{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!