Lunch Hack: Mediterannean Pita

Life has gotten so incredibly busy I often find myself resorting to fast food or coffee shop scones to get through the day. Gaining 10 lbs in the last year and feeling tired all the time tells me I need to get organized again and start packing healthier meals. This morning I had 5 minutes to spare so I looked in the fridge to see if there was something I could throw together to bring along.  This is what I came up with. It worked well for a day that I don't have access to a fridge and didn't have my chillable lunch box with me. I don't know that I would leave it in the car all day on a hot day but it certainly survived a few hours in the office and kept me out of the drive-though.

• 1 individual sized pack (or about 2 tbs) Sabra Hummus
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

• 1/3 package leftover broccoli slaw mix (I almost always have this in the fridge or some type of homemade slaw - just the veggies, no dressing. Almost any variation of julienne veggies will work. I know, it's packaged food but this is one of the compromises I make in the winter when I'm not pulling fresh veggies out of my own garden anyway)
• Pita bread (regular bread, crackers, tortilla chips, whatever...)

I did a quick blend of the hummus and lemon juice, poured it into a container with the slaw mix and viola! By the time I had lunch it had been well tossed and was ready to eat. My only regret is not grabbing a few of the lovely (nightshade free marinated) Greek olives from the fridge to add a little fat to the meal. As it was it was pretty satisfying but the olives would have been the kicker... or some feta... or a little chicken... maybe avocado...

You get the picture, it's not about a recipe here. It's about learning how to work with and make the most out of what you've got while still enjoying nutritious, yummy and SAFE meals.

*Note: sesame seeds can be cross-reactive to nightshade allergy. This means that even though they are not a nightshade, those with nightshade allergy may have trouble with them. I find that I'm OK as long as I don't have too much/too often. If you can't handle sesame seeds it's pretty easy to make your own hummus. Blend up can of garbanzos with1 tbsp lemon juice, pinch of salt, a little olive oil and as much water as needed to make it creamy.

Ugly Apple Cookies

They say baking is a precise art, but nothing in my kitchen is precise. I bake the way I cook, glance at a recipe to get an idea and then start putting things together until they are the way I want them. Most of the time it works. Sometimes I fail but sometimes I come up with something good enough to document so I can put it in my 3 ring recipe binder and forget about forever. 

I had a little extra time this evening, which is a rare thing. The boy child was enjoying what was possibly the last nice day of fall and my man was working late in the shop downstairs. I thought it would be nice to have some of his favorite Oatmeal Raisin cookies ready when he was done but I soon realized I didn't have any raisins... or butter... or eggs... and only 1/2 cup of brown sugar.  Hmmm...

What I did have was 2 mushy bananas, a freezer full of apples from our woods and some dried cranberries. I combined my favorite oatmeal raisin cookie recipe from Paula Deen with the ingredients I had on hand, a glass of wine in the other hand, and a "devil may care" attitude and ended up with a pretty darn good (and healthy) cookie. Because there is no butter and very little sugar they didn't spread like cookies usually do. They almost have the texture of a muffin. Maybe next time I'll try them in a muffin pan and see what happens.

Ingredients:

2 over-ripe bananas

1/2 cup apple sauce

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup rice milk (or any substitute)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp ground flax

1 cup diced apples

3 cups flour or GF all purpose baking flour 

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 cups old fashioned oats 

2 tsp cinnamon, apple pie spice or any combination of cinnamon, ginger, clove, allspice

1 cup dried cranberries

*walnuts would be a nice addition but my kiddo is allergic

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Peel and mash bananas in a mixing bowl. Add apple sauce, vanilla, rice milk, brown sugar and flax. Stir well. Add apples & combine.

In a separate bowl combine all other ingredients.

Stir together wet & dry ingredients. Add a little more flour or oats if it's too wet.

Drop spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen. Yummy.

Turkey Wild Rice Soup

Ingredients
1 turkey carcass
6 celery stalks, roughly chopped
6 medium carrots, roughly chopped
herbs, chopped-sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary
1 medium roughly chopped yellow onions
3 tbsp garlic powder
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 cups baby arugula
16 oz wild rice blend
Notes / Directions
Put carcass, celery, carrot & onion in stock pot & cover with water

Bring to a boil & simmer 4 hours

Remove carcass, fat, bones, etc. pick meat from bones & return to pot.

Add rice, herbs & seasonings.

Simmer 2 hours, add arugula.

Gluten Free Blueberry Scones

I took the day off work to sleep off this cold or flu or whatever it is dragging my butt down today. After almost an entire day on the couch watching back to back episodes of NCIS and compulsively checking Facebook for activity I got an uncontrollable craving for Scones.

I couldn't find a recipe that was free of all the things I needed it to be (wheat, eggs, dairy, nuts, potato flour or starch) so I pulled up a few and used them to come up with my own. I don't consider myself a baker and GF baking without eggs is very hit or miss for me so I am amazed at how well they turned out!

Servings: 12
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Category: Breakfast
Ingredients
3 cups Gluten Free flour blend
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp arrowroot starch
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg or egg replacer, i use ground flaxseed in hot water
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup, warm
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2-1 cup warm water
2 small flats blueberries
cinnamon/sugar blend
Notes / Directions
Preheat oven to 350

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl

Slowly add melted coconut oil, stirring continuously

Add remaining ingredients except water & stir

Add water 1/4 cup at a time until a firm dough forms

Remove 1/2 of the dough & form into a ball (be careful not to overwork dough)

Place on a cutting board & roll or flatten to 1 1/2 inch thick circle. Cut into 6 & arrange pieces on a baking sheet.
Repeat with remaining dough.

Brush with a little coconut oil & sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 20 mins

Pumpkin Pasta

I have become exceptionally frugal in the last few weeks. I just can't afford to throw anything away. So, tonight when deciding what to cook for dinner, my first priority was what was in the fridge that needed to be used or it would get tossed. I came up with leftover feta from last weekend's pasta, leftover bacon from Sunday breakfast and leftover pumpkin from pumpkin biscuits. This may have been one of my best meals ever. It was so good! (this recipe makes 2 servings with a side or 1 big one if you're hungry like I was!)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
• 1/4 cup unsweetened rice milk
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 slices cooked bacon
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 2 oz GF rice fettuccini noodles 
• 2 tbsp roasted pepitas
• sprinkle of feta cheese
• salt & pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a sauce pan on med heat. Add onions, cook 5 min. 

Add bacon & cook until bacon is hot & onions are transparent

Add pumpkin puree & rice milk

Simmer on low heat while you cook the noodles according to package directions

Drain noodles & add to pumpkin mixture

S&P to taste

Toss well 

Serve topped with pepitas and feta

Refrigerator Oats

Easy, healthy, no-cook breakfast or high energy snack!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup gluten free rolled oats
• 3/4 cup rice milk
• 1 scoop UltraMeal Vanilla Rice Protein (or 1/2 serving any vanilla protein powder)
• 1/2 cup diced apple
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• pinch sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, cover & put in the refrigerator overnight. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts or pumpkin seeds before serving.

Pumpkin Biscuits

I started with the basic biscuit recipe on the package for Bob's Red Mill Biscuit Mix and added a few things. The insides stay moist so this would probably also work pretty well as muffins or a bread.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Biscuit Mix
• 1 cup canned or pureed pumpkin
• 1/4-1/2 cup rice milk or milk substitute
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp Galangal (opt.)
• handful of roasted pepitas

Preheat oven to 350. Combine biscuit mix with pumpkin until crumbly. Add rice milk a little at a time, stirring until the dough is smooth but firm. Stir in spices and maple syrup. Drop spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet and top with a few pepitas. Bake 25-30 minutes.

Gluten Free Berry Shortcake

My wonderful family went all out last night to make me an awesome birthday dinner. On the menu: steaks with sautéed onion, mushroom & garlic, baked sweet potatoes, salad with tons of veggies and Berry Shortcake.

My mom was pretty excited when called to tell me the Bisquick now makes a GF blend. Unfortunately, she didn't notice that it does contain potato starch and the biscuit recipe called for 3 eggs. I told her not to worry, I would find a safe recipe and pick up the ingredients. I found one that looked pretty good and only required 1 egg. Typically, when substituting eggs in a recipe, the more eggs in the recipe the more you notice the substitution. I just needed to stop & pick up some Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer. It's the only one I've found without potato starch. I tried 4 different stores including 2 GF specialty stores and no one had it.

While scanning the shelves for another option I found Bob's Red Mill Biscuit Mix---no potato starch, no eggs required. Add butter & milk (or water). Perfect!

My birthday dessert was saved! Here's how we did it:

We used strawberries, blueberries, raspberries & blackberries. We kept them separate so everyone could choose their own mix. Slice strawberries and sprinkle a little sugar on them. Put in the fridge for a few hours. This creates a syrup without cooking them down.

Make the biscuits according to the directions on the package & whip up some heavy whipping cream. I used vanilla rice milk in the biscuits and no sugar in the whipped cream.

Too easy! So good!