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. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!  I had the best!

Since being a nurse, I have had to work almost every single holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day, my birthday, etc., etc.) every year (people should really learn to not get sick on holidays).  I got married right after becoming a nurse, so I have not got to spend many holidays with my husband and our families.  This year, however, I am on education leave and they wouldn't have been able to force me to work if they tried!  I was SO excited to get a work-free holiday!

Wednesday, Michael and I prepared for Thanksgiving my cooking two HUGE pans of gluten-free dressing (we didn't want anybody to carry the burden of trying to make a primarily-bread dish into gluten free goodness), GF sweet potato casserole, GF corn casserole, GF chocolate bundt cake (which I wasn't very impressed with, GF chocolate peanut-butter balls, and GF pumpkin spice cake.  I mean, since this was my first Thanksgiving without working, I was going to bring plenty of food to my family!  I know I said I would post the recipes before Thanksgiving, but I have been SO busy writing papers!  I will try to post them before Christmas though.

We started Thanksgiving off by waking up bright and early and packing us and the dogs for our 2 hour trip to my in-laws.  The dogs did fantastic the whole way.  Zoey (my sweet yorkie girl that gets car sick) only threw up one time (as we were pulling into the neighborhood).  We had so much fun spending the morning and afternoon with Michael's family and ate way too much good food!  Michael's mom had made tons of veges and turkey that she made sure were GF.  They are always so sweet to make sure everything is safe for me!

Later in the afternoon we packed everything back up and went to my parents to spend the evening with my family.  I think the long car trip and the too-full belly made this pregnant lady a little sleepy and possibly grumpy.  It was so good to see all of my family though!  One of my nieces is just old enough to kind of understand that there is a baby in my belly, and she cracks me up because she is constantly trying to see the baby by looking up my dress (today I was smart and wore jeans).

Friday was the big adventure for this pregnant lady!  We decided to go get some Black Friday deals for our little baby boy.  Even though Babys R Us didn't have the best ads, I was convinced they would have some great deals.  We got up bright and early and got to the store a little after 5am.  I should have known by the relatively easy parking and fairly empty store that the ads were pretty accurate...  We did manage to wrack up on my clothes though!  Next we braved the crowds at Target, Belk, and Old Navy.  Finally, because we were a little bummed by our lack of success at Babys R Us, we decided to go to some furniture stores.  Michael's goal for the past few weeks has been to buy some furniture for the nursery (he has been pretty obsessed).  So, we went to Miskelly's and saw just how expensive furniture is, and then we decided to shop around at other stores.  After hours of looking, we decided to look one more time at Miskelly's (this is the biggest furniture store that I know of in Mississippi).  I think we were so exhausted from all of our shopping that we just Had to buy something!  So, we finally decided on a chest of drawers and a super nice glider.  We even managed to get $125 off the price from our bitch sales lady (I really tried to think of a nicer word to call her, but that was the nicest I could come up with).  This lady was just too busy to even want to bother with us.  We kind of tried to ask others for help, but once a sales person hands you their card then they have staked their claim on you. 

My mom had bought us a really nice rug we picked out at one of the other furniture stores, and Michael's mom ordered our crib and changing table that we picked out.  So, we are Finished buying furniture for our nursery!!  I am SO ecstatic!!  Everything is either being shipped or needs to be picked up at the store once in stock.  It should all be here by early-mid December.  I have tons of plans for decorating the nursery and can't wait to post my DIY plans!

What am I thankful for this Thanksgiving?!

• Spending the holiday with the family!!
• Getting the nursery prepared!
• Having 2 successful gluten-free Thanksgiving meals!
• My wonderful husband that will help me roll all of my peanut butter balls (even though he warned me that it would be too much to cook) without saying "I told you so."
• This sweet baby boy that I love so freaking much!!!!

Oh, and did I mention that we have finally named our boy??!!!  I would tell you, but I have to get the OK from Michael first.  He is always complaining about me wanting to tell everybody everything so fast.  I mean, it has been almost 2 whole days now!!  When can I tell??!!

What are YOU thankful for this Thanksgiving??

24 Weeks!!

I know, I know... I am a little behind.  I haven't had much time to post between school and traveling every weekend.

Last Friday I had my 24 week check-up.  This is one of the boring check-ups where all you do is pee in a cup, get weighed, get your blood pressure taken, tell the doctor you feel fine, and listen to baby's heartbeat.  I build them up in my mind to be so important, and then I am always a little disappointed when I leave.  I did get my consents for an epidural and circumcision though.  Michael was joking with me saying I can't have the epidural.  I told him that if I didn't sign the consent, then even if I begged for it they wouldn't give it to me.  So, he said that I better sign it because he knows I can't handle it.  Well, that was just a challenge in my mind.  So, I am going to sign it (because I do tend to be a big baby), but I will try my hardest to not get it (we will see how long that lasts).

Anyway, I was a little sad to weight a whopping 165lbs.  I have gained a total of 14 pounds by 24 weeks. I had decided that this was too embarrassing to post on my blog, but then I decided that Most women do not gain the recommended 25 pounds during pregnancy.  So, why be ashamed?  According to babycenter, I am still within my recommended weight for height, but I am quickly getting on the high side of normal.  Oh well... What can I say? I like my sweets.  My doctor was actually happy about my weight gain.  He seemed to be scared that I might not gain enough and get all of my nutrients due to my Celiac disease.  Don't worry doc, I am eating plenty!!

My blood pressure was great, and baby's heart rate was in the 140's.  Everything is going great so far!

Week 24 Picture!! (Really 24 and 4 days...oops)

Bare belly!! Daaang!!

Come on belly button, you can hang in there!

So far, my belly button is still an inny (hanging on by a thread), and I haven't gotten any stretch marks yet (I thought I found one the other day and had a little break down, but it turned out to be just a line from my clothes... My bad).

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!!

Gender Reveal Weekend!!!

Finally, the weekend I had been looking forward to for SOOO long was here!!  Once actually here, it became a source of pure stress for me!  I mean, not only did I have my Comp exam to take Friday, but we found out that Michael had clinical that weekend and wouldn't be able to help me prepare for the party much.  Thankfully, my parents came down a day early to help me prepare. 

So, what was my big party idea that I was so proud of?!

Beau or Bow?!  We had mustaches and bows everywhere!

The "girl" table.

 

The "boy" table.

The cake with the secret hidden inside!

Everybody wrote their name by their gender pick.

I also had little mustaches and bows for everybody to pin to their shirts.  I told Michael when we were cleaning up that I wish I had taken more pictures of the decorations.  He said that I don't have to take a picture of every little thing.  I said, "but I need it for my blog!" 

After all the stressing, everything turned out perfect.  The beans finally got done for the red beans and rice (after transferring it from the crock pot to the stove and back to the crock pot again), the cake and cupcakes looked fabulous, and although crowded, there was enough room for our 30 guests.  Nobody even made fun of my silly mustaches and bows (at least not to my face). 

Finally it was time to cut the cake!! I was SO excited about getting to cut into our own little cake to find out the sex, that I thought everybody would want their own little cupcake to open as well.  Well, it turned out that everybody just wanted to watch our reactions (I didn't think of that...).  I didn't really care as long as I got to cut into my cake!!

 This is my favorite picture of my night! Look closely at Michael's face! (After this, he proceeded to fist pump while saying "It's a boy! It's a boy!")

 

We had a blast!! I am so thankful for our sweet families that drove 2 hours for our party and our awesome friends!

So, if you haven't figured it out by now, we are having a BOY!!!  Our poor baby is going to come out thinking he is a girl and his name is Kinsley, because I have been so convinced he was a girl for the past 22 weeks that I constantly referred to him as "she" or Kinsley.  Poor thing. 

Now we have to actually think of a boy name.  It has been so hard for us to come up with a boy name!! Nothing has just clicked as the perfect name yet.  Suggestions?!!

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.   

Life lately

I know I have been slacking on the blog a bit lately.  My only excuse is that sometimes life just seems to get in the way.  I don't have any new recipes to post, because Michael and I have not really had time to experiment lately.  We did make some gluten-free lasagna one night, but it turned out OK.  I don't want to post a just OK recipe here!  So, when we tweak it and make it perfect, I will post it. 

I have been busy preparing for my Comps (a test on everything I have ever learned in grad school, it is pass or fail and required to get my degree) which is this Friday.  I have NO IDEA how to study for a test that is simply on everything.  They did give us a "study guide" that basically said know all material from all classes.  Thanks for the help guys....  So, if you happen to think about me Friday, please pray!!

Not only have I been trying to study my tail off, I have also been preparing for the big gender reveal party this Saturday (Why would I have a party the Saturday after my tests?  It was the only weekend I have off work.).  Although my timing is not perfect, I am SO EXCITED about this party!!  We have thought of the CUTEST theme and got some very fun decorations!  I think it will be a ton of fun for all the kids coming and fun for the adults that don't mind being a little silly once in a while.  I don't want to give away all of my secrets before the party...  Don't worry, I will post lots of pictures after.

But, since this IS a gluten-free blog, I will talk about what food we plan to serve (so far).  There will be a boy table with "boy food" and a girl table with "girl food."

Girl Table

1. Gluten-free cake/cupcakes (girly ones)
2. Fruit and caramel dip
3. Chicken salad
4. Peanut butter cookies
5. Punch of some sort

Boy Table

1. Gluten-free cake/cupcakes (manly ones)
2. Red Beans and Rice with Sausage (Michael is determined to change this to something more classy, but we will see)
3. Cocktail weenies (get it?! lol)
4. Possibly something on the grill (I figured it would give the guys something to do, but I haven't thought of the actual food yet).
5. Vegetables and gluten-free ranch 

Do you have any suggestions?  I know the food isn't very themed, but I don't want to overwhelm the party with such a specific theme.  And, I just like good food.  Since the party is at 1, I want to provide enough food to fill people up for lunch.  I am also determined to make (almost) everything at the party gluten-free.  I mean, if I have to buy/cook all the food, then I should be able to eat it, right?!

Anyway, I better get back to studying.  Keep your eyes out for my "22 Weeks" post and pictures (you will not believe how fast this belly is growing (Michael asked me last night, "When did you get SO PREGNANT?!") and the big Gender Reveal Party post!