Sunday Food Prep – what went down in my kitchen (10)

Hello, hello!

Welp, Monday’s back…

…and that means I get to share my Sunday food prep adventures with you!

I was feeling less than inspired – much like the Redskins offense – and only accomplished a little – much better than the Redskins offense. *sigh*

I decided that I needed to make some brownies. Because … duh … brownies.

I’ve been fiddling with my recipe a little and I like what I did this time around. I decreased the flour (gluten-free) to 3/4 cup, only used 1 egg, subbed peanut butter chips for the dark chocolate chips, and threw in some chopped pecans from the pecan tree in our backyard. We have a few so I figured why not?

I also added a couple teaspoons of this new chia, hemp, and buckwheat cereal I found at the Fresh Market.

These are definitely winners! Not overly sweet and dense but still thick and fudgy. Just the way a brownie should be! Have you tried them yet?

I roasted a chuck roast in my crockpot.

I defrosted some homemade chicken broth and used that as the liquid. I skipped all the fanciness and just went with salt and pepper and a little bit of garlic powder as my seasonings.

For a girl who doesn’t like pot roast, I was really reluctant to share!  So good!

My sailor and I had some last night for dinner with some quinoa and roasted broccoli and there’s plenty leftover for a few sandwiches or to top a sweet tater throughout the week. 🙂

This broccoli. It’s like veggie crack. Seriously, I could eat the whole pan.

Finally, I decided to make a loaf of The Lean Green Bean’s Dutch Oven bread.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m not doing that whole gluten thing right now.

Well, I’ve been gluten free for a few weeks now and I’ve been assessing my tummy situation. I’m not exactly sure that gluten is the problem (I see my doc tomorrow and we’ll discuss all the tummy things then) and I read Erin’s post about why she stopped being gluten free and it really resonated with me. I mean, I don’t eat a lot of gluten anyway (as long as I don’t eat an entire baguette in one sitting!) but I also wasn’t having any of those other, more serious issues like balance and headaches, etc.  So, unless a test comes back indicating that I need to eliminate all gluten, I figure I’ll eat it in moderation. And maybe only in homemade foods so I can control all the ingredients.

Like in this bread.

Which, incidentally, I made with 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of gluten-free flour and, while the loaf might be smaller than one that uses all gluten-y flour, it was still pretty delicious toasted and smeared with avocado this morning. And my tummy wasn’t mad. 🙂

Random Spam Comment Time!

…in response to this post

“Today, I went to the beach with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is totally off topic but I had to tell someone!”

Talk to me: Have you ever done an “elimination” diet? What did you eliminate? What did you learn about yourself?

– jennifer

Weekend things and a little bit of food prep

Hi there!

Happy Monday!

Are you gearing up for Thanksgiving? Are you cooking? Have you started cooking already? Are you traveling to where someone else is doing all the cooking? <—-winning

I’ll be doing only a small amount of cooking this year as we’re headed to my folks’ house.

Mom’s having the bulk of the meal catered (this should be interesting – my first catered meal experience) and the rest of us are  responsible for a few side dishes and desserts.

I’m making this. I made it for just us last year and it is the bomb dot com.

Plus, the pecan tree in my back yard is literally vomiting pecans so…..yeah.

My town had its Thanksgiving market on Saturday and my favorite vendor was going to be there so, you know we had to go. 🙂

There were like 65 vendors or something!

Lots of artsy craftsy stuff.

There were lots of puppy dogs.

Seriously, I can’t post pictures of all the dogs – we’d be here all day.

And there were lots of leafy green veggies!

There was a pony that I wanted to ride but I don’t think he was there for people of my size age.

I loaded up on sweet taters (duh!) and apples and the biggest butternut squashes I have ever seen (needed for above recipe!).

I tried to get my sailor to take a picture of me holding the butternut squashes but he said no. Because I don’t have a porn blog.

Seriously, where was HIS brain? Haha

And besides, has he never ever heard of food porn?

Whatever.

So, he took this picture of this goat instead. Her name is Latte. She was hanging out with the goat cheese lady. Mmmm…..goat cheese……

Here’s my haul on fresh beef. Score!

After the market, we took our goodies home and headed out for some lunch and errands.

We went to our favorite Indian place. MMMM…

I had the medium spicy vindaloo and was sweating bullets at the table. lol

For the record, I only ate one little triangle of the naan because it is made with wheat and I’m doing that whole gluten free thing.

I was okay with it (or I just couldn’t tell I wasn’t because I was still breathing fire) but a few hours later, I had an iced skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks and that made my stomach hurt.

Did some research and turns out the skinny vanilla stuff has gluten in it! Blech!

I didn’t finish it. Which sucks. Starbucks ain’t cheap.

So, I’m thinking about heading to the doc to officially get tested for celiac, just to see. Because it really did make me feel bad.

Sunday was a pretty low key day.

I did a little food prep but not too much since we’re going to be laden with turkey leftovers, too. 🙂

I made some gluten-free banana bread. Because, it’s banana bread. Duh.

I made us some homemade chicken noodle soup (gluten free rotini pasta) with the last of the chicken from last week and some of the broth that I made.

To make it creamy, I added a tablespoon of grass-fed butter (I buy Kerrygold and if you haven’t tried it yet, you are totally missing out!) and about half a cup of heavy cream.

So delicious!

Then, I made some beef stew in the crockpot using some stew meat that I snagged at the farmer’s market.

I used less than 2 pounds of meat so I used upped the veggies a little. I also subbed Yukon Gold taters for the red taters because that’s what I had and I used regular onion because the recipe didn’t state red onion until down in the directions.

Yes, I broke the cardinal rule of following a recipe – I didn’t read the whole thing before I started.

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It worked out okay though. 🙂

I also didn’t add any frozen corn because I didn’t have any. T’was fine. Delicious, in fact.

Talk to me: What’s your favorite thing on the Starbucks menu?

– jennifer

Friday five – waffles and more!

Hello, hello!

It’s Friday!

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And it’s time for my Friday five!

or Friday favorites – or Five things on Friday – or 5 food things I think you should try because I say they’re good. 🙂

So, I’ve mentioned that I’ve eliminated gluten from my diet to see how that affects my tummy issues. Again, I know I don’t have celiac but gluten sensitivity is a real thing and the only way to know if that’s what’s eating you is to stop eating it.

So far, I’ve learned two things: 1. Amazingly enough, I didn’t really eat a ton of gluten before (unless you count the nights where I would eat an entire baguette but there was wine and cheese involved and that counteracts the gluten. obviously.) 😉 and 2. I’ve noticed a little (positive) difference already but the jury is still out. I need to give it some more time to see.

Anyhoo, I’ve got 5 new things I’ve tried that just happen to be gluten-free.

And delicious. Even for eaters of gluten. 🙂

Waffles!

These Nature’s Path Organic waffles are da bomb!

They’re nutty and kinda sweet (but not sugary sweet) and thicker than an Eggo and they’re perfect. They toast up beautifully (I set my toaster to a little over medium) and aren’t soggy in the least.

A serving is 2 waffles and gives you 210 calories, 7 grams of fat (1 saturated), 5 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein. A perfect addition to an egg breakfast or even slathered with almond butter and topped with a banana. YUM!

The only downside I’ve discovered is there’s only 6 in a box so…once your family tries them, they’re gone just like that. #hidethemnow

Crackers!

These crackers crispbreads (ooh la la!) are AMAZING.

They are light and airy with just the right amount of crispy crunch and go so very well with hummus. Yes, they do.

And cheese. And eating. 🙂

I forgot to get all the calorie details but 4 crispbreads is a serving and nets only 60 calories.

Oatmeal!

Okay, so this is a big deal for me because you know I love my oatmeal.

What I need to find is a tub of gluten-free oats so I can go about my normal business with oatmeal in the mornings, baking oatmeal type things, etc.

I’m okay with the pouches sometimes but they’re flavored and usually have more sugar than I want.

But, this Chex Oatmeal was all I could find (haven’t been to Fresh Market yet) and I had a coupon.

Luckily, I liked it! 🙂

I’ve had the Maple & Brown Sugar (I know, I know. It was cold and I was in a maple-y kind of mood) made with milk and I added some almond butter and blueberries. NOM!

The Maple & Brown Sugar and the Apple Cinnamon are both 170 calories whereas the original rings in at 130 calories. The main difference is in the sugar. 12 grams in the Maple & Brown Sugar, 13 grams in the Apple Cinnamon, and 0 grams in the original.

Granola!

I really didn’t expect to find gluten-free granola so I was totally stoked when I did!

I love my Greek Yogurt as a morning snack and I was really trying to figure out what I was going to top it with (besides fruit, of course). These KIND granolas are so delicious!

As you can see, I really like the Maple Quinoa Clusters. 🙂

Jerky!

Who doesn’t love beef, or pork, jerky?!

Well, that used to be me but I’ve changed my ways. What I don’t prefer is MSG and other crap in my jerky so I’m always on the lookout for really good jerky.

Found these two Krave jerkies at my Harris Teeter and I was intrigued by the flavors.

Holy. YUM.

I have bags of these in my desk for added protein in my afternoon snack before I head to CrossFit. 🙂

I also really like these because I don’t feel like my teeth are going to come out just trying to eat a piece of jerky. Gah, that’s the worst!

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Talk to me: What new things have you tried lately?

– jennifer