GFCF Kitchen / SAD Favorites

So, the standard American diet… hamburgers and fries.  Chicken Casseroles made with cream of xyz soup,  lasagna, enchiladas, sandwiches, chicken noodle soup, chicken fingers… All the things we learned to cook growing up in the 80’s and 90’s and now our kids can’t eat them.  What to do?

I don’t particularly like most premade gluten or casein free products.  They’re generally gross.  There are a few that Dominic likes, tho, and we intersperse them occasionally to help make some of those old favorites that just don’t work anymore.    They are:

Rudi’s gluten free bread

Daiya “cheese”
Glutino pretzels and crackers
Ancient Harvests Quinoa Pasta

So here’s how I’d re-vision each of the above meals, at home in a Dominic safe manner:

Hamburgers and fries – serve the hamburger without a bun (or on Rudi’s GF Bread) with Orieda crunchy tatertots.  That particular brand and type of tatertos are  made with cornmeal instead of flour as the binder and as such are gluten free.

Heinz ketchup is gluten free, but it is laden with corn syrup which is a bad thing. So I suggest making your own

Casseroles made with cream of XYZ Soup:  Instead of putting the meat, starch, and veg together and gluing them together with soup, cook them separately.  Have Roasted chicken leg quarters (toss with salt, pepper, garlic, maybe some chipotle then  roast at 350 until you get an internal temp of 165) with a side of brown rice that you’ve cooked in chicken broth and topped with toasted almonds and a steamed green vegetable.

Lasagna:  Use Rice pasta lasagna noodles instead of gluten noodles.  For the filling, you go mostly ground meat and thawed frozen chopped spinach with a little (like 30% of the total) Daiya mozza flavored shreds.  Layer as per usual lasagna and bake at 350 until done.   If you don’t like Daiya (I personally don’t, but Dominic does), then my suggestion is mix the meat, spinach,  and sauce together and serve over GF spaghetti instead.

Enchiladas:  Make your own sauce – nothing in a can for our kids.    Here’re some options. 

Layer in a pan sauce, lightly fried corn tortillas, browned meat/onion mixture. Daiya cheddar shreds (optional), sauce and repeat until the pan is full.  Cook at 350 until bubbly.

Sandwiches: Leave the bread off and roll the meat around some raw veggies (red bell peppers are great here) and then wrap that all in lettuce and use the Mayo/Mustard as a dip.  Only use real mayonnaise (we like best foods) because the low fat or miracle whip stuff is full of gluten and other garbage.

Chicken Noodle Soup: Leave all “flavor packets” on the shelf in the grocery store. They are all full of MSG (hiding as “natural flavors”) and other nasties.   Take the broth that you made and froze and thaw it.  In the mean time, mince up onion, celery, carrots (and any other veggie you want) and get them sautéing in a pan with olive oil.  Add the broth, shredded chicken from your freezer stash and a handful of quinoa or wild rice or diced potatoes.  Bring to a simmer and let it go until the starch is taste tender.  Add salt, pepper and any other spice that makes you happy.  

Chicken fingers (really anything breaded and fried):  Grind up Glutino Pretzels (or toasted rudi’s gf bread or cornmeal) in the food processor or blender until they are a fine powder.  Put them in a bowl.  Grind a second batch slightly coarser and put in another bowl.  Make an egg wash (1 egg beaten with 2tb or so water).  Season all three with salt and pepper heavily.  Season your chicken tenders (or other protein) with salt and pepper.  Dip in the fine crumbs, the egg, the coarse crumbs, and then put into hot oil and fry until done.   Alternatively, you can put them on a rack over a cookie sheet and bake them until done but the breading won’t stick as well.