Review: Gluten-Free on a Budget

About the book:
Eat more gluten-free goodness—while spending a lot less! From creamy Italian chicken to black bottom banana pie, this cookbook takes traditional family favorites to a whole new gluten-free level—and does it all without breaking the bank. With food that’s so delicious, so good for you, and so inexpensive, this is one cookbook you’ll want to use for every meal! From delicious creamy Italian chicken to warm cookies, this cookbook takes traditional family favorites to a whole new gluten-free level—and does it all without breaking the bank!

About the author:
Chandice Probst is the Founder of popular website, www.glutenfreefrenzy.com which is known as the #1 gluten free giveaway site and provides individuals with recipes, reviews, giveaways and much more. She is Co-Founder and CEO of Gluten Free Calendar, which hosts Celebrate Celiac™ events and Celiac Awareness Nights with professional athletic teams nationwide to promote celiac awareness, raise proceeds for non-profit research facilities and achieve the companies slogan of Unity in the Gluten Free Community™.
Chandice founded the Celiac Disease Foundation Arizona East Valley Chapter in 2009 and enjoyed serving as the President for four years. She has a Bachelors of Science in exercise and health wellness from Arizona State University and graduated with Magna Cum Laude honors. Recently she joined the Delight Gluten Free Magazine team as a regular contributing writer and is also an Expert Among Us writer for SheKnows.com. Chandice has been featured on ABC 15 Sonoran Living, Channel 12 Arizona Midday and in print publications, Women’s World, The Arcadian Journal and Total Kid Magazine. She was a regular contributor on Channel 3 Your Life A to Z in Arizona for over a year as their gluten-free guru before her family made the move to St. George, UT. In her spare time, she also teaches gluten-free cooking classes and seminars and enjoys being a guest speaker nationwide at different gluten-free expos and events. In addition to her above professions, Chandice considers her role as a wife, mother and everyday cook to her family to be of greatest value.
Tana Besendorfer has been a passionate cook since the age of 11. She got her first job at her hometown restaurant, Mom’s Café, making pies. Tana is known by all who associate with her as one of the greatest cooks. She is a foodie with focus on health and nutrition to heal the body. Tana is currently a buyer for Real Foods Market where she seeks out the best products to be featured in these one of a kind stores. Her greatest passion is still cooking with and for her family. She especially loves making the holidays more enjoyable for everyone with themed, nutritious food that would put a smile on anyone’s face. Friends of the family often congregate at her home just to enjoy her “famous” cooking.

FROM REIDHEAD RANDOMNESS:
(Guest post from my mom...who eats strictly GLUTEN FREE)

This cookbook offers a great variety of totally gluten-free recipes that are easy on the budget.  It has everything from favorite sweet and sour Chicken with ham fried rice, to ice cream sandwiches.  It also has a shopping list and things to stock in your panty for the recipes.  (It even mentions FOOD STORAGE for Gluten Free!!!)  There are great photos of most of the recipes and they truly are a feast for the eyes.  The large pictures really make this cookbook stand out as high quality.  Each recipe has simple to understand instructions.  This book is very well done, and as a celiac myself, I highly recommend this book.  There are many recipes that are close to the things you normally miss, eating gluten-free.  I am just thrilled with this book.  The foods are absolutely delicious! 

I have tried the recipe for sweet and sour chicken with ham fried rice and it is very close to my favorite Chinese restaurant that I used to go to.  The flavors are great and the textures are very good.
I also tried the danish and it was yummy!  My husband had it for breakfast for several days.  I was surprised to see a recipe for peanut butter cookies made without flour.  I was skeptical but I made it and they turned out very tasty.  (They did crumble very easy though.)   You couldn't really pick them up and hold them like a regular cookie, but the taste was great!  My favorite recipe so far has been the poppy seed cake.  It is fantastic!  The only thing I had issues with was that I had to bake it for 20 mins longer than the longest time specified.  I think it may be because I live in a high altitude area and maybe I should have added more flour.  But the cake is moist, and just mouthwatering.

Another thing that was different to me, was using so many types of flours.  I have been eating gluten free for 10 years and I have pretty much used the same 3 flours for my recipes.  I can't believe the difference using coconut, almond, sorghum and other special flours, have made in the taste.  I am just loving the new flavors that these recipes bring.

The one thing I looked for and didn't see in the recipes however, was how many servings each one made.  Being an empty nester, I mostly just cook for my husband and myself, so I want to be able to scale the recipe down.  The recipes all seem to be for a large family.  We had several meals/servings out of each recipe that I made. 

In the front of the book is the story of the two women who made this book.  It really gives you a feel of knowing that they are real people like me. 


Over all this book is now going to be one of my favorites, and I am looking forward to trying many many more of the recipes.


 Cedar Fort sent me a free copy of this book to review, however all opinion expressed are my own.