Vegetable Enchiladas

I got this filling recipe from my sister Tiffany years ago. I was searching my blog for the recipe and couldn't believe I hadn't shared it yet. Each enchilada is like a cornucopia of goodness and flavor. No meat needed here. Just use corn tortillas to make this a gluten-free recipe. 

Vegetable Enchiladas

2 t. olive oil
1 small zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 med. red peppers, chopped
1 med. onion, chopped
2 (15 - 19-oz.) cans white kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 c. vegetable broth
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (15-oz.) can whole kernel corn, drained
2 jalapeño peppers, minced with seeds (optional)
1 c. loosely packed fresh cilantro, chopped
6 (8-in) tortillas
15 oz. salsa 
1/3 c. shredded Monterey-Jack cheese
Lime wedges for garnish 

Preheat oven to 375°. In skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add zucchini, onion and red pepper and cook until vegetables are tender, about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, blend half of the beans with broth until almost smooth. Transfer bean mixture to bowl; stir in remaining beans and set aside. 

To vegetables in skillet, add garlic and cook 1 minute. Stir in corn and jalapeño; cook 2 minutes. Transfer vegetable mixture to bowl with beans. Stir in cilantro. Spoon about 3/4 cup mixture along center of each tortilla and fold tortilla up. 

Spoon about 1/2 cup salsa onto bottom of 9x13-inch pan. Place enchiladas seam side down on top of salsa. Spoon remaining salsa over enchiladas. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies

Warning (Seriously): These cookies are rich, fudgy, velvety, and oh, so addictive.

I have a serious problem. I just tried this recipe which is posted at Picklee last week and from the first bite, it was true love. I have since made it several times with different variations I thought of and you can try even more of your own. But it really is insanely superb as is! I included the amounts of the variation ingredients I used in my experiments, but feel free to adjust the amounts. The recipe only makes about 24 small-ish cookies so once I doubled them and they turned out great, but that's dangerous making so many.

I used semisweet chocolate chips, but Picklee calls for bittersweet. Other people commented on Jordan's blog that they used milk chocolate chips. So use whichever you like. I used slightly less sugar than was called for and will probably continue to do that. They use no oil or butter (yay!!) and no flour. If you use gluten-free versions of the other ingredients, it is a really delish gluten-free dessert. The trick to these is whipping up the egg whites to soft peaks! Make sure the egg white are at the soft peak stage before adding sugar and continuing on with the recipe. The outside is a nice crisp and the inside is melty goodness. Tip for eating the next day if there are any leftover-- you can pop them in the microwave for like 6 seconds and they're all melty again.

 

 Coconut 

There wasn't a single variation that I made that I didn't like. The raspberry ones were a bit "wet" so I baked them an additional minute and they worked out great. I couldn't taste or see the flaxseed meal when I added it so I will be adding it to the cookies every time for some healthy goodness. (Shhhh! Don't tell my daughter Sabrina.)

Raspberry

Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 c. chocolate chips (about 9 oz.)
3 large egg whites, room temperature
2 c. powdered sugar, divided (plus 1/2 c. for cookie coating)
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 T. cornstarch
1/4 t. salt
Variations (add one if desired):
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. almond or orange extract
3 T. coconut
3 T. chopped candy cane
1 T. flaxseed meal
3 T. nuts
3 T. chopped, dried raspberries

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 2 large  baking sheets with nonstick spray. Set aside.

Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in glass bowl in microwave, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. Set aside and let cool slightly.

Using electric mixer, beat whites in large bowl to soft peaks. Gradually beat in 1 cup powdered sugar. Continue beating until mixture resembles soft marshmallow cream.

Whisk 1 cup powdered sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Then, on a low speed, add these dry ingredients into the marshmallow cream mixture.

Next, add melted chocolate and any variation additions (candy canes, almond extract, etc.) and mix. Add chocolate chips and mix well.

Place remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar in bowl. Roll 1 rounded tablespoon dough into ball; roll in sugar, coating thickly. Place on prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake until puffed and tops crack, about 10 minutes. Cool on sheets on rack 10 minutes. Transfer to rack, cool.

 

Pecans

 

 Rolled in sprinkles instead of powdered sugar

 

Candy Cane Pieces

Flaxseed Meal

I shared this link at :
Skip to My Lou.
Joy Love Food and Tumbleweed Contessa

Gluten Free Hummus & Sesame Chips (Not a Recipe)

This is especially for any gluten free friends and family, but can be for anyone. I don't eat gluten free, but my brother Jared introduced me to Boulder Canyon Hummus & Sesame Chips and they are so good. I'm not much of a chip-eater, but these are not like any other chip.

They look like tortilla chips, but have a flavor pop and are very addictive. So after Jared let me taste some of his and I loved them, he said he would pick some up at Costco next time he went since I don't have a card. The next time he went, they were not there. So after a while he asked about them and Costco said they stopped carrying them. What??? So I looked around at all the grocery stores and health stores with no luck.

Then recently Jared was at Costco and spotted them again. He so nicely picked me up a couple of bags of them and now I get to enjoy them again. I have no idea how to explain the flavor so you'll have to try for yourself. They are $5.25 for a 22 oz. bag of crunchy goodness here in Utah.

Ingredients: Corn, garbanzo beans, sunflower and/or safflower oil, pregelatinized cornstarch, corn masa, potato starch, black sesame seeds, evaporated cane juice, salt, minced tomato, onion powder, cumin powder, garlic powder, cayenne powder

(This is not an advertisement or paid opinion. It's just my real opinion and me sharing an awesome product.)

 



Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is the story of how my scientific experiment went wrong. While I was organizing my kitchen cabinets a couple of weeks ago, I found rice flour that I had forgotten about. I bought it to make some gluten-free cookies a while ago. They didn’t turn out good enough to make again so I threw out the recipe and didn’t share it here. I wanted to use more of the rice flour so I searched for a gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe. Sabrina had been begging me to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for a couple of weeks, but I had been too busy. I found this recipe at kill.the.gluten.  

So I decided that I’d make two batches. One gluten-free version and one made with regular flour (same recipe) and I wasn’t going to tell the kids what the difference was, just that I wanted to know which recipe they liked better and why. BUT Sabrina was too clever and looked at the recipe on my computer and saw that one was gluten-free and she told her brother and sister. So I didn’t get an unbiased opinion.

They all said they didn’t like the gluten-free version because it has a granular texture. I could tell a difference with the texture, but I thought they were good. For some reason, the gluten-free cookies were less smooth and a little higher than the regular. I think they're a good and really liked them warm with the melty chocolate chips. And I just did one batch of each. We all know that you have to repeat the experiment several times to get a true representation of the product, but I didn't. It's possible that a second batch could have tasted slightly better (or worse). But this was my flawed (and very yummy) experiment.

Gluten-free Version               Regular Version

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

½ c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 c. canned pumpkin
1 t. vanilla
2 c. rice flour
1 t. gluten-free baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
½ t. nutmeg
Chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, pumpkin & vanilla. Then add all dry ingredients and mix well. Add chocolate chips and mix in. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until a little underbaked.

Regular Version above

Gluten-free Version above