Potato & Hazelnut Pancakes

It's been a long time since I've posted a new recipe. So sorry. Things have been 'nutty' here (pun intended) and I've stuck with the tried and true stuff.

But nonetheless, I had some time for experimenting this morning. Potatey loved these. They make for very flexible crepe-like pancakes, I may try making "jelly rolls' out of the left-overs.

1/2 cup Potato Starch
1/4 cup Hazelnut flour
1/4 cup Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten-Free Pancake & Waffle Mix
1 tbs Cocoa Powder
1 tbs Cane Sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tbs Sunflower Oil
1/2 cup Apple Sauce
1 1/2 cup Water

Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir ingredients together well. Will make a fairly thin batter.

Heat up griddle.
Pour batter on hot griddle - I have a small sauce ladle that I fill up about half.
Batter is thin and runny, so pour out slowly. Pancakes do set up quickly.

Serve hot, but make great 'sandwiches' for lunch and dinner too.

Cornbread Stuffing

4 strips of non-cured nitrate/nitrite free bacon, sliced in 1/2 inch strips
2 grilled chicken cutlets, sliced
3 apples, skinned, cored, sliced and diced
rosemary, tarragon to taste
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cornbread, crumbled

Fry bacon strips in a large skillet at high heat for about 5 - 10 minutes. Add sliced chicken and stir fry for about 5 minutes. Add apple dices. Add rosemary and tarragon. Turn heat down to medium. Stir fry apple/chicken/bacon mixture until apple is getting soft.

Add crumbled cornbread to apple/chicken/bacon mixture. Mix thoroughly. Add chicken broth. Turn heat down to low. Cover skillet and let mixture bake for about 15 minutes.

Transfer stuffing mixture to rectangular Pyrex baking dish. Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Bake stuffing for 30 minutes. Makes great left-overs.

Cornbread

1/2 of 24 oz bag of Red Mills Whole grain corn flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
6 tbsp olive oil
1 1/3 cup of half and half mixture of plain almond milk and chicken broth

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Spray a Pyrex 9 inch baking dish with olive oil cooking spray.

In mixing bowl, mix corn flour, sugar, salt and baking soda.
In separate bowl, wisk eggs and olive oil.
Add egg mixture to dry corn flour mixture.
Add half-and-half mixture of almond oil and chicken broth to corn flour/egg mixture.

Mix thoroughly. Pour into Pyrex dish. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.
Let cool. Cornbread can be served as is (yummie with raspberry jelly), or use for cornbread stuffing.

Thanksgiving Turkey

1 Turkey
sea salt, pepper
Nantucket Off-shore Seasonings Prairie Rub

Rub outside and inside of turkey with sea salt, pepper and Prairie Rub. Roast turkey in 350 F oven for the required time.

Cranberry Sauce

Really easy to make...

1 bag frozen cranberries
1 cup cold water
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
2 tbsp honey

Empty bag of cranberries into sauce pan. Add water and sugar. Bring to a boil. Let boil for about 10 minutes until berries start to burst open. Turn low and boil for another 5 to 10 minutes. Take heat off and let sauce cool down (it will start to gel as it cools down).

Once cooled down, add honey to taste.

Last Night's Dinner

For dinner the boys had:

broiled flounder (yes, I do allow fish on occasion)
fresh blueberries (Salamander)
shredded carrots (Potatey)
steamed green beans (Potatey; Salamander had some left over baked beans)
sugar snap peas (both)
apple (Salamander)

The boys ate this all up faster than I could get it on the table....
I would call this a successful 'fruits and veggies' dinner..

Spinach Omelet

I made a spinach omelet earlier this week that Salamander really liked (once again, Potatey opted out - he just does NOT like mixing foods; it's a texture thing. So what I do for him is to give him all the ingredients I plan on mixing separately. Yes, a little more work. But I do end up getting all the 'good stuff' into him that way).

Both boys were asking for spinach on Tuesday morning (yeah, THAT surprised me too; although it shouldn't have. Both of them will ask for specific foods that may surprise you, when their bodies have a need for a particular constituent of said food). So spinach they got...

I am a bit short on time right now.. so consider this a teaser. The full recipe will go up later today as soon as I have a moment.

Bacon, crisped and crumbled (I use my microwave for crisping bacon - works well)
Left over grilled chicken
1 large box of organic baby spinach, sliced into small strips
garlic salt, olive oil to taste
chives, washed and cut into small pieces
dried parsley flakes
4 eggs
organic chicken broth

"Simple" Lasagna

Made this last nite. Potatey is not a big fan of 'mixing food groups', so he didn't go for it. Salamander however LOVED it (and I had some for dinner too.. Yum, yum)

Ketchup (I use my home made ketchup)
Browned ground beef
1 large can (28 oz) Muir Glen Organic Diced Tomatoes
Tinkyada Brown Rice Lasagna


Preheat oven to 375 F.

In rectangular Pyrex baking dish (told you I love my Pyrex dishes), pour layer of ketchup, sufficiently to cover bottom of baking dish.
Sprinkle ground beef over ketchup.
Place single layer of Lasagna on ketchup/beef mixture (try to NOT have the Lasagna sheets overlap too much; overlapped areas take longer to cook and can get 'chewy').

Cover Lasagna with Diced Tomatoes (you want the tomato juices too; it'll help cook and soften the lasagna).
Sprinkle ground beef over diced tomatoes.
Place single layer of Lasagna on diced tomatoes/beef mixture.

Cover Lasagna with Diced Tomatoes and sprinkle ground beef over diced tomatoes.
Place single layer of Lasagna on diced tomatoes/beef mixture.

Cover Lasagna completely with ketchup. Sprinkle ground beef on ketchup.

Place baking dish in oven and cook for 50 minutes to 1 hour (the ketchup/diced tomato/tomato juices need to be bubbling) unit the Lasagna is soft and you can 'cut' things with a fork.

Let cool a bit and serve. Makes great left overs.

(when we're back in zucchini season next year, I'll add sliced or shredded zucchini in with the diced tomato/beef layers. I'll let you know how THAT turns out)

GFCFetcF Chocolate Chip Cookies

Check out these guys, I found their cookies in my "local" Whole Foods Market.

I picked up their Chocolate Chip Cookies, and my boys are loving these. So much in fact, that the box of 12 simply "disappeared" overnite. The cookies are individually wrapped, so make great lunch box treats.
It really took me by surprise how much my guys like these, as neither of them is a big quinoa fan.

The company makes several other "flavors" too. I have to take a good hard look at the ingredients listing for the other flavors; needless to say the coconut versions and the orange flavor versions are out.

Your Vote is Needed..

As I said previously, I am trying very hard to content of my various blogs separate...

But I am absolutely passionate about the Lend4Health concept that I have gotten involved in, so I am making an exception for any and all things related to Lend4Health. Please read this post on my OurTravelsInBiomedLand blog..

[more recipes soon.. I promise.. things have been crazy busy here, so I've stuck to my tried and true recipes and haven't had much time for new kitchen chemistry..)

Apple Pie...

About to try and make a bonafied Apple Pie (as I have more apples than we can ever realistically eat..). Will post the recipe if it works out...

Salamander is LOVIN' the applie pie. I'll be posting the recipe soon.

Not Much Time..

for posting recipes or trying new things in the kitchen. Lots of other stuff happening that needs my full attention, so when it comes to kitchen chemistry, I'm *coasting* on the "tried and true" this week. I may actually take the easy way out and get Thai take-out from a local restaurant tonite. They have been absolutely awesome in learning the boys' dietary challenges and respecting my instructions regarding food preparation and contamination.

I don't advocate for eating foods not prepared in your own kitchen when you have children with complicated food issues like mine. It is a risky proposition. But I've been getting food (sticky rice, chicken satay, chicken coconut soup - no soy, no peanut sauce, no peanut oils, no MSG, no ginger, no garlic, etc etc etc) for close to 3 years now, and I have never ever had a problem.

Allergy Grocery Fresh Baked Goods

I am soooo disappointed..

I am currently on the Allergy Grocery mail order web site (as I need to restock a few flour mixes I use frequently), and I got so excited when I saw their announcement for their new fresh baked goods with a picture of a pile of gorgeous looking bagels.

So of course I immediately drilled down into the ingredients, begging the Universe that, just for once, all ingredients used would be a match with the boys dietary requirements.

See, Potatey doesn't really miss bread at all.. he never really was exposed to breads much. But Salamander does remember (and miss) our Sunday morning breakfast jaunts to the local bagel place (this was before Potatey was born and before I realized the extent of Salamander's digestive issues), and I would have so much liked to be able to surprise him with a bagel treat.

But alas.. no such luck. Here are the ingredients:
White rice flour, non GMO modified tapioca starch, water, GF yeast, unrefined cane sugar, non GMO canola oil, guar gum, salt.

While the fact that yeast is used is not ideal, we have gotten to a point that the boys digestive systems can now handle a little yeast on a very infrequent basis. Canola oil however continues to be absolute poison for Salamander. Why, oh why could they not have used safflower or sunflower oil.... Ya think I should write them and ask that question?

Honey Suckles

LINKY THINGIES ADDED - SORRY FOR CONFUSION

Just discovered Honey Suckles on one of my favorite mail order websites, Digestive Wellness!!!!

Every year, after the boys and I come back from our annual apple picking adventure, we stop by at this little farm stand that sells organic honey, organic fruit jellies, wonderful Indonesian spices, Sambal, loempias, etc.

And every year I buy the boys a few honey suckles, at $2 a piece (yes, ouch ...).

So imagine my delight (and the boys are super excited as well; they were looking over my shoulder as I was ordering) finding them at a much more *palatable* price!!!!!

These will make great, every once and a while, additions to the lunch boxes too...

Chocolate Brittle

This one went over really well with Salamander. Not so much with Potatey - he really is a food purist. As in, do not mix different foods and textures together. As in, make a dish that's based on one food, and one food only.

1 bag Enjoy Life GFCFSF chocolate chips
1/2 tsp safflower oil
1/2 cup organic blanched almonds
1/2 cup organic whole cranberries
1/2 cup organic Thompson raisins
1/2 cup organic red flame raisins
couple of tbs spoons of pignolia nuts
couple of tbs shelled organic pistachio nuts

Grease (I use Spectrum Cooking Spray) an 8 x 8 inch Pyrex glass dish.

Put almonds, cranberries, raisins, pignolia nuts and pistachio nuts in a bowl and mix

Pour chocolate chips in microwave safe container, and mix thoroughly with oil. Put in microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Continue to melt chocolate chips in microwave, stirring every 20 seconds.

Once chocolate chips are fully melted, stir in fruit/nut mixture. Spread chocolate mixture out in greased Pyrex glass dish into about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick layer.

Place in fridge to allow mixture to set up.

Remove chocolate brittle from dish and break in small pieces.