15 Minute Lunch

I am very blessed that I am able to come home during lunch on the days that I work, to whip up something healthy to eat. I came home today to an empty house, (my husband works from home but he was out at a meeting,) so I raided our fridge and found what I could to make myself something quick and for one! Unfortunately, moving in less than a week also means very little groceries as I don't really want to fill our fridge until we get into the new place! This is what I found;

Mixed Salad Greens
Eggs
Green Onion
Cheese
Mushrooms
AND my favourite,
Salmon Burgers

I am in love with these salmon burgers that I discovered  at Costco. I used to hate Costco. I would go in, drop $100 and walk out with nothing to make a real meal! I have gotten a bit smarter on my trips, which include purchasing these yummy burgers. I think they are $14ish for a pack of 12. AND, they are gluten free!

There are many ways to cook these, I just pop these in a frying pan with a little olive oil and fry until nice and brown/crispy!

Yes, it's gluten free! ;)

Don't mind the lovely paper plates, just another perk of moving.

It was delicious, and the best part? It only took me 15 minutes to whip together and it was super healthy! Now to leave you with a shot I took of the cutest little red head ever, haha. Happy Monday!

Easy cheesy, potato, baked casserole.

So I have been seeing these recipes floating around pinterest lately, and although they look super yummy I have yet to have a chance to try baking up a dish! So the other night, when I was cleaning out my fridge and cup boad of those ready to expire so use em up quick before they spoil ingredients, I thought I would just make my own version. Gluten free of course ;) Turned out to be incredibly delicious, unlike 90% of the recipes I try out over pinterest :P
On a side note, I think this dish costs me around $10. A pretty good deal for a family of 4!

I started by choping up some of those really cute baby potatoes in half's/quarters. (I picked up this bag on sale for $1.99! Score!)






I then mixed a wet glaze sort of thing together in a bowl. It looked like this;





And consisted of these ingredients;

(After making this dish, I would opt out for the olive oil. It made it really greasy and a pain to wash up after!) I honestly don't measure, bad habit I know. I just put a pinch of everything till it smells good! :)





I then took the baby potatoes, and a bag of baby carrots, and dumped them into my bowl and gave it a good stir!





I then greased up the casserole dish with some good ole pam, and spooned the mixed potatoes and carrots into the casserole dish. I put it in the pre-heated oven at 400 for about 45 minutes. There should be plenty of the mixture left over, if not, just throw some more in there :)




While that was baking, I then took my chicken and cut it up into small cubes and threw it into the left over mixture. Let it sit in the sauce until you are ready to put it in with the rest of the dish! I suggest using chicken breast for this. All I had on hand was some chicken thighs, although it tasted fine, it was a pain in the butt to cut all the meat away form the bone!





After 45 minutes in the oven, take the casserole dish out of the oven and top the potatoes and carrots with the remaining sauce and chicken and put back into the oven for another 45 minutes. (For the last 5 minutes, take out of the oven, sprinkle with your favourite cheese and pop back into oven!) AND tada!


You now have an extremely delicious meal that is super easy to make! It may take awhile to cook, but once everything is put together and thrown in the oven, your just waiting around. You may even be able to get a few dishes done while your waiting!

So there you have it. My version of a Cheesy, Potato & Carrot Casserole!

GF Banana doughnuts w/banana frosting

At the first sight of this recipe, I could already feel myself imagining what a banana doughnut might taste like. And let me tell you, it was a trillion times better than what I could have ever imagined! I have bought doughnuts from our local GF store many times before, but they are the frozen kind, the kind that also, when unfrozen, are thick and heavy so much so that you practically need 2-3 full sized glasses of milk sitting waiting beside you to wash it all down! These were NOTHING like those. In fact, I fed one to my non celiac husband, and he said he couldn't really tell they were GF! (Yay, score me!) So before I share this amazing recipe with you, I want to tell you 2 things.

#1. Go buy THIS book. An amazing gf cooking momma of 4 lent me this book and I am completely in love with it! ( AND I hate cook books!) Whether you are new to a GF diet, or not. So many fabulous recipes, and SO worth the buy! Cooking for Isaiah

#2. You will have to pre-make your own flour in order for this recipe to turn out fabulous. Just trust me, it's worth it and much better than any pre-made GF All Purpose Flour you can buy! The Cooking for Isaiah cookbook has the flour recipe, but I will also share it here! ;) I was able to go to a local bulk food store for all the flours, Bulk Barn if that helps.

#3. And I forgot to mention that you need a doughnut cooking pan for this recipe! You can get them at Home Outfitters, but I managed to score mine at a thrift store for much less ;)

Now onto the baking!
For the All purpose flour you will need;


All Purpose Flour;
- 6 cups rice flour
- 3 cups tapioca flour
- 1 1/2 cups potato starch
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 tablespoons xantham gum


Mix all of the ingredients into a BIG bowl and store in an airtight container. Make sure it is pretty larger, this makes a good quantity.

Okay, now on to the good stuff!


Banana Doughnuts with Banana Frosting!

Doughnuts
- 1 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Step 1.
Preheat oven to 350. Grease your pan(s). (I only had 1 pan so had to do 3 seperate batches). In a bowl whisk the; flour, baking powder, salt & cinnamin.

Step 2.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the; eggs, granulated sugar, banana's, vanilla & oil. Once that is mixed well, you can dump the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, and mix together until it is well combined.

Step 3.
Then take fill each doughnut cup about three quarters full. (I made the mistake of over filling and the first batch came out with no hole!)
Put in the pre-heated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes! Let the doughnuts cool completely before trying to ice them.

Now for the frosting!

Frosting
- 1/4 cup all vegtable shortening
- 2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
- 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1/2 banana. I used a full banana)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

While your doughnuts are baking you can whip this up real quick!

Take a small bowl (not a cereal bowl, tried this and it went everywhere!) Beat together the shortening and confectioners sugar until fluffy. Then beat in the banana, cinnamon, vanilla, and lemon juice. When the doughnuts are cooled off, just spread the frosting over the cooled doughnuts and your done!
Seriously the best doughnuts I have ever eaten.

Cooking for Isaiah has a ton of great recipes, including more doughnut recipes like sugar and spiced doughnuts, and chocolate dipped chocolate doughnuts. That's just to name a few of my weakness'...
There are sections on breakfast, starters & salads, soups rice & pasta, sandwiches & pizza, main dishes and more! A great buy if you cook GF, I seriously hate cooking and I cannot wait to try everything in this book!

I was going to upload some pictures of my finished products but just realized they are sitting on my phone. Perhaps I will figure out how to add them here someday, but for now I guess you will just have to make these yourself to see how fabulous they are!

Found the picture!!!

Now share, share, SHARE, with your GF friends! =D

Yum Yum Apple Crisp! (GF of course;)

I remember a few years back, (when I was still a young and free and had no desire to cook,bake, or clean,) my sister who was a young mom at the time was almost always baking a yummy apple crisp. Not just ANY apple crisp, but GLUTEN FREE apple crisp!!! Which anyone with a wheat allergy will tell you is a real treat!
So the other day when I started getting a craving I decided to make some. I had no idea how to to go about making one gluten free, but I improvised and it turned out super yummy! Yummy enough to share with all my GF friends. :)

Easy Apple Crisp
Ingredients:

5-6 apples
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup uncooked oatmeal
1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
cinnamon
1/2 cup flour (bobs red mill, all purpose gluten free flour is what I used and it worked awesome!)
white sugar

Directions:

1. Slice apples in baking dish (peeled).
2. Sprinkle cinnamon and white sugar over apples.
3. Mix remaining ingredients with a fork until well mixed and sprinkle on apples.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes.

I hope this hits the spot as much as it did for me! :)
 

Easy Peasy GF Quiche!

So today I was in a hurry to make lunch for the twins...
One was clinging to my leg all morning while the other decided to break some much needed baby locks on our entertainment stand.
Which means, DVD's, cords, ext. flew out of that cabinet all day until daddy came home to fix it!
When in doubt on days like these, I turn to something easy for lunch. Today it was Quiche!
For those of you who tremble at the thought of even cooking, let me let you in on a little secret; I hate cooking, with a passion, dread it really, and this recipe does not scare me!
Because I eat Gluten Free, I make it with Bobs Red Mill, GF All Purpose Baking Flour.
But if you can eat wheat, Bisquick works just fine!
(I Knew I should have taken pictures, but once again I forgot! Next time ;)

Get a mixing bowl and mix together;

1 cup Flour
4 Eggs
2 cups Milk
dash of Salt, and Pepper

Then comes the fun part! You can put practically any vegetable in this lovely dish.
I usually opt to put in some cut up spinach, onions, and some mixed frozen veggies, with some grated cheddar cheese!
Mix it all up with whatever utensil you have handy.
Find two pie like dishes, and spray them with a little PAM.
( The PAM is not necessary, but I find quiche sticks to the pan quite a bit even with PAM! )

Once you pop it into the oven, bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a knife comes out of the center clean at about 350 or 375!

My cooking must be getting better because my husband ate this quiche without complaining about its so called, "gluten free gross taste"! Haha.
Or maybe Bobs Red Mill is just a GREAT gluten free flour!
Either way, this is super quick, super easy, super healthy depending on what you put in it, and best of all you can eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner! =)


On another note, I am pretty smitten to be featured at thanksmailcarrier.com/ on their Friendly Friday Followers. Def go check them out!

Betty Crocker Goes Glutten Free?!

So maybe this isn't new to most of you, but to me, its HUGE! My mother in law always visits us with a stash of GF foods for me, things that I cant buy here in Canada but apparently in Oregon glutten free foods are everywhere! This past Christmas she brought me a Betty Crocker GF Brownie mix. I started having a chocolate craving, so I whipped this up! Super quick and easy, even for a busy mom like me that vhas virtually 10 minutes in the kitchen before 1 of my children are at my feet pulling on my pants.
These brownies are so delish, that even my hubby who is NOT GF, and hates GF foods ate them. In fact, he ate more than half the pan on me!
So yay Betty Crocker, for making a GF product that is simple and easy, and that my hubby enjoys too. Its nice being able to bake 1 dish instead of two to accomidate my glutten free family! =)