Thoughts. And corn bread.

"For such a time as this"

That phrase, that's used in Esther 4:14, has been a phrase echoing through my head and my life for the last few weeks. The fuller verse (but not the whole verse) is "And who knows but that you have come to royal position...for such a time as this." Esther 4:14b. It speaks of her becoming Queen-despite her lack of desire for the crown-that perhaps God had placed her into that position to save the Jewish people from murderous plotters that wanted and planned for them to die. And in fact, that is what God had in mind, to use Esther in her role as Queen to protect His people.

 Somehow, that phrase has popped up almost every day for us in the last couple weeks.

...for such a time as this, I'm not working anywhere but the few Pampered Chef shows I have in January.
...for such a time as this, it's the uber slow season where TBG is working.
...for such a time as this, we've been on a nutritional program that will help aid our sister with her new diet needs.

 Our little sister who's in UCLA with chemo treatments just got put on a gluten-free diet. They think that her life-long stomach aches and head aches may be food allergies. They deduced this just now, as for the last 2 years she's been living with her older sister and family-and they eat more fresh fruits and veggies and less processed foods. Now that she's stuck in a hospital with no fresh anything and only processed foods, she's been dealing with horrible stomach aches and head aches. It makes my whole body twinge for her. So, as an experiment, she's going to be going off gluten and such for the next month or so. I hope it helps for her.

 And if it does help? And she needs to live gluten-free from now on? I have a new-found knowledge of where she can eat out, what she can buy in a store and snack on, what she can make at home, and just how possible it is. And fun! Oh the new appreciation for foods!

 I just found a gluten free cereal that is the GREATEST snack food for when I'm dealing with a semi-sweet tooth at the same time. I bought it today in Wholefoods on a splurge...had to really exercise self-restraint to not the whole box on the drive home. I offered some to TBG when he got home from work..had to wrestle the box away from him so he wouldn't completely spoil his appetite for dinner. SO GOOD! And it's one of those cereals that you really don't need milk to eat it, you can just pop it in your mouth and crunch away. *happiness*

Today for dinner, we had an amazing beef stew from scratch, and I decided to experiment now that I can have corn, and made some cornbread muffins. They were good! I will admit, they'd probably be better if I had made them with corn meal and not corn flour. But I used what I had on hand, and we were very excited with the results. Woot for more breads to have with soup! I got the recipe from The Baking Beauties, and I altered it a bit. It called for sugar and unnecessary things that I edited down or out. Soo good though!

1 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup light brown sugar

Wet Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp light olive oil
1 cup water

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray
3. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl
4. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, oil and water and beat for 1 minute or so
5. Slowly add the dry to the wet and beat until batter is smooth. You may need to add more water.
6. Pour/spoon batter into muffin cups.
7. Bake 20-25 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

   Makes 12 muffins, 182 calories and 17 carbs. Woo!
     Enjoy! These are great hot with butter and honey!

Lessons learned and pumpkin bread

I really should post more about dinners and such, instead of cookies and carbs and whatnot... Hmmm... *shrugs* Oh well! ^_^

 This morning I woke up randomly craving pumpkin bread. Ok, maybe it wasn't all that random-I think the pumpkin bread I saw at a store recently just lodged itself into my brain. I could've had a slice they were offering right then and there, as I'm allowed to have wheat, dairy, sugar, corn and oats again. However, I'm not having wheat/gluten at all ever again. (at least, not in a baked good kind of way. If the french fries I want from Jack in the Box are cross-contaminated, I won't sweat it) See, I've discovered something. I really am allergic to wheat/gluten.

 A few weeks ago I enjoyed some Christmas cookies and trail mix that my friend made-tasted soo good! (it was sugar, of COURSE it tasted good!) But I realized something halfway through that first cookie-I could feel land and settle in the pit of my stomach. After two cookies, I could feel a headache starting slowly. After four cookies I definitely had a headache. ...I'd love to say I stopped there, but three cookies after that was when I stopped. I was dizzy, had a headache, they were just sitting in my stomach and I figured I'd blown the "small amounts of wheat" idea out of the water well enough. When I woke up the next morning, I had joint aches, my dry skin exzema issue was back in full, and I had four cold sores on my lips. Oh yes, I am avoiding wheat!

 Dairy isn't as bad a reaction. My skin had cleared up beautifully over the last 3 months or so, but once I started having my yogurt and kefir again?...my face has horrible breakouts all over again. >_< So once I finish off that kefir and yogurt, I'm done with dairy! I won't sweat the small stuff, like, if my friend makes cookies and they used milk. Whatever. I have no shame in enjoying a piece of dark chocolate every now and then. But once this dairy is out of the house, I'm not going back to kefir with breakfast and yogurt for a snack! That Girls' skin has spoken!

 All that to say, I will stay as gluten free and dairy free. I may have a recipe every now and then with corn or oats. And maybe a bit of cane sugar every now and again. But celiac's and lactose-intolerants will continue to find welcome recipes here!

 That was a rather long winded explanation for why I didn't have a pumpkin bread sample in the store and why I woke up craving pumpkin bread. Wow. Sorry!

Cut it 

Cut me. Ladies and gentlemen, using knives before the brain is awake is no easy thing!

 The other reason I wanted to make pumpkin bread was because I realized I still had a sugar pumpkin from before Thanksgiving that had to be used. So this morning I cut open that pumpkin,  sliced the skin off it, cubed it, steamed it, pureed it and was ready to make me some pumpkin bread! Woohoo!
 It tasted so good.

 Super easy to make, and soo worth it! I made 3 small loaves, froze 2 and cut one up for breakfast bread. Life is good, as far as our taste buds are concerned!

3/4 cup coconut sugar
4 TBSP pure maple syrup
1/4 cup EVOO
2 eggs
1 TBSP vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin is fine)
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup teff flour
1/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (I had whole cloves of nutmeg, so I just used freshly ground half a nutmeg)

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together
2. Mix all the wet ingredients together
3. Add dry to wet. Blend well.
4. Spray chosen loaf pan(s) with non-stick cooking spray.
5. Bake in oven that's been preheated to 350. If you're making three small loaves, 35 minutes is good. If it's one large loaf, aim for an hour, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean

See how easy that is?! I'm thinking that next time I make this bread, I may make two regular loaves, and add cocoa chips to the other. Or try making them into muffins. Next time I'm going to try subbing applesauce for the oil-make it a bit healthier. Either way, it's sooo good! If you like pumpkin bread, even a bit, you'll enjoy this! For those three loaves, I got about 10 slices from each. So the tally is 70 calories and 12 carbs a slice of pumpkin pleasure. ^_^

At the foot of the Cross, we lay our burdens down

I've been staring at this screen, wanting to write, but knowing the words to say in opening. I try one, and it doesn't seem right.

Cancer. A word that makes us stop in our tracks. A word that's now in our lives.

Ever wonder why little things work they way they are, or why things aren't turning out the way you want? And then suddenly something happens, and you can see how the Lord was prepping you for this moment? That's us now.

Don't ever take a moment in life for granted. You don't know what God has planned for you or for the person in the car next to you, or what His plan is for the person who checked out your groceries the other day. Smile. Share love and encouragement-you don't know what they're going through.

I guess all I can say right now, is that our lives are changing. The Lord has been subtly molding our lives for this moment, and now the time is upon us, and now we learn how well we trust in Him. Our little sister has cancer. (ok, she's not that little. She just turned 19. But that's young enough for us old peoples..who are only 23 and 25...) We just got the news today. And she's had her first round of chemo tonight. It's called Acute T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. What a mouthful!

The timing is totally the Lord's. We're now in winter, the slower season for TBG's work-he'll be able to take time off for family. I just finished my temp job at the bookstore, and now the only work I'll be doing is Pampered Chef-no work until Feb! I'd been recently thinking that we haven't really had much in the way of trials lately. (work doesn't count too much) Everytime I've gone to give blood recently at Red Cross, I've been literally .1 away from the needed iron count-and for the last two weeks I've been taking a supplement to raise that level so I can give blood. Our lil sis had prayed for humility and to be challenged. Our entire family needed something to really bring us together. And the Lord has shown us what our trial will be.

 Think of the timing! Now TBG can visit and help as needed. I'm free to give her rides to UCLA as needed for treatment, helping out with her home and family, etc. I pray about being trial-free, and now there's a trial! If she needs blood now, I'm eligible again to give. She has been challenged and humbled. Our family is drawing together. The Lord is being merciful in this timing!

 And here's the thoughts that bring us peace: God knew this was going to happen, He knows how this will end, and He'll be with us every step of the way. If He calls her home, that's just it, she'll be HOME. And she'll be beating us home-a thought I'm actually rather jealous of! And her attitude during the last day alone has been so encouraging. Despite being terrified of the unknowns, she's handling it so well. All I can say is that she has been such an encouragement to me. What can I say? The Lord has blessed me with an awesome sister.

 All this is more of a brain blerb than an actual blog post. If you're actually reading this to the end, all I ask is that you pray for her and the family. This will be a most interesting adventure in faith, trust in God, and family growth together.

More cookies!

Self control. I lack it.

A week or so ago, my nutritionalist gave me permission to try having wheat, sugar, dairy, corn and oats again if I so desired to. But I was to ease into it, maybe a week of adding in ONLY sugar. See how my body handles it, and then go off it and try a week of just wheat, see how I handle that, etc. So then we can catalog what I react to and how I react to it, and if I think it's worth it to eat ____.

Well....I got a few days of only sugar...then I added dairy, as I was simply dying to have yogurt and kefir again. Anddd then I went to my friend's Christmas party. Any pretense at self control simply flew out the window! She had made this amazing chex/pretzel/M&M/melted marshmallow mix..it was soo good. I could feel the stomach ache coming on, but my tastebuds overruled my common sense, and I ate almost every cookie in sight....the next morning, I woke with not one, not two, but FOUR cold sores on my lips, a horrible stomach ache, a headache, and all my joints felt like my arthritis had come back. It's been amazing. *note, sarcasim in the last sentence* I've gone back off wheat-and my joints, stomach and head have gone back to normal. Today, at another Christmas cookie event, I just had to try two peanut butter blossoms. (I wanted to compare to the taste/texture of the cookies I just made) They were good. And sat like lead in my poor stomach. My elbows and fingers have been hurting since this morning, and my head has had a mild throb to it.

Thank you Lord that it so far seems I can have small amounts of cane-sweetened yogurt!

So now I know. I am officially and utterly staying as wheat/gluten-free as I possibly can. I'm not going to panic about mild cross-contamination. But I am not having baked goods, soups with wheat, cereals, etc ever again! At least, as long as my self-control holds out. It's amazing-I know how awful it'll make me feel, and my tastebuds take over! I really have to work on this problem of mine. If it affects only myself, I don't have much issue with it. But when it affects how I treat those around me? How I treat my hubby? How much housework I can get done? That's a problem. And I refuse to let my own sin (lack of self-control) rule me! Feel free to pray over my newest problem...

But the good news out of all this? Snickerdoodles. Snickerdoodles and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. They rock. I plan to make more tomorrow and bring them to families that need happy gastronomical delights. ^_^

Snickerdoodles

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
3 Tbsp sugar
½ cup shortening
1 ½ cup coconut sugar (or white sugar)
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp xantham gum
465 grams of TG's all-purpose flour (or you can use-1 cup sweet sorghum flour,  cup superfine white rice flour, 1 cup millet flour and 1/2 cup tapioca flour/starch)

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Combine the cinnamon and 3 TBSP of the sugar and set aside for future rollage!
3. Blend the shortening and butter, and then add the sugar. Once it's light and fluffy-ish, add the eggs. Scrap down the sides with each egg, making sure it's mixing fully. Add the egg yolk and vanilla.
4. Now the cream of tartar, soda, salt and gum get added. Beat in the flour mix.
5. Roll the dough in a ball that's a good size to your eye. (I recommend about an inch or so around) Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. After you roll the dough into balls, roll it in that yummy mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Place on cookie sheet.
6. Bake! About 12 minutes or so. You want them to still be soft in the center and the tops just starting to crack a little. Don't overbake-but also don't underbake. (I know, that's so helpful) Let them cool before moving them.
7. Enjoy!

Roughly 50 cookies- 100 calories and 14 carbs apiece

I think they're pretty good cookies. But I feel like they could be better. TBG thinks they're fine-which is good, but I still feel like there's SOMETHING missing or SOMETHING that could be just a tiny bit better. Let me know if you think of what it could be..

But now for the cookie that I think rocks. My new favorite. For this week at least... The white chocolate macadamia nut! Woohoo! This cookie is actually a couple alterations tossed together. It was originally a recipe from Gluten Free Girl for ooey gooey chocolate chocolate chip cookies. Which are good. I will admit that. But...I wanted a good cookie dough that I could add nuts and chips to. And I got it! So here's my recipe for the new cookies:

1 1/2 cups sweet rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup teff flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 stick salted butter, softened
1/2 cup coconut sugar (or brown)
1 cup coconut sugar (or white)
3 eggs
1 TBSP vanilla extract
3 large handfuls macadamia nuts
1/2 bag white chocolate chips

1. Line your sheets with parchment paper. (This is so standard with gluten free baking, I don't know why I say it still!)
2. Mix the flours, soda, salt and powder. Measure it accurately-every little bit counts!
3. Cream the butters and sugar(s). Add eggs and vanilla. Slowly add in the flour, and make sure it's mixed fully.
4. Add in the nuts and chips! Now fridge it all for at least 15 minutes. Preheat the oven and walk away.
5. Walk back.
6. If you want them to be gooey, then make the cooke dough balls large-like the palm of your hand.
7. Bake them for 12-15 minutes. (depends on the cookie size and your oven temp) The tops should be slightly soft still. Let them sit on the cookie sheet for a couple minutes before moving or consuming. Enjoy!

When I make them big-I only get 30 some cookies. And they have a fairly high cost for that- 207 calories and 20 carbs each. But if you make them smaller. (ie, average size, where the dough is about an inch wide or so) And you can half the cal/carb amounts. But who wants smaller cookies?...

I really don't want to think of how many cookies or carbs I've had today. I'm making cookies for work tomorrow-and I'm only making enough to bring to work and for the others. Depending on what time TBG gets off work, maybe I'll hit up the gym on the way home..maybe.    x_x

Cranberry Bread and Peanut Butter Blossoms

How has so much time passed?! It's already December and I haven't yet blogged once this month! *bows head in shame* I blame my schedule...

Another shameful thing: my cooking. I've been baking so much amazing stuff that I've gained weight. >_< At least 5 pounds...after how good I'd been, counting carbs, eating healthy, losing weight..holidays come around and the kitchen always smells good and food is amazing and I need to confirm that everything I make tastes good! I'm kinda looking forward to January now, as then I won't feel the need to bake cookies or bread or brownies or sweets every day.

Oh well. At least everything I'm making, I can eat! ^_^

I've had a couple requests for this recipe, so I'm blogging it before I forget to write it down! Cranberry nut bread. Back in the day, I did NOT like cranberry bread. I did NOT like fruit in bread or baked goods. I did NOT like nuts in anything baked. My oh my, has that changed!

This is a lovely, moist bread with juicy bites of cranberry, the crunch of pecans, and the lovely sweetness of Christmas. Perfect as a dessert bread with coffee, or as a breakfast bread on the side of some scrambled eggs. It's healthy-and has just enough sweetness to be versatile. I'm astounded with how much TBG and I like it, as we didn't used to be people who'd enjoy such a thing. But now we are. Amazing how our taste buds have adapted and learned to prefer such things. (but don't worry, our chocolate addiction is still going strong!)

Cranberry Nut Bread

1/2 cup teff flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup TG's all purpose flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 TBSP orange zest
3/4 cup orange juice (it does taste better when it's fresh, hand squeezed orange)
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 TBSP mayo
2 eggs
1 cup cranberries (I prefer half the cranberries whole, and half the cranberries quartered)
3/4 cup pecans, chopped
 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Sift all the dry ingredients together. Zest counts as a dry ingredient today. 
3.  Mix all the liquid ingredients together in a separate bowl.
4.  Add the two (wet and dry) together. Mix well.
5. Now for the fun part-add the cranberries! I'd say add about 3/4 of the nuts, so you can sprinkle some on the top of the bread. Or, if you're a nut dork like me, add ALL the nuts to the bread, and chop up more nuts for the top. ^_^
6.  Pour the batter into your pans. If it's one large loaf pan-45 minutes of bake time. If it's 4 smaller loaf pans, then about 25 minutes.
7.  When an inserted toothpick comes out clean, bring out of the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Then cool for a bit longer out of the bread pan.

I will say-the flavors are even better the next day! All the times I've made it to bring to people I've made the same day, so it hasn't had time to set to the even richer flavors-but that's because if I made the day before, there wouldn't be any bread to share! Enjoy the bread straight up with some coffee or tea. Enjoy it warm with some butter melted into it. Drizzle on some honey. No matter how you eat it, it tastes good. 70 calories and 10 carbs a slice. Roughly 35 small slices from mini loaf pans.



And the other new recipe is my personal favorite. But that's because I've always loved my peanut butter and chocolate. Peanut butter blossoms. *ooohh* Soo good! I am going to play with the recipe a tiny bit, see if I can infuse a teensy bit more moisture into the cookie. As it is, it's good. But I want to make it better. Not that I'm a baking perfectionist. ...but I kinda am.

The great part with this recipe is you can make two ways. One way, the traditional way, is with hershey's chocolate kisses.

The other way, the new way, is for those of us who can't have the dairy and sugar in the kisses-use unsweetned carob chips and lightly drizzle a tiny amount of honey on the chips. Mmmm...does it work well!

Either way, they taste great! I'm also thinking I may try melting down the carob chips, adding some maple syrup to make it smooth and sweet, and then pouring a bit into each well of the cookie. That could be really good too! (guess what I plan to try next Tuesday?..) ^_^

But, before I forget, let me give you the recipe, so you can try it at home too, and let me know what you made!


1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp potato starch
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1 3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup solid shortening (I used butter flavored Crisco)
1 cup coconut sugar
1 large egg
2 tbsp coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter (the original recipe called for smooth pb. But I like mine crunchy. You can use whatever you prefer)
Chocolate kisses, unwrapped OR carob chips and honey

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grab your cookie sheets and line them with parchment paper.
2. Mix the dry ingredients-flour through to baking soda.
3. In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat sugar and shortening into one cohesive lump of yummy. Add the egg, coconut milk and vanilla. Once that's blended in, add the peanut butter. (and don't start drooling over the mixer. I KNOW the peanut butter smells amazing, but resist!)
4. Slowly add in the dry mix. Once it's all mixed together, roll the dough into small balls and place onto the cookie sheet. (I made my balls into a bouncy ball size)
5. Either press the unwrapped kiss into the cookie dough, or use a knuckle to create a well in the dough. Sprinkle in some carob chips, and drizzle with honey.
6. Once all your cookies are on the sheets and ready to go, bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges of the cookie get ever so slightly golden.
7. Cool. And enjoy. ^_^

Makes about 36 cookies. 95 calories and 11 carbs a cookie of peanut butter goodness. If I do indeed change the recipe and make it better, then I'll re-post it.

Well, TBG's fresh loaf of sandwich bread just came out of the oven. Going to let it cool a bit, then slice it and freeze it for this week and next week. Then I'm going to change the sheets on our bed, do a load or two of laundry, eat some lunch, and run out the door for work! Busy busy. It's a good season. We are so blessed, are we not? Enjoy what the Lord has blessed you with-it is abundant!