Tater tot casserole

1 lb ground meat
Onion
Red pepper
1/2 box imagine brand sweet pea soup (or any soup that suits you!)
1 1/2 c frozen chopped broccoli
1 package Daiya pepper jack shredded vegan cheese
Most of a package of tater tots
Mrs dash
Salt

Put meat, onion, and red pepper in a pan and sauté until meat is browned and veggies soft.  Add frozen broccoli (give it a minute or two on the stove to melt the broccoli), mrs dash, salt and 1/2 box of sweet pea soup.

Put mixture in 9x13 pan.  Spread out.  Cover in cheese.  Put tots on top of cheese in a single layer.  

Bake for 45 minutes at 400 degrees.

Breakfast sausage

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. ground pork
1 tablespoon brown sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon dried thyme

3/4 teaspoon dried sage

1/8 teaspoon marjoram

Mix together and you can allow to sit or not, and turn into patties and cook, or cook as crumbles and turn into sausage gravy.

Sausage gravy

3 T oil (or if using sausage, 2 T)

5 T gf ap flour

2 tsp corn starch

2 1/2 c *milk

S&p to taste

Additional sage, if desired

Add the oil to your cooked, crumbled sausage in the sauce pan.  Add the flour and starch.  Cook for a couple of minutes, to get the flour nice and sticky.  Add the milk and seasonings. Cook and stir until gravy is thickness desired.

Broccoli quiche

2 T cold bacon fat
1 med onion, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
2 c chopped broccoli
1/2 c chopped, frozen spinach
2 9-inch pie crusts
1 1/2 c shredded cheese
4 eggs
1/2 c milk*
Salt and mrs dash to taste (I was pretty liberal with them!)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Divide cheese in half and layer on the bottom of the crusts.
3. Over medium-high heat melt bacon grease in a saucepan. Add onions, garlic and broccoli.  Season with salt and mrs dash.  Cook, stirring occasionally until the vegetables start to soften.  Add spinach.  Cook till soft.  Spoon vegetables into crusts on top of cheese.  
4. Combine eggs and milk. Season with salt and mrs dash.  Pour egg mixture over vegetables and cheese.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until center has set.

Notes:  I use Wholly Wholesome gluten free pie crusts, which are a little delicate, so I put foil over the edges for the first 20 minutes and remove it for the last 10.  I used so delicious brand coconut milk beverage this time because I had some given to me.  Normally I'd choose Silk soy milk, but this turned out just fine!  Daiya is my cheese of choice, because it tastes good and melts nicely.  And it's actually dairy free!  Many "vegan" cheese have casein or lactose in them.  Grrr...

Old Fashioned Apple Fritters recipe

I was super excited about these treats.  The recipe calls them fritters, but really they're more like doughnuts or funnel cake than any apple fritter I've ever had, especially with the powdered sugar on them.  I lost gluten around the same time as my son (2008), so that's how long it's been since I had a funnel cake.  :(  These are every bit as good, if not better, because I LOVE that hit of apple and spice.  We just splurged on a frier--I got a Kitchen Kettle instead of a Fry Daddy because it looked more versatile and was much cheaper.  It worked well to fry them in, and seemed to do a pretty good job maintaining the right heat.  The fritters are amazing, and a GREAT way to get some fruit in kids (I know, not healthy...*sigh*) because my kid and the neighbor kid LOVE them, too!  :D


Ingredients:

2 c. gluten free all-purpose flour (I like Bob's Red Mill)
¼ c. sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 flax eggs
1 c. milk*
4 med. apples, peeled and cored
2 quarts oil for deep frying
½ c. powdered sugar for dusting


Directions:

Slice apples into rings, approximately 1/4-1/2” thick. Set aside.
Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt in medium bowl. In separate bowl, beat together eggs and milk. Slowly stir milk mixture into flour mixture and mix until smooth.
Heat oil to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) in a deep frier or heavy bottomed pot or skillet. Dip apple slices into batter and drop into hot oil to fry. Turn each apple slice once, and fry until golden. Drain on paper towels, and dust each fritter with powdered sugar.

GK's notes:  My husband made these, twice (and OMG are they good).  He used rice milk once and Silk brand soy milk the second.  He says if you use rice milk, the 2 cups is fine, but you'll need a little more soy milk to make it thin enough, because the soy milk is thicker.  He uses one of those spiral cutting, peeling machines, so his apples are a bit thinner than the original recipe called for, but it's still very good.

Barbecue Roast

This recipe is from Wheat-Free, Gluten-Free Cookbook for Kids and Busy Adults by Connie Sarros.
My SON made this.  He's 9.  He had supervision from dad, and dad cut the meat and put the dish in the hot oven.  Otherwise, it was all the chitlin.  It was DELICIOUS!  I had little idea of what to expect, since the sauce gets made with the beef...but it turned out so well. 

Ingredients:

2 T cider vinegar
2 T brown sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1 1/4 c ketchup
2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 T dried onion flakes
1/4 c chopped green pepper
1 c water
1 2 lb boneless chuck roast

Method:

Preheat oven to 350*
In a medium bowl, stir together vinegar, brown sugar and cornstarch.  Add the ketchup, chili powder, salt, pepper, onion flakes and green pepper.  Stir in the water.  Pour half of this mixture over the bottom of a roasting pan.
Cut the roast into six serving pieces, then place in the roasting pan over the sauce.  Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the roast. 
Cover the pan with foil and bake for 3 hours, or until the meat flakes easily with a fork, adding more water as needed.


That's it!  We didn't ever check the meat, and one section of the sauce got dried out a bit, so I would recommend checking it at least once or twice during cooking, to stir/add water if needed.  But the meat came out ridiculously tender, and the sauce is delicious and so rich!  We used special corn, gluten etc. free ketchup, and tapioca starch instead of corn.  Those are the only changes we made to the recipe.

Snickerdoodles

The men in my life are HUGE fans of snickerdoodles.  The ones we've been buying from the store cost almost $4 for two big cookies.  I found Martha Stewart's recipe, http://www.rachelleb.com/2009/02/23/martha-stewarts-snickerdoodles/,  and thought I'd give it a go.  We were seeing if duck eggs would be a thing the chitlin could eat, being as some people with chicken egg allergies seem to tolerate them.  Nope.  The recipe was REALLY good, though, with our Bob's and the duck eggs, so I thought I needed to try it with some flax gel and guar gum, instead, because the chitlin still deserves delicious cookies, even if he can't have eggs.  Or maybe because he can't have eggs.  Anyway, I am happy to report that the recipe is still quite wonderful vegan, so here's my version.

Makes 20 cookies



2 3/4 cups Bob's Red Mill all-purpose gluten-free flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter flavored shortening (I use Spectrum brand), room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 flax egg replacers*
1/2 tsp guar gum**
- – -
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Sift together flour, baking powder, guar gum, and salt into a bowl. Put shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in flax eggs. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.
Stir together cinnamon and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into 20 (1 3/4-inch) balls; roll in cinnamon sugar. Space 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bake cookies, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days, and they freeze very well.

GK's notes:  Ok, * flax egg replacer recipe:  3 T very hot water, 1 T ground flax seed.  Allow to sit for a few minutes, to gel.  That's it!  ** It's possible that the guar gum is unnecessary--I will try it another time and come modify the recipe if needed.  I thought it might be handy, because a lot of this kind of cookie gets very crumbly if it doesn't have eggs.  Turns out it's a pretty chewy cookie, so it may not need it.  When I first started baking, I put xanthan gum in everything, because most gluten-free recipes call for it.  But I forgot it one time, when making cupcakes, and couldn't tell a difference, so I rarely bother anymore, and my baked goods usually come out pretty well without it.  Xanthan gum is no longer a good choice for us anyway, because it's made using corn, so IF I use a gum, now I use guar, which isn't quite as effective as xanthan anyway.  However, the texture of these cookies is nearly indistinguishable from the ones I made with duck eggs, so as far as I'm concerned at this time, the recipe is great!

Bran Muffins

UPDATED
So the whole duck eggs did not work out--the chitlin started rashing out after a few days of trying them.  However, we are on a new experiment--this time with official backing!  We are participating in a clinical trial where, after some months of allergy sublingual drops, he's to try the foods he was taking drops for.  Chicken egg white is one of his foods, so I've been using egg white to make baked goods.  So far, so good--he hasn't rashed out from baked egg white yet.  Cross your fingers for us.
This is the third time I've made this recipe, and I think it's great now, so I'm just going to edit the one I had up here to the new, improved version that includes chicken egg white only.  It's a good recipe, and I wouldn't be ashamed to serve these to anybody!

(Old text:  This is an experimental recipe for us, to see if my chicken-egg allergic boy can tolerate duck eggs.  So far, so good, I think...it usually takes a couple of weeks to find out.  In the mean time, we are sure enjoying having eggs again, however briefly it may be.  I still want to try these with real (rice, for us) bran, in addition to the quinoa flakes, even though the quinoa flakes made it SO delicious.   And I bet the chopped apricots and/or apples would be great, too.  I look forward to playing with this recipe more in the future.  I also think chopped sunflower or pumpkin seeds would not go amiss in there.

I was going to put the original recipe, and then my alterations, but I just can't.  It irritates me too much.  The stupid red, plaid cookbook from Better Homes and Gardens REALLY likes to drop surprise ingredients like salt and water into the instructions, without having listed them in the ingredients section, which irks the crap out of me.  Here's my version (it's better, anyway):)

1 1/4 c quinoa flakes
1 c Bob's Red Mill gluten free ap flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c applesauce
1/2 c *milk
1/4 c maple syrup
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c egg white (or 1 whole egg, if that suits)
1.5 T oil
1/2 c raisins, snipped dried apricots or snipped dried apples

Spray bottoms of muffin cups with nonstick spray coating.  Set aside.  In a mixing bowl, combine bran, flour, baking powder and baking soda, and salt.  Make a well in the center of the dry mixture; set aside.
In another bowl, combine the applesauce, milk, maple syrup, brown sugar, egg and oil.  Add applesauce mixture all at once to the dry mixture.  Stir to combine.  Fold in raisins.
Spoon batter into prepared cups.  Bake in 400* oven about 20 minutes or until golden.  Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, remove from cups.  Serve warm.

I have been having trouble with muffins (especially egg-free ones) being too dry.  I've been experimenting a bit, and having remembered that brown sugar is hygroscopic (absorbs moisture from the air), AND thinking this recipe wouldn't suffer from being a smidge sweeter, I thought I'd add a little to the recipe.  Also, we found the honey flavor to be good, just overwhelming, and ds not really liking honey, we subbed in maple syrup for the honey.  Since I was adding 1/4 c brown sugar, I reduced the maple syrup a tiny bit to 1/4 c from 1/3 c, so the extra brown sugar wasn't too much sweetness.  It turned out well.  I also added a little extra oil.  This was originally a wheat bran muffin recipe, and was some lame-o diet thing, all free of egg yolk and light on oil.  Blech!  Lol!  So, I don't really care about dieting, and just want a lovely, palatable muffin, so I added a little more oil back in.
Interestingly, this was meant to have bran in it, which I'm sure gave it a nice toothsomeness, but I really, really like the crumb with the quinoa flakes.  The end result is a moist, somewhat dense but tender crumb that just is exactly what you want for a hearty, satisfying snack or breakfast.