{Gluten Free One Pot Meals} Quick Broccoli & Beef

Some weeks are better than others for following meal plans. This week? Not so much.

We had chicken pot pie (which was awesome, but I really didn't need the carbs! I'm very excited to know I can make it in the crock pot though! Very cool!), but I just wasn't feeling it for the apples & pork chops on Tuesday. I think I need to give up on pork chops... I've never been a huge fan even though I continue to try them different ways.

So twice this week we've had what you see in the picture above... basically steamed broccoli with either ground beef or ground turkey with different seasonings. That's it. Last night we added an Uncle Ben's Ready Rice. This is my gluten free, veggie version of "hamburger helper" -- minus the noodles. It's healthy, cheap, (nice to my blood sugar), and seriously easy.

Quick Broccoli & Beef
completely NOT a recipe! :-P
made about once a week in the gingerlemongirl kitchen... jealous aren't you? ;-P

• 1 lb. ground beef, ground turkey, or ground chicken (or leftover hamburgers, turkey burgers, etc...) 
• 1-2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil
• 24 oz. fresh broccoli -or- frozen broccoli steamers (my favorite!)
• Seasonings of your choice... this week we've been loving this cajun seasoning (thanks Heather!), onion flakes, garlic powder, freshly ground pepper, etc... 
• Optional:  2 cups cooked brown rice -OR- Uncle Ben's Ready Rice (PLAIN brown rice) 

How to throw this together: 
Brown ground beef in a heavy bottomed skillet -- our cast iron skillet is what we always use for this... gives the meat a great "crust."  Add seasonings. Steam broccoli in the microwave according to the package directions or by these directions for fresh cut broccoli. Add broccoli and butter or olive oil to the ground beef.  If you're using the brown rice, heat it up according to package directions and add to the ground beef as well. Mix it all up. Serve in cereal bowls... it's yummy... and easy... and husband friendly (although he prefers the ground beef version...)... There ya go... your own homemade gluten free veggie hamburger helper! We get about 5 servings from this large batch of beef & broccoli goodness!

Stop laughing... it's really good! :-)

For more ideas on how to use frozen broccoli check out The Kitchn's frozen broccoli roundup!

To put this meal over the top.. make this dairy free cheezy sauce and pour it all over each serving!

Then go listen to this song.. and pretend you are at the beach.. it's that time of year! :-) Or better yet listen to this song while you're making quick beef & broccoli in the rice cooker while you're AT the beach...

Ocracoke is calling my name again... must go soon!

This Week's Menu - Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie

We kept my nephew over the past week, so our menu was very different from normal. One of the first meals we had was roast beef, broccoli, and macaroni & cheese -- which was requested specifically by the kid! We also ate an almond flour pizza one night, Chick-Fil-A one night, and LOTS of ham sandwiches! :-) It was a really nice week and I was a bit sad to see him go.  I'm already looking forward to him coming next summer to visit.

I relied on my slow cookers again to make a few meals yesterday. I made a chicken pot pie (totally in awe that it worked so well!) and I made a pork and apples dish. I also made a healthy pumpkin custard/crustless pumpkin pie in the slow cooker overnight for breakfasts this week.

Breakfasts & Snacks This Week: 

• crustless pumpkin pie with a granola topping
• raw almonds and/or mixed nuts
• fruit & protein smoothies or chocolate hemp shakes
• boiled eggs
• ham rollups
• ants on a log
• rice cakes with peanut butter

Lunches This Week:

• leftovers
• ham sandwiches with veggies & dip

Dinners This Week:

Photo from Food Network, but this is exactly what my chicken pot pie looked like out of the slow cooker!
I used Gluten Free Bisquick, it worked great! You could also use Homemade Master Mix!

• Monday: Stephanie O'Dea's Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie
• Tuesday: Pork with Apples, Onions, and Sweet Potatoes (made in the slow cooker: layered ingredients and cooked on high for 4 hours)
• Wednesday: Gluten Free Sandwich Night (using Udi's Millet Chia Bread -- love it!) + apple slices and raw veggies with dip
• Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner: scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and gluten free toast
• Friday: Quick Chicken Stirfry with brown rice
• Saturday: Out of Town -- eating Chicken Kabobs at Ms. Betty's house
• Sunday: Homemade Spaghetti Sauce & gluten free noodles with salad
• Monday: Baseball game with the IL's for July 4th! Will pack a dinner of gluten free hotdogs & snacks!

{Gluten Free Review} Sof'ella Chocolate Cake Mix

A few weeks ago I was sent an email about a grocery store on the west coast that had a large variety of gluten free products. While glancing through their list of gf products I noticed they carried several baking mixes by a company called "Sof'ella." I was curious since I had not heard of this company. I contacted them and asked if they if would send me a few samples to review for the blog.

Sof'ella sent me both the chocolate cake mix and their all purpose baking mix. I made the chocolate cake for a family cookout a few weeks ago. To be honest, I was a bit hesitant. The mix uses navy bean flour and I thought for sure the cupcakes would taste beany. I'm learning to like bean flours a lot more than I used too, but I still am not crazy about baked goods that taste super beany.

But these cupcakes? Not beany. Not one bit. SUPER chocolaty, very rich, and the taste was excellent. These cupcakes are very soft, moist, and have a great texture. Another company (which isn't yet in production that I know of) sent me a mix to try earlier this year and their batter contained so much xanthan gum, that the dough literally mixed into a big ball -- it was very wierd... the Sof'ella batter on the other hand? Like a normal cake batter, a little more wet than my homemade gluten free chocolate cake, but even the batter tasted delicious, despite being made with navy bean flour.

The Sof'ella chocolate cake mix is expensive, it retails on the website for $6 a box + shipping, so I'm guessing it's probably around $7 at the grocery store. Overall, I'd probably buy this chocolate cake mix. I think it has a better taste & texture than the Betty Crocker gluten free mix, but not as good as my personal favorite homemade gluten free chocolate cake.

Have you tried Sof'ella? What is your favorite store bought gluten free chocolate cake mix?

Gluten Free Streusel-Topped Fresh Blueberry Muffins Recipe

I originally shared these muffins on June 26th 2008. Ever since, they have been one of my favorite recipes to make each summer as local blueberries appear at the Piggly Wiggly.

Muffins are one of the easiest baked goods to make gluten free. Gluten isn't needed in muffins. Gluten actually makes baked goods tough, and the more you stir gluten the "tougher" it becomes. Which is the reason it works so well in traditional yeast breads. Gluten creates a stretchy structure that holds bread together and makes a pizza crust so chewy. But you see.. .you don't need that in a muffin.

Muffins are supposed to be soft, a bit delicate, and have a tender crumb... unless, of course, you want a whole grain bran muffin which is a whole different story. But in either case... your muffins don't need gluten.

This is only one aspect of gluten free baking that I love! With a simple blueberry muffin recipe you learn how ingredients work together. How whisking the dry ingredients incorporates air into the batter and gives you a light & fluffy end product. How beating egg whites until they are fluffy and folding them in the batter helps your baked goods rise beautifully. How using oil instead of butter will create a baked good that retains it's moisture and therefore has a longer "shelf" life. All of this... just from a batch of muffins!

Blueberry muffins are a summer favorite. I definitely recommend using fresh, local blueberries if you can find them. Although you can also use frozen berries if you need too. Sometimes frozen blueberries can be bitter, so you may need to adjust the amount of sugar in your recipe if that's the case. If you use frozen berries, make sure to use them frozen. Do not defrost them. Otherwise, you'll have purple batter, as I found out here.

Streusel-Topped Fresh Blueberry Muffins
free of gluten, casien/dairy, and soy
created by Carrie Forbes, author of Gingerlemongirl.com
printer-friendly recipe

If you are new to gluten free baking, please read my article on Gluten Free Flours & Baking Ingredients 101. 

Dry Ingredients:
2/3 cup arrowroot starch
2/3 cup brown rice flour
2/3 cup sorghum flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum (used as a thickening agent, you can leave this out if you'd like)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup non-dairy (or dairy) milk
1/4 cup canola oil, coconut oil, butter, or margarine

Streusel Topping:
3 tablespoons brown rice flour
2 tablespoons gluten free rolled oats
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vegan margarine

Glaze:
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1-3 teaspoons orange juice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk flours, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks, applesauce, rice milk, canola oil (or melted butter), and sugar. Add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture and fold just until combined. Fold in blueberries. In another bowl whip egg whites until stiff. SLOWLY fold the whipped egg whites into the muffin batter. (If you still see streaks or clumps of egg white that is OKAY, it does NOT have to be completely incorporated!) Spoon batter into a greased or paper-lined muffin tins (makes 10-11 large/ bakery-sized muffins or 24 mini-muffins). In a small bowl, mix together streusel topping ingredients. Sprinkle over unbaked muffins. Bake for 18-25 minutes. Depending on the temperature of your oven, you may have to bake muffins longer. They are done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. If you hit a blueberry while testing it will stain your toothpick purple! As long as additional crumbs are not sticking to the toothpick the muffins are done!! Cool muffins on a wire rack. Mix glaze ingredients together. Only add enough orange juice to give the glaze the consistency you desire. Drizzled on completely cooled muffins.

Enjoy!

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A few more of my favorite gluten free muffin recipes:

Banana Nut Muffins

Orange Cinnamon Muffins

Super Easy (Bisquick) Blueberry Muffins

Dark Chocolate Vegan Muffins

Whole Grain Teff Muffins

Carob Banana Muffins

Easy Peanut Butter Muffins

{Secret Recipe Club} Busy-At-Home.Com's Rocky Road Crunch Bars

Rocky Road Crunch Bars from Busy-At-Home.Com

This the first month I'm participating in a monthly blogging event called "The Secret Recipe Club." The event was created by Amanda Formaro of Amanda's Cookin'. Every month each participant is assigned a "secret" blog. The participant is then supposed to read the blog, get to know a little about the author, and try a recipe or two without the secret blog author knowing. On the reveal day each month it's finally announced who was assigned to your blog and what recipe they made! This is simply a fun event to get to know other people around the world who enjoy food blogging as much as I do!

The blog I was assigned to this month was Busy-At-Home.com, written by Glenda Embree. Glenda is a super busy mom who homeschools her five children, runs a homeschool curriculum business out of her home and is an avid blogger. Glenda blogs about a variety of subjects including living on budget, creating healthy meals for her family, gardening and crafts, and the life of her very busy family. Recently Glenda had the opportunity to visit the King Arthur Flour Baking and Education Center (which I'm a bit jealous over!) with about a dozen other bloggers and she learned how to make her first successful pie crust and she even baked pizza in a hearth oven!

Glenda has a variety of recipes I'd love to try on her site. The top candidate is her homemade summer sausage. I plan on making a large batch of this the next time my favorite local farm has a sale on their ground beef! Another recipe that could easily be made gluten free is Glenda's Blueberry Cobbler. Another fun thing about Busy-At-Home.com is that Glenda has TONS of giveaways! So if you like to enter to win free prizes, her blog is the place to go! Also, here is a link to Glenda's recipe index, where you can find all of her best recipes!

The recipe pictured above is a gluten free version of Tia's Rocky Road Crunch Bars featured on Busy-At-Home.Com. My sweet friend Heather volunteered to make them for our summer 2011 cookout with our local gluten free support group. We enjoyed these delicious bars as dessert from our cookout. We loved the combination of honey & chocolate and I had to take extras of these bars home with me. Heather had to make a few changes to the recipe to suit her dietary restrictions, she used walnuts instead of peanuts, and she used a variety of GF Chex cereals in place of the Honey Bunches of Oats cereal called for. These bars were a hit at our cookout and I will definitely be making them!

I highly recommend visiting Glenda's great site, "Busy-At-Home.Com" for cooking, budgeting, and creative homeschooling ideas!

This Week's Menu - And we'll try that again...

So my main goal for last week was to make it to the gym at least 3 times. And what do they say about the best laid plans? Yeah. It didn't happen. All for good reasons though! We had an extremely busy week and the meals we made ahead of time were SO incredibly helpful! We had several events with our local gluten free support group, we had volunteer activities that were scheduled, and I worked with a local journalist (Janelle Clevinger, a freelance writer for the Wilson Daily Times) who's writing a story about my blog and our Wilson Gluten Free Support Group! It was an exciting week!

Janelle's daughter Emily helping me make gluten free chocolate chip cookies.

I had such a great time working with Janelle. I'm excited that this story will bring more awareness to celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and the gluten free diet in our local area of Eastern NC. I hope meet more people locally who need to follow a gluten free diet -- to let them know there are people here who are just like them, and also people who can help them if they need it! Janelle came to my home on Wednesday and I showed her a little about baking gluten free sandwich bread and making gluten free cookies. Her sweet daughter Emily helped me. I love teaching kids how to cook!

So the focus this week is to get back to the gym with some regularity. And to be honest, I've actually missed it. There's a huge sense of accomplishment after a good workout. I like that feeling.

For our meals this week I'm still having a love affair with the slow cooker. It's just so easy to make at least two meals on Sunday that can cook in the crock and I can completely ignore them. It's easier for me to use my slow cooker on the weekends, because I'm actually away from home too long during the week -- because trust me you CAN burn stuff in the slow cooker... and it's wicked hard to get rid of that scent in the kitchen for a week! So I'm a weekend slow cooker girl... even in the summer because it means I don't have to turn on the oven!

Breakfasts & Snacks This Week:

• Boiled eggs, berry hemp shakes, apples with almond butter, fresh blueberries with mixed nuts or almonds, leftover blueberry almond scones, orange slices, rice cakes with dark chocolate peanut butter

Lunches This Week:

• Planned leftovers packed in my favorite Easy Lunch Boxes.

Dinners This Week:

• Sunday = Crockpot Rotisserie Chicken with a simple romaine salad
• Monday = Sauteed Kale with mushrooms served with a "fried" egg on top and turkey bacon
• Tuesday = Crockpot White Chili with added chicken
• Wednesday =  Tuna Loaf (you're jealous aren't you!) with steamed broccoli & carrots
• Thursday = Leftovers, Cereal, or Breakfast for Dinner
• Friday = GF Spaghetti with homemade spaghetti sauce
• Saturday = Pork Chops with baked sweet potatoes and green beans

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For more awesome gluten free menus please visit Angela's Kitchen for this week's roundup.

And for hundreds of menus of ALL kinds, please visit Laura at I'm An Organizing Junkie.

This Week's Menu - Retro Microwave & Slow Cooker Meals!

Great weekend at home, great session with my nutrionista of awesomeness (Cheryl Harris), and a great day of meal prepping on Sunday!You can't ask for a better weekend than that!

It was a big weekend for my slow cookers, I made three separate recipes: a breakfast casserole on Saturday night (ready for Sunday morning), and then on Sunday evening: a beef roast with veggies and a sweet potato & apple side dish! The best reason for using the slow cooker this time of year is to save your whole house from heating up, and it's the whole "fix it and forget it" concept. I love that!

This week my focus is getting back into my Monday-Friday routine of meal planning & exercise! Traveling, family emergencies, and having time off really threw me for a loop last week! I really enjoyed my time off of work... but it's amazing how much it changes your routine!

Last night I made the week easier by preparing a few recipes ahead of time:

• Made ground beef taco filling for Monday (along with prepping all taco toppings)
• Made meatloaf for Wednesday
• Made fruit-sweetened almond flour muffins for breakfasts
• Made a loaf of gluten free bread 
• Prepared breakfasts & lunches for two days and placed them in the fridge in my easy lunch boxes

Breakfasts & Snacks This Week:  fruit-sweetened almond four muffins, berry hemp shakes, rice cakes w/ almond butter, fresh blueberries & raw almonds, leftover slow cooker breakfast casserole (Check out my facebook page for recipe ideas on slow cooker breakfast casseroles or try Stephanie O'Dea's recipe!)

Lunches This Week: Leftovers from dinner taken in my favorite Easy Lunch Boxes (nope, they don't pay me a dime & they didn't even send me a sample, I just bought them & fell in love!)

Dinners This Week: 

• Sunday: Slow Cooker Roast Beef (used recipe for "Perfect Beef Roast" from Jaime Oliver's 2009 cookbook, "Jamie's Food Revolution" -- pg.192 and cooked it on low for 6 hours.) served with steamed broccoli & mashed sweet potatoes
• Monday: Ground Beef Tacos (taco salad for me) with lettuce, tomatoes, corn tortillas, and black beans. 
• Tuesday: GF Sandwich or Panini night -- Gluten Free Support Group Meeting!!  
• Wednesday: Microwave Meatloaf with peas & carrots. 
• Thursday:  Quick Chicken & Veggie Stirfry using frozen veggies & chicken, served on quinoa for me, brown rice for hubs.
• Friday: Breakfast for Dinner: Scrambled Eggs, Turkey Bacon, fruit sweetened almond flour muffins and blueberries
• Saturday: Gluten Free Cookout with our GF Support Group! Bringing Udi's hotdog & hamburger buns for everybody! 

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Check out more awesome gluten free meal plans this week at Cheryl Harris' Gluten Free Goodness, the theme of the week is "simple meals!" I'm not sure I make anything BUT simple meals! :-) 

And for amazing meal plans of all kinds, please visit I'm an Organizing Junkie. 

Tips for Gluten Free Traveling 1.0

There's no doubt about it... traveling when you're gluten free is HARD. Figuring out which restaurants you can visit.... wondering if you're going to get sick anyway (and how many times can you pull over afterwards?)... having to plan ahead.... never being able to relax about food... family dinners that you really want to participate in... SO MANY aspects of traveling revolve around food.

I've been gluten free since 2007... and I've taken a lot of trips during the past 5 years. Often to visit friends and/or family, sometimes a weekend at the beach or the mountains, sometimes a trip to the zoo... no matter what the occasion you have to figure out what to do about food.

Most of our trips are within driving distance. We don't travel often by air, so please be aware these tips are for destinations that you can get too within 4-6 hours by car. I'd love for you to share your own tips on how you make international and/or air travel easier!

I STILL make mistakes and I continue to learn new ways to make life gluten free easier when traveling. Here are a few tips for you that have helped me:

A new love for traveling gluten free: EasyLunchBoxes.com

• Rice Cooker Meals aka Cooking in Hotel Rooms 101: One of my FAVORITE ways to make safe meals gluten free is to bring a rice cooker and make easy meals yourself in your hotel room! Check out this post which shares TONS of rice cooker recipe ideas!

• Homemade Prepared Meals: I recently discovered these super cute & frugal lunch boxes to take on trips! They are BPA-free, a cheap option, and they travel well! I used all four of my boxes over the weekend to prepare 4 ready made meals to take along with my husband and I. This was SUCH a lifesaver. Safe meals for breakfast/lunch and/or dinner that were already prepared and all I had to do was put them on a plate and heat them up. I didn't have to bring a ton of ingredients to make things once I was there. It was already done! We kept the meals in a cooler on the road. The only downfall to these lunch boxes is that they are not air-tight or leak-proof, so you will need to place them in a plastic bag or a lunch box that does not leak if you are worried about spills. I still love these lunch boxes anyway and I use them almost daily to take my lunch & breakfast to work. I love that it's just ONE container to wash, but it holds many different items like a bento box! 

• Easy Road SNACKS: Ziplock bags of: gluten free chex cereal, mixed nuts, fresh fruit, gluten free rice cakes & peanut butter, carrot sticks, homemade GORP (trail mix), gluten free beef jerky, homemade gluten free energy bars, gluten free chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, banana nut muffins, etc... 

• Planning for Restaurant Meals: Before your trip decide how many times you want to eat out, along with eating the prepared meals you bring along (I really cannot tell you how helpful it is to bring safe meals along!) My husband and I often travel similar routes to different destinations simply because we know which restaurants are safe to eat at along the way. If you don't have time to look up restaurants along the way, purchase a copy of Triumph Dining's latest edition of their Essential Gluten Free Restaurant Guide or their restaurant gluten free ordering cards. These quick gluten free guides that you can keep in your car are incredibly useful for last minute and/or unplanned trips. 

• For EMERGENCIES ONLY: I am hesitant to share this tip. This may not work for everyone, and I advise everyone to thoroughly research any dietary supplements that you want to add to your traveling routine. Please speak with your physician and/or nutritionist before using defensive enzymes. 

Imagine this situation: You were as careful as you could be, but you still ended up in a restaurant that you were unsure about. You feel like even though your meal should essentially be gluten free, it could have been cross-contaminated. In cases like that I like to keep digestive enzymes in my purse to help lessen any chance of getting sick on the road. I have only tried one brand: Gluten Defense. There are several different types you can purchase. I DO NOT advise using these pills as an excuse to CONSUME gluten on purpose. I only use enzyme pills like this as a precaution if I'm afraid my meal may not have been prepared safely. The few times I have used digestive enzymes, I have often still had symptoms, but they have been greatly lessened. So you may still get sick, but I think the enzymes help lessen the effects that gluten can have. Again, take these pills at your own risk, and do not use them so that you can consume gluten.

What are your tips for making gluten free road trips easier?