What ya got cookin' ?

The answer to that question would be…a whole lot of deliciousness! But, we’ll get to that later. 21 Days under my belt and here is what I’ve noticed.  The first week I felt hungry more often, this continued a little into the second week but has basically subsided except for one thing.  I wake up at about 1 or 2 am feeling like I could eat a horse.  I acknowledge that strange sensation and go back to sleep without issue and wake at the usual time feeling completely normal.  So aside from the midnight hunger spikes, I’ve not been overly hungry since week one.  Yesterday with the first hint of fall in the air and our visit to the apple pie capital of Southern California, I’ll admit I was tempted.  But we didn’t give in; didn’t buy a pie, a crumble, a crisp, not even a little fritter or a tart.  (Well mom did buy a tart to take home to Grandma but that doesn’t count because we didn’t eat it).  This craving for baked goods continued this morning.  I’m out of milk for my gluten-free cereal, (our regular Sunday trip to the farmer’s market will remedy this later in the day) so I started thinking about how good a pumpkin muffin would be with my coffee this morning.  So I did a lot of cooking today, knowing that the coming week will be just as busy as the last.  Having healthy lunches and snacks that are easy to grab on the go will make my packed teaching week easier manage. 

Breakfast: apple sauce, cinnamon and toasted coconut (we were out of just about everything, but this worked).

Lunch: Cheese plate with manchego and membrillo (quince paste) celery, tomatoes, green olives and rice crackers

Dinner:  Potato soup and GF pumpkin muffins

Here is the recipe for the Pumpkin Muffins

2 cups gluten free pancake mix

2/3 cup pumpkin puree

2 eggs

1/3 cup kefir

3 tbsp brown sugar

1tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp vanilla

a sprinkle of grated nutmeg, ground cloves and allspice

Mix all of these ingredients with a hand mixer.  Scoop with ice cream scoop into paper lined muffin tins and bake in preheated oven at 375 for 18-22 minutes

Dessert: Chocolate chip cheesecake

We enjoyed the cheesecake so much last week that I decided to try another variation of it for this week.  I only made two changes.  I used coconut sugar instead of granulated (this changed the color of the filling to make it look more like cookie dough than vanilla, which I think was fine given the fact that second change was that I mixed in chocolate chips).  It ended up looking like a chocolate chip cookie dough cheese cake. 

Gluten-free chocolate chip Cheesecake

Filling

1 (8oz) pkg soft cream cheese

1/3 cup coconut sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp coconut flour

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

Crust

3/4 cup almond meal

4 tbsp butter

2 tbsp powdered sugar

To make the crust, stir together the almond meal and the powdered sugar.  Mix in the melted butter.  Press into the bottom and ½ inch up the sides of the small spring form pan.  Bake at 350 for 5 min. 

Heat oven to 425.  In a medium sized bowl combine the cream cheese, granulated sugar, egg, coconut flour and vanilla.  Using and electric hand mixer, blend until smooth.  Stir in the chocolate chips with a spoon.  Spoon the mixture on to the crust and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.  Bake at 425 for 5 minutes, then lower the oven temp to 250 and bake for 25 minutes.  Cool at room temperature for 15 minutes and run a rubber spatula along the sides, then remove the rim.  Top with fresh mango, berries, peaches or any seasonal fruit. 

(I use a  half-sized spring form pan 5-6 inches in diameter. You can double the recipe and the cook times and bake in a full sized 9-inch spring form pan for a full sized cheesecake).