This Week's Blog Post

Magenta Pearl Earrings

I just posted these pretty magenta pink pearl dangle earrings available at Miss Val's Creations.

Falafel

Jim did a project for me at my house and payment was homemade falafel! I printed a few gluten free falafel recipes online and came up with a custom recipe.

I put the following in my the smoothie maker (this was the closest appliance I had to a food processor!):

• 2 cans of chickpeas 
• 1/8 cups of freeze dried cilantro 
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper 
• ½ tbsp cumin 
• 3 tbsp brown rice flour 
• ¼ c water

I did not use any onion or garlic since my stomach can not handle them, but typically garlic would be in this as well.

Then I blended it up and rolled them into balls (flattened) and baked them at 350 F for 15 minutes.

I was attempting to bake them as one of the recipes instructed since that sounded healthier. However, they were not crisping up. Then Jim stepped in and we ended up frying them a bit on the stove until we got the consistency we liked!

Tahini was new to me too. Straight up is so bitter! We mixed the following for our dressing:

• 1/3 c tahini 
• 1/3 c water 
• some dried parsley 
• 3 capfuls of apple cider vinegar 
• a dash of olive oil 
• a spoonful of yogurt
• a pinch of dried ginger, coriander and salt

This was a total experiment but it ended up tasting great!

I have noticed that butcher shops have the niche market of gluten free products. That is where I found these delicious wraps from Food For Life! These are comparable priced to normal wraps and I love that they are frozen so I can just grab one when needed. The price is comparable to traditional wraps!

We loaded the wraps with falafel, tahini, lettuce, tomato and cucumber.

I can never wrap these…luckily Jim was around to do the job. Success and deliciousness!!!

New Kitchen Toys

So after attempting to grind chickpeas in the smoothie maker, I bought this new appliance! This Hamilton Beach food processor had great reviews online so I should be able to get a lot of use out of it!

I have blogged about my coffee making issues in the past and had switched to pressed coffee so I do not need to worry about a electric device not working properly! My taste buds prefer the flavor of pressed coffee over dripped too. Well the one I used for a while cracked! An online search for unbreakable presses brought me to this Thermos beauty! It is also insulated to keep coffee warm for hours. What a buy!

Gluten Free Crackers

It is fun finding new, reasonably priced gluten free goodies!

Both these crackers are absolutely delicious and oh so good with cheddar! I actually prefer these over most crackers that are wheat based. The Crunchmaster ones on the right are super crunchy!

Thank you for stopping by! Have a beautiful fall week. We are already seeing a bit of foliage in Massachuetts so I am looking forward to all sorts of color!  ~Val