Hawaiian Haystacks

Minus the gluten filled noodles!

Three chicken breasts cooked and cubed

2/3 C creamed soup mix plus 2 1/2 C water

4 oz. cream cheese

Cooked rice

Pineapple

Green onions

Chopped olives

Grated cheddar cheese

Roma tomatoes diced

Mix creamed soup mix, water and cream cheese on stovetop. When all blended and thickened, add cooked chicken. Serve over cooked rice and add toppings.

Deviled Eggs

Summer is approaching and these are a favorite side dish for a picnic or a barbeque.

This is another recipe where I don't really measure, it's more about looks, taste and consistency.

Today I used:
12 hard boiled eggs shelled, cut in half and the yolks removed into separate bowl.
1 tsp vinegar
1/3 C mayonnaise - approximately
1 1/2 tsp prepared mustard
Dash of onion powder

Mix yolks and all the other ingredients until you have reached your desired consistency (peanut butter) and spoon back into egg white halves. Sprinkle with paprika. Refrigerate until served.

Black Bean Tostada's

This isn't anything new, just a variations of the usual at our house. My girls have really taken a liking to black beans. I like to prepare mine in the crock pot with garlic and onions. (follow directions on package of beans for amounts to be cooked). After they have cooked all day, then I drain the juices into a separate bowl which will be added as needed to make the consistency desired. Mash or beat beans and add salt to desired flavor. It worked well for me to blend mine in the blender. Top tostada's with your family's favorite toppings.

Race Track Cake

Braden's Birthday Cake...

I used the chocolate cake recipe and doubled it to get two round cakes. For the track, I used crushed up Oreos. I frosted the cake with Duncan Hines Cream Cheese flavored frosting.

Red Robin, Red Robin!

One of our favorite family places to go out to eat was Red Robin. Well, having Celiac puts an extreme limit on your eating out choices, almost makes it none. We have baked french fries in the oven quite a few times, but it's just not the same. So we pulled out the good old fry daddy and fried up some crinkle cut french fries and then sprinkled them with our homemade Red Robin seasoning which I found the recipe for online. They were so yummy. I did not have the dry tomato soup mix the recipe calls for, but it still had great flavor. We will definitely be doing this one again!

Red Robin French Fry Seasoning

3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon instant tomato soup mix (Knorr tomato with basil works nicely)
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients in a shaker of some sort (I used our salt shaker)

Happy St. Patty's Day

Just made up a few treats for the kiddos school class for St. Patrick's Day.

Click here for the Cookie recipe.

Click here for the cupcake recipe. (I just added green food coloring for this specific holiday)

Cinnamon Popcorn

Just another way to jazz up a bowl of popcorn!

This recipe came from my friend Erin...thanks for sharing.

8 C popped popcorn
5 oz. Dried cranberries or raisins (optional)
1/3 C butter
1/3 C Honey
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Melt butter in sauce pan. Add honey and cinnamon until all blended together. Pour over Popcorn and raisins. Spread out on a greased baking sheet or in a roasting pan and bake at 325 degrees for fifteen minutes, stirring every five minutes so it does not burn. Let cool and enjoy!

Teriyaki Chicken

I really liked this recipe. I thought it had great flavor.

4-5 chicken breasts cubed
1 1 /2 Cwater
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground ginger
4 TB honey
1/2 C GF soy sauce
1/2 C brown sugar
1 20 oz. can pineapple tidbits plus the juices
Cornstarch for thickening

Place chicken and pineapple in the crockpot. Cook on low for about 7-8 hours. Right before ready to serve, on stovetop bring to a boil the remaining ingredients including the pineapple juice. Cook until desired thickness. Add to chicken and pineapple. Serve over rice.

Cinnamon Sticky Buns

Cinnamon Rolls have always been a Christmas tradition for us. It was hard not having them this past year. I have had this recipe laying around since the holidays and been putting off making it. I usually find it very discouraging to replace one of our favorite 'bread' recipes for a GF version. I decided there was only one way to find out if we were going to like these new cinnamon rolls....I had to dive in and make them. They definitely don't replace our old favorites, but they do taste good. I made mine in a pan with 12 mini bundt molds.
This is what they look like right out of the oven.

This is what they looked like after I turned them over and drizzled them with cream cheese frosting.

This recipe comes from The Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread, Cinnamon Pecan Sticky Buns. I made the cinnamon version. Also, instead of buying Almond meal (because it is very expensive), I just bought a small bag of slivered almonds and blended them in my food processer.

Cinnamon Sticky Buns

Topping
Margarine or butter melted ¼ C
Brown sugar ¼ C
Cinnamon 1 tsp
Pecans, chopped ½ C

Dry Ingredients
Featherlite flour 2 C
Xanthun gum 1 ¼ tsp
Salt ½ tsp
Unflavored gelatin 1 tsp
Sugar 1/3 C
Almond meal or nut quick 3 TB
Dry yeast granules 2 ¼ tsp

Wet Ingredients
Potato pearls of flakes 2 tsp
Warm water 1 C
Margarine or butter, melted 1/3 C
Dough enhancer or vinegar ½ tsp
Honey 2 tsp
Eggs 3

Prepare your tins by dividing the butter into the cups and adding brown sugar blended with the cinnamon. Sprinkle on the nuts and set aside.
In mixing bowl, place the dry ingredients and blend with mixing whisks. Blend the potato pearls with the water. Add to the dry ingredients with the butter, vinegar and honey. Blend together. Break in the eggs and beat on high for 2 ½ minutes. Divide the dough into the prepared tins. Let rise for a bout 25-35 minutes or until almost doubled. Bake at 375° in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Turn out from the tins while still warm. Serve either warm or cold.

**Cinnamon Rolls: Omit the pecans and add 1 tsp more cinnamon to the topping ingredients. Drizzle slightly melted cream cheese frosting over the top while still warm.

Spanish Style Chicken and Rice Soup

I love this soup for two reason's...it has a ton of flavor and has a great variety of color. I saw this on Rachel Ray a few years back. I replaced the noodles for rice and it works out well. It can be made on the stovetop or the crockpot. I prefere the crockpot because I can start it in the morning and forget about dinner until it's time to serve it.


Ingredients

• 3 celery ribs, chopped
• 2 medium-size carrots, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 to 2 tablespoons (about a palmful) chili powder
• 1 bay leaf, use fresh if available
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 quarts (6 cups) chicken stock ( 6 C water, 6 tsp GF chicken bullion)
• 1/2 C uncooked rice, lightly browned in olive oil **
• 2-3 chicken breasts cooked and cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes
• 1 cup corn, frozen or fresh
• 1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed

• For garnish:
• 1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
• A couple of handfuls of blue or red corn tortilla chips
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• We only garnished with grated Colby Jack cheese and dipped tortilla chips in it.

Preparation
I add everything to the crockpot but the rice and corn. Cook on low for 6 hours on low. Add rice and corn the last hour of cooking.

** FYI
The reason I browned my rice in olive oil first, is so that when I add it too the soup, it does not keep absorbing the juices.

Barbeque Chicken Pizza

It's Friday night, so that means pizza! This is a yummy change from the traditional pepperoni.

Click here for pizza dough recipe.

3-4 Cooked and cubed chicken tenders

Barbeque Sauce ( I used Masterpiece Original)

Monzarella cheese

Olives

Sliced green onions

Fresh diced Roma tomatoes (place on after pizza has cooked)

After you have moslty cooked the pizza dough, remove from oven and spread thin layer of barbeque sauce on crust. Add cheese and toppings. Place back in oven to finish cooking, long enough to melt the cheese. Add tomatoes, slice and serve!

Granola Cookies

This is a recipe that my daughter's teacher found. They have cooking committee every week (which has not been the funnest thing for me!) She asked me to try them and see how they turned out. So we did. Besides cooking them longer than I would have liked, they tasted pretty good. I only made a fourth of the recipe listed so I wouldn't waste the ingredients in case it did not turn out. I also added chocolate chips.

1 C butter
2 C brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 C GF oats
1 C chocolate chips (Optional)

In sauce pan, melt the butter and brown sugar. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into a sprayed baking dish (13 x 9 x 2) and bake at 350 degress for 20-25 minutes. (I did 25 and it was too much). Cut into small squares or bars. Makes about 4 dozen

Homemade Applesauce

So my brother bought us a rice cooker and I think it is my new best friend. Besides making the best rice it can steam vegetables and cook other dishes in it. I had a bowl full of apples on the verge of not being eatable, so I thought I would try to make some applesauce. Oh, my, yummy! It put the boughten stuff to shame. I only wish I had more apples!

How I made it:

4-5 apples cut, peeled and chopped ( I think they were Gala and Braeburn)
1 C water
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 TB sugar
1 TB brown sugar

*The amount of sugar and cinnamon is up to you and the amount of flavor you want. This was just what I tried and we really liked it.

I put 1 cup of water in the bottom of the rice cooker and then placed in the steaming tray. Cut, peel and chop the apples. Steam for 15 minutes or until tender. If you don't like chunks like myself, scoop the apple pieces into the blender and add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Can be served either hot or refridgerated until chilled. This only made about 1 1/2 cups of applesauce.