Honey Mustard Glaze (Chicken or Lamb) (Gluten free and Dairy free)

       Ever get bored of eating the same flavors? We were! Karl came home with a lamb steak and I had no clue what to use lamb for other than Stew. I did a quick skim through my "Betty Crocker" cook book and decided mustard and rosemary would be my focus. Since we only had 2 lamb steaks and 4 bodies to feed I also used the glaze on some chicken breasts both were delicious!

Glaze/marinade

1/2 cup white wine (I used honeywood early muscat)

4 Tbs yellow mustard

1 Tbs honey

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

1 sprig fresh thyme

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp coarse fresh ground pepper

1p tsp sea salt

1/4 cup olive oil

(blend together in a magic bullet or blender/food processor) 

In a freezer ziplock bag place your choice of meat inside and dump the marinade in, squeeze out the excess air, seal and place in the fridge for at least an hour. 

Preheat your BBQ or Oven (medium/high heat)

Wash your potatoes (I prefer red potatoes) and in the center of the foil square spray a small amount of olive oil, sprinkle sea salt, pepper and garlic powder. Wrap up the potato in the foil and repeat for however many baked potatoes you need. 

Pull out two large rectangle pieces of foil and lay them on top of each other (should form a cross) lay your fresh or frozen mixed veggies in the middle (salt, pepper, and dairy free margarine/butter to taste) fold up the first layer and then the second to lock in the moisture.

Take your meat out of the marinade and grill, dump the remaining marinade into a sauce pan and bring to a boil (while stirring) for at least 3 minutes. Now take your glaze out to the grill area with a silicone basting brush or spoon (a silicone basting brush will save you a lot of cleaning from the grill later). Each time you flip the meat baste it with the glaze.

Place your foil wrapper potatoes and veggies under the meat on the bottom wrack if you have a double wrack grill, if any glaze falls off it will land on your foil instead of the flame area (the less clean up the better!)

When your meat is done, your potatoes and veggies should be too! If you're using russet potatoes instead of red potatoes you may want to put those on the grill before anything else to give extra time to bake.

Finish your potato with toppings of your choice and enjoy!

Verde Chicken and potato burritos

Breakfast, lunch or dinner I love potatoes and I love burritos so why not combine? I have 4 left over baked potatoes, a half a jar of verde salsa and a half an onion from dinner the previous night so I got crafty and all of us agreed it was a keeper!

Things to grab:

4 *baked potatoes (I used red)

2 chicken breast

half a sweet onion

one cup of verde (green) salsa

salt

pepper

cumin

olive oil

tortillas

Consider toppings:

tomatoes

cheese

sour cream

olives

scrambled eggs

Ready set go!

Heat your olive oil in a skillet pan and toss in your diced half of an onion to soften. Season with salt and pepper. While your onions are cooking down slice your raw chicken breast into bite size pieces (think fajitas), season the chicken with seasalt, pepper and cumin and add to the skillet. As the chicken browns add your half cup of verde salsa. While your chicken simmers cube your baked potatoes and toss in to the skillet for the last 2-4 minutes. 

I like to heat up my tortillas on a cast iron pan or in the microwave.

Serve up on to a tortilla with your choice of toppings or eat as it, it's simple and delicious! 

Grilled Chicken with Pico De Gallo and Creamy Goat Cheese Rice

I am always looking for low calorie easy dishes that we can throw on the BBQ and this is one of my absolute favorites! It has a juicy chicken breast with a risoto style easy rice base and zesty Pico De Gallo to add freshness to the dish. Yum!

Ingredients:
3 Chicken breast
2 cups minute rice
2 cups Chicken Stock
5 tbs Creamy plain Chevre (I like Fairview Goat Farm's)
Pico De Gallo (I get mine pre-made from the produce section in the grocery store)

Seasonings:
Rosemary
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper
Cumin

Instructions:
Season the chicken breasts on both sides and either grill on a cast iron pan or out door BBQ. Cook 2 cups of minute rice with 2 cups of chicken stock. Combine cooked rice with Chevre and lightly season with pepper and salt.
Assemble by putting rice on plate top with the chicken breast and garnish with Pico de Gallo.

It doesn't get any easier Alfredo! (gluten free and cow dairy free)

Hello, my name is Danielle and I have an addiction...to pasta ;)

I love fettuccini Alfredo so much I'm willing to eat it, drug myself with allergy medicine and be miserable for almost a week just to have a couple bites at Olive Garden. It's ridiculous and self destructive so I've put an end to the madness and come up with a simple and tasty alternative for those who want to use regular pasta or gluten free!

(Single serving)
1 serving of Rice pasta try DeBoles
1/4-1/2 cup of cooked chicken (I use left over rottiserie chicken you can bake/boil or pan sear a breast of chicken if you don't have left overs)
2 tbs of Chevre (I love Fairview Goat Farm's)
1tbs Earth Balance Margarine
1/4 cup of frozen broccoli (microwaved to heat)
Salt and pepper to taste!

You're not going to believe me how easy this is until you try it yourself =D

Boil the pasta in salted water, drain and place back on the burner low heat.
Add the margarine, chevre, chicken and broccoli. Stir until evenly incorporated and heated all the way through!
Salt and pepper to taste.
It really is that simple, and delicious! For additional zing add a tbs of bruchetta or pico de gallo.

BBQ and Football

My husband and I are both trying to lose our "baby weight" gain and so any opportunity I have to swap out your traditional full fat munchies or meals I will. Today the boys are watching football and the request for food was KFC and chips/ dip. Although I LOVE KFC extra crispy chicken (it's dairy free!), that's a whole lot of calories to spend on one meal. I fired up the BBQ. First I washed up some red potatoes and individually wrapped them in aluminum foil with a drizzle of olive oil, sea salt, ground pepper, and garlic powder. With the potatoes on the grill at 500 degrees I went back inside and started on my chicken. I like to substitute flavor for fat. I took fresh chicken breasts and seasoned with rosemary, garlic powder, onion powder, seasalt and pepper on both sides. The key to not having the chicken stick to the grill is to not touch them until they have formed a nice golden crust.

The rosemary smells so good as it's grilling! Yummo! To replace the bisquits I pulled some premade pizza dough out of the fridge and rolled into one long baguette and baked in the oven. Trader Joes premade pizza dough has 4 ingredients in it and is dairy free! My food philosophy is that the fewer the ingredients in something premade the better! 

If you skip the bread and just have the chicken and potatoes the meal is satisfying and gluten free/dairy free. 

I chose not to add anything else to my plate but the boys
topped off their potatoes and bread with a little Good Earth dairy free/gluten free
margarine.

For the chips and dip I pulled a trick out of my hat, I love pampered chef products! I used my mini mandolin on size 1 and sliced up some raw red potatoes. I laid them flat and single layered on my microwave chip maker also from pampered chef. I have seen these in the "as seen on TV" section at Walmart if you don't have a pampered chef you support through ordering products. I lightly salted with seasalt, some fresh ground pepper and microwaved for 4 1/2 minutes. 6 trays worth was the perfect amount for a super healthy alternative to your usual potato chips. For the dip I got out the got Chevre we have from the farmers market and the boys were super stoked! 

Items needed: Microwave chip trays, mandolin, sea salt,
pepper and red potatoes... an adorable assistant
makes for fun too!

season to taste! Hint: fresh ground
pepper when heated up can have
a good bite, use sparingly. 

This is one serving of chips about 3/4 of a red potato
which is approx. 75 calories with seasoning.