Basic Marinara Sauce, Zucchini Boats and Healthy Cookies!

Life speeds up and this blog suffers!  It’s a good thing I don’t do this for a living!

I have several recipes to share this time, I did a bunch of cooking over the weekend.  I have been trying to cook over the weekend for the entire week so all I have to do when I get home after work is throw something in the oven or microwave to warm up then add a salad (that I have already prepared, stored in a big container in the fridge).  So far it has worked out pretty well and the husband has been willing to chip in if he gets home before me and start the process of warming up dinner.

The first is my basic marinara sauce; I make a big batch when I make it then freeze it in portions for different meals.  I have to confess, this recipe probably changes every time I make it.  I'm big on tasting and adjusting as I cook.  This one is the base, there are often little changes here and there based on how sweet or salty things are.  When you are making it make sure to taste and adjust to your liking.  The longer this sauce sits together the better it tastes.  I often let it sit in the refrigerator for a couple of days before freezing to allow everything to really come together.

Basic Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil (use the light stuff for cooking, you don’t need extra virgin here)

1 large sweet onion, chopped

2 medium carrots, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped (I love garlic, do this to your taste)

½ tsp salt

3 large cans whole stewed tomatoes

1 T dried basil

1 T dried oregano

½ T rosemary

2 bay leaves

2 C beef stock (not broth - nonfat and low sodium, GF too!)

Directions:

1.      Preheat a large heavy bottomed pan over medium-high heat (I use my Dutch oven)

2.      Chop all of the fresh veggies and the garlic, set the garlic aside

3.      Add oil to the pot and let it warm

4.      Drop all of the chopped veggies into the pot, add the salt and stir well, after a couple of minutes add in the chopped garlic, cook all until the veggies are getting soft

5.      Dump the canned tomatoes, juice and all, into the pot and add the herbs and beef stock as well

6.      Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer, cover and let it go for at least 45 minutes (I let mine cook for an hour or more to really let the flavors come together)

7.      Remove the lid and let it cook for another 30 minutes, reducing down a bit

8.      Cool, remove the bay leaves and put whatever you will be using during the week in the refrigerator and freeze the rest, it warms up very easily for use later.

The next recipe is one I love because it gets a lot of veggies in and it’s a good way to eat Italian-inspired food without one bit of pasta.  I got the idea watching an episode of one of Rachel Ray’s many shows; it looked too good not to try.  I didn’t go find the recipe, I did what I always do, I watched her do it then I just winged it myself.  My version doesn’t have any bread; I decided it didn’t need it.  This freezes really well for another dinner or, my favorite, leftovers for lunch!

Zucchini Boats with chicken Italian sausage

Serves 6-8 (each person gets one boat)

Ingredients:

2 tsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 red or orange bell pepper, chopped

8 oz. mushrooms, chopped

1 lb. chicken Italian sausage, removed from casings

2 cups basic marinara (your own or store bought)

4 medium zucchini, sliced in half lengthwise with seeds removed

1 tsp salt, divided

1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

¾ C shredded mozzarella or Italian blend cheese

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.      Heat skillet over medium high heat, add olive oil

3.      Drop in onion, bell pepper and mushrooms with ½ tsp of salt, sauté until the onion begins to soften

4.      While the veggies are cooking remove the sausage from the casings into a bowl

5.      Once the onion has started to soften add the sausage, breaking it up as it browns

6.      Add the marinara to the skillet once the sausage has browned, turn down, cover and simmer about 20 minutes

7.      While the “stuffing” is simmering, slice each zucchini in half lengthwise (think boat) and scoop out the seeds with a spoon to make room for the stuffing

8.      Spray a baking dish with some oil then lay each of the zucchini boats in the dish with the inside facing up, sprinkle with remaining salt and red pepper flakes

9.      Spoon the sauce/stuffing into each of the boats carefully, fill them a little above the top, go back and add if you have any left over

10.  Sprinkle the cheese over the top of everything

11.  Cover with foil and bake covered for about 30 minutes, remove the foil and bake another 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted and getting brown in spots

12.  Serve one boat with a good side salad and some GF bread (if you have a big eater plan on them having two boats, that’s what my husband always does)

For the next recipe I’m going to be lazy and just direct you to a website that I love, www.skinnytaste.com.  I know I have sent you there before.  She just has an endless supply of recipes, all of which are really good!  The recipe is for Healthy Cookies (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/02/healthy-cookies.html).  I made these over the weekend and they were good, they even got a thumbs up from my husband.  I made them without any changes, though the next time I’m going to try adding some mini chocolate chips.  Try them; they are easy and really yummy!  The next recipe I will be trying from there are the Skinny No-Bake Cookies (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/11/skinny-no-bake-cookies.html).  Great stuff!

Chicken Tenders

I haven’t been good about posting in here lately; it seems there is always something else to do.  I suppose that’s how life is; priorities vary based on whatever is going on around you.  Things are busy and stressful here so I have made a conscious effort to do only what I can without jeopardizing my sanity and my health.

I had a busy weekend, we went to a concert Friday night (The Black Keys, amazing!), did a bunch of chores Saturday, Sunday we decided to go see Iron Man 3 (pretty good, left me wondering if there will be another).  When we got home I went to the kitchen and spent the rest of the day cooking and prepping food for the week. 

Today I thought I would share a recipe I came up with after looking through several online sources for ideas for “fried” chicken strips.  A friend had them at lunch the other day; they used to be a normal thing I would get at a restaurant before I went GF because they were generally hard to mess up.  I didn’t realize that I had been missing them until she ordered them.  So, on Saturday I was determined to have fried chicken tenders and I was going to figure out how to do it.  Never mind I haven’t ever deep fried anything in my life, amazing considering I have lived in the south for nearly 9 years.  Here’s the result of my chicken tender craving:

Chicken Tenders

Servings: 3-4

Ingredients:

1 lb. chicken breasts cut into “tenders” size pieces

½ C gluten free flour (I found the King Arthur brand at Kroger)

3 eggs

2 T milk (honestly, I used the half and half I have for coffee, I didn’t have milk)

1.5 C of ground up Corn Chex cereal (the GF kind!)

¼ C grated parmesan

1.5 tsp. salt

1.5 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. paprika

½ tsp. cayenne powder (you can omit this if you don’t like heat, or add more if you do!)

Hot sauce of your choice (I prefer Cholula)

Directions:

1.      Remove chicken from the refrigerator, season with 1 tsp. salt and pepper

2.      Put the flour along with ½ tsp. salt and pepper along with the garlic powder, paprika and cayenne powder into a dish, mix well

3.      Beat the eggs in another dish with whatever amount of hot sauce you would like

4.      In another bowl add the ground Chex cereal with the parmesan and mix well

a.       Note on the Chex cereal, to get it to the consistency of a panko breadcrumbs I just throw it into my mini chopper and pulse until it is the size I want

5.      Preheat oven to 300 degrees

6.      Heat the oil to 350 degrees in whatever you are frying in, I opted for a shallow fry in my electric skillet

7.      Start breading, drop the tenders into the flour, coat, then pick them up and shake the excess flour off and drop into the egg/milk mixture, when it is coated let the excess drip off them put into the cereal/parmesan mixture.

8.      As you bread each piece lay them out on a sheet or a plate, once everything is breaded start with the ones that you breaded first (the time allows the breading to stick better)

9.      Add several pieces into the hot oil one at a time, being sure to do it away from you so you don’t splash yourself with hot oil

10.  Cook for 6-8 minutes, turning once to ensure even browning (cooking time really depends on the size of your tenders, larger ones require longer, smaller a shorter time)

11.  When you remove it from the oil place on a cooling rack on a baking sheet in an oven that has been preheated to about 300 degrees, you can keep adding the chicken as you go, the oven will finish any cooking needed and keep everything warm

12.  The result should be a brown crispy coating with tender juicy chicken on the inside….it was just what I was craving! (And I didn’t burn down my kitchen, I was a little worried about that).

Happy Monday everyone!

Apples, love them....and Cream of Tomato Soup, Yum!

Apples, I have been eating one a day every day for a couple of weeks now.  I do it because I need to get my fruit servings in, and because I love them (until the local berry season starts, then they are abandoned for berries for a while).  I’m sitting here eating my mid-morning snack which usually consists of an apple with ½ oz of sharp cheddar or a handful of pistachios, and wondering if an apple a day really does keep the doctor away.  Where did that saying come from?  There is usually some truth in those types of sayings, what in apples may cause that to happen?  Hmmm…sounds like a job for Google when I get bored.

Yesterday I made a couple of things for meals this week, a pork and veggie “fried” rice that ended up being a massive amount, enough for at least 6-8 servings.  I brought two to work for lunches for the next couple of days.  Whenever I make a stir fry I load up on the veggies, most of the time they way outnumber the protein, which is the case in this batch.  I put in onion, celery, red bell peppers, snow peas, zucchini, mushrooms and cabbage (I love cabbage!).  I used a substitute soy sauce that I made from a recipe I found online on allrecipes.com, it is good stuff!  I’m working on getting soy out of my diet, one more thing that may be causing issues, or so I’m told, so I’m trying it.  Soy is everywhere so right now I’m trying to get rid of the obvious things like soy sauce  J  I will post the recipe below; I made a batch and put the remainder in a jar in the refrigerator.  I suspect I will use it for much more than just a soy sauce replacement.

I also made a basic cream of tomato soup, something that is so easy to whip up there is no reason to buy the prepared canned stuff, and this one tastes better!  As is normal for me, I made a lot, there is some in the fridge for my solo dinners this week (when the husband has to work late) and some in the freezer for later.  You’d think I had a whole brood of people I’m cooking for; I can’t seem to make just a little bit of anything.

We went out for dinner on Saturday night, we tried Outback Steakhouse because I was told they had a great GF menu, and they do!  It sounds silly but I was excited that the GF menu was an actual menu with lots of options/choices.  It wasn’t some sheet of paper taken out of a binder that had two or three options on it.  This one even had two dessert options!  I had a chicken dish along with a salad and a baked potato, it was quite tasty.  We will definitely be going back again.

The weather here over the weekend was kind of crappy, stormy with lots of rain.  It made me want to stay in my house and just do things there.  That’s pretty much what I did.  I read, played fetch with my cat (yes, my cat), made some cards and just played around with my Cricut to figure out more of what it is capable of.  I will post some pictures of cards I have made, I keep forgetting to do that.  I have a separate blog for those things, though I’m thinking about merging the two so that I can do everything in one place.  I haven’t been doing a good job of keeping up with either of them lately.

Ok, on to the recipe portion of today…

Cream of Tomato Soup

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

½ T canola or olive oil

1-1/2 C sweet onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 tsp sea salt

2 large cans of whole peeled tomatoes (28 oz. size)

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp black pepper

½ - 1 C heavy cream (I use less, how much you want depends on your preference)

Directions:

1.      Heat oil in a saucepan over medium-medium high heat, sauté the onion, carrot and celery until slightly soft.  Don’t brown the veggies, you are just sweating them a little bit.

2.      Add in the canned tomatoes and let simmer until everything is soft (about 30 minutes), use an immersion blender at this point to blend everything together. This is also the point to check for seasoning.

3.      Let simmer another 15-30 minutes then turn heat to low and add in the heavy cream (I pour it and let it sit on the counter to come to room temperature before adding it).  Stir everything together well, let it come up to temperature then remove from heat.

Bisquick - the GF Version....love it!

Today is a better day, finally starting to feel normal again after the gluten incident last week.  I’m achy but not nearly as much as I was, that could have something to do with the ibuprofen I finally gave in to and started taking.  Last night I made myself work out, I didn’t want to, I was so tired and hurting so bad but I convinced myself I would feel better after….and I did, for a little while, I consider that progress!

It was just me and the furry four-legged children in the house last night, the husband had to work (his schedule always starts to really get full as the school year gets closer to an end).  I really wanted something comforting for dinner but I also didn’t want to make it.  That meant something from the store that wouldn’t take long to make.  Enter Bisquick gluten-free mix.  I had pancakes and bacon for dinner!  It reminded me of the dinners we used to have as kids when my Dad went out of town for work.  My Mom always made pancakes for dinner one night when he was gone, it made it special and it was fun.

Bisquick GF pancakes are pretty good, there is a bit of a difference in texture from the other normal pancakes, but I think I’m getting used to the texture of gluten free things now.  They were easy to make, I even made extras and put them in the freezer for the next time a pancake craving hits.  A couple of pancakes, some real maple syrup and a couple of strips of really good bacon (made in the oven because it’s so easy that way) made for a really good dinner that made me feel comforted.

No recipe today, I don’t have one to share.  Just a recommendation that if you haven’t already you should check out the Bisquick GF mix, it’s just as versatile as the original and it makes good pancakes.  I found some recipes using it on the Betty Crocker website today; they have a good GF recipe section (http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/health-and-diet/gluten-free).  There are also recipes that use the Betty Crocker GF cake mixes.  I’m going to be trying some of them soon.  The GF chocolate chip scones sound yummy!

Finally, I thought I would mention a book I’m reading right now that was recommended to me by someone that writes a gluten-free column.  The book is Wheat Belly by William Davis, M.D.  I’m not too far into it and I have already had a bunch of moments where I thought “aha!” to myself.  He explains how the wheat of today is so different from the wheat of even 50 years ago which may be one of the reasons why so many people are coming up gluten intolerant.  It’s interesting, I’m not going to preach about it, I recommend reading it if you are at all interested in the effect the wheat of today has on the body.  As a matter of fact, I’m only about 100 pages in and I have already talked with my husband, who has diabetes, about removing wheat from his diet as well.  It will be interesting to see if that helps him with the up/down of his sugars, despite eating better and using insulin.

Veggie/Bacon Pizza with Udi's GF Pizza Crust

I have had a couple of busy weeks!  I traveled for work the majority of the last two weeks which meant I ate out a lot and didn’t have time to post on here. 

I have mentioned it before, but I will say it again, traveling and gluten free eating can be challenging.  Last week I got some big time exposure, probably the worst I have ever had.  I’m still not positive where it came from but it hit me around mid-day on Thursday and it took until today to finally feel normal again.  That was quite the experience, one I would rather not repeat again.  Luckily I’m at home all week and able to eat my own food.  I will travel again next week though.

I didn’t get too creative with dinner last night, I got out of the office late, there was an accident on my way home and I still had to go to the grocery store (I just couldn’t do it over the weekend, I did NOT feel good!).  So I decided I would try Udi’s GF Pizza crust and make a quick dinner.  One thing you should know, I’m picky about pizza crust, it needs to have that combo of crunchy and chewy that a lot of them fail to have.  The Udi’s was really good!  I followed the package directions, baking it at 375 degrees, but I preheated my Pampered Chef pizza stone in the oven and baked the pizza on that.  The baking time took a little longer than the package indicated, but my oven is kind of off when it comes to that.  So, with all of that said…here’s what I did/topped it with:

Veggie/Bacon Pizza (with store-bought crust)

Ingredients:

1 Udi’s GF Pizza Crust (highly recommended)

1 slice bacon, crisp

¼ large sweet onion, chopped

1 C mushrooms, sliced or chopped

1 C baby spinach

2 T store bought pesto sauce (GF of course, check that label!)

2/3 C mozzarella, shredded

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to temperature indicated on package (this one was 375)

2.      Cook the bacon until crispy, remove from pan and wipe lightly leaving a bit of the fat in the pan

3.      Drop the onions and mushrooms into the pan, adding a slight bit of salt to sweat, sauté until a bit soft then add in the spinach and cook until just wilted

4.      Spread pesto sauce over pizza crust, top with the mozzarella then the veggies, crumble the bacon over the top

5.      Bake for about 7 minutes (in my oven it took 12 to get crispy), remove, slice and enjoy

Happy Tuesday!

Happy Easter and Twice Baked Potato Casserole

Happy Easter everyone!  Today is a quiet day around my house, no kids here, just two adults.  The Easter Bunny somehow missed our house, I checked everywhere for eggs or a solid chocolate bunny....nothing.  I'm going to write a letter so he has my address for next year!

 

We went out to breakfast this morning, like we do every Sunday, it’s our weekly “date” that we never miss.  I’m making dinner for us tonight, a traditional ham (because my husband loves ham) and just some green beans and a twice baked potato casserole.  I came up with the casserole recipe on my own, it’s basically a twice baked potato in mashed potato form.  I thought I would share the recipe with you (warning, this is definitely not low in calories or fat, but it’s good!).

Twice Baked Potato Casserole

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes
4 cloves garlic, smashed
3-4 T butter
½ C milk (add ¼ at a time, you don’t want the potatoes too runny)
2 oz cream cheese (you can use reduced fat)
4-5 slices bacon, cooked crisp
4 scallions, chopped finely (you could also use chives)
1 T dried dill (optional)
1 tsp ground coriander (optional)
1 C sharp cheddar
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and liberally spray a casserole dish with baking spray
2. Cut the potatoes into uniform size pieces, I leave the skins on, but you can peel them first
3. Smash and peel garlic cloves
4. Place the potatoes and garlic in a large pot and cover with cold water
5. Bring to a boil on high, lower heat just a bit and cook until just fork tender (the amount of time it will take is dependent on how large or small your potato chunks are)
6. While the potatoes are cooking cook the bacon until crispy and set aside
7. Drain the potatoes and garlic and put back into same pan and place back on the stove with the burner turned off, the residual heat will remove the remaining water
8. Drop in the butter, cream cheese, a bit of salt and pepper and ¼ C of milk, using a potato masher mash to desired consistency (a chunkier consistency works better in this recipe, you don’t want them too runny or it will make for a runny casserole)
9. Add in the scallions, herbs, crumbled bacon and half of the cheese and mix with a spoon or spatula, this is the time to check on the salt and pepper to see if more is needed
10. Dump everything into the prepared casserole dish and top with the remaining cheese
11. Bake for 20-25 minutes until bubbly and the cheese is melty and a little brown
12. Remove from oven, cover and let sit for about 5 minutes prior to serving

I hope everyone is having a great day with family!

The Weekend and SkinnyTaste.com

How was your weekend?  I had a good one by my standards.  I didn’t have anything planned and had a lot of time to spend just doing the things I love doing.  This is where I need to give a big thank you on here to my husband who sent me off to Barnes & Noble on Saturday morning so that he could vacuum and dust the house (stay away ladies, he’s mine J ).  I have been having trouble with hives popping up, which happens every year at the beginning of allergy season, and he’s being diligent about keeping things in the house as allergy free as possible.

On Sunday I spent a good portion of the day playing in my studio.  I made several Easter cards and plan to spend some time tonight making the rest of the ones I need for family.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute huh?  I think I mentioned that my husband gave me a Cricut for my birthday.  I had so much fun just experimenting with it.  I cut out way too many Easter bunnies, my family better watch out for bunny confetti in their cards.  I did realize that I need to get more storage for the things I cut that I don’t use right away otherwise the piles on my work surfaces are going to get high.  I did see something on Pinterest over the weekend (that I pinned, of course) about how to deal with all of the scraps that result from paper crafting.  The best part of working in my studio?  Time passes and I don’t even notice it.  I went in there around 11 and didn’t look up until 3:30 when my husband suggested maybe we should have some lunch (or, at that time, early dinner). It is good for my spirit to be creative and lose track of time, a great stress-reliever!

I did finally make the chicken and veggie enchiladas on Saturday, they turned out really good.  I think the only adjustment I made to the original recipe I posted was to add some chipotle peppers which are my favorite.  I used the veggies that were in the fridge; zucchini, red bell pepper, mushrooms, onion and a tomato.  I even used the avocado I had and made a little bit of guacamole to go along with it.  Yum.

Since I didn’t have one of my recipes to share today I thought I would direct you to a blog that I reference a lot, www.skinnytaste.com.  If you are a WW person and haven’t been to this site you need to go, now.  She has bunches of recipes for just about everything.  You can search by meal, ingredient, WW points values and she even has her GF recipes tagged.  It’s a site I go to at least a couple of times a week, I always want to see what’s new.  The recipe I found when I went there today sounds amazing and is gluten free, Sweet Potato Tandoori Salad, I can’t wait to try it!  Go to her site today if you haven’t already, you will be addicted to it like I am after you do.

I will be travelling for work for the next few days so you may not see  a post from me until Friday or Saturday, unless I find a really great GF place to eat in Charlotte that I just have to share.  Have a great week!