Need Help With A Snack.

[love2travel]

One of my favourite snacks is spicy lime roasted chickpeas. They become crispy and so good.

How about making your own chips? There is this new product on the market called a Chipster that goes into the microwave. Simply slice your potatoes, season and place on this thing and the chips become crispy. I like to do them in the oven but that requires added fat whereas the Chipster (and there is a larger thing like a Chipster only a different brand) does not.

Do you like pumpkin seeds (pepitas)? I season and roast. They are delicous, crunchy and addictive. Great sprinkled on salads and soups.

[JNBunnie1]

I get olive oil fried potato chips from Trader Joes, I LOVE them! Can make them at home, but much easier to buy a bag! Or six...

From what you posted from the EJ website, only the chocolate bars have the not-ok sugar in them. Maybe the chocolate chips are ok? I lurvs the chocolate chips! The website says they label anything that might have corn. Also, you could get unprocessed unsweetened baker's chocolate, maybe, and sweeten it yourself?

[tarnalberry]

Beans? Eggs? You can make crackers from beans (and gluten-free flours like arrowroot) and can make eggs so many different ways. You could make muffins, but add things like flax and chia seed to round out the nutritional content. (Muffins freeze well, in general, so you can make a huge batch once or twice a month and have them around.) What about veggies and hummus (or another variety of bean dip)?

[andi1235]

eggs?

gluten-free "Olga Bread" 2.0:

I posted a recipe for a gluten-free "Olga Bread" a couple weeks ago. I LOVE the stuff, and I personally think it makes a good quick snack. I particulrly like it with cheese, but if you can't have dairy you can pretty much add any fillings you like and it's still delish. I make it with xanthan gum but I tried it once with guar gum and it was fine. If you can't do either of those, flax seed or chia seed meal mixed with boiling water until you have a batch of "goo" makes a good gum replacement, and I think the flavor would be good in the bread. You can use dairy free margarine and whatever dairy free milk you like (or probably even water - you really just need liquid for consistency). Also, the flours I used aren't crucial. In fact, I've tried it and discovered I like it better with amaranth flour instead of rice flour (less gritty), and you could probably do a "paleo" version pretty easily subbing paleo "flours" for the grain-based ones. The only important thing is that you want about half "regular" flours and half "starchy" ones. Arrowroot starch is a good sub if you can't do corn or tapioca.

I discovered I like this better if I add an egg, but if you can't have eggs the bread still works just fine. I grew up with the "real thing" for the Olga bread, and the egg makes it taste more authentic.

1 cup millet flour

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup tapioca starch

1 cup sweet rice flour

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp xanthan gum (or substitute - if you do the flax or chia sub I would use more like a tablespoon of the "goo")

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup butter (or dairy-free sub)

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 ounce active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 teaspoon sugar

1 egg (optional, but I prefer it)

any oil (to oil your cooking utensils - the dough is sticky)

Heat the milk, butter (or butter sub), and honey in a pan till the milk starts to scald slightly. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add COLD water to the milk mix and wait till the temperature is low enough to not kill the yeast. Then mix the liquid with the dry ingredients.

I've experimented with this some, and I've found it makes the best textured flatbread if you add enough water or other liquid so that the dough you get is sort of the consistency of silly putty, but less sturdy. If you ever made cornstarch "goop" in science class, that's the texture you're going for. Not quite liquid, not quite solid.

The original recipe I posted called for greasing your hands thoroughly and scooping with your hands (which is fun, but messy!) but I've found it's easier to oil a measuring cup (a 1/4 or 1/3 cup makes nice big pieces).

Heat an UNGREASED frying pan to about medium heat.

Liberally oil your measuring cup and a nice big spatula.

Scoop up a glob of dough in the cup. It should get coated in the oil from the cup, just a bit.

Dump the glob of dough into the frying pan, and flatten it the best you can with the edges of the cup and the spatula. You won't get it too flat the first time around, but that's ok.

After about 30 seconds, the bottom should be cooked enough that you can (VERY carefully) flip the glob over. Then flatten it out as much as possible with the greased spatula.

Keep baking and flipping each piece of bread for 2-3 minutes, until both sides have golden-brown spots. The process ends up being a lot like making pancakes, but the bread you get is much more solid and "bready" in consistency. You should get 10-12 pieces of bread, depending how big you make them.

Incidentally, I bet a chocolate version of this bread would be AWESOME. Just add some gluten-free cocoa powder (the unsweetened kind), and maybe a little more sugar. If you can find gluten-free/DF chocolate chips (or bars you could break up or process in a food processor) it would probably be really good with that too. I'm totally trying this today - I'll report back with results!

[andi1235]

FYI, just tried the chocolate "Olga bread." It's awesome.

[GottaSki]

Try searching for olive oil potato chips -- I found a brand a while back which used only olive oil and salt -- ordered a case that lasted for several months worth of crunchy/munchy emergencies -- unfortunately I am no longer able to eat potato so I haven't ordered them in quite awhile.

[june27]

Hiya,

I am going nuts eating only meat, vegetables and fruit. I am gluten, dairy, nut (including coconut) and corn free. Xanthan gum comes from corn so I can't have any of the packaged things. I can't have chips because they are fried in corn oil or they are cc with corn. I am not trying to complain, I am just starting to get D from all of the fruit that I eat. I can go through a whole watermelon by myself in 2 days. There has got to be something else for a snack besides fruit.

I cried at the grocery store today because I am having my monthly visitor and I just want some chocolate or a cookie or a chip or something! The lady in front of my had all of the makings for chocolate chip cookies in her cart. I seriously cried all the way home.

Any ideas?

Thanks

- MO

I am relatively new to gluten-free and haven't branched out too much in terms of cooking from scratch. Have you tried "1-2-3 Gluten Free" brownies? The box says they are free of the following: gluten, wheat, dairy, casein, peanut, tree nut, corn, egg and soy. The ingredients does list xantham gum - not sure if they have a corn free variety, or if they are just not aware that it comes from corn.

I don't have much to compare them to, but I thought they were tasty, though a bit on the drier side (paricularly on 2nd day)...

[bartfull]

You can make your own baking powder by using baking soda and cream of tartar. I've seen various different ratios mentioned, from one part of each, to two parts cream of tartar to one part baking soda.

Kettle Brand chips have no corn oil. I used to eat a ton of them until the nighshade intolerance showed up. Cape Cod chips are OK too, although they don't taste as good to me as the Kettle Brand. Kettle Brand are GREASY, I mean to the point that there is a PUDDLE at the bottom of the bag, but oh my they are good.

[bartfull]

As superensitive as I am to corn, I am surprised that I can eat vanilla. I guess they are right that the protein is removed by the distilling process. But you can buy your own vanilla beans and soak them in vodka or whatever alcohol you can tolerate. Or you can put them in a bowl of sugar and the sugar will be infused with the vanilla flavor. I learned that one right here from one of the members who knows how to cook.

[love2travel]

Can you have meringues? Just egg whites, cream of tartar (or a touch of vinegar), granulated sugar and add ins such as toasted coconut or almonds. Whatever. Or just plain.

Have I already mentioned spicy pepitas (pumpkin seeds you roast)? Or roast chili lime chickpeas?

Darn it - I knew this was familiar! I posted this earlier. I guess delicious things bear repeating.

[bartfull]

Love2Travel just posted her home made vanilla on the Making Your Own Condiments thread.

[love2travel]

Love2Travel just posted her home made vanilla on the Making Your Own Condiments thread.

Yes, and it is wonderful! Embarassingly easy as well.

[Gfreemimi]

Thank you so much! As a fellow midwesterner, I am soo excited to try this! I hope it comes out close...does it have a fairly chewy texture?