One woman has become a far-away best bud... Meg who owns the Earth Friendly Shoppe. Her and I share a passion for saving the Polar Bears, curing the world of Global Warming and recycling in addition to laughing about the similarities between our two husbands and juggling life with Motherhood.

Steve over at N*ked on the Roof, is a blogging Dad. He rocks. We follow each others blogs and share comment love back and forth on a regular basis.

Then we have Tenille over at Gluten Free Frugal. She is like a warm ray of sunshine, with kind words and a positive outlook. I must say, she is also thrifty and crafty.

What We Need Mom, Darcy has shed lots of light for me on the struggles with my youngest daughter. She is there to listen and offers advice and resources. She also shares funny, touching stories of her adorable and precocious little man, C.

Want to take a peek at some fabulous photos of super cute kiddos? Stop over to visit My Sweet Life. Kelsey responds to EVERY comment I leave on her page.

I know this woman probably gets a lot of love... but I can't help it. I love her too... plus she is a fellow West Coast-ian... (yes, I just made that up) So go on over and read all about how she is living it up at the Big B (or that which we shall not speak of) right now while I sit in the living room playing Kabooki on the Wii with the fam. Heh... who says my life isn't exciting.

You know... it still tickles me pink to see myself (or my blog or my recipes) written about elsewhere. I get a little giggle every time. Most recently, Our Gluten Free Family made my donut recipe... hers look REALLY GOOD.

And how about some feel good love. Watch this YouTube video and delight in human nature.

Check back after the weekend to hear all about MY TRAVEL HORROR STORY. Until then, be well.

On our most recent shopping trip to Whole Foods, Oregon Dad was along for the ride. This is usually a bit disconcerting for me, as I could spend hours (literally) roaming the aisles at Whole Foods, reading labels and checking out new products. Sometimes I park myself at the customer service counter to browse the Gluten Free Product List and question the staff.

While meandering our way through the store, K3 (who is with us, since this is primarily HER shopping trip) spies each sample pod and inquires if "that one is a safe food?". Sadly, many of the foods out are not, but that doesn't stop Oregon Dad from having a nibble here and there.

We came across 365 All Natural Sandwich Cremes (like those Oreos... only better). Oregon Dad tried one out, then decided he needed a potty break. K3 and I headed to the Gluten Free Bakery/Freezer section to locate some bagels. When Oregon Dad found us, he was toting a box of the cookies. Evidently, he decided they were too good to resist.

Today, I tried them. Even though I knew my belly would cry afterward... I still have to consume gluten so that my biopsy is accurate at the end of the month. Oh my goodness, they were MMMMMMM.... Good.

Now if I can just find a Gluten Free variety... There is NOTHING like a glass of ice cold (Organic) milk and a couple (or 6) tasty, all natural, creme cookies. I cannot even consider putting an Oreo to my mouth anymore and they used to be one of my favorites. Now, I just taste wax and chemicals if I try to eat one. Bleh.

For my GF girl who saw Mommy eating cookies today, we busted out the Pacific Natural Foods Almond Milk and some snickerdoodles from Enjoy Life. I REALLY need to try out this chocolate chip cookie recipe from Ginger Lemon Girl.

Today's Green Tip- Don't take your husband shopping with you... he will buy more than you have on your list. :) Just Kidding... sort of. Get rid of all the crud in your food. Do you really want to eat things with names you cannot pronounce? Didn't think so. These cookies are proof that being Healthy Green can taste familiar too!

But...  I recently have had a concern regarding my pregnancy that I didn't want to publish to the world on my blog, but I did want some BTDT opinions and professional answers, and I wasn't happy with what my OB told me.  In addition to that forum being secure and private, it is populated with a wealth of nurses -- most of them still practicing -- who are also homeschooling moms.

(This doesn't sound like a marinade recipe, does it???  Hang with me;  I'll get there.)

Now that I've had some of my fears alleviated, and some exacerbated, as a result of my original post on the Sonlight Forums, I've been further poking around on my favorite part of the board, the clumsily-named Homemaking, Shopping Tips, Health & Fitness Discussion.

Someone asked for a recipe for marinating round steak, and I posted my suggestion.  I'd actually been meaning to post the recipe to this blog anyways.

So, without any further ado:

Easiest Meat Marinade Ever

(All of this is approximate; I usually just get out a big ziploc bag and pour it all in, mix it right in the bag by sealing and squooshing the bag, then I add the meat.)

• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 Tbsp water
• 2-4 cloves pressed garlic
• 1/2 tsp salt
• --whatever herb/spice sounds appealing to me**--
• PLUS, about 2 Tbsp liquid soy lecithin

The soy lecithin (found in the supplements area of my natural foods store) is a natural emulsifier and slight thickener. It makes the oil mix with the vinegar and water, and makes the marinade thick enough that it sticks to the meat, even when grilling. It gives the meat a finished/professional/restaurant appearance, especially chicken. I do this with beef, pork and chicken. Generally, for tough cuts like round, I'll let it marinate 8-24 hours.  Other meats, anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 hours. 

**for Italian seasoning, I just use an Italian herb blend plus dried onion. For Mexican, I use ground cumin, Mexican oregano, a little bit of red/cayenne pepper, and dried onion. Also, I often buy no-salt herb/spice mixtures at the store, and use them. The possibilities are endless.

Carrie, like me, is the sort of cook (and baker) who would rather use a LOT of ingredients to get a perfect result, instead of trying to use the fewest, resulting in a product that is simply edible.  Though her recipe used a host of ingredients, I had all but one (millet flour) in my pantry.  I quickly bought some millet, and set to work.

The only problem was that Carrie doesn't need to avoid dairy, and her recipe contains nonfat powdered milk.  I thought, "Well, I'll just substitute rice milk powder!"  I tried that.  The results:  Beautifully crusty, tasty bread with marvelous texture that absolutely caved in the middle upon baking.  The loaves simply imploded.

But, even with its sunken center, the bread itself was by far the best-tasting GFCF bread that I'd ever tried.  So, I thought I'd tinker with it until I could get bread that stayed "puffy" as it baked.

You should see my printed copy of Carrie's recipe.  It is covered with pencilled notes that are variously crossed out or circled.  After about TWELVE attempts over six weeks, slightly modifying ingredients and/or procedure each time, with varying degrees of success, I finally hit upon the right combination!!  I cannot express how absolutely thrilled I was.

Here's a rundown of what I changed: 

• First, in order to make two large loaves, I multiplied Carrie's recipe by one-and-a-half times.
• In lieu of the dairy milk powder, I use a smaller amount of rice milk powder PLUS a bit of rice protein powder.
• I increased the amount of yeast used.
• I decreased the amount of brown sugar.
• I decreased the amount of water.
• In lieu of Smart Balance margarine, I use Butter Flavored Crisco (which IS casein-free).
• In lieu of Bob's Red Mill (yellow) millet flour, I'm using dark/"black" millet flour, also called bajri flour.  I'm certain that the recipe would be successful with either choice. 

Why those changes?  Well, taking out the dairy milk powder decreases the protein.  Adding plain rice milk powder adds too much sugar.  And, for whatever reason, if I used Carrie's amount of liquids, the end result would be tasty bread whose top caved.  Also, Butter Crisco has no actual liquid (unlike most other margarines), and baked goods made with Butter Crisco tend not to spread as much.

So...  Though the resulting loaves, using my modified recipe, are slightly gnarly on top, they work.  Also, the resulting bread slices aren't quite as pliable as Carrie's bread, both likely due to the lower moisture content.  But, the bread still browns beautifully, is wonderfully crusty, slices as thick or as thin as you please, tastes AWESOME (even on day 2 or 3), makes great sandwiches, toast, french toast, and whatever else you'd like to do/make with the bread.  It is pliable, tender -- not soggy -- and filled with beautiful air-pockets.  It is simply the best GFCF bread I've ever had, and lemme tell you, I've tried a LOT of recipes.

After you've tried the recipe and fallen in love with it, as I'm sure you will, consider doing what I've done:  Get out some quart-sized freezer bags, and while you measure the dry ingredients into your bowl for baking, measure all the dry ingredients into your freezer bags as well.  That way, you'll be able to simply pull a bag of dry ingredient "mix" from the freezer, add in the leavening and wet ingredients, and within 20 minutes, you'll have your loaves rising in the oven.  The last batch I did, I filled seven quart freezer bags.  Since five of the six of our family members eat gluten-free and/or casein free, I EASILY go through four loaves in a week.  Most every week, I make two batches, and it saves a ton of time by simply pulling out a bag from the freezer.

I also highly recommend that you view Carrie's original recipe post, which has more pics, and a description of why some of the more unusual ingredients are necessary.

NOTE:  Today (07/16/08), I made this bread again...  I recently read on a "regular" bread-making site that if bread rises, then falls during baking that it is often from rising too quickly, at too high of a temp.  So, today, I had the bread rise at room temp.  While the tops didn't cave, it took 1 hr 20 min just to rise to the tops of the pans, and overall, just didn't seem to rise as much as using the rising in an oven that's been heated to 170*, as described below.

If you make this bread, PLEASE comment and let me know of your results.  If you modify the recipe in any way -- especially if your modifications are successful -- please comment on that, too.

Printer-Friendly PDF Version  (This is a bare-bones, printable version, no pics or graphics.)

GFCF Wholegrain Sandwich Bread

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 3/4 cup white rice flour
• 3/4 cup sorghum flour
• 3/8 cup millet flour, black or yellow (3/8 cup is is the same as 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp)
• 3/8 cup potato starch
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds
• 1/4 + 2 Tbsp rice milk powder
• 2 Tbsp rice protein powder
• 4 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin
• 4 1/2 tsp Sure Jell (pectin)
• 3/4 tsp salt

Leavening Ingredients:

• 5 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1/4 + 2 Tbsp warm water (105* - 110* F)

Wet Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp Butter Crisco  (Butter-flavored Crisco IS GFCF)
• 3 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 3 egg whites, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (105* - 110* F)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 170* and turn off immediately, keeping the door closed.
2. Prepare pans: 2 large (5" x 9") bread pans, or two small (4" x 8") bread pans PLUS six muffin cups or 16 mini muffin cups (for dinner rolls). Spray with oil or line breadpans with nonstick aluminum foil.
3. In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), thoroughly whisk together all of the dry ingredients. Set aside.
4. Proof the yeast: Mix together the leavening ingredients, set aside. It should become aromatic and bubbly.
5. In a medium bowl, microwave the Butter Crisco until just melted (appx. 25 seconds in the microwave). To the melted Butter Crisco, add the 3 Tbsp brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, eggs and egg whites. Whisk to mix well. Mix in the 1 1/2 cups warm water and all of the leavening ingredients.
6. Gently pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. For a stand mixer: Mix dough with paddle attachment for 5-8 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl with rubber spatula occasionally. By hand: With a sturdy wooden spoon, mix dough at least 100 strokes, scraping down the sides of the bowl with rubber spatuala 2-3 times. Dough will be quite thick.  (If mixed in a stand mixer, the dough and resulting loaves might be smoother than mine;  I mix by hand.  I'm asking for a Kitchen-Aid for Christmas!!) 
7. For large loaves: Spoon as evenly as possible into prepared large loaf pans. Smooth top with rubber spatula, and firmly tap breadpans on countertop to settle the dough. Spray two pieces of plastic wrap with oil, and place atop the pans, oil-side down. Set in oven to rise for 1 hour.
8. For small loaves and dinner rolls: Into a pastry bag with no tip, place about 1 1/2 cups of dough. Pipe into prepared muffin tins, filling level with the top of tins. (A pastry bag isn't required, but rolls will look quite gnarled if you choose not to use a pastry bag.) Spoon rest of dough into the small loaf pans. Pans will be just shy of half-full. Smooth tops of loaves with rubber spatula, and firmly tap breadpans on countertop to settle the dough. Optional: Brush tops of dinner rolls and small loaves with one beaten egg. (NOTE: Since large loaves get quite brown upon baking, you don't want to do this for the large loaves, which bake longer.) Spray two pieces of plastic wrap with oil, and place atop the pans, oil-side down. (No need to cover the muffin tins.) Place in oven to rise. Let the dinner rolls rise 25 minutes. Let the small loaves rise 45 minutes. (After the dinner rolls rise completely, you can remove all the pans from the oven, and proceed to step 9, baking the rolls as the small loaves rise for an additional 20 minutes atop the oven.)
9. Remove pans from oven. Gently remove plastic wrap from loaves. The loaves will have risen just over the top edge. Heat oven to 350* F. For large loaves, bake 45 minutes. For small loaves, bake 35 minutes. For dinner rolls, bake 20 minutes. Bread/rolls will not rise further upon baking. After baking, turn out, and cool on racks.
10. Bread slices more cleanly when loaves are completely cooled. For best results, use a serrated bread knife.
11. Store lightly covered on countertop, for up to three days.  If it takes you longer than that to go through a couple of loaves, consider freezing one loaf right away, then thawing it at room temp.  After three days, place remaining bread in fridge, though the bread loses some of its pliability after refrigeration.

When I was a kid, my mom was the classic semi-ex-hippie health nut.  She sprinkled wheat germ on everything, served us whole-wheat bread (often homemade), would NEVER allow Kraft Cheese Singles in our home, nor Kool-Aid, nor Twinkies and the like.  We had natural peanut butter and honey on that whole wheat bread.  At school, no one ever wanted to trade lunch items with me.  Carrot sticks for a Little Debbie cake just didn't work.  As I suffered, I pledged to do differently when I was a grown-up, especially when I had kids.  I just wouldn't do to them what was done to me.

Well, fast-forward 25 years, and guess what?  If anything, I'm healthier than my mom.  Obviously, since we're gluten-free, there's no wheat germ to be found in the house, but there is rice bran!  Hehehe!  I avoid processed foods, making as much from scratch as possible, saving us both money and exposure to unnecessary additives and fat.  I strive for whole-grain baking, putting brown rice and sorghum flour in my cakes.  We eat lots of fruits and veggies, and Kool-Aid has never passed my threshhold.  Another thing I scrupulously avoid is trans-fats.  Those artery-clogging baddies haven't seen my pantry shelves in years.  My pantry is stocked with Spectrum Non-Hydrogenated Shortening.  (Spectrum is made of palm oil, which is semi-solid at room temperature.)  Since we're now dairy-free, we use Smart Balance, which is trans-fat-free, as well as dairy-free.  No "regular" margarine for us -- ever -- though I really miss real butter.

However, in addition to striving to be healthy, I'm also practical.  Since 5/6 of our family is gluten-free, and 1/3 of it is completely dairy-free, and an additional 1/3 is dairy-reduced, I have to make most of what we eat gluten-free and casein/dairy-free.  Doing so is often an exercise more akin to a science experiment than to baking.  There's so much that changes when you take out the protein of wheat and milk;  it makes many "standard," simple recipes extremely difficult.  Multitudes of previously unexperienced problems crop up.  Baking really is all about chemical reactions, and GFCF baking breaks so many of the rules we rely upon for successful "normal" baking.

One problem I continually have is that of my cookies spreading too much.  I tinker with the sugar content, the moisture content, the temperature at which they bake, the kind of pan on which they bake, the kind of fat I use in them... still, I'm often left with unintentionally crispy, flat cookies.  They still taste good, but they don't look (nor have the texture) that they should.

Enter Carrie, the Ginger Lemon Girl.  She's a gluten-free blogger with a similar baking sensibility to mine:  she'd rather use one billion ingredients and come up with the PERFECT recipe than use fewer and have the results be simply edible.  I thought my recipe lists, intros, notes and explanations veered into the "Over the Top" category, but hers take the (gluten-free) cake.  She pays attention to the most minute of details, and writes about them in great detail, including tons of pics.

I almost laughed myself through her ultra-detailed description of making chocolate chip cookies.  Now, I haven't yet made her recipe, but I will.  (I've been distracted for the last five weeks turning her bread recipe into a casein/dairy-free version, but that's for another post.)  At the end of the post, though, I received a baking revelation:  using Crisco in lieu of non-hydrogenated Spectrum shortening stops the spread.  She even illustrates this pictorially. 

The lighter, "puffier" cookie on the bottom left is made with Butter-flavored Crisco, the darker, flatter one on the upper right is made with Spectrum:

This rocked my trans-fat-free world.  Even though they have recently reformulated, Crisco does contain some hydrogenated oils, which do contain trans-fats.  However, it is merely "technically" free of trans-fats, because each serving (1 tablespoon) contains less than 0.5 grams, so they're allowed to list it as 0g.  I'd really like to know the exact gram-content of trans-fats in, perhaps, a larger amount.  So far, though, I haven't been able to find it.

Anyways.  After seeing Carrie's post, I bought some Butter Crisco on my next trip to the grocery store.  I've been using it everywhere:  in bread, in cookies, in cakes...  with stellar success.  Last night, the Butter Crisco went into some hot dog buns.  I used a recipe I've used before, but never with these results.  I've never had puffier, more wonderfully-textured hot dog buns, ever.  (MANY thanks, by the way, to Oscar Meyer for their new, nitrate/nitrite-free beef hot dogs, which are comparably priced to other branded "regular" hot dogs.) Those buns were SO good.

In fact, after heading home by myself from Bible study last night, I had this little conversation with myself, "Hmm...  Should I stop at Sonic and get some Tater-Tots?  Or, hey, their shakes are still 99 cents!!  No...  I think I'd rather go home and have a sandwich or hot dog on those buns I made this afternoon."  They were that good.

I have to say, I'm sold on Butter Crisco.

EDITED TO ADD:  OK, I should have researched this better before writing the two paragraphs below on the potential of Butter Crisco containing dairy/casein ingredients.  I called Crisco, and after listening to an actually helpful recording on allergens, I had the option of talking to a real person.  She was extremely thorough and friendly -- the best customer service rep I've talked to in a long time.  She assured me that the "natural flavorings" (as well as the artificial ones) in Butter Crisco are NOT, absolutely NOT, derived from dairy.  They contain no casein whatsoever.  Butter Crisco is gluten-free/casein-free.  She wouldn't say, flat-out, the sources of the natural flavorings, because it's "proprietary."  However, if you have an individual allergen, beyond the standard "big eight" allergens, they will research it and call you back.  I asked her to check to see if it contained any carob.  Wes isn't as violently allergic to carob as he used to be, but I still avoid it.

Woo hoo!!

Not that that makes Butter Crisco actually healthy, but at least it's safe, and sometimes, for us, safe has to trump healthy. 

Now, for the allergen disclaimer:  Our family's need to eliminate dairy is largely due to Wesley's extreme allergy to casein (the protein in milk).  One Hershey's Kiss has enough dairy to give him a full-on asthma attack.  Butter Crisco is flavored both naturally and artificially;  I'm guessing that the natural flavors are dairy-derived.  But, for us, if it is from actual dairy, it's a small enough amount that it causes no reaction in Wes whatsoever.  (We can't even get "butter-flavored" microwave popcorn, because he reacts to that.  But, so far, Butter Crisco?  No problems.)  Audrey is also allergic to dairy (though not quite as severely;  it causes skin and digestive problems), and I, as much as I care to ignore it, appear to be allergic to dairy, too.  Additionally, another of my sons has a learning disorder akin to Asperger's Syndrome, which is a form of autism.  Many autistic children dramatically improve on a GFCF diet.  Grant has responded to a GFCF diet, but not "dramatically" and, honestly, I'm not as vigilant about him avoiding dairy 24/7 as I am with Wesley, or even Audrey. 

SO.  All that to say, if you're on an extremely restricted GFCF diet, I wouldn't necessarily recommend Butter Crisco.  Maybe you could use "plain" Crisco -- give it a try, anyways!  For everyone else baking gluten-free, I give a resounding recommendation to Butter Crisco.  In the world of g.f. baking, which is riddled with difficulties, it's just lovely to eliminate one more problem.    

Super-Quick and Easy Crepes (GFCF)

(per 2 crepes: )

• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 Tbsp sweet rice flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp jam
• Optional:  Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (or regular, dairy cream cheese) and powdered sugar

Heat a well-oiled non-stick 10" skillet over medium heat.  (I use about 1/2 tsp rice bran oil.)

In the bottom of a glass 2-cup measure, pour in 1/3 cup water.  Add the baking powder, sugar and sweet rice flour.  With a fork or small whisk, combine until smooth.  Add the eggs and beat until smooth and well-combined.  You should have just shy of 1 cup of batter.

For thinner crepes, pour half the batter into the hot skillet.  If necessary, tilt the pan until the bottom of the pan is evenly covered with batter.  For thick crepes, pour all of the batter into the pan, which will easily cover the bottom of the pan.  Cover and cook until the top is set.  This should take about 2.5 minutes for thin crepes, 4 minutes for thick ones.  Ideally, you want bottom of the crepe only lightly golden brown, so adjust your stove's heat accordingly.  If you're making thinner crepes, you won't have to flip the crepe at all.  With the thick crepes, I usually flip them, just to make sure they're cooked through:  With a large spatula, flip the crepe and cook the other side quickly, about 30 seconds. 

Flip or slide the crepe onto a plate so that the crepe is golden-brown-side-down. 

While the crepe is still hot, if you're using cream cheese, spread about 1 Tbsp in a thick line, from edge to edge, about 1/3 of the way from one side of the crepe.  Top with 1 Tbsp jam, spreading it likewise.  Starting at the side closest to the jam and optional cream cheese, roll the crepe.  If desired, place a few Tbsp powdered sugar in the bottom of a wire sieve and tap this over the crepe to sprinkle it with powdered sugar.

Since I'm cooking for myself and four kids (and if it's a Saturday morning, my hubby, too!), I repeat this process several times, preparing the batter for the next crepes while the first batch is cooking. 

Some plants are better for improving indoor air quality than others... and some are easier to keep alive, if you like me are not a green thumb.

Here is what we are considering adding to our home...

Gerbera Daisies- Great for air quality and easy to care for. Also one of my favorites. You just can't go wrong with those cheery blooms!

Bamboo Palm- We are adding at least one, maybe two flanking the fireplace (close to the slider door for sunlight). I like how big and green they are. Wondering... will I have to dust the fronds?

Peace Lily- Up in the air on this one... I think this is what I have used in the past with the cute fishy vases. Not sure if we will get some or not.

English Ivy- I know these are really easy to take care of... but for some reason they remind me of Grandma's house... Maybe one in the kitchen?

Mums- Another bright flower... but I'm thinking not really our style.

Chinese Evergreen- I Love, love, love this plant as well. (This one is suppose to do well in low light areas and have low water needs... sounds like the plant for me!)

Snake Plants- If I can get beyond the name... we might be able to get one of these as well. They are kind of neat looking.

Now that I have decided on what varieties to bring into our home, the next question is how many? According to the NASA study on indoor air quality in the 1980's a home under 2000 sq ft should have no less than 15 house plants to help clean up the air. Yikes. Where am I going to put all those? They should also be relatively large plants... in containers of no less than six inches in diameter.

Now that we have cleaned up the air you breath... let's put something tasty in the belly!!!

I must confess, I had a Food Network dream about these bars... it went something like this:

PolkaDotMommy (that'd be yours truly) sitting on the bleachers at a baseball game, wearing my Oregon Ducks hat, I am holding an open container of these tasty treats and my youngest is sitting next to me munching on them. A hand reaches over my shoulder as a voice says, "Those look tasty" and grabs one out of the container. I look back as Alton Brown bites into a snack bar. I replied, "They are gluten free, dairy free and can be vegan as well." He scrunches up his face as if to say... ick, and then, the line, "and they are Good Eats". Pathetic I know. Why oh why am I dreaming about Food Network? Oh... maybe because I'd love to see some featured shows on alternative cooking. The numbers of us cooking Gluten free, Dairy Free, Allergy Free is rapidly growing. Isn't it time someone paid attention?

Gluten Free, Dairy Free Snack Bars (And they taste so darn good!)

Makes approx 24 bars

1/2 c. white rice flour

1/2 c. brown rice flour

1/4c. coconut flour

1/4c. tapioca starch

1c. crunchy cereal flakes (we use sweet buckwheat flake cereal) crushed

1/4c. Wholesome Sweetners Evaporated Cane Sugar

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 c. maple syrup

1/4c. canola oil

1 egg or substitute

1 tsp. GF vanilla

1 organic pear peeled and grated

1 organic granny smith apple peeled and grated

1/2 c. organic dried cranberries

1/2c. enjoy life chocolate chips

1/4 c. almonds chopped or diced to your desired texture or sunflower seeds if you can't do nuts

Oven on to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13 insulated baking pan with parchment or wax paper, leave a "grip" edge over each end to lift out finished bars.

Combine all dry ingredients and cereal flakes in medium sized mixing bowl.

Add syrup, egg, oil and vanilla. Now add in grated fruit, cranberries, chocolate chips, nuts/seeds. Stir well.

Spread mixture into the pan and bake for 35 minutes, check to see if done by inserting a toothpick in the middle, it shouldn't come out clean. Cool, lift out of pan by edges of paper and cut into bars using a pizza cutter.

We like to wrap these individually so they are ready for lunch boxes and afternoon snacks, then place them in a zippie bag or container with a lid and store in the refrigerator.

I will try to get some pictures of the next batch up here... the first batch didn't last long enough to get the camera out!

Today's Green Tip- It's obvious.... Get some plants. :)

So asked my kids of me, who hadn't a clue.  I hadn't gone grocery shopping in nearly two weeks.  We were out of eggs, out of breakfast meat, out of milk (most of us are dairy-free, though), and we'd already had hot cereal the day before.  Hmmm...  I perused the pantry, and came up with an idea.  Breakfast cookies!  I started pulling ingredients, and hoped everything would work together. 

Oh, my goodness!  They turned out SO GOOD.  The results taste like glorified oatmeal-raisin cookies.  And, as someone who hasn't had an oatmeal-raisin cookie in nearly six years, they were so dreamy.  Relatively low in refined sugar, high-fiber, whole-grain, high-protein, filling, soft and chewy, and absolutely delicious.  My kids, as they were eating them, asked me to make them again.  I'm going on a hiking trip in a couple of weeks, and I know I'll be making these to take along. 

Now, anyone who has ever baked gluten-free before knows that it's tricky.  Make the item dairy-free, too, and it's super-tricky!  Take out the eggs as well, and you have a recipe that's in a profoundly delicate balance.  SO!  While a substitution may work here or there, I make no promises for the success of any cookies made with substitutions and/or omissions.  I know there are a lot of ingredients in this recipe, but I'd be really careful about what I'd leave out or add in... 

If you've never used quinoa flakes before, it's a good time to start!  They look like mini rolled oats, and are surely what give these cookies their oatmeal-like appeal.

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Nut-Free Breakfast Cookies

Makes 12 very large cookies

Preheat oven to 350* F.  Line an insulated cookie sheet with either parchment or Reynold's Non-Stick Foil.  (If you don't have an insulated cookie sheet, take two same-sized cookie sheets that nest together, and between them, lay some heavy-duty aluminum foil that has been crumpled and partially smoothed out.  This will give you an air gap between the two cookie sheets.)

In a large bowl, mix the following ingredients:

• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup quinoa flakes
• 1/2 cup puffed millet
• 1/2 cup sweetened, flaked coconut
•  1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup rice bran
• 1/4 cup brown rice protein powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

In a small bowl, or glass 2-cup measure, mix the following ingredients:

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup canola oil (or other cooking oil)
• 1/2 cup rice milk (or other milk)
• 2 tsp vanilla

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  This will make a very stiff dough.

Then, with a heavy wooden spoon, mix in:

• 1/2 cup roasted, salted sunflower kernels (or other nut or seed)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup sweetened, dried cranberries (or, use 1 cup total other small or chopped, dried fruit)

Next, oil your hands.  Make 12 large balls out of the dough, and place on your cookie sheet.  (Each ball will be roughly 1/4 cup of dough.)  Then, grease the bottom of a large cup, and dip the cup into a small bowl of sugar.  With the sugared cup bottom, flatten each cookie so that each cookie is approximately 3 to 3 1/2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick.  Re-dip the cup in sugar for each cookie.

Bake for about 22-24 minutes at 350* F, or until the edges of the cookies are golden.  Cool on racks, or simply remove the parchment/foil from the pan with the cookies still on them and cool on countertop.

Enjoy!

On our weekly Costco trip, we found a delightful new treat. Emerald Valley Kitchen ORGANIC Salsa and Bean Dip. Yummy. Both products are labeled GLUTEN FREE right on the back label, they are also fat free and have no cholesterol. Better yet, Emerald Valley Kitchen is based right here in Eugene, Oregon. How's that for local sustainability? K3 and I enjoyed these two toppings on some crunchy corn flats for lunch and they get TWO THUMBS UP. (They came as a package deal, 30 oz of salsa and 16 oz of bean dip for $5.89.) Corn flats (both crunchy and tortilla style, are inexpensive and gluten free!, Costco carries a pack of 80 tortilla style for under $3.00. I found a 14 oz package (about 24) of crunchy flats at the local market for under $2.00. Be sure to read the labels, most I have found do not contain any gluten... but they aren't labeled GF usually (except Mission brand... they do label the packages, but are more expensive).

For Dinner last night, I needed something quick and easy before the kids headed to Awana. I used corn tortilla's and Tofutti cheese slices to make quesadillas. For a side, I grilled asparagus and baby carrots with Earth Balance margarine and black pepper, we finished it off with apple slices. ( I can't wait for our tree to produce fruit! The blossoms are abundant this year!) It was a hit with the kids... the veggies were lightly grilled, but still finger food quality, so that's always a winner.

On the way home from Awana, 3 year old Little Critter filled me in on what she learned... "Jesus, he died on the cross, but he's alive now." It amazes me that a child this young can retain that... I cannot say how many times we have talked about this at home and last night she got it. It was very cute and touching.

Today's Green Tip- Buy in bulk when you can. This can save as much as 10% in packaging. LIttle things add up.

I made these yesterday, and my husband -- who doesn't even really like sweets -- said, "Those cookies ROCK!  They're the best g.f. cookies I've ever tasted."  And, he took two with him for breakfast this morning.  ;)

This recipe makes a "classic" soft chocolate chip cookie:  A tiny bit crisp on the outside, and chewy and soft on the inside.   I made them yesterday, and they still have their great texture today (anyone who has baked g.f. before knows that, unfortunately, many goodies that taste great straight from the oven may not even be edible the next day).

NOTES:  If you don't have insulated pans, get two jelly-roll style cookie sheets, and place crumpled and slightly flattened aluminum foil between them, to create a bit of an air gap.

Also, I HIGHLY recommend Reynold's Non-Stick Foil.  It eliminates possible contamination if you have used your pans for "regular," gluten-containing baked goods.  And, simply, nothing sticks to it!

For inexpensive dairy/casein-free chocolate chips, check out your local grocery store's generic brands!  I shop at Fry's, which is a Kroger affiliate.  They supply FMV brand generics, and the FMV brand is entirely dairy-free:  no butter fat or milk!  And, at only $1.17 a bag, that's a LOT cheaper than specialty-branded dairy-free chocolate chips, which are typically around $4 for an 8 oz bag.  (However, FMV does have soy lecithin in them, and have vanillin, which is an artificial flavor.) 

Lastly, although Bob's Red Mill does make a sorghum flour, I buy mine at a local Asian food store, in the Indian foods aisle.  It's a lot cheaper that way, around $2-3 for a 2 lb bag.  It will likely be marked as "jawar" or "juwar" flour.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (GFCF)
Makes 36 large cookies

1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup sweet rice flour
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup white rice flour
1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup shortening*
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup rice (or other) milk
12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (or fewer, for less chocolatey cookies)

Preheat oven to 350*F.  Line insulated baking pans (see note above) with nonstick foil.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, and xanthan gum.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream both sugars, eggs, shortening, vanilla and rice milk.

To the shortening mixture, add half of the flour mixture, and mix well with a wooden spoon.  Then, add the rest of the flour mixture, mixing completely.  This will make a stiff dough.  Stir in the chocolate chips, mixing well.

With your hands, make medium-sized balls of dough, about 2 Tablespoons each.  Place dough on cookie sheet.  Flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass, dipped in sugar.  (Cookies will spread only a small amount.)

Bake for 26 minutes, or until cookies are slightly browned (switching oven racks midway through, if you're baking two sheets at a time).

Remove from sheet with a spatula, and cool on racks.  (Or, do it like I do, old-school-style, cooling them on cut-open brown paper shopping bags.)

-----------------

While I have qualms about rain forest being destroyed for ever-increasing demand of palm oil (Spectrum is produced in Colombia), I am also very grateful for an organic, non-hydrogenated, naturally-produced, peanut-free facility to produce the shortening that I use.  Crisco, btw, is also a peanut-free company, but their shortening is partially hydrogenated, and contains some transfat (though much less than it used to). 

I came up with this recipe, which has about 2 grams of fiber in each muffin.  While that doesn't qualify as high fiber, it's still pretty good.

These muffins are good for breakfast;  they're not super-sweet, definitely not cupcake-style muffins.  Even though they don't rise super-puffy, they have a nice, bready texture, and are not too heavy.

Like most of my recipes (since I'm baking for a family of six), this makes a big batch.  If it's too many for your family, freeze half of your results, and enjoy them next week, too!

Almost High-Fiber Molasses Muffins (GFCF)
makes 24 muffins

2 Tbsp rice bran
2 Tbsp flax seed meal
3 Tbsp coconut flour
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp brown rice flour
1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup sweet rice flour
1 cup white rice flour
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 rounded Tbsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp blackstrap molasses (note:  in lieu of sugar and blackstrap molasses, you could simply use 1 cup dark brown sugar, plus 2 Tbsp dark molasses, if you have it)
2 large eggs
1 cup orange juice
1 cup milk of your choice (dairy, rice, soy, etc.)
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup raisins

Heat oven to 350*F. 

Line 24 muffin cups with baking cups/papers.

In a large bowl, whisk together the first 12 ingredients (all the dry ingredients) until well-combined.

In a small bowl (preferably a 4-cup liquid measuring cup), mix the molasses, eggs, orange juice, milk and oil.  If your ingredients don't amount to a full 3 cups of liquid, add some more milk or orange juice to bring it to three total cups.

Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Stir in the raisins.

Fill each muffin cup with a scant 1/4 cup of batter, and place tins in oven.

Bake for about 26 minutes, or until the tops of muffins are lightly browned.

If you let them cool for about five minutes, they release from the paper completely.  However, if you're like us, and you just can't wait, and must eat them straight from the oven, your first muffin or two will probably stick to the paper a bit. :)

Enjoy!

Like most GF recipes, these taste best on the day they're made. On day 2, they get a little tough, though they still taste good. So, if you're going to make and store them, they would probably do better without the second baking (see instructions below), so that they would stay softer.

(This recipe is also casein-free/dairy-free.)

GFCF Cracker Flatbread
makes 36 saltine-sized crackers

2 1/2 tsp yeast
2 cups warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 cup tapioca starch
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup sweet rice flour
1 cup sorghum flour
1 rounded Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening

Heat the oven to 425*F.

Line two jelly roll pans (11" x 17") with nonstick foil, or with heavy-duty aluminum foil that has been greased. Remove the foil to the countertop so that it's laying mostly-flat, but so that you can see the creases which denote the edges of your pan.

Into the warm water, add the sugar and yeast. Stir gently, and set aside.

In a large bowl, thoroughly combine the tapioca starch, flours, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt (I use a whisk). With a pastry blender, work in the shortening, combining until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.

To the flour mixture, add the yeast and water, stir well to combine. This will make a soft dough.

Spoon the dough onto the foil, dividing it evenly. Cut a sheet of plastic wrap long enough to cover the foil. Cover the dough with the plastic wrap, and with a rolling pin, roll out the dough to the dimensions of the pan, making it as evenly thick and rectangular as possible. It will be about 1/4" thick. Repeat with the other pan.

Place pans in oven, on separate racks and bake for 20 minutes, switching the pans after 10 minutes so that they bake evenly. After 20 total minutes, remove the pans, and quickly lift out the foil, setting it (with the cracker dough it contains) onto the countertop. Flip the dough (which will have shrunk quite a bit) so that it's bottom-side-up. With a pizza wheel cutter, cut the dough into cracker-sized pieces (I cut each pan into 18 saltine-sized crackers). It's all right if the pizza wheel doesn't totally cut through each piece.

Place the foil back into the pans, and place the pans back in the oven. Bake for another 12 minutes, switching the pans after six minutes so that they bake thoroughly.

Remove the pans from the oven, and lift out the foil, again setting it on your countertop so that the crackers cool more quickly.

Eat them warm, or let them cool and store in a tightly-sealed container.

Anyways.

All of that is just a disclaimer to state that I'm aware that my "ethnic" recipes are probably mere shadows of their cultural counterparts.  It's my goal to produce recipes that are new and playful, yet ones of which all six members of my family members will say, "Yum!  May I please have more?"

So.

I created this recipe because I'm newly obsessed with some strange-ish Korean "noodles."  Made from sweet rice flour, these soft, chewy, oval-shaped pads are known by ALL sorts of monikers:  rice cakes, ddeok guk ddeok, rice ovalettes, dduckgook, duk-guk, and more.  When cooked, they have an interesting, pleasing texture and they soak up the flavors of the dish.

I buy them at a local Asian food store -- a 1.5 lb package is found in the refrigerated section, and costs only $1.99.

Many thanks to the Wordpress blog Muffintop for this picture of plain ovalettes, soaking.  Muffintop is a foodie blog, well-worth a visit.  (Though the recipe below does not require pre-soaking them, I found this to be the best picture of the ovalette rice cakes.) 

As always, all of my recipes are gluten-free, and as of the last year, they're all dairy/casein-free, too.

Korea Chicken Noodle Soup
Serves 6-8
Time to prepare and cook:  about 45 minutes, 30 if you're quick ;)

• 1 Tbsp rice bran oil (or other cooking oil) 
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup (3-4 stalks) finely sliced green onions (also known as spring onions or scallions)
• optional:  about 3 oz. mushrooms, finely sliced
• 1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper
• 1/2 sheet Nori, crushed (Nori is roasted seaweed sheets, often used for sushi)
• 2 quarts (8 cups) chicken stock (I use Organic Chicken Better Than Bullion -- at last check, their regular, non-organic Chicken BTB contains whey)
• 1 quart (4 cups) water
• 3-4 cups diced cooked chicken (I used some leftover grilled chicken breasts)
• 1.5 lb package Korean rice cakes/rice ovalettes
• 4-5 cups baby spinach (or chopped baby bok choy or short bok choy)

In a 6-8 quart stock pot on the stovetop, heat the oil over a medium-low heat.  Add the minced garlic and cover.  Cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is tender but not browned.  Add the green onion and optional mushrooms, bring heat up to medium, stir and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Stir in the black pepper and Nori.  Add the chicken stock and water, turn the heat up to high, cover, and bring to a boil.  Stir in the diced chicken, and bring back to a boil.  Stir in the ovalette rice cakes and bring back to a boil.  Immediately turn off the heat and stir in the spinach (or bok choy), stirring just until the veggies start to wilt.  Serve immediately.

Note:  Do not over-boil the soup once the ovalette rice cakes are added.  You want them to just heat through and soften a bit.  Leftover soup is good (I'm eating some right now!), but reheating will cause the ovalette rice cakes to soften considerably.

---------------------------------

*In fact, one of the things that has broken my heart about being gluten-free is now I'm afraid of all the ethnic hole-in-the-wall restaurants that my hubby and I used to search out and claim as our own.  So much of them are not gluten-safe, and unless I speak Persian or Korean or Ethiopian, I can't really ask the chef if a dish contains any traces of wheat.    

Sometimes, I used a pre-seasoned big can, but many times (like today), I just wing it, making my own barbecue sauce.  It's super-quick, very flexible, and so tasty.

I'm calling this a "sort-of" recipe, because I just slosh in a bit here and there without actually measuring, but I will attempt to make the best approximation of measurements, for any non-sloshers. 

This recipe would still work with many different substitutions and/or omissions.  But, I'm writing it up as I made it today.

Like all my other recipes, this is gluten-free and casein-free (dairy-free).

Sweet and Spicy BBQ Beans
Makes 4-6 meal-sized servings
Total prep and cook time:  15 minutes

• cooking oil
• one clove garlic, minced
• dijon mustard
• dried, minced onion  (or 1/4 - 1/2 tsp dried granulated onion, or about 3 Tbsp minced fresh onion)
• gluten-free worcestershire sauce
• gluten-free soy sauce
• granulated sugar
• blackstrap molasses (or about 1/3 cup brown sugar, or about 1/3 cup honey in lieu of BOTH granulated sugar and blackstrap molasses) 
• ketchup (or plain tomato sauce)
• 3 cans (15 oz. each) beans of your choice (I used white beans)
• small amount of leftover, cooked meat, minced
• optional:  Tabasco or other pepper sauce

Over medium-low heat, heat approximately 2 tsp. cooking oil in a medium saucepan.  Add minced garlic, and stir for a minute or two.  Turn heat up to medium and stir in approximately one tablespoon dijon mustard, mix well.  Add 1-2 tsp dried onion and mix.  Stir in about 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce and 2 teaspoons gluten-free soy sauce, mix well, and bring mixture to boiling.  Stir in about 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses and 1/4 cup granulated sugar, and bring to boil again.  Then, add about 1/2 cup ketchup and taste.  If it's a bit too spicy for you, add a bit more ketchup to taste.  If it's not spicy enough, add some Tabasco sauce (or similar).  Bring to boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes.  Drain the beans and add to the sauce.  If you are adding meat, do so now.  Bring the whole mixture to a boil, and serve. 

However, now that we have five of our six family members on a gluten-free, dairy-free diet, I can no longer justify spending $4.49 on a loaf of bread, no matter how tasty and convenient it is.  So, last night, yet again, I tried making some bread.  I used a trusted cookbook, Carol Fenster's Gluten-Free 101, and what looked like a good recipe, though I was a wee bit skeptical regarding the amount of starches in it.  I should have trusted my gluten-free baking instincts.

Both Wes and Audrey love it (the bigger boys haven't yet tried it), and I'm OK with the taste.  But, the texture is more like Food for Life's g.f. breads -- heavy and rather gummy, and nothing like (my much more highly-preferred) Kinnikinnick's bready-breads.

Grr.

It's edible.  We'll eat it.  But, for our everyday sandwich bread, I'm looking for a lot better than "it's edible." 

I'd prefer a whole-grain, hearty bread that rises nicely and has a regular-bread texture -- that is, soft and on the dry side, NOT gummy.

So, to all my gluten-free compatriots:  What is your favorite completely homemade (i.e., not from a mix) gluten-free bread?  Will you please post a recipe in the comments section (even if it's really long), or post a link in the comments?  Please?????   

I discovered a while back that chewy dried apples work better in gluten-free baking than fresh apples.  The balance of moisture seems to be a really pivotal issue in the success of GF baked goods, and apples are just too darn wet, leaving the surrounding bread gooey or gummy.  Yuck.  Dried apples work much better.  But, be aware that they expand after absorbing moisture, so mince those dried apple rings really small, or you'll have giant apple chunks in your muffins.

If you've never used fresh ginger, select a "knob" from the produce section that is firm.  Thinly peel the outside skin, then grate the skinless ginger on the small-shred side of a kitchen grater.

Also... you could just leave out the fresh ginger and simply have apple muffins. 

Apple-Fresh Ginger Muffins (GFCF -- Gluten-Free/Casein-Free)
Makes 18 muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, mix, then set aside:

• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup cooking oil (I use canola)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup rice milk (or milk of your choosing)
• 1/2 cup minced dried apple
• 1 Tbsp loosely packed finely grated fresh ginger

  In a medium bowl, combine well with a whisk:

• 1 1/2 cups sorghum flour
• 1 cup sweet rice flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch
• 1 1/2 cups sugar*
• 2 tsp xanthan gum
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

  Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mixing well with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula.  Batter will be thick.  Spoon into lined muffin tins, filling each muffin cup mostly full.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 22 minutes, or until nicely browned.  Let cool for just a few minutes before serving (or the muffin liners may stick to the muffins). 

--------------------------- 

* Actually, in lieu of sugar, I used some honey powder given to me as a gift, but celiacs need to be especially careful when buying honey powder, as many suppliers combine honey with wheat starch.  On the web, I can't find the particular brand I have, or I'd link to it.

I found a few recipes and modified them... as almost all recipes call for corn syrup.  And they are quite tasty.

 Step 1- make corn syrup replacement

2 c. organic cane sugar

3/4 c. filtered water

1/4 tsp. cream of tarter

Dash of kosher salt

Combine ingredients in heavy saucepan, bring to a low boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat, cover and allow to simmer for about 3 minutes, scrape down sides of pan to incorporate all sugar.

Remove lid and allow to simmer until reaches soft ball stage (about 235 degrees F).

Cool, store in airtight container at room temp.

Makes 2 C.

Now for the marshmallows-

3 T. of unflavored Gelatin (or sub 2 tsp. Agar Agar Powder or 3 T. of Agar Agar Flakes) You can find non animal derived jel like Lieber's at Kosher and Natural Markets.

1 c. chilled filtered water

1.5 c.  organic cane sugar

1 c. corn syrup replacement

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. real vanilla extract

1/4 c. powder sugar

1/4 c.  corn starch

Chill your metal mixing bowl and whisk attachment(s).

Place chilled bowl on base of stand mixer and attach whisk. 

Start by putting gelatin (or replacement) into bowl.

Add 1/2 c. chilled water

In medium saucepan combine remaining water, cane sugar, corn syrup and salt. Cover and cook for about 3 minutes.   Uncover and continue to cook until mixture reaches about 235-240 degrees F (soft ball stage).  Once temperature is reached remove from heat.

Now, turn your stand mixer on low.  Slowly add hot mixture to gelatin. When all syrup is added, put mixer on high.  Continue to whip until mixture becomes thick and temp cools.  Add the vanilla and whip for about a minute longer.

 This mixture will whip for 10-15 minutes.  So, prepare your pans while it is mixing.

Spray a 13 x 9 inch rectangular pan with non-stick cooking spray.   Combine powder sugar and corn starch in a small bowl.  Sprinkle mixture in pan, cover pan and shake to fully coat.

Now you can add the mixture to the pan.  It is difficult to spread.  Use a rubber spatula coated with non stick spray.  Once spread out in the pan, sprinkle the top with more of the sugar/cornstarch mixture, cover w/ foil and allow to set up over night.  Cut into 1 inch pieces and store in ziploc bag at room temp. 

Yesterday, I decided to Google jawar flour to see what it was, and how I could use it.  Well, much to my amazement, I found many sources that proclaim that jawar flour is sorghum flour!!!  Now, sorghum is a grain, not a "bean," so there's still a little skepticism in me, but maybe it's just a translation issue. 

I also found that it is more commonly spelled "jowar."  I also found it as "juvar." 

 sorghum flour = jowar flour = jowari flour = juwar flour = cholam flour  Notes:    This is widely used in India and Africa, especially by poor farmers who can't afford wheat flour.  It's somewhat bland but very nutritious and gluten-free.  You can sometimes find it in health foods stores, but you can get it for less in an Indian market.

from The Cook's Thesaurus page of Non-Wheat Flours

This really makes me happy, because I use a lot of sorghum flour, Bob's Red Mill brand, at $3.45 a pop for a 24 oz bag.  Buying it at the Asian market is going to save me 50%!!  Woo-hoo!

I tried making some flatbread with it last night (mixed with white rice flour and masa), and while it was tasty, it wasn't very "bready" and didn't hold together very well.  I still need to experiment with that.  In the meantime, I found a very simple, well-written, nicely illustrated "recipe" for making flatbread from just the sorghum/jowar flour and water.  I'm going to try it.  Here's another recipe that sounds really good, though I had to chuckle at anything deep fried that's called "very healthy."

I seem to have a hard time finding it online for purchase... but it could be, again, a translation issue.  I found it here for $2.99 for 2 lbs.  You might be better off hitting the Indian aisle of your local Asian grocery, if you are in a big enough city to have one.     

Unless you're making a gingerbread cottage, you'll need at least half of the dough to make a house.  Use the rest to make an assortment of rolled out, decorated cookies.  (I used Bob Vila's Colonial House template and instructions, and it took just over half of the dough.  Well, technically, since I doubled the below recipe, and the house took just over one quarter of the dough.) 

If the recipe looks slightly familiar, that is because I altered it from another recipe I posted on this blog, the always-popular Big Batch Gluten-Free Christmas/Sugar Cookies.

This recipe does freeze very well.  Thaw in the fridge, then bring to room temp before rolling. 

Click here for pics of the house my kids and I made with this recipe.   

GFCF Gingerbread Cookies

Makes about 8 dozen medium-sized cutout cookies

• 1 cup amaranth flour
• 2 cups potato starch
• 2 cups sweet rice flour
• 4 cups brown rice flour
• 2 Tbsp xanthan gum
• 3 Tbsp baking powder
• 3 Tbsp potato flour (optional)
• 2 Tbsp ground ginger (or more, if you like 'em really gingery)
• 1 Tbsp ground allspice
• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 cups dark brown sugar
• 2 cups shortening
• 1 cup eggs (depending on size, 4-5 eggs.  Measure into a glass measuring cup.)
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp dark molasses 
• 1 Tbsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. In a large bowl, with a whisk, mix together the flours, starch, xanthan gum, baking powder, and spices until well-combined.  Set aside. 
3. In another large bowl, cream together the powdered and brown sugars, shortening, eggs, molasses and salt. 
4. To the sugar mixture, add flour mixture, about 2 cups at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon.  Once the flour mixture is mostly incorporated, knead the dough in the bowl, slowly punching the dough down in the middle and folding the sides of the dough into the middle.  Or, put the dough on a non-stick surface (like a silicone mat or a marble slab), and knead it on there.  Incorporate all the flour mixture until you have a stiff dough. 
5. If the dough is too dry, and will not hold all of the flour, add a Tbsp of water at a time until it will gather into a ball.  Resist adding water if at all possible.  The dough works best if it is not very moist.
6. If you refrigerate or freeze the dough, bring to room temp before rolling.  For the most uniform cookies, and definitely for the large sections required for gingerbread houses, roll the dough right onto a large piece of foil or parchment, then pick up the sheet and transfer to the cookie sheet.  Working with about 1/4 of the dough at a time, roll the dough 1/4" thick.  (Bob Vila's gingerbread site had a great suggestion:  Use 1/4" round dowels as a guide for uniform thickness, as illustrated on the right.)  From this dough, either cut sections for your gingerbread house from a template, or use cookie cutters.   
7. Greasing the pan is not necessary, but I favor using nonstick foil.  For best results, use insulated pans.  (Hint:  for your own insulated pans, take two regular jelly roll pans, and between them, add a layer of heavy duty aluminum foil that has been wrinkled, then partially smoothed out.  This will create an air gap between the two pans.)
8. If you roll your cookies to 1/4" thickness and bake on insulated pans as suggested, baking time is 19 minutes.  If your cookies are thinner, and/or you're using thinner pans, bake time will be shorter.  When done, the corners of your cookies will just start to brown, and the middles will no longer feel spongy.  Also, you can bake for 16-17 minutes to produce a softer, chewier cookie (this is not recommended for gingerbread houses, though).

Recently, I decided to stop pouting and do something about it. I found that it's fairly easy to make your own allergen-free "granola" bars. This recipe uses a variety of seeds and dried fruit combined with puffed rice cereal to make a chewy, sweet "granola" bar.

I get most of my ingredients in bulk from a local, natural foods store, which keeps the cost low.

If no one in your home is allergic to nuts, of course, you could use any nut you'd like (though almonds would be difficult to slice through).

Recipe Notes:
~Do use rice PUFFS, not crisp rice. Puffed millet also works, or a combination of the two.
~To ensure that your seeds (pumpkin/squash, sunflower, etc.) are uncontaminated, consider buying raw, then pan roasting them at home: Pour a couple teaspoons sunflower (or other) oil in a large saucepan. Place over medium heat. Add the raw seeds, stir to coat. Stir very frequently just until the seeds start to brown. Pour immediately into a paper-towel-lined bowl, and cool.
~Watch your thermometer!!  If the mixture cooks too long, you'll have too-hard-to-chew bars.  Once you've reached the proper temperature, work quickly, as the mixture will continue to cook (and the temperature rise) until you've poured it out of the saucepan.  I've found that the honey mixture is a little more forgiving to over-cooking than corn syrup.

Allergen-Free Sweet 'n' Salty Trail Mix Bars

1 cup honey (or corn syrup)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla (or coconut) extract or flavoring
1 tsp salt (optional)
A total of 3 quarts (12 cups) mix, using 3 or more of the following ingredients:

• 4-8 cups of puffed rice or puffed millet cereal
• raisins
• dried cranberries
• other dried berries
• other dried fruit, like bits of dried pineapple or mango
• banana "chips" (dried, fried banana slices -- sweetened or unsweetened)
• flaked coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
• roasted, shelled sunflower seeds
• roasted, shelled pumkin seeds (also called pepitas)

Line an 11" x 17" pan (jellyroll pan) with aluminum foil -- preferably nonstick foil. Spray the foil surfaces (even if using nonstick foil) with spray-oil, or coat with dairy-free shortening or margarine.

In a large heatproof bowl (stainless steel, ceramic or glass) combine the cereal, fruit, seeds and salt (if using). Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine the honey (or corn syrup) and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture begins to boil. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan, making sure that the thermometer is immersed in the mixture, but not touching the bottom of the pan. If using corn syrup: Cook without stirring until the thermometer reaches 238 degrees F. If using honey: Cook without stirring until thermometer reaches 250 degrees F. Quickly remove from heat, quickly stir in the vanilla (or other flavoring), then pour the hot mixture over the cereal mixture. With a wooden or heat-proof plastic spoon, mix and stir until the syrup mixture coats the cereal mixture.  Immediately turn out onto the prepared, lined pan. With oiled hands (or just slip a plastic sandwich bag over your hand), press the mixture firmly down until it fills the pan.

Set the pan aside to cool for a bit (approximately 15 - 45 minutes, depending on weather). This is the only really tricky part of this recipe: If the bars are too warm, they will not cut well; they'll be too gooey. But, if you wait too long, they will have hardened, making it very difficult to cut through. So, when the bars are mostly-cool, and somewhat firm, using an oiled knife or pizza cutter, cut into 36 rectangular bars.

After bars are cooled completely, to preserve their freshness and chewiness, wrap each bar in a small square of plastic wrap.
 

This recipe seems complicated, but truly, it's not.  Most of the prep work can be done while food is cooking, so you can fit in a lot of work in a reasonable amount of time.

If you have never softened corn tortillas with hot oil, now is the time to try it!!  It makes the tortillas chewy, strong and pliable;  they won't fall apart like corn tortillas straight from the bag.

Note:  If you don't have Mexican oregano, you're better off not using oregano at all.  It imparts a very unique Southwest taste.  I find mine in the bagged spice section of the Mexican foods area of my local grocery store, for about 89 cents.   

Ultimate Tacos 

Total prep and cook time:  45 minutes
Serves 6-8

Combine together, and crush in a mortar & pestle (if you have one) 

• 1 tsp. salt, kosher is preferable
• 1 tsp Mexican oregano (or 1/2 tsp. ground)
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground red chile powder
• 1/4 tsp ground red pepper (or more, to taste)

Sprinkle half of the spice mixture over one side of  

• 2 lbs. boneless meat (beef, pork or chicken)

Drizzle seasoned meat with 

• about 2 tsp olive oil, then use a pastry brush (or your fingers) to spread the oil and seasoning evenly over the meat.

Then, turn the meat over and do the same (spice mix + olive oil) on the reverse.  Grill the meat over medium-low heat until just done.  (Time will vary greatly depending on what kind of meat you use, and how thickly cut the meat is.)  When done, remove to plate, cover, and set aside.  After a bit of cooling time, later (like while the veggies are cooking), slice the meat very thinly, place back on covered plate.

While the meat is cooking, prepare the corn tortillas:

• 20 thin corn tortillas
• 1/2 cup cooking oil (I use rice bran, since it has a high smoke point)

On the stovetop, heat oil in small skillet over medium-high heat.  With metal tongs, dip the tortillas in, one at a time, frying for literally only 3-4 seconds, turning quickly if necessary to coat both sides with oil.  Remove to paper towels to drain.  Set aside.  (I set a dinner plate up with 4-5 paper towels, folded over to make a thick "mat."  I then cook the tortillas, laying each completed tortilla in its own corner.  After I've cooked four, I dab the tops with an extra paper towel to remove excess oil, then stack them on a small plate which has also been lined with a paper towel.  Then I repeat with an additional four tortillas, and continue the process until they are all cooked.)

In a larger skillet, heat 2 tsp oil (you can use the leftover frying oil) over medium heat.  Into the oil, place

• 1/2 - 1 onion, roughly chopped

Cover the skillet and cook until the onion softens and becomes somewhat translucent, about five minutes, stirring occasionally.  After onion is soft, add

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 - 8 oz fresh mushrooms, thickly sliced

Cover again, and, stirring occasionally, cook until mushrooms and garlic are soft.  The mixture should start to turn brown as the onions carmellize.  If it has not browned after the mushrooms are cooked through, remove the lid and turn up the heat, cooking and stirring until the edges of the onions and mushrooms are tinged with a rich, golden brown.  Then, add

• 1/2 - 1 red bell pepper, sliced

Cook only another 30 seconds or so, until the red bell pepper only slightly softens.  (If you have not yet sliced your meat, remove the skillet of veggies from the heat and slice your grilled meat now!)  Now, add the thinly sliced grilled meat to the skillet containing all your veggies.  Stir over medium to medium-high heat until the meat is heated through, and the meat with its seasonings and your carmellized veggies are all nicely combined.

Bring the sizzling skillet to the table, and serve with the softened corn tortillas.  With your tongs, place some of the meat & veggies in the center of a tortilla, fold it in half, and enjoy!

Additional garnishes may be used as desired.  Personally, I don't use any garnish other than salsa on these tacos.  But, of course, you're welcome to use shredded lettuce or cabbage, slivered green onion, sliced black olives, shredded cheese, or the kitchen sink.  ;)

I serve these with beans and/or Spanish rice, and perhaps a green salad.  Our favorite beans right now:  Mix one 15 oz can of refried beans with 15 oz can of whole, drained pinto beans.  Heat in microwave about 3 minutes, or until hot.  Simple!

So, I thought I'd update my old list to make it gluten-free and casein-free.  This list is also peanut-free, and mostly nut-free.

BREAKFAST:

We alternate hot & cold breakfast days.

• Eggs, fruit & toast (g.f. toast, of course).
• G.f. pancakes & sausage.  There are many gluten-free pancake mixes available, or they are nearly as easy to make from scratch as regular pancakes.  Outside of the U.S., most sausage is NOT gluten-safe.  In the US, sausage is, almost all of the time, 100% meat.  Be careful of additives, though.  Some contain dairy, soy, and many contain MSG, which I (and a lot of other g.f. folks) am sensitive to.
• GFCF crepes
• GFCF breakfast cookies
• For a treat, I splurge on g.f. waffles (try Lifestream, or the kind sold at Trader Joe's).
• For an even bigger treat, the frozen breakfast goods by Kinnikinnick are fantastic, albeit expensive.  They have several kinds of tasty GFCF muffins and doughnuts.  
• Eggs and/or sausage/bacon with Tater Tots (check your ingredient list!  Many "extra crispy" varieties contain gluten). 
• Hot cereal:  Bob’s Red Mill g.f. hot cereal, Arrowhead Mills Rice & Shine, or grits.
• Fruit cobbler:  Drain and reserve the juice from a large (29 oz) can of fruit-juice-sweetened sliced peaches.  Spread the peaches across the bottom of a 8" x 11.5" dish.  Mix about 1 TBSP corn starch and about 1/4 tsp cinnamon into the reserved juice, then pour that over the peaches.  Then, make the dough.  Mix together 1 c. Kinnikinnick Kinni-Qwik Bread & Bun Mix, 1 c. sorghum flour, 1 TBSP baking powder, 1/3 c. sugar, 1/3 c. shortening, 1/2 tsp cinnamon.  Then add enough rice milk to make a stiff dough.  Use a big table spoon and dot the dough on top of the peaches.  Bake at 375 degrees until the dough is puffy and browned and sauce has been bubbling a good 15 minutes, about 45 min. total.  (If you don’t have a g.f. baking mix, substitute 1/2 c sweet rice or white rice flour, 1/4 c brown rice flour, 1/4 c potato OR corn OR other starch and 1 tsp xanthan gum.)
• g.f. cold cereal, of course!  We usually have fresh fruit w/ our cereal, too.  (Nature’s Path/Envirokidz, Erewhon and Arrowhead Mills are some of the cereal brands we purchase regularly.)
• Homemade g.f. muffins, made quickly with Kinnikinnick Bread & Bun mix.
• Smoothies made with rice milk, rice protein powder, and frozen fruit.
• Recipe for GFCF Mexican Breakfast Pizza.

 SNACKS: 

• Tortilla chips (and salsa!) 
• Regular potato chips — Most plain/unflavored chips are GFCF.  Lays Stax have all g.f. ingredients, and are now even labelled as gluten free! 
• Fruit
• Fruit leather (most fruit rollups and many packaged "fruit snacks" are GFCF, but good old-fashioned plain fruit leather is still my favorite) 
• Popcorn -- virtually all microwave popcorn is NOT GFCF.  So, get reaquainted with a large, lidded pan, some oil and kernels, and get poppin'!  We almost always sprinkle ours with cinnamon sugar. 
• Dried fruit (raisins, cranberries & apricots are all reasonably priced at Trader Joe’s)
• “Snow cones” (crushed ice with a drizzle of snow cone “juice” and a spoon in the back yard!)
• Popsicles
• Homemade popsicles when I have my act together – Add frozen juice concentrate to coconut milk, mix and freeze in molds.
• A rice cake topped with jam or prepared GFCF frosting.  Lundberg Farms makes the BEST rice cakes, and they come in a wide array of flavors.  Read labels thoroughly, but most Duncan Hines frostings are g.f.  Some of them do contain dairy and/or other allergens, but are properly labelled.  At the time of this writing, Creamy Home-Style Dark Chocolate Fudge is GFCF and free from other allergens, as well.  (All of Betty Crocker's frostings contain wheat starch.) 
• Jell-o
• Trail mix made with Gorilla Munch (or another GFCF cereal, like Perky-O's) and whatever else I have on hand (usually dried fruit and choc. chips)
• Pickles
• Rice crispy treats made w/ g.f. rice crispies and GFCF margarine or Spectrum non-hydrogenated shortening.
• Take a trip to the Asian supermarket!  Not everything is GFCF, of course, but they have a wealth of snacks and treats that are, which you are probably unfamiliar with.  Start with fruit jelly cups and rice-based Korean cookies.
• Trio bars, or other treats from Mrs. May's.  I find mine at Costco. 

LUNCH:

• Sandwiches on g.f. bread or on Corn Thins.
• Sandwich fixin’s like lunch meat, served w/ g.f. chips (plain, potato chips, Fritos, etc) & fruit, and maybe a pickle.
• Chicken noodle soup.  Works best using g.f. spaghetti, broken into 2-3″ pieces.  I use ORGANIC Chicken Better Than Bouillon, which is pricey, but lasts a long time.  (At the time of this writing, the organic is GFCF -- the regular variety has whey in it.)  You can find it at TJ’s for about $3, or at a regular grocery store for about $5.49.  Start with just a cup or so of water in a med saucepan.  Mix in 2-3 rounded tablespoons of BTB, whisk until combined.  Then add water until you get the strength of bouillon  you like.  Bring to boil, and add broken g.f. spaghetti, boil until about 75% cooked.  Then, add a few handfuls of veggies (the small pea/corn/carrot mixed frozen veggies works well for kids), and some cooked (leftover) chicken that’s been cut into bitsy pieces.  Bring back to boil, and cook until the noodles are done.
• Tostadas.  Heat the shells for a few minutes in the oven, then top with warmed refried beans and whatever toppings you have on hand:  Minced leftover meat, salsa, sliced olives, whatever.
• G.f. pasta with storebought pasta sauce (check for GFCF ingredients!). 
• Chili:  Hormel Chunky NO BEANS chili is GFCF.  We place some Fritos in our bowls, and spoon the chili over the top.  Serve with fruit.
• Franks ‘n’ beans — but don’t use the canned type that already has the hot dogs added in;  it has MSG and a lot of sugar.  Just chop up some hot dogs, and add them to a can of store-bought baked beans, and warm on the stove.  There are many baked bean varieties that are g.f., but watch out;  some of them contain soy sauce that was made with wheat.
• Lunchmeat/sandwiches with g.f. Tater Tots as a side, instead of chips.
• Baked beans.  If you want a little more meat, dice and fry half a package of bacon, drain and add in a large can of storebought baked beans (checking to make sure they’re g.f. — some have wheat-containing soy sauce).  Serve with fruit.
• Or… leftovers from last night’s dinner.

Also, I HIGHLY ADVISE that you pick up the magazine Living Without from a well-stocked magazine carrier, or healthfood store, or buy a single copy from the website.  This beautifully-produced quarterly magazine is a wealth of information for those on a GFCF diet, particularly if you're just starting out.  What I find even more valuable than the articles and recipes, though, are actually the ads.  These can alert you to a wealth of GFCF food goods and suppliers that you never knew existed.  

I filled my cart with a massive assortment of rice, rice noodles, and rice flours.  I did get a few other things, including some baby bok choy, simply because it was cute.  I spent a very interested hour perusing the aisles, mostly feeling out of place, but intriguingly so.  In the refrigerated section, there was a good 20 ft + section of daikon.  I didn't realize it was such a staple.  It took me 90% of the way through the store to realize that each aisle represented a different Asian region:  Japanese, several aisles of Chinese, Thai, Indian, etc.  There was a wide variety of amusing signs in Engrish.  I will be sure to be back, maybe next time remembering to covertly snap a few pics with my phone.

The next day, I pulled out a beautiful Thai cookbook that I scored from Costco for only $5.99 a few years ago.  All I knew was that I wanted to make a main dish that used both the baby bok choy and some rice noodles.  I didn't find an exact recipe, but I modified one quite a bit, turning a noodle-less vegetarian soup into, basically, a glorified chicken noodle soup.  It turned out very tasty.  After my carnivorous husband had scoured the bottom of the pan for all the remaining chicken, the remaining broth, with its bit of spice and floating bits of baby bok choy, remained tasty as ever.

GFCF Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

Makes 12 servings
About 20 minutes prep time and 20 minutes cooking time

12 cups chicken stock (I made mine with Chicken Better Than Bouillon)
4 cups water
1-2 tsp green curry paste (a little goes a long way!)
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
3 eggs
a bit of cooking oil (I used rice bran oil)
6 large carrots, cut into matchsticks
1 lb. baby bok choy, cut into 1/2" shred (kale or Savoy cabbage would make an acceptable substitute)
1/3 cup g.f. soy sauce
2 tsp raw sugar (or any sugar)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 lb. asian rice noodles of your choice -- I suggest a long, thicker "rice stick" like tung kow or sen lek -- prepared according to package directions (for most rice noodles, just bring adequate water to boil, add noodles, bring back to boil, turn off heat, soak noodles until done -- firm, but not hard or crunchy -- and drain.)

1. In a large stock pot, combine green curry paste with a bit of water or chicken stock.  Add rest of water and stock, bring to boil.
2. Oil the bottom of a small skillet, and heat over medium-high flame.  Lightly beat one egg, and pour into pan.  Swirl pan so egg coats bottom, cook until set, like a very thin, small omelette.  Remove omelette with spatula, and roll it up, then slice crosswise into 1/4" rounds, leaving nice little swirls of egg.  Repeat for remaining two eggs.  Set aside.
3. Slice chicken breast thinly.  Add to stock, and bring it back to boil.  Add carrot and bok choy and return again to boil.  Within another 2 minutes or less, the chicken should be cooked through, and the veggies tender.  Turn off heat, add soy sauce, sugar and pepper, stirring to combine.
4. Into shallow soup bowls, place a portion of cooked rice noodles.  Ladle soup on top, letting the chicken and veggies stay as a mound in the middle of the bowl.  Top each bowl with coiled bits of omelette.
5. Enjoy! 

----------

* Not too surprisingly, the place does not have a website.  It's called Asiana Grocery Store, and it's on the NW corner of 43rd Ave. and Union Hills Dr. in Glendale.

GFCF Lemon Bars

2/3 c. sweet rice flour
2/3 c. corn starch (or other starch)
2/3 c. brown rice flour (or white rice flour)
1/2 c. powdered sugar (plus additional for dusting)
1 c. shortening (I use Spectrum non-hydrogenated)
optional:  1-2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
4 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 c. (additional) sweet rice flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a 9" x 13" pan with nonstick foil AND spray lightly with nonstick oil spray. 

Combine 2/3 cup each sweet rice flour, corn starch, brown rice flour and 1/2 c. powdered sugar in a small bowl.  With a whisk, combine thoroughly.  With a wooden spoon, stir in shortening (and 1 tsp. lemon zest, if using).  It will form a dough that is "wetter" than your standard "crumbly" flour and shortening mixture, and will be fairly sticky.  Using plastic wrap to help you manipulate the dough, press it into the bottom of the pan.  Press the dough a little higher along the sides of the pan, up about 1/2 inch, so that the dough is "dish" shaped.  Bake this crust in the oven for about 20 minutes until it is lightly browned.

In a small bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, lemon juice (and an additional, optional 1 tsp lemon zest).  In another small bowl (or even a 1 c. measuring cup), thoroughly combine the remaining 1/4 c. sweet rice flour and the baking powder.  When the crust is nearly done baking, whisk the flour mixture into the egg mixture, combining thoroughly.  Pour this over the crust, and bake for an additional 25 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned and no longer jiggles when you gently shake the baking pan.

Cool, then dust with powdered sugar* and cut into bars with a sharp knife.  (Or, lift the whole thing out of the pan by the foil, lay on a flat surface, and cut with an oiled pizza cutter.) 

*To dust the bars, simply place a couple of Tablespoons of powdered sugar into a small wire mesh strainer and tap it with the heel of your hand over the bars.

These are especially good with a cup of hot tea.  Enjoy!

GFCF Mexican Breakfast Pizza

Makes 6 servings
Prep and cook time approximately 30 minutes

8 oz bacon, diced
8 eggs
10 corn tortillas
Salsa to taste
(other optional toppings:  shredded cheese, slivers of green/spring onion tops, black olives, diced fresh tomato, canned diced green chile)

In a large (12") skillet, fry the bacon until crispy over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.  While the bacon cooks, break the eggs into a small bowl and beat them with a fork or whisk.  When the bacon is done, remove with a slotted spoon, leaving the bacon grease in the skillet.  Into the bacon grease, lay the corn tortillas, starting at the outside edge, going in a circle, overlapping them.  Over the corn tortillas, pour the beaten eggs, covering the bottom of the skillet.  Over the eggs, sprinkle the cooked bacon evenly.  (Optional -- sprinkle 4-8 oz shredded cheese over the bacon.)  Cover the skillet, and cook over medium heat until the eggs are thoroughly cooked.

(While the eggs cook, the tortillas cook crisply in the bacon grease, making a firm crust on the bottom of your pizza.) 

Remove from heat, and cut the "pizza" into six or eight slices, topping each according to taste.

Enjoy!