This hearty bowl of soup is absolutely loaded in vegetables - perfect if you need to use up any leftover vegetables in the fridge. Really, any vegetable can work nicely in this recipe. Once a few of the vegetables are sauted, it all goes into a slow cooker to cook throughout the day until dinner time.

We usually have healthy delicious bone broth in the freezer, so once a week we put together a hearty soup of some kind - tasty and nutritious.

2 Tblsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped carrots - cut small

3/4 cup chopped celery with leaves - cut small

1/2 cup diced red or green pepper

2 minced garlic cloves

1 1/2 cups chopped cauliflower cut into 1 inch pieces

1 small yellow or green zucchini - chopped into quarters

14 oz. can of diced tomatoes including juice

4 cups chicken or turkey bone broth

1 cup chopped red Swiss Chard, include the stems

1 cup chopped beets (I used canned)

1 tsp. tumeric

2 tsp. cumin

salt and pepper to taste

2/3  cup French Puy Lentils - rinsed

2 Tblsp. lime juice - add at the end of cooking time

Heat up a frying pan with the EVOO on low medium heat.  Add the onions, carrots, celery, peppers and saute until the onions begin to get translucent.  Add in the seasonings, saute another 2 minutes or until fragrant.

Transfer to the slow cooker with all of the other ingredients (except the lime juice), stir to combine and set on low for 6- 8 hours or until the lentils and vegetables are cooked.  When done, squeeze in the fresh lime juice.

Can you believe I have never made pulled pork?  My sister makes it all the time as does my daughter - they love it.  This is a great recipe for lunch or dinner served on a bun with coleslaw.

With this recipe I did wing it a bit, as I was short on time - it turned out wonderful.  Also we used wraps as that is what we had on hand.

What we did was use up some crunchy left over salad, grated cheese then made a quick dressing:

The dressing is simply store bought blue cheese dressing with added White Balsamic Dressing to drizzle over the top, this was divine.  Very messy, but divine.

2 1/2 lb.  boneless pork butt or shoulder roast

dry rub:

1 Tblsp. Chili powder

1 Tblsp. Garlic powder

1 tsp. Cumin, 1 tsp. Smoked Paprika

salt and pepper

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and sprinkle through out the roast, rubbing it in really well.

Place into a 4 quart slow cooker on high.  Place some onion slices around the bottom of the slow cooker.

Sauce:

1 Tblsp. Ketchup

1 Tblsp. Yellow Mustard

1 Tblsp. Worcestershire Sauce

2 tsp. tomato powder - optional

2 Tblsp. Apple Cider Vinegar

Mix up the sauce ingredients and pour over the roast.  Add 1/4 cup water to the bottom of the slow cooker.

Cook on high for 2 hours, then turn to low for another 3-4 hours of cooking.  Ours was done in 3 hrs, super tender.  Or alternatively cook on low 6-8 hours.

For the wraps, lightly heat in a cast iron pan, lay down the pulled pork, cheddar cheese, salad or coleslaw, and a drizzle of dressing.  Wrap up and eat hot - so so yummy!

Pancakes are a huge love of mine.  There are a number of pancake recipes on my blog - and yes, they work and they are good.  But these pancakes?  Hands down the best we have had yet.  For the basic pancake recipe, I followed some guidelines in this recipe here.  Thank you Lynn's Kitchen Adventures!

I knew I wanted to incorporate cottage cheese into the recipe, so I made a few changes.

Now a word about cottage cheese.  I did not use your everyday store bought cottage cheese.  Why?  They are filled with gums:  guar gum, locust bean gum, and mono and diglycerides.  No thank you.

I used dry cottage cheese curds - plain and simple with no additives.

That said, because they are dry, I had to add moisture in the form of plain yogurt and milk.  Also, I made the cottage cheese mixture up the night before.  Some of the cottage cheese will absorb some of the milk and yogurt over night.

Cottage Cheese Mix: (make the night before and keep in the refrigerator until the next morning)

3/4 cup dry curd cottage cheese - you can also use less, then add more milk

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/4-1/2 cup milk of choice

In a small blender combine the cottage cheese, yogurt and milk, and pulse to get a good consistency - you want smaller lumps of the cottage cheese to remain.

The next morning give it a good stir and transfer to a glass measuring cup.  To this add enough milk to reach the 2 cup level, and stir to combine, then set aside.

Recipe:

2 large eggs

4 Tblsp. Avocado Oil

2 cups cottage cheese, yogurt, milk mixture

2 Tblsp. maple syrup

3/4 cup brown rice flour

3/4 cup white rice flour

1/2 cup potato starch

1/3 cup tapioca starch

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

good pinch of salt

In a bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together.  In another bowl add the eggs, oil, and maple syrup - whisk well till frothy.  Then combine the cottage cheese mixture into the egg mixture stirring well.  Add the dry mixture to the wet and mix to incorporate.

Heat up a cast iron pan with a good drizzle of Avocado oil.  My pans on my stove take a good 6-7 minutes to properly heat - each stove is different, but key here is a properly heated pan.  Using a ladle, add the batter to the pan.  When it is nice and bubbly throughout, flip to the other side.  My ladle was fairly large and we got 8 pancakes in total.

See how nice and fluffy?

Serve hot with butter and maple syrup or syrup of choice.

These can be kept in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.  Reheat in a 350 degree oven on a rack lightly covered in foil for about 12-14 minutes.

 

This recipe is not your everyday sweet and sour pork.  Nope, the number one reason being, is most recipes use pineapple and or pineapple juice to make the sweet and sour sauce.  I on the other hand am very particular about pineapple.  I love love pineapple, but, only fresh or frozen thawed, and preferably in a smoothie, or a fruit salad.  That would be it. Therefore, this recipe is different.  It also does not have any added sweetener other than the ketchup - which works well here, and was mighty tasty.  Plus one more ingredient my sister introduced me to:  Organic Tomato Powder. It is wonderful in all kinds of main dish recipes, salad dressings, and overall a good flavour enhancer.  It is an optional ingredient so no worries if you do not have tomato powder.

1 lb. pork tenderloin, cut into cubes

2 Tblsp. Avocado Oil

3/4 cup roughly chopped orange and green peppers

1/4 of a large red onion, roughly chopped

2 minced garlic cloves

3/4 cups chopped broccoli

1 1/2 stalks of celery, cut in half, and then cut diagonally

3 Tblsp. ginger finely minced

fresh cracked pepper

Sauce:

1/2 cup of ketchup

1/4 cup plus 2 Tblsp. Soy Sauce

2 Tblsp. toasted sesame oil

2 Tsp. organic tomato powder (optional)

1 Tblsp. garlic powder

1/4 cup water - to add to the crock pot after all the ingredients have been added.

Corn starch slurry:  1 Tblsp. corn starch, 2 Tblsp. water - mixed

cooked rice

Begin by adding all the sauce ingredients to a bowl (except the 1/4 cup water) Whisk well and set aside.

Cut up the pork tenderloin into cubes, and add to a skillet, heated on medium high with the Avocado oil.  I cooked the pork in batches just to get a nice brown colour on the meat, a few minutes each side.

While the pork is cooking chop up your vegetables and minced ginger then put aside. Add the browned pork to the slow cooker, then your veggies and ginger, then pour over the sauce.  Pour over the 1/4 cup water cover and cook on low for 5- 6 hours. 10 minutes before serving, pour in the cornstarch slurry, stirring to thicken the sauce.  Serve hot over cooked rice.

Our local grocery store had ground sausage meat for sale - something we had not seen before.  There are many pre made breakfast sausage meats available, but I have always shied away from them due to questionable ingredients.  So when we saw ground sausage meat available we decided to make our own and turn it into an English Muffin breakfast sandwich, which turned out great.

Once the spices were mixed into the sausage meat, we refrigerated the meat for 2 hours so the flavours could come together.  We used enough to make 3 English Muffin breakfast sandwiches, then froze the rest of the sausage to have for other days.

1 1/4 lb. ground sausage meat

1 1/2 tsp. dried powdered sage

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

1/2 tsp. ground mace

1 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1 1/2 tsp. paprika

salt and fresh cracked pepper

Gluten Free English Muffins

Additional ingredients:  cheddar cheese, fried eggs, mayonnaise, hot sauce - whatever other toppings you prefer.

Add the ground sausage meat to a bowl, followed by all of the spices.  Mix well and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Place the meat onto a baking tray, and using clean hands, spread out to a thin size then use a cup or glass to cut out rounds of the sausage meat.

Heat up a skillet or cast iron pan with a drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on medium heat.  Cook the sausage - these took about 6-7 minutes, in total.

Then fry your eggs to your liking with a sprinkling of green onion.

Lightly toast your English Muffin, adding the cheddar cheese and any condiments of your choice.  Top with the breakfast sausage followed by the fried eggs.

This post is really not a recipe, but more of a reminder to myself on how to create a most delightful gluten free pizza using simple leftover ingredients that are in your fridge and freezer.

On that note:  I have to comment here.  We love love Udi's brands of hamburger buns, pizza crust, their french bread is divine, dinner rolls, and the list goes on!  For whatever reason that we know nothing about, we can no longer get Udi's brand of gluten free products where I live in B.C. Canada.  I have tried researching, but come up empty handed.  This has led me to believe they no longer offer their gluten free products in Canada.  It has been about 2 years now at least, perhaps longer.

Where have you gone Udi's?  We love love you!

Luckily I still had a couple of packs of pizza's in the freezer, and 2 years later they were still delicious.  There are other GF brands out there that are great....we just love Udi's, sigh.

Then on another note:  Where has this been all of my life?

This hand held Oxo grater is heaven...and guess what?  I found it in a second hand store for $1.50, can you believe it???  This grater is so easy to use, makes no mess - amazing for grating small pieces of cheese.

So, now onto the method for this most delicious pizza.

We had 1 frozen, thawed rotisserie chicken breast, 12-14 Tblsp. marinara I doctored up with pizza seasonings, about 2 Tblsp. chopped fresh basil, one small yellow zucchini, (slightly wrinkled), and a few Tblsp. of jarred pesto sauce.

If you read my blog you will know, we do not waste food - ever.  So when we throw together a recipe with remaining ingredients that need to be used up we will always go that route.  And this was a very, very, delightful pizza indeed.

Method:

2 Gluten Free pizza crusts - 8-9 inch in size

1 leftover cooked chicken breast - cut into 1/2 inch pieces

12-14 Tblsp. basil marinara sauce - we sprinkled in garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and fennel powder

2-3 Tblsp. fresh chopped basil

4-5 Tblsp. basil pesto

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

2 Tblsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 small yellow zucchini, sliced thin, sliced in half

2/3-3/4 cup grated feta cheese

sprinkling of fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Cut up your veggies, mix the chicken with pesto, mix any spices & chopped basil with the marinara, grate your cheeses and set aside.

Heat up a pan with the EVOO on low medium heat and saute the onion and green pepper until slightly soft - about 4 min.  Then add in the sliced zucchini, continue to saute another 3-4 min.  Turn off the heat, and toss the chicken bits in scattered throughout the pan lid on.  Let sit for about 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, place your pizza crust onto a pan and spread on your marinara sauce  followed by the veggie chicken mixture, then sprinkle on the feta and Parmesan cheeses.

Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until the cheeses are melting and pizza is cooked.

While we may no longer be able to get Udi's pizza crusts, we will make this pizza again with another brand.  But dang! We miss Udi's!

 

 

This is a versatile recipe in terms of seasonings, cast iron pan, and method.  I was not sure how this would turn out, but am happy to say it was yummy.

Here we used the cast iron Kadhai, but a good cast iron skillet is fine to use too.  In terms of vegetables you can use what you have on hand.  Here we used potatoes, shallot, carrots, broccoli, green pepper.

With the seasonings, again you can use what suits your taste.  We used my all purpose season blend, salt and pepper - and a new spice to us:  Mace.  Mace is an old fashioned spice quite like nutmeg, I believe it is the outer shell/casing of nutmeg?  It was used in the early 16th 17th centuries throughout Europe, particularly in Britain.  It is wonderful on vegetables, and particularly potato dishes, and of course a great spice in desserts. It really added a wonderful depth of flavour to the dish.

In terms of the sausage we used Gluten Free English Banger sausages, but again, use what suits your taste.

2 Tblsp. Avocado Oil

2 cups cut up potatoes - we used baby gems cut small

1 1/2 cups fresh chopped vegetables - shallot, broccoli, carrots, green pepper - cut small

5 Gluten Free English Banger sausages

liberal sprinkling of your favourite season blend, salt and pepper to taste, 1/2 tsp. Mace

1/8th cup of water

Add your potatoes to a bowl and add the seasonings, salt and pepper and a good drizzle of Avocado oil.  Toss to coat well.

Heat up the Kadhai or cast iron pan with the Avocado oil on medium heat until nicely heated.  Add in your sausages and cook till nicely browned - about 15 minutes, then place in a 300 degree oven to keep warm while the rest of the meal is cooked.

Add your potatoes to the heated pan, and meanwhile add your vegetables to the same bowl the potatoes were in and toss to coat.

After 3-4 minutes, stir, toss the potatoes then add in your vegetables.

Put a lid on the pan.  From here on you will toss/stir the potatoes and vegetables about every 4 minutes returning the lid to the pan for a good 15 minutes.  Near the 15 min. mark add 1/8th cup of water to the pan and cook the vegetable another 5 minutes until tender. Plate the sausages with the potatoes and vegetables surrounding the sausages, serve while hot.

With a little pre-prep, Chicken tacos with fresh Pico de Gallo is a quick, tasty dinner that comes together in no time at all.  It would also be lovely with fresh cod.  The amounts here can certainly be doubled to feed a bigger group.  You can also used store bought taco seasoning, this one below gave extra special flavours with the chipotle chili powder and smoked paprika.

Here we used corn tacos, but any tortilla can work nicely too.

Taco Seasoning mix:

1 Tblsp. chili powder, garlic powder

1 1/4 tsp. cumin

1/4 tsp. chipotle chili powder

1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

1 lb. chicken breast or tenders cut into small 1 inch pieces

salt to taste

2 Tblsp. Extra Virgin Olive oil

1 Tblsp. Taco Seasoning mix - sprinkle over the chicken toss well to coat, and refrigerate 1 - 2 hrs.

Pico de Gallo:

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

1 large roma tomato, finely chopped

1/4 of a large green pepper finely chopped (can used jalapeno included if you want extra heat)

handful of chopped cilantro

juice of 1 lime

Chipotle Chili Sauce:

2 Tblsp. Mayonnaise

1 Tblsp. plain yogurt

1/8 tsp. Chipotle Chili

Additional toppings:

chopped avocado, chopped lettuce, grated cheddar cheese

Add all of the Pico de Gallo ingredients to a bowl, mix well and refrigerate - at least 2 hrs. ahead of time.

Mix chipotle chili sauce ingredients in a bowl, and keep in refrigerator till needed.

Add 1 Tblsp. of the taco seasoning to the chicken tossing well to coat, and refrigerate 1-2 hours.

Heat up a pan with the EVOO on medium heat.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees to warm up the taco shells for 10 minutes, or until heated through.

Add the chicken to the heated pan and cook through - about 8 minutes.

Add the chicken to your taco, followed by pico de gallo, cheddar cheese, lettuce, avocado and a drizzle of the Chipotle Chili sauce.