Happy Coffee

For Mother's Day this year Tim got me a Keurig coffee maker, with an auto on timer to help me start my days with two kids.  I have spent the last several months taste testing several coffees and found a few I like.  Until about two weeks ago, I found San Francisco Bay Coffee company through Amazon.com.

I was so thrilled to find these coffee pods, there is no plastic cup on them!!!  So much less waste!  I was sick about throwing away those little plastic cups everyday and now I don't have to.  I chose to sign up for Amazon's subscribe and save program, where they automatically charge your credit card and ship your item on a regular basis, this brought the cost of the coffee pods down to 41 cents each, the cheapest I have found anywhere.  One more reason I decided to get this coffee with out taste testing it was that for every 1 or 2 star review on Amazon the San Francisco Bay Coffee company personally responded and offered a resolution to any possible problem with the product.

view of the bottom of the coffee pod

I subscribed to the French Roast flavor of coffee, because it is considered their dark roast.  San Francisco Bay offers 2 other varieties of coffee, I personally like coffee you can stand a fork up in.  Their French Roast coffee delivers!  I love the strong dark taste, and it's perfect with a little milk and a bit of agave nectar.  It has an amazingly rich smell, and it goes down smooth and easy. I'm very happy we found these coffee pods and I'm also glad someone thought to get rid of those plastic cups.  The only drawback to these pods is they need to be stored in an air tight container to maintain freshness, I put them in a Rubbermaid storage container I had laying around.  The good part of that is they send you 3 vacuum sealed bags of 12 pods each so you are only storing at most 12 pods at a time the others can stay in their factory bags until you are ready to open them.

P. S. My aunt just let me know that Costco in Oregon carries these pods in a box of 80 for $26.00, or 32 cents/each.

Some parenting scatological humor

I know many people already know that you MUST have a sense of humor to be a parent or you are doomed, but somethings just bring out the 8 year old in me.  It may not be terribly nice and Ceci is going to dislike this post in about 10-12 years, but I just find these things funny.

It seems that Ceci suffers from some amount of motion sickness, we have been on two long car rides and the poor girl has tossed her cookies.  I am currently looking up tips and tricks to keep her from getting sick in the first place, but I would be a fool if I wasn't also hunting down something for her to "throw-out" (her translation of throw-up) into.  I've had more than my fair share of rides on the porcelain bus, so I figure I'm allowed to laugh at all this, long and hard if I must.  And now that I have my own little girl getting sick from time to time, if I don't laugh, I will be in tears.

I just had to share some of the emesis bags I have found over the course of the day because some of these are far to funny to keep to myself.  Apparently the people who make these things have a fantastic sense of humor too!

The first and my most favorite had me laughing so hard I cried.  You have to watch the little 5 minute video, and please while you are watching it imagine a little kid with this thing strapped onto them.  You will laugh too, I just can't imagine how the host talks about it with a straight face for the entire 5 minutes, he is very dedicated to his product.

www.hurl-e.com

The next one, is all sorts of cute and funny.  Who knew barf bags could be this interesting.  There are over 115 different designs to choose from and they can be used for so much more than puke.

www.barfboutique.com

Another one with a different target audience in mind, but still entertaining to me was,

http://www.morningchicnessbags.com/

Last and certainly not least were the ones we ended up buying, since they are carried at a local pharmacy.  The image on the box alone cracks me up.  It's horrible!



http://www.traveljohn.com/

I hope this at least reached the 8 year old in you and made you chuckle.  I didn't realize there was such humor surrounding this touchy subject, I still thought it was a bit taboo, but it seems it certainly is not.  I'm happy to see that we can laugh and poke fun at all this because laughing is about the only way to survive the clean up.

Udi's Gluten Free Bagels

I am the proud owner of a happy tummy right now.  I just finished a Udi's Plain Gluten Free Bagel!  The are really good, nice an light, and perfectly chewy, I don't feel like I just ate a million slices of bread.  They even got nicely toasted in the toaster, other than the one I charred the other day, they are more delicate than some other brands of bagels on the market that need a blow torch to even get close to toasted.  They are also huge, something that isn't common of gf bagels, without a truckload of calories, 270 for the plain (on the bag, but the website claims they are 310 cal. each not sure why the discrepancy), and 280 for the cinnamon raisin bagels.  They are fantastic toasted with some cream cheese, or neufchatel cheese, and a cup of coffee on the side.

I took mine right from the freezer, and microwaved it for 30 seconds to start the thawing process.  After the microwave I slid a knife through the bagel to detach the two halves from one another and popped it into the toaster.  I did have to turn the toaster dial down to 2 out of 5, because they burn quickly.  Once they came out of the toaster, a quick smear of cream cheese and they ended up "in my mouth...AHHH" as Ceci says.  A good many more Udi's bagels will be ending up in my mouth because they are DELICIOUS!!!

We are so Fortunate to have wonderful friends, and Gluten Free Cupcakes

Gluten Free Cupcake tower from Bobby's 1st birthday

Our family is so fortunate to have some very amazing friends who want to take care of Ceci and I and make us feel so special and loved.  We have had the good fortune of celebrating birthdays of our friends children lately and I was fully prepared to provide food and cake items for Ceci and I to eat at the parties.  I have been shut down on all accounts by some wonderful women who want to take care of us, it's been so nice to go to parties and not have to bring our own food.

At the beginning of the year we attended Joseph's birthday where his Mom, Bonnie went out of her way to find a bakery with gluten free cake and bought a few slices for Ceci and I to have at the party.  It was delicious it had layers of chocolate cake and chocolate mouse, and was coated with a rich chocolate gouache.  So good, but I think it was a bit rich for Ceci, no problem, more for me!  I think she was more excited about getting a cup of lemonade with her lunch anyway.  It was really nice to have a special piece of cake that I didn't have to bring to the party.

Last week we were invited to another birthday party for Bobby, and were told not to bring any food at all for ourselves.  I was unable to go to the party but Tim was happy to take Ceci and go celebrate the occasion.  Tim told me that Bobby's Mom, Jaime, made a huge pan of gluten free baked ziti, one of Ceci's favorite foods.  Ceci proceeded to consume two large portions all by herself, and probably would have tried to eat the entire pan if Tim hadn't kept an eye on her.  Jaime also made a beautiful cupcake tower of all gluten free cupcakes!  She used Cherrybrook Kitchen's Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix for the cupcakes, which are also peanut free, a very happy thing for us.  The cake was nice, not to sweet which is perfect for a cake.  Jaime isn't quite sure of the brand of frosting she used, but that isn't the most important part.  The most important part is that Ceci LOVED them and has been talking about the beautiful cupcakes ever since and how much she liked eating the sprinkles.

We are so lucky to have friends who want to take care of us, work hard to build their awareness of gluten free food, and provide us with safe yummy things to eat.  I remember my mom bringing things to school and parties for me to eat because there was no other way.  We live in a very happy time, and are beyond fortunate to have the friends we do.  I can only hope that other people out there with celiac/gluten intolerance are so lucky, it's a wonderful feeling!

Gluten Free Bisquick Pancakes

Mickey Mouse Head Pancakes

We have been consuming a large amount of Gluten Free Bisquick around here lately, biscuits, dumplings, cakes, and pancakes.  One night we decided to have breakfast for dinner, including pancakes, which is very rare in this house.  My husband would be more than happy to sit down to a huge steak with potatoes on the side every night, I can't eat like that, and neither can Ceci.  We got creative one night and decided to make pancakes, and it couldn't have been easier with Gluten Free Bisquick.  Since Ceci hasn't really had pancakes before, we eat a lot of gluten free waffles, I decided to make the pancakes into a fun shape she would like to eat.  It worked really well, along with some home made blueberry jam she ate 3 that night.  I would have eaten a whole batch myself if I didn't have to share, they are light and fluffy, sweet and simple.

I think she was pretty excited to get a Mickey Mouse Pancake!

I kept it simple and followed the recipe on the box, which is unreasonably easy and quick.  I tried to find it online and link it here, but for some reason it was pretty difficult to find the plain pancake recipe, even on the Betty Crocker website.  So here it is from the box

Gluten Free Bisquick Pancakes

1   Cup Bisquick Gluten Free mix
1   Cup Milk
2   Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1   Egg

STIR  ingredients until blended.
POUR slightly less than 1/4 cupfuls onto hot greased griddle
COOK until edges are dry.  Turn; cook until golden.

makes 10 pancakes

I think we will be eating more breakfast for dinner around this house in the coming months.  I'll have to work on my pancake shapes though, Ceci might get tired of mickey heads pretty quick, maybe hearts aren't too difficult.

Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal

Ceci has a new favorite breakfast, Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal.  We ate it at my parent's house a few weeks ago while visiting and she gobbled it up every morning.  I had avoided buying it in the past because I thought it was expensive, about $3-4, compared to a box of cream of rice for less than $2.  I found out from eating it at my parents that it only takes a 1/4 cup to make a huge bowl, and if I make a half portion for Ceci I only needed to use 2 Tablespoons.

This morning I finally opened the bag I bought for our house and made one portion from 1/4 cup of dry cereal.  We put some frozen blueberries in, and Ceci dug right into my bowl with me.  Usually I scoop 1/3 of my bowl out into a small bowl for her, but today we "share all togethers."  (I love her cute speech pattern.)

It has a great taste to it, somewhat reminiscent of their polenta, which makes sense because there is corn in it along with Brown Rice, Buckwheat, and Sorghum.  It's rich and hearty, I really felt full until lunch, which seems like a miracle in and of it self.  I did add a little milk before we ate it to thin it out a little bit, it was almost solid after microwaving it.  I'm so glad to find another healthy gluten free product that Ceci will eat without an argument or me having to sit there and spoon food into her mouth begging and pleading.

Our Recipe

1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill GF Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal
1   Cup Water

Serving Suggestion:

2  Tbs Milk
1/3  Cup Frozen Blueberries

New Favorite Appliance, Cuisinart Stick Blender

For our family Christmas presents with my parents, brother, and sister-in-law, we draw names and buy the person a gift, it has been fun the last couple of years, takes the pressure off shopping for several people, and allows me to be somewhat creative or thoughtful in my gifts (I hope they think so anyway).  This year my dad drew me and got me the Cuisinart Stick Blender.  I'm not sure if this is really a present for me or Ceci, prior to Christmas I had started her eating smoothies everyday as a way to fill her with fruits and had been making them in the blender.  This Stick Blender streamlined my blender process beyond belief!  It comes with a large plastic cup that I dump all my smoothie ingredients into, put the Stick Blender in on top, sink it into the liquid and hit the on button.  Within less than a minute the ingredients are pulverized into a delicious drink that Ceci asks for several times a day.  It's also so simple to clean because it's stainless steel.

Now that it's so easy to make Ceci her smoothies, I've started adding veggies and veggie juice to be sure she is actually getting some in her diet.  If you have read some of my other posts, this kid is a picky eater, if you even put one veggie on her plate she will kindly pick it up, hand it to you, and say "No Thanks You." I've managed to hide some veggies in Spaghetti sauce, but how often can i really feed her spaghetti sauce?  I guess if it were up to her, everyday, but that's not realistic to me.  Here on Long Island in winter the produce selection becomes horrifying so we started buying frozen fruit and making smoothies to help her get lots of yummy things for her tummy.  After I realized she loved them we bought Bolthouse Carrot Juice to add in, and this week I was inspired by G-free Mom's De-tox January posts of Green smoothies, and added Brussels sprouts to Ceci's smoothie.  She drank it right up, no questions asked!

I can't wait to start using this Stick Blender for all sorts of other things, soups maybe?  There are lots of other suggestions in the book and it comes with fun accessories, like a tiny food processor and a whisk.  I tried the whisk to froth milk for lattes it was a bit messy but worked out eventually.  I've used this everyday since I opened it, and am not really sure how I lived without it.  Plus clean up is so easy, I do like the food processor for some things, but it is a pain to clean 5 different parts, the Stick Blender is easy to clean because it's only the one attachment and the cup if you choose to use it.

Thanks for the great present Dad!  So glad Ceci is eating such yummy things, I guess I should mention I have been eating the smoothies too, it's nice to feel full for so long and know that it's all good food in there.

Grilled Tillamook Cheese Sandwich

Today Ceci and I had Yummy grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, made from Tillamook Cheddar Cheese, and homemade gluten free bread.  Ceci loved it and ate 1/4 of a sandwich, along with two slices of plain cheese.  It was a nice warm treat on a cold winter day with snow flurries outside the window.  I love Tillamook cheese because I grew up on it, honestly I didn't really know there were other types of cheese in the world, which is either funny or sad.  Now as an adult I've had some yummy cheeses, but I always go back to my favorite, it's one of the few Cheddars I've ever seen in a medium category, and there is a distinct difference between it and a mild or sharp cheddar.  It tends to stay a little more firm while melting, than some other types of cheese such as American Cheese (don't get me started on American cheese!  No flavor, but for some odd reason Tim loves it.)  Ceci is now a huge fan of Tillamook cheese, thanks to my excellent tutelage!  She specifically asks for "Tahmook Chee!"  I love it!

Now you may ask how on earth I get hold of this delicious cheese, I personally bring it back from my visits to my family, or they bring it to me.  If you don't live in the Pacific Northwest you can order it online from their website.

Look at all that delicious melty cheesy goodness!

Annie's Gluten Free Bunny Cookies

Ceci has a new love in the food world!  I found these at Stop and Shop one day and she was very excited "Mommy, Bunny Crackers!!"  I of course bought them and gave her a few in the car, she seemed to enjoy them.  I've given them to her occasionally, and she likes them.  Then the other day out of nowhere she pulled them out of the pantry herself and told me she needed Bunny Crackers, I should mention it was 10am.  Not my ideal time to give, an already busy toddler, cookies.  She eventually got her cookies, she just had to wait till after lunch.  Now if Annie's would just make a box of only chocolate bunny cookies, Ceci would be in hog-heaven.  She eats around the vanilla ones like they are poison, I think they are delicious, they have the texture of a graham cracker.  I like the combination of the two cookies together, but life isn't really about what I like sometimes.  I checked their website, and no such luck, they only make the combo pack of cookies.  I'll keep an eye out, until then I suppose I'll have to eat all the leftover vanilla cookies, poor me.

Gluten Free Grilled Pizza

You may have noticed I love to eat pizza, I think I must be making up for all the pizza I missed growing up, which was a lot.  Needless to say I have a good amount of catching up to do.  This weekend at our friends the Lockhart's house, Walt mentioned they had seen gluten free frozen pizza dough at the store and if he had time he would have made grilled pizza for us.  I realized I had that exact dough in the freezer and had been waiting to use it, for what I don't know, but now I knew.  Walt explained the basic details of how-to for grilling a pizza while my husband and I both started thinking, me about the ingredients I had in the house and what I would need to add to the grocery list to make this work.  And Tim was thinking about how to make all this happen, tools, grill temperature and such.  

Upon arriving home, I opened the freezer to find it was a package of Gillian's Foods Frozen Pizza crust, the instructions were pretty simple, defrost in the fridge over night and roll out on a floured surface.  Seemed pretty simple to me, and with Walt's instructions and the back up of a few online recipes we were ready to go.  I had picked up some mozzarella at the store to go with the tomato paste and pepperoni slices I had waiting in the fridge, we figured keep the toppings simple on the first time through the process to decrease the chance of failure.  

I used a mixture of cornmeal and tapioca starch to kneed and roll out the dough on my tupperware pastry mat (I love that thing!)  We transferred the dough to a cookie sheet for transport to the grill, and prepped cheese and pepperoni.  I put a few tablespoons worth of tomato paste into a bowl for Tim to season as he saw fit, I can tell you salt, pepper, dried oregano and dried basil went into it.  Tim grabbed his heavy duty griddle to use on the grill so that we wouldn't end up with a fire scorched slab of dough.  He used olive oil to grease the griddle before we put the dough on, and let it heat through until it started to bubble up.  At that point he oiled the uncooked side and we flipped the dough, which came out gorgeous!  Beautiful grill marks and it just looked crispy.  We then got to work spreading a thin coating of the tomato paste over the entire dough and I quickly placed the cheese and pepperoni on top.  After that Tim closed the lid on the grill to allow the toppings to heat up and melt a bit.  It was probably all of 10 minutes from the time it went on the grill to the time it came off, including oiling, and flipping.  

It was DELICIOUS!  The crust was perfectly crunchy and tender at the same time.  As I said earlier, the toppings were simple and reliable, nothing terribly notable there.  But the crust was fantastic, the grill was a perfect was to heat this up nicely, no more oven for us.  I may even forgo a few of my take out pizzas to have more grilled pizzas.  Now we just have to dream up some more exotic toppings for our next attempt.  Which if my pizza appetite continues it won't be long now.  I just have to remember where I got that crust from.....hmmmm.....  I'll let you know when I find it again.

Glutino Chocolate Covered Pretzels!

I've waited a very long time for gluten free chocolate covered pretzels, and now Glutino has delivered!  I can't decide if I should hug or hate the evil genius who finally filled this void on the supermarket shelf.  They are unreasonably delicious, and are probably my new weakness, who doesn't love salty pretzels and sweet milk chocolate!  Now they exist together in all their gluten free deliciousness.  Quite simply they are the same Glutino gluten free pretzel twists that I buy bag after bag of for Ceci and myself to devour on a daily basis, coated in a sweet milk chocolate.  I should also mention that they make a yogurt covered gluten free pretzel too, which Ceci enjoys.  She has been sucking the yogurt coating off of them, and last night handed me the sloppy soggy pieces of left over pretzel from her mouth.  So gross!

My recommendation is to find and buy as many bags as possible, and send them all to me!  Insanely good, probably because it's one of those things I've wanted for about 10 years and now can find in the grocery store.  I think the most reliable place to find so far is glutenfree.com, otherwise I've had difficulty finding them at all.  Today I found the yogurt covered pretzels, but not the chocolate covered, had I found the chocolate I probably would have bought 10 bags.  I hope they can get their machines working overtime and keep up with my demand because they have a hit on their hands.

Delicious Contraband!

The other day I was given an amazing gift of Gluten Free Bisquick, from our wonderful friends who have a direct access line to the General Mills Corporation.  I was utterly curious about the product and couldn't wait to find out how it would taste, work, and come out in a dish.  I decided to make a project for Ceci and I one afternoon before dinner and make the biscuit recipe on the box (there are about 8 different recipes on the box).  Projects help us pass the day and keep Ceci happy and occupied, and who doesn't love having warm biscuits as the end result of a "project."
It was a really quick recipe and didn't need any rolling or kneading, we were able to make the batch in a mixing bowl with a rubber spatula for stirring, no mixer needed.  Oh, sorry we did use a pastry cutter and the only change to the recipe I made was to substitute butter for shortening, we were out of shortening in the house.  They baked really quickly, 15 minutes, and at minute 16 I was trying not to burn my fingers while picking one up to eat.
These biscuits were amazing!!  Tender, flaky, delicious!  Perfect!!!!  I want to get my hands on a pallet of this stuff.  I want to make all the different recipes, heck I could just make biscuits every day and be happy.  There were some biscuits left over in the morning, so we decided to make sausage egg and cheese on a biscuit for breakfast (which is the picture I included at the top).  Considering I've never eaten one at McDonald's, ever, this was outstanding.
The Gluten Free Bisquick is a huge boon to the gluten free community, I hope it is able to make it through the test processes to market, because it is a great product.  I know many people who have been recently diagnosed, and are missing so many bread products, and yet they are intimidated to mix flours or attempt to make baked goods.  If the Gluten Free Bisquick product was commercially available in the grocery store I think so many people would be scooping it up.  I know I would keep several boxes in the pantry for when I feel like a quick easy baked treat.