Safe Diet Plans: rice

Healthy Breakfast Recipe Brown Rice Flour Pancake

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A healthy breakfast is still imperative for the clean eating diet--no matter what!

Despite recent popularity gain of intermittent fasting which results in some practitioners skipping breakfast, in clean eating, breakfast is still an important meal. Eating breakfast helps with weight loss and weight management by staving off hunger later in the day, boosting both physical energy and brain functions, and jump-starting metabolic rate.

Some breakfast ideas, however, arent healthy and dont fit the clean eating diet.

Pancakes, for example, are loaded with simple carbs, refined sugar and empty calories. Theyre fluffy; theyre tasty; but they arent clean.

Brown rice flour pancake, however, is a fantastic substitute.

Made with finely ground brown rice which undergoes less processing (hulling) than white rice and retains most of rices nutritional values, brown rice flour makes equally tasty meals and baking treats and is gluten-free and clean eating.

In pancake, like todays healthy breakfast recipe, brow rice flour works too.

The pancake is easy-to-make and tasty, especially when topped with real maple syrup and banana slices. Its like eating dessert for breakfast, but without the guilt!

I hope you like the recipe!

Healthy Breakfast Recipe: Brown Rice Flour Pancake

Ingredients:

- 1 table spoon of organic brown rice flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 pinch of sea salt
- 1 banana
- 1 table spoon of real organic maple syrup
- 2 tea spoons of organic coconut oil

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, crack eggs and slightly whisk them.
2. Add brown rice flour, and slowly whisk until flour and eggs are evenly blended.
3. Heat skillet. Add coconut oil.
4. Pour flour and egg mix onto skillet. Cook one side thoroughly, flip and cook the other side. (Same as pancakes.)
5. Transfer pancake onto a plate. Add real maple syrup and banana slices.

Enjoy!

Thank you for your time!

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Bye for now.

Photo a Day Challenge Retires Week 43

Sadly, after almost two years of taking a photo a day everyday I have decided to retire from it. I really had high hopes of making it through the end of this year and then throwing in the towel, but I got so far behind with all the other stuff going on that I dont think I can catch up at this point.

Day 26 - Z is for... Zebra Print

Day 27 - One

Day 28 - Two... Doodle Nostrils

Day 29 - Three

Day 30 - Four... Doodle Paws

Day 31 - Five

Healthy Dinner Recipe Brown Rice Noodle Salad

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Why is brown rice good for you?

Clean Eating Diet loves brown rice, and heres why: during the production of brown rice, only the hull, the outermost layer of the rice kernel, is removed. Doing so least-damages rices nutritional value, keeping most of its vitamins, phosphorus, manganese, iron and essential fatty acids. (Source: Brown Rice, by WHFoods.com)

Difference Between Brown and White Rice

Raw rice has several layers, each containing its own nutritional value. During production, brown rice is milled by removing only its outermost layer while white rice undergoes more rigorous milling, removing other nutritional layers like bran, germ and aleurone. The aleurone layer, which contains rices essential fats and protects rice from oxidation, is removed to extend shelf life. However, removing the aleurone layer also turns rice into refined starch and takes away nutritional values. Consuming white rice, therefore, isnt ideal for the clean eating diet.

Besides difference in color, brown and white rices main difference is that brown rice is much, much, much cleaner and healthier.

And what is Wakame?

Wakame is a type of edible seaweed used most often in Chinese, Japanese and Korean cooking. It can be made into salads, cooked in soups, and stir fried with other ingredients as main dish. Its chewy texture is comparable to that of squids; and its grassy and salty flavor resembles other sea vegetables.

Wakame has high nutritional value in iodine, iron, magnesium, calcium and vitamins. Its low calorie, low fat, low carb and gluten-free.

And yes, its totally clean!

This Brown Rice and Wakame Noodle (see below) was quite a nice find.

I bought mine from a health food store, but you can also find it online at Brown Rice and Wakame Noodle.

It tastes great when eaten alone, but can also be made into sides, salads or main dish.

Obviously, for todays healthy dinner recipe, I chose to make a salad.

Already fresh-tasting, the brown rice and wakame noodle blended nicely with crunchy cucumber and green onion. With potent garlic and savory Tamari (organic) soy sauce, this salad was a delicious way to eat clean for dinner.

It was also easy to make, requiring, after marinading the cucumber, less than 15 minutes to complete.

I enjoyed this clean eating salad, and hope you do as well.

Healthy Dinner Recipe: Brown Rice Noodle Salad

Ingredients:

- 1 tea spoon of sesame oil

- 1 table spoon of olive oil

- 1 tea spoon of agave

- 1 serving of organic brown rice and wakame noodle, cooked

- 5 cloves of garlic

- 1/8 cup of leeks, chopped

- 1/2 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

- 1 tea spoon of Tamari soy sauce

- 1 tea spoon of dark vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)

Directions:

1. Marinade cucumber slices with 1 tea spoon of agave, 1 tea spoon of Tamari soy sauce and 1 tea spoon of vinegar. Marinade for at least 1 hour, but better overnight.

2. Heat wok on high over stove top. Add olive oil.

3. When oil becomes hot, add garlic and leeks. Reduce heat to med-high.

4. Let garlic and leeks cook for about 20-30 seconds. Turn off heat and set aside.

5. In a mixing bowl, add cooked brown rice noodle. Then pour in cooked garlic and leeks, along with a few drizzles of olive oil (that was already in the wok).

6. Add marinaded cucumber slices. Then drizzle sesame oil all over.

7. Mix well and chill in fridge for about 1/2 hour.

8. Enjoy!

Thank you so much for your time!

I understand youre busy, and appreciate you visiting the Clean Eating Weight Loss Meal Plan Page.

Hope you enjoyed tonights Clean Eating and Healthy Dinner Recipe.

Looking forward to seeing you next time.

Todays Article Source(s):

Brown Rice | The Worlds Healthiest Foods | WHFoods.com

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Help Me Lose Weight // Weight Loss Help

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The Skinny Taste Cookbook: Light on Calories, Big on Flavor (from here)

By Gina Homolka

"Get the recipes everyone is talking about in the debut cookbook from the wildly popular blog Skinnytaste

Gina Homolka is America’s most trusted home cook when it comes to easy, flavorful recipes that are miraculously low-calorie and made from all-natural, easy-to-find ingredients. Her blog, Skinnytaste is the number one go-to site for slimmed down recipes that you’d swear are anything but. It only takes one look to see why people go crazy for Gina’s food: cheesy, creamy Fettuccini Alfredo with Chicken and Broccoli with only 420 calories per serving, breakfast dishes like Make-Ahead Western Omelet "Muffins" that truly fill you up until lunchtime, and sweets such as Double Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies that are low in sugar and butter-free but still totally indulgent.

The Skinnytaste Cookbook features 150 amazing recipes: 125 all-new dishes and 25 must-have favorites. As a busy mother of two, Gina started Skinnytaste when she wanted to lose a few pounds herself. She turned to Weight Watchers for help and liked the program but struggled to find enough tempting recipes to help her stay on track. Instead, she started “skinny-fying” her favorite meals so that she could eat happily while losing weight.

With 100 stunning photographs and detailed nutritional information for every recipe, The Skinnytaste Cookbook is an incredible resource of fulfilling, joy-inducing meals that every home cook will love."

Clean Eating Recipe Easy Guacamole with Feta

Ingredients

1 ripe Hass avocado, de-cored, peeled and chopped up
2 table spoons of nonfat feta cheese crumbs
1 ripe tomato, diced up
1 dash of ground black pepper
1 pinch of sea salt
1 tea spoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice (usually 1 lemon wedge)
1/4 cup of white or red onion, diced

Instructions

In medium mixing bowl, add avocado and mash with spoon.
Add all other ingredients, and mix well.
Serve with a side of organic blue corn tortilla chips.

Rice Flour Crepes with Blueberries and Coconut Whipped Cream

I havent been posting much lately because I havent been eating much of interest.

See the ridiculous thing is Im a foodie with serious food sensitivities. Figuring out that gluten was causing me problems helped out my digestive issues a lot. Getting rid of dairy made me feel a lot better too. However there were still things that seemed to be causing me problems and even after keeping a food diary, seeing a nutritionist, an allergist and a gastroentrologist I still couldnt figure out what was making me ill. Unwilling to "just live with it" as all but one of my doctors advised I decided to take the next step and go on an elimintation diet.

The people over at Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen had one that seemed reasonable so Im giving it a try. Eating nothing but green smoothies for a couple days, giving up chocolate, coffee and alcohol and eating only the simplest of unseasoned foods has not been easy. But after my body got over the initial shock I felt better than I ever had before. If eating green salads and brown rice with lentils and nothing else was going to get rid of my unending digestive woes I was willing to do it.

At this point Ive added in a few foods without any issues so I do have some variety in my diet. So far I have sadly discovered citrus, cinnamon and parsnips are all problem foods for me. So as this goes on Ill be healthier and feel great but my diet is getting more and more restricted. In order to not let thoughts like that get me down I spent the afternoon plotting out a dessert that I could eat on this diet. Something other than me peeling a mango and eating it like the crazy sweet-food starved person I am.

Out of that I came up with this recipe for these vegan hypoallergenic rice crepes that fit with the strict parameters of the first phase of the elimination diet. They are so amazing you would never guess they are missing things like eggs, dairy, wheat or sugar. I went crazy and made some dairy free whipped cream as well since I was craving it but the crepes though simple are great without anything but your choice of fruit. The fella and I enjoyed ours with blue berries while sitting out on the porch and enjoying the warm sunny evening.

Vegan Rice Flour Crepes

1 tablespoon ground flax seed

2 tablespoons hot water

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon agave nectar

1 1/4 cup homemade rice milk

In a very small bowl mix the ground flax seeds with the hot water and mix well. Allow mixture to sit undisturbed until it becomes very sticky.

In a medium bowl mix together the remaining ingredients until well incorporated then add in the flax seed mixture.. Your mixture will be very a little runny and gritty.

Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat and gently grease it with cooking spray. When the pan is at temperature add 1/4 a cup of the crepe mixture to the pan and agitate the pan to roll the mixture around the bottom making it as thin as possible. Cook the crepe for one minute then flip and cook for a 1 1/2 on the other side.

Repeat with the remaining mixture, being sure to stir the crepe batter before putting it in the pan as the heavy rice flour will quickly sink to the bottom of the bowl in the time it has taken you to make the preceding crepe.

Blueberry Filling

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 teaspoon agave nectar

Place both ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium heat and allow to simmer until the melting berries turn into a thin syrupy mixture.

Coconut Whipped Cream

1 14-can full fat coconut cream (the kind that separates out)

1 tablespoon melted coconut oil

1 teaspoon agave nectar

Place a metal bowl and the beaters for your electric mixer in the freezer. Open the can of coconut milk and place in the refrigerator until the solid part of the coconut milk solidifies a bit more and is easier to skim out of the can.

After about 10 minutes remove the coconut milk from the fridge and place the solid mass floating on the top of the can in the frosty bowl that was in the freezer, leaving behind the liquid part of the coconut milk to use for other purposes. Add the coconut oil and agave nectar to the coconut milk and return the bowl to the freezer until the mixture becomes mostly solid but not frozen through. This will take awhile, probably between 30 to 90 minutes. Check it often.

When the coconut mixture is stiff, begin beating the mixture with the cold electric beaters. You will get both some soft peaks and some cold ice creamy textured bits during this process. It wont exactly be "real" whipped cream but its so delicious it wont really matter.

Wild Rice Stuffing and Kale Chips

This year was my first hosting Christmas dinner and trying to do it gluten free in a way that everyone would still make everyone happy. Which was exciting and nerve wracking all by itself. The problem was I had to work for 6 hours Christmas afternoon which left me no time to actually cook much of the meal itself. Luckily I have two very talented men on hand in my kitchen. The fella and the chef were kind enough to do most of the cooking and did a fabulous job.

There were a couple moments while I was stuck at my desk taking relay calls listening to other people talk about their meals and wondering what was going on in my kitchen. It was torture to be at work, on Christmas nonetheless, while the chef and the fella handled everything back home. I wanted to play food, not eavesdrop on other peoples phone calls, darn it. And it was driving me crazy wondering what exactly would happen to the recipes I had handed off to the men that morning. Would I come home to alien brain frittered stuffing or a bacon wrapped smoked turkey with an octopus stuffed in it? The anxiety was for naught, the boys did amazing. The only food that didnt quite turn out were the things I cooked oddly enough, but thats a story for another day.

It was lovely having my family over. I think they even enjoyed the not so traditional food and the lack of gluten. My parents even surprised us by bringing their adorable little present opening food hound who laid under the table to whole meal totally offended that no one was dropping any food on her and that she wasnt the center of attention. You can see how neglected and abused she is cuddled up amongst the various feet that arent currently petting her.

The dogs werent the only ones giving me cute sad eyes though. I probably nearly broke the chef by forcing him to use a recipe and one that didnt call for any fun ingredients even. He obviously isnt too torn up over the stifled creativity however as I witnessed him stuffing cannelloni beans and chicken thighs in tiny pots last night so hes recovered.

And after having the mushroom wild rice stuffing from a recipe in Bon Appetit I can safely say it would have been improved by a little creativity or perhaps just some nuts to give it a little texture. It was tasty stuffing and the mushroom with wild rice combination really works, it just needed a little something extra to make it pop. The cranberry wild rice stuffing with toasted hazelnuts I made for Thanksgiving was much more exciting and will probably be what I make for stuffing related situations in the future.

One of my brief contributions to the meal was to make a couple different varieties of kale chips to snack on while waiting for the meal to finish. My mother sent me the idea for kale chips during the summer when I was lamenting yet another CSA box full of greens. Now I wanted to make them for her to see what they were like.

Kale chips are super easy and tasty way to use up left over kale or any other hearty green you arent usually a fan of. All you need is salt, pepper and the seasoning of your choice and you have a healthy simple snack. These always disappear right away at my parties. It isnt until afterwards I let people know they just willingly devoured leafy green veggies. They have the same taste and texture of regular chips but are so much better for you. I cant recommend them enough. Just dont get into an in depth conversation about cephalopods while making them and manage to salt the tray of kale 3 or 4 times because thats just too much salt and even your supportive mother will not eat many of the chips at that level of sodium. Not that this has ever happened to me or course, totally hypothetical.

Kale Chips

1 bunch kale
oil, for drizzling
salt and pepper, to taste
1 pinch, cayenne pepper
seasoning of your choice, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Rip the kale leaves into bite sized pieces, making sure to remove all the hard stems. Run the pieces of kale through a salad spinner until dry or wash them thoroughly and then pat dry. Place the kale across a large cookie sheet without overcrowding it.

Spray or drizzle kale with oil, then toss until just oiled on all sides, using an oil sprayer makes this process super easy if you have one. Sprinkle the kale with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with a pinch of cayenne pepper and the seasoning of your choice--Montreal steak seasoning or 5 spice powder work really well—or extra cayenne is delicious if you want something really basic.

Arrange the kale pieces evenly over the pan so that they dont over lap much, do several batches if you have to. Place in oven for about 10 minutes then check on them. The kale should be crispy but not brittle or blackened. If it is still moist in places, agitate the kale and place back in the oven for about 5 minutes, watching it closely so that it doesnt burn.

Wait for kale chips to cool. Remove from pan with spatula and serve.

Double Chocolate Flourless Torte

It has been a hell of a day over here in my world so Im going to just let this fabulous chocolate treat speak for itself. Long story short; its amazing and easy and I wish I had not already eaten it all so I could have some right now in my time of need. Also please feel free to oo and aw over my new dessert plates. Thats all.

Double Chocolate Flourless Torte

1 cup dark chocolate (4 one-ounce squares)
1/2 cup almond flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Break up the squares of dark chocolate a little bit (I used unsweetened baking chocolate and still thought the recipe was too sweet) then place in food processor and pulse until coarsely ground. Remove 1/2 of the ground chocolate for later.

Add in almond flour, cocoa powder, and salt and combine for a couple more seconds in food processor. Add eggs to food processor and pulse again, then add in agave, oil and orange zest. Combine until smooth. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate pieces back to the mixture and stir briefly.

Transfer batter into a well greased 10 to 12 inch round pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until it passes the tooth pick test.

Adapted from a recipe on Elanas Pantry.

Ten Minute Tasty Asparagus and Brown Rice

Sure Rachel Ray can make a slew of 30 Minute meals when all of her ingredients are pre-chopped and pre-measured. Thats not that big a deal really, we could all do that if we had a posse of people behind the scenes to prep our food for us too. Worst of all her recipes are seldom very healthful. Sometimes tasty and interesting but with enough fat and spice most things are.

Heidi Swanson over at the beloved blog 101 Cookbooks does what Rachel Ray only wishes she could. Some of my favorite recipes from her are ones that are done in a matter of moments by using up the left over bits from the fridge and best of all shes a master at making delicious but healthy food. The trick to these recipes like the one for Asparagus and Brown Rice below is to have everything prepped and ready to go before hand. It might seem like a long list of ingrediants but all the work they require is chopping and cooking briefly.

Aside from being a snap to make if you skip the almonds this dish is also excellent for those low fat/high carb nights on this diet that can get so tedious to try to cook for. It has all sorts of benificial fiber from the brown rice and garbanzos, crisp green asparagus and the tahini dressing adds worlds of flavor wihtout tons of fat. This is one of my favorite go to meals for when I have left over brown rice and garbanzos, those are the important bit you could sub in any veggie you had on hand for the asparagus with similar results.

Ten Minute Tasty Asparagus and Brown Rice

Tahini Dressing:

1 garlic clove, chopped

1/4 cup tahini

zest of one lemon

scant 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons hot water

scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 or 2 14-ounce cans of chickpeas, drained

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1-inch segments

3 cups cooked brown rice

1 cup almond slivers, toasted

fine grain sea salt

Make the dressing by whisking together the garlic, tahini, lemon zest and juice, and olive oil. Add the hot water to thin a bit and then the salt. Set aside.

Add roughly 3 tablespoons of olive oil to a big skillet over medium-high heat. Swirl the oil around to coat the pan, then add the chickpeas and sprinkling of salt. Let the beans saute there for a couple minutes.

Add the garlic and onions. Stir for a minute. Stir in the asparagus with another pinch or two of salt, cover with a lid for a minute or two to steam - just until the asparagus brightens and softens up just a bit. Uncover and stir in the rice and almond slivers, reserving a few almonds for garnish. Taste and add more salt if needed . Serve in a big bowl drizzled with a few tablespoons of the tahini dressing, let each person add more dressing to their tastes.

Original recipe from 101 Cookbooks blog.

Clean Eating Recipe Lobster Cucumber Avocado Salad

Ingredients:

2 cups of cooked lobster tail, chopped (we recommend: wild caught Longostino lobster tails)
2 cups of ripe avocado, peeled, de-cored and cubed
1 cup of cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 table spoon of extra virgin olive oil
2 tea spoons of fresh cilantro leaves
1 table spoon of freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1 dash of sea salt or kosher salt
1 dash of ground black pepper

Instructions:

Add all ingredients above into a mixing bowl.
Toss and mix well.

Enjoy!

Super Easy Edamame Rice

Beets are one of those things I never thought Id find myself craving. Somewhere along the way loving raw beets seems to have became a side effect of being on this diet, much like random urges to ribbon vegetables or picking the most complicated recipe in a cookbook to prepare just to have something really cool to write about. Living sans most carbs and sugar does funny things to the brain. Suddenly everything tastes better. Yes, even beets.

The fella and I are the type of people that always have a bit of left over brown rice around in the fridge for eating with impromptu curries. I also had a bag of pre-cooked and pre-shelled edamame that I found in the freezer section of an Asian grocery that I had once had big ideas for but then quickly forgot about. So I thawed that neglected edamame, re-warmed the rice and tossed in a few other things and tada a really simple Asian tinged rice salad using things that were otherwise languishing in the fridge.

Im always the most surprised at really simple thrown together that are this delicious. Sometimes while cooking up a storm with really complex recipes I forget that something like raw beets and some rice can be amazing. This was exactly what I needed to eat tonight and with some good Spanish wine things got even better.

El Hada is a blend of Verdejo and Viura grapes making a perfect blend of tart and sweet in one delicious wine. I dont know what it is about Spanish wines that make then so great and easy to drink but this wine has it all. Tart fruit and a bright velvety sweetness with an intriguing nose of citrus and roses. And who knew it would go so well with Edamame.

Super Easy Edamame Rice

3 tablespoons sesame seeds

2 cups cooked brown rice
2 small beets, diced
1 cup edamame, cooked and shelled (I used frozen already cooked and shelled edamame)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

In a small pan toast sesame seeds until browned, set aside.

If using left over brown rice place in microwave to warm until a bit past room temperature. If using freshly cooked brown rice place it in a medium bowl along with the beets, edamame and toasted sesame seeds. Toss well.

In a small bowl make a vinaigrette with the oils, lemon juice and sea salt. Whisk or shake well to combine. Pour over the rice mixture and combine well.

Modified from a recipe on Food52 blog.

Sun Dried Tomato Salad

Another day another perfect summer salad. This one is courtesy of the Lisas Kitchen Blog where there is no shortage of out of this world vegetarian recipes. Whenever I want to cook a really unique curry this is the blog I go to because this is perhaps the only other person as obsessed with Indian cooking as I am. She has some of the coolest recipes and flavor combinations, stuff Id never think to cook.

Like this salad, I was a little leery of the cooked beans, raw veggies and lots of sun dried tomatoes combo but after I poured on the sun dried tomato dressing I became a believer. The flavors are just what I was looking for an a warm afternoon when I didnt want to turn on the stove for more than 5 minutes. The tomatoes and balsamic vinegar create a nice tangy edge for the beans.

The fella who isnt a huge fan of tomatoes wouldnt stop eating this. He said it was like a less evil version of mayo encased potato salad. And hes right the parmesan cheese (I used a half nutritional yeast half ground almonds substitute for vegan parm) and garlic create a pleasant creaminess that reminded us both of mayo but without the heaviness and the fat. And because there is no mayo involved this would be a killer salad for a picnic.

This is another salad that is going into heavy rotation on my summer menus.

Rice Flour Angel Food Cake

The fella has only one requirement for his birthday: there must be an angel food cake with blue frosting. I love him more than air but in case youve never tried angel food cake making is a pain in the behind. There is also the fact that boxed cake mixes are my Achilles heel of baking. I can make a three layer hummingbird cake with cream cheese frosting from scratch without breaking a sweat but show me a boxed cake and I can almost guarantee it will not turn out.

The first two years the fella and I were together I made the mistake of thinking a boxed angel food cake would be the way to go because even though baked goods in boxes are my nemesis it had to be simpler than doing it from scratch. Right? Both times I spent an afternoon in the kitchen glaring at the box and swearing at the electric mixer. No matter how much I beat the mix it wouldnt fluff up. Convenience food? Ha. After much pacing of the kitchen and many choice words I did end up with a mostly in tact cake placed on the table and frosted and me with a smile on my face, trying not to let on to the fella the amount of crazy I had just re-harnessed behind my beaming faux house wife facade before he got home.

There were a couple moments while making those cakes when all the angel food cakes I would make for the rest of my life flashed before my eyes and I wanted to give up. Was a deep meaningful relationship with a man I love dearly and connect with on almost every level worth making angel food every year? It turns out it is but I still dislike angel food.

This year a box mix wasnt even an option. If I was making this cake I was making a gluten free cake I could eat and if I was going to go through that much effort I was going to make the best freaking angel food cake ever. This would be the year I made piece with angel food.

It worked. I took the super simple recipe for basic angel food cake in The Joy of Cooking and switched rice flour in for the cake flour and stirred in some chocolate flakes to make it more interesting. It was a long 35 minutes waiting for that cake to finish. There is no window in my oven door and opening to peak in would have ruined anything so for 35 long minutes I was sure that I had just wasted a dozen eggs and my afternoon for nothing. When the timer went off and a perfectly risen fluffy gluten free made from scratch angel food cake came out of the oven I couldnt help but do a little dance and congratulate myself. The fella was thrilled and belly laughed at me for my lack of modesty.

Now there was the issue of blue frosting. I thought of all sorts of creative and crazy ideas for flavors or ways to make it blue without food coloring but in the end I went simple. Homemade whipped cream with blue food coloring heaped on the top of the angel food cake so that it looks like a fluffy blue cloud of yum. As you can see the fella was excited by this prospect and Im excited that I finally made a yummy birthday cake for him.

Turns out angel food cake isnt that difficult after all. The trick is reading the recipe a million times before starting and making sure absolutely all the tools youll need for all the steps are within arms reach because once you turn that mixer on for the first time you are not leaving that corner of the kitchen for a good 10 minutes but the result is worth it.

So happy birthday to the fella, hope youve had the best birthday week ever.

Rice Flour Angel Food Cake

1 cup brown rice flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/ 4 cup dark chocolate pieces or chips

12 cold egg whites
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Have ready an un-greased 10 inch tube pan.

Sift together the flour, sugar and salt three times into a medium bowl.

Pulverize the chocolate chunks in a food processor until finely chopped. Set aside.

In a large bowl beat together on low speed with an electric mixer for 1 minute the egg whites, water, lemon juice, cream of tartar, and lemon. Increase mixer speed to medium and continue beating until the mixture increases in volume about 5 times and resembles a slightly translucent soft foam. This should take around 2 to 3 minutes. The foam will hold soft moist peaks when beaters are lifted.

One tablespoon at a time slowly beat in the remaining 2/3 cup of sugar. Do this process over the course of 2 minutes. When the sugar is added the foam will be a creamy white and hold soft glossy peaks that bend over at the points. Do not beat until stiff.

A 1/4 cup at a time sift a fine layer of the flour mixture evenly over the surface of the batter and fold gently with a rubber spatula just until the flour is nearly incorporated. Repeat 7 more times with the rest of flour mix until no traces of flour are visible. During the last addition of flour mixture add the chocolate pieces.

Pour the batter into the pan and spread to level the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cool upside down for at least 2 hours, setting the tube over a bottleneck or resting the pan on 4 glasses.

Original recipe from Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Beckers The Joy of Cooking.

Homemade Rice Milk

Now that I figured out how to make it myself I cant believe Ive spent so much money on buying not so tasty rice milk in the store all these years. To get an aseptic container of gluten free sugar free rice milk I was paying $2 or more a week. Which isnt too bad considering how much a similar sized bit of organic hormone free dairy milk would be. But I have left over rice at home all of the time and Im obsessed with making everything myself so I figured there had to be a more cost effective way to enjoy rice milk. Turns out there is and it couldnt be easier.

Surprise surprise all rice milk is made of is rice and water and a bit of vanilla makes things more palatable. So why continue spending money on non-dairy milk products in the store that will lead to you throwing away extra cardboard containers in the land fill when you can do it yourself? If you have five minutes and a blender you have no excuse to not do it. Its ridiculously easy.

Homemade Rice Milk

1 cup warm brown rice
4 cups warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla

In order to get milk and not rice sludge it is important that the water and rice are warm, not boiling but heated through. Place all the ingredients in the blender. Just in case the water is too warm, place the lid of the blender on an angle so air can escape when you start the blender, then cover the top of the blender with a towel in case anything splatters.

Start the blender on a medium speed and allow it to whir for 5 minutes. You may have to run your blender for a minute at a time, agitating the mixture periodically. When you have a uniform constancy in the blender pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a storage container (I keep mine in left over yogurt containers.) There will be pulp from the brown rice in the sieve, try to force as much liquid out of it as possible.

This is what you want the pulp of your rice milk mixture to look like coming out of the blender after the liquid has all been forced out. If its any courser than this put it back in the blender for another minute or so.

Allow mixture to cool then store it in a well sealed container in the fridge for up to a week. Make sure to shake the milk before each use as the contents settle.