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!

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.

These are my buckwheat pancakes.

My vision for this project is that you will download the cookbook in a pdf file and print it out at home.  You can bind it in any format you desire to use.  I personally like to use a three ring binder and slip the recipe pages into sheet protectors so that food does not splatter on the pages while I am cooking.  But if a page does get ruined, the cookbook is on your computer and you can print out that page again.

Most of my recipes are gluten-free.  I decided to include recipes that are only wheat-free; therefore, I am calling my e-cookbook, The Texas Homesteader Wheat-free Cookbook.

Gluten-free cooking is much more restrictive than wheat-free cooking. So many of the people I have met only have a wheat allergy and not Celiac disease, which is an auto-immune disease in which that person cannot tolerate gluten of any kind.

Traditionally, gluten-free cooking does not allow oats, which are not only delicious but also very nutritious.  Recently however, cross-contamination of the oats with wheat has been found to be the problem.  Some companies are now selling gluten-free oats, which are assured to not be contaminated.  Even so, some people still stay away from oats.  I am including recipes with oats, which are perfectly fine for someone allergic to wheat.  Someone with Celiac disease would just have to decide for themselves if they would want to try the few recipes I have with oats.  They know better than I what their bodies can handle.

Grains I do stay away from are spelt, barley, and rye.  Spelt is too much like wheat.  It is like wheat’s first cousin.  Rye and barley contain gluten, and I just don’t use them by preference.  On the other hand, I use both brown and white rice flours, sorghum flour, almond meal, cornmeal, buckwheat, and some starches like arrowroot, tapioca, and/or potato.  

This cookbook would be great for anyone.  You do not have to have an allergy to wheat to enjoy this cookbook.  If you know anyone who is allergic to wheat, then you will have recipes to cook when you want to entertain them.  Since the holidays are my most stressful time with food allergies because of all the special get-togethers, parties, and holiday dinners, I am including a meal plan for each major holiday.  If you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner, you can use my recipes to create a traditional wheat-free fare.  All of your guests will be shocked to learn that they ate a wheat-free dinner and your wheat allergic friends or family would be grateful to you for removing their stress.

These are my wheat-free chicken and dumplings.

My recipes are also whey-free (from cow’s milk) and peanut-free because my children have allergies with these foods as well. The e-cookbook is what I already use in my own home.  Through trial and error, I converted my family recipes to ones that we could enjoy again.  The cookbook includes family favorites like chicken and dumplings, dinner rolls, and green chicken enchiladas.

I will let my subscribers know first when I am releasing the e-book.  My first 10 subscribers are going to receive a free copy of the e-book as a thank you for their early support. I occasionally send all of my subscribers e-mails.  If you subscribe to Texas Homesteader via RSS feeds, I thank you for your readership; however, I have no way of knowing who you are and how many subscribe in this manner.  If you would subscribe through e-mail and not verify the e-mail subscription, then I would be able to count you as one of my subscribers.  And, you would still only get my articles via RSS feeds.  You would then be treated as a subscriber for any future give-aways.

I hope that you are as excited about the up-coming release of my Texas Homesteader Wheat-free Cookbook as I am.  The cookbooks will be very affordable.