Cornmeal Peach Cake

The summer has come to an end, which means the end of summer fruits and veggies...a sad time for the freshness of summer. However, bring on all the fall goodness!

Towson Farmers Market

Walking through the farmers market the other day, amongst all the apples and the squashes...still remained a few peaches. The last of the late summer peaches. So it wasn't hard for me to decide to pick some up. I will admit, I don't like just eating peaches; the fuzz drives me crazy. But I will bake with them! I haven't made anything real sweet as if late, and a sweet treat was due. This cake is not overly sweet, I believe you could easily make it sweeter by adding a peach glaze...yeah, a nice sweet glaze would make this cake even better. I'll need to get on that.

Making this cake dairy free is easy, I was going to attempt to make it vegan but I have not attempted egg whites and egg yolk replacers...if the eggs were not separated it would be easy to swap them out. If you know a yolk replacement I'd love to hear what you use!

Cornmeal Peach Cake

adapted from Lulu's Sweet Secrets

1/2 cup butter (or coconut oil)

1 cup coconut milk (I used vanilla)

4 large eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

1 cup GF Cornmeal (I used Bob's Red Mill)

1 cup brown rice flour

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 tbsp baking powder

2 cups peaches, peeled and chopped

zest of one lemon

In a medium sauce pan, melt butter (or coconut oil), add the milk and simmer over low heat. Keep warm. 

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, slowly add the sugar. Mix cornmeal, flour, gum and powder in a bowl. Alternating, slowly add the milk mixture and the cornmeal/flour mixture. Combine well.

By hand, stir in the peaches and lemon zest. Pour into a greased and floured cake pan. Bake for about 40 minutes at 450 degrees.

Enjoy! What are some of your favorite ways to use peaches?

GFAF Expo and an Early Summer Treat

Come September 7th I will be one of the lucky bloggers to be attending the Gluten Free and Allergen Free Expo (GFAF) in Secaucus New Jersey! This is an exciting opportunity for me to meet other bloggers and to check out and share all kinds of products. I am looking to expanding my knowledge, growing as a blogger and sharing it with you! 

The expo will consist of over 150 vendors sharing their gluten and allergen free products, as well as numerous bloggers and writers sharing their experience. My plan will be to live tweet and blog my experiences throughout the day. I will be using the hash tag #gfafexpo as will other bloggers and visitors so if you aren't able to attend you can follow along on all the social networking sites. Check out their website, here.  

But until then...you can follow me and and my foodie adventures!

And so, it is farmers market season again, and I don't know about you but I love walking around the farmers markets! The one in walking distance from my office just started last Thursday and will be every Thursday through the summer. I walked up on Thursday to get a juice from one of my favorite juice bars, Zia's Cafe, and ended up walking around and buying some zucchini.  

I had all this zucchini and needed to use it up, since I am the only one that really eats it in my house, I invited a friend over to help me eat it up. I made a Zucchini and Mushroom Bake, very close to a crustless quiche.

Zucchini & Mushroom Bake

Ingredients:
4 small zucchini
1/2 medium onion
1 to 1 1/2 cups mushrooms
1/2 tsp herbamare
8 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/8 cup each shredded cheddar cheese, Gouda, and ricotta salada (feta or goat cheese would work also)
Salt and pepper to taste

Slice the zucchini, onions and mushrooms. Saute the onions and mushrooms just until soft (you can add the zucchini if you would like, I did not.) 

Grease a 9" pie pan, layer the zucchini, and top with the onion and mushrooms. Sprinkle the herbamare over the vegetables. Add the cheddar and Gouda. 


Beat together the eggs and milk, add a little salt and pepper.  Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables. Sprinkle the ricotta salada over the eggs and bake for about 20 minutes or until firm.

Enjoy! And keep an eye out for me in September at the Meadowlands!!

Will you be at the GFAF Expo? Let me know, I'd love to meet you!

And what are some of your favorite Farmers Market finds during the summer?

Recipe shared on Easy Green Mama, Gluten Free Linky for August 20, 2013

Camping Season means Camping Food!

Sorry!

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

Fruit & Nut Bars

Sorry!

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

Creamed Chipped Beef and Biscuits {Gluten Free}

I have been craving this...we would always buy the frozen prepackaged versions and those aren't gluten free (go figure).

Growing up creamed chipped beef was always something we had for dinner, over toast and sometimes biscuits, it was never something we had for breakfast.  It wasn't until my family and I went to visit my father-in-law and he made it for us for breakfast that it really sunk in how easy it is to make.  So...I went out and bought some dried beef.  Yup, the stuff in the jar. {Side note: the jars are really nice and can be used for drinking, and the lid just snaps back so good for trips. Less plastic!} 

Since I have been with my husband we have served chipped beef over biscuits more than over toast.  Which personally I prefer, so now I need to make a gluten free creamed chipped beef and gluten free biscuits.  The chipped beef is super simple, I just replaced regular flour with rice flour. 

Creamed Chipped Beef

2-4 oz. package of dried beef* (I used Hormel)
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. brown rice flour
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
pepper to taste

*dried beef is salty, so I would recommend rinsing the beef slightly to remove some of the salt.

Prepare beef, slice into bite size pieces and set aside. Melt the butter in a large skillet, once melted whisk in the flour to make a rue.  Slowly add the milk, continuously whisking to keep from getting any lumps. Continue to whisk the mixture until it thicken to your desired consistency. Add the beef and seasonings, once the beef is heated. Spoon over biscuits.

{Cheater} Gluten Free Biscuits

2 cups Gluten Free Bisquick 
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup milk or buttermilk
3 eggs

In a large bowl, cut the shortening into the Bisquick.  Mix in the milk and eggs.  Mix well, drop on an ungreased baking sheet. (The size of the drop will depend on how big you want your biscuits, they don't spread much) Bake for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees.  

Enjoy!

{GF} Fruit and Nut Muffins

Today is Easter so you would think I would post something Eastery...well, as much as I would have loved to write about homemade peeps, cream eggs, peanut butter eggs, etc.  (Which it is my intention to make every year.) I just never get around to doing it.  This year I felt like Easter snuck up on me...so even though I am making dinner today I decided that I was going to raid my pantry and fridge.  I like having things I can grab in the morning for a quick breakfast. I decided on muffins, I had a mango that needed to be used and various other fruits and veggies.  There are two major changes I would do with this recipe that I wasn't really paying attention to while I was adding all the ingredients.  The first one is the sugar, I would substitute some of the white sugar with some honey or just cut it back all together, depending on the fruit you use you may not need so much. And two, the oil...oh my, as soon as I poured it in the batter I thought "What the hell am I doing!?!" a cup of oil is A LOT, and I have apple sauce and bananas...shame on me!  So at the end of the directions I will let you know the substitution quantities.  

Asking the family what to call these muffins, since Trash Muffin didn't sound so great, I got GFG Muffins. So, here is the recipe..

GFG Fruit & Nut Muffins
(Gluten Free Goodness)

1 1/4 cups sugar
2 1/4 cups gluten-free all purpose flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum*
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup carrots, grated
1/2 apple, peeled and shredded (I would have used a whole, but the one I used happened to be half eaten)
1 mango, diced
1/2 cup blueberries
3/4 cups craisins
1/2 cup zucchini, shredded
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil**
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
ground flax seed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, prepare a muffin pan with either liners or cooking spray.

Mix together the sugar, flour, xanthan gum, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Combine all the fruit, veggies and nuts in a bowl. (You could use any combination of what you have on hand, but try to keep the moisture levels similar)

Add the fruit and nut mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add the eggs, oil**, and vanilla. Mix well.

Pour batter into the prepared muffin pan filling about 3/4 of the way full.  Sprinkle muffins with about 1/4 tsp of flax seed.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Notes:
*Only add If your flour mixture does not already includes xanthan gum or guar gum.
**Oil substitutions that would be great in these muffins:
   Use 1 cup of unsweetened apple sauce
   Use 3/4 cup mashed ripe banana (about one banana)
   Use 3/4 cup of any other fruit puree or butters
   Use 3/4 cup drained crushed pineapple

**Featured on Gluten Free Tuesday Linky 8/13/2013 with Easy Green Mama**

   

One Week Down: Gluten-free

I am one week into my Gluten-Free (GF) diet; and just as a reminder, I am not doing this for fun, this is out of a need to heal my body. It hasn't been as hard as I originally thought it would be. I find that I am just eating more naturally GF products (with a few corn chips and GF pretzels thrown in.) I have stopped looking at this change as a bad and disappointing thing but more of a change for the better. I am already noticing that I am making better food choices and my body can tell the difference. I figure it will take a few more weeks to really notice a change but I know my mornings haven’t been as painful. I will still get an upset stomach after eating some things that I thought were GF or anything with too much dairy, but still it hasn’t been as bad. I know I have a lot more research to do to fully understand the GF lifestyle and I am prepared for the challenge adventure.  I am starting to see this as a life change, and not just a hump in the road, I have to admit it is a little scary but like I just said, I am prepared for this and having my family's support really helps.

I have been looking at different blogs, through different books, trying to get inspired for different food ideas. This past week, I ate a lot of salad with all my favorite add-ins, well except the croutons but nuts and seeds make up for the crunch. Some of the other foods I ate/made were: egg muffins with sautéed kale and mushrooms, that were great as a grab and go morning breakfast along with a banana; pumpkin and sweet potato soup, I froze some and the rest brought to work for lunch; tacos! {I love tacos} in corn shells of course and had left overs for lunch. I also snacked on grapes, multigrain corn chips, GF pretzels, hummus and vegetables like cauliflower and celery. I got to try Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix, for one evening we did breakfast for dinner. I personally really enjoyed them. It was a combination of different flours which included almond. There was a chocolate chip cookie recipe on the side of the bag that I would like to try at some point.

I have two parties to attend this weekend, the one I know that I will be bringing at least one dish (maybe two) but the other is a kids party and will probably not have too much for me to nibble on.  Both parties I will probably eat at least something before I go, just in case. [Side note: this wasn't posted until after the parties, I gave in and tried a piece of an awesome Mushroom Marsala Tart and I am not sure how much it did to me because I also drank too much wine and that usually bothers me, but either way my belly was NOT happy with me in the morning.]

Okay, so enough about that and now on to the recipes.  I mentioned this soup on an earlier post, it was originally from The Gluten-Free Goddess, I made a few changes due to what I had on hand.  The flavor was really good, not too sweet, not too spicy. I also try not to over puree soups because I like a little texture.  The egg muffins on the other hand were inspired by something I saw on Pinterest, I like having things I can just grab and go in the mornings.  And these freeze really well.

Pumpkin Sweet Potato Soup

(adapted from the Gluten-Free Goddess, see the original recipe here)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 medium carrots, peeled, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
Dash of salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 15-oz. can pumpkin
2 small sweet potatoes, roasted, peeled, cubed
3 cups vegetable broth
3 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons dry sherry

In a heavy soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat, and sauté the onion for about 5 minutes until softened. Add in the chopped carrots and celery, and stir in the spices. Lower heat and gently cook for about 10 minutes.

Add in the pumpkin, sweet potato, broth and sherry; stir together. Cover and bring to a slow simmer, cooking the soup for about 25-35 minutes until the vegetables are very tender.

Remove from heat, and puree the soup. (I used a my blender, and pureed it batches filling only about half way full. Put the pureed soup back into the pot and continue to cook on low. Taste and adjust the seasonings.  This made about 6 servings or so and seems to freeze well.

Read more: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2007/11/pumpkin-sweet-potato-soup.html#ixzz2AKacxJ3O

Egg Muffins with Kale and Mushrooms

(makes 12 muffins)

2 cups Kale, chopped (spinach would work also)

1 cup mushrooms, sliced (use your favorite)

1 small onion, chopped fine

1 clove garlic, chopped fine

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

6 eggs

3 tbsp plain yogurt

pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat, add the onions and garlic and saute until translucent  Add the chopped kale and mushrooms toss to coat in the oil onion mixture, sprinkle with the salt and cover. Let cook until the kale had wilted and the mushrooms are tender.

Spray the muffin pan with cooking spray, fill each cup about half way with the kale and mushroom mixture.  Let cool slightly.

Mean while, whisk the eggs and yogurt together. Fill the muffin cups with the egg mixture. Bake  at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or so until the egg is firm to the touch.

*I didn't add cheese but you could easily add different ingredients. However, I do add a little bit of cheese on top when I heat them in the microwave. They only take about 30-45 seconds to heat through in the microwave from a frozen state.  You could also use a mini muffin pan to make little appetizers. The options are endless!

Brown Sugar Banana Bread (and muffins)

I have been trying to base my diet on a Low-Residue Diet (LRD), this usually is a temporary thing for me and it is to help with my colitis. But lately I have been trying to find ways to be on the diet and not lose flavor. So what is a LRD?

A low-residue diet is a diet in which fiber and other foods that are harder for your body to digest are restricted. Fiber is made up of plant material that cannot be completely digested by the body. High-fiber foods include whole-grain breads and cereals, nuts, seeds, and raw or dried fruits.

Eating a low-residue/low-fiber diet goes against what nutritionists tout as a healthy way to eat because it severely limits fiber intake and other important nutrients. A low-residue/low-fiber diet usually stays away from grainy, nutty foods that are loaded with fiber.  (webmd.com)

I also stay away from dairy, heavily spiced foods, and as much red meat as possible.  It is a very limiting diet, and frankly I am glad it is usually temporary!  I try to make sure anything I eat has less than 1 gram of fiber...it is difficult.  Especially when it is so ingrained to eat whole grains, fruits and vegetables.  So I have been do some research and finding combinations that are flavorful and work well with the LRD.

The first thing I made was Brown Sugar Banana Bread out of "Eating for IBS" by Heather Van Vorous.  There are a lot of things in this cookbook that would really good but it is written for IBS not IBD, there is a difference.  Anyway, to the bread...the recipe makes two loaf but I only had one loaf pan so I mad one loaf and 12 muffins.


Brown Sugar Banana Bread
(Adapted from Heather Van Vorous)

3 1/2 cups all-purpose white flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 egg whites (I used egg beaters 100% egg whites)
1/3 cup canola oil (I used vegetable oil)
1 1/3 cup brown sugar (I used Splenda Brown Sugar Blend)
1 Tbsp Vanilla
3 cups mashed ripe bananas (6-8 bananas)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift the first four ingredients together in a large bowl.  In a seperate large bowl mix together the remaining ingredents until creamy.  (I left a few banana chunks since I like banana peices in my bread.) Pour into greased pans, bake 50-60 minutes (for loaf), only about 20-25 minutes for muffins. Cool. Extra freezes well.

*If you aren't following any special dietary restrictions...walnuts and/or chocolate chips would be really good in this! 

Enjoy!

Homemade Blueberry Pop-tarts

When it is gloomy I tend to get on a baking kick, it has been super wet the last few weeks and finally it is sunny and nice. Fall.

Well this post is over due, I actually made these two weeks ago. I have seen recipes before but what finally gave me a push was the September version of the Food Network Magazine (FNM). My version is slightly different, FNM uses grape jelly and an orange glaze. I am sure that would be delicious, but I had some fresh/frozen blueberries so I made my own blueberry filling. My husband has been taking samples of my baked items to work for the guys. The next requested version of these will be with a nutella filling.

Here is the adapted version:

For the tarts:
3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp shortening, cold and cut in small pieces
2 sticks butter, cold and cut in small pieces
1/2 cup blueberry purée (directions follow)
1 large egg
1/2 milk

Pulse flour, sugar and salt in food processor until combined. Add shortening and about one-quarter of the butter and pulse until they disappear in the flour. Add remaining butter and pulse until it looks like course meal with pea size pieces of butter. Add 1/2 cup ice water and pulse a couple times until dough comes together. Turn out on to plastic wrap, form into a disk and chill at least an hour up to one day.
While the dough is in the refrigerator prepare the blueberry filling.

Blueberry filling:
1-1 1/2 cups blueberries
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch

In a small sauce pan, on medium-low heat, heat the blueberries and sugar until the blueberries break down. About 30 min. Remove from heat and stir in cornstarch stirring consistently until the sauce is thick. Set aside to cool.

Roll out the chilled dough to about 1/4 inch thick and cut into 3 x 4 pieces. You should end up with about 12 total. Spoon out about a tablespoon of the filling and place in the center of one rectangle. Brush the edge with egg and lay another rectangle in top, using a fork press the edges. Brush with a mix of milk and egg. Repeat until all six are made. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Blueberries!

This is all about blueberries, and you can tell how behind I am since they really aren't in season anymore...but they were!

In my area of Southern Pennsylvania blueberries were just going out of season but were in full swing in Northern Pennsylvania when we took a long weekend trip to visit my father-in-law. After a morning of feeding the animals at Animal land, my father-in-law, husband and I took our son blueberry picking. The view from the orchard was just beautiful. I wasn't sure how well a toddler (or my husband) would do with picking blueberries for a couple hours but for the most part they did really well. (Until shortly before we left when there was a little too tired melt down.)

Blueberry Orchard

My son probably ate or threw more than what he actually put in the bucket but I sort of expected that. My husband seemed to be enjoying himself, or at least he acted like he was. He even disappeared for a little while, probably to sneak a smoke, but came back with handfuls. I think at the end of the day we ended up with more than 5 pints of blueberries, so we split them with my father-in-law and started thinking of what to make.

Once I got back home, I rinsed and froze all the berries (which are great to munch on frozen). I then decided on making Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins. As I was making these I was thinking of how good they will be and how I wanted to share the recipe with my father-in-law, well the only problem was he isn’t able to eat processed sugars. So below the original recipe, which is adapted from A Farm Girls Dabbles  recipe for Grandma Renelt's Blueberry Muffins with Crumble Topping, I have posted a couple links for sugar-free blueberry muffins.  It was my intention to make a batch of sugar-free (and still plan on it) I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

**These muffins are best eaten warm and within a day or two.

for the muffins:

1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1-1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 cup fresh blueberries (or frozen do not thaw)

for the crumble topping:

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 T. butter, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 400°. Line muffin tin.
Mix egg, milk, and oil in small bowl. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir. Do not over mix. Fold in blueberries. Spoon into muffin tin and let rest a few minutes while you prepare the crumble topping.

In a small bowl, blend all topping ingredients until crumbly. You want some pea-size pieces of crumble. Sprinkle over muffin batter.

Bake until golden, about 20 minutes.

Yield: 12 muffins

Sugar-Free Muffins:

- Sugar Free Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins
- Sugar-Free Blueberry Muffins
- Primal Coconut Blueberry Muffins

Enjoy!

Short-cut Sticky Buns

Half eaten.

These are a play on sticky buns and monkey bread (aka pull-apart bread).  This is prepared and cooked in an oven safe skillet, four ingredients and super super simple.

Ingredients:

1 container of refrigerated biscuits (8-ct)
1 stick of butter
1/2 chopped nuts (optional)
1/2 cup brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In an oven safe skillet, add nuts, toast for just a minute and then add the butter and sugar. Melt the butter and sugar together to make a caramel sauce. While the mixture is melting together, quarter the biscuits.  Add the biscuits to the sauce mixture and lightly toss/stir to coat.  Place the skillet in the oven and cook until the biscuits are fully cooked, about 15 minutes.

Turn out on to a plate and serve warm and gooey.

Celebrate Mothers Brunch Menu

The Menu:
Morning Glory Muffins
Bacon and Spring Onion Quiche
Asparagus and Goat Cheese Quiche
Yogurt, Granola and Strawberries

Morning Glory Muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 cup regular oats
¾ cups packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon wheat bran
2 tablespoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup plain fat free yogurt
1 cup mashed banana (about 2)
1 large egg
1 cup chopped pitted dates*
¾ cup chopped walnuts*
½ cup chopped dried pineapple*
3 tablespoons ground flaxseed (about 2 tablespoons whole)

Preheat oven to 350º

Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flours and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in the center of mixture.

Combine yogurt, banana and egg; add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in dates, walnuts and pineapple. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle evenly with flaxseed. Bake at 350º for about 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pans immediately; cool on wire racks.

*You could substitute any nut or dried fruit for this recipe; raisins, apples, apricots, unsweetened coconut, pecans, etc.

Bacon and Spring Onion Quiche with Fontina Cheese

1 prepared pie crust
4 bacon slices, cut into small strips
3 large spring onions, sliced
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 ¼ cups egg substitute
2/3 cups low fat milk

Pre bake pie crust as directed on package. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, cook bacon. Remove from pan; reserve about 2 teaspoons of the drippings. Add the onions to the pan cook just until tender about 5 minutes. Remove from pan. Arrange onions and bacon in the pie crust.

Combine egg substitute, milk, salt and pepper; stir well with a whisk. Pour into crust. Bake at 425º for about 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Asparagus and Goat Cheese Quiche

 

1 prepared pie crust
8 Asparagus spears
¼ cup soft goat cheese
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 ¼ cups egg substitute

2/3 cups low fat milk

Pre bake pie crust as directed on package. Fill a 2 quart pot about half way with water and bring to a boil. Add asparagus and let boil for about one minute, remove from boiling water and transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Arrange the asparagus around the pie crust. Crumble the goat cheese around the crust.

Combine egg substitute, milk, salt and pepper; stir well with a whisk. Pour into crust. Bake at 425º for about 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.