Homemade Marinara Sauce & "Parmesan" Cheese (GF, DF, Vegan)

Over the past couple of years my darling hubby and I have been working to simplify the ingredients in our food. One of the first things that I started to make at home is pizza sauce. I've always made my own spaghetti sauce, so I didn't think this was much a stretch. Turns out I was wrong. Spaghetti sauce with meat is a much different animal than a simple pizza sauce. I finally figure out that if I combined diced tomatoes, EVOO, salt and pepper and a pinch of chili flakes, it was an okay base for a pizza, but it wasn't something that was easy enough to keep on hand. Then one day I figured out that my existing tomato basil marinara sauce was simple and tasty enough to use for both pasta and pizza. 

When we first went GF, pizza was the one I missed the most. Not only for the taste, but also for the ease of picking up the phone or picking up a pie on my way home. Then a few of the conventional restaurant options became available, some of them pretty tasty, so we were back in business, if not out a little cash as those options tend to be expensive. Then we found that dairy was a problem and we were back to the starting point. Ugh, what to do? Well, frankly, we went without pizza for awhile.

One day I saw a post on Facebook that contained a recipe for a "nut cheese". I tried a recipe from a blog the first time and it was waaaayyyyy too salty and the "cheesy" taste from the nutritional yeast was just too prominent - I thought it tasted like the cheese powder in a bad box of macaroni and cheese (and not even a bad BLUE box!).

I decided to develop my own recipe and the results made our homemade pizza taste complete. It's not the ooey, gooey, stringy kind of cheese that you typically get on a dairy filled pizza, but it fills the void much better than any of those plastic make-believe cheeses you will find in the dairy aisle or the health food store.

As for toppings, we run the gammit at our house. Dear daughter likes hers with tomato sauce and "cheese". Sometimes she wants a little pepperoni and other times she's open to add a little of the pizza sausage we get in our CSA bin. Some times she wants me to add pineapple. Darling Hubby likes pepper or the sausage and the nut cheese. He's another fan of pineapple, so I add that if I have it on hand. I'm a bit more of a toppings gal. My favorite pizza is pepperoni or sausage with green peppers, onions, mushrooms, black olives and banana peppers. I'm open to some pineapple as well. We've tried them all and they all work well with this basic sauce and the nut cheese.

Finally, a good pizza crust is something that becomes a quest for many GF folks. There are a litany of recipes on the internet and Pinterest has some pretty good ones. We've not settled on one "best" recipe yet so I'll come back and share that when we do. In the past month, things have been pretty hectic at our house so I finally broke down and bought some Udi's GF crust. I have to say that for the ease of prep, I'm a fan. The taste rivals some of the restaurant crusts as well, so not too bad if you're going this route. In fact, I've decided to keep a few in the freezer for weekend lunches or week night meals on those nights when we have commitments after work and school. 

Definitely make the tomato basil sauce, it's a great sauce that you can put on just about anything - grilled veggies, pizza, pasta of any form and if you have some good GF bread (Udi's dinner rolls, maybe), it would make a great dip. You can also use it as an ingredient in another recipes - e.g., 1 cup in a recipe of mussels marinara. 

Homemade Tomato Basil Sauce

• 1 28 oz can of organic Diced Tomatoes (I like the fire roasted type)
• 2 15 oz cans of organic tomato sauce (I use Simple Truth)
• 1 small onion or half of a large, small dice (any type will do, I prefer red, but have even used Vidalia with good results)
• 1 bunch of basil, torn into small pieces or chiffonade into strips
• 1 tbsp minced garlic (I use the kind from the jar)
• 2 - 4 tbsp EVOO (to taste or your preference for adding flavor and to sauté the onions)
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 large carrot - clean and cut in half vertically (if your carrot is really large, cut it in half and then into quarters so it fits into your pot better)

Place a large sauce pan over a medium-low heat and allow pan to heat while you dice the onion. Add EVOO to the hot pot and allow it to come to temp. When the oil begins to shimmer, add the onions and cook, stirring on occasion so as to avoid browning the onion, add a sprinkle of salt. When onions are translucent, add garlic and stir to distribute. When the garlic is fragrant - 30 seconds or so - add the tomatoes. Stir to combine. Add the pepper flakes and stir again. Add the carrot to the pot. 

Turn the heat to low and allow the sauce to cook for 20 to 30 minutes stirring frequently to keep the bottom from scorching. Allow the sauce to cook until thickened and reduced a bit. Turn the flame off and taste. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Add basil and stir to distribute it throughout the sauce. Allow the sauce to rest for 10-20 minutes. Taste and make any final adjustments of seasonings. Store in the fridge in a clean glass container or in the freezer in batches of 1.5 cups each for a 10" pizza crust.

"Parmesan" Nut Cheese

• 1.5 cups raw cashew nuts - pieces or whole
• .5 cups almonds - whole or sliced
• .25 cup EVOO
• .25 cup Olive Oil (regular olive oil)
• 1.5 tsp good quality sea salt
• 1 tbsp Lemon juice

Soak nuts overnight in cold water - make sure the nuts are covered with enough water to allow for the nuts to swell during soaking. When you are ready to prepare the cheese, drain and rinse the nuts in a colander. Add the nuts to the work bowl of a food processor. Add salt, lemon juice and the EVOO. Turn the food process to "On" and allow the contents to process until the EVOO has been incorporated and the nuts have broken down into large sand grains. Taste the mixture to determine whether you need to add more salt and adjust seasoning (you can also choose to add a little more lemon juice, but the purpose of the lemon is to add the bite that you typically get from parmesan and not to actually taste the lemon). Continue to process the nuts until the mixture looks like fine grains of wet sand. If you have trouble getting the nuts to break down, add the remaining olive oil by tablespoon until the mixture reaches the texture you want. Taste one last time to adjust seasoning, if needed. 

Clean Spring Veggie Soup (gluten free, dairy free, easy to convert to paleo and vegetarian/vegan)

I enjoyed our long winter for quite a few weeks. However, I've struggled the past two or three as I'm completely sick of wearing the same winter clothes over and over again. I'm tired of being all bundled up, so I've ditched my wool and down coats in favor of a Columbia jacket made for mild weather. Yesterday, I threw on a corduroy blazer and headed out the door without my gloves. Yes, I am ready for spring!

In an effort to hurry things along, I thought I'd make a super easy and tasty veggie soup for lunch today. Darling daughter has swim lessons on Saturday morning, so we do a quick and easy breakfast and then I make a more substantial lunch when we are back home. This recipe is perfect for a weekend as you can make it one day and have plenty of soup for the lunch box for the week. It's also very figure friendly and you can use pretty much anything you have in the fridge or freezer. Like veggies other than what I've used below? Make up your own version, this is really about using what you have on hand and turning it into something warm, filling, and healthy for your family. It's also pretty cost effective as I didn't have to buy any special ingredients and we have more room in the fridge because it's a great way to use up veggies that weren't used up during the week.

Lisa's Spring Veggie Soup

• 3 Leeks, rinsed, white and light green parts only, prepped and well rinsed
• 1 small sweet onion, diced
• 2 bag petite carrots, roughly chopped
• center stalks (lightest green with many leaves) of celery, washed and chopped - use the entire thing - stalks and leaves
• 1/2 a bunch of Dinosaur Kale or other green, chopped (about 3-4 cups worth of greens)
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 15 oz can organic chickpeas
• 1 small bag of organic cut green beans
• 1/2 a small bag of petite peas
• 2 boxes stock - I used chicken, but you could easily use veg or beef
• 2 cups water 
• 2 tbsp oil- I used olive, but coconut would work too
• 3 tbsp garlic (I use the garlic from a jar that you buy in the produce section)
• 1/2 tsp ground marjoram
• 3 small bay leaves
• few stalks of fresh thyme, strip the leaves or 1/2 tsp dried

Place a large soup pot over a medium flame and allow the pot to begin to heat up for 3 to 4 minutes. Add oil. Allow oil to heat while you finish cleaning and preparing the leeks, onions carrots and celery. Add carrots, celery, leeks and onions to the pot along with the garlic, marjoram, bay leaves and thyme and 1/4 tsp of salt. Stir well to ensure vegetables and herbs are well distributed. Turn the flame to low and continue to prep veggies while the veggies and herbs cook. 

When the leeks and onions are transparent and the you can smell the herbs, add the stock and tomatoes, stir and cover the pot. Adjust the heat to medium. Leave soup to cook and the flavors to marry for 10 to 15 minutes with the lid on. 

The soup should be at a low boil when you add the kale or green of choice. Stir in the kale, green beans, peas and water. Cover and allow to cook on low for 10 to 15 more minutes. Remove the lid, add the chickpeas along with their juices. Stir again and taste for seasoning. Adjust to taste and serve.

A Cleaner Cauliflower Soup (Paleo, GF, Dairy Free, Easily Adapted to Vegetarian and Vegan)

A friend and fellow blogger pointed out to me the other day that it's been a long time since I've posted a recipe to this blog. You know what? She's absolutely right! Things have been busy, people have been sick, work is crazy.... you know the drill. So today I'm making an effort to get back on track and try to share some of the recipes I am making.

My latest kitchen experiment is a cleaner version of a broccoli soup than I've ever made before. In the past, I would have added milk and cheese and thought that both ingredients were "required" for the end product to be tasty. Now that we have really cleaned up our family's diet that old approach didn't fit any longer so I had to alter my thinking and, consequently, my recipe.

I had a whole cauliflower in the fridge just begging to be used. I'd bought it on a whim after seeing some TV chef make a roasted cauliflower that looked pretty tasty. Unfortunately, time got away from me, the need for a simplified meal took over and there the cauliflower sat, on the top shelf of my fridge sad and lonely. 

So, I decided that in this most vexing of winters we needed some healthy, tasty soup. I read a number of recipes for cauliflower soup using search terms like:  clean, vegetarian, vegan, healthy and paleo. Many of the recipes were moderately rated, so I was a little concerned. Then I started reading the reviews  of some of them and realized that some of my tried and true tricks might produce a soup that would earn a higher rating than those in my research. 

One of my favorite tricks is to use onion, celery and carrots in nearly everything I cook. I love matchstick carrots and add them to salads every time, but I've also thrown a handful into my enchilada filling, various sauces I make and nearly anything else that seems that it would benefit from a little carroty sweetness. I also buy baby carrots and lately have found bags labeled as "petite" which are smaller and seemly sweeter than the others. I use these in a variety of preparations as well as the obvious lunch box application. I will cut a handful into coins if I'm making chicken and dumplings (one of darling daughter's favorites), I threw a large handful into this soup as no added prep was needed and it was an easy way to ensure a flavorful end product.

Another favorite is celery. I think celery gets a bad rap. It's stringy - yes, yes, it can be - it can have a harsh flavor - especially if it's darker green - and it's not as sexy as some of the newer veggies that have hit the produce section of your market (e.g., jicima, star fruit, pomegranate). I, however, love, love, love celery, but I choose wisely when I buy it. First, celery is a winter veggie, so if you're trying to buy it in July, be extra careful as it may not be as sweet and mild as in the winter. Second, I think the lighter green the better the taste, so I avoid stalks of all dark green celery as I usually find they're bitter. Next, I buy the whole celery instead of the bags of celery hearts. I do use the darker outer stalks, those go in the bottom of my roasting pan for chicken or a beef roast, but if you're going to eat it raw, say in chicken salad, you want the lighter stalks near the middle. I do taste the darker stalks before I use them and if the stalk is bitter I throw it in the trash as I work hard to make a meal and I don't need anything working against me.

Last, but certainly not least are onions. I love onions. Sweet onions and red onions are my favorites. I like red onions in my salad as they are a bit more nutritious (see this page if you want to know more). I use sweet onions when I make things like French onion soup or Onion Dip (I like Ina's recipe for onion dip) and I thought they would bring flavor a balance to this soup. Sometimes you want that good old fashioned onion flavor - like in chicken soup or spaghetti sauce, but for this preparation and a few others, a sweet onion produces a more tasty end product.

Add just a few more ingredients to the carrots, celery and onions and you'll have soup. Give this one a try, it's pretty easy. The hardest part, I think, is whizzing it at the end, so it is easy enough to be a weeknight meal. It also makes enough for leftovers, especially if you serve it with salad or sandwiches. If you make it, let me know what you think.

Lisa's Winter White Cauliflower Soup

• 1 large sweet onion, cut into 8ths 
• 4 good size green onions, cut into 2" or 3" chunks
• 3 stalks of celery - lighter green stalks, cut into 2" or 3" chunks
• 1 cup baby carrots - straight from the bag, no need to chop (I used petite size)
• 1 small head Cauliflower, cut into 2" or 3" chunks
• 2 small bay leaves
• 3 tbsp dried parsley
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste (black)
• 1/3 cup GF all purpose flour blend (I used King Arthur)
• chicken or vegetable stock - 2 boxes
• 3 slices bacon (if vegetarian/vegan use olive oil)

Place a soup pot over a medium heat. While pot heats, cut the bacon into 1-2" pieces with kitchen shears. When the pot is hot, add bacon by placing individual strips around the bottom of the pot so that you don't overlap too many pieces - this will help with even cooking of the bacon. Stir after the bacon has started to cook a bit and then occasionally again until the bacon is cooked through and has rendered its' fat. Remove the cooked bacon to a paper towel lined plate. Pour off most of the bacon fat, leaving about 2 tbsp in the bottom of the pan.

Return the pan to the heat and add the onions, celery, and carrots to the pot, add a pinch of salt and stir. Allow the veggies to cook until the sweet onion is translucent. Add the flour and stir well to coat all of the vegetables and distribute the flour. Allow the flour to cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring often so that the ingredients don't burn. 

Add the cauliflower and bay leaves. Stir to distribute then add the parsley, crushing it between your palms as you add it to the pot. Stir again, then add the stock. You want the liquid to nearly cover all of the vegetables, but not quite. If you have too many veggies sticking out of the stock, either add more stock or sub good old water. Allow to cook, stirring often, until the cauliflower is soft and the carrots are cooked through. 

Remove from heat, remove bay leaves and puree using either an immersion blender or by pureeing small batches in your counter blender. If you have a water-proof food processor, you can use that too, but mine would leak.

Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to suit your palate. Serve with bacon crumbles that you used to render the fat for the soup. A green salad or a sandwich makes a nice complement to this soup and a filling winter meal that's easy on the cook!

Makes 8 servings

GF Pizza (Gluten Free, Nut Free, SCD Friendly)

I think I've said this before, but the one thing that is the most difficult about making major dietary changes is missing your favorite foods. Fortunately the food industry is catching up as are many professional and home cooks. Pizza is one of the most common foods I've missed and I've heard this from others as well. 

In order to enjoy pizza on occasion, I've made a few changes. One, the sauce. I stopped buying pizza sauce a few years ago and made my own from good quality canned tomatoes. In the past few months though, I've wanted to stop using canned products as much as possible for multiple reasons - additives, BPA lining in some cans or aluminum in others. First I tried to find canned tomatoes in a jar, but that seems to be an idea that's ahead of its time. So, I now use a good quality jar pasta sauce. We like Barilla Marinara. It has ingredients you can pronounce and, most important, tastes good.

Cheese is something that we still enjoy on occasion. Mostly I keep cheese around that is SCD friendly for our 4 year old who is still iffy on other forms of protein at times. SCD doesn't allow mozzarella, so I've switched to a good quality (Boar's Head) Provalone. My hubby and I have cut out most other forms of dairy, but do allow for cheese on a burger or, in this case, on pizza, once in awhile. 

The most difficult part of trying to enjoy pizza on an alternative eating plan is usually the crust. Pinterest has a large number of ideas for how one might make a more healthy crust. There are recipes out there that feature grated cauliflower, grated zucchini, white rice flour, etc. Meanwhile, the manufacturers who specialize in providing products for alternative diets usually have a crust mix or even a frozen pizza crust product. The problem is that the price for the packaged form (mix or pre-made crust) is usually quite high and you get a small amount of product for the cost. Most importantly though is taste and even improved over what was previously available, these product still at times don't taste very good. Therefore, the most cost effective option seems to be making your own crust using flours and products you keep in your pantry for other baking. 

Currently, I like Pamela's products. I buy the large bag of Pancake & Baking mix and I buy the bread version when I'm able to find it. I used a recipe I found on the Pamela's site for this latest pizza crust. I did change the recipe a bit to meet what I had on hand and based on experience using the Pamela's mix and other GF baking. I think this is the closest we've come to a deep dish pizza that has a satisfying crust.

Finally, toppings. My darling hubby and I love pepperoni (I know, I know). We've tried the turkey version, but it just doesn't have the same level of flavor. With "real" pepperoni, you get into more fat, sure, but even worse are the nitrates and nitrites. This time around we tried the Applegate Farms uncured pepperoni. It's more expensive, but the taste makes it worth the price. Even the 4 y.o. added pepperoni to her section of the pizza and she's usually a cheese only pizza girl.

Below is my recipe for the pizza we made last night from top to bottom. Use it as a guide or send me a note if you have something better. At the end of the day, finding a way to enjoy some of your favorite foods while trying to eat in a way that your body appreciates is important and helps you stay on track.


GF Deep Dish Pizza

Crust

• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Olive Oil (not EVOO)
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Water
• 1.5 tsp Salt
• 3/4 cup of Potato Starch
• 3/4 cup of Pamela's Pancake & Baking Mix
• 3/4 cup superfine Sorghum flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• EVOO for pan

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Liberally apply a coat of EVOO to a half sheet pan (18 x 13), set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine olive oil, water, salt and eggs. Whisk to combine ensuring that eggs are well incorporated. Add yogurt and whisk again until you have a smooth, consistent mixture. Add Potato Starch, Baking Mix and Sorghum flour. Whisk to begin to combine liquid and dry ingredients. Switch to a spoon if necessary to finish combining ingredients. Crust will be very wet and sticky, looking more like a heavy cake batter than a bread.

Drop large spoonfuls of dough across the EVOO covered sheet pan. Using slightly wet hands, the back of the spoon or an offset spatula (usually used for decorating cakes), spread the dough so that no holes appear in the crust. This may take a bit of time, but be patient and keep working at it, eventually your crust will cover the entire pan.

Reduce preheated oven temp to 350 and bake for 25 minutes. I found it's best to let the crust cook to the golden brown stage. Then, place your oven on low broil and allow the top to cook for 3-5 minutes until medium brown, but not burnt. Remove from oven and carefully apply toppings. 

Topping Your Pizza & the Final Bake
As I said above, we used Barilla Marinara sauce as our foundation. We all agreed that this crust can stand up to quite a bit of sauce, so this first pizza didn't have quite enough to balance the thick crust. This time we probably used a cup or so of sauce, next time I'd double the amount.

Top the sauce with whatever pizza toppings your heart desires. We kept it simple this time using just Applegate Farms Uncured Pepperoni. Fresh meats, like bacon or sausage, should be added to the pizza in their cooked state as only 10 minutes or so is needed once you put the pizza in the oven the second time and that's not enough to cook the meats through for safe consumption. 

Complete your pizza with a top layer of your favorite pizza cheese. We used a mixture of Provalone and a little wedge of Mozzarella I had in the freezer. In the future we'll use only Provalone and any other SCD approved cheese. 

Place pizza back in the 350 oven for approximately 10 minutes to allow toppings to warm through and the cheese to melt. Remove from oven and allow pizza to rest for 10 minutes so that the cheese better stays in place before cutting/serving.

~Enjoy

Sunday Breakfast (Paleo friendly, Gluten Free)

My darling hubby has decided that the Paleo lifestyle is for him. We recently figured out that our daughter has issues with some forms of dairy - milk and cottage cheese being the worst offenders. All three of us are gluten sensitive and avoid MSG and artificial sweetners. With so many differences, how do we make even one meal? We focus on the similarities. To be specific, veggies and organic, grass-fed meats, wild caught fish and seafood work for all of us. Coconut flour is SCD and Paleo friendly, as well as Gluten-free. Eggs are encouraged on Paleo and allowed in moderation on SCD. Fruits are allowed on Paleo and SCD and are gluten free. All of these things, being in their natural form, obviously do not contain artificial sweetners or MSG. Of course, you should still ALWAYS read the label on any ingredients you buy.

Below are the recipes for our latest Sunday Brunch. Darling hubby and I LOVE Sunday Brunch. So much, in fact, that we had a morning wedding just so that we could have a brunch reception! 

I've included a link to the crepe recipe that we found on the Against All Grains site. I love her site, great recipes and I've learned a lot from reading her posts. 

Darling hubby is the crepe maker. He found that he had to thin the batter quite a bit after the second stirring. Also, he held out the baking powder until the second stirring. We used coconut milk as that's what we had on hand. And, from reading another post on Against All Grains, added 2 tbsp of potato starch when the original crepes weren't holding together enough to turn them over. This made a huge difference in the end product. We still found that these were more like a pancake than a crepe, so we enjoyed them open faced. In the end, it all worked well and served as a terrific brunch dish - savory with the sausage, veggies, scrambled eggs and some salsa verde; and sweet with the cinnamon apples and pecans.

The rest was made up by darling hubby and I. What are your favorite brunch dishes?

Against All Grains Tortilla Recipe  

Baked Cinnamon Apples and Pecans
This is a great "sweet" treat. I found organic Granny Smith apples @ the market for a good price this week, so it afforded the opportunity to come up with this dish. If you miss apple desserts laced with Cinnamon, this is a great substitute that also happens to be better for you!

4 medium to large GS apples, washed and chopped into 1" pieces
1/4 cup date sugar
2 handfuls (about 1/2 cup) pecan halves
2 tsp Saigon Cinnamon (or to taste)
small pinch of sea salt
1/2 tsp Vanilla (GF)
2 Tbsp Raw Butter 

Preheat oven to 350. Wash and chop apples and place them in a baking dish. Chop pecans into large chunks (I found it easy to just chop them in half). Add date sugar, vanilla, salt and cinnamon and stir with a large spoon to evenly distribute the spices. Dot the top with butter. Bake for 30 minutes and stir to ensure even cooking. Cook for 10 more minutes or until apples are soft.

Serve on SCD yogurt as a special treat or on the crepes as a breakfast treat.


Sausage and Veggie Filling
This recipe can be used in many ways. It makes a great foundation for a fritatta, a terrific filing for an omelet or add your favorite marinara and serve over GF pasta or spaghetti squash for a terrific dinner.

1/2 lb organic breakfast sausage 
1 medium green pepper, large dice
1 medium red pepper (sweet), large dice
1 medium red onion, large dice
2 large handfuls of matchstick carrots
1 small baked potato or left over fried potatoes (optional)
2 handfuls of spinach, chopped
2 handfuls of baby bella mushrooms, large chop
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry sausage in a large skillet, over medium heat, breaking the meat into chunks as you cook. When sausage is no longer pink, add all of the vegetables EXCEPT the spinach. Cook until the onions are translucent and the peppers soften. Add spinach and stir to combine. Cook until spinach has begun to wilt. Turn off the flame and allow to sit over the warm burner until the crepes are ready to fill.

GF Clam Chowder (Gluten and Nut Free)

Winter is FINALLY here. Last winter was nice with 50 and 60 and, sometimes, 70 degree weather, but I did miss waking up to find the world covered in snow and the quiet that comes along with it. Our daughter missed the snow too as she wanted to make snow angels and snowballs. So, our entire household was pretty happy that it looks like we're going to have a traditional winter this year. 

As we're on Christmas break, it's also a great time to enjoy the snow by rarely leaving the house, cuddling in and enjoying some great warm comfort food. And, what's more comforting than a big steaming bowl of soup? I love soup, it's a great way to get your veggies, it's a super way to clean out the fridge and you can put nearly anything in it and it nearly always turns out good. I also like the flexibility in cooking methods - you can make it on the stove top, some you can bake in the over and then there's always my favorite, the crock pot!

This time I had on hand the ingredients for clam chowder. Unlike a lot of people, I happen to enjoy both white and red clam chowder. However, when I make it at home, for some reason, I always make a New England style (white) chowder. With this being the holidays, I had some ingredients on hand I don't usually keep around - specifically half and half and extra butter. So, this version is more decadent than I would typically make. However, you can use any milk product you have on hand or prefer. I think you could, probably, also use soy milk or maybe even a nut milk, but I haven't tried it myself so let me know if you have experience with this - I'd be interested to know if this works. And, you can choose to reduce the amount of butter at the end or leave it out entirely, it's really up to you.

The ingredient in this recipe that you may not be familiar with is Potato Flour. Not to be confused with it's cousin, Potato Starch, which is common to GF baking and appears in many recipes for basic GF all purpose flour mixtures, Potato Flour is actually just ground dehydrated potatoes. So it's not just the starch, it's just whole potato in a dehydrated ground form. Potato flour has a number of uses in the GF kitchen. I use it in my salmon and potato and crab cakes as a binder in place of breadcrumbs or flour. I use it to lightly coat (or dredge) those same potato cakes prior to frying to create a nice crust on the outside that's crispy and doesn't detract from the taste of the finished product. I use it in my sauces and soups instead of white all purpose flour to create a GF version of bechemel sauce - a basic white sauce that is the basis for a number of classic sauces and dishes including cheese sauce, souffle and, in this case, as a thickener for cream soups or bisques. I like the potato flour to thicken soup over, say, corn starch mixed with cold water - as is used in many asian dishes to give a sheen to a brown sauce or to tighten up any sauce from baked beans to the traditional WV hot dog sauce - as it doesn't mess with the flavor of the soup. It, of course, works really well in those soups that also contain potatoes, like this chowder. 

Another ingredient that I've come to rely on in my kitchen for both ease of use and the time savings, and, well, because it just really works so well, are matchstick carrots. Matchstick carrots are the grocery store equivalent of the grated carrot. I often use them as a way to get more veggies into our diet as you can add them to anything from muffin batter to meatloaf. I also have found that the matchstick carrots tend to be a bit sweater than their full size counterpart. And, if I don't have them, I have often turned to chopping the baby carrots I keep on hand into spoon size discs. Of course you can use any form of carrot you have on hand. I haven't tried the purple or red carrots, but I presume they would work in this recipe as well.

I hope you give this soup a try, even if you use all purpose white flour to thicken it. It's that good. My darling hubby had two bowls and our four year old daughter enjoyed it as well. I serve it with a tray of mixed veggies and a little dill dip made with plain greek yogurt and a little light mayo. Sometimes I mix up a batch of GF cornbread or popovers to serve along side, but obviously the veggies are better for you, which may be a good choice if you make this recipe as written.


Lisa's GF White Clam Chowder

• 1/2 a large red onion, small dice
• 2 medium celery stalks, small dice
• 2 handfulls of matchstick carrots or 2 medium carrots, small dice
• 2 15/16 oz cans evaporated milk
• 1 cup half and half Note, this cannot be fat free half and half as it will separate when heated. You can substitute any other type of cow's milk with any percent of fat - skim all the way up to whipping cream.
• 2 tbsp Chicken Soup Base (I use McCormick)
• 1 10 oz bottle clam juice
• 2 cans chopped clams with their juice
• 2 cans minced clams with their juice
• 1.5 cup hot water
• 1.5 tbsp potato flour, not potato starch
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped fine or 1 tbsp dried, crushed in hand
• 2 large green onions, cleaned and sliced think
• 1 large baking potato, 1/2" to 3/4" dice
• 1/2 tsp ground thyme
• 1 tsp onion powder, not onion salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder, not garlic salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp bacon grease, or 4 slices of bacon rendered and removed leaving appx 2 tbsp grease in the soup pot

Place a heavy bottom pot over medium heat and add the bacon grease. Add the onion, celery and carrots and cook stirring often until the onion and celery are translucent. Add the dried and ground spices and stir to cook them in some of the oil which will release their flavor. Add the potato flour and stir to combine with the vegetables. Allow the potato flour to cook for a couple of minutes to reduce any raw flour taste. 

Add the evaporated milk, water, and clam juice and stir to remove any lumps. Add the potato and allow the soup to cook until the potatoes are tender and the soup has thickened - appx 15 to 20 minutes over medium low heat. Stir often and pay attention to the outer ring of the pot as veggies tend to settle there and will stick and possibly scorch if you don't move them around as things cook.

Add the clams, the parsley, green onion, butter and half and half. Allow the soup to come back to temperature stirring frequently. When the soup is hot, the potatoes tender and the butter melted and incorporated the soup is ready to serve.

~Enjoy!

Muchos Nachos

As we learn more about our family's allergies, we find that we're eating out less and less. One big reason is that it's just less stressful to eat at home - there's no question about whether you can enjoy the food without worrying about the ingredients; there's no limited menu option(s) for you to choose from; and, my fav, it's cheaper! Two, even if you do all of the right things to make choices that are "safe" for you, on occasion you will have an unintended interaction with whatever ingredient/allergen you're trying to avoid. 

For example, earlier this year I went to the little deli style cafeteria that's close to my workspace. I was with another coworker and we were in between meetings with little time to spare. I ordered the carved roast turkey sammie with no bread, a pickle and their housemade potato chips. I've had this meal probably 25 times in the past four years and have NEVER had a reaction. The only difference this time was that I eliminated the bread, which in theory should have been a plus. Unfortunately, before I could make it back to my desk I realized I was in the beginning stages of a reaction. What happened? The manager changed the brand of turkey and, apparently, there's something in the new brand that I don't tolerate. Let me say this in case you're thinking, "oh yea, cafeteria food, who knows what's in that". The brand they changed to wasn't some no name brand. In fact, it's a very well-known, nationally recognized brand, one that most of America likely had on the Thanksgiving table last month. This is just one example, but I could give you others. The bottom line is that anytime you eat out, you're taking a calculated risk.

Therefore, the number of restaurants we patronize is much more limited than it used to be. We can no longer enjoy many Greek restaurants as the Gyro meat contains wheat, as does the much loved pita bread that goes with the hummus and other appetizers we love. Obviously pizza is nearly impossible. The new front runner in this category surprisingly is Dominos. Their new GF pizza crust is really, really good and most of their toppings are GF. Steak restaurants can usually accommodate those with special dietary needs - we happen to love Longhorn Steakhouse as they not only have a GF menu, but their service tends to be very good. Another good choice is, believe it or not, Thai or Indian restaurants. Other than the naan, most items in an Indian restaurant are GF. Thai restaurants, unlike their counterparts, tend to have the ability to make their dishes GF by using Tamari (a type of soy sauce actually made from soy beans) rather than the widely used wheat-based soy sauce we've all come to know and recognize - especially those national brands that are most popular.  

If we do eat out, another good option is the non-franchise Mexican restaurant. I don't remember any place else that I've lived - six states and the District of Columbia - that has as many Mexican restaurants to choose from as Indianapolis and surrounding areas seem to have. Even in our new small town, there are two and both are always packed.

Right now, we're on holiday break, which means I've been cooking up a storm. It isn't often I get to make three meals a day for my family for a week or more, so I'm enjoying the variety and the chance to cook for them on week days. Today, I decided to dig out the ingredients for nachos and to have those as a late lunch/early dinner. 

I started with homemade Queso Blanco. All three of us love this dip and order it nearly every time we go out. I've figured out how to make a traditional cheese sauce at home by making a GF white sauce, but that's not even required here. It's so easy and I love it when I come across a recipe that is naturally gluten free. There's no need to figure out which of my list of acceptable substitution ingredients might work best in one specific recipe or another. My go to Queso Blanco recipe can be found here at Pennies on a Platter. It's creamy, warm and coats your chip just right. And, best of all, it's affordable and you can freeze the cheese making it a pantry staple.

As I've been making our favorite Mexican and Latin dishes at home more and more, I've also picked up a few things. One, refried beans. Have you ever noticed that the ones you buy in the can are never as supple and delicious as those in your favorite restaurant? Want them to be more like that? Here's what you do:  open the can, put the contents in a microwave safe bowl, add a little ground cumin, some onion and garlic powders and 1/4 cup of water. Stir to combine a little and microwave for a minute. Stir, microwave for another minute or two. Remove, stir and serve. Play around with ingredients and your favorite spices and find one you like.

Two, toppings. Fresh chips are an important base, but it's really the toppings that make the nachos. If you love green onions, black olives, chicken strips, etc.  spring for it at the market. For me, it's guac and sour creme. So, when we make nachos I nearly always make sure I have them on-hand.

Try this as a starter recipe and tweak it to your liking. 

Lisa's Muchos Nachos

• 1 15 oz can black olives, chopped
• 1 small bunch of green onions, chopped
• 1 15 oz can of beans - refried or whole, black or brown (optional)
• 1 lb ground beef, cooked 
• 1 packet of your favorite taco seasoning
• Sour creme
• Avocado or guacamole
• 1 recipe Queso Blanco
• 1 bag of 100% corn tortilla chips

Chop olives and onions and set aside. Cook ground beef, add taco seasoning according to package directions. Make Queso Blanco. Warm beans on stove top or in microwave. 

Place tortilla chips on a plate and top with your favorite toppings in the quantity you like and the order you want them. 

~Enjoy!