GF Apple pie anyone?

Nothing warms your house (and soul) like the smell of apple pie baking in the oven!

So on this dreary day, I decided to pop one in.

Totally made this recipe up and haven't tasted it yet due to it still cooling but I figured I would share anyways.

Kara's GF apple pie (and crust)

Crust:
2 cups GF flour of your choice (spelt would be yummy if you can handle it)
1/3 cup of COLD butter divided
1/3 cup of COLD coconut oil
1 Tablespoon of salt
5 Tablespoons of ice cold water


Mix flour and salt together.  Cut in butter and coconut oil.  Slowly add ice water until it forms a dough ball.  Split in two, roll out and place bottom in pie dish.

Filling:
7 cups of apples (skinned and cut up)
1/4 cup corn starch (or another thickener)
1/2 cup sweetener
1 Tablespoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
pinch of clove

Mix all in a large bowl and place in pie crust.  Put top on pie and do as you please with it...as long as you have a few vents :)  Bake at 375 for an hour!

ENJOY!!

The best gluten free apple cookies!

I wanted to make some apple cookies...

BUT...

I also wanted Cooper to be able to enjoy them...

The recipes for GF apple cookies were just weird. Really, really, really weird.

So I made it up...

And to my surprise, they were great!

Here it is folks. The best ever gluten free apple cookies.

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
  
• 1 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 1/2 cup oats
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup chopped apples

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cream the coconut oil and brown sugar together. Mix in the egg and milk. Stir in the apples. Add the oats, corn starch, rice flour, baking soda,cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg.
   
3. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a lightly greased cookie sheet Bake for 13 minutes.
   

Snack time!

I don't know about your kids but mine are snackers. Now don't get me wrong, they like to eat meals (at least 3 out of the 4) but they also LOVE snacks. That being said, I try to (or course) make them healthy snacks.

Milkshakes AKA Smooties are our favorite snack. I enjoy them as well and they serve as a good protein boost for this nursing around the clock mama. I have honestly NEVER followed a "recipe" for smoothies and just put random delicious things in them. BUT recently I have found my favorite so I figured I would share with you.

Banana Elderberry Kefir Smoothie

1 large banana
1 cup of plain kefir
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup elderberries (or other fruit of choice)
handful of ice
1 teaspoon ground flax seed
milk

Combine them all in a blender until smooth and enjoy! This recipe feeds all three children plus me.

Looking for other delicious smoothie recipes! Please share!

What's cooking?

It's hot!

My husband would say it's too hot for a roast but in my opinion, it is never to hot for a roast. Okay well maybe if the roast is in you oven but in crockpot is just fine with me!

So here is what is for dinner tonight...

Ingredients:
roast of your choice ( I had an arm roast in my freezer for our recent cow purchase)
diced tomatoes (either fresh or canned...about 1 cups worth)
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
teaspoon of fresh Oregano
other herbs of your choice ( I used some chives)

Place all ingredients in your crock pot on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

Then cook up some potatoes. Now I do not like crockpot potatoes. They are just too mushy and taste like meat. Potatoes are suppose to taste like potatoes, not meat. So I chop them up, put them in a 8x8 pan sprinkle them with olive oil and some garlic salt and broil them until they are brown. YUM.

So there you have it...an easy dinner for a busy mom.

on a side note: while chopping the onions, Addy decided she wanted a taste (I think she thought it was an apple). I gave her a pice and now she is in love with raw onion..yuck!

I DID IT, I DID IT!

I know, it's not exciting for you but it is for me...

I MADE MY OWN GLUTEN FREE BREAD RECIPE...AND IT'S GOOD!

I couldn't believe it. I really really really do not like GF bread. It tastes like baked beans and yucky rice. Gross! So I was on a mission to create a great GF bread recipe. Here it is...feel free to make it even if you aren't gluten intolerant because it has lots and lots of good things in it and it tastes very yummy.

1 c milk
1 c vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/4 c honey (plus some for drizzling)
2 teaspoons Xanthan Gum
1 1/2 Tablespoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 C buckwheat Flour
3/4 c Gluten free flour mix ( I used Bob's Red Mill all purpose baking flour)
1 c gf oats
1/4 c flaxseed meal
cooking spray


Directions

In a large bowl, combine Xanthan Gum, baking powder, salt, flours, and flaxseed meal. Set aside for later use.

In mixing bowl, add milk, oil, eggs and honey, mix. Add dry ingredients and mix. Pour bread batter into greased loaf pan. Spray top of bread with cooking spray and drizzle with honey (optional).

Place in 350° preheated oven and cook for one hour. Remove from oven. Transfer bread to wire rack and allow to cool.


I think this would be yummy with some apple butter on top too!

GF cooking

We are on week two of Cooper's COMPLETE GF diet. We have partially eliminated gluten for the past 4 months but haven't been as strict as we should be. The only slip up was from daddy who gave him a piece of candy loaded with gluten but to his defense, he had no idea! I will update you all of how things are going in a few weeks. Anyways...

I found this online and I totally had to share it. It doesn't even taste GF! It wasn't flat like most GF breads and the whole family ate it.

*The original recipe called for pecans but I didn't have any. Feel free to add them if you want!

1 stick margarine or butter, softened
3 banana's
2 cups rice flour (or prepared GF baking mix)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

In a large bowl, cream butter with sugar. Beat in eggs, vanilla and bananas. In another bowl, mix together flour and baking powder. Combine and beat until dry ingredients are moist. Turn batter into 5 x 9-inch loaf pan. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour and 20 minutes or until toothpick comes clean out of center. Do not under bake. Yields one loaf of 10 large slices.