Stuffed Peppers

Today my mom drove in for a visit from Texas. This is about an 8 hour drive. So you're thinking, I need to have a nice dinner planned, right? That would be right if my mom left her house at a normal time, but since she's not one to do things normally, she left at 5:00 in the morning and arrived just in time for lunch.

I need to give a shout out to my friend, Lindsey (Hey Lindsey!) for giving me the recipe to these stuffed bell peppers. They were amazing! Real comfort food on a cloudy day. I paired the peppers with some carrot "fries" that I roasted with olive oil and rosemary. Even pre-schoolers gobbled them up!

After lunch, my 4 year-old helped me out with a little project. You may have seen last week that I dehydrated some fruits and veggies. Those, by the way, turned out great. My favorite thing out of that whole random batch was the green apples that I sprinkled with cinnamon. I decided to do an entire bag of apples this time. Thanks to my grandmother, I had a handy dandy apple peeler, corer, slicer doohickey that got all the apples cranked out in about 10 minutes (with the help on my daughter). In no time, those slices were layed out on all 8 trays and sprinkled with cinnamon. I can't wait!

Italian Chili?

It was one of those, "what am I going to do for dinner?" moments at around 4:30 p.m. (2 nights ago). Uh, dunno. So I grabbed some meat and thawed it, looked in the pantry and saw some cans of tomatoes. Okay, I'll make spaghetti. Although, that sucks for me as I can't have spaghetti noodles. Oh well, the family needed to be fed. I do actually make the best meat sauce ever. Ah, familiar food. I put the sauce together in no time and put on some water to boil. During that time, I racked my brain trying to come up with something I could have under my sauce. Brilliant"!", I use almond flour for everything else, why not make my own noodles with it?! I was so quick and efficient, I had my own almond spaghetti ready by the time the family's noodles were done cooking!Impressive, huh? Although, I actually DON'T recommend this. Once I dropped it in the water, it broke apart in a million tiny pieces and only tasted like mushy almonds. Gross. No wonder I haven't been able to find any recipes for noodles. Dang it. Then I started thinking. Some people put chili on spaghetti noodles so why not do it backwards. I'll have spaghetti sauce like a regular bowl of chili. Basically, I gave up...but it was still sooo satisfying!

Quick & Easy Taco

I haved a couple comments lately asking how I the time to do all this cooking and baking. The truth is, I don't. At least most days anyhow. Today, for instance, was no different.

The family went to the movies late this afternoon and by the time we got home, it was past 6:00. I had no clue what was for dinner and had no real ambition to make a serious dinner. Besides, the kids had to be fed, bathed and in bed by 8:00. Lucky me, I remembered I had made up a dozen of those yummy tortillas the other day (the day I had time). So, with that in mind, I grabbed the eggs, bacon, guacamole, fresh tomatoes and cilantro. Dinner was made within 15 minutes and everyone gobbled it up! If only I had time the other day to have made some more homemade salsa. Maybe next time.

breakfast taco

Tortillas y Enchiladas!!

So, like I said, busy day. I tried out a new tortilla recipe that consists of flax, almond and buckwheat flour. Super easy to put the batter together but tedious to make...unless you have my handy dandy 3-in-1 waffle maker! The grill plates flip over for a nice, flat surface. All I had to do was brush some oil on the plates, drop a ball of dough in the middle, press and 30 seconds later, there it was. Hot delicious tortilla!

This will really open up some doors to meal options. Like tonight's dinner, for instance, ENCHILADAS! I have to admit, every time I have ever made enchiladas, I have used a can of enchilada sauce. Unfortunately, for this diet, I have yet to find sauce that is approved for this Phase 1 diet, so I was on my own. The result was nothing short of the greatest enchiladas I have ever made! Granted, some cheesy mess in it would have been nice but these babies held their own, even without the cheese.

I used the fresh stock from the chicken breasts that I had just boiled, to make the sauce. The sauce was easily thickened with some arrowroot powder. I seasoned the shredded chicken breasts with onion, cumin, garlic, fresh cilantro and a few green chilies, then tossed it in some sour cream. I added a small can of green chilies and some fresh tomatoes to the sauce and topped the enchiladas with it. After 15 minutes in the oven, the tortillas crisped up and were ready to give thanks!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I had some free time this afternoon so I turned my kitchen into my science lab. I was on a mission. I made plans for dehydration and tortilla pressing. I washed, sliced and placed all my fruits and veggies on the trays of my dehydrator. Yes, that is a Ronco. My dad bought it many years ago due to his gadget addiction. Like father, like daughter. I'm a gadget freak! I guess we'll see in a couple days who it all went.

Pizza Night! Finally.

It kinda took all day, though. Instead of picking up the phone and waiting 30 minutes for a pizza to be delivered, I started with a bag on yellow onions. Yup, the base of the dough is onions and sunflower seeds. Weird, huh? I hauled my onions to a friend's house last night to use her food processor. I figured my blender wouldn't quite do the trick. I pureed the onions and seeds with some olive oil and salt, then put it in a bowl and went home.

Today, all I had to do was spread some "dough" out onto parchment paper, then bake. Only, it bakes in a low oven for 2 hours! And I did 2 crusts. Yup, about 4 1/2 hours later, there was my crust.

Not done yet! At dinner time, I had to add the toppings and bake another 15 minutes. I think it was worth it. Tonight, the toppings were roasted red pepper, purple bell peppers, spinach, tomatoes, fresh basil, and a sprinkle of feta cheese (I was told I could in SMALL amounts).

*TIP*

The pizza sauce I used is Muir Glen Organic Pizza Sauce. It is all Phase 1 ingredients, nothing I can't have. It comes in a can but for the size pizzas I made, it didn't use half the can. I'm not one to waste so I froze the rest of the sauce in an ice cube tray. Next time I want to make an individual size pizza, all I have to do is pop out 1 or 2 cubes and thaw. This works great for pestos too!

BFF's

I have a new best friend! We have been acquaintances for quite some time. We'll see each other once or twice every couple of weeks or so, but lately, we have really bonded. I'm talking about my french press. I love her! I usually have my cup of tea about 3 times a day...not anymore. I tried to drink it on this diet but it's just not the same without my milk and sugar. So, I decided coffee was the way to go. The french press is perfect for me while I'm at home and hubby's at work. It's so easy to use and it makes the best coffee you will ever have! I can even pour a little bit of heavy cream in it unlike hot tea...that would just be nasty! Diet or not, everyone should have this in their kitchen!