Corn Casserole

I made this last week for some company and this it the item everyone went back to for seconds. It also reheats well.




Corn Casserole
INGREDIENTS:
1 (15 1/4-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
1 (8-ounce) gluten-free corn muffin mix*
1 cup sour cream
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar

HOW TO PREPARE:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, stir together the 2 cans of corn, corn muffin mix, sour cream, and melted butter. Pour into a greased 9 by 13-inch casserole dish. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and top with Cheddar. Return to oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Let stand for at least 5 minutes and then serve warm.

*Homemade GF corn muffin mix:
1½ cups (188 grams) GF flour, such as Manini's (contains xanthan gum)
1½ cups (240 grams) yellow cornmeal
½ cup (100 grams) sugar
2 tablespoons (29 grams) baking powder
½ teaspoon (3 grams) baking soda
½ teaspoon (3 grams) salt
1 tablespoon plus ½ teaspoon (18 ml) sunflower oil

Crepes

Crepes have been a family birthday tradition since I was a child. When my son, Keith, requested crepes for his birthday this past week, I wasn't surprised, but I was a bit worried how my old recipe would fare with a switch to gluten free. The results were delicious! They actually taste more like Blini - the Russian version of crepes. They are a bit thicker and have a more egg-flavor. I loved eating them plain. But they are also delicious with blended strawberries and whip cream. Yum!

These are more difficult to make large, so I made them smaller. So good.

Crepes

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup GF Manini's flour (contains xanthan gum)

1/2 cup GF rice-based flour, such as Cup 4 Cup (contains xanthan gum)
½ tsp salt
Powdered sugar
3 eggs
1 cup milk
5 tbsp melted butter
Strawberries, blended with water and a little sugar
Whip cream, sweetened

HOW TO PREPARE:
Sift flour, salt & 2 tbsp powdered sugar together. Beat eggs until light. Add milk, mixing well. Add butter. If batter is too thick, add more milk until it is pourable. 

Pour in enough batter to cover bottom of 8 inch hot greased frying pan or a griddle. Brown crepes to color desired. Repeat until all batter is used. Let cool. Spoon blended strawberries in middle of crepes and roll up. Top with whip cream or powdered sugar.

Are you still doing that gluten-free diet?

I get asked that a lot. And YES, I am. And today was the first week where I saw the scale go down. I lost one whole pound and that's exciting! But even more exciting is that I have had a menstrual cycle right on cue for the past 3 months. They have only been 1-3 days long - but they are consistent! Progress.

I am gearing up for a road trip to Oklahoma to see family. I am a bit worried about preparing food for myself that is gluten-free in someone else's home. I have even thought about taking my rice cooker with me! I imagine it will work out, but even the thought of being on the road and trying to find snacks and foods that will work is a bit stressful. I am seriously thinking to order a couple of GF pizzas from Dominos to take in the car!

My next goal is to cut back on sugar. I admit that I don't want to do this - but I feel that I should. So, I am making plans to do so.

I am exercising 4x a week for 20 minutes and I can feel myself getting stronger from it. Onward and upward!

Baked French Toast

This is one of my pre-GF recipes that I have adapted with my delicious breadmaker bread. So good you don't even know it's GF. I promise.

My photo

Baked French Toast
INGREDIENTS:

1 loaf GF breadmaker bread, recipe found here
8 whole Eggs
2 cups Whole Milk
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract
Topping
1/2 cup Flour
1/2 cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 stick Cold Butter, Cut Into Pieces
Powdered Sugar
Maple Flavoring
Vanilla Flavoring
Milk

HOW TO PREPARE:
For the French toast: Grease the 13x9 inch baking pan. Tear the bread into chunks, or cut into cubes, and evenly distribute in the pan. Crack the eggs in a big bowl. Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Pour evenly over the bread. Cover the pan tightly and store in the fridge until needed (overnight preferably). Or you can make it and bake it right away---delicious no matter what!

For the topping: Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a separate bowl. Stir together using a fork. Add the butter and with a pastry cutter, and mix it all together until the mixture resembles fine pebbles. Store in a plastic bag in the fridge. *Sometimes I alter this step and just spread it out over the casserole before putting in the fridge. It has worked well both ways.

When you're ready to bake the casserole, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the casserole from the fridge and sprinkle the topping over the top. Bake for 45 minutes for a softer, more bread pudding texture or for 1 hour-plus or more for a firmer, crisper texture.

In a small bowl, add some powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and 1/4 tsp maple flavoring. Stir in a little milk until you reach a glaze consistency. Pour over Baked French Toast once it comes out of the oven.

3 months and counting

Everything is going much more smoothly with the gluten free diet. I have my regular recipes that I enjoy and try to make news ones each week. I made a bread-maker bread recipe last week that was really good. I used the leftovers to make a breakfast casserole and I seriously didn't know that I was eating gluten free! This one things will allow me to make some recipes that I have been missing, such as my cheese souffle! And things like that are so encouraging.

This past week, there was a luau at my church. It was a date night for couples to raise money for girls camp. We signed up to go and they were serving Hawaiian haystacks. I knew I couldn't eat the chicken gravy on the top so I brought some leftover white bean chicken chili to use instead. It worked beautifully! Plus, my friend who is also gluten-free came and had forgotten to bring a gravy replacement, so I was able to share my chili with her. I felt so good being prepared and being able to still participate in the date night without feeling left out. And I brought some of my homemade GF bread with me. Yummy!

My weight has been the same throughout these 3 months. Sometimes I am frustrated with that and other times I am so grateful that it hasn't gone up! I feel encouraged through prayer that in time weight loss will come.

Lemon Bars

I love lemon bars. I used my regular recipe and turned it into a gluten free version and was THRILLED with the results. My daughter, Anna, said that the GF ones are better than the regular ones. There you have it, folks!

Lemon Bars
INGREDIENTS:
½ cup confectioners' sugar
2 cups plus 6 tbsp. flour, divided (I used half of Maninis flour and the other half I used this flour)*
Pinch of salt
1 cup room-temperature butter, sliced into 8 pieces
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
6 tbsp. lemon juice
Grated rind of one lemon

HOW TO PREPARE:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 13×9-in. baking pan.
2. In a food processor, blend confectioners' sugar, 2 cups flour and salt. Add butter and pulse until mixture is crumbly. Press into pan and bake for 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, beat eggs, 2 cups sugar, 6 tbsp. flour and lemon juice until well combined. Stir in lemon rind. Pour on top of hot crust and bake for an additional 25 minutes. Cool completely, then sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Cut into squares.

*If you use a flour that doesn't already contain xanthan gum, you will need to add some to that flour. I wanted to use Maninis because it isn't a rice-based flour and I find that when I use only rice-based flours that the results are more grainy in nature, so I like to use half of a rice-based flour and then use Maninis for the other half.

Pork Carnitas

This recipe takes time and effort. It is worth it. The leftovers were divine.

Photo found here.

Pork Carnitas
4 pound boneless pork butt, fat trimmed and cut into 2 inch cubes
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 onion, peeled and halved
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried oregano
2 Tb fresh lime juice
2 C water
1 medium orange, juiced and keep the spent halves

1.  Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat to 300 degrees.  Combine all the ingredients in a large Dutch oven, including the spent orange halves and juice.  Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat, uncovered.  Once it simmers, cover pot and transfer it to the oven.  Cook until the meat falls apart when prodded with a fork, about 2 hours.
2.  Remove the pot from the oven and turn on the broiler.  Use a slotted spoon to remove the meat from the pan and place it on a large foil-lined jelly roll pan.  Remove and discard everything from the pot except for the cooking liquid.  Place pot over high heat on the stove and boil until thick and syrupy, about 20 minutes.  You should have about 1 C of liquid remaining when it is finished.
3.  While the liquid is reducing, use two forks to pull each cube of pork into three equal sized pieces.  Once the liquid has become a syrup, gently fold in the pieces of pork into the pot.  Try not to break up the pork any further.  Taste and add additional salt and pepper.
4.  Spread the pork back onto the foil lined pan and evenly spread the meat around so there is a single layer of meat.  Place the jelly roll pan on the lower middle rack of the oven and broil until the top of the meat is well browned and edges are slightly crisp, about 5 to 8 minutes.  Using a wide metal spatula, flip the pieces of meat and broil the other side until well browned and edges are slightly crisp, 5 to 8 minutes.  Serve immediately in a tortilla with all your favorite toppings.