Gluten-Free Cornbread

Hi All!  I know it's been a while since I posted.  Honestly, there hasn't been much time for diversion lately! Nevertheless, we had a great fall meal last night with some friends and I promised to share the recipes.  The meal included chili, cornbread, and a pumpkin gingerbread trifle which was so yummy!

We'll start with the cornbread :)  The cornbread is gluten-free, although we had a moment of uncertainty (research via Google shows that white vinegar, when distilled, is indeed GF.  Yay!) I especially love the real corn added into the recipe - makes it have a great texture. My recipe comes from here.

Yum.  Doesn't that look delicious?

Ingredients:
1 c. milk
1 tbsp. distilled white vinegar
2 c. cornmeal
2 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 c. + 2 tbsp. sugar or sugar substitute
1 1/2 c. corn (canned or frozen work great)
2 tbsp. canola oil
1/4 c. applesauce

First, preheat your oven to 420F.  In a small bowl, combine the milk and vinegar, stir, and set aside.  This is basically creating your buttermilk that's typically used in cornbread.  Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients: cornmeal, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and sugar.  In a medium-sized bowl, combine the corn, applesauce, oil, and milk/vinegar mixture.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until everything is moistened.

Pour the mixture into a greased 8x8 pan.  Cook for about 25 minutes and let cool.  The directions I had recommended letting cool for 15 minutes before removing so it doesn't get crumbly.  I waited at least 15 minutes and it was still a tad crumbly, but mostly held together.

That's it!  Enjoy!

A long time coming

So, months before my sister-in-law married my now brother-in-law, I decided to make them a blanket.  I've done it before, I had lots of time off, so I could get it done in plenty of time, right?

Wrong.  Okay, it was a bigger project than anticipated.  Totaling more than 100 hours of work, I didn't realize how nit-picky it was going to be.  But it was SO worth it.  Trust me.

The instructions came from here, though I tweaked the colors to match their bedroom style.  It's like the wedding ring quilt that I've seen in a lot of homes made by quilters, but crocheted instead.

Ready?  Really, sure you're ready? (p.s. a disclaimer: The bride and groom haven't yet received or seen this gift, and I've hidden the post on Facebook from them, so Mum's the word!!)



Here it is!!

The quilt is actually twice this size, so big enough to lay on a full/queen bed or to use for the couch, or whatever!!

Small victories...

Hi again friends...  our housewarming deadline is looming - tomorrow!  That, coupled with the fact that I was hired to be a nanny for the summer this week (yay!), gives me just one more week of being a Suzy Homemaker.

We had a couple of small victories this week that I'm especially excited about, and wanted to share with you!

First up, our bathroom.  The bathroom had one towel rod, which left us wondering how the both of us would hang our towels and have them successfully dry!  We found this double towel rod at IKEA and my dear husband put it up yesterday!

Also, in the bathroom, a better version of my make-up storage.  I had the same board at the old apartment - it's just a magnetic dry erase board covered with drawer liner.  The make-up has magnets on the back that hold it up.  The rest of the things that are too heavy or misshapen to be held up are in the little bin below.  I found this treasure in the dollar section at Target - one of my favorite sections!

 Finally, I re-purposed the towel rod that had originally been in the bathroom (nothing goes to waste around here!).  I saw this on Pinterest, but I can't remember where, otherwise I'd give credit!  Anyway, my jewelry was still boxed up from the move, and this towel rod in the bedroom motivated me to get it out and organized!

Those are my small victories for the week!  More on the housewarming party after it's done!

Home Sweet Home

Hello again, dear friends!  We finally posted pictures of the place!  Click on the picture to see our Facebook album of our new place :)

Which reminds me - if you're in the area of the Twin Cities this weekend, you're invited to our housewarming party!  You can see the official invite here and RSVP if you'd like, or just let me know you're coming :)

More later on cooking and crafting, but for now, enjoy some pictures!

Highlights

I know it's been a long time since I posted, and my to-do list is looming in my head, so I will be brief :)

Here are some highlights from the last while, along with some things I may be posting soon:

- We moved into our house on May 5th!

- I finished my first year of the MSW program

- I tried out new recipes:

• Whole Wheat Banana Blackberry Chocolate bread
• Crescent roll pizzas
• Mexican-style pizza

- Our housewarming party is scheduled for May 26th - if you live in the area or will be in the area, you're invited!

- My internship fate for next year has been excited, and I got my first choice, a non-profit that works with the Spanish-speaking population in the Twin Cities!

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, but recipes, house pictures, and tales will be posted soon.  I have no excuse as of right now, with no summer job, no classes, and no internship obligations!

Tasty TUESday: Chicken Alfredo Pizza

I'm switching to Tuesday, folks, because I have more time on my Tuesdays at this point. It maintains the alliteration, and aids my schedule!

Ever make something expecting to have leftovers, and then you don't?  This was one of those meals.  This makes a smallish-sized pizza (probably about 9" diameter), though you could make a bigger dough and just multiply/adjust the recipe as needed.

This was good pizza.  It looked and smelled so good, my husband actually asked, "Do you want to take a picture of this first?" You could also add more veggies to this pizza and make it even tastier - our pantry was running low on fresh veggies!

Ingredients:
Bisquick*
4 tbsp egg subsitute
2 tbsp water
1 tsp. garlic powder
flour
1/2 c. alfredo sauce
1 tbsp Olive or Canola oil
1 chicken breast
8 ounces diced tomatoes (drained and rinsed, if canned)
1 tsp chili powder
Basil
1/4 c. shredded cheese

* I made my crust from the Bisquick recipe, but you could also make any pizza-style crust and then go from there.

Preheat oven to 400F.

To make the crust, combine Bisquick, egg substitute (or egg), garlic powder, and water.  Dough was sticky, so I had to use flour to press it onto the greased pan.  Spread olive/canola oil on the crust.  Cover the dough with Alfredo sauce.

Precook the chicken breast and cut up into small pieces.  Toss the chicken with chili powder, then add to pizza distributed evenly.  Distribute tomatoes evenly, also.  Sprinkle cheese and basil over top the pizza.

Bake at 400F for 18-20 minutes, or until crust is crispy and cheese is melted.  Enjoy!!

Tasty Thursday: Mexican Lasagna

Yum.  I love lasagna.  And I love Mexican food.  And my husband loves Mexican casseroles.  Mix it all together, and you've got Mexican lasagna!  I initially pinned the idea from this blog on Pinterest, and decided that I could take the general idea and make it within my "healthy" parameters.

The recipe I made serves 2 easily (3 if you're eating lighter). 1/2 receipe: 695 calories, 13 g fat, 102 g cabs, and 48 g protein.

Use a loaf pan and preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Grease the loaf pan with canola spray or something similar.

Ingredients:
2 small corn tortillas (the kind that are 50 cal each)
1/4 reduced fat mozzarella cheese
1 cup black beans
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 c. Prego italian sauce, "Healthy" (a new type they make -yay!)
3 ounces ground beef (85% lean or higher), browned
1 can (about 2.5 cups) red kidney beans
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. paprika

After you've browned the ground beef, combine all ingredients except tortillas and cheese.  Layer the ingredients in this order:  mixture, tortillas, mixture, tortillas, mixture, cheese.

Bake at 400, covered, for 30 minutes or until warmed through and cheese is melted on top.

This recipe is great to make-ahead and then throw in the oven when you get home.  If you do so straight from the refrigerator, cook for longer than 30 minutes (probably 45-60) to heat through.

Voila!  My husband helped cook it after we got home from a long day, and served it up more casserole style. Nonetheless, it was delicious!  It would be great with tortilla chips if you wanted to add those in, as well.