SO DELICIOUS Coconut Milk Yogurt Review
I’ve been waiting for someone to develop a non-dairy, non-soy yogurt for a while, and my wish has been granted. SO DELICIOUS is just that…a delicious probiotic treat without the allergens:
Alfonso XIII Paella
Inspiration:
Well, this recipe is a tribute to my girls of Alfonso XIII. When I was living in Madrid my roommate, Emily, and our good friend, Danielle, and I all lived at the Metro stop of Alfonso XIII. This was our point for departure for various adventures in Madrid. I hope this paella provides a culinary adventure for you!
Ingredients:
1/2 chopped red bell pepper
3/4 c chopped eggplant
1 sweet onion diced
1-2 cloves of minced garlic
Paprika
Sea Salt
1 c white rice
3 c Chicken Broth
Saffron
3/4 lb. of peeled, deveined wild shrimp
1 c Shredded Chicken
1 c frozen artichoke hearts
1 can of rinsed chickpeas or garbanzo beans
2-4 T chopped Flat leaf parsley
Directions:
1. Heat pan with tight-fitting lid to medium high heat. Add a couple turns of olive oil.
2. Add first three veggies and saute until tender.
3. Push veggies to the side. Add a little pool of olive oil in the center of the pan. To it add the minced garlic.
4. Lightly season veggies with sea salt and paprika.
5. Add rice to the veggie mixture. Stir around to coat rice with the oil and lightly cook.
6. Add chicken broth as well as a pinch (a few threads) of saffron to the dish.
7. Add shrimp, chicken, and artichoke hearts to the pan.
8. Bring pan up to a bubble. Then turn down to simmer, place lid on top and allow to cook for about 15 minutes.
9. Once rice and shrimp are tender, add garbanzo beans, season liberally with salt, add a little extra paprika, and a turn or so of olive oil.
10. Stir together, cover and cook for another 5 minutes or less to allow flavors to meld.
11. Serve and eat!
NEWS FLASH: Queso Manchego is Free of Cow’s Milk!
Oh happy, happy day! When I was studying abroad in Madrid…
..Yes, I said STUDYING! I did work hard in Madrid contrary to popular belief. Anyway, like I was saying, while there I fell in love with a couple of things:
1. Rioja wine
2. Queso Manchego
I’m here to discuss the latter. You could not eat at any tapas bar in Madrid without running across Queso Manchego served in beautiful little triangular slices drizzled with olive oil. When I first received my food allergy diagnosis, I just thought that I was never going to eat cheese again. Now that I am aware of my cow’s milk allergy, I am slowly realizing that there are so many cheeses in this world, which do not contain cow’s milk, and Queso Manchego is one of them! Join me sipping wine and dining on Queso Manchego with the tastiest little gluten free Rice crackers.
Fish Tacos with Tomatillo Avocado Cream
I love fish tacos! With all my restrictions I thought they were a goner from my diet, but not so! This is a great summery meal. Enjoy! (By the way, I meant to say that I caught not cooked the fish..well I suppose I did both actually. 🙂
Ingredients for two:
4-5 tomatillos
1 large Haas Avocado
Spices: Salt, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika
Juice of half a lime
4 pieces of white fish of your choice
Olive Oil
Cabbage
Rice tortillas or large butter lettuce leaves
1. Simmer tomatillos in gently boiling water, just enough to cover the tomatillos. Cook 5-10 minutes or just until gently yielding when pricked with a paring knife.
2. Puree the tomatillos along with a little bit of the cooking liquid, just enough to allow the tomatillos to loosen and puree uniformly. Set aside.
3. Add a portion of the tomatillo puree to one 1 large Hass avocado. Continue to add the tomatillo puree until the avocado mixture reaches a creamy consistency. Season with salt, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, juice of half a lime to taste. (Feel free to add any other seasonings you would normally put in your favorite guacamole. ) Set aside.
4. Pat dry fish of your choice.
5. Sprinkle lightly with fish seasoning
5. Bring pan to medium high heat. Coat with a couple turns of oil.
6. Add fish to pan and allow to cook undisturbed a couple of minutes per side or until desired firmness is reached.
7. Serve cooked fish, topped with thinly sliced cabbage and avocado cream on a rice tortilla or leaf of Butter Lettuce. Serve with Erica’s Favorite Rice on the side. Black beans would be a great addition too!
Erica’s Favorite Rice
In the rice cooker dump:
- 1 c Jasmine rice
- 2 3/4 c water
- 1T olive oil
- Zest of one clean lime
- 1 t of salt
- 1/4 c of green (in this case, green onion)
You can also cook this in a pot, and just follow the ratios for water to rice on the package of rice.
Adapted from Lime Cilantro Rice at Allrecipes.com.
Quick Shrimp Cobb Salad
The possibilities with fresh vegetable salads are endless.
This recipe is easy peasy and healthy. It is great for a light dinner, or for a ladies luncheon kind of a thing.
Quick Shrimp Cobb Salad (for two):
Ingredients:
- 1 head of washed chopped Romaine Lettuce
- Lots o’ matchstick carrots or diced/sliced carrots
- 1 avocado diced
- 4 pieces of Bacon cooked and crumbled/chopped
- 2/3-3/4 lb. peeled deveined shrimp
- Salt, pepper, and paprika
Directions:
1. Lay a bed of greens on a plate and top with the veggies and bacon.
2. In a pan that has heated on medium high, add a couple turns of olive oil to the pan. Allow to heat for 10 seconds or so, and then add the shrimp. Cook until the shrimp is done and they form ‘C’ shapes. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and paprika.
3. Scatter the salad with the shrimp.
4. Serve with lemon wedges for squeezing and olive oil. No dressing is required. The lemon and olive oil mixed around with the creamy avocado makes its own ‘dressing.’
Adapted from: Shrimp Cobb Salad
Healthy and delish!
I’m JUICING, and it’s Legal!
Fresh fruits and vegetables when juiced make a healing tonic
That’s right, I have just fallen in love with making fruit and vegetable juices! This was my first juice film and only my second time to juice, so sorry the video is a bit rough:
Here is why juicing is so amazing in a nut shell:
1. Juicing vegetables is particularly beneficial because the juicer smashes everything up into a liquid form that is easily assimilated into your cells, because your body doesn’t have to waste energy digesting the fiber of the vegetable. Vegetable juices are like an instant multi vitamin to your cells!
2. Juicing is Nature’s liver scrubber. Your liver, my friends, lives a hard life, especially in this day and age. It is working overtime to process the crummy food you eat, alcohol, caffeine AND all the crazy toxins that are now in our environment. Show it some love and help it stay clean with juices, so it can in turn help your whole body stay clean.
Please don’t be dismayed by my ancient juicer or the murky green juice it produces; trust me, it tastes great!
If you have cash to burn and want to buy the Cadillac of juicers, I think something like this would be lovely.
I think juicing is one of those habits where if you adopt it today and juice a few times a week or more, your body is going to thank you ten-fold down the road. When everyone else is old and wobbly, you’ll be full of life, like this guy.
Classic Roast Chicken with Fluffy Mashed Potatoes and Brussel Sprouts
I love a good classic, roasted chicken. It is such a warming dish, and sharing it with your family at dinner feels like the way that meals together are supposed to be. I particularly love roasting chicken, because I get multiple meals out of it: the first time we eat it, the second time when I use all the meat tidbits in pasta dishes or soups, and the third time when I use the bones to create a wholesome broth.
I have tried many roast chicken recipes. This recipe is courtesy of Cooking Light and can be found here: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/classic-roast-chicken-50400000110425/. My favorite part of the recipe is the way that they turn up the heat at the end to yield a gorgeous, brown, crispy skin. I’m not going to lie, while the preparation and cooking technique were spot on, I might have seasoning combinations that I prefer, which I will share with you soon, but I’m still glad I gave this one a try for something different and encourage you to do the same.
The mashed potatoes I adapted from a recipe I saw on PBS and then printed at America’s Test Kitchen: http://www.americastestkitchen.com/ (Search ‘Fluffy Mashed Potatoes). I love the scientific approach of this show; they really look at the chemistry of the food, and their understanding enables them to create the desired tastes and textures. In this recipe I use Tempt Hempmilk (See ‘My Pantry’) in lieu of regular milk. Tempt makes the best hempmilk. It is delicious and creamy. Don’t worry, they explain in great detail on their packaging, that the hempmilk contains no THC. Using the hempmilk and ghee (Clarified dairy-free butter…See ‘My Pantry’) you are able to create wonderful mashed potatoes. The only thing I would say is that they lose their luster on leftover night, so don’t make a ton.
With the chicken and mashed pots, I serve the Brussel Sprouts and Bacon as seen in the Italian Chicken with Sweet and Sour Fennel video (Come on…I had a huge bag of sprouts from Costco I had to use up!)
Overall a great meal. Not too many heroic substitutions were necessary, and we were left with a tasty, close-to-the-Earth meal! Watch me make the meal in these two videos:
Breaded Eggplant with Pesto Pasta and Salad
Behold! My first web video cooking episode. Watch me make a delicious Eggplant ‘Parmesan’ free of multiple food allergens!
So here was the problem: I used to love Eggplant Parmesan but was at a loss with allergies to dairy, gluten, and tomato in particular. My strategy? Make gluten-free breadcrumb and top eggplant with a delicious pesto, so tomato and cheese are not even missed!
In video 1 I cover making the pesto and breading the eggplant.
Here is the pesto recipe:
Fresh Basil Pesto Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil or more
- 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
- 3 medium-sized garlic cloves, minced
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Method
1 Combine the basil in with the nuts (I used walnuts), pulse a few times in a food processor.
2 Slowly add the olive oil in. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula.
Note: to see the original recipe from which I created this adapted pesto, click here: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/fresh_basil_pesto/.
Before going to video 2…FYI, I lost some footage, which showed the layering of the breaded eggplant. So let me tell you how to do it: Just spray a 9X9 with canola spray, and layer the eggplant, then some pesto, then repeat until all eggplant is in pan; leave some pesto to toss with the pasta!
In video 2, I totally botched my camera angle, so it is hard to see what I’m doing. Sorry! But, what you should have been able to have seen:
1. Adding pesto and a bit of reserved cooking liquid to cooked and drained Tinkyada Rice Pasta, my fav! See ‘My Pantry’ links on sidebar.
2. Pulling out piping hot eggplant baked at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes
3. Plating of the meal with a simple salad (See ‘Simple Salad Sauces’ page on sidebar) …. And bread for the non-celiacs in your life.
After filming, we dined, and this was a great recipe! Between filming and posting, I did some follow-up work, however, on Daiya cheese (See ‘My Pantry’ links). I think that the Mozz style Daiya layered on top of the eggplant would really pull the dish together. It’s taste isn’t overwhelmingly cheesy, but it melts and stretches like cheese, which gives you the feeling that you’re ‘normal’ again. 🙂
This recipe is definitely going into my allergy free cooking repertoire!
Cook Allergen Free! Tasty Allergen Free Meals Everyone Will Love! 