Gluten Free Granola Goodness

My quest for affordable gluten free snacks has given me the push that I have been waiting for! I have been wanting to make granola bars forever now and this was my first go at it. Now here comes the disclaimer.... My goal was granola BARS, the outcome was more like crumbly granola! But tasty none the less and gobbled up no problem by the other three family members.

I started with a random collection of things I both bought, and found in my baking cupboard.

Ingredients:

Most important... Gluten free oats (I used Bob's Red Mill gluten free, available at thrifty's)
shredded coconut
dried fruit (papaya, pineapple, craisins, raisins)
peanuts
almonds
sunflower seeds
(I wanted to add ground flax and a couple shakes of cinnamon as well, but I forgot!)

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup earth's balance  'butter'

I mixed up all the nuts, fruit and oats. Then in a saucepan I melted the butter and stirred in the honey and sugar. Then I poured this on top and mixed it all up well. I pressed it into my pan and popped it into the oven for about 20 minutes.

In retrospect I might of tried adding an egg as it was sort of crumbly and made a big ol' granola mess of my sometimes clean floors. I also maybe would of cooked it another 5 minutes or so. The brown edges seemed to stick together better than the rest of it, but I was afraid of burnt oats, cause that is yuck!


All in all I would most definitely make these again. Much cheaper and yummier than store bought, and the bowl is always fun to lick.... ummmmm, for the kids I mean....

Vanilla Success!!

Finally a vanilla cupcake recipe that was both easy to make, and oh so delicious! Here it is folks, after months of searching this is the best one I have found. Funny thing is, it is so basic! Perhaps I followed directions a little better than normal?(I normally follow them as I choose....)

Whatever it was, they turned out fabulous!!

The only thing I altered slightly was the cooking time. I used smaller cupcake liners and my oven is pretty hot so I cooked them at the 350 degrees for 15 minutes, and that was perfect.
Hope they work for you!!

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/moist-vanilla-cupcakes/

Gluten Free/Dairy Free Baby!

So these past few days we have embarked on a totally new way of food life around our house. Well, at least for Kayleigh....

A permanently swollen set of tonsils and a variety of other symptoms led me to take Kayleigh to an Acupuncturist and Chinese Herbalist. I was certain if I took her to a GP, they would just want to remove her tonsils and I was going on a hunch that she may have a food allergy or sensitivity of some sort. So, after our visit to get Kayleigh checked out, the Acupuncturist was onto the same hunch! Now, we are on day 4 of a dairy free and gluten free diet to see if we cant figure out what is up with Ms. Kayleigh.

I am finding it surprisingly easy so far, the only real difference is the cost of food. A box of 5 gluten free granola bars costs almost $8!! So, I am determined to make things on my own. My first experiment was a bit of a cheat, but well, I'm a busy gal these days! I bought a mix for gluten free muffins. And here is how they turned out!



I used almond milk and vegan butter instead of regular milk and butter.

We beat up the eggs and butter.

Then we stirred in the almond milk and muffin mix and gently folded in our blackberries at the end.

We spooned them into our muffin tray and popped them into the oven. We got about 22 muffins all together, enough to freeze the extras!

 Kayleigh, and the rest of us too, loved them! And the box of mix cost me less than $5, added with the other ingredients I spent less than $7 on 22 muffins.
So this is my new challenge.... Making gluten and dairy free food at a low cost. Wish me luck!! And stay tuned, because were making some bread tonight....yummy!