Cooking Kid

Only one of Mai children enjoys cooking. It's a lot of fun to watch her in the kitchen figuring out how to make yummy food   Andrew is a better cook than I am and it's adorable to watch their Daddy/daughter time.  

Today they made omlettes and gluten free shortbread cookies (aka rock cookies) this morning.  

 

Some more cute Lane moments that I want us to remember: 

She came home with a pilgrim hat made out of paper that she made at school 

When driving in the car, Lane kept herself occupied by making a map.  

The other day Lane and I watched "19 Kids and Counting" together.  She looked at me and asked, "mom, why do they have 19 kids and none of them have autism and we have two with autism?"   Good question, Lane.  I honestly don't have an answer. 

Homemade fruit rollups

I wanted to make homemade fruit rollups for a while. The store bought version are full of dyes and sugar. There is a fruit leather I like but they are expensive and tough to find. 

I was inspired to make it when I heard someone else talk about it. I looked up recipes and there are a couple versions. I don't own a dehydrator so I stuck to oven versions.  

Lane and I pulled out the frozen berries to thaw. We put the berries in the food processor with 3 tablespoons honey. We then spread the fruit on parchment paper on cookie sheets. The fruit has to be spread thin or it doesn't work well.  Lesson learned for next time. 

We cooked the fruit for 6-8 hours at 170 degrees. 

Gabriel and I thoroughly enjoyed the blackberry and raspberry strawberry fruit rollups. I will definitely make these again! 

Spice White Bean Dip

Gabriel isn't overly interested in helping in the kitchen. When I asked him if he wanted to help me make a dip this afternoon, he jumped at the opportunity. It was nice to have a helper and to see his interest in measuring and mixing.
The original recipe is from annie-eats.com. I had to change it and half most of the ingredients because I only had one can of white beans in the pantry. I didn't have a lime either so I wasn't able to add it.

2 cans of white beans
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup hot sauce (I had to add less since kids were dipping and dunking at our house)
2 Tbsp crushed garlic
2 Tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice
salt and pepper
water added as needed

We mixed it in the food processer and ended up with a wonderful, smooth dip. We dunked tortilla chips in it and I am too full for dinner! This is definitely a keeper of a recipe. Thank you annie-eats!

Homemade Gnocchi

I like Andrews cooking. I really like that he is willing to try new things. Since we started eating GFCF a couple years ago, we have found pasta that is decent. However, I've missed the texture of tortellini and other fluffy pasta.
Andrew decided to make homemade gluten free gnocchi. It looked complicated to me. How in the world a bunch of yellow potatoes can be turned into light pasta like pillows is beyond me.
He did it and it was awesome. I hope Andrew is willing to make it again because it was a wonderful treat and I've found variations of the plain potato recipe since he made it for us.

Recipe from seriouseats.com

Ingredients

2 pounds russet potatoes, washed
1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
2 large eggs
Kosher salt

Procedures

Adjust oven rack to center middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Pierce potatoes a few times with a knife and place on a baking sheet. Roast until tender, about one hour. Remove potatoes from oven and allow to cool.

Whisk together white rice flour and sweet rice flour. Using the flour mixture, flour your counter. Peel the potatoes and pass through a potato ricer onto the counter. Whisk together eggs and 1 teaspoon salt. Pour over the potatoes. Work the egg mixture into the potatoes with a bench scrapper or fork until potatoes begin to hold together. Mixture will be sticky.

Work one cup of the flour mixture into the potato mixture. Start by working the flour into the potato mixture with a bench scrapper or fork. As soon as a dough begins to form, begin kneading the dough by hand until all the flour is incorporated. The dough should be firm and not sticky. If it is, add the remaining flour mixture, about 1/4 cup at a time. (You can test the gnocchi by boiling a small pot of water and cooking a small piece of dough. The gnocchi should hold together.)

Divide the dough into quarters. Then, as you work with it, cut each quarter in half. Cover remaining dough with a damp paper towel. Roll out each dough eighth into a log. Cut into bite-size pieces. Shape by either pressing a small indentation into each gnocchi or rolling the gnocchi over a fork or gnocchi board.

Transfer shaped gnocchi to a lightly white rice-floured baking sheet. Shaped gnocchi can either be frozen or cooked right away.

To Freeze: Place baking sheet filled with gnocchi in the freezer. Once the gnocchi are frozen, transfer to a plastic freezer bag. Gnocchi may be frozen for up to two months. Cook as directed below.

To Cook: Boil a large pot of salted water. Cook half the fresh or frozen gnocchi in the boiling water until they float, about four minutes. (Taste one gnocchi to ensure it is cooked through). Remove the gnocchi from the water with a skimmer and transfer to a bowl or pot of sauce. Repeat with remaining gnocchi. If gnocchi must be held for more than a moment, drizzle with oil and toss to prevent sticking.

Three simple projects today

Oh Pinterest, how I love thee...
I've found so many things on Pinterest that I want to do and that motivate me to be creative. Today I did three things from that site.

1. I made homemade butterfingers out of three ingredients. No nutrition but the kids and Andrew love them. It was my first attempt at candy of any kind. The ingredients are candy corn, chocolate covering, and peanut butter. Can you believe it??

2. I read that boiling orange peels with cinnamon will make a house smell great. As I was peeling oranges from our orange grove outing, I remembered this simple idea. I threw the peels in a pot with water and some cinnamon and made my kitchen smell wonderful. Try it. It's easy and encourages healthy snacking too!

3. I saw these free printouts one day. They can be attached to an envelope or placed in a baggie with money. It won't be any easier to fill this out and attach to the envelope than it is to write on the envelope, but this is so much cuter. It looks more organized and cute too, don't you think?

Overripe Bananas?

A good friend told me about making ice cream with overripe bananas. I thought she has a good idea but didn't think it would work for us. Gabriel isn't a huge fan of bananas and I eat bananas but again, not a huge fan. I eat them because I get leg cramps and
I bought a share of veggies and fruit from an organic buying club. We got a TON of bananas. We all ate a ton of them but still ended up with 6 overripe bananas. I couldn't bear to throw away organic produce.
I looked up the banana ice cream recipe. It requires frozen overripe bananas thrown in a processor. That's it. It's cold and creamy. It definitely tastes like bananas but it fulfilled my ice cream craving. I added some peanut butter and YUMM-O! This might become my new breakfast treat!
Try it!