Finishing First Week & Football Foods

A successful first week of school is finished! However, I am utterly exhausted. I always forget how much walking and talking I do that my body isn't used to (from being lazy all summer). The week was spent learning the rules and establishing classroom procedures. My students really enjoyed this Post-It note activity that I came across on Pinterest. 

The week ended with the start of college football for my MSU Spartans! Check out Iivana's fabulous new jersey.

Despite being tired from the work week (and looking that way too), Iivana and I were ecstatic about the game and Sparty's win. It wasn't the prettiest, but I'll take it.

This photo cracks me up! Iivana is crazy. I was trying to take a picture with her...but she wanted to show you her pearly whites.

I tried to continue the tradition that Justin and I started by making football appetizers for the game. (Check out some of the finger foods we made last year: here, here, and here.) I decided to make a pizza inspired appetizer. Remember I bought some pizza crust mix at Marshall's? My random mixture that didn't follow the box recipe, didn't turn out the way I had hoped. It was still edible, but not great.

My experimented creation wasn't worthy enough to share all the details. But these gluten free pizza puffs are a much better recipe to share. I've made them before and they are soft and delicious!

Summary of Michigan Trip

I need to wrap up my Michigan vacation posts since tomorrow is my actual last day of summer vacation. I officially go back to work on Wednesday to start another year of teaching fourth grade! Plus, I've been working on some fun DIY projects I want to share. So this post sums up some memorable things I did (& that I have pictures of) while in Michigan last month.

I was fortunate that my sister, Jill and her husband allowed Iivana and me to come stay with them for a few days. While they were at work my parents and I took the kids to Potter Park Zoo one day. These two pictures crack me up! Maren is petting the goats and my dad is with Maren in the kangaroo cut out.

 Jett and my mom with the spider monkeys which was his favorite part.

After our zoo visit, we stopped by the MSU Diary Store.

We enjoyed some ice cream.

We went out to eat for Jill's birthday at Ruby Tuesday.

They had a gluten free menu, but it was a chain restaurant. If I'm at a chain, I usually try to pick something that doesn't require a lot of modifications. I'm not sure how knowledgeable the kitchen staff is about gluten free and cross contamination. So I kept it simple with the petite sirloin, a baked potato, and broccoli.

 I was able to attend my sister's annual 4th of July party with my baby, Iivana.

I think I pretty much scarred her for life of being terrified of fireworks. For some reason, I didn't think the noise would scare her because she hears loud planes all the time. But we retreated to the van for safety during their show.

But I still got a glimpse of some of the fireworks.

My niece, Maren was still going strong that night. She was a doll and put on her mama's shoes; she was so proud of herself.

I met up with some friends for drinks.

I tried some new gluten free beer that I don't have access to in Texas. (Thanks to my sister, Kristen for hooking me up!) Here I was drinking Dogfish Head's Tweason'ale beer. I thought it was a wonderfully refreshing summer drink. The strawberries and honey give the beer a fruity flavor that isn't as sweet as cider. I hope they start selling this in Texas soon.

Check these links for other Michigan things from my trip:

• Vince & Joe's
• Fruitiversary
• Crunch Granola
• More Goods from Vince & Joe's
• Yummy Filled Donuts
• Gluten-less Maximus IPA

The Way Fall Should Be

During September and October, we spent four weekends out of town. Four out of eight weekends we weren't home; 50% of the time we were gone if you didn't get the math the first time. While I loved going to Dallas twice and Michigan two times, it felt good to be home this weekend and to know the next couple of weekends we would be here as well.

While I'm happy to be home, last weekend was fun and memorable! We were able to spend time with friends and family.

Wedding fun.

Me and the Hubby

Tailgating at MSU

Gorgeous fall! Trees actually changing color...I miss fall so much living in the south.

Justin and Jett looking at planes.

 The banks of the red cedar

My whole family was at tailgate

Sparty and an MSU win over Wisconsin.

We picked up an exhausted, clean dog from the pet resort complete with a Halloween bandana who was excited to see her ma and pop.

Looking at my pictures, I can't believe I didn't take any GF food ones! There were so many great food memories too. A GF wedding meal and my sister, Kristen stopped by to generously bring me snacks, GF beer, and an Udi's bagel. Tailgating was filled with GF goodies and late night GF pizza from Cottage Inn. And on Sunday, a GF brunch at my sister, Jill's house. Thank you to everyone who provided me with treats to eat on the weekend out of town; it is most definitely appreciated and made the trip that much easier. So my recap of the weekend focuses on what mattered the most, seeing my wonderful family and friends.

Football Saturday

Last weekend, we were at a wedding and there were these mouth watering stuffed mushrooms. I asked Justin if he was able to try one but he replied, "No, I didn't get one but like 5 people asked me if I tried one." I was raving about how delicious they were. We decided to make our own version for football Saturday. I wanted some GF onion rings to eat as an appetizer as well while we cheered on MSU. (Similar to the hors d'oeuvres we enjoyed here.)

We pretty much followed this recipe here, but also added some spinach.

First, clean the mushrooms.

Pull/twist off the stems.

Finely chop the stems.

Wash and chop spinach.

In a hot skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of fresh garlic, and diced mushroom stems.

After a few minutes, add the spinach.

Meanwhile, mix 1 package of cream cheese, parmesan cheese, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and onion powder.

Stir in cooled spinach & mushroom mixture with the cheese mixture.

Spoon into each mushroom.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

For the onion rings, we followed this recipe, but of course substituted GF products when necessary for the flour and breadcrumbs.

Cut onion and separate into rings.

Coat in GF flour.

Justin used the Cup 4 Cup GF flour from Williams Sonoma.

 Then he created an egg, flour, and milk mixture. The slices were then dipped in this new mixture.

Then you're supposed to let excess drip off on a wire rack. You wouldn't believe we don't have a wire rack so we improvised with a strainer.

After that it was time to coat in bread crumbs.

No bread crumbs for GF, so we substituted with corn flake crumbs.

Fry in oil for 2 - 3 minutes until golden brown.

 Take out and place on a paper towel covered plate and sprinkle with seasoning salt.

Ready to watch some football!

Both items were delicious and gluten free. I don't think they were the healthiest options but better than going out to eat anytime. Plus, we could enjoy the couch and my spartans. I still love sparty even if they didn't pull out a win.

Surprise Attack

Ah, so I'm completely exhausted but it was worth it! For those of you who weren't aware, Justin and I made a last minute surprise visit to Michigan. We arrived home shortly after midnight last night, leaving only a few hours for sleep before work today. Justin is the godfather of Maren, so we decided to go to her Baptism. It worked out pretty well...I was on Spring Break, Julie had visited but was on her way to Austin, and Justin had already asked for two days off to enjoy SB with me.

Of course a 5 day trip is going to include daily GF adventures in finding and eating food safe for me! I won't be able to talk about them all tonight, but will hopefully be able to blog regularly again.

Here's a few highlights from our trip:

Justin and I took separate flights, with varying layovers due to the fact that we literally bought the tickets 5 days before. This is my Michael Jackson look at the airport. No, it's not a style statement...I still wear compression socks on planes because pre-celiac diagnosis my feet would often swell after flying. I just need to invest in a pair of skin tone socks so I can wear one of my many pairs of Tom's. Oh yes, you can see my stylish pedometer as well.

We surprised friends in Ann Arbor for St. Patrick's Day. Of course, I had to post a traditional picture with Justin from St. Pat's. Justin sported MSU gear in U of M land, while I showed my Texan side with a cowboy hat. I enjoyed Sangria flavored drinks from Dominick's...and we'll leave it at that.

There's the little ball of beauty herself, Maren Jean with her aunt Karen Jean.

At the baptism.

Looking through my photos, I realize I take more pictures of food than I do with people. My goal is to continue photographing my food, but also take photos with all the amazing people we visited. I hope everyone enjoyed our visit as much as we did. It was awesome to see so many friends and family, I love you all! We'll be back in June, where I'll be sure to have more people pics.

I need to get some stuff ready for class and get to bed! The coming days will tell of my food adventures.