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.

Gluten Free Recipe - GF Yellow Cupcakes

Sooooo, my GF baby's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I was finally feeling the need to figure out how to make GF cake. At first, I had thought that I would just make a box mix for her party and buy her a special cupcake from a bakery, but somehow I ended up deciding to just figure out how to make everything myself. I do that sometimes, you know. Make things hard when they don't have to be. It gives me something to complain about later.

I got a good start from THIS recipe that has been tried, tested and approved through Allrecipes, but I couldn't just trust the recipe. I had to mess with it to try to make it better. Remember about how I like to make things hard on myself? Case in point.

It all worked out well for me, though, because I really did end up making some pretty freaking tasty cupcakes and I will now share the recipe with you so that you can mess with it and try to make it better.

1 3/4 cups GF baking blend

1/2 cup tapioca starch

1 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

2 1/2 t. baking powder

1 t. xanthan gum

3 eggs

1 1/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup mayonaise

1 cup milk

2 t. vanilla

in a special bowl, blend flours, salt, soda, powder and xanthan gum.

in mixer, beat sugar, eggs and mayo until fluffy. add milk and vanilla and mix.

add flour mixture to the mixer. mix until a little gooey. (I dare you to use the term 'mix' more in a single step)

fill muffin cups 1/2 full.

bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

ok, so this was kind of a fun experiment because, you know, the more you mix something with tapioca starch in it, the more stiff it gets. I made my cupcakes in 3 different batches with 3 different batter consistencies. The first batch was runny, I had to pour the batter into the liners and they came out like so...

No bad, not bad.

On the second batch, my daughter and I wanted to mix food coloring in, so some of them turned pink and the batter got a little stiffer....

They held their shape a lot better than the first batch. No sunken middles. Ready for the side by side comparison? Ready?

Now my daughter wouldn't stop stirring the third batch because she wanted to make them purple. It didn't go so well. Not only did the purple food coloring just make them look... gross, they turned into mutant, growth ridden cupcakes.

Those are them in the front, with the lumps.

So basically, I've decided that I like my batter a little gooey because it helps to make sure the cupcakes hold their fluffy shape, and that a little stirring can go a long way.

But the recipe is good. I'm telling you this. The flavor was good, the texture was good. I frosted them with some strawberry cream cheese frosting, took them to a family dinner and they got eaten by everyone.

I'm SO ready for this birthday party.

Gluten Free Recipe - GF Apple Crisp

My sister first turned me onto this recipe a while back. In all fairness, I think that she makes it better than I do, but I don't really know how since she sent me her recipe and I follow it too. She's just got that magic touch. The ingredients are as follows....

From Allrecipes (just modified a smidge with salt, because it tastes better, and to be GF)

For the apples

• 10 cups all-purpose apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon GF flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 tsp. of salt
• extra fruit or jam, if you have any

For the top

• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup GF flour ( i use my favorite baking mix)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, melted

1. Mix all your filling ingredients together and stick them in a pyrex.

2. Mix all your topping ingredients together and put them on top of the filling.

3. Put your pyrex in the oven and bake at 350 for around 45 minutes.

But if I left it at that, it would hardly be worth a blog post, so I will now subject you to viewing my 4 year old's documentation of our making GF apple crisp.

We started with Granny Smiths because they are tart, therefore, they are better.

Now, there are two ways to cut apples for things like this. The hard way and the easy way. I opt for the easy way. Just bear in mind that the easy way required me happening upon a apple cutter in an antique consignment shop and paying $17 to bring it home and incorporate it into my life.

Do you have one of these? The ones at Bed Bath and Beyond are worthless, don't bother. You need the old school kind that clamps onto the countertop. It was a total stroke of luck that I found one at that consignment shop, I'm not sure where you can buy them, but it's worth looking into.

So easy, a kid can use it! Actually, I had to help her. If you haven't used one of these before, they peel, core and slice the apples into a spiral. My kids like them for snacks. They call them apple slinkies. The skin is referred to as an apple noodle. It's not at desirable as the slinky, but they'll still eat them.

Sliced apples and apple noodles. See, wasn't that easy? That's what I like about the easy way. It's so easy!

Ok, now here's a note about the recipe. If you have any jam or preserves or other fruit that you want to throw in there with the filling, you should do it. Last fall, my sister came over to my house and spent ALL DAY making plum jam and plum sauce out of her 5,000 pounds of plums that she bought for cheap. We throw some into the filling because it makes it more better. Unfortunately, this time I opened a jar of plum jam and put in about 1/4 cup and then smelled something.... funny. The jam was either disgusting to start with, or it hadn't been canned properly and had gone rancid. Either way, I blame my sister for the amount of time that I spent scraping all of it out of the bowl. Ew.

Anyway.... If you have plum or raspberry jam that isn't rancid, put some in your filling or just some fruit, if you've got some.

Ok, now to the finished product.

Ta da! It's obviously best when served a la mode. Everything in life is better a la mode.

Just make sure that the juices of the apples are able to break through the topping, otherwise it doesn't get crisp. Sometimes, I'll open the oven part way through and poke holes in it just to make sure. Because if it isn't crisp, how can it be apple crisp?

Ok, there you are. Enjoy! I know I did.

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.

Gluten Free Recipe - Perfect GF Oatmeal Craisin Cookies

Fact: I LOVE oatmeal cookies. I crave them. I think about them while I'm awake. I dream about them when I sleep. I feel empty inside when they aren't available to me.

A couple of years ago, Nestle made oatmeal craisin cookie dough that you could buy in tubs at Costco and Sam's. It was sooooooo good. It was the perfect cookie. Crispy outside, chewy inside. I'm salivating just thinking about them. It was around Christmas time and the tubs all said that it was a limited edition. We ended up buying, like 12 tubs of it and sticking it in our freezer, but eventually, we ran out. It was a sad, sad day. It was also the day that I started trying to figure out how to make my own oatmeal craisin cookie dough. I made at least 5 or 6 batches before I got them perfect. But I did it. I made the perfect oatmeal cookie. Take THAT, Nestle!

Then we found out that Brent had celiac. Grrrrrrr.

This was the first recipe I made GF and I think that I made it that night to show Brent that it wouldn't be so bad, we could still have cookies. I made it with "oat flour" which means that I threw a bunch of oats in my food processor and pulverised them. They turned out ok, but I've gotten better since.

I'm proud to say that now, I've managed to come up with perfect GF oatmeal craisin cookie. I make the dough and keep it in my fridge so that we can all have warm cookies at night after dinner. I also sneak bites of dough during the day when my kids aren't looking. Please don't tell them.

Here's the recipe. Value it with your lives.

1 cup softened butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together well in your mixer.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix together...

2 cups GF flour blend

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 tsp. salt

Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl and mix on low until combined, then toss in...

2 cups rolled oats (we haven't ever had cross contamination issues with oats)

1 cup craisins

Ok, now to the baking. I bake them at 350 degrees. I preheat a bit in advance to make sure that the temperature is good and even in the oven before I throw the cookies in. It's a very scientific process. I'm a scientist. A cookie scientist.

Drop rounded tablespoons onto your ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Or less. I bake mine for 7. DO NOT OVERCOOK THESE COOKIES. I put that in caps so as to emphasize the importance of NOT OVERCOOKING THE COOKIES. You want them to be a little gooey in the middle, even looking a little undercooked when you pull them from the oven. Make them a couple at a time at first to test the timing, if you need to.

Here's a picture of mine fresh out of the oven. Yum.

This is what I ate for breakfast Saturday morning. It got me off to a nice, healthy start.

Why is it that no matter how much butter and sugar those cookies contain, I always feel like I'm healthy eating them because of the oats? Oats are deceiving like that.

And this is my baby eating my breakfast. Not cool.

Ok, now go make you some cookies and eat them for breakfast tomorrow morning. I won't judge.

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.