Gluten-free | Eat Your Heart Out

Coconut Rice Pudding

March 11, 2013 by Stephie 13 Comments

I have a confession to make: My new job is making me lazy.

Exhibit A: After being on my feet for 8 hours, I come home exhausted. Doing anything aside from collapsing in bed sounds like a monumental feat. And that’s if I haven’t gone to the gym after work. Phew.

Exhibit B: Due to where our store is located, we are required to wear hats. In case you couldn’t figure out where this is going…washing my hair has become a rarity. Forget two-day hair. We’re lookin’ at four-day hair. At least.

Exhibit C: I can’t tell you the last time I wore jeans. It’s either my uniform, workout clothes, or yoga pants (if any). I had to go to an event the other day around real people, thus requiring me to put on polite-company clothes. I dealt by wearing black pants that look cute and borderline dressy, but feel like leggings. Jeans were just too much to handle.

Basically, I am one cat and a mumbling-to-myself habit away from being that lady that mothers direct their small children away from at the grocery store.

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Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: Baked goods, coconut, dairy-free, Dessert, Gluten-free, pudding, Rice

Easy Meaty Spaghetti Sauce

February 20, 2013 by Stephie 4 Comments

Remember earlier this week when I told you to hang on to your sloppy joe leftovers? Now you find out why!

Growing up, my mom would often make sloppy joes for dinner one night, and then the next night would turn the leftovers into spaghetti sauce. This is a great way to re-purpose leftovers – it is quick, easy, can be done ahead of time if needed, freezes well, and keeps you from eating exactly the same thing multiple nights in a row!
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Filed Under: Main dish, Pasta Tagged With: Gluten-free, Main dish, Pasta, Quick and easy, sauce, tomatoes

Sloppy Joes

February 18, 2013 by Stephie 12 Comments

I feel like sloppy joes are one of those overlooked comfort foods. I mean, they certainly don’t upstage foods like mashed potatoes or mac and cheese or chicken pot pie (read: carb overload foods), but they do deserve a comfort food mention. Your mom probably made them on weeknights while you were growing up, maybe accompanied by some homemade french fries or corn-on-the-cob (depending on the season). Sloppy joes just take me back to my childhood.

And do you know why your mom made sloppy joes on weeknights? Because they are so dang quick and easy. The most time consuming part of this whole process is browning your ground beef (or feel free to lighten things up with some ground turkey). Once you do that, you throw in the other ingredients and let everything simmer for just a bit until the sauce thickens up to your liking.

Once you make these, hang on to the leftovers, because later this week I will be giving you my mom’s favorite quick-and-easy way to re-purpose those sloppy joes!

Adapted from Better Homes and Garden

Sloppy Joes

Yield: About 6 servings

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 small onion
2 large carrots
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons rolled oats
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ cup water
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Peel the carrots and onions. Cut each into several large pieces, then pulse in a food processor until finely diced. You don’t want a puree situation on your hands – just a very fine dice.
Place the onion and carrot mixture in a large pan with the ground beef. Cook over high heat until the beef is cooked through. Remove from heat and drain the fat. Return the meat and vegetable mixture to the pan. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer over medium-low heat, uncovered, for about 30 minutes or until desired consistency.

Filed Under: Main dish, Sandwiches Tagged With: beef, Gluten-free, Main dish, Quick and easy, Sandwich

Maple Granola with Pomegranate and Honeyed Greek Yogurt

January 9, 2013 by Stephie 12 Comments

This is the time of year when I start to feel a little sorry for myself whenever I walk through the produce section at the grocery store.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy citrus and apples as much as anyone else, but I always still miss the beautiful fruits of summer.

But the one piece of winter produce that I just can’t get enough of? Pomegranates. They’re just so beautiful, bright and fun.

So when my friends over at Chobani sent me a case of their 2% and 0% plain Greek yogurt, I knew I wanted to use it with some of those beautiful pomegranates I’ve been obsessing over.

Tangy, honeyed Greek yogurt. Sweet and crunch maple granola. Bright, tart pomegranate. That’s a breakfast that will make you feel good without feeling like you’ve over-indulged.

Ps – Did you know that there’s a super-simple trick for seeding pomegranates without making an enormous mess? Quarter the pomegranate. Fill a bowl with cold water. Then seed the pomegranate quarters under the water. The seeds will fall to the bottom while the pith floats to the top. So easy!

Granola adapted from White Jacket Required.

Maple Granola with Pomegranate and Honeyed Greek Yogurt

Yield: About 6 cups of granola

Ingredients

For the granola:

1 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2½ cups rolled oats
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup ground flax seed
½ cup slivered almonds
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Sprinkle of sea salt

For the rest:

1 6-ounce container plain Greek yogurt (low or non-fat)
2 tablespoons honey
Seeds of 1 large pomegranate

Instructions

Make the granola:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a large baking sheet or line with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, combine the maple syrup and coconut oil. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the rest of the granola ingredients. Drizzle with the hot syrup mixture and stir well to coat.
Spread granola on the prepared baking sheet and bake, stirring every 5-7 minutes, until the granola is golden, about 20 minutes. Let cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Assemble:

Combine the Greek yogurt with 1-2 tablespoons of honey, or to taste. Top with some of the granola and the pomegranate seeds.

Filed Under: Breakfast, Snacks Tagged With: Almonds, Breakfast, Gluten-free, granola, Greek yogurt, Healthy, Oats, Pecans, Snacks, Vegetarian

Spinach and Kale Pesto

January 7, 2013 by Stephie 13 Comments

I’m trying to watch The Bachelor while I write this.

Scratch that. I’m trying to write this while I watch The Bachelor.

I’m sorry if images of Sean with his shirt off cause me to not be quite as articulate as normal.

In fact, you know what? Let’s just get to the recipe.

What we’ve got here is a gorgeous, down-to-earth guy…oh wait. That’s Sean again. Crap.

Ok, seriously. This pesto is delicious, but packed with healthy, nutrient-packed spinach and kale. Use it as you would any other pesto! In fact, my friend Stef has a great way for you to use it on some roasted potatoes. (And no, we did not confer about our kale pesto-making ahead of time.)

Have some pesto left over? Store it in an airtight container and store it in the freezer. When you’re ready to use it again, just thaw it out and you’ll be ready to go.

Spinach and Kale Pesto

Yield: Over 1 cup of pesto

Ingredients

2 cups chopped kale, stems removed
2 cups spinach
1-2 cloves garlic
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
¼ cup toasted, slivered almonds
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the kale and cook for 1 minute. Immediately drain and dunk into ice-cold water to halt the cooking. Drain and wring out any excess water.
In a food processor, combine the kale, spinach, garlic, cheese and almonds. Pulse to combine. While the machine is running, stream in the olive oil, adding a little more until you reach your desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste, and pulse to combine again.