Oven Omelet Happiness

So, I'm getting pretty sick of those chicken and dumplings I made (yes, i'm still eating them, and omg why is there so much left...)


Then for lunch, I had my usual on campus. They have limited options for me (like one) so I have a salad with: lettuce, turkey, and avocado. And normally some sea salt chips. 


When I got home, I discovered that I not only had the seasoning I've been waiting for in order to make a recipe been delivered,


 (Herbamore - http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=herbamare+seasoning&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=4391322795&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1326889671536470711&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_8q7bvcfzuq_b )


but my oldest sister had also sent me a box of 6 bags of dried figs! OH BOY!!


I had honestly never had a fig in my life. Or a dried one. I'm not a big fan of dried fruit and stuff, honestly. My other sister made me some dried apple chips that are good though, and some good dried sweet potato chips, but they kind of break your teeth because they are thick.


Anyway, back to the figs - I decided to be open minded and try one, and so I opened up a bag. Ok. Why do these things smell like a combination of alcohol and my hair conditioner. 
Bad idea to smell things. 
It's best just to put a clothes pin on your nose during all of these food experimental moments. 


So...I tasted the conditioner smelling dried disgusting looking little brown shriveled thing (they are quite big, i was surprised.) and it was surprisingly kind of good. Strange aftertaste, interesting texture and the inside is gooey with little crunchy bits. Think fig newton, without the newton, and times 100, plus some conditioner.


For some reason, they are addicting, in a disgusting way. I ate a couple more lol. They are really good! Except for that smell, really.


Anyway, back to the Herbamore. When I opened up the package, both spices had opened up and were spilling in the box. I was very unhappy. What kind of spice jar doesn't have a seal? Who are these people with their amazing throw every spice into a jar and get away with it without a seal? I angrily complained to Amazon, so we will see if I get a response.
I wasn't going to use them because they were open, but then I got hungry and was like...oh whatever. 


and I made an Oven Omelet!
http://www.thespunkycoconut.com/2010/10/oven-omelets-with-sweet-potato-crust.html


I have been staring at this recipe for days lol.
I didn't add any sausage or sundried tomatoes. 
And it came out beautifully!!!

It was absolutely delicious. I added more broccoli than originally called for, by the way. And I also thought it needed more eggs. See my "other recipes" tab for my altered recipe. 

Which yes, forgot to mention - all these recipes I try from other people, i am putting them on the "other recipes" tab with my changes. 

mmmm. Now I'm happily full. 

PEACE.

Grandma's Eggplant Casserole!

For some reason, I have really been wanting eggplant casserole, for weeks now. And now that I have finally discovered a non-dairy/soy/corn cheese (Daiya) I thought I'd make it today! I had most of the ingredients anyway and needed to use them before they went bad. 


I got the recipe from my grandma: 


Grandma's Eggplant Casserole: 

1 medium.size eggplant

1 onion

1 tsp garlic powder

1 medium bell pepper

2 stalks celery

1 pinch salt

1/2 tsp sage or poultry season

1/2 tsp italian season if you have it.

1 egg

Breadcrumbs

Sprinkle of cayenne pepper

1 1/3 Cup grated cheddar Daiya non-dairy cheese

Peel and cut up eggplant, onion, bell pepper, and celery.

Put this in a pot with garlic powder and a pinch of salt. Fill to top of ingredients with water and boil until soft.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Drain water, put in a bowl and mash mixture up.

Add the egg, breadcrumbs, poultry seasoning/sage, Italian seasoning, a sprinkle of cayenne pepper and cheese. Mix up.

Put all this in greased casserole dish, cover with foil and cook for 40 min at 400 degrees. Take off foil and sprinkle cheese on top and bake/broil for about 10 minutes.

-----------------------------

I didn't drain my mixture enough after boiling, so it was a little bit more juicy than I wanted the casserole to be. I wanted it to be more firm and stick together, but I didn't drain enough off (even after mashing).

I was also afraid of adding too much Daiya since I wasn't sure if it would alter the flavor in a bad way. Don't worry about it though! You can hardly tell it's different at all in mixtures like this. 

And then I had strawberries for dessert.

Also, I'd like to point out that I again cannot read food labels correctly. Remember the Gorilla Munch I was really excited about? IT HAS CORN. RIGHT THERE. IN THE INGREDIENT LIST. That's why I liked it so much. So no more gorilla munchies....

I experimented....and I didn't die... Mac and "Cheese"

OMG GUYS. I'M EATING "CHEESE" THAT ISN'T REALLY CHEESE, IT'S LIKE OTHER STUFF, BUT IT TASTES MOSTLY LIKE CHEESE!


Let me explain.


So, I've been searching desperately for a cheese substitute. Everything delicious is better with cheese. It's my most missed dairy product so far (and frozen yogurt). Do you know how impossible it is to find a gluten / dairy / SOY / corn free cheese? And after my stunt with "vegan cheese slices" I was NOT ready to try another cheese substitute. 


Then one day I was reading recipes online and it mentioned "Daiya - a non dairy cheese"
http://www.daiyafoods.com/
I looked it up, and it looked pretty promising, it didn't look scary vegan, it comes in shredded cheese bits like the cheese I was used to, and it's base ingredient is appropriate oils / flours. So today, I went out and bought it. According to their website, the only place around me for like 150 miles that carries it is Kroger and a local natural foods place. So I went to Kroger. It was next to the vegan cheese, ironically enough.


I brought it home and didn't know when I would use it and then I got stressed out this evening and decided to take a break and cook something simple. The only thing I had all the ingredients for and used that type of cheese - I got the sharp cheddar kind - was Cheesy Quinoa Mac and Cheese


http://aroundthetableri.blogspot.com/2012/02/cheesy-quinoa-mac-cheese.html


I cooked the quinoa for the longest amount on the package so it would be less seed like, and in the recipe I subbed 
milk => almond milk
I didn't put any veggies or extra stuff in, but I did blend up some rice crackers for breadcrumbs. I only put it on half of the thing because I wasn't sure I'd like the breadcrumbs. Turns out, I liked it more without, so next time, no breadcrumbs.


It says to put it in a 9x13 pan, which was way too big. If you are making this for a family, double the recipe and use that size pan. if only 1-2 people, just use a smaller pan. 


As the quinoa was cooking it gave off a terrible smell, which didn't make me too enthusiastic about the recipe. Then I cautiously cut open the Daiya package and leaned in to smell it - probably bad idea. It has a VERY strong, kind of strange smell. I'm sure really strong cheeses do, but I never ate really strong cheeses. So as I was mixing it all up together, I figured the disgusting smelling mixture would come out terrible and would probably make me cry. 


I made it anyway, and stuck it in the oven. As it baked, the smell and look improved. I cooked it for about 20 minutes because it was so thin. 


Then I got it out, cut a nice piece, and slightly terrified, tasted it. Then I was like PRAISE GOD IT TASTES LIKE REAL FOOD AND REAL CHEESE AND OMG I'M SO HAPPY. 


It does have a stronger/different taste, but it's good. and I am so excited about more things to make with this cheese!! 

Another cheese to try in the future is Wayfare cheeses...but for now...Daiya wins.
http://www.wayfarefoods.com/

Food Extravaganza and Amazing Sisters. Freezer Meals, soup, and steak

This weekend has already taken it's toll on me, I am quite exhausted right now. But I got a ton done thanks to my sisters! 

So yesterday my oldest sister came into town and me, her, and my other sister went out to eat at Outback Steakhouse. I asked for a gluten free menu when I got to the table, and at first I thought they forgot about me because it took them SO LONG, but they eventually showed up with it. They probably took so long finding it because it was 1/8 of the size of the normal menus, and on normal paper they had printed out. Now that I think of it, they probably had to go print it out right then...

I ordered the Outback Special, two lobster tails, a sweet potato, and veggies. all with no seasoning, no black pepper, no butter, and no salt. 

It took them quite a long time, considering it really wasn't that crowded, and we wondered if their brains exploded back there at all the instructions we gave them for my food. They eventually came out with our food though, but they gave my sister Holly the wrong thing and gave me a normal potato instead of sweet potato. We got them to correct it, but that took quite a while again. 

But, awesome news is, nothing made me sick!! :)

Afterwards, we went to Village Foods and HEB to get ingredients, because my oldest sister (Cindy) and I planned to cook all day today. 

Thus begins Saturday....

I woke up to Cindy mowing the yard and planting flowers like a crazy person,

I've honestly been wanting to clean it up and plant some flowers, but I didn't really have the extra money or time for it. And doesn't it look pretty?! My sisters were kind enough to pick flowers you rarely have to water because they know I have a tendency to kill plants. 

FOOD EXTRAVAGANZA TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cindy and I started by making a meal to put in the freezer. We picked Pan Roasted Chicken with Lemon Garlic Green Beans for our first meal. 

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pan-roasted-chicken-lemon-garlic-green-beans-10000000780291/index.html

Instead of the black pepper, just sprinkle a bit of cayenne pepper instead.

I put a double layer of foil over it, and wrote the cooking instructions on the top with sharpie, and the name so I didn't forget what I had!

Then, Cindy and I were hungry, so we made a meal we could eat. Grilled Flank Steak with Pineapple Salsa.

http://www.paleoplan.com/2009/12-02/grilled-flank-steak-with-pineapple-salsa/

We are pretty sure we got the wrong kind of steak. But it was flat and beef and didn't look bad, so that's what we got...We don't cook a lot :)

This is a super easy recipe. We cooked the meat on my George Foreman Grill (which I have honestly never used until today), and it made it a lot easier to do other things while it cooked it on both sides. Also, the recipe says to just have the bell peppers and onions raw, but I hate those things raw, so we stuck them on the george foreman grill after the meat was done. It made it SO much better. We didn't have a lime, so we just added a little squirt of lemon juice.

We ate it and it made my stomach slightly uneasy but not sick. We used a chipotle seasoning that only had ingredients as "spices" (thanks a lot jerk spice company), so that might have had black pepper or something in it. It didn't make me sick though, but I could tell I ate something my stomach did not like. 

After that, we made another freezer meal, Mediterranean Chicken with Vinegar Roasted Peppers.

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2006/08/balsamic-roasted-pepper-chicken.html

 For the bell peppers we used one red and three yellow, just because that's all we had left. But I would definitely use red/yellow ones. Plus they are pretty! :) And instead of cloves of garlic in all of our recipes, we used the chopped up kind in a jar already to save time. We used about 1 tsp per "clove." Give or take a little. 

The chicken is hiding underneath the mixture. Which by the way, we bought all of our meat from HEB, but they didn't have a very nice selection. I was actually happier with the meat I bought at Walmart, I got chicken at walmart that was basically already cleaned and trimmed and it was antibiotic free/organic/all that good stuff. 

We made one last meal to last for the next week. This one was from my Quick-Fix Gluten Free  cookbook that Cindy got me. 

http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Fix-Gluten-Free-Robert-Landolphi/dp/1449402933

Southern-Style Chicken and Dumplings. 

We made a few changes in the recipe:

butter => coconut oil

milk => almond milk

no bay leaf (I don't like adding things that are poisonous to actually consume to my FOOD)

no half and half  (we could have subbed in full fat canned coconut milk but we didn't want to open a whole can for the little amount it called for)

no black pepper => can sprinkle cayenne pepper in

salt => sea salt, of course

we added the full amount of thyme, but next time, we would only do half. It was very strong. 

1 1/2 quart GF chicken broth => 2 quarts GF chicken broth

Be sure and read the full recipe before making it. We forgot to cook the chicken mid way through ours. We cooked it on the George Foreman Grill again because it was so convenient. And from the look of all those changes I might as well call this recipe my own lol. Maybe I'll add it to my recipe section later.

Overall, very productive day.

THANK YOU CINDY AND HOLLY! 

Kitchen Shananananananagins - Mac&Chreese and cookie dough

Annnnd here we are, it's Thursday night, official college party night. Did you know that? I didn't before coming to college, and I thought it was dumb when I found out - who would go out on a Thursday when you had classes on Friday? :O


;) I have since been out plenty on Thursday nights, but tonight, tonight I'm just going to relax. Thanks to my mom sending me leftovers from last weekend, I haven't really had to stress out about eating meals this week. Besides having a test today, this week hasn't been terrible. 


So, updates: I didn't really take my medical food shake over last weekend because it was Easter and I was home and distracted. Since then, I've broken the habit of a shake twice a day, I've been having one once a day, sometimes twice the amount to make up for missing one, sometimes just a one normal shake a day. And you know what? I think I actually feel a little better without a shake that often lol. 


Tonight I ate Road's End Organic Mac and Chreese Alfredo Style and green beans. 
That's right. Chreese. That company really needs a high five for that one. 
Good news though - the noodles tasted like real noodles!! It says to cook for about 6-10 minutes but not to overcook or they will get mushy. I cooked mine for about 8.5 minutes and was a little concerned that I should have let them cook a tad bit longer, but after a day in the fridge, they are quite mushy (a good way though, i still happily ate them). So, heads up, none of this food follows normal food logic. 

I snagged this pic from google since I forgot to take one before I Michael Jordan'ed this box into the trash.

For Dessert, I decided to make that cookie dough that I've made before. ( http://realsustenance.com/30-second-raw-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-glutendairygrainstarchegg-soy-free-low-sugar/ ). 


Ok, so I had run out of almond flour, but I realllllly wanted something in dessert form. That's my weakness...I really need dessert. My sister bought me "Mama's Almond Blend" so I was like, "hey, flour is flour right? And this has almond in the title! I'll use this and it will work."
Wrong.
So, so wrong. 


I mixed it up with the almond blend, only to discover that it was mainly just flour and not so much dough. I rechecked the recipe 30 times and then was like..."it must just need more liquid! I'll make the liquid parts of the ingredients proportional to this flour!!" 
I thought I could Betty Crocker that &*!%.
Wrong.


I ended up with some form of dough that resembled yeast or raw bread dough. I tasted it and immediately had to wash down the taste with juice. There was no salvaging it. I threw it away and, still determined to make my cookie dough, I grabbed the almonds my sister bought me and stuck them  in my blender,
"I'LL MAKE MY OWN ALMOND FLOUR!!!" *CRAZY EYES*

It worked :) Granted, it was kind of crunchy flour. I have no idea what those flour places used to make it so finely ground. Be careful you don't overblend it or you will make almond butter! 

I was able to make the cookie dough normally after all :) I win!

Like seriously, this batch is 1000 calories? It's so small! Why must we pay to eat healthy...
Make sure you pair these cookies with almond milk. It's tasty.

PEACE.

Easter Weekend - Blackberry Cobbler and Ice Cream

Like most college students, I went home to visit family this weekend, and was relieved from my struggle to find real meals thanks to my mom cooking dinner for everyone :) She gave me the recipes, which I will post in my recipe section later. 


I also was having huge cravings for blackberry cobbler and ice cream....don't ask why....BUT I WANTED IT. So my sister and I went to walmart and got the ingredients for recipes we found online and altered. I will also post them in the recipe section later. 


The ice cream and cobbler came out beautifully, and the ice cream tasted really milky, despite it not being made from real milk! 

It was absolutely delicious....but warning: 

I made the ice cream primarily with coconut milk and it KILLED my stomach. I don't know why...I've never had coconut products before this diet really, besides the random piece of cake with coconut or something on it per year....so maybe having like pure canned coconut is too much if you don't have a tolerance to it, or maybe it's just my terrible stomach. I don't know, and I don't have a control subject so....I'd try the ice cream (because it was amazing) but just don't each a bunch. I had the above plate twice and that was enough to send me over the edge...so beware. but eat it. because its amazing.

Till we meet again.

I Cheated...But only a little. Outback Steakhouse FTW?

But only a tiny bit. And it was pretty much my nutritionalist's fault. That's right. Allow me to explain. 


I have now been on my everything off limits diet for 22 days. And unlike most immediate success stories I have read online, I am not seeing miraculous results. In fact, I've been having terrible skin breakouts, still getting sick, i'm unhappy most the time, just generally angry at life, and I've been having pretty bad breakdowns - except for the being sick part, the rest is pretty unusual for me. 


So I emailed him and was a little frustrated. Sent a very long and detailed email too. And I get back "eat a steak" and some forms to fill out. 


Yeah ok. At least he gave me a reason to buy a steak. I certainly can't make one. I can barely make pancakes right now. So, after googling where on earth I could get a gluten free steak, I discovered Outback Steakhouse and their gigantic Gluten Free menu! It's only two pages, but in the gluten free world, that's a ton of choices! Plus, being a steakhouse, most of their options are already soy, dairy, peanut, you name it, free. And they give tips on what to avoid and what to ask for the cooks to take out. Splendid!


I got the Outback Special (steak) with lobster tail without seasoning, aussie fries without seasoning, and 4 grilled shrimp. I ordered online and for once enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to say "gluten free" to someone and see their head tilt like I'd just said "hello" to a dog. On the special instructions, I put "gluten, dairy, and black pepper free please."


The fries weren't technically on the GF menu, but I wanted them and I was like...seriously? Fries? How do you mess that up? But now that I think of that, they might be fried in the same place as something gluten.....but I don't know what. I guess I'm testing my boundaries. I didn't eat any of the sauces it came with, they were unsafe.

I also cheated a little and used Simply Heinz Ketchup. It's all natural and just has sugar and salt in it, but on the lower half of the ingredients....and you know what? I THOUGHT IT TASTED TOO SWEET. WTH THIS DIET IS RUINING ME. I could down the most rich and decadent chocolate cake like it was nothing before this, and now i think all natural ketchup is TOO SWEET? 


I'm freaking out. 


Well that and I think i've been allergenized by something, because my stomach is like GROWL GROWL GROWL YOU CHEATING MONSTER YOU ATE A SPEC OF SOMETHING THAT WASN'T CARPET AND NOW YOU WILL PAY. 


I'll say that the lobster tails were worth it. They were downright tasty.