Desserts

Fall is here and that means pumpkins are starting to appear on your neighbor’s door step and in grocery stores, which is the universal signal to start carving and cooking pumpkin. Why is it most of us tend to cook with pumpkin only around Halloween and Thanksgiving?  Pumpkin is loaded with vitamin A, fiber and it is low in calories, so we should find ways to work it into our diet throughout the year.

Pumpkin is very versatile to cook with, so it can be used in both sweet and savory recipes.  This Examiner did a little research for gluten-free pumpkin recipes and was amazed at all of the drool-worthy recipes we found.  Listed below are just a fraction of the gluten-free pumpkin recipes available online.

What is your favorite way to cook with pumpkin?

Pumpkin – General Recipes

• About.com has an extensive list of gluten-free pumpkin recipes
• Foodista has a list of 5 Savory Pumpkin Recipes and a list of 5 Must Try Gluten Free Pumpkin Recipe
• Gluten-free pumpkin recipes from The Gluten-Free Homemaker Read More »

I hadn’t realized it while planning this weeks’ posts, but there is an ongoing theme for many of the recipes this week.

fiber + healthy and happy digestion

I just love fiber, don’t you?

Abusing my body throughout my teenage and early adult years left me with a very broken digestive system.

After going through countless tests, x-rays, medications, hospital visits, acupuncture, massage therapists, and exercises I said enough is enough! And I made a promise to myself that I would Read More »

Zucchini is a veggie that you can easily add to just about anything, and that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing with it. Grated, it makes a wonderful “raw” pasta substitute, I love it lightly stir-fried with other veggies, it’s delicious sauteed and added to salads, omelets, or whatever else is cooking, and then of course there’s always zucchini bread. My grandmother used to make it every summer. She would bake it in loaves, and then sandwich softened cream cheese between thin slices. It tasted like cake, and I suppose it practically was the way she made it. YUM.

I started looking online for gluten free zucchini bread recipes, and I came across some zucchini mini muffins with chocolate chips over on Elana’s Pantry. I love that website, and I have her Gluten Free Almond Flour cookbook, which I use regularly. She now also has a Gluten-Free Cupcakes book, which is now on my wish list, if anyone is feeling generous.

But I digress. Here is the original Gluten Free Zucchini Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins recipe, and the only things I changed were my typical substitutions using Read More »

This delicious recipe is taken from “You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free” by Roben Ryberg

Double or Triple the Recipe to Build a Tower like This One!

3 egg whites

1 tablespoon oil

¼ cup milk

½ cup rice flour (75 grams)

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon sugar (stevia or splenda are also good) Read More »

This is one of our very favorite desserts. It meets all the criteria we look for in making a dessert. It is generally loved by young and old alike.  It doesn’t require baking, there are no gluten free flour ratios to balance out, no added sugar,  free of lengthy preparation and complicated steps, and most importantly so delicious. In our globally connected world, you can now find strawberries almost year round. We generally prefer to eat foods as they are available seasonally, and locally grown if at all possible. But that is just not always practical when you live in a high desert environment, where so much of our food gets trucked in. Nearly all our local stores carry quite an assortment of Read More »

Dairy used to be my friend, but then we had to break up and it is the most difficult breakup I have ever had. Eliminating dairy/casein from a diet is more difficult than removing gluten because it is everywhere and it tastes really good.

Of course the best way to go about eliminating dairy is to look for substitutes and for me that made chocolate and cream cheese a priority. I never thought I would be able to like dark chocolate and now I love it. Cream cheese substitutes can be made from soy, which is also a no-no for me, but then came luscious cashew cream to save the day. Read More »

This cake is soft and reminiscent of the filling in pumpkin pie.  Not surprising really, when it has mashed sweet potato as its main ingredient.

To do ahead of time

Cook sweet potatoes in the microwave (or oven if you have it running for something else) until they are soft.  Mine took about eight minutes – four small sweet potatoes. Leave to cool then remove the peel and mash.  I found it easiest to cut an end off and scoop the sweet potato out with a circular action with a fork.  Do this ahead of time so you don’t be tempted to work with them while they are very hot and burn yourself.   Keep the peel and spritz with oil, put on a baking sheet, and cook for 20-30 minutes in the oven for a crisp scoop for spicy salsa.
Read More »

Ahhh, ice cream. Even better: salty and sweet ice cream. The combination of salty and sweet is one of my favorites. I love taking a bite and not knowing exactly what it will taste like.

Also, in case you were wondering, I use this Kitchenaid ice cream attachment for my stand mixer. It works great – during the summer, I keep the bowl frozen in the freezer so that any time I’m in the mood for ice cream, I can grab it and make a refreshingly cool treat immediately.  

I finally ate the last of this last night, and I’m really sad that it’s gone. It was the perfect ending to the last weeks’ worth of dinners.

I guess I’ll just have to make some more. 

I am a firm believer that ice cream is appropriate at any time of year, even when it’s -20′ outside (although it never gets quite that cold here in the Pacific Northwest), but it is especially precious and fulfilling when the sun is blaring and you’ve been playing outside all day.

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I’m loving the Nonstick Mini Loaf Pan from Good Cook! You can do so much with this pan, and I know this will come in handy next Easter as I continue to work on converting my Grandmother’s Easter bread recipe (it is not Easter without this bread!). For now however I was asked to “Be a Sweetie” and make a Sweet Creation with this pan. I was a bit indecisive on what to make because there are so many options…did I want to make meatloaf? Something sweet? Savory?  I finally decided on Read More »