Pumpkin Muffins and Apple Spice Muffins

Two posts in the same month? It's a miracle!

I mentioned on Friday that I'd be making muffins for the Saturday morning breakfast at my ladies retreat. Well, I've had many requests for those recipes, so I figured I'd make life easy and blog it here!

We celebrated family birthday's earlier this week, and my awesome lil-sis-in-love got me a new cookbook. *yay!* It's babycakes by Erin McKenna. The recipes are vegan, (mostly) gluten-free, and (mostly) sugar free. And they rock! I did two of her recipes on Saturday, and I'm going to share them here. I highly recommend adding this cookbook to your collection! And to make life easy, I'm even including a link for buying it from Amazon. ^_^

http://www.amazon.com/BabyCakes-Gluten-Free-Sugar-Free-Recipes-Talked-About/dp/0307408833/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1381093340&sr=8-2&keywords=babycakes+by+erin+mckenna

These apple cinnamon muffins were delicious. Our little guy was lucky enough to have a few, and he kept asking for more. (In the end, I limited myself to four muffins in one sitting, thankyouverymuch.) These are great for breakfast! Or just snacking. Or just whenever...

Roasted Apple
1 pound granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced in 1 inch cubes
1 pound pink lady apples, peeled cored, and diced in 1 inch cubes
1 TBSP cinnamon
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Muffin Mix
2 cups all purpose GF flour (they recommend Bob's Red Mill, but i used my own flour blend)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
2 TBSP cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup coconut oil
2/3 cup agave nectar
2/3 cup rice milk (or coconut, or almond, or hemp, or...)
2 TBSP vanilla extract

 * To make the yummy

Preheat the oven to 325. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl, toss apples, cinnamon, agave nectar and lemon juice until the apples are completely coated. Spread this mixture evenly on the baking sheet. Bake them in the oven for 35 minutes, rotating the sheet after 20 minutes. The apples will be soft when done, pull them out and cool them.

Keep the oven on, and line your muffin tins!

Now whisk together all your dry ingredients-the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg. Add the oil, agave nectar, milk and vanilla, and mix completely. Add in 1 cup of the apples.

Fill each little cupcake mold about halfway to two-third's full. Bake for 22 minutes, rotating the pans at the 10 minute mark. They'll be golden brown and pass the toothpick when done.

Cool, eat and enjoy!

***When I made this recipe, I double the muffin batter and used ALL the roasted apples. She makes a note in the book that the apples can be kept in the fridge for up to a week, if you want to make a batch of muffins a few days apart)


The pumpkin spice muffins were a huge hit yesterday-and I clearly didn't make enough yesterday! I decided to make them again this morning for those who didn't get any yesterday (including myself) and this time I made enough. These are moist, yummy, tender, absolutely delectable. I've got a feeling I'll be making more of these soon.


2 cups All-Purpose GF flour blend (the recipe recommends Bob's Red Mill. Today I used my own personal blend)
 2 tsp baking powder
 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp xanthan gum (only if it isn't already in your flour blend. My personal blend has it, so I omitted it today)
1 tsp salt
1 TBSP cinnamon
1 TBSP ginger
1/2 cup coconut oil
 2/3 cup agave nectar
 2/3 cup rice milk (or coconut, or almond, or hemp, or...)
2 TBSP vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
 1/2 cup hot water

•  How to make the yummy!
  
   Preheat the oven to 325. Line your cupcake pans with liners. The recipe says it makes 12, but today I got away with making 23?...
  
  Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Add the oil, agave nectar, milk and vanilla to the dry ingredients. Stir until the batter is smooth and thick. Add pumpkin and water, blending thoroughly.
  
   Fill your cupcake liners about halfway to two-third's full with batter. Bake the muffins for 22 minutes, rotating the pan(s) after about 10 minutes. Use a toothpick to confirm they are done.
   Allow to cool, then inhale and enjoy!
  
  ***I added chocolate chips to mine, because I love mixing pumpkin and chocolate. I added roughly 3/4-1 cup of chips in after I had already blended in the pumpkin and water.
  
  

Muffins!!

We've been enjoying any type of easy breakfast possible since that That Boy has arrived. ...which means now that these awesome gluten free boxed muffins are around, we've been making blueberry or chocolate chip boxed muffins almost weekly. And boxed muffins are expensive! $5.99 a box! (unless they're on sale, but still!) After so long of coughing up money for a box mix, I finally had the time to sit down and figure out a recipe for muffins. No more box mixes!

What I basically needed to do was mix a flour blend that I could use as all purpose flour to sub into a pre-exsisting muffin recipe. I looked at the box mix, wrote out all the ingredients, and figured which ones I wanted in my recipe. My flour blend is (what I think of as) simple.

3 cups white rice flour
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup millet flour
1/2 cup teff flour
1/2 cup oat flour
3 cups tapioca startch
1 1/2 cup potato starch
2 TBSP xanthan gum
1 TBSP salt

Mix it all together, and you have ready made AP flour for these muffins! Sooo good!

Chocolate Chip Muffins of Yum

1/2 cup (8 TBSP) non dairy butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups AP gluten free flour blend
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Cream non-dairy butter and sugar, add egg one at a time
3. Sift together flour, b. powder and salt. Add to the creamed sugar, then add the milk and vanilla.
4. Fold in the chocolate chips. Eat a few chips on the way into the bowl.
5. Spray muffin tins with non-stick spray, then pour in muffin batter. 
6. Cook for 20-25 minutes (mine took 18 minutes, actually) Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn over onto a cooling rack. 
7. ENJOY!

We're looking forward to trying this recipe with blueberries soon. The chocolate chip muffins turned out amazingly good. Just the right bit of firmness on the outside, soft melty-ness on the inside, ooh, they are good!

 In other news, That Boy is a little over a week away from being 4 months. Where did the time go!? I'm amazed with how time is flying by. He's smiling, 'talking', rumor has it tonight that he giggled at the grandparents house...That Bearded Guy and I were at a wedding while he was at my parents house, and during the wedding I was struck with the thought that's going to be so very soon until his wedding. He's already almost 4 months. I can't blink, or he'll be in grade school, high school, college, married, giving us grandkids...

OOh! Thinking of grandkids! That Bearded Guy told me he *thought* he saw a silver hair in my hair! Yay! I hope so, I'm sad that since we dyed our hair for the Anime Expo this year, my few silver hairs got dyed too. Unlike all the crazy people who have gorgeous hair of wisdom, I LIKE my silver/gray hairs! And I welcome them as friends. ^_^

Learning to pet and be gentle with Malificent

A bit uncertain about the music playing at the time. I think it was something 'pop' like...

There's only 940 Saturday's from birth to age 18. I plan to enjoy each Saturday as much as possible!

Coffecake experiment!

Wow, it's only been, forever...since I last updated. Pregnancy apparently makes me very lazy when it comes to blogging!

I was craving a spice coffee cake, so I just mixed one up and tossed it in the oven. Here's to hoping it actually works! I used to make this as a "normal" person, before the days of gluten free, so I'm basically experimenting in general right now. I just subbed the cake mix with a GF cake mix. *crosses fingers* Here's to hoping!

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package spice cake mix
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch (or vanilla) pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray the 9x13 pan. 
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the cake mix, and pudding mixes. Add the eggs, oil and water, mix until well blended.  Pour into greased baking dish.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts. Sprinkle lovingly over the goodness in the pan.
4. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn the oven down to 325 degrees F and bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes.  

Hoping it works...

We have 5 weeks until my due date! It's hard to believe how fast time has flown by. I vacillate between feeling ready and not feeling anywhere near ready. From talking to other friends, apparently that's pretty normal. *chuckles* I think that's good?...

We've had one baby shower thus far, three to go! (homeschoolers have no friends, thus so many events!) We've been blessed up to this point with many second hand baby items and furniture. TBG and I have only had to buy a chest of drawers! (and that was on clearance!) Everything else we have has been given to us. God is so good! We're really hoping that we can get all the other smaller essentials through the baby showers. We'll take whatever we can get, of course, but it's been a real blessing to not have to worry about buying big ticket items! 

 My personal hope is that in a week or two, TBG will be done stripping and refurnishing the sliding rocker we were given. (I have a vendetta against white painted wood. It's too fake!) Once that has been finished, if we haven't already, we'll be putting the car seat and stroller into my car, splitting up the other baby furniture pieces to the grandparents (my parents will be getting a carseat and stroller for babysitting purposes), and then I can park in the garage again! Huzzah! I have to admit though, it has been nice to park on the street-it requires that I get my daily exercise in. And now that I'm starting to show a bit more, I don't know how easy it would be to get in and out of the car in the garage...

 We're toying with a construction idea. No idea if it's possible or not, but we like the idea. Our condo has vaulted ceilings in the dining room and TV room. We want to make a loft over the dining room. It would allow more space for my sewing and his crafting. And then if we're still living here when we have #2, if #2 is a girl, we can move our office stuff out of the closed office and give her that room. (if #2 is a boy, then they can learn to share! We'll just move all the bookshelves out of that room and into the office then) It's all ideas that we're playing with, but they're fun ideas to us. ^_^

 In the meantime, there's a decorative/useless ledge that's around our kitchen area, overlooking the TV room and dining room. We made a catwalk from the top of the stain banister to the ledge so our kitties can have a safe place to perch and watch the baby when he comes. They have a horrible fear of small children, so we figure it's the nicest thing we can do for them, all things considered.  In the meantime, they've been getting nervous by all the new furniture and changes. Coping well, but still clearly a bit nervous. (don't really blame them though...)

 Well, if the coffeecake is a success, I'll post a photo. For now, I should be productive and clean up a bit. *sighs* 

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a success! Woot! It tastes so good! I think my only change for next time will be to add 1 tsp cinnamon to the batter itself. But that's just cause I like my coffeecake full of spice! 

Women's Conference

What a busy weekend! The only reason I'm sitting here and typing this right now is because I'm waiting for the dinner rolls in my kitchen to finish rising. (and I'm eating lunch quickly) This weekend is our church's Women's Conference and I'm in charge of all the gluten free food. (yay for gluten free! and yay for women's conference!)

So why am I at home typing on my blog and waiting for dinner rolls to rise? Because this is our lunch break time, and we in the kitchen realized that for dinner, all the church ovens will be in use, and we somehow still need to make the gluten free dinner rolls! Hence I drove home, mixed up our dinner rolls, am waiting for them to rise, then I'll drive over to my parents to use their oven, bake them, and head back to church by three. I love it! And as to why I'm not baking them at home-our oven is busted. Been busted since Monday. Waiting for some part to come in to fix it. *sighs* Not so much love about that, I'll admit.

Back to the conference and food! ^_^

Last night we had fondue pots out and a whole smorgasbord of foods to dip in. We had cheese and chocolate for the fondue, with breads, pretzels, fruits, vegetables, and whatnot to dip. I brought Glutino's GF pretzels for us GF ladies to dip in our chocolate. Yumm.....I think I had more than a serving. >_> But I don't regret it. I balanced the chocolate with the amount of fingerling potato's and cheese and carrots I was eating. Balanced meal, right?

This morning we had a late breakfast, and I made pumpkin muffins (from that pumpkin bread recipe) and an apple chocolate crumble cake. I'll have to post that recipe tomorrow or another day. Both were gone pretty quick. ...despite the fact that my pumpkin muffins were rather cosmetically challenged...I'd given them some time to cool, but had to run out the door before they were fully cooled. So they got tossed into a huge plastic bag...tossed into my car...and carefully arranged on a tray to be served...despite their...sad appearance. *sighs* At least they don't have to look good to taste good! *laughs*

Oh! It's time to pack up and head over to my parents! So grateful to the Lord that they live close by and have a working oven. What I'd do without them, I don't know. ...I do know though that I would have less tools in my garage, and I would have to buy my own tupperware. Whenever they come visit, one of them will comment, "oh, that's where THAT went!" Hehe, yeah, that's where it went...

Update and Pumpkin Coffeecake

Well, it's been quite awhile, hasn't it? In my defense, I have a perfectly good excuse as to why computers and food and me haven't been happening for the last three(ish) months.

Morning sickness.

I think it should be really called "preggo sickness". As for me, it's a morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night sickness. But that's just a small little detail, right? Whatever. Preggo sickness means that food is the last thing I want to think about, talk about, type about or contemplate on any degree or level. So yeah, I'm pregnant. ^_^ 14 weeks along, to be exact, and it's only in the last couple days that I've felt well enough to consider food again. And seeing as how autumn just technically rolled around (southern california weather always gets that memo late), I really wanted to do something autumny. And because I've been feeling a little bit better, and because I was in charge of snacks today for growth group, I had some fun. Pumpkin coffeecake! Tis a bit of a breakfast food, tis a forkful of autumn, and tis a delicious forkful at that!

I found the recipe at this site, http://www.lifeglutenfree.com/mama_baby_gluten_free/ and I made a few small alterations to it. The first time I made it was really good-but I felt like something was missing. TBG suggested I add some struesal, and I think it was lacking a bit of salt, so when I made my changes, it turned out much more like what we wanted. Moist. Delectable. Pumpkiny. Autumny. All those important things, ya know? ^_^


Ingredients:
1 cup sorghum flour
1/3 cup potato starch (I ran out of this, so I just subbed arrowroot)
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1 teaspoon xantham gum
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice


Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (or fresh!)
1/2 cup of honey (or agave nectar)
1/2 cup organic cane sugar (although not wet, you will combine it with these)
2 tablespoons organic molasses
1/3 cup of grapeseed oil / coconut oil (or you can sub for salted butter and reduce your salt)
2 eggs

Struesal :
1 cup brown sugar
dash of cinnamon
3 TBSP butter


1.) Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease a 8 by 8 pan.

2.) Combine pumpkin, honey, sugar, molasses, oil, and egg. Combine.

3.) Add remaining ingredients to the wet mixture. Mix well. Combine struesel ingredients in a separate bowl, and add more sugar as you deem fit. ^_^

4.) Transfer batter to the greased baking pan and sprinkle struesel over it.

5.) Bake 40 minutes or until a tooth pick is inserted and comes out clean. Cool before slicing. Important to let it cool! Do not let impatience overwhelm you! It will not cut pretty. >_< Trust me on this.

TBG and I love a tall glass of milk with this. And we also love to add chocolate chips to the batter. Oooh, chocolate and pumpkin? Happy tummy time! I'll get a picture of it to post here soon, promise!

Fly by recipe!

I've come to a decision. I am NEVER AGAIN going to hold over 3 part time jobs! O_o I miss my life!

This morning will be a quick, super simple breakfast recipe. I *hope* to have time on Sunday to post a few more recipes, and maybe even an update and pictures and whatnot. I'm working as an ASL interpreter at the local college-and interpreting more classes than I typically do- plus being a Pampered Chef consultant, and also as a seamstress. (with lots, and lots, and LOTS of projects that are due tomorrow and then another load of them for the first week of July!) Those are my 3 paying jobs, not including my primary job as wife and housewife and kitty mommy. Which is the best job of them all, and I'm realy missing it!

Super simple breakfast that TBG and I have been having quite often-parfaits! And I'll admit, up until a few weeks ago I thought that parfaits were too fancy a word for a breakfast food, and that they'd be meh. Well, I was wrong! We get a good dose of calcium, fiber, fruit sugar and overall YUM.

A lazy morning parfait-only one layer of granola and fruit

Our favorite recipe is very simple. Here's what you need:

-two glasses

-quart of honey greek yogurt
-gluten free granola (Udi's makes this!)

-blueberries

-raspberries

-strawberries

I put a hearty layer of yogurt in the bottom of our glasses, then gently pour in some granola. Make it thumb thickness or so. Layer yogurt on that, then fruit! Layer back and forth til you're near the top of the glass.  Fruit will be the top layer, lay the fruit down in a pretty pattern, grab a spoon, and ENJOY!!

See that pretty pattern? It's happy food!

Honey Nut Bread

Oh my has it been forever!

Thankfully this week will end job number five, and I'll have a bit more free time! Of course, that free time is going straight to job number four, but still, it's something. *chuckles* I feel bad when friends complain that they can't find a job anywhere, and here I am, with five different jobs in five different places!

It has been interesting though, working at the bookstore again. First, I didn't realize how much I've missed hanging out and watching and listening to the interactions of my friends/co-workers. That was enjoyable. And I also didn't realize how many other gluten-free people I'd meet! A couple co-workers, several customers that came through my line, and even a person or two who came in specifically to talk to me because they'd heard of me via word-of-mouth. ...it's almost creepy. But it's also thrilling-to be able to share all that I've discovered and learned over the last couple months, to help relieve some of the what-can-I-eat stress and to give some hope...it's priceless. I'm thrilled the Lord put me in such a position to minister in that way. It's food related, and it's people oriented. I love it!

For tonight I'll just post a quick recipe for bread. If I get chance later this week I'll post tonight's dinner: Tomato garlic pesto chicken with noodles and foccacia bread and veggies...Mmmm...

But on to the bread!

Honey Pecan Bread! Of insane goodness! Perfect quick bread, pefect consistancy, taste, texture, oh was it heavenly! TBG and I practically inhaled it. It was a lovely side to our scrambled egg breakfast-and equally lovely as a snack. And you can totally omit the nuts if you want. It originally called for walnuts, but I didn't have any on hand, so I used the pecans instead. Soo good!

1 cup honey
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 unbeaten egg
2 1/2 cup TG's all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup+ pecans or walnuts (or both!)

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. Combine honey, milk, sugar and butter in a saucepan. Slowly heat it until the sugar is dissolved and the butter melted-not too hot, just enough for those two things to happen. Take it off the heat and cool it down.
3. Add egg and beat smooth. (this is why step two with the cool is important)
4. Sift dry ingredients together and add to the milk and egg mixture. Blend. Add nuts!
5. Grease your loaf pan(s) and pour batter into it/them. (I used three smaller pans instead of one large pan)
6. Bake for 75-90 minutes. Or bake 30-50 minutes if using smaller pans. When an inserted toothpick comes out clean, it's time to take it out!
7. Cool for 15 minutes and remove from pan. It'll be a lovely rich brown color when fully baked.
8. Enjoy as it is, or slather some butter on it. TBG loves to add crystalized honey to his.

This has become one of our favorite breads ever. I found the recipe in a cookbook from my Grandma from years ago. It's no longer in print, and can't be found anywhere that I've looked. It's basically a cookbook that all the recipes have honey as a major componant. I love it! It covers breads, sauces, dinners, desserts, everything. And they taste amazing. It's just a bit more challenging when converting some of the flours because the honey moisture content will react differently to different GF flours. (for example, coconut flour wicks up moisture ALOT, and I would need to compensate that in my ingredients) But all in all, it's a great cookbook to have. There's a couple recipes that are absolute keepers-and this is one of those recipes!

Well, I'm off! Time to be HOME for a bit. Yay!

A brief update

It's been so long since I've been able to just sit and write! Oi!

Life has hit yet again with it's full schedule, and boy, are we feeling the effects of it! Nothing like a full calendar to keep one constantly running around, staying busy, and yet so busy that they rarely get fully filling meal and never get to the gym. Yay for snacks-healthy snacks, but snacks. Often enough to keep hunger away, and also often enough to make one wonder if the jeans fit better yesterday than today.. Current favorite snack? KIND bars. Nuts to help hold hunger at bay, enough honey and sweet to raise blood sugar so dizzy hunger goes away..tasty, and gluten free to boot. Yeah, many lunches have consisted of those!

Another simple lunch when by a microwave? Sweet potato. Just toss in the 'wave, hit the baked potato button, once it's tender inside, split open add some salt and any butter you have..so yummy! Simple and filling and soo good!

I've heard alot of people discussing allergies to eggs, and how when they keep eating eggs, they develop allergies to them. Soo TBG and I have been shaking up our breakfast routine. One morning we had butternut squash with nuts and maple syrup and a slice of beet bread. Another morning was oatmeal with blueberries and yogurt on the side. I experimented and we enjoyed brown rice with brown sugar, sausage and apple another morning. For being a girl who never liked oatmeal growing up, it's really funny how much I like it now! Oatmeal with crunchy peanut butter and cinnamon mixed in. Oatmeal with maple syrup, diced apples and pecans. We had rice, chicken and veggies another morning. (Japanese style breakfast) It's been rather fun to break out of our typical morning routine. This morning we had eggs with breakfast-a simple, yummy, breakfast pizza. That pizza crust I mentioned in another post? I had made several small, 'personal size' crusts, baked them and then froze them. This morning before church I pulled one out and thawed it, and then added my toppings! Scrambled eggs, sausage, bell pepper and goat cheese were amazing toppings on that pizza! Simple and yummy and filling. Mmm... Haven't yet decided what tomorrow's breakfast will be yet. We'll see what happens there..

I'm making myself hungry again. *facepalms* I think the gym is starting to call my name...

But I haven't yet mentioned the best thing I've found yet! Lasagna.

I have pictures of it while it was being made-but no pictures of it done! But that's ok, since I'll be making it again this Friday for Bible study. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures then... >_>

TBG and I are in love with this lasagna. Creamy, rich, delicious. Filling-and yet light enough that we can go back for seconds if we want. Veggie heavy, so it's healthy, and yet half the time no one notices just HOW veggie heavy it is! On Friday I'll be making a vegetarian version to accompany our loaded lasagna. If you're allowed dairy, you can add more cheeses to it. For us, being cow dairy free, we used goat cheese and almond cheese to get amazing results! We'll be sticking with those for now.

It's a very simple recipe. And you can always make it in advance and pull out for later! (just remember to extend the cooking time as needed)

•1 package. gluten free rice lasagna noodles
•1 jar pasta sauce (I like tomato chunks and garlic)
•1 tub olive tapenade (Trader Joe's)
•1 bag spinach
•1 can artichoke hearts (cut lengthwise, to open them up easily)
•1.5 pounds hamburger
•2 cloves garlic
•2 bell peppers, diced
•1 onion, diced
•1 can olives
•1 chunk goat cheese, grated
•1 chunk almond cheese, grated
•extra cheese ^_^
•bunch of basil

How to make yummy:

1. Cook noodles as directed, but pull them out and cool them before fully cooked. They'll cook more once they're in the pan with everything else
2. Toss the onions in a pan with some butter, and cook until they smell heavenly and turn a lovely golden color. Put aside.
3. Cook the meat with the garlic. You can mince the garlic, or if you have a PC garlic press, cheat and use that. ^_^ It'll save you time and sanity in the long run, I promise!
4. Pull out your 9x12 pan and prepare to layer!
5. Start with the noodles. A single layer is beautiful. Spread the olive tapenade over the noodles. (if you want to add more veggies, dice up some olives and sprinkle over this too)
6. Rip apart some of the artichoke hearts, and spread around in a thickishly thin layer.
7. Layer spinach and basil. Sprinkle bell pepper and onion,  and add a layer of meat.
8. Spoon pasta sauce over this now. If you like cheesy, add some chese now.
9. Again with the noodles! Spread the last of the olive tapenade and olives, the last of the artichokes, the greens, the veggies, the meat. Drown it in sauce, and give it all the cheese you got!
10. Bake in an oven at 350 for about an hour, or until fully heated through.
11. Serve with some french bread and devour!

(French bread recipe can be found on this site)

A bit of the ingredients

Before going in the oven. I hope to get a picture of it OUT of the oven to post later!

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!

Slow down. Breathe.

Breakfast has a tendency to be tasty around here...

Friends are such a gift! We have some friends visiting from Washington this weekend. Such a lovely break for us-and a break for them. It's been so wonderful to just sit back and chill with like-minded friends.

I love being a hostess. It's so much fun! And they're wonderful guests to have over. It's hard to believe it's been a year since we last saw them. They've come down to visit everyone in the area twice now-each time during January-so we've become spoiled. (hear that? we're going to be expecting you two to come down next year, same time too!) I love having an excuse to clean the house major, to make yummy foods, to play taxi driver, it's just so much fun! And it's just a great time to relax and bask in each other's company. ^_^

Before they came down, I asked what breakfast foods they'd like. One told me Cheerio's with banana's. Ok, not too bad, whatever is left of the bag will go to my parents when they leave. The other said blueberry muffins. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! I could just opt out, go to the store, get some gluten-full muffin for him to eat while here and I just won't eat any. But...it's me. So while she's eating her Cheerio's, the rest of us will be chowing down on yummy blueberry muffins full of goodness and joy!



And we have enough muffins for us 3!

 These are soo good! I'm thrilled that they think these are moist and flavorful. That means I'm not completely biased with my tastes-they really ARE that good! TBG got approved for the rare yogurt in baking, so this recipe is safe for us, despite it having dairy in it. You can also use coconut milk with a bit over 1 TBSP of lemon juice in it.

Blueberry Muffins-

10 TBSP unsalted, soft butter
1 cup coconut sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp lemon zest (or orange zest)
1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup white rice flour
1 cup tapioca flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used plain Greek yogurt)
1 cup or more blueberries
2 TBSP+ raw sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl-including zest!
3. Barely cream the butter and sugar. You want it just mixed enough to be mixed. But if you leave the mixer running while adding things, these babies won't rise that much. Add the eggs one at a time, and just enough to be incorporated.
4. Add about 1/3 of the dry mix, and then about a 1/3 of the yogurt. Mix. Add another 1/3 of each, mixing fully, and then the last of each. Now add as many blueberries as you want! I used almost 2 cups of blueberries in my muffins.
5. Oil the mufifn pans, and lightly dust the bottoms of the pans with white rice flour. Fill the muffin cups about 2/3 full, and then sprinkle some of the raw sugar on the tops.
6. Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Makes 24 muffins, 145 calories and 22 carbs apiece

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. ^_^

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!

Addition to the family, and the best time of day!

Sooo...we've added to our family yet again...

Her name is Lulu Teshua. (Teshua means deliverance, deliverance by God through a human agency)

Isn't she soo cute?!

My hubby found her at work, malnourished, alone, being literally eaten alive by fleas. He called me to come pick her up-to either take to a shelter, or to home. We decided to take her home and find a good home for her. I took her to TAGS-the local shot animal clinic- to get her checked out. The Dr there wasn't sure if she'd even survive the weekend, because of how low on blood she was. He gave her a flea med then and there, and we watched as literally ten or more fleas jumped off her after the med's went on her. She came home, got a bath, got oral med's to increase the production of blood, and has been in solitary confinement since then to prevent the spread of fleas. Now she's lively, flea-free thanks to her med's, has survived THREE bath's, has an amazingly voracious appetite, and loves attention.

We already found her a good home.

Us.

We had both said that our limit is 3 kitties until we move. But TBG fell in love with her, as did I, and so now we have more motivation to move. So note this everyone- WHEN WE MOVE NEXT YEAR, IT WILL BE BECAUSE WE HAVE MORE FELINES, NOT BECAUSE OF PREGNANCY!!! That being said, I can now say I'm happy to have our new family member, and on to the food part of today!

I'll admit I've been wanting waffles. I figured out a good pancake recipe, but waffles, oh waffles! The crunch of the waffle, and the softness of it's innards. The delightful nooks and crannies, just perfect for holding my butter and syrup. The texture and taste and warmth of that first bite. Mmmm... Yes, I enjoy my breakfast. Waffles, with some scrambled eggs and bacon, yummy! But alas, for I could not find a waffle recipe that I could have.

Until now.

Baby, oh baby, these are good! Everything that TBG and I could ask for in a waffle. Texture. Crunch and softness. Flavor. And healthy! Yes, life is good and we are living very blessed lives!

I made a full batch, which gave me 8 squares total. We each had 2 squares, and are saving the last 4 for tomorrow's breakfast. Yay for frozen waffles! ^_^

Never say no.

1 1/4 cup gluten free Bette Hagman mix (see below)

1/4 cup almond meal
1 tbsp flax seed meal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp coconut sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 cup almond milk
3 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Sift together the dry ingredients, and mix them up a bit.
2. Add all the wet ingredients together-minus the egg whites. Allow it to gel a bit. (flax seed will do this naturally, do not be alarmed!)
3. Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl, until the fluffy peaks form.
4. Carefully fold in the egg whites, and stir gently until fully incorporated.
5. Pour batter onto hot waffle iron and bake as normal.
6. Enjoy!

We loved these. The only difficulty? Kinda high carb and calorie-230 calories and 20 carbs each square. >_< Fortunately, they taste amazing enough for it to be worthwhile. ^_^ Pour on your favorite syrup, slather on your favorite butter, or top with your favorite fruit! Breakfast is a lovely time of day, isn't it?

** The flour mix recipe**

2 parts white rice flour
2/3 part potato starch
1/3 part tapioca starch

You can make a whole bunch of this and store in the pantry or fridge. ^_^

Leftovers and eggs and a picture of That Cat #2

I love food. And I love sharing it with others! Randomly talked to a lovely gal in the store today, discussing pumpkins and what we each do with it. Told her about my pumpkin soup recipe. Very enjoyable conversation. I just wish there was a way to share gluten free/sugar free/dairy free recipes and foods with people without them freaking out and thinking it'll taste gross. (she didn't, by the way, but most people I mention such things to suddenly look very skeptical and find a way to change the conversational direction very quickly)

JUST BECAUSE YOU TRIED SOME NASTY, ICKY, STORE BOUGHT GLUTEN FREE "FOOD" ITEM IN THE PAST, DOES NOT MEAN ALL GLUTEN FREE IS ICKY!!!

If only people would believe that..I've been having fun with the church food social experiment. Post a sign next to a food. If that sign says "gluten free", next to no one will touch it. Remove sign. Food will be gone in 3 minutes or less.

*sighs*

Anyways, that's not at all what I'm going to really talk about tonight. Well, to be honest, I'm not really talking about much of anything tonight! Just felt like posting yesterday's breakfast and dinner pictures. ^_^ Oh! Did I mention yet? I am now a Pampered Chef consultant! So I just got my HUGE box full of kitchen supplies and goodies, and I've been directed to use them in the kitchen, so when I go out to work my PC shows, I can talk about what I've made with the items. I seriously think I got the better end of THAT bargain! I am hoping to find people with specific food allergies and work with them, but we'll see how well that comes along..

Sephiroth liked the box all my Pampered Chef paperwork came in...
that's the only reason that box is still on our loveseat at this moment in time.
Because he looks too darn cute for us to take the box away!

 So we still have a bit of that pumpkin soup leftover-oh shucks, more yummy soup to eat!-and so I've been looking for ways to still serve the soup, but have more than just soup.

This time I decided to make pork chops on the side and add a salad. The pork chops were an experiment, and they turned out good-but next time they'll turn out amazing. This time I used pumpkin seeds for the breading, and next time I'll use pecans. (for the record, when I say use them, I am somehow implying that they have been pulverized to death in the food processor first. Just in case that somehow didn't carry through...) We liked the pumpkin seeds, but sometimes they were too crunchy-ish. I've done pecans before, and those are just...amazing...brilliant...a soothing blend of awesomeness in the mouth...yeah..try it.

Either way, dinner was good! We greatly enjoyed our leftover soup-for the second night in a row. As long as I keep it somewhat changed, we're both happy. ^_^

Pumpkin seed breading. I do wish I had a more powerful
food processor. Guess what's on this year's wish list?...

The pork chops originally had bones in them. But I cut away the
bones and trimmed the fat off. I tossed the fat, but kept the bones,
I hope to make some stock later next week, and those will be useful.

Flipped! I love searing foods-the only problem is
when I'm not paying attention, and I grab the oil
that has a high smoke factor.. >_>

Finished product!

This has to be one of my best food pictures yet. I must say.

But I also love this picture. So I'm not entirely sure which I like best...

Maybe someday I'll take a photography class, and get a really spiffy camera and take really cool shots of my food. And maybe someday I'll actually figure out good lighting for taking pictures of my food. Until then, I'll just live for the rare moments where the picture turns out as good as those!

 Ever have a horrible case of the munchies? That's now. And I'm already at my carb limit for the day. >_> Meh, whatever. Oh, sweet potato chips, how I love thee! ^_^

Just a close up of yesterday's breakfast. I made a smaller version of
Sunday's egg casserole dish, and then added in mini zuccini
muffins on the side. Soo good!

Imagine if we were allowed dairy? And then I could add cheese?...

OOoohhh...