Costa Rican Gallo Pinto

Costa Rican Gallo Pinto - Naturally Gluten and Dairy Free

My husband and I recently went to Costa Rica with another couple, one of my husband's best friends. The guy of the other couple grew up in Costa Rica and his mother got this recipe from some friends that live there. His mother passed it on to me. Gallo Pinto was offered as a breakfast meal, but I'm sure it can be served at other times of the day. If you make it without the cilantro or the Lizano it will not taste the same - this is very important to know :)


Ingredients:

1 can of drained Black Beans (his mother says she even rinses it)
1 cup of prepared rice (according to instructions on the package of rice - each rice is slightly different. And make sure it is NOT sticky rice)
1 Green Bell Pepper (I only used 1/2)
1 white onion (I only used 1/2 again)
1/4 cup of Lizano sauce (this is actually to taste the end - if you like a lot - feel free to put as much as little as you like - I thought 1/4 cup was a good number to off of.)
Chopped Cilantro to garnish
1 clove of minced garlic
olive oil for sautéing.


Directions:

1. Prepare rice as directed on the package. Mine was a quick cooking rice that only took 15 minutes of cook time.
2. While you let the rice simmer and cook, begin chopping the green bell pepper and onion. Put enough olive oil in the pan to have a thin layer covering the bottom of the pan and place onions and the green bell pepper in to sauté as well as the minced garlic clove. Let this sauté over medium or medium low heat until the onion and green bell pepper are tender.

3. Add the rice and beans to the sautéed green pepper, onion and garlic and mix well and sauté for about 5 - 10 minutes.

4.  At the very end of the sauté add the Lizano sauce and the cilantro. Don't let it cook for more than 30 seconds or the flavor will be gone.

 

5. Finally you can fry a couple of eggs or 1 or 3 ;) Depending on your appetite, or how you like eggs and place over the Gallo Pinto. I like mine over hard with salt and pepper.



For those of you who do not know what Lizano sauce is, it looks like this:

....and I got mine off of Amazon.com since it is not sold in my grocery store down the street.

Gluten and Dairy Free Coffee Cake

Gluten and Dairy Free Coffee Cake - originally just gluten free by Phyllis

This recipe is my husband's all time favorite holiday treat. His mother makes it every year for Christmas morning. For his birthday I decided to make it for him.

Gluten and Dairy Free Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

• Sift together:

2 cups of gluten free flour (I used Mama's Almond Blend by Gluten Free Mama)
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum

• Cream together:

1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (organic)
1 cup of dairy free sour cream (this is typically made from soy so if you have issues with soy this may not work for you).

• Topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp. of Crisco
1 cup of finely chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans) - I cannot eat nuts as well - so I put in a 1 cup of Kind Gluten Free Granola with flax seed - it was a little more chewy than the nuts are - but it was still delicious.

*You could also double the topping recipe if you choose to leave out the nuts.


Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease 9x11 pan (I greased it with Olive Oil version of Pam spray).
2. Beat eggs until frothy. Mix together topping and set aside.
3. Mix together dry ingredients and set aside.
4. Cream together butter flavored Crisco and white sugar until well blended - it will be thicker than the light and fluffy version with butter. Beat in egg and vanilla.
5. Blend in dairy free sour cream and gluten free flour mixture alternating each. I put half the flour mixture and then blended it well. Added the sour cream mixture and blended that well. Then finally added the rest of the flour mixture and blended that well.
6. Layer the bread mixture and topping in the pan. I began with a layer of bread mixture by putting half of the dough in the bottom of the pan. Then I placed half of the topping on top of the bottom layer of dough. Then placed the remaining layer of dough on top and finished it off with the rest of the topping. Just as a side note - this dough was sticky and may be slightly challenging to spread. Then I cut a criss cross pattern with a knife to better integrate the topping into the dough.
7. Bake for approximately 40 minutes. Check after 30 minutes.

Gluten and Dairy Free Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Gluten and Dairy Free Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

 

 

For my husband and his father's birthday party I have been known to create a red velvet cake that is gluten free due to the number of individuals in his family that have Celiac's Disease and then comes my side of the family with an allergy to dairy. My husband's father loves Red Velvet Cake and Cream Cheese frosting which was a challenge to make dairy free. I came up with this and people hardly knew it was dairy free as well as gluten free.

 

 

I took this recipe from McCormick's recipes: http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Dessert/Red-Velvet-Cupcakes

 

 

And turned it into this:

 

 

Gluten and Dairy Free Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese frosting

 

 

Cake:

 

2 1/2 cups of Gluten Free Flour (I used Mama's Almond Blend by Gluten Free Mama)

 

1/2 cup unsweetened Cocoa powder

 

1 tsp of baking powder

 

1/2 tsp salt

 

2 cups of granulated (white) sugar

 

1 cup of butter flavored Crisco

 

4 eggs

 

1 cup of diary free sour cream (this is typically made from soy - so if you also have an issue with soy this may not work for you)

 

1/2 cup of dairy free milk (almond, rice, coconut or soy)

 

1 bottle of red food color

 

2 tsps. of organic vanilla (gluten free)

 

 

Cream Cheese Frosting:

 

1 pkg. of Jell-O Cheesecake flavored instant pudding in the 3.4 oz size.

 

1 can of Thai Kitchen Coconut milk  (NOT the lowfat kind) - chilled in the fridge overnight or in the freezer for 1 hour

 

1 cup of vanilla coconut milk yogurt.

 

3 - 6 tablespoons of powdered sugar 

 

1 tsp of organic vanilla

 

 

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. For the Cupcakes, mix Gluten Free flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

 

2. Beat butter flavored Crisco and granulated sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in dairy free sour cream, dairy free milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into cake pan. I used 2 circle cake pans that I sprayed with an Olive oil spray and then coated with Gluten free flour.

 

3. Bake 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely.

 

4. For the Frosting, whisk together the cheesecake instant pudding with 1 cup of vanilla coconut milk yogurt. Then in a separate bowl with the electric mixer and the whisk attachment take the can of coconut milk from the freezer (after letting it chill in there for about an hour) and take ONLY the cream that solidified at the top of the can. The coconut water can be thrown away or used kept for a later recipe if preferred. Whip this until soft peaks form and then add the powdered sugar and vanilla and continue to whip. Then add the cheesecake pudding mixture to the coconut whipped cream and continue to whip until all blended well.

 

5. Frost and decorate your cake as you choose! :)