Peruvian Roast Chicken with Red Potatoes

One of my favorite bloggers, Carrie Forbes of Ginger Lemon Girl is releasing her first cookbook: The Everything Gluten-Free Slowcooker Cookbook. I already have mine on pre-order.  I'm all for recipes that I can throw in a crockpot first thing in the morning, so I can have dinner ready when I get home.  And I really love Carrie's recipes, she was one of the very first bloggers that I followed when I changed my diet.

I got the chance to try one of her recipes from her upcoming cookbook and it was pretty darn good.  I made her Peruvian Roast Chicken and Red Potatoes yesterday for dinner.  It had just the right balance of spices and definitely changed up my regular roast chicken enough for me to really enjoy it again.  The chicken is served with a simple mustard-lime sauce and can I just say that the leftover chicken with that sauce makes for a fantastic sandwich the next day! Really, it was quite fantastic.

 

Go check out her blog and her new cookbook! Congrats, Carrie on your first cookbook!

Another Book Review...Amazing Indian Food

As I said in a previous post, I've gotten a few new cookbooks and have been enjoying them.  I tested out The Indian Slow Cooker: 50 Healthy, Easy, Authentic Recipes. Anupy Singla was done the impossible, and has taken recipes that I love and converted them to the crockpot.  I've made her cauliflower and potatoes and rice pudding, and both were amazing.  What I love about Indian food, besides the amazing aromas and tastes, is the fact that it's naturally gluten-free and very easily converted to dairy-free when necessary (it's also basically soy-free, too).  It makes dinner so much easier when I don't have to convert things, so I am very grateful to the cultures around the world that do not use gluten containing foods...thank you for your diversity and sharing that with us!

Book Review + Easy Strawberry Frosting

So, I splurged and bought 4 new cookbooks that I have been wanting: Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook, Gluten-Free Baking Classics, The Gluten-free Almond Flour Cookbook, and The Indian Slow Cooker: 50 Healthy, Easy, Authentic Recipes.  This would be the reason I haven't been posting, I have been trying their recipes, instead of creating my own.  But I just made some really fantastic cupcakes using Cybele Pascal's recipe in her Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook.  I really love this book, because I don't have to convert anything for my family, she has our bases covered.  THANK YOU, Cybele!  I can't leave well enough alone, so I did use my flour blend, instead of her's, but they were amazing chocolate cupcakes--amazing, they were really that good!  I love this book so far, and this recipe is proof enough for me to keep trying her recipes, because they work and they are delicious.

All of her recipes are free from the top 8 allergens and gluten, she also goes through and helps you with how to use the substitutes for them, I actually really appreciated the eggs and dairy section.  No, we don't have an egg issue, but I know someone who does, and I want a better understanding of how to cook without eggs, so I can. :)  She has great explanations and great pictures that make you want to try the food right then, and this recipe (chocolate cupcakes) worked, which makes me excited to try more.  This book gets 5 stars from me.  Thank you, Cybele, for making my life more enjoyable!

To go along with these delicious cupcakes, I made a simple strawberry buttercream frosting:

Strawberry Frosting

1 cup palm oil shortening
1/4-1/2 cup strawberry puree
1 16 oz package powdered sugar

Mix ingredients together until smooth, pipe or spread on cupcakes or eat straight out of the bowl . ;)

Catching up

I feel like I've been MIA lately.  I have had a cold and have just been exhausted...so, I'm behind on my posting. First up, I got a humburger bun pan (I think they are actually called muffin top pans) for Christmas and I put it to the test and I love it! The buns turned out the perfect size and height!  We definitely enjoyed our hamburgers that night.

 

 I have tried a few new recipes from Gluten-Free Baking Classics by Annalise Roberts.  She also has has a website with recipes, too.  The hamburger buns above were from her dinner rolls recipe, the bun recipe from her website is quite similar, just different ratios of the sorghum and millet.  I, of course, used So Delicious Coconut Milk instead of regular milk. They were pretty tasty, my one complaint was that the crumbled horribly the next day.  Fansastic and light fresh from the oven, so make just enough for what you need.

Yesterday, we made her pizza crust, and that was decent, too.  It was not as heavy as the pizza crust I make using Silvana Nardone's recipe from Cooking for Isaiah, but I like both of them for different reasons...so I guess I'll just have to experiment and combine the two. :)

So, for far this has been another decent cookbook.  There still is conversion to make the recipes dairy-free and soy-free, but that's not hard to do.

Next up, Katz Gluten Free Bakery sent me some of there products as samples to try.  Everything they make is gluten-free and dairy-free! We received their Chocolate Chip Cookies, Sliced Challah Bread, Dinner Rolls (Small Challah), and Cinnamon Rugelech.  By far, the boys favorite was the chocolate chip cookies, they couldn't stop eating them. And I do have to say they were quite delicious.  The Cinnamon Rugelech was also quite delicious.  It was like a delicate cinnamon roll...more like pastry, because rolls are heavier. :)  The challah bread definitely had that egg taste to it, my little one couldn't eat it because it has soy flour, but I've been eating it, and it makes great sandwiches.  The rolls we have not had yet (they also have soy flour), but I'm sure they are pretty similar to the bread.  Overall, the food was pretty good, the prices are decent, especially when they have free shipping sales (so, watch for that).

Cooking with Isaiah Part 2 and the best pizza ever, and I mean it this time!

Okay, so I have already reviewed the cookbook, Cooking for Isaiah, but I am still testing her recipes, and they are so good I have to bring this cookbook up again.  I made the banana pancakes with cinnamon goo (basically cinnamon syrup), and it was literally eating banana bread in pancake form with this warm, gooey, cinnamon syrup that just made it perfect comfort food.  Sadly, all of my boys (husband included) were being picky that night and they ate regular gf pancakes--they definitely missed out.  But when I made pizza, it was a different story.

She has mastered the gluten-free pizza crust.  Really, I think the key is using the pizza stone.  I finally pulled mine out that I got when I was married, and realized why these stones exist...if you don't have a stone, go buy one, now, I mean it!  Her crust is very simple and straight forward and it came out fantastic, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside---and, and this is a big and, it was fantastic the next day for leftovers.  Not just okay, it was actually fantastic! It wasn't in the least bit soggy, like every other gluten free crust I've tried, it was still crispy, and chewy on the inside.

Really, go out and buy the book, this recipe you will use over and over and over again!  And while you're out, buy a pizza stone if you don't have one. :)

"Cooking for Isaiah" -- Book Review

I have fallen in love...with a cookbook.  My wonderful, wonderful Mom has helped me so much with this diet change.  She got me a Nutrimill, so I can make my own flours.  She also but a ton (and I mean she really did give me a lot) of brown rice flour, tapioca starch, and potato starch.  She has really been so supportive in so many ways!  I love her!  Thanks, Mom!  Anyway, to add to everything she's done for me, she bought me this cookbook.  Cooking for Isaiah is a gluten-free, dairy-free cookbook written my a mom who is cooking for her son.  That is exactly what I need!  She also uses rice milk, shortening and oils, so every recipe is very easily converted to soy-free, yay!!!

So far, I've tried her Cinnamon Toasted Waffles, Double Cornbread, Sloppy Joe Potato Skins, and Load Baked Potato Soup.  Tonight I'm making her Banana Pancakes with Cinnamon Goo...is your mouth watering yet, because it should be. :)

The Cinnamon Toasted Waffles are better than any cinnamon toast I've ever had...I gorged myself on them.  The boys were a little more picky, but I know as they get used to the new diet, they will definitely eat these. 

The double cornbread was so good out of the oven, and even 3 days after the fact (I'm eating some right now).  I made them as muffins instead of a loaf and it worked perfectly, but like any cornbread when it's cooled it crumbles a bit.  My only complaint was when they were fresh out of the oven, you could smell the apple cider vinegar that was in it...she used the vinegar to sour the rice milk (mock buttermilk).  You couldn't taste the vinegar, just smell it...and the smell went away once the bread cooled.  It was enough of a smell, though, that my little ones refused to try it, so I may just leave the vinegar out next time, or swap it with white vinegar or lemon juice.

When I made the sloppy joe potato skins, I simplified it....We had left over roast from Sunday dinnner, so I shredded that and added Manwich (yes, manwich is safe for our family, and I wanted to use up what was in the pantry).  I thought it was soo good, but I think I'm the only one that did.  I really love how she used potato skins in place of bread, genious, and scrumptious.  So, I may be doing this for tuna melts, and chicken salad, and much, much more. :)

I had baked potato innards left from making the potato skins, so of course I had to try her baked potato soup.  It was pretty good, but really it was even better as left overs the next day.  I'm not kidding, let the flavors mature in the fridge overnight (with the bacon), and you will have a really, really, really yummy soup.

One thing, or really two things that I really love with this cookbook is her recipes for all purpose flour and pancake mix.  I've come across other recipes, and I had a basic one that I used...but I never actually prepped the flour beforehand and stored it as an 'all purpose flour' mix.  With having these blends, she has made it so her recipes can be used by anyone.  If you're not gluten-free, just substitute regular all purpose flour! :)  And for those of us that are gluten-free, really make up a batch of the flour, stick it in the fridge, then when you need flour, you don't need to weigh out 4 different flours, just one, yay!!  The only change I made to her flour blend is that she uses white rice flour, I used brown rice flour, and it worked very well.

I would put up all of the recipes that I tried, but really you should just go out and get the cookbook, it's so worth it.  Whether you're gluten-free, dairy-free, or neither, it is so worth every penny you spend on it.  And it's a mom trying to feed her son and her family, so support her! :)