Chicken (broccoli) and rice casserole

My mom made this casserole and sometimes I crave it. But it calls for the “can of cream of X soup”.
SO about 5 years ago I was searching for a GF alternative to "Cream of X Soup”
And All I could find were these complicated recipes that made WAY too much soup.
I only needed ONE can for this recipe.
Most ended up with 6 to 9 cans worth!
I have found recipes for Cream of soup mix, where you concoct a powder that is cupboard safe for a year, and makes like 9 cans worth. 9 CANS! That comes to 36 servings of casserole! WAY TOO MUCH.
SO I extrapolated this recipe from what I learned about “cream of X soup” and my mother’s casserole recipe.

Hope you enjoy.

Chicken (broccoli) and rice casserole

4 chicken breasts
1C cold water
½ C mayonnaise-GF of course
½ C Parmesan
4 Tb powdered milk
4 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp chicken bouillon-GF of course
2/3 C rice
10oz broccoli


Preheat oven 350
Spray with oil a 9X13pan
Pour in rice.
Mix: water, mayo, cheese, milk, starch, bouillon.
Pour half of mix over rice.
Add chicken & Broccoli
Top with remaining mixture.
Cover with foil.
Bake 1 hour.
I like to remove the foil, Top with more cheese and let it sit in oven to melt cheese.

Basenet

For Halloween I was an oven, with a bun in it, and by husband was the baker.
We were cute.
And while checking thrift stores for a baker's hat, I came across this Bassinet. For $9.99

I had been looking at one similar online at Target, for about $25.
It's just a moses basket on a wheeled metal frame.
So $10 is a reasonable price.

But all that pastell colors and lace made it appear very dated.

SO I and my mother took the ruffles off, and then My sister help me fashion a new cover for the basket.

I think it is cute.

If you know my husband, you now that Tigger in outer space is perfect for his baby.

And the star paper lantern's from our wedding go perfect with the "nursery"

Right now the "nursery" is the hallway.

Our apartment is TOOOO SMALL

Other then this basenett, we don't have any baby stuff.

But once we move,  (lease is up the month after baby is due) the nursery will be woodland themed. So 100acher woods will still work :)

Baby's R Us has a cute bunny in the grass themed set

Baby depot has a cute dear in the forest themed set

Sears has a cute woodland set with Raccoons, squares and owl es.

So once we know if it's a boy or girl we can pick exactly.

Glutino Premium Gluten free Plain Bagles

These are good.
I got them frozen.
They Microwave up to a nice chewy moist bagel.
They have a good skin and a soft inside.
 ALL requirements I have for bagels.
They were on sale, but I might be tempted to pay Full price.
Overall I would be likely to get them again.

Penguinins

One of my sister in-Law's likes Penguins. She also has two boys. One is a few months old, and the other is almost three.

So I got this set of Christmas embroiderer designers. {more will be seen soon} and I put this Penguin; on a  gray sweatshirt.

Then, I put the same penguin on a tinny red shirt for the Baby and on a toddler sized Turtle neck the Boy.

I had to un-sew one side of the little shirt to be able to hoop it, but the toddler shirt I managed to hoop as-is.

I used the iron on tear away stabilizer. It held great for hooping and for the sewing, but when I had a hard time when I went to remove it. It ended up stretching the fabric and making the penguin lean to the left a little. IS there an iron on-water soluble?

Skikiddy-Baked Fries

 I tried the Cheddar and the Parmesan flavors.

They were on sale.

They are not bad.
Very Fluffy.
If you crunch up a "frie" that started out at about 3 inches long, it makes about a lima bean sized pile of dust.
The air made me burp a bit, but that might be the pregnancy...
I needed a lot of water to drink while snacking on them.
And a few were sharp enough to discomfort the roof of my mouth.

Overall, a good alternative to the Cheetos I have been snacking on.

Thanksgiving "turkey"

This is the Snack Platter I made for Thanksgiving at my parents house.
I made 12 pounds of mashed potatoes for the thanksgiving at my in-laws, and I have to say , this took less time and was more fun!

Becky was my inspiration, from last year with her version that had meat and cheese on it too.

Mine is all Fruit.

I did not want to cut it all up, and try to drive across the bridge with it assembled, so I took the Whole fruit over and cut it up at my parents.

Mango, Cantelope, Hunnydew, apples(yes those are Camio apples; what else!)

Problem was I forgot the Strawberries, Oranges and Pineapple at home. So it should have had a little more color variety.

I think it was a good first try. Next year will be even better!

pie-Gluten-Free Pantry perfect pie crust mix

Brenda is Allergic to Wheat and eggs.

Brenda is the mother of the man who married my husbands little sister...My husband's sister's mother in-law?... My Sister in-law's mother in-law?...The mother in-law of my sister in-law?

ANYWAYS, frequently there are events that Brenda and I attend.
Thanksgiving was one of them.
Brenda was planning on bringing Roles, and the Sweet-potatoes
I was bringing mashed potatoes and Apple pie. {I don't want to talk about the potatoes}

So in my cupboard I had a box of Gluten-Free Pantry perfect pie crust mix.
The instructions are to add eggs, so I just went with the egg replacer I had from earlier this year with the egg free GF brownies.*

Apparently the darkness of the brownie batter masked the obvious color difference in the egg replacer.
So the crust looked funny to me.
It did not roll out as well as the times I have used this mix with real eggs.
It also did not brown in the oven as well.
The box makes 4 crusts. I used half of the doughty to make the apple pie. (Cameo apples of course}
Two crusts. Top and bottom.
I have two crusts left.
I think if it had just been a bottom crust it would not have been so obviously different...Basically only Brenda and I had the Pie. She also brought an egg-free crust-less pumpkin pie. So we had plenty of desert just for us.

So crust 3 and 4 are in the fridge. I think I will make Pumpkin pies for Christmas dinner. I will use eggs, but no milk, 'cause my mom is lactose intolerant.