food

The Fix for Gluten-Free Macaroni Salad!

Nibbles

You might think that making macaroni salad gluten-free or Low-FODMAP is as simple as swapping out the wheat noodles for one of the many readily available rice, corn, or quinoa-based options out there? Alas, it’s not quite that simple, since the non-wheat pastas tend to be very “thirsty” and slurp up all the moisture from the delectable dressing while it sits in the fridge. Sure, it’s okay right after you make it, but give it a single night and you have some dry distant cousin of pasta salad.

In the past I’ve opted to add more dressing to the leftovers or warm up the pasta salad in the microwave (sprinkle a little water on it, like you would rice or any other noodles). It’s okay, but it’s not the same as tucking into leftover macaroni salad the day after the cookout. No where close.

So this past Memorial Day I decided to try something different, thinking back to my days at the plantation and making tea sandwiches.

When you make a tea sandwich, it’s customary to spread a bit of butter on the “inside” of the slices of bread. This prevents the bread from becoming soggy as it sits on the tea tray (or in the fridge if you’re making them in advance). So I figured that, instead of the scant amount of oil I might toss the cooked pasta with to prevent it from sticking, I’d add a generous pour or three of olive oil to the pasta in the collander and let it get good and slick before combining it with the rest of the ingredients. Maybe, just maybe, that coating of oil would act as just enough of a barrier to keep the macaroni salad dressing from disappearing?

I’m happy to report that it worked like a charm! And not just for a single day, but for an entire week! (I made a lot of salad. I always seem to over-prepare for holiday meals, even when it’s just the two of us.)

You can see how the cookout came together on this week’s View from the Countertop video:

Direct link for the feed readers: Let the Cookout Season Begin!

As for the recipe… I threw a lot of things together, namely several partial bags of different pastas in the pantry, but below is my best guess for proportions and procedure.

I could have just eaten the pasta salad and been perfectly happy...

I could have just eaten the pasta salad and been perfectly happy…

Gluten Free Macaroni Salad

About 16 servings

16 oz gluten-free pasta
2-3 bell peppers, diced*
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1-2 cups frozen green peas*
Olive oil
1/2 bunch green onions, greens sliced
3 celery ribs, diced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
4 hard boiled eggs, diced (optional)
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
2 Tbsp horseradish-mustard
3/4 cup Greek yogurt
1-2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, sprinkle in salt and add pasta, followed by peppers, carrots, and green peas. Cook until pasta is al dente (usually around 10 minutes). Drain pasta and vegetables and rinse with cold water to halt the cooking process and cool them down. Toss with a generous amount of olive oil, enough to evenly coat everything, and allow the excess to drain.

In a large bowl, combine the dressing ingredients (mayo through salt and pepper) and mix until smooth. Adjust the seasoning to taste by adding more mustard and vinegar if you like a more tangy dressing or a bit more sugar if you prefer it just on the sweet side.

Add the pasta mixture and the rest of the vegetables (and the chopped eggs, if you’re using them) to the dressing and stir to combine. Check once again that the seasoning is correct before serving, chilled.

Keeps for one week, in the fridge, if it lasts that long.

*To make this lower in FODMAPs, avoid green bell peppers and limit or omit the green peas. The amount is definitely fine for maintenance-level, like I do, especially since the quantities per serving end up pretty small, but always use your best judgement and consider your own tolerance levels. 

It did keep for a week–I ate the last of it on Sunday afternoon, though I will say one of the pastas I used (my bet is on the corn variety over the brown rice ones) started to get pretty stiff on Friday. (I took a small container with me to work each day as my breakfast, purely for research’s sake, of course.) But the dressing didn’t get soaked up or dry out, so my mission was definitely accomplished in a very tasty manner.

What did the rest of our menu look like?

This week's menu!

This week’s menu!

Monday (Memorial Day): Grilled Sausages and Hot Dogs, Corn on the Cob, Macaroni Salad
It was all so goo, and we both over-prepared. Todd offered to pick up the sausages, etc. and he came home with 3 types of Johnsonville brats (Cheddar, Chili Cheese, and New Orleans/Andouille) along with a massive pack of all-beef franks. We grilled about half of them and put the rest in the freezer for another day. The only negative was that the beef hotdogs were really salty compared to everything else–maybe if I’d eaten mine on a bun it would have tempered it a bit, who knows?

Tuesday: Leftovers!
Monday’s mean was so good and so plentiful, and I was so tired by the time Todd got home from work, that we opted for a leftover night.

Wednesday: Hawaiian Chicken Thighs and Hawaiian Luau Rice
At some point last week we got to talking about the chicken legs from Todd’s birthday party and I decided to make them again. The marinade (from The Girl Who Ate Everything) is super-simple and then you just toss them on the grill until done. The rice was a recipe (from Bam’s Kitchen) I’d pinned while planning the party but opted not to make, and I’m kinda glad I didn’t. What with the ham and pineapple and coconut and macadamia nuts, you’d think this would be a fabulous side dish. Sadly, it was lackluster at best. It called for absolutely no salt (I guess the ham and chicken bullion were supposed to cover that base, but they fell far short) and needed a lot of doctoring. A couple days later I had some with one of the chicken thighs chopped up in it and added a dose of soy sauce to the bowl and that perked it right up. So be forewarned and try it with a little extra sauce.

Thursday: Roast Beef Wraps and Carrot Soup
A cooler take on the soup and sandwich dinner, both of these recipes came from The No-Cook, No-Bake Cookbook that I reviewed a couple years ago. The wraps were fairly straightforward (I might have added some cheese, if anything) but got a flavor boost from an Asian-inspired sauce while the cold carrot soup was a bit of a sweet and spicy surprise. Todd isn’t quite as much of a fan of the cold soups as I am, but with the temperature (and humidity) already soaring, I think there’s a good chance more of the no-cook recipes will be used this summer. I’m keeping it handy, at any rate.

Beef, chicken, and pork pan pizza with extra cheese. A worthy splurge, indeed!

Beef, chicken, and pork pan pizza with extra cheese. A worthy splurge, indeed!

Friday: Pizza
So sad that the day I’m home I cop out and we get pizza, right? I know, I know, but I was feeling kinda off all day, almost hungover even though it’d been several days since having any booze, and then the thunder started mid-afternoon and I realized the change in barometric pressure was wreaking havoc on my sinuses. Mystery solved! While we usually will opt for Domino’s, since they have a decent gluten-free crust and deliver, I really didn’t want it that night. I was craving the crispy, chewy, classic pan pizza from Pizza Hut so that’s what we got. Did I pay for it later? A little bit, but it was worth it.

Saturday: Zoodles with Meat Sauce and Goat Cheese
Friday was always meant to be a pizza night, I’d just been planning to make the zucchini-crust pizza that’s making the facebook rounds right now. Since I didn’t, though, I had these zucchini needing to be used, so zoodles it was. The goat cheese was also from that recipe, and if you haven’t melted a little goat cheese into your tomato sauce, please do. It’s so worth it and really amps up the flavor. I also made some quickie cheese toast using leftover hot dog buns.

Sunday: Cheese-Stuffed BBQ Meatloaf, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes
Classic Sunday dinner of meatloaf and potatoes, courtesy of the freezer. I really do love this meatloaf with its layer of cheese in the center and barbecue sauce on top. This recipe is from The Virtuous Wife, though I sub rolled oats for the bread crumbs and don’t bother with the plastic wrap layer–I just put the frozen packet in the loaf pan to defrost and open up the top of the foil before baking. If I’m careful enough, the loaf pan stays clean!

And that was our week!

In addition to the macaroni salad video I linked above, I also put up a simple video about the Low-FODMAP diet and why I make some of the choices that I do. You can find it here: Low-Food-Wha?! on YouTube

Thank Heavens for Freezer Meals

Nibbles

Between the changes at work and our new family of three, last week was one of those that I could have easily bailed on cooking any given night and not felt very guilty at all. The fact that I only skipped one planned meal in favor of take-out is a small victory.

Home-cooked meals from May 2-8, 2016

Home-cooked meals from May 2-8, 2016

Check out the video right here: https://youtu.be/aNylk87DuQ0

Monday: Sweet Potato Cake Turkey Burgers + Side Salad + Grapes
Super simple freezer meal number one–this one didn’t even need defrosting! I believe the patty recipe came from Multiply Delicious and I just subbed turkey for chicken as the former is way easier to find and frequently on sale. I also doubled the recipe to make 12 patties or 3 meals at a time. We’ll definitely be making another batch because they are just so simple to have on hand and very tasty.

Tuesday: Chicken Curry with Cabbage and Peppers + Basmati Rice
Never a bad time for a good curry, this was our first try of the recipe from Loving My Nest and I think it’s a keeper. A freezer meal, yes, but I didn’t bother with the crock pot and it was the right call–the chicken may have become mealy if it cooked all day. Now, I believe I added a can of coconut milk to the mix before I froze it and, yes, it “broke” a bit (separated) when I cooked it. Would I do it again? Maybe, maybe not. I was just trying to avoid planning this meal and forgetting to have a can of coconut milk on hand and while it affected the appearance slightly, the taste didn’t suffer one bit. And, yes, I’d definitely use coconut milk over cows milk for this curry and pretty much any curry.

Wednesday: Cod Creole + Parmesan Orzo + Green Beans
What is it with me and forgetting to actually buy the fish I put on the menu?! I stuck it out this time, though, and it was definitely worth it. Cod is not only a very milk white fish it also doesn’t tend to fish-up the house when cooked. And this preparation from Hello Spoonful is just so simple it’s hard to beat! The one brand of gluten-free orzo we can find is a love-hate thing for us. We love orzo and have many dishes that call for it, but the gluten-free version puts out so much starch while boiling that it really does resemble risotto by the end more so than plain pasta. Straining it is a joke, so I usually don’t even bother, just mixing it into whatever else I had in mind and going with the flow.

Thursday: Broiled Steak + Mexican Street Corn Salad
Mmmm, Cinco de Mayo–as if we needed an excuse to have Mexican food for dinner, but I’m happy to take it anyway. The meal was mostly about the salad, which I found over on Live Eat Learn. I could have eaten a large bowl of this salad and skipped the steak and not been deprived whatsoever–I can totally see us making it again. We did a few substitutions, though. Normally I’d swap hominy for beans in most recipes, but since we were already focusing on the corn, I opted for some zucchini and yellow squash that needed to be used from the crisper. Also, while I adore feta and cotija cheese, we had a sizeable block of white cheddar leftover from my party and I shredded that up into the salad instead. I also cooked most of the ingredients for a bit to soften the squash and peppers up. I’m sure there are endless variations one could make on this salad and not go wrong–some halved cherry tomatoes come to mind, and maybe some avocado chunks, too?

Friday: Take out!
I debated making breakfast for dinner, but my heart wasn’t in it. Instead I picked up fried chicken and fixings and enjoyed the hell out of it!

Saturday: Sweet Potato Carbonara with Spinach and Eggplant
Since Todd isn’t a mushroom fan and they’re pretty High-FODMAP to boot, I substituted eggplant for the mushrooms in this recipe from Eating Well. Even though my sweet potato “noodles” didn’t hold their shape, this was a very filling, very tasty dish overall and I would encourage you to try it, even if yours ends up a bit more like a sweet potato vegetable hash like ours did.

Sunday: Shepherd’s Pie-Stuffed Potatoes + Jicama Citrus Salad
I’m sure you’ve seen those quick-cut videos of inventive food on Facebook, right? Have you actually tried any of them out? Well, I can now say that I have and it wasn’t that bad! While I did neglect to add additional liquid to make up for the thirstyness of the coconut flour I used, everything went more or less according to plan in this recipe/video from Tip Hero. I even dug out my large star pastry tip to pipe the potatoes onto the top! The salad though, that was a disappointment since my jicama ended up well past it’s use-by date (something a little hard to tell with the leathery outside to judge by). I will attempt the salad again, though, as I really do love jicama in cold salads.

Booze tip: I totally took a short cut on the citrus salad and bought the large container of pre-sliced fruit in extra-light syrup. If you are a fan of  greyhounds (the drink, not the dog, though they are lovely dogs), save said syrup and mix with your favorite gin for an slightly sweeter version of this simple libation. Fabulous, refreshing, and super-quick.

And that’s another week’s menu! I hope you got some good ideas from what was on our plates this week and have an excellent week in your own kitchen! Remember, it doesn’t have to be “gourmet” to be good, or even great. Make what you like, mix things up a bit, get some variety in there, and enjoy your meals!

After All, We Eat With Our Eyes…

Nibbles

Last week started out as a week where I just couldn’t be bothered with, well, much of anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary. Cooking dinner? Necessary. Filming it? Less so. (Part of it was the week, part of it is the aggravation of such a small memory card for my vlogging camera, I need to update it soon!)

But I didn’t like the idea of not doing a video–I actually enjoy putting up videos each week (if nothing else, the novelty hasn’t worn off) so I decided to do a little something different for the menu video and I hope you like it.

Direct link for the feed readers: Draw My Menu, 4.24.16

Now that the trailer’s over, let’s get to the main attraction:

Meals At Home 4/18-4/24

Meals At Home 4/18-4/24

Monday: Grain Salad w/Carrot-Ginger Dressing and a Fried Egg
From Bon Appetempt (and, yes, I realize I left out the second ‘p’ in the video), this was a simple salad with the promised “showstopper” dressing. Being able to make the carrot ginger dressing without miso is a nice change and means we have a new dressing for the salad rotation that also gives us more veggies, too.

Tuesday: Lemon-Parmesan Chicken + Spinach Salad
Aside from the pucker-power of the dressing, this chicken recipe from Mise en Place was just aboslutley delicious. It’s not often I feel like setting up a 3-step breading process, but this one was worth it. I’ve yet to see gluten-free panko anywhere yet, but even with the regular gf crumbs it’s damn tasty. I suppose I could crush some corn flakes if I wanted the different texture… Okay, I definitely have to try that next time!

Wednesday: Cheese-Stuffed BBQ Meatloaf + Green Beans + Sweet Potatoes
A freezer meal “classic” (if something can be a classic when we’ve only been doing freezer meals for a few months!), this is always a good Wednesday night supper because there’s seldom a reason to hurry dinner to the table since payroll almost always keeps Todd until 8pm at the office. The nice thing about this particular meatloaf (aside from the layer of cheese in the center and the sweet bbq sauce on top, that is) is the chopped peppers inside–it changes things up just enough so that it doesn’t feel like boring meatloaf.

Maybe next time I’ll do a couple of the Cordon Blue-style meatloaves (with ham and cheese inside) that Todd’s a fan of, I bet they’d freeze just fine!

Thursday: Pepper Pesto Pork and Zoodles + Sweet Corn
I had plenty of the Red Pepper Pesto from Table for Two from the last time I used it and decided it would go as well with the zucchini noodles as anything else. It was a successful experiment, and I’ve put the super-simple recipe down below.

Friday: Impromptu night out at Sweet Grass Dairy
I forgot, when I was making this week’s menu, that Friday was the Rose Parade and all. While we briefly entertained the idea of walking back home, having supper, and then walking back downtown for the fireworks, we decided we were more likely to stay home rather than venture back out, so hung out downtown. I have a full recap of the Friday and Saturday Rose Festival coming in video form, just as soon as I get it edited (it’s almost 3 hours of footage!), but dinner at Sweet Grass Dairy did not disappoint!

Saturday: Tomato Sauce w/Italian Sausage + Polenta-Style Grits
It’s a good thing I remembered to put the Crock Pot on before we went out to Art & Bark in the Park because once we got home both Todd and I were beat and took some long naps! All I had to do once I convinced myself to leave the fluffy blankets was to make the grits. It might take 30 minutes to make good grits (don’t even bother with the quick stuff, it’s not worth it) but very little of that time is active cooking.

Sunday: Baked Thai Salmon Chicken + Green Peas + Rice Noodles
I’ve been a bit spacey lately (Todd allows that I have had a lot on my mind) and one of those space cadet moments was completely forgetting to put salmon on the shopping list. Even though it’s on the same piece of paper as my menu. Thankfully, the sweet chili sauce worked just as well on chicken thighs as it would have on salmon, and dinner was saved. (Yes, I could have gone to the store for the salmon, but it wasn’t a compelling reason to switch out of pajamas on an otherwise go-nowhere Sunday.)

A successful kitchen experiment deserves to be shared, so here is the basic run-down of the Pork and Zoodles meal, above.

Pepper Pesto Pork and Zoodles

Serves 4

6 medium zucchini, spiralized
2 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
4 oz red pepper pesto
4 boneless pork loin chops
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil in a large saute or frying pan, add zucchini strips and cook 5-10 minutes, until they start to cook down a bit. Season with salt and pepper.

Stir in red pepper pesto to coat the zoodles, then push the zucchini and sauce to the edges of the pan and fill the center with the pork chops.

Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cover. Cook until the pork is done, 10-15 minutes depending on thickness.

Top with Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

And with that, I happily turn the dinner reins over to Todd for the week. Since it’s my birthday this Saturday, he’s making a lot of my favorites over the course of the week: grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup, burgers fresh off the grill, and butter chicken as well. Yum!  And we’ve already decided that if there’s a night he doesn’t feel like cooking (hey, it happens), sushi will be the alternative.

What’s on your plate this week?

~Jenn

Our First Foray Into Freezer Meals

Nibbles

Almost a year ago I finally started putting my Sam’s Club membership to good use by stocking our chest freezer with meat every two months. At the time I said something along the lines of ‘I haven’t graduated to full-on freezer meal prep yet’ and here we are now at the yet.

I was going to wait until our February trip to Sam’s to try out Freezer Meals (mostly because we still had quite the stash from our December trip and it’s generally not good to defrost and refreeze meat without cooking it in between), but two things changed my mind:

  1. The impending bathroom renovation (which will require weeknight attention as well as weekends, and weeknight hours are scarce what with the cooking and all).
  2. My innate impatience.

Once I get something into my head it’s tough for me to let go of it. (q.v. my current puppy obsession) So the challenge, at least for this round, was to pick meals that would work as “kits” (separate components grouped together for ease of planning and preparation) as well as others that wouldn’t require me to defrost everything this weekend. But first I had to know what I was working with.

Into the freezer for you!

Into the freezer for you!

So Saturday afternoon I grabbed my clipboard, pen, and kitchen scale, propped open the chest freezer lid, and got to work listing everything. As I suspected, we still had the lion’s share of December’s stock-up trip plus a little left from the October run in some cases. Since I figured we’d be using 3-4 freezer meals a week, I didn’t want to put all our stock into meals, so I did more or less 50% into freezer meals and left the other 50% for general use (the other 3-4 meals a week).

Then it was time to figure out what to make and make my grocery list. But just to add another facet to the challenge, let’s add a super-strict grocery budget to the mix?

I may have let my budget slide a bit last year. And I may have a bad habit of spending whatever I feel like at the grocery store and, hey, if it’s “over budget” letting it come out of the savings buffer I keep in my checking account. And I may have done that so often that said savings buffer has all the integrity of a cheap air mattress–it ain’t gonna cushion much!

Saturday was also the day I sat down with my January budget worksheet and determined exactly how much said grocery budget would be for the month and it was a number I was not happy with. (In my defense, having a restricted diet means cheap food–even some staples like dried beans–and a lot of the coupon-able items out there just don’t work for me, and we all know about the cost of eating healthy vs not; but still, I need to be better about the grocery budget.) So not only was I planning my own menu for the week, I was also prepping 20+ freezer meals, and needed to do it at a price that was 2/3 of what I spent on my average grocery runs.

But I did it! I picked simpler menu items and focused on freezer meals that would require a minimum of expensive ingredients to put together while still offering us a pretty good variety to choose from. It helped that we usually have a certain amount of things already in the pantry that we just don’t run out of, or had stocked up on before the holidays, and that I didn’t have to buy freezer bags, etc. as part of this (since we’d picked up cases of them this summer; we’re still good and set). The other thing that helped was I kept the calculator app on my phone open and I added each item there as I put it into the cart, subtotaling periodically to see where I was.

This did two things: it made me very aware of what each item cost and it kept me sticking to my list, not just tossing things in if it sounded good or was on sale. Yes, it took some of the enjoyment out of the shopping trip (I really do enjoy grocery shopping), but it’s a necessary thing.

When people ask what feels like success (money-wise, at least),
I always say not having to worry about what I’m spending
at the grocery store or on dinners out. 

Anyway! Back to the freezer meals.

Once I got home and unloaded the groceries, I sat down with my freezer bags and a sharpie to do all the labeling ahead of time. Nothing too mysterious,here, just the name of the meal and the date I bagged it and then basic cooking instructions. I made sure to list if it needed anything added (most often water for the slow cooker meals where I added bullion or soup base in lieu of prepared stock–less bulk for the bags) and if there were serving suggestions. I also have these things noted on the very bare-bones spreadsheet I compiled with the freezer meal recipes. The spreadsheet allows me to sort by ingredient (in case something goes on sale and I want to take advantage of it), but it also allows me to share it with Todd through Google Drive. I added a second sheet to the document that is the inventory of the freezer meals as well as the other frozen meats and vegetables in there. If we each update it after we make our weekly menus, this’ll help us keep on top of things!

freezermeals_screenshot

I spent about four hours putting together our freezer meal stash. Starting with the simplest bits to put together and leaving sauces that needed blending or the making of meatloaves until last. At the end I had made:

  • 3 Sweet-Potato Kale Turkey Patties (4 patties per bag)
  • 2 Lime and Coconut Chicken
  • 2 Coconut Curry Chicken
  • 2 Pineapple Salsa Chicken
  • 2 Lemon Dump Chicken
  • 2 Garlic-Parmesan Pork Chops
  • 1 Maple Mustard Pork Chops
  • 1 Bacon Potato Soup
  • 1 Chipotle Shrimp
  • 2 Cheese-Stuffed BBQ Meatloaves
  • 2 Taco Soups
  • 1 Pan of Fabulous Meatballs
  • 2 Beef Stews

(I was a bad blogger an copied the recipes down from various sources–in a notebook, by hand!–making adjustments as I added them to the spreadsheet, so I don’t have the links handy. I’ll try to track them all down and come back and edit this list )

I know Todd is looking forward to the convenience of having meals prepped ahead of time and I’m looking forward to getting our bathroom remodeled. Win-win! Depending on how these go over will tell us whether we’ll shop with freezer meals in mind on our next Sam’s trip or if we go back to our old ways.

On the Plate 11/30-12/6

Nibbles

Have you hit overwhelm yet, even though it’s only the second week of December? I’ve had a few moments of on-the-bring, myself, but I just remind myself that I’ve got a plan, what needs to will get done, and the rest (probably) won’t matter in the long run.

Part of that plan is, as usual, my menu. Here’s what it looked like last week.

OTP 11-30-12-6 (1)

 

Monday: Rice & Gandulas-Stuffed Peppers with Turkey Hash
Rice and Gandulas (aka Pigeon Peas) is a Puerto Rican dish Todd makes for our Thanksgiving dinner. It’s next to impossible to make a small amount of, so we always have leftovers. This year I decided to use the leftovers to stuff peppers, topped with a generous helping of cheese. To go with I tossed together a quick hash of potatoes, green onions, and sliced turkey.

Caesar salad with Chicken @ Northside Pies

Caesar salad with Chicken @ Northside Pies

Tuesday: Monthly Beer & Cheer at Northside Pies
The first Tuesday of every month we get together with friends from a local MeetUp group for dinner. Northside Pies does a really nice job of plating their very tasty salads, but this Caesar was not my favorite (their dressing was… different; lots of black pepper and something else that didn’t sit well with me). Still, after the indulgences of the holidays, some green food was definitely a good idea.

Wednesday: Southwestern Rice & Beef Casserole with Green Beans
I’ve had this in my Foodie Goodness pin board for a bit and it seemed like good comfort food now that our weather is turning chilly and somewhat staying that way for a bit. The recipe is from Feeding Big and is very straightforward. If you are not fond of heat, though, you might not want to do what I did in using both the can of green chilies and pepper-jack cheese (our grocery didn’t have plain Monterey jack, just co-jack or pepper jack, I’d go with the co-jack next time).

Notably, the author of Feeding Big was surprised that rice was grown in the US. Are you surprised that US produces its own rice and doesn’t import it all from Asia? I remember reading somewhere, probably during my high school years at the latest, about antebellum rice plantations in the Carolinas, so this doesn’t exactly shock me. But I’m curious, did you know about domestic rice production?

Thursday: Harvest Stuffed Squash with Cilantro-Tahini Sauce
Meatless Thursday? Sure! This recipe (from Food Fitness Fresh Air) was actually better on Friday for lunch than it was Thursday night for dinner. Todd and I agreed on this and decided it was largely in part of the sauce having time to develop a flavor other than the strong raw-sesame seediness of the tahini-based sauce. So if I were to make this again, I would make the sauce the night before at the very least.

Mahi Mahi and Shrimp special at George & Louie's

Mahi Mahi and Shrimp special at George & Louie’s

Friday: George & Louie’s
By the time I got home on Friday I was over it. What in particular? Everything. An old friend passed away, another friend received some scary health news, I hadn’t been sleeping well the last few nights, and I’m waiting on a response for some work stuff that could bring big, awesome changes but still, the waiting. When I got home and the chicken I’d left in the fridge was still playing popsicle, off to George & Louie’s we went. The seafood and fixings totally revived me, putting me in a far better mood for Christmas tree shopping afterwards.

Saturday: Baked Shells with Squash and Chicken
Tasting Table is a great newsletter for keeping up with food trends. Baked Stuffed Shells with Squash and Burrata seemed like a good, filling supper so on the list it went. Unfortunately, jumbo shells are not something I’ve had luck finding in the rice or quinoa pastas, so I used regular-sized shells and just made a casserole of it. The other substitutions were on the lactose-avoidance front–lactose-free cottage cheese (Lactaid brand is carried by our local Publix) is a great substitute for ricotta cheese and I used regular mozzarella balls instead of the burrata. And since I had the chicken out from Friday that I hadn’t used, I quickly cooked that with salt, pepper, and a bit of oregano, diced it up, and mixed it in. It was a great one-dish dinner.

[tooltip text=”Fresh cheese are higher in lactose and therefore High-FODMAP; aged cheese lose most, if not all, of their lactose as the whey is drained off and as a product of the aging process.”][/tooltip]

Sunday: Crock Lemon & Rice Soup with Cheese Toast
We finished out the week with a slow-cooker version of the Greek classic avgolemono soup via Dish About It. It’s a very simple soup and it was a great way to use the rest of the chicken broth I made for Thanksgiving. When it was time to dish it up I realized it was pretty much blending into the soup plates, so I added a bit of parsley to it for color. This would be a very good recipe to keep on hand for the next time you or a loved one are feeling under the weather.