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Meal Plan Monday, January 17, 2011

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , on January 17, 2011| 1 Comment »

Well, last week’s meal plan didn’t go as planned for a variety of reasons. For one, we had a lot of leftover enchiladas to eat up – they were super good! I also had an evening meeting and worked late. As well, I had to eat a modified diet and fast for some blood work. So we just kind of winged it a few nights. Luckily we had plenty to wing it with in the refrigerator. I also didn’t get to the new enchilada dish, but I hope to this week.

This week’s host for the Gluten Free Menu Swap is Wendy at Celiacs in the House and her ingredient of choice is winter vegetables. Below you will find some bok choy and cabbage (slaw). Last week we had Brussels sprouts, which are also winter vegetables.

Here it is:

Brown Rice with Miso from The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook, with stir-fried vegetables (red bell pepper, onion, bok choy and snow peas) and possibly a few chunks of tofu.

Enchiladas and Karina’s Snappy Crunchy Coleslaw

White Beans in Tomato Sauce with Sage over Creamy Polenta

Creamy Chickpea Curry with Rice

And if I have time and/or the inclination…

Tortilla Soup and salad

I also need to come up with something to make for our monthly support group meeting. I generally like t make a main dish as so many people make sweets for these meetings. I used to make a Baked Risotto but I can’t for the life of me, been able to find the recipe, so I googled, trying to see if I could find it. Here is a similar one:

Mixed Mushroom and Pea Baked Risotto

Anyone have a great baked risotto recipe?

And don’t forget to go over to Celiacs in the House to see other yummy menus.


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Meal Plan Monday, January 10, 2011

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , on January 10, 2011| 4 Comments »

Well, we’re finally back in the groove and I am cooking again. We were away for the holidays – Southern California and Disneyland! Yeah! Oh, and family too… Kidding! No, we had a great time and we’re back on track and meal planning again. I had a plan last week but it wasn’t till the middle of the week, so I missed Monday’s post. My mind was still on vacation!

The host for this week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap is Gluten Free Goodness and the theme is soup! Who doesn’t love soup at this time of year? I know I love keeping a few of the gluten free Thai Kitchen instant “ramen” soups around this time of year, especially at work, for those chilly days when I need something to warm me up. And in fact, we had soup tonight, a  tomato and chickpea soup. And with a bit of toasted boule, a delicious, warming meal.

And so, on with the interesting stuff!

Corn and Red Pepper Chowder with salad – chowder qualifies as soup, right? And/or maybe some of Shirley’s ‘Red Lobster’ cheese biscuits if I get ambitious (and have time)!

Tofu (Salmon for me) with vegetable stir fry and rice

Enchiladas – another variety I am trying out for you all – with salad

Pizza – Chebe crust for me, Boboli for my husband with a variety of toppings

Quinoa something-or-other, Roasted Brussels Sprouts Salad, and/or Roasted Vegetables with leftover tofu and salmon

I also need to make up some dishes for a sick friend and her family…probably a quinoa pilaf and some vegetables to go along with the Bison Roast that another friend is putting together.

So, be sure to click over to Gluten Free Goodness and check out what others are making this week for a little inspiration. As well, check out OrgJunkie for hundreds of other ideas (not necessarily gf or veg).

What are you craving this week?

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Meal Plan Monday, December 13, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan on December 13, 2010| 3 Comments »

This week is clean-out the frig and freezer week since we won’t be cooking at home much during the holiday week. I also want a couple of easy meals for the week so that we can focus on other things.

This week’s host for the Gluten Free Menu Swap is Celiac Family and her ingredient is onions. We love onions and garlic here at our house and almost every meal I make contains one or both. This week we’ll be having our usual amount of onions, nothing special. But our two new dishes for the week are both Indian – we love Indian food! Frequently gluten free and easily transformed to vegetarian.

Saag Paneer with Rice – to use up the other half of the block of paneer, part of which was used for last week’s meals.

Tofu Tikka Masala – to use up the block of tofu in the refrigerator. A perfect opportunity to make this dish!

Vegetable Soup – from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker (Robin Robertson), a family favorite.

Taco Salad – to finish off the avocados that have been left lonely on the counter.

Spaghetti and Salad – to finish off the salad fixin’s and not leave any vegetables in the crisper, as they will be added to the sauce or salad.

And for leftover night, a little something special. On a whim, I bought a block of Brie, well, not really a whim, I was coerced by the girl at the sample counter at Trader Joe’s. (Ha! I wasn’t really coerced, but it was too tasty to not buy some.) She had topped it with some maple syrup, almonds and dried cranberries and baked it till gooey. Serve with plain rice crackers and green apple slices. And perhaps a glass of wine. Delightful!

Be sure to hop on over to Celiac Family and check out the other meal plans. As well, you can check out OrgJunkie for tons of ideas!

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Meal Plan Monday, December 6, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , , on December 6, 2010| 4 Comments »

Last week I managed to get sick with something, not really sure what, but boy was I pooped and yucky. Comfort food was definitely in order. And coming home from work early to snooze and sit on the couch all evening wrapped up in a blanket.

And so it was fortuitous, that just last week I happened upon some new-to-me gluten free canned soups at Whole Foods. Gluten Free Cafe soups from Health Valley. I was so grateful that I had picked up a couple of cans. It was wonderful to have some canned chicken noodle soup to eat while feeling sick. (I am not the vegetarian in the family, remember?) My husband was grateful as well, he just (lovingly) dumped it in a bowl for me and heated it up! They also have a cream of mushroom soup and a veggie noodle.

I liked the chicken noodle soup. To my sickly taste buds, it tasted good. There were plenty of noodles,veggies and broth and a few chunks of chicken. The chicken was a little bit hard but it all still tasted good to me. Have any of you tasted it yet? Did you like it? I have yet to try the veggie noodle and cream of mushroom.

I often enjoy tea when I am sick too and luckily the Celestial Seasonings seasonal teas are out! Be sure to read the boxes as only a couple of them are gluten free. My two favorites are Candy Cane Lane and Nutcracker Sweet. I will be buying more this week and stocking up because they will be gone after the holidays! Here is a snack I had this weekend with some treats from Katz Gluten Free. (A full review of Katz products will be coming soon, once I can make my way through all their goodies!)

Despite feeling crappy most of the week, I did cook some and I owe you some recipes and reviews!

This week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap is being hosted by Wend at Celiacs in the House and the theme is mushrooms. (Her mushroom hater is gone for the week.) I am not a huge fan of mushrooms but my husband is, so I will include them periodically.

As for this week, this is what I am up to:

Stir-fried Tofu ad Vegetables with Miso Sauce and rice – new-to-us recipe from Fat Free Vegan with mushrooms – she has great tofu recipes!

Matar Paneer and rice – a favorite!

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup from Stephanie over at A Year of Slow-Cooking. I’ll probably make a salad or corn muffins to go along side.

And then I am going to try my hand at Pupusas. Many folks have made them and so I am taking my inspiration from here, here and here. And I will make Diane’s Spicy Slaw. I can’t wait! They will most likely be filled with black bean something-or-other.

I also have to make something for my husband’s holiday potluck at work and so I will be making Glutenfreeda’s Wild Rice Stuffing with Hazelnuts and Cranberries. This has become our go-to dressing for Thanksgiving and the holidays. It also travels well, heating up in a crockpot easily. I took it to my office Thanksgiving potluck a few weeks ago.

As for dessert, I have been eying Elana’s Vegan Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream…and I just might have to make some holiday cookies or candies too!

Have a great week!

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Meal Plan Monday, November 29, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , , on November 29, 2010| 7 Comments »

Well, we’re back from our annual Thanksgiving cross-country trek…

Somewhere near Weatherford, Texas, only hours into our 22 hour journey.

The two pups (yellow and chocolate), curled up for the long drive.

So, we have an empty fridge, which means a clean slate. And I have a couple of new cookbooks! I recently tested a wonderfully delicious recipe for Michael over at Herbivoracious and I won two cookbooks for doing so! (I will share more with you once his book is ready to come out.) I ended up choosing A Fistful of Lentils and The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook. I have also been reading my way, albeit slowly, through Gluten Free Girl and the Chef. And I am still cooking my way through a Vegetarian Planet. So much inspiration!

I wrote up my meal plan this evening without even checking to see what this week’s theme was for the Gluten Free Menu Swap, but it is sweet potatoes. Check out the other menu’s over at Gluten Free Goodness, who is hosting this week. I didn’t have any sweet potatoes on my menu, but I noticed this a little bit ago from Book of Yum and it sounds delicious! I just might have to add it…

For this week, plus a little more…

Chickpeas in Tomato, Ginger and Garlic Sauce with Basmati rice – one of our family favorites that I haven’t made in a long time. From a well-worn cookbook, Indian Vegetarian Cooking from an American Kitchen.

Tomato Lentil Soup from Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons, new to us.

Pasta Alfredo with chickpeas, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, etc. and salad – this is a make it up as I go along deal. I am craving Alfredo sauce. I might put some chicken or shrimp in mine.

Black Rice with Chickpeas, Bok Choy and Tamari Sauce from Gluten Free Girl and The Chef’s new cookbook. This will be the first recipe I have tried from their cookbook (which isn’t very vegetarian friendly unfortunately).

Thai Coconut Soup from Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons with salad or leftover rice.

And maybe, Book of Yum’s Mexican Vegan Sweet Potato Black Bean Hash.

I have also been eyeing these Salt and Vinegar Chickpeas. I love salt and vinegar potato chips and I love chickpeas, so this sounds right up my alley!

What are you cooking up this week?

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Meal Plan Monday, November 1, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , , on November 1, 2010| 9 Comments »

Hello! I hope you all had a great Halloween. We don’t get any trick-or-treaters out where we live, although this guy has been known to show up on our front door step. ..


But I don’t think he’s looking for candy…

Maybe one of these?

Ha! No worries, they are secure in their home. The girls got quite the Halloween treat yesterday after I roasted three pie pumpkins.

I didn’t make any treats (or tricks) for us this week but I do have something planned for later this week as part of Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger. I adopted Jenn of The Whole Kitchen. Go on over and check out her site and be sure to read about her transition to the gluten free lifestyle eight years ago. Amazing and inspiring! Plus she’s a wonderful cook. And I’ll be posting soon about some of her creations.

This week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap is being hosted by Celiacs in the House and the theme is peppers. I don’t have any pepper-centric recipes on the menu this week except for some green chile added to a couple of things, but we have had two batches of stuffed poblanos over the past few weeks. The first batch was quinoa stuffed and the second was cheese, corn and pecan stuffed. Both were delicious but need another trial session before they’re ready for prime time.

This week will be a bit calmer for us, no travel or evening meetings, as far as I know. So I should be able to do some cooking this week!

This week, we are planning…

Santa Fe Pumpkin Chowder with Pumpkin Corn Muffins

Green Chile and Cheese Tamales with fresh roasted salsas and Spanish Rice – Contains peppers – New Mexican green chiles!)

Veggie Burgers (or salmon burger for me) with Quinoa Tabbouleh – and as David Lebovitz says, tabbouleh is meant to be an herb salad, more herbs and vegetables than bulgur, or in this case, quinoa. (I had just read his post as I was making my meal plan and the green herbs and lemon juice sound wonderful right now!)

Sesame Noodles with Broccoli and Roasted Tofu

Anasazi Bean something… does anyone have any good recipes? I have never made them before but we grew some this year and I bought a big bag at the farmer’s market.

So that’s it for this week. I also will be making a sweet or two from The Whole Kitchen…so stay tuned!

Be sure to check out the other plans at Celiacs in the House and OrgJunkie.


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Meal Plan Monday, October 18, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , on October 17, 2010| 5 Comments »

Sorry for the lack of posts last week but things got pretty crazy. A lot of office work and evening meetings kept me busy and away from the farmer’s market, grocery store and kitchen. You may have noticed I didn’t put together a meal plan last week. Well, that’s because I didn’t have a plan and we weren’t eating anything spectacular last week! I made the Tex-Mex Lasagna from the previous week on Monday night so that we could eat on that all week and we had salad fixings in the frig. Of course we still have plenty of our frozen, homemade green chile and cheese tamales to pull out as well.

Well, yesterday I made it to the farmer’s market and came back with a great haul. It was a beautiful cool morning with the smell of roasting green chile in the air. I found Poblano peppers, shishito peppers, tomatillos, yellow finn potatoes, garlic, a pie pumpkin, Anasazi beans, peaches and baby bok choy. I will be sad when the market ends, and although there is a winter market, it isn’t as bountiful. My allergies are ready for a good frost to kill off the allergens but my taste buds want the good food to stick around!

Our own garden is still producing; mostly cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and some okra. The 2 (only!) pie pumpkins and 4 little butternut squash are still hanging on the vines in the sun, curing. And with the cooler temperatures, the Swiss chard has taken off so I need to harvest and cook some up.

So here I sit now, trying to figure out what to do with all the great food we are so thankful to have. Also on my mind is a little road trip coming up next weekend. I am trying to keep in mind how much food we’ll eat this week, how much time I’ll have to make it and what can be left in the refrigerator over the weekend. I know there are some great gluten-free-friendly places to eat around Phoenix so I am not too concerned with getting enough safe food, but I always like to take food with me, just in case. As well, eating breakfast out is typically hard for me since I can’t eat scrambled eggs or an omelet these days. So I definitely like to take breakfast foods along with me. I will let you know how things go next week!

This week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap is hosted by Cheryl at Gluten Free Goodness and the theme is cinnamon. Cinnamon is definitely a wonderful fall flavor. I don’t use cinnamon a whole lot since I don’t do a lot of baking but I recently made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies and they have cinnamon in them. If you want some more cinnamon ideas, be sure to check out the compilation post over at Gluten Free Goodness; Cheryl already has a few cinnamon recipes linked up on her page and others will follow.

And for us this week…

Smoky Mexican Lasagna from Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons – I made this tonight – wonderful with the smoky chipotle pepper flavor.

Indian Stew from Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons – to use up the okra from our garden.

Poblanos Rellenos from Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons

Green Chile and Cheese Tamales with sautéed Shishito Peppers

Can you tell what my new favorite cookbook is? So many recipes in here and so many that sound great. I grabbed this cookbook off of Paperback Swap.

Also, I harvested and shelled some of our homegrown Anasazi beans this weekend after picking up a big bag at the market. This was the first year we have grown them. Have you ever cooked with them? The man at the market that I bought them from said that I will be sorry that I bought them, but only because I will want more! When I asked him what the best way to make them was, he said he makes them just like he makes pinto beans, which is very New Mexican. I don’t know how to make New Mexican pinto beans, so I guess I will go out trolling the interwebs for some ideas. In the picture below, the ones in the jar are from the market and the ones on the plate are from our garden. I need a bigger garden to plant more of these beauties – and unlimited water! I have Steve Sando’s Heirloom Beans cookbook but most of the recipes rely heavily on meat, so I am looking for any vegetarian ideas you may have!

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Meal Plan Monday, October 4, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , , on October 4, 2010| 7 Comments »

I made it to the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market on Saturday – hooray! I picked up a great haul; poblano peppers, shishito peppers, okra, kale, napa cabbage, Golden Supreme apples, Green Zebra tomatoes, Penasco Blue garlic and Cranberry Red potatoes. And I have figured out what I am doing with everything except the kale.

I want to try a raw kale salad but I haven’t had the courage to jump right in there yet. I know that Ricki over at Diet, Dessert and Dogs is just about the queen of raw kale salads but so many of them have special ingredients that I don’t keep in my house, like stevia and such. Does anyone have any suggestions for a yummy, simple, first-timer, raw, kale salad?

Since I made it to the market, it threw off our meal plan from last week a little bit. We did not get to the Lasagna or Tortilla Soup. Instead, last night we ate Quinoa Stuffed Poblanos (recipe to come!) and tonight we had some frozen homemade tamales with sautéed shishito peppers! Both the lasagna and soup are easily made from pantry staples and few fresh ingredients, so I typically save those dishes until the end of my meal planning week anyway, just in case I don’t get to them, as it happened this week. I had also planned a lot more meals than usual last week, six meals instead of my usual four. So this week, I am getting back on track and only planning five meals!

And before I forget, this week’s theme at the Gluten Free Menu Swap is Brussels Sprouts! We love Brussels Sprouts! I did not see any at the farmer’s market yet but I know I can get some at the store so I added them to our menu this week. Our favorite way to eat them is roasted with a little olive oil and salt and then drizzled with balsamic vinegar when they come out of the oven. Or sprinkled with a little Parmesan cheese. And to think that two years ago I had never eaten a Brussels Sprout! This week’s host for the Swap is Celiacs in the House, so go on over and see what everyone is up to!

Now, for the plan:

Roasted Tofu with Roasted Vegetables (okra, potatoes, carrots, onions, and Brussels sprouts)

Napa Noodles – to use the napa cabbage and edamame as protein

Creamy Pesto Pasta with Chunky Tomato Salsa – I need to work on my basil plant, before the frost hits! More frozen basil cubes are probably in my future too!

Tex-Mex Lasagna – from last week

Tortilla Soup – also from last week

As for our sweet treat for the week, I am trying to decide which flavor of ice cream to make. This past week I made Simply Sugar and Gluten Free’s Coconut Chai Spice Ice Cream. It was tasty, although my husband and I aren’t sure we really like coconut milk ice creams. I suppose if we couldn’t have dairy, we’d probably love these ice creams. But we can and so far we’ve found them to be a bit too coconuty for us. So a dairy-filled treat for us this week it is. Either Chocolate Chip Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream or Nutella Ice Cream. Decisions, decisions, huh?!

What’s on your menu this week?

This meal plan is also cross-posted over at OrgJunkie. Check it out for a ton of menu ideas, some gluten free, some vegetarian, and some not!

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Meal Plan Monday, September 27, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , on September 27, 2010| 7 Comments »

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since I have done any serious meal planning. We’ve been eating a lot of whatever-we-can-come-up-from-the-cabinets and frozen stuff, not to mention the tamales in the freezer. I have been off my regular grocery shopping schedule. And I haven’t had any time to go to the Farmer’s Market. Boo. But this next weekend I am already planning to go to the Farmer’s Market and then I was hoping to head up to Dixon’s Apples, but it looks like they are already out of my favorite apple, the Champagne. They have only been open since Thursday! Wow! I knew I should have gone up today but alas, I needed to go into the office. Oh yeah, that’s the other thing that has been wreaking havoc on my meal planning. Unexpected overtime and late meetings.

Okay, enough whining already and on to the main purpose of today’s post – a meal plan! But first, one more thing…I recently got a few new cookbooks. Of course, this one:

Gluten Free Girl and The Chef by Shauna James Ahern and Daniel Ahern

I haven’t made anything from it yet but I will be sure to let you know when I do!

I also recently joined Paperback Swap and have a wish-list a mile long. (I love to read instead of watch TV.) I also love to browse through cookbooks. So I have wish-listed just a few cookbooks… This is one of the ones I recently received:

Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons

There are a lot of wonderful ideas in here. In fact, we have one of them on the schedule for this week.

And this one:


Fast Vegetarian Feasts by Martha Rose Shulman

So, you’ll probably be seeing some renditions of items out of these cookbooks. There are some great ideas in all of them.

Okay, for real, the menu plan. This week’s theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap is pears. Unfortunately I don’t like pears. So no pears here this week. But there are lots of other yummy things on the list this week! If you do like pears (and even if you don’t), go check out the other ideas at the Menu Swap. This week is hosted by Cheryl of Gluten Free Goodness.

Our plan:

Peanut Noodles with Tofu (we had this tonight – recipe to follow soon)

Tex-Mex Lasagna with Salad

Penne with Red Pepper Sauce and Broccoli from Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons

Tortilla Soup with Tamales or Salad

Sushi Bowls

Tofu with Spicy Vegetables and Rice

Unfortunately there is a lot of tofu and pasta on the menu this week. I usually try to avoid eating tofu more than once, maybe twice, a week, as I like to mix up my protein sources. But apparently I wasn’t paying attention when I wrote this up and then went to the store. I am sure we’ll be fine this week but next week we probably won’t be eating too much tofu!

What’s on your menu this week? Any new cookbooks that you are enjoying?


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Meal Plan Monday, September 13, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , , on September 13, 2010| 2 Comments »

Did you know that today, Monday, is National Celiac Awareness Day? What a great day for a Gluten Free Menu Swap! Besides it being Monday and that’s what we do… But anyway, it is, and here’s how it came to be on September 13th:

“What is the significance of September 13? That is the date of Samuel Gee’s Birthday in 1839, who is credited with finding the link between celiac disease and diet. Gee felt that “if the patient can be cured at all, it must be by means of diet.”

Did you also see that in honor of today, P.F. Chang’s restaurant, one of the first restaurants to have a gluten free menu, has released a new gluten free dessert – Triple Chocolate Mousse Mini Dessert – and they posted some of their gluten free recipes on their website? How cool is that?!

But now, back to your regularly scheduled programming…Meal Plan Monday!

This week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap theme is beans and is hosted by Heather at Celiac Family. Surprisingly I am not doing too much with beans this week. Unless soybeans as tofu counts? Probably not. But if you’re looking for bean recipes, there are plenty of them around here. Check out Italian White Beans and Polenta, Sweet Potato, Quinoa and Black Bean Burgers or Three Bean Tacos for more bean ideas.

And be sure to check out the other menus at the Gluten Free Menu Swap and over at Org Junkie.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, we have company coming to town and we are planning on traveling a bit, so I am not planning too much for meals this week. I will have a couple of things on hand to make when and if we want to, but nothing serious is planned. I will also make sure that we have appropriate road-trip food to take with us. What are your favorite road trip foods?

Otherwise, I’ll have ingredients for the following on-hand:

Spicy Tofu with Vegetables and rice and a Spicy Cucumber Salad– the tofu is a favorite recipe from The Complete Book of Thai Cooking by Linda Stephens

Homemade Tamales, of course, with Spanish rice, salad and guacamole.

Mattar Paneer and/or Saag Paneer with rice.

Grilling stuff – chicken, tofu, potatoes and mixed vegetables.

And as for traveling food, we typically take a cooler and bag with cheese, fruit (grapes and apples), crackers, baby carrots, granola/granola bars, KIND bars, M&M’s, trail mix and candied ginger. Sometimes we’ll also take hummus, yogurt and salsa and chips. And if we’re staying at a hotel, I’ll often throw in a bag or two of microwave popcorn and some instant gluten free ‘ramen’ noodles.

So that’s it for this week. Hopefully next week I will be back to cooking more and will post a more interesting menu!



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