what's for lunch???

There are 2 things that my husband refuses to eat: mushrooms and seafood (other than canned tuna or anchovies).

I, on the other hand, love both. Crabmeat stuffed mushrooms are one of my favorite foods.

However, I don't usually cook with mushrooms or seafood because it's easier to just keep ingredients we both like on hand. Most of the times that I've gotten something like that just for me it's ended up going bad before I got a chance to use it, so I've given up. There are only 3 sets of circumstances where I really get to have them- when we go out to eat (which is rare ever since we've found out about the allergies/sensitivities), when we have company for a big deal meal (holidays, barbecues, etc) and when my husband is away on business for a week or more (which has not happened in a few years).

So anyway, my husband started a new job about a month ago (and he loves it). The new position requires him to work in the field some of the time, and those field locations are, on occasion, too far for him to do a daily commute. That means he stays at a hotel near the job site, and I'm left to my own devices (unless I decide to drive out to see him).

About 2 weeks ago he was sent to a job site for a 7-day gig. He came home for an overnight, and was sent to another job the next day, with the understanding that he'd be gone for another 7 to 10 days. The day after he left, I needed to go to the grocery store to restock a few staple items. Of course while I was there I just had to check out the seafood and mushrooms!

I came home with scallops and portabella caps (both on sale for a very nice price), as well as some asparagus, zucchini and the items on my list. I had the scallops for dinner that night, cooked scampi style and served over rice. The vegetables sat in the fridge. Until yesterday, that is.

On a normal day, I have a pretty good idea of what I'll eat for breakfast, lunch & dinner before I go to bed the night before. Yesterday's plans got changed several times over though, and I forgot to eat breakfast. So by lunch time, I was really hungry and had no idea of what to make. As I gazed into the depths of the refrigerator, I glimpsed the asparagus and mushrooms hiding behind a carton of orange juice.

Inspiration hit me, hard. Grilled veggies... balsamic vinegar... over rice... YES!

Now, it's not really grilling season here, so we have no charcoal, and I don't have a grill pan for my stove. I do have a George Foreman grill, which hasn't been used in over a year. I pulled it out of its hidey hole and was absolutely disgusted by the amount of dust and yuckiness on it. It really needed a good, thorough scrub-down. Since it's an electric appliance, it needed to thoroughly dry before being used, which rendered it useless for lunch making.

I was not daunted, though! I determined that rather than find something else to eat, I would just use one of my giant frying pans. The plan changed from grilled veggies to veggies that were sauteed in oil & balsamic vinegar. Sooooo gooood!

The players: baby carrots (cut into 2 pieces to shorten the length and then each half cut into 4 long pieces each), celery (coarsely chopped), sweet onion (diced), asparagus (each spear but into 2 or 3 pieces, for fork-friendliness), zucchini (cut into thick coins which were then halved), potabella mushroom caps (sliced); also a drizzle of olive oil, a bunch of balsamic vinegar and spices including basil, garlic salt and thyme (all dried).

The basic concept: pour a tablespoon or 2 of olive oil into a large frying pan. Add enough balsamic vinegar that it and the olive oil generously cover the bottom of the pan. Heat over medium high. When hot, add onion, stir and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute, allowing the pan to heat back up. Push the onion to the edges of the pan and add the carrots and celery. Stir to coat everything with oil & vinegar and cook for another minute or 2. When the onion begins to look translucent, add the asparagus, zucchini and portabella. Stir well. Add more balsamic, if needed, and stir to distribute. Put a lid on the pan, reduce heat to medium and walk away for about 3 minutes. Remove lid and check if the asparagus is tender enough for your taste. Continue to cook without the lid until it is. Serve over the starch of your choice (rice, pasta, baked potato, bread, etc)

It's seriously tasty stuff!

Thoughts and concepts...

I have not been posting here because I haven't really done much playing in the kitchen. Despite the lack of cooking, I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I want to try making next. I thought I would share those thoughts with you.

In my last post, I shared the revamped breakfast bar recipe. I truly love the results of that recipe, but as often as we eat breakfast bars, it would be really nice to have a few different flavors. I also think that the recipe might work better as a muffin, since it's very cake-like. A muffin might be a little more travel friendly.

The flavors I have been thinking of are:
tropical- replace the pumpkin seeds with chopped macadamia nuts and use dried pineapple, mango and papaya for the fruit
pumpkin- use pumpkin puree instead of banana, replace 1/3 of the ground almonds with ground pecans, and maybe use
raisins or currants for fruit
apple 1- use applesauce, diced apples and currants; maybe with a cinnamon crumble topping
Fluffernutter- eggless marshmallow fluff, replace ground almonds with ground peanuts, replace all fruit with diced apple

I'm also thinking that quick breads, such as carrot cake and zucchini bread would be good flavor bases to investigate. I've been considering doing one involving Nutella and hazelnuts, but I'm not sure what kind of fruit to incorporate.

I've also gotten the most recent issue of Living Without, a magazine for those with food allergies and sensitivities. This issue contains several recipes for cakes and a couple of different icings. At some point in the next week, I will be making one of the cakes, though I haven't decided which one yet. I have time to decide, though, since before I can make it I need to buy some xanthan gum.

What I really like about this issue is that they have a page of substitution suggestions. I'll cover that in a future post, though. I'd rather wait until I've tried some of them before discussing them in depth.

And that is a peak at what some future posts will involve.

Keep it simple, and keep on cookin'!

breakfast bar recipe, perfection!

So, one of my first posts was about gluten-free, egg-free, milk-free breakfast bars. The original recipe I used was too greasy for my taste. The next 2 attempts each had their own problems. This morning I made another batch, slightly tweaked to fix the problems. They came out perfectly, IMHO. Very muffin-like. Texture was similar to a quick bread, not overly greasy, dense or sweet. I am very pleased! I think I'm going to use this as a model for some different flavors of quick breads and muffins in the near future.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

dry:
2 c ground almonds
1 c rice flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 c dried blueberries & cherries, combined
1/2 c finely diced candied orange & lemon peel, combined
1 c pumpkin seeds, lightly chopped
1 c sunflower seeds, lightly chopped

wet:
3 very ripe bananas (should be mushy)
1/2 c agave syrup
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 tablespoon honey

Preheat oven to 325

Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl, sealable container or large zipper food storage bag and mix well.

Put the bananas into a large mixing bowl and use the mixer to liquefy them. (If you're using a Kitchenaid-type mixer, use the paddle attachment.) Add the rest of the wet ingredients. Mix well.

Line a 9x13-inch pan (Note 1) with parchment, and grease any portion of the inside of the pan that the parchment is not covering.

Working quickly, mix the dry ingredients into the wet, just until combined.

Pour batter into pan, and bake for approximately 30 minutes, till the top begins to brown. (Note 2)

Cool and cut into 10 pieces.

Note 1- next time I make this, I'm going to use a muffin tin instead of a big pan.
Note 2- all of the ingredients in this recipe are safe to be eaten raw, therefore, you only need to cook it long enough for it to 'set up'

lunch...

Today's lunch was simple, but quite tasty, nonetheless:
Romaine lettuce leaves with tuna salad.

This was inspired by something I had a a restaurant some time back, it's a good way to boost your veggie intake a little bit. The basic concept is to take some firm romaine leaves and put a little tuna salad along the inside of the rib- kind of like what you do to stuff a piece of celery with peanut butter. This would work with chicken salad or egg salad, as well. If you use the floppier leaves of lettuce, you can roll them around the salad of your choice. Personally, I prefer the firmer leaves (they're less of a mess to eat).

It's kind of like a tuna salad sandwich without the bread. Because the lettuce leaves are somewhat scoop shaped, they hold the tuna salad nicely. It's tasty, quick and usually not terribly expensive (depending on the price of the head of lettuce).

It's also lunch box friendly, if you can assemble the tuna salad just before you eat (though this makes it a little more expensive). Wash your leaves, wrap gently in paper towel and place inside a zipper bag. Then put a pouch of drained tuna, a packet or 2 of mayo or a little cup of ranch salad dressing, a small dish and a fork into your lunch box/bag, along with a freezer pak. Place the bag with the romaine leaves on top, as they could be damaged by the weight of the other stuff. If you like any other stuff in your tuna salad, like relish or onion, just put it in a little container or zipper bag (the 'snack size' is great for this) and add it to the bag. Personally, I like to add dried minced onion.

So anyway, that is one simple lunch option for those who don't have a problem with lettuce, fish or mayo (ingredients include egg, vinegar and oil, and usually some other stuff).

dinner and lunch: stew

Last night I made beef stew for dinner. It was very tasty and a good choice for a cool rainy night. Normally I freeze leftover soups and stews for emergency quick meals, but I enjoyed it so much that I had some for lunch today, too!

Ingredients:
water
1 bag of beef broth (made last week and then frozen in quart-sized zipper freezer bag)
1 bag of veggie broth (made week before last and frozen in quart-sized zipper freezer bag)
leftover roast beef from Wednesday night's dinner, cut into bite sized pieces
about 2 cups of frozen peas
a dozen or so baby carrots, cut into large chunks
3 small potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
salt to taste
dash of thyme
sprinkle of minced dried onion
cornstarch

how to:
Put about 1 inch of water in the cooking pot and put over medium heat. Remove the broths from their bags and gently pace them in the pot. Add everything else and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and gently simmer for an hour or two. The liquid should reduce down by about 25%. You want to concentrate the flavors, but not boil the water away. (If it starts to look like there isn't enough liquid, add enough water to bring it back to what you want, bring to a boil and reduce heat to a lower temperature than you did before. It should be gently simmering, but definitely not boiling. Stir and put a lid on the pot. You'll need to cook it for at least another 1/2 hour after adding that water.) Stir occasionally as it cooks. After it's cooked for about 30 minutes, taste the broth and adjust the seasoning as you see fit.

About 15 minutes before you're ready to eat, take about 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and dissolve it in about 1/4 c of lukewarm water or broth. Using one hand to stir the stew, slowly pour in the cornstarch water. Do not stop stirring until all of the cornstarch water is dissolved into the stew, or you'll end up with some really nasty lumps and a very thin stew. Stir frequently or 2 until it's thick enough for your preference (about 5 or 10 minutes).

Slow Cooker Method:
You can make this in the slow cooker for a work day, too. In the morning, put everything except the water, beef stock/broth and cornstarch into the crock. The water will be omitted. The beef stock should be put in the fridge to thaw (don't worry if you forget, you can always thaw it in the microwave). Turn the slow cooker to low and let cook for the day. DO NOT LIFT THE LID OF THE COOKER UNTIL THE END OF THE DAY! (Lifting the lid breaks the steam seal and causes the contents to cool. Every time the lid is lifted is like adding about 30 minutes to the cooking time.) About 30 minutes before you're ready to eat, turn the cooker to high. Put the thawed beef broth into a pot over medium heat. When it's beginning to simmer, dissolve about 2-3 tablespoons of cornstarch in about 1/4 c water. Then, stirring the broth with one hand, slowly pour in the cornstarch water. Stir well. Cook over medium, stirring frequently until thickened (usually 5 or 10 minutes). Promptly remove from heat. Now you can take the lid off of the slow cooker. Pour the gravy into the crock, stirring to distribute it through the meat and vegetables. Replace the lid, turn the crock off and allow it to sit for at least 5 minutes (15 minutes is ideal) before serving.

Notes:
-If you add too much salt, add some extra potato. They absorb the salt nicely.
-You can use whatever vegetables you want, and as much or as little as you want. I don't measure them, and I tend to use whatever I have that needs using up before it goes bad. If I had to guess, I'd say I probably put about 4 cups of veg into my stew. You can also leave the skins on your potatoes, if you prefer.
-During the last 5 minutes or so of cooking, I like to throw a bit of non-allergenic bread into the toaster oven to warm it up. There's nothing quite like a bowl of totally from scratch stew with a nice, warm piece of bread, lightly buttered. Last night the hubby and I split one of DeLand's hot dog rolls and it was a good call. Their hot dog rolls are closer to a crusty Italian loaf than what I'd expect a hot dog bun to be.

cutting costs...

Okay, so my previous post was about a useful kitchen tool that's a bit on the pricey side. The way I see it, though, it will probably end up saving us money in the long run. I won't go through the total cost analysis that I mentally did on it, but for us it came out to be a winner.

Anyway, one of the biggest concerns people have about changes to their diet, aside from the foods themselves, is the cost. It can be really expensive to go gluten-free, since bread and pasta are staples in most people's diets and they're cheap. Cutting out most of the other allergens can be equally expensive- eggs, dairy, nuts... all staple foods or ingredients in staple foods that are generally only expensive if you opt for the gourmet varieties.

The thing is, if you know what you're doing, it doesn't have to be that much more expensive. Rice flour is a perfect example. At the health food store, it can cost $4 or $5 for a package. If you have access to an Indian grocery store, like Rice & Spice in Emmaus, PA, you are likely to find it at a much lower price. Chickpea or garbanzo bean flour is another thing that can be purchased at the Indian market for a lower price, as well as millet.

DeLand Bakery, which I mentioned in a previous post, has loaves of bread for $3-$4. It's not as cheap as a loaf of store brand white bread, but it's about the equivalent of a good quality whole grain bread in price and quality. If that's not an option, soft corn tortillas can usually be found at the grocery store and make for a nice wrap sandwich (just hit a frying pan with a spritz of cooking spray or oil, and give the tortilla 2 minutes on one side, then flip and fry another minute or so to take away the sensation of it being uncooked).

Rce and potatoes are good base starches to build a meal on. And making your own broths and stocks from scratch is much less expensive than buying it, even if it's an off-brand. Then when you want gravy, you can simply thicken it with a little cornstarch (instead of wheat flour) and season it as you see fit. Tomato sauce (or spaghetti sauce, or tomato gravy) can be made from tomatoes you grow in a large batch and then canned or frozen. Sloppy joe filling can be made with some of that tomato sauce and a bit of tomato paste and some seasonings, then frozen in single serve portions to be reheated in the microwave. Breadcrumbs can be replaced with crushed corn flakes in most recipes.

If you find there's a product that's expensive and you tend to use a lot of it, look into buying it in bulk. For example, a dairy-free creamy topping is made with a base of raw cashews. My local grocery store has a 10 oz package of raw cashews for about $8. I did a quick web search and found that if I were to buy broken cashews from a bulk seller online it would be between $3.50 and $5.50 per pound (16oz), depending on the seller and quantity. That's about half of what it is at the grocery store!

So my advice for those who are trying to cut a particular food or foods out of their diet is this: do your homework. There are alternatives to the fancy and expensive stuff you find at the grocery and health food stores, you just need to track them down. Go to the ethnic markets and look around. Search the web for options. And spend a couple of hours at least once a week making 'ingredients'.

It also might be worth your time to learn how to preserve food by canning, dehydrating, etc. and maybe, if you have a green thumb, try your hand at growing some of your own food. Even if you don't have a giant yard, or live in an apartment, a tomato seedling is about $3 and a basic container ranges from $5 to $25 (depending on the size and how fancy you want to get). A big bag of soil costs around $2. I don't know about you, but I know I spent a lot more than $30 on tomatoes and tomato products in a single season before we started growing them! A package of sun dried tomatoes costs around $4 and usually contains 4 or 5 tomatoes worth of halves. I used my food dehydrator and ended up with 2 gallon size freezer bags by the end of last season. (We had 8 plants, and I also made salsa, tomato sauce, cooked with them, snacked on them, and generally had my fill of them).

So, yeah. Do your homework, look around, and make it yourself when you can. That will do wonders for cutting the costs!

a useful kitchen tool!

I was at the mall yesterday for my hair appointment (Deidra at the Penney's Salon is a sweetheart who does a wonderful job!). Since I was already there, I decided to pop over to Williams-Sonoma to grab a new spaghetti tool. (My old one came apart as I washed it a couple of days ago.) As I always tend to do, I picked up the item that brought me in and then wandered around to see what new pretty shinies they had gotten since my last visit. That store is probably the best one at separating me from my money, LOL!

Anyway, I found something that I am very excited about: The Beaba Multiportion Freezer Tray
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/beaba-multiportion-babyfood-freezer-tray/

No, I don't have a baby, and I don't make baby food. So, you might ask, why am I this excited about it?

Well, here's the thing. One of the biggest problems with the allergy free eating is a lack of available prepared foods. I can't simply run to the grocery store and grab items to do the semi-homemade cooking. I still have many days where my time to cook is limited, but cutting out the allergy-inducing foods has cut out many of my shortcut ingredients. (boxed broths contain yeast, parsley and pepper; V-8 contains parsley and who knows what in the 'flavorings', etc, etc).

So I've started making some of those items myself. Of course, they're all fairly easy to make, just a little time-consuming. So making them in larger batches makes the most sense. That way I can use some of it for that night's dinner, and freeze the rest. The problem is how to package and store them in convenient quantities.

I've used ice cube trays in the past, but they don't hold much and will spill if tilted. Muffin tins can also be used, but sometimes whatever it is sticks and doesn't want to come out of the cup. When I made the veggie and beef broths, I froze them in quart sized freezer bags. This works really well for thick or chunky stuff, but on straight liquid can be a problem. Of course one of the bags sprung a leak- just my luck. Pretty much any of the package/storage methods have their own set of problems.

These are silicone cups (BPA free) with a 2 oz. or 1/4 cup capacity. They also have a lid! They are freezer, microwave and dishwasher safe. (If I ever get a dishwasher, I'm sure I'll be happy about that!) The down-side is that they're $20 for a 7 compartment tray- much more expensive than any of the other options mentioned above. I still bought it, though.

I will freeze my shortcut items in it, then transfer the frozen cubes to another container, so I can freeze some more.

I also bought an apple slicer/corer, since I've been snacking on apples and peanut butter a lot, and a julienne slicer so i can make matchstick carrots, zucchini and potatoes.

snacks...

Things have been pretty busy for us the past couple of weeks. A friend was staying with us for 2 weeks and we've been driving here, there and everywhere trying to prep for the hubby to start a new job. All that driving meant a lot of time spent in the car and very little time spent at home, in the kitchen. Which brought us to the dilemma of travel friendly food.

Now, normally, we'd just grab sandwiches from a local deli along with a bag of chips and some coffee. However, as I discussed previously, sandwiches are out of the question for multiple reasons, and most sandwich places do not offer soy or almond milk for their coffee. After checking a few chip ingredient lists, I was happy to find that many brands of corn chips, including my favorite, contain only corn, corn oil and salt. But a girl can not live on corn chips alone. So the question remained, what can we do for food when we're spending the day in the car?

I am still looking for more options, but here are a few ideas...
Apple wedges or celery with peanut butter
fruit salad
beef jerky
rice crackers or carrots with hummus

dinner...

I went to the grocery store today. I'd been putting it off for a few days, and it had reached priority status on the to-do list. So as I checked to make sure everything was on my list, opening cabinets, rummaging through the freezer & fridge, it occurred to me: We can still have one of my absolute favorite summertime dinners- stuffed vegetables!

Okay, so the ingredients need some minor tweaking, but nothing terrible. So I jotted the few extra items on my grocery list and hit the store. I was actually crossing my fingers on the way there in the hope that they'd have decent tomatoes. I really, really wanted to make stuffed tomatoes!

I was in luck! They were small, but very pretty. Firm and ripe, grown in the USA and only somewhat expensive (well within the splurge budget). So I snatched them up and gleefully brought them home.

I was whistling and humming as I browned some sweet Italian sausage (removed from its casing), diced and added a small onion, a can of tomatoes and chilis, a bit of vegetable broth, leftover rice and some tomato paste. Cooked it down for about 15 minutes, dumped it all into a 9x13 inch pan, nestled in the halved, gutted and cored tomatoes, skin side up, and popped it in the oven to get all happy and toasty.

It was really tasty. And it's an item that I can make extra and freeze in single serve portions for lunches & quick dinners! I am a happy girl!

the little things...

I just want to say that I am so happy to be able to eat crabs! We went to Maryland today to visit friends we haven't seen in way too long, and I got to eat my fill of crabby goodness. It was wonderful. Now for some sleep!

a short post...

I haven't posted in a few days, as I've been pretty busy and my computer is temporarily living in a room that makes using it inconvenient. I'm really short on time today, too, but did not want to neglect my blogging for another day. With all that in mind, I decided to pop on here today just to mention a product with which I am currently enamored: Deland's Breads.

http://www.delandbakery.com/

They use millet instead of wheat, and most of their products use baking soda instead of yeast for leavening! They are not in a dedicated wheat/yeast/gluten-free kitchen, so, by Florida law they have to state on the package that the product contains wheat, yeast and gluten, but if you have a mild sensitivity, they have a wonderful thing going! They are based in Florida, but I'm in Pennsylvania and the health food store down the street carries their products, so they definitely ship.

So far we've tried their dinner rolls and hot dog buns. It's a bit denser than you'd get from the grocery store, but the flavor is excellent and it has a nice crumb to it. Oh, and the rolls may be turned into wonderful croutons!

So in my book, DELAND'S gets two thumbs up!! Thanks for making an amazing product, you crafty bakers!