Cherry Colored Glasses Muffins

Whenever I add carrots or cherries to a recipe, it just looks like everything is right in my world. The sweet, pink tint is free antidepressants!  I'm not even really a big fan of the color pink.  I make exceptions for anything Hello Kitty (wink).

That old thought about "rose colored glasses" is so true!  If you've never owned pink colored lens shades, I recommend you try them.  It mos def improves your outlook.

I made a small batch of these, not wanting left overs.  This recipe is easily doubled to get a full dozen! 

Here's a little tip on muffin or corn bread making...  After you fill the muffin tins, let them rest a few minutes before baking.  It will give a nice crown to your finished product!  

Have a sunny Sunday!

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted margarine
1 medium ripe banana
2 tablespoons vegan, gluten free vanilla yogurt
1 cup GF baking mix
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Dash of salt
1/2 cup chopped frozen cherries

1/3 cup chocolate chips, optional

ADDITIONAL INGREDIENT ADDED ABOVE (chocolate chips)

You know your daughter works at Culver's when she asks you to add chocolate chips to the already banana, cherry recipe.  I won't even charge her extra for the third mix in!

Preheat oven to 350 and grease 6 cups of your muffin tin.  Whisk together the sugar and margarine.  Add the yogurt and the banana, breaking it into pieces as you do.  Smash the banana and whisk to combine.  Add the baking mix, baking soda, and salt.  Stir with a spoon just until moistened.  Stir in the cherries.

Spoon into your prepared pan.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick in center comes out clean.

Mini Cajeta Cakes

Fill mini Bundt cakes with sweet cajeta!  Use my Angelic Cake recipe, bake in mini Bundt pans, press holes in top with wooden spoon, then spoon in cajeta or caramel sauce!

Here's a link to cake recipe:

Angelic Cake

Roasted Roots

I got up early and got my butt to Whole Foods.  The store closest to our house has a lot of construction around it.  On a normal day, the parking lot is horrible.  I was either going early, or not going at all.

The carrots and parsnips looked so appealing to me.  I bought several of each, along with some Yukon gold potatoes, and roasted them for dinner.  This was my first experience with parsnips.  I have a super sensitive to flavors and tastes.  Parsnips taste like nutmeg!  Good stuff!

4 parsnips
4 carrots
5 Yukon gold potatoes
1/2 cup margarine, super softened or melted even
Salt

Preheat your oven to 375.

Peel and cut your veggies in any shapes you like.  We quartered the potatoes and cut the parsnips and carrots into long pieces.

Put the veggies in a roasting pan with the margarine.  Stir to coat them all.  Salt liberally.

Cover with foil and baked, covered, for 40 minutes.  Remove from oven.

Increase the heat to 425.  Arrange the veggies on sheet pan(s).  Return to oven for about 40 more minutes until browned and soft.

Super Modified Classic Cuisinart White Bread

Who knew Cuisinart had a classic bread recipe?  I got a new, honkin' sized food processor last night! It is a beast that runs like a beauty.  I'm telling you, it took about half a second to work the margarine into the flour.  The motor is quiet too.  And the finished dough?  Not like any dough consistancy I have ever achieved with my stand mixer.

While Len and I made lots of changes to this recipe, I felt I needed to give Cuisinart some credit since it was their recipe that inspired us and gave us a board to jump from.

This is half of the recipe that was in the book that came with the machine.  This makes one loaf of gluten free white bread.

1 cup plain Soymilk, warmed to about 110 degrees
1/2 package of yeast, or 1-1/8 teaspoon
1 teaspoon sugar
2-1/2 cups GF baking mix
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold margarine, cut into squares

Preheat oven to 400 and grease a loaf pan.

In the large bowl of your food processor, using the dough attachment, put the baking mix, yeast, sugar, salt, and margarine.  Process until blended, about 2 seconds!

While the processor is running, pour the warm Soymilk in through top of the feed tube.  Process until all the liquid is incorporated.  If the dough seems too wet and you need to add a little more baking mix, do so using the feed tube too.  The dough should be soft but not wet.

Once you have achieved that texture.  Process for about 45 seconds.  This actually makes this gluten free dough sort of elastic!  Without nasty xantham or egg replacer!!!!

Press dough into the loaf pan.  Cover with plastic wrap and a towel and allow to rise on top of preheated oven, about 30 minutes.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and brush with soft margarine.  Return to oven an additional 5 minutes.

Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.