Category Archives: tasty adventures

GFCF Banana Bread

Posted by jOi-C in GFCF, tasty adventures

Not a total fail but certainly not bowl lickable either! The batter tasted and smelled like rust. Really gross! Even the first part of the bake time smelled rusty but by the end of the cooking time it smelled like banana bread. Surprisingly, it doesn’t taste so bad either!

I think next time I can’t have cooking ADD because I couldn’t remember how much cinnamon I had put it or if I had confused that amount with the xanthan gum amount. To top it off, ummm baking soda and baking powder are not the same thing…apparently someone failed to give me that memo.

Overall the 2 little Ormeo’s gave it a thumbs up! They’ve already gobbled up half of the pan ;)

Ingredients: (got this from Bob’s Red Mill bag)
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup GFCF all purpose baking flour
2 tsp baking powder (not to be confused with baking soda, who knew…)
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups banana, mashed

Optional – I didn’t add these because my kids and I don’t like it, ok I fibbed…I don’t like it…so there! ;)
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350. Bake for 1 hour. In my oven, 1 hour was perfect. Not sure how much the baking powder/soda affects taste, but I messed up and only had baking soda. The batter was rusty tasting and smelled that way while baking. But by the time it was finished it smelled like banana bread and didn’t taste bad either! And it stayed moist and not crumbly or too thick/compacted.

The Easiest and Tastiest (but not-quite healthy) Peanut Butter Cookies (GFCF too!)

Posted by jOi-C in GFCF, tasty adventures

I don’t like peanut-butter very much, and dislike peanut-butter cookies even more. But when the little Ormeo’s wanted home-baked cookies, I decided to search the internet for the easiest cookie recipe I could find. I actually found this recipe on a few sites, but ingredients were so minimal that I didn’t even have to save the website! Oh and the cookie being GFCF was totally unintentional but boy was Enzo happy!

I do have to say that easy comes with a price because this is sugar-overload on a plate! But they did come out so good and tasty and stayed so moist!

Ingredients:
2 cups peanut butter (I used the Skippy Natural Creamy)
2 cups sugar (can you say sugar rush??? I need to try it with a good sugar substitute that won’t comprise the yumminess)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract (the vanilla I used is gluten free so it kept the recipe GFCF)

Preheat oven 350. Use a cookie scooper to place on a pan and fork an X on the top. (Why do PB cookies look like that?) Bake for 12 mins. Parchment paper makes the cookies slide right off the pan, and makes for an easy clean up too.  The cookies are crumbly when hot, so I waited for it to cool a bit before moving to a cooling rack. Super easy huh?? You can just half the ingredients if you only want a few cookies. This batch made a lot of cookies, a little over 2 dozen I think!

Hey they are Enzo approved so they must be good right? ;)

Crabby Anniversary

Posted by jOi-C in SHMILY, tasty adventures

I am very grateful that my kids have an early bedtime (anywhere from 7:30-8:30p depending on what’s going on the next day). But there is twice a year (Valentine’s and our Anniversary) that I’m especially grateful for their early bedtime because we can sneak in ‘crabby’ nights like this.

This fella was so crabby and fiesty! He kept banging the sides and top of the cooler and everytime we’d peek in, he jumped up and snapped his snappy little claws at us. I guess I’d be crabby too if I knew what was coming! ;)

They didn’t stand a chance! Oh and they were soooo good and sooo sweet! The meanest of them was the sweetest tasting too! I hope we don’t have to wait for next year to have another ‘crabby’ night because these guys were just too tasty!

Happy 13th Anniversary Shmily and thanks for not cooking me up at my ‘crabbiest’ moments! – SHMILY =)

Gluten-Free

Posted by jOi-C in enzo, sensational kid, tasty adventures

Any of the SPD families out there successfully implement a gluten-free diet for their chiild? I know “success” is relative but I guess what I mean is that you saw a definite change and improvement in your child. Or just other families that follow a gluten-free diet.

Anyone have any insight on SPD and the gluten-free diet? How and where do I even begin? There’s so much info on the internet that I’m lost! Help please…And it sounds like a lot of work and effort so I want to make sure that it’s worth the energy and time.

Can't hardly wait!

Posted by jOi-C in family, intermission, kuya, tasty adventures

is it ‘can’t hardly wait?’ or ‘can hardly wait?’ Sheesh I guess my Stanton education hasn’t helped my grammar hehe. That is why we homeschool our kids! ;)

Oh Valentine’s Day can’t come fast enough! Every year, since very early in our marriage, we’ve always spent Hearts Day at home. I hate, err we hate, waiting in a crowded restaurant. Sooooo each Valentine’s Day is our Seafood Feast! ohohoh you don’t know how much I’m looking forward to my seafood goodness!

I guess this year we’ll have to figure out how to have our feast without putting Ethan into anaphylactic shock. haha ok it’s not really funny BUT for the past couple of years everytime we cook or eat any kind of shellfish around Ethan (esp when he eats it), his asthma flares, lips swell, neck swells, and throat feels lumpy/tight. Last year, after several failed rounds of steroids and 50+ pricks on his back, we found out why we were having these crazy episodes. And since he would prefer not to be jabbed with an EpiPen, I guess we have to plan dinner better!

Besides, I would PREFER not have to use that thing…you should have seen me and Ethan trying to practice with the trainer pen. You have to jab it to the side of your leg and quickly push the top so that it clicks…but ummm yeah took us  both forever to use a trainer pen (it clicks and you feel it snap both for the recipient of the EpiPen and the administrator). Can you imagine us with the real thing???

Oh Ethan! Poor kid has to miss out on the seafood goodness he once looked forward to!  Don’t worry Ethan, I’ll eat your share ok? and I promise not to talk or breath on you until AFTER I’ve disinfected my mouth. =D

*Note to self:
CRAB-LEG BREATH + ETHAN = ANOTHER STIMULUS FOR THE MEDICAL ECONOMY

The Next Iron Chef

Posted by jOi-C in kuya, tasty adventures


or the Cake Boss…except he doesn’t like Buddy Valastro very much, Ethan thinks he is mean. Besides I think he prefers cooking main dishes to desserts.

The last couple of months Ethan has really taken a liking to cooking. Nothing specific, just anything we’d allow him to cook without us. I love this age where he’s old enough to move around the kitchen with minimal supervision. He HATES when I pull the ‘helicopter-mom‘ on him  so I really do try to stay out of his hair.

We have quite a few boxed mixes in our pantry so we asked him if he’d like to bake us a goodie. Of course he jumped on that opportunity!

He’s baking brownies and pumpkin bread as I type. (I have to keep busy so I’ll stay out of his way, although he doesn’t seem to mind having his dad in the kitchen! hmmm) He said next time he’ll mix a bit of the brownie batter with the pumpkin to make a chocolaty (is that how you spell it? because that looks funny) pumpkin loaf. mmmmm!

Thanks Kuya for baking us treats!