Monday, May 31, 2010

Hey, that tastes good!

Hey, that tastes good! I am always finding great sites but have no clue how to add them to my blog. This is one of them. Enjoy!

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Pancakes


It seems that there is a theme going on here at our family table. Last time it was chocolate chips cookies. Now it is breakfast foods. Well, I did admit breakfast had been boring lately. Saturday mornings usually mean pancakes. Our day is slower and there is more time to cook to order~within reason. Meat, no meat, agave, or berries.

With it being a long week-end I decided it was time to venture into another recipe. This time it was pancakes. They are so light, portable, and versatile. My family can eat them for any meal.

Bette Hagman's, my guru, recipe for pancakes called for powdered buttermilk. No can do but Bette to the rescue. She suggested to use yogurt. In doing so it resulted in rave reviews from the family. My dear husband, who is fighting GFCF all the way for himself, did not even realize that the pancakes were GFCF. Yippee!!

I did alter ever so slightly the following recipe. Rather than the buttermilk powder, berry soy yogurt. I decreased the amount of water. I can not give an exact measurement on this~sorry. I added enough water to make the batter smooth. Instead of Bette Hagman's personal recipe for GF flour mix I substituted brown rice flour. To give the pancakes a little nutritional extra punch I add flax seed.

These panackes were so wonderful that we did not feel that they needed powdered sugar or agave. I think some warm berries would have been an amazing topping. Next time you need to slow down or get the chance, make someone you love pancakes. You will be glad you did~so will they.

Happy eating!
Blair
Pancakes

1 C rice flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 carton soy fruit yogurt
2 tbsp canola oil
enough water to make batter pancake consistency

Sift dry ingredients together in mixing bowl. Add yogurt to dry ingredients. Beat eggs, add oil an water. Beat until batter is smooth, but do not over beat.

Drop from a mixing spoon onto a hot greased griddle an cook until the top is full of tint bubbles and the underside is brown. Turn and brown on other side. Makes ten 4-inches pancakes. Recipe can easily be doubled.

Heavenly Muffins



Since starting the GFCF diet breakfast has been kinda boring. It is my fault I will admit. I did not want to bite the bullet and spend a lot of money on flours I did not think I would use.

After reading The GF Gourmet by Bette Hagman, I have had a renewed thought on this! Her recipes sound so easy and less daunting than several of the cookbooks I have recently read. I love how she says "oh you can just use rice flour here and there instead 5 or 6 different flours combined for the same outcome!" Options, I need options when it is 7am and the youngest girl leaves for school in an hour!

My first adventure was muffins. The recipe looked simple enough. So I gave it the old college try. I must tell you these were melt in your mouth delish! The texture was light and fluffy. I tucked a large blackberry in the center of each muffin. The youngest said it was a surprise in the center like a toosie pop! You can use any type of berry but bare in mind these do not rise very high so do not over load them too much. :0)

Quick and Easy Muffins
Bette Hagman note: These come out best when mixed by hand with a mixing spoon. Do not over stir, batter will become tough.

1/4 C sugar
2 Tbsp shortening
2 eggs
1 C rice flour
1/4 tsp salt,
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 C almond milk or alternative
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 to 1 1/2 Tbsp berries of choice-fresh or frozen (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the mixing bowl, cream together sugar and shortening. Then beat in eggs. Sift together the flour, salt, xanthan gum, and baking powder. Add to the egg mixture alternately with the milk. DO NOT over beat. Stir in the vanilla. Gently add berries.
Pour into greased or paper lined muffin cups. Bake for 20 mins. Makes 8 muffins.

Please note: I used brown rice flour when I made this recipe.

** As a time saver, you can mix the dry ingredients ahead of time. Place in mason jars or Ziploc bags. I prefer to reuse mason jars and such since a plastic bag will stay at the dump for over 400 yrs! When ready, add your wet ingredients to the mix~cutting your prep time in half.
Xanthan Gum and certain flours will go rancid quickly. After living in WV I have experienced HOT humid summers. This kind of weather if not careful can lead to bugs hatching. Make sure to keep your flours, mixes as well as xanthan gum in the freezer to extend the shelf life.

Happy Baking!
Blair

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Chocolate Chip Cookies Part 2


My oldest daughter could not stand the thought of throwing out the icky cookie mix. So she and her girl friend decided that it could saved!

As you can see it took a lot to cover the bitter taste. The texture was light and airy. There was still a slight aftertaste BUT nothing like before!


The following is the amended ingredients to Bob's Red Mill Chocolate Chip Cookies:


2 mashed bananas

1 tbsp ginger

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp nutmeg

1 tbsp vanilla

1/2 c brown sugar

1 c peanut butter, crunchy


Bake at 350 degrees for 20 mintues. Cookies will appear under cooked. Cook on cookie sheet for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. Enjoy!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Chicken Nuggets


"WOW! These are delicous." :0)

Our youngest daughters take on tonights dinner.You know that you have hit a home run!

Tonights dinner was chicken fingers which turned out very successful. Finding gf yeast bread us proving quite challenging. I am still searching for a bread that the kids will eat. I have tried Ener-G gf and yeast free breads but the texture are hard, thick and bland. At almost $5 a loaf I have been squirreling it away in the freezer till I found another use for it! I used several slices in our black bean burger by grating it very fine by hand. This time I used the food processor. Not as fine but a heck of a lot faster.
Happy Cooking!
~Blair

Chicken Fingers

2 Chicken breast cut into strips or chunks
3 eggs
almond milk
bread crumbs

olive oil
canola oil

garlic powder
onion powder
dried parsley
black pepper
sea salt
paprika

Mix eggs and milk into a deep dish for dipping. Mix seasoning and bread crumbs into another pan for coating. Place at least an inch of canola and olive oil in a shallow pan or small skillet. Coat chicken in the egg/milk mixture then dredge in bread crumbs. Cook till golden brown on each side. Drain on a paper towel.

Chocolate Chip Cookies


Yummy, ooey, gooey chocolate chip cookies. Makes my mouth water just thinking about them. I stopped at PCC in Edmonds this morning to pick up a few things our local grocer does not carry.

While I was in the Bob's Red Mill section picking up pizza crust (see post about pizza~we love this crust mix) I spotted on the shelf a chocolate chip cookie mix. I thought this would be a nice after school treat for the kids. So I purchased a bag.

After getting home and putting my spoils away I prepared the mix. It was simple enough.. an egg a stick of butter and water. The directions said the mix would be crumbly. It resembled the Betty Crocker GF cookie dough I tried last week which is drier and more crumbly than non-gf cookie dough.

I am the kind of cook that must taste everything as I go. I am mean, who does not love raw cookie dough? Oh my golly, this stuff tasted HORRIBLE! It was very bitter with a gross after taste. Nothing I was expecting. Last week my oldest made banana bread for the youngest to take to girl scout camp. I noticed it had a some what bitter "after taste". I thought she had added too much ginger! Today I realized she had used the Bob's Red Mill Baking Mix. Hmmmm, I am beginning to see pattern here.

Luckily for the kids I had picked up a Betty Crocker GF Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix which I quickly whipped up. **These cookies are so yummy. They have a little bit of a grainy texture but until I find a perfect cookie recipe these will do. The kids like them. That to me is a score!
** Dbl the vanilla. it makes the cookies creamier and yummier.

Bob's Red Mill GF chocolate chip cookie mix- EWWWWWWWW
Betty Crocker GF chocolate chip cookie mix- YUUUUMMM
Happy Baking!
~Blair

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Spicy Black Bean Burgers

Yummy!
My oldest daughter introduced me to black beans. I am soo glad she did. We started using canned as the novice eaters and moved on to buying in bulk and cooking our own. Now we add black bean to many dishes. The kids love them and don't think twice about eating them~SCORE!

Our youngest daughter aspires to be a chef some day and loves to look at cookbooks like me. She borrowed Healthy Cooking for your Kids by Sarah Banbery from one of her favorite teachers, Mrs. Onishe. We discovered the following recipe for black bean burgers and a new favorite dish was discovered! Please note: we omit the red pesto by choice. With the size of our family I dbl this recipe and there are never any leftovers. :0)










Spicy Black Bean Burgers

Ingredients
14 oz beans drained and rinsed
2 tbsp red pesto
1 1/8 GF bread crumbs
1 egg
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 red onion
1 garlic clove, crushed
pepper
sea salt

Garnish

Tomatoes
cucumbers
hummus
GF buns
We also like to use mung bean sprouts and our daughter SB does not eat most food w/o Ketchup!

Mash the back beans or run through a food processor until smooth. Add pesto, bread crumbs, egg, pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Mix Well.

Heat half the oil in a nonstick skillet over low heat. Cook the onion and garlic until soft. Add bean mixture and mix well.

Heat the remaining oil in the skillet. Spoon in the bean mixture, in 6 seperate mounds pressing each one down with the back of a spoon to form a burger. The mixture is too delicate to try and form a patty with your hands.

Cook the burgers for 4-5 minutes. Turn carefully, cooking for an additional 4-5 minutes until golden.

Remove from skillet, draining on a paper towel. Burgers may be eaten naked (w/o a bun) and served with garnish on the side or on bun. Smear hummus on bun or use as a dip for burger.

These are delish~Happy eating!

Book Review


Rarely do I get as excited as I have for 125 Best Gluten Free Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt. We first began to read their book

I was a little intimidated. The authors introduce themselves as professional home economists, registered dietitian who have taught food theory and safety.They have published numerous cookbooks and worked in test kitchens for several companies including bread machines and yeast manufactures.

OK then, I thought to my self. I will just scan this cookbook. Most likely it will stay at the library. On the contrary!

When we started this gluten free diet I felt so lost so I limited myself to premade food, fruits and veggies. The cost alone was too big for our pocketbook, money got too tight and I dropped the diet. Don't get me wrong, our son showed great response from being on the diet! His language skills took off and even my mother in law noted the change!

I recently decided to revisit the GFCF diet but with a different approach. Now I am scratch cooking more and ready to invest in the flours and other items necessary to be gfcf. I see the need for not only our son but our youngest daughter as well. With all the dietary issues our family has, cooking for our family in the past was like cooking for a restraunt. Taking orders and personalizing each meal. I do not want to go back to cooking our meals restaurant style service. We all can benefit from eating gfcf, low carb and low sugar. I know I can make this work. I know I am going to stubble A LOT but here goes nothing.

The 125 Best GF Recipes has an awesome section called the GF bake Shop. Here the authors explain everything and anything you need to know about GF baking! I made copies of these pages and have now taped them to my cabinets. When in doubt I can now refer to them at a glance.

The bread and muffin recipes are so yummy! I must admit, I am anxious to try the pizza crust recipe. I absolutely LOVE Bob's Redmill GF pizza crust. As far as I am concerned it is the closest I have found to wheat based crust. I am just tired of paying $5 a bag!

Happy baking!