Hello lovelies! My name is Meghan, and I write about gluten free living over at
eat.live.make. I love to share gluten free/vegan recipes, tutorials, tips on healthy living and snippets of my life and our adventures. Come on over and say hi! A huge thanks to Emily for letting me pop over to her beautiful blog today and share some of my gluten free kitchen essentials with all of you!
1.
Cuisinart Food Processor- Over the past year, we have been experimenting more and more with raw foods. I am so thankful that we have our food processor to help us in the journey. This guy processes tons of nuts, seeds, berries, vegetables and beans in our kitchen helping make meals faster and healthier.
2. Nesco Square Dehydrator- I was given our dehydrator for a birthday present this year, and I don’t know how I got by without one! When you eat gluten free, affordable and healthy snacks are hard to come by. With our dehydrator, I can stick tons of fun things on the trays and come out with dried fruit, sun dried tomatoes, crackers and cheeses. It helps me have things to carry around with me when I’m on the go or at work. If your into eating raw, this is another great resource to have.
3. Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer- In my opinion, this mixer should be a staple in any kitchen- gluten free or not! When mixing up breads, cookies, granola bars, pastas.. anything this is my go-to appliance. It saves me time in the kitchen because I can throw everything in and let the mixer do the work. And when your done mixing, it’s always fun to lick the bowl:)
4. 4 Slice Toaster- This toaster is an essential item if you live in a household that isn’t completely gluten free! We have one of these that is for “gluten” and one labeled (with permanent marker) gluten free. Never does gluten touch my side of the toaster, and we all know that gluten free bread always has to be toasted before you can eat it! Without the toaster I’d be hard pressed to eat any form of gluten free bread.
5. Trader Joe’s Quinoa- Quinoa is my go-to staple in our kitchen for any meal. It dresses up vegetables, is a great side with salmon, and makes a great cold salad. Packed with complete proteins, and easy to cook, my pantry feels bare without a few boxes of Trader Joe’s Quinoa inside of it.
6. Breville Juicer- If you would have asked me last year what my essentials were, I would have said our vitamix because green smoothies were made every morning on it. We still love our vitamix, but have been making more vegetable juices than smoothies. This is by far the best juicer on the market. I used it for several years while my jaw was wired shut, and it kept vital nutrients in me. I love using the vegetable pulp for broths and crackers made in our dehydrator!
My favorite time in the kitchen is spent cooking up a beautiful and nutritious meal with my husband, David. I love sharing what we make with our friends and family and helping them all understand the importance of what goes into their bodies. I have grown so much as a cook since I was diagnosed with Celiac’s Disease and am excited to be on this journey.
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It’s official, I love pie. I was never a huge fan of pie growing up, mostly because it wasn’t the dessert of choice that my mom made – and well, everywhere else I tried it, I always found it to be extremely sweet. The exception to that is a not too sugary pumpkin pie, which we’ve always had at Thanksgiving. I was looking forward to reviewing the
Gluten Free Pantry Perfect Pie Crust Mix (the last of
my four series review) because I wanted to try to make a pie crust using coconut oil, instead of butter or shortening and I also wanted to make the filling
using only fruit, honey, cinnamon, and a little bit of tapioca flour. I know, major risky business.
Pie crusts are finicky. But guess what? Success. Booya!!
The truth is, I don’t even own pie dishes! I know, right? But that’s okay, I used eight inch cake pans and they turned out amazingly. On the plus side, there was more room to pack them full of fresh berries. Before getting started on making the dough for the crust, I put my coconut oil in the fridge for ten minutes. It just thickened it enough to resemble vegetable shortening and made it the perfect consistency to work into the flour mix.
Quite simply, I followed the instructions on the box, adding all the wet ingredients and substituting the butter and shortening. I refrigerated the dough for one hour before working with it. It was super easy to roll out between two sheets of plastic wrap and transfer into my cake pans –
you can use pie dishes for that part, if you’d like 
You’ll notice there are two pies and one galette in this post - that’s because I used two mixes. One mix will make two eight inch pie crusts (or one pie with top pie crust). I used the second mix to make an apple pear galette and also to cut out shapes to decorate my two berry pies, just for fun.
So, what’s the verdict? This mix was a dream to use, in-spite of me switching up the butter and shortening for coconut oil. It is so tender and flaky, melts in your mouth and complements the fruit perfectly. It really is a perfect gluten free pie crust. Little A. and Mr. Smith were overjoyed at tasting all three pies and by the major smiles, mmmmms, and sighs of satisfaction – I’d say that this is a three for three. I’m giving the Gluten Free Pantry Perfect Pie Crust a 5/5!
For an over the top indulgence, I also made vanilla coconut ice cream. Remember when I made maple cinnamon coconut whipped cream? Well, it’s essentially the same thing. I used honey to sweeten and grated vanilla bean for some extra flavor. Into the freezer it went for thirty minutes – just enough to keep it creamy and easy to scoop out. It was heavenly served with the pies.
Fresh fruit + local organic honey + cinnamon + a touch of tapioca flour = sensational fruit filling.
Oh and….drum roll please….
Congratulations!! Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway
Gluten Free Blackberry Honey Pie
Serves 8
4 cups blackberries
1/3 cup organic honey
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 Tablespoons of cinnamon
4 Tablespoons of water
One 8 or 9 inch pie crust (I used the Gluten Free Pantry Perfect Pie Crust Mix)
- Wash fruit and pat dry.
- In a large bowl, combine tapioca flour, cinnamon, and water.
- Add berries and pour honey over them.
- Mix gently, coating all the berries.
- You may need to add an additional spoonful of water.
- Pour mixture into prepared pie crust.
- Bake at 350F for 40 minutes, or until the crust is a golden brown color.
- Cool for twenty minutes, before cutting into.
- Enjoy!
Gluten Free Raspberry Honey Pie
Serves 8
4 cups raspberries
1/3 cup organic honey
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 Tablespoons of cinnamon
4 Tablespoons of water
One 8 or 9 inch pie crust (I used the Gluten Free Pantry Perfect Pie Crust Mix)
- Wash fruit and pat dry.
- In a large bowl, combine tapioca flour, cinnamon, and water.
- Add raspberries and pour honey over them.
- Mix gently, coating all the berries.
- You may need to add an additional spoonful of water.
- Pour mixture into prepared pie crust.
- Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, or until the crust is a golden brown color.
- Cool for twenty minutes, before cutting into.
- Enjoy!
Gluten Free Apple Pear Galette
Serves 8
3 apples
2 bartlett pears
1/3 cup organic honey
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 Tablespoons of cinnamon
4 Tablespoons of water
One package of the Gluten Free Pantry Perfect Pie Crust Mix, prepared.
- Wash fruit and pat dry.
- Peel two apples and one pear (leave the peel on the other two)
- Thinly slice all four fruits.
- In a large bowl, combine tapioca flour, cinnamon, and water.
- Add peeled and sliced apple s(2) and pear and pour honey over them.
- Mix gently, coating the fruit.
- You may need to add an additional spoonful of water. Set mixture aside.
- Roll out the Gluten Free Pantry Perfect Pie Crust dough onto a lightly greased baking sheet.
- Fill center with apple pear mixture.
- Fold the sides of the dough up to hold in fruit.
- Use the extra sliced pear and apple to decorate the top – lay the slices in a circular shape.
- Bake at 350F for 50 minutes.
- Cool for twenty minutes, before cutting into.
- Enjoy!
Dairy Free Vanilla Coconut Ice Cream
Serves 8
2 cans of refrigerated full fat coconut milk (one can is around 13 oz)
1/4 cup of organic honey
1 vanilla bean stick, grated
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- Place cans of coconut milk in refrigerator for at least 12 hours – aim for 24.
- When you open the cans, you will find a thick layer of cream – perfect for whipping.
- In a larger bowl, pour entire contents of both cans (including the coconut water at the bottom).
- Add in honey, cinnamon, grate a vanilla bean over top.
- Whip with a hand mixer on high for 3-4 minutes.
- Transfer to a deep tin pan (or ice cream tin). Cover with plastic wrap.
- Freeze for 30 minutes.
- Enjoy alone, or over pie!
Note: If storing coconut ice cream, transfer to a freezable tupperware container. For future use, take out of the freezer and let thaw 20-30 minutes before serving, so it gets back to a creamy consistency.
Have you seen the movie “We Bought a Zoo”? On Saturday, we were all feeling a bit
smooshy. It was grey outside, and there was the threat of rain in the hovering clouds. I was feeling tired and wanted to just chill. Mr. Smith took Little A. for a long walk and while they were out, even though I was low on energy, I thought it was a good time to try out the
Gluten Free Pantry Chocolate Truffle Brownie Mix. As you know, this is my third out of four reviews for baking mixes from the Gluten Free Pantry line. You can read about the first two
here.
It took under 10 minutes for me to prep, mix, spread and put into the oven. Sweet. Twenty five minutes later, it felt like my kitchen was transformed into a chocolate factory – it smelled sensational and definitely lifted my spirits. I knew it would be a nice treat for my husband (I had seen him eyeing the package in the cupboard during the week).
Oh, before I forget, the movie! We put Little A. down for his nap, and watched it together under a pile of blankets. We both loved it….
have you seen it? Relaxing and watching a good film was the perfect thing for our Saturday afternoon. We made chai tea and cut into the brownies. I got to tell you, those were
some pretty decadent brownies; extra chocolaty, rich, and moist. I honestly could only have a small square. Don’t worry, my husband was more than happy to have enough for the both of us
So, what’s the verdict? It’s a toss up… I give this mix a 4/5 but Mr. Smith gives it a 5/5. However, I’m the official reviewer, so these Chocolate Truffle Brownies are getting four out of five. They are absolutely delicious, there’s no doubt – I just find them a bit too sweet for me, so I docked a point. That said, are these the real deal? Yep, there is no weird gluten-free taste, they are easy peasy to make, they bake wonderfully and serve well too (no crumbling/sticking issues here). I’d have to say that if you are looking for a gluten-free brownie mix, this one is worth it.
To find out where to purchase the Gluten Free Pantry line by Glutino,
click here. Before you go, don’t forget to
enter my giveaway for your chance to win a set of four Gluten Free Pantry baking mixes – just leave a comment on my giveaway post:
click here! with your email address and letting me know why you’d love to win!
How was your weekend? I hope you got to relax too!
