go out except on rare occasions, but that cut out a huge chunk of my social life (our group of friends and we are all foodies and love to go out to eat and socialise). I can't go over to friends as the usually cook with a lot of gluten (not just flour but soy as well), and having them over here has led to glutening problems. I really want to have my social life back. Can anyone offer tips, advice, or just stories of what they do? Thank you so much.

It could be a couple of things. It could be the apple skins (for some people the skns of fruit is very difficult to digest, especially if there are other digestive issues going on such as colitis or celiac disease), soy, or the rice. You could try cutting one thing out at a time for a few days and see if it makes a difference.

Another thought could be checking toothpaste, deodorant, cosmetics and shampoos for hidden sources of gluten. I remember being told that when I first joined and it was really helpful.

I just needed to get this off my chest.

We had a barbeque over here last night. I am always careful about keeping a gluten-free kitchen. One of my friends is pregnant and was craving chips and dip. The dip was a powdered one with gluten. Ok, no problem. Just prep and eat that outside. Chips were just potatoes oil and salt so no issues there. I decided on roasted carrots and a chocolate flourless cake (gluten-free and dairy-free, but a TON of eggs) with raspberry syrup. For the main course I prepped a steak with hmemade steak rub. The others brought marinades. One was homemade, the other was one of those premade, in a ziplock baggie ones that clearly state allergens of wheat, soy and fish. I have problems with both heat (duh) and soy. The other I didn't know what was in. They decided to reduce both sauces down in the kitchen. The homemade ne had soy sauce in it so yet more wheat and soy being vporised in the kitchen. I've gotten to the point of even air-bourne makes me feel sick, nauseous and in severe pain. I was doing other prep work so by the time they started this it was too late.

No they are mad at me for saying something and asking them to *please* be careful and that no gluten can be brought into my house at all. Am I out of line for this?? Am I out of line for asking them to be considerate of my gluten-free kitchen and that I don't want to get sick in my own house?? Especially when I'm at less than 2 weeks to my wedding? I ended up missing a day of work, even though we are already short-staffed, due to the pain and the need to be close to the toilet.

Any time I get glutened the effects are get worse and it takes less to affect me. I didn't use to be affected by air-bourne, but I am now and it's as bad as if I had ingested it. I was in the UK for a month and was really careful there til I got to Wales then I spent the whole week sick. Started with the hubby-to-be's mum making bread, restaurants that didn't listen to my request of no dairy, no flour and mystery chips that were coated in flour.

The damage seems to be getting worse as well. My hair is falling out, I'm taking multi-vitamins and eating fruits and veggies and taking calcium supplements, but it doesn't seem to be helping. Food I could eat before my trip to Wales I'm having trouble with. Because it's here I can say this: Beans, which were *never* an issue, now come out the way they went in. That's never been the case.

I feel like a prisoner of my body. I honestly thought about calling the wedding off so that my fiance, who I love more than life, isn't trapped in this existence. I've been trying so hard to adapt and adjust to this disease, but I feel like it's winning. My friends don't want to come over now, unless it's strictly a meat and veg affair. I can't go to their place when they cook as something *will* have gluten in it: bread, dumplings, pasta etc. I'm sure anyone reading this knows what Im talking about and may be aable to relate to this. I'm feeling really alone and just don't know where to go now.

Thanks to anyone who read this. I appreciate it more than you know.

Tonight I really had one of the best meals I'd mde in a while. There's a whole lng story behind this, but to make it really short, I made a long-standing comfort food of ours, and totally gluten-free - honey barbeque chicken tenders.

I had some chicken thawed in the fridge. I also just bought a load of my favourite gluten-free/SF/calorie-free honey bbq sauce from our local gluten-free/low carb market. I took some gluten-free "breadcrumbs" (I think it's crushed corn-flakes) and some Bob's gluten-free all purpose flour, and raided the spice rack for anything that struck me. I think I had salt, pepper, oregano, rosemary, basil, a bit of thyme, majoram and parsley. Chopped the chicken up into chunk and coated them nd friend in a bit of olive oil. At he end, tossed it with the bbq sauce. It was fantastic!

All I need now is to be able to duplciate the sauce (just for the natural food appeal) and to clean my chip pan and make homemade chips.

Has anyone tried a flour replacement that doesn't have rice flour? The bean flour is a little strong in flavour for bread and cookies, but I can't have rice flour or soy.

For side dishes in our house (I can't have rice or soy, and potatoes only in limited amounts) here's what I make:

bean salad (red beans, black beans, chickpeas and corn are the base with a vinegrette)

tangy green beans (green beans with red peppers and a Dijon mustard vinegrette)

roasted veggies/grilled veggies (roasted carrots are by far my favorite, but roasted broccoli is a close second, followed by roasted cauliflower)

mixed greens salad

gluten-free bread (on occasion)

gluten-free cornbread (super easy to make)

When I can have potatoes, I usually grlll them. If I'm feeling brave, I'll do a lemon-garlic aioli. (mayo and I don't always agree)

Maybe some of these would work for you?

I get glutened from the air. I can't go into any bakeries or nywhere that has baking bread. In fact on my holiday to Wales visiting the future in-laws, I got amazingly sick from his mum (not knowing about that air-bourne problems I have) made garlic bread that made me incredibly sick and caused me t resort to the prescription painkillers for the first time in months. I was in our room sobbing from the pain (aand the unfairness of it. Heh.)

I guess I'm saying it's entirely possible that it could affect you. It certainly does me.

My biggest rant right now (besides the usual why the @#$% does everything have gluten in it and how unfair it is that I can't eat what I did even a year ago) is this..

How much it SUCKS not to be able to eat the wedding cupcakes at my own freaking wedding???

It was my mum's recipe and I wanted her to be a part of the wedding in some way, so I still want to go ahead with them, but man, does it suck.

I'll be taking some gluten-free brownies, but it's not the same. And dog knows I'm dreading the honeymoon. Its an all-inclusive, so here's hoping I can find *something* to eat there.

If they'd sell the malt, I'd just do it myself. They have a section for it on the website, but they don't seem to be selling it.

I love M&M's but can't really cope with milk chocolate at the moment, so I'm feeding my chocolate addiction with Green and Black's Dark and Maya Gold (orange spice) which are gluten-free and dairy-free (they have soya lecithin in it. Does that count as soy?) I was introduced to them by a vegan co-worker in the UK, and they rock. Whole Foods carry them. The espresso one is really good too, but it actually overamps on the coffee flavour a bit for me.