Cassidy's Kitchen

Garlic Lemon Chicken Pasta

2015-07-16T19:17:00.000-07:00

I have started on new journey in my life to help take care of myself. It is called the 21 Day Fix, which has a home workout DVD program and a nutrition plan. It has simple exercises that last only 30 minutes a day for 21 days and revolutionary simple portion control. I have only been consistently doing this for 2 weeks, but I am feeling so much better. As I am doing this program, I spend a lot of time searching for new recipes to try. I thought it would be a great idea to share them with you. This recipe I found on "The Simply Anchored Blog." I hope you enjoy!

Lemon Garlic Chicken Pasta

Ingredients:

3-4 Chicken breast cut into 1" cubes

12 oz gluten free spaghetti or 8 oz linguine

2 tbsp parsley

1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes (halved)

1 clove garlic (grated)

3 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup Lemon juice

salt/pepper to taste

grated parmesan cheese (optional)

How To Make:

Start water for pasta. Put 1tbsp of olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium heat. Once heated, add all of the chicken and cook until browned on all sides. Add the tomatoes and parsley and set aside on low heat - stirring occasionally.

Sauce/Dressing: Mix 2 tbsp of olive oil and 1/4 cup lemon juice into a dish. Grate one clove of garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste. Whisk and set aside.

Drain pasta and add it to the chicken pan. Add the lemon-garlic sauce. Mix all together and enjoy!

You can add parmesan, if you would like.

21 Day Fix (Serving: 1 Cup)- 1 yellow, 1/2 red. 1/4 green, and 2 tsp

Make Your Own Chocolate Kit

2014-01-12T16:05:00.002-08:00

My daughter got a Make Your Own Chocolate Kit for her birthday this past year, and we just found it in the pantry during Winter Break. It comes with all of the ingredients the are necessary to make the chocolate, except a bowl and spoon. The directions were easy to follow, and the kids were able to read them to me. The ingredients included in the kit are cocoa butter, ground cocoa, powdered sugar, starter crystals, thermometer, and candy wrappers. There was an informative instruction sheet included as well as 2 cocoa beans for your child to examine and taste while you are waiting for the chocolate to temper. You can also add some filling to your candies. Some of the suggestions are nuts, marshmallows, peanut butter, and dried fruit. My children chose to put 2 mini marshmallows in each candy wrapper, and then we filled each wrapper with the tempered chocolate. Then we had to put the chocolate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes, so the chocolate would harden. When we chocolate was ready, we all tried a piece of candy. It was actually delicious! I was very impressed with this kit, and I would recommend this product.

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Macaroni and Cheese

2013-12-10T15:44:00.000-08:00

Snow came to the Pacific Northwest on Friday, so I decided to make some comfort food. One of my favorite comfort foods is Macaroni and Cheese. Not the Macaroni and Cheese from the box, but homemade macaroni and cheese that is creamy in the middle and crunchy on top. It is super easy to make, and it always makes me feel warm and cozy. Here is my recipe.

Gluten Free Macaroni and Cheese

12 oz Barilla Gluten Free Pasta
3 tbsp butter
2 1/4 cup milk
3 tbsp gluten free flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
12 oz sharp block cheddar
1/2 tsp powdered mustard
3 slices gluten free bread ground up into crumbs (1/2 cup to 3/4 cup to sprinkle on top)

Cut the cheese into cubes. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box, drain, and leave in the colander.

In the same pot, melt the butter and add salt and pepper. In a small bowl, mix together the flour with a little bit of milk. Pour that into the melted butter, and then add the rest of the milk. Heat this mixture up a little bit, stirring constantly. Then add the cheese, powdered mustard, and stir until the cheese is melted. Add the cooked pasta to the cheese mixture and then mix together.

Pour the macaroni and cheese into a greased casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs. Spray bread crumbs with Pam.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until the top is browned to your liking. Turn off the oven, and then leave the macaroni and cheese in the oven with the door closed for 15 minutes to set. Serve while it is still warm.

I hope you enjoy making this for your family or someone you love!

<3 Cassidy

A Night of Salads

2013-09-11T20:04:00.002-07:00

Recently we had some friends over for an evening of salads. Every family brought a different kind of salad. One friend brought a green bean salad that was amazing. Another friend brought a fruit salad, which is always yummy. My husband and I made an antipasto, but it not in the traditional sense. I decided to make a big bowl of lettuce with artichoke hearts, chopped red bell pepper, and sliced baby portobello mushrooms. Then I set out platters with a variety of items so each person could make his/her own antipasto. I had bowls of black olives, garlic stuffed green olives, and kalamata olives. I had a platter of sliced cheeses: munster, cheddar, and provolone. I had a platter of rolled deli meats: roast beef, honey ham, and turkey. I had a bowl of carrots and sweet gherkins for the children. Friends brought fresh tomatoes from a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), avocado, and hard boiled eggs. Once we all assembled our salads, our plates looked like a rainbow of deliciousness. The food was beautiful, yummy, and healthy.

Once we finished dinner, I brought out a different kind of salad. It was still green, but there was nothing healthy about it. I made a Watergate Salad. When I was a child, a family friend made this and I fell immediately in love with it. It is pudding with cool whip, pineapple, and marshmallows. What could be bad? I really should be embarrassed posting a recipe like this on here, but it is too good not to share. Here is my recipe. I doubled the recipe, because I wanted to have enough for a large group. This recipe typically serves 6-8 people.

Watergate Salad Recipe

1 small box pistachio pudding mix

1 4-6oz can crushed pineapple and juice

1 8oz container cool whip

1 cup miniature marshmallows

Fold cool whip into the pudding mix. Then add the crushed pineapple and juice. Stir in the marshmallows. Chill for 30 minutes, and then serve.

Next time you go to a pot luck, think about bringing this. It is so yummy and easy to make. Enjoy!

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Bunny Cake

2013-08-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

My daughter turned 6 last month, and she requested a bunny cake for her birthday. The requirements were that it needed to be vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, and that she wanted only the face of the bunny instead of the whole body. I had a basic idea of how to make it in my head, but I went online to see if there was a better way. I ended up finding a recipe on the Betty Crocker website, and I used the pattern on there for the basis on my cake. Then my son and I let our imaginations run wild and decorate it ourselves.

First, I used Bob's Red Mill gluten free vanilla cake mix to make 2 9-inch round cake pans. I followed the recipe on the bag, so it was very easy. After the cakes had cooled slightly, I removed them from the pans and placed them in the freezer to make them easier to decorate my cake.

When the cake was frozen, I took them out of the freezer. One of the cakes I put on a cake server and spread chocolate frosting all over it. Then I set it to the side. This will be the face of the bunny. Then I cut the second cake into the ears and a bow tie based on the pattern below. (After we decorated the cake, my son and I decided that the bunny was wearing a t-shirt instead of a bow tie. So, we made a bunny wearing a shirt.) Once the second cake was cut, I started piecing the bunny pattern using the frosting as the glue holding the bunny together. Then I finished icing the cake.

From the Betty Crocker website

Then my son came in to help me decorate the cake. First, he decided that we should use sprinkles for the center part of the ears, but we could not decide whether to use pink or purple (those are my daughter's favorite colors). So, we decided to do one of each! My son sprinkled pink sprinkles on one ear and purple sprinkles on the other ear. My daughter decided to use m&m's as well as jelly beans for her cake.* We used green m&m's for the eyes since my daughter has green eyes. We used a pink jelly bean for the nose. Then we used gummy worms for the whiskers and the mouth. Then we outlined the bunny's t-shirt with jelly beans, and filled it in with m&m's.

We thought the decorations turned out very well and the cake was delicious! This was confirmed when my 6 year old was jumping around the house after seeing that we made her a bunny cake. It was exactly what she wanted. I am so happy that I was able to continue our family tradition.

*I have found it very hard to find gluten free jelly beans, but we recently found allergen-free jelly beans at our local store. The company that makes them in called Gimbal's, and my children love them! The packaging includes pictures of the different jelly beans with their flavors, and my children love to figure out which flavors they are eating.

My son's 8th birthday is next month......I wonder what design he is going to pick? No matter what it is, I know that I am going to have fun making it!

<3 Cassidy

Summer BBQ

2013-06-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went to our friend's house for a summer BBQ. We were asked to bring a meat to grill and a side dish. We chose to make brats, because our children love them. Whenever we are with our friends, our children do not always want to sit down long enough to eat their whole meal. They would prefer to run around and play with their friends. However, the brats were intriguing enough that they both ate.

The side dish I chose to bring is an Apple Cole Slaw. I have made this recipe for a couple of years, and it is always a success. It is simple, colorful, and delicious. Here is my recipe.

Gluten Free Apple Cole Slaw

Ingredients:
4 cups shredded cabbage
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
kosher salt
pepper
2 apples, cored and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar

In a large bowl, toss together the cabbage, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Just before serving, add the apples and toss again.

Enjoy!
<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Cheesecake Recipe

2013-01-27T19:13:00.003-08:00

Last week was my mother's 70th birthday! She just moved out to Oregon in December, and my father will be moving here within the week. My parents live 1/4 of a mile from us now, and I am extremely thankful that they have moved to be closer to us. Since my father is not here yet, I wanted to make my mother's birthday special. So, my husband made salmon (per my mother's and son's request) and popcorn shrimp (per my daughter's request). And we ended the evening with this cheesecake, my mother's favorite dessert. The kids made some birthday cards, and my son played "Happy Birthday" to her on his guitar. It was a wonderful evening, and I was so happy to get to spend the special day with her! Here is my recipe.

Gluten Free Cheesecake

1 cup whole almonds (about 4 ounces)
1 1/4 cups plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 pounds nuefchatel cream cheese, at room temperature
4 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Boiling water, for baking

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Using a food processor, pulse the almonds and 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar until finely chopped. Add the butter and pulse until combined. Press the nut mixture evenly into a 9-inch springform pan. Bake until the crust is slightly browned, about 10-15 minutes. Take it out of the oven and lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees.

While the crust is cooling, place the pan on a long piece of aluminum foil. Fold the foil up the sides of the pan. Set it in a large baking dish or roasting pan.

Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese at low speed until it is fluffy for about 1 minute. Gradually beat in the remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar until smooth and creamy. It should take 1-2 minutes. Beat in the eggs and egg yolks 1 at a time, making sure that all of the ingredients are combining well together. Beat in the sour cream, lemon peel, and vanilla.

Pour the filling into the already baked crust. Transfer to the oven and pour enough boiling water into the baking dish to reach halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake until the edges are set and the center jiggles slightly. In my oven, the cheesecake only took 60 minutes, but I have made this before in a different oven and it took 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Turn off the oven, prop the door open slightly and let the cake cool in the oven for 1 hour. Remove the cake from the water bath and discard the foil. Let the cake cool completely, then cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. Then serve.

Cook's Notes: Remember that this recipe calls for 2 pounds of cream cheese, which is 4- 8oz boxes. I always seems to forget that and have to make a second trip to the grocery store!

This recipe is inspired by a recipe that was in the Rachael Ray Magazine a few years ago, and we fell in love with it. My husband and I had never made cheesecake, but we thought we would give it a try. This recipe is easy to follow, and I have never been disappointed the way it turns out. It is light and fluffy, and the crushed up almonds in the crust blend well with the creamy cheesecake. It is absolutely delicious! I hope you enjoy it!

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Poke Hole Cake Recipe

2013-01-27T16:28:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard of a Poke Hole Cake? This is a recipe that my family has been used many times, including for my first birthday. It is extremely easy to make, and there are lots of opportunities for your children to help. My kids really wanted to help make a birthday cake for their father, so I decided that this was the perfect recipe.

Poke Hole Cake

4 cups almond flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup honey
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 packages instant pudding
1 cup confectioners' sugar
4 cups cold milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan with crisco and dust with almond flour.

In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Then add the honey, eggs, and vanilla extract. Mix all of the ingredients together until it has been combined thoroughly. Scoop the batter into the prepared cake pan.

Bake for 30 minutes, until a knitting needle inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. While the cake is still warm, poke holes in the cake with the handle of a wooden spoon throughout the cake. Ideally, the holes should be about 2 inches apart. Since my children were the ones who poked the holes, I just made sure that the holes were spread out throughout the whole cake.

After poking holes, mix the pudding mix and sugar together. Gradually add milk and stir. Then beat at a low speed for no more than 1 minute. Pour the pudding over the whole cake, making sure that the pudding fills all of the holes. Chill the cake for 1 hour and then serve.

Cook's Notes: My mother used to make this recipe with a cake mix instead of a made from scratch cake. You could also make this using any flavor you want of cake or pudding. We are chocolate lovers, so tend to choose chocolate over any other flavors.

So, get your kids in the kitchen and have some fun baking! They will feel so proud when they get to share what they made.

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies Recipe

2012-11-26T21:49:00.000-08:00

My daughter is becoming happier and happier to help me in the kitchen, especially when she gets to decide what we are making. Last month, my daughter requested that we make sugar cookies, because she really wanted to be able to decorate them with frosting and sprinkles. We had been so busy, that I really did not feel like making the cookies from scratch. So, I decided to try using Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix.

I was pleasantly surprised with the way the cookies turned out. The dough was easy to roll out using the parchment paper. The dough held together well. My kids were able to transfer the pre-cooked cookies from our counter to the cookie sheet without them breaking. When cooked, the cookies were soft and chewy. The were sturdy enough to frost, but not too hard. We are definitely going to be making these again soon with our new Chanukah cookie cutters. Here is the recipe I used.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Recipe

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 3/4 cups Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat together. Add Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix and beat until it forms into a dough. Wrap dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (We left it in the fridge for 1 hour, because we had to pick up my son from school.)

When you are ready to make the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper until the dough is ~1/2-inch thick. Cut out whatever cookie shapes you like and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Leave space between the cookies, because they will spread. Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes. The edges should be light brown. Let cookies cool slightly and use spatula to remove from cookie sheet.

When the cookies are completely cooled, you can decorate the cookies any way you choose. I used a store bought vanilla frosting, because that is what my children requested. Then we decorated the cookies with colored and chocolate sprinkles. Here are a few samples of what we made.

I hope you enjoy making these cookies with the people you love. Enjoy!

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Noodle Pudding (Kigel) Recipe

2012-09-17T20:04:00.002-07:00

L'Shannah Tova! Happy Rosh Hashanah! Today is the first day of the Jewish new year. Since I was little, my mother always made kigel for Rosh Hashanah. What is kigel, you ask? Kigel is a traditional noodle pudding. I have heard it called kugel, but that is not how my mother and grandmother said it. Actually, my husband calls it kugel, but I joke with him that I do not understand this word. I only make kigel!

This recipe was passed down from my grandmother. There are numerous sweet and savory kigel recipes, but I have never tasted one that even compares to this. So, here is my gluten free version of my grandmother's kigel.

Grandma Taube's Kigel

8 oz gluten free linguine noodle, broken into 1-2 inch pieces

1 cup sugar

Juice of 1 large lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla

5 eggs

16 oz cottage cheese

1 pint sour cream

Cinnamon

Crushed walnuts

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Cook the noodles according to the directions on the box. While the noodles are cooking, grease casserole dish with Pam. When the noodles are cooked, drain the water and place them back into the pot you used to cook them. Add the sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, eggs, cottage cheese, and sour cream. Mix all of the ingredients together and pour into the greased casserole dish. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon and crushed walnuts. Put it in the oven and bake it for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the topped is nicely browned. (I baked it for only 60 minutes in my convection oven.) Then shut off the oven, and let the kigel stay in the oven for 1 more hour. Then remove from the oven and serve. This kigel can be served warm or at room temperature.

This kigel turned out amazingly well. The broken linguine noodles worked well substituting for broad noodles. It tasted just like it did when I was a child. My husband was impressed that this recipe was gluten free. It is a great dish to serve for a holiday meal, and it is easy to travel with for a pot luck dinner. I would be proud to serve this to anyone. I hope you enjoy!

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Guitar Cake

2012-09-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

This weekend was my son's 7th birthday. I am so proud of the young man he is becoming. He is kind, smart, and a hard worker. He started 1st grade earlier this month, and he is loving every moment of it. He proudly told me that he does not miss me at all while he is at school for the whole day, and that makes me so happy. He should be enjoying school. He is in the second year of a wonderful Spanish immersion program. He is learning so many amazing things. He has a wonderful teacher who loves using music as a teaching tool. And he is making some lasting friendships. And he knows that I will be there to pick him up when the day is done.

This year I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, and he said that he wanted to celebrate with his friends from school. So, we picked a local park, and we invited all of his classmates and a few other friends from our community. I really wanted to keep the party simple, because my son says that it is not a birthday without celebrating with your friends. We had snacks of fruit, veggies, cheese, crackers, and lunch meat. We also had cupcakes! I made 58 regular cupcakes, and I ordered a dozen gluten free chocolate salted caramel cupcakes from Ruby Cakes Bakery. (I am fortunate that I am just gluten intolerant. I can use flour in my kitchen, and I will be fine as long as I do not ingest it.) I loved spending the morning while my kids were in school making cupcakes, frosting them, and dipping them in sprinkles. My kitchen felt so alive, and I knew that I was just getting started.

As I has previously talked about, I like to make themed cakes for my kids. This summer, my son decided that he wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Since he is so young, we decided to talk to some of our friends who play instruments. We were told that he is young, but if he has interest, it would be worth looking into lessons for him. So, we went to a local guitar store to get more information, and left with an electric guitar, amp, and signed up for guitar lessons once a week. We were so impressed with how the owners of the guitar store listened to my son, and set him up with a program that is doable and fun for a 7 year old. Since, my son is now enamored by the guitar, he asked for a guitar cake. I found this template on the Parenting magazine website. This is how I made the cake.

Gluten Free Guitar Cake

1- 9-inch round cake
1- 8-inch round cake
16 oz can chocolate frosting
16 oz can vanilla frosting
Yellow food coloring
1 box gluten free chocolate-coated wafer cookies (I used the brand Glutino)
2 large marshmallows
4 gluten free pretzel sticks (I used Snyder's gluten free pretzels)
8 yellow m&m's

I made the same chocolate cake batter I made for my daughter's unicorn cake. Make sure to use different pans, because this recipe needs 2 different sizes of cake pans. Once the cakes are cooled, remove them from their pans, and cut a 2 and 3/4 inch curved cut from an edge of the 9-inch cake. Place the cakes next to each other on a large serving platter or a piece of sturdy cardboard covered with aluminum foil. Secure the cakes with a little chocolate frosting. Place the cakes in the freezer for an hour, so the cakes will be easier to frost.

When you are ready to frost, spoon 1/4 cup of the vanilla frosting into a bowl. Spoon 1/2 cup of the chocolate frosting into another small bowl. Reserve these for later* Add 2 teaspoons of chocolate frosting and a few drops of yellow food coloring to the remaining vanilla frosting. Blend it well, until it looks beige. Then take the cake out of the freezer. Spread the sides of the cake with the remaining chocolate frosting. Then spread the top of the cake with the beige frosting. Place a canning jar rim on the smaller round cake to make an outline for the guitar's sound hole. Pipe the chocolate frosting inside the canning rim to form a circle.

For the neck, arrange a row of 8 chocolate-coated wafer cookies above the top of the cake for the guitar neck. Spread some chocolate frosting on top of this row. Add another layer of chocolate wafers, and then spread chocolate frosting on top. Place one of the chocolate-coated wafer cookies onto the lower third of the cake (underneath the sound hole). Pipe 4 lines of un-tinted vanilla frosting from the top of the neck to the chocolate wafer near the bottom of the cake. These will be the guitar strings. Add the yellow M&M's to the end of each guitar string. Cut 2 marshmallows in half and stick a pretzel in each one. Stick the 2 pretzels with marshmallows into either side of the guitar neck.

Then serve this to the special birthday boy or girl!

*Cook's Notes: I use a Dessert Decorator by Wilton, so I put the reserved frosting in a bowl until I can put it in my decoration tool. If you do not have one of them, you can use sandwich-sized plastic bags. When you are ready to use the frosting, snip off the the corner of the bag and pipe the frosting where you want it to go.

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins Recipe

2012-09-10T17:11:00.004-07:00

As much as I hate to admit this, my kids love pop tarts. They would be happy to eat them every morning, but they do not fill up their tummies. When my son went to Kindergarten last year, I made up the rule that pop tarts were only allowed as snacks or on the weekends. He grumbled a little, but he gave up on that pretty quickly. My son ended up eating bagels, eggs, or cereal, and it seemed to satisfy him longer. Fast forward to a year later, and I am going through this with my daughter who started Kindergarten this week. She is very stubborn and is morning the loss of the pop tarts for breakfast. So, I decided that I would make muffins to give my kids something special in the morning. My first attempt this week was blueberry muffins. I got some blueberries at our local Farmer's Market, so I thought that that was a good place to start. Here is my recipe.

Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon lemon zest, dried
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1 cup fresh blueberries
Cinnamon and sugar

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place muffin papers in the muffin pan and set it aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the melted butter, honey, eggs, and vanilla. Then add the baking soda, salt, lemon zest, and almond flour. Mix together again until everything is well combined. Pour the blueberries into the batter, and gently stir them until they are blended well.

Spoon the batter evenly into the muffin pan. I was able to get 11 muffins out of this batter. Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar over the muffins, and then place in the oven. Cook for 28 minutes or until a knitting needle comes out clean when inserted into a muffin. Remove from the oven and let cool. Then serve.

These muffins turned out wonderfully. They were moist and lightly sweetened. I am not a big fan of blueberry muffins, but I thought these were delicious. My kids devoured them every morning before school last week. Unfortunately, they were so delicious that they were all eaten before I could take a picture. I hope you enjoy!

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Peach and Blueberry Crisp Recipe

2012-09-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

Hooray! It's peach season. My children and I picked some peaches at our local Farmer's Market on Thursday. They are sweet and juicy, and we cannot seem to get enough of them. We have been eating them by themselves, but tonight we had a special friend come over for dinner. Whenever she comes over, we like to have a scrumptious dessert to serve. Since the peaches have been so yummy, I decided that I wanted to make a peach crisp. When I was looking in the fridge for the peaches, I saw that we still had some blueberries from the same Farmer's Market trip. So, I decided to throw them in as well. Here is my recipe.

Peach and Blueberry Crisp

Filling:
6 peaches
1 cup blueberries
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar

Topping:
2 cups gluten free rolled oats
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I sprayed my baking dish with Pam, but I am not sure that it is absolutely necessary.

Pit the 6 peaches, and cut them into bite size pieces. Put them in a medium bowl. Add 1 cup of blueberries, lemon juice, and sugar. Mix these ingredients together, and pour them into the baking dish. Place baking dish on a lined cookie sheet to keep your oven clean in case the juices overflow from the baking dish.

Rinse out the medium bowl and pat it dry. Add the gluten free oats, tapioca starch, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Mix the dry ingredients together. Add the melted butter and mix together again until the topping is crumbly.

Pat the topping onto the filling, and bake in the oven for 60 minutes. When the topping is browned, and the fruit is soft when you stick a knitting need in it, it is done. Take it out of the oven and let it cool. Serve it by itself or with a scoop of ice cream. YUMMY!

This crisp was an amazing, and I would be proud to serve this to anyone who stopped by. The fruit just melted in my mouth, and I loved the crispness of the topping. I might try this topping with other seasonal fruits too. Hope you enjoy sharing this recipe with your loved ones as well.

<3 Cassidy

Almond Flour Waffles Recipe

2012-08-31T21:06:00.000-07:00

It is always fun to turn your day upside down by eating breakfast for dinner. That is what we decided to make for dinner tonight. My kids wanted pancakes and bacon. I have already talked about how my husband makes really good pancakes. Tonight, he even made a bunny face pancake for our daughter with chocolate chips for the eyes, nose, and mouth.

The only thing is, I really like waffles better. So, we decided to make both tonight! A couple years ago, a few of my friends got together and bought me a waffle-maker. I love it! I have used it to make waffles from a mix, but tonight I tried to make waffles from scratch. Here is my recipe.

Almond Flour Waffles

4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup almond flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the waffle-maker until the ready light comes on.

While the waffle-maker is warming up, start making the waffle batter. In a medium bowl, mix together the eggs, vanilla, and honey. Then add the almond flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Mix all of the ingredients together.

When the waffle-maker is ready, spray the insides of the waffle-maker with Pam to keep the waffle from sticking. Then using the scoop that came with the waffle-maker, pour some of the batter into the waffle-maker. (The scoop is about 1/2 cup, but it will depend on your waffle-maker how much you should use.) Close the lid, and wait for the waffle to cook. When the waffle is fully cooked, take it out and place it on a plate. Repeat with the rest of the batter, but be sure to spray the waffle iron before you pour on new batter.

Serve the waffles with your favorite toppings. Tonight I used maple syrup, but I also like to top my waffles with ice cream. I remember my mother always having waffles and ice cream when my brother Jon came home to visit. What are your favorite toppings?

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Cocktail Meatballs Recipe

2012-08-25T22:03:00.001-07:00

Tonight we went to dinner at a friend's house, and we all brought appetizers. One friend brought a bean and guacamole dip and chips, which was absolutely amazing. Another friend brought beet hummus, which also was spectacular. The host made homemade bread (which I was unable to eat) and an almond,honey,chocolate mixture to spread on the bread. This was so amazing that I ate it by the spoonful. I hope that they will share that recipe soon, so I can share it with all of you.

As you can tell, the people that come to this dinner are very good cooks. So, I have to try to keep up with their culinary expertise. When I am unsure about what to make, I think about some of the recipes my mother made as a child. One of the appetizers I remember fondly was cocktail meatballs. My mother brought it to parties and served it with toothpicks. It was always fun eating something with toothpicks. I remember that I always had to grab some of these early, because there were never any left. So, I decided to make it for tonight. I adapted the recipe my mother made when I was younger to make it gluten free.

Cocktail Meatballs

1lb ground beef
1 egg
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 small onion, grated or 2 tbsp dried minced onion
3/4 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1 can jellied cranberry sauce
3/4 cup Heinz chili sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp lemon juice

Combine the ground beef, egg, almond flour, grated onion, salt, pepper, and oregano. Then mix everything together well using your hands. Form the mixture into 1-inch balls. You should get between 25-30 meatballs.

In a skillet, combine the cranberry sauce, chili sauce, brown sugar, and lemon juice. Simmer it on low until it is a smooth consistency, stirring constantly. Add meatballs gently and simmer for 1 hour. Then serve.

Tonight I decided that 1lb of ground beef was not enough to bring to our dinner, so I tripled this recipe. No, this is not a typo. I made 3lbs of meatballs, but we took home only roughly 5 meatballs. So, I would say that this recipe was a huge success.

Cook's Notes: This recipe can also be made using a crockpot. You combine the meat make the meatballs the same way I stated above, however you place them in the crockpot. Then you mix the cranberry sauce, chili sauce, brown sugar, and lemon juice in a skillet. Stir it constantly until the mixture is smooth. Then pour it over meatballs and cook it on low for 4-5 hours. It is just as delicious cooking it this way, so do what is easier for you and your family.

I hope you enjoy making it to bring to an appetizer party or for a fun dinner of appetizers at home.

<3 Cassidy

Potato Salad Recipe

2012-08-02T12:54:00.000-07:00

My husband is a professor at a local college in town, and he has a few students who work for him during the summer. One of the things that people miss when being away from home is a home cooked meal. So, we try to invite his students over once during the summer to thank them for all of their hard work. The summer is quickly coming to a close, so we realized that we needed to invite them over soon. So, we decided to have a cookout. My husband grilled hamburgers, and I made salad and potato salad. I have been making this particular potato salad since we were newlyweds. My husband really likes this version, so he specifically requested it for the cookout. Here is my recipe.

Potato Salad

2.5lbs red potatoes
3 eggs
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 small green pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
pepper

Cut the potatoes into cubes, and place them in a large pot. Cover the potatoes with water, and bring the water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, turn on your timer for 15-20 minutes. Cook the potatoes until they are tender. Drain them in a colander, and pour them into a large bowl. Set them aside to cool.

While you are boiling the potatoes, you will need to be hard-boiling the eggs. Place the eggs in a small pot with a cover, and fill the pot wither water until the eggs are covered. Cover the pot with it's cover and bring the water to a boil. Once the water comes to a boil, turn off the heat, but leave the pot on the stove. Leave the eggs in the pot, with the burner off, for 15 minutes. Then remove the eggs from the water and let them cool until you can touch them. Once they are cool to the touch, you can peel and chop them and add them to the potatoes.

Mix in the mayonnaise, onion, green onion, and pepper. Season with salt and pepper and mix well. Cover and refrigerate the potato salad for several hours or overnight.

The students really enjoyed the cookout. The weather was beautiful, and the bugs even stayed away for most of the meal. We ended our meal with yummy brownies. We are looking forward to doing it again next year.

<3 Cassidy

Bruschetta Recipe

2012-07-26T21:24:00.001-07:00

It is time again for our monthly Friends' Dinner. My friend Krista hosted, and she decided to make it a night of appetizers. I was super excited, because appetizers are so much fun. Krista made a spinach artichoke dip, and she had many different kinds of fruits and veggies. My addition to the evening was bruschetta and gluten free bread. Jillian, another friend of ours, made a Vegetarian 5 Layer Dip. She has recently started started a blog called a Food Filled Life. She has a large variety of recipes, and I recommend you checking it out. Here is my recipe.

Gluten Free Bruschetta

2- 28oz can diced tomatoes, drained
Medium handful of chopped, fresh basil
2 tablespoons garlic, chopped
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
large pinch of salt

Pour 2 cans of tomatoes into a large mixing bowl. Then add the basil and garlic and mix together. Finally, add the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt. Mix until all of the ingredients are blended well. Place in the refrigerator for an hour or overnight so the flavors blend together. Then serve with gluten free bread or french bread if your guests are not gluten free.

My friends really enjoyed this recipe, and I hope you will enjoy it too!

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Unicorn Birthday Cake

2012-07-21T22:18:00.003-07:00

I really enjoy making special birthday cakes for my family. I have posted about my adventures in a previous post, and you can see some of my other cakes I have made. This year is my daughter's 5th birthday. This is a big birthday for us, because she is starting Kindergarten in the fall. She is my youngest, and it feels like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital. So, I asked her what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday. She has become fascinated with unicorns lately, so she asked if she could have a unicorn cake. I searched online and found this on the Parenting magazine website. The website was pretty detailed in it's descriptions, but I modified it slightly to make it gluten free and more to my daughter's specifications.

This is how I created my Gluten Free Unicorn cake. First, I made a 2 chocolate cakes inspired by Elana's Pantry almond flour cookbook. Here is my recipe.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

4 cups almond flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup honey
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then, take out an 8-inch square pan and an 8-inch round pie pan and coat them with Crisco, so the cakes will not stick to the pan.

Add the almond flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda into are large bowl. Combine until it is mixed well. Set aside. In a small bowl, mix together the honey, eggs, and vanilla extract. I used a stand mixer for this part, so I am sure that all of the ingredients are mixed together well. Pour the wet ingredients into the larger bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix it all together until it is well blended. Then divide the batter between a 8-inch square pan and an 8-inch round pie pan. (I scoop the batter into the pans using a measuring cup, so that I could split the batter more evenly. It does not matter the size, it is helpful for me to see that my scoops are even between pans.)

Bake in the oven for ~25 minutes. Take out and let cool. I put the cakes in the freezer overnight to harden them a little to help with the frosting process the next day.

When you are ready to start decorating the cake, these are the ingredients you will need.

1 sugar cone
1 pink jelly bean
1 green round candy (I used an M&M, and I made the unicorn have the same eye color as my daughter.)
Vanilla frosting*
Red licorice*
Course purple decorating sugar
Course silver decorating sugar
Course red decorating sugar

You will also need a large platter, and I did not have one that was large enough. So, I cut out a large flat piece of cardboard from a box in our garage. Then I covered it in aluminum foil, and I used duct tape to secure the foil on the back of the cardboard. It worked perfectly, and it was less expensive than buying a new large platter.

Once you have all of your ingredients, it is time to trim the cake. There is a great template on how to cut the unicorn shape, and I highly recommend that you go to the website to see this. When you are done trimming, arrange the unicorn on the platter as shown on the template.

Next, you will need to cover the cone in vanilla frosting. Then cut open the sugar cone on the backside, so that the open end fits well against the side of the cake by the ears. When it is placed correctly, it will look like a horn coming directly out of the cake. Then sprinkle silver sprinkles on the cone to make it look like it is sparkly.

Spread most of the frosting on the cake and make it smooth. Press the pink jelly bean for the unicorn's nostril. Press a green M&M for the unicorn's eye. Cut the licorice into 3-inch strips and arrange then on the back of the unicorn's head and in-between the unicorn's ears to represent it's mane. Pipe on a little smile for the unicorn and sprinkle some red sugar for the lips. Sprinkle purple sprinkles over the whole unicorn to make it seem more magical.

Then serve to a wide-eyed birthday girl who thinks that you are the most amazing mother in the world to create such a special and perfect cake. And make sure to take pictures, because the moment will be all too brief.

* Cook's notes: I doubled the frosting recipe, so there would be plenty of frosting to cover the cake. I did not use gluten free licorice, because the rest of my family is not gluten free. However, there are a few brands who make a licorice that is gluten free.

Enjoy!

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Steak Marinade Recipe

2012-07-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

Today is my daughter's 5th birthday, and she is my carnivore. She loves to eat meat, especially steak. So, guess what we are having for dinner? Steak.....and corn! In our family, I marinate the steak, and my husband cooks it on the grill. I frequently end up cooking the corn, because my kids prefer when we cook the corn in the microwave. (My husband and I prefer to cook the corn on the grill, but the kids outweigh us when we are making it specifically for them.)

Our marinade is sweet and simple. We have used it on different cuts of beef, and it always complements it well. It is loosely based on a recipe that my brother uses, and his children call it "Daddy's special sauce." We always enjoyed it when we visited him, so we came up with our own version. Here it is.

Steak Marinade

2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar

Mix all of the ingredients together in a Ziploc bag. Marinate the steak in this mixture for at least 30 minutes. Continue brushing the marinade over steak while grilling.

Enjoy!

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffin Recipe

2012-07-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

Today I made a gluten free Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe. It was really simple to make, and it was really delicious. I found many different ways to make this recipe online, and this is my version. I am also thinking about adding some dried fruit next time I make them. That will hopefully add another layer of deliciousness to these amazing muffins.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffins

3 eggs

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup honey

2 1/2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chocolate chips

3 cups almond flour, firmly packed

1 rounded teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place muffin liners into the muffin tins and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat eggs with a stand mixer. Then add the coconut oil, honey, milk, and vanilla extract. Mix together and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the almond flour and baking soda. Then add all of the wet ingredients and combine until it is well mixed. Then add the chocolate chips, and stir until the chips are spread throughout the batter.

Using an ice cream scoop, spoon about one scoop into the muffin tins. Each cup should be about 3/4 the way full. I was able to get 14 muffins out of this batter.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned and the knitting needle stuck in the center of a cupcake comes out clear.

I tried one of these muffins fresh from the oven, and it was amazing. The muffin was moist, and the chocolate chips were melted. It hit the spot. I am looking forward to having one for breakfast tomorrow morning.

I hope you enjoy this making this recipe.

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Spring Pea Dip Recipe

2012-07-01T22:01:00.001-07:00

We went to a friend's house this evening to have a casual dinner, so our children could spend some time together. Our friends had dinner covered, so we brought some appetizers. We bought a veggie tray at Albertson's and I made my Pea Dip. I found this recipe from Good Housekeeping last summer, and I have made this for many pot luck events since. This pea dip is a beautiful addition to the table. The bright green color of the peas can add color to your table presentation. Plus, it is light and summery, and it can help channel summertime, even though the weather in the Pacific NW hasn't caught up yet. This dip can be made with spring peas from your garden, but our peas were not ready. Thankfully, we always have frozen peas, and this recipe works well with either fresh or frozen peas. Here is my version of the Spring Pea Dip.

Gluten Free Spring Pea Dip

2 cups fresh peas shelled from the pod or 2 cups frozen peas
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese

Heat 2 inches of water in a quart saucepan over high heat. Once it is boiling, add the peas and return to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cover. Cook the peas for 3 minutes or until the peas are tender. Drain the peas in a colander and then rinse with cold water to stop the peas from cooking anymore. Once peas are completely drained, pour the peas into the food processor with the knife blade attachment. Add the mint and salt and puree. Add the ricotta cheese and Parmesan and mix again.

Transfer to a small bowl and serve with vegetables or a gluten free cracker. If you are not ready to serve, cover tightly and refrigerate.

Enjoy!

<3 Cassidy

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Pancakes Recipe

2012-06-29T23:11:00.001-07:00

Even though the kids had pancakes this past weekend at the Lion's Club Pancake Breakfast, they still wanted to have pancakes for dinner one day this week. When I asked both of my children why they wanted to have pancakes again, they said because their daddy makes the best pancakes. I have to agree with that, but there is a caveat. My husband puts chocolate chips in the batter and he makes the pancakes into fun shapes. He has made bunny faces, teddy bears, and even a lightsaber.

After I found out that I was pregnant, my husband and I talked about some important traditions that we wanted to continue with our family. One of them was that my husband wanted to be able to make chocolate pancakes, and he wanted to eventually do it with our children. He remembered how it was his job to give a "chip alert" when the pancakes seemed low on chocolate chips. So, he practiced. My husband's parents even bought us a brand new griddle, so he could perfect his pancake making skills. Fast forward almost 7 years, and my husband has perfected making a variety of pancakes. He has made regular pancakes, high fiber pancakes, and even gluten free pancakes. Now we decided to try almond flour pancakes. I based my recipe from The Nourishing Home blog. Since this was our first try, my husband did not make this batter into shapes. We will have to try again when we are more familiar with this type of batter. Here is our recipe.

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Pancakes

1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup buttermilk or 1/4 cup of milk with 1 teaspoon lemon juice*
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the griddle to medium heat.

In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, baking soda, and salt. Then set it aside.

Next, you will need to separate all 3 eggs. Place the egg whites in a medium sized mixing bowl and set it aside. Place the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl. Add the melted butter to the egg yolks and mix together using a mixer. It is really important to make sure that the butter is cool to the touch, because you don't want any of the egg yolk to get cooked. As you are mixing, add the buttermilk, maple syrup, and vanilla to the yolk mixture. Once everything is mixed well, mix in the dry ingredients that have been set aside. Make sure that there are no lumps in the batter, and then set aside.

Attach the medium bowl with egg whites to the mixer and clean whisk attachment. Whisk the egg whites rapidly until they are a foamy consistently. It should take about 1-2 minutes. Then add the foamy egg whites to the batter and mix together slowly and carefully with the whisk. You do not want to beat them too much, because they can lose the air that you added to the egg white to help the fluffiness of the pancakes.

Once the batter has been combined well, add some chocolate chips to the batter. You can decide how chocolaty you want the pancakes. Plus you can always add more chocolate chips are you are making the pancakes.

Grease the griddle with canola oil or coconut oil. Once the griddle is hot, ladle spoonfuls of the batter onto the griddle. The pancakes should be about the size of a silver dollar. (My husband uses 1/4 cup measure and fills it halfway with pancake batter.) Cook the pancakes for a couple of minutes until the edges dry out a little. The batter should begin to bubble a little bit when it is ready to flip. Carefully flip the pancake and cook for a few more minutes. Both sides should be browned, but not over-cooked. (Once you have successfully cooked one pancake, it is important for the official tasters of your house to taste the pancakes. Then you know if you are doing it correctly.)

Serve the pancakes hot off with griddle with pure maple syrup. You can make sausage or bacon as a side dish, but it is not necessary.

*Cook's Notes: I used 1/4 cup milk plus 1 teaspoon lemon juice, because I do not regularly keep buttermilk in the house.

After you make these pancakes, I hope your loved ones will tell you, like our's did, that this is the best meal ever. Enjoy!

<3 Cassidy

Gluten Free Coconut Chicken Recipe

2012-06-24T22:32:00.002-07:00

Gluten Free Coconut Chicken

2 lbs chicken tenders, slightly pounded
1 cup almond flour
2 eggs
1 cup shredded coconut
Canola oil
Apricot jam

Since you are handling raw chicken, it is important to set up all of our supplies before you handle any of the food. You will need 2 shallow dishes and a plate. Place the almond flour and coconut in one dish and mix it together. Beat the eggs in another bowl. Set out a large skillet and canola oil as well.

Take one chicken tender and coat it in the egg. Then coat it in the almond flour/coconut mixture. Place the coated chicken tender on a plate and then repeat until all of the tenders have been coated.

In a large skillet, heat a thin layer of canola oil on a medium heat. Fry in batches until deep golden in color, 3-4 minutes on each side. I serve the coconut chicken with some apricot jam. It is super tasty, and it is really simple.

This is one of my family's favorite recipes. It is inspired from a Rachael Ray recipe, but I adapted it so that it is gluten free. I have also made this recipe with Fiber One cereal crumbs. No matter how I make it, it is so good! I hope you and your family like it too.

~Cassidy

Gluten Free Mock Kisir Recipe

2012-06-23T21:50:00.001-07:00

Tonight some of my friend's came over for a belated birthday celebration. I decided to have a Middle Eastern theme, so we had baba ganoush, hummus, olives, and kebobs (beef, red peppers, pineapple, peppers, mushrooms and grape tomatoes). We marinated the stew meat in Italian dressing for a couple of hours. The Italian dressing tenderized the meat, so that it was less chewy and very delicious.

I wanted to make a Turkish dish called kisir. Kisir is a traditional sidedish made with bulgur wheat, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers, parsley, mint lots of lemon juice, and lots of olive oil. A tomato paste is used to help give it the beautiful reddish color. Unfortunately, I could not use bulgur, because it is not gluten free. So, I chose to substitute quinoa. Even though this is not really kisir, it has some of the same flavors. It is a good substitution for someone who likes the same flavors that kisir provides, but it is gluten free. Here is my recipe.

Gluten Free Mock Kisir

2 cups of quinoa

2 cups of water or broth
3 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup olive oil
6 green onions- finely chopped
2 small onions- finely chopped
2 cucumbers- finely chopped
2 green peppers- finely chopped
juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp cumin
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped mint
1 teaspoon dried dill
salt to taste
2 tomatoes, finely chopped

Put the quinoa in a medium saucepan and cover it with water or broth. (I used vegetable broth, because we had a vegetarian join us for the dinner party. You can use chicken broth as well.) Add the tomato paste and mix together well. Bring the quinoa mixture to a simmer, and then cook until it is soft. It should take about about 15-20 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix the onions, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, parsley, mint, and dill. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, and a few pinches of salt. Mix well and let the veggie mixture sit for a few minutes for the salt to dissolve and the flavors to blend. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Pour the cooked quinoa into the veggie mixture, mix well, and serve.

My friend at See Mommy Do It made a wonderful dessert to end our evening. She used her amazing almond cake as layers topped with whip cream and strawberries. It was absolutely delicious. Thank you Krista for ending our evening so sweetly!

This quinoa was an excellent substitution to this dish. The mock kisir still had a lemony taste, but all of the fresh vegetables kept it light delicious. It balanced our kebobs nicely. You could also eat this as a main dish. It is great to take with you as a lunch to work or school. Enjoy!

~Cassidy

Gluten Free Tapas Night

2012-06-03T21:49:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we went to a friend's house for our monthly family get-together. This month our host decided to have a Spanish theme, meaning that we would have tapas and other traditional Spanish dishes. Our host made some amazing paella and served a variety of Spanish cheeses with crackers. My contributions to the festivities were a spinach with chickpeas tapas and sangria.

The spinach with chickpeas is a vegetable rich tapas that is served with bread or crackers, but it can also be eaten alongside a main dish. My recipe was inspired from Eating Well.

Spinach and Chickpeas

2lbs spinach

Extra virgin olive oil

1 medium red onion, finely chopped

6 cloves of garlic, crushed

1-19 oz can garbanzo beans or chickpeas, rinsed

1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth*

Rinse the spinach in a colander and let it drain. Then place half the spinach in a large saucepan over medium heat. Using tongs, toss the spinach as it begins to wilt. Continue adding remaining spinach until it is all added and wilted. It should take about 6-8 minutes. Pour spinach back into the colander and drain again. Let it cool slightly, and run a knife roughly through the wilted spinach.

Once the wilted spinach is out of the saucepan, heat about 1 tablespoon, or one turn of the pan, of olive oil at medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until the onion is tender and lightly browned. Keep stirring the onions, so they will not stick to the bottom of the saucepan. This should take about 8-10 minutes. Add the garbanzo beans, thyme, oregano, cumin, salt, and paprika and stir all together to combine. Then use a potato masher to roughly mash the chickpeas. Stir all of this together again and cook for 3 more minutes. Add the raisins and broth and mix it together. Return the chopped spinach to the saucepan and gently combine. Remove the pot from the heat and let it stand about 10 minutes.

Drizzle the spinach with chickpeas with olive oil, about 2 tablespoons, before serving. Then put it in a serving bowl and serve alongside crackers or toasted bread. You can also serve this with a main dish such as paella. It went nicely being served as an appetizer or side dish. My husband really liked eating it with crackers, and my friends were asking for the recipe. I am very happy about the results.

* Cook's notes: I chose to use vegetable broth, because some of the members of our group are vegetarians. It is really important to remember to remember to use vegetable broth if you are making this for vegetarians. Unfortunately, it is very easy for us carnivores to automatically use chicken broth in a recipe. I had to consciously remind myself to buy vegetable broth at the store. I know that our friends appreciated us remembering to make something that they could enjoy too.

I also made sangria. I chose to make an alcoholic and non-alcoholic version of the sangria. The impetus for the non-alcoholic sangria was my friend who is expecting a new bundle of joy at the end of the year. She loves sangria, but she is unable to have the alcohol at the moment. She did not want me to go through the hassle for just her, so I said it was for the children too. Thankfully, she really liked the recipe. The kids did not like the fruit floating in the juice, but they did like the taste of it. I based my recipe after reading a blog from the Sweet Pea Chef.

Non-Alcoholic Sangria

3 cups grape juice

3/4 cup apple juice

1/2 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 lemon

1 lime

1 orange, thinly sliced

1 apple

3 cups ginger ale

Thinly slice 1 lemon, 1 lime, and 1 orange. Core 1 apple and chop it into 1/2 inch cubes. You do not need to peel any of the fruit. The peel adds beautiful, bright colors in the glass. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (You can leave it in the fridge overnight to allow the flavors to combine.) Prior to serving, add the ginger ale and stir together. Since we brought the sangria to a friend's house, we added a little ice to keep it cool. I would recommend filling some ice cube trays with some of the sangria, and putting them in the freezer. Once they are completely frozen, you can use this to keep it cold so that it does not taste watered down.

Lastly, I made a traditional sangria. I looked at a variety of recipes from The Food Network website, and this is my recipe.

Traditional Sangria

2 bottles chilled, dry red wine, like Rioja

1 cup brandy

1 cup orange juice

1/4 cup sugar

2 oranges

2 lemons

3 limes

2 apples

2 cups ginger ale

In a large bowl, combine the wine, brandy, orange juice, and sugar. Stir until the sugar completely dissolved. Thinly slice 2 oranges, 2 lemons, and 3 limes. Core 2 apples and chop them into 1/2 inch cubes. You do not need to peel any of the fruit. The peel adds beautiful, bright colors in the glass. Add all of the fruit into the large bowl and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Once it is well chilled, take it out of the refrigerator and add the ginger ale. Serve in glasses over ice.

The traditional sangria was sweet and refreshing. We drank it as we watched the children play in the backyard. It was such a relaxing evening. I hope that you will try these recipes with the ones you love. Enjoy!

~Cassidy