April Fool’s Day

A few years ago, we made these “cupcakes” for dinner to have some April Fool’s Fun. My kids asked about these yesterday. Although not included on my menu plan, we are going to juggle things around so we can make these cupcakes — gluten free this time — to keep up with tradition.

Basically, these cupcakes are simply meatloaf “cakes” with mashed potatoes for frosting. They are actually quite yummy. Here’s the recipe from Family Fun magazine, just substitute gluten-free bread crumbs and you’ll be good to go. Or use your own meatloaf recipe, any would taste fine. For a yummy, healthier meatloaf recipe, check out this one at Gluten Free Girl.

*Just a note — it has recently come to my attention that food coloring is NOT good for you! We try to avoid it as much as possible. I have seen coloring derived from natural/food sources at the health food stores, if you are looking for a more healthy alternative.

Christ in the (gluten-free) Passover and more Easter ideas!

The real Passover celebration won’t be until April 20-27 this year, but we decided to study and celebrate (in a more simple way) Passover within the context of Holy Week this week. It seems appropriate, as Christians, to choose Good Friday to honor Jesus as our Passover.

For photos of our fun celebration a few years back, click over to our old-and-completely deserted blog. To see a round up of other Easter traditions, books, and activities to help make Easter Week a special time to focus on Christ, please see this post.

I was trying to figure out how to have a gluten-free Passover this year. Just googling these words turned up many webpages I didn’t have time to wade through. Gluten Free Bay has a ton of recipes and RecipeZaar has 71 more!

I did decide that attempting the following recipes will be as adventurous as we will get this year:

Matzah Crackers

Potato Dumplings to use for Matzo Balls in Soup

I’m thinking Chocolate-Dipped Macaroons or Chocolate Chip Macaroons for dessert!

Did you know the infamous Easter Story Cookies are naturally gluten-free? The only problem is, I wonder if they are more legend than reality. I’m curious to hear if any of you had haver had success with this little object lesson. I’d love to try them again, if I had some hope of them turning out right!

Oh, and I almost forgot! I found this recipe for gluten-free paper mache. Now we can make our little paper mache lambs without me having to go purchase real flour :)

Menu Plan, last week of February

Monday:

Lunch - Leftovers

Dinner - Out to Mexican food (I’ve been ordering beef fajitas or beans and chips)

Tuesday:

Breakfast - Gluten Free Cereail

Lunch - Tomato Soup and Chicken Salad

Dinner - Gluten-free Mommy’s Lasagna

Wednesday:

Breakfast - Eggs

Lunch - Cold Pesto Salad

Dinner - Chicken Soup

Thursday:

Breakfast - Soaked Oats

Lunch - Leftover Soup

Dinner - Homemade Pizza

Friday:

Breakfast - Pancakes or Waffles

Lunch - Pizza Leftovers

Dinner - Black Bean and Chipotle Soup

Saturday:

Breakfast - Bacon and Cheese Omelettes

Lunch - Leftover Soup with Quesadillas

Dinner - Barefoot Contessa’s Chicken Chili

Sunday:

Breakfast - Golden Oats

Lunch - Go out after church

Dinner - Leftover Chicken Chili

Better than KFC Gluten-free Biscuits

Well. I planned to try this scrumptious-looking recipe for Light and Fluffy Biscuits from Gluten Free Cooking School this morning. But I got carried away on the computer this morning, and was way behind schedule when the children woke up HUNGRY. I thought I needed a quicker, easier version (I was out of corn starch, and didn’t read the GFCS recipe thoroughly to realize I DID have something starchy I could have substituted…oh well, I’ll try this recipe next time).

I went to Bob’s Red Mill site and found a recipe for biscuits using an all-purpose flour. Recently I discovered my own favorite (so far) all-purpose flour (click here for the recipe) and thought I’d whip up the biscuits Bob’s way.

Well, once I got into cooking, I realized there were some touches that sounded tastier from the Gluten Free Cooking School Version, so I stole a bit from her recipe and tweaked Bob’s to come up with this:

(Makes about 2 dozen 2-inch biscuits)

3 cups gluten free all purpose flour (I used a homemade pre-mix that contained brown rice flour, corn starch, arrowroot and xantham gum)

2 Tbsps sugar

3 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

(I did NOT add the xantham or guar gum as suggested, since my all-purpose already had some in it)

1 1/2 tsps sea salt

Liquid Ingredients:

1 stick butter (put into freezer to cool)

1 1/2 cups buttermilk (I’m sure this had a lot to do with why these biscuits were yummy!)

1 egg, beaten

I mixed all the dry ingredients together. Then I took out my butter, cut it into slices, and cut it into my flour using my pastry cutter — until the beads of butter were fairly small.

Next I added the buttermilk and beaten egg and stired until mixed.

I sprayed oil on my pampered chef baking stone and dropped the biscuits onto it.

Put into an oven preheated at 350 degrees, and baked for 15 minutes. The biscuits were NOT golden brown, but I took them out anyway. Absolutely yummy with honey or preserves (we had both!). I did not miss the gluten! YUM!

I can’t wait to try the recipe from Gluten Free Cooking School to compare and find my own very best biscuit recipe!