Gluten-Free Menu Swap: Make Your Own/Do It Yourself

This week’s menu swap is being hosted by Scrumptious over at In My Box.  She has chosen a fabulous theme for this week, make your own or do it yourself.  I love this idea.  I am going to be honest, prior to my celiac diagnosis I was eating a lot of prepacked food.  I was getting better than my university days, but it wasn’t to the extent to that I have come now.  I do still buy some pre-packaged food to have on hand for emergencies, but we try hard to make most things ourselves.  There was a while that I was making my own breads, muffins and cookies, which I still try to make.  One of my goals for 2011 is to return to this.  The key is to make the dry mixes up ahead of time and freeze them for busy times.

Some things that I love to make:

• Perogies
• Pasta
• Potstickers
• Spice Blends (apple pie, curry, taco seasoning, creole seasoning…)
• Chipotle Mayo
• Salsa
• Bread
• Muffins
• Orange Juice
• Apple Juice
• Loose Leaf Tea Blends
• Wontons

Some things that I want to make:

• Antipasto
• Biscotti
• Coconut Kefir
• Cheeses
• Sugar-Free Jam (with no artificial sugars either)
• Fruit Preserves
• Red Pepper Jelly

This list is only the beginning.  I have to laugh at my fiance because there are some frozen foods that he sees and wants to get, but they aren’t gluten-free.  I am always saying, “we could easily make that ourselves.”  I honestly feel that my celiac diagnosis was one of the greatest things to happen to me.  I have learned so much and found something that I love doing – making my own foods/meals.  I feel better (aside from the obvious reasons) physically and mentally because I know what I am putting into my body.  Preparing my own foods allows me to control the amount of chemicals and preservatives that I put into my body, choosing whether I want it or not (usually it’s not) and choosing to add some additions, such as extra veggies.

MY MENU:

SUNDAY - Seafood Pasta Casserole (we have some leftover lobster & crab that needs to be eaten)

MONDAY – Vegan Dal Makhni & potato salad (interesting combination, I know – call it a weird craving!)

TUESDAY – Butter(less) Chicken over rice (as pictured above)

WEDNESDAY – Wonton Soup

THURSDAY - hmmmm…..

FRIDAY – Homemade Individual (we all have different topping preferences) Pizzas (I use a double or triple batch of the Tomato Basil Biscuit recipe for the crust from The Gluten-Free Family Cookbook)

SATURDAY - Either Burgers or Rotisserie Pork Loin with green salad and parmesan cauliflower…

SOUP OF THE WEEK:  Vegan Wonton Soup (from Moosewood).  My plan is to use GF Gobsmacked’s Potsticker Wrappers as the base.

TO MAKE:

• Tomato Basil Biscuit crusts
• Muffins
• Biscotti
• Wonton Soup

About these ads