Gluten Free Black Bean and Lentil Soup

Is it still cold where you live?

Here too.

I just had to whip up a pot of 

Black Bean and Lentil Soup.

Yes, it sounds healthy and looks healthy because it is.

Leave off the sour cream and you have a thick, filling vegan dinner.  The black beans and lentils are good sources of protein and fiber-rich carbs.  The body will absorb these nutrients slowly, keeping energy and hunger levels on an even keel, meaning you will eat less and have not experience the spike in energy followed by that unwanted drop.  

Besides all the health benefits, it's really tasty.  

I got both my husband and 3 year old to eat and then ask for seconds.

Yep, it's that good.

Gluten Free Black Bean and Lentil Soup

1/2 large onion

1/2 T. olive oil

2 minced garlic cloves

1/2 t. chili powder

1/2 t. cumin

1/4 t. paprika

2 cups vegetable broth or water

1 T. ketchup 

1/2 cup uncooked lentils

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 t. salt

2 T. lime juice

1/4 t. pepper

Sour cream

Avocado

Cilantro

Chop the onion and saute in olive oil in a soup pot on medium heat until soft.  Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, paprika, saute 1 min.

Add 2 cups of broth or water and ketchup, bring to a boil.  

Add lentils; cook until tender, about 25 minutes.  

Partially mash 1 cup of black beans.  Add to soup as well as the other whole beans.

Add salt, lime juice, and pepper.

Cook 5 minutes.

Garnish with sour cream, avocado, and cilantro.

Serve with GF bread, crackers, or tortillas.

Gluten Free Baked Pumpkin Spice Donuts

With each bite a nice cinnamon surprise!

Gluten Free Baked Pumpkin Spice Donuts

These tender baked donuts have a cinnamon burst waiting to pounce.

The secret is cinnamon chips.

I found out that cinnamon baking chips only come out in the fall.

They are like chocolate chips, but have a wonderful cinnamon flavor.

Next fall, I'm stocking up...watch out grocery stores, I'm coming.

To make these donuts make sure you have a donut pan, you can pick one up for about $10 at JoAnns or any store that sells Wilton products.

Gluten Free Baked Pumpkin Spice Donuts

1 3/4 cups GF mix

2 t. xanthan gum

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/4 t. allspice

1/8 t. ground cloves

1/3 cup canola oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 t. vanilla

3/4 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1/2 cup milk + 1/2 T. vinegar

1/2 cup cinnamon chips

Coating:

1/2 cup butter, melted

2/3 cup sugar

2 T. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease donut pan.

Mix together flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt and spices and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together oil, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, pumpkin, and milk until combined.  Slowly add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Stir in cinnamon chips.

Using a pastry bag, or a ziplock bag with a hole clipped in the corner, fill each donut cup with batter.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until donuts spring back when gently pressed.

Turn donuts out onto a wire rack and allow to cool for 3 minutes.

While donuts are cooling, melt butter in one bowl and combine the sugar and cinnamon in another.  Quickly dip each donut in butter, then coat with cinnamon-sugar.  

Enjoy immediately.   

Oven Baked Apple Donuts

Perfect portion control,

perfect for the kids,

Gluten Free Oven-Baked Apple Donuts

I loved these little bite size donuts.

Bursting with little chunks of apple and a sweet cinnamon topping you can't go wrong.

Be sure to finely chop your apples!

Gluten Free Oven-Baked Apple Donuts

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 1/2 cups finely chopped apple, peeled and cored

1 1/2 cups GF mix

2 t. xanthan gum

2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. kosher salt

1 t. nutmeg

1/3 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk + 1 t. vinegar

Coating:

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

1 t. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.  Whisk flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, sugars, salt and nutmeg together.  Add in the cold chopped butter.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs.  Mix in the milk/vinegar and fold in the chopped apples.  Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix by hand until just blended.  Place a spoonful of batter into a greased mini muffin tin.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden.  Remove from oven and lightly brush with melted butter.  Roll in a bowl with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Shake off excess sugar and enjoy immediately.  

Gluten Free Apple Cider Doughnuts

Sometimes you just need a good old fashioned cake donut.

Sometimes you need a 

Gluten Free Apple Cider Doughnut.

These little deep-fried pieces of dough are so great.

Why, because they taste like a cake donut and are covered in pumpkin-cinnamon-sugar.

Yum.

Sounds fall-ish, but they don't have a strong apple or pumpkin flavor.

They would be good now, in the middle of winter.

These do take some planning ahead, but they are worth the extra effort.

Gluten Free Apple Cider Spice Doughnuts

1/4 cup apple juice concentrate, thawed

1 cup sugar

3 1/2 cups GF mix

1 T. xanthan gum

2 1/2 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

3/4 t. pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk with 1/2 T. vinegar

Cinnamon-Sugar Coating

Combine:

3/4 cup white sugar

1 T. pumpkin pie spice

Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of your heavy-duty mixer.  Mix with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy.  

Add eggs one at a time, beating completely after each addition.  Add apple juice concentrate and milk/vinegar.  Beat until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.  Add flour mixture to liquid mixture and beat until just blended.  

The dough will be soft.

Carefully lay a sheet of plastic wrap on top of a baking sheet.  Transfer dough to plastic wrap.  Cover with another sheet of plastic wrap and roll out dough until it's about 1/2 inch thick. Place pan in the fridge for 1 hour.  

After 1 hour, using a round cookie cutter, or the top of a drinking glass, cut circles out of the dough.  Using your fingers create a hole in the middle by spreading apart the dough.

Heat canola or peanut oil to 325 degrees.  

Carefully place a few pieces of dough into the hot oil.  The donuts will cook fast, check the bottom after about a minute.   If golden brown, flip over and cook on the other side for 30 seconds.  

They should cook in about 1 1/2 minutes. 

Remove from hot oil and place on a plate covered in paper towel to absorb excess grease.  

Roll hot donuts in the sugar mixture.  

Gluten Free Baked Pumpkin Donuts with Vanilla Cinnamon Glaze

As mentioned yesterday, we had a Harvest Party.

What you do at a Harvest Party is make homemade donuts.

It's a blast.

This is me during the party:

And I occasionally sneak a hot, fresh donut...

or two, or three.

Ok, ok, eight!

The most popular donut was the glazed donuts:

I actually posted the recipe last fall durning pumpkin week.

If you need the recipe again, here is it:

Gluten Free Baked Pumpkin Donuts with Vanilla Cinnamon Glaze.

Gluten Free Donuts

We had a Gluten Free Donut Party!

We hosted the 3rd annual Harvest Party, last November.

Yes, you read that right.

November.

Ok, I've been busy.

But here are the recipes now!

And you are going to love them.

We started the donut making tradition one year on Halloween.  

All the festivities happened the weekend before Halloween and as adults we needed something to do, that would include babies and young children of course.

So I dug through some cookbooks and found some GF donut recipes.

They turned out ok.

But it was more fun because all our friends came over and ate delicious circles of deep-fried dough with us. 

It doesn't get better than that.

The next year, all the husband's had finals on and around Halloween.

So to carry on the tradition, we had the donut frenzy a week later and called it a fall harvest party.

The next year we moved during the fall and didn't throw one...

don't judge.

(I was also preggo and even thinking about hot oil, or cooking for that matter, made me run for the sink!)

But this last fall, we threw the biggest donut party ever! 

It was amazing.

And so were the donuts.

Want to throw your own?

Here's how:

Invite all your friends over for a Harvest Party.  Thanks to Facebook and mass texting this is easy.

(Keep everything as casual as possible)

Then make donuts!

Have everyone eat donuts until they are in a sugar coma.

Eat some more donuts while drinking sparkling cider, apple cider + dry ice.  Cool effects and delish.

Eat another donut and watch the football game (if you are a boy) or chat with all your friends (if you are a girl).

Be sure to make your kiddos matching Turkey Shirts.

They can also wear them at Thanksgiving.

So for this next week watch for some great donut recipes coming your way!

We have:

Baked Pumpkin Donuts with Vanilla Cinnamon Glaze

Oven-Baked Apple Donuts

Spiced Pumpkin Donuts 

and

Apple Cider Doughnuts

Joint Forces

Guess what!!

This is really exciting!

I have joined with some friends and other foodies on a great blog called

"Oh So Delicioso!"

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Seriously good eats over there.

You might remember Aubrey, she posted during our Christmas series those yummy little meatballs.  She is on the co-founder of Delicioso.

And Shunae, where I have had gotten many recipes also posts occasionally.

So check it out!  

You'll love it!

And don't worry, I'll still be keeping this blog up too.

You can't get rid of my that easy....

Gluten Free Brown Rice and Lentils

Brown rice, lentils, veggies...doesn't get much healthier than that.
But don't think that because this might be labeled as "health" food that its not good.
Because trust me, this is a casserole that is full of flavor, easy to make, and dirt cheap.

Gluten Free Brown Rice and Lentils

This recipe has been made quite a few times around our house.  

Lentils are named as a belly-flatting food, because they fill you up, not out.

Gotta love that.

The best part...

it changes every time you make it depending on what veggies you have laying around.

We've tried many different combos, some we like some we don't.

Good veggies to add in are:

- corn

- peas

- red pepper

- green pepper

- onion

- green onion

- asparagus

Veggies not to add in:

- zucchini

- squash

- mushrooms

(They just get too mushy)

Not only can you add anything to casserole you there's also many different ways you can serve it.

You can serve it like a casserole, with a green salad on the side, use as a sandwich filling or my personal favorite, as taco filling with a dollop of sour cream.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Brown Rice and Lentils

2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1/2 cup dry lentils

1/3 cup brown rice

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 cups mixture of your favorite veggies, chopped 

(peppers, corn, peas, etc...see list above)

1 t. Italian seasoning

1/4 t. garlic powder

1 cup cheddar cheese

Sour cream

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Mix all ingredients together except cheese and sour cream in a baking dish.

Cover with a lid or foil and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until rice is tender.

Remove foil, add cheese and bake for another 15 minutes.

Serve with sour cream.

Make tacos and wrap in corn tortillas,

or make a sandwich with GF bread, 

or just serve beside a green salad.