Macaroni Vegetable Salad

When I was sick and in the middle of a move a dear friend brought us over a meal. It was so good! Much better then the Chex I had been eating for every meal while life was so crazy. I attempted to recreate it here.

Ingredients:

8- 16 oz Rice Noodles of your choice cooked and drained according to package directions (More or less depending on if you want more veggies versus pasta)
1 cup Tomatoes Diced (pictured above I used yellow and red tomatoes, but I've also used grape tomatoes and those are very good)
Handful of Spinach washed and cut into ribbons or chopped
1/2 Red Bell Pepper chopped into small pieces
2 Cellery stocks chopped into small pieces
1 Small head of broccoli chopped into bite sized pieces (Optional. I happened to be out of broccoli the last time I made this)
Italian Dressing of your choice
Chicken (optional)

Directions:
Mix all of the vegetables and pasta. Add dressing and mix well. In the above picture I added some chicken that I had previously canned. We have also added grilled chicken which is wonderful in the summer.

Strawberry Cake

 Our little girl loves strawberries so for her first birthday I searched for a gluten free strawberry cake recipe. I found this recipe over at gluten free mommy. I topped it with a cream cheese frosting. I didn't have almond mill so I substituted millet. It was pretty tasty and the birthday girl loved it. 

Taco Bake

A new favorite in our family is Taco Bake. It is adapted from this recipe I spotted on Pinterest:

3 cups cooked taco seasoned meat.
1 15oz. can tomato sauce
1 green or red pepper chopped (sometimes I add two because we really like peppers in our house)
1 package of gluten free spiral pasta cooked and drained (I have used rice noodles or corn noodles. Both turn out well.) 
1 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided

In a large sauce pan combine: taco meat, tomato sauce and peppers. Bring to a boil.
Meanwhile combine pasta and sour cream in 8x8 baking dish. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese. Top with meat mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 325 for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake an additional 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted.

I recommend doubling the recipe. It's great for leftovers. 

Hot Chocolate!

I recently had a request for my "liquid chocolate" hot chocolate recipe that I made for some friends in New Hampshire more than 5 years ago. The problem is, I made up that hot chocolate on the fly without a recipe. This weekend I spent some time in the kitchen concocting a recipe that I could give them that would taste very similar to the hot chocolate I made for them in New Hampshire. Here's the result.

Ingredients:
1 cup of water
3 cinnamon sticks (4 inch sticks)
3 cups of 2% milk/1 cup of heavy whipping cream (or you can use 1 quart (4 cups) of Half and half in place of the milk and whipping cream)
1 bag of milk chocolate chips (11.5 oz bag)

Directions:
Boil the cinnamon sticks in the water for at least 3 minutes (water is a better solvent than milk and will extract more cinnamon flavor from the sticks than the milk will). Reduce heat to low. Add the milk/cream OR the half and half to the water/cinnamon mixture. Add chocolate chips and mix until thoroughly melted and blended in with the rest of the liquid.

You can also add 1/4 cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder in addition to the chocolate chips if you like your hot chocolate tasting more dark. I recommend tasting the hot chocolate as is, though, before adding the cocoa to make sure your taste buds need the extra cocoa.

ENJOY!

Stir fry

The sauce:
4 cubes of chicken or beef bouillon
1 and 3/4 cups of water
1.25 tsp of ginger powder
1 T of garlic powder or 7 cloves of garlic minced
4 tsp of balsamic vinegar
2 tsp of brown sugar
pinch of black pepper
1/3 cup of white sugar
1 T of sesame oil
1/4 cup of canola oil
4 and 1/2 tsp of white vinegar
1/2 cup of pear juice
1/2 tsp of guar or xanthan gum
1 tsp salt

vegetables
sliced carrots
sliced green peppers
chopped broccoli

meat
4 pounds of beef roast trimmed of fat and thinly sliced

dissolve and mix sauce ingredients together until an emulsion is obtained between water and oil ingredients. lay meat in a glass pan and pour the sauce over it to marinate the meat from 1 to 24 hours. When desired marinating time has been reached, simmer the sauce and meat mixture on low for at least one hour. Steam vegetables and then add into the meat mixture before serving. Good over garlic infused basmati brown rice.

Bread

Dry ingredients
3.5 cups of ground brown rice flour*
0.5 cups of amaranth flour*
2 cups of tapioca starch or potato starch
1 cup of instant dry milk
0.5 cups of potato pearls
2 tsp of salt
1/2 cup of white sugar
2 T of yeast
2 T of xanthan or guar gum
2 tsp of baking soda

Wet ingredients
6 eggs
2 tsp of white vinegar
1/3 cup of oil

3 cups of warm water

Directions:
mix together thoroughly the dry ingredients. mix the egg, vinegar and oil in a stand mixer until homogenous mixture is obtained. Heat the water until about 120 degrees F and then mix into wet ingredients. Slowly add dry ingredients into the stand mixer while mixing on low to prevent a mushroom cloud of flour. once all flour is added, mix on high for 3 and 1/2 minutes. Grease bread pans and neatly fill them with the dough, wiping the sides to prevent burning of dough in unwanted areas. Let the dough rise in a warm oven set to 170 degrees F until the dough has doubled in size. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes, then cover with aluminum foil and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from oven and enjoy.

*We now add a cup and a half of bean four instead of a cup and a half of the rice flour. It adds a great wheat like flavor and also adds nutrition and keeps costs low

*If you don't have amaranth you can substitute rice flour. Amaranth is very healthy for you though so you might try it and see if you like it.

Life with Allergies: Where to Begin?

My nephew was just diagnosed with a long list of allergies. I'm overwhelmed for their family and it has made me think a lot about what advice I would give them. I didn't grow up as a kid with known allergies. I was sick most of my life and finally figured out my medical problems were due to Celiac Disease and allergies when I was 21. It was a very overwhelming day. It's of course nice to know the reason for your illness and it's even nicer to have a cure, but it was still difficult. My life would never be the same. It was very difficult in the beginning to adjust to a new life of eating differently than I had ever before done, but now it isn't difficult at all. I rarely think about it. So where do you begin? How do you adjust? I think the first place to begin is by making a list of things you can eat. Focusing on what you can eat and not on what you can't makes the transition much easier. Make a list. Ask others for input. Start by food group or walk through a grocery store with pen and paper in hand. I think you will find there is still quite a bit out there that you can eat. Don't overwhelm yourself in the beginning by trying to perfect an allergy free version of whatever is your favorite food. Focus on what is naturally allergy free for you. Learning to cook allergy free takes time and it takes patience. Things don't always taste the same. Your taste buds will adjust though and so will you.