Our wheatless lil man.

This is a photo of the Nestle Bar cake-subsitute from last year. Steele chose a Cowboy Duck theme for his 6th birthday party.

GF BBQ Sauce

I'm a fan of the tomato based bbq sauces that run more towards the sweet than the tangy or the spicy.

This one is tangy and a little spicy and if you're not into tomato based sauce you can cut the tomato sauce halfway or none at all.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I put a million things in it.

Get out a medium sized pot.
Throw in:
1c Water
24oz Bottle Catsup
1/2 med Onion (minced)
1/3c Dark Brown Sugar
1/3c Honey or Molasses
1T Raisins
1T Yellow Mustard
1T Minced Garlic
1t Lemon Juice or Lime Juice
1t Black Pepper
1/2t Seasoning Salt
1/2t Cayenne Pepper
1/2t Chili Powder
1/2t Ginger Powder
1/2t Cumin
1/4t Onion Powder
1/4t Garlic Powder

Simmer on low-med for about 30 minutes, stirring often but not constantly.
Watch for the onions to turn clear. Once that happens, the simmering is to cook it down to almost your desired thickness.

Let the sauce cool for about 20 minutes and pour it into a food processor and puree.

Pour it into a bottle and go daddy go.

Notes:
Once you've made this and tasted it, if there's anything you want...add.
More spicy? Add cayenne.
More tangy? Add lemon.
More sweet? Add brown sugar.
Just needs something? Add adobo criollo or garlic powder.

Enjoy!

GF Meatloaf

We make a pretty mean meatloaf around here. Good enough for sandwiches, not that there's usually any left.

Since I'm making a gluten and a gluten free meatloaf, I set it up as a double cook.
Do everything that doesn't have gluten, make the GF version and start it cooking then make the gluten version and cook that after. I'll make this one as if we all were going to eat GF tonight.

**Cheapskate alert**
I wait until there's a sale on chuck roast or sirloin tip and it's like $2 a pound, then have the grocery store grind it for me. They'll do it, you just have to ask the Meat Man. When I get home, I weigh it out into parcels and ziplock n freeze it. Good quality freshly ground beef for less than standard decent ground beef prices. Darn tootin!

3lbs Ground Beef
3 Eggs
3t Minced Garlic
2t Onion Powder
2t Cumin
2t Seasoning Salt
1t Pepper
1c GF Bread Crumbs (see Bread ideas for recipe) or 3/4c Oat Bran

Toss everything except the bread crumbs or oat bran into a bowl.
Mush between your fingers until well mixed.
Add bread crumbs or oat bran until your meat starts to toughen up.
You'll feel it. It will start to get harder to mush. Not too hard, though.

Toss in a pan and bake at 350 for 45mins.

The oat bran will make your meatloaf springy but it's still tasty.

Gluten Free Cookie Batter Recipe

Here's a basic cookie batter that does pretty well.
I like being able to add whatever to make cookies different from time to time.

2c GF Flour Mix - Sweet or Standard
2t Baking Powder
3/4c Sugar or Brown Sugar
1/2t Salt
1/4t Xanthan Gum
2 Eggs
2/3c Oil
2t Vanilla or your favorite flavoring

Oven to 400

In a large bowl, whisk dry ingredients until combined.
In a smaller bowl, whisk wet ingredients until combined.
Add wet ingredients to well in dry ingredients, mix until combined.

Spoon onto greased cookie sheet and bake for 9 minutes.

Additions:
Folks, it's cookies. Add what you like: chips, nuts, dried fruit, coconut, lemon rind, cinnamon....

GF Bread Odd Ends - Ideas

Here's the thing. We use a bread machine. Not a fancy gluten free one. Just one I got from a freecycle site and scrubbed the heck out of. When Steele's bread is done, it's a large short square that's a little too big to slice horizontal for sandwiches. I usually cut two edges down so it fits his bologna or is the same size as 'normal' bread.

Then I end up with all these bread strips and being the cheapest person on the planet I have to find some way to utilize them, even if it means a feed the ducks run.

One way:
Save the strips and freeze them. Thaw and toss on foil and broil until brownish and dry, then throw in the food processor and make bread crumbs for his meatloaf.

Another way:
Save the strips and freeze them. Thaw and butter lightly. Slice sticks into cubes then roll in italian spices and a little bit of adobo. Toss on some foil and broil until brownish and dry. Voila, you now have croutons.

Another way:
Save the strips and freeze them until you have enough to make bread pudding. (see recipe)

If you haven't used your strips in two weeks... here duckie, duckie, duckie....

GF Stupid Cheap Cereal Recipe

After reading the word "malt" or "wheat" on every cereal box on that aisle in Wal-Mart, I decided something had to be done. I took a trip to the whole foods store and looked at their cereals. I was aghast at the prices of cereal. Dude, it's just cereal. It's not made out of silver, it doesn't come in a gilded box. Dang!

It was time to put on the old thinking hat, while holding firmly onto my wallet.

Buy some rice cakes. They've gotten better than they were in the 80's, I swear.
They have them in many flavors and they're readily available. (I still read the backs, tho.)

Single serving Cereal:
1.5 rice cakes crumbled into small bits. (I like the apple cinnamon or peanut butter)
Add something to make it fun for a kid.
Examples: Mini marshmallows, a squirt of chocolate syup or strawberry syrup, raisins, dried fruit bits, slivered almonds or pecan bits...

Add your milk. Tah-Dah!

One screaming heck of a lot cheaper than GF cereal and no messy baking dishes to have to deal with.

GF Rant

Lots of things are just naturally gluten free.
Marinated chicken, pork chops, corn on the cob, baked potatoes....
Most of that stuff is standard recipe crap. It's the other stuff that bites ya.

Since our son was diagnosed his ability to eat baked goods has suffered the most.
YOU try having a little boy who's not allowed to eat cake and cookies and Happy Meals and see how 'normal' takes a screeching backseat to 'why is gluten in rice-freaking-crispies?!?!'

To add insult to injury Gluten Free foods are expensive! Example: Kraft Mac& Cheese $1.29/box vs. Pastato GF Mac and Cheese $2.89/box. Cheap ass cereal $1.00/box vs. GF Cereal $4.50/box.

Our large family (read: tribe) would be living in a cardboard box if we had to all eat gluten free all the time. Gas prices are skyrocketing which drives up food prices. Yay, more penny pinching.

I'm thrifty by nature. My man still laughs about our discount 3 legged hamster. Yeah, that's what I said. Her name is Stumpy Lou and we love her to death, thank you very much. Steele loves chicken legs, so that's how I get around on the cheap if I make a gluten menu. I keep a box of GF pasta for when we do Spaghetti. I buy him 2 slices of ham or deli meat or deli cheese.

I even made lil man his own reversible chef hat and apron so he can get involved with his own personal cooking.

I'll post my standard GF recipes here, but my emphasis is on the stuff you can't just run to the store and grab off the shelf, like bread, cookies, muffins.... and the stupid cheap ways around this whole wheat intolerance issue.

Take a breath and see what you can do. Meal plans really are the most cost efficent way to handle it. Find your "oh shit" subsitute (like his chicken legs) and you're halfway there.