Gluten-free Heaven

Since we switched Eric to gluten-free back in June, I've been attempting to make my own gluten-free bread.  I will not lie, I have had many, many failures.  So many, that I resigned to buying the super expensive loaves, that mostly taste like cardboard, from the grocery store freezers.  I continued my search though for an easy recipe that didn't tell me I needed to weigh my flours, seeing as I don't own a kitchen scale, and didn't feel like running out to buy one.  Low and behold, I came across the recipe below, on the Bob's Red Mill website.  Not tested by the company's kitchen, but posted by someone else.  I decided to give it a try, modifying it for the ingredients I had, and from the recommendations from others who had tried the recipe.  And it actually turned out AWESOME!  Even my husband commented on how it tastes and looks like regular bread, not the crumbly and dry mess you usually get with GF breads.  This is a keeper for us!  Especially since Eric has been bugging me lately with: "Why do you only make wheat bread mom?  Can't you make me some gluten-free stuff?"  And now I can!

Everyday Bread - Gluten Free

Ingredients

3-1/3 cups GF all purpose flour blend (1 cup sorghum flour, 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup white rice flour, 1/3 cup tapioca starch) 

3-1/2 tsp guar gum 

1/2 cup Non-Fat Dry Milk Powder 

1/2 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar) 

1 3/4 tsp salt
2 large Eggs 

1/4 cup Vegetable Oil 

1-1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons Water
1 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast

Directions

1. Grease a 9x5 bread pan. 
2. Combine 1/4 cup of the total water (warm) with 1 tbsp of total sugar and then sprinkle with yeast. Allow to sit 5-10 mins until foamy (proofing). 
3. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl (including remaining sugar). I used the bowl of my stand mixer, which I will use to beat the mixture later. 

4. In another bowl, combine the remaining water, oil and eggs. 

5. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients, including proofed yeast mixture, and mix well. 

6. Beat the batter with paddle attachment until smooth; approximately 2 minutes (or by hand). Batter will be sticky and wet, like a cake batter. 

7. Form batter into boule in the bowl, cover with a dish towel, and allow to rise for about an hour. 

8. Then pour batter into bread pan and smooth out top (shaping to look like a loaf of bread) with a rubber spatula dipped in water (prevents it from sticking to the spatula). 

9. Let rise again for about an hour or until the batter is slightly above the rim of the pan.

10. Bake in a 375°F pre-heated oven for 25 minutes. After 25 mins cover with tin foil and continue baking for another 25 mins. (50 mins total) 

11. Cool briefly (5 min); remove from pan and cool thoroughly on a rack.

Le Temps des Sucres!

What can I say about spring-time in Quebec? Well, besides the fact that we still have, and are occasionally still getting more, snow (Mother Nature is apparently confused this year); it is freakin' awesome maple syrup time! As they call it in Quebec, le temps des sucres.  We took a trip to a local cabane à sucre last weekend for a great brunch, and of course some snow taffy. Always fun! Then, this week, the order we placed with Mark's co-worker (whose family owns their own cabane à sucre) came in. I ordered 8 cans of syrup, 1/2 kg of maple sugar, a container of maple sugar bits (pepites), and a container of maple butter. Mark and the kids have been in heaven the past couple of days having maple butter on toast for breakfast, and myself (and Mark) have been enjoying some maple sugar in our morning coffee. So yummy! Then today I decided to make some maple sugar scones with a maple sugar topping. They are to die for! I found a recipe for cinnamon chip scones and modified it for the maple sugar! You have to try it out. 

Maple Sugar Scones

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons maple sugar
1/2 cup cold butter
1 cup maple sugar bits (pepites)
1 egg - seperated
1 teaspoon vanilla  

1 cup buttermilk/sour milk

Directions:
 

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flours, the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Pulse 2 to 3 times to combine. 

3. Add the butter and pulse until small crumbs are produced. Empty the food processor bowl into a larger bowl.
4. In a seperate bowl, combine the egg yolk, vanilla, and buttermilk then add to the dry ingredients in the larger bowl, mixing completely. 

5. Stir in the maple chips.
6. On a floured surface, pat out dough (with hands) to about an 8"x11" rectangle about 1/2" thick. 

7. Cut into triangular scones (mine made 14) then place them on an ungreased baking sheet (or stoneware).
8. Brush the tops with egg white and sprinkle with maple sugar to taste.

9. Bake for 20 minutes or until slightly brown on top.

Enjoy warm with a cup of coffee or tea!

The "Skinny-Train"

With my birthday being this past week, I managed to slightly over-indulge in food and drink. So I'm jumping back on the "skinny-train" per se this week. With that said, I've borrowed a few recipes from the website Skinnytaste.com, she's got some really great recipes over there!  I will also work hard this coming week to get a couple of super-yummy quinoa baked goods recipes up for you to try!

Feb 24, 2013 - Mar 2, 2013

Sun, Feb 24	Cajun Chicken Pasta Caesar salad
Mon, Feb 25	Stuffed Cabbage Casserole
Tue, Feb 26	Chicken Tikka Masala With basmati rice Steamed broccoli
Wed, Feb 27	Left-overs
Thu, Feb 28	Spaghetti with meatballs and tomato sauce Caesar salad
Fri, Mar 1	Pizza with crudities
Sat, Mar 2	Crockpot Butter Chicken Basmati rice Naan bread Tomato & mozzarella salad

Slow cooking challenge

I've decided to challenge myself this week and come up with a plan for daily slow cooker recipes.  This feat is actually pretty easy with websites such as "The Crockin' Girls"!  Which is where many of the recipes came from.  I love using my slow cooker. It's just so convenient!  Throw your ingredients in early in the day, set it, then forget it!  Walk away, come back a few hours later, and you've got a fantastic meal!  This will be the first time I will attempt pizza in the crock pot.  I'm intrigued!  I will be making my own pizza dough, however, instead of using store-bought.  Feel free to modify any ingredients in any of the recipes to suit your own tastes.  I know I will be for the lentil and sausage stew.  I have never bought canned potatoes, nor will I ever.  Fresh potatoes, fresh carrots, and fresh zucchini will replace all the canned ingredients.  I will stick with canned tomatoes though.

I'm excited for this challenge, and hopefully you will be too!

Feb 17, 2013 - Feb 23, 2013

Sun, Feb 17	Crockpot barbecue pulled pork with chipotle spice rub Garlic mashed potatoes Vegetable of choice
Mon, Feb 18	Slow cooked pepper steak Steamed rice
Tue, Feb 19	Crockpot Bacon ranch chicken served over rotini Caesar salad
Wed, Feb 20	Left overs
Thu, Feb 21	Slow cooker garlic and brown sugar chicken Rice noodles Steamed broccoli
Fri, Feb 22	Crockpot Lentil and sausage stew Crusty bread
Sat, Feb 23	Crockin’ pizza! Crudities and dip

Time keeps on slipping...slipping...slipping...into the future!

My new year's resolution to get and stay organized, is slowly slipping out of my grasp!  Life seems to be getting in the way.  Meal planning has not been happening as planned.  And the organizational level of my house?  Well forget it...staying organized in any aspect of my life seems to be the most difficult right about now!  And we're only 1 month into the new year!  You'd think with all the inside time we've been having, due to the unbearable cold and frigid temperatures we've been experiencing, that I'd have more time to get and stay organized.  Definitely not with an active, and overly diva-ish, 3 year old running (and screaming) around the house most days!  I could only imagine how even more crazy things would be if I actually worked outside of the home!

I rushed to get together a meal plan for this upcoming week, including tonight (very last minute, I know), and honestly will probably have to be heading out to the store early this week for last minute ingredients.  The majority are very simple recipes.  Thursday night's Valentine's Day fondue will use store-bought fondue broth, already prepared chicken and beef cubes (you can buy them already cut up at the grocery store) and deveined, tail-off shrimp.  Also, Friday is usually pizza night in our home and I have been making my own pizza crust for years.  Feel free to make it even easier and order in, or buy a store-bought pizza and enjoy with a family movie night!  

Hopefully I can get my butt in gear this week and get back to some form of organization before Friday rolls around and life gets in the way again! 

Feb 10, 2013 - Feb 16, 2013

Sun, Feb 10	Easy chicken and shrimp gumbo Rice Side salad
Mon, Feb 11	Chicken spaghetti Caesar salad
Tue, Feb 12	Veggie burgers (bought from Costco) San Francisco garlic fries Crudities with homemade vegetable dip
Wed, Feb 13	Left-overs
Thu, Feb 14 Valentine's Day	Chinese fondue (beef, chicken, shrimp and vegetables) baguette and cheese slices (your choice) Chocolate fondue with fruit
Fri, Feb 15	Family pizza and a movie night!
Sat, Feb 16	Meatloaf in the Round Parmesan potato wedges Steamed broccoli and cauliflower

My apologies

Huge apologies to anyone who may be following my meal plans, but due to a business trip, I didn't end up getting one out for this week!  I'll be back at it again for next week!  Sorry!  Good news, I've got a few extra days to get some good meals together for the following week!  Feel free to just browse any past recipes that I have posted on and use them!

January 27 to February 2, 2013

So this meal planning thing is proving harder to do that originally thought! I'm glad I've resolved to do it though, it's really helping to keep me accountable. It has also forced me to watch the weekly grocery flyers and buy things that are on sale and revolve my meals around the sales. It's fun, but also hard work at the same time. And hopefully those of you who are reading and trying out some of the recipes, are enjoying them! In this week I've included some of my favourite and very tasty recipes! The tortellini casserole is an East Side Mario's copy-cat recipe for their cheese cappelletti, the skillet lasagna is really easy, and very flavourful, and the Wolfgang Puck pizza dough is really easy to work with. Feel free to experiment with whole wheat flour! 

Jan 27, 2013 - Feb 2, 2013

Sun, Jan 27	Tortellini casserole Caesar salad
Mon, Jan 28	Lime chicken tacos Cilantro lime rice
Tue, Jan 29	Italian sausage, mushroom and spinach risotto
Wed, Jan 30	Skillet Lasagna Mixed greens salad
Thu, Jan 31	Chicken and black bean enchiladas Homemade Texas flour tortillas
Fri, Feb 1	Wolfgang Puck Pizza (with toppings of your choice!)
Sat, Feb 2	Basic spaghetti with meatballs

"Clean" Eating

I made it through 12 days of my personal "sugar-free" and "clean eating" challenge.  Proud of myself for getting that far, but disappointed that my will power wasn't able to get me farther!  Ha!  Not that I've gone on a crazy sugar binge, but I did break into the wine yesterday and had more than my fair share of potato chips and a taste of cake at a birthday party today.  Jumping back into the saddle tomorrow, because I can honestly say I noticed a difference once I cut back on my sugars and started paying a bit more attention to what was going into my mouth.  My energy levels have sky-rocketed!  I would have to have a supper-time coffee in order to stay awake past 8PM most nights.  Since my challenge, I am still awake at 10PM when I'm going to bed!  I really wasn't sure I was going to see a difference, but I have. So that alone make me want to jump back on the band wagon. While I know I will not be perfect, I will be close!

Jan 20, 2013 - Jan 26, 2013

Sun, Jan 20	Asian beef and noodle bowl
Mon, Jan 21	Buffalo chicken chilli Caesar salad
Tue, Jan 22	Salsa chicken Quinoa and black beans   Salad
Wed, Jan 23	Slow cooker saucy lemony ribs Parmesan potato wedges Steamed green beans
Thu, Jan 24	Kung Wow Chicken Basmati rice Stir-fried vegetables
Fri, Jan 25	Homemade Chilli Cheese Hamburger Helper Caesar salad
Sat, Jan 26	Broccoli & ham risotto

New Challenges

As some of you may have noticed, I've changed the name of my blog!  Decided with "Mommy's Kitchen Creations".  Had a nice ring to it.

So, with the new year, and the new organized "me", I decided to take on another challenge.  I decided to challenge myself to a month-long "No-Sugar Challenge".  It hit me, over Christmas, that I was really consuming far too much chocolate and sugary coffee beverages. And it wasn't that I was just consuming them, but I had become DEPENDENT on them.  I decided to quit, cold turkey, and detox myself from this devilish treat, of which I totally know the effects of and how it poisons the body, but which I was consuming anyway.  Now when I talk sugar, for the most part I'm taking added sugar, and sugary foods.  Not fruit, or milk, or complex carbohydrates.  I'm talking sugar in my coffee, refined carbohydrates, honey, syrup, juices (unless fresh pressed), etc.  You get the picture. I'm on day 5, and let me tell you, it has been a really rough week.  Much harder than I thought it would be!  In some aspects anyway.  I'm not missing it too much in my coffee.  I used to drink it with just cream or milk for years before I started in with the flavoured creamers and syrups, so going back wasn't too bad.  But man, the chocolate-withdrawal has sucked.  And no wine?  Ahhhh!  Day 4, so far, was the worst.  My energy was really low, and I just about caved.  And to boot, my planned meal was pancakes.  Ha!  I made a nice blueberry syrup for myself, which was actually really tasty, just by boiling down some frozen blueberries.  Today, much better.  So hoping to keep on the upward slope!  Next week's plan is much more thought out.  

To go along with this no-sugar challenge, I went on a bit of a recipe search to look for a good sugar-free muffin recipe, to have a little go-to snack when I was craving something.  I ended up finding a recipe called "Gluten-Free, Sugar Free Blueberry Apple Muffins".  Upon reading through the recipe, it in fact was NOT sugar-free, as it still contained honey!  So I made some modifications to the recipe, to suit myself and what I had in the house.  For example, it called for brown-rice flour, but I didn't have any brown rice in the house, so I decided on quinoa instead.  Adds an extra protein punch to the recipe anyway!  Here's my modified recipe.  

Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegan Blueberry Apple Muffins

Ingredients:

1/2 cup quinoa flour
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1 large banana  
2 large apples
2 tbsp flaxseed meal
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup or more of frozen blueberries
2 tsp baking powder 

Directions:
   
Did you know that you can actually make your own flour by grinding up grains or nuts in a blender or food processor? 

1. Put approximately 3/4 cup of a cup of quinoa into your blender/food processor WITHOUT WATER (or you will get a sticky mess) to make 1/2 cup flour. Blend it up to a powder and put it into a large bowl. 

2. Blend 1 3/4 cups almonds in the same way to make 1 1/2 cups of flour. Put that in the big bowl with the quinoa flour.

3. Combine the 2 tbsp of flaxseed meal with 6 tbsp of water and stir.  Let sit about 5 mins until it becomes gelatinous.  This will be substitute for 2 eggs.

4. Peel and cut up the two apples into chunks and do the same with the banana, and throw them in the blender. Add the flaxseed mixture. Blend it all up. 

5. Add this mixture to the flour in the bowl, along with the cinnamon and baking powder.  Fold in your frozen berries and stir well.

6. Allow mixture to sit while you preheat the oven to 400F and prepare the muffin tins with liners or spray. (I used silicone muffin liners, they are awesome.)

7. Spoon out the batter into the muffin trays. Only fill it to be level with the top of the tray – don’t overfill them as the muffins will rise up a little bit.

8. Bake them for approximately 20 minutes at or until the tops spring back when pressed lightly.

Finally, EAT and ENJOY!!  I will honestly not say they are amazing, but they are pretty good.  Even Mark said he enjoys them!  And that says ALOT as he is a picky eater.  Especially when it comes to healthy food.

Moving on, the upcoming week's meal plan!  As previously mentioned, I was a little more health conscious picking my recipe for this week!  I've started out the week with a recipe to use up some of the left-over ham from last week's Saturday meal. Keep in mind, any dishes without a link are at your own discretion.  I have confidence in your abilities to steam beans or broccoli, make a salad, or mash some potatoes!  Also, feel free to swap out any meals for left-overs instead of having them pile up in your fridge.

Jan 13, 2013 - Jan 19, 2013

	Sun, Jan 13	Ham & Cheese bowties (using left-over ham) Steamed green beans
	Mon, Jan 14	Lentil Dahl Curried quinoa Mixed greens salad
	Tue, Jan 15	Garlic Parmesan chicken Mashed potatoes Steamed broccoli
	Wed, Jan 16	Sausage and peppers penne Caesar salad
	Thu, Jan 17	Mozzarella-stuffed turkey burgers Sweet potato fries Carrot sticks
	Fri, Jan 18	Barbeque chicken pizza
	Sat, Jan 19	Danish meatballs Rice Corn