Dairy Free, Gluten Free Chicken Pot Pie!

I must admit I do not keep this blog updated as much as I should. I got married last month and prior to the wedding I was a crazy woman trying to make sure everything was done.

Well, I am still trying to avoid dairy and gluten as much as possible as those appear to be the root cause of my health issues, but there are some foods that I just love and really don't want to give up, like Chicken Pot Pie! I love chicken pot pie! So I was determined to make one that was both gluten and dairy free.

I put together three different recipes to make this happen. I found a recipe online for a dairy free "cream of chicken" soup which I used for the base in my filling. I then used another recipe for biscuit mix that was gluten free from another recipe and lastly I used a chicken pot pie recipe on Rachael Ray's website to bring everything together. I will try to get the recipe together that I ended up "creating" and post it here. Needless to say this recipe came together quite quickly and was very delicious!

My husband loved it as did I! The only thing I would do differently next time is add a little more biscuit mix for the topping.

Happy eating!

Eating Out: A Challenging Thing

I wanted to share my tips and secrets to eating out. Since I have started this dietary change, eating out has been more challenging. But there are some things you can do to make the experience more pleasurable.

Just about anywhere has salad and if you order the salad without dressing and cheese, it can be a very healthy thing. I can't have most salad dressings, so I usually ask for olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I didn't think I would like this combination, but I love it! The balsamic vinegar has a very good flavor to it and the olive oil definitely enhances it!

Also I have learned that if you ask servers at sit down restaurants if they have a gluten free menu they will either bring you one or tell you what is gluten free and what isn't on the menu. My cousin got married yesterday and we had a luncheon at Texas Roadhouse. Texas Roadhouse specializes in huge slabs of meat - namely ribs and BBQ pork. Well, they have salads too and other items on the menu. I decided to get the BBQ Chicken with a house salad (ordered without eggs, cheese, or croutons, and the oil and vinegar on the side) and sweet potato (plain, nothing on it). The server informed me that if I did get the BBQ Chicken I would need to order it without the BBQ sauce as the sauce contained gluten. Most servers are trained to know the allergy information for their menu because some people have severe enough allergies that it could really do damage. So I ordered the chicken plain and the potato plain, but it was still a very satisfying meal!

So, if you choose to make drastic changes to your diet as I have and you aren't sure what to eat and what not to, I would consult with a doctor or a dietician or someone else who knows what they are talking about. I am not an expert - I only share my experiences and my knowledge of what I have learned. And this diet has been customized for me. What works for me may not work for someone else, but if you do choose to omit something from your diet, make sure that any essential nutrients in that item gets replaced from something else. For example, if you choose to omit meat from your diet, it will be essential to eat fruits and veggies that have a lot of protein in them so you don't lose your protein.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! See you all next week!

Butternut Squash And Onion Salad

Now that I am through the worst of this dietary change, I have decided to change my blog back to its originally intended purposes. So I am going back to reviewing recipes. The recipes I will review will probably still be very healthy and I will occasionally take time out to update everyone where I am at with my dietary restrictions, but mostly we are going back to the way this blog used to be.

With that being said, last night for dinner I made roasted butternut squash and onions with sage and dried cherries! I found the recipe on Pinterest and I wasn't sure I would like it. I had bought a butternut squash a few weeks ago and it has been begging to be eaten, so I finally used it last night. This recipe was very easy to bring together. I had to peel and cut up the squash and then slice the onions and then put them in the oven with some olive oil and then just be patient. The recipe calls for two onions and I am not a big onion eater, so I used about 3/4 of an onion and I think it was the perfect balance.

This recipe is vegan friendly, so anyone can eat it. I don't know if he was just pretending to like it or not, but my boyfriend seemed to like it even though there was no meat in the recipe. If I make this again I think next time I will pair it was some brown rice or something chicken breasts to make it more hearty.

Below is a picture of how my attempt at the recipe looked. Not as pretty as on the website with the original recipe, but it is still good.


Butternut Squash and Onions with Sage and Dried Cherries:

Lettuce - Versatile Veggie

I am quickly becoming a fan of lettuce and using the leaves for wrapping. A favorite item people tend to like it the lettuce wraps that you can get at places like P.F. Changs and my new favorite place, The Spin Cafe.

Well, for dinner last night I wanted to have something similar. On Sunday I cooked some chicken in the crock pot and then shredded it for meals throughout the week. There should be an earlier blog post from 2010 or early 2011 explaining how to make my crock-pot shredded chicken, so if you want to make it, look it up.

So, I took some of the shredded chicken and added some chicken taco seasoning to it and then I made some black bean salsa (recipe below) and I took the chicken and put some chicken in a lettuce leaf and then I topped it with some black bean salsa and some regular salsa and then some Chipotle flavored Tabasco sauce. I then rolled it up and ate it! Yumness it was!

Tonight I am going to be making some roasted butternut squash and will probably be using the rest of my shredded chicken to supplement it! And so my boyfriend doesn't feel like he is going to starve, I will also be cooking him some whole wheat pasta to go with it as well.

See below for picture of the lettuce wraps and the recipe for the black bean salsa. The black bean salsa is very versatile. I use it for everything! It is good by itself, in soups, as a dip, in the wraps! Everything! And this recipe makes quite a bit, so be prepared for that.

Black Bean Salsa

2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can of corn, rinsed and drained
1 can of diced tomatoes, rinsed and drained
1/2 onion
1-2 cloves of garlic
Juice of one lime
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Add all of the ingredients to a medium to large sized bowl and mix together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with chips or other dippers. Refrigerate leftovers.


Black Bean Salsa and Seasoned Chicken Lettuce Wrap:

Back To Normal Life!

Yay! I have officially made it through the holidays! No more parties and no more food I cannot eat!

While I enjoyed the holidays, all of the yummy food I couldn't have was no fun to look at either! I am glad I am back to somewhat normal life in the eating department. I do have one day of traveling I have to get through this week as I will be traveling to southern Utah for a funeral.

After this week, though, life should be completely normal again. I am glad too, because I can stay on the strait and narrow with my eating habits. Sunday wasn't a good a day for me as I ate something on Saturday that did not agree with me and I spent all day Sunday recovering from food poisoning.

Yesterday was a little better, but I was still recovering so I ate a little bit more than I normally do. But today I have been good. I am hoping to try some more recipes this week as well. I will continue to share. Have a great week everyone!

Chicken And Curry - YUM

So last night for dinner I decided to make something different. Wednesdays typically are my day to try different recipes, so I decided to make coconut-ginger curried chicken. This was based on a recipe I saw on one of the many blogs I have recently discovered that have recipes galore of foods that I can eat.

This recipe was definitely a hit! I didn't have coconut milk like the recipe called for and I wasn't about to spend four dollars on something I would only use once, so I used almond milk and added a little bit more coconut to the recipe. It was good! My boyfriend even liked it, but he tends to like food with a little kick to it.

I didn't have any cayenne pepper either, so I used chili powder in place of it. It still provided enough spice in the recipe. But if you want it to be very spicy, then cayenne pepper is definitely the way to go.

This week I noticed a flare-up cause I had a little too much sugar so for the last couple of days, I have been on the base anti-inflammatory diet and I am starting to feel better again. So there is definitely truth to what you eat will determine how you feel. Of course everyone is different, but this is what I have noticed. I have not weighed myself yet, but I will tomorrow so I will see if I have lost any weight. I am not that concerned with the weight loss. I am more concerned about feeling healthy and having the energy I once had. But if I lose weight in the process, I am definitely not going to complain.

Well that is all for now. I have one more major holiday to get through and then I should no longer be tempted by the bad foods for awhile. Yay!

Time For Rice

I had another phone appointment with the doc today and today he told me he wants me to start eating brown rice. Which means I now have another carb source in the diet. I have never really been a big fan of brown rice, so this will be an adventure. But I am sure I will like it if I prepare it myself.

Yesterday was good day overall for me diet. I did very well all day other than I nuked my turkey for too long at lunch and didn't get a chance to eat it cause it turned into rubber, but that was my bad. Tonight I have plans of making chicken strips. I found a good recipe online on Food Network's website. I am going to be modifying it a bit, but I think it will work for what I want to do. I will be combining it with another recipe so I have a good chicken strip recipe. I am hoping it turns out. I also plan to make some sweet potato fries as well. And then maybe I will come up with something for dessert.

Sorry today's post is short. I don't really have much to say, but I will let everyone know how the chicken turns out tomorrow!

Yesterday Was Not A Good Day For Eating

Do you ever have a day where something in that day seems to just not go right? Well, that was me yesterday. I woke up late and therefore barely got out of the door to make it to work on time. As a result of running late, I did not have breakfast or my vitamins or anything. So, I was pretty hungry when I was finally able to go to lunch. I ate a hamburger and fries for lunch and then for dinner I went to Hot Dog On A Stick! I knew it was a bad thing! I felt these meals come back to haunt me too this morning! I am thinking I am intolerant to gluten - not allergic, but intolerant, because I woke up with my 3:00AM itches that I used to get in the past. I don't have hives or anything - I just itch all over the place. Or it could have been the starch or peanut oil - needless to say, the foods I ate yesterday made their presence known in a bad way.

Today I decided to start over. Because of my itches I really only managed another hour of sleep or so, so I decided to get up. I had seen a recipe on Pinterest (my new internet love) that I was eager to try. It was a recipe for gluten free, dairy free, and even egg free drop biscuits. The recipe encouraged the person making the biscuits to use a combination of gluten free flours, but most of the gluten free flours are made from things I can't have right now, so I had to use all buckwheat flour even though the recipe discouraged it, but I did anyway. I mixed the ingredients and made the dough and then put the dough on my Pampered Chef stoneware and baked them. Buckwheat flour is kind of dark all by itself so it is really hard to know when things made from it are done. But they did bake up and they looked fine to me. I then cooked up some turkey sausage, sweet potatoes, and an egg for breakfast. I then paired a couple of the biscuits with everything else and also got some almond butter for dipping the biscuits in.

It was like eating a real big breakfast this morning. I typically don't make big breakfasts for myself only but since I had loads of time this morning I decided to get creative. I have quite a few biscuits left, but I have bread now! And the recipe stated that buckwheat flour can have an aftertaste, I didn't really taste one. If you aren't used to the flavor of buckwheat, these may taste different, but they tasted like any other drop biscuit I have had before. And if you dip them in almond butter or any nut or seed butter for that matter, they are even more tasty! I packed some of the leftover ones in my lunch today. I plan to see if my boyfriend and best friend like them. I am planning on using these biscuits as part of my breading for my chicken strips I plan to make tomorrow. So glad I tried this recipe! See pictures below for the biscuits (they look like cookies, but they really are biscuits) and my delicious breakfast!

           

Buckwheat Flour Drop Biscuits

Turkey Sausage, Egg, Drop Biscuits, and Sweet Potatoes

And here is the link to the recipe: http://wholenewmom.com/recipes/easy-drop-biscuit-recipe-w-gf-df-options/

YAY For New Foods!

I spoke with the doc this afternoon and I discussed with him what foods I will be allowed to eat when I am done with this diet in four days! I will for the most part still be continuing this diet, but the goal is to slowly figure out what foods my body can handle and which ones it cannot. So, starting next week I will be allowed to have eggs, tomatoes, and beef again. I am most excited about the eggs and tomatoes part! So, starting next week I won't be nearly as miserable. I still can't have dairy or gluten, but where I can have eggs, I can make some batters with my almond milk and buckwheat flour for like pancakes and stuff. So, happy day! Maybe I can even get my grandfather to make his famous pancakes using my buckwheat flour and almond milk. . . .hmmm. . . .

Day 17: Bacon Burgers Are Better With Cheese!

I tend to like to celebrate little occasions when I can. I don't necessarily need to celebrate them in a big way, but I don't like them to pass quietly into the night. So yesterday was my two month anniversary since I started dating the boyfriend and I wanted us to have a special dinner. Well, everything that we would have normally done could not be done because of this diet, so I had to get creative.

In the booklet thingy the doc gave me there are recipes and one of the recipes was for bacon burgers. I decided to do those. I also purchased some sweet potato fries from the grocery store and made sure they were okay to eat. They were good to eat and since I baked them I didn't have to worry about any oils or anything like that as well.

So for dinner, I cooked up some turkey hamburger patties and then also cooked up some turkey bacon as I could also eat that as well. After the meat was done, I took the patties and put each one inside a big lettuce leaf and then topped it with some bacon. I then put chipotle Tabasco sauce, cucumbers, and a couple of fries on my bigger and then wrapped the rest of the lettuce around the burger. My boyfriend did the same but also added mustard and onion to his as well. We then served the burgers with the fries. All in all things tasted fairly well, but the while I was eating I kept thinking that it would taste better with a big fluffy bun, cheese, tomatoes, and ketchup as well.

It's nice to know that when we hit the three month mark in our relationship, I should be able to eat more things again. I have four full days left in addition to today, and I am very much excited to be done. Today when I speak with the doc I am hoping to find out what they would like me to add back into my diet starting next week. The end is near!

I shall continue to blog about this because I find it has helped me a lot. I suspect that if I hadn't had this blog, I probably would have failed all over the place. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my words and support me in this endeavor quietly. It has been very much appreciated!

Day 10 - 14: Thanksgiving Break

I am so glad the long weekend is over! Too much good food floating around, but all things considered I think I did fairly well. Friday was probably the worst day for me as I did have a little bit of white potato and a small Diet Pepsi with lunch, but that was the worst thing I ate all week.

The mashed sweet potatoes and quinoa stuffing I made for Thanksgiving were a hit. A good many people in the family tried both and enjoyed it. I still have leftovers and I am glad because I enjoy leftovers from Thanksgiving. Yum!

Over the weekend I ran out of my "protein" shake so I had to run to the doc's office this morning and get some more. This was probably the worst weekend to run out of that, but I survived.

Well, I have only one week left of this strict diet! Some time next week after I am done with this diet, the doctor will be customizing a diet for me, so I am sure that there will be things I will be able to have again that I haven't been able to have during this time and I am sure that some things will remain restricted. My suspicions on what I cannot eat lie with gluten and anything deep fried in animal based oil or peanut oils. I also think caffeine and refined sugar will be out as well which is good as I need to kick my caffeine habit once and for all. If anything, this diet has been a blessing for kicking the caffeine. I honestly didn't see how I could go more than a day without my Pepsi, but I have learned that I can and I have also learned that I am the master of what I eat.

So, here is to the rest of the week! Today for lunch I have packed some leftover dill-lemon infused cod and some cooked zucchini. I made this for dinner last night and it was yum-o! So I am having it again for lunch today!

Day 5: A Little Better

I am doing much better this morning than I did yesterday. The doc warned me there would be days when I would crave lots of bad for me things and yesterday was definitely one of those days. I made it through though.

Yesterday I ate my first sweet potato! It was quite tasty and since I can't have butter or anything like that, I nuked the thing in the microwave and then sprinkled some of my "candied" pecans on top. It was quite delicious. I am glad I liked the sweet potato because now I know that I will be able to have mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving.

In preparation for the most difficult Thanksgiving ever eating wise I started looking on the internet for recipes. I have never ventured much into the vegan free, gluten free, or dairy free world and so I was quite astonished as to the amount of recipes and blogs out there with recipes! I have a co-worker who is vegan so she gave me some resources too! And some of the recipes I stumbled upon looked absolutely delicious! I am thankful that there are people out there who eat this way either because of personal beliefs or for health reasons who have done the leg work for me. I don't think I could be this restrictive in my diet forever - I enjoy food too much! But I am glad I have this opportunity for a little while to understand that I can still eat well!

Here are some of the blog\recipe sites I found that I really liked:
- For the Love of Food Blog: A food enthusiast's journey to find community, health, and joy through eating.
- My Real Food Life

These two sites have a lot of resources on them, especially the second one. It has gluten free, vegan friendly, dairy free, and even soy free recipes on them.

Today will be better! I got more bananas, so I was able to have my new favorite thing with breakfast - my banana almond milk smoothies! I had that with the rest of my chicken sausage. Today I start having my "protein" shake twice day - once before breakfast and once before dinner. I am kind of glad I get to have it more right now cause it is the only sweet chocolatey thing I get all day! I will take my chocolate fix any way I can get it! By Monday I will be having this shake three times day with each meal.

I can't believe I almost through my last week. I have started to see some results, but right now I am still working through the caffeine and sugar withdrawals. Hopefully by Monday those will be more manageable. Here is to the next week!

Day 2: Lunch and Dinner

Lunch today was anti-climactic as it consisted of my leftover chicken and carrots from dinner last night, a bag of grapes, and some cashews for my afternoon snack.

Dinner tonight, however was fantastic! One of my favorite dishes is tacos! I love tacos A LOT! And I especially love hard tacos! Today as I was driving home contemplating what in the blazes I was going to make for dinner, a thought came to my mind, "What about turkey tacos?" Of course, though, this meant I had to get creative as I couldn't have taco shells, tortillas, salsa, cheese, sour cream, or even tomatoes!

In low carb diets, it is very common for people to substitute lettuce leaves in place of the bun or tortilla or whatever. So, I decided to borrow from this. I turned some iceberg lettuce leaves into taco shells. And I had ground turkey (which personally I have always liked in tacos) and some taco seasoning. The taco seasoning must be purchased from a health food store so you can ensure you are getting natural herbs and spices with no artificial crap. I shop at Sunflower Market where I live and they have some taco seasoning that I just love! It is the Simply Organic Spicy Taco seasoning! This stuff packs a punch but it is so good! So I cooked my turkey with my seasoning.

Cheese is a wonderful thing on tacos, but I can't have cheese, so I had to come up with something else. I also wanted a lettuce substitute as I was using the lettuce for my shells. I also felt like I needed tomatoes, but I can't have tomatoes, so I thought on this while I cooked my meat. For my cheese I shredded some carrots, so it even looked like cheese. It used to be common practice to use carrots for the orange coloring in cheese, so it works. For my lettuce I used red cabbage. It has a similar flavor and shreds nicely. For my tomatoes I settled on black beans. After the meat was done, I pulled out a lettuce leaf, put some meat on it, and then I topped it with my cheese, lettuce, and tomato substitutes. I rolled lettuce up like a burrito and took a bite and it was so delicious! I didn't think it would be, but it was quite good. The taco seasoning is so spicy you really don't need hot sauce or salsa or anything else like that unless you absolutely want it. The lettuce and carrots help keep my mouth cool, but it was still on fire when I got done eating!

Because my mouth was on fire I knew I needed something more than a glass of water to cool my mouth off, so I decided to make a banana smoothie for my dessert. I am addicted to these banana almond milk smoothies! I think they are my new favorite thing! And I freeze the bananas so the frozen banana in the milk makes it taste ice creamy! So, I whipped up a smoothie and to make it a little more fun I added some of the "candied" pecans I made last night for dessert! I put in a fun glass and then put in a bendy straw! Banana heaven it was!

Overall, I am feeling better about this diet today than I was yesterday! I will be taking my taco stuff from tonight and will be turning it into a taco salad for lunch tomorrow! I could eat tacos forever and never get bored so lunch tomorrow will definitely be awesome!

Turkey Taco Meat:

Taco Toppings And "Shells":

Completed Taco Before Rolling:

Banana Almond Milk Smoothie With "Candied" Pecans:

Day 1: Dinner

I must admit I was pretty hungry when I got home from work and eating mainly vegetables sounded extremely unsatisfying and boring to me, so I decided to let the creative juices flow! There may be restrictions in what I can and cannot eat, but that doesn't mean I can't be creative with it.

Thank the heavens above for Rachael Ray's Magazine! Her staff who put together this amazing magazine really do take the time to bring together recipes that anyone can enjoy regardless of their dietary needs, restrictions, or preferences. I was flipping through the December edition when I found a recipe for Roasted Chicken and Carrots. I reviewed all of the ingredients and they were all things I could eat, so I decided to make it for dinner!

While it was only Day 1, I can honestly say that I felt like dinner was a cheat on the diet, but it wasn't. The marinade\sauce that I put on the chicken and carrots was so yummy. It was basically a chili\lemon sauce with garlic! Oh it was heavenly! For anyone who loves garlic, this recipe has a lot of garlic - 16 cloves! That is like a full bulb of garlic! But it is so good!

The only thing I didn't do that I probably should have was split the baby carrots in half. The recipe said to, but for whatever reason I didn't read that part, so I didn't cut them in half. The smaller carrots cooked through just fine and were tender and sweet, but the larger baby carrots were still a little crunchy. Next time I will remember to cut them up first.

Typically after I eat dinner, I always crave something sweet. I looked around and thought about what I could have that would satisfy my sweet tooth. In the group of recipes the doctor gave me there is a recipe for sweet potato mixed in with pecans that have been fixed in vanilla and cinnamon. So I decided to take my pecans I had bought and cover them in vanilla and cinnamon. I then took some peaches and banana and cut them in and put them in a bowl and sprinkled the "candied" pecans on top. The cinnamon made me think I was eating cobbler and then crunchy nuts just added that little texture I like when I sweet things! It was so good and I think the boyfriend liked it too!

So, all in all, I feel like dinner was a big success! I am ready for Day 2!

Roasted Chicken and Carrots:

Peaches, Banana, and "Candied" Pecans:

Pizza Done Healthy!

I have been in a not so good mood today and when I get in bad moods, I tend to eat unhealthy foods, so I decided to come home and make a pizza. This pizza actually was very healthy. I made an Onion, Red Pepper, and Sausage Pizza. You are probably thinking, "How is sausage healthy?" Yes, sausage isn't typically healthy, but I actually found chicken sausage and that is what I used in this recipe. Chicken is much healthier than your standard pork sausage.

The recipe called for hot Italian sausage and the only thing could find in hot Italian was chicken, so that is what I used. The chicken sausage held well in this recipe and had a little bite to it. Quite enjoyable.

The onions and peppers were a nice addition to this pizza. I liked them a lot and I typically do not like veggies on my pizza. The onions and peppers added the right amount of flavor and went well with the hot sausage.

Of course, what is pizza without cheese? Unlike most pizzas, the cheese on this was not the standard mozzarella. This pizza had ricotta and Parmesan on it. I was really surprised I would like the ricotta. Ricotta is a little healthier than mozzarella and way more healthy than cheddar! The pizza sauce on this was just olive oil. Personally I think a thick sauce would have been too much. There was also rosemary in the pizza which gave it a nice flavor.

I added fennel seed to the pizza as well. Quite yummy! But fennel goes well with Italian sausage. The dough for the pizza was just a store bought pizza dough, which is probably the best way to go when making quick and easy recipes! I would also encourage that if you are going to make pizza, you should get some stoneware to cook it one. The stoneware cooks the pizza dough more evenly and makes it have that pizza oven\brick over restaurant feel to it.

The only thing I would do differently next time is maybe do two different colors of bell peppers for more color appeal! So, I was able to get my comfort food but on a healthier level!

Onion, red pepper, and sausage pizza:

I Am Never Eating A Fast-Food Burger Again!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I know I did! I got a patio grill and an indoor George Foreman grill and a grilling basket for the outdoor grill which is going to let me try even more recipes. So, I was checking my e-mail and came across and interesting article. It is entitled, "The Truth About Your Weight Gain." It made me really think about the things I put in my mouth.

As we approach the new year I am sure we are all thinking about ways to be more healthy and lose that holiday weight! One fundamental way we can be more healthy is to eat at home. I will be the first one to admit I love eating out because I enjoy trying new foods, but when it comes to the everyday dealings of life, eating at home is the healthiest way to go. If you do go out, try and stick to the sit down, have to pay a tip restaurants because they tend to use better, more fresh ingredients than the fast food joints.

After reading this article, I may never eat another hamburger from a chain fast-food restaurant.

The coming weeks will be bringing new recipes! And if I get my grill put together, even some grilling recipes because who says you can only grill in the spring and summer? Bring it!