Butternut Squash Risotto(Gluten Free)

So here is another recipe that I have been making for years but have yet to post on here! It's one of my daughters favorites, and almost every time I ask her what she wants for dinner she says, "risotto." I found it after randomly searching Google for a recipe to use butternut squash for, and now risotto is also one of my favorite things to eat. If I go to a restaurant and risotto is on the menu, it's a near guarantee I will order it.

For those of you who haven't had risotto before, it's a rice dish made from arborio rice, but is made a little bit different so that it is very creamy and saucy. Don't try to rush it when cooking this recipe, it's a slow process in which you will be at the stove for an hour without much leaving. Trust me when I say it's worth it. And, hey, it uses wine, so pour a glass for yourself before starting and it will make the cooking process that much more enjoyable!
Note: Using drinking wine rather than cooking wine WILL make your food taste better. If you wouldn't drink it, why would you eat it? Trust me, spend the extra money and get a bottle of normal wine.



Butternut Squash Risotto

 2 cups arborio rice
1 1/2-2 boxes chicken broth(about 6 cups)
1/2 cup white wine
2 shallots, chopped
2 ounces pancetta, chopped
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 butternut squash
Oil
Salt

Peel and cube the butternut squash and put it into a baking dish and cover with oil. Put in the oven at 350. It will stay in the oven until the risotto is done, but will need to be stirred occasionally. You can sprinkle a bit of salt on it halfway through.

In a large pot, melt butter and add the shallots. Cook for a few minutes and then add the pancetta. Continue to cook for another few minutes and then add the rice. Coat the rice in the butter and then pour the wine over it and stir. When the wine has absorbed, add about 1/2-1 cup of broth. Stir and when the liquid is absorbed, add another 1/2-1 cup of broth. You will continue this process of add small amounts of broth, stirring, and waiting for the liquid to absorb before adding more until the mixture begins to look creamy and it seems like the liquid is not absorbing as much. At this point, add the cheese and mix it in until well combined.

You can either mix the butternut squash into the risotto, or serve on top.

This is the link to the original recipe, and I have stayed mostly true to it. However, it calls for saffron, which is a pretty pricy spice, and I think that it tastes fine without it, so I have never used it. Also, in her recipe, she heats the broth in another pan so that as she is adding it, it is already hot. This may make the risotto better, but I have never felt like dirtying extra pans that I don't need to(I hate doing dishes) and I feel like the risotto is just fine using room temperature broth.

Chickpea Patties

I can't believe I have never posted this recipe before, it's one of my favorites. And on top of that, a friend of mine specifically asked me for the recipe a couple months ago and I made them soon thereafter, but forgot to take a picture. So this one is for you, Shannon!
I'm not a vegetarian by any means, but I definitely try to eat vegetarian meals regularly because they can be so healthy for you. I seem to do it more often in the summer, too. Something about that hot weather just begs for salads and non-meat food. Unless you are craving a steak... But that wasn't today;)
I usually serve this meal with rice or lettuce. Today I did both. The original recipe called for it to be served on an arugula salad, but I'm not particularly fond of arugula.
The original recipe calls for cashew cream, but I have no idea what that is and cannot find it anywhere, so I use cashew butter instead, or almond butter or peanut butter depending on what I have on hand.The nutritional yeast flakes can be found in the bulk bins in the organic section of the grocery store, or a whole foods store if your normal grocery store doesn't carry it. The same goes for the garbanzo bean flour. I buy Bob's Red Mill flour in a bag, but it can also be found bulk. Depending on what part of the country you are from, they will either be called chick peas or garbanzo beans, but the original recipe referred to them as chickpea patties, and the name is catchy, so that's how I refer to it, even though you can't find a "chickpea" anywhere here;)
I found this recipe off another site, and I'm almost positive it was somewhere from Treehugger, but for the life of me, I can't find it anymore. So here is how I make it now, roughly, because it changes a little bit each time;)

Chickpea Patties

2 cans chickpeas(garbanzo beans)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
Red Pepper Flakes to taste
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 cup cashew butter(or almond, or peanut)
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour
Salt and Pepper to taste

Saute the onions with some butter or oil for a few minutes, then add the bell pepper, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes until the onion is starting to begin to caramelize. The longer you cook, the better it will taste. Stir often so it doesn't burn.
While this is cooking, use a fork/potato masher/food processor to mash up the garbanzo beans. Ideally you still want it a little chunky, not pasty. Add the nutritional yeast flakes, cashew butter, and salt and pepper.
When the onion mixture is ready, add it to the garbanzo bean mixture and combine well. Using your hands, form the mixture into patties and coat them in the flour along with salt and pepper.
The patties can be pan fried in butter/oil, or baked in a casserole dish in the oven/bbq at about 350. Flip after a few minutes of frying, or 5-10 minutes in the oven. Let the other side cook and then serve!

Quinoa and Summer Squash Salad!

I love Poor Girl Eats Well recipes, and she has tons of great recipes for fresh, summer salads with ingredients I would have never thought to use. This one in particular I made for the first time last summer. I happened to have some squash sitting around in my fridge waiting to be used and this was the recipe that came to mind.
When I pulled the recipe up, I was worried I wouldn't be able to make it because it called for black beans, and I never keep cans of beans on hand, only dry. Thankfully, I had some cooked black eyed peas in my freezer that I was able to thaw out instead. And instead of red onions, I used green onions, because that is what I had on hand.

My kids wanted to join in on the cooking today, and the past couple times they have helped me they have really enjoyed it. I even let them use the knife to help me cut the squash. It's important to me that my kids learn the joy of cooking and want to cook with real, healthy ingredients when they are adults. This is a hard task with our tiny kitchen, but the more we do it, the easier it becomes.

Here is the link to the recipe: Poor Girl Eats Well Quinoa, Black Bean & Summer Squash Salad. I seriously recommend liking her page on Facebook or subscribing to her blog for lots of great recipes!

Dairy Free/Vegan Ice Cream

I have had an ice cream maker sitting in the trunk of my car for about 2 years now, maybe more. However, a few weeks ago I had to clean out my trunk so that I had room in it for tires, so the machine finally made it inside. I decided it would be fun to make ice cream for the 4th of July, but today was hot, we had already bought all the supplies, and there was nothing on the schedule, so it happened early.
I looked up a ton of recipes online, and I was missing one ingredient from every recipe, so I decided to just mix a little bit of this recipe with a little bit of that recipe, and follow the outline of a normal dairy ice cream that came with the ice cream maker so I had the right amount. What turned out was delicious!
Tip: Don't skimp on the fruit, it looks like you have a lot, but when it mixes in with everything, you realize there wasn't as much as you thought! Also, this recipe was made for a 2 quart ice cream machine. Adjust recipe accordingly if yours is different.

Dairy Free/Vegan Ice Cream

4 cups plain soy milk
2 cans coconut milk(about 4 cups)
3 cups chopped strawberries(or any berry!)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 t salt
1 T vanilla

1 bag of ice and Rock Salt

Heat the soy milk on the stove until hot and add sugar. Stir often and keep on the heat until just before boiling. Remove from heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix together and pour into ice cream maker container. Refrigerate until cold, then put in ice cream machine and follow the directions of your machine!

A Puppy Pen Day for the Whole Family!

So last weekend, Rachel and I, along with our families, spent the whole Saturday together. It's the first time we've had a "Puppy Pen Date" since we started the blog. We cooked a bit, but mostly we snacked the whole day on lots of healthy, yummy, fresh food.

We started the day by going to the Kootenai County Farmers Market, which was a lot of fun, even for the kids. I had to convince my son that it would be fun, and I promised him that Rachel takes her kids there almost every weekend and that they loved it, too. As soon as we got there, we lined up for face painting, which, after waiting for OUR turn and going through 4 kids faces, took up probably a good hour. But it was well worth it, because for only 5 dollars our kids got their entire faces transformed into vampires, dragons, batman, and flowers. And for a kid, getting your face painted is the coolest thing ever. After that we wandered the market, got some kettle corn, fresh salsa, radishes, and a BEAUTIFUL new cutting board(for those who don't know me, I have an obsession with wooden spoons, and have been dying to get these beautiful wooden cutting boards, and we found one for only twenty dollars)!

After that, we headed back to Rachel's house, packed up a backpack with snacks (Mary's Gone Crackers gluten free crackers, Farmers Market Salsa, fresh fruit,  veggies and hummus, and smoothies), and hopped on our bikes for a bike ride from Rachel's house along the Prairie Trail down to the Centenial Trail, down to the college, and back. I never knew how bike friendly Couer d'Alene is, and it was amazing. We stopped at 2 different parks to let the kids play along the way.
 And then it was home for dinner. We made more salsa, margaritas, and barbequed potatoes and vegis along with steaks. It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday, and the weather cooperated perfectly! I'm hoping for many more days like this throughout the summer.

Rachel:

Yes, last Saturday was a blast! I have vowed to get outside and move more, and Saturday Bike rides are one of my favorite ways to exercise.

My amazing husband did the grilling, and we had potatoes, zucchini and mushrooms on the grill, (done in his grill basket with a little oil and spices).


After dinner we made Strawberry margaritas with fresh strawberries and raspberries (and my new blender!), and they turned out really well! They also made for some fun and colorful photographs for our Puppy Pen Cafe Facebook site.We almost had to get out the puppy pen to contain the kids.

Just kidding...

But they did let us use their tiny little kid-sized chair for this photo op.=)

We had bought salsa from the farmers market (Banditos Salsa, very tasty) and went through it pretty quickly and then we moved onto the the Kirkland salsa (also amazing) from Costco. When we had exhausted our salsa resources, we turned to making our own chunky garlic salsa to have with our g-free tostitos.

8 roma tomatoes
1 white onion, small
1 clump of fresh cillantro
1 tsp of seasalt
2 TBSP Lime Juice
4 (or 10, if you're us) cloves of garlic
12 Anaheim chile, cored

Quarter the tomatoes and scoop out the insides, and then dice everything by hand or put it into a little electric chopper. Add the juice.


We got our cilantro fresh from our garden - the only thing that survived after my kids drowned everything with love (and too much water). My four year old was so proud to be able to go out and snip all of the little cilantro sprigs himself, and he did an amazing job! Now we have no more cilantro and no more garden. I see a post about what we planted to remedy this in the very near future...

Today, Zach and I have discovered veggie burgers. Though we are not typically fans of Soy, these particular burgers were being sampled at Costco, and they were pretty tasty! So he may be grilling again.

Kabobs(Gluten Free)

Yes, I know this is a little bit late, but I had Kabobs for Mother's Day! It's one of my favorite things to eat/BBQ in the summer, and the week of Mother's Day was super hot around here so I was feeling in the BBQing mood:) I feel territorial over my kabobs, so I actually made them myself, although I did not to the grilling;)
I've been making my own marinade for my kabobs for a long time, and it has slowly changed as my families needs have. It's super quick and easy, and when we had to make the switch to gluten free, all I had to do was switch soy sauce brands;)
I prefer to serve mine with rice, and this time had a glass of wine with berries to go along with it! Enjoy!

Kabobs

Sauce
1 can of pineapple-the cubed kind(use only the juice and save the pineapple for the kabobs)
1/2 cup soy sauce(make sure it's gluten free if you have gluten issues!)
4ish cloves garlic, minced
1 T chopped fresh ginger
1 T sesame oil
Mix in a pan on med-low heat for about 15 minutes

Kabobs
Meat of Choice(I normal use chicken, but have also used steak)
Mushrooms(Whole)
1/2 onion
2 red bell peppers
2 zucchini
1 can of cubed pineapple(juice used for sauce)
Chop vegi's/meat into large enough pieces to skewer, leave mushrooms whole. The meat chunks should be about 1 1/2 inches, if they are cut too big, the chicken won't cook through fast enough and the vegis will burn. Alternate pieces of each on a skewer until it is full. Usually I can use 2 of each ingrediant on the Kabob. I try to put the pineapple and onion around the meat to give it extra flavor.
Place kabobs in a casserole dish and pour the sauce over them and let sit an hour in the refrigerator. Cook on the grill on a med/med-low heat, turning as needed, until done. 

Cilantro Lime Chicken and Rice Bake(Gluten Free)

I'm still on my Mexican kick, I've been at it all week. The weather has been fabulous this past week, and there is just something about Mexican food that is refreshing. I made refried beans, guacamole, and more tortillas, and have been sipping margaritas like crazy. Today I knew I would be making something with chicken, and I was originally thinking about a tex-mex type chicken salad, but didn't really want to go to the store to get mayonnaise or lettuce to go along with it. So I decided to go with a rice bake; you just can't go wrong with rice in our house, and I had already used our leftover enchilada sauce to make Enchilada Rice earlier in the week and it was pretty good.
Once I decided that I would make a chicken/rice bake, I had been thinking about what flavors I wanted. Lime and cilantro for sure, and I had a red bell pepper and green onions leftover that would work well, too. After that it was just a little of this and a little of that and hope it turns out!
*I would just like to note that when I write measurements for spices, I'm just giving a guesstimate. I never measure things, I just shake it on until it looks good;) AND whenever I do a rice bake, I check on it periodically because I almost always have to add more water.

Cilantro Lime Chicken and Rice Bake

1 package chicken tenders
1 T fresh cilantro
1 lime, juice and zest
1 t red pepper flakes
1 t cumin
1 t salt
1 t pepper
 Mix together and marinate for about 1 hour

1 bunch green onions, cut up
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cups jasmine rice(or whatever type of rice you prefer)
1 box chicken broth + 2 cups water
Place green onions, bell peppers, and rice in a casserole dish. Put chicken and marinade on top and pour over the broth and water. Bake in the oven at 400 for about 45 minutes, or until rice is cooked. Add more water if needed.
Garnish with more fresh cilantro and grated cheese if desired.