A week of yummy!

On Monday, I weighed myself. I then decided to start a little purge and avoid as many carbs as possible and eat healthy for the next couple weeks. My only exceptions to making and eating anything would be for special occasions, ministry events or if someone asked me to make something specific. I figured those would be safe exceptions, because nothing was on the calendar. So I could do my best to lose the holidays that are sticking with me, ya know? Sounds great, right?

It could have worked. It really could have.

But then, to our great surprise and joy, my little sister in law got released from the hospital and was free to return to home! Huzzah! The two catches-she is now gluten free, and no one would be home to stay with her from Thurs-Sun, because they were going on a pre-planned vacation. (planned since last Summer, and we all agreed they should take a brief break) Sooo...TBG and I came over to hang out with her and make yummy foods she could eat. Which constitutes as a special occasion-she's out of the hospital- it's a ministry-helping take care as needed- and she's asked me to make a few specific gluten free foods.

Even when I try to eat healthy and do what I can, I fail. I'm stuck in a house with my hubby and my awesome sister in law, making delicious foods for several days. Oh darn.

^_^

Thursday night we had pizza. For a post-lunch snack yesterday we made brownies. Last night we had soup. This morning we made and inhaled caramel nut rolls and cinnamon rolls. Tomorrow we're having lasagna. What a hard couple of days! I think I've gained about 3 pounds already. Gonna be hitting up the gym every day for the next couple weeks! *laughs*

The pizza and the rolls are amazing. Plain and simple. The pizza was superb-we didn't know what to expect, and we three ended up finishing the two pizza's ourselves! And the beautiful thing? We could eat all of it without getting sick. Life is grand!

It has been such a lovely time, all of us together, hanging out, enjoying each others company and eating good food. We've sat around and chatted, watched movies, played video games, we've made foods together and eaten together. Gluten free in the kitchen has never tasted so sweet!

The pizza crust recipe I used is from a new cookbook that I recieved for Christmas. A great cookbook! Dairy free and gluten free! I highly recommend this book-it is so great! It's called 'Cooking for Isaiah' by Silvana Nardone, the ISBN is 978-1-60652-165-6. I used her pizza crust recipe and her all-purpose flour mix, so I'll list her flour mix and her crust recipe for those who don't have it yet. ^_^

Silvana's all-purpose flour mix
6 cups white rice flour
3 cups tapioca starch
1 1/2 cups potato starch
1 TBSP salt
2 TBSP xanthum gum

Pizza Crust
2 cups Silvana's all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 large egg whites, room temp, beaten
2 TBSP EVOO
3/4 cup warm water

1.  Whisk together flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Add egg whites, olive oil and water. Combine well.
2. Divide the dough into two equal-ish pieces. Roll both into rough balls, and place on two lightly floured parchment papers. Cover with plastic wrap, and roll the dough to about 1/4" of thickness, keep the plastic wrap on and let it sit for about 30 minutes.
3. If you have a round baking stone, put in the oven and preheat both to 450. Choose one of the rolled out doughs. Remove the plastic wrap carefully and slide it into the oven. Bake for about 8 minutes-when the crust gets puffy and crisp, it's ready. Repeat with the other crust.
4. These can be made and frozen for later if desired-good for about 1 month in the freezer.

Now there's an alteration to this original recipe. This is what I used, the alteration. And it was GOOD.

Replace the water with 3/4 cup rice/coconut/almond milk, room temperature and with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar. Use 1 3/4 cups plus 2 TBSP all purpose flour mixed with 1/2 cup cornmeal instead of the 2 cups flour, and mix as before.

For the pizza itself, I used a generic pizza sauce, added some red pepper flakes to the sauce and then grated goat mozz. cheese and grated cheddar almond cheese. Top it with pepperoni's and bake it at 450 for 8 minutes. The second pizza I added pepperoni's and flakes on the sauce directly and sprinkled the cheese on top. Both turned out great! We'll be having this recipe again soon.

We had two breakfasts-the first breakfast was the healthiest. Scrambled eggs, bacon and a fruit smoothie. (Lizzie had a great idea for the smoothie's, we add a handful of spinach to the fruits and juice in the blender, then add whey protein. You can't taste the spinach, but it helps make it a more balanced and healthy. And it tastes so good!) So that was our first breakfast. Second breakfast was MorMor's caramel nut rolls and Shauna's cinnamon rolls.

1 1/2 cups water
3 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons active-dry yeast
4 ounces almond flour (1 1/4 cup)
4 ounces corn flour (3/4 cup)
4 ounces sweet rice flour (3/4 cup)
4 ounces potato starch (2/3 cup)
4 ounces tapioca flour (1 cup)
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk powder
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 tabelspoons cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

MorMor's Carmel Glaze
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP corn syrup (or brown rice syrup)
2 TBSP coconut milk

1. Prep the yeast in 1 cup of warm water. It will take awhile, roughly 15 minutes-ish.
2. Mix all the flours, salt and xanthem gum together, and if you have a blender, food processor or stand mixer, whisk them in that. You want them to be light and airy. Add the sugar and milk powder.
3. Warm the last of the water to about 110 degrees.
4. Add the yeasty water, and add the eggs one at a time. If the dough seems dry, then add more water as needed. Let it rise.
5. It's best to roll the dough in two batches, and try to shape and roll it into a rectangular shape. Before you roll it, place it on a silpat or or wax paper. Put plastic wrap on the top and then roll it out to about 1/2" thick or so. Take off the wrap.
6. For MorMor's caramel rolls, sprinkle on cinnamon and a tiny bit of sugar. Roll into a log and cut into rolls.
7. For cinnamon rolls, add butter chunks, cinnamon and sugar. Roll into a log, cut into rolls and place in a baking dish that has a lightly buttered bottom. Cover with a warm tea cloth and let rise for an hour or so.
8. Make the caramel sauce! Melt the butter, sugar and corn syrup. Stir together and after it's boiled, stir in the coconut milk. Pour into a 9x12 and sprinkle in chopped nuts if desired. Lay the rolls in. Cover with a warm tea cloth and let rise for about an hour.
9. Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes.
10. Make the cinnamon icing. Cream the butter and cream cheese in a food processor or blender. Add the vanilla slowly. Bit by bit, add in the powdered sugar. It will most likely take all 2 cups of sugar, but bit by bit is best for the consistency. Frost the cinnamon rolls once they've cooled suffiently.
11. ENJOY!