Apple Butter French Toast

Apple Butter French Toast for breakfast on Christmas morning is one of our family’s favorite traditions. When gluten had to be removed from my daughter’s diet, my initial plan was to substitute a gluten-free pancake served with apple butter and cream cheese. My daughter wanted to experiment with a gluten-free alternative for the same toast instead. This recipe is the result of her experimenting.

Bekah’s Gluten-Free Apple Butter French Toast

(a modification of a recipe from The Whitehall Inn in New Hope, Pennsylvania, as featured in A Country Inn Breakfast by Gail Greco)

• 10 slices Udi’s Delicious Soft White Sandwich Bread
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 2 Tbsp. almond milk
• 1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
• coconut oil
• Optional toppings: apple butter, cream cheese, maple syrup or honey

Mix together the eggs, juice, milk and vanilla. Coat both sides of each slice of bread with the egg mixture. Add coconut oil to a skillet or griddle. When the surface reaches about 325°, lay the bread in and pour more of the egg mixture over it. Cook until golden brown, then turn the bread over to brown the other side. Top with apple butter and/or cream cheese if desired and enjoy with maple syrup or honey.

Oh, the irony!

All of our customers received an email from us today, full of info about our Rewards Program, news from recent blog posts, and an invitation to view an interactive greeting card. The subject line of this email was Last Email of the Year! And, for some unknown reason, many of you received it multiple times! Oh, the irony! We apologize for accidentally bombarding your inbox!

Seasonal Substitutions

I started my usual Christmas baking today. Since this time last year, one of my children has learned that eating even one bite of gluten is extremely hazardous to her health. Today I realized that ALL of our go-to recipes for Christmas delicacies include gluten. And I know from past experience that just substituting gluten-free flour for all-purpose does NOT necessarily yield a great result.

While toying with a traditional sugar cookie recipe, I decided to try some almond scones. The recipe was shared recently at Diabetes Brought Us Together by my friend Heidi who learned it from her mother who acquired it from her friend Paula. These scones are incredibly delicious, and they are gluten-free, dairy-free, AND sugar-free! Heidi calls them Paula’s Impossible (to mess up) Almond Scones.  I’m calling mine…

Heidi’s Incredibly Delicious Almond Scones

• 2 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1/4 cup raw honey
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• *Pick an add-in combo

Mix all the ingredients until a thick dough is formed. Drop on baking sheet in generous tablespoon-sized blobs. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes.

*1/2 cup pecans and 1/3 cup shredded coconut

* Chocolate chips and 3 drops orange essential oil

*Dried cherries and chocolate chips

* 1 tsp pumpkin spice and pecans

*Lemon zest and blueberries

I made mine with orange essential oil and dried cherries, and, true to their name, they are incredibly delicious!

I then turned my efforts to our traditional sugar cookie recipe and was very pleased with the outcome!

Melissa’s Almond Sugar Cookies

Cream together 1 stick of butter, 1/3 cup sugar and 1egg. Add 1 tsp. vanilla extract.

Gradually add 1 1/2 cups of almond flour and mix thoroughly.

Form cookies by dropping about 2 tsp. of dough on to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet about an inch apart. (I tried using my cookie press but found the dough to be too thin. I see more experimentation in my future!)

Bake at 350° for 15 minutes.

And, finally, what to do about our family favorite, Apple Butter French Toast??

As a substitute for the French bread stuffed with a mixture of apple butter and cream cheese, I’ve decided to serve a gluten-free pancake and an apple butter/cream cheese spread. Here’s my favorite gluten-free pancake recipe.

Kristin’s Pancakes

Stir together:

1 cup gluten-free oats

1 cup almond milk

1 scoop protein powder

1/2 cup egg whites

2 Tbsp. ground flax seed

2 Tbsp. Greek yogurt

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

Cook in coconut oil.

I hope my family will enjoy these seasonal substitutions. If you have other tried and true gluten-free recipes for seasonal favorites, please share!

Greetings!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here for an interactive greeting card from Smith Family Resources!

Giving Thanks For You!

We are thankful for you, our customers and blog-readers and friends. We hope you have a very special Thanksgiving Day tomorrow!

Don’t forget that Small Business Saturday comes right on the heels of Thanksgiving! This is a fantastic way to stretch your shopping dollars AND support small businesses.

This year, we’re giving thanks for you by rolling Thanksgiving and Small Business Saturday into one long-weekend-long gift. Shop our online store and enjoy FREE SHIPPING to any US location. Plus, save 10% on your entire order by using coupon code SBS2018.

The next time you take a break, go to www.smithfamilyresources.com and shop small and save big! THANK YOU from the Smith family!

All-Natural Deodorant

Beeyoutiful’s All-Natural Deodorant is available in three scents: Sugar & Spice and Flower Fields for women and Spiced Woodlands for men.

Beeyoutiful’s All-Natural Deodorant is the creation of two young women who have always lived in rural areas of the US where all the roads are dirt and if you want butter you had better start shaking that jar of cream to make some! Growing almost all of their own food kept them super busy in the summers but the fall season was the busiest of all with canning and preserving. Somewhere in the midst of all this, they also managed to squeeze in careers as classically trained musicians which meant practice sessions and performances. They learned about hands-on sweat management by good old-fashioned hard work.

Frustrated with the lack of effective all-natural deodorants on the market, they decided to take matters into their own hands and start formulating one for themselves. After much research, trial and error they came up with this marvelously effective all-natural deodorant.

They made a creamy antifungal base of coconut oil, stabilized with beeswax and arrowroot powder. Baking soda was added for its odor-binding capabilities and castor and vitamin E oils help the deodorant go on smoothly. Each of Beeyoutiful’s three options is scented with naturally fragrant compounds and oils that turn the otherwise mundane task of deodorant application into an aromatherapy experience!

· Sugar & Spice contains fir and clove essential oils along with benzoin resin. (The printed label includes lavender essential oil as an ingredient. This is incorrect! There is NO lavender essential oil in the Sugar & Spice Deodorant.)

· Flower Fields includes lavender and geranium essential oils.

· Woodland Spice is blended with cedar, bitter orange and sage essential oils.

Here are some things you should know about how Beeyoutiful’s All-Natural Deodorants work:

First of all, they are not antiperspirant. This means that they will not restrict or slow your body’s natural elimination of sweat. Our bodies detoxify by sweating and it is an important and healthy function to maintain. In times of stress or sometimes due to eating certain things sweat will smell particularly bad. Based on numerous individuals’ experiences, we have observed that individuals who stop using antiperspirant deodorants to swap to something that allows sweating will have 3 months to 1 year of particularly stinky sweat until the toxins that have built up have had a chance to be flushed out. These individuals also tend to sweat in higher volumes for a time after discontinuing antiperspirant products. Again, this is the body’s way of trying to catch up and restore a healthy stasis.

Because they contain essential oils, please use caution when applying to sensitive, broken or irritated skin (such as freshly shaven skin or skin irritated by a razor that isn’t sharp enough). There might be some burning or irritation as a result.

This is not a completely clear product. Test first before using with sleeveless tops or clothing that could show a transfer residue.

Click here to purchase Beeyoutiful’s All-Natural Deodorant.

Ready for Christmas Market!

Come see us this Saturday at the 3^rd Annual Christmas Market in Helena!

Between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday, November 10, Smith Family Resources and 75+ other vendors will be set up in the Family Life Center of First Baptist Church in Helena (815 Highway 52E., Helena, AL 35080). Christmas Market is a great way to see all the great products and services that are available right here in our area. Do your Christmas shopping and support local businesses at the same time!

If you’re not in the area, you can browse our products in our online store any time. Visit www.smithfamilyresources.com and enjoy free shipping when you spend $150 or more.

Hope to see you soon- either in person or online!

 

 

 

A picture is worth a thousand words…

Only three words needed: Miracle Skin Salve!

Keep Going!

Our new website launched two days ago, and we’ve received 20+ messages from our proofreading friends! Keep going! We added 94 products to our site, employing lots of copy and paste. That method often leads to mistakes, so please help us find them!

For every item you call to our attention, you’ll receive an entry into a $25 Amazon gift card drawing to be held Thursday, July 19. There’s no age limit, so feel free to make it a challenge for your kids on summer vacation!

While you’re looking for mistakes, go ahead and add a few things to your cart. Today and tomorrow, use coupon code NEW18 to save 10% on your entire order.

 

Counting down…

Our website is about to have a whole new look!
We’re counting down to Tuesday, July 10!

As soon as our new look is live, we want proofreaders everywhere to put our site to the test. If you find a misspelled word, a link that goes nowhere (or somewhere other than where it should!) or any other kind of error, email us the URL for the page with the problem and tell us what you found. For every item you help us correct, you will receive one entry into a $25 Amazon gift card drawing to be held Thursday, July 19.

And if you’re more into shopping than proofreading, use coupon code NEW18 during the first three days of our new look and save 10% on your entire order. This coupon code is an online offer only and is good Tuesday, July 10, through Friday, July 13.

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