Food Gluten Free Archives - Page 2 of 2 - My One Cent Worth of Thoughts

Home Made Gluten Free Okara Crackers

July 25, 2017 Zhiwei Comments 2 Comments

Ever since I bought my soy milk maker, I have been churning out home made soy milk (and other plant milks like almond milk too!) and… lots of soy bean pulp….. Well, I hate the idea of wasting stuff and those were premium organic soy bean pulp!!

If you google, you will be able to find various uses for the pulp and here’s one that I have tried out. Okara Crackers! I replaced the wheat flour in the recipe so that the crackers can be made gluten for my 宝贝.

Recipe for Gluten Free Okara Crackers

265g soya bean pulp (one round of soy milk will yield this amount – thereabout)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

10tbsp one to one GF flour

herbs or cheese flakes or cinnamon sugar (optional) to create different flavours

Add all ingredients into a mixing bowl. Mix them until they achieve a pizza dough texture. Using a rolling pin, roll them as thin as you can. I prefer them thin so that they are crispy. If they end up to thick, they become chewy in the middle. Cut them out into desired shapes. Fastest, most efficient shape – use a knife to cut them into squares or rectangles. If you want to make it into a fun-filled family event (be prepared to do a fair bit of cleaning up), use cute cookie cutters!

Oven setting : preheat 180°C. 15-20 minutes.

The kids love it! They can knead the dough like play dough, cut them up into their favourite shapes and EAT THEM!!! Yums!

Industriously cutting up his dough.

Messy but edible.

Little gingerbread boys and girls and a few animals to keep them company!

Home Made Soy Milk

July 16, 2017 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

Ever since I bought the Joyoung Soy Milk Maker about 1.5 years ago, I’ve been meaning to write about it. But it kind of got back logged. ? Then forgotten.

I bought it from Taobao at a fraction of what I would have paid in SG. The only difference is in the plug. Fortunately, I discovered that it can use the same plug as my rice cooker! So voila! Just plug it in!! Less hassle!! ??

I’ve been using it to make almond milk recipe for the kiddos. Just dump all the ingredients into it. Press a button. Wait for it to beep. Filter. Drink!

It’s the same thing for the Soy Milk. I bought organic soya beans from cold storage. It doesn’t say non GMO on the packaging though. Just can’t find one that says non GMO. If anyone knows where to find it, let me know.

Soy Milk Recipe

1 cup soya beans
4 cups water
3 pandan leaves (shredded)
8 dates (I use medjool dates)

1. Soak soybeans in 2-3 cups of water overnight.
2. Discard water and rinse soybeans.

3. Remove skins to your best effort. I rub them between my fingers.

4. Add all ingredients to Joyoung. Press button. Read a book. ?

5. When the machine beeps, filter it with a sieve or coffee sock.

6. Add honey or other sweeteners to taste. Or simply drink it straight up!

I use the pulp to make gluten free crackers!!!

Milk Kefir Popsicle

January 31, 2016 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

The children have been clamouring for home made ice cream. I haven’t had time to make some for them. I need to make more desserts for bargaining chips!! ?

I had watermelon and milk kefir in my refrigerator and a set of brand new popsicle mould which I bought from Daiso (for only $2!! I love Daiso!!). My first popsicles in the making! ??????

I blended the watermelon and mixed in the milk kefir. Voila! Watermelon smoothie! Poured the mixture into the popsicle moulds and popped them into the freezer.

The mixture eventually separated into 2 layers. ? BUT my easy-going children loved them! Why? They are cold and they had 2 colours. ??? Anything cold goes with them.

I need to come up with more kefir popsicle recipes that don’t separate into layers though. Keep your eyes on my posts! ?

Ingredients :

Watermelon

Milk kefir

More kefir recipes

Little Miss Muffet's Curds and Whey

January 26, 2016 Zhiwei Comments 9 Comments

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey;

Along came a spider

Who sat down beside her

And frightened Miss Muffet away.

One of the nursery rhymes I learnt during my childhood days. I have always wondered, what were “curds and whey”. Now I know! Hey! I make that everyday from my milk kefir! They separate in curds and whey after fermentation and both are extremely nutritious. So Little Miss Muffet is a healthy little girl! Wahahaha!

In my last milk kefir post, I posted that my kefir grains were starved to death… Sigh… As I had no grains, what I did, was to “recycle” the curds. After fermentation, I would take a big scoop, put the curds into my glass container, feed it with milk, then ferment them again. With the curds, I was able to continue making more kefir.

Why?

Well, that’s because there is still live culture present in the curds. The live culture continues to stay alive and cultivate the milk. Theoretically speaking, this can go on and on and on. However, as they are microscopic and can’t be seen by the naked eye, the only way to test the amount of culture in the curds is by lab testing. If the bacteria die off, it will stop cultivating. The safer way is to still obtain the kefir grains for cultivating the bacteria.

So, I used curds to culture my kefir for quite a while, til Marcelly came to my rescue! By giving me more grains!! Thanks babe!!

It’s just a useful tip for you. If you are able to get live cultured curds, you can technically make curds for quite a while, even without grains.

Therefore, if you are unable to find grains, you can buy the original milk kefir from Craft & Culture and then use it to make more kefir.

Happy fermenting!

Milk Kefir Food

December 27, 2015 Zhiwei Comments 2 Comments

Ever since I started milk kefir making, I have incorporated it into our diet. In order for the diet to work, it has to be worked into our lifestyle permanently. Milk kefir has over 40 strains of culture. Just google milk kefir and you will find that it’s a wealth of goodness! Anyway, it’s a lot cheaper and more natural to eat this, than to buy the multi-strain probiotics capsules. Besides, it is helping my 宝贝’s eczema tremendously. I will do anything for her!

So now, the whole family has been “gently persuaded” to have kefir for breakfast EVERY DAY! Yes! Every single day! Now, it’s just part of our diet. I will add on to the list… If you have any new ideas, please feel free to let me know!

Banana Raisins Kefir

Watermelon Kefir Popsicle

The Day My Kefir Grains Died….

December 27, 2015 Zhiwei Comments 9 Comments

My milk kefir grains have… disappeared!!

It’s tragic…. I swirled around my filter.

I had just returned from the States after almost 3 weeks. I had left my precious grains in the care of my Mother, so that she could continue to produce kefir for my children while I was gone.

Me : Mom! Eh… what happened to the kefir grains??

Mom : Aren’t they inside the kefir?

Me : No… nothing’s there!

Mom : Oh… Dunno why, but they got fewer every time I make…

Me : (suspiciously) How often do you make them??

Mom : Arh… whenever the kids finish eating lar. Then I make more.

Me : So… how often is that?? Do you give them kefir every day?

Mom : No lar… sometimes I remember I will give. So every 4-5 days, I make some lor.

Me : Did you put the grains into the fridge when you don’t make them?

Mom : No. Need arh? I just left them on the table.

Me : ?

My Mom literally starved my kefir grains to death!!! The grains are usually covered with milk and left in the refrigerator when I am hibernating them. And it is good to hibernate them every other day so that they are not “overworked”. In fact, they multiply faster whenever they get some rest.

So, remember, not to starve your grains to death. Pop them into the refrigerator, covered with milk to rest them.

I also keep a “backup” supply of hibernated grains in my refrigerator, just in case…. Very kiasu now…

2 Ingredients Gluten free pancake

December 10, 2014 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

Oh great!! I ran out of gluten free pancake mix and the brand I usually use was out of stock on Iherb! After discovering Iherb I simply refused buy the gluten free or organic stuff from local shops anymore! It’s about 30% cheaper on Iherb, including shipping fees! I think I’ll write about Iherb when I’m free!

Anyway, I remembered vaguely that my cousin posted a link in our whatsapp group on some healthy easy-to-do recipes.

Ok… Time to test the pancake recipe. I was pretty skeptical about it because it only had 2 ingredients. Ya… Only 2… And you can find them in everybody’s home. Well… Almost! Maybe 90% of the people have them at home.

Easy peasy. Just egg and banana!!! Huh!! Do I hear you say “huh?!” My reaction exactly when I saw the recipe.

Aiya.. Even if 宝贝 doesn’t want to eat it, I will. I love bananas!

So the proportion is 1 banana (the big one. I use 2 small ones sometimes) : 1 egg

Mash up the banana. Add the egg. Beat them together. Drop a dollop of the mixture on a pan. Make sure your pan is not too hot. The banana burns easily. Once it solidifies, flip it over.

Ta-da!! Here they are!! Not scoring high in the looks department but they certainly were yummy!!

These were the 2nd batch of my 1st attempt. The 1st batch ended up in my tummy. Too ugly to be seen! It took a few tries to get them reasonably decent looking. ?

But hey! They are gluten free, yummy and easy to make if I run out of breakfast food to serve up.

Have fun!

*Enter TFZ557 at Iherb.com to get $5 off your first purchase!*

1 July 2018

Finally got around to updating the recipe. The batter was too soft with just 2 ingredients and I had a hard time flipping them. I tweaked it a little by adding some coconut flour.

1 big banana (or 2 small ones)

1 egg

1 tablespoon coconut flour

Kefir Breakfast

December 5, 2014 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

Ever since I started making kefir, I’ve been serving up kefir smoothies mixed with fruits. I need to start thinking of more variety of kefir food. ?

Because I don’t add sweetener to the kefir, I’ve to mix it with sweet fruits.

Our favourite banana slices, raisins kefir! Just chop up everything. Throw them into the bowl. Scoop kefir – quantity to taste. Mix. Voila! Easy enough for breakfast!

The only one in the family who eats his kefir neat.

You can also get milk kefir from Craft & Culture! Have a healthy day!