Gluten-Free in Five Minutes

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also by Roben Ryberg:

 

 

Recipes by Roben Ryberg:
Eating for Autism

I’d like to thank
three of the youngest first testers of the chocolate cakes in this book, Braden, Corice, and Carter. Gluten-free or not, these kids know food!

Thank you to my other young friends, Ajaya, Tess, and Maddie, for grabbing the nearest stools in my kitchen to see what’s cooking and give the latest recipes a try!

Thank you to my foodie friends, Cassandra, Stacie, and Sara. To my children for their amazing support. And to my dear friends, who accept my newest food science theories and are happy to share their taste buds and feedback.

And finally, to the people at Da Capo, especially Katie, who somehow take my words and recipes and turn them into a work of art worthy of a bookstore and your kitchen.

As a dietitian and a person with celiac disease,
I have often counseled patients new to gluten-free living with the news: “You’ll have to learn to cook. Not because you want to, but because you have to ... it is the only way to have the foods you want.” Gluten-free, readymade products and mixes are more expensive than their wheat counterparts. Cooking gluten-free helps to control costs, allows you to create foods that you can eat if you have other food sensitivities, and provides fresh foods.

Of course, cooking from scratch isn’t always practical. I remember a time when my daughter wanted an Easy Bake Oven for her birthday. Life was so busy, I thought, “Mommy wants an Easy Bake Oven, too.” How I loved the microwave then and I still love it today. I learned to cook meats without turning them to rubber and to steam vegetables just right. However, what I couldn’t do was prepare my favorite gluten-free foods—muffins, cupcakes, or even a casserole. For these items I either went without or resorted to a day
of baking to have these foods on hand. This also meant having a pantry filled with specialty flours and gums, a separate set of pans and utensils, and time—lots of time!

Convenience has become a way of life. We want food fast, we want it now, and we don’t always want to have to work to get it. Some people use their oven to store pots and pans they never use; others frequently order take-out. Those of us living gluten-free are no different. Few people have much time these days to do a lot of cooking. Because it’s just plain easier to choose convenience over preparing meals, like other Americans, those of us who must live gluten-free don’t have the healthiest diet when we live fast-paced lives—but the health consequences of resorting to take-out or fast food restaurants are even more serious.