Nut-Free Pad Thai

One of the dishes I miss most since I developed a peanut allergy is Pad Thai.  These days, I generally can't eat at Thai restaurants at all due to the cross contamination.  I was really excited to discover that WildTree makes a nut-free Pad Thai sauce.  I tried my hand at making my own.  It's probably closer to a stir fry with Pad Thai sauce than an authentic recipe, but it was still really tasty.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 pound broccoli
2 eggs
8 oz. rice noodles
1/2 cup WildTree Pad Thai sauce

Directions

1. In a large skillet, sauté chicken in a small amount of olive oil.  Once it is mostly cooked, add in broccoli.  I used frozen, but you could use fresh if you want.

2. Prepare rice noodles and drain.  Set aside.

3. Once chicken and broccoli are cooked through, remove from pan.  Scramble 2 eggs in skillet.

4. Add noodles to skillet.  Mix in sauce and then toss in chicken and broccoli.

Serves 4

Make-Ahead Meal: Chicken Pot Pie

I am trying to cook meals ahead on Sunday for the rest of the week.  Today, I made a recipe for chicken pot-pie that turned out quite well!



8 Trader Joe's chicken tenderloins thawed and diced
1 lb. mixed frozen vegetables
1 can cream of celery healthy request soup
1 can cream of chicken and mushroom soup
3/4 cup 2% milk
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. Penzey's Mural of Flavor seasoning
1 tsp. Penzey's Fines Herbes seasoning
2 1/4 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup 2% milk

Preheat oven to 450.

In a large frying pan over medium heat, cook chicken with salt, pepper and seasoning.  Once chicken is cooked, add in frozen vegetables, soup, and 3/4 cup milk.  Stir together and leave on heat until bubbling.

Transfer to large casserole dish.  Mix together Bisquick and 2% milk, then place on top of chicken mixture.  Cook for 15 minutes or until Bisquick is cooked through and brown on top.

Serves 6

Calories per serving: 377
Fat: 10
Carbs: 46
Protein: 21

Adventures with Beef: Eye of Round Roast

Today I used an eye of round roast to make the asian shredded beef.  I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  I ended up only using 5 tablespoons of honey, and I added 1/2 teaspoon of ginger and 1 teaspoon of onion powder.  I also added a little sesame oil to the slaw from the Korean beef tacos.

The Verdict: the beef was pretty good.  It turns out that Chinese five spice powder has a lot of anise in it, which is not a flavor we are huge fans of.  Still, the beef was tender and very good for tacos.  The slaw was a little too sour and acidic.

Changes for next time:

• reduce Chinese 5 spice powder to 1 teaspoon
• increase ginger to 1 teaspoon
• add 1/2 teaspoon Sriracha or other chili paste (needed a bit of heat)
• add a little bit of sugar to the slaw sauce to make it more like an American coleslaw

It's definitely a recipe I'd like to try again, especially as I'd like to get the spices just right for our palate.  I think we are going to make burrito bowls with the leftover meat tomorrow.  I'll heat up some black beans and make some rice, then we'll use the beef and slaw to top the rice and beans.

A Week with the Crock Pot

Have I mentioned before how much I love my crock pot?  Because it's a lot.  Even if I have, it is worth repeating.  I currently have a 3-quart stainless steel with just two settings (low and high).  I'd love to get another, larger one - like the Hamilton Beech Programmable or the Crock Pot Cook and Carry - so that I can cook larger roasts and things like ribs.

Anyway, I found the blog A Year of Slow Cooking and was inspired to try cooking a week's worth of dinners in the crock pot.  Note: all the recipes on A Year of Slow Cooking are gluten free or include modifications to make them gluten free.

Monday - Super Easy Cranberry Roast served over mashed potatoes
Tuesday - dinner out
Wednesday - Chicken Makhani with rice
Thursday - leftover chicken
Friday - Asian Shredded Beef as tacos with slaw from Korean Beef Soft Tacos

Monday's dinner was another edition of Adventures with Beef: Chuck Roast.  I found some modifications to the sauce in the comments of the recipe that I followed: dump cranberries from can into a bowl, add 1/4 cup orange juice, 2 T. lime juice, 2 T. soy sauce, and 1/2 t. ginger.  I thought this helped the sauce not be too sweet, but in the future, I would probably add some garlic and a bit more OJ.  Maybe even some grated orange zest?  I think it could use a bit of tweaking because it was kind of sweet and one-dimensional for me.

On to Wednesday. I love the chicken makhani that comes from a food cart near where I work. I am pretty sure it's hand made by the old Indian woman who runs the cart.  The recipe linked here was quite good! I substituted chicken breast for chicken thighs because that's what I had in the freezer and omitted the cayenne because Andy is not a huge fan of spicy food.  I also used Greek yogurt at the end.  Surprisingly, even he liked this!  It turned out really well and I will definitely make it again.  Almost as good as the Indian cart.  :)

Tonight we are having leftovers since I had to be out of the house extra early.  I will keep you posted on Friday's dinner.

Adventures with Beef: Chuck Roast

I wasn't quite sure about the chuck roast, but it turned out to be really easy to cook.  Andy really loves stir fry, so I was excited to try this recipe for pepper steak.

I cut the thawed chuck roast into strips, then mixed them with the garlic and ginger.  If I were to make this again, I would marinate the meat overnight to really get the garlic and ginger flavor infused into the meat better.

When cooking the meat, I mixed two teaspoons canola oil with one teaspoon sesame oil.  I like that flavor, and it gave the dish a little more of an asian flavor.  I served it with rice.

I thought the final dish was really good.  I wanted a little more flavor, so I mixed mine with some hot sauce and soy sauce.  I might also put those in the overnight marinade next time.  Andy loved it.  He thought the tomatoes were a little strange at first, but liked the addition.   It was a good way for both of us to eat more veggies.

Note: this is gluten free as long as you watch your Worcestershire sauce. In the US, Lea & Perrins is gluten free, but it is not in other countries.

Verdict: Good! We will definitely make this again.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins and a Recipe Blog Recommendation

Today, I got a recommendation for this pumpkin chocolate chip muffin recipe.  It's super easy (so perfect since I don't have a lot of time) and really delicious!  After browsing through the rest of the recipes, I can't wait to try more.  :)

Maple Bacon Cookies

1 c. butter or margarine, softened
3/4 c. brown sugar, packed
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. maple extract or 1 T + 1 t. maple syrup
2 1/3 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/2 - 1 lb. bacon, cooked, crumbled and well drained (I cut the bacon into small pieces first.)

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter or margarine, brown sugar and sugar until fluffy. Stir in eggs and maple extract or syrup. Beat for 1 more minute.

2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Stir to combine and add in batches to mixing bowl. Beat just long enough to incorporate.

3. By hand, stir in the bacon pieces. Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown.

Lentils and Bacon

I'm trying out some new recipes.  We usually make pasta as a side dish, but that doesn't work with being gluten free.  The pantry was a little empty, but I had all the ingredients for this recipe.

This was really good.  I liked the smokieness of the bacon with the lentils and a little crisp from the carrot.  I served with pork chops.

Lentils and Bacon

1 cup lentils
4 cups water
6 pieces of bacon
1 onion
1 carrot
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
salt
pepper

Rinse and wash lentils.  Cook in hot water - about 20 minutes - until lentils are tender but not mushy.  Drain lentils and put back in pan.

Cut bacon and cook until crispy.  Remove bacon from pan and drain most of grease.  In remaining grease, cook onions and carrots.

Mix bacon, onions, and carrots with lentils.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add vinegar at he end (can add a little more if you'd like more tangy).