Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins:
3  1/2 cups Pamela’s flour
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
3 eggs
1 1/2 tbsn. vanilla
1/2 tspn jelly filled in center

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine ingredients in mixer, making sure butter is room temperature. Mix on medium till smooth. Place in lined muffin rack. Place teaspoon jelly in center press down gently till jelly is submerged. Put in oven and cook for twenty minutes.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins!

Halloween, it feels like, just ended... and now here it is Thanksgiving!  I am very thankful for my amazing children, husband and Midwest friends, all who make this week special in their own way.

Ramona smelling checking out our new pumpkin muffins!

Gluten Free cooking, especially during the holiday season, is always on!  I got an email from my daughter's teacher asking me to send in a pumpkin muffin for her, because her class was having a special Thanksgiving snack.  So, to make sure my youngest daughter felt included in the special holiday snack I needed to learn to make pumpkin muffins fast.  Thankfully, they are rather easy when using King Arthur's Gluten Free Muffin Mix (below is the recipe).

This is great timing, as we are headed to a friend's house this Thanksgiving (flying home is a bit too expensive for a family of five) and I needed something I could bring.  Of course, we will bring at least a couple different gluten free dishes.  However, it is always nice to add a new recipe to our reserves.   


What you need/Ingredients:

Very grateful for my little man!

• King Arthur Flour (Soy, Nut, Wheat Free) - Muffin Mix
• 1 cup Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin (only ingredient is pumpkin)
• 3 eggs
• 4 tablespoons salted butter
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 tablespoon Cinnamon
• 1 cup Nestle semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 375.  Grease cupcake tin or place in liners.
2. Simple!  Add in ingredients and stir together, preferably with a mixer.
3. Cook for 25-30 minutes.
4. Turn off oven and let muffins cool for 5 minutes.  (If you are anything like me, it is great to have a reminder to turn off the oven!)

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Blueberry Yogurt Muffins

The photo above is another one of the abstract art 'heads' at the Botanical Gardens in Omaha. I am not feeling up to taking food photos today due to medical stuff - which I will post about later. Nothing to worry about Mom! Do not worry! I mean it!

Blueberry Yogurt Muffins:

3 ½ Cups Pamela’s GF flour (Pancake Mix)
½ Cup Butter (1 stick)
1 Cup Milk
½ Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 Tspns. GF Vanilla
1 Non-Fat Yoplait Vanilla Yogurt 6oz.
1 Tspn. Cinnamon
1 Cup Blueberries

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 350. Mix GF Pamela's flour, milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, Yoplait yogurt, cinnamon and butter in kitchen mixer on medium speed. Butter needs to be at room temperature and should be added last. Then once nicely blended add in and mix ½ cup blueberries for less than a 30 seconds on low speed. Lastly, mix in second ½ cup blueberries using a spatula. Use ice-cream scoop to place in lined cupcake sheet. Cook for 25 minutes – not much longer.

Pamela's Muffins Altered with Chocolote Chips and CInamon

A friend of mine wanted recipes for breads, muffins, pizza dough etc. Sadly I will say this a lot. I am no cook. It was never my desire to spend more than a couple minutes in the kitchen at a time and cooking from scratch has never been high on my list of hobbies. However, since starting this new diet I am finding new and interesting ways to cook meals and baked goods for my family.

My first recipe and survival tactic for a gluten free diet is Pamela's muffins.

1. Pamela's: http://www.pamelasproducts.com/

This is a brand that makes GF premixed flours. They have mixes for cakes, pancakes, waffles, breads and muffins.

I have found that Pamela muffins work great for lunches, play dates, swim team and just about anytime I need something quick, easy and practical.

Following this link (http://www.pamelasproducts.com/recipes/pamsmuffins.html) and you will get the recommeneded recipe through pamela's website; however, I was unimpressed with this recipe and instead altered the muffin recipe that was printed on the mix for pancakes and baking.

I use Pamela's Baking and Pancake mix. It is a premixed flour combined with dried milk powder and has almond flour in it as well - so not good for nut, soy or milk allergies. I pretty much double the recipe and add on some ingredients.

Muffin Recipe My Version:
3.5 cups Pamela’s flour
.5 cup butter
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsn. vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips

*For flavor and moisture:
4 oz cup apple sauce
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Heat oven to 350. Cook for 25-30 minutes (usually latter end) – apple sauce makes it wetter. This makes up to 20ish muffins.

Make sure all ingredients are GF.

The kids really like it. Of course you put chocolate in anything and it tends to make things more edible. What surprised me is a lot of my non GF adult friends really liked them. I always take that as a good sign that I am on to something.

Because I am not someone who enjoys the kitchen I like the Pamela’s mixes as they are fast and easy. Another mom taught me about Pamela’s and the magic of making muffins and storing them. My mom friend makes them in bulk and then freezes them for usage through out the week or even month. I find I have less and less freezer room since most bread products need to be stored in the freezer. Making it more tempting to someday get a seperate freezer unit!

That’s it for today. I will definitely talk more about breads and flours a rather tedious subject which I have made only barely adequate progress in.