To receive the coupon for the discount, email me at lndehaven@aol.com and I will send you the e-coupon. It is only good if you order through Lulu, the publishing company.

I want to send a special “Thank you” to my past customers.  I really appreciate the business.  And to any future customers, allow me to say, “Thank you,” in advance.

The Texas Homesteader Wheat-Free Cookbook is also available on Amazon.  The coupon is not for any purchases at amazon.com; however, you can leave a review of my book, if you are so inclined.

I wanted to let everyone know about the 10% discount.  I hope everything is going well.  I will return to writing soon.  The Grimes County Fair is almost over.  It sure has been a long week!

The Texas Homesteader Wheat-Free Cookbook is in print.

Hoping to bring the joy of food into the lives of those who cannot eat wheat, I decided to write the Texas Homesteader Wheat-Free Cookbook.  I know what it is like to receive the diagnosis of a food allergy.  It is a sad moment.  I have said it before, but you truly do go through a grieving process.  You begin thinking about all the bread, cookies, and cakes that you will no longer be able to eat.  You stress over meals, especially when you are away from home.  The holidays with all the different traditional foods like dressing, dinner rolls, and pumpkin pie seem completely off-limits.

Now you can look forward to special occasions and holidays again.  It has been a labor of love.  I have spent so much time converting my family recipes into ones that my family could still eat after being diagnosed with a wheat allergy.  I grew so tired of wasting money at the supermarket buying expensive name-brand mixes and products only to find out that they were inedible.  The last time we purchased a chocolate cake mix and made it, I could not finish it.  When I cannot finish a piece of chocolate cake, then you can rest assured there is something majorly wrong with it.

At that moment, my husband really encouraged me to write my own cookbook.  He said, “People like us (with food allergies) need to know that they are not deprived.”  You can still enjoy waffles, pancakes, and biscuits for breakfast.  You can still have dinner rolls and bread.  You can still enjoy cakes, pies, brownies, and cookies.  With my combination of blanched almond flour and sorghum flour, you can enjoy the foods you thought you would never eat again.

The Texas Homesteader Wheat-Free Cookbook not only includes delicious and easy to make recipes, but it includes holiday menu ideas, resources, links, and my favorite gluten-free items.  Months ago when I announced that I was working on a cookbook in “Writing an E-Cookbook,” I explained why I did not call it a gluten-free cookbook.

Most of my recipes are gluten-free.  Just a few include oats, which is a controversial grain for anyone with Celiac disease.  There are gluten-free oats available to purchase.  I do not want to argue either side; however, you know what you can tolerate.  If you cannot eat oats, then there are only a few recipes in the entire book to avoid.  If you can, then enjoy each and every recipe.

As promised, I will be sending my first 10 subscribers their e-cookbook free of charge this coming week.  Thank you for supporting me from the beginning.  For a hard copy or a downloadable e-book, click here or go to my “Fresh from the Farm Store” page.  You can also go directly to my Texas Homesteader’s Storefront on Lulu.

If you do not have a problem with wheat, then please be excited with me.  I would appreciate any support either through a kind word through my e-mail or comments or spreading the word for me.  Word of mouth has tremendous power.

Knowing this we were able to continue enjoying butter, most cheeses, and occasionally cream cheese.  We could no longer have ice cream, yogurt, velveeta, american cheese, ricotta cheese, or cottage cheese.  I rejoiced at being able to eat butter and cheddar cheese.  It sure made our lives easier as far as eating was concerned.  I did not have to ask restaurants if they added butter to their vegetables, etc.

One dish we all loved, but thought we could no longer enjoy was lasagna.  Tinkyada pasta makes lasagna noodles so the wheat was not the problem.  We can eat parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, but what could I substitute for the ricotta or cottage cheese?  I kept going back to the obvious answer: tofu.

However, my family was not thrilled with that ingredient so I had not tried.  But this week I had had enough.  I missed lasagna.  I had to try.  I bought a package of firm organic tofu.  The great thing about tofu is that it is pretty much flavorless.  It takes on any flavor you give it.  So I decided to add minced garlic to my tofu.

Since I have started implementing freezer cooking, my children and I prepare many dishes at one time and freeze them for a later date.  Jake wanted to make the lasagna; so he helped me.  When all was said and done, we chose to eat the lasagna first.  In fact, we ate it that night.

Words cannot describe how thrilled I was!  You could not tell that tofu was in the dish.  It tasted exactly like a regular lasagna.  If you cannot tolerate the whey in cow milk, I highly recommend that you make this recipe.  If you are completely dairy-free, use the veggie cheese shreds in the refrigerated aisle of a good supermarket.

Tofu Lasagna

To eat or not to eat tofu.

1-1/2 boxes (15 ounces) of brown rice lasagna noodles
1 lb ground beef
1 lb pan sausage
26 ounces spaghetti sauce
8 ounce can tomato sauce
14 ounces firm tofu
2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 clove garlic, minced
2 eggs
1/4 cup chopped parsley
sea salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees unless you are going to freeze the lasagna.
Brown the meat and drain it.  Add the sauces and simmer for 10 minutes.  In a bowl, mix the tofu, 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, the parmesan, eggs, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper.
In a 15 x 10″ dish, pour 1 cup of sauce on the bottom of the dish.  Put a layer of noodles and cover them with sauce.  Then spread 1/2 of your cheese/tofu mixture and top with more noodles.  Continue layering sauce, cheese, noodles, sauce.  On top of the last of your sauce, spread out the remaining mozzarella cheese.
It is very important that your noodles are completely covered with sauce since they are uncooked.
Bake for 45 minutes covered.  Then uncover for an additional 15 minutes.  Let it stand 10 minutes before serving.
If you want to freeze it, do not bake the lasagna.  Cover with freezer wrap and place in your freezer.  To eat, allow it to thaw out completely and then bake as directed.

After reading Heart of Wisdom by Robin Sampson, I made many goals.  One of which was to try to cut down on my time in the kitchen.  One of her suggestions is freezer cooking.  You prepare many meals at one time and freeze them to serve at a later date.  This was not an entirely foreign idea as I used to do something similar when I was expecting a child.  I wanted to make sure that we had plenty of home-cooked meals made and waiting to be heated up in the oven.  It made that time especially enjoyable to me in that I did not have to worry about dinner.

However since being on a wheat-free diet, I assumed erroneously that I would not be able to find recipes in which to freeze.  My old standby dinners had cream of something soup in it which contains either wheat, milk, or both.  I decided to thumb through a cookbook of mine that was stored above the vent hood in my kitchen.  You can tell by its location that I had never really used it before.  Big mistake on my part because it is fantastic.  It is called Once-A-Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg.  I was immediately impressed by the number of recipes that were already wheat-free as well as even more that could easily be converted.

So, I sat down and read the book.  I marked all the recipes that we could eat and began choosing enough recipes for a two week time period.  I created a menu complete with sides, lunch, and breakfast.  Then I compiled a list of foods I needed to purchase.  It was time for my bi-weekly grocery store trip; therefore, the list was relatively long.  I spent $280.00 at the store.  I thought I did a great job considering that I was shopping for 7 people for two weeks and many products were gluten-free items which are usually more expensive.

The next day I cooked after our schooling was finished.  Even though I spent hours in the kitchen, I had a great time with my daughter.  She helped on recipes that intrigued her.  The rest I did solo; however, Jake did help me chop celery, onion, and bell peppers.  The following is the list of recipes we cooked:

Marinated Flank Steak,
Meatloaf,
Hamburger Tomato Stew,
Savory Beef,
Chinese Chicken Morsels,
Chicken Spaghetti,
French Stuffed Potatoes,
Pork Shoulder Roast (makes 2 different meals),
Teriyaki Chicken,
Sweet and Sour Chicken,
Red Chicken Enchiladas,
Ham Dinner Slices, and
Teriyaki Burgers.

The kitchen was a disaster by the end of the day.  It seemed that every dish and pot was dirty.  On the other hand, I saved time and a mess by chopping up all the vegetables I needed at one time.  I saved money by being able to buy extra large cans of crushed tomatoes or green beans instead of several smaller cans.  The extras do not have to be saved in the refrigerator either.  It was all used in the cooking and preparation phase.

With a permanent marker, I wrote the date, name of the dish, and reheating instructions on the freezing container.  Most of my dishes went into plastic gallon freezer bags, which saved a lot of space in the freezer.  After the food cooled off, I filled the bags, sealed them, and laid them horizontally.  The food leveled out and I froze them.  Some dishes like the Red Chicken Enchiladas had to be frozen in a 15″ x 10″ dish.

Now I just have to follow my meal plan and make a side of rice, potato, salad, or vegetable when I need them.  I am looking forward to these next two weeks.  I hope this is the solution for which I was looking.  By the way, I am happy to report that the Sweet and Sour Chicken and Teriyaki Burgers were both delicious.  So far I am a fan of freezer cooking and I highly recommend that you try it, too.