I'm Back! WIth Gluten Free Egg Muffins!

Wow! I can't believe how long it's been since I've blogged about gluten free foods. Trust me, I've eaten plenty! I guess my YA Book Blog just sort of took over. But I plan on getting both running regularly ASAP!

For about 3 years now, due to my health, I've been working, very , very part time. But recently I took on a full time supervisor position at work. So far, I love my job, and I enjoy not having to stress about making ends meet or living on a 4 hr a week salary. Its such an amazing feeling to get my bills paid on time and still have money left to treat myself with.

Working full time, is still a challenge with all of my health problems. And it means I have to plan ahead and be deligent with my meals. Something I'm still working at. Our family is also down a car right now (mine!) and that means sometimes I am dropped off at work, for 8 hours while my family works 30 miles away. I have to make absolutely posative that I have gluten free meals and snacks with me, because I can't leave to grab food, and if I eat gluten and get sick , I can't leave until my ride comes back 8 hours later. Yikes!

The hardest meal for me, is breakfast! Which seems insane because it is acutally my favorite meal of the day! Not a day goes by that I don't eat a good breakfast. However, sharing vehicles means sometimes I leave the house an extra hour early to drop people off at work on my way. I don't always get enough sleep and hit the snooze button way too  many times. I am so guilty of hitting snooze too often and running out the door with no breakfast in my stomach, hair in a bun and no makeup. I often tell myself "I'l just pop into McDonalds and order a sausage bisquit but not eat the bisquit". Yeah...riiiight! After I stare at that thin piece of sausage, I think, NO WAY is that going to fill me up! So there I go, glutenizing myself againN! Then I arrive at work, drained and exhausted before the day has even begun! Then the stomach cramps set in and I spend the day running to the bathroom. *sigh* Why do I always do this to myself?

I've tried going to bed earlier, not hitting snooze. It doesn't work! The one thing that does, is planning and prepping my meals ahead. Especially breakfast! In the next few weeks I'll be sharing all kinds of breakfast recipes that are easy and quick to prep for work. Today I will be sharing Egg Muffins!

I love Egg Muffins because I can throw them together while I clean, do laundry, or whatever! They are so versitile and the possibilities are endless! You can also opt to go the traditional route and make a quiche, but I love these because they require NO crust, AND are grab and go friendly! If I wake up late I can pop one in the microwave for a minute, grab it and run out the door and munch on it in the car. These are a staple in my house!

You will need:
Muffin pan
8 eggs
Vegtables of choice
Meat of choice
Cheese of choice
Salt
Pepper
Seasonings of choice
PAM cooking spray

First things first, the pan! You can use any size muffin tin you want. I've used the LARGE muffin tin and loved it!!! I eat a BIG breakfast every day so the large muffin tin was perfect for me. Altho in this post, I opted for a standard size muffin tin. You'll grease this with PAM, and preheat the oven to 350.

Next, in a bowl, crack open 8 eggs. You can do more or less depending on how many Egg Muffin's you want to make. I wanted a pan full so I used 8 eggs.

Next, you'll beat the eggs with a fork or whisk.

Next, I like to get my meat going. You can use bacon, ham, sausage, or whatever you prefer. Or you can omit the meat all together! Here I sliced up 4 slices of bacon and set them to cook on the stove while I chopped the veggies for my Egg Muffins.

In this particular batch of Egg Muffins, I opted for fresh spinach coarsley chopped, cherry tomatoes halved, onion, and diced orange bell pepper. Throw whatever veggies you want, or have on hand right into the bowl with the eggs.

Next get your cheese ready. I am OBSESSED with Mexican Queso Fresco cheese right now. And I do mean OBSESSED! I put this on everything. I'm totally hooked! Why it took me so long to try it I'll never know, but I am a fan for life! Being that I LOVE this cheese, I broke up quite a bit of it to use in my Egg Muffins. Go with your own personal favorites, pick a cheese you love and use as much or little as you want. 

Dump the m eat and cheesees of your choice into the bowl with the eggs and veggies. You can totally opt for a triple cheese Egg Muffin or a Meat Lovers, it's all up to you!

Salt and pepper to taste, and throw any fresh or dried seasonings or herbs that your heart desires! I love to throw in fresh basil from my garden or my favorite blend of dried herbs, Herbs de Provance!

Give it all a good stir so all of the ingredients get evenly incorporated.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin tins. 

Place it in the pre-heated oven and bake at 350 for about 20 to 25 minutes. This will vary depending on your oven. You'll know they are ready to pull out when the eggs get puffy and are set!

When they are ready pull them out of the oven a let them cool for a few minutes.

Grab a spoon and pop them out of the muffin tins. if you sprayed your tin with PAM you should have no problems getting them out. Plate them, or put them in the fridge for easy grab and go breakfasts that you and your family can enjoy all week long!

I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy, grab and go gluten free breakfast tutorial! It's a staple in my house and I love it! You can eat this with a bisquit or a piece of toast, enjoy it on top of a gluten free english muffin. They are amazing alone or topped with avocado and a dollop of sour cream! The possibilites and combinations are endless. I love how portable these are, and they are easy to grab and run out the door with!

Stay tuned for more quick gluten free breakfast ideas and recipes to come. As well as reviews of new products hitting the gluten free market!

Taking on the Impossible!

Alright guys. Mission Impossible has officially started! And I get the feeling that its going to be a VERY long ride! But hopefully you will all be here to laugh, and cry with me!

This week at our Gluten Intolerance Group meeting, as I sat around and talked to the other members I realized how much I love to cook. And while I am only LEARNING how to cook gluten free, I actually want to do much more than just that. I want to make my own Gluten Free cookbook!

It hit me lying in bed that night. And I couldn't sleep a wink. I kept thinking about some of the conversations we had that night. The one that stuck out in my mind the most was how EVERYONE missed pizza! It was UNANIMOUS! We talked about all the frozen pizza's out there, recipe's, and pizza crust mixes, and no matter how you sliced it, it still wasn't the same. I really felt myself identifying with them.

My absolute favorite food on the planet, besides cheesecake, is pizza! I could eat pizza every day of my life and never tire of it! Seriously. Everyone in the group said that was what they missed the most. I, like everyone else, have tried every kind of gluten free frozen pizza on the market. Some, well...they're just not edible. Some can be tolerated, and some are simply ok. But I've never found a pizza, or crust, that I genuinely liked. That seemed to be something we ALL had in common!

As we discussed how much we missed how good a real pizza tastes, I kept thinking how amazing it would be if someone would make a pizza crust recipe that was easy, simple, quick, and most of all delicious! And as I lay there in bed thinking, it hit me, why not me???

So today I started Mission Impossible. Working on creating a gluten free pizza crust recipe, from scratch! This is my first crack at creating a recipe for the cookbook I am hoping to make. And it is also quite possibly the last. I think I may have undertaken the impossible here. But talking to everyone that night, created a drive in me to come up with the perfect recipe! So here I am trying!

I immediately knew what kind of crust I wanted to make. And by the time I got ready for work the next morning I already knew all of the ingredients I wanted to use. So today I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. I had high hopes in my baking abilities. But, gluten free cooking is very foreign to me, and quite like a science experiment. Have I ever mentioned that I was terrible at science?

Anyhow, things didn't go quite as smoothly as I had hoped. But I did manage to make something that sort of resembles a pizza. It's baking in the oven as I type this, and it smells heavenly! Now what it tastes like is a whole other matter! I am saying little silent prayers that it isn't completely disgusting! I'm really nervous about how its going to turn out. But I am as stubborn as they come, and no matter how awful it may turn out, I am determined to keep trying until I get it right!

Wish me luck!

Putting My Cake to the Test

Well last night was our Gluten Intolerance Group meeting. So I decided to bring my experiment, *cough*, chocolate cake with me. As it turns out this meetings was dedicated to BAKING! With the owner of a Gluten Free bakery as our guest speaker. And I felt like a loaded gun, walking in there with my amateur cake! I mean these people are pro's! They ACTUALLY get PAID! To BAKE!!!!

I seriously felt like fleeing! Especially when I saw all the baked goods they brought for us to sample, all laid out on a table waiting for us. But it was too late, and there was no turning back. This was going to be a true test!

I didn't stick around long enough to get feedback and ask for opinions. I didn't want to steal the limelight away from our guest speaker who was wanting feedback herself on her products. But the few people I was sitting by, LOVED it! Of course, they could have just been saying that to me to be nice. But when it came time to pack up and go home, the only thing left that resembled a cake, were crumbs!

So I'm going to say that it was a hit! =)

Pure Genius!

I thought I would start this blog, that will follow me through my gluten free journey! About 6 months ago I started a gluten free diet. I don't have celiacs disease, but have a lot of stomach problems,and have for many years. My dr.'s think it's Crohn's disease, but tell me it can take 2 years to diagnose! 2 years...of being sick feels like FOREVER! My Mom was very instrumental in my healing process. She did lots of research and read books, and found that for many people who have IBS. Crohn's and other stomach conditions, a gluten free diet seemed to really help their flare ups and condition tremendously.

So here I am....I wasn't expecting much, but to my surprise, the gluten free diet has helped a lot. There's just one problem...sticking to it! I am a girl who LOVES to cook! Especially bake, it's my speciality! It's always been my dream to go to culinary school and own my own little bake shop one day.

Then finding foods to eat...now that's another HUGE problem! My favorite foods are pizza, pasta, anything Italian, bread, and pastries. And let me tell you, that was NOT easy to give up! I can't tell you how many times I went out to eat with family and friends, and gazed longingly at their plate of food. lol Can you imagine that? I would be at a restaurant, and even start salivating over a complete strangers plate of food....all the way across the room! How embarrassing!!!

The thing I miss the most, are my pastries! I miss baking, and creating delicious desserts so much! I really didn't know how to cook gluten free food. All I knew was, I couldn't make these amazing fettucini alfredo's anymore, or my homemade pizza's, or my killer desserts. I began to check out Gluten Free Cookbooks, and to be quite honest, they scared me! I'd flip through and find a dessert or bread that I wanted to make, and it called for things like , sorghum flour, rice flour, potatoe flour, xanthum gum, millet , and the list goes on and on. I had no clue what this stuff was, or even how to find it! To be honest, it seemed like a really scary science experiment. And I began to feel like I was going to need a degree in chemistry in order to be able to make a simple cake!

Then there's the problem of ingredients. I live in a little country town. So small that when a McDonald's was finally built, it was all they could talk about for an entire year! And you can forget finding xanthum gum, or any gluten free foods at our tiny grocery store. It' s a 30 mile drive to get to some of these ingredients, and even further for others! Between the gas and the astronomical prices on some of this stuff, it was out of the question! I couldn't figure out why recipes needed 3 or 4 different types of flour. I was so overwhelmed, that I gave up all together. And I began to really miss what gives me such great joy. Baking!

Today on my trek to Kroger, I found a miracle in a box. Literally! Gluten Free All Purpose Flour! This was BRILLIANT! Why hadn't anyone mentioned this to me before??? This was pure genius! I almost started screaming when I saw it beaming down at me from a shelf! And the price, $3.99 for a box??? Are you serious??? Did I just read that wrong??? That's incredible! Most Gluten Free products are triple the price of normal products.

According to the box, nothing special was needed. No xanthum gum, millet, rice flour, potatoe flour, nothing! Just use in place of regular flour to make your favorite recipe! Could it really be this simple?

I took it home, and began my very first gluten free baking project! Now let me start off by saying, when it comes to cooking, I am a prude! Nothing from a box will do for me! So needless to say, all of the gluten free cake mixes, did not satisfy this culinary queen!

I went home clutching my box of Gluten Free All Purpose Flour to my chest, determined to make something edible. I did as the box instructed, and made one of my favorite recipes, and just substituted GF flour for the regular. I made my famous Hershey's Chocolate Cake mix. I baked 12 chocolate cupcakes, and 1 chocolate cake. And the result, was not only edible, but completely DELICIOUS! I couldn't believe how great it tasted!!!

It gave me a whole new confidence to try some of these recipes. Although, I still don't think I'll be using all of the flours, they still scare me! It gives me flash blacks to science projects gone terribly wrong! But this particular experiment, was a complete success!