Aunt Julie’s Pumpkin Bread

 Must give credit where credit is due! This one is a family recipe, and we are only saving it here to have it handy so we don’t have to ask her for it every fall. 😊

PUMPKIN BREAD

Ingredients

3 1/2C flour (I used King Arthur’s One to One)

2t baking soda

Salt

1t cinnamon 

1t nutmeg

1C canola oil

4 eggs

2/3C water

1 15oz can pumpkin puree 

3C sugar

Sift all dry ingredients into mixing bowl. (I did not have a gluten free sifter, so I measured them into the bowl and then whisked them. It worked fine.) Add all other ingredients and mix well. Spray two pans lightly with pan spray. I cut pieces of parchment paper, placed in the pans, and sprayed those lightly as well, to make taking them out easier. Pour into two loaf pans.

Bake at 350. Test after 70 minutes to see if a toothpick comes out clean. The GF flour seems to need longer in the oven. After baking let sit ten minutes, then remove from pans and let cool completely.

Freezes well. 

Gluten Free Soda Bread

 

Now, this is very definitely a soda bread and not a yeast bread - I don’t want to give anybody the wrong idea of what you’re making! - but it is an excellent gluten free soda bread, and rose all the way to the top of the loaf pans! I have already made three loaves.

The recipe as called for below makes ONE LOAF. The picture above has two loaves; I made the recipe twice, in two bowls, and cooked them together. (Don’t double the cooking time!)

I got the recipe off Fearless Dining’s blog, The Fluffiest Gluten Free Bread Recipe (No Yeast!), where she goes into some detail about the different flours and substitutions and things. I’m just going to tell you how I made it, with the implements I have in my kitchen. If you want to know about substitutes or want to use a stand mixer (you don’t need one), go to her link.

GLUTEN FREE SODA BREAD

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups King Arthur Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour

2 T baking powder - she calls for aluminum free. I never know whether my baking powder is aluminum free or not. Just make sure it’s gluten free.

1 t salt (MEASURE IT)

5 tablespoon butter (do not soften! You want your butter cold for this recipe!)

2 eggs

1 1/2 C milk

Preheat your oven to 350. Put your oven rack in the middle of the oven.

Add the 2 1/2 C flour, 2 T baking soda, and 1 t salt to a large mixing bowl. Use a whisk to blend the dry ingredients.

Here’s where the recipe starts to differ. I have a pastry blender, so I cut my 5 T butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender. If you’ve got a cheese grater, you can cut it in with that; you can try cutting it in with two knives, but I personally have never had much luck with that method. However you do it, get your butter cut in nice and small.

Add your two eggs into the bowl, and mix those in. I switched to a stiff silicon spatula at this point.

Add the 1 1/2 C milk to the bowl, and mix it all into a dough with a stiff spatula or large spoon.

I used a regular sized loaf pan coated in pan spray and had no trouble. She talks about parchment paper. I’m not sure why. I did not need it.

Use the spatula to get your dough from the bowl into the loaf pan. It is sticky! It should be soft and thick, sticky as I said, but not pourable. Smooth the top out with your fingers if you need to.

Bake at 350 on the middle rack for 30-35 minutes. I never did achieve a nice golden brown crust, and I didn’t want it to dry out, so I took it out at about 33 minutes, when a knife stuck in the deepest part of the loaf came out clean.

I disobeyed my instructions, because I see now you’re supposed to remove it from the loaf pan to cool. 

I cooled it IN the loaf pan until it was cool.

Apparently either way works.

Don’t try slicing it until it’s cool, in either case!

*A serrated bread knife works best for slicing, and thicker slices hold up better if you’re planning on picking them up. 

(…yes, I have a pink serrated bread knife. 😊)

Shrimp with Broccoli Stir Fry

 

A new stir fry for you!

I haven't been posting much, because I've been trying to lose some weight (down 15 pounds!), and when I'm losing weight, I tend to stick to tried-and-true recipes. Stir fry's are one of my go-to's, though, because they're lean meats cooked with very little oil or fat, the sauces are low calorie and very healthy, and they're chockful of healthy vegetables. 

This is a very typical one. Shrimp, broccoli, and water chestnuts were what I used, and it's a tangy brown sauce. Any vegetables would work. Feel free to make swaps!

SHRIMP AND BROCCOLI STIR FRY

Ingredients

1lb shrimp, peeled, tailed, and deveined

Broccoli, I probably used about two pounds of florets

2 cans water chestnuts, drained

(Sliced red peppers would have been good in this too)

Minced Garlic, I probably used 2 cloves worth

1T minced ginger (I buy Spice World already minced)

Sauce

1/2C chicken broth

1/4C soy sauce (make sure it's GF if you need that!)

Juice of 1 lime, or about 1/4C lime juice

1T cornstarch

2T brown sugar

Mix your sauce ingredients together in a four-cup measure or small bowl. Whisk or stir well until no lumps remain. Set aside.

Coat a large wok with pan spray. Add shrimp; cook until just pink. Transfer to plate and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.

Add garlic and ginger to wok. Stir fry your red peppers, if using. Add your broccoli (I always pre-steam mine in the microwave; it's hard to get broccoli done properly in a wok). Add water chestnuts. Stir the sauce in, toss everything together, and heat until the sauce is thickened. Add the shrimp back in and toss until everything is mixed.

Serve hot over rice, if you're not watching the calories!

Moo Goo Gai Pan

 

The Moo Goo Gai Pan is a really whatever-goes kind of recipe… whatever vegetables you want, however much chicken you want… it’s the sauce that makes the stir fry, here. So I’ll tell you what I used, and make other suggestions you can use or not, as you like.

MOO GOO GAI PAN

Ingredients

I used: 

About three pounds of broccoli florets, 

Two 8oz cans of sliced water chestnuts (drained), 

And about a pound and a half of chicken breasts, cut into stir-fry size bites.

Other common vegetables to go in this recipe include:

Carrots (sliced into rounds or coins)

Snap peas

Mushrooms

Green onions for garnish

For the sauce: (You can adjust the quantities if you need to, depending on how many vegetables you use)

2C hot water

4t minced fresh ginger (I have used both Spice World refrigerated and Dorot’s frozen minced gingers)

3T cornstarch

3T soy sauce (make sure it’s GF!)

Whisk your sauce together in a small bowl or 4 cup measure. Sauté your veggies in groups in your wok until everything is tender crisp, removing as they get done to do the next vegetable. Sauté your chicken until just done. 

Re-whisk your sauce and add to the wok, lowering the heat and stirring until the sauce thickens. (If it becomes too thick, add a few tablespoons of water at a time to thin it out. Mine did the first time!)

Return veggies and chicken to the wok, and toss until everything is coated with the sauce. Add the sliced water chestnuts, if using. Serve over rice if you want (I’m watching the calories so I didn’t want!) and top with green onions, if using.

 

Brownie Peanut Butter Pie

 

I made this sugar free, for the diabetics in our family, and made it in a 9-inch springform pan because that was what I had that seemed to be about the right size. If you don’t want it to be sugar free, use the sugars in my brownie recipe here: Almond Flour Brownies, and use powdered sugar in the peanut butter filling. I use Sucralose for my sugar free substitute, and used it in both the brownie crust and the peanut butter filling.

BROWNIE PEANUT BUTTER PIE

Brownie Ingredients

3/4C unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey’s is GF)

3/4C almond flour (I use Blue Diamond)

Roughly 1/4C cornstarch (it might have been closer to 1/3C, it kind of ‘poofed’ on me)

3/4C Sucralose

1t baking powder

A shake or two of sea salt

3 eggs (…did I use 4 eggs? Now I can’t remember. I’ll try and come back and edit.)

1/4C canola oil (or some kind of light vegetable oil)

1t vanilla extract 

Peanut Butter Filling

1C Creamy Peanut Butter - find something without added sugars, I used Smuckers Natural Creamy Peanut Butter

1 package (8oz) Neufchatel or regular cream cheese, softened

3/4C Sucralose (use a full cup if you want it sweeter)

1 package (8oz) Zero Sugar Cool Whip, thawed in the fridge overnight

For the Brownie Crust:

Preheat your oven to 350.

As usual, I forgot that step.

Measure all your dry brownie ingredients (cocoa powder, almond flour, cornstarch, Sucralose, baking powder, salt) into a bowl, and mix well.

Crack your eggs into a large mixing bowl, and beat them with a fork. Add the other wet ingredients, the canola oil and vanilla, and mix well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients (I did this in two batches) and stir until blended. 

Pan spray your 9-inch springform pan or a deep dish pie pan. 

Pour your brownie mix in and spread it around. I needed to pan-spray my fingers and spread it out.

Bake for six minutes. Remove from oven, and let it cool completely.

For the Peanut Butter Filling:

Beat the peanut butter with the cream cheese in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer, if you have one. Once smooth, add the Sucralose and beat again. (It started to get almost crumbly on me at this point.) Then add the Cool Whip, and beat until just mixed. Keep scraping down the sides!

Pour the filling onto the brownie crust, and smooth out the top with a spatula or knife. I sprinkled more of the cocoa powder on top, just to make it pretty. 

Quick Chicken Florentine

 I didn’t get a picture of this one, sadly enough… maybe next time I will remember to get a picture for you!

A great ‘diet’ dish for dinner - extremely quick, low calorie and low carb, and very tasty!

It would be a good way to use up some leftover rotisserie chicken, too… just another thought.

QUICK CHICKEN FLORENTINE 

Ingredients 

2lbs chicken breast, cleaned and thinly sliced 

Pan spray

A bit of salt and pepper

Some shallots, diced fine (stores usually sell these packaged in twos or threes - use whatever you’ve got)

4 large cloves garlic, minced

2/3C white wine or chicken broth

2lbs fresh spinach

2/3 cream or half and half (I used fat free half and half)

4 teaspoons corn starch (1 heaping tablespoon)

Coat a cast iron skillet or other heavy nonstick skillet with pan spray. Season your chicken with salt and pepper, and cook until done, turning frequently to ensure they don’t stick. Transfer to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm.

Reduce heat to medium. Add your garlic and shallots, and cook until fragrant, probably 30 seconds or so. Add the wine or chicken broth, scraping up any browned bits. Add the spinach in batches, stirring often and adding more as it wilts. 

In a measuring cup, mix the cream or the half and half and the cornstarch. Add it to the skillet with the spinach once the spinach is all wilted. Cook until thickened, stirring frequently so it doesn’t stick. Add the chicken back in and serve hot. 

*This says it served four, but those would be mighty small servings for a ‘dinner portion,’ in my opinion. 

My Homemade No-Guilt French Fries

 

See, the thing is, potatoes really are pretty healthy, in and of themselves.

The problem with potatoes is all the junk we DO to them.

So if you want to eat potatoes - cook potatoes!

When I want to indulge in french fries, I make french fries, because otherwise if I'm eating french fries that have been drenched in oil and salt, I only allow myself a few.

They're really not hard, if you can keep your fingers out from under the knife!

Buy a BAG OF POTATOES.

I buy the Yukon gold ones, because they taste like butter, without adding any calories! 

Win-Win. 

Scrub them, cut out any bad spots, then start chopping them up into your preferred french fry size. I like a fry that's somewhere between the itty-bitty fast food ones and the big steak fries, myself, but you do you! Try to keep the size fairly even if you can. They'll cook better that way.

I toss the fries into a great big bowl as I'm cutting them. That's because when they're all cut, I spray them with OLIVE OIL PAN SPRAY - note that! I do not toss them in oil! - I spray them with pan spray, toss them, give them another coat, toss them, spray them again, until they're all coated.

I use LAWRY'S SEASONED SALT on mine. I do the same thing in that great big bowl, once they're all coated with pan spray, toss the seasoning salt on the top ones, toss them around, salt the top ones, toss them, and so on.

I have wire baskets for my oven, copper wire baskets that came as a set with copper baking sheets, so I bake my fries in my wire baskets so they crisp on the bottom too. A regular metal cookie sheet or baking sheet will do just fine, you might just want to turn them more often so they crisp all over.

I bake them at 400, stirring every 10 or 15 minutes, until they're done. 

How long they take depends on how thick you've cut your fries! Just taste-test!