Thursday, December 26, 2013

Taco Soup

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






Ingredients:


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!


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

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.