Sizzling Surf and Turf Pasta

Recipe Title: Sizzling Surf and Turf Pasta
Recipe Link: http://quickiesonthedinnertable.yolasite.com/recipes/sizzling-surf-and-turf-pasta
Status: Approved
Rating: 8/10

Jen's Notes: This recipe is not specifically gluten-free, but it's easily made that way by substituting gluten-free pasta. The prep for this is pretty simple - just slice up the chicken and dice the garlic. If you start the pasta at the same time as the chicken and shrimp concoction, it should all be ready at about the same time. You can have this on the table in twenty minutes, no sweat. Always a nice thing on week night!

If you can't find chili paste, you can also substitute garlic chili sauce, found in the Asian section of most supermarkets. If you go this route, and you aren't a garlic fanatic like me, you'll probably want to cut back on the amount of diced garlic. Also, if you don't like spicy food, cut the chili paste back to 1 or 2 tablespoons. I used the full three tablespoons, and the result was extremely spicy.

We really enjoyed this dish - the combination of shrimp and chicken is unusual but tasty. The recipe recommends adding some salt to the final dish, but I think this could be cut. I added about a teaspoon of kosher salt, and found the mixture to be a little on the salty side. I also would have liked for some veggies to be mixed in there, so I think next time I'll add some spinach so that this is a complete meal.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Start to Finish: 25 minutes

Product Review: Pamel's Bread Mix and Flour Blend

Recipe Title: Pamela's Amazing Bread
Recipe Link: http://www.pamelasproducts.com/recipes/amazingbread.html
Product Link: http://www.pamelasproducts.com/ProductsMIXES.html#BREAD
Status: Approved
Rating: 10/10

Jen's Notes: One of these days, I'm going to start taking my own food pictures. Soon, my lovelies, soon.

In the mean time, you can occupy yourself with another product review from your favorite reviewer (right? right??). As you know, I've been trying to find a great bread recipe so that my adoring husband can have a sandwich for lunch. So far, it hasn't gone too well. So this week, I did the unthinkable.

I bought a mix.

I know, I know. It's shocking. I've always been a from-scratch kind of baker, and here I am buying a mix. It broke my heart to do it, but what kind of wife would I be if I let the hubby eat plain old meat cheese for lunch? See, you couldn't do it either. But enough chatter. On to the review!

Short summary: Awesome. It was easy-peezy to make, especially if you have a bread machine. I would recommend whisking your eggs together first, as always. Then it's just dump liquids + mix + yeast into the bread machine pan, set to desired cycle and go do something else for three hours. Really, the hardest part about making this recipe was hauling out the bread machine and getting the pan snapped back into place.

The flavor, you ask? Incredible. This was, much to my chagrin, the best gluten-free bread I've had so far. With last week's pudding catastrophe still fresh in my mind, you can only imagine the joy I felt when I watched the dough start to come together in the bread machine, and it actually looked like dough! Real, honest-to-goodness dough. And it tastes like bread too. Yes, it even works for sandwiches. Hubby has been happily having real sandwiches all week with this bread. This bread is still a bit dense, so he only uses one slice of bread folded over. I'm going to try adding an extra egg to see if that lightens things up a bit.

My only complaint is the price. The mix (at my grocery store, anyways) is about $6 per small bag, and that bag only makes one loaf. So the quest for the perfect bread recipe will continue, but I've promised hubby to keep making this bread until I can find a suitable from-scratch alternative. I'm planning to do some fiddling in the kitchen this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled!

Also, I'll throw in a little side review today. If you're like me, and have problems slicing bread evenly, you might want to consider getting a slicer. I spent an hour or two searching online, and I believe I've found the most bang for your buck in Rival's Fold-Up Food Slicer. It's only $40, and it allows you to set the slicer to your desired thickness. It folds up too, so that makes it a little easier to store. Hang on to the instruction book for awhile, though, or you might forget how to put it back together (I did). I didn't have any problem using it, and one nice feature is that you have to hold down two buttons together to get the blade to turn -- definitely a plus if you have a little one running around, and you don't want them to sever their limbs. I can't speak to its durability just yet, since we've only had it for a week, but I like it quite a bit so far. You will need to order it online, though, because Wal-Mart doesn't carry it in the store.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 3.5 hours
Start to Finish: 3.5 hours + 5 minutes

Chicken Breasts with Wild Mushrooms, Marjoram & Marsala

Recipe Title: Chicken Breasts with Wild Mushrooms, Marjoram & Marsala
Recipe Link: http://www.celiac.com/articles/1092/1/Chicken-Breasts-with-Wild-Mushrooms-Marjoram-and-Marsala-Gluten-Free/Page1.html

Status: Approved
Rating: 9/10

Jen's Notes: Another great-tasting, easy-to-make recipe today! I made this for dinner last night, along with some green beans and homemade mashed potatoes. Picky husband took one bite and said he loved it.

There were very few bumps in the kitchen while making this. I only have a few recommendations for this recipe:

• If you have thick chicken breasts (which seems to be the trend these days), cover them while they are cooking so they don't take forever to cook completely.
• You may want to add some potato or corn starch to the sauce to get it to thicken properly. I followed the instructions in the original recipe exactly, but I ended up adding some potato starch to get it to thicken up the way I wanted. Keep in mind that it will thicken up a little more when you remove it from the heat, but not a tremendous amount.
• To save a little cooking time, start the sauce in a separate skillet after you get the chicken going. Then, once the chicken is done, transfer the sauce to the chicken skillet so it can absorb all the chicken goodness.
• Homemade mashed potatoes work really well with this - just pour a little of the sauce on top of the potatoes before serving.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time:  20 minutes
Start to Finish: 30 minutes

Chewy Granola Bars

 
Recipe Title: Chewy Granola Bars
Recipe Link:http://www.simplysugarandglutenfree.com/help-kids-cancer-granola-bar/
Status: Approved
Rating: 9/10

Jen's Notes: I brought these granola bars with me to work today so that I could have a healthy snack instead of raiding the vending machine. There were a few substitutions made:

• Subbed sorghum flour for teff flour
• Subbed dried cranberries for mission figs
• Subbed cashews for walnuts

I tried two different grocery stores, but I was unable to find any teff flour and Whole Foods was closed. So, I decided to sub sorghum flour instead. I have no idea if this was the best substitute I could have used, since I am still pretty new to this gluten-free baking stuff. However, it did work and the outcome was very tasty. I really wanted to make this recipe verbatim, but fate was against me yesterday. First, I couldn't find teff flour and then the store was out of dried figs. I happened to have cashews on hand, so I used those instead of spending money on walnuts.

This recipe seems like one of those wonderfully versatile recipes. I plan to try Whole Foods this weekend to get some teff flour and make these again - I suspect that will make a significant difference in the flavor, and probably bump it up into the 10/10 category. But I think it's also nice to know that you can sub another kind of flour if you need to, since sometimes these whacky GF flours can be hard to find.

This is a great recipe to be creative with! Use whatever combination of dried fruits and nuts that you like - change it up from time to time so it doesn't get boring. I personally love dried cranberries and cashews, so that was a great combo for me. Preparation was pretty easy, but I skipped the food processor step and I don't think it made much or any of a difference.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Start to Finish: 30 minutes

Broiled Grapefruit

Recipe Title: Broiled Grapefruit
Recipe Link: http://www.simplysugarandglutenfree.com/broiled-grapefruit-recipe/

Status: Approved
Rating: 7/10

Jen's Notes: First off, I want to preface this review by saying that I don't generally like grapefruit. My mother used to eat a lot whenever she'd go on a diet, and I could never understand how she could eat it. It was just too bitter for me.

Recently, I saw an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown demonstrated how sprinkling some salt over a grapefruit half and then broiling it would take that edge off. And then I came across Amy's recipe. So I decided to give it a whirl, in the spirit of eating in a more balanced way.

As a person who hates grapefruit, I have to say that this wasn't bad. I wouldn't say that it was awesomely terrific or that I will lay awake nights craving this. But I will probably eat it for breakfast again tomorrow. Most of the bitter flavor that I can't stand was neutralized, but it wasn't sweet. It was very easy to make - the recipe does a pretty good job of detailing what you need to do. And it was quick. Oh how I love quick, especially first thing in the morning.

I did sprinkle some kosher salt on top before I added the agave, thanks to the aforementioned episode of Good Eats. I also let it broil for about 10 minutes (instead of the three called for in the recipe), but I also didn't give the oven much time to heat up. I want to try making this ahead of time, and then nuking it in the microwave. Even though this was pretty quick to make, I am eternally running late so if I can have breakfast and save myself ten minutes in the morning, that would be a good thing.

Edit: Eat this the same day that you make it. I never got around to eating yesterday's grapefruit, so I thought I'd save it for today. Bad idea. It's in the trash now.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes
Start to Finish: 15 minutes

Ricotta & Pesto Meat Loaf

Recipe Title: Ricotta & Pesto Meat Loaf
Recipe Link: http://www.celiac.com/articles/859/1/Ricotta--Pesto-Meat-Loaf-Gluten-Free/Page1.html

Status: Vetoed


Jen's Notes: From the cooking side of things, this was a pretty simple recipe. I made the pesto first, using this recipe. Beat the egg in a separate bowl, then dump turkey, pesto, ricotta and egg together.

Problem #1: The mixture felt very wet to me. I've made a lot of meatloaves in my time, so I have a pretty good idea for the consistency that you need. I remedied this problem by adding about a half cup of brown rice breadcrumbs to the mixture. You could also add some gluten-free oats, if you prefer.

Problem #2: The meat mixture came out green. When you add a strong color like green to turkey (white) and ricotta (white), there's not much there to tone down the green color. Admittedly, this is just a visual complaint. But I found it a bit disconcerting to eat green meat. When I pulled it out of the oven, the green effect had toned down some but the final product was still a light green.

Problem #3: This one is the deal breaker. In spite of having ingredients like basil and ricotta, which are very flavorful ingredients, this turned out very bland. I think the parmesan/romano toned down the flavor of the basil enough that it didn't get to really stand out like it should have. You could try using a different cheese (mozzarella, maybe?) or cutting the parmesan.

However, I think this recipe has seen its last day in my kitchen. I'm all for "fixing" a recipe, but there's gotta be something worth working with in the first place. Unfortunately, I cannot say that about this recipe. Normally, we save the leftovers to eat the next day for dinner so that I don't have to cook every day. These leftovers went down the garbage disposal.

After the relative kitchen failures we've had this week, I've decided to give poor hubby's taste buds a break and make quiche for dinner tonight, so the chicken that was originally on the menu for this week is getting bumped to next week. I'm thinking of trying some GF baking this weekend, though, so be sure and check back for that.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Start to Finish: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Gluten-Free Shepherd's Pie

Recipe Title: Gluten-Free Shepherd's Pie
Recipe Link: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/03/irish-cottage-pie-recipe.html
Status: Approved!
Rating: 9/10

Jen's Notes: This recipe was pretty simple to make, but a bit time consuming. That seems to be an ongoing theme lately. Fortunately, I decided to make this one ahead of time so I only had to pop it in the oven the day I wanted to serve it.

One tip I would give is to get the potatoes started right away. Peeled and diced, they took about 45 minutes to cook in boiling water. If you want to save a little time, skip the peeling but make sure you wash the skins thoroughly.

While the potatoes are cooking, I would recommend doing a full prep. You've got quite a few things to get chopped up, and you don't want anything to burn while you're chopping the next round of ingredients. You're going to be pretty busy stirring things, so just go ahead and get the leeks, garlic and carrots chopped up before you start the meat. Never chopped up a leek before? It's pretty simple - just think of it as a giant green onion - slice the white part and throw out the green part. I would recommend that you take a second to break up the leek slices before you throw them on the meat. Otherwise, you end up with giant chunks of leek. Also, make sure you wash the leeks very thoroughly. If you've ever seen Alton Brown talk about leeks, then you already know what I'm going to say. Because leeks grow up out of the ground in layers, there WILL be dirt between the layers. If you want to save a few bucks (cause leeks aren't cheap), you could probably substitute green onions or regular white onions. I didn't honestly notice much of a difference in the taste, so I'll probably try that next time. If you are going to sub white onions, I would suggest using about 1 1/2 - 2 whole chopped onions.

Other than that, this recipe is pretty straightforward. I loved the taste, but I knocked it one point because hubby felt the need to put ketchup on it. However, he still liked it and said we can add it to the "make again" list. My picky little brother also joined us for dinner that night, and he scarfed it down with no ketchup at all.

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Ham, Broccoli, Cheese and Onion Quiche (with a Gluten-Free Crust)

Recipe Title: Ham, Broccoli, Cheese and Onion Quiche (with a Gluten-Free Crust)

Recipe Link: Quiche Filling and Gluten-Free Pie Crust

Status: Tested and heartily approved

Rating: 10/10

Jen's Notes: The hubby really loved this one (quote: "This is the first thing you've made that I actually liked since we started this whole gluten-free thing"). Seriously, I was trying to ask him how it was but he was too busy shovelling it into his mouth to answer. And even better, it was really easy.

First, the pie crust. I picked up the Pamela's mix at the store, and made it exactly according to the recipe (with the exception of using a food processor to mix the dough). Be sure to note that this recipe makes TWO pie crusts, so if you only need one, just half the recipe. The dough is much more likely to rip than a regular pie crust dough, but don't stress too much if it rips. It's a little easier to repair rips and tears with this crust than normal crust. I was a little concerned about making a from-scratch pie crust on a weeknight, but it only took about 15 minutes, including rolling out the dough.

The filling was pretty low-stress too. I decided to add some broccoli to the recipe, so I just sauteed about 1 cup or so of chopped frozen broccoli at the same time that I sauteed the onions. Then just dump all the ingredients into a bowl, mix and pour into the pie crust. I should also note that instead of using eggs as called for in the main recipe, I used a 1/2 cup of Egg Beaters. If you have egg allergies, you can probably use the Ener-G egg replacement (though I don't know how that works).

One more note - if you've never bought cubed ham before and don't know where to find it, check the regular meat section of your supermarket, in with the ground beef, chicken, etc. NOT with the deli meat. The variety I bought was 95% lean, so this was still a pretty healthy meal.

The cook time for my quiche ended up being about 10 minutes longer than the quiche recipe said. I checked it at 40 minutes and the top wasn't browned yet so I kicked up the temp to 375 and cooked for another ten minutes. Again, this may very well be my oven's fault (too cheap to go buy an oven thermometer to find out).

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Start to Finish: 1 hour, 20 minutes