Blueberry Muffins (Gluten-Free/Egg-Free)

Found this recipe and started putting it together. I then remembered that I had used the last of the eggs last night in an egg-bake. Well, scanning the ingredients to see how much I needed to do substituting for, was pleasantly surprised that there were no eggs. I ended up putting the batter in an 8 x 8 pan and leaving it in the oven at 325 degrees for about 40 minutes. It tastes excellent!!

*(for Amy) If you only have an egg allergy, I would think that you could use 2 cups all purpose flour and skip the xanthan gum.

My changes are italicized.

2 cups gluten-free all-purpose baking flour - gluten-free flour mix
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt - salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup canola oil
2/3 cup agave nectar
2/3 cup rice milk - coconut milk and kefir (not enough coconut milk)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries - frozen and a bit extra

Side note...we are getting a new window today and since there is some dust from the construction the Blueberry Bread is now taking up residence in our bedroom. Mmmm...sweet dreams tonight!!

Tastes great!!

Gluten Free Biscuits

Found this recipe at Southern Food.com

I used their function to make 6 instead of 12 biscuits, added some extra gf flour (noted), and put it in a oven safe dish. It wasn't really a roll out biscuit even after the additional flour. It was tasty though!

1 cup gluten-free flour (+1/2 c.)
1/2 cup white cornmeal (gluten-free)
1/8 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 eggs (beaten)
1/2 cup milk
1/8 cup canola oil

Bake 425 degrees for ~20 minutes.

Gluten Free Pound Cake

Aunt C found a great pound cake recipe for our family Christmas gathering. We had a fondue theme and it was really fun!! The recipe is here. We ended up using a different chocolate recipe though. I'll try to get a picture to show our fun!

Cooking Chickpeas

I thought I would make this recipe:

Sweet and Salty Chickpeas

And I learned a valuable lesson...it has taken a few times of this happening to make me research it.

**There is a difference between wax paper and parchment paper.**

Here is the link I found to tell me more: http://www.chow.com/food-news/55408/whats-the-difference-between-parchment-paper-and-waxed-paper/

Wax paper, which I have, is not meant to go in the oven. It burns to whatever you are using with it and therefore causes smoke, which sets of fire alarms, which causes your verbal 3 year old to say, "Why does your oven do a fire alarm?" :)

Update: I expected the chickpeas to be crunchy, but they weren't. I'm not sure if this was due to the wax paper removal, mid-cooking, or that it just wasn't supposed to be that way. I am trying to think of ways to use up my sweetened chickpeas...thinking of maybe grinding them into a sweet hummus. We'll see.

Fun with MegaBloks

The girls really enjoy building with Mega Bloks, so this year I have been looking for secondhand bits of blocks. So, tonight as we listened to a yum CD that my sister made the girls we built towers, a green alligator train, letters of the alphabet, steps, etc. Teddy got the privilege of riding the green alligator. In the second picture, Kj is unable to get off of the phone for a short picture. I forgot to ask who she was talking to. Probably her cousin! She thinks of him often...even while building tonight.

Coconut Balls

I'll start the post with L's entertainment while I did some chocolate coating:


So, I decided that I would make a gluten-free sweet holiday treat, and coconut balls were ideal, because they are lactose-free as well. The fact that my grandma used to make them...or was it my aunt...and they were delicious also factored in. But I decided to add an almond as well, to make it a titch more exciting!

My recipe came from my very rarely used Betty Crocker Cookie Cookbook. Rarely used because I rarely make cookies, but I had to have it because it was a cookbook that my mom kept in our house. Some things that your mom has you "just have to have"!


Something I would note about making the coconut balls themselves, is that I would make them in to balls before refrigerating. I think they would hold together better that way, although I didn't get a chance to test that.

My attempt at making the chocolate coating took forever. I do not have a double boiler (an example) and the glass bowl that I decided would be best I gave to my sister-in-law...Aunt A...I might be asking for that back if you don't use it! :) Well, anyways, it took me a long time and the chocolate never really made it to the consistency that I had imagined (a bit runny)... I spent hours on this. About an hour before supper and an hour after.

Here are my coated coconut balls...not pretty but yummy! I haven't actually taste tested the completed product, but I can assume.

Here is my "I'm not a cookie-maker...I am not interested in rolling any more of these coconut balls" product:

And here it is slathered with chocolate on top:

Potty Training...

It's come around again! L has been making very good progress in unofficial potty training and today I asked her if she wanted to wear some panties. Yes, she nodded. Ok...here it goes... That was about 10am when I finally got the girls out of their pjs. It has been an accident free morning!!

My method...which isn't a method at all really. I ask her if she needs to go every now and then. Every once in a while if she hasn't gone, I remind her that she can have a cracker if she goes. Then she decides it is a good idea and goes. :) I thought about a nap without diaper and decided that I would but would put some plastic pants over her panties...just in case. I wasn't going to be too brave!

Other things going on today, but that will come later.