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.

Ground turkey meatballs, veggie sauce and penne

I forgot to take a picture of this yummy food but trust me it was delicious! Not a super quick meal but doesn't take much effort either. Just start the sauce up and let it simmer as long as you can. Then it only takes about 10 minutes of boiling pasta to have a yummy dinner ready.

Ground turkey
Italian seasoning
Garlic powder
Crushed Corn chex - or gluten free bread crumbs
One egg
Salt and pepper

Combine all of these ingredients and set in fridge. Start preparing sauce.

1 large can of low fat pasta sauce from Trader Joes
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 zucchinis (or other squash, eggplant, etc)
1 package of baby portabella mushrooms sliced
6 mini bell peppers chopped
3 garlic cloves diced
2 onions diced
1 can of artichoke hearts in water from TJs
Splash of red wine
Italian seasonings (chose your favorites or use a mix)
Fresh parsley chopped
S & P

Combine all the ingredients in a large pot. Allow to simmer until there is plenty of liquid from all the veggies. Then take meat mixture and form small balls. Add each to the boiling sauce. Continue to cook at least 20 mins if not more.

Boil a bag of gluten free pasta of your choice - I used TJs brown rice penne- and combine. There will be left over sauce from this that I generally freeze and use as a starter for my next batch.

Tilapia, sweet potato and green beans

So easy! We needed a quick dinner the night our friend was coming into town and this was perfect.
I had a tilapia fillet and Mike had salmon. Both were marinated the same way and cooked at the same time. Mine probably should have come out of the oven a bit earlier since it was thinner but I forgot and it was fine although a tiny bit over cooked.

Fish fillet
Lime
Seasonings (I used dill salt and pepper)
Sweet potatoes
Green beans

Start the oven at 450 degrees and put the cleaned sweet potatoes (with fork punctures) in foil. Cook those about an hour until very soft (or to cut down the time, microwave first and then bake less time). In the meantime, marinate the fish with the lime and seasonings to taste and refridgerate until ready to bake. Take out the potatoes and let cool a bit. Lower oven to 400 and bake fish for about 20 mins. While fish is baking, boil the green beans about 15 mins.

Season green beans with salt and pepper after draining them. Plate sweet potatoes, cut in half and fill with desired toppings. I used some unsweetened yogurt (very similar to sour cream) and salt and pepper. Yum! :)

Enjoy.

Greek inspired quinoa salad

First, I would like to add my favorite grain, quinoa, to list of favorites we use all the time. It is about the size of cous-cous, gluten free, crunchy and delicious. Works as a substitute for rice when you get tired of it, cous-cous and you can buy it as a flour too, which I haven't tried out yet. It is supposed to be a healthier grain than wheat and rice, so definitely worth a try for even those gluten lovers out there. You can find it at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, and I'm sure most other grocery stores have it too, but it's a bit pricier there from what I have found. The "regular" version is sort of tan colored, but it also comes in a red variety which is a bit crunchier and I like even better. Sometimes I mix the two together like I have today.

Ok, enough loving quinoa and onto the recipe. This is really just a jumble of all the last bits of produce I have for the week. I have to go shopping tomorrow. I had one cucumber ready from my mini garden (it's my first one!) and two small tomatoes.

Cucumber
2 small tomatoes
Half a big red onion
Parsley freshly chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup of uncooked quinoa
Juice of one lemon
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Low or Fat Free feta

Cook the quinoa just like rice with same water to grain ratio. I made mine in the rice cooker too, even easier. Let cool down. In the meantime, chop up all the veggies nice and small. I also took out the seed area of the tomato to cut down on the juice. Mince garlic and combine with veggies and parsley. Add the cooled quinoa and seasonings (juice, oil, S&P). Finally add the feta when salad is just ready to be served.

So serve up with some protein (we're having leftover chicken drumsticks from a BBQ) and enjoy! :)

Vegetarian taco Thursday

Probably the cheapest, easiest gluten free meal ever. I make these often with ground turkey, onion and bell peppers cooked with taco seasoning as well- this usually replaces the beans. Then the leftovers of that go nicely for a taco salad the next day.

Corn tortillas heated up
Refried beans heated up
Black beans
lettuce
tomato
salsa
sour cream
LF cheddar cheese

Make up yummy tacos, top as desired and eat lots! :) YUM!

Another variation on this would be cutting the tortillas into chip shapes, spraying with pam and topping with some taco seasoning, baking them til crisp and making homemade nachos with all the other toppings.

Once a week pasta

Yes, that's right. We are both part Italian and love us some pasta! We probably really do have at least one meal of pasta per week. The great news for us is that there are really yummy pasta alternative options out there. We have our go to pasta from Trader Joe's which is brown rice and comes in 3 shapes, spaghetti, penne and rigatoni. There are also several other options that we found at Whole Foods, including a delicious quinoa pasta (part corn as well) and a whole corn pasta. We use these on occasion but mostly use our cheap and easy to find TJ rice pasta. The only major difference in the rice pasta is the texture is a little more gummy, but we don't really mind and we love the taste. I am pretty sure I will have lots more pasta dishes that are similar but slightly different to post on here. I hardly ever follow a recipe and when I do, I tend to modify it to fit our dietary needs. I have 3 main pasta type dishes we make very commonly.

First: Ground turkey meat sauce.
Second: Mixed veggie marinara sauce.
Third: Seafood, roasted tomato sauce.

As an example I will just post what I made for dinner yesterday (it fits into category 3)

Spicy roast tomato and clam sauce rigatoni

1 package of brown rice pasta (any shape works but mine were spirals)
A bunch of fresh tomatoes from my garden (all different sizes)
Half an onion
Half a bell pepper
3 cloves of garlic
2 small cans of chopped clam in clam juice
Fresh parsley
Salt and pepper
Red pepper flakes
Tabasco sauce

Broil tomatoes until they split their skins and darken. Cut up onion and pepper and saute until tender. Add crushed garlic and the cans of clams. Add tomatoes, crushing the tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon. Spice it up to taste (we like ours a bit spicy after all the yummy thai food we have been enjoying lately). Finally, add the chopped up parsley for color and a fresh taste.

Meatloaf muffins, roasted potatoes and root veggies

To start out the first recipe, nothing could be better than our go to meal of meatloaf! We love it and have it every few weeks, with very few exceptions. Normally we make it in an actual loaf and pair it with sweet potato fries and peas, but I felt like switching it up this week and going for mini muffin sized loafs and some roasted veggies.

Meatloaf recipe:

1 package of lean ground turkey (Jenny-O)
A large handful of crushed Corn Chex (or some kind of G free breadcrumb substitute)
One egg
A variety of spices (I used garlic powder, italian seasoning and parsley, but almost any combo would be pretty tasty)
Salt and pepper
Ketchup

Combine all the ingredients besides ketchup and form balls that fit in the muffin tins. Smooth them out and top with some ketchup on each one (or bbq sauce that is G-Free). Bake at 400 degrees until cooked ~20-30 mins depending on oven.




Potatoes and veggies:

One bag of mixed baby potatoes from trader joes
One turnip
3 carrots
One large red onion
Olive oil
Rosemary
Salt and pepper

Cut All veggies into bite sized chunks. Coat in small amount of oil and salt, pepper and rosemary to taste. Roast at 450 degrees until tender depending on the size of the cuts ~ 30 mins.














Just had a few bites of this and it is SO good! Some of the veggies are so naturally sweet they taste amazing! Wow, can't wait for Mike to get here so we can eat this! :)