If you don’t have a waffle maker in your kitchen gadget arsenal, stop everything (well finish this post first), run to the nearest kitchen gadget store, and buy one! My waffle maker is one of my go-to appliances. The kids love waffles for our weekend family breakfasts. Since weekdays are absolutely crazy with school, soccer, piano, gymnastics, and other random sports the kids are involved in, I’ll cook up a large batch of waffles and freeze them for a quick breakfast during the week. Waffles are also the PERFECT substitute for bread!  Think BLT, egg and cheese, or (one of my favs) Nutella and Nutella with some extra Nutella on the side (I have a bad obsession with this stuff).

I’m going to share one of my special recipes: PB&J Waffles. I am a self-proclaimed expert on all things peanut butter & jelly since I ate a PB&J sandwich every.single.day from Kindergarten to High School.  Seriously, I’m not kidding… Why not take this waffle craze a step further and host your own Waffle Bar? Imagine how fun Sunday Brunch will be at your house!

Gluten-Free PB&J Waffles
Makes 4 six-inch waffles

1 1/3 cups Bisquick Gluten-Free mix
1 ¼ cups milk
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 egg
¼ cup creamy peanut butter
1 ½ cups of warmed jelly

1. Stir ingredients until blended
2. Pour onto center of hot greased waffle maker, close lid
3. Bake according to waffle maker instructions
4. Remove waffle and serve with warmed jelly in place of syrup

Host Your Own Waffle Bar!
Hosting your own Waffle Bar is SO easy… Here are some topping ideas to include in your buffet. Get as creative as you like, the possibilities are endless to what you can top a waffle with!

Sweet Waffle Toppings
Bananas
Chocolate Chips
Blackberries
Raspberries
Homemade Whipped Cream
Maple Syrup
Cinnamon & Sugar

Savory Waffle Toppings
Crumbled Bacon
Caramelized Onions
Cheddar Cheese
Diced Ham
Sliced Almonds

The holidays are coming!

Let the panic/stress/I’m off my rocker festivities begin!  All joking aside, I seriously love celebrating the holiday season by serving up a delicious breakfast buffet.  Breakfast is much more manageable than attempting to clean a turkey and make like 26 side dishes from scratch.  Don’t forget the hand stamped and embossed place cards.  Yeah, I’m so over it!  Why not join my holiday mutiny and kick off your celebration with a warm and cozy gluten free breakfast?  Since we’re all family here at Hold The Gluten, I’m sharing my Good Morning Gluten Free Coffee Cake recipe with you!  Now don’t you feel special?!  You’ll not only find the cinnamon-sugary streusel mix on the top of this fabulous coffee cake, but in the center as well.  Can you say gluten free goodness?  I would but my mouth is totally full of coffee cake…

Good Morning Gluten Free Coffee Cake Recipe

Streusel Mix
2/3 cup Bisquick Gluten Free mix
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ cup butter

Coffee Cake
2 ½ cups Bisquick Gluten Free mix
¼ cup sugar
¾ cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
½ cup sour cream

Pre-heat oven oven to 350°F. Spray an 11-inch round springform pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl, prepare the streusel mix using 2/3 cup Bisquick mix, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Cut in butter, using a mixer until mixture is crumbly; set aside.  In medium bowl, stir all coffee cake ingredients until blended. Spread half of the coffee cake batter in pan; sprinkle with half of the streusel topping, spread remaining batter and then top with remaining streusel topping.  Bake 35 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm! Store tightly covered.

As a little girl, pancakes for supper was a special treat.  We’d feast on stacks of pancakes, crispy bacon (nom nom nom), and hash browns.  What kid wouldn’t love a meal like that?  Way better than roast beef and (gag) turnips.  Although watching my grandfather eat scrapple still traumatizes me just a bit even to this day.  That stuff is just nasty!  To keep the tradition going, my kids and I eat a lot of pancakes for dinner.  We even get a little crazy and add chocolate or vanilla chips or fresh berries.  A few nights ago I decided to add a little chunky peanut butter to the batter.  The result?  Totally awesome!

Peanut Butter Pancakes

1 cup Gluten Free Bisquick Mix
1 cup milk
2 tbsp oil
1 egg
2 tbsp peanut butter

Stir ingredients until blended.  Make sure the peanut butter is thorouglhy mixed in.  Pour 1/4 cup of the batter onto a hot greased griddle.  Cook until the batter starts to form bubbles and the edges are dry.  Flip pancake and cook until golden brown.  Serve with warm maple syrup.  Makes about 8 pancakes (we like ours on the big side).

Want to have an awesome and tasty gluten free breakfast?  Included are some recipe ideas as well as cool suggestions for jazzing up your morning meal!

Fun with Food

Egg in a Hole – I learned this simple yet fun recipe in 8^th grade Home Economics class.  The teacher also tried to teach me how to sew a pair of shorts.  That lesson did not go as well as the cooking portion of the class, but I digress…  Here’s how to make this dish:  using the mouth of a glass, press down to cut a circle into a piece of gluten free bread.  Remove the circle.  Melt some butter in a skillet over medium heat.  Place the bread along with the circle in the skillet and toast on both sides.  Once toasted, crack one egg into the hole of the bread and season with salt & pepper.  Cook about two minutes.  Flip the egg and toast and the circle of bread.  Add more butter if needed.  Cook another 2 to 3 minutes depending on if you like your egg runny or more firm.  Transfer to a plate and enjoy your Egg in a Hole!  You can use the circle part of the bread to dip or just enjoy it with a little jelly.

Pancakes – take your ho hum pancakes and make them extra special by adding berries (frozen or fresh) or white/chocolate chips.  Check out the gadgets section of my article for more pancake fun.

French toast sticks – french toast just seems more fun when you can pick it up and dip it into maple syrup!  Make your french toast using gluten free bread and then cut into three sections.  Dip into warmed maple syrup.

Bacon Egg & Cheese Sandwich – Nothing says breakfast like bacon!  Well, for me, any meal with bacon is a wondrous meal.  Why not put your bacon, egg & cheese on a gluten free bagel or even between two waffles?

Groovy Granola Bars – use gluten free oatmeal mix as a base to make homemade granola bars.  Add in your favorite nuts, dried fruit, and spices.

Gadgets for Gluten Free Tastiness

Waffle maker – I LOVE my waffle maker!   You can make up a batch of waffles for breakfast and freeze the rest for later.

Pancake molds – who wouldn’t want to eat pancakes shaped like star wars figures (or hearts, trucks, flowers and dinosaurs?  Pick up some pancake molds at your local superstore or online.  They are so easy to use.

Toaster art – get creative with your toast!  Toasters now have “stencils” that toast an impression (a sun, princess, words, etc) onto your bread.  Just remember to keep this toaster designated “gluten free” to avoid cross contamination.

According to Williams-Sonoma, an ebelskiver (originating from Denmark) is a light, puffy pancake that can be filled with fruit, chocolate, jam or cheese and served for breakfast or as an hors d’oeuvre, dessert or light supper.

My definition of an ebelskiver is a word the Swedish Chef on the Muppets would shout during one of his unintelligible tirades.  Gersh gurndy morn-dee burn-dee, burn-dee, flip-flip-flip.  But I digress…

Last Christmas, my fab hubby gave me an Ebelskiver Pan from Williams-Sonoma.  I had visions of making all kinds of gluten free filled pancakes galore.  Almost a year later, I’ve finally put this awesome pan to use.  These mini filled pancakes were easy to make (and easy to pop into your mouth!).  The possibilities are endless on what filling to use — I used semi-sweet chocolate chips and peanut butter as my fillings.  The kiddos went crazy over these little treats and begged for more.  FYI, the recipe below makes a crap-ton of ebelskivers (approximately 3 dozen), so decrease the recipe if you want only a few. This recipe is from the Williams-Sonoma Ebelskiver and has been adapted by using gluten-free flour. I used a combination of 1 cup brown rice flower, 1/2 cup sorghum flour, 1/4 cup millet flour and 1/4 tapioca starch.

Gluten Free Filled Mini Pancakes

2 cups gluten-free flour blend
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, separated
2 cups milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted plus more for cooking
Fillings, such as jam, peanut butter, chocolate ganache, chocolate chips or fruit
Syrup or whipped cream

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the milk and the 4 tablespoons melted butter. Whisk the yolk mixture into the flour mixture until well combined; the batter will be lumpy.

In another bowl, using the electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff but not dry peaks form, 2 – 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, gently stir the whites into the batter.

Put 1/4 teaspoon butter in each well of the Filled Pancake Pan. Set over medium heat and heat until the butter begins to bubble. Pour 1 tablespoon batter into each well. Put 1 teaspoon of the filling of your choice in the center of each pancake and top with 1 tablespoon batter.  Cook until the bottoms are golden brown and crispy, 3 -5 minutes. Using 2 wooden skewers, flip the pancakes over and cook until golden and crispy, about 3 minutes more. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining batter and filling. Serve immediately with syrup or whipped cream. Makes about 40.

Pros:

• Uber-simple to make.  Even those distracted by shiny things (ahem, guilty as charged!) will be able to add the three ingredients to the mix.
• Mix is free from gluten, peanut, milk & dairy, soy, and corn.
• Reasonably priced at $2.99 for 18-ounce package (makes 12 waffles or pancakes).
• The package is purple – my favorite color!

Cons:

• The cooking instructions are for waffles OR pancakes using the entire contents of the mix.  I wish they would offer instructions for 3, 6, or 12 waffles/pancakes.  Of course, you could dump out the mixture, re-measure the contents and rework the recipe, but I am mathematically challenged, so this was not an option.
• The mix had a faint but slightly “off” odor (something I have found in many gluten free mixes).
• I found there to be a slight aftertaste to the waffles I prepared.  It was a bit metallic tasting (not that I frequently lick metal objects, but this is the best way to describe the aftertaste).

I personally always feel like a nut in a less “literal” sense, but happen to prefer Mounds Bars…

When I was initially diagnosed with Celiac Disease, I had bought boxes and boxes of frozen gluten free waffles. Blueberry, apple and cinnamon, flax…you name it, I bought it. I still have many of those boxes in my freezer because the waffles just didn’t taste right to me. They were crumbly, hard, and not what I remember a “real” waffle to taste like. Call me persnickety, but I’d rather not eat a mediocre waffle.

Not too long ago, I shared with you the scintillating news that the Cuisinart Waffle Maker is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets. With the aid of said trusty waffle maker, I have created the ultimate waffle experience. I had gotten a little bored of my Pumpkin Waffles and wanted something new.  During a recent trip to Whole Foods, I discovered Coconut Oil. This became the inspiration for my latest waffle experiment. To sum it up, these waffles taste similar to a Mounds Bar. This recipe is so darn good you’ll dream about these light and fluffy waffles when you aren’t eating them. You’ll be busy going about your day when suddenly, SHAZAM!, Chocolate Chip Coconut Waffles will be beckoning you.

If you don’t (gasp!) care for chocolate, you can omit the chips for a “pure” coconut waffle. Having an acute chocolate addiction, I tend to put chocolate chips in practically everything I bake (fellow chocoholics, stay tuned for my recipe post on Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread!).

Chocolate Chip Coconut Waffles

1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup ground flax seed
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons coconut oil (melted)
Mini chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together (except for chocolate chips).  Pour batter into a pre-heated waffle maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. Then sprinkle a handful of mini-chocolate chips into the batter in the waffle maker.  Makes 6 DELICIOUS waffles.

Summer just hasn’t been kind to me.  The heat and humidity have wreaked havoc on my curly hair.  Imagine having the grease up the door frame just to fit you and your large hair outside!  Plus, I don’t like to sweat.  Sweating is icky and so unglamorous.

That said, I hereby declare that I am ready for Fall!  What a coincidence, today IS the first day of Fall!  Bring it on Mother Nature…

Um, Houston, we have a problem. It was 80 degrees yesterday and it’s going to be 78 degrees here today. Drats. Well, I can pretend it’s Fall, right? I’ll just crank up the trusty a/c and feel the chill in the air. To hell with my kiddies’ blue lips and the fact that they might not feel their fingers.

Being the good mom that I am, I made pancakes for breakfast. (Gluten eating) Thing 1 and Thing 2 gobbled these up like I had poured Pixie Sticks and Fun Dip into the batter.  All boasting aside, I must admit these pancakes are “da bomb” (yes, this is my attempt at being hip).

My advice is to make a few batches, freeze them individually in ziploc bags, and reheat in the microwave for future meals.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes

1 cup of gluten free flour mix (*see note at bottom)
1 cup buckwheat flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs
Dark chocolate chips

*GF Flour Mixture I used was: 2 cups Brown Rice, 1 cup Sweet White Sorghum, 2/3 cup Tapioca, 1/3 cup cornstarch, 2 tsp xanthan gum.

Mix all dry ingredients thoroughly in a mixing bowl. Add in the pumpkin, canola oil, vanilla, milk, and eggs. Mix well, but don’t overbeat. Heat a cast iron pan (this is key to non-mushy pancakes!) over low/medium heat and pour 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Once poured, add chocolate chips. Cook pancakes approximately 2 minutes on each side until golden brown. Top with butter, a sprinkling of cinnamon, and fresh maple syrup!

I’d like to send out a huge thanks to Paul at The CaffiNation Podcast. Paul is one of my “Twitter Friends” and I had been working on this recipe for a week or two. After nine (yes, nine!) failed batches of pancakes, I posted my frustration on Twitter. Paul so nicely suggested I use a cast iron pan instead of the non-stick I was cooking in (duh, why didn’t I think of that?!).  Viola!   Pancake Perfection.  If you are into Coffee and/or Technology, be sure to check out Paul’s site.

I’d also like to note that this recipe was inspired by the Cooking Gluten-Free! recipe book.  There is a basic pancake and waffle recipe that I tweaked and played with and many batches later came up with what is posted here

So, what to make for our Father’s Day Breakfast Bonanza? A bowl of (gluten free!) Cocoa Pebbles wasn’t going to cut it. I needed something manly and gut filling. The recipe also needed to be easy because, as I have mentioned previously, my skills in the kitchen are limited. To the rescue comes my Breakfast Casserole! With only four itsy-bitsy ingredients (eggs, bacon, hash browns, and cheese), the chances of me getting distracted during the mixing process was lessened considerably (ooh look, something shiny!).

Hey, when did you get here!?

Ok, moving on… I’d like to make a disclaimer about this recipe… If you are popping Lipitor like candy and have the American Heart Association’s website as one of your “Favorites”, please think long and hard about how often you eat this dish. The casserole is definitely gluten-free, but as for “uber-healthy” — not so much.

Breakfast Casserole

9 eggs (I use Eggland’s Best)
1 pound Oscar Mayer Center Cut Bacon
15 ounces Ore Ida Hash Browns (the shredded kind)
2 cups of Kraft Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Cook the hash browns (use stove top directions). Put the cooked hash browns in a 9 or 10 inch round casserole dish. Push them on the bottom of the dish and up along the sides. Cook the bacon and crumble it (do this as you are cooking the hash browns — a pound of bacon takes some time to microwave!). In a medium container, whisk the eggs and then add the crumbled bacon and shredded cheese. Stir. Pour mixture into the hash browns that you’ve already put in the casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes (uncovered).

*Note – all of these items are gluten free at the time I am writing this post. PLEASE always double check the ingredients list or, if in doubt, call the manufacturer to confirm.

Maybe that’s why I can’t cook to save my life!?

Recipes are like the voice of authority to me. I need to do things my way and on my own terms. One other problem might be I just don’t have the attention span to follow long, detailed instructions. When my tummy rumbles, I want to eat. NOW! Welcome, Mr. Instant Gratification, come right in In spite of my stubborn resistance to cooking, I find myself endlessly cutting recipes out of magazines and anal-retentively filing them in my color coded recipe folder. Why, you ask? Because having celiac truly makes you think about food – what you are eating, how it’s prepared, and the ingredients that are going into your meal. One (ahem, me) eventually needs to suck it up and cook something for themselves.

My husband will tell you I have a small addiction to household items (vegetable steamer, citrus juicer, hot chocolate machine, etc). Although these poor things haven’t seen the light of day since they came home from the store, I feel somewhat closer to cooking by acquiring them. I recently unearthed a Cuisinart Waffle Maker (still in its box) from my kitchen cabinet. Made hungry by the tasty looking waffle photo on the instruction guide, I decided to try to conquer this waffle oppressor. Filed away under the “Breakfast” category in my superiorly organized folder was a recipe I’d adapted for gluten free Pumpkin Waffles. Perfect! Now, back to my attention span. I don’t always have the time or energy to measure out 32 different flours to make a gluten free flour mix. Call me crazy, but when I can buy a pre-made flour mix that works just dandy, I’ll take that option! Although I might like to cut some corners in the cooking arena, I do make every effort to eat healthily. If the dish is great tasting, nutritious, gluten free, and easy to prepare, I’ll eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until the cows come home. (Note – this is coming from a girl who ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches from Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade EVERY DAY) All joking aside, these waffles are fantastic!! If you have some time (and a waffle maker!), give this recipe a try. Prepare a batch, then individually freeze the leftovers and reheat for future meals.

Pumpkin Waffles

1 1/2 cups Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix
2 teaspoons flax seed meal (the ground stuff)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Heaping 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons canola oil

In a large bowl, combine gluten free flour mix, flax seed meal, brown sugar, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.  Mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, pumpkin puree, and canola oil until smooth; add to flour mixture and stir until blended. Pour batter into a pre-heated waffle maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. Eat and Enjoy!