Who in the World is Kirby???

As many of you know I love to decorate cakes for my boys.  They pick a theme each birthday and I get the task of creating a cake.  This year Xbox requested Kirby.  I have NO CLUE who this is.  He showed me a picture on his DS.  I had an Ah ha moment...it is a game creature.  So I googled a picture and this is what I came up with.  Enjoy!  (I think he did!) 

My dear hubby is  Packers fan, so he got the Green Bay cake. 

We also celebrated my brother's birthday, so he got a cake too.  The Mighty Hammer of Thor! 

Soaked Crock-Pot Oatmeal Goodness!

 Having recently added oats back into our diet (occasionally), we have come to re-love steel cut oats.  There are so many recipes out there on ways to enjoy them.  I have made apple crisp, oatmeal cookies, and just plain breakfast oatmeal.  We still only have them occasionally, I would say about once every two weeks.  But adding them in still adds to our variety.

A good friend of mine posted on Facebook a crock pot oatmeal recipe that just sounded out of this world, so I had to give it a go, of course in my own special allergen free way.  (recipe at bottom of post)

One of the things I have seen a lot on whole food websites is soaking of grains.  I have been dabbling in it a little, but since we are gluten free, not so much.  But it is really intriguing to me.  I know of people who can tolerate soaked grains, but not unsoaked.  So interesting... so, soaking does a bunch of wonderful things like aiding in digestion.  Soaking oatmeal can aid in its digestion, but you need to add a tad of wheat to do so... here in lies my quandary.  Buckwheat is another alternative to soak with oats, but we can't do that either.  Anyways, I digress.  Here are some websites that have fabulous explanations on it: (if you care for more information)

Kitchen Stewardship

Passionate Homemaking

Nourished Kitchen

GNOWFGLINS

While I didn't soak my oatmeal for the following recipe, I think it would be a nice addition to the recipe.

Oatmeal in a Crockpot

1 c. steel cut oats

4 c. water

1/2 c. milk substitute of choice (I used coconut milk)

1 c. dried fruit of choice OR 1 fresh apple, chopped (I omitted this the first time I made it.)

1/4 c. brown sugar

1 TBSP Earth Balance Soy Free butter or coconut oil

1/2 t. vanilla

1 t. cinnamon

Awesome part of this recipe is that you assemble it at night, set the crockpot on low, go to sleep and wake up to a ready made breakfast.  I love that.  My boys are a bit spoiled and they demand love a hot breakfast, so this will help me to not have to cook first thing in the morning.

First, I found a glass container that would hold all this yummy goodness.  Then I made sure it would fit into my crock pot.  I was a tad bit proud of myself for checking the bowl to see if it fit BEFORE filling it.  I would recommend a glass container about 1.75 quarts and up.  I then filled my bowl up.  I simply just added each ingredient and gave it a swirl with the spoon.   If you would like to add dried fruit or the chopped apple, then add it in as well.  The last step was to CAREFULLY pour water into the surrounding empty area of the crockpot. I filled it to just under the lip of the glass bowl.  This will keep the oatmeal from getting crunchy on the outside of the bowl.  Make sense?  Set the crock pot to low, then put the cover on and head off to dream land...

You should awake to creamy, steamy oatmeal with yummy goodness all baked it.  Now please note: I did not add fruit this time, I wanted to see how my kiddos liked it and then I can add it next time.  My dear friend added this note on her recipe, "Note:  when using dried fruit, the cooking process will rehydrate the fruit, giving you those puffy raisins, if you know what I mean.  Some people hate those!  Just FYI.  Also, this was very sweet when we made it with 3 T. cinnamon sugar.  I would be tempted to maybe go with 1 T."

Enjoy.  Let me know what you think. 

Oh My! Just Can't STOP Eating These!!!!

Sometimes when you are allergen free, you hear a recipe and just drool over its description.  There was this great recipe on All Recipe a good friend recommended.  My first thought was, "OH BOY! the guys would just devour those."  So I set out on a quest to recreate them.

My first challenge was to find a cracker.  I settled on this recipe from my friend Michelle's Blog.  If you can do the ingredients, I recommend these crackers.

Saltine Toffee Cookie Recipe

4 ounces saltine crackers (either Glutino or this recipe)

1 cup butter (Earth Balance Soy Free Butter) (or just a little less then one cup)

1 cup dark brown sugar (I prefer organic)

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I like Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips)

3/4 cup chopped pecans (make sure they are gluten free, I didn't use any nuts and they were still yummy!)

Directions (taken from All Recipes)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
2. Line cookie sheet with saltine crackers in single layer. Its ok if they are crumbled a bit.
3. In a saucepan combine the sugar and the butter. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Immediately pour over saltines and spread sauce to cover crackers completely.
4. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes. Spread melted chocolate and top with chopped nuts. 
5. Cool completely and break into pieces.  I set mine out in the garage to cool.  
6. Enjoy!

Gluten Free~Substitutions

I started way back in November, I believe, posting about my favorite substitutions for different types of allergies, I realized as I was tiding up a few things I never posted anything on gluten. Opps.  So I thought today might as well be the day.

Remember, I am not a nutritionist, or a food specialist, I am not a doctor.  I am simply a mom who cooks for her family.  This is my bit of knowledge I have that I am sharing with you.

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When you cook gluten free, you must use a combination of flours.  Because gluten free flours don't contain "gluten" we have to fool what we are cooking into have that lovely, stretchy, gluteny feel.  That takes a combination of different types of flours.  Also, adding xantham gum or guar gum is a must.

I categorize the gluten free flours this way:

Protein (heavy flours)

Filler (medium flours)

Starch (light flours)

This is a short list of all the many wonderful flours!

Lightweight	Medium weight	Heavyweight
starch	filler	protein
arrowroot	amaranth	almond
cornstarch	coconut	brown rice (regular)
potato starch	garbanzo	buckwheat
sweet rice	millet	cornmeal (stone ground)
tapioca	quinoa	walnut
white	sorghum	pecan
	superfine brown rice	chestnut
	teff	other nut flours

Just a few notes on flours:

~Tapocia and arrowroot flour are also called tapioca and arrowroot starch.  They also are interchangable in recipes.

~Potato flour is NOT the same as potato starch.  DO NOT substitute one for the other!!!!!

To make a gluten free item, you need one of each type of these flours in your recipe, or maybe more.

Here is a great link that explains each flour.   I am not going to reinvent the wheel and type out each kind of flour.  There are so many sites with great info!

Gluten free baking is about ratios of flours.

Famous blends are ones created by Bette Hagman.  I have written about her in other posts.  She is the author of several cookbooks, including The Gluten Free Gourmet.  Her blends are sold by Authentic Foods.  I like her blends, however, since we are corn free I sub tapioca or arrowroot for the cornstarch she calls for.  There are so many blends and recipes out there, however, Bette's work great for me.

My favorite to use are as follows:

 Gluten-Free (GF) Mix - from Bette Hagman's Gluten Free Gourmet
3 c. rice flour  (I like superfine brown rice)
1 c. potato starch (NOT potato flour)
1/2 c. tapioca starch

Mix well.  This is a good all purpose substitution

 Featherlight Mix - from Bette Hagman's Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread
1 c. Rice flour (I usually use a white rice~  this is good for light breads)
1 c. arrowroot (her recipe calls for cornstarch)
1 c. tapioca starch
1 Tbs. potato flour (NOT potato starch)

Bette Hagman Four Flour Bean Mix:
2/3 cup garfava (or garbanzo) bean flour
1/3 cup sorghum flour
1 cup arrowroot (her recipe calls for cornstarch)
1 cup tapioca starch

This makes 3 cups. It exchanges for wheat flour in recipes. It is higher protein than the rice blends, and so higher in nutrition. Some people do not like the bean taste though. Used for heavy bread such as banana or pumpkin.

Note:  Since I use large amounts of these flours, I make huge batches at a time.  I buy gallon (or larger) ziplocs and store the mixed flour blends in them.  I usually triple the recipes.

One other brand I am just loving is Cooqi Brand mixes.  She premixes the blends and sells them.  Her site has fabulous recipes.  You may recall I used her mix for my pie shell at Thanksgiving time.

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What are your favorite blends?  What is a trick or tip that you could share?

Oh YES I DID!

Do you have those things in your life which you think "I would NEVER do that!" or perhaps "WHY on earth would I want to do that?" or even "Sounds good, BUT it isn't for me!"

Well my thing was homemade laundry soap.

Yup.  I always thought that it sounded like WAY to much work to save some money.  All the measuring and melting and stirring, you know all those recipes for making it on the stove top???  Sounded like a lot of work.  And while I know the recipe works for people, I already make so many things from scratch, I just didn't want another "thing" to make.

Then I stumbled upon some dry laundry soap recipes.  As simple as grating soap and mixing it up with a couple other things.  "Hmmm, well maybe it wouldn't be so much work" I thought.  I still wasn't to keen on shredding an entire bar of soap.  But I thought, I will give it a go.

So I bought the ingredients.  Borax, Fels Naptha soap bar, and Arm and Hammer Super Washing soda.   They have sat on top of my dryer waiting for months for me to finish up my Purex allergen free that I had.

Note:  I found Target carried all three ingredients, as did Cub Foods.  Otherwise look online. 

Well, today was the day to make it.  (I may have been out of laundry soap and may have had a stack of dirty clothes that my family was requesting be cleaned.  Whiners.)

I tweaked the recipe just a bit, but here is what I did.

I took the bar of soap and microwaved it for one minute, 30 seconds.  It kinda foamed up.  I recommend letting it cool a bit before working with it.  (um, I may have not waited and burnt the tips of my fingers, or maybe not, but really~take my word for it ~ wait till it cools.)  I put the foaming bar of soap in my Ninja blender (still waiting for a Vitamix, someday, I have dreams about owning one of those bad boys.  Notice, they are NEVER on Craigslist....) and blended that bar of soap right up.  I added two cups of Borax and 2 cups of Arm and Hammer.  I blended again.  Then I poured it into a leftover plastic Tupperware container (I only use glass for food storage now, but I held onto my plastic stuff for projects like this...).  Also, NOTE: you may want to cover up any food on the counter top.  It isn't fun to have soap flying through the air and landing onto your yummy apple crisp.  Using an extra coffee scoop I had on hand, I can now use one to two scoops for washing.  YEAH!  I also added about 20 drops of essential oils for "smell" factor.  I recommend lavender or lemon.  When I was done making it, I was all like, "Wow, that only took minutes to make!  What on earth was I waiting for?"

So to recap:

1 bar Fels Naptha Soap bar
2 cups Borax
2 cups Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

Microwave soap bar for 1:30 minutes, blend in blender with other ingredients.  Pour into container.  Use 1-2 tablespoons per load of laundry.

Note: skill level EASY!

Now I can say to myself... "WHY did I not make this sooner."  It is always something, I tell you.

Do you have a favorite laundry soap recipe?  Feel free to share your link below.

Meal planning part 3

Allergen free cooking can get tedious.  You figure out "safe" meals and repeat, repeat, repeat.  To break out of the rut, I found making a meal list was helpful.  Also, I also like to assign a type of meal to each day of the week.  For example:

Monday: crock pot day
Tuesday: pasta
Wednesday: beef
Thursday: chicken
Friday: pizza
Saturday: meatless
Sunday: leftovers

Then I get creative for that day.  Pasta day could be stirfry, spagetti, lasanga, etc.  Crock post day could be a roast, shredded pork/chicken/beef, whole chicken.... you get the idea.

What are some of your favorite go to meals?

Dinner Ideas

Pot roast

Beef shredders

Ribs (pork or beef)

Tacos (soft or hard shell)

Hamburgers (turkey, beef, veggie)

Steak

Asian Stir Fry (beef, chicken, veggie)

Meatballs

Crockpot chicken

BBQ chicken (wings or tenders)

Lemon Chicken

Pot pie

Fried Chicken

Chicken Alfredo

Chicken parmesana

Lamb chops

Lamb roast

WE DON’T EAT PORK BUT IDEAS ARE:

Ham

Pork chops

Pork tenderloin

Grilled Salmon

Fried Tiliapia

Baked Cod

Let IT SNOW!

It never fails to amaze me how much I learn from my children.

God has been talking to me a great deal about prayer.  Seems everything I read is on prayer, whether it is on a blog I stumbled onto, or when I randomly open my Bible, or a post on Facebook.  It is everywhere.  And now He is using my children to reach me.

Just a bit of background:

My sweet littlest guy has begun this knack of asking questions that are so deep and over my head, that I often have to have a 5 minute conversation to just understand what he is asking.  Really.  He thinks differently then I do.  I tend to be concrete absolute and he is abstract as they come.  I am orderly, black and white, he is a rainbow whose colors are splashed all over in random bits.  But I love him to pieces.  He calls me "My Mama," still snuggles me tight (at age 7).  When I recently burned my fingers badly, he came over and patted and rubbed my back with huge tears in his eyes said, "Oh my Mama, I love you, I am so sorry you got hurt"  Yup, love that kid.  However, he tends to wear me out with his Tasmanian like energy.

Today, he just blessed me.  He was out in the snow, I called my boys in for school and he said, "My mama, can we stay outside, we are having SO MUCH FUN!  And you know what?  My mama, God answered my prayer for snow.  I simply asked Him and He gave it too me."

Jesus asks us to pray with childlike faith.  He asks us to simply believe.  Amazing isn't it.  I love in the Bible where Jesus teaches the Lord's Prayer:

"Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil."

 Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4

Then Jesus goes on to say in Luke 11:11-13  If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?...If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall [your] heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? 

Thank you God for loving us.  While we may not get how You answer our prayers, or why sometimes it appears you do not, thank you for loving us and always have a plan in place for us.  Help us to have a simple, child like faith.  Help us to remember to ask and BELIEVE.