Sautéed Butternut Squash with Lemon & Pine Nuts

How did it get to be November already?!?  Wasn’t it  just last week it was getting dark at 8 p.m. and it was 75 degrees out?  Alas, summer is over and Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

As the leaves fall in my front yard, (and no, I haven’t gotten around to raking them yet) I took the time to prepare this butternut squash recipe for my family.  I wanted to share it with you now because this is a very pretty presentation for squash and a great side dish for Thanksgiving.  I modified the original recipe (like I do with most recipes) to eliminate tree nuts because my husband is allergic.

This is a pretty easy recipe, but if you can get someone else to cut up the squash I recommend it because it can be a workout!

This recipe can be made ahead for Thanksgiving and reheated for 30-45 minutes prior to eating.

Sautéed Butternut Squash with Lemon & Pine Nuts

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley, chopped

3 oz pine nuts, toasted

1-1/2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil and butter in a pan over medium-high heat.  Add squash and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Cook, stirring frequently, for 8-10 minutes until squash is lightly browned (the edges will start to soften).  Add pine nuts, lemon zest and parsley and transfer to oven safe bowl. Bake squash for 25-30 min until hot and tender. 

If making this dish ahead for Thanksgiving dinner, sauté squash but do not bake it until just before you are ready to eat, and if it has been refrigerated it will need to bake for 30-45 minutes.

Easy Gluten-Free Crockpot Pot Roast

It is finally crockpot season! I will admit, I’m one of those strange people that use their crockpot when it’s 85 degrees outside. Mostly because I don’t want to stand at the stove to cook!  But alas, summer is over and it truly is crockpot season.

I have been looking for an easy, gluten free recipe for pot roast that actually has some flavor.  I can’t believe how hard it has been to make one that we actually like.  This is an extremely easy recipe to make when you don’t have time to cook, and it’s good!

Easy Gluten-Free Crockpot Pot Roast

2 to 3 lb pot roast (frozen is fine)
1/4 cup wheat free tamari sauce
1 pkg onion soup mix or French onion soup mix (make sure it’s gluten free)
2-3 cups water
Black pepper to taste

Combine tamari sauce, soup mix and water in crockpot. Add pot roast and more water if needed (don’t completely cover the pot roast with liquid).  Sprinkle the top of the pot roast with black pepper.  Cook on low heat for 7-9 hours.

Tomato, Cannellini Bean and Tuna Salad

My tomatoes are finally starting to ripen in our garden. Hooray!   I feel so spoiled this time of the year with fresh picked tomatoes every day, and I love coming up with recipes to use them in. 

This is a quick, easy salad that makes a great lunch or light dinner.  I have also added (and will once my are ripe) cucumbers to it and it’s quite good.  I will admit that this recipe originally came from somewhere, but I can’t find it to give credit to the original authors (or tell you the original ingredient list)!  I am not this creative J

Tomato, Cannellini Bean and Tuna Salad

*Note: This portion size is for one person

1/2 can tuna

1/2 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup of tomatoes, chopped

3 or 4 sprigs parsley, chopped

Juice from 1/2 lemon (I like mine with a lot of lemon, use less if you don’t want it as tart)

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients. Toss and enjoy!

White Chili with Ground Turkey and Chicken Sausage

I really wasn’t planning on posting this recipe.

Really.

It’s one of those throw together, made-up recipes that has become a staple in my house. Nothing special. Until tonight, when I decided to add kale to it since I’m trying to increase the amount of dark leafy greens my family eats.  And then my 17-month-old son actually picked the kale out of the chili and ate it.  That’s when I decided that this recipe is worth posting because if you have a toddler, you know that getting them to eat veggies is a challenge, especially something like kale.

White Chili with Ground Turkey and Chicken Sausage

1 package of ground turkey
1 package of ground chicken sausage (I like Iserno’s mild Italian chicken sausage)
3 -14 oz cans of Great Northern beans or white beans
2 onions
6 celery stalks
6 Lacinto kale leaves
1 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp cumin seed
1 tbsp coriander
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 can chopped green chilies (optional)
Cheddar cheese to taste (optional)
White or brown rice, cooked per instructions

In a soup pot, brown ground turkey and chicken sausage. Chop onion and celery.  Remove spines from kale leaves and chop.  In another pan, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add onion, celery and kale and cover. Steam/sauté for 20 minutes or until onion is clear and celery is soft, stirring occasionally. 

Rinse and drain beans.  Take one cup of beans and one cup of sautéed veggies and run it through the blender with the chicken broth until smooth. 

After the meat is cooked thoroughly, add veggies, beans, blended mixture, cumin, coriander, sea salt and green chilies to the soup pot and heat over medium-low heat until hot.

Serve with cheddar cheese over rice if desired.

Easy Brined Chicken

Spring is here! Yippee!  It’s time for barbequing season to start.  This is my favorite way to cook chicken on the barbeque.  Often chicken done on the grill is dry, but this chicken is moist and yummy.  If you’re feeling adventurous, play around with the seasoning. I’ve come up with some pretty good ones just using herbs from the spice rack and whatever happens to be in my frig.

My toddler son loves chicken cooked this way too.  It never fails!

This recipe is adapted from Williams Sonoma Essentials of Roasting Coockbook.

Easy Brined Chicken

1 to 2 lbs chicken breast or thigh, boneless, skinless

1/3 cup kosher salt

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tsp celery seeds

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 leek, white part and 3 inches of green, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices (a chopped onoin will work too)

 4 or 5 fresh tarragon sprigs (optional)

Dissolve sugar and salt in approximately 1 quart of water completely.  Add all ingredients and marinate for at least 4 hours, up to 2 days.  Barbeque until chicken is cooked completely (170 degrees).

Gluten Free Chex Mix

Who doesn’t love Chex mix?  Before I went gluten free I used to buy the bags in the store all the time, especially in the summer when we went on vacation.  Since going gluten free I ‘ve realized that I still need that crunchy, salty “fix” every now and again.  This recipe definitely fits the bill!  It’s always the hit of the party, and I love making it because it always gets eaten. 

Gluten Free Chex Mix

4 cups Corn Chex

4 cups Rice Chex

3 cups gluten free pretzels (I use Glutino’s)

1 cup mixed nuts (optional)

6 tbsp butter

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 tsp seasoned salt

3/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

Bake at 250 degrees for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Gluten Free Vegan Pumpkin Spice Muffins

I made these today for my son's preschool class and all the kids loved them. Don't let the lengthy list of ingredients fool you into thinking that this is a difficult recipe. It’s not, and once you make them I guarantee that they will be a hit.





2 cups brown rice flour
½ cup tapioca flour
¾ cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp allspice
½ tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1 tbsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp white pepper
¾ tsp pumpkin puree
2 cups pureed pumpkin
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup butter or Earth Balance margarine, melted
¾ cup honey (or agave)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
½ cup raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients (except the raisins and pecans if using). Mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, water, melted butter or margarine, honey and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two to three portions, gently mixing. Be careful not to over mix. Mix in the raisins and pecans with the last portion of dry ingredients if desired.

Divide into 24 muffin wrappers. Cook for 20-25 minutes, or until tops start to turn brown.

Original recipe by Johnna Deitz

Getting Started

Gluten, eggs, soy, dairy, casein, whey, nuts, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers, oranges, nitrites.

What is this, you ask? This is the list of allergies in our house!

What do you eat? That is always the next question. To answer it, we have decided to start a blog. Two moms, two households. One Village. We will share our favorite recipes and show you that living in an gluten free, allergy friendly house is not hard. As a matter of fact, it's fun!