My Gluten-free Flour mix

glutenfreeflourmix.

Here’s my easy, whole grain gluten free flour mix I use in all my recipes. I’ve made everything from biscuits, brownies, cookies, cakes, and pizza dough from this mix.

1 cup arrowroot flour
1/2 cup oat flour (make sure it is gluten free)
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 t. xantham or guar gum

Mix well. I make large batches of this and store it in the freezer for freshness!

Quinoa Basil Chicken

quinoa basil chicken

We’re mostly gluten-free in our cooking here at the farm, although I will cook with sprouted wheat occasionally. This recipe was something that just sounded good with the supplies I had and the fresh garden veggies available. Most of my recipes come out of either 1) what’s on hand and 2) what my head decides it needs to make. and 3) what my tastebuds are salivating for. ;)

Please note: I used homemade chicken stock in this recipe. Chicken stock is the golden liquid that is created by cooking chicken bones in water for at least 24 hours. It’s different than regular chicken broth which is the product of cooking chicken. If you don’t have chicken stock, then broth is a great substitute. Although not as nutritious and full of gelatin.

Fun fact: When I was about 4, I found out that jello was made from ground up horse bones (i.e. gelatin…which is what is in homemade beef/chicken/pork/etc. stock). Instead of grossing me out, my 4 year old farm girl self, thought that was a cool piece of information to share with my friends. Unfortunately, they either 1) thought I wasn’t telling the truth or 2) thought it was the nastiest thing they had ever heard and refused to ever eat it again. I’ve always been a weirdo. :P

Quinoa Basil Chicken
 
Author:
Recipe type: Main Dish, Chicken, Gluten Free, Quinoa
Serves: 5-6
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Ingredients
Basil Chicken
  • 1 half onion
  • 3 T. Butter
  • 1 T. arrowroot flour
  • 1½ cups chicken stock
  • 1 t. salt
  • ¼ cup chopped basil
  • 2-3 cups cooked, chopped chicken
Quinoa
  • 1 cup Quinoa
  • ½ cup chicken stock
  • 1-1/2 cups water
  • 1 t. salt
Topping
  • 1 large tomato
Instructions
  1. Put quinoa, stock, water, and salt in a medium saucepan. Let simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed into the quinoa and it is light and fluffy. Set aside.
  2. Saute onion in butter until translucent. Stir in flour and mix thoroughly. Turn on simmer and cook for 3 minutes. Slowly mix in chicken stock while stirring rapidly. Turn up heat to medium and cook while stirring until thick and bubbly. Mix in chicken and basil and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
  3. To serve, place quinoa in portion sizes on plates. Top with the basil chicken and tomatoes.

 

Naturally Sweetened Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s no secret we’re a chocolate loving family. Most of us love dark chocolate, (what does milk chocolate even meeaaaaann??). Chocolate Chip cookies used to be a weekly staple in our house before we severely cut back on sugar a few years ago. Now, have them occasionally and I’ve played around with both gluten-free and whole wheat versions.

Today I’m sharing an Einkorn recipe. The ratios would be about the same for spelt flour as well. I’m going to post a gluten-free recipe soooon. Because I need to share some love to my Gluten-Free friends. <3

I’m using honey and powdered sucanat as the sweeteners. To make powdered sucanant simply blend it until it is powdery. I usually put about 2 cups in my Vitamix and blend it at least a minute and a half.

As far as the butter goes, you can substitute an alternative, such as palm shortening, if you’re dairy free. I’ve yet to do this, because I can have butter, but I’d love to try it to see. I’ll keep y’all posted.

Happy Baking! <3

Naturally Sweetened Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies
 
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time:
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Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter
  • 6 T. honey
  • ¾ cup powdered sucanat
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 t. vanilla extract
  • 1 t. almond extract
  • 4 cups Einkorn flour
  • 1 t. baking soda
  • ½ t. salt
  • 1-1/2 cups Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (or other naturally sweetened chocolate chip brand)
Instructions
  1. Combine dry ingredients and set aside. (you know what? I never do this. I just add the dry ingredients, one by one, into the wet mixture. I'm a recipe rebel that way.)
  2. Cream butter, honey, and sucanat until light and fluffy. Add eggs and extracts, mix well.
  3. Slowly add dry ingredients. Last and most importantly, add the chocolate chips!
  4. Line cookie tray with parchment paper, not necessary, but takes a lot of clean up time out.
  5. To make an even, professional looking cookie, scoop dough in a Tablespoon ice cream scoop (or dough scoop if you have one) and drop on the cookie sheets. Gently press flat (about ½" thick) with a glass (or if you're me, your hand).
  6. Bake at 375 for 7-9 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen.

 

Green Tomato Salsa

 

We’ve had an overabundance of green tomatoes…but very few tomatoes have ripened. I discovered the problem was our soil was low in potassium, so while that’s being resolved, I decided to do something with the green tomatoes that were falling off the vine. :-) My idea was green tomato salsa. Because somehow that sounded good…I just winged it, and this is what I came up with. It was a hit with our soft tacos tonight, so I thought it was safe to share the recipe. ;-)

greentomatosalsa1

 

greentomato2

Weird things happen when I cook with tomatoes. Especially green ones. Let’s just leave it at that.

greentomato3

 

I used a Ninja to blend all the ingredients together. I chopped the tomatoes into quarters.

greentomato4

I gathered a handle of cilantro with a few leaves basil mixed in from our garden. Literally. A handful. ;-) Wash and take the leaves off then toss them in with the tomatoes.

greentomato5

 

Add the onion, jalapenos, garlic, salt, and lime juice into the blender. Pulse the blender to chop the salsa, but don’t over blend.

 

greentomato6

The end result should look like this! Enjoy with your favorite tortilla chips! We had it on tacos this evening. Yumm!

greentomatosalsa

Green Tomato Salsa
 
Author:
Recipe type: Condiment
Serves: 12
Prep time:
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Ingredients
  • 5 medium green tomatoes, quartered
  • 1 handful of fresh cilantro
  • 2 jalapenos, chopped
  • 1 half large onion, quartered
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 t. salt
  • juice of 2 limes
Instructions
  1. Add all ingredients into blender and pulse until blended. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Strawberry Vanilla Limeade

Here in Oklahoma land we have a local chain called Sonic which has amazingly yummy but horribly bad for you drinks. I happen to love their limeades, but I wanted to see if I could come up with something just as delicious, but much healthier. Move over Sonic! This limeade is so good, and it’s very easy to make!

strawberryvanillalimeade

Strawberry Vanilla Limeade
 
Serves: 8
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Ingredients
  • 6 limes
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
  • ⅓-1/2 cup honey
  • 2 vanilla bean pods, slit open and chopped
Instructions
  1. Juice the limes and put the juice in a small sauce pan. Add the strawberries, honey, vanilla beans and about 1 cup water and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add ice and water to desired taste. Enjoy!
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 8

Almond Crusted Tuna Steaks

This is a gluten-free, grain free version of almond crusted tuna steaks. It’s a tasty main dish for a fancy dinner, yet it’s very simple and doesn’t take a lot of prep time. It’s a family favorite for when we want to splurge on tuna steak!

Almondcrustedtuna

 

Almond Crusted Tuna Steaks
 
Serves: 4
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Ingredients
  • 4 small tuna steaks
  • ¾ cup melted butter
  • ¼ cup lemon juice
  • 1 - 1½ cups almond flour
  • ¼ cup arrowroot flour
  • salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. In one bowl, melt butter and add lemon juice. Immerse Tuna steaks in butter/lemon mixture.
  2. Mix almond flour & arrowroot flour in a separate bowl.
  3. Transfer tuna steaks to the almond flour bowl and coat completely with almond flour.
  4. Place on a preheated cast iron skillet set on medium. Cook for about 5-8 minutes on each side, flipping once. On each side, sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

Sourdough Bread: Successes and Failures

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with sourdough bread. Back when I first began trying to make it 3 or 4 years ago, I never mastered it and it ended up being more hassle than it was worth. Last year, I tried making my own sourdough starter out of rye flour. It turned out great and I spent the next few months making all sorts of yummy sourdough breads, but still really couldn’t get the bread loaf down. My family went on a grain-free diet for awhile, so my sourdough starter was ruined.

A few weeks ago, I decided to try again. I started my sourdough from rye flour. Many instructions will tell you wheat or rye is fine, but I’ve found that rye is the easiest to get started. It bubbles up and ferments properly without a lot of worry. After about a week, when my culture was ready, I made some no-knead sourdough bread. I made two different recipes. One was a complete flop which some member of my family said needed cutting with a chainsaw. :-) The second turned out beautifully. Since then, I’ve made sourdough biscuits and crackers. Tonight, I have some sourdough rolls mixed up ready for finishing up in the morning for our midday meal.

I’ve made bread since I was nine years old, so I was already aware that bread making is an art and a skill. If you add sprouting grain and soaking flour to your bread making regime, then it is a new art form and skill that takes developing. Sourdough is the same way. It takes learning what the dough needs to feel like, how to handle it, what to add.

I’m slowly gaining new knowledge in the area of sourdough. Eventually, I hope to have some new recipes of my own to share. For now, I’m going to share a few I’ve made and we’ve enjoyed.

 

Sourdough Starter instructions:

I found Jenny, from Nourished Kitchen, to have the best instructions on sourdough starting. If you follow her instructions, using rye flour (or wheat if you don’t have access to rye), then you will be on your way to making wonderful sourdough products. Once the sourdough is ready to bake with, I switched to wheat flour. If I want to bake a big batch of something, I’ll feed it a cup of flour and 2/3 cup water for a couple days and then bake with it. Stirring vigorously is very key to the success of the starter. I found that stirring it for about a minute rapidly will make it nice and bubbly and foam up like a proper, active starter should.

sourdoughstarter

 

Sourdough Baked Goods:

Sourdough Crackers are probably our favorite baked item I’ve made with my starter. These crackers are super easy and delightfully crunchy. Don’t roll them very thin, because if you leave them slightly thicker than you would normally do for crackers, they will puff up and be beautiful, crunchy and delicious.

 

sourdoughcrackers

 

Sourdough No-Knead Bread is a very delicious, easy bread. It rises beautifully. I made mine with Kamut flour, but I think I’ll try Spelt next time. It has a very crunchy, artisan crust.

 

One of my personal favorites is Sourdough Biscuits. I tried this recipe last year. They are super easy to make and delightfully sourdoughy good. :-)

sourdoughbiscuits

 

 

Do you have any sourdough stories? What are your favorite recipes? What are some recipes that you would like to see me make and share from my sourdough starter?

Homemade Frappuccino

It’s really no secret that I live a significant way from a legitimate coffee shop.  I live in Rural America.  So, when I get a craving for a iced coffee drink on “one-of-those-days”, I have to improvise.  Today was one of those days.  I mixed this up this afternoon. Made with all natural ingredients and sweeteners, it’s actually a yummy coffee drink that I can drink without regrets. :-)

 

Directions:

Several hours or overnight from when you want to make the frappuccino, make some strong coffee.  Pour into ice trays and freeze.  Blend coffee ice cubes, milk, maple syrup and vanilla until smooth.  Pour into cold glasses and serve.

Cheddar Biscuits

These biscuits are light, flaky and full of cheesy goodness.  It is our family’s favorite “soup bread”. Someday, when I get my sourdough starter “restarted”, I shall post the sourdough version I came up with. It was delightful!

HEAT oven to 450ºF.
MIX first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in Cheddar. Add milk; stir until mixture forms soft dough.
PLACE on lightly floured surface; knead 8 to 10 times or until smooth. Pat out dough into 6-inch square. Cut into 9 squares; place, 2 inches apart, on baking sheet.
BAKE 10 to 12 min. or until golden brown.