The Gluti Girls...

Buffalo Chicken Soup

This post is for Gluten Free Steve. He thought this sounded good and it is fantastic! I don't have any pictures yet, nor have I made it this week but did make it a month or so ago. I got it from Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The husband Steve is keeping me busy.  I keep finding him using his arm and he's not supposed to!  Bad boy. Enjoy the recipe..... 

Buffalo Chicken Soup 

6 servings 

Prep: 30 minutes 

Cook: 15 minutes 

Ingredients 

1  2-1/4 to 2-1/2 lb. deli-roasted chicken, skinned, boned, and coarsely shredded 

2  Tbsp. butter 

1/2  cup coarsely chopped celery 

1/2  cup chopped onion 

2  14-oz. cans reduced-sodium chicken broth 

1-1/2  cups milk 

1  tsp. bottled hot pepper sauce 

1-1/2  cups mozzarella cheese (6 oz.) 

1-1/4  cups crumbled blue cheese (5 oz.) 

1/2  cup shredded Parmesan cheese (2 oz.) 

1/3  cup all-purpose flour (I used sweet rice flour) 

Bottled hot pepper sauce (optional) 

Directions 

1. In 4-quart Dutch oven melt butter over medium heat. Add celery and onion; cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in broth, milk, and the 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce. 

2. In bowl toss together mozzarella, 1 cup of the blue cheese, Parmesan, and flour. Add gradually to soup, stirring after each addition just until melted. Stir in three-fourths of the shredded chicken; heat through. Top with remaining chicken, blue cheese, and hot sauce. Makes 6 servings

Menu Monday February 25- 29

Spring is coming.  I can feel it.  Steve's cousin came to dinner Saturday night and she brought me some flowers.  Little did she know they are my favorite spring flower.  My house smells like heaven!  I have no new recipes to share today so I thought I would share my flowers.  

Steve is having shoulder surgery on Wednesday.  I am keeping my menus as simple as possible.   Plus, I as still working my way through my house cleaning like a crazy woman. This weeks ingredient for Menu Swap is Banana.  The host is Natalie and she has made a wonderful looking banana bread.  

With Steve having surgery, I'm not planning any fancy banana recipes, but I will buy him some bananas to munch on while recovering.  Good potassium! These are my simple plans for the week.  Easy comfort food!....... 

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans 

Pesto chicken, pasta, salad 

Chicken and rice soup, Natalie's bread

Fish Ceasar, brown rice, broccoli 

Buffalo Chicken soup, veggies and dip, crackers

The Best Bread EVER!

 

Edit:  The bread machine I use is a Zojirushi.  I use the whole wheat setting at a time of 2:08.  Place all wet ingredients in the bottom of the pan, then the dry ingredients.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and place the yeast there.  If you don’t have a Zo, use the gluten free setting on your machine if you have that.  If not, contact the manufacturer of your machine to see what they recommend.  

This is the best gluten free bread I've ever had. Ever. Natalie, you are a bread genius. In the gluten free cooking world, we have gourmets, goddesses, girls and then there are queens. Natalie, you are the bread queen! 

This bread does not taste like it's gluten free. I could not stop munching on it! I broke all my carb rules for the whole week! But it was way worth it! I made it exactly like Natalie's recipe but I did it in the bread machine. I mixed all of my wet ingredients together and placed them in the bread machine. Then I mixed all the dry ingredients together minus the yeast and placed that on top of the wet ingredients. Then I put the yeast in on top of the dry ingredients. I didn't have a clue what settings to use so I used the same one I use when I make the Gluten Free Pantry bread mix. 

It was not as tall as the other types of bread I've made, but the flour is probably more dense. The flavor is wonderful!

   

Tonight I fixed Chicken fajitas from my menu. This recipe was featured in the March issue of Bon Appetit. It was so pretty I thought I should include some photos of how it turned out. 

Chicken fajitas with crunchy lime cabbage and avocado 

Bon Appétit | March 2008 

Servings: Makes 6 serving 

Ingredients 

6 tablespoons olive oil, divided, plus additional for griddle 

2 garlic cloves, minced 

1 tablespoon chili powder 

2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices 

1 large red bell pepper, cut into 3/4-inch-thick strips 

1 large red onion, halved, sliced lengthwise 

3 cups thinly sliced red cabbage 

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro 

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 

2 teaspoons finely grated lime peel 

6 to 8 fajita-size flour tortillas (I used corn tortillas to make the recipe gluten free) 

1 avocado, halved, pitted, sliced 

Preparation Whisk 3 tablespoons olive oil, garlic, and chili powder in large bowl. Add chicken, bell pepper, and onion. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Let stand 1 hour at room temperature or chill up to 4 hours. Toss red cabbage, cilantro, lime juice, lime peel, and 3 tablespoons olive oil in medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 350°F. 

Wrap tortillas in foil and place in oven until heated through, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, place large griddle over 2 burners and heat over medium-high heat. Brush griddle with olive oil. Spread chicken on griddle and cook until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are browned, turning frequently with tongs, about 7 minutes Total. Divide chicken among warm tortillas; top with cabbage mixture and avocado slices.

 

The slaw part was really good and so pretty! The recipe did not call for it but I added jicama to it. Yum.

 

Menu Monday for the week of February 18 - 27

 

I think we are on our way to getting well at out house. Cross my fingers. The weather is crazy here. One day it's cold and we have snow. The next day it's warm and raining. I am counting the days till spring. No wonder everyone has been sick. 

I've been on a cleaning frenzy. Something about everyone being sick makes me want to clean. Get the dust out of the house. It's a good time of year for cleaning out closets, washing ceiling fans, dusting the cob webs out of the corners and all the other stuff that's put off all year. I like to do these things this time of year anyway. By the time spring gets here, my house will be all cleaned and I will be ready to get out in the yard and enjoy spring. I don't like being couped up. I am an outdoors person. Once it turns warm you won't find me in the house much. So my house really gets neglected during the summer. I have to make up for all of that during the winter. 

I'm trying to keep my menu fairly simple this week because of all the cleaning going on. One night, we are going out with friends to Bonefish Grill. Our local Bonefish has a wonderful manager who really cares about gluten free eaters and has gone out of his way to educate his staff. They have a really great gluten free menu that even includes dessert.

  Karen at Gluten Free Sox is the host this week for menu swap. She has moved her blog to wordpress and it looks great! Karen is definitely not thinking about spring cleaning, but spring training! You know spring is really on it's way when spring training starts. The ingredient of the week is butternut squash. I love baked squash. It's just so simple. Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds. Lay the halves on a baking sheet. Fill the halves with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Bake at about 350 till tender. It's like dessert. You can do this with acorn squash as well. Or you can cut it in chunks, wack it in a roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper and roast it. Yum. Either way is yummy sqaushie goodness. 

Here are my menus for the week: 

Cheater Vegetable Beef Soup with Biscuits (recipe below) 

Baked Chicken, Roasted squash, green salad 

Eat out at Bonefish Grill 

Chicken Fajitas with Crunchy lime Cabbage and Avocados

My brothers fish (recipe will come later in the week), rice, Asian spinach salad 

Cheater Vegetable Beef Soup

I call this cheater soup because I use pre-cooked roast beef. Most of the time, I use my own beef and cook the soup base from scratch. But you know there are days you just don't have the time. This is so easy to get it in the pot, then you can walk away and do other things. I use pre-cooked Hormel beef. It is sold in two sizes. It tastes just like my own I make in the crock pot anyway. No one will know the difference. It makes a hot, hearty soup and even if it's sort of cheating, it's way better than canned! 

1 onion, chopped 

2 -14 oz can of petite chopped canned tomatoes 

4 cups beef broth 

1- 17 oz. package of pre-cooked Hormel slow simmered Roast Beef, chopped into bite size pieces 

4 or 5 potatoes cut into cubes 

4 or 5 large carrots, slices 

1- 14 oz. canned green beans 

1- 14 oz. canned corn 

2 cloves crushed garlic 

2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley 

1/3 cup red wine 

salt and pepper to taste 

Saute the onions in olive oil. Add tomatoes, broth and chopped beef along with the broth/gravy from the beef. Add the remaining ingredients. Simmer till potatoes and carrots are tender. 

There's time to make biscuits! My beautiful gluten free daughter has given me the order to find a good gluten free biscuit recipe. I have begun experimenting. This is the first one I've tried. It's by Bette Hagman. I have a really big gripe when it comes to gluten free cookbooks. It seems like everyone makes their cookbooks with a personal mix. You have to have their mix put together to replicate their recipe. If I find a particular recipe that I am going to make over and over again, I can see making up a mix to have on hand. But when using cookbooks with a recipe I just want to try once to see if I like it, I don't want an entire bag of mix made. I wish each recipe would just have the flours written that I need for that particular recipe with an addendum on how to make a mix for that recipe if I like it. Just my own pet peeve. 

This recipe was a mix of it's own. You make a lot of it and then it's ready to use whenever you are ready to make biscuits. We liked it, but I don't think it's "the one". So we will keep experimenting. It has a good flavor and was tender, but I thought it was a little dry. I was supposed to come up with the "perfect" biscuit before the little gluti one's 18th birthday. She is jonesing for some biscuits and gravy for her birthday breakfast. It will almost be her one year glutiversary too. She found out just after her birthday last year. She needs some comfort food for sure. 

Bette Hagman's Mary G's Biscuit Mix from More from the Gluten-Free Gourmet 

 

(Edited- I had the recipe for these biscuits on here, but maybe that is not legal to do? I have removed the recipe. If you want it you will have to find a copy of the cook book :) My bad.) (Edited again- My buddy Ginger was just teasing me about posting the recipe and I thought maybe I really wasn't suppose to do that.  I really wasn't sure so I took it down, but she assures me that is ok. I'm a goof ball and I know.  Hello, my name is Melanie and I'm a goof gall.) 

4 tablespoons sugar 

2 cups rice flour 

1 1/3 cups potato starch 

8 teaspoon baking powder 

2 teaspoons baking soda 

2 teaspoons salt 

3/4 cup shortening 

Mix together all the dry ingredients and cut in the shortening until the mixture is crumbly.   Divide this into 4 parts. To make biscuits, add 1 egg and 1/3 cup buttermilk to a quarter of the mixture.  Mix gently.  Roll out on floured board and cut into biscuit shapes or drop by spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet.  Bake 12 to 15 min at 400 degrees. The quest continues. Recipes or helpful hints in the art of biscuit making will be greatly appreciated!

Sick Days = no menu Monday!

We are all sick here at my house.  It started with my son getting the flu.  I started getting sick Saturday.  Hubby got up today with a head cold.  Younger Gluti Girl came home last night with a sore throat. I am doing okay today, but I didn't get a weekly menu planned.  At least today I am up moving around so far.  Saturday I started my herbal assault on my body.  Hopefully, it will keep me from getting worse.  Whenever I start getting sick, I eat raw garlic two to three times a day.  I know it sounds horrible, but it works.  If it doesn't totally throw the germs out of you, at least you don't get as sick as you would. 

The ingredient of the week is chocolate and all I have is a secret stash of Dove.  I'm not telling where it is.  It's mine.  I'm not sharing. 

What is a sick glutenless gut to eat when sick?  That is a problem.  Before when I was sick, I would send the hubby to a fast food place for anything that resembled food.  Now, I hardly want to eat fast food when I'm well (because of the cross contamination issue), let alone sick.  Over the weekend we ate a casserole I had in the freezer.  I am also keep some canned gluten free soups on hand just in case no one can cook.  Pacific, Amy's and Progresso all make some that are gluten free. I have a couple bread mixes that are easy to throw in Ms. Zoey.   

If I can get bread made, grilled peanut butter sandwiches are wonderful when you are sick.  How do you make that you ask?  Make a peanut butter sandwich, butter the outside of both sides of the bread just like you would make a grilled cheese, then grill it.  Oh man, hot melty peanut butter!  Now that's comfort food. With that, hopefully we will survive!