Soup Soup Soup

This is great for a rainy cold weekend lunch. Guess what we are having today? It’s great over a bowl of rice, too. (SOME!!!)people at my house insist on meat in their diets… I could care less and don’t really eat meat. So this is good either way. Sometimes I just get out two giant pots on the stove and make both versions at the same time.

Freezes great.

Veggie Veggie Soup

• 1 lb chicken thighs – cut into bite sized pieces (optional)
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 box of Pacific chicken stock
• 3 peeled and chopped carrots
• 2 peeled and chopped potatoes
• 1 C frozen chopped spinach
• 1 1/2 C frozen chopped broccoli
• 1 can cut green beans
• 1 peeled and chopped zucchini salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning
• 1 T oregano
• 1 T Italian seasoning

Cover chicken bits with a little water- 2 cups?maybe. simmer until cooked through. Add all the veggies and chicken stock. Add seasonings. Simmer an hour, or until the carrots are cookedto your liking.

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.

Chocolate Pretzel Snack Treats

I have sunk to new lows in making “cookies” but I have to admit, they are cute. So we will just call them chocolate pretzel snack TREATS, and it will all be fine.

• Melted Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (gluten free, dairy free, soy free)
• Glutino Pretzel Twists (gluten free) – (but not corn or soy free by any stretch of the imagination.)
• Sprinkles (gluten free sprinkles found at Whole Foods)

Melt the chocolate chips. Dip the pretzels in the chocolate and remove with a fork to a waxed paper lined plate. Put some sprinkles across the top of each one.

Place the “cookies” in the freezer to harden.

Sadly, it’s that easy. And I can’t have any because of the soy … but the kids like them. : )

<<<insert picture here>>>

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

Real Bread, people! REAL ACTUAL BREAD

I love the sandwich buns I make with the wonder dough recipe, and the pizza crust, and I like the flax seed flat bread too… but this is a moment.. seriously. .. to think about SLICED BREAD.

I don’t think there is a mountaintop close enough for me to scream off of… but we have achieved

sliceable/ “REAL BREAD” / PEOPLE!

It baked in a loaf pan just like it knew what it was doing. OMG. and my family said: “it looks like bread.”

Sure it does. Finally.  If you have sunk so low as to actually LIKE the bricks of the substance they claim to be bread on the gluten-free shelf at the store, then do I have a wake up call for you. I am sorry, but having to pay $6 + for a loaf of bread that has to be toasted to be edible, and smells like a wet dog when toasted? yeah. I vote no. And why would I want a shelf life of 4 years on my bread? eew.

Buy a loaf pan. Bake it yourself.  Really.Slice and freeze it once a week would give you sandwiches and whatever, when you wanted it. I made grilled cheese sandwiches for the first time in THREE  years. Yes I am a happy camper.

I am doing a cost analysis on this recipe.  It’s not  completely done, but it’s close to $2.50. Same as the wheat bread that I used to buy off the shelf.  My budget loves me again.

Bread is life

• 1 T yeast
• 2 T sugar
• 1 C warm water
• 1/2 C warm hemp milk
• 4 T oil
• 1 tsp vinegar

Mix the yeast, sugar and water together, add oil and vinegar and all the dry ingredients.

• 3/4 C brown rice flour
• 2 T ground flax meal (gives it that “wheat” look)
• 1 1/4 C potato starch
• 1/2 C millet flour
• 2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg (replaced with flax meal + HOT water)

 Mix well. Pour batter into well oiled and floured (rice flour)  loaf pan. let rise for 20 minutes. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

When completely cooled….. slice and freeze.

***UPDATE***

I tested the “leave it out on the counter” theory.. and I am less than impressed. It seemed dry even though it had spent it’s very short life in a sandwich bag. And, although zapping the slice back to life in the microwave for 8 seconds did seem to revive it, I still recommend slicing the bread and keeping what you might use for a day or two in the refrigerator. Ziplock bags work great for this. But freezing the slices  for bread on demand is even better.

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!

Wonder Buns

This recipe does it again. YAY!

Calzones mania abounds here at cabbagenets! 

I can’t wait to try adding some stirfry leftovers into them. Cute food makes me happy. 

These will be GREAT appetizers for the superbowl table too. ahhhhhhh.

For what it’s worth, I used the “wonder dough” recipe and my chinese dumpling folder/shaper to make these. But you can just press or roll the dough pretty thin and fill and then fold over and press the edges with a fork. Same thing, less gadgets. Although, I gotta tell ya, the dumpling folder is pretty cool.

Best Ever! leftovers

When they tell you that it was “OMG -SO GOOOOOOOD!”, and they ask for thirds, then  you know you are on to something. And this particular dish I did not slave over, chop anything or worry about substituting ingredients. wow. okay then. As long as it’s gluten free, you can have some. And like it? that’s a bonus.

Noodles that are delicious even

1/2 bag of Tinkyada brand fusili noodles (the twisty ones)

Boil a pan of water. Add noodles, put cover on the pan and turn off the burner. Let the noodles sit for 12 minutes in the hot water.

Drain the noodles and then

add 3/4 of a jar of “CLASSICO” brand Tomato and Sweet Basil pasta sauce. Stir and serve. Apparently sprinkling on some parmesan cheese is also good.

Go figure.