Fall Vegetarian Comfort: Provence Style Zesty Stew

Here comes fall with preparations for the holidays ahead! At a loss for what vegetarian/vegan do for holiday meals when they dine with the omnivores if they aren't in charge of the hosting/menu? They might not admit it to a host or others bringing the food for fear of inconvenience but the making do with the meat-free dishes such as mashed potatoes, salad and picking bacon bits off the green beans does not make for satisfaction.

They'll likely fend for themselves to bring something they can enjoy, but asking others to bring a few more veggie-friendly dishes to munch on would be appreciated for certain (also giving everyone at the table extra vitamins, minerals and fiber woo hoo!) Instead of reaching for the meat-analogue Tofurkey, why not offer another filling dish with less sodium! The recipe that follows is also gluten-free (we folk who get glum being unable to have most pies and crispy-onion-topping green beans).

Province Style Tofu Stew

Adapted from Williams and Sonoma Soup cook book to be veggie friendly

For people who eat fish the original calls for 1 lb of firm white fish. A similar recipe I was given by a former mentor also added a soft cheese to her fish stew and there was no orange zest. See what's in your fridge/pantry, and play around and make this recipe your own! I added beet greens because I didn't have tomato pieces and wanted more texture/substance. Veggies rock as they tend to be very interchangable in most recipes.


Equipment: optional blender or food processor to make a less chunky soup
Prep-work: rinse and chopping and zesting, 5-10 minutes worth; optional homemade stock made fresh 2 hrs (or grab from your freezer)

3 servings

 

1 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced (substitute celery if you cannot find)
1 large garlic clove, minced
2-3 tbsp of tomato paste OR 14 oz chopped tomato (fresh or canned, saving juice to use in this recipe)
2 cups of vegetable stock (may make 1 cup of red wine if on hand, I didn't have)
zest of 1-2 small oranges
12-16oz package of firm tofu, cut into 1/2" cubes
1/4 cup dill (or another herb, original recipe calls for parsley)
2 cups thoroughly rinsed beet greens (or other greens), chopped

1. In a medium soup pot over med-high heat, warm the oil. Add the onions, stirring occasionally until lightly brown. Less than 5 minutes. Add carrots and fennel. Cook until slightly softened about 4-5 minutes. Add garlic cooking 1 more minute.

2. Add tomatoes and their juice, wine and/or vegetable stock and orange zest. Reduce the heat to medium and bring to simmer. Add the beet greens. Cover with the lid cracked open slightly for about 10 minutes, veggies should be well softened and your kitchen smelling great.

3. Blend about 1/3 of the soup to puree in the blender/processor and then return it to the pot (careful about the lid coming off due to the steam build up-let the soup cool a bit first OR if you have a stick blender go for that instead)

4. Add the tofu and heat until warmed through.

5. Put soup into bowls and top with the chopped herb.

Tastes great served alone or with some bread (yes, there's gluten free ones out there) or add 1/4 to 1/2 cup cooked grains, beans or quinoa per serving for extra belly-filling goodness. 


I attended a cardio kick-box class this week and the instructor reminded us to eat mindfully (chewing slowly to notice the tastes, the smells, the colors, the conversation being had with loved ones) and go ahead and indulge having a bit o' the "bad" stuff.

What sensations describe your Thanksgivings?

Vegetarian Summer Series #3: Raw Curried Sprouted Lentil-Collard Greens Salad

Can't escape the heat and humidity (relatively speaking...I know we San Diegans are fickle)! Our half of the building at work is stuffy and the other side has the girls bundled up in sweaters. Then I go off to 80 degree yoga in the evenings.  I can try to do less stuff on the stove while in the kitchen at least...

I've been making a lot of veggie sandwiches this week with avocado, cucumber, sprouts, mustard and sundried tomato--and sometimes hard boiled egg. I tried out Glutino brand bread...which while tasty, sadly does not hold together (exhibit A) unless toasted  (exhibit B).

                                                EXHIBIT A:  Not a good lunch to take out.

                                                      EXHIBIT B: Solid grip! Much better!



Taste-test Summer adaptation. Try swapping dill for basil and swiss chard for spinach in a pesto recipe...pairs nicely with a white fish or I imagine awesome with chopped hard boiled eggs!

Now onto the real recipes. Two posts in a row from Rawmazing website recipes (cucumber cumin dressing over melon and beans salad last week)! Great to try raw recipes when it just feels too sticky to use the stove for much more than 10 minutes-this recipe I stuck pretty close to the original ingredients and steps and didn't even steam the veggies like last week.  This was supposed to debut at a yoga vegetarian potluck this week, but it just didn't work out to get enough people together. Ah well, more for me!

This did take some pre-planning, if you want to try your hand at sprouting your own lentils. You can also buy them this way-try health food stores or if you're in San Diego, hit up Suzie's stand at a farmer's market or the farm itself! I enjoy the slight crunch that the lentils have.

RAW CURRIED SPROUTED LENTIL-COLLARD GREENS SALAD

INGREDIENTS-only slightly modified from the original recipe at Rawmazing, using a different sprouting technique, dried coconut and changing from kale to collard greens.

• 1 cup red lentils, sprouted

• 1 cup dried, unsweetened coconut since I didn't have fresh coconut flesh
• 1/2 cup coconut water from young thai coconut (I used canned coconut juice-saved the rest to drink as a natural electrolytes replenisher)
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon Braggs Liquid Aminos (or coconut aminos for soy free)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sweet yellow curry powder
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar or sweetener of choice*
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Himalayan Salt to taste

• 1 bunch of collard greens leaves (after rinsing and chopping it probably made about 6 cups) or any other leafy green--save the stems for another use
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• squeeze of lemon juice
• pinch Himalayan Salt 
• pepper
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped cashews 

INSTRUCTIONS-modified sprouting method

 1. About 2 days before you want to make the salad, rinse and then soak the lentils over night. Drain the water. Place the lentils in a cheese cloth or tea towel and tie the ends together (rubber band or clip) and hang over the sink to drip for half an hour. Put the towel and lentils in a covered pot to sit at room temperature 1-2 days until the sprouts form.

Waggy happy lil' lentil tails. ARF!

2. Prepare the leafy greens by massaging it in a large bowl with the  1 tbsp olive oil, squeeze of lemon juice, and pinch of salt. Let this mixture sit awhile to soften the leaves.

My roommate owns the mixing bowls and they are packed...hence using a soup pot!

3. While your leaves "cook", prepare the curry sauce. Grab the blender or food processor and add the liquids first : coconut water, garlic, lemon juice, Braggs liquid amino and olive oil. Then add the dry ingredients: shredded coconut, curry powder, sugar and salt. (Your blender will have an easier time if you do liquids near the blade) Blend until uniformly mixed. My mixture clumped up into a paste.

The coconut smells SO good.

4. Add the curry sauce and lentils to the greens, and mix to incorporate the sauce. Add the chopped cashews and tomatoes, mixing gently. Add pepper to taste.

I'll be enjoying this salad before the fireworks begin! Have a happy fourth everyone!


What's on your Fourth menu or what's your favorite no-cook recipe?

Spunky Grapefruit Dressing for a Savory Salad (Veganizable, No Dairy, No soy)

As much as I had wanted a support group to do detoxing with, the yoga studio has the juicing cleanse right in the midst of my National Parks Trip. No practical way to do juicing staying in hotels and out hiking all day. So I'm going to try out a shorter, different detox from past years (Master cleanse, master cleanse + 2 juicing meals) starting tomorrow.  But first, I had to start by eating my way through items that won't keep for 8 days.

I had some defrosted shrimp to use up (checked country/method of harvesting for sustainability at store using the Monterey Bay Aquarium App-finally there are some "good alternative" options beside Oregon Pink shrimp!) and swapped that for the smoked tofu called for in Post-punk Kitchen's Vietnamese inspired Rice Noodle Salad with Grapefruit Vinegrette. It may seem an odd combination garlic, grapefruit, Sriracha (that bright red sauce at Vietnamese joints, usually with a rooster on the bottle), but give it a taste before dismissing it. Wakes me up at lunch time with it's bright, bold taste. The color chirps cheerily as well, like a sherbert! Tip for those not big on ginger: Personally felt the flavors of the dressing were 10x better the next day (ginger had time to mellow out). If you liked konnyaku from my chicken soup post, I used it again as part of the salad ingredients to give me more textures since I was omitting noodles. The Post Punk Kitchen gives even more substitution ideas for the salad ingredients.

Dressing Ingredients (for about 4-5 servings; I used about 3 tbsp each time)-barely any tweaks from me here

1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon fresh ginger
3/4 cup fresh red yellow grapefruit juice (this was about 1.5 fruits for me)
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil  olive oil
2 tablespoons Sriracha
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon agave nectar  honey
1/4 teaspoon salt

Put all ingredients in a blender and whirl until smooth. Best served chilled.

 Salad Ingredients (one serving)-endless possibilities to use what veggies or protein forms you have on hand...if you want more of the Vietnamese influence, add some chopped mint or the purple basil, cucumbers (not in season here in SD yet), thinly sliced carrots strips, the mung bean spouts.

(this is the serving portion, but save time by cooking all your shrimp and panfried stuff at once)

-9  cooked shrimp 41/50 count (about 3-4 oz cooked weight)
-1/3 block sliced  konnyaku and 1/2 cup sliced squash strips (pan fried with coconut aminos, sesame oil and coconut sugar)
-1/4 cup or small handful sundried tomato strips
-1/2 grapefruit-cut into segments
-1.5 cups rinsed/chopped lettuce
-2 tbsp chopped fresh herb (basil was delish)
-1 tbsp "sawdust" (bonito flakes)



1. If using shrimp, you need to peel and deveine your shrimp do so first.

2. Get a pot of water boiling for the shrimp. The 41/50 count size I left in for about 3 minutes once the water boiled so it cooked but not to the point of becoming tough.  Shrimp will turn pink almost immediately, watch for it go from translucent to opaque.

3. Heat a frying pan with 1 tsp sesame oil. Rinse off and slice your konnyaku block into strips (see picture) and slice up your squash. Add strips to the pan. Add a few shakes of coconut aminos (or soy sauce if you wheat and soy) and sprinkle 1-2 tsp coconut sugar. Cook until squash is tender.

4. Mix your cooked ingredients with the grapefruit, lettuce and tomato. Top with the dressing and serve warm.


What perks you up at a mid-day slump at work? Is it food related?

Rosemary Returns: Dry your own herbs, lemon-coconut cookies & Jamba "pizza" bread

I looked at great little potted herb, lettuce and pepper arrangements online at Better Homes and Gardens a month or two back. However, the airplant from my sister, a poinsettia from my work's Christmas party and a shrimp plant at my desk is all that's going on. I could use some outdoor time but what's holding me back? I don't know.

I did see a commercial for Home Depots Black Friday sale, 5 plants for $10...tempting! Maybe if I try starting my seedlings at work they will do better than last year. My other plants are thriving in the window there.


Even without herbs readily available on my patio, my box has started supplying again.  I set out the rosemary to dry on a cookie sheet since I can't get through all of it in two weeks. Here's a nice article on drying your own herbs and you don't need any fancy tools!

 With a cookie contest coming up at work and the lemons beaming at me from the window, it was inspiration for a twist on the super easy macaroon recipe I found during the holidays (hmm, this post will also feature a recipe with tomato paste like my one in December).

LEMON-ROSEMARY MACAROONS adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie

• 1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut (Try stores that carry items sold in bulk bins or, Fresh & Easy near me carries Bob's Red Mill)
• 1 tbsp flour of choice (I went with white rice flour)
• 1/2 cup lite canned coconut milk (or full-fat)--if you use full fat can save the rest for coconut milk whipped cream or dump 1/4 cup in with a frozen banana, some water and protein powder.
• 2-3 tbsp honey or other liquid sweetener (2 tbsp if you really want the rosemary to shine)
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• tiny bit over 1/16 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves
• 2 tbsp lemon juice.

1. If using the regular oven pre-heat to 350. I use my toaster oven since this makes a small batch of about 16-1 tbsp sized cookies.

2. Chop rosemary leaves finely or pulse in your food processor.

3. Place all ingredients into a medium microwavable bowl and mix until evenly combined. Microwave for 3 minutes

4. Use a tablespoon (can press the batter into the scoop with your fingers to give the cookie better shape). and scoop out onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

5. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes (check earlier to see browning, seems like with lemon juice added it browns fast, you can see from the picture!)

 It reminds me of lemon bars without so much sugar-just that amount of tartness.

PIZZA BREAD adapted from Gluten Free Goddess

The next recipe is not perfect with the substitutions I tried (I think it may I may be using flax seeds instead of eggs and chickpea flour being quite dense. I also accidentally forgot to add the oil) but for some reason I still like this bread's flavor with the rosemary and tomato paste. I was happy that it did rise. It also kept me feeling full for a long time. From my hazy memories of high school hang outs, I thought of the pizza protein sticks from Jamba Juice. I was really happy doing the lemon-jam muffins earlier this year with ratio baking, so next need to gluten-free ratio for bread making which does the ingredients by weight. Or get a weight on the original ingredients (the oat flour) Though the portion may or may not work with my size bread machine.

Again, I used the bread machine recipe from Gluten Free Goddess, with a few changes:
.
DRY INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups rice flour
1 cup tapioca starch or potato starch (not potato flour!)
1/2 cup chickpea flour (maybe since it's so dense...the loaf baked weird)
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/ 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 packet rapid dry yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoons
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup finely chopped rosemary

WET INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups warm water (at 110 to 115ºF) 
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon honey- or raw agave nectar to keep it vegan 
1/2 teaspoon mild rice vinegar or lemon juice
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp ground flax seed with 8 TBSP hot water-mix and cover to let sit separately (or 2 eggs)

Add the ingredients in the order suggested by your bread machine (mine is dry, make a hole, add yeast, then add wet ingredients on top. Use the quick bread setting was a great tip from Gluten Free Goddess. And don't let the bread sit in the machine too long after it finishes baking (keep the crust from getting soggy).

My machine beeps when you can add in nuts or cheese, chocolate chips, etc. So I take that time to use a spatula to help things mix if they are looking a bit uneven.

Do you have an award winning recipe you're willing to share? If you haven't competed, what kind of contest would you want to enter?

Shepherd's Pie Roll

After watching Brave and after winter break, we'd had an inkling to take a summer trip to Scotland/Ireland with our wonderful bay area friends. A couple months ticked by and I started firing off the messages to get the ball rolling as I always seem to (Ms. Facilitator), divided up the research after having a phone date. Then began my research with Glasgow, intrigued to find a "Crannog" center in Abernathy (5,000 year old type of dwelling), excited by walking tours  put on by the art school, yearning for Pollock Country park for hikes...and drooling over gluten-free {happy dance}afternoon tea places! But alas, less than a week later, with second thoughts about upcoming financial commitments (or looming furloughs), this trip has to be shelved.

Whether it was inspired by the future-vacation or maybe it was just because St. Patrick's Day was only a few weeks ago, I wanted something Irish/UK inspired. Shepherd's pie sounded good. And I also had plenty of cabbage from CSA. So adapted a cabbage roll recipe into Shepherd's Pie wrapped in steamed cabbage leaves. There's something that really makes my brain happy with the cabbage and potato combo. I even saw this recipe that could make a vegetarian version (use lentils instead of ground meat)

The big round cabbages work best. If your cabbage is the smaller cone or a different type of cabbage I would try chopping it, steaming and serving it as the "bed" for the potato and protein. 

POTATO FILLING-use this or your favorite mashed potato recipe. I wanted to use up carrot tops and lemons.

I made up a potato recipe: Rinsed, cut into similar sized pieces and boiled red potatoes, until a fork could pierce to the middle. While the potatoes boiled, I rinsed carrot tops and stuck them in a blender. Added about 2 tbsp of lemon juice, some smoked tomato flakes and 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast and 1/4 cup (add more if needed) of water. Made for a pesto to mix with the potatoes. Because of the citrus pucker, for me, it's not a dish I would eat a big bowl-full on it's own, I'd have something mellow to balance it out. Or perhaps turn it into salmon and/or daiya cheese patties. I found the pesto to taste nice over steamed broccoli.

CABBAGE LEAVES AND TURKEY FILLING-adapted a Mediterranean cabbage rolls recipe from Cooking Light, which originally called for a smaller portion, using turkey sausage instead of plain ground and it used rice.

18 Cabbage Leaves, rinsed

1 lb Ground Turkey, 93% Lean

1 lb Ground Turkey, 99% Lean

1.5 tbsps pine nuts

2 tsp sugar 

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground allspice 
1 tsp ground cumin

1.5 cup water

 4 tbsp tomato paste

Steam the cabbage leaves, covered, 3 minutes or until tender. Keep warm.

Cook turkey and nuts in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray or a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat 12 minutes or until the meat is browned, stirring to crumble. Stir in next 4 ingredients (rice through cumin); cook for 2 minutes. Add the water and tomato paste and stir until evenly incorporated. Remove from heat. Place the mixture in a medium bowl; cool slightly.

Place 1/4 cup turkey mixture in center of each cabbage leaf. Add 1/4 cup of mashed potatoes. Fold in edges of leaves; roll up. Eat. If you need a little zip, dot in some Sriracha sauce.

I wish the pesto kept its bright green, I know it looks swampy-chic...but it tastes very zingy carrot-lemon fresh.

Where is your next trip and does it inspire any recipes?

Testing the Vegan Tamales Dough-and using leftover rice!

Previously, I listed tamales as a possible to use root tops in place of spinach. And last year I tested a vegetarian (uses butter) tamale recipe for black eyed peas.  Well, I got around to testing the vegan version this weekend as part of my detox. It was a success and no heavy feeling stomach from dairy!

In general was fearful of making tamales for the longest time until I went to the San Diego Fair a few years ago and watched a cooking demo. I had heard that people would get the whole family together at Christmas time doing an all day assembly line gave me the impression of it being labor intensive. But I think families make tamales for the season and freeze them or give them away. It also seems like a big social event for them.

I tend to make in batches of a dozen or two so I can make them solo and just spend an afternoon doing it. However, I could see myself having a tamale making party with friends and family. Perhaps a birthday gathering idea for 2013! Love that tamales are versatile, like pizzas, sushi, burritos...you can try putting whatever you have on hand, if you don't care about being traditional.

 The recipe I came upon also suggested a sweet filling of pumpkin/squash and rice with cinnamon. I had ingredients for both versions, so why not test them at the same time if I'm already messing up the kitchen (I decided if I could wish for anything for the kitchen, I want a robot that washes hand-wash dishes for me...I don't mind doing cooking, but time spent with soap and water tempts me to eat out). The big  plus of the sweet variation is I found another use for leftover rice besides fried rice or rice pudding (not sure if a vegan version would be successful-can't use egg replacer as it contains soy).

The recipe from Squiddoo.

Supposed to yield 4 dozen, I guess I put a lot of dough on mine or I like to cover the filling up a little more, it looks like my batch is only going to make 20...

For the dough, mix together

• 4 cups masa harina
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the sweet filling mix together

• 1 cup cooked/mashed squash, pumpkin or sweet potato
• 1 cup rice (I used a defrosted batch)
• cinnamon or pumpkin pie spices to taste
• 2 tbsp maple syrup

For savory filling-Root tops OR kidney beans

• radish and turnip greens from about 12 roots)-rinsed well, chopped and steamed or sauteed with garlic (can use garlic powder if no fresh)-cooked down it looked like about 1-1.5 cups.
• garlic minced or garlic powder to taste

• Kidney bean version-soaked 1 cup of dried beans overnight and simmered on medium 35 minutes, then mash slightly
•  Add a salsa or taco sauce for flavor. I did La Victoria Green taco sauce.

Mix all dough ingredients in a medium bowl. Since I used homemade veggie stock, I added 1 tsp of salt instead of 1/4 tsp. The dough should hold it's shape when handled and not be sticky.

 Make the dough into balls-mine end up being about 1.5 times the size of a golf ball...maybe slightly smaller than a racquetball (not sure how many of you play racquetball)

Spread the dough into a square-ish shape in the husk. I used my palm but there is a spreader as I learned on Gourmet Sleuth. There should be about 1.5" above and below the dough to leave room for tying shut. Place 1.5 tbsp of fill in the center of the dough. 

Fold left and right side of the husk together so the dough meets. To shut the husk, you could just twist the top and bottom like the hard candy wrappers (shown on Squidoo's pics).. but.because I have a small steamer, I fold down the top and bottom and then put the corn husk strip tie around it (see picture below, the one on the right side stayed shut).

Steam about 2" of water on medium-low heat for 45 minutes. Check halfway through to make sure there is enough water.

"Tannenbaum" (Rosemary-lime) Dressing/Sauce

Apparently we can't have a Christmas tree of any kind (even plastic), as Dave's feelings of pines is tainted from his roommate experience of a bug-infested tree a few years ago. They smell so nice though, see how happy it made us girls!

I don't know about you but I could use more time this month (still two more people to shop for and haven't gotten the cards written yet). So during the busy-holiday (and other crunch times) I think the most useful recipes are sauces, because you can just try them on anything after their original recipe.  Like this dressing recipe from Food.com I tried at my folk's place after I saw they had a giant bag of limes from Costco with the green beans as originally meant.

Side-tangent, but speaking of Costco, on trip last week, at the Mission Valley location, I noticed they started carrying Rudi's gluten free bread in the fridge/freezer section. I don't think it is dairy free, and like Udi's, they use sunflower/safflower oil which won't work when I start the detox. But gf bread that you can eat without toasting is like a Christmas miracle. Also in the fridge section I spied some gluten-free, dairy free pre-made cookie dough! (it did have soy).

 A week after coming back from my visit with mom and pop, my co-worker had filled the basket near her cube with limes.  Recipe re-cycle time! Instead of basil, I ended up using about 1/4 cup of the rinsed leaves from fresh Christmas-tree like rosemary (did you know you can take an unused sprig and stick it in a pot of dirt to grow your own herb? Thank you old roomie, Jeff.) I guess that is a close as I can get to having a tree this year.

 

2 tablespoons lime juice  (about 1-2 limes, roll them on counter before cutting for easier juicing)
2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed 
1/4 cup (or to taste) of fresh rosemary leaves
1 dash salt and pepper

Put all ingredients in a blender. Spoon over anything that needs some zip! See my examples of use below.

• Try it as a taco sauce. Worked great on a white fish.
• Make a bean (I tested chickpea) and roasted celery salad.
• Tossed with chickpeas, quinoa and steamed escarole (looks like lettuce but bitter when raw, pictured above)
• Works fine as a salad dressing too! Complemented the smoked salmon, dried cranberries, beans and toasted squash seeds (yes, sometimes I save my winter squash seeds for consuming)

 Have you ever tried fruit cake and is it as bad as it seems to be?

Half an index finger-high bread made with a machine: gluten and egg-free

Baking used to be an easy thing for me, always making cakes and cookies to share with friends and co-workers while I was in school. I even hosted a cookie swap with fellow APO brothers-still have the recipes in my notebook. But then came being an adult, and replacing worry-free dining hall meals with home-cooked food which requires planning, shopping, making and clean-up. There is also less time for baking when working with a 45 minute commute each way and nine hour work days.

 Then add in finding out being allergic to wheat. Often times I am asked to have a rainbow of gluten free flours available for some recipes-and sometimes I just can't get out to the right store to get them or decide to be brave and try to use what I have on hand. It's a lot of about experimentation and not being afraid to fail (or being willing to turn your turn-to-dust chocolate shortbread rice-flour cookies into an ice cream topping). I think if I want to have better success rates I need to try try again and keep a notebook like this baker Alice (thanks, Karen for sharing this with me a year ago!) I'm not ready to get that serious about baking. I tried weighing the flours to be equivalent to the white/wheat flour for the recipe book that came with the bread  machine but had big flops.

My friend, Yanny, shared with me some gems from a book by glutenfreegirl : "gluten-free baking usually requires a mix of 3 GF flours. One should be a whole-grain (sorghum, brown rice, garfav). Second a starch to lighten up the mix (potato starch, tapioca starch/flour, cornstarch, arrow root). Last should have a personality you want to add. Amaranth has soft texture, slight malt flavor (cookies, cinnamon rolls). Almond for protein and a bit of fat. Coconut flour, but it sucks up moisture. Millet for crumb. Quinoa is savory (quiches). Teff is the finest texture so it almost melts during baking and helps bind muffins and quick breads." For pancakes and cookies I find using a gluten free blend  (2:1 parts of whole-grain to starch and xantham gum, for this blend 3 cups of flour needs 1 tsp xantham gum) and then to add some nutrition no more than 25%-33% of personality flour. I really wish I could do almond flour-darn allergy! Elena's Pantry blog uses it for many of the baked goods.

So, I'm still in search of a magical bread machine recipe that comes out great every time-and still puzzling over what I can swap in for powdered milk to get in line with trying to reduce soy in my diet. I haven't seen powdered oat milk or anything at the stores yet. Mayhaps I just need to swap in the warmed liquid milk substitute and use less water...but one thing to change up at a time. I made two loaves these past two weeks, experimenting with making it eggless and the amount of yeast.

Loaf #1 I was warned by Gluten-free Goddess that eggless loaves don't rise as high. Visit her site and site some of her bread machine tips-like using a spatula to do extra mixing.

Loaf #1 is from Food.com.
I left out the egg and used 2 tbsp ground flax seed as suggested by people who tried the recipe on food.com. I used powdered soy milk and 1 packet of rapid rise yeast as that is what I had on-hand. It was very dense, not fluffy like people who followed the recipe raved, but they probably used eggs. The loaf had a slightly sweet flavor though enough that I ate it plain. I selected the quick loaf setting (2 hrs) as suggested and decided to add extra water when I saw it wasn't mixing well.

Loaf #2 was the same recipe but I doubled the yeast that I used. Let me say, it was so ugly I don't want to post a picture. The it ended up almost being a crescent moon shape (fighting evil by moonlight, winning love by daylight...uh,what, no, I never used to watch silly Japanese animes!) But it tasted good-such a good breakfast with avocado slices or nut butter and honey.

Perhaps I'll try with the recipe specified amount of yeast next time. And make sure the dough is more like banana bread batter consistency so it fills the pan evenly like Loaf #1 during mixing phase.

What dish are you trying/would like to master at present? And what was your guilty pleasure cartoon after school?