GF Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I have been spending a little more time on making cupcakes this last year. It turns out there is a whole underground subculture with a cupcake obsession. As a result the web is full of cupcake junkies with blogs.

I got decent at making chocolate chip cupcakes for the kids birthdays from the Pamela’s chocolate cake mix (I used milk instead of water and added chocolate chips).

To contend with the many non-GF baked goods that are paraded in front of Beezus at school, at birthdays and at fairs/carnivals/amusement parks, I need to stay up to date on creative, new and inventive ways to make cupcakes. I need to make our diet more and more appealing to stay current with the gluten competition. Luckily I have always enjoyed healthy, and not so healthy, competition. I love the whole free market crushing your opponents with better products. Game on!

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cupcakes
This recipe is converted to GF from the blogger Cupcake Queen on her blogsite . I also consulted Martha Stewart’s newer cookbook Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone’s favorite treat.

Ingredients:
1 package Gluten Free Cake Mix “Devil’s Food” (Betty Crocker)
1 cup water
3 eggs
1 stick butter

½ cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 table spoons baking coco/coco powder

1 Snack Size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Add together the Gluten Free Cake Mix, 1 cup water, 3 eggs, ½ cup peanut butter, 2 table spoons cocoa, 1 teaspoon vanilla and lastly add 1 stick butter softened at room temperature. Mix on low for about a minute and switch over to high for another minute or two. Check to make sure all dry ingredients (especially at bottom) or sufficiently blended.

Place Reese’s cups at bottom of each lined cupcake holder. Use ice cream scoop to place batter on top Reese’s cups - Martha recommends this a more even cooking cupcake.

Cook for 18 minutes. At least start checking then. I found it took slightly longer, closer to 20 minutes.


I felt that these came out AMAZING. Light, fluffy… just much better than any I have made yet. My man, also really loved them. The kids actually did not like the Reese candy at the bottom (I tried both the snack side and the minis). Thus I made another batch without the candy at the bottom which they liked a lot more. Because this utilized more batter the cupcakes cooked for at least 5 minutes, maybe closer to 10 minutes longer.


Icing:
For Icing I used Betty Crocker pre-made frosting which is gluten free. I try avoid using this, but there are times when you are rushed and an easy backup is always wonderful! For the Easter holiday I threw on this icing with a Peep on top and done! Some kid friendly, gluten free, peanut butter cupcakes. Woohoo.

Icing in general is easy to make gluten free and I have a bunch of recipes I want to make… I will try them out when I get a chance and post.

The Happiness Post: Gratitude

This picture is one of my absolute favorites. It really shows both Beezus and Ramona very happy with their aunt. It is perfectly in theme with this weeks post.

2010 was a hard year. We found out that Beezus had Celiac Disease. Beezus was hospitalized briefly for HSP. Finances were tight. Jobs were scarce. My man found a new job. Our entire family moved to a new state with extremely cold weather. I moved from my family and the neighborhoods that was my home for 30 years! We struggled to get our fixer home on the market in a short time frame. Our home still has not sold and offers have been a bit demoralizing. I learned a couple hard life lessons about friendships and relationships in general. It is not too surprising that happiness was not a focus in 2010. For my family survival became our main focus. I know of many friends who have had rough times in the last year or even this year. I worry about us all.

Life moves on though. It does not slow down due to change, crisis or stress. And I am grateful that life keeps moving, so no one gets stuck living solely in the lows! As my children love to sing occasionally, “the sun will come out tomorrow, so you better hang on till tomorrow!”

In 2011 my family and I are ready to move into a new phase. Survival with high levels of stress hormones circulating through our veins is not good enough nor is it healthy. We are ready to pursue happiness and South Dakota seems like the best place to pursue it.

I will now start my mind and body happy posts. Once a month I will dedicate a post to ways in which my family is achieving happiness as a goal, as well as, ways I am maintaining a happier and healthier life style. I hope to have great ideas that the important people in my life can use to achieve a little bit of happiness.

For the month of April:
I started reading “raising happiness 10 simple steps for more joyful kids and happier parents” by Christine Carter, PH.D. I can not say enough good things about this book. I will recommend this book to all the parents I know. I will also recommend this book to my mother, my sisters, my friends or anyone who wants to achieve a greater sense of fulfillment and happiness.

This book is chalk full of strategies to create and maintain healthier and happier people. This book bases all tips/strategies on empirical and valid research by leading social psychologists (including my old professor from UC Berkeley – go bears! - and he is an amazing individual – also very happy guy). I do not believe you need children to utilize the strategies or to read this book!

I can not get through everything this book has to offer in a singular post. So, I will simply state one strategy my family has already utilized in the last couple weeks.

In chapter 4, “Step 4: Choose Gratitude, Forgiveness, and Optimism” Carter cites research in which people who exhibit gratitude are more likely to be happy. She suggests implementing a plan in which the entire family lists things they are grateful for on a regular basis and writing it down.

When I read this I doubted the effectiveness, but not because I didn’t believe in the results of the studies. I instead doubted that applying this mind frame to my own family would change our lives for the better. I doubted our abilities to be happier: a rather large fundamental flaw in my own schema. It is sad how after a hard year, or a hard couple years, it is so easy to express learned helplessness. This is a psychological condition in which there is a false perception of having a lack of control over a situation – as wiki would put it, “a condition of a human person or an animal in which it has learned to behave helplessly, even when the opportunity is restored for it to help itself by avoiding an unpleasant or harmful circumstance to which it has been subjected”. Even having been educated in my social psychology course about learned helplessness I am guilty of falling right smack into it.

However, I decided to try this activity out - as I am changing my old habits - and I am grateful that I did. :-)

At dinner time two Fridays ago I asked my family to list off five things we are grateful for.

I can tell you that I have NEVER seen happiness occur as abruptly, purely and just plain enthusiastically as I did when I requested their gratitude proclamations. Dinner was not unhappy before this suggestion, it was not melancholy: we were simply having a typical dinner. We were all connecting and talking about our days, the good, the bad and the ugly. We smiled a bit and maybe we laughed. But nothing compares to the unbridled joy when I asked my kids to come up with things they were grateful for. My children were literally yelling over each other with gigantic smiles, giggles and laughs. They did not stop at five things. My man more reserved, less trusting, skeptical –similar to how I had been initially at this concept – did come up with a list. When it was my turn I was surprised how hard it was at first, even knowing what we were about to do. Once I started my list out loud it got easier and I felt satisfied and content. It was one of the most amazing family moments we have had yet.

As the book will state gratitude is a mind set that will aid in happiness through out life. It is an important trait to practice with ourselves and our children. Teaching kids to grow up grateful with these activities will lead to long term happiness and not simply dinner time giggles.

I am sure I will continue to post activities and insights from this book that we have used. I encourage others to try the gratitude exercise. It was an amazing and healthy moment in our lives. It is time to have a few more of those.

GF Cooking with Kids

I love recipes that are not meant to be gluten free, but are by nature. GF cook books try so hard to convert recipes, specifically convert breads and baked goods to GF breads and baked goods. Whole cookbooks focus primarily on breads and tricks to make GF cooking taste like gluten. Often times adding more fat to subsitute and enhance taste.

I feel that the GF crowd loses potentially great meals that do not rely on bread and pasta based products at all or new recipes that avoid the baked and pasta goods entirely by substituting with a healthier alternative. An easy example is switching a recipe that calls for a bed of noodles with mashed potatoes or a bed of rice. The concept that all meals have to include some form of gluten baked bread-y/pasta starch is ridiculous and even unhealthy for those without gluten intolerance.

Western culture meals push a need to have excessive amounts of bread, pastry and pasta carbohydrates. I am not a nutritionist; however, according to my research there are many other healthy and even healthier ways to achieve the 250 grams of carbohydrates needed in a 2,000 calorie diet (the nutrition information via FDA is based on a 2,000 calorie diet), like nuts, seeds, legumes, fruits and vegetables.

This is why I always keep an ear open for recipes that do not NEED fake gluten to taste good…

I keep my TV running at home, not all the time and certainly not when my kiddos are home, but definitely when I am home alone and need the noise for company.

While doing the dishes I had on a morning show. I hate to admit that I have no idea which one. My attention was caught when I over heard the host interviewing the author Lisa Lillien. Lillien writes a series of “Hungry Girl” cookbooks. Her gimmick is making nutritious meals that are low calorie. This particular morning she was being interviewed for her newer addition 300 under 300. Lillien is not a gluten-free author by any stretch. Nevertheless on this particular morning she went through a series of fast and easy recipes from her book and one of those recipes was how to make a “healthier” pizza using a portabella mushroom as the bread/base of the pizza. She also suggested using turkey pepperoni instead of beef. Of course this grabs my attention, because this is gluten free and healthy!

This particular recipe is amazing for a few reasons.
1. You can cook it with kids easily.
2. It is fast and uncomplicated to make.
3. It is healthier than regular pizza.
4. Gluten free pizza’s sometimes suck.

My learning this recipe happens to coincide with an article I read last week in the March issue of Parenting magazine about the benefits of cooking with your children in the kitchen. In short, studies conclude that cooking with kids leads to them making healthier food choices and having healthier eating habits in the long run, they learn scientific/mathematical concepts, they are more likely to eat their meal (which I love), they learn how to cook (duh!) and of course it is a great way to bond while getting a dinner done.

For a Beezus particularly, having Celiac Disease, it is imperative that when she leaves home she is well equipped to cook well balanced meals that are gluten free. She will not be able to just wing it like most of us did the first few years of college. It is extra crucial she starts learning to read labels, call manufacturers and cook/feel comfortable in the kitchen.

So we made portabella mushroom pizzas. The girls helped make the tomato sauce. We do tomato sauce from scratch to avoid gluten contamination, because many tomato sauces are gluten free, but many are made on equipment that also makes products with wheat. The girls also helped me fill their mushroom and sprinkle cheese, plus cut up olives. I was leery on how they would turn out. They are fantastic! Beezus had two and she is normally my light eater.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
Portabella Mushrooms
Tomato Sauce
Cheese (mozzarella)
Olives, Pepperoni (other toppings)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the stems off the portabella mushrooms. Wash them off, place on cookies sheet in the oven for ten minutes.

2. Now, take out the mushrooms. They will have “leaked”, soak it up with a paper towel. Spoon the desired amount of tomato sauce on top the mushrooms. Sprinkle with the desired amount of mozzarella cheese, put on whatever topping selection.

3. Place it back in the oven for another 10 minutes still at 400 degrees. Take them out and let them cool. Presto!

Lillien suggested for mozzarella cheese sticks. I used our pre-grated cheese from Sam’s Club to speed the process along.

The kids literally did every step except the soaking up the mushroom juice. It was definitely a great kid recipe, especially a celiac kid recipe!

How we make our quick impromptu tomato sauce.

1 tomato sauce (S&W Organic Tomato Sauce 15oz)
1 can of tomato paste (Contadina 12 oz)
1 can chopped tomatoes (Del Monte Diced Tomatoes 14.5 o)

Your favorite spices – we used Black Pepper, Garlic Salt, Thyme and Basil.

Stir on Medium to Low heat for ten minutes. This is super fast, easy, the kids were able to do everything expect the can opener.

When I do a more elaborate tomato sauce I add in ground beef and chopped spinach (a lot of spinach – it is the veggies in disguise approach with the kids). This makes a super heavy, really healthy sauce that would be too much for pizza. I imagine you could sub in ground turkey for ground beef to minimize calorie intake.

The amount of ingredients make more than enough for the pizzas or one nights worth of pasta, so I save it and make other GF pasta’s/pizza’s through out the week. This constantly saves me a little work later on.

Food, Family, Books

Update on the waffles.
The Gluten Free Bisquick mix is amazing for waffles! I love Gluten Free Pamela's mix for muffins and pancakes; however, I always have to alter the recipes. I have not tried the Bisquick for pancakes or muffins yet. The mix did not need applesauce for waffles. I did use cinnamon for flavor – about a teaspoon. Sadly, my man is not the most adventurous foodie out there. After a bit of begging on his part I did not try the bacon... I will though. It sounds fascinating.

What I did do for fun was chop up strawberries and fry them in a 1/2 a teaspoon of butter and brown sugar. I topped the waffles with powered sugar, cooked strawberries and chocolate chips – very yummy. Next time I swear whip cream and bacon.

Family Up-date:
Beezus is feeling better-ish. After two weeks of illness this is a nice break. We have been looking into planning out our summer. Both these girls are very excited for school to end in mid-May. This morning it snowed, but by the afternoon it had mostly melted away again. Outside constant nightmares of tornadoes I am looking forward to a weather change.

The girls and I have started going to our local library after school and reading books together. I enjoyed watching Beezus tonight pretend present her library book to her imaginary students. What I love about watching Beezus pretend to be a teacher is how each year the body language, descriptive words, pretend instructions or terminology change to more properly mirror her current teacher. It is amazing to catch a glimpse of her classroom played out for everyone in the living room. Very live action role playing. Beezus very much looks up to her teachers each year.

I did quit facebook, again. I have made it at least three weeks? I am happier for it. Not too mention more productive. I miss seeing what everyone is doing, but I will continue to update the blog more often and try to even, gasp, use my phone. ;-)

Books:
I have recently read and recommend Hiroshima in the Morning by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto and Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.

I found Hiroshima in the Morning on MSN. Hiroshima in the Morning is rather infamous as a memoir which recants the author’s personal journey in Japan researching the aftermath of Hiroshima decades later and how that journey led to her decision to divorce her husband and leave her two young sons. Rizzuto has been highly criticized by the parenting community as being selfish and a “bad” mother for claiming that having an identity as a mother should not be restricted to women that live with their families. She instead insists that she has been a better mother for her decision to live her life more fully and pursue her own passions. The memoir also looks closely at her time in Japan doing research for her book and conducting interviews with Hiroshima survivors.

I liked the book a lot. I find I am constantly questioning what exactly a mother’s role is and what determines/restricts this role. Finding where career, personal development and sacrifices need to made and how to make them and stay happy. Rizzuto has a unique and anthological sense of roles, identity and culture which she tells in an introspective narrative I find fascinating and thought provoking. I also found the interviewees stories memorizing making Hiroshima more vivid than even the photographs that I have seen.

Olive Kitteridge is one of the more deftly crafted character developments I have had the joy of reading. The main character Olive is produced through a series of short stories and through the eyes of various members of her community. This book also delves into the intricacies of marriages, affairs, romances and exploration of mother child relationships. The book follows Olive’s family primarily while still touching upon other tales that include the harsh realities of the adult world like substance abuse, eating disorders, suicides and other forms of dysfunction.

I like short stories, serious fiction and unique characters. Awesome, fast, fun, serious fiction read.

GF Cooking: Supper for Breakfast, Waffles with Whip Cream

A picture of Beezus at the children's museum.

Quick Family Update
Sadly everyone is sick! Yuck. Poor Beezus has been the sickest. She started two weeks ago with a stomach bug, progressed to the flu this last week and then last night we got antibiotics for strep and ear infections! Hopefully she will be up tomorrow for a really healthy pick me up breakfast! Put some meat back on her little bones!

Gluten Free Reading...
I have been dedicating some time to reading up on gluten free baking and I would like to share some of my more recent finds.

The most common complaint I have for muffins, waffles, and cakes in general is how dry the baked product often are. In Living Without’s Gluten Free Holiday Guide, that would be the November/December Issue, their food editor Beth Hillson recommends adding honey, applesauce or yogurt to gain moisture.

The GF Tip:
First of all, yes I am that far behind in my reading and gluten free research. Second, I think adding applesauce, yogurt and honey is an amazing gluten free cooking tip! I have used applesauce often in my muffins and I love the results. The muffins taste better and the kids eat them better. I, of course, follow it up with cinnamon and chocolate chips. However, the chocolate or sugar is not necessary and other ingredients could be substituted for this addition like walnuts, blueberries or both! I highly recommend this. Fruits and nuts add great nutritional value.

The Twist:
To add to my GF tip is a twist I learned yesterday on the food network from Giada De Laurentiis. Laurentiis made breakfast for dinner. Or out here in South Dakota it would be breakfast for supper, since in the Midwest dinner is lunch and soda is pop. The breakfast for supper is one of my absolute favorite tricks to make family suppers less mundane. In fact I already did the same thing early this week. I made gluten free pancakes with bananas on top, eggs and bacon. The pancakes utilized almond flour. I attempted to time the breakfast so my man would walk into the smell of bacon when he got home from work. In my mind, this is the equivalent of flowers and chocolate for a chick. The little “I love you” that married couples need every now and then. ;-)

Ms. Laurentiis made an elaborate meal with several complimentary elements including waffles, quiche and a night cap. The waffles really caught my interest. The night cap did too, but I can not share that with the kids.

What I love about the waffles is that they were made from a Bisquick baking mix! I just want to kiss professional cooks that admit to the simplicity and ease of using a pre-established mixes. For gluten free cooks this is perhaps even more important where mixing different flours together can get tiring and frustrating. The market for GF pre-mixed flours has grown substantially and recently Bisquick came out with a pancake and waffle baking mix. The same baking mix I have in my pantry and I have been dying to try out.

Of course, Luarentiis kicked her waffles up a notch and added the “fun factor”. In this case adding cinnamon and pancettato to her batter and topping her waffles with walnuts. She did suggest that you can use chopped up bacon instead. Below is a link her recipe off the food network website.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/pancetta-and-cinnamon-waffles-recipe/index.html

Tomorrow morning I will combine my twists, tips and my breakfast for supper. I will try out the Bisquick GF baking mix. I will add in applesauce, cinnamon and bacon. I will top it off with whip cream and chopped up bananas.

I think keeping an open mind and including with the applesauce either cinnamon, bacon, blueberries, apples, nuts, whatever excites you.

Hope everyone in CA and SD is having a great day! We are getting snow after having it melted off most the week. Bummer.

The Weather – Yeah, again.

Many people might wonder. What do you DO out there in South Dakota? And the answers can vary.

1. I have gone to one of the local libraries.

2. I have become a member of the butterfly house – where I take photos of butterflies. Facebook friends you know what I’m talk’in ‘bout. I am winking right now.

In fact, the butterfly house has really only helped me realize a macro lens would be nice. My new found, and frankly, distractible, dilettante interest in photographing butterflies has led me to look for local camera shops that rent equipment – which then led me to realize…

3. I have looked for, but not found a local camera shop. I say this tentatively. Perhaps I have missed it. There are nonetheless tattoo parlors and casinos. This makes me think I am supposed to get a tattoo. There are also tornadoes. Have I mentioned that before? This makes me think about photographing tornadoes.

4. I have learned that a robust disdain for the winter is not limited to families relocated to South Dakota. The locals really despise the severity and duration of winter. A poll taken on a popular South Dakota mom internet group site asked what people liked the most about the winter months and the resounding answer was “it ends”.

The local radio station's morning show held a call in session asking listeners to share what they are doing to get through the winter months and escape the seasonal depression. The suggestions where typical "I work out", "I eat", "I clean", "I vacation" etc. This is first time it occurred to me that I was not alone in feeling very "down" as a result of the weather. That in fact the entire community was "feeling it". Without realizing it, I was taking part in an important community ritual.

Thus the cultural anthropologist in me believes it is a form of authenticity to gripe about the weather conditions. I believe this means I have gone through my initial hazing and thus have reached a point of belonging. Like a badge I wear my disgruntlement for the weather. I have survived my first Midwest battle with Mother Nature and I was not broken. I did, nevertheless…

5. Plot my escape. This plot includes organizing, repacking, tossing out nonessentials (make sure I can travel light and rapidly), learning the route to the airport, kissing up to my mom so I can crash on her sofa and lamenting the kids being stuck in school till summer. I joke. Really. I swear I am stronger than -22 degrees.

6. I became a member of the local children’s museum. The museum includes an Imax, an art museum, a theater and camps for kids. The kids prefer the water table. Of course I could buy a cheap water table and put in our back yard – well, if it would not freeze.

7. I took the kids to the local zoo/natural history museum. This is where the picture is from. They have live and stuffed animals there. In Beezus terms they have both the living animals and animal heaven.

A fast Beezus logic recap: When Beezus was younger she determined that taxidermies, especially the ones in the Lindsay Wildlife Museum are where animals went to heaven. She takes the remains as the physical essence of the dead or at least did then. At the zoo out here she was much, much more interested in the gift shop. She is becoming more concerned with being a good ol’American consumer now. Heaven! Phuff that is obviously spending her allowance on gimmicks at the mall.

8. As a family we have started hanging out at the mall once a month. It smells great, unlike the zoo. BIG PROBLEM with malls now. We can not eat anything there regardless of the smell. Gluten issues. All those sweet memories of going to the mall eating a lipid heavy cinnamon bun are gone. To be fair I could never get away with that kind of snack again anyway, but it is worth noting the mall is not a gluten friendly place.

9. I have started to volunteer in local communities. One is a mental health organization aimed at ending stigmatism against mentally ill through education and group counseling for families.

10. I joined a book club. I did give them the disclaimer that I do not really critique books well. Yet, I do like to read. I felt being literate added to the group. The club consists of a group of women with little kids.

One woman’s husband works with my man. We double date. It is not a big deal. It is just kinda our status. I am being casual. Nonchalant. They know of Settlers, but they might not LOVE it, like we do.

My new take on dating, any form, not fun. Playdates, double dates. It is the constant looking for someone you are compatible with and unfortunately the endless interviewing, nervously trying out your sense of humor and finding where the boundaries on politics are established. I just need my pre-established network which has long ago been worn down by my bawdy and somewhat depraved sense of humor and my “fracking” liberal views (someone here described them that way for me - I never swear). By the way…

11. I have not broken down and joined a church yet. This is laziness. Though, it occurred to me recently that churches are FREE karaoke bars. This makes church vastly more interesting. I want to find one with a choir, preferably one that likes blues, lilth faire and rock n roll! Not joking. Free vocal lessons and a community that gets together to sing for fun. Count me in.

12. I have gotten to know my neighbors and our kids now can run between the houses freely to play. It makes my man and I seem old school 1950s style and social.

I will end this post with some good old weather talk. The snow is finally melting. Ramona insisted on wearing her snow pants to school today, even though, most kids are not at this point. Beezus who is ridiculously skinny is almost never cold, was thrilled to ditch her snow pants. Yeah, we might be hitting spring. It is time for lightening storms. Of course that means I might want to take photos of lightening.

Quick Notes on Life

Awesome things about being 30 and South Dakota men.

1. Most awesome thing about being 30 (outside being referred to as old - which is always awesome). I can order a Long Island without getting carded, because I guess I just look THAT old. But the bonus to this is that I also don't get any looks for ordering a "heavy" drink while dining out with my family. I have found that Long Islands are essential for dining out with children... or I guess, really, even most adults I know. You know who you are... Nik.

2. Cowboys/Tuckers/Farmers. There is one great thing I have learned about the men out here. They all are rugged. That's right ladies, you know what I mean, tall dark and handsome. Actually, usually not all that dark, but they wear hats. Baseball hats, trucking hats (which look like baseball hats, but slightly different), and cowboys hats. Cowboy hats for women, at least me, are like knee high boots are to most men, not Nik, but most men.

3. The men out here are not much for words, but the all smile, tip their hat and they even OPEN THE DOORS for me AND my kids (which I feel bad about - cause the kids take sooooo long to get through a door way).

Like, what the what?!

That's right, we got that southern hospitality way up North. Yee Haw.

These are the things I noticed today. Have an awesome night Californians.

An Up-Date to this post:
1. I might have just had a Long Island or two.
2. My humor is always, always meant in a good way! I am loving living in South Dakota. Sometimes I miss home, but this place is also becoming near and dear to me. And I LOVE southern hospitality and hats! (No sarcasm there). Not to mention I am enjoying the break from men of the bay. They can be, oh gosh, how do I say this? Metrosexual?

LOL. Eek! Bay Area boys. So cute! But when a guy is more concerned with what their hair, clothes, shoes look like than I am (which is hard)... Give my South Dakota men anytime!