Green Juice and Broth

 In case you're curious...Here's what my green juice and vegetable broth look like...at least the one jar of broth that I didn't freeze and shatter. I'm always surprised at how the juice separates some to the top and some to the bottom.  So I shookem!

That looks nicer, right?

Since I'm juicing regularly, I'm ending up with quite a bit of pulp and therefore quite a lot of broth.  I'm using it for everything from cooking rice and potatoes to throwing in mixed frozen vegetables for soups.

I feel very virtuous. Ha ha.

You have no idea how easy it is though and how lazy I am. the juicing is the time consuming part with all the washing of the veggies. The soup part is easy - thanks to Crock pot liners and a colander.

In case you're wondering - the green of choice is Parsley. I love the flavor of it but that actual chewing...not so much. It is super good in juice though!

Freezing in glass jars - tips and tricks

If you do something...ahem...dumb like me and try to freeze fluids in glass jars, I have a tip for you.
Once you open the freezer and notice that the jars are cracked, remove them and put them in a paper bag to defrost them.  The liquid will leak out and the glass will stay in the bag for easy disposal. If the bag is clean, you might be able to put the whole thing in a bowl and save the liquid...if not leave it in the sink and there won't be a big mess.
I get smarter every day.
How did I learn this lesson? Well, I've started making green juice ala Kris Carr and feeling bad about all the pulp going out in the trash. Then it occurred to me...I could save some of the pulp for vegetable broth.
So last time I juiced a bunch of parsley, celery, carrots, cucumbers and apples - I saved the first 3 and put them in my crock pot with some onions, garlic and herbs and ended up with a wonderful vegetable broth.
I simply strained it out through a colander to catch the pulp.
Too bad I didn't freeze it in plastic...

Back to Door to Door deliveries!

Hi kids!

Well, I signed up for my Door to Door Organics delivery again! I quit a while back because I found a great selection of organics at my King Soopers (yay!) and thought I could just pick them up when I went for other stuff. Well...it worked for like a week and then I ended up living on giant tubs of organic pre washed baby spinach and deli roasts. That quickly devolved into frozen veggies and jello straight from the box over the last couple months. So, it's apparent that I need a little help.

I did pretty good after Thanksgiving with the leftovers and such, but when I came down with the plague (flu for the layman) in December, all bets were off. I lived on Sudafed, throat spray and vegetable broth, sometimes added a few of those frozen veggies if I was feeling like something chewy and on a really good day I might even find the energy and stomach to get a few cheese and crackers in there!

So, well into the new year and no long suffering from the plague, I looked in my fridge and couldn't bear to eat another tub of spinach beside a slice of deli meat for dinner and decided that D2D might help me out again.

Surprisingly, they also carry some new products like the Udi's GF bread I like, for only $.10 more than King Soopers, so I added on and now I have a beautifully nutritious week ahead.

This week's menu includes baby bok choy, ruffly kale, cucumber, blueberries, green onions and more!

Lotsa washing (second reason I quit the farmer delivery) but I have a feeling my health will improve a little more too.

I other news, I saw this at Walmart and was really impressed.

How's 2013 treating you so far?

I always order lunch at work

 I'm actually happy to order food when we have all day meetings at work. It's so much easier than trying to explain to someone how to explain about celiac to someone else...who doesn't care.

Since I work for a... thrifty...company, we often do "Brown Bag" lunches. Panera has done a nice job for me several times. They seem to be conscious of what gluten free means and pack me a nice salad with nothing dangerous in it and lately they even automatically sub out the cookie for a fruit cup. I love that!

The meat is real chunks instead of questionable sandwich slices :)

 This last time I decided to try Encore Catering for a hot lunch. I got a stuffed portabello mushroom with a cute side salad and rice crispie treats: 

 Feta, Spinach, Sun dried tomatoes, bell peppers in a mushroom cap with some kind of sauce:

 Everyone else got a "Street Taco Bar". Although it sounded safe, they couldn't say with confidence that it was truly gluten free so I steered clear of it.

The lady I spoke with to order said she had a gluten sensitivity as well and seemed to know what she was talking about. That was pretty refreshing.

Can I say for sure it was safe? No...because the next day I definitely had some tummy trouble...could have been almost anything though - soy, gluten cross contamination, bell peppers, the feta...I have so many other sensitivities that aren't consistent, I'm never sure and I was a little bit negligent by not asking for a list of ingredients!

I didn't really know how to push it. Any suggestions?

Zucchini before and after

I made zucchini noodles again, yum yum yum. I luv zucc noods :)

Ever wonder what to do with the insides? There is something so good about golden sauteed onions and adding zucchini meat, that makes a really nice meal.

Ok, I'll fess up. I'm eating boring. Since I don't cook meat any more and haven't made it to any stores that have acceptable protein, I'm eating plants -lotsa plants. And quinoa pasta.
And that's all I've been doing with food.

In other news, I've survived another quarter at work, got a raise and now I'm going to be taking a couple classes for enrichment this month. Big stuff!

One class is on how to manipulate people in business and one is about career development - as in how to. I think the career development class will be most beneficial to me since I have few career goals. I'm hoping it will help me focus.

Weekly Meal Plan - Thanksgiving version

You know that most of this week is going to be Thanksgiving leftovers...so I'm making them good!

I have had great success and accolades the last couple years making the maple roasted acorn squash from the gluten free goddess blog, so I'm not going to mess with a good thing!  http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2008/11/maple-roasted-acorn-squash-and.html

For the corn bread I like Bob's Red Mill Gluten free Corn Bread Mix. It makes a nice soft bread that isn't too crumbly, so it holds up well during the mixing.

The curry might sound a little crazy non-traditional for a Thanksgiving dinner, but trust me - it's delicious and no one will think anything of it except the aromatic spices bring out a nice contrast with the apples and cranberries. YUM!

Then there will be the usual staples:

Turkey - I plan to try my famous roast procurement method (http://cocoasglutenfreeplace.blogspot.com/2012/04/look-i-made-roastand-fab-gf-find.html).  Boar's Head has so many yummy sounding options- how will I choose?

http://boarshead.com/products/turkey

Baked potatoes - which can be mashed with milk/butter for the more traditional, then you have leftover baked potatoes for the rest of the week, which adds a little flair to the 3 day turkey sandwich scenario

Green Beans

Pie

Cranberry Sauce - homemade, of course. It's seriously faster and better than opening a can, unless you just crave the jellied kind (I understand!)

Salad

Raw Mushroom Gravy - to supplement whatever sauce I get from the Turkey. I adore Ani Phyo's recipe: http://aniphyo.com/blog/cauliflower-mash-mushroom-gravy/ No, it's not going to taste like meat but it's savory on potatoes and you'll love it, I promise!

Wild Rice

Random Sides as needed

Wine, Gin and Kool-Aid

For the beginning of the week there's Tuna Salad, Steak and Zucchini Parmesean.

What are you having for Thanksgiving?

Weekly Meal Plan

"Chipotle" style barbacoa burrito bowls

Tuna Casserole

Veggie Soup

Veggie Stir-fry

Steak and Baked Potatoes

Blogger is broken?

Sorry guys, I guess Blogger has decided to do something funky with my pictures.  I'll be doing some "best of" posts in the future...if I can decide what is the "best of" to post!

Chipotle style barbacoa - in the crock pot

 So, I love Chipotle's burrito bowls...but I find it a HUGE pain to go there and try to convince the non-English speaking employees that they need to change their gloves and not fondle the tortillas before they fix my food so that they don't poison me. So, I thought maybe, just maybe, I could make it myself at home.

An in-depth Google search yielded several copycat recipes, all very similar, so I settled on this one:

http://www.food.com/recipe/chipotles-barbacoa-copycat-recipe-472445

I halved it since my roast (London Broil) was only about 2 pounds. Was it good? I'd give it about an 8 on a scale of 10 (high). Personally, I didn't like the strong clove taste- I would probably go for a couple sprinkles instead of spoons of it. Otherwise, it was spicy and went pretty well on rice.

Weekly Gluten Free Menu - October 3

So...I cooked 3 pounds of Salmon today, jut to use it up - so this week's menu is basically, salmon, salmon, salmon!

Salmon with Spicy Mango Sauce on a bed of fresh spinach



Salmon with Sweet Red Chili Sauce on a bed of spinach



Salmon Salad sandwiches on Udi's GF bread


Amy's Gluten Free Macaroni and Cheese


Baked Potato Soup


Beef Stew