Best products from r/glutenfreecooking

I usually pre portion out all my "campus food" on Sundays so I can have it ready to go in the mornings to stay on campus all day. So, basically, tupperware. This might be way too much information...

I start my day with a shake from a powder, almond milk, and water. If I've worked out, I use this. I get the vanilla one, which I think tastes great and it's GF, SF, DF. If I don't work out I use something with soy in it that's lower cal. The shakes keep me full for about two hours.

Mid morning snack: I buy the ground turkey in tubes and make my own turkey sausage using this recipe minus the marjoram because I don't know what that is... I double the recipe and freeze most of it so I have enough for awhile.

If that seems like too much work, (it's a lot of work but hot damn, so worth it, I promise) You can just do bacon in the oven and portion it out and freeze it. Or you could hard boil eggs and portion those out too.

I do a big batch of frozen mixed veggies that I cook stove-top with some olive oil and Tony's. Gotta get those veggies in! I portion those out in baggies and freeze some.

I eat a lot of deli meat, which you can roll up and eat by itself or cut up and eat over salad.

I portion out my carrots in advance and put some store bought hummus into the tiny little tupperware. If you don't like hummus you could do salsa or peanut butter.

I personally don't eat beans. But if you do, black beans are your friend! You can flavor them with a taco seasoning packet and put them on corn tortillas with veggies. Minimal effort and delicious.

I don't eat a lot of carbs, but if you do, don't forget about rice, baked potatoes, and sweet potatoes. All are easily portable and pretty damn good. I know there are good GF breads, but all the ones I've tried have been extremely unsatisfying, so I tend to stay away from those products and try to eat less processed stuff.

I usually eat a GF protein bar too. But I guess a lot of those have soy. These are great. They're in the cereal isle for me. Lately I've been eating Quest bars like crazy.

I also end up throwing a banana and an apple in my bag too. I try to eat every two hours, so this way I have 100-200 calories every two hours. I can easily bring enough food for me to comfortably stay on campus for 12 hours.

Almost forgot! My lazy AF lunch: A packet of Starkist tuna and an avacado. Just gotta run a knife around the avacado and baggie it before you leave the house. (Slice but don't pull it apart so it won't brown) Just bring a tupperware, mash the avacado with the tuna until it looks like one nasty blob of grey, and it's honestly really really good. Tons of protein to keep you satiated. Salt and pepper makes it even better. Throw it on a corn tortilla, eat with tortilla chips, or just with a fork.

Ok, in case you're really worked up about this, take a deep breath and relax. I come from a bread-baking, really good home-cook-and-baker line. I grieved a little for the beautiful raised breads. Then I followed the advice and recipes of a lovely group that has some tried and true recipes. I kind of cut my GF baking teeth on these. Try some of the Art of GlutenFree Baking's recipes Bette Hagman's Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread also helped me a lot with the raised baked goods. That book talks about the properties of various GF flours and offers up bulk recipes for mixing flours (as do many of the GF cooking blogs/sites) for different types of baking.
For non-raised baking, I've had great success with straight substitutions with GlutenFree Mama's blends. There are probably some other blends that work great too. I'm going to try Dakota Prairie's all purpose GF blend for the Holidays. They mill their fours quite finely which is helpful with GF. I always chill cookie dough before rolling it out or dropping it a lá chocolate chip cookies. good luck!

I'm in the exact same situation, about a year and a half removed. For a while I put up with a diet lacking baked goods, but eventually I decided enough was enough and bought this: https://www.amazon.com/Gluten-Free-Baking-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/1598696130


That book is amazing, and costs $4 after shipping for a used copy on Amazon. I use it all the time and it was well worth the cost. Additional advice:


Aldi, the grocery chain, has lots of gluten-free items. In particular, their pasta is pretty good, and more important is the cheapest we've found thus far ($1.25/lb).


If you do get the above book and make the flour blends (not as hard as it sounds), try to get the rice flour and tapioca starch from an Asian grocer or even a Woodman's with a good international aisle - since those make up the bulk of the flour blends, it brings the cost down to the point where you never have to worry about messing up a recipe.

I buy the box sugar cookie mix and then add some creme of tarter and roll them in the cinnamon sugar mix. I had good luck with the Betty Crocker mix (and those are pretty easy to find) as well as Cherrybrook. So basically, I cheat and only bake sort of from scratch. All the recipes I've tried from this book turn out really delicious (even non gf friends like them): http://smile.amazon.com/Cake-Mix-Doctor-Bakes-Gluten-Free-ebook/dp/B00556DU1A It has cakes and cookies. Seriously, best stuff and easy.

Okay, so I'm reporting back. No picture because I'm lazy. But I have general success to report. I made the g/f angel food cake, following it exactly EXCEPT for two variations:

1. I used Bravetart's caramelized granulated sugar from a recent post on SE. I "toasted" 4 lbs of granulated sugar at 300 F for about 3 hours during the week, and it got a nice ivory with a bit more gold toward the pan's edges. I used this sugar in the recipe.
   
   
2. I did use tapioca and corn starch at the recommended weights, but did not use white rice and coconut flour. Rather, I used the same total weight (70 g) of Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 GF flour blend, which is what I use for all my general baking. I like its performance and the price I can get on Amazon Prime
   
   So I followed the recipe, and actually went for a run while it was baking. My sous-chef, a house cat, monitored things. After 45 minutes, it was only about 185 F according to my thermometer, so I left it in the oven for ultimately another 15-18 minutes to reach 206 F. It actually rose over the top of the pan!
   
   I did leave it for 2+ hours to cool, inverted on an empty mezcal bottle, and used a slim spatula to free it. By the time it had cooled, it had shrunk down to about 1/4" above the rim - perfect. Upon removing it, I found that there was a considerable air bubble on one side, but nothing that being a little more careful couldn't have resolved. The flavor is right on.
   
   --
   
   And what did I do with a dozen yolks? Well, I've started curing them in a 50:50 mix by weight of kosher salt and the caramelized granulated sugar. They'll be a week in the dredge, then another 5-7 days hanging. Used as a garnish. Got the recipe from Charcuteria.

I really enjoy the gluten free goddess website http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/ and this book would be great for you to have since her family is gluten free, dairy free and egg free.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Healthy-Gluten-Free-Life-Dairy-Free/dp/1936608715 It is a good book.

First column:
Chicken Piccata http://damndelicious.net/2016/02/26/easy-lemon-chicken-piccata/print/ - Trader Joe's brown rice and quinoa pasta, and Trader Joe's All Purpose gluten free flour

Cheese Plate - Glutino Crackers

Pad Thai - Gluten Free fish sauce https://www.amazon.com/Red-Boat-Premium-Fish-Sauce/dp/B00B617XK2 Recipe: http://rasamalaysia.com/pad-thai/print (sub tamarind for the vinegar and chicken for the shrimp)

Cobb Salad with Homemade Ranch (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/homemade-ranch-dressing/)

Second Column:
Shrimp Fried Rice with Kikkoman Gluten Free Soy Sauce

Tom Kha Soup (super easy week night soup!) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EONW4I/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Vietnamese Spring Rolls (Cha Gio) http://rasamalaysia.com/vietnamese-spring-rolls-cha-gio-recipe/2/

Turkey Meatloaf - sub gluten free panko https://www.amazon.com/Aleias-Gluten-Panko-Crumbs-Original/dp/B008PA9TUE
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/turkey-meatloaf-recipe.html

not dairy free, but easy to make substitutions and it is gluten free. recipes have tasted great.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1941536883/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_DwVqDbSN83K1C

In related news,

This waffle recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/kitchenfraus-gluten-free-waffles-50022946

Plus a good quality waffle maker like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Waring-WMK600-Double-Belgian-Waffle/dp/B0034JU9T6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480450233&sr=8-1&keywords=waring+waffle+maker

Makes waffles good enough that I happily feed them to my non-GF friends and they come back for seconds.

I like to use a coconut Amino garlic sauce- I use this one.

I don't usually use it alone, but it's excellent for building sauces. I also don't eat soy, so this is a great option for that as well as being gluten free.


Edited to fix link

Chebe has fantastic box mixes, imo. I love their focaccia mix, and I grabbed a cinnamon roll box recently. I'm waiting til I have the energy to make it lol https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ACPPXE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_VZH3CbGVEAP3G

Absolute best brand I've ever used is Heartland. I honestly can't tell their spaghetti noodles are gluten free.

Heartland GF Spaghetti - Amazon
Heartland GF Spaghetti - Walmart
Heartland GF Penne - Amazon
Heartland GF Lasagna - Amazon
Heartland GF Lasagna - Walmart
Heartland GF Fusilli - Amazon

America’s Test Kitchen creates some amazing cooks books. Check our the first gluten free one https://www.amazon.com/Gluten-Free-Cookbook-Revolutionary-Groundbreaking-ebook/dp/B00IPPIETG. They also have a second volume for next years gift

The sugar cookie recipe from the How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook is really spot-on! It's not exactly a roll-out cookie but you could ice it in fun ways.

This stuff works great. Just use it like flour.

https://www.amazon.com/King-Arthur-Flour-Gluten-Free-Measure/dp/B01JJ9H1Q8/ref=pd_sbs_325_3/144-2811264-5866866

i cant recommend the The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook by Editors at America's Test Kitchen http://amzn.com/1936493616

they don't have specific high altitude information but there are reviews from a few people saying that the recipes cam out fine with out any alterations. http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-content-search/results/ref=cm_cr_dp_srch?query=altitude&search-alias=community-reviews&idx.asin=1936493616

https://www.amazon.com/King-Arthur-Flour-Gluten-Free-Measure/dp/B01JJ9H1Q8/ref=asc_df_B01JJ9H1Q8/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309769273892&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9090189316145098779&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9061104&hvtargid=pla-570227147705&psc=1

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OH YEAH this stuff is the jam, I find it acts and tastes the closest to real flour, pricier than red mill but so so so much better, doesn't have that gritty/sandy taste most gf flour has

https://smile.amazon.com/Gluten-Free-Cookbook-Revolutionary-Groundbreaking/dp/1936493616

https://smile.amazon.com/How-Can-Gluten-Free-Cookbook/dp/1936493985