Glugan

Gluten-free vegan, or, as I like to refer to it, glugan. For the month of Januaray, you can all affectionately refer to me as glugan, for that is what I am. I have been wanting to cut gluten out of my diet for a while, since doing some research and thinking that it could have something to do with health issues I have been dealing with. I decided to take the opportunity to try it for the first month of the new year. It has been more difficult that I originally intended, and I have accidentaly slipped up a coulple of times. But, all around I feel better, and much lighter. I also have fewer stomach aches and digestion problems. I might carry on with it past Janurary, to see what else happens. Here are a few meals that I have enjoyed so far. As you can tell, I'm still in baking mode.

Baking can be pretty frustrating when you are omitting not only binders like eggs, and fats like butter, but also gluten which offers structure and balance to your baked goods. But, having gained some impecable vegan skillz over the last year and a half, I have found ways to handle the seemingly unavoidable disaster that would ensue from these missing links. Lucky for me, my favorite baked good- cornbread- is just as good without any of these things.

I made the Mole Skillet Pie from V-con, using brown rice flour for wheat flour, and blue cornmeal. It looks a little dry on top, but the mole sauce, and all the sour cream you will put on top moistens it right up.
Shown with yummy fried plantains in the background, and Joanna's homemade sour cream. Yummm!

Next, I tried attempting my second favorite baked treat-sweet bread. I made zucchini banana bread, following the banana bread recipe from Gluten Free Goddess. I used Arrowhead Mills All-purpose GF mix, and subbed much of the oil for applesauce. I also didn't have any xanathan, and used cornstarch instead of arrowroot, and raisins for chocolate chips. The result was, well...
..a bit of a crumble mess, but still edible and pretty fantastic with dabs of whipped earth balance. I ate my pieces with sweet tangerines from the farmers market, and a fork to make it easier to get from the plate to my mouth.

We were jonesin' for pizza during the week, and I had a bag of Pamela's GF Bread mix in the pantry. I was going to make a loaf of a bread for sammiches, but decided against it when I saw how simple the pizza crust recipe looked. It made enough for two crusts, but I decided to take one half and turn it into a foccacia.

Patted the dough out, poked around with my fingers, and sprinkled on some olive oil, garlic, salt, and dried herbs before baking.

The pizza, spread with pesto and tomato sauce, topped with sun-dried tomatoes and ricotta from V-con.

Both were so fantastic. We couldn't keep our hands off the focaccia while waiting for the pizzas to bake. I will definately be using Pamela's mix again, even if I go back to eating gluten. (*Disclaimer: the mix does contain honey.)