Sunshine drop cupcakes

Example of a Meal Plan

Monday

Balsamic roasted veggies

Tuesday

salads

Wednesday

 chicken pot pie

Thursday

black bean sweet potato enchiladas

Friday

orange hoisin chicken

Saturday

hawaiian haystacks

(for this recipe I use brown rice flour instead of regular flour)

Sunday

eat with family

An informative video about Gluten Sensitivity and Celiac Disease

I subscribe to several Gluten free blogs/websites and the other day someone had posted this video. It is a bit longer but it is very informative, even for someone who has been eating GF for the past 4 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvK9KZy1xaw&feature=youtu.be&a

Enjoy!

Bamanda Bread

This is an adapted recipe my little sister made from one of the glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com banana bread recipes.

BAMANDA BREAD!!!!!

1 1/2 cups almonds (ground in vitamix, or almond flour)

1/2 cup brown rice flour or chia brown rice flour (or just plain brown rice flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons Cinnamon

¼ teaspoon of Nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon celtic salt

1 egg

1/3 cup light olive oil
2/3 cup Maple syrup

4 medium very ripe bananas or two large ones, cut up and mashed into puree

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

*I just put the almonds and the chia seeds together in the vitamix and blend until ground. Don't do it for too long though or you'll get almond chia butter. I've made this with before with an almond/brown rice flour mix, almond/chia/brown rice flour, and almond/chia flour. All have worked great. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 9 x 13" baking pan by lining it with Coconut oil 33-35  min

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Before I was GF/DF, I loved baking these cookies. I made these yesterday by modifying several ingredients and they turned out great! They were soft, moist yet had a bit of a crunch on the outside. Chocolate heaven. I'll post the recipe and some pictures later today.

Roasted fingerling potatoes

We still don't have a kitchen sink or a cooktop but we do have double ovens! I borrowed my mom's Williams Sonoma roasting book and have been roasting away all the good harvest from neighbors and the local CSA

Summer Dinners

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Sometimes you just want some "chinese" tasting food and this is a great recipe. Best of all it's GF. This is from melskitchencafe.com, as I've mentioned before, one of my favorite sites for recipes.



Chicken:

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Salt and pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

Cut boneless chicken breasts into chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Dip chicken in

cornstarch and then in egg.  Fry in a little oil until brown but not cooked through. Place in a

single layer in a baking dish. (Sometimes I just batter the chicken and let it cook at the way through if I'm feeling lazy and don't want to wait for it in the oven, then I just warm the sauce up in a small saucepan and pour, dip or drizzle over the chicken and rice)

Mix sauce ingredients (below) together and pour over chicken.

Sauce:

3/4 cup sugar

4 tablespoons ketchup

1/2 cup vinegar

1 tablespoon GF soy sauce

1 teaspoon garlic salt

Bake for one hour at 325  degrees. Turn chicken every 15 minutes so it is evenly  coated with the sauce. Serve the chicken over rice.

Coconut Butter

Coconut Butter is delicious, and ever since I tried it I knew it was going to be an expensive taste because at WF it costs $11 a jar. However, after some searching on the internet, I found that you can make your own very easily if you have a vitamix or blendtec type of blender (it may be possible in a regular blender, but I'm not sure). If you are on a GF diet I highly recommend buying one of these blenders. I know it's pricey, but very worth it. I use mine everyday, whether to grind rice, almonds, sugar, coconut, carrots or make a green smoothie. Worth every penny. Anyway, coconut butter is delicious on top of sweet potatoes, waffles, and just about anything.

To make your own buy some unsweetened dried coconut (at WF's it's about $2.39 a pound). Put enough of the dried coconut in to reach the 2 cup line on your blender, then let it mix on high for about a minute. You may need to use the temper stick, but let it blend until it's nice and smooth. Then pour it into a glass jar  and you're done! (maybe you have the same jar from the coconut butter you bought at the store, like I did) To fill up the whole jar it takes about $3.50 worth of coconut, which is much cheaper. If you eat it like I do, you'll save tons of money. My little one year old loves to eat coconut butter off a spoon and points to the jar and says "yummm!!" when he sees it.

Waffle/Pancake Recipe

This is my go to for breakfast, just about everyday. I love this recipe because it's very flexible, and most times when I make it I don't even measure precisely.

2 1/2 cups brown rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup ground golden flax (I buy the cold milled golden flax from costco)
1/2 cup orange juice (it makes it lighter but it works just as well without it)
about 2 cups of water

Mix it all up in a bowl and let sit for a few minutes (the brown rice flour and flax soak up water) and add more water if needed. You want more of thick mixture, but if you've ever made pancakes or waffles before you should have an idea of what this should be like.

Top with coconut oil, or coconut butter and enjoy with your favorite syrup.

Not your traditional Carrot Cake

This has to be one of my all time favorite dessert recipes. It has carrots, which is a bonus if you're trying to include more veggies in your diet (however, I don't think it really counts with all the sugar that goes with it, but...oh well) This has a light texture, and not that much of a carrot taste. I don't add nuts or raisins because I prefer it to be plain with a light orange coconut frosting. I'll have to take a picture next time I make it, but I figured posting the recipe was a good start. 

SUGAR Mixture:

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup olive oil

-Mix in a large bowl (it will look kind of like sand)

 

Flour mixture: In a seperate bowl, mix together

2 cups brown rice flour

1 tsp xanthum gum

2 Tablespoon Baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

 

Mix together, then add to sugar mixture

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs (at room temp)

 

Add FLOUR Mixture to SUGAR Mixture. (everything shoudl be mixed together now)

If you have carrot pulp from juicing this is preferable but shred about 1 1/2 lbs of carrots. When you add to the FLOUR and SUGAR mixture it should be about 3 cups. Mix well, add Pecans or other nut (if you like nuts in your cakes)

 

Now everything should be mixed together. Seperate into two round baking pans, coated with coconut oil, or a nonstick product. (to make it easier to get out, put parchmant paper on the bottom)

 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 min, until a toothpick put in the middle comes out clean. Let cool for about 5-10 mins. Remove from pan. Now make frosting

 

FROSTING:

1/4 cup virgin coconut oil

about 1 cup powdered sugar

 

If you'd like orange frosting, then zest one orange and add juice-- mix to desired consistancy (adding powdered sugar as needed). Or if you like plain, add about 1 tsp of cinnamon or other desired spices (such as nutmeg, cloves, ginger)

 

These also turn out well as cupcakes, mini cupcakes, mini bundt cakes, layer cake, rectangle cake...you get the idea

Why isn't there a ton of baking going on?

Because the kitchen looks like this

Lemon Bars (Dairy/Casein Free, Gluten Free)

Prior to going DF/CF, I used to make this quite a bit. I love citrus and lemon bars have always been one of my favorite desserts. 



Ingredients:

For the crust:
1 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp xanthum gum
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
8 Tbs. melted coconut oil

For the filling:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbs. brown rice flour
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest (optional)
3 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3 Tbs. rice milk

Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)
Directions:
To make the crust, preheat an oven to 350°F. Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking dish, preferably glass.


In a bowl, mix together all the crust ingredients except for the coconut oil and mix well. Add the coconut oil gradually, until you get a soft texture. I used a regular spoon to mix and push down in my pan. If you like crust on the sides, then push the dough up the side a bit.
. Bake the crust until pale golden, 20 minutes (or about 15 if you're doing convection bake). Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the crust cool completely. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

To make the filling, in a bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, flour, salt and lemon zest. Add the eggs, lemon juice and rice milk and whisk until just blended and pour the mixture over the baked crust.

Bake until the filling is set but still jiggles slightly when the dish is gently shaken, about 20 minutes, or longer if using a metal pan. Transfer the pan to the wire rack and let cool for about 30 minutes. It also tastes good warm, almost like a custard type of thing.

Enjoy!
adapted from Williams sonoma

Muddy Buddy

I had a hankering for muddy buddies, but the classic recipe calls for chocolate chips and butter. Both have dairy so I decided to make a dairy free version. Here it is...

1 box of Rice Chex
1/2 cup cacao powder
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 coconut oil
1 tsp gf vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

melt peanut butter and coconut oil until smooth, then add cacao, vanilla and mix. Pour over chex and put in a plastic bag, and pour powdered sugar over. Shake the bag until your hearts content. Enjoy.
First time I made this, the peanut butter mixture wasn't evenly coated on all the chex but, I actually liked having pieces that weren't all covered.

Granola

Wow. Let's hope I'm not as terrible at posting in the future. Let's get down to brass tacks...Granola. If you've ever made granola, and you're like me, your mind starts going wild thinking of all the combinations or things to try. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though. Here's a basic recipe that is Gluten Free and Casein Free/Dairy Free. Oats don't bother me too much, but if you're Celiac, then you should make sure you get a certified GF oat.

Granola
3 Cups Oats
3/4 Coconut oil
1/2 Ground Flax
1/2 honey
1 tsp vanilla extract or almond extract

Mix all together and bake at 325 for about 20 min, check to see if it's browned a little but don't let it get too brown. At about 20 min you can take it out and use a spatula to mix a little (it'll cook more evenly)

Note about Ingredients:

I prefer to use an extra virgin coconut oil, you can read about it's health benefits here, or just google health benefits of coconut oil. I'll post about where I buy most of my ingredients but until then, I buy mine online here (they usually have something on sale, so you can get a pretty good deal).

Fresh Start

Welcome to MOD Baking! I'll be posting recipes that I have modified for a Gluten and Casein free diet. Stay tuned, because tonight we're making granola.