Quinoa Muffins

If you’ve ever tried baking a recipe without baking soda/powder you know that it just comes out like mushy bread pudding. I searched all over the internet to see if I could find a way to bake without baking soda but couldn’t find any recipes. I decided to just adapt one and see what happened. After a couple of experiments I got one that worked very well. You won’t get as much rise as a recipe with baking soda but it will be enough to make the muffin fluffy and not mushy. Here it is:

2  eggs

5 tbs sugar

4 tbs canola oil

½ tsp vanilla

½ cup quinoa flour

Dash of salt

1/8 cup of water

Preheat the oven to 350. Place cupcake liners in a six cupcake pan. Separate the yolks from the whites. Beat the whites until soft peaks form. Add 4 tbs of sugar, one tbs at a time, whisking between each. Add the 5^th tbs to the yolks as well as the oil and vanilla. Softly whisk the yolk mixture in to the whites. Mix the salt in to the flour then sift it over the egg mix and fold it in gently. Add the water carefully mixing the batter. Pour the mix in to 6 cupcake liners and bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool before serving.

Potato Bites, aka "Chicken" Nuggets

Now that my daughter is getting older she has begun to notice the foods that her big sister gets to eat. Many times she points and complains because she isn't getting the same food. It's made me have to come up with ways of giving them the "same" food, or at least the closest I can come. These are her "chicken" nuggets. I got the idea for them after my husband mentioned that the stuffed potatoes looked like fat chicken nuggets.

Crush up some Cheecha Puffs and mix in some mashed baked potato. Use about a quarter Russet potato to about a handful of puffs. Make sure it's sticky enough to hold up to frying. If it's not, add more crushed puffs. Beat an egg and dip the nuggets in it then fry them in enough heated oil to reach up about halfway to the nuggets. With one potato you can make the nuggets and then some French Fries to go with them. Of course I also offer her a real meat to go with them since eating a bunch of potato isn't very nutritious but at least she feels like if she's getting food just like her sister's. Oh and as "ketchup" I usually put a spoonful of carrot or squash puree.

Stuffed Potatoes

These are based on a recipe that my mother prepared very often as I was growing up. It usually calls for loose, fried ground beef but because I can't add some of the ingredients to bind the potato I prefer to make little hamburgers that I can surround with the potato crust. You'll need 1 egg that will be used for both the burgers and the potato so don't throw it out before you have used it for both.

Cheecha Puffs (enough to loosely fill a 12 oz bowl)
1 egg
1/2 a baked potato,  cooked and peeled
2-2.5 oz of ground beef
Salt

Crush the Cheecha Puffs until you get mostly powder crumbs. Pour half the crumbs in to a separate bowl. There, mash the baked potato and mix it with the puffs. To the original bowl add the ground beef and about a teaspoon of the egg (get some yolk and white) and mix it with the Cheecha Puffs. Add salt to taste. Mold the beef mixture into little balls then flatten them to the size and shape you want to fit in your potato mix. Fry the beef shapes until cooked and let cool for a few minutes. Grab some potato mix and form a shell around the beef. Beat the remaining egg with a fork. Once the beef is completely covered with potato dip it into the egg then fry it in a heated pan with enough oil to reach up to the middle of the potatoes. Fry until golden brown on all sides.

Meatloaf

8 oz ground beef
1 egg
1 tbs veggie purée (I use carrot or squash from Earth's Best)
2/3 cups crushed Cheecha Puffs
Salt to taste

Crush enough Cheecha Puffs to get about 2/3 cups of crumbs/powder. Mix in all the other ingredients. Place mixture into a 3x5 loaf pan lightly greased with a safe oil. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 60-75 minutes. Let cool a few minutes before serving. If you'd like to add some gravy, check out the post from November 5, 2011.