Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes: Gluten-free Halloween Treats

I am glad that my daughter feels a lot better now. She is excited to go back o school tomorrow. Halloween is tomorrow night and these gluten-free treats  are perfect for my little minions at home.  You can find the recipe below.

Ingredients:

• 1 pack Glutino gluten free pantry double chocolate brownie mix
• 2 eggs  
• 5 tbsp melted butter
• 1/4 cup sweetened coconut shavings
• 10 pieces  chocolate covered gluten-free Glutino pretzel
• Halloween sprinkles

 Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 8x8 inch pan with vegetable oil. I use this pan  so the brownie will be thin.
• In a large bowl, beat eggs for 3-2 minutes.  Gradually add dry mix.  Beat to moisten.
• Add butter and stir until combined.
• Scoop into prepared  muffins and bake 17 minutes.
• When cupcakes are cool enough, add sprinkles, pretzel, and roasted  sweetened coconut.

 When it comes to toppings, I always love roasted sweet coconut shavings, it's the best for my palette.  The  chocolate covered pretzel was such a reat surprise for these  cupcakes.  

 Of course, the kiddos love the ones with sprinkles.

These  gooeey, chocolatey, and delicious cupcakes are  awesome!  If you are looking for some great alternatives  for your gluten-free products, Glutino has them.  

Disclosure: The owner of this blog was NOT financially compensated to write this review.  I was provided with the product/s mentioned  to help me  facilitate this review but  opinions are my own.

Stainless Steel Fish Basket from @cavetools

If you're a constant  visitor of this blog, you will know that I love seafood (shrimp, fish, lobster, etc.)  I grew up in a coastal area in the southern part of the Philippines so fish was something that we have in the table  almost everyday.  When I came here in the States, I miss  the fresh fish that I used to eat from back home.  Over here, I can only buy frozen ones from the store and it's not the same.  But over time, I got use  to it.  Having  frozen  seafood available is better than nothing.

I receive this fish grill basket from Cavetools and love it because it makes  grilling and cooking fish not messy.  This fish basket is available in two sizes, small and large.  I got the large one because I like  grilling milk fish sometimes and they are often available in   big sizes.

I like that it can be easily open and close due to its intuitive locking system on the side (shown below).    It is  dishwasher safe so it is easy to clean.  The large size  cost $28.99  via amazon .  You can buy it with 15% Off by using this  code  L8WIFQPU upon checkout.

During summer time, I  love grilling salmon and swordfish steaks.  I don't always have  swordfish  but I buy it once in a while when we go to the Asian  store in Pittsburgh.  Another fish that I like is milk fish, we call this kind of fish "bangus" in the Philippines.  

Our grill ran out of gas so I just cooked the milk fish in the oven.  I love that you don't have to worry about your fish sticking to the grill.  Clean up is easier too since you can just  put the  fish basket in the dishwasher after  you're done cooking.  

I love the fact that even on winter times, I can still eat  fish without making the whole house smells like fish.  This grill basket will help me  cook it without so much mess.  Thank you Cavetools!  

If you love fish, I recommend for you to have one of these fish grill basket from @cavetools . It is perfect for large thick fish like salmon, snapper, trout, tilapia, or sword fish. #kitchenTools #kitchenGadget

A photo posted by Chubskulit Rose (@chubskulitrose) on Oct 30, 2016 at 1:55pm PDT

Thrive: Superfood Nut Bars by @GoMacro

My husband's team won the biggest loser  contest  at his work.  He was worried that they were not going to win since he didn't lost  as much weight as he wanted to.  He only lost  26 lbs over the course of few months. Some of his team mates however have  lost a lot of weight so that made for it.  I remember last year, my husband got so skinny because aside from  dieting, he also workout a lot.  This time though, he only watched what  he ate and did not  work out.  The only fitness he did was  walk and it worked.  

Aside from watching what he eats, he also  replaced  his sugary snacks with healthy ones like this SuperFood Nutbars from GoMacro.  The six new flavors contain plant-based protein, essential fatty acids and prebiotic fiber to fuel your body and mind. These flavors are chocolate Nuts Sea salt, chocolate peanut butter chips, almond apricot, blueberry lavender, ginger lemon, and caramel coconut.

Love the new THRIVE super food nut bars by @gomacro . It's packed with ancients seeds. Flavors include #caramel #coconut, #blueberry #lavender, #almond #apricot, #ginger #lemon, #chocolate nuts sea salt and chocolate #peanut butter chips.

A photo posted by Chubskulit Rose (@chubskulitrose) on Oct 2, 2016 at 6:57am PDT

My daughter's favorite is the  caramel coconut and I love it too.  I also love the  ginger lemon and blueberry lavender.  My husband favored the  chocolate flavored ones.  Being a stay at home Mom, I would gain so much weight if I let myself eat just about anything.  I eat snacks  several times a day but I choose snacks that are healthier. I usually go with nuts and fruits.  I highly recommend these new Thrive  nut bars by GoMacro, they are delicious.  You can use the coupon code Thrive30 for 30% off when you buy a dozen of these  nut bars.    

Disclosure: The owner of this blog was NOT financially compensated to write this review.  I was provided with the product/s mentioned  to help me  facilitate this review but  opinions are my own.

Cheese Spinach Puffs Recipe and More Gluten Free Goodness

Gluten free food does not have to be bland or yucky as "other" would say.  I am actually loving  a lot of gluten free  products from Glutino.  They have a lot of  great  products to choose from that are all gluten-free.    Let me give you  a good example of a  yummy gluten free recipe that I just tried using the Yankee cornbread.  Here is the recipe for Cheese-Spinach Puff:

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of Glutino Yankee Cornbread mix
• 2 cups frozen  chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 small onion minced
• 3 eggs lightly beaten 
• 1 cup mozzarella's cheese
• 3/4 cup whip cream
• 6 tbsp melted butter

 Directions:

1. Cooked the spinach and onion together in a saucepan or microwave  in a glass bowl for 5 minutes.  Drain extra liquid.  Set aide to cool.
2. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, cheese, whip cream, and butter.  
3. Fold in the corn bread mix and stir  until completely moistened.
4. Gold in the spinach mixture and  chill 1-2 hours.  
5. Shape into 1-inch balls.  Bake for 10-12 minutes  at 350 degrees oven.  

 This was my first time making cheese spinach puffs and they turned our really good.  It was delicious to eat with the vegetable soup that I made that day.

 Another yummy gluten free product that I just tried and like is their English muffins.  I made my husband an English muffin sandwich for breakfast with  fried spam and egg and he said it was delish.  U even love the muffin  filled with  the hazel nut  spread.

 Here's another gluten free goodness that I just recently tired, the Glutino pancakes.  I made some fluffy pancakes using their pancake mix.  I added 1 egg to a 1 and 1/2 cups of pancake mix, 1 1/3 cups milk, and 3 tbsp oil.  I also added  a banana to it and it was delicious

If you or anyone you know is looking for good  gluten free  variety of products, I highly recommend Glutino.

Disclosure: The owner of this blog was NOT financially compensated to write this review.  I was provided with the product/s mentioned  to help me  facilitate this review but  opinions are my own.

Trying the Italian Pantry through Try the World

Part of the adventure when traveling is trying local  cuisine from the place you are visiting.  But traveling  is  not always possible due to financial issues or  schedule issues.  That doesn't mean you can not try different cuisine because Try the World  make it possible to  do so with their subscription boxes.  I have never been to Italy  but I have tried some Italian menus in the past.  I'm very excited  receiving this Italy box  from Try the World because I get to  try making some of the dishes that I only see on food  shows on TV.  

There are 8 specialties from Italy  in the box  including  Hazelnut cream by Maison della Nocciola, ground coffee by Giuliano Caffee, Persto Sauce by Cascina San Cassiano, Classic Amaretti by Marabisi, Truffle Zest by Zabatino Tartufi, Mushroom Risotto kit by Terrigena, Balsamic Vinegar by Societa Agricola, and Egg Pappardelle by La Pasta de Aldo.

The very first thing that we tried or my daughter tried  was the classic amaretti.  She told me that it has weird  taste so I  tried it myself and she was right, there was that initial shock when you first but into it, it is very strong.  We didn't find it  very good but it was nice to try it.

These cookies  are made of almond so I had high hopes that it will be awesome since I love almond.

I seldom use pesto in a dish, I think I only   made one dish with it  before.  So  when I saw this  pesto, I got excited because I always see Italian pasta dish on TV with and I thought I would be able to  try it.

Making this pesto was easy, I only added green peas  to it to make the egg pappardelli pasta.

It was a really nice dish with an added  cream cheese since I did not have  mozzarella balls.

The pasta dish was a perfect combo for the pork BBQ I made that day.

Hubby and I  stopped drinking coffee because of his hyper acidity issues   last year.  Sometimes  we  miss having coffee in the morning so this ground coffee will be great  for chilly weekend mornings.  Having coffee once in a while would not be bad I guess so I am glad to have it.

In fact, I already tried it but did not  tell my husband yet lol.  It was a really blend, it wasn't that strong.  Through this Italy box, I have a learned that Italians  have followed  unspoken - but strict - rules  about how to drink it.  It said, never to mix  it with milk unless it's for breakfast and always drink straight shots of  of espresso in one sip.  Very interesting!

This hazelnut  spread is my favorite  among the eight products.  I thought I would be disappointed like the  almond cookie but I was wrong, it's delicious!  I don't eat bread with spread frequently but  this  spread is addicting.  I even  used it for  my English muffin and it was delicious!

Now, let's talk about risotto.  I have never   made risotto before  but thought that it would be easy since it is like  rice but it's actually quite different than I anticipated.  Rice is a lot easier to prepare  and I love it.  The risotto on the other hand  takes a little longer time to prepare  and it wasn't as good as I expected it to be.  I still prefer rice over risotto, maybe because that's what I am used to eating.

But anyway, it was a great experience making the risotto with my daughter.  It was a good pair for the pork tocino that I made and the roasted mushrooms.

Last but not the least is the balsamic vinegar.  I use balsamic vinegar all the time because my daughter love  tomato salsa and I always add balsamic to it.  This  specific balsamic vinegar is quite different from  what I've used in the past.  It was really good one, even my daughter noticed that I used a different balsamic, she liked it too.

Disclosure: The owner of this blog was NOT financially compensated to write this review.  I was provided with the product/s mentioned  to help me  facilitate this review but  opinions are my own.