Seafood Pasta

This is a quick and easy recipe that is not only delicious, but impressive.  We ventured to Whole Foods the other day and decided to spend my whole paycheck and just get all of the yummy goodies. We grabbed things on a whim and they turned out amazing. I may just make this again once Nic leaves so I can have all the leftovers to myself.

1 medium lobster tail
1/4 lb deveened shimp
1/4 lb scallops
1/2 red pepper
1/4 lb broccoli
Pasta of your choice
Butter
Olive Oil
3 Cheese Italian Blend
Alfredo Sauce

We went the lazy route with our alfredo sauce and used something from a jar. I know there are a ton of really fantastic alfredo sauce recipes, but, we just weren't feeling it today.

Bring water to a rolling boil. Pour 1/2 tablespoon of garlic powder into water, and add pasta. Cook as you normally would. Cut shrimp and scallops into bite sized pieces. Take lobster meat out of shell and also cut into bite sized pieces.
Heat a generous amount of butter in a skillet, once melted add the lobster. Cook for approximately 1 minute and then add the shrimp and scallops. Stirring, cook for 1-2 minutes.  Remove placing in a bowl and covering to keep warm.  Add pepper and broccoli florets

Banana Coconut Popsicles

I absolutely love sweet snacks. Froyo, popsicles, gelato, ice cream. . I could eat it all and be a happy camper.  That being said, sweet treats can not only get a bit expensive, but I also am starting to care more about what's actually in my food products.  I've been having more allergy problems in the past few months so making things at home and controlling everything is becoming more important. Not to mention these were super easy to make.

I had a few bananas with freckles that I had planned on using to make banana bread with, but after perusing pinterest I decided to combine and few different recipes and try out my Zoku popsicle molds. The recipe is super simple:

3 ripe bananas
1 can of coconut milk
3 tbs maple syrup
3 tbs cinnamon

Using your blender, combine all ingredients and pour into your popsicle molds! Super simple!

I actually had a quarter cup left so I would suggest either cutting the ingredients a bit or just saving it in a container in the fridge. Wait at least 8 hours to pull the mold from the freezer, run under water for about a minute and you'll have a wonderful summer treat. Enjoy!

Apple Walnut Breakfast Pie

This recipe and I have had a very interesting past. The recipe "Apple Raisin Pancake" is in my gluten free bible cookbook and the picture they have next to it. . it will make your mouth water. So while we were living in Maryland I decided to follow it one morning and it was terrible. I forgot to add the flour to the first one I put in the oven which I only realized when an odd apple scrambled egg smell was coming out of my kitchen. Then Nic decided to run to the store for another apple to so I could try again, well, I followed the directions to the t and it was still disgusting. Once we moved out here I decided I would try yet again, but only loosely using their recipe as a template.

I did something right. This is my breakfast of choice (besides Nic's french toast) and it's really easy to make. It's even in the running for our Christmas morning breakfast.

1 apple, I've been loving Pink Lady apples lately but any would work
1 egg
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups Pancake mix
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Core and peel the apple. Then cut into medium/thin slices. Mix these with the brown sugar and cinnamon and place to the side.

Mix the pancake mix and milk until creamy. Add in half of the quarter cup of walnuts and 1 tsp of cinnamon, mix.

Pour the brown sugar apples into the bottom of a pie pan making sure to cover entirely. Sprinkle the remaining walnuts on top of the apples. Pour the pancake mix over these and make sure to smooth to cover the entire pan. Sprinkle cinnamon (I sprinkled cinnamon KIND granola on top last time and it was delightful).

Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 15 minutes. Also, please remember that my oven is weird, so do check on it!

Happy baking! 

Grandma's Pumpkin Squares & Cream Cheese Frosting

The leaves are starting to change, the air's getting crisp, and pumpkin's on my brain. Everywhere I turn there are either pumpkins or pumpkin flavored things. Not to mention mums!! I've never seen mums before, or maybe I have and I just never noticed them, but they're so fall. I love them!

The fact that I'm experiencing fall for the first time is fabulous except my cake/cupcake/doughnut cravings have escalated to unbearable levels. Being gluten free isn't terrible but I am having a hard time dealing with the fact that I can't order a pumpkin loaf with my pumpkin spice latte while going through the Starbucks drive-thru. Combine that with thinking about my grandmother's pumpkin squares and I'm going insane. To try and save some sanity I decided to try the pumpkin squares with a gluten free twist. I mentioned the plan to Nic and he was just as excited as I was so I figured we'd do it.

Pumpkin Squares:
- 1 (16oz) can of Libby's Pumpkin Puree
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/3 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of oil
Stir together 
- 2 cups of flour (I use Arrowhead Mills Gluten Free flour mix)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
Mix the wet mixture into the flour mixture until smooth 

Pour into a baking dish (what you would use for brownies) and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes

Cream-cheese Icing
- 3 ounces of cream cheese
- 1/2 cup of soft butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Powdered sugar to taste (it's a lot)
Beat together until smooth 

Once the pumpkin squares have cooled spread the cream-cheese icing over them. Enjoy!

 

Enjoy with coffee brewed at home with Bailey's Pumpkin Spice coffee creamer (it's actually really delicious) and I promise you'll be in a pumpkin heaven.

Happy baking! And happy fall!

Ciao! xox

Toffee Chocolate Kiss Cookies

I've decided to start a new day on the blog: Tasty Tuesdays! And possibly Thursday's if I'm making a lot of things I think y'all would like. We'll start off with a FABULOUS cookie recipe that I made last Thursday. . 

Toffee Chocolate Kiss Cookies!

I somehow got lost on my way home from work and was subsequently tired and hungry and slightly sad that Nic wasn't going to be there right when I got home. As I dragged my feet into the kitchen to find something to munch on I found the cutest set up on the counter. Heath toffee crumbles, mini Hershey kisses and both gluten free cookie and brownie mix. 

If you know me you know that one of the ways into my heart is letting me bake. Give me the ingredients to make a masterpiece (yes these are so good that masterpiece is an appropriate term) and I will be the happiest camper. I will say these don't have a "gluten free" taste to them which is supported by the fact that Nic is eating just as many as I am.

Here are the ingredients:

• King Arthur Gluten Free Cookie Mix
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup of butter
• 2 tablespoons of water 
• Heath toffee crumbles 
• Hershey miniature kisses

It's quite simple. . follow the directions on the box. Preheat the oven to 350, mix the ingredients together (for those of you who haven't baked anything gluten free. . the mix is really dry. I suggest thoroughly washing your hands and then mixing by hand. It's easier to knead the dough.) Mix what you would presume to be "too much" toffee crumbles in. The more the better. I bit the top of the kisses off and rolled it INTO a small ball of the cookie dough. Flatten it slightly before you put them onto the cookie sheets. Mine were the size of thick quarters and they were perfect. 

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown and enjoy! 

I will say I might be switching semi-sweet morsels for the mini Hershey kisses next time. I love love love dark chocolate but Nic. . not so much. . so these were a happy medium. And he picked them out. 

Happy baking! Ciao darlings! 

President's Day Weekend

After a long bout of tests and being sick a long three day weekend with Nicy is exactly what the doctor called for. President's Day Weekend was spent in this GORGEOUS hotel right in Arlington. It's really pretty, has a Starbucks within walking distance, the shower is to die for and it’s only 5 minutes from Reagan Airport, 20ish from Annapolis and 10ish from DC. It’s fabulous. After my flight to Atlanta and a three hour layover there I was finally in DC. We spent the night going to the academy for Nic’s friends boxing match (I learned I just don’t get boxing, at all) and then I got my gluten free PF Chang’s. It really is the simple things in life.

Saturday was spent with brunch at our favorite little restaurant Fire Fly in DC and finding gluten free cupcakes at Hello Cupcake! They had banana cupcakes with peanut butter and chocolate icing. The chocolate was better. Like deliciously perfect. (We went back another day and they had gf tiramisu cupcakes. . not as good). The rest of the day was spent driving to and from Baltimore in a failed attempt at going to the Baltimore Aquarium and watching Happy Feet 2 with pizza. Gluten free pizza that was delivered. I was happy.

 

I would like to say that the Happy Feet movies and Wall-E are quite possibly the best movies if only for the fact that they are addressing problems that are happening in our world and are marketed towards children. Yes it is making a child believe robots can fall in love and penguins can talk but it’s also showing the importance of our environment and how much of an affect we have on it.

We finally got to the Baltimore Aquarium on Sunday buuuuuuut couldn't see the dolphins or jellyfish exhibits because we got in too late. . . complete bogus. But who doesn’t love the aquarium and smiling turtles?! We had a well deserved date night at Morton’s where I realized Nicholas doesn’t know the difference in water types when he answered “distilled, sparkling or Arlington’s finest?” with “yes”. It was adorable.

Monday was the touristy day with visits to the National Museum of Air & Space and Natural History. Both of them (I’m actually assuming all of the national museums) have IMAX theatres which are so much fun! We saw a video about how stars form  in the planetarium and then a movie about apes and elephants being rehabilitated and released into the wild in the Natural History Museum. It was in 3D. Go see them!


As always goodbyes are hard. The ticket man let Nic walk me to my gate (a first!) but I think we both decided we like it better when we’re running late and I have to run through the security gate to make my flight. It’s less heart wrenching and I’m less tempted to miss my flight and stay with him.

Ciao! xoxooxo

Gluten Free Applie Spice Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Icing

If you know me at all you will know that I am not your typical 21st century "equality for women" kind of gal. I'm weird I suppose. More than anything I wish I lived in the fifties where I can be married, raise my kids and meet my husband at the door with drink and a peck on the cheek. But alas, I live in the time where females are running for President and we're equal with men. So terrible. ;)

I've been so stressed out lately with school, work, relationships and just being sick that I really needed something to do. And the truth is you can't really realize you're in pain when you're laughing and baking with your grandparents. Since my appetite has all but disappeared I have only had two cravings: all sorts of cupcakes and the gluten free lobster pasta that I got at Maggiano's. I'm too lazy to drive all the way to Maggiano's so cupcakes won and I found a handy recipe online. Here's my adaptation of it!

Applie Spice Cupcake and Maple Cream Cheese Icing


The Cupcakes:

• Hodgson Mill Yellow Cake Mix (it's gluten free!) 
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 tsp vanilla 
• 3 eggs
• 1 peeled apple, chopped up to small little pieces (they're baked into the cupcake!)

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix cake mix, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Add in water, eggs, vanilla, and eggs. Beat on low until mixed together.
- Mix in apples pieces
- Put into the cupcake holders and plop them into the over for 19 minutes (or under the toothpick comes out clean).


They taste good without the frosting but about one hundred times better with it. They almost have a "muffin-esque" texture.

The Frosting: 

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 6 oz cream cheese, softened 
• 4 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 cups powdered sugar

- Mix butter, cream cheese and maple syrup together on low until fluffy
- Gradually add in powdered sugar while on low
- Eat a ton and refrigerate


Quantity: About 14 cupcakes and an excess of delicious frosting for snacking.

As grandpa say it's a "jolly recipe". It's the best thing I have ever made and I am probably too proud of myself. I promise you'll like them though. And they're gluten free which therefore makes them healthy they were also made full of love.


Happy baking!!

Ciao. xoxo.

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few weeks ago, right before Thanksgiving to be precise, I discovered I cannot consume gluten without getting sick. We've discovered it isn't Celiac disease (which is a severe gluten allergy where even if your food touches some amount of gluten you're getting sick) but rather a gluten intolerance caused by __________ (to be entered when we figure out what is wrong with me) where I am still unable to consume gluten but I'm okay using the same silverware as my family who does.

Before this happened I found much joy in baking. Whenever I would get stressed I would bake chocolate chip cookies, eat most of the dough, and go for a long run. Perfect routine. Since wheat is a main ingredient in any cookie I have now been forced to only eat overpriced gluten free cookies from Publix or Whole Foods. I have found three kinds that I like but none of them compare to homemade chocolate chip cookies. After a long day yesterday I decided I wanted to try and make some gf chocolate chip cookies. Well every recipe I found called for at least four kinds of flour (tapioca, brown rice, a bunch of names that I cannot pronounce nor remember) which are each sold separately and way too expensive but then I fell upon this fabulous flour free recipe. I was in heaven. I changed some of the ingredients because. . . . well because I can so here's my adaptation of the recipe:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups of peanut butter (I use Jiff)
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 tsp of vanilla extract
1 tsp of baking soda
2 eggs
A ton of chocolate chips (honestly, you can never tell anyone how many are "correct", it's like wine, eat and drink the whole bag)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients minus the eggs together, add the eggs and stir until nicely mixed.  Grease the cookie sheets (I use butter) and put cookies on the sheet. I sprinkled with sugar on top. Bake for 12-14.

It should make about 24 cookies and according to my brother in law and grandfather who ate 3/4 of a tray on their own, they taste damn good.

Happy baking! Ciao! xoxoxo