Passover Desserts, Everything-free

I can't legally say these are traditional Passover desserts but they are acceptable and they are gluten-free, egg-free, nut-free, dairy-free...

This cake from The Gluten-Free Goddess is so delicious I can't believe it. I made it a while ago for my vegan cousin. Tonight I am missing some ingredients so I am certain it won't come out as good but I wanted to share it.

Vegan "Flourless" Chocolate Cake Recipe:
http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/02/vegan-flourless-chocolate-cake-made-in.html

The second dessert I am making I found while looking for an SCD diet dessert for a friend. They are also everything-free and so yummy!! I even made this for breakfast once.

Baked Apples:
http://scdrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/11/baked-apples.html

Happy Passover, Happy Spring Break, Happy Easter, and Happy Sunday!

Tuna Sandwich, Gluten-Free

I never post lunch recipes, but Will came home for lunch one day this week and I randomly created a delicious waldorf-like tuna salad.

Tuna Salad:
2 cans of Costco's Kirkland Signature Solid White Albacore (a recommendation from Aunt Darlene)
1 Granny Smith Apple, diced
1 cup of red grapes, sliced in half
Mayonnaise to your liking, I used about two large spoonfuls

Mix well and add to your favorite toasted Gluten-Free bread, I used Udi's. I must say, for a few moments forgot that I was gluten-free.

*This is not an egg-free recipe. The mayonnaise and bread have egg. However, if you would like to make a similar version you can use vegan mayonaise and gluten-free bread that does not have egg.

Beet-Turkey-Meat Sauce with Corn Pasta

This is a Hot Pink colored meat sauce! I suppose you could convince any child obsessed with pink that this dish is Pinkalicious Meat Sauce. The beets were a last minute idea...and I would say if you don't like beets than it was a bad idea. Fortunately, we like them. 

Beet-Turkey-Meat Sauce:

Put the following ingredients in the crock pot for 5 hours. 

Diced Celery

Shredded Carrots

Diced Eggplant

Quartered fresh tomatoes

Olive Oil

3 garlic cloves sliced

In the Vitamix (or blender) blend and add then add the mixture to crock pot. 

1 beet cut up

1 cup of the crock pot vegetables

1 cup of water

Then Saute Ground Turkey with a little olive oil, salt, and italian seasoning. Once cooked thru add that to the crock pot as well. 

While the sauce finishes cooking, make the pasta of your choice. Tonight I used Mrs. Leeper's Corn Rotelli.

Top the pasta with the meat sauce and parmesan cheese (if you like) and enjoy!

Chimichurri Filet with Mango Avocado Salad & Brussel Sprouts

Tonight I was going to make frozen Udi's pizza with some salad. Will, thank God, had other plans. I LOVE when Will shops and cooks. He comes home with things I overlook a million times at the grocery store. For example, the Gaucho Ranch Gluten Free Chimichurri sauce he came home with tonight. He also came home with Filet Mignon and gummy worms, two other things I never buy.

So, although he cooked it, I will blog about it.

Chimichurri Filet:
He butterflied the steaks, rubbed them with Chimichurri, and then grilled them. After they were done he topped them with Chimichurri again.

Mango Avocado Salad:
Mixed Greens
Diced Mangos
Diced Avocado
Shaved Romano
1 Squeezed Lemon
Drizzled Olive Oil

Brussel Sprouts:
Drizzle Olive Oil and Kosher Salt on Brussel Sprouts and cook at 400 until crispy (about 45 minutes).

Who knew, pizza and a movie night turned out to be gourmet. Thanks Will. xo

Chicken & Pepper Enchiladas

It is pretty obvious that I love Mexican food. I am sorry if it is overkill on the Mexican recipes. However, I just discovered the Fontera Pouches and had to share. (BEWARE, they are not all allergy safe. I almost bought one that had sesame oil! Read the ingredients carefully.) A few are labeled Gluten-free, including the Red Chile Enchilada Sauce.

Chicken & Veggie Enchiladas:
So I put chicken & peppers in the crock pot with salsa (Jack's Special) for 6 hours. (If you don't have a crock pot you can saute it in a skillet instead). After about 5 hours I  shredded the chicken. When it was done cooking, I added the chicken & peppers to corn tortillas and topped with Fontera Enchilada Sauce and some cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes of until the cheese starts to bubble.

Moros Rice:
In the rice cooker, I added 1 cup brown rice, 2 cups of water, 1 tbsp olive oil, and 1 can of black beans.

Quacamole:
In the Vitamix I added cilantro, 4 small avocados, juice from 1 lemon, salt, pepper, and a 2 spoonfuls of Jack's Special Salsa. Blend on the lowest speed while mashing down. (If you don't have a Vitamix you can mash it in a bowl). I served with Late July Organic Sea Salt by the Seashore Chips.

Muy Delicioso!

Neon Green Smoothie

This is my Dear God Don't Let Me Get Sick drink. Of course, I make it different every time but today was worth sharing. Feel free to add or delete anything according to your likes.

I filled half the blender with frozen peaches and mangoes
Then added coconut water to the top of the frozen fruit
And I blended.
I gave part of the mixture to the kids and then added to the rest:
2 cups of Spinach
1/4 inch ginger
Vitamin C (liquid)
Juice Plus capsules (opened up)
Drops of Oregano Oil
Aloe Vera Juice
1 cup of Cilantro

It was the prettiest shade of green and it was delicious.

Coconut Banana Bread, Gluten-free + Dairy-free + Egg-free

When one kids, or two, are sick, my other children feel completely neglected. Like I am abusive for paying any extra attention to their sick sibling. There is a chart somewhere in their head counting the minutes I spend on each, the special treatment I give each, the "favorite foods" I make for each. So since Ava was the only child who was well today, she came home from school in a rage. Emma got to sit NEXT to Vince in the car, Emma got to watch TV all day, bla bla bla.

So after an afternoon and dinner that revolved around Emma and Vince, I decided to make a dessert specifically for Ava. As I have said, she loves banana bread. So tonight I made a variation...Coconut Banana Bread. I found a recipe online and of course, altered it a bit to fit our family's food restrictions/preferences.

http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2012/12/banana_coconut_bread_vegan.php

Banana Coconut Bread:

2 cups all-purpose GF flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup grated coconut

4 small bananas
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 tbsp dark rum
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, spices, salt, sugar, and coconut. Stir well to combine. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas well. Add the oil, rum, and vinegar, and stir to combine.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ones until no trace of flour remains, without overmixing. Pour into the prepared pan, level the surface with a spatula.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the top is browned and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Pull out from the pan and let cool on a rack before serving.

It was a hit! Ava went to bed happy (but only after complaining that it wasn't fair that Emma was sleeping with us).

Lemon Chicken with Cauliflower Butternut Squash Soup & Sweet Potato Fries

Two sick kids home today and I felt chicken and soup was an appropriate dinner. Honestly, I ate my way thru the day and couldn't imagine cooking or eating anything. Being home all day was a great excuse to start a new book (Gone Girl) and snack on everything in my fridge and cabinet. Green smoothie, Omelette with spinach, feta, and sun dried tomatoes, yogurt and granola, quacamole and PopChips, Apple, Banana...

So as a Jewish mother I suppose it is my job to make chicken and soup when my kids are sick.

Cauliflower Butternut Squash Soup:
1 box of Pacific Butternut Squash Soup
1 head of Orange Caulifower
1 cup of carrots
2 celery stalks sliced
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Put all the ingredients in the Crock Pot for 5 hours. After 4 hours mix and add Thyme, Salt, Pepper, and Oregano. I actually overcooked the soup and it lost its soupy consistency. It was still delicious but served more like Cauliflower Mash than a soup.

Lemon Chicken:
2 lbs of Chicken Legs
3 Lemons
Olive Oil
2 Sliced garlic cloves
1 tbsp spicy mustard

Mix everything except chicken in a bag and then add the chicken. Leave in the fridge until you are ready to cook. Pour out the chicken and sauce from the bag in a saute pan and cook on all sides. Then bake at 400 for 35-45 minutes.

Sweet Potato Fries:

Ore-Ida Sweet Potato Fries are Gluten-free

Will, my husband, said the dinner had an Indian flare. Hope mama's chicken and soup help my babies feel better. 

Turkey Lettuce Wraps, Gluten-Free + Sesame-Free

Emma said this was one of her favorite meals I ever made. I am shocked. I didn't even think the kids would try it. I think the kids ate it because it was different and they enjoyed making their own wraps (with lettuce, filling, and dressing).

I found this recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/turkey-lettuce-wraps-recipe/index.html

I sauteed ground turkey in coconut oil until no longer pink. Then added broccoli slaw, water chestnuts, chopped garlic, mushrooms, and sliced green onions. Once the veggies were cooked I added a mixture of gluten-free soy sauce (1/4 cup), rice wine vinegar (1 tbsp), and brown sugar (1 tbsp).

I added the filling to iceberg lettuce and topped with a dressing of gluten-free soy sauce (3 tbsp), rice wine vinegar (2 tbsp), honey (2 tbsp), dijon mustard (1tbsp), and water (1/4 cup).

According to Emma, it is worth trying!

Fresh Vegetable Quinoa with Costco Rotisserie Chicken & Brussel Sprouts, Everything-free

What goes well with Costco Rotisserie Chicken? Everything. Tonight I made a Fresh Vegetable Quinoa and Brussel Sprouts. I can't promise the kids will love this but we can try. I used all the left over vegetables and put them out as an appetizer and they ate them all so I won't complain.

Last night was a dinner disaster. I was feeling ambitious and it was a bad idea. I promised to try and stay away from the crock pot, however, I am not cut out for complicated dishes. First, I tried to make fried chicken cutlets. I should have known. All the bread crumbs ended up stuck to the pan, the chicken looked like it was covered in water by the end. I baked broccoli & cauliflower but undercooked it and it was too hard to eat. I sauteed spinach in the same pan as chicken and kids wouldn't touch it because of the bread crumbs all over it. I also made quinoa spaghetti with Classico Tomato & Basil sauce, fortunately something almost impossible to mess up. The saving grace was the arugula pesto my cousin Carianne recommended. I blended arugula, lemon, garlic, olive oil, and salt & pepper. When I diced the chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, and spaghetti and mixed it with the pesto it actually tasted delish! But even after deciding it was delicious, it was not worth the clean up. Frying pan, broccoli baking dish, mini food processor, pasta pan, sauce pan, cutting board, plates bla bla bla.  Soooo, tonight was a Costco Rotisserie Chicken night!!! It is free of all my family's allergies, it is 5 bucks, and it is easy!

Fresh Vegetable Quinoa:
1 cup of uncooked quinoa
2 cups of water
2 tbsp of salad dressing (I used Organicville Olive Oil & Balsamic)

I put the above three things in the rice cooker.

Diced tri-colored peppers
Diced celery
Diced carrots
Diced cucumbers

Mix the vegetables with salad dressing (I used the Organicville for this too) and add it to the cooked Quinoa. Add salt & pepper. You can eat this warm or cold.

Brussel Sprouts:
Mix brussel sprouts with olive oil and kosher salt. Bake at 400 until crispy.

Kitchen is clean, I am not exhausted, & healthy food awaits. In the future I will try and remember my own rule, nothing complicated.

Oatmeal Cranberry Waffles, Gluten-free + Egg-free + Dairy-free

Good Morning! Since the girls slept AN HOUR later than usual today I decided to reward them with a special breakfast. I love making them pancakes or waffles but today I wanted to eat them too. So I made a concoction....

The Vitamix cookbook has a recipe for Oatmeal Cranberry Waffles that I altered. I used the Vitamix but if you don't have one you can just mix it. Also, if you don't have a waffle maker you can use this mix and make pancakes.

In Vitamix on low speed mix:
1 cup GF pancake/waffle mix (today I used Maple Grove Farms)
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/4 cup hemp seeds
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 1/2 cup water

Then add:
1 cup GF oats
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Add 1 cup to heated waffle maker. I use the hottest setting, I like waffles crispy.

Top with Coconut Butter & Maple Syrup, and Enjoy!!!