Pioneer Woman

I've decided that I feel a bit like a pioneer woman lately. My youngest has had some stomach issues lately, in particular when we were back in the States eating lots of fast food and bread. Both my mother-in-law and sister-in-law have celiac disease, so, after experiencing some of the same issues myself, we decided to look at going gluten free. In fact my eleven year old decided on his own that this was what he wanted to do, and sure enough his stomach aches went away.

One of the positive things about living in Africa is that we eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, and make most things from scratch. That means, of course, less processed foods and preservatives. But while we're used to not eating a lot of bread products, we still love pancakes and grilled cheese every now and then. The only problem was that gluten-free products are still limited in South Africa and often expensive. Thankfully, I have found some great gluten free, all-purpose flours to experiment with that aren't too expensive along with rice flour and some other basic ingredients.

My first attempt at homemade bread tasted good...at least the part that wasn't a gooey mess. My second attempt today, with a different recipe, turned out much better. You can find the recipe here. I used my own flour mixture of gluten-free self rising flour, gluten-free high-fiber bread flour, and flax seed flour (ground with our coffee grinder), and will definitely make this again.

Gluten-free bread

The banana bread was also a huge hit. The first loaf was gone in a matter of minutes and honestly, I don't think you could tell it was gluten-free. Because I can't get some of the basic flours, I again substituted my own mix.

Gluten-free banana bread

If you live in South Africa, you might have already discovered these gluten-free products. They are pretty easy to find and are priced reasonably. My kids weren't fond of some of the ready made mixes, but using these, I can make pancakes, for example from scratch with my normal recipe and they love them.

What about you? Do you have any favorite gluten-free recipes your family loves? I'd love to hear about them.