I LOVE Irish soda bread,  I can not imagine skipping the butter,  but here goes!

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa flour
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 2/3 cup coconut flour
• 2 Tbsp organic zero
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp guar gum
• 1/2 tsp celtic sea salt
• 4 tbsp earth balance
• 1 cup cranberries
• 1 egg substitute equivalent (i used 1 tbsp chia seed meal and 3 tbsp water)
• 1 1/2 cups “buttermilk” aka almond milk with 1 1/2 tbsp white vinegar

I did a lot of time saving here…

• combine all dry ingredients in the food processor
• add the cold butter in small bits and pulse until it resembles coarse meal
• add in the egg substitute and “buttermilk”
• blend well
• stir in the dried cranberries
• bake for 35 – 45 minutes at 350

Not too bad if I do say so myself!  Pictured to follow

• 1 cup buckwheat and 1/2 cup oat flour
• increased the water to 1 cup
• substituted yacon syrup for the honey

Blueberry Buckwheat pancakes with Yacon syrup

Yummy

First serving of fabulous fat tuesday banana walnut pancakes

Seconds...

All gone!

 

Yeah... I had a rockstar breakfast!

... and I wasnt the only one

Complete with pretty berries

Last week I was EXTREMELY luck and got to go to The Martha Stewart Show.   (Thank you Terri!!)  One of Martha’s guests was Cynthia Sass,  who recently published cinch! Well… after I stopped trying to figure out how I can convince Martha to hire me,  I started to read Power Foods.  Pretty quickly I picked up cinch!,  after a December full of parties and drinking it was time to get my lazy self back in shape.

The 5 day fast forward consists of 4 meals (scramble, parfait, salad and a smoothie), all made with raspberries, yogurt, almonds eggs and spinach. (Buy the book for the recipes ) Day 1 a scramble down and a parfait about to follow….  i’ll keep you posted.

Happy Monday!

***UPDATE***

If it was not SOOOO cold here…  I would have inhaled this smoothie,  it tastes amazing and I am STUFFED!

***

~sweetpea

PS  I will be running the NYC Half Marathon to fundraise for ZERO The Project to End Prostate Cancer.  Please click here if you would like to donate.

Brownies when the Yankees Win

Now this gets entertaining in a few ways. 1. Everyone was convinced i allowed regular flour into my kitchen (ha ha suckers, not a chance!) 2. I baked these while having an iTunes dance party, and watching the Yankees win 3. I baked these brownies for a boy…  The last time I baked for “a boy” was almost a year ago.  Even then,  that did not come from the same place,  this time I did it just to put a smile on his face (who would not want to come home to their doorman having a bag of freshly baked brownies – and since he mentioned liking the outside brownies…  of course I baked them so they all had crispy edges).  So I baked these Tuesday night,  dropped them off on Wednesday evening (let me tell you how terrified I was of getting busted), and headed to the Yankees game.  When the lucky recipient finally got home,  the expression of happiness and surprise that someone would do something for no other purpose than kindness,  i was both happy and sad.  Sad that he was so surprised I just wanted to make him smile,  and happy that it had that effect.

So what is my secret…  I have a full fledged butterflies in my stomach crush.  My first kiss with this person is what every girl dreams of,  magical butterflies and fireworks. I have done nothing by smile since out first date,  and smile ear to ear since our first kiss.

It has been a crappy summer.  Too many people I care about have died,  my best friend up and decided I was not fun and will no longer speak to me,  a “douche lord” who shall remain nameless has returned to cause havoc, but I the stars are turning in my favor.  I am happy.  I think about things and smile.  I go out and have fun.  I no longer want to hide in my apartment and cry.  So my secret,  not only that I have a crush, i am HAPPY!

Just for entertainment value – today I get a text from butterflies man,  and he tells me he brought the rest of the brownies to work.  Few things here…  I have no clue if he mentioned I made them (by name) or if some girl he is seeing made these fantastic brownies. I know everyone he works with…  The funniest part – I was mortified that he brought nearly week old brownies to share with coworkers,  I would have made fresh ones

Now that the clouds are clearing,  and the sun is starting to poke through,  my true passion for baking has returned.  Good night everyone!  and xoxo to the butterflies man!

My Thursday night roses survived my spending the weekend in the hamptons and were not worse for the wear - that is a sign!

The Fireworks Setting - if only the city was this bright

No baking posts this week…  I am  tired,  and although as MT referred to be a negative person,  I am just trying to get past a few sad events.  I wish that wasn’t so much to ask for a friend to support me, especially since i never ask.  As a result I really see this outside

Thunder & Lightning so dark & dreary

Soo… whats a baker to do when she is just too exhausted to bake… stupidly walk through Chinatown today to my tennis lesson (yeah,  it was HOT! however I’d rather sweat than go back to the winter…) and after checking in on MTs hangover (which she politely declined to answer) said screw it,  I am going to be pissy today!

With a little whine -  there needs to be some cheese (or positivie)  This week I exceeded my personal goal for the AFSP Out of The Darkness Walk, largely in part due to the kind heart of an ex-boyfriend.  So keep em coming,  but feel free to donate to the other team members

Rain Yucky Rain

Perhaps some sleep will help,,  night night everyone.  Excited for tomorrow’s adventure

PS… I am horrendous at commenting,  however for inspiration and to read an EXCELLENT writer  I highly advise checking out Adventure Grrl’s blog.  She is amazing, and I look forward to every post!

Rapini with Grilled Chicken and a Creme Fraiche Pistachio Cherry Sauce

This is my first daring cooks post… and not surprisingly I think I screwed it up   More like I know I did, bot the date to post, and I did not quite get the part that this should be one of the following four dishes: Chicken with Pecan Cream & Mushrooms, Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew Dressing, Chicken with Curried Tomato Almond Sauce, and Walnut Walnut White Bean Dip with Rosemary & Sage. I thought those were suggestions None the less here goes, and I’ll make sure I don’t mess up the Daring Bakers!!  Click away If you want to find out more about The Daring Kitchen!

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

Thank you Ladies for hosting!  … and again I can not apologize enough for being a dope!

I have a deep love for a few things, my family, my friends, pistachios and cherries   My sister came to visit for dinner,  and from the moment i misread the challenge,  I could not get pistachio butter out of my head!

So…  I messed up,  but I love the recipe,  hopefully I am not in too much trouble, as this is my first post!

Ingredients:

For the Pistachio Butter

Pistachio butter

• 1 cup pistachios
• 1 1/2  teaspoons sunflower oil

For the Sauce

• 4 tablespoons pistachio butter
• 1 teaspoon Kirsch
• 8 ounces creme fraiche
• 1/2 cup cherries, chopped and drained

For the Rapini

Rinsed and Trimmed Rapini

• 2 bunches Rapini
• 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
• 1 tablespoon Kirsch

I used about 6 chicken cutlets for this recipe

Instructions:

• Add 1 cup of pistachios to your food processor (**I tried to use my mini… NOT a good idea**)
• In 1/2 teaspoon increments, add the sunflower oil until you achieve nut butter consistence (this took about 20 minutes, including my mini food processor stupidity)
  

  After learning my lesson with the mini processor...

• Roughly chop 1/2 cup of cherries, I used frozen, and leave them to drain
• In a heavy bottom sauce pan, on low heat, add the creme fraiche.
  

  Pre-cherries, Creme Fraiche and Pistachio Butter

• 1 tablespoon at a time add the pistachio butter blending completely
• Whisk in the Kirsch, the sauce will at first seem too thin,  and then thicken nicely
• Stir in the cherries and allow the sauce to simmer on low
  

  The heavenly sauce with the cherries added in

• At this point you can begin to grill the chicken, as an apartment dweller, I used a grill pan
• In a large saute pan, add a tablespoon of sunflower oil and a tablespoon of Kirsch, allow to heat up
• Add the well rinsed (I rinsed about 5 times) rapini to the pan, the volume will decrease quickly
• When the chicken in cooked, plate the rapini, top with the grilled chicken, and spoon the sauce on top, sprinkle with pistachios, and serve
  

  Dinner is Served!

The next time I make this recipe I will absolutely add some ancho powder to the sauce,  but I like everything with some heat.  I served my little sister, and she immediately scraped the sauce to the side,  which I of course called out immediately.  Ha… she thought I made the sauce with mushrooms   Once we remedied that perception,  we had a huge hit!

Tada!

Enjoy!

All GF posts from this projects can be found here

Baked: New Frontiers in Baking – Orange Almond Blueberry Muffins Gluten-Free

Orange Almond Blueberry Muffins:

Substitutions:
AP Flour:
* 1 1/2 Cups Oat Flour
* 1/4 Cup Amaranth Flour
* 1/4 Cup Quinoa Flour
1 3/4 Teaspoon Liquid Stevia for the sugar
1 for 1 Yo-Goat for Milk (ok this was not intentional,  but didn’t have milk)
1 for 1 Unsalted Goat Butter for Unsalted Butter

Additional Ingredient:
2 Teaspoons Guar Gum

Most importantly…  I will be making these again.  Not only are both of my cameras MIA,  blackberry cameras do not do so well without natural light…  so these pictures do not come close to doing justice.

Red white and blue for the holiday

It was funny…  I started making these in tears (fighting with my dear little sister),  when I pulled them out of the oven,  I expected to have an EPIC failure,  just one of those days… (more like weeks, ok maybe summers).  Then I did the taste test. OMG is the only expression that is almost strong enough.  These are AMAZING! Perfect blend of orange with the blueberry, and the sweetness of the almond.  I just could not stop!  If I didn’t have to produce some of these in the office tomorrow for official taste testing,  I would eat every single last crumb!  Thank you Matt and Renato,  this is my favorite recipe so far!

HA this is the one I taste tested, so it ws a bit mangled before I could reach for my bberry!

Enjoy!

Bethenny Frankel's Molten Chocolate Cupcakes

I wish I could get these to work with me without disassembling!

Happy Independence Weekend everyone!

The Heart is for gratitude to all those who have fought for our country's freedom

A little wound up today…  congrats to two of my dearest friends who are due two weeks apart (this is a happy thing, NOT contributing to my stressball self)!  I NEED to get my laundry done,  and just a bit moody today,  so what shall I do to fix the tension, BAKE   Why not turn on the over when it is a billion degrees out and I am refusing to turn on the air!

Who can resist the red white and blue!

First up – Bethenny’s Molten Chocolate Cupcakes.  In a non stalker way,  I am obsessed with Bethenny.  She is second only to Martha Stewart on my list,  an accomplished woman dedicated to health and happiness.  Most of her recipes can be converted to gluten-free,  and this one is without modification!

The link to the recipe is above (subscribe to her emails,  she has awesome stuff!), however here are my substitutes:

• 4 Ounces silken tofu – I accidentally used light silken tofu
• 3/4 Cup Soy Milk – I went with 3/4 cup Yo-Goat
• 3/4 Cup Maple Syrup – I used 1/4 cup Maple Syrup and 1 1/4 teaspoon liquid stevia (to taste depending on the brand you are using
• 1/2 Cup Canola Oil – I went with 1/2 Cup Grapeseed Oil
• ~ 3/4 semi-sweet chocolate chips

I made a few without the chips for me, OH MY!  For those of you RHWONY viewers,  Kelly could not be more inaccurate,  Bethenny is a CHEF!  I am happy I kept the number of cupcakes without chips to a minimum,  I would definitely want to eat them all!  All of her recipes have reasonable sized portions,  and you don’t end up with 200 cupcakes to sit around and stare at.

Can not begin to describe how decadent these are

**NOTE** Somehow i have misplaced not just 1 camera, but 2!!  So please forgive the horrendous quality of the pics.

Enjoy and thanks again to Bethenny for such a fantastic recipe.

Thank you Bethenny!

I could not wait to buy the books (even for my friend MT),  here are the links just in case you are curious for more!

Naturally Thin and The Skinny Girl Dish

… and last but not least I am fundraising for the AFSP Out of the Darkness Manhattan to Brooklyn Walk,  if you would like to walk, volunteer, or donate (I know monetary donations are not easy for everyone right now…). Please click below for more info.

Click here for Walk Details

Happy 4th of July to all,  enjoy the rest of the long weekend!

Now who would ever think I could manage to create two blogs for myself having a tough enough time with one…  However the AFSP is very near and dear to my heart.  I realize this is a horrendous time to ask people for money…  however I am not shy about asking people to look into this organization.  If you have time to volunteer or walk…  you could be making a huge impact in someone’s life,  if not saving it.

October 24, 2010 Manhattan to Brooklyn Walk

Having survived the loss of my mother to suicide,  I urge you to check out American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, click on the images above, or go to SweetPeaBakes, where I’ll be blogging about my team and fundraising experience.

This is truly an amazing organization,  which deals with a topic no one wants to discuss…  and should you want to join an awesome team in NYC,  we are certainly looking for participants. (Participants who will have all kinds of gluten-free treats for breakfast and lunch afterwords

Good night (or early morning) everyone!

M