Chocolate Hazelnut Spread || Part Deux

Remember that one time I made some dairy free chocolate hazelnut spread, then made that crazy time consuming nutella crepe cake?!

How could you forget right. 

Well, you could probably forget quite easily because you weren't the one who spent a hundred years flipping crepes. 

But I will never forget.

Chewy Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I've been staring at this page for a good twenty minutes trying to think of something clever to right here in this post, but the truth of it is that is is too hot, my mind is focused on the two episodes of American Horror Story I have left to watch and I am currently using all my internal power not to go make a large pre-dinner snack of tacos.

I can't think right when I'm hot and hungry and in the middle of a Netflix coma.

I just cannot.

Gluten Free Salmon Cakes

As you have probably all come to know by now, my oven is broken.

It decided to take an eternal nap starting right in the middle of cooking an Easter roast. It did take the effort to finish cooking it first though, because we train our appliances to always be kind and considerate around here.

If you follow me on instagram or twitter, (both @carinamdee) you will have noticed that I've been making these little salmon cakes a lot lately.

Thankfully, I started working on this recipe before the oven situation, so I knew I would be okay without it. 

This ones all stove, baby.

Paleo German Chocolate Cake

Last Sunday was my birthday! 

It was super low key because the weekend before we were in San Francisco, and in my old age I don't really care too much about my birthday anymore.

It's just an excuse to eat cake, really.

A cake that everyone on restrictive diets could eat, which meant a cake without cane sugar, dairy gluten or grains.

And yes, I make my own birthday cakes. I enjoy doing it, and have the excuse to make it however I want because it's my day and I can do whatever I want.

Gluten & Dairy Free Acai Smoothie Bowl

In this thing called life, a lot of trends come and go. There is always the current popular thing to do, whether it is a color, hair style (I cut my hair first you guys!) or certain food items.

Soy products where a big thing once, kale was suddenly everywhere, then came in the coconut oil...and now acai. There is always a hot food of the moment.

But here is the thing about trends, they become that way because people like them. Or pretend to anyway. Remember that time bagel foreheads where a thing? I do not know who in their right mind ever jumped on that band wagon...

Because popular things became popular for some kind of a reason, I feel like it is important to try them out. Not because I want to be one of the cool kids necessarily, but just because I want to see what its all about.

Enter the acai smoothie bowl, the new kale green smoothie.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread French Toast

Remember the great pumpkin bread dilemma of twenty-fourteen? Well, if you happened to have succeeded in making a batch of pumpkin bread then I got an extra little treat for ya today.

Pumpkin bread french toast guys. French toast, made with pumpkin bread. yup.

A perfect little treat for a weekend breakfast, or a for a little pre-gaming Thanksgiving morning.

Spaghetti Squash & Meatballs

As part of my beat the pots-cure the migraines-be healthy enough to move to another country diet, I am trying desperately to avoid sugar and condensed carbs. Meaning no bread, no white potatoes, no pasta's and sorry to say, no cookies. That said. I happen to have the worlds strongest craving situations that ever did exist. If I suddenly develop the urge to eat a chocolate chip cookie for example, no other food will satisfy me until I eat that chocolate chip cookie. Days and weeks can go by, and I will still want one and will have eaten everything else in the cupboards while trying to avoid the one thing I actually wanted. 

Solution: Eat a darn cookie. Usually for me it only takes a bite or two to realize I was fussing over nothing, and then I get over it.
I forgot where I was going with this....
I think what I was trying to say, is don't deprive yourself. Eat what your gonna eat, just do it wisely.

Like a pasta dinner. But lets go ahead and take out the pasta part of that pasta.

Paleo "Cornbread" without any corn

That title makes sense, right?

Cornbread made Paleo, hold the corn. 

So really it's bread. But its really kind of cake.

Regardless, it's Paleo, it tastes good, and you can lather it in honey-butter and call it cornbread.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

This post must be started with a disclaimer.

Every fall, women and children alike (I'm pretty sure not much of the male population is included in this) get incredibly excited for the arrival of pumpkin flavored goods.  The day Starbucks rolls out their pumpkin latte, everyone knows about it whether they care or not by the influx of social media attention. Really....I don't need to see another picture on Instagram of a Starbucks cup. Seriously. Stop it.

They get excited to buy cans of pumpkin and use it in every possible baked good they can think of, eat as many slices of pie as they can fit in their mouth, and light candles with the scent of the favorited orange squash.

The one woman-child that does not give a hoot about pumpkin flavored anything,would be this one right here. Yup. I really couldn't care any less about any of it. Actually thats not true, because saying I  couldn't care less gives the implication that I am indifferent to the whole thing, when in actuality I really quite despise it all. 

I said it, I do not like pumpkin.

I cannot stand pumpkin pie, I do not like the smell, the texture or the taste of any pumpkin goods I've come across. Maybe somethings just wrong with me, I dunno. 

Gluten Free Apple Crumble

Thanksgiving is tomorrow!! Yippe-i-o!

I am so ready to eat some yummy food, watch the parade, and eat more food.

You with me on that one? 

After stuffing your pie hole with savory, heavy foods, it eventually becomes to stuff that hole with actual pie.

And by pie, I mean a crustless crumble, because who needs more carbs after all that?

Not that I wouldn't love more carbs in my system, but mostly likely my gut won't appreciate it very much.

Like the rest of this weeks post, there is not much of an actual recipe involved with this apple crumble.

Slice and peel up some apples, add a little sugar (maple or brown!) and top off with a flour/butter mixture.

Ta da! Apple crumble.

For four ramekins of apple crumble, here is what I measured out:

3 red apple, peeled and sliced

2 tblsp maple sugar

toss together lightly, and lay in ramekin.

For crumble:

3/4 cup GF flour

4 tblsp DF butter, melted
1 1/2 tblsp maple sugar

Fork in melted butter to flour until lumps formed.

Enjoy!

and a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Food Find Friday: Jovial Foods Gluten Free Pasta

So I have been sitting here staring at this screen for a good hour now trying to knock this post out.

I keep getting distracted by dilly-dalling, and cannot seem to focus on writing this post.

Also Blurred Lines is playing right now, and one cannot just sit still with that song busting out.

Not possible.

Part of my distraction is also that I have barely seen the glow of a computer for the last week, I mean I come back to cyber world and royal babies are being born, bachelorette mens tell all has already happened, and five million emails are sitting in my inbox.

Remind me to not go off the map again. 

Or remind me to do it again, I'm not quite sure yet.

Before all the craziness and visitors arrived last week, I had a mission to test and begin reviews for the eight hundred boxes of products I have received over the last couple weeks. I wanted everything to be done and gone in time for the festivities, if for any reason but to clear the boxes out of my hallway.

I mostly succeeded, at the very last minute. 

The fine folks at Jovial sent me a couple boxes of their gluten free pastas last week, and due to my ever expanding love of pasta; I couldn't wait to try them out.

Jovial is not a brand I see to frequently around these parts, especially not in the pasta section. I have seen a couple of their cookie products lining the shelves and assumed desserts where what they made. Boy was I surprised when I opened up a box of noodles!

And man was I even more surprised when I learned the majority of their products are pasta, or pasta related!

Jovial (which means happy, or cheerful. In case you where wondering.) has both wheat and gluten free products, all completely organic. In their gluten free corner, they have noodles, cookies, olive oil and canned tomatoes.

The noodles are all made in a dedicated allergen free facility (yay dedicated facilities!) and their cookies are made on sanitized equipment on designated days.

I can't wait to get my teeth into some of those cookies ;)

The first pasta I tried out was the tagliatelle. 

Tagliatelle if you don't know, is a traditional egg pasta. The ingredients are so incredibly simple with just brown rice flour and eggs listed. 

Because I had received two types of noodles, I wanted to try one cold and one warm.

The tagliatelle went for the cold.

I kept it simple by just adding lots of vegetables and a light roasted pepper sauce, and letting all the flavors meld together in the fridge for a couple hours.

This is really a catch all dish, no "recipe" needed (other then the red pepper sauce, click the link above for that) so you can throw in anything you want.

I added lightly steamed broccoli, red onions, bell peppers, spinach, and cherry tomatoes. 

It was yummeroo!

The noodles absorbed all of the flavors so wonderfully, just like real wheat noodles do. You may have noticed in your own endeavors that gluten free noodles tend to just get soggier in time, not more flavorful like glutenous noodles do.

But these Jovial noodles did not get all soggy and gross. Win!

Besides that, what do you really say about a noodle, ya know? It had good texture, and it took on flavors well. 'nough said.

 Next up was the spaghetti noodles.

I felt the only way to go with traditional spaghetti noodles, was to make a traditional spaghetti with meatballs. Right?

 For the spaghetti sauce in this dish, I roasted some tomatoes, garlic and bell peppers (roasted tomatoes forever!) in the oven to make the base of the sauce.

Have you ever roasted whole garlic bulbs? I do it all the time. Its delicious.

What you do, if you've never done it before; is cut off the top of a whole garlic bulb, and wrap the rest of it in foil. Bake for about a half an hour, or until the garlic has gotten all juicy and delicious.

Yum!

So after baking all that goodness up, you'll throw the tomatoes, peppers and garlic insides into a saucepan, along with a jar of tomato sauce. Add a little fresh basil and red wine vinegar, and call it a day!

Pre-made sauce made better.

Also, try not to forget you have meatballs in the oven during that whole time. They won't thank you for it later.

Now that you're digging into your spaghetti and meatballs, you'll notice how wonderful it tastes. Aside from the delicious sauce, or the too tough meatballs; there is a perfect noodle base. Firm noodles that hold their own against all of the other flavors and textures, and best of all don't shatter to a million pieces when you twirl your fork around them. All I want is to have a little Lady and the Tramp action going on when I eat spaghetti. 

Jovial succeeded in that.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Crostini with Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic

I have developed a new addiction these days.

I also have several old addictions, and between the new and the old; I have created the most delicious snack on the planet.

Here it is, a marriage between my three favorite things: 

garlic (!!!), crostini (!!!) and roasted tomatoes (!!!).

The best part, it's super easy to make. 

So easy a caveman could do it, as they say.

You know how much I like easy.

How did this delicious masterpiece come to be, you might ask.

Well let me tell you:

I have been craving garlic bread for like, a month now. Between parties, and visitors and all sorts of stuff going on, I just haven't had the opportunity to eat some.

But as I was dreaming and salivating over the the very thought of that garlic-y, buttery, toasted goodness; a wonderful thought came to my mind.

A thought about bruschetta, which turned into an idea with roasted tomatoes.

And thus, the roasted tomato and garlic crostini was born.

*instead of slicing it lengthwise, like this^^^

you can slice the bread into circles, like so^^^

I say circles if you wanna get fancy, and boats if you just wanna stuff your face.

I obviously just wanted to stuff my face.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free English Muffins. Sorta.

I have a problem being left alone. 

Knowing that I'm all by myself, just freaks me out. 

When solitary, I get super antsy, snacky and sleep deprived.

Last weekend, was such a time when me and the Pennster where left to our own devices.

To Penny, it meant nothing. To me, it meant several days of no sleep, lots of projects, and an overused television.

In between watching a Snooki & Jwoww marathon (so bad its good. Really I probably shouldn't admit to watching it...), and cleaning every surface I passed; I decided to bake some things.

First, I made a loaf in the bread machine, 

oh look, here it is:

I was not super thrilled with it...I have yet to find a good bread machine situation I liked. (although, I did make it for stuffing at Christmas, and it worked perfectly.)

It also could have not been so great because I put it in, then left for three hours to do an impromptu photo shoot and Chipotle date with a friend.

Coulda been the problem. Who knows.

Next up, I made some English muffins. I call them english muffins, because thats what they were supposed to be, and thats what I used them for, but they didn't actually taste like a regular, gluten filled muffin. They were delicious, obviously :) but a little bit different. 

These little bread nuggets did have the basics of an english muffin though; a hard exterior, and soft and fluffy inside. 

I will continue to try for a more "normal" english muffin recipe, but in the meantime I'll keep enjoying these little guys. I used a buckwheat flour blend, which helped it stay moist and a little more filling.

Heres the recipe for you very fine folks:

*I do not have english muffin rings, so I used my mini springform pans, and It worked just fine. I imagine you could just spoon them on a pan also; they just wont be as shaped :)

Enjoy!

Stay tuned for what I used these english muffins for!

P.S. Thanks for hanging in there while I promote my non-food related social media outlets, I'm almost done, I promise :)

oh but hey, you can follow me by clicking on the links  over there >>>

Love you all! 

xoxox

Heirloom Tomato Salad

Spring is in the air, and summer is just around the corner!

In reality, I'm not all that excited about it, seeing how sunshine and warm weather aren't really my thing.

But what I am excited about is tomato season. Sunny Saturday mornings at the farmers market, and fresh vegetables from my own garden. (that has yet to be planted yet..oops.)

Living on the central coast has many benefits, one of which is fresh produce all year round. The downside, its ridiculously expensive to buy fresh organic produce when they aren't actually in season. (what is a season anyway, do we even have those?!)

So here they are, my four fresh, local, organic heirloom tomatoes; that cost eight bucks to take home.

So worth it though.

The reason why I went out of my way to buy some tomatoes, was because I was desperately craving a fresh summer salad. You know the kind, fresh and light perfect for a warm summer barbecue. Oh barbecues, how I miss you.

This salad is less a recipe, and more just a quick mixture.

Heres how I made it;

4 tomatoes

1 red onion

1 avocado

Fresh Basil leaves

halve and slice all; toss together.

add a pinch of salt

1 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Tbsp White Balsamic Vinegar

Thats it!

Super easy-peasy and delicious.

This post was not meant to be a lame ode to tomatoes, but..so it goes.

Now I am totally going to go work on my garden. I'm craving fresh produce!

 Enjoy!

Dairy Free Chocolate Hazelnut Spread//Homemade Nutella

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Raise your hands if you love Nutella.

I know all your hands are sky high, mine would be too. But I need my hands to type this right now.

This chocolatey, hazelnutty treat is amazingly delicious.

Its creamy yumminess can be spread in a gazillion different ways. Just look at my pinterest boards, basically any recipe that includes Nutella, I have it on there.

They are also the pins that I can guarantee a certain sister of mine will repin everytime. 

Loving Nutella is genetic in this family.

The only problem with Nutella?

Its full of gunk.

Its got soy, and milk and artificial flavors.

We don't want any of that stuff.

Remember I said a love of Nutella is genetic?

This seester of mine, made this for me a few months back and posted it here.

She originally got the recipe from right over here.

Click over to either one for complete recipe.

But I'll share my snaps of the process for ya right on this spot:

What you need:

1 1/2 cups Hazelnuts 

(I got roasted, so I didn't have to roast them myself. time is money ya know)

10 squares Bakers semi-sweet Chocolate 

(or 1 bag Enjoy Life Chocolate Chunks for soy free)

1 can full-fat Coconut Milk

1/2 cup Sugar 

(you can use any sweetener like maple syrup, coconut sugar, etc. this is just all that I had on hand)

a dash of Salt

Crush the Hazelnuts until fine

It will get moist when pureed like so.

In saucepan, melt together sugar, milk and salt.

Melt chocolate in double boiler.

Once melted, add chocolate to hazelnut and mix.

Than, while running add milk mixture.

Pour into jar, and let cool.

Thats it!

Literally takes less than fifteen minutes to make. So easy!

Store in fridge, or freezer.

Creamy and delicious!

Tomorrow, I may or may not have a special reason for making said goodness.

and the reason why I may not eat the whole jar tonight by the spoonful.

Enjoy!

side note: I realized my spread looks really liquidy in these pics--this is because it has not been completely cooled when these were taken. After sitting in the fridge, said spread gets thicker.(not too thick-but about the same density as actual, real Nutella)

**Post edit: This is what it looks like after setting in the fridge overnight.
Perfection