GFCF Blueberry Muffins

These are super tasty and won't last long. I made them from a commercial biscuit mix (arrowhead mills) which I generally don't use but I was using up some items given to me by someone else - and since many of you may prefer mixes I thought I would go ahead and post the recipe.

I think I am going to make another batch tomorrow and use fresh raspberries instead of blueberries.

GFCF Blueberry Muffins

2 cups Gluten Free Biscuit and Baking Mix
½ cup raw sugar
1 egg
1 cup vanilla flavored almond milk
½ tsp vanilla (use 1 tsp if you use plain almond milk)
¼ cup coconut oil
1 cup fresh blueberries

In medium mixing bowl combine baking mix and sugar.
In another bowl, beat egg slightly. Add all of the rest of the ingredients except the blueberries and mix well.
Mix wet ingredients in with dry ingredients just until mixed – do not over mix!
Fold in blueberries.
Fill muffin tins lined with paper liners.
Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

Chicken and Bean Soup

I made this for dinner tonight. It was so tasty - even Andy had seconds! Very healthy too.


Chicken and Bean Soup

½ cup dry garbanzo beans
½ cup dry black beans
1 lb. chicken breasts or thighs cut into bite size pieces
1 ½ cups fennel bulb, trimmed and cut into ¼ inch slices
2 ½ cups sliced carrots
1 cup diced onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
4 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon fresh marjoram
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 cup fresh spinach, chopped or shredded

1. Rinse the beans; place in a saucepan and add enough water to cover the beans by about two inches. Bring to boiling, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for one hour. Drain and rinse beans.
2. Put all ingredients except fresh herbs and spinach in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high for 4 to 5 hours.
3. Add fresh herbs and spinach. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
4 servings

GFCF Fresh Raspberry Pie

Kathi’s Fresh Raspberry Pie

4 cups fresh raspberries

1 cup raw sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons minute tapioca

4 tablespoons water

2 - 9” pie crusts of your choice (I use the perfect pie crust mix from the gluten free pantry)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Line pie plate with one pie crust
3. Mix all ingredients together and spoon into bottom pie crust
4. Place other pie crust on top, flute and seal edges.
5. Make slits in the top so that steam can escape.
6. Bake for 10 minutes at 425, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook for 45 minutes

8 servings

Enjoy Life Granola

Enjoy Life has reformulated their granola and is it ever yummy!

If you are not familiar with Enjoy Life Foods, you should be.

All of their products are free of the 8 most common allergens (wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish or shellfish).

All are certified gluten free.

All are made in a dedicated nut and gluten free bakery - so no chance of cross contamination!

No artificial anything in any of their products.

And they taste great.
The granola comes in 3 flavors - Cranapple Crunch, Very Berry Crunch, and Cinnamon Crunch.

Cranapple Crunch

Very Berry Crunch

Cinnamon Crunch

We did a taste test at our house. All 3 of us tasted all 3 flavors. While all of us enjoyed all 3 flavors, I found it interesting that each of us picked a different one as their favorite. Andy loves the Cranapple Crunch, Dan prefers the Very Berry Crunch and my favorite is the Cinnamon Crunch.

All three flavors are very crunchy and they remain crunchy in milk (non dairy milk of course in our household) with nice plump chewy raisins or craisins. They are also good just by the handful. Fill a baggie and take them with you as a snack. My favorite way to eat them is sprinkled on yogurt (soy) - it really adds a nice crunch. I might try using them in baking as well. I can picture them as a nice crunchy muffin.....

If you are interested in trying them, they do have a printable coupon on their website for 55 cents off any of their products.

Say Cheez by Namaste Foods

We've been trying a lot of new foods lately. The selection of gluten free foods out there really has expanded since we started this diet 6 years ago. Shortly after we went gfcf 6 years ago, I gave up trying to find anything with cheese. Nothing tasted good. Andy really loved mac and cheese before gfcf and I was disappointed not to find a good substitute for him. Now he doesn't even remember ever eating mac and cheese.

My food co-op had a special last month on Say Cheez by Namaste Foods and I had a coupon so I bought a package. Wow, was it a hit. I have now bought it two more times. Andy devours it like I remember him devouring mac and cheese. Is it the rich and creamy mac and cheese that I used to bake in the oven for hours? No and not even close. But it is not a bad imitation of boxed mac and cheese.

Here is a picture of the product - it is in a brown bag - so you know what to look for in the store.

And here are the contents of the bag.

And here is the finished product.

It went wonderfully with grilled Al Fresco sausages!

And Andy ate all the leftovers today for lunch!

If you are not familar with Namaste Foods, be sure and to check out their website for more information. They specialize in foods that are free of gluten, wheat, potato, soy, corn, dairy, tree nuts, peanuts and casein. So if you have multiple food allergies, this is a great company to be aware of.

Cherrybrook Kitchens

Dan's birthday was this week. Since I have yet to find a plain cake recipe that I really like (I do have some good killer cake recipes on this blog, but not plain ones that my child will eat), I decided to try a mix from Cherrybrook Kitchen.

This is the mix that I used. It only makes one layer or a dozen cupcakes, so if you plan on making a layer cake you will need to buy two.

It was very easy to mix up and it didn't even need eggs so for those of you who are also egg free, here is a mix for you as well.

Here are the cupcakes as they came out of the oven. They were very dark and rich looking. I think Dan and I could have enjoyed them without frosting, but Andy insisted that we frost them - I guess you can't stick a birthday candle in one without frosting (who knew? good thing I have a 9 year old around to tell me these things!).

And here is one unfrosted closer up.

Making frosting is not difficult, but since I had a coupon I decided to try their frosting as well. The frosting was a bit too sweet for me and kind of gummy. It was fine, though, I did eat it - I didn't scrape it off, but I think next time I'll just make my own. Andy, like most kids, loved the frosting and ate the leftovers out of the canister.

I let Andy frost the cupcakes himself. Here is a pic of the finished cupcakes.

And one of the cupcakes up front.

They were very good tasting and nice and moist. I will buy the cake mix again in the future. It was a success.

Be sure and save the bottom flaps off the mixes. You can save them and redeem them for free stuff (I like Free!).

Larabar

I recently wrote to Larabar telling them how much I loved their product and asking if they had any coupons. As we all know, gluten free is expensive, so I have been writing to my favorite brands asking for coupons - can't hurt to try, right?

They wrote back that they didn't have any coupons at this time, but would send me some samples. Then I got another e-mail that coupons were available. I was very happy with my 4 coupons for 50 cents off - every little bit helps.

So, imagine my surprise when a few days later a package came from them containing 4 full size bars! Happy Day! I never even told them that I write a gluten free blog - so they weren't providing the samples for a write up (although they are getting one) - so that is great customer service!

These are the bars I got free. Andy inhaled the cherry pie one before I could have a taste. We will have to take his word for it that it was great. We also got Apple Pie, Cinnamon Roll and Lemon Bar. All were delicious.

There are many things besides the taste that I like about larabar. First of all, unlike soy bars, they are very moist. All flavors are gluten free, dairy free, soy free, non gmo, vegan and kosher. They have no added sweeteners.

Larabars are also a good source of potassium. One thing I have learned while I have been studying nutrition is that we all get way too much sodium and not enough potassium. Sodium and potassium need to be kept in balance in our body. Potassium can help lower high blood pressure. Here is a link to a potassium fact sheet.

If you haven't added larabars to your gluten free casein free diet, I suggest you try them.