Divine COCONUT macaroons

I have a recent obsession with coconut. I believe it came about because of my pregnancy with our 3rd son, Joel. My palette seems to become a bit more diverse with ever pregnancy and this time it was coconut and coffee that I started craving with overwhelming drive. I was blessed to receive a full batch of GF coconut macaroons from a friend when I gave birth to Joel in July. This recipe is from her! We tried a recipe we found online a while back and were dissapointed with how meringue-y they came out. They were good, but not what we were hoping for.

Anything tasting or smelling of coconut is to be aquired. I don't understand why pregnancy triggered this, as just months ago the thought of chewing on raw coconut was unthinkable and could elicit a full body quiver, but not so anymore. Just yesterday I opened a bag of grated coconut and popped in a mouthful. Even the sound of the bag... it's delicious all by itself. It's much like the sound that a bag of powdered sugar or brown sugar makes. It's that smell that the baking isle holds. All baking isles smell the same, regardless of the store. They smell like brown sugar, powdered sugar and coconut and I can just hear the sound of the rectangular platic bags as I pick them up and press them to my nose. I'm sure there's someone who can relate to this.

That is quite enough of the romatic side of coconut:

Here's the recipe - taken from the back of the "Baker's" brand coconut and modified to be free of poison (gluten, of course) - one great part is that there's NO xanthum gum!

Sift together:

1 pkg shredded coconut (I toasted it BEFORE making the cookies because I prefer toasted coconut over fresh - most of it toasts when you are making the cookies, but not all, so I made sure it was ALL toasted before)

6 tbls tapioca starch

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

slowly add in:

4 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

Stir until well blended and drop tbls fulls onto cookie sheet

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes.

Next time I make these I'm going to try and grind the pre toasted coconut just a bit before making up the cookie batter. I think this will give them a bit more of a true "cookie" feel, as they won't have giant grated coconut peices sticking out - but who knows?

Chai Muffins

I found this recipe this morning while looking for new muffin ideas to satisfy my never ending muffin craving. These are from the GF blogger, Jules, and are remarkably delicious! I don't use her flour (it's quite expensive), I instead used Hodgson Mills all purpose baking flour (which DOES contain xanthum gum). The recipe doesn't call for xanthum gum, but I think it could stand to have a 1/2 tsp or so added. They were a bit crumbly, (though my husband ranted about how perfect and divine they were....really, he did!) Add the extra xanthum gum IF IF IF you are doing these GF (obviously you don't use it if you are using regular glutenous flour) and ONLY if you are using an all purpose flour that DOES already includes xanthum gum. If you are using a flour mix that does NOT have xanthum gum, then use the whole amount listed in the recipe below. Sorry, I know that may get confusing.
1/3 cup granulated cane sugar
4 Tbs. butter or margarine
2 eggs
3 Tbs. agave nectar or 4 Tbs. honey
½ cup apple butter or applesauce (no sugar added applesauce)
1 cup all purpose flour (GF or regular, depending on your diet)
1 1/2 tsp xanthum gum (ONLY if NOT using a GF flour mix that already contains xanthum gum!!!)
1/2 tsp xanthum gum (ONLY if using a GF all purpose flour that DOES already contain xanthum gum)
½ cup almond meal (if you don't have almond meal just grind up some almonds in a coffee grinder or food processor)
2 Tbs. flax seed meal (optional)
2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa (optional - I added it and it was delicious, but I think the muffins would taste more true Chai without this)
½ cup gluten-free oats
2 tsp. gluten-free baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup chai tea latte concentrate (I used "Mystic Chai" powder, but I think she used the liquid "Oregon" Chai)


Directions:

Coat 15 muffin tins or 24 mini muffin tins with cooking oil.
Preheat oven to 325 F convection or 350 static.

Whip sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs and stir. Mix in agave nectar and apple butter until combined. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mix while slowly pouring in the chai tea. Mix until smooth.

Fill the muffin tins 2/3 full and bake until they are light brown: approximately 11-12 minutes for mini muffins or 20 minutes for regular muffins.

Yield: Approximately 15 muffins or 24 mini-muffins.
I crammed all the batter in to 12 muffin cups and as a result the muffins sank in the middle. They baked through and were delicious none-the-less, but a tad less appealing to look at. I think the batter would make a true 15 muffins if you have the patience to wait and bake 3 more muffins once the others are out of the oven.

Oh yeah! And we think they would be AMAZING with some butter cream frosting - as a cupcake of course! :)

GRAHAM CRACKERS! (minus the graham flour, of course)

I found this recipe a few days ago and hunted down "sweet rice flour" so I could try it, pronto! They are truly scrumptious! I miss graham crackers dearly, but I'm afraid I've lost my memory of exactly what they taste like. I feel like these are as close as a GF eater can hope to get and they are mighty good in their close-ness! Here's the link:
http://www.livingwithout.com/recipes/gluten_free_graham_crackers-1793-1.html

I followed the recipe to the T for the ingredients, but I used my Bosch mixer instead of my hands to mix the dough. I whisked all the dry ingredients together with a regular beating whisk and then used the dough hook once the butter was added. If formed in to a wonderful dough when given 2 or 3 minutes to paddle at medium speed. I didn't have parchment paper, so I just sprayed (rather liberally) the cookie sheets I used and their method of rolling it out works wonderfully!

Sopapillas! Thats right, SO PA PILL AS!!!!

(Note about the picture - these look small because they are small. I cut them way too small - that may have played a part in the problem forming pockets)
I've decided that I'm just not going to put up with missing out on some of life's truly delicious treats JUST because I can't have "normal" flour. I hunted high and low online for a GF sopapillas recipe to no avail. I decided, no matter how many tries, I WILL have sopapillas! It may not be tonight, it may not be tomorrow, but I WILL eat a sopapilla! I started with a recipe that my husband and I have made multiple times in the past and really loved. I substituted the flours and kept the other ingredients the same and then added in an arbitrary measurement of 2 tsp of xanthum gum. I fried 3 sops out of the first batch of dough and was not surprised to find that I'd failed. They squares I cut friend in to crispy little grease wads. The flavor was delicious, but the texture was all wrong. The second batch is what we actually ate with dinner (tacos) and was a huge improvement from the first batch, but I feel still has some room to grow. Here's that recipe along with my ideas for further improvement.
Heat Oil: 375 degrees
1 C white rice flour
1 C tapioca flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp xanthum gum (my husband's theory: if less xanthum gum is added the dough will have the freedom to expand a bit more. These ended up being very delicious as they were, but they didn't form pockets like I'd hoped. We think adding less gum will give the dough the room to expand. However, it may just make them fall apart. Try it out if you like - I will most certainly be trying it as soon as I replenish my stock of tapioca flour)

2 tbls shortening
3/4 C warm/hot-ish water

sift the dry ingredients together
cut in the shortening with pastry cutter or two knives until it's well blended in

mix in water - I just used a rubber spatula for this and it worked great - no kneading required and the dough can be left in the bowl
Work dough in to ball and cover in the bowl for 20-30 minutes
Roll the dough out on a tapioca starchy surface until it's 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick - cut in to desired size
fry flipping from time to time until both sides are golden-brownish (GF dough doesn't brown so well, and these seemed to take a bit longer to cook through than regular sops. Try a couple out until you figure out how long they are going to take.

Multi-grain Pumpkin Muffins (with heaps of protein!)

This recipe is NOT mine, but I'm posting it because I found it in a really round a bout way, so just "googling" it wouldn't work. It's delicious! I made these today for the second time and they were just as delicious and fail-proof as the first batch from a few months ago! They are moist and packed full of protein. The teff and almond flour stand alone as protein, but then adding in the "all-purpose" flour (I use Bob's Red Mill) flour adds whatever protein that flour mix contains. They are easy to make, despite the plethora of ingredients they call for. They freeze PERFECTLY! The last batch I made kept in the freezer for nearly a month and I just took out one or two muffins and nuked them for 30 seconds or so. They don't get tough once thawed and micro'ed and are fantastic with honey on them! They are best hot out of the oven, but I've eaten my fair share of them at room temperature and been pleased enough! :)
Sift together:
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour blend (*see ingredient note at bottom)
1/2 cup almond flour or amaranth flour
1/2 cup teff flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1 & 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 c brown sugar
Add in:
2 eggs
1 c milk
1/4 c butter-melted
1 c canned pumpkin purée or cooked puréed pumpkin
Blend it all well and fill greased muffin cups about 2/3 full. They don't raise a whole lot, so I usually just about fill the muffin cup up.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.

*if using an all-purpose flour that already contains Xanthum gum, cut out 1 tsp of the xanthum gum the recipe calls for.

Multigrain Waffles

I knew I'd miss waffles and have been through various waffle recipes/mixes that were all good, but expensive. I figured I'd try my own concoction and it worked! These were truly delicious!

2 large eggs

1 3/4 C milk (I added probably another 1/3 c or so after mixing everything together just to get it to the consistency I wanted - experiment a little to see how runny you want your batter)

1/2 C vegetable oil

vanilla (how much ever you want)

1 C White rice flour

1/2 C Teff flour (a wonderfully delicious whole grain flour)

1/2 C sorghum flour (quickly become one of my favorites!)

1 tbls brown sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthum gum (just a hair less than a level teaspoon)

whisk it all together until smooth

I have a standard size waffle maker and this batter made about 12 waffles

President worthy banana bread

I baked the recipe to take to a ladies Bible Study I do at our church here in town.  At this Bible study is a woman who is a chef, a caterer and catered for the White House regularly when she lived out East.  She pulled me aside after trying a slice of this bread and told me very genuinely, "this honestly is the best banana bread I've ever tasted."  WHAA?!?!  Needless to say, I felt quite proud (though I'm not quite sure I agree with her that it's THAT good, though it is delicious!... :)  So, there you have it.  I could bake banana bread for the president if I wanted.....and if I was asked.  :)

Here's the mix:

Whisk together:
1/2 C each of White and Brown rice flour
1 C sorghum flour
1/2 C tapioca flour
1ish tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I had forgotten to add salt to the loaf that Mrs. bake for the president tried and told her this but                      she said she didn't think it needed it- but I think it's better WITH salt - so, do whatever.)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp of any other spice you think would be delish.  I've used cloves and nutmeg alongside the cinnamon                    with great results!

cream together:
1 1/4 C sugar
1/2 C butter

add in:
2 eggs
1/2 C buttermilk (I used just a hair more to ensure complete lack of dryness in the loaf - it worked wonders!
1 tsp vanilla
3 very ripe mashed bananas (I throw regular ripened bananas in the freezer and then pull them out, microwave them for 1 minute on a plate, cut the stem top off and squeeze the ooz into the batter)

Blend together wet and dry ingredients until smooth
Divide between 2 greased 8in loaf pans
350 degrees
55 minutes

My mama's buttermilk biscuits - made so I can eat them!

The original recipe for these biscuits has been in my family for years - I don't know how many, but many none-the-less. The taste of them brings back distinct childhood memories of my mom's baking. These go on that list of things I knew I would miss greatly when I had to give up gluten. But, alas, I have come up with a completely successful and delicious altered recipe that allows me to, once again, enjoy the taste of my mom's baking.

Whisk together:

1 C White rice flour

3/4 C Millet flour

1/4 C Sorghum flour

3/4 tsp Xanthum gum (just a titch less)

1 tbls baking powder

1 tbls sugar

1/3 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 tsp soda

Cut in to dry ingredients with pastry knife:

1/2 C shortening

1 C buttermilk (just a tad less, again, and I always just use regular milk with a touch of vinegar to curdle)

mix until well moistened and then kneed on lightly floured surface (I used white rice flour but it gave the outside too grainy of a texture - I think sorghum would work better). Roll out to be 1/2 inch thick and cut with biscuit cutters. I'm not how many this makes because I've used different size biscuit cutters each time.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes - watch them close that they don't get overdone or they will be too crispy on the bottom.

Pancakes- MY first SUCCESSFUL recipe!

I've tried recipe after recipe of baked goods, mixing flours, trying this and that and NONE of them worked. In my frustration I gave up and started using mixes. You know, the kinds like the GF Bisquick, Hodgson Mills, Bob's Red Mill etc that all cost a pretty penny. They are good, but they only make about a batch and a half of whatever recipe you are using them for, and when paying $3.50-$5.00 a box it gets to be a little much. I woke up this morning with unexpected motivation to MAKE pancakes WORK!
The main of this recipe comes from a recipe that my mom gave me a couple years back. It's purely delicious in it's whole wheat/whole grain form. When I went GF this was one thing I knew I was going to miss greatly! No more, I tell you! I've FINALLY figured out a successful, delicious, non grainy, non crumbly GF flour substitution for this recipe while keeping it's whole grain taste! Here it is:

Multi-grain Buttermilk Pancakes
Whisk together:
1 C White rice flour
1/3 C each of: Millet flour, milled flax seed, oat flour (I just blended GF oats in the blender until they looked ground enough to my liking)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthum gum (these held together really well but would do even better with maybe just a 1/4 tsp more of xanthum gum)
cinnamon (how much ever looks sufficient - I use quite a bit!)


Add in:
2 C buttermilk (easy and cheap and for sure GF: add about 2 tbls white vinegar to 2 c 1or2% or whole milk - let curdle for a minute or so)
2 large eggs
2 tbls vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla

Mix it all up until it looks ready and make your flap jacks! As any pancake recipe calls for, cook on first side until little bubbles rise to the surface of the pancake (this takes quite a while with these and may not actually happen, so be sure to check them now and then and just flip them when they are nicely browned and look ready to flip). Flip and cook until golden brown.
Makes about 1 dozen pancakes

-French bread that will elicite a sign of contentment from any GF eater

I found this fantastic recipe on food.com in a fit of craving. Italian was the ONLY thing in the entire universe that sounded wonderful and delicious and pasta just simply cannot be had without a cushioney piece of warm french bread. The hunt was on. I haven't tried any other recipe, but I'm certain there cannot be one out there that is as delicious and fail proof as this one! I've take a couple things out that seemed unnecessarily added and added a few things that are VERY necessary in order to achieve deliciousness in it's purest form (as pure as GF can get, of course:) Here's the deal:

1 C white rice flour

1 C brown rice flour (gives it a more whole-grainy taste - if you like the simplicity of white bread use 2 C of white rice flour instead of using 1 c brown rice flour)

1 C Tapioca flour

1-3 tbls milled flax (adds some seriously delicious flavor and makes the loaves look really official - not to mention the protein and fiber benefits)

3 tsp Xanthum gum

1 1/2 tsp salt (I use a bit more to ensure a complete lack of blandness)

2 tbls sugar (last time I added a couple extra tbls of brown sugar just because - very delicious!)

1 1/2 C warm water

2 tbls quick rise yeast

2 tbls butter or margarine melted (or olive oil - it worked well)

3 egg WHITES, beaten slightly

1 tsp cider vinegar

In a stand mixer blend together dry ingredients (MINUS THE SUGAR) until sifted well

Dissolve sugar in warm water and add yeast - proof until foamy

Blend yeast mixture into dry ingredients for 30 seconds or so

Add in butter (oil), egg WHITES and vinegar - beat on high for 3 minutes or however long it takes for the dough to become well blended

-Now for the tricky part - you GF people know that GF batters and dough don't make themselves easy to work with - this is no exception, though it's not one of the worst I've come across - SPOON the mixture on to greased and corn meal dusted baking sheets - Thats right, you use a SPOON to deal with the bread dough - strange, yes. You have to fiddle with it a while to get it in to the loaf shape you want - I usually end up spraying my hands with a liberal amount of baking spray (or olive oil) and shaping the loaves that way. Once you have them looking loafish cut 3 VERY slight slits in the top of them (beware - these cuts get HUGE when the loaves bake - they really aren't all that necessary-they just add to the overall officiality of the loaf - but remember that we added the milled flax to help with that -so slit or don't slit. The choice is yours.)

Brush with melted butter (or oil) and cover dough to rise in 150 degree (or other very warm area) oven until loaves have doubled in girth - mine usually take 30-45 minutes.

Heat oven to 400 degrees and bake loaves for 40 or so minutes. Watch them carefully - if they bake too long the outside gets crustier than one would like and make create challenges for consumption

This loaf is pretty dang delicious. I've gotten very adventurous with it and added (not any extra liquid of course - I'm not nearly versed enough in GF baking to know how to counterbalance more liquid) DRIED minced garlic, italian spices - it is easily adapted to whatever taste you are looking for. My next try with it is to make a cinnamon swirl bread. I'll let you know how that goes - it should be to die for! One of the best parts about the bread is that it keeps quite well. It will STILL be moist the NEXT DAY! For GF, this is something to throw a party over! It can be frozen easily and used later.

Crepes, oh delicious crepes!

A few nights ago NOTHING I had planned for dinner sounded good, so I switched directions completely from the Southwest Chili planned and made Crepes. THEY ROCKED! The recipe given here is, I'm assuming, intended for sweet filling. It's from one of my gluten free cookbooks that I really have enjoyed. I've modified the recipe VERY slightly to avoid copyright issues: And, I don't know how to make the little tent thing over the first "e" on the word "Crepe", apologies.

Crepes:

1 C white rice flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg (or allspice, cinnamon or cloves depending on what you want to fill them with)

1 C half and half (I used 3/4 c half and half and 1/4 c 1% milk. I'm sure all milk would work)

2 tbls melted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

-combine all the dry and sift well

-whisk in half and half until smooth

-add butter and vanilla - beat until smooth

-whisk in eggs one and at time until batter is smooth

-heat 8 or 9 inch skillet over MEDIUM heat - slightly butter pan and pour 1/4C batter in

-cook for 45 seconds to a minute until the top looks dull and the edges are dry

-flip crepe and cook for another 20 or 30 seconds until it looks done

Fill with whatever DELICIOUS filling you can think of

For this particular meal I did a sautéed mushroom, cream cheese and maple glazed turkey breast(sautéed for a few seconds with the mushrooms just to heat it up) filling (Boar's Head products are CERTIFIED GLUTEN FREE - and their deli meat is to die for!) The cream cheese and maple turkey actually went really well with the slightly sweet flavor of this crepe recipe. I haven't tried leaving out the vanilla and spice, but I'm sure they would cook the same and would work for so many fantastic savory options.

The dessert filling I did was just the all around safe and wonderfully delectable bananas and Nutella ( which IS Gluten free, and was a HUGE sigh of relief for me when I found out. Some people want their jewelry in their caskets when they die. I'd rather just be piled deeply under jars of Nutella! - That is IF I even wanted to be buried, which I don't because it totally gives me the heeby jeebies. But thats neither here nor there when speaking of Crepes.)

One of the sweet and subtle joys of this recipe is that it includes ONLY white rice flour, which I'm certain is theeee cheapest GF flour you can get - AND, there's no xanthum gum!

Oh yeah! Freeze leftover (yeah right, as if!) crepes in between sheets of wax paper in a hard container for up to 3 months. Just thaw them at room temperature and proceed with your excellently brilliant plans for filling them!

A HUGE Life Saver - "E-Mealz"!!!

I've been doing "e-mealz" for a while and have loved it! It saves time, money, planning, sanity, and makes for a happier mother and wife. I don't have to meal plan anymore - I just let e-mealz do the work. Check this out!

http://e-mealz.com/amember/go.php?r=136268&i=l0

We were using the "Low-fat" meals for 2 until my sister mentioned, with great gusto, that e-mealz started doing a GLUTEN FREE menu! It's been SO wonderful! It even tells what brands are safe in certain recipes which has saved me a lot of time in label reading and "google-ing" prepackaged products.

I stray now and then when I have a craving for something other than whats in that weeks menu, but it really has cut down on my time planning meals, money spent on food and fresh food wasted for lack of being used in whatever awesome meal idea I had but never got the rest of the ingredients for (you know exactly what I'm talking about!) (I know that was a run on sentence)

Who AM I?

My name is Rebekah. I am relatively new to the GF world. I started eating GF in September ( I think) 2010. It's certainly NOT a voluntary diet for me. I simply adore eating and my husband and I really enjoying cooking together, so to have restriction put on that has been really tough. My mother-in-law (a wonderful and beautiful woman!) recently suggested I start posting the recipes we've tried and liked. There isn't really a good way to do that on Face Book, so I am forced to figure out how to blog!

My GF testimony:

In January 2010 I started experiencing diminishing hearing in my left ear. There was fluid in my middle ear, but the hearing loss I was experiencing was in my inner ear. We thought nothing of it until I was laid out flat with debilitating vertigo, nausea and violent vomiting for 12 hours one Thursday afternoon. Miserable! I recovered over the next couple of days only to have the bout return about 3 weeks later. At first the attacks were always around 3 weeks apart - my hearing would return to normal. It would begin again with diminishing hearing, ridiculously loud tinnitus, and slight vertigo. I was given Zofran that kept me from vomiting, but the recovery from these "episodes" was still several days of exhaustion and refractory vertigo. Fast forward 9 months from the first attack and my hearing in my left ear was functioning at about 80% most of the time, and sometimes much worse. I wasn't having vertigo "episodes" anymore, but still experiencing noticeable balance problems and constant tinnitus. Starting in May, when we moved to Florida for my husbands residency, had clustered together. There was no 3 week break of perfect hearing. It NEVER left! In desperation I made an appt with an ENT who referred me to get an MRI, an audiology appt to test for hearing and to have a "Meniere's disease" test performed (only has 60% success rate but mine came back negative - encouraging,despite the knowledge that the test isn't very accurate), and an allergy test. Turns out I'm perfectly normal. The "Meniere's" test was negative, I'm a HIGHLY UNallergic person and my brain scan was nothing but what was expected - normal. Encouraging, but discouraging. Those of you who've had a chronic, undiagnosable issue know how this feels. You just want SOMETHING to be wrong - at least then you know what you are dealing with.

I'm a "born again" believer. I don't often use the practice of "fasting" but woke up one Friday feeling very strongly that God was leading me to fast. So I obeyed. I was hungry but noticed quickly that I felt better physically than I had in MONTHS! I had energy, and my ear didn't seem to be quite as bad as usual. I'm not positive that this was a physical response or a spiritual response to my obedience, but I felt great. By the end of the day God had made it pretty clear that gluten would have to go. A daunting task indeed, but again, I was desperate for a solution! I cut it out (to the best of my knowledge at the time) and had more energy than I had experienced since before I had become pregnant with my first son over 3 years previous! (I had recently complained to my husband that I hurt everywhere all the time and had NO energy. I was exhausted, always, and didn't know why!) My outlook on life became not quite so bleak and I felt I was able to conquer the world, not to mention the fact that I could actually hear. (again, it had been several months since our move to Florida when my hearing took a serious turn for the worse). The tinnitus didn't disappear (and still hasn't) but quieted down, considerably! If I ate something with gluten the next few days were spent feeling blah and having a left ear "stuffed up" (the only way I know how to describe the sensation in my inner ear). I've learned over the last several months that gluten is in A LOT more than I could have ever imagined. It's been a true challenge to cut it out! I've asked God several times if he's sure I still need to be GF and the reply has always been the same. In fact, I'm not actually convinced I have a true gluten intolerance - I think this is a test of obedience and I am just fine with that. Not necessarily a test of obedience with avoiding gluten, but more a test of obedience in trusting that he really does have my life in his hands. I am NOT in control and he ALWAYS is, and ALWAYS has been and ALWAYS will be! Thats just all there is to it. (I'm sure this sounds crazy-go-nuts to some of you, but I can hear, so thats enough for me!)

Ufta, thats long and I don't know that anyone who sees that many words in succession actually wants to read it, so I'm done with that part. On to the recipes. (again, it will take me some time to figure out how to organize this blog - I'm an EXPERT when it comes to Face Book, but blogging is a serious challenge for me!)

Disclaimer!

(I am not an experienced blogger - so bear with me as I organize my brain while you watch)

I am the wife of a physician, but I myself am NOT a physician. If you are an on looker and wanting to try these recipes be mindful that I have done my very best to keep them completely lacking of anything to do with gluten, but there is NO guarantee. When reading these recipes and thinking of trying them be mindful that I may have overlooked an ingredient that is in fact not a safe ingredient. (and PLEASE say so if you know it is NOT safe!!!) There will be recipes from specialty GF cookbooks I've been given that will obviously be safe. However, there are several recipes that I've altered or just made up that I'm nearly positive are GF but of course I could be wrong! I've been GF for less than 6 months and am still learning the ropes. I've read hoards of information regarding Celiac disease and Gluten intolerance. I have been tested twice and have come up negative for Celiac disease both times. I know the test isn't fail safe, but I assume I simply have a gluten intolerance. So, if you try and recipe and get sick from it, I apologize profusely, but as I mentioned I am by all means NOT an expert in this area. I can ALMOST positively guarantee that all these recipes are safe (I have noticeable crappy side effects if I eat something that is contaminated), but please do not assume that my recipes are fail safe. So, there you have it. Now that I've covered my hind end lets create delicious, non bland, non grainy, non gross GF food!