Healthy Chocoate Berry Smoothie

This original recipe came from SparkPeople, and I altered it a bit. I have these for breakfast often, and they are amazing!

2 TBSP pure, unsweetened Cocoa powder (used for baking)
1 Banana
1 C Almond Milk
1 Cup (or two!) Spinach
1 Cup frozen berries

1.5 cups ice

blend up all the ingredients in a blender, except the ice. Then blend the ice. Serve. The green spinach and the red color of the berries held to make this amazing shake look even chocolatier (and therefore even more kid-fooling). You can't taste or see the spinach. ;-)

Garlic Hummus!

Or should I say, Yummus?!

1 can chickpeas, undrained
3 large garlic cloves (or 10, of you're us.)
1 heaping TBSP cumin
1 TBSP lime juice

Blend it all together in a food processor. Enjoy with Marry's Gone Crackers  (or pita bread, perhaps?) from Costco.

.:*Rachel and Heidi*:.

Quinoa Chicken Gumbo - With Shrimp! (or not!)

Here's the recipe for Quinoa Chicken Gumbo - With Shrimp! (or not!)

Things I learned with this recipe: Make sure chicken is fresh, or you'll be starting over. Also, do not catapult vegetables from cutting board across the kitchen onto the floor, unless your husband is out of the room and won't know that you used them anyway (after rinsing them off, of course. 5 second rule). Also, this recipe, once it's prepared, will need to simmer for almost an hour. You'll need to stir it occasionally, keeping the ingredients from burning to the bottom. It's really good though. And it makes a ton!

Ingredients

4 cups cooked quinoa
2 diced onions
4 cloves garlic
1 LB shrimp
1 Lb chicken breast, diced
2 cups marinara
4 cups chicken broth
2 TBSP Olive Oil
1 Bunch Collard Greens
Bell Peppers cut into strips (I used orange)
1/2 C flour

paprika
Salt
thyme

Heat Oil in a large cooking pot on medium. Add chicken, and cook until it turns translucent white, but isn't quite done. Add onions, garlic, salt, thyme, paprika, marinara. Mix. Then add chicken broth, and simmer for 40 minutes. Add quinoa (cooked), shrimp, collard greens, and peppers, thyme. Mix in flour to thicken, simmer for another 10 minutes.

Serve!

.:*Rachel*:.

Chocolate covered Strawberry Yogurt - Clean!

I have been on a plain yogurt + honey kick lately. Usually I add cherries, but I have been sparing with my sacred little bags of frozen cherries that I horded from the plain old grocery store, at $4 a bag. This is because my favorite source for them (ahem, Costco) has stopped selling them where I live. They thought they would be hilarious and introduce this mysteriously delicious treat into my life and then take them away and leave me to die. But I digress. Today, with my plain yogurt, I added strawberries. And then I added chocolate. And then I sat down wept like a little girl about the amazingness I had created. It's like a great big bowl of chocolate covered strawberries, and the best part? It's got no added sugar. NO SUGAR. It's a whole foods kind of recipe.

1 Cup plain, fat free yogurt
1 TBSP unsweetened Cocoa powder
1 Cup quartered strawberries
2 tsp honey

Mix. Eat. Weep with joy.


.:*Rachel*:.

Gluten-Free Beer Bread

I prefer to make just about all my food from scratch, and the same goes for my bread. I used to make "normal" wheat bread all the time before the days of having to deal with celiac, both by hand and in my bread machine, but there was something scary about making gluten free bread and it took me over half a year to try it. To be honest, using several different types of flour and knowing it was probably gonna be dry no matter what didn't make the thought appealing. It wasn't until I had a bread date with two of my best friends that I was willing to tackle it. I even got a whole new bread machine to be on the super safe side, and I must say it's pretty awesome.
This recipe I'm posting today is NOT one of the recipes I made on that date, but it is my new favorite bread to make for sandwiches and general use. I had gone out to eat with my boyfriend at a local soup place, and they were serving beer bread and it was AMAZING! I had to try it at home, so I googled some recipes and got lucky on the first shot. It definitely is nowhere near as good as what I had at the restaurant, but it is a super moist, keep it's shape, cuts easily kind of bread. I have been making a loaf a week for almost a month now.
Here is the link to the recipe!
I pretty much follow this recipe completely, but as with anything I make, I have to make a few adjustments, and it also allows for different options on things, so I am letting you know what I do, since it works so perfect.
~The recipe calls for a 10 ounce bottle of gluten free beer, I don't know if this is a type or is you can really get 10 ounce bottles, but the beer I buy comes in a 12 ounce, and I use the whole bottle. I use the redbridge kind.
~The recipe doesn't specify a flour blend, so I have used the blend I use on the OTHER bread I make. It is equal parts garbanzo bean flour, tapioca flour, and cornstarch.
~It says to either use milk powder or a substitute, and I use the brown rice flour option.
~Instead of olive oil, I use coconut oil
~It says to use liquid ingredients at room temperature when using a bread machine, but I add all the liquid ingredients and a package of knox gelatin and mix together until warm/the coconut oil just starts to melt.
~There is a bread machine note at the bottom of the recipe. Basically, just add the liquid ingredients first, then add the dry on top. Don't mix it up, the bread machine will do the work for you:)

Trinidadian Chicken Stew(Gluten Free)

My family spent the day in Moses Lake today with my brother and his wife. His wife is due to have her baby in 2 weeks and we needed to drop off their gift before the baby arrives. He made us ribs for lunch and they were delicious! My brother loves to cook just as much as I do, and I happen to think he is a better cook than I am in many ways, so I am always willing to let him feed us. I may have came up with the idea of bringing the gift to him just so he would make us lunch;) After eating and talking for a bit, he took us to a park by the lake to play before we needed to head home.
It was a great time had by all, and the kids didn't annoy us with their chatter at all on the way back due to the fact that they were both passed out. Needless to say, when we got home no one was in the mood for a time consuming meal or anything too energetic. So while the kids were bathing and getting into jammies, I started cooking a hearty, delicious soup. This recipe is one of my boyfriends favorites due to the fact that it has ginger in it, and I learned about it having a cooking date with a different Rachel on a cooking date:)
So the soup is cooking and the kids are all ready for bed and we are just lounging watching Hannah Montana episodes. I'm hoping the whole night goes this way and we do nothing more than be lazy, maybe read a chapter in Harry Potter, have a glass of green tea, and go to bed.

Here is the link to the recipe:
Trinidadian Chicken Stew
The first few times I made this, I followed the recipe pretty true to form. The only change I made was to add onions, a must in any recipe I make, and chicken broth instead of water. However, my family has been trying to avoid tomatoes recently, so the last few times I have withheld those along with the addition of the onions and broth.

Twice Baked Potatoes with Gruyere(Gluten Free)

I have always been a rice and potatoes kind of girl, so making the switch to gluten free was never a big deal for me. The first time my aunt saw me eat mashed potatoes she was shocked, half my plate was filled with it, and I had to be the last to serve because I would take whatever was there. This particular recipe I found by watching 30 Minute Meals by Rachael Ray with my mom in high school. It's something I make at least weekly because it is sooo good, and it is the reason I LOVE gruyere cheese sooo sooo much!
Rachel and I used to cook this all the time when we cooked together out of high school. Whether we lived together or not, more than likely you would find us eating together at least a few days a week. When she first moved out, she didn't have a cheese grater, so we would chop up the cheese as small as we could. Needless to say, she got a cheese grater not long after that;)
The recipe calls for lunch meat ham, but if you are motivated and have the time, cooked bacon tastes delicious, too. Gruyere is pricey, and sometimes hard to find, but SO WORTH IT! Don't buy something else, trust me. I find mine at Rosauers in the specialty cheese section by their deli. And there is always too much mix to fit into all the potato skins, so while I wait for the potatoes to broil, I always munch on the left overs;)

Rachael Ray's Twice Baked Potatoes:
7ish potatoes, baked at 400 for about an hour
8oz of gruyere cheese, grated
3/4 package honey ham lunch meat(bacon can be substituted, cook and crumble)
2 bunches of green onions, chopped and cooked with butter or oil until soft
Thyme

Cook the potatoes on a baking dish for about an hour at 400 degrees. Once they are cooked all the way through, let them cool and slice in half. Spoon out the insides leaving a small section of potato by the skin so as not to accidentally puncture the skin. Mix the potato innards with the rest of the ingredients. Sprinkle as much thyme as you like, probably around a teaspoon. Then scoop this mixture back into the potato skins. Turn the oven to broil and cook these for about 5-10 minutes, or until browned. Be careful, they can burn fast!

Salisbury Steak!

I found the original recipe from a Taste of Home cookbook, and altered it a little. 

1 Egg

1/3 C Bread Crumbs

1 Can mushroom Soup

1/4 C diced onion

1 LB Ground Beef

1/2 C milk

1 TBSP butter

one packet of powdered brown gravy mix

1 C fresh or canned mushrooms

Combine egg, bread crumbs, 1/4 C of the mushroom soup, and the onion.

Mix well, then add the beef, and mix it altogether thoroughly. For adults, this recipe will make 6-8 patties. For our purposes, we made 11.

In a large frying pan with a lid, brown the patties on both sides. Remove and set aside. Melt the butter in the pan on medium and add the mushrooms when it gets bubbly. Saute for a minute or so, but not longer than that. top the slightly cooked mushrooms with the patties.

In a bowl, combine milk, gravy packet, and the rest of the can of mushroom soup. Pour it over the patties and mushrooms, and cook on low for eight minutes, using a spatula to keep the mushrooms from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Serve over Rice or Potatoes.





.:*Rachel*:.