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Of course you’ll want to start with peeling and roughly chopping 4 medium sweet potatoes.

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Boil those suckers for about 25 minutes, until they are very soft.

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After they’re drained, I like to mash them up just a little so that things go easier with my hand mixer later on, but you can skip this step if you don’t mind huge chunks of sweet potato being violently flung around your pot.

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Now the important part. Add in 1/3 cup of Minute Maid orange juice (and sadly, yes, the brand is important. There are brands of orange juice with gluten in them, horrifying as that is…) In general, you may or may not need to avoid orange juice that has been fortified with calcium in the form of calcium lactate. What it boils down to is, most calcium lactate sources in the US are derived from non-dairy sources, but foreign-sourced calcium lactate could very possibly be made with whey, and some food manufacturers in the US do use the whey form as well. The only way to be sure is to contact the manufacturer, and always check your labels!

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The second key ingredient is 1/4 cup of honey. And that’s it! Now all you have to do is get out your hand mixer and whip those sweet potatoes into oblivion.

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Now why, I ask you, would you ever restrict something so scrumptious to just one holiday? Aside from being tasty, sweet potatoes are also very healthy, and deserve to be eaten year-round. Some people prefer to make them a little less healthy and melt a layer of marshmallows on the top. I’m morally opposed to it myself, but only because I don’t particularly like marshmallows. If you go that route, I believe Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows are gluten-free, but like I said, I don’t have occasion to check up on that particular food product very often, so you’ll want to double-check before you buy. 

By the way, you see that other colorful pile in the background? That’s nothing but a bag of frozen “fajita vegetables” (i.e. red peppers, green peppers, and onions) with a couple handfuls of frozen corn thrown into the mix. Instant side dish! I made this post a two-fer to try to make up for my sporadic summertime posting. It’s a busy time of year, and I’m sure some of you out there are looking forward to Back to School time just as much as I am.

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Happy Eating!

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Sweet Potatoes

4 medium sweet potatoes
1/3 cup 100% orange juice
1/4 cup honey

Pepper Medley

1 bag frozen fajita vegetables
1 cup frozen corn

First we mix the dry ingredients. Stir together 1 cup of white rice flour, and 1 cup of corn meal, being sure to select a brand of corn meal that isn’t mixed with wheat flour.

Then mix in 1/4 cup sugar, 1 Tablespoon of Argo baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of salt. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without warning. Always check your labels!]

And of course the magic fairy dust of gluten-free baking, xanthan gum. If you haven’t made the leap yet to doing your own baking, don’t be scared of this stuff. It’s just 1/2 teaspoon of magic fairy dust, that’s all. No biggie.

Now for the wet ingredients. First, melt one stick plus another two Tablespoons of Fleischmann’s Unsalted Margarine (not Original) in a large bowl in the microwave.

Then we’re going to add two cans of corn. But one will be a normal can of corn, drained of its extra liquid…

And one will be an undrained can of cream style corn. Note the word “style:” this is a case where a cheap generic brand will be to your benefit, because it will not actually contain any dairy. Mine is pretty much just corn, water, and salt, partially blended to resemble… something creamy, I guess.

Break two eggs into the bowl. One-handed is not a requirement, it just makes you look cool. (You could also substitute 4 Tablespoons of potato starch mixed into 2 Tablespoons of water, if you wanted to make it egg-free.)

Then mix in one container of plain coconut milk yogurt. Or you could go with soy instead, if that’s what you’re into. But I’m definitely not into that, myself.

And finally, 1/4 cup of honey. See that funky measuring cup I’m holding? It’s part of this awesome set I got for Christmas, which are designed as a collection of nesting Russian dolls. Cool, huh?

Finally, mix the wet with the dry, and stir vigorously.

Scrape it all into a well-oiled 9×13 baking dish, and smooth everything into place. Unlike the majority of gluten-free batters, this one is wet enough that you can just use a spatula instead of pressing it into place with your hand. Lucky you!

Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees, and you’ll end up with something like this. Firm enough to be cut into squares like corn bread, but richer and sweeter: corn casserole!

Happy Eating!

The GFCF Lady’s Corn Casserole

1 cup white rice flour
1 cup corn meal
1/4 cup sugar
1 TBS GF baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 1/4 sticks Fleischmann’s Unsalted margarine (NOT Original)
1 can corn, drained
1 can cream-style corn
2 eggs
1 container coconut milk yogurt
1/4 cup honey

But never fear, the recipe still conforms to its humble origins as a super-fast, super-easy, super-cheap, super-tasty meal! All in all, it’s just a super soup supper.

Forgive me, I have obviously had too many GF cookies this afternoon.

Anyway, here are the ingredients arrayed nicely on my stovetop. That’s Pacific Foods beef broth, a can of cream corn, a can of mixed veggies, Amy’s Fire-Roasted Southwestern Vegetable soup, a small can of Contadina tomato sauce, and a can of plain pinto beans. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change their formulas without warning. Always check your labels!] For the corn, veggies and beans there are many safe brands–just make sure the ingredient list includes nothing but corn, veggies and beans respectively. Also, make sure you do not use the “Italian Spices” flavor of Contadina tomato sauce, only the unseasoned flavor.

Keep in mind we’re not using the whole box of beef broth–just half of it, or roughly two cups. Pour everything into a large soup pot. Now this is important: don’t drain any of the cans. Just open them and dump them in.

Now add 1/2 teaspoon of salt…

And 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder.

Heat through, stirring occasionally. And that’s it! Instant soup! Well, not instant instant, but you know what I mean. Oh, and you know what?

This soup goes great with cornbread!

Happy Eating!

The GFCF Lady’s Vegetable Soup

2 cups Pacific Foods beef broth
1 can cream corn
1 can mixed vegetables
1 can Amy’s Fire-Roasted Southwestern Vegetable soup
1 can Contadina tomato sauce (NOT “Italian” flavored)
1 can plain pinto beans
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder

But in this recipe, it’s at least a reasonably fair moniker, because it does include some very Southwestern ingredients. If you’d rather call it Arizona Chicken Soup to promote diversity among the Southwestern states, that’s fine by me. We start with about one pound of plain old chicken. (And I do mean plain–stay away from broth-injected packaged chicken, unless you like to gamble with your gluten content, which I’d hope you wouldn’t, being on this site and all.) These are some extra tenders I had leftover in the freezer, but you could do any kind of light or dark meat, it doesn’t matter. Boil them until they’re cooked through, about 15 minutes depending on the thickness of your pieces.

Drain the chicken and set the pieces aside. In the same pot (it doesn’t have to be the same pot, but why get extra dishes dirty?) pour in 4 cups of gluten-free chicken stock. Pacific Foods makes a good one. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas at any time. Always double-check your lablels.]

While the stock is warming up, shred the chicken pieces with two forks.

Also, measure out 1 1/2 cups of gluten-free salsa. The spice level is entirely up to you (and what your kids will tolerate.) They make some salsas that are as mild as ketchup, and others that will take a few layers of skin off your mouth. Mine is a local brand, so you’re unlikely to be able to find it in your area, but Tostitos (All-Natural line of flavors only) is another option that’s sold pretty much everywhere.

Oh and look, this one even calls itself Texasalsa. In my defense, I used to prefer a different flavor of Jardine’s 7J Ranch salsa, but that one had gluten in it, alas. Just goes to show, you can’t mentally mark whole brands as safe or not, you have to verify each individual product.

Add the chicken and salsa to the pot, and toss in some frozen corn. I guess this is probably about a cup, I just give the bag a couple of shakes until it looks right.

Also add in 2 Tablespoons of lime juice. You can cut back on this if your salsa is already on the acidic side. Mine is, but I like the extra bite anyway. And yes, the GFCFBoy likes it this way too–he’s got sensory issues with his mouth, and loves extremely spicy or sour flavors. Used to eat wasabi peas as a toddler, no joke.

Chop up about 1/4 cup of fresh cilantro. If you don’t have fresh, just skip it, don’t even bother with the dried stuff for this. Chances are decent your salsa already has some of that in it anyway. Fresh makes all the difference in the flavor here. Plus, there is evidence that cilantro is a natural detoxifier, among its many other health benefits. Some even go so far as to suggest that in the right doses it can be as effective as chelation drugs at removing heavy metals from the body, which is a topic of interest to many parents of autistic children. (And if you’re looking for other places to sneak cilantro into the diet of you or your offspring, I’ve got a nice cilantro pesto recipe that I promise I’ll post sometime soon.)

Now, I know that cilantro is a very polarizing herb; people either love it or they hate it. There are even some scientific studies confirming that a portion of the population has a genetic variance in their tongues’ chemical receptors, which sadly makes cilantro taste absolutely horrid to them. If you’re one of these people, don’t worry, there’s a community just for you. Also, if you’re one of these people, just try using parsley in this recipe instead. It won’t be the same as my soup, but I’d imagine that’s kind of what you’re going for.

Jeez, enough with the cilantro already, eh? Just scrape it into the pot and get on with it! Okay, I hear you. We’re almost done.

Season with salt to suit your tastes. Again, this depends on the base flavor of your salsa. I use about a teaspoon or so.

At this point what we’ve got is pretty thin. If you like it that way, great, but I tend to like my soups to be just a little thicker. So I mix a Tablespoon of potato starch in the minimal amount of water needed to dissolve it, and add that to the simmering pot. Sometimes I’m impatient and add two, it just depends. Another thing you can do if you want to stretch the soup further is add a cup or two of cooked white rice.

Let it simmer and reduce for as long as you like. Me, I usually just barely get everything warm enough before I start greedily ladling it into my bowl. This goes great with tortilla chips (make sure they’re 100% corn,) and even better with a side of guacamole. I gotta tell you, guacamole absolutely saved me when we first started this diet. It had that perfect creamy texture I was craving–everything that used to get cheese or sour cream on it got a heaping glop of guacamole instead. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that no combination was too weird. I was a guacamole fiend for weeks on end.

Happy Eating!

Texas Chicken Soup

1 lb. boneless chicken pieces
4 cups Pacific Foods chicken stock
1 1/2 cups GF salsa
1 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup fresh cilantro

OPTIONAL:
2 TBS lime juice
1 tsp salt
1 TBS potato starch dissolved in water
1 cup cooked rice

Okay, that’s a lie. I liked it better the old way, full of delicious refined flours and sugars. But that’s just my neuroreceptors talking, pay them no mind. I do think this way is better than with a gluten-free pie crust, at least. My philosophy with this diet is that it’s almost always better to just avoid rather than replace. Less disappointment that way.

First, chop up an onion.

Next, we’re going to start making the gravy mix. I used to use a beef stew spice packet for this, but wouldn’t you know, there’s basically no such thing as a gluten-free spice packet. So we’ll just make our own. That’s 1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour. You can tell I use it all the time because it gets its own canister on my counter.

Then add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, and 1/8 teaspoon allspice. See how lazy I am, just eyeballing half a quarter teaspoon, instead of getting a new measuring spoon out? Sometimes I like to tell myself I’m just being more efficient, that’s all.

Now this is 1/8 teaspoon of paprika. I like to sprinkle more paprika on top of the dish to make it look pretty, but if your kids don’t like bright red speckles on their food, you could make it a 1/4 teaspoon here instead.

If you want to be all gourmet, you could boil actual potatoes and mash them yourself. I’m going with the instant flakes tonight. Lazy, lazy, lazy am I. So this is 2 2/3 cups water, 2/3 cup almond milk, 4 Tablespoons Fleischmann’s margarine, and 1 teaspoon salt, according to the directions on the Betty Crocker Potato Buds box. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without notice. Always check your ingredient lists.]

Meanwhile, start sauteeing the onions in a little olive oil and breaking up 1 lb. ground beef in a large pan. I always use the extra lean beef so I don’t have to worry about draining off grease. Ew.

When the meat is starting to brown but not done yet, throw in about a cup of frozen vegetables. Peas and carrots are the more traditional Shepherd’s Pie ingredients, but corn and green beans were what I had on hand tonight. This is the kind of recipe that begs for random things to be tossed in, so go wild.

Once all the meat is cooked through and the veggies are warm, dump in the flour mixture and stir until everything is coated evenly.

Then start slowly adding water to the pan, stirring constantly. You want to add just enough to make a thick gravy, not a soup. It’s usually about a cup and a half, but don’t hold me to that.

Move the meat mixture into a greased 9×9 pan and smooth it out into a nice layer. Dump your prepared potatoes right on top.

Spread out the potato layer with the back of a spoon, just like you were putting frosting on brownies. Or, you know, on a pie. (Can a pie have frosting, you ask skeptically? I submit that a meringue pie does.)

Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1/8 tsp paprika if you’re into that sort of thing, then pop it in a 350 degree oven just long enough to warm everything through, about 15-20 minutes.

Happy Eating!

Crustless Shepherd’s Pie

1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose GF flour
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp paprika, divided
1 medium onion, chopped
1 lb. ground beef
about 6 cups mashed potatoes
1 cup frozen vegetables
1 1/2 cups water