Wonderful Wednesday - Dairy Free Ice Cream

I got an ice cream machine. Well, another one. I have the one for my mixer but I can't take my mixer and the ice cream attachment with me. So, I bought a small 2 quart one and set out to make my own ice cream. I don't think you can make bad ice cream but it taste so much better than what I can buy around here.
I was looking around for recipe ideas when I found this one by Laura on I'm an Organized Junkie. It was so easy to make and only took 20 minutes in my ice cream maker. I did find that if you run your sugar through a food processor (I have my small Ninja bowl at the camper) that it makes for a finer ice cream.
My brother-in-law does not like marshmallows. (How can you not like marshmallows!?) So I decided to make some chocolate ice cream using Laura's recipe.

To make the ice cream chocolate I added 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the 1/3 cup of sugar and pulsed it in my Ninja to make sure it was combined. I then added it to the 1 cup of milk and 2 cups of marshmallows in my small pan. I did everything else the same as in Laura's recipe. It could have used a bit longer than the 20 minutes but I had more to make so I let it finish up in the freezer. It turned out great and both the vanilla and chocolate ice cream went wonderful with the strawberry crisp.
*Note - this is not a sweet chocolate ice cream. My kids are used to dark chocolate as we can't have milk chocolate but it might be a bit strong for those who are not used to it.

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? I'm open for ideas.

Fast Friday

This is a real fast idea that I use often when I have a fridge full of leftovers or I don't feel like cooking much. You start with a simple baked potato and then you clean out your fridge. Here are some ideas that we have done in the past month.
Taco Potatoes
- left over taco meat
- re-fried beans (make sure it is gluten free)
- sour cream
- left over pico de gieo
- avocado
- salsa
- cheese (nondairy of course)
Or anything else that is left over from having tacos. This is also an easy fix if you have taco meat in the freezer that you need to use.

BBQ Potatoes
This is one of my favorites because I add the BBQ sauce to my potato also.
- Any BBQ meat
- onion
- extra BBQ sauce

Chili Potatoes
- chili
- onion
- cheese (nondairy again)
- extra beans

Loaded Potatoes
This is where you let your imagination go wild and put what you need to use up on your potato.

So, what is your favorite topping for the humble potato?

Wonderful Wednesday - Gluten and Dairy Free Strawberry crisp

I know, strawberries again? But for me they are local and fresh and the season is almost done. Today I bought another 10 quarts of strawberries and today was filled with strawberries. We made lots of yummy strawberry treats including muffins, doughnuts, strawberry cobbler and strawberry lemonade. The doughnuts were really yummy but the recipe is not quite there to where I want to share it. I am however, going to share the cobbler recipe and the strawberry lemonade recipe with you.
Strawberry Crisp
3-4 cups strawberries
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup quinoa cereal flakes
1/2 cup millet flour
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/2 cup sucant
pinch of salt
1/4 cup gluten free dairy free butter sub
Preheat your oven to 350F and Grease a 9x9 inch baking dish with more of your butter substitute. Depending on your size of your strawberries you need 3 to 4 cups sliced if they are big. You want enough strawberries to cover the bottom of the pan. Then add your sugar and mix well in the baking pan. Let the strawberries sit in the pan while you make the crumb topping.
Mix together the quinoa, millet flour, flax seeds, sucant and salt together in a different bowl. Work the butter substitute into the flour mix till the butter pieces are all mixed in and smaller than a pea. Spread the crumb mixture over the strawberries and pat down to make an even layer. Bake in the middle of your preheated oven for 25 - 35 minutes depending on the size of your strawberries and how done you want your strawberries.



Caden's Strawberry Lemonade
3 cups strawberries
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup lemon or lime juice
2 cups water
Directions:
Wash and top your strawberries and puree them till fine. Pour the strawberries into a tall juice container. Then mix in your sugar and stir till the sugar is dissolved. Then add in your lemon or lime juice and mix to combine. Finish it off by adding in the cold water.
I don't strain the mixture because I like having the small bits of strawberries in my drink.
Another idea is to freeze them into pops for those hot day that are coming. I used these because they travel well. I am also going to make up the mix without the water added and freeze it so we can have fresh strawberry lemonade all summer!



You have to love Goofy!

Fast Friday - Teacher gifts

This is not food related but instead the easy gifts that I made my son's preschool teachers. Today was the all school picnic and I'm going to be honest, I cried today. Cameron was there for two wonderful years and now we get to move on to public school. I am sure it will be a change for all of us. Anyways on to the gifts.
I took paint and had Cameron make a handprint on a pot holder. I also had him write his name on each one. Plus on the inside of the card it said "Thanks for giving me a hand."
We then made different beads out of clay and wrote out a little saying for each one.
Bee Bead - Thank you for teaching Cameron to believe in himself.
Purple Bead - thanks for teaching him to glow. (It has glow in the dark paint on it.)
Star Bead - thanks for teaching him to reach for the stars.
Building Block - thanks for giving him the building blocks for life.
Doughnut bead - Remember to enjoy the sweet things in life.


  Everything together.

Don't forget that I have a giveaway going on! Everyone can enter here and remember, the more people that enter, the bigger the prize gets!

Wonderful Wednesday - Cherry Cake and Giveaway

This is an old one I have dug out from my other blog that I started awhile ago. This is one of my favorite cakes to make and you can't tell that it is gluten and dairy free.
Cameron wanted a cherry cake for his birthday so I set out to make a cherry cake that everyone would enjoy.

Cherry Cake

Combine and mix well:

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil (I used vegetable)

1 tsp almond extract

Add to that 10 ounces of cherry jelly (I found a great one that had no sugar added, it was all fruit juice)

In another bowl mix

2 cups Gluten-Free Pantry All-Purpose flour (I like the mix)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Combine the dry with the wet and add in 2 cups of grated zucchini*

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly oil what pans you are using.

Bake cupcakes 20-25 min

Round cake pans 30-40 depending on the size but you want a toothpick to come out clean.

Turn out on wire rack after 10 minutes to finish cooling.

*If you are using frozen zucchini as I did (my local farmers market had a great deal) add all the liquid that come out when thawed. It will make the batter look really thin but it bakes fine.

I had started on the cake before I realized I had not taken a picture.
This is what the finished cake looked like.

 Don't forget to enter the giveaway that I am doing. The more people that enter the bigger the prize will be! Enter Here

Miscellaneous Monday - Do you garden and a giveaway

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day! This is how my weekend started out. I pulled and inflamed the tendons on the top of my foot.











We had a small cookout and the campground for family and friends. I also did some gardening, well I don't have a true garden but I do have lots of pots! I tend to get over excited when I plant seeds to start inside and I end up with a ton of little plants. This year we are growing zucchini, summer squash, butternut squash, cucumbers, potatoes, 5 different types of tomatoes, 4 different types of peppers, peas, green beans and broccoli. I know it is a lot but I plan on eating lots of fresh fruit and veggies this summer along with canning.
Peppers and moss roses, along with pet rocks that we made for my Mom's 50th Birthday Party last year.








This brings me to my giveaway. This is the first one I am doing so here it goes. I have a really cute small bag with small garden tools which are perfect for small spaces or small hands. There will also be a few surprises in addition to the garden tool bag but you will have to wait and see what it is.



 a Rafflecopter giveaway










   We have lots of strawberries stared.

   Our peas are blooming
  Tomatoes along out new deck.

Wonderful Wednesday: I've been busy

I had something really great and yummy planed for today but it will have to wait another week or two. Today we made strawberry pie filling and canned it. How much you ask? Tons it seemed like. We started with 15 quarts from a wonderful farmer who lives about a mile from where I do. He has a produce stand that is open a few hours a day or until they run out of what is in season. Last week the sign went out for strawberries and I hurried over to buy some. It is easy to forget what real fresh strawberries taste like and we set about making a no cook freezer jam out of the four quarts I bought. Then I got to thinking that they would make for really good pie filling. Since we do not eat anything with food coloring in it I can't easily go to the store and buy strawberry pie filling. (Or any pie filling in all honesty.) I decided if I was going to do it I was going to make a bunch while I was at it and some for a friend because we barter back and forth. (I think she is going to go pick cherries and blueberries for me!) Our finished total was 6 quarts and 14 pints of pie filling and another 7 pints and 1 quart of extra pie filling sauce with no strawberries in it. The finished product is to die for! I made the mistake of trying some in the middle of what we were doing and I almost decided to quit and keep eating it! If I could go back to regular pie filling after trying what I made I wouldn't go back anyways. I used Canning Granny's recipe which you can find here. The only differences is that I didn't use true Jello but a brand that I buy that has no food coloring in it and I used two extra boxes in the 6 batches I did. I don't even have pictures of the finished cans because we left to go back to the camper while they were all wrapped up cooling. I love to hear the sound of the ping when they seal! Do you can and if you do what has been your favorite?


Caden kept trying to eat as many as he could

Miscellaneous Monday-Do you use parchment paper?

Welcome to my first Miscellaneous Monday! It has taken me a lot of thought to what I wanted my first miscellaneous Monday to be but I decided to write about my love of parchment paper. Since we have gone gluten free I use parchment paper on almost everything. I love the fact that I don't have to worry about any cross contamination with my old pans where gluten might be hiding. I also don't have to wonder if my grandma used the pan (she is not gluten free) and how clean it is.
The second reason that I have discovered a new love of parchment paper is the fact that sometimes gluten free baking can lead to sticky messes or a new recipe that does not want to leave the pan. This is where parchment paper steps in and saves the day. Today I made fresh strawberry and banana cookies that can be found here. They were really yummy but the strawberries caramelized if they were on the bottom of the cookie, which then stuck to the parchment paper.
 
I use If You Care unbleached parchment paper (I also have their muffin liners also) and I have never had a problem with it.
Do you use parchment paper and if you do what kind?