The Gluten-Free Homemaker

“Whole & Healthy Grains for Every Meal of the Day” is what you will find in this new 448 page cookbook, which Bob’s Red Mill kindly sent to me for review.  While it is not a gluten free cookbook, it does contain many gluten free recipes which are marked as such.

Because the book starts with breakfast foods I was initially disappointed in the number of gluten free recipes.  Only 8 out of 42 recipes in that category are gluten free.  It only got better from there however.  There are many gluten-free recipes in the salads, soups, snacks & sides (fewer here), main dishes and even sweets categories.  In fact, almost all the main dishes are gluten free.

I have only just begun to try the many healthy recipes in this book.  Here are a few I have made so far, one I even plan on making for Thanksgiving.



Pennsylvania Dutch
Baked Oatmeal - You of course need to use gluten-free oats for this recipe.  I’ve made baked oatmeal before, but I really liked the apples in this recipe.  Variations are also given for peach or berry baked oatmeal.




Chicken Tamale Pie   - This recipe uses ground chicken or other ground meat.  I used beef.  It uses a corn mush crust on the top and bottom.  My family enjoyed it.





Autumn Casserole with Yams and Cannellini Beans  - I loved this.  With the beans it can be served as a main dish.  I plan on serving it without the beans as a side dish at Thanksgiving.  It contains yams, cranberries, apples, and pecans along with other tasty ingredients.
If you enjoy whole grain healthy meals, you will like this book.  Many of the recipes use beans which my family is not fond of.  I used them in the autumn casserole, and they didn’t mind too much, but I know that my family would not care for a lot of the recipes.  However, this book has more than 350 recipes which means there is something for everyone. We enjoyed the recipes I tried and I look forward to trying more.

The book is attractive with red recipe titles and dividing lines.  Picture symbols are used to indicate recipes which are gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan.  There are a number of basic recipes provided for things such as millet, quinoa, or brown rice along with recipes that include those ingredients.  There are also occasional boxes of information on particular ingredients such as teff flour, amaranth grains, and polenta.

My only criticism of this book is that the print is too small. The pages are nice and big with plenty of white space, which I like, but I would rather that some of that space be used for a slightly larger font.  My forty something eyes which don’t even require glasses, had to keep moving closer to my cookbook holder to read the print.  Even my teenage son couldn’t read the fractions listed in the ingredients without getting up close.  I have to say, though, that the autumn casserole was worth having to move up close to read.

You can purchase this cookbook from Bob’s Red Mill or Amazon (where you can take a look inside the book) for just under $20.  Bob’s Red Mill is also offering to giveaway a cookbook to one lucky reader.  To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite whole grain.  Be sure to leave an email address if your name does not link to a blog where I can contact you.  The giveaway ends Saturday, November 28 at 11:00 p.m. eastern time.

Labels: reviews