Cut Out ALL the Gluten: Bread and Pancakes

Work and illness have kept me from posting for the past couple of days, but I’m back and cooking again (not in the Breaking Bad sense, though. That would be illegal and somewhat dangerous)! As I’ve mentioned before, I have a gluten-sensitivity, so I try to cut it out whenever possible, and I don’t bring it into the house. I’ve been missing pancakes, though, and I also found myself craving PB&J. Certain sandwiches don’t work well as lettuce wraps 😀 Anyway, I don’t like regular gluten-free bread, pancakes, and so on. They’re expensive, usually taste like cardboard, and are too dense for my liking. So I’ve been trying out some recipes for gluten-free substitutes that will work just as well without all the calories and cardboard-ness of the real thing. First, I tried a bread substitute because I wanted a sandwich, dang it. I found this awesome recipe that the original poster calls “Cloud Bread.” It’s really simple – made with cream cheese and eggs, and it turns out really light and fluffy. I couldn’t find cream of tartar anywhere, so I used lemon juice instead, and it worked just as well. I had to learn how to separate eggs, which was really cool 😀 I got it right on the first try.

My separated egg yolks with the cream cheese. The second yolk broke when I put it in the bowl, but I still consider it a success!

“Cloud Bread” on a pan 😀

The result was absolutely delicious – super light and satisfying without being dense, and it doesn’t taste of egg at all (a concern of mine at first). The one thing I wish I’d done differently was sprayed the pan down a little more – some of them came off easily, but the majority stuck too much and tore. Still tasty though 🙂 My boyfriend’s mom and I made blackberry jam a couple weeks ago, so I spread some of the jam onto the crispier pieces of bread, and it made me a very happy eater. It tasted like a lovely jam toast without the gluten or the heavy carbs.

A pre-fluffed piece of cloud bread. It’s delicious even before it puffs up.

With the homemade blackberry jam. No regrets.

Now for pancakes! IHOP is one of my favorite restaurants, not gonna lie. They have some of the best pancakes I’ve ever eaten. But they’re full of sugar and full of gluten, so I usually feel bloated and heavy afterwards. Last week, though, I came across a recipe I just had to try. Pancakes made with only eggs, oats, and bananas? Yes please! I decided to make them for breakfast this morning 🙂 I didn’t use the protein powder because I don’t like how synthetic that stuff is, so I added extra oats to help with the consistency. The result was slightly denser than a regular pancake, but not too much. There’s a definite banana flavor, so if you don’t like that, I recommend pre-blending the banana first to make the mixture as thin as possible before adding it to the oats and eggs. I also made the blueberry topping to go with it, but only used one TBSP of honey, since the blueberry reduction was sweet enough on its own 🙂 I was definitely happy with the result! Filling without making me feel too heavy, and a good protein boost. I think I’m going to use some of the leftovers to make a PB&J sandwich for lunch tomorrow.

Pancakes in a pan. Who would have thought?

My blueberry mixture 🙂 It made my kitchen smell wonderful.

Hello, beautiful. Come to mama.

I’m not going to say I’ll swear off IHOP forever or anything (I have to indulge every now and then, you know), but these will serve me just as well on a regular basis. I’m loving all these new foods I’m trying now that I’m off the over-processed, hormone-pumped meat, and gluten-filled normative diet. I feel so much healthier, and I’ve actually gone down a dress size in the past week! It’s a marvelous feeling. I have several new recipes I’m trying out this week, so stay tuned!