Root Veggie Frittata

I'm definitely on a frittata kick. I've been making one every Sunday and then reheating it for breakfast each morning before work. Protein, veggies, deliciousness...not a bad combo. This week I branched out a bit and tried making it with some root veggies.

It started with some beautiful carrots from Earth Fare that ranged from light yellow to bright pink. Then add some chopped sweet and regular potatoes, and golden and regular beets. Also threw in the standard butter, garlic paste, and onion base and went to town. Mix in six eggs with heavy cream, Gruyere cheese, parsley, and sea salt and you've got one tasty breakfast!

Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll

I hosted Thanksgiving this year and it was all gluten free. My favorite dish was (surprisingly) the stuffing, which I had never made from scratch before and kind of improvised on. Took some time but totally tasty!

Gluten Free Stuffing
8 cups of chopped GF bread (I used Udi's)
2 cups of vegetable broth (I'd probably add a little more next time)
2 eggs (I'd add one more next time)
Cubed butternut squash
1/2 of a small onion (diced)
Several heads of garlic (diced)
Butter
Sea salt and pepper
Rosemary (or other herbs)

1. Chop bread into small chunks and spread out on a large cookie sheet. Toast for about 12 minutes or until toasted. I did two trays that were fairly full (bonus--you'll have leftovers to make GF breadcrumbs with in the food processor--score!).
2. Meanwhile, saute the squash, kale, onion, and garlic in a few tablespoons of butter and season with your herbs and salt and pepper. I think you could substitute any other fall veggies and it would be just as good.
3. Whisk the eggs and stir in the broth. Toss the mixture in the liquid until evenly covered, then transfer to a casserole dish and cook (uncovered) for about 30 minutes at 350.

Greek Crustless Quiche

This is based off of my favorite quiche from Whole Foods. After making several with gluten free crust I realized I didn't actually miss the crust that much. So I've started making them in a casserole dish instead. It makes great little bites to heat up and eat on the way to work in the mornings.

This version has 8 or so eggs mixed with heavy cream, feta, roasted red peppers, collards and spinach, and roasted garlic. Mix it up really well in a bowl, pour it in, and cook it until everything is set and lightly brown on top, about 45 minutes.

Sweet Potato Scramble

Needed a veggie fix, so I cooked up this tasty dish. It's cubed sweet potatoes sauteed with kale, black beans, chili powder, sea salt, Siracha, and chopped garlic. Once everything was cooked I added in some cojito cheese and topped it with sour cream mixed with ancho chili sauce. Nom nom nom.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since going wheat free I've really missed baking. A lot. And I had kind of given up on finding a good gluten free chocolate chip cookie until I had the ones at Sweet Radish, which were A-MAZ-ING. This gave me hope. I made another attempt, and finally (finally!) they turned out well! Really well! Texture, taste, everything is spot on. The trick is chilling the dough before you put it on the cookie sheet for baking.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1/4 cup gluten free all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick butter (softened)
1 cup sugar (I used about 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup Stevia)
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (generous) cup dark chocolate chips
Sea Salt

1. Preheat oven to 375. Mix butter and sugar until well mixed (I used a Kitchen Aid but you could use a hand mixer). Beat in egg and Vanilla.
2. Add in the flours and baking soda. Add a nice sprinkle (not quite a 1/4 tsp) of sea salt. Stir in the chocolate chips (I eyeball it).
3. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and scoop out 12 cookies. Bake for 8 minutes or until slightly browned. Enjoy!

Black Eyed Peas

Clean out the fridge night (again)! Started with black and pink eyed peas and kale from the CSA, then added in a finely chopped leftover portabella mushroom and half a container of white steamed takeout rice, all cooked in garlic butter from Whole Foods. Topped with shredded cheddar, and YUM!

Fast forward to the following week--more black eyed peas! So I took it a step further. Made a basic cream sauce (heavy cream + shredded parmesan + garlic + sea salt), and added it to some sauteed brussel sprouts, broccoli, and onions over brown rice. Holy deliciousness!

Italian Veggie Bake

This is a Wheat Belly recipe, and while it's delicious, there's quite a bit of prep involved. It reheats well though and makes a ton. You could also use jarred sauce and shave some time off.

Diced tomatoes, torn fresh basil, salt, dried parsley, dried oregano, and garlic simmered until it got nice and soupy.

Mine got a little too soupy, so I stirred in a few tablespoons of tomato paste to thicken it up. Then I hit it with the immersion blender until it was smooth. While the sauce was going, I layered some big slabs of tomato in a dish topped with sauteed veggies (fresh spinach, half an onion, 1/2 cup of chopped sundried tomatoes, more garlic).

Next came the sauce, some pre-baked eggplant and zucchini slices, another layer of sauce, and cheese. Basically a big old lasagna with no noodles. Not a bad substitute, honestly!

View from the Top

I met an old co-worker for lunch downtown and parked in a nearby garage. I love that pretty much any parking garage in Charleston has a killer view if you park on the roof.

Fish and Veg

Some nights call for a clean, simple dinner--baked fish and veggies. Frozen tilapia (or other fish), frozen veggies (I had broccoli and fresh cut potatoes), some garlic, butter, and salt--pop it in the oven at 380 and cook about 15 minutes. Easy peasy.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

This has officially replaced mac and cheese as my go-to comfort food. And it's easier to make, with some veggies snuck in too!

Start by cooking and draining one package of store bought sweet potato gnocchi. In a saucepan bring about 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream to a simmer and let it bubble. I stirred in some garlic paste, salt, and pepper. Once it cooks up some, start adding in shredded cheese (whatever you have on hand) and continue to let it simmer. In the gnocchi pot, dump a bag of cubed butternut squash and a cup or so of frozen chopped kale, stirring it with some olive oil and salt until it's cooked and tender. Mix it all up, top with some shredded Parm and dinner is served!

Apple Pie Cheesecakes

Like the original cheesecakes weren't good enough :). We had CSA apples to use up, and happened to have some caramel sauce on hand, so I made up this topping on the fly.

It's the regular cheesecake recipe, then while they were baking I stirred one chopped apple, a few heaping teaspoons of brown sugar, a few teaspoons of regular sugar, about a teaspoon of cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, a pinch of salt, and a scattering of chopped walnuts in a sauce pan over medium-low heat until it started simmering. Then I let it go until the apples were soft.

Once the cheesecakes cooled I put a big spoonful of caramel on top of each one and two spoonfuls of apple topping. A great fall dessert that is impressive but fairly simple to throw together.

Enchiladas, Round 2

My first stab at enchiladas was pretty good, but I amped it up a little the second time around. I got two sauce packets from Target, one traditional red enchilada sauce, and one green. I did red on the bottom, stuffed and placed the enchiladas, the green on top.

They were finished off with lots of cojito cheese and fresh chopped tomatoes...Ole!

Rice Noodles

I've loved rice noodles even before giving up wheat. There's just something fun about them!

I cooked the noodles in boiling water for maybe 5 minutes, until they were softened. Separately, I stir fried some veggies and GF soy sauce, then stirred it all up. Simple, fast and tasty!

Who Let the Dogs Out?

The local water park has one weekend a year where they let people bring their dogs to play in the pools. My sister and I went for the first time and our dogs had a blast!

They lowered the water level in the pools and lazy river so it was safe for the dogs, and surprisingly mine actually stayed near by even though there were tons of distractions. We'll definitely be back next year!

Curry with Basil

I made this with tilapia, from a recipe I tore from a magazine, but next time I will make it with shrimp or tofu. The flavors are great but the fish was kind of hard to manage. My husband made it with chicken, which I think he would cube next time to make it easier to eat. And I might add some more veggies, like broccoli or zucchini. Overall great recipe with a lot of potential directions to go in.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 Tbsp. red curry paste
3 cloves garlic, grated
1 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
Salt and pepper
4 small carrots, peeled and thinly cut
1 small onion, diced
1/2 cup chopped basil
Protein (shrimp, chicken, tofu, etc.)
Cooked jasmine rice for serving

1. Preheat oven to 425, and in a bowl combine coconut milk, curry paste, garlic, and coriander.

2. Divide carrots, onions, and basil among four foil packets and top each with protein and mixture. Fold foil over to close.

3. Bake foil packets on a baking sheet about 15-20 minutes, until protein is done. Serve over rice.

Tomato Pie

I was psyched to discover that Whole Foods makes a good GF pie crust, which means I can still make my favorite tomato pie. It's great in the summer when you have tomatoes coming out your ears. I always pop the crust in the oven (on about 375) for maybe 10 minutes just to crisp it up (poking a few holes in it with a fork to vent). Then I add as many sliced tomatoes as I can fit, and a good shake of salt and pepper.

Next, mix about 3/4 a cup of Greek yogurt and 1/4 cup of mayo in a bowl with some garlic, and a big handful of shredded mozzarella (Gruyere or cheddar is super good too). I mixed in a big handful of frozen spinach this time also. Cover it with some more cheese, in this case grated Parmesan, and bake for about 20-30 minutes, until it starts to get some color and all the cheese is melted.

When you pull it out, it should look like this.

So good, and you really don't have to measure anything, just eyeball it. It's hard to mess up, I promise!

Gluten/Wheat Free Nutella Cookies

Baking has been a challenge since going wheat-free. Just when I had baking (with regular flour) figured out, I'm starting over with alternative recipes and there have been a few disasters so far. Besides cheesecakes, this is my first real hit, and boy are they good!

Adapted from http://www.everythingreconsidered.com/2011/02/pb-no-j-add-cc.html.

Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar or sweetener of your choice
1/4 cup (combined) coconut flour and almond flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix everything in a bowl, adding chocolate chips last. Shape into 1 tablespoon sized balls (or use a scooper) and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. They will be slightly doughy but become crisp on the bottom after cooling (and soft in the center). Dig in!

Southern Season

Imagine my joy to find out that a new gourmet cooking and grocery store was opening up on the other side of town :). Southern Season is a huge emporium of food, gifts, cookware, and more. They have a bakery, deli, huge wine/beer selection, candles, cooking gadgets, local gourmet items, and more.

I picked up some GF pasta and an artichoke pesto, plus some good GF cookies. I was thrilled to see an entire aisle dedicated to fancy chocolate bars (some over $10 a pop!).

Best of all, they have cooking classes and demonstrations, which I'm excited to participate in soon.

Definitely a pricey place, but lots of great gift ideas and a fun place to splurge.

Welcome to Moe's!

So this no wheat thing is awesome. I'm down 10 lbs. and several inches, and feel great. I particularly like that it's not that hard to follow. For instance, I can still go to the same places as before and just order something slightly different. And since I'm not starving now, I usually only eat about half as much.

This was a naked burrito from Moe's, which I doused with lots of salsa. Tasty, fast, and filling!

The Battery

Sometimes it's easy to forget what a beautiful place we live in. My hubby and I took a walk along the downtown Battery this weekend and it was so pretty, with a nice cool breeze. Aaaahhhh....

Raclette

Our friends introduced us to the awesomeness that is raclette. After trying this Swiss grill at their house we decided to splurge on our own. It has little mini pans that slide out from underneath, and you put any combination of meat or veggies on the grill, then toast bread, eggs, veggies, and raclette cheese in the trays underneath. We had sundried tomatoes, roasted garlic, truffle oil, and stone ground mustard on hand to spice things up. Our neighbors came over and helped us break it in and get completely stuffed on cheesy goodness...totally worth the food coma!

Gluten Free Cheesecakes

I am determined to find a way to enjoy dessert even if I don't eat wheat. We had guests coming for dinner, so I made mini cheesecakes!

The crust was the tricky part, but I'm happy with how it came together. It's crushed gluten free chocolate chip cookies, powdered sugar, melted butter, a sprinkle of salt and chocolate flakes (from a hot chocolate mix, just because).

I mashed it into four mini ramekins and then got to work on the cake itself.

After whipping up the cake batter in the Kitchen Aid I scooped it with an ice cream scooper and popped 'em in the oven.

Last step was decorating them with a little melted dark chocolate and a corner of GF cookie. They deflated a bit after going in the fridge and looked more like a typical cheesecake. You would never guess it's gluten free and they tasted and looked great!

Crust:
    1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (or GF cookies, pulsed in a food processor)
    1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
    1/3 cup (5 2/3 tablespoons) melted butter
    1/8 teaspoon salt

Cheesecake:
    2 cups (2 packages) cream cheese, at room temperature
    2 large eggs
    2/3 cup sugar
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1) Select a pie pan whose inside top dimension is at least 9", and whose height is at least 1 1/4" (I used ramekins). Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2) Make the crust by stirring together all of the crust ingredients, mixing till thoroughly combined.

3) Press the crumbs into the bottom and up the sides of the pie pan.

4) Make the filling by mixing together all of the filling ingredients till smooth. Use a mixer set at low-medium speed. If your cream cheese is at room temperature, this will go fairly smoothly (pun intended). If the cream cheese is cold, it'll take much more mixing to create a smooth filling.

5) Set the pie pan onto a baking sheet, if desired; this makes it easier to transport in and out of the oven, and also protects the bottom of the crust from any potential scorching. Pour the filling into the crust.

6) Place the cheesecake in the oven. Bake it for 20 minutes, then shield the crust with strips of aluminum foil (I sprayed the foil). Bake for an additional 10 minutes (for a total of about 30 minutes). An instant-read thermometer inserted into the crust 1" from the edge should read between 165°F and 170°F; the filling won't look entirely set in the center.

7) Remove the cheesecake from the oven, and set it on a rack to cool. After about 20 minutes, transfer them to the fridge until ready to eat.

There are lots of yummy toppings you could add--anything from fruit and whipped cream to chocolate chips or Reese's cups. Go nuts!

Yields one 9" cheesecake or four ramekins.

Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour:  http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/easy-cheesecake-recipe

Goat Cheese S'ghetti

I got this recipe from Eddie over at Paradise Catering, and it's always been a hit. It's normally made with whole wheat spaghetti noodles. The catch was this time it was on Shirataki noodles, which are very low calorie and gluten free (in the tofu section). They have a slightly weird, eggy texture but they are fast and an okay substitute. I still want to try to make pasta from scratch with gluten-free flour and see how that turns out. The broccoli was sauteed with garlic herb butter and I could have eaten a whole head of it by myself.

Saute about a cup of sliced cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil, then add one package of sundried tomato pesto (Earth Fare sells a good one). After it's warm, add in the pasta and a big handful of scallions. Top with goat cheese and you're good to go!

Ladles

There is a local chain called Ladles that makes great soup and sandwiches. A few weeks ago I had their Caprese sandwich and it was out of this world. A big part of that was the soft but crisp baguette that it was served on. So I was sad when I went back and realized I'd have to pass on the sandwich this time. I got the Caprese salad instead.

It was surprisingly satisfying, and came with the same balsamic vinegar dressing as the sandwich so it tasted very similar. I almost didn't miss the bread. Almost.

Fancy Dinner at Lucca's

My friend Laura and I decided earlier this summer to put our bake sale earnings towards a double date night at Lucca with our respective boys. It's an amazing Italian restaurant right across the street from their house and it has a (slightly less pricy) family style dinner on Mondays. John and I pre-decided that we would probably have to eat wheat in the form of pasta or bread and that since this was a splurge we would be okay with that.

Dinner started off gluten free, with some cauliflower in anchovy sauce, a butterbean/olive/tomato salad, and a green salad with shaved Parmesan. There was also a good bottle of wine, and I managed to pass on the bread basket (even though it looked delicious).

There was a spinach risotto, and a pasta course. I was already being a pain in the ass by not eating meat, so I ate a small serving of the pasta with house made marinara sauce. Dessert was a cheesecake tiramisu (which I enjoyed much more than real tiramisu since it tasted like a yummy caramel cheesecake instead of coffee), which had a crust of some kind. I picked around the crust but still ate some of it. On the way home I already had a headache...it's amazing how quickly your body responds to it once you've been off it. I also felt unpleasantly full even though I didn't eat as much as I normally would have. The food was really good, and next time I think we'd probably order off the menu just to make sure we got something wheat free. I'm glad we finally got to try it out, I love Italian!

Kick Ass Frittata

I'm so glad I learned how to make fritattas. Because they are AWESOME. This one was nom, nom, nom good and full of tasty veggies and herbs.

I used up some sliced cherry tomatoes, diced zucchini, yellow pepper, and broccoli. Sauteed those bad boys up in the aforementioned herbed garlic butter (are you noticing a trend here?) until they were tender.

Added six farm fresh eggs, a splash of heavy cream, sea salt, shredded Gruyere cheese, and a big handful of fresh chopped basil. Cooked on the stove top, gently lifting the cooked eggs so the uncooked part could slide to the bottom. Popped it in the oven and broiled it a few minutes until the whole thing was done. Just like that, BAM!

Bark Fail

Our friend Lisa had us over for dinner some time ago and made super good dark chocolate bark with peanuts. So simple and so good. I had some dark melting chips at home and some peanuts and thought I would be resourceful and melt/chill the chocolate in a glass pie dish. Fail.

The chocolate was delicious, of course, but damn near impossible to get out of the dish. Even after I hacked it up with a sharp steak knife. So lesson learned--next time I will use wax paper and a cookie sheet, and probably different chocolate that is meant for candy and not coating. I hate to see good chocolate go to waste!

Learning to Like Brussel Sprouts

As a kid I had nothing nice to say about brussel sprouts. I thought they were bitter and gross, like the baby cabbages that they were. As an adult I have come to tolerate them, but only if they're cooked really well (like Wild Olive's, where they are deep fried!). I'm trying really hard to like them more. My favorite way to eat them is roasted, so I tossed some chopped brussel sprouts in a bath of olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, red pepper flakes, and my new friend, garlic herb butter.

The only thing I'd change next time is maybe separating them more so the flavors really get inside of them. They probably could have roasted a little longer also, but overall really good.

I had them with a portabella mushroom that I stuffed with leftover Greek yogurt spinach dip and topped with some Asiago cheese. It baked for about 20 minutes on 375. Pretty darn good.

Delicious Asian Noodle Bowl

As soon as I figured out that bean thread noodles were gluten/wheat free, I had a mad hankering for an Asian noodle bowl. I've never made one before, but I have to say that it was a total success. Messy but sooooo good!

Ingredients:
- Carton of vegetable broth
- Container of bean thread noodles (soaked in water for 10 minutes)
- 1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 cup of shredded cole slaw mix (cabbage)
- 1 carrot, shredded
- 2 scallions, sliced
- 1 head of broccoli, chopped in to small florets
- 1 can bean sprouts, drained
- 1/2 small yellow onion
- 3-4 cloves of garlic
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- Soy sauce (GF kind!)
- Siracha hot sauce
- Chopped cilantro
- Chopped peanuts

1. Saute garlic and onion in sesame oil for about 3 minutes. Stir in cabbage, a few shakes of soy sauce, and a little broth. Once that starts softening, stir in the broccoli and carrots and get it cooking.
2. Pour in the remainder of the broth (I used a big stir fry wok), bean sprouts, shrimp, scallions, and noodles. Simmer until shrimp are cooked, adding another few teaspoons of soy sauce and hot sauce to taste.
3. Top with cilantro and peanuts and dig in!

Peaches

We've been getting lots of peaches in the CSA and I've made pies, tarts, smoothies, you name it. Figured it was time to actually eat some plain! Tonight they were served with whipped heavy cream mixed with powdered sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkled with walnuts.