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Meal Plan Monday, July 18, 2011

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , , , on July 17, 2011| 13 Comments »

I am hosting this week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap and the theme I have chosen is “light and easy” for summer. Here in New Mexico, it has been brutally hot. Surprisingly, we normally don’t hit triple digits, except for maybe a couple of days in July or August, but we have had many triple-digit days already this year. And now other parts of the country are dealing with hot temperatures too. So I thought we should highlight some of our light and easy favorites for summer, to give us all a break from the hot stove and oven, and even the grill, which is even too hot to stand over.

Here are a few of our light and easy favorites:

Spicy Ginger Noodles – you only have to boil some pasta.

Wild Rice Tabouli – you only need to cook the rice. Try a rice cooker to avoid turning on the stove.

Lentil Salad Provencal – turn on some lentils to simmer and then walk away from the hot stove. Or you could use canned, rinsed lentils or cook some up quick in your pressure cooker.

Moroccan Chickpea Salad – one of our favorite no-cook meals, minus the pita, of course.

What are your favorite no-cook or light-on-cooking recipes?

This week, we are having:

Three Bean Tacos – this is one of those meals that you make once and eat on it all week. Perfect.

Three Bean Taco Salad – using the leftovers from above to make taco salad.

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad – cook up the quinoa in your rice cooker for no fuss.

Tofu Fried Rice – subbing in whatever leftover vegetables we have on hand. Cooled rice is best, so cook the rice the night before in the rice cooker and let it cool in the frig.

Here’s what everyone else is up to this week:

Heather over at Celiac Family says that they try to keep it light and easy ALL summer. Check out her tips on how to do it. And check out her menu. I am digging her Seven-Layer Salad – it’s been ages since I’ve made that – and she kicks it up a notch with a dill dressing. Sounds light and refreshing to me!

Over at Celiacs in the House, Wendy is trying to keep it cool too since the temps are forecast to be rising during the week. Her Asian cucumber and carrot salad topped with salmon sounds right up my alley (hubby would have to fend for himself – sorry, dear!). As well, her menu reminds us that omelets are a quick, delicious and light summer dinner. She also reviews Stephanie O’Dea’s new Totally Together Journal, which covers menu planning. Check it all out.

Claire over at My Gluten Free Home is trying to stay cool in the Dallas heat. She went light and easy this weekend and hung at the pool! Sounds nice to me. And she’s doing the light and easy thing by eating down the freezer – her tamales sound delicious to me!

For plenty of inspiration, check back later in the week to see what everyone else will be eating. Or head over to OrgJunkie (but hosted this week by Finding Joy in My Kitchen) on Monday for (literally) hundreds of menu plans (not necessarily gluten free or veg).

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Meal Plan Monday, July 11, 2011

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , , on July 11, 2011| 4 Comments »

This week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap is hosted by Celiac Family and the theme is pineapple.

Yum! We love fresh pineapple. It is one of my husband’s favorite fruits and I always try to buy him one when they are on sale. I will have to see if they are on sale this week. We usually don’t do anything special with pineapple, just cut one up and eat it, mainly because my husband isn’t one for sweet fruits in his savory food. We have grilled it once before and that was pretty good. So I will be interested to see what others do with their pineapple. Maybe I can convince him to try it as part of a dish one of these days!

This week’s menu:

Red Kidney Beans and Tomatoes with Rice and Steamed Broccoli – and perhaps some dosa, if I can get my act together! The kidney bean recipe is new-to-us and from one of our favorite cookbooks, Indian Vegetarian Cooking from an American Kitchen by Vasantha Prasad.

Chickpeas in Tomato, Ginger and Garlic Sauce with Rice – one our all-time favorite recipes from the same cookbook above, Indian Vegetarian Cooking from an American Kitchen by Vasantha Prasad.

Quick Summer Pasta – this is one of my very simple, make-it-up as I go along recipes that I will attempt to document for you.

Spicy Tofu with Vegetables and Rice and Cucumber Salad – one of our go-to quick summer recipes.

Be sure to head over to Celiac Family later this week to check out everyone’s menus for some inspiration.

I am hosting next week’s GF Menu Swap with a theme of “Light and Easy for Summer”. What are your favorite, quick and easy, don’t turn on the oven (or even the stove) meals? I hope you’ll let me know next week!

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Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger, July 2011

Posted in Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 10, 2011| 7 Comments »

Have you met Pete and Kelli yet? Over at No Gluten, No Problem?

Perhaps you’ve spotted one of their cookbooks – Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking or Artisanal Gluten-Free Cupcakes.

No? Well, you should really check them out. Pete is a professional outdoor/sports writer, as well as a gluten free blogger and cookbook author. I’ve been following NGNP for quite a few years now and I have found that his posts are one of the first ones I will click on to read in the mornings because I enjoy his easy style of writing and I know the information (or recipe) I will be getting will be right on.

Pete caught my attention recently with his San Marzano Deep Dish Pizza and so when the new adopt your blogger post went out, it was still on my mind. So I scooped up No Gluten, No Problem for this month’s Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger.

As you probably know, Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger was originally started by Sea at Book of Yum. This month it is being hosted by Wendy at Celiacs in the House. Be sure to watch for the final round-up post at Celiacs in the House with all 25 adoptions and check out all the yummy goodies!

Now, on to the good stuff!

I chose three of Pete’s recipes this month. Mainly because I couldn’t choose just one! The first being that San Marzano Deep Dish Pizza I mentioned above. Wow! Yum! Pow! I have made it twice now and I really love it! It is simple to make, even for a yeasted crust and I love the doughy, deep crust edges. And like he says, buy the San Marzano tomatoes! I grow San Marzano tomatoes every year and they are some of my favorite paste/plum-style tomatoes.

The cheese did get a little dark and burnt in spots both times I made it, which could be my temperamental oven. But it was all bubbly, gooey and yummy, regardless. The first time I made the pizza, I made it exactly as the recipe says, no additions. The second time, I added some other pizza ingredients. I loved it both times! If you like deep-dish pizza, be sure to check out the recipe! And before you start, make sure that your oven will reach 500 degrees – not all residential ovens do. It is important to getting a good crust on this pizza.

Take One - the cheese got a little too brown, but still very tasty!!!

Take Two - even better!

San Marzano Deep Dish Pizza from No Gluten, No Problem

Next up, we made Chicken Tikka Masala 2.0. Except that we used chickpeas instead of chicken. Chickpeas are my usual go-to meat substitution. The flavor of the dish was right on – chicken or no chicken.

I used two cans of drained and rinsed chickpeas in place of the meat and I could have used a third can to balance out the chickpeas to sauce ratio. Instead of sauteing the chicken first, I skipped that step and then just added the chickpeas at the end, before the longer simmer, to heat them through and soak up the creamy sauce.

Chickpea Tikka Masala 2.1v

And finally, I had to try the Red Lentil Dal. We love lentils and I am always looking for new ways to make them. Even though it has been super hot outside and I don’t always want to cook something hot, or at least not for very long, this recipe has little prep and allowed me to step away from the stove for the majority of the cooking time. And red lentils, being so tiny, they cook quickly, which meant less time with the stove on!

I commented to my husband that this dal was great comfort food, with a great flavor. He agreed, and as he put it, it was “like eating mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving” (which is about the only time of year we eat them!) – meaning it was warm, flavorful and comfy.

The only thing I changed about this recipe is that I omitted the cilantro – not because we’re cilantro haters (we love it!) – but because all of my cilantro plants have bolted in the heat. So cilantro haters – don’t let it discourage you from trying this recipe. It is still delicious without!

Red Lentil Dal

All three of these dishes have now been added to our usual repertoire. I hope you will head over and take a look at all of Pete and Kelli’s other recipes and their cookbooks! I know I have enjoyed cooking along with them this month – so will you!

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Meal Plan Monday, July 4, 2011

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , , on July 4, 2011| 8 Comments »

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope you’re all getting your fill of picnicking, swimming, grilling and fireworks! We are headed out for a fireworks-watching party later this evening, as long as the wildfire smoke behaves itself tonight. My quinoa tabbouleh is made and resting in the refrigerator and the hard cider is waiting patiently by the door, ready to travel.

This week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap is hosted by Gluten Free Goodness and the theme is “Culinary Freedom”! This week I am taking the freedom to recycle a good portion of last week’s plan since we didn’t get to it! Below you’ll also see quite a few lettuce and kale salads. They are still both producing well in our garden since I have partially covered them with shade cloth. So we need to eat up!

Here at BR&T, the plan this week is:

Leftover Pizza! and salad – from last week’s menu, a recipe from Pete over at No Gluten, No Problem.

Tofu Stir Fry with rice – plus I will add some frozen lotus root that has been hiding in the back of the freezer.

Sausages with Napa Cabbage Salad – veggie sausage for the hubby and spicy Italian for me!

Red Lentil Dal with Kale Salad

Sausages with Jambalaya Rice and Salad – we’ll eat up the remaining sausages.

Chickpea Curry with rice or leftover quinoa

Hope you have had a pleasant holiday weekend – and here’s to a short work week! Woo-hoo!

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Meal Plan Monday (or Tuesday), June 28, 2011

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , , , , on June 28, 2011| 1 Comment »

It took me a while to get my meal plan together this week. I can get so lost out there on the interwebs looking at other blogs and recipes that sometimes it is hard for me to focus in and finish up my meal plan! In the end I ended up going mostly with meals we already have in our repertoire. Oh well. It’s always fun looking, and some things were bookmarked for later!

This week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap is hosted by Wendy at Celiacs in the Houseand the theme is olives! Over the past few years I have grown to love kalamata olives. My husband, on the other hand, doesn’t care for them at all. This week I think I will add them to the pasta with goat cheese dish below. Yum!

Here’s the plan:

Mexican Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing – salad with black beans, cheese, tomatoes and a creamy avocado dressing.

Tofu Stir Fry with rice – a nice and easy stir-fry with some fresh farmer’s market baby bok choy and some shitaki mushrooms.

Sun Dried Tomato Pasta with Goat Cheese (and olives!) with a massaged kale salad – we have fallen head over heels in love with massaged kale salads! I’ll probably add in a can of chickpeas for extra protein too, or add some avocado to the kale salad.

San Marzano Deep Dish Pizza with salad – have you seen this recipe from Pete over at No Gluten, No Problem? This will be my second round of making it. It is very tasty and now that I have all of my taste buds back, I hope it tastes even better! Last time I had a nasty cold and couldn’t taste everything. And we have lots of lettuce in the garden still and the grape tomatoes are coming on too.

Chickpea Curry with Rice – a back up, pantry meal in case plans change and we need something.

We have multiple cookouts this weekend to attend and I need to come up with things to bring along for those. One will be a quinoa salad – which one, I am not sure – and the other dishes are yet to be determined! I still need to confirm with the hostesses what I can make that will complement their other offerings.

What are you taking to your holiday gatherings this weekend?

Or do you have a pantry meal that you always keep on hand for back-up?

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Meal Plan Monday, June 13, 2011

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 13, 2011| 2 Comments »

This week’s theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap is ‘Grilling’ and it’s hosted by Angela’s Kitchen. We’re planning to escape up north for some camping in the mountains (and hopefully get away from this darn Wallow Fire smoke), so we’ll be grilling!  Or, rather, campfire cooking (did you see Pete’s recent post about their camping trip and the food they ate?). Luckily we are headed to one of the three parks in the state where you can still use a campfire (due to fire restrictions). Otherwise, cooking on a camp stove is too much like cooking at home and you have to admit that campfires are one of the best things about camping, right?

Here’s the plan:

Pasta with Fava Beans, Sage and Garlic – recipe from Vegetarian Feasts by Martha Rose Shulman.

Ma Po Tofu with broccoli and rice – we’ll be omitting the sirloin from this recipe.

Chickpea Curry Simmer Sauce with rice – this will probably be our just-got-home-Sunday-night-and-I-don’t-wanna-cook meal.

Campfire Roasted Sausages with Potato Packets – veggie sausages for the hubby, meaty ones for me. As well, foil packets with potatoes, carrots, onions and bell peppers roasted over the fire (we do these on the grill at home too).

Pie Iron Pizzas with Salad and Pie Iron Fruit Pies – we haven’t used our pie irons in ages! I will be using either Udi’s or Rudi’s bread – can’t remember what is in the freezer, maybe both (Costco now carries frozen Rudi’s!). For the pizza pies we’ll stuff them with sauce, cheese, bell pepper, onion, sausage, etc. For the fruit pies we’ll just use canned pie filling. There’s also the possibility of S’more/Rocky Road pies, with chocolate, marshmallows and nuts inside – and maybe some banana. Yum! I can’t wait!

Pie Iron info for those of you who haven’t experienced them. We have the traditional square ones.

What is your favorite campfire food?

Be sure to head back over to Angela’s Kitchen later this week to see all the links to the other meal plans. And for even more inspiration, check out OrgJunkie for hundreds of meal plans, literally (not GF or veggie but always some that are adaptable!).

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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 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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