Suggestions Wanted

Day dreaming and formulating ideas.

That's what I have been trying to do as we make plans to move back to TN. We hope and pray we will be able to buy a house that we can live in for at least the next 10 years if not forever. As we move toward this goal, I get the fun and overwhelming opportunity to think...decorating!!

However, blank slates terrify me!! AND I am indecisive and I get bored quickly /:

All that being said, I have been looking through years of Southern Living and Better Home & Gardens magazines for ideas on paint and style. I have found that I like, shabby chic mixed with a little contemporary. For example, a wood table with plastic or metal chairs in a breakfast nook. However I will not have the money to buy any new furniture.

Here are pieces I already have and will need to use. Hoping a little paint and creativity and I'll be able to pull the look off.

Also, I have to think through a good wall color for a kitchen and nook to go with table...just keep that in mind.

Thoughts/Suggestions/Ideas

Rosemary-Garlic Roast Chicken

I have to admit, I dont recall if I have ever made a whole roast chicken before. I normally think, thats a lot of food, no need to go through the hassle. But believe it or not...it wasn't a hassle, it was actually quite easy.

Rosemary-Garlic Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables by Silvana Nardone

serves 6 prep time 15 minutes cook time 1 hour 30 minutes

5 carrots cut into 1/2-inch pieces

3 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

2 onions, 1 cut into 1/2-inch pieces and 1 halved

4 cloves garlic, smashed

6 sprigs rosemary

3/4 cup chicken broth

1 5lb roasting chicken, rinsed and patted dry

Salt and pepper

EVOO. for brushing

I used leeks instead of parsnips. You could use potatoes instead of either if you prefer. Don't feel pigeon holed into only using what is suggested.

Spaghetti & Meatballs

This is one of my favorite go to dishes. It just screams comfort food. I was making it long before the days of GF. I made some slight changes and now its safe for the whole family.

Spaghetti & Meatballs

serves 6 prep time 30 min cook time 25 min

2 Tbsp EVOO

1 lb ground beef 85/15

1 small onion dices very small

3 cloves garlic dices

1 cup rice cereal crumbs

1 egg beaten

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp rosemary

1 tsp parsley

1/2 cup rice milk

salt & pepper

1 box of quinoa pasta

1 jar marinara spaghetti sauce

1. Add all ingredients into a bowl and combine well with your hands.

2. On the stove, pour EVOO into a heavy sauce pan, do not heat at this time. Begin to roll your ground beef mix into 1 1/2 inch balls. Place them into the oil. Once all of your meatballs are in the pan,

turn heat onto med-high.

Brown meatballs on all sides, getting them nice and crisp.

3. Once they are brown add the marinara sauce to the meatballs and let cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes or until your desire of doneness.

Butter Nut Squash Rice Bake & Gluten-Free Fad

I had the chance to go to dinner last night with a sweet friend. We talked about budgets, eating better and food fads. It was such a great conversation. I love that we were like minded in desiring to feed our family well and stay on a budget. We talked about that once were the days of organic and now are the days of gluten-free and that "c" word (Lara could not remember the new word that she keeps seeing everywhere...casein).

I used to be the person who would not go to the "dark side," I would feed my kids healthy but not give in to, "the man." HAHA! However, as Trevor likes to say, "we are those people," now. But as we, Lara and I, continued to talk about why we do it, its not because its a fad (btw, no she is not GF, like us), its because as we continue to learn more about food, we learn how destructive some foods can be for our bodies and our little ones bodies. So, why if you know better would you keep feeding yourself and your kids crap? I know this is a touchy subject for some and I will probably get more comments than I desire, but I do think it is worth investigating, doing your own research. Don't just listen to me and jump on the band wagon. You will jump off after two weeks.

The other thing that came up was, this cannot become our gospel, our truth, what we preach. I love food and I love good food, but I love God more and His gospel more. I will not allow gluten-free, organic, farm grown food to become my idol. But I must be careful, because it so easily can. That's why until now I haven't talked much about why we do it or why other should on this blog. Because as good as it is, I do not want it to become central to who I am.

So as I write about food and blog about new GF recipes, cookbooks, resources, etc, that's all it is resources, its not who we are.

Okay, jumping off my soap box now...haha! Now would anyone like to see the YUMMMY Butternut Squash Bake I made the other night???

Butternut Squash Rice Bake With Toasted Hazelnut-Sage Crunch

by Silvana Nardone

Serves 4 Prep Time 10 minutes Cook Time 55 minutes

1 butternut squash peeled and cut into

1/2 inch pieces

4 Tbsp EVOO

Salt and Pepper

1/2 cup rice cereal crumbs

1/2 hazelnuts, chopped

1 1/2 tsp sage

2 cloves garlic chopped

2 cups Arborio rice

4 cups vegetable or chicken broth

1 1/4 cups water

I really liked this side dish. It was creamy, but with this great crunch from the

hazelnuts and cereal crumb mix. Tasty! We ate balsamic marinated chicken

with it, also quite yummm.

Potato-Crusted Bacon Bits and Egg Pie

This breakfast pie was made for dinner this week and it was delicious. Next time I will make it a bit bigger { I used a pie pan } and serve it with savory waffles. The topping is egg whites beat till peaks form, then yolks folded in and spread on top. It was fluffy and kinda bread like.

Picture courtesy of Cooking For Isaiah

Potato-Crusted Bacon Bits and Egg Pie by Silvana Nardone

Serves 4 Prep Time 15 minutes Cook Time 36 minutes

6 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Half bag of frozen hashbrowns, thawed {this is my addition}

1 tsp paprika

Salt and Pepper

3 large eggs, separated

1/2 cup rice milk

1 tsp yellow mustard

Chicken Stir Fry

So when we went on this diet, frozen pizza went out the window for our weekly meal to feed our babysitter and kids for Date Night. One Friday night I was looking for something I could throw together for my kids and sitter. I had a few vegetables, rice and a chicken breast. This ended up being the creation. Now nearly every Friday night I make stir fry. It takes me 30 minutes total.

Chicken Stir Fry

Prep time 10 minutes Cook Time 30 minutes Serves 4

1 cup uncooked brown rice

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp sesame oil

4 Tbsp organic tamari soy sauce

2 carrots shaved and sliced

1 cup sugar snap peas

4 scallions slices

1 small head of broccoli

8 oz slice mushrooms

2 chicken breast cut into 1 inch cubes

Start rice following directions on box and cook for 30 minutes or until all water is absorbed. In a large skillet heat the vegetable oil and sesame oil. Toss in the chicken, add 1/2 the soy sauce. Cook for about 3-4 minutes then add all your vegetables. Add the other 1/2 of soy sauce and cook till caramelized, about 5 minutes. Serve over rice, add additional soy sauce to taste.

Gluten Free Resources

There are lots of resources out there for eating gluten free. As I run into people who are wanting, considering or heading into the gluten free world I want an easy place to point them. Since I have had the opportunity to try some I thought I would share my thoughts on a few. Not that I am an expert, not even close, just learning like everyone else.

Websites & Cookbooks I am smitten with:

• Dish Towel Diaries - This is Silvana Nardone website. Author of Cooking For Isaiah Gluten and Dairy Free
• Gluten Free Girl - Shauna is living with Celiac. I like her love for food and cooking. She is passionate. Author of Gluten Free Girl and The Chef

Products I am smitten with:

• Udi's - They have the best bread I have found thus for. It is the only bread I can make a pb&j with and send with Micah to school. All other bread is only good if heated or toasted.
• Pamela's - They have a good pancake/waffle mix. It doesn't have an aftertaste like some other mixes.
• Bob's Red Mill - I use there white rice flour and potato starch (I use these flours to make my own all-purpose flour, using Silvana's mix). However, I have found that I do not like their All-Purpose flour.
• Kinnikinnick - They have K-toos, their version of Oreo's, animal crackers, and a pretty decent bread.
• Envirokidz - They have great granola bars, rice bars and cereal. My kids love these.
• Shiloh Farms - I buy their tapioca flour in bulk online. It is an ingredient in the all-purpose flour I use.
• Deboles - I use their rice pasta. Rice pasta can be a bit gummy, so always cook aldente, never overcook.
• Ancient Harvest - I buy their quinoa pasta. It most resembles regular pasta to me.
• Amy's - This has got to be my favorite brand thus far. Last but most certainly not least. I buys their frozen meals, soups, vegetables, pretty much anything I can find that they make I will try.

With all of these products, I would add that, they are expensive. They are small packages and make small portions. If you have time, scratch is always better tasting and less expensive. I make nearly everything from scratch. It can break the bank to buy a small bag of cookies for $5 and my kids eat them in 2 days time. However, if your short on time, these are good go toos.

Grocery Stores I shop at:

• Super Target - I can get nearly everything at Target. They have a great selection.
• Earthfare - I tend to only go here for the Ancient Harvest quinoa pasta, Earth Balance butter (we are also a dairy free household), Udi bread and Bob's Red Mill cornmeal.
• Trader Joe's is good too.

Hope these help. Please let me know if you have questions or comments.

Artsy

As a way of condensing my blogs, I will put my artsy craftsy things on this blog as well. Here of a few things I've done. There are diaper tags, custom letters, invitations, thank you cards and birth announcements. Enjoy!!

Chicken Rice Tetrazzini

On Monday night I began what we shall deem Keva & Silvana a journey through cooking good Gluten Free and Dairy Free foods.

I will give a scale of 1 to 5 for two categories; one for taste and one for difficulty. 1 being; never make again and 5 being; make it every wk (that's a tough one for me since I rarely make the same thing two wks in a row(so shoot me, I love to cook and try new things)). For difficulty; 1 being; simple and 5 being; grandma's 12 layer chocolate cake would have been easier to make.

I began with Chicken Rice Tetrazzini. Chicken Tetrazzini is a favorite in our house, but I used to make it with pasta, which I still can (rice or corn pasta) , but I wanted to give Silvana's recipe a try, it is slightly different than mine, from Southern Living.

Taste:

Keva - 3

Trevor - 4

Micah - 2

Isaac - 0 (he doesn't like anything unless there is chocolate involved)

Difficulty: 2

Chicken Rice Tetrazzini by Silvana Nardone

1 cup rice cereal crumbs (I used Rice Krispies)

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard (I used honey mustard)

3 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley

2 Tbsp EVOO

8oz sliced mushrooms

2 Tbsp Silvana's all purpose flour (or regular if your not GF)

1/2 cup white wine (or rice milk or water)

1/2 cup rice milk

2 cups water

salt and pepper

2 packed cups of chopped rotisserie chicken

Sauteed the mushrooms

The rice crumbs, parsley & mustard in a bowl; shredded chicken in a bowl;

rice in the baking dish.

Final dish Chicken Rice Tetrazzini

The Good Ole Days

"What's for breakfast?" asks Ike. "Muffins," I said. "BLUEBERRY!!" exclaimed Micah. "Yep, blueberry," I said with a smile. "Ahhh, just like the good ole days," said Micah.

Right then that kid melted my heart and it gave me great joy to know I was able bring back some of those Saturday comfort foods of ole, without compromising his diet. Ahhh, the good ole days.

City Church & Good Food

Last night City Church gathered in our house for dinner, prayer and "syllabus" talk. We hope to meet every Monday night and enjoy a meal and bond as a church learning and praying about how God is going to build His church.

ANNNNDDD, since this is my outlet for food talk, lets get right to it. I was excited to make an entire meal & dessert gluten and dairy free and see if anyone even noticed. I think it went over really good (or yall are a bunch of liars....and in that case we as a church are NOT starting off to a good start).

Dinner was Gumbo & Cornbread Muffins: The Gumbo was not a Silvana recipe, but the cornbread was (check previous post for how to's).

And last but not least....DESSERT!!! I know yall are probably thinking I made some grand 7 layer cake, but I didn't and YET, I am still as stoked about, Silvana's, Super Fudge Brownies. You see, we used to have out of the box fudge brownies, nearly every week with college students. They were good and they were easy. However, since the new food change NObrownies in our house, until now.

Taste: 5's all around (which means YES I would make these every week, but we would all balloon up and that would NOT be good)

Difficulty: 2

Super Fudge Brownies by Silvana Nardone

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 Tbsp water

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup Silvana's All-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

Sunday Brunch

Well our family has officially moved to the Saturday Night Campus at our church. We are excited to be serving at this campus again and working alongside some of our really good friends. This move will allow Trevor to work closely with the campus pastor for his church planting residency.

All this means, this left Sunday wide open for cooking. It was really nice to have the whole day together. However, I did have to begin making this meal at 9:30am...eek! It required two 1hr refrigeration's. But they were very good, and worth the effort.

Pan-fried Shrimp and Caramelized Scallion Rice Cakes

Taste:

Trevor - 5

Keva - 4

Micah - 4

Isaac - 4

Difficulty: 4

Pan-fried Shrimp and Caramelized Scallion Rice Cakes by Silvana Nardone

Makes 8 Prep time 10 mins (plus chilling) Cook Time 1 hour

5 Tbsp EVOO

6 scallions chopped

1 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 cup Arborio rice

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup water

8 ounces medium shrimp-peeled

deveined and cut into 1/4-inch pieces

1 tsp hot sauce

Salt & Pepper

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Nut Butter -n- Jelly Cookie Cups

As I was driving yesterday, the thought popped in my head as it so often does..."I want cook." Yeah I know I already cook, but I would love to find an outlet for doing it on a larger scale. I have always wanted to do this (in college I wanted to go to culinary school...but it was to expensive and would have required me moving to a BIG city...which terrified me then). But as I have been going through Silvana's cookbook, it has sparked it in me again. I don't desire to be a chef in a restaurant kitchen, that scares me to death. Rather a cook for events or individuals...heck I don't know.

Okay well on to yummy Cookies.

On Monday night I made Portobella-Rice Quiche & Nut Butter -n- Jelly Cookie Cups.

I will spare you the Portobella-Rice Quiche. After City Church left for the evening, my husband looked at me and said very tenderly, "What did you think about the quiche?" I said, "It was okay. It was a little over cooked and it needed more salt and maybe some more spices, but it was still okay." "Why? Did you not like it?" Trevor said, " I couldn't eat it. I took one bite and couldn't take another. I don't know, it may have been a mental block, but I didn't like it."

The eggs overcooked, so it was tough. The risotto was mushy and it needed more taste.

So you have been spared the recipe.

However, the Nut Butter -n- Jelly Cookie Cups where delicious. They tasted like a thick peanut butter cookie with some yummy sweetness in the middle.

Nut Butter -n- Jelly Cookie Cups

Taste: 4's all around.

Difficulty: 3

Nut Butter -n- Jelly Cookie Cups by Silvana Nardone

Makes 16 cookies Prep Time 25 minutes Cook Time 14 minutes

1/2 cup Silvana's All-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup peanut butter or almond butter

1/4 cup all-vegetable shortening at room

temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 lrg egg

Strawberry jelly

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted

2 Tbsp rice milk

Sick Days & Pumpkin Muffins

We have been a house full of sickies this week. Micah was sick, Sunday-Tues; Isaac was sick, Monday-Wed; Trev was sick, Monday-Wed. Thank goodness it never struck me. I felt a little bad one day but I think it was exhaustion...haha!

So we had lots of time to do nothing, but lay around, play games and watch TV. One morning

even though it was 9am when I started, I decided to try a new recipe of muffins. Usually when its something new, it ALWAYS takes me longer than the recipe says it'll take. By 10am we were enjoying our yummy muffins. I snapped some pictures of the kiddos helping this time. Although they are always in the kitchen with me, stirring, mixing, pouring, I usually forget to snap pics of them.

Make these on a Saturday morning, keep any leftovers in the refrigerator

and eat on them for breakfast for days to come.

Isaiah's Pumpkin Muffins with Crumble Topping by Silvana Nardone

Makes 12 Prep Time 20 minutes Cook Time 25 minutes

topping

1/4 cup Silvana's All-Purpose Flour

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp pumpkin spice

4 Tbsp all-vegetable shortening

muffins

1 3/4 cups Silvana's All-Purpose Flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

3/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

Confectioner's sugar for sprinkling

Food Food & More Food

Okay gang- sorry I stepped away from the computer for a few days. Now for catch up. Over the weekend we cooked lots of new things. Including but no limited to: Pizza with gluten free crust; Doughnuts; Pork-n-Beans with Butternut Squash Ragu. I am still enjoying working my way through Silvana's cookbook on gluten free & dairy free meals. It still blows me away just how good her recipe's are.

I used her pizza crust recipe and then made the pizza our way. Everyone enjoyed it. Trevor raved about how good the pizza crust was, which always make this momma proud. The crust is not what you would be used to from delivery, but more like a brick oven flat bread crust. It was amazing. We will be having it again this weekend. This time with BBQ sauce, chicken and caramelized onions. YUMMM!

Next up was Saturday morning Doughnuts. I used Silvana's Sugar and Spice recipe. Her recipe called for a doughnut pan, which I don't own, so I used a shallow star shaped muffin pan. It worked great. I may invest in the doughnut pans now that I know we will be eating these

again and again. And she has several options. Again supper YUMMMM!

Then Sunday morning I began working on the Pork-n-Beans with Butternut Squash Ragu. These are NOTHING like your pork-n-beans in a can you maybe familiar with. This had loads of deliciousness in it. However, it needed a little something. The next day we added rice to it. This made it more like a gumbo, but it was still good.

House Party & Appetizers

We had our first neighborhood get together the other night. It was so nice to have several neighbors over for food and fellowship. We hope to do it more often. I worked hard to pull off an environment that was comfortable and inviting { you would have to ask the neighbors if I was successful...haha}.

I decided to do 3 starter dishes and 1 dessert. This way you could make your own plate and walk around the house and mingle, rather than a full blown meal where we all sit around an awkward table and stare at each other hoping someone will be the talker of the bunch.

The bad news to all of this is :: I FORGOT TO TAKE PICTURES ::

I just wanted to kick myself. I had a lot to take pictures of and a great table setting as well. BOO BOO BOO!!

Well onto the food. I did snap 1 picture and thankfully Silvana's cookbook has some pictures as well. So, I will have SOMETHING to share...ugh!!! okay okay okay, I'm over it!! Moving on...

We began the evening with starters:

Grilled Sausage-Stuffed Portobellos by Silvana Nardone - These were super easy.

12 ounces Italian sausage

1 glove garlic finely chopped

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

1 tsp rosemary

1 large egg

6 tbsp rice cereal crumbs

Salt

4 large portobello mushrooms, stems removed

Extra-virgin olive oil

Sloppy Joe-Stuffed Potato Skins by Silvana Nardone - Also very easy

:: NO PICTURE ::

6 russet potatoes

2 Tbsp EVOO

Salt & Pepper

1 bell pepper chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1 lb ground beef

3/4 cup tomato sauce

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 scallions, green parts only, finely chopped,

for topping

Corn-Shrimp Fritters With Creamy Salsa Dip by Silvana Nardone - My favorite!!

1 cup corn kernels

1 cup chopped shrimp

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp ground cumin

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup Silvana's All-Purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp chopped cilantro or parsley

1/2 cup salsa

1/4 cup mayonnaise

Vegetable oil, for frying

Now onto Dessert:

Rocky Road Rice Crispy Treats by Silvana Nardone - These where so YUMMMY!!

4 cups mini marshmellows

1/2 cup well-stirred almond butter

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 tsp salt

5 cups rice cereal

1/4 cup marshmellow creme

2 tsp boiling water

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

melted for drizzling

:: FOR COPY WRITE REASONS I CANNOT PUT DIRECTIONS FOR COOKING ::

Grilled Ketchup-Glazed Chicken

These drumsticks were delicious. We could have had a few more. The kids liked them too. They pretended to be at Hogworts' dining hall. I made oven-fried french fries as a side.

Grilled Ketchup-Glazed Chicken

Taste: 4

Difficulty: 2

Grilled Ketchup-Glazed Chicken by Silvana Nardone

Serves 4 Prep Time 5 minutes (plus marinating) Cook Time 35 minutes

1 cup ketchup

2 Tbsp EVOO

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 cloves garlic, smashed

1/4 cup light packed brown sugar

2 tsp chili powder

Salt

8 chicken drumsticks

Asparagus Risotto & Yummy Cornbread

One of the main reasons I wanted Silvana Nardone's cookbook, was because she was a baker. She owned a bakery in Brooklyn, NY, "When I bake there's a comfort in the smell that fills the sweet, moist air-one of the reasons I once owned a bakery. I like everything about dessert-cookies and ice cream, cakes and pies." I knew that if I was gonna conquer the gluten and dairy free world, I would need her help.

So far she has NOT let me down.

Asparagus Risottto Casserole:

Taste:

Keva- 4

Trevor-3

Micah-4

Isaac-1

Difficulty: 2

Asparagus Risotto Casserole by Silvana Nardone

2 Tbsp evoo

1/2 chopped onion

2 gloves chopped garlic

2 cups Arborio rice

Salt & pepper

1/2 cup white wine (milk or water can be substituted)

4 cups vegetable or chicken stock (i used chicken)

1 cup water

1 pound thin asparagus, trimmed and cut

into 1 inch pieces

1 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon*

Thoughts:

This was more of a side dish than a main dish. Next time I make this, I will make it with chicken or fish, something light. This dish is light and fresh.

I used the leftovers in two ways: I took some of the asparagus and put it in an omelet for the boys for breakfast; then heated the rest, put it in a thermos and sent it to school w/Micah.

Now on to the baking I was bragging about. This cornbread is the first baking I have done from Silvana's cookbook. I have used the her flour blend, but not in baking. I have been eager to try and tonight was the night.

Cornbread. I made cornbread, for Thanksgiving for Micah's dressing. I used a pre-packaged cornbread mix. It was NOT good. The consistency, the taste, the texture, it was ALL wrong. Tonight as I delved into making it again, I could tell right from the start, that this was gonna be good. The consistency, the smell the came from the oven, everything was adding up to....YUMMM! And it was!! I am excited to share this with you.

I used a mini loaf pan.

Cornbread:

Taste: 5's all around

Difficulty: 3

Double Corn Cornbread by Silvana Nardone

1 cup rice milk

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 cup cornmeal, preferably medium grind

1 cup Silvana's all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs lightly beaten

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup corn kernels (I omitted this)

Enchiladas

Okay so this meal proved to be quite a challenge. And while yes I like challenges, this one was one of those that caused high tension in the kitchen. Lots of, "please leave the kitchen," "no you cannot help with this one buddy," "I need you out from under my feet or this is gonna drop on your head and burn you," "OUT NOW!!!"

Black bean, corn and yellow rice enchiladas

with guacamole and red chile sauce

Taste: Trevor - 3

Keva - 3

Micah - 3

Isaac - 3

Difficulty: 4

If you would like to take on the pretty good meal for a lot of work

let me know and I'll send the recipe.