Condemned: Gluten, Dairy, and Soy

Zucchini Quinoa Lasagna

2012-01-28T21:10:00.000-08:00

I've, temporarily at least, got a new desire to start updating this blog again. So, I'll start with tonight's dinner. I've made this recipe once before and have tweaked it a bit to make it better for me. I've also recently discovered Daiya cheese. This stuff is seriously amazing. I tried a fake cheese once, and only once, and never had the guts to do it again. I was at a local restaurant that advertised this vegan cheese. I looked it up on the internet and saw that it had great reviews. Next time I was at that restaurant I ordered a sandwich with it and was very impressed. I've since been experimenting with it, now that my regular grocery store carries. This stuff is so good that when I used the cheddar crumbles in my scrambled eggs, my step-daughter finished them off for me and she doesn't even like eggs that much. But she loves cheese and thought it tasted like cheese.

Anyway, enough about the cheese. I've been working on moving towards a more vegetarian diet. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I generally don't eat nearly enough veggies. I rarely eat red meat and have been getting bore with chicken lately so I started researching vegetarian recipes as a way to get more veggies in my diet. If my dinners are made of almost nothing but veggies, I really can't go wrong. Since this recipe has quinoa rather than any kind of pasta, it's super healthy for you. It tastes great too and if you use something the Daiya cheese, it's technically vegan.

This recipe originally comes from Vegetarian Times and you can find it here. The first time I made this I didn't have enough zucchini (because really, where did they find such huge zucchini in the first place?) and I used real mozzarella. I can't remember what kind of sauce I used and I'm pretty sure I used chicken broth instead of vegetable broth. Moot points. I meant to take a pic and didn't, because I'm lame so the picture in the link will have to suffice. Without further ado.....

Ingredients:

* 2 large (or 4-5 small) zucchini
* 2 cups vegetable broth
* 1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained (or use 1 cup uncooked Ancient Harvest quinoa)
* 1 jar spaghetti sauce
* 1 small finely chopped onion
* 1 cup sliced baby bella mushrooms
* 1 tsp dried oregano
* 1 1/2 bags (about 3 cups) Daiya mozzarella
* 4 tsp sugar (optional - to reduce the acidity of the tomato sauce)

Instructions:

Cut zucchini into strips, long ways, lay out on paper towels, sprinkle with salt, and cover with more paper towels. Let sit while you prepare the quinoa. This reduces the moisture in the zucchini.Preheat oven to 400 degrees.Mix together spaghetti sauce, broth, quinoa, onion, mushrooms, and oregano in a medium to large sized pot. Bring to a boil and then turn down heat and let simmer for 25 minutes or until the sauce has been absorbed by the quinoa. Spread some of the sauce mix in the bottom of a 16x9 pan. Layer zucchini slices and cheese. Add another layer of sauce, zucchini, and cheese. Top it off with the rest of the sauce mix and cheese. Cover with tinfoil and bake for 25 minutes.

Spaghetti Squash Pesto Shrimp Scampi

2010-05-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

I'm at it again, at least temporarily. I've been trying to think of new things, low carb, low sugar, to make for dinners as I think I've over done it on white rice products and have gained too much weight. Time to get back on track. The problem with low carb is that it's hard to come up with something new that isn't basically the same thing over and over. Meat and veggies, no matter how many different ways you cook them, can get old if you don't have anything to mix it up a bit. So, I came up with making something using spaghetti squash as a pasta substitute. I've never cooked a squash before, the only squash I've really ever eaten is pumpkin, zucchini, and yellow squash. Zucchini and yellow squash don't really count though. Anyway, so I've never cooked a spaghetti squash but I remember my mom making once when I was a teenager and I remember liking it so I thought, why not? I don't really ever do anything with tomato sauce so spaghetti was out. I thought, why not a pesto dish? Why not pesto and shrimp and vegetable thrown together like a scampi dish? With that thought I went to the grocery store, bought everything I needed and tonight proceeded to give it a go. Not too bad at all, I really like it! Hope you do to if you decide to try it. Now, there are two ways you can cook a spaghetti squash. You can either cook it whole, and if you do remember to poke it like you would a potato. Or you can cut it half and cook it. In this recipe I used the cutting in half method so that's how I'll be explaining it. However, in the future I may try cooking it whole because it's very difficult to cut when raw.

What you'll need
1 spaghetti squash
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
15 shrimps
oregano
garlic powder
salt
pepper
olive oil
pesto

Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut the squash lengthwise in half. Place in a baking dish, cut side down, and add about a cup of water. Cover with tin foil and bake for 45 minutes. When there is about 15 minutes left until the squash is done start sauteing the peppers and mushroom in a little bit of olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic powder, oregano, salt, and pepper. Grill your shrimp over medium heat until fully pink. Once the squash is finished, remove it from the oven and turn the pieces over. Using a fork scrape the squash from top to bottom, removing the "meat" which will look like strands of spaghetti. Place everything into one dish, add 2 tablespoons of pesto, and stir it all up. Enjoy!

I'm back!

2010-03-28T19:11:00.001-07:00

I've been MIA both on this blog and with trying anything new. Mostly have been making the same old thing or using someone else's recipes, I just haven't been into it. I got the cooking back again though, as I've gotten bored with my menu and need new things. I really need to stay away from dairy completely so I feel like I'm almost starting over on figuring out things to make.

Tonight I made two new dishes. One isn't entirely new, mostly revised, and the other is a new breakfast bake that I'm excited for. I don't like to get up in the morning any earlier than absolutely necessary so having something quick, easy, and nutritious is major plus in my book. Just scoop onto a plate, heat in microwave, and voila! Breakfast is made.

The first, revised, dish is stuffed green peppers. I decided that this recipe needed to be changed. I'm trying to cut down on my rice consumption as well as trying to ex out dairy altogether. The changes? I substituted quinoa for the rice, ground turkey for the beef, and left out the cheese. I've also recently learned that red bell peppers are chock full of vitamin C, a vitamin I know I don't get too much of due to my acid reflux, so I'm trying to incorporate more of those into dishes.

The second thing I made, well it doesn't really have a name. You can call it an egg casserole, a breakfast back, a sort of crustless quiche, whatever. Basically I combined the best things about a good breakfast (in my opinion anyway) and put them all together in one dish. I used bacon, potatoes, and goat cheese for this dish. And now, on to the recipe's!

Quinoa Stuffed Green Peppers

What you'll need
1 cup dry quinoa
1 pound lean ground turkey
About 1/4 cup sliced mushrooms
1 can corn, no sugar added, liquid drained
1 red bell pepper, cut into pieces

Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook quinoa according to package directions. While the quinoa is cooking, heat a large pot of water on high, cut tops off of green peppers, clean out the insides, slice your mushrooms if you didn't buy them sliced, and cut up the red bell pepper. Once the pot of water come to a boil, drop the green peppers in, making sure they're covered, and boil for 8-10 minutes. Remove from pot, drain out water, and set aside. Cook the turkey until done then add in the mushrooms, red pepper, can of corn, and quinoa. Sautee until mushrooms start to turn dark.* Spoon mixture in the green peppers and place into the oven for 20-25 minutes. Enjoy!

*you may need to add a little oil as mixture may become dry and stick to the pan.

Bacon, Potato, Egg Bake

What you'll need
10 large eggs
1 cup dairy free milk (I use SoDelicious original coconut milk)
2 gold potatoes
1 package bacon
1 package goat cheese

Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Dice potatoes (think potatoes o'brien) and place into a pan with a little oil. Saute for a about 5 minutes on medium heat, then reduce heat, add a little water, and cover. Cook bacon until crisp. Beat eggs and mix in milk. Place crumbles of goat cheese into a square baking dish. Crumble bacon into the egg mixture. As soon as the potatoes are soft, rinse with cool water and then add to the egg mixture. Pour the egg mixture into your square dish and use remaining goat cheese to crumble over the top. Bake for 40-50 minutes until set. Enjoy!

Banana Nut Muffins

2009-09-12T22:10:00.000-07:00

I haven't really been much in the mood for trying new things and blogging about them. Obviously. I've had a really busy summer, kids, mother-in-law visit, garage cleaning, setting up a new business, birthdays, etc. Not to mention that I still work full time. I've just been using the same old recipes over and over again. I have been able to incorporate gluten-free into some of the meals I make for the family. Burritos, for instance. I just substitute corn tortillas and have tacos. We also grilled a lot of hamburgers on the grill this summer and all I needed to do was buy some gluten-free hamburger buns. My local Fred Meyer has EnerG brand "Seattle" buns.

Today, however, before we went grocery shopping, I decided to bake something. I always have bananas in the freezer and I knew we were buying a bunch of frozen goods so I decided to use up those bananas and bake myself something. I went with banana nut muffins. Perfect for breakfast, or for a snack. These turned out good enough that my (now) fiance even likes them. He's usually really picky about gluten free things so if he likes it I know it passes the test for tasting just as good as the "real" thing. I used a flour blend that I got from the Gluten-Free Baking book. It's an all purpose mix and this was my first time trying it with a regular recipe, substituting the flour. To make this basic gluten-free mix you'll need brown rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca starch. I buy the Bob's Red Mill brand. You can find it at most health food stores or grocery stores that have an organic or natural section.

Basic Glute-Free Mix
2 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca starch

Mix it all up and keep in an airtight container. Refrigerated is best but not necessary. I often don't have room in my refrigerator and have never had a problem. If you're using a gluten-free recipe, it will tell you how much xanthan gum to use. If you're using this mix to substitute flour in a regular recipe, figure about a teaspoon xanthan gum per cup of flour. On to the recipe, yes?

What you'll need
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 ripe bananas*
2 cups basic gluten-free mix
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (may be omitted)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend sugar, egg, and oil until well blended. Add in bananas. Add in flour, xanthan gum, and baking soda. Mix until nice and smooth. Fold in walnuts. Spoon drop into greased muffin pan, or ungreased muffin papers. (I used the disposable foil muffin pans with the papers and they didn't stick.) Bake for 30-40 minutes. You'll know when they're done when you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean. Enjoy!

My Trader Joe's Creation

2009-06-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

I've been eating the same things over and over again, having a really hard time coming up with something new using the same ingredients that I can find at Fred Meyer. They opened up a new Trader Joe's near my house quite some time ago but I didn't make it opening weekend. Too many people and, having never been to a Trader Joe's, wasn't all that excited. I decided to stop by a week later, after the frenzy had calmed some. It was pretty busy when I went in there, hard to get through the isles, to many people to really look around and see what they had. I spent all of maybe 20 minutes in there and came up with a frozen risotto dinner and a quart of rice milk. Then I saw the lines. Okay, fight through the crowd to put my two things back, get out of there before I go mad. I had pretty much given up on them but with my recent boredom of food I decided to give them another try. Was I ever glad I did! There weren't many people in there, I could make it up and down each aisle and I could actually see what they had on the shelves. I inspected every shelf of every aisle in that little store. I had to because, unlike Fred Meyer, they don't have all their gluten free things in one handy labeled aisle. It's mixed in and sharing shelf space with their gluten filled counterparts. I keep finding new things that they either didn't have or that I missed on previous trips.

Here are some of my finds that I now regularly buy at Trader Joe's. rice pasta, which is a given, but I prefer theirs over the tinkyada brand. It cooks faster and holds its consistency, making me feel like I'm eating the real thing. Cheaper too, that's always a bonus. They have all kinds of nuts, bagged and salted or unsalted if you prefer that. Dried fruit roll-up thingies, there are flat but very good. Vacuum fried banana chips. I don't even know what vacuum fried really is but this are a great alternative to chips when you're craving something crunchy. Chicken sausages. They have different flavors, they are all white meat chicken, organic, and of course, gluten free. Some of the sausages have cheese in them so check the ingredients and make sure you didn't accidentally grab ones that contain dairy. Sliced white mushrooms that are cleaned, sliced, and bagged. My boyfriend swears that these mushrooms taste better than regular grocery store bought ones. Dark chocolate bars that are made without dairy and soy. This is an especially nice find!

So, if you have a Trader Joe's near you and you aren't familiar with them, it's worth a trip. Everything in their store is organic and cheap, compared to organic items in other stores. Wasn't I supposed to post a recipe of some sort in here? The recipe that I'm going to post is made all from ingredients that I found at Trader Joe's, but if you don't have one in your area you can substitute with any other brand and still make it. I don't really have a name for it, it was just a few things that I thought would taste good together. I call it my Trader Joe's mess or concoction. It's also really quick and easy to make. It also makes a quite a bit. So here it is.

What you'll need
* 1 package penne brown rice pasta
* 1 package chicken sausage, cooked (I've used sweet italian and apple chardonnay flavored sausage and they both taste just as good in this)
* 1 package sliced white mushrooms
* 1 pack of fresh goat cheese
* Olive oil

Instructions
Cook rice pasta according to package instructions. While the pasta is boiling, heat or cook your sausage and saute your mushrooms in a little bit of olive oil. Cut the sausage into slices after it's done heating.

Strain the pasta and rinse excess starch off. Pour pasta into a large bowl, add mushrooms and sliced sausage. Pour some olive oil over the entire dish, about a 1/4 cup or so, maybe slightly less. Add in the goat cheese. It will melt and mix into the entire dish rather than staying in chunky pieces. I usually break it up into pieces over the bowl and then mix in but I've also just dumped the log in whole and mixed it up, it just took longer to spread and melt it that way. Enjoy!

Tuna noodle salad

2009-05-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

Today was our first really hot day of the year. It ended up at 81 degrees today, quite the change from being in the 50's. I was doing my grocery shopping today and I was trying to figure out something to make for myself that was cheap, easy, and won't cause me to swelter any more than I was already going to (I cooked for the family). My boyfriend, well my fiance actually, had talked about a tuna salad a couple of weeks ago and that came to me today. I could make a tuna noodle salad. It's both cheap and easy. I cooked BBQ chicken and rice-a-roni for the family, along with a couple cans of green beans. While I had the chicken boiling I also had my pasta boiling. While that was going I opened up the tuna, peas, and mayo and put it in a container. Once the pasta was done I added it to the mix, mixed some salt and pepper, and put it in the fridge. My dinner was done. Tomorrow I'm grilling hamburgers and corn on the cob. I've got some gluten free buns in the freezer so I'll thaw one for tomorrow and then I get to eat the same thing along with my family. That doesn't happen often and it's nice to be able to enjoy the same meal I cook for them. Enough of that, on to the recipe.

What you'll need
*2 cans tuna (I use bumblebee in water)
*2-3 tablespoons canola mayonnaise
*1 package rice noodles (I used tinkyada elbow pasta)
*1 can sweet peas
*about a teaspoon of mustard
*salt and pepper

Instructions
Cook pasta according to package instructions. Put all ingredients except salt and pepper into a big bowl or tupperware like container. This way you can save it and not use extra dishes. Once the pasta is cooked, strain and rinse it with cold water. Add the pasta to the tuna and mayonnaise mix and mix together, adding salt and pepper to taste, until well blended. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Should be back soon

2009-05-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

For those one or two people who are actually reading my blog, sorry for the long delay. I've been having some health problems and just haven't had it in me to try something new. However, my birthday is coming up, and I'm engaged now, so I've been looking at cakes. Well, I've been trying to get ideas on wedding cakes and I was inspired to try and make myself a birthday cake. A decorated gluten, dairy, soy free cake. I'll let you know how that goes, as long as it goes well I'll be posting a recipe of course. Hope you are all well.

Turkey quinoa meatloaf

2009-04-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

I decided to try a different spin on meatloaf. I still have the box of quinoa from the first time I made meatloaf. It's been sitting in the cupboard daring me to try something with it. Quinoa is such a foreign food to me that I've been afraid to really experiment with it. Although I still enjoyed the regular meatloaf I made something was a little off about it. I realized what was wrong earlier today. You're supposed to cook it first! Silly me, I just threw it into the meatloaf mixture right out of the box. No wonder something wasn't quite right. Live and learn, told you quinoa was foreign to me. So I decided to learn a little bit about it since it seems to be a common food for a gluten free diet.

Did you know that quinoa is like a super food? It is closely related to beets, spinach, and tumbleweed and it is actually the seeds that you cook and eat. The Inca's thought the crop to be sacred and referred to it as the "mother of all grains." It is a high protein grain and has a balanced set of essential amino acids. It is also a good source of phosphorous, magnesium, and iron. It is an unusually complete source of protein. Best of all it's naturally gluten free and considered easy to digest. It's very versatile. You can use it for a number of recipes including breakfasts and desserts. Given all that information, a turkey meatloaf suddenly seems extremely healthy!

So, for the turkey meatloaf I fully cooked the quinoa, then added it to the meat mixture. I'm sure someone has read my meatloaf recipe just shaking their head at me. Once the turkey meatloaf was out of the oven and I was able to taste it, whoa what a difference. It was delicious! In fact, I prefer the turkey over the beef. I also made it more friendly for acid reflux. Lesson learned, learn how to properly cook new foods before trying them. There was quite a bit of leftover quinoa and I wasn't sure what to do with it. As I've stated, I've never really had it before so I tried some of it right out of the pot. Not bad, bland though, I can see why it's usually mixed with other things. I sprinkled a little garlic salt into it, stirred it up, and viola! Not so bland and the perfect carb to go with most anything. Now I'm looking forward to experimenting with quinoa more.

What you'll need
2 pounds ground turkey
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 egg
About 1/4 cup ketchup
1 onion, diced
Herbs and spices of your choosing
Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
Instructions
Cook quinoa according to package instructions. Saute diced onions in a small pan with a little olive oil*. In a large bowl mix ground turkey, egg, Worcestershire sauce (a few dashes is how much I put in), herbs and spices**, onions, quinoa, and sugar***. Mix it all together until well mixed. Put into a loaf pan and cook for one hour to one hour and 15 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 180 degree. Enjoy!

*Okay to put onions in raw. I saute them first to help cut down on the acidity of them so they're not so potent in the meatloaf.

**I used dashes of each of the following (I don't measure much): garlic salt, seasoning salt, oregano, basil, and a small amount of cayenne powder.

***The sugar is only used to reduce the acidity of the ketchup, it doesn't affect the taste so it's okay to skip this ingredient.

Hot Chocolate

2009-04-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

Living in Seattle, we have a lot of dreary and cold days. Especially this time of year. From October through May it's mostly rain. One of the things I've missed most since going dairy free was hot chocolate. It's always been one of my favorite warm me up, feel good drinks. Particulary in the evenings. There's nothing better than sitting by the fire with a nice cup of hot chocolate and a good book in hand. That is one of my favorite winter activities. I have not been able to find any hot chocolate, either in syrup or powder form, that didn't have dairy and/or soy. So I came up with my own way to make hot chocolate, dairy and soy free. It's easy and delicious. All you need is a container of unsweetened powdered cocoa. You can find this in the baking aisle. Make sure you don't get a sweetened or flavored powder as these generally have soy. The unsweetened is just pure cocoa powder, hershey's has one that is pretty cheap. The only other things you'll need is sugar and a milk substitute. My favorite for this recipe is rice dream, vanilla flavor. The vanilla goes perfectly with the chocolate.

What you'll need
*4 teaspoons sugar
*2 teaspoons cocoa
*2 cups milk substitute

Instructions
In a medium pot on medium heat, put in sugar and cocoa and mix together. Add rice milk and stir with a whisk. It will look foamy at first but as the milk heats the chocolate will melt. Continuously stir with whisk until it's hot. Pour into a 16oz cup, or two 8oz cups and enjoy!

Banana Pancakes

2009-04-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

I have this next week off of work. Hooray for vacation time! So, with all this time off I decided that I would try some more baking experiments. I tried one tonight that I thought was delicious. Dinner this evening ended being breakfast. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to eat and all of sudden it came to me. Why not try making pancakes? They shouldn't be too difficult to make gluten free and dairy free right? Right! They were very easy actually, and taste great. I chopped some banana pieces into the batter but you could make them without the banana.

I also have a couple more baking recipes that turned out pretty well but I'm still fine tuning them. I figure if it doesn't taste good enough for my family to like it then it's not quite right. I want gluten, dairy, soy free goodies that taste just as good as the real thing. I think also that my taste buds have changed and sort of adapted to eating gluten free. I made some chocolate chip cookies that I thought were pretty darn good, my family spit them out. So, I'll keep trying to make a better cookie and today I learned how to remove casein from butter so next time I make cookies I'll try that and see how it works out.

I'm starting to think that lactose is not what I'm intolerant to. I've tried many lactose free meals and still had reactions so now I'm cutting out casein to see if maybe I can narrow down my dairy culprit. Of course, it could very well be both. Intolerance's are not as easy to pinpoint as allergies. It was also never 100% confirmed that I do not have celiac disease and many celiac's are intolerant to casein.

Enough of that, huh? On to the recipe!

What you'll need
*1 cup brown rice flour
*1/2 cup tapioca starch
*1/4 cup corn starch
*2 tbsp sugar
*1 tbsp baking powder
*1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
*1 tsp vanilla
*1 banana (optional)
*3 eggs
*1 cup rice milk (or your preferred milk substitute)
*1 cup water

Instructions
Blend all dry ingredients together in a fairly large bowl. Add the eggs and mix until eggs are absorbed. Add the milk and mix well. The mixture should be pretty thick by now. Add about half the water and mix until you get good pancake batter consistency. Pancake batter shouldn't be too thick, should still have lumps, and be easily pourable without being runny. Heat up your pan or electric skillet to a medium heat. Pour batter onto skillet. Just like regular pancakes, when you start to see lots of bubbles forming it's time to flip. Makes 10-12 medium sized pancakes. Enjoy!

Sweet basil pesto chicken with pasta

2009-03-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

I had to go to QFC for something for my boyfriend the other day and while I was there I decided to look around for some new ideas of things to cook. They had an extremely limited gluten-free section but I did find a bag of dairy, soy, and gluten-free chocolate chips. I'm going to figure out something to make with those this weekend. Not finding much else I just started browsing the aisles. I thought about some sort of white or creamy sauced pasta dish but I was unable to find any white sauces that did not contain soy. What I did find gave me an idea though. I was looking at the sauce mix packets and found an organic sweet basil pesto sauce mix. It didn't have any of my offending ingredients so I bought it. After I got home I was trying to figure out what I could make using pesto. Pasta had to be in there, I personally can't imagine pesto going with anything else. Then I thought, why not chicken? Chicken is so versatile with what you can make with it. So for dinner tonight, while my familiy's meatloaf was cooking in the oven, I cooked up some chicken and rice pasta, made the pesto, then mixed it all together and viola! Dinner is served. This was an especially easy dinner to make, taking less than a half an hour from start to finish. You could also add in some artichoke hearts, garlic, or whatever else sounds good to you. Sprinkled with parmesan cheese would make it good also.

What you'll need
* 1-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I cut them into thick strips but you could cook them whole as well.)
* I package of brown rice fettucini or spaghetti noodles
* I package dry pesto mix
* 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions
Heat up a pot of water to cook the pasta in. Cook chicken in 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat until white throughout. I start the pasta first then let the chicken simmer while the pasta is boiling, turning once or twice to make sure it cooks evenly. Cook the pesto according to the instructions on the package. Drain the pasta, add the chicken and the pesto, mix it all together and you're done. Enjoy!

In search of something new

2009-03-15T14:46:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to get bored already with the meals I've come up with to cook for myself over the past couple of months. I need something new and exciting. I need a new cooking challenge. So today I'm going to the new Trader Joe's to see what kind of gluten free goodies and inspirations I can find there. I'm thinking maybe lasagna. That should be easy for me, but it would be a white sauced lasagna since tomatoes are no good for me. What I really want is to try something I've never tried before. Maybe some sort of squash with risotto, something with veal perhaps, or maybe pork chops. Pasta dishes are something that I have a lot of experience with but have not experimented much with gluten free. I'm also aching to use my crock pot which has been sitting in the corner of my kitchen collecting dust, the poor thing. It's tough sometimes to try to figure out a way to cook things I know I would like but to omit dairy and soy. If I only had to omit one or the other life would be so much easier. It's okay though, secretly I like the challenge. My only real problem is time. I don't have a lot of it to be able to be at home and cook things that are complex or take more than an hour to make.

Hopefully there will be some new recipes coming soon to my blog. More variety, not just dinners. I want to expand to add snacks, lunch ideas, breakfasts, and more. I'm slowly but surely working on gluten free baking. This has been something that has intimidated me for quite some time and I finally decided to dive into it. Also to be coming in the future, pictures! What kind of food blog am I running without pictures to help accentuate the yummy-ness of the recipes I've come up with? My blog definately needs some visual stimulization.

Lemon Chicken

2009-03-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've updated anything here. Sorry about that. Live has been busy and I don't always get computer time seeing as I share a computer with two teens. I've been busy delving into gluten free baking. When I have some recipes perfected I'll be adding those on here. I've also been trying to work on some breakfasts. I've almost got hollandaise sauce down but it still needs a little bit of work. Anyway, I did make a new dinner and thought I'd share. It's very easy and delicious. Lemon chicken has always been one my favorite dishes at chinese restaurants so I decided to try it for myself.

What you'll need
2 cups gluten free chicken broth (I buy progresso)
2 cups lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons corn starch
3 tablespoons cold water
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Instructions
Cut chicken breast into strips and cook in a little canola oil over medium heat. For the sauce heat chicken broth in a medium sized pot. Bring it to a boil, add lemon juice and sugar. In a seperate bowl mix corn starch and water until corn starch is disolved. Add corn starch mixture to the pot, bring to a boil stirring constantly with a whisk. Reduce heat and continue stirring until sauce thickens. Pour over the cooked chicken. I also serve this with some white rice. Enjoy!

Meatloaf

2009-02-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

Everybody likes comfort foods and meatloaf is a classic american comfort food, at least in my opinion. I cook meatloaf for my family on a regular basis but because I put crackers in it I haven't eaten it myself. I missed it so I decided to try a gluten free meatloaf. I was very happy with the results, it tasted like the meatloaf I was used to. Meatloaf is one of those things where everyone has their own recipe. Spices and/or herbs, bread crumbs or crackers, ketchup or gravy. I throw in quite a few herbs and the only spice I use is a little bit of chili powder. In my house we prefer ketchup over gravy, it's how we ate meatloaf as kids and it's how our kids prefer it also. I also like to add chopped onion to my meatloaf. There are two ways you could make a gluten free meatloaf. You can use rice crackers to substitute the saltines, or you can use quinoa. I prefer quinoa, rice crackers aren't as easy to crunch up as saltines and with quinoa you can just pour some into the raw meat and mix it in. I also used organic gluten free ketchup, which does not contain dairy or soy. The only difference I noticed with making a gluten free meatloaf was that it took longer to cook. I think it must have to do with the quinoa since crackers don't really need to be cooked. That's my guess anyway.

What you'll need
2 pounds lean ground beef (I use 7% fat, the leanest I can find)
1 onion, chopped
A dash or two of oregano, basil, rosemary, italian seasoning, chili powder, garlic salt, worcestershire sauce.
1 egg
About a 1/3 cup of quinoa
Ketchup

Instructions
Mix all ingredients into the raw meat. For the ketchup just squirt some into the mixture. I don't measure the ketchup, I just squirt a layer over the top of the meat and then mix in. You want it to be kind of sticky when it's all mixed, if it's too wet add more quinoa. Put mixture into a loaf pan and bake at 375 for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. I check the temperature of the meatloaf with a meat thermometer to make sure it's fully cooked. Serve with ketchup or eat as is. Enjoy!

Turkey Noodle Casserole

2009-02-13T17:06:00.000-08:00

A while back I had tried some gluten free pasta and found it way to dense. I stayed away from the rice pastas but decided to give it another try. One thing I've learned about living gluten free is that you have to be willing to go through trying out the bad stuff in order to find the good. I don't remember what brand of pasta I bought this last time but it came in a bag, not a box, and I bought it at Fred Meyer. I was impressed with this one. It was nice and soft the way I like pasta to be, rather than dense and a bit dry. This was a very easy meal to make and lasted me for three days. It's not completely dairy free but it is lactose free and if you absolutely can't have any dairy you could always leave out the cheese, or substitute for a non dairy cheese.

What you'll need
1 package of turkey breast strips
1 bag of gluten free pasta (I used elbow noodles)
3 stalks of celery, sliced
1 can sweet peas
sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 cups milk substitute (I prefer hemp milk)
Shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Instructions
Cook turkey strips until they are white all the way through. Cook pasta according to package instructions. In a casserole dish combine pasta, turkey, peas, celery, mushrooms, and milk. Mix thoroughly. Stir in some shredded cheddar and top the casserole with a layer of cheese. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Enjoy!

Apple, cranberry, walnut chicken

2009-01-27T19:58:00.000-08:00

My mom had gotten me a desk calendar that was 365 days of slow cooker recipes. She got it for me shortly after I bought my crock pot and was looking for new things I could make in it. One of the recipes in the calendar was for cranberry apple chicken. The first time I tried it I followed the directions exactly and found the cranberries to be too tart and didn't enjoy the meal much. I tried it again a few weeks later without the cranberries and still wasn't happy with it. The chicken kept coming out too dry and the apples turned to apple sauce when moved. I still liked the idea of apple cranberry chicken. It just sounds like it should be delicious to me. After realizing that my crock pot is way to big for my small little meals I decided to try making an apple cranberry chicken dish my own way and I thought that adding walnuts to it would make it even more delicious. To solve the problem of the cranberries being too tart I tried dried cranberries instead of fresh. This made a huge difference. Also cooking it in the oven helped the apples turn out much better as well. I was extremely happy at how well this turned out and I think it will become one of my favorite meals. The hardest part about making it is cutting and peeling the apples. I like easy meals. I cooked up some rice to go along with this but it's just as good without if you want to make it lower carb.

What you need
3 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
2 green apples, peeled and cut into slices
1 bag of dried cranberries
Walnuts, chopped
2 cups unsweetened apple juice
1/3 cup brown sugar

Instructions
Place chicken breasts in an oven pan or dish. Arrange apples, cranberries, and walnuts all around the chicken. In a seperate dish mix brown sugar with apple juice. Pour over chicken. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Enjoy!

Baked Halibut

2009-01-24T19:24:00.000-08:00

For dinner tonight I decided on fish. Halibut is a special treat for myself that I don't make very often due it's price tag. I was very pleased with how it turned out with veggies baked right along with it. I've been on a bell pepper kick lately and used both yellow and red for this recipe. This meal is loaded with omega 3's, low in fat, and low carb. I do like to have a carb with my dinners so I bought a box of gluten free macaroni and cheese and substituted the milk with hemp milk. Hemp milk is my new best friend because you can't even tell the difference in the finished product.

I made chicken parmesan for the family tonight. I prepared my halibut while I had oil heating in the electric skillet. I put my dinner in the oven and was free to then concentrate on their dinner. I love baked dishes for that reason, it makes cooking two seperate meals at the same time so much easier. There is a way to make chicken parmesan gluten free but since I can't eat the tomato sauce, due to acid reflux, I don't bother. I'll post a recipe for it in the future for those of you that can eat tomato sauce. For now I'll give you my halibut recipe.

What you'll need
1piece of fresh halibut (about a pound)
1 zuchinni, sliced
1 yellow squash, sliced
1 yellow pepper cut into long strips
1 red pepper cut into long strips
Handful of fresh spinach leaves
Olive oil
Basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Line a square or pie dish with a long piece of tin foil. Pour about a teaspoon of olive oil onto the foil. Layer spinach leaves on the bottom. Place the halibut on top of the spinach and baste the halibut with olive oil. Arrange peppers, zuchinni, and squash all around the halibut. Sprinkle basil all over halibut and peppers. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Bring ends of foil together and fold. Using another long piece of foil, lengthened the opposite direction as the first, place the foil pack of food on the other piece of foil. Bring the ends together and fold, creating sort of a pouch without leaks. Place the halibut pack into the dish and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Enjoy!

Stuffed Green Peppers

2009-01-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

In my quest to find new things to eat I came up with the idea of stuffed peppers. This is something I used to make in my younger years and had almost forgotten that I knew how. My boyfriend does not like stuffed peppers so I never had the opportunity to make them since we've been together. I made myself two of these peppers, to last me for two nights, and realized that I had enough filling left over for many more so this recipe is for six.

It turned out to be quite an adventure making these. Not because they are difficult at all but because my clumsy, messy self created a problem in the kitchen. I had just gotten the water to a boiling to cook the rice (I don't have a rice cooker) and as I was measuring the rice into the water my grip on the rice bag slipped and resulted in spilling rice all over the stove, counter, and floor. As a result some of the rice ended up underneath the burner. This is what I accidentally found out. Dry rice is flammable. First I lit a paper towel on fire by attempting to sweep some of the rice off the stove and touching the paper towel to the burner. I put it out in the sink and turned around to throw away the paper towel. I heard a whoop noise and turned to see my rice pot completely encircled in flames. I turned off the burner and removed the pot to a different burner. After the burner cooled off I cleaned up the mess, reassembled the burner, and continued my cooking. Lesson learned, measure rice away from the stove. Lucky for me I was home alone and didn't have to suffer the embarrassment of my family's comments regarding my blond clumsiness. Hopefully when or if you make these you'll have better luck. Even with all that they still turned out great and this is a recipe that I will definitely be using many times for myself. It's not entirely dairy free but it is lactose free. I used aged sharp cheddar cheese for this recipe, which has no lactose and it seemed to be fine for my poor sensitive tummy. You can also substitute any of the veggies that I use for your own taste buds.

To give you an example of how I cook two meals at a time I had also made a steak dinner for my boyfriend. I prepared my peppers first and while they were cooking in the oven I cooked steak, sauteed mushrooms, and fettucini. By the time his dinner was finishing my peppers were ready to come out of the oven and we were able to sit at the table and eat together.

What you'll need
2 cups cooked rice
1 pound ground beef, cooked thoroughly
1 can peas
6 green peppers, tops cut off and insides taken out
1 yellow pepper, chopped into pieces
6-8 small white mushrooms, chopped into pieces
Seasoning salt
Salt and pepper to taste
Aged sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Instructions
In a splash of olive oil, saute yellow peppers, mushrooms, and peas until slightly soft. In a large pot, boil green peppers for 6-8 minutes. Add vegetables and rice to cooked ground beef and blend together. Line an oven safe dish with foil, set green peppers in the dish. Fill green peppers with rice, veggie, beef mix. Top of with shredded cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until cheese is bubbly. Enjoy!

Vegetable and Goat Cheese Quiche

2009-01-13T18:52:00.000-08:00

Spaghetti and meatballs was on the menu for my family tonight. The easy way, frozen meatballs heated in some store bought sauces. For myself I decided to try something new. I had a zuchinni and yellow squash, and I bought a red and a yellow bell pepper and decided to make a dinner quiche out of it. The idea originally came from Karina's Kitchen but I made my own variations. I use fresh goat cheese which makes this recipe dairy free. You could substitute for any cheese of your liking, depending on your diet. This is one of my favorite recipes so far. I use hempmilk for this recipe it's creamier than rice milk and works well as a milk substitute in most recipes. You can also use regular milk or light cream. Since this is a gluten free recipe the quiche is crustless, but so good you don't even notice something's missing. You can also mix and match on the veggies. Every time I make this it's a bit different. For me though, it's got to have the spinach.

What you'll need
1 zuchinni
1 yellow squash
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 bunch spinach, washed and stems cut off
4 large eggs
1/2 cup original hempmilk
1 package fresh goat cheese
Basil

Instructions
Slice zuchinni and yellow squash then cut slices into fours. Cut peppers into strips then cut in half. I find that the smaller pieces work better. Also cut spinach into smaller pieces. Toss the veggies so that they are mixed together. Put veggies into the pie plate (I use a 9" pirex pie plate) and put all but about an ounce of the goat cheese over the vegetables. In a seperate bowl beat eggs and hempmilk until well blended. Pour over veggies and feta. Sprinkle top with remaining feta. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Enjoy!

Swimming Rama, My Version

2009-01-11T18:45:00.000-08:00

I came across a wonderful blog not to long ago and decided to try a variation on one her recipes. Her blog can be found here
Karina's Kitchen . Peanut sauce has always been one of my favorite things but it's so rare that I get to have it. I made this for dinner last night and thought it was wonderful. This will most definately be something I make again in the future. As for the rest of my family, I made them fried pork chops, my special (that's what the kids call them) garlic mashed potatoes, and canned green beans. I thought my dinner was better but they don't have the same affection for peanut sauce as I do. Tonight I'm reheating the rest of my swimming rama dish. The others? They're having BBQ chicken with rice a roni and corn. Tomorrow is our going out night so I will not be cooking at all.

Swimming Rama
What you'll need:
-Skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips about two inches long
-Five to six tbsp creamy natural peanut butter
-One and a half to two cups chicken broth (progresso's chicken broth is gluten free)
-One tbsp basalmic vinegar
-Dash (or two, depending on how hot you want it) cayenne powder
-Fresh spinach leaves
-Rice (optional)

Instructions
Start cooking the rice according to package instructions if your making rice to go with this. Heat chicken broth in small saucepan over medium heat. While broth is heating up, sautee chicken in a little canola oil in skillet. Steam your fresh spinach until hot and soft. While the chicken and spinach are cooking, add peanut butter butter, basalmic vinegar, and a pinch of cayenne pepper to the chicken broth. Stir with a whisk until smooth and creamy. You may have to taste test to see if you'd like to add more cayenne pepper. I don't like things too hot but others do. Once everything is done cooking put chicken and spinach on plate and pour the sauce over it. If your having rice you can either eat it plain on the side or, how I like, put the rice on your plate first and then put the rest of the ingridients over the rice. Enjoy!

First post, tuna and potato chip casserole recipe

2009-01-11T15:25:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to my new blog! I'm very excited to have started this blog and I look forward to sharing recipes, tips, and ideas to anyone interested. I will try to update as regularly as I can and will include my own gluten, dairy, and soy free recipes along with other recipes of what I cook for my family. When I first embarked on this adventure I had a really hard time trying to find things that didn't contain gluten, dairy, or soy. I got depressed about having such a limited diet and not being able to eat with my family. So I started doing some research and really paying attention at the grocery store to find things that were tasty, not to difficult to make, and didn't contain my three no no's. Variety is a big deal to me as I don't like eating the same thing over and over again. I also try to make sure my meals are nutritious and not lacking in protein and vegetables. Since my meals are only for me I usually cook a portion that will last me two days, I'm okay with eating the same dinner two nights in a row but beyond that I get bored with it. I'm also working on efficiently being able to cook my dinner while I'm cooking my family's dinner so that even though my food is different, we all get to eat together as a family. If you don't have any diet restrictions my meals can easily be converted to use regular ingridients.

So, for my first post I'd like to share with you a very simple recipe. It's high in protein and omega 3's. Hope you enjoy!

Tuna and Potato Chips Casserole
What you'll need:
-Six 5oz. cans of tuna
-One bag of frozen peas
-Three celery stalks, chopped
-Garlic powder, to taste
-Pepper, to taste
-One bag baked ruffles original potato chips
-One half jar of canola mayo

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingridients except chips into a casserole dish (I use a 9x9 pirex dish)
Crunch up a few handfuls of potato chips and stir into the casserole. Top off the casserole with crunched up potato chips. Bake for 35-40 minutes.