Product Review: Amy's Gluten Free Mac & Cheese

I have been running around like crazy lately so for lunch I decided to try Amy's Gluten Free Mac & Cheese. I've looked at it several times in the store but never bought it because I was worried that the pasta would be really mushy. Here is what the package looks like:

And the verdict is................ it was actually pretty good! I would buy it again but I would not eat it very often because it was a little high in fat and sodium, but it is nice to know there are convenient gluten free options available.

Grilled Chicken With Roasted Vegetables

I have not been posting the last couple days because I have been trying to take advantage of the beautiful weather we had and it is a good thing I did because it rained again last night and stormed today. Anyway, for dinner last night (before the rain) I made grilled chicken with roasted vegetables and it was fantastic! I have wanted to try making roasted vegetables for a long time but for some reason it intimidated me. Now that I have made them I wish I would have done it a long time ago, it was really simple. Here is how I did it.....
I started by scrubbing some red potatoes and cutting them into small chunks:

Then, I took some brussel sprouts and trimmed off the hard ends and then cut them in half:

Next, I rough chopped a red onion:

I put everything into a large bowl and mixed them all together with a generous drizzle of olive oil, minced garlic, a sprinkle of sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, and some crushed red pepper. If you don't like food very spicy you could use very little crushed red pepper or you could just omit it. Trust me, there is enough flavor that you won't feel like your missing out.

Now take the mixture and spread it onto a baking sheet so that it is all just one layer, if you pile it up not all the vegetables will be able to brown and it will take longer to cook.

Put the baking sheet into an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees. I let them bake for 30 minutes then stirred them up and spread them back out so they are one layer again and turned the oven up to 400 degrees and let them cook for another 10-15 minutes.

Here is a closer look:

 



See how everything has a beautiful caramel color! While the veggies were roasting I prepared the chicken. I preheated my gas grill and when it was ready I sprayed it with Weber's Non Stick Grilling Spray:

I seasoned the chicken with Weber's Kickin' Chicken:

 



Look at those beautiful grill marks:

That's it! Then you get to plate it up and dig in!

The chicken is juicy and the veggies have a sort of sweet and spicy flavor. So Good!

Dining Out...

One thing I have noticed is restaurants are becoming more aware of specialty diet needs. I went out to dinner tonight with my sister and we ate at Jake's City Grille in Maplewood, MN. I asked our server if they had a gluten free menu and I was so excited when she said yes! I took a quick photo:

I decided to have the Cilantro-Lime Chicken Salad and it was SO GOOD! It had grilled chicken (obviously), grape tomatoes, feta cheese, candied walnuts, and fresh seasonal fruit (strawberries and raspberries) all tossed in a delicious cilantro-lime dressing.

It tastes better than it looks, I started to mix it up and then realized I forgot to take a picture. Of course I needed a beverage to wash it down with so I was going to have one of my favorite summer drinks.... a mojito! Then the server suggested I try their Kinky mojito (Kinky is the brand of the rum) and it was amazing! Mind blown! It was still prepared like a traditional mojito with simple syrup, mulled fresh mint, and soda but the rum has a light fruity flavor. I might have to start ordering Kinky mojitos everywhere I go now!!!

 

Hashbrowns With Basted Eggs and Chicken Breakfast Sausage

The weather has been pretty gloomy here with the sun only peaking through occasionally so I decided to have some comfort food for dinner and I think breakfast food can be so comforting! Plus, how often do you actually have time to make a nice breakfast in the morning when you are running around the house trying to get ready for work and find your car keys! So I started with the hashbrowns, and tried making them a different way.... with my waffle iron! I turned the iron on to preheat, even though the iron is non-stick I still sprayed it with olive oil cooking spray and I think it helped them brown also. I cooked them about twice the amount of time it would have taken to cook a waffle and it worked great. Here is a photo:

I used Simply Potatoes:

While the potatoes were cooking I heated a skillet to make my eggs. I used Egg-land's Best:

 I have an electric stove which can be tricky to control the heat on, I set the burner to a low medium heat. When the skillet was ready I added just a little bit of butter, about a tablespoon. You can tell when your pan is ready because the butter will melt very fast and start to sizzle:

Then I cracked two eggs into the pan:

I let them cook for about a minute until most of the outer edges are cooked pretty well but about 2/3rds of the inner part will still be gooey. This is a good time to add some fresh cracked pepper and a little pinch of sea salt to the eggs. Next is the basting! I use the lid of the pan and put some water into it and then slowly add it to the skillet, but just enough for a thin layer at the bottom of the pan.

 

Then place the cover on the pan so the eggs basically steam cook the rest of the way. Make sure you keep an eye on them because they can overcook pretty quickly and it only takes a minute or two (I'm speaking from personal experience).

I can tell when they are finished cooking because they are completely white but when you poke the yoke it is still soft. Another way to check is if you tilt the pan you will be able to see the liquid of the yoke shift. I also cooked up some chicken breakfast sausages:

Here is the delicious end product:



 I stacked my eggs right on top of the hashbrowns and I used my kitchen shears and cut some green onion over the top. Doesn't it look good! And my yoke was runny and perfect! Look...

Yummy! My favorite way to eat this is to cut up the sausage and mix everything together, it doesn't look as pretty but it tastes so good!

Greek Cucumber Salad

Tonight for dinner I wanted something fresh and light but also filling. This salad is very only calls for a couple ingredients.

I used a seedless english cucumber and diced it into small bite size pieces:

I use grape tomatoes because I think they have a sweet flavor and cut them into sixths:

Then I do a small dice on a red onion. If your onion is too strong you can always rinse them under cool water:

We are almost done.... Next you just have to mix in some feta cheese and some fresh cracked pepper. I don't add any salt because the feta has enough salt in it.

Here is a closer look:

This goes great with a grilled chicken breast or steak. I made it as an appetizer for a party one time and it was a huge hit. I cut the cucumber into 1 inch chunks and scooped out the inside so they were like little bowls, chopped up the part I scooped out, and filled them with the salad. I recreated one to show you what they look like:

Make sure to leave a little of the bottom in the cucumber so the filling doesn't fall out. This is what they look like filled:

Don't they look tasty!

Gluten Free Spiral Pasta With Mild Italian Sausage

My first cooking post! I made a gluten free pasta dish and took some pictures along the way. Obviously, making a pasta dish is not difficult but I thought it would be a good beginning blog post. When my husband and I were out to dinner in Steamboat Springs, Colorado at Mambo Italiano we ordered their gluten free pasta option that is available with all of their pasta dishes and it was delish! So I asked our server, who was very nice, if they made the pasta in house or if it was pre-made and she checked with the chef and found out that it was pre-made and gave me the brand name and I was lucky enough that a local grocery store near my home carries it. So here it is:

It is called Tinkyada and was about $4 for a 12oz bag. There are two different ways of cooking the pasta: 1) you can add the noodles to boiling water and let them boil for 1 to 2 minutes and then turn of the heat and let it set for 16 minutes stirring occasionally, or 2) add the noodles to boiling water and cook them at a medium heat for about 13 minutes or until you reach your desired texture. I opted for the second option and it worked out great! I cooked the entire bag and as soon as I reached the texture I wanted I emptied the pasta into a colander and rinsed with cool water to prevent the noodles from cooking any further and to rinse some of the slippery starchiness off. I then dished out the amount of pasta I wanted onto my plate and warmed it in the microwave for just 30 seconds and that was plenty of time to het it up. While the pasta was cooking I prepared the Italian Sausage which was already cooked but I always think meat tastes better when it is browned, so I heated up my skillet and sprayed it with a little olive oil cooking spray and added my sliced up sausage. I used Coleman Natural Mild Italian Chicken Sausage:

I really like this brand, the sausage is gluten free and very tasty. I browned the sausage:

Then I added some marinara sauce directly into the skillet with the sausage to get all the browned flavor out of the pan and into the sauce. I used Costco's Kirkland Signature Marinara Sauce which states that it is gluten free right on the label.

I also added some shaved parmesan cheese on top:

Here is the final product:

 

It was fantastic! The sausage and marinara sauce were delicious and I couldn't believe how great the pasta turned out, the texture was wonderful and not mushy at all, just like the package states. I'm excited to experiment more with gluten free cooking and baking and can't wait to share my discoveries!

The Beginning...

This will be my first of many posts about my journey to becoming gluten free. A couple years ago I discovered the correlation between when I would eat gluten and the extreme fatigue I would feel soon after. Believing I had a gluten sensitivity I made a conscious effort to limit gluten containing foods during certain times when I needed to make sure I was alert (at work and while driving). But over the course of the last couple months my husband and I have been doing a lot more research and discovered how much gluten can actually affect your body. Although I have never been officially diagnosed with a gluten allergy, by process of elimination I can feel the difference in my body and it is incredible! I now believe what I have is a gluten intolerance, not just a gluten sensitivity, and I decided to go gluten free. My husband and I decided we would make this change together, and I have to admit I am glad we are because it would be very difficult to keep from cross contaminating while cooking or baking. It also makes it a lot easier to go to the pantry and grab anything out of it knowing that nothing contains gluten. Creating a gluten free pantry was a bit of a daunting task but we decided that if we were going to go gluten free we had to just do it, otherwise months from now we would still be trying to use items we had that contained gluten. So I purged our pantry, refrigerator, freezer, and deep freezer and gave away anything that contained gluten. It was amazing how much food I ended up getting rid of and it was difficult to think of the amount of money I was basically throwing away, but then I thought of how good I feel without eating gluten and told myself it is worth it. So I am in the process of restocking my kitchen and discovering new gluten free products and recipes and I look forward to sharing them with everyone!