Pamela's Muffins

Yum! These are delicious. I made a batch this morning for breakfast and the only thing I did wrong was not make enough. These are great. We love Pamela's Products. Here is the recipe.

1-1/4 C. Pamela's Mix
1/4 C. water
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 C. honey or 1/4 C. sugar
1/2 C. fruit: bananas, peaches, berries, etc.

Yield: approximately 6 muffins. Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients and spoon into greased muffin pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes and ENJOY.

Spring Peanut Butter Cookies

O.K. today we wanted something sweet. I decided to try The Cravings Place Peanut Butter Cookies. All we had to add to the mix was organic butter and organic peanut butter. I also added some Sunspire Sun Drops. They are like M&Ms but with no artificial junk. . They cost us around $17.00 to make a batch so we will enjoy each one slowly.

WE NEED A TRADER JOE"S

Trader Joe's is a grocery store that needs to come to Idaho. They have one in Albuquerque, NM and Nana has hooked us up with some good gluten free foods. When Papa goes to NM he brings us back a lot of goodies. I have emailed Trader Joe's asking them if they have any plans to come to Idaho and if not I think that they should consider it. I would love to see Whole Foods or Trader Joe's come to Boise.

My new Townie

YEAH! I found a bike that is so comfortable. This bike is awesome. It is an Electra Townie and the petals are in front of the seat instead of being directly under the seat. It makes it more of a recumbent bike. My back does not hurt when riding this bike. I love it. I hope that this bike allow our family many miles of travel.

A tag along bike

Spring is here and we are ready. We have had a few nice days this week and we have all been itching to get out and enjoy the outdoors. Kennedy learned how to ride her bike without training wheels last year so we decided to get a tag along bike so that we can get in more miles this summer. This bike is great. It attaches to the back of an adult bike and will allow her to ride and keep safely behind us.

Kevin's French Bread

Kevin took off work today to stay at home with the girls. It is their spring break. I made spaghetti and he made the "french bread." When I got home I opened the bread maker and this is what I found. He mixed all the ingredients and put them in the machine instead of letting the machine mix and bake. He gets an A for effort, but failed the taste test.

Gluten-Free Fried Chicken Dinner

Ingredients:
6 slices gf bacon
1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup gf flour (We used the Gluten-Free Pantry’s Country French Bread Mix as a straight substitution for flour)
1/2 cup fine ground yellow corn meal
1 Tablespoon gf flour
2/3 cup gf chicken stock
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
4 green onions, chopped

Making the Perfect Frying Grease:
We believe the key to perfect fried chicken is in frying it in bacon grease.
Place the bacon in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Fry until bacon is crisp then remove skillet from heat and transfer bacon to a plate covered with a paper towel, reserving grease. When bacon is cool, crumble and set aside.
Dry, Wet, Dry Coating:
Place the buttermilk in a baking dish. Combine flour and corn meal in a small bowl and blend. Add the flour mixture to a large dinner plate.
Generously salt and pepper the chicken pieces.
Return skillet with grease to medium-high heat.

Making lump-less gravy:
The trick to lump-less gravy is to mix a small amount of liquid with flour by shaking it vigorously in a sealed container. When it is blended, pour it into the skillet, stirring constantly. Lumps are caused by not stirring and by adding dry flour to the grease.
Pour off all but 1 Tablespoon grease from the skillet. Return the skillet to medium heat. Pour a little of the chicken stock into the skillet, stirring vigorously to loosen browned bits.
Add 1 Tablespoon of flour to a small sealable container. Add about 1/4 cup chicken stock to container of flour, seal and shake vigorously to blend. Pour flour mixture into skillet, stirring constantly. Pour in remaining stock, milk and thyme. Cook and stir until thickened. Add green onions and 2 Tablespoons crumbled bacon and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve fried chicken with gravy.

- Glutenfreeda

This is a great recipe. We loved it. Next time I will have to make more.

Gluten-Free Biscuits and Gravy

Kennedy wanted biscuits and gravy for breakfast this morning. She loved them and even went back for seconds. I think I am going to make a couple of batches of the biscuits and freeze them so we can take them camping this spring.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another superb product from Gluten-Free Pantry. These chocolate chip cookies are great. All we had to add was water, vanilla and butter.

The Best Pizza Crust

We finally found a great pizza crust. Tonight we made pizza and bread sticks. Kevin is working in Waco, TX for the week, but we all agree that we will be making this again soon.

Cinnamon Crumble Coffeecake

YUM!! The Cravings Place Cinnamon Crumble Coffeecake is really good. It is made in Bend, Oregon and definitely gets the Belnap's stamp of approval.

WE HAVE POOP

So for a long time now we have been anxious to see when this gluten free lifestyle will finally give Kennedy a normal bowel movement. Not the most exciting thing that a Mom can blog about, but today in our life this is so exciting. Kennedy had her first "normal" stool in a LONG time. I am hoping that today will be the beginning of a great future.

Spring Soccer Starts

Well this was a true soccer weekend. Karleigh had a game in Kuna Friday night. Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. we were in Meridian watching her play. Then it was off to Boise for Kennedy's soccer game at 11:00 a.m. Finally, it was our final game in Eagle for Karleigh at 1:45 p.m. Kevin is in Waco. TX this week for work and so I was a true soccer Mom.

Our Sugar Cookies

We made the best gluten free sugar cookies today. We added a frosting made of butter, organic powder sugar, vanilla and topped them with chopped organic milk chocolate. YUM.

Well the first two months of 2009 were here and are now gone. I look back and it seems all a blur. I am more focused on getting the word out about the dangers in our food. I can now give my children a snack or dinner and I know that it is not poisoning them. Kevin is teasing me by saying he is going to buy me a Subaru so I do not look out of place when shopping at the Co-op. I admit, maybe the tree huggers have had it right all these years. If you would have told me 6 months ago that I would be eating organic, well you would have been crazy. I had a thought last week when I went to check out Walmarts selection of organic food, by the way it was not worth it. Do you ever see obese people shopping at the Co-op or any other health food store? NO, we all shop at the grocery store. We buy cheap processed foods that are causing more damage to our bodies then we have realized. We sit back accepting the FDA is "watching" out for us. If we would just investigate the changes that are being made it all will become so clear. There is a reason for increase in cancer, ADD, Autisim, food allergies, diabetes and obesity. Yes, it is more expensive to eat healthy. In January our family spent $1126.00 on food and in February $1131.22. I think the initial couple of months is the most expensive. We had to replace a lot of spices and other food that normally will not cost each month. I will keep you posted.