Link Show and Tell

 

Link Show and Tell

1. Taste Spotting is a beautiful food blog filled with gluten free and grain free recipes.

2. The Spunky Coconut sure knew what she was doing when she developed this grain free and egg free brownie recipe! I've made is so many times. So simple and quick to make. I bake mine for 20 minutes instead of 35 minutes.

3. I'm loving the Gluten Free Goddess' website. So bright and full of tasty recipes.

Grain Free Zucchini Muffins

In our quest for more grain free recipes I came across a few grain free muffin recipes. After trying some, swapping out ingredients and substituting others I developed one that we liked. This is a lightly sweetened muffin, perfect for children and breakfast. If you want it a little sweeter you can add extra honey or a few drops of liquid vanilla stevia. These freeze well. Just wrap them up individually and store in a freezer bag in the freezer.

Amelia loves them. They have a great texture and are moist.

Grain Free Zucchini Muffins

2 cups grated zucchini

6 eggs

1/4 cup apple sauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted coconut oil

1/3 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons ground flax seed

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 cup chopped toasted walnut

Mix wet ingredients together, set aside. Mix dry ingredients and walnuts together. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and mix till combined. This batter does stick to cupcake papers so if you don't like that then you can butter and "flour" the muffin tins with coconut flour so they release easier or try a non stick spray. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until center is set.

Edible Flowers

Today is my 7th wedding anniversary! 

My husband surprised me with yellow roses today. I love yellow flowers and prefer yellow roses over red ones. Did you know that rose petals are edible? Of course you will want to eat pesticide free edible flowers only. Always know for certain that the flower is edible. Remove the pollinated parts and eat the petals only.

Our new favorite thing is using edible flowers on our salads. We pick our lettuce and edible flowers from the garden to serve for dinner that night. When Amelia and I are out in the garden she always asks if she can eat a flower. (I told her to always ask first before eating anything in the garden.)

I remembering being interested in herbs and edible flowers at a young age. I read about edible flowers used in Colonial Williamsburg. Tulip petals filled with an herbed goat cheese served at tea time sounds delightful! Sugared pansies placed atop petit fours would look beautiful for Amelia's 4th birthday party. I listed below some, but not all, of the edible flowers out there. You can learn more about edible flowers and their flavors here, here and here.

Edible Flowers

 Sweet Flavors
• Chamomile
• Dandelion
• Daylily
• Elderberry
• Linden
• Okra 

• Pineapple guava 

• Red clover
• Yucca 

Spicy/sweet

• Anise hyssop
• Bee balm
• Dianthus
• Fennel
• Pineapple sage

Floral

• Honeysuckle
• Jasmine
• Lavender
• Lilac
• Rose
• Scented geranium
• Sweet violet

Minty

• Johnny Jump-up
• Mint
• Pansy

Citrus Fruit Flower
• Hibiscus
• Lemon
• Lemon verbena
• Orange
• Signet marigold • Tuberous begonia

Peppery/spicy

• Arugula
• Broccoli
• Kale
• Mustard
• Nasturtium
• Radish 

{Nasturtiums}

{Chive flowers}

{Violas}

{Harvested lettuce and edible flowers from the garden.}

Link Show And Tell

Link Show And Tell

1) Learn the 10 Commandments for perfect pin curls! 

2) I need to buy a Sculpture Pin Curler! I think it would make pin curling my hair much easier!

3) I love the Glamour Daze blog. It's full of beautiful pictures of vintage fashion, makeup, hair, etc from the 1900s to the 1960s. Great inspirations. 

4) Gertie talks about vintage pattern sizing.

Wordless Wednesday- Early Morning Swing

Growing Lettuce and Spinach

This is my first year growing lettuce and spinach. I started some time in February. It has been so easy especially once I controlled the snails. Amelia loves picking lettuce and spinach with me. She actually loves eating the spinach while we are gathering it for our salads.

 I'm growing two different types of spinach and a heirloom leaf lettuce in this raised box. Both grew so fast. I now know that I should have planted one row and then a week or two later plant another row. It all came in at the same time.

A few days of warm weather and the butter crunch lettuce took off! I Should have harvested them when they were much smaller but they are still good. They seem to be more fragile when they are bigger and crispier when they are smaller. I planted 3 types of butter crunch lettuce. The red one is my favorite.

I've made several spinach salads. My favorite is with strawberries, toasted walnuts and goat cheese. We've used the spinach in smoothies and for juicing too.

Our new favorite thing is a salad made with the heirloom leaf lettuce and edible flowers from the garden. Violas, nasturtiums and chive flowers. I made sure Amelia always asks before she eats a flower! She picks a nasturtium flower and runs inside to ask if she can eat it. lol

 

 The heirloom leaf lettuce holds up best with a light dressing. I like to make a lemon and herb vinaigrette.

Lemon Herb Vinaigrette

Juice of 1 medium-large lemon

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon dill or combination of dill, parsley and chives

salt and pepper to taste.

Put everything into a jelly jar. Cover and shake well.

 

Weekly Recap

The chenille bedspread I won on eBay arrived this week! It's going on Amelia's new bed. First I lost the original auction at the last second then the person puts it back up for auction and with the help of auctionsniper.com I won! I'm so glad a friend told me about it.


Her daddy gave her a bag of coins for her piggy bank.


I'm in love with the colors used in Disney's Cinderella movie! They are so beautiful. Reminds me of the folk art stenciling I have seen at Disneyland. I plan on using some folk art stenciling in Amelia's room.


Picked some butter crunch lettuce from the garden to roll up tuna salad in.


I used the chicken and dumpling recipe from Joyfulabode.com. It was so good and made it's own gravy!





I found a $12 no clamp curling iron at Ross and it works amazingly. My hair usually doesn't hold heated curls at all. They fall within minutes but this curling iron keeps the curl in all day and the next day I have nice wave and volume.


As a stay at home mom I get dolled up just to go to the grocery store and craft store! Simple pleasures.



Have a wonderful and safe weekend everyone!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Grain Free Crepes

I've been exploring grain free and starch free baking a lot lately. I want to save starchy gluten free baking for special occasions and make grain and starch free baking more common in our home. There are many recipes and options out there plus wonderful health benefits for going grain free and starch free. I personally don't like the extra starches that gluten free baked goods tend to have. Rice, potato, corn and tapioca starches/flours are used a lot in gluten free baking. I struggle with inflammatory issues and starches as well as gluten are big culprits. I have leaky gut which grains and starches can make worse! A lot of grain free recipes call for coconut flour or almond flour and both can be found at health food stores and even some mainstream stores. I buy mine in bulk from Whole Foods.

Whenever we want a little something special for breakfast I have been making grain free waffles or crepes.

Grain Free Crepes

4 eggs
1 teaspoon honey or a few drops of liquid vanilla stevia
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3-3/4 cup milk of your choice

4 tablespoons coconut flour

Mix first 5 ingredients together well then add coconut flour and mix well. You want the batter to be like heavy cream. Spray a heated non-stick 8-9 inch frying pan with non stick spray then add about 1/4 cup of the crepe mixture to the hot pan and twirl the batter around to cover the bottom of the pan. It takes a little practice. YouTube has some good how-to videos. Cook for about 2-3 minutes then carefully flip the crepe over and cook 1 minute more. I find the crepe easier to flip if the it has browned well. Serve with fresh fruit, fruit sauce or homemade jam. A little whip cream or chocolate sauce. I wont tell. This recipe makes 6-8 crepes.