C - Cream Cheese Chicken Topped with Bacon

If you are like me, you get tired of the same old things. That is exactly how this recipe came to be. It is super delicious and I always have these ingredients in my fridge!!

This one has been a huge hit with my family. We have made it a few times and it is always devoured. I like it because it is easy, but looks like a lot of work. The fact that I always have these things makes it wonderful when I need to go to the store. I usually serve this with roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes. This particular night, it was fresh tomatoes, fresh corn, and fresh Dixie Lee peas with rice. :) Man I love summer food!!

So here is goes!

4 boneless/skinless chicken breast (pounded out to 1/4 inch)
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons cream cheese
4 slices of bacon
Mrs. Dash Table Blend or your favorite spice combo

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 13x9 pan with Pam.
2. Pound out boneless/skinless chicken breast until they are about 1/4 inch thick (I am not Martha Stewart. So I don't measure. Just guesstimate at your measurement.)
3. Salt and pepper one side of the chicken breast.
4.Sprinkle Mrs. Dash's Table Blend.
5. Dot a tablespoon of cream cheese (pinched into small pieces) onto the chicken.
6.Roll the chicken up with the seam on the bottom.
7. Salt and Pepper the top.
8. Cut the bacon into thirds and place on top of the chicken.
9. Bake for 45 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.

Enjoy

B is for Babyfood

Well, at baby boy's check up the doctor gave us the thumbs up for starting baby food!

What was that you said, good doctor?!?

Real food?!?

Does the good doctor realize this is just a new born baby?

He cannot possibly be old enough to start real food! I mean he is only....uh oh! He is 5 months old! He is old enough to start eating real food!!

Where is the time going? At this rate I will be begging Daddy-o for another baby by the end of the year!
Shh...don't tell him!!

But that does bring up another chore that mommy gets to tackle. We don't "do" store bought baby food. I know it would make my life a ton easier to just purchase it. However, we are on a budget and it tickles me to save that money. So the savings are well worth my time.

We (by 'we' I mean me) decided to introduce foods on a weekly basis. I also chose to introduce new foods on Tuesdays. That gives me a chance to make new foods on Mondays.

First up, sweet potatoes!!

This is by far one of the easiest foods to prepare.

Wash and place your sweet potatoes on a tin foil lined pan.

It is as simple as roasting your sweet potatoes at 400 degrees for 45 minutes (sometimes they take up to an hour). The potatoes should be tender to touch. Once they are cool enough to handle, peel and dispose of the skins. You can either mash the flesh with a potato masher or throw them in the stand mixer with the whisk attached. The stand mixer does an awesome job getting the job done. I wish I would have thought about this when I was making food for the girls! That is it! The sweet potatoes are made!! Easy Peasy!!

He LOVES sweet potatoes!!

Next up, peas!!

These are also super easy. You can use fresh or frozen peas. I used frozen. Place the peas in a steam bag or a steamer. Follow the direction for the bag or steamer. Once the peas are steamed, begin mashing them through a fine strainer. This part is a little long and boring. But soon you will have nothing but skins left in your strainer. Throw the skins away and store the flesh. 

This will be really thick!! I freeze the food as is. Upon defrosting the food, add breast milk, formula, or water. Mix it well until you get the desired thickness. 

I wish I could tell you Baby Boy likes peas, as well! But he gags! haha

Maybe they will grow on him!?!

Oatmeal Cereal
Sassy Sue loved oatmeal cereal! So I thought, why not try it with Baby Boy? That is when I found that yucky word: "wheat gluten"!!
::Gasps::
So that is where her first gluten came from!! :( I did not know I was poisoning her at such a young age!

As many of you know, Sassy Sue has Celiac Disease. Celiac is a genetic disease, which means she got it from either me or Daddy-o. Knowing that piece of valuable information makes us look at feeding this little guy a little differently. We will not introduce wheat or gluten into his diet until we are able to determine if it effects him.

I thought we would just skip oatmeal altogether! But she can have gluten free oatmeal, so I decided to make my own. And boy was it easy (and gluten free)! :)

1. You simply put the rolled oats (not instant) into the blender and grind into a powder.
2. Sift to remove any large pieces.
3. Cook 1/2 cup of ground oatmeal with 2 cups boiling water for 10 minutes.
4. Cool.
5. Mix with your fruit of choice.
6. Serve or freeze.
    The End!

Now how easy was that?? AND!! It tastes great!!

Storage

There are many ways you can store your baby food. I like simple! So the old fashioned ice cube tray comes to play. Simply, scoop the food into the tray and freeze. Once it is frozen, remove the cubes and place them in an airtight container. Make sure you label your containers and date them!! They all starts to look the same when you get into other foods and you don't want them to be eating old food. One ice cube is enough to feed Baby Boy one meal if it is mixed with breast milk. I simply grab a cube out of the container, defrost, mix it with milk, and he is ready to go.

Benefits

Like I already said, the first benefit is the price. The second benefit is the health. I know exactly what I am putting into his food. There is never a question about freshness or taste. Which brings me to number three: a good eater. Homemade baby food tastes worlds better than store bought food! I would actually eat this stuff!!

Stay tuned for more baby food posts. I will be working on carrots, blueberries, pears, and many more in the next few weeks!!

With Love,
Kenan

A is for Chunky Apple Chicken Salad

Here in Grangerville we eat A LOT of apples! There are some times of the year that we will go through 4 bags of apples in a week! Did you catch that?? 4 bags!!

We do everything from muffins to chicken salad. Chicken salad is one of my all time favorite things to make, especially in the summer! 

Here in the south it has been hot and muggy. We have had crazy thunder storms every afternoon for well over a week. And a few weeks ago, it rained for about 10 days straight! ::gags:: And when it gets hot, I do not want to cook, nor do I want to eat! So we snack! And I usually have a container of chicken salad hanging out in the fridge. 

This is a super easy salad! Think of it in twos.

2 cooked chicken breasts shredded 

2 ribs of celery (finely chopped)

2 pink lady apples

1/4 cup finely chopped bread and butter pickles

1/2 - 1 cup mayonnaise (this varries on how juicy the apples are)

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1/8 teaspoon paprika

Mix the ingredients in a medium bowl. Chill for at least 1 hour prior to serving. Enjoy!!

I serve this with Glutino Crackers. But you could use your favorite cracker or pita chip! And every chicken salad needs a side of fruit.

I hope you guys enjoy this super easy and tasty lunch!!

Much Love,

Kenan

Easy Beef Stew!

When the cold weather comes to town, I want to hibernate and eat warm food! One of my favorites is Stew Beef. However, every recipe I have ever made contains some type of flour. Well, that is all well and good, but foods thickened with gluten free flour doesn't reheat well! So I tried something new. I came up with this recipe out of sheer desire to eat comfort food!! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Oh, and by the way, this was Daddy and kid approved!!

Here are the stars of the show. Yep! That is it! The only thing I added that isn't pictured is salt and pepper. If I were to add anything else, it would be mushrooms. But we were out! Oh well!

Start by getting about a tablespoon of olive oil hot. Next add your finely chopped onions. You will notice all the vegetables are cut pretty small. You don't have to do this at all. My little ones will only eat them if they are cut up small.

Brown the onions well before adding the beef. Brown the beef well, but it does NOT have to be fully cooked. It is actually better if it rare!

Once you have the beef cooked add enough water to cover the beef. Stir in the carrots and celery.

And not for the GREAT part. Bring it to a boil, turn it down, and walk away!! Let it go until the vegetables are tender and/or you are ready to eat! I usually serve this with rice, but potatoes would be great as well. Or if you want throw the potatoes in the pot!! Enjoy!!

Gluten Free on the Cheap!!

Charlotte has officially been gluten free for two years! It doesn't seem like it has been that long. Many times, I feel like we just began this journey! A gluten free diet has been WONDERFUL for our baby girl!! She is a totally different person. When she does get gluten, watch out world!! She is a bear! She is a three year old force to be reckoned with!! Needless to say, we try to insure she NEVER gets it!!

Gluten free can be expensive!! In the summer, it isn't bad at all! We eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. In fact our house looks like the corner market in the summer. The fall and winter in a totally different story!! And Charlotte is beginning to notice that her food is different! 

We attend a Classical Conversations meeting every Tuesday and we eat lunch together as a group. No big deal normally, but it obvious that her food looks different. So we make a lot of homemade "lunchables"!  But, Charlotte's crackers cost $5.32 a box! There are 3 (or so) lunch portions in a box. And she LOVES these crackers. She would eat them for any meal! We make her stick to snacks and occasionally for lunch. We also pack her snack for every outing, including church and play dates!

We have been spending $6.50 on bread, $8.32 on pretzels, $5.32 on regular crackers, $5.32 on garlic bagel chips, and about $5.00 on cookies per WEEK (some weeks we don't buy the pretzels)!! ON ONE CHILD! Needless to say, I am always looking for a cheaper price! Occasionally, you can find them on sale, but a sale is rare! 

So a few weeks ago, I found this website. I know I am behind on the times, but I really don't order a lot of things online. Maybe it is the fear that the delivery man will be eaten by the dog! She has never eaten anyone, but I am pretty sure she has caused the occasional change of undergarments! 

Whatever the reason, I overcame my fear last Friday. I placed an order with Vitacost! I received my order today! That is right, the order was placed on Friday and received on Monday!! 

**Vitacost is a company that carries pretty much anything health food (not just gluten free stuff)!**

Check out the comparison!! 

Grocery Store		Vitacost
Pretzels Crackers Bagel Chips Cookies	$8.32  $5.32 $5.32 $5.50	Pretzels Crackers Bagel Chips Cookies	$5.29 $3.79 $4.94 $4.79

I ordered multiple boxes of everything and 4 new things to try. It ended up costing $65.22! That is nearly $70 in savings! I also received an emailed coupon for 10% off my next purchase. I am pretty sure we have enough GF food to last Charlotte about 2 months!! The only "necessity" I will need to buy is bread. I am one happy mommy!! 

Now I have been planning on writing this post as long as I was satisfied with the company, but when I picked up my invoice it had a beautiful little treasure on the top of it! They have a refer a friend program!! That is right, by me referring you I get $10 AND you get $10!! How awesome is that?!? Just use the link attached and we will both receive our little gift. I hope you guys are as satisfied as we have been. https://www.vitacostrewards.com/eMuYNTv 

Sour Cream Chicken and GF Bread Crumbs

I seem to always be looking for another great recipe to go in my collection. I loooooove to try new things, but it is sometimes made difficult due to cooking GF. Sure, I could easily get my GF cookbooks down and make something that would taste okay. But we have young taste buds to deal with and (most of the time) they don't do funky foods. Unless, my mother makes it. But, that is another story entirely. So, normally, I convert what I THINK they would like into GF! It is easy to find new recipes to try (I may or may not be addicted to Pinterest). And when I stumbled across a Sour Cream Chicken recipe, I knew it was for me. :) The only problem was BREAD CRUMBS! AHHH!!

Now "bread" and "crumbs" are scary words in world of a Celiac patient. Normally, we RUN from them for a two reasons. Store bought crumbs are FULL of gluten, so nope! And gluten free bread is expensive. Who wants to grind up a $6 (6 inch) loaf of bread for crumbs?? Not this chick!! But I had been preparing for this day.

If you visited my freezer in the last few weeks, you would have noticed the bread grave yard. I have been saving the butts from every GF loaf of bread for about a month. It was starting to get ridiculous. We looked like we were hoarding the ends of the bread loafs. Cole tried to throw them once! Only once! :) I had a plan to carry out!!

Anyways, today I threw all of the odd pieces into the food processor and crumbled them up all nice and pretty. Once they stopped making a crazy noise, I melted about 1/2 a stick of butter and poured it in with the whirling crumbs. Along with the bread and butter went about a teaspoon kosher salt and a palm full of parsley. Once the crumbs looked like wet sand, I spread them on a baking sheet and put them under the broiler for about 5 minutes (stirring once half way through).

Bread crumbs, CHECK!!

Now the Sour Cream Chicken!

To make super easy cleanup, line a 13x9 pan with foil. You will love me for this tip later.

Place however many chicken breast you like in the pan. Sprinkle each with salt, pepper, and whatever seasoning you want (I used Mrs. Dash, because that is what I had).

Next, coat your chicken with a nice smear of sour cream. You will want to put some in a separate bowl! Don't cross contaminate your sour cream! And top with your homemade breadcrumbs.

Throw it in a 350 degree oven for 30 - 45 minutes. And voila! Supper!

Please let me know what you think about this recipe!! My little family loved it! I will be adding it to the rotation! Thank you Pinterest for the inspiration!

With love
-KG

Homemade Corn Dog Muffins

Let me tell you, being GF is an adventure! I have tried and FAILED at many recipes. But after almost 2 years of being GF I have finally stumbled across a recipe for cornbread that I like.

We have tried many cornbread recipes over the last few years. I would normally just buy Bob's Red Mill, but it made a ton of cornbread. Probably enough for a large dinner party or enough for about 3 meals. We can't do that much cornbread and we all know that cornbread must be fresh!! After all I am a southern girl. A southern girl that has never made homemade cornbread, what a shame. Also, I have come to the conclusion that I can't search of GF stuff!! So the other day I was on the hunt again. This time Pinterest was my guide. 

I am looking for a good cornbread recipe and I must convert the recipe myself. This could be trouble! And that is when I found a sweet little treasure!! My heart melted when I read about a Jiffy Cornbread Mix recipe!! Finally, someone understands what I have been seeking. Jiffy is my favorite, but have you looked on the box?? The ingredients list is SSSOOOOO long. Even if we weren't GF, I can't bring myself to eat it anymore. So here is the super simple recipe. My recipe is based on www.fakeitfrugal.blogspot.com.

Cornbread Recipe

Ingredients
2/3 Cup Flour (GF for us)
1/2 Cup Yellow Cornmeal (PLAIN! Not self-rising)
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 egg

1/3 to 1/2 cup milk (start with 1/3 but you may have to add more, I did)

2 tablespoons oil

honey (I don't know how much honey I put in there. Just give the bear a GOOD squeeze)

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Allow batter to rest about five minutes. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until brown. 

**To make the recipe GF, I used Bob's Red Mill GF All Purpose Flour. Yesterday, I put Zantham Gum in it, but I don't really think you need it. Today's batch did not contain Zantham Gum and I liked it better!**

So you might be saying, "I thought this post was about corn dogs!" It is! I promise!

To make the corn dogs, use the above recipe for cornbread and 4 nitrate free hot dogs. Spray the 

muffin tin well (or you will hate me later). Fill a mini-muffin tin about 2/3 of the way full. Chop a hot dog into small pieces (about 8 pieces per hot dog) and push the little pieces down into the batter. Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until brown. 

Note: If you have little ones, chop the hot dogs into smaller pieces and put 3 or 4 pieces into each muffin tin. 

My crew loved these! This picture is the second batch of the week and this is all that is left. I didn't bother to put them in a plastic container. I know they will be gone before dinner. I think the process took me about 20 minutes from nothing to the little ones eating (that is with cool down time). Now, how easy was that? 

Ugly Cookies

A few weeks ago, I realized that I have some sort of allergy to one of the ingredients in the package mix of gluten free cookies. It is a crazy allergy. All I have to do is breath in this unknown ingredient and boy do I know it.

Since baby girl can't have gluten and I can't have (or prepare) packaged gluten free cookies. I have been on the search for the perfect gluten free cookie recipe.

Gluten has been a thorn in my side. It is a total downer sometimes. It makes cookies chewy and yummy and perfect.

Today I took on the mission of perfecting my sweet baby's favorite cookie.

I must confess! I just made the ugliest cookies EVER!

See! I told you they were ugly! Those don't even look like cookies.

They are not burnt, sliding off the cookie sheet, or hard as bricks. But boy are they ugly.

You know they are ugly when  your 3 year old refuses to eat a cookie! UGLY!

And to be honest, I didn't want to taste them either.

BUT, I am so glad I did. These cookies might be ugly, but wow! They taste great!

A few minor adjustments, like temperature and bake time. Oh, and with gluten free, you can't just drop a tablespoon of dough on a cookie sheet. You must form the cookie into something that looks like a cookie.

This is what they looked like before the oven. All pre-shaped and smashed.

And afterward?

I am so glad you asked!

PERFECTO!

Just to make sure I wasn't fooling myself, I tricked Prince Charming. He didn't even know they were gluten free! Now that is what I call success!

The Ugliest Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/4 tapioca flour
• 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used sucanat)
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used sucanat)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large egg
• 1 (12 ounce) package Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

Directions

1. PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F.
2. COMBINE flours, xantham gum, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels.
3. Shape a tablespoon of dough into a ball and gently flatten it into a disk shape (It should look like a cookie you would want to eat.) Drop shaped cookies onto a greased baking sheet.
4. BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

.

And enjoy!