{MAKE IT HAPPEN MONDAY}

It’s time.

Our 4th Annual Team Gluten-Free Walk is coming up on Saturday, May 18th.

I need YOUR help.

I’ve vowed to GET A GRAND for the Celiac Disease Foundation – yes, $1,000 by May 18th. (and I’ve got a ways to go)

That’s where YOU come in.

Let’s make this happen.

It’s Monday.

The sun is out. (at least for now)

And I need you.

Every little bit helps.

Can you help me make it happen?

DONATE TODAY by clicking HERE!

Thank you in advance, my friends.

xoxo

 

 

Banana Nut Oatmeal Bites

In times like these, there aren’t always words.

I struggle to find a way to express the feelings of grief, frustration, anger, sadness, and helplessness from this week — from Boston to Texas, offering up prayers everyday.

But sometimes, when the world doesn’t make sense, baking does.

BANANA NUT OATMEAL BITES

2 very ripe bananas (like the stash I keep in the freezer)
⅓ cup nut butter of your choice: almond, peanut, sunflower seed for the nut-free crowd
⅔ cup applesauce
1 ½ cups certified gluten-free oats
2 tablespoons coconut flour
⅓ cup walnuts or other nuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon sea salt

Pre-heat oven to 350° and either use a Silpat to line baking sheets or parchment paper.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well to combine. Let the dough sit for a few minutes (the coconut flour really soaks up moisture) then stir again before dropping by spoonful onto prepared baking sheets. A 1 ½ tablespoon baking scoop works well and gives you a rounded little bite, but they don’t have to be perfect, a regular spoon works too.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until set and golden brown on the bottoms. (this may vary depending on what size you make yours) Remove from oven and allow to cool for several minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.

Have these “cookies” for breakfast — and feel good about it! (they taste just like mini banana breads!)

Sarah’s Notes:

• This recipe doubles easily — if you have extras, toss them in the freezer and take out for an on-the-go breakfast. 
• You can also use oat flour. The first time I made them, I used oats only and liked the texture, but then doubled the recipe this time, using oats and oat flour and am still loving them. My celiac sista was thinking these would be great finger foods for her twins (about to turn ONE, whaaaaaat?!?!) but wanting a version sans whole oats. You could use just oat flour instead of the oats as well.
• Ground flax is an optional add-in. For a double batch, I added 1 tablespoon.
• Chocolate chips will be going into the next batch.
• These aren’t super sweet, which I prefer for my breakfast, but if you’d like, you could add a tablespoon of honey or maple syrup to sweeten things up.
• If you are grain-free and not doing oats, you could use almond flour and additional coconut flour — play with the recipe and make it what works for YOU.

Sending light and love out into the Universe — there’s enough to go around for everyone.

{anything goes egg cups}

You may remember me telling you about our anniversary getaway to Angel Inn Bed and Breakfast in the fall. They (and the husband) went ALL out to serve me gluten-free goodness all weekend long. Everything in that photo is gluten-free. My first gluten-free crepe. And that egg cup? I couldn’t stop talking about them.

Even recreated them when we got home.

(not pictured: fresh mozzarella cheese and garden fresh herbs)

Not bad, right?

For whatever reason, I haven’t made them since. But I was getting sick of hard boiled eggs in the morning, so decided to put them on the menu again.

And although there are more fresh options in the summer and fall, these are the kind of eggs you can add pretty much anything to and make them work for you.

Last week when I made them, it was a little of everything.

It was leftover ham from Easter that we had diced up with onions, sweet potatoes, and celery. One with spinach added too. And the one on the right was scrambled up and had leftover quinoa in it. I’m telling you, anything can work.

 

Anything Goes Egg Cups

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 6-cup jumbo muffin tin with olive oil.

For the sunny side up version:

Farm fresh eggs (you can do 1-2 eggs per cup)
Fresh spinach
Thick sliced ham — meat is optional, these are anything goes
Pickled jalapenos
Salt & Pepper

Start by layer 1-2 pieces of ham in the bottom of the cups, if the pieces are large enough, you’ll only need one. (in this case, they were smaller, so I layered two) Top with a handful of spinach — feel free to squirt a little sriracha on the spinach too, if you like a little kick.

Crack 1-2 eggs on top of the bed of spinach and top with salt, pepper, and a jalapeno slice. If you’re like me, you want variety in the mornings, so let’s mix things up and do some scrambled too, yes?

For the scrambled version:

Farm fresh eggs (1-2 per cup)                                            Fresh spinach, roughly chopped
Feta cheese                                                                         Kalamata and/or green olives
Diced onion                                                                         Splash of milk of choice
Sriracha                                                                               Salt & Pepper

Whisk eggs, milk, and sriracha in a medium bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into greased muffin tin cups. (you can top with more olives or green onions)

For both versions:

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, this will depend on how many eggs used, it may take a bit longer if you use two eggs per cup. Because I reheat them during the week, I under cook them a bit, knowing I’ll be cooking them again later. Allow to cool for several minutes in the muffin tin to set, then store in air tight container in the fridge.

To reheat, pop them in the microwave for about a minute. I am crushing on mangoes lately, so they are my side of choice.

When you try them out, stop back and tell me the ingredients you decide to you use and how they turn out. 

{Gluten-Free Bread in the Breadmaker}

You saw in my post last week that my shiny new breadmaker arrived — one of the many generous prizes from the GF cookie contest. (you’ll also notice an increase in workout photos over on Instagram — this is a direct correlation to getting a breadmaker!)

I’m still learning the ins and outs of the machine, so there will be plenty more to come about making pizza crusts, rolls, even jam perhaps.

But for now, I thought a warm loaf of bread would be a way to end this week with a bang, and begin a weekend of family fun, food, and celebration.

Breadmaker Bread

adapted from Gluten Free Girl’s Crusty Boule recipe

3 ¼cups gluten-free flour mix*

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon guar gum**

1 ⅓ cups warm water

2 large eggs, room temp — place them in a bowl of warm water to speed up the process

2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons oil of choice (I used olive oil)

1 tablespoon honey

* I have used a variety of options successfully: brown rice, sorghum & tapioca starch, also a homemade all-purpose mix that included the last bits of pretty much every flour I had in the cupboard with some Cup4Cup, and today’s multigrain loaf was King Arthur Flour’s whole grain flour mix with extra tapioca flour. If you use a mix that already includes gums, do not add additional to the dough, it can become, well, gummy as a final product.

**instead of using xanthan or guar gum, you can also substitute 1 tablespoon of ground flax meal, combined with 2 tablespoons of boiling water, add this to the wet ingredients.

Directions

1. In a large bowl combine all of the dry ingredients, except the yeast — whisk together the flours, salt, and guar gum (or flax) and set the yeast to the side.

2. In a medium bowl, throughly whisk together the water, eggs, oil, and honey. (if you used the flax method, add that to the wet ingredients now.)

3. Pour the wet ingredients into the breadmaker. Don’t forget to put the little stirring blade in first, I learned this the hard way.

4. Carefully add the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients in the machine — you can easily do this by using a ¼ cup measuring scoop and gently scooping the dry ingredients in, creating a layer on top of the wet ingredients. Then, top the layer with the yeast.

5. Set your bread machine to the gluten-free setting and get yourself a rubber scraper. While the machine begins the mixing cycle, scrape down the sides of the pan, making sure all of the loose flour is incorporated into the dough. (skipping this step will often leave flour on top or the sides of the loaf, a common complaint of breadmaker newbies)

6. Let the magic happen. Your home will smell like fresh baked bread in no time. It will seem very gourmet. You may never want to purchase overpriced GF bread at the store again. All of this is good. Very good.

7. When the baking cycle is complete, REMOVE THE BREAD! Although there is a warming period at the end to keep things nice and toasty, I feel that this steams the bread too much, so I remove it right away and get it onto a cooling rack.

8. If you are like me and want a nice crusty top to the bread, you’ll need to follow this additional step, the breadmaker won’t give you a browned top like baking it in the oven would. But it’s EASY to do — just rub a little butter on top, (it will be simple to melt since the bread is still hot) wrap the sides (but leave the top open) with foil, and put under the broiler for a few minutes. CLICK HERE to see my demo of this step.

9. Let the bread cool completely (if you can!) before cutting and serving. Enjoy every bite.

Notes from Sarah:

• Some people are not fans of leaving the mixing blade in while the loaf bakes, feel free to remove it after the stirring cycle has completed. (be careful, the machine gets hot) I just leave the blade in and remove it after it has cooled — gluten-free breads can be sensitive and I don’t like to mess with them. Plus, there will still be a small hole in the bottom of the loaf where the blade attaches in the pan, so I don’t feel it’s worth the work. Totally up to you. 
• You don’t have to bake the loaf in the breadmaker! You can remove it just before the bake cycle and shape it into your loaf pan of choice. My husband has his eye on a sriracha loaf, so we’ll be experimenting with that soon.
• My goal this week was to just get a feel for the breadmaker, the basics, and then we’ll go from there and who knows where we might end up! Please comment below if you have other tips to share with us. And if you make the bread, come back and tell me how it went!
• Remember that not all gluten-free flours behave the same. You want a wet dough, but not runny. If your dough batter is too runny, just add some more flour in, even after the cycle has started to mix. For the multigrain loaf, I knew it didn’t look right, so I ended up adding a bit more flour to the mix.
• If your breadmaker doesn’t have a gluten-free setting — that’s okay! There are a few options: you can check your owner’s manual – some machines will allow you to override the settings and reset them yourself to include a mix, rise, bake cycle. (no second rise is necessary) You can also use a “rapid” setting that some machines have. The bread is done when it has reached 190 degrees internally. If you take it out and it isn’t quite done, you can always put it into a 350 degree oven, no pan needed, to finish it off.
• There are endless possibilities for add-ins to this bread — garlic or chives, olives or cheese, play with the recipe and make it your own.

If you’re a jam girl like me, slather it on.

It’s perfect for sammies. (open or closed)

Or just eat it plain. Still a little warm. Fresh or toasted, you’re in for a treat!

I’ll be back with a “week in review” photos post later this weekend — I wouldn’t want you to miss out on the Easter photos — word has it, my mother-in-law is making lemon bars (yes!!!!!) gluten-free style, a new recipe using almond flour.

Have a JOYful weekend!

xoxo

Gluten-Free in MKE: Schroeter’s Gluten Free Bakeshop

This post is part of the #glutenfreeinMKE series where I share my dining out experiences, local products to check out, and just general gluten-free goodness in and around Milwaukee.

The star of today’s show…

Schroeter’s Gluten Free Bakeshop’s pizza crusts.

I was lucky enough to score one at our last GF Get Together — Schroeter’s GF Bake Shop has always been generous in their donations to our group!

I’m a big fan of pre-baking, even when it’s not instructed or required. Do I have other crispy crust fans in the crowd? A pizza stone works wonders for this step. (be sure to put the pizza stone in the oven while you pre-heat, then just slide the crust onto the stone and bake until lightly browned)

You can go wild with toppings — I was working with the limited likings of my two best buddies, they were visiting and this was their “lunch-on-the-road” treat for the trip back to Minnesota. They are big pepperoni fans, so pepperoni it was!

After you pre-bake the crust, smother it in your sauce of choice (We used Mid’s, our new go-to sauce… my Mamasita stocked up at Pick ‘n Save before she left.) Then, cheese of choice.

Insider pizza-extraordinaire tip: a mixture of cheeses is the way to go — last time we made homemade pizzas at my sister’s house, she added some pepper jack, why didn’t I think of that? Gave the pizza a little kick.

Would you look at that perfect crust? Crispy. A little color. (my husband says color = flavor!) Bubbly cheese. YUM!

Insider pauntie tip: (pauntie = parent-like knowledge from having so many kiddos in your life + super cool auntie) Kids love to mix it up — cut things into mini pieces or shapes, serve up snacks in muffin liners, call Potato Leek soup Mashed Potato Soup. Trust me.

Yes, it’s in the window, we needed it to cool fast so we could package it up.

You’ll notice the mini triangles are missing — Mamasita and I had to make sure it was good. We wouldn’t want to send them off with a not-up-to-par lunch. Right?!   Funny story: I set aside several pieces for us to have after the crew took off on their road trip… and when my mama and I went to dive into the snack after they left? There was one little piece left. (somebody with greedy fingers got away with my secret stash, but I can’t blame them — luckily I was munching on them as I packaged them up!)

This pizza was “the best pizza ever,” as Chef Carter put it. And we all know the opinion of a six year old is what really matters. He’s picky when it comes to his gluten-free top picks, and these pizza crusts made his list.

You can find them locally at: A Gluten Free Frenzy, Metcalfe’s, Gluten Free Trading Company and Greater Grains in Racine. They are hoping to get the crusts into Ned’s Pizza, The Trysting Place and other local restaurants. Not at a store near you? Ask your local store manager to contact Schroeter’s to place an order and check out their site to find all of their other delicious products near you. (try the whoopie pies!)

Anyone else tried these pizza crusts? What did you think?

{my week in photos: the view from here}

 

It’s funny how we rush through our days, anxious to get to the next event, take another call, send a follow up email. So rare that we take a moment to just BE. I was in the exact opposite position driving home from the cottage — I wanted time to stand still, rewind actually. Have another week up north where there is no phone ringing, reception is iffy to even check your email, and the biggest plan of the day is deciding what to cook and which movie to watch.

I want to go (back) to there.

We did all kinds of crazy spring cleaning over the weekend, including cleaning the carpets and “shoveling” the roof. You would not believe the snow we had up there.

The kind of snow that is too deep for the ATV to handle. (he had to dig himself out)

The kind of snow that is perfect for snowshoeing — if only I had dug these out BEFORE trekking out to fill the bird feeder.

 

 

Old Fashioneds, however, can cure any and all sore muscle issues.

The only downside was that when we arrived late Friday night (after dinner and drinks at Jungle Jim’s — where they stock GF beer, cider, and cook for me safely every single time) we had NO HEAT. It was 43 degrees inside and the snow was coming down outside. Brrr!

So we camped out by the fire and made the most of it with a Band of Brothers marathon.

 

After a weekend of cleaning, we celebrated the wee bit of Irish in us with another trip to Jungle Jim’s to hang with the locals and have another Voo Doo unwich. Before heading out, we toasted to a clean cottage in the Irish mugs from Mamasita. (we had no green beer, but Mark loves Brussels sprouts, so we got a little green in there) 

 

Our Monday morning “commute” through the National Forest, just for fun.

 

 

 

 

 

We eased back into real life doing Taco Thursday with the in-laws. Mamasita’s salsa was a hit as usual and we wowed them with both regular and venison tacos in a marinade that had my mother-in-law believing it was just steak. If you aren’t sure about venison, try marinading it or serving it with a sauce — my first encounters with it weren’t my favorite, but now I have become a big fan and look forward to it every year. 

For dessert: angel food cake with strawberry sauce and real whipped cream.

I had been holding on to a gift card from my mama for Andrea’s Gluten-Free Bakery in MO — one of the first places I fell in love with at the GF Expo in Chicago over five years ago. They are now moving on to bigger and better things with a larger facility, but will only be selling their products in grocery stores, including Hy-Vee, so be sure to ask for their products if you have one in your area. (hint, hint to my celiac sista) So I splurged on a sweet treat and stocked up on soft dinner rolls for Easter — which I am over the moon excited for because my sister and all the boys are coming!

Want an easy way to make a fancy dessert? Cut the cake, bars, cookies, whatever you are serving, into cubes and coat it with strawberry or chocolate sauce. For this, I had some strawberries with sugar frozen and just heated them in a sauce pan to thicken it up, cooled slightly and poured over the cake. Then impress them with real whipped cream — just heavy whipping cream, a little sweetener of your choice, and a few drops of vanilla. Then mix at high speed with the whisk attachment until thick and creamy. Dollop on top. Serve and enjoy the moments of silence while they soak in the sweet goodness.

(I saved the other cake for when my best buddies come.)

I used to think the only way to have flowers in the house was to have someone give them to you — and Mark does from time to time, but why not just pick them out myself? Then I get my favorite color every time.

Isn’t she pretty? It’s my brand new bread machine, one of the top prizes for my 3rd place finish in the GF Cookie Swap contest. 

I decided to go basic (I haven’t used a bread machine in years!) and adapt Gluten-Free Girl’s bread recipe to the bread machine. We have been wanting to make her crusty boule  again, it went over well with “Team GF” a couple of years ago for Christmas, so I figured it couldn’t be that hard to convert it over. And it just so happened that Autumn Makes and Does thought the same thing — so between Shauna’s recipe, Autumn’s notes, tips from around the web, and the user manual, I made something happen.

 

Bread!

 

It’s cooling as I type. The aroma in here between that bread and tonight’s dinner is making my mouth water. If when it turns out perfectly and we slice it up for beef sammies later, I’ll be back with the recipe. Cross your fingers and stay tuned. (and if you are already a whiz with the bread machine — can you tell me your secrets?)

Have a JOYful weekend!

xoxo

 

 

{my week in photos: the view from here}

#springbreakupnorth

Mark just called and said he’ll be here in ten minutes — so let’s make this short and sweet shall we? We’re headed up north for spring break!

But before I hit the road, here’s what the week looked like.

 

 

My newest breakfast obsession — avocado toast with an egg and drizzled balsamic. Try it!

Siggi’s sent us coupons for free yogurt for the last GF Get Together. (thanks, guys!) Perfect pairing for some “granilla” as Chef Carter calls it.

After coming to the sad realization that I was out of hot cocoa for a RumChata Chocolate... I took matters into my own hands and made some chai tea. A ChaiChata. Problem solved.

Some of our best creations come from cleaning out the fridge — like these “Pizza Tostadas” we whipped up this week. Just use corn tortillas and a skillet. Get the tortillas heating up, add your favorite pizza sauce (we used Mid’s) and toppings, let the tortilla get crispy and the cheese melt and BOOM. DONE. Dinner is served! Easy-peasy — my kind of weeknight meal.

It was Mark’s birthday this week and he was actually home to celebrate it! Our dear friend made brownies for him — and of course she did them gluten-free style so I could have a taste too. (she used Betty Crocker’s mix — thanks, LT!)

And celebrate we did. I took him to Circa, which ironically is the old Olive Pit, where we had our rehearsal dinner before our wedding. Big changes over there, it’s lovely inside. I’ll be writing more on it later, but I am still talking about the food!

I may sneak away to the little local coffee shop early next week, but until then you’ll find me in front of the fire with a book and a cup of coffee, tea, or a ChaiChata. (bee-ing so relaxed!)

Have a JOYful weekend!

xoxo