Sunday, June 16, 2008


Today I planned to make gluten-free crab cakes for Father's Day. Since I had the ingredients, and wanted to get some Insulin Resistance fighting foods in my diet, I also made Buckwheat Pancakes for breakfast. Now mind you...I am more of a waffle fan than a pancake fan, especially homemade pancakes (never liked the taste), but I was VERY happy with my GF version!


Buckwheat Pancakes (modified from Gluten Free: Quick & Easy)

Yields: 12 - 16 pancakes (doubled the original recipe)

• 1.5 Cups Buckwheat Farinetta flour (highest in d-Chiro Inositol)
• 1/2 Cup Rolled Oats
• 4 Tbsp Smart Balance LIGHT (non-dairy)
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1 tsp of Sonoma Syrup "Crush" Vanilla Bean Extract
• 1.5 Cups Rice Dream Enriched Milk (unsweetened), add more if needed
• 2 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice
• 2.5 Tbsp Xylitol
• 3/4 tsp SweetLeaf Stevia Plus

Lemon Poppyseed Buckwheat Pancakes

Same batter as above, Yields: 4 small pancakes

• Two scoops of batter
• 1/2 tsp of poppyseeds
• 1 Whole Lemon, juice only

This was maybe my...2nd or 3rd attempt at making homemade pancakes...in my lifetime. I added in some natural sweeteners because I didn't have any syrup, nor any fresh fruits that I could use so I needed the batter to be very mildly sweet. It really doesn't take long once the pan is hot (Low-Medium heat). I actually didn't use any oil in the pan just added a scoop of batter waited 90 seconds, flipped and waited another 90 secs before removing from the pan. They turned out warm, fluffy, and quite tasty. Note: The lemon poppyseed could have used more lemon flavor.

Serving Suggestions:

Hot Applesauce (unsweetened), fresh berries or other fruits on top. For Dad, I cut up some bananas, sprinkled with some xylitol crystals (should have used powdered xylitol) and put some maple syrup on the side.

Lemon Poppyseed pancakes - Sprinkle with "powdered sugar". This can be Inulin (Fibersure), powdered Xylitol, powdered Erythritol, etc. To make real powdered sugar you would use Maltodextrin or Cornstarch and your sweetener of choice.



Crab Cakes (modified from Gluten Free: Quick & Easy)
Yields: 16 crab cakes, 3.5 - 4 oz each (Tripled most of the recipe)

Crab Cakes:

• 6 Tbsp Kraft Real Mayo (non-dairy, no fructose)
• 3 Tbsp minced Green Onion
• 3 Tbsp dried Parsley
• 3 Tbsp French's Mustard
• 3 Large Eggs
• 3 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
• 2 Tbsp Old Bay Seasoning
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1.5 tsp Celery Seed
• 3/4 tsp Salt
• ½ tsp Cayenne
• 1.5 C Large-sized crab meat
• 1 Cup GF Bread Crumbs (i.e. Orgran All Purpose Rice Crumbs)

Crab & Shrimp:

• Half of the above mixture
• 1/2 Cup Crab meat
• 1 Cup Shrimp, chopped
• 1 Cup GF Bread Crumbs

Heat the oven to 300 degrees F to keep the cakes warm once fried...or you could bake them. Mix all ingredients together except for the meat and crumbs. Add half of your meat and half bread crumbs, mix, then add the rest of the meat and crumbs. Form palm-sized patties with your hands. Fry the cakes for 3 min on one side and 3 min on the other side (Medium Heat, Olive oil). Place in oven to keep warm.

Crab was freshly cooked and shelled. Shrimp was frozen, shelled & precooked, so we thawed to use in this recipe. Everything was cooked and complete within 2 hours. We had the crab cakes with Spinach, carrot, cucumber & grape tomato salad. On my salad, I used Newman's Own Light Balsamic dressing, but you could also use (Red Wine) Vinegar & Oil or some other fantastic homemade dressing of choice.

For this being a first for me, I was very pleased with the results. I've never had crab cakes (went GF before this became a favorite for Dad). They were very yummy, my personal favorite were the Crab & Shrimp cakes. We had enough for the next day, so I would suggest heating in the oven to maintain crispness. Note: Sodium content was high enough from the seafood, Old Bay and Mayo. Will remove salt from recipe and will use less celery seed and mayo next round.


So these are my adventures. I'll pay more attention in the future to get more exact measurements.

Next Time: Gluten-Free Pizza!

June 22, 2008


OK, sorry for the delay, but on to Gluten Free Pizza!

I'm unfortunately sensitive to certain ingredients so I can't just buy a ready made frozen gluten free and vegan pizza because....it will usually have a type of sugar that I can't consume. Soooo...I decided to make my own...well partially.

I hopped on the Internet and discovered that there's a gluten-free pizza base that I can add whatever toppings I'd like on it! Awesome, so I ordered the frozen pizza and it showed up on my doorstep the next day! The requirements for use of this pizza crust base by Still Riding Pizza is to top it while frozen and put on a pizza pan with holes when cooking, otherwise it's entirely up to you...

Yields: 8 slices

Pepperoni, Tomato & Basil Pizza

• 1 Still Riding Pizza Crust, frozen
• 4 oz Hunt's 100% Natural/Organic Garlic, Basil & Tomato Sauce
• Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella, or Monterey Jack (or cheese of choice)
• Pepperoni Slices
• Fresh Basil Leaves, whole or chopped
• Fresh Tomatos (Roma or Grape), sliced or chopped
• Wild Tree Grapeseed Garlic Oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Take out frozen pizza and place on holed pan. Cover w/ a thin layer of garlic oil (use a silicon brush), followed by a layer of tomato sauce. Top w/ tomato, basil and pepperoni and then cover (sparingly or completely) w/ cheese.

I choose to make my pizza half w/ Monterey cheese (sparingly) and half w/o cheese. I let the pizza cook 15 minutes and removed from oven. Sliced and noticed that the crust could cook more and that I like the piece w/ cheese best. So I topped the other half with cheese and put the whole thing in the oven for 10 more minutes.

The directions for cooking leave it up to you for how long you want to cook it. I would suggest 15 - 25 minutes depeding on how thick you want the crust to be. The cheese takes a long time to melt in the oven (not in the microwave though), but it bubbles, melts and leaves a lovely white & brown look to it depending on how long it's in the oven.

The end result? The crust was soft, yet crisp and med. thin. The taste kinda reminded me of the homemade pizza box kits you would buy from the store. Only, I sucked at making those so, this was a nice treat w/o the fuss. The Hunts sauce to me was a bit too salty (and I like salt) but my parents didn't complain! They both thought it was good and helped me finish it off (I had 4 slices over 2 days).

I really did like it and and ordered another box to arrive on Monday. This time I will probably buy plain tomato sauce w/ a lower sodium content and will try something with mushrooms and perhaps (turkey) sausage. Or maybe I will try layering it w/a white sauce or pesto sauce....mmm


Still Riding Pizza http://www.stillridingpizza.com/

Dad's Gluten Free Pizza - Vegan (must try) http://www.glutenfreepizza.com/info.htm


As for the vegan cheese, if interested in more flavors or brands try reading this thread: http://www.acne.org/messageboard/It-is-del...it-t203467.html

If interested in finding a local gluten free pizza near you try: http://www.glutenfreeceliacweb.com/restaur...e-to-pizzerias/

Yes, one day will dabble again w/ actually making my own GF crust. For those that can't wait, here's some recipes: http://glutenguide.blogspot.com/2007/04/gl...free-pizza.html (please share your thoughts)


Next Time: Gluten Free Pastas

Gluten-free rolls made out of Tapioca flour from Simply Deliciouso, a Latin-American cooking show on the Food Network. They looked really good on TV, light and fluffy. Most things without gluten are kind of dense and heavy. This recipe contains cheese.

Cauliflower pizza crust and bread sticks

There are other gluten free recipes on the above site. Look at the list of posts in the right column.

you can make buckwheat gluten free o.O?
I always put it down when I see anything spell with wheat

I just bought stevia extract for baking bread yesterday
( the french bread is in the oven baking as Im typing haha )
From what i read..it doesnt contain any sugar and is super sweet ( I tried 1 drop of it and almost died cause it's super sweet and the taste last quite a while..with a little bitterness mixed with it tho..but it tastes acceptable to me )
http://www.recipezaar.com/180306

** im going to make pasta today too
bought a noodle machine from amazon and never got a chance to use it...cause I forgot to get xanthan gum for my GF flour
but it's going to work this time!

What kind of bread are you making that you would add stevia? Usually there's only a tine amount of sugar in a bread recipe and that's to feed the yeast. And the yeast really doesn't need it. It's probably to speed things up, which we don't want.

I AM A DIABETIC, YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT TRACK, FOLLOWING THIS DIET WILL CHANGE THE SKIN REMARKABLY.

niceeeeee im going to give this recipe a try when ever i can


I am not allergic to gluten though.