I love to bake so I'm sure I could have a lot of fun trying gluten free recipes but right now I'm on a crazy amount of supplements which is taking up all the spare room in my grocery budget. Giving up most bread products is a lot more economical. And so much easier. We basically eat a lot of meat, dairy, fruit and veggies. If I have to keep going with a gluten-free diet, things might be different but for now, it's working for me.
That said, sometimes I miss the texture of bread, pancakes and cookies so I've found a couple recipes that are easy. These use mostly items I already have on hand. I was about to say "normal" items but what's normal in your kitchen might not be normal in mine so keep that in mind. But I'm comfortable with oats and making my own oat flour in a blender. I've been doing that since I was a teen since my favorite (completely not healthy gluten filled) cookie recipes uses it. The only item I had to specifically purchase for any of this was tapioca flour. Just one, no gums and I promise nothing requires a scale. Perfect for when you're just starting a gluten free journey or if your gluten eaters that need something to serve or share with non-gluten eaters*.
Oat Pancakes:
These are based on these pancakes but while I liked the original recipe a lot, they were still kind of heavy and sometimes fell apart. I discovered if you let the batter sit for a good 5-10 minutes, they stay together better but I also played with adding some tapioca flour and that helped the texture. I'm actually kinda proud of myself since this is the first time I tweaked a flour-y gluten free recipes. And the result was actually successful! These are really good and since I buy oats 25lbs at at time and only use a tiny bit of tapioca flour, they are still pretty inexpensive but if you don't have tapioca flour on hand, just use more oat flour.
1.5 cups oat flour (just grind oats in blender until fairly fine)
1/4 c tapioca flour (or another 1/4 cup of oat flour but they will be more dense that way)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
pinch salt
1 cup of milk
2 eggs
1.5 Tablespoons of coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix dry ingredients. Make a hole/dent in the middle of the dry ingredients, add eggs and use a fork to break yolks, add milk, oil and vanilla and stir to combine, a few lumps are okay but without the gluten you don't have to worry as much about over mixing. Let batter sit for 5-10 minutes. Cook on a griddle with generous amount of butter or coconut oil.
Any extras are good for lunch as a vehicle for peanut butter. Without gluten and bananas, my peanut butter options are limited so I really appreciate these.
Flourless Monster Cookies - These are so good. The fact that they are gluten free is pretty much just coincidental. I couldn't wait for "C Week" in our alphabet path because as we all know, C is for Cookie.
Brazillian Cheese Buns - I've loved Lynn's baked oatmeal (another gluten free breakfast favorite that we eat at least 1x a week) but didn't even realize she had other gluten free recipes until recently. I really like these when I'm craving something sandwich-y and don't want to eat it on lettuce. Perfect for a tuna salad or egg salad sandwich or as a compliment to spaghetti. My only issues with them is that Craig and the kids always want to eat them too! I don't make them a lot because they are a bit pricier but its a nice option for when I'm desperate - and I'm sure they are still cheaper and healthier (and probably tastier) than buying gluten free bread or rolls.
*Insert standard gluten-free qualifier here. People are different and react differently to things like cross contamination, oats (gf or not) and their comfort level with eating food prepared by others. I'm lucky in that I don't need to be that careful but just talk to whoever you will be serving.
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