Zucchini Crust Pizza

Giving up wheat was really hard for me. I have always craved bread. I remember going to the kitchen and eating bread right out of the bag during snack time. At Thanksgiving I would eat 10-12 of my grandma's Parkerhouse rolls. She made extra because she knew I would eat them. Pizza combined two of my favorite foods: bread and cheese. When I first discovered that wheat was the source of many of my health troubles, I was devastated. This could not be happening. I love food. I love bread. I love bread too much.

I'm sure some of you have had this conversation with yourself as you thought about the prospect of giving up wheat/gluten. It's hard. It is a lifestyle adjustment of huge proportions. The first two times I tried to give up wheat, I didn't stick with it. It was too overwhelming for me. And then, I realized I was only going to get through the change if I took it one day at a time. And so, I started with a favorite food. Pizza.

I gave myself the challenge of making a homemade gluten-free pizza. Fortunately, it did not take long for me to find something I loved. In fact, I preferred it to the previous pizza crusts I had baked before I quit eating wheat. I highly recommend the recipe for "Plain Pizza Crust" in 125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt. My all-time favorite for a long time was "Plain Pizza Crust" topped with the "Roasted Vegetable Pizza Topping" recommended by the same book. It felt so good to eat pizza again. I made it when I had company, baked it for my family when they were in town, and my kids would ask for it. If I could make and eat pizza, things were going to be OK.

I was totally happy with my homemade pizza. I never really thought about switching it up. But then, on an online forum I was browsing, someone recommended making a zucchini pizza crust as a way to cut carbs and add in veggies. Zucchini? Really? Zucchini is one of my favorite veggies, but in a pizza crust? I was unconvinced. Unconvinced, but still a little intrigued. Imagine my delight when my wonderful husband came home from the grocery store with FOUR zucchinis because they looked so fresh on the produce shelf!

I used this recipe from Your Lighter Side: Zucchini Pizza Crust . The only change I made was that I baked the crust longer than the recipe called for. In my oven, it ended up being close to 20 minutes, but you have to be careful not to burn the edges of the crust. I used one huge zucchini, and it yielded three cups of grated green goodness. I decided to split it in half and make two pizzas and that worked wonderfully! Should you choose to make this on a pizza pan that has holes in the bottom, be sure to stick a cookie sheet on the rack below it to catch anything that might drip from the pizza pan.

I highly recommend Dei Fratelli pizza sauce. No high fructose corn syrup in the ingredients, and it says "Gluten Free" right on the can. Best part? It is in with the regular ingredients, and is actually one of the more economical sauces I've seen in my grocery store. Top with some cheese (I used mozzarella, parmesan, and a tiny bit of cheddar for some color difference) and whatever toppings you desire. I just used a yellow bell pepper because that was all I had in my refrigerator.

The pizza was fantastic! And the best part was that I fooled my oldest child! He had NO IDEA that there was zucchini in this pizza and he ate two slices!

For one pizza you will need:

1.5-2 cups grated zucchini
2 eggs
2 cups mozzarella for the crust
Pizza sauce (one can of Dei Fratelli easily tops two pizzas)
Desired cheese and toppings

Once you've topped your pizza, increase the baking temperature to 425 and bake for about 15 minutes, or until cheese turns light golden or starts bubbling.

I hope you enjoy this pizza as much as we have!

Gluten-Free Birthday Cake - A Prehistoric Endeavor

I have two kids and their birthdays are only two days apart. They are two years apart in age, but their birthdays are so close together that we've had a combined birthday party for the past two years. As we were gearing up for "Birthday Land" at my house, I asked each child what theme they wanted for the party. My oldest requested dinosaurs. My youngest wanted zoo animals. I thought each theme was wonderful, but I had no idea how I could create one cake around both of those themes. Our birthday parties are small - just my husband, my kids, me and grandparents, so there would simply be no need for lots of cake. But, I also wanted each child to feel special at the birthday party and to enjoy the cake I made for them.

In addition to this challenge, I also wanted to make the cake gluten-free. I wanted to be able to enjoy the cake with my kids on their day, and my youngest child has shown some small indicators of food allergies as well. I wanted a cake that would be safe for all of us. I also wanted it to be something my gluten-eating relatives would enjoy.

First, I happened upon this recipe for gluten-free yellow cake. I decided to do a trial run about a month before the birthday just to make sure the cake would turn out well. I turned that cake into chocolate covered cake balls (oh, yum! Will definitely share this recipe in the future!). The cake was a success. My husband said the cake balls tasted as good as the Starbucks Cake Pops. What a compliment!

Then, the night before the birthday party, I baked the cake again. This time I lined the 9x13 cake pan with parchment paper. I followed the recipe I linked above, poured the batter into the cake pan, and then baked for about 25 minutes. It might take more or less time in your oven. Check the center of the cake with a toothpick, and it if comes out clean, it is done. My cake began to turn golden brown on top. Once the cake was cool, I gently lifted it out of the pan and placed it on one of my nicer-looking cookie sheets. Then I trimmed away the excess parchment paper. I left the paper on the bottom of the cake, but you could remove it if you were feeling adventurous.

When I decorate my cakes, I prefer to use pre-made frosting. I'm a busy mom, and what I care about is giving my kids a cake they will love and remember. I've never dabbled in fondant. Maybe sometime I will. But, for now, I'm able to do most everything I want with store bought frosting. I was pretty geeked to learn that Betty Crocker frosting is now certified gluten-free. Check the back of the can yourself. Let me know if you do a little jump right there in the store. I know I did, and it would be nice to know I'm not the only one! For this cake, I kept some of the frosting white (I used vanilla. Whipped white will also work.), made some of the frosting green, and made a small amount of it blue.

I started the decorating process by making a t-shaped path on the cake using white frosting. Next I iced the remaining quadrants with green frosting. I also made the sides of the cake green.

Once the basic design was iced onto the cake, I created a "cobblestone" path using Rice Chex. Can you tell I love that Rice Chex are a gluten-free food? I left a little bit of white frosting visible on either side of the path. This allowed me to add a "fence" later on in the decorating process. I'm not sure how much Chex I ended up using. Maybe a cup or so. We keep Chex at the house for making "bread crumbs" and as a breakfast option, so we had some in the house already.

Next, I "fenced" off each green rectangle with gluten-free, vanilla wafer cookies. I used Schär brand cookies, but I hear Glutino makes them as well. I had to cut a few of the wafer cookies with a knife so that they would fit properly on the cake.

The only other thing I had to make for decorating involved pink tootsie rolls. I took one pink tootsie roll, broke it into two pieces, flattened the pieces and put a little strip of white frosting down the center of each piece. These served as "T-bone steaks" for the cake. The rest of the cake was created using little plastic toys my kids already had. I washed the toys thoroughly first, of course, and then arranged them on the cake. When all was said and done, we had a PREHISTORIC ZOO! Both kids loved it (and it tasted great too)!

Prehistoric animals were paired up with their modern relatives in each zoo exhibit. The king of the dinosaurs (T-rex) was paired up with the king of the jungle (a mighty lion). A long-neck brachiosaurus was eating leaves from the treetops next to a giraffe. A rhino and a triceratops drank from a pond (blue icing outlined with gluten free Rice Krispies). An armored euoplocephalus was next to an armadillo. Give a few candy steaks to the meat-eating T-rex and lion, stick on a few trees with icing to the cookie sheet, and VOILA! A birthday cake that two kids can agree on. It tasted great, it was gluten-free, and no one felt like they were missing anything.

In addition to the ingredients for the yellow cake and the Betty Crocker frosting, you will need:

Around 1 cup of Rice Chex

A few Rice Krispies to outline the pond, and maybe a handful more to make a desert environment for the armored animal/dino

1 pink tootsie roll

1 pkg. Schär brand vanilla wafer cookies

Food coloring: green and blue

1 skewer cut in half and sanded until ends are smooth

Small piece of paper for creating a "Prehistoric Zoo" sign (personalize as is appropriate for you)

Desired dinosaur and animal plastic toys

Plastic trees, cactus, or other desired zoo decor

1 or 2 plastic people to visit the zoo

Total decorating time was not much more than an hour. Allow more time if you've never decorated your own cake before. And then, trust yourself! You can do this and your kids (or other family members/friends) will love it!

Please pardon my dust...

I'm in the process of updating my blog. If you get error messages, or if you find that my links are incomplete, please bear with me. I promise to get things up and running smoothly as soon as I can.

Coming this weekend...step-by-step construction of a gluten-free, prehistoric zoo cake. Perfect for a child's birthday - or in my case, a happy compromise for both of my kids' birthdays.

Great gluten-free alternative to bread crumbs

For those of you who follow my blog to read my writing updates, I hope you will indulge me now and then as I share some baking and cooking tips along the way. I will spare you the gory, medical details, but eating gluten-free has become a new way of life for me. After feeling lousy and having all sorts of weird medical anomalies happen to me, I grew tired of going to the doctor. All my tests checked out "normal" or "abnormal but not dangerous," and my gastro-intestinal doctor told me that I should just take stronger acid reflux medication and call it a day.

I was not OK with resigning myself to being on strong medication daily for life with no explanation. I asked for a celiac blood screen, and the result was negative. A family member had gone gluten free and had great success with it even though she also tested negative for celiac. After doing some research, I discovered that many gluten-intolerant people test negative on the blood screen. So, I decided I would cut wheat for a day and see what happened to me. Imagine my surprise (and relief!) when the very next day my heartburn was almost gone! I have days where I still ache, but I'm so much better than I was a few months ago. I'm hopeful that at some point in the future I might even be able to gain a pound or two! What an amazing thing that would be since I've barely weighed 100 pounds since high school!

Anyway, I'm getting into this far more than I intended to. Let me share what led to this blog post. I was in the kitchen this evening preparing dinner - salmon patties with remoulade sauce, sweet potato fries (well, actually they are made from garnet yams), and green beans - when I decided my gluten-free "bread crumb" idea was too easy not to share.

I love food, and I refuse to let eating gluten-free mean that I lose out on all the foods that make my heart sing. One of those foods (for me) is salmon patties. I read over the recipe on the Chicken of the Sea salmon packet and realized that the only ingredient I couldn't use was bread crumbs. I don't even know what made me think of it, but it works great. Instead of bread crumbs, I crush up Rice Chex! The recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups bread crumbs. I take 4 cups Rice Chex, put them in a gallon Ziploc bag, seal the bag, and then work out all my frustrations by crushing the cereal in the bag. (If you are environmentally conscientious, you can save the Ziploc bag to use again. Just make sure you don't get any ingredients that could spoil on or in the bag). Voila - instant GF bread crumbs! No baking. No looking for GF ingredients at specialty stores. Perfect for this rural-living girl! :)

Thanks for indulging me! I hope this post helps at least one other person!



Salmon Patties (adapted from the recipe on the Chicken of the Sea packet)
1 - 6 oz. packet skinless, boneless salmon
1/4 cup chopped green onions (I do about 3)
1/4 cup mayo
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
dash cayenne pepper (if you are adventurous)
1/4 cup red bell pepper (I leave this out)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup bread crumbs - (crush 4 cups Rice Chex in a bag - use one cup of the crumbs, and reserve the rest)

3 Tbsp. butter for cooking

Combine everything in a bow (except butter). Mix well. Form mixture into 4 balls. Rolls balls in remaining bread crumbs. Flatten into cakes about 1/2-inch thick. In skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Cook patties until golden brown on each side.

When they are finished cooking, I put them on a plate with a paper towel under the patties, and one over the patties to drain off the excess butter.

Remoulade Sauce (for dipping)
1/2 cup mayo
3 green onions, chopped finely
1 Tbsp. dijon mustard, or brown spicy mustard (for kick)
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. fresh parsley, or stir in dried parsley flakes

Mix all ingredients together. Goes well with salmon patties and other fish. :)

Oh, the Mystery of it All!

For writers group this month, we were asked to write a mystery. We were also asked to keep it brief - something that will add to the difficulty of this writers challenge. I suppose that is why we call it a "challenge!" :) Here goes...
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"Where's your brother?" my mom called out.

"I don't know," I said, my little voice wavering with worry. "We were playing hide and seek, and I still haven't found him."

I tried to think back to all of the places he liked to hide. I had checked under his bed. That was the most obvious place for him to hide. I remember looking in the bathroom, in a few lower kitchen cupboards, and behind the couch. My brother Zach was always good at hiding, but it was unusual for it to take so long to find him. We were beginning to get worried. By this point I was prepared to concede defeat. He had won; he was the grand champion hide-and-seek hider. I had gone to find my mother because by this point I knew I was not going to find him by myself.

My mother joined me in looking underneath all of our beds. We opened the cabinets again. We even looked outside. When we still found no sign of him, we began to look for clues. Surely, he had left something to help us find where he was hidden. Maybe he had eaten a snack on the way to his hiding spot and we would be able to find a trail of crumbs. Maybe he had taken off his shoes, and we would spot them along the way. Everything in the house became a possible clue to help us locate my missing, little brother.

At first the mystery was fun. It was fun to play detective and hunt for him. But after a while, I started getting really worried, and so did my mom. We abandoned only looking and we started shouting for him. He was not responding, even though I was yelling out, "You won! You can come out!" Either he was being very stubborn, or something was wrong. Just as we were about to call the police and report him missing, we found him. Where do you think he was?







In a closet, curled up and sleeping in a pile of shoes! Congratulations to my little brother (not-so-little anymore) on being a stealthy hider, and having to wait so long for me to find you that you fell asleep on the shoes!