Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup

Tonight's menu was grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Most of us know that both grilled cheese and tomato soup (at least almost every kind that I've seen at the store) have gluten in them. But we had it.

Grilled Cheese

• 2 slices Gluten Free Pantry Favorite Sandwich Bread (made with water and oil)
• Your favorite cheese
• Butter for the outside of the bread :)
• Make sure to make gluten-free sandwiches first! Then you can just use one pan.

Tomato Soup

• 1 - 12oz can tomato paste
• 2 - canfuls water
• 2 - tsp Watkins chicken soup boullion
• 2 - tsp basil
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• Shredded cheese and Garlic to taste

Heat on stove, simmer until time to eat.

It made a wonderful meal...hopefully it makes it back on the menu again sometime soon!

Sunflower Blossoms!

I remembered to take pictures this time :)

Most of this blog has been written about things being gluten-free. However, I also have to be very careful with peanuts/peanut butter as well (I can have 5 pb m&m's. I'm not brave enough to try more). This may be 'old news' to some out there, but this spring I discovered a product called sunbutter. I didn't see it in the grocery stores around here until probably August or so, but it tastes a lot like peanut butter. SO I decided to make peanut blossoms, substituting Domata Gluten Free flour and Sunbutter for the flour and peanut butter. They look and taste super yummy! (sometimes I have issues with the 'look' part of the yummy).

I used the Better Homes and Garden's recipe, and the only other change I made was using heavy whipping cream instead of milk. They are not quite as sweet as regular peanut blossom cookies, because the sunbutter isn't as sweet as peanut butter, but they are super yummy, and not everything needs to be crazy sweet, right?

Cheesecake!

It's been a while. Welcome back! Know that while I wasn't doing much blogging, I was still baking and cooking and actually remembering to take pictures! A few weekends ago was opening weekend of pheasant season in South Dakota. Don't worry, this isn't pheasant flavored cheesecake, it was just my excuse to make the cheesecake. This particular cheesecake was tested on the Melstad family, and we like our desserts.

This particular recipe uses a Rice Crispy crust and Mom's cheesecake recipe.


Cheesecake:
5 8oz. pkg cream cheese
1 1/4 C sugar
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
5 Tbsp Domata gluten-free baking mix.

Cream sugar and cream cheese together, then add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and mix.

Add any toppings you want (I personally like chocolate chips and candy canes) or split the batter in half and add cocoa to the mix (to taste - I did a rich, dark chocolate) and marble or layer it together.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Then turn oven to 300 degrees and bake for 1 hour. Do not remove pan from oven while temperature adjusts.

Top with whatever your tastebuds fancy and enjoy!

Baked Mac-n-cheese

Really, I need to stop eating my food before I take pictures of it.

Tonight on our menu was mac-n-cheese and chicken nuggets. The chicken nuggets were good. I'll make them again, but the baked mac-n-cheese was wonderful!

Here's the recipe for any other gluten-free eaters that just need some down-home comfort food!

Baked Mac-N-Cheese

• 8 oz. uncooked elbow macaroni
• 3 Tbsp onion powder
• 4 Tbsp butter (or margarine)
• 2 Tbsp Domata gluten-free flour (or 1 tbsp corn starch dissolved in a small amount of water)
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (plus a little extra for garnish)
• 1 cup american cheese, cubed or shredded
• 1/2 cup real bacon bits

1. Cook macaroni, drain, set aside. I used 4 oz regular macaroni and 4 oz DeBoles Elbow Macaroni made from corn.
2. Brown butter, onion powder, and pepper in medium saucepan. 
3. Stir in flour.
4. Add all milk and stir over medium heat until it starts to thicken and bubble.
5. Add cheeses and stir until cheese is melted. 
6. Split cheese sauce into two separate baking dishes (1 quart each). 
7. Put the regular macaroni in one dish and the gluten-free macaroni in the other. 
8. Add some of the bacon bits to each bowl and mix sauce, bacon bits and macaroni together in each bowl (using separate spoons, of course).
9. Garnish each dish with the rest of the bacon bits and a little more shredded cheddar cheese. 
10. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

It was yummy. I'll have to take a picture next time :)

Brownies

Who doesn't want one of these?

Before I was able to readily purchase gluten-free brownie mixes, I was HUNGRY for an ooey-gooey brownie. I also tend to be a bit picky about the flours I use. Yes, I'm sure all-organic diets have their positive sides, but in order to hit a target market, much of the gluten-free food is also all organic and/or vegan, and made of some pretty strange stuff - like stuff that one wouldn't have found 5 years ago in a typical South Dakota grocery store.

SO. I researched flour mixes for gluten-free baking and came up with a recipe that I've been tweaking ever since. Today I hit the jackpot with a rich, sweet, ooey-gooey brownie. Hopefully they last before my company comes tomorrow!

Gluten-Free Brownies:
1/2 C. oil
1/2 C. butter (or margarine, if you must)
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (or just vanilla to taste)

2 C. sugar
3/4 C. white rice flour
1/2 C. cocoa (or more if you want)
2 tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 bag white chocolate chips

Mix together wet ingredients, then mix dry ingredients separately. Combine and add white chips (or nuts or whatever you like in your brownies).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 35 minutes.

Eat and enjoy...Maybe mix it with ice-cream?

The first time I did this, I only needed to bake the recipe for 15 minutes. I have not successfully baked them for just that amount of time though, and have good reason to believe that the oven I was using was not working quite up to snuff...

Cookies for S'mores!

Summer is (finally) here in North Dakota, and I'm going to a S'more party Friday night. Since I won't be able to use regular graham crackers, I'm planning on just making chocolate chip cookies instead, using this recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup butter (margarine if you must)
2/3 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp vanilla (I use Watkins!)
2 eggs
1/4 cup apple juice
4 cups Domata Living Flour (so far, it's my favorite mix!)
1 pkg (small-sized) vanilla pudding mix
1 tsp salt
2 tsp soda
chocolate and butterscotch chips to taste

Mix the butter and shortening together, then add sugars and cream together.
Add the vanilla, eggs and apple juice and mix together.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, pudding mix, salt and soda together. Add this to the batter.
Add chips and mix.
Bake at 350 for 11 minutes.

If I don't eat them all first, I'll post pictures of both the cookies and s'mores! I am in my new apartment now - with an oven that shuts and heats properly - so I should be able to post pictures :) Some of the previous attempts at food were yummy, but not pretty enough to post...

Graham Cracker Crust Substitute

I am a blessed lady to have a whole family making sure that I still get my desserts :) This idea came thanks to one of my dear grandmas.

When she makes desserts that call for a graham cracker crust, she crunches up rice cereal (like Rice Crispies, an off-brand of them, or Rice Chex) and uses them in place of graham crackers in the crust.  It's simple, tastes good (albeit a little different) and best of all, makes it safe for me to eat. It's especially good with her homemade no-bake cheesecake!

Grandma's Refrigerator Cheesecake
Crust:
2 cups rice ceral crumbs*
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter

Mix together and pack on bottom of 9x13 pan or set aside to layer in parfait dishes
*May use cocoa crispies or fruity pebbles for this crust - depending on what the filling is. Omit extra sugar as the cereal is plenty sweetened.

Filling:
1 box lemon jello
1 cup sugar
8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
1 can evaporated milk or 1 1/2 - 2 Cups whipping cream

Dissolve jello in 4-5 oz hot water and cool with 4-5 oz cold water.
Cool till syrupy.
Mix in sugar and cream cheese.
Beat until smooth.
Whip evaporated milk or cream until fluffy.
Add to cream cheese mixture.
Fold together and pour onto crust or layer with crust in parfait dishes.
Refrigerate and serve when chilled to taste.

Making Muffins

Lately I've been baking using Domata Living Flour.  It is pre-mixed baking flour that can be used cup for cup in any recipe.

So far, things that I have baked have turned out incredibly well. My muffins stayed just as moist as regular muffins, and tasted great! Other GF flours taste good, but still get really crumbly - and cookies are way better when you don't need a spoon to eat them...

I haven't tried breads with it, because my oven doesn't bake evenly (last attempt at angelfood cake left parts of it tasting wonderful and other parts still liquid). I'm not willing to use my flour trying bread until I know I'll actually be able to get it evenly baked. :)

Still haven't tried it for pancakes...but with Pamela's pancake mix, I don't know who would even bother to try making them better!

Even better, both are available in health food sections at our local HyVee.

Getting started here...

I'm working on getting this going...hopefully sometime in the next 2-3 weeks, I'll have my format ready and be up and running.