This Week's Gluten Free Menu

[RissaRoo]

This week I got a late start because of the holiday, and then we are spending the week getting settled into a routine for home school, cleaning up the house and organizing everything (I'm calling this "Inservice"....regular schools do it, so why not?). I also am still up to my eyeballs in peaches, and looking at 2 more trees on the verge of being ripe....yipes!

(NOTE: I have photo steps for these, but I'm not going to attempt to show them all here. If you want to see them, check out my profile and follow the link to my blog...sorry, I'm too lazy to save them all to photobucket and then link them here! I'm going to post these recipes one at a time on the blog, so I'll come back and post the next ones under this thread. The rest of this week will be: Chicken nuggets (with salad, corn on the cob and home fries...recipe to follow). Chicken, rice and bean burritos on corn tortillas (crock pot fun!) with home made sauce. Split pea and ham soup with salad and biscuits. Mexican lasagna using the filling from the burritos from before plus the home made sauce and refried beans. The last recipe I'm not yet sure about, because we're going to a BBQ...so I'll figure that out when I hear what I'm supposed to bring. Sorry it's a little weird this week....this hasn't been my most organized week!)

Continued:

I am going through what's in our freezer, using the meat that's been in there for, um, quite possibly too long. I am looking at this as an entertaining challenge....what's for dinner? Dunno, I'll tell you when it thaws! First bag of frosted-over mystery meat ended up being....

8 Chicken Thighs, complete with bones and skin.

They looked edible after they thawed, so I made......

Gluten/Soy/Dairy Free Chicken Nuggets! These are really good, and because they are made at home you don't have to worry about what weird and un-appetizing parts of the chicken might be hiding in there. They are gluten/soy/dairy free and are not fried, so they're also healthy!

You need:

8 chicken thighs (remove skin)

4 eggs (1 for chicken mixture, 3 for coating)

garlic powder

sea salt

celery salt

dash Worcester sauce

1 cup chicken broth (Pacific brand is gluten/soy/dairy free)

4 cups Rice Chex cereal (check label to make sure it's the new, gluten-free formula)

garlic powder

sea salt

You Do:

Bake the chicken at 350 until done (meat thermometer should read at least 175 degrees F). Set aside and let cool (this step can be done up to a day in advance. You can also cook the chicken on low all day in your crock pot, and put them in the fridge to cool before making the nuggets).

In a food processor, pulse cereal, garlic powder and sea salt until you have fine crumbs. Put the crumbs aside in a shallow bowl or pie plate.

Remove all the chicken from the bone and put it in the food processor. Pulse until the chicken is completely pulverized, see the photo for what it will look like. Add the egg, and the spices. Add chicken broth a little at a time and pulse until the chicken is a workable consistency...something like cookie dough. If you don't need all the broth, that's OK.

In a separate bowl, beat the remaining eggs.

Assemble the nuggets: Using a tablespoon measure, spoon up one Tbs. of the chicken mixture. Shape it into a "nugget" shape with your fingers, then dip both sides of the nugget in the egg to coat. Next, coat the nugget completely in the crumb mixture and set it on a cookie sheet. Repeat with all the remaining chicken.

Bake nuggets for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the edges begin to brown. Or, you can bake half the nuggets and freeze the other half for later! Just put them on a cookie sheet and freeze, then remove from the sheet and put them in a freezer safe bag. Bake them another day for a fast and healthy dinner!

Makes around 40 chicken nuggets.

[Sweetfudge]

wow i haven't had chicken nuggets in ages! ian's are too expensive for me! i will definitely have to try this tomorrow!

[RissaRoo]

Yeah, I love Ians but the are sooo spendy! Another idea that might work well for you (I assume it's just you and possibly a hubby?) is to roast a whole chicken and make nuggets with the left overs. We've done that before, but we had to roast 2 chickens for a family of five to have enough left over for the nuggets.

[Sweetfudge]

Yeah, I love Ians but the are sooo spendy! Another idea that might work well for you (I assume it's just you and possibly a hubby?) is to roast a whole chicken and make nuggets with the left overs. We've done that before, but we had to roast 2 chickens for a family of five to have enough left over for the nuggets.

hm, good idea!

[RissaRoo]

Continuing the photo menu and continuing to clean out the freezer...

The next unidentifiable frosted package turned out to be bone-in chicken breast halves. So I made:

Chicken, bean and rice tacos with homemade enchilada sauce.

I love this because it's quick and easy, it bakes in a crock pot all day and requires little effort on my part. Plus, it's made to feed your family for two dinners (and, for our family of five, we always have enough left over for lunch!). The sauce is great, too...you'll use a little the first night, but save most of it for Mexican Lasagna another night. I like to sneak in a zucchini for extra vitamins, and believe it or not nobody noticed. Not even hubby!

This one is gluten, dairy, soy and egg free. You could add grated cheese if you wanted, and dairy or non dairy sour cream.

You need:

Chicken and Rice mix for two dinners:

two cups rice

one can black beans

one can corn

one jar salsa (check the label for gluten etc.)

1 cup water

three pieces of chicken (breasts or thighs or some combination of both)

one onion

chili powder

salt and pepper

corn tortillas (we use Mission brand)

lettuce, tomato, avocado etc. for toppings

Enchilada Sauce:

one zucchini

four cloves garlic

one large can pureed tomatoes (32 oz can)

two cans chili peppers, diced or whole

salt

chili powder

You Do:

Throw the rice, the can of beans, the can of corn, and the jar of salsa in a crock pot. Chop the onion, and put 3/4 of it in with the rice (reserve the rest for later). Stir them together. Add about a cup of water. Place the chicken on top of the rice mixture. If you are starting this early in the day, you can even put the chicken in frozen. Let it simmer on low all day long. Before dinner, take out chicken and pull all the meat off the bones. Shred chicken, and mix it back together with the rice mixture. Make the sauce: Chop the zucchini into chunks and throw it in the blender, then toss in the garlic. Add the tomato puree, the chilies, and the seasonings. Puree the sauce until very smooth and set out a bowl to top your burritos, put the rest away for the Mexican Lasagna another night. Prepare your toppings....lettuce, your pre-chopped onion, some avocado, cheese and sour cream if you want. Warm the tortillas in the microwave, and let everyone make their own burrito.

Put away the remaining chicken mixture and tortillas with the enchilada sauce for Mexican Lasagna...I usually make a different dinner in between to make sure no one gets sick of Mexican.

You can also do all the prep work the night before, and put the crockery part of your crock pot in the fridge overnight. The next morning, just take it out and plug it in...then all you have to do is shred the chicken and warm the tortillas and dinner's ready!