Gluten-Free Menu Swap

I am hosting this week’s menu swap and I have chosen garlic as my ingredient.  As many of you know, I was not feeling so well last week and ended up eating a lot of homemade Chicken Soup.  I don’t know what it is about chicken soup, but it always makes me feel better.  So with that in mind, my menu planning for this upcoming week is much easier – I am going to recycle some of last week’s meals and add in some very easy meals.

Garlic – mmmmmmm!  This is a staple in my household and we usually go through a bulb or two per meal.  For years (and years and years) garlic has been used medicinally and to add flavour to food dishes.  Medicinally, garlic is full of antioxidants, which makes it great for fighting off free radicals (there is so much more to this, but I’ll spare all of us the science lesson).  One of the things that I love about garlic, aside from its taste, is it’s wonderful ability to help clear up a sore throat or even a cold; it’s immune boosting powers are wonderful!  There are believed to be other health benefits, but they still haven’t been proven yet (such as heart disease prevention).  Personally, I think that garlic is a super food. 

Starting to see why I have chosen for my ingredient?  I have had only 2 colds this season and only 1 of them was really bad.  Thankfully, last weeks stomach upset wasn’t too bad, but I refuse to take anymore chances!  Like everyone, I HATE being sick.  My plan is to stuff myself full of garlic to give my immune system an extra boost so that I can miss all of the colds that are flying around  (particularly as I have a baby shower to attend soon and don’t want to get the mama-to-be sick).  So will all of that said and in mind, we’re going to make meals that are enhanced with garlic, such as Greek Salad (my future mother-in-law’s recipe) and some Garlic Mashed Potatoes (recipe to come later this week).

For anyone who is interested in growing their own garlic (a project that I might take on this year) I found this website, Growing Garlic.

MY MENU:

SUNDAY – Dinner out at Organic World

MONDAY – Organic Chicken Sausages & Garlic Mashed Potatoes (recipe to follow) with tomatoes and zucchini

TUESDAY – Citrus-Soy Glazed Black Cod (Martha Stewart) & Caesar Salad (I use an entire bulb of garlic!)

WEDNESDAY - Mount Fuji Stirfry (Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook)

THURSDAY – Thai Chicken Curry Wraps (Jenn Cuisine) with the Spunky Coconut’s tortilla wraps

FRIDAY – Shrimp Potstickers with green salad

SOUP OF THE WEEK:  Split Pea (from The Colophon’s Best of the Best Recipes - restaurant in Fairhaven)

Things to do/make:

• Split Pea Soup
• Quinoa flake Cookies – my fiance’s son asked if we could make some cookies (from Complete Gluten-Free Cookbook)
• Blueberry Banana Muffins 
• Book Club Posting
• Slightly Indulgent Tuesday posting (I keep forgetting!)

What’s on your menu?  Leave me a comment with your link or email me: glutenfreesmiles [at] gmail [dot] com

Over in Angela’s Kitchen, she is just itchin’ to get this year’s garden started, but distracting herself with information on raising chickens.  Looks like she’ll be sharing many stories about these guys in the future!  Angela is big fan of garlic and has her slow cooker garlic chicken on the menu, a must try.

Sea Maiden from Book of Yum is unable to tolerate too much garlic, so she is going to spend her week celebrating kale, another super food.  She even shares a very yummy sounding recipe for dehydrated kale chips that I have just added to my must try list!  Once again she is sharing an ethnic menu with us.

Over at the Menu Swap headquarters, Gluten-Free Goodness is taking a break from the kitchen and has planned a very simple menu sharing her link to kalamata hummus - MMMMMM!  Like Sea, Cheryl is also going to enjoy some kale in the form of pesto.  You should also popover there to check out the garlic shoots that she has coming in.

The Celiac Family also enjoys garlic in their cooking  and after seeing the pictures of some of her garlic dishes she has shared I am feeling rather hungry, even though I just ate dinner!  This week they will be enjoying marinated flank steak and white chicken chili, to name a couple of their dishes.

Beyond Rice and Tofu is still paying close attention to what she has in her fridge and cupboards, but that doesn’t stop Renee from creating a tasty menu!  None of her dishes are too garlicky, but most of them do contain garlic.  She is also in the process of growing three different types of garlic! 

I have just been introduced to The Wheat Free Family and can’t believe I haven’t seen this blog before now!  Dianne has a menu filled with some of my family’s favourites, such as caesar salad and garlic bread, but she also has calzones on her menu; something that I have been dying to make! 

Scrumptious (In My Box) includes garlic in most of her cooking and shares a really great little story about one way that garlic was used in Russia while she was living there.  I am happy to report that she has officially conquered her “fear that [her] pressure cooker will kill [her]” and is happily planning what to use in it. 

Thank you everyone for sharing your wonderful menu plans for this week and for being patient with me!  I think that I now have to go and do some yoga (after I right write down some yummy meals and their links) so that I don’t spend the night dreaming about all of this delicious food!

Have a great week!

*I have physical rehabilitation for most of tomorrow, so I may not get to the roundup until early evening.

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