Just Call Me Cupcake ;)

I am going to preempt this post with a little warning:  I am completely bragging about the cupcakes I made.  Pat-myself-on-the-back-toot-my-own-horn BRAGGING.  And want to know something else?  They contain dairy, sugar, wheat, and pretty much everything else I am not supposed to eat.  But sometimes, sometimes, there is somebody who is worth that sacrifice!

I have a really awesome brother-in-law.  We have been friends since 10th grade, and a few (many) years ago when we were in Teachers' College, I brought him home to do some homework (so he could meet my sister and fall in love with her since I knew they were perfect for each other).  They have been married over two years now and are even making me an auntie this summer!!!!!!!  SO...  Does he get his own signature cupcake for his birthday?  You bet.  And THEN some!

I found a chocolate cake recipe online (http://www.bestmoistchocolatecakerecipe.com/).  Um, yeah.  That's the name of the website, so obviously, it's pretty great.  I DID alter it a little...  I don't use vegetable oil, only olive (I have never had complaints about taste) and because I ran out of oil, I used half a cup, and then substituted a half cup of butter.  This?  Was a stroke of pure freaking genius, I have to say.  The cake was rich, moist and delicious, and yet surprisingly extremely fluffy!  I also used the cup of coffee instead of water.  This will be my new go-to chocolate cake recipe, no questions asked.

What say you for filling?  I love the filled cupcake.  It's a little surprise, and it adds a depth of flavour that I think is important.  Scott convinced me to do a peanut butter filling.  I wanted it to be thick enough, but not so thick that it made filling the cupcakes impossible.  (I had other things to do like buy onesies and make pink and blue cupcakes for my sister!)  So I mixed peanut butter with sweetened, condensed milk.  I am of the school of thought that pretty much anything mixed with sweetened, condensed milk is amazing, and peanut butter was no exception.



Scott helped out by eating the little triangles of cake that had to be removed to make room for the filling.  What a guy!

As for the frosting, oh.... the frosting.  I mixed confectioner's sugar, butter and a nice, thick caramel sauce.  And then, AND THEN!  I topped the whole thing off with a pinch of fleur de sel to bring out the sweetness of the caramel.  It might have been my brother-in-law's birthday, friends, but we all got a gift.  Sweeeeeeeeeet!!!!



Good thing I could cover up the evidence with Salted Caramel Buttercream!  The perfect crime!

Truly, cupcakes worth growing older for :)
















Pardon the less-than-stellar photography, but you just had to see the inside!

It's Not Easy Being Green (Pasta Sauce)

Green is beautiful.

I love avocado.  I love the texture, the taste, the versatility, even the colour!  I know, I know, not everybody out there agrees with me.  When I brought up this recipe, people looked at me like I was crazy...  Green pasta sauce?  I argued that pesto is green, but that argument did not get me very far.

A friend posted her success with a similar recipe on Facebook, which inspired me to try it.  (Thanks, Ericka!)  Because I love any excuse to use my Magic Bullet, I threw four cloves of garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, an entire bunch of fresh basil, salt and pepper and two ripe avocados into the cup and it was done!  I made some Kamut spaghetti and threw on a couple sauteed shrimp and it was like being at a restaurant.  Rich, creamy, and delicious!



I am not sponsored by Magic Bullet, but still...

Just a hint:  Make sure that your pasta is HOT if you aren't going to heat up the sauce.  This being said, I did heat up my leftovers the next night (sauteed in a little more olive oil, pasta and all) and it didn't even turn brown (which was a concern voiced by many). 


So don't be scared off by the colour (Don't be prejudiced against avocados, they are high in fiber, and all those "good" fats, great for your skin AND your liver!)  and store any leftovers with the pit of one of the avocados so the sauce stays that beautiful green.  And don't forget the Altoids... this recipe is worth it!

Unrecipes

Asian Soup Unrecipe, complete with my snazzy new stainless steel chopsticks (thanks to my awesome sister)!

About a week into my new way of eating (and cooking), I came upon a site that saved me.  You see, at the time, I was already not eating any meat and was now suddenly dealing with a whole other set of restrictions.  (Okay, just while we're here, I wrote "a whole other" not "a whole nother."  Why is this important?  Because it hurts my feelings when people use poor grammar.  This is not to imply that every entry I post is perfectly grammatically correct, but nother is not even a word.  You could argue that I use words like "delish" and "carby-goodness" and you would be right.  But there is just something about "a whole nother," that irks me, much like misused apostrophes and (bah!) double negatives.)  Sorry, rant over.  I had a long day.

ANYWAY, I was stuck.  I needed recipes, and I was hungry.  One of the hardest parts about eating the way I do is that there is nothing "quick."  You know, it's time to eat, you are starving, you are grouchy, you are tired, and you open the cupboard and yell at your husband "Babe!  We have nothing fun to eat!"  In my house, Scott WILL take the time to turn his head away from his KD or Lipton's Chicken Noodle Soup to stare at me sympathetically, but it pretty much ends there.  When I found the Asian Soup Unrecipe on http://www.wheatfreemeatfree.com/asian-soup-unrecipe/ it was a treasure that has since saved my life!

This blog is all vegetarian, wheat-free recipes, and they are FANTASTIC.  Of course, due to the fact that I don't do sugar or dairy, I still end up modifying things here and there, but every recipe I have made from this site (and there have been many) has worked well and tasted delicious. 

What I love about this Unrecipe for Asian Soup is that you can have all of the ingredients in the house at all times, and they don't spoil.  Seaweed, rice vermicelli (I use the ones made with peas instead of rice sometimes) dehydrated mushrooms, green onions, wheat-free soy sauce and sesame oil.  The best part is, you can add/subtract anything else to this!  I use tofu when I have it, beansprouts, peppers, fresh mushrooms, whatever!  Throw everything into a bowl, cover with water, microwave, add soy and sesame oil and you have the tastiest asian soup in the world.

I have since added some meat back into my diet (come on, I barely eat anything else!) but this has become my go-to meal, my new comfort food, my fun-to-eat lunch or dinner.  Share your recipes (or unrecipes!), people, they are saving lives!!!

ps:  Good news on the coconut oil front:  The paleo bread is delish, Scott's making movie popcorn as I write, and my elbows have never been softer!  Worth.  Every.  Penny.

Caveman Carbs!

I know it might seem that I am carb-obsessed lately.  I have already posted about bread, but this was way too good to pass up:  Paleo Bread.  I came upon a fantastic site (as I was perusing my newest addiction:  Pinterest) called Elana's Pantry.  (http://www.elanaspantry.com/paleo-bread/)

I shudder to think how I would have started eating like this (and CONTINUED!) if the internet wasn't absolutely ripe with amazing recipes by visionary chefs. 

The Paleo diet is not necessarily something I am going to adhere to on a daily basis.  Without caffeine, decaf, sugar, dairy, alcohol, chocolate, wheat, yeast, bananas, corn or potatoes, I think I am limited enough ;)  BUT because the Paleo diet does not allow grains (No Quinoa?  Say Whaaaaat!!!) I was curious as to the bread recipe...  No grains means nothing I can't eat, right?

The recipe calls for almond flour, coconut flour, ground flax meal, coconut oil, baking soda, eggs, honey, salt and apple cider vinegar.  Talk about high fiber, low carb bliss!

SCCCCREEEEEEEEEEECHHHHH!!!  Did you hear that guys?  Yeah, it was the brakes.  Um, have you ever purchased coconut oil???  It's the most expensive thing in my pantry, that's for sure.



I know it's a little out of focus, but I think that's because I was dizzy!  $18.49

Being the amazing sport that he is, Scott was absolutely fine with me spending nearly $20 on ONE ingredient, since he has been wanting to make "movie style" popcorn for ages, and this is apparently the key ingredient.  He really is a great guy (and pretty cute, too!)

After the initial shock, I followed the recipe and this is what the batter looked like before I baked it.

 



I have to say, the smell of this bread baking was fantastic.  I know it's good for me to eat the way I do, and I feel great, but I do sometimes miss what I call the "stodge factor."  You know, that sort of heavy, carby, cozy factor you get from a piece of warm bread, right out of the oven (or a bailey's pound cake made with a gallon of butter!)  The coconut flour also smells amazing.  The kind of amazing that makes you bring the bag into the living room and shove it in your husband's face, yelling "Smell This!"  (I did mention he's a good sport, right?)

I had to up the temperature a little (360) and leave it in for about 40 minutes rather than the 30 the recipe called for, not because the recipe is wrong (I feel this woman is a genius) but because my oven is stupid and I always have to increase baking time and temperature.

It looks a little bit like Banana Bread!  Oh yeah, I'm not allowed bananas either.



The bread was also very easy to take out of the loaf pan (I greased it with million-dollar coconut oil, of course) once it was cooled a bit.  The texture is very much like a banana bread, without bananas.  What surprised me most was the moistness...  something I don't get in breads without, well, everything. 

All in all, a very successful Sunday :)

What Did You Have For Lunch?

Eating the way I do, I often find myself fielding certain questions:  "What CAN you eat?", "So you're celiac?", "Are you vegan?"  I usually like informing people about my health-related choices (Gah, I hope I'm not annoying!) and I typically enjoy answering questions because it makes "Healthy Eating" seem less scary and limiting to people.

The best question I've been asked so far was by a very good friend (she's the kind of person you could tell anything to, and the kind of person you can be guaranteed a good laugh out loud session no matter how long it's been since you've seen her).  Instead of all the regular questions, she just said, "What did you have for lunch today?"  I love this question, because it's specific, and easy to answer.  And it's different almost every day (unless I have a massive quantity of soup or something and then it's the same from Monday to Friday!).

I have wanted to write a "What I Ate For Lunch Today" post since I returned, and so here it is.  This is what I had for lunch today:

Shrimp, Spinach and Quinoa Salad!

Here is the recipe:

1 small bag of  frozen shrimp (I just get the little ones with no tails to save time)

1 package of frozen spinach

1 cucumber, chopped

2 hand fulls of raw, unsalted sunflower seeds (they are a perfect food you know!)

1 package of quinoa, cooked

olive oil

all-natural rice vinegar (the kind without sugar if you can find it!)

lemon juice

Cook the quinoa, rinse it with cold water.  Add the thawed shrimp and spinach.  (Make absolutely sure you squeeze the spinach through a sieve first to get all that water out, you'll thank me).  Mix in the cucumber and sunflower seeds and then drizzle with whatever combination of the oil, vinegar and lemon juice you like.  Easy-peasy, protein-packed and delicious!

I don't enjoy "preachiness" about eating well.  To some, eating meat is healthy, to others, it is not.  Some consider whole wheat healthy, others don't touch anything with wheat.  Our grandparents had very different beliefs about what constituted a "healthy" meal than we do. It is not my place to say someone is right or wrong in the food choices they make.  Our diets are as different as we all are, and that's kind of what makes us all great.  This is the way I eat, it's what is healthy for me.  And that's why I share, in case it's healthy or (even better!) delicious, for you!

xox



Learn to Love Crumbs

Wheat-Yeast-Dairy-Sugar-Potato-Corn-Free Bread.  Yeah, you heard me.

I'm not sure if you know this, but there aren't a lot of bread recipes that don't contain:
-wheat
-yeast
-sugar (usually for the yeast)
-milk
-corn starch
-potato starch
or some combination of these ingredients.  Every recipe I found online had at least one of these ingredients, and I am allowed ZERO of these ingredients.  But I was making soup on a cold Sunday...  I don't know about you, but to me, this SCREAMS for a nice, warm, crusty bread to go along with it.  Because I like to live vicariously through my husband (and also I am clearly slightly masochistic), I bought Scott a fresh, three-cheese baguette sort of thing at the grocery store.  For me, I bought some brown rice flour.  I really know how to treat myself!

Finding nothing on the Internet that could really help me, I decided to experiment.  This is what I came up with:
4 cups of brown rice flour
1 cup of spelt flour
2 tsp of salt (I'd use one if I made it again)
2 eggs
1 tsp of baking soda
2 tbsp of olive oil (plus some for brushing)
1 tsp of cream of tartar (I don't know, some recipes had it)
1 tbsp of lemon juice  (I knew I needed acid)
about a cup of water

I mixed everything together and formed a loaf.  Then I brushed the top with olive oil and baked it at 425 for about an hour.  The result was crumbly, but without gluten or yeast, this is to be expected.  I think next time I will try xantham gum, but from what I hear, if you want dairy-sugar-wheat-yeast-sugar-corn-potato-free bread, you better learn to love crumbly!  Side note:  I'm still working on the order for the ingredients this bread does not contain.  I wish there were a vowel so I could make some clever acronym for it!

All in all, a very successful experiment.  More importantly, a really nice, warm, hearty dinner on a winter night :)

Ingredients (minus the spelt flour I added for extra flavour)

Pre-Oven Olive Oil Brushing

Post-Oven Crumbly Goodness

Cozy in a bowl :)

xox

Tequila!

My mom is amazing.  She is hard-working, brave, beautiful, funny, intelligent and the most caring person I know.  When she decided to semi-retire and have some fun, I could not have been happier.  What better reason for a celebration than her last official day of work!

I chose a "fiesta" theme, for two reasons.  One, my mom loves spicy food (as do we!) and two, Scott and I love tequila!  Another great reason for the theme was that it was relatively simple for a Friday night dinner after a long week of work.  This is the menu I decided upon:
-Margaritas;
-Pico de Gallo and corn-free tortilla chips;
-Shrimp with jalapeno, lime and cilantro flambeed in tequila;
-Turkey fajitas on brown rice tortillas;



The challenge of a Latin-inspired meal without corn was one thing.  I have become adept at substitutions and have found some great products, even though the brown rice tortillas do NOT hold together as well as glutenous, white, floury ones.  The other challenge was this:  I had never before "flambeed" anything. 

If you know us, you will know that I am not the coolest head in a crisis.  During the couple little kitchen fires we've had in the past, I tend to stand in said kitchen saying "Oh my god, oh my god!" while Scott calmly puts the fires out.  I don't want to make it seem like we have had tonnes of fires, but well, we had the "Renee holding the pot-holder while it's on fire and not realizing it" debacle of 2008, the "Bacon Incident" of 2009, the "Omg the pizzas are on fire" episode of 2010 and of course, we cannot for the life of us remember what, but we know something caught fire in 2011.  The sad part it, it was only two weeks ago.  Eep!

I am more than proud to announce that I successfully started a fire on purpose last night, using tequila and a match, and it worked and did not hurt anyone!  Yay! 

In case you are interested in the recipe, it was pretty simple and I have to say, pretty delish!  I got the inspiration from a recipe on the Food Network app, but of course, as with most recipes I get, I added, subtracted and substituted.

1.  Pour about a tbsp of olive oil into a skillet.  Add chopped garlic and jalapeno peppers.  Saute;
2.  Add a bag of shrimp and saute until things start to get a little sticky.  (Sorry, I don't measure and I don't time things);
3.  De-glaze with the juice of a lime or two and give it a little shake.  Throw in some cilantro;
4.  Add about a shot of tequila (we use what we now call the "Cooking Tequila" because it's the stuff not as worthy of actual shots in our house... We fancy ourselves slight tequila aficionados);
5.  Light a match and hold it to the liquid (tilt the pan a little);
6.  Cheer and yell at everyone how awesome you are;
7.  Let the awesome fire cook off, spear a piece of avocado on a fancy little toothpick, then a shrimp, and serve!

It's not Patron, but it still catches on fire!

Successful Fire #1

The Pico de Gallo was simply the following ingredients, finely chopped:
-Two large tomatoes;
-Two jalapeno peppers;
-A large onion;
-A handful of cilantro;
-Lime juice.

I hate to admit it, but I use the Slapchop for this since it's one of the only times I really don't care about the shape of what I'm chopping.  Serve with tortilla chips if you can eat corn, but if you're like me, get Beanitos!  They are bean-based tortilla chips that taste and crunch like the real thing.  Amazing.  Life changing.

Spicy goodness.

They have black bean AND pinto bean with flax.  Amazing.

 When and if you decide to make the fajitas, just chop up some turkey breast, onions and bell peppers and saute with lime juice, cilantro, cayenne, onion and garlic powder, whatever you like.  I refuse to use those packaged seasoning envelopes since they are full of sugar, salt and corn starch.  Seriously.  One hint:  Do NOT pull out the wok and hit a pipe under the sink which comes apart from the other one because it wasn't fixed properly before you moved in (Ahem!) and then.  AND THEN, dirty gross pipe water leaks all over your new pots and pans.  And you freak out.  And your husband is out and your mom is going to be there any minute.  Good looking musician husband to the rescue:  He got home, fixed the sink and even managed to get the foot of snow in the driveway shoveled with the help of our amazing neighbours...  Who has nice neighbours anymore?  Who even KNOWS their neighbours?  We do!!!

The dining room 15 minutes before my mom's arrival.  Eeeeek!!!

The "Wok of Shame."  Hee hee.

Throw it in the oven once the meat is cooked and then you don't have to stress over appies!

We ended up having a great time.  Lots of laughs, lots of fun, and spicy, delicious food.  It never feels like I could possibly do enough to celebrate my mom, but it's always fun to try.



We live in Northern Ontario.  It was too cold to get pre-filled balloons because they would have gotten ruined in the time it took me to get them from the store to the car.  So I got a helium tank, balloons and ribbon for $23 at Wal-Mart.  Ah yeah :)

Braided Scarves and Ice-Wine Martinis

Well friends, I was feeling crafty.  I can knit a scarf, it's actually the only thing I can knit.  While schlepping around on Pinterest over the holidays, I came upon some very cute braided scarves. I wish I had pinned the one I saw, because it was perfect and now it's MIA.  Let that be a lesson, pinners!!!!

I checked out a couple of how-to sites, and they had some great advice, but I still wasn't finding exactly what I wanted.  Basically, most of them were "accessory" type scarves and I live in Northern Ontario.  It's not that I don't like accessorising with scarves, it's just that in January, accessories need to be warm, too...
And so, I went to Wal-Mart (I know, I know) and bought two skeins of the softest, cherry-red yarn.  I got the thickest yarn I could, because I wanted a nice, thick scarf.

I then went on to "measure" a length that I thought would work.  If you are familiar with my work habits both in the kitchen and otherwise, you know that I don't really every measure anything...  Recipe ingredients, thread, yarn, etc.  I also don't tape when I paint and don't try things out before I do them.  Is it sad that this constitutes rebellion?  ANYWAY, I just looped a length of yarn around my neck about as loosely as I would like the scarf.  And then I let the ends hang down almost to my feet instead of about waist-length, the reasoning being that when I braid my hair it gets shorter.  I have a degree in Biology and Physics.  Seriously.  Just wanted to point that out since as I write this, I do not feel like I am exuding much intellect.  Then, I cut 59 strands of yarn to match the first, tied the middle together, and hung them on a hook in my living room to trim one end evenly.

Next, I moved the tie from the middle to the end, and divided the yarn into three, 20 strand sections and tied them off.

And then I braided them!  As I got closer to the little ties, I slid them down further.  This really helped keep the strands separate.

It was a this point that I suddenly got visions of Wendy from Wendy's, Pippi Longstocking, and Anne of Green Gables.  But it was simply too late to turn back.  To finish it off, I took some of the extra yarn and wrapped the ends, then trimmed them into little "puffs."  Some sites suggested tying the ends together to create an "Infinite Scarf" (which I like!) but for a cold-weather, not-to-be-worn-inside scarf, I felt it was a little more versatile to keep it "Finite(?)."

This was a simple, fun little project with a satisfying result in very little time. Apparently, some of these scarves retail for about $40, and this one cost me under $11.  Which is great, since Scott was gigging last night and I developed a crush on Ice Wine Martinis ($$$).  But my scarf looked great!

Sorry about the iPhone photo... Self-Portraits
are WAY easier with my iPhone ;)

Alright, Already!

I am not a disciplined blogger.  I am not a very disciplined person, as a matter of fact.  I am beginning to think that what I am, is someone who goes through phases of over-zealous enthusiasm without much consistency.  Some might call that flighty, some might call that flaky...  I call it passionate!

This being said, I have become newly (or again) inspired to be a little more disciplined in my blogging.  My friend (whose blog is amazing, and if you don't follow it, you should - it's Cozy. Cottage. Cute.) told me she likes my blog and that I should get back into it.  From this particular friend, this is a huge compliment.  And so here we are.

The last few entries were forays into the wheat-dairy-free lifestyle while still trying to maintain my status as a self-proclaimed foodie.  I have taken this to the next level in recent months and have started the Brown Rice Elimination Diet.  Essentially, this means no wheat, yeast, dairy, sugar, corn, potatoes, decaf, caffeine, pork or beef.  It was a little difficult in the beginning, but I already avoided a lot of those foods, so it hasn't been terrible (unless you ask Scott!!!) and it is helping me health-wise as well.

This newly disciplined me* is also going to start to take more photos with an actual camera instead of my iPhone (Squee! Who doesn't love their iPhone!!!) BUT... Baby steps here, people... Baby steps. Just because I think it's fun, here are some of our holiday projects:
 *meh, not really

Thai Shrimp and Lettuce Wraps for Christmas Day

Sushi Fusion Platter for NYE

SO not cleanse-worthy, but I was so impressed with Scott's
 Angel-Food and Brownie Sliders with Sugar-Cookie Fries!!!

 I am convinced 2012 is my year...  I've already been calling it The Year of Renee!  The groceries are purchased, the Rebel is charging and I might even have a couple little side projects to share soon.*
*Complete lie.  I already have one, but I did not want to post everything all at once.
Happy New Year (of Renee!)
xox