"Oh my God what is this?"  Were my wife's words of choice this morning after seeing this.  Pancakes, a go-to breakfast for non-gluten eaters is actually not that far off  from the gluten free version.   My favorite gluten free pancake mixes so far have been Bob's Mill's and Bisquick.  For these pancakes I used Bob's Mill but use your favorite.

You can substitute brown sugar for the coconut sugar in the recipe.  I've recently ran out of brown sugar and have been using coconut sugar as a replacement mainly because of a buy one get one free deal.  Coconut sugar looks like brown sugar and I believe it is a great replacement.  

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 Cup of Bob's Mill Pancake Mix  
• 1 Egg
• 1 Tablespoon of Vegetable Oil
• 1 1/4   Cup Almond Milk
• 1/2 Cup of Coconut Sugar
• 1/4  Cup of Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 Cup of Chopped Pecans
• 1 Tablespoon of Butter
• 1/8 Teaspoon of Cream of Tartar

Directions:

1. Prepare the pecan praline syrup.  In a saucepan, combine 1 cup of almond milk with 1/2 cup of coconut sugar and 1/4 granulated sugar.  Mix the ingredients and bring to a boil.  Add the 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. 
2. Once boiling, find the level of heat you need to consistently boil the  mixture without boiling over and boil for 25 minutes.
3. Stir the mixture, and add 1/4 cup of almond milk to help cool and loosen  the consistency of the   syrup.  Add 1 tablespoon of butter preference for added depth in flavor.
4. Follow the directions  per your gluten free pancake mix and make your pancakes.
5. Top each level of pancake with the pecan praline syrup and  try to avoid diabetes!

Flank steak has become my favorite meat to grill with lately.  It is relatively inexpensive at around $4 for a large piece of meat.  I've used it to make tacos but it is also a great just on its own.  I've taken some inspiration from my favorite carne asada dish and  grilled some vegetables to top the steak off.

I found the seasonings for this steak in the bulk section of HEB with the bulk spices.  The Chihuahua de Mexico Wood Smoked Salt has a very robust smoke smell, it is best to tuck that away in an air tight container.

Ingredients:

• Flank steak
• 1/2 avocado
• 1 tomato
• 1 tbs of smoked paprika
• 1 tsp  of  San Antonio Chili Powder
• 2 tbs of  Chihuahua de Mexico Wood Smoked Salt
• 1 tbs of La Choy Soy Sauce
• 1 tsp of Himalayan Salt

Directions:

1. Pour  1/2 tbs of  soy sauce on each side of the flank steak.
2. Rub each side of the flank steak with the smoked paprika, chili powder, and smoked salt.  Allow the steak to rest for at least 15 minutes before cooking.
3. Heat up your grill.
4. Slice tomato into four thick slices and season with the  Himalayan salt.
5. Put the flank steak on the grill along with the tomatoes.  Cook the steak on each side for about eight minutes.  Flank steak will be  about medium-rare.
6. Allow steak to rest and slice avocado in half.  Slice avocado into pieces and place   on top of the grilled tomatoes.

I have recently been on hiatus because of an apparent milk intolerance.  After a couple years of being gluten free, I started to have the same symptoms but was not eating gluten foods.   Apparently HEB Spring Water had the milk allergen in them and this was effecting me.  With countless nights of being sick and only eating chicken, salt, and broccoli, I am happy to know it was a milk intolerance.

Anywho, I am happy to find Daiya products.  A gluten free/dairy free dessert is hard to come by.  I am happy to report that Daiya does not disappoint.  The crust uses coconut flour in it and the coconut taste actually goes along great with the cheesecake.  The cheesecake itself was a little small for the $8-$9 price range but I was not disappointed in the taste.  It tasted great.  Which is a great feeling to experience when you have to eliminate two common ingredients in  desserts: gluten, and dairy.

It is not upsetting to pay this price for a product and get something small if it taste like this.  The taste made up for having to pay premium for a gluten/dairy free product.  I wish all products were like this and worth their price.

I recommend Daiya  products and will definitely be trying more of them.

I recently received a gift card to a natural food store and came across Mikey's Muffins.  These English Muffins were priced at around $5.50 which is pretty standard for some gluten free breads.  I was a little excited to use these for eggs benedict.  Gluten Free breads are a very dangerous game.  Most are tasteless, fall apart easily, or basically on the market just because there is a demand for them.  Let's just say I knew what I may be getting myself into by purchasing these.  They could be lacking flavor, or edibility.   Expecting these annoyances, I overlooked a common annoyance that all shoppers experience.

Size discrepancies!  These muffins were half the size of the box.  Why not use a half sized box and save money?  They looked like mini waffles if I had to describe the size.  It was not what I envisioned.

Even though I was disappointed in the size, I decided to still try them and hopefully the taste would be wonderful.   I wanted to try a messy egg sandwich on them to see how the bread held up with a runny egg yolk.    

The bun started to fall apart as it absorbed more egg yolk and the mustard I added to my egg sandwich was not helping the matter (I do not know if that is weird or not, but it is my preferred method).  

Overall, I would not recommend this product.  It is not worth the extra money we shed out for gluten free products.