Thanksgiving in 2 days, already started cooking last night!

So part of being a single income large family is the privilege of being able to prepare meals from scratch often.  I call it a privilege because having been eating this way for so long and then making the odd and very occasional switch to more processed foods, it's just a wonder why anyone would ever want any other food but homemade.

In order for us to do this, we make 2 large purchases a year from vitacost.com when we have extra money (like after taxes or when we get my husband's military uniform allowance) and stock up on gluten free organic flours, starches pastas, and rice/quinoa, free range and organic chicken broth (bullion), Organic spices, dairy free organic milk substitutes, etc.... and make sure we have enough to get us through about six months since it is so much cheaper online and shipping to Hawaii is almost nothing. 

We made our last big purchase about a month ago so that we would be ready for the holidays.  This is why last night, hubby and I were able to make our homemade gluten free herb breads just to let them go stale so that we can make our homemade stuffing on Thanksgiving!  My own grandmother made stuffing from scratch but she never made her own bread to do it.  It feels so freeing to know that I can prepare traditional meals myself without the help of a box and it is still pretty easy.

The following are my bread recipes if you ever wanted to try (they are adaptions from other recipes I found online with my own twist...)

Gluten free garlic herb bread (I made two of this recipe for Thanksgiving stuffing)

Originally taken from (http://www.elanaspantry.com/gluten-free-bread-20/)  A great resource for gluten free! (before my adaptions)

• 1 ½ cups almond flour
• ¾ cup potato starch
• ¼ cup flaxseed meal
• ½ teaspoon garlic salt (I get the kind from Costco with the herbs already in it)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon agave syrup 
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar 
• Tablespoon dried onion flakes (optional)

I seriously mix all of these together in no orthodox fashion and make sure to scrape down the sides and mix super thoroughly.  Should be a little runny and not so doughy. 

(If you don't have almond flour, you could rice flour but you well need to add about a 1/4 to a half cup of almond milk or soy milk to make it wet enough and add about 20 minutes to your cooking time.   If you don't have potato starch, you can use corn starch or arrowroot powder) 

You need small meat loaf pans or small rectangular cake pans for this recipe.  Preheat oven to 350, should be done between 30-35 minutes or until tooth pick inserted, comes out clean.

On the plus side, it's cow dairy free, gluten free, grain free and full of fiber!  If you want it vegan, you can always do the equivalent of egg substitute for the four eggs. 


Fresh herb quinoa flour vegan gluten free bread (I used one of these recipes for my Thanksgiving stuffing)

Originally taken from http://enlightenedcooking.blogspot.com/2011/10/quinoa-soda-bread-gluten-free.html, before my adaptions

Preheat oven to 350°F

Grease two mini metal loaf pans (6x3 inches)

or one small rectangular cake pan

2 cups quinoa flour

1-3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1/4 tsp  baking soda

1 cup almond milk plus 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (makes a buttermilk)

1 and a half tablespoons of (mixed and equal) finely chopped fresh thyme and rosemary (together equals 1.5 tablespoons)

Again, I am not a follow the rules chef, I just throw it all together and mix it up super well and it all comes out fine.  Remember to scrape the sides thoroughly.  Cook for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

Note: Quinoa flour has a strong pungent flavor so you don't need much in a stuffing recipe.  Both breads need about 3 days wrapped in a clean bath towel (not in any cooking containers) to be perfectly stale for stuffing.

This is one day after I made them, the one on the far right is the Quinoa bread and I have my hand in the pic to show the size of the loafs, they are not that big.

I'll include more of my Thanksgiving recipes as the week wears on, all of my recipes are usually adaptions of other recipes I find online with my own twists or allergy requirements.  I will always post the link to the original recipe.  (Unless I made it up myself, which I sometimes do).

Happy cooking!