Enchiladas

I love Enchiladas. At a Mexican restaurant, 9 out of 10 times I eat enchiladas. B and I make them at home on ocassion and a few weeks ago I was getting an enchilada craving. We haven't been eating out much lately and decided we'd make some at home. Here's the downside: I went shopping and discovered that canned Enchillada sauce is not gluten free. I went home very disappointed because I had to rethink my whole meal plan for that week. I began researching how to make sauce at home. In the mean time, Bob decided to go shopping and pick up some sauce. Living gluten free is still confusing to me, and I'm the one living it. B tries so hard by reading labels and helping me imagine new recipes, and it broke my heart to see the look on his face when I had to tell him that the sauce he brought home had hidden gluten in the ingredients. He was trying to take care of me and I don't blame him for being confused. I love that he tries.

Before Gluten Free (or BGF) one of my favorite places to eat was a Mexican place called Jose O'sheas. Bob and I would often go their with his sister Allison and her husband Tad. My favorite dish there was the Spinach Enchiladas, but then those bastard went and discontinued it about a year ago. Who does that? Anyway, the Spinach Enchiladas were stuffed with spinach and mushrooms, and then topped with a cheesy spinachy spicy sauce and melted jalapenocream cheese. They were amazing, so I decided to make my own spinachy sauce for my enchiladas.

Defrost a package of frozen spinach. Put in food processor with some jalapenos and blend/process well. Then heat it up on the stove with some milk or EVoo to thin it out. Pour over enchiladas and bake. 

Good and spicy. We stuffed these ones with cheese and ground beef. We used corn tortillas. We always like to top our enchiladas with black olives. 

GF flours

I am so excited to be stocked with Gluten Free flour...I just had to take a picture!

A bit about Celiacs

Guess how I spent Valentine's Day...

Holding hands with my love?

Kissing my love?

Going to work? 

Eating wonderful food?

Nope. Sitting on the couch with a tummy ache. 

Last night, B and I went out with his family to celebrate his mom's birthday. We went to a pizza place near us that has gluten free crust. Their crust was actually very good, but the GF crusts only come in small, so B and I each got a salad to start. When our salads arrived, mine had a piece of bread on the plate. I am not super assertive yet with my dietary needs, I'm just scared to be. Naive me thought that I could just pick up the piece of bread, give it to Bob, and be ok.

About 45mins later I started to get the tummy rumble. Gluten attack!

It lasted the rest of the evening. I was able to hang on for all the festivities, but then I just went to bed with a heating pad on my tummy and the worst headache ever. The symptoms continued today, causing me to call in sick to work. I described the way I felt as food poisoning.

There is now no doubt in my mind that I have Celiacs, and that my body cannot handle gluten. I never want to experience a night like that again. 

All the books say that even one crumb of bread can cause a reaction. I believe it.

My Valentine has been nursing me back to health. I love him.

Valentine Mudslide

My special to treat to my beloved wife this Valentine's day was let her experience the mudslide. This is an alcoholic concoction which is so delicious I don't mind that it diminishes my manly drinking street cred. The ingredients are Kahlua, Vodka, Ice, Vanilla Ice Cream, Chocolate Sauce, and Bailey's. There are debates on whether Bailey's is gluten free so I excluded it to be safe. I also used orange Vodka because that's what we had available. It actually adds a nice layer of flavor. On my second go around I added a few Bananas to smooth out the flavors even more. Don't ask me amounts. This is all on gut feeling. Pour alcohol (Vodka, Kahlua) about equally until you are satisfied that you will feel it and taste as you are drinking. Don't skimp on the chocolate, that should be a dominate flavor.

Turkey Cranberry Meatloaf

Bob loves meatloaf. (Come to think of it, Bob loves a lot of things...) 

My hard working husband put in a 12hr day last week. Class in the morning, 8 hrs of work, and no time to come home for lunch. All why I sat around the house watching soap operas.

To cheer him up, I surprised him with a Turkey Cranberry Meatloaf and some Rosemary Potato wedges.

Preheat the oven to 400.

Mix the meatloaf. Take 1lb of ground turkey and put it in a bowl. Add some mustard, poultry seasoning, an egg, and breadcrumbs. I have been making my own gluten-free bread crumbs by saving the crumbs from the bottom of the cereal, corn chips, and cracker packages. Saves me money and saves my tummy. I then mixed in a spoonful of prepared cranberry sauce. I bought some in a jar a while ago that we keep in the fridge, and it is a great topping on turkey burgers. Mix everything well.

Form. I don't use a bread loaf pan for my meatloaf, I just free form a loaf on a cookie sheet, then spray it over with some olive oil.

Bake. At 400 for about 35mins. use a meet thermometer to test the internal temp. You want it to be 165.

About 10mins into the baking, I tossed some prepared potato wedges onto the cookies sheet. I like the Alexia Foods brand. (http://www.alexiafoods.com/)

This was really good. We ate it all, there were no leftovers.

Roast Chicken

Bob loves roast or baked chicken. In an attempt to cut back on the amount we spend on food, and to simplify our meal planning, Monday night at our home is 'chicken night.' I do not work on Monday's, and roast chicken is something that I can easily toss in the oven and leave to bake while I work on cleaning the house or doing some of my other projects. Bob works Monday afternoons and evenings, and a few weeks ago when he came home for his dinner break, he told me that he could smell the food from his parking spot outside our home and was so excited that those yummy smells were coming from his home.

I am almost embarrassed to post this, because it is really, really easy. Also, I like B to think that I have slaved in the kitchen all day to create the meal for him.

First, preheat the oven to 450. I always use a quartered chicken, but you can roast a whole chicken, just cook it a little longer. I season the chicken skin with various spices, depending on our mood, but one of our favorites is a lemon garlic poultry blend that we buy at our local spice shop - Savory Spice shop (http://www.savoryspiceshop.com/)

Then, I put the pieces in a roasting pan and place them in the oven. I let them bake 45mins, then test to see if the pieces reach 165 on the meat thermometer. If so, they are disease free and safe to eat!

I usually pair this with a quick side, like a tossed salad or some veggies.

Steakhouse dinner

Bob loves a good steak. And I love him. I recently recreated out Valentines dinner from last year, which is posted here. And the results....

Seasoning the steaks

Boiling the Potatoes. We subbed Sweet Potatoes in for the regulars.

All four burners going at once. I'm always amazed and a bit anxious when this happens in my kitchen.

The finished product. Rosemary seasoned steak. Creamed spinach with warmed tomatoes. Mashed sweet potatoes with horseradish. 

The Frittata

I've loved this style of breakfast food whenever I've had a chance to try it. It kind of works out to be an omelet that you scoop out of a pan. My first foray into creating my own turned out to be delicious even though it didn't come out like a traditional frittata.

Ingredients are subject to personal preference just like with an omelet so I'll just discussed what I used.

2 tbsp butter
4 cloves garlic minced
1 cup of mushrooms
half a bag of spinach
1 large zucchini chopped
6 eggs
shot of milk
goat cheese
asiago
feta

Ideally you would have a cast iron skillet for this task, I did not so I used a skillet that isn't oven safe. Melt the butter in the skillet at medium low heat and add the garlic and the mushrooms. The mushrooms will absorb the flavor and some of the butter after a few minutes of being sauteed. Saute them until the look totally moist. I also through in a shot of white wine into the mix to add a little more flavor for the mushrooms to sponge up.

Add the spinach and the zucchini. I used frozen, chopped spinach, and too much of the water that came from the melting process diluted things and may have caused some trouble with the final stage of cooking. If you use spinach from a bag there won't be that problem. It may look like a lot at first but it will wilt down quite a bit. Continue the saute until the spinach has wilted and the zucchini begins to brown.

Whisk eggs, the shot of milk, some garlic power, ground sea salt, and cracked pepper in a bowl. The whisk puts air into the egg mixture and makes for fluffier eggs, which is key with frittatas, but should be done with any egg mixture. Pour mixture over top the vegetables in the skillet.

Let this cook, just using a spatula to pull back cooked egg, and allow the runny stuff to find the bottom of the pan so it can cook quickly and evenly. Cook until all the egg is solid, but still is very moist.

If you have a cast iron skillet you can skip this step, if not transfer it to a oven safe dish.

Preheat the oven to broil.

Top the frittata with an evenly spread combination of the cheeses. Goat cheese is perfect for this type of thing because when it is melted it essentially turns into a highly flavored cream. The asiago and feta just add some different flavors to the mix, but can be used more sparingly than the goat cheese.

Place skillet/dish in the oven and let it cook until all the cheese is melted and the eggs begin to brown a little bit. Under the intense and direct heat of the broiler the egg should begin to rise like with a souffle. This didn't quite work for me and I suspect that it may have to do with the excess water from the spinach, the skillet to dish transfer, or using milk instead of cream. Next time I'll use dry spinach, I may invest in a cast iron skillet, but I'm probably not going to get heavy cream for this or many other recipes. We don't cook with it enough, and there are health concerns with using it at all, let alone enough to make it worth the purchase. Next time I'll see if I can get it to rise, but even without that added extra, this was one of the best meals I've ever made.

Green Chile

Although I have yet to win the chile competition at my work the green chile is easy to make and tastes great.

lb. pork tenderloin cut into bite size pieces
1/2 onion diced
bundle of cilantra finely chopped
4 garlic cloves minced
2 limes
4 jalapenos chopped
8 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
1 large can of green chiles chopped into bite sized pieces
1 can of crushed tomatos
1-3 chopped bell peppers (optional)
cumin
chile powder

First take a large pot and heat the onion, jalepno, and garlic with some olive oil. I try to get the onions as fine as possible because I don't like to bite into onion chunks, but admit that cooked down onion adds nice flavor. Depending on how hot you want your chile will determine how much you clean the seeds and ribs out of the jalapeno. That's where the majority of the heat is, so if you want it gone you'll have to clean everything out of the middle. I would wear gloves because prolonged exposure to the oils of the pepper can cause your skin to burn for days. Just cook for a couple of minutes until the oil has been infused with the flavors of the ingredients.

Add the pork and cook in the put stirring occassionally until it has been browned.

Add 1/2 of the cilantro and the juice of the limes to finish flavoring the pork.

Add remaining ingredients. I always eyeball the amount of spices relative to the amount of chile being made. You want to generally include a proportional amount of cumin, so the bigger the batch the more you put in. Cumin is pretty powerful, so somewhere around 2 tablespoons for a large batch is about right. Your chile powder is another way to control heat, if you don't like any, you may not include any. Put as much as will give the right amount of pop to your chile. Since the green chiles you buy in the can are always mild, it makes adding the powdered stuff necessary. If you can get chiles freshly roasted during the right times of year you may have options to buy the hotter stuff, rendering the powder unessecary.

Bring the chile to a boil then turn the temperature down to low and cover with a lid. I would cook this at least 2 hours, but the longer the better. The longer the pork gets a chance to cook the more tender it will become and the more its juices will flavor the broth. All the veggies will also cook down quite a bit and that will break them down also turning your chile into a more singular creation.

Serve in a bowl and for those who find it a little hot, mixing in a dollup of sour cream should do the trick.

A big batch works great because you can either freeze the leftovers, or use as a topping or a dip in later days.

Lemon Bars

I’ve decided to experiment with Gluten Free baking. I enjoy baking; it is something I don’t want to give up. With some of my Christmas money, I have invested in Gluten-Free flours and ingredients.

I decided to make Lemon bars to share with my co-workers. I love lemon bars, and I love that I can still eat a GF version of them. I used a recipe from the The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook: Breakfasts, Entrees, and More by Elana Amsterdam. The recipe uses Almond flour, a new ingredient to me, but it gives the crust a nice texture. Grapeseed oil is sweet and worth the investment. B and I have used agave nectar before in beer making, but this was my first time cooking with it – it has a consistency similar to honey.

The recipe says that it makes 24 bars, but I have more than 24 co-workers, a hungry husband, and I don’t own an 8 x 8 cake pan, so I doubled the recipe. Here are the measurements I used, but they can easily be halved to make a single batch.

For the crust:

3 cups almond flour

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

4 T grapeseed oil

2 T agave nectar

1 T vanilla extract

Mix the flour and the salt together, and then add the wet ingredients. Mix until smooth. I didn’t even have to use my mixer for this, I just used a spoon. Spray, butter or grease an 8 x 16in pan. Pour the batter into the pan, and then place it into an oven that has been preheated to 350. Let the crust pre bake in the oven for 15 mins.

For the filling:

1/2 cup grapeseed oil

1/2 cup agave nectar

6 eggs

1cup fresh lemon juice.

While the crust is baking, make the filling. If I had known earlier in my life that lemon bars were so easy to make, I would have made them more often. Put all the ingredients in the blender. Blend until smooth. Then, pour it into the pan, on top of the crust. Put it all back into the oven at 350. Check after 15mins, but mine ended up taking a total of 20mins to set up. Let them cool – to speed up this step, I shoved the whole pan into the refrigerator until it was time to go to work…or about 30mins.

WARNING – these are very tart!

NFL Potato Skins!

Check this out, I'm totally obsessed with this idea. Thanks Christie for posting it originally. We are making the Saints Skins tomorrow.

Small Bites for the Big Game #1: NFL Potato Skins!

Pear & Strawberry Margaritas

Over the summer, we were receiving a box of fruit eat week from our CSA. Beautiful pears. Wonderfully ripe peaches and plums. Juicy watermelons. Crisp apples. All grown in Colorado. All Organic. It was wonderful. The only problem is that Bob and I are only 2 people, and it was hard to eat so much fruit each week. I took the bulk of it each week, juiced it, and froze it. It has been nice to use in smoothies, but also has been very tasty in frozen cocktails.

We took some frozen pear juice, some frozen strawberries, and some limeade, and put it all together in the blender. We added some tequila and triple sec. Ok, thats a lie - we added a lot of tequila and triple sec.

Then we blended.

And then we drank. Bob was skeptical of the pink concoction, but he went back for seconds, so I think he was won over.

Curry Chicken Salad

I have accidentally found a dish that Bob loves. Fortunately, Curry Chicken Salad is easy to make and we often have the ingredients on hand. Bob and I are lucky enough to work within 10 mins from our home. Bob is able to come home most days and we are able to spend a little time together mid day. This dish is quick and easy to whip up for lunches.

1) Grill up some chicken breasts. Some weeks we grill up some extra chicken to have on hand for sandwiches and salads. This salad comes together best if the chicken has had some time to cool.

2) Dice up some celery. Add it to a bowl with some chicken.
3) Add the following:
Dried cranberries
Chopped Pecans
A handful of curry powder
some dried basil
some dried tarragon
some dried dill
salt & pepper
Mayonnaise

4) Mix everything together.
5) Enjoy

Aunt Elizabeth Cooks. Uncle Bob Eats.

 WE HAVE A NIECE!!!!!

My sister-in-law’s friends threw a baby shower for her this past weekend. Allison, my sister-in-law, announced this past fall that she was pregnant with her first child, and soon after the announcement, her friends began plans for a gender-neutral shower (my sister and brother-in-law wanted to wait to find out the baby’s sex.) The shower was scheduled for January 23^rd, approx. 6 weeks before Allison’s due date. I coordinated with Allison’s friends and agreed to bring a salad. After looking at the menu they had prepared, I decided to bring two salads so that I (a gluten-free girl) and my mother-in-law (a sugar free, yeast free Vegan) would have something to eat.

The January 19^th rolled around and Allison’s water broke 6weeks early. Elliot (Ellie) was born. She weighed 5lbs and 4ozs at birth and is currently living in the NICU at the hospital while she is developing. She and her mother are doing very well.

We still had the baby shower on January 23^rd, but it was more Baby Girl themed than gender-neutral.

Here are the salads I made for the occasion.

Black Bean and Mango Quinoa

Take some Quinoa and cook it in a pot using the same water to grain ratio as you would with rice. I did this step the night before so my Quinoa could cool.

I then chopped red bell pepper, cilantro, and mango. I decided that this day would be a wonderful time to use the food processor for the first time. I received it in June as a Wedding gift, and just now got up the nerve to open the box. Here is a photo of my boys with the box.

I processed the bell pepper, mango, and cilantro briefly in the food processor and to my surprise it turned out well and was easy to do. I think I have found my new favorite kitchen appliance.

I added the cilantro, red bell pepper, mango, and a can of drained black beans to the Quinoa and stirred well.

Greek Inspired Greens

I wanted to take a green salad to the party because I had a pretty bowl to put it in. I also received the bowl as a wedding gift and had yet to use it because it has to be hand washed.

I do not eat gluten and therefore I do not eat croutons. My mother-in-law does not eat cheese. This salad needed something special, so I roasted some eggplant with some springs of rosemary. I diced up a meadium sized eggplant and roasted it in the oven for about 20mins. After they were done, I took them out of the oven and put the pieces of eggplant into a ziploc bag to add to the salad after I arrived at the party.

While the eggplant was in the oven, I put some mixed greens, sliced tomatoes, olives, and sliced cucumber in a bowl.

Then, I used my fancy food processor to make a relish/dressing for the salad. I bought a jar of marinated artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers. I put the contents of the jar, liquid and all, into the food processor and pulsed it 4 times. It made a nice, chunky topping that I dressed the salad with after I arrived at the party.

Food was yummy. Party was fun. My niece got a ton of stuff. Elliot finally got to come home from the hospital yesterday, January 31st.