No oven required

For Peanut Butter, Chocolate, Oatmeal No Bake Cookies! Not the same ol' fatty, refined-sugar no bakes. I love these and have rewritten the recipe with health in mind. These are dairy free, gluten free, and glycemic friendly no bakes! Keep away if you have nut allergies! Everyone else, take a good look at these -

 

Don't they look yummy?!!! Is your mouth watering yet? Don't you wish you could reach into this post and grab one to eat right now???

 

The procedure is the same but the ingredients have been cleaned up. Here we go:

 

Cleaned Up No Bake Cookies

                             -by Pamelyn Baim

                

In a saucepan, mix and bring to a boil for 1 -2 minutes. Then remove from heat.

2/3 c agave nectar

1/4 c almond milk

1/2 c coconut oil

1/4 c cocoa powder

 

Add and quickly stir in:

1/2 c peanut butter

3 c quick cooking oats

1/2 c flaked coconut

1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

 

Drop by spoonful onto cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. It may seem like they won't stick together but they will when they cool down. Best when cooled and stored in the fridge. Makes about 24 small or 15 large cookies.

 

The agave nectar is easy on your glycemic index. It's less likely to spike your blood sugar levels.

Almond milk is plain delicious and a no-brainer for using instead of dairy milk.

Coconut oil is being discovered as an amazing, healthful substitute for butter or crisco. 

Rolled oats is embraced by some gluten free eaters and avoided by others. 

Vanilla can have gluten in it. 

 

Always check ALL your ingredient labels! :) 

 

These smell great. They taste great. They are a wonderful dessert to make, especially if you don't want to stoke up the oven in the heat of summer. Give them a try and tell me what you think.

Glorious beans

When you decide to go GF, or more restrictive such as vegetarian or vegan, it doesn't take long before you start to embrace things like beans. I'm not talking canned baked beans, as much as I love them, they are full of sodium and additives that aren't good for you. I'm talking about red beans, butter beans, black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, chickpeas.... real beans!

Beans are a wonderful ingredient to add to your meals for a firm texture and tons of nutrition. Ever had three bean salad? Or southern red beans and rice? How about hummus? They are all bean based dishes. You can make a meal out of them without much effort. Here's one we enjoy.

Black bean and veggies on rice

-Cook up a batch of brown rice: 2 cups water or broth to 1 cup rice. I like using a rice cooker for this job.
-In pan, cook 4 oz chopped mushrooms until sweat forms. Add 1/2 cup chunky tomato sauce (I like Muir Glenn) or chopped fresh tomato and some water to fill 1 cup. Sprinkle with chili powder. Add 1 can of drained and rinsed black beans or 16 oz of dried black beans that have been rehydrated. Heat through to a simmer then turn off heat. Set aside.



-Chop one small onion, one bell pepper (any color), one stalk of celery, cherry tomatos, and some fresh (or dried) parsley. The amounts of these ingredients is up to your liking. Place in bowl with 1/2 cup of sweet corn. Grind black pepper on top. Drizzle with a small amount of olive oil, no more than a couple of tablespoons. Mix together and set aside.

Layer ingredients on plate: rice, tomato mixture, veggie mixture. Top with finely shredded parmesan cheese or finely chopped walnuts. Serve with corn tortilla chips or GF bread that has been toasted and spread with garlic butter.

This sounds good to me. I think I'll be having some beans tonight!

Crock Pot Chicken

The crock pot is a must-have kitchen appliance. The meat that comes out of it is terrific and there's nothing like walking in the door to the smells of dinner cooking! Chicken comes out great in it and here's the way I make it.

Crock Pot Chicken

-Take one whole chicken that will fit in your crock pot, rinse, pat dry, and put it in a shaking bag. Remember shake and bake bags? I use a clean plastic grocery bag.
-Place some potatos and carrots into crock pot.
-In a small bowl, combine 2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper powder (optional), 1 TBSP parsley. Pour spices over chicken and shake around until coated.
-Place on top of veggies in crock pot.
-Pour 2 cups of water or broth in crock. Set on high for 4-5 hours or low for 7-8 hours. (I prefer low)

That's it! When it's done, the meat will fall off the bone and the veggies will be mash tender. Save the broth and use it for other dishes or freeze in ice cube trays for quick access of 1/4 cup of broth per cube.

A little slice of

biscuit heaven! 

I had an amazing experience recently.  We took a little trip and decided to try a local, fast food type restaurant that we had never been to before. Bojangles Chicken and Biscuits seems to rule from Maryland southward.  So different than KFC which is a northerner's understanding of what southern fried chicken is. Bojangles is way better. And being served by the friendly folks of the south makes it mentally tasty, if you know what I mean. Anyways, with the understanding that I was not in a GF zone, I got the #5 combo - 2 pieces of chicken, 1 biscuit with a side of dirty rice and a medium strawberry iced tea. The leg was the first to go and it was surprisingly tabasco-ey. A closer look revealed the layer of the heat under the crispy outer coating. Yum! I tried a bite of the biscuit. I knew this was something I would wind up regretting, since it was certainly not GF, but I wanted to try a little. Well, this was probably the best tasting biscuit I had ever eaten and I was hooked. Light and airy on the inside, brown and buttery on the outside. It was gone in minutes. This must be recreated in my GF world!

When I was growing up, my mom gave me the job of baking. She did all the cooking for us, and sometimes my father would pitch in as well. But I started getting fond of making cookies, cakes, frostings, desserts, pies, brownies, rolls, breads and biscuits. We had an old red and white cookbook that had fabulous biscuit recipes in it. The best one called for cream of tartar, which seemed like a weird name for an ingredient, but they always tasted the best. I loved them slathered with butter and doused with honey right after they came out of the oven. So good!

Going GF has imposed baking challenges, for sure. They can be overcome with persistence. The desire to make Bojangles biscuits drove me to face it head on and I did with a vengeance. Determined to bite into those buttery balls of fluffiness, I started to search for their recipe. Or at least the general direction of their recipe. It didn't take long to find several. All they are are buttermilk biscuits. Ok. I can do that. Self rising flour, baking powder, powdered sugar, crisco, buttermilk, butter. I got everything I needed to make a batch.

Make your own GF self-rising flour: 2 TBSP potato flour + enough white rice flour to make 1 cup (or use 1 cup of the King Arthur's GF flour), 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar, 1 tsp Xanthan gum.

King Arthur's GF flour recipe: 6 cups brown rice flour, 2 cups potato starch, 1 cup tapioca flour or starch. Whisk together well and use what you need for recipes. Store in fridge.

Attempt #1 was a regular-flour batch so I could see if they were close. Well, not as light and airy but good and close enough. Then the GF flours were blended up - brown rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, cornstarch - then baking powder and cream of tartar was added to make it self rising. Here we go! Attempt #2. The GF version. Mixed it all up. Kneaded together and shaped into rounds. Baked for 8 minutes then coated with melted butter before baking for the remaining 4 minutes.

Bo Biscuits!

3 cups self rising flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp confectioners sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil or shortening
1-1/4 cup almond milk with a splash of vinegar added
Melted butter (optional)

Mix dry ingredients together Use pastry blender or fork to cut oil into flour. Add milk and mix together quickly. Place on floured counter. Flatten and fold over a couple of times. Cut with biscuit cutter or slice into squares with a knife. Bake at 450 for 8 minutes, brush with butter and return into oven for 4-5 minutes.

If you don't need this many biscuits at once, mix the drys together, split it in half and put in a baggie for later. Mix with 1/2 of the remaining wet ingredients and bake up 1/2 a batch! This is what I do. It's like doubling the fun!

The pictures say enough to know that they were tasty. Especially when doused with honey right after they came out of the oven! Topped off with a big glass of almond milk = a perfect breakfast, IMHO. My hubby had one with egg and cheese inside. Way better than anything you would get in a drive thru. These will be made many more times in my house!

I still haven't mastered a decent fried chicken. There is a Bojangles in Pennsylvania. A mere 5 hour drive from my house. I have driven farther than that for less good reasons before. Can anyone say "day trip"?

Potato salad made clean

I have been remaking recipes in order to clean up what we put on our plate this year. Some of my recreations have been good, others have wound up in the trash can. This is the way we find out what works and what is disastrous! We have to stop being so hard on ourselves when it comes to trying new things. We are not world class chefs; our efforts do not have to match that level.

This year has been full of ups and downs. Discovering the deliciousness of fresh juicing and the side benefits of health it brought along with it has been an up. Sitting by my husband in the emergency room after his stroke was a humbling low. And all the ranges inbetween, feeling blessings and losses, being encouraged by the way people around us have responded to us, wondering what we are to do with our experiences over the days to come, have made us grow in character and understand ourselves and others more.

I do know that we cannot let go of eating right. Sometimes it is a big challenge to not let the guard down and just run through a drive up to get something quick. Let's face it, eating right takes work. It needs attention. My generation has always had fast food available to them. The chain restaurant business is bigger and more popular than ever, and you have no idea what they are putting in your food and what you are really eating.

Why potato salad? What's so great about cleaning up something insignificant as potato salad? Just ease up on the mayo and there you go, it's cleaned up. No. It's not as good as it can be. I like cold vegetable salads but they typically include milk, mayo, or buttermilk as the goo that everything sticks to. This goo is not heart friendly. Dairy products are not the best thing going for you when it comes to eating clean.

The other day, we were going about our day, doing lots of stuff, and realized that we were hungry, really hungry. So I had to come up with something to hold us over until dinner that was somewhat substantial and tasty. I rummaged through the fridge and came up with this fabulous remake of potato salad. We ate it up so quick, I never even had the chance to take a picture.

Gnocchi Salad
6 side servings

Cook one bag of potato gnocchi (the frozen kind that is low sodium, not the kind on the store shelf that is high sodium). Drain and rinse. Place back in hot pot. Put a splash of veggie stock in pot (or a TBSP olive oil), add 2 entire stalks of chopped green onion, one diced medium (or several cherry sized) tomatoes, garlic powder, and one small shredded carrot. Mix, top with parsley, and serve hot or chill to serve cold later.

This was a happy accident! It is full of flavor. I hope you try it. If you want to make it more potato salad like, cut the gnocchi into smaller pieces. Try adding other vegetables in it. Take it easy on the oil, if that is what you decide to add. It doesn't need much! This is a delicious, low sodium, low fat, high nutrient alternative to the fatty original that will be dished up at all the labor day parties next weekend. And this one won't spoil in the heat.

Recipe re-do

Did you ever see a show with a recipe that sounds just great, but it is off limits?  I enjoy watching cooking shows. They make wonderful presentations. Some are old school styles, some are based on a region or a country. Some are focused on the science behind it all. 9 times out of 10, the final product is tainted.

Food allergies and food intolerances are coming to the forefront of media conversation. This is a good thing. People need to be more aware of the reason their body does what it does in response to what you feed it. We have become a society of quick fixes, which typically includes a pill to make everything better. More often than not, this won't fix the real problem, but masque the symptoms and fool you into believing you are ok.

Not that long ago, this was a picture of what people thought of when they thought of food.

Industry saw the opportunity to lighten the load in the kitchen. Canned foods, instant foods, tv dinners, prepackaged foods, preserved foods, processed foods. Before you knew it, meals were overrun with unnatural ingredients and we all got used to it. Now, we are finally coming around to how good real food is, both in taste and in health.

Since awareness is rising, many GF products are available in the markets. Farm markets are all over thte place. Gardening is becoming more popular. People have options!

While I watch cooking shows, I take the recipes that are close enough to being easy and GF, and make them GF. Swapping out the big offenders, most of the time it is pasta, and our dinner table is livened up with new tastes.

Get creative and try it for yourself. See what you come up with.

Sweet -n- fruity tea

We had our first bar-b-q dinner tonite.  The sun was strong, the air was clean, and the grill was ready to go. How could I resist the allure of smoky burgers, sizzling bacon, hot dogs that had some extra time to get those cool looking char lines. Yes - to the whole experience!

Now for the side kicks of the meal. Potato salad - check. Mixed greens and dressing - check.  Soda - no check.  It just doesn't do it for us anymore. Not a thirst quencher. Way too sugary. Too un-natural. A better choice, in my humble opinion, is iced tea.

There is a way to make iced tea that is so easy and so delicious, you will not want to bother with the powdered or premade stuff again.   I really like flavored teas, and wanted something that would compliment the meat in the meal, so I made cranberry almond iced tea.

Sweet -N- Fruity Iced Tea

4 cups water
8 tea bags, flavored or plain
1/2 cup sugar (more if you like sweeter drinks)
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 tray ice cubes
3 1/2 cups cold water

Bring 4 cups water to a boil. Turn off heat and steep tea for 5 minutes.  Get out your nicest pitcher and put the sugar in it. Pour the hot tea over the sugar and stir until dissolved. Stir in the extract. Add the ice cubes and the cold water. Serve!

Plain tea with orange extract would be really nice. Or black tea with licorice. How about getting crazy with a mint tea with some sort of cocao added? You ain't finding stuff like that on the store shelf. Oh the possibilities!

I am a fan of green tea. Nice and mild. Not bitter. Good for you, or so they say. The next batch I have in mind is going to be a peach iced tea. Maybe with a dash of cinnamon extract. Let me know what you make!

White pasta

I am not a cereal fan. There are few things that I actually enjoy eating for breakfast. Mostly, I am not all that hungry until 10:00 at the earliest. A while ago, I got this 8 grain cereal mixture, made it up once, and it's been sitting around my pantry ever since.

I made this crazy dish for dinner the other night. The idea of it started from the Rachael Ray show, but I changed her idea to be easy and GF. Don't be afraid with what you read in the ingredient list. The 8 grain cereal mix is part of the recipe. I know, I know. But it really does taste good in the end. I promise.

Now, I feel the need to continue giving "heads up" for this recipe. It is not your regular sort of pasta dish. There is no red sauce on it. I did choose to put in tomato in order to give some color, and because I have alot of grape tomatoes ripening in my garden right now. So they are in most of my meals lately. No sauce on pizza is white pizza so I dubbed this dish white pasta. Don't loose me... here we go!

White pasta

Cook a couple cups of GF noodles according to package directions. Drain, rinse and put back in the hot pot while you make the topping. Squeeze some lemon juice over the hot noodles and toss to coat.

Take a large skillet and heat it on medium heat. Pour enough olive oil in to coat the bottom of the pan. Add 1/2 cup of the Red Mill 8 grain cereal to the oil and cook it until it gets browned and smells nutty. Keep an eye on it - you don't want it to burn! Add 1/8 cup of dried parsley to the pan. Stir and add a little more oil if the mixture has soaked the pan dry. Saute on gentle heat for a total of about 10 minutes. Add a teaspoon of garlic powder and stir to distribute.

After the grain cereal has softened up enough to chew but is still firm, take 4 ounces of cooked, sliced ham (I used ham for sandwiches) and cut into strips. Add to the pan to heat through. Pour entire mixture into the pasta, mix together. Take small tomatoes, cut in half. Add to pasta and fold in. The remaining heat will cook them enough to make them soft but will still hold their shape. Shred parmesean cheese over the top to taste.

There it is. A no-sauce pasta dish that has meat, tons of flavor and GF nutrients. And it's a little on the weird side so it must be something special, wouldn't you agree? Try it. I dare you!

Refreshment

I was at work the other day and was offered a most refreshing drink. This was tasty and even more importantly, it is easy to make! Who doesn't cool down after a nice glass of iced tea? So, here is the beverage of choice for my summer time glasses.

Citrus Tea

Make (or buy) a batch of unsweetened iced tea
Make (or buy) a batch of lemonade, limeade or orange juice

Mix the tea with the citrus-ade at a 3 cup tea to 1 cup juice ratio.
Add more juice if you want more of a citrus flavor.

Try it - I bet you will like it!!!

Sorry there isn't a pic

...but none are left! I made a yummy thing for dinner tonight. I saw a cooking show that had shrimp wrapped in proscuitto and was eventually made into some pasta dish. Well, the brain mulled over that for a while and when I went to the grocery store, I picked up some simple ingredients to make my GF variation of the seafood.

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Poppers

1 pound frozen, cooked shrimp
1 package of bacon (plain, maple, hickory, any flavor will work)
dried parsley

Place a saute pan on a low heat. Place frozen shrimp in water to partially thaw; remove tail shells. Take the bacon and cut the slices in half. Wrap bacon around the shrimp and place in pan. Cook until bacon is browned on each side. Remove from pan and place on a paper towel to remove excess drippings. Serve hot, topped with parsley.

I served them with baked beans. According to my panel of experts, they are "tasty". According to me, they are tasty AND easy!

Mexican - Yes I Can

Mexican food is GF friendly. The refried beans, tortillas, nacho chips, salsa...all good stuff! We were visiting friends a handful of years ago and they made burritos. They were really good and I minimally adapted them to be a satisfying GF regular in our house.

Mexican

1# ground meat (beef or turkey or a combination of both)
1 package of taco seasoning (although I found 1/2 a package works just fine)

Cook meat throroughly, using spoon to cut into pieces as it cooks. Add taco seasoning according to directions and set aside when done.

Corn tortillas (the soft kind)
1 can of refried beans
1 large jar of salsa (heat to taste - I like hot)
1 package of shredded "mexican" cheese
1 jar of black olives
Sour cream, optional

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Take tortilla and coat center with refried beans. Top with meat. Roll into a log shape. Place in baking dish. Continue until all meat is gone. I usually wind up with 5 logs. Top with jar of salsa and shredded cheese. Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until bubbly. Serve one log per person with black olives on the side. Top with sour cream, if desired.

This is so yummy. It is filling and satisfying and GF goodness. Try it for yourself and let me know if you agree!

The Sirloin

Sirloin steak is a delicious cut that cooks up beautifully with little effort. Because of the cut and the marbelizing of the fat throughout the steak, it gets tender and juicy and is so very good.

Let's see, the way to make steak. For me, it has to be easy, and here's what I do to it. My picture shows my raw steak soaking in a marinade. I find this to give a more tender result. Thusly naming my GF recipe:


Marinated Steak

Making the marinade:
1/3 cup canola oil
1 TBSP vinegar
1 clove of garlic minced (or 1/2 tsp of powdered garlic)
Fresh ground pepper, to taste
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

Meat Preparation:
Take a fork and poke lots of holes in the steak. Place meat in a large baggie or in a pan a little bit bigger than the steak. Pour liquid marinade over meat. Seal the baggie with no air in it so liquid is surrounding the steak. If using a pan, flip the meat alot to coat both sides regularly. Leave in marinade for at least 1/2 hour. But it will be much better if you leave it for 3-4 hours though!

Cooking:
Take to use your secret weapon! Heat a cast iron pan to a very hot temperature. If you have any rib sauce on reserve, put a little of that in the pan. Place steak on pan and sear both sides until they are well browned. Reduce the temperature to low and cover steak with foil. Cook for about 1-2 more minutes. Turn off heat, let rest for 5 minutes. Cut against any noticeable graining.


So when someone says, "...wanna have steak for dinner?" You can come back with a confident, "Yes Sir!"

BBQ - but not really

A summer is complete when you dine on food from the backyard BBQ. Who can resist food with that smoky, crispy outside and the juicy inside. The heat stays out of the kitchen. Most of the time, at least at my house this is true, the hubby takes over and you get a break from cooking for the night!

On Memorial Day, we lit up the grill and made up some baby back ribs. Two and a half hours later, we had falling-off-the-bone tender BBQ ribs for dinner. Oh so good. The way I make them, you basically cover them with a spice rub, place them in a foil pouch, add some vital liquids and steam them for a couple hours. Then open the pouch and place them on the very hot grill to crisp up the outside. The really excellent thing about making them this way is, you have all the lucious, flavorful juice that they cook in. This juice can be boiled down and used as the best BBQ sauce you have ever tasted. Or you can pour it into a jar and refrigerated for later uses.

I usually choose to do the latter. I have stirred some of the juice in cooked rice. Pan fried hot dogs with some juice in the pan. But my fave is to use it with chicken! I wanted to make chicken tonight, so I decided to do it up in the good ol' oven. You will need the biggest gun in your pot and pan arsenal - the cast iron skillet. I have a 12" one and it steps food up from good to great. Don't have one? They are in the kitchen stores, the camping goods stores, the one stop mega marts. Go get one!

Check this out:



BBQ Oven Chicken

Chicken pieces
Juice from the BBQ'd ribs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat up a cast iron skillet to a high heat level. Take the grease from the juice and place it in the skillet (use the grease in place of oil and seasonings). Use enough grease to coat the pan lightly. Place the chicken pieces in the pan and turn to sear all sides. Remove from burner and cover pan with aluminum foil. Place pan on the bottom of oven (put it on a pizza stone set on the bottom of the oven, if you have one) and bake for 1/2 hour. Take skillet out of oven and turn pieces over. Put foil back over the chicken and bake for another 1/2 hour, or until pieces are fully cooked. Brush some juice over the meat for even more flavor and serve it up with lots of napkins!

If you don't have a grill, or just don't feel like using yours but still want the yummy BBQ effect, try this out. I think you will be glad you did!

Summertime Salad No. 1

It's Memorial Day - summer is officially on! How can you get through summer without eating fresh potato salad?

Here's a fabulous GF recipe that I put together last year and have improved it even more. The red peels and the green parsley and chive look so pretty on your plate. It can't be easier or more delicious.



Summer Potato Salad

4-5 cooked and cooled red potatoes, diced (use canned ones if you're in a hurry)
1 heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise (adjust more or less to taste)
pinch of kosher salt
a few grinds of black pepper
a dash of red pepper
1 tsp. of fresh, chopped italian parsley
1 tsp. of fresh, sliced garlic chives

Mix together well. Chill and serve proudly.