Jul 19, 2014 | Egg Free, Entrees, Nut Free
I’m a sucker for the restaurant-style meal salads and this one is one of my favourite incarnations. You can make it as spicy as you want and there’s little to no chance of being glutenized with this one.
I usually like to use red onions, but this version was for the kids and I – hence the more tame yellow onions.
Recipe
2-3 BLSL thighs
Red onions
Liberal helping of Tex-Mex Taco Seasoning
Doritos – I prefer the Jalapeno & Cheddar variety
Pepper Jack cheese
Tomatoes
Bacon bits
Romaine lettuce
- Cook your cubed thighs with the julienned red onions and seasoning
- Layer Romaine, crushed chips, shredded cheese, chicken, diced tomatoes and bacon bits
If you’re like me, you go really heavy on the cheese with potentially two layers. And if you’re adventurous, you could add avocado slices. As for salad dressings, you could do Ranch or Kraft has a Sun-Dried Tomato and Oregano salad dressing that is really good.
Finished product sans dressing
Jul 17, 2014 | Appetizers, Egg Free, Entrees, Nut Free
I blame my father for my love of hot and spicy food. He served in Taiwan in the USAF during the Vietnamese War and learned to love both Asian and spicy cuisine. But like most GIs who came back with that craving, the closest they could get over here was Mexican – and an Americanized version at that.
That said, I’m not sure how this recipe was developed. All I know is that my mother taught me the recipe and always cautioned me when I did it for the family to not use too many jalapenos. Frankly now, my mother wouldn’t be able to handle the heat since I have spiced it up a tad!
1 lb. BLSL chicken thighs
2 lbs. (~1 kg) Velveeta cheese, cubed
2-3 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 red onion, diced
2 tbsp (30 g) Cumin
1 tbsp (15 g) minced garlic
1 tbsp (15 g) hot chili powder
1 tbsp (15 g) paprika
1 tbsp (15 g) oregano
1 tbsp (15 g) cilantro
1 tbsp (15 g) cayenne pepper
2 jalapeno peppers
Dash or more of Habanero Tabasco
Doritos or corn chips
- Fry up your chicken, cubed, along with the spices and onions added to the mix.
- Cube the cheese block into roughly an inch to half-inch cubes. Put it into a large crockpot.
- Dice up your tomatoes and then finely dice the peppers. Add both to the crockpot.
- Drain any excess juices from the meat that you don’t want and add the meat to the crockpot.
- Turn the crockpot to high for about an hour. Stir occasionally and after an hour, reduce the heat to medium for about another hour.
Serve in a bowl with corn chips or Doritos.
Note: Once the cheese has completely melted, it is simply a matter of how thick you want the dip to be.
Jul 12, 2014 | Egg Free, Entrees, Nut Free
This recipe is a fave of mine and the family. And easy to convert from gluten-filled to GF!
Cajun Chicken Alfredo
Alfredo sauce (see below)
Cajun Seasoning (see recipe here)
Chicken (I like BLSL thighs – more flavour)
Red onions, julienned
Garlic, minced
Broccoli
Tomatoes, diced
Green onions, diced
Bacon pieces
GF pasta (typically linguine, but you can use whatever you like)
- Cook your chicken with some of the Cajun Seasoning, red onions and minced garlic.
- At the same time, make your Alfredo, cook your pasta and steam your broccoli.
- When the chicken, pasta and sauce are done, plate in this order: pasta, sauce, chicken (strained if you don’t want the dish too runny), broccoli, tomatoes, green onions and bacon.
- Enjoy!
Note: If you want a non-spicy version, season the chicken with Oregano, Basil, Parsley and maybe some seasoning salt. If you want Gluten, then don’t worry about Label Hawkin!
Quick Alfredo
1/2 cup (125 g) butter
8 ounce (225 g) cream cheese
2 tsp (10 g) garlic powder
2 cups (500 ml) milk
6 ounces (180 g) grated Parmesan cheese
- Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat.
- Add cream cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth.
- Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps.
- Stir in Parmesan and pepper.
- Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency.
- Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long.
If you want to try something different, simply add in your favourite GF spaghetti sauce to make it a cajunsteakpenneRose Alfredo after the sauce has started to thicken. I did this recently using steak instead of chicken with broccoli instead of the diced veggies and bacon – Outstanding!
