Roasted Cumin Dill Potato Soup

Wow it has been quite a weekend here in Providence. Twenty inches of snow!!! And might I add that they have done a terrible job clearing the roads. But then again, where do you put that much snow? Needless to say I’ve been pretty stranded the last few days. Because of the snow drifts I had about 10 feet behind my car of 4ft snow! That was a blast yesterday..thankfully a random plow came by as I was staring at my car laughing, trying to figure out how on earth I was going to move all that snow. He sympathized and helped me out a bit! Thank you Mr. Plowman, whoever you are. Being stranded has been a little fun but a lot stir crazy! My fridge has been dwindling by the day. So this afternoon I decided to do a quickfire challenge(anyone who has watched Top Chef knows what I am referring to) and try to create something tasty with random ingredients in my kitchen. What I came up with was a lot tastier than I thought! Roasted Cumin Dill Potato Soup

Roasted Cumin Dill Potato Soup

serves 4

Ingredients:

• 3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/2 in cubes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 cup frozen cauliflower
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• i tbsp smart balance butter
• 2 tsp cumin, divided
• 2 tsp dill, divided
• 2 tsp garlic salt, divided
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups fat free milk

Directions:

1. In mixing bowl, combine cubed potatoes, 1 tsp dill and 1 tsp cumin with a splash of olive oil. Mix well to coat. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes

2. While potatoes are baking, in dutch oven saute onions, garlic, and butter for 5 mins.

3. Add cauliflower and 1 tbsp water and continue to saute for another 10 minutes.

4. Boil carrots in separate pan, drain, set aside.

5. Add potatoes to onions and cauliflower, along with 2 cups water(you can use beef or chicken broth if desired). Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes and cauliflower are cooked through and easy to mash, about 10-15 more minutes.

6. With a handheld masher, mash potato, onion, and cauliflower mixture until desired consistency. ( You can use a handheld puree mixer if you want a smoother, less chunky soup)

7. Add milk and carrots and heat, do not boil.

8. Add 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp dill, and 1 tsp garlic salt, or more to taste.

9. Heat to serve. Add dill to garnish in bowl.

Let me tell you I was pleasantly surprised! It has been raining here all day and in the upper 40′s..but freezing this evening. Tomorrow should be a blast!

 

Thai Coconut Chicken Satay – Restaurant Remake

My absolute favorite all-time dish is the Thai Coconut Chicken Satay from Blaze East Side in Providence. I have no idea if it is gluten-free, but most of the coconut marinades I could find online all contained soy sauce…which means wheat. I decided I would try to remake this dish gluten-free for dinner tonight. Nothing will compare to the real thing I am sure, however it will curb my craving for this exotic dish!

The marinade was a little guess and check and I estimated the measurements to the best of my ability eyeballing it.

Thai Coconut Chicken Satay (Blaze East Side remake)

Ingredients:

1 cup instant white or brown rice

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup frozen sugar snap peas

1 lb boneless chicken breast, cubed

marinade

3/4 cup coconut milk

1/4 cup water

2 tbs olive oil

1 tbs lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, seeded and sliced longwise

1/4 tsp ginger

1/2 tbs sesame seeds

1/2 tsp salt or garlic salt

dash of white pepper

1. Combine all ingredients for the marinade in a saucepan and simmer on low for about 10 minutes to combine flavors

2. Cube chicken breast and place in bowl. Add marinade, cover with plastic wrap and let sit in fridge for about an hour.

3. After an hour, bring 1 cup coconut milk to a boil with a beef bouillon. Add instant rice, cover, remove from heat, and let sit for 5 minutes.

4. Pick out pieces of marinated chicken and place in non-stick skillet with a little olive oil.

5. With a fork, remove all jalapeno pieces out of the marinade and add rest of marinade to the chicken in the non-stick skillet

6. Saute about 10-15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through

7. While chicken is cooking, steam or boil sugar snap peas until crunchy, about 5 minutes.

8. To plate, start with rice, then snap peas, with chicken on top, and covered with some extra marinade.

Makes about 2 servings

I typically don’t eat a lot of meat in one meal. To prepare the dish with more meat, double the amount of chicken..there will be plenty of marinade to go around!

This meal was a small slice of heaven for me. Thank goodness I went for a jog today!

Pancake turned Cookie

First I would like to give a huge shoutout to my best friend who is getting married in 2014. Im so happy for the both of you and am extremely honored to be a bridesmaid in your wedding!

My christmas present from her this year made me cry! It was so beautiful and thoughtful and I cannot wait to put my bridesmaid dress on it

     After housing an entire bottle of pinot grigio last night, I woke up this morning with an urge to make pancakes. Maybe the wine was still in my system, who knows. I found this recipe from Taste of Home  and it seemed easy enough so I thought I’d give it a shot. I didnt have brown rice flour so I substituted with coconut flour. In retrospect, as I’m sure those of you who bake often are already thinking, I should have known that different flours have different properties and you cannot just substitute one for the other. Duh! Needless to say, my “pancake batter” was more like cookie dough batter.

   After attempting to cook them on the stovetop in small flattened patties, I found they were browning on the outside(nearly burning) and were completely raw on the inside. On to plan B. I instantly thought to add some more sugar and roll the dough into balls and make a kind of cookie. So I did, and baked them for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. They browned a little on top but were cooked through and were delicious! I tasted a hint of coconut with the coconut flour and I am a huge coconut groupie! Overall, epic pancake failure turned into a huge cookie success!

Chocolate Cookie Balls

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coconut flour
  
• 1/2 cup potato starch
• 5 teaspoons sugar
  
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup fat-free milk
  
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips, dark chocolate
  

Directions:

1. Combine all dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately.

2. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

3. Form 1/2 in balls and place on cookie sheet.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are cooked through

White Bean Turkey Chili

Happy Friday!

This evening my best friend from high school, who I have not seen since before christmas ( ) is coming over for dinner! I decided to make my go-to favorite meal..White Bean Turkey Chili!!! It is filled with veggies and amazing flavor and has my two favorite spices to cook with in it: oregano and cumin! It is very easy to make and extremely filling!

White Bean Turkey Chili

Ingredients:

• I medium onion, chopped
• 2 jalepeno peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 can whole kernal corn
• 2 15-oz cans cannellini beans
• 2 cups cooked shredded turkey(white or dark meat, or a mix of both)
• 2 cups beef broth, divided
• 1 tbs oregano
• 1 tsp cumin

Directions:

1. Saute onions, jalepenos, green pepper, mushrooms in olive oil or butter for about 5 minutes

2. While sautéing, drain 1 can of cannellini beans and put in mixing bowl. Take 1/2 cup of beef broth and add to beans. Mash or puree beans with beef broth until almost smooth.

3. Add mashed beans to pot along with 1 1/2 cups beef broth, other can of beans, corn, and turkey. Mix and simmer for another 5 minutes.

4. Add oregano and cumin and simmer for another 25 minutes or desired consistency of chili

     You can use chicken instead of turkey for this recipe. If using chicken, I would boil chicken ahead of time and add it to the chili already cooked. If you prefer your chili on the mushy side, I would simmer for about an hour or more and use your judgement on when it is ready for you. I like my chili on the chunky side so I don’t let it simmer for too long. If you have gluten-free chicken broth you can use that as well.

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash and Black Bean Soup

     Forgive me, I have not mastered the art of taking food photos. Im sure it will come with practice, but bare with me! The other night I realized I had a butternut squash I really needed to eat or it was going to go bad. Letting fresh food go bad seems to be a bad habit for me. I get lazy and sometimes have popcorn for dinner or salsa and tostitos for lunch. Im getting better though! Especially being so limited with snack-type foods being gluten free.

So the original recipe I found was not gluten-free, but it was close. I adapted it accordingly. It was delicious, if I do say so myself. It would also taste great with some shredded turkey or chicken!! I made mine without it this time and I absolutely loved it!

Butternut Squash and Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2 in cubes
• 1 medium onion(yellow or white), chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or shredded
• 4 cups beef broth
• 3 strips turkey bacon
• 1 can black beans, rinsed
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon thyme

Directions:

1. Saute turkey bacon in large soup pan with olive oil until crispy. Remove bacon. Leave bacon fat in the pan

2. Add chopped onions and garlic to soup pan with another splash of olive oil if needed and saute for about 3 minutes.

3. Add chopped butternut squash and saute 15-20 minutes more.

4. Add beef broth and simmer for another 20 minutes until butternut is cooked through and slightly mushy.

5. With handheld puree mixer, puree until smooth.

6. Add black beans, cumin, and thyme and simmer for 5 minutes more. Add crumbled bacon on top if desired.

Hope you like it as much as I did!

The journey begins..

Welcome!

     So I have been 100% gluten free for exactly 1 month…and what a month it has been. I have done so much research through other gluten free blogs and some gluten free books, which has made my transition a bit easier. However, reading about tips and recipes and starter pantries is very different than actually implenting them.

     The first big step was eliminating everything glutenous in my kitchen. I will say it was a struggle to part with my soy sauce and my chicken bouillion cubes, asian cuisine and chicken soup being some of my favorite foods. My second step, a 3 hour process, was navigating through the grocery store and realizing that rice chips and lentil chips “may be processed in factories also processing wheat”. Are you kidding me? Being on a budget I came down to earth and decided I would have to base my meals around veggies, fruits, meats, and dairy, instead of buying “normal” foods that are gluten free.

     Through all my research, and maybe I just havent done enough, I found that alot of recipes I came across were of foods/desserts that are habitually made with gluten and had 8 different ingredients replacing the ingredient that contained gluten. It bothered me a bit because there are sooo many foods at the market that naturally do not contain gluten! My goal for this blog is to share/create recipes with common foods that naturally don’t contain gluten so they are accessible to those of us who are restricted by a budget and cant afford potato starch, coconut flour, garbanzo flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, etc. There may not be a whole lot of baking recipes on here, as my weakness is sweets. If I bake I will eat all of what I make, which never ends well. So I hope you enjoy and look forward to any and all feedback

 

Happy Gluten Free!!