The worst thing so far about being on a gluten free diet is that I cannot eat bread. I never knew just how much I loved bread… until I couldn’t have it.
A friend of a friend told me today that I should stay away from the gluten free subs for bread because they were high in carbs and low in nutrition… and they weren’t very good, plus they are expensive. Well, that just sucks!
I’m almost so desperate for bread that I’m willing to endure that horrible sick feeling! ALMOST.
So now I’m in search of bread recipes. Most of all, pizza crust recipes. There is a frozen pizza crust that I read about today. It’s a 10 inch crust that cost $12! That’s the cost of an already made pizza, toppings an all.
I’ve found a few recipes for pizza crust… but those recipes have about two million ingredients in them, all of which I own none of. So… I now have to go back to the market and track down all these ingredients. The plus side of it is, I’ll have plenty on hand for any time I feel like having a pizza.
Now, there is a pizza place in Austin, named… Austin Pizza, that sells a gluten free pizza. The cost… $12 for a 10 inch pizza. Same as the frozen pizza crust, only this has sauce and two toppings!!! The great part is that I won’t have to share my pizza with anyone, and I can get what ever toppings that I want!!! That never happens when I have to feed two kids and a husband. It’s always half extra cheese, half pepperoni and the other pizza is half pepperoni and onion, half pepperoni and bacon. The question now is… what topping do I want?
On another note, last night I made the best Tomatillo Chicken and Dumplings Soup for dinner. It was quick and easy!!! I was a bit nervous because I wasn’t sure if the Tomatillo sauce I used was gluten free. I bought it prior to my gluten free lifestyle. I took a chance and found that it was ok. If there was gluten in it, it was such a small amount that my body didn’t mind… but I’m guessing that there was none.
The recipe came from the kitchen at my local grocery store, HEB/Central Market. It was really good!!!
One thing about me is that I hate to cook and will use as many short cuts as possible, as long as it cost about the same or less than doing it myself. I took the recipe and changed it to include my short cuts.
I used one already cooked rotisserie chicken, purchased at my grocery store. This cost a tiny bit more than an uncooked bird, but I save time by not having to cook it. I also purchased two boxes of chicken stock, organic and gluten free, of course. (If you are doing this yourself, you could boil your own bird and use the water/stock from that instead of spending money on the boxed stock.) Two bottles of Tomatillo sauce. I can’t remember which brand but it did not say gluten free. I did find one that did say gluten free but it was quite a bit more in price. Next time, I will make my own. The recipe I found for it says it only takes 5 minutes to prepare and I’m sure that it will cost much less than the store-bought kind. Pepper to taste, Bisquick Gluten Free Mix, 2 Eggs, Butter, and Buttermilk.
I de-boned the chicken and placed it into the pot. I added the stock, tomatillo sauce and pepper. I let that slowly come to a boil.
I doubled the recipe for the dumplings. The recipe for this came from liveglutenfreely.com
3/4 cup of Bisquick GF mix
1/3 cup of milk (I used butter milk)
2 tablespoons of butter, melted (I missed the melted part and didn’t melt my butter. I cut it up into tiny pieces and worked it into the Bisquick before adding the egg and milk)
1 egg
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley (I didn’t use this because I didn’t have it on hand)
I mixed up the dumplings and then dropped bite size pieces into the boiling stock. I stirred up the dumplings as it continued to boil for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I added 1/2 cup of butter milk to the soup and let boil for another 5 minutes.
Let cook a bit then eat. I must warn you, this was quite spicy… but very flavorful! I can’t wait to make it again. My husband loved it. My kids thought it was too spicy. Oh, and this made enough for two very hungry adults with lots left over… so maybe next time I won’t double everything. Same amount of chicken, only one box of stock and one jar of tomatillo sauce and only one batch of dumplings.
Another variation would be to add carrots and corn. I felt that the soup could really use a bit “more” to it.
Every day I learn something new. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?