Chocolate Quinoa Cake

I seriously doubted this recipe when I first came upon it.  I have struggled getting anyone in our household to eat quinoa, let alone in a cake.  It got rave reviews, so I thought what the heck!  It definitely is a process to make, not one you just whip up in an hour.  Having said that, it was a huge hit.  I even took it to a friend to be a taste tester for me.  They had no idea the ingredients, but it was loved by all who ate it.  It is a very rich cake.  One slice hits the spot!  This was a pinterest find that led me here.  I have tried a few of her other recipes and have always been happy with the results!

Chocolate Qunioa Cake

INGREDIENTS:
Cake:
2 cups cooked and cooled quinoa (see note below)
1/3 cup milk
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Frosting:
2 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1 1/4 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips ( I actually cut this down to about a 1/4 C and I use milk chocolate chips)

DIRECTIONS:
For the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease two 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper.
Combine the milk, eggs and vanilla in a blender or food processor. Process just until combined. Add the cooked quinoa and the butter. Blend well until smooth.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the contents from the blender and mix with a wooden spoon or whisk until combined.
Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and bake on a rack in the middle position for 28-30 minutes or until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Invert the cakes onto cooling racks (remove the parchment paper stuck to the bottom of the cakes).
For the frosting, place the chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Heat the whipping cream in a saucepan until it gently simmers. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips and let the mixture sit for five minutes. Whisk to combine until it is glossy and smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely chilled and cold (2-3 hours). You can speed up this process by placing the bottom of the bowl in an ice water bath and stirring until cool. When fully chilled, use an electric mixer (stand mixer or handheld) to whip the mixture to soft peaks. (This takes at least 10-15 minutes to get thick and stiff)
Place one cake layer upside down on a serving platter or plate. Top with a generous portion (about half) of the whipped frosting, spreading to within 1/2-inch of the edge of the cake (it will press to the edge when the top cake layer is put on).
Gently put the other cake layer upside down on top of the frosted layer. Spread the remaining frosting over the top of the cake. You could definitely frost the sides, too, but I like the more rustic look for this cake - frosting just the middle and top.
Chill the frosted cake in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving to let the frosting set up a bit.

You'll need about 3/4 cup  dry quinoa for 2 cups cooked. Make sure to measure the quinoa for the cake recipe after it is cooked and cooled. Also, make sure to THOROUGHLY rinse the quinoa and cook the quinoa in water not broth.

Sugar Cookie Squares

Who doesn't love a soft sugar cookie?  I have not found pleasure in trying to 'roll' out sugar cookie dough since going GF, so this is something I put on the back burner.  Then one day, I saw a pin on pinterest called 'Sugar Cookie Bars'.  You just spread the dough out onto a cookie sheet and bake the whole thing at once and then frost, cut and serve!  Well, duh, why didn't I think of that?!  I pulled out my old favorite recipe from back in the day and viola, we have yummy sugar cookies....all shaped like squares!  It was a good day.  The first time I made it using the full recipe and the cookies were like cake thickness.  A bit much for me, so the second time, I halved the recipe and they were much thinner (as pictured below).  So pick what suits your fancy and enjoy!

 Sugar Cookie Squares

½ cup shortening or butter

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla

½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 ½ tsp xanthan gum

3 cups GF flour

Cream together shortening, sugar and eggs.  Add remaining ingredients.  Spread dough out onto greased cookie sheet. (One with sides)  Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes; until light golden brown on top.

Frost with your favorite frosting.  I use Betty Crocker Cream Cheese flavored frosting.

S'mores Pizza Dessert

 I was asked to take dinner into a family tonight.  With all that was going on, it was just easier for me to stop at Papa Murphey's Take-n-Bake and grab them dinner.  I saw that they had a s'mores dessert pizza and I thought to myself, "Wow, that looks amazingly delicious!"  I think I could totally make that GF!  When I got home, I googled s'mores pizza and found several recipes.  I chose one that looked good and ran with it!  It was seriously a hit with my family and the guests we were feeding at our home tonight!  The only thing I would have changed is maybe drizzling a little bit of chocolate syrup over the pizza.  All in all, we will be making this again!  The recipe I went with came from here.

If you only want to make the dessert pizza, then 1/2 a pizza dough recipe would make just that.  Lately we have been doubling the dough recipe  and making two large dinner pizza's with enough dough left over to make a dessert pizza.

S’mores Pizza Dessert

Ingredients:

½ GF Pizza dough recipe (this will make a medium/large size dessert pizza)

1/3 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup GF Rolled Oats

2 tablespoons Softened Butter

1/4 cup GF Flour

Mini Marshmallows

Semi-sweet chocolate chips (we like and use milk chocolate!)

Directions:

Prepare crust as you normally would. Spread the dough out on a pizza stone.  In a medium sized bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, and butter with a fork until you have corn meal consistency.  Mix in the rolled oats.  Sprinkle this mixture across your pizza crust liberally. Add chocolate chips onto crust.  Bake pizza crust as directed.

Bake Pizza at 420 degrees for about 12-15 minutes, then add marshmallows and finish cooking for 5-7 minutes.  Remove from oven, slice and serve. 

***Next time I would totally drizzle chocolate syrup over mine before serving.

Bacon Ranch Potatoes

This is a new twist on funeral potatoes or potato casserole.  I wasn't sure the hubs was going to like it because he is not much of a ranch fan, but to my surprise he quite liked them as did I.  They were super easy to throw together. This made enough to feed our family of six with one serving of leftovers. I found the recipe on pinterest, but when I went back to link to it, the site wouldn't work.  I modified it quite a bit from the original and it worked out well for our family.  Just a side note, our family's new favorite vegetable...edamame beans!

Bacon Ranch Potatoes

2 C sour cream

2 C cheddar cheese, shredded

7-9 strips bacon cut and cooked (I use turkey bacon)

3 TBS dry Ranch powder

4-5 C frozen shredded hash browns

Combine first 4 ingredients, mix in hash browns. Spread into a sprayed 9x13 pan. Bake covered at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes. 

Chocolate Dipped Banana Popsicle

My sister brought me some Popsicle molds from Ikea when she came to visit, so we did a search for something yummy to make in them.  I am a huge fan of the hand dipped bars at Costco and this was a close second, only difference is the hint of banana flavor.  When dipping the Popsicle in the magic shell, you have to be very quick and you can't double dip it or all the chocolate comes off. 

The recipe came from pinterest.

Chocolate Dipped Banana Popsicles

Ingredients

2 medium sized bananas

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup milk

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Popsicle Mold

Magic Shell

1/2 cup unsalted chopped peanuts

Instructions

Put bananas, heavy cream, milk, sugar and vanilla in the blender and blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Pour into your popsicle mold and place in freezer.

Once frozen, remove from mold and dip into the chocolate Magic Shell, then quickly sprinkle with chopped nuts. Enjoy right away, or place in plastic bags and store in freezer until ready to enjoy.

Magic Shell

The kids and I REALLY enjoyed this on our banana Popsicle we made this summer!  Super easy.

I found the recipe here.

Magic Shell Chocolate

Ingredients

1/2 cup Coconut Oil

12 oz. Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Instructions

In a sauce pan on the stovetop, combine the coconut oil and chocolate chips.

Melt together on low until well blended

Drizzle over ice cream and let sit for 30-45 seconds to harden.  Enjoy!!

Store in an air tight container at ROOM TEMPERATURE. (The Magic Shell may harden slightly, but just microwave for a few seconds till it is liquid again.)

Tator Tot Enchilada Bake

I love just about any meal with a tator tot involved!  The recipe comes from here.  To be honest, leftovers were even better than the first night I served this up!

Tator Tot Enchilada Bake

1 lb ground beef

1 small onion diced

1 clove garlic minced

1 can black olives sliced

1 oz. taco seasoning

16 oz. corn

4 oz. green chilies; drained and diced

12 oz. black beans; drained and rinsed

16 oz. mexican cheese  shredded

16 oz. tator tots

10.5 oz. GF enchilada sauce

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9×13 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Heat a skillet to medium high heat. Add ground beef, garlic, and onion and cook while breaking the meat apart with a spoon or spatula until the ground beef is completely browned. Drain off any excess fat. Add taco seasoning mix, green chilies, frozen corn, and black beans to the ground beef. Cook until heated through.

In a large bowl combine ground beef mixture, ¾ of the Mexican cheese blend, and all of the tater tots. Stir well to combine.

Pour about 1/3 of the enchilada sauce into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Add the tater tot mixture to the baking dish and lightly pat the mixture down into a solid, even layer. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the tater tots.

Place into the oven and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. During the last few minutes of baking, top the casserole with the remaining Mexican cheese blend and the sliced black olives. Return to the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Snicker Apple Salad

I remember having this salad years ago and forgetting about it until I saw it on pinterest!  This past weekend we had three gatherings that all required me to bring a side dish.  I decided this would be a good time to bust this out and introduce it to the family.  Let's just say it is so yummy that I tried to convince the kiddos that it was potato salad (because my kids don't like potato salad) so they wouldn't want to eat it all!  The original recipe calls for vanilla pudding, I only had french vanilla, hence the more yellow color.  It has an amazing combination of flavors that are sure to be a hit with your family!

Snicker Apple Salad

Ingredients:

6 regular size Snickers Candy Bar

6 apples (I used Granny Smith)

1 (5 oz.) package Vanilla Instant Pudding ; powder only (I used French Vanilla)

1/2 cup milk

1 (12 oz.) tub cool whip

Caramel ice cream sauce for drizzling on top

Instructions:

Whisk vanilla pudding powder, 1/2 cup milk and cool whip together until well combined.

Chop up apples and Snickers.  Stir chopped apples and Snickers into pudding mixture.  Place in a large bowl and drizzle with caramel ice cream topping.  Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

Chocolate Cake Waffles

This recipe turned out way better than when I tried it with cookie dough!  I did a search on pinterest for chocolate waffles and came across this recipe.  They turned out well.  They were a little hard to get out of the waffle iron, but with patience and a smile, it all worked out!  Yes those are freeze dried strawberries on top.  They are like candy to the kids and make for a fun, crunchy, sweet topping.

Chocolate Cake Batter Waffles

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup of boiling water

2 cups GF flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup of softened butter

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs

Whisk together:

1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup of boiling water

Allow to cool to room temperature before using.

Mix together your dry ingredients and set aside:

2 cups GF flour

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Cream together in a new bowl:

1/2 cup of softened butter

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Add 2 large eggs to the butter mixture, stirring between each egg to combine thoroughly.

Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the cocoa water mixture to the butter mixture, stirring until just mixed. Batter may be stored in the refrigerator until needed.

Make up your cake mix, and simply spoon into a preheated waffle iron and cook according to your waffle iron’s own instructions. I found that the same waffle times worked for this cake batter recipe.

Top with your favorite toppings:

Ice cream

Cool Whip

Chocolate or caramel syrup

Fruit

Caramel Pretzel Cookies

If you like a sweet and salty combination, this is it! It's not very often that the kids come home from school to baked cookies, so this was a special treat today.  A sad detail to these cookies is I got so excited about the picture and getting it edited, I forgot about the second batch in the oven and burnt them to a crisp...So we thoroughly enjoyed the 16 cookies from the first batch.  So don't do what I did and get distracted and loose half your cookies!  You know want to go make some. The original recipe came from here.

Caramel Pretzel Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups GF flour (I use featherlite)

¾ tsp xanthan gum

3/4 cup GF stick pretzels, broken into thirds

1/2 cup caramel bits

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars.  Add vanilla and eggs, mixing until well blended. Scrap the sides of the bowl.

Combine salt, baking soda, xanthan gum and flour.  Gradually add to wet mixture.  Mix until well blended.  Fold in broken pretzels, caramel bits, & chocolate chips with a spatula.

Spoon onto a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes (or until golden brown). *Makes around 2 dozen cookies.

Cheddar Cornbread Waffles Served Navajo Taco Style

Dinner was awesome with these cornbread waffles.  We ate them Navajo taco style with all the fixings!

I found the recipe here.  The batter made 8 seven inch round waffles.  At first I wished that I had doubled it (because we are a family of 6), but in reality, by the time we doctored it up with fixings, one was very filling.  We drizzled honey on the remaining two and that was most delicious!

Cheddar Cornbread Waffles

1 cup all-purpose GF flour (featherlite)

1 cup cornmeal

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 1/2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

3 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup club soda

1/3 cup canola oil

cooking spray

Sift together first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in cheese. Combine eggs and next 3 ingredients; gently stir into dry ingredients just until blended.

Spray waffle iron with cooking spray.  Pour ½ c batter into round waffle iron. Cook 3-5 minutes or until crisp and done. Repeat with remaining batter.

Transfer waffles to a baking sheet, and keep warm, uncovered, in the oven at 200° until ready to serve. Waffles can be frozen in zip-top freezer bags and reheated in oven or toaster oven.

Serve up with our favorite toppings.  We used the following:

Hormel chili

Chopped olives

Tomatoes

Shredded lettuce

Sour cream

Grated cheese

Peanut Butter Bars (School lunch style)

Remember those yummy peanut butter bars they used to serve at school lunch?  Found this recipe here and decided to give it a try.  Since my kids have never eaten school lunch, they really didn't know what they were missing out on.  Let's just say that out of a whole cookie sheet and sharing with a few friends, there were no leftovers.  Next I make it, I would like to try freezing a few and see how that works out. 

School Lunch Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C GF Flour (featherlite)

1¼ tsp. Salt

½ tsp. Baking Soda

¾ C Butter

¾ C Sugar

¾ C Brown Sugar

1 ½ tsp. Vanilla

1 1/2 C Creamy Peanut Butter (split)

2 Eggs

1 ½ C Quick Oats (I blended mine to make more of a flour like consistency)

¾ tsp xanthan gum

Frosting:

½ C Butter (1 stick)

3 ½ C Powdered Sugar

2 T Cocoa

¼ C Milk (I use whatever I have in the fridge)

1 tsp. Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small mixing bowl, mix together flour, xanthan gum,baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugars, 3/4 C peanut butter, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add dry ingredients, just until incorporated. Then, stir in the oats. Spread onto a greased 11 x 15 Jelly Roll Pan (cookie sheet). Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes.

The frosting is a two-step process. First, whip the remaining ¾ C Creamy Peanut Butter until it becomes lighter colored and fluffy. Carefully spread the whipped peanut butter over the pan cookie.

Then, add butter to a small sauce pan and melt the butter. Add the milk and cocoa. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Heat just until boiling. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Then, gradually add the powdered sugar. Stir until thickened. Pour over the peanut butter and gently spread over the cookie. Cool completely, and slice into bar cookies.

Pumpkin Waffles with Buttermilk Syrup

Deliciousness!   

Pumpkin Waffles

2 C GF flour (featherlite)
2 T baking powder
1 T cinnamon
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum

Mix above ingredients...then add

4 egg yolks
1 C pumpkin
1 T vanilla
1 1/2 C milk
3/4 C butter, melted

Beat 4 egg whites till stiff peaks and fold into batter


Buttermilk Syrup

1/4 C butter
1/2 C buttermilk
1 C sugar
1 tsp light corn syrup
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla


Bring first four ingredients to a boil and take off heat.
Add 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp vanilla
Do this in a bigger pot than ingredients...it will foam. Stir until it settles.  Pour into a serving jar.

**We like to double the syrup recipe and use it later.  We just put the extras in the refrigerator and reheat it the next time we do pancakes or waffles.

Tiny Spicy Chicken

One of our family favorites!!
This recipe came from some dear friends of ours from way back when.  This meal takes a little extra preparation, but well worth it!  I would probably call this our special occasion dinner...anniversary, Valentine's Day and sometimes Christmas Eve.  Serve it up with a side of ham fried rice or white rice and a veggie.  This is definitely a crowd pleaser.

Tiny Spicy Chicken

Ingredients:
3 lbs Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
Garlic Salt
2 Beaten Eggs
Cornstarch
Frying Oil

Sauce:
1 ½ tsp Chili Garlic Sauce or Sambal Fresh Chili Paste
1 ½ cup White Sugar
¾ cup Ketchup
3 tsp GF Soy Sauce
¾ cup Chicken Broth
6 tbsp Brown Sugar
¾ cup White Vinegar

Procedure:
Cut chicken to bite size pieces, sprinkle with garlic salt and let sit for one hour. After an hour, dip chicken into egg and then into cornstarch. Brown the chicken in a deep fryer or in oil until golden brown. Put chicken into 9 x 13 pan.

Mix white sugar, white vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, salt, chicken broth, chili paste, and brown sugar. Heat until sugar has dissolved. Pour sauce over the chicken. The sauce will be liquid at first. Put the chicken in the oven at 325 degrees. Bake for one hour, turning chicken every fifteen minutes or so. After approximately 45 minutes the sauce should have thickened and be baked to the chicken. Finish cooking and serve.

Serve over Rice.

Triple Berry Salad

Looking for a new and tasty treat to serve up on Valentine's Day for your loved ones?  My kids told me that if I posted this to Facebook, they would give it one million likes!  There you have it!  This was a pinterest find...again.  I halved the recipe (which is what is listed below) and was plenty for my family of six.  It could easily be doubled.

Triple Berry Salad

1 ½  lbs. of frozen mixed berries  (slightly thawed out)

8 oz.  Cool Whip

16oz.  of vanilla yogurt

½  3oz. pkg of Cheesecake instant pudding mix

Add the Cool Whip, yogurt and then sprinkle in the pudding mix. Blend with beaters until well mixed.  Stir in slightly thawed berry mix.  Fold gently until blended.  Chill before serving.

*I used 1 ½ C heavy cream instead to make my own ‘Cool Whip’.  Whip cream until it begins to make stiff peaks.  Adding about 2 TB of sugar will help the cream thicken.