Betty Crocker Gluten Free Cookie Mix

I made the chocolate chip cookies this weekend and I’m sad to say I wasn’t that impressed. The benefit is that they were quick and easy to make and the flavor was pretty good but unfortunately the downfalls seemed to be in the majority for me. The cookies are really greasy and they dried our mouths out big time. They also were very gritty in texture and that just isn’t appealing. If you want the most delicious gluten free chocolate chip cookie please make Jill's chocolate chip cookies. They are everything a chocolate chip cookie should be and nothing it shouldn’t. I am thankful that Betty Crocker has put these gluten free mixes on grocery store shelves and I’m hoping the brownies and cake mix are better.

Gluten Free Betty Crocker Mixes

They're here! I ran to Albertsons during my lunch break, I get a little excited for new GF treats if you can't tell, and happily found all four mixes. They are located below the candles. I grabbed all but the yellow cake mix, I'm more of a chocolate girl. I plan to use the chocolate cake mix to make my boys birthday cake next weekend, I'll review it at that time. The cost was $4.29 a box.

They only have the Rice and Corn Chex GF, I'm optimistic we'll see the rest of them soon.

GF Chex & Betty Crocker mixes in Billings

I just wanted to share some exciting news for people in Billings. Albertsons has the gluten free Chex cereals and Betty Crocker mixes now available, thanks Stacey for sharing this information! I am going to stop by Albertsons here to see if they are on the shelves yet and I will share my findings.

I have some baking planned for the weekend with some new things I haven't tried yet so I will update next week with my recipes or fails if that's what happens. We have a picnic tomorrow evening so I am going to try a new white bread recipe. My mom made it yesterday and she said it's my dad's favorite so far, that sounds promising. For Father's Day I'm making rhubarb cinnamon rolls and a rhubarb strawberry pie for the hubby. I'll also post our Parmesan Steak recipe, it's delicious.

Double Fail

It’s bad enough when I have a single fail with a recipe but this was a full out double fail. I’ve been craving bread with roasted garlic in it, specifically the garlic Ciabatta bread Costco used to have. I was so excited to come up with a recipe, I was also feeling confident so I should have known things would not work out. I sat down and figured out how to make a general Ciabatta recipe gluten free and I was set. The first night I mixed the dough and then let it sit out for 24 hours. The next night I shaped it into a loaf and popped it in the oven. To give the crust that crunchy texture I put a dish of water on the bottom rack and my bread above it. Things were going great, I was full of excitement, and then I hear crack. What the heck? I open the oven door to find my stoneware cracked down the middle, ugh! This is fail number one and when my bread turned out horrible, mostly because it just didn’t bake right and wasn’t done, that gave me fail number two. Darned all that work!




Lesson learned, don't put a bowl of water below your stoneware.

Gluten Free Banana Bread

I have a lot of frozen ripe bananas and figured it was time to make some banana bread again, I think I’ll actually make more this weekend since we’ve already finished these muffins. This recipe is one I’ve tweaked and played with and it is a favorite. My hubby went back for seconds which doesn't usually happen with banana bread and my son wouldn’t stop eating it. The chocolate chips are optional and I like to freeze half of it to grab one here and there for my son’s lunch at day care.

Banana Bread or Muffins

1 ½ c gluten free flour mix (I used the Gluten Free Mama Almond Blend)
½ T xantham gum
1 ½ t baking powder
½ t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/3 c white sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
1/3 c butter at room temperature
1 t vanilla
2 large eggs
3 ripe bananas
5 oz chocolate chips

Sift together the flour, xantham gum, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a separate bowl. In your mixer cream together the butter and sugars then add the vanilla. Beat in the eggs until combined and then the bananas until combined. Add the flour mixture in 2-3 parts then add the chocolate chips. Pour into a loaf or muffin pan. For a loaf bake at 350 F for about an hour and for muffins bake for about 40-45 minutes. It will be done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

I find that using frozen bananas is a lot easier to mix, just let them thaw for a bit on the counter top before using, it's fun to squeeze them out of the banana peel.

Gluten Free Goldfish Crackers

If you’re a parent of a gluten free child you’ve probably wished someone made a gluten free goldfish cracker, I know I do! When we first had our boy go gluten free he came home from day care asking me for goldfish crackers, I’m sure all of his buddies had goldfish for a snack and he was stuck with the GF snacks I’d sent with him. I try to make food as normal for him as possible so I purchased some gold fish cookie cutters and hoped his giant (well about 3x as big as normal) goldfish would make up for his loss. This was our first try at gluten free goldfish crackers and they turned out OK but they are not perfected. A little too salty for me, after a couple I'm done. I have some ideas on how to tweak the recipe and once it’s perfected I’ll post the recipe, in the mean time you can enjoy some pictures.

Look at how happy he is.

Meatball Bake & All Things Italian

I was surfing through some local blogs and I happened upon All Things Italian located in Bozeman. I figured it would be fun to check out their selection of goods and who would have thought I’d find some gluten free pastas? I sure didn’t. I rushed over there on a lunch break and picked up the two rice pastas and the one corn pasta they had available. I’ve read such good things about European GF pastas that I just couldn’t resist. I did consider buying their Beretta Gnocchi Di Riso which is made with rice flour but on the package it said it may contain wheat so I opted to avoid it. I wanted to make some sort of meatball lasagna type dish and I came up with this meatball bake, it was really tasty and I will be making it again. I used the Beretta Rice Fusilii for this dish and if you’re new to GF pastas always be sure to bring the water to boiling before adding the pasta, otherwise things just get too sticky. The pasta cooked a lot faster than I expected, maybe I was distracted, so it was a little more done than I had wanted. It was a tad mushy but nothing like my Tinkyada pasta would have been if I had overcooked that pasta. Trust me, I love my Tinkyada pasta and keep it stocked in the pantry I’m just really good at overcooking pasta. Overall this is a nice pasta and I want to try it next in a pasta salad.

Meatball Bake

½ -1 pound ground beef
1 egg beaten
½ c gluten free bread crumbs*
¼ c milk
1/3 c parmesan cheese
1 T oregano

Mix the egg, milk, and bread crumbs in a bowl and let sit for a couple minutes to allow the bread crumbs to absorb some liquid and soften up. Add the beef, parmesan cheese, and oregano mixing well. Roll the mixture into 1 inch balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes at 350F or until the meatballs are no longer pink.

1 T olive oil, I prefer garlic flavored
8 oz gluten free pasta, fusilli, spiral, penne, or elbow will work

While the meatballs are baking boil your water then add the olive oil and pasta. Cook the noodles until they are al dente the strain. If there happen to be any noodles sticking together rinse them under warm water and gently break them up with your fingers, this is more common in GF spaghetti noodles.

1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese

In a 2 quart dish spread some spaghetti sauce on the bottom then cover it with all of the noodles. Spread half of the remaining sauce over the noodles and sprinkle half of the cheese on top. Place the meatballs evenly over the cheese, then top with the remaining sauce and cheese. Cover with tin foil and bake in a 350 F oven for 35 min, remove the tin foil and bake an additional 10 minutes. This can easily be be put together the night before, you may need to adjust the time it bakes.

* I make my own bread crumbs from homemade bread that is starting to dry out and needs to be used up. Preheat your oven to 250 F and cut your bread into your desired bread crumb sizes. I like to use my pizza cutter so I can cut multiple pieces of bread at a time. Arrange the crumbs on a cookie sheet and bake for roughly 45 min, or until they are crispy. I store them sealed in my freezer so they're available anytime I need them. You can season them before using in a recipe, just mix them with with butter or olive oil and the spices you want.