Keeping It Simple

Today was a busy day that began with me oversleeping and missing my morning route at work. For breakfast I had Glutino Cheese flavored crackers and Roasted Red Pepper Hummus. For lunch I took an Amy's Veggie Lasagna to work and a piece of string cheese. For supper I had cereal because I still didn't feel like cooking. LOL Some days just go like that. I need to go shopping tomorrow. WOOOWEEE!!!

After Pics of Aromatic Pork Roast

You wish you had some, huh? I will be eating this for supper again tonight :)

Pork Roast..

I am writing this while my Aromatic Pork Roast is cooking. That is how excited I am about this recipe. I got it partly from a cookbook but changed it alot. You know by now how I am about following directions... I mean recipes! Here is the before picture and if I am not in a pork roast coma I will post the after.

Olive oil, salt, pepper and pork tenderloin from Kroger. (plain and unseasoned)
Use kitchen scissors to cut up fresh Rosemary leaves and sprinkle. The recipe calls for 2 TBL dried rosemary so that means 4-5 TBL fresh.

You have no idea how great my house smells with all of the aromatic veggies and herbs warming in the oven. Fennel, Onion, and baby carrots with olive oil drizzled and salted and peppered. You need a good salting to the veggies.

I am cooking Jasmine rice (aromatic itself... like jasmine flowers) and going to make a gravy from the drippings in the Pork tenderloin pan. WOOOOO....

Lazy Days Can Still Be GF!

I had a bad day. Just emotional and crappy. No particular reason. So I wanted to go to the drive thru. BADLY. I didn't wanna cook. Thank goodness I had gone to the grocery store and have been making a concerted effort to keep yummy, quick, GF food in the house. Here is what I ended up with. Much better than disgusting sodium, fat, greasy, someone else's poopy hands holding, gross fast food. :)

The orange stuff is Hummus. Google it and then go buy some. It is great with veggies or crackers or pretzels. Ben likes it if I tell him it is cheese...lol It doesn't taste like cheese.

Wanted to show a pic of the Hummus lid.


Oh, and lunch was an Amy's GF microwavable meal. Breakfast was Kroger Private Selection Deli Lower Sodium Turkey and a Yoplait Yogurt. Yes, both are GLUTEN FREE!

Corndog Breading Revealed

I want to first point out that I got this recipe from page 26 of this book...




The book offers a corn based recipe or a rice based recipe. I chose the one that I thought that I would like. Corn based. (CORN dogs, DUHHHH!)

INGREDIENTS

1 pound hotdogs
peanut or canola oil (for frying)

Batter

3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 TBL sugar
1/2 tsp Xantham Gum (I used Bobs Red Mill from Kroger... 11.99)
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 cup milk

Sidenote.. batter is very thin at first. Refrigerate it for an hour or so if you would like it to be thicker.

INSTRUCTIONS

*heat the oil, in a sauce pan or dedicated deep fryer. 370 degrees.

(i didnt take the temp, just put a tiny bit of batter into the oil and it is ready when there is a good bubbling going on but not fierce bubbling.)

*Place a popsicle stick lengthwise into each hotdog. Pat the hotdogs dry to remove excess moisture from their surface. Set aside.

(drying is important for the batter to coat correctly AND so that no water gets into the oil which can cause severe oil popping and spatter.. aka it will hurt you. badly. Also, I only had 2 popsicle sticks so I dipped the mini on the stick until batter looked formed and not runny at all then used a butter knife to slide mini off. Used a slotted spoon to recover minis from oil when they achieved the desired coloring)

*Mix together the ingredients for the batter in a medium bowl.

*One by one, coat the hotdogs with the batter. A rolling motion works well. Place in the hot oil and fry until golden, 3-4 minutes.

*Serve hot.




I used the leftover of this batter to coat the cheese sticks, although there is a recipe in the book for cheesestick batter on page 38. There was such little difference that I just added the spices it called for and Red Lobster Cheesesticks was where I got the idea for rolling them in parmesan. YUM.

*Spices I added to batter for cheese stick batter. A bunch of ground black pepper and cajun seasoning. To the parmesan I added a bit of seasoning salt. String cheese is the type of cheese I used. Any cheese sold in 'stick' form should work.

Try it, You WILL love it :)

GF FRIED STUFF.

I got this awesome cookbook from my Stepsister for Christmas.




This book is what gave me hope. The author writes an entire chapter on what brands she uses that are GF and what kitchen utensils and appliances are used in order not to cross contaminate her kitchen. For example, no wooden spoons, toasters and non stick pans dedicated to only GF cooking, and LaChoy soy sauce is about the only GF soy sauce. In this book I have found recipes worth trying without a million pinches of this and dashes of that for one dish. I made GF Mini Corndogs and GF Mini Fried Cheesesticks. Served with Kraft Honey Mustard Salad Dressing, whic doesn't SAY GF but according to the ingredients, it is GF. Also, My Reggiano's (Aldi's) Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce. I really didn't think I was gonna be able to do it but they turned out perfectly :) I have 'after' pics but no 'before' or 'during' pics.

Conspiracy Theory.

Ben and I have been sick so there hasn't been any blogging. I even fell of the GF wagon. Guess grumpy, tired, sick, and no motivation to cook will do that to you.

Today was rice and nut crackers for breakfast. Lunch is an Amy's Veggie Lasagna. I went grocery shopping. I am always grocery shopping it seems. I got everything I will need for home made ~GF chicken nuggets ~ GF chicken and dumplings or GF chicken Pot Pie ~ Gf corndogs ~ GF fried mozzarella sticks ~ GF Pork, Carrots and Fennel roast. (I am a Fennel virgin but it is supposed to taste like licorice but cut like a huge green onion.) Excited to try it :) I spent WAY TOO much money on what looks like no groceries. One example is that the GF bisquick mix is 7 dollars a pound. yes. ONE POUND. The prices are high because it is considered a specialty food. Not many people buy it so it costs more. I urge EVERYONE to try cutting Gluten away from at least their home menu. The reason 1 out of 33 people have Celiac is because the protein from the gluten was not meant for human consumption. We are the only country in the WHOLE WORLD that uses this much gluten. My Lord, we put wheat or wheat fillers or some type of gluten in most things! If more people ate with an awareness of how much gluten they are putting into their body, the prices of the GF foods would plummett and it wouldn't be so expensive to eat healthy. I know I am rambling but I knd of feel like I have a cause. How do we know that all of this gluten isn't what makes our country the most fat? Think about it. When they are fattening up farm animals, they add proteins and fillers to their food. That's what they are doing to us!!! Pill us up, feed us crap, sit us in front of the tv / video games.... HELLOOOO???? Anyone else see this or am I crazy today? Ok, unfair question, probably BOTH.

Steak and Cheese Omelet

My cabinet. Yes, only one. My apartment is huge but the kitchen is tiny. 90% of this stuff is GF. The other 10% is Ben's oatmeal and such....

Progresso Soups! They have 2 GF Clam Chowders, too. All very good and filling. I find the best selection at Kroger. BTW, the Shake and Bake in the background is not GF, but it was my fave and I can't throw it away yet. The Hungry Jack Pancake Mix isn't GF either. It's Ben's.

For my sweet tooth. These are small. Very small and 6-7 dollars a container. I like the Snickerdoodle ones the best. Got this at Kroger. They are by the deli.

Really Good! But not as good as my Cinnamon Chex. Got this at Kroger.

Love these! They are not light and crispy like a Ritz, but they are as close as you may get with GF crackers. Got these at Cub Foods. The flash is obscuring the brand name, it's Glutino.



Now for my Steak and Cheese Omelet.

Ingredients. Omit the mozzarella cheese and add a thin slice of Muenster instead. This was a last minute change. Any cheese that you love would be great.

Hot Olive Oil for veggies and eventually SteakUm.

SteakUms are super THIN. I used 2.

Super Duper THIN.

Veggies. Always start them in a hot pan. To check the temp of the pan, hold your hand about an inch above the pan while its heating and when you think it is too hot to stay like that much longer, its ready. OR throw one little piece of chopped onion in there and see if it sizzles a little.

Veggies ready, starting SteakUms. These cook Super Fast!

Warm a pan and spray with PAM spray. Get the eggs going. I added a pinch of salt while i was beating them, a bunch of coarse, fresh ground pepper and chives while they were cooking. I didn't put the chives in to cook with the mushrooms and onions because if you overcook fresh herbs, you lose a LOT of flavor.

Pile it up to keep it warm while eggs are cooking. I added a thin slice of muenster cheese at this point (not pictured) so that the cheese would be nice and melty when I added it to the egg. Shredded isn't as hard to melt so I probably would have just put shredded cheese on the egg before the meat and veggies.

You can't tell really well but I was tilting the pan to let the uncooked egg run to the outside of the pan after I moved the cooked edges towards the middle.

The SteakUms are VERY GREASY. I used a wide spatula and scooped it in one swoop onto a paper towel to take some of the grease off.

Then I just turned the paper towel over and dropped the meat, cheese, and veggies onto the middle of the egg.

Here comes the rolling of the omelet! Slow is the key.

Plate over Pan and quickly turn so that the pan is over the plate. Or roll it out. This was too heavy to roll out of the pan without breaking, so I resorted to the risky way... lol

Of course, no meal is complete without tripping over a curious Ben the whole time. :) No, Ben wouldn't eat this either..... lol

BIG PLANS

I have some big plans! I am going to try to make corndogs and fried cheese sticks this week. I finally got my stand mixer put out and may even try to make chicken and dumplins. I just need a great GF biscuit mix.... I have hardly eaten anything today. Been in a cleanin mood and busy with Scentsy. In a little while I am gonna go make a steak and cheese omelet. I bought Steak-Ums when I went to the store and when I got them home I realized I couldn't eat bread! HAHA, I could use an Udi's Bagel but I really want soft sandwich bread and since I can't have it, I decided to try it in a nice, fluffy omelet. See!? There are always options. The packaging for the Steak-Ums doesn't say GF anywhere, but the ingredients are listed as BEEF. Yep, just BEEF. So let's see if I get sick and then I will know for sure.

Nothing New

I haven't blogged lately but still doing great! No gluten for me. YUCK :P

I had Cinnamon Chex for breakfast, Leftover Spicy Goulash for lunch (SO happy I froze half of that sauce!). and I haven't decided on cooking or grazing for supper tonight. I have a head cold so my sniffer and tasters aren't working very well. I did go grocery shopping and found some great new things! I will surprise you with them soon :)

The Best Thing I EVER Ate... No Tip Required

Ingredients (add 2 eggs, I forgot)

Baby Bella and Chives

Butter Pan for veggies

Hot Olive Oil Pan for pork

Start the veggies.

Start the pork

Meanwhile you are using the box directions for the Pad Thai. Add Pad Thai to cooked veggies. VERY CAREFULLY MIX. Rice noodles are kind of fragile. BUT don't let it scare you!

Turn heat to low and SLOWLY cook the eggs

Cut up pork while eggs are cooking

when eggs are still wet looking but not super runny, move the hot noodles over the top of the eggs and turn off the heat.

Add pork and Chives

Toss Gently and serve generously.

I can't put into words how delicious tonight's supper is. So I wont.

Don't Eat The Moniter

Camera Is Back! I got new batteries and so here is my lunch. Prep time on this pizza from thought to mouth is about 30 minutes... at the MOST.










My Ingredients





Drizzle olive oil onto your Udi's Crust. Mine are always frozen, it turns out just fine. Don't forget the non stick spray on the foil so the pizza doesn't stick!

Sauce Crust. I choose to sauce all the way to the edge. Udi's crust is good, but I still don't think it can stand alone. Try not to get much on the foil or sides because it will burn fast.

I am experimenting with fresh herbs. I meant to use Oregano but for some reason had Thyme on my mind and used it instead. Glad I did. Gave my pizza a great savory flavor. Just rinse a stem or so under cool water and lay on a paper towel. Fold the paper towel and press gently. Open paper towel and run fingers from tip to base of the stem and the leaves will come off easily. If you want a stronger flavor throughout the pizza. chop the herbs. I like getting a little zap of flavor every so often so I just sprinkle the full leaves over the sauce.

Chop, grate or slice your mushrooms. These are Baby Bellas. Awesome...

Add mozzarella. Try to keep the cheese over the sauce as much as possible to keep edges from burning.

Add any toppings that go over the cheese. I like my pepperoni crispy-ish and I LOVE shakey cheese after it cooks. The pepper mix is a homeade mix that I buy at work. They are HOT until you cook them then they are just SWEET. It's strange but I love them! They aren't in my ingredients because they were a last minute thought. If anyone wants some, I can get some for you :)

Cooked and cut into squares. OMG, this was the best pizza yet!

For supper I was tired and Ben said he wasn't hungry... So we had cereal. Nuts and Honey flavored Chex. I don't like it as much as my Cinnamon Chex but Ben ate it and I was satisfied with it.... and a string cheese... and a pudding cup. LOL Good Stuff!!!







On another note, I am bloated, sick to my stomach, my back aches, I am grumpy, I am hot and I am just plain miserable. I have been glutened!!!!!!! Not for sure where... guessing the Unwich from yesterday. Gahhhh... How in the world did I function like this. Every day! I am going to bed early tonight. I feel horrible and just want it to stop. No wonder I stopped taking care of myself for so long and I was so desolate and depressed. I can't feel like this anymore, I really can't take it.