Ooey-gooey Cinnamon Rolls that I CAN EAT!!!

I love cinnamon rolls. Well, I did, pre-Celiac diagnosis. I grew up eating Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. The orange danish are my faves. I'd eat the store brand rolls just as quickly. The Celiac Disease (CD) made me unable to process all the nutrients (and apparently a lot of other parts) in food so I stayed VERY thin. So I could eat those things like crazy & not gain weight. That is, until I got pregnant the 2nd time. Then the doctor told me I had to watch my fat intake. I was gaining 5 and 10 pounds a MONTH. Early in pregnancy, to boot. I think it was around that time, or after I had my 2nd child, that I discovered a book called Miserly Moms. It's been re-written and probably has more up to date hints in it than mine did, but mine had enough to help me save a bundle of money AND had an amazing Cinnamon Roll Recipe. My niece, who was a teenager at the time, and was born with "Mall Radar," told me these tasted like the ones at the mall. I tried to make them for her whenever I saw her. Then came the Celiac Diagnosis and I've not made them since.

If you've ever had to give up a food you love for the rest of your life, you will no doubt understand my sheer joy in finding a cinnamon roll that tastes like the REAL DEAL but has NO GLUTEN in it! For the past 5 years I have not been able to eat anything with wheat, rye or barley, which all contain gluten, in it. I'm often asked, "Can't you eat just a little bit?" or even better, I'm TOLD by non-medically trained people, "A little bit won't hurt you." My response is, "I'd rather not get a little bit of cancer." When a person has Celiac Disease, it isn't just a matter of gluten upsetting a tummy. Rather, studies have shown that untreated CD WILL lead to Lymphoma. Even a smidgen of bread (one studied showed that a piece even smaller than 1/200th of a piece) can cause the villi in the intestines to start being destroyed. So, NO, I cannot eat just a little bit and stay Lymphoma free.

This means I've had to give up a LOT of foods that most of us take for granted: bread, crackers, cookies, soy sauce, canned soup, and about a million other foods. Don't feel too sorry for me. I've been able to duplicate or find gluten free versions of most of these. There are a handful that have eluded me, or had until I recently made a discovery. I'd read about something called, "Better Batter Mix" which is found HERE. I haven't been willing to fork out the dough (ha, ha, pun intended) for this gluten free flour mix. A few weeks ago I found a "copycat" recipe of the mix at THIS website. I could get most of those ingredients at my local grocer! I mixed up a batch of the copycat recipe and tried something I'd missed for all these years: Cinnamon Rolls. REAL ooey gooey rolled up cinnamon rolls. Most GF batter is like a quick bread batter. Ever tried rolling out banana bread batter? LOL! Then along came the Better Batter Clone recipe and the Better Batter Cinnabon-Clone Recipe. You can find it HERE if you'd like.

OH.......MY......WORD!!!! WOW! These were like the REAL DEAL to me. They rolled up like a real dough. They rose like a real dough. They baked like real rolls. They TASTED LIKE THE REAL THING! I can't remember the last time I was so happy to taste a new food. Finding GF "Graham Style" crackers was HUGE recently, but this topped that. Yum, yum, yum.

Now if I could just find a way to keep these things from adding layers to me. Remember that, "I was SO thin" statement? Yeah, well, I got over that. And in a hurry. Sad, but true. These aren't an every day kind of food, but for those few moments of sheer delight, boy, oh, boy are they worth it!