Mixes

Mixes From The Heartland Chocolate Pudding Delight and Pie Crust

February 6, 2010 By FabGrandma

I combined Mixes From The Heartland’s Chocolate Pudding Delight and their Pie Crust Mix to make a fabulous chocolate pie.

I made the pie crust first. Now my confession here, is that I have never been able to make a pie crust before, either from scratch or from a mix, using wheat flour or using gluten free flours. I am just “pie crust challenged”.

But this pie crust was easy. Because the bag has instructions for makin four crusts, and I only needed one, I divided the mix and used the following:

1 cup of Pie Crust Mix
¼ cup butter
1 egg

Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a fork, then add the egg and mix until everything is wet and sticks together. Form into a ball. Roll out between waxed paper (I didn’t have any waxed paper—aluminum foil works fine). Now here is the real test of a pie crust: the whole thing held together while I transferred it from the aluminum foil to the pie plate. Fit the crust into the pie plate and press the tines of a fork all along the edge. Trim off excess dough. Prick the bottom of the crust a couple of times with a fork. Bake in a 400 degree oven for twenty minutes. This crust came out nice and golden brown.

While the crust was baking, I made the pudding mix. Add dry mix and ½ cup hot water in a pan. Mix well. Cook over low heat until ingredients dissolve.

Add 2 cups milk and stir until mixture thickens. Because I was making this into a pie, I added 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour so it would be thicker. You could also only use 1 ½ cups of milk instead. I let the pudding and the crust cool for about an hour, then poured the pudding into the crust. Place a piece o plastic wrap on top of the filling. Refrigerate overnight.

Chocolate Delight Pudding Mix and Pie Crust Mix from Mixes From The Heartland combined to make this chocolate cream pie.

The next day, I cut the pie and served to FabGrandpa. The crust held up very nicely—it did not crumble and fall apart before I could get the piece onto a plate. And the filling wasn’t too loose—it didn’t spread all over the plate:

If you’re looking for a really good, easy to prepare, gluten free chocolate pie, this is a good choice.

Ingredients:

Pie Crust Mix: Brown and white rice flour (organic), cornstarch (Non GMO), xanthan gum, tapioca starch, sugar, non aluminum baking powder and sea salt.

Calories: 150 per ¼ cup mix Carbohydrate: 35 grams per ¼ cup mix

Chocolate Pudding Delight: White and brown rice flour (organic), sugar, tapioca flour, corn starch (Non GMO), xanthan gum, cocoa, natural vanilla powder (Non GMO corn starch, vanilla beans).

Calories: 180 per ¼ cup mix (about 1/6 of mix) Carbohydrates: 42 grams per ¼ cup of mix.

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Filed Under: Gluten Free, Mixes, Mixes From The Heartland, Pie Mix, Review Tagged With: Gluten Free, Mixes From The Heartland, pie, pie crust

Give Away $50 Mixes From The Heartland

February 5, 2010 By FabGrandma

The good folks over at Mixes From The Heartland sent me a goodie box with several of their mixes to try out. All of their products are Gluten Free. I have been a fan of theirs ever since I tried their Gluten Free Country Dumpling Mix, and haven’t found anything yet that I didn’t like. I really love that I can use one of their mixes to make up a quick family meal when I’ve had a busy day. Their product line includes soups, casseroles, and one dish meals, in addition to a variety of gluten free baking mixes, dips, and desserts. I used their Chocolate Delight Pudding Mix and their Pie Crust Mix to make a delicious Chocolate Cream Pie.

Chocolate Delight Pudding Mix and Pie Crust Mix from Mixes From The Heartland combined to make this chocolate cream pie.

To kick off the new look for my blog, Mixes From The Heartland is giving away a $50 “shopping trip” at their online store. To enter:

1 Follow Mixes From The Heartland on Twitter, then come back here and leave a comment.

2.For a second entry, go to Mixes From The Heartland and take a look at what they have to offer, then come back here and make a comment telling me which item you would most like to try.

3. Follow me on my RSS feed, and comment again to let me know you did for a third entry. Good luck! The last day for entries is February 14, 2010.

Filed Under: Give Aways, Mixes From The Heartland Tagged With: Give Aways, Gluten Free, Mixes From The Heartland

Manischewitz Potato Pancakes

February 4, 2010 By FabGrandma

Today I am going to tell you about Manichewitz Potato Pancake Mix. It was really easy to make: just add an egg and a cup of water, mix, and let sit for five minutes. Drop by tablespoonfuls into a skillet with oil and fry until golden brown on each side. It only took about 20 minutes from box to table.

The pancakes tasted very good—we ate them for breakfast with scrambled eggs one morning, and for dinner with hamburgers one evening. I made mine according to the directions on the box, but they also suggested adding chopped onions and peppers, and that sounded really good, too.

Ingredients: Potatoes (contains sulfites to maintain whiteness), potato starch, salt, onion, vegetable shortening (partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil).

Calories: 80 in 3 pancakes Carbohydrate: 18 grams

Manischewitz Potato Pancakes can be found in most grocery stores in the ethnic foods aisle. At my local Winn Dixie store, the cost for the 3 oz box was $3.49. They can also be ordered online at Amazon.com.

Filed Under: Gluten Free, Manischewitz, Mixes, Review Tagged With: Gluten Free, mix, potato

Mixes From The Heartland Impossible Coconut Pie

February 2, 2010 By FabGrandma

Mixes From The Heartland sent me a package of their Impossible Coconut Pie Mix to try out. This pie is surprisingly easy to prepare, and tastes really good. All you have to do is add 4 eggs, ¼ cup of soft butter or margarine, 2 cups of milk, and the mix to a bowl, mix well, and pour into an 8” pie pan. Then, let it rest for five minutes before popping it into the oven. 40 minutes later, you take a coconut pie, complete with a crust, out of your oven!

Ingredients: White and brown rice flour (organix), sugar, (Non-GMO) corn starch, xanthan gum, tapioca starch, coconut, natural vanilla powder (Non-GMO corn starch, vanilla beans).

Calories per serving: 160 Total carbohydrate 31 grams per serving

FabGrandpa and I enjoyed this very much. The package makes two pies. I froze half of the prepared mixture to use later. When I was ready to use it, I just let it thaw out, poured it in the pie pan, and baked. You could mix the ingredients well, then measure out half, and add half of the egg, butter, and milk. Either way, this is a good, easy dessert.

Mixes From The Heartland Impossible Pie sells for $5.99 on their website

Filed Under: Gluten Free, Mixes, Mixes From The Heartland, Pie Mix, Review Tagged With: Gluten Free, mix, Mixes From The Heartland, pie

Mixes From The Heartland Corn-N-Cranberry Muffins

November 23, 2009 By FabGrandma

I like to eat muffins for breakfast. I used to buy those pouch type muffin mixes with the imitation fruit bits in them because they were so easy and quick to make. My family ate lots of those muffins for breakfast over the years. But since we started eating gluten free, I have not been able to just grab a quick mix and whip up a batch of muffins. Until now.

In the box of goodies I received from Mixes From The Heartland, there was a package of Corn-N-Cranberry Muffin mix. We had them for breakfast this morning. They are very easy to mix up, and bake up golden brown in about 20 minutes.

They have a lot more eggs than I am used to using in a quick mix, but I followed the directions on the back of the package for this trial: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add 5 eggs, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1/2 cup milk or buttermilk and the bag of dry mix. Mix well. Place in greased or paper lined muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Adding a cup of creamed corn is listed as an option, but I did not add it. I used corn oil and buttermilk in mine.

The muffins baked up beautifully. They have tart dried cranberries in them, that add a nice flavor to the finished product. They were not crumbly or dry, and tasted very good. The only thing I would add in the future would be a little sugar, as I like my muffins sweet. If I were to make this as a dinner cornbread, then it has just the right sweetness. The package makes about 18 medium sized muffins.

Ingredients: Cornmeal (Non GMO), white and brown organic rice flour, freeze dried cranberries, sugar, cornstarch (Non GMO), tapioca flour, xanthan gum, non aluminum baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

A 13.6 oz package costs $6.99 and can be ordered online at Mixes From The Heartland.

Filed Under: Gluten Free, Mixes, Mixes From The Heartland, Muffin Mixes Tagged With: gluten free corn bread, Mixes From The Heartland

Mixes From The Heartland Sweet Potato Brownies

November 22, 2009 By FabGrandma

When I got this mix in the mail, I was thinking, ewwwwwhhh! Sweet potatoes in brownies? But now, I am convinced this is one of mankind’s better discoveries, right up there with fire and electricity.

I followed package directions, which were to put the mix, 2 eggs and 1/2 cup butter in a bowl, blend well, pour into a greased 9 X 9 pan, and bake at 325 degrees for 35-30 minutes.

The batter is very thick, so be sure to spread it evenly in the pan.

The brownies come out moist and slightly chewy, and taste more like the blonde brownies I used to make when I still ate the evil wheat than sweet potatoes. They have a sort of butterscotchy flavor, which I love! It was very hard not to eat the whole pan in one day. But I did not, I made them last for 4 days. FabGrandpa liked them, too. His only negative comment was “I thought brownies were supposed to be chocolate.”

I took the photo above on day two–the brownies were still moist, did not crumble, or fall apart. I could actually eat it with that fork you see there. And the one I had tonight, the last one, was still pretty good after four days. If you want to try them for yourself, a package of the mix costs $6.99 and can be ordered at Mixes From The Heartland.

Ingredients: Brown and white rice flour (organic), (Non GMO) corn starch, tapioca flour, sugar, xanthan gum, cinnamon, freeze dried sweet potato, natural vanilla powder (Non GMO corn starch, vanilla beans).