My top 3 Gluten-Free "Emergency" Meals

We rarely eat out and when we do, I like it to be deliberate and special. Deliberate does not equal desperate and calling Craig to pick up Chic-Fil-A because the day got away from me. And we are starving doesn't eq So I like to keep a few meals as spares. I don't often include them in my meal planning because I save them for when I need something easy.

They use ingredients I can easily keep stocked, normally have on hand or can have Craig pick up at the dollar store that he drives by on his way home from work. I like ground beef for these recipes because even if it isn't thawed, I can brown it by scrap off the outside of the frozen chunk as I go. Julia Child would probably not approve of that but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Unfortunately, a few of my favorites had to be abandoned when I gave up Gluten and beans (goodbye tuna melts and lentil casserole!) but others were fine or could be saved with a tweak or two. Here are my current go-to meals.

Breakfast for Dinner - German Pancake/Dutch Baby

We love breakfast for dinner around here but most fun breakfasts are not GF friendly, or they can be made that way but then I'm searching for a dozen different flours and suddenly my quick easy dinner ceases to be so. Eggs are obviously GF but since I eat eggs for breakfast 90% of the time, I need something a little different for dinner. German Pancakes are just different enough to work and the are fun. Who doesn't love puffy foods?

• 1/4 cup butter (this can be reduced to a smearing of the pan or even some coconut oil for non-stick purposes if you're cupboard is low but its better with lots of butter)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (1/4 teaspoon if you are using salted butter and if you're gf you might be. Silly people putting gluten in butter, why?)
• 1/4 cup coconut flour (I make my own from coconut flakes I buy in bulk from Tropical Traditions)
• 6 Tablespoons arrowroot (or cornstarch)
• 8 eggs
• 1 cup of milk 

Preheat oven to 425. Put 1/4 cup butter in pan (9x13 or large dutch oven) inside to heat/melt while you make the batter.

Whisk coconut flour, arrowroot, and salt together. Add eggs and milk and whisk to combine. Take pan from oven, quickly add batter and replace. Bake for 15-20 minutes until cooked and puffy and edges are starting to turn golden brown.

It may fall when removed from the oven, that's okay. I like it served with lemon juice and some sort of sweetener (powdered sugar is the less healthy option, maple syrup if I'm being better) but the lemon is optional. You can add fruit to the center before you cook it but I prefer to serve it with fruit on the side. If I'm working with what I've got on hand, its often canned fruit or frozen fruit made into smoothies. And I once served it with cottage cheese so now my kids expect that but too. Kids are funny like that.

Cheesy-Beef-a-Roni

This is based on these recipes from heavenly homemakers but tweaked to be GF and cheaper/less meaty. I've also made a half batch using leftover taco meat.

2 Tablespoons Taco seasoning (I use homemade)
16 ounces brown rice pasta (Trader Joes and are brands we use and like)
6 cups of milk
2 cups of Cheddar cheese
1 lb ground beef

Get all your ingredients measured and ready. Heat milk and pasta over medium heat, stirring pretty much constantly until pasta is cooked. This will take about the time the package says to cook the pasta, plus maybe 2-3 minutes. In a separate pan, brown meat. Once brown, add taco seasoning - while still stirring the pasta/milk. If meat gets done before pasta, you can turn it off. Once pasta is done, turn off heat and add cheese to pasta and stir until cheese is melted. Then add meat/seasoning mixture and stir to combine. Add some veggies on the side and you've got a meal (we almost always have carrots on hand or I grab something out of the freezer).

Super Nachos

I'm don't even really have a recipe for this. It's basically taco salad but with a kid friendlier name. We also called them haystacks growing up because you start with a stack of tortilla chips, add taco meat and whatever you have on hand that might be somewhat taco-ish. Lettuce, tomato, cheese, salsa, sour cream, thawed frozen corn. Back when I ate beans, I'd keep canned black beans on hand so I could make this even if I didn't have meat available. I don't make a dressing for this (which is fine because it's not a taco SALAD, its super nachos ;-) and I find the sour cream and salsa are enough but you could if you wanted.

I'm not realizing these aren't very pantry-ish since they rely on fresh milk, cheese and eggs. I almost always have those on hand anyway but I'd love to add a few more to my rotation, especially ones that rely more on pantry items.

 So what are you're favorite pantry/emergency meals? 










photo credit: Mel // Left of Centre via photopin cc

3 Not Too Weird Gluten-Free Starter Recipes

I've been gluten free for about 3 months now and for the most part, I've just given things up instead of trying to find replacements. I haven't even tried any gluten free bread although several people have mentioned brands they didn't think were awful.

 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.