If you’re finding yourself dreaming of warmer weather, poolside beverages, and campfires, you’re not alone. My house is at its best during warmer temps and I just can’t wait to enjoy our outdoor entertainment spaces again!
These s’mores bars are the perfect piece of campfire season whenever you need it! No clear skies or warmer temps needed. They’re the perfect s’more for the midwest where it feels like it’s winter nine months of the year!
Ingredients:
Package of GF Graham Crackers (I used Pamela’s – you can find at Kroger or Walmart typically!)
3 3/4 Full sized Hershey’s Bars (Feel free to sub a dairy free chocolate like Hu Kitchen or Lily’s for a lower sugar option)
5 ounces mini marshmallows
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter or coconut oil, melted
Procedure:
Preheat oven 350 degrees
Pulse crackers in food processor until they are fine crumbs.
Add sugars and butter to food processor until well-combined.
Press into 9×9 baking dish prepared with parchment paper.
Top with with Hershey’s bars.
Put in oven for 1-2 minutes, you want the bars to be shiny and melty but still in tact!
Top with marshmallows.
Put under broiler for about 1 minute – DO NOT LEAVE YOUR OVEN’S SIDE! Marshmallows should become J U S T golden brown before you pull them out.
The hardest part of this recipe — let them cool completely. If you can’t wait overnight, pop them in the freezer until they’re completely cooled. Trust me! It will keep the mess away and they truly taste better after they are fully cooled.
Cut into bars and enjoy!
Be sure to give these a like, comment, and share with a friend who would love them!
1 3/4 cups GF Flour with Xanthan Gum (I recommend Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 in the blue bag!)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup nutpods original
1 tablespoon of melted butter or ghee
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pepper
Procedure
Spray a baking sheet with olive oil and add chicken, topping with salt, pepper, and more olive oil spray. Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for about 45 minutes or until internal temp reaches 165 degrees fahrenheit (note that thighs may cook more quickly!)
While chicken is baking, mix the dry dumpling ingredients: gf flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Add nutpods and melted butter until a dough forms evenly.
Shred prepared chicken with forks and set aside.
Melt butter or ghee in a large stock pot over medium heat.
Add onions, sauteing until translucent.
Add arrowroot starch, salt, and pepper to form a roux.
Add chicken and broth, bringing to a boil over medium high heat.
Once the mixture has reached a rolling boil, use a small cookie scoop to drop dumplings into the boiling soup.
Dumplings are done when they float (typically by the time you add the last dumpling, they’re done!)
Serving suggestions
We love to serve chicken and dumplings Cracker Barrel Style with glazed carrots, mashed potatoes if you wish. Our favorite dessert to top off this hearty fall meal is gf pumpkin roll! This recipe is simple, quick, and can quickly feed a crowd. Make it next time a loved one drops over, or prep it to have leftovers for your family.
Pin here and share on instagram by tagging @bethannsbites
People ask me all the time what they can make for friends or loved ones who are gluten free or have food allergies. I don’t always have good answers, but today I have a good recipe! Everyone loves a pan of delicious fudgey brownies. The babies are better and cheaper than boxed, and come together quickly. Since I’ve started playing with this recipe, a pan hasn’t lasted more than 24 hours in our house!
Whether it’s a small gathering or a potluck, this gluten free option will have lots of takers who may not necessarily be gluten free themselves…you might want to make two batches! These would be the perfect addition to any Easter table this weekend!
Gluten Free Fudge Brownies
Ingredients
1 cup butter or ghee
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used Guittard 63% Cacao – my FAVE)
1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s 100% Cacao)
3 eggs
1 Cup Sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup gluten free 1-1 flour (my favorite is Bob’s Red Mill)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Procedure
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9×9 glass baking dish with parchment paper.
Add butter/ghee and chocolate chips to a large microwave safe bowl. Heat for 1.5-2 minutes (keep an eye on it) until butter or ghee is melted and chips are soft.
While butter and chips are still warm, whisk in cocoa powder until combined well. The heat helps bring out the flavor of the cocoa powder and “bloom” sort of like a coffee bloom when brewing pour over style coffee! Basically, it helps to bring out the best flavor of the cocoa powder.
Whisk in sugar, vanilla, and eggs to the mixture. Be sure to whisk well – using the whisk aerates the batter and helps achieve the shiny and occasionally crinkly topping you often see in boxed brownies.
Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt using a wooden spoon or trusty spatula until combined well.
Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish – it will seem less watery than normal brownie batter this is okay!!
Bake for 40 minutes (if using a metal 9×9 pan, bake time will be shorter).
Allow brownies to cool for 20-30 minutes or until completely cooled to allow them to set up a bit.
Serve brownies on their own, in a sundae, or with your favorite chocolate friendly fruit!
Be sure to share your version of these brownies using #biteswithbeth or by tagging @Bethannsbites on Instagram! I love to see what you’re making. Most importantly, show up to your pitch-in meal with THESE babies to delight your GF friend! 🙂 They won’t disappoint and the clean-up is quick!
These gluten and dairy free cinnamon rolls have truly been a work of heart. I’ve worked on perfecting this recipe for nearly an entire year! I started working on it when we first locked down for COVID during the second week of March in Texas. This recipe development has traveled across state lines and across three kitchens since we moved this year!
This recipe is the perfect thing to whip up with the cold temps and snowy weather that seems to be sweeping most of the nation. The first time I ever learned to make cinnamon rolls from scratch, my Grandma Schuman shared her recipe for cream cheese cinnamon rolls over the phone. It was one of the years we had a bad snow and school was canceled for weeks. We lost power at some point, and warmed cinnamon rolls on my dad’s wood stove in the “summer kitchen.”
If you’re not familiar with a “summer kitchen” they’re common in older homes like my parents’ and were used in the summer for canning and preserving so the heat of the process didn’t increase the temperature in the main part of the home during the already hot and humid midwestern summer.
Ingredients
Dough
1/2 cup butter, melted (use ghee for completely dairy free!)
1 1/4 cups almond milk, warmed slightly to activate the yeast
1 package gf yeast
1 cup sugar
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 eggs + 1 yolk of an egg
1 teaspoon good quality vanilla (I love HEB double strength vanilla if you’re located in TX!)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum if your flour does not have it already added*
4 cups gluten free flour (I recommend Bob’s Red Mill one-to-one in the blue bag)
Additional flour for rolling out
Filling
1 stick butter, cubed (you can use 1.5 sticks if you want the extra ooey gooeyness like Cinnabon!)
1 cup pecans
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter (ghee for completely dairy free!)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 tablespoons almond milk
Procedure
Preheat oven to 350*
Warm almond milk to about 100* – you don’t want it to be too hot or it may burn the yeast instead of activating.
Stir packet of yeast into warmed milk, it will foam just slightly.
Add sugar, eggs, butter, and apple cider vinegar to the mixture, whisking until smooth.
Gradually add and incorporate gluten free flour stirring until a dough forms. Smooth the mixture into a ball and allow dough to rise in a warm location for an hour. (Note: gf flour will not rise quite as much as you’d expect regular wheat flour to, but you’ll still see an increase!)
While dough is in final stages of rising, add all ingredients for the filling to a food processor. Pulse or process until the mixture is small crumbles.
On a lightly floured surface (dough will be stickier than traditional dough – it may be beneficial to roll it out on floured parchment paper), roll out dough until it is approximately 1/2 inch thick in the shape of a rectangle.
Add filling evenly to the dough and carefully roll into a log shape. Have patience – gf baked goods do not maneuver as easily as regular dough!
Cut into 10-12 even slices and place in a parchment lined pan.
Bake for about 40 minutes at 350* until rolls are lightly golden brown.
Stir together all ingredients for icing and top warm cinnamon rolls with the icing. It’s best to do this while rolls are still warm or hot so it will get perfectly melty and delicious!
Serve warm to the ones you love. Bonus points if you serve with milk or coffee and scrambled eggs – please balance the sweet with some protein, people!! 🙂
Please share this recipe with someone who would love it as much as my family has for the year!
These gluten free peanut butter cup cookies are sublime!! They come together quickly – you don’t even have to perfectly soften your butter! The texture is perfect and your taste testers won’t even know they’re gluten free if you don’t tell them so.
Everyone who tries these wants the recipe…and another cookie! This is possibly one of my favorite recipes I’ve ever made. I hope you and yours will enjoy it too!
Please note: I am a participant in the Amazon Affiliate Program and I may earn a small commission from purchases you make using the links to products in this post. You will not pay more for your purchase by using this link. Your purchase helps me continue to create recipes and health and wellness content for you.
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (you’re looking for natural peanut butter – just peanuts and salt on the ingredients list)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup miniature peanut butter cups – I prefer Trader’s Joe’s brand but the unwrapped miniature Reeses can be easier to find and work as well!
Procedure
Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Cream coconut oil, peanut butter, vanilla, sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl until well combined.
Gradually add flour until a ball of dough that is uniform comes together.
Roll into about 24 balls of cookie dough – you can make your dough balls larger or smaller depending on how large you’d like your cookies to be. I used about 2-3 tbsp dough per cookie.
Place on cookie sheet and smash down slightly until a small disk is formed.
Press 3-4 miniature peanut butter cups into the top of each cookie.
Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven.
Cool on counter or cooling rack.
Makes about 2 dozen cookies depending on size!
Pin here on pinterest!
Be sure to make a batch to share with the ones you love…and share them virtually with me by tagging @bethannsbites on Instagram!
Chia seed pudding was THE breakfast of 2019 for me. I mastered the recipe and shared it on this post. It’s a favorite of coworkers, sisters, and students of mine as well. It’s creamy, full of healthy fats from the coconut milk, fibrous from the chia seeds, and simply delicious. I typically serve it with blueberries and strawberries or raspberries (depending which one is on sale). Today, I’m sharing a recipe that will take my chia pudding over the edge of deliciousness!
That being said, the granola stands on its own as a snack as well. When I was recipe testing I caught John eating it from the jar on the couch! The chocolate, espresso, and pecans are a trio made in granola heaven. This recipe is so easy to whip up and you’ve probably got most of the ingredients on hand. Give this a try:
Please note: I am a participant in the Amazon Affiliate Program and I may earn a small commission from purchases you make using the links to products in this post. You will not pay more for your purchase by using this link. Your purchase helps me continue to create recipes and health and wellness content for you.
Cover a large sheet pan with parchment paper, set aside.
In a large mixing bowl whisk coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, salt, espresso powder, and cocoa powder until well combined. It will be a dark brown liquid mixture.
Add oats, chocolate chips, and pecans and stir until the mixture is combined well and covered with the liquid evenly. I recommend using a strong silicone spatula to stir.
Pour the mixture onto the prepared sheet pan, Press the mixture down into the pan so it is flat and even across the top. This will help the granola clump up and make nice big chunks as it cools.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Allow granola to cool completely – it’s important that you don’t stir the granola until it’s completely cooled to maintain the aforementioned clumps!
You can pop the sheet pan in the freezer or refrigerator to cool more quickly if you desire. This will help with clumps too because the cooling of the coconut oil will bond the granola more tightly.
Once cool, stir the granola and store in an airtight container.
Enjoy by itself as a quick snack, with milk like cereal, or top yogurt or chia pudding with it.
This recipe has quickly become a family favorite! It’s much more cost effective than purchasing granola at the store and there aren’t any funky ingredients lurking on this list. Try it out this week and drop me a comment to let me know what you think!
If you’ve recently gone gluten free, you’ve likely traveled down the sad road of pre-packaged gluten free items because you just weren’t sure how to handle this new lifestyle. I get it. I’ve been there. What the in-store items lack in wheat, they make up for in excess salt and crumbly texture most of the time. Not a fan.
This goes for frozen items like gluten free chicken fingers too! I have not once been impressed by a pre-packaged gluten free chicken finger. So, I set out to create my own recipe…and it’s one of the first gluten free recipes that I made up and perfected on my own! I’m so excited to share this with you!
Whether you’re gluten free or not, give these little guys a shot! They crisp perfectly in the oven, have few ingredients, and come together quickly. I don’t have an airfryer but I bet they’d be DIVINE in an airfryer.
John and I have been loving this recipe for years but our littlest toddler taste tester approves too!!
GF Chicken tender coating with seasoning Chicken Tenders coated before baking
In a blender or food processor, pulse Mary’s Gone Crackers until they’re ground into a flourlike consistency.
Pour cracker flour into a shallow dish for coating tenders with onion powder, garlic powder, ground paprika, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.
In a shallow dish for dredging, whisk egg until it is an even yellow consistency.
Using a paper towel, dry each chicken tender – this will help you coat each tender evenly and allow coating to stick better.
I like to set up a dredging station of shallow pyrex dishes like this. I set up a small assembly line on my counter in this order from left to right: raw chicken tenders, egg wash, flour coating, a sheet pan sprayed with avocado oil.
Dip each chicken tender individually in egg wash, then in the Mary’s Gone Cracker flour coating, put each on the prepared sheet pan.
Continue the process until all tenders are dipped.
Spray the sheet full of prepared tenders with avocado oil on top – this helps your chicken tenders get the nice crisp factor!
Bake tenders for 30-35 minutes (be sure to temp the chicken up to 165 to ensure that it is done, as ovens may vary.)
Remove from oven and serve with your favorite dipping sauce!
These gluten free chicken tenders are an amazing addition to your normal dinner rotation! I hope you’ll give them a try and let me know how you like it!! Share your recreations on instagram and tag me @bethannsbites – I LOVE seeing people try my recipes!!
Is it even really Easter without Reese’s eggs? If you’d asked me as a kid…or even three years ago as an adult, I probably would have told you no. The cute, festive wrapper, the egg shape – obviously the best of all the giant Reese’s shapes, and the perfect peanut butter to chocolate ratio made those babies perfection. They’re still delicious, I’ll admit, buuuut so not worth the way that the soy, dairy, and sometimes wheat in the Reese’s makes me feel.
On top of icky side effects, it’s quarantine time so we’re going to the store ONLY for essentials. Reese’s eggs – no matter what your heart may tell you at the time – are NOT an essential item. Keep your booty home!! The good news is: I bet you’ve got the ingredients to make these healthier-for-you nutty chocolatey eggs in your pantry RIGHT now. (Note: if you DON’T have ingredients listed – see me on insta or Facebook and I’ll help you find a suitable substitution!)
Ingredients
Okay, the sooner we get started, the sooner you get to enjoy the deliciousness, so let’s dig in!
1 cup peanut butter – you want the good stuff, JUST nuts and salt (I actually used Trader Joe’s Almond Butter because it’s a pandemic and Thrive Market is way behind on orders so no PB in my house!)
3 Tbsp cassava flour – other good subs: coconut flour and almond flour (you’ll need more than 3 Tbsp if using almond)
2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 Tbsp coconut oil
Procedure:
In a mixing bowl, add nut butter, cassava flour, maple syrup, and salt. Stir until well combined.
Using a cookie scooper, portion out filling then flatten and form into an egg-like shape.
Freeze eggs for 30 minutes or refrigerate overnight.
Melt 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon of coconut oil – I like to use the double boiling method: a glass bowl overtop about 2 cups of water boiling in a saucepan.
Remove chocolate chips from heat and dip the eggs using a fork to flip and cover both sides.
Drop onto wax paper and refrigerate for at least ten minutes or until chocolate sets.
Store in the refrigerator until serving.
You’re looking for eggy shapes – they don’t have to be perfect to be cute!
Try these babies out and let me know what you think of them! Be sure to post to Bites With Beth on Facebook or @bethannsbites on Instagram! Better yet, share it with a friend who you know would love it too!
One of the best things about completing our January Whole30 this year was learning to be creative with healthy food again! These Whole30 stuffed peppers will spice up your meal prep and help you kick boring routine meals to the curb!
John isn’t much of a green pepper fan so I know firsthand that these stuffed peppers meal prep well! They’re one of my favorite foods so I find it easiest to enjoy them as my lunch prep. The cauliflower rice keeps them both Whole30 compliant and light enough that I’m not sleepy all afternoon!
Here’s what you need to do:
Ingredients:
1 tsp avocado oil
1 lb lean ground beef (I use 93/7 ratio)
1/3 of a large yellow onion
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp chili powder
10 oz riced cauliflour
1 6 oz can of tomato paste — be sure there is no sugar added for Whole30 compliance!
salt and pepper to taste
Optional: Siete Foods Cashew Queso
Procedure:
Cut and core the green bell peppers. You can chop the tops off like I have, or you could slice them down the middle so they are halved if you prefer a smaller portion. Set aside in a glass baking dish.
In a large skillet, heat avocado oil.
Add onions and cook until translucent.
Add ground beef and cook until all beef is browned.
Add chili powder and stir until all beef is coated in chili powder.
Stir in tomato paste, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and cauli rice. Allow flavors to combine for 10 minutes or so.
Using a spoon, fill the cored green peppers with the beef and cauli rice mixture.
Bake in a glass baking dish at 375 for 30 minutes.
Top with siete cashew queso
Note: if you’re not completing a Whole30 and have no issues with a little dairy cheese, I highly suggest topping these babies with a little shredded mozzarella. Simply add the mozzarella the last 5-10 minutes the peppers are baking and enjoy that cheesy goodness!
Be sure to make this simple meal prep ASAP! Share it with your friends and tag me or use #biteswithbeth so I can see your re-creation!! I LOVE when my readers share their versions of my recipes. Even better if you share it for all of your friends!
This recipe is comin’ atcha…late, like super late on a day that I wasn’t even scheduled to release a post. Life has pulled me in so many directions over the past couple weeks and I’ve gotten a bit behind. It’s a stage of adulthood that feels like a constant juggling act. Not like a GOOD juggling act, though, like the one where it’s just a middle-schooler who’s learning to juggle. They’re embarrassed at the number of balls they can juggle so they keep adding 1-2 more than they can actually successfully keep in the air. So the balls drop and the juggler dodges and dives and before long, all of the balls are on the floor. Shew. Yep, that’s pretty much how life has felt for me the past few weeks.
I mention all of this to say: thank you for coming back after my absence! Thank you for hanging around! (I promise this recipe is worth it!)
Several weeks ago, I set out to make “Chicken Bulgogi” as I’ve had it several times and it’s amazing! Unfortunately, I’m allergic to soy so traditional “Chicken Bulgogi” comes with hefty side effects for my brief enjoyment. So as any good aspiring recipe creator would, I researched and practiced my own bulgogi sauce to create a better-for-you Korean-style Chicken Recipe.
A little background: I sought out to create “Chicken Bulgogi.” My husband, who has been deployed to South Korea a couple times during his Army career, and I were discussing how in Korea near the Army base all types of meat are labeled “Bulgogi.” Everything is labeled “bulgogi” to the extent that he assumed bulgogi was more the method than the dish. Street food, barbecue joints, and random houses that little old grandmas cook in the back and call a restaurant in the front, all have many forms of “bulgogi.” We tried to figure out what the word “bulgogi” meant but didn’t have much luck so I decided I’d ask my coworker who is Korean.
The next day at lunch, I mentioned to him that I was working on a chicken bulgogi recipe and we were curious what bulgogi actually meant. He sort of chuckled and said, “you’re making chicken bulgogi?”
“Yes, well sort of, it’s my own rendition but we were wondering what bulgogi meant.” He chuckled again before explaining that “bul” = beef, so it’s not possible to make chicken bulgogi. Apparently, it’s another example of things being oversimplified for tourists/visiting soldiers!
In any case, this Korean-style Chicken stir-fry dish is wholesome, healthy, and meal preps wonderfully! I will admit, this one is far from a “quick, one-pan” dinner but it is SO worth it. You won’t regret this fresh and tasty Korean Inspired dish!
Korean Inspired Lunch prep
Ingredients:
For the pickled carrots:
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp avocado oil
2 tbsp water
2 cups shredded carrots
For the chicken:
1/2 cup coconut aminos
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp garlic powder (or 4 fresh cloves, minced)
1 1/2 tbsp avocado oil
1/4 tsp ginger
pinch of black pepper
4-6 chicken thighs (about 1-1.5 pounds), cut into small bite-sized pieces
For the cilantro-lime drizzle:
1 bunch of cilantro
1 clove of garlic
juice of 2 limes
1/2 cup avocado oil
For serving:
julienned cucumbers
cooked rice
Procedure:
Whisk together 1/2 cup rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of honey, salt, and 2 tablespoons each of avocado oil and water before pouring the mixture over the shredded carrots in a jar.
Refrigerate for at least an hour. (This step works really well if you do it the night before.) If you enjoy pickled carrots to top other things as well, make a larger batch – they’ll keep for several weeks due to the acidity!
In a separate bowl, whisk together coconut aminos, honey, rice vinegar, garlic powder, ginger, and black pepper. Add chicken thighs and marinate for one hour or overnight in the refrigerator. Note: make sure the chicken is well-coated in the sauce. I recommend using a large stasher bag or a shallow dish to allow as much of the chicken to touch the sauce as possible.
Add cilantro, garlic, lime juice and avocado oil to a blender or food processor. Run until well blended into a drizzly sauce.
Wait for your stuff to marinate. The hardest part, to be honest. 😦
Heat 2 tablespoons of avocado oil in a large skillet.
Cook marinated chicken thighs until completely cooked (165 degrees fahrenheit if you’re using a thermometer) about 10 minutes, depending on the size of your pieces!
Assemble your masterpiece: layer rice, chicken, cucumbers, pickled carrots, and cilantro lime drizzle
Not the quickest meal I’ve shared on Bites With Beth but definitely a flavor bomb you’ve got to try!! This is definitely a crowd-pleaser for anyone who likes Asian food. You can make this to impress your friends at dinner, buuut if I’m being honest, you might want to be selfish with your hard work and enjoy it all work-week long as your meal prep!
Either way, you won’t regret giving this recipe a try!
Bites With Beth 