gf goodness

Today's post is going to feature some of our favorite gluten-free recipes. We are still learning and experimenting, but we have found some things that we really love and would love to share. This is dedicated to my amazingly beautiful and talented friend Megan Heaps! She's just starting "the diet" and it is a hard transition that can be very depressing at first so hopefully this gives anyone in her situation some good ideas!

A--WHITE CHICKEN ENCHILADAS
Disclaimer: Easton is a picky celiac so most of our dishes are especially plain and not very pretty. You can always add stuff to give it some more flavor! For example, you may want to add some green chiles or a gf green chile sauce to this dish. Just because it's gf doesn't mean it has to be boring.

We love this recipe because it gives us another version of basically a cream of chicken soup.

Ingredients: 10 corn tortillas, 2 cups shredded monterey jack cheese, 3 Tbl spoons rice flour, 3 Tbl butter, 2 cups sour cream, 2 cups chicken broth, 1 can diced green chiles (optional).

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 X 13 pan.
2. Mix chicken and 1 cup cheese. roll up into tortillas in pan.
3. In sauce pan, melt butter, stir in rice flour, and cook 1 minute. Add broth and whisk until smoothe. Heat over medium heat until thick and bubbly.
4. Stir in sour cream and chilies. do not bring to a boil, you don't want to curdle sour cream.
5. Pour over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.
6. Bake 22 minutes and then broil 3 minutes to brown cheese.

B. SNICKERDOODLES




Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 lg egg, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 1/2 cup rice flour blend (featherlight works best, but any GF sweet rice blend will work), 1 tsp cream of tartar, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp xantham gum.
Mixture for rolling cookies in: 2 Tbl sugar, 2 Tbl cinnamon.

1. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla. Beat until fluffy.
2. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients, gradually work in dry ingredients into creamed mixture.
3. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Roll balls into cinnamon/sugar mixture.
4. Place on greased cookie sheet 2-3 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

C. DREAM BERRY DESSERT

We took this picture after it had already been in the fridge for a day. It still tasted great, but it wasn't as fluffy as it was before. I'm sure if we had more cool whip we could've poofed it up easily, but it looks a lot runnier in this picture than in actually was. Even though it was chock full of fruit the hub still ate it so you know it tasted okay :) This would be a fun dish for a summer bbq.

Ingredients: 1 32 oz. vanilla yogurt, 1 4 oz. instant vanilla or cheesecake flavor pudding mix, 1 8 oz container cool whip, 2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed and drained) berries, graham cracker crumbs to garnish if desired.

In a large bowl combine yogurt and pudding mix.  Fold in cool whip and berries. Chill in fridge until serving. Add graham crumbs to bottom and/or top of serving bowls.

D. CHICKEN BROCCOLI CASSEROLE

 6 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded. 2 packages cooked broccoli florets. Butter a 9X13 pan and put chicken and broccoli in it. 

Combine and pour on chicken: 2 servings GF cream of chicken soup (see earlier blog entitled "conference confections" for recipe), 1/2 c. miracle whip, 1 c. sour cream, 1 c. cheddar cheese, top with toasted bread. (We made a loaf of bread in our bread maker for this, but you can use UDI's GF bread too). Bake @ 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

E. MICROWAVE RICE CRISPIES

I use spray butter because it's easy and has zero calories, but melted butter would work just as well. Spread butter inside a large microwavable bowl, pour in 1 bag of large rice crispies and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. Watch carefully and take out before it hits the top of the ceiling. Butter a wooden spoon and stir in rice crispies (1 box), then add in desired amount of mini marshmallows. Butter a cookie sheet and spread out the rice crispy treats. Top with mini m&m's for extra yumminess. 

F. PEDERSEN FAMILY FAMOUS SLUSH

It's obvious that I am so not a photographer, but this is definitely the best recipe that I will ever post! It was invented by Easton's grandma who passed away quite a few years ago. Our family drinks it on Christmas and Thanksgiving, but we have made it our year-round special treat. Anytime we share it with someone they ask for the recipe, so here it is! 

Ingredients: 2 cups of sugar, 1 large can pineapple juice, 1 large can orange juice concentrate-thawed, 1/2 large can of lemonade concentrate-thawed, 2 bananas. 

Dissolve sugar in 8 cups of very hot water in big tupperware container (as seen in pic above). Add pineapple juice, orange juice, lemonade. Puree 2 bananas and whisk in. Add hot water to inch above the top and freeze. Scoop it out and mix with sprite. 

Me trying to take a pic drinking the slush, like I said I'm obviously not a photographer...or a model :) 

Enjoy!

THIS wild month

It has been exactly one month since my last post, forgive me! It is now June 10th and I cannot believe how quickly that this month has "flown by." It actually felt really slow in the moment, but it seems like I just barely wrote the post about my hunky boy. I guess that's what happens when your schedule is literally booked from noon to 3 a.m. everyday! The good news is that the shows are officially OPEN! So no more rehearsals and I have my days back! Woo hoo! The only downer is that E has his days booked and his nights free, which makes our schedules exactly opposite, but he gets the weekends off to come see the shows (or not)! Yay! He has seen both Hairspray and Aladdin and both shows have won his approval. Thank heavens, because he will probably see them a million times between now and October 20th! I hope y'all can come to Tuacahn this season because it is seriously so much fun! Here's some pics of me in Hairspray! I like to call it "Cha Cha's Revenge" because you will never be able to get rid of me! I'm the token brown girl of the Nicest Kids! I'm playing Brenda, the chick who gets knocked up and opens up a spot for Tracy to be in the Corny Collins show. My sister Riley thinks it's a sign that I should be getting pregnant! Haha!

This pic was taken at the commercial shoot that you should hopefully start seeing on tv soon! The one on the right is my "hooker" costume from "Dollhouse" in act 2- we're in prison doing a tap number. I am actually hispanic in this scene so my character is based on Cha Cha Digregorio, I'm so glad that I'm able to use my Spanish accent again!














Anyhoo.....here's some more of what's been happenin' lately! (In no particular order).

Easton started his job working for the forest service! He has been out of town the last couple of weeks working on the Arizona border building fences, repairing camp sites, and bossing around his crew. Here's some of the cool stuff that he gets to experience at work! These pics were taken at the sand dunes during after hours where his crew got to have some fun after a long day!

I got a very coveted day off of rehearsal to go attend a luau in honor of my cousins, Austin, Micah, and my sister Shanda's, graduation. I am so proud of all of them! Here's a pic of the three stooges with their beautiful leis and head pieces that were made by my grandparents who traveled all the way from Hawaii-- we are so lucky to still have both of them around. What great blessings they are in our lives! The other pic is of me with my cousins Whitney, Emily and their two babies and my sis Heather. I have the best family EVER! The luau was off the hook, we probably had around 800 people who attended, it was awesome! I was so happy that I was able to be there!

Today is Sunday and it is seriously my most favorite day of the week! I look forward to Sunday all week long! Today we made our favorite chicken and rice and some GF oreos! E's fav! We used a new GF brand of cake mix called King Arthur Flour. It is really great, it's cheaper than Betty Crocker, with about 7 more ounces of mix. To make the cookies you just combine the cake mix with one cup of shortening and 3 eggs. Cook @ 350 degrees for 10 min. The cream cheese frosting is one 8 oz. package of cream cheese, 1 stick of butter, 4 cups of powdered sugar, and a tsp. of vanilla. It made about 24 oreos total! Not bad!

I was also able to finish my crafty project that I've been working on little bits at a time when I've had a spare second. I think it's going to be an indoor wreath because my last one got ruined from the weather and this was a lot of work! All I used was a glue gun, one yard of muslin, and one yard of burlap, with a few pearls, and an already made twig wreath from Michael's. It looks better in real life than it does in the photo.

We also had a fun weekend with some of Easton's best friends-Trevor and Jake and their wives, Brooke and Lora! Here's us checking out the lunar eclipse and swimming at Sand Hollow! St. George is the bomb in the summer because there's so many amazing things to do here! I highly recommend visiting!

It's been a great start of what I know will be an excellent Summer! Thanks for catching up with us!