The host for the Gluten Free Menu Swap this week is Gluten Free Goodness. The theme is Cheep and Easy Foods which is pretty much all I make during the week. We eat mainly whole foods, and do all our baking from scratch which keeps the cost down tremendously. As the big kids are also helping with the cooking now (one time a week one of them makes dinner – yay!), the easy part is a must when you are teaching or learning different cooking techniques. You don’t have to make dinner too complicated to get a great meal when you are using fresh, whole ingredients, thank goodness! This week my menu is pretty chicken heavy, as our local free range chicken is on sale.
Saturday: finish prepping for Easter/make Easter Story Cookies with kids/set frozen cinnamon rolls and hot cross buns to thaw in fridge for morning
Omelettes and salad
Sunday: Easter/bake cinnamon rolls and hot cross buns for breakfast with homemade apple turkey sausage and fruit.
Apricot and herb glazed ham, salad, roasted spring veggies, fresh fruit, gf cardamon orange twists, rosemary-apricot rolls, mini carrot cupcake, brown sugar cookies, Easter Story cookies.
Today is my dear friend Cari’s birthday. In honor of Cari, my girl’s have declared it “Pink Day” where they are wearing all pink, and painting their toenails hot pink. We will also be making some brownies to celebrate Cari’s love of chocolate. We miss you, Cari.
I’ll bring you a Carmel Macchiato…
I know we hear a lot about breast cancer awareness in October, but here on Cari’s birthday, I would like to encourage you to remember those who are touched by cancer of all kinds and the struggles they and their families face beyond the health issues. Please consider the Angel Foundation as a place to share your resources to help families faced with cancer. Since 2001, Angel Foundation has provided financial assistance for adult cancer patients to meet critical non-medical needs, as well as education and support programs to families in the Twin Cities metro area who have a parent with cancer.
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Now onto Free-zer Food Friday… Head over to MJ’s for Freezer Food Friday. Then come on back with your gluten free freezer recipe link. If you have a gluten free freezer recipe to share, let me know in the comments and I will add you to the round up! Come join in on the fun!
Join in on Gluten Free-zer Friday:
1. If you would like to participate in Gluten Free-zer Friday, simply email your post link to your gluten free freezer recipe (angelas_kitchenATcomcastDOTnet) or leave a comment below and I will add you to the roundup.
2. Link back to this post on the post with the recipe you have linked.
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Hot Cross Buns
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3 Tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoon unflavored geletin (or pectin or agar flakes)
1 cup warm gluten and dairy free unsweetened milk substitute (I use almond or coconut milk)
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
*3 cups bean flour blend (or 2/3 cup garfava flour, 1/3 cups sorghum flour, 1 cup corn or potato starch, and 1 cup tapioca starch)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3 eggs
1/4 cup softened gluten and dairy free margarine, organic shortening or 3 Tablespoons coconut oil
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
3/4 cup dried currants or raisins (I use a mix of golden raisins, chopped dried apricots, chopped dried apples, and chopped dried cherries)
optional, finely grated zest of a lemon (use an organic lemon)
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Egg wash:
1 egg mixed well with 1 tablespoon of milk substitute.
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Icing:
3/4 cup gluten free powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon milk substitute (or lemon juice or 2 1/2 teaspoons milk substitute and 1/2 teaspoon gluten free vanilla flavoring)
Put dried fruit into a bowl. Cover fruit with warm water, just to cover. Allow to soak until needed in recipe. Optionally, you can soak the fruit in orange juice for a different flavor. Sprinkle the gelatin onto the 3 tablespoons water in a small bowl. Set aside until gelatin has absorbed all the water. Mix gelatin into the warm milk substitute. Add yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar with the warm milk substitute and set aside.
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Mix together the bean flour blend, brown sugar, xanthan gum, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and salt in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Blend well. Add gelatin mixture, yeast mixture, eggs, margarine, and vinegar. Mix on low until blended, then on high for 3 minutes. Drain fruit and blot dry. Stir dried fruit and lemon zest into dough.
Using very wet or oiled hands, divide mix into 24 smooth balls of dough (about 3 Tablespoons dough per ball). Place dough balls evenly spaced onto a baking sheet lined with Silpat or parchment paper. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and allow to raise for about 45 min to an hour until almost doubled in size. Gently brush buns with egg wash. With oiled scissors, snip a cross shape 1/4″ deep into each bun.
**Bake buns in a preheated 375 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow buns to cool on a cooling rack. Mix icing ingredients together until smooth. Place in small zip closure bag. Snip a small corner of the bag to let icing out. Decorate top of buns by making a cross shape in the snipped indents with the icing mixture on top of buns.
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To freeze after baking: When icing is set, wrap buns well and freeze.
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To freeze before baking: Make recipe up to shaping dough into buns, but before they rise. Place baking pan into the coldest part of the freezer. Allow to freeze solid. Store dough well wrapped until ready to use. When ready to bake, place frozen buns onto silpat or parchment lined pan, cover with oiled plastic wrap and allow to thaw/raise in refrigerator overnight. Remove pan from refrigerator 1/2 hour before baking. Brush with egg wash, snip cross shape, bake, etc as directed.
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*I have also used gf millet flour in place of the garfava in this recipe.
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**Note: When baking breads, I always place another baking pan on the bottom-most rack and add a couple of handfuls of ice cubes to the pan. I put the bread to be baked on the center rack in the oven, close the oven door, and bake as directed. This creates a steam oven for your gluten free bread and greatly improves the moisture and crust of the final product.
Hey, there! I get to host the Gluten Free Menu Swap this week. Woo! If you would like a chance to host, drop Cheryl from Gluten Free Goodness a line. She would love to hear from ya!
This week I picked fermented foods as the theme ingredient. Kim chi, pickled garlic and gingered carrots are all in my fridge right now, waiting to perk up our meals with their tastiness and active beneficial probiotics. A new batch of coconut yogurt will be made today and this week (being spring break for us) gluten-free sour dough pancakes will be made. Do you ferment? Everybody does eat foods that have used the process, such as true soy sauce (timari) or wine (if you drink it). Even cacao beans must be fermented before they can be turned into rich dark chocolate. Mmmm…. Fermentation – it’s delicious!
This week is my kid’s spring break, so kid food that is easy on the Mama (hey, I want a spring break, too!). My big kids will be making a couple of this week’s meals, so those are still in the process of being decided. One fun thing we are making this week is maple syrup. My son is tapping the maple trees in the yard and we already have a good gallon or so of sap from a couple of hours on Sunday. I can’t wait to see what we get for syrup this week. Even if we just end up with a little syrup, it is turning out to be a fun spring break project for us!
For more menus, check out Menu Plan Monday. The Gluten Free Menu Swap will be posted right after my menu below. Come back Friday for Gluten Free-zer Friday.
Monday: Spring break!/orthodontist apt
Taco salad with fermented salsa
Tuesday: spring break!/teeth extraction for my little one (yuck! Poor thing…)/piano lessons if my little one is up to it after the dentist…
Sour dough waffles, apples with cinnamon, homemade turkey sausage
Wednesday: spring break!/dance/youth group
Curried chicken salad, mixed greens, mangos, kim chi (fermented, baby!) and gluten free French bread(I know, I should do something Irish… but we’ll be doing something for St. Patrick’s day for lunch, I think.) We ended up having roasted rosemary-thyme sweet potato & potato oven fries, omelette and a salad
Thursday: Spring break!
chicken & veggie stir-fry, rice
Friday: Spring break!/boy sleepover
My oldest daughter is making dinner – her choice (not decided yet) She made Thai Chicken Pizza, salad and brownies. It was delicious! Thanks, honey!
Saturday: dance class for older daughter
My son making dinner – his choice (not decided yet)
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What will be on everyone else’s plate?
Heather at Celiac Family has a busy March, but is still putting together a yummy menu for her family. Cilantro Lime Shrimp, Parmesan chicken Nuggets, Baked Salmon with a Balsamic Glaze and Southwestern Chicken Salad (all with recipe links – yay!) are on the menu using balsamic vinegar, salsa, and gluten free beer as her fermented foods this week. She is also making a yummy St. Patrick’s Day meal with Irish Potato Faris which I may need to make for an Irish lunch that day for my kids. Thanks, Heather!
So, we got through the illness last week, then cleaned and cleaned anything that may have had nasty, disgusting germs on it. By the time Friday rolled around, we were ready to go for my older daughter’s delayed birthday party. We celebrated with family and Princess Bride cupcakes on her actual birthday, but she wanted something different to have with friends. Her choice? Winter olympic cupcakes.
Yep. Those are snowboards, skis, ice skates, and olympic rings made from homemade fondant on half gluten and dairy free vanilla and half chocolate cupcakes. They were a lot of fun to make for my sweetie.
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Head over to Laura’s for Menu Plan Monday. The Gluten Free Menu Swap is being hosted this week by Asparagus Thin. She has picked Red Carpet Meals as her theme. Fun! but… I’m afraid the closest I’m getting to anything “Red Carpet” style is if juice gets spilled this week.
Monday: Boy Scouts/Mommy teaches gluten and dairy free class my class was cancled
Today’s menu plan is on hold until my cutie is feeling better. It’s hard to plan a menu when you are washing a freeky amount of laundry and cuddling a little girl clutching a plastic bucket. sigh…
My big kids are now home and debating the relative merits and drawbacks of an anti-gravity hat as opposed to anti-gravity underwear. Yeah. Welcome to my world…
