Weigh-in and Gluten Free Recipe

So, I am very disappointed in myself for the past couple of weeks.  I only went to the gym 2-3 days each week, and I definitely did not stick to my diet!  I did not go back to my old habits of Starbucks in the morning and Reese's for my snack everyday.  But, I did eat cereal a few times for dinner.  Then, my mom really messed me up by buying me 4 DELICIOUS gluten-free cupcakes!!  I mean, they were like $15, so it would have been rude not to eat them!  I did share 2 of them and accidentally let the last one get stale and only ate half of it.  It could have been worse! 

Somehow, despite my cereal and cupcakes and baked potatoes (did I mention McAllister's deli? oops), I still managed to not gain any weight.  My weigh-in on Monday was 166.8 lbs (down 3.2 lbs from my start).  I'm not happy about it, but that is more motivation to do better this week!!

So far this week, I have done really good!!  I started the C25K, so I can try to run a mud-run with my bestie in October!  I went to the gym Monday and Tuesday.  I have also eaten pretty good so far.  Sunday night I made a FABULOUS Turkey Ragu over baked Butternut Squash (see recipe further down).  Monday night we had baked chicken and salads.  I am eating these gluten free healthy frozen meals for lunch (similar to lean cuisines) because I have been too lazy to make my tuna.  I miss my tuna though and plan to start that back up!  Tonight I am going to make some quinoa and chickpeas that I'm pretty excited about!!

Turkey Ragu over Butternut Squash

Ingredients:
--1 lb ground turkey meat
--1 yellow onion
--3 green onions
--1 package of baby bella mushrooms
--1 tsp minced garlic
--1 can diced tomatoes
--1/2 tsp cumin
--1/2 tsp paprika
--1 butternut squash
--dash olive oil

Directions:
--Peel and dice butternut squash and toss in a bit of olive oil.  Cook in oven at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or until squash is soft.
--While squash is cooking, brown ground turkey in a big skillet.  Add diced onion, cut green onions, mushrooms, garlic, and spices and cook on medium heat (measurments are just an estimate, I really just add a little then taste then add some more).  Once onions and mushrooms are a little softer I add the tomatoes (next time I plan to add a small can of tomato paste) and turn down to medium-low heat.  Cover and let cook until squash is finished.
--Serve the Ragu on top of the squash.  Enjoy!!  This is pretty healthy and YUMMY!!  If you have never had butternut squash, it taste like a mix of pumpkin and sweet potato to me.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures :(. 

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti! Recipe time!

For the month of February, Michael is doing clinicals about an hour and a half away. He doesn't usually get home until after 8. Because of this, we are taking a little break from emeals. I just can't cook for myself every night.

So, I took this opportunity to do some experimenting that I have been dying to try. Spaghetti squash! I had heard a few people at work talk about this squash that you could just stick in the oven and then scoop out the insides as a spaghetti substitute. It is fittingly named, spaghetti squash.

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti:

Ingredients:
1. Spaghetti squash
2. 2 tbsp olive oil
3. 1 jar Prego spaghetti sauce
4. 1 lb ground beef

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut squash in half (lengthwise). Scoop out all of the seeds. Rub inside with olive oil. Place squash inside down on a cookie sheet and bake for about 45 minutes (should be easy to insert a butter knife when done).
2. While the squash is cooking, brown the meat and drain. Then add sauce and let simmer (I usually add some seasonings like basil and parsley to make it have a little more flavor).
3. Once the squash is done, get a large spoon and scoop out the insides. It comes out stringy and resembles spaghetti. Serve your meat sauce over the squash.

This is an easy, gluten free, healthier alternative to spaghetti! I was surprised how yummy it was! The texture was different from normal noodles, but it wasn't bad at all! I added a little salt and pepper to the squash and then topped it off with some Parmesan cheese (couldn't have it too healthy).

Gluten Free Stuffed Mushrooms!!

I love mushrooms!  I think they good good in almost any casserole, but I could even eat them by themselves dipped in some gluten-free ranch! Yummy!!  But, what is better than stuffed mushrooms??!!

Most stuffed mushroom recipes are naturally gluten-free (if you omit the breadcrumbs).  So, I basically took a little from a few recipes that sounded yummy, added a little of my taste, and viola!

GF Stuffed Mushrooms 

Ingredients

• 24-30 whole fresh mushrooms (I used baby bella mushrooms)
• 1/2 package ground sausage
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 package cream cheese
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (plus more for sprinkling on top)
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 

 Directions  

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray cookie sheet with cooking oil.
2. Cook sausage until brown, set aside on paper napkins to drain.
3. While sausage is cooking, rinse mushrooms in cool water and gently wipe clean with moist paper towels.   Remove stems of mushrooms by gently twisting stems at the base of mushroom.  Cut off the hard, "woody" part of the stem and chop the rest.
4. Once sausage is done, add 1 tbsp vegetable oil to pan and saute mushroom stems and  garlic.
5. Mix together cream cheese with mushroom stems and garlic, cooked sausage, parmesan cheese, pepper, onion powder, and cayenne pepper. Overfill mushrooms with mixture and sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese.
6. Scatter mushrooms on cookie sheet and cover with aluminum foil, cook for 20 minutes (until mushrooms are hot and liquid starts to form underneath mushrooms).  Enjoy!!! 

This is what the mushrooms should look like, after removal of the stem.

I really stuffed mine full!!

Finished product!! SO yummy!

My husband used to HATE mushrooms, but he is starting to tolerate them in most dishes.  He does, however, love stuffed mushrooms! 

Pumpkin Spice Cake!!

To me, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are all about the dessert.  The food is just the appetizer to the dessert.  I probably get this from going to my grandmothers when I was young.  I was pretty young, but what I remember is the savory dishes being spread around the counters in her kitchen.  Then, the desserts covered her huge dining room table (these memories may be slightly exaggerated, but I think fairly accurate).  She would have several cakes, pies, and candies.  My sweet tooth gene that was passed on to me from my mother required me to taste every single dessert.  It was this sweet tooth that talked me into cooking 3 desserts to bring with me for Thanksgiving (1 for Michael's house so they wouldn't make fun of my crazed dessert obsession, and 2 for my mom's house to go with her other 2 desserts). 

My favorite dessert that I made was by far the pumpkin spice cake.  This was originally suppose to be pumpkin spice bars, but I am going to change it to a cake.  No, this dessert was not completely home-made (I am too scared to venture into the homemade GF baking as of yet).  But, it was easy and delicious!!

Pumpkin Spice Cake!!!
What do you need?

• 1 box of 1-2-3 Gluten Free Sweet Goodness Pan Bars
• 1 can of pumpkin
• Eggs
• Vegetable oil

What do you do?
Simply follow the directions of the side of the box!!  If I remember correctly, you just mix the pan bar mix with the eggs and oil until nice and creamy and then you add the pumpkin, then you put it in a greased baking dish and bake until it is done...  How easy is that?!!

With a name like pan bars, I was expecting these to be dense and able to cut into little finger-sized bars...  Well, these turned out much fluffier and cake-like than expected.  I was a little worried about the flavor and decided to make some homemade cream-cheese butter cream frosting to go on top.

Cream Cheese Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 (1-pound) box confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until creamy, about 30 seconds.
2. With the mixer on low, slowly add sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowls as necessary.
3. Add vanilla and increase mixer speed to medium. Blend until frosting is fluffy, about 1 minute.

With this frosting on top, the cake was to die for!!  I have probably eaten half of it by myself (well I shared some with Baby B).  Although the frosting is my favorite part, the cake was actually very fluffy and moist as well!!  This is probably the best GF baked good I have had (as far as texture goes).  

One day I will venture out into the homemade GF baking.  Right now I am scared off by the big words such as xanthan gum and all the different flours (rice flour, tapioca flour, chestnut flour, etc.).  I mean, how do you know when to use what?  I am also convinced I need a stand mixer for all of this (I think it will give me the confidence that I need).  So, why read my blog when I clearly don't know what I'm doing?  Because you don't know what you are doing either or you wouldn't be here.  You can learn along with me and I will speak on a level that everyone can understand.  Then all the baby-stuff doesn't hurt either. 

Recipe: Peanut Butter Pie

I'm sorry about the lack of posts lately.  School has really kicked up a notch lately, and I have been in a bit of a writer's funk.  So, I decided to go back to what this blog was meant to be in the first place: about gluten-free living.

With it getting close to the holidays, it is time to start posting some holiday foods.  This is one of my favorite, easy, desserts that can really impress at a party.

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 (16 ounce) package of cool whip (thawed)
• Chocolate syrup
• 1 box of gluten-free chocolate cookies
• Butter, melted

Instructions

1. To make the crusts, blend up the cookies in a food processor, then add just enough melted butter to be able to press the crumbs into a pie dish.  Cook the crusts at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.  (I'm sorry I don't have any measurements here, I just kind of made this part up and it seems to work well every time.)
2. Blend the cream cheese, sugar, peanut butter, and milk together until smooth.  Fold in the whipped topping. 
3. Once the pie shells are completely cool, spoon the peanut butter mixture into the 2 shells.  Squeeze 6-8 straight lines of chocolate syrup over each pie.  Take a butter knife and make 6-8 lines perpendicular to the syrup (going in the opposite direction each time).  This will make the pie look so pretty!  Cover and freeze until firm.
4. Eat and Enjoy!!

Making the gluten-free crust is the hardest part of this pie, which is still easy (as pie...).  I usually make one gluten-free crust and get one store bought crust for the other pie (that way one whole pie is all for ME).  I have also made the crust with gluten-free oatmeal cookies.  There are tons of possibilities.  I can't wait to try out some more desserts for the holidays!

Keep an eye out for our gluten-free dressing recipe.  It is going to be our first time making it, but I just KNOW that it will be fabulous!!

Week 22! Happy Halloween!!

Halloween has never been my Favorite holiday.  It has always seemed like a weird day to celebrate to me.  But, I think I haven't enjoyed it because it usually falls in a really busy time of the year for us.  If we aren't busy with school, then I am usually at work.  2 years ago we did get to go to a Halloween party.

We love Harry Potter.  I may or may not have worn Michael's Harry scarf to the premier of the last movie...(our kid is going to think we are SO cool! Hah)

This year, we just have not had time to decorate or buy costumes for Halloween.  We do have candy for the trick-or-treaters though.  We just have way too much going on with my Comps on Friday and our party on Saturday.  No time to decorate for Halloween and then quickly take it all down and decorate for the party.  I can't wait to do Halloween with a baby though!  I just love baby costumes!

(My FAVORITE holiday is CHRISTMAS!!!  I absolutely cannot WAIT to decorate for Christmas and wear cute pregnant Christmas outfits!!!  I will probably decorate for Christmas as I take down our decorations for the party!  And, then I can't wait to find all kinds of gluten-free Christmas candy recipes!!!!  This will also be the first year in a while that I shouldn't be forced to work!!  This is going to be the Best Christmas Ever!!!)

22 Weeks!!!

 I always said I would Never put up a bare belly picture.

But, being pregnant makes you do crazy things!

I have to say that 22 weeks is probably going to be my favorite so far.  I mean, an ultrasound and our baby reveal all happening around the same time.  Most people wonder why we are waiting so long to find out the sex of our baby, when you can find out around 18 weeks.  Well, the smart person that I am, signed up to work every single weekend in October.  So, we had to wait.

What is new this 22 weeks? 

• Michael has DEFINITELY felt the baby kick!! (He got so excited and snatched his hand away from my belly while saying "I FELT IT!!!")
• Symptoms: Nose bleeds (embarrassing, annoying, but not painful or dangerous), Round ligament pain/Back pain (story to follow), Inability to get comfy and fall asleep at night
• I don't have stretch marks yet (don't worry, they are coming, they run in the family, so don't get jealous) and my belly button is still an inny (but it looks majorly stretched to the MAX)
• Cravings: Hot cocoa (best with whip cream), Life Saver Gummies (Michael is also having sympathy cravings for these, haha)
• We have learned that Baby is a night owl (Oh No!!), because he/she moves a little during the day but will Not Stop Moving at night!

I have to tell a little (embarrassing) story about round ligament pain.  So, I woke up the other morning at 5:30 to go pee.  When I came back to bed I had some Horrible flank (back) pain!!  No matter what I did I could not get comfortable or make the pain go away.  It just felt like I had a muscle cramp that I needed to stretch some kind of bad.  Eventually my pregnancy hormones got the best of me and I started crying, which woke Michael up.  Of course, upon waking to your pregnant wife crying in pain, you insist upon taking her to the ER.  Well, Michael did this.  However, we finally talked it through and decided to just go to employee health when they opened($12 bill versus $200 bill? We opted for the $12).  Michael has had kidney stones before and said that everything I described sounded just like kidney stones/kidney infection.  We knew that these are both common in pregnancy (sometimes being students in the medical field can be a bad thing).  So, we made it to employee health, saw the NP, peed in a cup, and everything came back clear.  The NP said she felt that this was just round ligament pain and that the baby was probably in no harm (b/c the pain was nowhere near my uterus and I was still feeling baby movements).  But, she made an appointment for me to see my OB just in case.  Later, I started feeling better and called my OB's nurse and told her the situation.  She agreed that it was round ligament pain and cancelled the appointment for me.

SO, long story just to say: If I can't handle round ligament pain, how the Heck am I going to handle LABOR??!!! Ok, lets not think about that right now...

Recipe Time!!!

Homemade Hot Cocoa

Ingredients

• 1 Can Evaporated Milk (pet milk)
• Refill that 1 Can with water
• 1 cup (or 3/4 cup) sugar (depends on how sweet you like stuff)
• 2 tablespoons Hershey's Cocoa
• 1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

Directions

1. Pour pet milk and water in a small pan and begin to heat at med-high heat.
2. Mix sugar and cocoa together (mixing them together dry will keep the cocoa from clumping up) and then add to the milk.  Heat until desired temperature (I like mine to be scalding so I get to hold it in my hands and let the steam warm me up while it cools).  Once reaches desired temperature, add vanilla flavoring.
3. Pour into coffee mug and add Marshmallows!  Enjoy!!

 

I might be drinking this cup as I type.

As much as I would like to claim this awesome recipe, I got this from my mom.  I would always beg her to make me this when I was little.  She would put tons of marshmallows on mine, and let me use her tall teacher coffee mug that I loved.   

It's finally Fall, Yall!! Chili Time!

Fall and winter are my two absolute Favorite seasons!! I just love fall colors, scarves, sweaters, and BOOTS!!  Ok, so I only have 1 pair of boots that I actually wear...but they are my most favorite shoes in the world! It is also football season, which everybody really seems to enjoy.  Maybe one day I will get into that.  I like the idea of having people over for football parties (when we have more time and money).  There are also a lot of reality contest shows on about this time, and I happen to be a bit of a closet reality show lover (X-Factor, American Idol and recently Survivor and The Voice). 

But, what is my favorite thing about fall?!  The FOOD!!  I LOVE dressing, pumpkin pie, pumpkin rolls, sweet potatoes, sweet potato pie, deviled eggs, pecan pie, deer meat of any kind, and much more.  However, one of the fall foods that I am not in love with are soups.  I can tolerate some soups (broccoli and cheddar, chicken noodle, and potato soup).  But, I have never been a big fan of the fall classic, chili.  However, my pregnant brain seems to think that I really like chili.  So, I decided to try and cook it (a gluten-free version, of course).

Olivia's Chili

Ingredients: 

• 1 pound ground Italian Sausage
• 1 pound ground chuck beef
• 2 28 ounce cans diced tomatoes (not drained)
• 2 27 ounce cans Bush's best chili beans (one drained, one not drained) 
• 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
• 1 yellow onion (chopped)
• 1 green bell pepper (chopped)
• 1 red bell pepper (chopped)
• 2 jalapeno peppers (chopped, or chili peppers) 
• 1 cup gluten-free beer
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp hot sauce
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp sugar
•  salt and pepper to taste

First, I searched allrecipes.com for some different versions of chili, and I modified to come up with what sounded like the best version to me (I have never cooked chili before, so this was a shot in the dark).

Brown 1 pound of ground Italian Sausage in a large pot (I could not find ground Italian sausage without the casings, so just cut off the casings and squeeze the ground meat right out).

Maybe this is just how Italian sausage always comes?

When the sausage is fully cooked, drain and set aside.  Next, brown 2 pounds of ground chuck (I browned them separately just because I thought it would be too much meat to brown at once).  When this meat is fully cooked, drain and put both the Italian sausage and beef in the pot.

Now, add your chili beans, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and gluten free beer to pot.  

 

Remember, all of Bush's Best products are gluten-free.  The only gluten-free beer besides cider beers that I could find was Redbridge (I have never tried it, so I do not know if it is good or not)

Now, you want to add your diced green bell pepper, red bell pepper, onion, celery, and jalapenos (most recipes I saw called for chili peppers, which would make sense, but I could not find any, so I used jalapenos instead).

 Finally, add all of the seasonings (chili powder, oregano, minced garlic, cumin, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, paprika, hot sauce, salt and pepper).  Turn the stove down until simmering and cover.  Cook for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  Enjoy!  It will be even better as leftovers and reheated. 

This recipe makes TONS!  So, I plan to freeze my leftovers in freezer zip-lock bags.  Write the date on the bag and it will keep for 4 months.

What's for dinner? Chicken!

So, I am trying to do better and take pictures as we cook (at least, I have tried that once now).  Maybe I will actually stick with it.  Michael and I are both such impatient people when it comes to food, so it is hard to stop what we are doing to take a picture.  Once we enter the kitchen to start cooking, we want to be eating ASAP (haha, we are a bunch of fatties!)!

Last night we made a VERY yummy but even more unhealthy meal (good thing I never claimed to be a healthy gluten-free blog).  Michael had taken out some frozen chicken to thaw early in the day.  Lately, as I have already said I am sure, I have had a big diversion to meat.  Michael is always trying to get me to eat meat (he insists that the baby needs it).  So, to try to fix my no meat way of thinking, we made my absolute favorite meat (fried chicken tenders, YUM!).  I was looking in the cabinet for some sides while Michael was getting the chicken ready, and in spite of our 20 cans in the pantry, the only vegetable was corn.  Since we are already going through the trouble of frying, might as well make some corn fritters... We can't just eat fried chicken and fried corn fritters though. So, I made some of my mom's home-made mac-n-cheese (with gluten-free pasta). 

As a side note, anybody want to donate their services to me and help me update my blog?  I really wish I knew how to make seperate pages for recipes, eating out, and then blogging.  I used to be so computer and internet savvy back in the day... I just don't have the time to play with it that much anymore.  Maybe one day.

Fried Chicken Strips

Ingredients (once again, I really hope you are not OCD and need exact measurements)

• Boneless raw chicken strips (cut length-wise in half; we prefer long skinny chicken strips)
• Gluten-free all purpose flour
• Salt
• Pepper
• 3 eggs
• Milk 
• Vegetable oil

Directions

1. Place 3 eggs and a couple of splashes of milk (enough to coat the eggs) in a bowl and mix together.  Place raw chicken in bowl and allow to sit while getting other ingredients together (if your chicken isn't fully covered, then just add some milk, as simple as that).
2. Next, I put a layer of flour in a pie pan (a good size and nice and flat for coating the chicken; if you don't use enough flour, then you can always add more later).  Spread a thin layer of salt over the top of the flour and then a thin layer of pepper and toss together (put as much as you want, but believe me Michael and I were surprised how much better the chicken was once we added more salt and pepper).
3. Pour a 1 inch layer of vegetable oil into a cast iron skillet (we actually used a non-stick skillet this time, which works just fine) and bring to medium to medium-high heat (everybody's oven is different, you want to have a good boil when you add the chicken or else it will absorb too much oil and become greasy, but you don't want it to burn either).  
4. Once the oil is good and hot, dip the chicken into the flour and cover fully (if you like extra crispy chicken, then dip back into the eggs and into the flour again).  Carefully place the chicken into the hot oil (it should bubble and sizzle pretty fiercely, I usually test my oil by sprinkling a little flour into it and seeing it if bubbles).  Cook on each side until golden brown and place on a piece of paper towel to cool (always check your first piece of chicken for doneness, to make sure you have your temperature correct).

  

This is what the oil should look like while frying, and you can see the difference b/w the golden brown and pasty-white.

 

 

I forgot to take a picture of just the finished chicken, but you can see it here along w/ the corn fritters and mac-n-cheese.

 

 

 Mom's Homemade Mac-N-Cheese

Really, this mac-n-cheese is too easy to call homemade, but it doesn't come from a mix or a kit.

 

Ingredients

• 1 box of gluten-free pasta (we used Schar Penne pasta, and we only made 1/2 the recipe)
• Splash of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil, don't you watch Rachel Ray?)
• 1/2 box of Velveeta cheese
• Splash of milk
• 2 dollops of butter (big, full tablespoons)
•  Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

1. Bring a pot of water to boil and add pasta and a splash of EVOO to keep it from sticking together (gluten-free pasta is very bad about sticking together).  Bring to a rolling boil and stir often.  Cook until done (don't throw a piece against the wall, just taste it silly).
2. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
3. Drain pasta and pour into a 8x8 glass cooking dish.  Add cheese (you want to make little 1/2-1 inch cubes to add), butter, salt & pepper, and splash of milk (enough milk to coat the pasta and have a thin layer on the bottom, if you put too much milk you just have to cook a little longer).
4. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes (stir at the half-way mark).

 

The gluten-free pasta I used.  I really have liked a lot of the Schar products. 

End product.  To speed things up, I actually added all the ingredients to my hot pan with pasta (after draining) and stirred until all melted together, then I cooked for about 10 minutes (remember, we are fatties that like to eat ASAP). 

 

 

What can you expect next?!  I plan to poast soon about eating fast-food gluten-free and another about the fears of my child having Celiac Disease. 

Recipe: Gluten Free Stuffed Bell Peppers

One of mine and Michael's favorite gluten-free recipes has been our stuffed bell peppers.  We made it up one day while shopping at the grocery store.  We were looking in the vegetable aisle for something different to cook, and saw some pretty bell peppers.  So, we started looking on the internet for some stuffed bell peppers recipe.  Nothing sounded good to us.   I thought sausage would be better than ground beef or pulled chicken.  So, we decided to make up a recipe.  This is what we came up with:

Gluten Free Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg Tennessee Pride Hot Sausage
• 1 pkg Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• 1 can diced tomato
• 1 can whole kernel corn
• 3-4 Bell Peppers (we like the orange, yellow, and red ones best)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Brown sausage.  When completely browned, drain.  Place over low-heat and add cream cheese, diced tomato, and corn.  Stir until completely melted together.
2. Cut the top off of bell peppers and spoon out all of the seeds.  Fill the bell peppers with the prepared sausage mix.  Place the bell peppers on a cookie sheet (to catch any drippings, in case you filled yours to the tip top like we do) and bake for 20 minutes.  Enjoy!

We like to serve ours with a side of rice.  They are so yummy and just effortlessly gluten-free!

Recipe: Gluten Free Corn Fritters

Michael and I have been wanting to try different recipes lately (especially since we have new recipe books and ingredients to work with)!  I was craving a baked potato (surprise, surprise) with broccoli and cheese the other night.  With Michael not being a big potato person, he had to add something a little different in.  So, he looked up recipes and found that we had all the ingredients to make gluten-free corn fritters.

I had only ever had cafeteria corn fritters.  Pre-Celiac, I was always looking forward to corn fritters at work (they so rarely have anything good like that for us night shifters).  But, every now and again I would get to eat some of the greasy, bready, crispy on the outside gooey in the middle corn fritters (are you sold yet?).  Now that I can't partake in corn fritter day (or mac-n-cheese day), I was so excited for Michael to make me some homemade corn fritters (ok, so maybe I questioned his ability to make this wonderful dish, especially when he had never tried it himself).  Like usually, Michael proved me very wrong.

Michael's Gluten-Free Corn Fritters
 Ingredients

• 3 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup gluten-free all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar (more or less to taste)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbsp melted shortening (shortening means Crisco or grease, for all of those who are like me and had no clue Crisco was shortening, we just called it grease)
• 1 can whole kernel corn (drained)

Directions

This is what your batter should look like.

1. Heat oil to medium-heat (every stove is different, so this may take some trial and error) in a cast iron skillet (really, any skillet can do, but cast iron makes everything fried taste better).
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together in a bowl.  Add egg, milk, and melted Crisco.  Mix in corn (the batter will be a lot runnier than I expected, so don't fret)
3. Drop the batter, by spoonfuls, into the hot vegetable oil (if your temperature is correct, the batter should immediately begin to fry and stay together).  Fry until golden-brown (this only takes a few seconds on each side).  Let drain on paper-towels.  Enjoy!!

 This is what yours should look like then they are finished.

This recipe made a ton of corn fritters, so you may want to half it if you are making it for 2 people.  Not because you can't it all of them, but because you probably will eat all of them and then regret it later (like when you find out you gained 5 pounds in 3 weeks at the OB/GYN).  

Seriously though, these are delicious.  They taste so much like fair food (and I love anything that should come on a stick at the fair).  This is why the Pre-Celiac me loved the Monte Cristo sandwich at Cheddars.  I will have to find a gluten-free version one day!  Let me know if you have any ideas!

Gluten Free Flour

Michael pointed out that I may need to be more specific when talking about flour.  Gluten-free flour comes in all different kinds (rice flour, soy flour, tapioca flour, corn flour, potato flour).  So, when do you know what kind of flour to use?  Many recipes call for a mix of several kinds to achieve the best texture.  I will always be specific to what type of flour I used.  When I refer to all-purpose gluten-free flour, then I am using a generic, store-bought gluten-free all purpose flour.  This brand in particular has already mixed several types to achieve the best texture.  We used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour.  It has a mixture of garbanzo bean flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, white sorghum flour, and fava bean flour (several things I would never be able to find without ordering online.  I eventually hope to come up with my own mixture of flours to make an all-purpose flour that is cheaper.  But, for now, I love that there are options of already prepared all-purpose flours out there.