Gluten-Free Family Favorites

This is my third book from the Bronski's and is definitely one of my favorites! I am a long time celiac with multiple food allergies and my children have multiple food allergies as well. Gluten free cookbooks do not always work for us as they tend to use bean, oat or almond flours -all of which we cannot have. This flour mix used is whole grain and free of all of those offending flours! The only change I made to the mix is to sub in arrowroot starch for cornstarch. Every recipe has additional ingredient substitution recommendations specifically designed for each recipe. This is huge! Most cookbooks you are either on your own or they give generic recommendations with no certainty that they actually work well with their recipes. All of the recommended substitutions I tried worked seamlessly in this cookbook.So what have a tried so far? One of the first recipes was for the blueberry muffins. The first time I made it, I prepared it as shown with the streusel topping and subbed in rice milk for the half and half and flax eggs for the egg. They came out great! The second time I made them, I eliminated the streusel topping and actually like them better. The muffin was moist and perfectly sweet. I do not like cloyingly sweet things. I mad mine a full muffin rather than mini. The second item I made was the Sandwich bread. This was not my favorite as I subbed in Vance's Dairy Free powder for the milk powder and flax eggs for the eggs. This was my first time using the Vance's and hated it. I am going to try to eliminate the milk powder or find rice milk powder next time around. I usually bake vegan bread as I do not like eggs in my bread -it creates an off smell the next day.The third recipe I tried was the flour tortillas. This was my first attempt at flour tortillas and it was easy and delicious. I actually ate two while I was making them just with a bit of vegan butter. It took me back to Old Towne San Diego where you can buy warm freshly made flour tortillas wrapped in foil and slathered in butter right outside of each restaurant. Yum. My recommendation would be to double or triple batch these as they went quick and I would have like to freeze some leftovers. The dough was not in the least bit sticky and very workable. I actually was able to skip the "floured hand step" and just plop them on my hand and into the fry pan.Last I have tried the Teriyaki Chicken; however I made it with Tofu instead. The whole family enjoyed, this. We also had some salads and the Personal Quiches which were equally excellent and would be a great addition to a child's lunchbox. Next I am planning to try the monkey bread, the Spanakopita Hand Pies and the soft pretzels.If you have celiac and/or multiple food allergies, this is an excellent addition to your cookbook collection. Each recipe has a gorgeous colored picture and breaks down the steps that your children would be able to help you with. Thank you Kelly & Peter for yet another great cookbook that will bring eating pleasure to my family!

I purchased this cookbook after receiving their other Kids cookbook by the same author. My kids and I cooked our way through the first book and now are cooking our way through this one. So far we’ve made the banana muffins & stir fry rice. Both are a huge hit with my kids. I love that there’s basic recipes for pizza, bread, brownies, and cake included. I also like that there’s a recipe for flour mix that can be used too. I tried the flour mix and was skeptical since I’ve tried soooo many mixes and have been disappointed before. The mix worked well for the muffin recipe so I’m hopeful that it will also work for other baked goods in the book. The other thing that’s helpful is the substitutions they offer for dairy free since we eat low dairy in our home. I’m looking forward to buying more books by this author. I think this is a good book for families, kids learning to cook, or those new to gluten free cooking.

One of my children and I have serious wheat intolerance (we will be tested for allergy, though I suspect we are not allergic). My little boy gets migraine headaches certainly in part from wheat -- when we eliminated it, his headaches all but disappeared (resolved about 75 percent). It's been heartbreaking for me to give him the often inedible lumps they sell in stores that are labeled gluten-free, often filled with things I don't want to give my children.This cookbook is inspiring, beautiful, and filled with delicious recipes that my son actually likes. He was looking through it this morning picking out things he wants me to make for him. I am so grateful to the Bronksis for their balanced approach to gluten issues. It's okay with me that the desserts have sugar (though one can substitute other sugars) and I WANTED dairy in the recipes, so I am relieved to find a cookbook that meets our needs so perfectly. (I am finding the gluten-free community to be a bit preachy sometimes -- it seems almost a religion for some folks.) The Bronskis are very realistic about living in a busy household with children while trying to avoid gluten. They make it seem doable and even fun!

I got them for a classroom life skills class. It will be good for those have gluten allergies.

Although I haven't tried any of the recipes yet I like this book because; apart from being informative, well organized and well presented it actually has recipes I'd want to offer the whole family. I have been GF for a long time and most books concentrate on very elaborate recipes that require many ingredients and lots of planning. Finally, this book offers the run of the mill items we'd like to eat as a family. I'm so glad someone thought about this and put it into a decent size book (not of hundreds of recipes to overwhelm) as well as thought about what families actually hanker for. Sure there is a lot of junky food that has been made up as GF but that is what I miss most sometimes. It does require to make a mix to use with the recipes and at this point it is rare that a book doesn't. I was sold when I read the sweet potato gnocchi recipe :)

The book was good. The recipes and tips are very well put together. Very clear photograpgs of the foods. It was informative and has some recipes I cant wait to try. But as far as being "favorites" recreated to be gluten free, I was a bit disappointed. Also I misread the title, thinking it was favorites for "kids" because of the covers appearance. it says "family. Which should have been my first clue. For example the only mac and cheese recipe is for a pesto mac and cheese, and it is bright green...lol! So I will have to continue my search for my picky 4 year old that will not eat anything out of this book. :/