Gluten Free Cookbooks

One week from today, I move to Davis, CA to start my life as a grad student! In preparation, I am packing, shopping, and attempting to preorganize my life.

One thing I've been doing lately is looking for gluten free recipes and cook books. My philosophy of gluten free cookbooks is this: one easy, one medium, and one hard. However, even my hard cookbook isn't THAT hard. Here's what I have:

Beyond Rice Cakes - This book is geared towards college students (especially female college students) who eat gluten free. The recipes are mostly very easy (including a cheap cookie made out of only 3 ingredients!), although they are not all healthy. Great for easy snacks and desserts, but not my choice for meals.

Gluten Free and Easy - The beautiful pictures in this book make me feel like I've bought a fancy cookbook full of normal food. While the food in here is sort of easy, some ingredients are rather expensive. I've only made one dinner from here so far, but it was great!

Wheat-Free, Gluten-Free, Reduced-Calorie Cookbook - Okay, so even though this is my "hard" cookbook, it's not that bad. I also think it's cheaper than GF&E. Plus it tells you the nutritional information for each recipe. This book is indispensable... it has a great variety of recipes that I adjust to make what I want.

But non GF cookbooks are also pretty good. For example, Glamour Magazine once put out a cookbook (now out of print) called Glamour's Gormet on the Run. It's a great cookbook, and many recipes are GF or can easily be made GF with a few substitutions. I also keep a journal with gluten free recipes that I have copied from cookbooks, the internet, or my parents. It's amazing how easy it can be to cook gluten free with just a few substitutions. Not that you can make everything easily, though. I wish!

Still, my recommendation to anyone who has just been diagnosed with CD is this: learn to cook. It will make your life much easier.

I'll be sharing some recipes in the blog from now on. Not from cookbooks though... from my own kitchen. I created a GF tortilla "pizza" last year that calmed my pizza cravings while still being GF and low calorie. I'll share that soon, although it is mostly common sense...

PS... If for some crazy reason you don't want to make food with a flour mix from the store or you are annoyed with the many different flour blends that GF cookbooks recommend you make on your own, I love Superfine Brown Rice Flour. It's just brown rice flour, but is not gritty like some of them. It may not be great in desserts (although I can vouch for it in cookies), but it's great in muffins, soups, and breads as a direct substitute for wheat flour.