Thankful Week Off

I have the week off of work and am so thankful for it. I figure I'll be able to blog a little more, do some homework, clean the house, spend time with my hubby, work on school stuff, and start decorating for Christmas. The list seems long, but I can be flexible.

Here's a blast from the past, aka a recipe inspired by Noodles and Co. (where Justin and I met while working) before they changed their menu many years ago. Want another Noodles and Co. inspired dish: find it here. Justin and I decided to make our own version of a peanut salad.

I started by chopping carrots and green onions. After that I washed some sprouts.

I followed the directions on the Thai Kitchen Rice noodles box. Then I added some San-J peanut sauce. You can find my love for San-J peanut sauce here, here, and here.

The salad is fairly simple: spring mix combined with the rice noodles. Then I topped it off with the carrots, green onions, and sprouts. Chicken was sliced and placed on the top.

Justin made a dressing with the San-J peanut sauce combined with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil to taste. The salad was so filling and a blast from the past. Now if I could only find some GF med dressing.

Reuben!

Remember when Justin and I went to Dallas for the GF Expo? We purchased a couple packages of GF bread mixes made by Montana Gluten Free Processors. I thought the brown bread mix would be prefect for some GF Reuben sandwiches. 

I followed a recipe that I received when I bought the mixes for European Brown Bread.

1 pkg. Montana GF Bread Mix

2 1/4 tbsp. yeast

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. instant coffee

2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. caraway seeds (I omitted these.)

3 eggs

1/4 cup oil

1 3/4 cup water between 110 and 115 degrees

1 tsp cider vinegar

The recipe said to mix all dry ingredients first. Then eggs, oil, and vinegar were mixed in a different bowl. After that I combined the two mixtures, and slowly added water to get a cake batter consistency.

It baked at 350 for 45 minutes. The bread came out looking well. It was moist and had a decent consistency. Since I made the bread, I couldn't get over two of the ingredients: cocoa and coffee. I felt I could taste the two and it didn't seem right. However, Justin said he didn't notice. The bread was good and worked for the Reubens.

I sliced the bread, used Boar's Head corned beef, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut.

And topped them off with Thousand Island dressing.

Delicious! First time I had a Reuben in years.

I'd be interested to try other pumpernickel/rye-like breads, of course, sans rye.

More Pumpkin

Halloween may be over, but it's still fall, which means more pumpkin recipes.

For some reason, this season I've been especially into finding recipes with pumpkin...I think it started when my hubby made these for me.

I wanted to make pumpkin GF waffles. I started with GF Bisquick.

I searched the Internet for a recipe; I had some trouble find something that wasn't completely from scratch. So I used my cooking skills and modified this recipe that is used with regular Bisquick.

I started by following the box's directions for GF waffles, found here. Then I stirred in a half of cup of pumpkin, which is naturally gluten free. (Just be careful not to buy the pre-made pie filling.) I also added about a tablespoon of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

They came out with a nice orange color, which may be difficult to see here. Justin and I both loved the way they turned out. The pumpkin flavor was apparent, but not overpowering. My only critique was that they had a spongy, wet consistency, which we weren't sure if it came from all the pumpkin. Maybe next time, I'll try a little less pumpkin. Regardless, they were a wonderful first attempt.

We tried them with maple syrup, but it was almost too sweet. So I had in mind another idea: some vanilla gelato. I only used this one little scoop and it was plenty for the entire waffle.

To do the job, I used Talenti's Tahitian Vanilla Bean gelato. (If you haven't tried this brand, it is amazingly good and you can actually read the ingredients on the back.

Milk, sugar, cream, powdered milk, vanilla, dextrose, guar gum, and lemon! The first picture below shows that this is gluten free.

Thank You Veterans!

What a day - It's Veterans Day, 11-11-11, Friday, and my MSU Spartans are playing basketball today...if only I had the day off too. 

Look at my handsome hubby in his uniform. Thank you Justin and all other veterans; I'm proud to be your wife.

While I didn't get this Friday off, I took last Friday off to attend Justin's Community College of the Air Force graduation. He received an Associate's in Human Resources and also earned a scholarship to help pay for his current schooling.

Afterwards, we headed downtown to celebrate at Las Canarias for a decedent GF lunch.

Prosciutto wrapped artichokes on Udi's gluten free bread.

I wanted to try something different and went with a chicken sandwich on GF bread. I'm glad I tried something different, but it didn't compare to Justin's meal.

Justin ordered the lunch special, which was photographed in a shadow from our seat near the Riverwalk. I don't remember the exact name but there was shrimp, a moist and tender steak, and finger potatoes in Spanish Chorizo. His had flavor that savored in your mouth.

God Bless America.

Go green!

Sea World

Every year since Justin's in the military we get into Sea World once a year for free. We've gone in the summer and at at Christmas time, so this year we decided to go for Hallowscreams last Saturday.

We saw a couple Shamu shows.

It was so much better when the trainers were allowed to be in the water with the killer whales.

Can you find my picture on the big screen?

Justin texted my picture to the number during the show, and there I was after the show!

To my surprise, Sea World offers some gluten free options! I've never seen these the last two years. They had a prepackaged bag of various goodies, like GF cookies and bars.

I looked on their website for more specifics, and they offer this allergen page that suggests speaking with someone when you arrive. But the nice thing is they do offer prepackaged items that are for sure safe to consume.

We went through 3 different haunted adventures from mazes to a forest.

Here we are at the end of the night, watching Shamu's haunted show.

Happy Halloween

Ready for trick-or-treaters.

London broil roast with mashed potatoes and corn - a hearty meal for a perfect fall night.

Ghostly Pines red wine with fall colored peanut butter M & Ms.

Backup bags ready.

Full bowl of full sized candy bars for the neighbor kids. (Some gluten free and some gluten-full candy.)

 Uncle Sam reporting for duty.

Lady Liberty a.k.a according to one small girl...Barbie.

And Minnie Mouse!

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.