Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie is super easy to make, especially if you have potato flakes (make sure they're GF). This time I made them with some Worcestershire Sauce and something else (tomato sauce, maybe, I don't remember) that I've learned that my kids don't like so much. Their favorite is super easy:

Shepherd's Pie

ground beef, cooked (with dried onions if you like it)

frozen mixed veggies of your choice (we especially like peas and corn)

Hormel mini pepperoni (the key ingredient to make it extra tasty)

After you cook the ground beef, add in the veggies and pepperoni (and a shake or two of Worcestershire Sauce if you like) and warm through.

Make mashed potatoes, either from real potatoes or potato flakes.

Put the beef mixture in the bottom, then cover with potatoes and cook at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

If you like cheese (and can eat it), add it for the last 10 minutes to melt on top. I've frozen this before successfully as well. Just make double and save one for later in the freezer.

 

Cabbage Rolls

Here's a tasty meal that tastes way better than it looks or smells (initially). I looked up several recipes online and took the best from several, and improvised a little with what I had. The one thing that is necessary for cabbage rolls: cabbage.

It can be a little tricky getting the cabbage leaves off the head without completely destroying the leaf beyond usefulness. But this little trick helps out a ton. I stab the end of the cabbage with a nice strong knife, and dip the cabbage in hot/boiling water for a minute or so. That softens the outer 2-4 leaves enough to peel them off (carefully!--surpisingly something you just removed from boiling water may burn your fingertips a bit. Not that I did that.). Repeat until you have 10-12 useable cabbage leaves.

At that point, you can add the filling. This is what I used:
cooked rice (about a cup)
ground beef (I didn't cook it before-hand and it was cooked thru just fine)
celery
carrots
onion
tomato sauce
Mix it all together, then dish a few spoonfuls into each cabbage leaf and roll it like a burrito. Put it seam-side down in a crockpot. (This time I actually didn't plan far enough ahead, and did it in a pot on the stove and it worked, just fine, too.) Add a bottle of V8 over the top of them all (this is the VITAL ingredient--improvise on the others if you must, but if you don't have V8, run down to Walgreens or QuikMart and pick it up!!). Cook on low in the crockpot for 8-9 hours.

They look a little scary (like mummies? Maybe this would be a good meal for Halloween!), but they sure do taste good.

Chipotle chili and cornbread

I always love a good crockpot recipe. As long as I remember early enough in the day to actually start it. I almost never can cook on low--if the recipe calls for low I half the time and put it on high, just because the earliest I ever remember to think about it is around lunch time. 

Here's a real good chili recipe I got from a Campbells Soup recipe book (of course we can no longer use Campbell's Soup because none is gluten-free, but at least the recipe book still is good for something). 

 

Chipotle Chili

1 jar (16 oz.) salsa

1 C. water

2 T. chili powder (I use less--more like 2 teaspoons)

1 large onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

2 lbs. Beef for stew, cut into ½-inch pieces

1 can red kidney beans, drained (or 2 cans, or 1 kidney, 1 pinto beans)

Shredded cheese (optional)

Sour cream (optional)

Mix salsa, water, chili powder, onion, beef and beans in slow-cooker. Cover and cook on low 8-9 hours, or on high 4-5 hours. Serve with cheese and sour cream, if desired.

Of course, nothing goes with chili better than cornbread. I found this AWESOME recipe at Gluten free Mommy. It is quick and easy and soft and fluffy and not too sweet, but sweet enough. It's just so tasty! Probably better than most regular gluten-ous cornbreads I've had.

GLUTEN FREE CORNBREAD

1 cup white rice flour
3/4 cup stone-ground cornmeal
2 to 3 Tablespoons of sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 Tablespoon butter
2 beaten eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt) together in a med. bowl and set aside.

Melt the one tablespoon of butter in a 10 inch cast-iron skillet or 8/9 inch round baking pan in the oven. This takes about three minutes. Swirl the butter around the pan coating the bottom and sides.

In a small bowl, combine the eggs, milk, and 1/4 cup butter. Add this mixture all at once to the flour mixture and stir until just moistened. Pour batter into the hot skillet or baking pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm.

Tostadas

Living in Tucson we eat Mexican food quite a bit. Lucky for us, Mexican food, except the flour tortillas, is usually pretty easy to make gluten-free. I wish I was better at Asian cooking, because that is usually pretty easy to make gluten-free, too. Instead we just settle for visiting Thai restaurants, which are usually almost completely gluten-free, or most meals can be adjusted to be GF.

Anyway, last night it was dinner time and I hadn't even thought about starting to make dinner and I was hungry. I looked around the kitchen and saw the stack of hard corn tortillas and thought "tostadas!" And about 3 minutes later dinner was ready. All I had to do was gather the ingredients on the table for everyone to make their own:

hard corn tortillas
refried beans
ground beef (I left this out last night for time's sake)
shredded cheese
lettuce
sour cream
salsa
avacado or guacamole
olives

The beauty of this meal, besides the quick and easy aspect, is that people can put on what they want and leave off what they don't. I try to have meatless meals at least once a week, and this is really easy to adjust to be meatless and still be filling.

Meatloaf

We had meatloaf the other day. I used to use crackers and wheat germ in my meatloaf, rather than bread crumbs, but that's kind of not an option any more. In my early GF cooking days I once tried adding almond flour, or maybe it was almond meal to my meatloaf. YUCK! Bad idea.

Now I usually use Rice Chex. Corn Chex would probably work okay, too, though it might add a little different flavor. I'm not all that good at following recipes exactly, so I don't have an exact recipe, but here's the general idea:

1 lb. of ground beef (this is enough for 3 people, but not much more)
a few handfuls of Chex, crushed
a couple squeezes of ketchup
1 egg
salt and pepper
Mix it all together well (I use my hand and squish it all between my fingers to get it really mixed). Put in loaf pan (this time I actually put it in a muffin tin--it made 6 muffins perfectly). Cook at 350 until done (about 45 minutes?).

I didn't get a picture before the meatloaf was attacked, but you get the idea. We also had butternut squash from our garden (yum!) and one of those brown rice fake couscous dishes that I picked up at Sunflower Market. Delish!