Gluten-Free Ham and Bean Soup--A Warm-You-Up Solution to Cold September Days

I first made this recipe after we'd had a horde of family over for Easter dinner. We had leftover ham in abundance, and I couldn't think of what to do with all of it. Here's the solution:

Gluten-Free Ham and Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups mixed dried beans
• 8 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 ham hock
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup celery, chopped
• 1 whole chopped leek (don’t chop the grassy tip up though, only the bulb end)
• 1 fat clove of garlic, minced or two medium cloves, minced
• ½ teaspoon of onion powder
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups chopped ham (in addition to the hock)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

Instructions:

1.     Add all ingredients to a crock pot except carrots and celery.

2.     Cook 6 to 8 hours on low heat, stirring occasionally to keep it from burning at the bottom.

3.     Remove some of the beans and mash them or puree them in a food processor, then return them to the stock. Blend. (This thickens the soup.)

4.     Add celery and carrots.

5.     Cook for another 30-45 minutes on a low setting, until carrots are al dente.

6.     Serve warm with crackers, cornbread, garlic bread, or muffins.

Gluten Free Jalapeño Poppers--A Recipe to Add Zzzzing to Your Life!

Ingredients

• 25 fresh jalapeno peppers
• 14-16 ounces cream cheese
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 (16 ounce) packages bacon

Directions

·        Cut stems off of peppers and cut them all in half longways.

·        Remove seeds from peppers.

·        Fill each pepper with cream cheese and sprinkle cheddar cheese on top.

·        Wrap 1/2 slice of bacon around each pepper half and secure it there with a toothpick.

·        Place on baking sheets and place in 450 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until bacon is fully cooked.

·        Remove and serve when cooled.

This makes quite a large number of poppers (50), but if you remember the days before you lived gluten-free, those frozen poppers usually came in a package of 15 to 20, right? And you never seemed to get enough to fill you up. So if you're bringing this treat to a pot luck, you'll want to follow this oversized recipe, to make sure everyone gets their fill. If, however, you're just including poppers as a side dish at meal time, then I'd cut the recipe in half or even thirds.

I use this recipe for pot lucks, but I always warn people that poppers can be HOT.

It is possible to make this recipe with milder peppers, so younger kids will want to eat them. The trick to keeping a pepper mild is this: remove all seeds. I'm told that's where the heat comes from.

Gluten-Free Curry Chicken & Broccoli Casserole Even Your Kids Will LOVE!

Ingredients:

2 frozen chicken breasts

½ cup grated cheddar cheese

½ cup sour cream

12 oz. pkg. of frozen broccoli florets

½ cup GF cream of mushroom soup*

1 tsp. GF curry powder**

Instructions:

1.    Boil chicken breasts until cooked through. Cut into ½ inch cubes.

2.    In a mixing bowl, combine cheddar cheese, sour cream, cream of mushroom soup, and curry powder.

3.    Use a GF spray cooking oil (or butter or Crisco) to lightly grease the bottom of a 9X11-inch casserole dish.

4.    Line the bottom of the casserole dish with cubed chicken. Then spread frozen broccoli over the chicken.

5.    Top the whole thing off with the creamy curry mixture.

6.    Bake in a 400 degree F oven for 25-30 minutes, until casserole mixture is bubbling.

* I use Pacific Natural Foods organic condensed cream of mushroom soup, which can be found in health food stores and some regular grocery stores (in the health food section).

** Be aware that imported spices do not have to follow US guidelines. McCormick spice company, I understand, is a trusted company, meaning that they clearly label any gluten ingredients on their products.

Double this recipe to use it as a main dish, feeding a family of four, or keep it as is, for a side dish.

Gluten-Free Banana Pecan Muffin Recipe--A Great Snack When Monkeying Around

If your kiddo is allergic to nuts, just opt to bake these muffins without the nuts. You can still have loads of fun monkeying around!

Dry Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Sorghum Flour
1/2 Cup White Rice Flour
1/2 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1/2 Cup Corn Starch
2 tsp Xanthan Gum
1 tsp baking soda

Other Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
3 Ripe Bananas
3 Tbs Milk
1 Cup chopped Pecans


In a medium bowl, mix dry ingredients. Whisk well to aerate the flours as they mix.

In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and bananas. Mix until bananas are well mashed. Add milk and flour. Mix until combined.

Fold in Pecans.

Fill muffin pan with liners. Scoop dough into liners to 2/3rds full.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes. For a decorative touch, once they’re cooled, sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bars Recipe--a Harvest-Time Special

Ingredients:
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
½ cup pumpkin
½ cup vegetable oil
1/6 cup water
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup flour (I used super fluffy GF flour mix—see recipe in the margin)
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon each: ground cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon

Gluten-Free Bar Directions:
Beat egg and add other wet ingredients and mix well. Add dry ingredients. Bake at 350 F in a glass 9” x 13” pan about 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Bars will be slightly browned, very thin, and moist. Let cool before frosting. (I use Betty Crocker's gluten-free vanilla frosting. It says "gluten-free" on the back of the package.)

Special Tip:

I have made these with canned pumpkin, and they turned out just fine. But honestly, the very best ones we've ever made, were made with our own home-grown pumpkins (not the jack-o-lantern kind, but the sweeter garden pumpkins). To make your own pumpkin mush, just cut the pumpkins in half, clean out all the stringy stuff and seeds, and bake upside down (skin up) in a casserole dish or on a cookie sheet. You'll know they're done baking when they turn soft, just like with any other baked squash. You scrape out their meat, drain off some of the moisture, make sure you get all the stringy-strings out of the pulp, and measure it out.

Want Some Gluten-Free Lunchbox Ideas for Back-to-School? Here You Go:

I'm just going to list all kinds of goodies I put in my kiddo's lunchbox. Read labels on everything, because, for example, Yoplait yogurts say "gluten-free" on some of the labels, but not all. Some contain glutens. So be careful. Read labels every time!

I'm not suggesting you put all of these foods in your child's lunchbox at once, but here are some great GF treats for lunchboxes:

Glutino breadsticks
home-made muffins
Yoplait yogurts or Go-Gurts
Del Monte fruit cups/jello fruit cups
plain Jell-o cups
pudding cups
carrot sticks
celery sticks
peanut butter celery sticks
a can of Easy Cheese (but the bacon one has gluten)
Fritos
Lays Stax
cottage cheese
cheese sticks
Old Wisconsin beef sticks
Old Wisconsin summer sausage
Hormel Canadian bacon
Hormel pepperoni slices
K-Toos (Oreo-style cookies)
boiled eggs
deviled eggs
egg salad with crackers to spread it on
Cheetos
Juicy-Juice
Shasta sodas
raisins
yogurt-covered raisins
home-made trail mix
EnviroKids rice "granola" bars
bag of GF cereal
Fruity Pebble/Cocoa Pebble Treats
Popcorn
Popcorn balls made with Kraft marshmellows
Kraft colored mini-marshmellows
PB&J made on Glutino crackers
Jell-o Knox blocks
apple slices
Glutino pretzels or EnerG pretzels

I hope this helps!

Super-Fluffy Gluten-Free Flour Recipe

Image: iClipart

When I first started baking things GF, I thought, "Mix flours? What the heck are they talking about? That's crazy talk!" Then I tried making my first batch of GF sugar cookies with only rice flour. Pretty much, what I ended up with, was some sugar cookies that looked like crackers and tasted like Chinese fortune cookies. Bleck!

So after six years of baking GF, I've finally discovered a mixture that seems to work well. It keeps most things fluffy without having them fall apart. Here's what I call my Super-Fluffy Gluten-Free Flour Mix:

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

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!