Chocolate Scotcheroos, Gluten Free!

If you like scotcheroos, but haven't been able to eat them because of the gluten in Rice Krispies, be sad no longer!  I found a way to make them gluten free and they are delicious, and taste exactly the same.  The recipe is very simple also!  You will need a box of gluten free Crispy Rice:

Ingredients:

1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
6 cups crispy rice cereal
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 oz. butterscotch chips

Line a 9 x 13 inch pan with foil and grease foil.  The foil is very, very important!  It makes cutting these into bars so much easier.  Measure corn syrup and sugar into a large saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil.  Remove from heat.  Stir in peanut butter; mix well.  Add cereal and stir until well coated.  Press into pan, set aside.

Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together in double boiler over medium heat (or small saucepan over low heat if you don't have a double boiler), stirring constantly.  Spread evenly over cereal mixture.

Let stand until firm.  Remove foil and cut into bars when cool.

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!!

Shepherd's Pie

I don't promise low fat, but I do promise good!

Ingredients:

• 7-8 medium potatoes
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• cream, as needed (or milk, or half n half...use whatever)
• 1-1/2 lbs. ground beef
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cups beef broth
• 3 T. cornstarch
• 1/3 c. ketchup
• 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
• a few dashes of salt
• a few dashes of pepper

1) Chop potatoes into 1-inch chunks and put in a large saucepan (I don't peel them; you can peel if you prefer).  Cover with water; bring to a boil and boil for 15-20 minutes, until soft.  Drain and return to pan.  Add butter and mash with potato masher until most lumps are gone.  Add both cheeses, sour cream, salt, and pepper.  Beat with electric mixer until smooth.  Add cream as needed until desired consistency.  Put lid on pan to keep potatoes warm, and set aside.

2) Pour broth into a small saucepan and place on stove over medium heat.  Pour cornstarch into a small bowl; add a small amount of water and stir with fork to form a paste.  I start with a very small amount of water, and keep adding a little more at a time until I can stir it into a paste.  Add to broth; stir constantly with wire whisk until broth comes to a boil.  Boil and stir until thickened.  You have just made gluten free gravy!  Set aside.

3) Turn oven on to 400 degrees.  In a large skillet, cook onion and ground beef, until onion is soft and beef is browned.  Drain and return to pan.  Add gravy, ketchup, vegetables, salt, and pepper.  Mix well and cook 5 more minutes. 

4) Spread meat mixture evenly in a 9 x 13" pan, and top with mashed potatoes, spreading potatoes evenly also.  Sprinkle with additional cheddar cheese.

5) Bake for 40 minutes.  Cool for at least 10 minutes before serving, preferably longer.

Enjoy!  This is one of our favorites. 

*Note:  I have made this dairy free also.  I omitted the cheese and sour cream, used Earth Balance spread in place of the butter, and used rice milk in place of the cream.

Apple Crisp

Topping:

3/4 cup gluten free flour mix
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
10 T. butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces and softened
1-1/2 cups. finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Filling:

6 pounds apples (around 14), peeled, cored, and sliced into 8 slices, then each slice halved
1/2 cup sugar
1-1/2 T. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest

• In a large bowl, toss together apple slices, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest.  Place in a 9 x 13" baking dish. 
• Adjust oven rack to the lower-middle position, and heat oven to 375 degrees.
• Put all ingredients for topping in a medium bowl.  With hands, squeeze it all together until thoroughly combined.  Sprinkle over the top of apples.
• Bake for about 1 hour, until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden.  Let cool on wire rack for 10 minutes before serving.

I have made this dairy free by substituting Earth Balance spread for the butter.  The people whom I made it for said it was really good!  Enjoy!  I will have a picture up the next time that I make this.

Gourmet Holiday Yams

Here is my recipe for my yams that I make every year, that everyone loves:

Gourmet Holiday Yams

Ingredients:

5 yams
1/4 tsp.salt
1/4 c. butter
2 eggs
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. cream

1/4 c. butter, softened
3 T. gluten free flour mix
3/4 packed brown sugar
1/2 c. chopped pecans

Peel yams and chop into chunks; put in a pot of water and boil until soft, about 20 minutes.  Drain yams and transfer to a large bowl.  Add 1/4 cup butter and mash with a potato masher until smooth.  Add salt, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and cream.  Beat with electric mixer until well combined.

Grease a 9 x 13" pan and pour yam mixture into it.  Spread evenly.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the remaining butter, flour, brown sugar, and pecans.  Squeeze all together with hands until well combined. Crumble over top of yams.

Bake for 30 minutes, until topping is crisp and lightly browned.  I normally make this a day or two ahead of time and refrigerate, then bake.  If you do that, then add on another 10 minutes or so.

Happy Thanksgiving, and enjoy!!!  These are really yummy!

This post is linked up at Gluten Free Wednesdays

Amazingly Delicious Gluten Free Brunch

Here is a post that I put up on my other blog quite awhile ago.  Rather than repost it on here, I'll post a link to it:

Amazingly Delicious Gluten Free Brunch

Enjoy!!

Burritos

Made with homemade beans and corn tortillas, these really hit the spot!

To start off, you need to get some beans going in the crockpot in the morning.  I use this recipe .  The only thing that I do differently is to cut the amount of salt in half.  It calls for 5 teaspoons and I cut it back to 2-1/2, and even that seems a bit salty.  Also, you want to add the salt in at the end of the day, AFTER the beans have cooked.  If you put it in with the rest of the ingredients in the morning, the salt is going to prevent the beans from softening and it will take a lot longer for them to cook.

Later in the day when the beans are done, toss some corn tortillas onto a flat grill...

See the steam coming off of the one on the right?

Carefully spin the tortillas as they heat, flipping them frequently, until at desired temperature and texture. Transfer to a plate, and spread with beans:

Add grated cheese:

Then, if desired, salsa (I leave it off the kids' burritos, but I love it on!):

Roll up tightly:

And enjoy!  The ends will be open as corn tortillas don't close up well on the ends.

Happy eating!!

Overnight Coffee Cake

This was part of our breakfast today and everyone loved it!  I really love that everyone in my house enjoys my gluten free cooking, even though most of them eat gluten.  That just shows that it tastes good, right?

• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup gluten free flour mix
• 1/2 teaspoon guar or xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a large bowl, cream the butter and 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar together.  Stir in egg and buttermilk until well blended.  In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, guar/xanthan gum, and cinnamon.  Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk.  Spread into a greased 8" x 8" pan; cover and chill overnight.

In the morning, bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy!  The biggest problem with this cake is that everyone in the family will fight over it!

Banana Muffins

Oh these are SO good!  They are also dairy free, if that is an issue for you.  If you can't have egg, the egg can be replaced by mixing 2-1/2 T. flax meal with 3 T. water (let it set and gel a bit before you add it).

• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 3/4 tsp. guar gum
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 c. oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 egg, beaten
• 4 ripe bananas, mashed

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, oil, vanilla, egg, and bananas together; add to the dry ingredients and mix well.  Grease 18 muffin cups and fill about 2/3 full with batter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Picture to come soon...

Monster Cookies

I got this recipe from the Betty Crocker website, and it is oh so good!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1 box Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

3/4 cup M&Ms

1/2 cup Rice Chex

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, stir butter, peanut butter, and egg until blended.  Stir in cookie mix until soft dough forms.  I had to use my hands to get this blended together!  Stir in M&Ms and Rice Chex, breaking cereal apart as you mix.  Again, especially at this point I had to really use my hands and squeeze the dough together.  There are a lot of chocolate chips and M&Ms!



Abigail helping measure.





Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 11 minutes or until edges are slightly golden brown.  Cool for 2 minutes and then remove from cookie sheets and cool on wire rack.  Enjoy!!





My girls and a friend enjoying the cookies.



AnnaMarie







Delicious Gluten Free Pancakes

I make these for my entire family, even the gluten eaters.  Everyone actually prefers them to wheat pancakes!

• 1-1/2 cups gf flour mix (see recipe below)
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 T. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 T. vegetable oil

In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, milk, sugar, vanilla, and oil.  Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and blend just until combined.  Pour 1/3 of batter at a time on hot griddle.  Flip pancakes when the top is bubbling and the bottoms are golden brown, then continue cooking until the other side is golden.  I prefer these best with pure maple syrup, though it is quite expensive these days so it is quite a luxury. Enjoy!

Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour Mix

2-1/2 cups brown rice flour
2 cups sorghum flour
1-1/3 cups millet flour
1-1/3 cups tapioca starch
1-1/3 cups potato starch
4 t. guar gum or xanthan gum (I use guar simply because it's half the price!)

You can use this mix cup for cup in place of regular flour.  I'm able to use this for pancakes, waffles, and cake without any extra guar or xanthan gum.  However, in things like muffins and cookies, you would need to add additional guar gum.  Use this in my recipes that call for gluten free flour mix!

Chicken a la King

This is a wonderful way to use up leftover chicken!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. butter
• 1/2 red pepper, chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1/2 c. brown rice flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1-1/3 c. chicken broth
• 1-1/2 c. milk
• leftover chopped chicken, approximately a cup...use whatever you have
• 1-1/2 c. frozen mixed veggies
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

In a medium saucepan, melt butter.  Add onion and red pepper and cook until softened.  Stir in flour, salt, and pepper (I usually use Mrs. Dash instead of pepper, just because I like it!).  Add chicken broth and milk; heat to boiling, stirring constantly.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  Stir in chicken, mixed veggies, and garlic.  Heat through.  Serve over rice.  I prefer brown because it is healthier, and I just think it has better flavor.  Enjoy!

This goes great with gluten free drop biscuits.  I will post that recipe soon!