A gluten Free Thanksgiving Dinner

  

Thanksgiving Menu

This year is going to be a challenge; a fun challenge but I am excited to see how things turn out. For one everything that I am making must be gluten free, hence the traditional bread stuffing and pies are going to require some very creative brain work. I also have my parents who are vegetarian as well. So this should be very interesting to see how things turn out. 

I also desire to step away from the heavy, sweet and fatty dishes and instead aim for more rustic and authentic style dishes. This is what I have so far so stay tuned as I plan and put this meal together for 8 or more people. 

SIDES

Dads amazing raw cranberry relish: I will share the recipe when he shares it with me.

Arugula Salad with Roasted cranberry's, grated Romano cheese, Clementine slices, toasted slice almonds and light orange Dressing

 

Main Dishes

Roasted Root veggies: Carrots, turnips,Purple potatoes, sweet potatoes,  White Onions and garlic. Marinated in virgin olive oil, smidgen of garlic powder.

Free Range Organic Turkey: Roasted with olive oil, fresh sprigs of rosemary and garlic pieces tucked into the skin and baked all day!

Gluten Free Stuffing: Gluten Free bread drizzled in balsamic and olive oil and baked in an oven the day before until dry. Bread crumbs tossed with chopped leaks, Toasted almond's, Red Chard Stems instead of celery, Porcine mushrooms and Low Sodium vegetable Stock. 

Mashed Potatoes: A lovely mix of roasted red skin potatoes and roasted sweet potato mashed together with a pinch of salt, unsalted butter and half and half. 

Lightly steamed Red Chard Leaves, and Green Beans with chunky garlic aoli.

Dessert

Gluten Free Pumpkin Cheese Cake: Crust made with crushed almonds, coconut flour, mixed with butter, slight pinch of salt and dash of sugar, baked in the oven until firm. Filling will be multi layer with new york style cheese cake, the second layer of a mix of pumpkin pie filling mixed with cheese and the third layer of creamy pumpkin pie baked to perfection. 

 

Drinks

White wine mixed with cranberry juice over ice. A slice of lemon  and sprig of mint.

Sparkling Apple Juice

 

 

Chicken Noodle Soup

Alas the boys are home sick with a cold and sore throat. So the next best thing is some home made chicken noodle soup. Now I am kind of a purist and hence set forth to find some gluten free egg noodles. I did not find any except for some noodles made with spelt.
The interesting aspect with spelt is that is a cousin to wheat. The grain is pretty ancient and used widely in Europe. What I have learned this far is that Spelt does not seem to aggravate the allergy or intolerance to gluten in some instances. Now this is not a hard fast rule as it does depend on where you get your spelt products. The go to rule is from Europe usually means it is more pure and does not have gluten added to the product. I also chose organic just because less chemicals seems like a good idea to me.

Ingredients

1 medium Leek
5 Medium Carrots
5-8 pieces of skinless/boneless chicken thighs
2 containers of Low Sodium Chicken Broth
1 package of Wide Spelt Noodles
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
Dill weed
A splash of Mrs. Dash

Chop veggies into chunks
Dice chicken into medium pieces
Pour both cartons of broth and 4 cups of water into a pot and bring to a boil.
Add veggies and chicken, seasonings and pepper and cook on medium heat until carrots are semi soft.
Add noodles and cook for another 20-30 min or until noodles are to your liking.
Salt to taste and enjoy a hearty and healthy semi gluten free soup.

Gluten Free Flap Jacks

Gluten Free Flap Jacks with Bacon and Maple flavored Syrup

My youngest son loves pancakes and even though he is not gluten intolerant, my husband is and I am also eating more gluten free. So tonight we did upside down day which is breakfast for dinner. These turned out great which I am excited about especially since my hubby is not a big fan of pancakes. So here is the recipe folks!  I did not take time to take pics of the process but it is fairly simple and easy to do. 

2 Cups Gluten Free Multi Purpose Flour

1 Cup corn meal

2 TBL baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup white sugar

4 egg yolks

1 Tbl sugar for egg whites

 1/4 cup oil

1 tsp of vanilla 

2 cups of heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp maple flavoring

Whip until cream forms stiff peaks and garnish pancakes with a flourish!

* Because I was incorporating bacon I also threw in a small dash of chili pepper and some all spice to liven the flavors a bit. As gluten free has a tendency to be a little blah I try to liven things up and give taste buds something to liven up about. It was mild enough that the kids could not tell but for more sophisticated pallets it was a nice addition. 

Whip egg whites with mixer until really stiff

Incorporate wet ingredients with dry and mix well. Slowly and gently stir in egg whiles until mixture seems fluffy. 
Heat skillet and lightly oil and when pan is hot start with a ladle of pancake mix.

Makes 12- 15

Moo Moo Schzwan

Good Stuff

Mr. G was in the mood for some Beef Schzwan which for a moment sent anxiety up the middle of my back. I for one was raised a vegetarian and it was not until a few years ago that I started to eat meat. I know, I can hear the moan right now. But hey it worked for me but decided I needed to expand my horizons... that being said I also married a carnivore! A good old fashioned one that hails from Miami Florida and loves Big City Food!
Well we live in Kuna Idaho, and well the Big City food is very limited! So is our budget...any whoo as you can see that nice flank steak was my Mountain if you will. But never one to stumble in the face of failure I set out to make something worth eating.

INGREDIENTS

Flank Steak

Mushrooms

Green Onions

Green Beans

Bright Colored Peppers

Gluten Free Soy Sauce

Sherry Cooking Wine

Corn Starch: I forgot to put it in the picture! 

PROCESS OF PLAYING WITH ONES FOOD

Lay that lovely hunk of meat on a board and cut into thin strips

I cut the longer strips in half just so that it was not over whelming on the plate. I do think about such things!

 

In a medium size baking pan mix a cup of brown sugar, a couple of splashes of sherry and a few dashes of soy sauce. For those of you who need measurements I did a a 1/2 cup of sherry and a 1/4 cup of soy sauce. Mix in the pan until nice an caramel brown! 

 Place sliced steak into mixture making sure both sides are coated well, set aside. 

 

Slice up vegetables: Peppers into long strips, mushrooms with stems and green onions diced. 

Dump in peanut oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Pour vegies into pan with a splash of soy sauce and a sherry, about a 1/4 cup each and saute until firm tender. 

Mean while heat up another skillet and place steak slices along with juice in the skillet. I use a cast iron skillet as the heat is more even and I can use a lower setting so that meat is not tough. Let vegies and meat cook about 5 - 10 minutes in their respective skillets. 

 

Combine skillets, I dumped the vegetables into the meat skillet and mixed in 2 tsp. of minced garlic and sprinkled sesame seeds in as well. Mix up together, lower heat to medium low and cover with a lid. After 10 minutes you will have a lot of juice which is just awesome! Yeah we have made it this far and have not caught the kitchen on fire, nor does the steak look as if it came from a shoe! 

 To thicken sauce measure out 2 tablespoons of corn starch and mix with water. Whisk it into your skillet and watch your sauce thicken into a nice and lovely glaze! 

Throw some rice noodles into a pan of hot oil and wa la you get fried rice noodles. The texture is great when mixed with our wonderful beef and orange chicken! 

ENJOY

Gluten Free Orange Chicken

An Artists Version of Orange Chicken

I love orange chicken and decided to try to make my own. Granted the normal recipe calls for several steps that do not work if your chicken is frozen. This is always fun, finding other ways to make something work, which is half the fun! My hubby is also gluten intolerant to the point it is not a pretty picture when he does eat pretty much anything with that ingredient hence the creative dance with food and typical recipes. 

I will warn you, I am not a professional chef! Given that measurements are not going to be exact. Exact and I are not always friends. We have a very strong love and hate relationship. I botch things up when I try to be exact, hence the toss this in or throw that...a splash of this and a dash of that. I am assuming you all know how to cook to a certain extent and are not afraid to be adventurous, at least that is my hope! 

Ingredients

1. Chicken: essential otherwise it would not be called Orange chicken...I used skinless and boneless thighs. It is less dry, and way more tender and my family has a huge dislike for breasts..that is of the feathered kind. 
2. Lemon Juice
3. Orange Juice
4. Gluten Free Soy Sauce: I buy mine at Fred Meyer's they have the best selection and the cost isn't too bad considering it is a specialty item.
5. Fresh Ginger Root
6. Fresh or as fresh as possible orange
7. Brown sugar: I use Cane and yes I am biased. But I enjoy the flavor and since my family does hail from the tropics it would seem sacrilegious to do beet. 
8. Sweet Rice Wine Vinegar: Love this stuff, enough said.
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

Ok now the fun part. 

Step 1. find a medium sauce pan; this is always an adventure as my kitchen is not the most organized. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of water into pan. Splash in some lemon juice, about 2 TB spoons full, here once again I do not measure exactly. The same for the orange juice, about a cup of brown sugar and a splash or two of soy sauce. 

Step 2. Grate some orange peel, about a tsp. and dump in your pan. 

Step 3. Peel the ginger root and cut off a 1/4 piece and dice into smallish pieces. 

Step 4. Dump that into your pot and turn on a medium flame or medium setting if your stove is electric. 

Your concoction should look something like this and smell heavenly as the heat begins to warm things up. 

Step 5. My chicken was frozen,  which was lovely so I put it in the sink to thaw while I was working on the sauce. Granted it will not thaw in the middle so I broke the pieces apart and cut them into small chunks.
Step 6. I also cut up about 4 small carrots into angled sticks, you know trying to look cool.
Step 7. Put chicken chunks into a dish, I used ceramic with a glass lid. Throw carrots on top.

Step 8. Pour sauce from pan into pan and cover with lid.
Step 9. Have your oven pre-heated to 300 degrees and put your chicken dish with the hope it will cook. I had about 2 hours before dinner so the low heat helps things simmer and become nice and tender. 

If all goes well your dish should look like this:


* If you like a thicker sauce then mix a Tablespoon of Corn Starch with the hot sauce after you pull it out of the oven. Quickly whisk in starch with a fork.

* You just made Gluten Free Orange Chicken! Give yourself a pat on the back and dig in! The flavors will be wonderful, tangy and full of flavor. The chicken will be fall apart tender and your carrots will burst with fresh sweetness in your mouth!

Chinese in Kuna

Nathan

Nathan is my youngest, crazy, wacky and extremely intelligent kid. He is also an all American Boy eater as in Pizza is awesome, Mac and Cheese even better. I would say he is our food snob of sorts. He loves "the white stuff" i.e sour cream and cheese is his favorite food...is cheese a food group? Candy and cake, burgers and fries along with a Taco thrown in for good measure. He loves to eat. When he refuses to eat, something is wrong.

Riley

Mr. Riley...how shall I describe the ways this child confounds me? He refuses to eat most of the time. Refuses to try anything new, picks at his plate and well he has the Tortoise beat if you ask me. I have many times pulled out my hair over this child's lack of interest in food.



Both boys are going to their mothers for the weekend. Which hurrah for me and the hubby we can fix something that does not look like, smell similar too or even come close to typical food that the boys prefer to eat! Yeah my raving gastronomic self, creative, throw in the pot and see what pops out can truly play!

So tonight it is Beef Szechuan with green beans and mushrooms, my version of orange chicken with fried rice noodles and Sake to sip and enjoy while the only sounds coming from the table are...ooooh that is so good... wow that flavor is fantastic or how did you do that honey! Oh the bliss, the wonder of Chinese in  Kuna!