Zucchini Carrot Muffins

So I have taken on a new challenge...

I am trying to avoid added sugar in my daily food choices, I have become inspired to look for more recipes and work on the ones I had been playing with to remove added sugar. Here is my first successful attempt!!

1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup white rice flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon xanthum gum
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon all spice
1/3 cup carrots

1/3 cup zucchini

In a large bowl, beat together the applesauce, egg, oil. 

Stir in the dry ingredients; stirring just to moisten. 

Stir in the carrots and zucchini and divide the batter among 12 muffin cups. 

Bake at 375F for 20 minutes. Makes 12 servings.

Optional: try baking raisins or regular raisins in addition to the carrots and zucchini. Add more cinnamon or pie spice as desired.

Mushroom Ragu

Ok, first of I NEED to explain what a Ragu is NOT that crap they sell is a bottle that I wouldn't feed the a stray dog, its means a hearty sauce (again what the stuff at the grocery store called Ragu is not ;) Sorry about my hate for that stuff but Italians really dont do canned sauces, its a huge sin. Dont believe me try bringing a bottle into my moms house = pure chaos ;)

Ok to the good stuff, this is hearty sauce that can be served over chicken, pork, pasta or almost anything but can be a bit much for seafood.

4-8 Crimini Mushrooms sliced (white caps not great, tend to get too mushy) how many depends on size and how shroomy you want it..
1 Garlic clove, minced
1 Shallot, diced
1 Roma tomato, diced or pureed
2 Cups of Broth of choice (match broth w/ dish, like chicken dish-> chicken broth)
1/2 Cup of Wine of choice (match as above)
1.5 Tsp of Thyme (fresh always better)
4-5 Asparagus Spears, cut into 1 inch pieces
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cornstarch slurry to thicken to desired consistency which will be different as the uses as this sauce can be used for many different types of dishes- best thickener for GF cooking-ask if not familiar with and will do a post on it.


-Saute garlic and shallot over medium heat in saute pan, cook until garlic is lightly browned
-Add mushrooms, cook for 3 minutes or until darker in color
-add wine, cool for 4 minutes
-add broth, tomatoes, salt/pepper
-cook for 20 minutes at a good simmer
-add Asparagus and Thyme, cook 5 minutes
- add slurry but removed from heat when adding , then stir then put back on heat
-Cook for 3-5 min at light simmer
-Serve over desired dish

Tonight I made with chicken over pasta, when I added the Asparagus I added diced cooked chicken breast. Sorry about the photo, camera is acting up

Gluten/Soy Free Stir Fry Sauce

After wanting to make some stir fry and not using Soy (I wont bore you on why I dont..) made it hard but after some hard thinking and chatting with some other culinary studs I came up with this version, which is very good:

Sauce:

2 cups beef broth (Organic is best, doesnt have a lot of added stuff and wont end up too salty)
1 tsp. molasses
1 tsp. diced ginger
2 tsp. cider vinegar
2 bay leaves
1 T diced shallot

Put all in saucepan, boil lightly (uncovered) until reduced to 1/2-1/3 of a cup.
-Strain it and use as needed but add dash of pepper, onion powder and garlic powder before using.

Worked great in a stir fry and would be a perfect marinade as well.

If anyone ever has any recipes they would like me to work on or anything at all just ask away! I love to experiment

Enjoy!

BBQ Pork Tenderlion w/ Pineapple

BBQ Sauce:

1.25 C of Whole Peeled tomatoes --pureed til no more chunks
2/3 T Cumin
1 T Apple Cider Vinegar
1 medium sized Shallot , diced (can use yellow onion but 85% of the time I will use shallots, MUCH better flavor than standard onion)
1 clove of Garlic , chopped, not pressed ;) that thing is evil..
1/3 C Brown Sugar
1 tea Granulated Garlic

optional: 1 tea of mustard powder-> adds nice little flava

-Heat small sauce pan to medium heat
-Add chopped garlic and onion, cook for 1 min
-Add rest of ingredients
-bring sauce to simmer and set there for 20-25 minutes then will be done, can cook longer if want thicker sauce.

-----------
Rest of Grub:
1 Pork tenderloin, slices into strips
1 cup of cubes of pineapple

In separate saute pan, saute the pork for 8-10 minutes at a medium heat. When fully cooked, add enough of the sauce to cover the bottom of the pan and a bit more then cook for 5 minutes (as seen in photo). Next add the pineapple, cook for 3 more minutes then its ready to grub!

Tips and Suggestions:
-Make sauce day before, just like a soup flavor is best the day after made
-Works great with fresh cubed mango's in place of pineapple
-Buy unseasoned pork tenderloin, its common to find them marinated..
-Feel free to ask any questions if recipe is unclear or anything for that matter

 

Apple (or Pear) --Nut Bread

This is a great little snack, and with the quinoa flour, it makes it grain free :)  which is even better the GF

Ingredients:
2.5 C Quinoa Flour (have used Brown rice flour and liked a lot too)
1 1/3 C of apple sauce
1/2 C of butter or olive oil
1 C of Honey
1/2 C chopped walnuts (pecans work great too)
1 apple or pear, grated
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
tsp of cinnamon
opt: 1 C of raisins
1/2 tsp of salt
3 eggs







Steps->

Pre heat oven to 350-
-Cream butter (or oil) and honey together
-Beat egg in one at a time
-Stir in apple sauce, grated apple, raisins, vanilla
-In other bowl combine all remaining dry ingredients
-Add wet mix, stir by hand until well combined
-Turn into oiled 5 x 7 loaf pan
-Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until when poked with toothpick so when comes out clean, its done!
-Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Pumpkin Bread

Here is a great one that is suiting for the Holiday season (past...):

1/2 cup of butter (or 1/4 cup of olive oil and 1/4 cup of apple sauce
1/4 cup of Agave Necter or honey
15oz Can of pumpkin (Libbys is GF)
2 eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp of cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg & clove
-optional- I like to add a pinch of ginger powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp of baking soda
2 tsp of baking powder
1.5 tsp of Xanthan Gum
1.75 cups of Brown rice flour
1/4 cup of tapioca starch
1/2 Cup of Pecans or Walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 F

Mix first 4 ingredients together separately until well blended, do same with rest in another bowl then mix the dry ingredients into the wet in 2 batches. Mix batter until well mixed. Put batter in lightly grease loaf pan.

Cook for 65-75 minutes (until lightly browned on top.)

This makes for a great after run snack or anytime for that matter since I love pumpkin!

Chicken-Prosciutto Roll ups

When trying to think up of something good to make for this past New Years Eve dinner I came up with this recipe, and we have made it 2 times since then since it was so good. After the recipe there are photos for each step up to it being plated (sans veggie..)

Sides that go well with dish:
Mushrooms sauce
Wild Mushroom/Parm Risotto
Asparagus Almondine

A few nice things about this recipe:

• easy to pack the roll up for lunch
• slices up great for a sandwich
• takes up little room in fridge
• yummy

Pre-Heat oven to 425 degrees

Serving size: 3-6 roll ups*

->3 Chicken breasts
->Slices of Prosciutto -will be dependent on how many chix breast send up with -GET IMPORTED..only way to go! If you dont eat pork, you could replace with a veggie like a roasted red pepper.
 ->Shaved Parmesan Cheese- I prefer to shave my own of a chuck of cheese since only way to get the good     stuff here is in big chucks.. Again, imported is best!
->3-6 med-large Sage Leaves (FRESH only)
->ground pepper to taste

How to whip this bad boy up:

1) Clean chicken breast to your liking

2) Next step is optional depending how comfortable you are with a knife--> so I prefer to cut the breast into 2 pieces, so that it is 1/2 as thick.

3) Slice cheese into thin sliced then, cut into cube like pieces, pick sage

4) Put down parchment paper, put chicken onto paper with an inch between each, then cover the chicken with saran wrap

5) With a meat tenderizer (like this one) and gently beat the meat with the textured side so that it becomes thinner, then remove wrap but keep we will use again.

6) Place a few small pieces of cheese in middle of the breast, place 2 leaves of sage side to side over the cheese, then place a slice of prosciutto over the chicken (in some cases you dont need entire piece of prosciutto)

7) place wrap back over and lightly beat the chicken again so the prosciutto adheres to the chicken.

8) remove the wrap and season with pepper, I dont use salt since the prosciutto is cured in turn being salty and the cheese is too.

9) gently roll it , then place it onto a ungreased baking sheet

10) bake 10-12 minutes



 
 

 

Cranberry Muffins

For those of you who do not know Matt and I, this blog is about our journey towards Gluten free living. I titled it cranberry muffins because it is one of my first successful baking trials and one of my favorite.

An introduction to the authors... Matt is a culinary guru with a degree in the culinary arts. He has always been an amazing cook but has learned how to take it a step forward into gluten free cooking which requires even more imagination. For his real job he is a student in the Special Education field and will soon be a teacher. He is an avid triathlete and loves the outdoors. I (Jessie) am newer to cooking and I like baking the most. I am really enjoying playing around with the gluten free variations to traditional recipes and finding new yummy, non store bought treats. I am an occupational therapist in the day time and love biking, swimming and anything outside!

For those of you who have tried gluten free shopping you know how expensive prepared items can be, so we have been finding ways to make wonderful food without the high cost. Our goal is to help others who are gluten free or interested in gluten free have the benefits without all of the searching!
Welcome...

Gluten Free Cranberry Muffins

Preheat: 400 degrees
Grease or line 9-12 muffin cups
Bake for 20 minutes

Mix these ingredients together in a bowl:1.5 cups brown rice flour
1/2 c. tapioca flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
3 tsp gluten free baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4c ground flax (optional)

Beat these together gently
1 large egg
3/4 almond milk (or other g-f milk)
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c brown sugar
2 tbsp applesauce
1 tsp honey
1 cup fresh cranberries (or frozen)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, then fold int he cranberries gently. (optional: Add 1/2 c nuts, 1 tsp orange zest, and/or other berries) Spoon evenly into muffin cups and bake until lightly brown on tops.