Taco Soup

Brrrr.....it is getting COLD outside and a great way to warm up by creating taco soup.

 

Ingredients:

2- cans Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes

1-32oz box of unsalted Kitchen Basics Chicken stock (this one has no added MSG or yeast in it perfect for those that are sensitive like myself). The reason for the unsalted is to lower the salt content of your soup.

1- 7oz can of fire roasted chopped chili peppers 

1lb of cooked grass fed beef

Directions:

1) Combine all ingredients except the ground beef into a crock pot and set to low.

2) Brown the ground beef and add to the crock pot. Set on low for 4-6hrs.

3) Serve straight from the crock pot and top with cheese or sour cream or eat it straight. ENJOY!

Sugar Cookies, Chocolate chip cookies and Chocolate Chip Cupccakes!

It's that time of the year when ALL of the holiday baking is getting started. Today I am letting ALL of my Gluten Free friends in on all of the successful recipes that I have personally tried and are VERY good!


Be very careful when making these sugar cookies as they are very addictive. Special thanks to Better Batter for such an awesome recipe. The only change I made to the recipe is I used buttermilk instead of regular milk. These cookies also freeze very well and stay soft when thawed at a later date.

As you can see in the first picture the dough rolls out nicely on wax paper and you can cut shapes out of this dough. The bonus is that KIDS LOVE cutting out shapes.

Here is the final product all cooked and ready to be frosted and decorated!

Our daughter is VERY proud of her frosting and decorating skills!

Frosting recipe:

Ingredients:

2 -2lbs bags of powdered sugar
1 cup ( 2 sticks unsalted butter), room temp
1 cup crisco or palm shortening
up to 1/4 cup warm water 
2tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1) Take your butter and shortening and cream together in your mixing bowl.
2) Now add powdered sugar 1-2 cups at a time until all powdered sugar is added to the mixing bowl. Your mixture will be dry and crumbly this is perfectly fine. You will use warm water to get your frosting to your liking.
3) Add your vanilla extract.
4) Now add water gradually until your desired thickness and consistency. I add a little at a time and wait for it to be mixed and then take a look at it to see if it is what I will need for sugar cookies and my cupcakes

Chocolate Chip cookies 

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups Better Batter flour
1tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks unsalted butter), room temp
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2tsp pure vanilla extract ( I use Rodelle pure Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla extract)
2 eggs
2 cups Milk Chocolate Chips ( any type of chocolate chips you would like milk, dark, white or semi)
Parchment paper to cover your pan

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degree's.
2) Place flour and baking soda in a medium bowl and stir together and set aside.
3) In your mixing bowl beat together white sugar, brown sugar and butter together at a medium speed until creamy.
4)  Add eggs, one at a time to your mixing bowl on low speed until incorporated. Now add in your vanilla and mix until combined.
4) Add about 1/2 cup of your flour mixture at a time into your mixing bowl and adding more flour after it is creamed into your mixture. Stir in your chocolate chips.
5) Drop mixture by tablespoons onto a parchment covered pans. Bake for about 9-11 min or until golden brown.

I really enjoy this recipe as my cookies turn out they are not flat and spread out. These cookies are actual chocolate chip cookies. ENJOY!

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

This recipe is not my own I just altered it by adding in 1/2 a bag of Ghirardelli Mini Chocolate chips to the batter. I made a few other alterations to the recipe see below. This recipe is AWESOME and my go to recipe for great GF Vanilla Cupcakes. I wanted to do a little something different for our kids for school so I put mini chocolate chips into the mix. In order to add chocolate chips and not have them fall to the bottom. Take about 2 Tbs of the flour and pour over the chocolate chips and mix them making sure they are coated with flour. These insures that the chips will be throughout the cupcake and not at the bottom of them.

Here is the Vanilla Cupcake Recipe and I did omit the salt as we never add salt to our baking. I did use the buttermilk that is the highlight of this recipe. I also enjoyed that this recipe uses oil instead of butter. I also used Better Batter Gluten Free Flour instead of the cake flour. I hope you enjoy these as much as our kids are.

Frosting recipe:

Ingredients:

2 -2lbs bags of powdered sugar
1 cup ( 2 sticks unsalted butter), room temp
1 cup crisco or palm shortening
up to 1/4 cup warm water 
2tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1) Take your butter and shortening and cream together in your mixing bowl.
2) Now add powdered sugar 1-2 cups at a time until all powdered sugar is added to the mixing bowl. Your mixture will be dry and crumbly this is perfectly fine. You will use warm water to get your frosting to your liking.
3) Add your vanilla extract.
4) Now add water gradually until your desired thickness and consistency. I add a little at a time and wait for it to be mixed and then take a look at it to see if it is what I will need for sugar cookies and my cupcakes.
 


 

 
 

Trick or Thesis

I wanted to recreate some of the candies that I am unable to eat due to most candy being made with High Fructose Corn Syrup or some sort of Corn ingredient being in the candy. I did find a recipe that someone has already developed for mounds candy bars. Mounds Bar Recipe I changed the recipe slightly to fit the ingredients we prefer to use in our home. Also going to make Almond Joy which is very simple upgrade to the Mounds Recipe.

I used unsweetened coconut, Coconut Cream and Ghirardelli 60% Dark Chocolate chips.

For the Peanut Butter cups I did use Sun butter and give it a try from a recipe that I developed quite awhile ago. The original recipe Peanut Butter Cups I am having to change the recipe since I can no longer tolerate oats. See the transformed recipe below.

Jamie at A Families Love created some very tasty apple pancake cupcake with a maple butter cream frosting. Also, Better Batter has some fantastic treats that they are sharing with us today!

Mounds/Almond Joy Candy Modified Recipe

Ingredients:

3 cups unsweetened shredded or chopped coconut
1 1/4 cups coconut cream
1 bag of dark 60% cocoa Ghirardelli chocolate chips (Enjoy chocolate chips or Sunspire chips can be used instead)
2Tbs Organic Spectrum Shortening
Wax Paper

Directions:

1) Line a pizza pan with wax paper.
2) Place the coconut and coconut cream into a bowl and mix together.
3) Take a good amount of coconut mixture in your hand and shape like a miniature log. Place the log onto your pizza pan to place in the freezer.
4) To make Almond Joy's take 2 almonds and dunk them in the remaining coconut cream and place on top of your coconut log before placing into the freezer.
5) Place the coconut logs with or without nuts in the freezer over night so that they are nice and firm and cold.
6) Next day melt your chocolate chips with 2Tbs Organic Spectrum Shortening in the microwave or double broiler.
7) Take your mounds and almond joy out of the freezer and dip into your chocolate and place back onto your pizza pan that is lined with wax paper.
8) Place in freezer to harden and remove about 5 minutes before consuming.
9) ENJOY!

Peanut Butter Pumpkins

Ingredients:

2/3 cup coconut flour
2/3 cup flaxseed meal
3/4 cup peanutbutter (Sunbutter can be substituted or any other nut butter of your choosing)
2Tbs coconut oil
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 package semi sweet chocolate chips
2Tbs Organic Spectrum Shortening
Wax Paper

Directions:

1) Take wax paper and line a pizza pan.
2) Take all ingredients and put into a mixer until fully combined.
3) Take a pumpkin cookie cutter and place a good sized ball of mixture in it until desired thickness. Remove cookie cutter and you should have a pumpkin shape.
4) Place them on the wax lined pizza pan and place in the freezer over night.
5) Next day take your semi sweet chocolate chips and melt with your shortening.
6) Dip your pumpkins into the chocolate and place back onto your pizza pan and once all are dipped place back into the freezer until hard.
7) Remove from freezer for about 5 minutes before eating.
8) ENJOY!

K.O. the Candyman

For this week K.O. the Candyman I wanted to focus on meals that we LOVE during the fall months. We love alfredo and when I saw this recipe I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. We soon found out that this Alfredo recipe was not only great it was a lot easier to make than the traditional Alfredo sauce. It also packs more nutrition for everyone in the family as well. I hope you and your families enjoy these recipes as much as we did.


Remember to visit Better Batter  for their healthy harvest breakfast hash and Jamie A Families Love for her two awesome crepes recipes.

Pumpkin Alfredo

(This recipe came from my Food Network Magazine pamphlet 50 recipes for canned pumpkin)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (original recipe 1 cup)
1 1/2 cup heavy cream (original recipe 1 cup)
16oz pasta (original recipe 12oz)
A little over 1/8tsp thyme leaves (10 sage leaves in original recipe I didn't have on hand)
3Tbs butter (original recipe 2Tbs)]
Fresh triangle shaped Parmesan cheese hand shredded
nutmeg I used 1/2 tsp you can use less or to your taste
a pinch of salt



I adapted the recipe for fresh pumpkin puree and I had 16oz pasta noodles not 12oz's.

** If you like salt I would recommend adding some salt to your pumpkin puree as this recipe omits salt**
*** You can use canned pumpkin if you would like to make it easier to make. Just make sure you use plain pumpkin without any seasoning’s in it.

Directions:

Step 1

Cook your noodles according to directions BEFORE making the sauce.

Step 2

Melt the butter in the pan with thyme. Once butter is melted add the pumpkin and heavy cream. Let the mixture simmer for 5 minutes on the stove.

Step 3

Add the sauce to your pasta and serve immediately. Top your pasta with FRESH Parmesan cheese the triangle block kind as it doesn't have a caking agent in it.

Step 4

 ENJOY!

Brat Frito Chili

Yes I know we generally try to avoid corn however it was something that sounded really good. Yes I will regret eating this later but that's ok it tasted really good going in. This recipe fits in 2 separate large crockpots just a warning in case you want to make a smaller batch. If you want to make a smaller batch just cut the recipe in half and it will fit into 1 crockpot. I enjoy making large batches of chili as it is easy to freeze and thaw out for later use.


Ingredients:

1/2 bag dried small dark red kidney beans
1/2 bag dried black beans
4 cans Muir Glen tomato sauce
4 cans Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes
2 packages of brats and the meat taken out of the casing
2 packages of Wick Fowler's Alarm Chili Kit**
1 bag of Frito's chips
1 block of cheese shredded or you can purchase a bag of shredded cheese
1 container sour cream (Optional)
Water for thinning out your chili

**Don't worry the name isn't the most attractive on the Chili kit but you can make it mild, hot or FIRE!
***For my recipe I added the Chili Pepper packet (aka Chili powder), onion/garlic packet, oregano/cumin packet and paprika. I omit the salt, maza and red pepper. If you prefer to have HOT chili add one full packet of red pepper and if you like FIRE add both packets of red pepper. We do not like salt in our house and the brats I added to our chili have quite a bit of salt in them so I didn't see the need to add it.

Directions:

Step 1

 In one crockpot place 1/2 bag of dried kidney beans and 1/2 bag dried black beans and fill your crockpot almost to the top leave about 1/2-1 inch room in your crockpot. Turn your crockpot to HIGH and leave for about 2 1/2-3hrs. After about 2 1/2hrs your beans should be soft. If they are soft strain your beans and return them to crockpot.

Step 2

Split the beans between the two crockpots and add your tomato sauce and fire roasted tomatoes. Set the crockpots to high while you are cooking your brats.

Step 3

To cook your brats pull the meat out of the casing. I find it easy to get my hands dirty and tear the casings by hand and dumping the meat into my pan to brown up. Cook the meat until it is no longer pink.

Step 4

Now that your meat is cooked add the Wick Fowler's Alarm Chili kit seasoning’s to your browned meat. I add it to my meat as the flavor will disperse better into my chili. Depending on how thick or how thin you like your chili you can add water or not add water it is up to you.

Step 5

Add the meat to your crockpot(s) that contain the bean and tomato mixture and let heat up and come together on high for 2-4hrs. Or if you want you can make it up the night before and place back in the crockpot for the next day.

Step 6

Now the fun part of assembling place a handful of Frito chips in the bottom of your bowl. Add a scoop or more of chili, sprinkle with cheese and put a dollop of sour cream on top.

Step 7

ENJOY!

Stick a Pitchfork In It

Caramel Apple Donuts and Salted Caramel Pumpkin Donuts

I have been wanting some donuts but not a real fan of the cake donut as they are a little dense for my taste. I wanted something a little bit lighter but not a full yeast donut either. I had heard about a guy that makes Cronuts and it is like a donut a pastry had a baby. I had did some thinking and thought I have a really light and fluffy biscuit recipe why not modify it and see what happens.

I experimented with the Biscuit Recipe to see if I could make a combination of something light and fluffy but had a slight crunch on the outside. I also wanted to add in a Harvest theme using apples, caramel and pumpkin. It was very successful and I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as my family and I did.

 Don't worry I will provide you with recipes to BOTH! For the pumpkin donut I wanted to use FRESH pumpkin as I am not a fan of the canned. I also used fresh granny smith apples and made the caramel sauce from scratch. With these recipes you can add cinnamon in place of the Jamaican Allspice that I use (it's an actual plant in Jamaica and it's called an allspice plant). Or you can add a little cinnamon to your liking on top of the seasoning’s I have added to these fantastic recipes.

Remember to visit Better Batter and see what special treat they have in store for you this week. Jamie over at A Families Love has some incredible baked stuffed apples! 

Apple Donut

Ingredients:

4 large Granny Smith Apples
1/4 cup pineapple juice (keeps apples from turning brown)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
4Tbs unsalted butter
2 cup Better Batter Flour
1Tbs baking powder
1/2 cup club soda
Cinnamon- add to your liking I am unable to add due to food allergies in our family. 

For Caramel glaze you will need the following ingredients:

2Tbs unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream


Directions:

Step 1

To prepare the caramel apple ingredients take the granny smith apples and remove the skin and seeds. Cut the apples into little pieces and place into your pan. Add the pineapple juice to the pan while you are cutting up your apples. This will keep your apples from turning brown.  

When done with the first 4 steps it is an apple sauce texture and does not go on top of your donuts. This also makes enough for a double batch not a single batch. If you are wanting to do a single batch cut the apples, pineapple juice, butter and cream in half.

Step 2 

Now add your brown sugar, heavy cream and butter to your apple pan and place on the stove on medium - medium high heat until the apples are tender.

Step 3 

 Once the apples are tender take a colander and separate the apples from the sauce.  Save the sauce do not throw it away you need it.

Step 4 

Take 1/2 of your tender cooked apples and place in a food processor until smooth. Once these apples are smooth add back to your caramel mixture and add the other 1/2 of cut up apples that are already cooked. Let this mixture cool to room temp. I let mine sit in the fridge over night. 

Step 5

 Take 2 cup of flour and 1Tbs baking powder and mix together in your mixer.

Step 6 

Now add 2/3 cups butter cold and cut into the flour and mix until it resembles a coarse crumbs.

Step 7 

Add 1 cup caramel apple sauce and 1/2 cup club soda to the flour mixture and mix until combined.

Step 8 

Place wax paper on your counter and flour generously. Roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thickness  with your hands and using a biscuit cutter that is 4 inches in diameter to cut into a circle and then cut out a circle in the middle using a 1.5 inch diameter biscuit cutter.

Step 9 

Place into HOT oil and fry for about 2-3 minutes or golden brown and then flip and do the same to the other side. 

Step 10

Place onto a plate lined with paper towels to remove any excess oil.

Step 11 

While the donuts are on the paper towels you want to make a fresh caramel apple glaze. In a clean pan place 2Tbs butter, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar and 1/4 cup heavy cream in a pan. Boil this mixture until you have a soft ball that forms in the bottom of a cup that is filled with cold water. Once the caramel is done start dunking the cooler donuts into the glaze.

Step 11
Top the donut with fresh caramel glaze and ENJOY!



Salted Caramel Pumpkin Donut Recipe

Ingredients: 

1 Baking pumpkin
2 1/4 cup Better Batter Flour
1Tbs baking powder
1/2 cup club soda
2/3 cups cold butter

For Salted Caramel glaze you will need the following ingredients:

2Tbs unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream  Sea Salt

**You can use either fresh pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin it is up to you. When you bake your own pumpkin it will make more than what you will need for this recipe.**

Directions:

Step 1

Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out all the seeds and set aside.

Step 2

Heat your oven to 350 degree's and place pumpkin flesh side down on a cookie sheet or pizza pan.

Step 3

Cook pumpkin in the oven for 1hr or until the outside of pumpkin you can easily stick a fork into it.

Step 4 

 Let pumpkin cool and then remove the flesh and purée 1/2 cup add in 1/2 tsp Jamaican Allspice and 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cloves. (You can add in 1tsp cinnamon we omit as it is an allergy in our house).

Step 5 

Take 2 cup of Better Batter flour with 1Tbs of baking powder and sift together.

Step 6 

Now add 2/3 cups butter cold and cut into the flour and mix until it resembles a coarse crumbs.

Step 7

Add 1 cup pumpkin mixture and 1/2 cup club soda to the flour mixture and mix until combined. The dough will be sticky this is normal and good.

Step 8 

Place some wax paper on your counter and flour the wax paper generously with Better Batter flour. Roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thickness with your hands and using a 4 inch biscuit cutter into a circle and then with a 1.5 inch biscuit cutter cut out a circle in the middle.

Step 9

Place into HOT oil and fry for about 2-3 minutes or golden brown and then flip and do the same to the other side.

Step 10 

Place onto a plate lined with paper towels to remove any excess oil. In case you do not have any caramel glaze made you will take a clean pan and place 2Tbs butter, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar and 1/4 cup heavy cream in a pan. Boil this mixture until you have a soft ball that forms in the bottom of a cup that is filled with cold water. Once the caramel is done start dunking the cooler donuts into the glaze.

Step 11 

Dip the donut in fresh caramel glaze and top with a little bit of sea salt and ENJOY!

Allergy Friendly Harvest and Halloween Hijinks

October is going to be a FANTASTIC month filled with recipes from sweet treats to awesome seasonal meals. This weeks theme is "Are you my Mummy?" which includes themed treats and foods! Below you will see two different recipes mummy cupcakes and healthy candy corn treat. Don't forget to go and visit Better Batter and check out the Mummy Dogs recipe!



Mummy Cupcakes 

Mummy cupcakes make a GREAT edition to any kids Halloween classroom. I made these last year for our kids and I didn't see a single one back!

Ingredients for cupcakes:

1 1/4 cups Better Batter Flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar*
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup Coconut Milk **
1/2 cup oil
24 white cupcake liners

Frosting Ingredients:

1 bag chocolate chips
1 bag of Wholesome Sweeteners Powdered Sugar***
1lb room temperature butter
1tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut milk 


 Directions for cupcakes:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2) In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking soda and baking powder.
3) In a mixer add eggs and beat for about 10-20 seconds and gradually add sugar and continue to beat about 30 seconds. Continue to beat and add vanilla and oil.
4) Reduce mixer speed to slow and add half of the flour,  then milk and then rest of the flour and end with the milk. Beat until just combined and do not over mix.
5) The batter will be thin and pour into cupcake pan that has cupcake liners preferably white liners.
6) Bake cupcakes in the pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7) Cool in pan for 1-2 minutes and then move to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely before frosting.

Directions for frosting:

1) Place the butter in your mixer and add your powdered sugar and beat and continue to add powdered sugar until the mixture is really dry.
2) Add the vanilla to the dry mixture and then add coconut milk to the mixture 1Tbs at a time until desired consistency.
3) Now take a pipping bag and use the basket weaving tip. Now have FUN you want to leave a little space for the eyes. You just take the pipping bag and place frosting across the cupcake using straight lines, crooked lines or any lines you would like. Now take 2 chocolate chips and place the point side into the cupcake and VIOLA you have a mummy cupcake!

Healthy Candy Corn Treats

This idea came from Pinterest and I figured it is an EASY treat that I can take to our kids school. Wanted to share this simple recipe with when you want a sweet treat that is easier on the waist line.

Ingredients for Candy Corn Treats:

1 can pineapple tidbits in pineapple juice (or fresh pineapple cut small)
1 can mandarin oranges (or fresh mandarin oranges peeled)
1 can whipped topping (see below for directions for FRESH and stable whipped topping)

Directions for Candy Corn Treats:

 1) Place pineapple on the bottom of your cup. Now add the mandarin oranges on top and then top the fruit with whipped cream. ENJOY!

Fresh Whipped Topping Ingredients:
1-8oz package cream cheese at room temp
1-16oz container heavy cream
Agave Nectar - sweeten to your liking

Fresh Whipped Topping Directions:

Place the room temp cream cheese into a mixer and add the heavy cream. Use the wire whisk attachment and slowly start whipping these two ingredients together. Gradually turn the speed up on your mixer. Continue to increase your mixers speed until your whipped topping is almost stiff. Add your Agave Nectar to your mixture and continue to beat until the whipped topping is stiff. This mixture is very stable and will not break down in the fridge.


* The sugar in the cupcake recipe you can substitute Agave Nectar or Honey you just need to reduce the amount of milk by 1/4 cup that you put into the mixture.
** We use a lot of Coconut Milk in our house and you can use the type of milk you have in your home.

Halloween Gluten Free Treats Coming Your Way

With Halloween just around the corner what a great way to feature recipes that are FUN! Just think of all the fun new recipes you  can collect for your children's classes for that special treat on Halloween! 

The first weeks theme is "Are you my mummy?"

Stay tuned for my mummy cupcake recipe........to be continued.

Sweet and Sour Chicken over Rice

I was in the mood for some Chinese food and what a great way to make an easy dish for hungry children. We had roasted a chicken in the oven and this was what was left over.

Ingredients:

Left over roasted chicken ( 2 chicken breasts cut up)
1-2 cups rice prepared according to directions on package

Sweet and Sour Sauce ingredients

1 cup distilled white vinegar
8Tbs no high fructose corn syrup ketchup
2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup apple juice no sugar added
1 1/2 cups white sugar ( you can use agave or honey if you prefer)
2 Tbs arrowroot powder
1/4 cup Tamari sauce (or you can use Coconut Aminos)

Directions:

1) Cook rice according to package directions and set aside.
2) Cut up your left over chicken breasts to desired size.
3) In a medium pot on the stove over high heat add  all sweet and sour sauce ingredients with the exception of arrowroot powder.
4) Boil on the stove until reduced some and then add arrowroot powder. Sauce is very thin and tastes fantastic.
5) Put rice in a bowl or plate, add chicken and then pour sauce and ENJOY!

NEW Recipe Coming Soon Lemon Cloud Bars!

A new recipe is coming VERY soon it is a Lemon Cloud Bars! 

I am VERY excited about this recipe and can't wait to share this with everyone!

Easy Cashew Green Beans

WOW these are tasty and sooo very easy to make.

Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashews
1-2Tbs grapeseed oil
1- 16oz package frozen green beans

Directions:

1) Heat your pan on your stove and add your frozen green beans.
2) In your food processor or coffee grinder add 1 cup raw cashews or a couple of handfuls however you would like. Then add your grapeseed oil. Blend together until you have chopped cashews.
3) Add your cashews to the cooking green beans and continue to cook until the green beans are nice and warm.
4) ENJOY!


****This recipe came from my running partner and I thank her for such an easy side dish that is very good!

Cashew Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

 These cookies may look like they are burnt but they are not. They are cooked to perfection. They are made with cashew butter that I made from raw cashews that I roasted and then put into my food processor.

To see how you make cashew butter I HIGHLY recommend visiting this site to see the process in your food processor. Her images really helped me see the process so that I didn't get discouraged while making it.

I did however roast my cashews in the oven at 350 degree's F. I put 1.5 cups of raw cashew nuts in a metal pan and placed them in the oven for about 10 minutes just a little brown but not too much. This did speed up the process for making the cashew butter. Plus the taste of the cashew butter was AMAZING it just melts in your mouth.

Cashew Butter Pictures of the different stages before it becomes this BEAUTIFUL nut butter.

 

In this picture I have 2 cups of cashew butter in my mixing bowl and ready to make the cashew chocolate chip cookies.

I was really excited to see the dough I had to snap a picture of these beautiful cookies before they went into the oven. They get very large after they cook in the oven.

The GREAT part of these cookies are that the ingredients used are very simple and very easy.

Ingredients:

2 cups cashew butter
1/2 cup honey (you can substitute agave if you prefer)
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup mini chocolate chips (Enjoy chocolate chips work great or Ghirardelli mini chocolate chips)

Directions:

1) Beat together the cashew butter and the honey.
2) Next add one egg at a time until incorporated.
3) Add baking soda until combined.
3) Add chocolate chips.
4) Take a heaping spoonful and roll into a ball and press down a little bit.
5) Bake at 350 F for 5-7 minutes until brown. If they are not brown the middle of the cookie will not be cooked.
6) Take out of oven and cool on cookie sheet for about 2-3 minutes and then remove and finish cooling on a plate and ENJOY!

Peach Pizza

I used Better Batter Sicilian Crust Recipe and now for the yummy peaches on top.

Peach topping ingredients:

1/2  cup brown sugar
3 fresh peaches cut into slices
1/4 cup Better Batter Flour
2Tbs butter

Directions:

1) Heat oven to 350 degree's F.
2) Slice peaches and place into a bowl and set aside.
3) Mix together brown sugar, flour and butter and place a thin layer on the top of your pizza crust.
4) Now place peaches on top of the brown sugar mixture to cover the pizza. Now place another layer of brown sugar and then peaches until you no longer have peaches or brown sugar left.
5) Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes or until the brown sugar mixture is melted and peaches are softer.
6) Once your dessert pizza is done you can top with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or eat just like this!

ENJOY!

Easy Fudge!

I found a recipe on Chocolate Covered Katie and it is called Healthy Eatmore Fudge and I thought wow this sounds terrific how hard could it be. The first time I made it the dates didn't want to be puree'd and the nuts were hard to get fine. So the more I experimented with this recipe the more I decided to CHANGE it to fit our family and to make it more fudge like.

Ingredients:

3 cups pitted dates
1.5 cups pecans, unsalted
3/4 cups walnuts, unsalted
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup melted coconut oil

Right now you are looking at the ingredient lists and going well she hasn't changed much but wait there is more!

Topping Ingredients:

3Tbs cocoa powder
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil


Directions:

1) Take your 3 cups of dates and place in a LARGE bowl and fill bowl with water and let the dates soak for about 2-3hrs. My dates are always dry and the original recipe says 30 minutes which isn't long enough to get the dates really soft so that you can puree them.
2) Take the nuts in 3 different batches and add 1/4 cup cocoa powder with 1/3 of your nut mixture and place into your food processor. Once this mixture resembles a meal remove and repeat for the remainder of your nuts and cocoa powder. Place the mixture into a bowl and set aside.
3) Now that your dates are all nice and soft take 1/3 of your dates and place into your food processor and pour some of your coconut oil into the dates. Your dates should be mush when you do this. Now add 1/3 of your nut and cocoa mixture to your food processor. If your mixture doesn't want to mix add a little bit of your coconut oil until you can get it to mix. Be careful not to add too much oil as it won't taste good and will be really oily. Now the magic happens you should get a really nice looking mixture. Take this and place in a separate bowl. Repeat this step for the remainder of your dates and nut mixture.
4) Take a 9x12 pan and place wax paper on the bottom and then spoon out your mixture. Use a spatula to spread and level out your fudge goodness.
5) Take your 3Tbs cocoa powder, honey and coconut oil (room temp do not melt) and whip with a mixer will be nice and creamy. Place this over your fudge you made and place in the freezer if you want to eat in the next 30 minutes or place in the fridge for a couple of hours.
6) ENJOY!

You can play with this recipe to get it to your liking. Our kids didn't enjoy the taste of banana's on their fudge hence why I completely changed the topping to fit our family needs. Plus I was having issues with the dates and figured coconut oil wouldn't hurt the recipe and it doesn't makes it more creamy!

Chicken Satay with mixed veggies

The original recipe came from Maximized Living cookbook and when I saw the curry powder in the original recipe I decided I would change up the recipe. I modified the original recipe as it didn't fit our family and good thing I did as my recipe was a total hit!

Ingredients:

2Tbs Cashew butter - our cashew butter just has cashews and salt in it.
1/2 cup Tamari sauce or coconut aminos
1/2 cup lemon juice fresh squeezed
3 cloves garlic smash through a press
1/2 tsp ground ginger
3 chicken breasts

Directions:

1) Take chicken breasts and cube them and place into a glass container that you can cover with plastic wrap over night.
2) Mix all ingredients together and pour over chicken and let marinade over night.
3) Take bamboo skewers and soak them in cold water for about 30-45 minutes before you place your chicken on them.
4) Put chicken on bamboo skewers and then place chicken onto a pizza pan if your cooking in the oven. Otherwise you can cook on the grill for 5 minutes each side. If cooking in the oven heat oven to 375 degree's F and place pizza pan in oven. Make sure to have a pan under your pizza pan to catch the drippings.
5) If your cooking in the oven rotate after 7 minutes and then continue to cook for another 7 minutes.
6) Take out of oven and enjoy! We paired this with a broccoli stir fry vegetables mix and I dunked mine in a little bit of Sriacha sauce.

**Original recipe you would remove the ginger, reduce the garlic by one clove, add 2Tbs curry powder, add 1 tsp of Hot Sauce and add 3 more chicken breasts.

Chinese Orange Chicken

YES you can have Orange Chicken and be gluten free at the same time. This recipe is pretty simple and is very tasty and can be a little time consuming unless you have a deep fat fryer. You will LOVE the end results as it is very very tasty.


Ingredients:

1-2lbs chicken breasts
1 cup arrowroot powder
3 eggs
1/2 cup Better Batter Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup coconut milk
water for thinning out the batter
1 bottle San J Orange sauce

Directions:

1) Rinse your chicken and pat dry and cut into 1 inch pieces.
2) In one bowl place your arrowroot powder.
3) In another bowl combine your eggs, flour, baking powder and coconut milk. If batter is too thick use water to thin it out.
4) Take chicken pieces and coat with arrowroot powder then dip into wet batter and then back into the arrowroot powder and then into HOT oil. Cook until chicken is white or no longer pink in the middle.
5) Once chicken is cooked place on paper towel and continue cooking chicken until all cooked. Then take the bottle of orange sauce and coat all chicken and ENJOY!

Salsa and Cream Chicken

You heard it correctly it is very good and very easy to make and the things you can do with the leftovers are endless!

We made shredded chicken wraps with lettuce and WOW was that tasty.

Ingredients:

1 Jar Gluten Free Salsa we like Pace Garlic and Lime Verde unfortunately our Wal-Mart was out and we went with a different brand still very good just a little hot for our kids.

1 whole chicken about 4lbs

16oz heavy cream

Directions:

1) Place chicken into your crock pot.
2) Take the heavy cream and mix with full jar of salsa and pour over chicken in crock pot.
3) Place the crock pot on low for 6-8hrs or on high for 4-5hrs.
4) Pull chicken out and strain the cream mixture as it will work great for pot pie filling, pasta sauce or anything else you can think of.
5) We did chicken wraps in lettuce and they were very good with this chicken shredded. See pictures below of what it looks like.

 This is what the broth looks like after is has been filtered. I took a very fine strainer and got rid of any chicken bones and salsa pieces so that the broth is all that is left over. This is what the broth looks like after that has been completed. It's a lot of broth and you can do so many different meals with this broth. You can use this instead of water in rice to flavor up your rice. Use this where broth is required in your recipe instead of the boxed broth at the store.

Chocolate Cake Batter Pancakes

 I wanted to get a little creative with our pancakes since I had Better Batter chocolate cake mix in my freezer I wanted to give this a whirl.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Better Batter Flour
1 Cup Better Batter Chocolate Cake Mix
1/2 Tbs baking powder
1 1/2 cups coconut milk*
1/4 cup oil
2 eggs

Directions:

1) Heat your griddle before mixing your ingredients so that it is nice and hot and ready to go.
2) Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and take about 1/4- 1/2 cup and place on hot pan you may need to take your spoon and spread out the mix as it is thick.
3) Heat the first side until the edges are done and flip your pancake and cook the other side for 2-3 minutes.

Enjoy


* Any milk that you have in your house can be used for this recipe we just prefer to use coconut milk.

Madiera Cake, Pound Cake or Butter Cake

 

 I saw a lobster roll cake in the Food Network magazine and it didn't have a recipe for the pound cake that they used. They used a pre-made pound cake which doesn't work for us since we are gluten free. I went through a couple of my cook books and thought hey I can do this gluten free no problem. I wanted to test the recipe first before my husband's birthday. I will post the lobster roll cake recipe when I make it in September for his birthday. In the meantime enjoy this awesome pound cake recipe.

Ingredients:

8oz (225g) flour
1tsp baking powder
8oz (225g) unsalted butter at room temp
8oz (225g) sugar
1tsp vanilla ( I didn't have vanilla and used almond extract 1/4 tsp)
4 eggs

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees and place parchment paper on the bottom of a loaf pan.
2) Sift the flour and baking powder into a small bowl and set aside.
3) Place unsalted butter in your mixer and add your sugar 2Tbs at a time until combined light and fluffy and add vanilla.
4) Add one egg at a time to your butter mixture beating an additional 1 min after each egg is added.
5) Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
6) Pour your mixture into your lined loaf pan and bake for about 1-1 1/4hrs until toothpick comes out clean. The outside will be a nice golden brown.
7) Let cool on a wire rack for about 10 min and then remove from loaf pan and let cool completely.

8) ENJOY!

Peanut Butter Brownie Pie

Ingredients:

1 box of Better Batter Chocolate Cake Mix
1/2 cup melted butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
16oz container heavy cream minus the 1/3 cup
8oz's or 1/2 16oz jar of organic chunky peanut butter 
1/3 cup Agave Nectar

Directions:

1) Pre-Heat oven to 350 degree's and grease a 9-inch glass pie pan.
2) Mix all ingredients together and pour and pat into pie pan.
3) Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
4) Place brownies onto cooling rack until cooled then cut out the middle portion of your brownies. Set the insides in a bowl for later use.
5) Take the rest of your heavy cream and place in your mixer and whip it until peaks are stiff.
6) Add your agave nectar to your stiff heavy cream and then add your peanut butter in heaping spoon at a time at a lower mixing speed.
7) Once the peanut butter is combined pour mixture over your brownie crust and top with left over brownies and place in the fridge for a couple of hours to cool.
8) Once cooled pull out and ENJOY a slice!

This is a softer filling for a pie if you want a pie filling that is a little more firm add one 8oz softened package of cream cheese to the whipped cream before adding your peanut butter.

The Great Gluten Free Campout

WOW we have had some FANTASTIC recipes on The Great Gluten Free CampOut!
Now you are equipped with an arsenal of recipes for your camping trip or a backyard campout at your local church.

Breakfast recipes:

Lemon Almond Blueberry Pancakes from Sarah  Accidental Okie.

Campfire Biscuits and Gravy  from Naomi at Better Batter Flour.

Box Oven Eggs and Muffins  from Angela at Angela's Kitchen.

Caramel Rolls and Sticky Buns  from ME.

Make Ahead Campfire Oatmeal from Rachel at the The Gluten Free RD..

The Next Day Frittata from Stormy at  Maoombo..

Oatmeal Cinnamon Pancakes from Adina Marguerite at Gluten Free Travelette.

Overnight Soaked Pancakes and a Two Day Whole Foods Camping Menu Plan from Katie at the  Kitchen Stewardship.




Sides and Snacks:

Gluten free snacks that require no refrigeration  from Angela at Angela's Kitchen.

Super Chewy Granola Bars Quaker Chewy Granola Bar Clone from Naomi at Better Batter Flour.

Easy Loaded Baked Potato Salad  from Sarah at  Accidental Okie

Macaroni Salad and Veggie Packets  from ME.

Make Your Own Snack Mix (Gluten and egg free!) by Heather of Celiac Family



On the Campfire:

Campfire Chicken Fajitas  from Angela's Kitchen

Box Oven Pizza  from Naomi at Better Batter Flour.

Rick's Cowboy Meatloaf  from Sarah at Accidental Okie

Lemon Pepper Butter Fish with Veggie Packets from ME



Desserts:


Stuffed Banana's from ME

Real S'MORES from Naomi at Better Batter Flour.

Box Oven S'MORES Brownies  from Angela at Angela's Kitchen

Campside Peach Pie with Cinnamon Whipped Cream, Two Ways, by The Accidental Okie


I hope you have enjoyed seeing the various different Gluten Free foods that you can safely make away from home no matter where you are. Roughing it in the woods or taking it easy at a local backyard and need something quick and easy to fix for you and your family.