Reality Check... Again.

It's been a while, sorry (not sorry), I've been too busy living life now that I'm not sick :)

Unfortunately, I've been partying too hard with the cookies and crackers, and good ol' gluten-pain is back.  I went strictly gluten free on Sunday, and I'm already feeling 75% better!  I've also been having some mild UC symptoms (I do still have a rectum) and have been feeling like I need to go to the bathroom a few times a day, which is a little weird since I don't actually pass food through that part of my body at the moment.  Phantom pooping!  Is that a thing?  Like a phantom limb?

Life has been moving along quickly - work is busy, kids are growing up too fast, Holidays are in full swing, and we even took our first real trip in over 2 years!  We went to Florida to visit husband's father and brother, it was a very nice trip :)

Bahia Honda State Park

On Abuelo's boat

A floating bar!  I wanted to go, but the sun was setting.

It was so nice to travel and not be constantly worried about where the nearest bathroom was... although we did check out some really skeevy gas station rest rooms with our 3-year old.  At least the car seat stayed dry!  We were unsure what to do about traveling with kids and car-seats.  In the end we decided to rent car seats along with our car, and they worked out fine.  We made two different reservations just in case there was a shortage of carseats, but it turned out to be unnecessary.  We did bring our own stroller... though we ended up forgetting it in the keys and had to buy a new one for our trip home!  Turns out $25 umbrella strollers aren't so bad... though they don't compare to napping comfort of our city mini.

I did get to enjoy a trip to Mount Sinai though in early December... though this time I got to be on the outside looking in - my poor mom had a severe intestinal obstruction at the site of her old temporary ileostomy (what I have).  This was her 3rd time in 15 years, but this was by far the scariest - they very nearly performed emergency surgery.  Luckily (?) mom was able to overcome the obstruction without surgery, but she did have to endure the really awful nose tube of hell for about 24 hours.  The doctors wanted to leave it in longer "just in case," but having been on mom's shoes 6 months ago, I made it very clear that that was not an option (I also asked each and every one of those doctors and nurses if they'd ever had one up their own nose... none of them had)!

I am very nervous about my follow up surgeries next summer.  Even if I decide not to be reconnected, I still need to undergo at least one more surgery to remove my rectum (a proctectomy).  Along with that I either get a J-Pouch and reconnected, or I make my ileostomy permanent.  Either way, the surgery is comparable to a c-section incision, with a lot of repair work on the inside, and can be pretty miserable to recover from and requires attentive nurses... which Mt. Sinai doesn't have the best reputation for.  I've had good experiences on their 9th floor GI ward, but the surgery floors 7 and 10 seem to be pretty lacking. My mom had 2 surgeries at Mt. Sinai, one recovery was AWFUL and scary, and the 2nd was great (because of the stink they made about the first one...).  What will mine be??  The doctors are wonderful... but will I be able to endure the recovery??

Reality Check

Sooo... I still can't eat whatever I want :(

4 (!!) years ago, I stopped eating gluten to see if a weird abdominal pain I was experiencing would go away... and it did.  Every time I tried eating bread or pasta again, it came back.  I was hopeful that without a large intestine, I could go back to eating normal people food without pain... but the pain has returned.  If I eat gluten occasionally I think I can handle it, but if I eat it several days in a row, I become super uncomfortable.  Last night was AWFUL!  It kept me awake!

So what does my "gluten pain" (as I refer to it) feel like?  Oddly, a bladder infection.  It's a weird bloated/achy/pressure feeling in the vicinity of my bladder, which I've read might actually be my rectum.  When I first started noticing the pain back in 2009, I thought it was my bladder at first, but I noticed that when I peed I didn't feel better... but after a bowel movement the pain went a way.  Sorry if that's too much information, but that's how it is around here.  Now that I temporarily don't poop... I didn't know what to do for pain relief last night!  I still don't know... but luckily it's backed off, now it's just a dull ache.  Last night it hurt to sit or move at all!  I guess that's what I get for enjoying a weekend full of hot dogs, cookies, pasta, cake, fried fish, and beer.  That's enough to make anybody's stomach hurt, right? haha

So... back to gluten free... 95% of the time?

Hot Chocolate with Whipped Cream

I love whipped cream.

Back at Thanksgiving, I bought some heavy whipping cream, intending to make whipped cream to go with my pumpkin pie - but since someone else brought a can of whipped cream, it never got used.

It's just been sitting in my fridge, calling to me.

Yesterday, I finally gave in - and about time too!  Technically (according to the date on the package) the whipping cream expired last week... but it smelled fine to me, so into the mixer it went!  5 minutes and a little sugar later, and ta-DA!  Finger-licking delicious.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately?) all I had to eat it with were my fingers.  So I made microwave "real" hot chocolate for all of us, so we had somewhere to put our whipped cream :)  Mmm, mmm!

Whipped Cream

• roughly 1 cup of heavy cream
• roughly 1/4 cup of sugar (i used raw) *i mistakenly wrote 3/4 cup in the original post
• 1/2 tsp vanilla (i didn't measure)

Hot Chocolate

• handful of chocolate chips (i literally put my hand in the bag, grabbed at the chocolate chips, and put that many in a mug)
• tiny bit of butter - less than a "pat"
• 8 to 12 oz of milk, depending on the strength you like and the size of your mug

Instructions

1. Pour cream into bowl of mixer, the colder the better.  Whip for 3-5 minutes, slowly increasing to the max intensity. When it starts to puff up and form "soft peaks", add sugar and vanilla, continuing to whip to combine.  Be careful not to over whip, or you'll make butter!
2. Meanwhile, put chocolate chips and butter into a mug, microwave 30 seconds.  Stir, microwave another 30 seconds.  Add a tiny bit of milk, stir, and microwave another 30 seconds.  Stir - if not yet melting and mixing, microwave for 30 seconds more.  If still not mixing or you're getting a weird tootsie-rollish thing, add more butter - the fat will help the chocolate mix with the water in the milk.  When combined well, go ahead and add the rest of the milk, stirring while adding.  Microwave for another 60 seconds or until hot chocolate is the temperature you like. 
3. Add whipped cream and drink up!

I'm not really sure how much whipped cream this made, since I ate so much of it off the spoon.  I'd guess probably 2.5 to 3 cups?  We consumed it all on 4 hot chocolates with AMPLE whipped cream.  (No, the baby didn't get one - I had 2!)

I cooked something that wasn't chicken!!

Woohoo!  I cooked something that wasn't chicken, score!

As I've mentioned before, I have a myriad of food rules at the moment, no gluten for myself, and no milk, eggs, peanuts or soy for the baby (via breastmilk).  I added goat milk into my diet a few weeks ago (apparently it's usually cow's milk that causes trouble), and so far so good.  And SO GOOD!!  It's amazing what you can find in a grocery store these days!  So far, I have found:

• Goat milk
• Goat milk yogurt
• Goat milk drinkable yogurt (milk/yogurt hybrid)
• Goat cheese (normal)
• Goat milk cheddar
• Goat milk brie
• Goat milk hard cheese
• Goat milk feta
• Goat milk BUTTER!!!

After months of no dairy, these finds have opened up a whole new world!!  Obviously some of these taste more like substitutions than the real thing (for example, goat milk cheddar doesn't really taste like cheddar), but some of them are DELICIOUS!!  For example, one of the yogurts I tried this past week was one of the best yogurts I've ever had, ever.  It was only flavored with honey, and it was light and creamy and delightful!

Another interesting find that I'm very happy with is goat milk butter.  It's expensive, and it doesn't quite taste like butter, but so far it's been great for cooking dinner!  I've used it to cook a few different  things, and it lends a buttery flavor I've been missing for so long, while at the same time infusing the meal with a slight goat cheesy flavor.  So in other words, if it's a meal that would taste good with goat cheese added, you get a two-for-one!  Here are two easy meals I threw together earlier this week -  I realize they're both seafood - but butter and cheese go well with these mild fish/shellfish!  And they were both delicious!

Liz's Scampi-ish Shrimp with Goat butter
Ingredients

• Goat butter (1 or 2 tbsp)
• White Wine (1/2 cup?)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Fresh Parsley, chopped (1 tbsp?)
• Fresh Dill, chopped (1/2 tbsp?)
• 1 carrot, shredded or grated
• 1 medium zuchinni, shredded or grated
• garlic, minced, 1 or 2 tbsp (i used 4 smallish cloves)
• Shrimp - I used about 1/2 pound (of frozen pre-cleaned split shell, I removed shells)
• Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper
• Rice or pasta (optional)

Instructions

1. Mince/grate/chop/shell your goods, and open your wine.
2. Add butter and garlic to large pan over medium heat, and have a swig of wine.
3. When garlic is fragrant, add carrots and cook over medium/low heat until carrots begin to soften.
4. Add wine if things seem dry. 
5. Add zuchinni, shrimp, and remainder of wine.
6. When shrimp are beginning to turn pink, add parsley, dill, lemon juice, and zest, and a turn or two of olive oil, stirring well to combine.
7. When shrimp are curled, pink, and opaque, season with salt an pepper to taste, and serve.

We ate this over white rice, and it was delicious.  However, the shredded vegetables are somewhat noodle-like, and it would be ok without any rice or pasta for anyone eating low-carb. There weren't many leftovers, but the small amount remaining was delicious the next day too!


Here's an even easier recipe, that highlights more of the goat butter flavor:

Liz's Baked Cod with Goat Butter
Ingredients

• Juice of one lemon
• 2 tbsp goat butter
• 3/4 lbs of fresh cod 
• fresh herbs (optional) such as parsley and dill
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Melt the butter, and combine with the lemon juice.
2. Place the cod filet(s) in a glass baking dish, and pour half of the butter/lemon mixture over the fish.  Flip the fish over, and pour the remaining butter/lemon over the fish.
3. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish.  Fish is done when it comes apart easily with a fork, and is opaque.  Garnish with chopped fresh herbs, and serve.  We had this with sauteed asparagus and beet greens, over white rice.

New Mom Survival - Crockpot Chicken Thighs!

Yesterday I explained how to very easily roast a whole chicken.  But what if you want something a little... saucier, with less raw-chicken-touching?  Easy!  Frozen chicken thighs are one of my best friends since having a baby.

It all started with this recipe, but as usual I didn't follow it very closely.  I didn't have any apricot preserves, so instead added about 1/4 cup of water and a handful of chopped dried apricots - turned out fabulous!!  Since then I've made a few variations (no soy sauce now that baby is soy-free), and have tried making up a few recipes of my own with varied success.  A few weeks ago I attempted thighs in homemade barbeque sauce, it worked out pretty well!  Tomato paste, garlic, molasses, and honey, mix up, add thighs, and cook for 8 hours!  I might add some vinegar next time, but i was pretty happy with it :)  Another time i added some curry powder and later mixed it with spinach, rice and coconut milk for a southeast-asian inspired soupy stew.  The great thing about chicken thighs is that they stay moist, and they're very adaptable.  And crockpot meals are forgiving, so if you don't measure very closely it's ok!

As a compliment to most of my chicken thigh meals, I plug in the rice cooker and make use of the steamer attachment for some carrot coins or green beans.  If you don't have a rice cooker, go ahead and add some carrots right into the crockpot with your chicken thighs, or stir in some baby spinach leaves last minute for an easy vegetable!

Back to blogging!

It's been a long hiatus, but I had an excellent excuse! Someone else required ALL of my attention for the fast few months, someone very demanding. And adorable. And complicated!

My excuse for not blogging

In addition to my own dietary struggles (colitis related - low fiber, gluten free, avoiding peanuts), I now have baby's dietary requirements... Which for the time being include presumed (hopefully temporary) allergies to dairy, soy, and eggs. What a challenge!! There was a 2 week period where I ate nothing but Home-roasted chicken and rice. And bananas - I had bananas and rice for breakfast. I lost a lot of weight... Look at the bright side, right? I've expanded my dietary horizons since then, cooking dinner many nights and even getting back into the world of grown ups - vacuuming occasionally, thinking about gardening, crocheting, reading, et cetera. Exciting things!

But to pay tribute to the food I survived on through the roughest time, here are some incredibly easy tips for making the most of chicken in your crockpot! So easy a mother of a newborn can do it!

Equipment:

• Big crockpot
• Small whole chicken (to fit in crockpot, sometimes called fryer chickens)
• Salt and pepper
• Couple of carrots
• Couple stalks of celery
• Optional: herbs, lemon, ginger, onion, garlic, etc.

Instructions for roasted chicken:

1. Thaw chicken if frozen.
2. Wash carrots and celery. Place in bottom of crockpot.
3. Rinse chicken inside and out and remove any innards. Optional: remove skin.
4. Season chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. If using any optional ingredients, stuff into body cavity or rub on now. I like to put a couple chunks of ginger and a lemon (poked with a fork) inside, and sprinkle lemon zest outside.
5. Place chicken on top of carrots and celery (to lift chicken up off bottom slightly).
6. Cover with crockpot lid and cook for 8-10 hours on low. No liquid needed!
7. Meat should be easy to remove with a fork and knife, no need for creepy picking of the chicken carcass.

Instructions for chicken stock:

1. Leave chicken carcass, vegetables, and drippings in crockpot. Remove anything too gross for your tastes, like a blob of fatty skin. And it's probably a good idea to remove any lemons, since lemon rind can be bitter.
2. Add any additional flavorings you like, such as fresh herbs or an onion (quartered).
3. Fill crockpot with cool water, cover, and cook 8-10 hours on low or overnight.
4. Ladle stock through a strainer and voila!

I like to roughly chop some chicken, carrots, celery and/or fennel and make some chicken soup with the broth! Throw in a bay leaf and some rice and you've got an easy homemade healthy meal! (tip - add a little sweet Italian sausage for a change of flavor!)

More than just chicken and rice

So I've been cooking a little bit again... but due to my situation the food has been so boring it's not worth writing about.  Until now!  I stumbled across something that turned out surprisingly good, good enough that I want to remember it and make it again!

I accidentally made rice taste like stuffing*.  Not bad, right?

Secret Ingredient Chicken and Rice Casserole

• 2 large-ish chicken breasts, cut into (roughly) bite-sized pieces
• 5 or so carrots - washed, peeled, and chopped
• 1 medium zucchini - quartered lengthwise and chopped
• 1.5 cups of white rice (you could probably use brown, but I had white)
• 1.5 cups leftover mushroom broth
• 1 cup water
• Olive Oil (1-2 tsp?)
• Salt (1/2 to 1 tsp? Husband likes salty rice)
• Random spices - I used about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon each of oregano, cardamom, and really old curry powder
• and the secret ingredient...  1 can of coconut milk!

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Place rice, oil, and salt in a large glass baking dish (i used 13x9 i think? the really big one).  Mix up until all the rice is coated with oil and salt.  Add more oil or salt as desired.
3. Add in other chopped up ingredients, and mix up.  Attempt to distribute evenly.
4. Mix coconut milk, broth, and water in a bowl and carefully pour over everything in the glass dish.  Everything should be just submerged - if you need more liquid add a little more water or broth.  (I was trying to save dishes and didn't quite mix them all first, i don't think it mattered much... but if i wasn't so lazy/making-things-up-as-i-went, i would have pre-mixed)
5. Sprinkle desired spices over the top, and place in oven.
6. Bake for 60-90 minutes, until chicken and vegetables are thoroughly cooked.

The chicken was done for me after an hour, but the carrots were still a bit crunchy.  I turned off the oven and left the casserole in there while i ran to the store, and when i came back the rice had soaked up all of the liquid and the carrots were just right.  The chicken had started to dry out, but only just, and still tasted great.  I have no idea why it tasted like stuffing... maybe the mushroom broth did it?  I should point out that there was  no coconut flavor, just lots of richness somehow. (I've heard coconut flavor can depend on the brand, i used Thai Kitchen Organic). Hopefully the good results of this experiment weren't a fluke, I'll definitely be trying it again!  This would also work well with other vegetables mixed in... I'm not very adventurous these days so I'll stick to carrots and zucchini for now.

*disclaimer - I had a cold and I'm pregnant, so my taste buds might be a little wacky.  Regardless of whether or not it really tasted like stuffing, I thought it was good and husband really liked it too!

I cookied!

I cooked this weekend, for the first time in quite a while!  I made Potato Leek Soup, and some pretty healthy (though not low fat) cookies!


Simple Potato Leek Soup with Ham

• 1 tbsp butter, cut into pieces
• 3 Leeks, white & light parts only, rinsed and chopped
• 5 or 6 potatoes, peeled and diced (i used red, cut up tiny for faster cooking)
• about a cup of diced up ham (i used about 1/5th of a ham steak, cut up tiny)
• little bit of ground or fresh thyme (i used about 1/4 tsp ground)
• little bit of ground or fresh oregano (i used about 1/4 tsp dried)
• 2 big bay leaves
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 6 cups of water

1.  In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat.  Add leaks and stir occasionally to soften, about 5 minutes.
2. Add Ham, stirring until fragrant
3. Add dried thyme and oregano(and salt and pepper if desired), stir well
4. Add water, potatoes, and bay leaves, bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are soft.
5. Remove bay leaves, then mash or blend as desired (I used a masher to break up the potatoes until the soup had a slightly creamy broth, but i didnt use an immersion blender because i didn't want to destroy the ham).
6. Serve with Salt and Pepper to taste.  Yum!

Healthy-ish Everything Cookies!

• 1/2 cup grapeseed oil (i only had about 1/3rd cup, i made up the difference with applesauce)
• 1/2 cup flour (i used Pamela's gluten free baking mix)
• 1 cup almond meal
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut (the kind i had was more like ground, unsweetened)
• loose 1 cup of brown sugar (i think maybe this was too much, the coconut added to the sweetness)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup raisins (i used golden)

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Mix together oil (and applesauce), sugar, vanilla, and egg until well combined
3. Stir in flour and almond meal
4. Stir in coconut and oats
5. Stir in chocolate chips and raisins
6. Using 2 spoons or wet fingers, add globs of sticky dough to a parchment lined or greased baking sheet (or 2) in desired cookie sizes, pressing until relatively flat (these don't spread while they bake).  These get pretty chewy once they cool down.  Make thinner for crispier cookies.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, until they lose their sheen and are slightly brown on the edges.
8. Enjoy!  

These would probably also work fairly well as bars, though maybe a little less sugar would be wise if planning to eat for breakfast.

Ice cream!

I got an ice cream maker attachment to my mixer for Christmas!  Yaaaay!  Thanks Sissy!  (And husband thanks you too!)  It's kind of intimidating to make ice cream for the first time, so many rules about refrigeration and you have to cook stuff and then cool again and oh man so much prep time I had no idea... BUT IT'S WORTH IT!  MMMmmmm!!  For my very first try, I made simple vanilla, following the recipe that came with the bowl (ridiculous number of egg yolks, cream, half and half, vanilla, pinch of salt).  When you first make it, it's soft serve, and later on when you put the leftovers in the freezer, they get hard as a rock.  I'll have to work on that.   

Best vanilla ice cream I'd ever had (except for Carvel!)

I added some strawberries, and it was kind of melty, mmm

Then, I made another variety of vanilla, which i think was even better!  But Husband didn't like it.  I loved it though!!  I didn't have any vanilla, so I used 4 tsp of real maple syrup.  And i didn't have any regular sugar, so i used brown.  WHAT A DREAM!!  Buttery flavor, not maple-y, next time i'm going to mix in some crushed nuts!  (And I learned on this batch that it's ok if you accidentally cook your eggs too much, push it through a fine strainer and it all works out A-ok!)

And then it gets even better.  This past weekend I tried the "lazy" method of ice cream making.  No cooking, no waiting as long as you already had the bowl in the freezer!  Here's what you need:

• 1 can of evaporated milk (i used 2%)
• 1 can of condensed milk (we always have plenty of this since it's husband's favorite "food")
• 1 cup of milk (i used 2%)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• handful or 2 of mini chocolate chips

mix them all together (except for the chocolate chips), put in the fridge if you're worried about mixture not being cold enough (or refrigerate cans first maybe?)  I refrigerated for like 5 minutes, not really sure why I bothered.  use your ice cream maker as directed, mix in mini chocolate chips at the last minute.  Mine was extra soft serve, i guess the mixture wasn't cold enough to begin with, but oooooh sweet satisfaction!  so tasty, and so little effort!  Froze up alright, lots of ice crystals though, i think all of my problems are base on the fact that there was too much water and too little fat.  I read that adding some corn starch or using whole milk can fix that... i'll try it next time!

Each time I've made ice cream so far, I've put it in 2 containers and hidden one in the freezer so that Husband can't eat it all on the 1st day!  So far the record is 4 days with this rationing method.

Christmas Day Menu!

Again, I'm a month late with this post... but so what!  The food within will be delicious any  month of the year!

My mom, sister and I all loooooooove to cook.  And we as a family (including our men) looooove to eat!  So we planned and planned, and came up with the perfect christmas menu!  Every effort was made to accomodate our added dietary restraints this year, no wheat for me, and no salt for dad.  In the spirit of Christmas Dad and I both made a few exceptions... and all in all it was a fantastic menu!

Breakfast

• Crockpot overnight oatmeal - ammaaaaaazing!!  We tweaked the recipe slightly, using cranberries and raisins instead of the other dried fruits, and added maple syrup, walnuts, bananas and milk as mix-ins upon serving. Also, I ate this for like a week, it makes a ton of oatmeal.
• Sausage and Egg Quiche - mom made her own no salt sausage!

Snacks

•  Variety of cheeses and crackers

Starters

• Ad-libbed white bean, sausage, and kale soup.  My sister is so good at this!
• Arugula, fennel, and nut salad - Mmmm... another great find by sissy

Dinner

• Filet Mignon
• Mahi-Mahi
• Braised Celery - tasted surprisingly like stuffing
• Mashed root vegetables (sweet potato, potato, and turnip)
• Peppercorn gravy

Dessert

• Chocolate Chip Bourbon Pecan Pie - Really easy!!  (but I wasn't very happy with my first attempt at pecan pie... it was totally ruined by the gluten free store-bought crust, making my own next time!
• Variety of cookies!  (went to a cookie exchange party!)

Yaaaay Christmas tree!!

Christmas Treats!

Ok, so I wrote this a month ago, and never posted it.... better late than never!  More coming soon!

Things have been a bit crazy during this holiday season, and my kitchen has been busy!  Things have been busy enough that I've done a very poor job of documenting my culinary adventures.  Maybe next year.

First, I made gluten free cookies!  I experimented a bit, and made some delicious lemon pecan shortbread cookies.  I was able to convert them from traditional to gluten free pretty easily, since I had read that rice flour is one of the secrets to a super crumbly shortbread to begin with.  So here we go:

Gluten Free Lemon Pecan Shortbread
(adapted from better homes and gardens)

•  1/2 cup all purpose flour (I used bob's redmill gluten free mix)
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 1/4 tsp xantham gum
• 1 cup butter
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 2 tbsp finely chopped pecans
• bunch of half or whole pecans

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. Combine everything in a medium bowl, until you get a crumbly ball of dough.  It will take a while, I don't have a pastry cutter so I ended up using my hands, which melted some of the butter, whatever, it worked.
3. If you  melted all the butter with your hands, refrigerate for a little while (30 min?).  Or not, in which case you'll probably end up with thinner but still delicious cookies!
4.  Roll out dough until about 1/4 inch thick, use a pizza slicer and cut up dough in a grid-like fashion.  Transfer dough to cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (or lightly greased), and press a piece of pecan into the top of each.  You can place them pretty close together, they won't spread much since they're so thin and no pouffy ingredients.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes, then cool.  Voila!  Makes about 20 1.5" squares?  (fills a cookie sheet)

THESE ARE FANTASTIC!!!!! Some of the best cookies I've ever made!  I didn't take any pictures, but trust me they're delicious.  They're not very sweet, they'd be perfect for tea time, but i took them to a christmas cookie exchange party and they taste really weird after eating lots of sugary foods, I guess my tongue got overwhelmed by all that other sugar.  So if you bring these to a cookie tasting party, make sure everyone tries these first!

I also made these lemon-raspberry pinwheel's in a gluten free version, which some people really liked, but I was kind of indifferent to them.

And then I made these delicious nuts!!

Mason jars from Agway, and ribbon and fabric from Walmart... easy gifts!
The large one is for my boss since he's a nut-aholic, he ate the entire jar in one day.  That's a pint!

Liz's cinnamon sugar nuts 
(I dont know where the original recipe came from, I looked at a whole bunch and combined)

• roughly 6 cups of raw mixed nuts (I used almonds, walnuts, and pecans.  I also did once with just almonds, but the walnuts and pecans really added to it!  The walnuts are my personal favorite in this recipe :)
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup to a cup of sugar (depends on how sugary you want your nuts... I'd start with 1/2 and you can add more later)
• 1 tsp of cinnamon (again, you can add more if you're cinnamon crazy)
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp water

1. Preheat oven to... oh no!  I can't remember!  I'll look it up and post later...not very hot, something like 250, we're going for low and slow.
2. In the biggest bowl you have, whisk egg white, vanilla, and water until lightly foamy
3. Add nuts, and stir until all the nuts are wet.  (If they're really wet, you could add more nuts if you wanted to)
4. in a small bowl or measuring cup, combine sugar, cinnamon, and salt, then pour over nuts.  Mix well until all the nuts are coated, it's easiest to use your hand.  
5. Spread out on 2 large cookie sheets, I coated mine with parchment for easy clean up, I suppose lightly greased or possibly even aluminum foil would work too.  
6. Bake for roughly an hour, stirring nuts around every 15 minutes or so.  More often would be ok, if they start to burn it progresses pretty quickly!  Luckily, they still taste decent slightly burnt :)  Let cool before you eat, because they're delicious and addictive and I don't want you to burn your tongue! 

Mmmm.... now I'm hungry!

To Wheat, or Not to Wheat...

I'm doing an experiment.  It all started with a giant bowl of pasta.  Followed by weird stomach pains.  I don't really know if these pains were caused by the size of the bowl, by the pasta itself, or maybe they were just coincidental.  But it happened a few times... hence my experiment.

I'm attempting to go 2 weeks without consuming gluten. 

THIS IS HARD!!

Do you know what gluten is?  I knew it as "that stuff that makes bread dough...doughy."
But it's also a magic ingredient that's in just about everything!  Cookies, chicken broth, soy sauce, cookies, cookies... did i mention cookies?

So, in preparation, i did my research and stocked up on some gluten free cookie supplies.  Here's what you need to know:  packaged gluten free cookies are pretty gross.  Homemade gluten free stuff is DELICIOUS!  I even found a "cookie" that I can claim is breakfast.  Here's a scone recipe, right off the package of baking mix!  IT'S DELICIOUS!  (I'll be honest, the only scones I ever baked before were weight watchers... and therefore a huuuuge dissapointment.  but not these!!)

Here's how good these are: I went to take a picture of them, and ended up eating half of one, even though I wasn't hungry!! Mmmm.

Click Below for Recipe