Crock Pot [keepin' the kitchen cool!] GLUTEN FREE Banana Bread

Wow, what a ride it has been these past ten months. There is much to update, so much I want to share that I've been unsure of even where to start. This post will break my writer's block/overload, perhaps, since it's just for fun! :)
The one health update I'll share today is that I am thrilled to report, my platelet count has been steadily climbing since I left the hospital in June! Yesterday it came back one point below NORMAL range!  God is healing me thru and thru!

So onto the banana bread fun!
I discovered this idea when we had a major heat wave the weekend of Mother's Day, and I wanted to make quick bread for the brunch, but did NOT want my kitchen to get any hotter than it already was!
Enter my favorite kitchen appliance: the crock pot! This recipe as my inspiration,
I made some modifications and voila, Banana bread in under three hours with no extra mercury rising in the house.

What you need:
1 3/4 cup Trader Joe's Gluten Free flour blend
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt

3/4 cup coconut sugar (check out Madhava brand Organic Coconut Sugar thru Subscribe & Save on Amazon!)
1/3 cup organic butter or coconut oil
2 cage free eggs, beaten
2 ripe, medium to large size bananas (or 3 small), mashed
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (I use Trader Joe's Pure Bourbon Vanilla Extract),
1/2 cup frozen organic blueberries

What you do:
Grease the crock of a 3 (ish) quart slow cooker with butter or coconut oil. Set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, sift together all dry ingredients except sugar (flour, gum, soda, powder, salt).

In another bowl, cream together butter (or coconut oil) with coconut sugar until blended. Gently mix in beaten eggs, mashed bananas, and vanilla.
Add in the dry ingredients slowly, blending well with a whisk.
Stir in the blueberries (no thawing needed).

Pour batter into pregreased crock, smoothing the top with spatula. Cover and set to High. Walk away - you're basically done! :)

Check the bread with a toothpick after 2 hours. It will be done between two and three hours. (Slow cooker power levels vary by brand.)

When bread is done, toothpick should come out clean, but bread will be moist and oil sizzling on the edges. Remove lid and let cool/set up for five minutes. Cut into pieces and scoop out of crock, or turn out the whole loaf onto a plate and cut to serve
Enjoy!

*Sometimes it is recommended to prop open the lid with a wooden spoon when baking in crock pots. I've never done this, but know it's an option if bread is too moist/not setting up.

Update: This recipe is even more fool proof than I thought! I ran out of Gf flour blend but had ripe bananas to use, so I thought I woukd experiment.

I used 1 cup brown rice flour and 3/4 cup teff flour. I was much more lax with the mixing too, I just combined all the wet ingreds together, added the dry, and put in the crock. This time I set the slow cooker on Low and let it go 4 hours. It turned out great - moist and delicious again! it was just slightly darker in color because of the teff flour.

so there you go, this recipe is even more versatile tban we knew!

If you make any changes be sure and comment to share your experience :)

Meal Planning

You guys, guess what?!?!?! On Monday I created a meal plan for Hubs and me, for two weeks - and we are FIVE FOR FIVE! Translation: We're on day 5, and we've cooked each meal on the plan for the past 5 days! I've cooked two and Hubs (incredible man that he is) has cooked three. This is a really big deal - it means we're getting this thing down! "This thing meaning" being adults and planning ahead and cooking real dinners every night - finally! ;)

This written plan wasn't for anyone outside my household to see, but I figured this post wouldn't be complete without it. I know it's a bad quality photo and scribbly notes - you can deal with it :)

Next Monday is a big day - we're going to try Arborio rice in a risotto! Haven't had rice since January.
If all goes well, we'll have it again with the curry stir fry on Thursday. We'll see...

Week 1
Monday: Grass fed beef hamburgers with grilled onions and mushrooms, guacamole, baked sweet potato fries

Tuesday: Slow cooked clam and vegetable chowder [Recipe coming...]

Wednesday: White Wine Oven Roasted (organic free-range) Chicken

Thursday: Alaskan cod "tacos" with broccoli slaw and avocado dressing [Recipe coming...]

Friday: (Repeat Monday) Grass fed beef hamburgers with grilled onions and mushrooms, guacamole, baked sweet potato fries

Saturday: Slow cooked boneless pork roast "carnitas" (freeze leftovers)

Sunday: Tangy Asian Chicken & Mushroom Soup


Week 2
Monday: Asparagus Mushroom Shrimp Risotto

Tuesday: Salmon croquettes

Wednesday: Leftover pork carnitas from freezer OR Slow cooked Beef Bourguignon

Thursday: Slow cooked Spicy Coconut Chicken

Friday: Shrimp Ginataan Curry with rice [Recipe coming!]

Saturday: Grilled Salmon

Sunday: Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Designer Salads

The plan is made up of mostly favorite, "stand-by" dishes that we love. That's partly why I haven't posted any new recipes lately - we've been eating the same dishes over and over. (Well that and I've been under the weather a lot, so no exciting cooking or blogging for me. And I've been spending my time enjoying my baby girl-who is growing up too fast!) But there are two new-to-me recipes on the plan, and I'll post them eventually if they work out. They both involve shrimp... yum!

There's not much to this post; it's not rocket science or anything brilliant I'm reinventing here. But I am very excited that this meal planning stuff is finally working for us. I've tried before and it didn't work out so well. Probably because I bit off more than I could chew. That leads into...

One tip I have for you is to make a plan of all or almost all tried and true recipes. You can't plan a week or a month with a new recipe every day -especially with an infant at home, a full time job, family extracurriculars, or anything else like that- and expect to succeed. If you want to try meal planning, choose recipes and foods that you're familiar with and dishes you can cook fairly quickly by experience. You can throw in one or two new ones to keep things exciting, but don't overwhelm yourself.

Another tip is to keep your budget and your pantry/refrigerator stock in mind. Take a look around at what you have before you start planning. Write down a different protein for each day and structure your meal around that - if you're concerned about preventing allergies, rotate your proteins in a four day cycle. For example, we are doing this and cooked grass fed beef burgers on Monday, clam soup on Tuesday, roast free range chicken on Wednesday, Alaskan cod on Thursday, then beef burgers again today and so on...

If you're at all like me, you have a limited food budget and it can sometimes be a challenge to make it to payday without running out of fresh food. Another great feature of this meal planning is no worry of running out of food to cook...

So here's another tip: plan according to what you can afford, or what you have on hand hiding in the back of the freezer or the corner of the pantry. This is where my clam soup on Tuesday came from - I had eight cans of chopped clams in the back of my cupboard! When you plan this way, everything is intentional and you'll need less so you'll in turn spend less.
Once you have that done, make an ingredients shopping list for the two weeks' worth of recipes. I did this, leaving off the usual basics we always have around like spices and oils, and frozen items like the Alaskan salmon and cod I purchased last week:

Everything is checked off but the pork, because it's the one thing I have to wait
 until the Saturday Farmers' market to purchase

Twice now I've looked over my list shown above - once on Tuesday and once today - to make sure we have what we need for the following couple days' recipes.

My final tip is to plan ahead by making a shopping list and make sure you've got your core ingredients ready when you need them. If you go to the farmers' market on the weekend, buy up only what you'll use in the next few days. Then mid-week you can go to the local produce stand, a mid-week farmers market or the grocery store and buy up the next few days' worth of ingredients. When you go to the grocery store, buy your frozen veggies and meats and fish in multiple packs, so you have plenty to use and they'll keep in the freezer until you need them. Frozen vegetables are preserved right off the field and go great in slow cooker recipes or soups, or steamed as a side dish. Thaw the proteins a day or two ahead, so each evening all you have to do is cook and eat!

One last suggestion: I am thinking that a great way to meal plan is to create lots of weeks of plans; four seems ideal. You can identify each week with a letter, for example I have created weeks "A" and "B". Then create two more, "C" and "D," and keep those weeks of meals and rotate them in different order each month. You will be able to successfully cook and eat healthy meals that fit your family's needs, while taking the stress out of dinner time, and staying within your food budget. You'll be able to get your food spending down to a very predictable amount, and that is pretty cool for financial health!

If you have any meal planning tips, go on and share them below. Happy planning, shopping, cooking and eating! :)

Slow Cooked Carnitas (Roast Pork) with Two Fresh Salsas

The hubs and I just finished an incredible dinner. Our house smells like Chipotle - no, actually it smells BETTER than Chipotle. And coming from me (#1 fan) that is a high compliment! If you don't have a freakish allergy to garlic (my new problem), go there. I know you'll like it. They serve real food fresh, fast and made to order, all while keeping integrity in mind by using sustainably raised meats from great farmers and local produce when available. Chipotle rocks.

Okay, back to our dinner. Tonight I made a Carnitas-style pork roast from a boneless pork leg roast I got at the farmers' market. The pig it came from was raised on a farm literally right over the hill from our home. The pigs roam a 40 acre area and eat good feed plus all the grubs, worms and whatnot that they find in the wooded area they wander. I have to say, it was the best pork I've ever had! It is true: Happy animals make yummy meat. It feels great to support local farmers. Do you have a farmers' market where you live? Check out this website to find out: Local Harvest

mmm... carnitas...

This roast is super easy, I made it in my 6 quart slow cooker in six hours after just five minutes of prep. The meat cooks until it is fork tender and shreds easily, and you can use it for whatever you like. We made burrito bowls and they turned out delicious. Give this a try, it is really simple and the whole meal tastes like it took a lot more effort and time!

Paleo Note: We did eat Pinto beans with this (legumes = not Paleo) and obviously the dish is nightshade heavy with the tomatoes, tomatillos and chiles (nightshades are not allowed on Paleo Autoimmune Protocol) but Hubs and I decided to try it and see how it goes. I used to not be able to go a day without tomato salsa or spaghetti sauce, chile-based hot sauce, or both, and this was the first taste of legumes and salsa I've had since January. I'd say I've been doing great! :)

*UPDATE 3 days post-meal: I will make the pork roast again, as the flavor was fabulous and it couldn't have been easier. But the beans will be omitted, and probably the salsas as well. I've been having increasing enthesitis pain as the week goes on, and I am drawing a direct connection between this meal and my pain level! I'm not bummed; now I know to continue the way I was eating, as my gut is not healthy enough to eat those foods at this point. 
Have you ever had an experience re-introducing a food and learned from it? That's all we can do, right? Make a note of it and move forward :)

What you need:

for Carnitas Pork Roast-

1/2 pound or about 1 cup dried Pinto beans, soaked overnight (or longer, changing water at least once) and rinsed well

2.5-3 pound sustainably raised pork roast (I used a boneless leg roast. You could use an arm, shoulder or sirloin as well)
7 cups water or homemade chicken bone broth
1 whole yellow onion, chopped
1 TB salt
1/2 TB smoked paprika
1 TB cumin
1/2 TB oregano
1/2 TB crushed red pepper
1 4 oz can chopped green chiles or 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

for Pico de Gallo-
1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/4 white onion, minced
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
Juice of 2 limes
Sea salt to taste

for Salsa Verde-
2 lbs tomatillos, husked, washed and quartered
3-4 medium jalapenos, washed, halved and seeded
2 cups minced onion
2 TB cilantro leaves
Sea salt to taste

What you do:

For Carnitas Pork Roast-
Put all ingredients into slow cooker insert. Start with the beans, then add pork, broth, onion, and so on.
Cover and set to "high" for 5 hours.
After 5 hours, check to see if beans are tender. If needed, put lid back on and continue to cook.
(I let it cook for 30 minutes longer, and then removed the lid and cooked for another 30 minutes. This was 6 total hours of cooking time.)
Remove the pork roast from the slow cooker to a plate, and let it cool for a bit. While it cools, strain the liquid out and pour the beans and onions into a serving bowl or storage container.
After the meat has cooled a bit, shred it into bite size pieces with two forks. Put into a serving bowl or storage container.



While the meat is still cooking, or after you've prepared it and set it aside, make your salsas.

For Pico de Gallo (recipe paraphrased from Carla Hall and Clinton Kelly on The Chew)-
Toss the tomatoes, onion, cilantro and jalapeno in a bowl until mixed well. Taste and add salt as needed (as little as 1/4 tsp was enough for us). Set aside.



For Salsa Verde (recipe paraphrased from Carla Hall and Clinton Kelly on The Chew)-

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your ingredients (wash, seed, chop). Arrange tomatillo quarters and jalapeno halves in a glass baking dish and roast for 25-30 minutes, stirring once or twice during roast time. You will know they are ready when tomatillos are tender and juices and seeds are visible in bottom of dish. Remove dish from oven and let cool- this is important because you'll be swirling them around at high speeds and don't want to cause burns!



Scoop roasted tomatillos and jalapenos from baking dish into food processor bowl. Add onion



and cilantro, securely attach the lid and start pulsing. Make sure all large chunks are processed, and pulse until it reaches a texture you like. Taste and add salt as needed (used 1 tsp here).

Now you have the components to make your burrito bowls- or perhaps a "taco salad!"

For burrito bowls, grab a plate and layer about one cup of shredded pork, half cup Pinto beans, Pico de Gallo and Salsa Verde. That's it! To make a Fajita Burrito Bowl, saute sliced onion and bell pepper until crisp tender, and add to your plate before the salsas.

I know this doesn't look great. But in daylight it would photograph much better, and the taste is still fabulous!

 (Thanks to the slow cooker) this meal only takes one hour or less of actual preparation and cooking. And it is seriously on the same level as a fresh Tex-Mex restaurant quality Carnitas dish, but it's better because you know where all of your ingredients came from, and what quality they are. Which is important, because you are what you eat, and you are what your food eats ;)

Paleo "Apple Pie"

I deserved a treat today!

It was a long, uncomfortable weekend.

I visited an allergist on Friday, where I almost walked out twice because of the "culture clash" as the doctor described it. Note to Doctor, when you start off an appointment by saying that you "don't believe leaky gut syndrome exists," this really alienates your patients that attempt to be informed. Just because something isn't written up in your favorite medical journal, does not make it quack science.

I struggle with the resistance in allopathic medicine to listen to theories about the root of disease; I would think that a physician, someone who works in a helping profession, would at least be mildly curious about what is truly helping people (i.e. treating autoimmune and allergies by treating leaky gut with the Paleo diet, SCD, going grain-free, etc.)! OH well. I left on a good note, feeling like I planted a seed of awareness, and the doctor seemed to be mildly intrigued that my inflammatory and autoimmune conditions improved when I eliminated the reactive foods on my IgG panel two years ago. That's all you can do sometimes, is plant a seed. Much better than walking out and giving up :)

The doctor did run two allergy panel skin tests for IgE reactions. As far as the results are concerned, I only have true allergies to grass, weeds, cats and milk, and less significantly to peanuts, almonds and soy. 

Unfortunately my body says otherwise.

What seems to have happened is that I absorbed all of the substances that they injected me with for the test (wheat, milk, egg, soy, pollens, nuts, and so on...) and because I have IgG allergies to many of those things, it's been a miserable time.

I am finally coming out of the allergy fog, and feeling less stiff and enthesitis-y. 

Yes, I just made up a word  :) 

I finally felt a bit like myself again!

So I made Crock Pot applesauce. 

And then I made Paleo "Apple Pies!" 

(I suppose by composition, they are more like cobbler, but whatever.)

 These treats are something I came up with during our first month of eating Paleo, and I think you'll enjoy them quite a bit!

What you need:

First-

5-10 pounds peeled, cored, sliced and washed apples

1/2 cup filtered water

2+ tablespoons cinnamon (+ according to taste)

Later- 

almond meal

coconut cream (sold in cans or small aseptic boxes)

What you do:

First- make a batch of applesauce. This is easy to do!
You just need to adjust the size of your slow cooker and the cooking time depending upon how many apples you are working with.
For ideal cooking, the insert will be at least 1/2 full.
I used my six quart Cuisinart slow cooker and it was about 4/5 full of Braeburn apple slices.
I use a nifty apple corer/peeler/slicer gadget that we got as a wedding gift, and it makes this whole process fun and fast. I highly recommend getting one if you make applesauce often!

Fill an appropriately sized slow cooker insert with the clean, peeled pieces of apple.

Sprinkle cinnamon over the apples.

Pour water over everything.

Put the lid on, set to "Low" heat and let cook until apples are breaking down, water has absorbed and cooked out, and applesauce is the consistency you desire.

(I let mine go for six hours.)

Depending upon how long you cook it and how small your apple pieces were to begin with, you may want to mush applesauce with a potato masher to get a smooth texture.

(I leave mine as is; it's so soft the small chunks don't seem to matter.)

First, dish up some applesauce for yourself and whoever is with you, and make some "pies." 

Then store the rest: spoon applesauce into sterilized glass jars, let cool in the refrigerator overnight, and freeze. 

With just fifteen minutes of preparation and six hours of cook time, I have six jars full of fresh, homemade applesauce.
The ingredients cost under $5!

Making things homemade is a great way to save money and ensure your family is eating good food
without creepy preservatives or other undesirables.

For "pies"-

Spoon approximately one cup of applesauce into serving bowls. Scoop on one or two spoonfuls of coconut cream in each bowl, and sprinkle almond meal over the top. Coconut cream has a strong coconut flavor on its own, but when you stir everything together and take a bite, it really tastes like warm apple pie with a touch of cool whipped cream!

These are delicious.

Enjoy!

Buffalo Buorguignon

Have you seen "Julie & Julia?" Remember the cute story about Bouef Bourguignon, and the scenes where Amy Adams is cooking the dish and it just looks so beautiful and delicious? The movie played it up to be so romantic. Well, I won't lie: I want to make some. It's on my "cooking bucket list." Anyone else have one of those? No? I know, I'm a food nerd. I like it that way  :)

When I saw a recipe for slow cooker "Beef Bourguignon" at Crock Pot 365 [my favorite place to find gluten free, slow cooker inspiration] and saw that it was completely do-able as a gluten free, dairy free, paleoish meal, I got excited! I knew I'd found a simple way to see if I liked the flavors of a Bourguignon roast before attempting the more intense Julia Child recipe, and it just so happened that we had buffalo stew meat in the freezer. I gave it a whirl and I have to say, I was delighted at how much the Hubs and I enjoyed it. The flavors came together very nicely in the slow cooker, the meat was tender and not gamey in the least. Delectable! You must get your hands on some buffalo stew meat and try this!

Slow Cooked Buffalo Bourguignon

adapted from Crock Pot 365's Beef Bourguignon

What you need:

1 pound buffalo stew meat pieces (grass fed beef would work)

4 slices uncured bacon

1/2 red onion, sliced

1 cup chopped carrots

2 tsp Tuscan style Italian seasoning (Herbs de Provence if you're a stickler for the traditional)*

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

fresh ground black pepper

2 cups red wine (I used "Two Buck Chuck" Charles Shaw Merlot from Trader Joe's)

*I looked up Herbs de Provence planning to make my own. It is a blend of basil, fennel, marjoram, rosemary, savory, thyme, and sometimes lavender. When I got to my spice cabinet I discovered that the McCormick Tuscan Style Italian Seasoning from Costco was very close and used that instead. It is a blend of thyme, garlic, marjoram, onion, rosemary, oregano, basil, savory and sage.

What you do:

I used my 3 quart slow cooker. Make whatever size you have work; this is casual slow cooking :)

Lay two slices of bacon in the bottom of your slow cooker. Top with onion slices. Put stew meat into crock on top of onions and bacon, and sprinkle on seasonings.

Lay remaining two slices bacon over the meat, and top with the carrots.

Carefully pour red wine over everything in the crock.

Cover and set to "High," and let it heat up until you can smell the wine in the air. Change the temp setting to "Low" and cook until meat reaches desired doneness (it took 3 to 4 hours here - I forgot to write down the exact time). If you like, you can take the lid off partway through cooking and stir everything, but then you will need to plan on some more time for cooking. Dish is ready when the carrots are tender and the meat is cooked to your desired doneness.

Serve with steamed Normandy vegetables drizzled with olive oil, and gravy. Make gravy by whisking together a little bit of juice from the slow cooker with a tablespoon of thickener such as cornstarch in a small bowl, then add it to the rest of the juices simmering in a small saucepan and whisk until thickened.

As Julia would say, "Bon apetit!"

Dinner

Leftovers for lunch

Speaking of Julia, here she is, cooking her famous Bouef Bourguignon on the very first episode of "The French Chef." So much cooking wisdom in these twenty eight minutes. What a neat lady she was...

Slow Cooking: Spicy Coconut Chicken

Slow cookers, a.k.a. Crock Pots. Do you have one? If so, do you actually use it? Confession: I have three slow cookers. Actually, four if you count our GIGANTIC Nesco roaster. They were all gifts-I'm not an addict. However, now five years into my "homemaking career," if you will, I use all of them. It just took me a while to get into slow cooking.

Truth: Slow cookers are not the most glamorous kitchen tool, and the food they produce isn't always beautiful for photos. However, it is always delicious, and so simple and easy to get it that way. I think slow cookers are making a comeback with savvy cooks. In some cases, you can have a delicious hot dinner ready in the evening after just five minutes of prep work in the morning. Slow cookers save money because they can make just about any cut of meat moist, and it's hard to overcook something. And they are rumored to be one of the best ways to cook with a low energy cost - as low as two cents per day!

This recipe evolved from a recipe for Tandoori Chicken over at Crock Pot 365. I only made that dish once, with Greek yogurt. After a few weeks post-partum, all my food allergies came back in full force, and I couldn't have dairy at all. I wanted to make it again sans yogurt, so I did a little thinking and came up with a new twist to the dish: canned coconut milk as a yogurt sub. I also modified the spices (I'm allergic to garlic, so that went away with the yogurt). After cooking this on four separate, but all delicious, occasions, and playing around with the spices each time, I've landed upon what I think is the perfect combination of flavors. I also think my creation is unique and tasty enough to deserve it's own name. I'm calling it...

Spicy Coconut Chicken

What you need:

3-4 quart slow cooker (If you have a larger one, simply double the recipe. Leftovers of this dish are WONDERFUL!)
Fresh/thawed boneless, skinless chicken pieces. Try this combo: 4 small chicken thighs and 2 medium chicken breasts (I like Trader Joe's fresh organic, free range)
One can of coconut milk (Go for a brand without preservative chemicals, such as Taste Nirvana or Trader Joe's)
Bag of frozen broccoli or cauliflower pieces

1/2 to 1 tsp* of the following ground spices:
turmeric
curry
smoked paprika
cumin
coriander
ginger
crushed red pepper flake

*Use your taste as a guide. We love spicy around here, so for the real heat I recommend 1 full teaspoon of each spice.

What you do:

Put chicken pieces into the slow cooker (I used my 3 quart Hamilton Beach). Gently -to prevent splashing- pour half a can of coconut milk on top. Scoop each teaspoon of spice right on top of the chicken and coconut milk. Once everything is in the slow cooker, take a fork and start turning the chicken pieces, working from the bottom to the top. Get both sides of each piece coated. The spices will mix together on their own while you do this. When everything looks good and well coated, put the lid on, set the heat at Low, and cook for three to four hours, depending on thickness of chicken and power of your slow cooker.

At this point, add your frozen veg and keep the heat on Low. If the veg pieces are small, it won't take long to finish - less than twenty minutes. Dish up a plate: a piece of chicken, a few scoops of veg, and some extra sauce as there will be plenty. You can serve this on a bed of "riced" cauliflower for something extra. This is a great, convenient Paleo meal, it is super easy using the Crock Pot, and it has plenty of the three components we need: 1) lean protein (chicken), 2) healthy fats (coconut milk) and 3) vegetables (broccoli and cauliflower)!

Like I said, the slow cooker doesn't always produce aesthetically pleasing dishes, but this really tastes wonderful. Give it a try tonight!

Thanksgiving!

I cooked an entirely gluten-free, soy-free, processed-food free, and nearly refined-sugar- and dairy-free Thanksgiving dinner. It was a blast. We spent the day together as a family, relaxed, no chores, no errands, just watching the Macy's parade, cooking and enjoying each other.

Our Menu

GF Roasted Butterball Turkey, rubbed with poultry seasoning blend and roasted in a Reynold's roasting bag with a tablespoon of rice flour
(Next year we're going to go for a local farm raised turkey and do the brine thing, but we appreciated this because it was free!)

GF Turkey Gravy - made from GF cornstarch and the turkey drippings

GF Wild rice dressing with celery, onion, poultry seasoning, veggie broth and pepper,

GF quinoa dressing with celery, onion, poultry seasoning, veggie broth and pepper

GF Sauteed French cut green beans with walnuts sauteed in GF EVOO, S & P

GF Slow roasted garnet yams cooked in the Crock Pot all day with a splash of water, and a sprinkle of GF mini marshmallows melted before serving

GF Roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon and walnuts recipe from Food Network Kitchens - Hubs says this is a MUST REPEAT EVERY NIGHT dish :)

GF Cranberry Pear sauce recipe from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen - Brilliant because the pears sweeten the sauce you need almost no added sugar! I doubled it and added an organic Gala apple, and a cup of sucanat instead of coconut sugar

GF Mashed Potatoes (from GF instant potato flakes, to save time and because we had some to use up). Hubs made them with chicken stock, Silk refrigerated plain coconut milk, butter and Kosher salt. With the delicious GF turkey gravy topping them, you could hardly tell they were instant.

To drink:
Knudsen's Organic Sparkling Apple Juice and Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider

For dessert:
GF CrockPot Pumpkin Cheesecake, recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking. I substituted sucanat for the white sugar in the filling, and brown sugar for the crust.
No Picture because whenever it's out of the fridge it's being eaten - no time for photos! :)

This afternoon, Hubs and I are enjoying some of the last pieces of the cheesecake, along with decaf Rice Dream Rice Nog lattes. Don't you love autumn and Christmas season flavors?

Dinner's Ready!

For the first time in years I have been cooking a complete dinner meal consistently every evening. And I owe it to my new necessary gluten free diet!

Since we decided to go 100% gluten free in our house, we've never looked back. It's been a little over two weeks now and things are going well. I made a wonderful re-discovery at the same time we made this big decision. I rediscovered Stephanie O'Dea's A Year of Slow Cooking. It is a fantastic year-long collection of crock pot recipes, and ALL of them are gluten free! Needless to say, I've been on that website almost daily, and Hubs and I have cooked about seven different recipes so far. It's been an incredible help - I just toss some ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning, put it on Low, and by dinner time it's ready! I think our favorite dish so far has been the Tandoori Chicken. I use half a can of coconut milk instead of the yogurt, and it tastes really good while also being dairy free.

As I've started to gluten-detox, I've found that every few days I am up for challenges that require a little more energy. So there ya go!