Delicious Food that Happens to be Gluten Free - GF Penne Alfredo

After what seems like a long break, I finally got myself together and made my family a real dinner tonight. Hooray for real dinner! Granted, it was a super duper easy dinner, but whatever. I made it and we were fed.

First off, my mom found me this amazing pasta at the Costco in St. George. It's good. Like, really actually very good. I can't find it anywhere here, which is sad. It seems as though southern Utah is some sort of GF mecca and that you can find all sorts of things down there that you can't up here. It just ain't right. It was around $7 for 6 pounds of pasta (3 bags of fusili and 3 bags of penne) and she bought me, like 5 boxes of it. I will be eating pasta salad this summer!

Thank you much, Sam Mills. The Corn Master, you are.

So tonight, I cooked me up a bag of this shtuff, only the penne kind. It cooks up just like normal pasta. While it was cooking, I grilled up a couple of chicken breasts seasoned with garlic salt and pepper and then I sliced them up all nice.

Yesterday, I bought me some alfredo sauce from my Costco (which does not carry my new favorite pasta) and today, I scooped some into a sauce pan to warm it up. I also generally keep a jar of their ready made pesto in the fridge because my husband's life isn't really complete unless he has pesto available to him at any given moment in time. Who can blame him? I mean, we're talking about pesto!

So anyway, I always add a little pesto my alfredo sauce - because it makes it more better - and when it was warm, I poured it over my GF pasta, tossed in my grilled chicken, grated a little fresh asiago cheese that I was lucky enough to have in my fridge and served it with sauteed broccoli and zucchini.

So fast, so easy, so good, so great for summer.

Delicious Food that Happens to be Gluten Free - Pretty Stinking Good Guacomole

So, I don't like guacamole. This is a true fact. I don't like avocados because there's something about them makes me gag when I try to swallow. I've spent a lot of years of my life pretending that I've got an avocado allergy to escape the inevitable criticism that follows when people see me avoiding the precious fruit.

Then, one day, my sister and brother in law took us to a Jazz game. I know. What's the connection to guacamole? I'm getting there.

See, my brother in law has a fancy job and gets fancy perks like box seats to Jazz games and in that box... there was this guacamole. It was amazing. It was unreal. I gorged myself on guacamole. The chips were merely vessels for guacamole because eating it with a spoon wouldn't have been socially acceptable. My sister had prepared me for it, so, in the event that I would want to recreate it later, I took note of the ingredients before they mixed it all together. I'm glad I did that. That was smart. I'm glad when I do smart things.

This is what I used....

2 avocados, peeled and quartered

1 diced tomato

1/2 onion diced

Juice of one lime

handful of chopped cilantro

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp sugar

Here's the trick to this shtuff. DON'T pulverize your avocado. throw everything together on a large plate of platter or something else that happens to be wide and flat and with a couple of forks, just chop and stir it together. It makes such a yummy, chunky dip. I may have eaten it for dinner on Monday. And I think maybe I'll make it for dinner again tonight. My eyes have been opened and I hope that all my past avocado avoiding sins will be forgiven.

Delicious Food that Happens to be Gluten Free - Chicken Souvlaki, Lemon Rice and Greek Dressing

I love Greek food. Just the word 'souvlaki' makes my mouth water. People always seem to be impressed when I tell them I am making Greek food for dinner and as much as I hate do anything that would dissuade people from being impressed with my culinary capabilities, I have to admit, it's really quite easy to make. At least the way I do it.

Part one - Chicken Souvlaki

2-3 chicken breasts

Italian dressing

1/2 tsp. turmeric

salt/pepper to taste

Dice up the chicken breast into bite sized pieces and put them in a leak-proof vessel of some variety and pour in some italian salad dressing, a little turmeric and any salt/garlic salt or pepper/lemon pepper that you want. The longer you can let it marinade, the better. If you have time to leave it overnight, I would highly recommend that you do so. That's right, it's got my recommendation.

When you're getting ready to prepare the meal, soak some bamboo skewers in water for a bit so that they don't disintegrate when you put them on the grill (yes, i've learned this lesson the hard way even though my sister warned me). After they've soaked for a while.... brace yourselves.... you have to touch the raw chicken. With your bare hands. It's gross. You have to fish through your leak-proof vessel searching for bits of marinated raw chicken and then, you must heartlessly and cruelly skewer them.

It's a dirty job, but, you know the drill.

I usually add some extra garlic salt and lemon pepper at this point because I'm big on the excess sodium. Then, get your grill good and hot and throw them on.

'Tis true that they taste better when grilled on an real, outside grill, but it's snowing outside today and we're out of propane anyway, so we're going with plan B. Plan B aint that bad.

So there's your souvlaki, but it's practically a crime to eat souvlaki without lemon rice, so we always make that too.

Part deux - Lemon Rice

1 1/2 cups rice

1/2 tsp. turmeric powder

1-2 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. lemon juice (fresh is best, but we're working with plan B here too)

3 cups water & 3 chicken cubes OR 3 cups chicken broth

salt & lemon pepper to taste

1/2 tsp. thyme

Once again, I just put it in my rice maker and turn it on.

I'd like to take this opportunity to admit that I don't actually have any idea what turmeric does, other than make things yellow. But for some reason, I like my Greek food to be yellow, so I put turmeric in EVERYTHING.

Part Three - Greek Dressing

Ok, now for the last part (for today) the Greek dressing. I found this recipe on Allrecipes and I've never found a Greek dressing that I like more.

1/2 cup olive oil

3/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 1/2 tsp. dried garlic powder

1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1 1/2 tsp. dried basil

1 1/4 tsp. pepper

1 1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/4 tsp. onion powder

1 1/4 tsp. dijon mustard

I blend it all up with my hand blender and then it all fits nicely in one of the Good Seasons dressing thingers. I make this for salad, obviously, but I also douse my whole plate in it and savor every tangy bite.

Yum. I want to try making beef gyro meat and I think I'll give it a shot later this week. If I do, I'll let you know how that goes as well as posting a recipe for delicious cucumber dill sauce. So, you know, cross your fingers for that.

Delicious Food that Happens to be Gluten Free - Cilantro Lime Rice

We had Pioneer Woman White Chicken Enchiladas for dinner tonight. You should all be so lucky. I really do like that Pioneer Woman. Her white chicken enchiladas are fantastic. The recipe makes a ton so you can use it to feed a crew or sometimes I'll make 2 or three smaller batches and throw the extras in the freezer for a night that I'm feeling lazy.

HERE'S a link to her recipe. I follow it pretty closely, with the exception of adding heavy cream to the chicken. And I put my tortillas in the microwave to soften them instead of frying them in oil. And I use boneless, skinless chicken breast instead of a whole chicken. And I don't use jalapeno peppers in it. And you have to substitute a GF free flour to make the sauce. But other than that, I follow it exactly.

Pioneer Woman White Chicken Enchiladas

But this post isn't only about the mouth wateringly delicious enchiladas, it's also about my very favorite rice. Cilantro lime rice. I've kind of made this recipe up, just putting things in that sound good to me, but I'll try to pin down the amounts of things that I use so that others can also enjoy them some cilantro lime rice.

Here's the ingredients...

But not in the quantities shown. For instance, this recipe does not call for an entire cube of butter, nor does it require half a bottle of chicken cubes. Just wanted to clarify that point.

I made three cups of rice tonight, so, you know,

1.5 cups of rice

three cups of water

and 3 bouillon cubes...

one diced onion

a bunch of cilantro, chopped - and by "a bunch" I'm not specifically referring to the entire bunch that you grab at the grocery store. More like "some" cilantro

about a tsp. of minced garlic

1 or 2 Tbsp. of butter - it does wonders for the texture and flavor

salt & pepper, maybe 1/2 tsp. of each

and lime juice. My rule of thumb for this rice is that you want the juice of a whole lime for every cup of uncooked rice you have. I used 1.5 limes tonight.

And if you're me, you throw it all in your rice maker, give it a good stir and turn the sucker on.

Don't forget to turn it on. I've forgotten. More than once. It doesn't work out so well when your main course comes out of the oven and you have no cilantro lime rice. People don't like that.

At this point, I rely so heavily on my rice makers (i have 3) that I'm not sure I even know how to cook rice on the stove anymore. It's sad really. My mom got me a new one for Christmas. It came from Sam's and it has changed my life for the better.

Oh ricemaker. I DO love you so.

When it looks like the white rice cycle is close to coming to an end, I always stir it up a little and check the seasonings. Add a little salt or pepper or more lime juice at that point to make it just right and serve it up.

As aforementioned, we ate it with enchiladas tonight, but I make it for lots of things. We love it with fish tacos (if you live anywhere near me, you must come have fish tacos with us some time. we're thinking of having a cinco de mayo fish taco party) I've made it for taco salad, I make it all the time. Tonight, my kids literally cheered and told me that this rice is their favorite part of dinner. It's always a crowd pleaser.

Let's take another look, shall we?

There you have it. As far as I'm concerned, you really can't go wrong with anything that has cilantro and limes and garlic and rice in it. I might go pick at the leftovers now.

Delicious Food that Happens to be Gluten Free - Olive Garden Minestrone

It seems as though having an adult that eats GF in your home is complicated enough, but trying to feed kids with celiac takes it to another level. Feeding my kids lunch is hard enough as it is, I never know what to do. We used to eat either macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles or cheese sandwiches every day of the week and now... we have to get a little more "creative."

We eat a lot of hot dogs around here. Correction. THEY eat a lot of hot dogs around here. Bun-less hot dogs, that is.

Another favorite of ours is what my daughter calls a roll-up, which is basically lunch meat with cream cheese spread on top and rolled up.

Today, I lucked out because my sister made minestrone last night and I got to bring home some leftovers. It kinda surprises me that my kids like minestrone, but they really do. It's so easy to make and tastes even better the next day.

Our lunch today. Strawberries, a ham roll-up and a bit-o minestrone soup.

Here's the "recipe" that I use. I mean, it's soup, so you always fudge it, right?

Ingredients

• 1 cup finely minced celery
• 1 cup finely minced onion
• 1 cup finely minced carrot
• 1/4 cup butter

• can of cut green beans
• can of light kidney beans
• can of dark kidney beans
• can of chick peas
• 3/4 cup sliced carrot
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped onion
• 3/4 cup sliced celery
• 3/4 cup chopped bell pepper
• 2 cans of italian style tomatoes
• 3 quarts of vegetable broth

• 2 tablespoons parsley
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp thyme

• some frozen spinach (however much you like)
• 1 cup GF macaroni noodles (or just omit the noodles, you know)
• pepper to taste
• Parmesan cheese to top

Directions

1. Saute the minced onion, celery and carrots in a VERY large soup pot with the butter until very brown.

2. Add the vegetable broth (we use bouillon and water)

3. throw in all the cans of everything - drain everything but the tomatoes - and the seasonings (that is add, everything but the GF pasta and the spinach)

4. Cook for at least an hour. About 20 minutes before you are ready to serve it, add the spinach and GF pasta.

Serve it with fresh Parmesan cheese and enjoy.

And here are my happy campers. Notice that they both went for the strawberries first? I can't blame them. As much as I like soup, it's spring and the the time for strawberries has finally arrived.

What we ate for dinner - Hawaiian Haystacks

The day after we found out that my husband, Brent (who has, for personal reasons, decided to post in my comments under the pseudonym "svenhardicus"), had celiac, I was pleased to get a visit from some friends in our neighborhood. They have been eating GF for several years now and Nikkie totally got me started on the right foot. I will forever be grateful. They also brought us the most fantastic GF chocolate cupcakes with whipped strawberry frosting last Friday as Brent and I sat on the couch watching DC Cupcakes and wishing we had a treat. Oh my goodness.

Her best advice to me was not to look for GF recipes, but to find recipes that don't contain gluten or adapt my favorites. Golden advice. Golden, I tell you! She started a cooking blog the same week I did and that's where I got this recipe that we tried tonight for dinner.

I used to make Hawaiian haystacks on a regular basis, but my recipe called for cream of chicken soup, which calls for wheat, which calls for gluten. Her recipe for the GF gravy was delish. We all loved it.

From Gluten Free Makeover...

Hawaiian Haystacks

6 Tbsp butter
1/3-1/2 C GF flour (the amount will depend on the flour, I use 1/2 C of the asian rice flour because it is so fine, but I use 1/3 C for any of my other flour blends. Just make sure the roux is thick enough when you are whisking it together)
3 C chicken broth
1/2 C milk
1/2 C half and half
2-3 chicken bouillon cubes for added flavor
1 1/2 C chopped, cooked chicken (about 2 chicken breasts)

Melt butter in saucepan on medium heat, blend in flour. This should be a big clump when combined. If it's too soft, you may not have enough flour to thicken the sauce later. Add chicken broth and smashed bouillon cubes and whisk until mixture thickens. Whisk in milk and half and half until smooth. Add chicken and a dash of pepper to taste. Don't forget to stir all the way through or the bottom will burn. Serve over rice, with desired toppings.

This sauce is the equivalent of 2 cans of condensed cream of chicken soup, mixed with 2 cans of milk.

Seriously, this recipe is WAY better than the old gravy I would make.

When I make Hawaiian Haystacks, I always like to put the toppings in my cute, mini latte bowls because it makes everything colorful and pretty and I'm shallow enough that it makes a difference to me. Plus, my kids like it.

There are so many good things to top them with. Try pineapple, mandarin oranges, coconut, green onion, cheese, tomato, bell pepper, celery, maraschino cherries or crunchy chow mien noodles. The noodles aren't GF though. They were there special for me. And my husband assumed that I had done my homework and was protecting him from gluten, so he started munching on them. Oops. Sorry svenhardicus. I won't do that next time.

delicious food that happens to be gluten free - Ranch Chicken

Apparently, I eat a lot of chicken, since this is the third chicken recipe I've posted in a row. I made beef the other night, I just didn't tell you about it. I can't give my mom credit for this one, though. It's a Pioneer Woman recipe.

I love me some Pioneer Woman. Her recipes are terrificul (I'm watching Ramona and Beezus tonight with my daughter and her friends, prepare yourselves). They are practical and delishus, although a wee bit heavy on the unnecessary calories. I generally cut her butter usage in half. Or more. Like this one... her recipe instructs us all to cook our chicken in a pan full of bacon grease and although I'm sure it tastes tasty, I can't bring myself to do it. I just can't.

Here's the link to her recipe. It's a good one, and it don't contain no gluten. Wait, that's a double negative. That would mean that it does contain gluten, which it doesn't.

Pioneer Woman Ranch Style Chicken

I've followed her recipe exactly and found that I like taking a few calorie cutting shortcuts...

Marinade (it's the same)

1/2 cup dijon mustard

1/2 cup honey

Juice of one lemon

1/2 t salt

1/2 t paprika

Other ingredients you need

Chicken.

Bacon.

Cheese.

How can you go wrong?

This is great marinade. I use it all the time. You need at least a good couple hours to get it to sink in, overnight is obviously better.

After I marinade my chicken, I cook up some bacon on my George Foreman grill, throw out the grease, and grill my chicken. Then I top the grilled chicken with the bacon and grated cheese, or just grated cheese - if you don't dig on swine. I don't eat bacon anymore because my brother told me pigs have feelings and it cut me to my core. I'll never be the same.

Usually, I'll leave the chicken on the grill and let the cheese melt over it. If I feel like dirtying a cookie sheet, I'll broil it on low for a minute.

I love serving this with my family's all time favorite... twice baked potatoes. Those and any veggies I'm lucky enough to have in the freezer.

I would like you all to note that I didn't eat this plate.

I prepared it for my husband.

I could have eaten this whole plate.

And I very well did eat the equivalent... in 3 different little servings, plus whatever I picked on after I cleared the table and before I put the leftovers away.

But I didn't initially plan to eat this much.

Don't judge me.

I love Ranch Chicken.

delicious food that happens to be gluten free - Chicken with Artichoke Hearts

This is one of my all time favorite meals. Ever. And it's another recipe that I got from my mom. I believe that it once came from a Better Homes & Gardens. It's good for a weeknight. It's good for Sundays. It's good to try and impress your in laws. I've made it for all three with success. I've also adapted it a little bit here and there to make more sauce (because I lika da sauce) and switched out flours to make it gluten free.

Here's your list of ingredients....

2-3 chicken breasts (not pictured, you don't want to look at raw chicken anyway, right?)

1 Tbsp. each butter & olive oil

Salt, Pepper & Paprika to taste

1 can (or however many your like) artichoke hearts

2 Tbsp. rice flour

5 sliced mushrooms or 1 can drained

up to 2 cups of water

1 chicken bouillon cube or 1 tsp. chicken stock base

2 tsp. cooking sherry*

1 tsp. white vinegar

1/4 tsp. dried rosemary

Heat butter & olive oil in a large skillet. Sprinkle salt, pepper and paprika on chicken and then brown in skillet on high heat. Place chicken in an oven safe dish and arrange drained artichoke hearts around it, like so...

Allow me to interject something here. Or rather, try to stop my from it.

My sister also makes this recipe, but we disagree about one thing. Artichoke hearts. She likes the kind in the can, packed in water. I like the marinated kind that you can buy in vats from Costco. The kind packed in oil. The unhealthy kind. Oh good heavens, they are so good! My daughter and I eat them straight out of the ginormous jar. Anyway, it's your call, it just depends on how healthy your feeling that day.

Moving on...

Brown your mushrooms in the oil & butter left in the pan and then add your rice flour. It makes a nice, brown pasty goo. Slowly add one cup of water, your sherry, vinegar (to add some zang to it), rosemary & chicken bouillon and stir it all together. Allow to simmer for a minute, taste for seasonings and add any salt & pepper you need and more water, up to another cup, if the sauce is too thick.

Pour sauce over chicken & artichokes. Cover & bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees.

Serve over steamed rice.

See the grease there on top? That's from the marinated artichoke oil. That's what makes it so yummy. Don't be scared.

That's right. Serve it on up.

My favorite brother in law brought over his fancy camera to take some pictures for me. I really do have more than one brother in law and this one really is my favorite. Largely because he packed up his fancy camera and brought it over to my house to take pictures of my food for my blog. I rewarded him with chicken and artichoke hearts. I believe it was a win-win situation.

So there you have it. Make yourself some chicken and artichoke hearts and savor every bite.

*I didn't used to make this recipe with sherry because I never had it around. That's when I started adding the vinegar to add a little extra something to the sauce. Now, I love making sauces with cooking wine so I've got all kinds of it in my pantry. If you don't keep cooking wine around, add a little extra chicken stock, vinegar or apple juice to the sauce.

Delicious Food that Happens to be Gluten Free - Chicken Cacciatore

I love this recipe. LOVE IT, I say! So good. So easy. I feel so passionately about it that I posted it on my family blog a while back. It's gluten free and it doesn't even have to try. My mom got this recipe from her sister in law long enough ago that I was raised on it. Every time I make it, I make extra so that we can have left overs, but usually there aren't any.

Ready for it? Ok.

Chicken Cacciatore

These are the ingredients. All of them. Except that I forgot the rice and the chicken bouillon. And the smidgen of butter to brown the chicken. Sorry.

2-3 chicken breasts

1 T each of butter and olive oil to brown chicken

1 onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 can of mushrooms

1 small can of tomato sauce

1/2 tsp. of chili powder

salt & pepper to taste

Heat a little olive oil and butter in a large pan. Salt & Pepper chicken (I like garlic salt because garlic makes the world taste better). Brown chicken on each side then add onion & cook until translucent. Throw in pepper, mushrooms (not drained), tomato sauce, chili powder, a little salt and pepper and perhaps a chicken bouillon cube, if you're feeling it. Give it a good mix, turn the heat to low, put a lid on it and simmer for around 30-45 minutes. Check seasonings at the end and add more salt & pepper if needed.

While the chicken is cooking, steam some rice. Maybe some broccoli, if you're healthy like that, or throw together a salad. 45 minutes later, pour your chicken and sauce over the rice and you've got yourself dinner.

This is what it looks like raw. I didn't take a photo after it was cooked because my mind was overcome with hunger and I ate it, but if you get to this stage and your pan looks like mine, you're on the right track.

Try it! You'll like it!