My Kind of Fast Food

While getting some salad and carrot chips last week, I noticed these “butter blends” - bags of fresh veggies with a scoop of butter. I was starving by this point in my shopping excursion, and indescribably tired. So, of course, I bought a bag. I think I made a pretty good choice.

I got red potatoes. You stick the whole bag in the microwave for 5 minutes and out comes steamed potatoes - already buttered. Now, generally, I don’t like being bothered by butter, but I didn’t shake the bag before opening it, so mostly the butter stayed on the bottom. I sprinkled some rosemary and garlic seasoning on them, and Carter and I had a pretty good lunch.

My bag leaked a bit, so I had to clean some butter up from the microwave tray. I don’t know if that was an isolated incident or not. But next time, I’ll stick the bag on a plate, just to be safe.

No washing or scrubbing, I had fresh potatoes, and all I had to clean up was 2 forks and the microwave tray (we used paper plates, lol). Not bad, and pretty healthy.

Teff Wraps - La Tortilla Factory

We had soft tacos for dinner tonight, and for the first time in 4 years, did not have corn tortillas!

These tortillas worked really well for soft tacos. They had a good flavor, and held together really well (and our meat was pretty juicy - lots of taco seasoning tonight). At least mine did - Braden was taking all sorts of funky bites out of his because his taco was too big for his mouth.

They are a bit too big for children, because they are burrito sized tortillas. Carter had half of one, but promptly destroyed it anyways (though he did eat it all and all the insides, too).

I am really grateful to have finally found them. I have been looking since they came out, and asked every grocery store around to carry them. They finally showed up at the salvage health food store I go to.

You can’t really see it, but these are actually made by La Tortilla Factory. They also have teff wraps under their Smart & Delicious label, both dark and ivory teff.

I will definitely be buying these again (as long as I can find them). I have 2 & 1/2 packages in my freezer right now, and may go get some more before my store runs out of them.

Oh, very important, by the way, these are certified gluten-free by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO) run by GIG (Gluten Intolerance Group). This process involves lots of testing. Cynthia Kupper (national director of GIG) said that they even swabbed the air vents to check for gluten in the La Tortilla Factory - those people do a fantastic job at cleaning.

If you get a chance to try them, I would definitely recommend it.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

Remember that 4 pound bag of Pamela’s Pancake and Baking Mix I brought home the other day? (I know Ginger remembers, lol.) I basically gave that bag to Andy, telling him he could make just about any recipe with it and using it as the flour. “Just this? Nothing else?” Yes, just that.

(I did tell him that he was required to give me the recipe, and take pictures of his baked goods, for my blog, lol.)

Tonight he experimented with a recipe from the back of the Argo Corn Starch box. They were thoroughly enjoyed (I enjoyed all 2 bites of mine, lol).

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups Pamela’s GF pancake and baking mix
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1 tablespoon sugar

Beat butter, brown sugar and vanilla thoroughly using an electric mixer. Gradually blend in flour and corn starch. Add chocolate chips.
Form into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased baking sheets. Pour sugar on a small plate; dip bottom of drinking glass in sugar and gently press down on each cookie to flatten. Press center of each cookie with tip of a teaspoon.
Bake in a preheated 300°F oven for 25 to 40 minutes, or until bottoms begin to brown.
Cool for 5 minutes; remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Rice Chex and Recipes

I know everyone else has already written about it, but I was waiting until I could actually purchase a box.

Well, finally, they were available to me (they’ve had the old, non-gf boxes on the shelf, driving me crazy). I got a box today (I only got one because I still have some Crunch ‘Ems hanging around).

I’m excited, because it’s a mainstream company that has taken notice of us (and I hope they will continue to produce more gf cereals). Andy’s excited (or at least I will pretend he is) because it’s something from the evil cereal aisle (though we buy Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles). Braden’s excited because they have box tops (box tops for education). Carter’s excited because I let him carry them into the house.

So we’re all excited. And all of us Celiacs are going to buy lots of these so GM will take notice, right?

Yeah, but what do you do with a whole bunch of Rice Chex? Oh, so many possibilities.

The obvious: eat them. Eat them plain, eat them with milk. My new favorite way is to add cut-up dried apples or pears, sprinkle a little cinnamon sugar, and add just a touch of honey, and have that as my morning bowl of cereal. (Okay, you ask, how do I have a favorite way if I just bought them? - well, I was using the Crunch ‘Ems like this.)

But oh, the recipes. Chex actually has a gluten-free page of recipes now. Currently, there are only 8 recipes on there. But I did some digging on the Betty Crocker website and found a whole bunch more. I posted them over at the Delphi Celiac group, here. There are more than just the “mix” type recipes - there is even a chicken pot pie recipe and a green bean casserole recipe (I think I may just make the topping, lol).

Rice Chex would make a good crumb crust, too. Just crush the cereal, add a little sugar (if you want a sweet crust), and melted butter, and press it in. You would probably bake it for about 7 to 10 minutes at 350° (just guessing - I haven’t done it yet).

So enjoy, and spread the joy. What is your favorite way to eat gluten-free Rice Chex?

‘Cause You’re Special! Muffins

Because - you are special.

And because I’m special too (that’s why my daddy bought me 8 bags of Trader Joe’s gf granola when he went to Albuquerque).

I’ve had this mix sitting around in my pantry for a little while - something I won from a raffle probably (gotta love those raffles). It called to me today, crying out to be made. I was happy to oblige.

It’s a really easy mix - just add milk, butter, and a little oil, and beat it (I used my $5 hand mixer). I folded in some frozen blueberries (because I love blueberry muffins). The batter is a bit sticky to get into the muffin cups (but probably would be easier if you weren’t using muffin liners that your child had previously flattened). The bag said it would make 9, but I got 12 with the blueberries (about a half cup).

The verdict: they were really tasty. I had 2. My dad said “these are really good” and Braden said “Mommy, you make the best muffins.” (Does it get any better than that?) They did have a little bit of a very fine grit to them, but I was feeling for it (so I could tell y’all about it).

These are very good, and I would definitely make them again.

I just wanted to share one other thing with you today. At the salvage grocery store, I scored a 4 pound bag of Pamela’s pancake and baking mix for only $4.99. I guess I will be trying that in something soon.

Chicken Paradise

Andy and I had a wonderful mini-vacation back in July (when I did not have a blog, and did not think to take pictures of food). I wanted to share it with you now. This is probably more than you wanted to know about our vacation, but I’m mostly copying and pasting it from before (as I’ve been trying to write about it for 2 weeks and haven’t gotten it done).

At the GIG Conference last June, I won a night at Chicken Paradise Bed and Breakfast in the silent auction, and I decided to surprise Andy for his 30th birthday (it was July 7th). So I had been telling him that he was not to make any appointments on the 18th and 19th, but that’s all I would say.

So Sunday night, he got a cold sore, and Monday he felt nauseous and Braden threw up. So I got really worried that we couldn’t go, but Andy started feeling better (and so did Braden, mostly). Andy worked Tuesday, and when he got home Wednesday morning (he’s a firefighter and works 24 hour shifts), my mom had already picked up Braden and Carter. I made us breakfast and sent him to take a shower and told him we would spend all day cleaning. I already had the suitcase packed and in the trunk, and had snacks in the backseat. When he got dressed, I ushered him to the car and we got going. All he knew was we were driving south. After we’d been in the car for more than an hour, he figured we were going to either Austin or San Antonio, but didn’t know where or why. We stopped in Austin at the Wildwood Art Cafe, and had pork enchiladas, which were pretty good. We also got a dingdong (okay, but not my thing), and a lemon bar (we didn’t like that).

Then we finished our drive to San Antonio, and got out at Chicken Paradise and Andy had no idea where we were. Anne showed us around and showed us our room, and she had printed off a happy birthday sign I had made, and had that on the dresser. Andy was at first weirded out by the whole bed and breakfast, this-is-somebody’s-house thing, but eventually he got over it. They just have the one private entrance room that they let out, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The chickens were fun to watch, and I couldn’t ever get the peacock to spread out his feathers, and the dog really loves to catch the frisbee.

I had originally told Andy that we weren’t going to see any movies, because it was all about spending time together and stuff, but seeing as we’d had 4 hours in the car (and we talked quite a bit), and it was raining, we went and saw Harry Potter. Then we went and had dinner at The Little Aussie Bakery (an all-gluten-free restaurant and bakery), and had some really good pizza and bread with garlic butter. We didn’t get any dessert because we had eaten a lot of junk in the car, and I was feeling so full, though I’d only had 2 pieces of my personal pizza, and a couple of breadsticks. Well, little did I know… We had a good evening, but I threw up at 11:30 - and I was worried that Andy was going to be sick (but he wasn’t). At least it was viral, and not gluten-related. I was feeling better in the morning, but not quite up to the whole breakfast.

Anne had made scones, and there was fig jam and strawberry jam, and fresh fruit. Joe made Andy a goat cheese and dill omelet and some bacon. Andy had never had goat cheese before, and thought it was a little odd, but he did eat the entire omelet, so it must have been good.

We went swimming and then took a shower in the outdoor shower. Andy was really weirded out about that, too. He swore he was going to keep his shorts on the whole time. It’s private, surrounded by a fence, with a huge tree between it and the house, and hanging over the top, and there are lots of plants all around it. It’s really pretty and peaceful. I could have stayed out there all day.

When we left, we drove straight home because it was raining. We got back to Burleson and Andy wanted to go see another movie, so we went and saw Fantastic Four and then picked up the kids. We played outside for awhile, and took some cute pictures.

Andy told me that this was the best birthday present he’s ever been given. That is the absolutely greatest thanks he could give me.

If you are ever in San Antonio, check out The Little Aussie Bakery, and make arrangements to spend the night in Chicken Paradise!

There are lots of wonderful plants at Chicken Paradise. I would love to be a really good photographer, but I’m not. But I will still share some of my favorite plant photos with you. Enjoy.

New GF Product - Yogurt

For those of you who called Dannon about their Activia yogurts, and were depressed to hear that they are not considered gf, then I may have found an alternative for you.  (At least, I think this is like that yogurt, but I can’t say that I have actually paid too much attention to the Activia.)

It’s called BeneFIT and it’s by Great Value (Wal-Mart brand) and marked gluten-free.

“Probiotic light yogurt with added fiber.”
“Benefits:
Regulates Digestive Health
Beneficial Bacteria
Contains Active Cultures
Tastes Great”

They come in a 4-pack of 4-ounce yogurts, in at least 4 different flavors (I got Raspberry and Blueberry).  There is 3g (11% daily value) of dietary fiber in each one.

We Have A Wiener

Have you ever made a silly mistake in the kitchen, that while not disastrous, could cost you a lot of time?

The other night, the kids and I were preparing biscuit dough in order to make pigs in a blanket. The butter was rock solid, so I put it in the microwave to soften it a bit. Except, I didn’t. I completely melted it. Yeah, my biscuit dough looked pretty strange to me, and Braden, ever observant, told me that it didn’t look like we could wrap that around the little smokies.

So I set to work clearing a space in my fridge for my Kitchen Aid mixing bowl. Then I had a most brilliant idea. So we ran with it.

I put smallish drops of dough on the cookie sheets, and Braden came along behind placing a wiener in the dough. Then I went back and placed another smallish drop on top of the wiener, and pushed it so it touched the rest of the dough.  A tip for pigs in the blanket:  warm your piggies up a bit in the microwave (about 30 to 45 seconds for half the package).  Then dry them with a paper towel.  This helps the inside of the biscuit cook (because it doesn’t have to heat a cold wiener), and there is less fat and moisture inside the biscuit (though still plenty).

While these may not be the most aesthetically pleasing pigs in a blanket you ever saw, they were really yummy and did not cause me much stress. Truthfully, this method was actually easier than trying to get the dough around them like I usually do.

I ate way too many. Braden had 8, plus 2 plain biscuits, and I cut him off. That child can really pack the food away.

The biscuit recipe I used can be found in You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free! by Roben Ryberg.

Nature’s Delights

For those of you readers who are not still shoveling your driveways, I would like to inspire you to get outside and plant something. If you are still snow-laden, then I would like to present to you some hope.

Some of these pictures come from my own yard. Since my house is just over 2 years old, I don’t have very mature trees (not that I’m showing you the whole tree anyways). The other pictures are from my parents’ house. They have now lived there for 21 years. Mom’s garden is a bit untamed this year - she has spent a lot of time on us kids, with me being sick for 2 months, my older brother’s wife having a baby, and my little brother’s wife having her gall bladder removed. I often pull weeds when I’m over at her house, but I think just as many grow up in my absence, lol.

Ten points if you know what this is.

It’s rosemary. I’m not sure how long this bush has been there, but it’s quite the sight to see (and smell - I think Braden will take some to show and tell next week, for a little show and smell). That’s my mom with him in the picture. As you can see, the bush is pretty large.

Herbs are wonderful, aren’t they? Both mom and I really need to work on adding more fresh herbs to our food. We both have cilantro growing - mom could have supplied the whole city with as much as she’s got.

Mine has decided to grow between my raised beds and out in the yard, too. It is flowering right now.

We love to make pico de gallo with fresh cilantro (tomatoes, onions, and cilantro, all chopped up).

We both have a good supply of parsley. I have a curly-leaf variety, and mom has a flat-leaf.

In both pictures, you will see mint growing in with the parsley. That is because mint loves to move, and just grows all over the place.

I planted 6 varieties of mint - I thought I was so cool, lol. Now, I have 6 varieties of mint intermingled with each other and the parsley, and I have no idea which is which (the mints, that is). This is a newer batch of mom’s mint - it’s all the same kind right now.

Our favorite thing about the parsley in our yard is that every summer, it is covered in monarch caterpillars. They are quite fascinating to watch. But don’t touch them - they leave a foul smelling substance on your hands that takes forever to get rid of.

Chives are also a great addition to the garden. Yummy on baked potatoes!

We’ve never gotten humongous onions, but we still like to try! This one has grown pretty tall on top.

I have never liked asparagus. Perhaps, one day, one of you can treat me to a meal with asparagus that may change my mind. Mom, however, merely blows the dirt off before eating it. (Those are the weeds that I’m constantly battling, in the background. There are very tiny asparagus plants growing within the weeds, so I have to be very careful about yanking the weeds out.)

Mom has quite the forest growing, doesn’t she? If you leave the smaller asparagus to grow tall and flower, then it will grow back fatter next year.

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About 15 years ago, my brother created this trellis area for my mom’s blackberries/boysenberries. It usually makes it much easier to pick the berries. Unfortunately, mom has not had the time to work in the berries this year, and it’s a little too late to disturb them. But oh, the wonderful berries we will get! I think I’ll cover Braden in denim and send him in to pick them. Our neighbor (who recently passed away from cancer), always enjoyed mowing his lawn on Tuesdays. He would make many passes by our fence and pick the berries as he went.

I love fruit trees. We don’t always get a good harvest, but the fruit from our trees is so much better than what we can buy at the store.

Mom has peaches and pears. We used to have apple trees when I was little. Those were hit and miss. Sometimes, in Texas, we would not get a deep enough freeze in the winter to spark the apples into doing their thing. I think we lost them to a tree disease, though.

Andy and I have a peach tree…

a nectarine…

an apricot (which is not producing, and may not this year - it took a beating last year when Andy ran over it), and a fig tree. The fig hasn’t started it’s fruits yet. I hope we get to have some. Last year, the orb-weaver spiders stole all my figs, filled them with babies, and spun them up onto the fence or the windows of my second-story bedroom.

We usually plant bell peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers at Mom and Dad’s, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Some years we’ve planted peas (my favorite are sugar snap peas and snow peas), corn, squash, and melons. We don’t usually spray our plants, so we often lose a lot to bugs.

Andy and I want to create a free-growing compost pile this year (let the seeds grow in the pile). My friend, Nicole, has one. Some years she gets tomatoes and peppers, and has even gotten a cantaloupe from it. We would also like to plant berries somewhere here, with a trellis area like Mom’s. We don’t have nearly as much area to do that in as they do, but I think we can figure it out. I even have the plants to start with - I just have to dig them out of Mom’s asparagus.

Thank you for joining us in our gardens. If you would like to read more about our non-food garden (and other outdoorsy things), then you are welcome to look at my family blog. We have had fun sharing with you. I hope that this has inspired and/or warmed you. Happy Planting!

Spaghetti Sauce Chicken - Crockpot

If you will recall, I did a post about spaghetti sauce chicken a few months ago, and said I thought it would be even better in the crockpot. Well, it was. My friends just loved it tonight. This made quite a bit, so I sent some home with them.

Here is what I did.

In my oval crock pot I placed:
Diced carrots, about a cup
Dried minced onion (maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons)
2 jars light Ragu spaghetti sauce (the no added sugar kind)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 package frozen spinach (thawed)
3 lbs boneless skinless chicken

I placed the chicken on top and then pressed it into the sauce (so it was fully covered, but not on the bottom). I cooked it on low for about 5 1/2 hours (I had actually started it on high for about 30 minutes to get it going). After about 5 hours, the chicken was done and I shredded it with 2 forks (really easy). We could have eaten it then, but our friends weren’t here yet. I left it on another half hour, then turned it off and just let it sit.

We served it over rice with a side of green beans and cornbread (recipe from You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free by Roben Ryberg). This is my absolute favorite cornbread recipe. My friend Julieann, who came for dinner, said it was way better than Boston Market’s cornbread, and that was the only kind she had ever been able to eat. “This is divine.” Those were her exact words. I only have 3 small pieces left of a 9×13 pan. Her kids would have cleaned it out completely if she had let them, lol. She just has to have that recipe - she doesn’t care that she would have to buy xanthan gum to make it (xanthan gum - what’s that? she says).

I felt so good to finally make this, to finally get my crockpot out and think ahead, and to finally add all those vegetables I keep saying I’m going to add. It was a wonderful, delicious, and healthy meal, dished up with a healthy serving of great company!