GF Soft Pretzels and Pretzels Dogs

We make soft pretzels all.the.time at my house. My preschooler thinks they are some kind of manna - necessary for life. At first, we made them all in the standard pretzel shape, but we've since grown more inventive. These can be shaped like letters, numbers, or even cut out with cookie cutters. My preschooler's current favorite are "Christmas pretzels." They are his favorite snack - even in late January!

This recipe is so easy, I had to share. I use my Gluten Free Flour Recipe #1 and it does not have xanthan gum added. If your flour includes xanthan gum, do not add more. If you do not need to eat gluten-free, you may use all-purpose (gluten) flour and omit the xanthan gum.

***Soft Pretzels
1 cup warm water
2 Tbsp. yeast
2 tsp. honey
2 2/3 cup flour mix (possibly more if dough gets sticky)
1 tsp. xanthan gum (if not included in your flour mix)

1 egg for brushing over the top (or melted butter or oil)
Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 425. Lightly grease cookie sheet. In large bowl, dissolve yeast in 1 cup warm water (NOT hot). Add honey, flour and xanthan gum (if needed) to yeast mixture. Blend into dough. Knead until well mixed. If necessary, add more water if dough is too dry to work with, or flour if dough is too sticky. Form dough into snake shapes (I do small pretzels, but any size will work), and shape as desired.  Beat egg in a bowl. Brush pretzels with egg (or oil or melted butter) and sprinkle with salt. The egg will cause the pretzels to brown, so spread it as thoroughly across the pretzels as you can. My picture above shows what happens if you don't get it over the whole pretzel!

Bake 8-12 minutes, or until pretzels begin to brown on top.

Super easy!

With the Super Bowl coming up, I've begun planning a "snacky foods" day for my little family. I thought pretzel dogs would be good, but I wanted to test them out before game day to make sure it turned out. I learned some tips along the way, and by the end, I was a pretzel-dog-rolling pro.

You need wax paper for this project in addition to hot dogs and all the ingredients for the pretzel recipe above.

I think they are worth the work. My two-year-old ate two whole pretzel dogs, and she normally eats like a little bird.

***Pretzel Dogs

Prepared pretzel dough (see recipe above)
8 hot dogs (make sure they are GF)
Lots of wax paper and a rolling pin

Mix pretzel dough. On clean work surface, spread out wax paper. Place dough on wax paper. Top with second sheet of wax paper. Roll dough out until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Trim edges of dough to form neat rectangle or square shape. If you are using standard length hot dogs, cut dough into 4 inch by 4 inch squares. With knife, gently go under dough to release it from wax paper. Place square away from the rest of the dough. Put hot dog on the dough, just like this picture below.

Here's where it gets a little tricky. GF dough is notoriously brittle. What worked for me was lifting the wax paper as I rolled. Roll slowly and patiently. If dough starts to stick, gently encourage it with your fingers or a knife to release from the paper. If it starts to break, press it back together with your fingers. It will hold together, you just have to be patient.

Once the dog is rolled up in the dough, place it (seam down) on a lightly greased baking sheet. Repeat until all hot dogs are wrapped. Brush hots dogs with egg and sprinkle with salt. I use kosher salt because the crystals are larger.

Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes. The tops won't brown a lot, but they will brown some. Bake until the bottoms are a nice golden color.

The pretzel dog closest to you in this picture is the last one I rolled. As you can see, I got better as I went along. They tasted great, and we look forward to having them for the big game!

Upside Down Taco Pizza - and taco seasoning recipe

Every once in a while I get an idea in my mind for a recipe experiment and once it's in my mind, I can't stop thinking about it until I try to make it. On my most recent menu plan, I wanted to try making an upside down taco pizza with Food Should Taste Good's lime chips on top. I had never tried their lime chips before, but I knew they would be great because I've loved every other FSTG chip I've tried. Just in case you were wondering, I was even more pleased with the lime chips than I thought I would be. The lime flavor is so subtle, but so zesty at the same time. I don't know how they pulled it off, but these chips are perfect!

The upside down part was inspired by Crockpot 365's slow cooker puff pizza recipe (which is fantastic, by the way).

I have heard that McCormick's mild taco seasoning mix is gluten free, but I forgot to pick some up. That meant creating a taco seasoning recipe in addition to a taco pizza recipe. So, today you will get two for the price of one. :)

***Taco Seasoning
1 Tbsp. tapioca starch
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. dried minced onion
1/4 tsp. sugar (optional)
1/8 tsp. black pepper (pretty much two good-size dashes)

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. There you go! To use for regular taco meat, brown 1 pound ground beef. Then add in either 3/4 cup water or 1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce. Then mix in the taco seasoning mix. Cook until the majority of the liquid has been absorbed. Yum!

***Upside Down Taco Pizza

1 bag Food Should Taste Good lime chips (or about 15 chips), or any other GF corn chips

1 pkg. GF taco seasoning mix, or prepared homemade taco seasoning mix (see above)

1 pound ground beef

1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce

1/4 cup water

1 cup grated cheddar cheese (plus a little for sprinkling on top, if desired)

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup white rice flour

1 cup milk (or milk alternative, I used almond milk)

2 eggs

Shredded lettuce, and any other desired taco toppings

Preheat oven to 400. Grease 9x13 baking dish. In skillet, brown ground beef. Drain. Add tomato sauce and taco seasoning. Mix well and cook until some of the liquid absorbs. Add about 1/4 cup water to mixture. Stir to combine. Remove from heat.

In medium-size bowl, combine flours, 1 cup cheddar cheese, eggs, and milk. Pour meat mixture into bottom of 9x13, spreading evenly to coat. Pour flour-cheese batter over the meat, and use a spoon to spread it evenly over the top. Bake for 28-30 minutes, or until cheese has melted and puffy dough on top springs back when touched. Top with desired cheese, lettuce, and any other taco toppings. Last, top with lime chips. If you want your lettuce to wilt a bit, you can stick it back in the oven for about 1 minute.

Yummmm! My husband forced himself to stop after eating seconds (I think he ate 4 of these sections) because he wanted to have leftovers for lunch! I think that's a compliment!

For anyone wanting to make this NOT gluten free, just substitute 1 cup all purpose flour for the brown and white rice flours.

I read an article today that said pizza is the number one food people eat the night before Thanksgiving. If you traditionally eat pizza the night before the big Turkey Day, why not give this taco pizza a whirl. Hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

Apple-Teriyaki Pork Chops with Apple Gravy

This recipe is a gem! We've made it a handful of times now, and each time it has been well-received by everyone in our family.

Pardon the veggies. We were short on food in the house, so I heated up some stir fry veggies! I served the pork and gravy with brown rice rotini.

***Apple-Teriyaki Pork Chops with Apple Gravy

3 pounds bone-in, or boneless pork chops (about 5 small pork chops)
3/4 cup apple juice - I do 100% juice, no sugar added
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. gluten free soy sauce
1 tsp. ground ginger
dash of pepper

For the gravy:
1 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch mixed into 3 Tbsp. cold water

Combine juice, sugar, soy sauce, ginger and pepper in crockpot. Add pork chops. Cover and and cook on low for about 8 hours, or about 4 on high.

Just before serving, remove the pork chops and pour liquid into a small sauce pan. Heat to boiling. Add cornstarch and water mixture, and continue cooking and stirring until a thicker gravy forms.

Serve with noodles or rice.

Cabbage Pockets (Runzas, Bierocks)!

When I discovered wheat was a large part of my digestive troubles, I had two thoughts: 1) What about rolls at Thanksgiving?! (they were my favorite part of the meal), and 2) What about cabbage pockets?! I knew if I could come up with a gluten-free version of those two foods I would be OK. It took me a while to work up the courage, but I gave cabbage pockets a shot last night for the first time.

I made the dough with xanthan gum, but I'm trying to work that out of my diet too. I plan to make this recipe again using a slurry of boiling water and ground flaxseed in place of the xanthan gum. Once I do that, I'll give you an update on how it went, and will give you steps for doing that when you make these for yourself.

Let me first say, these made me so happy I almost cried. They tasted like home. They reminded me of my time in school (they made these quite often for school lunch), and they reminded me of my Grandma who made the best cabbage pockets in the world. My mom's cabbage pockets come close, but no one makes them like Grandma did! Once I tasted them, I knew my husband would like them. I was not sure what my kids would think. They had never even had a cabbage pocket before, so I didn't know what they would think of my new version. My four-year-old took a bite and said, "Mom, why haven't we had this food before?" My two-year-old ate hers up too...a rare thing for her to eat much of anything in the evenings.

Call them what you will: cabbage pockets, runzas, bierocks. I call them DELICIOUS!

***Cabbage Pockets

Makes 8-9 pockets, and enough filling to freeze for future use. If you want just enough filling for this recipe, cut filling recipe in half.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
1 1/2 cups tapioca flour
3-4 Tbsp. dry powdered milk, or dry dairy-free milk powder 
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. xanthan gum
4 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast, or two packages yeast
1 tsp. honey (or 2 tsp. sugar)
1 Tbsp. oil
3 tsp. cider vinegar
1 cup warm water
Extra tapioca flour for rolling out dough

1 Tbsp. melted butter, for brushing tops of pockets

Filling:
2 pounds ground beef
1 head cabbage, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
Salt and pepper as desired

In large pot, brown ground beef. Drain off fat. Add cabbage, onion and desired salt and pepper. Cover with lid and cook until onions and cabbage are tender. Stir occasionally.

While beef-cabbage mixture is cooking, mix dry ingredients for dough in large mixing bowl. Add honey, vinegar, oil and water. Mix until soft dough forms. Divide dough into 8-9 pieces. On clean surface lightly floured with tapioca starch, roll dough into squares about 1/4 inch thick. In center of dough, spoon on some of the beef-cabbage mixture. Do not over-fill as this causes the dough to break. (Darn fragile GF dough!). Fold dough over mixture and fold ends underneath (see picture above to give you an idea of what they should look like). Brush melted butter over the tops of the cabbage pockets to help them brown in the oven.

Bake 15-20 minutes on greased baking sheet or non-stick baking sheet, or until dough begins to brown slightly (it will be very light brown). For a true test of "doneness," check out the bottom of the cabbage pocket. It should be nice and golden brown.

Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Calzones!

I apologize for being terrible about blogging as of late. I've gotten sucked into crocheting amigurumi figures for some friends and family, and while I have many recipes to share, I have forgotten to post them here! I've got some catching up to do!

In the next few days I plan to share two Halloween-theme treats that you and your kids (if you don't have kids, you'll still enjoy these!) will enjoy. In fact, I think these two recipes are so fun and delicious that people who aren't restricted to gluten-free eating will enjoy these too. Stay tuned. :)

Shortly after I started eating gluten free, I found a pizza crust I absolutely love! It is in the book 125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt. I totally love that recipe, and my extended family does too. They don't have to eat gluten-free, but they love it when I make my pizza. The *only* thing I don't like about it is that you can't knead it and use it for calzones.

I didn't realize how much I had missed calzones until I made this recipe. It filled a void in my taste memory. I hope you will feel the same way after trying these out for yourself!

I had forgotten how wonderful it felt to knead dough. Floury hands, dough between my fingers. Perfection.

***Gluten-Free Calzones

3/4 cup brown rice flour

3/4 cup tapioca starch, plus extra for rolling dough

2-3 Tbsp. dry milk powder, or dairy-free powder (I think unflavored gelatin may work here too)

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. xanthan gum

2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (or 1 packet)

1 tsp. honey

2 tsp. oil, plus 1 tsp. of oil

1 tsp. cider vinegar

1/2 cup warm water (water that is too hot will kill the yeast)

Cornmeal, for sprinkling over baking sheet

1 egg, or oil for brushing across tops of calzones

Pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, desired pizza toppings, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dissolve yeast into warm water. Add honey and allow yeast mixture to sit for 5 minutes. In medium-size mixing bowl, combine brown rice flour, tapioca starch, dry milk powder, salt and xanthan gum. Stir to combine. Add oil and vinegar to dry ingredients. Slowly stir in yeast mixture. Knead until dough forms into a ball. Put 1 tsp. oil in bowl and turn dough until it is coated with oil.  Allow dough to rest uncovered for 20 minutes.

Break dough into four equal pieces. On a clean surface dusted with tapioca starch, roll out each piece until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Fill each calzone with pizza sauce, cheese, desired toppings, and a dash of salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Be careful not to overfill. Overfilling will cause the dough to break. Fold top of dough over filling and pinch top and bottom together all the way around. If necessary, use a spatula to loosen dough from work surface. Place on cookie sheet that has been lightly dusted with corn meal. Repeat with remaining pieces of dough. Beat 1 egg into 1 Tbsp. water. Lightly brush the tops of calzones with egg mixture (or, you can brush tops with oil instead).

Bake calzones for 18-25 minutes, or until tops begin to turn golden brown, and are no longer soggy to the touch.

Enjoy! Be careful - contents of the calzones will be VERY hot when they are first removed from the oven.

Crispy Chicken Tenders

While I waited for my son to get out of preschool, I took my daughter to the library. They have an awesome children's department at this library, complete with puppet theater and educational computer games. My daughter loves the puppet theater and the assortment of board books, so many afternoons we find ourselves there in the children's department. On this particular day, I also noticed they had a display with a take-home recipe for anyone who was interested. I glanced over the recipe and thought it looked great and would be easy to make gluten-free. I tweaked it a bit and came up with Crispy Chicken Tenders.

***Crispy Chicken Tenders
1 1/2 tsp. vinegar, plus another 2 Tbsp. vinegar
1/2 cup milk
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I used two large halves)
2 Tbsp. prepared mustard
2 Tbsp. grape jelly
black pepper to taste
1 cup crushed Rice Chex cereal (I measured out 2 cups uncrushed, and then crushed them)

In 1/2 cup measuring cup, put 1 1/2 tsp. vinegar in and fill up with milk. Allow 10 minutes for mixture to thicken. This creates homemade buttermilk. Cut chicken breast halves into strips or nugget-size pieces. In a bowl, combine mustard, remaining 2 Tbsp. vinegar, jelly and desired amount of black pepper. Stir in homemade buttermilk. Add cut up chicken pieces, cover, and place in refrigerator 20 minutes.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Crush cereal in bowl. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Remove cut chicken pieces from milk-mustard mixture one at a time and coat with crushed cereal. Place coated chicken pieces on prepared baking sheet. Repeat process until all chicken pieces are coated. Bake chicken 25 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 170 degrees. Serve immediately.

You can use whatever dipping sauce you like. I made a zesty BBQ sauce to go with my chicken. My kids used ketchup.

Grandma's Hamburger Soup

It's Fall! I don't know what your weather is like, but it is getting cooler here by the day. Evening comes much more quickly, and it is dark when I wake up in the morning. I am not ready for snow, but Fall is my favorite season. I love the crunch of leaves under my feet, sweater weather, and hot soup. It doesn't get much better than that.

One of my go-to soups is a recipe my Grandma made. When I was in college, I lost my Grandma to Parkinson's disease. I can't believe it has been so many years now. I miss her all the time, and making this soup brings back wonderful memories of time I got to spend at her house. I can still hear her whistling melodies in the kitchen, and I will never forget learning to roll out egg noodles on her pull-out cutting board. And so, here it is. I share it in the hopes that it will warm you the way it does me - both in body and in soul.

***Grandma's Hamburger Soup
2 pounds ground beef
46 ounces tomato juice
3-4 peeled potatoes, cubed
1 large package frozen mixed veggies
1 can green beans, drained (I do a small package of frozen green beans)
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 large onion, diced
2-3 celery stalks, sliced
1 tsp. marjoram
salt and pepper, as desired
parmesan cheese, if desired for topping

Brown ground beef in large pot and drain off fat. Add tomato juice, potatoes, mixed veggies, green beans, carrots, onion, celery and marjoram. Cook over medium to medium high heat without a lid (I will use a lid when I make this to prevent water from escaping) for at least an hour. Water may be added if soup gets too thick. Salt and pepper to taste. Top with parmesan, if desired.

We always had parmesan at the table growing up so that we could each add as much or little as we wanted. This thick soup doesn't really required the addition of fancy GF crackers and is naturally gluten-free. When we make this (for 2 adults and 2 small children) we always have leftovers for lunch the next day. Hope you enjoy this recipe!

Gluten-Free Meatballs

I'm baaaaaack! :)  New camera, memory card issues fixed, and new recipes! Unfortunately, 5-6 of the recipes I wanted to share with you were on the old memory card that is no longer with us, but I have the files retrieved. Just need to transfer them to this computer. Those recipes will be coming shortly.

My lovely husband saved a recipe for swedish meatballs from his 6th grade home ec. class because he loved it so much he wanted to make it again. His parents never made it, and he tried one time several years ago to make the recipe and the meatballs totally fell apart. About a week ago, my son started complaining that he had never eaten a real meatball with his spaghetti. I couldn't remember if *I* had ever had a real meatball with spaghetti, and if I had, I had certainly never made them myself. So, I pulled out my husband's recipe for swedish meatballs. I went ahead and followed the recipe for the most part, but if you'd like a more Italian zip for spaghetti, you could substitute some Italian seasoning for the ginger and nutmeg. Truthfully though, the spices in these meatballs are so subtle that I didn't notice them conflicting with my spaghetti sauce at all.

OK, so meatballs are hard to get a nice picture of. Ignore the "pear" napkins. We are trying to go mostly paper-free (no paper towels or disposie napkins), so these napkins were all I could find! One batch made about 36 meatballs. The picture below is how I served the meatballs. My kids like the noodles and sauce all mixed together. I served the meatballs over quinoa noodles with a side of green beans.

***Gluten-Free Meatballs
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs* (I used 3 slices of Rudi's original sandwich bread)
1 cup light cream
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 egg
Dried parsley flakes (a few shakes)
1/2 tsp. salt
dash black pepper
3 Tbsp. butter, divided

For Swedish Meatballs: dash of ginger, dash of nutmeg
For Italian Meatballs: dash of Italian seasoning

*To make soft bread crumbs, cut bread into small pieces and soak in light cream.

Cook chopped onion in 1 Tbsp. of the butter, until onions are tender but not browned. Set aside. Soak pieces of bread in light cream for 5 minutes. Scoop bread out of cream with a slotted spoon and place in large mixing bowl. Discard any unused cream. In bowl with soft bread crumbs, mix in meats, onion, egg, parsley, salt, pepper, and spices for either Swedish or Italian meatballs. Mix thoroughly. Form meat mixture into about 36 meatballs (each around the size of a walnut, or about 1 1/2 inches). Melt remaining 2 Tbsp. of butter in large skillet. Cook meatballs in butter, flipping to cook evenly. You want your meatballs to be over 165 degrees internal temperature.

I cooked the meatballs in with the butter until they reached around 160 internal temperature. Since I was working the meatballs in batches, I preheated my oven to 350 and when meatballs browned on all sides, I would place them on a cookie sheet and into the oven. By the time all the meatballs were finished and had spent some time in the oven, they were well done and much of the fat baked off. Drain on paper towels. We had quite a few meatballs leftover, so I froze them for our next spaghetti and meatballs night.

Enjoy! ~It's good to be back!

Indian-Style Chicken with Crushed Tomatoes

My garden is overflowing with cherry tomatoes right now, and many of them needed to be used within the next day or so. So, I decided to try something experimental tonight for dinner, and my oldest child ate three servings of chicken! I was expecting to have some leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Not so!

I'm not an expert in Indian food, but what I've tried, I have enjoyed. I also happened to have 5 chicken drumsticks in my deep freeze. I set out to cook with very little plan and here's what happened!

I took all the ripe cherry tomatoes I had and diced them into eighths. It ended up being about 2 cups. You could easily use a can of diced tomatoes (around 14.5 ounces or so) instead. I used the meat of 5 chicken drumsticks, but it would work well with white meat as well.

Here's what it turned into!

***Indian-Style Chicken with Crushed Tomatoes

2 cups diced cherry tomatoes, or 1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 ounces)

5-6 chicken drumsticks, with meat cut into bite-size pieces (or 1-2 chicken breasts)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup water
4 cups cooked rice (2 cups uncooked, cooked per package directions)
oil for cooking chicken

Cut cherry tomatoes into fourths or eighths. Cut chicken into bite size pieces. In small amount of oil, cook chicken until no longer pink. Add 1/2 cup water, chopped onion, and diced cherry tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes start to break apart. With spoon, crush tomatoes until a red sauce forms. Add in cumin, ginger, salt, nutmeg, pepper, and ground cinnamon. Cook until sauce thickens slightly. Serve over rice.

Chicken Parmesan Poppers/GF Chicken Nuggets

I don't know why, but it seems like most kids obsess over chicken nuggets at some point in their lives. We eat pretty healthily at our house, but my son still begs for chicken nuggets and tells me they are his favorite food. I don't know if it is because of the fun shapes they often come in, that they can be picked up, or if it truly has to do with their flavor. Whatever it is, my kids beg for chicken nuggets and I pretty much only make them for my kids when I have a GF leftover I can heat up while I cook their wheat-filled nuggets.

I confess, sometimes I miss chicken nuggets too. Not because I miss their pre-packaged, preservative-filled-ness, but because I love what you can do with them. They are pretty versatile, really. My husband was out of town today and my son (whose comfort food is chicken nuggets) has been sick since yesterday. While he was napping, I decided to make chicken nuggets for him, but I wanted to please him and me. So, I made some "homemade chicken nuggets" and heated up some leftover pizza sauce. Voila - I was having chicken parmesan bites and he thought they were chicken nuggets. Win-win! And, for people with celiac/gluten-intolerance who cannot have cheese, these do not have any cheese. Pardon the picture...I wanted to take a picture right after I made these, but my husband had the camera and he was out of town. So, here's a picture of the leftovers!

***Chicken Parmesan Poppers
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into small bite-size pieces (I did two small chicken breasts from frozen)
1 1/2 cups gluten-free oats, pulsed in blender until almost like "flour"
1/2 to 3/4 cup mayo
salt and pepper as desired
Pizza sauce

Preheat oven to 425. In blender or food processor, pulse oats until they are somewhat "flour-like." You may need to move the oats around with a spoon or shake the blender gently as you pulse. The oats don't need to be ground totally fine, but you want them to be chopped smaller than they were when you put them in the blender! :)  Put the chopped oats into a medium-size bowl and add salt and pepper as desired. I used about 1/2 tsp. salt and a dash of black pepper. Put mayo into small bowl. Chop chicken into small, bite-size pieces. Working in batches, coat chicken with mayo and then cover with oat crumbs. Place prepared chicken onto lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake 12 minutes, then flip. Bake 12 more minutes, or until chicken is done and breading has begun to brown. Heat up pizza sauce for dipping, if desired.

These chicken bites held together surprisingly well and could be paired with any number of dipping sauces. My son ate several pieces and then said, "Mom, you can make this again sometime!"

Beef and Cherry Tomato Pasta Topping

My cherry tomato plants are extremely productive right now. The plants were only supposed to be 3-4 feet tall, but they are closer to 6 feet tall with tomatoes all the way to the tops of the branches. As I expected, as soon as one ripened, they all started ripening! I'm not the canning type - at least not right now - so I wanted to find a way to use all of the ripe tomatoes I had at once. It barely put a dent in the crop I've got now, but it was a great way to use about a dozen cherry tomatoes.

I call this a "topping" because it isn't really saucy. It is just saucy enough that it is kinda like spaghetti, but it lacks the oregano-y zip that reminds me of Italian food. So, I have no idea what to call this. Name it what you'd like. :)  Both my kids and my husband liked this dish a lot and said they'd be totally fine with me making it again. In my mind, that makes it a recipe worth writing down!

Not the greatest picture in the world, but you get the idea. :)  Who knew how hard it would be to take a picture of something that had yellow noodles? I served this up with a side of wax beans and pole beans (also right out of the garden).

***Beef and Cherry Tomato Pasta Topping
1 pound ground beef
12 large cherry tomatoes (I have "giant" cherry tomatoes in my garden, but plump regular cherry tomatoes are fine), cut into eighths
1 pepper, diced (I used a banana pepper from my garden, but you could use a bell pepper, or other pepper you like the flavor of)
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 to 1 tsp. salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
oil for sauteeing
1 box (8 oz.) GF pasta of your choice (I used Quinoa-Corn spaghetti noodles, but anything would work. If you want to feed more than four people, make more pasta. The topping had leftovers when I made this. The noodles did not.)

Cut cherry tomatoes into eighths, dice pepper and onions. In one skillet, brown the ground beef and drain off fat. In another skillet, sautee chopped tomatoes, pepper and onions in oil. Heat water for noodles. Once the tomatoes start breaking apart, add chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and desired amount of salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Simmer to allow flavors to combine. Cook pasta per package directions. Drain, and rinse pasta with cold water if desired.  Combine meat and tomato mixtures and heat through. Serve topping over noodles.

Almond French Toast

I have recently really gotten into almond milk. It is so creamy, delicious, and has more calcium than regular milk. Yum! So, I've started making lots of things with it. I even like to drink it plain. I've got plans to make my own almond milk and save the almond meal that is leftover to use in recipes, but for now, I've been buying it by the carton at the store.

The first thing I made with my almond milk was french toast. Oh it was so good! The almond flavor is very subtle, but I love it. I'm never making it with regular milk again!

***Almond French Toast

8-10 slices of gluten-free bread (I used Udi's brand)
3 eggs
3/4 cup almond milk
1 Tbsp. sugar
few drops of vanilla extract
oil for greasing the pan

Beat eggs, almond milk, sugar and vanilla extract together in a medium bowl. Beat until well-combined. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Dip both sides of the bread into the egg mixture. Cook in skillet until both sides are golden brown.

Chicken in a Pot - and Spiced-Up Leftovers

I love cooking at home. I always have. And, now that I am eating gluten-free (and experimenting with dairy-free), it is difficult to eat away from home, so I tend to avoid it. Several of my friends have told me that they do not know how I have time to cook at home for all my meals. The simple, honest truth is that I have found that I have plenty of time to cook at home both because it is a priority and because I have a couple of versatile recipes in my back pocket.

One of those recipes is "Chicken in a Pot." It is easy, simple, basic. My Grandma used to make it, my parents still make it, and I make it fairly often.

***Chicken in a Pot
1 - 3 pound whole chicken, or 3 pounds of cut up chicken
2 carrots, sliced
chopped onion (as much as desired)
2 celery stalks, chopped
Salt and pepper, as desired
1/2 cup water
1/2 to 1 tsp. basil

Place in a crockpot and cook for around 4 hours on high or 7-10 hours on low, or until chicken is done. Use 1 cup of water if cooking on high. Serve over rice, or with desired side dishes. In place of carrots, celery, and onion, you may substitute whatever fresh or frozen vegetables you would like to use.

Super easy. I love this recipe, and I go to it often. After we've eaten what we want from the chicken in a pot, I will cut the chicken into bite-size pices, or shred it up. Save the veggies, and pour the broth into a container. Cool the broth in the fridge, scrape the fat off the top, and freeze it for later use. You know the broth is gluten-free because you made it!

Now, let's take that dinner and turn it into another! First, make up some homemade Italian dressing. You won't use all of it for this recipe, but you can keep it in the fridge to use over salad or as a dip for veggies as a snack.

***Italian Dressing
1 cup olive or vegetable oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. dried minced onion pieces
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp.  ground mustard
1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
dash black pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. This makes a little over 1 cup of Italian dressing.

And now, for the spiced-up leftover.

***Chicken and Spiral Pasta
1 pkg. (12 oz. dry) brown rice spiral pasta, or whatever shape you want (I used Tinkyada brand)
leftovers from Chicken in a Pot
5 Tbsp. Italian Dressing (or more if you really want to notice the flavor)

Heat water to a boil. Cook pasta until al dente, drain, and rinse with cold water. This helps the pasta keep its shape.  Heat up leftover Chicken in a Pot. Stir chicken and veggies into noodles. Add Italian Dressing and mix well.

Voila! Dinner! This made so much for me tonight that I think I have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch too! This time around I took "Easy Street" and used a bag of frozen peas and carrots when I made Chicken in a Pot. Worked out just fine!

My kids and husband love this recipe. I hope you will love it too!

Zucchini Crust Pizza

Giving up wheat was really hard for me. I have always craved bread. I remember going to the kitchen and eating bread right out of the bag during snack time. At Thanksgiving I would eat 10-12 of my grandma's Parkerhouse rolls. She made extra because she knew I would eat them. Pizza combined two of my favorite foods: bread and cheese. When I first discovered that wheat was the source of many of my health troubles, I was devastated. This could not be happening. I love food. I love bread. I love bread too much.

I'm sure some of you have had this conversation with yourself as you thought about the prospect of giving up wheat/gluten. It's hard. It is a lifestyle adjustment of huge proportions. The first two times I tried to give up wheat, I didn't stick with it. It was too overwhelming for me. And then, I realized I was only going to get through the change if I took it one day at a time. And so, I started with a favorite food. Pizza.

I gave myself the challenge of making a homemade gluten-free pizza. Fortunately, it did not take long for me to find something I loved. In fact, I preferred it to the previous pizza crusts I had baked before I quit eating wheat. I highly recommend the recipe for "Plain Pizza Crust" in 125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt. My all-time favorite for a long time was "Plain Pizza Crust" topped with the "Roasted Vegetable Pizza Topping" recommended by the same book. It felt so good to eat pizza again. I made it when I had company, baked it for my family when they were in town, and my kids would ask for it. If I could make and eat pizza, things were going to be OK.

I was totally happy with my homemade pizza. I never really thought about switching it up. But then, on an online forum I was browsing, someone recommended making a zucchini pizza crust as a way to cut carbs and add in veggies. Zucchini? Really? Zucchini is one of my favorite veggies, but in a pizza crust? I was unconvinced. Unconvinced, but still a little intrigued. Imagine my delight when my wonderful husband came home from the grocery store with FOUR zucchinis because they looked so fresh on the produce shelf!

I used this recipe from Your Lighter Side: Zucchini Pizza Crust . The only change I made was that I baked the crust longer than the recipe called for. In my oven, it ended up being close to 20 minutes, but you have to be careful not to burn the edges of the crust. I used one huge zucchini, and it yielded three cups of grated green goodness. I decided to split it in half and make two pizzas and that worked wonderfully! Should you choose to make this on a pizza pan that has holes in the bottom, be sure to stick a cookie sheet on the rack below it to catch anything that might drip from the pizza pan.

I highly recommend Dei Fratelli pizza sauce. No high fructose corn syrup in the ingredients, and it says "Gluten Free" right on the can. Best part? It is in with the regular ingredients, and is actually one of the more economical sauces I've seen in my grocery store. Top with some cheese (I used mozzarella, parmesan, and a tiny bit of cheddar for some color difference) and whatever toppings you desire. I just used a yellow bell pepper because that was all I had in my refrigerator.

The pizza was fantastic! And the best part was that I fooled my oldest child! He had NO IDEA that there was zucchini in this pizza and he ate two slices!

For one pizza you will need:

1.5-2 cups grated zucchini
2 eggs
2 cups mozzarella for the crust
Pizza sauce (one can of Dei Fratelli easily tops two pizzas)
Desired cheese and toppings

Once you've topped your pizza, increase the baking temperature to 425 and bake for about 15 minutes, or until cheese turns light golden or starts bubbling.

I hope you enjoy this pizza as much as we have!

Great gluten-free alternative to bread crumbs

For those of you who follow my blog to read my writing updates, I hope you will indulge me now and then as I share some baking and cooking tips along the way. I will spare you the gory, medical details, but eating gluten-free has become a new way of life for me. After feeling lousy and having all sorts of weird medical anomalies happen to me, I grew tired of going to the doctor. All my tests checked out "normal" or "abnormal but not dangerous," and my gastro-intestinal doctor told me that I should just take stronger acid reflux medication and call it a day.

I was not OK with resigning myself to being on strong medication daily for life with no explanation. I asked for a celiac blood screen, and the result was negative. A family member had gone gluten free and had great success with it even though she also tested negative for celiac. After doing some research, I discovered that many gluten-intolerant people test negative on the blood screen. So, I decided I would cut wheat for a day and see what happened to me. Imagine my surprise (and relief!) when the very next day my heartburn was almost gone! I have days where I still ache, but I'm so much better than I was a few months ago. I'm hopeful that at some point in the future I might even be able to gain a pound or two! What an amazing thing that would be since I've barely weighed 100 pounds since high school!

Anyway, I'm getting into this far more than I intended to. Let me share what led to this blog post. I was in the kitchen this evening preparing dinner - salmon patties with remoulade sauce, sweet potato fries (well, actually they are made from garnet yams), and green beans - when I decided my gluten-free "bread crumb" idea was too easy not to share.

I love food, and I refuse to let eating gluten-free mean that I lose out on all the foods that make my heart sing. One of those foods (for me) is salmon patties. I read over the recipe on the Chicken of the Sea salmon packet and realized that the only ingredient I couldn't use was bread crumbs. I don't even know what made me think of it, but it works great. Instead of bread crumbs, I crush up Rice Chex! The recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups bread crumbs. I take 4 cups Rice Chex, put them in a gallon Ziploc bag, seal the bag, and then work out all my frustrations by crushing the cereal in the bag. (If you are environmentally conscientious, you can save the Ziploc bag to use again. Just make sure you don't get any ingredients that could spoil on or in the bag). Voila - instant GF bread crumbs! No baking. No looking for GF ingredients at specialty stores. Perfect for this rural-living girl! :)

Thanks for indulging me! I hope this post helps at least one other person!



Salmon Patties (adapted from the recipe on the Chicken of the Sea packet)
1 - 6 oz. packet skinless, boneless salmon
1/4 cup chopped green onions (I do about 3)
1/4 cup mayo
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
dash cayenne pepper (if you are adventurous)
1/4 cup red bell pepper (I leave this out)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup bread crumbs - (crush 4 cups Rice Chex in a bag - use one cup of the crumbs, and reserve the rest)

3 Tbsp. butter for cooking

Combine everything in a bow (except butter). Mix well. Form mixture into 4 balls. Rolls balls in remaining bread crumbs. Flatten into cakes about 1/2-inch thick. In skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Cook patties until golden brown on each side.

When they are finished cooking, I put them on a plate with a paper towel under the patties, and one over the patties to drain off the excess butter.

Remoulade Sauce (for dipping)
1/2 cup mayo
3 green onions, chopped finely
1 Tbsp. dijon mustard, or brown spicy mustard (for kick)
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. fresh parsley, or stir in dried parsley flakes

Mix all ingredients together. Goes well with salmon patties and other fish. :)