Raspberry Pie

Pie. Who doesn’t like P-I-E? seriously.

So we had some festivities that seemed pie worthy, and made this pie. It was delicious.  You should totally make one. Really. It’s easy. Easy as pie. Ha.

• 3-4 C raspberries (I used thawed, previously frozen berries)
• 1 C sugar
• 1 T lemon juice
• 2 1/2 T tapioca pearls
• 6 T potato starch

Mix these together well, and pour into unbaked pie shell, that used 1/2 of the crust recipe.  found here.

Top with another crust made from the other 1/2 of the dough, and crimp edges to make it fancy.

Bake at 425 for 15minutes, then turn the oven down to 375 for another 25 minutes.

Let cool. (if you can stand it) and even refrigerate it overnight to let the filling set up.

“Yum”

Menehune-Brownies

The menehune are small persons believed to inhabit Hawaii. In Europe they call them “brownies”. Or hobbits, or gnomes. 

These are just delicious.  Gluten free, dairy free, soy free, egg free goodness, and the menehune here just love them. 

• 1/2 C potato flour
• 1/4 C brown rice flour
• 1 C sugar
• 6 T cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 C palm shortening
• 2 eggs <replaced with flax and hot water>
• 2 tsp vanilla

Stir, put in oiled 8 x 8 pan. Sprinkle 1/2 C chocolate chips on top. Bake at 350 for 25- 30 minutes.

Layered Taco Bake

Today’s Martha post of “everyday food” has a list of meatless maindishes. I am making this one, http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/best-tortilla-and-black-bean-pie?backto=true

with some modifications. Always with the modifications. Oh well. At least I still get to eat and be sort of creative in the kitchen. This sounds really good.  I added some cilantro too, because it always goes with tacos at this house. 

Taco Bake

• corn tortillas
• 1 tablespoon  oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno chile, minced (remove seeds and ribs for less heat)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 cans (15 ounces each) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 12 ounces stock, or 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen corn(optional)
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
•  1 handfull of chopped cilantro
• 2 1/2 cups (8 ounces) shredded mozzerella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If the tortillas are too large, use a paring knife, to trim tortillas to fit a 9-inch springform pan, using the bottom of the pan as a guide. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion, jalapeno, garlic, and cumin; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Add beans and stock (or water) to skillet, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until liquid has almost evaporated, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in corn (if using), chopped cilantro and scallions, and remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Fit a trimmed tortilla in bottom of springform pan; layer with 1/4 of the beans and 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat three times, using 1 cup cheese on top layer. Bake until hot and cheese is melted, 20 to 25 minutes. Unmold pie; sprinkle with scallions and more cilantro. To serve, slice into wedges.

NOTES: add sliced zucchini, fresh spinach leaves, or other veggies in the stir-fry stage, to “beef” up the mixture.

MORE NOTES:

Okay, so here’s how it went. The corn tortillas at my market were tiny and my springform pan is huge. So I split the difference. I cut the tortillas into 1/4ths and used the rounded edge pieces to go around the outside of the layer, and used the straight tortilla strips to cover the middle, overlapping them like lasagna noodles. 

I didn’t have garlic, but will add it next time. I sauteed the onions, and added the beans, an ENTIRE package of fresh spinach leaves and 2 smallish zuchinis sliced and diced to the stirfry mix. I LIKE THIS RECIPE a whole lot.

Butterscotch Rice

This is from a recipe card from grandma’s recipe box. Sounds fabulous. It is gluten free, but clearly not dairy free.

Butterscotch Rice- original recipe circa 1955

• 1 1/2 C scalded milk
• 1/3 C rice
• 2 T butter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 C brown sugar

Put thoroughly washed rice into a double boiler and add the scalded milk. Cover and cook until rice is tender. Blend the butter, brown sugar and salt in a saucepan and heat over a slow fire until sugar is melted. Stir into hot rice and finish cooking. Pour into molds or dish. Chill and serve with plain or whipped cream.

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Butterscotch Rice – GF CF

• 1 1/2 C hemp milk
• 1/3 C rice
• 1 T palm shortening
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 C Brown Sugar

It sounds so good!

Yummy Breakfast Muffins

Muffins for breakfast, with a little bit of fruit.  Perfect.

 Oh, who am I kidding.. these are good anytime of day. Snacks on the run now covered. These freeze well too, so make a big batch. : )

• 1/2 C palm shortening
• 2 eggs – (replaced with 2 T flax meal and hot water)
• 3/4 C brown sugar
• 1/2 C brown rice flour
• 3/4 C potato starch
• 1/4 C tapioca starch
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/9 tsp nutmeg
• 1 C coconut milk/hemp milk
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
•  1 C mini chocolate chips
• Optional: 1/2 C unsweetened coconut flakes

Bake mini-muffins at 350 for about 10 minutes.

Gerbil Burgers

These are not made of gerbils. I promise.

The story is that I SAID “lentil burgers” and my friend thought I said “GERBIL BURGERS”

so… that’s what we call them now.  Humor. ha.

Gerbil Burgers

• 1 C lentils
• 1 T oil
• 2 onions, sliced
• ½ tsp white pepper
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 15 oz can chickpeas-drained
• 1 T fresh ginger-minced
• 1 egg – replace–
• 2 T chopped cilantro
• 2  C GF breadcrumbs

Cook the lentils.

Cook the onions in the oil, add the spice mix, and let cool.

Stir ½ of the cooked lentils, ginger, “egg” and onion mixture in food processor until smooth. Stir in remaining lentils, parsley, cilantro and breadcrumbs. Divide into 10 portions. Shape into patties. Toss them in potato starch.

Cook on BBQ 3 minutes on each side until browned. Or pan fry.

Veggie Pancakes

Pancakes for supper. Appetizers, lunch, whatever.  Serve with sweet chili sauce to dip them in. Ketchup works, so does ranch dressing. I would bet that hummus or salsa would be fab as well, but I haven’t tried that yet.

Veggie pancakes

• 1/4 C potato starch
• 1/4 rice flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 C water
• 2 eggs (ground flax meal +HOT water)
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 C veggies (I used minced green beans, shredded zucchini, minced cabbage, minced onion)

Mix batter, add veggies, pour into pan, cook them up like pancakes.

We liked them in any sort of dip we could think of.  They will be in our bento boxes this summer for sure.

Marshmallow Peeps

My PEEPS!

They are not only gluten-free, but they are also soy and egg-free.  Be still my heart.

I heart PEEPS.  Is it any wonder that candy that does not make me sick is surprisingly a fav? really??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peeps

 I hoarded the Halloween ghost PEEPS, until the Christmas PEEPS were out. But I have now gone completely through my stash of Christmas PEEPS and am looking forward to all the Easter PEEP-y goodness that is bound to hit stores shelves any darn second. It’s only six weeks until Easter… they should have it out soon.

PEEPS!

Emergency Food Plan

This is my personal soapbox. Feel free to ignore me, but ….Do you have an emergency food plan?  And is it GF?

Tornado season is starting here, but you may have other natural disasters in your neck of the woods that should make you think. Earthquake boxes are popular on the West Coast.  Hurricane evacuation box for the East Coast? Ice Storm box? Some parts of Kentucky are STILL without power after 3 weeks.  

…. and what do you have stocked away for that kind of mess?  What can you put aside to keep you gluten-free, and actually FED for five days, or longer without having to resort to eating wheat. (bleah)

Help doesn’t always arrive, and when “help” comes, will it be gluten free? Probably not. They will think they are “helping you” with a nice piece of wheat toast. No thanks.  I am going to double the size of my box this year. Maybe triple it. I am adding beans and rice though, that weren’t in it before, that will help.

I am approaching this plan with “camping” in mind. Think long term camping, with no backup grocery store to run to. Think of things that are easy to fix. Take no preparation or at a minimum some boiled water, in one pan. (**Note to self: put matches in the box.**) I can always start a fire and get out the tent if I need to .. well… if it’s still here after the tornado rips through the neighborhood, anyway.

The planning sheet is starting point. Yours will completely vary from mine, because you don’t have other restrictions beyond gluten-free. I have to consider about 40 other things on the “no – no” list, like eggs, and soy and whatever. You can add canned soup, and whatever if you want to. I don’t eat it on a regular basis, so why would it be in my care kit? GF soup cubes, sure.

If you have small kids, pack a change of clothes, a toy and pacifer if you need a backup.  I would so much rather have two than none. Consolidate your kit in a carry bag in the hall closet, or box, or boxes, that are small enough that you can throw them in the car and leave in about 3 minutes. GO! Where’s your flashlight?

Emergency Food Box Plan = food for four+ days. ……… Planning Page

Fruit:                    

Dried Blueberries   -  Canned Pears   -  Golden raisins   -  Berry jam

Vegetables:

Baked beans  -  Green beans  -  White beans   -  Kidney beans

Pasta sauce:

Meat:

Starkist Albacore tuna  -  Chicken-water only

Liquids:

Rice milk   - Juice boxes -  Bottled water  -  Coconut milk  - Coffee/tea   -  Lemonade powder

Misc:

Chocolate bar   -  Gummi Bears – hard candy   -  GF soup cubes

Cream of rice cereal  - Rice crackers   -  Sunflower seeds  -  Shredded coconut  - 

Freeze dried foods  - Dried rice   -  beans  -  lentils  -  noodles  - 

medicine  -  vitamins

Other things to think about:

Flashlight + batteries  -  Radio + batteries

Can opener  -  Bottle opener

 Duct tape   - plastic tarp

 Gas stove + fuel 

Cooking pot  - Stirring spoons  - Table cover  - Paper plates

Paper bowls  - Paper towels  - Toilet paper  - Garbage bags  - 

Knives  - Forks  - Spoons

Salt/pepper  - Spices  - Dried cilantro  - Cooking Oil if needed

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Emergencies are just that. Emergencies. Be prepared.

Chocolate Pretzel Snack Treats

I have sunk to new lows in making “cookies” but I have to admit, they are cute. So we will just call them chocolate pretzel snack TREATS, and it will all be fine.

• Melted Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (gluten free, dairy free, soy free)
• Glutino Pretzel Twists (gluten free) – (but not corn or soy free by any stretch of the imagination.)
• Sprinkles (gluten free sprinkles found at Whole Foods)

Melt the chocolate chips. Dip the pretzels in the chocolate and remove with a fork to a waxed paper lined plate. Put some sprinkles across the top of each one.

Place the “cookies” in the freezer to harden.

Sadly, it’s that easy. And I can’t have any because of the soy … but the kids like them. : )

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