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Recipe: Gluten-Free Orange Carrot Muffins

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

Do you enjoy gluten-free muffins? Chances are if you buy them pre-made, you’re probably only getting things like blueberry muffins, chocolate chip muffins, etc. If you want an interesting muffin, you’ll need to bake it yourself.

Here is an interesting recipe for orange carrot muffins that I figured I would share with everyone.

Gluten-Free Orange Carrot Muffins Recipe

Dry Ingredients:

  • 100g Ground Almonds/Meal
  • 90g Rice flour (Doves Farm)
  • 40g Tapioca flour/starch (Allergy care)
  • 1tsp GF Baking Powder
  • 1tsp Ground Cinnamon (Goodalls)
  • ½ tsp of Ground Mixed Spice (Goodalls)
  • ½ tsp of Bread Soda
  • ½ tsp of Xanthan Gum
  • Large pinch of salt (about 1/8 tsp)

Wet Ingredients:

  • 200g Demerara Sugar
  • 6 Tbls vegetable Oil
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 Tbls of Orange Juice
  • Grated rind of a Large Orange
  • 200g Carrots peeled and grated (set aside)
  • 60g of Sultanas
  • 80g of Chopped Walnuts
  • 3 X 6 Muffin Trays
  • 18 Paper cases

Muffin Directions:

  1. Pre-heat to 350F.
  2. Mix sugar, eggs, oil, and orange juice until smooth (set aside).
  3. In a separate bowl mix all dry ingredients.
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixing bowl.
  5. Add the sultanas, chopped walnuts, and grated carrot mix.
  6. Fill into the paper cases in the muffin trays.
  7. Bake for about 50 – 60 Minutes.
  8. Rotate trays during baking.
  9. Allow cooling on racks.
  10. Once cooled, top the muffins with icing.

If you’d like to check out other recipe ideas, check out our gluten-free recipes page!

Gluten-Free Restaurant Locations in Richmond, Virginia

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

If you are on a gluten-free diet and are looking to find some places to eat in the Richmond Virginia area, let me point you toward a great post over at This Chick’s Paradise. In this post, you’ll find a great collection of restaurants in Richmond Virginia that offers a gluten-free menu of some sort and comes with high recommendations from the Celiac community in that area.

For your reference, here is the list of restaurants (with websites!) included in the list:

  • Acacia – gluten-friendly
  • Carrabba’s – gluten-free menu
  • Casa Grande – gluten-friendly
  • Cheese Roll Bake Shop – everything is gluten-free – their rolls are made with tapioca flour
  • Chipotle – everything is gluten-free except the tortillas
  • Curry House – gluten-friendly
  • Extra Billy’s – gluten-friendly
  • The Nile – everything is gluten-free except the baklava
  • Mekong – try the rocket shrimp, soft spring rolls, and the rice bowls
  • Ruth’s Chris – gluten-free menu
  • Sticks Kebob Shop – most things on the menu are gluten-free – they even use wheat-free soy sauce!
  • Thai Diner Too – gluten-free menu

Siblings Have Increased Risk of Celiac Disease

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

Back when my mother was officially diagnosed with Celiac Disease, we spent a lot of time researching the symptoms of Celiac Disease to see how likely we were also to have it. According to research at the time, it was believed that siblings and offspring had about a 10% chance of also having the disease.

According to a recent report in the September issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, it looks like family members (siblings in particular) are much more likely to have/develop Celiac Disease than was previously thought.

The researchers found that 14 percent were positive for tissue transglutaminase antibodies and 10 percent were positive for endomysial antibodies. The prevalence of celiac disease was 11 percent, of which 54 percent had “silent” disease (mostly severe intestinal villous atrophy). All affected family members carried the at-risk HLA-DQ genotypes. High-risk factors for celiac disease were the HLA-DQ2 genotype (odds ratio 16.1) and being a sibling of a patient with celiac disease (odds ratio 2.5), the authors report.

“Celiac disease is more common in first-degree relatives than previously reported in the United States, with siblings having the greatest risk,” Rubio-Tapia and colleagues conclude. “There is male preponderance of new cases, and many had silent disease despite severe histologic injury.”

In my interaction with people at Celiac events as well as reading stories online on sites like this and message boards, it seems to be pretty common for family members to have Celiac Disease.   I guess this now confirms it.

What are your experiences?  Do you know people that are related and share the disease?

Educating Others About the Gluten-Free Diet

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

This may seem like a recurring theme here at Celiac Disease, but I believe creating awareness of Celiac Disease and the gluten-free diet is the responsibility of all of us.

Here we do our best to feature some of the best work you guys are doing, write some original content of our own, and of course to provide a bunch of resources and other information for the Celiac community. For others who don’t have the ability to create websites, forums, or directories, there are other things you can do to help promote the cause and increase awareness (which is especially needed here in the United States).

If you read the Chicago Sun-Times, you might have noticed the story of Sunshine Best, a young woman with Celiac Disease who has made it her mission to educate as many people as possible about the disease and the importance of strictly following the gluten-free diet:

At her online bakery, www.rise andshinedesserts.com, the fruits of her labor are evident: vegan sunflower cookies, cassava coconut loaf, key lime pound cake and whole grain cornbread all attest to her creativity and the quality of her cooking. Her philosophy is simple: “Teach young people about basic nutrition needs, what foods meet those needs and flavorful, inexpensive ways on how to prepare them. People have to know there is a better option that is accessible to them.”

Her drive to educate and share her passions led her to establish Your Safe Kitchen, a special diet and culinary instruction consulting service. Through referrals from dieticians and naturopaths, Best helps people create recipes, clear pantries and cupboards of potentially harmful foods, and show them the basics of shopping and cooking in a gluten-free, allergy-free lifestyle. Those interested in booking private cooking classes or other services may reach Best at www.yoursafekitchen.com.

What are you doing to increase Celiac awareness in your area?

Recipe: Gluten-Free Blueberry Pancakes

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

There are a number of great gluten-free pancake recipes out there, but here is one that I think is pretty special. Try it for yourself and let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Gluten-Free Blueberry Pancakes Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup gluten-free flour mix (see below)
  • 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used safflower)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup plain Soy Milk
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1 egg

Directions:

  1. Mix the flour mixture, flaxseed meal, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt together in a medium-sized bowl.
  2. Add the oil, egg, vanilla, soymilk, and lemon juice and mix until just blended.
  3. Add the blueberries and blend to mix them into the batter.
  4. Drop 2 tablespoons of batter per pancake (or more if you like them bigger) onto the griddle. When the top of the pancake looks almost completely dry, flip the pancake and cook until the other side is finished.
  5. Top with maple syrup.

Want to make this recipe Vegan friendly? Just eliminate the egg!

If you’d like to check out other recipe ideas, check out our gluten-free recipes page!