Semi-homemade Wheat-free Pizza

Okay, so I haven't been writing that well, but I have been doing pretty well eating gluten-free.

Last night's feast involved pizza. A bit back we bought a [small, expensive] box of gluten-free Bisquick and last night I put it to use. It'd been a long day (I didn't sleep a wink Sunday night) and I knew Lydia and I had an hour or so of gardening to do, so I swung by the Albertsons and picked up the fixings. She made her pizza on a store-bought, pre-made, pre-baked deal, and I threw together a small crust from the Bisquick.

I used the recipe on the gluten-free box, and the couple ways I'd suggest modifying it: add a teaspoon or two of salt and add more dried herb Italian seasonings than I did. The crust came out very plain and needed some serious help. But, it was crunchy, light, and yummy. I also would suggest spreading the crust thinner on the baking sheet than I did; I would suggest maybe spreading it to a 1/4" thick, mine was a little on the thick side and I think that the pizza toppings could have helped the lackluster flavor of the crust, but it was too thick.

ps..you may notice there are several areas of toppings on my pizza - this is honor of the square foot gardening Lydia and I recently got into; I couldn't pick just one, so I did four - top left: lightly caramelized sweet onions and garlic, top center, the favorite: pepperoni, top right: plain cheese, and the bottom half: bacon cheeseburger... yum!

When it's the toughest...

After completing my 3-mile run tonight down in Ajo's beautiful town plaza, I started getting that familiar pang in my stomach - it was well past the time for me to eat. By the time my meeting got out at 6, then I got done talking to the project manager by 6:15-ish, then Lyd around 7, I had decided that if I went to the store right away, I'd never make it on my run tonight. So I decided to do the run first then feed the beast. Well, that's when this wheat-free thing is the toughest. When I've waited too long to eat and all I really want to do is go down to the local grocery and pick up a frozen pizza. Or some potato and cheese pierogis. Or a Morningstar corn dog. So much for all of that. On tonight's menu: breakfast. Eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. Over and done in about 10 minutes flat. These times are the times when it's the toughest...

Eggplant and Chicken Parmesan Gluten-Free Recipe

Ingredients:

1 bag gluten-free pretzels (I used Glutino)

4-6 eggs

sea salt

pepper

1 pound chicken (I used chicken tenders)

1 eggplant

mozzarella cheese

parmesan cheese (DiGiorno is good)

extra virgin olive oil

basil leaves

quinoa pasta

spaghetti sauce (you can, of course, make your own)

Slice the eggplant into thin slices and coat both sides with sea salt. Place the slices in a collander and put them to the side. By doing this, you sweat the eggplant which apparently helps with the bitterness, but I've also noticed it helps with the consistency of the eggplant.

Now for the chicken parmesan. Crush enough pretzels to coat the chicken tenders. Place them in one dish and then crack and scramble 2 eggs in a separate dish - add a splash of water to the eggs. Add black pepper to your pretzels. Place olive oil in a good thick-bottomed frying pan and start heating it up. Coat the chicken tenders with pretzels first, then coat with eggs, then back to the pretzels. (Of course, as you go along, you may have to add more crushed pretzels or more eggs to your process so have plenty on hand.) Place the chicken tender in the warmed-up pan. Continue until all chicken is breaded and placed in the pan. I cooked it on a lower temperature and then when I felt like they were cooked enough, I put them in the toaster oven on 100 degrees to keep them warm.

Next, the eggplant parmesan. Throw out your pretzels and eggs from your chicken round. (Very important.) Start fresh with another batch of crushed pretzels with black pepper and new eggs. Pat dry the eggplant (if you've never sweated eggplant before, they will be very moist). I might even suggest a light rinse on the eggplant, but I'm not sure if the water would 'reconstitute' them too much. Mine seemed a little salty. Whatever you do, ensure you pat the eggplant dry before following the "breading" and egging process. In a separate pan than that used for the chicken, lightly fry the eggplant on both sides.

When you feel like the eggplant is cooked, it's now time to place mozzarella and parmesan cheese on both the chicken pieces and the eggplant and melt. I did this in a toaster oven. When the cheese was melted to my satisfaction, I plated the red sauce and placed the chicken and eggplant parmesan over the red sauce. I served it with the quinoa pasta. The last touch was a light sprinkle of basil flakes for color and beauty.

It was delicious. If you've never cooked quinoa pasta before, be aware that it takes 13-15 minutes for this type of pasta to cook, so keep that in mind as you're cooking. I understand some folks like their eggplant parmesan layered with red sauce and cheese, etc., so feel free to take that liberty. I happen to like it crispy with just a little bit of red sauce. It was a success and my guest said she would not have ever considered breading items with pretzels, and also that she would have never known it was a gluten-free recipe. Success!

Eggplant or Chicken Parmesan

One of the things I bought last week at Whole Foods was a bag of Glutino wheat-free pretzels. Some folks go for chocolate or sweets when they have a craving, me?, I go for crunchy, salty things. So, on an impulse, I grabbed up a bag of these pretzels and whisked them on down to Ajo for the "what if"...

Well, I was thinking I could use them as a replacement for bread crumbs, for crusting things, etc. And today I believe I have arrived at an idea: I'll use them to make eggplant parmesan or chicken parmesan. Immediately, I thought, okay, well, I need to be aware of any pitfalls to using them as a crust and started googling it. Within minutes, I found a reference to Rachel Ray's Pretzel-Crusted Chicken and Zuchinni -- PERFECT! I'll use my gluten-free pretzels and run with Rachel Ray's recipe. I plan to serve it with quinoa pasta (and I'm not going to tell my guest what I've done). Hopefully she enjoys the meal and doesn't walk away from the meal starving (DQ anyone?).

I love it when a plan comes together... I will post the recipe once I have it formulated. And of course, photos will follow.

Meatloaf

Last week, I was talking to a colleague out here in Arizona, one that I often meet up with once a week to enjoy good food, a good glass of wine, and good company. A group of gentleman (my colleagues) live in a house together, and the mix of them changes from week to week, but generally speaking, once a week (usually on Wednesdays) we meet up at their place for a meal. Well, this week, one of the guys, I'll call him Antonio, said he had a hankering for meatloaf with mashed potatoes. And I said, 'Well, I can make meatloaf, why don't we plan on our typical Wednesday gathering?'

And, so Monday passed and I started thinking, well, I really want to stay wheat-free, so I think I'm going to have to bail out on making meatloaf for the guys (you know, because bread or crackers are generally in most recipes). I felt like crap, but I knew I had to stand my personal ground. On Tuesday, I wrote Antonio and asked him if I could make spaghetti instead; I could bring pasta they would eat and pasta I would eat. Well, he never got the email but returned to the office and we talked about it in person. He was like, well.. hmmm.. well, I really wanted meatloaf. So I thought to myself, Self, how can I do this??? I know, I'll make it without bread/crackers and see how it fares - hope it stays together and that it works out.

I promptly got on IM and sent my Mom a message asking her if I was forgetting any of the ingredients in my family's receipe. I mean, I could have wrote to L to find out her family's recipe, but I figured, well, if I am going to make it for the guys, it should be my family's recipe. The next morning she called and said she had just got the message and said she thought that the recipe would work out without the crackers. I told her I had some vegetable crackers (see photo) that tasted pretty good that I could substitute, and she said, that should work, go ahead and try it. (Thanks Mom!) So, voila, I did; I prepared the loaf around 10 on Wednesday. In the afternooon, I cooked it most of the way and brought it to the guys' house for final cooking and crisping. When I showed up at the guys' house and walked in, Antonio said, yummm, that smells so good. Well, needless to say, I served up a mighty fine meatloaf with mashed potatoes and corn. It was lovely meal and had all the flavors, consistency and comfort I remember. They guys bought meat gravy in a jar to serve over theirs (of course it had wheat ingredients in it) and enjoyed pouring it all over their meatloaf and potatoes. I, however, quite enjoyed my meatloaf, potatoes and corn, wheat-free. All it took was a little ingenuity, planning, and calling in the wisdom (and support) of my Mom. What a wonderful way to be able to prepare and serve a yummy, comfort-filled dish.

Breakfast on a Saturday Morning

Today's breakfast involved 1 egg with 1 piece of Ezekiel 4:9 bread. As can be seen in the photo, I put cream cheese and grape jam on one half and peanut butter on the either. Perfect combination of sweet and salty.

Ezekiel bread came into our lives a few years ago and I never tried it. A friend told us of this "living bread" and suggested we try it. Well, I really never had a reason to try it until recently. I can't recall the first time I had it, but I remember thinking, well, this isn't that bad. It's nutty and drier than most breads, and it can be found in the frozen section in most grocery stores. I suggest keeping it in the freezer, too. It stores well and serves great purpose when one has a hankering for a grilled cheese, a piece of toast, even a chicken salad sandwich. It has more protein than other breads and is easily digestable.

You may be wondering - what is in this bread? Well, it has sprouted barley, spelt, and millet, and other sprouted grains and legumes, even sprouted wheat grain. What? She's eating sprouted wheat grain? Well, in the "sprouting" process, the wheat gluten is "destroyed", therefore, the wheat gluten no longer poses a problem for people like me.

Eating wheat free

Eight months ago, I embarked on a journey - a journey to eliminate wheat from my diet. For two weeks starting January 4th, I stopped eating wheat all together - no bread, no pasta, no processed foods (think Wheat Thins, Goldfish crackers, Cheezits), you catch my drift. I was on travel to Texas for the month of January and only came in on the weekends. In the second week, I decided I was hungry, emotional, and needing some "comfort" so L and I went to one of my favorite - if not my favorite - places to eat: Little Village. Well, if you've ever been to the Little Village, you know about the Little Village Bread. Ahhh, yes, the LV Bread, capitalized, because it's a proper noun, it's a very specific thing, something to be taken very seriously. Well, on said emotional evening, I decided, what could it hurt? I'd been completely wheat free for about two weeks, I was going to indulge and see what transpired. So I not only took a leap and inhaled some LV Bread, but decided on my favorite dish of Chicken Alfredo with penne pasta. Well, needless to say, within moments, I had crashed and all but fell asleep on my dinner company. Right at the table.

It was then I decided that there really was something to do this whole wheat-free thing for me. In the eight months since then, I have struggled to maintain wheat-free-dom but have mostly succeeded. I have found that finding other ways to compensate for bread, pasta cravings, etc., are readily available, it just takes more conscious thought and planning.

I plan to use this platform to write about my challenges, ask for and give suggestions on "substitutions", and track how I feel when I eat wheat-free.

Join me on this journey, won't you?