I was busy baking today! Gluten Free Of Course!

As many of you know, I eat basically gluten free and I'm always looking for new and yummy recipes.  I found some and thought I would share with you!  First, 2 of these recipes come from http://www.elanaspantry.com/ .  They are easy to make and very delicious!

Now, I must apologize for some of the pictures. My kitchen has very little light so the pictures aren't great. Sorry!

The first recipe is flax focaccia. Her recipe is here. I did change 2 things.  1) I didn't add any agave nectar 2) I used only 1/4 cup of oil (not 1/3). I used Bob's Red Mill flax meal for this recipe.

I lined the pan that came with my Japanese oven with parchment paper. 

 She recommends letting it sit for 2-3 minutes before pouring it into the pan but I did that the first time and it was much harder for me to smooth out the top. So, this time, I mixed it and poured it right away and smoothed out the top. This is what it looks like before going in the oven.

This how it looks like once I cut it up. This "bread" is great. I usually toast a piece and then put 2 sunny side up eggs on it for breakfast. It is super filling!



The next recipe I tried was the vanilla cupcakes. This uses all coconut flour. These are to die for!!! The recipe is here.  I used Bob's Red Mill Coconut flour (which sadly isn't in Japan so I had to have a friend send me some-totally worth it!).  I didn't use agave in these either. I used honey since I had some on hand.  I made both cupcakes and a loaf. I found that using parchment liners for  the muffin tin and a strip of parchment on the bottom of the loaf pan is VERY important.  This is how they looked once the came out of the oven.

 Here is what they look like after I put some chocolate icing on them ( I used my own recipe for the icing). Honestly, these are also fab without the icing!

 Honestly...these are some of the best things I have ever eaten. They are moist and very cake like. I was really shocked at how good these are considering it is just coconut flour, eggs and a few other things. I will be using the recipe as a base and will be adding things like chocolate chips, nuts etc.

Tonight I made pizza!  Now, I don't remember where I found this recipe as I just wrote it down.  I will warn you that if you are looking for an exact copy of a regular wheat filled crust..this isn't for you. It isn't crust in the traditional sense but it is gluten free, lower carb and I think very good. And even my husband likes it.

4 eggs
1/3 cup  coconut flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1/3 cup flax meal (I used Bob's Red Mill)

1/2 cup of some kind of milk ( I used unsweetened regular almond milk)
herbs
Cooked toppings of your choice.


I mixed the coconut flour, flax meal and herbs (I used an Italian mix-not sure how much but I did find more is better to cover up the slightly coconut flavor) in a big bowl. In a smaller bowl, I mixed the eggs and milk. Then I poured the milk and egg mixture into the flour mixture. I mixed really well. Then, on  a parchment lined pan, I scooped out the mixture using a 1/2 cup measuring cup and made 4 shapes (can't really call them circles).  I made them fairly thin as they do rise.  Then I put them in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F or 180C.  First bake them for 10 minutes. Take them out and flip them (which is why making 4 smaller pizzas is much easier than 1 big one). Then the recipe says to bake for another 10 minutes but this time I baked them for 15 to try to make the crust a bit "crispier".

While they were baking, I cooked mushrooms, onions, ham and bacon and prepared some cheese. Once the crusts are done, take them out, add your pizza sauce and cooked toppings and of course...cheese! Pop them back in the oven under the broiler until the cheese is melted. Yummy! 

 This after I flipped them.

I am totally loving cooking and baking! I hope you give these a try! If you do, let me know how you liked them!

Was surprised to find this!

The other day, my student opened her pencil case and I took a look inside as she normally has some cute pencils and erasers etc. I  was quite surprised to find a box cutter in it!  I asked her about it and she said her teacher told her to bring it to school.

Now, I'm guessing that this is not ok in North America as it can clearly be used as a weapon. Am I right?

More Unbelievable Japanese TV!

I just had to blog about this....and this must fall under "only in Japan"!

It is midnight here and we were just  flipping through Japanese TV channels and I stopped at one and watched as a girl walked up to men on the street and asked them a question. I didn't understand what she was asking but I continued to watch and the girl took a guy to a kind of van, knelt down, undid his pants and looked inside!! Apparently she (a porn star btw!) was asking men if there are circumcised? If a man said yes, she then asked if she could check. If he agreed, they went to this van (turns out to be a porn set) and she checked!   Seriously??!! Who thinks up these kinds of shows?

I'm right....right? This has to be an "only in Japan" thing, right?!