A new challenge!

Life is an adventure. God is good.

This summer has been full of unexpected expenses. My car's AC compressor blew up. (literally. Blew up. Huge metal shard and all!) That Bearded Guy's truck got broken into at work, and his window got smashed. Our oven is on death's door, as it now is losing it's temperature sensor, and will heat up. And heat up. And heat up. And cookies that were placed in there at 350 for only 3 minutes are smoking as they get hastily taken out... Our fridge is making sounds that don't encourage the heart either, and seems to be going the way of the oven. ....and our garbage disposal felt lonely, and now won't work either.

My perspective on this? God is good. We have running AC in the house. We are healthy. We have money for our weekly groceries. TBG still has a job. I'm still working Pampered Chef (albiet, not very much, anybody need to order anything???) and I'm still sewing. We can afford the roof over our heads. We can afford a new fridge with some creative budgeting. Don't need the garbage disposal-I'll just change my tactics for kitchen sink use. And as for the oven?

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

I shall survive FINE without the oven! I will find a way! We have a working stove top! We have a toaster oven! We have a microwave! And, most importantly, WE HAVE CROCK POTS!!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is my new challenge, and I will CONQUER IT!! *Bohahaha!*

How will I make cookies? Parchment paper lined on the bottom, high heat, watch to learn how long.

How will I make banana bread? Use my larger crock pot, fit the bread pan in it, bake on high for 3ish hours.

How will I make dinner? BAH! Same as always before! Toss it in and walk away!

How will I make breakfast? I will show you.

With some easy preparation, and my knowledge that I'll be getting up at 1:30 this morning to feed That Boy, breakfast was a cinch. This morning, when TBG got up for work, he had Apple-Berry Crunch for breakfast. Hot, delicious, easy. All he had to do was spoon it out of the crock pot. In a couple days, I plan we'll having banana bread. Wait for that bit of fun!

How did I make this? I prepared all my ingredients before bed, so when I woke up at 1:30, all I had to do was chop my apples, and put everything in! Easy!

Ingredients

• Filling:
• 2 apples, chopped
• 1 package mixed berries, frozen
• 1/4 C. firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 C. frozen orange juice concentrate (thawed)
• 2 Tbs. AP GF flour
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt

• Topping:
• 1 C. oats, uncooked
• 1/2 C. firmly packed brown sugar
• 5 Tbs. non-dairy butter, melted
• 2 Tbs. AP GF flour

Path to Yum

Spray crock pot with cooking spray. For filling, mix all together. (I mixed all but the apples and berries, and added those in the wee hours of the morning) Once mixed, add to crock pot. Mix topping, sprinkle over berry mixture. Turn crock pot on to low, walk away for at least 2 hours. Return to eat some yum.

Super easy. Delicious!

Still debating on what I'll make for dinner. It'll either be BBQ chicken, slow cooked and then shredded for sandwiches, or it'll be salsa chicken. If I do salsa chicken, I'll make it with of extra meat, and then I'll slow cook some chicken enchilada's tomorrow night. Oh decisions, decisions!

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...

A new adventure!

So, yesterday I signed it. I am now a Pampered Chef consultant. Yep, that means I get a bunch of cool, new, spiffy kitchen gadgets that I can take to your house and use to make yummy food! Yay! I admit that the business aspect is kinda intimidating. Supposed to get people to buy as much as possible? How I'm going to encourage that when I'm so frugal with my own money is a question I've yet to answer. I just hope to find people who are willing/want me to come over and cook and put on a little show for them! I'm so excited for that! And I'll be aiming for food allergies and issues like that-you know, celiac, lactose intolerant, vegan, diabetic, etc. ^_^ So if that somehow seems interesting to you, leave a comment and we can chitchat about it.

Last night I hosted a Pampered Chef ladies night, and my friend came to show her wares and make us dinner. (spicy beef and broccoli stir fry, most excellent!) She was a good sport, letting me change a few of the ingredients she was using. (Corn starch? That's a no-no here with me in the house, so I subbed that with arrowroot. And the soy sauce that's in your kitchen has wheat in it, but the soy sauce I have in my kitchen is wheat-free. And the only brand of wheat-free soy sauce that is currently out there!) So she made dinner, and me, being me, had to have something else to snack  on/call dessert. I had been debating long and hard over this, but then I had the perfect solution. Some type of baked good! (surprised? I didn't think so.) It was just narrowing it down to what kind of baked good that was the difficult part. Bring in SCV freecycle to help with that problem!

What is SCV freecycle? Well, the city we live in-Santa Clarita Valley-has a little thing going on, that if you have something in good condition, that you don't want anymore, you can post it online, and those of us who ARE interested in it, can claim dibs and pick it up. For free. This is how I recently aquired my new salad spinner. A lovely gal friend of mine knew I was wishing for one, saw it on the listing and brought it to my attention. Later that day, I was the happy owner of my own salad spinnner! Yay! Well, similar thing happened yesterday. Except, it was a listing for zuccini. Yep, for zuccini. Three zuccini, "small, medium and large". Well, small was twice as big as what you see in the store. Medium matched the length of my elbow to my wrist. And I could've used the large zuccini to kill someone! The large zuccini did not fit in my fridge, that's how big it is. (I personally would've said, three zuccini, large, huge and monsterous) But hey, three zuccini for free! I'll take em!

So I had a brilliant idea. How about, I, the girl who LOATHED zuccini bread, how about I make zuccini muffins and bread? Growing up, zuccini was alright. I like how my Mom would cook it-steam it, add a bit of salt and butter, and serve.Simple and delicious. That, I liked. Zuccini served in an unnatural way, (ie, baked goods, fried zuccini, zuccini IN foods...) that was disgusting to me. So, for me, who as of yesterday morning didn't even know if I liked zuccini bread yet, the fact that such an idea came to me and I thought it sounded good?...that says something. This food thing is really changing my perceptions and my likes/dislikes. Yeah.

I looked online, searched for a couple gluten-free recipes, and found one that looked good. Yay for Gluten Free Girl and the Chef! They have yet to fail me. ^_^ I did make a few alterations, but that's just a normal thing for me. What recipe don't I tweak to some extent?..

The ladies enjoyed the zuccini muffins. *huzzah!* And I found them overly addicting. I think I more than 10...but I stopped counting after 4...so...yeah... Thankfully, they are fairly healthy and not crazy carbs, but that's also because I made them small. Which is a very good thing, considering how many I packed away!

So here's my new favorite recipe. I think I'll be making a LOT of these this week!


60 grams teff flour
60 grams quinoa flour
60 grams brown rice flour
240 grams sweet rice flour
1 teaspoon guar gum
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
2 eggs, at room temperature, beaten
1 cup coconut sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups fresh-grated zucchini
2/3 cup (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Options- chopped pecans, carob chips, cranberries, cherries, sunflower seeds, you-want-it-you-add-it..

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Sift the flours together, and add remaining dry ingredients.
3. Combine eggs, sugar and vanilla. Add the zuccini and melted butter, and stir together gently.
4. Sprinkle the soda and salt on the mix, and incorporate. Add the flour slowly, until its fully mixed.
5. Here's your options. Make into little muffins. Or make into bread. It'll make two 9x5 loaves, or about 50 some mini muffins. Your choice. Choose, and grease the appropriate pans.
6. Here's your next choice. Straight up zuccini bread? Or something else added to it? I split my dough into four separate bowls yesterday, and made a variety. One regular batch of zuccini muffins. One batch with chopped pecans. One batch with carob chips. And one batch with chopped cranberries. All are good.
7. For bread, bake it 50-60 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 20 minutes before flipping. For mini muffins, about 20 minutes is suffient bake time. I cooled them for 10 minutes before flipping.

The recipe gave me about 55 mini muffins, and for a regular batch were 73 calories and 11 carbs. So good!

Zuccini mini-muffin with cranberries and butter-YUM!