Someday I'll have time to blog a bit on Thursdays too...

Argh! Once again, the week gets away from me, and then suddenly I have a whole bunch of recipes to share, and so little time to type it all! The one saving grace for me writing all this on Saturday's, is that TBG will play through Final Fantasy 13 while I sit on the couch typing. And whenever we get to a story scene, we'll watch it together, and then I'll go back to blogging. Good times. ^_^

I may break this into chunks, all the recipes I want to list..but we'll start with the risotto for now. I'll decide if I'm breaking this up more later.

Butternut squash risotto. So lovely. I know I was a bit intimidated with the idea of making risotto. Risotto. Somehow, it just sounds intimidating. (at least, it does to me!) I can't really explain it. It doesn't have a title that clicks in my head with "easy". So I just naturally assume it's going to be hard and difficult and it will somehow turn out horribly. Such a little pessimist! How wrong I was!

This was a recipe a girlfriend gave me to try, and it really, truly was easy. And tasted great! We served it with a pork chop and some broccoli. Bacon and green beans would be lovely too.

Ingredients:
2 cups cubed butternut squash (peeled)
2 TBSP butter
1/2 onion, minced
1 cup arborio rice
1/3 cup dry white wine
3 cups hot chicken stock

1. Steam your squash cubes until fork tender. Mash them up in a bowl
2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat; add onion. Stir onion until it softens, and then add the rice. Stir it until the rice is glossy with the butter, and the onion browns slightly.
3. Pour in the white wine. Stirring until it evaporates.
4. Stir in the mashed squash, and 1/3 of the chicken broth, reduce heat slightly, and keep stirring until the broth soaks in. Add 1/3 more stock, and again, stir until it evaporates. (your arm should be feeling a little sore by this point. Did I mention its also great for working up your appetite?) Add the last of the stock once what is in the pot has evaporated. Risotto should be looking creamy and yummy.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Add parmesan cheese if you so desire and can have dairy.

My lovely cubed butternut squash...and yeah, I didn't
measure how much squash I had...I know I have more
than 2 cups though...details... >_>

With my first bit of liquid added

See how it's absorbing it all? Mmmm..getting close!

Save the seeds, and you can toast them like you would
pumpkin seeds! Tasty, and a healthy little snack.

Serves 4- 283 calories and 48 carbs


So I used to make TBG sandwiches that he would take to work for lunch. It's been rather torturous for me, to smell such bread, and not be able to have even the tiniest crumb from it. And now that he's dairy free, it adds a small layer of difficulty to find bread that he can have.

Well. No more. I discovered one of the most amazing recipes EVER earlier this week on one of the blogs I stalk. http://glutenfreemommy.com/ Natalie is amazing. She has some great recipes for desserts and foods, but the recipe that has our temporal, earthly gratitude is for her Millet Oatmeal Bread. Now, I can't have oatmeal, so I had to make a few small alterations, but my, oh my, is it worth it! TBG raves about this being the best sandwich bread he's ever had. (and that's saying something there!) I love adding butter and honey with it. Mmm.. When I made the bread, I had a tiny bit more dough than bread pan, so I made two muffins of it. O_O I will be making muffins of this for breakfast later this week. We love it.

So, all credit goes to her! But I will be renaming it for my purposes here, as it is not an oatmeal bread that I make. I hereby name it Millet Quinoa Bread. (of awesome, amazing, gastronomical delight!)

If you make it how it's written, you will not be disappointed. And if you're too skeptical to try it, let me know, I'll bake you some muffins to try out!

1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
3/4 cup millet flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/3 cup arrowroot starch
1/3 cup sweet rice flour
1/3 cup flax seed meal (sift, and save the chaf-like part)
1 TBSP xanthan gum
3 eggs
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 packet active dry yeast + 1 TBSP coconut sugar (for proofing yeast)
1 TBSP maple syrup
3 TBSP coconut sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup heated water
1 cup heated water

1. Pull out all your dry ingredients and eggs a bit early, and let them all sit out until room temperature. Preheat oven to 200 if its too cold in your house for the dough to rise later-you'll be using that lightly heated oven to make it rise later.
2. Sift together the dry ingredients. (I sifted the flax seed separately first, and then added it to the other dry ingredients)
3. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, syrup, vinegar and butter together.
4. In yet another bowl, mix yeast and sugar. Add 1/4 cup warm water. If it isn't bubbling and proofed in 10 minutes, THROW IT OUT and start again. You need it proofed!
5. Once that yeast is ready, add the wet to dry. Add the yeast. Slowly add the remaining water until you reach the proper dough consistency. (thick cake batter) Beat the dough on high for 10-15 minutes.
6. If you accidently added too much water, add some more rice flour until you get it to where it should be. (if you really, really added too much water, add a bit from each flour as you go)
7. Put the dough in your pre-sprayed pan, and allow it to rise for 1-1/2 hours. Once it crests over the pan, its ready. If you had it in the oven to rise, pull it out to preheat the oven to 350. Once the oven is preheated, you're almost ready. Take that bit of flax that was leftover from sifting, and sprinke over the wet dough top. Now you can pop that baby in for about 40 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick draws out clean.
8. Cool for as long as you can before cutting into it. If you HAVE to cut into it while it's still hot, spray your bread knife with pam each time you slice.

Serves about 18-depending on your slices-and is about 111 calories and 18 carbs each slice

Most delicious bread EVER!!