Ingredients:

• 4 slices of Schar Gluten Free Bread
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon
• 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
• 1/2  Cup  of Coconut Sugar
• 1/4  Cup and 1 Tablespoon of Granulated Sugar
• 1/4 Cup of Confectioner Sugar
• 2 Ripe Bananas sliced
• 1/4 Cup of Cream Cheese
• 1/4  Cup of Butter

Directions:

1. In a saucepan over medium-heat, add  the sliced ripened bananas and 1/4  cup of  butter.
2. Add 1/2   cup of coconut sugar and 1/4 cup of granulated sugar to the bananas.
3. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the mixture and allow the sugar to dissolve to form a syrup.  Let cool.
4. In a bowl, add the 2 eggs then   whisk in  1 tablespoon of cinnamon, and 1 tablespoon of sugar.
5. Add bread slices to egg mixture and place onto a hot skillet with melted butter.   Cook the french toast evenly and then add the bananas foster mixture atop your french toast.

A gluten free bread that is on the shelf next to normal bread.  What?  I have had decent success with Schar products.  They are generally good tasting, hold up well, and are reasonably priced.  When I saw this at HEB, I immediately grabbed it and felt how  soft the bread was.  It was super soft, like normal bread so I had to buy it and try.

I made a sandwich that day for lunch and tried the end piece of bread that nobody touches without toasting it or anything.  It tasted like bread.  It was incredibly amazing.  It did leave a weird texture in my mouth.  Whatever the bread consist of does not dissolve well and sticks to your teeth.

With all these great things said there are some cons.  I have purchased this bread more than once after that time and it has never been as good as the first time.  It's never been as soft, so I am guessing I got a fresh batch that one time.  The bread will stick to your mouth and teeth in a non normal way.   I can't explain it, you'd have to try it.

Unfortunately, after buying this for a month or two, it is now not being carried by HEB.  Even with all the negatives it has still became my favorite bread....that I can no longer find.  Boo!

This is a BLT-avocado sandwich that I made on the bread.  The bread  tastes great toasted as well.  I miss you!

Aside from making fresh fries this is a real easy recipe.  Skip the fresh cut potato frying if you want but you are missing out!  As I say this, I am just now realizing that I am missing out by using frozen seafood, oh well my choice.

Ingredients:

• 2 Russet potatoes
• Parmesan Cheese
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Seafood Stock
• 1 Package of frozen Mussels
• 1 Package of frozen Clams
• 1 Bottle of Vegetable Oil for Frying
• 1 can of seasoned tomatoes

Directions:

1. Empty bottle of vegetable oil into a large pot and start to heat the oil.
2. Slice potatoes into french fry length pieces.  Once done slicing, oil should be hot enough to add the fries into the oil.
3. Cook the fries until they start to brown and drain onto a paper towel.  Immediately season the fries with salt, pepper, and the grated parmesan  cheese.
4. In another large pot, add the can of seasoned tomatoes and cook the tomatoes for four minutes.   
5. Next add the seafood stock and bring it to a mild boil. 
6. Add the clams to the stock.  I add the clams first because their shells will not break apart whereas the mussels shells tend to break into the broth.  Both the clams and mussels are previously cooked and only need to be heated for a couple minutes   to have their shells open.
   
7. Enjoy the mussel and clam broth with your fries! 

I have seen this pizza for awhile now but only in the large cheese version.  I am not a cheese pizza fan and never got around to buying it.  I recently moved and wanted to give this pizza a try and could not find it anywhere.  Soon after, I finally found it but in a personal size, aka child version.  Being too small and priced at $6 I never got around to trying it.

Finally, I came across the large version again at Kroger.  This time it was the Pepperoni version.  I pulled it from the shelf quick.  Priced around $10 I was finally ready to try this pizza and it did not disappoint.
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This has been the best gluten free frozen pizza I have gotten to try.  I have had the Daiya, Udi's, Russo's, and Amy's version.  This one tasted real close to a standard frozen pizza.  It was great to have that feeling again and I can't wait until I purchase this pizza again.  It is highly recommended!

I was beyond excited to find this at Kroger the other day.   I always wanted to try California Pizza Kitchen before I went gluten free but never got around to it.  Now, I finally had a reason to try it.

I've usually only found gluten free frozen pizzas to be topped with cheese, pepperoni, or a vegetable so it was also exciting to try an option like BBQ Chicken.

Overall, the pizza was okay.  It was priced around $8 I believe which is a little below  the price for other gluten free pizzas.  There was nothing wrong with the pizza but just nothing spectacular about it.  I would eat it again if I wanted a gluten free pizza because of its price and decent taste.

Give it a try if it sounds good.  Otherwise I would not recommend it to someone.

Adding fresh corn to your grits or cornmeal mush is a wonderful compliment to a tasty dish.  Just slice down the side of the stalk of corn and cook the corn with the grits to compliment them.  

The first grits I ever had were on accident.  I was under the impression that a hash brown was what McDonald's hash browns are and figured shredded hash browns that I wanted to experience were most likely called grits.  I did not take more than a bite of those breakfast chained grits.  

Grits need love.  Adding depth with cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, fresh corn, bacon, pancetta, anything other than just grits will make this a tasty dish.

I wanted to try making fresh corn grits, adding fresh corn to grits, and when the time came realized I did not have grits.  I did have cornmeal though.  Looks the same, surely you can get a similar result.  Found out that there is such a thing as cornmeal mush.  Let me tell you, I believe it was better than grits!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 Cup of Cornmeal
• 5 slices of  Bacon (chopped)
• 1 lb of Gulf Shrimp
• 4 Fresh pieces of Corn
• 2 Tablespoons of  Olive oil
• Lemon Juice
• Himalayan Sea Salt
• Kosher Salt
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• 1 1/2 Cup of  Almond Milk
• 1 Cup of Water
• 2 Tablespoons of Earth Balance Butter

Directions:

1. Peel the corn and slice off the stalk.   Slice the corn off the cob and add it to a saucepan over medium heat for about 5-8 minutes.
2. Add   1 1/4 cup of cornmeal, with 2 tablespoons butter, 1 1/2 cup of almond milk, and 1 cup of water.  Add your salt preference and  cook over medium heat  until the mixture thickens.
3. In a skillet over medium heat, add  2 tablespoons of olive oil.   Add kosher salt, and fresh ground pepper   to the oil with a couple drops of fresh lemon juice.  I prefer to season the oil as it will adhere to the shrimp   versus seasoning the shrimp and throwing it in oil.  
4. Add the bacon to the skillet to give the oil a little more flavor.  The bacon is already cooked so it will only take 2 minutes to add what flavor it has to the oil.
   
5. Add the shrimp to the skillet and cook  through.
   
6. Put the cornmeal mash on your plate and top with your bacon and shrimp mixture. 

 The Bloody Mary.  A brunch staple.  The reason I was scared of mirrors as a child.  It has recently come to my attention that these can be quite refreshing.  Cheap Bloody Mary mixes are not the way to go.  The first Bloody Mary I had ever tried consisted of a mix and vodka.   Not too sure if a stalk of celery was even involved.  Either way I was left quite disappointed by this drink.  

Years later I came across someone selling their fresh, gluten free Bloody Mary mix and decided to give it another try.  Lauren's Bloody Mary Mix if you ever come across it.  They are based out of the Austin, TX area.

 I had finally realized the joy of a Bloody Mary.  Just like my love for Chicago Dogs, I enjoy being able to put whatever I can think of into these.  Bloody Mary bars are so enjoyable and you are left being able to make the drink based upon your palate versus the standard mix and vodka. 

The mix

There are some decent gluten free Bloody Mary mixes that I have tried.  I tend to liven them up with some extra ingredients which we will get to later but my mix of choice is V8 vegetable juice.  Yep!  Gluten free, cheaper than buying a mix that has to hold up space in your refrigerator and can take on lots of flavor.

The ingredients

To the V8, I like to add some fresh cracked black pepper, celery salt, and a couple dashes of Tabasco.  I've even gotten cray with blue cheese salt before.  I usually will salt the rim with a mixture of celery salt and pepper.

Fresh vegetables add a lot of dimensions to this drink.  Adding fresh chopped cilantro, fresh chopped jalapenos, or pico will add a lot of depth to the V8 juice.

Pickled okra, celery, pepperoncini peppers, are my favorite toppings to go along with this drink.  Any pickled vegetable is a great choice.  

The secret ingredients

These are probably my secrets that I like to add to the V8.  

• Tablespoon of pickle juice, pepperoncini juice,  pickled okra juice,  or any other canned pickling juice.
• Tablespoon of cocktail sauce.   People put horseradish into theirs, I had no horseradish so why not cocktail sauce?  It actually helps transform the V8 juice into another flavor.
• Fresh vegetables always liven up the drink.  Cilantro, jalapenos, serrano peppers, are all great choices.

Be sure and give this drink another try!  Having to rotate between wine, cider, and sorghum beer can get boring quickly.  It  is tasty to put a little effort into your drink, just as we do in cooking our food.

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"Oh my God what is this?"  Were my wife's words of choice this morning after seeing this.  Pancakes, a go-to breakfast for non-gluten eaters is actually not that far off  from the gluten free version.   My favorite gluten free pancake mixes so far have been Bob's Mill's and Bisquick.  For these pancakes I used Bob's Mill but use your favorite.

You can substitute brown sugar for the coconut sugar in the recipe.  I've recently ran out of brown sugar and have been using coconut sugar as a replacement mainly because of a buy one get one free deal.  Coconut sugar looks like brown sugar and I believe it is a great replacement.  

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 Cup of Bob's Mill Pancake Mix  
• 1 Egg
• 1 Tablespoon of Vegetable Oil
• 1 1/4   Cup Almond Milk
• 1/2 Cup of Coconut Sugar
• 1/4  Cup of Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 Cup of Chopped Pecans
• 1 Tablespoon of Butter
• 1/8 Teaspoon of Cream of Tartar

Directions:

1. Prepare the pecan praline syrup.  In a saucepan, combine 1 cup of almond milk with 1/2 cup of coconut sugar and 1/4 granulated sugar.  Mix the ingredients and bring to a boil.  Add the 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. 
2. Once boiling, find the level of heat you need to consistently boil the  mixture without boiling over and boil for 25 minutes.
3. Stir the mixture, and add 1/4 cup of almond milk to help cool and loosen  the consistency of the   syrup.  Add 1 tablespoon of butter preference for added depth in flavor.
4. Follow the directions  per your gluten free pancake mix and make your pancakes.
5. Top each level of pancake with the pecan praline syrup and  try to avoid diabetes!

Flank steak has become my favorite meat to grill with lately.  It is relatively inexpensive at around $4 for a large piece of meat.  I've used it to make tacos but it is also a great just on its own.  I've taken some inspiration from my favorite carne asada dish and  grilled some vegetables to top the steak off.

I found the seasonings for this steak in the bulk section of HEB with the bulk spices.  The Chihuahua de Mexico Wood Smoked Salt has a very robust smoke smell, it is best to tuck that away in an air tight container.

Ingredients:

• Flank steak
• 1/2 avocado
• 1 tomato
• 1 tbs of smoked paprika
• 1 tsp  of  San Antonio Chili Powder
• 2 tbs of  Chihuahua de Mexico Wood Smoked Salt
• 1 tbs of La Choy Soy Sauce
• 1 tsp of Himalayan Salt

Directions:

1. Pour  1/2 tbs of  soy sauce on each side of the flank steak.
2. Rub each side of the flank steak with the smoked paprika, chili powder, and smoked salt.  Allow the steak to rest for at least 15 minutes before cooking.
3. Heat up your grill.
4. Slice tomato into four thick slices and season with the  Himalayan salt.
5. Put the flank steak on the grill along with the tomatoes.  Cook the steak on each side for about eight minutes.  Flank steak will be  about medium-rare.
6. Allow steak to rest and slice avocado in half.  Slice avocado into pieces and place   on top of the grilled tomatoes.

I have recently been on hiatus because of an apparent milk intolerance.  After a couple years of being gluten free, I started to have the same symptoms but was not eating gluten foods.   Apparently HEB Spring Water had the milk allergen in them and this was effecting me.  With countless nights of being sick and only eating chicken, salt, and broccoli, I am happy to know it was a milk intolerance.

Anywho, I am happy to find Daiya products.  A gluten free/dairy free dessert is hard to come by.  I am happy to report that Daiya does not disappoint.  The crust uses coconut flour in it and the coconut taste actually goes along great with the cheesecake.  The cheesecake itself was a little small for the $8-$9 price range but I was not disappointed in the taste.  It tasted great.  Which is a great feeling to experience when you have to eliminate two common ingredients in  desserts: gluten, and dairy.

It is not upsetting to pay this price for a product and get something small if it taste like this.  The taste made up for having to pay premium for a gluten/dairy free product.  I wish all products were like this and worth their price.

I recommend Daiya  products and will definitely be trying more of them.