SCOTCH EGGS-( this may be the greatest thing since sliced bread)

and since we can't eat sliced bread on a Paleo diet ....well its just the best thing ever!!!!!
I am sure many of you are aware of what Scotch Eggs are-they are famous from High Tea with The Queen of England back in the day aparently!- I am just discovering them!!!!!
I first saw them on a some sight recently, for the life of me I cannot remember which one....and then they appeared in Well Fed, my new fav cookbook infatuation.....
I took this as a sign, I must make them NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I didn't follow each recipe exactly, but the method-well that is the same anywhere you look......

SCOTCH EGGS

It doesn't get better than Shrimp and Grits, does it???

 Can you say YUMM???? This is what I made with my take home goodies from the ALL LOCAL FARMERS MARKET..

Fresh Local SC Large SHRIMP, and local stone ground grits, and local CAW CAW bacon....YUMM, I just had to say it again, I just LOVE shrimp and grits ya'll!!!!
This one comes with a warning-- This is a CHEAT meal! (but gluten free all the same!!!!- not low carb and high fat is not a great every day combination--but its too good to NEVER have-- I made sure it was atleast gluten free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JUMBO EGG MUFFINS for the MEATLOVER (and sweet potato souffle)

 My oldest has testing today at school. So I made a special breakfast...
We decided on Egg Muffins and Sweet Potatoes. I have leftover sweet potato from last nights dinner- so I think I will just fry up patties of cold sweet potato mash in Bacon Fat for the side. (Jack usually drinks water for breakfast.)

JUMBO EGG MUFFINS for the 

MEAT LOVER 

(that would be Jack my son- he loves him some meat!!!!)

Strawberry Bliss Birthday For CareBear (Gluten Free of Course)

Of course the birthday girls day starts out with breakfast! She has requested strawberry everything for her birthday. So we have started the day out with Warm Strawberry Cream Scones with a Strawberry Icing Glaze- yes every bit as yummy as they sound! Truley!!!! The day started off well!
Now I need to go bake a Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Swiss Buttercream Icing.

Strawberry Cream Scones, with a Strawberry Icing Glaze (gluten free)

and then we made the cake:

Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Buttercream (GF)

I have to say this turned out well, but getting there was not easy... I tried to make (ICING TAKE ONE) Swiss Meringe buttercream, the egg white/sugar mixture WOULD NOT get fluffy- Let it go for ages in my kitchenaid, it would not get to a marshmellowing thickness, just a runny mess!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!

 ICING TAKE TWO- So I made a cream cheese strawberry icing---and Carebear did not like it-- I thght it was great, but as she doesn't like cream cheese--WHAT WAS I THINKING???

So on ICING TAKE THREE we finally  succeeded with this-

Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Buttercream

1 GF Cake mix ( I used Betty Crocker)

1 3oz box strawberry jello

1/2 cup finely diced strawberries
1/2 cup coconut oil ( heated if needed to make it liquid)
4 eggs, seperated

1/2 cup hot water

Directions:
Dissolve jello in hot water.
In first bowl beat egg whites until fluffy. Set aside.
Add egg yolks and the rest of the ingredients to the Jello and Beat for 2 min in the mixer ( I used a Kitchenaid)
Fold egg white into cake mixture GENTLY, and keep folding till all combined well.

Grease 3 9 inch cake pans with butter, place a parchment sheet that you have cut out in a circle the same size as pan into bottom, make sure it is well buttered as well on both sides, and then dust the pan with some flour ( i used one of my AP gluten free flour mixes) This step is critical to make sure that your cakes will come out of the pan!!! Do this for all three pans. and then you can divide your cake mix equally into all 3 pans.

see how the cake came right out!!! and then I peel the parchment off...

 

Chewy, Sink My Teeth into it- The Successful Gluten Free Bagel- For REAL!

Sometimes a girl just needs a hot, fresh, chewy cream cheese lathered bagel to sink her teeth into...can I get an amen??

Now, I am doing a Paleo lifestyle for the most part, which is gluten free, and also pretty low carb, so bagels are not so much on my plate very often... but as I said above sometimes a girls gotta go where a girls gotta go. Life is too short not to indulge once in awhile! ( within my healthy gluten free and mostly paleo parameters of course)
But today BAGELS, BAGELS, BAGELS called my name so I set out to create ones I could enjoy in good conscience.

The Chewy, Sink your Teeth in Gluten  Free Bagel

(adapted from an old Cooking Light magazine)

1 (12oz) can gluten free brown beer - I used Redbridge

1 cup water

2 1/4 tsp yeast (GF)

1 large egg white, lightly beaten

4 1/2 whole wheat gluten free mix of choice
**see bottom of post for exact mix I used today**

1 1/2 tsp salt

4 cups water

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp yellow cornmeal

1 tsp water

1 large egg yolk

any toppings- 1 tsp sesame seeds, 1 tsp poppy seeds, 1 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp cinn/sugar mix, anything you want to come up with!!!!

1. Heat 1/2 c beer and 1 cup water over low heat in a small, heavy saucepan to btwn 100 and 110 degrees F. Combine Beer mix and yeast in large bowl, stirring until yeast dissolves. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in egg white.

2. Weigh flour. Add flour and salt to beer mixture in KitchenAid mixer ( or wherever you are mixing)  and stir till a soft dough forms. (I let mine go in mixer for approx 5 min as with GF flours we skip the kneading step)

3. Form into a ball and place in a clean pre-greased large bowl. Cover and place in a warm spot and let rise for 1hr 15min or until double in size (mine never did double, but when I indented dough with my finger it did not spring back so I knew it was done)

 (the dough ball will look something like this)

4. Punch Down and reform in a ball. Cover again let it rest for 5 min.

5.Turn dough out onto a lightly greased surface ( use a little olive oil). Divide dough into 12 equal portions. Do this by cutting in half, then each into half, then each in half again. (You can make larger bagels if you so desire by making less balls, say 10.) Cover all portions back in your bowl.

6. Working with one portion at a time form into a ball and then using your finger make a hole in center of each ball. Gently stretch to make whole approx. 1 1/2 in wide. Place bagels on a baking sheet coated with olive oil, and coat each bagel by turning it as you set it on baking sheet. Cover with your towel, or plastic wrap, and let rise for 10 min. May not rise much at all-thats ok

7. Preheat oven to 400 F

8. Combine remaining beer, 4 cups water, and brown sugar in a dutch oven. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer. 

9. Gently lower a bagel into beer mixture. Cook 30 sec on one side and then 30 second on other side. Turn and Remove with Slotted Spoon. ( do not leave in too long or GF dough will start to disintegrate)

 Transfer each to a wire wrack that is coated with olive oil or cooking spray to sit as you do each one. (I did 2 bagels at a time) At this time paint each bagel with egg yolk/water mixture ( to make take 1 egg yolk and 1 tsp water and whisk together). Now you can sprinkle each bagel with any topping of 
choice, or leave plain.

10. Place directly on a preheated baking stone that has been sprinkled with gluten free cornmeal.
 BAKE at 400F for 17-25 min. You are looking for a brown all over bagel. (each oven varies, and using a baking stone or not makes a difference so just watch yours closely after the 17 min. mark- mine took 23.)

See how they are browned all over, this is what you want.

See the crumb???? Its chewy!!!! It absorbs the butter beautifully!!! This one was my sons, I myself prefer cream cheese!!!!!

I hope someone else tries these and loves them. I will be makin them weekly probably!!!! My kiddos love them, and it will give them some breakfast carbs that they can have some days with their eggs and bacon combos..... I do tend to give my kids carbs much more often than I allow them for myself-- I feel like they run off the energy and need them.

•  I did use a bit of a different GF flour mix in this one than than on the link I gave above- but as you will see on the post I linked there are lots of ways to change up the whole wheat GF mix!!!!!
• My exact flour mix I used today if you want to copy exactly-

***100g sorghum flour, 100g corn flour,100g quiona flour, 200g amaranth, 200g brown rice flour, 150g tapioca flour, 150g potato starch***

Whole Wheat Mix Gluten Free- Make up a big Batch Today!

I am learning more everyday about the properties of different Gluten Free Flours...

Some seem so heavy, some so light, which ones I just don't love, which ones are quickly becoming my favorites...

I HEART SORGHUM Flour! I think it may be my favorite  to add to a mix. I also like sweet rice and even brown rice flours a lot.

So, as I say in almost every post, I learned so much of how to get started with this from Shauna and Danny at GlutenFreeGirl and the Chef. Their blog and cookbook are so helpful! They gave me courage to push up my sleeves and dig in.

So this weekend I made a batch of a Whole Wheat Gluten Free Mix using what I had learned from reading Shauna's page, and what I am learning about ratios and using grams/oz rather than cups to measure....

My Current Favorite

 WHOLE WHEAT GLUTEN FREE MIX

Formula: 700g total flours +300g total starches = GF baking mix

Combine the following
250g Sorghum flour
150gm sweet white rice flour
150g brown rice flour
150 g amaranath flour
with
150g Tapioca Flour
150g Potato Starch

Now Stir all together very well and put in a well sealed container and you have your whole grain gluten free flour mix for future use!!!!

(you can do this on your own using your own combinations very easily using the formula above)

Using this I made both Muffins and Pancakes today. My recipes are below!

WHOLE GRAIN GF  Banana MUFFINS

350g whole- grain flour mix

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

100g honey

1 tsp kosher salt

2 eggs

300 g whole milk

100g butter

1 tsp vanilla extract, GF

2 mashed bananas

Preheat oven to 350. 

Grease a large muffin tin well.

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl and whisk ingredients together well. ( I used this combo for my whole wheat flour mix- 250g sorghum flour, 150 sweet rice, 150 brown rice, 150 amaranth, 150 tapioca flour, 150 potato starch)

Combine wet ingredients in a smaller bowl and mix till well combined.

Add these to dry ingredients and whisk till fully combined. At this point you can throw in some chopped nuts if you so desire!

Fill muffin tins 3/4 full. Slide into oven. Bake until browned with a bit of crunch, the tops spring back to touch. 25-35 min.

Eat.

Makes 15-18 muffins.

• these muffins are a good basic muffin. you can add any fruit, fresh, frozen or dried.
• you can add chopped nuts
• you could add diff spices to change up the taste
• basically its just a great BASIC muffin recipe to add to!

Whole Grain GF PANCAKES, with A Cinnamon Bun Twist

7 oz whole grain flour mix

1 oz ground flax seed

1.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice

8 oz milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs

2 oz melted butter

cinn bunn icing

1 cup confectioners sugar

3T milk

3T molasses

Combine Dry ingredients. Whisk well.

Combine Wet ingredients all except melted butter(except for icing ingredients) and whisk well. 

Pour liquid ingredients into well in center of dry and whisk until well combined. Add melted butter and stir until entirely combined.

To make icing stir ingredients till well combined. If too thick add more milk very slowly till its a good icing consistency. If too thin, add some more confectioners sugar. Next put this icing in a plastic sandwhich baggie and cut a very small whole at one end. You have now made a piping bag.

Make these pancakes over a med-high heat. Grease pan liberally with butter. Pour about 1/4 cup batter at a time. Next take your tube of Icing and Pipe in a Swirl Formation onto your pancake. When bubble formed and popping its time to flip.

Your pancake will have the look of a "cinnamon bun".

If you leave out the icing step you will have great basic whole grain GF pancakes!!!!

This makes enough for 4 servings.

Gluten Free Strawberry Heaven

Strawberry Muffins and Strawberry Almond Bread

I just have to say Oh My HEAVENS! WOWWEE! This did not have any taste of gluten free. Not at all. I could not taste anything but GOODNESS!

I was blown away.

I mean really really blown away.

These came from Shauna of Gluten Free girl, well I changed some stuff, but mostly from her muffin recipe!!! THANKS SO MUCH SHAUNA! WOW!!!!!!

 Its just the start of Strawberry season in FL I think. We have been getting some really good strawberrys at the grocery store from FL, super sweet and juicy. So we used those. I know I KNOW, not local. But my daughter wanted strawberry muffins. 

When we get our local strawberries in April we will be making these out the wazoo I am so sure!!!!!!

Doing paleo, I am really staying away from carbs mostly, and really not eating fruit much at all- that darn Fructose, wish I had not learned all I have learned about how detrimental it can be to my body in any more than very small quantities. Anyhoo--- Strawberries are probably my nemesis when we are talking Fructose, I could eat a whole bucket when we go strawberry picking in April and May.

We have great strawberries and peacheshere in SC. Ohh, my mouth waters thinking of them!!!! Fresh from the farm, right down the road-these are worth eating--

but please don't buy them in December-not tasty

But as I am learning, Local is always best, and when things are in season, this is when we should indulge. So in April and May, or whatever your season may be, indulge then ( of course in moderation) in the fruit of THAT season.

If a fruit is not local, and not in season, you should probably just stay away from it. Harder to follow, I know, but for our health, this is a pretty good rule to adhere to.

But as I have kids, and I am still figuring this Paleo thing out, I do give them fruit still, just don't let them eat it to their hearts content as I used to... I do buy apples, and bananas, and berries...

(I try to stick to two servings a day per kid.)

and now strawberries from FL (not exactly local, but not from across the world, or even the country)

Gluten Free Strawberry Muffins

10 tablespoons unsalted, soft butter
1/3 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup sweet white sorghum flour
1 cup white rice flour
1 cup tapioca flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 

½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups organic whole milk vanilla  yogurt

1/4 cup sour cream
1 cup diced strawberries

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 375.
Combine all the dry ingredients together. Set aside.
Cream the butter and honey together, until just creamed. If you leave the stand mixer running as they are creaming, these muffins will not rise. Simply cream them until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg.
Add one half of the dry ingredients, mixing well. Add one-third of the yogurt and combine until well mixed. Add one-half of the remaining dry ingredients to the mixture, and combine. Continue this, alternating the yogurt and dry ingredients, until you have mixed both of them in, completely. Add in vanilla and as many strawberries as you can. Incorporate Fully.
Oil a muffin tin well, then sprinkle a little cornstarch or white rice flour on the bottom of each cup. Fill each space for muffin two-thirds full. Sprinkle the raw sugar over the top if you want too and set them in the oven.
(This recipe will give you enough batter to make two tins of muffins, or close.)
Bake the muffins for about 35 minutes, or until the tops have browned and started to harden, and the entire house smells of warm muffins.
Makes 18 muffins. ( or tons of mini muffins- just make sure you watch, as the time will be less, about 1/2)

• I used some of this same batter to make a mini loaf. I added some sliced almonds mixed in, and a few on top. This took about the whole 35 min to bake. It was wondeful!!!!!

• I am sure you could do a large loaf just as well.
•  You could change out the FRUIT in this muffin for any in season fruit, or even just mix in some chopped nuts, or seeds??? very adaptable.
• you could probably use frozen fruit also here.

Gluten Free Flour EVERYWHERE

I have been waiting and waiting for my new gluten free flours to come that I ordered online. They finally came on Friday.
So Saturday became a marathon cooking day. Carebear and I spent the day elbow deep in 5 million different kinds of flour combos trying to see what we could come up with.
I have to say, I have some frustrating moments, but mostly we had a blast. I wish I had taken some pics of my house. My table and my kitchen were a disaster area. Flour EVERYWHERE. Bowls, and measuring cups EVERYWHERE... I cannot say I am a neat cook. I did take some pics of the finished products.
We started the day with a recipe I found for bagels. She had used a baking mix, so I decided to use the AP mix I put together using Gluten Free Girl and the Chef 's  cookbook. The dough felt so odd between my fingers. You see I was a big bread baker, the regular kinda bread. I have made tons of bagels in my day. These did not feel right. I could not work this dough. It just feel apart in my hands.
Enter Frustration. This is expensive flour. So I thought to myself, Self what is a girl to do??
So I dumped the dough into a bread pan, let it rise again and then jammed it in the oven. Gluten free Girl always says, you can always make breadcrumbs!!!
Well guess what--- Here is my Gluten Free bread-

And it was so yummy!! The kids scarfed it up! I thought it was best toasted myself. It was so yummy with some pimento cheese spread!
( I will have to do a pimento cheese spread post-very southern and so paleo!)

Basic Gluten Free Bread

4 cups all purpose gluten free mix ( I used Gluten Free Girl's recommended AP)

 1 T sea salt

 1 T yeast ( gluten free)

1 3/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup honey

Directions- 
 Proof your yeast. - This means add your yeast, your sugar and your water, mix well and let them sit for a few minutes until bubbly. So in this case, add water, honey and yeast, mix well and set aside.
Mix your flour and your salt well. Combine wet mixture will flour mixture until well combined.
(This mixture will still be rather runny, and not feel really much like a bread dough in your hands, but just TRUST at this point.)
Next, place in a clean bowl, cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm place to rise for an hour.
After an hour, punch down the dough, and transfer to a well oiled bread loaf pan. It will somewhat just pour in, still not looking much like a bread dough.  Just stuff it in, and even out the top.  Cover this with your damp towel and place it in a warm place for a second rising. After another hour, place your dough in a 425 preheated oven, with a ramikin,or small oven safe bowl, filled with HOT water sitting off to the side in your oven. This should take aprrox an hour, or until your dough is very browned on top, and sounds hollow when you wrap on it with your knuckles.
This produces a bread that is VERY VERY crusty on the outside and mosit on the inside.



So on to the next project- we made biscuits adapted from Flour Arrangements . They were called Big Buttermilk Biscuits.
Here are our biscuits:

 this above pic is before baking, below pic is after baking.

I myself thought they were a little grainy, but my family were big fans. I served them with country ham, and some with just butter and honey. My Dad, not a gluten free eater, he LOVED them. So I guess they were pretty good, I will do them again.

Big Buttermilk Gluten Free Biscuits

1 1/4 cup white rice flour

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp tapioca flour

1/4 cup potatoe starch

1 tsp fine sea salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp Xanthum gum

1 cup buttermilk ( i didn't have so i used milk with some lemon juice)

4 tbsp butter (very cold and finely cubed)

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

Combine all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix together well.

NEXT, mix all wet ingredients in a smaller bowl, expect for butter.

Fold the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients. 

LAST, add the cubes of cold butter. Use your hands to gently work the butter into the dough, but make sure to leave some chunks of butter still in the dough.

Roll the dough into 6 balls. Flatten into disks on a silpat, or parchment paper on a baking sheet. Brush with a mix of butter and honey on tops.

Bake for 12 to 15 min at 350.

• the original recipe called for 5 tsp of sugar, but I left this out as I never have put sugar into my bisuits before-- I don't think it needed the sugar- you decide though

• also orignal recipe called for guar gum, I left it out, maybe if I had added it they would have held together a little better, they did split a little as you can see in the pics...I may try to add it next time, it was 1/4 tsp guar gum if you want to add it 

The next culinary adventure was Gluten Free Crackers, from Gluten Free Girl and the Chef's Cookbook- so worth buying. This is the first recipe I have tried from it, but if I didn't try any of them I would be glad I bought it. Its a book in itself. When I say that, I mean they wrote story, after story throughout the book. Its full of great stories about their love, how they met, their relationship, and then great food stories. She is such a great writer. Even the way the recipes are written, they just come alive!!!! So there is my plug for their cookbook. I cannot wait to try so many of the recipes, if not all of them!!!!
This recipe doubles as a pizza crust Shauna says, so of course I tried it as cracker and as a pizza crust!!! Of course we ate the pizza too fast and I didn't take pics of it, but I got some cracker pics.

These were really really good. We served them with spinach dip, crab dip, and pimento cheese dip. SO GREAT. J, the hubbie, liked the ones that were the crispiest, said I should have left them in a tad longer so they were all that crispy. As I was serving them with these dips, I liked them as is, a tad flatbreadish, they all had a crisp, but some bend as well.... If you want them all crisp, I recommend baking on a pizza stone as I did, and half way through, taking them out and flipping it, so both sides get totally crispy.

GLUTEN FREE CRACKERS

1 cup cornstarch

3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp corn flour

3/4 cup potatoe starch

 3/4 cup sweet rice flour

1 T xanthum gum

1 t guar gum

1 1/2 t kosher salt

1 3/4 cup warm water ( abt 110 degrees F)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

4 tsp yeast (Red star is gluten free)

Gluten Free cornmeal for sprinkling

Seasoning of choice for topping crackers right before baking- I used sesame seeds, garlic salt, cracked black pepper

EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) for brushing 

Directions:

Combine Dry Ingredients. Sift them all together till well combined.

Activate the yeast.- Put warm water, olive oil and yeast in small bowl, Stir gently till all combined. Set aside for a few minutes till it bubbling nicely.

Add yeasty water to dry ingredients and mix together.  You can do this in a mixer or by hand, I have always felt better doing bread dough by hand, but thats just me.

Do till it comes together and feels soft and pliable. 

Set dough aside in a warm place and let rise for an hour. ( I coat a bowl with EVOO lightly, place my dough in it, and cover the bowl with a damp towel. Place it in your oven with the light on, or on top of your stove top with the light above it on)

Preheat your oven to 450 while  you prepare your dough. ( or 500 if making pizza)

Pull out your dough and punch it down and form a nice ball again. Divide in two and set 1/2 aside. Work into a rectange or circle form with your hands and then place on wide area of counter that you have covered with plastic wrap.Sprinkle a little cornmeal on plastic wrap, lay your dough, cover with a little cornmeal, then more plastic wrap. Now you are ready to roll our your dough.

This is somehwat slow going, as its not as pliable as regular dough, but if you go slow you can get it really really thin. ( you can use aluminum foil rather than plastic wrap if you prefer and then you can bake right on that on the pizza stone, not as much transfer)

When you are done paint with olive oil, sprinkle with your seasoning, and press it down with your fingers. Next cut our your crackers, using a pizza cutter.

Place it directly on the pizza stone. 

Bake for 10-15 min at 450. If you are doing pizza see my directions below.

• I slid it onto a cookie sheet, then inverted it onto my pizza stone and threw the toppings on real fast. 
• If you do the aluminum foil method you don't have to do as  much transfer.
• For crisper crackers, half way through cooking (7 min) take out and flip the cracker, so that the other side crisps as well as the base.

 PIZZA CRUST

The only thing I did differently for the pizza crust is that I did the flipping. Whenever I make pizza crust I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS, and this is true for gluten free crust too!!!

• preheat a stone in the oven to 500 for atleast 30 min.
• cook the crust on this stone for a few min, aprrox 6 min??, then take it out, flip it, add your ingredients to the crisp side, and return it to the oven to finish off--this is only a few more min--3-4
• Broil it that last min,or the 5th min to get a really good melt to your toppings.

The last thing I made, and truley my FAVORITE  by far.

Strawberry Muffins and Strawberry Almond Bread

I just have to say Oh My HEAVENS! WOWWEE! This did not have any taste of gluten free. Not at all. I could not taste anything but GOODNESS!

I was blown away.

I mean really really blown away.

These came from Shauna of Gluten Free girl, well I changed some stuff, but mostly from her muffin recipe!!! THANKS SO MUCH SHAUNA! WOW!!!!!!

I hate to bury these down at the end of a post really.

I may do a seperate post on these alone. Its just the start of Strawberry season in Fl I think. We have been getting some really good strawberrys at the grocery store from FL. So we used those. I know I KNOW, not local. But my daughter wanted strawberry muffins.

Gluten Free Strawberry Muffins

10 tablespoons unsalted, soft butter
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup sweet white sorghum flour
1 cup white rice flour
1 cup tapioca flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 

½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups organic whole milk vanilla  yogurt

1/4 cup sour cream
1 cup diced strawberries

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 375.
Combine all the dry ingredients together. Set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar together, until just creamed. If you leave the stand mixer running as they are creaming, these muffins will not rise. Simply cream them until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg.
Add one half of the dry ingredients, mixing well. Add one-third of the yogurt and combine until well mixed. Add one-half of the remaining dry ingredients to the mixture, and combine. Continue this, alternating the yogurt and dry ingredients, until you have mixed both of them in, completely. Add in vanilla and as many strawberries as you can. Incorporate Fully.
Oil a muffin tin well, then sprinkle a little cornstarch or white rice flour on the bottom of each cup. Fill each space for muffin two-thirds full. Sprinkle the raw sugar over the top if you want too and set them in the oven.
(This recipe will give you enough batter to make two tins of muffins, or close.)
Bake the muffins for about 35 minutes, or until the tops have browned and started to harden, and the entire house smells of warm muffins.
Makes 18 muffins. ( or tons of mini muffins- just make sure you watch, as the time will be less, about 1/2)

• I used some of this same batter to make a mini loaf. I added some sliced almonds mixed in, and a few on top. This took about the whole 35 min to bake. It was wondeful!!!!!

• I am sure you could do a large loaf just as well.

So that wraps up our day. We ended the day with a sampling of all of our treats. We invited my parents over, and a friend and we ate. I wish I had taken pics of the whole spread!!!!!

Jack's "foe Oatmeal" - Gluten Free Cinnamon Rice Pudding

My son Jack, he likes consistancy.

They boy has had Oatmeal, yep your basic Oatmeal, for breakfast for years. Atleast the last five years, day in and day out,
Me-
What would ya'll Like for Breakfast today?
Jack-
Oatmeal please, momma. ( for YEARS-every day)

So going gluten free, changing to our paleo, gluten free lifestyle is a big change for this boy.

My husband suggested Rice Pudding actually. I thought, yes, that could work maybe???
I mean, if I make a super creamy batch, a large bactch, it could last all week?

He was a happy camper!

A thumbs up mom.

His favorite was is when I mix a couple of grannny smith apples in that I have cooked down in grass fed butter and cinnamon.
The other two liked it better with fresh fruit or raisens mixed in...
I have to say, the apple version was YUMMY!!!! I could go with it for dessert easily, not just breakfast. Its now in our rotation though. A break from the eggs and bacon, and a way to get some extra carbs in them here and there!!



I do realize ya'll that Rice is not Paleo. Its a grain. But its gluten free, and on the scale of no-no's and the damage these things do to our bodies, I feel that white rice is allowed now in then in my families diet. I feel like my kids work hard and play hard and need extra carbs here and there. I feel like fructose is a worse culprit truley, and I am struggling with that more myslef.... Taking fruit away???? I just don't know???
Any thoughts ya"ll???
For now I am keeping apples and berries in my kids diet. But trying not to let them gorge on on them as I used to.....
So much to learn......

Chorizo- maybe not a Southern Ingredient, but Yummy none the less

So I found some Chorizo in the grocery store this week. Not the links that are already cooked. But ground Chorizo. This is something that is not found often here in South Carolina, usually I can only find the precooked links.  I was excited, and could hardly wait to come home and make, well something....

My first memory of Chorizo was back in college, I had a friend, Emilie, who had lived for a few years growing up in Spain. She made fresh chorizo sausage just simply seared of,  so that it was nice and almost crispy on the outside of the links that she had cut on a bias, and she had us put them into soft rolls.We stood over the pot in the tiny apartment kitchen and sopped up the reddish fat drippings with the bread as we ate. It was something I had never tasted. It smelled heavenly. It had just a tad bit of heat, but not too much. The reddish color of the oil in the pan was unlike anything I had cooked with before, and it just tasted so wonderful. We ate until we were stuffed, and I think we would have eaten more if we had not run out. It was so simple, but so Yummy. My mouth waters just thinking of the memory.

So, with the first half of the chorizo I made these egg muffins:

Chorizo Egg Muffins

12 eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 lb ground chorizo

1 onion, finely diced

1/2 red pepper finely diced

1 bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Saute chorizo until browned over med heat. Add veggies and saute till translucent and soft, med heat. Crack eggs into bowl, add eggs and remaining ingredients and whisk together briskly.

Pour into lined muffin tins and bake for approx 12 min, or until set.

These freeze well.

Reheat at 50% power for 1 min, then feel and repeat at 30 sec intervals until warmed through.

( you may add cheese to this recipe if you wish- a sharp cheddar, or a manchego, or monteray jack perhaps)

Next, I made a soup for our dinner tonight. I have a little bit of a cold and felt like soup....

Tequila Lime Chorizo Soup

 1/2 pd Ground Chorizo, ( or links diced)

1 onion, diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 bag broccoli slaw, diced into small pieces

2 limes, juiced

zest of 2 limes

1/4 cup tequila

48 oz chicken stock

1 lg can tomato puree ( good quality) I used home canned

1 lg can diced tomatoes (good quality)

1 T cumin

1 t chili powder

1/4 tsp chipoltle chili flakes

Brown off Chorizo over a med heat. ( you do not need to add any oil here as it puts off plenty of its own fat immediatly),  then add all veggies except broccoli slaw. Saute over med heat till soft. Add broccoli slaw, and all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and then turn to a simmer. Simmer for 45 min and then check veggies for tenderness. If they are tender enough the soup is done. Check for flavoring, adjust spices as needed.  ( When I do this soup I juice the limes over the pot and throw the whole lime in, then fish them out right before serving)

Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins

Still in search of additions to my kids breakfast, lunch, snack repertoire as I embark on the journey to ever better nutritional health for our family....
What can they have for snacks other than veggies, nuts, organic jerky occasionally, meat roll ups... VARIETY is the SPICE OF LIFE after all, right?
Speaking of spice, Pumpkin is one of my all time favs to work with, always has been. So it makes sense that as I embark on the wheat free, gluten free journey I would turn to pumpkin. I found a recipe at Tropical Traditions for Pumpkin muffins, I really didn't tweak much at all.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

6 eggs 

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

3/8 cup pure maple syrup ( abt 3 1/2 oz)

pinch salt

Preheat oven to 400F. Grease muffin pan with coconut oil or line with paper liners.
Sift dry ingredients together.
Whisk wet ingredients. Gradually Whisk in flour to pumpkin mixture until no lumps remain.
Divide between 12 large muffin cups, or 36 mini.
Bake 12 min or until toothpick in center comes out clean for large.

Optional Cream Cheese Frosting:
8oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 c butter, softened
1/4 c maple syrup or honey
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all and Beat in electric mixer till light and fluffy.

Paleo Pancakes

In our Paleo adventures as a family, one of the hardest things I have found its finding breakfasts that break out of the eggs realm. The easiest, and probably healthiest choice for our children for breakfast is eggs. Scrambled eggs, poached eggs, egg muffins, eggs with sausage, eggs with bacon, eggs with sweet potato hash... Well my son Jackson, he could have eggs and bacon every single day and he would never complain.
Caroline on the other hand. Well lets just say she gets tired of eggs, eggs, and well more eggs.
I am not strictly straight Paleo, more the PANU variety so we do eat dairy. Whole milk yogurt and berries gets thrown in to our breakfast mix sometimes. However, I still was in search of more variety....

So I decided I need to give gluten free baking a try. I have to say I was very wary... I previously LOVED baking bread. HUGE FAN. Will these other flours stand up at all, or will it just all FLOP???

My first ever recipe I tried was for Paleo pancakes, a recipe I adapted slightly from one I found browsing sites on the internet. Before I give the recipe I have to say, I am a little leary of almond flour, as almonds are higher is omega-6 and I am really a little worried about this. I want to work on the 6:3 ratio and don't want to introduce things high in omega 6 to my family's diet very often. That being said... WE NEED SOME BREAKFAST VARIETY SOMETIMES PEOPLE!!!!!!---- so.....

without further ado..

Paleo Pancakes

 2 eggs

1/8 cup water

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup almond flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

Blend wet ingredients in blender. Add dry ingredients to blender and pulse until well blended. Let rest in fridg 20 min up to overnight. Make on Griddle using coconut oil or butter, over med-high heat.     ( this is a rather thick batter,- it works!- but if too thick thin out with a little more water)

To DIE FOR Pumpkin Paleo Pankcakes

This was my first go at my own gluten free, no wheat baking recipe. I wanted some really good breakfast food, something other than eggs and bacon for the kiddos once and awhile....
I  had made regular Almond Flour pancakes, mainly from a recipe I had seen, see my version- Regular Paleo Pancakes. They were good, but I wanted something more, shall we say DECADENT? These hit the spot!!!---
I PROMISE- make these suckers!!-whether you are gluten free, paleo or not at all. THEY ARE tO dIE fOR!!!! YUMM!

Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes

2 eggs

1/2 cup pumpkin puree ( not pumpkin pie mix)

1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp whole milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp maple syrup ( the real stuff)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour

Blend all wet ingredients in Blender (or a food processor) first. Next add all dry ingredients and pulse until well blended and no lumps. Place in fridg to rest for at least 20 min to overnight. Now you are ready to make pancakes!!! I made mine silver dollar sized. ( This is a thicker batter, thats ok, it works!- if its too thick, as coconut flour does soak up the liquid, add a little more milk as needed)

ENJOY!!!

Here is mine on the griddle... the smaller you make them the easier they are to handle! - (just a hint)