Ben's Beginners Contest

Ben's Beginners Contest



My daughter and I entered this contest, you may view the short 2 minute video and vote for us. Search under Fish we made Rice fish cakes w/ a mango salsa...delicious!

Easy Apple Cookies

I made these cookies tonight and they were a hit:
I used the basic recipe off the box of EnerG Rice Bran and added to it.

1 C Rice Bran
1 1/2 C white rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C margarine
3 tsp egg replacer plus 2 T water
1/2 C apple sauce
1 tsp cinnamon

Optional: 1/4 C Enjoy Life( allergy free) chocolate chips
1/4 C Perky's crunchy rice cereal

Combine margarine and brown sugar until smooth. Combine dry ingredients and add with egg replacer and apple sauce. Form into small balls and flatten on clay or well greased cookies sheet. Cook at 350 for 10-13 minutes.

Dinner 5 of the 5 Nights of Dinners

Tonight I am making a chicken dish. This is one of my favorites and it changes often depending what I have in my cabinet and refrigerator.

Moroccan Chicken in a dutch oven:

6 chicken thighs with the skin removed
3 T olive oil
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 C of chicken or vegtable stock
1 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes
3 carrots peeled and chopped
3 parsnips peeled and chopped
2 turnips peeled and chopped
2 zucchini chopped
1 can of chick peas/optional
1 C of raisins

Spice mixture:
2 tsp currry powder
4 tsp cumin
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp tumeric
2 tsp cinnamon

Brown onions in olive oil. Combine spice mixture in a bowl and dredge each piece of chicken and then bown in the dutch oven with the onion. Add remaining ingredients except raisins and zucchini. Cook covered for 1 hour, 15 minutes before serving add zucchini and raisins. Serve over rice.

I hope these dinners will help families out there looking for something new. Please share your recipes as well!

Dinner 4 of the 5 Nights of Cooking

Tonight is an easy kids night dinner....Tacos

1 lb. of hamburger, although you can do these without any meat as well.
Cook beef and sprinkle 1T chilli powder 1/2 C salsa

Other goodies we stuff in our tacos:

Black beans with 1T lime juice in cuisinart, add fresh cilantro
Lettuce
Tomatoes
1 Avocado mashed up, add 1 T yogurt, plain soy or coconut is fine
Any type of cheese. My daughter is allergic to peas, but I hear great things about Daiya which is a cheese substitute free of the top 8.

Dinner 3 of the 5 Nights of Cooking

Tonight I will use my left over roast from Dinner 1. I also have some coconut milk from the sweet potato biscuits I made with that dinner. The sweet potato biscuits are gone, my family loved these. They had them for breakfast with a drizzle of honey and my husband had them for lunch with some butter.

Boil 1/2 lb of brown rice pasta, I used spagetti noodles.
Chop up beef and brown in skillet with:
What ever veggies you would like I used
1/2 chopped onion
1 C frozen peas
1 C chopped carrots
I threw in the left over mushrooms I had from pizza night as well

Sauce:

3-4 cloves of garlic saute in 1 T olive oil
Add:
2T Sunbutter ( I use this as a substitute for peanut butter) It is sunflower seed butter
4T wheat free soy sauce
2T brown sugar
1/2 C coconut milk
sprinkle ginger to taste
2 tsp crushed red pepper
Combine over a medium heat until well combined and hot and pour over noodles and beef mixture.

Dinner 2 of the 5 nights of cooking

I have left overs from my cooking last night, however, I am going to hold onto the left over roast for Dinner 3. Tonight my kids have asked for pizza! I would recommend when you make this crust, you double or triple the recipe, and freeze some. It is really simple to pull out of the freezer and throw together a quick dinner.

Gluten Free/ Allergy Friendly Pizza crust:

This will make 3 small 8" pizzas/ serves 4
1 Pkt of active dry yeast, 1 1/4 T
1 1/3 c brown rice flour
1/2 c tapioca flour
1/2 c potato starch flour
3 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp unflavored gelatin powder
1 tsp honey
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 c rice milk at room tempature
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp cider vinegar

Combine dry ingredients, mix well. Add wet ingredients, I use a mixer on low speed until well combined. Separate into 3 balls roll out directly onto the pan in which you will be baking it. I use a pizza stone first dust well with brown rice flour. Poke plenty of holes in the pizza dough and drizzle some olive oil over the dough. Cook at 425 for 10 minutes. Take dough out of the oven and flip onto the other side put sauce and fixings on top and cook for another 10-15 minutes.

5 Days of Gluten Free/ Allergy Friendly Meals

Tonight I will begin to post dinners, for the next 5 days.

Dinner 1:

Slow cooked beef round
Roasted root vegtables
Sweet potato biscuits

Slow cooked beef:
1 beef roast about 2 lbs
Smother with 1/2 cup of mustard and add 1 C beef broth. Set slow cooker for 4 hours/high.

Roasted root vegtables:
Whatever roots you have, tonight I used carrots, parsnips, and potatoes. Coat well with olive oil and cook at 450 for 20-30 minutes. You may also season with sage and or rosemary, salt and pepper.Onions are good with these as well.

Sweet potato biscuits...delicious!
1 1/2 C brown rice flour
1/2 C all purpose gluten free flour mix, I use GF bisquick
4 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C shortening * note mine has soy
1 C mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 C canned coconut milk

Combine the dry ingredients, add the shortening and combine, then add the sweet potatoes combined with the coconut milk. Roll into 3" balls and then flatten on a clay cookie sheet, or well greased cookie sheet. Cook at 400 for 10 minutes. Let cool and these are great with butter, but if dairy free, honey is also delicious!