Creamy Beef Stroganoff

So, I'm not a big mushroom fan and I don't actually substitute sour cream in this recipe, so you may not think this tastes anything like beef stroganoff, but I actually like it better than regular beef stroganoff.  You can also replace the beef with your favorite vegetables.

Ingredients:

1 T butter substitute optional (I only use this because I use a very lean, organic meat, which can stick to the pan because there's not much fat)
1 lb ground beef
1-2 boxes of Schar Fusili Gluten-Free Pasta (we feed a bunch of Samoans around here, so we cook 2 boxes, and I like leftovers)
1 med sweet onion, diced
3-6 T So Delicious French Vanilla Coconut Creamer
4-8 T Tofutti Plain Cream Cheese
4-8 T spaghetti sauce
1/4-1/2 C Blue Diamond Sweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
1/2-1 C Daiya Mozzarella Shreds (optional)
1 t Mrs. Dash original
Franch

The large variations are because I made this for my first time tonight using approximately the smaller of the 2 listed measurements, and it tasted delicious, but it wasn't incredibly saucy.  It was more meaty.  I'm guessing that if you would like it more saucy that doubling the liquid ingredients would work just fine.

Directions:

Boil enough water for your 1-2 boxes of Schar fusili noodles. Heat butter substitute in pan, or spray pan or cook with a fatty hunk of meat.  I started with a lb of frozen ground beef and shredded each side off as it browned until the whole hunk of meat was cooked through.
Once water is boiling, add noodles and stir often.  Drain when tender.
When meat is thoroughly cooked, add So Delicious French Vanilla Coconut Creamer and the Tofutti Cream Cheese.  When these have cooked down into the meat, add the spaghetti sauce and Almond Milk.  I listed the Daiya shreds as optional because I intended to add some to my recipe tonight, but forgot to.  It tasted delicious without it, but I think it would be nice to add it sometime too.  Sprinkle the Mrs. Dash to taste, about 1 t or so.  Dish meat sauce on top of noodles.
You can also add a dallop of "Franch" on top to make it even creamier.  It was SO good!  I even ate it out of the pan cold when cleaning up dinner later and it was still delicious!  And, if you prefer a more traditional Stroganoff, throw some mushrooms in if it makes you happy.  Enjoy!

Ranch Seasonings

If you regularly make your own "Franch" like I do, you may want to keep some pre-made ranch seasonings on hand.  Or, after a while you will just start shaking seasonings into your creamy Franch base and season to taste.  But until then, this is a good basic ranch seasoning recipe.

Ranch Seasonings

Ingredients:

• 1 T dried parsley , crushed
• 1 t dried dill weed
• 1 t onion powder
• 1 t dried onion flakes
• 1 t salt
• ½-1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground pepper

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender.  Blend at high speed until smooth.
2. If you want to use this to make Franch combine about 2-3 T of mix with vegenaise/coconut milk mixture.
   
   
   Otherwise use 1 tablespoon in any recipe calling for an envelope of ranch dressing mix.

Dairy-Free Ranch Dressing AKA "FRANCH"

My husband lovingly adds an F to everything I make that isn't the "real" version of the meal, meaning what he grew up eating.  F could possibly mean a few things, but it when it comes to his descriptions of my food, it generally means "fake," or at least that's what he tells me.  So, this super creamy, delicious and amazingly simple to make dairy-free ranch dressing is known in our home as "Franch."

Ingredients:

1 large jar of Grapeseed Vegenaise with the purple lid
 (can be found at Sprouts, Whole Foods, or most health-minded stores)
2 C of coconut milk or So Delicious Coconut Creamer (In original or french vanilla, or a combination of these) or Vanilla Almond or Rice milk*
2-3 T of Ranch Seasoning Mix
1 T lemon juice (optional- creates a buttermilk sort of flavor)

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, whisk all the ingredients together.  You will want to use a rubber spatula to scrape out the inside of the Vegenaise jar and scoop it into the bowl.  If you prefer a thinner/runnier ranch dressing, then use the Vanilla Almond or Rice milk.  If you like it a tad bit thicker, then use regular coconut milk.  If you like it really creamy so it can be used as a thick dressing or even a dip, use the So Delicious Coconut Creamer.  The French Vanilla flavor makes a very sweet sort of flavor while the Original flavor makes a truer ranch taste.  If you want to make it more like buttermilk ranch, then add some lemon juice.
Whisk all the ingredients until smooth and then pour back into Vegenaise jar.  You will have leftovers, which I usually put in a mason jar or tupperware container.  It lasts in the fridge for a few weeks.  If it starts to separate in the jar, just shake it up before serving.

*Note - I usually pour some rice milk into the jar, maybe 1-2 T of rice milk, close the lid and shake it up and then pour that into the dressing mix as well.  It helps clean out the jar a little and thins the dressing just a bit.

Savory Stuffing (gluten-free and vegetarian)

This stuffing recipe is a combination of a few different recipes I've tried.  The most important element of this stuffing is using a tasty gluten-free bread.  If you have not yet found a tasty gluten-free bread, you can make your own with this 5-star rated recipe for Gluten-Free Walnut Rosemary Bread.  I'm not a big baker, so I have not yet tried making the bread.  We buy bread from Papa's Cookies, a local baker who sells gluten-free bread for $4.25/loaf.  But someday I'll try to bake my own.  If you use the recipe for the walnut rosemary bread, let me know how it turns out!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 large yellow onions or 3 medium onions (diced)
• 1 stick butter (or the equivalent amount of butter substitute for dairy free
• 4-6 peeled and diced carrots (approx 4 C diced small)
• 4-6 stalks of celery, diced (approx 3 C diced small)
• 2 t garlic powder
• 1 t onion powder
• 1 T thyme (dried)
• 2 T sage (dried)
• 1/2 t pepper
• 12-16 slices (about 10 C) of your favorite gluten-free bread (cubed and dried out-see directions below)
• 1 1/2 C golden raisins*
• 1 1/2 C craisins*
• 2 C vegetable broth OR water

*You may want to soak the raisins and craisins in water to soften before adding to stuffing.  Be sure to drain them before adding them if you choose to soak them.

To Dry Out Bread:

Pre-heat oven to 350º

Tear bread into small cubes

Bake for about 12 min, until cubes are dry, but NOT brown.  Let cool.

Directions:

In large pot, melt butter on medium low heat.  Sweat onions  until translucent but not brown.

Take T of thyme and rub in hands over pot until flavor is released.

Add diced carrots and diced celery.  Add garlic, onion, sage, and pepper or season veggies to taste. Cook until your desired state of tenderness.

When veggies are almost done, add 2 C broth OR 2 C water.  Add stuffing and/or bread cubes and stir constantly.  Add oil.  Keep stirring.  If stuffing looks dry, add broth (or water) slowly, up to about 1/2 C more.  Too much liquid will make it too soggy.  Add raisins and craisins, and keep stirring.  Put lid on pot and remove from heat for 5-10 min.  Serve and enjoy!

Coconut-y Creamed Corn

By now, if you've looked at any of my other recipes, you're probably wondering what my obsession is with coconuts.  Well, I explain my obsession in more detail here, but for now, just know that I use coconut milk regularly and for good reason.  It's rich, creamy, and full of healthy fats and it makes this creamed corn concoction SO TASTY!!


Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion or 1 small onion, diced (I use a sweet yellow onion)
• 1 T coconut oil (or 1 T butter/butter substitute)
• 2 pinches sea salt
• 3 C frozen organic (non-GMO) corn
• 1 t rosemary
• 1 T palm sugar (or your sweetener of choice)
• 1/4 t turmeric
• 2 T Pamela's gluten-free cornbread (straight out of the bag, not prepared)
• 1 C canned coconut milk, or So Delicious coconut milk, or, for Thanksgiving I used So Delicious French Vanilla Coconut Creamer and holy cow it was GOOD, if you like it a little sweeter.  Their original So Delicious Coconut Creamer would also be great.
• Pepper to Taste
• 1/4 t garlic powder (NOT garlic salt)

In a saucepan over medium heat, sweat the onion in butter and salt until translucent.  (I learned the term sweat on some other blog.  I think it sounds a little gross.  But maybe it's conventional cooking terminology, so I thought I'd use it here.)

Add the corn and cook over medium high until the corn is fully cooked. Add the rosemary and garlic. Sprinkle the corn with the sugar and turmeric. Stir constantly for about 2 minutes. Sprinkle the Pamela's cornbread mix onto the corn, using a whisk to combine well. Add the coconut milk or creamer and cook until thick, about 2-5 min. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

Stir-Fry Fabulous

One challenge about needing to eat gluten-free is that I can no longer go to my favorite Chinese Buffet where their soy sauce is laced with gluten.  Why?  Why is it there?  I don't know why soy sauce makers insist on adding gluten to something that should be naturally gluten free and why it's more expensive to buy soy sauce without gluten, though it actually has less ingredients.  But anyway, with this little recipe, I'm still able to get my stir-fry fix and I hope you enjoy it as well!

Ingredients (serves 4-6*)
* If you read my about me, you will have noticed that my husband is half Samoan.  I am not making a blanket generalization about Polynesians, or Samoans, but I will say that many of the Samoans in my life are very talented at eating.  So what does serves 4-6 really mean?  It means my husband, our 2 girls, my husband's uncle, and I can eat it and sometimes we have leftovers and sometimes we don't.

Pick your favorite stir fry veggies.  I do not use the same veggies all the time.  But I will list the most common veggies I use.  And my husband hates bell peppers, so they are not included, but would be if he did not loathe them.

broccoli (approx 2 heads, cut to your liking)
cauliflower (approx 1/2 head, cut to your liking)
carrots (diced or sliced, about 2 C worth)
1 small sweet onion ( I chop these as small as my can so my daughter can't pick them out of her food)
2 cans water chestnuts drained (sliced or whole, your preference)
1 can baby corn drained
1 T coconut oil
Noodles (if you want a heavier noodle, like a lo mein, use a Quinoa spaghetti noodle, if you want a lighter noodle, use bean thread, available in Asian sections of grocery stores)  Also, follow directions on packaging for cooking and for serving size and cook how much you want to make.  I usually use 2 bean thread bunches (my packs have 2-3 square bunches in them) or 2  8oz boxes of Quinoa spaghetti noodles
1/2 - 1 can coconut milk or 1-2 C So Delicious Coconut Milk (or other milk of choice but the coconut lends itself well to this great asian style dish)

Teriyaki Sauce:
1 C gluten free soy sauce
1/2 C raw honey
1/2 C oil (sunflower, or something similar)
2 cloves of garlic (or powder equivalent)
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp black pepper

I steam the raw veggies first to get them to my desired state of tenderness.  While my veggies are steaming, I cook the noodles.

When veggies are close to desired tenderness, I transfer them to a very large skillet or a very large pot with the T of coconut oil.  If you're not dairy free, you can use butter.  You do not really need to season your veggies because the soy sauce mixture will add the flavor.

Add the canned water chestnuts and baby corn to the skillet (these don't need to steam b/c they're already cooked)

Mix your teriyaki sauce in a separate bowl.  I usually do the oil before the honey, using the same measuring cup because the oil helps the honey not stick.  Mix it all together with a whisk, getting rid of any ginger clumps.

Drain your noodles when they're thoroughly cooked.  Add noodles to pan with veggies.  Add teriyaki sauce to veggies and mix together.  Add coconut milk 1/2 a cup at a time and taste in between.

Serve with Brown Rice Heaven for a very tasty and filling dinner.  It's ichiban when you're cho onaka ga sui desu!  (That means it's #1 when you're so hungry in Japanese.  Yeah, I studied Japanese for a year in college.  For some reason being able to say I'm so hungry was very important to me, because it's one of the few phrases I remember.)

Brown Rice Heaven

So, my half-Samoan husband was raised on white rice.  Lots and lots and lots of white rice.  He hated brown rice.  HATED brown rice.  I'd often ask him why he was racist against brown rice, since he's also brown, hoping to help him feel a common bond with the brown rice. ;) It never worked.  We all know brown rice is much healthier than white rice, so I persisted.  And one day, I came up with this recipe, which we now eat all the time.  Including my cute brown husband.  :)

PS - I have never cooked this in a pot.  I don't know the difference between cooking this in a pot vs cooking it in a rice cooker.  My first rice cooker had a button that said brown rice.  I'd push it and nearly 2 hours later, I'd have a big beautiful batch of brown rice heaven.  I now use a SaladMaster electric pot with 2 rice settings, rice 1 and rice 2.  Rice 2 is for brown rice.  It cooks much faster than my old rice cooker, about 40 minutes for brown rice heaven.

Ingredients:

(Double recipe as needed.)

2 C brown rice

2 C water

2 C coconut milk (for the coconut milk, I use So Delicious brand in vanilla or original, or 1 can of your favorite coconut milk.  If your can isn't quite 2 cups, then I add filler milk instead of opening another can.  For this I'll use vanilla rice milk or vanilla almond milk. But the rice and almond milk are frothier and might make your rice cooker boil over more easily.)

1 T honey (optional)

1 T butter/butter substitute/coconut oil (optional)

Some days I rinse my brown rice, some days I don't.  Haven't really noticed a difference.  I do use filtered water to cook in, though.  Our tap water tastes like dirt and I don't want my rice to taste like dirt.  I also have yet to try soaking my brown rice overnight, but I intend to, someday, when I think of what I want to eat the night before, and have time to do it, and don't get distracted by something else.  

Rinsed or not, I put the rice in the pot first and then add the water and coconut milk.  If you add the honey, stir it in so it doesn't just settle in one spot.  Butter/coconut oil will diffuse throughout while cooking.  This brown rice heaven is so delicious, you can eat it all on its own.  But that's not as fun as eating it with other yummy foods.  The coconut flavor is very mild and this rice lends itself as a great base to many different ethnic recipes, i.e. Asian, Mexican, Polynesian, Indian, etc.  It will become a staple in in cool households all over the world.  Enjoy!