Super Smoothie

About a year ago my husband and I tasted a fruit smoothie while at a friend's house.  It was delicious, but had artificial flavorings and water along with a small amount of fresh fruit in it.  We decided to try it at home, adding more fresh fruit and less flavoring.  About that same time we heard about green smoothies, where you add a handful of fresh spinach to the fruit smoothie, turning it green.  I liked them, but my husband had an allergic reaction to the spinach, so that was out.  We tried different fruit combinations, all of which tasted good, but eventually decided to emphasize blueberries, which were, at the time, the darling of the antioxidant world.  Since we both love strawberries, and also found frozen mixed berries at the store, we tried those three together and have been drinking these fruit smoothies every day since.  A few months ago, Dr. Oz said that strawberries were the new antioxidant super food, even better than blueberries.  Guess we were ahead of the curve! We've also completely cut out the artificial flavorings, so there's nothing but good-for-you ingredients in it now.  At any rate, we never tire of them, we rarely get sick, and spending money on fruit instead of doctors seems like a good choice.  We buy all the frozen berries at Costco.  We've tried other brands, but they don't have nearly the great flavor that the Costco berries have.  So, here's how my husband makes our super smoothie every day:

Super Smoothie

1/2-3/4 Cups water
1  peeled orange or 1 cored, quartered apple

Put into blender.

8 frozen strawberries (the Costco ones are huge)

1 Cup frozen blueberries

1 Cup frozen mixed berries

Put frozen berries in a colander and partially thaw by running warm water over them.  Put on top of orange or apple in blender.

Mix in blender until smooth.

Pour into glasses and serve immediately.  Lots of vitamins oxidize quickly, so drink up!

Here's to good health!  (That's light reflected in the glass on the right :)

Did you know that you can freeze bananas?  You can!  Just peel the banana, break it into pieces, pop the pieces in a freezer bag, and put them in your freezer.  A great way to use up overripe bananas!  The reason I bring this up now is because if you add a frozen banana to a fruit smoothie, it changes the texture of the whole thing -- it's comes out just like a milkshake, but without the sugar and calories!  Amazing and delicious.  You may have to add a little more water to get the consistency right.  Or if you want to try the green smoothie thing, just throw in a handful of fresh spinach on top of the berries.  Because the berries have so much color, it won't be really green, just kind of odd colored.  Amazingly, though, you won't taste the spinach at all!  What an easy way to sneak in a vegetable.  

 

Golden Green Paella

I don't remember where I got this recipe, but it's one of my favorites.  You'll notice that it has shrimp in it -- what can I say?  I love shrimp.  However, you should know that if you don't like shrimp or are allergic to shellfish, you can swap out chicken in any of my recipes that call for shrimp.  When we have guests to dinner we always ask if they have any food allergies or dislikes.  If they can't have/don't like shrimp and I'm planning a shrimp dish, I just prepare a chicken breast for them separately, hold out some of the dish before the shrimp gets added, and then mix the chicken in it for their portion.  So far, it's worked like a charm and they have loved the food!  So don't give up on the shrimp recipes just because of the shrimp -- try chicken instead.  I think you'll like it.

Goldlen Green Paella

2 Tbsp olive oil
8 oz shrimp, coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Cups brown rice, cooked
1/2 tsp oregano, crushed
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 14-oz can Swanson's chicken broth
8 oz sugar snap pea pods
1 large green pepper, cut in 1/2" pices
2 green onions, sliced
2 tsp parsley

If you don't have leftover brown rice, start the rice before you start anything else (brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice).  This is another dish where things move along pretty quickly, so it works best if everything is chopped up in advance.

Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a large pan over medium high heat.  Add shrimp.  Season with half of the salt and pepper.  Cook about 2 minutes or until shrimp are opaque, stirring occasionally.  Remove from skillet; set aside.  Add rest of oil to skillet.  Cook onion until almost tender.  Add garlic; cook 1 minute.  Stir in cooked rice, oregano and turmeric;  cook and stir 1 minute.  Add broth and rest of salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat.  Simmer 5 minutes.  Stir in peas and green pepper; cook 3 minutes or until they reach the doneness you prefer.  Stir in shrimp and green onions to reheat shrimp.  Remove from heat, taste to adjust salt and pepper, and sprinkle with parsley.  Serve.  Makes 4 servings.

I left the shrimp whole -- I think it looks prettier and you get a really big bite of shrimp :).

Black Bean Soup

This is a black bean soup with a little zip to it, and it doesn't require a thickening agent -- you just puree some of the beans and voila!  Stick-to-your-ribs texture and delicious taste too!

Black Bean Soup

1 Tbsp oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 15-oz cans black beans
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or more for more zip
1 tsp ground cumin
1 14-oz can Swanson or other gluten-free chicken broth
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles
1-1/2 cups frozen corn or 1 can corn, drained

Put oil, onion, and garlic in stockpot over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are soft but not brown.

Open one can black beans and rinse well.  Put in blender with 1/3 cup chicken broth, sauteed onion mixture, red pepper flakes and cumin.  Cover and blend on high until smooth.  Pour mixture back into stockpot.

Open second can of black beans and rinse well.  Put in blender with remaining broth and puree until smooth; add to stockpot.

Open third can of black beans and rinse well.  Don't puree, just add to stockpot with can of tomatoes with green chiles and corn.  Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes (or not if you're in a hurry :).   Makes about eight 1-1/2 cup servings.

Citrus-Roasted Asparagus

This is a recipe that combines two of my favorite foods:  asparagus and oranges.  I love asparagus and will eat it just about any way at all; usually I just steam it until tender and eat it with butter, salt and pepper.  But this recipe takes it to new heights and is totally worth the extra preparation.  In case you didn't know, the fattest spears of asparagus will be the most tender.  If you have picked wild asparagus, you know that the first spears that make their appearance in the spring are the fat ones.  After you pick them, another shoot is sent up, but it's much thinner than the first one and not as tender.  After you pick that one, the next one is even thinner and less tender.  By then, the season is about over.  My husband used to take our kids asparagus hunting along riverbanks and ditches in the early spring.  It's not easy to see asparagus fronds--they blend in with all the other green and growing things.  When you know what you're looking for, though, you can spot them if you try.  He used to tell the kids to put on their "asparagus eyes" so they could find delicious fresh spears for our dinner.  When it's fresh picked, it even tastes good raw, crunchy and flavorful.  One year we estimate they found almost 30 pounds worth during the season!  I think that was the only year I had all the asparagus I wanted.  Anyway, memories aside, I hope you'll try this recipe and see what I mean.

Incidentally, do you have a citrus zester?  It's a small tool that looks like this:

I only got mine about a year ago, thinking it was one of those tools that's nice to have for an occasional use, but could totally be done without.  I was wrong.  I've been surprised at how often I use it; I should have bought it years ago!  If you have one, it'll make quick work of the first step in the recipe.

Citrus-Roasted Asparagus

1 seedless orange
1 lemon
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil + amount needed for vinaigrette
1 lb asparagus spears
1-2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1-1/2 tsp tarragon leaves
Salt and coarsely ground pepper

Cut orange and lemon in half.  From one half of each, cut 1/8 x 2 inch strips, avoiding the bitter white pith; set aside.  This can be done with a very sharp knife, or your handy dandy citrus zester.  Squeeze juice from the halves you just zested; set aside.

Thinly slice remaining halves of the orange and lemon.  Place slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Drizzle slices with 1 Tbsp of the olive oil.  Bake in a 400 oven until it begins to brown, about 12-15 minutes.  Remove from oven and set aside.

While orange and lemon slices are baking, prepare asparagus and vinaigrette:  wash asparagus; break off woody bases (see how to do this below).  Place spears in a 9 x 13 glass casserole dish.  Sprinkle with garlic, tarragon, and citrus strips.  Drizzle with 1-2 Tbsp olive oil; toss to coat spears.  Spread in a single layer.  Season with salt and pepper.

Roast asparagus in 400 oven, turning once or twice with tongs, until asparagus is tender, 12 to 15 minutes.  While it's baking make vinaigrette:  in small dish whisk together reserved orange and lemon juices with an equal amount of olive oil; season with salt and pepper.

Remove cooked asparagus from oven.  Transfer to serving platter.  Drizzle with 1-2 Tbsp of the vinaigrette and decorate with roasted orange and lemon slices.  Serve immediately.  Supposedly serves 4, but that's only if my husband and I aren't there :).  Otherwise, there's only enough for the two of us.

You probably already know this, but just to review how to prepare asparagus for cooking:

Select crisp, colorful spears with tightly closed tips that are similar in size for uniform cooking.  To remove the woody base, hold a spear in two hands and bend it.  Snap off the base at the point where the spear easily bends.  If the stem still seems tough, use a vegetable peeler to remove the outer layer.

P.S.  The roasted oranges are actually yummy too, if you're needing some Vitamin C and don't want to waste any extras :).  Also, you'll have some vinaigrette left over.  Don't throw it out -- it's delicious on green salad.

Shrimp and Avocados with Chiles and Lime

This is a recipe I got in an email over a year ago and didn't try until recently.  All my favorite foods were in the title, so I figured it had to taste good, and I was right!  It's delicious.  Don't let the long list of ingredients put you off -- it's really pretty simple to put together, looks great, and tastes even better.

Shrimp and Avocados with Chiles and Lime

1 lb medium shrimp, thawed if frozen, peeled and deveined
1/2 tsp grated lime peel
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice, divided
1/2 tsp salt, divided
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1 lb ripe tomatoes, cut into 1/2" chunks
1/2 Cup coarsely chopped sweet white onion
1/4 Cup + 2 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tbsp chopped pimiento-stuffed green olives (black work too)
1-2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh jalapeno chile pepper, with the seeds (or no seeds if you don't like the hot.  Wear plastic gloves when handling, or if you don't have any, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water after you're done chopping.)
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 ripe avocado, pitted, peeled, and cut into chunks
4 Cups mixed greens

Place the shrimp in a medium bowl and add the lime peel, 1 Tbsp of the lime juice, 1/2 tsp of the ground cumin, 1/4 tsp of the salt, the pepper, and the red pepper.  Mix well, cover, and set aside while preparing the salad.

In another medium bowl, combine the tomatoes, onion, 1/4 Cup of the cilantro, the olives, jalapeno, oil, the remaining 2 Tbsp lime juice, 1/2 tsp of the cumin and 1/4 tsp salt.  Mix well.  Let stand for 10 to 15 minutes to blend the flavors.  Add the avocado and mix gently.

Spray a medium nonstick skillet with cooking spray.  Warm over medium high heat.  Add the shrimp and cook, turning often until just opaque in the thickest part.  Remove from heat.

To serve, place 1 cup greens on 4 plates, mound 1/4 of the tomato/avocado mixture in the center of each, and top with 1/4 of the the shrimp on each plate, drizzling the pan juices over each salad.  Sprinkle with the remaining 2 Tbsp cilantro.  Serve immediately.

Huevos Rancheros

I haven't done a post on a breakfast dish for a while, so I thought I'd share one of my favorites--Huevos Rancheros.  They're fast and simple, filling and delicious.  And no, I'm not a purist who says you have to make your own salsa for them to be great.  There are lots of good salsas at the supermarket, especially in the refrigerated case.  Pick one that has ingredients and the heat level that you like and call it good.  My husband is very particular about his eggs; consequently he cooks all the eggs at our house :).  They are always done to perfection.  For scrambled eggs, he adds just a splash of fresh cream towards the end of the cooking.  Mmmmm.

Huevos Rancheros

2 eggs per person (or more for big eaters)
Salsa
Avocados
Grated cheese (optional)
Sour cream (optional)

Scramble the eggs in a little butter; salt and pepper to taste and add a little cream at the end if you wish.  Put on a warmed plate and top with salsa (warm it for 15 seconds in the microwave so it doesn't cool the eggs).  Top with sliced or diced fresh avocado.  You can also add some grated cheese and/or a dollop of sour cream on top, if you like.  Serve immediately.

Personally, I like the fresh taste of the salsa and avocado unadorned, so I usually skip the cheese and sour cream, but I know those who think it's incomplete without them, so you choose! 

With a slice of your gluten free bread toasted and some fresh fruit, you've got a complete, nutritious, weekend-worthy breakfast ready to go!

Basic Chicken Salad with Additions and Serving Suggestions

The warm weather is here, so time to break out the salad recipes!  I don't know about you, but when it's warm out, I hate heating up my kitchen cooking.  Plus, the range of fresh fruits and vegetables just gets better and better during the coming months, so great salads are at the top of the list of preferred foods!

I was looking through my recipes for my favorite chicken salad and discovered that I have three!  So I thought I'd start with the basic ingredients they all share, and then move on to the additions.  And this is really only to get you started on your own endless additions, depending on your likes/dislikes/allergies.  Chicken salad is nothing if not totally versatile!  You'll notice there aren't any amounts (something my mother would love) -- that's because you can add and subtract to your heart's content and your tongue's delight (and use up all the leftovers in your fridge too :).

Basic Chicken Salad

Cooked, cut-up chicken or canned chicken chunks
Green onions, diced
Slivered or sliced almonds
Celery, diced or thinly sliced
Mayonnaise, enough to moisten and hold together
Lemon juice, dried basil, salt and pepper to taste

Additions
Grapes, sliced in half
Strawberries, chunked
Apple, diced
Cashews, chopped, instead of the almonds
Craisins
Green peppers (or red, orange, or yellow peppers), diced
Radishes, halved or quartered and thinly sliced

To Serve
For tea sandwiches, shred chicken to make a smoother spread.  Cut crusts off bread, spread on chicken salad, and cut into triangles or squares.
Serve on split croissants with lettuce and havarti cheese.
Serve a scoop on half an avocado.
Core a ripe tomato and cut into fourths, not cutting all the way through to the bottom, so it opens like a flower.  Fill center with chicken salad; garnish as you like.

Doesn't that look appetizing?  Chicken salad is definitely a summer staple!

Jambalaya

This is a milder Jambalaya (more family friendly) than you may have had in a restaurant, where it can be plenty spicy!  It's quick and easy to make, and a satisfying, filling meal.  This recipe makes enough for four, and can easily be increased to feed more, or halved for just two.

Jambalaya

2 chicken breasts, sliced
2 chorizo sausages, sliced
1 onion, diced
1 large green pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 jalapeno peppers, depending on how much heat you like, deveined, seeded, and diced
celery, sliced, as much as you like
mushrooms, sliced, as much as you like
2 cans Swanson chicken broth
cooked rice

Saute veggies in olive oil.  Saute meat separately in olive oil and sprinkle with paprika.  Add chicken broth together with meat to the vegetables. Serve over cooked rice in a bowl, or do it the New Orleans way and put the jambalaya in the bowl first and a scoop of rice on top!

If you would prefer that the broth have more of a gravy consistency, you can thicken it slightly in one of two ways:  1)  sprinkle the meats with a couple tablespoons of rice flour and blend in well before adding it to the veggies and broth, and then stir until it thickens or 2) dissolve a couple tablespoons of cornstarch in a small amount of cold water, and add it to the broth at the end, stirring constantly until it thickens.

Yumminess in a bowl!  If you have any left over, it's even better the next day!

Sorbet Dessert

If you have a milk intolerance in addition to a wheat intolerance, I hope you've discovered sorbet.  It is wonderful!  Once you start eating it, even if you don't have to because of food issues, regular ice cream pales by comparison.  Sorbet is like frozen crushed up fruit -- full of flavor, sweet, refreshing, perfect!  And no milk in it at all!  One of our favorite desserts when we have guests is sorbet in a small bowl (a little goes a long way -- another plus) with cut up fresh fruit on top and then gingerale poured over it all.  It's a great finish to a meal -- light, refreshing, sweet but not overly so, and delicious.  And it looks pretty too!

In this picture I used raspberry sorbet and put bananas and chopped up fresh pineapple on top before adding the ginger ale.  You can use 7-Up instead if you have it on hand, but ginger ale is really much better.  (Schweppes and Canada Dry ginger ale are the best tasting brands, in case you're wondering.)  It's almost too sweet with 7-Up.  Any kind of fresh fruit you have on hand is good on top, the more colorful the better:  kiwi, mango, grapes cut in half, berries of any kind, etc.  Soft fruits work better than hard ones.  There are quite a few flavors of sorbet, although some of them are seasonal, like peach, which only seems to be available in the late summer.  Raspberry and lemon seem to be available year round; mango, peach, cranberry/blueberry seasonally.  I hope you'll try this, I know you won't be disappointed.  It's really a treat for the taste buds! 

Beef Rub

When my kids were in high school, they each sang with a choir that did a big dinner and show once a year for several nights running.  Of course, if you were a parent of one of the singers, you got to help cook the food for the dinner and help in the kitchen with preparation, serving, and clean-up.  We got to help five times :)!  This recipe was supplied for those of us cooking beef -- 30 lb. roasts!  I have used it ever since when cooking a roast (although I've never bought or cooked a 30 lb. one again) -- it smells divine while it's cooking and gives the meat great flavor and a crispy coating that'll have you picking bits off to sample while you're cutting it up to serve.  It's also great on steaks, in hamburgers, anything beef -- you get the picture!

Beef Rub

2 Tbsp onion salt
1/4 Cup garlic salt
2 Tbsp regular salt
1/4 Cup pepper (I like coarse ground pepper)
1/4 Cup smoked salt
3 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp sage

Mix all of the above together in a bowl.  Store in a heavy-duty zipper bag to keep it fresh, or a cheese shaker if you're going to go through it pretty fast.

I put mine in a shaker to make it easier to sprinkle on the meat, and then take the lid off, put some plastic wrap over the top and put the lid back on to help keep it fresh.

Rub about 2 Tbsp of the seasoning on your roast (more or less depending on size of roast).  Cook roast in preheated oven at 500 for 30 minutes, uncovered (this sears it and locks in the moisture).  Lower heat to 325 and continue cooking until done to your liking -- about 20 minutes per pound of meat.  Check internal temperature with a meat thermometer in center of roast -- 150 for medium rare to medium and 160 for medium to medium well.

Since there's just two of us and this is a small roast, I'm going to cook it in the crockpot with a can of beef broth as the liquid, which eliminates the crispiness (darn), but works great for a busy day!

Taco Soup

I love Mexican food, probably because I grew up eating it regularly in southern California where I lived as a child.  I'm not sure if taco soup is an authentic Mexican dish or not, but it has those wonderful flavors, and so is a favorite.  I actually have several taco soup recipes, but this is the one that I use most frequently because I think it has the perfect blend of flavors and doesn't call for a packet of taco seasoning, which all my other recipes do.  Taco seasoning from the supermarket seems to always have some objectionable ingredients in it, especially if you have allergies, so this "from scratch" recipe works better.  It's still quick and easy and always delicious.

Taco Soup

1 lb lean hamburger
1 chopped onion
Brown together; drain off grease.  Put into a soup pot and add:
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp garlic salt
3/4 tsp onion salt
2  8 oz. cans tomato sauce
2  14 oz. cans petite diced tomatoes and 2 cans water
1  15 oz. can dark red kidney beans, or your favorite beans, drained and rinsed
1  small can mild green chilis
1 Cup frozen corn

Heat together.  Serve with garnishes:  grated cheese, sour cream, Fritos, chopped avocados, sliced olives, other favorite toppings of your choice.  Be creative!

Shrimp Asparagus Pasta

This is a dish that I created from several recipes that I like.  It's quick, easy, and delicious.  Since it's Mother's Day today, I'll bet she'd love it if you made this for her!

Shrimp Asparagus Pasta

8 oz brown rice penne pasta, cooked
1/4 Cup olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1 lb fresh asparagus, cut into fourths
8 green onions, chopped
4 large cloves garlic, minced or pressed
3/4 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 lb raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails off
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
zest and juice of 1/2 medium lemon

Cook pasta according to directions on package (for info about brown rice pasta, look here.)  Meanwhile, melt butter and oil together over low heat.  Increase heat to medium and put in asparagus.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Add green onions, garlic and mushrooms.  Cook together about 5 minutes more.  Add raw shrimp and cook just until shrimp turns pink.  Season with salt, pepper and lemon.  Remove from heat.  When pasta is done, drain cooking water and rinse pasta with very hot water.  Drain well and put into large preheated bowl.  Add shrimp/vegetable mixture, stir well and serve immediately with shredded parmesan cheese.

French bread  or hot biscuits fresh from the oven are great with this!  Add Texas Sheet Cake or Strawberry Shortcake for dessert and you have a festive gluten free Mother's Day meal! 

Sloppy Joes

I got this recipe years ago from my friend Carolyn who made it often for her large family.  It became a favorite of my family too, so I thought I'd share it with you.  It can be made in any quantity -- I once made it for a large group of teenagers and started with 10 pounds of hamburger!  You should have seen the size of the pot!  As long as the ingredients are all increased the same, it turns out great.  It's an economical dish for a family -- only one pound of hamburger goes a long way.  You can serve it on gluten free bread, plain or toasted,  or over gluten free biscuits.  And best of all, you can sneak in an extra vegetable without your kids knowing.  If you think they'd recognize the sliced celery and not eat it, just cut it up the same size as the onions, and they'll never know :).  You do what you gotta do!

Sloppy Joes

1 lb hamburger
2 onions, chopped
1 Cup celery, chopped
1 can (14-1/2 oz) petite diced tomatoes, or 2 Cups home canned tomatoes
1/4 Cup catsup
2 Tbsp minute tapioca
2 tsp chili powder
1-1/4 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Cook the hamburger, onions and celery together until the meat is browned and the vegetables are soft.  Add the remaining ingredients and simmer until well blended, stirring often. 

Serve and enjoy!

English Scones/Teddy Bear Tea

It seems like tea time is catching on in the U.S.  There are tea shops and tea houses opening everywhere and articles extolling the virtues of tea time in numerous publications.  I always thought it would be nice to have tea time with my kids when they got home from school -- they always seem to be starving at that time of day -- but alas, I was a working mom when my children were that age, so they were left to their own devices for after-school snacks.  Had I been a stay-at-home mom, though, this is a recipe that would have made regular appearances at tea time -- simple, fast, not too sweet, filling, endless variations, and yummy!

Last fall I held a Teddy Bear Tea for my grand-daughters, their mothers, and my mother and mother-in-law.  Their invitations encouraged them to dress up (hats were required :) and to bring their favorite bear with them to the party.  It was a more formal English tea with three courses:  a savory course, a scones course, and a sweets course.  This recipe was part of the scones course.  We had a great time and the little girls especially loved it.  I think it may have to become a yearly event!

You can add anything to this basic recipe -- raisins, craisins, any snipped dried fruit (apricots or cherries are especially good), chopped nuts, chocolate chips, a layer of cinnamon sugar in the center, etc.  Let your imagination go crazy!  Or you can keep them plain and dress them up when serving with jams, jellies, nut butters, fresh fruit and whipped cream, etc.

A nice cup of herbal tea, hot chocolate, or milk goes great with them.  Start your own tradition!

English Scones

2-1/2 Cups regular gluten free rice flour mix or four flour bean mix

1/2 Cup granulated sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 Cup (6-1/2 Tbsp) cold butter, cut into small cubes

1 Cup heavy whipping cream

1 large egg

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.  Using a pastry blender, cut butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.

In a small bowl, whisk together cream and egg.  Pour into flour mixture, and stir until dough is just combined.  (If it seems too dry, add a little more cream.)  Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface, and knead gently 4 or 5 times.  Pat dough into a 3/4-inch-thick disk, and score into eight pie-shaped pieces.

Transfer to parchment lined cookie sheet.  Brush with cream and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake 15 to 18 minutes at 425, or until scone tops are golden brown.  Remove scones from oven and brush with melted butter.

Serve warm with toppings of your choice.  Enjoy!

Lemon Bars

Don't lemon bars remind you of parties?  I think I see them more often at parties than any other dessert.  And for good reason!  They're sweet, tart, rich, and pretty to look at, all rolled into one.  In case you thought this is a dessert that you would no longer be eating, think again!  It works great with the Gluten Free Rice Powder Mix, so take some to your next party!

Lemon Bars

2 Cups gluten free rice powder mix
1/2 Cup powdered sugar
1 Cup butter
4 beaten eggs
2 Cups granulated sugar
1/3 Cup lemon juice
1/4 Cup gluten free rice powder mix
1/2 tsp baking powder

Whisk together 2 cups GF rice powder mix and powdered sugar in bowl.  Cut in butter until the mixture clings together.

Press into a 9 x 13 glass pan with your fingers.

Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Beat eggs, granulated sugar and lemon juice together well.  Whisk 1/4 Cup gluten free rice powder mix and baking powder together in a small bowl.  Add to egg mixture and whisk in.  Pour over baked crust.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar, cool, and cut into bars.  Serve.

Snickerdoodles

I got this recipe from one of my husband's students, Kate, whose husband makes them for their celiac daughter.  What a great dad!  This recipe makes a lot of cookies -- 4-5 dozen!  We couldn't eat them all, so I sent them to school with my husband and his students ate them up for us :).

Snickerdoodles

3-3/4 Cups gluten free rice powder flour mix
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 Cup butter or margarine
2 Cups sugar
2 eggs
1/4 Cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

6 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Grease cookie sheets.  Stir together flour, soda, cream of tartar, salt and xanthan gum in a bowl.  In another large bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds; add 2 Cups sugar and beat until fluffy.

Add eggs, milk and vanilla; beat well.

Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture until well combined.

Mix together 6 Tbsp sugar with 2 tsp ground cinnamon in a small bowl.  Form dough into 1 inch balls; roll in mixture.  (You'll probably have some sugar/cinnamon mix left over.  Too bad -- guess you'll have to sprinkle it on toast :).

Place balls 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet. 

Bake at 375 about 8 minutes or until golden.

Gobble up with your favorite beverage.

You're gonna love 'em!