Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients:
-1 pie crust (whatever one you prefer)
-2 c cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (or just get a can)
-2 tbsp butter, softened
-2 eggs, beaten
-1 c white sugar
-1 tbsp all-purpose flour (GF of course)
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 c buttermilk (no skimping on the low-fat version)
-1/4 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Mix mashed sweet potatoes, butter, and eggs.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, flour, and salt. Mix in spices if desired. Add to sweet potato mix.
4. Mix together buttermilk and baking soda. Add to sweet potato mix and stir well. Mix in vanilla extract. Pour filling into pastry shell.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 70 minutes, until set in center.


Enjoy!

Udi's Cinnamon Rolls

The same day we bought the Udi's blueberry muffins, we grabbed a pack of these for the same price ($2.38).


They're OK, the texture is rather spongey and once you nuke them they become rock hard. The icing is delicious though. I don't know if I would recommend buying them if you had to pay $6.00 (regular price), but they're not bad for the price we paid.

Udi's Blueberry Muffins

Tommie and I were at Kroger the other day and were amazed at how many gluten-free items were marked down on clearance. The big plus about clearance items at Kroger, they also allow you to use manufacturer coupons so we got these muffins for $2.38!!!


The texture resembled gluteny muffins and the taste was amazing. I would definitely recommend these to anyone - especially if you can get them for the price we did (otherwise they're about $6.00).

Crunchy chicken

Okay, so we had a lot of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and I had to figure out what to do. I decided to take some of Tommie's cereal and make some crunchy chicken.

All I did was smash up some of his Nature's Path Whole O's and add some sea salt and pepper. I then coated the chicken (I didn't add any egg or anything), placed it in a baking dish and popped it in the oven at 350 for about 35-40 minutes.
(before going in the oven)

(close-up of the chicken before it was baked)

After being baked.

It was pretty yummy and crunchy, of course the bottom was a little soggy. Still haven't figured out how to make it all crunchy - if you know the trick then give me a hollar.

Enjoy!

Puppy Chow

So you will never find this stuff just sitting around our house. Tommie hates (and I mean hates) peanut butter and I'm trying to drop some pounds so it isn't conducive to our styles. However, I was asked this year by my mom and sisters to make a batch for the holidays. So I figured I'd throw the recipe up here just in case there are still people out there that don't know how to make it.

Ingredients:
-9 cups of Chex cereal (woo hoo for GF cereal)
-1 c chocolate chips
-1/2 c peanut butter
-1/4 c butter
-1/4 tsp vanilla
-1 1/2 c powdered sugar

*Okay, here is another disclaimer: I may have giving you set amounts for the ingredients, however this is one of those recipes where you just wing it. If you think it needs more chocolate or peanut butter then add it.

1. Put the cereal in a large bowl, or ziploc bag (make sure whatever you put it in has plenty of room for your to mix up your ingredients).
2. Melt chocolate, peanut butter, and butter.
3. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
4. Pour over cereal and mix.
5. Put mix in a ziploc bag
6. Add powdered sugar and shake well to coat.
7. Now I don't do this, but you can then lay out the mix on wax paper and allow it to cool.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

(disclaimer: this is not a picture of my pie, mine never turns out that beautiful)

Ingredients:

-4 pkg cream cheese, softened

-1c sugar

-1 tsp vanilla

-4 eggs

-1 can pumpkin

-1 tsp ground cinnamon

-1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

-dash of ground cloves

*Preheat oven to 325

1. Beat cream cheese, 3/4c of the sugar and vanilla

2. Add eggs one at a time

3. Remove 1 1/2 c of the batter and set aside.

4. Into the smaller bowl of batter: stir in remaining 1/4c sugar, pumpkin and spices into large bowl.

5. Layer the 2 batters then take a knife and swirl through the batter.

6. Bake for 55 minutes (give or take).

Crust:

-GF snickerdoodle cookies (Enjoy Life has a great cookie, but you can now get them under the Trader Joe's name for a cheaper price. Udi's also makes a great cookie, but they're uber expensive).

-melted butter

-brown sugar (optional)

Now the idea is to put the cookies in a food processor until they're crumbled, then add in the butter (and brown sugar if you want) to make a crumb crust. I use a spring form pan so I just grease the bottom and spread the mix over the pan. I put a cookie sheet under the pan when baking to remove the chance of any mess.

I get rave reviews for this every year (I usually make it at Thanksgiving).

Restaurant Review: Papa Roux revisited

Okay, so I know in the past I've sang the praises of Papa Roux, however, I don't think I fully explained the yumminess of this establishment.

As some of you know, I work nights at a hospital and so dinner time has become somewhat of a non-existent entity in our home. Well, last Friday I was cancelled due to a low patient population (which is great for patients and turned out to be great for me). I quickly decided that I was going to pick up Tommie from work and we were going to go to Papa Roux's for dinner.

Even though I had eaten Papa Roux's once before, I had never actually been for a 'sit down' at the restaurant. Therefore I was a little surprised when we walked in and (1) it is tiny, and (2) it was packed!!!! It resembled a marketplace almost on how quick and efficient the staff was at helping customers order their food and get moving.

Here are some pros about eating at the restaurant:
1. you will most likely get to sit next to someone you've never met
2. unlimited FREE sides
3. did you read number 2?

So Tommie ordered the roast beef po-boy with no bread. I ordered the muffaletta. Then we set down and a waitress zoomed over and explained the 'flag' system. Basically, when you're ready for a side you just raise the flag and let the staff know what you want. The servings about 1/2 cup sizes so if you don't like something then you won't feel too bad about not finishing it. Plus, it helps you to not overeat.

Of course are meals were FANTASTIC. Here is a list of all of the GF options:
*All Po-Boys are GF when served over rice.
*red beans & rice
*creole (SUPER SPICY, but sweet and yummy if you can handle the heat...beware)
*chili
*chicken creole
*chicken chili
*chicken chili frito pie
GF sides: (remember these are unlimited when you eat in)
*red beans & rice (mentioned above)
*coleslaw
*creole
*apple sauce
*white rice

So everyone should go to this restaurant. The food is wonderful, the staff is friendly, and the price is great! Dinner cost us about $17 and we were so full when we left. BTW: you can order any of their sides to go for $.50!!!!

Restaurant Review: Square Rootz Deli

Located at 1111 Prospect St., Indianapolis, IN 46203

The inside is pretty cool. Check out the awesome layout and colors. Also, there is some pretty cool artwork hanging about. You can also pick up massage oils, groceries, and pick up some albums at Uncle Rudolph's Record Rack (make sure you bring cash if you to plan to buy any music).

So you walk in, place your order, and have a seat. The hardest part of this routine, deciding on what you're going to eat. I ordered the reuben with pasta salad (of course mine wasn't GF). Tommie ordered the reuben and mashed potatoes. Look below and see how pleased he was when he got the plate.

That my ladies and gentlemen is ONE reuben sandwich. I guess they figured that even though the bread is small, that they're not going to skimp on the portions. And by the way - the quality of the food is AMAZING. They use Udi's bread and Boar's Head meats. Look at all that cheese!!!!
And the outcome? Well, you can see for yourself. This place is AWESOME!!!! I would highly recommend this deli to anyone, not just GF Hoosiers. As a matter of fact, I think we're going to be making this a new hangout for us. And price? It cost about $20 for lunch, but did you see the size of that sandwich? And I know their pasta salad isn't GF, but if you're going with someone who can it, I suggest they try it.

Udi's at Krogers

So we were at the Krogers on 86th & Ditch and they had tons of Udi's goodies. They even had some of them marked down on clearance AND coupons on top of that.

We bought some cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins, bagels, bread, and snickerdoodle cookies.

Trader Joe’s 12 Chicken Satay Party Skewers

So we noticed these at TJ’s the other night and we picked them up for dinner. My first idea was to cook up some rice and have these on the side, but when I opened up the package I noticed that the sauce was not included. Of course I didn’t read the box in the grocery store – I was hungry and it looked yummy, I didn’t have time to read. So my next idea was to throw them over a nice salad. Well, the flavor wasn’t that great and the size does not match up the picture on the box. These things were tiny!!! Overall, I wouldn’t buy these again, too expensive for the quality and quantity. I know, I know, this is the first blog I’ve written that doesn’t suggest purchasing of the product. I think that shows how great of a store TJ’s is.

Um...by the way

So I just figured out that if I put a link to the specific item I'm talking about, you can just click on the title of that particular entry and it will take you to the corresponding website.

Yep...call me a genius. LOL

Hodgson Mill Gluten-Free Cookie Mix

Tommie was craving cookies pretty bad when we came across this mix at Kroger. It’s not a bad price, comparable to Betty Crocker but sometimes cheaper. The mix was super easy to prepare and yumdidilyumptious (aka…real good). I would definitely buy these again, especially since they’re so easy to dress up by adding any ingredient you want.

Nature’s Path Organic Crunchy Vanilla Sunrise Cereal

I won a gluten-free basket full of wonderful goodies from Georgetown Market. Just another reason to shop at that great store!! Anywho – this cereal was in the basket and I knew Tommie wouldn’t like it so it instantly became mine. I think this is a great cereal and so versatile. I actually didn’t eat it with milk; I put it over my yogurt. Mmm. I’m not sure the price of this cereal since I won it, but the quality is fantastic.