Amy's GF Pizza

It's Sunday night, and I am thankful that I don't have to work tomorrow. In fact, I have the entire week off for Thanksgiving; it couldn't have come at a better time. This school year has been nonstop! I'm looking forward to sleeping in, catching up on cleaning, going to appointments, and just relaxing. I'm hoping to be able to start blogging regularly again.

I'll start this post off with some football food that we enjoyed yesterday during the MSU game. We had an Amy's gluten free pizza that Justin and I found it at the commissary.

It was a plain cheese pizza that we cooked on our pizza stone. 

But, we decided to jazz it up with some cajun sausage that we had left over from Jambalaya.

 I sliced it up and spread it across the pizza. You could of course add veggies, other meat, or eat it plain.

The pizza cooked up nicely with the sausage and added extra flavor.

We also made a Black Velvet to drink with the pizza. Last weekend we bought a new tool that makes the process much easier. I'll share about that tomorrow! I also had some Wishbone buffalo ranch salad dressing to dip my pizza in (seen here). Overall, the pizza was decent. I think adding to the top of it made it taste better. The crust was thin and the sauce wasn't over powering. 

GF Warm Cheddar & Bean Dip

On my birthday post, I gave a sneak peak picture of our football food! We had chicken tenders marinated in Red Hot sauce and then grilled. Justin and I also made a cheddar and bean dip.

I found the recipe for the dip on the back of a Glutino box of bagel chips. <--- I linked the recipe from the website, but below the box picture I also copied and pasted it, just in case the Glutino site ever takes the recipe down.

Warm Cheddar and Bean Dip

• 2 cups canned white beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2  cup gluten-free beer (1/2 to 3/4 cup) or apple cider
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and cut into thirds
• 1/2  teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 2 green onions, tops and roots discarded, minced for garnish

In a food processor, combine beans, beer, garlic, cumin and salt.  Process until smooth.  Add 1 cup of the grated cheese along with the Tabasco Sauce and process just until combined. Place the mixture in an attractive, heatproof dish. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup cheese over the top.

Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with green onions and serve with Glutino bagel chips.

Here are all the ingredients for the warm cheddar and bean dip, including gluten free beer.

I was also overly ecstatic to use my new Le Creuset Heritage stoneware casserole dish. (Even though in the end it was a little too big, the dip still gave me an excuse to use it.) If you read the recipe, it even said to use "an attractive, heatproof dish."

The food processor with beans, beer, garlic, cumin and salt. The hot sauce and cheese were ready to mix in.

Right out of the oven!

I ended up scooping some dip into a ramekin, which worked out because it was sort of runny. Even though it was runny, it still tasted fantastic. I will definitely make this again! If you like beans and cheese, you'll love this dip. The bagel chips are what make it truly delicious.

It was my Birthday!

I'm so thankful that my husband was home for my birthday. Saturday was my birthday, and the day always seems much better when it falls on a weekend.

I started out the morning with a wonderful breakfast made by my hubby. He made gluten free waffles with GF Bisquick. I also had a mimosa, fresh fruit with dip, and coffee.

We enjoyed football appetizers during the MSU game. For this game we ate skinless, boneless chicken tenders and gluten free bagel chips with cheddar and bean dip.  I'll post more about this dip recipe on a later post. 

For dinner we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Las Canarias. I savored the food so much that didn't document all of the food with photos! But as usual, it was decedent and delicious. We ordered a three course meal with a wine pairing. This is me with my final course, one scoop of coffee ice cream and one scoop of pistachio gelato. 

 The handsome man who made the whole day of food possible!

I love getting free birthday desserts! Even after my ice cream, they brought out chocolate covered strawberries for me. Remember last year when we celebrated my birthday in Dallas? I enjoyed some gelato then!

After dinner we went to a musical at the Cameo Theater. We saw The Marvelous Wonderettes, which was about four girls in the 50s and 60s. Following the show, we had some drinks downtown.

We were able to meet up with some friends I made while Justin was deployed where we danced the night away.

Me & Kara

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!

Super Bowl Snacks: Part 1

Simple Taco Seasoning Dip: 1 of several finger foods we enjoyed during the Super Bowl.

3 Main Ingredients for the base are cream cheese, sour cream, and taco seasoning

First soften cream cheese a little. (I left it sit out for a bit before making the dip.) Then mix equal parts cream cheese and sour cream; I mixed 8 oz. of each. Do not use the whole packet of taco seasoning, it will be too much. I probably used about 2 - 3 tablespoons. My recommendation would be to add a little then taste, that way you can add more if need be. Using a hand mixer allows the cream cheese to mix better with the sour cream.

Spread the mixture into a container. Ideally a pizza pan would make it look the best and would spread it out a little thinner, but I wanted to use a container with a lid. As a result, it was a little thicker than I would've liked.

Sprinkle with cheese to cover the cream cheese mixture.

Then layer with vegetables of your choice. I like to use tomatoes, green onions and black olives. I don't really care for black olives but I use them because they add more color. I can tolerate them while I'm eating the dip as well because there are other flavors that overpower them. I'm sure you can add some refried beans as a bottom layer too. The nice thing about this dip is that you can make it your own and it's fairly simple (because it doesn't consist of 7 layers!)

We bought these Jalapeno tortilla chips to use in the dip.

GF!

I'll leave you with an Imported from Detroit commercial.

Superbowl Snack Ideas

We love football and the Superbowl is quickly approaching. While I'm not a super fan of either team playing, we'll definitely be making some appetizers to enjoy throughout the game. I plan on trying some new recipes but for now...here are a few ideas for y'all.

Potato Skins

Calgary Hot Wings

Stuffed Mushrooms

GF Onion Rings

Jalapeno Poppers

Football and Finger Food

For the Big 10 Championship game, I requested some hot wings. I told my husband that I wanted real wings! (Remember last time we had them, we used chicken tenderloins.)

I couldn't help myself and had to take a photo of his written recipe. I would also like to point out that it says, "wheat beer" but he substituted Redbridge which he soaked them in the night before.

This is what they looked like before he put them on the grill.

We tried a different BBQ sauce today, Organic Valley's Original BBQ Sauce. Plus, the recipe has some kick from Sriracha and Red Hot.

 Saucing up more on the grill.

Smoked with some wood chips.

Look at those wings!

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

I decided to contribute to the appetizer dinner with some potato skins. I followed this recipe pretty close and they turned out great. First, I baked potatoes.

Meanwhile, I used nitrate free bacon.

Cooked (in the microwave) and then chopped.

Grapeseed oil, parmesan cheese, salt, garlic powder, paprika, and pepper.

Cheddar cheese, bacon, and green onion chopped, ready for topping.

 Cut the potatoes in half, then hallowed out leaving some for the "skins."

I covered the skins in the grapeseed oil mixture and baked for 7 minutes on one side at 475 degrees.

Then 7 minutes on the other side to get them crispy.

Sprinkle cheese and bacon, then back in the oven for 2 minutes.

Finally I topped them with sour cream and green onions.

The work was totally worth the taste. And to be honest, they weren't that difficult, it just seemed like the baking took a lot of time.