Homemade Gluten-Free Eggos

We here at Food Allergies on Ice have a disagreement.  Yes, it’s true.  That conundrum that sweeps the nation has not overlooked even small-time bloggers.  In my professional development venues, I’ve heard rumblings about the divisive nature of this very serious issue.

Waffles (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pancakes or Waffles?

Belle loves her pancakes.  She has learned how to appease the Pancake Gods, she has written about the glories of stocking your freezer with pancakes, and she has even graciously given to us her treasured Pancake Recipe.  She swears by pancakes.

I like waffles.  They are easy to mix up, give me a chance to multitask and freeze well.  I make my waffles 4 at a time. Infinitely practical! I can turn them into ice cream cones, make them into “faffles” (waffle sandwich), cook the sweetness into them cut into sticks and have snacks for my toddler. Cooks up easier than pancakes on a busy morning. 4 cups of batter has me working on waffles for maybe 20 minutes. 4 cups of pancake batter has me tied to the stove-top for an hour.

My recipe for waffles is simple.  Unfortunately, it is not egg free.  In fact, I put extra eggs in for extra protein staying power for my kids.  Perhaps this is the dividing line between my sister and I…

Gluten-Free Waffles

• 4 eggs (beaten)
• 1/4 cup oil
• 3/4 cup water, milk, or juice (be sure to reduce sugar, if you use juice)
• 2 cups gluten-free flour (or use my Happy Accident Discovery
  )
• 1 T sugar
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 t salt

1. Preheat waffle iron – cold irons are messy and don’t cook waffles!
2. In small mixing bowl, mix wet ingredients
3. Add dry ingredients and stir until fully mixed
4. Pour batter on to a hot waffle iron.  I use about 1/2 cup of batter for a 4-waffle iron.
5. Cook for about 3 minutes.
   (Know your iron!  Some irons don’t get as hot as others.  This recipe is pretty forgiving and it takes walking away and actually forgetting about the waffles entirely to burn them. Not that I’ve done that or anything…)
6. Serve with your favorite toppings!

Which do you prefer? Pancakes or waffles?  Do you have a favorite topping or a unique way to use waffles?  Let us know!

Squash-Tastic

This lovely blossom will be a yummy squash in a couple weeks!

It’s that time of year again when the garden is yielding up more squash than you can shake a stick at. Squash is pretty easy to grow, and produces a lot of food, so it’s a good crop for the novice gardener.  Last year, I was given nearly 50 yellow squash starts for my garden, and as a result, I had an abundance of yellow squash for much of last summer. By the end of summer, I had mastered the art of hiding squash in a number of creative recipes.

• Sliced thin, lightly salted, and dehydrated into squash chips (a tasty low-carb snack!)
• Dredged in a mixture of flour, salt and herbs and fried
• Sautéed in oil with tomatoes, white beans, caramelized onions, garlic, bell pepper, etc.
• Steamed with broccoli and lightly seasoned with herbs for a side dish with grilled chicken
• Boiled with potatoes and cauliflower and mashed into “mashed potatoes”
• Roasted with potatoes, carrots and bell pepper
• Lightly brushed with olive oil and grilled
• Julienned into a squash/carrot/radish coleslaw-like salad
• Chopped into lettuce salad
• Shredded and in baked into muffins and pancakes
• Added to soup
• Mashed and added to spaghetti sauce
• Lacto-fermented (aka pickled) in brine
• Peeled into thin strips as a low-carb, grain-free pasta substitute
• Shredded and mixed into meatloaf and chicken patties

I think the only thing I didn’t do is stuff them, and that was only because I didn’t let them get that big. I also sliced and shredded a bunch for the freezer so we could enjoy squash all year long.

This year’s garden has less squash, but overflows with broccoli instead. I’m sad to say that it is not proving to be nearly as versatile.  I’d be happy to hear your suggestions for using up broccoli or squash in the comments!

Summer Vacation

Food Allergies on Ice is taking a brief summer vacation while Becki’s family is traveling. Traveling while accommodating complicated food allergies is always a challenge, but I’ve figured out a few things that make life easier. Zippie bags take up far less room in a cooler than plastic containers, for example. Don’t forget to bring a sharp knife with your picnic supplies – there’s always something that needs cutting. Oh, and keep baby wipes on hand at all times. Even if you don’t have a baby in diapers – it’s still a good idea.

Here is the menu for while we’re away:

Breakfasts: *Pancakes and maple syrup or sunbutter, crispy cereal with hemp milk, *muffins, *yogurt with jelly, *sausage

Lunches: Sunbutter and jelly *sandwiches with carrots and celery, turkey *lunchmeat roll-ups and avocado, tuna salad with pickle, turkey *hot dogs and potato chips

Dinners: *pizza with salad, *baked chicken with *mashed potatoes, *chicken nuggets with broccoli

Snacks: Homemade trail mix, potato chips and salsa, *orange-cinnamon bread, *muffins, rice cakes, hummus and crackers, “squeezy” applesauce, whole fruit

* Items marked with an asterisk were packed frozen

Yes, I’m traveling with small children, as you can see by my menu choices. Yes, we’re eating far too many potato chips instead of all those nice fruits and veggies I mentioned. But here’s the point: Most of this food I was able to make ahead of time and freeze. Everything got flash frozen and packed into resealable bags so I could layer the food into a cooler. This way I was able to pack enough food in our undersized cooler for 4 to 5 days. We tend to stay in the sort of hotel where we can get a refrigerator and microwave in the room, and reheating the food isn’t difficult.

Here are some other meal ideas we’ve used in the past:

Pasta with *Red Sauce (rice and pasta can be cooked in a microwave just fine)

*Soups (freezes well as long as there is no rice, pasta or potato in the soup)

*Curried Lentils/Dahl

*Chicken Stir-fry

*Meatballs

*Chicken Patties

Your turn – what are your favorite meals for on the road?