Thai Chicken

My nephew Caiden has been a GREAT couch buddy while I've been injured. We were hanging out, him in his dino outfit and exersaucer and me with my boot and crutches (I know, he's cuter), and I browsed through my sister's crock pot recipe book. The crock pot is awesome for minimizing standing time!

Meredith had this Thai chicken in her crock pot while we were hanging out, and it smelled really good. She told me how easy it was, and being injured, I decided I wanted to make it too. She warned me that the sauce looked kind of like vomit, which it did, but it was delicious. Since we (ahem...Doug) ate it too quickly, I even made more a few days later. I doubled the quantity for the sauce the second time, since we ate it with rice and like extra sauce. This recipe is the single sauce recipe, so double it if you like sauce as we do. I also usually have most of this stuff lying around my house (OK, except fresh ginger), which is always convenient.

Ingredients:
2 - 2.5 lbs chicken breasts
1 cup hot salsa (I used Newman's Own)
1/4 all natural creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon GF soy sauce
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
Chopped peanuts and cilantro for garnish

Mix together ingredients 2 - 6 in a bowl. Lay the chicken at the bottom of the crock pot, then pour the sauce over (this photo is from when I doubled the sauce).

Let cook on low for 8 - 9 hours. I like shredded chicken, so near the end I went at the chicken with two forks, then let cook for awhile longer. Sprinkle the peanuts and cilantro over the chicken.

Blueberry Corn Muffins

So I didn't take any photos here. This was one of the few things I made on crutches, and I wasn't going to make it more difficult by taking pictures (and having to find my camera). But, since the recipe is from another blog anyway, I'll just share the blog post:  http://comfybelly.com/2010/09/blueberry-corn-muffins/.

Since she provides a few alternatives for recipes, here is what I used:
1 cup GF corn meal
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
4 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter
1 cup of regular (as opposed to non dairy options provided on comfy belly) milk, mine was 1%
1/2 - 1 cup fresh blueberries

These were very delicious, and not even "for being gluten free".

Buckwheat Flour Pancakes

Contrary to how it sounds, buckwheat is gluten free. Crazy, right?

Ingredients:
1 cup buckwheat
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup of milk
2 tablespoons melted butter

Mix together dry ingredients, then add egg, milk and butter. I always use my hand held electric mixer for this recipe, since it gets soo clumpy. 

Preheat griddle. Once it's hot, melt some butter over the surface. When making your pancakes, feel free to add whatever you want! I always have some frozen blueberries I can add.

The Best Squash Soup EVER

This blog post is one big shout out to Brenda, who came up with (and thankfully shared) this recipe! It's the best. Don't skip the balsamic glaze, it's amazing.

Soup:
2 tablespoons butter
1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed (use a fresh one, not the packaged cut up ones)
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 granny smith apple, peeled and diced
4 cups GF chicken broth
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon curry
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
 
Balsamic glaze:
Balsamic vinegar, dark brown sugar, butter

My diced squash:

Melt the butter in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and let cook until softened. Add the garlic and let cook for another 30 seconds. Add the squash, apple, broth, and zest.

Cover the pot and let cook until the squash can be easily mashed with a fork. Turn off the heat and puree with an immersion blender.

Return to heat, and add the salt, spices and sugar. Let cook for another 5 - 10 minutes.

To make the balsamic glaze, add the three ingredients and simmer over medium-low heat until it thickens to the point where you can run a spoon through the pan and the glaze doesn't fill right back in immediately.

Doug and I like to eat everything out of mugs, soup included. So, here are our mugs: 

Just perfect for all of this snowy weather!!

Pork chops with mustard onion sauce

This was good. Not my favorite pork chop prep, but it was a true 30 minute meal from Cooks Country Magazine.

Ingredients:
5 tablespoons olive oil (I think I halved this)
6 garlic cloves, pressed (ditto)
2 tablespoons low sodium (gluten free!) chicken broth
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons spicy brown mustard
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
8 thin cut boneless pork cutlets
1 onion, sliced thin

Combine oil and garlic in the bowl. Pop it in the microwave for a minute to combine flavors. The recipe suggested that you use half of the oil now, half later. I used it all now since I didn't want to cook with FIVE tablespoons of oil - blech. Combine the broth, vinegar, mustard, brown sugar and thyme in a separate bowl.

Pat pork chops dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan, then add the chops to the pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes per side (if they're indeed thinly cut), then transfer to a plate.

Add the onion, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook for a few minutes until the onion gets soft. Stir in the broth mixture, cook for around 2 - 3 minutes.

Add the pork chops back into the pan and cook just long enough for the pork to soak up some juices and get hot again. Then you're ready to serve!

Chicken Enchiladas with Red Sauce

This is my third recipe for enchiladas on this blog. I love both the enchiladas verdes and beef enchiladas, but both are pretty time consuming. For the verdes, you have to roast and peel the peppers before you start. For the beef, you have to simmer the sauce for 90 minutes. I wanted a weeknight enchiladas recipe, and this is the closest I've come.Not surprisingly, this is a Cooks Illustrated recipe.

Ingredients:
1.5 tablespoons veggie oil
1 medium onion, chopped fine
3 medium cloves garlic (I halved this, since Doug won't eat food once it's crossed the line into garlic-y)
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons coriander
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
12 ounces boneless, skinless, diced chicken. CI suggested thighs, but I used chicken breasts.
2 cans of tomato sauce (pureed tomato, not marinara) leaves
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 can pickled jalapenos, drained and chopped
8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese.
10 corn tortillas (most corn tortillas are GF - flour tortillas are NOT)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Heat oil over medium heat in a saucepan. Add onion and cook for a few minutes until soft and starting to brown.

Add garlic, chili poweder, coriander, cumin, salt and sugar. Cook for another 30 seconds. Add chicken and cook, stirring constantly, for another 30 seconds. The chicken should be totally coated with spices. Add tomato sauce and 3/4 cup of water. Cook, uncovered, for around 8 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Dump the whole thing into a bowl lined with a mesh strainer to separate the filling from the sauce. Transfer the chicken to a bowl and put in the fridge or freezer until cool enough to combine with cilantro, cheese and jalapenos.

Spread  1/2 - 1 cup of sauce over the bottom of your baking dish. Heat the tortillas up in either the microwave or the oven. Fill each tortilla with one tenth of the filling (around 1/3 cup) and line seam side down in the baking dish. Cover the rolled enchiladas with the remaining sauce and shredded cheese. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes and serve! You can serve with whatever staples you pick - sour cream, avocado, lettuce, etc. I also think it's crucial to make mexican rice with enchiladas! The recipe for mexican rice can be found at the bottom of the beef enchiladas post.

Newton Center GF Pizza!!

Hooray! I was already tired of hiking out to Needham center for Stonehearth GF pizza. OK, it isn't that far, but getting a quick pizza should be easy!

I was running down Beacon Street through Newton Center a few days ago. Bright purple writing on the window of old favorite Bill's Pizza caught my attention:

Woohoo! Doug and I went the following day for a gluten free pizza lunch. GF toppings excluded anything from the grill, so we went with ricotta, caramelized onions and green olives on half.  

It was delicious! Stonehearth makes very good GF pizza, but this was better.

 
I don't think they have GF info on their website yet - but here it is if you want to check them out!