Kabobs!

In the summer, sometimes the best dinners are the simple fresh off the grill meals!

This is one of our favorites!

And, let me warn you...DO NOT avoid the pineapple, thinking that would ruin the dish! The grilled pineapple is EVERYONE's favorite part of this meal! It's AWESOME!!!!!

Kabobs
Ingredients:
1 chicken breast, cut into large chunks
1/2 lb turkey kielbasa
1 large yellow squash, sliced
1 large green zucchini, sliced
1 large onion, cut into large chunks
8 oz button mushrooms
1 fresh pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into large chunks
1 bell pepper, any color

Directions:
1. After slicing all the meat and veggies, start putting them onto skewers, mixing as you go.
2. Heat grill on high for several minutes to get it nice and hot!
3. Cook on medium or high for about 15 minutes, turning occasionally.
4. Remove from skewers and serve!

Variations:
1. Try marinating the chicken in Italian Dressing. SO Yummy!
2. Sometimes I sprinkle with mesquite seasoning and some garlic powder.
3. Could do barbecue on the chicken.
4. Serve with saffron rice.

Really, the sky is the limit!

Fresh Guacamole

So I have made many variations of guacamole...even posted on here that I claimed was simple and tasty!

But you know what? Sometimes the simpler, the better!

Next time you want some guacamole, just try this! You won't be disappointed!

Fresh Guacamole

Ingredients:
2 ripe avocados
1-2 tsp lime juice
1/4 tsp garlic salt, if desired

Directions:
1. Slice avocado in half. Remove seed. Using a spoon, remove inside meat of avocado and dump into a glass bowl.
2. Using a fork, mash avocado. Add lime juice and a little garlic salt if desired (it's good either way!)
3. Serve with tortilla chips!

Pan Fried Turnips and Potatoes (WEMP Free)

Here's the other turnip recipe that Chris actually made for us last week...he modified it for Derek, but the original recipe came from recipezaar (Pan Fried Turnips and Potatoes).

They were very good, but you couldn't really taste the turnip much at all. You could tell there was something different about the potatoes, but you didn't really know what. They were very tasty though!

We didn't take a picture...so imagine fried potatoes :) That's all it looked like LOL!

Pan Fried Turnips and Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 1/2 lbs turnips, peeled and cubed
5 tbsp olive oil
1 medium vidalia onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:
1. Cook cubed potatoes and turnips in boiling, salted water until fork tender; drain well.
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat olive oil. Add chopped onion and garlic and saute for about 3-4 minutes.
3. To the skillet, add cooked drained potato and turnip cubes.
4. Add salt and pepper.
5. Continue to cook and stir until potatoes and turnips are lightly browned, adjusting heat as necessary.
6. When browned, sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Scalloped Turnips

Not only did we have Dijon Beets for dinner tonight (even Julie loved these! Belle probably would have too, but she wasn't home)...we also ate turnips! LOL! Another annoyance from the CSA...or so I thought! :) I was once again pleasantly surprised!

We actually had the turnips in another recipe last week that I haven't posted yet, but they were good then too...but tonight they were AWESOME!

I only had a few small ones left, but decided to go ahead and try this Scalloped Turnips recipe (again, found at recipezaar) anyway to see if it's worth keeping til next year, and let me tell you, all the turnips next year will be turned into these wonderful scalloped babies! :)

Only downside, of course, is that Derek can't eat them...but he didn't seem to mind at all. Julie on the other hand was NOT happy that there was only enough for 2 tiny servings (which I went ahead and gave to Chris and myself simply b/c I didn't think she'd eat them)...she kept stealing bites of mine and loved every bit!

*Note, since I only had a very small amount of turnips left I about halved the sauce, but still, it ended up being a lot of sauce...so I'm not certain how the turnip to sauce ratio should actually be...but this was very saucy, and very tasty!

Scalloped Turnips
Ingredients:
3 turnips, medium sized
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated

Directions:
1. Wash the turnips well. Slice them and boil in salted water for about 15 minutes.
2. In a sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour and whisk until well blended. Let cook for about a minute. Add milk, salt, and pepper and whisk again.
3. Place the turnips in a baking dish, pour the sauce over and srinkle with grated cheese.
4. Bake at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes and serve hot.

Dijon Beets - WEMP Free

OK, I know, I know...BEETS? What the heck are you thinking?!

I've only ever really EATEN beets from a can, and that was probably 20 years ago as a kid! :) I remember liking them back then, but when I tried pickled beets as an adult I couldn't stand them!

But, alas, we joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm this year, and darned if we didn't get beets. Two weeks in a row. What's a girl to do?

So, I jumped online and searched recipezaar for the most highly rated beet recipes (because why would I try one that hasn't gotten rave reviews?!), and I found this one. Dijon Beets. It sounded interesting, and people loved them (after all, they must be good...29 people not only thought they were good, but good enough to post a review and give it 5 stars!), so I went ahead and bit the bullet tonight (after they've been taking up room in my fridge for a week and a half now!) and oddly enough, I liked them! I mean, I REALLY liked them! I probably still wouldn't say that I'd intentionally go to the store and pick out beets for dinner on any given day, but if I'm given beets from my CSA or anywhere else for that matter, I wouldn't mind making these again! :)

So, if you ever get beets and you don't know what to do with them, please try these out! They were quite tasty!

Dijon Beets

Ingredients:
4 medium beets
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sugar

Directions:
1. Wash beets. Scrub if necessary! (Ours were SO dirty!)
2. Cut off greens if necessary.
3. Put beets in a pot with water to cover them.
4. Bring beets to a boil and cook until tender when pierced with a fork.
5. Drain and cool.
6. Slice beets into 1/4-inch slices.
7. Combine remaining ingredients.
8. Pour over beets and stir to combine.
9. Serve warm or let marinate in the dridge for a couple of hours. (I served them warm from the stove)

Revised WEMP Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I decided to try my new wemp-free chocolate chip cookies using Ener-G egg replacer instead of the applesauce to see if I could get a cookie that tastes even closer to the regular chocolate chip cookies we're all used to!

The other ones were good, but they weren't amazing! :) SO, let's see if this one reaches that goal!

UPDATE: These just came out of the oven, and let me say this...if I were to do a taste test right now, I bet NO ONE would know they are WEMP free!!! They are totally awesome!!! Yey!!!

Revised WEMP Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2/3 cup dairy free shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup wheat-free all-purpose flour mix
3/4 tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp Ener-G Egg replacer
2 Tbsp water
1/3 cup vanilla soy milk
1 cup dairy-free mini chocolate chips (Enjoy Life Brand!)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using a large mixer, combine shortening, brown sugar, sugar, and vanilla, until well blended. In small bowl, combine flour, xanthum gum, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and mix until well combined. In a small bowl, whisk together water and egg replacer powder. Add to cookie batter and mix on low speed until combined. Add soy milk, mixing until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
2. Use a cookie scoop to place batter onto stone baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

WEMP Free Chocolate Chip cookies

So, I'm using another recipe from The Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book...but again, tweaking it b/c of the wheat allergy.

WEMP Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2/3 cup dairy free shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup wheat-free all-purpose flour mix
3/4 tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup dairy-free mini chocolate chips (Enjoy Life Brand!)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using a large mixer, combine shortening, brown sugar, sugar, applesauce, and vanilla, until well blended. In small bowl, combine flour, xanthum gum, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and mix until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
2. Use a cookie scoop to place batter onto stone baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

WEMP Free Corn Dogs

Here's my version of one of our favorites! Now Derek can enjoy them too! :)

Ingredients:
2 cups Cybele Pascal's wheat free all-purpose flour mixture
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 cup rice milk
1 1/2 tsp Ener-G Egg replacer mixed with 2 Tbsp water
8-10 hot dogs
vegetable oil (for frying)

Directions:
1. Preheat fryer to 375 degrees (we just heat up oil in a skillet on the stove)
2. Dry hot dogs with paper towels, set aside.
3. Combine wheat-free all-purpose flour mixture, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking soda in mixing bowl.
4. Combine 1 1/2 tsp egg replacer with 2 Tbsp water (in separate bowl)
4. Combine rice milk and egg replacer/water with dry ingredients; mix until smooth.
5. Dip hot dogs into patter and drop into hot oil, spinning it frequently so that it cooks evenly.
6. Cook for about 3-5 minutes or until brown.

Corn Dogs

This is one of Chris' favorites that I make! Super easy and yummy! SO much better than any you can buy and heat up, and they take no time at all!
I'm gonna make these for lunch today, but will try to make them WEMP free...if they are awesome I'll post the recipe later!

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 cup milk
2 egg yolks (slightly beaten)
8-10 hot dogs
vegetable oil (for frying)

Directions:
1. Preheat fryer to 375 degrees (we just heat up oil in a skillet on the stove)
2. Dry hot dogs with paper towels, set aside.
3. Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking soda in mixing bowl.
4. Combine milk and egg youlk with dry ingredients; mix until smooth.
5. Dip hot dogs into patter and drop into hot oil, spinning it frequently so that it cooks evenly.
6. Cook for about 3-5 minutes or until brown.

WEMP Free Chocolate Chip Waffles

Not only are these safe for Derek, but they are awesome! Chris said they are the best waffles he's ever had even! Yey! Can't wait for Derek to try them!!!
So long $6 boxes of cardboard waffles!!!!!!!!!!

WEMP Free Chocolate Chip Waffles
(makes 9 standard square waffles)

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp water
2 cups soy milk
6 Tbsp canola oil
3 cups wheat free all purpose flour mix
1 tsp xanthum gum
8 tsp baking powder
4 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 to 1 cup ENJOY LIFE brand allergy-free chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Whisk together water, soy milk, and canola oil into small bowl.
2. In large bowl, combine flour mix, xanthum gum, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Mix together well, and then add soy milk mixture.
3. Using a large silicone spatula, mix together until fully blended...but do not over mix. Some clumps are ok! Once blended, add chocolate chips.
4. Heat waffle iron. Spray generously with cooking spray - or they will get super stuck!
5. Add about 1/3 cup or so of batter to each waffle "space" in iron. Lower lid and cook until ready!

*Note - this batter is extra thick and fluffy, not like a typical waffle batter, so you may want to spread it out a bit on the waffle iron so it fills it completely.

Wheat Free All Purpose Flour Mixture

This recipe comes from Cybele Pascal's book The Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook. Let me just say that I've tried a few recipes from this book, and although one didn't work for me (totally could have been MY fault!), there are several awesome recipes in here! :)

I've begun experimenting with my own recipes, seeing what I can do to alter them so that we can still eat the same food we love, but altering it in such a way that Derek can enjoy it with us! :) He REALLY does NOT like it when he's eating something different than what everyone else is eating! So, I have to either make everyone the same food, or disguise his really REALLY well!

Anyway, so far this mixture is working wonders for us (we even made an excellent bread, just by substituting the flour mixture for all purpose flour, and adding some xanthum gum!).

Wheat Free All Purpose Flour Mix

Ingredients:
4 cups finely ground brown rice flour
1 1/3 cup potato starch
2/3 cup tapioca starch

Directions:
1. Combine flours into container, whisking well to fully mix. Store in air tight container (can place in refrigerator if you are not going to use soon).
2. Use in place of all purpose flour in recipes. You may need to add xanthum gum for different recipes, as that is what binds together flour in wheat-free cooking...but I don't know enough about xanthum gum at this point to give any guidelines about how much to use. I just look at other similar recipes :)

HINT: If using Bob's Red Mill brown rice, you can actually remove 1/4 cup from a full bag, and you'll be left with the 4 cups you need!

Best Asparagus Ever! :)

My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE asparagus. Isn't that weird?! They also love brussel sprouts. That's weirder! LOL!

We had just started eating roasted asparagus with a bit of lemon and some parmesan cheese recently, but with Derek's WEMP allergies, we can no longer top our veggies with cheese. :( Luckily it's not something I did that often that our kids will even notice that we are no longer doing it.

BUT, I wanted to make asparagus the other night that was just as flavorful and satisfying as the cheese covered kind we'd been eating, so I decided to top it with some pre-cooked bacon pieces, and it was fabulous! It satisfied my need for cheese and salt all with just a touch of bacon! :) And, Chris said it was the BEST asparagus he's ever eaten!!!!

Ingredients:
2 bunches asparagus, with bottoms removed
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp pre-cooked bacon pieces

Directions:
1. Heat oil in large skillet. Once hot, add asparagus and garlic and saute until tender (3-5 minutes). Add lemon juice and salt and pepper, and continue cooking for another minute or two until you get some browning on the stalks. Sprinkle with bacon and heat for about 30 seconds.

WEMP Free "White" Bread

This recipe came from Betty Crocker's cookbook, but we just tweaked it to make it wheat free! :)
It turned out FABULOUS! Not only did Derek like it, but we all did! It was soft and slightly chewy, and just had a great flavor to it!

I had read somewhere that large loaves of wheat-free bread don't turn out as nicely on the top and that they don't rise as well, so we made two very small loaves...but will definitely try this one as a larger loaf to see how large of one we can make and it still turn out ok. Right now it's ok that his sandwiches are the size of his little hand (although on a normal day he could probably eat 3 or 4 of these size sandwiches!), but I don't think he'll like it in high school :) Although, hopefully he'll outgrow these allergies way before then!!!!

WEMP Free "White" Bread

Ingredients:
1-2 cups flour mix
1 tsp xanthum gum
1 Tbsp sugar
1/3 Tbsp salt
2 tsp dairy-free shortening
2/3 package instant yeast
3/4 cup very warm water (120-130 degrees)

Directions:
1. Mix 1 cup flour mix, sugar, salt, shortening, and yeast in large bowl. Add warm water. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough remaining flour (up to about another cup) to made dough easy to handle. You want the dough to come together like regular wheat dough, only you want this to remain a little more moist than wheat dough. That will help to keep the bread soft and moist after baking.

2. Because wheat-free dough has no gluten, you don't need to knead it! :)

3. Grease bottoms and sides of 2 small loaf pans (these were about 2x4 or 2x5 that we made), with shortening.

4. Form dough into 2 small loaf shapes, and drop into bread pans. Cover and let rise for about an hour, until it looks like it's about 1 1/2 to 2 times larger.

5. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until loaves are slightly golden on top. Remove loaves from pan and allow to cool on wire rack.

6. Store bread in zip loc bags so that it doesn't dry out. The best way to store loaves is in the freezer for short periods of time, as without wheat they do tend to dry out a lot quicker than regular bread.

Just look at this!!!