Broiled Grapefruit?

Sounds strange, tastes fantastic!

Its a great way to jazz up a simple breakfast.

Before

After!

There are a lot of variations out there for this tasty treat, but they pretty much are all the same, grapefruit halves sprinkled with sugar and baked in the oven until the top is caramelized. Sounds good to me! :)

Broiled Grapefruit

Yeild: 4 halves

2 grapefruits, halved
4 Tablespoons sugar, brown sugar, vanilla sugar
sprinkle of any spice you like: cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, clove
---
Greek yogurt
Honey
Granola

1. Preheat your oven broiler. 
2. Halve your grapefruit. You can make a base oh your grapefruit so they don't roll around on a baking sheet by slicing off part of the bottom peel around the stem of the fruit.
3. In a bowl, combine sugar and spices.
4. Place the grapefruit halves face-up on a rimmed baking sheet.
5. Sprinkle about 1 Tablespoon of sugar and spice on each fruit half.
6. Broil 7-10 minutes, until the sugar has melted and turned a little golden.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before serving plain or with yogurt, honey, and granola.

Look how lovely and pink! Just makes for a happy morning!

I enjoyed these with some Greek yogurt and granola.

Mmmm, enjoyed until the very last drop!

I think this recipe is the epitome of sugar and spice and everything nice.

And look! It's perfectly pink, just in time for Valentine's Day!

Cheers,     Suzy

Flours and Flowers

Hello!
As you may know, all the recipes found on this blog are Gluten Free! Gluten Free baking can be intimidating. The four ratios can be finicky, though once you play around with it for a while, you can start to get a feel for how the consistency of dough and batters should look like, and understand what flours you should use for which recipes.
I feel like any gluten-free baker has their favorite blend of flours that they know they can rely on and expect to work in most recipes. Here is my favorite mix, I have been using it in place of regular flour for most baked goods lately, and it hasn't given me any problems yet. I like it because there aren't any strange 'specialty' ingredients in it like arrowroot, or quinoa flour...though they would both work well too.

1 C Sorghum flour
1 C Oat flour
1 C Potato/Corn starch
1 C Brown Rice flour/Sweet white rice flour*
2 T Gluten free baking powder

*sweet white rice flour will yield a flour that resembles a white, 'all purpose' flour.
If you want a 'whole wheat' flour feel, you can substitute the rice flour for teff flour.

I do agree with the many assertions that gluten free baking works better when the ingredients are weighed out using a food scale. Maybe someday I'll do a post on measured out flours using a scale, but I like this for most recipes. The benefit to weighing flours out is it ensures that the proportions are exactly equal, when you measure flours out using a measuring cup the amounts can vary depending on the weight of the flour and how much it is packed into the measuring cup. If it is weighed out, then the amounts are consistent. BUT, the majority of the time, I'm too impatient to measure out flour and would much rather scoop a cup of flour from a large bin like the majority of people, and that's where this blend comes in. It's quite flexible, and I will add different flours depending on what I have on hand. I will add more oat flour (my favorite part of the blend) if I make a bit too much, for example.

Now Spring is almost upon us, so enough of the white flours, here's some colorful flowers to look at, though I don't suggest you eat them :)

The Green Smoothie

Everyone has one.
They are stark in color, undoubtedly healthy, and deceptively tasty.
And unlike the green rugs of the 70's this shade will always be in style. Some may consider them the Holy Grail of Health, but many call them breakfast.
And they all have one thing in common, greens!

This is my go-to Green Smoothie.

Green Smoothies have become all the rage, and when you have a good one, you understand why. I like to use spinach in my smoothies, I think it blends up really well and even adds a creaminess. Two other necessary ingredients are green grapes and almond milk. Just add ice, blend, and you have yourself a darn good smoothie! But, I can never leave things well enough alone, and I generally have a grocery list of other add ins. That is the beauty of these dazzling drinks is that you can customize them to what you are in the mood for that day, or what is available.

The almond milk tones down the greens a bit, so it gives you a good excuse to add more spinach! The grapes add a nice touch of sweetness and an added boost of fiber, if you use green grapes it keeps with the green theme. I also REALLY like adding green figs when they are in season, they're just so tasty.

This isn't really a recipe, its more of a guideline that I tend to follow
Yield: 1 smoothie

Handful or two of spinach, or however much you are comfortable using
1 cup vanilla almond milk, sweetened or unsweetened
1 cup green grapes, with skin on
1/2 banana, frozen*
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt (optional)
2-3 green figs (optional)
1 cup of ice cubs


Add all ingredients into a blender and blend on high until smooth.

*It's helpful to peel and cut a few banana's in half before storing them in the freezer for easy smoothie making. If you don't have frozen bananas readily available, just add more ice.

Note: I have yet to do this, but I if you were to freeze the grapes it would help to thicken the smoothie. And if you're like me, I like my smoothies to be the consistency of to the point were I need a spoon to eat it.