Honey Mustard Chicken: A simple winter dish

If you’ve ever eaten at my house or my mother’s, you’ve probably enjoyed honey mustard chicken. This dish is so easy and naturally gluten free! It’s a perfect meal for a winter evening, and takes very little prep time. I often serve this when entertaining because once you get it in the oven, there’s very little work to be done.

Ingredients:
2-6 Boneless chicken breasts (depending on how many people you’re hosting)
½ stick butter
¼ cup honey
¼ cup Dijon mustard
½ -1 teaspoon curry powder

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325.
Melt butter over low heat. Remove from burner.
While melted butter is still warm, stir in honey until it mixes with butter. Repeat with mustard. Stir in curry powder.
Place chicken breasts in a Pyrex dish. Pour mixture over chicken. Put in oven and let cook (uncovered) for 1 hour, basting every 15 minutes. If mixture gets a little sticky, just add some water.
Remove from oven and serve with rice. Use the sauce from the dish on the rice as well. Enjoy!

Christmas is Coming...

As any celiac knows, the holidays can be tricky with the many parties and festivities where gluten filled goodies will be served. Many of my friends are wonderful about putting out gluten free snacks whenever hosting me, but I like to bring something sweet and gluten free to my hosts. This way you’re guaranteed to have something you can eat…just make sure they aren’t put on the same tray as other cookies that do contain gluten.

Throughout the next few weeks I will be blogging about holiday cooking and baking in hopes that I will provide you with culinary ideas you can use at your own parties, share with your friends or even use as gifts. The holidays are a time to give, share and spend time with friends and families. This time of year is a perfect opportunity to show others how good gluten free food can be and remind yourself that you don’t need to miss out on all of the fun simply because of your dietary needs. Happy GF Holidays!

Christmas Monster Cookies:
These cookies are delicious and using Holiday M&Ms can add a festive touch. I also love this recipe because it makes enough cookies for a large group (think gift giving or holiday parties) and they freeze well. I’ll be bringing a batch to my friends’ Whit and Meredith’s holiday party this weekend:
Ingredients:
1/3 cup softened butter
¾ cup brown sugar (tightly packed)
¾ cup sugar
1 t. baking soda
1 t. gluten free vanilla (McCormick now specifies on the back that its vanilla is GF…Hooray!)
2 eggs
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 cups gluten free oats (Note: Bob’s Red Mill now has certified gluten free oats; you can order them online; they can be difficult to find in stores so when I find them, I buy a lot. I most recently found them at Ukrop’s in Richmond.)
1 cup holiday plain M&Ms
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and grease cookie sheet.
Using a mixer, combine butter and sugar. Then mix in eggs, vanilla and baking soda. Add peanut butter and mix until blended. Mix in oats on slow speed (I usually start with 2 ½ cups and add more, depending on what I want the consistency to be like.) Then add M&Ms and chocolate chips and mix slowly.
(If I have time, I refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes, but it's not necessary.)
Using a spoon, place balls of mix onto cookie sheet and bake for 9-12 minutes, depending on how brown you want them and how big you make your cookies. I usually check on them after 9 minutes and see how their looking.
Place on cooling rack and enjoy!

Betsy's Mashed Potatoes

My mom and I LOVE mashed potatoes so this is a go to side dish at holiday meals. Simple, flavorful and minimal dishes to wash!
Ingredients:
2 ½-3 lbs. red potatoes washed (not peeled)
¼ cup parmesan cheese
Plenty of salt and pepper
¾ cup 2% milk (warmed)

Directions:
Wash potatoes and put in a pot. Fill with water to cover potatoes. Boil water and let potatoes cook for 25-30 minutes once water boils. Once potatoes are tender to the touch of a fork, drain water. (Don’t poke with fork too much because potatoes will dry out.) Add half of the milk and start to mash with a potato masher. Add rest of milk and start adding salt and pepper and parmesan cheese.

Taste as you add more cheese, salt and pepper. You might choose to use more or less milk and cheese depending on your taste buds and desired consistency of potatoes. (I prefer chunky mashed potatoes but if you want them smoother, add more milk.)

I like this side dish because it’s relatively easy and you don’t even need to break out the Kitchen Aid. It’s perfect when there’s already a lot going on in the kitchen…it minimizes dishes and space. I find that the skin left on adds color and texture to the dish!

Leftover Tip: These reheat well in the microwave, but I suggest adding a little milk before reheating.

Recipe Variation: Use sour cream instead of or in addition to parmesan cheese.

Adding spice to your gluten free cooking: Old Bay

The husband and I love Old Bay! Ever since my friend, Becky, gave us a huge container of the seasoning salt as an engagement gift (she's from Easton so that sort of explains the gift), we've loved using it. When I was first diagnosed with celiacs, we immediately checked to see if Old Bay is gluten free. Lucky for us, it is!

Old Bay is a seasoning salt that is typically used when eating crabs. The husband and I have found that it adds good flavor to many foods. Two of our favorites are sweet potato fries and burgers. This combo is one of our go to weeknight meals and it's perfect for having a group of people over for dinner. Old Bay is yummy in both turkey burgers and hamburgers and the recipe we use is the same for both.

Old Bay Dinner for 6

Old Bay Burgers:
Ingredients:
2 lbs. hamburger (I prefer 85/15...90/10 gets a bit dry)
2 eggs
1 medium onion, chopped
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
4 T. Old Bay (the husband and I vary our amount of Old Bay depending on whose taste buds we're feeding...in our minds, you can't have too much! 4 tablespoons is actually a bit conservative)
Sliced white cheddar cheese
Sliced avocado
Sliced fresh tomato

1. Heat olive oil in pan and add chopped onion. Saute until onion is brown.
2. In a bowl, mix meat, eggs, onion and Old Bay.
3. Make into 7 patties and they are ready to cook. I think everything is better on the grill, but you can make them on the stove top as well.
4. Add cheese when burgers are almost cooked through.
5. Top burgers with avocado and tomato.

*Note: we prefer to go bunless with these burgers. I still haven't found a gluten free bun that I love and I find that eating burgers with a fork is not the end of the world; in fact, it makes the dinner seem a little fancier!

Old Bay Sweet Potato Fries:
Ingredients:
4 Large sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into strips (think steak fries shape...2 inches wide, 4 inches long, and about 1/2 inch thick)
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons Old Bay

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. In a bowl, mix olive oil and Old Bay; then add sweet potatoes and mix
3. Lay sweet potatoes flat on cookie sheet.
4. Cook for 10 minutes and then flip sweet potatoes and cook for another 10 minutes.
I keep my eye on them and serve them once they start to get brown and a little crispy. The husband thinks you can't overcook them!

We usually serve this meal with a nice salad as well to add more color to the plate. You can use the extra tomato and avocado for the salad. One of my favorite GF dressings is Maple Farms of Vermont Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Enjoy!

You can't always go out to dinner...favorite recipes

While the husband and I love to go out to dinner, we like to cook even more! Even since I was diagnosed with celiacs, we still use 'normal' cookbooks because there are so many delicious recipes out there that are naturally gluten free. Our three favorite cookbooks are,

- The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (Ina Garten) The husband's sister, Heidi, introduced us to the world of Barefoot! While all of her cookbooks are great, the original is our favorite. Her perfect roast chicken is so simple, easy and amazing! (Just skip the 2 tsp. of flour.)

- Super Natural Cooking (Heidi Swanson) Given to me by Heidi, this cookbook is vegetarian and uses many different (non-gluten grains) in its recipes. My personal favorite is the chunky lentil soup. It's so hearty and perfect for the upcoming cold months. Serve it with GF corn bread and it's a great dinner.

- The New Best Recipe (Cook's Illustrated) The husband gave me this cookbook for Christmas last year and it has over 1,000 recipes. For example, the writers experiment with the best ways to make oven french fries and they tell you what the best method is. Lucky for us, the fries are GF and so good! You don't even need a frier to make them!

Both of our lives are hectic and busy, so taking the time to prepare meals together is one of the things we like to do most. In this blog, I hope to share some of our favorite recipes with you in addition to just reviewing restaurants because for the celiac, eating at home is always the safest and most comfortable place to eat!