GF "RECIPE": Chocolate Mint Coffee

Life's a Little Sweeter with (Mint) Chocolate

I've been faithfully avoiding the beloved Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies of my past. There are 2 boxes lurking about in my house, but since they are not Gluten-free, I am staying away.  But don't think they aren't calling me.

I have been wanting chocolatey-mint *something* these days---seeing the lovely green color all around me as St. Patrick's Day approaches doesn't help either....nor is walking through the candy aisle.

So, my splurge yesterday at the local health food store was a bar of Equal Exchange Mint Chocolate, 67% cacao content(so I think that means it's dark enough to consume without guilt, right?), Organic and Fairly Traded (more of the "no guilt factor" ;) ) It cost $4.49. (Oh, there's the guilt!)

In our Life Before Kids, hubby and I would regularly go to the local coffee shop and my order would often be a Grasshopper Coffee....Chocolate and Mint coffee with the token steamed milk added.

Do you sense a theme here?

This morning, I brewed up a pot of Sumatran coffee (easier on the stomach, for those looking for that, and no, hubby, I didn't use the Decaf!).

Once the coffee was finished brewing, I poured a cup and then shredded a square of chocolate with a fine shredder and stirred it up and added a splash of milk. Mmmmmm.....

Oh, and seeing the bits of chocolate melting on the shredder and realizing it wasn't a good idea to lick a shredder clean like one would a spoon, no matter how desperate, I dipped it into my cup and stirred so as to melt all the chocolate off and not let any of it go to waste.

So, not really a Recipe, per se....but a little idea I thought I'd share, in case anyone else is looking for a Chocolate Mint Coffee Fix. :)

GF Chocolate Mint Coffee

1 cup hot coffee
1 square(more or less, to taste) Equal Exchange Mint Chocolate, shredded or finely chopped
milk or cream, to taste

Add shredded chocolate to hot coffee, stir to melt and combine, add milk or cream to taste and enjoy!


(Or....merely munch away on the chocolate bar whilst drinking your cup of coffee!)

I Planted Chard Outside Today...

I did it.
I couldn't resist.
I went outside and planted a short row of my favorite variety of chard: Five Color Silverbeets. Now I can see which ones fare better: the ones I started inside yesterday afternoon, or the ones I just put into the ground.

Now I have dirt under my nails.

I'm a week early for the First Day of Spring, but I say....

Let Spring Begin!

Gardening On the Cheap

I recently came across the idea of using empty toilet paper tubes as containers when starting seeds.  Since I'm almost always looking to save a buck, I decided to give this a try. It was also a great idea, since I had an interview for the local paper on gardening and they wanted to do a photo-shoot of me outside planting in the garden....which after the rain, was way too muddy to work in.

All I did was save up a few toilet paper tubes and scrounged up a few containers from my recycle bin.

I cut the tubes in half and set them in the rinsed out (washed in hot water/bleach would probably have been better, but...) mushroom containers.

I then filled them with potting soil, planted a chard seed into each one and watered just a bit and added just a bit more soil to the ones that sunk in.

An aside: It irks my hubby that we live on a farm and I had him buy dirt. But I told him that all our dirt was way too wet outside, so I think he's ok with it now....

Once I got the little seeds watered, I set them on the base of the cake container and popped the lid on.  I put the whole shebang on the baker's rack in the sunporch.  I might bring them inside...we'll see.

Once the seeds sprout, I will prop the container open so that it's not too humid in there for them. I don't want them to get moldy and damp off if it's too moist in there.

Time will tell if this works well....Once the little plants are fairly substantial, I plan to put them in the corner of the garden that will hopefully be dry(er) in a month or so.

I think I might mosey on out there and stick some chard seeds in the saturated ground of the garden, just to see which ones fare better. It'll be like a race, right? :)

GF RECIPE: One-Pan Beef Stroganoff with Rice

During my hiatus from blogging, the idea of making beef stroganoff using rice (instead of noodles) was presented to me.  I found this idea intriguing and couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it myself! I have a recipe for One-Pan Beef Stroganoff that I have used for about 10 years (and don't remember the source, or I'd tell you), but due to the higher cost of GF noodles, I have avoided making it for the whole family.


So, I tried making my recipe using rice instead of noodles, and it was a hit! In fact, I think I like it with rice even better than with noodles!

Here's the recipe, with my substitutions:

GF One-Pan Beef Stroganoff with Rice

1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion (I just chop a whole onion and throw it in)
1 clove of garlic, chopped


1 tsp salt
1 TB lemon juice (I used lime juice), optional
1 small can of sliced mushrooms
1/4 tsp pepper
1.5 cups brown rice
3-3 1/2 cups water or broth(more if you like your rice cooked longer)


2 TB parsley (I use about 2 tsp dry)
1 cup sour cream (I use Daisy brand--less fillers)


Brown meat, onion, and garlic.
Stir in remaining ingredients, except parsley and sour cream.
Cover and simmer 30-40 minutes, or until rice is done and most of the liquid is absorbed, stirring occasionally.
Add parsley and sour cream, stir well and heat through.
Serve!

I served with a salad/veggie tray. Next time, I may add a veggie of some sort to the pan. This fed our family of 5 for one meal (might have to double it as the kids grow!)

This is a good "pantry staples" recipe. :)
Pic to come when I make it again--kids were starving and I didn't get to take a pic! :)

I'm baaaaaack!

Apologies to my readers for my neglecting the blog. It seems that life on the homefront got very busy the last 4 weeks or so, with all of us being sick at one time or another (each kid missed about a week of school due to fever/illness....kind of cuts into my writing-the-blog thing) and with getting some work done on the house and things going a bit awry... I know it all happens for a reason, and in the meantime I am hoping and praying for life to settle down to some level of normalcy...whatever that is!

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in here and let you know why I've not been around.

I hope to be posting more regularly soon!

Thanks for reading!