machine

I am a baking and cooking machine.  but i love it.  I don't, however, love the dishes and clean-up. and cost. That is really what's keeping me behind. I am usually spending most of nap time to prepare for supper or trying to clean up the mess I've made during lunch. It is tough being healthy.  The big week-break, though, really helped my body get back into swing. I suppose my body just got used to eating really healthy and exercising the same muscles, for several months, so when I stopped exercising (not completely) it went into a shock and now I am off the 'plateau' (for now) and finally have a little more time to concentrate on that since Peter can eat turkey, fish and chicken.  This last week has been successful--seeing results. Here are a few pictures and recipes I've tried this week:

Chocolate Muffin

I couldn't find the perfect recipe so I adapted from a few different ones I saw and added my own things:

3/4 Gluten Free flour blend (I used Pamelas)
1/4 cup GF oats
1/3 cup cane sugar
about 3 T of cocoa powder
1 tsp b. soda
1 tsp b. powder
1/4 tsp salt
Mix and in a 2 cup measuring cup, mix:
1 1/2 oz coconut milk (or other non dairy milk)
1 1/2 oz coconut yogurt (or you could do all 3 oz of yogurt, I just didn't have enough)
1/2 tsp pure maple syrup
1/4 cup water
1 egg replacer
3 or so T of oil
Pour half of the wet into the dry mixture and then stir in the rest. These made about 7 muffins.. that's all we needed so I had split everything in half. You can obviously double, but recommend freezing the rest after a day or two. They were really good! I made it for Peter to enjoy at a birthday party where everyone got cake. They were fluffy and just, good. Even better with frosting, if he could have it.


Salt & Vinegar Chips

• Enough vinegar to cover potatoes (about 2 cups)
• for a small batch, 1-2 russet potatoes
• 1-1.5 tsp coarse sea salt
• Very small sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tsp Extra virgin olive oil 

I washed and cut into rounds... then I put into a medium size pot and I suppose it was at least 2 or so cups of white vinegar. I let it boil for 5 minutes, turned it off, and set aside for 30 minutes. I then placed them on a greased, aluminum foil wrapped baking sheet and baked for 30 minutes, turned them over, and baked another 15 or so. I had to watch carefully and remove the ones that were done... you really need to be by the oven to keep watching. I let them get a little burned so that it would be crispy, like chips. These are only good for a day or so.

 Oven fried french fries

I cut up my russet potato into thin strips, and put them into a zip-lock bag and added 2 tsp of oil, salt, garlic salt, onion powder... really you could put anything and I might have put other seasonings but can't remember right now. 4252 for about 20 or so minutes. I used my pizza stone. I think we also broiled it to get them more crispy. I've also heard that soaking them before is a key to good oven baked french fries-- I'll have to try that next time.

Not Gluten free-- but Healthy Oatmeal Rhubarb-Strawberry Muffins

I can say that I made this into my own after rushing to find a suitable muffin that was healthy to my standards.. here's what I did:

• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1/2 cup sugar (could do honey, but more cals I think)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup rhubarb/strawberries (2-3 strawberries)
• 1 1/2 egg replacer + 2 T water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4-6 T coconut milk

122 Calories, Bake at 325 for 16-20 minutes. Made 11.

Chocolate-drop Cookies

 1/2 cup Sorghum Flour
1/4 cup Brown Rice Flour
1/4 Cup Tapioca Flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp baking soda (not a typo, that's what i used)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp guar gum
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

In a sep. bowl:
1/4 cup + 2 T Spectrum Shortening (non butter)
1/4 cup cane sugar, 1/4 cup honey/agave
1 Ener-G Egg replacer with 2 T water

Add dry ingredients and mix well.

I added a handful or two of gluten free oats. We don't have any dairy-free chocolate chips, so I took cocoa powder , (3 T plus 1 T oil = 1 oz) so three oz. of that, mixed with probably 2-3 T coconut cream, and a little more oil..I wanted it to get hard in the fridge so I could make chocolate chips, but did not work. So instead I got a dough-type texture and I rolled it into balls and put the mixed cookie dough over the chocolate balls. I baked them for about 10-12 minutes at 350 on a parchment lined baking sheet. When done, let stand for 4 minutes before removing... caution: crumbly, but really good. I would  freeze after a day because gluten free things tend to go bad. Also, I made a half batch of this, so if you wanted more you could double. I think it made at least 10 cookies.

Also made rice noodle stirfry -- the changes I made- I didn't use rice, just rice noodles and I thought it was supppppppppppper good, but peter didn't like the sweetness to it.  Oh well, can't win them all!  More photos later... tried two more recipes... photos to come.  I plan to make peach sorbet within a couple days and possible mango-coconut roasted chicken. Peter's appointment is on Tuesday so we'll see what else he can or cannot eat.  Off to bed!