Carnitas Soup

So, I enjoy adapting favorite recipes and making them "my own". Monday night I needed to prepare some soup for a potluck lunch at work the next day. I decided to adapt one of my favorite recipes, Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup...

Basically, I pulled out my crockpot...plugged it in (on LOW heat)...and started layering the following items inside:

1. 1 bottle of gluten free beer...I used Redbridge

2. Pour in one package of GF taco seasoning (I used McCormick's reduced sodium)

3. Add veggies/beans....adapt however you want! I used all canned, but you can use fresh things as well! I put in:

~ two cans of tomatos/chillies (one happened to be Rotel brand, the other was something else I can't remember...but usually I use all Rotel),

~two cans of diced tomatoes,

~one large can of black beans (drained, rinsed),

~two cans of hominy (drained, rinsed),

~two cans of dark red kidney beans (drained, rinsed)

3. Add meat...I used 2.5 lbs of pork loin...just plopped it into the middle of the mess of beans/veggies and covered it up by spooning veggies/beans on top.

4. The soup looked kinda thick so I added 3 cups of water...could also use some kind of stock (when I've made chicken taco soup this way, I use chicken stock for a bit more liquid)

5. Add some more seasoning if you want...I sprinkled some cumin, salt, and fresh-ground pepper on top.

6. Cover and let your crock pot work it's magic! I cooked it over night for 7 hours on low, then brought it to work and cooked for 3 more hours on low. Clearly it would very...but this turned out pretty dang deliciously!

7. Shred your meat (pork here). When I woke up in the morning (which happened to be 4:30am since I was going to a spinning class prior to work!), I pulled out the pork (which was falling-apart-tender) and shredded it quickly on a cutting board, and then put it back into the soup and gave it a good stir.

8. Serve with any appropriate accompaniments...tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, bread...whatever! :)

The crock pot was scraped to the very bottom at the lunch...so I think that was a good sign :).

Here's a picture of some of the "leftover" (I reserved some of it to keep at home. Actually, it's going to be our dinner tonight!).

Enjoy!!!

(aside...someday I'll get a "real" camera and learn how to take "real" photos :))

Chunky Potato Soup Recipe

So, I subscribe to The Gluten Free Checklist...and get a GF recipe via e-mail each day. Today's looks great....I think I will definitely be trying this one! (However, I am a big baby and personally don't care for onions...I'll probably either omit them or use a lot less than 2 cups ;)).

Chunky Potato Soup
Ingredients
6 Tbs. butter
2 c. purple onion, sliced
2 medium carrots, chopped
3 Tbs. ARROWHEAD MILLS – white rice flour
1 qt. water 1 qt. IMAGINE - Organic Low Sodium Free Range Chicken Broth
4 c. red potatoes, peeled & cubed
1/2 c. heavy cream
3 Tbs. parsley, chopped
Coarse salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions
Melt 3 Tbs. butter in a 5 qt. stock pot. Add onions and cook slowly for 5 minutes without browning. Blend in gluten free flour and cook for 2 minutes. Gradually add water and chicken broth, stirring to prevent lumps. Add potatoes and carrots and bring to a boil. Reduce heat slightly and simmer partially covered for 45 minutes. While soup is simmering, stir in cream, parsley, remaining butter and salt & pepper to taste. Continue simmering to allow butter to melt and flavors to blend.

"Surprisingly GOOD!"

...Thus said my dear loving husband....who tends to be skeptical at times of my GF creations ;). Tonight he made his delicious spaghetti sauce for our dinner...

I had one Schaar pizza crust left in my box of two and I decided to make some garlic toast (just spread on some melted butter that I mixed with garlic salt...not exactly rocket science!) in the toaster oven to go with our salad and spaghetti. I enjoyed my piece...and Jeremy looked at what was left on the serving plate and asked, "SO, is it good? Like, would I like it?" I told him I thought he might, so he tried it.

He actually told me (and he is PICKY about food!!) that it was really great, "Surprisingly good" were really his exact words...and he went on to say that I wasn't missing anything when I ate this, compared to "real" bread! So, if you are GF like me...hook yourself up!! :)

Clearly, this is versatile stuff and can be used for things other than just making pizza...it is not frozen, and it is sold 2 to a package. I've also used it as "toast" with (homemade from my mother) apple butter for breakfast! YUMMY!

Three cheers for Schaar! Definitely has the Rachel and Jeremy stamp of approval! :) :)

random food...

Ok, so here is the other "recipe"...if you can call it that ;)...I mentioned in the previous blog. I say it that way because I have kind of gotten in a habit of just throwing random crap together lately ;).

Tomato-y Chicken and (Rice) Pasta ;)

1 box gluten-free tomato soup (I used Imagine brand; I really like this. It is available at Meijer, for you Bloomington-ites ;))
1 can tomatoes and green chilis
Chicken breasts (I used 3 large breasts)
Rice pasta (any shape will do!)

Basically all I did was put the still-frozen chicken breasts in the bottom of my crock pot, pour the soup and tomatoes/chilis on top and let the whole thing cook on high for 3 hours and then low for 3 more hours. At dinner time I boiled up some yummy rice pasta (I used spaghetti-shape; obviously you can use anything that suits your fancy!). When the pasta was drained, I returned it to the pan and put a little butter and garlic on it (you can omit this or use olive oil or whatever). Next, I put some noodles on each plate and covered each plate of noodles with one chicken breast and some of the tomato sauce from the crock pot. You could serve this with cheese on top or with parmesan to shake on top...but we didn't add any cheese. We are actually cheese-a-holics ;) so if we think a dish is fine without cheese, it probably really is! HA!

Today I stopped home for a quick lunch again and am currently chowing down on leftovers from last night. I made a box of Trader Joes' Gluten Free rice mac n' cheese and added a flaked pre-cooked salmon fillet. I found the salmon at Cub Food's here in Bloomington in the refridgerator section by the other seafood....it said "gluten free" on the label, so of course that piqued my interest ;). I am a marketer's dream ;). HA! Anyway, it was simple and oh-so-yummy!

Jeremy and I are going to a wedding this weekend; it will be my second gluten-free wedding reception experience ;).

Have a good day, all!

Rachel

Good eats

I stopped home for a quick lunch and thought I'd jot down a quick blog entry as well. I sure haven't been blogging much lately (explanation in the previous entry!). Anyway, hopefully I'll get back into it. We'll see. Also, in the last entry I wrote that I would be posting another entry right after posting that one with new food ideas/recipes. Well, I must have gotten sidetracked by something else because I sure didn't post anything! ;) Well, here are a few tidbits...

My favorite easy lunch lately has been somewhat random but totally delicious :).
Ingredients:
2 slices of Whole Foods Gluten-Free Sandwich bread (any bread will do, of course, but this is my all-time favorite!)
Butter
Cheese of your choosing (I typically prefer cheddar ;))
1 egg
honey

1) Cook the egg however you like (I "fry" it, but just in a few spritz' of cooking spray), set aside.
2) Lightly butter 1 side of each slice of bread. Fry each of these in the same pan you cooked the egg in (butter-side down, just like you would a grilled cheese sandwich)
3) Put cheese on the un-buttered part of one slice of bread, and cover with the egg. Cook until the cheese is melted.
4) Turn the other slice of bread over (so now the buttered/toasted side is facing up) and spread some honey on it. Keep it on the pan until the honey is warmed a bit.

There you have it, an "open face" egg/cheese "sandwich" and a slice of toast with honey. YUM! I love it...in fact, it is just what I ate for lunch today! Somewhat random, but totally delicious :).
~~~

Also, this past week I made 2 really easy dinners:
First one: Baked Turkey Breasts with Black Beans and Hominy (ha, really creative title ;))

Ingredients:
2 lbs Turkey breasts (boneless, skinless, fat removed)
3/4 cup chicken broth (Progresso brand is gluten free, and it is my preferred brand. I like their low-sodium version)
1 can organic black beans
1 can hominy
sour cream
cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Place turkey breasts on the bottom of an 8x8 baking pan that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Pour the 3/4 cup chicken broth over top. Cover with 1 can each of black beans and hominy. Cover pan with foil. Bake until nearly done (approx 40 minutes or so, depending on thickness of breasts). Uncover, sprinkle cheese on top (whichever variety you prefer, and whatever quantity you want). Return to oven, uncovered, and bake until cheese is bubbly. Ensure turkey breasts are done, and then serve with sour cream and additional cheese if you wish. So simple and really delicious. It worked great to put together ahead of time (minus the cheese) when I came home on my lunch break and hold in the fridge for a few hours before popping into the oven at dinner time!

I need to hurry back to work now, but I will post the second recipe later...yummy tomato-ey chicken over garlic rice pasta! YUM!

Have a great day, all!

Rachel

Yummy!

I love cooking...and as I've said before, "re-learning" how to cook post gluten free lifestyle has been somewhat of a challenge. Tonight, however, I made a yummy meal for us and our good friends, Josh and Laura. I thought I'd share the menu because I want to remember it...it was yummy and I'd love to re-create it sometime!

Appetizers:
~Sliced Cabot New York sharp cheddar cheese (a new cheese Jeremy picked out; it was decent!)
~Hummus (I used a gluten free mix that you basically add your own water and olive oil to) with broccoli and carrots

Salad:
~Butter lettuce (a newish discovery, thanks to meals at Laura and Josh's...this is just a bag of Fresh Express lettuce and we love it!)
~variety of do-it-yourself toppings (diced hard-boiled egg, black olives (ew, not for me! Jer loves them, though!), Mediterranean cheese blend, Craisins, sliced almonds, and Texas Toast croutons (NOT gluten free...not for me! We had a bag that we needed to use up ;))
~variety of dressings (light Caesar, ranch from Avanti's here in town (Jer's favorite dressing!), oil and vinegar, and gluten free poppyseed dressing (from Whole Foods)...YUMMY!!

Main Course:
~Chebe cheese rolls...DELICIOUS gluten-free rolls made from a yummy mix. Available at Meijer and Naturally Yours here in Bloomington. I LOVE these rolls! The others enjoyed them, too! They are made from a tapioca flour base and are so soft on the inside and crisp on the outside. I would DEFINITELY recommend them...even if you don't need to eat gluten-free!
~Parmesan mashed potatoes....Recipe:
4 lb. red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 cups chicken broth (I used Progresso; it is gluten free)
1-8 oz pkg 1/3 Less Fat Cream Cheese, cubed
3/4 cup Reduced Fat/Light Sour Cream
3 Tbsp. Grated Parmesan Cheese
4 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. garlic salt

Put potato chunks in large saucepan. Add broth; cover. Bring to boil on high heat; simmer on medium heat 15 min., stirring after 8 min. Uncover; stir potatoes. Simmer, uncovered, 5 to 6 min. or until potatoes are tender and most of broth is absorbed.

Add cubes of cream cheese. Reduce heat to low. Mash potatoes slightly until cream cheese is melted. Add sour cream, butter and Parmesan; mash until potatoes are smooth and heated through.

YUMMY!!!!

AND
~Crockpot Cranapple Chicken (recpie adapted from http://www.cookingcache.com/)

Crockpot Cranapple Chicken Breast Bake Recipe
4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I used just over three lbs of breasts)
4 to 6 green onions (I didn't use onions)
1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries (I used a cup since I thought I used more chicken)
1/2 cup chopped dried apple (I used one whole fresh apple, sliced...but waited to add it until about an hour before serving)
1 clove garlic very thinly sliced (I used 1 1/2 tsp of crushed garlic form a jar)
2 tablespoons brown sugar (I used four Tbsp.)
2 tablespoons water (I used 4 tsp)
1 teaspoon lemon juice (I used 2 tsp)
2 teaspoons butter (I used 4 tsp)

Place chicken breasts in a 2-quart (or larger) crockpot. Add remaining ingredients in the order given, dotting evenly with the butter last. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours. Serve over rice (I didn't serve with rice; Jeremy doesn't like rice very much. However, I think rice would've been great).

I think the cooking time was a little long; the chicken was a little drier than I would've liked, but all in all not too shabby!

Dessert
~fresh raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries (sliced) mixed together with a SMALL amount of sugar (just a tiny sprinkling on top as they sat in the fridge for a few hours)
~organic vanilla pudding (not instant; Jeremy loves the "skin" on the kind you actually have to cook ;))
~whipped cream

YUMMY!

We had a great time with our friends, too :). All in all, a great evening :)

Yummy dinner!

Thanks to JILLIAN for this awesome present...two boxes of gluten free mac and cheese from a recent trip to Trader Joes!! Jillian, a great friend I met at work, is just AWESOME and sooo generous! She always finds me little goodies...and I love her for it!!

I have a pot of water with one box of the noodles a'boilin' downstairs and can't wait to eat it! After that I am off for a pedicure...a silly indulgence, I know ;). It is in preparation for our trip to AZ on Thursday...my biggest trip yet while gluten free! It'll be an adventure, I am sure...but I am up for it! :) Time to go consume said mac and cheese....have a lovely night, all!

Adventures in Crock-Pot Cooking

So I believe myself to be one who can hold her own in the kitchen...I know the basics, I can cook, bake (I have won 3 bake-offs at my place of employment, pre gluten-free diet), and I basically know what's going on. I am one who can more or less throw things together and have them turn out decent-to-good. However, I am not very adventurous in my cooking. I would like to be more adventurous...but, alas, I am not. I kind of get stuck in a rut, more or less...making the same things, over and over. Jeremy seems to be fine with that...he has pretty simple (childish ;) )taste. However, I want to do more...I want to be more adventurous, AND I want to cook/bake more healthily. Of course, the gluten-free part means that I HAVE to prepare more healthy foods, so that's a blessing in disguise :).

I stopped home for a few minutes this morning on my way back to work from an off-site speech therapy appointment. A few weeks ago I purchased 2 Cornish hens from the grocery store (Tyson brand) and had them thawing in the fridge. Today I decided I'd prepare them for our dinner (and leftovers...we'll use the leftovers for some kind of casserole or something). I found a number of delicious-sounding, however labor-intensive, recipes...however I wimped out. Since I typically work until after 6pm, it's hard for me to prepare labor-intensive dinners. I threw the two hens in the crock pot and covered them with one box of Progresso chicken broth and one box of Trader Joe's vegetable broth. We'll see what happens ;). When I get home from work, I throw some carrots in there for a bit to soften up...and perhaps some potatoes, too. We'll see what happens!!

Have a wonderful day!

Whew!

I am exhausted! Tonight Jeremy and I helped out at church with a concert our church hosted for our youth group. The event was publicized to other churches as well. Laura (my friend and the youth director's wife) and I helped out by providing the food. We were told to prepare food for 60 people.
We bought...
9 lbs (3 bags ) of frozen chicken breasts
10 lbs of hamburger
8 bags of salad blend lettuce
3 bags of shredded lettuce for tacos
18 cups of mexican blend cheese
2 large containers of sour cream
80 flour tortillas
24 corn hard taco shells
3 family size bags of Tostitos Scoops
3 large jars of salsa
1 large bag of rice
5 large cans of refried beans
10 packets of Ortega seasoning mix for the hamburger
2 jars of McCormick fajita seasoning for the chicken (yeah, this was way too much)
2 large jars of Ortega taco sauce
2 large bags of carrots
3 cake mixes
3 jars of frosting
...and some other random crap I forgot about!

The awesome thing, though, about preparing this meal was...I could actually eat with everyone and didn't have to worry about packing my own "special" gluten free meal! We made sure there was stuff for me...the chicken with fajita seasoning...gluten free. The tostitos...gluten free. Corn hard taco shells...gluten free. Lettuce, carrots, all naturally gluten free. It was great! Obviously, I wasn't able to eat dessert (the cake was not gluten free...just 'normal' Betty Crocker mix)...but I didn't even miss it!
It was great! It was an adventurous day,and it was great to feel pretty normal by eating what everyone else was eating! :)
Ok...now next Saturday I am pumped up to type "I made it a month"! (see 2 posts ago for an explanation ;) ).
For now, though...I survived my 23rd day of living gluten free (or, as gluten free as I could control!)

procrastination...

So I am somewhat dreading Thanksgiving this year...because what the heck will I eat?! So, I started rummaging around through other peoples' blogs online...

AWESOME---I want this at my family's Thanksgiving dinner this year!

SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE
6 or 7 cooked mashed sweet potatoes (baked or boiled) selection tip: choose small or medium sweet potatoes with smooth skin and no/few bruises
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
3 or 4 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla, depending on taste
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (fresh is important or you may get a flavor that overwhelms the sweet potatoes- so aim for fresh!)
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1/2 cup pecan halves for topping
salt to taste
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl except the egg and the pecan halves (topping). Taste the mixture and adjust your salt and sugar if needed. Stir in egg. Put in casserole dish and top with pecan halves. I like to make some sort of design with the topping, but it is not necessary. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until set.
Make ahead: This sweet potato casserole can be made one day ahead. Just refrigerate and top with plastic wrap. I add my pecan halves before I put it in the oven and add an additional 5-7 minutes to the baking time.
Serves 8-10

Also DELICIOUS-sounding!

FROZEN PUMPKIN PIE
1 quart ice cream (good flavors to use: Praline, Butter Pecan, Cinnamon, Cheesecake, Vanilla, etc) slightly softened
1 16 oz. can cooked pumpkin
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup pecan halves for garnish
DIRECTIONS:
Put an 8 inch springform pan in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Spoon the softened ice cream into the chilled pan, pressing the ice cream into the sides of a pan with a spoon or spreader. Place plastic wrap over the ice cream and press down to form 1/2 inch shell. Freeze for about 2 hours.
In med. saucepan, combine pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt over med. high heat. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
In a separate bowl, whip the whipping cream to soft peaks. Fold into pumpkin mixture. Remove the springform pan from the freezer and remove the plastic wrap. Spread pumpkin mixture even over the ice cream crust. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 3 hours or up to overnight.
When ready to serve, sprinkle pecans over the top.
This may be prepared up to 2 days in advance.
Serves 12

I think I will call my mom tomorrow and see what our Thanksgiving plans are....