This Week's Gluten Free Menu

[RissaRoo]

This week's menu (a little late).

A pretty normal menu this week, except that we'll have friends over on Saturday. They're coming to help hubby fix a large hole in the ceiling around our swamp cooler...so I'm planning a fun meal for hungry workers. The menu for Saturday is one you may want the whole recipe for, so I'll post complete recipes for the Carbonara and Pavlova dessert later on.

Monday: Garlic-studded roast, garlic mashed potatoes, carrots and onions, steamed broccoli. Take a beef roast and poke holes all over all sides of it, cut garlic into slices and poke these deep into the holes. Slice one sweet onion into thick rings, and place these in a deep roaster (I used the crockery part of my crock pot). Pour some baby carrots over the onion, and place the roast on top of the vegetables. Bake at 350 until the roast is 160 degrees. Boil potatoes and garlic until soft, then mash with half a stick of gluten free/dairy free butter substitute, or add some olive oil. Season with sea salt and black pepper. Steam broccoli for several minutes until crisp-tender. Slice roast and layer down the center of a large serving platter, add the cooked carrots and onion on one side of the meat and the broccoli on the other. Serve with mashed potatoes and gravy made with the drippings from the roast and gluten free beef broth, thickened with corn starch. Yum!

Tuesday: Roast beef sandwiches on homemade gluten free bread, cranberry sauce, and left over mashed potatoes. I made a large loaf of gluten-free bread, sliced it into sandwich slices, and I'm keeping it in the fridge. Heat the bread until warm and soft, add mayo, spicy brown mustard, lettuce, red onion, dill pickles, and a slice of left over roast beef. Serve with cranberry sauce (canned or, in our case, left over frozen whole berry sauce) and left over mashed potatoes.

Wednesday: Pasta bake. Cook some gluten-free pasta according to package directions. In a skillet, cook 1 lb ground beef with 1 chopped onion, drain and set aside. Quickly cook one chopped zucchini and some garlic in the pan, until crisp-tender. Return ground beef to pan, add a bottle of gluten-free spaghetti sauce, and mix well. Place noodles in a pan, pour the sauce over the noodles, and stir. Sprinkle some gluten-free bread crumbs (or use pulverized Chex cereal...crispy and easy) mixed with Italian herbs over the top and bake until warm through. You may add cheese on top if you can have cheese...some grated mozzarella and Parmesan would be excellent.

Thursday: Cajun Beans and Rice, warm bread, and salad. Soak a bag of dark red, large kidney beans overnight. Rinse. Place beans, a bay leaf, lots of crushed garlic, some sea salt, and a little red pepper in a crock pot. Cover with water and let simmer all day. A few hours before dinner, check to make sure beans have enough water. Add more if need be, along with one chopped Kielbasa sausage. Cook 2 more hours. Serve over cooked brown rice with pepper sauce for those who want it, with warm gluten-free bread and butter and a green salad (if you won't be home all day, you can add the sausage with beans in the morning and cook all day).

Friday: Grilled Chicken Salad. Grill several chicken breasts, and slice in thin slices. Toss with salad greens, red onion, cucumber, chilled red beans, black olives, blue cheese (boar's head is gluten-free), and tomatoes. I like to crumble corn chips on top. Serve with homemade dressing...balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and stone ground mustard.

Saturday: Spaghetti Carbonara and salad, Pavlova for dessert. This is a family favorite, and we often make it for guests. NOT dairy free, though...so Isaiah will have to have gluten-free/dairy free frozen pizza (Amy's brand, we add extra toppings). Boil some gluten free spaghetti in a large pot. While it cooks, crumble 1 pound cooked bacon (I do the bacon in advance on an electric griddle, or buy prepared cooked bacon...Hormel is gluten-free). In a blender, blend heavy cream, garlic, egg yolks, and Parmesan until smooth. Add salt and pepper and blend again. Drain noodles, return to the pot and toss with 1/2 stick of butter. Pour the sauce over the noodles, return pot to stove top and cook briefly while tossing the pasta. Add bacon and a can of sliced black olives and mix well. Serve with extra cheese to sprinkle on top, and a big tossed salad. Use the left over egg whites to make Pavlova....a crisp meringue crust with lemon curd and sliced fruit on top.

Sunday: Smorgasbord (aka...left overs) Cajun beans and rice, Spaghetti Carbonara, Pasta Bake...whatever else is in the fridge. Spread everything out on the counter, and add bread and sandwich supplies if it looks like there's not enough left overs to go around. Make sure you have some fruits and vegetables to choose from as well (raw are fine, maybe with some Ranch dip), and let everyone go through and choose what they like.

[Sweetfudge]

super yum! what noodles would be best for the pasta bake? that sounds like something both myself and hubby would enjoy plus i have all the ingredients already!

[RissaRoo]

super yum! what noodles would be best for the pasta bake? that sounds like something both myself and hubby would enjoy plus i have all the ingredients already!

I love Tinkyana (sp?) noodles. I like the spiral kind the best for this, but you could also use the shell noodles. All of Tinkyana's pasta turns out great, I think it's the closest to the 'real thing' and it can withstand a little over cooking and still not turn into noodle pudding!

[Sweetfudge]

perfect! just picked up a couple more bags of tinkyada spirals at the store today b/c they were on sale

[Puddy]

MMMMM Spaghetti Carbonara....my mouth is watering. Here's my weekly thanks, Rissa!