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First, start with about 1 pound of gluten-free sausage. And look, Aidell’s has one that’s Cajun flavored. How relevant! [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without warning. Always check your labels!] Traditional jambalayas often contain shrimp as well, but I don’t really like crustaceans invading my red meat dishes, so I left it out. You are welcome to be more tolerant of our sea-friends if you would like.

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Chop those suckers up into half-moons, and add in 2 chopped green onions. This being a throw-it-all-together-and-walk-away recipe, it goes without saying that it will need to be made in a dutch oven. I don’t think you can substitute a crock pot for this one, because the rice has to have pressure in order to cook properly, but hey, maybe a diehard crockpotter out there will correct me.

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Measure out 2 cups of uncooked rice. I was going for a healthier edge the evening I cooked this, so I used brown, but white will work too.

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Now pour in an 8-ounce can of Muir Glen tomato sauce. (Yes, some tomato sauces have gluten. No, I can’t explain such silliness, I just know it’s true.)

But wait, you say! What’s all that liquid already in the pot? Well, the previous couple of photos came out blurry. Not just a little blurry, like the kind I make you suffer through all the time, but completely, unusably blurry. What it is, is 4 cups of Pacific Foods beef broth, and also a diced onion. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

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Also add in 6-8 ounces of sliced muhrooms. Using the jarred ones for this saved me time because they’re already thoroughly soft. If you use fresh mushrooms, you will want to sautee them in a pan before adding them in, because soft comfort food dishes do not taste good with big firm pieces of mushrooms in them.

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Of course it ain’t Jambalaya without a liberal dose of seasoning. Specifically, add 1 Tablespoon of parsley, 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon of thyme, and 1/2 Tablespoon of McCormick Cajun seasoning. If you use a similar seasoning blend from a different company, be sure to check for gluten, as spice blends are notorious for using white flour as filler.

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Give everything a thorough stirring, put on the lid, and cook for 90 minutes at 350 degrees.

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When it comes out, make sure you shout “Ai-yeeee!” like a real Cajun.

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Happy Eating!

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Jambalaya

1 lb. Aidell’s GF Andouille sausage
2 green onions
2 cups uncooked rice
4 cups Pacific Foods beef broth
1 medium onion
1 8-oz. can Muir Glen tomato sauce
6 oz. jarred, sliced mushrooms
1 TBS parsley
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp thyme
1/2 TBS McCormick cajun seasoning

What you are seeing here is no less than a revolution in cheese substitutes. Joining the ranks of coconut milk, and coconut yogurt, there is a new product available that could rightly be called coconut cheese. But really, they’d prefer you call it Daiya. This product has been around for awhile — there’s a restaurant near me that’s been serving it for at least a year now — but Whole Foods and other consumer outlets have just recently begun carrying it on the shelves. If yours doesn’t have it, see if they’ll special order it for you. This stuff blows all the other fake cheeses out of the water, and I say that as someone who has roundly condemned cheese substitutes from day one.

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Anyway, enough about cheese, we’re making pizzas here. You could bake your own GFCF crust, but then this wouldn’t be a no-bake pizza, would it? What I’m doing here is placing a layer of Daiya cheese shreds between two Food For Life brown rice tortillas. The end result will be moist, yet crispy — the perfect New York style thin crust. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without warning. Always check your labels!]

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This is Muir Glen organic tomato sauce. There are indeed some tomato sauces that contain gluten, so make sure you can identify every ingredient listed if you choose another brand. Stay away from “natural flavors,” unidentified “seasonings,” or any other nonsense like that. Also note the proper way to spread the sauce over the crust: with the back of a spoon in an outwardly expanding spiral. My very first job as a teenager was at a Domino’s Pizza, and the gigantic flat ladle they use for this purpose is officially named a “spoodle.” Seriously.

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Add whatever toppings float your boat, but do be aware that pepperoni, Canadian bacon, or any other kind of processed meat is likely to contain gluten.

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Applegate Farms does make a official pepperoni, but I ended up using this package of salami instead. Technically, pepperoni is a type of salami to begin with anyway. The word’s not even Italian. If you went to Italy you’d have to order “spicy salami” instead, or they’d just stare at you funny.

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Pop it in the oven for about 10-15 minutes at 425, until the cheese is nice and melty. And boy, does it ever melt. I couldn’t get a good shot of it, but when you lift your first slice, you’ll see those stretchy strings just like real cheese. I am truly awed at what the Daiya people have accomplished here. But even if you go for another brand of fake cheese, or a completely different thing like grated polenta, this pizza crust is super-fast and sure to please.

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Happy Eating!

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No-Bake Pizza

2 Food For Life brown rice tortillas
1 package Daiya cheese substitute
1/4 cup Muir Glen tomato sauce
Applegate Farms pepperoni
Other toppings as desired

But never fear, the recipe still conforms to its humble origins as a super-fast, super-easy, super-cheap, super-tasty meal! All in all, it’s just a super soup supper.

Forgive me, I have obviously had too many GF cookies this afternoon.

Anyway, here are the ingredients arrayed nicely on my stovetop. That’s Pacific Foods beef broth, a can of cream corn, a can of mixed veggies, Amy’s Fire-Roasted Southwestern Vegetable soup, a small can of Contadina tomato sauce, and a can of plain pinto beans. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change their formulas without warning. Always check your labels!] For the corn, veggies and beans there are many safe brands–just make sure the ingredient list includes nothing but corn, veggies and beans respectively. Also, make sure you do not use the “Italian Spices” flavor of Contadina tomato sauce, only the unseasoned flavor.

Keep in mind we’re not using the whole box of beef broth–just half of it, or roughly two cups. Pour everything into a large soup pot. Now this is important: don’t drain any of the cans. Just open them and dump them in.

Now add 1/2 teaspoon of salt…

And 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder.

Heat through, stirring occasionally. And that’s it! Instant soup! Well, not instant instant, but you know what I mean. Oh, and you know what?

This soup goes great with cornbread!

Happy Eating!

The GFCF Lady’s Vegetable Soup

2 cups Pacific Foods beef broth
1 can cream corn
1 can mixed vegetables
1 can Amy’s Fire-Roasted Southwestern Vegetable soup
1 can Contadina tomato sauce (NOT “Italian” flavored)
1 can plain pinto beans
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder

First, finely dice 1/2 a medium onion, and sautee it in a little olive oil. You really want to make the effort to dice it as small as possible, because otherwise you’ll have big chunks of onion sticking out of your meatballs, like some kind of headless porcupine.

I bet this page is the number one search engine hit for GFCF headless porcupine.

Meanwhile, beat one egg, and add 1/4 cup crushed Rice Chex cereal. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change their formulas without notice. Always check your labels!]

Then dump in one container of Gerber Organic sweet potatoes. (Does all this sound familiar? That’s because this is what you do with ground meat, y’all. You mix in a few coagulating ingredients to help it stick together, mold it into whatever shape your heart desires, and cook it. That goes for turkey, beef, pork, lamb… you name it.) If you want to get all fancy, you can actually cook a real sweet potato, mash it up, and use about 1/4 cup of that. Me? Not so fancy.

Then add 1 teaspoon each of salt, pepper, and oregano.

Once the onions are done, add them into the pile.

And then gently mix in 1 lb. of ground turkey. Could you use beef (or pork, or…?) Sure. But turkey’s healthier, and the taste goes especially well with the sweet potatoes. You don’t have to mix it in by hand, but you’re about to make the meatballs by hand anyway, so why not?

Now, one thing about turkey is it tends to be a little softer and moister than other ground meat, so sometimes you may need to add a little bit more of the Rice Chex to dry it out a bit. Don’t overdo it though, stop adding as soon as the mixture will hold together well enough in a meatball shape. It’s never going to be firm, but just keep swiping a handful of it back and forth between your cupped hands, and after a few moments it’ll form a ball that sticks more to itself than it does to you.

Lay them out on a sheet of foil sprayed with canola spray. You’re looking for them to be about 1.5 inches in diameter, but anything you might consider normal meatball size is going to be fine.

Then just pop them in a 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes. There will be a lot of liquid in the pan, and that will start to congeal as it cools, so immediately move them off to a plate before they get all gross. At this point, you could easily toss them all in a ziplock bag and freeze them for some future evening when you find yourself with nothing to serve for dinner.

But whether you serve them now or later, they’re going to need a delectable sauce to go with them! And man, is this one good. The ingredients are a tad weird, but just trust me, it is so tasty. Start with half a jar of Classico red pasta sauce.

Then add 1/3 cup of Cascadian Farm organic concord grape jelly. (Grape jelly? Yes, grape jelly. Just keep the faith, it’s gonna be amazing, I swear.)

And then another container of Gerber Organic sweet potatoes. This is especially convenient since they are sold in packs of two, and you used the first one in the meat. I hate trying to use up half a container of this and a few tablespoons of that… it’s just so much easier when a recipe calls for one whole something, you know? Anyway, mix it all up, and simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes to thicken the sauce.

Then add your meatballs. You did choose a saucepan big enough to hold all your meatballs, right? (If your meatballs were frozen, you can toss them in at the beginning of the uncovered simmering to get a head start on the thawing. If you’re making them fresh, the sauce can be simmering while the meatballs are in the oven.)

Stir it around a bit to get everything coated, then cover and simmer for another 15-30 minutes, until the meatballs are heated through.

Mmmf. I’m sorry, it’s so rude of me to post with my mouth full. I just can’t help myself, they’re too good to let sit on the plate for long. You’re lucky I didn’t splatter sauce all over the screen in my mad frenzy.

Happy Eating!

Turkey Meatballs in Sauce

1/2 med onion
1 egg
1/4 cup crushed Rice Chex
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 container (1/4 cup) Gerber Organic sweet potatoes
1 lb. ground turkey

1/2 jar Classico red pasta sauce (about 12 oz.)
1/3 cup Cascadian Farm grape jelly
1 container (1/4 cup) Gerber Organic sweet potatoes

I had been pondering this thing for some time, wondering if it could really be as cool as people said it was. I was finally pushed into action when my cousin Stacey revealed it was her new favorite food. (Strictly speaking, she’s my cousin’s wife, but I’ve never heard of a cousin-in-law, have you?) Stacey doesn’t cook GFCF, but she works really hard to make sure her family eats lean, unprocessed foods, which is probably 75% of this diet when you get right down to it. And boy am I glad I listened to her!

Prep it just the way you would any other kind of squash: cut it in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. There are several different ways you can cook these things, but it should not surprise you to hear I go for the quick and easy way out, every time. The microwave only has a bad reputation because people put deplorable things inside it and try to pass them off as food. It’s a perfectly legitimate way to cook healthy food too. So put one half of the squash on a plate, with 1/4 cup water poured around the base.

Cover with plastic wrap, and microwave on HIGH for 10 minutes.

Now here comes the magic. Start gently scraping down the length of the squash with a fork, and the whole thing will just fall apart into these strands that look like… spaghetti!

Stand it upright in a bowl while you’re scraping, and you don’t even have to hold it with your other hand. Which is good, because this sucker is hot. If you want, cook your second squash half while you’re doing this, or if you don’t need that much food right now, just wrap it up tightly and stick it in the fridge for up to a week or so.

Keep scraping until the whole thing is hollowed out, then just toss the skin.

At this point it’s as good as cooked pasta, and there are a ton of things you can do with it. For now, we’re going with the most basic: plain old GFCF spaghetti sauce. I’m a fan of all the Classico flavors, I just get whichever one strikes my fancy when I’m at the store. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change their formulas without warning. Always check your labels!]

I use one whole jar with one whole squash, but I find it’s helpful to pour in about half of the sauce first, and stir gently with a fork to really get all the strands separated and coated evenly with sauce.

Also, you can brown about 1/2 lb. of ground beef if your family prefers a meaty sauce.

Okay, here comes the rest of the sauce, like I promised.

And voila! Now listen, you’re not going to fool anyone into believing this is real spaghetti. It’s got this faint little crispness to it that is not quite like soggy wheat pasta. But if you’re already having to force pasta substitutes on your kids, I guarantee you they will not know this one is a vegetable. There is absolutely no squash flavor to explain away; it’s extremely mild. Just tell them it’s a special rice pasta that’s better than all those other mushy rice pastas, or some entirely new pasta that’s made from a unique blend of gluten-free flours and unicorn dust. Either way, they will devour it and beg for more.

Happy Eating!

Spaghetti Squash Marinara

1 spaghetti squash
1 jar Classico red pasta sauce, any flavor
1/2 lb. ground beef

Mexican food is one of the safer cuisines to eat on this diet, since so much of it is corn-based. But nonetheless, it turned out that our favorite pre-diet Mexican restaurant not only served tortilla chips made with wheat flour and whey, but even their rice was unsafe. The GFCFBoy absolutely loves to eat refried beans and Mexican rice, so I knew I had to find a workable recipe right away.

First, dice up 1/2 an onion. You can add other veggies if your kids will tolerate them, like some frozen peas or carrot bits. Unfortunately our old restaurant didn’t do that, and my kid has always been fixated on the look of his foods, rather than whether he actually likes the ingredients or not. So I can put carrots and peas in other dishes, no problem–but not his beloved Mexican rice.

Toss the veggies in a pan with some olive oil and 1 clove of minced garlic, and let everything sautee over low heat while you prepare the rice cooker. If you don’t have a rice cooker, you are really missing out, I’m telling you. This thing is the greatest kitchen appliance ever. We used it probably once a week even before we had to rely so much more on rice for our meals. If we had to start selling our personal possessions, this is the very last thing I’d get rid of. I’d be wearing a burlap sack and still happily cooking perfect rice with zero effort.

But if you insist on doing things the old-fashioned way, you can still use this recipe. It just won’t be as cool. Instead of cooking the rice in water, we’re going to boil it in the following concoction: first, 3 cups of Pacific Foods gluten-free beef broth (yes, I know the picture only shows two cups, I don’t have a measuring cup that will hold three cups all at once.)

1 tsp of McCormick chili powder (YES, I know that’s not the right measuring spoon, I use two scoops of the littler one because it fits inside my spice jar. I’m practicing my math skills while keeping my kitchen counters clean at the same time.)

1 1/2 tsp McCormick cumin…

And 6 Tablespoons of Contadina tomato sauce. Please note that the Contadina tomato sauce “with Italian Seasonings” is not gluten-free. But seriously, why would you want to put Italian seasonings in Mexican rice anyway? Ya weirdo. [As always, manufacturers can change formulas without notice. Always check your brands.]

Once all that is mixed up in your rice cooker, and the onions are translucent, add 1 1/2 cups of uncooked rice to the pan.

Sautee the rice lightly, stirring frequently. You probably want to use a larger pan than I did, I always try to get away with the pan that fits better in the dishwasher, and it doesn’t always work out. The point of cooking the rice like this is to sort of seal each grain before you boil it, which will result in that nice non-sticky texture that Mexican rice is famous for.

See how the grains are turning translucent, but there are still some that are mostly white? If all the oil in the pan has been absorbed, you can add another Tablespoon or so. You don’t have to get every grain translucent, but the more the better.

Now scrape the whole pan into the liquid in the rice cooker, and give it all a good stir. If you were doing this without a rice cooker, at this point you’d put it all in whatever pot you were going to use, bring it to a boil, cover with the lid, etc.

But all I have to do is push this button down and walk away. It will pop back up at the precise moment the rice is done, and not a moment sooner or later. No burned rice on the bottom, no accidentally checking your pan too early and letting all the steam out.

Ta daa! Just like at the restaurant. Except gluten-free, cheaper, and available even in the middle of the night if you get some sort of weird craving for it. Which you just might, you never know.

Happy Eating!

Mexican Rice

1 1/2 cups uncooked rice
1/2 chopped onion
1 clove garlic
3 Tbsp oil
3 cups Pacific Foods beef broth
1 tsp McCormick chili powder
1 1/2 tsp McCormick cumin
6 TBS Contadina tomato sauce