DIY 3 Ingredient Mint Chocolate Covered Pretzels [Gluten-Free]

Are you tempted by store bought chocolate covered pretzels? Or wheat-laden white chocolate mint Pretzel Thins? Satisfy your sweet tooth with these easy copy-cat gluten-free pretzels. You may already have all the ingredients on hand. These salty and sweet treats are easy to make for Christmas. Or just because.

Ingredients

Roughly a handful of each:

Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Gluten-free pretzels (we used Glutino brand from Meijer, but any brand will do)

Peppermint candies

If you like recipes that don't require measuring things, check out this 2 ingredient breakfast recipe.

Supplies

Nonstick pan

Spatula

Wax or parchment paper

Hammer (or rolling pin)

Directions

Melt a handful of chocolate chips in a nonstick skillet. To avoid burning the chocolate, stir regularly and heat until most of the chips have melted, but there are a few lumps left.

Remove from heat and keep stirring while the last lumps melt.

Unwrap the peppermint candies, put in a bag, and relieve your holiday stress. Smash the mints with a hammer. (You can smash the mints while they’re still individually wrapped, but  it’s harder to unwrap smashed mints.)

Lay out some wax paper or parchment paper.

Stir the pretzels into the chocolate to coat, then lay the coated pretzels on the paper.

Sprinkle with crushed mints.

Try to wait till the chocolate is hardened to eat the pretzels.

Who am I kidding, eat several while they are melty and warm!

After cooling and hardening, store in a cookie tin by lifting the paper, pretzels and all, and placing in a tin. Or you can store in a plastic bag.

Tips

Don’t make a big batch. You’ll be tempted to eat them all.

After a few days, the pretzels can get soft.

Want more chocolate recipes? Check out this flourless chocolate cake recipe, which can also be minty.

Merry Christmas!

5 Gluten Free Quarantine Baking Recipes I Love

During my state's "stay at home" time (which is now being phased out) I have been baking more.

 

Rather than a giving detailed recipes, this is a round-up of foods I've made and links to the original recipe.
Note: I eat gf to keep my belly happy. All 5 recipes are gluten free. Some of these recipes are also paleo, dairy free, nut free or refined sugar free. That's just an added bonus.

Bamboozled by Jackfruit

Before all this social distancing, I went out to a restaurant with a friend.  She was my boss at the bakery where I used to work, and we hadn't seen each other since I left the bakery to focus on my last semester in school.

The restaurant was one of those fancy, local, organic Mexican restaurants, with many of the taco names in Spanish. We both got the pick three tacos option, and blue corn tortillas. I got two meat tacos, and one vegan taco with jackfruit on it. I've never eaten jackfruit in my life. I usually have sour cream and cheese on my tacos, but none of the ones I picked had either.

The Al Pastor One
Pork shoulder marinated in pureed onion and Guajillo Pepper with grilled pineapple, onions and cilantro. (I got this one for the pineapple. It was my favorite - slightly spicy, but not too much.)
According to the Pioneer Woman, "Al Pastor" means "shepherd style." This pork taco takes inspiration from Lebanese immigrants to central Mexico. Read more here

The Mole One
Puebla Pollo (chicken) with radishes, sesame seeds, and cilantro. Contains nuts. (This wasn't spicy. It was kinda bland, and my least favorite. My friend thought "mole" might mean it had chocolate, but it didn't taste like it.)

The Jackfruit One
Sauteed BBQ jackfruit with mango salsa, chipotle date yogurt and cilantro. (This was super spicy. I avoided all the tacos on the menu with a flame icon next to it, but this was the hottest of the three I tried. Keep in mind I'm not used to spicy food. I think it's the chipotle that brings the heat. Speaking of Chipotle, I usually get chicken there because it's the least spicy, and skip the salsa.)

When my order arrived,  I could not tell which order was which. I was wishing I had photographed the menu, because after reading all the descriptions, they ran together in my brain. Lets see there's the pineapple meat one, the mole one and uh... they all look and taste like they have meat on them. That's odd. If one has mango and another has pineapple, wheres the jackfruit? I was expecting something sweet.

Later, I looked up jackfruit and turns out it has stringy flesh that vegans love to barbecue as a meat replacement. I could not tell the difference! Note that jackfruit has less protein than meat.

(If you couldn't tell yet, I listed the taco descriptions first to last in the order they are in the photo left to right.)

My friend got the the Carne Asada One: roast (grilled marinated flank steak, onion, cilantro, and cotija cheese [cow's milk hard cheese]), the Cauliflower One (veggie: roasted blackened cauliflower topped with avocado slices + red cabbage + guacamole salsa), and the Tinga One (spicy chipotle, crema and micro greens)


Local friends: Vivir Modern Mexican has reopened with limited hours and menu due to COVID-19 according to their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/eatvivir/ May 15 2020.

Back to School Lunch Inspiration [Gluten Free]

I pack a lot of lunches.

Even when I'm not at school, I bring a brown bag lunch with me to work rather than eating out. It saves money, is healthier, and is easier to be gluten free. I have to get creative when I only work six and a half hours at one place, and only get one 10 minute break to inhale food!

How to Enjoy Veggies: Butternut Squash (Gluten Free and Dairy Free Option)

This recipe for squash is approved by picky eaters, both kids and adults who don’t like squash. (That is, they didn’t like squash until they tried this recipe.)

My mom has made it for years and the whole family enjoys it. Our extended family enjoyed this dish for Christmas and gave it thumbs up. This dish solves both flavor and texture issues with squash. It gets

Back to School Lunch Inspiration

I’m back to school, and I try to pack myself a lunch the night before to save time in the morning. I sometimes get bored of sandwiches. I like using bento boxes to pack my lunch in.

Gluten-Free Chicken Salad Three Ways

Chicken salad is so refreshing in summer. It’s also quick and easy to make, and very versatile. You can serve chicken salad as lettuce wraps, spread it on sandwiches, or dip it with chips and crackers.

We don’t measure our basic chicken salad recipe. We throw in a dollop of this and a handful of that.

Double Chocolate Tea Bread {Gluten-free}

A while back, we made a double batch of this tea bread and gave it away as gifts. People loved it so much they were asking for the recipe.

This rich, moist tea bread is better than cake.

And it smells heavenly while it’s baking!

It’s gluten free, with a dairy free option.

How to Cook Gluten Free Pasta Like a Pro

You’re gonna need a bigger pot

Have you ever tried to cook gluten free pasta, only to have it turn out starchy and globby? Did the noodles stick to the bottom of the pan and burn? Was the starch so thick that it would not drain off, even when you rinsed the pasta with water?

Bad news: you’re doing it wrong.

Good news: you can cook better pasta in the future.

Look Ma, no starch!

Regular readers will know that my mom does not believe in following recipes to the letter.

Turns out, to cook pasta properly you’re supposed to

"Homemade" Pizza {Gluten-Free}

My family loves pizza. I've reviewed some restaurant pizza on the blog, but only made passing reference to the kind of pizza we eat the most: "homemade" pizza. It's not really homemade because it's a mix, but close enough.

We use Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix. For our family of six (now five since my sister moved away) we mix up two packages of crust to make two rectangular pizzas, and enjoy the leftovers.

Testing the Best Chewy Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Is it really the best?

Spoiler alert: Yes! This recipe is a winner.

I heard about the Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies from a gluten-free friend. She said her whole family loved them and thought they tasted like real cookies. I was eager to test the recipe my friend found from Michelle of MyGluten-freeKitchen.com

Michelle tested lots of different recipes before she settled on this one.

Baby Shower Games that are Not Boring

I had the pleasure of throwing a baby shower for my sister. Planning included decorating on a theme (construction, because it’s a boy), finding games, planning gluten-free food, and managing who did what to help. I had loads of fun looking up ideas on Pinterest, and designing constructions signs for decorations. (More on that in a later.)

I wanted some baby shower games that were not boring or gross. (That eliminates guess the baby food and guess the chocolate poop.) We also were not enthralled with the Don’t Say “Baby” game. It’s too much stress to try not to say “Baby!”

We chose a Phone Game, a Baby Word Scramble, and a Diaper Activity.

1. The Phone Game

The Phone Game was from Pinterest. It’s self-explanatory. Just read and follow the directions.

Source Here

Key Fobs and Gratitude: It's the Little Things in Life

I take things for granted until they don’t work.

Take for instance the under-appreciated key fab. I didn’t give it much thought until it didn’t work.

I pushed the unlock button, and there was no answering ca-chunk of the doors unlocking. I pushed the button harder because that seems to work with TV remotes.

Fortunately, the van unlocked, otherwise I would have had to actually insert the key and turn it! I nearly got carpal tunnel just thinking about it. I remember a time in the dark ages when my family actually owned a vehicle that didn’t have a key fab. If we wanted to unlock the van, we had to walk all the way over to the van and use the key. I know, first world problems. 

Speedy Gluten Free Stuffing

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I thought I'd share my gluten-free stuffing recipe. It does not take long to throw together as long as you have gluten-free bread.

This was a life-saver if I needed a last-minute meal.

Early on in my gluten-free journey, I had some awkward moments where I realized I could not eat the main meal due to a hidden source of gluten.

Gluten Free Ham and Broccoli Quiche

With sweet potato crust.

This summer, my Nana made a quiche with “surprise” crust. She wouldn’t tell us what it was until we ate it, since some members of my extended family are afraid to eat things that are gluten free! I know the label can be scary, but rest assured, gluten free does not mean tasteless, as this savory, cheesy fare proves.

My mom does not usually make quiche because some of her children do not enjoy egg-y dishes, but when Nana’s quiche was so well-received, she was inspired to re-create the dish at home.

What’s Heidi been up to?

Lots of things. Summer vacation, then back to school, and writing.

I worked on some Bible homework that morphed into a lengthy word document, and then three blog posts for our church website. (You can read those posts here.)

I celebrated my birthday.

More Gluten Free Pasta and Product Reviews

Part four in an ongoing series—catch part one: bread, part two, and part three here.

We’re always trying new pasta around here, and today I’m going to tell you about spaghetti squash.

Gluten Free Baking Powder Biscuits

This recipe was written on lined paper and stored in our Betty Crocker Cookbook. It turns out the original was from my mom’s middle school home economics class. (We will not mention how long ago that was.) We played with the proportions of gluten-free flours before settling on the best ratio. This recipe is a basic staple. It makes a quick, versatile dough perfect for strawberry shortcake or garlic cheese biscuits. We also like to wrap the dough around hot dogs for pigs-in-blankets. The biscuits are soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. They're also egg free.

Problems Only Gluten Free People Understand Continued

In case you missed it here's Part 1.

You are annoyed at hidden sources of gluten.

Why does soy sauce have wheat in it? Why do Campbell’s soups have wheat in them, and why do people put canned soup concentrate in casseroles?

Rhubarb Crunch {Gluten Free}

Strawberries and rhubarb are in season right now, and we are enjoying rhubarb crunch. A "crunch" is very similar to a "crisp." A crunch dessert has a streusel-like layer on the bottom in addition to the streusel-like layer that would be on the top only if the dessert were a crisp. One layer means it's a crisp, sometimes called a "crumble," and two layers means it's a crunch. (And while we're on the subject on desserts that start with "C," "cobblers" are fruity desserts that have a biscuit topping, as opposed to crisps that have oats in them.) But no matter what you call it, it's a wonderful blend of flavors and textures.