Gluten Free Dinner Table – Week of January 18th

Gluten Free Dinner Table – Week of Jan. 18th

Here are the recipes I used the Week of January 18th with a little commentary on each one.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

This is the recipe I referred to last week but didn’t get a chance to prepare.    I found this on Recipezaar while looking for meals that could be frozen ahead of time.   I also love this website because the comments given for each recipe give me other ideas for ways to improve on a good, or not so good, recipe.   Allrecipes.com is very similar in this respect.

Click here for the link for this recipe.   This got mixed reviews at our house.  Andrew loved it and wants it again.  Kenny and I both felt like something was missing.  Well, it was.  I did not have flavored cream cheese so I used plain cream cheese and sprinkled some Montreal Chicken seasoning from McCormick  inside the breast before rolling it up.  That was just not enough seasoning.  We don’t care for chives but after reading a few of the reviews, I think just about any flavored soft cheese would work well.   Alouette has some awesome cheese spreads that I think would be awesome inside these wraps.  I’m specifically thinking of the Garlic and Herbs flavor.  By the way, you will find these in the gourmet cheese section of your grocery store.

The thought of pounding all this chicken flat was not my cuppa tea,  so I went with the Perdue thin sliced chicken breasts.  Prep was quite easy and I’ll definitely make these again with flavored cheese spread.  Andrew has quite a few to eat in the freezer now though!

Spicy Italian Chicken Soup

I LOVE this soup!  I got the idea from Carrabba’s restaurant, which has a nice gluten free menu.  They have a soup called Mama Mandola’s Spicy Chicken Soup that is really good, but you have to request no pasta be put in it.  So I start with a basic chicken soup recipe and want to make it Italian!  I’ll post the ingredients, but measurements will only be approximate.  My mother taught me to just dump it in when cooking things like soup, but I’ll try to give you some sort of amounts with the ingredients.

Start with boiling chicken.  You can use a whole chicken and debone it or you can use chicken breasts and boil them.  Just make sure you are dealing with lots of water so that you end up with a good amount of chicken stock.  I used a my cast iron dutch oven and three chicken breasts this week.

When the breasts were almost fully cooked, I removed them one at a time, shredded the meat and put it back in the chicken stock.  Then I added:

• 1-2 carrots, sliced (I used about 20 baby carrots, but put as many as you like)
• 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
• 2 cans Rotel tomatoes – mild or original, depending on how spicy you want it
  
• 1 can tomato sauce (15 oz.)
• salt and pepper
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 1/3 cup Italian Seasoning

If you want this to be thicker, like a stew, then use tomato paste instead of tomato sauce.  Simmer over low/medium  heat for a minimum of 1 hour so the flavors blend together.  Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.  You may add water if you want a thinner version of this soup.  It’s an easy soup to tweak and make it fit the tastes of your family.  Also should freeze well.

Chicken Parmesan

• 4-6 Boneless chicken breasts, whole or cut into smaller pieces
• Olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 jar Classico pasta sauce
• Parmesan cheese (or Mozzarella, if you prefer)
• gluten free pasta

This is one of the easiest dishes to make and it is very tasty!

Pour olive oil into skillet, covering the bottom of the pan.  When oil is hot, place chicken in the pan.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Sear chicken on both sides and remove from the pan.  Chicken will NOT be fully cooked.  That’s ok.

Pour excess oil out of pan.  Add pasta sauce of your choice.  I have used homemade and Classico.  Just make sure it’s gluten free.  Return chicken pieces to the pan, in the sauce.  Simmer on low/medium until chicken is fully cooked.  Top with cheese and serve over gluten free pasta.

Garlic Parmesan Beef (or Two Ingredient Crock Pot Meat)

This is a crock pot recipe that is SO versatile and some variation is used in this house at least once every couple weeks.  The name of your recipe will change with your ingredients, so be creative!  For THIS particular version, I chose the name Garlic Parmesan Beef.

• 1 crock pot
• stew beef
• Newman’s Own Parmesan and Roasted Garlic Dressing

Place meat in your crock pot.  Pour dressing over meat, giving you 1-2 inches of dressing in the bottom of the crockpot.  Cook 3 hours on high or 4-5 hours on low.

Now for the versatile part.

Meat

• Chicken – any part of the chicken, thawed or frozen
• Pork – chops or a pork loin
• Beef – roast, stew beef, steak

Liquid

• salsa or picante sauce
• salad dressing – I’ve used Italian as well as the one noted above
• soup

I have used Pace Picante Sauce with all of the above…beef, pork and chicken.  Unfortunately, Pace products are no longer considered gluten free so I’ll need to find another brand to use, but the principle is still the same.  I’ll assume you know your crock pot and how fast it cooks.  The smaller the pieces of meat the less cooking time.  I have cooked a roast all day till it was falling apart but it was SO delicious and tender!  I have also used frozen meat when it was smaller, like chicken breasts.  Just make sure there is liquid in the bottom of the crock pot.  I tried chicken with just dry seasoning once and the frozen chicken/hot crock combo brock the ceramic insert to my crock pot.

Salad Dressings or bottled marinades are both very good.  I’ve tried Italian dressing, many varieties, and the one mentioned above.  I tend to use the more oily ones so you’ll have to let me know how some others work for you.  Again, I’ve used these with beef, pork and chicken.

Soups – I have not personally used soup in my crockpot in quite a long time because of the fat content of creamed soups and also due to the fact that most contain gluten, but there are many great varieties that would work well.  Creamed soups like cream of mushroom are the traditional favorites.  Use your imagination!  If you love a certain soup and can imagine it as a gravy of sorts for some type of meat, give it a try!  Don’t forget to come back and let me know how it turns out!