Tag: glutenfree

food

Mild Veggie Curry

Jen1 Comment

A couple of evenings ago, I walked into the kitchen at 6:30 without a single idea for what to make for dinner. All the meat was frozen, I was tired from my long day of kid wrangling, and the sink was full of dirty dishes. I was in no position to cook anything, much less prepare an evening meal for my family. What I wanted to do was fill up a bowl with cereal and call it good. But, it’s been cold here for the last few days and I figured we all needed something a little more substantial to keep us going so this is what I came up with:

1 16 oz bag frozen veggies (I used the broccoli/cauliflower/carrot mix from Stop & Shop)
2 15 oz cans chickpeas (rinsed and drained)
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
~ 1/2 cup tomato juice
~ 1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 Tbsp curry powder
white rice

Mix all of this together in a pan over medium high heat and bring up to a nice bubbling simmer. Cover and reduce heat to low, and let it cook while you make your rice (about 10 minutes or so).

This was on the table before 7 o’clock and, oh my goodness, was it delicious. E ate 2 big servings and Isaac (who is often usually a picky eater) ate most of what I put on his plate. (A small victory, but a victory nonetheless. It’s the little things, really.)

Happy nomming!

food

Confetti Rice*: A recipe

Jen1 Comment

1 lb ground beast (tonight we used turkey sausages, squeezed from their casings and crumbled)
some chopped onion (tonight it was only 1/4 of an onion)
some chopped carrot (I had a couple of handfuls of shredded carrots)
some chopped celery (2 or 3 ribs, whatever you like)
some chopped rainbow chard (I had about 1 bunch)
a bit of oil (whatever looks right)
spices/herbs (your choice! Tonight I used garlic powder, dried oregano, and a teeny bit of chipotle powder)
cooked rice (white or brown, whatever you like!)

1. Start cooking your rice (if you don’t already have some leftover in the fridge)
2. Brown the meat (with a little oil if necessary) and set aside
4. saute the onion/carrot/celery in oil with some salt,
5. when the vegetables are softened and the onion is translucent, add in your spices and herbs
6. add the chard and cook until wilted
7. stir in the cooked rice
8. nom

*one could also call this “dirty” rice, but a certain someone (E5) was quite put off by that name so we changed it.

Tomorrow: Hopefully the last Sweater Deathmatch post!

food

Crazy Good Super Easy Gluten Free Meatloaf (with rice!)

Jen2 Comments

I haven’t made a meatloaf in a good long while for some completely unfathomable reason. Perhaps that’s why everyone thought this really easy meatloaf I kind of just threw together was so awesome. Everyone gobbled it up. Either that or we were all just really really hungry.

  • 1.25 lb package meat loaf mix (pork/veal/beef)
  • 1.5 cups cooked rice (leftover from last week)
  • 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning blend
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • 1 Egg

Smush (yes, that is a technical term) all the above ingredients together and press into an 8×8 baking pan. Squirt (another highly technical cooking term) some (gourmet!) ketchup on top. Bake at 375° for one hour. Serve with mashed potatoes, caramelized onions, and a big green salad. Bask in accolades.

PS–> I just remembered that I posted another meatloaf recipe back in October of 2009. That’s probably the last time I made meatloaf! I wonder why I waited so long. Hrm. Anyway, I opted not to put in a bunch of veggies this time, but right now I can’t recall why.

 

food · holiday cheer

Our First Gluten Free Thanksgiving

Jen3 Comments

This is the first Thanksgiving since going gluten-free/dairy free/soy free, so planning the menu required a bit of research and creativity. Here are some post-Thanksgiving thoughts and notes for posterity. Sadly there are no pictures. The entire meal was devoured before the thought of taking out my camera even occurred to me.

  • The Turkey: This year, as last year, featured turkey from Trader Joe’s and gluten-free (at least according to their customer service) and delicious.
  • The Stuffing: Not technically “stuffing” since I didn’t cook it in the bird. I followed this recipe from Crockpot365. I will definitely do this recipe next year, but I think I’ll do all corn bread instead of a mix of corn bread and rice bread. I might also add some pecans and a couple of boiled eggs and possibly an apple.
  • The Potato Mash: Yukon Gold Potatoes + Hemp milk + Earth Balance (soy free) = delectable.
  • The Gravy: I followed these directions on Gluten Free Girl only instead of using the Earth Balance (soy free) like I should have, I used palm shortening. FYI: Do not, ever, use shortening (of any sort) for gravy. The flavor was okay, but the mouth feel was … odd.
  • The Cranberry Sauce: Since we are trying to avoid cane sugar, maple sugar, and molasses (on top of everything else), I tried this recipe, sweetening the berries with honey. Next year I will use more honey. Probably a lot more honey. My sauce was extremely sour.
  • The Pie: This one from eHow, only I used agave nectar in place of the sugar. It was just like a “regular” pumpkin pie, seriously. There was no difference in taste or mouth feel. It was absolutely wonderful. No whipped cream for us though. Luckily we didn’t need it.

All in all, it was a mostly successful dinner. Maybe next year I will remember that, even though the package says “never frozen”, there will still be a huge chunk of ice in the center of the bird which prevents the breast and everything below (and including) the wings from getting up to temperature at the same time. *sigh*

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, everyone! Now, I’m off to finish my NaNo. Only 4200 more words to go!