I want stroganoff.

It's a bit of an odd craving but its the truth! I wanted stroganoff. I didn't debate ideas much, I just went for it. I had some leftover steak as I made some for breakfast to go with my waffles the day before. :)



Ingredients:
cooked steak, chopped
1/2 bunch celery, chopped
1 red onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs olive oil
1 cup non-dairy milk
1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 cup sherry
splash of balsamic vinegar
1 tsp rosemary
1/4 c Daiya mozzarella cheese (optional)

Serve over white rice or rice pasta.



Saute the onion in olive oil on stove top at med-high. Add garlic.



I really cooked down the onion and then added the celery.



Throw in cooked meat and rosemary spice. No need to cook it up more or the meat will get chewy.



Lower heat to medium. Mix the milk and cornstarch together, then add with all other liquids. Stir consistently as it could get sticky at this point (if it does, lower heat). Cook until sauce thickens. Add Daiya cheese and allow to melt if wanted.



Once fully cooked. Pour over white rice or pasta to serve.



Delicious! Made great leftovers, I wanted more and more. It was a very satisfying allergy-free meal.

Breakfast of champions! x2

The first breakfast of champions was a tomato sandwich. This second one is a sweet potato/zucchini hash with toast and a cup of tea.



Ingredients:
Zucchini
Sweet Potato
Onion
Jimmy Dean Sausage
Garlic cloves, minced

With a piece of tapioca bread and vegannaise... mmm (close enough). And a cup of English breakfast black tea, my favorite. Cheers to another great start to a day!

EPIC Pizza!

The attempt of the week: Epic Pizza. This entails Matt insisting that we make allergen-free deep dish pizza after watching Man vs. Food in Chicago. So we went for it.



Ingredients:
Namaste Pizza Crust
1 flaxseed meal egg
Sauce:
one can diced tomatoes
one can tomato paste
minced garlic
chopped onion
Italian seasonings
1/2 cup Merlot
Toppings:
sausage
pepperoni
sun-dried tomatoes
minced garlic
spinach
Daiya mozzarella cheese
prosciutto
fresh basil, chopped



The crust was Namaste Pizza Crust mix. It is the best GF crust I've found. It has some herbs and spices in it and cooks decently. It takes one egg-one flaxseed meal egg, and water. Divide in two and but one in the bottom of a 9x13 and the other on a cookie sheet. It's a sticky mess and can be a pain to spread out because it's very thick. I recommend wax paper.



I was very proud of this as it took FOREVER. I may have used a can of Pam as a rolling pin



Pre-cooked for 30 min.



Here's the second layer of crust and my classy Pam rolling pin again



Top crust, pre-cook for 15 min, it will be crunchy but I liked it that way



Pizza sauce: we used one can of diced and one can of paste



Sauce ingredients:
one can diced tomatoes
one can tomato paste
minced garlic
chopped onion
Italian seasonings
1/2 cup Merlot



Topping number one: sweet Italian sausage, cooked



Times they are a 'cookin



Time to layer: Crust-sauce



Crust-sauce-sausage



Crust-sauce-sausage-pepperoni



Crust-sauce-sausage-pepperoni-sun-dried tomatoes-minced garlic



Crust-sauce-sausage-pepperoni-sun-dried tomatoes-minced garlic-spinach



Crust-sauce-sausage-pepperoni-sun-dried tomatoes-minced garlic-spinach-Daiya mozzarella cheese



Baked at 400 for 15-20 min. Mainly so things would cook down so we can add more.



Slice the prosciutto (Italian bacon)



Crust-sauce-sausage-pepperoni-sun-dried tomatoes-minced garlic-spinach-Daiya mozzarella cheese-crust-sauce



Crust-sauce-sausage-pepperoni-sun-dried tomatoes-minced garlic-spinach-Daiya mozzarella cheese-crust-sauce-Daiya cheese



Crust-sauce-sausage-pepperoni-sun-dried tomatoes-minced garlic-spinach-Daiya mozzarella cheese-crust-sauce-Daiya cheese-prosciutto



Crust-sauce-sausage-pepperoni-sun-dried tomatoes-minced garlic-spinach-Daiya mozzarella cheese-crust-sauce-Daiya cheese-prosciutto-fresh basil, chopped



Bake for about 30 min.



EPIC PIZZA!!!



It was SOOO good and although we made so much it was gone in a just a couple days. Highly recommend this pizza endeavor.

What am I doing?

I have no idea. I got out of bed on my one day off and made this. Why? I don't know. It was somehow necessary. I think it may have been because I ate the last of the squash soup for breakfast and I don't want to go to the store to buy more food. I suppose this is the only solution: cook a crap-load of something so I can eat it anytime. Macaroni Casserole.



Recipe:
1/2 box spiral quinoa pasta
1/2 bag spiral rice pasta
1 can white, navy beans, drained and rinsed
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 sweet onion, chopped
Salt and Pepper
2 tsp oregano*
1/2 tsp garlic salt (I may have gotten lazy here)
1 jar Classico Traditional Sweet Basil Marinara*
2 cups soy milk
1 bag Daiya cheddar cheese

*I originally put half those amounts and had to go back and add more. The sauce is not spicy enough for me and the pasta bakes up a little dry.

I boiled the pasta each differently. The main reason there are two is because I wanted more and ran out of quinoa. :) So why did I put beans in it? Because I wanted something green but didn't have it so I threw the beans in for fiber. It's a well-rounded dish.



Once the pasta was boiled I drained it and set it aside. Next I put the sausage, carrots, onion, butter and a swipe of bacon fat. Lol. I'm shy to put type that here but, why waste something so great.



Mix pasta and beans with meat mixture and marinara.



I cooked the milk and cheese in a saucepan until thick and creamy/cheesy. Pour over and mix.



Bake. I only baked it for 30 min. With the carrots and beans it either needs 1 hour or those ingredients need to be pre-cooked.



Yum! Go me.

Butternut Squash Soup

I'm sure there is a recipe for this somewhere I just didn't use one. I had a butternut squash to be cooked so here it is:



Recipe:
1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped
1 sweet onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup butter (earth balance substitute)
2 cups organic (GF) chicken broth
1 cup hazelnut milk
Salt and Pepper



I threw the squash in first for a bit and then added the onion and garlic.



Chicken broth can have a gluten additive in it so buying 'natural' or organic is the way to go just be sure to check the label. My mom picked up this hazelnut milk which is just so cool I had to throw it in. I could definitely taste that it was NOT soy milk but, it's hard to tell which nutty flavor is the milk.



Once the squash ingredients are about 75% cooked or so, add liquids.



Then get out that immersion blender! My favorite tool!



Someone from work mentioned that it has a baby-food consistency... which is true. It's healthy and so easy to eat. I may have downed a portion at work in less than two minutes as I worked late and worked through my break. I don't particularly recommend that kind of dining. The soup was great though. It's an easy way to use up veggies for a filling meal.

Bad idea...

So last week was my friend Christopher's birthday which, as tradition for four years means I make him a whole batch of cookies. They were not made allergy free and the task was more daunting than I thought. Nannying and cooking for the kiddos got me used to the idea of cooking without munching but it's SO hard with the family cookie recipe: oatmeal chocolate chip. Inquire for amazing recipe.



I made it through but was nearly driven insane by the lingering smell of baked cookies with butter and eggs. So I ventured to New Cascadia Traditional Gluten Free Bakery AGAIN on my way home from a 12 hour night shift. Look at this awesome breakfast:



Multigrain toast and a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting. SO good. The bread is quite thick but has a high quality 'bready' consistency. I would vote that the sourdough loaf is the best at the bakery. The cupcake is such a condensed sugar/carb infusion I ate it over 3 days. It was glorious and the fact that I can stop at this bakery on my way home at 7:30AM is just a formula for a bad habit. :) Love those.

When there's 'nothing to eat'

I had 'nothing to eat' so I cooked all this. :) To start I had chicken and celery in the fridge so guess what I made? Yes! I threw this together to take to work. The chicken had a little garlic salt on it but the celery was just salt and pepper. It was cooked in my fancy Rachael Ray pan, a gift from my mom. It has a grill-type bottom so after the chicken was mostly done I threw in the celery and it worked great. It was a very satisfying meal. Cleanup was easy as I emptied my kettle into the pan after making tea. No problem.



Late-night-after-work craving this week was mashed potatoed made with these cute little guys.



The finished product just looks like mashed potatoes... I did use my Gramma's potato-ricer tool which is amazing. I would have a photo but it's need some more steel wool action so it will be revealed in due time.
-Spuds, boiled until soft
-Almond and Cashew Mimic Cream
-Garlic, minced
-Daiya cheddar cheese
-S&P

This was my final meal made before the weekly shopping trip. I made a bucket-load to take to work and eat as needed for a couple days. It was a bit of 'everything left in the fridge.'



-Quinoa pasta, cooked
-Turkey hotdogs
-Broccoli
-The last bit of Mimic Cream
-Daiya cheese

Steam broccoli with a bit of water, throw in hot dogs, throw in everything else-it's a fry pan meal, my favorite type. I don't have set ratios for liquid/solid, I always add things as needed.



What a breakfast/dinner, whatever. It's 9AM gnight.