Gluten Free Corn Muffins

1 1/4 cups corn flour
1/2 cup Rice Four Mix
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1 egg (beaten)
1/3 cup oil (I used safflower oil)
1/3 cup honey
1 cup almond milk or water

Mix dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and stir to combine. Spoon into greased muffins tins and bake at 350 degrees for 15-19 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from pans and set on cooling racks to cool after baking, then wrap/cover right away. Gluten free baked goods tend to dry out really fast. Freeze leftovers and reheat by wrapping in aluminum foil and placing in 350 degree oven for 5-10 until warmed through and soft.

I turned these into gluten free cornbread stuffing yesterday for our Thanksgiving.

Happy Baking!

Allergen Free Cranberry Jelly

I did it!!!! I made cranberry jelly for Buddy. (Now I just hope that he will like it as well as the stuff out the can) Buddy loves the canned cranberry jelly.  Yes, I mean the one you pour out in the shape of the can. But the only problem is that even the Organic stuff I can get from the store has sugar and lemon juice in it (citrus is a big allergen). So I set out to make some. I decided against the whole cranberry method, because Buddy has texture issues. And I thought I could probably not get it completely free from pulp and seeds. So I decided on pure cranberry juice. The first batch I forgot about on the stove and it burnt (agave nectar smells really bad when burned). I was going to use fruit pectin, but then I read the ingredients (dextrose and citric acid etc). So I went with good old plain gelatin (we have no problems really in the meat department).

Cranberry Jelly-

1 cup cold pure cranberry juice (I used Knudsen's Organic Just Cranberry Juice)
2 cups cranberry juice
Rice Syrup and Agave Nectar to taste (~ 1 cup rice syrup and 1/4 cup agave) I used Lundberg's Rice Syrup & Madhava Amber Agave Nectar
Box of pure gelatin (I used Knox unflavored gelatin)

Pour 3 c. cold cranberry juice in to pot, stir in rice syrup and agave (sweeten to taste). Ladle out 1 cup of sweetened juice. Bring  remaining 2 cups of juice to a boil. Meanwhile sprinkle 3 packs of plain gelatin (box comes with four) over the 1 cup cold cranberry juice and let sit for one minute. Pour boiling juice into bowl with cold juice that was mixed with gelatin. Stir well to combine. Let cool and place in refrigerator. Refrigerate until set.


Now we are ready for Thanksgiving!

Minestrone Soup

Cool weather is here. And that gets me thinking about soup and other warm dishes. This is a recipe I came up with years ago. You can add pasta if you desire, but I am kind of a texture freak and don't like pasta in my soups. 

Minestrone Soup

Large Onion diced

½ cabbage chopped

3 stalks celery diced

6 carrots peeled &diced

3 Large russet potatoes peeled & cubed

3 cans diced tomatoes

1 large can Hunts Original Spaghetti Sauce

2 cans Green Giant Northern Beans

3 cans Red Runner Creole Style Red Beans (or four cans Red Beans, leave two reg, and puree two cans in blender)

1 large can tomato paste

1 large pack of frozen corn

In a large soup pot, over medium heat, pour olive oil (good turn around the pan), celery, onions, carrots, potatoes and cabbage. Cook until cabbage is translucent and onions are clear. Pour in the complete cans of tomatoes, and spaghetti sauce. Fill each emptied can with water and add water to pot. Pour in complete cans of beans and tomato paste. Fill those cans with water and add to pot.  Bring to a boil and add corn. Bring back up to a boil and simmer until potatoes are tender. Serve steaming hot with grated parmesan on top. 

New Orleans Style Charbroiled Oysters

These are one of my all time favorite things to eat. We usually make these when we go to New Orleans during oyster season. Our friends or my hubby pick up a sack of raw oysters and then as they shuck them and put them on the half-shell I cook them on the grill. I have served these to self-proclaimed non-oyster eaters and they have liked them.They are the best thing EVER! The recipe is based on charbroiled oysters that you can order from a restaurant called Drago's in Metairie Louisiana.

Mmmmmm just typing this is making my mouth water.

Charbroiled Oysters

24 raw oyster on the half shell (large)

1 lb. Butter

2 Tbsp. minced garlic

½ tsp. Grated Parmesan cheese

½ tsp. Grated Romano Cheese

½ tsp. Minced parsley

black pepper

cayenne

Melt butter in a large microwavable container. Add garlic. Mix cheese, black pepper, parsley & pinch cayenne in a separate bowl. Place oysters on the half shell on the BBQ grill. Place a pinch of cheese-parsley mixture on each oyster and spoon garlic-butter over each.  WATCH OUT!!!!! EXCESSIVE FLAMES!!!

Cook until oysters are puffed . Serve immediately with hot crusty bread.

You can also place the oysters in a lasagna pan or baking pan with a good lip on a bed of rock salt, top with cheese mixture and butter mix and then place them in the oven on broil.  You can also crumple foil and place it underneath the oysters to prevent sliding. Broil until puffed. But watch them VERY CAREFULLY. They can go from yum to burned really fast. 

Banana Bread

This recipe comes from my sweet college roommate, who could bake like nobody's business. I modified to make it my own, as I have to do usually with everything.  I usually don't add nuts. 

Banana (Nut) Bread

½ C. Sugar

1/3 C. Shortening

2 eggs

1 ¾ C. all purpose flour

1 tsp. Baking powder

½ tsp. Baking soda

½ tsp. Salt

4 c. mashed very ripe bananas

½ c. walnuts or pecans (optional)

Cream sugar and shortening.  Mix together the dry ingredients and add alternately with the bananas to the creamed sugar mixture. Stir in nuts if adding. Bake in loafs pans at 350º F for 40-45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Or bake in muffins tins for about 18 minutes or less. Ready when a toothpick comes out mostly clean.

New Orleans Style BBQ Shrimp

Now these BBQ shrimp are not your usual BBQ shrimp. These are covered in more like a thin buttery wonderfully flavored sauce and are finger-licking, elbow dripping, 50 napkins good!

I can't make these in the land-locked state we live in, trapped in a small town with no decent seafood to speak of (Yes even the frozen stuff has been in the store freezer for horrifying lengths of time). We do try and makes these when we get to the east coast and can get delicious fresh South Carolina shrimp or, of course, in the city of my heart New Orleans.

But these are a tradition for us back home and are a family recipe and favorite. 

New Orleans Style BBQ Shrimp

30 Jumbo Shrimp (2-3 lbs.)

2 sticks butter

2 tsp. Garlic powder

2 tsp. Italian seasoning

2 tsp. Paprika

2 tsp. Crushed red pepper  flakes

2 tsp. Salt

dash white pepper

1 1/3 c. olive oil

4 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce

4 Tbsp. Lemon juice

2 tsp. Chili powder

2 tsp. Dried oregano

Spread shrimp out in a large lasagna pan. Combine all other ingredients in a sauce pan on low heat and heat until butter is melted. Let sauce cool.  Pour sauce over shrimp, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.  Bake at 300º F turning shrimp every ten minutes until pink all the way through (don't over cook!!). Serve immediately with warm crusty bread for dipping.

Lemon Cake aka Aunt Blanche's Lemon Squares

I wanted to post some new recipes since Thanksgiving is coming up soon. Most of these are not gluten or allergen free, just plain old run of the mill stuff. But they are favorites in our house. You can make it gluten free by making it with a boxed cake mix like Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix.

1 box yellow cake mix

1 box lemon jello

5 eggs

¾ cup water

½ cup vegetable oil

2 tbsp. lemon extract

Combine ingredients and bake on 350°

Follow box instructions for baking pan size and bake time

Makes about 24 cupcakes.

If making as cake, butter and flour pans before pouring in batter. Make in a large square cake pan or bunt pan. 

Glaze while still warm and then let rest until cool and glaze has set

Glaze:

¼ cup lemon juice

2 cups powdered sugar

Aunt Blanche always made these in a large rectangular cake pan and then cut them into square, wrapped them individually in plastic wrap and served them to all the ankle biter when they come (even when the ankle biters grow taller than her). They were and are one of my hubby's favorite things. 

Allergen Free Thanksgiving

Well, I have begun the search and planning for our first allergen free Thanksgiving dinner. I am praying for wisdom and creativity. I'm sure I am about to learn a whoooooole lot. First project- gluten free, allergen free apple pie. I'll report back if it is good.

In the mean time here are some good links I found for some possible recipes to try.

Coconut Milk Ice Cream (with eggs & sugar)

Dairy Free Rice Pudding

Coconut Cream Tapioca

Gluten Free Apple Pie

I'll be on the search for more. But these are the first I have found with no allergens or rotation allergens in them. We'll see how they turn out.....

The biggest project  to find to make for Thanksgiving- allergen free cranberry jelly.

What's in the Pantry or Fridge?

I was thinking about writing down a basic menu for the week of what my little guy eats and how I cook it along side everyone else's meals.

But before I do that, here is our basic pantry and fridge items. I have listed them in how I put them in meals for Buddy.

Just to recap our allergens. We rotate cane sugar (trying to avoid more completely but save for special days),  sheep milk, pears, chocolate, and cinnamon.

We avoid gluten, goat or cow milk, wheat, soy, barley, sorghum, legumes, citrus fruits, tomatoes, and a number of fruits and vegetables. See our allergen page for more specifics.

Breakfast Foods:

Eggs (cooked any way he wants, but no cheese or milk)

White Corn Grits

Organic Oatmeal sweetened with agave nectar or maple syrup

Rice Pancakes with maple syrup or agave nectar or honey

Rice Waffles

Any of these cereals with Almond milk

Glutino Honey Nut O's  (does have sugar, so we rotate)

Enviro Kids Gorilla Munch (also has sugar)

Erewhon Rice Twice Cereal ( I also use this cereal to make my puffed grain bars)
Homemade granola (recipe to come soon)

Almond Milk either Almond Breeze unsweetened in the shelf stable Quart or Vanilla Unsweetened refrigerated half gallon.

Lunches and Dinners-

Deboles Rice Pasta with a meat and fruit

Organic Brown Rice with a meat and fruit

Kroger Organic Plain Applesauce (goes like water around here between my two boys)

Shelton's Turkey Hot Dogs  (rotate due to other ingredients not the turkey) with a carb and fruit

( I loved the Applegate Farms Organic Turkey Hot Dogs but we can't get them here. They do have onions and sodium lactate from beets. But they are dairy free, casein free and gluten free)

Ian's Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets with Cascadian Farms Organic shoes string fries or crinkle cut fries and Heinz organic Ketchup (edited to say that Tomato has now been taken off of rotation)

Gluten Free Pantry French Bread Mix This is our staple bread, because it is sugar free and I can make it without any rotation allergy ingredients. My little guy eats this about six out seven days in a week. It is really easy to make and if you slice it and place plastic between the slices, you can pop a slice out of the freezer and microwave for about 35 seconds- comes out like fresh soft bread.

Any Nut Butter (see Puffed Grain Bars recipe for more info)- Peanut Butter, Cashew Butter or Almond Butter  with honey, apple butter, or all fruit  (edited to say All Fruit now has maltodextrin in it and that makes me nervous, even if it is gluten free. Something that far processed can't be good for you.) or honey on Gluten Free Pantry's French Bread or even as a pancake sandwich on Rice Pancakes or rice waffles.

Beachy's Apple Butter comes from Salisbury PA (I love this!!!! It is just apples, cider and spices. It does have cinnamon which we have to rotate, but it the BEST apple butter you have ever tasted!)

Sorrell Ridge Fruit Spreads- they are sweetened with only fruit juice. We buy the grape. (Note- these did not work out for Buddy. They are sweetened primarily with pineapple juice. But we still buy all the flavors that they make for the rest of the family to enjoy.)

St Dalfour Fruit Conserves- we buy the wild blueberry. It has only blueberries, grape juice concentrate and fruit pectin. (I buy mine at Walmart.)

Pamela's Corn muffins made from mix (we all love these with spicy chili or red beans) Buddy eats them with anything! I make them dairy and sugar free.

Hamburgers grilled or fried with just salt and garlic powder

Kettle Lightly salted potato chips (great with lunch)

Kroger Brand corn chips (that are cooked in corn oil) Buddy actually prefers these over potato chips.

Lots of apples, blueberries, peaches, cherries, bananas, grapes, dried apricots, and raisins. (as much of any kind as he wants any day). I buy frozen peaches, cherries, and blueberries in bulk and pull out what I need.

Plain Sheep Yogurt with pure liquid stevia and frozen fruit. (we rotate sheep milk)

Snacks and treats-
Puffed Grain Bars Extra Nutty 

Glutino Original Crackers

Blue Diamond Almond Nut Thins

Pamela's mini chocolate chips (treat! has sugar)

Pamela's Dark chocolate chunk cookies (also treat, has sugar)

Jennies Coconut Macaroons Sugar free. These things are awesome!

So Delicious coconut ice cream vanilla or chocolate (chocolate is rotated) it is sweetened with agave nectar. Awesome, awesome stuff!!!!!

We love any of the So Delicious products but we can really only buy the Coconut Ice Cream in our little town. We did find the coconut yogurt at a big city Whole Foods while on vacation. Buddy chowed down on it. I love that it is sweetened with agave nectar, so we don't have to rotate the vanilla flavor.

OK my brain is fried now. Hope I didn't forget anything. There is always the edit button