Vanishing Gluten-Free Blueberry-Cheese Muffins

Well, I've done it.  I've mastered the art of baking gluten-free muffins.  And by "master" I mean, I've made muffins without wheat flour and you wouldn't know the difference.  Plus they're DE-licious. Don't believe me?  See for yourself.

What you'll need:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose GF flour (I used Trader Joe's and Bob's Red Mill mixed together)
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup flax meal
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup FRESH/frozen blueberries
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 4 oz butter (or coconut oil)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp Xanthan Gum (VERY important!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2.  Mix all dry ingredients (including blueberries and xanthan gum)
3. Mix all wet ingredients (I considered cheese a wet ingredient)
4. Blend wet and dry together until smooth but do not over-mix - the batter should be thick and "goopy"  
5. Line a muffin pan and scoop batter into paper cups
6. Bake for 15 minutes then check your muffins.  If they're not quite set, bake a little longer.  You want the tops juuuuust getting a tad golden. 

Ta-da!  Awesome, delicious, perfect, amazing, extraordinary muffins!  Great for breakfast or snack or whatever.

This batch made 9 muffins.  I just ate three...


 

Refrigerator Soup

It's Friday night and I feel like crap.  My throat is sore and my muscles ache.  I blame  the 9 year-olds I teach during the week.

Cyrus wants chicken wings and french fries - and any other day of the week I'd be down - but all I can dream of on this particular night is soup.  Warm, delicious, and oh-so-soothing soup.  But where am I going to get soup around here?  Alright, I'm sure I could buy some watery chicken noodle soup from the nearest restaurant, or I could drive to the grocery store and buy a can of it - but why do that when I can make soup of much higher caliber and not leave the house or spend any money?  I decide to raid the fridge instead.

The best thing about "soup" is that you can make it from practically anything. 

"soup" |so͞op|  :  ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French soupe ‘sop, broth (poured on slices of bread),’ from late Latin suppa, of Germanic origin.

When I typed "Suppa" into Google's Latin translation search engine it came up with "Head-downwards".  I'm not sure I understand.  No wait, I'm picturing horse-facing a big bowl of steaming broth - and I'm pretty sure that's why the Germanics called it "suppa".  Who doesn't want to horse-face a good bowl of soup?

Back at the fridge I find half a head of cabbage, a few carrots and half a bag of wilting kale.  Alright, I can work with this.  And so can you.

You'll also need a liter of plain almond milk, a few cloves of garlic, salt and pepper, and cumin.

Start by slicing your carrots in half and place them in a pot.  Chop cabbage coarsely and add it along with some water.  Bring that to a boil and remove when a knife slides through the veggies with ease.  In the meantime, crush your garlic and fry it up in some grapeseed or olive oil until clear.  Set aside.  In another pot toss-in the kale and a little water.  Steam until bright green. 

Now, throw the carrots, cabbage and kale (in portions) into a blender and top off with almond milk.  Blend until smooth.  Repeat until you have blended all your veggies.  Pour into a large pot, add garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin and bring to a boil.  Add remaining almond milk until you reach your desired consistency.

Slurp and enjoy.  I feel better already.

 

 * Note, you can use a combination of any veggies for this recipe, whatever you have rotting away in the fridge - potatoes, celery, beets, you name it.  Just make sure they're not too rotten.

Quick List

• a few cloves of garlic
• Cabbage
• Kale
• Carrots
• 1-2 L plain organic almond milk
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cumin

Classic Vanilla Cupcakes

Sometimes you need to throw all your ideals out the window for the sake of someone's happiness - which is why I'm making classic Vanilla Cupcakes this morning. 

After a disastrous attempt at gluten free mint chocolate cupcakes last night I decided to just go the simple route and whip up an old favorite for a co-worker's birthday.  Just because I gave-up wheat doesn't mean everyone else has to.


 

Classic Vanilla Cupcakes

Dry:

•  1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar 

Wet:

• 2/3 cup coconut oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cup butter (at room temperature)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350 F and line a muffin tray with fun paper cups.  Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then mix together.  Fill liners to 3/4 full and bake for 15 minutes or until just slightly golden.  Cool cupcakes then ice with buttercream frosting.  Leave one as a surprise on someone's desk!

Homemade Fruit & Nut Bars

I woke up to an unpleasant surprise this morning - my cupboards were infested with Argentine Ants!  Ah, the joys of living in the woods.  I tore everything off the shelves in an attempt to find the source of their interest.  Ah ha!  The dates.  I opened the box outside and rescued a few handfuls of dates.  The rest were crawling with teeny black pests so I threw them into the compost.

Back inside, I rinsed the remaining dates with hot water.  I figured I should make something with them, but what?  I thought back to the no-bake vegan, raw chocolate cakes I made a few months ago.  The bulk of the dessert was made by blending walnuts into a flour and adding dates for sweetness.

The "dough" reminded me of these awesome "Pure" bars I like so much, so I tweaked my old cake recipe a bit to get homemade fruit & nut bars.

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup cashews
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 1/2 cups dates 
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup dried blueberries

Mix the walnuts, cashews and sunflower seeds in a blender until you get a chunky powder.  Pour powder into a mixing bowl.  Next, mix the dates in the blender until smooth.  Add date paste to nut flour and mix with your hands.  Add the pumpkin seeds, cherries and blueberries and mix until it forms a dough.  Press dough into a wax paper-lined glass dish.  Stick it in the fridge overnight and cut into squares in the morning.  Enjoy for a quick breakfast or snack!

Supremely Green!

Like avocado?  Met too.  I'm also a huge fan of the health benefits.  They're full of good fats, they have tons of fiber (10g per serving - 40% of the daily recommended value!), 3g of protein, and are bursting with vitamin E. They're low in cholesterol and contain the very useful antioxidant glutathione, which has been shown to prevent prevent certain types of cancer, heart disease, and slows the aging process (see abstract).

I took an Ethiopian approach today and turned avocado into a sweet drinkable treat.  I used Hass Avocados but with over 40 species to choose from, you can use your imagination. Combined with apple, kale, and walnuts they make a scrumptious smoothie that will fill you up and energize you for hours!


The Supreme Green Smoothie

• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 green apple
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup kale juice
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 4 tbsp honey

Juice the apple and kale and add it to the blender with everything else.  If it's too thick you can add more coconut milk or just a little water.

Enjoy!

"Je Suis une Pizza..."

"...avec du fromage!  Beaucoup de sauce!  Des tomates!" 

Did anyone take french immersion growing up?  Well I did, and we sang that song all the time.  Random, but I thought of it because I made my very own gluten free pesto pizza tonight.  I also made (for the first time) my very own pesto sauce base using fresh basil. 

Want to make one too?  Here's how!

What you'll need:

For crust

• 1 bag of Bob's Red Mill Homemade Wonderful Bread Mix (comes with yeast packet)
• 1 cup almond milk or water
• 1 tablespoon raw honey
• 3 tablespoons of oil (coconut, olive, avocado...)
• 2 tsp sea salt

For pesto

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves (packed down)
• 3/4 cup oil (avocado or olive)
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• salt and pepper to taste
• Blender or food processor

Toppings

• 1 cup mushrooms
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• Oil for sauteing
• Splash of balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup shredded cheese (I used the sharp cheddar that was left over in my fridge...)

Step 1 - Crust



Heat 1/2 cup of almond milk in a small sauce pan over low heat until it is just warm to the touch (not scalding!).  Pour into a bowl, add honey and yeast.  Let the yeast mix get a little frothy.



While your yeast is rising, dump entire contents of Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour into a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle salt in with the flour and mix lightly.



Add the yeast and the rest of the almond milk to your flour and salt.  Knead that dough until your elbows and fingers hurt (about 7 minutes)!





Place your dough in a warm place, cover for 1/2 hour and allow it to rise. (Makes one large pizza or two small pizzas)

Step 2 - Pesto


Gather your basil leaves until you have 2 cups of squished-down leaves.  Rinse and toss basil, press your garlic and toss everything into a blender or food processor.  Add your pine nuts and all the oil.  Blend until smooth. (Makes about 1 cup)



Now check on your pizza dough.  It might be a little firm (mine was) but that's okay!  Roll in out into a circle or whatever shape you desire.  Coat with pesto sauce.



Step 3 - Toppings


Preheat oven to 400 F.  Rinse and slice your mushrooms and chop your spinach. 



Sautee your mushrooms in a little coconut oil and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.  Once mushrooms are cooked add the spinach and sautee for 2 more minutes, until spinach is cooked.



Arrange toppings, sprinkle with cheese and bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and edges of crust are golden.



Voila!  Gluten-free pesto pizza.  Bon appetit!

Leftovers.

It was a long day, and while not particularly grueling, I was about ready to pass out when I got off work at 5.  I didn't want to cook.  I didn't want to clean up after cooking.  Sound familiar?  Here's an idea: leftovers.  I made awesome cream of broccoli soup the other night, so paired that with Persian cucumber salad and Trader Joe's falafels with eggplant dressing.  The soup you might recognize from last night's dinner.  The falafels I heated up on an iron skillet for a five minutes, and the cucumber salad took a grand total of three minutes to make.  I was eating by five thirty whilst enjoying a cheesy Bollywood film.  Quick, easy, and darn good for you.