Quinoa Cheese Bites (gluten free)

Quinoa Cheese Bites

The boys could not agree how to eat these cheesy little dumplings: G-man smothered his in tomato sauce and the Cadet carefully dipped each bite. Does it really matter? They were eating quinoa. Voluntarily, cheerfully even.

Quinoa Cheese Bites started with Elle's recipe for Vegetarian Meatballs, and quinoa stands in place of crackers. A few more tweaks, and voila! Gluten free and oven baked, you can serve them as an entree or as a perfect take-along snack for a party.

1 cup quinoa, cooked*
1 large (or 2 small) eggs
8 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded (I have not tried it, but I bet non-dairy cheese would work well.)
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp basil

Cook the quinoa. (I added two cups of boiling water to the quinoa, stirred it until it came back to a boil, put the lid on the pot and left it for half an hour.)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a large baking dish (or two, 12" square dishes) with coconut oil or olive oil.

Mix everything together. Form one-inch balls, gently press them together and place them onto the baking dish. If you dip your hands in water first, and again every so-often, it will be easier to form the balls. Bake, uncovered, for about forty minutes, until the tops are golden.

Serve with your favorite tomato sauce, or blend the following together:

16 oz unsalted tomato sauce
small onion
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp garlic



[For anyone who is paying attention: yes, this is a repost from 2012. :) ]

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Greens and Cornbread Quiche with Bacon (gluten free, milk free)

Greens and Cornbread Quiche

Bacon.

(And fresh greens in a quiche, with a cornbread crust. It is a fun fusion fusion dish fit for brunch.)

This is how it is done:

1 lb farm fresh bacon
4 cups chopped greens (I used kale.)
1 red onion, chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped mushrooms
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp mustard powder
4 large eggs (or 3 duck eggs)
1/4 cup water

1 cup non-GMO cornmeal
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp pepper
2/3 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a sauté pan, cook the bacon, leaving it soft. Grease the bottom of a 12" square baking dish (or 14" round) with the drippings. If the bacon is lean, use avocado or coconut oil.

Create the crust: mix the cornmeal, baking powder, and pepper in a bowl. Add the water and stir well. Spoon the mixture into the bottom of the pan.

Mix the greens, mushrooms, and onions together. Layer a quarter of the mixture over the cornbread, followed by a quarter of the bacon, and repeat until all the layers are assembled. Beat the eggs, water and seasoning together in a bowl and evenly pour over the top of the bacon and greens.

Bake until a knife comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

I shared this recipe with Motivation Monday, a weekly roundup of natural recipes and craft ideas.

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Super Easy Mushroom Pork Chops- without the cans! (low sodium, gluten free)

Super Easy Mushroom Pork Chops - without the cans (gluten free, low sodium)

Pork chops in mushroom sauce is a simple comfort food. While my husband and I grew up in different countries, both of our moms made the same basic recipe. Our version is just as easy as the Old Staple* but uses fresh, whole-food ingredients. The method is essentially the same: assemble everything in a pan and bake it. The result is fork- tender pork chops with a fresh tasting mushroom sauce that you can pour over mashed potatoes. Yum!

For four to six servings:

2-3 lb package of old fashioned pork chops, such as Niman Ranch or direct from a farmer
1/4 lb mushrooms, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped

1/2 cup water
2 tbsp tapioca flour or corn starch
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper 

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a large Pyrex baking dish with either coconut oil or a light spray of avocado oil.

Chop the mushrooms and celery. Put half of the mushrooms into the baking dish and place the pork chops on top. Top with the celery and the rest of the mushrooms. In a small bowl, mix the water, tapicoa flour (or starch,) salt and pepper. Gently pour the mixture over the pork chops, being careful not to wash off the mushrooms and celery.

Cover the dish with its lid, foil, or a silicone topper. (I prefer a silicone topper. I bought one at our hospital's gift shop and have also seen them at the hardware store.) Bake, covered, for 45 minutes. Move the cover to let steam escape and bake for another ten minutes or so to thicken the sauce.


*There is a time-honoured recipe that has been passed down like an heirloom for years: pour a can of mushroom soup over your chops and bake them. We gave up cans of creamed soup years ago because of the excess sodium, monosodium glutamate, and, well, the cans themselves. 

One Dish Wonder: Tomato and Ricotta Potato Bake (gluten free, low sodium)

Tomato and Ricotta Potato Bake

Easy, easy easy! Take a few minutes for prep, layer the ingredients in a pan, and pop it in the oven. After about an hour you will be rewarded with a garlicky, cheesy potato dish that is perfect for a side or solo as a meatless entree.

2 medium potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt or lite salt (omit if using cottage cheese)
tomatoes (four large, eight small)
1/2 lb ricotta or drained cottage cheese
parsley
garlic
basil
2 tbsp parmesan cheese

Finely slice the potatoes. (G-man and the Cadet do not mind the peels, and if you can get away without peeling you will have even less work. Just use the word, "rustic.") Toss the potato slices in olive oil and the salt. Slice the tomatoes.

In a covered casserole dish sprayed with olive oil, assemble the layers: Place a third of the potato slices at the bottom of the dish and sprinkle with garlic, parsley and basil. Top with half of the ricotta and half of the tomato slices. Layer with another third of the potatoes and seasonings, then the rest of the ricotta and tomatoes. For the final layer, arrange the last potato slices over the top. Sprinkle them with the seasonings and parmesan cheese. Gently press down to take out any air bubbles then put the lid on.

Bake at 350 for an hour, or 375 for 45 minutes. 

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Beef Teriyaki in Fifteen Minutes without Soy Sauce! (gluten free, low sodium)

Beef Teriyaki without Soy Sauce (gluten free)

Have you ever heard of a low-sodium Teriyaki sauce? Me neither.* A quick check of the jar labels in the store can be hair raising. When I went cruising for recipes I kept finding soy sauce, and lots of it. Hmmm.... what does soy sauce taste like, besides salty? Rich, earthy (from fermentation), and a bit tangy. I played around for a while with some things we had in the cupboard, and came up with a really good impostor!

The trick here is to have everything chopped and prepped to you do not overcook anything. Your steak will be tender, your veggies will have a bit of crunch, and the sauce will marry the tastes and textures together.

1 lb grassfed beef steak, thinly sliced

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt or lite salt
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup diced onion

1 tbsp sesame seeds
3 large mushrooms
3 carrots
3 stalks celery
1/2 cup chopped cabbage

In a stainless or glass bowl, mix the balsamic vinegar, molasses, garlic, salt, sesame oil, and diced onion. Add the sliced steak and let it marinate for a few minutes while you chop your vegetables.

Heat up a wok or sauté pan. (I like an Ultimate Pan, which is sort of a halfway between.) Add the meat and sauce mixture to the hot pan and cook, stirring, just long enough to heat up the sauce. Add the vegetables and sesame seeds, and continue to stir until the meat is cooked through. Serve over cooked quinoa or rice.


*Kikkomen's "low sodium" teriyaki sauce still contains 320mg sodium per tablespoon, and LaChoy's version contains 284mg sodium per tablespoon.  You'd need at least a couple tablespoons of sauce per serving.


I shared this post with Swap-n-Share Sunday.


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One Dish Wonder: Beef and Potato Bake (gluten free, dairy free, low sodium)

One Dish Wonder: Beef and Potato Bake

There were no cans of soup harmed in the making of this hearty bowl of manly-man fare. None opened, nor even purchased, actually. It is just as easy to make a quick beef and potato casserole, with its own creamy mushroom sauce, without the soup! As a bonus, when cooking with grassfed beef, you do not even have to brown the beef first. Just chop, layer, and pop it in the oven. Find something constructive to do for an hour, and return to find that dinner is done! (There is a serving of vegetables stashed in there, too.)

1 lb ground, grassfed beef
4 medium potatoes
1/2 lb mushrooms, finely chopped
3-4 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4-1/2 tsp salt, or lite salt to further reduce sodium
1/4 tsp black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Chop the mushrooms, celery, and onions and put them together in a bowl. Mix in the salt and pepper. (This replaces the seasoning and moisture of a can of soup.) Chop the potatoes and set aside.

Layer the ingredients into a lidded casserole dish: First, put half of the potatoes, and sprinkle with a handful of the mushroom mixture. Next, spread half of the ground beef on top, followed by chopped mushroom mixture. Top with the remaining potatoes, then mushroom mixture, the rest of the beef, and the rest of the mushroom mixture. Gently press down on the top to fill in the gaps.

Put the lid on and bake for an hour. (If the oven is not quite preheated yet, pop it in as it is and add a couple of minutes to the timer.)


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Crock Pot Black-Eyed Peas and Greens (gluten free, vegan)

Crock Pot Black-Eyed Peas and Greens

It was a gorgeous afternoon to work in the garden, but too hot a day to simmer beans on the stove. That is what crock pots are for. I tossed the dry beans, chopped greens, onions and seasonings into a the crock pot and walked away for a few hours.

I must confess that black-eyed peas and greens is not an old standby meal for us, me from Ontario and Stealthy Dad from Wisconsin. One day I will find some Southerner to teach me how to make it authentically. For today, I went to what is familiar to me: garlic, coriander, cumin, and a touch of turmeric. Those seasonings work for lentils, so why not black-eyed peas? Served over quinoa, it all came together well.

[This has a really mild, kid-friendly level of seasoning. For a bit of heat, double the coriander and cumin. For a more heat, triple the coriander and cumin and add a teaspoon or two of hot chili powder.]

To a crock pot, add:

2 cups dry black-eyed peas
4 cups chopped greens (We had kale on hand.)
1 small red onion, chopped
7 cups water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp paprika

Set the crock pot to "high", and find something else to do for four hours. If you are headed off to work for the day, set it on "low" and return home to a hot, fresh meal.  Serve over quinoa or rice.

If you are into healthy recipe and homestead ideas, check out link-ups where bloggers around the world share their creations: Thriving on Thursday

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Spinach and Lentils Lasagna (gluten free option)

Spinach and Lentils Lasagna

Creamy spinach layered with tangy tomatoes and lentils. Gooey mozzarella... We made the Lentils and Chunky Marinara sauce last night and half left in the fridge. The Cadet was asking for pasta, and G-man was begging for cheese. Add a bit of spinach, put it all together and voilá!

1/2 recipe Lentils with Chunky Marinara Sauce
1/2 pound box of lasagna noodles (or gluten free lasagna noodles)
8oz unsalted tomato sauce, canned or homemade
1 block frozen spinach
1 tsp basil (optional)
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1 egg
1 tsp olive oil
4oz mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat the oven to 375F. Meanwhile, prepare the lasagna noodles according to the directions. If you break them in half before you cook them it will be easier to work with them later.

While the pasta is cooking, cook the spinach, either in the microwave or on the stove. Stir in the basil, yogurt and egg, mixing well.

Smear a teaspoon of oil on the bottom and sides of a 12-inch square pyrex dish. Pour half of the plain tomato sauce into the bottom. As soon as the noodles are ready, drain them and arrange a single layer over the bottom. Top with half of the spinach mixture, then another layer of noodles. Top with half of the lentil sauce, another layer of noodles, then the remaining spinach mixture. Arrange the rest of the noodles over top. There should be just enough for another layer if you used a 12-inch pan. Top with the remaining lentil mixture and pour the other half of the plain tomato sauce over top.

Bake for 20 minutes, top with the mozzarella, then bake for another 15 minutes or until the cheese is golden on top. (If you have the time, waiting at least half an hour before cutting it makes it serve easier.)




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Lentils with Chunky Marinara Sauce (vegan, gluten free)

Lentils with Chunky Marinara Sauce (vegan, gluten free)

We've been eating lentils quite a bit lately. While they have been a staple for some families for generations, I admit I did not know what to do with them aside from adding a handful into soup or tossing them into a stir fry. Lentils are quite versatile and have a meatiness to them. Full of protein and fiber, high in iron and folate, lentils are really cheap, too. Cooking dry lentils with a sauce gives them a rich flavour.

Lentils with Chunky Marinara Sauce brings lentils to one of the kids' favourite pasta dishes. Tangy tomato sauce, chunky vegetables, garlic, basil and oregano.... We served ours over homemade whole wheat fettuccine but rice or gluten free pasta would have been great, too.

For eight servings:

1 1/2 cups dry lentils
4 cups water
16 oz unsalted tomato sauce, either canned or homemade
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt or lite salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 red onion, chopped (or a whole one if your kids like onions)
3 stalks celery
4 small carrots, chopped

Put the lentils, water, tomato sauce, olive oil and seasonings into the pan to simmer and added the other vegetables as you chop them. As for cooking time, it could take between half an hour to forty-five minutes, depending on the lentils. (The brown ones seem to take longer than the red ones.)

Enjoy!






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Burger Assistant (Gluten Free)

Burger Assistant with Sweet Potato Noodles

"I don't know why they call this stuff Hamburger Helper. It's just fine by itself, huh? I like it better than Tuna Helper myself. Don't you, Clark?"  - Cousin Eddie, National Lampoon's Vacation

There must be millions of people who think highly of boxed noodles and sauce because it has been jumping off grocery store shelves and into consumers' carts for years. It is easy. Full of questionable things, but easy. This real-food version is pretty darned easy, too:

First, pick your noodles. If you are in a hurry, you can cook up store-bought noodles. If you have an extra, say, fifteen minutes, you can fix up:

Sweet Potato Noodles (gluten free) Skip the spices.
Tamale Noodles (gluten free)
Whole Wheat Egg Noodles

When put the water on for noodles, make the sauce. Note that grassfed beef is leaner than regular, store-bought beef, so you will not need to pre-brown it and drain off grease. If you do pre-brown the beef, mix the cold milk and tapioca starch together before stirring it in.

Stir these ingredients together in a large pan:

1 pound grassfed ground beef
1 cup milk
2 tbsp tapioca starch
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp parsley flakes
1/4 tsp salt (or more to taste after cooking)

Stirring periodically cook everything together until the meat is cooked through and the sauce is thick. Allow at least fifteen minutes.

Add the cooked, drained noodles and stir them together. Cook together until the sauce is bubbly, then serve.


Need a smile today? Here is a clip from a classic movie:






I shared this recipe with Make Your Own Monday, Homestead Barn Hop, Hearth and Soul Hop, Real Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday the HomeAcre Hop,  Fight Back Friday,  Fat Tuesday,  Allergy Free Wednesday and Gluten Free Wednesday.


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Hummus Enchiladas (gluten free, vegan)

Hummus Enchiladas (gluten free, vegan)

Creamy hummus and tangy kale stuffed into fresh corn tortillas, smothered with seasoned tomato sauce, and baked together. Hummus? Kale? Enchiladas? Blasphemy! (but yummy all the same.)

To save on time, the components- tortillas, sauce, and hummus- could be purchased. To reduce salt and food additives you can make them yourselves. That's how we roll. It will take at least an hour to get everything made and ready to bake. Thankfully, you can make most of it ahead and assemble the enchiladas as the oven is preheating.

Beef, Cabbage and Potatoes Bake (gluten free)

Beef, Cabbage and Potato Bake

Beef, Cabbage, and Potatoes. It is hard to go wrong with that time-honoured combination. As a one-dish wonder, you can quickly throw this together, put it in the oven and have dinner ready in an hour. (If your kids aren't picky like ours you can even skip peeling the potatoes!)

2-4 medium potatoes, peeled (if necessary) and sliced
1/2 head cabbage, shredded
1 pound ground grassfed beef*
1/4 tsp black pepper
8 oz plain, unsalted tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 375F. Spray a pyrex dish (approximately 12" x 12") with olive oil.

Wash and slice the potatoes and cabbage. Mix the pepper into the ground beef. Mix the tomato sauce, water, and salt together.

Place the potatoes into the bottom of the pan. Layer a third of the cabbage on top of the potatoes. Place half of the beef over the cabbage layer, breaking off bits like little meatballs. Top with a third of the cabbage, the rest of the beef, and the rest of the cabbage. Gently but firmly pack everything down. Pour the tomato sauce over the top.

Bake for an hour.

*Grassfed beef is leaner than "mystery rolls" from the grocery store, so you will not have to pre-brown it. You can also try old-fashioned ground pork.


I shared this recipe with Fight Back Friday, a weekly collection of natural food recipes submitted by bloggers all over the 'net.

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Pork and Apple Cornbread Casserole (gluten free)

Pork and Apple Cornbread Casserole (gluten free)

I love one-dish wonder meals. This one combines homemade cornbread with fresh apples and pork to bake all at once. If only there was a way to share the aroma... It is fun to see the boys eat this. G-man slowly and meticulously reconstructs every bite on his fork to be a miniature version of the casserole. The Cadet, whom we sometimes call "Baby Carnivore," eats the meat first, then the cornbread, and the apples last. Whatever works.

(A point of pride, there are no factory farm or GMO ingredients. We're getting there!)

Sweet Potato Noodles with Apples, Almonds and Baby Kale (gluten free, milk free)

Sweet Potato Noodles with Apples, Almonds and Baby Kale (gluten free)

"No vegetables for me! I just want noodles!" Who hasn't had days like this? G-man and the Cadet are really good eaters most of the time, but last night I had to pull a Jedi Kitchen Trick. Take cooked and mashed sweet potatoes, add some masa harina, a wee bit of seasoning and an egg, and you've got a gluten-free noodle that is spiked with nutrition.

The boys gobbled theirs up plain, while Stealthy Dad and I enjoyed a more grown-up version: tossed with olive oil, apples, almonds and fresh baby kale from our garden. Either way, we had a great meal.


Sweet Potato Noodles

1 cup non-GMO masa harina
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup cooked, mashed sweet potatoes, cooled to room temperature
1 egg

Quinoa Cabbage Rolls (gluten free, vegan)

Quinoa Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage rolls are kind of hard to describe. You have sweet, softened leaves of cabbage wrapping a filling, often rice or buckwheat. Since I had quinoa on hand, I thought, "why not?" That idea was a good one.

I stayed close to the recipe for Meatless Holubtsi in the Ukrainian Daughters' Cookbook,* that my Baba gave me years ago. While not difficult, cabbage rolls are time consuming because there are three steps: cooking the filling, making the rolls, and baking them. The good news is that it is a good "potluck" dish, so if you give yourself three hours 'til mealtime and have it done early, it is fine to keep warm in a covered casserole. You can also make it ahead, either at the pre-baked prepped stage or after baking and warm it up.

Beef 'n' Tater Bites (gluten free)

Beef 'n' Tater Bites

I really did not know what to call these. "Tater Tot Bites?" They contain none of the usual suspects of tater tot casserole: frozen potatoes or canned soups.  "Burgers and Fries Balls?" That would work if they had breadcrumbs. Any bright ideas?

These are meatballs with shredded potatoes, mushrooms, and celery baked right in. Brown and crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, you could serve them as a party food or for a living room picnic.

Curried Chicken (crock pot, gluten free)

Chicken Vindaloo

We used to use Patak's curry pastes. They are easy and flavourful and come in a range of spiciness from mild to mind-blowing. The Mild Curry Paste contains 910mg sodium per two tablespoons, however, and the first ingredient listed is canola oil. Canola oil, then salt.... We can do better. Learning to blend the spices that could be commonly found in a small town grocery store, and then to adapt them to the palates of our little kids took a few tries.

You will find this recipe for curried chicken to be quick and easy. Just pop everything into the crock pot and come back in a few hours to discover an aromatic pot of tender chicken and potatoes in a smooth, barely spicy sauce. (You can easily crank up the heat if you like.)

Grilled Falafel (vegan, gluten free)

Grilled Falafel  in a Grilled Pita with Easy Coleslaw

Falafel could be the original "veggie burgers." A tradition from Middle Eastern cuisine, falafel are generally deep fried to give them a crispness outside while staying tender inside. You can achieve that on the grill, too, making this a fun burger for cook-outs. I adapted this falafel recipe to make it gluten and egg-free.

Our boys really enjoyed these. The Cadet helped mix the seasonings and blended chickpeas together. G-man, who often claims to dislike chickpeas, dug into the final product with enthusiasm. When the older brother exclaimed that he liked these "burgers," the little brother declared that he liked them too. Thumbs up!

Slow BBQ Pork Roast (gluten free)

Slow BBQ Pork Roast with Yukon Golds, Zucchini and Mini Bell Peppers

Today I played around with the kids. We went to the store, hung out at the library, and put together jigsaw puzzles. When a sudden rain hit I didn't even retrieve the laundry from the line. What's an extra rinse, right? It was just not a "domestic" kind of day. It was too hot for the oven and too wet for the grill. Still, "What's for supper?" had a great answer. With about five minutes' prep in the morning, a sweet, tender pork roast cooked slowly all day in the crock pot. Perfect!


Humanely Raised Pork Roast*
8 oz unsalted tomato sauce, canned or homemade
2 tbsp molasses
2 tbsp brown sugar (optional)
1 tsp garlic powder
(1/2 tsp salt, optional)

Place the roast into the crock pot. Mix the rest of the ingredients together and pour the sauce over the top of the roast. Turn the crock pot on high for four hours or low to cook all day Add an hour if the roast starts off frozen. Dinner's ready!


* Typical grocery store pork comes from hogs raised indoors in tiny confinements. Animal welfare issues aside, it just does not taste as good as pork purchased from a farmer who raises them the old fashioned way.

I shared this recipe with Monday Mania and Foodie Friends Friday.

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Baked Chicken with Garlic Potatoes (gluten free)

Baked Chicken with Garlic Potatoes 

Traditionally seasoned chicken baked over chunky-cut potatoes. The chicken becomes perfectly tender with a crispy skin. Drippings brown the potatoes underneath, elevating them from a basic staple to restaurant-worthy. No one needs to know you can prep this one-dish wonder in minutes.

2 lbs (about 4 pieces) organic chicken thighs
5 medium potatoes
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (optional)
1 tsp garlic powder
parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme*