Gluten free birthday cake!

Soooo I have been looking forward to trying out this cake for a while and what better chance than Mike's birthday? I used the new Betty Crocker's cake mix and followed the recipe instructions on the back exactly. It used butter, eggs, vanilla and water and the mix. Cook according to box and voila!

I waited until it was fully cool and then frosted, sprinkled and candled. Hint, be really careful with the frosting you pick out (or make your own) because some of them had wheat products listed as ingredients.

I think it turned out great looking. The best part is that it tastes great and even our friends who normally eat gluten really liked it. They said it was a bit similar in consistency to a black and white cookie, so a little bit drier than a normal cake, but still really yummy.

Happy birthdays are still very much possible for all the G-Free people out there. :)

Smoky chipotle and black bean chilaquiles

Ok, I can't take credit for this recipe because I found it in a Rachael Ray cook book (Big Orange Book). I had never even heard of chilaquiles before trying this out, but when I was in Mexico, it seems like a big hit for breakfast/brunch. It is really great in this recipe for dinner. It is very similar to a mexican bake or casserole but using tortillas as the main starch.

8 6-inch tortillas
cumin
Lime
S&P
Red onion chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, choppd
1 tablespoon of adobo sauce from can
2 15 ounce cans diced tomatoes
3 cups corn kernels
2 15 ounce cans of black beans
Tabasco
shredded cheese
4 scallions
cilantro
sour cream

Heat oven 400 degrees. Slice tortillas into 1 inch strips. Spray pan with Pam, place tortillas on it, spray them with Pam. Coat them with cumin and zest of lime. Bake 12-15 mins or until crisp and slightly browned. Immediately sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, Toss onions and garlic in a pan until softened. Add chipotle peppers and adobo sauce and the tomatoes. Season with S&P and stir to combine. Heat through and then pulse in a food processor until salsa like consistancy is obtained. Set aside.

Add the corn to a greased second pan. Cook until browned.

In the first pan, add some oil and one of the drained can of black beans. Mash beans with wooden spoon and add some hot sauce to taste. Then add the second can of drained beans and mix until heated.

Assemble chilaquiles in a baking pan by spreading half the salsa on the bottom, then a layer of all the tortilla crisps, then the bean mixture, followed by the corn and the remaining salsa. Tope with some shredded cheese and back 8-10 mins until bubbly and cheese is melted. Squeeze the juice of a lime over it and garnish with scallions and chopped parlsey. Eat with a dollop of sour cream. Really good!

Chili picture

Turkey chili

Another very common meal in our house. We love chili, especially in the winter, but sometimes it shows up during the summer as well. There are so many variations on this, it seems like every time I make it, it is different. This is the one for this week:

Ground turkey
Onion
Bell peppers any color
Zucchini
Chili powder
2 Cans of diced tomatoes
Can of black beans
Red pepper flakes
Splash of G-free beer (optional)

Brown the turkey in a large pot, drain. Add onion, bell peppers and zucchini (and any other desired veggies). Cook until softened. Add cans of tomatoes and drained black beans. Add chili powder until it turns a dark red and some red pepper flakes. Also works if you chop up a jalepeno. Let simmer as long as you can. I would say at least 30 mins. I usually top with a little low fat chedder or some sour cream. Sometimes we also make G-Free cornbread to go with it too. Oh, and like the wine for the pasta sauce, once a beer is open someone will have to drink it! :)

Vegetarian pasta sauce

Pretty straight forward, but was a good dinner.

Eggplant
Zucchini
Mushrooms
Onion
Cherry tomatoes
Green bell pepper
Can of diced tomatoes
Can of low fat pasta sauce from TJs
Garlic 3 cloves
Fresh parsley
S&P
Splash of red wine
Parmesan cheese

Cook all the veggies besides cherry tomatoes in a large pot until softened. Meanwhile, broil tomatoes on a pan until they burst. Add to the rest of the pot, add sauce and canned tomatoes. Mince garlic and add along with wine, S&P. Cook up desired shape of brown rice pasta (or corn etc). Top with sauce, parsley and some Parmesan cheese. Enjoy a glass of the wine you splashed in there... I mean, it's already open now... :)

Chicken, veggie and brown rice stir fry

Ok, we have been making some version of stir fry for the past 4 years and aside from the soy sauce changing over to wheat free soy sauce, it hadn't changed much. We normally make it with cubed tofu and lots of veggies and put it over brown rice. However, we have noticed that it was the meal that both of us kept putting off the the end of the week and trying to avoid (we plan all our weeks meals and shop once a week-- more on shopping, saving money, planning meals for another post). But, after axing the tofu and adding some chicken, I decided to try a new technique and wow did it work! Mike actually said to me it was "the best stir fry I have ever had in my life". Woohoo. Now I will share it with you:

Whole chicken roasted, cubed - About half the meat
Stock from said chicken
Brown rice
Broccoli
Mushrooms
Onion
Bell pepper (any color)
Eggplant (optional)
Zucchini (also optional I just had extra of both of those)
Water chestnuts
Gluten free soy sauce (I found this at Ralphs and Whole Foods)
Red chilli paste garlic sauce (asian aisle)

Make the roasted chicken earlier in the day (or day before) and have it cubed and ready to add at the end. Start the brown rice with chicken stock instead of water. Heat up some olive oil (or whatever oil you usually use) in a wok or similar huge pan. Add broccoli first including the stems all diced up. Add all the other veggies as you get them chopped up. Do not salt, you will be adding plenty of soy sauce. Once they are all softened, add soy sauce and chilli paste to taste. I like mine spicy so I added about 2 teaspoons of the chilli paste and we actually added even more as we were eating it. Add in the chicken in and let warm up. Mix the rice into the veggies and chicken. Add any more pepper/soy sauce you feel necessary.

Yum! And still great the next day too.

Gluten free pizza

Ok, second try with gluten free pizza crust. This did turn out pretty well.

Gluten free pizza crust mix

I forgot to write down what was on the package to report back here oops! Just follow directions exactly and make sure your hands are really wet when you spread this out. Oh and REALLY grease the pan, I had problems with sticking on a Teflon pan even after using Pam. Then bake this with no toppings for about 15 mins.

Toppings:

Pizza sauce (from TJ's)
Mozzarella part skim shredded
Mushrooms
Canadian bacon
Bell pepper
Onion
Red pepper flakes
S&P
Chopped fresh parsley

Add toppings and bake another 15 mins or so until mushrooms and onions have wilted and crust is crisp. Cut up and enjoy with some gluten free beer. Who doesn't love pizza and beer?

Greek inspired quinoa salad with chicken

Just like this : http://glutenfreewifey.blogspot.com/2009/08/greek-inspired-quinoa-salad.html
but this time I added some cubed chicken I roasted. Even better than the last try. Wow!

Roasting a whole chicken for various meals

So in case you haven't noticed, boneless skinless chicken breasts are very pricey at the store. Occasionally I can get them enough on sale that it is worth buying them, but normally I try to get a cheaper piece of meat if I can. I like to buy whole chickens (which most of the meat is in the breast anyway) and cook them up for multiple meals. More on the meals you can make with them later...

So grab your whole raw chicken, rinse it out in the sink, take out the gross neck and liver stuff and stick it breast side up on a pan. I then season it with salt, pepper, rosemary and some poultry seasoning I happened to have. This goes into the oven at a really high temp 450-500 somewhere for about 20 mins or until the skin has a nice browned appearance. Then switch the temp down to 300 and cook another 30 mins. I let it sit until you can handle it (not scalding hot) and then you can dismantle the meat. Don't toss the bones or skin, stick them in a large pot, cover with water and boil for several hours. Then I put that chicken stock into storage and freeze whatever I don't need for that weeks meals.

Ps. Picture above has 2 extra chicken breasts I found in my freezer added into the pan.

Turkey and rice stuffed bell peppers

This is a really great summer meal to make whenever the price of the red, yellow and orange bell peppers finally comes down. I made mine to share with 4 people and it was great. I usually eat one stuffed pepper myself and Mike eats two, but you can always fill up on extra stuffing if you want more.

1 package of ground turkey
1 onion
Amount of bell peppers for stuffing (depending on people eating- I used 4)
2 green bell peppers chopped
1 cup of uncooked brown rice for every 2 people eating
1 can of diced tomatoes
Mint leaves
Red pepper flakes
S&P
Parmesan cheese

Start brown rice in rice cooker. Brown turkey meat, drain and return to pan. Add chopped onion and green bell peppers. Saute until softened. Add can of tomatoes, chopped mint, pepper flakes and S&P to taste. Allow to simmer until rice is cooked. Mix all ingredients together.

Take tops off of the stuffing peppers and set aside. Place peppers in a glass cooking pan and fill with stuffing. Top with shredded cheese and set tops back on them. Place remaining stuffing at the bottom of the pan surrounding the peppers. Also top with cheese. Bake at 400 degrees until peppers are soft and easy to cut. Mine took around 30-40 mins.

Enjoy.