Broccoli Chicken Pesto

This is a pasta the is full of Veggies and your kids won't know.  You could have fun with this and use it for St. Patrick's day!

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 Small can of Tomato sauce

2 heads of Broccoli

2 Red Bell peppers

Handful of fresh Basil

6 garlic Cloves

Tinkyada Pasta  

Start your pasta by following the directions on the package.  Unlike most GF Pastas, this one doesn't get mushy easily so don't me stingy on the water and boiling. 

Steam your broccoli heads until they are falling apart.  You want them very soft so they are easy to blend up.  

 While the broccoli is steaming dice up two chicken breasts.  You want them bite size peices.

 

Then brown them in a pan until cooked through.

Dice up your Basil and garlic

 

You are then going to put your tomato sauce, blended broccoli, basil and garlic all in a pot.  Heat it all together to blend the flavors.  You  can add salt to taste at this point.  

 

Once it is well heated add in your chicken.  Mix it all with your pasta and your kids are getting fun green pasta sauce!

 It might not look gourmet but have fun with it!!

Chocolate Pudding?

????  This might look like chocolate pudding but the texture is not!  This was definitely a fail!  My kids ate it but sometimes I think my kids will eat more then the dog.  Boiled  Cocoa powder, Tapioca flour, Chocolate Almond milk, and Evaporated Cane Sugar until it all was mixed.  Then refrigerated.

SNot

That is what we got, chocolate snot.  Flavorful but texture wise, BAD

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oatmeal cookies are my Father-in-laws favorite so I tried a gluten free version and loved it.  

1 c. Sorghum Flour

1 c. Rice flour

1/2 c. Tapioca flour

1tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp Xanthum gum

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

3/4 cup of butter

1/2 c. Sugar

2 tbl. Molasses

1tb Vanilla

2 eggs

3 - 3 1/2 c. GF Oats

1 c. chocolate chips

I always melt my butter to help with mixing the batter and it just bakes slightly different when the butter is melted.  With this recipe it is almost a necessity because of how thick the dough is. 

First add all the ingredients but the oats and chocolate chips. 

 When using your KitchenAid you will want to use then put on your dough hook to add in the oats and chocolate chips. 

 

 

Ghirardelli Chocolate makes two all natural chocolate chips that do not use the extra milk fat in making their chocolate.  The Bitter sweet (I use in place of dark chocolate) and their semi-sweet.  We don't do dairy, or caisen, but have never had any problems with these.  

I then put them in large balls, I like big cookies, then bake for 15min at 350.

 They are slightly dry, not as moist as I would like them.  Next time I bake them I will see what we can do to change that.  Or leave a comment and let me know what you find out.

Gotta love Cookies!!

Seafood stir-fry

Start with your Lemon Zest rice.  Shave some of the lemon peel into the water then cook your rice.

Boil 1 Bok Choy per every 2 people you will be serving.  I only did one and fed me, the hubs, the bottomless 4year old and 3 year old little princess.  I wish I would have done two.  Boil until tender but not squishy.  Then set it aside on a plate to let off some steam. 

I then diced up my red pepper and a small jalapeno.  I don't usually cook with jalapenos because they are too spicy for me.  But in a stir fry I thought it might add some good kick to it.  I didn't get to find out what it tastes like because I got made and threw the jalapeno away.  Really, I did! (rant story to follow so if you want to get back to the recipe just skip to the next picture.)  As I was cutting up the now even more hated jalapeno, juice must have splattered and got right below my eye.  I don't remember it splattering but the soft skin below my eye started to burn.  Not bad just a little.  I didn't think much of it.  Until the burn started to slowly get worse.  I went to the bathroom and washed my face just in case.  Didn't use soap!  That just made it worse and got residue in my eye.  Ouch!  I ran my entire head and face under cold water upstairs in the bathroom.  It started to get better not much but bearable.  It wasn't till the next day that it went completely away.  So no more jalapenos from this blog ever!!

Back to the recipe.  I diced up the red pepper and put it in a bowl.

On top of that I put a whole bunch of green onions diced and about 1tbs of ginger.

In a separate bowl I put 2tsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp curry, 2 tsp of ginger. 1 tsp of fennel.  Then mixed the shrimp and squid up with that. 

 

Then in a heated pan I added 1tb of Pompeian Olive Oil and let if heat until it was fragrant.  I then added the seafood.  When the shrimp and squid turned white I added my bowl of peppers and onions and sauteed them until soft.  I added half a stick of butter then the bok chow cut up to bite size pieces.

Serve over your lemon zest rice and it is turned out good. It needed salt but we added that at the end. Next time I think  I will add some honey so give it a sweet and salty mixture. 

Tomato Basil Pantry Soup

This soup was delicious!!  This was not my recipe but so quick and easy to make I had to share.  This recipe came from  Simply Sugar and Gluten Free

 

 I have always loved tomato soup but had a hard time finding one that I could quickly make from scratch that I loved.  I don't like to much added stuff in my tomato soup.  I just like tomato soup, plain tomato soup.  This was that and more.  It had flavor and texture to the perfect degree.  I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

2 tbs unsalted butter

2 tbs olive oil

1 cup diced onions

1tbs minced garlic (about 3 cloves)

1/8 tsp cinnamon

3 tbs chopped fresh Basil

4 cups chicken stock or broth

2 - 28oz cans of whole tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

Heat butter and olive oil in large pot.  Add onion and cook for 10 min until onions are soft.  Add garlic cook 3-5 min.  Add cinnamon and basil cook about 5 min.  Add broth.  SS&GF has you add the whole tomatoes then blend it all at the end.  I didn't have time for that so instead I removed most of the basil leaves at this time put them in a blender with my tomatoes and puree them.  I then added it all back to the pot and simmered for 20 min. 

Sweet Portabella Summer Salad

I love mushrooms and this salad is quick and easy for these summer months.  You will need 1 large portabella mushroom cap per salad you plan on making.  I usually use 4 caps for my family.  Slice them pretty thick (like below) because they will shrink a little when they cook and you want them to absorb the sauces.  Slice up one onion keeping the rings.

 

Melt 1 stick of butter 2 tbs of Balsamic vinegar and 3 tbs of honey into a pan.  Once it is all mixed up  and hot then add the onions and mushrooms.  Cook while mixing until the onions are soft and cooked through.  Place the mushrooms and onions on some spinach leaves and use the juice as your dressing.  I think you will be pleasantly delighted!

Breakfast Egg Muffins

I was given a basic popover recipe from a friend that I adapted to be gluten free and added the eggs.  It isn't quick but is a great saturday brunch.

You start with:

1/2 cup rice flour

1/2 cup Sorghum flour

1/2 cup potato startch

3/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

1 1/2 cup un-sweetened almond milk

4 tbs melted butter

Pre-heat the oven to 425.  Mix up all the ingredients with a fork or on low with your KitchenAid.  You want the batter a little lumpy.  Take some additional butter and cut up little squares to melt in each muffin tin. 

 

Put the tin in the oven for just a few seconds so the butter will melt.  Then add the mix on top of the melted butter.  Only fill the cups up about 1/2 way because you are going to be cracking an egg on top of the half way cooked muffins.  Cook for 10 minutes then add an egg on top of each muffin. Put back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes.  Less if you want your yolk really runny.

 

I didn't get a great finished picture of these because my Grandpa was in town and we ate them to fast.  I had to stop the kids from getting more just so I could get this picture.  I usually have enough batter the put in a few extra muffins.  We eat these with maple syrup and they are great.