These gluten free strawberry muffins came out amazing. Using the Stonyfield Farm Strawberry yogurt added the extra flavor *umph* that made these muffins delicious.

• 2 cups gluten free flour mix*
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup Stonyfield Farm Strawberry Yogurt
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup chopped strawberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 375. In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda and xanthan gum. In another bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, butter and vanilla. Toss strawberries into the flour mixture. Then pour yogurt mixture into flour mixture and stir. Spoon batter into lined muffin tins. Bake for about 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Yields: 18 muffins

*Gluten free flour mix

3 parts white rice flour
3 parts brown rice flour
2 parts potato starch
1 part tapioca flour

This gluten free pasta salad is an amazing side dish for sandwiches, grilled chicken or have a bowl all by itself as a snack. The Mrs. Leepers Pasta Noodles have great flavor and texture.

Ingredients:

1. Mrs. Leepers vegetable twist pasta noodles (cooked)
2. 1 bunch of broccoli chopped
3. 2 stalks of celery chopped
4. 1 carrot chopped
5. 1 can of sliced black olives (2.25 oz)
6. 4 oz of cheddar cheese sliced in small cubes
7. 1/2 cup Marzetti’s Sweet Italian dressing (it’s unreal how good this is)
8. 1/2 cup of Good Seasons All Natural Italian salad dressing

Instructions:
Cook pasta, chop vegetables and slice cheese. Mix all ingredients in a bowl along with the salad dressing. Optional: Add sliced pepperoni.

It has been hard trying to get a chocolate chip cookie recipe together that everyone enjoys. Cookies and cake are a staple in our house and this recipe has finally brought chocolate chip cookies to the table.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 Cup Quinoa Flour
1 3/4 Cup All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Shortening
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp Gluten-Free Vanilla Powder (1 tsp liquid Vanilla Extract)
1 package Gluten Free Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Mix Quinoa Flour, All Purpose Flour, Baking Soda, Xanthan Gum and Salt.
2. In a separate large bowl blend Shortening, Brown Sugar and Granulated Sugar.
3. Mix in Eggs and Vanilla to Shortening mix.
4. Slowly add Flour mix to the Shortening mix until it is well blended
5. Scoop cookies into a tablespoon sized ball and place on greased cookie sheet(s)
6. Place cookies into 375 degree oven for about 10 to 13 minutes or until golden brown.

This recipe is a modification of a recipe found in Living Without.

I have been having a goofy creative spell. What possesses me to do what I do I have know idea. The last few weeks I put together three sites that stemmed from an idea or a brainstorm through goofy conversations with co-workers. The three sites were built with a ‘viral market’ in mind but the main purpose is to sell some t-shirts.

First came twiturder.com. Twiturder (twit-turd-er) is a device that attaches to your toilet and ‘tweets’ whatever happens while you are on it. Yes, it can most certainly be gross. I tried to create a 1/2 serious and 1/2 silliness look and feel for the site hoping to have people guessing whether the twiturder device was real or not. The t-shirt for this product is a simple “got turd?” design. I also have a Twitter account @twiturder where I occasionally update what goes on at the plant including any new products that come along.

The next product to come out of the maelstrom is ThongDrive.com. During a conversation I was having with a co-worker I swear they said something about a thong drive. While he probably didn’t say anything close to that it sounded like a great idea to mix usb flash storage and a thong. Don’t you think? The site is complete with a little Flash application at the top where you can choose your skin color and preferred thong color. The t-shirt for this idea is a simple “ThongDrive” logo with the phrase “thong + storage = genius”. Usually people get a charge out of this product. I’m still working on a way to convince my wife to actually create one but it does not seem like she’s interested at the moment.

The newest product idea was easy to come up with due to the current scare of swine flu. The Swine B Gone.com product is supposed to be an aerosol spray that you can douse yourself with and remove all effect of the swine flu (H1N1). I had a couple t-shirt ideas for this one but stuck with the “Swine B Gone” logo and the words “swine flu protected” below it.

With each site I tried to make them have a similar theme but be fairly unique in content. Obviously the t-shirt element is in all three but the information about each product has it’s own unique flavor and humor. There are some key elements you should include in your site(s) when you build, develop and/or design.

Key Element 1
One of the key elements you need to include is an easy way to spread the word about your site via social mediums. There are a few ways you can cover Twitter, email, Facebook, Digg and a whole slew of others. I use the Add this menu which lists a number of popular social media methods in nice little package. The idea is to make it extremely easy for your viewers to spread the gospel about whatever page they are on.

Key Element 2
Another key element is keyword rich content. If you build a goofy site about a current event you should try to include the keywords in your content about that event. This goes for any site you build. Keyword rich content is extremely important for readability and SEO. Make sure you are conscious of grammar and spelling. People can be turned off by sentences that are difficult to read or include spelling errors.

Key Element 3
An important key element to add is data collection. At a minimum you should have a form on your site to collect emails and names so you can develop an email list. Once your list starts to grow you will be able to use it to spread the word of your newest ventures quickly. If you use Facebook or Twitter more frequently then request their Facebook or Twitter name.

Key Element 4
A key element I try to incorporate is some form of interaction. Generally, this can include a small Flash application that peeks someones interest, a game for people to play, a daily or weekly poll where people can vote on some subject or a comments section where viewers can interact with each other and you. The idea for this is to create a small element that could bring people back because they are curious about the results of a poll or the replies to their previous comments.

Key Element 5
Another key element you can easily include are affiliate marketing links. Obviously people have started putting on their blinders when it comes to banner ads and such but that does not mean they are completely ineffective. Try to think of a creative way to make them look more appealing in your design. There are so many cookie cutter looking sites that just slap them into a column and hope for the best. Try to add a new twist to your affiliate area that might peek more interest. Experiment. Experiment. Experiment.

Just because a venture is not as successful as you hoped does not mean it was a complete failure. Chances are you learned something from the experience and you will be able to put what you learned into use on your next venture. If you sense failure, reassess your position and either make modifications or move to your next venture. If you are just starting out, do not be afraid to fail. Usually in failure we learn enough to make the next attempt successful. Put some thought and creativity into each project you do.

This Peanut Butter Fingers recipe was kept in the family for ages. We made a few tweaks to make it gluten free and it is just as yummy as the non gluten free version. We also made these with Soynut butter and they tasted equally amazing.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup Butter or Margerine
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1/3 Cup of Peanut Butter or Soynut Butter
• 1 Cup of Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour Blend
• 1 Cup of Rolled Oats
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/8 tsp Authentic Foods Gluten-Free Vanilla Powder (1/4 tsp of liquid vanilla)
• Enjoy Life Foods Gluten-Free Chocolate Chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cream together butter, sugar and brown sugar.
3. Mix in eggs and peanut butter (or soynut butter)
4. Continue mixing in flour, oats, baking soda, salt and vanilla
5. Grease 9×13 pan and place mixture into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes
6. Pull from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over top
7. Place back in oven for 2-4 minutes or until chocolate chips have melted.
8. Remove from oven, allow to cool and cut into desired pieces.

One of the challenges we run into when going out to eat is finding gluten free options. Usually you will have to be satisfied with a salad, steak or chicken. This is not necessarily a bad thing but there seems to be only a tiny handful of restaurants that actually go the extra mile to make dining a pleasure when on a gluten free diet. Uno’s Chicago Grill is one of those places. Before making the move to gluten free we would frequent Uno’s because the food and atmosphere were great. Now with their gluten free menu we are continually impressed with their offerings and from our research they have the biggest gluten free menu of any chain restaurant in our area.

Uno’s offers numerous gluten free steak and chicken recipes, vegetable, rice and potato sides, and the normal salads. Uno’s then goes a couple steps further in offering gluten free pizzas (3 of them), frozen drinks and Redbridge a gluten free beer.

It is so refreshing to see restaurants accommodating dietary requirements. It is even more refreshing to see the restaurants embrace the gluten free community and cater to our needs. Ryan’s comments after eating the gluten free pepperoni pizza from Uno’s, “Mommy, I really like this pizza. I like it better than yours!”

Track down your closest Uno’s and give the gluten free menu a try. Store Locater

This recipe came out crisp and tasty. You can eat the Apple and Oatmeal Crisp plain, with ice cream or warmed with ice cream.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix
• 1 Cup of Rolled Oats
• 1 Cup of Brown Sugar
• 3 Cups of Apples (peeled and large dice)
• 1/2 Cup Butter (melted)
• 1/2 Cup of Sugar
• 2 tsp Cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease or non stick spray a 9 inch square baking dish.
3. Mix floar, oats, brown sugar and butter until mixture forms crumb topping
4. Place a layer of crumb topping on bottom of baking dish (approximately half).
5. In a bowl combine sugar, cinnamon and apples together and place on top of crumb layer.
6. Cover the apples with remaining crumb topping and bake approximately 40 minutes. Top should be golden brown.

This Stuffed Shell recipe came out tasting amazing. Combine it with some gluten free garlic bread and you will have a very tasty meal.

Recommended Shells
1 pkg. Brown Rice Grand Shells by Tinkyada

Shell Stuffing

• 1 bunch fresh chopped spinach, cooked
• 1 lb. ricotta cheese
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• Salt & ground black pepper
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese, Romano optional
• 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Sauce

• ¼ cup butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tbs. cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. parsley
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Rub the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with olive oil.

In boiling water cook the shells, drain and transfer to cold water. Follow the directions on the package for cooking.

For the sauce, melt ¼ cup butter over medium heat. Mix 1 cup of heavy cream with 1 tbs. of cornstarch, add, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add ½ tsp. of garlic powder, ½ tsp. of parsley, and 1 cup of Parmesan cheese.

In a bowl, combine ricotta, eggs, salt and pepper, spinach, parmesan, and spice. After filling each shell with filling, gently set them in the baking dish, cut sides up. Spread sauce over all and sprinkle mozzarella cheese over top. Cover with foil and bake for 40-50 minutes. Serves 6-8.

Keeping up with your favorite topics on the web has never been easier. The variety of methods continues to grow with blogs, twitter search, various RSS aggregators and much more. One of my favorite ways to keep up on Gluten Free articles, recipes and foods is to set up a Google Alert. If you are not familiar with Google Alerts let me give a quick overview.

The idea behind Google Alert is to keep you up-to-date on new happenings around the web that involve a topic you are interested in. As Google indexes articles, blogs and other writings it stores the information so it can be searched easily. With Google Alerts, you set up a keyword or phrase for the topic you are interested in and Google compiles the information on that topic when it is made available.

As an example, I have a Google Alert for “gluten free”. As new information is indexed by Google about things gluten free I receive an email with a list of links and a short snippet of each article. So instead of scouring the web looking for gluten free information, I have that information coming to me.

There are a few settings you can choose to make the information available to you. You can choose to have it appear in an email within your Gmail account or you can have it pass to a feed reader such as Google Reader.

For topics that are getting written about frequently I would recommend using the feed reader to aggregate the information into a nicely formatted list. For topics that receive less frequent updates or topics that are very important to you you might want to have the aggregated links sent to your Gmail. Another nifty setting for Google Alerts is the frequency you gather the updates. By changing the “How often” setting it is possible to receive updates as-it-happens, once-a-day or once-a-week. Lets face it, we are inundated with information daily and sometimes we do not need to know everything right away about a particular subject.

I am sure there are “Alert Power Users” out there that can offer other benefits or techniques in using Google Alerts. If you don’t already have a Gmail account get one and utilize the wonderous Alerts system.

Sue dug up this crepe recipe from a blog called kill.the.gluten. The two women bloggers deal with Celiac disease each in their own way and they have devised a number of great gluten free recipes.

Being huge fans of “breakfast for dinner” we jumped right into the recipe pouring crepe after crepe and wrapping sliced bananas inside. We whipped up some whipped cream and put a dollop on each crepe. Needless to say we and both our boys devoured all the crepes in no time. I kind of wished we cooked up some bacon or sausage which would have made the meal complete.

Great Rice Flour for many of your baking recipes: Authentic Foods Bette’s Featherlite Gluten-Free Rice Flour Blend