And Now Cupcakes!

I figured that if I had so much success with the muffins I had to try cupcakes. I found a good carrot cake recipe and started adapting it. Usually carrot cake calls for soda and buttermilk, but when I used that the chickpea flour mixture tended to puff up, spread and then sink. I tried to make powdered sugar in my Ninja but only with moderate success. The frosting was slightly grainy and dense. But when I served the cupcakes at a family gathering Saturday they raved about them, even liked the dip in the middle-a good well for extra frosting they said.

But I was out for perfection so I tried again today. I added a little more flour and subbed baking powder and milk for the soda and buttermilk. Got pretty close!

So here is my altered recipe:

Carrot Cupcakes

1 3/4 C sugar
3/4 C light cooking oil (I use safflower)
3 eggs
1 tsp almond extract (can use vanilla but almond is better)
3/4 C milk
2 C grated carrots
2 1/2 C chickpea flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp guar gum (I use it instead of xanthan gum, tummy doesn't like xanthan)
1 C sunflower nuts (if you can tolerate, you can use pecans or walnuts)

Blend sugar, oil, eggs, almond, and milk until smooth. Stir in carrots. Whisk or sift together chickpea flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Mix into carrot mixture. Stir in sunflower nuts. Scoop into paper lined muffin tins, it makes 27 so I had to improvise with three of my ramekins. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until top springs back with gentle pressure. Cool and frost.

And now for the frosting, which I am very proud of. I can't do any commercially prepared powdered sugar because they either have cornstarch or tapioca starch, and I can't have either. Grandson says the frosting is "amazing!"

Granulated Sugar Frosting

1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 C granulated sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
Milk

Cream sugar and cream cheese, beat in almond. Beat in enough milk to make a spreadable frosting, probably 2-3 tablespoons. Beat the heck out of it. Frost the cupcakes. Pour a cup of coffee and try not to eat more than a couple. Oh heck, eat what you want, how often do super-allergics get a safe delicious treat like this? Not often enough, that's what I say!

Next I'm going to try the knock-off Starbucks lemon cake in cupcakes, I can feel my jeans getting tight!

Remember to check your sources, read your labels and use safe for you ingredients.

The Muffin!

I'm always looking for ways to use my limited ingredients to make something that might be a change from the routine. This is the fourth time I've made my made-up recipe and I think I have a winner! One of the tricks is using guar gum. I had dismissed it because I cannot tolerate xanthan gum at all and judged them to be in the same category. But I put down my prejudices and did some research, xanthan gum is a mold grown on corn while guar is made from guar beans. So I gave it a shot. I now have happy little muffins tucked in the freezer waiting for me.

Pretty cute, don't you think?

So here's my recipe. If course check out your ingredients to make sure they're safe for you:

Marty's Muffins

Basic recipe:
1 3/4 C chickpea flour (garbanzo)
4 T sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp guar gum
2 eggs
1/3 C oil
3/4 C milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, butter or spray 12 muffin cups. You can use cupcake liners if you like. Mix dry ingredients. Beat eggs, oil and milk, stir into dry mixture. Mix til smooth-ignore the rule that says you can't stir muffin batter too much or it will get tough. That only applies if your flour has gluten. Scoop into muffin pans, a small ice cream scoop works great for this. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes until brown.

I like to add sunflower nuts to mine, a half cup or so, and this morning I added a little more sugar and swirled a little cinnamon sugar into them. They tasted like a much-missed cinnamon roll! Chocolate chips are good as well. Then at lunch I made another batch and stirred in 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese and 1 1/2 tsp dried chives. Now I don't know which are my favorites!

Chickpea Crepes/Tortillas

I found out I'm completely intolerant of potatoes, which includes a lot of other starchy things, like tapioca, artichokes, jicama and all the potato derivatives. So here I am back at the drawing board! I am, however, very tolerant of chickpeas/garbanzos. And the bonus is they are so good for you, way higher in protein than grain flours.

So I went looking for some recipes and found some good ones, but the mice started racing around the wheel in my brain and I came up with this recipe.

Chickpea Crepes/Tortillas

1 cup chickpea flour

1 cup water, plus more as needed

1/4 teaspoon salt

Whisk all three together. Walk away and let it sit for 1/2 hour to an hour. This gives the chickpea a chance to absorb the water. Heat a 10" skillet up and add a little oil. Make sure the skillet is hot! Stir batter, it should be as thin as crepe batter, add water a tablespoon at a time until it's as thin as you like. Pour about a half cup over medium high heat until bottom is lightly brown. If it's not done it won't release easily from the skillet. Work the spatula around the sides and then the center. Flip and cook until it releases from the pan and is lightly brown. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, should keep about a week. Makes about six nice sized crepes.

Yummy with a cream cheese filling for breakfast!

el Alce con Nopalitos (Elk and Prickly Pear)

In our travels to Mexico I have fallen in love with nopalitos.  I first had them in a tortilla with farmer cheese and a yummy different salsa.  They're supposed to be really good for you.  I went searching for the farmer cheese here and found some at the local grocer, but it was more aged, what I found in Mexico was more like a fresh cheese.  But I found nopalitos, in a jar.  Today I had elk steak thawing and Stan asked when we were going to eat the nopalitos.  The wheels started turning and this is what I came up with.  This goes really fast-the longest part was waiting for the rice to cook.

el Alce con Nopalitos

1 1/2 pounds elk steak, cut in small cubes

3 Tablespoons potato starch

1-2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 Tablespoons cooking oil

2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro

1 chipotle pepper, chopped

10-12 ounces chicken stock

12 ounce jar nopalitos, drained and rinsed (the jar I found had serrano peppers, cilantro and onion-bonus!)

Combine potato starch, salt and pepper; dredge elk in mixture. Brown in oil.  Add cilantro, chipotle and chicken stock.  Cook over medium heat until elk is done-5-7 minutes.  The combination of stock and potato starch make a nice sauce.  Add more stock if it gets more thick.  Add nopalitos and heat through.  Serve over rice, or in my case I served it over bean threads.  Stan had the rice and loved it, his exact words were, "Yeah, you can make this again."  High praise for Mr. Cool.

I think I can make it again, too!

Crackers! (Gluten Free)

I finally more or less perfected my cracker recipe after months of fooling around with ingredients. The recipe was originally for tortilla chips, but they were a boatload of work and super messy, so I set out to make it my own.

Chickpea Crackers

1 cup tapioca starch
1 cup chickpea (garbanzo) flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground flax seed
1/4 cup cold water
Extra tapioca starch

Beat egg together with oil, flax and water, set aside.  Stir dry ingredients together, stir in egg mixture. The mixture will be pretty soft. Turn out on a surface generously covered with tapioca starch. Knead a bit.

Don't be afraid to load on the tapioca starch.

Roll out in small batches. Try to get the dough as thin as you can. It's pretty sticky so just keep dusting with starch.

Cut out with a dusted cookie cutter. I use a small round cutter but you can cut them bigger if you like, adjust cooking time for the size. I've also used a pizza cutter and made squares, much faster but the round cracker is more uniform.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and prick with a fork. You can put them pretty close together, they don't spread.

Sprinkle a little salt over (don't skip this, it really makes a difference in the flavor). Bake at 375°. Start with 10 minutes and add time, a minute at a time until crackers are brown on the edges.  A good way to tell if they're done is when they loosen from the pan. Recipe makes about 100 small

I had a hard time keeping them from cracking in two, so I added the egg, switched from butter to oil, and added the flax.

It's so nice to have a good snack alternative. I've done just cheese, but my favorite is a smear of cream cheese and a dab of homemade pepper jelly. Yep, I eat pretty well for being an allergic chick!

Garden Bounty

We harvested the rest of the garden yesterday, since a huge snowstorm is forecast to roll in tonight. So what do I do with a ten pound cabbage? Well, first I cut a chunk off, about a fourth of it. Then I gathered up some of the carrots that we dug yesterday. Then I made this yummy stew.

CHICKEN CABBAGE STEW

1 1/2 pounds coarsely cubed raw chicken. (I prefer boneless thighs.)

1 small cabbage cut in bite sized pieces (Or 1/4 of a monster)

1/2 large onion, quartered and sliced

2 T butter, divided

4 carrots, coarsely sliced

Chicken stock, preferably organic or you could make your own

2 tsp Kirkland organic no-salt seasoning (If this isn't available, use your preference)

2 T potato starch

1 cup cold water

Salt and pepper

Cook onion in 1 T butter on medium heat until transparent. Add cabbage and carrots. Turn down heat and cover. Saute until cabbage is starting to cook down. At the same time Brown the chicken in the second tablespoon of butter. Salt and pepper to taste. When chicken is mostly done dump unto the pot with the cabbage, juices and all. Pour chicken stock over mixture-just until you can start to see it. Cover and simmer until everything is tender, about a half hour. Mix potato starch with cold water and stir into stew to thicken.  Serve over potatoes, rice, or my favorite-mung bean threads.

"The Best Cookies I've Ever Eaten!"

That's what my gluten-free friend said after tasting my latest chocolate chip recipe.  Then she qualified her statement by saying it might be because she hasn't had a real cookie in over a year and a half!  At any rate they are yummy.  Sydney eats one every time he walks by the kitchen.  I decided, after finding a very delicious chickpea tortilla chip recipe that I needed to try this wonderful food in other baking, hence the upgraded cookie.  I have to say, this is the closest I have come to the taste of a real cookie in the four years I've been dealing with these allergies. It's a lot like my former recipes, with some small alterations.  Be sure to use safe for you ingredients, what works for me may not work for you.

Chickpea Chocolate Chippers

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup chickpea flour

1 cup tapioca starch

1/2 cup potato starch

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

1 bag (2 cups) chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts, if desired (I leave those out-allergic)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Stir together dry ingredients and stir into butter mixture.  Stir in chips and nuts.  Drop by teaspoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for about 10 minutes.  I set the timer for 8 minutes, then turn and finish with 2 more.  

Cool and inhale!

Nomato Sauce

I did not invent this recipe.  I found it here, on a recommendation of another tomato-allergic friend..  It didn't take very long and turned out quite nicely.  I made spaghetti sauce with it and it wasn't half bad.  The batch made a generous amount-I had enough left after the spaghetti sauce to freeze in two containers.  I'm looking forward to pizza sauce or barbecue sauce-the list is endless.  It calls for beets (I used canned in this batch) and Stan suggested pickled beets, which would work well if I were making barbecue sauce.  Oh, the possibilities!

Muffins

Decided to try adding more eggs to my muffin recipe.  It worked pretty well.  I waited to see if they were still good to eat the next day, and they're not bad so here is the recipe:

Eggy Muffins

1 3/4 cups flour  (my current mix is 3/4 cup tapioca and 1/2 cup each potato starch and sorghum)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 stick butter, melted and slightly cooled

Stir together flours, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Beat eggs and milk, stir into dry mixture.  Whisk til smooth, stir in butter a bit at a time.  Pour into paper lined muffin cups and bake at 450 for 20-25 minutes.  Makes 12.

The extra eggs cause a cute little peak at the top.

Let me know how you like them.  Of course if you can eat rice I would use it along with a little of the other flours.  It's hard to get a good product without being able to use the rice-I have a lot of throwaways!  I eat a lot of mediocre stuff, too!

Pizza Crust Victory!!

Sorry for not posting on this blog for a while-I'm finding out that just maybe two blogs is one too many.  My attention span is too short.  But for now I'll keep this one, even posting sporadically.

The one thing I've missed really badly has been pizza.  Not the sauce so much-I've never been a tomato person-but the chewy crust and all those spicy meats and melty cheeses......

A few weeks back I was perusing on Pinterest (yes, I got suckered in too!) and I ran across TWO recipes for pizza crust made out of cauliflower.  I know!!!

One called for raw and the other called for cooked.  I made both at different times and thought both were delicious.  But I liked different things on each one, so decided to combine recipes today-I think I have a winner.  So here it is, in its delicious simplicity:

Marty's Cauliflower Pizza Crust

1 small pkg frozen cauliflower
2 eggs
pinch salt
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Microwave the cauliflower in a glass dish for 3-5 minutes, enough to cook the "raw" out of it but not enough to make it mushy.  Drain and let cool to lukewarm.  Pulse in a food processor until it's the consistency of rice.  Beat the eggs a bit, then add the rest of the ingredients and stir til well blended.  This won't be firm like regular pizza dough-it will be pretty squishy.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment and spread half the dough on each pan.  Pat it out with the back of a spoon until it's a thin, nice round.  Bake at 450 for 12-15 minutes, until it's brown on the edges and has little flecks of brown across the top.

Now top it with anything you want-I made a white sauce with 4T mayonnaise and a sprinkle of garlic.  Then I topped it with pepperoni and browned, drained Italian sausage.  I sprinkled some shredded Parmesan over, then a generous amount of mozzarella cheese.  Put it back in the oven (same temp) until it starts to bubble a bit and the cheese is melting deliciously over the pizza.  Cut and enjoy.  You'll be able to eat this with your hands if you like.

Makes me hungry all over again just looking at it!

A Quick Hint

I have found, in all my baking experiments, that it's extremely difficult to get a light texture in your wheat-free baked goods.  Especially, as in my case, when you can't use rice flour.  A few weeks ago it hit me-what about club soda?  So first I used it in place of milk for some cupcakes, which were pretty successful, and last night I used it in biscuits.  They were very good!  The thing you have to do with non-gluten flours is cut back a bit on the liquid, since there's no gluten to hold the dough together.  The recipe called for 2/3 cups of milk and I put in 1/2 cup of club soda instead.  It worked perfectly and the biscuits even held together better than they have in my other experiments!  And don't worry if the club soda isn't the freshest-I used some that barely has any fizz and it worked fine.  Next on my agenda is scones-if it works for biscuits it should work for them!

Chocolate Chip Snack Cookies

First, let me apologize for not having posted recently.  I went back to work, and I work in the linens department of a major department store.  It's very physically demanding, so I am beat beyond my expectations when I get home.  Thank goodness my sweet hubby has stepped up and taken over some of the household chores in his retirement!  I've been cooking still, and have a couple new things to share with you.  The first is a snack cookie.  I had been making a similar recipe into waffles, but I have less and less time to bake, and waffles are very time consuming.  They were great, though, because I could take two squares, spread some slightly sweetened cream cheese on and make a yummy sandwich.  Then I could have a nice sweet, probably better for me, while everybody else is eating vending machine cookies and coffeehouse desserts.  So I set out to turn them into cookies that I could bake en masse on a big sheet and be done in about half the time.  Soooo here it is:

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Snack Cookies

2 eggs
1 1/2 C milk
3/4 cooking oil (whatever you're not allergic to)
3/4 C sugar (not much, but enough to fool myself into thinking I'm indulging)
3 1/4 C flour (my current mix is equal parts sorghum, tapioca and potato starch)
4 tsp baking powder (cornstarch free, of course-I use Hain)
1/2 tsp salt
2 C chocolate chips
1/2 C DRY instant mashed potatoes (I always use Honest Earth because it thickens fast and has no strange ingredients)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Beat eggs, oil, sugar and milk.  Stir together dry ingredients, except chips and potatoes.  Stir into egg mixture.  Stir in potato powder and chips.  This will start to thicken-wait for it.  Using a large cookie scoop, place on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes.  Cool.  I spread them with the sweetened cream cheese, put two together sandwich-style and wrap individually.  I store them in the freezer.  I love hardened chocolate chips so I like to keep the cookies cold.  They stick to your ribs better than the average cookie, too!

I think I have perfected a pasta recipe!  Most recipes contain corn or rice, which I cannot have, so I set out to make one up with my safe flours.  I want to make it one more time before unveiling it-hopefully not months from now-sorry fellow bloggers for the dry spell.

Sugar Cookies-Yay!

Baking without wheat, rice or corn is a pain in the neck. You really need the qualities of these flours to have a successful turnout. I can't tell you how many failures I've had. I have a Tupper full of failed chocolate chip cookies on my counter right now waiting for me to make them into crumbs for cheesecake.

I don't ever have enough snacks-if you knew me, you'd think I didn't need any more snacks, but I get REALLY sick of the short list I can eat, and I have low blood sugar so I need to be able to grab something quick. I eat a lot of protein, but sometimes that blood sugar drops anyway.

This morning I decided to try my hand at sugar cookies. Hubs is not fond of chocolate but he is willing to eat my "safe" foods if they taste good. I had to add the coconut flour, after I did my test bake, to keep the cookies from spreading. I think they are delicious!

Wheat and Rice-Free Sugar Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream:
1 Cup butter
1 Cup sugar

Add:
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Beat until smooth.

Stir together:
1 Cup millet flour
1/2 Cup potato starch
1/2 Cup tapioca flour
1/4 Cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp cream of tarter
1/4 tsp salt

Stir into butter mixture. Roll into 1" balls and dip in sugar. Place on cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Bake at 350 for 9 minutes, turning pan partway through if needed for even browning. Remove from oven and let cool on pan for a couple of minutes before taking off cookie sheet.

Enjoy!

You will notice, and I've probably mentioned it, but I use no xanthan gum. Xanthan gum is grown on corn and is not very compatible with my digestion, so I avoid it.

Wendy's

As promised:

http://www.wendys.com/food/pdf/us/nutrition.pdf

Before You Dine-McDonald's

I have decided to research every fast food chain and post a link to their ingredients here. That way you can be armed with info before going to the restaurant and can avoid the blank look from the counter person when you ask if there is soy in something or high fructose corn syrup. So today here is the "Golden Arches Supper Club." (I used to work there and that's what we called it.) (BTW it was the most fun job ever-we had a super owner-operator and the days just flew by)

http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/ingredientslist.pdf

Really!

Overheard at a local cafe' this morning: One of the waitresses was complaining about having to accommodate peoples' food allergies. "Why don't they just stay home?" was her comment. I didn't know having allergies qualified you as a social outcast. Don't people with allergies have the right to as normal a life as we can get? I had walked to the restaurant for a coffee and was upset by what this gal said. I shed a few tears on my walk home. She's also the one that said mental illness is bogus.

Some day that "goes around" thing will get her. Sounds unchristian, but I hope I'm there to see it.

Palomilla Steaks

This is a revised recipe. I had to rearrange a few things to accommodate my allergies. Palomilla steaks are a Cuban dish, with tons of flavor.

Palomilla Steaks

Marinade:

2 T vinegar
4 T olive oil
1 tsp marjoram
2 T finely chopped cilantro
1 tsp cumin

4 steaks, thinly sliced (sirloin is recommended but I used chucks and they were really nice)
Salt and pepper to taste

4 T butter
1/4 C finely chopped parsley
Juice of 2 limes

Marinate steaks 4 hours in the fridge. I like to put the marinade in a gallon zipper bag then rotate and squish at hourly intervals to be sure of coverage.

Heat skillet to medium high and fry steaks until crispy on the outside and a tiny bit firm to the touch-2 to 4 minutes, depending on the thickness of the steaks.

Remove steaks, turn off heat, then melt butter in hot pan. Add parsley and lime juice and pour over steaks. Black beans and rice are the best companions but I baked a couple of potatoes to eat with the beans. I just heated up the beans and added a bit of chili powder, cumin, and some chopped cilantro.

Very yummy! I have a small piece of my steak left that I'm going to reheat for lunch today. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

A Link

Science is actually confirming what we guessed all along-high fructose corn syrup is BAD for you.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070823094819.htm

Harvest Time

About 50 pounds or so-not our record but enough for us.

Even though I'm allergic to tomatoes, we raise them primarily for Stan. We give a bunch away, too, especially to our busy kids. Today we picked all the tomatoes, squash, and broccoli. We'll freeze the broccoli and can a few tomatoes. I covered up but came away with a pretty good rash on my arms where the glove and sleeve didn't meet. I suspect the squash plants. I've never been tested for squash and don't seem to have trouble eating them, but the plants have always given me fits. Stan keeps telling me to back off, he'll get those, but darn it the work needs to get done!

This kid is crazy about carrots. Can't wait to dig those up, there seems to be a huge crop!

In other news, I'm keeping a daily diary of the Diatomacious Earth and will probably post weekly about my progress or lack thereof.

Applesauce Cake With Toffee Sauce

I've been working for a while to perfect a cake recipe. This one turned out pretty good, and was made even tastier by using Stan's homemade applesauce.

Applesauce Cake

1 1/4 C gluten-free flour mix
(I used: 1/2 C Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free flour mix, 1/2 C potato starch, 1/8 C coconut flour, and 1/8 C potato flour)
1 C Sugar
3/4 Tsp soda
3/4 Tsp salt
1/8 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp cinnamon
1/4 Tsp cloves
1/4 Tsp allspice
1 C applesauce
1/4 C water
1/4 C oil (I use canola oil)
1 egg
Nuts and raisins, if desired or tolerated, 1/2 C each

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together dry ingredients, mix together applesauce, water, oil and egg. Stir into flour mixture. Bake in a 9" greased square pan 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and toffee sauce.

Toffee Sauce

Melt one stick (1/2 cup) butter, add 1 cup brown sugar and bring to a boil. Add 1/2 cup cream and simmer 5 minutes until slightly thick. Add 1/4 tsp vanilla. Pour over cake and ice cream.

Now that's what I'm talking about!