New Pizza Crust Idea

It's been 6 months since I made pizza. For some strange reason, my kids will never eat it - even with tomatoes and cheese (which they can have). Anyway, my husband and I had a pizza craving...maybe because we'd been snowed in for so long. So we indulged.

I published a pizza post last July, so the recipe didn't change much. But the big revolution was in the crust. I tried GARBANZO BEAN FLOUR! It made a great crust combined with quinoa flour, and hopefully made the pizza even more nutritious. Toppings this round were: pesto, ham, black olives, green peppers, artichoke hearts, and onions.

Chili - No Beef, Tomatoes, Cheese

I was inspired to come up with a chili recipe one night when I looked on the menu and saw the same old rotation diet list: buffalo and turnips. I was tired, and remembered how easy it was to make chili - brown ground beef, combine it with some canned tomatoes and kidney beans, then enjoy. So here's my version of chili (we can't have tomatoes, ground beef, pinto or kidney beans, or cheese).

1 lb ground buffalo
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 can white beans
about 1 quart bag cooked frozen turnips in cubes (or fresh, cooked if you have them)
about 3 cups vegetable broth
chili powder, to taste
sweet paprika, to taste
salt & pepper, to taste

Brown the ground buffalo, onion, and garlic. Combine the turnips and vegetable broth in a pot, cook until tender. Gently mash turnips with a potato masher, add water to bring to a "soupy" consistency if needed, then add beans, meat, and spices. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Serve with grated carrot sprinkled on top.

Shepherd's Pie (no beef, tomatoes, wheat)

For some strange reason, I'll always remember the time my Aunt Patty made Shepherd's Pie and brought it over to our house. It was creamy, with green beans, and mashed potatoes. This had to have been at least 15 years ago, but I still remember how great it was. There is a Shepherd's Pie recipe in Cybele Pascal's Allergy Cookbook, but it has evolved into my own recipe, tailored to my family's needs. Here's my new Shepherd's Pie recipe:

7-8 all-purpose baking potatoes
1 package frozen green beans
1/2 package frozen corn
1 lb. ground buffalo
1 chopped onion
1 chopped carrot
2 cups vegetable broth
2 T. oat flour
2 T. olive oil
1 cup rice milk
1 t. chili powder
2 T. fresh chopped parsley
1 T. fresh thyme leaves
1/2 t. cumin
pepper
salt

For the mashed potatoes: wash, peel, and cut potatoes into small cubes. Place in boiling water for about 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and mash with a little rice milk and olive oil.

Brown the ground buffalo, then add the onion and carrot. Cook for about 10-15 minutes or until carrots are soft and buffalo is no longer pink.

In a small saucepan, combine the 2 T. olive oil and 2 T. oat flour over medium heat. Add the vegetable broth and rice milk, stir constantly, and cook until thickened. Stir in spices.

Spread green beans in a single layer in a glass baking dish. Add corn and ground buffalo mixture. Pour sauce/gravy over everything and top with mashed potatoes.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes, until hot and bubbly and potatoes are slightly browned.

I actually divided up the ingredients between two glass casserole dishes: one for my kids (no spices, no corn), and one for us.

Easy Pasta dish - no wheat or tomatoes (cheese & nuts optional)

I came up with an easy pasta dish:

1 package of brown rice pasta (or you can use wheat or quinoa)
Frozen vegetables such as peas, broccoli, asparagus, zucchini, summer squash
Some pesto (see below)
Olives
Pine Nuts (optional)
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, steam the frozen vegetables (I do this in the micro) until tender-crisp. Toss everything together and you have a pasta-pesto dish.

Pesto: Combine 1 clove garlic, some fresh basil leaves, olive oil, and pine nuts (optional) or parmesan cheese (optional) in the food processor. Process until it forms a thick paste.

This is a great easy dish for a family with multiple different food allergies, because you can reserve a little pesto without nuts (for the kids) and add cheese later for those who can have it. For those who can eat cooked chicken pieces, you can toss that in too. Otherwise, my husband just ate his with fish.

Freezing Vegetable Broth

Last blog, I wrote I would stop using the glass Ball/Mason Jars for freezing soups/broth and revert back to plastic or pyrex. Some advice from a recent Martha Stewart Living magazine came in handy...freeze broth in one-cup muffin tins (like ice cubes). Then you can pop them out and store them in a ziplock freezer bag until you're ready to use them. Just take out as many "ice cubes" as cups of broth called for in the recipe and you're done. It worked wonderfully. I just had to be very careful putting the filled muffin tins in the freezer, and I used my thumb to firmly press on the back of the muffin tin in the middle of the cup to remove the "ice cubes" of broth. They gently popped out and it worked very well. A little more work up front, but it was very easy to just pop two "cups" of vegetable broth out of the freezer to boil my cabbage.

Grandma B's Chicken Noodle Soup

My mom's most famous meals always involve putting a whole bunch of meat and vegetables in a huge roasting pan, and roasting them in the oven until they are so tender they simply fall apart when you put them in your mouth. My daughter and I were wanting some chicken noodle soup that we could keep in the freezer (an alternative to canned). Here's Grandma "B's" recipe for chicken noodle soup:

Rinse a whole, cut up chicken in cold water and put it in a roasting pan. Sprinkle in cut-up carrots, celery, and onions. Add at least 2" of water, cover with aluminum foil, and roast at 350 degrees for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Roast on the bottom rung of the oven. Then, dice up the chicken, cool and freeze the broth, vegetables and chicken. When ready to eat, simply thaw and add some pasta, noodles, or rice and water (if necessary) and cook in a saucepan on the stove until grain is tender. You can add your own salt/pepper to taste.

It's turned out great, but again I've had a problem freezing in the glass Ball canning jars. They keep breaking on me and it's hard to remember to take them out of the freezer in advance. If I do this again, I'm going back to plastic freezer containers or Pyrex.

Unfortunately, this one is only allergy-free for my daughter and also makes great "baby food" for my 14-month old in the blender. However, my husband loved the pork tenderloin I made in the slow-cooker with carrots, onions, garlic, parsnips and salt/pepper (another "Grandma B" dish).

Sushi and Granola Bars

When my sister came to visit, she gave me $20 and requested I pick up some California Rolls and Granola Bars for her at Whole Foods. While she's watching the kids, my husband and I go into the store and look at the California Rolls - we think about the nori, carrots, avocado, wheat-free tamari soy sauce and cooked frozen shrimp we have at home. We decide, "let's just roll our own at home, it will be fun!" So we pick up a cucumber, wasabi powder, and some special sushi rice out of the bulk food section and off we go. And as for the granola bars - I didn't want to spend hours reading boxes to find some without soy, peanuts, nuts, or trans fat in case my daughter were to want one (which is likely), so I decide to make those myself too, and we buy some chocolate chips (for a special treat).

When we got home, I cut up the vegetables while my husband de-thawed the shrimp and put the rice in the rice cooker. A couple of his rolling tricks: (1) put the rice in a wooden bowl to cool and absorb excess water, (2) use rice vinegar (we used brown rice vinegar) to make the rice not so sticky.

I made the granola bars after dinner, which were from the "Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook" and simply involved stirring all the ingredients together (I used 1/4 c honey and 1/2 brown rice syrup) and pressing them into the cookie sheet. I also added some unsweetened shredded coconut sprinkled on top.

It did take a little longer, but it was very rewarding to make our own food at home.