Tutti Frutti

Let's talk about frozen yogurt for a moment.

I have always been an ice cream kind of gal. I love a big bowl of creamy frozen milk, and it was a staple growing up. It's kind of hard now, because dairy makes me so sick and I just don't think that bowl of frozen deliciousness is worth it. I occasionally buy dairy-free ice creams, but they always let me down.

The other problem I have with ice cream is when it comes to a last-minute date. Our old house was a block away from a cute little ice cream shop, so in the summer, hubby and I would walk the dog down and take a little "date" out of our day to enjoy some ice cream.

Well, that's great. And I love it, but again, I don't love feeling sick afterwards.

Now, our new house is a few blocks away from Tutti Frutti (and by few, I mean a few too many to walk). Several times since we've moved, my husband and I have driven over and enjoyed some time together there.

If you've never been to Tutti Frutti before, they usually have ten or so different flavours of frozen yogurt, and you grab a bowl and fill with as much of whatever flavour you like. Then they have a topping bar, and you can put anything from sprinkles to cookies to candies to fruit on top of your fro-yo. And then you pay by the weight.

Every time I've been, they have two dairy-free flavours, usually one soy-based ice cream, and one fruit sorbet. I usually get a little of each, and while I can't enjoy any of the toppings, my husband does. (It's buffet style. Having one dish of cookies means I can't touch anything on there. And then the sprinkles and carmel sauce are iffy, so I just enjoy my plain dairy-free dessert.)

I love it. I get to enjoy my pseudo-ice cream, my husband gets to enjoy his completely-overloaded-frozen-yogurt and we get to spend a little time together.

If you're in the mood for a sugar coma, or if you're looking to go out and enjoy dairy-free dessert, check out Tutti Fruitt!

Gluten Free Butter Pecan Cheesecake Truffles

As I said in my last post, I made two desserts for the wedding. I immediately settled on sugar cookies for the first dessert, but the second dessert took a lot of brainstorming. I wanted something that would travel well, be spectacular, unique and gluten-free. I wanted something in small servings, but we already had cookies and tarts. 

After a couple weeks of thinking and searching, I put it off for awhile. Then one of my favourite blogs, EZ Gluten Free, posted a recipe that I thought sounded pretty perfect. The best thing was that I could make it several days ahead. Since I had a lot of things to do the week before the wedding, I made it as early as I could.

The recipe does include a lot of chilling time, and one ingredient did require some hunting down, but the actual work didn't take all that long and I managed to get some other things done will the ingredients were chilling.

Also, seriously, does it get better than Butter Pecan Cheesecake Truffles?

So you really need to click through and read that recipe, but to sum it up for you... You brown some butter and brown sugar on the stove, then mix it with some cream cheese and vanilla. The cream cheese mixture goes in the fridge to chill, and you mix some chopped pecans with some crushed cookies. The very specific gluten-free pecan shortbread cookies were the hardest thing to find, but I did find a pack at the health food store. Also, it's the only ingredient that is explicitly gluten-free. If you don't care about gluten content, just use regular pecan shortbread cookies.

Once the cream cheese stuff is chilled, you scoop up little balls of cream cheese and roll it in the pecan mixture. Once every little ball was rolled, I put them into containers between layers of plastic wrap and froze them for several days. I kept the containers frozen until it was time to leave for the rehearsal dinner. The wedding (and rehearsal dinner) was all in a town two hours from home, so I put the truffles in a cooler until we got there, and then they went back in a freezer. A few minutes before the reception, I pulled out some mini cupcake liners and plopped each truffle in a liner on a table. It took maybe five minutes. Right away, they were frozen solid, but they warmed up pretty quick, and by the time the last one was devoured they were still a little cold.

Overall, these worked perfectly for what I wanted. They didn't take long to make, they kept well, and they travelled just as well. Oh, and they delicious. Everyone who had one told me they were amazing.

Except my sister (the bride). Apparently, she doesn't like cheesecake. I knew that, I guess, and she didn't mind, because there were plenty of other sweets. The groom, on the other hand, told me that I'm going to go visit them and make these. I don't think he even cares if I visit, as long as he gets more of these.

Wedding Sugar Cookies

My sister wanted a few dessert options for her wedding, and she wanted at least one of them to be gluten-free. I volunteered to make two desserts, because the more I make, the more I can eat. I knew right away that I wanted to make sugar cookies.

When I made sugar cookies for Christmas, I used a mix from Kinnikinnick. I loved the mix, so I decided I'd try it again. To give the bride a taste before the wedding, I made them again for my birthday. So this makes the third time I have used Kinnikinnick's Sugar Cookie Mix, and I can not say enough good about it. It's easy to make, quick and simple to put together, rolls well, and re-rolls just as well. The cookies are easy to bake (there's a two or three minutes of flex room where the cookies are neither under-cooked nor burned) and every time I've made them, people keep exclaiming that they don't taste gluten-free!

 For the wedding, I made two boxes, just to make sure there would be enough. I made them shaped like little brides, little grooms, cakes, churches (even though they weren't getting married in a church) and hearts. I made all the cookies in one night, along with doing multiple other things for the wedding, and then I stacked them on a couple plates and wrapped them up for a few days.

When I had time again, I iced and decorated them with some royal icing and sugar crystals. For the royal icing I used:

1 cup gluten-free icing sugar (I used El Peto brand)
1 - 2 tbsp milk (I used almond milk)
1 tsp vanilla

I only made this much at a time, but I had to make four batches to decorate all of the cookies.

I wanted to decorate them with coloured sugar crystals. I found all sorts of colours of sugar at Bulk Barn, but I couldn't find black, so I bought some extra white and some black Wilton Icing Color. I mixed the white sugar with some black color until the crystals were evenly black, and then I spread them on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and put them in my oven on the lowest temp (180F, I believe) for ten minutes at a time until they seemed dry.

After icing a few cookies, I let them dry for a minute or so, but before they were completely dry, I sprinkled some sugar on top.

My sister's wedding dress was cherry red, so I made red brides, black grooms, white cakes and churches (each topped with a tiny silver ball) and red hearts.

Of course, I didn't get a picture of the table before several of the cookies were devoured. Along the back of the table are the leftover favours - little bags with Hershey Kisses and mini peanut butter cups, and the far edge of the table has some truffles that I also made, and will tell you about later!

At the end of the night, there were maybe ten cookies left behind, and probably eight of them were grooms. I'm not sure why the little guys were so much less popular. Possibly because it left a few people with coloured lips. After baking the sugar, there was a lot less colour transfer, but before I put the sugar in the oven, my hubby ate a spoonful and his lips, tongue and mouth all turned bluey-purple.

Nonetheless, I would highly recommend Kinnikinnick's sugar cookie mix, and if you want them to look spectacular without a lot of work, a bit of royal icing and a spoonful of sugar goes a long way.

Birthday Sugar Cookies

I love baking, and I especially love when people enjoy my baking. When I first started eating gluten-free, I baked a couple of things that people did not enjoy. Over the last while, it's always been a bit of a gamble. Sometimes the things I bake turn out amazing and no one can believe they're gluten-free. And sometimes I keep the whole batch at home because no one would really enjoy it.

However, when you bake out of a box, you take all the gamble away. Every time you make a box mix, it turns out exactly as expected.

As such, whenever I'm baking something for something or somebody, I usually buy boxed mix. It kind of feels like cheating, but I want to convince everyone that gluten-free can be amazing, not that even experienced bakers make gross gluten-free food...

Anyways, I made Kinnikinnick's sugar cookie mix last night, in celebration of my birthday. My birthday is actually on Sunday, but I have Monday off work, so today is the closest work day to my birthday.

My mom gave me a big bucket of 101 cookie cutters for Christmas one year, and a friend gave me a couple moustache-shaped cookie cutters for my birthday a couple years ago, and I got a unicorn-shaped cookie cutter for my birthday this year. I dug out a couple of dinosaur-shaped cutters from the big bucket and made the most awesome collection of cookies ever! I kind of expected to find some birthday-themed cutters in the big bucket, but I decided a few of my favourite things would work way better anyways.

Everyone at work kept saying how sad it is that I made my own birthday treats. I hardly think so. If someone else made them, I wouldn't be able to eat them.

Oh, and I can not speak highly enough of Kinnikinnick's sugar cookie mix. No one believes they're gluten-free, and they were really easy to put together. Anybody could do it.

Car Cake

This weekend I'm hosting a bridal shower for my brother's fiance and then next weekend is their wedding, at which I will be a bridesmaid. I have a ton of shower- and wedding-related stuff between now and then, so I'm sure you can imagine that I'm busy, stressed out and tired. And I will be for a little while longer.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, my sister is getting married in June, so once all this is done, I get to start it all over a month later. Yaaaay.

However, I somehow found time and energy to make a cake! 

And I can actually take credit for this cake!

I bought boxed mixes (I know, but I don't like to risk gluten-free going wrong when it's important), I put together and baked the cakes, and then took them to my mom's house, where she made me decorate probably 50% of it. Naturally, she helped, and it was really her supplies that pulled it all together, but I put in a lot more effort than I usually do. 

I'm really proud of it. 

So before I disappear into the nethers that is wedding planning, enjoy this beautiful car cake that I made.

Chocolate Breakfast Muffins

I did work on spring cleaning this weekend, but I got stalled and distracted a lot. My sister came into town (she lives on a farm 1.5 hours from here) and I spent a ton of time with her. I also decided to make chocolate muffins.

A friend of mine posted a photo of her adorable 9-month-old baby covered in gluten-free chocolate muffins crumbs, and I asked for the recipe. I've been in kind of a baking funk for a really long time, but having a clean kitchen now makes me want to bake again. After reading through the recipe and realizing I had everything I needed, I made it. Simple as that.

The recipe comes from Gluten Free on a Shoestring. My friend has the cookbook, but she tracked down and shared the blog recipe.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Growing up, peanut butter cookies were one of my favourites. They were one of the first things I made by myself, without my mom's help. I loved how easy they were to make, I loved pressing a fork down into the soft dough, I loved the peanut smell that filled the kitchen and I especially loved eating them.

Oddly, peanut butter cookies aren't something I've attempted gluten-free. Until now. And I think "attempted" covers it. 

I followed this recipe which is flourless, dairy-free and easily egg-free.

I started out with such good intentions! Even when I saw things were starting to go wrong, I pressed on and made the little fork indents, but... Well. You'll see.

Baking Exchange + Glutened = Crazy Week!

This week has been a little nuts.

I signed up for a baking exchange at my work. The concept is that you make a dozen "somethings" for each person who signed up, and then you go home with a dozen other "somethings" from each person. It means you get a bunch of holiday baking, but you only have to work with one recipe! When one of the girls ran around asking everyone if they wanted to sign up, I was conflicted. I love baking, you know that! The idea of making a whole bunch of baking and sharing it sounded splendid! But there was no way I would be able to eat any of the other stuff... Oh well! I signed up anyways. I figure I'll take some home for M to enjoy, I'll share some with my family during the holidays, and I'll leave some up on my desk for everyone at work (who didn't want to bake) to enjoy.

I picked banana bread. I figure one loaf of banana bread is equivalent to a dozen cookies, and I saw these adorable loaf pans at the grocery store. They're cardboard and silicon oven-safe loaf pans that are cute enough to gift the baking in. They're reusable, and come with a bag and a red ribbon for each pan. Easy-peasy giving and presenting. Plus, I won't have to wash my loaf pan a bazillion times.

Twelve people signed up, which means I need to make twelve loaves of banana bread for Friday. That's not too hard, right?

Except that the only evening I have off this week is Friday.

Leyda's in Saskatoon

There is a 100% gluten-free and nut-free restaurant in Saskatoon called Leyda's. I've been wanting to go for months, but I always end up trying on Sundays, and they are closed Sundays! Finally, this past Saturday, Banana and I found a chance to go!

Coffee Encounters

There's this little coffee shop downtown that I quite like. Coffee Encounters has a fun, hip feel, and plenty of menu options. Mostly, I like it because they sell gluten-free treats. Depending on the day, they'll have cupcakes, muffins, cookies, squares, cake... I wish I could eat a sandwich there, but a cupcake suffices most days.

Soy Pudding

When I found this soy pudding for just a little bit more money than normal pudding, I was sold. First of all, it says Gluten Free. The normal pudding doesn't, but it doesn't directly contain gluten, so it's a bit of a risk. Second, this stuff is lactose free. Not dairy-free, per se, but lactose is close enough for me. It's not like I have a casein allergy.

I was, admittedly, a little bit skeptical, but I love pudding, so I just dove right in.

Pumpkin Pie Coffee Creamer

So, you know that I've been on a serious coffee kick lately, right? Like, three weeks ago I had never had a cup, and now I can't make it through morning without one.

Well, I'm also trying really hard to embrace fall this year. Normally I pretend it's summer until the day it snows, and then I count down the days to the next summer. This year, I'm trying to find things to love about every season.

Also, one of my favourite blogs, Pintester is having a Pintester movement, so I decided to make this for the purpose of submitting. I realize this is the very last day to submit, but I've been tired and busy.

So in honour of those three things, I made a dairy-free, gluten-free, paleo pumpkin pie coffee creamer. Aren't I fancy?

I found it here, but of course this wouldn't be a real Pintester post if I made it that exact way, so I substituted something. I couldn't find any pumpkin pie spice! I don't know why, when my grocery store is already selling Christmas lights, but I couldn't. So instead I threw in undetermined amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.

So there's everything I used. That container of white stuff is coconut milk. I opened the can yesterday to try a few spoonfuls in my coffee. You can also tell I like No Name stuff. Hey, it's cheap.

So I threw everything in my blender, including the spices I didn't picture before.

And then I hit go. I didn't really expect it to be this colour, but hey, that's cool.

I threw it back in the container that had had the coconut milk, because I am very against dirty dishes.

And bam. It was super easy to whip together, and I feel good about all the ingredients. I tasted a spoonful of the stuff, and ohmygoditwasamazing! It tasted like thick, creamy, pumpkin pie. I could have eaten the whole container with a spoon. Honestly, I liked it better before I put it in my coffee. It did taste like pumpkin pie, and I didn't need to add sugar, but I just didn't like how my pumpkin pie stuff started tasting like coffee.

A normal coffee drinker would probably love it.

A Summary of my Summer

Hey, remember how I didn't blog for a month and a half? I didn't post once in July, and I missed most of June and August. Well, I said I didn't really do anything, and I didn't make anything, but that's not entirely true. Well, I didn't really make anything. But I did a lot of things. There was a lot going on in my life, though, and I just couldn't bring myself to blog about stuff. I was better, stomach-wise, but worse time-wise. One of the main problems is that I left my one-year-term-job. I had a routine, and it became simple to fit blogging into that routine. I also had a little reminder at work to jot down what I'd done, or what I was planning, and could blog about it later. When I stopped having an office, and a desk, and even a computer I logged onto every day, blogging slipped too. I did post several times after the job, but it all started slipping. I couldn't find a routine, I didn't have a pattern, and then when I did, it was a pattern of constant work. Starting the new reception job puts me at a computer, and better, gives me several hours a day where there is nothing for me to do but read blogs. So eventually, I get around to writing my own blog. It's been good.

Well, I'm sure you're wondering about my summer, which I neglected to tell you anything about.

The first thing that happened was a roadtrip to Edmonton on June 26. Banana and I bought tickets to Taylor Swift, a mere 8-hour drive from here. We spent two nights in a hostel, a half day at the West Ed Mall, a night enjoying the best concert I have ever been to, a dinner at the most hipster restaurant I've ever been to, and the day back enjoying cliche roadtrip things. We went to Ikea, we took a picture with the world's largest Ukranian Easter egg, and we visited a Ukranian heritage village. It was a grand adventure. Of course, I had all sorts of gluten-related anxiety, but everything worked out so well. I also had a lot of "firsts" (prairie girl over here - Ikea is exciting!), but it'd be hard to blog about that now.

Oh, and of course, my birthday was on June 22. I turned 21. Whoo. Now I can drink gluten free alcohol anywhere in the world. Big whoop-de-ding. I had a little bonfire, and had hot dogs and marshmallows. People kept complaining there weren't graham crackers. I wasn't gonna buy them if I couldn't eat them. I was really concerned about my first GF birthday, in terms of cake, but my lovely mother took care of that. She bought a Betty Crocker mix, and made me an amazing pinata cake. The mix was actually spectacular, and tasted totally normal. Everyone kept saying they couldn't tell it was GF. I would highly recommend it.

Oh, and my in-laws took hubby and I out for a birthday dinner, and the lovely waitress at Boston Pizza overheard that it was my birthday, so this happened at the end of the meal. I looooove Boston Pizza birthdays, with the singing and the clapping, and the attention. Halfway through the song, something clicked in my brain and I realized that they had just brought me a cupcake. Probably the most depressing birthday moment I've ever had. When the song ended, Hubby pointed it out, and I started laughing. I took a picture, and then passed the cupcake around and everyone else had some. It was really just a funny moment.

The first week of July, I started my favourite job ever. It's a summer program that runs every year for six weeks, and this was my third year working at it. Essentially it's a drop-in, free, city-funded kid's program. We ran games, crafts, and activities for kids aged 6-12 at a park. My park had a pool, but not every one does. They all have playgrounds and shacks, though. Once a week, we take the kids on a field trip. I wanted to blog about this job every day. We did so many amazing things, had so many adventures, and had so many crazy things happen. But to protect the kids' privacy, I hesitated. Also, this is a gluten-free blog, nobody comes here looking for cool egg carton crafts, or ideas for field trips.

Two weeks into that job, on July 13, I got a tattoo! So that's fun. I've been thinking about getting a tattoo ever since my husband got one done, in February, 2012. He had a celtic rope tattooed on his left ring finger, as a wedding ring. I thought about what I could get for him, and decided to get an M on my right thigh. I wanted it to be easily hidden, but I also wanted to show it off. If I wear short shorts, or a swim suit, you can see it, but that's about it. It's just black, and has filigree all around it. It's probably about two inches by two inches, and it took about forty minutes to get done. PS, that hurt like hell. I almost threw up. I don't handle pain well. But I totally want another one! Someday.

Fresh Ink

Healed Tattoo

We also went to the wedding of two friends of ours. I love weddings. They remind me of my own, and the pure, unadulterated love the newlyweds have for each other reminds me of when I felt that way about my own husband. Not that I don't still feel that way, but let's be honest. Everything slows down eventually. I love the emotion of weddings. The happiness, the joy, the excitement. I also love helping. Most of the recent weddings we've been to, we end up being wedding monkeys, and that is where we are happiest. Both my husband and I rely on being needed, and love helping whenever asked. I'm more like that than he is, in truth.

Crappy cellphone pic of us. And yes, I let him grow that stache.

I got over a couple of things, over the summer. I finally had some alcohol. Not like I was dying without it. I just finally got frustrated enough to start googling, and figure out what I can drink. Now I'm that obnoxious person at bars, who requests mojitos made with bacardi. Oh well. I still don't drink a lot, so it doesn't make a difference to my life.

I also ordered my first real burger, no bun. I got it at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, because they don't make any crap, so it's a lot safer than other places. Also, they were my all-time favourite burgers before. I ordered a cheese burger, with ketchup and mustard, hoping to make it a little less pathetic. It didn't help.

Cheese burger, no bun.

And I discovered my new favourite treat. A dipped cone, in a cup. I know it's not truly safe, because they could get bits of cone in the dip chocolate when they dip other cones, but it's fantastic for the every once in awhile treat.

And I think that's about it for my summer. I'm so sorry for my absence, but I hope this all makes up for it!

Day 77: Blender Fudge

I had a serious craving for fudge today. I have the recipe my mom always made, the kind that goes in the microwave and doesn't take much work. But I didn't feel like doing that much work, and I had a paleo fudge recipe pinned to my baking board, so I made that. I technically didn't make paleo fudge, because I used peanut butter, regular honey, and normal cocoa, but hey. Close enough, right?

It doesn't take much work, besides cleaning out your blender later, and you'll want to eat it so fast you forget to take any pictures.

So you melt some coconut oil, and then you throw a bunch of stuff in your blender, and then you blend it. You might find yourself standing there watching it blend for awhile, but I promise it's worth it.

And then you pour it from your blender into a mold. I used a couple of ice cube trays. Here's another fun fact about Robynne: I don't actually have any cube-shaped ice cube trays. I have at least half a dozen different ones, but not a single one is cube-shaped. I have hearts, apples, pumpkins, pears, ovals, and diamonds, though. So I made some fun shaped bits of fudge that were about two-bites big each, which is just the right amount for a creamy, chocolatey, smooth fudge. I threw one in the fridge, and the other two in the freezer, so I wouldn't eat them all in one day.

Everyone goes on about microwave fudge and Oh look! It's so quick and easy! but I think I like this better. No cooking at all, and nothing dirty but a blender.

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Melt coconut oil. Blend all ingredients together in a food processor or blender. Pour into silicon tray, muffin tin, or lined muffin tin. Chill for 30 minutes, and store in air-tight container.

Day 73: I Scream, You Scream, We All Sream For...

Since it's finally summer, I decided to celebrate by going for ice cream tonight. There's a little laundromat/ice cream place down just a block from our house. When our washer broke, we had to use the laundromat there, and hubby and I used to occasionally walk down for ice cream during the summer.

So we grabbed the dog (who we adopted in November - she's never made an ice cream trip) and walked on down. I usually avoid small businesses, because I can google franchise's gluten-free options. I told the guy working right away that I had a gluten allergy, so he handed me a list of all of the ice creams and their ingredients, and washed the scoop with soap. I was very impressed. I had pistachio in a plastic bowl, and hubby had black cherry in a waffle bowl. Sometimes I think he rubs it in. Just kidding, he asked if I was okay with it first.

I was impressed. The guy admitted he didn't know what all had gluten in it, but he was aware of how to treat an allergy, and did his best to accomodate me.

Oh, I know. It's still not safe. The scoop goes back into the ice cream long before I get there, and it could that a cone broke over one of the tubs. Things that come out of tubs like that are never 100%. I know. But honestly. The amount that would contaminate... It's not like my own ice cream rubbed against a gluten-y scoop... Ah, the line I dance around of safe vs not safe.

Day 72: Rainbow Jello!

Tomorrow I'm having a big family dinner at my house! My older brother has been living in BC for several months, and he finally came home to visit, and brought his girlfriend (who none of us have met) too! They're staying in the bigger city, where her family is, but they're coming into town tomorrow for dinner.

Hip hip hooray.

I'm hosting, because I have the biggest dining room, and I'm cooking because I can make safe, yummy food. My mom will help, of course. She offered to do it all, but I insisted.

I kind of feel bad for his girlfriend, because she's going to meet all of us at the same time, in one giant family dinner. Oh, my sister is also introducing her boyfriend to the family tomorrow, so that should take some stress off of both of them.

That also brings the people count to ten.

I'm making dinner, not a feast, so I won't start cooking anything until tomorrow, but I did start dessert today. Rainbow Jello! Hubby wanted to try making it months ago, so we have six packs of different coloured Jello, and unflavoured gelatin.

I used six flavours, Strawberry, Orange, Lemon, Lime, Berry Blue and Grape. You could use Cherry, or Raspberry for red, if you like.

I made mine in a fluted bowl, so the bottom layers are a lot thicker, even though there are the same amounts of each jello. If you have a straight edge trifle bowl, by all means, use that! Also, make sure your dish will hold twelve cups of liquid. Each box makes two cups of jello.

I poured the pack of Jello powder into a large measuring cup, sprinkled a bit of plain gelatin in too (I couldn't tell you how much, it varied every single time) just to help it set up better. Then I added one cup boiling water, whisked, and added one cup cold water. When it was well stirred, I poured it in.

The first layer was the easiest. The next few, I slowly poured the Jello down the side of the bowl, and the last few, I poured it over the back of a ladle, to prevent the fresh Jello from disturbing the set Jello.

I let each layer set for an hour or two. The longer, the better, but I did start running out of time, so the last couple were pretty close together.

I served with a ladle, and tried to scoop all the way to the bottom, so each bowl would have a mini rainbow in it. I also served it with whipped cream, which some people stirred in, or ate on top. Delicious, fun, simple, and who doesn't like Jello? Perfect family dinner dessert.

Day 69: Coconut Chocolate Bars

I seriously can not get over wanting granola bars. They're one of those super easy things to make, that I've always enjoyed making. Since I'm cutting oats out for now, they're kind of harder to make. I've bought a few types lately, one of which was made with dates. I bought one last week, which I loved, and even Hubby thought I should buy a whole box. Boxes are expensive, so I decided to make some.

I did a little research, and then whipped up something. I overestimated how much coconut I had in the cupboard, so I would suggest adding a little more. 

The addition of chocolate takes them from a coconutty, chewy, sweet treat to a crunchy, sweet, delicious bar. This is a chewy, sweet, crunchy, square filled with coconut. Also, coconut and chocolate! How much better do you get?

2/3 cup coconut oil

1/3 cup honey

Dash of sea salt

1 1/5 - 2 cups coconut

1 cup chocolate chips

Melt the coconut oil on low heat, and add in everything but the chocolate. Add the coconut like 1/3 cup or 1/2 cup at a time, until the mixture is saturated. I ended up using 1 1/3 cup, but I figure I would have used about 2 cups. 

Pour it into a pan lined with plastic wrap or foil, and chill. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, and when the coconut oil is hardened, pour the chocolate over top. Chill.

Slice up the bars and enjoy slowly!

Because I didn't have enough coconut, the mixture had a lot more oil. Which was fine, until the warm chocolate melted the coconut oil and the oil lifted to the top of the chocolate and then chilled. It actually ended up looking pretty cool, with the white swirls.

Doesn't make them any less delicious, though. Mmm...

Day 57: Lemons, lemons, lemons!

Today was a lemon kind of day. Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "But Robynne, it's Friday! It has to be a good day!" Well, I actually find Friday to be the worst day of the week. It means that I've done five straight days of my job, and my brain is just done. 4:45 on a Friday is the worst time of the week. Because to me, it doesn't mean I have 15 minutes left before the weekend, it means I've worked almost 40 hours in five days. I really hate my job.

But that's not what I meant at all! Today actually was a fine day, despite being Friday. Yesterday, I bought four lemons. Today, I used all four of them. That's what I meant by it was a lemon kind of day.

For dinner, I made lemon butter shrimp. It was stellar.

Then I made lemon loaf, because hubby has been asking for some for weeks.

While that was baking, I made lemon pudding again.

Now, you've already heard about the lemon pudding, but I've added pictures for you now.

I'll save writing about the shrimp for one of those highly unproductive days that I just want to lay on the couch and watch Mad Men.

So! The loaf! I was slightly disappointed by it, honestly. It was a little dry and crumbly (classic gluten-free texture), and it didn't taste all that lemony. I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe Starbucks' lemon loaf? Well, this didn't come close.

But it has flax, and egg whites, and lemon.. Okay, it's not healthy bread by any shot, but it's probably a bit better for you than Starbucks' version. Also, it's still really yummy.

I found the recipe here, but of course I didn't have that combination of flours, so I just used my own.

2 lemons - zested and juiced
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 tablespoons ground flax
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter - softened
1/2 cup egg whites (this was four eggs for me)
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350F, and spray a loaf pan. I use a piece of paper towel and olive oil, because it doesn't have nasty things like petroleum, and everytime I use it everything pops right out.

Whisk together the flours, starches, flax, salt, baking soda and baking powder thoroughly in a separate bowl. Set aside.

Cream together sugar, egg whites, soft butter, milk, the zest from both lemons and vanilla thouroughly. It will be a bit soupy looking.

Add in the bowl of flours, and mix well. It becomes thicker the longer you mix. I started doing something else while my mixer was going, and I think mine got a little too thick. Turned out well, but maybe stop it before it looks like this.

Pour (or scoop) the batter into your prepared loaf pan.

Bake for an hour. Mine took 50 minutes before a toothpick was coming out clean everywhere. Let it cool in the pan for a few minutes, and then run a knife around the edges and pop out onto a platter.

While it's cooling in the pan, put your icing sugar in a large bowl and juice your lemons into it, making sure not to get any seeds. Whisk until smooth, and then drizzle over loaf. And apparently, the entire plate too.

Mmm! And if you just so happened to finish making lemon pudding, pour some of that on top of a slice. Lemon. Heaven. I'm telling you.

Day 48: Greek Yogurt Peanut Butter Dip

I've been trying really hard to eat more fruit lately. I try buying grapes and blueberries and things, and they just go bad in my fridge. I mostly buy bananas and apples, because my husband is usually good at eating those. I eat bananas, but it's hard to eat apples, because I chipped a front tooth when I was seven, and if I take a bite out of an apple or beef jerky with my front teeth, I might lose the filling and re-chip my tooth. I eat beef jerky with my back teeth, but I pretty much only eat apples when they're sliced up. Slicing them up takes a lot of work, so I don't eat them much.

Unless... I have a really yummy dip for them. It's really easy, creamy, rich, and sweet.

Spoonful of plain greek yogurt, spoonful of peanut butter, squirt of honey and some cinnamon. Mmm. Hubby hates it, because he hates greek yogurt. I swear I can't taste it, I just taste sweet and peanut butter, but he gags after a little taste.

I also dipped some arrowroot cookies in it, and would dip crackers if I had some that weren't onion flavoured. It seems pretty versatile so far. Mmm.

Day 37: Easter Dinner

One of the things most celiacs seem to struggle with is holiday dinners. Your choices seem to be:

1. Go to a restaurant with your family, and hope they pick a safe one, or eat beforehand, and don't eat anything there.
2. Make the whole dinner yourself, and include little to no items with gluten.
3. Go to a home-cooked dinner and either risk it, or don't eat anything.
4. Help somebody make a dinner so that it is gluten-free and you can trust it.

I kind of think celiacs have trust issues...

So, I didn't actually decide to do anything with either side of family. I kind of figured if either want to make a meal, I don't want to complicate their lives, but I might show up. Instead, Banana decided to do an entirely gluten-free dinner with my help. She did make most of the dishes, but I was at a minimum aware of what was in them, and mostly just stirred things together when she handed them to me.

Tonight was the night, although we've spent much of the last week prepping (to minimize work today). The dishes on the table were:

1. Ham
2. Scalloped Potatoes
3. Mashed yams, with a glaze
4. Green beans
5. Spinach and strawberry salad
6. Deviled eggs
7. Rice casserole
8. And Trifle!

Okay, so everything was just so delicious that as soon as everything was ready we just dug in, and I completely forgot to take pictures for you! I took some after dinner, which might show you how delicious everything was... But really, I'm sorry this looks like somebody's leftovers. It was just too good to waste time taking pictures!

Ham is one of those sketchy meats that usually contains gluten. As such, we were hunting for one that said gluten-free, when we found a bone-in shoulder that said gluten-free. Not the usual type, but it was GF, so we were happy! We mixed up maple syrup, mustard and brown sugar and brushed it on the ham and then covered it and baked it for about six hours. It went in the oven just after lunch, and came out in time for us to carve and serve. We repeatedly brushed more glaze on over and over throughout the day. It came out tender, juicy and delicious.

Scalloped potatoes usually contain flour. I don't really know why though. You don't add it to the milk to thicken it, you put it as a layer between the potatoes and then pour milk over top of it. So we just scalded the milk a little longer, made it a little thicker, and skipped the flour altogether (as per suggestion of Banana's aunt). It was really delicious. There were of course layers of thinly sliced potatoes, and sharp cheddar cheese and swiss, and I think onions and spices. I didn't put it together, but I did supervise it's baking time. Which was until the potatoes were soft, and then remove the tin foil until the cheese browns. It was a very creamy, cheesey dish.

The yams are pretty self explanatory. We peeled and chopped a few sweet potatoes and then put them in the oven with a lid on until they were mashable, and then we mashed them. We boiled equal parts maple syrup and butter until it thickened (and tasted amazing) and then drizzled that on top of the mashed yams and cooked them a bit longer.

The green beans were put on the stove with a bit of garlic and some butter until they were cooked. And then we ate them.

The spinach salad was really simple. Spinach, sliced strawberries, slivered almonds, crumbled goat cheese, poppy seeds, and a raspberry vinaigrette. Very simple, but flavourful! And easy peasy to toss last minute.

We mostly made deviled eggs because I remembered I had a deviled egg plate I've never used. And Banana wanted to dye Easter eggs with her cousin, who is spending the weekend with her. So she dyed eggs, and then we deviled them. Mixed the yolk with mayonnaise, a bit of mustard and a splash of vinegar, topping them with paprika.

The rice casserole was probably one of my favourite dishes. We cooked up a bunch of wild rice and brown rice blend, and then mixed it with slivered almonds, dried cranberries, and slices of dried apricots. It was very colourful as well as sweet. Half an hour or so before dinner, we poured about half a cup of veggie broth over it and baked it. Chicken broth would be just as good, but we were also cooking for a vegetarian.

Ah! And my favourite dish! The trifle! I could probably devote a whole post to this one! Mmm... Layers of homemade lemon pudding, GF pound cake, freshly whipped cream, blueberries and raspberries! Does it get better than that? Okay, it might. I don't know. I haven't had every trifle ever. But this was perfect. Banana's ten-year-old cousin actually put this all together, that's how easy trifles are to make. She also decorated the top, which I just loved. 

I don't think the eight of us got even halfway through this thing, despite how amazing it was.

So! That's my gluten-free Easter dinner. Not as hard as it sounds, huh? I mean, if you're going to cook everything at home, you need to be careful about reusing bread knives, cutting boards and pans, but if you are aware of cross-contamination, and ensure things like mayonnaise and honey either come from a squeeze bottle or are brand new, you should be fine. Things like that tend to be things other people forget or don't think about, but if you help or remind them, it's sure to be simple!

Hoppy Easter, everybody!