Holiday Leftover Hollandaise Casserole aka Chicken Ham Yumminess

Ready for some Hollandaise yumminess?  Try this recipe!

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 chicken breasts (or leftover turkey)

6 slices honey ham (or leftover ham)

3/4 cup shredded Colby Jack cheese

frozen hash browns (or shredded baked potatoes, or mashed potatoes)

Sauce:

1/4 cup butter (half cube)

1/4 cup quinoa flour

1 1/2 cup almond milk (or milk of choice)

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp dijon mustard

1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 350.  Use olive oil to grease a baking dish (I used a 9" round).  Cut up chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. Spread around baking dish in single layer.  Cut up ham into 1" squares and layer on top of the chicken. Layer the shredded cheese on top of the ham and put in the oven for 25-30 minutes.  While that is in the oven make the sauce. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the quinoa flour to make a roux. I let mine cook for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Add the milk and stir until thickened. Once it has thickened add the lemon juice, dijon mustard and salt.  Let it cook stirring constantly for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. 

Take the chicken ham cheese out of the oven and pour the sauce over the top, spreading it around to the edges.  Add a layer of hash browns and return the baking dish to the oven for 20-30 minutes more.  I put mine on the top rack in hopes that the potatoes would brown a little.

Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

I suspect this would work very well in the crockpot too by just layering chicken, ham, cheese, sauce, and potatoes and turning it on for 3 or 4 hours.

Buckwheat cupcakes (gluten-free, egg-free)

Buckwheat only cupcakes 

1 stick butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup almond milk

splash vanilla

1 1/2 cups buckwheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners. Cream butter and sugars. In a separate bowl combine buckwheat flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add almond milk, vanilla, and butter/sugar mixture. Mix well. Fill muffin cups about half full.

Bake 350 for 40 minutes. Cool cupcakes on wire rack. Top with chocolate frosting from recipe below.

PS Let cool completely before trying to remove paper liner. If not, it turns into a crumbly mess. On the other hand you might just use the frosting to hold all the crumbs together!

Zucchini Bread (gluten-free, egg-free)

I have two zucchini plants and four yellow squash plants in the garden which are all going a little crazy.  We eat zucchini or yellow squash every day, but I'm not complaining because I love it, and I don't have to go to the store to get it! My neighbors also love me...so far.

This recipe was adapted from Starting from Scratch at http://www.getezpockets.com/blog/egg-free-gluten-free-zucchini-bread-recipe/

I've made a change as of August 2, 2014.  I found the original recipe I posted was more cupcake-y than muffin-y, so I changed sugar amounts - original had 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar if you want zucchini cupcakes instead of muffins. :)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup buckwheat flour

3/8 cup chickpea flour

1/4 cup coconut flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons almond milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups grated zucchini 

½ cup chopped walnuts, or cranberries, or raisins, or pecans, or chocolate chips, or...

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well with a spoon. Add olive oil, milk, vanilla, and zucchini and mix again. Add the walnuts or other goodies and mix one last time.  I put it in a greased square baking dish (about 8x 8), baked for 60 min.  

OR put paper liners in 12 muffin cups. Evenly distribute the batter into the muffin cups. I filled them to the top. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  

This last batch of muffins I put a few chocolate chunks (Enjoy Life mega chunks) on the top and when they came out of the oven I waited 5 minutes, then spread the chocolate around like frosting. Turned out very sweet, but we ate them with ham for breakfast and they were very delicious.

Notes:

**Looks a little dry? Keep stirring! The moisture from the zucchini will make it turn out just right. 

**Be sure to let it cool completely before cutting. If you try to cut it while it is still hot, it is just a gooey mess (but it still tastes really good).

**You can also use 1 1/2 cups gluten free all-purpose flour if you don't want to or don't have access to the flours listed.  I'm trying to avoid gums which are often found in store bought all-purposes. 

**On a whim I tried substituting apple juice for the almond milk and it worked just the same.

**Last note, I promise! While eating this I thought maybe it would be good with raisins or chocolate chips added, so that will be the next version. :)

Enjoy!

For my next trick...chocolate frosting

Ok, so this isn't traditional frosting, but it tastes mighty good on chocolate cake (gluten free, but not made with buckwheat or quinoa so I won't post it).  But as I was sampling a bit as a popsicle, I thought that it would make a fabulous chocolate cream pie if it was chilled.  And I might have to break down and buy an electric hand mixer to see if I can make it a little fluffier.  Enough dreaming...here's the recipe:

Chocolate frosting aka chocolate cream pie filling aka chocolate mousse

Cream from one can of coconut milk 

2 T cocoa

6 T brown sugar (or equivalent sweetener)

Put the can of coconut in the fridge without shaking and let the cream rise to the top and get a little more solid (overnight).  Open the can and save the more watery part of the coconut milk for another recipe.  Put the cream, cocoa, and brown sugar in a bowl and whip until light and fluffy.  Spread onto a cooled cake.  Note that if the cake is not completely cooled, the frosting will melt quite quickly as coconut everything has quite a low melting point.  You may want to refrigerate the frosted cake if you want the frosting a little more solid or if it is summer and you don't have A/C like me.

Coconut Milk Strawberry Ice Cream

I realize that this post has nothing to do with buckwheat or with quinoa, but I'm in love and I had to share.  

Here we go...

1 can full fat coconut milk

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup frozen strawberries (You could also use fresh, but it might take longer for the ice cream maker)

In a blender put all ingredients and blend until strawberries are blended.

Put mixture in ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's directions.   We have a little Hamilton Beach personal-sized machine that is quite handy for a quick bowl of soft-serve ice cream.  It comes with two bowls that I keep in the freezer for impromptu yumminess.  In the time it took for me to write this post I made some super tasty strawberry ice cream!

Egg-less Buckwheat Pancakes

Here's the recipe...

1 cup buckwheat flour*

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp sea salt

2 Tbs sugar or equivalent sweetener of your choice (optional)

1 cup almond milk (or other milk of your choice)

2 Tbs olive oil or other oil of your choice 

splash of vanilla

Mix dry ingredients in medium bowl. Mix wet ingredients in small bowl (I use a Pyrex 2 cup measuring cup). Add wet ingredients to dry, and mix thoroughly.  Cook on hot griddle or frying pan, being sure to loosen entire pancake from pan before trying to flip it over.  Makes about four 6-inch pancakes.

*A note about the buckwheat flour I use...I grind my own buckwheat groats in a small coffee mill. It doesn't take much time and tastes fantastic.  I have used toasted groats and raw groats and have found that the toasted groats make a thinner batter.  The batter made with raw groats tends to thicken more as it sits on the counter waiting for its turn to hit the pan.  There is a slight taste difference...the toasted groat pancakes taste...well...more toasted.

Brownies

These brownies are my perfect brownie; not too cake-y, not too fudge-y.  They appear a little on the cake side, but when you bite into them they cross over to the fudge side.  I've adapted the recipe from the Saco Foods cocoa container.  Here goes...

1/2 cup butter (one stick)

1/2 cup cocoa

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup quinoa flour

3/8 cup almond flour (don't get too crazy here, use the 1/4 cup measure and use 1 full and 1 half full)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Melt the butter in a medium bowl.  Whisk in the cocoa until smooth.  Add the sugar and mix thoroughly.  Add eggs and mix again.  Add remaining ingredients and stir only until all flour is incorporated.  

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before cutting.  Or just use a fork and eat them hot.  Yummmmmy!