This is a delicious gfcf, gluten free, family-friendly recipe! It can also be (if you double check ingredients!) a wheat free, dairy free, soy free, tree nut free, peanut free, fish free, shellfish free, corn free, and vegetarian recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup brown rice flour, or another flour like sorghum or millet
• 1/4 cup pea or bean flour
• 1/2 cup white rice flour, or a starch such as arrowroot or tapioca
• 1 cup good quality baking cocoa – we like Rodelle Dark Baking Cocoa and Frontier Organic Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum or guar gum
• 1 1/2 sticks margarine (Fleishmann’s unsalted is dairy free) or butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups milk (dairy, rice, soy) plus 1 1/2 tsp vinegar to mimic buttermilk

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

This makes 2 dozen cupcakes or 2 9″ round cakes. Lightly grease the bottom of the baking pans, then dust with a little cocoa powder, or line 2 muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Whisk the three flours together. Add cocoa, xanthan gum, baking powder, and baking soda to the flours and whisk together in a medium bowl.

In a separate bowl, with your mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Slowly add the brown sugar and the granulated sugar. Whip this mixture until fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time to the creamed mixture, then add the vanilla.

Turn the mixer to low and alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk.

Pour into the prepared pans – if making cupcakes, use an ice cream scoop to measure an equal amount of batter into each cupcake liner. For cakes, bake for 25-30 minutes; for cupcakes 12-15 minutes, until the cake/cup cake is springy to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool, then serve as is or frost with a “butter”cream or faux-cream cheese frosting. Yum!

This is a delicious gfcf, gluten free, family-friendly recipe! It can also be (if you double check ingredients!) a wheat free, dairy free, soy free, egg free, tree nut free, peanut free, fish free, shellfish free, vegetarian, vegan, and top 8 allergen free recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup GF flour (I like 1c brown rice, 1/4c pea flour)
• 1/2 cup starch (arrowroot starch, white rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch)
• 1 tsp xanthan gum or guar gum
• if not gluten-free, just use 1 3/4 cups flour and omit xanthan gum
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2-3 brown, very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/4 cup dairy/soy/rice milk mixed with 1/4 tsp. vinegar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs (or equivalent egg replacer)
• 1 cup mini-chocolate chips (we like the Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
  , which are gluten/dairy/soy/nut free)

Method
Preheat oven to 350*F. Spray or grease muffin pan or insert paper muffin cups.

Whisk flour through salt together in a medium bowl. In your mixer’s bowl, beat bananas through eggs. Slowly mix the flour mixture into the banana mixture, until it’s completely combined. Add the mini-chocolate chips and mix until just combined.

Add 1 ice cream scoop of batter into each muffin cup and bake at 350*F for 18-20 minutes.

This recipe makes 18-20 muffins. But don’t expect them to last very long! Ours rarely last a day!

I love to munch on the Bakery on Main Gluten Free Granola, and had found the (gluten, dairy, and nut-free) Enjoy Life Cinnamon Crunch Granola to be a bit too dry to be eaten plain. The Bakery on Main Gluten Free Granola is too chunky to cook with, but the Enjoy Life Cinnamon Crunch Granola is absolutely perfect to use in place of Grape-Nuts Cereal for GrapeNut pudding! Yum!

This is a delicious gfcf, gluten free, family-friendly recipe! It is also (if you double check ingredients!) a wheat free, dairy free, soy free, tree nut free, peanut free, fish free, shellfish free, and vegetarian recipe.

Not-quite-extensive testing with my stepfather, my family, and some of my stepfather’s coworkers indicated that this recipe leads to great results – and people never knew it was gluten-free!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups Enjoy Life Cinnamon Crunch Granola

• 4 cups milk (or milk substitute – I would suggest coconut milk)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 pinch kosher salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Optional toppings: ice cream, whipped cream, or whipped topping

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the granola with the milk/milk substitute. Bring up just to the boiling point, stirring regularly, then remove from the heat.

While the granola and milk are cooking, combine eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl. Whisk together well.

Pour the egg mixture into the milk/granola mixture slowly, stirring constantly. If you add too much at a time you’ll end up with cooked eggs, not a custard!

Once the custard is combined, pour into a 9×9 oven-proof pan, and put into the oven.

Bake at 350 for 45min to 1 hour, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Serve warm, with ice cream or whipped cream/whipped topping. (Whole Foods and other natural food stores now sell canned soy-based whipped cream next to the dairy whipped cream)

Yum! Enjoy this warm custard with your family, and make your own memories!

My family has been loving the Impossible Quiche Pie variations, and while I was Googling for more ideas, I found an apple pie variation. My oldest and youngest daughters love almost any dessert, but my middle daughter loves apple pie and chocolate only. It was lovely to find an easy workaround for the hassle of making gluten-free apple pie! As a bonus, it tasted delicious!

This is a delicious gfcf, gluten free, family-friendly recipe! It is also (if you double check ingredients!) a wheat free, dairy free, soy free, tree nut free, peanut free, fish free, shellfish free, corn free, and vegetarian recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3 large apples, peeled and sliced

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• several grates fresh, or 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup gf biscuit mix – we like Bob’s Red Mill Biscuit mix or Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix
  • 1/2 cup all purpose gf flour mix (or 1/4 cup rice or sorghum flour & 1/4 cup tapioca or corn starch)

  • 1/8 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp canola oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk or milk substitute (cow, coconut, or soy work the best, rice is a bit too thin)
• 1 tablespoon margarine or butter, melted, or oil (Fleishmann’s unsalted is dairy & gluten free, Earth Balance has a dairy, soy, & gluten-free tub)
• 2 eggs (these are necessary, don’t try to substitute)

Topping Ingredients

• 1/2 cup gf flour or baking mix

• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 3-4 TBS cold margarine, butter, or shortening (for shortening, we like Spectrum)
• 1/2 tsp allspice

Method:
Oil a 9″ pie pan with deep sides, and preheat oven to 350.

Peel and slice apples, and set in a medium-sized bowl. Add cinnamon and nutmeg, stir, and let sit.

In another medium-sized bowl, whisk together the biscuit mix, sugar, eggs, milk/milk substitute, and melted margarine/butter.

In a third bowl, combine the dry topping ingredients. Cut the fat into small pieces, and cut into the flour mixture into it using a pastry blender or two knives. Mix together until it becomes crumbly, as you would with a fruit crisp topping.

Pour the apples into the pie pan, and cover with the egg mixture. Sprinkle topping on top.

Slide into the oven, and bake for 30-45 minutes, until it becomes browned. Touch the top of the pie to make sure it’s firm and set.

Let cool and serve, with or without whipped topping or ice cream. Don’t expect there to be many leftovers!

The girls love French Toast, but it’s my mother who usually makes it. This past weekend my parents were gone for the day, so they sent me on a hunt for a good recipe. After much Googling, I ended up with this recipe which was inspired by Alton Brown’s recipe – because if Alton made it, you can’t go wrong! I tweaked it for our taste buds, allergies, and for my own cooking preferences.

This is a delicious gfcf, gluten free, family-friendly recipe! It is also (if you double check ingredients!) a wheat free, dairy free, soy free, tree nut free, peanut free, fish free, shellfish free, corn free, and vegetarian recipe.  Be sure to check the allergy notes at the bottom of the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk or milk substitute (soy, rice, almond, hemp…)
• 3 large eggs (eggs are integral to this recipe, so I don’t recommend using an egg substitute)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 9-12 slices gluten-free bread¹
• 4 TBS oil or margarine²

Method:

Preheat oven to 250. Set a lasagna pan or similar 9×13 pan near the stove.

In a deep pie dish, combine the milk substitute, eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk gently, so the milk/egg mixture doesn’t spill.

Heat your griddle or skillet to medium heat. Add about 1 TBS oil or margarine to pan and swirl around so it coats the pan.

Dip bread into mixture, allow to soak for about 1 minute on each side. Pick up a piece of bread and gently shake the excess egg mixture into the pie pan.

Lay 2-3 slices of bread in the griddle/skillet, depending on the size of the bread and your pan. Cook until golden brown, approximately 2 to 3 minutes for each side. When browned, remove from griddle and gently put in the lasagna pan, then slide the pan into the oven.

Continue with the next set of bread slices, until all of the french toast has been made.

Serve to many cheers and soon-to-be-empty plates! This tastes great with maple syrup, or perhaps a bit of confectioner’s sugar sprinkled on top.

Allergy Notes:
¹ Our favorite bread recipe is perfect for this, as is our sweet bread recipe, but any gluten-free bread will work. The Kinnikinnik loaf pictured was perfect, because it tasted a bit dry when eaten plain. Our favoite purchased bread is Ener-G Brown Rice Bread, which tastes especially wonderful when toasted.
² We usually use Earth Balance Organic margarine tubs, which are Kosher and dairy-free. However, that margarine includes soy protein. Fleishmann’s Unsalted is also Kosher and dairy-free, but only uses soy oil – no soy protein. Alternatively, to make the recipe safe for the corn or soy-free,  you can use canola or another cooking oil to coat the griddle.

Ingredients

• 2 cups gf flour (I like sorghum, millet, or brown rice)

• 1 cup starch (tapioca, arrowroot, or corn is good here; or use 3 cups gluten free flour mix in place of the flour and starch)
• 2 TBS sugar
• 1 TBS xanthan gum
• 1 TBS + 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 2/3 cup milk substitute
• 4 eggs or equivalent egg substitute (while usually I wouldn’t suggest replacing eggs in a recipe with 3 or more eggs, egg replacers work quite well in this recipe)
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar or lemon juice
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• optional: 1 1/2 cup frozen blueberries

Method:
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour through salt.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine milk substitute through vanilla extract.

Slowly mix the liquid into the flour, and stir until smooth.

This batter will act differently based on humidity, temperature, and phase of moon. So you may need to add 1/2 cup more flour or 1/2 cup more water, depending if it is very wet or very thick.

Add optional blueberries when the batter is well mixed, and stir until just incorporated.

Use a ladle to add waffle batter to the waffle iron, and cook according to device instructions. Keep waffles warm on a plate covered by a tea town in the oven set at 200 degrees. Serve with margarine, maple syrup, and Gooseberry Syrup.

If you miss the flavor of raspberries and blackberries but cannot eat them, consider trying gooseberries – they are their own food family (related only to currants) and are unlikely to cross-react with other foods.

The green gooseberries taste very similar to raspberries and blackberries when eaten raw. However, the red gooseberries are quite tart, and need another use. This syrup is great over pancakes, waffles, or ice cream, and has a wonderful sweet-tart flavor. Plus, it’s incredibly easy!

This is a delicious gfcf, gluten free, family-friendly recipe! It is also (if you double check ingredients!) a wheat free, dairy free, soy free, egg free, tree nut free, peanut free, fish free, shellfish free, corn free, top 8 allergen free, and vegan/vegetarian recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cane sugar

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup gooseberries

Method:
Combine sugar and water in a small pan over medium heat. Whisk and cook until the sugar fully dissolves.

Meanwhile pull off the little brown or green bits at either end of the gooseberries. Cut gooseberries in half.

Add gooseberries to the sugar/water mixture.

Let cook over low heat for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Strain the seeds and fibers from the syrup, and pour into a refrigerator and microwave safe container.
Refrigerate syrup, then warm for a few seconds in the microwave before serving over waffles, or ice cream.

This was adapted from a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. It’s a pretty fast cooking dish, and the flavors are amazing. Don’t cheat and use bottled lime juice – if you don’t have a fresh lime to zest and juice, wait until you do.

Serves 6.

Ingredients:

• 1 TBS extra virgin olive oil

• 2 cloves garlic, minced/pressed
• grated lime zest from 1 lime
• juice from 1 lime
• 1 TBS olive oil (this does not need to be extra virgin, and could be another cooking oil)
• 1 1/2 pound green beans
• 1/2 small red onion, minced
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon leaves

Method

Combine 1 TBS extra virgin olive oil, garlic, and lime zest in small bowl; set aside.

Juice the lime and chop the tarragon leaves, and set aside.

Snap off both ends of the green beans, and set aside. Set aside the minced onion with the green beans.

Heat 1 TBS regular olive oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until just smoking. Add onion, green beans, 2 pinches kosher salt, and 3 grinds teaspoon pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until spotty brown, 4 to 6 minutes.

Add water, cover, and cook until beans are bright green but are still crisp, about 2 minutes. Remove the cover, increase heat to high, and cook until water evaporates, about 60 seconds.

Add olive oil mixture to the pan and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until beans are crisp-tender, lightly browned, and beginning to wrinkle, 2-3 minutes.

Transfer green beans to serving bowl, toss with lime juice and tarragon. Serve immediately, or cover the bowl with a plate or other lid to keep warm when bringing the rest of the meal to the table.

This is great with some roasted potatoes and a fish that has been in a citrus marinade. There won’t be many leftovers with these!

This is a delicious gfcf, gluten free, family-friendly recipe! It is also (if you double check ingredients!) a wheat free, dairy free, egg free, tree nut free, peanut free, fish free, shellfish free, and vegan/vegetarian recipe.

This is my adaptation of a couple easy miso soup recipes I’ve found.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups vegetable stock (you can make some quickly)

• 1/4 cup dried wakame (sea vegetable)
• 1/2 lb firm or extra-firm tofu, cut into half-inch cubes (1/2 lb = 8 oz = 1 package)
• 4 TBS red Miso
• optional: 2 scallions, sliced into rings (white and light green parts only)

Method:
Make a quick batch of vegetable stock. In a medium pot, bring 7 cups of water to a boil with 2 cloves garlic, 3 baby carrots, and 3 leafy pieces of celery.

Turn heat down to low and let simmer for 20+ minutes. Strain the vegetables out of the broth, then measure 6 cups of broth for the miso soup.

Reuse the medium pot and bring the vegetable stock to a simmer.

Add the diced tofu and wakame, and simmer for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

Remove 1/3 cup broth from the soup, and dissolve the miso in the stock. Once the miso is well mixed in with the broth, add to the soup.

Garnish with scallion rings and serve.

This is lovely served with a salad and sushi, but is also wonderful served with grilled tuna and Asian Rice Salad.

This is a delicious gfcf, gluten free, family-friendly recipe! It is also (if you double check ingredients!) a wheat free, dairy free, soy free, egg free, tree nut free, peanut free, fish free, shellfish free, corn free, top 8 allergen free, and vegan/vegetarian recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 14oz cans coconut milk

• 2 tsp peppermint extract
• 8 drops green food coloring (optional, but a good way to differentiate between mint chip and chocolate chip)
• 1/4 tsp xanthan or guar gum
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Method

In a blender, combine coconut milk, peppermint extract, food coloring, xanthan gum/guar gum, and sugar. Blend until well combined.

Chill for 1 hour in the blender jar.

Blend the chilled mixture for a moment, then add to ice cream maker. Follow ice cream maker directions for time in the ice cream maker.

Add chocolate chips at the end of ice cream maker cycle

Scoop into a container with a lid and put in the freezer until ready to serve. This makes great sundaes or “milk” shakes too!

Variation:
If you can’t use coconut milk, use 4 cups of your milk substitute in place of the 2 cans of coconut milk. The mouth-feel isn’t quite as creamy as coconut milk, but it still tastes great!