You Want Me to Eat That?!

Apple Crisp Cobbler

Apples have been on sale around here, so we've had an abundance. This morning I was in the mood to bake and came up with this apple crisp cobbler thing. It was a huge hit at bible study this morning and with my kids!

Ingredients:

1 cup Sweet Sorghum flour
3/4 cup Potato Flour (NOT potato starch)
3/4 cup whole oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 softened butter (or earth balance)
1/2 Hemp milk
1 1/2 cups apple juice
4 small to medium red delicious apples, peeled and thinly sliced
4 small to  medium granny apples, peeled and thinly sliced
Cinnamon

Place apple slices in a 13X9 inch pan. Pour apple juice over the apples. Sprinkle cinnamon over the apples. In a separate bowl, combine flours, brown sugar and white sugar. Cut in butter. Add in oats and hemp milk. Mix thoroughly. Drop dough over the apples by the teaspoon. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until dough is a golden brown and apples are soft. Enjoy!

Honey Mustard Chicken Nuggets

We were in the mood for chicken nuggets, so I decided to just throw something together that sounded good. It turned out to be one of the best chicken nuggets I've made. The kids loved them...so much so that I never did a full plate, because they kept eating them as soon as I took them off of the skillet!

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Honey mustard
Sweet Sorghum flour
Potato Flour (not potato starch)
Safflower

Heat safflower oil in a skillet on medium heat. Cut chicken breasts into bite sized pieces and place them in a bowl. Pour honey mustard over the pieces until they are completely covered, tossing them to make sure. Mix half potato/half sweet sorghum flour in a bowl. Dip chicken in flour and place in hot skillet one at a time.  Brown on one side, then flip and brown on other side. Place on a paper towel on a plate. Repeat until all nuggets are cooked.

I would say these are great with dip, but my kids ate them too fast to even stop for that!

Vivas Gluten Free Quesdilla Pie

the man loves his quesadillas, but we have found that corn tortillas tend to break in half, making it hard to stay together. Today, he helped me to invent a new quesadilla. :)

Ingredients

Shredded cheese
Corn tortillas
Shredded beef from left over roast
Salsa

Yesterday's dinner was a simple roast shredded up with an jar of salsa added in. The salsa gives it great flavor, especially as a sandwich or a burrito for those who can have them. For those of us who can't, it's also great on a salad or, in this case, a quesadilla.

Slightly spray olive oil on a non-stick skillet. Heat to medium. Place one corn tortillas in the center of the pan. Sprinkle cheese over it. Sprinkle shredded beef over cheese. Sprinkle more cheese over shredded beef. Add second corn tortilla on top. Press down with a spatula and let heat until cheese starts to melt. Flip, and heat some more. Remove from heat and slice into pie type slices. Yum!

Comforting Rice Pudding

With sickos in the house for over a week, yesterday I decided to make some rice pudding with the rice that I had leftover.

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked rice
4 cups milk ( I use vanilla soy or rice dream)
2 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup agave nectar (you could use honey or sugar, but I like the mild flavor of agave nectar much better!)
1 cup raisins
3-4 tbsp tapioca starch (less if you like it a little thinner, more if you like it thicker)
cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

Place rice and 3 cups milk in a pot on medium high heat and bring to a boil. Add vanilla. Add tapioca starch to the remaining milk and stir until tapioca is dissolved, then add into the pot. Continue stirring until pudding starts to thicken. Add raisins and about 1 tsp cinnamon, depending on your taste. Add in about 1/2 tsp nutmeg, depending on your taste.

Cover and remove from heat. Let it sit for about 15 minutes before serving. You can eat this hot or cold, but we prefer it hot. It stores easily and does not dry out when reheating.

Steven's Soup

Art, Josh, & Mike

I can't believe it's been six months today since Joshi went home to be with our Lord. We miss him so much. Drew, Barb, Shelbie and Sammie, we love you so much and pray for you daily; you are never far from our thoughts and prayers.

For my friends and others who are reading this blog, today is Joshi's Day. We've kind of made a little tradition where on the 5th of the month we make a cheesy potato soup for the Stevens to help them get through the day. My kids LOVE this soup and look forward to it each month. They start asking for it a few days before, knowing that Mom is going to be making this soup. The other day, I was telling Barb that my kids were asking if I was going to make the Steven's soup. We kind of laughed and said that is how it should be. It is the Stevens Soup, because it has so much love poured into it for the Steven's family and whenever we eat it, we smile and remember Joshi and what he meant to us.

So, I thought I'd post my recipe, which started out as a recipe from Allrecipes.com and grew into much more.

Ingredients

Love, as much as you can put into it

1/2 cup butter (I use earth balance to keep this dairy free)
2 qts organic chicken broth
1 diced sweet onion
5 lb bag red potatoes, peeled, chopped
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 12 oz tub sour cream ( I use tub Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream)
1 8 oz tub cream cheese (I use tub of Tofuttie Better Than Cream Cheese)
1 heaping tsp dill
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup dried chives

Place onions and potatoes into a large pot. Add chicken broth, garlic, cayenne, pepper, and salt and bring to a boil. Continue boiling until potatoes are tender. Mash potatoes with a potato masher (or a larger spoon thingy) until there are small little chunks of potato mixed in. Add butter, sour cream and cream cheese, chives and dill and simmer for about 15 minutes. If soup is little watery, you can add in a little potato starch to thicken it.

For those who can have dairy, top off your bowl with colby jack or cheddar cheese and enjoy.

But before you take a bite, please remember Barb, Drew, Shelbie and Sammie in your prayers...and if you knew Joshi, share a few memories as you sit around your table eating the Stevens Soup!

Joshua Dennis Stevens
1995-2008

I am Josh
by Josh Stevens

I am Athletic - like a precise machine, running smoothly and efficiently.
I am Competitive - like the sun, fighting to shine through the clouds on a cloudy day.
I am Fun Loving - like a circus star, wanting to give joy to others.
I am Kind Hearted - like a favorite family pet, wanting to give love to all.
I am Persistent - like a skilled quarterback, never giving up till the ball scores.
I am Obedient - like an athlete responding to his coach.
I am Respectful - like a player accepting of the ref's call.
I am Beautiful - like a gem stone, with beauty for all to see.

Chicken Stew with Dumplings

We don't eat a lot of beef or pork, mostly chicken. So yesterday morning I pulled a bag of chicken breasts out of the freezer and remarked to no one in particular,

 "We're having chicken something tonight for dinner. I don't know what kind, but it has chicken."

To which my ever loving teenage son responded,

 "What else is new? We always eat chicken."

That remark sent me on a quest for a new and delicious chicken meal that did not contain anything that my two younger children were allergic to. I was bound and determined to find something great that everyone could eat and would still taste delicious!

I finally came across this recipe. I love to take what I want from a recipe and change it around to what I like, so here's what I did.

• 4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 quart organic chicken broth
• 2 tsp dried leaf thyme
• 2 tsp garlic salt
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 cups chopped carrots
• 3 large potatoes chopped into bite sized pieces
• 2 cups baby portabella mushrooms cut in half
• 1 sweet yellow onion, diced
• 1 1/2 cups sweet corn kernels, frozen
• 2 tablespoon dried parsley
• 2 cans (14.5 ounces diced fire roasted tomatoes with juice)
• 3 tablespoons arrowroot
• cold water

Cornmeal Dumplings

• 1/4 cup white rice flour
• 1/4 cup millet flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup arrowroot
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 scant teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter (butter substitute. I use Earth Balance)
• Hemp milk

Place chicken breasts in a pot and cover with water. Boil until done. Remove chicken breasts. Add chicken broth to the pot of remaining water. Add potatoes, carrots, onions and corn and bring to a boil. Meantime, chop up chicken breasts and add them back into the pot.

In a separate cup, add about 1/4 cup water and arrowroot and mix together. Pour into pot and stir.

In a separate bowl, add the flours, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Cut in softened butter. Add enough milk to make a thick batter.

Add tomatoes to the soup, bring to a boil. Drop batter by teaspoons into the boiling soup. Make sure to continue stirring in between drops. Once all batter has been dropped in, reduce heat to simmer and cover, making sure to stir occasionally. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until dumpling are done.

I had this ready by the time my teenage son got home. He was all excited when he walked in the house and smelled food cooking! It was a hit with the whole family...even the teenager who complained about having to eat chicken once again. He thanked me over and over for a good meal, so I must have done something right!