Chocolate Slice

I had a chocolate slice recipe from a friend when the boys were in primary school. It was always a favourite, but since going gluten free I hadn't made it. So I thought I'd try and convert it to gluten free and see how it went. I've tried it twice before adding it on to the blog. It is a still very yummy and no one knows the difference. So I thought I'd share it.

CHOCOLATE SLICE
1 cup gluten free plain flour (I use Orgran brand)
3 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
1 tablespoon cocoa
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut
3 tablespoons butter
1 tin condensed milk
1 packet chocolate buttons (you can use the big melts or I now use Woolworths Home Brand milk choc melts - cooking buttons)

Melt the butter. Mix all dry ingredients together. Pour on the condensed milk and butter. Stir to combine.Pour into a slice tray (11 x 7 inches) that has been lined with baking paper. bake at 160c for 30 - 35 minutes.

Perfect Gluten Free Pasta

I have found a way to cook gluten free pasta perfectly!!! (well so far!!!) In my rice cooker ....... my rice cooker has some recipes with its instructions. One of them was macaroni cheese. So I thought I'd try it with my gluten free pasta. It was wonderful. I just put in 200g gluten free pasta, (I only had spirals, not macaroni), a couple of slices ham, chopped, about 30 - 40g butter, some fresh grated parmesan and also some tasty cheese, (about 50g), and 500ml water. (Just like the recipe told me!!) then closed the lid and turned on my rice cooker to "cook", and let it do the work!!! After about 15 minutes it turned itself to "keep warm", and I opened it up to find perfectly cooked spiral ham & cheese pasta. Yum! NOT Gluggy, and stuck together, NOT hard in places ...... JJUST PERFECT PASTA!!!! The recipe said it serves 4, well I ate about half of it, so I don't think it serves 4!!!!
My previous attempts to cook gluten free pasta ended up with either a big gluggy mess or pasta that needed more cooking. (Except for the lasagna, I used San Remo gluten free Pasta sheets and they turned out fine!!) I could never seem to get it right. Whenever I made pasta for Stoo and the boys, I usually just made rice for me, and had the same sauce.So now when I make pasta for them I will make some for me in the rice cooker!! Yay!!! I love pasta and have missed it, but didn't like it gluggy or hard, so stopped eating it, but now I can go back to eating gluten free pasta cooked to perfection!!!

My Gluten free Blogspot

I thought it would be easier to to start a gluten free blogspot to put all my gluten free recipes and "finds". So I hope you will come and look and find things you like.

I'll add my latest gluten free goodie I made. Hope you enjoy it!

Home made Gluten Free Muesli

I finally had time this morning to make some more of my gluten free muesli. I haven't had any to eat for the past couple of weeks. Work has been busy. School wants to upgrade the canteen, so I've had to go up when I'm not working to see contractors for quotes. Not that I mind, I've just been busier than usual.

So here is my muesli. I adapted it from a muesli recipe that I use to make before I went gluten free. After going gluten free I found some absolutely delicious muesli, but at $24.00 a kilo couldn't bring myself to buy it more than once. So read all the ingredients and my old recipe and WHALAA!!!! MY HOMEMADE GLUTEN FREE MUESLI. And the good thing is you can adjust it to how you like!!

Homemade Gluten Free Muesli (Picture below)

1 cup Poha Flakes (picture below - available at Indian food shops. These are thin like rolled oats)

1/2 cup rolled rice flakes

1/2 cup quinoa flakes (picture below)

1/2 cup amaranth puffed cereal (I use Orgran brand)

1/4 - 1/2 cup rice bran straws

1/4 cup buckwheat kernels

1/4 cup pepitas

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/3 cup honey

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I use rice bran oil - no cholesterol!!)

2 tablespoons prune juice (this keeps in the fridge - unless you like drinking it!!)

3/4 cup shredded coconut (I use McKenzie's moist flakes)

1/2 - 1 cup Macadamia nuts (or your choice - almonds, pecans, hazelnuts)

1/3 cup chopped dried apricots

1/3 cup chopped dried apples

1/3 cup sultanas

1/4 cup craisins

Preheat oven to moderate (180c/160c fan-forced). Combine poha flakes, rolled rice flakes, quinoa flakes, and amaranth in a bowl, then spread evenly on oven tray (with about 2 inch sides). Roast in oven for 5 mins. Stir in rice bran straws, buckwheat kernels, pepitas and cinnamon through the mixture. Combine the oil, honey and prune juice, then drizzle over mixture and stir through. Make sure you keep stirring till all mixture seems coated. Roast 5 - 10 mins. Stir in coconut and nuts. Roast 5 - -10 mins. Remove tray from oven and place muesli back in bowl you used to combine things. Stir through dried fruit. Serve with yoghurt, milk or juice. 

This muesli goes great with natural or vanilla yoghurt.

Here is what the Poha Flakes and Quinoa Flakes look like.

Here is the finished product.

This time I didn't have any dried apricots, so I chopped up some dried dates and used those instead of the apricots. This recipe is very easy to adapt to what dried fruit you like. You can even add other grains you like. The first time I made it, I didn't have any quinoa flakes or amaranth in it. Quinoa is easily digestible and has great benefits, just google it if you want to know more about it. Amaranth has one of the highest levels of protein of any grain and also contains high quantities of eight essential amino acids. So I figured it would do me good to add them to my muesli.