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.