Jun18

Chocolate Cake with Banana Cream Cheese Frosting

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Chocolate Cake with Banana Cream Cheese Frosting

We have a GIG meeting tonight. Namaste Foods was kind enough to provide me with a box of goodies to share, with a bunch of recipes and other great stuff. Today I made a chocolate cake with the Chocolate Cake Mix they sent me. I used one of the recipes on their website to spice it up a bit and I had a couple of bananas I needed to use, so this was perfect. I chose this State Fair Chocolate Banana Cake recipe off their website and then made my own frosting. I can’t take credit for the cake, because it’s mostly just their cake mix, but I did come up with the frosting creation myself, and I have to say, it’s AMAZING!! If you love cream cheese frosting, you’re going to die when you try this.

Check out their cake recipe and here’s the frosting I made. Oh, and also, I just used Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips in the cake because I didn’t have white chocolate chips, nor do I like it. It made too much though. I think if I would have put it all on, it would be WAY too rich.

Banana Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
1 very ripe medium/large banana, mashed
12 oz cream cheese, room temperature (1 1/2 packages)
2 cups powdered sugar
4 Tbsp butter, room temperature (1/2 of a stick)
1 tsp vanilla (I used white vanilla, as I didn’t want to change the color, but brown works too.)
a pinch or two of nutmeg

Directions
In a medium bowl, mash the banana well. Add cream cheese and butter and blend with hand mixer or stand mixer if you really want to use that. Add in vanilla and nutmeg and then add powdered sugar. You might have to play around with consistency, as you probably know if you’ve made cream cheese frosting before. You can add less cream cheese and less sugar and it won’t make quite as much too. You’ll figure it out. ;)

I will let you know what everyone thought of it after tonight. I am not a chocolate lover, but I will try a piece. I won’t base the review on my taste/opinion though. :)

Here’s the cake all frosted up, and I’ll try to remember to take a picture or two tonight when we cut it.

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I am also making the BBQ Cowboy Casserole I made a few weeks ago. Here’s the recipe link for that too if you want to give it a try. I’m going to make it with less BBQ sauce and less sugar this time and see how it comes out.

This is the BBQ sauce I use. It’s the best/healthiest stuff I could find with NO corn. We all know how everything has corn syrup or HFCS in it.

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Jun17

Paleo Apple Muffin in a Mug

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Paleo Apple Muffin in a Mug

I came across this recipe on Pinterest and thought I’d try it this morning. It’s an interesting and simple concept.

I had everything, except for the walnuts, which I just switched to almonds instead. I also made more ‘struesel’ topping than the recipe calls for. It would basically be a sliver of an apple you’d use to get a tablespoon, so I did chop a bit more of both apple and almonds.

The only things I would/did change is that I cooked it for an extra 30 seconds (for a total of 1 minute 40 seconds) because it looked and felt too wet still, and I would add a bit more maple syrup. It needed a little more sweetness in my opinion. Otherwise, it’s great. I would totally make this again. I would bet kids would love this too.

So here is what I did.

Paleo Apple Muffin in a Mug

Ingredients
Muffin
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
¼ tsp Vanilla
1 tsp maple syrup (would add a bit more)
3 Tbsp almond flour
½ tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

Streusel Topping
About 2 Tbsp apple, finely chopped
About 1 Tbsp almonds, finely chopped
pinch of cold butter

Directions – microwave
Melt the butter in a microwave safe mug. Whisk in the applesauce, egg, vanilla and maple syrup until well combined. Add almond meal, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt and stir for about 30 seconds.  Add streusel topping (optional) and microwave for 1 minute, 40 seconds. Let cool for a few minutes and enjoy!

 **For streusel topping, I just dotted the butter on the top of the muffin batter and then dropped the pieces of apple and almond mixture on top of it. It worked perfectly fine like that.

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Here are all the ingredients I used.

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Here is the before picture, with the batter and topping all ready to go.

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Here is the finished product. It really is a simple ‘treat’ that doesn’t seem all that unhealthy. Enjoy!

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Jun16

Say Cheez pasta meal

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Say Cheez pasta meal

Howdy all! I know I haven’t been blogging much lately. It’s been hectic here, but here’s my ‘story’ for today.

I hate to do this because Namaste Foods has been so great to me in sending me stuff to try and blog about, sending me stuff for our GIG meetings, AND sponsoring my latest giveaway, but in being honest, I have to say what I thought about the pasta meal.

I had tried some of their products in the past and do like the spice cake mix, among others, but had never tried the pasta meals. I have only had pasta twice now in the past year, so I was actually looking forward to trying the Say Cheez meal, plus, because I know from how I feel when I eat it that I have issues with corn, I was SUPER excited about their corn free products. It wasn’t something I remembered from before.

My nephews spent the week with us this past week, so one day for lunch I thought I’d make the ‘mac n’ cheese’ and hot dogs because I knew they’d be fine with that. I already wasn’t too thrilled when I opened the package and saw what the “sauce” looked like in the packet, but I gave it a whirl. I do have to say, the pasta was great. And that’s where it ends. The sauce was not appealing at all. For starters, you are supposed to mix the packet with hot water and oil. ICK!! I understand they do this because it’s also supposed to be dairy/casein free as well, but I did mix it with a little milk instead. It was still icky. We all ate it, but the flavor wasn’t good, nor was the texture of the sauce. It has little chunks of something in it that are not pleasant at all. It became a struggle to get the boys to finish it. :(

Again, I don’t like to say bad things about products, especially when they’re given to me for free, but I would rather they hear what I have to say and maybe make changes than lie. I also don’t want people to go out and buy something that I recommend if I’m not honest about what I thought about it.

Here’s to hoping the chocolate cake mix is amazing! I’m going to make that for the meeting on Tuesday.

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Jun14

And the Winner is…..

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And the Winner is…..

Congratulations to Victoria E. for winning the Namaste Goodie bag. I will be emailing you and then you should be hearing from Namaste, as they will be the ones sending the package.

Thanks to all for participating!!

I’ll try to keep having giveaways every so often, so stay tuned.

 

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Jun11

Gluten Free Brownies

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Gluten Free Brownies

Day 2 of a migraine and it’s not pretty. I’m all out of sorts. It’s a good thing I don’t have a lot to do today.

But, my nephews are coming to stay with us for the rest of the week today. I wanted to have a treat for them to have, so I decided to make brownies and frost them with a cream cheese frosting. Here’s the recipe.

Gluten Free Brownies

Ingredients
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate (4-1 oz baking squares)
1 cup chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life brand)
16 Tbsp butter (2 sticks – I know, it’s A LOT)
2 cups coconut sugar
4 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
½ cup black coffee, prepared
1 1/3 cup Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder (make sure it’s gluten free)

Directions
Preheat oven to 325º. Spray 9 x 13 pan with non-stick spray.

Prepare a double boiler or a medium-size pan filled with 1 inch of water, with a slightly smaller pan sitting on top of the pan with water I used a large sized sauce pan with a glass bowl that has a lip that sets on the edge of the pan perfectly). Boil the water in the bottom pan, then cut the flame back to low-medium and add the chocolates and butter to the top pan over the simmering water. Stir and remove from heat when melted.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar and vanilla, then stir in the eggs, one at a time. Finally, add in the coffee and continue to whisk until mixture is completely smooth. Add to the melted chocolate mixture.

In a large bowl, whisk to combine the flour, salt, and baking powder.  Stir into the melted chocolate-sugar pot until combined.

Pour the batter into the greased pan and bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with only a few wet crumbs (not totally clean, or they’ll be overcooked!).

As a rule, brownies are much better on the undone side, as opposed to the overdone side.

Cool and frost or top with powdered sugar….or eat as is. Enjoy!

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Jun10

Mod Podge Fun

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Mod Podge Fun

I have an unwelcomed guest visiting me today and I’m not happy. I would thank you kindly, Mr. Migraine, to go away. But, life goes on and I will share a little something fun I made last week.

It was my husband’s 85-year-old grandfather’s birthday yesterday and my mother in law had an idea to give him “gifts of 85″ so we tried to come up something clever that he’d get a kick out of. My husband thought about all the times he used to ‘steal’ gum from his grandpa without him knowing it, so I came up with something a little fun and creative to make it special.

I just purchased two quart mason jars, foam brushes, and a jar of the glossy Mod Podge…and many, many packs of Big Red and Juicy Fruit. The reason I bought these and not just used ones I had is because these are smooth…meaning no writing on them….made for crafts, basically. I searched and searched online for old Juicy Fruit and Big Red labels and saved them to a folder. I copied and pasted each ‘label’ several times in a Word document and printed them all out on thin, white cardstock. I cut them out and just started Mod Podging them to the jars. The jars are a tad square and not round, so it made it a bit difficult at times, but I did my best.

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After ‘pasting’ the labels on in the best way I could to make it look sort of like one big label, but not try to make it look perfect, this is how they turned out. After letting it “set” for about 15 minutes or so, I Mod Podged a layer over the top of the labels. I just used those little foam brushes you can buy in a 4 or 6 pack that are 1 inch, I believe. They work great for me for Mod Podge.

I let that sit for another 15-20 minutes and then did another layer. To give it a fun, funky look I did one layer horizontally and one layer vertically. You can notice it when you look at the jars close up, but from the pictures you can’t tell. If you want a uniform look, don’t do this because you can see the cross-hatching somewhat.

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Then, we took 85 pieces of each kind of gum and wrapped them with a piece of twine in 10 sticks a piece, with one with the remaining 5. I stuffed each jar with a little bit of tissue paper at the bottom so that you could see the gum at the top of the jar. Closed up the jars and then wrapped them up with newspaper.

Maybe you’re wondering why I did this with newspaper or maybe you’re not, but here’s why. Years ago, when my husband was a kid, he used to go out to the fields with his grandpa sometimes. His grandma would bring them lunch  out there and she would often bring hotdish and mason jars filled with water and wrapped in newspaper to try to keep the water cool. I thought he might like the gesture. :)

Then, I made a label for each and tied them on with twine.

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I stamped out the happy birthday with these cute little individual stamps I have, but you can’t really get them to stamp well without the edging showing up, but I’m okay with that little bit of quirkiness.

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Then, I wrote out a little “story” as to why we did this and we both signed it.

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I think they turned out cute and it was a fun and simple way to spice up a cute gift idea.

What’s your favorite Mod Podge creation?

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Jun7

Paleo Chicken Meatballs

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Paleo Chicken Meatballs

I tried chicken meatballs one other time and they didn’t turn out that great. I decided to try them again, but make them a little differently. I saw a recipe that sounded interesting, but then from that I just kind of did my own thing. Here is what I came up with. I thought they were delicious and didn’t need any sort of sauce or gravy. My husband must have liked them too because he ate probably a good 3/4 of a pound of meat since I only ate a couple. And then I just made plain old mashed potatoes with them. We don’t eat them often, but they sure tasted good.

Chicken Meatballs

Ingredients
1 lb ground chicken (or turkey would work too I’m sure)
1/3 medium onion, diced
1 tsp grated lime zest
juice from 1/2 of a lime
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground chipotle pepper (or any other “spicy” spice you’d like)
salt and pepper to liking
1 egg

Directions
Preheat large skillet and add a little olive oil to pan. Be sure not to have the temp too high or the meatballs will cook too fast on one side and not cook through. Put all ingredients into a medium bowl and blend together. ***Note*** I like to make sure that the meat is chilled. It is much easier to work with then at room temperature.

Using just your hands, take small scoops of meat out of the bowl to form into approximately 1 1/2″ meatballs. Add them to hot pan. Once all are in the pan, cover it for a few minutes while cooking. This sort of steams them and makes sure they get cooked through. This always works well for me when I make meatballs because the sizes are never exactly the same.

Uncover and keep turning until they are a tad browned on each side. Serve with whatever your like. We did mashed potatoes, but you could do pasta or rice or whatever you like. You could also make a simple sauce as well, but I don’t think they need it.

Paleo Chicken Meatballs

 

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Jun6

Still moving on….

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Still moving on….

Today’s post will be short and sweet. Stay tuned for a tasty chicken meatball recipe and a fun Mod Podge project.

It’s been a tough couple of weeks, with today being the worst. I have a ginormous headache, which makes it all worse.

You never realize how many ads you see and hear for Father’s Day until your father is gone…..it’s sucks….

Today is his birthday….or would have been….

I don’t miss him any less.

I hope you all remember to hug your dad’s and talk to them while you still can. It sucks not being able to.

Tomorrow will be better….

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Jun5

Namaste Foods Giveaway

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Namaste Foods Giveaway

I am SO super excited about sharing this with you! Namaste Foods has been SO kind to me in sending me products to try out and share with my GIG group (Gluten Intolerance Group) and even tons of recipes to share. I haven’t been able to “test” anything and review it yet because I’ve had so much going on, but they sent me some great stuff!

Look at the fun stuff you can win with this giveaway!!

Giveaway Bag Contents

One of the things that strikes me the most about Namaste products is that they have all these corn free products available, which if you follow my blog, you know I’m trying to steer clear from corn as much as possible, so it’s great to have these options as well.

There are TONS of recipes they have that you can use to go along with their products and you can find them here. I can’t imagine you wouldn’t find something that intrigues you to try. They even have some great coating mixes that have so many different uses.

Here are just some of the recipes I printed to give to my group to try with the products they sent me. There are so many different things to try, I’m not sure which to make first. :)

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As always with my giveaways, you can come back daily to enter at the right in the sidebar under giveaway. Please make sure to check out the great stuff on their website as well. Stay tuned for my product reviews and photos.

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Jun4

Gluten Free Hash Brown Casserole

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Gluten Free Hash Brown Casserole

Last night I did one of my throw together meals again, for lack of planning ahead. I had some ground turkey thawed, but no idea what to do with it, so I dug through my cupboards and fridge and freezer, and this is what I came up with. It’s was actually pretty good. There isn’t much left, as I took almost half of it to my next door neighbor who’s wife is out of town for the week. He said it was pretty good. :)

Plus, I am still trying to clean out stuff I don’t use anymore, so I had some Creamy Mushroom Progresso Soup in pantry I thought I should use.

Gluten Free Hashbrown Casserole

Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey, cooked
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 Tbsp or so minced garlic
About 1/3 bag of hash browns (I used OreIda cubed)
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
a couple handfuls of mushrooms, chopped into smaller pieces
1 can Progresso Creamy Mushroom soup
Cheese, shredded for top (maybe 1 cup) (I used mozzarella and Colby – anything you want would work)
seasonings to taste – I added pepper, parsley, and a little cayenne

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook ground meat until no longer pink with onion and garlic. Drain if necessary, but with ground turkey there isn’t usually much grease to drain. Add seasonings to meat mixture and blend well. Spread hash browns on the bottom of a 9×13 casserole dish, just enough to have a thin layer of potatoes. You can add as much as to your liking, but be sure to cook longer if adding more potatoes. Then layer ingredients on top of the potatoes. I put the meat on top of potatoes, then added the tomatoes, and then the mushrooms. I topped it all with the can of soup and then the cheeses.

I baked it covered with tinfoil for about 45 minutes to make sure the potatoes get cooked well without the top/cheese getting too done. I then removed the tinfoil and cooked for another 30 minutes or until cheese is browned. At this point you can turn the temp on the oven a bit too if you like.

Sorry I don’t have a better pic. I forgot to take one before I scooped so much out of the dish. It really is quite tasty.

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