Matthew's Puzzle and a mom putting it all together

Gluten Free Pancake Recipe

August 20, 2012 By Maryann

I have decided to stop using Gluten Free Bisquick because General Mills opposes GMO labeling and because it is very processed. We are trying to continue to cut out more and more processed foods so I have opted for making my gluten free pancakes on my own. I have started using King Arthur Gluten Free Flour blend and have adapted one of their regular pancake recipes for gluten free baking.

Gluten Free Pancake Recipe

Author: Matthew's Puzzle

Recipe type: Breakfast

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 6

Ingredients

2 large eggs
1½ Cups milk
2 tsp vanilla extract (gluten free)
1 tsp almond extract (gluten free)
3 Tbs melted butter
1½ Cups King Arthur Gluten free Flour blend
½ tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
2 Tbs honey

Instructions

In a large bowl combine the ingredients until well incorporated.
Use immediately.
Pour batter onto a hot pan and cook until the pancake starts to firm up.
Flip pancake and cook a few seconds more.
Serve hot with your favorite toppings, we like natural peanut butter with a drizzle of honey.

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Wordless Wednesday – A Walk In The Park

August 15, 2012 By Maryann

Wordless Wednesday – from our walk in the park this weekend.

A Walk In the park

a walk in the park

My husband took this photo

DIY Beaded Wall Letter

August 14, 2012 By Maryann

DIY Beaded Wall Letter

I wanted to add some easy wall decorations to our ever evolving decor. I was poking around Pinterest and found some nice letters for the wall, but nothing that I really loved. I decided I wanted something beaded but sort of edgy at the same time. Hence the DIY Beaded Wall Letter was born. It is a simply project that I hope you will like.

Supplies:

24 gauge wire in silver tone
1 wooden letter – mine was pre-painted white
assorted seed beads (6/0) in silvers, clears and whites
small seed beads in silver or clear
silver spray paint

Start by spray painting the letter silver. Let it dry for several hours or per the instructions on the spray paint can.

Begin by wrapping a portion of the letter with silver wire. Wrap in crisscross patterns as well as simply around. You want an organic look to be formed, but make it pleasing to your eye.

Once you have a pattern you like, snip the wire and tuck it firmly in the back of the letter, rounding off the end so it doesn’t dig into your wall. Then, snip off another piece of wire, round one end so that the beads will not fall off, and begin stringing small seed beads in clear or silver. Wrap that wire all along the wire wrapped portion of the letter, ending it in the back of the letter.

Finally, snip several lengths of wire, round off one end on each so the beads do not fall off and string random patterns of the white, silver and clear larger seed beads (6/0). Wrap them around the letter in random patterns until you achieve a look you like.

Healthy Junk Food! UNREAL Candy

August 13, 2012 By Maryann

Healthy Junk Food UNREAL

Healthy Junk Food! OK, maybe not healthy, but definitely NOT full of all that bad stuff. Instead it is UNREAL Candy. I’m very excited to tell you about the UNREAL campaign. UNREAL is Candy Unjunked.

The UNREAL Mission: We believe that all junk food can be made differently, with better ingredients, without the junk, with great taste, and at the same price.

UNREAL is an idea that I can fully endorse and I’m so proud to have the chance to tell you about them. I have been reading all about UNREAL candy and I have to say the folks there have actually made me mist up. I LOVE their mission, because I really believe that we need to Unjunk our food if we are to survive. And here is a company doing just that. They are making delicious candy that is free of GMO’s, partially hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. The dairy they use is from pastured cows! I know, this is truly a dream come true.

I received a box of UNREAL candy including UNREAL 77 peanut butter cups, UNREAL 5 Chocolate Caramel Nougat Bar, UNREAL 8 Chocolate Peanut Caramel Nougat Bar, UNREAL 41 Candy Coated Chocolates and UNREAL 54 Candy Coated Chocolates with Peanuts. The first thing I noticed when I opened the box was the fact that t e UNREAL Candy is packaged in rather cool, slightly techno designs. They are eye catching. These will stand out on the shelf, and that is exactly what we want. I hope that any child (or adult for that matter) that was planning on purchasing candy would be attracted to this package and grab an UNREAL candy before they took a more well known national brand.

UNREAL candies are made with real cane sugar, not Corn Syrup! And because they use REAL sugar they don’t need to use as much of it. One of their candies has 48% LESS sugar than it’s national counterpart, and it tastes GREAT. It happens to be one of my favorites from the bunch. UNREAL uses more Cacao than the other leading brands, “because it is all about the chocolate.” They don’t use artificial preservatives and no artificial colors. In fact their colors on their candy coated chocolates comes from natural ingredients like beets, cabbage, turmeric and achiote tree seed. UNREAL Candy even has more protein and fiber because they want more of the good stuff in place of the bad stuff! I LOVE this company and these candies. In two of their bars they have raised the dietary fiber compared to the other leading brands by 400%!

I urge you to join UNREAL connecting with them on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter @getunreal #getunreal and on their website. You can already purchase UNREAL for the same price as the other leading brands at stores such as Kroger, Rite Aid, CVS, Michael’s, Walgreens and Staples. And look for them coming soon at BJ’s and Target. I would love to see them everywhere. Wouldn’t you?

I was provided with a sampler box of UNREAL Candy for this review, but the ideas are my own. I really did enjoy UNREAL Candy, I really like their Mission and I look forward to buying their products. I hope they have something wonderful in store for Halloween!