Brown Rice Crackers by Cathi Olson

I found this recipe last week and it tastes great.  Thumbs up from my kids and husband.  Add a flavor with some onion, garlic powder, etc.  Just for fun, I made it with black rice flour. They turned out a dark purple.  These are great for gluten free school lunches.  I sent my kids with these and some tuna to put on them--they really like it.

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour

2/3 cup cooked brown rice

1 tablespoons flax seeds (optional)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 cup oil (coconut, safflower, olive, etc.)

1/3 to 1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil large baking sheet. In bowl or food processor, mix flour, rice, flax seeds, salt, and oil until combined. Add water a little at a time until dough holds together. Pour onto floured surface and knead a few times to form a ball. Press or roll dough on baking sheet. Score into 1 1/2-inch squares. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until bottoms are golden brown. Cool before removing from pan.

Yield: about 3 dozen

Awesome Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I made these pancakes this morning and my kids couldn't get enough and didn't want any syrup.  They even wanted them for lunch.  Of course I said, "Yes!"  Isn't it a mother's dream to have their children eat flax, beans, and buckwheat? I found this on allrecipes.com and changed it to fit our gluten free, egg free, dairy free lifestyle.  I made my buckwheat flour in my Blendtec.  If you don't have one of these awesome blenders you can use a coffee/spice grinder that is less than $10 at Saver's (2nd hand store) and it still blends it into flour just not as fine.  I haven't tried it but I thought I could also make them into muffins.  If anyone tries it, let me know.

Awesome Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Wet Ingredients:

2 cup rice milk

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 flax eggs or 2 eggs (2 tbsp flax meal + 3 tbsp water = 1 egg)
5 drops Stevia *(opt or use a small amount of sweetener of your choice)

6 tablespoons butter, melted

2 ripe mashed bananas


Dry Ingredients:

¾ cups gluten free flour (see below)

¾ cups buckwheat flour

 1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup mini chocolate chips 

Butter or oil for cooking


Gluten Free Flour Recipe

Amy’s Basic Flour Blend (Sorghum-Garfava Blend) from simplysugarandglutenfree.com

1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup garbanzo fava bean flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca starch

Mix well; store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

For the Garbanzo-garfava variation: substitute garbanzo bean flour for sorghum flour.

Directions for Pancakes

In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, flax egg, **stevia drops and melted butter.  In another bowl, mix together gluten free flour, buckwheat flour,  salt and baking soda. Pour the dry ingredients into the egg-mixture. Stir until the two mixtures are just incorporated. Add chocolate chips and fold in.  Heat a griddle or large frying pan to medium-hot, and place 1 tablespoon of butter, margarine or oil into it. Let the butter melt before spooning the batter into the frying pan, form 4 inch pancakes out of the batter. Once bubbles form on the top of the pancakes, flip them over, and cook them on the other side for about 3 minutes. Continue with this process until all of the batter has been made into pancakes.

* the original recipe called for 1 tsp sugar

**If you are using a liquid sweetener mix it with the wet ingredients.  If you are using a dry sweetener mix it with the dry ingredients.

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

This recipe has passed the test.  My family loves it and neighbors too.  It can be very filling especially if you use the bean flour.  I got it off the web and changed it to to meet my needs.  I didn't find much difference when I took out the yeast so I make it yeast free.  If you want to try it with yeast add one tablespoon and warm up the milk to activate the yeast.  When I get my new USB cord I will put a picture.

Gluten Free Pizza Dough

1 1/3 brown rice flour (I use garbanzo/fava bean flour) 

1 cup tapioca flour

4  teaspoons guar gum (or xantham gum, or agar agar)

1  teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon italian seasoning

3  teaspoon sugar or 1 teaspoon honey or 1 teaspoon agave syrup (I'm sure you could use Stevia too, I just haven't tried it yet)

2 teaspoon olive oil

2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1 1/3 cup rice milk or other dairy alternative

Directions:

 Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Lightly oil a cookie sheet or pizza pan (without holes). In a medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients together.  In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients.  Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix together with a mixer.  The dough will be sticky.  Add some tapioca starch (or other gluten free flour/powder) to your hands and spread it on the greased cookie sheet/pizza pan. Shape it into the shape you want—12 in round pizza, rectangle shape of a cookie sheet, etc. Bake pizza crust for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Spread pizza crust with your favorite sauce and toppings. Bake another 10 to 12 minutes (depending on your oven and how crispy you like your crust).

I have frozen this crust too and it freezes well.  It's a quick gluten free lunch that I send to school with my kids.  Who doesn't love pizza for lunch?

Egg Free Mayonnaise

With one of my sons allergic to eggs in addition to having him be dairy free and gluten free, I am under more pressure to come up with ideas for replacement foods.  I have learned that when you are limited on ingredients you are forced to use more creativity which is a blessing on most days.  Today was one of those days.  I wanted to find a way for our family to still enjoy tuna sandwiches (the bread is the next step). The idea came to me (from above) to use white beans with the thought of adding mayonnaise seasonings.  I tried it this afternoon by mixing it in with tuna fish and had my daughter taste test (without telling her of course).  I asked her if she could tell me what it needed. "More mayo" was her response.  Not, "Yuck, what is that!" I had my good friend Sharlene try it too and her response was, "It's tuna." That was the response I was looking for.  For dinner, I mixed it with some avacado, lime, onions, and cilantro and pureed it in my Blendtec to make a guacamole that everyone loved.  Having mayo opens up many more food possibilities and variety to our diet.  I am so grateful for inspiration from above.

2 cans white beans or 1 cup dry white beans, soaked overnight/cooked/drained--leave a little for moisture

1 teaspoon fine salt

1 teaspoon dry mustard

5 drops stevia (use which ever sweetener you like)

2 1/2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Pinch of paprika

Put in a food processor or blender and puree.