Here are links to several low calorie gluten free recipes. The experts seem to agree that people who live gluten free lose weight for the same two reasons that everyone else — we consume fewer calories and/or we burn more calories than we take in take in.  We may disagree on whether the gluten free diet helps or hinders our weight control efforts. My personal opinion is that it makes no important difference.  If the gluten free diet is helpful to you, then food that is both low-calorie and gluten free will help you in all your endeavors, including weight control.

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Our current survey about gluten free flour mixes has generated many fascinating comments. Some of you seem to be concerned about gluten free flour mixes and others are concerned about the more general question of choosing the best baking options available. “Too many options” can be confusing!

Six of your comments are added to the first article on gluten free flour mixes and others are posted below. (Sorry, there are some duplicates.)

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Many gluten free flour mixes claim to replace traditional wheat flour in recipes for bread and baked goods. What is our best possible option? This survey will help you decide. The survey lists 18 brands and asks you to state your preferences and to enter comments that will help others make their decision.

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Host your own New Year’s Eve party. Making everything gluten free is the surest way to keep everyone on their gluten free diet. Serve dishes that are delicious by anyone’s standards.

I feel awkward publishing this article during the week before Christmas when all of attention is focused elsewhere, but — let’s face it — well-planned parties are the best parties and it is best to do some thinking ahead of time.

This article suggests that you host your own New Years Eve party so that if will be ‘safe’ for your gluten free friends and a wonderful evening for everyone involve. Here is a collection of appropriate recipes. The article recommends that make things simpler and therefore more relaxed by making everything gluten free. Here is another collection of recipes. The beautiful photos will certainly help you make great choices.

Cookbooks are welcome gifts for people who cook gluten free food. Click on the title of each book to read my thoughts on each book. If you decide to order the book for Amazon (dot com), click the graphic on the review page or the click on the book cover pictured below. The books I am recommending are

♦ The Gluten Free Cookbook for Kids and Busy Adults

♦ Wheat-Free Gluten-Free Dessert Cookbook,

Tiramisu is a traditionally popular Italian dessert. Here is Betty Crocker’s recipe, which can be served as a parfait, as cupcakes, as tiramisu bars, or in the familiar cakes using lady fingers as a base.

Gluten free lady fingers are available from Dr Schar or from the Gluten Free Pantry. They are probably avail where you purchase gluten free cookies.

This recipe includes both the tiramisu itself and the lady fingers you’ll need.

I’ve posted at least seven articles about gluten free desserts. You can find them by scrolling down to the bottom of the article and click on the tag (it’s probably red) that says ‘gluten free recipes’. Your computer will create a special page containing excerpts from each of the articles. Click on the excerpt to read the entire article. Topics cover biscotti, cheesecake, baklava, tiramisu, brandy balls, rum balls, fruitcake, and eggnog.

In all the recipes that I examined, most suggest using alcoholic beverages of some sort but specify that this is optional. Also, all the recipes require flour but I see no reason why gluten free flour mixes could not be used.

Here are three more recipes for gluten free fruit cake. In all three of these, the writers slip in comments to the effect that fruit cake baked at home is superior to anything purchased commercially. I hope they are right! Since the three titles almost exactly the same, I will simply suggest that you click here and/or here.

My last suggestion is not a recipe but a musical tribute to the the fruit cake. Enjoy “Grandma’s Killer Fruit Cake”

There are two different approaches preparing gluten free pies for the holiday season of any other occasion:

We can “go crustless”. There is no law that states that every pie must have a crust. This article is a general introduction to the subject and includes three recipes. Here are You-Tube demonstrations of crustless sweet potato pie and crustless pecan pie.

We can make a traditional pie. (This may be a practical necessity if you do not wish to call attention to the fact that your pie is gluten free.) This You-Tube demonstration of how to prepare the crust is excellent because it is photographed very well and explained very thoroughly. It’s great for relatively inexperienced bakers like myself. Here is another demonstration of preparing a crust using a food processor.

This link will take you to You-Tube demonstration on making a pumpkin pie filling.

These websites provide recipes for apple pie filling, and pumpkin pie filling. Both articles tell you to use all-purpose flour. Keep in mind that — in this situation —the flour is a thickening agent and not a pie crust ingredient. Gluten free all-purpose flour is OK and there are other thickening agents available to you. I will probably try corn starch.

I’ve posted at least seven articles about gluten free desserts. You can find them by scrolling down to the bottom of the article and click on the tag (it’s probably red) that says ‘gluten free recipes’. Your computer will create a special page containing excerpts from each of the articles. Click on the excerpt to read the entire article. Topics cover biscotti, cheesecake, baklava, tiramisu, brandy balls, rum balls, fruitcake, and eggnog.

Gluten free cheesecake is easy to prepare. Your biggest problem may be choosing among the hundreds of recipes that appear on-line.

Try this recipe for cheesecake with cherry topping or this Betty Crocker recipe for chocolate chip cookie cheesecake. You’ll find at least a dozen more if you do a web search using the terms “gluten free” “cheesecake”.

I can’t wait to try this recipe for “Five Minute Cheese Cake“. The writer suggests that we top the cheesecake with fresh fruit or homemade jam. The author describes this as “every day cheesecake”. Wow!!! Can I really enjoy this treat every day?

Here is a video demonstration of how to prepare gluten free pumpkin cheesecake. The narrator looks like she would prefer to be doing almost anything else, but she knows how to make great cheesecake! One detail that I really appreciate was that she uses the gluten free Chex cereal to prepare the crust.

Clara learned to cook during the great depression, learned the art of cooking while living in a home without electricity, and was in her 90′s when she wrote down her recipes and made a series of video demonstrations of her cooking. Obviously, cooking during the depression was ‘cooking on a budget’. Clara did not set out to write a book of ‘safe’ recipes and prepare a series of ‘gluten free food’ videos. She prepared these meals because they were inexpensive.

A CAUTION: I would not normally recommend a cook book that contained some gluten toxic-recipes. But there are many ‘safe’ recipes in the book and videos, and we all need to be reminded that people like Clara really existed and met the challenges of the depression with strength and good humor. Click on the graphic at the top of this article if this book intrigues you.

Many of Clara’s videos are posted on You-Tube. Go to You-Tube (dot com) and search using the term “gluten free depression.) Three of the videos that I particularly enjoyed were eggplant parmesan, baked apples, and and a ‘poor man’s feast‘ that actually included very-thinly-sliced steak.

This is a wonderfully useful cookbook. Connie Sarros writes clearly and simply without ‘talking down’ to expert cooks or overwhelming people with less experience. Her recipes include a “complete nutritional breakdown” so that it is appropriate for cooks who must prepare gluten free meals but who intend to serve meals that are healthy in all respects.

I was impressed by her chapters on low-calorie gluten free desserts, ice cream desserts (gluten free of course), and puddings. This book has something for everyone, even those who can’t or won’t bake or consume gluten free foods.

This my fourth opportunity to salute Connie Sarros and her works. Her dvd called “All You Wanted to Know about Gluten Free Cooking” shows her awesome talents as a public speaker as well as a gluten free cooking expert. Click here to read my review. I learned from this video that she is not a diagnosed celiac and voluntarily lives gluten free. She got involved with gluten free cooking after her father was diagnosed. Her love for gluten free cooking really shines through in this video.

I’ve also reviewed her books “Gluten Free Cooking for Dummies“, which she co-authored with Dana Korn, and “The Wheat-Free Gluten-Free Reduced Calorie Cookbook”

The dvd and all three books may be purchased at the author’s website. The books are also available at Amazon (dot com) in both regular and kindle editions. Click here if you are interested in ordering from this source.

The speaker’s enthusiasm, competence, and passion for gluten free cooking comes through loud and clear in this video-dvd “All You Wanted to Know About Gluten Free Cooking” presented by Connie Sarros. Ms. Sarros is not celiac or gluten intolerant. She got into gluten free cooking to assist her father when he was diagnosed with celiac disease at age 70 and became so enthusiastic about the topic that she went on to became one of America’s best-know experts in this field.

In this video, she seems to be talking to an audience of enthusiastic and competent cooks who wish to transfer their skills into the world of gluten free cooking. She encourages experimentation, gives suggestions that increases chances for success, and states that gluten free cookbooks (including her own) are simply “cookbooks in which all the mistakes have already been made for you”.

Connie Sarros has a message for all us — embrace your gluten free lifestyle, learn from your mistakes, strive for excellence in your gluten free cooking but do not fear errors or imperfections! The dvd can be ordered from the speaker’s website.

When reviewing a gluten free cookbook, I look for two things. Are the directions well-written? If the instructions are clear and complete, I can cook just about anything. But I can’t improvise! Yes, I can use this cookbook.

The most important question is this — am I motivated to use this book? Again, the answer is ‘yes’. I like the tremendous variety. This book contains recipes for everything from corn muffins to an Algerian fruit bowl to lobster newburg. I appreciate the line-drawings which were obviously the work of a food-lover rather than a photography who has the skills to make almost anything look delicious. The first two chapters are a great introduction and/or review to the art of gluten free cooking.

The back cover states that this book is “not a weight loss cookbook…(it is) a life-maintenance book…your ticket to better living and better eating”. I agree, but I should point out that each recipe contains a calorie count, a carbohydrate count, exact data about sodium, fiber, and sugar and all the other numbers that anyone could need to control his or her diet.

Ice cream is naturally gluten free (even cookie dough ice cream if you do it right). Here’s a recipe for maple roasted ice cream that your family should love. It is non-dairy as well as gluten free. This recipe comes from a blog called “gluten free cooking for a busy mom“. We’re all busy, so this recipe should have appeal.

The method for turning any gluten free ice cream into gluten free cookie ice cream is very simple. Just crumble up a few gluten free cookies and add them to the mixture.

Try making gluten free ice cream sandwiches. Most ice cream is naturally gluten free, so some writers concentrate on making the sandwich. This recipe uses gluten free rice krispies for that purpose. This article explains how to make the cookies as well as how to insert the ice cream between them.

Here are suggestions for a gluten free Independence Day celebration dinner:

red, white, and blue potato salad

red, white, and blue pasta salad

red, white, and blue parfait

None of these recipes are specifically gluten free, but the substitutions will be easy and obvious.

Since ‘My Plate’ was announced less than 48 hours ago, reactions are tentative and vague. Most of the comments I read suggest that this is not a new diet but rather improved teaching tool. And everyone agrees that a new teaching tool was desperately needed — American’s were simply not getting the message. The newly-announced diet says a great deal about the importance of whole grains, but does not require (or even suggest) that wheat must be the grain-of-choice. Perhaps it is significant that the White House chef chose demonstrate this new approach to dieting by preparing a meal using whole grain brown rice.

I’ll be writing much more about ‘My Plate’ in the very near future. I have successfully followed the gluten free diet for a decade. Now I need a diet and a lifestyle that is both gluten free and healthy in all other respects.

I used the gluten free pizza crust from French Meadow Bakery for my first experiment in making pizza from a professionally made pizza crust and my own toppings. I chose this package because each crust came in a single-use metallic pan used in many restaurants to make sure that gluten free pizzas do not come into contact with other grain products in the pizza oven. There are no cross-contamination issues in my kitchen, of course, but that pan certainly made it easier to clean up after I had finished my project.

My pizza project was a success! The pie tasted thousands of times better than any of the frozen pizzas I have tried in the past and cost about half as much. Adding my own toppings took only a few minutes. The crust was firm enough to support the toppings without being difficult to chew. The taste was was subtle but effective. From now on, when I need a convenience-pizza, I will use a pre-made crust.

Here are three video baking demonstrations involving gluten free peanut butter cookies.

♦ The first recipe is flourless. That’s a key technique in gluten free cooking. Using no flour helps people resist the temptation to compare your creation to something made with wheat flour.

♦ The next demonstration is both gluten free and casein free.

♦ Finally, enjoy low-carb gluten free cookies prepared with coconut flour.

This is the first part of a series that I am calling  THE GLUTEN FREE COOKING SCHOOL which I will be publishing every Friday. YouTube and similar sites are great for learning skills like cooking. The demonstrators are usually well-prepared, enthusiastic about their craft, and their recordings are well done and very clear. (Well, they are not all that way. I won’t use the ineffective ones on my site.)

Merry Christmas. You’ll be pleased to know that my elves (my son and I actually) have corrected the problem that resulted in some of you receiving this site in a font that was so small that it was barely readable, By the way, if the font is still too small let me know at gfceliac@gmail.com and I’ll do what I can.

Yesterday, I watched an interview with the author of a newly-released gluten free cookbook. I’m glad whenever I see gluten free cooking receiving nation-wide attention and I love this author’s concept. Her mission is to take run-in-the-mill cake mixes and add other ingredients to transform them into taste treats. Her newest book is called “The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten Free”. It was released last week so you may not find it today, but you can order it from Amazon by using the icon below.

Festive pies are the traditional climax of most holiday meals. In the last episode, we talked about crustless pies. Today I present three video demonstrations. The first video deals with preparing a gluten pie crust that can be filled with any gluten free filling.

As you probably know, many YouTube videos are “sponsored” which is a high-tech way of saying that fhe people who made the video hope you will use a specific brand of gluten free flour, gluten free cracker crumbs, etcetera. Be aware that there is no actually requirement that you do so.

Our next video demonstration gives directions for preparing gluten free lemon mirangue pie. Once again, it is a “sponsored video”

Our final demonstration features a pumpkin pie that is both gluten free and soy free.

All the Thanksgiving-related information I have available is summarized here.

The terms “gluten free dressing” and “gluten free stuffing” are generally used interchangeably but to me there is an important difference: “stuffing” is stuffed into the turkey and “dressing” is cooked outside the bird. This makes it easier to feed a group that includes both celiacs and wheat-eaters. A turkey stuffed with gluten-toxic substances is no longer gluten free.

“Safe” stuffing is easy to prepare. Just select a favorite stuffing recipe and “simply make substitutions for the wheat-based bread”. Our first demonstration for today provides more details. Gluten free bread cubes are easy to find. We are used to seeing gluten bread that is “past its prime” but can be cut into the cubes needed for the dressing. Gluten free bread cubes are available in stores. Click here to purchase your cubes from The Gluten Free Pantry.

In the first three parts of this series, I have talked about roasting the turkey, as well as the gravy that is traditionally made from the juices from the bird, and the stuffing that is so important to the holiday feast.

Tomorrow, I’ll report on my favorite Thanksgiving dinner side dishes, both of which include the wonderful taste of pecans, The last “episode” will deal with the always-popular holiday pies.

To view the full series of cooking demonstrations, scroll down to the end of this article (past the ads) and click on the red tag saying “holiday dinner”. All the Thanksgiving-related information offered at this site is summarized in my power page “Gluten Free Thanksgiving”.

Cooking a Thanksgiving dinner that provides gluten free options can be a challenging task, particularly for a cook who has little experience with a “mixed group” — one with both wheat-eaters and people who live gluten free. The challenge is even worse for the person who has little cooking experience of any sort.

I’ll be using You Tube videos to help you meet this challenge comfortably and competently. Some You Tube demonstrations are excellent — the recipes have been carefully selected and the presentations have been planned with equal care. (Let’s face it, some of the demonstrators and their videos are absolutely worthless, but I will not be referring you to them). Today, I invite you to relax and enjoy two demonstrations on how to roast and carve your holiday turkey.

This is the first in a series of articles. Today I invite you to relax and enjoy two demonstrations that teach you how to roast and carve a turkey. Keep in mind that your turkey is naturally gluten free unless it has been injected with gluten toxic material to make it self-basting, more moist, or simply more expensive. Check into this carefully when you are shopping.

In the next session, we will talk more about preparing gluten free gravy. Click here for a summary of all the Thanksgiving-related information that is available at this site.

Gluten free pasta belongs on every celiac’s dinner table. It costs roughly the same as wheat pasta, tastes “normal” enough to be totally acceptable in any situation, and popular enough to be available in mainstream stores.

There are some differences in cooking methods. We can’t expect pasta made from other grains to behave like those made from wheat. Here is an article about basic cooking methods. Check out this information from e-How dot com.

Most gluten free pastas are made from corn and rice. The most popular brands are Tinkyada, DeBoles, Glutino, Orgran, Mrs. Leeper’s, and Dr. Schar. If you can’t find them locally, they are available on-line at The Gluten Free Pantry.

Gluten free pasta recipes are similar to the ones designed for their wheat-based cousins. Have a look at this collection from gluten free mommy dot com, or this set of recipes from group recipes dot com.

Olive Nation is a gourmet (or at least very up-scale) cooking site. The term “Olive Nation” refers to Italy, home of heavenly cooking and wonderful pasta. This site features pasta from Dr, Schar, one of the most respected names in the gluten free world. Click here to browse their recipe collection and/or to purchase Dr. Schar pasta from them, click on the graphic below.

I can’t wait to try gluten free bisquick if for no other reason than to thank General Mills for one of the first major companies to acknowledge the importance of the gluten free community.

I wrote about gluten free bisquick last month. I was pleased that recipes using the new mix were becoming available and that the company acknowledged that — because we’d be using rice flour rather than wheat flour — that the new and standard versions of bisquick were not interchangeable.

But where is the product? I’m still waiting. From looking at our store shelves, you would suspect that General Mills regarded Portland, Oregon, as a poor market for gluten free products. I suspect that mostost of the nation seems to feel the same way at this moment.

I recently discovered two bloggers who have not only found gluten free bisquick, but have used it and written about their experience. Click here to read what The Gluten Free Mom reported on her blog. This link will take you to the blog Food, Living, and Everything Else. I hope I’ll be able to write about gluten free bisquick soon.

Published 8/13/10

General Mills is already posting recipes using its new gluten free bisquick mix. It’s a great site, and even explains the recipe modifications necessary when baking with the new rice-based mix.

The site’s banner says “coming summer 2010 to a grocery store near you” but that is all the specific information we get. Gluten free bisquick was introduced in May at a pancake breakfast for participants in the Celiac Disease Foundation’s annual conference. In the video below, the General Mills representative says the new product will probably be available in August or September.