Pumpkin Dip

I've been steadily plowing my way through pumpkin recipes; it seems my pumkin craving is even more pronounced this year.  Luckily, Pinterest has kept me well supplied with yummy things to try.  Original post of this recipe is here.  I've taken this dip to a couple different events and it's been a huge hit.  Start thinking Christmas parties now that Thanksgiving is over...

Dip:
8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
1 cup powedered sugar
15 oz can of pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Apple slices for dipping

Mix everything together in a bowl using a hand mixer/beaters.  Store in the fridge until ready to serve.  Top with candied pecans to make it extra yummy and serve with apple slices!

Candied Pecans:
1 cup pecan halves
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon brown sugar, packed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat.

Add maple syrup and brown sugar and stir to combine.

Add pecans and stir to coat.

Spread pecans on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake pecans for 5-6 minutes or until golden brown and fragrant.

Cool completely and then coarsely chop.

"Corn" dog bites

Who doesn't enjoy a good corn dog?  Jenna sure does - that's her little hand trying to reach the plate as I snapped the picture!  A corn dog is probably the one thing I missed having at the state fair this year.  Lucky pinterest had me covered!  Check out the original post here.  These were so quick to whip up and tasted super amazing!  Grab some ketchup or mustard and go to town!

1/4 cup melted butter
3 eggs
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup almond flour, firmly packed
2 tablespoons coconut flour, firmly packed
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3-4 hot dogs, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Whisk together melted butter, eggs, and honey.
Stir in the flours, baking soda, and salt.
Scoop into a greased mini muffin pan, about 1 tablespoon of batter in each cup.
Place 1 hot dog piece in each muffin.
Bake for 14-17 minutes, until golden brown.

Nutella Hot Cocoa

Thank you Pinterest for giving me yet another fabulous idea to try.  This hot cocoa is so yummy I've made it several times already!  It's not too sweet, which is just how I like it, and it seriously even better topped with homemade whipped cream.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

1 cup regular unsweetened almond milk
2 1/2 tablespoons of Nutella
1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa
pinch of salt

In a small saucepan heat all the ingredients over medium heat.  Whisk together until smooth and creamy.  Serve in a mug topped with whipped cream or marshmallows.  Enjoy!

Yummiest Fruit Dip EVER

This recipe is a surefire crowd-pleaser!  I go through phases where I'll make it several times over a few weeks because I just can't get enough of it.  Be careful if you have small children....they tend to double (and triple) dip just to get more of the creamy goodness.

1 (8 oz.) package of cream cheese - at room temp'
2 teaspoons orange zest (however much you get off one orange)
3 tablespoons orange juice concentrate (not an exact science, just put in a few spoonfuls)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1 (7 oz.) jar marshmallow cream

Beat cream cheese in a bowl with a hand mixer.  Add orange zest, orange juice, vanilla, and salt and beat until smooth and creamy.  Add marshmallow cream and beat until smooth.

This works well to make the night before you need it and just stick it in the fridge.  I like it best with strawberries.

Kale Chips

It seems like kale chips are all the rage right now.  I know Jessica tried to make a batch once that ended up a disaster, so I was intrigued to try them myself.  I had a beautiful bunch of kale just sitting in the fridge so I decided to see what all the fuss was about.  After reading through countless recipes online (all of which are basically the same), here is what I came up with:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Wash and dry the kale.
Tear it into bite size pieces.
Coat the pieces with extra virgin olive oil.  I wish I had a misto sprayer to assist with this step, but alas, I don't.  I drizzled some on the kale and tossed/coated them all by hand.
Set the pieces on a foil covered (b/c I enjoy easy clean up) baking sheet.  It works well to set them curly side down so they form little tents.
Sprinkle with salt/pepper/seasoning of your choice.  We went with Salt'n Spice - it sounded fun for the maiden voyage.
Bake for 10-15 minutes
WATCH THEM CLOSELY!  Smaller pieces might be done faster so you'll want to pull them out.  You DO NOT want them to get brown at all - it will make them taste yucky instead of delicious.

Fresh out of the oven!

They turned out AMAZING!!  All crispy and yummy.  Even 3 year old Jenna loved them.  In fact she and I sat there and ate the entire first batch in no time flat.  Good thing we had enough for a second batch so we could take some pictures and share with Joey!  Just writing about them makes me want more...better run to the store...

Cucumber Salsa

In my weekly farmer's market produce basket I got a lot of cucumbers and tomatoes so I decided to find a salsa recipe for my salsa loving hubby.  I found this and have made it twice. It is super fresh and delicious!

Cool Cucumber Salsa

2 medium cucumbers - peeled, seeded, and chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
2 teaspoons minced fresh cilantro

1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a medium bowl, stir together the cucumbers, tomatoes, green pepper, jalapeno pepper, onion, garlic, lime juice, parsley, cilantro, dill, and salt. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Serve with tortilla chips.

The best way to get the seeds out of the cucumber is to get a teaspoon and use it to scrape out the seeds.    They come out super easy that way.  

I didn't add the fresh parsley because I didn't have any.  I also didn't feel like adding any dill weed.  One time I added too much of it to a recipe one time and now I have been turned off by it.  Enjoy!

Power Up!

My need for sweets drives my life... usually into guilt-laden activities such as watching tv with a spoon and a half gallon of Blue Bell ice cream, or making a very large self portion of rice krispie treats via the microwave.  After many "why did I do that" thoughts to myself, I decided to find a healthier outlet.  Enter "No-Bake Energy Bites".  (choir of angels singing "aaaaaahhhh")

If No-Bake cookies and cookie dough had a healthy baby, this would be it.  These little "energy bites" or "energy balls," as I have started calling them, as soo delicious and satisfy my dessert/sweets/sugar cravings without any guilt :) I found countless versions of them on pinterest and decided to give them a try. They are super fast to whip up and store.

No-bake Energy Balls

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp of vanilla
1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon (depending on your tastes)
1-2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 cup rolled oats
1/4-1/2 cup of flax seed


Mix the peanut butter, honey, vanilla, and cinnamon together in a bowl. Then add cocoa powder.  Then add in the oats and flax seed.  Refrigerator for an hour and then roll into bite size balls.  Place balls into an airtight container and store in fridge or freezer.

There are endless variations of these balls.  You can add in chopped nuts, seeds, dried fruit, coconut, etc.  Kind of like trail mix in a little ball.

I like to keep mine choco peanut so they are more like a little ball of no bake cookie goodness.  You can eat 2-3 of them for a snack because they are pretty filling or I like to eat one after lunch to soothe my sweet tooth cravings.  Taylor likes to sneak them at breakfast when I am still asleep.  He will come in to give me a kiss before he leaves and I can smell the chocopeanuty goodness on his breath!

Now that I have made them a couple times, I never measure any of the ingredients.  I just kinda pour and mix until I get the combination of flavors and texture that I like.  So experiment, have fun, and don't feel guilty! They are healthy, right? ;)

Cranberry Cinnamon Scones

*WARNING* 

I'm talking about traditional English scones, NOT deep fried bread (much to Jenna's disappointment - she wanted "a scone as big as my head!" like you can get at Granny Annie's.  Never again poor thing, our days of greasy, glutenous, fried dough balls are over.)

Cranberry Cinnamon Scones

1 cup ground golden flaxseeds

3/4 cup almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons xylitol or 8-12 drops liquid stevia or to desired sweetness (I used the stevia)

5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes

1/4 cup heavy cream (*if using stevia use an additional 1 tablespoon heavy cream)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mix the flaxseeds, almond flour, coconut flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and xylitol, if using.  Cut the butter into the flour mixture until it's the size of peas.

In another bowl, whisk together the stevia (if using), cream, eggs, and vanilla until combined.  Stir into the dry ingredients until well blended.  Add the dried fruit, and stir until evenly distributed.

Evenly dived the dough into 8 pieces and place on the baking sheet.  Flatten to approximately 3/4" thickness.

Bake for 18 minutes or until golden brown.

My Take: Thanks to the Wheat Belly Cookbook (which I'm convinced everyone should have!), whenever I feel the urge to bake I have tons of healthy, gluten-free recipes at my finger tips.  I'd been eyeing this one for a couple of weeks and finally broke down and bought the heavy cream so I could try it.  The recipe went smoothly, and I chose to shape the dough into triangles.  They turned out awesome, kind of how I think a whole wheat scone would be, a little more dense and substantial.  They're not very sweet (again, think traditional scones) but I enjoyed mine plain or with some butter.  I think they'd be yummy with some jam on top as well.  I individually froze half of them to pull out for a quick breakfast when I need it.  They are very filling!

Paleo Snack Mix

This is a great snack mix that my sister, Jenette, told me about.  Just put together the things you like and keep on hand for when you want a quick, healthy snack.  We use all unsalted nuts and seeds to help Ernie keep his blood pressure down.  Possible ingredients include:

Pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seeds
Coconut flakes, unsweetened
Almonds
Raisins
Craisins

I would like to add dark chocolate chips, but Ernie won't go for that!

Coconut Funyuns

Once again I needed to find a recipe for something that I had a lot of... and yesterday I felt the need to make something with a lot of onions (or at least 1).  So I opened up the Wheat Belly cookbook to see what recipes could be made and lo and behold I reached Onion Rings.  Perfect! Sounded sooo delish and I knew Taylor loved onion rings so I hoped for the best.  It says to first dredge the sliced and separated rings in a mixture of coconut flour and paprika.  Then dunk them in melted coconut oil mixed with egg and then dredge in a mixture of coconut flour, ground flax seed, and almond meal (which I excluded because I no have it).  Then they are to baked at 450 for like 12 minutes.  So everything is going great and I'm dunking those rings and they look so cute and onion ring-y. (You've got to watch out for that coconut flour though, little by little, some was tracked into the egg mixture and pretty soon it turned into a thick paste and then I add to remake it and keep one hand for the wet and one for the dry dredging. Can you say hassle?!) I put the first cookie sheet of rings in and forgot to lightly spray them with cooking oil like the recipe says.  Oh well.  They should be just fine right? Umm... kinda right.  I pull the rings out of the oven and they don't look bad.  See:

But I bite into one and it is just like "pwaaahhhhhhhh" with powder.  Like talking once you bite into a graham cracker.  NOT crispy like a good onion ring should be. They don't taste bad though.  Taylor comes over, who is already super skeptical of coconut flour and thinks it turns everything it touches into a "macaroon flavored sponge," takes a bite of one and then immediately spits it all out and berates the poor powdery onion ring and its coconuty coating.  "They are horrible, they are ruined, and they are a disgrace to onion rings everywhere!!! I miss when you used to make food that was edible.  I have been so spoiled by your good cooking before this whole gluten-free thing, I should just go to Bojangles (super greasy southern fast food place) and get some REAL onion rings. etc, etc." is practically what he said.  So, feeling a chip on my shoulder to make them palatable to Mr. I hate everything, I heated up some coconut oil and "fried" that first batch.  This is then how they looked:

They got a little more color on them, were a little crunchier, and had no powdery texture in your mouth. Dunk them in ketchup and they are pretty good (according to me. Taylor was not satisfied.)  I enjoyed them and Taylor ate them begrudgingly because I made sad faces throughout the whole meal because he made me feel bad for my cooking. ("It isn't you that is the problem, it's just the ingredient... and the recipe")

So we eat that first batch and then there is a whole other tray of sad onion rings to do something with.  I didn't want to use more coconut oil because dang that stuff is expensive and I just  bought a jar of it and felt like I had already used soo much so I asked Taylor what he thought if I tried to fry them in vegetable oil.  He gave me the go ahead and so I fried them in it.  BLECKKKKK.  Soooooo NASTY! They had such a greasy feeling and tasted fishy to me.  I spit it out in the sink.  Taylor ate the whole pan, bless his heart, because he knew I tried so dern hard to fix those nasty onion rings after he gave me such a hard time.

Moral of the story: Get your rings glutenous or don't get them at all.

P.S. I did enjoy lathering my legs with coconut oil every time I had to get it out of the tablespoon.  It would be all over my fingers, so I would just use it to moisturize as I went.  SO versatile!

Hors D'oeuvres!

 

For the Super Bowl I wanted to try out some yummy new recipes, perhaps not the healthiest, but definitely delicious, and naturally gluten-free, hooray!

The first is a sesame cream cheese spread, patterned after the appetizer served at The Dodo restuarant in Salt Lake City.  Many thanks to my friend Ashley for figuring this one out!

Sesame Cream Cheese

Cream Cheese

Soy Sauce - make sure you choose a gluten-free one, I use La Choy.

Seasame seeds

Marinate cream cheese in soy sauce for at least an hour.  It's helpful to put it in a little container or bag and rotate it every so often so all the cream cheese gets covered.  Meanwhile, toast some seasame seeds in a pan on the stove (medium heat, stirring frequently, it only takes a few minutes).  Roll the marinated cream cheese in the toasted seasame seed.  Bake in the oven until warm: 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Serve with an assortment of gluten free crackers, apple slices, and pear slices.

This turned out amazing, so close to what I remember at The Dodo.  You can also cut your cream cheese block any size depending on your need.  I did a small test section the day before and then made an entire cream cheese package for game day.  There were no leftovers either time!  My favorite vehicle for this tasty treat is pear slices, but I've found some gluten-free crackers I really like.  The Mary's Gone Crackers brand tastes healthier and more whole grain to me, but I've learned 3 year olds prefer the almond Nut-Thins.

The second treat is something I first tried at my aunt Jenette's (the one who first got us all thinking about gluten-free!) house over the holidays and I've been thinking about it ever since.  Super simple, and a nice change from the bacon-wrapped lil'smokies that are usually a Super Bowl staple for us.

Bacon Wrapped Dates

Dates

Whole almonds (plain)

Bacon

toothpicks

Take a paring knife and cut open the dates to remove the pits.  Insert an almond in its place and close the date back up.  Cut the bacon strips in half so they are not quite so long.  Wrap one cut strip around each date and secure with a toothpick.  Bake until the bacon is cooked to your liking.  I baked at 350 degrees until the bacon looked cooked but not yet crispy, totally a preference thing!

These turned out amazing and were a huge hit.  Even the kids liked them.  I ate myself sick of course, but that's what the Super Bowl is for.