Never eat cranberry sauce out of a can ever again (gluten free)

                                                            Holiday Cranberry Sauce

I have a friend that told me "if it does't resemble a can it's not cranberry sauce". He was joking but the thing is I think too many people assume that the cranberry, sugar filled gelatinous stuff is what holiday traditions are are all about. They are so WRONG, you all have been missing out on some delicious stuff, and excellent left over turkey sandwich condiment bliss.

Things you're going to need

1) blender, vitamix, or food processor

2) 2 bags of raw cranberries

3) 40 ounces of quality orange juice

4) 1/3 cup brown sugar

 5) teaspoon of orange zest

In a large stew pot (that has a lid) add your 2 bags of cranberries, 40 oz of orange juice and orange zest. Set on medium/high and boil until cranberries are tender and starting to burst.

stir in 1/3 cup brown sugar (you can add additional sugar if you prefer sweeter) and reduce heat to simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and set aside with lid off for at least an hour then with a slotted spoon scoop the cranberries into a blender/vitamix/food processor and puree until smooth (add additional juice from pot if mixture is too thick).

Refrigerate and enjoy!

Want to know what to do with the left over juices? Strain with a small hole colander and use for bellini mix with a sparkling wine of your choice =) Also works well with club soda for kid friendly drinks.

Grilled Peanut butter and chocolate sandwich

Who doesn't love chocolate and peanut butter together? Want a quick treat that you and the kiddos will love?

Two pieces of bread, spread out the peanut butter and sprinkle on some dark chocolate chips (90% coco typically is dairy free)

melt some dairy free margarine or butter into a pan and lightly brown on both sides (Like a grilled cheese sandwich)

cut in half and serve up! also good with some whipped cream to dunk into.

Not your Grandma's pot pie! (super easy)

I get bored of eating the same thing over and over again don't you? I am not a fan of frozen dinners but have always been intrigued by chicken pot pie. When I was little my grandma made chicken pot pie one summer when we were visiting in Missouri. In true southern fashion it had tons of butter, and a crust made of half a box of bisquick lol. I have never tasted anything so delicious (although I suffered from the butter). I was determined to make a lighter, easier version in my semi-homemade way.

Things you need:
Left over whole chicken (I pick it clean for dinner and lunch then the next day use it in this recipe!)
1 roll of crescent rolls (the safeway brand is dairy free)
3 left over baked red potatoes from the previous night's chicken dinner
2 cups of mixed frozen veggies

Let's get started! Throw your chicken carcass in a medium sized soup pot with just enough water or low sodium chicken broth to barely cover the carcass. Put a lid on it and simmer on medium heat until the remaining chicken meat falls off the bone. (This can take between 30 minutes to an hour or longer depending on how big your chicken was and how much meat was left on the carcass).
*Note* If you don't have left over  baked potatoes then use this time to wrap your washed/salted&peppered red potatoes in the oven now so we can assemble the potpie quickly.

*Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Ok remove the carcass from the liquid (let the stock continue to simmer and reduce) and remove the chicken meat from the bones, if you've simmered long enough it should practically fall off or already be in the stock pot. Throw away the bones and inedible stuff like fatty clumps, gristle or chewy skin.

Add the chicken back to the stock, cube your potatoes and add the potatoes and veggies to the mix. Dump the mixture into a pie dish (if the stock has been reduced properly it will be thick like a hash)
Unroll your crescent rolls and layer over the filling.

I layer the crescent rolls from tip to tail

Keep an eye on your dish, Baking time should be about 13 minutes or until  it is evenly  golden brown across the  top.

Cool for about 3 min and serve! It's delicious and much lighter in calories since there isn't a gravy on the inside or double layer crust!

Easiest Salmon dish that even non-seafood eaters will love

I am going to be honest with you...I'm not much of a seafood person. I should be put to shame for being a self proclaimed foodie that does not like seafood! On the other hand, my husband loves salmon. I had to create a salmon dish that I was willing to eat with Karl and that Nadine would eat too. After a couple tries I'm pretty sure this is the easiest and yummiest salmon dish I've ever had.

2 bonesless salmon steaks (about 4 oz each) preferebly fresh not frozen

4 tbs of orange marmalade

4 tbs of orange juice

1 bag of mixed veggies (either the "steam ready" or frozen)

season to taste: salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, garlic powder, onion powder

Take a large sheet of foil and line the inside of a cake pan or cookie sheet,

drizzle foil with a light amount of olive oil

place salmon steaks on foil (scale side down) with room to curl up the foil for making a packet

Season salmon steaks, top each steak with 2 tbs of orange marmalade

Pour the bag of veggies over the salmon and season lightly

add 4 tbs of OJ for moisture

roll up the sides of the packet (adding more foil if needed to cover the whole thing), seal tightly

place in the preheated oven 350 deg for 45 minutes

remove from oven and serve over rice or as is =) for super easy and yummy rice I get the the frozen jasmine rice it only takes 3 minutes to microwave!

Each serving has less then 300 calories!

Italian style baked Spaghetti Squash (gluten free)

I'm not a big fan of squash but I saw an episode of Diners Drive-in and Dives where a restaurant was serving half shell baked spaghetti squash and it looked amazing! So I took note of the ingredients and went to work making my own version with out beef or cow dairy. Incidentally it's gluten free as well!

Things you need

One whole spaghetti squash

One jar spaghetti sauce (I prefer O organics)

Ground Italian sausage

Goat Cheese (comparable texture to mozzarella or white cheddar) -If you you want to use regular cheese go for it! I have friends that have made this with mozzarella and provolone and it was delicious.

Olive Oil

Salt and pepper

Ready set go!

Cute the squash in half length wise

Drizzle or spray with a little olive oil (lightly!)

Salt and pepper the flesh

Pop in the oven at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes, while that's in the oven brown up your sausage in a medium sautee pan or wok. add the sauce to heat up.

pull out of the oven (careful it's hot!)

Fork out the flesh into the length of angel hair pasta and toss gently into the sauce.

pack back into the squash shells and top with cheese. Now place back into the oven until the cheese is gooey and just starting to turn golden brown.

Pull it out and either serve in the shell (I cut in half as is and serve like that as a nice presentation) you can also just pass it around family style. This makes about 4-6 hearty servings.

Creamy Chicken w/ Veggies and Rice (Dairy free and gluten free) AKA The post that keeps getting deleted haha!

Before I start this blog post (for the 3rd time!) I have to say that I must not adapt well to new things. Why might you ask would I bring this up? I have posted this recipe on two other separate occasions and instead of "edited" them to add tags I deleted the whole post! lol TWICE! OK, this time... you all will get to learn the deliciousness and ease of this recipe.

Items to grab:
Gluten free onion soup mix (if you don't need gluten free then try Lipton's Onion Soup Mix)
4 cups of water
4 chicken breast
1 tlbs of crushed garlic
1/2 tbs of onion powder
1 tub of Tofuti Supreme Cream (or 8oz regular sour cream)
2 lbs of Earth Balance dairy free margarine (or regular butter)
1 small bag of frozen veggies
3 cups of uncooked rice (I like to use minute rice)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Simmer the chicken breasts in the water/garlic/onion soup mix until cooked all the way through. Then  pull the breasts from the soup mix and cut into bite size pieces.

Add the frozen veggies and simmer until cooked all the way through.

Add the supreme cream, margarine, and seasonings and bring to a simmer until sauce thickens  to  a gravy like  density. While your sauce is reducing take this time to prepare your minute rice.

Scoop the mix over the rice and enjoy! Makes for great left overs! and you can  re-purpose the chicken mix into a chicken casserole by using gluten free noodles a corn flake crumble and bake until the corn flake crumble is golden and crispy!

The best Lamb stew you will ever eat!

I know my title is so humble right? Haha but seriously, if you want a recipe that is lick your bowl until is clean delicious this is it! Perfect pairing for the cold fall weather or a snow day in. Originally I developed the recipe with standard gluten products and recently figured out a couple small tweaks to make it gluten free and still deliciously full of flavor!
For those of you who are going to go gluten free keep in mind that some cheap cooking wines do have gluten in them (I don't understand why, but I have come across this) I love supporting local companies so I use Honeywood Cabernet all of the Honeywood wines are gluten free and the winery is right here in Salem!
Also if you do not have potato starch you can use dehydrated potatoes just read the ingredients thoroughly for dairy or gluten products.My rule of thumb is that if it has more than 4 ingredients and does not specify gluten free or vegan I don't trust it to not have something hidden in the "natural ingredients".

Ok, let's get cooking!

Toss in a bowl 1 1/2 lbs cubed lamb (or beef) with 4 tbs of flour (for gluten free substitute potato starch), season with salt and pepper

In a large soup pot melt 2 tbs of butter (or dairy free margarine) and 1 tbs olive oil

Brown the meat in the bottom of the pot.(I prefer Lamb but Beef works well too)

After the meat is browned add 1 cup red wine, 2 tbs of balsamic vinegar scraping up all of the browning pieces in the bottom of the pot.

Add to the pot 3 large carrots (cut all veggies into rustic bite size pieces), 1 large yellow onion, 3 minced garlic cloves, 4 red potatos, 3 stalks of celery.For liquid add 32 oz of low sodium stock (I use chicken since I don't eat beef, but most stew recipes call for beef broth)

For seasoning add 3 baley leaves, a pinch of annise seed, a pinch of cinamon, 1 tbs rosemary, 1/2 tbs peperika, 2 tbs savory herb, salt and pepper to taste.Simmer for 1 hour on medium/low heat. To thicken add 1 tbs butter (or dairy free margarine) and slowly stir in (sprinkling so as not to clump) flour (or potato starch). Simmer on low for 20 minutes, stiring occasionally so the bottom doesn't burn while thickening.

I know most of you are used to making a roux by mixing the thickening agent (flour or potato starch) a head of time with some water you can do this but you will need to re-taste your stew and see if it needs additional seasoning to compensate for the additional water. Also when reduce the heat and let it cool down some before doing this method or you will likely end up with clumps.

The bowls were so steamy I didn't get some great shots to share but I will add more soon I promise!