White Chicken Tortilla Soup

Photo Credit: Erica's bloggity blog

It has been bitter cold this week. I guess I will never get used to the temperamental weather here, but the most enjoyable part of the cold is delicious soups. This White Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe has been perfect for warming us up.

No modifications needed, just check the labels of your canned goods to ensure they are not processed with wheat. I like spicy so I added some chili powder. Enjoy!

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Easy Lemon Chicken and Quinoa with Bacon-seared Brussel Sprouts

This is a new favorite in our house! The recipe doesn't call for quinoa but I made some in our rice cooker and used stock instead of water. The pan sauce you make after the chicken is done cooking (substitute flour for cornstarch) goes well over the quinoa.

You can find the recipe and detailed instructions here. Again, I substituted the flour for cornstarch and it turned out just great.

I bought a two pound bag of Brussels Sprouts at Costco for 2.99. I didn't look too closely to see that maybe they were so cheap because they were going bad. Oops! I was able to salvage about a pound of them. I didn't follow a recipe to make this, I just made it up because it sounded good. I can't think of a thing that bacon doesn't make better.

1 pound Brussels Sprouts, washed and ends trimmed.
2 slices of bacon, uncooked
1/4 cup chicken stocl
Salt and pepper to taste

After cleaning your sprouts, place the bacon in a pan over medium heat and let the fat render out. Cook the bacon until crispy. Remove bacon and leave bacon grease in the pan. Add sprouts and let brown for 1-2 minutes. After the sprouts have a nice color on them, add the stock (just enough to wet the pan a little) and cover the pan. Let them steam until they turn a bright green and are fork-tender.

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Cashew Chicken and Rice

When I was first diagnosed I didn't get too upset because I could still eat my favorite food, sushi. I knew I couldn't have tempura fried rolls but again I wasn't too upset because I really love nigiri or sashimi. There is something about eating fresh fish that doesn't have a fishy taste. Then after learning that most brands of soy sauce have gluten in them, I was so disheartened. Why? I don't make my own sushi. I wasn't about to start either or forego eating sushi without my beloved dipping concoction of wasabi and soy sauce. I did some research online and found a few companies that offer gluten free soy sauce. I tried this brand and I really like it. You can get it on Amazon for a good deal. Plus it is lower sodium so that's a bonus! Another added bonus? They come in little travel squeeze packs so you can go out to eat and not look like a weirdo with a giant bottle of soy sauce.

I decided to make a Chinese dish with the soy sauce and used this recipe I've cooked before with regular soy sauce.

Conclusion:

1. You can't taste a difference between non-GF soy and regular soy.
2. Please make this with green onions. It helps give the dish some complexity, I think. Without them the main flavors are salty soy and a little sweetness from cashews. Not much dimension and the onions give it a little bite.
3. Double the sauce recipe. With the recipe as it is, there isn't enough sauce to help give your rice some flavor. And that just makes me a sad panda.
4. I recommend using chicken thighs. They have more flavor and I think give the dish a nice oomph. Chicken breasts are fine but I think they can be too dry and chewy.

So while this isn't a true GF recipe and is just a recipe with a swap, I still enjoyed it. It helps fill that Chinese food craving I get every so often. This is also a great weeknight dinner as it can be made under 30 minutes or less, depending on what kind of rice you use.

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Skillet Chicken Divan by Betty Crocker

Oh, Betty! Is there anything you haven't done? I came across a plethora of gluten-free recipes on BC's website. The first one I tried was the skillet Chicken Divan because I had all the ingredients on hand and needed to cook a quick dinner.

This recipe is easy but I have a few suggestions to make it even better and maybe easier.

1. Make sure you use Minute or quick cooking rice for this recipe as it suggests. I've made this recipe twice and both times I used the slow cooking rice because I never buy the quick cooking kind. I'm willing to buy the Minute kind because using the slow cooking kind is a bad idea. It takes too long for the rice to cook and the water isn't sufficient for absorption, even with the pan covered. This resulted with the rice on the bottom getting burnt a little. Whoops.
2. Use chicken stock instead of the water suggested. Without the stock/broth it just isn't as flavorful.
3. I used sharp cheddar cheese and it was fantastic. I think it went really well with the Dijon in the recipe.

You can find the recipe here.

Photo credit: Betty Crocker

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