Rice Cake Recipes: Gluten Free!

Ever since I found out I had a gluten allergy rice cakes have been a life saver! One of my favorite breakfast foods used to be toast with peanut butter and banana on top. I loved the way the peanut butter would melt over the toast and Mmmm, it was so good! Luckily there is gluten free bread... unfortunately it is expensive and I haven't found one that tastes like it should. Sooner than later when we are home I will learn how to use my wonderful bread machine given from Brittany Bailey as a wedding gift, (thanks Brittany!) but on the road I don't have that option. This is where I have had to get creative and think of different ways to enjoy an easy lunch on the road without a stomach ache... Answer: Rice cakes

Sure, they really dont sound that great, especially compared to a nice warm piece of bread! But I have found some ways to eat these that I really like! Plus I dont get the plain ones, those really dont have any flavor and DO taste like cardboard. But the chocolate, caramel, and apple-cinnamon ones are actually really good with the right topping!

It all started out with this... the basic recipe:

*Note: Use almond butter for any of these and it is delicious as well!

Peanut Butter and Banana Toast Revised:Chocolate, Caramel (my favorite with this recipe), or Apple-Cinnamon Rice cakes with Peanut butter, and sliced banana on top(occasionally I would drizzle some honey or agave over the top)




Ants on a Log Revised with Rice Cakes:  Chocolate (Me and Ben's favorite with this recipe), Caramel, and Apple-Cinnamon Rice Cakes with Peanut Butter and raisins on top, delicious! This is the one that Ben and I have MOST often. (Sometimes we just do peanut butter and sprinkle trail mix over top)



Caramel Apple Cinnamon: Another option is an apple cinnamon rice cake, peanut butter, with some caramel, cinnamon and nuts drizzled over. (Or you can omit the peanut butter and just do a caramel apple cinnamon rice cake!


Strawberry Cream Cheese Bagel: This morning I tried a chocolate rice cake with plain cream cheese and strawberries on top; it was almost like dessert for breakfast!



There are SO many different varieties and ways you can use rice cakes. They are not only healthier, but if you are going gluten free this is a perfect substitution for bread!  Get creative! I have seen a recipe for rice cake pizza; you use pizza sauce, and add on your favorite toppings! So you can do sweet or salty... Let me know if you try any new delicious versions and I will keep you updated on my experiments!



Note: None of the above photos are my own

Gluten Free Breakfast Quinoa

I saw this recipe on pinterest one morning and decided I would try it for breakfast. I found that it was WAY too much for one serving but I really liked it! I make it quite a bit now when I'm at home; it is a healthy way to start the day, plus it has a lot of protein and good nutrition with the Quinoa and other ingredients.

Hot Banana Breakfast Quinoa

Adapted from http://www.thewannabechef.net 


What you will need:

• 1 banana, mashed (I usually use 1/2 to 3/4 the banana)
• 1/3 cup cooked quinoa
• 2 eggs (I just use one egg)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 Tbs. almond butter (Or other nut butter of your choice)
• 1 1/2 Tbs. chopped almonds (You can omit or use other nut of choice)
• 1 tsp. agave (You can omit, or choose a sweetener of your choice)
• Other dried fruit of choice

Photo: Not my own

Preparing the Quinoa:

1. Combine the mashed banana, quinoa, eggs, salt, and cinnamon together in a small bowl and mix thoroughly.
2. Transfer the batter to a ramekin or other microwave-safe bowl, leaving a little room at the top to prevent overflow.
3. Microwave on high for 3 minutes or until the center is cooked through and set.
4. Drizzle the agave and almond butter evenly over top, sprinkle the nuts over and eat hot.

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal: Gluten Free

This is one recipe that I found I can do anywhere! It is simple and all I need is a microwave! (For my life that is perfect!) It is healthy, easy, and the combination of flavors and textures is delicious!

My own Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal recipe:

(Not my own photo)

What You Will Need:

½ C. dry oatmeal (I use gluten free)
1 C. water (or milk of your choice)
1/2 an apple cut up in small chunks
¼ C. raisins (or other dried fruit of your choice)
1 T. coconut
½ T. agave (More or less depending on how sweet you want it. You can also use honey)
1 T. ground flax
¼ C. almonds (or any nuts of your choice, chopped)
Cinnamon- as much as you like!

Preparing the Oatmeal:

In a small bowl add your dry oats, water, apple and some cinnamon. Cook on high for 5 minutes, keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t overflow.

 Once cooked, stir in the rest of your ingredients and enjoy! (I actually found that I like eating it cold; so I will make it, cover it up and stick it in the fridge to enjoy the next day. The flavors seem to soak in a bit more...Mmm Mmm.

Apple sandwich: Gluten Free and Delicious!

(Photo: Not my own)

So this is probably one of my favorite Go-To recipes now. It is simple, fast, healthy, gluten free, and it tastes REALLY good!

I got the idea from this picture on pinterest and just sort of made it my own.  It is very easy and you can really put whatever you would like on it! This is what I do and I'm obsessed with it!

What You Will Need: (makes 1 serving)

 -1 Apple (your favorite kind)
 -Peanut butter
 -Raisins
 -Coconut
 -Cinnamon
-Note: the amount on all of these varies depending on how much you want.
Preparing the Apple:
-Wash the apple, and lay it on its side. Carefully slice apple into thin slices. ( I usually slice mine into about 4-5 slices. You don't want to slice too thin or the apple may break.
- With a sharp knife carefully cut out the middle core of each slice (I normally try not to make a complete hole if possible because that makes it more difficult to spread the peanut butter; but if you cut the holes all the way through that is fine).
- Spread peanut butter (or nut butter of your choice) onto each apple slice to cover the apple
- Place raisins in single layer to cover peanut butter
- Pour about 1/2 Tbs. of coconut over each apple, or to your own liking
- Sprinkle cinnamon lightly over top of each apple, dont use too much though, you dont want it to overpower everything.
- Devour them!
- You really can use whatever toppings you would like, but trust me... the combination of these flavors flow together beautifully and taste amazing!

It is healthy, PLUS deliciously decieving! You may not think these will fill you up, but because you eat them as a sandwich each they are very filling!

Gluten Free Cinnamon Apple Chex

I have a LARGE sweet tooth. I mean huge.  After dinner is my FAVORITE time to have something sweet.  It's like all the saltiness of dinner creates this craving inside of me that says I must have something sweet.  Well the night before we left for Kentucky the craving came and there was no ice cream in the freezer and we didnt have many ingredients for me to whip something up since we had just gotten back from McAllen and didnt have any time to grocery shop before we headed out to Kentucky. Luckily I have a large stash of Chex cereal, (that is one of the few gluten free cereals out there and I happen to love the cinnamon, chocolate and honey nut flavors).  They always have a few fun recipes on the back of the boxes so I decided to look and see if there was any that sounded good, that we had all the ingredients for. I found this one and it worked really well; Ben and I both really liked it!



Photo: Not my own

Apple Pie Chex Mix:





What You Will Need:

3 cups Cinnamon Chex® cereal

3 cups Rice Chex® cereal

1 cup walnut pieces

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 cups dried or freeze-dried apples, coarsely chopped if necessary ( I omitted these because the only ones we had in the house contain WHEAT.

1 cup white vanilla baking chips

1 teaspoon shortening

            Preparing the Chex:

1. In large microwaveable bowl, mix cereals and walnuts.
2. In 2-cup microwaveable measuring cup, microwave brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg uncovered for about 1 1/2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute, until smooth and bubbly. Pour over cereal mixture; stir until evenly coated.
3. Microwave uncovered on High 4 minutes, stirring after each minute. Spread on waxed paper or foil to cool. Sprinkle apples evenly over cereal mixture.
4. In small microwaveable bowl, microwave white vanilla baking chips and shortening uncovered on High about 1 minute or until chips can be stirred smooth. Drizzle over cereal mixture; let stand until set. Break into bite-size pieces. Store in airtight container.



Clearly my calling is not photography! You know how some of the pictures of food make you want to make it RIGHT away?? Well, sory folks, this probably will not be one of those. BUT I promise it does taste really good!  If you are looking for something really good, quick, easy, gluten free... it's perfect!

Ben and I had it for a snack that night, and I put the rest in a bag for us to take on our road trip to munch on when we got tired! It was perfect... I ate too much at times, careful... it's addicting!

Moral of the story: NEVER underestimate the recipes on the back of boxes, they may surprise you:)

Single Serving Blueberry Muffin: Gluten Free!

This will be quick! When we were back home (for 2 days) I didn't have much time to cook, but I did make a few fun things and I just wanted to share a few of them with you! Along with some of my favorite gluten free meals to eat!
First recipe I tried comes from http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/ She apparently is a chocolate lover who used to be vegan and she has created MANY easy, gluten free, healthy and delicious looking recipes. For a little while I was addicted to reading the recipes and I'm excited to try more of them out when I get home! But here is one that I did try:
(ps. the photo is not mine, I wish!)


Blueberry Muffin for One:

 

• 3 T flour (I used Bob’s gluten-free)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• heaping 1/16 tsp salt
• 1-2 T blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 T unrefined coconut oil (You can sub a different oil; however the coconut oil gives it a rich flavor and fun texture. You can use applesauce for a fat-free version.)
• 1 T plus 1 tsp nondairy milk (Use less if using liquid sweetener.)
• 1 T sugar (or 1 packet stevia) I omitted, but most people will want some sweetener

Mix the dry ingredients, then add the wet. Pour into a small microwave dish (If you look at Katie's recipe she tells you how to make it in the oven, but I wanted it to be a quick and easy breakfast so I just popped it in the microwave for 90 seconds and it tasted delicious!)
I also made the same recipe but added chocolate chips instead of blueberries! You can be really creative and Katie has all sorts of different ideas on her blog. I thought it was such a great idea because sometimes you dont want to make a whole pan of muffins, but just one is perfect! I made 2 for Ben and 2 for me.

Louisville Slugger Baseball Bat Factory

We had heard that the Louisville Slugger Baseball Bat Factory and Museum was here in Louisville and a few of the people we talked to around town said it is a MUST see (of course they were huge baseball fans, so of course they would say that!) So, since we got done a little earlier today than most days we took advantage of the BEAUTIFUL day, perfect weather and a littler bit of freedom and headed to downtown Louisville to see the museum!
We parked the truck, ate a quick picnic lunch out by the water and walked to the museum just around the corner.

Our lunch: Chocolate Rice cakes, peanut butter and raisins on top. If you havent tried them, they are delicious! And even better... they are gluten free!

I just have to show you our really good looking shoes that we wear on the roofs... Yes, we are matching. How cute right?

Looks just like every other picture we take, but at least you get a different back drop each time:)

Louisville Slugger Museum

Ben... Like a little kid in a candy store:)

Unfortunately they wouldnt let us take any pictures INSIDE the factory, they were afraid we were spys from another bat museum trying to take their ideas... I dont blame them, Ben and I do look pretty suspicious.



And one of the best parts about the museum?? They gave us each a free mini Louisville Slugger bat! (Which probably came from our $11.00 entrance fee, but it still felt free!)

Kentucky Derby or Bust!

It's not too clear, so if you cant tell it's my souvenir from every state... the Kentucky welcome sign!

Yes, it's true.  For those of you who didn't already know, we are now in Louisville, Kentucky!

We had a whole 2 days off back at our apartment and we pretty much unpacked, washed clothes to get rid of the bed bugs....

 (did I mention that we "mostly Ben:(" got bed bugs at one of our hotels?? YUCK! We normally stay at descent hotels that have good ratings; we always check the ratings and reviews before booking it. Well, I made the reservation for this one (OOPS...) and it appealed to me because it had a KITCHENETTE! Which I posted about previously... Well, when the stove burners didn't even work and the beds had bed bugs! So, definitely NOT worth having a kitchenette!) Bed bugs are crazy... They have been bothering been for a few weeks now. He really broke out and tried many different things to get rid of "the itchies"... so if you know of any tips, let us know! Luckily they are better, but still not completely gone!)

And then we packed up again once we got the email about heading to Kentucky!  We have been here for about a week now because of a hail storm that hit.  The hail wasn't that bad compared to McAllen, but we may still be here for a little while.

Did I mention that as we were looking to book hotels before we left they were INCREDIBLY expensive?  Like the cheapest hotels were running something like $250 per night! Crazy expensive. So Ben researched to try to figure out what was going on... and he found out that we were heading there the weekend of the Kentucky Derby, which is a HUGE deal here in Louisville.  Locals get all into it, and people come from all over the place to participate.  It was fun being here to get the Kentucky feel and all the craziness that goes along with the Derby. We did have to stay an hour outside of Louisville for a few nights until the prices were lowered.

We thought about going to the race and most of the locals encouraged us to go.  So on Saturday after finishing up the claims we headed to Churchill Downs.  We walked around the area for a little while and as we got to the entrance it wasn't so glamorous. It was like a huge drunken party scene with trash everywhere and fights going on... (this was at 5:30pm), this wouldn't have been so bad because it would have been much different inside the stadium, but the seats we were planning to get were just general admission, which meant we wouldn't actually be able to see the race. So we decided that being there, seeing the people and experiencing the environment was good enough for us.  We headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for some dinner and watched the race on TV.

Snapped a picture for proof we were there and headed back to the truck for some dinner!

Aww nothing like a romantic dinner at.... Buffalo Wild Wings??  Well, I guess  we're not quite the fancy type, but it sure was delicious and we had a blast watching the race with all the locals on TV! Did I mention that they have a gluten free selection?? I got a huge plate of nachos and it DIDNT even hurt my stomach! :) YAY

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