Mexican Chicken Soup - Gluten-free

This soup was so tasty!  It was warm and cozy on a cold chilly day.

Mexican Chicken Soup

Yield about 10-14 servings

Ingredients:

3 large chicken breasts, cubed (or 5-6 small ones)
splash of olive oil for frying
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup GF Taco seasoning
1 (64 oz) V8 Juice
4 cups salsa
3 cups dry black beans (soak over night in about 10-12 cups water, then stove top cook if needed, until beans are tender)
1 (32 oz) package frozen corn

4-6 tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced

Toppings - shredded cheddar cheese, or pre-shredded Mexican blend cheese and/or sour cream.

Instructions:

In a large skillet (I like to use cast iron) over medium heat, saute chicken in oil until no longer pink.  Add water and taco seasoning; simmer, uncovered, until chicken is well coated and some of the water has evaporated.  Pour into slow cooker.

Add the V8 juice, salsa, black beans, and frozen corn into the slow cooker.  Cook on low for 4 hours.  Add in cilantro about 30 minutes before ready to serve.  Top with items of your choice and Enjoy!  :)

Broccoli Cheese Chicken soup - Gluten-free

I know it's been awhile since I've posted recipes... well....  I've planned out about two weeks of soups for our family.  All slow cooker, and hopefully I'll get them all posted for you to try as well!

Broccoli Cheese Chicken Soup

First I started with a home made gluten-free cream of chicken soup.  To make this you will need:

1 large chicken breast (or 2 smaller ones)
4 chicken bullion cubes (make sure they are GF)
2 cups almond milk
1/4 cup butter
4 tablespoons Featherlight flour mix
2 teaspoons granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt (or a little less)
1/4 teaspoon pepper (or omit if you do not use pepper)

Cube chicken breast and cook over medium heat until done (no longer pink and fully cooked).   Set aside.

Warm milk in microwave, do not scorch.  I usually put it in for one minute then take out and stir, then another minute, then take out and stir, then add in the chicken bullion cubes, back into the microwave for another minute and then stir.  Probably a total of five minutes stirring after each minute.  You want to make sure the bullion is dissolved.

In a medium pot, melt butter over medium heat.   While butter is melting, in a small bowl combine featherlight flour mix, garlic, salt and pepper.   After butter is completely melted, whisk in the flour mixture.  Whisk continually over medium heat until slightly browned.  Slowly add in milk mixture while continuing to whisk. Keep whisking to eliminate any lumps until sauce is thickened and boiling.  Add in the chicken and remove from heat.

Pour the cream of chicken soup into the slow cooker.

Next saute 1 chopped green bell pepper and 1 medium onion, chopped in about 3 tablespoons of butter until tender.  Add into slow cooker.

Next add in:

3 cups almond milk
1 1/2 pounds Velveeta cheese, cubed
1 (32 oz) package of frozen chopped broccoli

Stir all ingredients, set slow cooker to low and cook for about 3-4 hours.

Enjoy!

Featherlight flour mix:

6 cups white rice flour
6 cups corn starch
6 cups tapioca starch
1/2 cup potato flour (NOT potato starch)

Bread that's Gluten-free, Sugar-free, Oil-free and Dairy-free

I was being creative in the kitchen today and came up with this super tasty bread recipe.  If you consider eggs as a dairy, then it's not dairy free.  But in our house eggs are okay, so I've considered it dairy free also. :)  I hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

Jen’s gluten-free, oil-free, sugar-free, dairy-free bread

3 cups GF flour mix

1 cup flaxseedmill (ground flax seed)

4 teaspoons xanthan gum

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 tablespoon active dry yeast

2 cups warm water

1/2 cup peach applesauce

1 1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar

3 large eggs

In a stand mixer with dough hooks mix first 4 ingredients well, place yeast in center of flour mixture.  In a separate bowl mix water, applesauce and rice vinegar together - pour over yeast but do not mix.  Let stand for 5 minutes.  Turn mixer on low speed, start mixing ingredients together.  When about 1/2 way mixed, start adding eggs 1 at a time.  Continue to mix on high for about 5 minutes making sure to get everything mixed in well. 

Remove bowl from stand mixer, let bread dough rise for 20 minutes in a warm, draft-free place.

Pour dough into large loaf pan, pat down and smooth top (using wet hands helps the dough not stick to you).  Let rise 20 minutes more.

Heat oven to 350.  Bake bread for 60 minutes or until browned on top and thoroughly cooked.  This will be a more dense bread, but it’s super tasty! 

My gluten-free flour mix consists of the following:

12 cups white or brown rice flour

5 cups potato starch (NOT potato flour)

3 cup tapioca starch (tapioca flour is the same as tapioca starch)

Mix all ingredients together well and store in an air tight container. 

Super Easy Breakfast Cups

Mornings for our family usually consist of cold cereal, yogurt w/fruit and nuts, or waffles from the freezer (when we have them, I make them homemade gluten-free in triple batches and freeze whatever they do not eat the day I make them).   But today, today is different!  I wanted to try something new, something that would be more in the area of a hot breakfast.  :)

You know those silicone baking cups for cupcakes?  Well, we have butterfly shaped ones, flower shaped ones and the regular round cupcake cups.  Today I made scrambled eggs w/ham and cheese inside those single serve cups!

My recipe uses 9 silicone cupcake cups (you can adjust ingredients to make more or less).

6 large eggs
2/3 cup almond milk
about 1 cup diced ham chunks (small pieces)
about 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Crack eggs into a large measuring cup (I used a 6 cup measuring cup with spout for easy pouring), add the almond milk and mix well.  Continue to beat eggs and milk mixture until it resembles a scrambled egg mixture look to it.  If you've never made scrambled eggs, then all you are aiming for is that all the yokes are broken and thoroughly mixed together.

Next I sprayed the 9 baking cups with non-stick cooking spray (all the instructions I've ever read say that you do not need to spray silicone baking cups, but I do.  You don't have to if you normally don't.  It's just something I've always done) and place them onto a cookie sheet.  Place about 1/8 of a cup diced ham and an 1/8 of a cup (or less) shredded cheese into the bottom of each baking cup, you are aiming for about 1/4 cup total ham and cheese.  You may want a little more or a little less of the ham and cheese,  depends on how meaty or cheesy you like your eggs. :)  After you have the amount of ham and cheese in the baking cups, pour the egg mixture over the top, just enough to almost fill the cup.  You don't want it to over flow while baking and make a mess to have to clean up later. ;-)  

After you have filled each of the 9 baking cups, place the cookie sheet w/baking cups into the oven.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 - 20 minutes (until there is no more liquid in the baking cups).  Remove from oven when fully cooked and let sit for about 2 minutes before serving.

ENJOY! =D

Gluten-Free Zucchini noodless Lasagna

One of my familys favorite summer time dishes is our noodless zucchini lasagna!  We pick large zucchinis (or several smaller ones) from our backyard garden, and go from there.

First thing you will want to do is peel your zucchini, then slice into generous sized flat slices the long way (the zucchini will act as your noodles).  Make sure you cut all the seeds out of the slices that have seeds in them, no one wants to bite into your yummy lasagna and find a zucchini seed. ;-)   Next I brown 2 pounds of turkey burger, hamburger or sausage (your choice, we like them all), I add about 3 tablespoons of granulated garlic, 2 tablespoons dried oregano, and about 3 tablespoons of dried diced onions (you can use fresh if you like).  Once the meat is cooked through and spices are well blended, I add 1 large jar gluten-free spaghetti sauce (you can add more or less, depending on how much your family likes tomato products).  While the meat, spices and sauce are blending together over low heat, I grate some cheese (I like to use colby-jack or a cheddar/mozzarella mixture).   Now, pull out your lasagna pan (I use the 13ish by 10ish tinfoil pans, makes for EASY clean up) and ladle some of the meat sauce mixture into the bottom of the pan, just enough to lightly coat the bottom of the pan.  Then add a layer of zucchini noodles, a layer of meat sauce, and a layer of cheese.  Repeat layering until pan is almost full.  If using a tinfoil pan, you may want to play it on a cookie sheet for added support.  Cover with tinfoil and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 to 60 minutes (until everything is heated completely, cheese is melted and zucchini is softened).   Take out of oven and let stand for about 15 minutes, then serve and ENJOY!

Okay - so this one isn't so quick and easy, but it surely isn't difficult either!  =D

You will need:

2 pounds ground meat (hamburger, turkey burger, sausage, or other)
2 large zucchini or several smaller zucchini
3 tablespoons granulated garlic
2 tablespoons dried oregano
3 tablespoons dried diced onions
1 large jar gluten-free spaghetti sauce of your choice
about 1 pound cheese (more or less depending on your family's tastes)

Quick & Easy Homemade Hummus

My family really enjoys snacking on hummus.  Sometimes my girls have even eaten hummus and tortilla chips for lunch! Since garbanzo beans (or chickpeas) are like tiny little SUPER beans, I can say that I don't mind them munching on hummus all day long if they wanted to.  :)  Here's a great link if you are interested in learning more about garbanzo beans: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=58  (I am in NO way affiliated with this website, make no claim to it at all, I just have enjoyed using it as a research point and thought I'd share it with you.)

So here is our super easy, super yummy hummus recipe:

about 1 1/2 cups dry garbanzo beans (soak and prepare as recommended)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup roasted red bell pepper (we just toss a red bell pepper onto the grill for a bit, rotating, and then chop it up)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I like natural peanut butters, but you can use whatever you like best)
1/4 - 1/3 cup real lemon juice
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 drops doTerra cilantro essential oil (or if you prefer you can use about 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro)

I toss everything except the olive oil into a food processor (you could use a heavy duty blender if you have that instead) and mix on high until it looks fairly creamy.  Then I drizzly the olive oil in as it mixes and then keep mixing until it looks like hummus to you!  :)  We like our hummus super creamy, so I usually mix until everything is smooth and creamy.  If you like more of a chunky hummus, don't mix as long.

ENJOY!

Quinoa Veggie Soup

You may or may not have noticed, I changed the name of the blog to Easy Gluten Free Meals & Slow Cooker Dinners.  I have been wanting to post some of the quick and easy ways I feed my family, but some of them are not slow cooker recipes.  So now I am going to be posting more recipes, all of them are quick and easy, but not all of them are for your slow cooker.

Tonight we are having Quinoa and veggie soup.

1 tablespoon olive oil
2/3 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 carrots, peeled and thin sliced
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped (the food processor makes quick work of this)
4 cloves garlic, minced (food processor makes quick work of this one too)
5 cups gluten-free free-range chicken stock
3 1/2 cups hot water
2 large tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
salt/pepper to taste



In a large pot (stock pot), heat the olive oil on medium-high heat until hot but not smoking.  Stir in carrots, zucchini, celery, onion, and garlic.  Saute for one minute, then reduce heat to low - cover and cook about 20 minutes.

Add the quinoa, chicken stock, water, and tomatoes.  Bring to boil, then lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the quinoa is tender.

Serve in bowls w/spoons.  ;-)   Salt and pepper to taste.