Seasonal Cravings

I think it's because of the cooler weather.

I've been craving apple pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cheesecake, hot pretzels, butternut squash and pork chops, pot roast and all sorts of yummy seasonally-type foods. Which, bit by bit, I'm working on nixing off my current cravings list. Some of these are easier than others. For instance, cheesecake. Considering I'm not allowed dairy or sugar or wheat, that will be a might bit harder to come by. Now, butternut squash and pork chops? That's easy.

Caramel-y apple pork chops, white rice, broccoli and butternut squash!

Pot roast. Another easy thing to come by.

Beef, carrots, turnips, potatos, onions and tomato sauce. Mmmm

Pretzels. Almost done perfecting the recipe, but I'm close enough to share it as is, and see if anyone else has any suggestions for these babies. Now, I'll say it here and now, these are not your Auntie Anne's pretzels. Not yet. Auntie Anne's has wheat in their pretzels, and that's one of the key points. Not to mention the gluten, which keeps the dough more elastic and easy to stretch and mold as a pretzel.

Now these babies have teff flour in them, which is packed with calcium, phosphorous, iron, copper, aluminum, barium, and thiamin. It is considered to have an excellent amino acid composition, with lysine levels higher than wheat or barley. Teff is high in protein, carbohydrates, and fiber. It's also completely gluten free-which is a major plus! The color ranges, tan, brown, reddish purple, ivory...the flavor varies by the color, it can be sweeter, more like molasses, or more earthy and somewhat like hazelnuts. It's a great grain from Eithopia, and is the smallest grain in the world!

The teff flour I used in these today is a brown flour, so it's a bit more earthy and not as sweet. But they have that fresh dough consistancy that we like. Today we tried them with just some salt on them, but tomorrow we're going to brush some butter on them as well. *yummy* TBG and I were considering melted cheese, but since I can't have dairy, he didn't want to be cruel and dip his in cheese in front of me. But that's a great option too! Or some type of caramel dipping sauce, or with pepperoni's on it and some marinara sauce, it's pretty versatile! Either way, it's helped with some of my pretzel cravings. Yay!

 I got this recipe out of my Grandma's honey cookbook. I had to tweak it a bit as far as the flours were concerned, but the beautiful thing is that there was no sugar or dairy to pull out. Huzzah! The original recipe called for 2 cups of wheat flour and 2 cups of all-purpose flour, so just in case you want it with gluten and flour, use those flours instead. ^_^

 Pretzels!

1/2 cup TG all-purpose flour (previously listed in the scone post)
1 cup Teff flour
1/4 cup Quinoa flour
1/4 cup Amaranth flour
1 heaping tsp xanthan gum
1 pkg dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup warm water
2 TBSP honey
3 TBSP vegetable oil
Sea salt



How to make them:

1. Mix flours together
2. Mix 1 1/2 cups of the flour with yeast and salt, stir in liquid ingredients until smooth.
3. Add enough of the remaining flour to make at stiff dough. With gluten free baking, stiff dough is harder to achieve, so don't overdo the flour here!
4. Divide dough into about 8 equal parts, roll each part into a rope and shape like a pretzel. Gluten free dough is rather hard to keep its shape, so I had rather thick ropes and thicker pretzels. But that's fine! If you use wheat flours, I imagine you could make about 10 pretzels or more, give or take.
5. Place on a greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt.
6. Bake in oven at 425 for about 20 minutes.

Yummy, straight from the oven!

*roughly 100 calories and 15 carbs *

If I ever am allowed cheese again, oh baby, oh baby! This pretzel will be AMAZING then! TBG and I split two, and I tossed the remaining two in a ziploc bag and then into the freezer. They keep really well, so I can pull them out and reheat next time I have a craving. ^_^ I like planning ahead like that.

I have a plan, and we'll see how that plan works out. Maybe an apple pie next?...

Breakfast!

So this is actually for the last two days...I've been so busy with work that I haven't had time to update appropriately with each new thing. Apologies.

 Friday morning we had some leftover bell pepper from our fajita's the night before, and even though I can't have our breakfast burrito's anymore, I wanted something similar-ish. So I diced up the bell pepper halves, grilled them on the stovetop and added them to our scrambled eggs. Twas really good! Granted, it was a bit more bell pepper than we needed for 5 eggs split between two people, but it was yuummmyyy!

Two and a half eggs, half a bell pepper and one and a half bacon strips

So that was Friday's breakfast. And it was good. Having eggs for breakfast really helps to keep us filled up so we can last longer between meals while at work. And its rather easy for us to go through a lot of eggs, because TBG's Mom has chickens, and she gives away eggs to us. We love getting eggs from K-Mom! They come in all sorts of cool colors-two different shades of green shell, brown shell and the occasional white shell. So fun and different!

But that breakfast was yesterday.

Today is a new day. New foods to be consumed, more time to spare for making foods to be consumed!

What to make?

I've been craving pancakes for awhile, but finding a good pancake recipe that's wheat free, dairy free, sugar free is kinda difficult. But this morning, I wasn't about to take "no" for an answer. I'm gonna make it work! ...and to my surprise, it worked!

That Bearded Guy said if I had just served them up and he didn't know I had all these dietary restrictions, he would have thought they were regular pancakes from Bisquick or one of those other amazing regular brands. *SCORE!* Now that I have a regular pancake mix recipe down, I can start playing with it more...maybe next time add cinnamon, or blueberries, or (if I ever get allowed chocolate again) chocolate chips or something! Either way, I'm pleased. They look good, they smell good, they taste good!

TG'S Joyful Pancakes

1 cup rice flour (I used white rice flour today)

3 TBSP tapioca flour

1/3 cup potato starch

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

2 eggs

3 TBSP applesauce

4 TBSP coconut milk

1 TBSP agave nectar

1 cup water

Mix all the dry ingredients together well. Because it's a bunch of different flours, you want to make sure they are all well blended. Who would want a sudden bite of just potato starch? O_o

Add in the eggs, applesauce, milk and nectar. Blend together, adding water as needed to get the desired consistancy.

Heat up pan on the stove and spray with Pam, or lightly butter the pan, whatever you desire and have on hand. Pour about 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup batter in the pan for your first pancake. (or whatever size you prefer) Now, these won't bubble like typical pancakes do when they're ready to be flipped. So just watch the edges for the tell-tale signs of ready-to-be-flipped. To be honest, I don't even know how long I let each side stay there, I just used my internal timer for flip time.

Both sides will brown really nicely, and they're great with a bit of butter and pure maple syrup! At least, that's what I had, TBG had the other fake maple syrup that I can no longer have...but either way, no matter what you put on it, these are pancakes are lovely to enjoy!

Just the right consistancy for us!

If you spray Pam between the pancakes, you'll get this speckled look, just FYI..

Just flipped it, see that beautiful color?

Some pancakes, some bacon, a lovely Saturday morning breakfast!

The pancakes are roughly 70 calories and 13 carbs apiece..

Hot Chocolate...a sad, picture-less post

Well, last week and this week I'm working a temp job at the local college bookstore for their rush weeks of the new semester. It's been really fun-keeping me busy!-and so I've been unable to post that much. Sorry. But due to this current job, I find myself writing up my new discovery!

After hours on register, talking to so many people, my throat is feeling rather sad and scratchy, and I'm also craving something sweet. (That Bearded Guy started eating cookies in front of me, otherwise I'd have been fine without sweets tonight!) I wanted something like tea, but sweeter. I was craving my hot chocolate that I used to have. Well...I started experimenting. And I discovered I COULD indeed still have hot chocolate! Here's my recipe, it's uber simple!

1 cup almond milk
1 TBSP carob powder
1 TBSP honey
1 tsp vanilla

Heat until just before boiling. Pour into mug. Drink and enjoy.

I need to find a recipe for marshmallows next... ^_^ It's not exactly the same as your Grandma's hot chocolate, but it's still really good. Huzzah!

Sunday Adventures

So, as my little tiny icon picture suggests, I like chocolate chip cookies. But with a no sugar, no dairy and no wheat diet, you'd think I couldn't ever have any. Wrong.

I have been most stubbornly against the idea of surviving the next 90 days without any cookies of any type. And I have found a recipe that will suffice quite well for when I need that cookie fix. Granted, it's not true chocolate chips, it's homemade carob pieces. (carob chips have corn syrup and/or cane sugar in them, mind you) But even with carob pieces, they are still cookie enough for me. And they are yummy too! I want to experiment a bit more with them, try to make them a tiny iota less cakey, but oooohh are they good as is! Huzzah!

The only "problem" with these cookies are these aren't cookies that you can just whip up some dough and toss it in the oven. No, these need to be premeditated yumminess. Once the dough is made, it needs to be fridged for AT LEAST 36 hours. That's right. Thirty six hours, a day and a half. So pre-plan when you'll want the cookies. I made the dough Friday night, so it'd be technically ready Sunday morning. I wanted it ready then, so after church we could come and make cookies. ^_^

We actually went out to eat for lunch today. It wasn't our original plan, but when at church, one of the ladies mentioned that Red Robin typically has a separate frier for french fries for celiac's. *WOO HOO!* So we went there to check it out. They have a gluten free menu that they need to print for each customer-so we got one printed for me. I decided that I was actually craving a burger more than anything, so protein burger was my pick. It was only a burger patty with onions, ketchup and a lettuce wrap. It was rather good-considering it had no bun. And I had to get fries, of course. (We drove by Wholefoods and picked up a sugar-free ketchup that I could use)

You can see the ketchup in the background...such amazing fries!

TBG got a whiskey river BBQ hamburger...the BBQ smelled good, but I also just bought a bottle of BBQ sauce, and I'll need to try that out sometime soon. ^_^ Maybe I'll do BBQ chicken or steak later this week....

It was so good to have that hamburger...we walked through the mall for a bit, and then decided to head home. Upon arriving at home, I turned on that oven, and got prepared for some hopeful delights.

The smell wafting through the house was sign enough that something was right. Once I brought them out of the oven and cooled them, it was time for the test. And it was AMAZING! I'm so excited! Now for the best part-sharing the recipe! Any suggestions for altering them to make them slightly less cakey is appreciated.

Carob chip cookies

1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup tapioca flour
1 cup potato starch
1 cup amaranth flour
1 TBSP xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup + 2 TBSP maple syrup
3/4 cup + 3 TBSP honey
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract

How to make yummy:

1. Sift all dry ingredients, first separately, and then together.
2. Cream together butter, honey and maple syrup until just combined and then 1 minute more. Add 1 egg at a time, mixing fully each time. Add vanilla, mix just barely.
3. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Add carob chips/chocolate chips. Gently stir in by hand.
4. Pour batter into ziploc bags and fridge for 36 hours minimum.
5. 36 hours later, roll large dough balls-about a golf ball size-onto ungreased cookie sheet. (With my cookie sheet, I get about 6 cookies per sheet) Bake at 350 for 18 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before transferring onto cooling rack. Enjoy!

I only made 6, but we ate 3 before I took the picture

Each cookie is roughly 130 calories of yummy delight!

Coffee Cinnamon Scones

So I've finally found something I can make for breakfast! I got these lovely magazine's called "Delight" from a friend, and I'm starting to play around with the recipes in it... (Delight is a gluten free magazine, for the record)

I've been dying over how I can't make coffeecake anymore, or pumpkin muffins, or pumpkin bread, or french toast, or any of those other yummy-licious baked goods for breakfast. Well. I've found something that works for now! Coffee Cinnamon Scones! Granted, if I could make the glaze like the recipe itself, that'd be so much better, but for now, I'm content. ^_^ I used the carob glaze from the brownie recipe, and drizzled that over the scones for a coffee/cinnamon/chocolatey-ness. And it was good! ...I do need to take lessons in drizzling though....when you see the pictures, you'll understand why I say that. My drizzling skills are poor. More like, slopping skills. >_>

They may not look the best, but they are in fact yummy!

The original recipe called for All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour, which I don't have on hand. So I improvised with some research and made my own. When I made it myself, I had extra flour that is now stored safely away in the fridge until I come up with my next devious gastronmic delight scheme. The flour is a mix of four other types of flour. 3 parts brown rice flour, 3 parts tapioca flour, 2 parts sorghum flour and 1 part almond meal/flour. I used a 1/4 cup for my measurements. (ie, 3/4 cup brown rice flour, 3/4 cup tapioca flour, 1/2 cup sorghum flour and 1/4 cup almond meal flour) As a note, you can also use corn starch instead of tapioca flour, soy flour instead of sorghum, and masa harina instead of almond) Now, so armed with the knowledge of that flour recipe, here's the actual scone recipe:

Coffee Cinnamon Scones That Girl Style!

Ingredients-
2 cups TG's all purpose flour mix
1/3 TBSP baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
6 TBSP cold, UNSALTED butter (if you only have salted butter, omit the 1/2 tsp salt)
2 eggs
1/3 cup honey or agave nectar (or sugar)
1/4 cup original rice milk (or real milk)
1/4 cup strong brewed coffee

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Stir TG's flour mix, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3. Cut butter into pieces and drop into dry mixture. Combine until the butter is pea sized or so, if the butter starts to get warm-fridge it. It needs to stay cold.
4. In separate bowl, comibe eggs, milk, coffee and honey.
5. Add wet and dry together until it starts to hold together.
6. Shape dough into golf ball size or so-mine were a bit small, so make them kinda large-ish golf balls-drop onto ungreased cookie sheet and press slightly, so they don't roll off!
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes, check the doneness with a toothpick. Scones should look slightly cracked on top.

Let them cool for a bit before adding a glaze. The original recipe called for 3/4 cup coffee liqueur and 2 cups confectioner's sugar to be blended and then drizzled on. I can't have the sugar, so that just wasn't going to happen. But the brownie glaze was good!

That Bearded Guy and I enjoyed some scones with our scrambled eggs this morning. Huzzah for finding something that we can enjoy together! I have a few more recipe ideas bouncing around in my head, but I'll need to wait until next weekend to test those out. I'm excited that I'm working a temp job right now, but I don't have the time of the day anymore to play in the kitchen. *tear* Oh well, now I have some income to pay for all the expensive flours and whatnots!

An excellent breakfast!

Roughly 95 calories per scone...makes about 18 or so of that size. And out of curiosity, is it that no one posts comments-or is it not allowing comments?...

PIZZA!

Pizza. It's amazing food, isn't it? A piece of bread, with some tomato sauce on it, and then you load it up with all your favorite smaller foods. Ham and pineapple...pepperoni....sausage...BBQ sauce and chicken...mixed meats....just cheese....tomato and basil...bell pepper and zuccini.....it's all so yummy! I've been craving pizza lately, and going crazy because there is no good pizza recipe that I can eat. Well, I found (altered alot) a recipe that I've had on hand for awhile.

 The only problem with my pizza craving is that I still can't have dairy-so no cheese on my half. But TBG had cheese on his half. He liked the crust, the only problem is that this time I didn't stuff the crust with cheese. But if I'm allowed goat cheese somewhere down the line, then I'll stuff it with that cheese. ^_^  Our pizza tonight was originally going to be hawiian style, until I realized the pineapple I had in a jar has sugar in it. *grumps* So instead, this pizza has turkey, beef and ham shreds. Still good!

Recipe!

1/2 Tbsp dry yeast
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
2 cups rice flour
1 1/2 cups tapioca flour
1 tsp xanthum gum

Dissolve yeast in water. Add salt and seasonings. Mix and add egg. Stir in flour and gum until dough is formed. (add more water if too dry) Spread EVOO on a pizza pan, spread dough over pan and form little walls for the sauce. Bake crust for 10 minutes in an oven that's preheated at 400. Bring out crust and spread pizza sauce, cheese and toppings. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

You can see the line of division here. His side has more happiness than mine.
Someday I'll be allowed cheese again!

Roughly 208 calories for the bread alone if you cut into 6 slices.

*variations*

*Spread garlic powder and herbs over the dough before baking.
*Roll cheese into the crust
*Sprinkle butter and garlic and cheese over the crust edge

Totally random side note-I've discovered that spinach salad with turkey and almond slivers is AMAZING with my cranberry glaze on it. SOOO GOOD!!! You've GOT to try it! I've had it for lunch twice now, and again tomorrow. <3

Misadventures and Chili's

For the record, in the title, the misadventure and Chili's have nothing to do with each other. I just didn't remember to blog the misadventure until now..

Misadventure first.

To first backtrack, I used to work at the COC bookstore, and when life got a bit too busy, I offered up my hours to those who were staying there. (ie, I quit) But I told them to keep me on file for if they ever desperately needed help. Well, last Sunday I got the call. I start working there again tomorrow for this week and the week following. (yay for additional income! Originally, it would go straight to birthdays and Christmas, but right now, the paycheck will be going to all the new expensive flours and food things I have to get. x_x How exciting...not.) I AM excited for the next 2 weeks and the bit of income it'll provide. I'll be totally dead on my feet next week when I start interpreting as well, but that's just a small detail... Here's the problem that I had realized last Friday:  LUNCH.

What am I going to eat? My lunches at home have been leftovers and fresh things that take at least 30 minutes to make. But now I'm going to be in a high energy, constantly moving environment that also has tons of yummy drinks that have sugar in them, cookies, chips, and all the delectable delights THAT I CAN'T EAT ANYMORE!!!! For example, the chex mix they carry at the bookstore. Wheat. Corn. Not happening. The Vanilla Muscle Milk that I love there? Nope, it's dairy. No Pop Tarts. No sandwiches. No cookies. No happiness!

Then I had a thought, trail mix! I can have trail mix, right? Wrong! Most trail mixes either are raw nuts, (which would literally kill me), have M&M's, (which I dearly love and miss), have raw dried fruits, (that could kill me) and all sorts of wheat, corn and sugar things in them that I can't have. Dilemna. Solution: buy my own freeze dried fruits that I'm NOT allergic to, buy roasted nuts that I can eat, and make my own! So I go on my merry way to Trader Joe's. I call up my nutritionalist to find out the top 3 most nutritious nuts that I can eat. Almonds. Walnuts. Pecans. (in that order) I already have some roasted almonds at home, and I'm not that big a fan of pecans by themselves, so I just bought some walnuts and pine nuts. I bought some dried strawberries and blueberries, and decided to try out the mango while I'm at it.

...I'm driving home, and decide to test that mango. I've never had mango before. I open the bag, toss one in my mouth. Oh cool, it has a tingly flavor to it. ...wait, a tingly flavor? Oh, great, my throat is tingly too. Well, I won't be adding mango to the mix, I'm allergic to it! >_<

 I get home, mix up the nuts and other dried fruits. Pop some in my mouth, enjoying munching on it. I grab a walnut, toss it in and crunch away. ...and then notice the familiar tingling sensation. Now, I know I'm allergic to raw nuts. But I could've SWORN that I grabbed the bag of toasted walnuts! I check it. Nope, I grabbed the raw bag of walnuts. *facepalm* Soooo...That Bearded Guy has his very own container of trail mix. Congratulations to him. >_>

 Yesterday we went back to TJ's and bought more fruit for my own mix. Couldn't find any roasted walnuts, so we got roasted pecans after all. Added in some almonds and pine nuts. Yay! Trail mix I can take to work and snack on! And it's yummy! And it won't kill me! (these are all good things, yes?) ^_^

That little Christmas tin? That fits pretty well in my purse for a
traveling snack. Yay for cute tins that are functional that Mom has!

So those were my misadventures. Now on to Chili's.

TBG and I were pretty hungry driving home from church today, and we were discussing the sadness of not being able to eat out with all my restrictions. I mean, I can't even have french fries from anywhere! (why? because they use that same oil for chicken tenders and chicken fingers and things that are dipped in a batter that has wheat in it) But we were discussing this, and then he has the idea of going to Chili's to see if they have a gluten-free menu. If they have that much, we can then ask them to alter whatever we need from it. (ie, no dairy, no sugar, etc) I was skeptical. Very. But I said sure, I'm already not expecting anything, so it's not like I have any hope to crush.

We drove over to the "new" Chili's-off Golden Valley-and follow the stream of hungry peoples. I'm already prepping to leave, because I just have no hope, and he asks the gal at the counter if they have a menu. She says yes they do! I'm shocked. Astounded. We get seated. She has to go to the back to grab the menu for me, but that's alright, I'm still surprised they had a menu! Granted, the menu itself was rather small, just one sheet of foods that are gluten free, but they had some good choices. I was excited to see that they had salmon on the list, so I ordered some salmon, rice and veggies. I gave the waiter the list of things I can't have. Wheat, dairy, sugar, oats and corn. (now, I know the rice had butter in it, but I wanted to see what-if anything-they would do) He took our order, and left us to chat.

After not too long a wait, our food arrived! Strangely, my plate was absent of rice. The waiter was very apologetic, apparently their rice has butter in it, and would I like another side? So I got another side of veggies. The salmon and veggies were surprisingly good without butter or anything added to them. So now I know, that much to my delight, I can eat Chili's!

Delicious!

TBG's burger and fries

Of course he had to eat those amazing smelling fries in front of me. Thankfully, they weren't well done fries. If they had been, I may just have had to have some. As it was, it was rather difficult to ignore. I'll need to get some french fries made somehow here at home. That'll be another adventure for later. As it is, I'm thrilled to know I can eat at Chili's!

BREAD!!!

So since I've been on this no wheat-no sugar-no dairy-no gastronomic happiness-diet thing, I've been craving bread like nothing else. Only problem is, all the breads that I can find that I can eat are all rice bread. Which..is palatable, I'll give it that, but it is definitely not a loaf of fresh, crispy crust and chewy center bread!

 Rice bread is chewy in an odd way...and it crumbles very easily. Not a bread for sandwiches. And this morning I came to the conclusion it is also not a bread for toasting with honey to be a counterpart to my scrambled eggs. No, I'd need something different for that. But I did discover that rice bread is remarkably good for croutons and bread crumbs! I spread a bit of EVOO on a slice of rice bread, sprinkled some garlic salt on it, and TOASTED that baby til it was dried out. Cut into some croutons size pieces...it was good! Really good! Aha! There is hope for my spinach salads! *cheering and dancing*

But I still wanted more. You know, bread. And so with some searching, and some careful substitutions, I found a recipe that's great! It smelled great cooking, and it tasted great fresh from the bread maker. Mmmmm...Crunchy crust. Chewy inside. Tasty. Yep, I found it! And it's versatile!

Here's the recipe for a medium sized loaf. Leave a comment if you want small or large loaf amounts. I have the recipe for small, medium and large loaves. I made myself a small for a trial run.

Millet Bread
DRY
1 cup millet flour
1 cup potato flour
1 cup tapioca flour
2 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast

WET
2 eggs plus 2 whites
3 Tbsp honey
1/3 cup original rice milk
3/4 tsp vinegar
4 1/4 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups water (more or less)

ACTION:

1. Combine dry ingredients and set aside.

2. In another bowl or a stand mixer, whisk the eggs and whites slightly, add wet ingredients. (only a bit of the water, not all!)

3. If using a bread machine, add all ingredients into machine as it specifies, and add water if the dough seems too thick. It should be a similar consistency to cake batter. Set to white bread with medium crust

4. If hand mixing, turn mixer to low and add dry ingredients a bit at a time. Add more water as necessary to achieve desired cake batter like consistency. Turn mixer to high and beat for about 3 1/2 minutes. Spoon into pre-sprayed pans, cover, and let rise in warm place for about half an hour to an hour, depending your yeast. (rapid rise vs regular) Once dough reaches near the top of the pan, bake in a preheated oven of 400 for 50-60 minutes, covering after 10 minutes with aluminum foil.

Roughly 100 calories per slice


Now, I will admit, the original recipe called for cornstarch instead of potato flour (same amount) and also called for sugar and an egg replacer instead of honey and 1 egg. It also called for dry milk powder instead of rice milk. But those got thrown out the window and replaces, and it's a fine thing!

The bread seems very versatile. It was AMAZING with honey on it, fresh from the oven. It's also great with some EVOO on it and garlic salt as a poor-man's garlic bread with pasta and sauce. I want to experiment some time in the future and try adding garlic and parsley to the dough. ^_^

It does have a few variations that HAVE been tried before. 
1.> Almond Millet Bread- add 2 TBSP almond meal to the dry ingredients, and 1 tsp almond flavoring to the wet ingredients
2.> Cinnamon-Raisin Millet Bread-add 1 tsp cinnamon to the dry ingredients and 1/4 cup raisins after the dough has been mixed and before putting it in the pan
3.> Three-Seed Millet Bread- add 1 TBSP each of any three of these seeds or nuts: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, soy nuts (chopped), sesame seeds, almond meal, or crushed sliced almonds.

I'm so excited!

Small loaf of amazingness!!

Thanksgiving dinner in August leftovers!

I love crock pots. I love them for a variety of reasons. My top two reasons are simple-I can toss food in, walk away, and when I come back then I have tasty food that's ready to eat! My other reason is LEFTOVERS!!! Yay for an easy dinner! Some people may say it's cheating, but I call it planning ahead. ^_^ Granted, I had no idea that I'd be late in coming home tonight from errand running, but that's just the Lord's providential timing right there!

So of course we had turkey for dinner. I wanted to add something green, so I cooked up some broccoli as well. (I LOVE BROCCOLI!!!) If I could buy large quantities of broccoli, and have a place to store it, I would. Broccoli and carrots. The top two cooked veggies in our household. I'm totally off topic here huh?... Dinner. Right. I steamed some broccoli up, and left that unseasoned.

And I just had to make more cranberry glaze. But this time I took pictures! Sooo good. I love that stuff. It's my new addiction for sweet and sour. I have a list of things that could go good on. I never put fruit stuff in ice cream, but if I was allowed ice cream, I'd actually try it out. But I'm thinking next time I'll make the glaze thicker, and it'd be a great spread for breakfast breads! I'm curious how it'd be on rice cakes, or almond crisps. I just received some rice bread from my awesome Mom-in-Law, and I think tomorrow I'll toast some of that with cran-glaze... *licking lips* Anyhow, here's a few pictures of the steps I took in making it. Super. Duper. Simple.

Cranberries. Pan. Cranberies IN pan. Excellent.

I accidently added a bit more water than was

necessary this time around, but roughly equal parts

cranberry and water is good. Add more water

for a glaze effect, and less water for a cranberry

jelled effect.

Boil the cranberries until the burst. At that point

 I use my wooden spoon to press each berry

and use its cran-guts out. Add a bit of honey.

After adding honey, let it simmer a bit (watch it! This is

when it becomes easy for it to boil over if you have it too

high!) Serve when you like the consistency.

My next addition for dinner? Sweet potato fries. I was told that sweet potato's are good to have, and I know that TBG is a huge sweet potato fry fan, so I figured it'd a fun experiment. Well, I now know how I want to do it slightly different next time. The main thing is to get those in the oven before the hungry hungry husband comes home and keeps asking when they're ready, and then I broil them and cause a bit more...browning..than is preferred. >_> But here's some pictures and steps. For the record, I only used ONE sweet potato.

Peeled sweet potato. I then cut into small fry-like strips. Pre-heat oven to 400

You can see the strips. Add a bit of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

and sprinkle with some salt and pepper. I also added

a TINY amount of chili pepper and paprika.

Toss in oven for 30 minutes or so. I had a bit longer, cause

I accidently added more than a bit of EVOO.

Dinner! You can tell I kinda broiled those fries a bit much. My next
go at those will be better. I plan. And hope. >_>

 And...I have an idea for tomorrow, but I'll share that then. ^_^

Thanksgiving dinner in August..

Turkey. That's what's been on my mind since last week. And so after a quest yesterday to find a place that even HAS whole turkeys, I found one! Yay for taking the last whole turkey Wholefoods has! No other places I went to had any turkeys. Boo. But when I went to WF, they searched the back and found ONE whole turkey-8.5 pounds! Immediately that sucker went straight into my cart! Woo hoo for turkey!

So I happily raced home to put that big baby in my crockpot. I am blessed with two crockpots-and sure didn't fit in the one I typically use! So I pulled out my Momma crockpot and it just fit. Woot! Poured a bit of EVOO over it, got some celery sticks to place in and around it, sprinkled some onion powder, and set it on high! Mmmmm...yay for Aroma of Turkey!

But then I had a dilemna. I typically have sweet potato casserole with my turkey. But I can't have all the butter and brown sugar that I typically put in it. Oh noes! What to do?! My solution? Mashed sweet potato's. Peel and dice, boil and drain, mash them up, add a bit of applesauce (in place of butter) and a bit of honey (in place of sugar) and mix'em up real good. Granted, they sure aren't my Grandma's Thanksgiving sweet potato's, but they're good enough for me right now!

The second dilemna. Cranberry sauce. All canned cranberry sauces have corn syrup. *le sigh* So bye bye good 'ol easy days of canned cranberry sauce! What's a girl to do? She's to take matters into her own hands! 1 cup of cranberries. 1 cup of water. Boil until berries burst. Add honey. Stir. Voila! So yummy! That cranberry sauce was better than canned. (In My Humble Opinion) It was sweet. It was tart. It was AMAZING on my turkey!! I'm thinking of making up a good bit of that cranberry sauce when I can find huge bags of cranberries, and then I'll can it to have on hand for future usage. ^_^

And then the last bit. Bisquits. Now the recipe I tried, I had to alter a bit. (as usual) And this one called for onion powder to give it some onion flavoring. I'm not that big a fan of onion flavoring, but for being onion flavored-no sugar-no wheat-no dairy bisquits, I liked them. TBG thought they were rather good for no wheat or sugar. He likes onion, so he thought they were good. (I thought they were good, but no onion powder would have been so much better. Then I could've put honey on them!!) But here's the recipe I tried: (original ingredients will be like this)

Quick Dinner Rolls

 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup instant mashed potato flakes
2 tablespoons honey  (or white sugar)
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons veggie oil
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup tapioca flour
(or 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour)
 
What To Do:
 
1.In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add potato flakes, honey, salt, egg, veggiee oil, onion powder, and 1 cup of the mixed flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in remaining flour. Continue stirring until smooth, scraping batter from sides of bowl.


2.Cover and let dough rise in warm place until doubled, about 20 to 30 minutes.

3.Punch down dough. Spoon dough into 12 greased muffin cups, filling each half full. Let rise until batter reaches tops of cups, or about 20 minutes.

4.Bake in a preheated 400 degree for about 15 minutes or so.
 
Roughly 126 calories each for the original recipe...
 

 
 
They were rather good...for being onion bisquits. If only I could have cheese! I imagine that these bisquits with some real flour, cheese and garlic powder?....those would be amazng. *tummy growls*
 
 The great thing with having a turkey that huge is I get leftovers! So, to  my extreme joy, I found a loaf of rice bread yesterday with ingredients I can eat! So today's lunch will be a rice bread sandwich with turkey and cranberry sauce. Mmmm..yay for more of that cranberry sauce! It turned out so incredibly yummy. I look forward to Thanksgiving this year, because then I'll be able to make and eat lots more of that cranberry sauce with my turkey! Oy, it was good! 
 
And on a final note, here's a picture of our two plates last night:
 

His plate. He likes turkey legs.

My plate-I like sauce on my meat.

 
 
   Getting hungry yet?

That Girl has A New Hope!!!

There is hope for us wheat free, sugar free, corn free, oat free, dairy free people! There does exist a brownie that we can eat! AND IT'S TASTY!!! Let the people rejoice! While it was baking, I glanced in at it, and saw something beautiful-it looked like a brownie! It smelled like a brownie! And it tasted like one! Hallalujah! There is something sweet I can eat! Yay!!


So, as promised, I'll give the recipe that works. I'm leaving it as how I made it. (I had to alter the flours, and for the glaze, the milks)

Cream together:
½ cup honey
3 eggs
½ cup canola oil
Add in order:
3/8 teaspoon salt
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup carob powder
½  cup almond flour  (or 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or regular flour)
½ Tablespoon baking powder


Bake at 350 F degrees in a greased pan for 30 minutes or so. I then added a glaze once they were out. And here's that recipe:


2 Tablespoons butter flavored Crisco (or butter)
¾ cup chocolate rice milk (or non-instant milk)
¼ cup carob powder
¼ cup honey
4 Tbsp chocolate rice milk (or milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Blend until smooth. I poured the glaze on the brownies while they were still hot and quick to absorb. ^_^ ENJOY!!!

Yummy!

*note* the brownies shown, if cut into 12 servings, are roughly 95 some calories with the glaze included

Withdrawls...

I wonder how drug addicts do it. I mean, I'm only quitting FOOD for crying out loud! And I'm losing my mind. Earlier today I was ready to pick up the entire basket of donuts at church and run out the door with them. Then, while driving home, I didn't see a McDonald's sign. No, I saw a huge sign with MCFLURRY and pointing neon arrows. Once we got home, I thought the idea of a spoon and a bowl of brown sugar sounded good. ....it hasn't even been a week yet. >_<

Today after church I had been planning to pull out one of the meatloaves that I had pre-made and frozen and cook it for lunch. I typically make about 10 pounds of meatloaf at a time, section it up, and then freeze it for any easy meal to pull from the freezer and toss in the oven. But here's where the wrench got thrown into my meat-craving clogs. That meatloaf, that delicious meatloaf has onion soup mix, worchester sauce, and bread crumbs. Yep. Wheat, corn starch and wheat. I wanted to cry. Sooo...instead I'll make that just for That Bearded Guy, and make meatloaf sandwiches for him this week. He'll be happy with that. Bread, meatloaf and cheese. Mmmmm...I want...

So what did we do for lunch? Well, yesterday TBG and I went over to Trader Joe's and found something cool. Brown rice pasta! YAYAYAYAY!!! I may not be able to have garlic bread with it, but hey, I'll take what I can get! So for lunch today we had brown rice pasta, garlic/basil/tomato sauce and broccoli. (I made TBG some garlic bread to go with his-it helps use up the bread and butter we have on hand. The less that's here to tempt me, the better!) I know there's still half a loaf of garlic bread in the freezer, so I figure next time our Bible Study needs garlic bread, I'll volunteer and bring it over-let them enjoy it. I'll sit in the corner with my plate with no bread... *sniff sniff, tear*

I was craving brownies yesterday like no other. And I had found a carob "brownie" recipe... x_x I thought I was going to die. EEEWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!! That was, without a doubt, the most disgusting thing that has ever passed through my lips that I've made. Ew. Ew. Ew. Imagine seeing something that resembles a brownie. In your mind, you get excited, it's a brownie! You pick it up. It has the texture of a brownie! Your excitement mounts. You bite into it, expecting the taste of something even remotely resembling a brownie. Instead, you have the texture of an overly chewie cookie but with the taste of cardboard and bitter coffee. ._. I found one other recipe that is described as something resembling a brownie. And it's actually described as "something resembling a brownie". Because of that title, I'm actually somewhat curious. Better than the lying title of "delicious carob brownie's!" Delicious? To whom? Even cockroaches would wither!

Maybe later I'll try out that other recipe...maybe. Trying to decide if I feel brave enough or not. Ugh. If I do, and it actually tastes...palatable..then I'll post it here. Here's to wishful thinking!

Black Cherry Smoothie

So today for breakfast we had scrambled eggs and smoothie's. Today's smoothie's were really quite good despite not having yogurt in them. The consistancy wasn't as smooth as I like, but the flavor was strong, sweet and really good. The advantage of smoothie's is the cold-great for summer!- and the fruit-if I make smaller servings, like today, we each get about one a half fruit servings. If I make the larger size, then it's about two or more fruit servings. Yummy! For the record, I buy all my fruit whole, and then take it home, rinse it and then either core it or halve it or peel it, depending on the fruit. I take the pits out of the cherries, the stems out of the strawberries, etc. Grab a cookie baking dish and place a dry paper towel on it, spread fruit and freeze. Once frozen, toss it into a ziploc bag, so it's ready to pull out at any moment for smoothie's or other recipes! So with that as background, here's the recipe for today's smoothie:

*note* this is all frozen fruit! Remember that!

1 cup cherries
1 cup strawberries
3/4 cup blueberries
1- 1 1/2 cups black cherry and grape juice
handful of ice cubes

Toss into blender until smooth. (or you reach your desired consistency) Serve immediately.
Makes 2 servings- 220 calories each

I'm blessed with my grandparents old blender, and this baby works really well! I've decided I'm not a big fan of today's plastic blenders-they are way too fragile! This baby is sturdy and durable and a wonderful addition in our kitchen.

The finished product!

Also, just as a side note for everyone, if you want to make these smoothie's, glass is a much better choice than ceramic! The only downside for us having only white ceramic for glasses that size, is that when putting cherry and grape juice stuff in there, it'll stain easily. That's when baking soda becomes a very handy thing to keep stored and ready in the kitchen. ...just make sure your husbands remember to soak their cup once done, and not hours later...

Breakfast

As a child, I didn't really care that much about breakfast, it was good and all, but it wasn't the best meal of the day. (unless we got Costco chocolate chocolate chip muffins. Then it was the highlight of the day!) But since I got married, breakfast has been wonderful time to sit at the table before going our separate ways for the day and chat over good food.

...that was then. This is now...

Suddenly, all the foods we had for breakfast, I cannot have. No more breakfast sandwichs. No more pumpkin bread. No more scrambled eggs with cheese. No more coffeecake. No more fruit smoothies. No more breakfast tortilla's. That Bearded Guy can't make caramel nut rolls for us anymore. Suddenly breakfast has become so much more dreary. Our eggs always had cheese and milk in them-and they were so yummy! 2 eggs each gave us enough protein to last almost until lunch, and we'd always pair those eggs with some type of filler-fruit or bread-that had sugar to perk us up until we actually woke up. ^_^ But now I'm stuck trying to think of ideas for breakfast.

Our fruit smoothies always had yogurt in them to give them a smooth consistancy. Maybe today I'll try without yogurt. I slept in today, (3 extra hours no less! I woke up at 6, which was already an hour of extra sleep, closed the curtains, then went back to sleep til 8! Wow!) and after sleeping in, I'm so stumped with breakfast that we'll be eating breakfast almost 3 hours later than the time we usuallly eat! Oi! Thankfully TBG just got an Xbox 360 last night, so he's completely oblivious to how late in the day it is. I had given him the prequisites of finishing 3 particular video games and reading Fruits Basket manga before getting the new system, and so he's finally finished those and got the prize. (I know, most wives would give their hubbies house projects or something, I'm a nerdy wife, what can I say?)  Hmmm, this is a random tangent paragraph...oh well! I haven't had breakfast yet, so I can blame it on the withering brain cells...right? >_>

 I have two loaves of homemade pumpkin bread in the freezer, and I can't touch them anymore. I need to find a pumpkin bread recipe that I can make and eat! Any suggestions? Actually, any ideas in general for breakfast? Again, no wheat, no sugar, no dairy, no corn. Good luck. *laughs*

Well, my belly is telling me that it's time to find SOMETHING to eat in the kitchen. I suppose today we'll just do plain and sad scrambled eggs and a yogurt-less fruit smoothie. We'll see if I can find a way to spruce it up...

And so it began..

HI!

Well, I haven't actually done a blog quite like this before, so we'll see how it turns out and how often I remember to post, ne?

I've recently had the desire to get back into shape and whittle down some of the happily-married-flab, and along with this decision came the idea to visit the nutritionalist. I know I don't always eat the healthiest, and I have horrible food allergies. (and they've only been getting worse, so hey, maybe a nutritionalist would help..) I figured that working out again and eating right would be a good combination. Makes sense, right?

Well. I have only a tiny bit of regret about that idea. I just HAD to do it before all the family birthdays...my birthday...our anniversary...holiday season...all the great times for CHOCOLATE CAKE AND MILK!!!

Let me back up a bit. I went in last Thursday for my first appointment. Nervous, excited, not knowing what to expect, I knew I was going to have to cut back on some things, but I didn't what or how much. Well. I filled out a long bubble questionare (SAT's did come in handy! I knew how to properly fill in the bubbles!) and then read through the explanation of the commitment I was going to be making. *gulp* Commitment? Just how painful was this going to be? Finally, they're ready for me. I go back to the little office type room and we chit chat about why I'm interested in the nutritional program, what problems I have, etc. He warns me that the method they use may seem kinda silly, but it actually does work fully and completely, and that I'll be amazed in the end with the results. Ok?...

The exam part was interesting. I'm laying on my back, and he's holding his hand against different organs and whatnot, while my raised right arm is pressing back against the pressure he's exerting against it. Sometimes he'd hold his hand over an organ, (let's say my stomach here), so he's holding his hand against my stomach while pushing against my right arm. My right arm is trying to match his pressure. My arm suddenly gives out and drops. Even though I don't want it to. That's a sign my stomach has problems. We can do it again with his against my liver, and there's no drop. It's fine. He goes back to the stomach, and again, my arm drops despite my telling it not to drop. (drove me crazy, my own body doesn't obey me!) Through this method, we discovered my stomach, gallblader and right kidney have some issues. He was surprised at the fact that I had THREE major issues at once. (I could've told me that I had lots of issues!)

The next part was determing what foods I'm sensitive to. Same arm pushy test, but this time with little vials that contain different food stuffs. My left hand has a finger touching each a different vial. When we do the arm push, the body exerts energy, and that energy moves what's IN the vial in different ways. In one way, it's a positive reaction. Another, negative. (and for anyone laughing at this, it is a true thing. We learn such stuff in biology and chemistry. No mysticism here. The Lord created us and the things around us and we are all composed of atoms. Those atoms interact with each other. It's those interactions that we can sometimes monitor with the right methods and knowledge. That's the energy that they measure for these tests) Anyhow.

Using the tests, we've discovered that I am highly sensitive to wheat, corn, sugar, and dairy. My only exceptions are honey and eggs. At this point, if I avoid those particular foods for roughly 90ish days, then my body can reset and we'll start Phase Two. Phase Two is when we slowly add back one thing. Say, wheat. My chiro's wife is sensitive to wheat. She went 90 days without it, and then when she tried having it again, she almost immediately had sinus congestion and started having nasal allergies again. Interesting, huh? So we'll then have me try adding one thing at a time, and watching closely for any reactions. Currently, I'm just praying that I can have chocolate chip cookies with milk again! I miss them so much! (and it's not like I had them alot either lately, it's just KNOWING that I can't have them, I crave them all the more)

Because of my food allergies, I haven't been eating any raw veggies at all, and very selective fruits. Since I've had to be so picky, my body is lacking nutrients that it needs. (he strongly suspects that's why my stomach and gallbladder have issues) To combat this lack, I'm taking wholefood supplements to provide what it needs. Each week we'll be testing to see how my body is handling. Which means, to my great joy, that each week, as it improves, I can swallow less pills! (I HATE swallowing pills. Again, HATE swallowing pills!!) So I'm looking forward to the next appointment to see if I've been improving, and if that means I'm at the point where I can take a few less pills each time. (mind you, I started the pill thing only this last Tuesday...) But still, a week is enough time for change, right?...

It is through these changes that I have been having new food adventures, and my plan is to focus on that in this blog. ^_^ Because I figure I can't be the only person out there in the world who can't have wheat, corn, sugar or dairy. So someone else out there is struggling with the same problems I am in deciding what to make for food. Looking at soup labels and crying over that out of place sugar. Looking at soy sauce bottles and crying over that random wheat that's in it. Looking at the can of mandarin oranges and crying over that stupid corn syrup. And staring at that carton of milk in the fridge and wishing desperately that rice milk tasted better....

Here's to the future! Of my meals, and to the rememberance of posting here!