Gluten Free Crepes

Crepes were always one of those things I never imaged I could successfully make. After I fell in love with a street crepe in Paris, I added it to my "list of things to do when I get home". I recently saw that local blogger Chris, from 'Eating Is The Hard Part', made some gluten free crepes! He used a flour mix from the GF Patisserie in Cochrane which I just so happened to make a stop at on Saturday. Wanting to try my new flour and craving a sweet treat, I attempted my first crepe. Here is the recipe, as posted on Chris's blog:

2 Cups GF Patisserie Flour mix
1 1/2 Cups Milk (adjust to make thin batter)
4 Eggs

1. Blend, or whisk the ingredients.
2. Pour 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter into hot, greased pan.
3. Cook 1-2 minutes a side.
4. Remove to cutting board and fill with anything your heart desires. Ham. Cheese. Fruit. Ice Cream. Steak. Spinach…

My crepes were filled a thin layer of nutella and topped with stewed raspberries.  I was very surprised at how easy these were to make! The crepe pictured above was my middle crepe - I made one thinner and one thicker than that. The thinner one was much easier to flip and tasted so delicate and perfect. I will definitely be trying these again soon and getting a little more creative with fillings and toppings. 

New Years Day Breakfast

Happy New Years to everyone reading this! Hope you all had a fun evening and are looking forward to the year ahead. Jason took me to The Creperie last night - a first for both of us. They take their gluten free foods very seriously there and I felt pretty relaxed eating there. I had my own bread basket with gluten free bread that they bake in-house! We were even able to share a sweet crepe for dessert.

Now on to this morning... I wanted to start off the New Year with something both healthy and delicious. This is the very first recipe in Quinoa 365:

(This photo was taken by Jason - he's got a new camera and was looking for subjects)

Apple Strudel Breakfast Cereal
1/4 slivered almonds
1cup quinoa
2 1/2cups water
1/2cup diced dried apple slices (You can find these at the Italian Market)
1/4cup raisins
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp pure vanilla extract
1tbsp brown sugar
1 cup vanilla yogurt (We used locally made Bles-Wold)

Place the almonds in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Stir frequently until the almonds are toasted and fragrant - about 3 to 4 minutes. Set the almonds aside in a small bowl.

Combine the quinoa, water, apples, raisins and cinnamon in the same saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer for 17 minutes. Stir in vanilla and brown sugar.

To serve: divide between bowls, top with yogurt and sprinkle with toasted almonds.

MY REVIEW: I used half the amount of water and quinoa listed and it made the perfect amount for the 2 of us. When looking at recipes you have to keep in mind quinoa triples in size when it's cooked.  This was such a great breakfast! Jason requested it again tomorrow so I know it was a hit. It doesn't sit as heavy in your belly as a bacon and egg meal but it left me feeling just as full.

JASON'S REVIEW: It was a delicious way to start my day. Would eat again. A+ ... 5 stars ... 2 thumbs up.

Jason's Birthday Breakfast!

This a few days overdue but Jason's Birthday was on Saturday so, of course, he got Birthday breakfast! He requested something cheesy and unhealthy. I had just read the perfect recipe in my "Gluten Free For Dummies" book and tried it out for him:

Breakfast Quiche
3 cups frozen hash browns, thawed
1/3cup melted butter (even though this was supposed to be unhealthy, I couldn't bring myself to use that much butter!)
nonstick spray
5 eggs
3/4cup milk
1cup cooked diced ham
1/3 cup diced onion
grated cheese (they recommend 1 cup grated swiss cheese and 1/4cup of both cheddar and monterey jack cheese... I used probably 3/4 marble and 1/2 monterey jack. Use whatever you have)
2tsp chopped fresh basil (I used dried)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
2. To prepare the crust, mix the hash browns and butter carefully, making sure the potatoes don't turn to mush
3. Spray a 9" pie plate or quiche pan with nonstick spray. Press the potato-butter mixture evenly on the bottom and sides of the pan.
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with an electric mixer for 2 minutes on low speed. Add the milk, ham, onion, swiss, cheddar, monterey jack, basil and salt and pepper. Stir until they're well mixed.
5. Pour the egg mixture into the crust and bake it for 45 minutes. To test whether the quiche is done, insert a knife in the center. If it comes out clean, the quiche is ready.

MY REVIEW: I don't suggest you eat this often and I'm not even particularly proud that I cooked it.... but Jason loved it and I guess that's all that matters on his Birthday! This could easily be made more healthy by adding vegetables - spinach would be a great addition. The ham could be left out for a vegetarian breakfast or if you're a "lazy vegetarian" just pick the ham out! Ever since I've had to become so incredibly aware of what I'm eating with my gluten issues, I can't muster up the energy to care about what meat is on/in/touching my food.  I'm really not setting a good example with this post at all.

JASON'S REVIEW: He loved it! Even took his own picture of it. It fueled him to go for a winter bike ride.

A few things this weekend

I'm a little behind in my blog writing but lets start with Saturday morning. It's a rare occasion that we have a fancy breakfast. If it's during the week, it would only be for someones birthday. Sometimes on the weekends though I'll wake up in a cooking mood. Yesterday was one of those rare mornings!

No fancy recipes here. Scrambled eggs full of veggies - zucchini, orange pepper, mushroom & onion. I made some crispy dill potatoes too. After much trial and error I've found *what I think* is the best method for making crispy hash-brown-like potatoes. After boiling them until they're tender, I put the potatoes in the oven with some olive oil and dill and cook them for another 15 minutes or so at 400. The secret is to use the convect setting on the oven though! It leaves the inside soft while crisping up the outside.

I "toasted" some gluten-free bread in the oven as well. It's just easier if both Jason and I are eating the same bread and using the same knife so I treated him to some amazing Udi white bread. 

My mom purchased this bread for me first and it's honestly better than any gluten-filled bread I've ever had. I'm hooked on the plain white bread which is usually not what I go for - but damn. It tastes like it was just baked. I've also tried the blueberry muffins which were awesome.

We also had chai tea!

JASON'S REVIEW: That was the best start to the day I've had in a long time. The potatoes tasted like sweet tuber heaven.
MY REVIEW: I agree with Jason.. except for the tuber part?

Now moving right along to Saturday evening. I had wanted to make skewers but the skewer sticks are temporarily missing. Instead, we used our little grill bowl to make veggies on the BBQ.
A little olive oil with salt and pepper is all I added to these vegetables.
JASON'S REVIEW: They were tasty. 
MY REVIEW: The fresh pineapple was my favorite. The salt & pepper do not ruin the flavor.

Last, but not least, this evening we had a fantastic meal. I found some gluten free butter chicken sauce that comes in a jar. It's a lite sauce as well and for some reason can't find it on the Sharwood website - but you can find it at Safeway.

I can no longer find the recipe that inspired this salad so don't give me FULL credit for it! Here's what's in it:

mixed greens
2 sliced pears
crumbled gorgonzola cheese
dried cranberries
walnut pieces

Dressing
rice vinegar
olive oil
lemon juice
salt
pepper

Again, no measurements. I hope nobody just skims over my vague recipes and refuses to try them because I never write measurements. Tell me if you do! Please? I'll try harder.

MY REVIEW: I am on such a moldy cheese kick! This was great. Rice vinegar worked very will on this salad too.

JASON'S REVIEW: He's doing laundry so I don't want to bother him anymore. He liked it! He probably thought it was tasty!

Skillets

Since our camping trip to Jasper had to be canceled *due to SNOW*, I had most of the ingredients already gathered to make an Italian Sausage Skillet. It was inspired by, but not exactly the same as this camping recipe I had made last year. I used orange pepper, red onion and no zucchini this time. It was not as good cooked on the stove as compared to over the open fire. Still, it was tasty and fairly simple to throw together. It was such a colorful dish.. purple and orange! The picture doesn't do it justice.

This morning I threw together a breakfast skillet of my own creation. Here's what was in it:

a little dot of margarine
chopped red onion
frozen hash browns
2 eggs
chopped spinach
fresh ground pepper

I sauteed it all up together and put a cheese curd on top. It was an odd choice of topping, I know,  and not exactly something I would recommend. Jason thought it was butter. Perhaps next time I will just eat the cheese curd on it's own.

Cheddar Cheese Apple Muffins

 

So I woke up this morning and decided to make some 'Cheddar Cheese Apple Muffins' from my new muffin cookbook - a present from Jason's mom (thanks again!). You're probably wondering why someone with an oven that seems to be unable to reach a temperature higher than 100F would be inspired to bake muffins. It makes no sense that my muffins turned out perfectly and evenly baked either...

You're probably also wondering how on earth I managed to use that oven when it was in the back of Jason's truck (look closely!):

Wonder no more.. I used my new oven!!

Our new Whirlpool Gold was a boxing day purchase. My dad (thanks again) and Jason hauled it into the house yesterday and Honey worked tirelessly to make sure it was level:

It has more features than I could ever imagine using but I am so excited to experiment with it. It not only has a self-clean feature, it steam cleans itself and has a hidden element inside so it will be very easy to keep tidy. It also has the fifth warming burner which I think will come in handy and it's a convection oven as well. This morning I just used the basic "bake" feature and it worked perfectly!

I served them up on my new plate (thanks mom) that looks shockingly similar to my tattoo (which happens to be 2 years old today) and it was a great breakfast.

MY REVIEW: I love my new oven!! These muffins were great - I used 3 medium apples to get 1 cup. This was a messy task so beware. I didn't have any cheddar cheese but I did have a little hunk of marble and some manchego, which I crumbed in. The muffin cups were a little full but it said make 12 so I wasn't going to mess with it. They're more like scones than muffins and make a really good breakfast when served warm.

JASON'S REVIEW: He said these were tasty (much like everything I cook apparently) and a good breakfast!

Spinach & Turkey English Muffin with Seasoned Potatoes

I did a healthier version of the Egg McMuffin today. The potatoes look shiny which makes them look unhealthy but really they were decent! I didn't follow any recipes today... I was inspired by all the little baggies in the fridge that were about to turn rancid!

In the english muffin:

1egg
1 piece of turkey bacon cut in half
Handful of spinach leaves

For the potatoes, I cut up some fingerling potatoes and boiled them in water. While they were cooking I sauteed mushrooms and onions in a little bit of margarine. Once the potatoes were ready to rock I threw them in the frying pan and stirred them around until everything was crispy. I seasoned with fresh ground black pepper and some garlic powder.

MY REVIEW: I really liked the english muffin. I could skip the cheese every time and go for the spinach version. I guess the turkey bacon isn't really that great for you but it's better than the real thing. Potatoes were great. I was so happy when I finally realized that to make your own hashbrowns, you should probably cook the potatoes first. So many camping trips.... so many hard potato bits...

ON A SIDE NOTE, the last 2 pictures were taken using my phone. It's kind of a hassle to whip my huge camera out everyday... just incase you noticed the quality had gone down the drain! ALSO, for the record, I usually only ever take a picture of Jason's meal. My plate is never as fancy unless there's 2 plates in the picture. Plus I don't eat like a hungry man.

JASON'S REVIEW: He really liked the spinach and said it hit the spot since he was so hungry.