Cinnamon Roll Bars

As you can probably tell by now, I love to look at everyone else's food blogs. I have just a few that I read every day, but when I have some free time, I go scroll through several others.

One that I have mentioned here before is Chocolate-Covered Katie. Katie writes her blog about healthy desserts and I am always amazed at the ingredients she includes. I mentioned that I made her chocolate chip cookie dough dip here.

In my quest for new breakfast ideas (I mentioned the search here), I came across Katie's Deep-Dish Cinnamon Roll Pie, and thought that with a couple tweaks, it would be perfect for breakfast.

This was a more involved recipe than I realized on an initial read-through. Katie said "Blend all ingredients very, very well in a food processor."



My food processor is too small to handle a can of beans, let alone two and all the other ingredients.

So my modification was to blend each thing separately. I started with the oats, then dumped those in the bowl of my KitchenAid. Then I blended the beans, etc.

My Changes:
1. I used beans that I cooked and soaked myself. I used a cup and a half of garbanzo beans and a cup and a half of cannellini beans, for the grand total of three cups.

2. No sugar. I used 6 dates that I pulsed in the food processor. My dates were pretty hard (I might never buy that particular brand again), so I soaked them in water before I ground them up.

The Process:
As I said, I ground everything up individually in the food processor. Then I used my KitchenAid mixer to mix the ingredients together. I wasn't sure what kind of texture I was going for, so after I had everything mixed, I ran small batches through the food processor again until it was smooth.

The "batter" is really stiff and thick.



I actually had to press it into the pan to get it to spread out.



After I baked it, I let it sit in the pan for fifteen minutes, and then turned it out to finish cooling.



I sliced the 8x8 pan into 8 bars. Perfect breakfast size.

Mug Muffins -- Update

For this summer semester, I am not teaching classes on Fridays (because there aren't any classes offered on Fridays at all). And I like to have a little treat for the weekends. But don't worry, these are so easy that you can make them on any busy day. 

I've posted about Mug Muffins before. I still love them.

I mentioned in that post that Ashley at the Edible Perspective was the amazing creator of the Buckwheat Bakes. She mentioned (a while ago) that she had stopped using the flax egg, so I decided to try the Mug Muffin that way. 

The Ingredients:

1/2 banana, mashed

1 Tbs ground flax seed

1 tsp chia seed

1/4 cup buckwheat flour

1 Tbs carob powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 Tbs water (or slightly more)

I use the huge mug you can see on the left in the picture above. First I mash the banana in the mug, then I add in all the dry ingredients and start to stir. Then I add the water and stir. The batter should be thick, but not dry. If it is too dry, I add a little more water. 

Then I put the mug in the microwave, cover it with a paper towel, and microwave it for 1 min 45 sec. When it is cooked, I dump it out of the mug and let it cool. 

Optional Add-ins:

Raisins

Nuts

You could trade the spices for other spices

For breakfast, I cut it into slices and topped it with almond butter. 

Microwaved Mug Muffins

Millet Mug Muffin

Buckwheat Mug Muffin

I came across the blog Edible Perspective a few weeks ago. I was surprised to find what Ashley calls "Buckwheat Bakes." I discovered that with just a few tweaks, I could eat these!

They are basically muffins, and so you can imagine how excited I was. It has been so long since I have made or eaten muffins.

And the other appealing feature is this makes one single serving that can be cooked in the microwave. And they taste good.

Mug Muffins

1 flax egg = 2 1/2 tbs boiling water + 1 tbs ground flax

1/2 banana, mashed

2 tbs water

1/4 buckwheat flour or millet flour

1 tbs carob powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp chia seeds

handful of raisins (optional)

Here's how I do it:

Put the 2 1/2 tbs water in a large mug and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add the 1 tbs flax and let it gel for a minute.

Meanwhile, mash up the banana. (I do this on a plate -- yes, one more dish)

Then add everything to the mug and stir really well.

Cover the mug with a paper towel and microwave it for 1 min 45 sec or 2 full minutes.

Then I just eat it straight out of the mug with a spoon.

Cinnamon Raisin Bake

I had a rough day on Friday, and on Saturday I decided to bake. I don't know if you have noticed this trend on my blog lately, but I haven't baked any baked goods in quite a while. The green diet, particularly the no corn, is making my love for muffins harder to fulfill.

I came across this recipe by Ashley at the Edible Perspective. I think I read through it two or three times before I really believed that this was a baked good with no milk -- or replacement/fake milk -- no eggs, and no baking powder.

This was something I had to try. ... With modifications.

I used Ashley's suggestion of millet flour in place of the chickpea flour. It was my first time working with millet flour, and it's good. It may have made this slightly more dry than the chickpea flour would, but it held together.

Cinnamon Raisin Bake

Adapted from the Edible Perspective

3/4 C millet flour

1/2 C buckwheat flour

1/2 t salt

1T sucanat or pure cane sugar (I left this out entirely. It would taste much better with it)

1 C water

1.5 t cinnamon

2 T safflower oil

1/2 C raisins

Preheat oven to 375.

In a bowl, combine all ingredients and stir well until fully combined.

Grease a 9×9 square pan [or 8-9” round pan].

If using the sq. pan bake for 35min.

Pumpkin Pancakes

I thought about these pancakes all weekend. I knew there had to be some way that I could eat some baked good.

I can't eat corn right now, so I can't use baking powder (if you have tips on that, let me know). That means that these are not fluffy light pancakes. Sometimes you see pictures of pancakes that double in height. That's just never going to happen here.

Now, some of you know that I live alone. The huge perk is that I can completely control what food is in my house and when I have to change stuff up, I don't have to worry about anyone else's preferences or likes. The downside is that I don't have anyone to be a second taster. So I thought these pancakes tasted good, but I don't know if they would pass for anyone else. But I'm sure with enough maple syrup, anyone would love these!

Pumpkin Pancakes

3/4 cup buckwheat flour

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp clove

1/2 tsp ground ginger

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup rice milk

2 tbs oil

1 flax egg = 3 tbs boiling water + 1 tbs ground flaxseed (add together and let sit for at least 2 minutes)

Mix your flax egg together first, so it has time to sit. Mix the dry ingredients together. Add the wet ingredients. Adjust liquids as needed.

As you cook this, there won't be air bubbles like normal pancakes. Watch carefully and you will see the edges start to firm up when the pancake is ready to flip.

Zucchini Muffins

In the movie Get Smart, Steve Carell's character figures out that there is a problem with some Russian because he ordered a muffin at a cafe. The comment Carell makes is, "Do you know how many calories that is? Why would he risk it?"

Well that's just not how I feel about muffins.

Everyone in the blogosphere is writing about summer produce and talking about how they have heaps of zucchini. I'm not growing zucchini (and frankly my plants are a little "Charlie Brown"-ish), but I thought that zucchini muffins would taste great.

I want to give credit where credit is due, so this recipe came about because I baked the cinnamon bun muffins that Elana has posted on her site. I needed to change them so there was absolutely no sweetener. As I kept thinking, it came to me. Zucchini.

On that note, this is a warning. There is absolutely no sweetener in these muffins. They are not sweet, so it is not the taste most of us expect from zucchini bread. They are working for me though. And they will be great to take on the plane.

Zucchini Muffins

1 cup shredded zucchini

1/4 cup oil

3 eggs

2 tbs almond milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup + 1 tbs almond flour

2 tbs coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mix the wet ingredients (including the zucchini) together. Add the dry ingredients. Mix well. The mixture should be slightly wet looking. Scoop into muffin tray.

Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes.

Yield 12 muffins

Cooking with Elana's Pantry

I mentioned last week that I stumbled across Elana's Pantry and was set to try two recipes.

First a note: In her FAQ section, Elana strongly discourages substituting ingredients. She recommends a particular brand of almond flour and repeats that the results will not be the same if you don't use the same ingredients that she uses.

I can respect that. She worked hard to create recipes that work in a specific way.

But of course, that's not how I roll. So naturally I modified.

Both recipes were still surprisingly good.

Recipe #1: Cinnamon Bun Muffins

My modification was to replace the agave nectar with applesauce in the muffin mixture. The muffins were really moist and lighter than I would have expected.

I took them on my road trip and made my friend eat one so I could get the opinion of someone not on a crazy diet. A few hours later she asked for another.

Recipe #2: Breakfast Bars

Once again in this recipe I replaced the agave nectar with applesauce. It gave good sweetness, however, the agave nectar would add some stickiness and binding to the bars. The applesauce doesn't, so my bars were very crumbly.

Instead of the raisins, I used a combo of dried figs and prunes, cut into small pieces. Simply because it's what I had in my pantry.

These were just crumbly and I discovered that all the seeds kind of bothered my poor sensitive system. So I froze most of the pan.

Apple Torta

I sacrificed and tested the cake recipe several different times. I had my friends (gluten and sugar eating friends) try the cake, and it was a hit. They all thought it was great.

I'm going to link this to Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten-Free’s March Round-Up. Head over and check it out at Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free.UPDATE: Hey look! Here's my post linked up with all these other famous gluten-free bloggers. How cool is that?

Apple Torta

Adapted from Danica Pollard

Ingredients

1/2 cup agave nectar

1/4 cup canola oil

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour mixture

1 Tbs baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

The Flour Mixture

6 cups white rice flour

2 cups potato starch

1 cup tapioca flour/starch

3 Tbs xantham gum

Sift ingredients together well and store in an airtight container.

Preheat oven to 350.

Sift together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients until thoroughly combined. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients until the batter is smooth.

Pour into a sprayed 8x8 pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean. Be careful and don't overcook or the bottom will burn quickly.

Once the cake is cool you can top it with anything you like, frosting, powdered sugar, but I thought it tasted great plain.

Chicken Salad and Cheesy Biscuits

Whew! All that social-ness can be exhausting.

Ok, really it was fun, but time for some updates.

1. Chicken and Grape Salad
It was a big hit at the work potluck. I actually had a coworker insist that I email her the recipe. My first thought was "Is it weird to just give you the link to my blog?" and my second thought was "Which version of the recipe do you actually want?" because of course, I modified.

This comes from my "Life Tastes Good Again" cookbook, but here it is with my modifications.
3 cups cooked chicken cut in cubes
2 1/2 cups grapes cut in half
2 cups celery
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tbs curry powder
3 tbs mango salsa (or more to taste. I found myself really wanting a little kick, so I kept adding more. I used Mrs. Renfro's Mango Habanero Salsa.)
1/4 tsp salt
spinach
slivered almonds

In a large bowl, toss together the chicken, grapes, and celery.
In a smaller bowl, mix the sour cream, milk, curry powder salsa, and salt. Pour this over the chicken mix and stir until coated.
At this point the salad can be stored in the fridge.

The day after I decided to eat the leftovers for lunch, and I filled my bowl with spinach and tossed a serving of the chicken salad on top. It was fabulous and I decided what would make it absolutely perfect is some slivered almonds sprinkled on top, so I did that too. I've added spinach and slivered almonds as serving suggestions. Modify as you wish!

2. Cheesy Garlic Biscuits
Last night I had a group of women over for dinner. My original plan, as I mentioned in my last post, was Butternut Squash Chili and cornbread. First lesson - acorn squash is WAY harder to peel than butternut squash. Second lesson - other people won't eat squash. (Yeah, I know, they probably say I am a super picky eater. Plus I'm weird).

I had planned on cornbread, but then I saw this post on Sunday morning: Garlic Cheese Biscuits at Gluten-Free Easily. I actually had all the ingredients and Kim told me they sounded way better than cornbread, so I followed her advice and made them.

The recipe made two dozen. They were completely gone. The crumbs too. (And that is why there are no pictures).

I did get to eat a few, and these are just like the Chebe brand cheese bread mix. And they are good.

A few modifications:
1. I used Bob's Red Mill All-purpose Gluten Free flour. I was worried it would be too heavy, but it wasn't.
2. I froze the butter and grated it. Super easy.
3. I just put the garlic into the batter.
4. I used a "heaping" cup of cheese.

Menu Plan
I am leaving on Thursday to go home for Christmas (so excited!) So the entire menu plan for the week is to clean out the fridge. I still have leftovers of the rice and peas risotto and I have some veggies and an acorn squash that need to be finished up. Fortunately I was able to just freeze the leftover chili, so it will last for a good long time.

Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Pumpkin

Round two of Pumpkin Muffin testing went much better. I have to give a shout out to Karina of Karina's Kitchen who has a wonderful post on substitutions. Her suggestions on sugar substitutions that gave me the ideas for these adjustments.

As I mentioned, I wanted some Thanksgiving-y (-ish?) treats, so my plan on Wednesday was to bake muffins and pumpkin pie. Yes, both gluten and sugar-free. Oh, and I didn't want to use agave nectar or honey. I guess I just need an adventure in my life.

I reasoned that since muffins can be dense, they would be sweetened very easily with raisins. The pumpkin pie, on the other hand, needed something lighter, so I used a banana. Both were delicious right out of the oven.

UPDATE: I shared them with a friend today, we both thought the pumpkin muffins were delish after we heated them up again (typical of gluten-free food). They really were quite good. And... we both agreed that the pumpkin pie needs another round of experimenting. The crustless-ness was a success, but ... the pie just wasn't that great. It was better warm and then we drizzled agave nectar over the top, and that made it pretty good. But still needs some more experimenting. Looks good though, right?


For the pumpkin pie, my recipe came from Shirley at Gluten-Free Easily. It is a Crustless Pumpkin Pie. What an ingenious invention, and super simple, all you have to do is add 1/4 cup flour to the pumpkin filling. I managed to follow Shirley's recipe exactly, except I replaced the sugar with 1 mashed small ripe banana. Now that I have looked back at Karina's sugar substitutions post, I could have pureed the banana to get rid of even the smallest clumps. A word of caution, you do want to use the ripest banana possible. Just peel your black bananas and toss them in the freezer and you'll always have some on hand.

I'll cover costs before giving you my own recipe. Canned pumpkin was on sale for 79 cents, I used two cans for these two dishes. Evaporated milk was $1.19, Allspice was $1.19, and Nutmeg was $1.19. Everything else I had sitting around. Total $5.51.


Pumpkin Muffins
Adapted from a community cookbook

1 2/3 cup GF flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup pumpkin
1/3 cup almond milk
1/3 cup raisins, blended fine

Mix dry ingredients.
Put the raisins and a splash of water in the blender. The water will help keep the raisins from being so sticky, and make them easier to scrape out. Blend them as finely as possible. Add all contents of blender into the wet mixture bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix eggs, pumpkin, butter, and milk.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix until moist and incorporated.
If the batter is too dry, add more almond milk.

Baked at 350 in greased muffin tins for 20 minutes.
Makes approximately 15 muffins.

Pancakes and Pictures

I walked into my office on Friday and saw this on my desk



I thought, wow that is so pretty. And then I ate one. And cried.

But that got me thinking. Food is pretty. I should share pictures with you. On Top Chef they are always saying that you eat first with your eyes, so come eat with me.

I made Chickpea Couscous with Quinoa. I figured some of you might not have ever seen Quinoa, so here it is.


And here is the final dish.


I tried the Larabars again. These ones have prunes, dried apricots, raisins, walnuts, and almonds. I baked these ones. Not the best idea. They burned really quickly.


I went to the farmer's market. Everything looked lovely. This is a spaghetti squash. I've never actually seen one with green stripes like this.


And here it is with the butternut squash for my chili.


I made saurkraut again. Here it is, hanging out on my counter and doing its thing.


And Sunday is pancake day.


Don't they look delicious?

Now that you have agreed with me, I'll tell you that these are gluten-free, sugar-free, egg-free, and milk-free.

Banana Pancakes
1 cup gluten-free pancake mix
1 tbs canola oil
1 tbs honey
1 tbs peanut butter
1 cup almond milk
1 banana, smashed

Mix everything together. Make sure the batter is thin and runny like pancake batter. If you need to add more milk or water, do it.

Muffins and menu plans

I've been slack. I have been eating, pretty good food too, and I haven't been sharing.

Here's the "menu plan" I've been working with this week. I do actually use those quotation marks to show sarcasm. I think I have commented before that I don't like planning. So this is just a vague representation of some of the things I might eat this week. And if I don't feel like it, I don't have to.

Soup - leftover homemade soup from my sick week last week
Stuffed Green Pepper - frozen leftover
Green Goddess Rice
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Spaghetti Squash, with homemade tomato sauce
Salad
Green Tomato Pasta Toss

Plus a few extra snacks
Lemon Muffins
Apple Cinnamon Raisin Muffins
Hummus

I made the Green Goddess Rice on Monday. It was pretty tasty, however it is really bad as leftovers. The avocado turns brown, and it is really not as nicely flavorful. But I can recommend the recipe if you are going to have a party and eat it all that night. Or ... not a party... but you just happen to actually feed a family.

The lemon muffin recipe is simply a modified Orange Juice muffins recipe. I added lemon juice and lemon zest.

Apple Cinnamon Raisin Muffins
2 cups featherlight gluten free flour mix
1 tsp xanthan gum
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup apple juice
1/3 cup veggie oil
1 egg
1 cup grated apple
1 cup raisins, lightly chopped
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix everything, bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

I made my muffins this week in my mini-muffin tin. That means I baked them for 13 minutes, and they are my fav because the bottom part of the muffin gets a little crispy, and it's just delightful. Unfortunately they are only like that right when you take them out of the oven. So I had to eat a lot straight out of the oven.

If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to want a glass of milk

And now for yet another muffin recipe.

I used up all of my flour blends. I should probably be bothered, but this means that now I get to try some of the other flour blends I have been reading about and see what I like best. I'm hoping it's a fun experiment.

But in the meantime, I went out of town yesterday and needed snacks. I am aware that I am the weird one, I take food with me everywhere I go. But I went out of town with 3 friends, and not a single one of them brought food with them. We met at their house, so I am perfectly aware that they had a whole box of Luna bars sitting on the coffee table. But nobody brought a single snack. And while I know I am weird, I just think that is really weird.

I went to make muffins to take on said trip, but only had rice flour. I know you can't just use that because it is too gritty. So here is the new recipe.

Rice flour blueberry muffins
1 egg
1/2 cup water (or other liquid, like milk)
2 tbs canola oil
1 tbs agave nectar or honey
1/4 cup + 1 tbs sour cream
1 1/2 cup white rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
blueberries

Mix liquid ingredients together, then add dry ingredients. As always texture should be runny-ish. I just threw in a couple handfuls of blueberries, until it looked like there were a bunch.

I used my mini muffin tin to bake these in. They are great as little bites, and made 24 muffins.

Bake at 425 for 17 min.

No soup for you

I haven't been grocery shopping this week. Plenty of food in the house, and apparently I only feel a burning need to go grocery shopping when I don't have any fruit. This week I have had an absolute abundance, and have been enjoying watermelon, peaches, strawberries, and even blended some up into smoothies.

So, what have I been eating?

Well, I finished off Heather's pasta salad over two meals. I ate the last herbed tuna in tomato, and for another meal polished off the bit of tuna mixture that was left over. I discovered that the tuna mixture was actually pretty good just spread on crackers. So maybe the downfall of that dish was that I used store bought tomatoes, and since they were the vehicle, the whole thing was just underwhelming. I made a(nother) big pot of chicken and veggie soup on Friday, so I have been enjoying that. And I had a lovely green salad yesterday.

I have to admit, I am really impressed with the soup. To explain: 16 days ago I went to the doctor with a terrible case of poison ivy. Really really bad. I got a shot and some really high powered meds. The doctor warned me that the meds would upset my stomach, and since even advil upsets my stomach, I decided I better be proactive about helping my stomach with gentle foods.

So I went to the grocery store, bought a box of chicken stock and a whole heap of veggies (potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, zucchini, mushrooms) and made a huge pot of soup. It was fantastic. And of course, I left the grocery store having spent $30. That pot lasted about 5 days, only half the course of the meds. So I made another pot. This time I tossed in some frozen chicken that I had in the freezer (for probably way too long, so the best use for it was soup). That pot lasted another 5 days.

Unfortunately, the 10 day course of meds didn't take care of the poison ivy, and so I had to get another round. So on Friday, when I got the new bottle, I made pot of soup #3. I did have to buy another box of chicken stock, but the veggies are the same from that first shopping trip. Super cheap, super easy, super long-lasting, and nice to my stomach. What more could you want?

The poison ivy trial also explains the muffin kick I have been on. It is helpful to have something a little substantial in my belly when taking high powered meds, and bread is substantial. For gluten-free baking, I believe that muffins are the best. They are small enough to bake easily and evenly. They are small enough to not be too dense in your mouth. And they are easily frozen and stored for use over a period of time.

The reason I have been experimenting so much with muffins is that muffins usually have a lot of sugar. I have been reading about sugar substitutes, and tried a new muffin recipe last night.

Explanations first I guess. I like banana bread. So I always buy a bunch of bananas. Unfortunately, I like to eat my bananas brown. When they are at the point that most people think they are useless for anything other than banana bread, they are finally at the point that I want to eat them. Fortunately this week I have had such an abundance of fruit that I held off, and decided that I absolutely would make banana bread with these bananas.

I decided banana bread muffins would be perfect for a sugar-free recipe because bananas are sweet, and they add moisture, perfect for gluten-free baking. As I was reading about sugar substitutes, I read that raisins are also a good sugar substitute. The banana bread recipe that I found actually added raisins and nuts, so I decided combining the bananas and the raisins would be a good shot here.

To use the raisins I ground them up in my blender. I didn't really want raisins in my banana bread. I just wanted to experiment. This made a little bit of a mess, but I added the raisin paste to the muffin batter and just beat it in hard and fast, and it broke up pretty well.

The result: Really good muffins. Now, these are not muffins for the faint of heart. They are not light, fluffy, silly muffins. These are rich, decadent, solid, hardy muffins. And they taste good.

Banana Bread Muffins
This is adapted from the back of the Bob's Red Mill package
1/3 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup gluten-free flour mix (I used 1 cup of Bob's Red Mill All-purpose GF mix, and 3/4 cup of the Life Tastes Good Again GF mix. Bob's is a combo of bean flours, which makes this a little more hardy, and the LTGA is completely white. The real reason for the blend: I ran out of Bob's)
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp xantham gum
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas (This took 3 bananas for me)
1/2 cup finely chopped raisins (I blended mine in a blender)

Blend the wet ingredients. Add the bananas and the raisins. Add the dry ingredients and mix. Fill muffin tin and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Yield about 15

Do you know the muffin man?

So the new recipe was a total flop. It's so disappointing, I had such high hopes... It was called "Herbed Tuna in Tomatoes," so basically a stuffed tomato. I finished mine and was just like hm. I wouldn't ever make that again. Which I said in order to give my two friends permission to not eat it any more. And they didn't.

The rest of dinner was very good though. I have been working on another muffin recipe all week, and finally feel like I got the proportions and measurements right so that the muffins turned out really well. They actually even stood the eating at room temperature test.

So I'll share the two recipes.

Heather's Pasta Salad
8 oz box of rice penne pasta
1 box of grape tomatoes
1 can of olives
1 green pepper
1 container of feta cheese
italian salad dressing (This time I used a balsamic vinagrette, it was quite good, although I think usually I do a "zesty italian).

Cook the pasta, then shock it in ice cold water. Drizzle a little of the dressing over it, to keep it from sticking. Cut up the pepper, tomatoes, and olives and add in. Add the crumbled feta. Add a little more dressing. Stir. Enjoy.

Note: with the rice pasta this salad is better at a more room temperature. Rice pasta gets really hard when it is straight out of the fridge. So if you refrigerate it (as you should for food safety), just microwave it for 10-15 seconds.


Orange Juice Muffins
This is a modification of an "Orange Muffin" recipe I found on allrecipes.com
2 cups of "Life Tastes Good Again" gluten-free flour mix
1 tsp xantham gum
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 egg
1 1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup canola oil

Mix the wet ingredients. Add in the dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated. (It is very important to not over-mix gluten free flours. It makes them gross). Your dough will be thicker than cake batter and kind of stiff.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Yield 12 muffins.

Put the muffins on a rack to cool. This is important. I left the first batch in the pan to cool and the bottoms got all soggy and that is gross.

UPDATE: What I should have said is that the orange juice muffins stood the test of being fed to non-gluten free people at room temperature. They ate them all. I call that a success.