Monster Meat Enchiladas

Monster Meat* Enchiladas

• 1 cup sour cream- or plain yogurt
• 1 (7 ounce) can green salsa
• 1 bunch fresh spinach, rinsed and thinly sliced
• 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1 Cup shredded monster meat
• 1 (10 ounce) package corn tortillas

Preheat the oven to 350.

Pre-warm the tortillas slightly so that they are pliable.

In a small bowl, stir together half of the sour cream and the green salsa. Spread enough to coat the bottom into a 9×13 inch baking dish. On each tortilla, spread a small amount of the salsa and sour cream in the center.

Lay a small handful of shredded spinach over that, and sprinkle with Monterey Jack cheese, and some shredded monster meat if desired.

Roll up, secure with a toothpick and place into the baking dish. When they are all in the pan, pour the remaining salsa over the top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until the enchiladas are browned and heated through.

* shredded monster meat in this case was pork shoulder. Feel free to use chicken or any other leftover monster meat that you may have.

Chili in the crockpot

It’s finally Fall. Time to break out the crockpot.

Yummy food. No work. Lots of leftovers. What’s not to love?

 

Chili

• 1 chopped onion
• 1 cooked chicken breast (optional)
• 1 can crushed tomatoes
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 can garbanzo beans (pureed- they will never know it’s even in there)
• 2 C cooked lentils
• 1 large can pinto beans
• 1 large can dark red kidney beans
• Add chicken broth as needed.
• Add chili seasoning to taste. (depends on what brand you buy)
• 2 tsp cumin
• salt and pepper to taste

 

Dump it all in the crockpot. Cook on high for 4 hours, or until the onions are done.

Eat.

Freeze the leftovers for quick dinners later.

Jessica’s Chicken

Chef Jessica designed this dish while shopping for groceries this afternoon.

It was good : )  and Gluten free. And yummy.  Would have been good with rice too, but maybe next time.

Chicken and beans

step one:

1 can pinto beans

1 C pasta sauce (we used Classico tomato and basil)

Warmed through in a saucepan. Served along side the baked chicken.

Step two:

2 organic, free-range chicken breasts.

Put the chicken in a well oiled baking dish. Spray the chicken with an oil spritzer so that the spice mix sticks.

Mix in a small dish, the following spices:

• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• pinch of ginger
• pinch of lemon pepper
• pinch of salt
• pinch of dill weed
• 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
• another pinch of salt

Sprinkle the spice mix on both sides of the chicken. Add a chopped onion over the top of the chicken in the baking dish. Add 1/4 cup of  chicken broth.

Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until baked through.

Layered Taco Bake

Today’s Martha post of “everyday food” has a list of meatless maindishes. I am making this one, http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/best-tortilla-and-black-bean-pie?backto=true

with some modifications. Always with the modifications. Oh well. At least I still get to eat and be sort of creative in the kitchen. This sounds really good.  I added some cilantro too, because it always goes with tacos at this house. 

Taco Bake

• corn tortillas
• 1 tablespoon  oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno chile, minced (remove seeds and ribs for less heat)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 cans (15 ounces each) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 12 ounces stock, or 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen corn(optional)
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
•  1 handfull of chopped cilantro
• 2 1/2 cups (8 ounces) shredded mozzerella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If the tortillas are too large, use a paring knife, to trim tortillas to fit a 9-inch springform pan, using the bottom of the pan as a guide. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion, jalapeno, garlic, and cumin; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Add beans and stock (or water) to skillet, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until liquid has almost evaporated, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in corn (if using), chopped cilantro and scallions, and remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Fit a trimmed tortilla in bottom of springform pan; layer with 1/4 of the beans and 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat three times, using 1 cup cheese on top layer. Bake until hot and cheese is melted, 20 to 25 minutes. Unmold pie; sprinkle with scallions and more cilantro. To serve, slice into wedges.

NOTES: add sliced zucchini, fresh spinach leaves, or other veggies in the stir-fry stage, to “beef” up the mixture.

MORE NOTES:

Okay, so here’s how it went. The corn tortillas at my market were tiny and my springform pan is huge. So I split the difference. I cut the tortillas into 1/4ths and used the rounded edge pieces to go around the outside of the layer, and used the straight tortilla strips to cover the middle, overlapping them like lasagna noodles. 

I didn’t have garlic, but will add it next time. I sauteed the onions, and added the beans, an ENTIRE package of fresh spinach leaves and 2 smallish zuchinis sliced and diced to the stirfry mix. I LIKE THIS RECIPE a whole lot.

Gerbil Burgers

These are not made of gerbils. I promise.

The story is that I SAID “lentil burgers” and my friend thought I said “GERBIL BURGERS”

so… that’s what we call them now.  Humor. ha.

Gerbil Burgers

• 1 C lentils
• 1 T oil
• 2 onions, sliced
• ½ tsp white pepper
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 15 oz can chickpeas-drained
• 1 T fresh ginger-minced
• 1 egg – replace–
• 2 T chopped cilantro
• 2  C GF breadcrumbs

Cook the lentils.

Cook the onions in the oil, add the spice mix, and let cool.

Stir ½ of the cooked lentils, ginger, “egg” and onion mixture in food processor until smooth. Stir in remaining lentils, parsley, cilantro and breadcrumbs. Divide into 10 portions. Shape into patties. Toss them in potato starch.

Cook on BBQ 3 minutes on each side until browned. Or pan fry.

Veggie Pancakes

Pancakes for supper. Appetizers, lunch, whatever.  Serve with sweet chili sauce to dip them in. Ketchup works, so does ranch dressing. I would bet that hummus or salsa would be fab as well, but I haven’t tried that yet.

Veggie pancakes

• 1/4 C potato starch
• 1/4 rice flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 C water
• 2 eggs (ground flax meal +HOT water)
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 C veggies (I used minced green beans, shredded zucchini, minced cabbage, minced onion)

Mix batter, add veggies, pour into pan, cook them up like pancakes.

We liked them in any sort of dip we could think of.  They will be in our bento boxes this summer for sure.

Sausage and Cheese Rollups

The concept of sausage and cheese and onions “IN”  a bun  haunts me.  I once went to a restaurant where all they served was “stufffed sandwiches” and salads. It was great.  Super delicious, but then I wasn’t worried about gluten or cross contamination either.

Fast forward to me not having any fun food, or  party food to eat due to extreme allergies.. and we end up with a level of quirky, creative desperation.  Here’s today’s edition of quirky lunch. Wow! they were good.

Roly-Poly Lunch Rolls

• Brown  sausage with chopped onion.
• Make one recipe of the wonder dough.     Roll it out into a rectangle. Use a little potato starch to keep it from sticking  to everything too much. I rolled mine out on parchment paper sprinkled with potato starch.
• Spread the cooled sausage and onion mixture.
• Sprinkle it with shredded mozzerella cheese. Add a sprinkle of parmesan if you  feel like it.
• Roll up the dough, carefully including the filling.

Make 1 -  2  inch slices and place them, cut side up (like cinnamon rolls) in a lightly greased 9 x 13 pan.

Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes. Let them cool. Serve with a big green salad.

One is missing, because I ate it before I remembered the camera. LOL. It was realllllllly good.

Other filling ideas:

• Boar’s head pepperoni, with pasta sauce + shredded cheese = rolled up pizza fun
• Cubed ham and shredded cheese.
• Cubed SPAM and shredded cheese
• shredded chicken and cheese

Chicken And Rice

Chicken and Rice.

It’s the most requested hotdish that I make. So either, they like it, or it’s good. Or both. I don’t know.

I used to make the “Uncle Ben’s Rice” recipe that used to be printed on the box way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. … you do know that dinosaur tastes like chicken, right? …… but now the seasoning packet is out.  So, I just took the idea and switched it to what we can do.

The original recipe had three parts to it.

• 1. chunks of chicken
• 2. cooked -wild rice and plain rice mixed together
• 3. A nice creamy onion gravy to mix and bind parts 1 and 2 together.

Bake.

It’s not that hard to recreate it for gluten free, thank goodness.

So here’s what I do. The first thing to note is that it is double the orginal recipe so that there is a lot of it to go into the freezer for us. You may need to ratchet down the amounts.

Step one:  Cook the rice.

• 3/4 C wild rice
• 1 1/2 C white rice
• 5 C water

Step two: Bake the chicken

I used a pound and a half of skinless/boneless chicken thighs – baked at 425 for 40 minutes. Then I shredded the meat.

Step three: While the rice is cooking and the chicken is baking.. make the onion gravy.

• 2 T safflower oil
• 1 large onion – sliced and chopped
• 1/2 – 3/4 C mixed gluten free flours – I used millet, white rice flour and potato starch
• 1 vegan soup broth cube, thinned out in 1/4 C of broth.
• 1 C coconut milk
• Chicken broth – I didn’t measure it… but it was at least 5 C, probably more, by the time it was “gravy”
• salt, pepper, poultry seasoning to taste.

Then I layered into a lasagna pan (it’s bigger than a 9×13) a layer of rice, cooked shredded chicken and covered it with about 1/2 the gravy. Stirred and mixed all of that. Then added in the rest of the rice, and gravy. Smooth out the top of the hotdish and bake it at 400 for about 40 minutes. Or until it’s all bubbly and golden brown on top.

Let it cool completely. Freeze portions for later.

Tiny Crockpot Stew

**Update** I now call this recipe ” BOK Chicken “  **

I got a small crockpot for Christmas and none of my usual recipes fit into it, and I am really not sure what to do with it, because I am so used to making gigantic amounts of soup at a time so that we have leftovers to go into the freezer, or whatever.

So I had to think small in order to use the tiny crockpot today. I made up a recipe that seems “so far- so good”. I took ideas from several other recipes and combined them. Oh all right, I had a bunch of weird leftovers, and dumped them in. There, are you happy now? HAHAHA

What’s in there so far:

• 2 chicken thighs, browned in 1 T safflower oil
• 2 C chicken stock
• 1 C coconut milk
• 1 vegan bullion soup cube
• 1/2 small onion chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, smashed and mined
• 5 baby bok choy
• 1 zucchini, peeled and cubed
• 2 tsp italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp red curry paste
• 1/2 large carrot – peeled and grated

…the plan at this point is to let it sit there on the counter, set on high for 4 hours and then thicken the soup with potato starch and serve it over rice. Depending on how much the chicken breaks down, I may shred that up a little too.

So, it’s not “soup” and not really “stew” either.. ..I am not sure yet what to call it. I just hope it’s good. It smells good. So that must be a good sign.

And at this point I added a cup of thick potato soup leftover from the other night.

I think it still might need some salt.

Fried Chicken

Making gluten-free fried chicken isn’t any harder than making it with wheat flour. Really.

I also make mine egg free, so here’s how to do that.

• Cut chicken into pieces. (I make mine “nugget” sized. And I use the boneless and skinless thighs in handy 1 pound packets that I find at Costco.)
• Rinse chicken, drain.
• Combine two eggs with 1/2 C water, 1/2 tsp salt (I used flax eggs)
• Mix 1 cup gf flour mix (1/2 potato starch, 1/2 brown rice flour) , 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp white pepper, 1/2 tsp xanthan gum and 1/2 tsp soda
• dip chicken in egg mixture and then the flour mixture and then place in frying pan.
• cook until golden and crispy.
• Place fried chicken pieces in a 9 x 13 baking pan, lined with paper towels, for 20 minutes to finish cooking the chicken and to crisp it up.

We served ours with raspberry jam biscuits, green beans and peaches.  Yum.

The leftovers will go nicely into a bento box lunch tomorrow. Hooray!