Gluten Free Mom

Ready for fall - Naturally Gluten Free Chicken Tortilla Soup

With three kids in sports this fall, I am spending 3:00 - 7:00 every afternoon driving to practices and/or attending sporting events.  One week, we had six games (not to mention practices).  Because of this, I often cook dinner at about 8:30 in the morning. 

Soup is a great easy dinner to cook and heat when you need it. 

Plus, soup is one of the easiest, most cost effective ways to naturally feed our gluten free family of five.  Monday is usually soup day for me.  I make a big pot, we eat it for dinner, the kids can take it to school for lunch and they will even eat if for snack after school.

If you want to whip-up some soup in half the time, I highly recommend the Krups Mini-Chopper. 

The Krups Mini-Choppper is one of my favorite appliances.  I got mine as a wedding gift 19 years ago and it still works great.  I love it because I can chop up a small onion in about thirty seconds.  Don't like to mince onions, just peel and throw them in the mini-chopper.  I even used it to mince the chicken for this recipe. 

Minced Garlic in my Mini-Chopper

Not only is it quick, but it is small.  Yes, it will only process about one half of an onion at a time, but when you are done it will easily fit in the dishwasher without having to take up the entire top rack (unlike my standard food processor which is a dishwasher hogger). 

I just love this chopper! 

Here  is our new favorite soup.  I got the recipe from my friend Kathy when she brought it to a girls weekend away.  Enjoy!

Chicken Tortilla Soup 

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil 

1 1/2 med onions, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 bay leaves

2-3 chicken breasts, diced

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1- 28 oz can diced tomatoes

2- 32 oz boxes chicken broth

1/2 cup salsa

1/4-1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup long grain rice

1 can black beans, rinsed

1-2 handfuls frozen corn
 
Directions:

Heat oil in large soup pot over medium low heat. Add onions, garlic and bay leaves. Saute 5 minutes. Add diced chicken and cumin and saute until chicken is cooked through.

Add tomatoes, broth, salsa, cilantro, salt and pepper. Bring to boil then simmer for 15 minutes. Add  rice and simmer 15-20 min until rice is soft. Add black beans and corn and remove from heat.
 
Top with gluten free tortilla chips, cheese, cilantro and salsa.

For more of our favorite soup recipes, visit Gluten Free Mom Recipes. 

 

 

Mini Cheeseballs with Gluten Free Crunchmaster Crackers

Summer is over and I am back with ton of recipes to share, travel tips for Munich Germany and Paris, and a lot of new great GF products.

As a matter of fact, it seems as if there has been a gluten free explosion lately.  Gluten free food seems to be everywhere (not all of it safe unfortunately). 

To start the fall season, are you ooking for a quick snack to serve at the next football party?  Try these yummy cheese balls made with Crunchmaster 7 Ancient Grains Crackers.  They are super tasty and take just minutes to make. 

 

Mini Cheese Balls

 

 

Ingredients

 

1 heaping cup Crunchmaster 7 Ancient Grains Hint of Sea Salt Crackers

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (2 cups shredded)

2 heaping tablespoons mango chutney (if you do not have mango chutney on hand, try 2 tablespoons of Apricot preserves)

¼ teaspoon dry mustard powder

 

Place crackers in food processor and pulse several times until ground into coarse crumbs.  Pour the crumbs into a plate and wipe out the food processor.  Add the remaining ingredients to food processor and process until fully combined.  Roll tablespoonfuls of the cheese mixture into balls (a mini ice cream scoop works well) and then roll the balls into the cracker crumbs gently pressing the crumbs into the cheese.  Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

Makes about 2 dozen, depending on size.

 

Rest assured that Crunchmaster crackers are certifed Gluten Free by Gluten Free Certificatoin Organization.  I have also seem them for sale at Costco.

Thanks Crunchmaster for sending me this free sample and for making a great cracker that we can eat without worry.

 

 

 

The Best Bread Machines for Gluten Free Bread

Because the following post was so popular, it was updated Sept. 2011!  

 

I received three emails this week asking which was the best bread machine for gluten free breads, so this must be on your minds.  This is a photo of the Gluten Free Pantry Favorite Sandwich mix made with my old Breadman machine:

First I have to admit that I do not use my bread machine that often.  With my new bread recipe only taking 30 minutes to rise, I  find it just as quick and easy for me to make bread "the old fashioned way."  However, I am a stay-at-home Mom, so I realize it is easy for me to be around to watch to make sure it does not rise too high and turn the oven on.  What if you can't be at home?  Or better yet, you are not as nostalgic as I am about watching bread rise.  That is where the bread machine comes in. 

My first bread machine was the Breadman - it worked fine with standard mixes like the Gluten Free Pantry Favorite Sandwich Bread Mix, but because all of the cycles on it are automatically programmed (in other words, you cannot set the rise and knead cycles yourself), it did not work well with some standard mixes such as those by 'Cause Your Special and other recipes that I wanted to try.

When shopping for a gluten free bread machine, you want one with a programmable cycle, so that just a knead and rise cycle can be selected or one that features a gluten free cycle.  Breadman, Cuisinart and Zojirushi all sell bread machines wiht these features.  

I recommend the Zojirushi BB-CEC20 Home Bakery Supreme 2-Pound-Loaf Breadmaker,  

 

It has a programmable cycle to set for gluten free bread.  In fact, BreadInfo.com test the Zojirushi BB-CEC20 by preparing several types of bread in it. They say it does a good job making white bread and bread dough, but they're particularly impressed with its ability to produce "remarkably high-quality" gluten-free bread. 

 

Buying the right bread machine from the beginning will save you time and agony and the expense of buying a second machine, but this is just the start.  For a detailed guide to making gluten free bread in a bread machine, I recommend Annalise G. Roberts book Gluten-Free Baking Classics for the Bread Machine.  It has everything from great recipes, specific directions on how to set your bread machine and tips for when things just don't go right (and they will not go right at times, it is almost guaranteed so use that bread for bread crumbs!). 

I'd love to share Annalise's recipe with you, but I think she might prefer it if you buy the book!  I'd share one of my own, but have not developed one yet, and in all honesty Annalise has spent much more time perfecting bread recipes than I have, so I am sticking with hers for now. 

We have slowly but surely moved away from mixes, but we still like the Toro White Bread Mix and the Gluten Free Pantry Favorite Sandwich Bread Mix (although this one is moving down on our list of favorites).  You can purchase both of these from  .

We also like the "Cause your Special Home style White Bread Mix.

What are your favorites?