Gluten-free Tuna Melt Sandwich Recipe -- GF Lunches for Kids

You would think everybody knows how to put together a tuna melt, right? Wrong. Moms who grew up on boxed mac-N-cheese and Ramen noodles when they were kids are more common than you think. Heck, I'm one of 'em! But once Annie was diagnosed with celiac disease, I had to stop hiding behind boxes of preservative-filled foods and re-learn these old standbys.

So here's my recipe for GF tuna melt:

INGREDIENTS:
2 slices gluten-free bread (my favorite is Sun Flour Mills' mix)
2 thin slices of cheddar cheese
gluten-free margarine *
one can of tuna**
2-3 tablespoons of mayonnaise (to taste)
one pickle, diced, or one Tbsp. diced red onion***

DIRECTIONS:
1. Open tuna and drain excess fluids from the can. In a bowl, mix together tuna, mayonnaise, and (if you want them) onions/pickles.***
2. Spread margarine on both slices of bread. Set the bread on a plate, margarine-side down. (Yes, this will make the plate all gooey. That's okay. Before you set your finished sandwich back on the plate, clean the goo off.)
3. Spoon tuna mixture onto one of the slices of bread. This will make it so there's margarine on one side and tuna on the other.
4. Set both slices of cheddar cheese on top of the tuna, one beside the other. It may only take one slice of cheese to cover the tuna, if your bread loaf is small-ish.
5. Place the other piece of bread over the top of the cheese-tuna layers, with the margarine-side up. Now your sandwich has margarine on the bottom and margarine on the top.
6. Place your sandwich in a frying pan and cook on medium heat. Covering the pan with a lid can make the bread more moist, so if you don't like that, avoid the lid. However, covering the pan with a lid also makes the sandwich cook faster and allows the cheese to melt thoroughly. You can decide whether or not the extra moisture is bothersome.
7. Brown the sandwich on both sides, flipping it once.
8. Serve it on a plate with a side of chips. Some of Annie's favorite gluten-free chips are Lays Stax, Funyuns, and Lays regular potato chips. However, chips can sometimes have cross-contamination issues at the factory, so be wary of any chips that are manufactured by large companies like that.

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*At the time of this posting, Country Crock was labeling their "Calcium" enriched Shedd Spread margarine with "Gluten-Free" at the bottom of the ingredients list.
**Can you believe it? Gluten can even be found in a can of tuna! It usually only contains gluten if there's MSG or vegetable broth involved in the processing, but read carefully.
***Younger kids don't usually like pickles or onions, so this ingredient is optional. I only add them for my own GF tuna melt sandwiches. Annie likes hers without.

Gluten-Free Scones for Breakfast

Annie and I had gluten-free scones for breakfast. I used a Gluten-Free Pantry boxed muffin and scone mix for this, but I'll go ahead and post the from-scratch scone recipe that I have:

Start with my favorite Super Fluffy Gluten-Free Flour:
2 cups tapioca starch
2 cups cornstarch
2 cups rice flour
2 Tbs. potato flour (NOT potato starch--that's different)

I like to use this Super Fluffy GF Flour in a lot of things, so I keep a tub of it on my kitchen counter, and I dip into it for many of my recipes. It makes things fluffy! YAY!

DRY INGREDIENTS:
2 cups Super Fluffy GF Flour (see above)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1/2 tsp. salt

WET INGREDIENTS:
1 stick (1/2 cup) very cold butter, cut into small chunks
2 large eggs
1/3 cup cold milk
bowl of water

DIRECTIONS:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a stand mixer.
2. Add butter chunks. Use wire whisk attachment to mix the butter in. You're ready to move to step 3 when the stuff in your stand mixer looks sort of like super-gritty corn meal.
3. Mix the eggs and cold milk together in a separate bowl, using a fork. Switch your stand mixer's gadget to a paddle instead of a wire whisk. Blend the egg-milk mixture into the dry ingredients, using the paddle attachment, but don't let it get too creamy. Stop mixing after 2 minutes or so, allowing the ingredients to become just blended.
4. If you want to add nuts or dried fruit, do so now. Blend it for one more minute, until the additional ingredient is well-incorporated.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Moisten your hands in the bowl of water. Use wet, clean hands to scoop out batter. Shape scones into triangular biscuit-like shapes. The batter will be gooey like muffin mix, but as long as your hands are wet, you will be able to shape the scones into triangular or biscuit-like shapes. Place scones 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
6. Bake in 350 degree (F) oven for approx. 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes 18-20 scones, depending on size.