Jens Gluten Free Blog

With my son’s egg allergy and the lack of eggs in my house, Energ-E egg replacer is an essential ingredient. It holds most cakes and cookies together nicely. It doesn’t really work in quiches as well. It doesn’t give body to food the way eggs do, but it does serve as an excellent binding agent when eggs are not an option. When my daughter was diagnosed with celiac disease and I had to throw away so many basic ingredients that lined my pantry, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ener-G egg rreplacer is gluten-free. To be frank, I don’t know what I would have done if it wasn’t!

One of the biggest challenges of being a parent with a child that has celiac disease is coming up with gluten-free desserts that the whole family can enjoy. Often the gluten-free cakes and cookies have a different consistency that my non-celiac children complain bitterly about. Sometimes I think it’s easier to stay away from gluten-free baked goods and fall back on desserts that are naturally gluten-free.

Last week I found this great recipe for banana cream pie on the Jell-O website that I easily adapted to the gluten-free diet. It’s easy (those are the only kind I make), fun to do with kids, and a great way to get them to eat their bananas (if they don’t pick them out when you are not looking)!

Looking for a hot creamy soup to warm up those cool autumn nights? Soups are a great gluten-free alternative for lunches and even dinners.

If there is one thing that gluten-free eaters need to learn to embrace it is rice. As all gluten-free moms know, rice is in just about every recipe you make. It appears in every possible form: brown rice flour, white rice flour, rice puddings, rice and beans, rice in soup, rice in stuffing, rice in meatballs, rice with vegetables, Rice Krispie treats, and the old standby…rice cakes! So I have decided to dedicate this blog to my favorite rice recipe.

There are few words in the English language that elicit a more mouth watering response than “chocolate cream pie.” I had all but given up on cream pies when my son was diagnosed with his egg allergy. But then I found this simple recipe with Rich’s Whip, chocolate pudding, and a ready made pie crust that put chocolate cream pie back in it’s place at our table.

You think staying gluten-free is tough? I was recently put on a diet that is actually more difficult than the celiac diet (can you believe that is possible?). Eventually I was diagnosed with a parasite, but before that helpful diagnosis was made, the doctor told me to stick with just plain bread and cooked vegetables (I think I would have preferred the celiac diet). Anyway, in my search for some good recipes for cooked veggies I found this great vegetable soup recipe.

Looking for some easy gluten-free dessert recipes? With all of the food allergies in my family I am usually reduced to serving Jello and whipped cream for dessert. But recently I stumbled upon a couple of other easy gluten free desserts that are safe for my entire family.

When I first learned of my daughter’s celiac disease I went straight to my cookbook to figure out which recipes I could adapt easily to gluten-free cooking. I didn’t go to the professionally bound, carefully researched cookbooks. I went to my small, brown, decrepit notebook, where I have recorded my favorite recipes over the past five years. I wasn’t very successful at adapting the cakes and cookies that my family had grown to know and love over the years, but I did learn one very important lesson: sweet potatoes are a celiac’s best friend. I had two fantastic sweet potato recipes, one for sweet potato muffins and one for candied sweet potatoes, that adapt very well to gluten free cooking.

What’s your easiest gluten-free dinner? For someone like myself, who has to make both gluten-free meals and regular meals, finding the one meal that will suit everyone’s needs can be challenging.

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