UpBeat Living: Yummy Gluten-Free (GF) Desserts, Part 5, Lemon Squares

Tags

Eating right, GF, Gluten, gluten-free, Recipes, UpBeat Living

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Today we offer a recipe for dessert squares that can be dressed up or down, cut small or large, depending on the occasion.  Your gluten-free (GF) family and friends will love these lemon squares.  And your neighbor with the lemon tree will be thrilled.

GF Lemon Squares

Image by FreeRecipeNetwork.com

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Liberally butter an 8 x 13 Pyrex pan
• Mix together: 1 c butter, ½  c GF confectioners sugar OR very fine organic sugar, 2 c white rice flour, 3/8 t sea salt
• Press that mixture into the prepared pan.
• Bake that for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

• Now mix together:  4 eggs, 2 c organic sugar, 6 T lemon juice, grated rind of 1 lemon.
• Pour over the crust and bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
• Dust with GF confectioners sugar OR very fine organic sugar OR coconut flour. Use a tea strainer as a sifter to artistically dust this over the pan of lemon squares.
• Cool on a rack for 30 minutes or until completely cool, before cutting into squares.
• Once you have cut them, decorate with squirts of whipped cream and strawberry slices, if desired.

Enjoy!

And what other recipes would you like to see in a GF version?

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

UpBeat Living: Yummy Gluten-Free (GF) Desserts, Part 4, French Walnut Cake

Tags

GF, gluten-free, Recipes, UpBeat Living

 © 2014 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved

Image by Fotolia

This series of GF recipes continues, in support of those who are sensitive to wheat or gluten, or who feed friends and loved ones who don’t do well with wheat or gluten.  There are countless delicious recipes that are completely free of wheat and gluten! And if there are any recipes you would like converted, please send them to me.  I will do my best to make a GF version that tastes exactly like the original!

Today’s special recipe comes from traditional French cooking.  In the Perigord region of southwest France, cooks prepare many dishes with walnuts, which have cholesterol-lowering properties.  In fact, the Perigord region has the second-lowest rate of heart disease in the world.  Many believe this is due to a high consumption of walnuts.

This recipe is easier than it sounds, as long as you have a food processor.  Also, do not vary from the directions.  I tested a few versions of this recipe before I got it perfect.

French Walnut Cake

 

• Preheat oven or toaster oven to 375 degrees F
• Process 6-6 ½ oz walnuts in food processor until fine but not nut butter.
• Take 3 oz or 6 T of butter, room temperature, and cream it in a large bowl.
• Add 4 egg yolks and 6 oz or ¾ c organic sugar, and mix well.
• Add the finely processed nuts to the mixture and mix well.
• Beat 4 egg whites until stiff and fold into the batter.
• Use a rubber spatula to move the batter into a buttered 8” x 8” Pyrex pan.
• Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  Then turn down the heat to 275 degrees and bake another 23 minutes.
• Now cool on a rack for 30 minutes or until completely cool.
• Cut into 8 bars (or 16 squares for small appetites), and serve with GF whipped cream and slices of strawberries.  This would also be good drizzled with the hot fudge sauce (Easiest GF Hot Fudge Sauce) from yesterday’s post.  Enjoy!

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Yummy Gluten-Free (GF) Desserts, Part 3

Tags

chocolate, GF, gluten-free, Health, UpBeat Living

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

The UpBeat Living philosophy is always to do what is best for your body-mind-heart-spirit system.  For those sensitive to wheat or gluten, it’s vital to moods and overall health, to eat gluten-free (GF).  Today’s recipes are for the chocolate lover!

Microsoft image

Easiest GF Brownies

• In a small microwaveable bowl, put:
  • 4 oz unsweetened GF chocolate
  • 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter

• Microwave the chocolate mixture 1 minute at a time, until it is liquid and can be stirred.
• Add, while stirring:  2 c. organic sugar, 3 beaten eggs, 1 T. vanilla extract, 1 T. espresso powder, 1 c. white rice flour, ½ t. sea salt.  Stir only until smooth.
• Spray a 9” x 13” pan with GF baking spray, or butter and flour the pan.  Pour the batter into the pan and jiggle the pan to even the level of the batter.  Try not to eat too much of the batter :-).

• Bake at 350 degrees (325 for pyrex pan) about 32 minutes.  Standard doneness tests do not apply.  Let the brownies cool completely before cutting, probably 25 minutes.
• These make a great base for brownie fudge sundaes, using the hot fudge sauce below.

Easiest GF Hot Fudge Sauce

• In a small saucepan, melt over medium heat:  2 c. less 2 T. GF chocolate chips, 1 oz unsweetened chocolate, 2 c. heavy cream or half n half.  Stir gently with a wire whisk until it suddenly turns into a light pudding-like texture.

• Make ice cream sundaes with: a brownie from the above recipe, GF ice cream, and the hot fudge sauce.

Enjoy!

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Yummy Gluten-Free (GF) Desserts, Part 2

Tags

Eating right, GF, Gluten, gluten-free, stress, UpBeat Living

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

If you are sensitive to gluten, or simply wheat, or you have a loved one with those sensitivities, you’ll want to have some quick and simple gluten-free (GF) recipes handy.  Here are two easy ones that require no technical expertise at all.  The GF Almond Cookies are the simplest cookie recipe I have ever seen, and they freeze well. Not that they will last long, once your guests taste one!  The Honey-Pecan-Pumpkin Cake is a classic winter cake with a Southern flare, and it freezes well also.  You can make it with- or without the nuts.  Have fun with these!

GF Almond Cookies

Image by Microsoft

 

• In a medium bowl, mix:
  • 1 c. almond butter (organic if possible)
  • 1 c. organic sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 T vanilla
  • Optional:  6 oz GF chocolate chips

• Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet you have sprayed with GF baking spra
• Bake at 350 degrees about 13 minutes or until firm. Time will vary by the brand of almond butter you have.
• Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, if you can wait.  Makes about 20.

GF Honey-Pecan-Pumpkin Cake

• Spray, or butter-and-flour, one bundt cake pan or two 5” x 9” loaf pans.

• Assemble:
  • 1 c organic sugar
  • ¾ c medium honey
  • 1 ¼ c olive oil
  • 4 eggs, well beaten
  • 1 ½ t baking soda
  • 1 ½ t baking powder
  • 1 t sea salt
  • 2 c white rice flour
  • 2 t cinnamon
  • 2 t ground coriander
  • 1 t ground cloves
  • 3 c well-mashed steamed pumpkin (or 24 oz canned pumpkin)
  • 1 c chopped pecans

• Try to mix the sugar and honey.  Add oil and eggs, mix well.
• Add pumpkin, mix well.
• Combine dry ingredients, add and mix well.
• Bake at 325 degrees for at least 30 minutes, depending on your oven.  Cake/s will be done when springy to the touch.  Let cool in pan for 20 minutes before turning out.
• If desired, serve with whipped cream and tangerine sections.

Enjoy!

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Yummy Gluten-Free Desserts, Part 1

Tags

Eating right, GF, gluten-free, stress, UpBeat Living

 © 2014 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Cherry-Cinnamon Mini Cakes. Photo by Kebba Buckley Button

Do you love desserts?  But your body hates wheat or gluten?  Then you are actually lucky, because these days, the solutions are easy.  And generally any non-gluten-sensitive people can enjoy your GF desserts with you.  So many people have realized that gluten doesn’t work for them, that gluten-free (GF) products are now widely available.  If you know you are wheat-sensitive, but you haven’t considered gluten, you’re in luck again.  Since all wheat has gluten, you wheat-sensitive people can generally feast on GF foods.

Here are two easy desserts, which you can use as coffeecake, desert cake, or snacks.  Notice there is no oil in either recipe, and the topping is simply cinnamon sugar—light, satisfying, and very low-calorie.  The quickest version of either is made in an 8” square pyrex pan, in a toaster oven or countertop oven.  However, you can bake the recipes in muffin tins you have sprayed with GF baking spray, taking about 5 minutes off the baking time.

GF Apricot Coffee Cake

o  Drain 1 15-oz can of apricots (packed in fruit juice, if you can find it), reserving the juice, and chop the apricots.

o  In a large bowl, mix just until smooth:

1 ¼ c GF baking mix (such as Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix)

½ c organic sugar

1 extra large egg

½ c  juice from the apricots (there is no oil)

2 t cinnamon

¼ t coriander or nutmeg

1 ½ t hazelnut extract

o  Add the apricot pieces and stir until well-distributed.

o  Spray an 8” x 8” pyrex baking pan with GF baking spray, or butter and flour the pan.  Pour the batter in the pan, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. [If you don’t have cinnamon sugar, fill an empty spice jar with half organic sugar and half cinnamon.  You may prefer more cinnamon.  This looks pretty when baked, and provides more flavor than calories.]

o  Bake at about 330 degrees in a toaster oven, for about 25 minutes.  It’s done when springy in the middle.  No overbaking!

GF Cherry-Cinnamon Mini Cakes

o  Spray, or butter-and-flour, one 12-cupcake pan and about 4 depressions in a second 12-cupcake pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and be sure one rack is in the middle of the oven.

o  In a large bowl, mix, and stir until smooth:

1 ¼ c GF baking mix (such as Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix)

½ c organic sugar

1 extra large egg

½ c water (there is no oil)

2 t cinnamon

1 ½ t almond extract

o  Add: 1 6-oz package of dried cherries (unsweetened, such as Mariani)

o  Stir until well-distributed.

o  Using a large spoon, fill the cupcake tin depressions halfway, until you are out of batter.

o  Bake at 350 for about 18 minutes.  Mini cakes will be springy to the touch when done.

Enjoy these light, delicious, and guilt-free GF desserts!

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Mac ‘N’ Cheese Gluten Free

Tags

energy foods, Gluten, gluten-free, Stress Management, The life you want, UpBeat Living

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

 

For many years, I have lusted for a satisfying macaroni and cheese recipe that somehow contained no wheat.  One of my earliest mac ‘n’ cheese memories was a quickie version from a box.  Slender elbow macaroni cooked quickly, and then you added a packet of powder that yielded a thin but succulent sauce, redolent of the familiar taste of classic Velveeta.  Utterly delicious.

 

GF Mac ‘N’ Cheese
(c) 2013 Kebba Buckley Button

But by college days, I had realized I felt much better without wheat.  In recent years, gluten has been identified as something many do not tolerate.  So now we have a wide variety of pasta and other foods that contain no wheat or gluten, yet are delicious and easy to work with.  Many of the new gluten free, or GF, foods, can be directly substituted in standard recipes, with delicious results for the GF eaters and for everyone else.

 

Recently, I was transfixed by a modern-looking recipe for mac ‘n’ cheese in a major home arts magazine.  Alas, when I tried it, it turned out to be incredibly complex and time-consuming.  It specified a type of elbow pasta I had never heard of before, and it claimed the recipe fitted in a 2-quart baking dish; it turned out to be 4 quarts of recipe.  It also specified grated fontina cheese, which is impossible, since fontina is too soft to even slice with ease.  I concluded the recipe was not kitchen-tested.  Bummer!

 

So here’s what I came up with, for much less work and lots of flavor.  It’s very filling and makes a great vegetarian main dish.  And remember—it’s gluten-free!

1. Spray 2 8 x 8 x 2” Pyrex-type baking dishes with favorite nonstick spray.  Preheat oven or larger toaster oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare an 8 oz. package of Trader Joe’s organic rice penne pasta according to directions, using 1 ½  tsp sea salt and 15 twists fresh ground pepper.  If you can’t get Trader Joe’s brand, use another, such as Tinkyada.
3. In a 5-quart wok, stir-fry ½ c chopped onions or sliced green onions with 2-3 Tbsp olive oil and 3 c cubed butternut squash (buy it already cubed, possibly frozen), and cook until tender.  [If you love mushrooms, sauté 8 oz of them in before adding the squash.] Sprinkle 2 Tbsp brown rice flour or Pamela’s GF Pancake and Baking Mix over the squash.  Now add a cup of milk and stir well.  Cook until it thickens.  You may like another ½ to 1 tsp of sea salt added to the liquid now.
4. Drain the penne pasta when tender, toss into the squash mixture, and add 8 oz shredded cheddar cheese or half swiss and half cheddar.
5. Divide this into the two baking dishes.  Garnish with extra grated cheese, paprika, sliced green onion, and possibly chopped kalamata olives.
6. Bake one or both of the dishes for about 20-25 minutes, until it bubbles.  You can also microwave it until it bubbles, which may be about 5 minutes.  Makes 8 large servings.
7. NOTE:  If you are only serving 2 people, or using it as a side dish, put plastic wrap over the second baking dish, refrigerate it, and simply heat it the next day.  Delicious for breakfast.

 

Now you can enjoy mac ‘n’ cheese, eat well, and still feel good!  If you love this recipe, tell me what other GF recipes you would enjoy.  I have a limitless collection.

 

———————————————————–

 

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

 

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books on Amazon?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (http://tinyurl.com/abd47jr)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 

 

● Please comment!

 

● Get these posts by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

UpBeat Living: Baking Gluten Free and Easy

Tags

GF, Gluten, gluten-free

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo by Fotolia

In recent years, many people have found that they feel much better if they don’t eat gluten.  Gluten is a protein component of certain grains, particularly wheat, rye, and barley.  If your abdomen is flatter, your mind clearer, and your digestion more comfortable without gluten, then consider focusing on the countless other foods that are available.  In the US, wheat-flour foods are often the basis of a meal, using breads, pastas, flatbreads, crusts, croutons, rolls, pancakes, waffles, sweet rolls, cookies…the list is endless. Gluten from wheat is even used to form vegetarian “meats”, giving them a chewy texture and making them easy to cook with.  Gluten is often hidden in sauces, even chocolate sauce and sandwich spreads.  In the great wave of vegetarianism in the 1960’s and 1970’s, vegetarian products were understood to involve whole wheat and many forms of soy, with soy sauce often containing wheat.

But good news!  There is no longer any reason for gluten-free (GF) consumers to feel deprived.  Today we’re talking mainly about baked goods and baking mixes.  In Phoenix alone, there are at least two gluten-free bakeries; ask around in your area.  The market is now flush with GF pastas in numerous shapes.  Look for great-textured rice pastas from Mrs. Leeper’s, Trader Joe’s, Tinkyada, and Rizopia, among others. In your Asian grocery or your store’s Asian section, look for noodles made of rice and even sweet potato. Now there are cereals, snack bars, breads, crusts, hamburger buns, frozen waffles, bagels, sweet rolls, and cookies; look for Rudy’s and Udi’s, among others.  Baking mixes also abound, for specific flavors of cakes or brownies, for cornbread, or for versatile use.

One of my favorite multi-use GF baking mixes is Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix. A California company with both mixes and prepared baked goods, Pamela’s labels their products GF or “Certified Gluten Free”.  Their products are wheat-free as well, and the company belongs to the American Celiac Disease Alliance.  [And I am in no way compensated for my enthusiasm for this company.]  Recipes on the Baking Mix bag show you how to easily turn it into pancakes, waffles, gravy, muffins, and chocolate chip cookies.  Use their muffin recipe poured into an 8” x 8” pan, to create a coffee cake.

Pamela’s Cornbread & Muffin Mix is likewise a joy.  Recipes on the mix bag show you easy recipes for cornbread, with several variations, skillet cornbread, cornbread dressing, orange corn muffins, and even a savory tart crust.

If you like to bake from scratch, Bob’s Red Mill makes a number of alternative flours, including garbanzo, potato, rice, brown rice, and coconut.  And Bob’s also makes mixes like gluten-free pizza crust.

So experiment, and create the baked goods that feel best in your body and taste the best to your family.  And if you have GF brands or products you recommend, please let us know, so we can try it and mention it.  Food can absolutely taste good, while you are feeling good!  You can enjoy a delicious gluten-free life!

 

———————————————————–

● If you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column.  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

 

● Kebba Buckley Button is a Master’s Degree scientist, a minister, and the award-winning author of  the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (http://tinyurl.com/abd47jr), and also Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br).  She also has a natural healing and stress management practice and is a celebrated public speaker.

 

● Your comments are welcome!

 

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

 

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .