French Onion Soup with Homemade Gluten Free Croutons

Here's a picture of the croutons before I added the cheese and baked it.

Out of the oven and ready to eat.

This stinky cold gave me a good reason to make The Pioneer Woman's French Onion Soup and it is so wonderful but since I am going Gluten Free I made homemade croutons from loaf of Pamela's Bread Mix bread I made yesterday in the bread machine.  I added a little garlic powder and sea salt to them and they were very good.

Paleo Coconut Cake Recipe

Just out of the oven

With icing and a candle

Manny loved blowing out the candle

Morgan's birthday is a few days away-a true leap year baby February 29, 2000- and we did a trial on this Coconut Cake recipe and it was so yummy.  I cut the recipe in half to try it and I wish I made the whole thing.  The girls loved it too.

I copied it from a cook book my friend brought down Friday and I can't remember the name-I think its Make it Paleo: Over 200 Grain Free Recipies For Any Occasion by Bill Staley- but I will give them credit for it when I find out.  Recipe below is not halved but the full one.

Coconut Cake-

3/4 cup of coconut flour, sifted
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
10 eggs
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup pure maple syrup-not pancake syrup
1 cup melted coconut oil
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

Sift together first three ingredients
Mix-eggs.vanilla, maple syrup, and melted coconut oil
Add dry to wet and blend till smooth then stir in shredded coconut

Pour in 2 greased 9 inch pans

Bake at 325 for 35 mins. or till tests done

I iced mine with a frosting I made of cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar.  I wanted to try and make powdered sugar out of some maple sugar I have but am just too darn tired with this cold to try it today :(

I'm Starving...

Note the beautiful, made in Poland cup I got at TJ Maxx

Ok, I'm not really starving of course but I'm really hungry cause I was up a lot lastnight dancing around with Manny and trying to get him to settle down and go back to sleep. He kept waking up and pulling at his tongue and putting his fingers in his mouth. And crying and screaming uncontrollably. I felt so bad for him. Especially because he's not talking that well yet and he couldn't tell me what was wrong. He was trying but I just couldn't figure it out.
Back to breakfast, since I was so hungry I decided to make french toast with cream cheese and apple compote.
I made mine from the sweet bread recipe loaf of Pamelas bread I made yesterday. Did that make sense? It was really good. I didn't miss the regular bread at all.

Roasted Vegetables

I made these today for lunch and they were delicious.
Cube-
Yellow squash
Red onion
Yellow pepper
Carrots
Cherry tomato
Broccoli - add after about 10 mins cause it cooks faster
These are just the veggies I had on hand but you could use any, I love to use eggplant but didn't have any :(
Mince a few cloves of garlic
Now drizzle and mix all with olive or coconut oil and sea salt and spread in baking sheets and roast in oven at 425 stirring often till roasted.

No Cavities!

Marlee went to the dentist today and didn't have any cavities. I'm so proud of her. She earned a new shirt. Yeah Marlee!

Morgans Little Birthday Get Together

Are You Gluten Free?

If so, did you know this little piece of information?  I didn't.  I'm new to all of this but what I just read really upset me.  Ok, so gluten is the main protein in wheat and it effects your blood sugar among other things and a side effect is weight gain, especially around the middle(visceral fat) so to avoid this I went out and bought 2 different brands of GF bread I have been using Pamela's GF baking mix and they both have starches in them as replacements and these starches are worse for your blood sugar than the gluten.  These starches are- corn, rice, potato, or tapioca.   You can read more about this in the book Wheat Belly on pages 72-74.   Anyhow, I did find that Pamela's bread and flour mix doesn't have these so now I'm going to give it a try.  I'll let ya know how it is.

Ingredients

Sorghum Flour, Tapioca Flour, Sweet Rice Flour, Brown Rice Flour, Organic Natural Evaporated Cane Sugar, Chicory Root, White Rice Flour, Millet Flour, Honey and Molasses; Rice Bran, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum, Yeast Packet.

Gluten Free Breakfast Idea #1

Portabella mushroom bake-
I came up with this from what I had available-
Large mushroom cap
Canadian bacon
Egg
Sun dried tomato
Cheese
First I grilled the mushroom in a buttered skillet
Then I put it in an oven safe dish and put the canadian bacon slices-I use Jones from Costco, no yucky nitrates- on top then the sun dried tomatoes-Trader Joe's sells a nice bag for $1.99-next I fried an egg over easy and put it on top then topped it with some yummy Kerrygold cheese. I should have cooked it a little longer but I was starving.

My Vegan Day

As I have mentioned since today is the first day of the Great Fast I wont eat any meat or dairy along with the not eating gluten so besides being gluten free I had to be vegan as well.  I think I ate pretty good.  This morning I had gluten free toast with almond butter and distilled maple water.  For lunch it was rice noodles with garlic and onion.  I snacked all day on nuts, vacuum fried pineapple and freeze dried strawberries.  Now for dinner I just had a salad of romaine lettuce, green onions, mandarin oranges, and candied almonds with a homemade dressing of oil, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.  With it I had a bowl of lentil vegetable soup from Trader Joe's that Manny just loved.  I have to say what I missed most today was a cup of coffee from our new Keurig coffee maker.  But there is no way I could have coffee without cream.

Starting Weight is.......

140 lbs!  Ugh, I have gained about 5 lbs back since I ate so many wheat based products this last 2 weeks cause I knew I was stopping today.  Pizza, hoagies, cakes and cookies.  You don't really realize how many things have wheat in them until you try and stop eating it.
Oh my gosh, I just measured my waist right now- right above my hips and below my belly button and it is 39 and 1/2 inches!  That's just ridiculous for not having a baby in there and not one since 2 years ago.  I know I have carried 5 babies to term and that my belly is stretched but, come on, I'm not gonna live this way, its not healthy.. 
OK, so to sum up my "wheat belly",
140 lbs- weight (I'm about 5'5")
39 1/2 inches- waist at rest

I can't believe I'm posting this but it should keep me accountable!

22 inches- thigh
12 inches- upper arm

Now I'm not really going to "diet" or even do much exercise- even though I should- I'm just going to give up wheat and gluten and fast from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays for the Great Fast (Great Lent) and see what happens.  I want to FEEL better more than look better.  I have 5 beautiful children to take care of and I want to be at my best for them and my husband. 

Yummy Snack Mix- Gluten Free

Since I'm not eating gluten I needed a go to healthy snack so Morgan, Manny and I ran to Trader Joe's to pick up a few things.  They have a print out of all their gluten free items.  It was very helpful.  When I came home I made my own little trail mix.  I mixed raw organic pecans and walnuts with chocolate covered raisins and dried cranberries.  Then I sprinkled on some organic shredded coconut from Tropical Traditions.   It is so good and good for ya too.

Review- Vacuum Fried Pineapple

Pinewood Derby Winner!

Mason brought home 2 trophies from his 1st Pinewood Derby.  He got 1st in his pack and 3rd overall.  He did great and we are so proud of him and his behavior.  And a special thanks to Uncle Jay for the awesome car.

Getting his 1st place trophy

Shaking hands before a race.

All the cars

Admiring his trophy

Manny and Daddy Enjoying the New Couch

We Have the Vocation Icon

What a great way to start the Great Fast

Wheat Belly

Wow, I have been reading this book and I highly recommend it.  It has inspired me to give up wheat and gluten during the Great Fast.  Its not going to be easy considering I LOVE bread, baked goods, pizza, you name it.  But I'm gonna do it and try to track my progress here to help keep myself accountable.  I'm going to do my weight and measurements in the morning and try to resist the temptation of weighing myself often and only do it once a week.  I hope I'm much healthier physically and spiritually by the end of the Fast.  If anyone has any good gluten free recipes please comment with them.

Carpets in, Birds out!

Here's some before and after pictures.

Melt in your Mouth Buttermilk Pancakes

I can't even describe how light and airy these are.  I added cinnamon chips to half and they don't even need syrup, just a little whipped cream. 

Recipe from Martha Stewart- thanks Martha!

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1/2 teaspoon for griddle

Whisk together your dry and then whisk in your wet till just mixed- a bit lumpy.  

Basement Remodel

As you can see I'm not very good at putting these pictures in order.  I wanted the bottom pictures on the top since they were they before we primed and painted but, oh well.

These sorry looking couches are now out for garbage.  Can't wait to get new ones!

This is the color we finally decided on- Lemongrass

This is what we uncovered under the wallpaper.

They didn't prime the walls before they wallpapered :(

What a mess

This one should have been somewhere in the middle for when I started priming?

 

Basement Waiting for Carpet

Can you see th bread on the window sill?  Trying to catch that bird.

Working on the Basement

We have been working on fixing up the basement so that we will all enjoy going down there.  As I have mentioned before we were so blessed by my husbands Parish to be offered their Parish house to rent and we are just so happy here.  We have been here a year and a half and have been wanting to fix up the finished part of the basement.  It really needed new carpet and wallpaper.  The wallpaper was falling off and the carpet was really dirty and had no padding so if Manny fell he really hurt his head on the concrete floor.  So my wonderful father and I painted the walls after we took down the wall paper- a really pretty Lemongrass green

that looks so go with the dark wood waynes coating.  Now today the men are coming to lay the new carpet.  We also painted the hall way going down the stairs Dover White.  It looks so nice and clean now.  Its amazing what a little fresh paint can do.  As I am typing this I can hear the black/grey bird flying around down there that managed to somehow get in yesterday so I'm gonna go down and attempt to catch him again before he really hurts himself...wish me luck!

Sour Cream Blueberry Bunt Cake

 

 

 

Here's the recipe from Taste of Home-

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
• FILLING:
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• GLAZE:
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 to 3 tablespoons 2% milk

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, beating well after each addition.
• Spoon a third of the batter into a greased and floured 10-in. tube pan. Combine brown sugar, flour and cinnamon; sprinkle half over batter. Top with half of the berries. Repeat layers. Top with remaining batter.
• Bake at 350° for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Combine glaze ingredients; drizzle over warm coffee cake. Yield: 10-12 servings.
• I can't even tell you how wonderful this cake was..... 
• Other than using organic ingredients I didn't change the recipe

Isn't She Lovely?

My wonderful husband let me get 2 more Le Creuset pots! I'm giddy with happiness. Now I have enough to pass down to all 3 girls. I bought these as reduced again seconds at Marshalls but they are perfectly fine. They were like 75% off of what they are at Williams Sanoma.

Swiffering My Walls

While some of you may do this weekly it's something I have never done before, should have but didn't. I'm so happy I did. I didn't realize how dusty walls got. I remember my mom and grandmother taking about washing down their walls but I didn't think we needed to do that anymore since all the mills are shut down and there isnt coal soot all over.
I think another one of the benefits of homeschooling is our children see us clean and learn by helping us. My house was always clean growing up but I didn't always see it happening. My mom would do most of the cleaning while we were in school which made sense but I have to say I went off to collage and didn't know how to wash a load of laundry. We did have our basic chores like other children do but not the nitty gritty of house cleaning even though my mom and her mom kept immacualty clean houses. So today we are Swiffering the walls ;)

Apple Squares

I can't remember if I had posted these before but they are worth a second post anyway. My gram used to make these for us all the time and they are wonderful, especially for those of us who like more crust than filling in our pie. When I saw Johnnygold apples for a great price at Costco this weekend they were the first things to pop in my head. I have also been looking for a way to try out this new organic soft wheat pastry flour I found in bulk at the wonderful Market District Giant Eagle. I'm so excited! Can't wait till they are cool enough to eat.