International Food [1]

TJ and I love the Great British Bake Off.  After I was diagnosed with celiacs we took a little break, but we're back at it.  It's been so interesting to hear the different flavor combinations people use, often related to their heritage or their travels.  We've both been pretty impressed by how little we know about flavors around the world.  :)  Because we love trying new things, and because there is so much to try, this year we are trying to make one dish each week from a different country.  Here's what we've tried so far:

1. Vegetarian Bibimbap (Korea) - we got this from our America's Test Kitchen vegetarian magazine (isn't America's Test Kitchen the stuff??) and made it two weeks in a row.  It's definitely best fresh and when it's fresh we really love it!

2. Avgolemono (Greece) - this is a lemon chicken soup recipe that we've made probably three times in the past six weeks.  It's fabulous.  We don't add the vegetables back in but we shred the chicken and add it at the end.  Also, we've just used chicken legs instead of a whole chicken which has been fabulous.  Recipe here.

3.  Shakshuka (Tunisia) - another ATK one and we loved it!  This is quick, flavorful, and cheap (as the protein is eggs).  It reminds me of a dish we used to eat in Spain but is much faster to make. 

4. Chicken Pad Thai (Thailand) - we had our neighbors over to help make this and I was pretty concerned the kids wouldn't touch it after smelling the fish sauce.  They surprised (and delighted) me by loving it.  Hooray!  Another ATK recipe.

5. Moroccan Tagine (Morocco) - I bought and preserved meyer lemons in January just for this recipe.  :)  Next time we'll put twice as much into the dish.  I loved the mix of flavors and textures in this dish: it's the perfect example of why we wanted to focus on international cooking, as it's not something that we would typically make but it was great.  The texture of the slivered almonds was lovely, the apricots and craisins were fun to find, and the small bites of chicken were perfect.  We'll make this again, especially since I dropped the tupperware the leftovers last night, shattering the glass and ruining the food we had left.  :P  Instead of coucous (which has gluten), we ate it with millet, which was a great substitute (good idea, T!)  Recipe here.

Monster Cookie Bars

There are probably no less than a gajillion recipes for monster cookie bars online, but over the past couple months I've been playing around with one my sister gave me and we think it's practically perfect.  For us.  Hopefully it will be for you too.


One time I cooked these too long and it was terribly disappointing.  In an attempt to try to help you avoid the same, I took the batch I made last week out of the oven and straight to the table for pictures.

See how the edges are just barely starting to brown?  And do you see my shoelace in the bottom left hand corner?  This is almost as good as an I Spy book.

Here they are raw, spread out in the pan.  I just use my hands to mash them down and fill the pan.  It doesn't have to be perfect.

Monster Cookie Bars

Yield: one cookie sheet 

Adapted from my sister, Holly

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup packed brown sugar 
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter*
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups quick oats**
• 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats**
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mini M&Ms
• 2 cups mini chocolate chips (we use semi-sweet)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Grind your oats to flour (I just put them in our all-powerful blender and let it run until it's all ground).
3. In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar, peanut butter, and butter.  Beat with a hand mixer on medium for two minutes, until it's fluffy.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla extract.  Blend together.
5. Add in the salt, baking soda, oats, chocolate chips, and M&Ms.  If your beaters are strong enough, mix this whole batch with that, otherwise grab your rubber spatula and start stirring.  Stir until well combined.
6. Spread the mixture on your lined/greased cookie sheet.
7. Bake 16-18 minutes.  The edges will be very lightly browned and the middle will still look a bit underdone, but it will finish baking as it cools.

The recipe I was given says to let them cool for at least an hour so they can firm up, but...I usually last about 15 minutes and then we cut into them and get chocolate all over our faces while we eat a quarter of the pan warm.  I recommend that route.

NOTE: as usual, we freeze these.  They're great.  TJ likes them straight from the freezer to his mouth but I usually set mine out for 20 minutes or throw it in the microwave.  

*Recently I've found Earth Balance Coconut Peanut Butter and we're pretty in love with it.  (It's cheaper in our grocery store than on Amazon, but now you know what it looks like).  It's extra great in this recipe because their 16 ounce jar is the exact amount you need, so you can just empty it out without fiddling with a measuring cup covered in peanut butter.  And...now that I typed that I realize you could just use any peanut butter jar that comes in 16 ounces.  :) I've used other kinds and they're good, but this coconut one is our favorite. 

**If you want this to be gluten free be sure you're using gluten free oats.


Recipe adapted from my sister: I blended the oats, changed the butter to be unsalted and added salt,, and changed the amounts of M&Ms and chocolate chips.  

Cornbread

Growing up we sometimes had cornbread, made from a Marie Callender's mix.  Though I love their pies (miss those!!), I sure hated that cornbread.

A few years ago I had an odd craving for cornbread and learned to make it from scratch.  I adore freshly made, hot-from-the-oven cornbread.

Last week, I finally got up the gumption to make a gluten free version.  We had some neighbors over for dinner and, without even telling them it was gluten free, their teenage kids said, "Wow!  This is the best cornbread we've ever had!"  Now, maybe their parents told them they had to compliment the cooking no matter what, but it sure made my heart soar.

This recipe makes a 9" cake pan of cornbread and it made me wonder: how do most people cut their cornbread when it's in a 9" round?  Historically I've cut it like a pie, but last week I cut it into squares (with some fun little triangle pieces that I, of course, had to taste test before plating the rest) and I think I might prefer it that way.  What do you do?

Cornbread - Gluten Free

Yield: makes one 9" round pan 

Adapted from Allrecipes

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup cornstarch 
• 1/4 cup potato starch
• 1/4 cup gluten free flour blend
• 1/8 cup almond flour
• 1/8 cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal (make sure it's gluten free)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk (I used original, unsweetened almond milk to keep it dairy free)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl mix together all your dry ingredients.  Stir in the egg, milk, and vegetable oil until well mixed.  Pour batter into the pan.  
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes (I did about 22 and it was practically perfect), until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  

I suggest you eat it warm - in the shape of your choice - with butter.

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes: I changed the flours to gluten free and switched to almond milk to make it dairy free.  

Quinoa Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Granola Cookies - Gluten Free

Forgive me while I try to figure out how on earth to take pictures of food...

Since being diagnosed with celiac disease I have not dared try to make plain old chocolate chip cookies.  I've had the "real thing" for so many years I just know any alternative wouldn't taste good yet!  So, when I had a hankering for some cookies (um, I get that hankering every day) I jumped on Mel's site - as usual - and started looking through options.

I found these cookies that she posted a couple years ago: I remember seeing them then and thinking, "Huh.  Those sound odd.  I wonder if we'd like those."  I filed the recipe in my recipe binder for a couple years but never pulled them out.  Until last month!

My giant bowl of cookie dough.  You can't tell the dried cranberries apart from the chocolate chips, but they're in there.  And those toasted almonds were so good: much better than the untoasted sliced almonds I used last time.

I've tweaked this to be gluten free and give you all the details below.  To be fair, the first one I tried I couldn't decide what to think.  Then I ate five more and decided I really like them.  :)  TJ also loves them and because they're quinoa they're healthy enough to eat several at a time.  Ha!

Oh, and a funny story: I knew I wanted to restock these in the freezer, but I had no clue how much raw quinoa would equate to 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa.  So I made 1 1/2 cups raw, and found out that quinoa quadruples.  Yes, quadruples.  Thankfully, I only doubled the batch at first and, after pulling out about 117 cookies after six hours, I was so glad I didn't quadruple the cookie recipe too!

One of two cooling racks filled with cookies.

Quinoa Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies - Gluten Free

Yield: makes a good amount of cookies, especially when doubled (depending on the size of your cookies, maybe 3-4 dozen per batch)

Adapted from Mel’s Kitchen Café

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup solid coconut oil, melted
• 3/4 cup (9.5 ounces) honey
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup gluten free flour blend
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups quick oats
• 1 1/2 cups cooked and cooled quinoa (cooked only in water, not broth)*
• 1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds**
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Quick tip: I feel like these cookies have more ingredients than a "typical" recipe.  I've found they're easiest to make when I pull out all my ingredients and have them ready to throw in.  For example, get the almonds toasted before you start making the dough.  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and either line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpat liners or lightly grease with cooking spray.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the oats.  Spoon half of the mix into a blender and blend until it's a flour, then put it back into the bowl with the oats.
3. In a large bowl, beat together the oil and honey with an electric mixer.  Quick note: I have to put the honey in the bowl first and then start beating almost as soon as I pour the coconut oil in otherwise it solidifies.  I also add the following ingredients quickly to keep it from getting hard.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
5. Stir in the gluten free flour blend, almond flour, coconut flour, salt, and baking soda until just combined and there are some streaks of dry flour remaining.
6. Add the oats, oat flour, quinoa, almonds, cranberries, and chocolate chips and mix by hand gently (so the dough stays as light as possible) until everything seems spread throughout the dough.
7. Place the dough (balls approximately 2-3 tablespoons large) onto the cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes until you are seeing edges that are just browned but the middle is still soft.

NOTE: these freeze beautifully.  Just let them cool before bagging.  We love grabbing one (or six) out of the freezer during the day.

*Be gentle when you're measuring and mixing the quinoa: don't smash it.

**I've found that the Diamond brand of nuts (available on Amazon) does not process their products on the same equipment as wheat, so that's what I get.


Recipe adapted from Mel at Mel's Kitchen Cafe: I changed the flours to gluten free, decreased the amount of coconut oil, removed the flaxseed and chia seeds, increased the chocolate chips, and switched the oats to be half blended.

Cinnamon Coconut Vanilla Muffins

One of my major concerns after being diagnosed with celiac disease was no longer being able to bake.  Baking is such a big stress reliever for me, as well as a great source of personal satisfaction.  I can't count how many times I've stepped away from something pressing (like packing for a trip that I leave on the next day) to bake just to slow my mind down.

Thankfully, my sisters gave me some great tips for getting recipes to turn out without gluten, so after TJ bought me the ingredients (they were so expensive I just couldn't get myself to do it!), I got back into the kitchen.  One of the first recipes I tried to adapt was my favorite muffins from Mel of Mel's Kitchen Cafe fame.  I was thrilled when they turned out.  I've made a few additional tweaks to them as I've made them over and over (they're the only bread I've made and I eat them every day!) and they are to the point that I feel good calling them final.  So, if you happen to have all the really expensive gluten free flours in your cupboard, give them a go.

Picture credit to TJ, who kindly obliged when I said, "Could you take a great picture of these even though it's dark and I know nothing about food photography?"  Thanks, T!

Oh, and as a side note, it's always seemed odd to me to use just 1 cup of canned coconut milk.  The can comes with about 1.7 cups of coconut milk, so I've always doubled the recipe.  For my birthday this year my mom gave me a muffin tin, which means I no longer have to wash my single tin after the first batch.  Let me tell you, this is the best thing ever.  It's probably silly I didn't just buy it sooner.

Cinnamon Coconut Vanilla Muffins

Yield: makes 24 muffins

Cinnamon Coconut Vanilla Breakfast Muffins

Adapted from Mel’s Kitchen Café

INGREDIENTS

Dry:

• 2 cups cornstarch (or 1 cup potato starch, 1 cup cornstarch)
• 1 cup gluten free flour blend
• 3/4 cup coconut flour
• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 2 teaspoons xantham gum
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cups sugar

Wet:

• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups canned coconut milk*
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 3/4 cup coconut oil, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and either line two 12-cup muffin tins with muffin liners or spray them with non-stick spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together all your dry ingredients and make a big well in the center of the bowl.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and almond extract.  Once it’s blended, pour the coconut oil in a steady stream while whisking with the other hand.
4. Immediately combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.  Stir together until just combined: I usually have a few streaks of flour remaining.  If you mix until it’s all the way smooth your muffins will end up rubbery.
5. Fill the muffin tins with the batter.
6. Bake for 16-20 minutes until the edges just start browning.  After removing from the oven, let them sit in the tin for 3-4 minutes and then remove them from the tin and put them on a cooling rack.

NOTE: these freeze beautifully.  Just let them cool before bagging.

*I pour the can into my two cup liquid measuring cup and top it off with almond milk (vanilla or regular) to get to two cups.

Mexican Red Pepper Salad

Shortly after TJ and I got married we went down to Lake Powell for the annual UEA trip in October.  For many years the Morris family went down and camped with their good friends, the Doms.  Nicole Dom brought a giant bowl of this red pepper salad and I probably ate the bulk of it during our time there.

Cowboy caviar is a popular and well-known Mexican "dip," but I prefer the red peppers that are in this because they stay crunchy (does anyone else have issues with their tomatoes going mushy after three days in their cowboy caviar?) and it seems to keep the whole thing fresh.  

Last time I made this I kept the avocados out and just added them as I ate it: it was a brilliant move, really.  They didn't go brown in the bowl and the whole thing seemed to stay fresher.

After you make this a few times you'll figure out how to customize it to your tastes: I don't really measure anything (besides the can of black beans), but just stir things around as I add them to get the ratios we like.

You could be healthy and eat this over quinoa or on a salad, but we most often go through a bag of chips while we munch: I'd highly recommend you do the same.

Mexican Red Pepper Salad

Adapted from Nicole Dom

1 diced avocado

2 lbs frozen corn (or fresh if you can find it!)

1 - 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed well

1 c. chopped green onions

1 1/4 c. diced red peppers

2 c. fresh chopped cilantro

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Dressing:

1/2 c. lime juice

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 T. sugar

1 tsp. minced garlic (you can substitute garlic powder if you prefer)

1 tsp. oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk the dressing ingredients together and pour over the salad.  Mix well.  

To avoid the avocado turning brown, add it just as you serve it.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Last month we celebrated TJ's brother's birthday.  I anticipated that there would be a gluten-filled cake for dessert (his brother loves the chocolate Nothing Bundt Cake - as do I!) so I thought I better find a gluten free option that I could take so I wouldn't drool at the table!  I did some searching online and found this one from King Arthur Flour.  It comes together really quickly and I really love it with ice cream.  NOTE: this is rich and dense, not a light, fluffy cake (I think to get one of those without flour you need to beat egg whites quite a bit).

Flourless Chocolate Cake
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/flourless-chocolate-cake-recipe

Ingredients: 
6 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
4 ounces unsalted butter
5.25 ounces sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 large eggs
1.5 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch process preferred)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease an 8" round cake pan; cut a piece of parchment paper to fit, grease it, and lay it in the bottom of the pan.
2. To make the cake: Put the chocolate and butter in a large microwave-safe bowl, and heat until the butter is melted and the chips are soft. Stir until the chips melt, reheating briefly if necessary. Transfer the melted chocolate/butter to a mixing bowl.
3. Stir in the sugar, salt, and vanilla.
4. Add the eggs, whisking briefly until smooth. Add the cocoa powder, and mix just to combine.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
6. Bake the cake for 20 minutes; the top will have formed a thin crust.  The cake will stay gooey inside.
7. Remove it from the oven, and cool it in the pan for 5 minutes.
8. Loosen the edges of the pan with a table knife and turn it out onto a serving plate. The top will now be on the bottom; that's fine. Also, the edges will crumble a bit, which is also fine.  Enjoy warm with ice cream or cool completely before frosting.

Avocado Enchiladas

TJ's parents have a knack for always having delicious produce on hand, so when they texted TJ on their way to the airport last week that they had five perfect avocados in the fridge, I asked that TJ make getting those avocados a priority!  They were perfect, which meant I had a great excuse to make avocado enchiladas.  As fair warning, these are not great leftovers, probably because the avocados in the enchiladas just get mushy.

The version I made (imagine a lovely picture here...) was a mash-up of a few recipes (outlined below).  This is not a perfected recipe, but hopefully this is enough of an outline to get you to a great result.

Filling from here (Mountain Mama Cooks)
Sauce from here (Six Sisters)

Ingredients for the enchilada sauce:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp. flour
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1/2 c. chopped cilantro
• 1 c. salsa verde
• 1/2 c. sour cream

Ingredients for the filling:

• 2 large avocados, diced
• 3/4 c. black beans, drained and rinsed (we just threw in the whole can)
• 1 1/2 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese, divided (we used some pepper jack too)
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 3 green onions, diced
• Shredded (already cooked) chicken (I'd guess we used half a rotisserie chicken)
• Tortillas (corn or flour - we used large flour tortillas and got 8 enchiladas from this)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (NOTE: I always think this should be step 4 or so because my oven heats so quickly, but I'll leave it here so you don't forget).

2. In a medium saucepan, saute the garlic in the butter for about 1 minute on medium high heat.

3. Stir in the flour and let it cook for about 2 more minutes.

4. Stir in the chicken broth, cumin, salt, and pepper and bring to a simmer.

5. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream, salsa verde, and cilantro until smooth.

6. Spray the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick spray.  Add about 1/2 c. sauce to cover the whole bottom of the dish.

7. In a separate bowl, combine all your filling ingredients (except the cheese).   I suggest adding the avocados last and gently folding them in.

8. Set up your assembly line: lay out your tortilla, put some filling in there, sprinkle cheese on top, and roll it up, placing it seal side down in the pan.

9. After filling the dish, pour the rest of your enchilada sauce and some cheese over the top.

10. Bake for about 20 minutes.