White Cheddar Crackers (gluten-free)

These white Cheddar crackers are a nice, crisp, crumbly, buttery stack of goodness. An easy, homemade snack great with cheese, dips, or by themselves! I particularly like this recipe because it is easy and uses simple ingredients that I always have on hand in my kitchen (and can easily be tweaked to make various other flavored crackers!). These are so much cheaper to make than your typical $5 box of gluten-free crackers!

One thing to note– the texture of these crackers is a little more buttery and coarse (sort-of like shortbread without the sweetness), so it might be a little different than your gluten-containing cracker of choice. I really happen to love that crumbly texture though!

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White Cheddar Crackers (gluten-free)

makes about 50 bite-sized crackers; original recipe from this cookbook

Ingredients:
-1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
-1 tsp garlic powder
-1 tsp Italian seasoning
-1/2 tsp salt
-6 Tbsp (3/4 stick) cold butter, cut into small cubes
-3/4 cup finely grated sharp white Cheddar cheese
-1/2 cup cold water

Directions:
1. Combine brown rice flour, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and salt in a food processor and process until well blended.
2. Add butter and cheese, pulse until coarse crumbs form.
3. Add water; process until dough forms.
4. Divide dough into 2 pieces, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Place each ball of dough between two pieces of parchment paper, roll out to 1/16 inch thickness, and then refrigerate another 5 minutes.
7. Cut dough into squares and place squares onto prepared baking sheets.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden and crisp.

Enjoy!

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Maple Pecan Pancakes (gluten-free)

One of Drew and I’s favorite homemade weekend breakfasts include pancakes and crispy bacon. I had a good homemade pancake recipe down pat that I had used for several years, then I found out I needed to eat gluten-free. I’ve tried a ton of  GF pancake recipes since then and this one is one of my favorites. These pancakes really have a delicious, sweet, nutty flavor all on their own, but are great topped with maple syrup as well. They are fluffy, but also really filling, and are so much better than normal gluten pancakes, in my opinion. One thing I also love about this recipe is that it uses pretty basic GF ingredients that I always keep on hand (pecans, oats, brown rice flour) rather than a million different flours or expensive all-purpose GF flour mix.

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Maple Pecan Pancakes (gluten-free)

Recipe adapted from original, here. Makes about 6 normal-sized (but very filling) pancakes.

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup chopped pecans
-1/2 cup oat flour (you can use store-bought or pulse oats in food processor until it forms a flour)
-1/2 cup brown rice flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp salt
-3/4 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
-1 large egg
-2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
-1 Tablespoon water

Directions:
1. In a food processor, pulse chopped pecans until they form a course, meal-like consistency. (Don’t pulse too long or you’ll end up with pecan butter/paste!)
2. In large bowl, mix pecan meal with oat flour, brown rice flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In smaller bowl, stir together egg, sour cream/yogurt, maple syrup, and water.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well.
5. Scoop about 1/4 cup batter out for each pancake onto heated, buttered, pancake griddle or skillet.
6. Cook several minutes on each side, until done.

Enjoy!

P.S. Best and Easiest Way to Cook Crispy Bacon

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Loaded Potato Soup (gluten-free)

I absolutely love potato soup and although I had tried several recipes over the last few years, none really blew me away. Then one day, a few weeks ago, I threw this one together, spur-of-the-moment, and it turned out great! I’ve made it several times since then. It’s a simple, easy, delicious, gluten-free, and inexpensive meal.

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Loaded Potato Soup
Gluten-Free. Makes about 5 servings.

Ingredients:
-3 Tablespoons butter
-1 medium/large onion, diced
-4 cloves garlic, diced
-4-6 large russet or baking potatoes (2 1/2 – 3 lbs), cubed
-5 cups chicken broth
-1/2 cup heavy cream
-salt
-pepper
-Italian seasoning
-shredded cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon, for topping

Directions:
1. Melt butter in soup pot.
2. Stir in diced onion, cook until soft.
3. Stir in diced garlic, cook a couple minutes longer.
4. Add in cubed potatoes and chicken broth.
5. Add salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to taste.
6. Place lid on pot and cook until potatoes are soft (about 30-40 minutes).
7. Once potatoes are soft, use a handheld potato masher to break up some of the larger potato chunks. You don’t want to turn it into mashed potatoes, but rather you want to break up some of the potatoes to help thicken the broth, while still leaving some larger potato chunks.
8. Stir in heavy cream.
9. Serve with shredded cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon pieces (best & easiest way to cook bacon).
10. Enjoy!

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The Best and Easiest Way to Cook Bacon

Seriously, I used to have a love-hate relationship with bacon. As in I loved the taste of bacon, but hated getting popped by grease standing over a skillet to fry it. That day is no longer. Now I can officially love bacon with all of my being (well, part of me can wish it was healthier, can’t it?). And you will too once you give up the skillet and the popping grease and try this.

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The Best (and Easiest) Way to Cook Bacon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Lay desired number of bacon strips out on a cookie sheet (foil-lined if you wish).
3. Cook bacon in 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes, depending on thickness of bacon, until it is at your desired crispness.
4. Remove from oven, lay cooked bacon slices on plate covered with paper towels to absorb extra grease.
5. Enjoy!

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Serve with a stack of (gluten-free) pancakes, crumble on some loaded baked potato soup, serve in BLTs, the possibilities are endless…

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Creamy Potato Soup with Sausage & Kale

This is one of our favorite soups. I’ve had several people ask for the recipe, so I thought it would be a good time to share it on here. (I’m not sure why I haven’t before actually, we make this quite a bit, especially in the fall/winter.) It is similar to Olive Garden’s Zuppa Tuscana soup.

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Creamy Potato Soup with Sausage and Kale

ingredients:

– 3-5 links (around 1 1/2 pounds) sausage (mild Italian pork sausage, chicken sausage, sweet/spicy, whatever you like), cut into slices/chunks
– 4-6 slices bacon, diced
– 8-10 small red potatoes or 6 medium russet or golden potatoes (or a mixture), cubed
– 1 medium/large onion, diced
– 3 cloves garlic, minced
– 4-5 cups chopped kale
– 8-10 cups chicken broth (chicken stock or water + chicken bullion)
– 1/2 cup heavy cream
– salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, to taste

directions:

1. Brown sausage in soup pot until cooked through. Remove from pot and reserve for later.
2. Add bacon bits to pot and cook through.
3. Add diced onion to bacon bits and saute until onion is soft. Add garlic and cook a few minutes longer.
4. Add cubed potatoes and chicken broth.
5. Cover and simmer/boil until potatoes are soft.
6. Once potatoes are done, add in sausage, kale and cream. Stir to combine.
7. Taste and season as needed. (I usually add just a touch of pepper and Italian seasoning, the sausage/bacon/broth tend to make it salty enough already)

Enjoy!

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Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Muffins (gluten-free)

As I stated yesterday in my post about Portland, I absolutely fell in love with Tula Gluten-Free Bakery and their Lemon Ricotta Muffins. So delicious. I just couldn’t live without them. So as soon as I was back home, I looked into making my own. Luckily, I found this recipe from With Style and Grace blog (one of my favorite gluten free blogs!) and it did not disappoint. She was also inspired by Tula Bakery.

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This recipe adds blueberries which are a great addition! I love the lemon and blueberry together and the ricotta makes the muffins dense and moist and just so good! If you are a muffin lover (which I definitely am! I grew up making blueberry muffins all the time!), then you must try this recipe!

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Muffins (Gluten-Free)

makes 12 muffins, recipe originally from here 

Ingredients:

-1 3/4 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour (I ran out and substituted part gluten-free flour mix and part organic local brown rice flour and a little xanthan gum and they turned out great. If you aren’t gluten-free, you could also use regular wheat flour.)
3/4 cup sugar (I used local organic raw cane sugar, but you could also use turbinado sugar or granulated white sugar if you must.)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
zest of 3 lemons
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2-3/4 cup fresh blueberries
Turbinado sugar for topping

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in center.
2. In a separate bowl, combine ricotta, water, lemon juice, olive oil, lemon zest, vanilla extract and egg.
3. Add the wet to dry mixture and stir just until moist.
4. Grease muffin cups or add liners to muffin cups.
5. Fill each muffin cup half way. Add about 4-5 blueberries to each and then top it off until it’s about 3/4 or all the way full. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over the muffins.
6. Bake in a 375° oven for 16-20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Cool 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack.
8. Enjoy!

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Creamy Potato Soup

This is my favorite potato soup recipe — one my mom used to make all the time when I was a kid. It has an excellent buttery, creamy flavor, lots of big potato chunks, and the consistency is nice — not as thick and gravy-like as some other recipes I’ve tried. It is really easy to make and it is really great leftover!

Creamy Potato Soup

ingredients:

-6-8 large potatoes (I prefer Yukon Gold, but any kind will work)
-1 onion
-water
-1 stick of butter
-1 small can of evaporated milk
-salt & pepper to taste

directions:

1. Cut up potatoes into small chunks and place in large saucepan/soup pot.
2. Cut up onion and add to pot with potatoes.
3. Fill pot with water until water line is an inch or so above potatoes/onion.
4. Cut half a stick of butter into chunks and place in pot. Add salt and pepper.
5. Place the lid on the pot and cook on the stove until potatoes are tender.
6. Add other half a stick of butter and small can of evaporated milk. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve with grated cheddar cheese (and bacon), if you wish!

Enjoy!

P.S. If you would like your soup to be a little thicker and have smaller bits of potato, you can take a potato masher and mash down into the soup a couple times, breaking down some of the potatoes to thicken the broth. Just be careful that you don’t turn the soup into mashed potatoes!

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Strawberry Freezer Jam

***Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers for my hometown last week after the tornado they went through. Please continue to keep them in your hearts as they mourn those lost and as they pick up the pieces to re-build their homes and lives.***

While doing our grocery shopping last week, we spotted a good deal on a flat of strawberries.

Lately I’d been craving some homemade strawberry jam, so I figured what better an opportunity to make some. Growing up, my mom always had a container of strawberry freezer jam in the fridge and several more in the freezer. It’s just so delicious!

The main difference between freezer jam and your regular canned jam, is that freezer jam is much quicker and easier without all the specificity of the canning process and the jam tastes much more like fresh strawberries than with regular canned jam (which tastes more like cooked strawberries). Although, of course, since it isn’t canned and pressure sealed, it must be stored in the fridge or freezer.

It is super simple to make. Just pick up a box of fruit pectin at the grocery store (in the canning aisle) that looks like this:

Inside, you will find a whole little booklet with recipes for every kind of jam or jelly you could think of.

Regardless of which kind you choose to make, you will need containers for your jam. My mom always used small plastic containers, but I don’t like how plastic can crack after its been in the freezer for a while, so I got glass jelly jars (make sure they say freezer safe).

I ended up making two batches since I had so many strawberries (although now I have enough jam to last me the rest of my life) and in my experience, one batch of strawberry jam will fill twelve, 4 oz jelly jars and one 8 oz jelly jar, or if you use all 8 oz jars, it will fill six with a tiny bit leftover. And yes, that does mean that I now have twelve small jars of jam and 7 bigger jars of jam. If you live in the New Orleans area and are fresh out of jam, no worries, I will gladly give you some.

Anyway, here is how you make it:

Strawberry Freezer Jam

2 pt. strawberries, crushed (equal to 2 cups)
4 cups sugar
1 box fruit pectin
3/4 cup water

1. Wash and rinse containers. Make sure you have tight fitting lids.

2. Discard strawberry stems. Crush strawberries, either using a potato masher or a food processor (do not puree!), you want small chunks of fruit.

3. Measure fruit into large bowl. Stir in sugar and mix well. (exact amounts! substitutions will result in set failures) Let strawberry/sugar mixture sit for 10 minutes.

4. Stir pectin and water in small saucepan. Bring to a boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute, continuing to stir constantly. Remove from heat.

5. Stir pectin mixture into fruit/sugar mixture. Stir constantly until sugar is completely dissolved and no longer grainy, about 3 minutes.

6. Pour into prepared containers, leaving 1/2 of space at the top for expansion during freezing. Cover.

7. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours until set.

8. Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or store in freezer for up to 1 year. Thaw in refrigerator.

Enjoy!

P.S. It was great on my almond flour biscuits!

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Low Carb Gluten Free Biscuits

If you have read my last few posts, then you know that Drew and I gave up carbs for Lent. Almost all foods have a few grams of carbohydrates in them at least, so it is impossible to completely give up carbs, but we are trying to stay away from the biggies — flour, oats, cereals, pastas, potatoes, etc. The last few days have been pretty hard, I won’t lie. I now realize that I might be slightly addicted to carbohydrate-rich foods. This diet is easier to handle when we cook completely at home, but it is really hard when eating out. It is hard to tell the waitress that you can’t have all the carbs that come with your meal (that you will be paying for anyway!). Try eating Chinese food with no rice!

Anyway, after a few days of fighting off carbs, I got smart. Why not try some virtually carb-free substitutions for the foods we love? After a little internet research, I’ve found tons of recipes for low carb breads, biscuits, pizza crusts, etc. These 40 days of Lent might not be so bad after all.

For breakfast this morning, I tried a recipe I found for low carb gluten free biscuits and they turned out delicious! They are slightly different that your typical flour biscuit. They have a more similar texture, density, and slight taste to cornbread. Although a little bit fluffier than cornbread. They are also more like drop biscuits.

Behold:

One regular flour biscuit has roughly 28 grams of carbohydrates. Want to know how many these low carb biscuits here have? 2.5 grams per biscuit! Those are some serious carb savings!

Here is how you make them:

Low Carb Gluten Free Biscuits
original recipe from here.

Makes four biscuits.

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted organic butter or nonhydrogenated shortening
1 cup plus two tablespoons of finely ground blanched almond flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
2 egg whites

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

1. Cut cold butter or shortening into dry ingredients with a pastry cutter until butter is in pea sized chunks.
2. Chill mixture in fridge 5-10 minutes. The colder your butter is, the fluffier your biscuits will be.
3. Separate egg whites from yolks. Whisk egg whites in a bowl for 20 seconds or until no longer stringy and gloopy. You want them to be slightly foamy.
4. Remove mixture from fridge and whisk in the egg whites. The dough will be extremely runny with chunks of the almond mixture.
5. Pour into well greased muffin cups (edges stick really badly, so make sure they are definitely well greased) and get it in the hot oven before the butter softens.
6. Bake for 12-14 minutes.

They taste great plain, with butter and honey, or with jam. Visit the original recipe here for garlic cheddar, parmesan herb and sweet cinnamon variations.

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Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, you read that right. Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies. Healthy as in, no sugar, definitely no nasty sugar substitutes, no flour, no eggs and no butter. You can make these completely vegan and also gluten free.

Really. Plus they taste really awesome. You can eat a few and not even feel guilty. You should try it. 🙂

Ingredients:

3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, barely warm – so it isn’t solid (or alternately, olive oil or grapeseed oil)
2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup almond meal
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 – 7 ounces chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks/chips. Scoop dough with a cookie scoop or drop in dollops onto a cookie sheet, an inch apart. Bake for about 13-15 minutes, watching closely. They might be done a bit sooner depending on your oven and the size of your cookies.

Notes:

If you want to make these completely gluten free, make sure that you buy gluten free oats– that weren’t processed along with flour products. I used milk chocolate chips, but if you want to make them completely vegan, use chocolate without milk in it. I bought almond flour at the grocery store in the organic aisle, but if you can make your own almond meal by pulsing almonds in a food processor until they are the texture of sand – but be really careful and don’t go too far or you’ll end up with almond butter.

Oh, and definitely make sure that your bananas are very ripe. I got so excited about these cookies that the first time I made them I went to the store, got bananas, and made them that night while the bananas were still a tiny bit yellow-green. Yeah, don’t do that. Since the bananas are the sweetener, they will taste nasty if the bananas aren’t sweet enough. Now every time I make them I wait until the bananas are really overripe–almost completely black on the outside–that will give you the sweetest cookies.

original recipe from here.

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