Gluten Free Dinner Number 2

I have really been trying to cook at least one Gluten free dinner a week, but it is hard to find recipes that I think will taste good or my husband will eat. So instead of looking for specific recipes I have been looking for Gluten free products and trying to work those into our diet. I found some awesome Pad Thai noodles at Whole Foods that are Gluten Free and my husband loves them. I made a sauce out of rice vinegar, soy sauce, corn starch (to thicken) and a couple of other spices and ingredients and put it over top beef (from Whole Foods) and pea pods and my husband loved it. I was surprised when he told me he loved it. AND imagine my surprise when after I told him it was Gluten Free he asked if we could make more Gluten Free recipes. He is too cute sometimes. I do have to agree this was an awesome recipes and if anyone has any other suggestions for some Gluten Free recipes please let me know.

This is a great recipe to turn up the heat with.


Next time I am going to add some more veggies. Prob. some peppers, onions maybe some mushrooms.

Braised Short Ribs

With guests last weekend I wanted to try out a new recipe. I knew the recipe would make a lot and I wanted to make sure me and my husband did not have to eat it all ourselves. So I made braised shot ribs and mashed potatoes. The ribs were great. I made sure to reserve the sauce and added some flour to it. This gave me a ton of gravy for both the ribs and the mashed potatoes. The only problem was I almost killed my brother-in-law. Apparently my brother – in- law is allergic to red wine or the sulfite in red wine. His throat got red and I of course started to freak out because as we all know, I don’t deal well in situation like that. Thank god my husband has a level head and gave him some Benadryl and he was fine. He was fine and everyone was laughing about it (but me).

It did turn out great. I will make it again and make sure that I go to total wine first and get some sulfite free wine.

This was the only picuture I took. Everyone was so hungry and no one wanted to wait for me take pictures. They tasted great.

Cookie Dough Cheesecake

My brother - in - law and one of my husband’s friend from high school came down to visit us last weekend, and last time that he was down here he requested cheesecake. His favorite cheesecake is cookie dough. I went onto the internet and found a recipe. I had left work early so that I could get and start cooking. I had a couple of other goodies up my sleeve for this weekend so I wanted to sure that I had enough time to make everything.

So I begin to make my cheesecake and other dessert and I received a phone call. It was a surprise call from one of my partners on a project I had complete. When a partner calls you drop whatever you are doing and take that call. The call lasted for an hour which meant my cheesecake was in the oven the entire time and my sugar I was trying to caramelize had to stop in the middle of the process.

Once the phone call was completed the timer for the cheesecake had already gone off so my cheesecake was sitting in the oven. I checked on my cheesecake and it CRACKED, which means the edges cooked faster than the middle. The edges pulled away causing the center to crack. UGH I get so upset when a recipe does not turn out like I envisioned it, but you live and you learn. The next time I make it I will make use to cook the cheesecake at a lower temperature to ensure it will not crack.

The cheesecake still tasted great but I was still upset about the crack!!

Ugh the crack. It shows me I still have a long way to go before I call myself a "cook"

Top viewe of the crack.

Side view of the cheescake. I made the crust out of teddy grams. How fun is that!!!

Blueberry Muffins

I was in the office most of the weekend, well all of it, so I wanted to make sure that I could make something for my husband and the other guests to eat in the morning because I did not have time to cook. So I made blueberry muffins. My mother would make them for us all the time when my brother and I were young. Like I have said in past blogs I am always trying to find ways to sneak fruits and veggies into my husband’s diet. I add flax seed and wheat germ to these muffins and no one can even taste it.

The muffins are simple and remind me of my childhood; they are east to whip up and are a crowd pleaser. I use organic blueberries from Whole Foods. The best thing to do is to buy them when they are on sale and freeze them. That way you can have fresh blueberries all year.

The blueberries from the freezor. I love haveing fresh berries all year long.

The finished muffins. They are so good!!

Brookie

This was a recipe that I was really excited to make but it did not turn out exactly the way I wanted it to. I didn’t have any 6inch pie pans so I improvised and used muffin tins. Maybe I should have went out and bought them and it might have turned out a bit better they still tasted great but not as pretty as I would have liked.

First I should explain what a Brookie is. It is half brownie and half chocolate chip cookie. The recipe tasted great but the presentation not so much. They looked like bran muffins and before I could convenience my husband to try he made me give a little piece to my dog. My husband knew that if it was a bran muffin the dog would have never eaten it haha. He liked the way it tasted but like I said the presentation had a lot to be desired. I will try them again and see what happens once when I have the correct the cooking equipment.

A few of the Brookie, I guess they kind of look like bran muffins.

This picture you can really see the difference between the cookie and the brownie.

Gluten-Free Pizza

My husband and I are a pizza couple. Does not matter if it is frozen, homemade or order out my husband and I have pizza at least once a week. So in an attempt to eat healthier and to save money I decided to make my own pizza, and not only did I make my own pizza I also make gluten free pizza. I was a little worried when I first started to make the dough because it was very thin. However, once the crust started to cook in the oven the whole house started to smell like a bakery. The best part about the crust was it was super thin. My husband and I love thin pizza crust so this was perfect. If you are not a fan of thin pizza than this is not for you. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is trying to have less gluten in their diet. The best part is there is enought in the package for two pizzas.

The brand of mix I used. I did not want to try and make gluten free pizza dough, so I cheated and bought a mix.



You bake the crust first and than put on your topping.

I used the sauce I made a couple of weeks ago, just make the pizza taste extra great.

Top view of the pizza.

Putting s a little extra cheese on the pizza.

Corn and Crab Chowder

My husband was still talking about the crab legs I made for him a couple of weeks ago and about how much he loved soup. After about the third hint from my husband I decided to make a soup I had been saving for the winter. Plus this weekend was really cold and rainy and I was in the library for most of it so I figured this would keep my husband nice and warm.

The recipe was originally just corn chowder but crab meat was on sale and my husband loves crab so it was perfect for him. The recipe was pretty simple to make a little messy because there was a lot of chopping that needed to be done. One of my favorites parts of this recipe is all the veggies. The soup has potatoes, corn, onion and celery. The more veggies I can get into my husband without him knowing the better. This is a great soup and I plan to make different verities of this once winter comes.

Haha so I know it looks like baby food but it was really good.

This picture does not look any better, but it really was good.