Gumbo, homemade

The best way I can use left overs when I have a variety of meats in the refrigerator. So I had left over, roast chicken, pork roast and pot roast. So go grab your left overs and we will get started.

  I diced up onion,garlic,green pepper and carrots and extra virgin olive oil, placed the in a saute pan over low to medium heat until nicely caramelized. When they are done add them into the bottom of your crock pot, or stock pan on the stove. Next I cut up my left over meats and placed them in the same saute pan and just got them warmed through, added them to the crock pot as well. Make sure you get everything out of your saute pan, scrape the bottom with a spoon, theres a lot of flavor in the bottom of the pan. Okay so next I added a box of beef broth and a jar of homemade spaghetti sauce (use store bought if thats what you have) Stir it all together in the crock pot and add your salt, pepper, parsley, oregano, thyme, basil, soy sauce about 2 tbs and Worcestershire sauce about 2 tbs and a bit of A1 about 2 tbs. Make sure you mix it together well. Put the lid on the crock pot and slow cook on low for 8 hours. This is a meal you want to start early in the morning and let it cook all day. You want to give time to allow for all the flavors to blend and marinate together, the longer it cooks the better it tastes.
  So after the 8 hours is up you want to make your white rice. Make as much as you want, I usually do about 1/2 cup of rice to a bowl of gumbo. After the rice is cooked put it in your bowl then add the gumbo. Garnish with green onion. Now some add shrimp in their gumbo I do not because no one in my house likes fish. I will however add sausage into the gumbo along with the other meats when I have it on hand (meaning my kids did not already eat it all) Sit back and enjoy, no one in your house will think you used left overs to make this and it is a good way to not waste food. If it made to much you can always freeze the rest for another day.

Candy cookies

Now this is a winner of a cookie. Who doesn’t love snickers candy and peanut butter cups? We are going to take the candy and hide it in a cookie, so you chose which candy to use, me I do a double batch using both kinds.
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
mix it all together very well
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup potato flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
combine wet and dry ingredients and mix well
It is easier if you chill the dough for like 20 min
Grab your bag of candy and warm up the oven to 375
theres two ways to do this cookie, use which ever is easier for you

now you can wrap the dough around your candy and then place it onto a greased cookie sheet or you can take a muffin pan and scoop the dough into the muffin pan bake your cookie for 9 min and as soon as it comes out of the oven push the candy in the center. We have done both ways and they are both yummy. Make sure you let the cookie cool before removing it from the cookie sheet or the muffin pan. Again these are gluten free so you want to freeze any that wont be eaten with in 2 days

Chicken riggies

This is what the finished product looks like, this meals has some prep work and things you may want to do through out the day. It is a bit time consuming, but so worth it. I bring to you my adaption of chicken riggies, it's a Utica thing.

So here we go. I baked up boneless, skinless chicken breast. With salt, pepper, chili powder, crushed red pepper and a bit of chicken stock in the bottom of the pan. Bake it till its cooked, when it is done place it off to the side and allow it to cool before cubing it up. I had mine in the oven in the morning so I could cube it by lunch time. Okay so cube it in to bite sized pieces. Set it off to the side. Next we want to start chopping our peppers and onions and garlic. I used yellow, red and green peppers. Put all my chopped veggies in to a saute pan with extra virgin olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper. Cook them until soft.

 Okay next step is making our sauce. We are going to begin like making a roue for Mac and Cheese. equal part of olive oil, or butter to flour, we use rice flour. Add your milk (we can't use heavy creme) Salt, pepper, A bit of hot sauce(the hotter you  like the more you add), nutmeg, cinnamon, spaghetti sauce and Italian seasoning, I also add a block of shredded cheese into my sauce. Let it cook till it thickens. Don't forget to get a pot of water going for your noodles (of course we use gluten free.) Once noodles and sauce are all done combine everything together (veggies and chicken, sauce and noodles) and place into a baking dish. Top with more cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 mins. Make a tossed salad and dinner is ready. This has so much flavor in it, it is worth all the different things you had to do to make it come together. It is great for get together's one dish and a side salad and your all set, it is also very filling. Let me know what you think.

rgluten free muffins

This was our breakfast the other morning.

I make my muffins a smaller size so that they are perfect for my kids. I made blueberry and chocolate chip muffins out of the same recipe.








So here is what you need:
a bag of chocolate chips
frozen or fresh blueberries
2 cups of gluten free flour (for non gluten free use 2 cups all purpose flour)
1 tsp of zanthan gum
  1/2 cups of sugar (I had to use diabetic sugar)
  3 tsp of baking powder
  1/2 tsp of salt
  3/4 cup of milk (use lactose if your intolerant)
  1/3 cup of oil
  1 egg beaten

So i always mix all my dry ingredients together and put them off to the side. Then in my mixer I start with the egg, get it beaten up and add the rest of the wet ingredients. After the wet ingredients are mixed well I add the dry to the wet and mix it well. When that is all mixed well I add my chips or blueberries. Now scoop your batter into your sprayed muffin pans.. So here is what you do next:

  3 tbs of sugar
  2 tbs of brown sugar
mix them together and sprinkle on top of your muffins
place your muffins in a 400 degree oven for about 15 mins, but keep an eye on them time depends on your oven.
  Let them cool in the muffin pan a few mins before putting them on a wire rack. Then eat them up, they are so yummy. They also freeze very well for another day or for large batches.