As Celiac continues to get diagnosed more and more often, we are finding a lot more children with the need to live on a gluten free diet.  If you find yourself in this situation, Free From has some Gluten Free School Tips including a sample letter you can use, which is designed to help you explain to the school your childs needs. 

Ahh, yet another tasty breakfast recipe.   This one was designed with those who also need to be yeast-free in mind (hence the waffles instead of bread).  

gluten free Waffle French Toast

Ingredients:

• 4 frozen gluten-free waffle (I use Van’s Wheat Free Waffles)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 egg (or 1/2 cup egg beaters)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Toast waffles until browned and crisp.
2. Whisk eggs, vanilla, milk & cinnamon in a shallow bowl.
3. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat and melt butter.
4. Dip waffles in egg batter and place in skillet.
5. Cook until browned, turn and cook on other side.
6. Serve with butter and syrup.

[Recipe Courtesy of Recipe Zaar]

You may have noticed a lack of updates over the past few days.  This is because we have been working hard behind the scenes to get the rest of this website put together and hopefully make it a better quality resource for our readers.  Here is what we have so far and what is in the works:

1. Collection of gluten free Resources - As our name suggests, we want to your source for everything gluten free.  In addition to informational posts, Celiac news, and a regular supply of gluten free recipes, we know there are a lot of other things that we don’t offer yet.   That is why we started a collection of gluten free resources from around the internet!   Here you’ll find books, guides, organizations, message boards/forums, and more that are related to living gluten free.   If you have a resource you’d like to see added to this list, please let us know!
2. Collection of Gluten Free Restaurants - We’ve been scouring the internet looking for restaurant chains that offer a gluten free menu or give gluten free suggestions.   We then compiled the information and broke it down by state, making it easier for you to find restaurant chains in your area that offer a gluten free menu!  We also have plans to work on a similar list of grocery stores that carry gluten free products, but that is a little bit down the road.
3. New to Celiac? - Making the transition to a gluten free lifestyle can be quite the shock at first.   This page is designed to help people to make that transition.  We’ve only got a start going, but over time we hope to have a very large and useful resource for people that are newly diagnosed.
4. gluten free recipes - We know that it can sometimes be hard to keep up with the number of recipes we feature here on Gluten Free Resource, Therefore, we decided to create a separate page that features all of the recipes we’ve featured, broken down into categories by food types.  This page will be updated as we feature more recipes, so if you enjoy our featured recipes, you may want to bookmark it for future reference. 
5. gluten free products - With the price of gluten free products in specialty stores so high, people are turning to the internet and buying products in bulk to save money.   This page is still in the works, but once done, will feature a variety of gluten free products that can be purchased online.  

Have any suggestions for resources you’d find useful?  Please drop us a comment below or let us know.

Sometimes when you are looking to bake a cookie, at can be difficult to find a decent flour to use. So, how about just avoiding flour all together when making your gluten free cookies?

Flourless Gluten Free Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup extra chunky peanut butter
• 1 tsp Baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of gluten free vanilla
• 1 cup nuts (not roasted, but raw)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Baking Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Greased cookie sheet
3. Slightly beat egg, vanilla and baking soda in a bowl.
4. Whip together until mixed well.
5. Add rest of ingredients gently.
6. Use a tablespoon to put cookie dough on lightly greased cookie sheet.

This recipe should make 1 1/2 to 2 dozen cookies.

[Recipe Courtesy of Nomadic Creations]

I’ve always enjoyed many of the gluten free banana bread mixes, but nothing beats homemade.  If you’d like to make something like this at home, here is a recipe you will enjoy!

Gluten Free Banana Bread

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 ¾ cups flour blend
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 ½ tsp xanthan gum
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
• 1/8 tsp ground mace (optional)
• 1 ½ cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 medium)
• ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts
• ½ cup raisins

Baking Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease 9 x 5-inch non-stick pan, or for smaller loaves, grease 3 (5 x 3-inch) non-stick pans.
3. Beat the oil and sugar together in a large bowl until creamy.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the flour blend, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt, cinnamon, and the cardamom and mace if using.
6. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture, alternating with the bananas.
7. Stir in the nuts and raisins.
8. Bake the 9 x 5-inch loaf for 1 hour and bake the 5 x 3-inch loaves for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
9. Cool the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
10. Remove the bread from the pan and cool completely on wire rack before slicing.

[Recipe Courtesy of Krysta Rae]