Learning to love Olives

As a child Olives were the black things next to the pickles on the dinner table during the holidays, their only use was to wear them on my finger tips and chase my cousins around. My mother always yelled at me if I were caught because she knew I would not eat them, and was wasting food. As a result every time she caught me my only punishment was to try to eat one and if I didn't like it I wasn't to do it again. I believe my mother was hoping I would acquire the taste and no longer waste them, but instead I just stopped playing with them. Olives, I decided, were gross. I did not like the sour briny taste, texture I didn't have a problem with however. ( I also didn't like garlic till I was 13 and pickles until I was 15 or so, I was a little weird)

This summer while at a farmers market a friend bought a pasta from one of the vendors. We stood talking while he ate and while standing I tried to smell what was in his dish, secretly at first, it smelled so good that I asked if I could have a closer look (knowing I couldn't eat it our friend didn't mind my brief inspection) It was full of herbs, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and olives. It's smell was heavenly and I really wished I could of tried some. I made a promise to myself  that I would try and replicate the recipe one day soon and went about our lazy Saturday.

Fall is settling in now and while I was shopping at Whole Foods a few weeks ago I saw the row of olives and I reminded myself of the promise I made. I looked at all the choices and settled on a mixture of Mediterranean Olives, and when I got home I put it in the pantry next to my capers that I still hadn't tried. And there they sat, side by side, until last week after our upstairs neighbor and growing friend gave us a jar of his mothers Italian canned mushrooms. That was the final push, I had to make something with them.

I started out with my Capers, Olives, and Mushrooms and tasted and smelled each of them, Salty, Brine-y, and Herb-y. I took stock of what I had in my fridge and began.

I sauteed some garlic and yellow zucchini in oil before I added the chopped canned mushroom and olives. I cooked them long enough to heat them but not over cook them, this also lest the brine become a sauce. I added Gluten Free Spaghetti noodles and topped with more oil, the capers and Parmesan cheese before I tossed it all together.

 If I had Parmesan I would make some after writing this but alas I need to go grocery shopping. This was really good. I was surprised at how much I like it. Mr. Beam loved it and made sure I didn't have any leftovers, the bum.

Gluten Free Pop Tarts

Now I'm not a big PopTart fan, I don't think I ever have been, but I do remember enjoying them when I was up early for horse shows. It was easy to bring that packet along and the sugar rush certainly helped me more that coffee would have. I found one flavor early on and fell in love with it. Chocolate chip cookie dough. Oh my it was oh so good. It was only sold at FredMeyer  and most people had never heard of the flavor. After giving up gluten I very rarely have cravings for things I cannot have or even make gluten free. A good baguette, Tacobell  and these PopTarts come to my mind sometimes, I really wish I could find there gluten free substitute sometime soon. I'm getting close with the Tacobell, but it will take some time to figure out a gluten free crunch wrap that works.

Anyway, yet again while surfing Pinterest I found a recipe for poptarts, I found several actually, but this one I had the ingredients for, also Mr.Beam had been buying himself treats lately and I was feeling jealous so I made them (I'm also trying to get him to eat better, his junk food and juice/pop habit is monstrous).

I had to mix my own flour like normal. I still haven't found the 'right' GF all-purpose mix for me, so I keep trying. The dough was well put together and slightly crumbly like they wanted (hence the cracked edges in the picture)  

While rolling them out the dough was very temperamental and didn't like to stay together if you fussed with it too much. I was loosing patience and only made 4 tarts, 3 filled with strawberry jam and 1 with nutella. I saved the remaining dough so see if it was worth using later.

I'll start off by saying they smelled and tasted delicious. Once they cooled Mr. Beam and I split one, needless to say they crumbled under any pressure. It was like eating good tasting sand, it was just gritty. I thought it was my flours, something I did wrong. I think my flour mix did help it get extremely crumbly but I also think the recipe itself makes for a crumbly Poptart.  I did end up eating all of them (I did say they tasted good) and I loved the nutella one (duh, it's hard not to like nutella) but I was discouraged with the turn out and tossed the rest of the dough, I did not know how to improve the texture of sand. I really hope I can find another recipe, one that works for me, or I'll try again once I have a better All-purpose mix. The recipe it saved as a work in progress.

Coconut Doughnut Holes

 I have yet to find a recipe for yest doughnuts that I like, but when I find it I'm having a doughnut party and borrowing my parents deep fryer to make them properly. Until that time I still play, not as often as I'd like, but occasionally I find a recipe that I like and want to keep. A few months ago I found a recipe on Pinterest for baked doughnut holes with coconut flour. Recipe.  I loved how minimal the ingredients were, I mean only 5 TBS coconut flour? Most recipes have such high amounts of ingredient that I waist  half the recipe because it makes to much.

The dough is beautiful and easy to work with. If you don't like coconut I wouldn't recommend the recipe, it has a distinct and delicious coconut flavor. (Not the sweet coconut flavor most people think of either)

They cook up beautifully, not too crumbly or too firm.

I wanted to eat them all while they were on the baking rack. 

Next time I make them I will try a few different ways to top them, this time I just did Powdered Sugar.

I'll tell you now that I did share them,  Mr. Beam and I only took about 5 minutes before the plate was empty, save for the bits of powdered sugar. With a glass of milk it was quite fulfilling and it immediately went into my recipe book for next time.  

Gluten Free Waffle Mix Review... Mickey Mouse Style

Another craving for breakfast for dinner. This time Mr. Beam was home and I wanted something a little crunchier than pancakes. Which left French toast, Waffles, or something to do with Eggs. I looked in my baking cupboard and  found a  pancake/waffle mix that I need to try, so waffles it was!

I had heard good things about King Arthur Flour but hadn't found any at my normal stores. Well, one day Mr. Beam went to the store (One I normally don't go to, at least for GF things) and brought me a few treats. Aside from chocolaty things (Mr. Beam is very good at making sure I have plenty of those) he bought this pancake mix. It was time to whip up some waffles.

For Christmas last year Mr.Beam searched high and low for a mickey mouse waffle iron for me. I had raved how as a kid it was not real waffles unless it was made in out mickey mouse waffle maker. And oh how I loved them, the syrup would collect in his ears and features of his face. The correct way to eat them (in my opinion, which my little brother also followed suit) was ears first, tearing off one side at a time and devouring them whole (thinking back I'm sure I looked like a chipmunk while doing this) then you were able to eat the face as you pleased.  Mr.Beam ended up having to special order the waffle iron and we didn't get it until after the new year but let me tell you they were the best waffles I'd  had in years. I though it was funny  though that the imprint was reversed, when I was a kid the ears were indented so the syrup would pool inside them, with this new one the center of the ears are puffed out.

The mix was perfect for waffles, at first I was a little put off by the smell, it had an almost artificial butter smell, and I was not expecting it. Mr. Beam loved them and kept bugging me to make more. I ripped off one of the beloved ears and put it in the freezer over night and reheated it, it tasted just like it had the night before. I think I'll be making some a head of time and freezing them!

Gluten Free Pancake mix review

I got an undeniable craving for pancakes a while back, pancakes for dinner? why yes, one of my favorite things is breakfast for dinner. What?  Mr. Beam  was working that night? Sounds like I don't have to share :)
Whats in the cupboard?

This is what I had in the cupboard and I gotta say I loved this mix! It's milled with Flax seed and didn't taste like I was eating just starch (Like tapioca flour, potato starch, or corn starch change the texture to starchy if they are predominate in a mix) It reminded me of eating whole wheat pancakes. I mixed up a big batch and saved some of the batter for breakfast the next day. Next time I buy it I'll have to try it in the waffle maker, now if I could just remember which store I bought it from....

I layered it with butter, powdered sugar, and whipping cream ( I was out of maple syrup, and I've gotten to spoiled on that to use Mr. Beams Mrs. Buttersworth)

So so good.

Cauliflower Pizza

As the restaurants in my area have started to offer a gluten free option for pizza I've turned into a pizza fiend. Pizza was one thing I truly missed being gluten free. With a gluten free pizza it's all about the crust. Sure toppings can vary but when I'm judging a pizza I'm truly interested in the quality of the crust. I've found some thin and crisp to some fluffy and almost pancake like. Once I find a crust I love I can play with the sauces, cheese and toppings and create my perfect pizza.


Pinterest yet again brought me something amazing during my pizza frenzy,  A gluten free, no-carb pizza crust. How you may ask? Using Cauliflower, egg and mozzarella cheese.  I decided it was worth trying out and used the first recipe I saw.

With this recipe you steamed the cauliflower before ricing it (no matter how long I cooked it I couldn't get it through my ricer, so I chopped it into tiny pieces), add the shredded cheese, egg and some spices, mix together and shape. The idea was to then bake it for 15 minutes, take it out, top it with sauce and cheese and bake for another 15 or so minutes.

I think steaming the cauliflower is a mistake. It had so much moisture from steaming the cauliflower that the egg got running and it took extra long to cook.

Leaky edges or not, I was going to finish and eat this pizza. It was very mushy and had to be eaten with a fork but it did taste amazing and Mr. Beam and I ate the whole thing!

Round 2

We loved the taste of the cauliflower pizza despite its soggy and floppy 'crust', so two weeks later I decided to try again, with a slightly different recipe in hopes of creating  more of a pizza like crust.

Instead of steaming the cauliflower and ricing it, you just grated it raw on a cheese grater then added it to mozzarella, eggs and spices. This 'dough'  had more structure then the last attempt and looked promising.

The egg ran only a little this time and the crust kept it's structure. I also didn't have to cook it for as long.

I made my sauce with tomato paste, cream, spices, and my family trade mark to any tomato sauce; brown sugar. It helps even out the high acid flavor and gives it more depth, it helps make amazing spaghetti sauce.

I then topped it with cheese and baked it until melted and bubbly. Which seemed like forever, it smelled so good.

I could actually pick up the pieces with my hands and it held together, it wilted and wanted to fall with gravity but it wasn't falling apart on me. I made this on a night when Mr. Beam was working so despite my best efforts I could not eat it all. There were 5 pieces left that I covered in plastic wrap and put in the fridge. Mr. beam said it tasted just as good cold and even left me a small piece for lunch the next day. When I reheated it in the microwave it lost it's structure and would fall apart but tasted just as good, if not better, then the night before.

So even though it isn't the normal pizza crust i'm searching for it surpassed my expectations and found it's way onto my favorites list.

A different way

I love keeping hard boiled eggs in the fridge. I grab one when I'm in a hurry, just peel, eat, and go.  It helps that I get a few dozen farm fresh eggs from my parents every two weeks, I'm a little spoiled.

Now with them being fresh from the farm they do not like to peel very easily, there is a protective film between the egg and the shell. I've read that putting baking soda in the water as you boil them makes peeling easier.

Then the other day on pinterest I saw a pin on baking the eggs instead of boiling them. So the next time I need to boil my eggs I baked them instead.

So I arranged the eggs on the oven rack and baked them for 20 minutes, easy.

I then put them in an ice bath to cool them quickly and stopped the cooking process. (my ice is almost completely melted in the photo)

 I peeled one for a snack right after they were cooled, it was so easy to peel and it was cooked perfectly. I was really excited.

I normally keep my 'boiled' eggs in the door of my fridge with the shells still on so I can grab then at leisure,  however I found that with this baking method leaving the shell on is a mistake and the egg is supper hard to peel afterwards (was left to eat only the yolk several times because of how mutilated the white got while trying to peel it).

So if your needing the eggs for a party and will use them right away go ahead and bake them, but if you plan on storing them like I do, boil them or bake them and peel right away (you would then need to seal them in a container for later use) I like that I found another method for getting the perfect 'boiled' egg but I think i'll stick to  boiling in for now...

A simple Loaf

I've had this box in my baking cupboard for a while now, sense the cinnamon raisin bread (which was only half eaten before needing to be tossed) I haven't felt like making bread. And if I did It was going to be used in my smaller loaf pan or even my cupcake pan. But with this meal planning thing I'm finding myself in need of full size slices, so I grabbed the box and began.

 I have to say upfront that I was not impressed with the instructions (unless your using a bread maker, they put more time into explaining that method), but with common sense it's easy enough.

It had to sit and rise so I busied  myself with another cooking project (baking eggs instead of boiling, more on that later)  Once it was baking it made my entire apartment smell like bread-y heaven and when it was done cooking, oh man it looked beautiful, it was so hard not to cut into it right then and there.

Once it cooled I made a sandwich for dinner and paired the rest of the slices, separated them with foil and put them in a freezer bag for later use. The bread was dense and chewy with the crumbly top, it was close to the french bread my mother would make from scratch when I was little.

I used some for toast the other morning, just went from freezer to toaster just fine (it took a bit longer to toast then the store bought GF bread that I used to keep in the freezer). All in all I was happy with the results, next time I'll have to use it as pizza crust and see how it turns out!

My first go at meal planning

With money getting tight around here I looked at my finances to see where I could cut back, the three big ones were, eating out, grocery's, and gas.  I had already been watching my gas so that one couldn't be helped much but the other two, I knew I could do something about. I sat myself down and looked at  anything to do with pre-made meals, freezer meals, crock-pot meals, meal planning etc. I was over loaded with information and ideas and was running out of time (my kitchen was empty!)  I wrote down things I would like to make and what ingredients they all would need and even tried to  plan what days I would eat them (Ha! like that happened) Looking back I was a little overwhelmed and rushed (all of which I did to myself) but I planned the next two weeks of breakfast, lunches and dinners and went to work.
First I'll share my menu.

Breakfast could be anyone of the following; Oatmeal, Quinoa porridge, breakfast sandwiches, homemade pop-tart, or a breakfast shake.

Lunch Items were either a salad, or stir-fry  and on weekends it was either clam chowder or split pea soup.

Dinner menu sounded like this;
Beef stroganoff with roasted zucchini.
Meatloaf with Dijon roasted potatoes and green beans.
Burrito pie (your typical burrito ingredients but assembled like a lasagna , so I could use corn tortillas)
Orange chicken, rice and broccoli
Chicken pot pie
Lemon baked chicken with mushroom and asparagus risotto
Honey mustard chicken with salad
Shepherds pie
Honey sesame chicken, rice, and broccoli
Meatloaf with mash potatoes and green beans
Chicken pot pie
And on Saturday nights we would have whatever soup was made for the weekend and a salad.

Snack options were; Frozen yogurt drops, homemade chicken toquitos, peanut butter granola bars, a protein shake, meatballs, and fruit.

Sounds like a yummy menu right? Well some of these are tired and true recipes I've always loved and others, well the others were awesome ideas I thought I'd try. Some of those awesome ideas didn't turn out (the toquitos) or I was so burned out making all of this stuff that I never got around to making it(the pop tarts). Some however turned out and I will be using them again someday, like the burrito pie or the frozen yogurt drops.

I didn't get to the store until the late afternoon and once I got home I prepped all my meat, and there was a lot of it. Most went into the fridge and I didn't cook or assemble most of the meals until the next day, and it took me ALL day.






Mr.Beam was happy to see and smell all the food and I tried stacking it on my counter for you to see it all but all the salads  and stir-fry's were in bags and look a little lost. It was a LOT of food that I carefully crammed into my small fridge and freezer.

This was everything that needed to be in the freezer and  I almost didn't have room for it all! the burrito pie was thankfully in the fridge for the next day or I don't know what I would of done.

 I will slowly share each of these recipes with you (at least the successful ones) at a later time. But I will not ever take on that big of a project in that short amount of time again. I can see repeating a lot of these meals for my winter menu but now that its summer this meal planning thing is easier, I'll share with you how much easier in a later post, until then here is the cost break down for each meal


Beef Stroganoff: $2.34 a serving
Meatloaf: $1.25 a serving
Burrito pie: $1.01 a serving
Orange chicken: $1.46
Chicken Pot Pie; $1.06 a serving (6 servings in a pie tin)
Lemon chicken: $1.90 a serving
Honey mustard chicken: $1.96 a serving
Clam chowder: $0.80 a serving (should feed 8)
Split pea soup $0.58 a serving (should feed 8)
Lunch salads $1.38 for 2
Dinner salads $1.55 for 2
Stir-fry $1.57  for 2+  (the + means there was so much it could easily feed an extra person or two)
Roasted Zucchini $0.93 for 2+
Dijon roasted potatoes $0.93 for 3+
Broccoli $0.24 for 2
Mushroom Asparagus risotto $1.11 serving
Sesame honey chicken $1.07 serving
Breakfast sandwiches $1.27 a serving.


Breaking it down this way defiantly help show Mr. Beam just how much we can save eating at home verses eating out. I also did all my shopping at one store which I won't do next time, I'll bargain shop next time to help bring down the prices :)

Orange chicken

Mr. Beam loves eating at panda express, I on the other hand cannot (and before I was gluten free I tried it three different times and got food poisoning all three times, No thank you)  He raves about how much he loves the orange chicken and how he wishes I could go there with him. So when preparing my planned meals I looked for a gluten free orange chicken recipe.  http://glutenfreeinslc.blogspot.com/2010/03/gluten-free-panda-orange-chicken-when.html

For under $4 I was able to make this for Mr. Beam and myself. (the chicken, rice and broccoli)

 It tasted amazing (although I added a little to much ginger to my sauce). There were no leftovers and our bellies were very happy indeed.



 I am now in the process of finding a sesame beef/chicken recipe that I can convert to Gluten free using the method from the orange chicken.

Restaurant review

My list of restaurants that I can dine at is currently quite small. I can always go in someplace and see if anything they serve is gluten free or possibly safe for me to eat, sure, but I always eat feeling nervous about if gluten has gotten into my food one way or another.

None of the Thai  places around here use gluten free soy sauce, so I haven't had Thai in a while. I stopped eating sushi after I found out if they use imitation crab I could be ingesting gluten. I have 3 sushi places within reasonable driving distance of my neighborhood, two of which I was not impressed with, the ingredients were poor and I left feeling gross, even avoiding rolls with crab (And I don't ever dip my sushi in sauce). But last  night Mr.beam wanted to treat me. I had been stuck in the house far to long and needed the outing.

We were going to try the third sushi place,  Mio Sushi had  been around for months in the corner of a building we had to drive by to go to  Mr. Beams mothers, I was always curious to try it as the last 4 business's to rent that corner quickly went out of business and this place seemed to thrive. Unlike the other sushi place's this one was not dominated by a sushi bar, It had a bright and clean feeling, we were seated and given our menus, two menus each. One was a  tri-fold menu of all there items (from sushi to soup and salad to bento) while the other one was two sided with pictures and laminated. We were given a wet erase marker for the laminated menu, which featured there sushi selection, a description of what was in it and price, along with a blank box for you to write the quantity you wanted. I got very excited when I saw that they specifically put that they used REAL crab (and the prices reflected it as well, I don't mind paying for quality as long as I get what I pay for) and they stated that ALL there sauces were made with gluten free soy sauce (with 3 exceptions, which came with gluten noodles or tempura anyway!)

 Ordering was prompt, friendly, and respectful, answering all of our questions. The prices are very reasonable (the more seafood you have in the roll the more expensive it is) We stuck with what we knew and usually like, we shared an order of Ichi (crab, cucumber, shrimp, & sweet chili sauce, topped with peanuts) rolls, I got an Alaska (crab, cream cheese, cucumber, & sesame seeds) roll and Mr. Beam got a double crunch  (spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, crab, avocado, &sweet sauce) roll. Everything was delicious and I felt so satisfied afterwards. It has defiantly earned its spot on my approved dining out list :)

http://www.miosushi.com/

Quinoa pesto

 I was home alone (which hardly happens anymore) and feeling a little lazy for dinner. I wanted pesto but had no pasta! I grumbled about making my own while I  picked through the cupboards looks for something to spark my interest, what I found was my box of Quinoa.  I've been trying to eat healthier and while the Quinoa cooked I rummaged through the fridge to find what else I could toss in with it.

I had some asparagus and spinach that needed to be used so I brought it to the cutting board and prepped.
I don't buy pine nuts because they are way to expensive so I finely chopped some walnuts instead and I also chopped my garlic and fresh basil. When the Quinoa was done I tossed all of it together with some olive oil in the pan the Quinoa had cooked in and put the lid on it. After a few minutes the spinach had wilted and I dished up, topping with some Parmesan cheese.

Not the best pictures but hey, at least I'm remembering to take them :) I loved this Pesto and will be doing it again, hopefully Mr. Beam will like it as much as I did.

Size matters when baking

 I have one of my kitchen cabinets stuffed full of gluten free flours, mixes, and other baking necessities. I realized after making the gluten free raisin cinnamon bread that neither I or Mr. Beam eat a lot of bread anymore.  It's always to much for us to eat before it goes bad or in the case of the cinnamon bread, half eaten then forgotten until it was harder than a rock :(


 It could just be flavored bread that gets this kind of neglect or it's just the fact that I'm getting absent minded in the kitchen as of late. I remember when I would make a loaf of  GF bread and it would be gone  before the next day. I would make sandwiches, toast, bread pudding, croutons and even bread crumbs out of it.



After this wasted cinnamon bread I didn't want to bake anything else, almost like a punishment I guess. I didn't want to waste anymore of my precious  ingredients in the baking cupboard, if you bake gluten free you know that this stuff isn't cheap. Size matters, I now have tiny baking pans for personal loafs of  bread or I use my cupcake pan and don't pull out the big pan unless I need sandwich bread size loaves. It was a hard lesson to learn but one everyone should realize at some point.

P.S. The cinnamon bread was delicious (I'm not a fan of raisins and I even liked it) I will be making this again for Mr. beam but definitely in the smaller pans :)

An Easy Breakfast

Breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day, but lately I'm so sluggish in the morning I don't feel awake enough to make anything and settle for a handful of almonds until I'm extremely hungry  which can happen from 40 minutes to two  hours later. It's bad I know but some days I cannot help it. When I began researching for planning my meals I stumbled on a recipe for making your own breakfast sandwiches and freezing them. http://www.theyummylife.com/Egg_McMuffin

 I got pre-made Gluten free bread for mine and I used blueberry English muffins for Mr. Beams (they smell like heaven). I used cheddar cheese and Canadian bacon and I got extra eggs from my parents (I love farm fresh eggs!)

I did not read the up-date on their website about cooking the eggs, so the first time I made them my eggs were small and a little deformed, but they worked. I made these again recently and used my creme brule containers as well as a few of their other tips and the eggs turned out better.

While my eggs cook in the oven I slice the cheese and toast my bread (if your only going to reheat them in the oven you don't need to toast if before hand, but I suggest it for when reheating in the microwave for the bread to have a better flavor and texture)

When the eggs are done I start assembling them...

(this picture was from my very first batch when the eggs were really small and thick, after using the other pans and breaking the yolk before cooking the eggs fit much better)

When they were all assembled I wrapped them individually in wax paper and stacked them in a cheap foil baking dish and covered them with foil so they would stay nice and tidy in my freezer.
After breaking it down each sandwich cost me roughly $1.27. If I needed to make more than a dozen I could probably buy in bulk and reduce the price even more, but with just me and Mr. Beam 6 sandwiches each is perfect :)

Product reviews

I've been meaning to write this one for a while now, I have two different  brands of noodles that I adore using and then I have 2 bread mixes that I'll go over.


The pasta:

Years ago I was referred to as the pasta queen, I loved making, eating and sharing different pasta dishes. When I would go out to dinner something using pasta was usually what I would order (to the point that I shocked people if I didn't get a pasta dish). When I  first thought about going gluten free I rebelled against the idea because I thought I would have to give up one of my favorite things, I was even getting really good at making homemade pasta, the thought of giving it up was heart breaking. At this point my mother was already gluten free and when we would have spaghetti we would make her rice noodles  while we still had out normal wheat ones. I had tried spaghetti with her rice noodles... it just wasn't the same.

 Scene then I still have yet to find the perfect gluten free spaghetti noodle but I have found some great gluten free noodles that leave me feeling satisfied with my pasta dishes instead of cheated like I thought I would.

 I love these elbow noodles, like it says on the package it tastes like traditional pasta and no wonder because they are made in Italy. Italy actually has one of the highest diagnosis of celiac's disease, before beginning school the kids are tested for celiac's. It's one of the greatest places for a Celiac or gluten intolerant person to visit  because their society is so educated and aware of the disease.  It's pretty cool, anyway back to the noodles. These elbow noodles have a  very mild taste by themselves and there texture is the closest to wheat noodles  that I've found so far.  I love them.

 And a close second in my pantry is....

 These are very yellow in color (they are made from corn flour) I very much enjoy these noodles and find them a little hardier than the elbows. I like these for if I have to cook something a little longer and don't want the noodle to break down to soon or if I'm going to make a cold pasta salad with them.

Both of these I highly recommend  for your general pasta needs. I am just beginning to dabble with making my own gluten free pasta (like ravioli) but I haven't found the perfect recipe yet, I will let you know when I do.





The flour mixes.

I love this all purpose flour so much. Everything I've made using this (Both from a recipe and off the top of my head) has turned out beautifully and tasted amazing.

This bread mix I need to try again. It tastes wonderful after it first cooled and then it was left overnight and I didn't care for it (although that could be because I added a strong cheese and garlic to it before baking  and it didn't taste the best cold) I'm leaning towards It was the cheese's fault because the texture and bread it self were really good. I remember being extremely happy with it at first and then wonder what the hell happened the next day.


I also recently tried Pamela's gluten free bread mix (I have no picture of it) But I LOVED  the loaf it made. We ate it all with in  24 hours I will be getting it again and sharing what I make with it :)

Bisquick biscuits

 I'm beginning to love Gluten free Bisquick. I usually have it in the cupboard to make waffles with but the other night Mr beam wanted biscuits with dinner and instead of mixing my own flour mix I grabbed the Bisquick.

I made cheesy garlic biscuits. I gotta say I was impressed with how they turned out, with a little tweaking they could taste just like the red lobster biscuits.

Gluten nightmares with pleasant results

I recently had a nightmare that  I was consuming all these pastry's, cakes and cookies, mainly cookies. Good things that I dearly missed eating. In the dream I realized I was eating gluten and tried to only chew the delicious treats and spit them out before swallowing them. Needless to say I woke up feeling  guilty and deprived. These past months I've been looking for a gluten free chocolate chip recipe that is at least similar to the one I made all during my childhood and haven't had much luck. I decided that after work that day I needed to make myself some cookies. Once I was home I realized that I didn't have any chocolate chips in the house, my plan needed to change because I wasn't going to the store just for chocolate chips. After searching my saved recipes on pinterest ( I love pinterest if you can't tell) I found one that I could do, and still get my chocolate fix as well. http://delightfulbitefuls.blogspot.com/2011/02/peanut-butter-nutella-swirl-cookies.html

I used the above recipe but I switched out the flour with a gluten free blend.

 I love how easy peanut butter cookies are.

It was a lot of self control not to eat just the dough, it smelled soooo good.

This picture was before they were cooked.... they didn't last long enough after to take additional pictures. I did manage to save two for my mom and sister (but my mother ate both of them before my sister had a chance) I don't know if it was my desperation for a cookie treat or the actual recipe but these things were gone before the next day.

White beam chili

 I've had this craving for chili for over two weeks now.  A week ago I bought all the stuff to make my white bean chili but between work and other things I wasn't able to make it and the past few days we had a friend staying with us and she can't even look at chili with out getting grossed out, so chili was a no go. I now have a free day, Mr. beam is working and I am by myself for the rest of the night, chili? I think yes!

We  have some hominy, white beans, green taco sauce, sour cream, monterey jack cheese, chicken stock, chicken, salt, pepper, coriander, cumin, garlic, onion, celery and corn.

 I drained and rinsed the hominy and white beans. Shredded the cheese , cubed the chicken, and chopped the onion, garlic, celery and corn (well I didn't chop the corn I took it off the husk).


I  cooked the chicken then added the onion, garlic, celery, and corn and let the onions sweat.

 I then added the hominy  and beans and mixed in the green taco sauce.

Then I added the Chicken stock and spices to taste. Once this was done I let it simmer until it became a chili consistency.  To serve I dollop with sour cream and top with the shredded cheese, if I had them I would of also crunched up some tortilla chips in there.

 If you like really spicy chili you'll have to add more of a kick to this. I cannot have a lot of spice (even this mild stuff doesn't sit  very well with me) adding more fresh peppers and change the cheese to pepper jack will turn up the heat a bit :)

This makes way to much for one person to eat so I put some in the fridge for the next day and  some in the freezer for when my craving hits again :)

Homemade chicken soup

Spring is in full swing now a days and although the majority of flu season is behind us some bugs are still lingering and effecting people. One nasty bug hit one of my friends not to long ago *cough cough, last month when I was lazy in the kitchen* I really had no spark to cook anything, my imagination with food had gone dry (much to Mr. Beams dismay)  That is until I heard that our friend was sick and the night before had a fever of 103+.  I believe whenever someone is sick its when they need to be pampered the most, when your sick, being comfortable is a hard thing to achieve. To me homemade chicken soup it the closest to comfort one can get while sick, so I set to work.

Onions, Carrots, and Celery is the holy trinity that you begin with,  I also chopped up some garlic and shiitake mushrooms, chicken of course, and chicken stock (I happen to have homemade in the freezer).

 I don't use noodles not only because I'm gluten free but because before I was I hated how soggy the noodles would get. So I made sure  there was a ton of veggies for the soup.

 I set the frozen stock to the side to melt a bit before adding it.

I put a good helping of olive oil in the bottom of my cast iron pot and added the chicken. When that was done cooking I added the holy trinity and let the onions sweat out there goodness before adding the garlic and mushrooms.

Looks yummy :)  I added the chicken stock and a bit of extra water to make sure there was plenty of broth. Now I let it cook for a bit to develop all the flavors and added some spices. The homemade broth already had some herbs like rosemary, marjoram and thyme, so I salt and peppered it and added a pinch of coriander. I checked its taste and when I was happy with it I took it off the burner to cool. I was pressed for time at  this point  and I wasn't able to take any more pictures, but I transferred the soup into some containers and delivered it. Our friend was better within two days, wither it was the soup or all the NyQuil she drank we will never know.  But she did say the soup helped and was amazing :)