Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: Gluten-Free Made Easy by Christi Silbaugh and Michele Vilseck

Gluten-Free-Made-Easy-blog-tour

Gluten-Free Made Easy - PaperbackGluten-Free Made Easy
by Christi Silbaugh and Michele Vilseck
Cookbook
Paperback268 Pages
May 13th 2014 by Cedar Fort

Summary

“Gluten-Free Made Easy” is the perfect guide to your new lifestyle! Learn dozens of tips and tricks for avoiding gluten and over 150 tasty, simple recipes like Creamy Chicken Taquitos, Margherita Pizza, and even Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies. Going against the grain has never been easier!
   

My Review

I was excited to try another gluten-free cookbook and this one was a lot of fun! I always forget how many things can have gluten in them and how it can really affect what you can and can't eat from the store. This cookbook had a lot of variety and included basic recipes for everything bread related including tortillas, breads, pizza, and bagels.

The instructions were simple. There were resources for what brands the authors liked and for quite a few homemade mixes, which I really appreciated. I liked the full pictures, although I would have loved a picture for every recipe.

I'm planning on trying more recipes from Gluten-Free Made Easy (like the Easy Rolls, Chicken Struffed Red Peppers, and Japanese Curry Rice), but here are the ones I did try:

Italian Breadsticks and Italian Pizza Crust
It is really, really humid here right now. I ended up having to add an additional two cups of flour. I was worried it was going to be too starchy or too thin. Before I added the extra flour, the batter was like water. After the extra flour, it just poured out of the bowl, but was thicker, like cake batter. 
Then I let it sit in the pans and rise before I baked it. 
I was surprised how well the crust turned out considering how thin the batter was. I did find out that it's good to cover all the crust with sauce on top because the edges that didn't get covered were a little starchy. Of course that might be because I added extra flour too. The type I made was a margarita pizza with shredded and fresh mozzarella.

Herb and Red Pepper Spirals
This was a great recipe if you enjoy pesto, although this one isn't made with basil. We didn't find the spirals, but we did find penne and it worked just fine. It was refreshing and I really enjoyed it.

Basic Bagels and Lemon Garlic Herb Cream Cheese

These actually turned out really well as long as I could keep the bagels together when transferring them from the water to the rack to drain and then to the pan. Bagel pieces are still good though. ;)
They definitely browned nicely and all the kids and I enjoyed them with cream cheese. Definitely a recipe that turned out well.
I also made the Lemon Garlic Herb Cream Cheese and it was super yummy. Of course I love chives and the lemon zest was a fabulous addition. It was perfect for a lunch, dinner, or snack addition on these bagels.

Banana Snickerdoodle Muffins
My son said these should be for dessert and the cookies I made should be to eat for a meal because these were sweeter. Lol! The topping was definitely sweet. We all loved these! I'm sure the sweetness had something to do with that. I forgot to add the chips into the batter, so they got added on top, but it seemed to be just as good. 
The texture was good and the taste was good, so a win-win here.

Avocado Cream Cheese Cookies
So I saw that these included avocado and were so pretty and decided I just had to try them. I think I needed to add more flour because I forgot to take into account that the humidity was really, really high, like 100% high and so the cookies were super moist and just melted together. Taste-wise they were really good. The kids devoured them.

You have to remember that with the starches added in with the flour mix that the taste is a little big chalky compared to using wheat and gluten-free just plain tastes different than wheat, but it was just a different taste, not a bad taste.

I would recommend Gluten-Free Made Easy for those who are looking for a variety of gluten-free recipes that are easy to make, using a store-bought flour mix or one of your own. Gluten-free is definitely not the same as using wheat, but I felt these recipes worked fairly well. There is some room to adjust the recipes a little according to taste or climate.

Source: I would like to thank the publisher, Cedar Fort, for my complimentary copy, which did not affect my review in any way.

About the Authors

Christi Silbaugh is the self-educated chef and author of three cooking blogs including: Mom, What’s For Dinner, Gourmet Cooking For Two and Zero Calorie Life. She writes for foodie media giants Glam Media and Federated Media and works for Fast Forward Events, covering food and wine events in San Diego. Since 2009, she has created and posted over 1,000 gluten-free recipes. She lives with her family in California.

Michele Vilseck is a mother, entrepreneur and health enthusiast. She enjoys creating in all of its forms including writing, cooking, artwork and teaching. She has been gluten-free for 10 years. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

Giveaway

One ebook of Gluten-Free Made Easy (INT)
Ends September 18th

a Rafflecopter giveaway

36 comments

  1. Lesley Johnston9/11/14, 9:02 AM

    blueberry lemon muffins!

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  2. Wednesdays normally are slower for me, but not so much yesterday. I'll be over...

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  3. I have a niece that is starting pointe this year and so this might be one I share with her. So far, so good.

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  4. Yay! I'll come see what you read. :)

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  5. I was THRILLED!! I have almost all of her books so it was fun to bring them and have her sign them. She is super talkative and rather sarcastic, which isn't surprising having read her books.

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  6. Awesome!!! I hope they're books you've liked too.

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  7. So glad! Reading makes me feel so happy. ;) I'll come check out your post.

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  8. All the recipes really, but especially the bread!! I can't live without bread :)


    I would love this book, I hoard cookery books Lol!!!

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  9. This sounds really good! I'm adding it to my TBR list now!

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  10. Yes they have! I'm looking forward to continuing that streak!

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  11. I just loved this read, I thought it was so much fun and so darn cute.

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  12. I absolutely adore this trilogy and I am so sad that it is over. Harkness is an amazing writer and I really hope she has something else in the works soon.

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  13. I was so happy when Diana finally let go and let loose! She is a great writer, so I'm hoping for another book from her soon as well.

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  14. It was definitely fun and cute! :)

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  15. I hope you enjoy it when you get a chance to read it!

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  16. I tend to hoard them as well. :)

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  17. I would like to make Gluten free pancakes!

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  18. Kim@superbookgrl13.blogspot.co9/11/14, 3:53 PM

    Here is my update http://superbookgrl13.blogspot.com/2014/09/tackleyourtbr-day-3-updates.html

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  19. Thanks for linking it up!

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  20. Absolutely brilliant work! I thought each book in this series was really well-written, even the first one that was her debut --- and that is quite an accomplishment!
    I hope she'll continue writing as well. I was really satisfied with the ending and am okay if the story ends here. But...if there is a spin-off, I'll definitely read it!

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  21. I WANT this book so bad. I've been dying to read it since it came out.

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  22. I have read the first book. I purchased the second for kindle, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll have to get on the ball and finish it up. Thanks for the review and the content warning.

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  23. Birthday cakes!

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  24. It was really, really cute and fun! I hope you get your hands on a copy soon!

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  25. The second and third have a lot more content than the first one. The writing is really good and the second one was so amazing historically. I'm curious to see what you think. I know I only read so much adult because of content, but these pulled me in with the writing and you could tell she put some serious research and work into these.

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  26. This does have a few cake recipes that I didn't get to try, but look and sound good.

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  27. Heather M. Riley9/12/14, 5:33 PM

    I really liked her book Lonely Hearts Club. I'll definitely have to look into this one.

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  28. I did too and I'm excited that she's writing a sequel to that one.

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  29. I enjoyed this series, and I agree, the first book is the best one. Honestly, I thought the second book dragged. A lot. And it was almost pointless, except for just a few things that moved the plot forward. But the third book was better. I did have so many questions that weren't really answered, though. Our book club had a mini-bookclub meeting for those that had read the trilogy and we all really liked it, but we all had different issues with it. A spin-off, yes…with Gallowglass! (Really not happy with how things turned out for him). Great review! ~Pam

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  30. I loved the fact that it takes place over a five year time period, that so unusual for a YA novel. But by doing that, I felt like I really got to know Macallan and Levi and it was such a pleasure to watch their relationship grow and deepen over time. I loved how much they truly cared about each other and the fact that they knew each other so well (the complete opposite of insta-love). Too well, from the perspective of their significant others (at different points in time). I loved how they have such a connection and when they talk, they basically leave everyone else out (unintentionally). I loved how they become part of each other's family and even through their ups and downs, they always know the other one will be there. There was so much that was different from the usual YA novel.


    I loved their bantering, and I really enjoyed the beginning of each chapter when Macallan and Levi would be talking back and forth from the present as they reminisced about their relationship (although I was confused sometimes about who was talking since it was just dialogue, no he saids or she saids). Did you have that problem? That was my only real complaint.

    I just loved how they knew each other so well but were also so blind. Such a sweet and fun romantic contemporary! Glad you like it! ~Pam

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  31. I do love Gallowglass too. :) I really liked the second book, but sometimes I need slower-paced books in-between all these page-turners and I am a sucker for historical settings, so I connected with those parts. I can totally see what you mean, though. Overall a good series and I'm looking forward to seeing what she tackles next.

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  32. Oh, I so agree. It is so unusual for YA too, yes. I did love those initial parts of each chapter as well. I was going to say something about them in my review and then totally spaced it when I wrote it. :) I figured out who was who because (if I remember right) the chapters stated the name at the top and so if I looked at that then I could figure out who was who. I wish I had a hard copy so I could go look to see if I'm remembering right. It's already off my Kindle.


    I love that I can recommend this one to everyone and I'll be grabbing a copy and maybe getting it for one of my nieces. She's the perfect age for this one.


    I haven't been disappointed by this author yet and sometimes it can be rare to have consistency from an author, you know? Looking forward to her next Lonely Hearts' book!


    Thanks, Pam! I always love your comments. :)

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  33. Anxious to read this one (it's on my shelf) and hope to be as charmed by Elizabeth's storytelling as all of my blogging buddy's are. :)

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  34. This was such a cute read, Rissi. I think you'll really like it. And it's completely clean. :)

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