Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Pumpkin Muffins

We love muffins at our home especially fresh from the oven!  Finding a recipe that meets the qualifications of soy free, dairy free, gluten free, chicken egg free and TASTES GREAT with good texture is well.......challenging!  I have been hungry for a good pumpkin muffin...home baked!

I decided to try my hand at an idea to see if I could meet the cravings of my mind and stomach. 

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!  In addition to the taste, the texture was very good!

2 cups of Trader Joe's Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancake Mix
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 T oil
3/4 c Trader Joe's Vanilla Coconut Beverage*
1 duck egg, lightly beaten **
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 c chocolate chips.  See additional notes.

Stir until ingredients are just mixed.  Pour into muffin tins 2/3 full.  Bake at 350 for 15 to 17 minutes.

* If you do not have this dairy-free alternative on hand just what you normally would as a dairy/milk replacement.

** Other egg free replacements are 1 ripened banana, mashed.  Or, 1 tablespoon applesauce.  From my experience, a banana gives a better texture than applesauce.  Both will give a rubbery texture which we do not prefer.

Additional notes, we enjoy chocolate chips but since they can add dairy to the recipe, I have been using Trader Joe's Roasted Cocoa Nibs.  The other option is to use dark chocolate chips.


Saturday, December 17, 2016

Pa Jeon (Korean Scallion Pancakes)

For one pancake:

1 tsp sesame oil
1 green onion, chopped up
2 mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons, cooked spaghetti squash and, or julienned carrots
2 eggs
3 T potato starch or sweet rice flour

Use a 6-8 inch skillet for this.

Mix eggs and potato starch until smooth with no lumps.  Set aside.

Heat oil.  Sautee onions and mushrooms.  Add veggies and cook until tender.  Add additional oil if need be.  heated some leftover spaghetti squash that I had, sliced a green onion and sauteed them.


Add egg mixture.  Cook over medium heat until set.  Carefully flip and cook other until lightly brown.


Monday, September 19, 2016

Fresh Garden Tomato Soup

Here is then general idea of what I did.  Unfortunately I did not measure anything.

About 4 cups of cherry, grape or Sunburst tomatoes
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of fresh minced garlic
salt and pepper
organic oregano
organic thyme
organic marjoram
organic summer savoy

Heat olive oil in saute pan.  Add tomatoes to pan.  Keep heating on high which will allow the tomatoes to blister and pop.  Using a potato masher, mash the tomatoes once they have plumbed up and some have begun to pop.  Add the minced garlic.   Stir in the herbs to taste.  Using a emulsifier blender, blend until smooth.  Serve warm.

When I made this, I froze the tomatoes once they were cooked as we were leaving out of town.  Today I reheated the tomatoes and then blended the soup to make it creamy.

Monday, July 4, 2016

Corn, Watermelon Feta Cheese Salad

  • 3 ears sweet corn, husks and silks removed
  • 4 cups watermelon, seeded and diced
  • 1/4 cup feta, crumbled - use goat or sheep's milk
  • 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons spearmint or mint, finely chopped
  • black pepper, to taste
  • salt, to taste


Cook corn in hot boiling salted water for 5 minutes.  Remove and allow to cool.  Chop watermelon, crumble feta and chop mint while corn cools.  Cut corn from cob.  Discard cobs.  Toss corn, watermelon, and crumbled feta in a large salad bowl.  Whisk together rice wine vinegar, olive oil, chopped mint in a small bowl.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Toss salad with dressing until thoroughly dressed. Cover and chill for about one hour until ready to eat.

Monday, January 11, 2016

Yummy Chili

4 tsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 peppers, diced
1 celery stalk, chopped finely
1 c chopped, sweet onions
1 1/2 pound ground meat (beef, chicken or turkey)
1 T all purpose flour * GF Note below
4 T tomato paste or catsup (if using, catsup omit brown sugar)
1T chili powder
1 1/2 t cumin
2 tsp brown sugar (see note above)
1 t oregano
1/2 t cinnamon
3 - 4 c. broth, depending on how "soupy" prefer (beef or chicken)
1 can of drained, rinsed white cannellini beans

Heat oil in Dutch oven.  Add garlic, peppers, celery and onions.  Saute until soft.  About 5 minutes.  Add meat and saute until "just" done.  Sprinkle with flour.  Stir to coat meat.  Add remaining ingredients and cook at least 30 minutes until done.

Note:  any kind of pepper will work in this chili.  I have used poblano and bell peppers as well as any combination of them.

GF note:  If making this gluten free, used some potato starch instead of all purpose flour.  Cook for 2 minutes until meat is a little brown.

Friday, October 2, 2015

Stuffed Peppers

heat oven to 450 degrees

Cut 6 bell pepper in half.  Clean out the insides leaving the stem on the pepper.  Use olive oil and lightly oil the peppers.  Sprinkle with a little salt.  Place cut side down in a 13 x 9 pan.  Roast for 20 minutes until tender.

Filling:

1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 poblano pepper, finely chopped
1 cup of finely chopped carrots
1 cup finely chopped Cremini mushrooms

Sautee the above ingredients in about a hot cast iron skillet.  Once the vegetables begin to soften and sweat

Add:

3 tablespoons of olive oil

Continue to saute

Add:

5 small cloves of garlic, minced

Cook until the garlic begins to let out its oil.

Add:

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped

Cook until the mixture is all combined.

Add:

Tomato basil spaghetti sauce just until the mixture comes together.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees.

Spoon filling into the pepper halves.  Place in the 13 x 9 pan used for roasting the bell peppers.  Top peppers with some grated Monterrey Jack cheese and some grated Pecorino Romano cheese.  Bake until heated thoroughly which was about 15 to 20 minutes.


Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Monique's Gluten Free Pie Crust

A dear, sweet friend sent me this recipe for a gluten free pie crust.  It is also soy free, egg free and nut free.  If you substitute out the butter, this pie crust can also be dairy free!

2 cups gluten free all purpose flour
2 T sugar
1 tsp salt

Process the above ingredients in a food processor.

Add 11/4 cups cold, unsalted butter (or non-dairy replacement)

Process for 15 seconds!

Add 1 more cup of gluten free all purpose flour

Process until combined.

Dump into a mixing bowl.

Add:

1/4 c ice cold vodka
1/4 c ice cold water although you may not need it all depending on the absorbency of the flour

Divide dough in half.  Roll into balls and wrap in plastic wrap.  Chill for at least 45 minutes.  Roll out between two sheets of wax paper.  Add pie filling and bake as normal.