Baked Oatmeal

Hey Everyone!

When I was up in Canada visiting my Aunt and Uncle at their house, my aunt had made Baked Oatmeal and it was really good, so I decided to try it for myself, and make Gluten and Dairy Free.

Ingredients:

3 cups quick cooking oats (I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten free old fashioned rolled oats)
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup blue diamond almond breeze almond coconut milk
1/2 cup earth balance vegan spread melted
additional almond coconut milk for serving

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.
2. In large bowl, combine dry ingredients
3. Add in eggs, melted spread, and almond coconut milk, mixing well
4. Pour into a greased small rectangular or large square glass pyrex baking pan
5. Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until set.
6. Serve warm with the additional milk

Makes about 9 servings.

Making Healthy Food Taste Good

Hey Everyone!

It is New Years Day, and while many are making New Years resolutions that they probably won’t stick with for very long,one of my two main New Years resolutions is to make healthier food, and make it taste good. In eating healthier food I have begun buying more Organic, Natural, Free Range, Cage Free, Non GMO, Grass Fed food. I may have to back off a bit if I ever have a family, but for now that it is generally just me that I have to worry about, and I have a job to pay for it. I can buy the more expensive better for you foods that I prefer.

I am to some degree a picky eater, as in if it doesn’t sound good, look good, smell good I am not going to eat it. For years I just ate food because it was what was there, not because I wanted it. Now that I am working, and I am getting paid, I can afford to be like “this sounds good, I am going to make it and use the grass fed free range meat”. Being Gluten Free and Dairy Free has also contributed to this mentality as well. Getting food that is Gluten Free and Dairy Free also tends to cost more, and I have to be careful about what I eat. I haven’t read all the research, but there is research showing that the food we eat has changed significantly from the food that was produced, and grown in the 1950’s, and those changes with Genetically Modifying, pesticide resistance, antibiotics and such has greatly contributed to the rise in food intolerances and allergies we are seeing now days. Now that I am one of those people who does have food intolerances to contend with, what is in my food is ever present how I grocery shop for myself.

I am not going to be becoming Vegan, or quit eating all “normal” foods, I am just being more selective about what mainstream foods I eat, and what I replace with “alternative” options.

So really, my goal for this year is to have a better diet that is balances and has a lot of food that is taking it back to more of the way it was in the 1950’s, as well as the Gluten Free and Dairy Free Alternatives to keep my food intolerances in check.

Along with eating better, and making it taste good I am working on putting together a cookbook that one of my good friends so nicely gave me for Christmas, with all of the GF/DF recipes that I try and like. It will be be useful for me, when I am able to move out on my own, and for if I ever do get married, and have a family.

Gluten Free Pie Crust

Hey Everyone!

Yesterday, after I got home from work I needed to make a pumpkin pie for myself that was Gluten and Dairy Free. Beings that I was making this for Thanksgiving, I made Pumpkin Pie. The recipe for dairy free pumpkin filling (as well as baking directions) can be found here.

In making gluten free pie crust, I have tried other gluten free mixes in years past, but I never really liked it. This year I decided to try making the recipe I am familiar with, and subsitute the brown rice flour mix that I have for the regular flour. I wanted to see how it would turn out, and it worked. The Brown Rice Flour mix that I use is from the Gluten Free baking classics book by Annalise Roberts. You can find it online at Barnes and Noble as well as in store at Bob’s Red Mill (for those of you who live in the Portland Metro area).

Here is the recipe for the pie crust I used. Beings that I only made one 9″ pie, I used half a recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cups brown rice flour mix
3 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups Crisco shortening
1 egg
1 Tablespoon vinegar
5 Tablespoons water

Directions: 

1. Work Shortening into flour, xanthan gum and salt until pieces are the size of peas
2. Beat egg well and mix in vinegar and water
3. Drizzle into flour a little bit at at time, and combine well
4. Press into thinner crust in desired size pie pan

This recipe will make two bottom crusts or one, two crust pies.