Honey Sesame Chicken

For the record, this is really good. I got the recipe from a pin, which takes you to Six Sisters' Stuff:

Even though I made a few changes, the sauce is solid. This is one of those recipes that will be saved.

(See my notes in GREEN) 

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken
Recipe adapted from: Baby Center
Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (thighs would be fine too) (I used pork)
Salt and pepper (I felt that soy sauce added enough saltiness and omitted salt)
1 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce (of course I used gluten free)
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (could also use olive oil or canola oil) (I used sesame oil for extra sesame flavor)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 6 Tablespoons water
Sesame seeds

Directions:
Season both sides of chicken with lightly with salt and pepper, put into crock pot. In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic and pepper flakes. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours, or just until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce. Dissolve 4 teaspoons of cornstarch in 6 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot. Stir to combine with sauce. Replace lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes or until slightly thickened. Cut chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce before serving. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice or noodles.

This Week's Menu

... for your inspiration.

 

Shrimp & Quinoa

On the menu tonight: Shrimp & Quinoa.

Cook quinoa according to package directions. While it's going, prepare the shrimp:

Heat a pan to medium heat.

Ingredients:
2 T. butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb cooked frozen shrimp, thawed
1/4 c. chopped red bell pepper
1 chopped sad tomato
dried marjoram
salt & pepper

Melt butter & add garlic. Sautee until the garlic starts to brown.
Add in tomatoes and red pepper. Cook until heated throughout. They will release some juice.
Add shrimp. Sprinkle a generous amount of dried marjoram, and salt & pepper to taste.
Cook until everything's nice and hot, and some of the juice has evaporated.
Serve on top of quinoa.

And, because you're trying to serve veggies with every meal, throw in a salad.

Quick & delicious.

This Week's Menu

For your inspiration, the menu for the last two weeks:

 

(On sandwich days, if I don't have GF bread handy, I'll have mine on GF crackers, or in a meat roll-up.)

One-Pot Ham and Greens Pasta

This recipe is adapted from Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The original is here.

My mom found hams on sale for $5 a few weeks back, so of course she bought one for everyone. We cut ours up and froze it. When I saw this recipe I ripped it out and put it on the fridge.

This is actually really good. I used gluten free pasta in place of the orechiette.

8 oz gluten free pasta
1 c. diced cooked ham
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
4 c. torn kale leaves
3/4 c. grated parmesan cheese (spring for the fresh stuff)

Cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1/4 c. water

Heat ham & garlic until browned. Stir in pasta, water, kale, and cheese. Cook and stir until heated & the kale starts to wilt.

Makes 1 husband-sized serving, plus 1 normal serving with lunch leftovers.

Beginner Gluten Free Meal Planning

Planning meals can be difficult, especially if you've never really cooked.

Breakfast is a piece of cake; I mastered that very quickly. Dinners are where I struggled. Incidentally, they're the most important part of my Celiac life. See, Dinners are quickly turned into lunches when properly planned, which makes life so much easier.

For years, I awkwardly prepared food, with no real direction. I'd wander around the store, buying things that looked good. Inevitably, food would spoil or I'd make a meal and the flavors wouldn't really jive.

It probably didn't help that I'm not much of a recipe follower; I have the uncontrollable urge to substitute.
My ultimate goal is to be one of those people who can take what's in the fridge and come up with something delicious. I suppose I could rephrase that to say that my ultimate goal is to cook like my mother, who has mastered the art of taking random ingredients and throwing them together into a mouthwatering masterpiece.

Ironically, my culinary success started when I started planning my meals in advance. It's a good way to build a solid cooking foundation.

I started simply with this basic meal formula:
A. Meat
B. Vegetable
C. Grain

Groundbreaking, I know. But, it works when you've got no other inspiration.

I took inspiration from the grocery store's weekly sale flyers. I sat down at the table with the flyer and made myself one of these:

And then I followed these steps:

A. Pick a meat that's on sale. Write it down for Monday. Do the same for the rest of the days of the week with a different sale meat. Don't think about it. Just write it down. Monday, we're having chicken. Tuesday, beef. Bam. The basis for each meal is set.

• Pick a way to prepare that meat. This is where I would use the magic of Google if I didn't have anything already in mind. Keep it simple-- no mixes or condensed soups, which frequently contain gluten anyway. This is where I will again mention the wonders of fresh herbs. And the crock pot.

B. Pick a vegetable that's on sale. Write that down for Monday. Do the same for the rest of the days of the week with a different sale vegetable. This is a great way to eat seasonal, and to try new things. If there are no desirable veggies on sale, grab a bag of frozen veggies.

• Pick a way to prepare that vegetable. Generally, steaming or sauteeing with a bit of butter, garlic, & salt is a winner. 

C. Pick a grain to pair with the meal.

• Noodles, rice, or mashed potatoes are good standard options.

See, the hard part is done. Once the basic blocks of the meal are decided, it's easy to build a variety of meals around it.


Embellish the meals by adding other things that are on sale in the flyer. If peppers are on sale, they get incorporated into Monday's chicken and suddenly stir fry with broccoli and rice is on the menu.

I do try to incorporate things that I already have into the week's menu. For example if we've got an excess of cheese, I'll make sure to use it up by making mac & cheese or cheesy rice.

And yes, I do literally write this stuff down. Here is our menu for the last two weeks.

 
For instance, on Sunday we're having steak and baked potatoes (which will be topped with cheese, chives, butter, and sour cream).
I can use the leftover sour cream for the beef stroganoff on Monday, and I bought an extra potato to use in Wednesday's vegetable soup, along with the leftover chives.

I don't always plan meals that use up each other's leftovers every week. Sometimes, it just happens that way and it's an added bonus.

Also notice that we didn't get around to eating the vegetable soup and sandwiches the first week, so that got transferred over to the next week.
Also, it's easy to switch around the days. If we feel like eating pork tacos on Tuesday, we would just eat shrimp on Wednesday. Either way, there's enough food for the week.

There it is. Beginner meal planning.

Clever Leftovers: Chicken Pot Pie

What to do with a ton of leftover roast chicken? Pot pie, baby.

This is the first time I've tried Pillsbury's gluten free pastry dough.

As you can see, the results look pretty good.

Start by rolling the dough according to the package directions, and placing a layer in the bottom of an 8-inch pie pan.

Then, work on the filling-- these are all approximate amounts, as leftovers rarely yield exact amounts, and the recipe is flexible. Throw in whatever you've got, as long as it doesn't overflow the pan.

2 c. shredded cooked chicken
1/2 c. frozen peas
1/2 c. cooked chopped carrots
1 c. fresh chopped kale
2 c. gravy (made from the drippings of the roast chicken, thickened w/ corn starch & corn flour)

Mix it all up and add it to the pan. Cover with a second layer of pastry dough, and pierce the top a few times with a fork.

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes, or until the crust has browned evenly.
Be prepared for your gluten-loving husband to go back for thirds. And you may even find yourself picking at the bits that fall out of the crust in the pan.

P.S. this freezes great; just thaw before putting it into the oven.
P.P.S. This pot pie is fantastic with a biscuit crust.