Cheeseburger Soup

I watched Diners, Drive-ins and Dives once where they actually put lettuce and tomato in their cheeseburger soup.  I haven't done that yet, but I'm thinking it might be a tasty garnish on top of each bowl.  Try it if you wish.

1 lb ground beef
1 diced onion
1-2 celery stalks, diced
2 carrots, grated
1 zucchini, grated
1 bag frozen hash browns
32 oz broth- (or more) I've used beef and chicken and like both
2 cups milk (or half and half, or whipping cream if you hate your arteries and only think of your tastebuds.  Not gonna lie, it's amazing that way, but I hardly ever do it.)
2ish cups of shredded cheese- I usually use sharp or mild cheddar, but I've used velveeta and smoked gouda and mozzarella and whatever else I have handy
1/2 cup sour cream
spices to taste- I use seasoned salt, pepper, basil, and mrs. dash

Also, I made this soup for over a year before it occurred to me that bacon would improve this a great deal.  Because really, when does bacon NOT improve a dish?  Throw in a few slices if you've got it. 

Brown beef with onion and celery.  Add other veggies, spices, and broth and simmer for about 15-20 minutes til it's all hot.  The frozen potatoes take a little longer but it gives the carrots a chance to cook too.  If you're adding the bacon, you can cook it and add during this time too.

Add milk next and give it time to warm before adding the cheese.  Then cheese- stir it in slowly so it won't get all clumpy.  You want it incorporated in cheesy saucy deliciousness.  If it's super thick you can add more broth or milk.

Right before serving, stir in the sour cream, or if you prefer you can put a dollop on each individual bowl.  The lettuce and tomato might work nicely too if you go that route.

Top Five: Breakfasts

Continuing on with the "these are a few of my favorite things" theme, I give you breakfast!  We eat a lot of cereal around here- some of them are naturally gluten free, and some of them have been revamped to be that way and still taste good.  There are a few others, like Rice Krispies, that have a gluten free version in addition to their regular one.  Fail on that.  I've seen commercials where they talk about how "whole grain brown rice makes it gluten free".  No.  Rice of any sort is naturally gf.  It was the sweetener that was the problem.  Kellogg's puts barley malt syrup in their regular rice krispies, and whatever they replaced it with in the gluten free version is gross.  It makes me mad when a company keeps the "real, yummy" version and throws a nasty bone at the gluten free community.  Do it like Chex!!  Chex, on the other hand, redid their recipe completely, threw out ALL the barley malt, and made rice, corn, cinnamon, honey nut, and chocolate Chex all gluten free.  They taste GOOD too.

We eat:

•  Chex, all varieties but the wheat
• Kix, and I've just recently realized we could eat Trix too.  I don't buy it much though
• Dora the Explorer (I buy it for daycare but it's good so we all eat it.)
• Cocoa and Fruity Pebbles and Chocolate Lucky Charms ( but not regular) are GF too but again, I try not to buy sugary ones too much.  My kids are on it like white on rice and bug me til it's gone)

We also eat a lot of fruit and yogurt and toast.  I won't get into my love of weird leftovers for breakfast, but bbq and baked beans do cross my lips on occasion too.

Top five hot breakfast recipes:

Baked Oatmeal
This is the most requested breakfast at my house- a favorite among family, friends, and the daycare.  I make it pretty much how the recipe says, except I ALWAYS double it and put it in a 9x13. I use cinnamon and throw out the orange zest and five spice.  I also don't put the baking powder in.  I can't tell the difference and it's just easier to have one less thing.  I've made it with tons of different variations- it's good with cinnamon, butterscotch, or vanilla chips instead of chocolate, or with no chips at all.  It's good with blueberries, nectarines, blackberries, peaches, and a can of tropical fruit once when I was desperate.  I'd say I make this twice a week on average.  I get Bob's Red Mill gluten free rolled oats and that's the only necessary modification.

Beach House Lasagna
This recipe really does taste a lot better when you can make it the night before and let it sit in the fridge, but I almost never do.  And usually I use slices of lunchmeat instead of ham cubes, and don't usually put the cornflakes and butter on top like I mentioned in the comments on that post.
I use heels of bread loaves for this, or else half loaves of bread I bought that we didn't like enough to eat as sandwiches.  I stick them in the freezer and just make this casserole whenever the bread bags start to fall out on me.

Tater Tot Casserole
I had posted that recipe awhile back, and now it's sort of a template.   If I'm feeling guilty about calories and fat, I use shredded hash browns instead of tater tots, and make my own sauce instead of using the boxed soup.  For breakfast I put turkey sausage links, or the crumbles, or else cubed turkey ham.  If it's lunchtime I use ground beef and throw in a can of creamed corn with the sauce.  You can pretty much do anything to it and my kids are willing to eat it any meal of the day.

Waffles/Pancakes
The recipe I use is from the Culinary Institute of America gluten free baking book.   I do put less sugar than it calls for- they were crazy sweet the first time I made them.  They still are sweet this way but not too bad.  I eat them plain- no syrup needed so I figure it balances out in the end.

1 1/3 cups CIA flour blend #5
1/3 cup sugar (or less)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Mix dry stuff in bowl.  In separate bowl, mix wet stuff:
4 tbsp melted butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla (if you want.  I don't think it called for this originally but we like it better)

Add to dry bowl.  Mix and use.  I use this batter both on my pancake griddle and in my waffle iron.

Okay, I lied about top five.  Top four.  I'm still looking for a baked french toast recipe that I LOVE.  The ones I've tried so far are just okay.  Oh wait, I've only made them twice but I really do like these savory corn cakes too.  Now you got five.  :)

Gluten Free Favorites

I have a friend who wants to go gluten free and was asking me about brands and favorite recipes.  She asked for my top five go-to recipes.  Great question- never really thought about it before!  I'm going to start with brands while I contemplate meals.  Keep in mind I'm a tiny little food blogger with my own opinions.  None of these are paid or anything like that.  I'd certainly be open to the idea if anybody wants to provide me with stuff to review though!!

Bread:
I haven't found a from-scratch recipe that works for me at all.  There are some that taste good but are dense and small like hockey pucks, and some that start out tall and fluffy and then cave in the middle and taste yucky.  There's also that weird gritty texture if you mix the flours wrong.  It's a whipping. 

When I first had to go gluten free, there was not one store bought bread that was worth my time.  I just didn't eat bread.  Now there are a lot more options, and although a bunch of them aren't great, a few are, and a few others are at least edible.

• Udi's is our #1 favorite.  It's the only one I can keep in the pantry and make sandwiches without having to toast it first.  It's kind of small, but that seems to be standard.  It's also the kind of bread that they serve now at Jason's Deli- they have special loaves made for them that are huge.  I tried to buy one and they were $12.95 a loaf.  It's good, but I just can't justify that.  So we eat small yummy sandwiches and just go to Jason's when we want big restaurant bread.  It works.
• Glutino just revamped their bread- I used to dislike it very muchly.  Now they have a Genius Sandwich Bread that is quite tasty.
• I don't like Rudy's in either flavor or texture.
• I didn't like Kinnikinnick when I first tried it, and I haven't gone back to it, although I do hear that they've changed it and it's supposed to be a lot better now.
• Katz is pretty good but you do have to toast it.  And it's just now becoming available in stores near me- it's a New York based company and just starting to be nationally recognized.  I really like ordering from them though- they have a lot of fun Jewish specialty items.  For Passover last year I bought a $35 gluten free Challah bread that was as big as my forearm and weighed a TON.  It was awesome.
• Canyon Bakehouse is pretty good but it's usually at least a dollar more than Udi's so I don't get it unless it's on sale.

Pasta:
I prefer a blend of rice and corn or another grain- I think the ones that are all rice tend to get mushy or gummy, and the all corn ones get tough and chewy.  We really love pasta though and I'm willing to eat lots of different kinds.  We buy:

• Tinkyada- it has the most shapes, and the best lasagna noodles in my opinion
• Heartland - I really love this one.  I've only seen fusilli and spaghetti and I wish it came in other shapes
• Sam Mills Pasta D'Oro- this one is all corn.  I don't know if it's monsanto or GMO or whatever.  I know that's a big concern these days.  It's one of the cheapest brands and so I get it for daycare lunches- it's not a family favorite but it'll do in a pinch.  I find it at Big Lots sometimes, which is nice.
• Trader Joe's brown rice pasta- great price point and pretty tasty as long as you don't overcook it 
• Archer Farms, the Target brand- like this one a lot too.  Sometimes hard to find around here.
• I also like the quinoa pasta in the sort of aqua colored box- I forget the brand name.  It's more expensive so I don't usually buy it, but it's tasty.
• Schar- awesome.  Expensive, but it has tiny little round anellini noodles that I put in soup.

I have a lot of pasta in my cabinets right now.

I haven't tried that other spaghetti brand- Sprouts just started carrying it so I bought some. 

Boxed and processed stuff:

• Glutino is a pretty great brand.  We like their cookies, pretzels, crackers, and they just started making toaster pastries!!!  I was a major Pop-Tart addict pre gf, so it made me so giddy to find some.  They're the only ones I've seen.
• Udi's makes great muffins, brownie bites, and pizza crusts.  They make ready-to-bake frozen pizzas too but I haven't tried those yet.  
• Glutenfreeda makes ice cream sandwiches and burritos.  Expensive and unnecessary, but sometimes I just get a yen for them.  That link is their home page- TONS of recipes.  Click the "our foods" tab to see products.
• Kinnikinnick makes good oreo-type cookies and pizza crusts.  As I said, they've redone a lot of their products lately, so I don't have the latest tasting info on most of it.
• Pacific soups are the best-tasting ones, according to my family, especially for cream of whatever.  Progresso does a good cream of mushroom but it isn't condensed.  Gluten Free Cafe and Health Valley cream soups were not worth our time.

Um... what else.  Is that it?   I'm drawing a blank now.  Comment if you think of other stuff you want to know.

Oh, donuts= Katz all the way!!  We just tried their powdered variety last week for the first time and they knock it out of the park.  Granted, I've not had Dunkin' in over five years, but they're closest to what I remember.  Kinnikinnick and Glutino both make some that taste okay but they feel really dense and heavy.  Katz is lighter.  And they make JELLY too.  Can't wait to order some.

And cake mix- King Arthur Flour is LIGHT YEARS ahead of any other brand.  Worth the online order if they don't carry it near you.

Okay Anne, I hope this helps at least a tiny bit!  I'll keep thinking about recipes and do those next.

Apple Butter Cupcakes

 I had pinned a recipe for apple butter cupcakes awhile back.  I've been dying to try them for about a week- they've just been on my mind.  When I went to look up the pin, that blog had been deleted.  Sadness.  They had caramel frosting and some kind of filling and I really wanted them.  But I made these instead and if the smell coming out of my oven is any indication, they're going to be fabulous.  It's based off this recipe.

 

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour ( I used King Arthur gluten free flour)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (if you're making this gluten free)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup apple butter
• 3/4 cup milk ( I used almond)

***Cream Cheese Frosting***

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350°. Line 24 muffin cups with cupcake papers. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl with electric mixer, beat 1/2 cup butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Beat in the apple butter until well blended. Slowly beat in the flour mixture, alternating with the milk. Beat until smooth and well blended.

Fill cupcake papers about 2/3 full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. (I needed 25 minutes at 360 for the gluten free.)  Cool in pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool completely before frosting.

Makes about 18 to 20 cupcakes.

I also decided these cupcakes needed to be filled.  I got a cupcake corer for my birthday that I haven't tried out yet.  I melted a stick of butter with a cup of brown sugar and made caramel, which I used to fill the cupcakes before frosting them.

You should really make these.  Oh my.

Cottage Cheese Salad

Okay, so I had a semi-life-changing experience with cottage cheese this weekend, y'all.  I didn't really have any idea that such a thing was possible.  I don't like cottage cheese.  It's weird diet-y food that makes you feel deprived and it's usually served on a limp lettuce leaf with one sad slice of canned peach and the juice running all under.  Nasty business.

I went to visit my grandma this weekend and she made cottage cheese in a way I've never had.  She said she's always made it this way, ever since she and her mom went to Luby's for lunch one day and tried it.  And since my great-grandma Kel passed away when I was eight, it's true that she's been making it like this for oh, thirty years or so.  I am not sure why I've never seen it or heard of it.

Okay, so, ready for the complicated recipe?

Cottage Cheese
Grape Tomatoes
Green Onions
Black Olives if you like them.

THAT IS IT.

You wouldn't think a little bit of tomato and onion could transform cottage cheese into something I'd look up and suddenly realize that I'd eaten a whole pound of it.  But the fact of the matter is, I did that.  I made it this morning because I've been thinking about it since Saturday, and I've been nibbling out of the serving bowl all morning, and it is just about gone. The great thing is that it is still a diety-type food, except now it tastes good.  A pound of cottage cheese is 280 calories and has a ton of protein.  I don't even have to feel guilty that I ate it all!

I did add a bit of Mrs. Dash, and I'm thinking that chopped cucumber would be really good in it too but I didn't have any today.

It's pretty too!  I used the yellow sunburst grape tomatoes, but when I had it this weekend Grandma used the red ones and it's just as good like that.

Spaghetti Casserole

I grew up eating this recipe.  Everyone in my family likes it a lot- in fact, my mom refers to it as "Daddy's favorite".  He never, EVER complains about dinner and just eats whatever we cook, but he doesn't really like spaghetti very much.  It's one of those overused, all-we-have-in-the-house-to-eat kind of meals for him.  So when she'd say we were having spaghetti casserole, he'd get all droopy and she would have to backpedal and say no!  Not really spaghetti, it's that casserole one, the one you LIKE!

Yesterday would have been my Gram's 83rd birthday.  We lost her at 70, which still makes me sad every day.  She was such a great lady.  I decided I wanted to cook a meal that would remind me of her, and that we would talk about her at dinner and tell the kids some stories they might not have heard about her life.  I asked my mom what I should make.  The meal that reminds me MOST of her is chicken and dumplings, but I haven't perfected gluten free dumplings yet and a birthday dinner is not the time to play guinea pig with your family.  She suggested I make spaghetti casserole, because the recipe was from her.  All these years I've been eating it and I had no idea. 

So, here is Gram's (daddy's favorite) spaghetti casserole!
1 package spaghetti
1 lb ground beef
2 cans diced tomatoes
some chopped onion and/or bell pepper, whatever you like
1 small can chopped black olives (you can leave it out if you hate them.  Hubby hates them though and he's ok with them in this recipe.  They blend well.)
1 small can mushrooms
2 tsp italian seasoning
2 cups shredded cheddar (I know most italian dishes would call for mozzarella and of course you can do that if you like it better.  I like the pop of the cheddar though.)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (may need to be thinned with 1/4 cup water depending on the brand.  Just use your best judgement on whether it seems too thick and goopy.)
parmesan cheese

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions.

Meanwhile, fry ground beef with onions and peppers.  Add tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, and seasoning and simmer about 10 minutes.

In a 13x9 pan, layer all the spaghetti on the bottom.  Then put the shredded cheese, then the meat mixture, and then spread the cream of mushroom soup over the top.  Top it off with parmesan and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

It's super easy- way less work than lasagna, but tastes a lot fancier than regular spaghetti.

We served it with roasted asparagus and birthday brownies last night, and reminisced about my gram.  Fun times.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

I got this recipe a couple years back from my friend Jamie.  It makes an enormous batch of cookie dough- yes, that really does say 1/4 CUP vanilla.  It's the whole bottle.  The big one.  It's been really great for us to have- the cookies turn out well and are tasty.  I've taken them as snacks for the kids' sports team and class events and everyone munches.  Nobody notices that they're missing the gluten.  And icing always helps too!

They don't hold their shape well with cookie cutters.  I'm working on that...

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

3 c powdered sugar

2 c granulated sugar

2 c shortening

6 eggs

1 T salt

1/4 c (!) vanilla

1 c amaranth flour

2 c potato starch

2 c sweet rice flour

4 c brown rice flour

2 T xanthan gum

3 T baking powder

Preheat oven to 325  mix all dry ingredients, except salt.  Cream wet ingredients and salt.  Add flour mixture, 1/4 at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon.  Knead the ball into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate until fairly firm.  Place chilled dough on wax paper and roll out until dough is 1/8-1/4 inch thick.  Use cookie cutters for your desired shape.  the thinner the dough, the crispier the cookie.  Bake til edges are golden brown.

Gluten Free Flour Blends

I use a bunch of different blends when I cook and bake.  Every gluten free chef creates their own.  Some I like, some I adjust.  For the most part, mine come from Jennifer Cinquepalmi and the Culinary Institute of America.  I'm going to bookmark this post and add the ingredients to the different flour mixes I talk about so you can see how to make them if you need them.  I make a big batch of each one and keep them in gallon ziplocs in the freezer.

Sorghum Flour Mix:
7 cups sweet white sorghum flour
2 cups potato starch
1 cup tapioca starch

CIA Flour Blend #5:
9 oz White Rice Flour
6 oz Tapioca Starch
6 oz Soy Flour
3 oz Whey Powder (I started leaving this out and haven't noticed a difference in my pancakes, but it might be noticeable in other recipes)

Savory Corn Griddle Cakes

I love pinterest.  I have a breakfast board with a ton of pins just waiting to make us happy in the mornings.  Today I made a spinoff of these bacon and corn cakes and OH MY they are so good.  I had to adjust a couple things to make them gluten free and to allow for ingredients I didn't have, et cetera blah blah, but they still turned out really well. (And I did copy most of the directions directly from that other post, so go check out the original too!)   Definitely going in our breakfast rotation.  The daycare kids didn't really like them overall, but they have no sugar.  The pancakes I normally make are pretty sweet, and when you're expecting sugar and you get corn and cayenne pepper instead, I can see how it would throw your wheels off.  I'm excited to make them on the weekend because I think hubby will like them a lot.

The maple syrup is a really necessary piece of this dish- which I normally don't like much and never use.  I keep it on hand for my family though, and since these do have no sugar, I went ahead and used it.  SO GOOD.  The combination of sweet syrupy goodness with the crunchy corn and bacon, and the spicy onion and pepper... nom nom nom....

This recipe made 12 griddle cakes- pretty big ones.  Two hungry grownups and five kids ate and I still have 3 leftover.

Ingredients:
8 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 good sized handful turkey sausage crumbles (because 2 breakfast meats is better than one)
2 cups sorghum flour mix
1 green onion, including chive parts, chopped small
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/3 cup milk
2 large eggs, beaten
2tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
2 cup frozen, canned or fresh corn (I just used a 15 oz can)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
warm maple syrup, for serving

Directions:
1.  In a medium skillet, cook the bacon pieces until they begin to brown and crisp.  Scoop out a heaping tablespoon of the bacon mixture for topping the griddle cakes upon serving- and set it aside.  (or microwave some turkey bacon like I do!)
2. While the bacon is cooking, combine the flour, green onions, baking powder, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Stir in the milk, egg and oil, just until moistened. Stir in the bacon, sausage, corn and cheese. The mixture will be thick. If you'd like the griddle cakes to be slightly thinner, add a little more milk to thin out the batter.
3. Heat and grease a griddle or large skillet. Pour a heaping 1/4-cup of the batter onto the griddle and cook until it is golden brown- 3 to 4 minutes per side. Repeat with the remaining batter.  (I used at least 1/2 cup of batter so they turned out huge, and then cut them in fourths to give to the kids.)
4. Serve stacks of griddle cakes topped with a sprinkle of the reserved bacon/onion and a good dose of warm maple syrup.

Squash and Corn Soup

I am growing to absolutely love butternut squash.  (still hate all the other kinds, but hey, baby steps)  My hubby really doesn't like it, but he'll eat this soup, and both my kids love it too.  Sometimes I make a double batch and then freeze the leftovers in muffin cups so I can pop them out into a gallon ziploc.  We call them soup pucks.  Two or three is perfect for a small cup of soup for lunch, a couple more for a big bowl.  It's nice to have on hand.  Yay Pinterest for that idea.

I got this recipe from a Taste of Home soup book I bought on impulse at the checkout.  It's been well worth it.  I tweaked it just a bit- it originally called for half and half but I just use milk.  And since I always use turkey bacon, I never have the drippings that it said I should cook the onion and celery with, so I use butter there.

12 strips bacon, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
2 tbsp flour (I use sorghum)
1 can chicken broth (14 1/2 oz)
6 cups mashed cooked butternut squash (I never measure- just buy a good sized one and use the whole thing)
1 15 oz can creamed corn
2 cups milk
fresh parsley, salt, pepper to taste

Cook bacon and save drippings, or else microwave your bacon and melt some butter like me

Saute onion and celery til tender.  Stir in flour til blended.  Stir in broth.  Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or til slightly thickened.

Reduce heat to medium.  Stir in squash, corn, milk, spices, and bacon.  Cook and stir til heated through.  Top with sour cream if you want.

It's super easy and really tasty.  The most labor intensive part is the squash and that's not bad at all.  If you don't know how to cook a butternut squash, here's what you do:

Slice it longways and scoop out the seeds from each side.  Lay both pieces face down on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes.  Cool it and then scoop out the flesh.  I usually zap it in the food processor for a bit just so it's very smooth, but you don't have to.  Just makes the soup a tiny bit chunkier if you leave it as is.

BLT Pasta Salad

I'm out of bread.  It's a very sad day.  There's this closeout grocery store about 45 minutes from me that had my gluten free bread on sale THREE FOR A DOLLAR.  At the regular store it's five bucks a loaf.  15 loaves for the price of one.  I bought 50.  And we ate sandwiches like they were going out of style for quite awhile.  Now that I'm out of bread, I can't bring myself to pay $5 again and I haven't made back over there to see if they have more.

But I wanted BLT.

So I made pasta, and darned if it isn't even better than I was hoping.

Ingredients for dressing:
8-12 ounces sour cream
big spoonful mayo- maybe 1/2 cup?
ranch dressing mix:  I like both of these and interchange them when I can't find one or the other.  You could of course use your own, but these are gluten free and delicious.

Other ingredients:
1 pound cooked pasta
12 slices bacon, chopped
a bunch of chopped tomatoes (I never measure those but I usually use between 1/2 box and whole box of grape tomatoes, or else 2-3 big tomatoes.  If you use big ones, take out some of the seeds so it doesn't get too soupy and juicy.)
minced onion, however much you like
fresh basil (I do about 12 leaves and then wish I had put more.  But I think if there's a cooking question, the answer is always basil.  Except for when it's garlic.)
a head of romaine lettuce, chopped

My mom taught me to always tear lettuce and never chop it with a knife because the edges turn brown.  And while this is true, it's also true that I'm a fast-eating BLT pasta piggy and the lettuce doesn't have time to turn.  Chop chop, baby!  Much faster.

I make the dressing first in a big bowl and then start adding the other things one at a time, putting the lettuce and pasta last.  That way the tomatoes and onion and bacon all get a couple extra minutes in the sauce to start mixing flavors.

 Deliciousness in a bowl.  I swear this dish is near perfect.  My dad who dislikes pasta salad but was very hungry got a small bowl and then came back for a bigger second serving.

I served it to my daycare babies and she sucked all the dressing off each piece and set it on her tray.  She's asking for more sauce here, not more actual food.  But then I scooped all that food back into her bowl and she ate it and THEN got seconds.

I will say that if you use gluten free pasta, it doesn't do well second day.  The pasta tends to get a little chewy and weird, and somehow it sucks up all the sauce while still leaving it dry.  I have to add milk if I'm eating it leftover.  But there aren't usually any leftovers!  And that might just be a gf problem.  I don't remember what regular pasta does.  It's been awhile...

Gram's Cornbread Dressing

I have so many fond memories of this dressing on holidays. My gram passed away in 2000, but I grew up watching this made as a family affair. My grandparents, my mom, and as many of her three brothers who were there would all crowd around the bowl with tasting spoons, arguing over whether it needed a bit more celery or 1/4 teaspoon less sage. There was no recipe and it just went by taste.

A couple years before my gram got sick, my mom finally told her there needed to be a recipe, because her girls didn't know how to make this stuff. :) They never let us help. So they sat down together and my gram tossed everything into her palm the way cool old country granny cooks do, and my mom carefully transferred it into measuring spoons so that she could pass a written recipe to me. I'm so glad, because it really doesn't feel like Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner to me without this stuff. We went without it a few years while we looked for a good gluten free cornbread recipe, but we got it, so here we are again. Yum.

2 recipes of cornbread, crumbled and dried overnight

Saute 3.5 cups celery and 3.5 cups onion in 2-3 tablespoons oil until transparent.

Crumble cornbread; mix with cooked celery and onion.

Sprinkle in 1.5 teaspoons poultry seasoning and 1 1/4 teaspoons sage.

Pour about 4 cups chicken broth and mix. (I usually use two cans)

Mix well. Pack into iron skillet (or 13x9 pan if you don't have a skillet) and bake in oven till top is crusty.

And it occurs to me now that there isn't a temperature marking. I usually throw it in on the bottom shelf while I'm cooking something else and just keep an eye on it.

Gluten Free Cornbread

I have no idea where my mom got this recipe, so I'm probably copying without credit. Sorry 'bout that, but it's tasty and I need it written in a place where I can find it!

1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup potato starch
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 cup shortening (not butter)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup yellow cornmeal

Preheat oven to 425.

Combine the flours by sifting them into a large bowl. Add remaining dry ingredients and stir.

Cut the shortening into the flours, the way you would when making pie dough. You should end up with walnut-sized pieces in a sandy flour.

Combine the eggs and milk in a small bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid. Stir with a rubber spatula until everything is combined.

Stir in the cornmeal, whisking fast, until just combined. Do not overstir.

Pour into greased 9x9 pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the sides of the cornbread are slightly shrinking back from the edge of the pan and a toothpick comes out clean.

Chick-Fil-A-ish knockoff Nuggets

Chick-fila is one of the places I really miss. We can still do the fries and coleslaw, and the grilled chicken filet, but those nuggets and that crispy #1 sandwich haunt my sleep, with the two crucial pickles....

So on pinterest I found this recipe and tried it. It was really good, but didn't quite nail it for me, so after reading all the comments and judging what I felt like it was missing the first time I tried it, I tweaked it and came up with this one. It's still not quite CFA, but it is tasty and quells the cravings. I think next time I make these, I'll run through the drive thru and get coleslaw and fries with lots of chick-fila sauce and ranch, just to make the whole experience complete.

Ingredients:
2 big boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in little bites
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 good sized spoonful hamburger dill pickle slices
1 cup Bob's Red mill all purpose GF baking flour
1 tbsp Lawry's seasoned salt
1 tsp Mrs. Dash (I like the table-ready kind so it's ground fine, but any kind is good)
2 tbsp powdered sugar (this was in the original recipe so i kept it. not sure what difference it would make to leave it out)
1 tsp pepper
oil for frying (I use refined coconut oil- it's better for you if you gotta have oil. the recipe calls for peanut or canola but I don't do those. A: can't do peanut. B: explain to me what a canola plant is? oh that's right... no such thing. manufactured in a lab and not real food!)

Steps:
Put the chicken, beaten egg, milk, and pickles in a gallon ziploc bag and marinate in the fridge for 2-4 hours.
Put all the flour and spices in another gallon ziploc.
Drain the liquid out of the marinade bag and add the chicken to the spice bag. Seal and shake. (If you hate fried pickles, fish those out first. I happen to love them, so I just mix them in with the chicken for a secondary treat.)
Heat your oil to 375 in a deep-ish pot, should be an inch or two deep with oil.
Drop chicken/pickles in small batches and cook about four minutes.
Try to let them cool so you don't burn your face off munching them.

Breakfast Casserole

My facebook status this morning was:

after a discussion of what to make for breakfast, Mich tells me, "Don't get me wrong, I love healthy you. But I REALLY LOVE casserole you."
This is why I love her. Bring on the casserole...

And many people have liked that status. It made me laugh a lot, and then I made casserole. Requests for the recipe then followed. This is one I make based on sheer taste. It's comfort food. Don't be looking for low fat or low calorie or lots of nutritional content on this one... I try to do that most days, but this one is not. I just keep telling myself a hot meal made with love has got to be better than a cold bought donut or danish. :) I may be deluding myself though.

Most of the daycare kids do really like this one. My own children won't eat it, but I don't really care. They can have a bowl of cereal and I'm happy to eat their share.

Ingredients:
1 bag crispy crowns (the small round hash browns like chickfila has. Ore-Ida is gluten free. I use regular tater tots when that's all I've got, but I like these better in this one.)
1 box cooked turkey sausage links
1 thing of condensed soup (I use Pacific because it's gluten free but most of you can probably use campbells. I've used chicken and also mushroom and they're both good.)
some sour cream- I had a 16 oz container and I put in two big spoonfuls. Maybe 4-6 oz?
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Chop the sausage in small pieces and mix it with the peppers and onion, soup, and sour cream in the bottom of a casserole dish. If you use 13x9 it comes out pretty thin- I like to use that weird 8x11 one.
Spread that out smooth and cover it with cheese. Pour the whole bag of crowns on top and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.

Creamy Crockpot Chicken

This stuff is GOOD. It completely satisfies all my comfort food, noodle goodness, cream sauce cravings and I've perfected the gluten free version finally. We used to make this a lot before we were GF and it's taken me a while to figure out how to do it and make it taste the same. I always make double the amount of sauce it calls for and we still end up with big chunks of chicken in the pot while we scrape the last bit of sauce onto our pasta. Also good on rice.

If you're like me and you love the sauce and noodles, I'll post a recipe next about what to do with the leftover chicken. I made it last night and almost wept for joy it was so good. And my daughter? She wept for real and spit it in her plate. Silly rabbit.

anyway...

In the crockpot, put a 3 lb bag of frozen chicken. I like to use the tenders instead of the big pieces for this because I like for more surface area to be covered by spices. Then put a dry packet of Good Seasons Italian dressing over it. Or if you're like me and you never buy that stuff, here's how to make it at home:

1 tablespoon Mrs. Dash
1 tablespoon Lawry's Garlic Salt
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon celery seeds (which I always leave out because I never have them)
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon pepper

So you cook that for 5-6 hours on low. Then add:
chopped onion- however much you like
3 blocks of cream cheese
1 box Pacific gluten free cream of chicken soup (This stuff is new and it is a MIRACLE OF SCIENCE. It has made easy casseroles a reality once again. I don't like it by itself the way I used to eat the Campbells cream soups, but it's awesome in recipes.)

I like to shred the chicken with forks before mixing all the cream sauce into the juices. Then cook it on high for about another hour and serve it with noodles. Super yummy!!

Flawless Sesame Chicken

It has been years since I blogged. Really. Like since January of last year. I actually forgot how to blog! I had to call my sister to remind me and even then it is doing something weird with the colors, spacing and links. So Bare with me!

This recipe was good enough to bring me out of my 18 month blogging hiatus. THAT good.

My husband LOVES sesame chicken. Since we went gluten free 3 years ago we stopped going to Chinese restaurants for fear of death and while I do make Chinese food it is mostly limited to fried rice and stir fry. Until now.



I found the recipe here and changed it a little to fit our family needs.

Ingredients:

Servings: 3-4

• 3 whole boneless chicken breasts

Marinade

• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon cooking wine or 1 tablespoon dry sherry
• 3 drops sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons flour *I used a mixed GF flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

* this smelled really weird to me while I was making it but that could be the crazy pregnant nose. I also found it odd that it bubbled like a baking soda volcano but it turned out so I guess it is supposed to do that?!

Sauce

• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/8-1/4 cup white vinegar (depending on how sweet you want the sauce) or 1/8-1/4 cup rice wine vinegar (depending on how sweet you want the sauce)
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup sugar (we use 1/2 cup sugar but the orginal recipe called for 1 cup) *I used 3/4 a cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon chili paste (or more) *They didn't sell this at the store I went to so I used chili powder and added a few chili flakes on the top of my serving.
• 1 garlic clove (minced)

*I have no idea the differnce between light and dark soy sauce so I just used what I had in the fridge for both

Frying

• peanut oil (3 1/2-4 cups) (I used Canola because it was what I had)

Serving

• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• *I was feeling lazy by this point and didn't toast the sesame seeds. We didn't die.
  

Directions:

Prep Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 40 mins

1. 1 Cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes. Mix the marinade ingredients (the first 9 ingredients listed) and marinate the chicken for 20 minutes.
2. 2 To prepare the sauce:.
3. 3 Mix together all of the sauce ingredients. Pour them into a small pot and bring to a boil, stirring continuously. Turn the heat down to low and keep warm while you are deep-frying the chicken.
4. 4 To deep-fry the chicken:.
5. 5 Add the marinated chicken pieces a few at a time, and deep-fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and then place chicken in warm oven (130 degrees) while you continue frying. Repeat with the remainder of the chicken. Just before you are finished deep-frying, bring the sauce back up to a boil.
6. 6 Place the chicken on a large platter and pour the sauce over. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve the Sesame Chicken with rice.

This was the most amazing dish EVER!! I served it with a steamer bag of mixed Asian veggies and almost everyone loved it. The 3 year old was not a fan of the sauce so next time I will reserve some of the chicken out before I put the sauce on. We will for sure be doing this again!

Cornbread Skillet Supper

Got this out of one of those homemade office cookbooks where everybody submits their favorite recipes. And of course I adapted it some to fit us. It turned out really well. Everyone loved it and there was none left. I think it would be really easy to create new variations too, with different spices and flavors.

First Set:
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 c. yellow cornmeal
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. biscuit mix (I used bob's red mill wheat-free baking and biscuit mix)
1 tsp salt
1 can cream-style corn
1 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. vegetable oil

Second Set:
1 lb ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 c. cheese
2-4 jalapeno peppers (I only put in one because I wanted my kids to eat this- it wasn't hot at ALL and I could have done more I think)
1 can corn

Combine the first set of ingredients in a bowl; mix and set aside.

Brown the ground beef and onion; drain well and set aside. Pour half of the batter in a cast iron skillet (which I don't have- I used a 9x13 pan and it turned out fine). Layer the meat mixture, cheese, and corn on top. Pour remaining cornbread mix over layered ingredients. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes. Let stand for five minutes before cutting.

This called for a cup of sliced green olives, which I left out because my family hates them. However, I love them so I put a bunch of them over my portion- it was fabulous. If you like olives, they really add some nice flavor to this.

Bolognese Risotto

WOW this stuff is good. I belong to a group on Facebook called Recipes from Around the Globe. A guy named Chris posted this, all in grams and celsius. After I used various conversion charts and figured out how to Americanize it, it's really pretty easy to make and boy is it good. He said it would serve four, but five of us ate and ate and almost half is left. It's so good that my seven year old wants to take the leftovers in her lunchbox tomorrow.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
2 cups risotto rice
2 liters of stock (any is fine, I used mostly chicken, with a can of beef thrown in)
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
2 tablespoons milk
1 onion, chopped
2 T unsalted butter
2 cans chopped tomatoes (or chop your own!)
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
4 bay leaves
1/2 cup parmesan
4 ounces cream cheese
1/3 cup red wine

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 300
2. Separate 2 cups of the stock
3. Add the tomato paste to the milk and mix in well
4. Add the garlic, onion and butter to skillet
5. Add the meat and cook until done
6. Add the marsala, then the tomatoes, then 2 cups of stock and the bay leaves
7. Add the milk mixture, mix the whole lot together
8. Transfer the whole lot into an oven suitable container and place into the oven
9. Rinse out the skillet, then put in the rice
10. Toast the rice lightly, don't allow it to brown
11. Add the stock, about a ladleful first
12. Bring to a simmer and stir, allowing the stock to reduce
13. Before the whole mixture dries out, add another ladleful of stock and repeat step 12
14. Repeat until the rice has cooked (chefs like it to have a slight bite; I don't)
15. Add the cream cheese and mix it in completely
16. Add 1/4 cup of the parmesan (the other is to sprinkle on top at the end)
17. Mix all this together
18. Check the oven, the bolognese should be done by now, if the bolognese is very runny you may want to remove some of the liquid
19. Add the Bolognese into the Risotto and mix together
20. The dish is complete

YUM.. The end.

The Quest for Roast and The Use of Leftovers

I want to make a really good, foolproof crockpot roast. I am not sure why this has been eluding me. "Everybody" says that it's one of the easiest, most basic meals to make. I've followed numerous recipes. I've tried putting the potatoes and carrots under and over the meat. (although now I hear also that some people don't put them in at all and cook them separately. I haven't tried that yet.) I've tried on low and high. I've tried cooking less and more than it calls for. I've tried different kinds of seasonings, different amounts of water/soup/beer, .... I'm tired. My family has eaten a bunch of roast that I'm just not happy with. I want the meat to be able to come apart with forks instead of a hacksaw. I want potatoes that are neither crunchy nor mushy. I want some gravy, but not too much, and I want it to taste good. Not too salty, not too boring.

Is this too much to ask?

The other night I got closer to what I'm looking for, following my friend Jenn's direction. She swore I could not mess it up and I did not believe her, since my track record is so bad. She is of the school who steams the veggies separately, but I didn't want to. So I put them in the bottom and plopped the meat on top. Then she said she always puts a package of Lipton onion soup mix and a can of cream of mushroom soup on it. I didn't have Lipton so I made some. I'm finding that pretty much every mix like that has a clone on the internet. It's a beautiful thing. Turns out onion soup mix is mostly dried onion and beef bouillon granules. I have those things. And Gluten Free Cafe has come out with a can of mushroom soup that I like enough to use in cooking. There is still a place in my heart for Campbell's, but oh well. Them's the breaks.

Then came the problem of cooking. My crockpot was a wedding present, so it's 14, and I think it doesn't get as hot as the newer ones. I put it in at 11:30 and was going to do it on high. Jenn said no, it would burn, and I should start on low. Hmm. I turned it to high at 3:30 and we didn't eat till 8 pm. But it tasted good!!!! So to recap:

potatoes, carrots, meat, cream of 'shroom soup, and onion soup mix. Mine went 4 hours on low and 4 1/2 hours on high.

Second day: ROAST SOUP. My mom made it with the leftovers the last time my roast went Horribly Wrong, and it was super tasty- WAY better than the original roast. She said her mom used to make it all the time after roast day, so I'm not sure how I made it to age 35 without knowing this trick. Maybe my mom makes good roast and there were never any leftovers? Dunno. Anyway. I made it again last night and I love it.

You cube up the leftover meat and throw it in a big pot with the veggies and any leftover gravy you've got. Then you start adding things from your fridge. :) It's a little different every time. This time I added:

2 mushrooms (who saves TWO mushrooms? I am a freak. But they were in a ziploc, so there you are.)
a 28 0z can of diced tomatoes, with the juice
2 stalks celery
part of a red onion
a can of corn
a baggie of leftover canned mixed veggies from the daycare kids' lunch the other day
the rest of a box of beef broth
about a cup of water

And then I heated it for the time it took to make cornbread, and it was AWESOME. I highly recommend it, even if you screw up your roast on a regular basis. The soup is forgiving. Eat it with cornbread and be happy.