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Gluten Free Sweets and Treats

October 31, 2010 by Laura 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Here’s what you’ll find in Sweets and Treats:  Flourless Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies, Flourless Chocolate Cookies, Almond Paste Cookies, Midnight Mint Bars, Meringue Pie Shell, Chocolate Pie Filling, Bavarian Raspberry Cream Pie Filling, Homemade Eggnog Pie Filling, Pumpkin Pie Pudding, Corn Flour Apple Cake, Chocolate Mousse, Cake, Cranberry Torte, Blueberry Cream Nut Roll, Grilled Peaches with Raspberry Sauce, Cranberry Orange Relish, Pears in Raspberry Sauce, Layered Cranberry Sauce, Cranberry Orange Mousse, Apple and Pear Kabobs, Pear Cranberry Sauce, Easy Date Treat, Almond Muffins, Raspberry White Chocolate Mousse, Peppermint Fudge, Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles, Fruit Juice Gelatin, Healthier Eggnog, Hot Cranberry Citrus Drink

Gluten Free Sweets and Treats eBook
$6.95
Add to Cart

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Heavenly Homemakers Recipe and Cooking Tips Parade – Share YOUR Recipes!

October 28, 2010 by Laura 77 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Yum

I just can’t thank all of you enough for making this week SOOOOOO much fun! All of your comments and participation have been so great! After all of this, I haven’t even come close to running out of recipes to share…in fact several more recipe requests have come in this week. There is NO END to great, healthy recipes!! Just in case you wanted to see quick links for all of the recipes in our parade this week, I’ll put them together for you here:

  • Healthier Rice Crispy Treats
  • How to Cook Brown Rice
  • Cottage Cheese Ideas
  • Italian Pasta Bake
  • What to do with Butternut Squash
  • Powdered Sugar with Sucanat
  • Barbecue Brisket
  • Chocolate Fudge Frosting
  • Buttermilk Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake

There are still FIVE more winners to be chosen in the Parade Giveaway, so keep those comments coming in. PLUS, for more chances to win, each recipe you link up or share in the comments on this post will be counted in the drawing!! (You don’t have to share a recipe in the comments section, but you sure can if you want to!)  Also, be sure to sign up to win awesome Stainless Steel Bakeware from Paula’s Bread! I will draw the remaining giveaway winners and post them Saturday morning at precisely wheneverIgetaroundtoit-o’clock.

Okay everyone…it’s your turn now!!! What recipes have you been wanting to share with all of us? If you have a blog, link up your awesome recipes. You can link as many as you would like to share!! Here’s what I would prefer for each of you that link up:

  1. Please don’t link to your main blog page, link your actual recipe post so we can find it easily.
  2. Let us know what recipe you are sharing in your name/title, for example:  Laura @ Heavenly Homemakers (Turtle Soup)
  3. In your recipe post(s), please link back to this recipe parade so that your readers can come join the fun and discover new recipes too! You’re welcome just to copy and paste the following:  You’ll find all kinds of new recipes this weekend at Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Parade!!

If you don’t have a blog, please feel free to share your recipes in the comments section!

(I don’t really have a recipe for Turtle Soup -sorry if I got your hopes up.) 

Okay, are you ready? Start linking and visiting everyone’s blogs to learn more recipes!! Woohoo…I love a parade!!!

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Buttermilk Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake

October 28, 2010 by Laura 117 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Say, would you like a little chocolate cake with that chocolate fudge frosting? :)

This recipe is great because you can soak the flour to break down the phytates if you want. Or if you don’t, that’s okay too. 

Buttermilk Whole Wheat Chocolate CakeYum

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/3 cups sucanat
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
1/3 cup melted coconut oil or melted butter
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
Chocolate Fudge Frosting

If you choose to soak your flour, mix the 2 cups of whole wheat flour with the 1 1/3 cups buttermilk. Cover and allow this mixture to soak overnight on the countertop. Add remaining ingredients (everything but the frosting, that is) and bake as directed.

Otherwise…

Mix dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, oil or butter and buttermilk. Mix with beaters until batter is smooth and well mixed.

Work very hard to avoid grabbing a spoon and eating the entire batter directly out of the bowl before it has been baked. 

Butter two round cake pans or one 9×13 inch cake pan.

Bake round cakes at 350° for 25-30 or a 9×13 inch cake for 35-40 minutes. OR, leave the cakes in the oven until a toothpick poked in the middle comes out clean. Every oven is different, right?

Allow the cakes to cool completely before removing them from the pans. I used a butter knife to loosen the edges from the sides of the pan. Place the cakes on plates.

Did I forget to mention that you would need some of this Chocolate Fudge Frosting? Oh yes, you DO need a batch of this Chocolate Fudge Frosting. Plop a nice amount of frosting on one cake and spread it around well.

Like this…

Carefully place the other layer of cake on top of the frosted layer.

Oh look…it’s a chocolate fudge sandwich!!

Plop another nice amount of frosting on top of the second layer. Carefully spread the frosting over the top and sides. This step is not very easy for me and I’m usually messy and have to lick my fingers. Bummer.

All done.

Ah, a slice of chocolate heaven…

I will work (sometime within the coming months) to come up with a white cake and white frosting. However, when you’re using whole wheat flour and sucanat, the results are not going to be white. Anyone up for a Tan Cake?  Mmm, sounds good to me!

Get ready to share YOUR recipes Friday!!! Can’t wait to see what you’re going to share!!!

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Chocolate Fudge Frosting – the Healthier Way!

October 28, 2010 by Laura 112 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I won’t take up space talking about the loveliness of this recipe because well…it’s CHOCOLATE FUDGE FROSTING. Even if I thought of some cute words to write, you would likely be saying, “Yada, yada…show us the recipe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” And so…without further ado or ANY ado…here is the fudge frosting recipe made with homemade powdered sugar from sucanat I’ve been promising you…

Chocolate Fudge FrostingYum

1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup cocoa powder
4 (+) cups of powdered sugar (I suggest either making your own powdered sugar from sucanat, or using an unbleached powdered sugar)

Melt butter in a saucepan. Add water to the butter and bring it to a boil. Pour the boiling butter/water into a bowl with the cocoa and powdered sugar. Add vanilla and mix with beaters until thoroughly combined. Add a little more powdered sugar if the frosting is too runny, but keep in mind that it does thicken up just a little bit as it cools.

This recipe makes enough frosting for a two-layer cake or for a big sheet cake or for a nice thick layer of frosting on brownies or a 9×13 inch cake. Actually, it’s almost too much frosting for the brownies and 9×13 inch cake, so save some of it in your fridge and put the leftovers on homemade donuts another time. :)

Here’s our Buttermilk Chocolate Cake recipe! :)

 

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Barbecue Brisket (Easy!!!)

October 27, 2010 by Laura 123 Comments

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Yum

I’ve always been told that cooking a brisket is hard, which is why I avoided ever buying one…even though Matt always told me that it was his favorite cut of beef. Finally one day at the farmers market, I timidly went ahead and splurged on a small grass-fed beef brisket. I proudly brought it home and showed it to Matt (who was of course very excited to see me the brisket in my hands).

So what did I do next? I promptly put it into the freezer and avoided looking at it…for weeks. 

Good grief…I was afraid of a frozen piece of meat.

I’d paid good money for that little hunk of beef…I did not want to mess it up! No one I asked knew how to cook a brisket or they simply answered that same answer I’d always heard:  “Cooking a brisket is really hard. They can come out really tough.”

Well shucks.

I don’t know where the courage finally came from, but one day I pulled that brisket out and did a little research on how to cook it. A barbecue variety of brisket sounded better than anything, so that is what I decided on.

Um hellllllooooo!!! NEWS FLASH:  Cooking a beef brisket is REALLY EASY!!!!  And don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise!!!

The trick is this:  Cook it low and slow. Or slow and low, whichever works better for ya. 

I’ve now made many a brisket because after biting into THE most delicious and tender meat EVER I’ve decided to join Matt in the “Brisket is my Favorite Cut of Beef Club”.

Care to join our club?

Here’s a little tutorial, which is rather silly because why do you really need pictures to show you how to put meat in a dish and cook it, but whatever. And also, it really isn’t very fun to look at raw meat in a dish. Ah, but here’s a tutorial for BBQ Brisket nonetheless… (Apparently reading this is your initiation before joining our “Beef Brisket is my Favorite Cut of Beef Club”.)

I usually buy a 2-3 pound brisket. They aren’t the cheapest cuts of meat, neither are they the most expensive. I have been able to find them for about what I’d pay for a roast (grass fed, organic), so I feel like it’s a pretty good deal. 

Step number one:  Put your brisket in a cooking dish (Wow Laura, thank you for showing us a picture of this. We would never have been able to follow that step if you hadn’t shown us what you meant.):

Step two:  Whip up a quick batch of High Five BBQ Sauce. Spread the sauce over the brisket.

Step three:  Put a lid on the baking dish. (Again, what a fabulous tutorial.)

Bake the brisket low and slow and slow and low. I go with 250° for 4-5 hours.

Slice the meat “against the grain” (which, of all things, I don’t have a picture of) and serve.

This meat tastes so, so, so good served with Cream Scalloped Potatoes and some green beans or a salad.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that cooking a brisket is hard. And if anyone ever DOES tell you that it is hard, you give them a link to this tutorial because it could be that they’ve just never had anyone ever show them how to put meat into a dish before. Ah yes, I’m always here to help.

So what club are you in…as in…what’s your favorite cut of beef? Or do you have a favorite? (Hmm, maybe you have a favorite cut of…chicken?)

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Make Your Own Powdered Sugar with Sucanat

October 26, 2010 by Laura 171 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Yum

This little cooking tidbit makes me very excited! I believe I had heard this tip before, but until Theresa reminded me in a recent post comment, I had forgotten to try it.

Did you know that you can make your own unprocessed powdered sugar from sucanat?  Uh-huh, it’s true!!!

I have been using an organic, unbleached powdered sugar as a slightly healthier alternative to regular powdered sugar. At least it is organic and at least it has not been bleached. But still…there are not many nutrients left in this type.

But if you make your own powdered sugar from sucanat, you’ve got a much healthier powdered sugar. And would you like me to tell you how EASY it is to make powdered sugar?? Here, let me show you…

You need two things:  A Blender and Sucanat 

Put no more than two cups of sucanat in your blender at one time. I poured in four cups the first time I tried and it took forever to get it all “powdered”. Two cups at a time actually saves time, even if you need more than two cups of powdered sugar for a recipe.

Put the lid on your blender (always a good idea, right?). Blend up the sucanat for just a few seconds until it turns powdery.

Check out what happens when you take the lid off the blender. They don’t call it powdered sugar for nothin’…

And there you have it…homemade powdered sugar from sucanat.

I have only used this powdered sugar to make a chocolate fudge frosting (and yes, I’ll be sharing the recipe). I would imagine it will work for other recipes, but I’m pretty sure the frosting won’t ever be the color white. :)  Wowza, I can not wait to experiment with more recipes using homemade powdered sugar. Look out everyone!

(Actually, the recipes may be few and far between. My family really doesn’t need to be eating that much sugar, even if it is healthier!)

So, what do ya think? What can we make with our homemade powdered sugar??? 
—————————————–

Find many of your Sucanat questions answered here!

Recipes we’ve created so far to use with your Sucanat Powdered Sugar…

  • Healthier Caramel Frosting
  • Chocolate Fudge Frosting
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

What to Do With Butternut Squash

October 26, 2010 by Laura 157 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Yum

I did not grow up eating butternut squash (or any kind of squash for that matter). I hadn’t a clue what to do with one until a few years ago. They are, in fact, quite yummy. But here’s the most exciting thing about a butternut squash:

You can use a butternut squash to make a pumpkin pie. Or pumpkin bars. Or pumpkin pie pecan squares. Or just about any pumpkin treat.

It tastes exactly the same in a recipe and no one can tell a difference. 

Just for the record, I’m not trying to be deceitful by switching out the ingredients…just trying to use up what I have and I think it’s cool that these ingredients are interchangeable! I will say that using squash to make a “pumpkin pie” sounds a little silly because a squash is not a pumpkin…but calling it a squash pie just doesn’t even sound good. And so I will continue to use squash to make pumpkin pies and I will continue to call it a pumpkin pie and everyone will continue to eat it because it is so good.

But first, let’s talk about how to prepare a butternut squash. There are other ways to make pureed squash, but here’s the easiest way I’ve found:

First, cut your gourd in half. Or close to half.  Mine usually end up being quite lop sided. 

Use a wooden or a heavy duty metal spoon to scrape out the seeds and stringy stuff.

Place your squash face up in a baking dish and bake, uncovered for at least an hour at 350° or until your house smells squashy and you can poke a fork into your squash very easily. See, look at the fork pokes:

Use a spoon to scoop out all the soft, cooked squash. You can eat it just like it is…you can sprinkle sucanat on it, you can butter it, you can salt it. It’s very tasty eaten in these ways.

Or…you can puree it. Place all the scooped out cooked squash into a food processor or blender.

Process for just a few seconds until smooth.

Look, pureed squash:

Now you can feed it to your baby, feed it to your grown ups…or you can make these Sweet Potato Streusel Muffins. Yep, not only can you make a Pumpkin Pie and other pumpkin treats with squash, you can make Sweet Potato Muffins. Is this getting confusing yet?

Just last week I made a delicious “Pumpkin Pie” with butternut squash. My father-in-law was still here at the time and he declared it the best pumpkin pie he’d ever had. In fact, he declared it the first pumpkin pie he’d ever LIKED. {grin}

Are you squash eaters at your house? How do you like your squash? Ever used squash to make something that calls for pumpkin or sweet potatoes?

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Easy Italian Pasta Bake

October 26, 2010 by Laura 175 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

It almost seems silly to even call this a recipe. It’s basically a “cook some noodles in spaghetti sauce, add meat, top with cheese” kind of idea. Goulash in a casserole dish. Spaghetti with different noodles and turned into a casserole. Ah, but instead of letting you know all of that, I’ll act like it’s a fancy dish called…Italian Pasta Bake.

You’re impressed, aren’t you?

Ah well…simple recipes are what I do best. They’re what my family likes best and they’re easy to make. This recipe also freezes well and is easy to make for company.

Italian Pasta BakeYum

1 pound ground beef or turkey
1/4 cup chopped onion or 3 Tablespoons dry minced onion
4 cups tomato sauce
2 cups water
2 Tablespoons basil
1 Tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder or one clove fresh garlic
Sea salt to taste
10 ounces whole wheat pasta, any shape (we like bionature brand)
2 cups shredded cheese (we use white cheddar, but you can use mozzarella or any combination of your favorite cheeses)

Brown meat and onion together. Meanwhile, bring tomato sauce, water and herbs and spices to a boil. Stir in pasta and boil until tender. Do not drain. The pasta should have absorbed the liquid! Mix in cooked meat. Salt as desired. Spread mixture into a 9×13 casserole dish and top with cheese. Bake uncovered at 350° for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and the casserole is heated through and through.

So, do you have a favorite pasta shape?  I think picking the shape of pasta for our dinner is kinda fun. Penne, Fusilli, Rotini, even good ol’ Elbow.

Ah the joy of picking pasta shapes. Am I the only one who thinks this is fun?

Grocery List

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Gratituesday: I Loved Today!

October 25, 2010 by Laura 23 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I just LOVED today! All of you have made the Recipe and Cooking Tips Parade SO much fun…and we’re just getting started! Thank you so much for all of your encouraging comments and participation. What a blast!

I also loved today because it was Matt’s day off. I love Matt’s day off. He was able to spend the entire day with us and we got so much done! The weather was beautiful again today so Matt and the boys dug up the rest of the potatoes in our garden and brought in a huge load of tomatoes. Will the tomatoes never stop? This has been a very long gardening season for us!!

I had to take a picture…there is something so precious to me about
seeing our boys working hard alongside their daddy.

Not to be outdone…Malachi got to hold up the craziest shaped potato.

We made jars and jars of tomato soup this afternoon and evening. We got to eat three meals together today. We got to have prayer time as a family. Such a great day! I just loved it!

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!


Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

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More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Cottage Cheese

October 25, 2010 by Laura 124 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Yum

I have declared cottage cheese to be a hero in the kitchen. Yes, cottage cheese. Why? Because there are all kinds of yummy things you can make with it to finish off a meal – or to create a meal. Surprisingly, I found it within myself to write an entire article about the wonders of cottage cheese. 

You can read all of my amazing cottage cheese insights over at Deal Moon.

So, are you a cottage cheese lover? 

By the way, at our house we sometimes call it college cheese. I don’t know why. But we crack up at ourselves every single time. Clever, aren’t we?

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