Gluten-Free Banana Bread

The title says it all! Banana bread! I can remember my mom baking banana bread and zucchini bread quite a bit when I was still living at home. The smell of it baking in the oven takes me back to childhood, and really, I can't think of a better breakfast than a warm piece of banana bread. Fortunately for me, my husband loves to bake banana bread. But, after I stopped eating wheat, he felt guilty making it. He didn't want to make something that I couldn't enjoy, but he was nervous about gluten-free baking.

He watched me bake a few things gluten-free, and then one evening while I as at a meeting, he surprised me. I came home to freshly baked banana bread. At first, I felt sad because it looked so good and I assumed it was not something I would be able to eat. Imagine my surprise when he told me that it was gluten-free! An even bigger surprise was that it tasted so good I wouldn't have known it was gluten-free if he hadn't told me! He baked another loaf today, and I decided the recipe was good enough I would share with you.

***Gluten-Free Banana Bread
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup white rice flour
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp. xanthan gum
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp. sour milk (2/3 Tbsp. milk, 1/3 Tbsp. vinegar)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix oil, sugar, and beaten eggs. Add flours, soda, salt and xanthan gum. Blend in bananas. Bake in large, greased loaf pan, or in round cans for about an hour, or until bread has turned deep brown in color.

Product Review: "Plantain Crunchers" by Amport Foods

If I am ever driving through a town that has a Hy-Vee Grocery Store, I have to stop and check out what's new in the gluten-free section. Hy-Vee has really impressed me with their organic and health food selection, and I've been particularly impressed by how much they stock in the way of gluten-free food. I have always been able to find healthy snacks in the gluten-free section of the store, and it is my go-to store for the various flours I need for GF cooking and baking.

This past week I stopped at a Hy-Vee I'd never been in before, and they had a couple of products by Amport Foods. They both looked great, but I decided to try the "Plantain Crunchers" first. I have to be honest that I don't think I have ever eaten a plantain before this, so I had no idea what to expect. I knew they were like bananas, but usually used in preparing main dishes. That was about the extent of my knowledge. So, I brought these cute little yellow snacks home with no idea what to expect.

My first impression was of "sensory confusion." At first my nose smelled banana, and so I expected a sweet flavor even though I *knew* the crunchers were salted. Once I got over the fact that they tasted pretty much nothing like bananas, I started to enjoy them. My son started begging for some of mommy's "new yellow chips," so I decided to share. He loved them too! They have a texture similar to banana chips in that they are crunchy without being hard, but they have a flavor that is full and meets my salty carb craving.

If you see these snacks in a store near you, it would be worth giving them a try! I've heard Amport Foods has a line of other dried snacks, but I have not yet seen them in the store. Have you tried any of Amport Foods' products? What did you think?

Chicken in a Pot - and Spiced-Up Leftovers

I love cooking at home. I always have. And, now that I am eating gluten-free (and experimenting with dairy-free), it is difficult to eat away from home, so I tend to avoid it. Several of my friends have told me that they do not know how I have time to cook at home for all my meals. The simple, honest truth is that I have found that I have plenty of time to cook at home both because it is a priority and because I have a couple of versatile recipes in my back pocket.

One of those recipes is "Chicken in a Pot." It is easy, simple, basic. My Grandma used to make it, my parents still make it, and I make it fairly often.

***Chicken in a Pot
1 - 3 pound whole chicken, or 3 pounds of cut up chicken
2 carrots, sliced
chopped onion (as much as desired)
2 celery stalks, chopped
Salt and pepper, as desired
1/2 cup water
1/2 to 1 tsp. basil

Place in a crockpot and cook for around 4 hours on high or 7-10 hours on low, or until chicken is done. Use 1 cup of water if cooking on high. Serve over rice, or with desired side dishes. In place of carrots, celery, and onion, you may substitute whatever fresh or frozen vegetables you would like to use.

Super easy. I love this recipe, and I go to it often. After we've eaten what we want from the chicken in a pot, I will cut the chicken into bite-size pices, or shred it up. Save the veggies, and pour the broth into a container. Cool the broth in the fridge, scrape the fat off the top, and freeze it for later use. You know the broth is gluten-free because you made it!

Now, let's take that dinner and turn it into another! First, make up some homemade Italian dressing. You won't use all of it for this recipe, but you can keep it in the fridge to use over salad or as a dip for veggies as a snack.

***Italian Dressing
1 cup olive or vegetable oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. dried minced onion pieces
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp.  ground mustard
1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
dash black pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. This makes a little over 1 cup of Italian dressing.

And now, for the spiced-up leftover.

***Chicken and Spiral Pasta
1 pkg. (12 oz. dry) brown rice spiral pasta, or whatever shape you want (I used Tinkyada brand)
leftovers from Chicken in a Pot
5 Tbsp. Italian Dressing (or more if you really want to notice the flavor)

Heat water to a boil. Cook pasta until al dente, drain, and rinse with cold water. This helps the pasta keep its shape.  Heat up leftover Chicken in a Pot. Stir chicken and veggies into noodles. Add Italian Dressing and mix well.

Voila! Dinner! This made so much for me tonight that I think I have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch too! This time around I took "Easy Street" and used a bag of frozen peas and carrots when I made Chicken in a Pot. Worked out just fine!

My kids and husband love this recipe. I hope you will love it too!

Two Recipes for Gluten-Free Flour Substitutes

Something the gluten-free diet did for me that I never expected: I suddenly became very interested in the ingredients in my food. Not necessarily in an obsessive way (though sometimes that happens to me too), but it was more that I became curious about where my food came from. I knew all-purpose flour had been made from ground wheat, but I had no idea that things like sorghum, millet, masa harina, and quinoa even existed. I'm sure I had seen the names before when I was reading a book or perusing a dictionary, but I didn't know what they were. I had no idea that they were edible. I was even more surprised to learn that those grains are staples in many other cultures.

The tricky part of gluten free baking is that wheat-based flour weighs more and has more sticking protein than gluten-free flours. Whole wheat flour is very dense and loaded with proteins. White rice flour...not so much. And so, when working with gluten-free flours, it works a lot better if you mix different flour types so that you achieve a weight that is closer to a wheat-based flour. And then, many recipes recommend that you add guar gum or xanthan gum to your flour mixture as a sticking agent (kinda like the gluten in wheat).

When I use xanthan gum, I tend to use 1/2 tsp. of xanthan gum per 1 cup of flour being used.

I don't know the real science behind what makes certain flour mixtures work. I know for many people, they discovered what worked best for them through many frustrating hours of trial and error. Honestly, I lucked out. I had no idea what I was doing and slapped together the flours I had in my cupboard. It has worked for almost everything I've used it in. The millet flour has a bit of a bitter flavor, so if you try this out and notice a bitter flavor you don't like, feel free to substitute something else for the millet. You could always just increase the brown rice flour. The recipes are laid out in "parts." I did this so you can make as much (or little) flour mixture as you need.  When I made my flour mixture today, 1 part was 1/3 cup. That yielded right around 3 cups of flour.

First, assemble all your supplies together.

***Gluten-Free Flour Susbtitute Recipe #1 - works best in baking that uses a lot of flour (more than 2 cups)

3 parts brown rice flour
1 part corn starch
2 parts tapioca starch/flour
1 part masa harina
1 part sorghum flour
1 part millet flour

Mix all the flours together. Instead of sifting, I washed out an old, plastic Folgers coffee can (with a snap-tight lid), and let it completely air dry. I put all the flours in there, snap the lid on and then shake it vigorously (while making sure I have a couple fingers holding the lid in place). If you want to do it a more traditional way, you can sift your flours together. The key is to get the flours so mixed together that it resembles one flour. For every one cup of flour you use, add 1/2 tsp. of xanthan gum to the recipe you are making.

***Gluten-Free Flour Substitute Recipe #2 - works best in recipes that use 2 cups of flour or less

1 part brown rice flour
1 part white rice flour

I worry less about sifting the flours together when I'm only using two. Just make sure you stir them well together before adding your wet ingredients. Again, 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum per 1 cup flour.

These have worked for me in many types of baked goods. I've made muffins, a King Cake for Three Kings Day, cinnamon rolls, and lots of other things. It isn't perfect, but it gets the job done. Feel free to adapt it if you find something that works for you.

Cherry-Oat Crisp

I've been on a fruit kick lately. The produce all looks amazing at my grocery store right now, and I always get excited when I can eat fruits and veggies that are in-season. Usually when I go shopping with my kids, they beg for apples, bananas and grapes. This time they begged for grapes (green and red), which we got, but the ripe, dark cherries caught my eye. We were preparing for a family picnic, and the cherries looked perfect for a finger food for our meal-on-the-go. I pitted several cherries for the picnic lunch, and they tasted fantastic! But, there were lots of cherries left and I couldn't stand to see them go to waste. The result: a delicious cherry-oat crisp that can be eaten by itself or as a topping over ice cream.

The best part of the recipe is that it doesn't use any flour at all. It has very few ingredients, and will delight gluten-intolerant people and gluten-eaters alike.

First, wash and pit your cherries. Then place them into the bottom of a greased, 8-inch square baking pan.

I wanted the taste of brown sugar, but I didn't have any at home. So, I made some. Super easy! Just mix sugar and molasses. Grandma's brand Molasses is marked gluten-free right on the jar.

Work the molasses into the sugar until it looks like this:

Mix the brown sugar you just made, cinnamon, gluten-free oats (like the rolled oats at Bob's Red Mill), and oil together. Sprinkle over the top of the cherries. Now it is ready for the oven! Bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until the juice from the cherries starts to soak into the oats. The oats will remain crunchy. That's part of what I love about this recipe!

***Cherry-Oat Crisp

2 1/2 - 3 cups pitted cherries
1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 Tbsp. gluten-free molasses (or 1/2 cup brown sugar) - it is a pretty sweet treat. Feel free to reduce amount of sugar.
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup gluten-free oats
scant 1/4 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350. Pit cherries and place in greased,  8-inch square dish. Combine molasses and sugar in a medium-size bowl until brown sugar forms. Stir cinnamon, gluten-free oats, and oil into the sugar until well combined. Sprinkle sugar and oat mixture over the cherries. Bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until the oats begin to soak in a little of the cherry juice. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before serving. Serve either over ice cream, or by itself. If you'd like a goopier ice cream topping, or if your cherries aren't very juicy, place 1/4 cup water in the baking dish with the cherries before coating with the sugar and oat mixture.