Journal of a Busy Mom

living one day at a time

Cinnamon Raisin Gluten Free Bread Pudding

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Adapted from a recipe by Stacy Myers Crock On!

I’m always looking for yummy desserts to try out. I especially like it when I can use my crockpot. My challenge is that I have to bake and cook gluten free. So, here I am trying to adapt yet another recipe to fit our lifestyle. It turned out pretty good!

Cinnamon Raisin Gluten Free Bread Pudding

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Ingredients:

6 cups day old bread cubes (I used gluten free bread)

½ cup raisins

4 eggs

1 cup whole milk

½ cup brown sugar

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons maple syrup

 

Steps

Butter a 3-4 quart crockpot VERY well. Place ½ of the bread cubes in your crock. Sprinkle with half of the raisins. Place the rest of the bread and raisins on top the first layers. In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk. Pour evenly over the bread cubes. Press down gentle with a spoon to coat all pieces of bread with egg mixture. Cover and cook on high for 1 ½ -2 hours or until set. Test with a knife-slide a knife into the center. If it comes out clean, your pudding is done. Drizzle top with maple syrup.

 

For next time:

I am going to mix the bread with the egg mixture in a bowl and then pour it all in. I had a hard time getting all the pieces wet.

Also I only cooked 1 ½ hours and I think 2 hours would have been better. I like it more firm.

I am sharing this recipe on Gluten Free Wednesdays.
Ligia

Minecraft Party Cake

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I love making cakes. A while back I shared my gumball cake which was fun to make.

This year, I was challenged to create Minecraft cakes. Thanks to Pinterest I had a lot of ideas to work with. Here is what I ended up creating:

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This top one is Steve. I used a small pin to create this cake. I used the Michael’s cake gels: peachy, brown, violet and copper. The hair and mouth is regular chocolate frosting.

IMG_2980This one is a Creeper. I used the green cake gel and black fondant.

One of the things I did for Steve’s face is to cover it with a thin first layer of frosting and then freeze it. This helps to keep crumbs off. I also did one “color” at a time and stuck it in the freezer for a good half hour. Then put on the next layer.

I had never worked with fondant so this was a first. It was pretty easy to roll and cut. By the way, if you are making a gluten free cake Fondant is NOT gluten free. Found that out after the fact. Luckily Steve was all 100% gluten free.

Another thing I did this year was I bought the large white frosting at Michaels. It made it so easy to create the different colors. I had a lot left over. It beat trying to mix colors in the small Betty Crocker containers.

Ligia

Free: The Absolute Quickest Way to Help Your Child Change

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I got an email from the author Dr. Fred Ray Lybrand, regarding his book. It is free for a short period of time. I haven’t read it, but I plan to. I am passing along the email information and a link.

Here is Dr. Fred’s Email:
Greetings from the rapidly warming southland of San Antonio, Texas. Whether or not the Spurs beat the Heat…kids and grandkids will keep coming home!
We’ve had some strange experiences because older-and-wiser folks taught us a few things about children. We never saw a tantrum. All of our children slept through the night from 6 weeks old and onward, and people would stop buy our table at restaurants and complement how the 5 children we had behaved so well. Honestly, it is simple…(1) God has been kind to us, and (2) We sort of knew what we were doing. Even to this day all of our kids are moral, spiritual, and responsible. I didn’t say they are perfect, but I will say they are awesome.
So, I need your help.
Around 15 years ago I wrote a book on how we approached encouraging the behaviors we wanted to see in our 5 children. The book did well and helped a lot of people, but as things go it went out of print. You can still find copies available online, but we’ve done one even better. We had it converted into an eBook and placed on Amazon Kindle. I’m also in a program that allows me to give away copies of it for free (for a 5 day period). The essence of the book has borne out over time and is useful for employers as well.
The book’s basic idea is focused on learning how to ask and answer 4 ‘magic’ questions concerning behavior:
1. What do I see?
2. What do I want to see?
3. How am I encouraging what I see?
4. How can I encourage what I see and discourage everything else?
We will show you the power of learning how to answer these questions…and…we will show you how your marriage is more powerful than your parenting.
You can get The Absolute Quickest Way to Help Your Child Change for free through Saturday. There are no tricks; we are just trying to promote healthy families.