Gluten Free Pizza Crust

 You had to know this one was coming. On the list of things I would eat in a heartbeat if my health was of no concern, near the very top would be pizza. Meat lovers to be exact. This recipe helps you get more love in your tummy, and is borrowed from Sonja Stewart at Wise Bread.
 While a meat lovers pizza may be in the works one day, taco pizza is on the menu today. Good thing I gave you that taco seasoning recipe ;)
 This crust is spot on, if you have a pizza stone or metal pizza pan with holes in it I'm sure it would be EXACTLY like you've dreamed of. I don't have either of those things, but still adore this crust. It's taken me some time to get used to it's little nuances, so if at first you don't succeed, try again. You'll live. I promise.
 The first thing you want to do is proof the yeast. I preheat the oven and gather all my ingredients while the yeast puffs up.

oooo bubbly

 After your yeast is puffy, add vinegar and oil. Next get all your dry ingredients and mix well. Let the mixer go an extra minute to make sure the xantham gum gets evenly distributed.

 Then you'll want to add your liquid ingredients to your dry ingredients.

This is how your dough should look

 You'll want to roll out your dough between layers of flour dusted parchment paper or plastic wrap. I can't seem to roll out this dough for some reason, so I partially roll out the dough and press it the rest of the way into my pan.

I do love me some square pizza

 After you get your dough in your pan, bake your crust until golden brown around the edges. It doesn't get super crispy, but it's tasty.

the crust shrank a bit :(

 Add your favorite sauce, cheese, and toppings and bake again to melt the cheese. Let cool slightly before slicing, if you can restrain yourself.

so flippin good

 I decided to make mine into a taco pizza, with seasoned ground beef, lettuce, and taco sauce.

yummmmmy

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

• 1 Tbsp yeast
• 1 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 2 1/3 cup gluten-free all purpose flour mix
• 2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 2 tsp. cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup (more or less) gluten free corn meal.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Heat the milk using your microwave or a small saucepan, to just above room temperature, or 105 degrees with your thermometer. Remember you want it hot, but you should be able to touch it slightly with your finger. Mix in the yeast, sugar and milk in a medium bowl and set it aside.
In your mixing bowl, mix the flour, salt and xanthan gum well. Your yeast mixture should be foaming by now. Add the apple cider vinegar and olive oil to the yeast mixture and then throw it into the flour blend. Mix it well.
I like to use parchment paper because it's easy to roll out and transfer onto the baking sheet. However, it isn't needed. Drop your dough out onto a well floured surface (like parchment paper) and add corn meal. Sprinkle the corn meal liberally as you roll out. Sprinkle it out on the top as well. Roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. Transfer the dough onto your baking sheet and cook it until the dough has a slight touch of golden brown. Throw the sauce on the crust, add cheese and toppings, then throw it back in the oven until the cheese is melted.

Enchilada Meatballs

 This is a really unique, and fun recipe that I got from allrecipes, my favoritest website in the whole world, after lolcats of course. It's meatballs with a Mexican flair, great for parties or just a fun dinner.
 My version, of course, is gluten free and everything is made from scratch. I made the cornbread, and enchilada sauce from scratch. Cornbread is the coolest part of this recipe. The cornbread is the bread crumbs! Genius!
 You can eat this as a snack, appetizer, or dinner- just jazz it up with taco fixings and make meatball tacos in corn tortillas. Those meatball tacos were tasty. This time around I didn't put any cheese in my mixture and the meatballs fell apart really easily. The taste was spot on, but they weren't very pretty.
 So, the first thing you want to do is make the cornbread, adding some taco seasoning in with it. They say a packet, but I make my own taco seasoning, so about two tablespoons worth. This taco seasoning is fabulous. The cornbread recipe I use is here.

Before baking

After baking. And looking great I must say

 Let your cornbread cool. Then make bread crumbs. It's super easy, just look...

yep I used my mixer to make bread crumbs, pure genius

 Cornbread is a more crumbly type of bread so you can just put it in your mixer and let it go to town.
 While the cornbread was baking I made the enchilada sauce. I doubled that recipe for the meatballs. You'll want extra to pour over the meatballs.

this is what it looks like before reducing

 Now that you have your breadcrumbs and enchilada sauce, you can finally make your meatballs! Just combine the enchilada sauce, slightly cooled of course, and breadcrumbs with your mixer. Then add the ground meat, and cheese if you're feeling cheesy. I let my mixer do all the work, maybe that's why my meatballs fell apart, but I'd rather my mixer get yucky than my hands.

Oh yes I did, no yucky hands for me

 Then you want to form the meat mixture into balls. I like to use my ice cream scoop for this. It makes them each the same exact size and it's really fast.

and of course this scoop broke right after this picture. fail

 After you bake the meatballs, you can put them in another pan and pour your extra enchilada sauce on them. Or if you're like me and don't want to dirty another pan, you can put them in your enchilada sauce that's still in the pot, hoping your meatballs won't fall apart stirring them. Good luck and have fun!

another attempt at being artsy

Ingredients

• 2 cups crumbled cornbread
• 20 enchilada sauce, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend, divided (optional-see note)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine the cornbread, 10 oz of the enchilada sauce, half of the cheese if using, salt, and taco seasonging. Crumble the beef into the mixture, and blend well. Shape meat into 1 inch balls, and place on a 10x15 inch jellyroll pan, or any cookie sheet with sides to catch the grease.
3. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes in the preheated oven, until the meat is cooked through.
4. While the meatballs are cooking, warm remaining enchilada sauce in a saucepan. Remove the meatballs from the pan using a slotted spoon, and place in a serving dish. Pour the heated sauce over them, and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. Provide toothpicks for serving.