Gluten Free Salted Caramel Granola

I wanted to share with you my latest gluten free go-to. Smoothies are great, but eventually you can get burned out on them every day. I looked up a few different granola recipes, but I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand, and I didn't want to go to the store. So even better, this is the lazy gal's homemade granola. 

 Granola is so easy to make, and really satisfying.

 Mix:
 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. honey (local is best)
2 egg whites
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix it well with a whisk to break up the brown sugar.

Add 2 cups of gluten free old fashioned oats and about 1/2 cup chopped almonds. Stir well until all of the oats are coated.

Here's the good part... I heated up my Fleur De Sel Caramel Sauce in the microwave (because I store it in the fridge) for about 30 seconds. I wanted it to be easy to mix into the oats. This brand is gluten free and from Trader Joe's. Add 1 Tbsp. (more if you like) and stir it all up again.

 I line my baking sheet with parchment or a baking liner that's nonstick. Spread it out as much as you can.  Bake at 325 for 35 minutes. Check it at about 30 minutes, as all ovens are different. You want it to get beautifully browned and toasted. Pull it out of the oven and let it cool completely.

 This is one of my favorite ways to eat it... as cereal with Vanilla Almond Milk, topped with berries.

Store it in an airtight container. I like to use my Weck jars that I got from Crate and Barrel. It even looks pretty on my open shelf. Enjoy!

Vintage Revamp with Crate Shelf DIY

I've been thinking about changing a few things up in my house lately. Actually, I've started a list for summer projects. Planking the inset wall behind the tv is at the top of the list, and my mess of a bedroom is a close second! 

This week has kind of made me stir crazy. I was sick over the weekend and it was so terrible that it left me really weak for the first half of the week. Then one of my daughters got it, and now my other daughter might have it. We've had lots of movies and what seems like non-stop couch time.

I decided today that I would use my time cooped up at home to make a few changes with stuff I already had. 

 First up, I wanted to mount this BIG (it's much bigger than it looks in the photo) crate on the wall as a shelf. The problem was, there was a phone jack mounted to the wall here. We don't even HAVE a home phone anymore because we just use our cell phones.

I decided to try to remove it. In the past, I just covered it up with various things that didn't have to sit flush to the wall. It was easier than I thought!

I used long screws and a stud finder to mount the shelf securely to the wall. You find studs in the strangest places when hanging heavy things, so my screws are actually dead center through the crate back wall. If my metal tray wasn't in the photo, you would see the screws.  I bought that huge frame at a junker's paradise in Capitola. The cream chalkboard I'd made awhile back and never used.

 I then started pulling stuff from other places in the house to arrange the crate. It's tall so it looks weird if there isn't color going up high inside it. I planted some succulents in an old floral tin that I thrifted last week.

 Here's kind of a wide angle of my dining room. It's actually bigger than it looks, so I guess I didn't stand far enough back.

 I scored some old glass milk bottles at a yard sale last week and they came in this small crate. I turned it on its side and put it on the kitchen counter. I found that cute little blue jar at World Market and I use it to store my chia seeds for smoothies.

 I bought this little old mint tin at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago. It makes the perfect quirky planter for a succulent.

I feel like I'm finally starting to make my house look the way I feel on the inside. It might be a little strange to some people, but I just LOVE old stuff mixed with new. You don't have to wait around for your bank account to allow for you to make your house the way YOU want it. You just have to think outside the box.

Teacher Appreciation Lunch with The Planing Mill

This week is teacher appreciation week. If you know that we home school, you might be surprised to know that we actually HAVE teachers. We belong to a charter school and we are blessed by the wonderful teachers who guide us parents through teaching our children at home. They also put a lot of hours and effort into the electives and trips that they offer, to enrich learning at home. Since we are not a "traditional" school, we don't have a PTA to organize special things like this for the teachers. I wanted to do SOMETHING, so I put out a message in our school Facebook group to see if any other families wanted to help out. A group of us set out to host a great lunch for our teachers, and it happened to coincide with finishing up the STAR testing for the week. Bonus!

 I ordered the food from The Planing Mill, in Visalia. If you're local and you haven't tried it, seriously, wait no longer! Everything there is fabulous! A little further down, you'll see some close up of the food.

 For dessert, they had a White Chocolate Raspberry bundt cake with cream cheese frosting.

 Are these flowers not gorgeous? I took my blue mason jars to my friend who also volunteered to help, and she CUT all of these flowers from yards with the permission of various friends. They are SO beautiful.

 Each teacher got a little tiny bag  stamped with "thank you", and inside was a See's candy box and a info magnet from the catering restaurant.

 This first box is an enormous Antipasto Misto. I can't even tell you how bad I wanted to snag a piece! ;)

 I also ordered a BIG Greek salad, and two Artisan pizzas.

I think it turned out GREAT, thanks to the families for stepping up to appreciate some teachers and to The Planing Mill for some FABULOUS food!

Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Redwood Canopy Tour

I wanted to share a bit about our quick weekend trip in Santa Cruz/Scott's Valley/Capitola. We decided to go to a city that neither of us had ever been to before. We mostly explored Santa Cruz, but stayed at the Hilton in Scott's Valley. It was a quick 10 minute drive to get to the hotel, but it was beautiful! The hotel looked like a stone caste, nestled in the woods. 

The photo above is our view from lunch, at The Crow's Nest. It was just "ok", not bad, just nothing special except for the view. We watched about 50 tiny sailboats going out for a race or something. 

We followed the crowd and checked out the Beach Boardwalk. I liked the sky ride, but it was a bit scary when it kept stopping and hanging there. Apparently some people have trouble getting on and off a ride that moves 2 miles an hour, and they have to stop the ride. Our bravery was rewarded, because at the other end of the ride (it's one way), there was a Dole Hut selling Pineapple soft serve and floats just like near the Tiki Room at Disneyland. It's my favorite! We made the mistake of riding the Big Dipper and HATED it. It's the 5th oldest roller coaster in the country and boy can you tell. It doesn't look bad, but every muscle in my neck and upper back have ached ever since, like whiplash. Seriously! It would be a fun place to take the kids, because you could literally walk down the steps and be on the beach, or playing games and riding rides. Plus there's NO entry fee, you just pay as you play or buy a wristband for all day. 

We decided after that first lunch, to attempt to find the local hole-in-the-walls with GOOD food. We weren't looking at the presentation, but wanted what you would eat all the time if you lived there. We used Yelp and searched "local favorites" and found Aloha Island Grill for dinner. It was REALLY good. It doesn't look like much, has a teeny tiny parking lot, but we ate cheap and GOOD! After that, we tracked down this old Ice Cream place we'd passed earlier in the day. It was an old red building and I loved the old sign. Ice Cream by Marianne. They have a line out the door, and every ice cream imaginable. 

 By FAR my favorite thing we did was the Redwood Canopy Tour at Mount Hermon. It was scary for the first time or two, but by the middle of the tour, you don't want it to end. See that faint rope bridge in the background of the photo above? That was actually harder for me mentally than the zip lines. You're on it with a few other people, and although you're harnessed in, the shaking of it as you walk high in the trees is kinda freaky as you're looking to the ground. If you look closely in the photo above, you'll see my husband on the zip line.

These photos show him as he was coming toward the platform I was on.

 Our guides were wonderful and really funny. We had Cameron and Brad, and they made us all feel completely safe and well taken care of.

You had to stand up on a mini picnic table for him to hook you up the the zip line each time. Your two safety straps are still secured when you move to another line. The different zip lines are different heights and lengths, so the speeds are different, and they also teach you how to cannonball and pick up speed.

My husband took this photo of me coming toward the platform he was on. You can even rent a helmet cam, but we used zipper pockets on our jackets for our iphones.

 This is the ending platform. Back on the ground. Insert frown face. It was a breathtakingly beautiful two hours, and WELL worth the money. I can't wait to do it again!

The last thing we did before leaving was hit up a store that I also found on Yelp. It's called Capitola Freight and Salvage.  This photo only shows a fraction of what they had. We spent a long time there, searching every nook, cranny, pile, and field. I could have bought a lot more, but I went easy, and just bought two old windows (minus the glass, which means they were cheap), and a really big old frame. All three for only $23. They had every window, shutter, door, cabinet, wire, metal, old wood you could think of! I REALLY wanted to buy one of those old rusty claw foot pieces to use in a new way, but they were $40 each! Actually I wanted two to turn upside down and make a shelf.

We had such a great time, I can't wait to go back and explore some more. There was so much that we didn't have a chance to see.

Ten Years Later

Today marks our 10 year wedding anniversary. I have been feeling nostalgic for weeks, as I can't help but reflect on our time together. We look like such babies when I look back at the photos. I'll share just a few, because this was before digital was popular, so all I have are the real photographs. 

In case you're wondering, we got married at Ragged Point Resort. They call it "the gateway to Big Sur". We found it by accident one day while on a drive to find a lighthouse. Right before we were going to turn around, the road began to climb the jagged mountain and all of a sudden, we found ourselves at a beautiful, little, self-contained Inn overlooking the Pacific. I can't even describe how this place still makes me feel. On one of our pre-wedding visits, Brandon and I hiked down the "at your own risk" trail, which I think might now be permanently closed. Directly down that cliff I'm overlooking, is a tiny private, rocky beach. We don't visit here often enough, because it's out of the way, but it is breathtaking. The hotel rooms face the other side of the cliff, and we slept with our back door cracked open so that we could hear the waves crash on the cliff below. 

 I love the picture above, even though I think I felt silly at the time we took it. Now I see it as perfectly symbolic of us peering out at the long journey laid out before us. We had no idea what was in store for us, good and bad. Marriage is not all roses and fairy tales. At times it is hard work for sure. I look back and think of all that we have faced together in the last ten years. Life would be so much harder without him. Without the man he has become. He told me, after my dad died two years ago, that on the day of our wedding, my dad told him, "I'm not losing a daughter, I'm gaining a son." The memory of my husband meticulously sweeping up glass from where the police had to break down the door to my parents' house to get to my dad, still brings tears to my eyes.

I love this picture that someone snapped of my dad. He was watching our first dance. (Come Away With Me, by Nora Jones) His face and posture of his hands says it all. He was proud. Despite his crazy daughter that picked up and moved to California from Ohio two weeks after she graduated high school, he was proud. I am so thankful that I got him on our wedding day. Looking back, there are several people who were at my small wedding that day, that are no longer with us. A lot of loss can happen in ten years. 

 The joys and the challenges are many, but the reward is worth the work. I can't wait to see what another ten years will bring. I love you, Mr. Baeza.

Golden Gluten Free Fried Chicken

I feel like I've discovered GOLD! It's been months since I've been able to make fried chicken, because I've been gluten free since December. I know it's not healthy, because it's fried, but I eat plates-full of vegetables and have cut out so many foods, that a little oil isn't gonna kill me every once in a while. I didn't think this would ever be possible. Gluten free people know, crunchy breading is something you give up when you can't have gluten. At least, until now! I tried making chicken strips with almond meal a couple of months ago, and they were mushy and NOT good..

This is really simple. You simply follow the same exact steps for my Ultimate Fried Chicken, with the exception of using Trader Joe's Gluten Free All Purpose Flour instead of regular flour. Make sure your seasonings are gluten free as well. I used a seasoning salt, garlic granules, and pepper. It's really simple. The chicken goes straight into the seasoned flour, into egg, then back into the seasoned flour. You MUST do it this way, NOT the egg first. 

Drop into HOT vegetable or canola oil. You must make the oil a few inches deep in a big skillet or else it won't cook right. Make sure to cook thoroughly, depending on the size/cut of your chicken cooking times will change. If you are unsure of a large breast, take a piece out of the pan and slice into it to see if the juice is clear all the way to the bone. Drain on a baking rack, so that the bottom of the chicken doesn't get soggy. 

Eat. Crunch. Enjoy. Crunch. Repeat. You can thank me later!

Gluten Free Lunches and Secret Weapons

I was recently asked by a friend who was thinking about doing a month long trial of gluten free, WHAT do you eat for lunch?? I admit, eating gluten free leaves me with a lot of dirty dishes. I cook, and cook, and cook some more. I was THRILLED to get a text last week telling me that since she went gluten free a couple of weeks ago, she hasn't had ONE headache! SO exciting!! I thought I would share a few of the things I've been doing for lunch lately. In the beginning I made salads at home, but that got old and boring REAL quick.

 Lately, I've been on a sauteed veggie kick for lunch. It's super fast, and only dirties one pan (none if I grill them!). Experimenting with different combinations is fun and keeps me excited to try new veggies. Up top, I sauteed some broccolini (which was a first for me and I loved it!) in a pan with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper for a few minutes by itself since it takes longer to cook, then added big chunks of fresh asparagus and sliced mushrooms. I could eat asparagus and mushrooms every day. At the end, I added a bit of butter, and fresh garlic, then melted some shredded Parmesan cheese.

 Here, I used some skinny local asparagus from the farmers' market, mushrooms, zucchini and yellow squash. I used the same method as I did above.

 This picture is the bottom of my bowl today (when it dawned on me to take a picture). I simply cut up tiny Persian cucumbers from Trader Joe's, a ripe tomato, fresh basil, and drizzled a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I used fresh garlic, pepper, and a bit of Himalayan Pink Salt to season it. I know I need protein, so I ate it with a side of bacon! Ha! Not sure if bacon is in the meat or fat section of the food pyramid, but I've cut out so many bad things, that I don't care! No one is taking away bacon once a week!

This my friends, is a brainstorm gone terribly right. I have never really been an avocado person, weird, I know! For some reason I felt like I might like it if I opened it up, added salt and pepper, then topped it with either feta or cotija cheese, then gave it a simple drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Guess what? I LOVED it! I eat them like this all the time now. 

I have the benefit of being at home most days since we home school. It is nothing for me to flip on the gas grill and cook a fresh piece of salmon and some asparagus. These asparagus are seasoned with a bit of melted butter and Montreal seasoning. 

I don't do it often, but when I make it to Fresno and pick up some Udi's gluten free pizza crusts, it's easy to make a pesto pizza with tomatoes and fresh basil. I've tried the dry pizza crust mixes and I just did NOT like feeling like I was eating a brick. This crust gets crisp and light.

Now we get to the secret weapons I've learned in the past few months. Chipotle salads are what I eat at least once a week (not always at lunchtime though). If you look at their website, you'll see that you're GF ok as long as you don't eat the flour tortillas. That means you can have a salad, burrito bowl, or crunchy tacos and fill them to your heart's content with all their tasty goodness. I am a sucker for their salads though because of their vinaigrette. It is like crack.

For snacking I love to keep baggies of raw almonds and Guittard semisweet chocolate chips. Their chocolate is GF and it is my all-time favorite anyway. Score! 

My last secret weapon is these GF Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies! My entire family goes crazy for them. Heat them up for a few seconds in the microwave if you like to make them soft again after they cool. I add about 3/4 bag of Guittard chocolate chips to her recipe, and instead of grinding my own almonds I just use a cup of Almond Meal from Trader Joe's. It might sound like it's a complicated recipe, but it's not. The second time you make them, you'll have it down pat and have your cookies ready for the oven in five minutes. Trust me, I've made these dozens of times. I bake mine on parchment paper and they just slide right off. I am tempted to mix in a bit of Chia seeds next time and see if the kids notice. These cookies are better than any boxed GF mix you will ever find. Trust me! Just make sure you use gluten free oats.

This last picture is just so you can see what the almond meal looks like. It's super cheap at Trader Joe's. I also picked up that GF flour to use if I need to thicken anything. That opens up a whole new world. My husband saw it and immediately yelled "Gluten free fried chicken!!" Ha ha. I haven't tried it yet, but I may splurge and try it soon to see how it turns out with this flour. Hopefully these ideas help! As always, please check your products and seasonings to ensure your brand is gluten free, don't take my word for it! ;)