rainbow cupcakes



My girlie turned double-digits.  Which meant dinner and a movie out with friends.  Its not lost on me that my invites to those ventures out are on borrowed time.  Soon they will have licenses and plans that don't include cool moms.  I had a blast getting out with them, and am so grateful that she has such sweet, strong girls in her life!

 

She wanted to take the BEST CUPCAKES EVER to school for her birthday treats.  Whenever others bring theirs, she has to eat a cookie from the freezer because whatever they bring has gluten.  Kids are kids and they aren't always nice about the stuff that she brings in her lunches and for snacks.  I'm lucky enough to have a girlie who likes things like curried lentils and rice or sweet potato burritos.  She tries not to let them get to her, but it does.  And despite my greatest efforts, her cookies and treats rarely look very appetizing.  She was on a mission to prove to them that gluten-free can be awesome.

So we did!

Rainbow cupcakes.

To make these, just divide up your batter into 5 bowls, and add a different food coloring to each one.  Drizzle them into the cups in layers.  They stay pretty separate as they bake up.

We used the gluten-free vanilla cupcake recipe. 

And icing on the cake - the kids loved them! 

Happy birthday, my girl!

 

Smashley

Ryan arranged a night out with friends for my birthday.  Stud, that man is, I tell ya. 

And these girls, they fill me right up.

AND...................

Ladies and Gentleman, meet Smashley.

Smashley, meet the people.....

Sumo  served a drink by this name, and it added a solid 7 years to my life.  Seriously, such an honor to just shake its hand, let alone make one myself.  But that didn't stop the trying - and although I googled high and low under:

smashley
life changer
get in my belly
I'll never touch a different glass again
I think I've just glimpsed heaven

......no luck.  Turns out it's signature to that restaurant.
So I got with Sumo and found out the ingredients.  And I'm here to tell you, friends...you could put a bow on it.  This here drink is the bomb diggity. 

Fill a pint glass with chunk ice.
Pour over it:

3 oz. vodka
3 oz. pineapple juice
3 oz. 7 up
the squeeze of 1/2 a lemon
6 slices of fresh jalepeno (no seeds!)

Stir. 
Sip. 
Be changed.

You. Are. Welcome.

This pic is pre-Smashley, I promise...But well, when it's your birthday, and you need a handful of a good friend, you just go on take yourself one!

superwoman makes meatballs

While I made supper tonight, Sage drew my picture...

I'm rockin' wings and a frontbutt. 

I feel though, that with an S on my chest, I'm basically invincible. 

Which includes making meatballs and the easiest twice-baked potatoes EVAR.

There's just no way to take pretty pictures of meatballs.  Similar to photographing toes.  (Don't try to tell me you haven't noticed that too.)  Do pinterest people have professional photographers living in their spare bedroom?!  For real, how do they do it?  Well, I don't have the time or the skills but you're going to have to just go ahead and trust me that these two recipes are the bomb-diggity.  I haven't posted them ever because I can't get a good picture.  Also because I'm not mature enough to talk at length about balls.

But the frontbutt has empowered me to just get them out there anyway, so here goes...

Balls of Meat:

1 lb. ground beef

3/4 c. whole ground oats

1/4 c. chopped onion

1/3 c. fat free evaporated milk

1 egg

2 carrots, peeled, and chopped very finely (I don't always do this....learned it from Mom...its a great way to sneak in some extra nutrition)

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper 

Sauce:

1 c. ketchup

1/3 c. brown sugar

1/8 c. chopped onion

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Combine all ball ingredients in the kitchen-aid mixer.  Form 9 raquet-ball size balls.  Place in an 8x8 baking dish.  Combine the sauce on the stove over medium-high heat until sugar is melted.  Pour the sauce over the balls.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees, for one hour.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Sandy Potatoes:

Aunt Sandy from Illinois made these whenever we visited.  They have evolved through various kitchens over the years, but eating them still makes me feel spoiled, and they are perfectly Fancy-Easy.  Like Sandy. 

8 baking potatoes, quartered, with skin on

5 Tbsp. butter, cut into about 16 tiny squares

1 1/2 c. shredded colby-jack cheese

1/4 c. green onion, diced

salt and pepper

Spread out the potatoes, open side up in a 9x13 glass baking dish.  Put 3 Tbsp of the butter squares on the potatoes.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Take out of the oven and salt and pepper generously.  Add the remaining butter chunks.  Use a potato masher to mush down the potatoes....they don't need to be mashed completely - allow big chunks to remain.  Cover it all in the shredded cheese and green onion.  By now your meatballs should have 5-10 minutes remaining...put the pan back in the oven to melt the cheese.  Take both the potatoes and meatballs out of the oven at the same time.  And walllahhhh....Soive!



True Love

Speaking of hygge...

Its been warm enough the last few days for this...

And this...

And words can't express what it's done for my soul.

But the weight of winter is still so there.  The windows are shut and I'm still every day summoning my reserves to keep grouchy gills from overtaking this home.

If true love can thaw a frozen heart, then these two tea mixes are True Love.  

Here you go...put on the kettle, drink, and be merry...

Chai Tea Mix:
3 c. dry milk powder
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. unsweetened instant tea
3/4 c. vanilla powdered creamer
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves

Orange Spice Tea Mix:
2 c. sugar
2 c. Tang
1/2 c. unsweetened instant tea
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves

Store them in an airtight container.  Use a few hearty scoops in a mug of warm water for each.

Best with leg warmers and in the company of a good fat cat.

pepper packs

Its that time.  Where we go to the garden and bring in every last pepper.

Just look at them!!  Nature is amazing.  God is ginormous.

23 fajita packs ready to freeze.  Everything comes from the garden, and is ready right about now.  And the packs make a really easy, really fast supper.

Each bag has:
1/2 sliced yellow onion
1 sliced red pepper
2 sliced green peppers
a handful of diced tomatoes
a paste made in the food processor of jalapeños and garlic - enough for about two of each, per bag

They are great for:

fajita vegetables - served with grilled chicken or steak,

fajita bowls (like at Chipotle), 

a start for stir-fry (add carrots, broccoli, and snap peas), 

a start for vegetable soup and chicken fajita soup (lay the brick of frozen veggies on the counter and chop it with a big kitchen knife while still frozen - its fast and easy and makes small diced amounts.)

Here's the fajita marinade for the veggies (I saute' them on the stove) and for grilling chicken or steak:

1/4 c. olive oil

1/3 c. lime juice

1 tsp. soy sauce (gf!)

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. dried or a handful fresh cilantro

dash of crushed red pepper

dash of cayenne pepper

And here's the must-have kicker: Dash on about 2 Tbsp. liquid smoke when they are about half-way through cooking!

curried carrot soup

Fall is HERE.  Right here!!  Joy really is now!!

So I put up my fall decoration.  Singular.  A canister, well really a set of three canisters (you know, go big!!), on my windowsill.  There.  Now its time to cook!  Yesssssssssssssssss!

This is my favorite soup ever ever ever of all time.  If you make only one of my recipes ever, choose this one.

Superman and Sleeping Beauty and Nine Going On Sixteen were playing happily.  

It may seem trite, but I know you parents hear me when I say that there's something so extremely life-giving in getting to take your time with a task because your kids are playing happily.  It happens once every-other never, so we have to live.it.up!!

 They don't know what a gift they are giving us - and each other, really.  Better than Christmas.  You can put a bow on the fact that I got to take pictures, turn up the music, and chop the vegetables in the calm.  I love the smell in the kitchen when I make this soup, and I got to totally savor each whif!

Curried Carrot Soup (from DeeDee - who makes all things in life just a tad tastier and happier than your average Joe!)

8-10 big carrots, peeled and diced

1 large onion, chopped

4 stalks of celery, chopped

6 Tbsp. coconut oil

3 tsp. chicken bullion paste

4 c. water

2 Tbsp. curry powder (I like this recipe with red, but any kind works)

1 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. turmeric

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dried onion flakes

Sauté the carrots, onion, and celery in the coconut oil until tender.  Add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer on the stove for an hour.  Blend the soup until its fine (I love the immersion blender!).  Serve garnished with crushed peanuts, chopped cilantro, and sour cream.

The baboli rolls you can buy everywhere right now work great for making individual pesto bread.  Just cut them down the center length-wise once, and then 3 or 4 slices an inch apart cross-wise.  Stuff the cracks with pesto and a little shredded mozzarella.  Wrap it in foil and put it in the oven to warm.

YUM.

Happy fall, one and all!

basil salsa

I owe you an apology for holding out on you for so long.  I've only had this for about a month, but its so good I should've found it and told the world five years ago.

I've tried it 5 times.  No fail.  Crowd-pleaser.  Deee to the lish!

1 medium zucchini, chopped in big pieces - skin and all
1/4 c. onion
1 c. fresh basil leaves
1 jalepeno, seeded
1/2 tsp. honey
1/2 tsp. salt
1 garlic clove, minced
zest of one lime, plus the juice of it

(that's right - no tomatoes!)

Give it all a whirl in the food processor.  You don't have to do much chopping first - just throw it all in.

We have been eating it with chips, mostly.  But I also spread it on a sandwich, and another time served it alongside grilled chicken.

A helper like this one brings out the flavors, I'm pretty sure....

Go make it and change lives.

oatmeal pancakes

Tastiest pancakes of all time.  They make brunch really brunch, not just a late, lazy breakfast to tie you over til lunch.  We've been making them for the last 10ish years because they.are.the.best!

We always make them gluten-free with this gf flour recipe.

3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. quick oats
2 eggs, beaten
1 3/4 c. sour milk or buttermilk*
1/4 c. vegetable oil

 * For the buttermilk - just do a scant 1 3/4 c. regular milk mixed with 2 Tbsp. vinegar - stir it together and let it set on the counter for a few minutes

Combine the dry ingredients.  Mix the milk, eggs, and oil separately.  Add them to the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.  Makes about 12 pancakes.



Of course, its best with this!

 Pancakes so good, they make you.........

banana icecream

Da na na na na na nana
Walk this way
Walk this way
Walk this way

This is what happens when you're a child of the 90's.  Aerosmith sings in your brain whenever you hit upon something especially unlikely and fantastically mind-blowingly amazing.

Or maybe that's just me?

Well, FOR FACT, Aerosmith is here for this icecream.  Crank the bass.

Take 6 bananas.  Peel them.  Cut them into about 8 pieces each banana.  Freeze the pieces on a cookie sheet.  Put the frozen bananas in the food processor and chop the heck out of them.  They magically turn into the smoothest "icecream" you can possibly imagine.  No dairy, no sugar, no nothing.

Add whatever toppings strike your fancy and eat up.  I like crunchy peanut butter and a few squirts of chocolate syrup.

Also good...
almonds
blueberries
caramel syrup and a dash of salt
a snickers bar
marshmallows
dark cherries and dark chocolate pieces

Its a life-changer, people. 

Da na na na na na na nana
Walk this way....

for real

You know how sometimes you get so overwhelmed by whatever it is, that you feel it even tightening up your hair follicles?  And then God blows this little poof of air in your direction... and suddenly you're breathing again, and can manage to laugh and pee yourself a little?

That was my week.

Eva has had a dry cough for the last six months.  We have tried...

cough drops

cough syrup

2 allergy meds

prescription nasal spray

prescription allergy med

inhaler

high powered antibiotic

Nothing works.  I asked for a food panel at the doctor, suspecting an allergy to dairy, which sometimes accompanies gluten intolerance.

We found out this week she is severely allergic to sesame seed and moderately allergic to corn.

CORN.

We are Americans.  Our bodies are made of water, plastic, and corn!!!

Do you know what you substitute for gluten-full ingredients?  Corn-full ingredients.  Think corn tortillas instead of flour.

FML.

I couldn't bring myself to tell her for a couple of days.  

But...

OH PRAISE THE LORD, BUT........

Smitten kitten.

The sun shone, the clouds parted, and Dr. Davis fell from the sky.

He's an MD who owns Prairie Health and Wellness in Wichita.

Its a cross between a doctor's office, spa, and Private Practice (you know, that show).  Look at the chairs in the patient rooms!!  It smells like Origins, has books like Wheat Belly in the waiting room, you serve yourself Tazo tea while you wait, and there's this amazing herbal lotion in the bathroom.  And most importantly, he looked Eva in the eye and gave her confidence that this is going to be even better than just okay.

Dr. Davis spent an hour with us and will run a full food allergy panel (testing for 90 foods, and levels of reactions) for Eva.  He talked about kefir (ahhhh! my beloved kefir), quoted Michael Pollan, understood immediately why I give the kids local honey for allergies, and assured us that we'll learn what's causing her cough, treat it with nutritious eating, and then will give her a prescription for an inhaler or whatever is needed.

While, we are still bummed.....

.....its beyond belief that this doctor exists.  We are so relieved!

When I had a job where I did home visits, I went to see a family every few weeks that had the most amazing couches.  Plush, nice, very we are people with a house and a real job furniture.  I thought about those couches often when I looked at my bare, college furniture abode and wondered when I would be grown up enough to have furniture like that.  And those exact couches are in my living room now.  I craved something like them when I saw them, never thinking they would actually be mine someday.

I know its just couches.

But that kind of "someday" talk is the same way I've carried on about doctors.

  

And we found him.

He's a real live MD....family practice doctor.....with great knowledge about nutrition and wellness....and interested in finding root causes not just treating symptoms.  

To vaccinate or not vaccinate?  He says vaccinate.  There.  See?  Less wackadoo than me even!

I'm not throwing our pediatrician under the bus.  His office is awesome, and gives us great care.  But they just plain don't know what we need them to know about food allergies.  They care deeply for our kids, but have not been able to take the time needed to know what we need them to about what "toxic" food does to someone like Eva, and are therefore too quick to medicate with steroids and antibiotics.

So, here we go....

Two years ago we bravely became gluten-free (see the tab to the right for that whole rundown), and now we take it even further.  It totally changed Eva's life for the better....this will too!

  

Pizza Rice Casserole

I don't do any sort of childcare.  I would rather eat my own hair.

But my kids tend to multiply themselves.

It makes my control-freak self batty, BUT it is really what I want... our house to  be a place where people come in without knocking, expect fun, and can always find a friend to play with and a parent to listen, break up fights, put on band-aids, and feed their mouths.

Feeding them is everything, and this is the supper recipe of champs.  The oldest, youngest, and the pickiest in between all ask for seconds.

1 c. rice (cooked to make 2 c.)
1 lb. ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 c. tomato sauce
1/4 tsp. garlic
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. parsley flakes
dash of pepper
1 1/2 c. cottage cheese
1/2 c. shredded cheddar

Brown the ground beef and onion together.  Add the tomato sauce and all spices (don't measure - just err on the side of more everything), and simmer for 15 minutes.  Combine the cottage cheese and cooked rice.  In a greased 2 quart casserole dish, layer 1/3 rice mixture, 1/3 meat mixture.  Continue alternating layers, ending with the meat mixture.  Sprinkle with the shredded cheese.  Cover with foil and bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

Its from my mother-in-law, and the good old More With Less cookbook.  Sorry - no time for pictures.....mouths to feed!

edamame dip

This is one of our favorite after school/after naps snacks.  I miiiiiight have eaten that whole bowl with a spoon.  Hypothetically.

 Ok fine, I shared, but only because he made me.

These are in the freezer section at the grocery store.  One bag is the exact amount you need - a scant two cups.

 

Here you go...

2 cups shelled edamame - uncooked (to quick-thaw them, rinse cold beans in cold water for a minute)
1/4 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. water
1 clove garlic (or less)
3/4 tsp. cumin
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. dried minced onion
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/2 c. (approximate) olive oil

Pulse all but the olive oil in the food processor until it is well blended and fine.  Then, with the blender still going, drizzle in as much olive oil as you like until it is smooth.

 Mmmmmm-mmmmm-mmmmm!

gluten free chocolate cupcakes

Ok.  Best chocolate cupcakes ever.  And they are gluten-freeeeeeeeee.  That's me singing it like an opera singer, in the annoying way I do when I am wearing my proud-mom-pants.

I made them for both girls' birthdays, and took the recipe from this blog:  Sarah Bakes

1 c. milk (I used 2%)

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 c. oil

2 c. gluten-free flour (see here)

1 1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 c. hot fresh brewed coffee (I used Starbucks Sumatra)

Use your kitchenaid mixer - paddle attachment.  Combine the wet ingredients (except the coffee) in the mixer.  In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.  (I always used to skip the sifting thing because the sound it makes makes me want to eat my hair.  But really, we should sift.  Because there are lots of little rocks of cocoa powder that need to be sifted.  Facts, girls.)  Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix.  Slowly pour in the coffee, mixing as you pour.  

Pour into cupcake liners and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

9

The Chachi Band in nine.  I know we are supposed to take this one year at a time, but all I can think is Oh my word almost double digits!!

We are planning an Amazing Race party with her friends for when it gets warm out.  So stay tuned for that.  Should be quite a thing.

She requested spaghetti, spinach salad, and mountain dew.  That, my friend, I can most definitely do.  She got to pick out a new bike.  It's currently unridden because she is quite exasperated that it is taller than her last one and feels slightly different when you try to get on.  Oh girlie, its good to see that even though we are creeping up on double digits, some things stay the same.

Despite this being the norm around here...

...Riv was still so excited to give her a Blingles set.

And Sage was still thrilled to unwrap all the mini-snickers for her birthday cookies...

Speaking of....

These are some of the tastiest gluten free cookies I have found to date.  They are the right kind of soft, tasty, and easy!  Here you go....

1 c. margarine

1 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1 Tbsp. milk

1 tsp. soda

1/2 tsp. salt

3 1/2 c. gluten-free flour (I used my standby mix.  See here)

48 mini snickers

Cream together the margarine, sugar, and brown sugar.  Mix in the vanilla, eggs, and milk.  Mix in the soda, salt, and flour.  Wrap a glob of dough around a mini snickers.  Yes, a glob.  I found this to be easiest if I got my hands a little wet.  Place on a well-greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 11 minutes.  Let cool slightly on the pan and then move to a mat to cool.  Makes 4 dozen.

They don't look like much, but they taste like MUCH!  You can top them with sprinkles if you're in the birthday mood.