Weekly Family Photo #5

Cornbread

Growing up we sometimes had cornbread, made from a Marie Callender's mix.  Though I love their pies (miss those!!), I sure hated that cornbread.

A few years ago I had an odd craving for cornbread and learned to make it from scratch.  I adore freshly made, hot-from-the-oven cornbread.

Last week, I finally got up the gumption to make a gluten free version.  We had some neighbors over for dinner and, without even telling them it was gluten free, their teenage kids said, "Wow!  This is the best cornbread we've ever had!"  Now, maybe their parents told them they had to compliment the cooking no matter what, but it sure made my heart soar.

This recipe makes a 9" cake pan of cornbread and it made me wonder: how do most people cut their cornbread when it's in a 9" round?  Historically I've cut it like a pie, but last week I cut it into squares (with some fun little triangle pieces that I, of course, had to taste test before plating the rest) and I think I might prefer it that way.  What do you do?

Cornbread - Gluten Free

Yield: makes one 9" round pan 

Adapted from Allrecipes

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup cornstarch 
• 1/4 cup potato starch
• 1/4 cup gluten free flour blend
• 1/8 cup almond flour
• 1/8 cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal (make sure it's gluten free)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk (I used original, unsweetened almond milk to keep it dairy free)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl mix together all your dry ingredients.  Stir in the egg, milk, and vegetable oil until well mixed.  Pour batter into the pan.  
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes (I did about 22 and it was practically perfect), until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  

I suggest you eat it warm - in the shape of your choice - with butter.

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes: I changed the flours to gluten free and switched to almond milk to make it dairy free.  

A Tennis Match

Randomly, I texted my sister yesterday to ask if my niece had any tennis matches this week.  Imagine my delight to find out she'd be playing three miles from our house that very day!  TJ was able to leave work early and meet us there.  I even changed Reed's shirt so he'd be in maroon, one of her school colors.  :)  It had been a rainy, windy morning but the sun came out and made for a perfect afternoon watching tennis.

Her actual match was on the center court of three, so I didn't get any shots during that, but I took about a billion pictures of her warming up.  I'm pretty excited that some of them actually turned out!

I know I'm biased, but doesn't she just shine?

There were several times during her match when TJ and I would say "Yowzers" or "I would hate to receive that" or "What a hit!"  This girl is small but she is tough!  She's spent many, many hours practicing and it sure shows.

Because I'm her aunt I can boast that this girl is pretty darn amazing at tennis.  Last weekend she played singles against the top ranked girl in the state (who is ranked #20 in the nation) and she beat her.  Boy, was I excited to hear that!

Her school has a strong tennis program so she doesn't get to regularly play varsity (yet!), but she played second varsity singles for her match yesterday and took the first set 6-0 and the second set 6-1.  Loved watching her play, seeing her applaud great hits by her opponent, and hearing her be so kind.  I found out a few years ago (maybe the wrong way?) that you're not supposed to yell or cheer or clap at matches, so yesterday I kept doing our family whistle, which I figured was innocent enough not to bother anyone.  Every time she heard it she looked up with a big smile on her face.  She knew we were there.  I'm so glad we could go watch her. Sure adore this girl.

 

Weekly Family Photo #4

Weekly Family Photo #3

At Rainbow Bridge!

Weekly Family Photo #2

Quinoa Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Granola Cookies - Gluten Free

Forgive me while I try to figure out how on earth to take pictures of food...

Since being diagnosed with celiac disease I have not dared try to make plain old chocolate chip cookies.  I've had the "real thing" for so many years I just know any alternative wouldn't taste good yet!  So, when I had a hankering for some cookies (um, I get that hankering every day) I jumped on Mel's site - as usual - and started looking through options.

I found these cookies that she posted a couple years ago: I remember seeing them then and thinking, "Huh.  Those sound odd.  I wonder if we'd like those."  I filed the recipe in my recipe binder for a couple years but never pulled them out.  Until last month!

My giant bowl of cookie dough.  You can't tell the dried cranberries apart from the chocolate chips, but they're in there.  And those toasted almonds were so good: much better than the untoasted sliced almonds I used last time.

I've tweaked this to be gluten free and give you all the details below.  To be fair, the first one I tried I couldn't decide what to think.  Then I ate five more and decided I really like them.  :)  TJ also loves them and because they're quinoa they're healthy enough to eat several at a time.  Ha!

Oh, and a funny story: I knew I wanted to restock these in the freezer, but I had no clue how much raw quinoa would equate to 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa.  So I made 1 1/2 cups raw, and found out that quinoa quadruples.  Yes, quadruples.  Thankfully, I only doubled the batch at first and, after pulling out about 117 cookies after six hours, I was so glad I didn't quadruple the cookie recipe too!

One of two cooling racks filled with cookies.

Quinoa Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies - Gluten Free

Yield: makes a good amount of cookies, especially when doubled (depending on the size of your cookies, maybe 3-4 dozen per batch)

Adapted from Mel’s Kitchen Café

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup solid coconut oil, melted
• 3/4 cup (9.5 ounces) honey
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup gluten free flour blend
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups quick oats
• 1 1/2 cups cooked and cooled quinoa (cooked only in water, not broth)*
• 1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds**
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Quick tip: I feel like these cookies have more ingredients than a "typical" recipe.  I've found they're easiest to make when I pull out all my ingredients and have them ready to throw in.  For example, get the almonds toasted before you start making the dough.  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and either line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpat liners or lightly grease with cooking spray.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the oats.  Spoon half of the mix into a blender and blend until it's a flour, then put it back into the bowl with the oats.
3. In a large bowl, beat together the oil and honey with an electric mixer.  Quick note: I have to put the honey in the bowl first and then start beating almost as soon as I pour the coconut oil in otherwise it solidifies.  I also add the following ingredients quickly to keep it from getting hard.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
5. Stir in the gluten free flour blend, almond flour, coconut flour, salt, and baking soda until just combined and there are some streaks of dry flour remaining.
6. Add the oats, oat flour, quinoa, almonds, cranberries, and chocolate chips and mix by hand gently (so the dough stays as light as possible) until everything seems spread throughout the dough.
7. Place the dough (balls approximately 2-3 tablespoons large) onto the cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes until you are seeing edges that are just browned but the middle is still soft.

NOTE: these freeze beautifully.  Just let them cool before bagging.  We love grabbing one (or six) out of the freezer during the day.

*Be gentle when you're measuring and mixing the quinoa: don't smash it.

**I've found that the Diamond brand of nuts (available on Amazon) does not process their products on the same equipment as wheat, so that's what I get.


Recipe adapted from Mel at Mel's Kitchen Cafe: I changed the flours to gluten free, decreased the amount of coconut oil, removed the flaxseed and chia seeds, increased the chocolate chips, and switched the oats to be half blended.