GFCF Mango Cheesecake

It has been a while since I've updated this blog.   Most of our meals are just repeats now so they are already posted here.   Actually, with all these repeat meals I've been in a bit of a GFCF rut, so yesterday I made gluten and dairy free cheesecake from a recipe in this cookbook that I found on clearance last week.

 

The crust is made from ground almonds, Earth Balance non-dairy butter, and crumbled GFCF chocolate chip cookies.   (I baked GFCF chocolate chip cookies last week and hid them in the freezer so I just tossed them in the food processor.  And that's the way the cookie crumbles.) 

I greased a springform pan with Earth Balance, patted the crust mixture inside and then baked at 350 for 10 minutes.

The filling is made from soy yogurt, Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, pure maple syrup, lemon juice, corn starch and a fresh mango. 

Blend the filling ingredients together until creamy and pour over crust.

Bake 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees until set.  Cool on wire rack and then refrigerate until firm.   Remove sides of springform pan.

The cookbook suggests topping with maple syrup and slices of fresh mango.  I just brushed with a small amount of maple syrup and sprinkled with ground almonds.    Everyone LOVED it! 

Crust:

1/3 cup melted Earth Balance non-dairy butter (plus small amount for greasing pan)

1 1/2 cup GFCF cookie crumbs

heaping 1/4 cup ground almonds

Filling:

1 large mango- pitted, peeled and diced

juice of 1 lemon

1 cup soy yogurt

1 T. cornstarch

3 T. pure maple syrup

2 cups vegan cream cheese

 

Planning meals

One of the first things I did last Monday was to make a supper menu for the week. I have been planning a day or two at a time but my goal is to do this at the beginning of every week. I didn't plan for the weekend meals and as a result supper sneaked up on me last night. This week I'll remember to add the weekend meals! These were last week's meals:

Monday- Chicken, rice, cauliflower & broccoli (roasted with olive oil and sea salt)

Tuesday- Tacos and triple berry crisp for dessert

Wednesday- Salmon, roasted garlic potatoes, roasted asparagus (Java and Bean did not want to try the salmon. I just made sure they each had a source of protein in their bedtime snack. One had peanut butter with an apple and the other had roasted peanuts.)

Thursday- Quinoa Linguine and tomato meat sauce

Friday- Vegetable beef soup (homemade) and gluten free English muffins (purchased)


Our main meal on Sunday is lunch after church and I failed to plan for that, too. Time to take inventory in the kitchen and come up with something!

Jabba the Banana Bread

In case you think everything I make turns to culinary gold, here's an epic fail from the coffee kitchen.

I tried a new gluten / casein free banana bread recipe. It called for a lot of baking powder and I thought that was kinda weird, but I made it anyway. I doubled the recipe to make 2 loaves but I think doubling the baking powder was a bad idea.

The batter was filled to the top of the bread pans but as you can see, it rose...and rose....and rose.

And then it fell. (FYI- my wooden cutting board has been used for one too many art projects over the years. Ignore the pink and purple marker please.)

And it looked like this. Jabba the banana bread.

The kids ate it anyway!

Man grub

Last night's supper was a hit with the testosterone crowd. Gluten and dairy free doesn't mean girly. This was classic man grub.
Beef stew is one of hubby's favorites and adapting it to GFCF was easy. Start with a cut of beef (I used a chuck roast) and cut it into one inch pieces. In a covered container or freezer bag, combine 1/3 cup of your favorite GF flour blend, salt, pepper and other seasonings (I used Penzeys Beef Roast seasoning). Shake beef pieces in the flour mix and brown in a few tablespoons of heated oil. Add a chopped onion to browned beef for a few minutes and then put beef mixture in the crockpot.

Add 4-5 carrots, 5-6 potatoes, some celery (I was out of celery so don't look for any in the picture), 2 cups GF beef broth, a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce, and a bay leaf. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or on low for 10 hours.

This recipe for Cornmeal Flatbread from the Gluten Free on a Shoestring cookbook is the perfect accompaniment for the man meal. Man grub. Grunt grunt.

So good and pretty, too!

Want a great crock pot chicken meal? Tonight I made Chicken Cacciatore with this recipe. This is definitely going to be a repeat meal. It was delicious and pretty, too!
The recipe calls for onions, mushrooms, garlic and a red bell pepper in the bottom of the crock pot. (I used 1/2 red and 1/2 yellow bell peppers in case you are wondering where the yellow specks came from.)

Layer chicken next. I used boneless thighs and breasts.

Combine tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken broth, cooking wine (I didn't have white so I used a cooking sherry), and seasonings. I let it cook all day and then added the cornstarch and water during the last 30 minutes.

Rice and broccoli completed the meal.

Soooo good and pretty, too!

Share the love

Last night we made individual GFCF heart shaped pizzas for Valentines Day. Java enjoyed being able to express her creativity while Bean focused on taste. He's become a real spice fanatic!

Java came home with a load of candy from school but after she and Bean each had a piece, I offered her $5 for the rest. She thought that was a great deal! We're sending the candy to a cousin who is in college. ♥ Share the love...and food dyes, sugar, high fructose corn syrup....

Chicken Quinoa Spaghetti

Last night I made supper for our family and my daughter and son in law. I had to make it heart healthy, gluten free, dairy free and vegetarian (my daughter Latte doesn't eat meat).

No problem.

I made our favorite Quinoa spaghetti with two spaghetti sauces...one with ground chicken and one without.

Our local co-op has organic ground chicken at a decent price so we'll work this into the menu more often. I can imagine that people would think it was rather bland if they didn't season it well...but I've been to Penzeys. ♥ With their salt free Italian seasoning, some fresh garlic and an onion, the ground chicken really came to life! (Not literally. That would have really freaked out my vegetarian daughter.)

I added tomato sauce and poured it over the quinoa noodles. It looked and smelled so good that I couldn't even take a picture of the finished product! (You know the kids are excited about the meal when the prayer is said very, very quickly!)