Index

Main Dishes
Cheesy Potato Bake
Mexican Lasagna
Enchiladas and homemade Enchilada Sauce
Greek Tacos
Crockpt Fajitas
Awesome Porkchops
Jerked Chicken Marinade
Bean Quesadillas

Soups
Zuppa Tuscana

Side Dishes
Onion Roasted Potato Chunks
Mexican Rice
Hummus

Desserts
Apple Crisp
Mini Cheesecakes
Christmas Toffee

Cookies
Gingersnaps

Odds
Flour Mix
Cream Soups

GF Products I Like
BC Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
Pamela's Chocolate Cake Mix
Pamela's Gluten-Free Bread Mix
Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix
Tinkyada Pasta

Onion Roasted Potato Chunks

This is my absolute favorite way to eat potatoes now. 10 bonus points for serving potatoes with no butter!

Ok.  This recipe is my own so you'll have to bear with me a little bit on this one because I kinda change it every time and never measure.  I'll just say that you want to really coat your potatoes. 

5-6? Potatoes

Olive oil

Garlic Salt (or garlic powder and salt or minced garlic and salt)

Onion (I have used dried, minced onions and onion powder and both have worked well)

Parsely

Oregano

Rosemary

maybe some black pepper

Take a 9x13 pan and cut enough potatoes into cubes until you have a shallow layer, some overlap is fine (see picture).  Coat potatoes in olive oil (I have a 9x13 pan that has a lid so I add the olive oil, put the lid on, and shake, shake, shake.  You could also use a bowl with a lid or a ziplock bag).  You want enough oil so that your potatoes are covered.  If you don't mix everything in the baking pan you might need to coat your pan with oil to prevent the potatoes from sticking. 

Add seasonings.  I listed them according to the amount I use:  Most of the seasoning is made up of garlic salt and onion.   Next comes a decent amount of parsely.  Then small amounts of oregano, rosemary and pepper for extra flavor and aroma.  All of these are according to your tastes.  I sprinkle them on, snap on the lid, and shake, shake, shake.  I check the potatoes to see if they all look covered.  If not, I add more seasonings. 

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for about 30-45 minutes (depends on the size of your potato chunks) until the potatoes can easily be poked through with a fork.

Zuppa Tuscana Soup

You can definitely say that I am way behind on posting recipes. My goodness!

Anyways...keep plugging on.

Zuppa Tuscana Soup (Original recipe here)

1/2 lb bacon
1/2 lb chicken Italian sausage or bulk sausage of your choice (we like spicy)
4-5 potatoes, diced
1 onion, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups chicken stock (some can be replaced with water - I forget what ratio I did last time)
2 cups half and half
Spinach, amount that you like - The original recipe calls for kale and I've never had that on hand so I add in some frozen spinach last second (do it too early and your soup turns green)
salt and pepper, to taste
Parmesan cheese

Cook bacon.  Cool and chop. In a large pot, cook the sausage, onions, and garlic until the sausage has browned. Crumble sausage as you cook it.  Cook potatoes until tender in your chicken stock.  Add half and half, bacon, sausage and onion mix.  I usually let it simmer for an hour or so.  Add seasonings and spinach and cook for 5 minutes or so.  Serve nice and hot and topped with cheese. 

Apple Crisp

This is the best apple crisp recipe I have ever eaten! My goodness! YUM YUM!  The top is crunchy, the middle soft, and the apples are perfect!  The baking powder makes it rise up perfectly.  Enjoy!

Here is the original recipe.

8 apples

1 cup all-purpose flour  (gf version)

1 cup white sugar - you can split this 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 egg

1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon (I would use LESS than this if you are not a huge cinnamon person)

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1. Mix together flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and egg. The mixture will look like cornmeal.
2. Peel, core, and slice the apples. Mix together with 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon. Place apples in a greased 8 inch square pan. Spread flour mixture over the apples. Mix together 1 tablespoon (OR LESS) cinnamon and 1/4 cup sugar; sprinkle over the top of the crisp. Drizzle with butter or margarine.
3. Bake at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for one hour. Serve warm.

***Notes in the original recipe say that you can substitute 1/4 cup oats (gf)  for a 1/4 cup flour. 

Gingersnaps

These are the best gingersnap cookies ever!  They are actually really soft and came out perfect the first time I made them. 

Gingersnaps

yield:  a lot of cookies. I've never really counted....

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups margarine (softened)

1/2 cup molasses

2 eggs

4 1/2 cups flour (gf version)

3 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mix all ingredients thoroughly (wet ingredients first and then add in dry ingredients).  Refrigerate dough overnight for best results.

To bake:  Take dough out of refrigerator and roll into 1 inch balls.  Roll balls in a plate of sugar.  Place sugar covered spheres on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. 

Rolled in sugar and ready to be baked!

Gluten Free Flour Mix

Gluten Free Flour Mix

3 1/2 cups White Rice Flour
2 1/2 cups Tapioca Flour
2 T Xanthan Gum
2 Packets (7 grams) Unflavored Gellatin - I used Knox brand
2 T Egg Replacer
1/4 cup White sugar

Mix very well and it looks just like regular all-purpose flour. 
My mom introduced me to this one and she uses it in all her baking recipes.  1 cup gf flour mix = 1 cup all purpose flour.

Happy Baking!

Cheesy Potato Bake

24 ounces cubed potatoes
1/2 cup minced onion
2 batches of cream soup (mushroom or celery work well)
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
Shredded Cheese of your choice - Original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups, but it's entirely up to your tastes
1 1/2 cups cubed ham (gf) - I pre-rinse my ham when I use it in recipes because the salt is just too much for me
1/4 t pepper
spinach - I use about half a pound cooked spinach
Take cubed potatoes and boil until soft (small cubes don't take long, maybe a few minutes).  Soften cream cheese and cream together with soup. Cook onions with some olive oil until tender.  Stir in onions, ham, cheese, spinach, and pepper into cheese mixture. Gently stir in potatoes.

For freezing:  Place in gallon freezer bag. Label and freeze.  To serve: Thaw. Place in 9x13 inch baking dish. Bake covered for 1 hour at 350°. Uncover and top with shredded Cheddar cheese. Return to oven until cheese is melted.

Same day:  Place in 9x 13 baking dish and bake 1/2 hour or longer at 350.  (I don't think I've ever covered it like the freezing directions say). 

Mini Cheesecakes

Mini Cheesecakes

• Cookies, original recipe calls for vanilla wafers (see the gf cookies I used below)
• 2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla (gf)
• Filling/topping (cherries, strawberries, etc.) (gf)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
Place cupcake wrappers inside muffin pan. 
Crush cookies to make a crumbly base. 
Place 1/2 -1 tsp. cookie crumbles in each cupcake wrapper.
Take the room temperature cheese and beat with mixer until smooth.  Mix in sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Fill each cupcake wrapper almost to the top.
Bake 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  (Watch it carefully)
Fill center with desired topping.  Refrigerate to achieve best consistency. 





Crumble Cookie Bottom



These are the cookies I used.

Mexican Lasagna

This is an absolutely delicious recipe!  It is simple and quick too.  Try it out!  I give it 5 out of 5 stars!  What would make a good veggie side for this one?

Mexican Lasagna

• Ground beef (about 1 lb)
• Taco seasoning for 1 lb of beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 can (about 14 oz) beans of your choice (I used kidney, but want to try black next)
• 1 can diced tomatoes (about 14 oz)
• Corn tortillas, cut in strips
• Shredded cheese of your choice

Cook onions and ground beef until browned and onions are cooked to your liking.  Add seasoning and cook accordingly (add the amount of water, etc).  I did add extra water to keep it moist during the half hour of baking. 
Combine tomatoes and beans in a bowl.
Cut corn tortillas into strips

Take a Casserole dish and layer the ingredients:
1/2 of the bean and tomato mixture
Some tortilla strips, overlapping
Cheese
1/2 Beef and onion mixture
1/2 bean and tomato mixture
Some tortilla strips, overlapping
Cheese
1/2 beef and onion mixture
Some tortilla trips overlapping
Cheese
*You can mix in more layers of cheese on top of the meat or beans if you like lots of cheese.

 Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

  

Original recipe was taken from here, before I made the changes. 

Enchiladas with Homemade Sauce

Chicken Enchiladas with Homemade Sauce

I got the original recipe for the beef enchiladas here and the sauce here, but I've made changes so you'll have to read my versions of them below. :)

Day 1:  I like to make this into two meals.  Take some chicken and place in crockpot with a jar of salsa and a 1/2-3/4 cup of water.  Cook in the crockpot for the day.  Pull out chicken and shredd it.  Discard any bones or skin unless you used boneless, skinless.  Use leftover liquid in the crockpot to add to the shredded chicken.  This will keep it moist and flavorfull.  Use shredded chicken for chicken tacos.  Use leftover meat for chicken enchilada recipe below. 

Chicken Enchiladas

At least one lb shredded chicken, cooked

1 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

olive oil

1 Tblsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

red pepper flakes (optional for spicy flavor)

12 corn tortillas

shredded cheese - whichever type you prefer

Enchilada sauce - the amount you desire (as you can see from the picture, we like to use a lot).

To make filling:


Cook onion, green pepper, and olive oil on medium/medium low heat in a sauce pan until tender.  Add cooked chicken and spices.  Add water if it gets too dry.   

Enchilada Sauce


It's a little darker in color than this picture shows

 Make it ahead of time or as you make your filling.


Combine:

• approximately 1/2 can tomato sauce or (1 cup/8oz)

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes

2 Tblsp chili powder

1/2 tablespoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoons ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (or less if you want to tone down the spice)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 onion cooked, cooked until tender

add water if consistency isn't to your liking

• (You can add a pinch or so of sugar to give it a sweeter flavor if desired)

Enchiladas:

Place a little bit of sauce inside the baking dish you choose, to coat the bottom.  Microwave or heat corn tortillas in oven until they are softer and easier to handle.  Add filling and some cheese to each tortilla, roll, and place in a pan with the seam down against the bottom.  Once you've filled your pan with enchiladas, pour enchilada sauce over them and top with cheese.  Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or so. 

Cream Soups

Cream of Mushroom Soup

I had been looking for a cream of mushroom soup recipe for a while so that I could still make recipes I liked and not have to buy those horrible cans of it.  Most recipes I found looked too difficult and used ingredients I wasn't interested in purchasing or eating.  BUT!  I finally found one that works well for me.  No more buying those nasty and expensive, little cans. 

I got the recipe from the Gluten Free Homemaker (and she got it somewhere else) and I haven't changed it, but to save time I'm going to write it out.  Please visit her site though, because she has a lot of good stuff there.
Cream Soup
(makes one can worth)
1 cup cold milk
2 T cornstarch
2 T butter
1 tsp chicken bouillon or other flavoring - {You could really get creative here}
1/2 tsp salt - {oops! I lied!  I omit this because I don't like adding salt to stuff.}
Pepper to taste

Whisk cornstarch into cold milk.  Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil in saucepan, whisking frequently.  Reduce heat and simmer about 1 minute until it thickens. 

As you can see from the picture above, I added mushrooms to mine and it came out perfect.  You can add whatever you like to make it how you prefer:  celery, chicken, etc.  Hurray for casseroles!

Good Product: BC Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

So I tried the Betty Crocker GF cookies from the box this week that I picked up at a regular grocery store.  Big thumbs up!  Here's the edits I made:

• Mix up the dough as the box says
• Refrigerate dough overnight (Yes, I do this because I like to make one pan at a time with my cookies so we can eat them fresh and warm.  I think that putting them in the fridge overnight really helped because the ones I cooked right after mixing the dough were not as good as the overnight batch).
• Taking the dough right from the fridge, spoon it on the pan
• Cook for 9 minutes on 350 degrees (my oven of course, yours may vary)
• Pull cookies out and use the spatula to scrape them off the pan carefully, but!...
• Leave the cookies on the pan to cool and finish cooking in the middle on the hot cookie sheet  (The recipe tells you to let the cookie sheet cool completely between batches anyway
• Enjoy while still slightly warm. 

This method seemed to give me the best, most solid and puffy cookie.  Scraping them and then letting them cool kept them from sticking so bad to the pan.  If I just left them to cool straight from the oven then they glued themselves to the pan and they fell apart trying to get them off.

Great cookies!  Only a very small difference in texture from regular wheat flour cookies.

Greek/Mediterranean Tacos

GREEK/Mediterranean TACOS

Anthony and I came up with this recipe ourselves.  We call it Greek Tacos (thanks to Diane for helping us name it) because it tastes like Greek food even though it's not especially Greek. :)

 Ingredients:

• Corn tortillas - (pitas would make it more Greek, but more expensive/difficult too)
• Mozzarella cheese
• Breakfast sausage, cooked (gf) or leftover Jerked chicken, cut up into small pieces (preferable)
• Tomatoes, sliced
• Spinach, cooked or raw, however you like it
• Mushrooms

And top it with:

• Cucumbers
• Italian dressing - just a couple drops (Wishbone or other GF version)
• Feta Cheese (or Parmesan cheese if you are like us and don't have Feta around the house) 
• Romaine Lettuce, shredded

I put down corn tortillas on a baking sheet, covered them in cheese, mushrooms, spinach, cooked sausage or chicken, and tomatoes. I put them in the oven long enough for it to get hot and the cheese to melt. Anthony threw on cut up cucumbers as they came out. I rolled it up like a taco and ate them like that and they were delicious, but Anthony also added a little Italian dressing, Parmesan cheese, and shredded lettuce to the top. I had a bite of his and it tasted amazing.

Messy goodness!

"Num num num num num. " - Cookie Monster 

Crockpot Chicken Fajitas

Crockpot Fajitas

(^uncooked in the crockpot - gorgeous!^)

1 large green bell pepper, sliced

1-1 1/2 lbs chicken, sliced

1/2 -1 onion sliced

1/4 cup water

Fajita seasoning

Cumin

Black Pepper

Red Pepper

Garlic Salt, or Salt and Garlic

Oregano

(I sprinkle in the amounts I like but if you like to know how much you should add in you can click here for a seasoning recipe).

Cover and cook in crockpot for 5-6 hours on low.

To create the rest:

Corn Tortillas

Tomatoes

Lettuce

Green Onions

Cheese (your choice)

Sour Cream

Salsa

Mexican Rice

Black Beans

YUM YUM!

Mexican Rice

Mexican Rice definitely spices up a meal.  You could add chicken and veggies and make it a great meal. Yum, sounds good.  I sometimes use it along side my homemade quick chili. 

I give this 5 out of 5 stars for being just plain good.

Mexican Rice
(from allrecipes.com)

1 cup uncooked rice

3 Tblsp olive oil

1 tsp garlic salt (garlic powder if you're cutting down the salt)

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup tomato sauce

2 cups chicken broth (or veggie, or half and half)

Heat oil and add rice. Cook, stir constantly until golden. Sprinkle with garlic salt and cumin. Stir in onions and cook until "tender." Stir in tomato sauce and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or more (20 minutes didn't cut it for me so I just watched until it looked right - you know, like rice is supposed to look). Fluff with fork.

I tend to make this in advance for a meal and refrigerate and reheat later in the evening. I have to admit I've never made just one cup at any time. I've made 2, 3, and 4 cups, so I've doubled, tripled, and quadrupled according to how many guests I've had (13 guests = 4 cups rice, but gives some leftovers, just in case you were wondering, lol).