Comfort Foods and simple suppers

Yesterday was one of those crazy days at work, and by the time I got home, all I wanted was a comfort food. One that was quick to make and filling, and meatless. Yes, I try to have a day or meal several times a week without meat. I figure I eat too much of it, so cutting back is a good thing for me.

So, as I had a craving for eggs, (and yes, they're excellent for supper too!), I remembered that a great way to use up leftovers or those goodies that are in your fridge that need to be used, is to make a Tortilla de Espana, also known as the Spanish Omelet.

Well, I had leeks in the fridge, some onion, potatoes, and some great squash from my rather abundant squash plants.

Personally, I love squash, and with as much as my plants are putting out (bigger now than in the picture) I have been quite creative with them.

So I set out to create our supper, and provide me with excellent leftovers for lunch the remainder of the week. And this is the finished product. YUM!

This is exceptionally easy to make, can't mess it up, it's a one pot or skillet meal, and is a very good way to use up leftovers, including meat leftovers if you like. I also had a fresh tomato that I wanted to use and thought it would be excellent as a topping under the cheese.

And by the way, I'll tell you now, I love goat cheeses and the traditional Mexican cheeses like Cotija, Asadero, and Oxaca. They usually are made from raw milks, and I seem to handle them better than most commercial cheeses. And in my humble opinion, the Asadero and Oxaca cheeses are absolutely the best when melted, all gooey, taste excellent, and better gooey than even mozzarella.

So I'll put down the ingredients as I used them last night, and how to make it. You can modify the ingredients however you like.

Tortilla de Espana / Spanish Omelet

10 inch cast iron skillet or other oven safe skillet (I do prefer cast iron for this)
6 to 8 eggs
1/4 cup milk or other milk. (I use So Delicious' plain coconut milk)
1/4 cup Italian blended shredded cheeses
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 medium to large squash, halved and sliced
2 medium to small potatoes, precooked in the microwave (8 minutes) halved and sliced
1 large leek, washed, halved, and sliced
2 to 3 cloves minced garlic
1 large tomato, sliced for top
6 oz. Mexican Oxaca cheese or other cheese of choice. Sliced for top.
2-3 Tbl coconut or olive oil to saute with.
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano

Slice and chop the leeks and onions and garlic and set aside. Pre-cook the potatoes and let cool a bit before slicing, then set them aside. Slice the squash and set aside.
In a medium sized bowl,  whisk the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, thyme and oregano. Then whisk in the shredded Italian cheeses.

Heat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Heat the skillet and coconut oil over medium to medium-high heat. Saute the leeks, onions and garlic till tender, add the squash and saute till just tender but still firm. Add the potatoes and stir to mix. Pour the egg mixture over and stir to ensure all in the pan is coated. Turn heat down to between medium and medium-low and let cook until the eggs are almost set.

Arrange the tomatoes on top, and cheese over the tomatoes. Remove the skillet from the stovetop and place in the oven for about 20 minutes to finish cooking the eggs and the cheese is all melted.

Remove from the oven and let sit for about 10 to 15 minutes before slicing and serving. Serve with a tossed salad if you like!

As I mentioned, you can use most any ingredient in it you'd like. Try left over quinoa or rice instead of potatoes, roasted peppers, bacon or ham, or left over roast sliced into strips. You can use any type of cheeses or cheese combinations you'd like. Possibilities are endless. It's a quick, one pot/skillet meal and so there's less mess in your kitchen!

Ultra creamy porridge

For those of you that can have gluten-free oats, this is a good staple recipe to have. On most mornings I have my porridge (not traditional oatmeal) for breakfast during the work week. Usually I make it on Sundays to have for the week. It's my staple and my go to comfort food. And it's full of goodies and good for you stuff. But it's very creamy and almost decadent. (And I'll apologize now as I don't have a picture of it.)

I have found that I much prefer steel cut oats that are gluten-free to rolled oats, to me they taste better, nuttier and give a richer feel in the mouth. I prefer the rolled oats for baking. Yeah these aren't your momma's oats!  However I will mention that the milk or milk substitute is a must as it makes it very creamy and gives that rich feeling when you eat it. I've made it mostly with coconut milk from So Delicious dairy free, and I have also used their almond milk. Either one is awesome for this.

I'm going to list some of the extra optional goodies you can add to this recipe. You can add whatever you think you'd like of course. And you can make it savory or sweet. Savory might be with cheeses, chili, or any other goodies you might creatively think of! Savory makes a good side dish in lieu of rice or potatoes too.

Creamy Porridge

1 cup gluten free steel cut oats
2 Tbl coconut oil
1/4 cup chopped or sliced nuts (optional, I like sliced almonds)
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut shreds (optional)
1/8 cup flax meal (this makes it creamier!)
1/2 cup dried raisins or other fruit, cherries etc.
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup mashed banana or other fruit (optional)
2 1/2 c coconut milk (or other alternative milk)
1 cup filtered water
2 Tbl honey or to taste, or maple syrup even!
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
1/2 cup extra filtered water if needed.

In a medium to large covered sauce pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Toast the oats, nuts, cinnamon and coconut till golden, stirring frequently, approximately 15 minutes or thereabouts.
Heat the milk and water in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. When the oats are toasted, add the flax meal,  heated milk and mashed fresh fruit. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes. If it looks like it needs more liquid, add some of the extra water. After the 20 minutes, turn off the heat, add your dried fruit, vanilla and honey or maple syrup. Let sit covered for 10 to 15 minutes until the dried fruit is plump and serve.

If you make the oats plain or with just shredded coconut, no cinnamon or fruit etc. you can make my oatmeal muffins, which I will post soon! And here's a teaser pic of the marmalade ones. :)

And yes, your kids will eat this oatmeal! You can make plenty, and it stores well in the fridge for a quick reheat for breakfasts.

A note though, if you can't have oats at all, try using flaked quinoa with 1 cup milk and 1 1/2 cups water. Don't toast the quinoa, and only cook like rolled oats in 3 to 4 minutes at a simmer.  But you can toast the nuts and coconut for them. Still creamy!

Enjoy! Do let me know if you tried it and what you thought of your endeavors, and what you added. I love to hear all the wonderful creative ideas.

A truly decadent cheesecake....

I came across the original base for this recipe from Daily Recipe online, but completely converted it to gluten-free, and had fun doing it too.

 I've now made this twice, and the second time was for my brother to take to an office party function. According to my brother it went over extremely well as there wasn't a single crumb left over.

Let's see, how to describe this decadent cheesecake.... It's ultra creamy, rich and very chocolate. This is one of those that you want to totally savor and because its rich, little slices go a long way. Yeah, it's that good.

It's ready to go in..... even before baking it's yummy!

Oh yeah.... it's good, but have to wait till it cools fully!

 Gluten-Free Chocolate Irish Cream Cheesecake

1 box Gluten-free Kinnikinnick chocolate K-Kritters cookies (2cups)
8 Tbl melted butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
24 oz (3 pkgs) cream cheese (used goat cream cheese I made)
8oz. Sour cream or greek yogurt, plain
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark semi sweet chocolate chips, (I used 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips and 1/2 cup white chocolate chips my first time) melted in a microwave safe container
3 eggs
1/2 cup Irish cream liqueur
2 Tbl cream, or milk (I used So Delicious' plain coconut creamer)
2 tsp vanilla

Heat the oven to 325 degrees F.
For the crust, crush cookies finely in a blender. In a medium bowl, mix the cookie crumbs, butter and cinnamon with a fork, and ensure all the crumbs are moistened. Press this mixture into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan and up the sides. Set aside.

In mixer with paddle attachment, beat cream cheese till very smooth, add the sour cream, sugar, and melted chocolate, mix on medium until very smooth. Add the eggs one ate time beating well after each one. Add the milk or cream, liqueur and vanilla, mix on low scraping the sides till smooth and very fluffy.

Pour into the prepared crust, and smooth out with a spatula. Place the pan into a shallow baking pan or dish (in case of liquid drips, etc.) and bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until the center appears set when gently shaken.

Cool on wire rack for 15 to 20 mins., run a sharp knife or thin metal icing spatula around the edge of pan. Let cool another 30 mins. before removing the pan sides. Then cool for 1 hr more. Cover and chill at least 6 hrs before serving.

If you want to garnish this, try some white and dark chocolate shaving curls on top. 

Enjoy it! It's really easy and you'll have all sorts of people thinking you're a genius and bake the most fabulous things!

Welcome and first post!

Welcome to the blog! First off, I won't tell you all that I will be consistent with my posts, I simply have a lot happening in my life lately. Least of all is getting my second edition of No Wheat? No Sweat! published as an ebook. 

My hopes here are to interact with you all about questions, share recipes and tips and links to things to know. I know that if you're starting out into the gluten-free or other food intolerance journey you'll go through the stage of depression over all the foods that you may have loved and have been told you can no longer have them. In my humble opinion, this is the wrong way to approach this, especially from the medical community. They are big on scolding and being adamant on "what you cannot have" anymore. Personally I think they need to approach it as these are all the wonderful things you can have and explore in the food world while being mindful of the names and things you should avoid on your road to health. Perhaps if they approached it this way, we wouldn't have felt so deprived and felt that there was nothing out there good to eat anymore!

Well, I did go through that stage myself. Especially when there wasn't a lot of traditional good tasting products out there for those of us who had no idea how to bake or convert a food to gluten-free. So I set out to learn as much as I could, and I'm still learning, and trying and experimenting! And I've discovered all these wonderful foods that are already gluten, or corn-free from so many cuisines. And I'm always up to trying to convert something that looks so yummy that is made with conventional flours to gluten-free. Quite often I'm successful, and I've certainly had my failures!

So, don't give up hope! There is a whole amazing world of incredible foods out there to explore and eat and try! Hopefully we'll have fun on this journey and be ever so much healthier and happier for it!