cookin' in the crazy times

I'm not sure who all else might deal with this, but sports seasons? YIKES! MMH is on the basketball team of a small school nearby. You say, "Really? What's the problem?" Well, it seems that her practices change, weekly. And in that week the days are not the same. One day practice might be 3:30-5, and another day it might be 530-7. If you take into account church activities, co-ops, music lessons and choir, plus the 20 minute drive to/from practice you may start to realize my issues.

When do I cook? When do we eat? And if I'm conserving gas and money and don't go home in-between how do I handle this? On Mondays we might be gone for 6 hours from home. So I come home to a bare kitchen. On Wednesdays it's a bit easier, but Thursdays... YIKES!

And you say, "Crockpot?" But, three nights a week? And me eating Gluten Free? It does present some issues. One night we try to pack sandwiches or leftovers and eat in the church kitchen between practice and midweek programs. But Thursdays are the issue. Practice ends right before choir, or sometimes even after choir has started. That's the "fun" night... drop WeeOne at choir, pick up MMH at school, bring her to choir, I sit at church and grade papers, read a book, prep a lesson plan or visit with another mother, then WeeOne is out at 7:30, and MMH is done singing at 8, but they have a snack time, so really we don't leave till 8:20.

No, this isn't a whine. Rather, this is a request for meal ideas. Time saver ideas and perhaps recipes that are friendly to the Gluten-free eater in the family as well.

Now, on to this coming week's menu plan. Should all go well:

• stir fry of some sort, we have loads of fresh veggies to use
• roast... any good recipes?
• potato rosemary soup (it got bumped from last week's schedule)
• tortellini soup (that was tonight for the rest of the family)
• pancakes/sausage
• creamed tuna... yeah, I know. It was on the rotation two weeks ago. But, with my back out, cold weather and all it's just a comfort food.
• creamed chicken on potatoes... I know, seems redundant. oh well. 

Creamed Chicken:

Serves 4

• 4 lg. baking potatoes (bake in the manner you choose, I prefer foil wrapped in the oven, but will use the microwave if time dictates)
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped/cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 pepper, diced
• 1/2 sweet onion, diced
• olive oil... to saute veggies
• 3-4 TBS. flour (I used GF flour for this recipe)
• milk... 2+ cups

Make sure potatoes are baked. Chop the chicken, cook in olive oil in fry pan. (sometimes I use left over chicken from another meal, or ready cooked convenience chicken.) Add in veggies toward the end. Cook till softened. Stir in the flour, add milk. Cook till bubbly. Serve over potatoes which have been sliced open. Serve with a salad and some fruit. 

Tortellini Soup:

Serves 6-10 depending on appetites

2 large cans of Tomato Soup

Large container (or 2 small) of fresh/refrigerated cheese tortellini

Basil... several leaves

Spinach... if fresh several handfuls, if frozen thaw and drain and use several ounces

Cook and drain tortellini. Meanwhile mix up soup according to directions. Add in spinach, cook till it shrinks. Add in chopped basil  to taste, and tortellini. 

We serve with a baguette and fresh fruit. Today it was strawberries and blackberries. 

Happy Eating!

Kim

Philly Slices and GF Baguettes

So, while waiting at the Marsh deli line for GLUTEN FREE DELI... can I hear an "OH YEAH BABY!" (They even sliced it on the cheese slicer to keep it free from cross contamination... Marsh on Kinser Pike)... I saw this little display with recipe cards. Took two.


One was Italian Sausage and Spinach Rotini... family loved it! The other was Philly Slices... basically you take puff pastry, roll it out.. fill it with sauteed onion, pepper and garlic, sliced/shredded beef and shredded provolone. The vote was 2 for it and 1 "okay". We'll see... with my inability to handle wheat products I donned gloves to make this... that was interesting. And filling hit the floor, I'll be honest. And really... rolling puff pastry in rubber gloves? It's very interesting. The second roll I asked WeeOne and Mealsie (friend of MMH) to help roll it. Well.... that one sort of popped or leaked... anyway, the girls ate the cheese off the counter. So, not sure how frequently that will make it to the rotation.


In other tried attempts I made my first gluten free baguettes. Now, mind you, I had to make it sans corn, so I'm not sure how it was meant to taste, but my vote is "not bad." I piled on some chicken salad and enjoyed it for dinner this evening. The recipe I used came from Nicole and is found on this web site. For the flours I used a high protein mix of garbanzo bean, potato flour and white rice flour. Because I'm trying recipes for our church's communion I needed to make this very cost effective. Once I added up the costs, figured out cups of flour per pound (4.5 in case you ever need to know), tablespoons per 8 oz. (21-25 roughly), and then added up costs I came to a whopping $2.50 per loaf... without adding in electricity, power, salt, yeast, and vinegar... At the store a similar loaf would cost $4.00, so it's a savings. We'll see what the consensus is. The crumb is great, the taste is fairly good... I now recognize that extra tang in GF breads/rolls... frequently vinegar is used as an acid which is needed to help things rise since there is really no gluten present.

photo found on Living Without

A fairly successful day. I did, however, forget to take a photo... another vote for an IPhone.. ease of use and uploads...so, you'll have to trust me that this was an interesting looking bread. (Their professional photo of their final product is much prettier than my loaf!) But, taste my friends... probably between a 7 and an 8.
Happy Cooking!
Kim

I thought this was pizza night!

And indeed, it was. But, it wasn't the homemade pizza I had planned. Dear had an excellent day at work, and called to say we could celebrate at Buccetto's. Which is great because they have YUMMY GF pizza. They are very careful of how they prepare it and it's so tasty that frequently the family asks to share it with me. Not the most common thing said of GF food. 


My favorite is the "Lean Machine." Their menu reads: " about 1/3 the fat of our regular pizza, a thick crushed tomato sauce full of herbs & spices, sprinkled with fresh Parmesan & Romano cheese..." I also ask for them to add spinach which makes it even more amazing! It's super yummy, low cal and GF. What's not to like? 


So, the baguette/pizza dough experiment has been pushed ahead to tomorrow. The family will be having Philly Beef Slices and I'll be having, I hope, some GF garlic bread from my made-from-scratch recipe, along with a leftover GF chicken/apple/maple sausage. YUMMO!


Happy Eating Everyone... recipe will follow for the baguette. And hey, this blog might be just the reason to buy that new IPhone... that was how we spent the earlier part of the evening.. shopping at the phone store. Didn't buy, but had fun looking!

Shalom, 
Kim

One Bread. One Body.

1 Corinthians 10:15-17

American Standard Version (ASV)

 ¹⁵ I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.

 ¹⁶ The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ?

 ¹⁷ seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we are all partake of the one bread.

When I first found that I was truly gluten intolerant the whole extent of what was to happen in life had not yet hit me. I was, truly, focused on the "poor me, I can't eat cookies, brownies and baguettes." It was a selfish focus, understandable, but selfish. As time wore on I began to find GF substitutes for some of my favorite things, although brownies were hard to come by. However, the true thing I would miss didn't become evident till this fall. 

You see, as the first time for communion rolled around after going GF I realized there would be a problem. My husband and I talked it over and it was determined that I would take a VERY VERY VERY small piece of bread to dip in the cup. And, before all you GF eaters tell me that even one crumb can cause damage, let me assure you I was aware of this. But, we were moving forward and trying to find what God would have us to do. 

Fast forward to this past fall after my fall into poison ivy. At that point my gluten free life style took a HUGE step in a new direction. It turned out that I was not only needing to eat GF, but that I did, in fact, also have a true wheat allergy. As in... wheat touches me and I break out in hives, extremities swell, etc. How did this come to light? Well, the poison ivy was bad enough, but coupled with taking communion and getting my hair colored (who know hair coloring had wheat products? Seriously!) and my body went into allergic overdrive. 13 days of prednisone, prescription strength anti-histamines (benadryl didn't even begin to touch it!), and cold wraps and sitting very very still with NOTHING touching my arms helped me to deal with the 30+ day reaction. The dermatologist deemed it a "life altering" allergy. And, her next statement... "No more communion bread for you"... really left me reeling. But, at least we knew what God wanted. 

So, I'm now going to start working on a recipe for some sort of Italian or French bread that the church can use. As I spoke with one of the elders yesterday he thought for a few hours and then suggested that his wife and I work on this. Now, knowing how expensive the flours are I suggested they not add this to their expenses when I already had so many flours (Thanks McCardle family!!!) either through gifts or purchase. 

Now I need to find a good base recipe and then work on it a bit to see how cost effective and also how suited for the purpose I can make it. I'd love to have your input. (We also have some with dairy and corn allergies in the church body, so I need to make it dairy free as well. I'm hoping the use of canola oil will work...) I think I'll start with Bette Hagman's GF flour mixes since they worked so well for the GF donuts on New Year's Day. Not sure which recipe base I'll start with though. 

So, one body... the body of Christ, the church... one bread... and that's the aim . I'd appreciate your prayers as I work through this. I'd like to have something ready to show in a couple weeks at most. I may be eating a lot of GF loaves in the next few weeks. Glad I've got some homemade jams to eat with them. 

Shalom, 

Kim

Welcome to the blog!

I know I know. Another. Blog. Again. I'm nuts!

Well, I may be nuts, but I was thinking about all the cooking I have to do. About eating gluten free. About cooking for gluten-eaters and non-gluten-eaters. About the ways I like to mess with recipes and make them my own. About how sometimes I just don't want to blog about something deep, about homeschooling, about my thoughts, or my art, or childbirth. So, I figured I needed a new blog. A new look. A new start. After all, it's a new year.

SO, on this blog you'll join me in my adventures of cooking. You'll learn about our food allergies, gluten intolerance, how to change up ingredients, my favorite places to shop, find recipes and eat out. If you like food I think you'll like my blog. I'll also try to post weekly menus here, with the occasional photo as I think of it.

And, to that end, here's this week's menu, in no particular order.

• Spinach Sausage Casserole (or Breakfast bowl for the gluten intolerant)
• Philly Cheese Slices
• Potato Rosemary Soup (gluten free)
• Creamed Tuna on potato chips (quit shuddering, it's a comfort food, gluten free and fun every now and again)
• Left-overs (yes, I plan for leftovers, helps the fridge stay clean!)
• Pancakes and sausage (Dear is loving pancakes currently and who doesn't like breakfast for dinner sometimes?)
• Homemade pizza (Gluten free and non)

There you have it. Now, if I get my hiney in gear I'll put up a recipe page as well so you can find recipes with ease. I have photos tonight because the blog is new and the idea was in my head. Not sure how frequently this will happen, but I love photos so I know what the food is "supposed to" look like.

The spinach sausage casserole was a HUGE hit. Simple ingredients: sweet Italian sausage, mozzarella cheese, rotini pasta, Parmesan cheese, onions, green onions, garlic, sour cream, spinach. That's it.

fresh out of the oven

ready to eat with a nice cold glass of milk

Breakfast bowl also fairly easy: thinly slice potatoes, olive oil, diced onions, browned crumbled gluten free sausage, eggs, cheese of your choice.

allowing the eggs to cook through in the fry pan...

tastes great with a nice glass of grapefruit juice

Doesn't this just say "yummy" and "comfort"?!

I also, very carefully, whipped up some granola for Aaron's return to Texas. It's found in the "Whole Foods for the Whole Family" cookbook by La Leche League. I have an OLD version, but I'm betting it may be found in the new as well.

• 5 c. oats
• 6 c. of a variety of things. I use 3c. whole wheat flour, 2c. powdered milk and  1c. quinoa.(because it's what I had on hand)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. almond flavoring
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 c. canola oil
• 1 c. honey
• 1/2 c. water

during the baking

Preheat the oven to 250. Put the oil and honey into a large roasting pan. Put in the oven and let warm as the oven warms up. Meanwhile start measuring. When oven is preheated take out pan, add in ingredients and stir. Bake in slow oven for 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes. When cool, stir in raisins or chocolate chips. Our family ALWAYS chooses chocolate chips. YUM!

after it's all crisped up... note the yummy nuggets

 Happy Eating!
Shalom,
Kim