Month: September 2016

Pizza Hut Sauce Copycat

I used to do Book-It at my school.  I really enjoyed going and getting my free personal pan pizza with beef on top.  I also won a coloring contest in kindergarten and received a Cera stuffed animal (Land Before Time).  It smelled like Pizza Hut for a year or two and I would smell it right before going to sleep.  We would also order in Pizza Hut whenever we came back from a long trip.  Needless to say, Pizza Hut and I go way back.  Great news: if you just need to be gluten free, they have a pizza for you and you should go do that!   The bad news:  It has dairy and egg and only a few toppings are free from cross-contamination.  So, if you feel the desire to have a similar taste but you can’t eat their pizza, here’s the sauce for you!

 

Ingredients for one pizza:

1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce (I used Hunt’s)

1/4 tsp of each: basil, salt, marjoram, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, fennel, black pepper

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp lemon or lime juice

 

I will be posting the pizza itself soon.  I used Daiya cheese on top, but if you can do dairy, you could use mozzarella on top.

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Stroganoff

When I was typing the tag for this recipe, I accidentally labeled it diary free.  Fortunately, no diaries are required for the making of this dish.  Neither is any dairy.  I LOVED this dish as a kid, and I thought it would be a goner since it relied heavily on sour cream.  Fortunately, Tofutti makes something called Better Than Sour Cream that does the trick.  I served it over my mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

1 pound beef tenderloin, sirloin steak, or round steak (really any steak will do), cut into 1/2 inch pieces

2 T. butter (I used SmartBalance- the green container)

1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced (I have actually never put this in but it sounds good)

1 medium onion, sliced

1 can (10 1/2 oz) chicken broth or beef broth

4-6 T. ketchup (I always end up adding more at the end until it’s the color I want.)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp salt

3 T. flour (I sometimes use brown rice flour but this time I used 2 T. arrowroot and 1 T. cornstarch because I was out of brown rice flour)

1 c. sour cream (I used Tofutti)

Mashed potatoes or cooked pasta for serving.

 

Directions:

Cut meat into 1/2 inch strips (against the grain).  Melt butter over medium heat in skillet.  Cook the mushrooms and onions in the butter until tender.  Set onions and mushrooms aside in a bowl and then cook the meat in the same pan.  When it is light brown, set aside 1/3 c. of the chicken or beef broth and add the rest into the skillet with the meat.  Add in the ketchup, garlic, and salt and simmer while covered for 15 min.  Combine the 1/3 c. broth with the flour and then add it into the meat while making sure to stir so it doesn’t clump.  Return the mushrooms and onions to the pan and turn up the heat a little while continuing to stir until it boils.  After a minute of boiling, reduce the heat and add in the sour cream.  Stir in more ketchup if it is not orange enough for you.  Serve with noodles or mashed potatoes.

 

 

Meatball Sandwich

I made spaghetti and meatballs the other day and then the seemingly impossible happened.  I had meatballs left and no more noodles!  Fortunately I just made a loaf of bread, so I made myself a meatball sandwich.  The bread I made was the egg free version of Pamela’a Gluten Free Bread Mix.  I still had some spaghetti sauce left (from a jar) and poured that on top.

 

Meatballs:

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef

1/2 c. Rice Chex crumbs

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp McCormick’s California Style onion powder with white and green onions and parsley (If you can’t find this, you can use 1/2 tsp onion powder and 1/2 tsp parsley.  It’s cooking- the seasoning doesn’t have to be exact :-)).

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Crush the Rice Chex until they are fine crumbs.  Combine with all the spices.  Put all the meat in a bowl and pour the spices and crumbs on top.  Mix with your hands until completely combined.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and form into 1 1/2 inch meatballs and leave at least 1/2 an inch between each.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until cooked through.  Cut one in half to make sure.

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Chicken and Apple Salad

I way overbought on produce this week.  I also found an excess of crackers in my pantry that were expiring soon, so I made chicken salad.

 

Ingredients:

2 cups of chicken, cooked, cubed, and cooled

1 apple, diced

1/2 to 1 c. red grapes, sliced in half

1/4 to 3/4 c. Mayonnaise, depending on volume of food and desired wetness (I used Vegenaise)

Crackers of your choice.  We like HEB brand Multi-grain Gluten Free Rice Crackers.

 

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and stir.  Serve with crackers.

Quinoa with Green Beans and Tomatoes

I had oatmeal go bad in my pantry.  It was very sad.  So, I decided to sift through my pantry and use up things whose expiration dates were impending.  What I found was quinoa.  I bought it on sale but I just don’t get very excited about it.  Well, doomsday for this bag of quinoa was quickly approaching, so this is the result.  It was much better than doomsday even if you don’t like quinoa.  I know that’s setting a pretty low bar, but work with me :-).

Ingredients:

3-4 tomatoes, diced

1/2 to 1 lb. fresh green beans- washed, trimmed, and cut into 1-inch pieces

4-5 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp salt (I added more later)

1/4 tsp black pepper

2-3 T. olive oil

1 3/4 c. quinoa

4 c. chicken broth (or vegetable broth if vegetarian)

2 T. balsalmic vinegar

8-12 fresh basil leaves or more

 

Directions:

Place tomatoes and green beans in a skillet, drizzle with olive oil, and cook over medium heat until the green beans are tender crisp.  Add garlic cloves, salt, and pepper after about 5 minutes.  In a saucepan, combine chicken broth and quinoa to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until soft and liquid is absorbed.  Stir in cooked vegetables.  Add balsalmic vinegar and top with basil leaves.  May be served hot or cold, but I think it’s better hot.

 

Adapted from:

http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Balsalmic-Quinoa-Salad-with-Roasted-Tomatoes-_-Green-Beans-1797341

Chocolate Chip Coconut Flour Cookies

This is the same recipe I used for my Coconut Flour Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies, but for some reason it turned out WAY better this time.  Maybe it was the coconut oil and cashew milk switch?  Last time I thought the recipe was ho-hum, but this time I got a lot of compliments on it and enjoyed it better myself.  I think rolling them into balls helped too as it kept the center soft.  If you’re debating which one to make, I say make this one first :-).

Ingredients:

1/2 c. white sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c.coconut oil

1/3 c. cashew milk

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 c. white rice flour

1/3 c. coconut flour

2 T. potato starch

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 c. Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips

1/4 c. chopped pecans

 

Directions:

Cream coconut oil and sugars.  Add milk and vanilla and stir well.  In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.  Add dry ingredients to wet and stir in chocolate chips and pecans.  Set the dough aside for 20 minutes so it can rest (maybe this is because of the coconut flour?) Roll into 1-inch balls. Bake cookies on parchment paper-lined cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 9 minutes.  Edges should have just a tinge of brown.  They will harden when they cool so do not overbake.  Allow to cool.  May be frozen for longer storage.

 

Adapted from:

http://www.yammiesglutenfreedom.com/2014/05/gluten-free-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

Hamburger Salad

This is one of the things I do when I run out of hamburger buns.  It’s really easy, but it does require a fork and a knife.

 

Ingredients:

One hamburger, grilled

3-4 bacon slices, cooked to desired crispness

large slice of a red pepper

Handful of pickles

2 tomato slices

Handful of spinach

Ketchup or other desired condiments

 

Directions:

Cook hamburger and bacon.  Put the red pepper slice in a pan, drizzle with oil, and cook at medium until it softens and starts to blacken.  You may want to use a splatter shield because of the oil.

Serve all ingredients on a bed of spinach.

Ham and Cheese Sandwich

I did a couple of things to make this sandwich special.  First of all, I put the ham in the skillet by itself to warm it up.  Then we buttered the bread and toasted it in a skillet with the cheese melting on top of one slice.  It made the bread really soft and pliable.

 

Ingredients:

2 slices of bread made from Pamela’s Bread Mix (the eggless version using flaxseed as egg replacer: 3 T. ground golden flaxseed plus 9 T. water)

4-5 slices of Oscar Meyer’s Smoked Ham

1 slice Muenster cheese (NOT dairy free) or non-dairy cheese

butter for sides of bread (I used SmartBalance)

 

Directions:

In a skillet, warm up the ham until it’s sizzling.  Turn once.  Meanwhile, butter one side of each slice of bread and put one slice in the pan, butter side down over medium high heat.  Put slice of cheese on one slice of bread so it begins to melt.  When ham is warm, put it on top of the cheese on the bread.  Top with the other slice of bread, butter side out, and flip the sandwich so the untoasted piece of bread can toast.  Serve with a side of vegetables.  Keep a napkin handy and enjoy!

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