Pizza Yum ~ recipe

I have been trying to find a decent recipe for wheat-free, corn-free tasty pizza crust for a long time. We have, over the years, found a couple that were fine. Nothing made with a bought mix. Those mixes, for some reason, do a number on my stomach. A few weeks ago, though, I thought a good deal about what I like in a pizza crust and what there was in the crusts that were “okay”. I then took that and wrote my own.

It must be cooked on parchment paper and we have found that it cooks best on parchment paper over a heavy-duty aluminum cookie sheet. A stone works fine but it does prohibit some of the crispness. Toppings are totally your choice. We typically have turkey pepperoni and cooked ground turkey on hand. We make our own sauce using a can of tomato paste and adding the desired amount of water to get it to the consistency we want. We also add Italian seasonings to it. I like onions and bell peppers and black olives on my pizza, too.

So top it with whatever you like. I’ll bet a garlic butter sauce instead of the typical tomato would be yummy, also. Maybe this week I’ll try that.

Wheat-Free Pizza

Ingredients:
2 T ground flax seed
4 T water
6 T almond flour
2 T white rice flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t xantham gum
6 T grated parmesan cheese
6 T grated mozzarella cheese
1-2 T milk or water

Combine flax seed and water and set aside.

Mix together the remaining ingredients, except milk or water. Add the flax/water mixture to the dry ingredients and 1 T milk. Mix until it all comes together to form a ball. Add more milk if needed.

Crust after the first cooking time. A little brown on the cheese just adds to the yummy taste!

Dump it onto the parchment paper and use a wooden spoon dipped in water to flatten it out as thin as you can. Continue to dip the spoon in water and flatten with the back side of the spoon as often as needed so that the mixture will spread and not stick to the spoon.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degree F.

Take out and top as desired.

Bake for 5-10 minutes more. 5 minutes will get your cheese melted. 10 minutes will get it really gooey and just a tidge of brown on the melted cheese (my perfectly cooked point).

Let sit for 5 minutes or so and then cut and enjoy.

We have tried this recipe a number of times now and I feel like we have it down to a decent place. It is still pretty easy to feel like it is a bit salty so if you are sensitive to salt, you might want to cut that back some.

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

Linking up with the Crew through A Net In Time in this week’s healthy eating challenge.

Yummy Nuggets ~ recipe

My mom called the other day to let me know about a recipe she had come across for some wheat-free, healthy cookies. These little nuggets are YUMMY! And they are so simple. I don’t know where she got the recipe but it is a winner.

Do you remember Shaklee? They had these protein bars that I remember liking. A lot. These little nuggets taste like those protein bars we used to get to have once in a while when we were kids. They have a chocolatey outside and a creamy, nutty, sweet, fluffy inside. They are fabulous. And they take just a few minutes to whip up.

At Home Dad thought they were more like a truffle but you can call them whatever you want – cookie, nugget, truffle. I’ll just call them tasty.

The Recipe:

1/2 C nut butter – I used almond. Mom used cashew. You can use peanut or whatever you’ve got.

1/2 C coconut flour

1/4 C maple syrup

Mix these three together. Then roll the mixture into balls. I did mine about 1 inch across. Let them chill in the fridge while you do the next part.

Melt 1/2 C chocolate chips or the equivalent. I did this in the microwave in 15 second bursts at 60% power, stirring in between.

Take the balls out of the fridge and coat them in the melted chocolate. Let them chill a bit longer in the fridge to set the chocolate and you are good to go. You might want to store them in the fridge to keep the chocolate from melting.

Makes about 12. (I halved the recipe and it made 6.)

Enjoy!

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

 

Ginger Cookies

As I was making granola today, I flipped past a recipe from my childhood – ginger snaps. I haven’t had these in quite a while and they suddenly were something I wanted. Have you ever had that happen to you? Well, I caved to the craving and figured I would write a recipe that would do the job. And I did! No wheat. No corn. No dairy. No soy. Reduced sugar. Total yum!

Ingredients:

1/2 C coconut oil
3/4 C sugar
1 egg
1/4 C molasses
1/4 t salt
2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1 t cloves
1 t ginger
1/2 C coconut flour
1 1/2 C almond flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixer bowl, combine the oil and the sugar. Mix until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix. Then add the molasses and mix well.

Add the sale, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger to the mixture and combine.

Slowly add the flours to the mixture. Mix on medium until well combined.

Scoop out in balls and roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for about five minutes. Remove to a towel to continue cooling.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

 

Chicken with Onions and Tomatoes ~ recipe

Are you ready for another easy one? I mean, put it in the skillet, cover, and let cook. No standing over it waiting and turning and adding, etc. We loved this and it tasted so yummy!

Recipe:

• 6 pieces of chicken (I used large tenders and this is what fit in my skillet; use whatever fits)
• 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil or your favorite cooking oil
• 1 15 ounce can of petite diced tomatoes
• one medium onion, sliced
• salt, pepper, garlic powder – to taste

Directions –

Put the oil in the skillet and heat. Add chicken and sear on both sides. Add the tomatoes over the top. Layer the onions on. Sprinkle on the salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cover and let cook over medium heat about 30 minutes or until done.
Remove the chicken and simmer the tomatoes and onions until the liquid is gone. Watch so that it doesn’t burn.
Place the chicken in a serving dish and pour the onions and tomatoes over it. Serve.

I served this with brown rice, steamed broccoli, steamed cauliflower, and some corn. It was a filling, healthy, and yummy dinner. The girls discussed who was going to get the last piece of chicken. (Turned out – no one ate it since I had also decided to give them something sweet to eat – ice cream sodas – another yum!)

While this isn’t a 30 minute recipe, it is simple and doesn’t take even an hour start to finish. Most of that time, I wasn’t even tending to the cooking dishes. I did check them but didn’t have to hover. It was lovely.

Don’t you just love it when a meal goes well?

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

Part of the Homeschool Review Crew Homeschool Collection. Click the image below to see the entire collection for March 2019.

Spinach Lasagna ~ 15 minute prep

Tonight, I had dinner in the oven in under 15 minutes. When the girls came in from violin, I got to hear those wonderful words “YUM! It smells good!” Then, when they found out that is was lasagna, a new round of pleasant words erupted. However, my favorite was when Miss J looked in the oven and exclaimed “Is it the lasagna with the spinach? That is my FAVORITE!”

This is a quick dinner partly because it does not include the pasta noodles and partly because I keep a trick up my sleeve. The “noodles” part of this lasagna is just spinach leaves. Nothing more, nothing less. Just put those fresh spinach leaves down and layer the rest. The other trick is that I keep cooked ground turkey in the freezer. That makes putting together the sauce for this super easy.

So, start the timer and here we go . . .

Preheat your oven to 350 degree.

Put a pot on the stove and put a tablespoon or so of olive oil in there. Don’t worry about the measure; just put some on to heat. Grab an onion and dice up half of it. Toss it in the heated olive oil. Using a garlic press, put about 3 or 4 cloves of garlic in there. Cook it for a few minutes, until the onions start to turn translucent. Add a can of diced tomatoes (I like the petite diced) and a can of tomato paste. Use the tomato paste can to add a couple cans of water to the pot. Put salt, pepper, basil, and oregano in the pot. Stir to mix and taste. Adjust those spices to what you like. I would have added more garlic if I had my garlic granules but we are currently out. So, just do it until you like the taste. Toss in the ground meat until it has as much as you want. I added about a cup and a half. Stir it up good.

Now, in your dish that can go in the oven, layer all that you want. Start with a layer of spinach leaves. Don’t go thin here because they do wilt with the heat of the sauce and the oven. Put a good layer of sauce over the spinach. Layer a crumble cheese, then a small grated cheese, and then a large grated cheese. I use crumbled goat cheese, pecorino romano, and then grate a goat mozzarella-style cheese on top. You could easily do cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, and mozzarella. We use the other due to food allergies.

Cover it with foil. Stick it in a pre-heated oven (350 degrees) until it is heated through and you are ready to eat. I left it in for about 20 minutes because that is when the rest of my family got home. It would have been good in about 10 minutes, I think, because the sauce was already hot when I put it on the layers.

I was able to do up some garlic bread to go with it and everyone was thrilled!

Stop that timer! This took me about 35 minutes, including the 20 minutes that it was in the oven waiting for the family to get home. While it was in the oven, I washed up the dishes and swept the floor. Guys – this was an easy one!

Blessings,

At Home.

Cinnamon Sugar Nuts ~ recipe

These are not your typical sugar coated or candy coated nuts, just so you know. They have a hint of cinnamon and a hint of sweet but they are not covered with a thick sugar coating. It would be easy enough to add more sugar if you are looking for that sweeter flavor. We, however, really like the flavor and hint of cinnamon sugar that this recipe gives. We came up with it when we were looking at a spiced nuts recipe and it just didn’t sound good to Miss L. She wanted a sweet recipe. So, we used the base of the other (butter with a few teaspoons of various spices) and made up our own recipe. It is yummy and boy does the house smell terrific!

Cinnamon Sugar Nuts

Ingredients:

4 T butter or margarine
1 t vanilla
4 T brown sugar
1 T cinnamon
4 C nuts (we used 2 cups pecan halves and 2 cups whole almonds)

Directions:

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When melted, turn to low. Add vanilla, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Mix well and allow to simmer for just a few minutes over low heat. Pour over nuts in a large mixing bowl and stir until all nuts are well coated

In a baking pan, place the nuts in a single layer. Toast for 10 minutes in the over. Turn out and shift around. Return to oven for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Enjoy!

Blessings,
At Home.

 

Jan Karon’s Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader ~ Book Club

 

Years ago, I read the Mitford book series and really enjoyed getting to know the down-home characters who lived a small-town life full of the small-town joys often found in books. In fact, so much of the appeal was that it portrayed life so accurately – the joy, the hope. the hardship, the friendship, the neighbors, the help. the disagreements, the holding onto hurt and the innate ability to forgive. Neighbors become friends, and so do those who you just aren’t sure about. Yes, it is somewhat idyllic – what with the gorgeous setting and all – but it was such a joy to read those books.

I found the same enjoyment reading through Jan Karon’s Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader. If you have read much of the series at all, you know food plays a large role in the interactions of the people in the books. So Jan Karon took those interactions and placed them in this Kitchen Reader alongside the recipes for the foods that are part of the story.

You will read an excerpt from one of the books in the series and then it is followed by the recipes for the food that was mentioned. It might be one recipe and it might be four. There are lots of yummy looking recipes (such as Esther Bolick’s Orange Marmalade Cake) and some that I can dream about but would never dream of making (Cynthis’a Leg of Lamb).

There are plenty that I am going to try including Cynthia’s Toasted Pecans, anything that features new potatoes (there are tons of these and they all look good), Cynthia’s Glazed Rosemary Onion, and Father Tim’s Christmas Morning Casserole.

Throughout there are sprinkled little statements that Jan Karon writes about things that she wants to share thought on: aprons, dishwashing, her spice cabinet, kitchens, the last meals of different people, and more. Everything is interesting and well-written. This was a cookbook that I enjoyed reading.

Blessings,
At Home.

My co-host, Wendy from Ladybug Daydreams, is hoping to post about an interesting she has read this month. For the next couple of months, we are going to each share about what we read. So head over to Wendy’s blog to see what she read this month.

Snickerdoodles – wheat-free cookies recipe

I have always enjoyed making cookies. It has been one of my favorite things to bake since I can remember. Snickerdoodles is one of my favorite cookies. When the wheat went out the window, do did cookies – for while. Thankfully, a decent substitute for flour has been developed in our home and we are able to use it to make yummy cookies again.

I do take the sugar content down significantly. And the flour substitutions change depending on what we have in the cabinet. But today’s cookies are  GOOD! So, I am sharing the recipe as it came about today. Tomorrow’s may be different. 🙂

SNICKERDOODLES – wheat-free

1 1/4 C almond flour
1/2 C coconut flour
1/2 C flaxseed meal
1/2 C garbanzo bean flour
1 1/2 t xantham gum
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
2 t cream of tartar

1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C coconut oil (okay if liquid)
2 eggs
1 scant C sugar (can add up to 1 1/2 C if desired but I am trying to keep these a bit less sweet so I put in closer to 3/4 C)

3 T sugar
3 T cinnamon

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix the dry ingredients, keeping back the small amount of sugar and cinnamon for rolling. Put the butter, oil, and sugar in a mixer and cream. Add eggs and mix well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a spoonful at a time, mixing well.

Mix the 3 T sugar and 3 T cinnamon together in a shallow bowl or plate with a small rim. Using a spoon or a small scoop, make 1 inch balls of dough, roll them in the cinnamon sugar, and place on baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake for 13 minutes. Let cookies sit for about 3 minutes on the baking sheet before removing them to a towel or cooling rack to finish cooling.

Makes approximately 5 dozen cookies.

Blessings,
At Home.

Blueberry Muffins ~ wheat free recipe

This is really just a variation on the strawberry cupcake recipe that I shared last week. It is just a yummy. Just as filling, And just as good for breakfast. I was rather happy when we had several to bring home from the pot luck we took them to. I guess people thought they didn’t look quite as appetizing for dessert as those cakes and pies and cookies with all the icing on top. That’s okay – I had breakfast for a few days. (I also had a moment of sadness when I had to throw one away that had sat in the refrigerator too long after getting shoved to the back and hidden behind something.)

So, the main recipe and the changes we made to if are found back in the Strawberry Cupcakes recipe post. What did I do to that for the blueberry ones? I’m glad you asked. 🙂

Subbed in blueberries for strawberries. That’s it. Truly. I used the same measurement and I did not smash the blueberries. I liked having that burst of juiciness when I bit into a big blueberry hidden inside.

So the recipe looks like this –

• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1 cup almond meal
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2 cups frozen blueberries (use whole or crush in the blender)

We just mixed all the wet ingredients together, except for the strawberries. We then added the dry. After it was well combined, we added the strawberries. Mix it and then put it in either greased muffin tins or cupcake papers and bake at 375 degrees for 25 – 35 minutes.  When they are cooked, you can insert a toothpick and it will come out clean. Cool and enjoy.

So, another wheat free recipe to add to your arsenal of yummy things when you are going wheat free or gluten free. Or just wanting to add in some healthier options. Enjoy!

Blessings,
At Home.

Strawberry Cupcakes ~ wheat free recipe

You may be noticing a trend in the recipes I have been sharing recently – wheat free. That is how I am titling them but they are also corn free. Those are two big allergies for me. Over the course of the last couple of years, we have searched out recipe sites and books that have wheat free and corn free options. More and more are coming up wheat free but they sub in things that are not really all that much better or create a funny texture. We try to stay away from rice flour since there is basically no nutrition to it and it is grainy in recipes.

Recently, my daughter wanted to make strawberry cupcakes for her birthday and her friend was coming who is allergic to wheat. She made her normal cupcakes but then helped me search for a recipe that was wheat free. We found one that worked pretty good and made some changes to it.

Our base recipe is found here.

When we got done with the recipe, it looked more like this:

• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1 cup almond meal
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 tablespoon strawberry extract (optional)
• 2 cups frozen strawberries, thawed and crushed (we ran them through the blender)

We just mixed all the wet ingredients together, except for the strawberries. We then added the dry. After it was well combined, we added the strawberries. Mix it and then put it in either greased muffin tins or cupcake papers and bake at 375 degrees for 25 – 35 minutes.  When they are cooked, you can insert a toothpick and it will come out clean. Cool and then frost.

We did not use the frosting that is part of the original recipe. We had some strawberry frosting that Miss J used to frost half of them and the other half she left without.

These must be stored in the refrigerator since they have cream cheese in them and they are more moist than you expect from a cupcake. With the small amount of sugar and the healthy flours, these also make a yummy breakfast with a cup of hot tea. In fact, I have enjoyed them for breakfast quite often since we made these. They are really filling and stick with you for a while. Good things for breakfasts!

Blessings,
At Home.

 

Linking up with A Net In Time for a recipe linkup.

Linking up with Homeschool Review Crew weekly linkup.