Cinnamon Swirls

I stayed up last night making these so the kids could have them in their lunches today. At 11:30 I was finally on my way to bed, with warm cinnamon rolls cooling on the rack in the kitchen. I was looking forward to getting up in the morning and having a relatively quick and easy job packing the lunches for school and daycare.... And then, as seems relatively run of the mill in this family.... something happened. At 6am my boys woke up and started talking in their room instead of going downstairs. This of course woke the baby up, which they noticed, and so quickly left the room to go watch TV before they got into trouble. In their haste, they forgot to close the door to the bedroom causing the baby to start screaming at the top of his lungs. So much for sleeping another hour. Then after getting the baby settled and back to sleep, I got up to go start making breakfast and lunch, only to discover that while I was dealing with a hollering infant, the boys had inhaled nine of the twelve cinnamon buns. So much for easy.... I ended up having to make muffins this morning too.

Cinnamon Buns

3 cups All purpose Flour blend (see prior post)
4 tbsp Splenda
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup margarine

1 1/2 cups goat milk yogurt

1 tbsp margine melted
cinnamon to sprinkle

Mix first 5 ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Cut in margarine until it is the size of peas. Add yogurt in and mix gently, then turn onto a clean surface and knead the dough until it is mixed. Press the dough flat on parchment paper (to prevent sticking) in the shape of a large rectangle (approx 8" by 15") Spread with melted margarine and sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll the rectangle width wise and cut into 1" slices. Place on parchment paper and cook for 15 minutes at 400*F. Allow to cool on the baking sheet before removing.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Bread

3 cups All Purpose Flour Blend
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tbsp molasses
1 tsp stevia
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup olive oil

Mix ingredients together and turn into greased bread pan. Use a spatula to push batter towards the edges of the bread pan so that the batter is lower in the middle of the pan than at the sides (this forms a loaf with a more flat top with less chances of cracking) Bake at 350*F for 90 minutes.

A Word about Bread

What is it that draws us towards this most basic ingredient to our everyday eating? Since the beginning of recorded history human beings have been mixing flour and oil to create dough that is cooked and eaten nearly every day. In modern Western life we have become so dependant upon it in our daily diets that it is often served in one way or another at every meal. Do we really need that much bread? Going gluten free is a great step to improving our health and weight, but we also need to remember that all grains, gluten free or not, cause our bodies to retain fluid. Our bodies really do not need to have more than 1-2 cups of grains total in a day. The rest of our diet should be rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, dairy, soy, nuts, and seeds. For meat eaters this can also include small portions of meats. We are so far away from what was normal for our ancestors, it is no wonder we suffer so many more ailments than they did.

That being said, all of the rice bread alternatives that we have tried so far from the store were expensive cardboard and my children refused to eat them. Thus, I have embarked upon a quest to find a bread that my kids will eat. I long for the easy days of sandwiches in the school lunchboxes!!

Oatmeal Cookies

Gluten Free Flour gets expensive when you have 6 kids chowing down on it.... that's why I LOVE this cookie recipe!!! Not only does it taste good, but it also uses mostly oats so it is not as expensive to make as other recipes that use more flour. Make sure when you are shopping for oats that you get a gluten free variety. Oats are naturally gluten free; however, in the manufacturing process, they often are subjected to machinery that is also used to mill other types of non gluten free grains. This cross contamination of grains is problematic for people who are extremely sensitive to gluten (those suffering from celiac disease for instance) I get mine from an organic mill that sells them in bulk and uses manufacturing processes that prevent the contamination of the oats from other sources.

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup All Purpose Flour blend (see earlier post)
1 cup Splenda
2 tsp molasses
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup boiling water
1 tsp baking soda

Mix together the ingredients, form into 1 inch thick logs and refridgerate at least 1 hour. Slice into 1/2 inch thick slices and place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375*F for 8-10 minutes. Leave to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving cookies to a cooling rack.

Pumpkin Muffins

In the search for bread equivalents, I have not found a store bought alternative that my kids will eat, or even that I can stomach. I have found most rice breads to be dry and tasteless and tending to fall apart very easily. With the goal of satisfying the taste buds of my health food hating, junk food loving children, I found this muffin recipe that we altered to fit our family. These muffins are moist, come off the paper easily, are good for at least 2 days after they are baked (haven't had them last longer than that, so I'm sure they might be good longer lol) and are good with any type of sandwich filling you care to add... or just butter.

1 1/2 cups All purpose flour blend (see below)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg
1/4 cup Chia seed gel (see below) or 1 egg
1/4 cup splenda
1/3 cup cooking oil
1 cup grated pumpkin
1/2 cup goat's milk or water

Combine all ingedients to make batter. Bake in muffin cups at 400*F for 15 minutes.

Flour Blend (6 c rice flour, 3 c tapioca starch, 1 1/2 c arrowroot starch, 2 tbsp Xanthum gum, 1 tbsp salt) Method explained in an earlier post.

Chia seed gel can be used in any baking recipe to replace eggs. Mix 4 tbsp Chia seed in 2 cups warm water and stir well. Allow mixture to sit for 15 minutes until a gel is formed. 1/4 cup of gel is equal to 1 egg.

Cheese sauce

My kids wanted to have macaroni and cheese that looked like everyone else's macaroni and cheese. This is a challenge considering they are all gluten free and can't have cow's milk. Here is what we came up with... and the kids all voted that it passed the taste test and it is enough like macaroni and cheese that they aren't missing the boxed chemical version.

Cheese sauce:
In a blender mix:
4 oz fresh goat cheese,
1/4 - 1/2 cup goat milk
2-4 tbsp of carrot juice (the more you add the more color the sauce gets)
1 tsp salt

Blend well and pour over hot rice macaroni or other noodles. Yum :-)

This cheese sauce also works in other dishes as well. (Broccoli and cheese etc)

Amaranth Bread

3 cups All purpose Flour blend
1/2 cup Amaranth Flour
2 tsp ground psyllium hulls (optional)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp powdered stevia
2 1/4 cups of water
1/2 cup Olive oil

Blend together and bake at 350 *F for 90 minutes. Let cool 5-10 minutes in pan before removing.