Gluten Free Sweet Potato Latkes - Try them with Beets!

These were the best! So delicious! My family raved and raved (and ate and ate). Eaten alongside the homemade applesauce from this summer, they were the perfect Chanukah meal!

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Latkes

3 Large Shredded Sweet Potatoes (this made about 6 cups - maybe more)
6 eggs (enough to get everything moist because the eggs hold it all together)
1 cup Bob's Red Mill gluten free all purpose flour (or GF flour of your choice)
1t. salt

Mix it all together. Fry in 1/4-1/2 inch of coconut oil! If you keep to a medium/low heat coconut oil does not burn or smoke and the latkes get crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. 

We ate them with applesauce and slices of sharp white cheddar cheese. Enjoy!

Edited to Add: These are also quite tasty with half beets & half sweet potatoes!

What's For Dinner? - Chicken Enchiladas

I used the chicken from the previous post to make enchiladas.

First, shred the chicken.

Then, prepare the tortillas by placing them in a pan of oil...



When the tortilla sizzles around the edges, flip it with a tongs. Watch for it to begin bubbling up, and then remove it from the oil. I put my finished tortillas on a plate like this:



When you have a little stack of tortillas begin rolling them into enchiladas by placing the chicken in them & rolling them up:





Top with lettuce, tomato, avocado, salsa, cream & cheese!

Make Your Own Chicken Broth/Stock!

A friend asked me recently how I make chicken broth. Here's the answer:

Throw a whole chicken in a huge pot with at least 4 quarts of water. Add

about a pound of carrots,
5-6 stalks of celery,
2-4 small zucchini,
1-2 onions,
3-5 cloves of garlic,
2T salt,
and 1T apple cider vinegar.

Boil for several hours.



Today I removed the chicken after about 4 hours so that I could use it for dinner. I threw the bones back in the pot to keep boiling and to give the broth all the benefits of the bone minerals.

After 4 hours, I strained the broth, poured it into jars, and set the jars on my counter to seal:



The salt and the vinegar help to preserve the broth, and it can last several weeks in the fridge.

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

We did this on a whim. It was Mango's idea. We called Vespera while she was doing her homework at the library to confirm some details. The results were DELICIOUS!

Ok, so take as many poblanos as you wish and burn them over an open burner on the stove. Let them sit in a covered container for a bit, and then the outside skin will peel off...a little like tomato skins when you boil tomatoes.

Brown & season ground beef however you wish.

Slit the peppers & remove seeds but not the stem.

Stuff the peppers with seasoned ground beef and cheese of your choice. We used Juusto baked cheese because it's got a hearty, meaty flavor.

Wisk 2 or 3 eggs in a bowl. In a separate bowl pour some Pamela's gluten free Baking and Pancake Mix. Roll the peppers in the eggs & then in the flour.

Fry them in hot oil on the stove until golden brown, using a tongs to turn them by the stem.

Not too difficult and very yummy!

More Green Smoothies!!

I made 3 more green smoothies today - 1 for Mane, 1 for Vespera, and 1 for me. My kids are getting totally hooked. What could be better?!



Smoothie #1 (for Mane)
1 cup Brown Cow maple yogurt
1 cup Almond Breeze Original almond milk
1/2 c. frozen cherries
1/2 c. frozen mangoes
1 c. fresh spinach
3 T rich chocolate Ovaltine

Smoothie #2 (for Vespera)
1 c. almond milk
1 scoop Spiru-Tein chai high protein powder
2 c. fresh spinach
1/2 c. frozen mangoes

Smoothie #3 (for Me)
same as Vespera's smooothie, without the mangoes

I tried making a smoothie with kale. Yuck. Some people claim this is among the easiest greens to put in a smoothie. I beg to differ.

Green Smoothies

So, the mamas on the message board (http://www.gentlechristianmothers.com/community/index.php) are all talking about DRINKING their veggies. So, I decided to try it. I must say that after just two days, I'm hooked!

Yesterday I made a smoothie with 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, 2 bananas, 2 cups romaine lettuce, and water. It was good but not great, and Mane hated it. I later read that romaine is one of the hardest greens to "hide" in a smoothie.

Today I made this smoothie:

2 cups of spinach
1 cup almond milk
1/2 cup frozen peaches
1/2 cup frozen cherries
2 pitted dates
1 small banana

YUM!! I don't think it needed the dates. I'm trying to move away from bananas because Mane doesn't like them much, and I'm hoping to get her drinking some green smoothies, too. She wasn't impressed with this one today, either. However, she is sitting here eating a bowl of peas. So, perhaps, I'm being a good influence anyway. She told me I was crazy to post about green smoothies here because nobody could possibly like them. *shrug* Let me know if you try it. ;)

(I'll tag on to this healthy post that the weather has been great this week, and we biked to the clinic & Savers yesterday. Today we biked to the co-op. Last week we spent a lot of time on the bus it was so rainy.)

Eggplant Lasagna

This is a new recipe for me. I'll report back & let you know how it tastes once we've all tried it! It's sitting in my fridge waiting to be baked later today.



Eggplant Lasagna

This recipe is adapted from Real Simple magazine's September 2009 issue (which I checked out from the library!).

Slice 2 medium eggplants lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices. Brush slices with olive oil & lightly salt them. Broil for 3-4 minutes on each side until beginning to brown.

Put half a cup of spaghetti sauce (we use Enrico's because it's gluten free & really yummy) in the bottom of an 8x8 pan. Put one layer of eggplant slices in the pan.

Mix 1 cup cottage or ricotta cheese, 1 eggs, 1/4 teaspoon salt & 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a bowl.

Put half of the cottage/ricotta cheese mixture over the layer of eggplant. Place another layer of eggplant, then the rest of the cheese mixture, then another layer of eggplant.

Top with another 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees F until bubbly - about 20 minutes.

Carrot Cashew Nut Soup

We are loving the fall vegetables at our house! This was last Friday's dinner.





Carrot Cashew Nut Soup
This recipe is adapted from a Seward Co-op newspaper.

Boil 1lb of carrots in 6 cups of water, vegetable broth or chicken broth until carrots are soft. (I usually do a combo of homemade chicken broth & water.)

Saute one onion and add it to the pot.

Additional options: 4 cloves of garlic & 1 Tablespoon of grated ginger.

Once carrots are soft, scoop them into the blender.

Add to blender:
1/2-1 cup of cashew nuts,
2-3 teaspoons lemon juice, and
2-3 teaspoons Braggs liquid aminos or other gluten free shoyu/soy sauce
Pour in enough broth to blend easily without over-filling the blender. You may have to blend in batches.

Blend until smooth (hang onto the lid as hot liquids want to pop the top off your blender) & add back to the pot. Add salt to taste.

Enjoy!

Chicken Drumsticks, Butternut Squash & Applesauce

Oven Baked Chicken Drumsticks & Butternut Squash with homemade applesauce for dessert!



Chicken Drumsticks
Roll drumsticks in olive oil. Then roll in a flour mixture of:

1 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt

Place on baking sheet, and bake at 350 degrees F for about an hour, turning once. This would work better with gluten free breadcrumbs rather than rice flour, but I didn't have any breadcrumbs.




Butternut SquashThis is not technically a recipe because there's nothing to it: Cut the squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds. Salt lightly. Spread a little butter over the top. Place face up in baking pan with about half an inch of water in the bottom. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 1 1/2 hours or until soft all the way through.


To make applesauce, follow instructions here: How to make applesauce.
We did not add sugar.

Lovely autumn dinner!

Rice & Beans

Tonight we'll be having rice & refried beans with all the fixings!

Rice
Put two cups of rice in a pot with 8 cups of liquid. I typically use a mix of homemade chicken broth & water OR I use Pacific brand tomato and red pepper soup with water.

Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring frequently!

Beans
Place 2 cups of dry pinto or black beans in the crockpot and fill the rest of the pot with water. Set the crockpot on high for 3 hours, until beans are splitting open.

Burn an onion in a pan with oil (corn or olive). Remove the burned onion and allow the oil to cool some. Pour the [drained] beans into the pan & mash with a potato masher. Add water to desired consistency. Add about 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of salt according to taste.

Eat rice and beans with tortillas, avocado, lettuce, salsa, tomato, jalepeno, Mexican Farmer cheese, table cream or sour cream, and whatever other fixings you happen to enjoy!

Borscht & Bread

As a favor to some of my gluten free friends, I've decided to include dinner recipes in my blog whenever I'm making something I haven't posted about already. This means there will be lots of recipes to begin with, and then they'll taper off after a while!

So, tonight, because autumn has arrived, and we have a craving for stew, I'm making beet soup, known to the Russians as borscht. I make this in the crockpot, and I make no claims that it is authentically Russian.



Beet Soup
Place in the crockpot:
1.5 pounds beef stew meat
4 - 5 diced medium potatoes
4 - 5 diced beets
1/2 head of cabbage
1 medium sauted onion
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar (Braggs & Heinz are both gluten free)
1 T brown sugar
some dollops of butter over the top

Cook on high until the meat is brown - about 2 hours.
Cook on low for about another 4 hours until the vegetables are soft.

Serve with sour cream and gluten free bread!



Gluten Free Bread
Wisk together wet ingredients:
1 1/2 cups water
3 eggs
1 t. vinegar (Heinz is gluten free)
3 T oil (I used olive oil.)

In a separate bowl mix:
3 1/4 cups brown rice flour
3 T sugar (I use sucanat.)
1 1/2 t. xanthan gum (This stuff is expensive, but most recipes call for very little, and it's what makes gluten free foods stick together.)
1 1/2 t. salt
1 packet of Red Star active dry yeast

Pour wet and dry ingredients into bread machine according to bread machine instructions. I always do wet on the bottom & dry on the top, but different machines have different instructions. I use the 2 lb light loaf setting, but some machines actually have a gluten free setting, and I'm sure that would be faster. Gluten free bread does not need to rise twice like regular bread, but I don't have any other options on my machine.

Check the bread in the first 5-6 minutes. It should look like thick cake batter. If it's very sticky, add water by tablespoons. I find that how much water I need differs from season to season here in MN.

Let it cool entirely, and then store it in a gallon sized bag. It's easier to slice after it's been in the bag for a few hours because the little bit of condensation softens the crust.

Enjoy!