Gluten Free Crescent Rolls

These are the best things ever.  They are.  You have to try them.  I am not a baker and I generally eat grain-free, but I challenged myself to make a decent gluten-free, egg-free roll for my son one year for Thanksgiving.  Mission accomplished.  Oh these are so tasty!  This recipe is modeled after Pioneer Womans cinnamon rolls and they are worth the effort.  I now make them regularly, usually with ham and sausage wrapped up in them middle.

First, let's talk gluten free flour blends.  Oh what a wide and winding path to go down!  There are so many options commercially available and for mixing on your own.  Gluten free flour is an entire series of posts on it's own, so I will just tell you that my current favorite is Namaste All Purpose Gluten Free Flour.  And it ranks as our favorite simply because it is nut free, legume-free, dairy-free, egg-free and potato-free.  My girls are intolerant to potatoes, and they react severely.  Unfortunately for us, more and more companies are adding potato flour and potato starch to their flours and products.  So currently, I either mix my own flours using xanthum gum, arrowroot starch, tapioca starch, sorghum flour and sweet rice flour, OR I buy the Namaste.  Please feel free to use your own favorite Gluten Free flour blend in this recipe.

Here is how we make 'em.

Ingredients:
1 can Organic Coconut Milk
1 cup Sunflower Oil
1 cup Sugar
2 pkg Active Dry Yeast (0.25 oz per pkg)
9 cups, divided, Gluten Free Flour blend
1 heaping tsp Baking Powder
1 scant tsp Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon Real Salt
Melted Earth Balance
1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum (ONLY add this if your gluten free flour blend does not contain xanthum gum)
Optional add-ons: cinnamon & sugar for cinnamon rolls or ham for ham rolls

1.  Pour coconut milk into a 1 qt measure and add water to bring the volume up to the 1qt line.  Whisk gently to combine.  Combine this now diluted coconut milk with the sunflower oil and sugar in a large sauce pan.  Heat the milk, oil and sugar over medium heat to just below a boil.  Set aside and allow to cool slightly.  While still warm, but not hot, sprinkle the yeast over the top of the liquid and let it sit for one minute.

2.  Add 8 cups flour and stir until just combined.  Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set in a warm spot for 1 hour.

3. After 1 hour, remove towel and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and the last cup of flour.  Stir to combine well then chill for one hour.  Your dough is ready! (Anyone spend winter weekends kneeding bread dough at your Grandma's?  I love those memories, but they also remind me that this recipe is so much easier than that.)  At this point, you may use the dough as is or you may keep it covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.  Punch the dough down as needed if left in the refrigerator.

4. Preheat over to 375 degrees.  Prepare half the dough at a time, leaving the remaining dough in the refrigerator.  It just works up better if the dough stays chilled.  On a nicely floured baking surface, pat your dough out into a thick, even circle.  Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out very thin, approximately 1/4 inch or less.  Slice into strips about 1.5 inches wide.  For crescent shapes, slice the rolled dough into pie wedges.

5.  For crescent rolls, lightly brush the cut dough with melted Earth Balance (or butter of your choice).  The roll up into crescents or rolls, pat the extra flour off, and place on a baking sheet.  For ham or sausage rolls (my son's favorite), place a slice of fully cooked ham or sausage at one end and roll up inside the dough then place on a baking sheet.

6.  Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown on top and done all the way through.  By the way, these freeze *really* well.  I always make a double batch and freeze them.  I pull them out of the oven before they hit the golden brown stage and allow them to cool before sealing in freezer bags.  Each morning I can pull out a single meal's worth of ham rolls and pop them in the oven while we get ready for the day.

7.  Cinnamon Rolls.  This dough works really well as cinnamon rolls, too.  It does not make a light and fluffy cinnamon roll.  It's more of a dense, but delicious, confection.  So make this adaption, go back to step 5.  After you brush your dough with Earth Balance, sprinkle it liberally with cinnamon and sugar.  Roll and then place on your baking pan.  Feel free to top with more butter, cinnamon and sugar as fits your sweet tooth.

Enjoy.  Please let me know how you like them!
Michelle

Operation Breakfast Update | Meal Plan w/ Grain-Free Granola

We are two weeks into the new year and new plan, and Operation Breakfast has been a huge success.  It's not been easy, but the reward has been so great that the effort has been worth it.

So what has changed?  Me and my approach to breakfast.  Such a simple idea.  But for this non-morning person introvert, it was a hard calling to answer accept.  
I'm getting up earlier and making a full breakfast of whole foods for the kids.  Once breakfast is finished, I set the table with a hot breakfast, wake my son, call my daughter, and scoop my youngest from her bed and deliver her to the table with snuggles. We all eat, clean up together, then they start morning chores while I have some quiet time.  
The result?  We have a huge improvement in attitudes around our home.  School is going so much smoother and instead of trying to fit in time for snacks around school, we are able to stay out of the kitchen until lunch.  
Here is the first recipe I whipped up for breakfast for my kids with food allergies.  It's a favorite around here and I hope you love it.

Ingredients:

2 cups organic, raw sunflower seeds

2 cups organic, raw pumpkin seeds

2 cups organic, coconut flakes

1/4 cup coconut oil, warmed gently until melted

1/4 cup (scant) raw honey (or sweeten to taste)

Directions.

1.  Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

2.  Add the seeds and coconut flakes to a large mixing bowl.  Drizzle with coconut oil and honey.  Toss until well coated.

3.  Spread the mixture onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Spread the mixture out into a thin, even layer.  Bake for approximately one hour, turning every 20 minutes.  Continue baking until the coconut toasts to a light golden brown.

4.  Cool and store in a covered container.  

5. Serve with milk, over coconut yogurt, over berries, or snack on it dry.  Feel free to substitute any nuts or other seeds in place of the sunflower and pumpkin seeds.  My options are limited by the food allergies in our house.  Feel free to add more honey to make this sweeter.  You can easily turn this into a granola bar by adding additional honey, pressing it into your pan, and baking longer.  Granola is just so incredibly flexible that you almost can't mix a bad batch.  Add in what you like.  

The rest of our meal plan for the week is below.  I typically serve a raw fruit and veggie at every meal, including breakfast.  For my kid with food allergies... Monday: Granola Cereal w/Ham Tuesday: Sausage Wraps (recipe coming) Wednesday: Ham Wraps (recipe coming) Thursday: Granola Cereal and Bacon Friday: Steak
For my girls and myself... Everyday - pretty much some form of bacon/ham and eggs or a veggie omelet.
I hope our family recipes and our experiences can help someone else.  Homeschooling alone can be hard enough.  And so many know the struggle of nourishing children with food allergies.
Make it a great week! ~Michelle @ My Blue Daisy

New Year's Homeschool Reflections | Operation Breakfast

I love this time of year!  New year, new plans - or maybe just a new look at old plans.  I use this time at the first of the year to take a look at how our school year is going, pray, and determine if we are still on the best path.

After just a bit of prayer and reflection, it became clear to me that we are on the right track but have some problems to solve.  One of the little-big issues that I found hindering our progress is my own morning routine (which is a whole other future blog post) and the second is breakfast.  Who knew something as simple as breakfast could be such a huge hang-up to our morning school work? 

I wish I could make a quick scramble of eggs and a side of bacon for everyone and then move on with the day.  Everyone would be well nourished, satisfied and ready to focus on school.  But my little guy is allergic to eggs and several other foods.  Cooking whole food lunches and dinners isn't much of a problem for me after all these years of dealing with food allergies, but breakfast has been my hang up for a long while.  I am not a morning person.  I prepare lunches and dinners from scratch, but breakfast?  I taught my children from an early age to prepare their own breakfast.  Great, right?  Evidently, not so much.  It's a fine plan for my girls.  My older ones are capable of preparing eggs, greek yogurt and smoothies as they like and my youngest typically shares my breakfast.  But my little guy...  And he's become quite picky about breakfast.  Left to his own choice, he would choose a bowl of rice cereal with a side of rice milk - the sweetened kind.  You can just imagine how well that works for him.  About the time breakfast is done, he's already looking for a snack and complaining that he is STARVING and there is nothing to eat.  Regardless of what healthy, whole food options I list off, he still sees nothing of interest for breakfast.  His second preference for breakfast would be a fresh grilled steak.  Smart kid!  But I don't have the budget to grill steak every morning.

Thus, Operation Breakfast begins.  We created a weekly breakfast meal plan for my son and another for my daughter's and I.  Together we make the plan, shop, and prep the dishes on the weekends or evenings - although most of that prep work is on me.  No more "There's nothing to eat!" complaining as they stare into the refrigerator.  And no more "I don't want that!" when I respond with their options.  The plan is made (with their input) and the plan is what they will eat.  It has worked just fine for lunches and dinners all these years, I'm not sure why I didn't do this for breakfast sooner as well.  Oh right, that whole I am not a morning person thing. This year that is also changing.  

Our first breakfast item - Homemade Granola (egg free, grain free, sweetened with honey) is prepared, Instagrammed, and ready to be stored for the week to come.  It's delicious, crunchy and filling.  Pictures, Meal Plan and food-allergy friendly recipes coming soon!  

Also stay tuned for updates as we move our way into the second half of our 2013-2014 homeschool year in Rome to Reformations and First Grade with My Father's World.  

Happy, Happy New Year!

~Michelle @ My Blue Daisy