Saturday, May 7, 2011

Vegetarian, Corn and Gluten Free Baked Ziti

This dinner is a little out of the ordinary in that it is more HOMEMADE than most of what I make is. The spaghetti sauce is made from tomatoes, basil and onions from our garden last summer that I canned. The cheeses (Ricotta and Mozarella) was homemade from our own goatsmilk. OF course if you don't have these things, store bought would work well!!!!

Gluten Free Penne or Ziti pasta - cook according to package directions until Al Dente
1 onion - diced
1 head of broccoli, chopped fine,
1 container of baby shitake mushrooms.
spinach (I prefer fresh
1 - 8 oz container of ricotta cheese
1 - package of mozarella shredded.
1 - quart jar of pasta sauce (homemade or whatever tickles your fancy!)
Mix all the ingredients together EXCEPT the mozarella, dump into a baking dish and
top with Mozarella cheese. Put in the oven for about 20 min on 350* until cheese is melty and bubbly, slightly browned. Oh yeah! Eat Hearty!!!!!
BTW- you could easily add any veggies you want: grated zucchini, carrots, olives etc. and if you don't want to eat VEG. go ahead and add some meat: Italian Sausage, ground beef, lamb, goat or turkey would work great.


Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Gluten Free Spring Pasta and Shepherd's Pie

Today I am posting 2 Gluten Free Recipes even though I only have one picture. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the Shepherd's Pie - it sure looked and tasted good.
The first recipe is for GF/CF Spring Pasta
1 Bag Tinkyada brand GF shapes pasta (corkscrews, shells etc.)
1 bunch of small asparagus cut into bites size pieces,
2 large chicken breasts, browned in EVOO, salt and pepper to taste. Cut into bite size chunks
1 red onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 package of baby bella mushrooms
Peas - fresh is better but frozen works if that's all you have.
1 can olives. Personally I prefer calamata but use what you have.
1/2 C. Cream or Milk,
1/4C grated Parmesan or ASiago cheese.
1tsp Arrowroot powder to thicken.
Cook the pasta according to package directions, rinse well and massage some EVOO into the pasta to prevent sticking.
pour some EVOO into your saute pan and add your onion, garlic, and asparagus. Saute until everything begins to soften up. Add mushrooms, peas and chunks of chicken and saute until everything is heated. Then add olives, cream or milk, parmesan cheese and arrowroot powder.
stir good and then salt and pepper to taste. Top your hot pasta and ENJOY!!!!


Shepherd's Pie - MY style!
If i had ground lamb or chevon I would use it but I had ground turkey on hand - worked fine!
1Lb ground meat (whatever you prefer)
10 potatoes, peeled, cubed and cooked. Mash them like you like to for regular mashed potatoes and set aside. If you don't eat white potatoes - use sweet potatoes for this!
Onion - med, diced.
Peas (1/2 bag frozen)
brocolli, 1 head chopped
1 small bag of green beans, ends removed and cut into bite sized pieces.
4 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks.
1/4 lb of grated cheese of your choice!
brown ground meat and fix potatoes. When the ground meat is done add veggies except carrots. The cool thing about this is you can add whatever veggies you want/like!!!! I do not add corn because of hubby's corn sensitivity but if you can eat it - add it. Saute everything until is is mixed up and add salt and pepper to taste.
transfer the "filling" into a large casserole dish and top it with the mashed potatoes and grated cheese. Pop it into the oven until the cheese is melty and top of potatoes are a bit browned.
Serve and Eat. The great thing about this is you can add whatever you have on hand or that tickles your fancy - add spices that you like to change the flavor up!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Thai chicken and noodle salad - Gluten Free/Corn Free

I sort of was bored and in the mood for something Thai so I created this salad. I am posting the recipe as I would make it (for real) not how I did make it with what I had!
1 Package of Tinkyada spaghetti noodles (brown or white rice)
1 cooked chicken cut in chunks and let cool
1 diced cucumber
1 C. Bean Sprouts.
1 head of lettuce chopped up
1 package of shelled edamame (only the beans cooked in salt water - let cool)
1 red bell pepper (or orange, or yellow) diced up.
about 1 cup of Peanuts - dry roasted.
1 head of cilantro chopped up
When noodles are done cooking rinse in cold water to cool off and toss all ingredients except the
peanuts, cilantro and lettuce with 1 recipe of homemade or Gluten Free Thai peanut dressing.
Put Lettuce on a large platter or in a large bowl to make a bed. Top with noodles mix
and sprinkle peanuts and cilantro on top. I used San J brand Gluten Free Thai peanut dressing.
It is good but I prefer my homemade sauce.

Thai Peanut Sauce Homemade. I'd love to take credit for this but it's out of 1,000 Vegetarian Recipes by Carol Gelles.
1/2 C Smooth Peanut butter,
6TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP Rice wine or dry sherry
4 tsp cider vinegar
4 tsp sugar ( you can use honey or Agave but use less, same with stevia)
2 tsp chili oil (for mild version, use less or none at all)
1 small garlic clove minced
3 sliced scallions, green and white parts.
Blend everything except scallions - toss those with the salad and sauce when you are ready.
this is a pretty thick sauce - if you need it thinned a bit add some water or coconut milk. Just not a lot.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Can't get enough of those babies!!!

Well, I keep trying to get good pictures of both kids but it is sooooo hard to get pics of these little guys when they don't stop moving! I tried to get a good side view of the little doeling and bucky decided to get in the way of her face. But hey, that's not a bad backview of little guy so I guess it works!
Here are the two of them side by side. I wanted her head up so everyone could see her adorable little face but no....
And again - great side shot and little boy decided she needed a hug.
But boy does this picture show how long and level he is. OH, and here is a pic of her face....look how sweet she is. I sure do love these little ones. The next set is due tomorrow. I don't know if she'll go on time or not but it's going to be fun seeing Hope freshen for the first time and to see more of Intrigue's kids. This will be his second set - so far he's thrown 2 boys and 2 girls. The other set was born friday afternoon to The Last Straw herd's Halona Belle. The doe is a flashy tricolor and the buck is gold and white like momma. Haven't see a great shot of them yet but if i get some good pics of them I'll post. I did hear Halona has a GREAT udder and I believe it - she's from great udder genetics so if someone needs a little buckling withe milky possibilities let me know and I can get you in touch with them!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Gluten Free YUM!

To be truly honest with you all I get bored really quick in the kitchen! It's hard for me to cook the same ol' things because I just like so many different things. And it's really easy to get in a rut when cooking - I cook it because I know how. But sometimes I just gotta change it up. So today randomly typed in Gluten free recipes. I came upon a blog I already knew about and have actually done a few of her recipes but when I just sat here and perused her blog recipes today - I got REALLY excited. OH the joy of it - and really it doesn't matter if you are GF or NOT!!!!
These just sound like great recipes and you folks out there who don't have to worry about gluten
just have it that much easier. I am not posting my own recipe today - I'm just giving a MAJOR Kudo to Gluten Free Goddess Karina!!!! Most of the recipes I came across made my mouth water and we are going to have the Quinoa,pear,pecan and spinach salad today for DH's birthday.


I'm glad I am hungry! This is gonna be a great birthday celebration with some yummy food.
OH, another Kudo today.....this one goes out to Betty Crocker and their line of Gluten free cakes. I am so excited. It's hard enough to find Gluten free but to find Gluten AND Corn Free - even better.
Betty Crocker's Gluten Free Devil's food cake is made with Guar Gum instead of Xanthan gum making it Corn free! Go Betty Crocker!!!! I also made homemade frosting with Amaretto flavor. OMY does this frosting taste divine!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

MORE Rudi's Gluten Free Bread

Well, here's the deal!
We got a free loaf of Rudi's Gluten Free Multigrain Sandwhich Bread to try (Thank you Rudi's!)
and gave it a test run today.
here is the nitty gritty
Me - I love it, especially as toast (maybe they should get a bloggy Toast award?) with butter and peanut butter. Couldn't get enough!!!! It was a bit drier as a sandwich bread BUT I only had PBJ on it and I think if I made a turkey, mayo, lettuce, tomato, avocado sammy - I may like it a lot. It is fairly moist and has good body and flavor not like some of the OTHER GF breads I've tried that taste and feel a bit like (AHEM) cardboard.
Hubby (He's the GF one in the family) Tastes good but won't eat more because it has Xantham Gum (purportedly from Corn)AND corn meal in it. He is sensitive to corn. DANG (yeah, right, it leave more for me to eat as toast!) But agreed the taste was certainly good so if you have no corn issues then it's a great bread!!!!
7 year old - not too fond of it. But come on, she's a kid and they all would rather have white (cough, choke, EWWWW) bread.
16 year old - didn't really like either but then again, she doesn't like anything unless it's BAD for her. I bet her assessment would change if she HAD to eat GF.
12 year old didn't try it because he was either asleep or too busy playing basketball and why bother using anything but regular bread if you don't have too! "Where's the pizza?" was his response. OK. So 2 out of 5 isnt horrible. And really what do the kids' opinions matter anyway when they don't have to eat GF. I don't and I love the bread but I am an adult with discerning taste! The kids did like the other fun stuff Rudi's sent (again, Thanks Rudi's) I am thinking of trying their Cinnamon Raisin Bread too. Why not?

Rudi's Gluten Free Bakery

Not too long ago I was contacted by Rudi's Gluten Free Bakery and asked to try their bread since I wrote a (MOSTLY) Gluten Free Recipe Blog. I told them "NO PROBLEM" and told them of our family situation. Today, the UPS guy dropped off a box for us!
We opened it to find this....
Which was filled with this! My kids are already fighting over the little sandwich keeper (it's pretty cute, I admit!) WE will be trying the bread today for out PB&Js that we take with us to the kids' basketball games. My kids aren't the Gluten Free ones, it's hubby who said he probably won't try the bread because it's made with Xanthan Gum which he purports is made using corn which he is also allergice/sensitive to. Too Bad! But we figure, you don't have to be gluten free to enjoy gluten free bread and we are all willing to give the bread a try to see if we like it.
They also generously sent us coupons, a magnet and some Rudi's sticky notes. Those always come in handy! Thanks Rudi's for picking us to try your bread!
Stay Tuned for part 2 .....after the sandwichs!
BTW, for those of you who are gluten free and want to check out Rudi's products....here are some links

www.rudisbakery.com
http://www.rudisglutenfreebakery.com
www.facebook.com/rudisglutenfreebakery

Rudi's is also taking part in a project called spread the bread. It is in conjunction with NFCA's Continuing Medical Education program, a free online certified training tool that educates PCPs about Celiac disease. To support Rudi's Project you can go to Rudi's website and FB pages, download $1 coupons and donate $1 to NFCA. This project is ongoing through February.
Celiac is not a fun disease to deal with and helping physicians to understand, diagnose and manage the disease is a great thing!!!!
PS - I am not getting paid for this. Yes, we got the box, Yes, we are willing to try Rudi's bread and give our honest opinion but there is no money being exchanged here!
We are in search of a gluten free bread that tastes good, is affordable, and that hubby can eat so he, too, can eat PB&Js again!