Pumpkin Muffins

I made my favorite fall chocolate almond pumpkin muffins last weekend. They turned out just like the real thing! I used Mama's Coconut Blend which I found at my favorite grocery store plus xanthan gum. Unfortunately it calls for alot of butter and they gave me a belly ache (so did the real thing last year) so I'm not going to post the recipe until I try it out with Apple Sauce instead of butter.

Earlier this week when I went grocery shopping there was no canned pumpkin, probably due to the Great Pumpkin Shortage of 2010. Luckily when I went to my favorite grocery store AGAIN they had tons of Libby's so I got one huge double can and a bunch of smaller cans since they'll last a really long time. Maybe the shortage is over but I didn't want to take that chance since pumpkin (other than apples) is my favorite food of fall.

I think what I am trying to tell you is 'Stock up just in case!!!' though it seems that we've had a really good year for crops. Last year lots of farmers around here lost crops because we had snow early.

Finally can I just say that it's so nice that things say gluten-free now. I don't know people did it before it because the fad Hollywood diet. Thai kitchen is my favorite, they even labels their coconut milk 'naturally gluten free'. Almost as awesome as my peanut butter jar that says under 'Ingredients: Peanuts' wait for it... 'Contains Peanuts.'

Love Love

Rice Cake Sale

ATTENTION! Whole foods is having a sale on those really hearty rice cakes! 2/$4.

Lundberg Organic. Regularly just under $4.

Also I picked up the boinature (sp?)

It cost me an arm and a leg. So we'll have ziti for supper tonight, but I don't plan on buying it too often.

King Arthur Flour Gluten Free Muffin Mix

I tried this new muffin mix yesterday, it is a vanilla base and you can choose what to add in. I decided to go with frozen blueberries.

The muffins themselves are absolutely delicious and easy to make. Could probably pass as cupcakes if you left them plain and put frosting on top. There isn't much of the typical gritty texture that is found in most gluten free baked goods. The one problem that I noticed is that it calls for 1.5 cups of whatever else you want to add. So I added that many frozen blueberries. I think this was way too much.

The bottom of my muffin was mostly blueberries and does not stick together well. I had to get a spatula to remove it from the pan. This may also be because the blueberries added so much moisture to the batter. If I were to do it again I would definitely put in paper muffin cups to remedy the situation, either that or decrease the amount of blueberries added.

These muffins end up being perfect for my needs. I put a few in the fridge (the box says they only last about 3 days in the fridge) and the rest are in the freezer in seperate baggies. All I have to do before leaving for school in the morning is pull a bag out of the freezer. By the time I am ready to eat it the muffin has defrosted wonderfully and is perfect to fix my lunch time hunger.

I would definitely make them again with the few alterations.

Rice Cakes

Rice Cakes have been confusing me.

Especially if you shop at Whole Foods there are many options for Rice Cakes. I just bought the cheapest plain lightly salted ones I could find, but I couldn't help but notice they weren't the cheapest per ounce, just the cheapest per cake. There were cakes that were twice as heavy.

Now that I've been eating rice cakes for breakfast lunch and dinner, ok not really for dinner, just with peanut butter and jelly for breakfast and with Artichoke spinach hummus for lunch, I'm wondering if I would be more satisfied if my rice cakes were brown rice and heartier.

I'll just have to find out and go to the grocery store after work today.

To the grocery store (I keep NEEDING to add Batman at the end of proposition statements like this. You know 'To the grocery store Batman' I don't know why. It doesn't make sense really, especially because I'm sure NO ONE can tell Batman what to do. Odd...