Day 10: Spinach and mushroom enchiladas pg 202

Viva las enchiladas!

Take out your big ol' Mexican hat and lets continue making all sorts of Mexican foods! Maybe you can bust out your mariachi music and celebrate Cinco de Mayo, even though it's not even May anymore!



Spinach and mushroom enchiladas pg 202 (serves 4)

2 packages of frozen chopped spinach (10 ounces each) thawed and squeezed dry
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained
3 tsp chili powder, divided
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
2 tbsp water
1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce
8 (8-inch) corn tortillas
1 cup (4 oz) shredded Monterrey jack cheese

shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, sour cream and chopped fresh cilantro as toppings.


1. cook and stir the spinach, mushrooms, beans, 2 tsp chili powder and red pepper flakes in a large skillet over medium heat for 5 minutes

2. Combine tomato sauce, water, remaining 1 tsp chili powder and hot sauce in medium pan. Dip tortillas into tomato sauce mixture; stack tortillas on waxed paper.

3.spoon filling into center of tortillas; roll up and place, seam side down, in 11x8-inch microwavable dish. Secure rolls with toothpicks if necessary. Spread remaining tomato sauce mixture over enchiladas.

4. Cover with vented plastic wrap. Microwave on medium (50%) 10 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with cheese. Microwave on Medium for 3 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Serve with Lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and cilantro, if you'd like :)

These were healthy and easy to make. Vegetarian if you don't eat meat. My mom loved these! I give them a 7 out of 10 yummy points.

Day 9: flourless fried chicken tenders pg 102

This the chickpea flour I bought

I've discovered a new favorite gluten free flour.



 Chickpea flour! It's great! I haven't done much with it so far, but what I have has been great! Sometimes it's called garbanzo flour and you can buy it in the specialty flour section of your supermarket (maybe) or I bought mine at an Indian market right by my house for 3 bucks a 2lb bag! and they had a 4 lb bad for like 5 bucks! Pretty good for gluten free, I'd say. You can also sometimes find it in italian markets.





Flourless fried Chicken Tenders  pg 102 (serves 4)




1 1/2 cups of chickpea flour.
1 1/2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning ( I used Mrs Dash's  garlic & herb seasoning blend... Not necessarily Italian, but good!)
 1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/8 ground red pepper
3/4 cup plus 2 to 4 tbsp water
oil for frying
1 lb chicken tenders cut in half if large

Curry dipping sauce
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp curry powder

1. Sift the amazing chickpea flour into a medium bowl. Stir in Italian seasoning, salt, black pepper,  and red pepper. Gradually whisk in 3/4 cup water to make smooth batter. whisk in additional water by the tablespoons if you need it ( I needed about 3 extra tablespoons). You want the consistency to be kind of like heavy whipping cream.

2. While you do all that, have oil heating up in  a large heavy skillet or dutch oven. You want the bottom to have about 3/4 inch of oil. heat it on medium high (more medium than high if you want your chicken tenders to be golden brown not brown brown) heat it until when you drop batter in the oil, it sizzles.
3. pat dry your chicken pieces. dip into batter with tongs and let the excess batter drip off.

 Ease the chicken gently into the hot oil. fry for about 2 to three minutes per side until slightly browned and chicken is cooked through (quick note on that: I was worried that the chicken wasn't going to cook through and it was going to be pink, but fear not, it wasn't! cooked nice a juicy.) Make sure you fry in batches and not crowd all you chicken in the pan. Give them puppies some space!

4. drain the chicken tenders on paper towels. Serve them warm with the curry mayo dipping sauce.


To make the curry mayo sauce-

combine all three ingredients in a bowl and voila! deliciousness at your fingertips!

These were great! I felt so cultural with this curry mayo dipping sauce. It added such a great little kick to these. I felt like I was in India. It probably helped that I had just came from an Indian market complete with the Indian smells and music. But still! These were so great!  The sauce was great but if you're picky or dairy free, I'm sure that ketchup ( or some stolen Chick-Fil-A sauce......).  They are fried so they don't get a billion healthy points but they do get 9 out 10 yummy stars!

Day 8: Mexican tortillas stack ups pg 188

So you guys get two posts today! Yay!

I've been on a Mexican food kick lately.. that's why A lot of the recipes I'm gonna post in the next couple of days are Mexican :-) I hope you guys enjoy these.

Mexican tortillas stack ups pg 188 (makes about 6 servings)

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can (15 oz) black beans drained and rinsed ( I made mine from scratch)

They may not look like much, but they are good!

1 can of diced tomatoes (14 1/2 oz)
1 cup frozen corn
1 (1 1/4 oz) gluten free taco seasoning mix (Taco Bell's seasoning is NOT gluten free)
6 ( 6-inch) corn tortillas
2 cups (8 oz) taco flavored shredded cheese
1 cup water (Idk why, this was a weird part of the recipe
sliced olives (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray 13x9-inch baking dish  with nonstick cooking spray
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat . Add onion; cook and stir for 3 minutes or until tender.

Add beans, tomatoes, corn and taco seasoning mix. Bring it to a boil over a high heat. Reduce the heat to low. simmer for 5 mins.

3.Place 2 tortillas side by side in prepared dish. Top each tortilla with about 1/2 cup bean mixture. Sprinkle evenly with one third of cheese.

 repeat layers twice, creating 2 tortilla stacks each 3 high.

Now the directions say to pour water all around, but I don't know why... The water just made the tortillas all weird.. I would just skip this step. or maybe put like a 1/4 cup.

4. cover tightly with foil and bake for 30 to 35 mins or until they are heated through. top with black olives.







These were gooood. I like these. This is a recipe that I am making again. Next time I would maybe not add the whole package of taco seasoning since it was a tad salty, but still delicious. Not hard to make and kinda fun actually. I give it 8 out of 10 yummy stars.

Day 7: Sweet potato gnocchi pg 68

Sweet potatoes- yummm
gnocchi- yummmm

Those where the two things I thought about when i was planning for this recipe. What could go wrong???

Sweet potato Gnocchi pg 68

1  1/2 lbs sweet potatoes (2 or three medium)
1/4 c sweet rice flour plus TONS more for rolling ( I used regualr white rice flour)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp sugar
2 to 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lb spinach, stemmed
1. Preheat your oven to 375 F. Poke the sweet potatoes with a fork all over the place. Have fun with it. release any vent up anger( don't have too much fun because of else your family is going to think you are crazy and call the nut house and tell them to come and get you) bake for about an hour ( i baked mine for about an hour and 15 mins, mine were a bit big though) take off all the skins and mash the potatoes very well. Remove any stringy pieces if you find any. You should have about 2 1/2 cup of mashed sweet potato.

2 combine the sweet potato, rice flour, lemon juice, salt xanthan gum, nutmeg, pepper and sugar in a medium bowl. mix well.
3. HEAVILY flour a work surface. work in small batches a little smaller than the size of your fist,

 scoop unto surface and roll into a rope around 1/2 inch thick. Make sure your hands are floured.

Cut into 3/4 inch pieces.  Shape the pieces into an oval. Make little ridges with a fork.

 put them on a cookie sheet (foil lined would be good, I didn't do that but should have) freeze the gnocchi for at least 30 minutes. You can freeze it for up to 24 hours.

4. heat one tbsp oil in large nonstick skillet. Add frozen gnocchi in batches and cook,

 turn them once until lightly browned. and warmed through. Add more oil whenever you need to prevent from sticking.

5. Add olive oil to coat bottom of skillet. Add spinach; cook and stir for 30 seconds or just until barely wilted.


So I had never made gnocchi's before and I'm quite sure that my gnocchi skills need refining. Personally I though that the recipe needed a bit more flour and less lemon. It was sweet and lemony so I almost felt like I was eating a key lime pie. Key lime pie is good, but when i want a meal I want a meal not dessert!
 My suggestions:
Use 1/2 tsp of lemon juice
use double the rice flour.

These babies take a lot of time and are a decent amount of work to make. From start to finish I would say anywhere from 3-4 hours, depending how long you freeze them. I would say that without any adjustments, they aren't worth all the work. Now, changing a couple of things they could be a different story.

Next time I'm gonna also try to boil them instead of frying. I'm not a big fan of frying things. I give this recipe a 5.5 yummy points of of 10. With some improvement this could be wayyy higher.

Day 6: gluten free waffles pg 28

So... I'm sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days :)

My best friend (whom I have been away from all semester) is leaving next Sunday on a mission trip all summer so I've been spending quality time with her. Forgive me, I beg you! I haven't stopped cooking, I just haven't posted.

But anyway, I had a special helper while making these, Glory! Yay! She was great!


Gluten free waffles, pg 28 (makes about 12 square waffles, 6 Belgian waffles)



2 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 cup gluten-free All-purpose flour blend
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter, melted

Butter and syrup, to lather up your delicious waffles!

1. preheat the waffle maker ( Laura's life wisdom learned from making this blog: DO NOT pour your batter into a waffle maker when it is not hot :) You will end up with a mess that you cannot clean up!)
2. Beat eggs in large bowl until light and fluffy. Whisk in yogurt and milk.

3, Combine flour blend, sugar baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

4. Gradually whisk in yogurt mixture into flour mixture to make smooth batter, mix in melted butter

5. Add batter to waffle iron by SCANT 1/3 cup fulls ( if using square waffle maker) . bake until browned or until your waffle makers says they are done :) Serve warm with butter and syrup. Freeze any that aren't eaten. Enjoy!

These are yumm yumm! I could tell i made them with rice flour, but still good good good! I give them a 8 out of ten yummy stars. It might have also had to do with my great kitchen helper Glory! isn't she cute? :)

Day 5: Too-good-to-be-true flourless peanut butter cookies pg 244

I need to warn you.

These cookies are the bombheezy. 

They are like, wow, really good. I'm actually pretty sure that these are the best peanut butter cookies I have ever  had, glutenous or not. The bad thing is that they are so so so easy to make. You only need three ingredients and these little treasures bake up in no time. So at all times, you are about 30 minutes away from having 2 dozen delicious homemade, gluten free peanut butter cookies. 

This is dangerous. Very. 

I will entrust you with this recipe with caution. We are all going to have to exert a little bit of self control from now on, ok?

Flourless peanut butter cookies pg 244 ( 2 dozen)

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1 egg, lightly beaten

Optional: 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips.

1. preheat the oven to 350 F. beat the brown sugar  peanut butter and egg in a medium bowl with a mixer (if you so please... It pleased me not, so I did it with the sweat of my brow.. metaphorically speaking)

2. Shape this doughy goodness into 24 little 1 1/2 inch balls 

place them two inches apart on a ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten down the dough with a fork. 

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes or until set. Let the cookies sit for about 3 minutes on the cookie sheet because they solidify a bit as they cool.  You can also drizzle chocolate on top of them. I didn't but it does sound gooooood.

These. Cookies. Are. So. Good. 

I've also made these with different types of peanut butters, like one time i made these with dark chocolate peanut butter. I can't describe to you the party that went on in my mouth.

 I made them at a friend's house and they were devoured by a house of gluten eaters and there were raving compliments from cookie connoisseurs on the amazingness of these cookies. Try them. You will not regret it. I give these cookies 10 yummy stars out of 10. Ahhh yeahh.

Day 4: Mushroom and onion egg bake, pg 38

Oh vacation :)
It's been wonderful, and since it's pouring cats and dogs right now I decided to post day 4.

Mushroom and onion egg bake Pg 38 (serves 6)

1 tbsp veggie oil
4 oz sliced mushrooms
4 green onions, chopped
1 cup of cottage cheese
6 eggs
 1 cup sour cream




2 tbsp gluten free All purpose flour blend ( if you'd rather not bother making this blend, I bet you could probably use cornstarch, but I haven't made it that way, so you tell me how it turns out)
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
dash of hot pepper sauce (if you'd like, I didn't use it.)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Grease a shallow 1-quart baking dish.
2. In a medium sized skillet, heat oil over a medium heat. Cook the mushrooms and onions for about 5 minutes until they are nice and tender.

3. Place the cottage cheese in a food processor ( I used a blender ). Pulse the cottage cheese until smooth. Add eggs, sour cream, flour blend, salt, black pepper and hot sauce ( if desired); pulse until combined.

Pour into the prepared baking dish, stir in the mushrooms and onions. Bake about 40 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

The finished product

This recipe is a bit deceptive in the name. You think that it's gonna be an eggy tasting dish, but in reality it tastes more like ricotta cheese, although it doesn't have any ricotta cheese. It's kind of a light dish, a bit brunchy. I personally am not a huge fan of super ricotta tasting things, so  I thought it was alright. A friend tried it though and she really liked it. So if you like a strong cheese taste in a meal, maybe you'd really enjoy this recipe. Personally I give this 5 yummy stars out of ten. My friend probably gave it 8. So it's your choice. :)