Gluten Free Goop!

Alright, here it is.  For the first time, my very own gluten free recipe!  Goop!  Just like momma use to make, except...different.  I have missed the days of quick meals ever since fast food places became OUT of the question.  I miss the days when the clock read 5:00 and Josh would look at me, after a long hard day, and say, "what's for dinner" with a tone in his voice that I knew meant he was hoping to help me out by taking us all out for dinner.  From the quick calls to the pizza place that delivered, to the McDonald's drive through, our quick and easy dinners are no more.

I do have a few "quick" meals hidden away, but they have cost a pretty penny.  If you want to buy a box of gluten free, dairy free mac n' cheese, you are going to pay 20 times the cost of regular mac n' cheese.  That's right $6.50 or more.  And it tastes alright, but it's not the same, and I dare say, NOT worth the cost.  So I also have bags of pre-made GF pasta.  I boil some water and then I heat up some canned spaghetti sauce, and I have myself dinner, but that gets pretty boring after awhile too.

So, on this particular day, I decided to make GOOP.  I had recently mastered the art of GF/DF cream of mushroom soup, which is the main ingredient in GOOP, so I gave it a try.  Here is what I came up with, and it was pretty tasty, although, I have to say, I missed the cheese!

GF/DF Cream of Mushroom Soup

Ingredients: (everything is DF and GF)
4 tbsp margarine
1 to 2 cups chopped mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped onions
4 tbsp corn starch
3 to 4 cups soy milk
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Melt margarine over medium heat.
2. Add mushrooms and onions to margarine and saute' until soft, and fragrant.
3. While the mushrooms and onions are sauteing,  mix corn starch with 1 cup of milk.
4. Add corn starch/milk mixture to mushrooms and onions, and stir.  I used a whisk.
5. Slowly add rest of the milk, and stir until thickened.  Add as much milk as you need to make it the consistence you want.
6. Salt and pepper to taste.

GF/DF Goop


Ingredients: (everything is DF and GF)
2 bags of pasta (about 2 pounds or less)
2 pounds ground beef
garlic salt
minced garlic
salt and pepper
Cream of mushroom soup from recipe above
1 bag of frozen corn, or your frozen vegetable of choice. (as little or as much as you like)

Directions:
1. Boil water in a big pot and cook pasta.
2. While the pasta is cooking, cook the ground beef over medium heat until brown, add the seasonings before the beef is completely done, maybe half way through.  Once the meat is done, drain, and put back in the pain, and add the frozen veggies.
3. Drain pasta, put back in pot.
4. Add soup, meat/veggie mixture.
5. Heat on medium/low heat until veggies are done.  You may need to add more milk, to get desired consistency.

If you are GF but can still have dairy, feel free to add cheese!  :)

Chicken and Waffles with Maple BACON Gravy

The number one reason to buy Cooking for Isaiah by Silvana Nardone--her waffle recipes!  The woman is brilliant!  Seriously!  Who would have thought to use a waffle iron to make bread?!?!  Not me, by any means.  And while I don't like a couple things about her cook book in general, her stuff TASTES good!  She is a dang good cook, I will give her that much, and this recipe is PROOF!

I was a little nervous to try this recipe.  I know it has BACON in it, and you can't go wrong with that, but it turned maple syrup into a gravy, and something didn't seem right about that.  I put my fears and wariness to the side, and went all out with this recipe, not changing anything.  Okay, well, I changed one thing.  I didn't have any chicken breasts WITH the skin.  Eeewww.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I love chicken skin, just like anyone else, but why add the calories?  Especially when you can get skinless and boneless chicken breasts for $1.78 per pound at Walmart.  This affected the recipe slightly, and the cooking time, and probably the over all texture of the chicken, in the end.  But it still tasted AMAZING!

OH!  That's right.  I forgot about a little mistake a made along the way...I made this about two and a half weeks ago.  I had forgotten that the way she writes her recipes is kind of confusing.  She lists her ingredients on the left side of the directions.  Cool.  But then she will say, "...whisk together the eggs, vegetable oil and 1 1/2 cups milk..."  So, I quickly look at the ingredients list, and add all the eggs, all the oil and ALL of the milk.  Of course, the ingredients list says that 3 cups of rice milk is needed.  So, guess what I just did to the waffle batter?  Yeah, SOUP!  Haha, the funny thing was I didn't realize I had done that until step 4, when I needed to add milk to the gravy.  And then it made sense.  I thought the batter seemed runny, and it took a lot longer to cook than the recipe said it would.  Oh goodness.

So, now, when I am using Cooking for Isaiah, I triple check the instructions, which is rather annoying.  But this recipe is definitely worth it.  The waffles have dry mustard, paprika and fresh parsley for seasoning.  They tasted so good.  (My kids loved them, and wanted just the waffles by themselves, too bad I couldn't have sneaked some healthy veggies in them or something.)  The chicken was easy to cook, and didn't take very long at all.  The gravy...now THAT was the icing on the cake!  It had BACON, maple syrup and a hint of cayenne pepper, which ended up making it a bit too strong for the kids, but made Josh and my taste buds very happy.

Here is Josh, eating his second helping, HIS WAY.  He made that puppy into a sandwich and licked his fingers when he was done!  I didn't have a second helping, but I did eat another waffle, just by itself.  YUM!

The rating on this recipe is 5 stars out of 5 stars!  It really doesn't matter how much it cost, or how difficult it was or even how many calories were in it, IT WAS WORTH IT!

New to Gluten Free and Beyond

It has been 15 days since my last post, and I have made 17 recipes from two different cook books.  One cook book I have mentioned before, Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Pete Bronski; the other cook book I have not mentioned yet, but I have been eager to try some recipes from: Cooking for Isaiah  by Silvana Nardone.

My original intent for starting this blog was to make myself start trying new recipes.  The idea came when I got a cook book I ordered in the mail called Gluten Free Girl and the Chef by Shauna James Ahern and Daniel Ahern.  I saw the book online and I was super excited about it, but when I got it, and started to flip through the recipes, I was shocked.  "Millet Tabouleh" and "Watermelon Gazpacho" and "Umbraian Lentils with Duck Confit" and "Rabbit with Mustard".  Really?  Yeah, that sounds great: "Okay, Andrew, go sit at the table while I dish you up some rabbit with mustard; that's a good boy."  No, I don't think so.  Thankfully, I had the Artisanal Gluten Free Cooking book, and I started on those recipes.  But anyway, my idea was to cook all the recipes in the books, and blog about them, and in the end write a cook book review, so that other people would know what they were buying.  I am sure there are several people who are going to read this blog and think, "Oooooo!  Millet Tabouleh!  How exciting!"  Or, "Man, I have been looking for a good GF watermelon gazpacho!"  But as you have noticed, trying those recipes are not top priority.  No, I needed some down to earth, easy to make meals, and quick!  I didn't know how many more times I could feed my kids beans and rice before I was going to go crazy!

My intentions have expanded a little now.  The more I write and the more I research, and the more I cook, the more I realize that there is a slough of information out there for people needing information on a gluten free life style.  I am new at this, I can not offer any one any real information.  But I have realized that there is something of value I can offer.  Experience.  If you go to Google and type "gluten free recipes" you will get (and I quote Google) "About 506,000 results".  I have personally been to probably 20 gluten free blogs so far.  I know there are a ton more, but I can only read so much with all the cooking and cleaning I do, plus dealing with the kids running around the house.  But if you are new to the gluten free life, and you are struggling with what books to buy, and what blogs to follow, fear not!  I have struggled to.  And this blog seeks to review all the information out there, and help you decide just what it is YOU want to do.  Because we can all follow the Artisanal Gluten Free Cooking to the letter, or we can follow the Gluten Free Mommy blog to the "T", but neither of those things are us.  My life is different from their lives.  And your life is different from mine.  So...this blog is more of a guide through the floods of gluten free information and knowledge.  And fortunately it is also quite entertaining.  Don't worry, you are not the first one to ask what "xanthan gum" is.  You aren't the first one to have problems reading labels, or baking GF bread.  And don't worry, you will not be the last.  Good luck on your adventure.

As for the 17 recipes I haven't blogged about...I am still uncertain of what to do.  It is a lot of catching up to do.  Maybe I will just start fresh tomorrow, and post one a day starting tomorrow, and when I come to a day when I don't have time or energy to make a new recipe, I will pull one of the ones out that I have already made, but haven't blogged about.

PHEW!  It is nice to not have the pressure of catching up on my shoulders anymore.  Thank you all for your continued support and for joining my on my GF journey!

Lemon Loaf

Finished product.

Mess from trying to juice the lemon with out a juicer....I am open to better options, with out having to get a juicer, obviously.  I also ended up spilling some of the fresh juice, and having to get out my not so fresh juice...this reminds me of a Dr. Seuss book.  "...try Finny's Freshest Fish, French Fried..."

I do have a zester....but my lemon wasn't looking to good, I should have made the lemon loaf sooner.

This is the lemon loaf in the oven.

I was not impressed with this recipe.  I am WAY behind on blogging, and so I am not going to take the time to rate it and all that.  I will say that I had to use an entire bottle of poppy seeds, which were $4.32 a bottle!  And if you ask me, they recipe called for WAY to many of them.  All I tasted was poppy seeds, and not enough lemon.  Josh loved it, of course.  So, as you can see, the Artisan Gluten Free Flour Mix is a great mix.  It works just like regular flour.  We have yet to eat something made from it and think, "ewww" because of the textrue of the bread, or taste.  If I don't like the recipe it is because of something else.  Haha.  The Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking book by Kelli and Pete Bronski is awesome.  :)

Chocolate Chip Scones

This picture is proof that something can taste good, but look weird all at the same time.  I know that scones aren't necessarily supposed to look like pieces of pizza, but, as I like to say, "I can explain".

This recipe comes from the cook book Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Pete Bronski.  I used my new hand crank grain mill (that I got from my wonderful mother-in-law) to make all natural, long grain, brown rice into flour.  I had to run it through the mill at least twice.  And then I needed to mix it with a few other flours to come up with their Artisan GF Flour Mix.

On to the recipe rating:

*Difficulty: 3 out of 5 stars

     I am a visual person, definitely not audio, so reading the directions for how to cut these in to triangles was not the simplest thing.  I had to read it several times, and even re-cut it, after I messed it up the first time.  They used words like "long", "wide", and "crosswise".  If I had had a picture with arrows directing me, I would have been able to easily decide whether crosswise meant the length or the width.

     Mixing it up was a breeze with my kitchenaid though, and the dough was pretty easy to work with.  I think since I never baked before this gluten problem, I am at a bit of a disadvantage.  Anyone who cooks and bakes is probably using my blog as a good source of comedy.  But, when you can buy perfectly good scones at the store, why bake them?  But when you have to order GF scones, and pay to have them shipped to you, and they are four or five times the price of scones that have gluten in them, making them seems like a must.

     I would also like to add, that I was trying to read the directions with three wild kids running around the kitchen "helping" me.  And since I mentioned having to cut it more than once, I will add that the pictured scone above has lines in it because of the previous cuts.  I was running out of time (bed time was looming) and I didn't mix the dough and start over.  I tried to mush the lines together instead.  

*Time: 5 out of 5 stars

     Not long at all.  Only 20 minutes in the oven.

*Price: 3 out of 5 stars

     $7.34 not including the chocolate chips.  I tried to find out how much I spent on them, but I couldn't.  I bought GF and DF (dairy free) chocolate chips at the World Food Market in Omaha.  I am not too impressed with the over all price of the scones.  

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars

     

*Yum Factor: 4.5 out of 5 stars

     They turned out great.  I would have added more chocolate chips.  But other than that, perfect.  The texture was perfect.  Not that I really ate scones before, so I couldn't tell you how much they are alike or different from their glutenous counterparts.

*Over All Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Yesterday I made Pumpkin Spice Muffins from the cook book Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking Kelli and Pete Bronski.  Of course, I had to cook the little pie pumpkin I have had sitting on my counter for weeks, first.  I say little, but it was too big to fit the whole pumpkin in one pan.  So, I put half in the microwave, and half in my veggie steamer pan.  It took about a half hour.  No fuss at all.  The pumpkin in the microwave took about 20 minutes, so it was done first.

While I was at it, I washed and roasted the seeds!  So yummy!  It was like eating pop corn.  I told myself they were zero calories, but I am sure that is not true.

If I have learned anything about baking from this cook book, it is that butter and vanilla extract can make ANYTHING taste good.  I have never bought this much butter in my life.  Practically every recipe in the cook book calls for butter.  I am going to need to find a substitute though, I found out what had been giving us all problems in the previous batches of muffins I had made....butter. 

I have been dealing with a lactose intolerance issue for almost a year now.  I had never thought butter gave me any problems.  I had eaten it on baked potatoes and the like, but those muffins have not been agreeing with me.  This time I used a margarine (which usually has milk in it, but this kind did not, it was made from olive oil and other oils).  No problems!  And it's a good thing too, because I was starting to be afraid that it was another allergy to an additional grain I had been using for baking.

Over all, the ratio of spices and the amount of pumpkin all came together to form the perfect muffin.  Either I am getting better at baking gluten free, or these are the best muffins ever made....either way, I will be making them again.  They are delicious!

*Difficulty: 5 out of 5 stars

     With my kitchen aid, this was a piece of cake.  Even cooking the pumpkin wasn't that hard.

*Time: 5 out of 5 stars 

     

*Price: 5 out of 5 stars

    $4.82 for 18 muffins which makes it almost 27 cents a muffin.  Better than the blueberry ones, as far as price goes.  I wonder if less butter was needed, since there was moist pumpkin in it.  I also have been wondering if I can substitute apple sauce for butter and oil in GF recipes.  I think I am going to ask the authors of this cook book in an email.

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars

*Yum Factor: 5 out of 5 stars

*Calories: I didn't track this one, this time.  Sorry.

*Over All Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!  

Oh, and here is a picture of the pumpkin seeds.  YUMMY!

Chili

This recipe took chili to a WHOLE NEW level for me!  I have been called the queen of chili before.  But I never took it too serious because I used a packaged seasoning mix from McCormick.  Everyone always raved about it though.  I got my recipe from a recipe exchange I did once.  A friend from college gave me her "touch down chili" recipe.  It called for a cup of vegetables and suggested sour cream and cheese as toppings.  I don't much like vegetables in my chili, so I always did a green bell pepper and an onion.  It worked great.  Well, guess what one of the first things to go was, when we found out about the gluten problem?  The chili seasoning.  It wasn't the end of the world.  I got the hang of seasoning it myself.  But it was never quite the same.

But, now, I have a chili recipe!  The best ever!  REALLY!  It is SO YUMMY!  And, it is a slow cooker recipe to boot!  I love using my crock pot!  So this is a double whammy!  

Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the chili.  And the left overs were not around too long, so I couldn't even get a picture of those.  But I will say, the cost of the Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking book by Kelli and Pete Bronski is not too high a price to pay for this chili recipe!  I am tempted to not even rate it....because it doesn't matter how many calories are in it, or how much it cost, it is worth every calorie and every penny!  And since I can hear the kids waking up, and running around up stairs, I think I might just do that.

Over all rating 6 out of 5 stars!  How about that?!?!

A few things about this recipe though:

1. You put most of the ingredients in the slow cooker, and then you put a one pound beef roast on top, in the middle.  It kind of sinks down about half way.  You are supposed to cook it on low for 8 to 10 hours.  I didn't.  I cooked it on high for 4 hours, because I had started it too late.  By the end of the cooking time, if you do it on low, you should be able to "shred" the beef.  I wasn't.  I had to cut mine into small pieces, but that's okay.  It was still way yummy!

2. I did end up topping the chili with a dollop of sour cream (tuffuti, non dairy) and some scallions.  The scallions MADE THIS!  Oh my word.  The crunch and flavor....well, you are just going to HAVE to try this.

So, if you are going gluten free, and missing your McCormick chili seasoning, like I did, this will change your life.  Like Kelli and Pete's blog says, "No gluten, NO PROBLEM!".

**Addition**
I found a picture of me and the chili...well the closest thing I could find.

Cranberry Relish

Here is the recipe for the day, Cranberry Relish.  It comes from Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski.  I have made this before.  My Grandma Mary has been making it for years.

First off, it called for a whole cup of sugar.  I started with 1/4 cup, and then ended up with 1/2 cup.  I could not bare to put the whole cup in.  I was thinking about the salt in the Jasmine rice, and thought it a better idea to start small, and add more.  1/4 cup was still sweet, but not sweet enough, so I put another 1/4 cup in, and then it seemed perfect.  But the kids didn't like it as much...like it wasn't sweet enough.  But I liked the tartness.

Second, I only have a small food processor.  The recipe calls for dumping all the ingredients in a food processor and having at it.  I had to do mine in batches.  I wanted to have the same effect, though, so I put some cranberries, and some oranges in it and pulsed it a bit, and then did more.  Problem was, if I wanted to get the orange to the right size, I would have to keep going past the cranberries being ready.  So when I do this again, I will just do the oranges by themselves.

The rating of this recipe is as follows:

*Difficulty: 5 out of 5 stars

*Time: 5 out of 5 stars

*Price: 4 out of 5 stars
     $3.87 for the whole dish.  If this was a meal, I would be impressed. But it is just a relish.  Which is only made once in a while.  So it isn't too bad.

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars

*Yum Factor: 4 out of 5 stars

*Calories: 4 our of 5 stars
     It was 200 calories for one cup.  I don't think that any person could eat a whole cup of that stuff though.  So, a serving would be more like 1/4 or 1/2 that.  So, that is pretty doable.

*Over all rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Hoppin' Johns

This southern recipe from Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Pete Bronski, had a lot of potential!  But I should start by saying, I did not follow the recipe to the letter, like I have been trying to do.  It is actually a black-eyed pea recipe.  I do not black-eyed peas.  I should have just tried it, but last night, when I was trying to come up with something to cook, that I could also blog about, I didn't have anything except some things for this recipe.  I had bought most of the ingredients last time I was in the store, but they had been used up.  No more tomatoes for garnish, but the green onions were still there!  So I did it anyway.

The aroma that filled the air made for great expectations for this dish.  But when it came right down to it, the flavor was every where but IN the dish.  But, in the recipe's defense, here is where I went wrong:
1. Pinto beans, not black-eyed peas.  I am not sure, but I would venture to guess that black-eyed peas are more flavorful in general, compared to the good old pinto bean.
2. It called for bacon, and I thought I had bacon, but it turned out I had CANADIAN bacon.  Still yummy, but not grease.  I was supposed to saute some onion and bell pepper in the drippings.
3. It called for regular rice.  I had found some organic, brown, Jasmine rice at the store, and I was itching to try it.  It was very disappointing.  I could smell the Jasmine rice cooking, but it did not have that real flavor, like the Jasmine rice I had tried before.
4. I just went through the recipe again, and see now that I missed salt.  A whole 1 1/2 teaspoons! Which, I actually tripled the recipe on accident!  I cooked the whole pound of beans, rather than just a cup.  So that is 4 1/2 teaspoons salt!

In conclusion, the disaster that this recipe was, really can be linked to me, and not the recipe. (Disaster is a bit strong.  Josh liked it, and I did too, it just needed a tortilla wrapped around it, and some DF sour cream, and salsa.)  So I am not going to rate it.  I don't think it would be fair.  But I will tell you the amount of calories, and the difficulty of the recipe.

Difficulty: It was super easy.  Add this, add that, let cook, add some more.  Wa-la!  :)
Calories: 198 for one cup.  A little towards the high side, but very filling.   If you are eating just this, maybe not worth it, but if you are adding the tortillas, sour cream, and salsa, it climbs pretty quick.  I don't think I would waste it on this meal; at least not the way I made it.

Tofutti Sour Supreme- Better than Sour Cream

GF and DF, this product was really good.  The texture was very smooth and creamy.  It had no resemblance to the texture or taste of Tofu, to those of you who may be wondering.  Tofutti has a wide variety of products, from ice cream sandwiches to cream cheese.  We have had their Butter Pecan ice cream many times.  Andrew usually gets their Wild Berry ice cream.  They also have a chocolate one, with chocolate pieces in it, but it has "crisp wheat" in it, and Josh has a reaction to it.  Everything we have tired, we have liked.  I am planning on making some GF bagels very soon, so we can try out their cream cheese.  We have also thought about making California Sushi with their cream cheese!  I will let you know how they turn out.

Over all, if you are lactose intolerant and you like sour cream, this product is for you!  You will not be sorry you tried it.  Although, it is not something you should get accustomed to putting on everything, for it is almost $4 a tub.  But if you are counting calories, you will be happy to know that is only has 60 per 2 tablespoons!  Yay!

Stuffed Peppers

Another amazing recipe from Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski.  I am very happy with how these turned out.

 I should mention a few things before I get to the rating though.  First, The recipe called for 3 bell peppers.  I used four, and still had 1.5 to 2 cups of stuffing left.  The recipe did not specif what size peppers to use-- small, medium or large.  Second, I needed to make the recipe for Jasmine rice before I could make the stuffed peppers.

I had had jasmine rice before.  My Aunt Geneva makes it, and it is delicious!  I have always wondered, and meant to ask her, about the distinct flavor.  If you never have tasted jasmine rice, you need to!  It is so flavorful.  I even found some organic, brown, jasmine rice at a local grocery store here in H-town, that I am excited to try.

As for their recipe for Jasmine rice, blah!  It called for a whole teaspoon of salt.  I checked, four times, making sure I wasn't misreading it, and then dumped it in.  It was SALTY!  Thankfully I was mixing it in with other things, so it wasn't that bad.  Once the peppers were all done, and we were eating I had forgotten how salty the rice had been.

Also worth mentioning is the difficulty I had with actually stuffing the peppers.  They all came out perfectly cooked, but to get them that way, you had to cook the peppers for 25 minutes first, and then stuff them, and then cook them for another 25 minutes.  It wasn't impossible, just kind of messy.  I couldn't hold the peppers in my hand to stuff them, they were too hot.

The recipe also calls for mozzarella for the tops of the peppers.  Since we can't have dairy, I did not put any on.  I was a bit worried that they wouldn't turn out as good.  I even tried to find some non-dairy mozzarella, but I didn't find any at the store I tried, so I just tried it with out.  It was still awesome, and I didn't have the extra calories.  Bonus!

Josh was especially found of this recipe.  He has liked everything I have made so far, but he seemed even more excited about this dish.  And I am right there with him.  This was a perfect mix of flavor and texture.

I would rate this recipe as follows:

*Difficulty: 4 out of 5 stars
     Like I mentioned above, it was a bit difficult to stuff the peppers.  Also, all the steps involved were some what tedious.  I couldn't just dump everything together and mix it and stuff it, I had to start with this, and then mix that, and then add this.  I read the recipe through 5 or 6 times, making sure I had each step right.  It could easily become second nature, though, as I make the recipe more and more, which I will be doing!

*Time: 4 out of 5 stars
     As mentioned in the difficulty category, the recipe was tedious.  It was a tad bit time consuming.  I had to wait for things to finish, before I could start the next step.

*Price: 5 out of 5 stars
     It's funny how I look at the ingredients I am buying in the store, as I put them in the cart, and I think to myself how expensive they are.  And then, when I get home, cook the meal, and do the math, they really aren't that expensive at all.  It just goes to show you how cheap it is to cook for yourself, rather than eat out.
     The total price for this meal, when I added an extra bell pepper, was $5.07.  I am sure if I had added cheese it would have driven the price up quite a bit.  But as is, it was very cost effective, and very delicious!
    Oh, I should mention that I counted the ground turkey this recipe called for as only a $1 per pound, but, I think we actually paid $2.47 or something like that.  Josh bought it though, and it was turkey sausage, not just ground turkey, so that made it a bit more expensive.

*OHA: 4.5 out of 5 stars
     I don't normally buy ground turkey, unless it is on sale for under $1.50 a pound.  I found some at Meijer once for $1 per pound, and bought a ton of it.  I don't use it for recipes that need that beefy flavor.  I use it in dishes where there is so much flavoring, that the flavor of the meat doesn't really matter.

*Yum Factor: 5 out of 5 stars
     As my kids like to sing, "So yummy, so yummy, so yummy!"  Of course they were NOT singing that the night I made this.  But, that's okay.

*Calories: 5 out of 5 stars
     126 calories for one stuffed pepper.  The recipe has you cut the peppers in half lengthwise, and that is what I am talking about, one half of the pepper, stuffed with about 2/3 cup of the rice and meat mixture.  I ate 3 for dinner!  It was great!

*Over all rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars

Banana Nut Muffins

Don't those look good!  This recipe came from Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski.  I am so impressed with this recipe.  Although, it was a bit of a process to get them to the point in the above picture.  Here's why.

I ran out of rice flour.  I went to Econo Foods (the local Houghton grocery store, with a great selection of GF items, and organic foods, among other things) to get some at about 11 pm Thursday night, because I had four very ripe bananas waiting to be made into something delicious.  They didn't have any.  Not even an empty spot, waiting to get filled.  I probably need to go back at a normal hour, and look again.  So, Friday, Josh has the car, he is at work.  Their those bananas sit, calling my name.  So I pull out my 25 pound bag of natural brown rice, and my little coffee grinder (which I use to grind things, except coffee) and I get to work.

I should note that the first time I tried this it was a miserable failure.  My mother was in town visiting (yay!) and we were trying to make pasta.  I saw how much a pound of rice flour cost, and I laughed, and chose, instead to make my own.  Especially since I had gotten a 25 pound bag from the World Food Market in Houghton for under a dollar a pound!  Whoo Hoo!  After all was said and done (I will spare you the details of that tragic disaster of a meal) I had given up making my own, until I could get a better grinder, or mill.  My in-laws are actually working to find me one.  Isn't that sweet?  But it is not here yet.

Back to the rice flour I was in need of...I decided to put it through the coffee grinder 3 times, on the fine setting, and see what I got.  Since I didn't have any rice flour to compare it to, I had to go by feel, and memory.  It looked better than the first time I tried it.  It seemed to look like pretty fine flour.  And, even though it's texture was a tad bit more grainy than what I remembered the store bought rice flour being, I thought it would be alright.  Besides, what other choice did I have.  So away I went.

Once the oven was preheated, and all the ingredients mixed, and poured into a muffin tin, I took a little taste of the batter.  Something I hate doing, especially since the last egg recall-- which left Walmart (and I suspect other stores as well) completely void of all eggs-- was less than 6 months ago.  The batter had a bit more of a grainy texture to it, more so than I had remembered with the blueberry muffins, which were made with store bought rice flour.  I decided to combat this by lowering the temperature of the oven, and cooking the muffins longer.  Now, there may be some of you who are reading this and shaking your head in amusement.  I am not a baker.  Heck, I am not even a cook.  I can follow a recipe, and even delineate from it every now and then, with pretty good results.  So, maybe I did the exact opposite of what I should of done.  The reason I thought this a good idea was because I thought back to the rice pasta disaster, and remembered the texture of the pasta after it was cooked.  It felt like I was chewing tiny bits of  uncooked rice, with each bite (sufficed to say, I didn't take very many bites of that pasta).  So I figured, if I gave the muffins more time in the oven, it would combat the bits of rice, and make them cook completely; that meant I needed to turn down the temperature to make sure they did not burn.

Well!  35 minutes later I pulled them out of the oven, and they seemed to be done.  They were really moist and mushy, but not, like, under done.  I fed the kids each one, and then I ate two.  But by the end of my second one, I had convinced myself to put them back in the oven.  I turned it back up to the suggested temperature in the recipe, and cooked it for another 10 minutes.  They turned out perfect!  So, I am not sure if I should have just kept cooking them in the oven, at their current temperature, or if I should have never changed the temperature in the first place.  I might have to try this recipe again.  And that would be okay with me.

I would rate this recipe as follows:

*Difficultly: 5 out of 5 stars
     If you forget about all the problems I had with the rice flour, this recipe was actually pretty simple.  I used my Kitchenaid stand mixer, and then poured the batter into the muffin tins.  It was a cinch.

*Time: 5 out of 5 stars
     It really did not take long at all.  I LOVE my Kitchenaid.  I remember when I use to make whole wheat banana bread, with out a stand mixer, it was so difficult, and took a lot of time, and several dishes.  Not the case with this recipe and my Kitchenaid!

*Price: 4 out of 5 stars
     $6.29 for 12 muffins, which equals $.52 per muffin.  Not too bad, I guess.  But not super impressive either.

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars
     Had everything I needed.

*Yum Factor: 5 out of 5 stars
     Delicious!  It had a bit of cinnamon in it too.  So yummy and flavorful!

*Calories: 4 out of 5 stars
     It was 215 calories per muffin.  They were not giant muffins, but they were worth the calories!

*Over all rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix

Here it is.  Betty Crocker's Gluten Free Chocolate Cake.  YUM!  Really, truly, yummy!  It was perfect.  I didn't even put any frosting on it.  It was $3.49 for the whole box.  I am use to paying $.88 for a box, but I am living in a GF world now, and I am not going to find a GF cake mix (or any mix of any kind) for under $2.00.  So, if you are just starting out GF, and you want something quick and easy on hand, this is the thing to try.  I give it 5 stars in all areas, difficulty, time, price, OHA, yum factor, and even calories.  ENJOY!

Polenta

WARNING: BEFORE YOU LOOK AT THE PICTURES!  READ DISCLAIMER!

Disclaimer: I have never seen polenta, let alone eaten polenta before.  Thank the Lord I am writing this and not speaking, because who knows if I am even pronouncing it correctly.  So, as a close friend of mine would say: DO NOT JUDGE ME!  Feel free to laugh though, I certainly did.  I am tempted to look up pictures of polenta, and see what it looks like....naaah!

Once again this recipe comes from Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski.  And I think where I first went wrong is mistaking my organic soy milk as UNSWEETENED organic soy milk.  So already the smell was sweet, and the recipe was calling for spices (yeah, just spices...it was up to me...uh oh!).  I wasn't sure what to do, so I decided to stick with the sweet theme, and threw in 3 table spoons of sugar and some cinnamon.  It smelled really nice, but started to remind me of french toast.  (Which, by the way, since French is supposed to be capitalized, should it be capitalized when using it to write "french fries" and "french toast" and what not?)  Then I had to layer it in a pan....I choose a pie dish.  Which ended up making it difficult to "fry" when I came to the last step of the recipe.  After all was said and done, I ended up giving it to the kids with syrup.  Now you know why I am laughing.  I am sure the inventor of polenta is rolling over in his/her grave right now.

Rating of recipe:

*Difficulty: 2 out of 5 stars

     The recipe said to add the cornmeal slowly so it wouldn't clump....well, I added it as slow as I could, and it still was lumpy!  UGH!  It was so frustrating.  You can see the lumps in the pictures even.  I even tried using a fork to smash the lumps, to no avail.  So I gave up, and let it be lumpy.

*Time: 4 out of 5 stars

     It is always hard for me to rate the time when I don't like the recipe.  Because any time spent on a recipe I don't like is time wasted.  But I try to make myself rate it better than that because maybe there is some one out there that would like the recipe, and then this rating would be different for them since they like it.  So I gave it 4, because I couldn't bare to give it 5.

*Price: 4 out of 5 stars

     Once again, hard to rate, because it was $1.24 for the whole thing, but when I think about what I am getting I am not too impressed.

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars

     Everything I needed was in my house already!  Yay!

*Yum Factor: 2 out of 5 stars

     Gross!  Seriously!  Mushy and nasty.  Now, I am wondering if maybe I just made it wrong; like I said I have never tried it before.  And I shouldn't say gross....I did eat it, it wasn't  inedible.  It just wasn't that good.

*Calories: 3.5 out of 5 stars

     120 for 1/16 of a piece.  Not too bad.  But if it had tasted better, maybe I would have given it more stars. Taste really does affect every one of these categories.  Wow.

Over all recipe rating: 3.4 out of 5 stars

Bread

This was DELICIOUS!  Gluten free, dairy free, bread!  YUM!  Fresh out of the oven too!  I took this recipe to the Gluten Free Recipe Exchange, with permission from the authors of the cook book.  It was one of the best ones there!  I did learn a few things though.  First, I should have waited for it to cook a little more before I cut it. It was very crumbly.  Also, I think if I am going to make sandwich bread that I will cut the top off and eat that separate.  I think this will make it easier to cut sandwich size slices.  I will make this again!

Recipe Rating:

*Difficulty: 4.5 out of 5 stars

*Time: 4.5 out of 5 stars

*Price per MEAL (I changed this because I have been giving the meal price anyway): 4 out of 5 stars
     $2.88 for one loaf of bread, and it was gone in about 2 hours.  Haha.  So it is not that expensive, but it still is more expensive than a loaf of cheap white bread (which I never bought anyway), and still more expensive than making your own bread as well.  BUT it is way healthier, and WAY cheaper than buying a $6 loaf at econo foods.

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars

*Yum Factor:  5 out of 5 stars

*Calories: No idea.  I hope to find out soon, though, for I will be eating it again soon.

*Over all rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars

Pancakes

 Let's recap the day, so you can truly appreciate the madness behind deciding to make pancakes this morning.  (I blame it on the lack of sleep.)

Let's start at 12:45 am.  Andrew, my youngest, comes into my room.  He has the audacity to not only climb into my bed with cold feet (poor baby), but he then proceeds to ask me for a glass of water.  I know he knows how cold it is outside the covers, because his feet and hands are like ice!  I was all set to cuddle with him and warm him up in my half asleep/half awake stupor, but no, he had to go and ask for water, and then place his very cold hands on my face, and shake me awake so I knew what he wanted.  Fast forward to 1:45 am, when Andrew is in my room trying to climb into my bed for the fifth time.  Thankfully this time I hadn't fallen back asleep yet.  I walk him back to his bed and make sure he knows I mean business about staying in his bed.  Did I mention I had my alarm set for 6 am?  Well, not for long.  I quickly changed that to 7 am, after I got back under my warm covers.

Break to 4:45 am.  Abby is beside my bed whinnying softly, "Ma-ha-me-he...I had...a bad...da-ha-ream."  (Poor baby.)  I am not quite sure what I told her, but I know she went back to her bed and went to sleep.  I am sure I told her I loved her, and she would be fine, at least, I hope I did that much.

Break to 6 am alarm....wait, I thought I changed that to 7.  Oops, well, now it says 7.  Fast forward to 7 am, where I barely pull myself out of bed.  I sneak down stairs, and open my Bible.  I am inspired and moved, beyond words.  Fast forward to 8 am, when my sweet kids start coming down stairs.  I quickly send them back upstairs to start their day right, by making their beds and getting dressed.  Aaron brings Andrew down fully dressed, with a clean cloth diaper in his hands.  And he matches to boot!  The day just keeps getting better and better.

And now you can truly appreciate why, when I looked around my kitchen, and saw we were out of cereal, the sweet thought came to mind to make pancakes.  Of course, I couldn't just make them.  First I had to throw together some more Artisan Gluten Free Flour Mix (from the cook book, Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski).  This is quite a process.  I am thankful for the flour mix, because it allows me to make yummy things like GF pancakes and muffins and what not, but it truly is a pain in the rear.  And, I also used a different measuring cup for each ingredient, because I am wondering if maybe Josh and Andrew are allergic to another type of grain I have been using.  So, take 6 ingredients, and multiply that by 1 and a half (because some times I needed a cup and a quarter of something), and you get at least 9 different measuring devices, all dirty and piled in the sink.  And then the bag I put the flour mix into sprung a leak.  I had to switch to a new bag.

Finally I am able to start making the pancakes.  Thank you, LORD, I have a kitchenaid!  It made the mixing so easy.  Then I read that I should "grease" the skillet.  I thought I knew better.  I just put 10 table spoons of butter in the mix!  Surely the skillet did not need to be greased on top of that!  (I had quintupled the recipe--that's 5 times for those who don't want to have to google it, like I did!)

Obviously, by the looks of my first pancake, I did need to grease the skillet.

I fixed that right away.  My next ones did much better.  I also ended up adding another 2 cups of milk to the batter because the pancakes came out SUPER thick.  I don't like mine that thick.  I made a few thick ones for Josh and the kids, and then thinned out the rest, and had lots left over to freeze!  Next time I am feeling so compassionately cheerful, after a night of little sleep, I will just pull out the pancakes from the freezer!

We ate them with maple syrup!  Yummy!  Well, they ate them with maple syrup, I ate them with zero calorie syrup that Josh found for me.  Which was nice, but then again, all of a sudden I didn't want as many pancakes, because they didn't sound as yummy as pancakes with maple syrup on them!

I would rate this recipe as follows:

*Difficulty: 3.5 out of 5 stars

     I found it very difficult to know when to flip the pancakes.  With gluten enriched pancakes, I never had that problem.  But for some reason I just had a hard time with it.  PLUS, I was cooking with an electric stove, so that made things a little more difficult.

*Time: 3.5 out of 5 stars

     Pancakes are just time consuming.  I couldn't cook them fast enough at first.  The kids ate them quicker than I could make them.  I am not sure if GF pancakes just take longer to cook, or what, but I spent a good hour getting everything ready to cook them, and then at least a half hour cooking them all up.

*Price per serving: 5 out of 5 stars

     $2.49 (not including salt) for twelve 3 inch pancakes.  I think that is pretty good.

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars

     I had all I needed.  I actually based how many times I doubled the recipe based upon how many eggs I had in the fridge.  

*Yum Factor: 5 out of 5 stars

     The texture was perfect.  The taste was delicious.  I couldn't really tell I was eating gluten free.

(I am omitting the calorie count because there was no way I was going to be able to count the calories, plus, I knew that I wouldn't be able to eat one if I counted the calories.)

*Over all rating:  4.6 out of 5 stars

Seasoned Potatoes

Another winner!  And another recipe I wasn't too sure about.  I am really liking this cook book, Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski.

*Difficulty: 5 out of 5 stars
     Very easy.

*Time: 5 out of 5 stars
     This took a mater of minutes to put together, and then it just needed to bake for 20 minutes.

*Price per serving:  5 out of 5 stars
    I did not count the spices, because it needed just a sprinkle and dash from about five different spices.  Not worth my time to figure the price per spice with that one.  The potatoes were $0.40 a pound.

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars
     Spices and potatoes and olive oil.  Nothing to complicated there.

*Yum Factor: 5 out of 5 stars
    Surprisingly DELICIOUS!  I will make this again!

*Calories: 5 out of 5 stars
     It ended up being 158 calories for 1 cup, but I didn't really count the oil that I had to coat the potatoes in so the spices would stick...so I guess you can say I was cheating a bit.  If I can't do that every now and then, then I am in big trouble!

*Over all rating: 5 out of 5 stars!

Stuffed Squash

Yay for new yummy recipes!  I will definitely make this again!  Once again I got the recipe from Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski.  I know it doesn't look like much, but it was delicious!  No boiling hot oil, or sticky dough.  Just acorn squash cut in half, and a bunch of ingredients mixed together:  sausage, onion, a granny smith apple, GF bread crumbs and a bunch of spices--all stuffed inside the acorn squash.  SO YUMMY!  I actually bought the squash from a local farm, so I didn't have the recommended "2 medium" squash, like the recipe suggested.  Instead I had about 5 small acorn squashes.  It still worked really well.  I wouldn't have normally added the granny smith apple.  Eewww.  But since I am doing this blog I am trying to follow the recipes to the letter, not something I am used to doing.  I am glad I added it.  I couldn't really tell it was there, but it did add to the texture of the dish,  in a good way.

The rating of this recipe is as follows:


*Difficulty: 5 out of 5 stars
     Super easy.  I ended up using my hands to mix the ingredients together, because a spoon wasn't cutting it.   It was easy to cut the little acorn squash in half, too.  Normally I have the larger ones, and it is a lot harder to cut them open.

*Time: 5 out of 5 stars
     Super quick.  Yes, I love the word "super"!  10 minutes for prep, and 1 hour to cook.  Ta-da! 

*Price per serving:  5 out of 5 stars
     This was $8 for the whole meal.  I think I could have made it cheaper too.  I could have stretched the meat a little by using more squashes and less meat.  Not to mention, that if you have a garden, the squash would be free as well as the onions.  I should also mention, that I counted the sausage at $2 per pound, but previously, I have purchased sausage for $1 per pound.  I usually wait for it to be on super sale, and then buy them out and freeze it all.  I bought this sausage specifically for this recipe at full price because I wanted to make the recipe and I didn't know when the sausage would be on sale again.

*OHA: 4 out of 5 stars
     I had everything on hand except for the apple and squash and sausage (the key components of this recipe).  But, I try to keep the sausage on hand, so it wasn't too bad.  And it was easy to get the squash and the apple.


*Yum Factor: 5 out of 5 stars
     Positively delicious!  LOVED EVERY BITE!  Seriously, de-lish!  


*Calories: 5 out of 5 stars
     One serving (1/4 of the stuffing, and 1 half of a medium squash) was about 300 calories.  Totally worth it.  And, if you wanted to make it even less calories, you could use low fat sausage.  I have tried it, and it is pretty tasty.


*Over all rating of recipe:   4.8 out of 5 stars

Homemade French Fries

Yummy!  Nothing beats French Fries!  And surprisingly, almost every single fast food French Fry has gluten in it, that or dairy.  So we haven't had them in a while.  These, were delicious, but it is pretty safe to say that anytime you fry something it is going to taste good.  This recipe comes from Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski.  The cook book did give a technique for not making them AS fatting.  Some oven time was involved.  But they were still fried, and very tasty.  I have decided that if I am not going to gain weight during this cooking adventure I am on, I need to start counting the calories in these dishes.  I will be adding that to the rating of each recipe...next time.

I should also mention that this was dangerous...at least for me.  I actually got a little spark of hot oil in my eye at one point.  If I practiced more, maybe it wouldn't be so dangerous.  I am not a fan of hot oil, or of frying things in general.  I do not fry chicken or even tortillas (I use to fry corn tortillas for tacos, they are so yummy...but when I started to drop weight, I had to drop some high calorie meals as well).

The kids didn't eat them up, which was surprising.  Aaron does not like anything potato, so that didn't surprise me, but Andrew (my gluten intolerant kid) LOVES French Fries, and can't have them from McDonalds or places like that, any more.  I thought for sure he would eat them up, and beg for more.  Nope.  He ate three.  Josh loved them though.  So, this is a good treat, every once in a while, when I am feeling brave.

*Difficulty: 4 out of 5 stars

     Not super easy, but not too difficult either.  Avoiding the specks of flying hot oil was my biggest trouble.  I did have a mesh lid thing that I put over the pan while they were frying.  That helped a little, but not when I was trying to put the potatoes in the oil.  I also had to do it in batches, which makes things a little more difficult.

*Time: 5 out of 5 stars

     This was not too time consuming at all.   It took maybe 5 minutes to fry them, and 10 minutes to bake them.  Super quick.  Cutting them was quick too.  I used my Pampered Chef Crinkle Cutter.  Very fun.  I used 4 potatoes.

*Price per serving:  4 out of 5 stars

     I am not quite sure the actual price per serving on this one.  The potatoes are 40 cents a pound.  The oil is what was pricey.  I thought I had some cooking oil, but I could not find it.  So I ended up using olive oil.  It was still tasty, but I am sure that made the price go up quite a bit.

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars

     Normally I would have Canola oil on hand.  So this recipe gets a high rating, because I wouldn't normally need to make a special trip to the store for anything.  There were three ingredients total.

*Yum Factor:  5 out of 5 stars

    This is a no brainer, IT WAS FRIED!

*Over all rating: 4.6 stars our of 5

Gnocchi

What an interesting meal this turned out to be!  I had never tried gnocchi before, let along tried to make it, or even make it gluten free.  And I will tell you right off the bat, I didn't like it.  Neither did Aaron or Abigail (my oldest two kids, who are able to eat whatever they want).  But, Andrew and my husband Josh, enjoyed it.  Josh, especially liked it, mostly because it reminded him of dumplings, I am sure, which I do not ever make, gluten free or not.  Once again this comes from the book Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski.  And for those of you who are clueless like me about what gnocchi even is, it is a potato noodle/dumpling.  By itself it is pretty interesting.  Maybe I should have put more salt.  But when you add the marinara sauce, it is okay.  Of course, that is my opinion, Josh gobbled it down like I would never make it again (and he was probably right in that thinking).

Let's jump right into the rating of this recipe.

*Difficulty: 3 out of 5 stars
     It was not impossible to do, but it still took some time and energy.  The dough was hard to get to the right consistency.  Once the dough was ready to boil it needed to be done in batches, and I had to set the timer, and wait for it to float before I started the timer.  The directions on how to actually make the noodles from the dough were a bit confusing, and took some time to figure out as well.  Also, the amount of dishes needed, and thus needed to be cleaned afterward, was more than I like.

*Time: 3 out of 5 stars
     It took me an hour to make the dough.  Then it took a little bit more time to boil it all, and then heat the sauce and add it all together.  If it had been the best tasting thing I ever made, and hour would not have been too much time to put into it.  But since it was not something I enjoyed too much, I didn't like the fact that I had to spend and hour doing it.  Now, if it took minutes to make, I might consider making it again, because Josh and Andrew liked it so much.

*Price per serving:  5 out of 5 stars
     $4.50 for the whole meal.  If I can get a meal to cost less than $1 a person, then I am doing great! 

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars
     Didn't need to run to the store for anything special!  I love it when that happens!


*Yum Factor: 3 out of 5 stars
     This was really hard to rate.  If I was just going off of what I thought of the taste, then it would probably be a 2, but since Josh liked it so much, I had to give it a 3.


*Over all rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars