Baking & laundry

Mondays are a good day for me because it's the start of a new week. I'm highly motivated to get things done around the house and today, I baked and did a few loads of laundry plus in between played with Boo.

I made beany brownies from Altered Plates, Patty's pumpkin pudding from Pattycake, and a modified version of Southern Living's yellow squash casserole. I took pictures but accidentally deleted them off my camera. Oh well, just visit the links and you'll see pics of the goodies.

The beany brownies intrigued me because there's no flour, butter, or oil. Instead it's made out of black beans. Can you believe it - beans! It satisfies my chocolate craving which I am no longer denying. Life is short, I'm eating chocolate.

Patty's pumpkin pudding is absolutely delicious. Think pumpkin pie sans the crust which is how I usually eat it anyways. Boo loves it, too, which is wonderful because pumpkins and their seeds are highly nutritious and beneficial (visit these links to learn why). The recipe calls for juice - I used half carrot and half orange. I used corn flour, agave syrup, and canned pumpkin (yeah, not sure what Patty will think of this but it works). I did include the orange zest and I'm glad I did because how wonderful is the combination of cloves and oranges? This is a keeper.

For the squash casserole, I omitted the cheese this time but in the past used soy cheese, reduced the butter to 2 TB (used Smart Balance), left out the sugar, and replaced the crackers with brown rice krispies that I ground in the food processor. Yeah, it still has mayo in it but that's what gives it the creaminess. I used Smart Balance mayo but the last time I made it, I used vegenaise (which is surprisingly tasty).

I'm starting to realize that living gluten-free isn't so bad. There are tons of options and these three recipes are examples of how food I love can be modified to fit my food restrictions. Even if you aren't living gluten-free you should try them out.