Check this out!

A new discovery I made today: Gluten-Free on a Shoestring...a great blog with tons of GF recipes! Awesome!

I have been a slacker blogger lately....it seems that, as usual, I tend to overcommitt myself and in the midst of finishing our basement, training for a marathon, starting a beginning runners' group at work for some of my coworkers, getting ready to take on a student intern at work, catching up on paperwork at work that I let pile up during the month of July when I was finishing up more classes....I just haven't had that much time for blogging!

SORRY!!! I hope to share more recipes and tips, soon! For now, though....enjoy the blog listed above! It looks to be fantastic and I will spend more time perusing it later when I have more time. :)

Have a wonderful weekend, all!

~Rachel

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

Delicious discoveries!

Just found these blogs...they look to be helpful, and chock-full of awesome recipes and tips!

http://myglutenfreecookbook.blogspot.com/

http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/

YUMMY!

ALSO...a great GF bakery that ships!

http://gfgreatbakes.com/viewproduct/3//

SWEET! Literally ;).

Party Time!

Tonight I am having some friends over for a birthday party...my friends Jami, Abbey, Sarah, Laura, and myself all have a birthday within a month of one another! Mine was first, back on October 28, and everyone else's is between now and the end of November! So, we decided to have a little birthday party for us :).

So as not to have to deal with restaurants, I volunteered to play hostess and host the event at our place. We decided to do somewhat of a Mexican theme (so easy!). I volunteered to make the "main course": Chicken Taco Soup, as well as dessert: vanilla gluten-free cake with chocolate gluten-free frosting!

I got the soup recipe in a daily e-mail I get from a fabulous website, Gluten Free Checklist. Here's the fabulous-sounding recipe...

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup
Ingredients 1 onion, chopped
1 (16 oz.) can gluten free chili beans
1 (15 oz.) can black beans
1 (15 oz.) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 bottle of Redbridge gluten free beer
2 (10 oz.) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
1 package gluten free taco seasoning
3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
Sour cream (optional)
Crushed tortilla chips (optional)

Directions
Place the onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer, and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker. Add taco seasoning, and stir to blend. Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. Set slow cooker for low heat, cover, and cook for 5 hours. Remove chicken breasts from the soup, and allow to cool long enough to be handled and shredded. Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup, and continue cooking for 2 hours. Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips, if desired.

I put the soup together last night and put the crock from my crock pot in the fridge....

This morning, I set up the timer for 5 hours (I turned it on around 7am), knowing I would be able to come home over lunch to shred the chicken. I shredded the chicken...and the soup smells great! Kinda spicy, but great :). Well, I am sure I will use lots of cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips with my bowl of soup to cool down the spicy-ness a bit! Oh, and I left out the onion...I don't particularly like onion and I knew there were enough flavors in all of the other things. I am sure it will be fine without the stinkin' onion. We'll see! So, now the crock pot timer is set to two hours, and after the final two hours of cooking it will move to the "warm" setting until we are ready to devour it this evening! :) I'm excited to try it!

After I had the soup safely in the fridge last night, I started in on the cake. I used a mix (how lazy of me! ;) ) because I also had to make my husband some cookies to take to work today, so I wanted to maximize what I could get done in a minimal amount of time. The mix, Arrowhead Mills' Gluten Free Vanilla, I purchased earlier this week at Naturally Yours, our local organic/health food store. All I had to add to the mix was oil, water, and eggs.

I sampled a tiny little crumb bite from the top of the cake after it came out of the oven, and it seemed pretty tasty!

For frosting, I used a great-sounding gluten-free chocolate frosting recipe on the back of the box...it was awesome (I licked the bowl after frosting the cake! :) ).

I am excited for tonight...I love hosting dinner parties! :)