Easy Gluten Free Polenta Croutons

Anyone who regularly cooks gluten free foods for their family knows that it sure takes a lot more time than just ordering a pizza or stopping by McDonalds on your way home from work.  For my family, going gluten free isn't an option but a medical necessity so all of the time put in is worth it.....but it does get exhausting sometimes.  So I was very excited to develop an easy,  fast way to make croutons.  Not as fast as opening a box of Pepperidge Farm Croutons but much faster than making gluten free bread and then making croutons.  And so very good.

Plus they are so yummy that I couldn't stop eating them plain!  At least 1/4 of them never made it to the salad.  

I was inspired by this recipe Polenta Croutons by Learning to Eat Allergy Free  The croutons looked and sounded yummy but.....there were a lot of steps...... and I'm tired........ and after making croutons, I still have to make dinner and then pack lunches....you know how it is!  

I had bought a package of precooked Ferrara Pronto Polenta a few weeks before and hadn't used it yet.  Ta Da!  Inspiration!  I decided to make croutons out of my precooked polenta and it worked out great.

I laid down some parchment paper on my cookie sheet and then I sliced the polenta and then cut it into small cubes.  I drizzled the polenta with olive oil and then seasoned them with salt, pepper, parsley and dried basil.  Oh my, so good.  They shrink down as the liquid is cooked out of them.  Stir them every few minutes so that they cook evenly.

I cooked the Polenta cubes at 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes.  The length of time will depend on how big you cut your croutons and how crispy you like them.

We adored the croutons and I had about half a batch left after our dinner, even after my sampling!  So I threw the extra in a zip lock baggie in the fridge for a day or two.  At our next meal, I threw the remaining croutons back in the oven for a few minutes to crisp them back up.  Still yummy and very snackable.  Crunch, Crunch, Crunch....what?  I shouldn't just eat them by the handful?  

Oh so pretty with my father in law's beautiful lettuce fresh out of the garden.    These turned out so good that I am going to be on the lookout for an organic precooked polenta so I can make them often.  

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Coupon for my Etsy Shop

If you love old things and have a weakness for rusty, chippy gorgeous things filled with character, then I invite you to check out my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FarmersDaughterInLaw  To Thank you for reading my blog and supporting my shop, I am offering all of my readers a discount of 15% off all purchases when you use the code FARMERSDAUGTHERINLAW

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Thanks for looking and I hope you find something that makes your heart go pitter pat!

Henry Ford's Mirror of America

In honor of the Daytona 500 and Nathaniel's passion for race cars, we are doing a unit on Auto Racing.    I bought Amanda Bennet's unit on Auto Racing and we have really been enjoying it.  In our searching on the internet for more information to go with the links provided in the unit, I came across an amazing film by Henry Ford called Mirror of America.  It shows how the United States changed from 1915 to 1930 with footage by Henry Ford's film division.  It kept my 6 year old attention and led us to some great discussions on World War 1, assembly lines, Thomas Edison and President Woodrow Wilson.  I love it when you get involved in a topic for homeschool and it leads you into so many other interesting areas.
Check out the entire video, Mirror of America here.

Currclick's Secret Winter Sale!

It isn't really such a secret because I am going to share the link with you to get tons of free units and lots of highly discounted units!  How cool is that?!  I love free!  And the free units are really great, some valued up to $19.99, like the Extreme Weather lapbook.  With all of the extreme weather we've been having this year, I am sure it will be a relevant unit for a lot of families.

I am a huge Abe Lincoln fan and was very excited to see Behind the Scenes in the Lincoln White House for free! This unit is usually $6.99 so you can't beat that! It is about A former slave who became a successful dressmaker with her own business, became the dresser, dressmaker and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln during Abraham Lincoln's presidential administration. Behind the Scenes tells the story of the rise of Elizabeth Keckley from abused slave to independent business woman to friend of the First Lady of the Land during the Civil War.

Nathaniel and I have been doing a lot of projects on Abe Lincoln this month in celebration of President's Day so this will fit in great.

So check out Currclick's Secret Winter Sale for lots of great freebies and a ton of wonderful lapbooks that are discounted through February 22, 2013

Gluten Free Christmas Cookies

If you are looking for some fun gluten free Christmas cookies, here are some ideas!

Gluten Free Reindeer Cookies

Flourless Almond Butter Cookies

Gluten Free Sorghum Cookies

Another idea is to make Flourless Almond Butter or Peanut Butter cookies and turn them into Peanut Butter Blossoms by making them as directed in the recipe and when you get them out of the oven put a Hershey's Kiss.....unwrapped of course! in the center of each cookie the minute they come out of the oven.  Yummy!!!

I also made gluten free Pretzel/Kiss/M&M treats with Glutino Sesame Pretzels.

I put a bunch on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper and topped each sesame pretzel with a chocolate kiss.  

Some of the pretzels are oval shaped and don't work as well as the round ones. 

 Bake at 175-200 depending on your oven, until the kiss gets soft.....or put them in your microwave and cook them on the soften Chocolate setting, if you have one, until the kisses get soft enough to push an M&M in the center.  

Yummy and cute!

Hope you get some festive ideas for your Gluten Free Family!  

Happy Christmas Cookie Baking!!!

Gluten Free flourless Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies

A great last minute gluten free cookie recipe that is perfect to leave for Santa on Christmas Eve!  I saw this cute reindeer cookie on Pinterest.....yes, a lot of my recent blogs start like this lately!.....I really love Pinterest! Pinterest Pin of Gluten Filled Reindeer Cookie And knew that I wanted to make a gluten free version for my gluten free family.

We love flourless peanut butter cookies and I make them all of the time, so I figured that it would be the place to start.  These are easy cookies and use pantry items that just about everyone has on hand. The ratio is one cup of peanut butter to one cup of sugar to one egg.  You can get fancy and add a 1/2 tsp of baking soda and 1/2 tsp of salt but they are great no matter how you do it.  I like that they are high in protein, use stuff I always have on hand and everyone loves them.  They are really awesome cookies and no one would ever guess they were gluten free.

To make the Gluten Free Reindeer Cookies, you make a batch of the dough.  Scoop by heaping Tablespoonful and form into a ball.  Roll the ball in a little more sugar in a small bowl and then form the dough into the shape of a reindeer head.....kind of like the shape of a nutter butter cookie.

Bake at 350 until the cookies begin to crack.  Depending on the size of your cookie, it should be 8-12 minutes.

  While they are baking separate out a set of eyes for each cookie, a red or brown M&M for each cookie and a set of antlers.....I used Glutino Gluten Free Chocolate Covered pretzels.  We all love these.  

The only trick keeping the bag hidden so that your family doesn't eat all of the antlers before you make your cookies! 

The second they come out of the oven stick an antler on each side of the reindeer's head....

And give him a pair of eyes and a nose.  Do it quick before the cookies firm up!

Phew Perfect!! And so very cute!  Santa will love them and so will your Gluten Free kids....and grown ups!

Gluten Free No Bake Acorn Cookies

I came across a pin on Pinterest...oh my, I love that site. The pin was for these adorable gluten filled acorn cookies. Gluten Filled Acorn Cookies  So cute but we are a gluten free family and I really wanted to make something like this for my family but safe.  

I went on a search of my local Kroger grocery store and found these adorable mini gluten free chocolate chip cookies.  They taste like mini chips ahoy....that is good or bad depending on how you feel about that type of thing but they worked great for my little no-bake gluten free acorn cookies. 

You will also need a bag of Hershey's kisses.  Most can be made into cookies but some must be sampled for quality control......that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Put a few chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and, if you are lucky enough to have a melt chocolate button, go for it, if not put set your microwave to a low setting and check it every 30 seconds until the chips are melted when you stir.

Yummy

Unwrap your Hershey's kiss.  Very important step and then cover the flat part of the kiss with chocolate my dipping it into the chocolate and twisting a bit to get it completely covered.

Stick the chocolate covered kiss to your mini gluten free cookie.

Dip a chocolate chip in the melted chocolate, twist it a bit to get the bottom nice and covered.

Stick it to the top of your mini cookie.

So good.

Repeat

Until you fill your plate.

So cute and really fast to put together.

Big hit with little gluten free people!

Love!

Nathaniel says "And if you are lucky, Mommy will let you lick the spatula and you will be the proud owner of a chocolate beard."  Ok, he really didn't say that but he did have a chocolate beard.  I didn't wash it off of him for a while because it was pretty cute!