Gluten Free with Disney Cruises

We informed our server that Luci, JT and I needed gluten free items.  It was easy from then on at every meal.  We ordered each meal the night before--so, we ordered Monday's dinner on Sunday night.

Everything we got that was gluten free was wonderful, and you could not tell the items were gluten free at all.  The texture of the breads was fantastic.

Here is a roll that Luci poked and added butter to:

Since Luci could not eat the regular meals that were designed for kids (chicken nuggets, pizza, macaroni and cheese, and spaghetti), she got STEAK or a juicy chicken breast every night with her choice of vegetables.  Here is her steak served on a Micky plate.  Our server cut it up for her!  I didn't even have to do that.  Love vacations where I don't have to do anything.

Pizza from Flo's 8 Cafe, on the deck near the pools--Gluten Free!!  It was WONDERFUL. (you had to special request this)

Gluten free hamburger buns and hot dog buns were also available (special request, also).  I think the fries were not fried in a dedicated fryer--so they were not truly gluten-free.  Luci and I had no problem with them.  JT had a little bit of a problem, but not enough to quit eating them.  :) 

The magic pizza shells.  I am on a quest to find these.  So far, amazon.com is the only place I've found them (and a whopping big charge it is for shipping, so we haven't gotten them yet!).

Bless Her Heart.

That's what you say when someone is having great troubles ("Look, that lady just fell down while holding a grocery bag full of eggs...bless her heart") or when someone just isn't all there mentally:

Luci is invited to a birthday party tomorrow afternoon.  I told her that Sami has invited her to her birthday party at the skating rink!  Doesn't that sound like fun?

Mommy, how can I go to her party when it isn't my birthday?

(Now see, this is when you say, "Bless her heart.")

Since the party is at the skating rink, the birthday food will be pizza and a cake.  Luci will have just eaten lunch, so skipping the pizza should be easy.  But cake?   

M-o-o-o-o-o-m-m-m-m-m-y!  I have to have cake!

So today I made a batch of Betty Crocker Gluten Free Vanilla Cake Mix into cupcakes (the box makes 12), and frosted them with Glossy Chocolate Frosting (the recipe is in my Betty Crocker cook book, if you want to borrow it ☺). 
 
They turned out great!  Really yummy.

Chinese New Year--Year of the Dragon!

Luci and I made a dragon cake for Chinese New Year.

It's a scary dragon!

We got the idea from the Do They Have Salsa in China? blog.  M3 (the author) and her friend made a very intricate cake for her twin daughters' birthday party, and it is gorgeous!  For directions on how to make this cake, please see her blog post.  And when you look at her cake, don't judge mine for the poser it is.  Please.  Ours tastes fantastic, and the main person it's for (Luci) is very happy with it.

Luci and I made a simple version, and as you can see from the second photo, Luci is plenty happy with it--It's scary, Mom!   :)   We also made ours gluten free, with no artificial colors in the frosting (used turmeric for the yellow).  I got the recipe for the bundt cake from Allrecipes.com plus I made these changes:  I used Pamela's Bread Baking Mix (gluten free) for the flour, and I added some extra instant coffee, and used the chocolate syrup mentioned in the heading of the recipe instead of the coffee liqueur.

Gluten Free Fried Chicken

This was so good!  Recipe here, on Gluten Free Mom's website.

Pizza, Gluten-Free Style!

Today I made my first gluten free pizza crust. It turned out great! I used the recipe (and the flour mixture) from Pamela's Products.  Click here for the recipe:  Chewy Pizza Crust

 

Why go to all that bother?   Because of this boy, here:

Isn't he cute?

Christmas Math

This time of year is so much fun. I love doing this kind of math with Luci...measuring, baking, and it's art, too.

First we made some applesauce ornaments.

3/4 cup applesauce
4 oz ground cinnamon
2 TBS white glue

Mix well,  then roll out to 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut with cookie cutters, then poke a hole near the top with a straw, for hanging later.

Lay out on waxed paper.  It will take several days to completely dry the ornaments.  Turn them over each day, so they do not curl up.

When dry, you may decorate with glitter glue, as we did.

JT's snow man

Today's math lesson for Luci was making some sugar cookies!  Yum.  This was our first try at making gluten free sugar cookies, and they are a big hit.  (Feingold friends, I did not use approved frosting or decorating sugars.)

With the leftover dough, I made little ropes and put them into my mini-doughnut pan.  They made adorable little wreaths.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

• 1 stick plus 2 TBS butter, softened
• 2/3 cups white sugar
•  1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups gluten free flour mix
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder (omit if your baking mix has B.P. in it already)
• 1 teaspoon salt

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat again.  Mix in remaining ingredients.  Chill dough for at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 400*.  Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness, and cut with cookie cutters.  (I had to use extra flour to keep the dough from sticking, and I picked up each cookie with a spatula to place on the cookie sheet.)  Place on UNgreased cookie sheet. 

Bake for 6-8 minutes.  Let cool on pan for 1-2 minutes before placing cookies on cooling rack.

Decorate to your heart's content.  Or, let your 7 year old do it, because she'll have 'way more fun than you will!

Gluten Free Donuts

First, the hamburger buns!  I made them in a muffin top pan, because the dough is so fluid--they won't keep their shape if you just form them on a pan.  I think this is the one I ordered. 

I used one recipe of bread dough that was on the back of the Pamela's baking mix package to make 6 hamburger buns.  I baked them for about 25 minutes at 350*.

Now for the donuts (doughnuts?)

I followed this recipe from Hip Girls.  I didn't change it enough to call it my own, but here are my tweaks:

How to make Yummy Donuts!

Combine: 

2 1/4 tsp yeast
2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup warm water

In a mixer (do NOT use a dough hook), blend:

3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar

Then add:

2 TBS melted butter
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
a pinch of salt
the yeast/water/sugar mixture

Then add, 1 cup at a time:

3 cups of your favorite Gluten Free baking mix (I used Pamela's)


Beat for 5 minutes on medium.  It will be a wet, sticky dough--it will not come together like a regular, gluten bread dough.

GLAZE  (you can make this as the dough rises)
This is a Krispy Kreme clone recipe, which comes from this site:

1/3 cup butter, melted
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla (the recipe called for 1 1/2 tsp, but I wanted a very-vanilla flavor)
4-6 TBS hot water


Now for the fun part.

Grease a sheet cake pan.  I poured oil on mine and swirled it around until it was well-covered.  The SIDES ON THE PAN are a MUST.

Take a tablespoon measuring spoon AND another spoon (I used a big soup spoon) and oil them well, too.  (I had some extra oil in a measuring cup that I used for re-oiling my spoons and my hands.)  Scoop up a heaping tablespoon of dough and then use the other spoon to flop that ball down on the sheet pan.  Keep doing that until you run out of dough--I had just enough to fill up my whole sheet cake pan.  The oiled spoons are a must-otherwise you will have that dough all over your hands--it's very difficult to pick up the dough and shape into balls with your hands. 

Cover and let the balls of dough rise for 1-2 hours.  I waited about an hour and a half.

After some failed donuts, I realized that the balls were just too thick to get cooked all the way through without burning on the outside.  So, use that oil you have in the measuring cup and grease your hand really well and then smoosh the balls flat.    They are not lovely but will taste good!

Heat oil in a deep pot to 350*.  Mine got hotter than this and fluctuated between 325* and 365*.  The donuts cooked just fine, but you must keep a close eye on them.  Using an oiled spatula (seeing the theme here?  Oil, oil, oil everything!), slide 3 or 4 donuts into the oil.  When they are browned on the bottom, gently flip them over.  The whole cooking time is about 3 or 4 minutes.

Drain the donuts briefly (I used that basket thing and held them above the oil for a few seconds until they stopped dripping oil) and then put into the glaze, turning to coat entirely.  Pick up and let them drip the extra glaze into the pan, and then let cool on a wire rack.

 Try to let them cool enough to handle before eating! 

Thanksgiving, Gluten Free

Just made some cornbread dressing and green bean casserole, all gluten free! 

Officially Gluten Free

We are going Gluten Free at our house--all except John's favorite cereal (Raisin Bran Crunch) is gone.  I don't dare touch his cereal.

Luci and I both have reactions to gluten.  She gets eczema, and I, well, I won't bore you with icky details.  JT has presented some symptoms that I finally connected to gluten and so we are now gluten free.

I've been busy this past week--baking up a storm! 

These are rolls made from Pamela's Amazing Wheat Free and Gluten Free Bread Mix.   JT proclaimed them just as good as the rolls at Logan's Roadhouse.  Made me happy to hear that. 

 I also used the Pamela's mix to make some cornbread for making into dressing.  Since we're Southerners, and my Mom grew up down here, cornbread dressing is the way to go! 

JT realized that gluten free living meant that the Girl Scout cookies that Luci sells will be off-limits to him.  Oh, that was a sad day when he figured that out!  So, being the good mama I am (or am aiming to be, anyways), I found a gluten free version of Thin Mints, which are JT's favorites. 

I wish you had a scratch and sniff computer, because, wow, these are good!  Taste like the real thing.  Not only gluten free, but these Thin Mint lookalikes are also all natural!

I can't wait for JT to get home and try these cookies.  He's on a church trip with John and will be back tomorrow evening.  I'll let you know how the taste-test goes.

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Oh, and that sleeping in the big bed thing with Luci??  I did jinx myself.  The very next night she woke up at 4:30 and slept the rest of the night under her bed.  Because her room is too tiny for us to sleep next to each other next to the bed, she had to be under the bed.  Good thing it's got a good clearance for her sweet head when she sits up!

Cruisin'~~A WONDERful trip!

We went on a Disney four-day cruise in the Caribbean this week. Talk about FUN (except for Bryan getting seasick--Sunday night was rough and it caught up to Bryan on Monday night). We had a "kids sail free" deal.

Here are some favorite shots of the trip:

Here we are in Nassau, Bahamas. We found the Straw Market and got a couple of things..Luci's little purse, and a little Conga drum for JT (would you please quit playing that, JT?!). That's our ship, the Disney Wonder, in the background. Luci was thirsty at this point, and tired of walking. Can you tell?

Since I'm taking the photo, I am not in the shot...and I have the right to not show myself. So there.







It really is a lovely ship. There are art deco touches all through it, but it's modern, too. A classic look to the ship.

On deck 10, looking out over Nassau.

At Castaway Cay, Disney's private island. Gorgeous there! This was taken around 11 am. There was a breeze, and about 80* weather. It felt wonderful! The water felt cold, though, until you got used to it. After lunch this lagoon had more families in it, but before lunch we pretty much had the water to ourselves. John, JT and Luci are on the inner tubes and Bryan is sitting next to me on the sand. He wasn't feeling too well after his night of sea-sickness.

Bryan with Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. That shipwreck in the background is the very one used in some of the scenes in the Pirates movies. Too cool!

I do hope Captain Jack was not giving Bryan pointers on how to deal with the ladies....

John and JT took a bike-ride around the island. This was at one of the view points along the way.

Luci did not feel like riding. She rested after lunch. She's in there somewhere!

We had a different towel-animal in our cabin every night.

Luci tried her own hand at this craft. Here she is with her very own creation, made with her napkin.

Are you ready for this?

"I made a bar of soap!"

Gluten-free bread just for JT! It was delicious. The basket started out much fuller. This was after we all had a sample.

Some of my favorite shots:

Luci on our veranda, on Deck 8. We had just left port and headed out to sea the first night.

And two shots from Castaway Cay. I can't decide which I like the best. Mom, do you recognize the hat you gave me? Luci used it that afternoon, and I had to arm-wrestle her to get it back.

I think I like this second shot best.

Valentine's Day Love

We had a special little lunch for Valentine's. Usually we just give the kids a card and maybe a little candy. This year was different somehow--I'm sure some of it has to do with our little love-bug, Luci, who is so much into love, flowers, love, special things and love.
.
The boys put their allowance together and got Luci a stuffed animal. I didn't notice the heart-shaped plate in the background until I looked at the picture. Perfect!

Luci arranging the doggy's bow for the photo. You can see her gluten-free pizza, cut into heart shapes with a cookie cutter (thanks for doing that, JT!).

The rest of the table. The presents for the boys? Each boy got his own heart-shaped Papa John's pizza. The way to a boy's heart is through his stomach!

My favorite Valentine...a few weeks ago he sent a letter to his Daddy that said, "Mom is being so mean! Don't believe what she says!" So I really liked this one! It says, "...And the best mom of the year award goes to...Susan Willingham (my mom) Love: J.T."

Here are the pictures

Flowers from John

Poor Luci. Flowers are lovely, but she really didn't feel well.

Ooh, they smell good!

She's happy now!
She ought to be--she got a better bouquet!
Luci, do you have a boyfriend?
"Yup! He's in Af ghan istan!"

I made gluten free cookies for Luci, and added
all natural sprinkles. A totally Feingold treat! They are so good!

Gluten free pizza to take tonight to a pizza party.
Luci said it was good, and she's the only one
I need to impress with gluten-free stuff.
But the rest of us liked it, too.

A Fun Morning

JT is so happy with his gift from Bryan.

Thank you, Bryan!

My Army KidTraditional breakfast--pancakes (used to be cinnamon rolls), an "impossible quiche", oranges, tomato, and hot chocolate. This year we are gluten free for Luci's sake, to help her eczema (gluten and dairy mess her up; the quiche has some cheese in it but everything else for her is dairy free). The funny white squares are homemade marshmallows! No corn syrup in the homemade ones (no blue dye, either). The quiche and pancakes were made with Pamela's Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix, and they tasted incredibly good. You never would have guessed they were gluten free if you weren't told so.


Posted this one so I can share it with my Feingold friends.