I feel a little bit like Julie from Julie and Julia, where she decides to cook through one of Julia Child's cookbooks.

What I love is that most of the recipes are gluten-free or easily adaptable. I've been eating, cooking, and baking gluten-free for about a year and a half right now and I LOVE it! Sometimes I feel sad when I go to the grocery store and it seems like everything has gluten in it, but the health benefits are awesome and I wouldn't change it!

Last night, I made the blackberry crisp and it was delicious!

The recipe calls for 4 cups of fruit. The topping ingredients are pictured below: 1 cup of old-fashioned oats, 1/2 cup almond meal (I ground up almonds in a food processor - a delicious substitute for flour), 1/2 cup raw unsalted pecans chopped, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup olive oil (I used Bertolli's extra light), and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Mix all the crisp ingredients together:

Sprinkle over washed and dried berries in an 8 inch by 8 inch baking dish.

Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes until the fruit is bubbling and the crisp topping is golden.

Enjoy with some vanilla frozen yogurt!

This afternoon, I made the next recipe in her book, Mini Mac and Cheese! I couldn't find gluten-free elbow macaroni as the recipe called for, so I substituted gluten-free penne, one of my favs!

I used about 2/3 of the box of pasta, 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, 2 Tablespoons of butter for the cheese sauce, and about 1 Tablespoon for coating the muffin tins, 1 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (the recipes calls for only 1/2 cup, but I found I needed more), 1 egg yolk, paprika to sprinkle on top when they're done, and hot sauce.

First, brush the muffin tins with the melted butter and sprinkle the grated Parmesan on the bottom of the muffin cups.

Melt the butter and cheese together, whisk until smooth. Add Dijon, egg yolk, salt, 2 dashes of hot sauce and whisk. Stir in pasta until evenly coated.

Scoop the pasta into the muffin cups and sprinkle a little more grated Parmesan on top of each before putting into the oven. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes (the recipe says 12 to 14 minutes, but 10 worked the best for me).

IMPORTANT TIP: Allow mini pasta cups to cool for at least 10 minutes before removing them from the muffin tins. They will set up as they cool and will be easier to get out of the pans.

They were super yummy and it was a fun recipe because I hardly ever make mac and cheese. Sprinkle with a little paprika on top. Perfect for a dinner party, appetizer dish, or lunch paired with a green salad.

I flipped them over and took this picture so you could see how they set up and are actually little pasta cups. So cute!

Bonus: I found this video of Shauna making the blueberry crisp from her book. So fun!

Hope to update soon with the next couple recipes! Thanks for reading! Happy baking and cooking!