Thursday, April 30, 2009

Gluten/Dairy/Soy Free Rice Krispie Treats


Fruity Treats:

3 cups Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice
3 cups Fruity Pebbles (or the imitation brand from Wal-Mart is okay too)
1 bag marshmallows
4 tbsp canola oil or Nucoa margarine (if no soy allergy)

Melt oil and marshmallows in a large bowl in the microwave. Add cereal and stir. Spread onto a flat pan like a jelly roll pan. Sprinkle a few colored cereal pieces on top for aesthetic reasons. Let cool.



Chocolate Treats:

3 cups Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice
3 cups Koala Crisp (may contain traces of soy but it didn't bother Barrett)
1 bag marshmallows
4 tbsp canola oil or Nucoa margarine (if no soy allergy)
1/2 c Enjoy Life or Tropical Source chocolate chips (or more if you want it really chocolaty) (Tropical Source chips have soy lecithin but it has never caused a reaction in Barrett).
Enjoy Life chocolate chips to sprinkle on top.

Melt oil and marshmallows, and chocolate chips in a large bowl in the microwave. Add cereal and stir. Spread onto a flat pan like a jelly roll pan. Sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top for aesthetic reasons. Let cool.

Gluten-Free Carrot Cake with Coconut Frosting






It was my daughter's first birthday and we made two gluten-free carrot cakes. One was also dairy free and had coconut frosting. The other had cream cheese frosting. They turned out pretty good. I even fooled my little brother into thinking they were regular cakes. I used this recipe from Karina's Kitchen. We have also tried this one in the past from Allrecipes and just substituted a GF flour mix. I remember liking the Allrecipes one better, but I also used Pamala's baking mix in that one, which I don't use anymore because it has buttermilk. I decided to try letting my kids have the small amount of eggs they would get in the cake. Abbie was fine with it. Barrett didn't seem to handle it very well althoughI still suspect that buckwheat might bother him.

Here is the recipe as I made it. This is the doubled version.

6 eggs
1 cup canola oil
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 crushed pineapple or applesauce
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp Allspice
4 cups flour mix with 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda added per cup of flour*
1 1/2 cup flaked sweetened coconut (I left this out--you can also put in raisins or nuts)
3 cups processed [or finely grated] carrots (about 4 medium carrots)

*I used 1/3 c tapioca starch, 2/3 c potato starch, 4 tsp guar gum, 1/2 c buckwheat flour, 1/2 c coconut flour, 1/2 c brown rice flour, 1/2 c Bob's all purpose baking mix, 1/2 c sweet rice flour, 1/2 c potoato flour---I think I could have done with only 1/2 cup starch total and put in another 1/2 c of flour instead.

Preheat oven to 350. Spray two 9" square pans with cooking oil and sprinkle with sweet rice flour (mochiko). Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. Beat eggs in a large bowl. Add oil and brown sugar. Mix. Add applesauce or pineapple. Mix. Slowly beat in dry mixture. Add carrot. Batter will be fairly thick. Spread batter into pans. Bake for 40 minutes (I am high altititude). Turn over onto wire racks and let cool.

Coconut Frosting.

I sort of guessed on this. I mixed coconut milk with powdered sugar and vanilla until I had a good consistency. I think it would have been better with almond extract instead of vanilla but I ran out. The coconut is a little strong or bitter or something so you might want to use just a little coconut milk and then use rice milk or water if it needs more liquid.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 8oz pkg softened cream cheese
powdered sugar
vanilla

Blend them all together to desired consistency and sweetness. I know it's not very helpful instruction, but I didn't measure so that's all you get.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Gluten-Free Flatbreat Sandwitch

I tried this last night and it was so nice to be able to have a sandwich!

GF Wrap Sandwich Success

It does have eggs and yeast but it was sure nice for me to eat! I would not use straight brown rice flour like the recipe says though. I used a mix, as usual.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Can't Chew

I recently learned why I haven't been able to feed Barrett things like meats, apples, carrots and other raw vegetables. I took him to a speech pathologist who specializes in feeding and she said that he chews like a baby who is just learning to eat table foods. He doesn't use his tongue or the rotary motion that allows food to be ground up smaller. So I guess now he gets to have "chewing therapy".

I didn't think too much of his chewing abilities until I noticed that his little sister with no molars could chew up things he couldn't. I hope if we can get this solved we can help him to be better nourished.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Gluten/Milk/Soy/Egg Free Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

  • 1 c canola oil
  • 1 c gluten-free oats (I used Bob's Red Mill GF Oats)
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp cloves
  • 1 1/2 c brown sugar
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp guar gum (or xanthan)
  • 3 tbsp milled flax seed (my egg replacer)
  • 1 15 oz can applesauce
  • 1 c coconut milk
  • 2 c flour*
1. Preheat oven to 350. Combine canola oil and oats in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 2 minutes (to help soften the oats). Set aside to soak.

2. In a large bowl combine cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, guar gum, and flax seed. Slowly stir in applesauce and coconut milk.

3. After the oats/oil have been soaking for at least ten minutes add them to the mixture in step #2.

4. Slowly stir in flour. Adjust amount for desired consistency. Batter should be thicker than cake batter but thinner than cookie dough.

5. Drop into muffin cups, about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes.

Makes about two dozen.

*For this I used 1/2 c coconut flour, 1/2 c brown rice flour, 1/2 c Bob's baking mix, 1/2 c tapioca/potato starch.

They turned out really good, but also very dense. I'm not sure how to make them less dense without eggs but I'm open to suggestions. Maybe less starch and more flour would do the trick. And maybe there was too much oil. I was just trying to get as much fat in there as I could for my skinny little boy (oil and coconut milk).