Gluten Free - Week #3

Starting my third week of Gluten Free cooking, but my fourth week of Gluten Free eating. You may have thought I jumped off the wagon because I didn't write about my cooking at all last week. Well the truth is I felt a little more like I had been run over by the wagon and then dragged by the wagon for about 10 miles. To say the least last week was Gluten Free, actually it was solid food free, but that I will talk about in another post.

Anyway, I just wanted to post my meal plan for the week. I am not sure if I will actually make all 5 meals because Wednesday is my birthday and I am planning to order out or go out! But here is what I am thinking. I will post pictures as recipes are made and as always all crockpot recipes came from the Crockpot 365 website and the others came from Elana's pantry, great resources!

Maple Dijon Chicken CrockPot Recipe

The Ingredients.

--1 lb chicken pieces (I used frozen breast tenderloins)
--1 cup chicken broth
--2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
--1 onion, chopped
--2 T dijon mustard
--3 T maple syrup
--3 cloves garlic, chopped
--2 bay leaves
--1 tsp thyme

The Directions.

I used a 4 quart crockpot---it was a good size. This fed the four of us with a tiny bit left for lunch the next day. If you have a large family or would like leftovers, double the quantity.
Put the chicken into the bottom of your crockpot and toss it with the thyme, maple syrup, and dijon mustard. Peel and slice the sweet potato, and add to the pot. Add the onion and garlic. If you don't want your onion to have a crunch, put it at the bottom of the crockpot; otherwise on top of the chicken is fine. Pour in the chicken broth. Add the bay leaves. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-5. This is done when the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables reach desired tenderness.

CrockPot Buffalo Chicken Lasagna Recipe

The Ingredients.

--uncooked traditional lasagna noodles (I used Tinkyada brand)
--4 already cooked chicken breast halves
--jar of prepared pasta sauce
--1 cup buffalo wing sauce
--3 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers
--tub of ricotta cheese (15 oz)
--2 cups shredded cheese (mozzarella and cheddar blend)
--1/2 cup bleu cheese crumbles
--1/4 cup of water (add at very end)

The Directions.

use at least a 5qt crockpot, or cut back on the amount of ingredients.

In a large glass bowl, combine cooked and chopped chicken breast, the pasta sauce, and 1 cup of buffalo wing sauce. Ladle a big spoonful of the sauce into the bottom of your crockpot. Cover with a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles. You'll have to break them to get a proper fit. Add a smear of ricotta cheese to the top of the noodles. Add a layer of chopped bell pepper. Sprinkle on a handful of shredded cheese.

Repeat layers until you run out of ingredients.

Add the bleu cheese crumbles, if desired. Put the 1/4 cup of water into your empty pasta sauce jar and shake. Pour the liquid over the top of the entire lasagna.

Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours, or on high for 4-5. When cooking time is complete, unplug and take off the lid of the crock. Let it sit for 20 minutes before cutting into. Or it will fall apart. Ask me how I know this...

Chipotle Lime Salmon

1 lb salmon, cut into 4 fillets
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
2 limes, sliced in half
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon chipotle powder

1.Preheat oven to 500°
2.Rinse salmon, pat dry and place on a metal baking sheet
3.Rub each fillet with olive oil
4.Squeeze the juice from one-half lime onto each fillet
5.Sprinkle fillets with salt and chipotle, then place a half lime on top of each fillet
6.Turn down oven temperature to 275°
7.Place salmon in oven and cook for 8-12 minutes, depending on how well done you like your fish

CrockPot Jambalaya Recipe

The Ingredients:

--5 fully cooked sausages; 2 spicy and 3 not-so-spicy. I chose 3 garlic-artichoke turkey and 2 turkey Louisiana hotlinks. They were left over from when I made this.
--2 cups chicken broth
--1/2 cup white wine
--1 cup raw brown rice
--1 can (and juice) Itallian stewed tomatoes
--1/2 can drained and rinsed black beans
--1/2 chopped onion
--1/2 head chopped garlic
--3 chopped celery spears
--1 green pepper
--1 red pepper
--1 cup frozen white corn kernals
--2 cups cooked frozen shrimp

The Directions:

--pour the broth, wine and the uncooked brown rice into the bottom of your stoneware. Stir the rice in the liquid.
--cover with chopped vegetables, frozen corn and garlic
--put in the black beans
--add sausage
I promise it's enough liquid.
--cook on low for 8-10 hours, high for 6.
--an hour before eating, stir in frozen shrimp and turn to high.

CrockPot Fried Rice Recipe

The Ingredients.

--2 cups leftover rice/quinoa
--3 T butter
--2 T soy sauce
--2 t worcestershire sauce
--1/2 t black pepper
--1/4 t kosher salt
--1/2 diced yellow onion
--1 cup of whatever frozen or fresh vegetables you have on hand. (I had a bit of asparagus, some carrots and peas)
--leftover meat (I had leftover chicken and 3/4 of a cheeseburger patty from a restaurant--I told you I was Scottish!)
--1 egg
--sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

The Directions.

Plop everything on in there together. Mix it around, and cook on high for 2-3 hours, or on low for 3-4. You are only heating everything up and cooking the egg.

Mango Chicken

Made the Mango Chicken recipe tonight for dinner. The kids said it was ok, and the darling husband said "You guys should tell Mommy thank you for another awesome dinner." Not really sure if that meant that he actually thought it was awesome or if he was just making a point! Tonight's meal was pretty good. I was excited about it because I love mangoes, but overall I would put it in the bland category. Of course this is probably due in part to my lack of spices.

I started prepping the ingredients and it seemed to take forever. Thank goodness for the Pampered Chef Cutting Edge Food Chopper! It really helps chop onions, garlic, anything you want to chop up. Once everything was prepped I started cooking, that was the easy part. The one thing I didn't do was add the curry and ginger. I thought it would be flavorful enough and I was worried that the kids wouldn't eat it. Not to mention the fact that I was just flat out too cheap to purchase 2 $6 bottles of spices. Why are spices sold in such large portions. I needed 1 tsp of curry, would that be worth $6? Apparently not, but there was definitely something missing from dinner. One other change I made in the recipe was instead of adding uncooked cubed chicken to the mango mixture I actually cooked the chicken in a separate pan and once about 90% cooked I added it to the mango sauce. I was just a little worried that the chicken wouldn't cooked thoroughly quick enough.

I served the Mango Chicken over brown rice and it tasted pretty good. For some reason I seem to need to serve dished like this over something, pasta or rice usually. Again I would say this recipe was ok, but it doesn't go on the top ten list! Pasta and Brocolli tomorrow, hopefully that is a little better!!!

Mango Chicken
1 ¼ pounds chicken breast, cut into 1 inch cubes
¼ cup grapeseed oil
1 large onion
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
½ cup coconut milk
1 mango, peeled and diced

1. In a large saute pan, warm oil over medium heat
2. Add onions, stirring occasionally, cooking until soft, 5-10 minutes
3. Add red pepper, ginger, garlic, curry and salt, cook 5 minutes
4. Add vinegar, water, coconut milk and mango to pan, bring to a boil briefly, then reduce heat
5. Add chicken pieces, return to a low simmer
6. Cook for 8-10 minutes until chicken is cooked through –cut open largest piece to check
7. Garnish with cilantro
8. Serve