A Cooking Day

Today's to do list:

- post homework on class website
- work on thesis with RB(Research Buddy)
- make my first gluten free stuffing(see the above picture)
- make pumpkin oat bars
- dinner(Black Beans and Sausage over quinoa)
- walk Luna
- do laundry
- go to Target to shop for Dave's birthday(this Sunday)

The stuffing idea came together last night actually. We were having Jen and her friend Teresa over for dinner and I decided corn muffins would go great with the Butternut squash bake and greens.


So I quickly went online and found this recipe on Cook It Allergy Free. As always, I adapted it to what I had in the house ;)

Corn Muffins
1 cup Bob's gf corn polenta I pulsed mine in the food processor for 30 seconds.
1/4 cup of brown rice flour
1/2 cup Bob's gf all-purpose flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp brown sugar sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup plain yogurt(I used lactose free vanilla- it's all I had)
¼ cup 1% milk milk
4 Tbsp butter, melted

Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 375F. Fill muffins tin with 12 cups. 3. In large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, rice flour, sorghum flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the eggs with the melted butter ( and beat for 1 minute. Add in yogurt and milk. Add in the dry ingredients a little at a time and gently mix, just until well incorporated, about one
minute. It should be relatively thick. Pour batter into the muffin cups. Bake for about 20 minutes for the muffins. Cool slightly before serving.

But the fun didn't stop with the muffins- oh no that was only part of the stuffing experience. Again, I adapted a recipe from Cook It Allergy Free to work with what I had.

Corn & Raisin Bread Stuffing with Pumpkin, Sausage and Apples

- 5x pieces of Rudi's cinnamon raisin bread, cut into cubes
- 8 corn muffins, cut into cubes
- 1 1/2 cups of diced celery
- 1/2 cup of diced carrots
- 1 large Cortland apple( skinned and then diced)
- 1 1/2 cups of onion
- 2 tbsp. of unsalted butter
- 1 tsp. of thyme
- 1 tsp. of rosemary(fresh, if you can get it)
- 2 cups of low sodium chicken stock
- 1 cup of pumpkin puree
- 1 egg
- 1/2 pound of chicken or pork sausage(I used cherry/apple sausage from Whole Foods)
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place cubed cornbread and bread cubes on large baking sheet. Place in pre-heated oven for about 15-20 minutes until bread begins to feel slightly stale, and set aside.

Increase the oven temperature to 375F. In large skillet, cook the sausage until it begins to lose it's pink color. Add the diced celery, carrots, and onions and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the diced apples, thyme, and rosemary and cook for 2 minutes more.

The sausage mixture



Next add the sausage mixture to the bread mixture in a big bowl. Whisk together the melted butter, chicken broth, pumpkin puree, egg, until it's smooth and well-blended. Add the wet mixture over the bread mixture. Then place the stuffing into large baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes covered with aluminum foil, then uncover and bake for another 15 minutes. Delicious!


Dave came home early today, so we got to spend some quality time in the kitchen together. We made the pumpkin oat bars and our dinner- Black Beans & Sausage.



Gobble Gobble