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

Excuses...

I haven't felt much like blogging lately. On April 10th I started getting harassed by some crazy guy on one of my blogs. It started out not-s0-harassing (or so I thought) and ended really badly. I guess it was my fault, I kind of perpetuated it. Without saying too much about specifics, because it has to do with a good friend of mine....here is an explanation on why now all of my blogs aside from this one are "private" (again, if you happen to be someone who was reading my silly meanderings, let me know and I will enter your e-mail address as one of the approved people to read the blogs!)....
I have a blog on which I was trying to post a different picture every day of something I was thankful for. Ok, I recognize that this may sound entirely lame...but that's what I did ;). A "new year's resolution" of mine was to be a more grateful, thankful individual. I have so much to be thankful for and I don't want to ever take anything for granted. Anyway, I thought a little blog chronicling a year of my thankfulness would be cute (for my own use) and, of course, I could use it to share with friends/family, etc., the ways in which I was thankful for them. Well some random (or maybe not random) guy started leaving me messages after a post about one of my good friends...it started out by asking if I wanted to hear some information he had about her. I had turned on comment moderation, so I received an e-mail telling me that I had this message. He kept sending me messages through my blog and I never accepted them, for obvious reasons. I just kept reading them...and he gave me his e-mail address so I could contact him that way. For some reason, now that I think of it, he never responded to my e-mail; he only sent me messages on the blog. Anyway, it started to get totally creepy and weird and it was beyond anything I can really describe in this kind of forum. So, my blogs are private now. There you have it. Whew! I have kept this one public because, if I ever have anything that is useful in the realm of gluten-free-living tips/etc., I want to be able to share that information with whomever wants to access it. I know I always google random gluten free crap and end up at random peoples' blogs and have, on more than one occasion, gotten some really great information via blogs. So, on the off chance that anyone is in my boat, googles something gluten-free, and comes up with my blog and gets some helpful advice...well, then, my work is done! :) HA! And, speaking of which...if you are reading this blog and ever get any helpful advice, by all means, let me know! :) At some point I want to start having little contests and things, too, like I've seen some other bloggers (what a silly term..."bloggers"!) do. So, there's an incentive to read my blog! HA! Contests to win some yummy gluten free items! Speaking of which...seeing as this is a gluten free blog, I should be posting about THAT and not about some lame blog-stalker guy trying to complicate my and my friends' lives! :)
I'll start again in a new, fresh post.
Ta ta for now!
~Rachel

Busy month

It's been a BUSY month....the first weekend in April I traveled to MN with my sister to my good friend Rosalee's bachelorette party...the second weekend in April I ran my first half marathon...the third weekend in April Jeremy and I traveled to MN to attend Rosalee and Bobby's rehearsal and wedding....whew! So, I haven't been blogging much.

Highlights...

~gluten-free chili at the bachelorette party on Saturday, April 4 made by Rosalee's older sister Nicole who awesomely made it with me in mind
~delicious sangria at the bachelorette party (GF, of course! :))
~I FINISHED a half marathon on April 11th....in under 2 hours! The snacks afterwards, however, were lacking...the only thing I could eat were the bananas and apples! Ok, I realize this isn't exactly suffering ;), but when everyone else is stuffing themselves with Papa John's pizza it's easy to feel sorry for one's self! I said to my sister, as she bit into a hot piece of pizza, "I am THIS close to eating a piece of that! It looks awesome!" I was serious, too. Well, she took one look at me and said, "Let's get you out of here then" and made a bee line for the exit to the food area. Good idea, sister! Remove me from the situation :). So, yahoo for sisters ;)
~I had some of the BEST gluten-free meals EVER the weekend of Rosalee's wedding...the rehearsal dinner at the Hubbell House in Mantorville, MN was AMAZING (walleye, baked potato, and wine...can't go wrong, really.)...and the wedding food was great too! The caterers were SO helpful (Roz had talked with them beforehand) and I had a yummy plain chicken breast (it really was rather good!), potatoes, green beans, fruit and ice cream (in place of the ice cream cake the guests had)...not too shabby! So, yahoo for Rosalee, MN, and gluten-free weddings :)
~Rosalee's step-mom Joleen made AMAZING gluten free monster cookies in the little out-of-towner goodie bag she had for me and Jeremy at the hotel we stayed at. Can we say amazing?!??!

Needless to say, GF life isn't treating me too badly right now. This girl loves her food! ;) Sheesh, I sound like a fatty!! ;)

Private blogs

So, I had a crazy dude sending me messages via one of my blogs, so I made all of my blogs aside from this one private. If you want to be invited to read any of the other blogs, let me know :).

Have a great day!

Rachel

Top Ten list....

Taken from The Gluten Free Optimist...thought this was great :)

Ten Positive things about having Celiac Disease...
1. Your health is better!
2. You helped improve the health of other people by telling family members, friends, coworkers, and doctors about the importance of testing for celiac disease.
3. You don’t need medicine or surgery to treat your disease.
4. You don’t have to share your food.
5. You save money by not impulsively buying sweets, by not impulsively eating out, and by not buying your lunch daily.
6. Since you read labels, you have a better idea of the nutritional facts and ingredients of the foods you eat and can make more informed choices.
7. You appreciate the small things in life and find joy in them like new good gluten free foods, the mention of gluten free or celiac on a television show, gluten free lists of foods and medicines, and an informative blog post or review. (Yes, these are big things to celiacs, but they are still small things in the big picture of life.)
8. You eat healthier at home when you don’t feel like driving far to eat out or buy gluten free convenience foods.
9. You have something to blog about.
10. You participate in amazing internet networking with other celiacs and have an instant bond with them.

Lately...

Things are going pretty well!

I did make a new yummy item this week...I used the Gluten Free Pantry brand muffin mix to make some muffins for a work breakfast. The mix is plain and then you can add mix-in's to your muffins. I added dried cherries, walnuts, and chocolate chips and then sprinkled a bit of brown sugar on top...for some yummy Chocolate-cherry-nut muffin creations :). People at work seemed to like them, so that's cool! :) I enjoyed them, too. YUM!