Better than eating at a Chinese restaurant

Java requested that we have Chinese food sometime this week so tonight I made this recipe for General Tso's Chicken and this recipe for Orange Chicken (using cut up chicken breast instead of wings). Mmmm, mmmm, good.
I kept the chicken warm in the oven while I made this recipe for Vegetable Stir Fry. Oh, yeah.

Throw in some Basmati rice (my favorite kind) and you've got yourself a gluten and casein free feast!

It was better than eating at a Chinese restaurant.

Except for the dishes.

Quinoa

I made this Curried Pineapple Quinoa Salad tonight and I have enough left for several breakfasts this week. Quinoa is the perfect way to start the day. Some say it's the perfect food. (See article below)

Is Quinoa The Perfect Food?

by Jim Plummer

Functional Fitness Facts


Quinoa is a nutritional powerhouse that has many health benefits, but exactly what is quinoa?

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) has been grown for thousands of years in the Andes mountains in South America. It was a very important part of the Incan diet and it is still sometimes referred to as "the gold of the Incas." It is often thought of as a grain, but it is actually the seed of a leafy green plant called Chenopodium (also known as goosefoot), which is related to Swiss chard and spinach.

Quinoa has a structure similar to wheat or rice. Like grains, it can be eaten whole or ground into floor to make bread, cereal, or pasta. But unlike a lot of grains, it is not stripped of it's bran and germ when it is processed as a food source.

Here are the many health benefits of quinoa:

Contains all nine essential amino acids. There are 20 amino acids that the body needs to form protein, but it can only manufacture 11 of these. The other nine, which are called essential amino acids, must come from food. Quinoa and soy are the only plant-based foods that contains all nine essential amino acids.

Digests slowly. Quinoa is a complex carbohydrate that digests slowly and will not cause blood sugar levels and insulin levels to spike. It's also an excellent source of energy.

Is high in fiber. One cup of cooked quinoa contains five grams of fiber. Fiber helps keep your colon and arteries clean and healthy.

Induces satiety. The protein and fiber in quinoa induce satiety, which is a feeling of fullness and satisfaction.

Is high in vitamins and minerals. Quinoa is higher in calcium, B vitamins, vitamin E, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, manganese, and zinc than most grains.

Contains phytonutrients. Quinoa contains phytonutrients (also known as phytochemicals), which are chemical compounds that help reduce the risk of heart disease and some forms of cancer.

Acts as a prebiotic. Quinoa acts as a prebiotic that feeds the microflora (good bacteria) in your intestines.

Is gluten free. Quinoa is gluten free and safe for those with gluten intolerance.

Quinoa is increasing in popularity, but you still won't find it in many grocery stores. Look for it in more progressive grocery stores and in health food stores. You can also buy it online.

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Jim Plummer is a longtime health and fitness enthusiast. His website, http://www.functional-fitness-facts.com, contains information and advice that will help you get fit and healthy. Visit his website and pick up your free fat loss report.


Originally published on SearchWarp.com for Jim Plummer Thursday, January 01, 2009

Article Source: Is Quinoa The Perfect Food?

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Smoothies & Meatballs

Breakfast in our world used to consist of cereal or toast and milk. It was a gluten and casein bonanza. Now the kids are begging for these...

Fruit smoothies!

We start with coconut or almond milk, add frozen strawberries, banana, pineapple... and some days we add blueberries or other fruit. I will start adding flax seed now that I've got them hooked. Maybe it will help heal this kid's serious case of bedhead.

As you can see by the above picture, Bean likes the smoothies. However, he's found another favorite food and he's been packing it in his lunchbox.

Meatballs!

I made a huge batch of GFCF meatballs a few nights ago and froze a lot of them. (I adapted a regular meatball recipe by using gluten free bread crumbs that I made from end pieces of bread and GF crackers.) Bean heats up a few meatballs with tomato sauce and garlic and puts them in his thermos for a hot treat that causes kids around him in the lunch room to remark on how good they smell.

A former personal care attendant stopped by yesterday to visit us and she asked Bean how the GFCF plan was going. He told her it was going great! I never expected this to go so well!

Dueling Crock Pots

You should smell my house this morning. Mmmmm.

In one crockpot we have pinto beans and a big hunk of bone-in ham (leftover from a supper this week). The beans and ham will cook for 6-8 hours in an aromatic concoction of garlic, onions, 1/2 jalepeno pepper, powdered chilies and other seasonings.

In another crockpot we have a vegetarian version of the same, sans ham. (Latte hasn't eaten meat since she watched the movie Food, Inc. She wants me to watch it but I don't think I can. I do try to buy meat from local humane farmers now though.)

Ham or not, these beans are going to be delicious with a side of GFCF Cornbread. (I will adapt that recipe using our butter and milk alternatives.)

Good eatin'.

Easy GFCF Peanut Butter Cookies

Cookie recipes just don't get any easier than this.

Peanut Butter Cookies- gluten free, casein free, EASY and delicious! This is a recipe I intend to make often.

Ingredients:
2 cups natural GFCF peanut butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. baking soda

That's it! 4 ingredients, NO flours! Mix together and drop by tablespoon on a cookie sheet. (I used parchment paper.) Do the criss cross fork thing. Don't ask me why, it's just what we do with peanut butter cookies.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 8 minutes. The cookies will be soft when you take them out so let them sit for a while before trying to put them on a cooling rack.

Can you believe there isn't any flour in these beauties? The kids loved them!

I also made their favorite GFCF Chocolate Chip Cookies. The freezer is stocked for another week of packing lunches.

GFCF Randomness

Random bits of information from our GFCF journey...

This is my new favorite lunch. Corn tortilla strips, salsa and half an avocado. I no longer crave bread during the day and boring sandwich lunches are a thing of the past. I found a great GFCF salsa at Sam's Club for a very reasonable price.

Speaking of Sam's Club...I found these crackers there the last time I shopped and they are delicious! I'd eat them even if we weren't on this GFCF plan. They are also much cheaper at Sam's than I had seen them online. Sam's Club - $7.48, Amazon- $13.39 for the same 20 oz. box!

I made a cake using the vanilla cake mix we ordered. We liked the chocolate cake but the vanilla one tasted weird. I had made a GFCF frosting from a recipe I found online but we all decided that it would be better served with fresh strawberries so we'll try that next time instead.

My adult kids gave me a food processor for Christmas and I'm giving it a workout! We've had homemade hashbrowns as part of a hearty breakfast at least once a week. We've discovered some good GFCF cereals but the kids seem to prefer "real food" to start their day now. There have been several days when Bean has had leftovers from the night before as his breakfast.

My mentor GFCF mom told me about Vitacost.com where I can order supplements and probiotics at a huge discount and easily find ones that are gluten and casein free. I ordered several products yesterday and I'll write a post after we've tried some.

Ode to Pasta

Pasta, noodles, carbo love
I thought we'd have to give it up
But wheat is not the only thing
that makes a pasta noodle sing
Brown rice and Quinoa are yummy, too
and often even better for you!

Sorry for the dorky poem. I've obviously had more than enough coffee this morning and I'm a little excited about our recent pasta adventures.

I was a Creamette girl. I bought noodles in the same green box for years, never paying any attention to what kind of flour went in to making them. I always shopped for pasta in the same grocery aisle, never even considering that there might be something to try in other sections of the store.

Like the Asian section...
Or the health food section.

*I probably should have taken a picture of the box BEFORE emptying the contents to make this Quinoa pasta and veggies salad...

It was delicious!

I had never ordered noodles online before this, but when two boxes of whole grain brown rice pasta were delivered here yesterday...

...we just had to try them! I made a non-dairy white sauce out of an alternative "milk", vegan "butter" and rice flour to thicken. I added some herbs and garlic and spooned it over the pasta. Bean cut up his chicken and mixed it in with the white sauce and noodles for his own version of Chicken Alfredo. He loved it!

(Yes, that's a piece of bacon wrapped around my chicken tenderloins. I like the flavor when I bake it that way. We definitely aren't vegetarians here.)