Pumpkin Spice Creamer

I was on Pinterest this morning, and came across a recipe for Homemade French Vanilla Coffee Creamer from Mrs. Happy Homemaker.  I was so excited, I ran to the kitchen and made it right away!  




Well, while making my To-Die-For Pumpkin Pancakes this morning, I had half a can of Pumpkin puree leftover.  I decided to try a Pumpkin Spice Creamer!




Here's my variation: 

• 14oz sweetened condensed milk
• 14oz half & half
• 8 oz pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla 
• a mason jar (quart is perfect)

Pour all of the ingredients into your mason jar.  Screw the lid on tightly, and shake vigorously for a few minutes until well combined. 

Wow!  Pour in your coffee, dribble over your pancakes or drink from the jar, uh, okay maybe not, but this stuff is amazing! 

To-Die-For Pumpkin Pancakes...Seriously

Oh.My.Goodness! I feel like I just stumbled upon a gold mine! Making pancakes for my family this morning,  I didn't want to just make the ordinary pancakes you eat with syrup. And I wanted to add a "healthy" component so I had a thought... "What if I add pumpkin puree instead of oil?" And THAT is how this now-family favorite recipe was born.  My husband, who can be a really tough critic, deemed them "Phenomenal!"

I'm still drooling just thinking about it.  See that butter, sliding off the pancake? Oh, and that little cup... Pumpkin CREAM!

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I suppose I should just get to the recipe? Okay then. Here we go. 

Holly's To-Die-For Pumpkin Pancakes

1 (22oz) bag of Bob's Red Mill GF Pancake Mix* (approximately 3+ cups)

2 eggs

3 1/2 cups milk (can use Rice, Almond, Soy. etc)

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup sugar (or your choice of sweetener) 

1 TBSP vanilla

1 TBSP cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground cloves

pinch of salt

Honestly, I just dumped it all in the bowl and used my whisk to get lumps out.  Add more milk if batter is too thick. 

Pour by 1/4 cups into a hot buttered skillet (med-high heat) 

wait for edges to set and flip 

when you flip them, they fluff up! 

Serve hot with butter and your choice of applesauce or Pumpkin cream (recipe to follow!) 

*We like Bob's Red Mill GF Pancake Mix. It's reasonably priced, the flavor is good and its fairly easy to find.  The thing about Pancake mix is that the leavening is already included so you don't need to mess with that.  You can substitute your choice of milk, too, so you can be dairy- free and serve them with applesauce! 

Who Am I?

I suppose there are a lot of people who start blogging at the beginning of a new year as a resolution to a new habit.  There are probably countless blogs that are abandoned by March of that same year. 

For me, this is not a resolution, I am thinking from a purely functional basis and as it's I attempt another resolution--to be more organized- that this blog is born.  I originally thought, "hey! This will be a great place to store recipes, links and information I've gathered about being gluten-free!"  However, I have so.many.friends who have talked to me about it- wanted more information and I want to be able to share what I know so that I can help others. 

Well let me introduce myself then!  My name is Holly, I'm a Midwestern girl, I'm married and I have three children. Silas is 8, Ellie is 7 and Laney is 4. I am blessed to be a stay at home mom, housewife, homemaker- or whatever the PC jargon is at the moment. However, our budget is tight on only one income. When we began  the gluten-free lifestyle (because it's not a diet) it was only Ellie and I. Ellie is my most culinarily-open child, if there is such a word.  She will tell you her favorite vegetable is beets.  She loves to eat raw Cilantro- by itself...

So, when we began taking gluten out of our lives, she was very open to trying new things. 

I had heard of people who were "going gluten free" and sadly even had the thought, "Thank GOD I don't have to do that!"  How closed-minded I was. We love our breads and pastas and crackers and tortillas... 

Ellie is now 7 and she is healthy. But she wasn't always that way. She was born 14 months after her big brother, and seemed pissed-off at the world from day one. Little did I know she had reflux and it took us 4 months to figure out. She also had a sensitivity to dairy products, which we figured out around the time we discovered her reflux, so I took dairy completely out of my diet because I was nursing her. We saw incredible improvement. 

Fast forward several years to Kindergarten.  She was sick EVERY.TWO.WEEKS. A high fever would pop up with no other symptoms.  It would go away and we thought it was just a little virus she was fighting.  We went to her Pediatrician at least every two months to see what might be going on.  Blood tests, strep cultures, etc. with no real answers.  She missed a lot of school and we saw her really struggling.  I wish I had thought of keeping a food diary, or trying a dietary change earlier. But as my Dad likes to quote a line from the movie GRUMPY OLD MEN  "You can wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which hand gets filled first."   Crude, yes, but also true.  

It wasn't until Ellie's teacher came to us with a concern of AD/HD that I finally dug deeper.  We even went through the surveys done by parents and teachers to assess whether or not a child "has it".  Wow, what a scientific approach to use OPINIONS about a Child's behavior to diagnose and then MEDICATE them!  I was appalled that it only took so much to put a child on medication. While I hesitate to say that I believe there are some cases where medication is required or even start on a discussion about what we put into our kids bodies, whether I choose to vaccinate or not, I WILL say, I believe this: 

GOD GAVE US THE TOOLS WE NEED IN SIMPLE NUTRITION. 

That being said, I researched and even though studies published by the Mayo Clinic and other reputable medical establishments are in favor of drugging our children, they noted *Significant improvement when gluten was taken out of a child's diet.    So, that was my starting point.  I delayed my doctor's desire to put Ellie on medication by this:
"Can we just do a two-week trial on a gluten-free diet?"  He agreed we had nothing to lose and so, two weeks before the school year, Ellie and I began our new lifestyle.  Was it easy? No.  Did we make mistakes? Yes- and we learned the hard way because when we mistakenly ate something containing gluten, we both had a tummy ache.  

I didn't believe that I needed to take gluten out of my diet, But I didn't want my little girl to go through it alone.  I have been blessed in the process, however, and have seen benefits I didn't know I needed.  

Weight loss, water loss, not feeling bloated, the bags under my eyes are gone... and other things I probably haven't realized yet.  

Recently, my husband was diagnosed with Diabetes. Now that he has to watch his carbs, it was a logical conclusion for us to make the decision for our entire family to eat gluten-free.   One of the main things to note about a gluten-free diet is that you are removing highly processed foods, which oddly enough, are high in carbs.