I was really surprised when one of my 11 year old daughters made this. I thought the taste of the mushroom soup would be too strong but with the parmesan cheese added the taste is simply great. I love the flavor but my husband likes that he can eat this without killing his cholesterol levels.  Traditional alfredo is made of butter, cream and cheese which would be a lot harder on our hearts. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Chicken Alfredo

• ½ of a 16oz pkg linguine or spaghetti
• 2 tbl butter
• 1 lb chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces
• 1 can Progresso cream of mushroom soup
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese
• Ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Prepare pasta according to directions on pkg. Drain. Heat butter in skillet over med heat. Add chicken and cook until browned, stirring often(Chicken could also be grilled). Stir in soup, cheese, pepper and pasta. Cook until mixture is hot and bubbling.

photo credit: Kim Scarborough

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Elana is giving away 5 pounds of almond flour and her new cookbook, The Gluten Free Almond flour Cookbook.  But it’s only open until Jan 11th, so move as fast as you can!  This recipe is great. My favorite is just how it is. Vanilla cupcake and chocolate frosting.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vegan Chocolate Frosting (grain free and gluten free)

½ cup coconut flour, sifted
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
6 eggs
½ cup grapeseed oil
½ cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium bowl, combine coconut flour, salt and baking soda
2. In a small bowl, blend together eggs, grapeseed oil, agave and vanilla
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry and blend with a mixer or hand blender until smooth
4. Pour batter into well oiled muffin tins
5. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes
6. Cool completely
7. Top with chocolate frosting

Makes 12 cupcakes

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I was cleaning out my chest freezer when I realized I had saved two ham bones. They were all wrapped up just waiting to be used.  I usually cook a ham and then save the bone for another meal. Well, it just happened to be really chilly outside so I decided I was going to make myself some creamy potato soup. Now this was a first for me but I make pea soup all of the time so I figured it couldn’t be that hard. It turned out perfect. Chunks of ham and potato, who could ask for more. I called this soup creamy potato but there isn’t any dairy in my recipe. The potatoes boiled down and made this wonderfully thick soup.

Potato Soup

• 2 ham bones
• 6 cups GF chicken stock
• 4 potatoes peeled and diced
• 1 large onion diced
• 1 carrot diced
• 1 tsp salt
• 6 twists on the pepper grind

1. Start by cooking your ham bone in the broth for at least 30 minutes.
2. Remove the bone from pan and cut up the left over meat into bite size pieces. Add ham pieces back into soup.
3. Add the rest of your ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes.
4. If soup seems too thin add 2 tbl of tapioca starch to thicken. Serve with a fresh piece of hot bread.

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General Mills has developed a wonderful website just for us. You can sign up for their newsletter dedicated to gluten free. There is a tab for recipes and you can print their list of gluten free items. They have over 200 gluten free products to chose from!

http://liveglutenfreely.com/

This is one of the recipes they have on their site.

If you contact the company by phone they will send you pages of printed recipes. I did this a few months ago (before this site was up and running) and they sent me tons of recipes and a list of their GF items.  Awesome!!

Turtle Brownies

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These bars are so simple. They take about 10 minutes to whip up. They taste like a homemade Reeses!

Peanut Butter Layer Bars

Peanut Butter Layer:

• 2 cups cookies crumbs  finely ground (I use GF gingersnaps or arrowroot cookies)
• 2 sticks of butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter (or any nut butter)

Chocolate layer:

• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 4 tbl peanut butter

1. Mix together butter, crumbs, sugar, and peanut butter until blended. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9×13 pan.
2. Pour chips into microwave safe bowl and add the peanut butter. Microwave for 1 minute and stir. Spread over 1st layer and chill for at least 1 hour.

Warning: You will be lucky if these bars last more than a day. They are very addictive!

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I love Thai and Chinese food but I will only order steamed chicken and vegetables when I eat at our local restaurants. I did have one restaurant prepare an order of Drunken Noodles and I fell in love with the flavor. Unfortunately, that restaurant is two hours away from where I live and I don’t get a chance to go there that often. I developed this recipe that is very close. My daughters actually request this. They love the spice!

Drunken Noodles

• 1/2- 16 oz box of Notta Pasta Wide Rice Noodles
• 1 lb of either venison, beef, buffalo, chicken or pork
• 1/8 cup Garlic Chili Pepper Sauce
• 1/3 cup GF soy sauce or Tamari
• 4 tbl minced garlic
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 can diced tomatoes with chilies
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 2 cups frozen green beans, thawed
• 2 tbl lemon juice
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

1. Marinate meat in garlic pepper sauce and soy sauce for at least 2 hours.
2. Saute meat with the marinate. Cook for 5-6 minutes or until slightly brown. Add garlic, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and carrots. Cook for 2 minutes on medium high heat.
3. Add drained noodles, beans and brown sugar. Cook until noodles are tender. Do not over cook. Serve immediately.
4. If noodles don’t have enough spice feel free to add more garlic chili pepper sauce. Just be careful because a little goes a long way.

Cook’s note: Noodles are great reheated the next day if you have any left.

photo credit: love?janine

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Who doesn’t love no-bake cookies? Before the introduction of GF oats I couldn’t eat these, they always gave me a stomach ache. Now, I can make them as often as I want to. I always make mine with old fashioned oats. I love the chewy texture and those following the GF diet need as much fiber as possible because it tends to be low on the daily fiber requirements.

No-bake Cookies

• 2 cups white sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 cups GF oats
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a saucepan bring sugar, cocoa, margarine, milk, and salt to a boil for 1 minute.
2. Add oats, peanut butter, and vanilla; mix well.
3. Working quickly, drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper, and let cool.

Cooks Note: Sometimes I use my instant oatmeal mix in place of the plain oats. With the cinnamon it gives the cookies a slightly Mexican hot chocolate taste which my family loves.

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This weekend I made an even better version than my last. The new ones were even more chewy and did not crumble as easily. They could be cut in half and loaded up with homemade strawberry jam or honey. Making these brought back memories of when I could eat them from KFC or McDonald’s. Next time I am going to make them into breakfast sandwiches loaded with sausage, eggs and cheese. YUM! Unfortunately, they went so fast that I didn’t even get a chance to take a photo.

GF Buttermilk Biscuits

• 2 1/2 cups sorghum flour mix
• 4 teaspoons guar gum
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2/3 cups cold butter, diced into small chunks
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray.
2. Place the first six ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until blended.
3. Sprinkle the butter cubes evenly over the flour mixture, cover, and pulse until the mixture become crumbly.
4. Pour the buttermilk evenly over the mixture. Pulse until the dough becomes a moist clump. Make sure all of the flour mixture from the bottom is mixed properly.
5. Using a cookie scoop, scoop up 18 biscuits and place on cookie sheet. Dip a glass cup into flour and press the biscuits down slightly.
6. Bake 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned. Brush tops of biscuits with butter. Enjoy!

Sorghum flour mix: 2 parts sorghum flour to 1 part tapioca flour

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After making a batch of GF biscuits yesterday. I decided I didn’t want to eat soggy biscuits with jam on them today. Instead, I took out a package of our homemade breakfast sausage and decided to whip up a batch of gravy. This was the first time I had made this recipe since going GF.  I also was trying to make it a bit on the healthy side.

We all know there is nothing healthy about a good sausage gravy.

Give this recipe a whirl and let me know what you think.

Sausage Gravy

• 1 lb of sausage

• 2 tbl of butter

• 2 tbl of GF flour

• 1 can of fat free evaporated milk

• 1 cup of chicken broth

• salt and pepper to taste

Brown your sausage until nice and crispy. Add the butter and swirl in the flour. Once mixed, add the milk and chicken broth. Let boil for 5 minutes and simmer for 20 minutes or until thickened. Add salt and pepper before serving. Pour on you biscuits and enjoy!

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I recently purchased a can of Progresso Creamy Mushroom soup. I read the ingredient list and did not see any hints of gluten except the MSG. I called Progresso which happens to also be General Mills and I wanted to confirm that this soup is ideed GF. I was told at this time they do not publish a GF list because of constant formula changes but if the soup contains any gluten not just wheat that it would be listed. Such as, if the MSG was made from any gluten source it would list the gluten after it. I was also told the only reason they do not write gluten free on the label is because they don’t test the final product.

Some might think this would warrant them not to use this product.

I will not hesitate to eat this soup! Before the laws were changed we were all forced to read labels. In order for a company to label their food GF it must either be naturally GF (such as eggs, they would all be GF) or they must test the end product. I have a feeling many companies cannot afford to switch to testing all of it’s products so we must still rely on reading labels and calling the company. Progresso will be sending me some recipes to use and they also asked if they come out with new GF lists (or other relevant such items) if they could send me new information. Unfortunately, they can only send via snail mail but at least they are willing to send something.

The woman I spoke to also started to tell me about the Betty Crocker GF mixes that they carry. I absolutely love the convenience of buying them in a regular store. She is sending me some recipes specifically for their GF mixes.  They don’t offer any coupons that they can send in the mail but they do offer a newsletter where you can print coupons. Give it a try! If you click the link on the left side of that page it will bring you to a sample newsletter. I personally love all of the recipes and coupons!

I almost forgot. I was told that all of their soups are going to be reformulated without MSG. The process will take some time but they are starting to recreate their soups without it. That is a bonus because so many people are sensitive to MSG (myself included).

So in the end I would recommend calling General Mills for any of your GF questions!

photo credit: Special*Dark

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