Breakfast Quinoa

Hey all! Long time no see! Say hello to the newest addition to my food blog; a recipe for Breakfast Quinoa!


Breakfast Quinoa

1 cup of Quinoa, rinsed 
1 cup of almond milk (or dairy-free milk of your choice)
1 cup of water
Two TBSPs of sugar (you can use brown or white)


After you've rinsed and drained your Quinoa, put in a pan on medium heat and toast until dry and lightly brown. Add the almond milk, water and two TBSPs of sugar, mix well. Bring mixture to a roiling boil and then reduce heat to low and cover. Cook for 20 minutes on low or until most or all of the liquid is absorbed. Eat and Enjoy!

Serving Suggestion:

Add one tablespoon of a nut butter of your choice to about one cup of the cooked Quinoa while the mixture is still hot. Mix until all melted in and blended. Add cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.  

Ok, I know, so I suck as a blogger...

NEW RECIPES! Yay! So, I'm really sorry I haven't posted anything in ages. Just after I started this blog finals up at college started and suddenly I had no free time on my hands...and then after finals some real life drama made an appearance and this is the first chance I've had to start blogging again! SO. This next recipe is one that my grandmother and I made together! Its delicious!

Tuna Patties

Ingredients:
One can of tuna fish
Oats
Two eggs
Mrs. Dash, salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil

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Open and drain the tuna fish; flake tuna fish from can into a small bowl. Add around four large tablespoons of oats into the tuna fish along with the two eggs. Mix together and let sit for about ten minutes. Add in your spices and mix together. Meanwhile, cover the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil; make sure to coat the whole surface. Heat the oil on high and then turn it down to about medium heat (or a 6) once the oil is hot. Shape tuna fish into small patties and fry to a golden color on both sides. Eat with a side of rice or fresh vegetables!

The Best Chicken Salad You'll Ever Have

This is one of my favorite sandwich fillings of all time! BUT, my favorite way to eat it isn't on wheat-free bread, nay! It's on white corn tortillas with a little bit of melted cheese!




The Best Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
 Two large cans of canned chicken
Miracle whip (NOT mayonaisse. The taste just won't be the same)
Red Grapes
Two handfuls of Cashews, coarsely chopped
3-4 green onions
Pepper to taste
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Open and drain the canned chicken and put into a small mixing bowl. Chop up your green onions and cashews and mix in thoroughly. You can use however many grapes you want (I like to use a lot), but I use around two small bunches off of the whole bag of grapes. Chop the individual grapes in half and then half the halves. Mix in with the chicken-onion-cashew mixture. Add miracle whip until you get a nice, slightly chunky spreading consistency. (This is around two and a half to three spoonfuls.) Add pepper and salt to taste. Spread on your choice of wheat free bread or white corn torillas and if you're feeling adventurous and you don't care about the calories...bake some tater-tots to go on the side!

Cheesy corn, sausage and potato chowder

This my friends......is the Holy Grail of soups. It is by far my favorite soup that I have made! It is also my roommate's favorite soup and she requests it frequently. It makes a lot and can last for days between a few people. I discovered this recipe a few years ago when I was on dinner duty for my family. Since then I have tweaked it from it's original state and turned it into something amazing!

Cheesy Corn, Sausage and Potato Chowder

Ingredients:
Four large baking potatoes
Half of a package of Velveeta
Two cans of creamed corn
Half of a package of frozen breakfast sausage links
Cayenne Pepper
Pepper
Season Salt
Water
Milk (You can use two cans of evaporated milk here instead of half of a half gallon of milk)

(This recipe is usually made to cater to the tastes of the people I'm serving it to, so don't worry that the amounts aren't exact. Some people like lots of cayenne pepper and some don't. Season it how you like it.)

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Wash and dice your potatoes and put them in a large soup pot on the stove. (Don't bother skinning them.) Fill the pot with enough water to just barely cover the potatoes; bring water and potatoes to a boil. Reduce heat and cover. At this time start cooking your sausage links in a separate pan. Once cooked, slice into small pieces and set aside. Once the potatoes are done, add the milk, sausage and creamed corn; turn to low heat. Chop your Velveeta into small cubes and stir into the soup pot on the stove; turn to medium heat and stir occasionally until all cheese is melted. (as much as many of you like cheese, it might be fairly gross to get a big chunk of this stuff in your soup.) Season to taste with cayenne pepper, pepper and season salt. Enjoy!

(P.S. Make sure you read all of the packages on your ingredients, just to make sure! Also BEWARE wooden spoons. These my friends may make you sick. If used in an "un-friendly" dish to those of us with problems towards wheat and gluten, food particles can stick in the grains of the wood even after the spoon has been washed. If you want to use wooden spoons in your cooking, make sure they are used ONLY for wheat-free/gluten-free cooking.)

Chicken and Dumplings

SO, one night my roommate and I were starved out of our minds and then I got this genius idea that turned out pretty fabulously if I do say so myself. SO here it is.




Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
Half a bag of frozen peas and carrots
One recipe of gluten-free bisquick biscuits
Season Salt and Pepper to taste
Two Packages of Gluten-Free Chicken Gravy (My favorite brand is Mayacamas)
(If you are unable to find gluten-free gravy mix, I will provide a recipe for you.)

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PRE-HEAT YOUR OVEN TO 400.
Defrost two chicken breasts; while your chicken is defrosting, mix up a batch of Bisquick biscuits and set aside. Once your chicken is defrosted, cut into large chunks and cook in a large pot. Season with season salt and pepper. Mix your gravy according to directions in the same pan as the chicken and bring to a boil until the gravy thickens. Once the gravy thickens, turn the heat down and add your peas and carrots. Heat through. Pour chicken-vegetable mixture into an 8x8 or 9x10 pan. Dollop your biscuits over the top of the mixture. Bake for at least forty minutes at 400 degrees or until biscuits are golden brown.

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Gravy Recipe:

(This recipe equals one packet of gravy)

Ingredients:
One cup of water
One gluten-free/wheat free chicken bullion cube
1/4 cup of water
2 TBS of cornstarch

Bring your water and bullion cube to a boil. Mix your cornstarch and water together in a separate bowl and then add to boiling mixture. Reduce heat slightly and simmer until thick.

My Story

Hey All! I thought that this would be a fun project to help those of you lovely people out there that have a wheat intolerance, wheat allergy or a gluten allergy or intolerance and to be used as an educational tool for those of you who are a stranger to this way of living.

Just after I finished high school I started getting sick. Really sick. I had crippling stomach aches, cramps, diarrhea, gas, I was tired all the time and sometimes my stomach aches would get SO bad that I was in bed for hours at a time, just waiting it out with my knees pulled up to my chest. I just didn't feel well. Over a space of about four or five months, and after numerous futile tests and blood work, I decided to look up my symptoms on, yes you guessed it, google. I clicked on a page that talked about wheat allergies and intolerances and I was horrified by what I found. My symptoms matched every single thing they talked about!

"Wheat intolerance is basically a catch-all term for any negative reaction to wheat which is not celiac (also spelled coeliac) disease or wheat allergy. Those two conditions are diagnosed through blood tests or biopsies which show positive results for antibodies to gluten or other wheat proteins. However, someone can test negative for antibodies and still have a miserable reaction after eating wheat– that’s wheat intolerance.
To make things even more interesting, wheat intolerance symptoms can show up as long as 48 hours after eating wheat… which makes connecting the cause and the effect a real nightmare for an uneducated sufferer. As with wheat allergy, symptoms can be limited to digestive discomfort such as diarrhea, constipation, gas, and cramps, or can extend to skin rashes, itching, eczema, and hay fever-like symptoms including sneezing, cough, runny nose, and itchy, watery eyes."

FINALLY, I had an answer and from Google, no less! SO, my next step was to try what they suggested. An elimination diet. This my friends, as many of you may know, is NOT as easy as it sounds. I had no idea that would lurked in so many random places! It was in my drink mixes, my trail mix and canned soup! And after further experimentation, I learned that even things that are processed on the same equipment or made in the same factory as wheat make me sick! Those first few months were an absolute nightmare.

But now, almost three years later I am armed with an arsenal of not only knowledge, but practical experience. Even before I found out about my intolerance I loved cooking from scratch and making up my own recipes whenever possible, but after I found out, I discovered that it became a necessity. So, my friends, if you are new to the world of wheat/gluten intolerance or wheat/gluten allergy or if you are a seasoned expert like myself, have no fear! Here you will find what you have been searching for! Delicious and nutritious practical recipes that are tailored to ingredients you have on hand in your cupboards or pantries! No fuss here!

Good luck and happy cooking!