Trying to Heal plus Mushroom Stroganoff {Vegan & Gluten free}

Sorry! 

This post has been moved HERE, please visit my new site at MintGrapefruit.com for more!

Sweet Potato Soup: Perfect for a rainy day

It's fall! Yay! The air is crisp and cool and it's the start of super comforting foods! Plus, I don't know about where you are, but here it is raining...and raining and frankly a perfect soup day.

I had lots of help with this soup, I had the pleasure to watch our friends four kids. I don't know about you but when I have a house of kids I put them to work! Okay, not really, they were excited to help. The older two even helped me paint the deck earlier this summer.

Anyway, I had five kids and was planning on making a soup so when I asked if anyone would be interested in helping all of them said yes. I separated the tasks, most of which involved chopping and put them to work. (And don't worry, I watched them all carefully.)

Coming up with soups can be fun, I had a ginormous sweet potato so it was an easy decision to make that the primary ingredient. Everything else just can through tasting.

Sweet Potato Soup

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed

3 medium russet potatoes, cubed

3 medium carrots (about 1-1/2 cups), chopped

1 medium onion, diced

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 large garlic clove (or 3 normal size), peeled and minced

2 tbsp. fresh thyme

2 tbsp. curry powder
1 tbsp. turmeric powder

1 tsp. cumin powder

1 jalapeño, minced

8 cups water

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: sour cream and sriracha 

Melt butter in a large stock pot, add chopped carrots, onion and celery, sprinkle a little salt over the veggies and sauté for about five minutes, cover until veggies are soft. Add garlic, thyme and jalapeño. Stir.

Add water and potatoes. Bring to a simmer and add the remaining spices. Continue to simmer until potatoes are fork tender. Using a blender or using an emulsion blender, blend half the soup. (Blending adds a creamy texture to the soup.) Stir soup and adjust seasoning to your taste. Pour into a bowl and garnish with sour cream and sriracha.

Hopefully you enjoy this as much as I did, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Camping Season means Camping Food!

Sorry!

This camping post has been moved to HERE. Please visit my new site MintGrapefruit.com to read more! 

Mimi's Play Dough

I came across a large canister filled with flour, and me being me struggled to just throw it out. Why throw it out you ask? Well, if I had to take a guess the flour in this canister was at least 6 years old and it was just plain ol’ all-purpose white flour which I don’t use anymore anyway, so…throwing it seemed to be the right option.  Well I sat staring at the flour thinking of all the things I could use it for (I even sent texts my friends to see if they could use it for anything), since it was too old to use for food my mind was instantly thinking crafts.  I thought of homemade modge podge, paper mache, salt dough…then I looked over at my son, sitting at the kitchen table sifting through his poor selection of play dough. My mind was made up…PLAY DOUGH! And of course my little helper was eager to help.

Now you can go on Pinterest and find oodles of different play dough recipes, but I am sticking with my mom’s recipe that she used when I was a kid. (I posted something a few years ago, you can see it here.) I am Gluten-Free, my son is not, and so making the dough using regular flour wasn't a concern for me. BUT, if you child is Gluten-Free then I would substitute the flour; use rice or even GF oat flour. I personally haven’t tried it using other flours but I would assume it would work fine.  (Here is a site called Creative with Kids that shares her gluten free play dough recipe.)

Mimi’s Play Dough

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

4 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tbsp. oil

2 cups water

Food coloring*

Mix all the ingredients in a large pot. Stir and cook over medium heat until the mix pulls away from the sides. Constantly stir! This is an arm workout.  (*If you want to have all one color, add the food coloring to the water and mix in while heating.  If you want multiple colors, once you take the dough out of the pot, divide the dough and knead the food coloring in.)

Once the dough is formed, put on wax paper and knead until smooth.  Store in an airtight container (nothing metal), you could even use old empty play dough containers.

He wanted multiple colors, and we were short on food coloring so the only color he wanted that he wasn't able to get was purple; maybe next time.  We added the food coloring in at the kneading stage, and I let him do the kneading.  You may need to add more coloring as you go if you want a more vibrant color.  

Now go play!

Homemade Crispy Chicken Tenders

My little helper

It feels like I haven't posted anything in a while, I guess I have just been preoccupied with other things. But, I'm back!

Because I have been busy, like a lot of other times I have been looking for quick meals. We usually have a chicken nuggets or tenders a couple times a month and finding ones that are gluten free (and reasonable priced) isn't always the easiest. So, I decided to make our own. These are so easy to make, you can make ahead and freeze, make the night before or like me prepare them in the morning before work. (All the picture were taken via my phone and the ones of the tenders themselves were taken by my husband...so if they aren't the best quality, I'm sorry.)

So here it is:

Gluten Free Crispy Chicken Tenders

1 pound chicken tenders
3 cups corn Chex cereal
2 cups regular potato chips (any flavor would work to, and probably be quite good)
1 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp pepper

uncooked

4 eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper

Combine Chex cereal, potato chips, paprika and pepper in a food processor, pulse until a desired consistency. (My son did about 4 good pulses.) If you don't have a food processor, combine in a large plastic bag and smash. Set aside, can be made well in advance if kept in a sealed container. (Save any left over crumb for later use.)

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, mayonnaise and mustard. Place all the tenders in the egg mixture, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat, if you have time let sit for about an hour in the refrigerator.

Place about half of the crumb mixture on to a large plate, a pie pan would work great. And take one tender out and cover in the crumb mixture then placing it on a greased cookie sheet. Repeat until all the tenders are coated.

Cooked (not much changed, a little more golden)

Bake at 425 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, turning half way through.  (I drizzled a little honey on mine...Yum!)

To make ahead and freeze; prepare all the way through but line your cookie sheet with foil. Once all the tenders are laid out, place the whole cookie sheet in the freezer for about an hour. Remove from the freezer and place the tenders in a large zip top bag, return to the freezer. When ready to bake place frozen tenders on a greased cookie sheet, bake at 425 degrees for 30 mins or so depending on your oven.

SO Easy! Enjoy!

My top 12 of 2012!

The year is over, and I know I am a couple days late, it has been a long yet quick 2012.  I have made a couple life changes this past year which have made me stronger and healthier.  I accomplished my first triathlon, which I never thought in a million years (and probably anyone who knows me) thought I would ever do. I have completely changed how I eat, going gluten free has been a blessing.

So, I thought I would share my top 12 viewed posts of 2012 (in order from oldest to newest), thank you for following and listening to my rants, struggles and adventures! 

Adventures in Training #3: January recap & February Goals

Vegetable & Tofu Stir Fry

Recycled Crayon Disks

Antojitos: Mexican Pork Tarts

Super Chocolate Cake with a Homemade Fluff Icing

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream

Moms Meet: Kashi Chocolate Soft Baked Squares

One Week Down: Gluten-free

Pumpkin Sweet Potato Soup

Sandy and Vegetable Quinoa Soup (GF)

My First Gluten-Free Thanksgiving (with recipes)

GF Stuffing

Sporty 3rd Birthday!

It's a soup kinda day!

Potato Soup - My top viewed post!

Looking forward to more in 2013!

Salted Flourless Chocolate Cookies (and a Month Gluten-Free)

My kitchen helper

I am about a month in to not eating any gluten; it has been a pretty good adventure so far.  I will admit I have had a few setbacks, but for the most part it has been pretty smooth.  I feel like I have explained myself and my reasons many times, but most people seem to understand (after first assuming I am doing it for weight loss.) I am not going to lie; the weight loss is a plus but not the reason. 

I finally made it back to my doctor, I explained how I was getting fed up with nothing helping (I was on three different medications) I felt like I was losing a battle.  I told her how my mom brought up celiac and cutting out gluten, and that I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try it.  I was concerned with what she would tell me, but it was all positive.  She explained how I still should take my one medication, since I was diagnosed with colitis, but I should keep up with the GF diet as well.  She went on to talk to me about other patients that suffer from both diseases and how they cope.  Since I haven’t been eating gluten, none of the tests would show a positive result for celiac.  But because of the family history I shared, she said there may be a chance I do suffer from it, and even if it isn’t full blown celiac, I definitely have an intolerance.  My choices would be to start eating gluten just for the test, an endoscopy, or hold off being tested but continue eating GF.  For now I am just going to continue on.  I feel better; I don’t need a test to tell me that, at least 
not right now.

Adding chocolate chips and nuts, so serious!

I made it through Thanksgiving and now we are in full swing into the Christmas season.  We plan on having Christmas dinner at our house this year, which I am excited about since I will be controlling the menu.  I don’t plan on making the whole meal GF; I can’t deprive my husband and son of rolls that would just be mean.  I have been looking around for some different ideas for the dinner menu, but I must admit my focus has been more on the cookies.  We are suckers for cookies in our house.  Plus we are doing a cookie exchange at work, so I need to figure out what I plan on making for that.

I already tried one batch of GF cookies, in my last post, now I am going to try to venture into more…I found a lot of recipes for GF Cookies on Foodgawker, I am planning to try out a few. 

iPhone picture

Salted Flourless Chocolate Cookies

(Inspired from Meaningful Eats) 

3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites, at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

½ cup chopped pecans

Coarse Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the sugar, cocoa and salt.  Slowly add egg whites and vanilla. Once all combined, stir in the chocolate chips and pecans.  

On a greased, or lined cookie sheet, add batter a teaspoon at a time.  The cookies will spread, so unless you want large cookies, use small mounds.  Sprinkle with the coarse salt.  Bake for about 15 minutes. (I made about 36 cookies)

The flavor of these cookies were really good and chocolaty, they were chewy and crisp at the same time.  They were also very thin (they would make great ice cream sandwiches.) I am not sure if my egg whites weren't quite warm enough or what.  I may play around with them a bit to see if I can make them "fluffier".  I will make these again.

Enjoy!

Homemade Granola Bars (My first attempt)

With some of the ingredients that I bought over the weekend I decided that I was going to make my own granola bars.  I didn't do much in the way of research before hand, I mean how hard can it really be?  Well I felt as my first attempt they turned out pretty good.  I think that I baked them just a little too long, but when you aren't focused on the oven and instead on your boys outside that tends to happen. 

The options are really endless when it comes to what you can add, you could just use oats or use a combination of oats and cereal or pretzels.  Dried fruits, nuts, nut butters, sweeteners (I recommend natural), candy, really anything!

I used:

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup pretzels, crushed (helpers are great for this step!)

1 cup mixed nuts, roughly chopped

1/2 cup craisins

2/3 cup peanut butter

2/3 cup honey

(I was going to also use carob chips and coconut, but forgot the chips and the coconut was bad.)

Lightly toast the oats, pretzels and nuts. While that is toasting, heat the honey and peanut butter until the peanut butter is really runny (about 1 minute in the microwave).

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, press into a greased 9 x 13 pan.  Bake at 350 until just golden and set.  Probably only 20 minutes. I didn't wait until they were cooled to cut because I didn't want them just to crumble. (And even if they did you now have granola!) The flavor was there, I just would have liked the texture to be more chewy and less crunchy.  If I baked them for less time then I may have achieved that, but I have next time, and I will make another batch.

Store in a plastic or glass container with a tight lid, they should last for about a week or so.