Easy SALMON!

 Salmon Filet!

I tried my hand at salmon next :)

I cooked some onions and garlic in a little oil and set my salmon filet onto of them. The filet started out frozen. It had skin on one side and used the skin as protection between the pan and the fish meat. 

I added capers, covered the filet in salt and pepper and let it do it's thing. I kept an eye on it and uncovered it to make sure it was ok.

I covered my pan and let the salmon cook for about an hour. The skin prevented the fish meat from burning.

I cooked some stir-fry while the fish was cooking. I under-cooked my salmon a little, but that's only because it started out frozen.

A cooked salmon filet looks light pink on the outside and inside. Mine was a little darker in the middle, but it was hot and delicious anyways.

Don't worry about under-cooking salmon, don't we eat it raw on sushi?

The picture is on a little plate, so the filet looks ginormous, but don't worry.



I wouldn't eat too much more with the salmon than vegetables. Salmon is an extremely high caloric and fatty fish and doesn't need too many extras on the side. It'll keep you full for quite a while too!

Wild Caught Flounder Filet and Potatoes

Wild Caught Flounder.

A great fish I had never tasted before.

I tried myself at it. I used the package it was frozen in to marinate it in lemon juice, pepper and salt. As you can see I also added some lemon slices (with the rind cut off, my lemons weren't organic) Shame on me, I know :(

I let it semi defrost in the refrigerator while marinating.

While the fish was defrosting, I diced two new potatoes into small cubes, keeping the skin. (Was the potatoes well beforehand)

In the pan I sauteed the onions first, letting them sweat (or wait until they get mushy and clear) and added some garlic.

I then added the potatoes and got them crispy.

I cooked them for quite a while, tasting them now and then to make sure they were cooking.

When the potatoes were almost cooked, I boiled some water and submerged my diced potatoes in boiling water, helping their cooking process. 

I let the water boil down completely.

I then added the fish.

I separated the cooked potatoes and plopped my fish filet between them.

The fish cooked until it became white and flaky.


Like this!

I also added some capers on the top of the fish, and some lemon juice to give it an extra moisture to prevent it from drying out.

Take care of your fish!






I then plated my fish and potatoes, with a side of stir-fry veggies. 

For my first time cooking fish, I will say, it was delicious!

I hope this encourages y'all to try cooking fish, it's really not that hard and it SO GOOD!

See Ya!

BLT? YES PLEASE :D

 For lunch was BLT! I crave these more often than I would like to admit!

The white bread is the same brand as the Hamburger buns I have. These are gluten and dairy free but still have some egg whites.  :(

I cooked myself some bacon, cut up a fresh tomato and added delicious baby spinach leaves.

I added vegan mayonnaise and mustard for flavoring.

I recommend the baby spinach leaves because they are probably some of the most nutritious leaves you could find. Also, they taste great!


BLT, probably the greatest sandwich ever <3 

Fajita Night!

 Who doesn't like Fajitas! Well, I'm sure some people don't like them, but that's really too bad. They are so easy to make!

Fajita night was GREAT!

We cooked beef and chicken strips, (I'm not too fond of the beef ones, but they were good too) with lots of peppers. We started on the meats first and added some peppers in the skillet for flavoring.

When we cooked the peppers (red and yellow) we seasoned them with salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning in order to give them a slight kick! We grilled them separate from the meat in order to keep all the flavors separate. I think cooking everything together is great, but sometimes it's nice to bite into a burrito and have different flavors!

While all that was cooking, I mixed two very ripe organic avocados, some diced onions and tomatoes in a bowl. I used a potato masher. It did the job GREAT!

I used some lemon to add a little flavor and salt and peppered the dish.

This Guacamole was perfect!! I didn't add any cream and the taste and texture of the avocado was sufficient.

And this was the end of the evening. I got some great tasting corn tortillas, slathered my home made guacamole, added chicken, peppers and onions, rolled everything and enjoyed! Who said sour cream and cheese was a MUST HAVE for fajitas! NOT ME :D

 I hope you find this helpful, it was so much fun to make and even better to eat!!

MUST LOVE FAJITAS!

Oh boy Chicken Salad Sandwich!!!

I was CRAVING chicken salad one morning and decided to go ahead and make myself one. I've never made chicken salad before this and just put together what I had in my pantry. I wish I had had apples and raisins to add a slight sweetness to it, but I managed just fine with what I had :)

I chopped some white shallots, celery and some chive greens. All three in equal parts in order to have a blend of the three.
The celery is to add some nice crunchy texture :)

I put all three in a bowl and added the chicken. I used pr-cooked Tyson's grilled chicken strips that I lightly shredded in the bowl. I say lightly in order to still have pieces of chicken in the salad. If it was too shredded, it wouldn't be any fun would it?

Looking good right!!

I seasoned the chicken to my liking in the pan.

I added vegan mayonnaise and mustard, cumin and other spices. I trust that you know what you like and dislike in your chicken salad ;)














And this is the final product!! An amazing delicious home made chicken salad sandwich! Of course the bread is gluten free (but still contains egg whites, so it's not completely egg free.)

Let me know if you find a good gluten egg and dairy free bread! Don't hesitate to leave me some comments!

Chicken Beans and Veggies Lunch

Are you looking for a fast, healthy and delicious Lunch? Who isn't!! I've got one right here.

Healthy DOES NOT mean tasteless

Healthy DOES NOT mean you'll be hungry in 3 hours

Healthy DOES NOT mean boring

Here is my fast chicken beans and vegetables lunch.
Pre-grilled chicken strips cooked in herb seasoning, salt and pepper.
Beans out of a can, microwaved.
Frozen vegetables.

Put all of that on one plate and you've got yourself a great tasting, fast making, and delicious eating plate of food.
and who doesn't like FOODING!

Enjoy!!

Easy Fast and Healthy Hamburger Beans and rice Casserole

Hi everyone!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Life has been busy! Thankfully I have still been cooking and eating delicious things :)

This is a fast and easy recipe. Just hamburger meat, red beans, rice, onions and garlic!

 I added my gluten free bread crumbs for extra texture but if you don't have any that's fine!

I made two "patties", pre-cooking the rice before hand in order for it not to absorb all the juices from the meat and dry everything out. I grilled the Casserole patties in a little oil to give it a crunch! YUM

I then served the Casserole with a side of spicy veggies! (I ate half of my veggies in the picture). Try to have half Casserole half Veggies in order to keep the meal balanced!

I hope you find this recipe easy and I promise it's D-licious!

On the table tonight, BURGERS!

I had burgers tonight! A good friend came over and we talked about her impending bundle of joy coming into the world (hopefully) very soon.

Her and Tony had some normal buns but I got some gluten free hamburger buns. 

They are dairy soy and gluten free but still have some egg... 

I don't recommend them for people with severe egg allergies, but if you're like me and you can't have them but they aren't life threatening, I believe it's ok to make an exception once in a while. 

These buns are soft and delicious, they don't crumble and definitely hold together the way they should. 

To mix my hamburger patties I used my staple spices:

Herb blend

Cajun seasoning

Marcum

Cumin

I also added a little rooster sauce as a kick !

After mixing everything together and cooking the patties, we prepared our buns with pickles, ketchup, Vegenaise, yellow spicy mustard, tomato and spinach leaves, creating this delicious monster :

As a vegetable side we cooked garden fresh butternut squash in a slightly oiled pan with an herb blend spice.

Can you resist that!!

Happy hamburger eating y'all!!

I know I enjoyed it :)

Beef and rice casserole dinner

I found that making pantry foods is so easy! I hope this recipe inspires YOU!

beef rice and bread crumb casserole. 

I mixed together some leftover raw hamburger meat, with leftover gluten free bread crumbs and some rice. 

I added whatever spices seemed to fit and cooked a frozen stir-fry as vegetables. 

It was quite delicious and extra fast! Everything was precooked and just needed some heating up in a little sunflower oil. HOORAH!

This dish consisted in equal parts rice vegetables and meats and a small part bread crumbs for flavoring. The entire thing smelled wonderful when it was cooking and tasted great!

I hope this inspires you to try some pantry cooking if your own!

See you soon!

Gluten and Egg free breaded chicken with stir fry

Today for lunch, I've decided to finally use my home made gluten free bread. I crushed it with a hammer on my patio (in a bag of course) and made it extremely crumby.
I then defrosted some small chicken breasts, and used a blend of herbs and salt mixed into the bread crumbs to bread it. Instead of using egg yolks I used normal olive oil to bind the crumbs to the chicken. I then fried the breaded chicken in some sunflower oil.
The stir-fry, well, it was simply seasoned with some pepper and Cajun seasoning, then cooked in a pan without added oil. SIMPLE :)

 the breading!

Brownies!

Last night I was able to find some gluten, egg and dairy free brownie mix!
It was wonderful. I only added some sunflower oil and water to the mix!
Maybe a little too chocolaty, but the texture was great!
The brownie mix brand was Pamela's. I found it a kroger for about 5 dollars. It has chocolate chips already in it. Also, there are multiple ways to make the brownies on the back of the packaging, giving you a choice.
I WILL recommend this brownie mix!

Delivery pizza?

Yes you can!!

Dominos now has a gluten and cheese free crust! I've tried it, TWICE!

It's quite delicious! 

I ordered, on a gluten free crust (only comes in one person serving, aka small) a rustic tomato sauce without cheese, adding ham, pineapple and black olives. 

The crust was wonderful! Not brittle, great taste and didn't get all soft an soggy. 

The one thing I have to add, it that people who can't even come in contact with wheat shouldn't try it. Dominos has this disclaimer 

On all website and boxes. Overall it says, the pizza is made in a kitchen where wheat can come in contact with it. 

Apart from that! Wow I'm exited! I can still have the good old fashion American pizza delivered to me!! 

And I didn't miss the cheese on my pizza. It made the flavors of the other toppings so much more portent. 

I ate pizza today

I did. Shame on me! It's been about a month and I was so good. Everyone has slip ups right!

But yikes! How I feel terrible! I know I shouldn't have. But I did. And I regret it. I was delicious but definitely NOT worth it. 

It was so greasy and cheesy and yummy. But I will not do it again. (Ps I wasn't alone eating this that's why there isn't any more). I won't I won't I won't. 

Now I will take an alkaselzer and some pepto and hope things don't get worst tomorrow. 

Good night folks. 

DON'T DO WHAT I DID. DON'T EAT CHEESY PIZZA, it's not worth it.

Vegenaise, a great mayo substitute

Hi guys, and galls!

Today I want to right a short post on vegenaise... or mayonnaise substitute.

I LOVE mayo, adore it actually. Unfortunately, with the high content of eggs in normal mayonnaise, I can't have it anymore. Shucks. A vegetarian friend told me about vegenaise, a brand of vegan mayo I can find in my small town, so I decided to try it out.

This is what it looks like. There are many different kinds. I tried the original and it's not too bad. The texture is right, even though it gets slightly liquidy when put in or on hot things. It does have soy in it, but they offer a soy free vegenaise as well as reduced fat, grape-seed oil and organic. They also have a gourmet vegenaise type that offer pesto, roasted garlic, chipotle, barbecue, horseradish sauce and tartar sauce. I'm looking forward to trying some of the gourmet one.

For the original I would say it's missing a little... taste. So I'm going to try adding mustard to it when using it in in chicken salads or tuna. 

This vegenaise website http://followyourheart.com/products/cheddar-3/ has all the information about vegenaise and more! They make dairy free cheese (I'm going to try that VERY soon, trust me) and they even offer recipes. 

I hope you liked this little ovo-lacto-wheat free mayonnaise substitute. 

See y'all soon!

Whey vs Casein in Milk Products

Hi all!
My friend made some taco soup for tonight and told me it was egg, milk and wheat free but there was whey in the seasoning and was that ok. Well, I said yes, but I really, honestly, have no clue.

So I did some research, and this is what I found.

Whey and Casein are two completely different proteins found in milk.

Milk contains about 80% casein protein and 20% whey. So usually, people who are allergic or intolerant to milk, can't have the casein protein.

When an enzyme (or acid) is put in the milk, both the casein and whey will separate into two different liquids. The casein will sink and have a whitish heavy looking texture, while the whey will float and be a liquidy "milky" type liquid.

Whey is taken out of cheese and yogurt making (the casein is the important part).
Cottage cheese, also known as "curds and whey" is simply milk separated by enzymes into the lumpy casein curds, and the milky liquid whey!

Whey was found to be a great fat digesting bio-available protein, so soon hereafter, the great whey protein craze took off. This is how these crazy large buckets of whey and protein came to existence.

Also loads of people use casein and whey pure protein as health supplements (or body-building supplements). They both have different attributes such as fast and easily digested for the whey protein (great for right after a workout) while slow and full of amino acidsfor the casein (which helps bulk up muscle).
For health and workout people, take both, they are both very beneficial... Or simply eat yogurt and cottage cheese! Go the Natural Easy way ;)

how I miss thee cottage cheese

Breakfast of champions?

This morning... What to eat? I would usually have a bowl of cereal with some whole milk, or some toast with butter and jam. Unfortunately, that's not really possible anymore is it?
I don't own a bread machine, so I haven't been able to get some "real" gluten, egg, milk free bread in the house yet. I'm left with whatever is in my pantry.

These are my choices. The EnerG (gluten, egg, dairy free crackers) and the Lundberg Organic Brown Rice cakes. I also have some farmers marker Plum jelly and the smart balance butter (this contains less than 2% whey, a milk product so I won't suggest it, I use it for cooking and buttering breads since it doesn't affect me.)

After buttering my cracker and applying jam to both the rice cake and the cracker I ate.

YUM!

I will say, I enjoyed the texture and taste of the cracker better but both were quite delicious. I will probably eat more of the cracker and jelly combination for breakfast than the rice cake, but it's nice to know there are options. Rice cakes are great as a snack, alone, with a piece of ham or some peanut butter.

I hope this helps, I will probably try cereals tomorrow... Maybe with some coconut milk or almond milk!

Allergy Stickers!

Hi all!
I found these stickers online and thought they were fun, easy to read and extremely strait forward. With the pictures and text they make it easy for both children and adults.

I unfortunately couldn't find the exact web page where to find the stickers but I have an email address and a twitter!!
here is the email: petra@twistedsticker.com.
and follow Petra at twistedstickers on twitter right here:  https://twitter.com/twistedkidz

Shrimp Risotto (4 people, 2 1/4 cups rice)

Hi!
I just made a really delicious Shrimp Risotto. Risotto is a type of rice recipe. It's really delicious but a little time consuming. If you want to impress, risotto is the way to go (in my opinion). It's a type of creamy white rice (no cream, don't worry) that cooks for quite some time, while I (or you) stir it and pamper it until it has the right consistency and flavoring you are looking for. It's an Italian Mediterranean dish. It's flavorful, moist and really, really tasty.

I decided to make mine with Shrimp. because I had some :) You could call me an ultimate pantry cooker. I rarely go out of my way to go to the store and buy whatever I need to make a dish. EASY if my motto.

I got a couple of ideas for risotto recipes online (I've never actually made one before). This one recipe I found (http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/white-wine-risotto.html) on the dummies website, called for celery, which I had, so I chose this one as my starter risotto recipe.

Here is what I did, and how I did it. Remember i cook ovo-lacto-wheat free! :)

Ingredients:

Rice
White Onion (I used half of a HUGE white onion)
Garlic (I have this garlic in a jar thing I use), so one small spoonful of garlic
Olive oil (as much as coats the pan)
Red Peppers (I used half of a super duper spicy pepper)
Half a bottle of white wine (always use more than in the recipe)
Salt and pepper, of course
Herb Blend

Shrimp
Olive Oil butter


That's it. There's a lot, I know, I don't usually cook with that many ingredients, but it was fun!

Now for the Process:

I first cooked the shrimp in a... let's say, bunch of boiling water with Cajun seasoning (if you like it hot), cumin and Chili Powder. I used the Kroger Raw Shrimp Shell-on (that's what I had). When they turned nice and pink, I waited a little and shelled them. KEEP THE WATER. It'll be the broth for your risotto.

RISOTTO!

First, dice your onions and celery into even pieces. Cut your red pepper into tiny little bits.

Use a deep-large pan or large pot. (I don't have pots yet, so I'm only cooking with a deep pan or simple pans.) Cover the bottom of the deep-large pan or pot with olive oil, let is get warm and throw the above chopped ingredients in the oil, add the spoonful of garlic. Salt and pepper.

Stir with a wooden spoon for about 10 minutes on low medium heat. The onions with become a little see-through and a little soft.

Throw in the rice. (About 2 1/4 cups of white rice for 4 people.) Let it simmer in the oil and vegetable concoction for about 5 minutes, don't forget to constantly stir. This is called browning.

When the 5 minutes are up, pour the half bottle of white wine. Get a nice bottle of white wine, never cook with cheap wine, it makes for cheap foods. 

Let the rice absorb the wine. When the rice seems to be boiling itself, add  about a cup and a half of the simmering shrimp water.
When that seems to be boiling itself, repeat the shrimp water stage, until the rice is fully cooked and looks a little goopy.

TASTE your foods, at all times of the cooking process. Even if the rice is still hard. Salt and pepper to liking.

 Once your risotto is tasty, goopy and warm, recook the shrimp.

Sear the shrimp in some olive oil butter and some herb blend in a pan. When they are a little brown, serve them on the plate next to the very warm risotto. If you are having guests, I would suggest a side salad to complete the plate (maybe a baby spinach and tomato salad for color). Also, your guests might be able to eat cheese, so have a bowl of Parmesan on the table for them to sprinkle their risotto with.

I think that's it. I really hope you love this recipe. I loved it and Tony loved it too. WOOO!