Recipe of the Week: Quinoa and Veggies

{I want to welcome all the new awesome people The Five of Mine Pus Two! I am glad I was able to contribute to her blog, today}

This could possibly be the easiest recipe you have ever seen for a food in which you may never have heard. I’m excited to share a little bit of the history, a few pictures and the recipe.

Quinoa is pronounced keen-wah. I point this out as I pronounced it wrong for quite sometime, and I looked a little stupid for saying it wrong once.

Quinoa is a little, round, grain-like crop with edible seeds. It is actually the seed you are eating when you eat quinoa. In size, quinoa is smaller than a sesame seed. It is native to South America, primarily Ecuador and Peru. It was second only to the potato, in nutritional importance, to such peoples as the Inca. In the past year or so, it has become better known as gluten and wheat sensitivities have increased. Quinoa is considered an ancient grain (with many other grains such as spelt, amaranth, millet, etc.) as they have not been bred to the point that they are unlike their ancient counterparts, such as corn and wheat. Quinoa is gluten free, is high in protein content, and is considered to be a complete protein. It is also high in fiber, magnesium, iron, and easy to digest.

I get quinoa in the organic bulk section of my local grocery store, and it was $3.99 per lb. when I bought it on Monday. There are also prepackaged containers of quinoa, but I think you are paying for the packaging as you get less and pay more for the ones I saw.

In the last 2 months, I have learned how to bake cookies chocolate chip cookies with Quinoa and learned how to make one side dish with Quinoa. I’m pretty excited about it and plan to do more with it in the future.

Quinoa with Veggies

1 ½ cup whole grain quinoa

3 cups water

(same ratio as water 2:1)

10 oz pkg frozen all natural veggies

Wildtree Garlic Grapeseed Oil to taste

Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook the quinoa (which takes about 45 minutes in my rice cooker). Cook the veggies for about 15 minutes in water and put them together. From there, add Wildtree Garlic Grapeseed Oil and salt and pepper to taste.

On the other hand, if you do not have frozen veggies or garlic grapeseed oil, here is what I would suggest. Heat a skillet with some olive oil (or oil of choice), add minced garlic and chopped onion and cook until onions are translucent. Add veggies of choice such as chopped carrots and celery and cook until carrots are cooked through. From there add any canned veggies such as peas, green beans, corn, etc. You can have a few different varieties of veggies. Add in the quinoa after it’s cooked and you have a delish side dish for any meal!

Enjoy!

Recipe of the Week: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Adapted from Food Doodles at fooddoodles.com

Guess I must be on a bit of a cookie kick. Yikes! Last week I gave a recipe for Quinoa Chocolate Chip Cookies. I took them to belly dance class and the girls thought they were delicious.

This week, on Monday, I made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. My two little boys helped mix the ingredients. It was a fiasco though. Anybody have any advice for how to let two little boys (3 years old and 19 months old) at a little counter help their mommy make cookies? If so, please comment and let me know because I TOTALLY need a solution. Thanks!

I love to make these cookies as it is a quick recipe, quick mixing and quick baking. What else do you need when a cookie craving hits? Plus, they only make about 10 (if "man size" as my mom used to day) to 2 dozen so there aren't too many...if that's even possible.

On to the recipe!

Ingredients:

Wet:
½ cup (or 1 stick) butter, softened
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg (or egg substitute)
1 tsp vanilla
Dry:
1 ½ cup oats
¾ cup spelt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup craisins (or you may do all raisins)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat together the softened butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until well combined.

In another bowl combine the dry ingredients, except for the raisins and craisins. After they are combined, pour into the large bowl containing the wet ingredients and mix well. Add the raisins and craisins and mix until evenly distributed.

Use a cookie scoop or drop by teaspoonful onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Cook for 10-12 minutes or until the edges of the bottom of the cookie start to look browned. Let cool for a couple minutes on the cookie sheet and then put on a cooling rack to continue cooling. If these last long enough, put them in an airtight container to store.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

I took the picture when my boys were asleep this time so there wouldn't be any little hands trying to take the cookies :o)

Recipe of the Week: Chocolate Chip Quinoa Cookies

I first heard of, and tried, these cookies at an event for Lakeside Chiropractic Center. They were delicious! So, I went home, found the recipe online, got some Quinoa Flakes and made them. The resulting cookies were HORRIBLE! I thought maybe it was because I had used almond butter instead of peanut butter. I tried them again, with peanut butter, and still pretty crummy, but not as bad as first time. Then, I got an amazing idea, why not ask the person who made them? She gave me the recipe (Thanks Suzie!), I made them, FABULOUS!!!

If you don’t know, quinoa is pronounced (keen-wah).

Try these for yourself and see how amazing they taste. If you are gluten free, these will be great for you. If you are dairy free, they will work as well if you use dairy free chocolate chips and a substitute for the butter.

Remember, even though they have quinoa flakes and brown rice flour, it is NOT a good idea to eat a dozen…at one time!

Ingredients:
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup all natural peanut butter
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp baking soda
¾ cup quinoa flakes
¾ cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine the wet ingredients (butter, sugars, peanut butter, egg, vanilla) and then mix in the dry ingredients. Finally, add the mini chocolate chips and mix until well incorporated.

Using a cookie scoop put onto parchment covered cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes or until browned around the bottom edges. Let cool on cookie sheet for a minute, transfer to wire to rack to cool and then eat!

Makes about 3 dozen cookies (if you don’t eat any of the dough…not sure who might do that!).

These were so good my youngest tried to take a cookie as I snapped the picture!

Note: my oldest had already taken a cookie. That’s why there are only 2 left when I started with 3 on the plate in the first picture.


If you try these, let me know what you think!

Mom Soup

We have something at our house that we call Mom Soup. There are many variations, but my hubby’s mom always made it the best, so that’s what we call it. I guess you could say its vegetable soup, but you can add or subtract a vegetable or swap some out if you don’t have it. You could even make it vegetarian by not adding the beef.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 medium onion (optional)

3-4 russet potatoes

2 carrots

2 stalks celery (optional)

1 can green beans

1 can corn

1 can mushrooms (optional)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

Water

1. Brown the ground beef in the pan with a little oil, if needed. Add in spices such as salt, pepper, garlic powder or whatever you like. You can brown the beef with an onion, if you like. Drain grease if needed.

2. Peel and cut the potatoes into pieces. Add after the beef is cooked and drained. Put in enough water to cover the potatoes (usually takes about 2-3 cups)

3. Peel and chop the carrots and throw in with the potatoes and beef. Chop and throw in the celery.

4. Cook until the potatoes are cooked through. Then, add in the green beans, corn, mushrooms, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Cook until all the ingredients are warmed through.

5. Add salt, pepper or chia seeds for a little extra nutrition.

6. EAT!

We love this recipe, and I love it because it’s so easy to cook. When I don’t know what else to make, mom soup it is! My kids LOVE it...I’m serious. My son just ate at least half of the bowl I just had. I had to get a second bowl because he ate so much and he ate about a third of that one.

Hope this recipe helps when you have no idea what to make for dinner!

What is the go to recipe in your house?

BLTs

As many of you already know, we are (mostly) wheat free and dairy free in our family. My youngest son and I also stay away from eggs, in large quantities. This all came about due to allergies we learned my youngest son had about a year ago, which I will write about in a post, eventually.

Now, we are far off the subject...BLTs! That is what I wanted to write about today. My family makes BLTs for lunch. We don't really use all the components that BLT stands for, but it works for us. So, I wanted to let other people know about it whether wheat free, dairy free, egg free or not.

Ingredients:
Rice Cakes (lightly salted)
Mayonnaise or Mustard
Spinach
Turkey Bacon (we use no nitrate, no nitrite, all natural)
Avocado
Tomatoes

These are the order in which we put the BLTs together. You can use lettuce instead of spinach, regular bacon, if you like, no avocados. The possibilities are endless. We usually end up eating two, and everyone seems to love them. They can be a bit messy, but...who cares! It's bacon and other ingredients that are good too :)
Here's a couple pictures (if you needed more convincing):

YUMMY!!!

Do you have recipes that you call one thing, but it's not...really...what it is?
Let me know what you think of this recipe! I love comments!

5 Meal Ideas for Food Allergies

by Lorie at MommyandKiddos.com

We have learned in the last year that my son(below...ignore the mess behind him) has allergies to wheat, dairy and eggs. It was also brought to our attention that my husband has an allergy to wheat and dairy can be an issue, if he eats too much. These allergies do not cause life threatening conditions. We don’t have worry about either one of them breaking out in hives or not breathing. The symptoms experienced are those of an upset stomach, gas and stuffed up nose. I am assuming upset stomach and gas are what my son experiences since as he can’t talk, yet. He arches his back, cries (some screaming) and becomes clingy and whiney when he has eaten any of these allergens. Additionally, I must be careful of what I eat (which I haven’t been lately *cringe*) because he is still nursing and can get these foods through breastmilk.

Extended family members have also found that they are dealing with food related issues such as dairy, eggs and wheat.

So, in an effort to help all, I am going to put up 5 ideas for each meal that don’t use wheat, dairy or eggs. I do want to mention, though, that they DO contain spelt. Spelt is a kind of ancient wheat that has less gluten than traditional wheat. While my family is allergic to wheat, they are NOT allergic to spelt. We also use regular dairy butter as many times butter is considered a fat instead of dairy and my son does not seem to be allergic to it.

Breakfast:

Rice Flour Pancakes (made with rice flour, egg substitute, rice milk)

Rice Flour Waffles (made with rice flour, egg substitute, rice milk)

Cinnamon Applesauce Bread (made with spelt, egg substitute)

Smoothies (made with bananas instead of yogurt)

Oatmeal---with add-ins such as applesauce, raisins, cinnamon

Lunch:

BLT’s (made with rice cake instead of bread)

Salmon Salad (use a rice cake to make a sandwich)

Nachos (make it deluxe and don’t use cheese)

Salad (make it deluxe and without cheese)

BBQ Beef Sandwiches (made with rice cake or this spelt bread, barbeque sauce)

Dinner:

Stir Fry Chicken with Rice

Spaghetti and Meatballs (made with rice pasta or spelt pasta)

Mom Soup (basically vegetable soup)

Shepherd’s Pie

Potato Tacos (everything you would use on tacos except on fried or baked potaoes)

Snacks:

Coconut Yogurt (we use So Delicious brand)

Fruits

Vegetables

Spelt Honey Graham Crackers (they ended up more like cookies for us)

Wheat Free Pretzels

Z-Bars

I will be updating this site the rest of the week with the recipes I do not have on here for the meals I stated here. I hope this will help you come up with some new meals for you family or help you get started on your path to a wheat-free, dairy-free, egg-free diet.

Other resources that may help are searches under vegan foods as well as gluten free foods. Beware though that finding recipes that meet all these criteria is rare, as I can attest to in the last year I have been looking. If you have found other resources for all three, please let me know!

I love comments!

Recipe of the Week: Cinnamon Applesauce Bread

Doesn't the name just sound delicious?  Mmmm...cinnamon and apples who couldn't love the combination.  Well, if you don't like apple or cinnamon or if your allergic, I guess.

Anyway, I made this yesterday morning for breakfast.  It is super easy to mix up quickly (as long as children aren't hanging on your legs), smells delicious while it's baking and tastes marvelous.  When my husband got home from the gym yesterday and walked into the house while the bread was baking he said, "Somethin' smells good."

Our small family of 4 could probably eat the whole loaf at once, but we controlled ourselves pretty well.  If you want to make 2 to be on the safe side, you could probably double the recipe easily. 

Cinnamon Applesauce Bread
adapted from Heavenly Homemakers Applesauce Bread
 

1 3/4 cups whole spelt flour

1/2 cup honey

1/2 t. baking powder (I do a smidgen more)
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. sea salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
3/4 cup applesauce

2 eggs (from egg substitute, if allergic)

1/4 cup butter, melted

Mix dry ingredients.  Make a well in the center and add mixture of wet ingredients (honey, applesauce, egg substitute and butter.  Stir to mix well.  Pour into a buttered bread pan.  Bake for about 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

You can substitute whole wheat or white flour for spelt (use 1/4 cup less).  You can also use real eggs instead of the egg substitute.  

You could probably jazz this up easily by putting raisins or almonds in it.  I think next time I will put chopped up almonds on top.  Yum!

If you try this, leave me a message on what you think!

Recipe of the Week: Spelt Donuts

Mmmm...donuts.  Who doesn't want a nice donut occasionally? 

On the other hand, it's hard to just go and get a donut from the store that doesn't contain wheat, milk or egg.
Since the time I last blogged, we have found that my husband is allergic to wheat and dairy and my youngest son, who is 1 year old, is allergic to wheat, dairy and egg.  My youngest is still nursing, so I can't eat the things he can't eat.  Believe me, my head was spinning over this news (which I will try to blog about later) as I love eggs and love to bake.  Therefore, I needed to find ways to bake and cook with our new limitations.

Many of the recipes for baking that I put up will be adapted from vegan recipes.  My recipes are not vegan as we use things like honey and butter, which my family can eat even though they are allergic to dairy.  It has to do with butter being fat, I believe.  Where the vegan recipes contain wheat flour, I have, mostly, substituted spelt flour.

Now, on to the recipe!

Spelt Donuts
adapted from VeganYumYum


Dry Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup Spelt Flour
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 3/4 tsp Aluminum Free Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp (scant) Nutmeg
1 tiny pinch or shake Cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Organic Rice Milk
1/2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar or White Vinegar
1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Egg Replacer for 1 Egg
4 Tbs Butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients with a whisk to mix thoroughly. Combine wet ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium low heat and mix until butter is melted. This mixture should NOT get too hot, you should be able to stick your finger in the mixture. It should feel slightly warm.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Fill a regular or mini donut pan (they are harder to find) 3/4 full.  Bake for 12-13 minutes.  They will not be brown on top, but a toothpick should come out clean.  Let cool in pan for a couple minutes and then invert on top of a wire rack to cool.  You can wait for these to cool and put toppings on, but we usually eat them too quickly.  Plus, I like them plain. 

Makes about 10 regular size donuts or 20 mini donuts.

Recipe of the Week: Spelt Bread

Are you looking for a recipe for bread that is easy to mix up, has few ingredients and contains no dairy, wheat or yeast? Well, I have one for you. It is very simple, and I think it tastes fantastic. My family feels the same way.

Spelt Bread

Ingredients:
4 cups spelt flour
1/4 cup sesame seed or flax seeds (optional)
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups water or rice milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix together all the ingredients with a wooden spoon.
Put the batter into 1 well greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes with another loaf pan on top for a golden brown crust.
Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes before taking out of the loaf pan.

This recipe can be doubled if you want to make more than one loaf at a time. I decided to stick with one as we don't eat a lot of bread at our house.

If you try it, let me know how it goes!

Recipe of the Week: Veggie Mix

I found part of this recipe from a website for people who have candida (a yeast overgrowth).  I took the recipe and varied it a little by adding less of some things and more veggies.  It's very colorful and tastes great!  It can be used for various different dishes. 
You can make a filling for veggie tacos, nachos, pot pie or pockets with this recipe.  We have made nachos with eggs and this filling for breakfast as well as pockets for dinner or lunch.  You can also add meat if you life, but we think it is filling and like it as described below.


Veggie Mix
½ a head of cauliflower cooked and drained
½ a cup of lentils, cooked
1 stalk of celery
1 large carrot
¼  green bell pepper
¼  red bell pepper
½ onion
1 cup cooked peas
1 cup cooked green beans,
½ can fire roasted tomatoes
½ can corn, drained
2-4 cloves garli
spices: salt, pepper, dried oregano, dried parsley, dried rosemary, etc.

Cook and drain the cauliflower and cook the lentils.
Cook the vegetables in olive oil with different spices you want to add.  At the end, add in the canned vegetables or cooked vegetables just to warm them up and cook off any extra water. 

Let me know of any variations or if you like it!

Recipe of the Week: Shepherd's Pie

Looking for something in the fall or winter to make you feel all warm, cozy and full?
This recipe will hit the spot and it is easy for busy or working moms and dads!

Ingredients
Mashed Potatoes:
5 large  Organic Yukon Gold Potatoes
3 Tbsp Butter
1 c. Whipping Cream

Beef Filling:
1 ½ lbs. ground beef
20 oz. (2 10 oz. bags) Organic Frozen Mixed Vegetables

Gravy:
2 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp Flour
1 cup water (or you can use beef broth)
2 tsp. Worchestershire Sauce

Cut up the potatoes into chunks and start them cooking with salt in water.  Let them cook about 15 minutes or until tender.  While they are cooking you can start browning the beef.  Once it is brown, you can add the vegetables and let it cook until they are tender. 

For the gravy, in a small sauce pan, melt the butter, add the flour and mix it until there are no lumps.  Add 1 cup water (you can use beef broth if handy) and add about 2 tsp Worchestershire Sauce.  Mix this until it gets kind of thick. 

To finish up the potatoes, drain them after they are tender.  Put them back in the pot and mix them (we use an electric hand mixer) with about 3 Tbsp butter and 1 c. whipping cream.  We like them to be a little wet for the final cooking process.

After all individual pieces are done, put the beef filling in a 2 quart casserole dish and cover and mix in with the gravy a bit.  Put the mashed potatoes on top and a little parsley if you like to make it pretty.  Cook on Broil in your oven for about 10 minutes to brown mashed potatoes a bit and dinner is served!

Recipe of the Week: Amish Chicken Casserole

Found this recipe on the internet when I was trying to figure out something to make, other than soup or nachos, with cooked chicken from a whole chicken.  Be careful of this recipe, my brother-in-law says it’s dangerous because it’s so good you’ll eat too much!  Additionally, my 2 year old son loves this recipe, and, amazingly, he has eaten it two day in a row before, which is odd for him.

8 oz. broad egg noodles
1/2 cup butter
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, slice
1/3 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk
salt and pepper, to taste
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups cooked chicken, cut in cubes
generous pinch of rubbed sage

Cook noodles as directed on package. Melt butter and cook mushrooms in a large skillet until lightly browned. Stir in flour and blend in with a fork or slotted spoon. Stir in milk and broth and seasonings; whisk sauce constantly until thickened.

Combine sauce, noodles and chicken. Adjust seasonings to taste. Place in a 2 quart casserole dish. Sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese and bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.

**We have made a few small changes to this recipe.  We don’t use the rubbed sage because I never have sage around due to price and not being very creative with spices.  Secondly, if I don’t have egg noodles around, I just use whole wheat pasta instead and it still tastes marvelous.  We have exchanged the fresh mushrooms for fresh broccoli before, but it wasn’t as big a hit.


Website where I found the recipe:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,178,130191-250192,00.html

Recipe of the Week: Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 ½ c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ c. oatmeal
1 bag chocolate chips

Use a mixer to mix together butter, brown sugar, vanilla and egg.  Next, add the flour, baking soda and salt, and mix with the mixer.  Use a spoon and mix in the oatmeal and chocolate chips.

Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.

* I made my cookies a tad bigger than usual.  I used a heaping tablespoon and it made about 24-30 cookies.  It took 9 ½ minutes for them to cook and get a little brown on the bottom.

**I have tried making these cookies without the oatmeal before and they turned out flat, crispy and were not very appetizing.  This version with the oatmeal is very tasty!

Recipe of the Week: General's Chicken

*We found this recipe on the internet about 7 years ago.  We absolutely love it and have not really made any changes to it.  We don’t make it very much because we have to debone our chicken to get the breast meat, and it is a treat.  We eat it with brown rice and stir fry. 

Makes about 4-6 servings

2-2.5lbs chicken breast
Salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
4 tsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. olive oil
Vegetable oil (for frying)
8 dry chili peppers
4 cloves chopped garlic
1 tsp. chopped ginger
2 chopped green onions
1 oz. soy sauce
3 oz. sugar
3 oz. vinegar
1 tsp. cooking wine

Slice chicken into 2 oz. pieces and season with salt and pepper.

Mix egg, cornstarch, baking soda and olive oil. Coat chicken well. Fry in vegetable oil until golden brown.

Add 1-tsp. olive oil and dry chili peppers to a hot wok. Stir-fry until peppers turn dark brown. Add garlic, ginger and green onion.

Add soy sauce, sugar, vinegar and cooking wine. Thicken sauce with 1-tsp. cornstarch mixed with water. Stir-fry until sauce thickens.

Add in chicken and coat in sauce.

***A note:  When making the sauce, when you add the chili peppers and so forth you may want to make sure you have a vent above your oven or a few windows open with air circulating.  The first few times we made this recipe, we coughed quite a bit and our eyes watered from the smell. 
Additionally, we don’t always use the cooking wine and we don’t use dry chili peppers.  We just get some hot peppers and cut them up.