The Chaos and the Clutter

Gluten Free

Butternut Squash Casserole

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This butternut squash casserole is a nice change for holiday meals from the usual sweet potato casserole. I love root vegetables so this Christmas, I made this and a sweet potato casserole and I may make both this Easter too!

I got this recipe from my neighbour Christie who got it from her mother-in-law Val who got it from her aunt or cousin or something like that. That’s one of the signs of a great recipe…one that gets passed along and changed in little ways by each person who add their own little touches! I changed the recipe just ever so slightly to make it gluten free.

gluten free Butternut Squash Casserole - perfect for holiday meals!

I know that the picture doesn’t look that appetizing, but if you read the ingredients, you’ll see the oodles of deliciousness this has in store. Squash, butter, sugar, pecans, evaporated milk…heck, it’s practically dessert!

3 cups mashed cooked butternut squash
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
5 oz. evaporated milk
pinch of salt

Topping:
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1/2 cup gluten free Rice Krispies, crumbled

Mix the top ingredients together and put into a 9×13 pan or casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Mix the topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Add the topping and put it back into the oven for another 10 minutes.

This recipe doubles well.

If you are looking for other gluten free recipes, you may be interested in following my Gluten Free Recipes Board on Pinterest.

Gluten Free Easter Treats

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Easter is another one of those times when as the parent of a child on a gluten free diet, I have to watch him miss out on many of the treats that others get to enjoy. I try to think of ways that he can enjoy fun food for holiday celebrations. These gluten free Easter Eggs are really simple to make, but are major kid pleasers!

These Easter egg treats are so simple to make and gluten free so that everyone can enjoy them.To make these, you need:

  • plastic eggs
  • gluten free Rice Krispies
  • mini marshmallows
  • butter or margarine (if you use margarine and dark chocolate, then these will also be dairy free)
  • chocolate (I used milk and white chocolate chips)*
  • sprinkles or decorating sugar

*Note: Most chocolate chips are gluten free, but you should still double check the label.

  1. Wash the plastic eggs really well and dry them.
  2. Add 1/2 cup of margarine or butter and 5 1/2 cups of mini marshmallows to a large bowl.
  3. Melt in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after.
  4. When the marshmallows have melted (this will take between 2 and 4 sessions of being in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time depending on your microwave), stir in 6 1/2 cups of gluten free Rice Krispies. You can also make the Rice Krispie mixture on the stovetop if you prefer not to use the microwave.
  5. Using the plastic eggs, scoop the mixture into the plastic eggs and close them.
  6. Allow them to harden somewhat and then remove from the plastic eggs and place in an empty egg carton.
  7. Dip the tops of the eggs in the melted chocolate and then dust them with sprinkles, placing them carefully back into the empty egg carton.
  8. Put the egg carton in the fridge or freezer to allow the chocolate to harden.

Gluten Free Easter TreatsI used different sizes of plastic eggs to make mine which of course led to a bit of bickering over which of the kids would get the largest egg but we settled it by giving it to our friends!

gluten free Rice Krispie Easter eggsNow of course if you want to simplify things even more, you can simply make the same Rice Krispie mixture, press it into a greased pan and while it is still not set, add sprinkles to the top. This still gives a bit of a festive flair to your squares but takes much less time!

simple gluten free Easter treat

If you are looking for other gluten free ideas, you may be interested in checking out my Gluten Free Freezer Meals Series or following my Gluten Free Recipes Board on Pinterest.

Lego Yogourt Snacks

Awesome Lego Snack - healthy and so easy!

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This snack is so easy to make and will likely impress your kids. It may even convince some of your picky eaters to give this healthy option a try!

Awesome Lego Snack - healthy and so easy!We went to see the Lego movie last week and all of use loved it. We were already big fans of building with Lego but the movie ignited even more Lego fever over here!

Einstein decided pretty much immediately that he wanted to have a Lego theme for his upcoming birthday party so I started thinking about Lego theme foods I could make. I already owned a Lego bricks mould that we regularly use to make ice cubes in but found a similar silicon Lego minifigures mould at the Lego store the other day. Knowing how much we use the Lego brick one, I bought it immediately. I’m already imagining all kinds of treats I can make for the party!

I have made frozen yogourt Lego bricks before using that mould so I decided to try it with the Minifigure mould too. I used mandarin orange yogourt for the heads and black cherry for the rest of the bodies. I wasn’t sure if they would hold together.

Lego yogourtI know that I could have made the colours more true to Lego if I had used plain yogourt and added food colouring or food paste, but I wanted to keep this snack as healthy as possible so I went with the more muted colours that the natural fruit created.

I used the same flavours of yogourt in the Lego brick mould. Once the moulds were filled with yogourt, I put them into the freezer and just a few hours later, we had frozen yogourt Lego bricks and mini figures!

This Lego snack will be a wonderful and healthy addition to Einstein’s Lego theme party in a few weeks and in the meantime, the kids are enjoying eating them just for fun!

If you are looking for other healthy snack options for your kids, you may want to read my list of 100 gluten free snacks or follow my Cooking with Kids Pinterest board.

If you are looking for other Lego ideas (party ideas, Lego education, crafts, and creations), you may want to follow my Lego Pinterest board.

Greek Salad with Homemade Dressing

homemade Greek salad

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This Greek salad is a staple at our house. I make it at least once a week. It is a great way to get healthy, fresh vegetables into my kids. It’s also colourful and delicious!

Delicious Greek Salad with homemade dressingGranola Girl and The Ferrari love black olives and have since they were babies so whatever doesn’t go into the salad, gets eaten by them!

I have been making the dressing for this Greek salad since I was in high school (I won’t mention just how long ago that was!) and it is so much better than any of the purchased dressings I’ve used. It also keeps in the fridge for up to two weeks, so if you have a smaller family and want to only use half of the dressing for your salad, you can refrigerate the other half.

Greek Salad with Homemade Dressing

Mix in bowl:

  • sliced cucumber
  • baby tomatoes or grape tomatoes
  • purple onion, diced large or sliced
  • red, orange, or green pepper, cubed
  • pitted black olives
  • feta cheese, crumbled or cubed

As you can see, my “recipe” for Greek salad is not incredibly specific! For the quantity of the ingredients, I judge as I go by how it looks. Not everyone in our family likes the black olives so I put in mostly equal amounts of the other vegetables but less of those. As for the size that I cut things in, I go in phases. Sometimes, I dice everything quite small and use sliced black olives and crumbled feta. Other times, I prefer to leave the vegetables fairly large and use whole pitted black olives and cubes of feta.

Dressing:

  • 1/2 cup salad oil
  • 1/3 cup white vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp. sugar
  • 1 tsp. oregano
  • 1 tsp. paprika
  • 1/2 tsp. ground mustard (also sometimes called dry mustard powder)
  • 1/2 tsp. coarsely ground pepper

Shake well to combine. Pour over salad. The salad seems to taste best when it has at least half an hour to marinate in the dressing. It often tastes even better as a leftover. homemade Greek saladYum! Doesn’t that look good enough to eat?

homemade Greek salad
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Greek Salad with Homemade Dressing
Ingredients
  • sliced cucumber
  • baby tomatoes or grape tomatoes
  • purple onion diced large or sliced
  • red orange, or green pepper, cubed
  • pitted black olives
  • feta cheese crumbled or cubed
Dressing:
  • 1/2 cup salad oil
  • 1/3 cup white vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp. sugar
  • 1 tsp. oregano
  • 1 tsp. paprika
  • 1/2 tsp. ground mustard also sometimes called dry mustard powder
  • 1/2 tsp. coarsely ground pepper
Instructions
  1. As you can see, my "recipe" for Greek salad is not incredibly specific! For the quantity of the ingredients, I judge as I go by how it looks. Not everyone in our family likes the black olives so I put in mostly equal amounts of the other vegetables but less of those. As for the size that I cut things in, I go in phases. Sometimes, I dice everything quite small and use sliced black olives and crumbled feta. Other times, I prefer to leave the vegetables fairly large and use whole pitted black olives and cubes of feta.
Dressing:
  1. Shake well to combine. Pour over salad. The salad seems to taste best when it has at least half an hour to marinate in the dressing. It often tastes even better as a leftover.

Gluten Free Snack Mix

Gluten Free Snack Mix perfect for bringing on the road

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I think my quest for gluten free snack options is well documented! When we took a road trip to the mountains last week, I was packing snacks for the drive and feeling frustrated by the lack of variety for Einstein (our son on a gluten free diet), so I decided to make up a fun snack mix.

Gluten Free Snack Mix perfect for bringing on the roadThis was simple to make but very popular with my kids. I threw everything into a bowl, gave it a quick mix and then divided it into little containers for the road. Okay, well, not all of it made it into the little containers. The kids saw me making it and convinced me to let them snack from the bowl first!

easy and fun gf snack mix for kidsWhat I included:

Other ideas of what you could include:

  • almonds or other tree nuts
  • mini marshmallows
  • chocolate chips
  • dried fruit
  • M+Ms
  • popcorn
  • sunflower or pumpkin seeds
  • Glutino pretzels
  • coconut flakes

My kids loved the mix. I liked that it was something a bit more exciting than a gluten free granola bar and easily portable. Of course, if you don’t have small containers, you could also send it in resealable sandwich or snack sized bags. This gluten free snack mix would be great for sending in school lunches.

Be sure to check out our full list of kid friendly gluten free snack ideas.

From Freezer to Crockpot (and Gluten Free!)

Save time and money with these recipes (+ they're gluten free!)

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Making freezer meals saves you money and using your crockpot saves time. Combine the two for the best savings of all!

Save time and money with these recipes (and they're gluten free!) #freezermeals #glutenfree

I’m a big fan of freezer meals. They save money, time and best of all, eliminate that daily quandary of figuring out what to make for supper. If you are new to making freezer meals, you can learn how to easily plan, prepare and execute making freezer meals for an entire month (or two) in just one day or for a week in just one hour (click this link —>Freezer Meals 101).

I’m also a fan of my crockpot. With 7 kids, anything that makes life easier is good in my books! It is so nice to come home after doing appointments all day to walk in the door to smell supper cooking.

Combining freezer meals and my crockpot is the ultimate in time management for me. When making freezer meals, I always make at least half of the recipes ones that are compatible with crockpot cooking.

If you are looking specifically for the meals to be gluten-free, I have a guide for converting freezer meal recipes to gluten-free freezer meals.

12 freezer meal recipes for the crockpot:

Crockpot Chicken Recipes:

Sweet and Sour Chicken (gluten-free) This freezer to crockpot meal from The Nourishing Home looks delectable!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Chicken Tacos (gluten-free if gluten-free taco seasoning is used or made) This recipe from Sidetracked Sarah is made even easier because she uses rotisserie chicken.

Chicken Tacos

Hawaiian Chicken (gluten-free if gluten-free soy sauce is used) This dump in a bag, freeze, thaw, and throw in the crockpot meal from Meet Penny is great for a busy day.

Hawaiian Chicken Crockpot Freezer Meal

Better Than It Sounds Prune and Olive Chicken (gluten-free)

Better Than it Sounds Prune & Olive Chicken - yes, really!Crockpot Soup Recipes:

Vegetable Pesto Minestrone (gluten-free) This minestrone soup has a very unique flavor from the pesto and from the wine. Delicious!

Vegetable Pesto Minestrone (Gluten Free Freezer Meal Series at The Chaos and The Clutter)Stuffed Bell Pepper Soup (gluten-free) This recipe from Meet Penny sounds delicious and is chock full of healthy ingredients.

Stuffed Bell Pepper SoupBeef Vegetable Soup from Sidetracked Sarah (gluten-free)

beef vegetable soup

Crockpot Beef Recipes:

Sloppy Joes (gluten-free) Sloppy Joes are such a comfort meal in our house, especially in wintertime.

Sloppy Joes (Gluten Free Freezer Meal Series at The Chaos and The Clutter)Mexican Casserole (gluten-free if gluten-free taco seasoning is used or made) This family meal is from Sidetracked Sarah and can go from the freezer to a skillet or to the crockpot.

Mexican CasseroleFrench Stew (gluten-free if gluten-free bread crumbs are substituted) Sidetracked Sarah’s husband loves this meal. Maybe yours will too!

French Stew

Other Freezer Meal Recipes:

Pork & Peppers Crock Pot Bag (gluten-free if gluten-free Worcestershire sauce is used) Another simple weeknight meal from Meet Penny.

Pork & Peppers Crock Pot Meal

Cuban Black Beans (gluten-free) This is an inexpensive family meal from Frugal Family Favourites.

Cuban Black BeansMake 10 meals in one hour using the system in my Chicken and Beef Dump Recipes books or try out my Gluten-Free Freezer Meal Menu Plan.