Easter 2011
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GF Menu Swap: greens
MMMMMM! I am slowly starting to discover the joys of greens. I have always been a big green salad fan, particularly during the spring and summer months, but that was with romaine, green leaf, red leaf, etc… The big greens, such as kale, chard, and beet tops (to name a few) have been harder to incorporate into my diet. However, I discovered lightly steamed kale last week that has been massaged with fresh avocadoes and a light EVOO/tamari dressing – can we say AMAZING?! My mom has been very big on green smoothies for however many years, but I have always avoided them. Last week I was introduced to a very simple green smoothie that was delicious and the week before my mom shared one of her new green smoothies that has oranges and pineapple add into it. Aside from the fact that it’s green, I would never have known that it was jam-packed full of spirulina and kale.
Thanks to Angela (Angela’s Kitchen) and her choice theme of greens, I am even more motivated to include them into our diet. Particularly as they are very important. In fact, while typing this I was inspired to make my own green smoothie, or Green Monster, as Angela likes to refer to them. Sadly, it wasn’t quite as good as my mom’s, but that’s okay. Thankfully I have lots of oranges so I will use this as a base and mix it with fresh orange juice. This smoothie has 3 kale leaves, 1 tsp. maca powder, spirulina, 1-1/2 cups fresh pineapple chunks, 2 whole oranges.
Green Smoothies are a great way to sneak a serving of greens into your diet, particularly if you don’t like the taste of them. By juicing them up you are making it easier for your system to digest the greens and absorbing more of the nutrients. If you’re interested in making in your own green smoothies, you can check out the following websites for recipes.
My goal for this week is to have atleast one green smoothie 3x this week. I have included a chart below of some of the foods that I will be playing around with to try and create some of my own yummy concoctions (I hope…).
| GREENS | FLAVOUR BOOSTERS |
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MY MENU
DINNER:
- Lemon Dill Chicken with Fried Mushrooms & Onion and Greek Salad (my fiance’s specialty)
- Sesame Thai Beef (The Best Gluten-Free Family Cookbook)
- Chickpea salad over a bed of greens
- Hearty Minestrone Soup
- Vegetarian Spaghetti
- Turkey & gravy, roast potatoes, brussels, parmesan cauliflower, popovers and Pineapple Carrot Cake for dessert
LUNCH:
- Greek Salad over rice
- Veggie Sandwich (filled with green leaf lettuce)
- Chickpea Salad
- Basmati rice & lentil kitchari
THINGS TO MAKE/PREP:
- Rich Cookie Dough (The Best Gluten-Free Family Cookbook)
- Popover dry mix
- Pineapple Carrot Cake (Friday night)
- Bread (some dry mixes for the upcoming weeks too, hopefully)
- Croutons
- Thaw vegetarian spaghetti sauce
Adopt a GF Blogger: Celiacs in the House
Where has the time gone?! For some reason I thought that I had until the end of the week – yikes! Good thing I have a giant calendar on my desk because it is time for Adopt a GF Blogger, which was started by Book of Yum as a way to get to know other members of the virtual gluten-free community and trying out their recipes. In fact, it is because of this wonderful carnival that I have discovered the delicious world of a gluten-free kitchen and treats.
Wendy of Celiacs in the House recently changed her blog and added some new touches. One of the things that I really love about Wendy’s site is that the majority of her recipes are quick and easy, and the fact that she uses recipes as a starting point and makes them her own. She has recipes that use flour mixes, incorporating them into non-gluten recipes, something that I have always feared trying, and shares her family’s gluten-free travelling experiences. You can also find the Top 10 GF Favourites of Wendy and her two children, a page that has become a quick reference for me. I always see different gluten-free items on the market or receives messages from friends and family, but because of my experiences with some horrible GF products during my first months gluten-free I have been very leary of trying new things. I am much more willing to try products out if I hear from others on a gluten-free diet.
As usual, I had a hard time deciding what I was going to make because all of the recipes sounded and looked so good. In fact, I have a recipe file full of bookmarked recipes to try and sadly I had to add some more from Celiacs in the House collection. The first recipe that I made was Tamale Pie. I had a freezer full of ground turkey that I needed to use and this recipe was perfect, particulary as I have been craving food with mexican flavours and as soon as I saw the word adobo in the recipe, I knew that I couldn’t pass this recipe up. Yum! My fiance and I love it. In fact, I didn’t get too much because it quickly became my fiance’s work dinners. I have officially added this recipe to our work meal collection. It kept well in the fridge (for the few days that it lasted). Please note that I just used my own pie crust recipe for the base.
I also made the Asparagus and Prosciutto Quiche, but with a mashed potato crust. I also used coconut milk in place of the heavy cream just because I had it on hand and we rarely ever use dairy milk. This was perfect as I always make a vegetarian quiche but my fiance has been asking for a quiche with some meat in it. I saw this and realized that it met the necessary requirements – meat and asparagus, one of J.’s favourite vegetables. It was a hit and I have second on cut up in the freezer for meals in a pinch.
Sadly, because I goofed on my deadline, I haven’t had a chance to try the pumpkin muffin tops with cheesecake filling or the kale pesto and feta shells, but I will have to add them in later.
GF Menu Swap: citrus
This week’s menu is being hosted by Celiac Family and the theme is citrus. Personally, I think that this couldn’t have come at a better time as I was just thinking that I need to get back into my fresh orange juice habit and bought a case of fresh oranges the other day. I love citrus fruits. We always have oranges, lemons and limes in our fridge (or cold room). It is also the perfect time for me to return. My fiance has been working nights and, in all honesty, I just needed a break from my kitchen. I have taken the past weeks to just relax and really focus on my own health and rehabilitation. It has been very nice break, but time to return to my kitchen.
This week I am really focusing on the food that I am eating. I went to a lecture yesterday about optimizing digestion and had the pleasure of enjoying some amazing foods, such as squash & carrot soup as well as RAW chocolate pudding. I even enjoyed the green smoothie! It was a great lecture and reminder about the importance of whole foods. What I really liked is that the nutritionist discussed food combining, something that my fiance and I tried to do back in the fall. It went well and definitely helped cleanse our guts, but it was very hard and felt limiting. I think that it was because we didn’t have a variety of recipe books to guide us and failed to use our imaginations. This lecture helped give me some ideas and reinforced what I know that I need to do. Ultimately, this lecture was the precursor to May’s cleansing lecture, which will be start with a detox yoga class and then move into a discussion about cleansing foods – I can’t wait!
MY MENU
DINNER:
- Kale Avocado Salad over quinoa with Squash Carrot Soup
- Chicken Fajitas
- Steak & Spinach Salad
- Savoury Crepes
- Leftovers (I’ll be on my own this night)
LUNCH:
- Squash Carrot Soup
- Chickpea Salad
- Kale Pesto and Feta Shells
BREAKFAST/SNACKS:
- Fresh Orange Juice
- Green Smoothies
- Sweet Lime Hummus with veggies
I will be back tomorrow with my Adopt a GF Blogger posting…Celiacs in the House – yay!!! Dont’ forget to head over the Celiac Family for more menu ideas!
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
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.
For all of you Dog Lovers!
I just read this article via the company that is making my wedding cake – it’s fabulous and a must read!
Gluten-Free Smiles
- Easter 2011 April 19, 2011
- GF Menu Swap: greens April 10, 2011
- Adopt a GF Blogger: Celiacs in the House April 6, 2011
