This is one of those gluten free recipes that I have put off posting. I wanted to get it just right, the trouble is that gluten free pizza will never be quite right and I had to come to realize that.

You can make a really good gluten free pizza crust, but it will never be quite the same as the pizza crust we all remember. You can not get the same chewiness, the same crispiness, or the same texture without the gluten.

But you can get a good gluten free pizza crust. It can taste good and it will be good, but in my opinion a gluten free pizza crust is one of those things that will never be quite the same.

This recipe though is really good. It is our favorite gluten free pizza crust the I have tried. In fact it is so good, that I am now making it almost weekly. Our weekly pizza night is back thanks to this pizza crust.

So, although it is not quite the same, it is still very very good.

Now, I will say this pizza crust took me almost two years to get right. Pizza is a favorite in our house and I used to make it all the time.

I love to experiment with different toppings and try new things, but after going gluten free it was not quite the same. I had many failures and many crust that were okay, but nothing that was so good I wanted to keep making it.

In fact, I pretty much gave up for a while and started occasionally buying gluten free pizza crust to keep on hand for quick and easy dinners.

When I was buying pizza crusts though, I found one brand that had a really good texture. The taste was a bit ricey for us, but we loved the texture.

I read through the ingredients to see what made this pizza different and the only ingredient that seemed strange to me was sweet rice flour. Now, sweet rice flour is not strange, I use it in my cookies and cakes all the time, but I have never used it in a dough like pizza crust. I was certainly willing to give it a try though if it would help the texture of my homemade pizza crust.

So, I played around with a few recipes. Tweaked a few things and what I came up with was a gluten free pizza crust that we love.

And I am loving being able to play around with all kinds of pizza toppings again. I recently made a cheeseburger pizza that we really enjoyed. (I will post the recipe soon on my main site.)

One thing about this crust though is that it is best made in a mixer. I used my Kitchen Aid and it works well. Many recipes say that you do not need to mix the dough for long because there is no gluten in the recipe, therefore no kneading is needed. Well, I agree that there is not gluten and the dough will never need kneaded like regular dough, however I disagree about mixing the dough.

Sometime I will do a whole post on my thoughts about gluten free dough and why I think it needs mixed well, but for now be sure to follow the directions and let this crust mix about 6 minutes in the mixer. This is a similar time to what I would let a regular pizza dough mix and I think it is one of the keys to getting the texture right and producing a less grainy dough.

I hope you enjoy the pizza as much as we do. Now go make some pizza.

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When cooking gluten free it is easy to dwell on how hard and difficult life in the kitchen can be, but if we step back and really think about what we eat, it is not difficult to find many dishes that we can eat with little or no changes.

So often in gluten free cooking we over look the simple meals that are either naturally gluten free or can easily be made gluten free.

My taco pasta is a perfect example of this. Taco pasta is a quick and easy, kid friendly meal to make. It is also one of those dishes that even non gluten free people enjoy.

And you only have to do two simple things to make it gluten free and both are easy to do.

First you use gluten free pasta instead of regular pasta. My favorite gluten free pasta is the Tinkyada brand.

Secondly you use either a gluten free taco seasoning or better yet use a homemade version.

Now my taco pasta is not the only recipe that is this easy to adapt. Most pasta dishes can be adapted this easily, and many do not need adapted at all.

Many Asian and Mexican foods are also naturally gluten free. Soups and stews can easily be made gluten free.  So, next time gluten free cooking seems overwhelming, take a deep breath and look around, there are many things that do not take much work to adapt to a gluten free diet.

What is your favorite gluten free dinner to make?

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Soup is one of my favorite gluten free meals to serve. Most soups are so easy to make or adapt to be gluten free.

Not only that soup is one of those meals that no one can tell is gluten free. You can serve it to both gluten free and non gluten free people and everyone will enjoy it.

Here are a few of our favorite gluten free soups.

Asian Soup (use gluten free soy sauce)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Taco Soup

Panera Potato Soup

What is your favorite gluten free soup to make?

And as always when cooking gluten and nut free, please check the ingredients on all items to be sure they are nut and gluten free.

This post linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.

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I miss flour tortillas. Well okay I do not miss the flour in the tortillas, but I miss how nice and pretty my enchiladas looked when using flour tortillas.

In my opinion corn tortillas just are not the same. Yes, they taste good, but they are much more challenging to work with and I often end up with a big mess. Because of this I have found it much easier to just make enchilada pies by just layering the ingredients, but my family does not like enchilada pie as well as enchiladas.

Yes, I know I can fry the tortillas, and it would make them more flexible, but I avoid frying foods unless I really need to, and  I don’t usually have the time to fry the tortillas when making dinner.

I recently discovered something that worked so well for making enchiladas with corn tortillas. Forget the rolling of the shells, just fold it over.

Place the filling on half the shell, fold the shell over, and place in the pan.

See it is so much easier and prettier isn’t it?

This works perfectly with either my beef or chicken enchiladas.

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I posted a very simple and gluten free soup on my main site today. It is perfect for a cool fall or winter day.

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I have mainly focused this site on gluten free, nut free baked goods, tips, and ideas. However, if you have been gluten free or nut free for long then you know that there is a lot more to gluten free/nut free cooking than just breads, muffins, and desserts. It involves a whole change in how you cook.

When I was first gluten free I was overwhelmed with what I could no longer have. However, after almost of year of being gluten free, I have realized that many of our favorite main and side dishes can still be served.

Some of them I have had to adapt, but others did not need adapting at all.

Many of these main and side dish recipes that I have been making for years are on my main site, so I thought I would start highlighting some of those recipes here on my allergy site. I plan to share any changes that I have made to adapt them to our gluten and nut free diet.

This recipe today that I am highlighting is a quick and easy dinner idea. Not only is it quick and easy, all I had to do to make it gluten and nut free was to use gluten free soy sauce in it. My whole family loves this Ground Beef Fried Rice and I have made it many times over the last year.

(I do however need to get a better picture of it. My picture taking skills have gotten better over the last year. )

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Although we love my rice cooker macaroni and cheese, there are times that we want something a little different and more like a classic macaroni and cheese.

I had several macaroni and cheese recipes that I made and loved, before going gluten free, but since going gluten free my family has missed them.

I have tried to adapt my old favorites, using gluten free pastas, and by changing up the sauce a little, but they were just not adapting right.

The sauce to pasta ratio was not right. Not only that I found that using cornstarch in the sauce in place of the flour, gave the macaroni and cheese an odd taste and texture that we did not like.

I knew though that to get more of a classic baked macaroni and cheese I needed a white sauce as a base. Since macaroni and cheese is a family favorite, I was not about to give up on finding a gluten free version that we liked.

I decided to try and adapt the Pioneer Woman’s Macaroni and Cheese to make it gluten free. I tweaked a few things with the sauce to make it work, but it turned out great.

I found that using potato starch in place of the flour worked best in the sauce in this recipe. Potato starch is a staple in most gluten free kitchens, so it is a good choice as a replacement for flour in dishes like this.

I have actually never made this recipe the regular way. I am assuming it is very good, since the gluten free version turned out so well.

I have now made this several times and my whole family enjoys it. In fact, I served it to a friend of ours and he could not believe it was gluten free. I love hearing that with gluten free food. So, often you can tell when things are gluten free. Hearing that it tastes just like regular food is quite a compliment.

I hope you enjoy!

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My family loves biscuits and gravy. They have missed them since I went gluten free.

Honestly, I can do without them. I will eat them, and I made them because my family loves them, but they are certainly not on my top list of things I miss.

However, since my family has told me several times in the last few months how much they missed biscuits and gravy, I decided to tackle a gluten free version.

I had not tried to tackle a gluten free version because I have had trouble coming up with a gluten free white sauce or gravy that I was happy with. I know many people just use cornstarch in place of the flour. I had tried that and was not happy with the results. I love cornstarch for things like pudding, but for sauces and gravies I have not been happy with cornstarch.

The main reason is that many times I end up needing to reheat items like gravy or white sauce. I find that cornstarch based sauces do not reheat well. The texture just does not come back together right. So, I got discouraged and kind of gave up for a while on finding one.

However, I recently purchased several gluten free books by Annalise Roberts. In one of her books she mentions using potato starch in white sauces. I immediately knew this was worthy trying.

She did not have a sausage gravy recipe in her book, so I decided to adapt my favorite sausage gravy recipe, using the basic ratios that her sauces used.

My family was so excited that this worked. The gravy turned out well. Even the leftover gravy reheated the next day.

Now, if I can just figure out how to get a light and fluffy gluten free biscuit to go with the gravy.

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One of the things I have struggled with since going gluten free has been lunch. I miss bread. I don’t really miss bread, I miss the convenience of having bread for sandwiches.

Yes, I can make gluten free bread, but it is not as convenient to make. Not only that, it is quite expensive to feed gluten free bread to three kids on a daily basis. So, yes we enjoy my gluten free bread, but I do not make it more than about once a week.

So, I have had to find other things to feed my kids for lunch, because for some reason kids, or at least my kids, want to eat around noon each day. I could live with a yogurt and a banana, but my kids want a little more than that.

Before going gluten free I often made rice cooker macaroni and cheese for lunch or even a quick dinner. Now this was not gourmet macaroni and cheese, but it was really good and my kids loved it.

Soon after I started eating gluten free, I realized that I could easily adapt my rice cooker macaroni and cheese to be gluten free. Really, all I needed to do was use gluten free pasta. I have tried several different gluten free pastas now and have had really good results with Tinkyada Brown Rice Shells.

In fact, we have been eating this at least once a week for lunch. This is a meal my whole family enjoys. I love it because not only is it gluten free, it is very quick and easy, and fairly inexpensive for a gluten free meal.

Do you struggle with what to fix for lunch? What is your favorite gluten free lunch to make?

This post linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.

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