Taco shells

Add vegetable oil (or your oil of choice as a corn sub) to a pot or frying pan until there is 3/4 to 1 inch of oil. Heat the oil up to about 250 degrees F.

Place one tortilla into the oil, making sure it is completely submerged momentarily. The tortilla will float to the top of the oil once it begins frying.

Use a fork to hold the bottom half of the shell down in the oil and use another fork to fold the tortilla in half. Hold the top half away from the bottom half and allow the shape to set as it cooks.

Turn the shell over in the oil after about 30 to 60 seconds. The half of the shell that was out of the oil is now submerged and the part that was in the oil is now out of it. Continue to use the forks to hold the shape of the shell as well as to hold the bottom half under the oil.

Test if the shell is done after another 30 to 60 seconds has passed. If it has not hardened yet, continue to hold each half of the shell under the oil for as long as it takes to become crispy. Make sure to turn the shell so that each half gets equal time in the oil. (Or else one half will be crispy and the other soggy!)

Remove the shell from the oil and place it onto a plate or pan covered in paper towels. This will drain the shell of excess oil and allow it to set to its final crispiness.

Repeat these steps for as many shells as you wish to make.


Recipe for tortilas if you don't have any that are allergy free for you.


•3 cups all-purpose flour ( for this I'm gonna use 2 3/4 cups white rice flour with maybe a teaspoon of flax seed meal to give it a more normal textrure
•2 tsp. baking powder sub (baking soda and tartar sauce)
•1 tsp. salt
•2 Tbsp. lard or shortening (I always sub equal parts of butter in baking it changes the textures, but taste wise is great or you can use bacon drippings)
•1 ¼ cup lukewarm water


Read more: How to Make Handmade Flour Tortillas | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2034682_handmade-flour-tortillas.html#ixzz1HQkSfokE

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.

Using a pastry cutter or 2 table knives, cut the lard into the flour mixture. Keep cutting the fat into the flour mixture until the dough starts to look like cornmeal crumbs. Make sure that the flour and fat are evenly distributed.

Add the water to the flour mixture in ¼-cup increments. Using a large wooden spoon or your hands, make sure to thoroughly incorporate the water after each addition.

When you have added all of the water, the dough should come together in a fairly stiff and smooth dough.

Once the dough is finished, cover the bowl with a slightly damp towel and let the dough rest for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Once the dough has rested, evenly sprinkle a small amount of flour onto your work space. Spread a small amount of flour onto your rolling pin as well.

Turn out the dough onto the work space and sprinkle a little more flour on top of the dough.

Knead the dough for approximately 2 minutes to make the dough smooth and pliable. The dough should not stick to your hands.

Form the dough into a roll shape. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions and roll each portion into a neat ball.

Line the balls on a floured sheet pan and cover the balls with a few slightly damp towels. Set the sheet pan in a warm place to let the dough rest for approximately 10 minutes.

Once the dough has rested, sprinkle more flour onto your work surface (if you need more flour to keep the dough from sticking to the surface) as you roll the balls out.

Take 1 ball of dough and roll it out to a thickness of 1/8-inch. When rolling the balls out, roll 2 to 3 times one way, then turn the dough a quarter turn and roll an additional 2 to 3 times. This ensures that the tortillas stay as round in shape as possible.

Once you have rolled one tortilla out, store it under a towel so that the dough doesn't dry out.

Heat a large cast iron pan or tortilla griddle over medium heat. Heat the pan for at least 5 minutes before cooking a tortilla on it. This ensures that the tortilla will cook evenly.

When the pan has been pre-heated, place a tortilla onto the dry heated pan. Almost immediately, the tortilla will develop bubbles on the surface. Once you see these bubbles, flip the tortilla over and press down with a large spatula.

After approximately 15 seconds of pressing, flip the tortilla again and press again. The bubbles on the underside should have started to brown.

Once both sides of the tortilla have browned bubbles (and this should not take longer than 1 minute), take the cooked tortilla off the pan and store it under a kitchen towel. The towel will absorb the steam from the tortilla, but will keep humidity near the tortilla which ensures that the tortilla will not dry out.

Continue cooking the remaining tortillas.

You can store the tortillas under a towel until it is time to serve them.



Got the frying part from here
Read more: How to Make Homemade Taco Shells | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2054535_make-homemade-taco-shells.html#ixzz1HQgNzpH4

Tortilas recipe (before alterations)

http://www.ehow.com/how_2034682_handmade-flour-tortillas.html

Vday Namaste Cake

Soooo in honor of Vday I made up the Namaste spice cake in a heart shape! LOL (Gabe took it to school for their party)


I made it in a 9in round pan and then in a 8x8 square dish. Then I trimmed down the round part so that the length of the circle matched the length of the square. Then I cut the circle in half and laid it next to the square. Frost and decorate and VOILA!

I then got to serve the trimmed pieces as a snack for company. They LOVED it and could NOT believe that it was free of everything!


You can see the two circle halves on the top sides of the diamond!





For frosting I made homemade frosting

5 cups homemade powdered sugar
2 ts CLEAR vanilla extract (this will have small amounts of corn) Must be clear to make a perfect white, but you can use homemade or regular to get it corn free, it will just tint it a little.
1/2 cup milk
2 sticks butter

This frosting is SUPER sugary and perfect for kids, so I just frosted the top and then did a little heard shape in colored sprinkles. (these have food dye and most likely corn as well, but you can decorate with anything!)

It tasted like a perfect spice cake. (hubby's favorite and he loved it) I wish I had thrown in some raisins and carrot peels to make it a carrot cake! LOL! It would be to die for with cream cheese frosting. (no cream cheese in the house) The texture was great too. A lot of you know that sometimes allergy free foods just have a funny texture from the different flours. Not in this mix!

The teacher and aides all enjoyed it and the kids liked it so much they ate the whole cake!!!!!!!

So all in all I have to say that I am really impressed with Namaste as an allergy free company. Great foods, wonderful customer service, good communication skills, tasty, easy treats, and because of them I knew that Gabe got to have the same as everyone else and that NOT ONE of those kids knew it was allergy free because it tasted funny. :) I'd rate them 10 out of 10.

So after these 2 reviews I hope you are all as excited as I am about the give away!!!!!!! I really think you guys will enjoy them!

Namaste Pasta

Made the Pasta Pisavera yesterday for lunch.

Really good! The boys ate the whole bag in 1 sitting!!!! (and the 2 year old has been known to survive off of 1 hot dog bug for the whole day so that says something!) I tried it and really enjoyed the taste of the spices. My mom wasn't too sure about trying a spice pack (she likes her food very plain) so she just had butter on hers and still loved it.

My favorite part..Quick and easy!!!!!!
Gabe's favorite part..The noodles were different colors!
Link's favorite part..YUMMY!

So here are some things that I have learned about Namaste today! They don't use ANY GMO foods!!!! WOW! That to me is so cool. Their Xantham gum is NOT corn derived! (xantham gum often is, but very few people are that sensitive to corn, but they take care of ALL corn in the mix!) They really listen to their fans! In a questions page I got they often have turned to their fans to help other fans. And the pasta was good, not just allergy free good, but good.

Here is a price comparison I got from the company




Their costs aren't too bad and what I have found to lower their prices is to buy in bulk off amazon :) If you buy 6 bags of an item at a time they are cheaper AND you normally get free shipping :) Hands down the cheapest way to buy.

All in all I really love this company and am so glad that they are my first giveaway!!! You guys will enjoy the giveaway bag!!!!!

Bread

So I've decided tob attempt altering a bread recipe! (for bread machine) The mixes you can buy are okay, but something is just lacking in texture. The boys don't mind it, but I'm on a quest! LOL!

I got the original recipe from here http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Light-Oat-Bread/Detail.aspx

This is my allergen free version!


1 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons salted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/3 cups white rice flour
2/3 cups tapioca flour
1 teaspoon guar gum
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Put liquids, in then dry, make a well in the middle and pour yeast in there. I used a 1.5lb light setting for mine. Med setting is better though.

It turned out tasting AMAZING! However I think my yeast was bad. It didn't rise. :( BOO! Super yummy though. I'll have to try it again to see if it was because of the yeast or the flour type. Texture was perfect though! Next time I will use the med setting there was a tiny amount of doughy center.

baking and more baking.

Sigh. I remember when I used to put my boys down for a nap and then I would take one too. No longer. Now I do a lot of catching up on my cleaning, because I do all my baking during that time slot now. Sigh.

Oh one hand I'm finally figuring out what my 3 year old can do with me and it's been a blast baking with him. Plus he LOVES it. My almost 2 year old isn't really interested so as long as there's something else for him to do he's happy. So it's something nice that Gabe and I can share. But on the other hand, as much as I really do love to bake, it's a PITA to have to bake pretty much everyday. Today I am making my first Namaste bread. It's been easy. The only thing I worry about is my egg substitute. I use apple sauce and this recipe calls for 1 egg and then 3 egg whites. So I used my better homes cook book to figure out that 2 egg whites equal 1 egg. Then I use 1/4 a cup of applesauce to sub for each egg. So I ended up with 5/8 a cup of applesauce. Hopefully it turns out well. (I think all the math was there! LMAO!)

Also my boys finished off yet another batch of muffins today. (I freeze them and they seem to last about 3 days so 4 muffins a day, 2 for each boy) So I have to make those in a little while.

Freezing is my new best friend. I have to get one of those handy vac food bag things though! I managed to freeze half the pizza I made the other day and it's nice because I can just pull out one piece at a time or so. Plus I freeze brownies and since we aren't a huge sweets and candies house I only do 1 every few days. (I cut them big enough that the boys are content with half of one). Plus I've got the ice cream.

It's nice that I now know EVERY SINGLE thing that we put in our bodies. I always wanted to be that kind of a super healthy mom, but never got around to it. And I'm sure not having so many chemicals in our bodies is gonna be great, but boy is it work! But well I can feed my kids 3 meals a day and a snack and not have to worry about it causing another trip to the ER.

Lately we've been doing plain yogurt with frozen blueberries or muffins for breakfast (often both with how Gabe's eating) Then pizza or fruit for lunch and then for dinner we often do rice chicken and peas or some other veggie or I make plain hamburgers (now I have bread for them! Next I tackle ketchup) Followed by ice cream, or a brownie, (I'm gonna make cookies today maybe too to freeze)

It's not a huge variety, but it's balanced meals. Oh and I also found a pasta I have to order! Then we can add that in! First I have to find a sauce that's either really cheap and everything free OR a really easy recipe that makes large batches that I can freeze. (I like baking, but I'm not nuts, I don't want to have to make 5 things everyday. Freezing is my friend! LOL!)

See the changes.

So we have had the list of allergens for almost 2 weeks now. The first week was a LOT of trial and error (remember how I told you not to make a no no list? This is why!) Finally in the past week I feel like I'm just starting to get a handle on it. BUT a couple of times Gabe got into something, like a chocolate I didn't know was within reach or something. Funny story. The other day hubby was home alone with Gabe and he went to grab something from downstairs. When he came back up (1 min tops) Gabe met him at the gate and said "daddy I got a treat, it has wheat, I'm gonna get a rash". Smart kid sure enough he did. He's really done well with staying away from most things. (I think the horrible hives and swelling of his arms and legs last time he had a lot of corn syrup did the trick.) Poor baby. But he is only 3 and sometimes the temptation is worth the rash to him.

Hey it's a learning curve for me and him right?

Tomato Spinach Pizza Recipe & Peach Ice Cream Recipe

Tomato Spinach Pizza Recipe (but you can sub with anything you like! Although your kids might surprise you and LOVE spinach)

Namaste pizza crust
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 can spinach (only spinach, water and salt)
1 can tomato paste (make sure it has nothing other than tomato puree and water. Price chopper brand is only puree!)
2-3 good sized tomatoes (rinse before use)
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 450. Bake crust according to directions, pull out of oven and lightly coat with olive oil. Then in a small bowl mix the paste and oregano and garlic powder. Then spread it out over the pizza crust. Take half a can of spinach (or less or more according to your taste) and spread it over the pizza. Take tomatoes and slice them up and lay them on the pizza. Put back in oven for about another 10 minutes.


Peach Ice Cream

1 can of peaches (make sure it's just peaches and water or if it's light syrup you call and ask if it has corn derivative)
1/2 cup of sugar
2.5 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I use flavoring that is cheaper)

Put the peaches and 1/2 cup of sugar into the blender and let sit for about 20 min. Then puree. Turn on your ice cream maker. I have the Hamilton Beach one and I LOVE it. Pour everything in and let it churn for however long your ice cream maker tells you to. Super yummy!!!!! When it's done put it in an airtight container for storage. (if there's any left that is)

Journey with me. PLEASE!?!?!

My name is Niccie. I have two beautiful boys and another on the way (boy as well and yes we are THRILLED not bummed at having all boys :P) My son Gabriel was recently diagnosed with severe food allergies to wheat, egg, strawberries and CORN. We orginally thought it might be peanuts. That scared the hell out of us. Then when cutting out peanuts didn't stop his reactions and they continued to get worse and worse and more common, we thought it was soy. Both my husband and I thought it was the end of food for us. I mean soy is in everything right? LMAO, boy I wish. Because it is a top 8 allergen they now list it on everything that has even trace possiblities, so where as there is sooo much you can't eat, atleast you know what you are eating. So then we did all of our testing and came back neg for soy. SHOCK Relief! And found out instead he had a corn allergy.

Corn however is a different demon. Corn is in EVERYHING and because it isn't a top 8 allergen, by law no one is required to list it. Actually the companies aren't even required to test for it. Yea I wish we had even realized it was a possiblity that someone could be allergic to corn because as a reward for being SOOOO brave with the spt (skin prick test) we fed him a whole box of gummy bears. We ended up in the ER that night for horrible horrible skin rashes and hives and swelling of his extremities :( So yea that has started my journey into corn free life.

We tried starting with a no nos list. Please for your own sanity don't do that. It will depress you, make you want to cry and drive you nuts! Start in the begining with a can can eat list!!!!! It will make you a lot happier if you KNOW something is safe. We started doing this by pulling everything off our shelves and looking at what we thought was safe. (LMAO boy were we naive) Then I started my campain to call every single company. To do this please have the ingredient in front of you, make sure you can find the barcode numbers and the experation date :) I know a lot of companies list stuff on their websites, but because corn is not a top 8 a LOT of companies don't post the info on it.

When you call ask about citric acid, vitamin c, white vinegar and natural flavors. Those seem to be the top culprits that are corn derived. (shocking I know) Also anything that has maltrodrexin don't even bother with :) If a company can't give you an answer (and there are a SHOCKING amount that can't) then if you are highly sensitive to it please don't risk it.

Make a list of things that are safe!!! And trust me when I tell you to find a health food store near you! And make sure that they carry Namaste brands. OMG I can't rave about this company enough!!!!! They are AMAZING!!!!!!!! Gluten, wheat, soy, corn, potato, peanuts, tree nuts, dairy and caisen free! (their entire factory is dedicated to being allergen free! WOOT!) The people in the company are absolutely wonderful! And the food tastes good!!! We are still trying them all, but I will rave to anyone who will listen about their brownies and muffins and pizza crust! Also I've heard great things about their chocolate cake!!!! (aren't you loving them as much as I do already?!?!?!) Also the health food stores if they are good ones will not mind you picking their brains all the time. (I'm a question asker and if I don't understand something I won't go away til I do and they still like me at mine!)

Well folks I hope you will jump on board with me for this crazy freaking ride I'm getting into! Maybe we can all find others who are struggling with this like ourselves!!