Chocolate & Almond & Date Balls

Elana has a recipe on her blog www.elanaspantry.com called Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls but I am trying to eat more almonds instead. These are so very yummy. I used raw almonds in place of roasted peanuts and used 3/4 cup whole pitted dates. I get my foods in the bulk food section at Winco to save on the cost.

Ingredients: 

3/4 cup whole pitted dates
1 cup raw almonds
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder (I used hershey's)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon water

• Put everything into a food processor
• Pulse or just turn on until it forms a sticky paste. The dates hold the mixture together (see my picture below) 
• Remove the mixture and roll into little balls
• Eat!! 

Almond Butter and Dark Chocolate Bars

If you know me, I love anything peanut butter and chocolate. I have been eating more almond butter lately instead of peanut butter. I love Elana's pantry and used her recipe to make bars instead of butter cups or balls. I was actually going to make the balls and think they will turn out better than my bars. I finally caved about bought Guittard Extra Dark Chocolate Chips. Yikes they are expensive at almost $3 a bag but they are dairy free and made in a gluten free facility so I knew I was safe. I usually get the dark chocolate chips in bulk at Winco for almost the same price but those have dairy in them.  I classified them under healthy whole snacks: a 94 year old patient told me dark chocolate helps with her pain plus the benefits of almonds and flax. Here is what I made:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vanilla almond butter (1/2 cup almond butter, 1/2 tablespoon honey, 1/4 tsp vanilla, pinch of sea salt)
1 1/2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
1 cup dark chocolate chips (Guittard)

What to do:

• combine the vanilla almond butter and ground flaxseed
• melt 1/2 cup dark chocolate in the microwave
• spread in a small shallow bread pan (next time I will use a pie plate or a shallower dish)
• cool the chocolate in the freezer for 10-15 minutes
• press the almond butter on top of the chocolate (see my picture below)
• cool again in the freezer for 10 minutes
• melt the remaining 1/2 cup dark chocolate in the microwave and spread on top of the almond butter
• cool in the fridge
• cut into bars

Check out what Elana did : http://www.elanaspantry.com/nut-butter-cups/

Gluten Free Pumpkin Scones

My husband's cousin Debby sent me this recipe many months ago and I am finally trying it because I finally found Millet flour.

Ingredients

• 1 cup millet flour ( I used Bob's Red Mill)
• 1 cup tapioca flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon arrowroot flour/powder (I used Bob's Red Mill)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves, ground
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger, ground
• 6 tablespoons Spectrum Organic All Natural Butter Flavor Shortening (I did not use the butter flavored, just regular Spectrum) 
• 1 EnerG egg replacer (I used one large egg)
• 1/2 cups pumpkin, canned
• 3 tablespoons milk (I used vanilla almond milk)

Instructions

• Refrigerate Shortening until ready for use (30 minutes is good).
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or use baking stone.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, stir together the dry ingredients. Add the chilled shortening in by the tablespoon. Mix on medium-low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with shortening pieces no larger than pea-size.

In a separate bowl, whisk together your egg replacer, pumpkin and allowed milk. Fold wet ingredients into dry and form into a dough ball. (You may need to use your hands to get it all fully incorporated.)

Pat out dough ball onto baking sheet until about 1 inch thick and form into a circle (I used a spatula). Refrigerate for 30 minutes, if not firm enough to form or cut. Cut triangle slices with large knife, then cut triangles in half, making a concentric circle. Here is my picture before I put it in the fridge:

Bake for 14-16 minutes (I did 20 minutes) @ 425 or until light brown. I thought the scones were looking dry but they did not taste dry. The inside seemed to not have cooked but it was cooked. Baking gluten free certainly is different and looks different....something I am still getting used to.

Make the sugar glaze and spread on top of the cooled scones.

Spiced Glaze: (I halved the recipe and found that was plenty)
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp allowed milk (I used vanilla almond milk)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground ginger
1 pinch ground cloves

Allow icings to harden before serving or microwave about 15 seconds before serving and serve warm.

http://willingcook.com/the-willing-cook-a-long-pumpkin-scone-and-challenge-revision/

Mexican Lasagna

I can throw things together for dinner very easily and have it turn out great most of the time. I love to cook and come up with a cool recipe easier than I can with baking. Usually I throw things together without measuring but since I started my blog and when friends as for recipes, I try to get a close to exact measurement. My friend Kerri introduced me to enchilada pie a year ago but that had cheese in it so I had to tweak some ingredients. She told me you just through any vegetable in that you want and she was right. I originally used ground turkey but tonight I decided to try chicken marinated in red enchilada sauce. My family's version had cheese in it without olives because my crazy husband cannot stand olives and I am off dairy.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 28 oz can La Victoria Red Enchilada Sauce (according to the Hormel foods website this product is gluten free). I only used one can but next time I will use 1 1/2. 
• 2 large chicken breast cooked and shredded (mine were super extra large)
• 2 green peppers, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped 
• 1 medium onion chopped (i put in raw but next time I will sauté first) 
• fresh spinach (I don't know exact amount since I buy the large bag from Costco, but a 10oz bag should do it)
• 6 oz can olives (I bought mine whole and then sliced)
• 18 small yellow or white corn tortillas (Mission's website states they are gluten free)

What I did:

• Mixed together the enchilada sauce and the shredded chicken and put it in the fridge to marinate for 2 hours. Use enough enchilada sauce to coat the chicken and save the rest for the casserole (see picture below)

Layers :

• spread a thin layer of enchilada sauce in an 8x10 casserole dish (I used a 9x13 but it wasn't deep enough)
• cover and layer with 6 corn tortillas (see below for picture)
• layer 1/2 chicken mixture
• layer small amount of spinach & red and green peppers & olives & onion
• layer 6 corn tortillas (I had to press down on the tortillas and push the ingredients into the pan)
• layer rest of the chicken mixture
• layer 6 corn tortillas
• layer spinach & red and green peppers & olives & onion
• drizzle with about a cup of enchilada sauce (I did not do this because I did not have enough sauce leftover. I would do this because when baking it dries out the vegetables and corn toritllas on top without it and I think using it would make up for not using cheese)
• Cover with cheddar and mozzarella cheese, if desired
• I covered with foil and baked at 350 for 30 minutes

You can layer this dish however you want and it should still come out tasting great!

What it looked like after baking (yes
                                                       all the veggies were soft)

Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tomorrow Aiden goes back to school and I found that I did not have any gluten free snacks for him to take in his lunchbox. I tried out these cookies from glutenfreegoddess with some minor modifications (she makes these vegan) and they are a success as told by my husband and son.  I did not try these because I am not eating dairy but when I try this recipe again I will make it vegan like she does. The recipe below is what I did but there is a link below to her recipe. The picture shown below is what I made tonight. I believe the cookie is dark because of the buckwheat flour. 
Update 1/8/12: I made these using Spectrum Shortening instead so I can eat them. I also used Sorghum flour instead of the brown rice flour and semi-sweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli) instead of dark chocolate chips. I think I have eaten 10 so far tonight. SO YUMMY!!

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup buckwheat flour (yes buckwheat is gluten free)
1 cup brown rice or sorghum flour (I used brown rice flour)

1/2 cup tapioca starch

1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon sea salt

Wet Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter.

1 1/2 cups brown sugar (I did not have enough brown sugar so I used 1/2 cup organic sugar cane)

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 tablespoon honey 

2 eggs

Add:

2-5 tablespoons milk, as needed (I used 2 tablespoons)

1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

Whisk together the flours, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, baking soda and sea salt in a big mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until combined.

Add in beaten eggs and beat to combine.

Add in the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and beat to combine, until a dough forms, adding a tablespoon of milk at a time to achieve a sturdy, smooth dough (I used 2 tablespoons)

Add in the chocolate chips. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for an hour (gluten free dough is easier to handle when cold). 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

Using a spoon, scoop wads of dough and form them into twenty round balls; place them on the lined cookie sheet (I use a silpat) about two inches apart. Press down on the dough balls ever so slightly, but keep a slightly mounded shape- not too flat (I used 2 wet fingers to press them down)

Bake in the center of a pre-heated oven for 12 to 15 minutes (I baked for 10 minutes), until the cookies are firm to the touch. Remove the cookies with a thin spatula and place them on a cooling rack. They will crisp as they cool (I let them cool about 3 minutes before taking them off the pan)

This recipe makes 20 large cookies. For some reason, the larger size bakes up better than smaller- crispy good on the outside and tender-chewy in the middle.

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2008/03/buckwheat-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

Gluten Free Crusty Boule

This is another recipe I tried from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: Gluten-Free Crusty Boule. You make the dough ahead of time and put it in the fridge for at least 24 hours, take a grapefruit size piece and shape it, let it rest for 90 minutes and bake for 35 minutes. I shape mine a little differently but also put the slash marks on it to make it look artisan.  When I started making gluten free bread to save money on the expensive Udi's bread, my kids did not want the Udi's bread anymore. The link below is from the authors of the book. The picture below is what I made.

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/2010/01/05/gluten-free-crusty-boule

This is their book:

Mary's Gone Crackers: Sticks and Twigs

A teacher at Matt's school bought these for me. Not a huge fan but they are good when you want to snack on something and there is nothing else to eat. I would not go out and buy because they are too much of a crunch and I think I may break a tooth if I kept eating these.