A crackin' good burger - gluten free style

One of my favorite cookbooks is Jaime Oliver's "Food Revolution." His recipes are basic, healthy and are usually quite easy to make. Many of them are also naturally gluten free. A definite plus.

I have been meaning to try Jaime's recipe for 'Crackin' Good Burgers" since last summer! We finally had a chance last week. Michael mixed up the ground beef & spices and instead of using crackers as called for in the recipe, we used gluten free tortilla chips that we smashed in a bag to make crumbs. A seriously delicious decision! I used my infamous grill pan to cook the burgers on the stove. Michael added cheese to his burger along with turkey bacon and tomatoes.

These burgers were awesome! We served them on Udi's gluten free whole grain hamburger buns and it felt like a real summer cookout!

What's your favorite burger recipe?

A frugal gluten free gift idea

Here's a super easy & frugal gift idea for you.

For Father's Day I decided to give my Dad a bunch of my homemade gluten free chocolate chip cookies. It may seem silly since he doesn't follow a gluten free diet himself... but he loves these cookies! Why not make a gift out of them? I also gave him a jar of homemade pickles I canned last summer and some of my favorite cooking seasoning.

I found an old tin that I was about to recycle and I colored a label on white paper with cookies on it. I glued the label to the tin. Taped an additional label on top and made a batch of my gluten free chocolate chip cookies. I made the cookies super small -- bite size really -- so the whole batch would fit in the tin without being smashed or broken. It worked great.

Michael and I also made homemade cards to go along with all the other homemade treats and I think for my Dad it was one of the best gifts I had ever given him.

So when you can't think of anything to give, or if you need to give someone a gift but don't have a lot of money to spend... make a batch of bite-size gluten free cookies! The people you love will be so impressed at how much time & thought you put into their homemade gift.

What are your favorite types of frugal, homemade gifts?

{Secret Recipe Club} Jason's BBQ Adventures

This month for the secret recipe club, I was paired with Jason's BBQ Adventures. I have to admit it was a challenge for me because we don't do much BBQ'ing around here. I'm the cook in our house and it's very rare for me to fire up the grill. We only have a little charcoal grill and I'm usually too impatient to wait for the coals to get hot enough... lol

So I decided for one of Jason's recipes I would use our stove top grill pan. We LOVE this pan. We use it for burgers, for salmon, for panini's, etc... it's a great pan and it's easier to clean than the George Foreman. lol...

I chose an easy chicken recipe from Jason since I knew it would probably work well with the grill pan. I loved this chicken. I've never made my own barbecue rub before so that was really fun! I'd definitely love to make more of Jason's recipes and maybe even fire up the charcoal grill to try them!

I served this chicken with steamed mixed vegetables and mashed sweet potatoes. We really enjoyed this meal and I like Jason's idea of making a bunch of this chicken at the beginning of the week to serve with meals when you need a healthy protein.

Make sure to stop by Jason's BBQ Adventures for great chicken, pork, beef, and sandwich recipes!

If you'd like to join in on Amanda's Secret Recipe Club, please visit her blog and sign up!

This Week's Menu - Veggie Crazy

I've made two batches of raw vegetable juice in the past two days. I watched this documentary and really felt like I needed up my veggie intake. I could eat fruits all day, but veggies? No, thank you. Sure, I'll eat a salad and steamed broccoli or frozen mixed veggies, but honestly, I have a hard time getting enough vegetable servings a day. After watching the film I thought surely it wouldn't hurt to juice a few veggies every day or every other day and sip them down... right? The first "juice" I made was a mixture of 2 celery stalks, carrots, spinach, and an apple. I used this method with my vitamix to make juice.  Here are a few super simple veggie juice recipes if you would like to try them.

I also thought I'd add more veggies to our meals this week by planning two vegetarian dinners. For a few of our meat-based meals, I used recipes from Stephanie O'Dea's Make it Fast, Cook it Slow (I'm using the slow cooker overnight for two meals) and I used several vegetarian recipes from the Quick & Easy McDougall Cookbook. I learned that following a strictly vegan diet does not work for me, but I enjoy the McDougall cookbook for great vegetable recipe ideas! You can also find several of the McDougall recipes available here from Google Books.

Breakfasts & Snacks This Week:  chocolate hemp shakes, rice cakes with peanut butter, boiled eggs, "ants on a log", ham & avocado wraps, homemade veggies juices, mixed nuts, almonds, peaches, sliced roasted chicken for snacks w/ rice crackers

Dinners this Week: 

• Sunday - Gluten Free Spaghetti & Salad
• Monday - Crock Pot Salsa Chicken served with avocados, black beans, and corn tortillas
• Tuesday - Summer Vegetable Bisque from the McDougall Quick & Easy cookbook
• Wednesday - Crock Pot Ground Beef Sloppy Joes on GF Buns and fries
• Thursday - Black-Eyed Pea Scramble from the McDougall Quick & Easy cookbook with a salad
• Friday - Gluten Free Toast Pizzas with steamed broccoli
• Saturday - Out for Dinner (or) Ham & "cheese (daiya)" omelets with fruit salad
• Sunday - Roast chicken (or) homemade hot dog & baked beans casserole with steamed veggies

Hello Chuck, we meet again...

In high school I wore a pair of turquoise all stars. I LOVED those shoes. A few weeks ago Heather shared that she had bought her first pair of converse all stars. First pair. I had to smile. I missed my turquoise chucks. They were part of my quiet personality. They showed a little bit of my spunky side that I didn't feel comfortable sharing through my voice. 


Saturday hubs & I had a movie day. We saw "Green Lantern" and being total superhero/graphic novel geeks, we really enjoyed it. On a side trip we stopped by Ross' to see if I could find a pair of flip flops. It's amazing how quickly I can wear out flip flops. But then I happened upon this pair of super cool pink all stars. I had to have them. I didn't need them. I wanted them. 


It's amazing to me how often I used to feel this way about food. Foods that were not healthy and that I didn't need. I still have those days. Days when I don't need it and I just want it and I still give in. But more often than not, I'm making better choices. And isn't that the key? 


More often than not. 


The choices we make really give clues to the values we hold. To "splurge" on clothing, shoes, movies, what I consider "stuff"... I always feel somewhat guilty about -- things that are not practical, that I don't "need"... it's always a long process to debate and decide whether to purchase them. 


But spending money on food? I often don't give it a second thought. Granted these days, it's USUALLY healthy food... and when I do spend money on healthy foods I know it's a valuable investment in our health. 


But what about when I spend money on junk food? Food that will only give me pleasure temporarily. Why is it worth it? These pink all-stars will make me smile every time I put them on... they won't add any inches to my waistline, they are probably worth it. But the junk food? I know it's not. I know it will actually cost me more money in the long run with health problems, prescriptions, doctors visits, etc... but I never think about those things when I just WANT that food. 


Some days the chocolate IS worth it. It would be silly to admit that it's not. But I am trying to be more aware of the days that I don't need it. The days I don't need the chips, I don't need the sugar, the junk food... and that it's not really worth it. Not in the long run. 


Buy the shoes instead. Or the books. Books are good. :-) 


What are the daily choices you struggle with?