Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free March: Guiltless Pleasures

This month’s Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free is hosted by Amy of Simply Sugar and Gluten Free. This month’s theme is “guiltless pleasures.” I love baking, so it makes sense that one of my guilty pleasures is whatever dessert I feel like making. Most desserts are high in calories, sugar and fat. (anything with icing, anyone?) I wanted to try to make some healthier muffins, so I made a variation of these Strawberry Yoghurt Muffins courtesy of the Culinary Wannabe.

Strawberry – Blueberry Yoghurt Muffins

1 1/3 c. brown rice flour
1/3 c. each tapioca starch and sorghum flour
1 tsp. xathan gum
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. plain yoghurt
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. chopped strawberries
1/2 c. to 3/4 c. frozen blueberries

1. Heat oven to 375F.
2. Whisk together flour, xathan gum, sugar and baking soda.
3. Whisk together yoghurt, applesauce, eggs and vanilla extract.
4. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just mixed.
5. Add strawberries and blueberries and stir to distribute berries throughout batter.
6. Spoon into muffin tin lined with paper cups.
7. Cook for about 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out dry.
8. Cool and enjoy!

The muffins had a fairly good texture and were quite tasty thanks to all the fruit.

These babies were about 140 calories each according to fitwatch.com. The only way that I could think of making these healthier is to use something like agave nectar in place of the sugar.

What is your favourite guiltless pleasure?

My Iron Ring

It took a while to get these photos from my dad, but here I am with my newest piece of jewellery:

To prove to you non-believers that there are women in engineering (and yes, there are more than nine. In chem, anyways 😉 ):

In your profession, do you have anything like the “iron ring?”

Canadians Like Hockey Much?

My friend showed this to my today and it is too hilarious not to share.

This is the water consumption during the Olympic Gold Medal Mens Hockey Game in Edmonton:

Yes, we can’t go to the washroom while the game is on. Especially when it’s sudden death overtime (or whatever that is called) or when we win medals.

So here’s the question for you: do you go to the washroom during the game (whichever game that might be) or do you wait for the breaks between periods?

Iron Ring Cake

Saturday was our Iron Ring Ceremony. Instead of going to the Grad Banquet, a bunch of my friends got together and had our own shindig. So what did that mean? I got to make and bring my own cake. 🙂

I used this gluten-free carrot cake recipe and added some drained crushed pineapple that I had leftover from a previous failed carrot cake attempt. (I did not put nuts or raisins in the cake.) My glutenator friends were surprised that it was gluten-free as it was moist, delicious and had the correct carrot cake texture.

I iced the cake with cream cheese icing and then used fondant for the decorations. The gears were made by using two concentric circles and then a my icing spatula to cut out the “gears.” (A butter knife would work just as well.)

Since I had made and iced the cake the night before, the icing was a bit hard, which meant that the fondant didn’t stick to the icing by itself. So, I used my friend H2O and painted it on the fondant and it stuck quite nicely. See, you don’t need fancy fondant glues – water works just as well!

I’m happy that I got the chance to make this cake as I won’t really have any time until after this semester is over because I’ve got to complete earn my iron ring!

Excitement!

There are a few exciting things that are happening in my corner of the world in the next few days. I’ll give you a hint, it involves this:

and this:

and this (without the communist part(y)).

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the last one.

I am not responsible for anyone drinking copious amounts of alcohol or wearing lamp shades over the next few days. And no, I am definitely not communist, I just find that picture hilarious.