Holiday Recap-Recipes, Pictures and More

It took me getting sick and camping out on the couch to find time to write this. Two kiddos, work, hobbies there's just not enough time in the day is there.

This year we hosted a dessert party, did a day trip to Houston and back on Christmas Eve, and managed 4 Christmas celebrations in 42 hours. Talk about controlled chaos. The new van came in super handy, the kids were fabulous and I enjoyed every minute. of course I kept thinking to myself on the road...if I had an IPad I'd be writing right now hehehe! Thanks to all the family and friends who showered me with gift cards I think there's an IPad in my near future.

The natives are restless so I'll keep this short and sweet!

My favorite holiday recipe...hands down it was the Crockpot Chocolate Pudding Cake I made for our dessert party. It was quick to prep, cooked while we were out and about and combined with the timer on our coffee pot, allowed me to arrive home minutes before our guests and have everything ready to roll!

Crock-pot Chocolate Pudding Cake (dairy free, gluten free, corn free, soy free options)

• 1 pkg (3.9oz) Jell-O Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix (or check out www.allrecipes.com for an allergy free recipe sub)
• 3 cups milk (regular, almond, coconut)
• 1 pkg (2 layer size) chocolate fudge cake mix (I use Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix)
• 2 squares Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate chopped (sprinkle Enjoy Life chocolate chips for dairy/soy free)
• 2 cups thawed cool whip or whip cream (Soy whipped cream if soy tolerant, or omit, I didn't mind the omission :))

To Make It:

• Spray your crock-pot with cooking spray, or lightly coat with shortening. (Some Pam sprays have soy so check labels). Beat pudding mix and milk in your crock-pot with a wire whisk for 2 minutes. The recipe calls for a 3 1/2 quart but I have the larger oval and it worked fine.
• In another bowl prepare the cake batter according to the boxes instructions. Slowly pour it over the pudding mixture. DO NOT STIR. Cover the crock-pot with the lid.
• Cook on low 2 1/2 - 3 hours (or on high 1 1/2 - 2 hours) until toothpick inserted comes out of cake clean. Top with chopped chocolate or chips. Turn off the cooker and let stand covered 30 minutes to allow the pudding to thicken. Serve with cool whip and dusted with cocoa powder or chocolate shavings.
  

My Must Have Kitchen Gadget for the holidays: Hands down it was my new Beka sauce pan. I whipped up quick quesidillas, chocolate sauces, you name it in there and was able to wash and reuse in minutes. The non-stick coating is amazing and a few more of these will be on my Christmas list for next year. And even better...this company has an environmental record that puts most other companies to shame. I just love them! Check them out here.

My 'Couldn't get dinner on the table without it' recipe sites: I have two favorites without question are Dinner Tool and All Recipes. Dinner Tool lets me meal plan, add my own recipes, create shopping lists and have a quick printout of my weeks plan. Allrecipes.com lets me search by ingredients so I can plug in something I'm trying to get out of the pantry or fridge and up pops a slew of choices. LOVE IT!

My favorite photo sharing site: With all the IPads, E-readers, and smartphones out there we've become a society of digital sharing. In most cases I'm right on that bandwagon but some vestiges of society are being lost in the cyber rush. I firmly believe it teaches real values for kids to recognize the generosity of Christmas and respond with a heartfelt thank you note. However I've found that over the last few years it is tough to interest my oldest in writing them. This year I stepped up my game and we used Smilebox to create digital thank you cards we could send to family. Normally this would have gone against my edict that thank you notes are personal and it's hard to get that touch with a digital card, but Smilebox allows you to add video clips to your card. So we sat down and recorded a bunch of 10-30 second clips on our Flip with my son thanking friends and family for their gifts. Each person got an individual thank you card with a video clip of Alex thanking them. Better than forcing him to sit at the table and write his name on cards he couldn't read, this worked great. He could relate to this and I loved the message he got from working with me to put it together.

Last but not least to catch me up over the last few weeks...Livi turned 6 months. It's been an amazing time with her and we are truly blessed to have such an angel living with us.

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Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Corn Free Pumpkin Cookies

I was seriously upset about the lack of pumpkin pie in my holiday future, so I tweaked some recipes and came up with these. They're delicious and have added benefits for nursing moms. I also made a quick icing glaze for about half of them and it was the perfect touch!

Ingredients:
2 cups gluten free flour (I used 2/3 cup each: Sorghum, Brown Rice and White Rice)
1 1/3 Gluten free rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp guar gum
2 Tbsp Brewers yeast
1 2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup canola oil (for corn free use grapeseed oil)
2 Tbsp molasses
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp ground flax seeds
1/2 cup cranberries or raisins (I used cranberries)
1 cup walnuts finely chopped (optional, take out for nut free)

How to make:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease your baking sheets. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, guar gum, and brewers yeast in a mixing bowl.

In another bowl mix sugar, oil, molasses, pumpkin, vanilla, and flax seeds. Add contents from the first bowl to this one and fold. Fold in nuts if using, and cranberries.

Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to fill your cookie sheet. (I made one sheet and then filled the next one and froze it. once the cookies were frozen I put them in an airtight container and they were ready to bake anytime I needed them...plus they lasted more than 24 hours :)). These don't spread a lot so you can flatten them if you want crispier cookies.

Bake for about 15 minutes. This recipe makes about 4 dz cookies.

NOTE: If you are not gluten free, use all purpose flour, and omit the guar gum.

Gluten Free Fake Out Take Out Beef Stir Fry

Q: What do you get when you add a teething baby, a tired mommy, and hours of work still to do?
A: Take Out, well it would be take out if take out didn't have gluten, dairy, corn syrup and a host of other things our family can't have.

So instead it's Take out fake out night! :)

Adapted from Dianne's Dishes

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of grapeseed or sesame oil
1/4 cup of low sodium gluten-free soy sauce
1/4 cup of rice vinegar
1 scallion, chopped (green and white section)
1 clove of garlic, chopped fine
1 pound of steak, cut into cubes and all visible fat trimmed
1-3 Tbsp olive oil
1 large carrot shredded
1/2 onion cut into large strips
2-3 stalks celery, cut thinly
1 cup of cooked sticky brown rice per person (Note: Remember that most brown rice takes about 50 minutes to an hour to cook. The stir fry itself takes about 20-30 minutes.)

In a bowl or a canning jar mix together oil, gluten-free soy sauce and rice vinegar until incorporated. Stir or shake in scallions and garlic to mix. Add steak and toss or shake to coat. Marinate for at least 1 hour to overnight covered tightly in the fridge. The canning jar works fabulously for this.

In your skillet or work, heat 1-3 tbsp olive oil and sautee the carrots, onion and celery until tender. Dump the contents of your bowl or jar into a large skillet or wok and over medium heat bring to a boil. Cook the beef until the liquid evaporates, the mixture thickens slightly and the beef is tender. Serve over rice with steamed broccoli.

Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Pumpkin Creme Brulee

All I can say is it smells delicious and I'm having a very hard time not taste testing it before dinner tonight! :) I'll post pictures after it's been "brulee-d" tonight! :)

Adapted from Emeril's Version Ingredients

• 1 Can Coconut Cream
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar, plus 4 teaspoons
• 8 large egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon pure gluten free vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1 cup mashed cooked pumpkin

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Arrange 8 (1/2-cup) ramekins or custard cups in a large metal baking pan.

In a medium saucepan, combine the coconut cream, brown sugar, and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Bring to a bare simmer over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks until frothy and lemon-colored. Slowly add 3/4 cup of the hot cream mixture, whisking constantly. Add the egg mixture to the remaining hot cream, and whisk. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin, and whisk until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl. Divide among the prepared custard cups.

Add enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake until the custards are just set in the center but not stiff, 45 minutes to 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight.

Sprinkle each custard with 1/2 teaspoon of the remaining sugar. Using a kitchen torch, caramelize the sugar. (Alternately, preheat the broiler, and broil until the sugar melts and caramelizes, watching closely to avoid burning and rotating the cups, about 1 to 2 minutes.) Place on small dessert plates and serve.

Turkey Day...Gluten free, dairy free recipes

Image via WikipediaWhoops, time got away from me and now we're down to the wire, the night before Thanksgiving and I'm in random assembly mode instead of my usual organized, planned and plotted OCD-ness.

I tried to make the broccoli, rice and cheese (my mother's recipe...mmmmm good!) while I made the Chicken Pad Thai for dinner and that worked out okay until I threw in the gluten free Quinoa stuffing. Then I started to fret, the baby started to cry, the husband started to ask why I'm so crazy always taking on so much and I started to laugh hysterically cause in a perfect, non crying, non questioning world, I would have adored the time spent in the kitchen.

All's coming together nicely but man are the dishes piling up. Can someone send me a monkey that does dishes! I'd love him forever!

Time to hop off the computer, and go brine the turkey breast we're taking for dinner tomorrow so we "allergy infested" folks can enjoy the turkey too! :)

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, allergy free Thanksgiving!

Quinoa with Fresh Herbs, Pecans & Pomegranate Dressing (adapted from Gluten Free Foodie)

3 cups cooked and cooled Quinoa (I made mine in the rice cooker)
1/3 cup chopped mixed fresh herbs (parsley, basil, cilantro, etc.)
4 oz crumbled Feta cheese (I subbed pine nuts and 2 Tbsp of brewer's yeast)
1/4 cup pecan pieces
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds (if desired)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper
2 tablespoons pomegranate concentrate
squeeze of lemon

Directions

Cook about 1 1/2 cups Quinoa to yield 3 cups cooked, cool.

In a large bowl, combine the quinoa, chopped herbs, pecans, feta cheese & pomegranate seeds (if desired.)

In a separate bowl, wisk together oil, pomegranate concentrate, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Pour dressing over quinoa and mix. Serve.

Belly Dancing...For Fitness????

I’m not a big fan of working out. Well let me re-phrase I don’t mind working out so much as I mind the time needed to get ready, get my kids ready for someone else to take care of for a bit, get to the gym, get to actually workout and then get home, where inevitably I walk in the door to a chorus of “Mommy, What’s for dinner?” How is that any fun? So short of running away to the Biggest Loser Ranch where there's nothing to do but work out, I find myself getting frustrated daily trying to find time for those magical 30 mins of daily exercise that will make the sleepless nights (nope baby is still not sleeping through the night) all better. So bottom line...I rarely work out. I know I need to but the logistics escape me. Then I got a copy of Belly Dancing for Fitness in the mail to review for TTT’s Holiday gift guide.

All I can say is this was not a spectator sport! I waited until the house was empty, the baby sleeping, and then turned it on and tried it out. It was a blast. The video quality isn’t tip top, and the audio was a little wonky (either that or I messed up the receiver again…don’t tell hubby) but the belly dancing instruction was good and overall it was a ton of fun. I laughed myself silly trying to learn moves that the instructor did effortlessly. I finally decided she was born with double jointedness and as long as I was moving, then the laughing was giving me an ab work out if nothing else.

That’s the name of the game for me! If it’s not fun I can’t get into it, keep doing it, etc. So with all those New Year Resolutions ahead of us, check out some fun fitness for the friends and family on your list. I may even let my preschooler talk me into doing it with him. Actually that might be my evening entertainment...:)

Holiday Gift Guide

I've been blogging for a while now and frequently get asked to review items that are new on the market or going through a PR push. Lately I've been collecting items to review that I thought would make fabulous gifts for the holiday season. I'll be posting my reviews of many of these pieces over the next few weeks and you can find links to purchase many of them under the Holiday Gift Guide tab. I hope you find these items as, emmm, entertaining as I have! :)