Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Holla at'cha suga! Suga COOKIES!




This sugar cookie mix has been burning a hole in my brain for a good 6 days now.  I found myself gazing out the window thinking about cookies, then sugar, then the little man standing on the pile of cookies on the box.  Yes, it got a little out of control but that's all over because they are now a reality!  The Cherrybrook Kitchen sugar cookie mix was on sale for about 4 bucks at my local health food store (worked out to be about $2 a dozen). The actual mix is Gluten Free, Peanut Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, & Nut Free...and they DON'T taste like crap!  How wonderful is that?  If you or anyone you know has any or all of these types of food allergies this mix is 100% recommended!  OR if you're on a diet: 1 cookie w/o the frosting is 0g fat and about 15g-18g of total carbs depending on how big you make them!  Not bad!  The back of the box calls for rice milk to keep it dairy free but I sub'd Fat Free Organic Milk because I'm good with dairy consumed in moderation.   

The store bought frosting scares me.  Way too many "unknown" ingredients so I made my own cream cheese vanilla frosting using butter, cream cheese, organic GF vanilla, and powdered sugar.  Someday I'll make them from scratch, but not today!!  I'd like to think of this as my Sandra Lee semi-homemade experiment.  Tiz the shizzy if I must say!  

Sunday, January 18, 2009

As promised...


Our January Dinning Divas theme was "Italian night" so I decided to try making something new. I decided on a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis for herb stuffed tomatoes. I watched Giada make them on her Food Network show Everyday Italian. On the show she made them with italian gorgonzola cheese but I did a trial run before "Italian night" and come to find out, gorgonzola cheese is nasty, or at least the one I bought was. This same recipe posted by Susie D on Recipezaar is essentially the same thing but with pictures, which being an amateur I definitely prefer!

They turned out great! I'm pretty sure the girls liked them, and if they didn't they weren't telling! I sampled only one because I'm not a huge tomato lover and it was da bomb! I mixed the grated provolone with some shredded parmesan then sprinkled it very lightly with colby jack right at the end. It was a special occasion so I cheesed it up but if you wanted to just keep it simple with the provolone it would still be awesome. I of course substituted Gluten Free bread crumbs for regular bread crumbs. I have to say that the Southern Homestyle GF Bread Crumbs are one of my new favorite things. I make homemade chicken nuggets with them and they always turn out so crispy & crunchy, just like nuggie should be! Delish. I rate this dish super easy to make if you're thinking of entertaining a few people or just feeling like trying something new!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Party Like It's 2009!

Happy New Year to all!  Hope everyone had a fabulous and safe celebratory weekend.  I celebrated in GR at GP Sports Bar inside of the Amway Grand Plaza.  MC squared, AC, EC, and I ended up there in a round about way because it was too damn cold to wait in line anywhere else but we ended up having a blast!  This pic is essentially me on my tippy toes taking a picture of the Times Square ball on a very large TV!  YAY!

The 1st week of 2009 brought unto me a flu unlike any other.  I'm not gonna lie, it was 4 nights of pure hell.  As if being a Celiac is hard enough!  After some TLC and much needed rest I'm back in the saddle and ready to get 2009 rollin!  So thanks to all for a wonderful 2008 first blog year.  My resolution is to add to my blog plenty of my Gluten Free faves!  Most are everyday store bought items, but my goal is to try and add an occasional recipe (if I'm brave enough!).  I've not yet perfected the whole baking/cooking thing so I'm sure there'll be some good stories to go along with...