Penne and Cheese Bake (Gluten-Free)

My marathon training has finally hit it's peak, and man, is my appetite feeling it. All I want is a carbohydrate or 10 in my belly, every second of the day.

Do I want half your sandwich? Sure, but first you need to take all that crap off the bread and then we have a deal.

Would I care for another serving of pasta? Uhh yeah, but a serving is too small. I'll take an additional three.

DO YOU SEE THAT?! It was so good it was gone too fast for it to even seem real. This recipe came from yet another cookbook that was neglected for sometime. This one Cooking Light put out, and it's their Gluten-Free Cookbook. We received it as a wedding gift, and I started out with a bang making recipes out of it after we were first married. Then it gradually faded away to join the other crying books until I yanked it out under the dust last week and finally cracked it open again.

What a good decision.

Naturally, there were kale chips involved. A nice, well-rounded (meaning it will make me rounded, balance schmalance) meal.

I used vanilla rice milk instead of regular milk because it's all we had on hand, and the taste was surprisingly very delicious. The vanilla taste was definitely present, but it made it seem almost creamier, and not in a weird I'm-eating-dessert way.

Let me know what you think! I'm sure you could throw in whatever veggies or protein you want to this. I would have done that...but that would take away my precious carbs, which just wouldn't do.


Penne and Cheese Bake (Gluten-Free)
Adapted from Cooking Light's Gluten-Free Cookbook

1 small onion, diced
12 oz. gluten-free penne (I used Trader Joe's) 
1/4 cup corn starch
4 cups milk, divided (as mentioned above, I used vanilla rice milk)

salt and pepper
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a large baking dish with cooking spray.


2. Put the pasta water on to boil. Since gluten-free noodles need frequent stirring while they cook and need to be mixed with sauce immediately after being drained to prevent them from sticking together, you will want this to be your final step before putting the casserole in the oven.

3. Heat some olive oil in a Dutch oven or large pot over medium heat; when it's heated, add the onion and saute until soft.

4. Add 3.5 cups milk to the onion in the pot and bring to a boil. Combine the corn starch and remaining 1/2 cup milk in a small bowl; gradually stir cornstarch mix into the boiling milk and stir constantly for about 2 minutes so the mixture thickens. Remove from heat.

5. Add salt, pepper and the cheeses and stir to thoroughly melt the cheese.

6. At this point, your pasta water should be boiling, so add in the noodles and stir frequently until just al dente. Drain and immediately stir into the cheese sauce.

7. Pour the pasta mix into the baking dish and cook for 30 minutes, or until sauce is bubbling and the top is slightly browned.

Quinoa Casserole with Buffalo Cauliflower Sauce (Gluten-Free)

I've never been a huge fan of buffalo wings. I guess you could blame it on the fact that I was never properly introduced to the concept of "it's wing night!! I'msopumpedIgettoeatwingstonight!" To me it was just people sloppily eating chicken with naught a care given to the orange covering their entire body.

Then I met my husband who likes Frank's on ALL OF IT. All the dinners, all the snacks,  and definitely all the casseroles.

Like the stellar wife I am, I go to Costo and see a saintly two-pack of the stuff and heft all 80 pounds of it into the cart and get it home and he still hasn't made it through the first bottle. I don't know, maybe it lost its charm when it was in abundance but it has taken the man for-ever-er to make it through half the first bottle.

I was sitting here contemplating what the heezy to do with all this buffalo sauce and then Cassie went and posted this stellar dish and I knew I had to adapt it to make it ours. So that was done.

Oh, and  be sure you pair it with kale chips (bonus points if they're covered in salty cheesy nutritional yeast) because it was a combo you won't soon forget.

I topped our casserole with leftover rice cripsy coating and sliced tomatoes, but feel free to use gluten-free breadcrumbs or whatever else you delight in.

Quinoa Casserole with Buffalo Cauliflower Sauce
Inspired from Back to Her Roots

half of a large cauliflower head (about 2 cups chopped)
1 small sweet onion, diced
1 cup chopped zucchini
1/2 cup Frank's hot sauce (or any other buffalo-style sauce)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/4 - 1/2 cup water
2 cups cooked quinoa
1 cup chredded cheddar cheese (divided)
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
toppings of choice

1. Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and lightly greasing an 8x8 baking dish.

2. Steam the cauliflower until tender. While the cauliflower is steaming, saute the onion and zucchini together over medium-heat until tender. When it's done, remove from heat.

3. In your food processor, add the steamed cauliflower, buffalo sauce, minced garlic and 1/4 cup water and combine. If the sauce is still too thick for your liking, add additional water until it reaches the desired consistency.

4. In a medium bowl, combine the quinoa, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, buffalo cauliflower sauce, and the zucchini/onion mixture. Scoop into the baking dish and cover with your topping of choice. Bake for 15 minutes, until hot.

Taco Pie, Guten-Free / Soy Free

I was talking with a friend the other day who has just moved back from Australia. Yes, I know - the down under seems so lovely, right? WHY would you leave?!

Well, I'll tell you why (not that this was her reason. It would have been mine, though). There's no Mexican food. And if there is, they include balsamic vinegar in their most commonly used ingredients, which is a wam-bam-no-thank-you-ma'am in my book.

I went home that night craving rice, beans, and some taco flavor in a BIG way. I feel so lucky to have all those ingredients at my beck and call, especially since the man needs those to essentially remain a thriving human being.

This was so simple to make. I actually had some cooked rice already in the fridge from the night before, which cut down on some time. As with many of my recipes, please add in what ingredients you love to eat the most. I used tomatoes, leeks, mushrooms, onions and black beans since that's what I had on hand. As long as you get that taco seasoning in, it will be a pie-dish full of that wonderful South-of-the-border taste.

Taco Pie
Makes one standard 9-inch pie dish

Ingredients
1.5 cups cooked white rice, hot
1 egg
1/5 cup chopped leek
1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1 cup cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste


1. Preheat your oven to 350 degree; grease your pie dish.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the hot rice, eggs, and 2 tablespoons of the chopped leeks. Spread this mixture on the bottom and up the sides of the pie dish, as you would a pie crust. Pop it in the oven for 15 minutes while you prepare the filling.

3. For the filling, pour some olive oil in a medium-sized skillet  and heat over medium heat. When the oil is hot, dump in the onions and remaining leeks. Let cook for about 5 minutes, then add in the mushrooms and taco seasoning. Give it a stir and let cook while you mash the black beans.

4. Dump your black beans in the bowl you used to make the rice mixture. Mash the beans with a fork until they are mostly mushy, with a few recognizable chunks.

5. Once the onion and mushroom mixture is cooked and soft, add it to the beans. Stir it all up nice. By this time, your rice crust should be ready to come out of the oven - it should be slightly hardened. Add the filling to it and smooth out.

6. Place the sliced tomatoes on top, cut side down, and cover with cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes, until cheese has melted and it's all nice and hot. Let sit for 5 minutes before cutting.

Cauliflower Pie

And my love affair with the flower continues. I really can't help it. I feel like this once dreaded vegetable has been cropping up the interwebs with all sorts of new surprise ideas. Surprise ideas are totally fun. They stimulate your brain cells and your taste buds.

Brownie covered cookies? Check.

Berry beer cocktail? Future check.

Cauliflower pie? Well, compared to the first two links, this may as well be slug stew. BUT...if you look at it as a balanced, healthy meal (instead of as a delicious, meal combing beer + vodka) then you're doing all right.




We ate this with crispy, roasted broccoli, which was filling if you have two portions of each. However, if you are feeding a meat-eater (meater?) then I bet you could bulk it up by adding a nice layer of ground hamburger or crumbled sausage on top of the potato layer before you add the cauliflower in. This definitely leans more towards a casserole than a pie, so feel free to adapt this to your liking. (However, the spring-form pan cooking method makes it very fancy, so we'll continue to call it a pie. Give it some integrity, people.)



Cauliflower Pie
loosely adapted from Branny Boils Over
feeds 4

Potato Crust Stuff:
3 cups peeled, grated russet potato
1/2 t. salt
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup grated onion

Cauliflower Topping:
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 medium cauliflower, broken/processed into small, biteable chunks
1 cup broccoli, same size pieces as the cauliflower
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 dash thyme
1/2 t basil
1/2 t salt
1/2 t curry poweder
1/2 t garam masala (optional, but I liked it)
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup milk
pepper
paprika

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. For the crust, combine the potato, salt, onion and egg in a medium bowl.

3. Press the mixture into a greased spring form pan and bake for 35 minutes until browned and solid.

3.5 Have some you time! Read your new magazine, eat a couple chocolate chips, try to guess the Jeopardy questions knowing it will be a complete fail (or is that just my life?)

4. Remove the potato crust and turn the oven down to 350.

5. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the shredded cheese over the potato crust.

6. In a large bowl, combine the second egg with the seasonings and the milk.

7. Add the cauliflower, broccoli, and cheese to the milk mixture and mix it all together so everything is coated.

8. Pour this into the spring form pan on top of the potato crust and bake for 40 minutes until tender.

9. Let the pie cool 5 minutes before digging in.

**If you want to roast a side of broccoli, just add it in (tossed with EVOO, salt and pepper) the last 20 minutes while the pie bakes. Then while the pie is cooling for those 5 minutes, turn the oven off and the broiler on for about 3 minutes to get those broccolis nice and crispy on top.

Saucy Style 'Ladas

Oh, geez. Another enchilada recipe.

I'm not cheatin' you, pinky swear. This one is different, mainly because it's saucy, like those pink heels you wore that one day running errands. But this recipe is cheezy saucy, which is totally not an adjective I would use to describe any pair of high heels. Unless they're making out with a movie star, then yes. Totally cheesy.

I picked up a new blog that is brilliantly constructed by Mama Pea. I have bookmarked her recipe page and don't ever plan on not looking at less than twice a day. What I should do is back down on the double negatives.

These enchiladas are great - I like my food juicy, and since juicy sure as heck ain't coming from a burger, then I'm going to stuff all in a casserole dish. Also, a quick word about corn tortillas. I really got out of the habit of making them because they would always fall apart if I didn't fry them in bajillion amounts of oil first. However, I found a solid (literally) brand that will let you heat them up in the microwave and still stay in tact when you roll them up with the goods - all without saturating them in oil first. This magical brand is Don Pancho, and I found him at Freddies. Always Freddies. 

Cheezy Enchiladas
inspired by Mama Pea

Cheeze Sauce
everything as in the link above, plus I added 1/2 teaspoon of cumin for a little more Mexican flair

Enchiladas
8-10 corn tortillas
1 20 oz. can enchilada sauce
1 can refried beans
1.5 cups cooked white or brown rice
chopped jalapenos, amount to your preference
1 cup shredded green cabbage
1/4 of a small white onion, diced
shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Heat a small amount of olive oil in a skillet over medium hear; add onion and saute until soft, about 3 minutes.

2. Add shredded cabbage to the onion in the skillet and saute until it's all soft and smells good, about 5 more minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

4. Bust our your baking dish of choice and add about 1/4 of the enchilada sauce to the bottom.

5. In a mixing bowl, mix together the beans, rice and a smaller amount of the cheeze sauce; eyeball the cheeze amount and of course add more if you feel it's necessary, which it probably is.

6. Microwave the corn tortillas in a damp paper towel about 30-45 seconds.

7. Begin stuffing the tortillas, starting with the saucy cheezy mixture, then the jalapenos, and finally the cabbage and onion mixture. At this point, you can also add your hot sauce of choice.

8. Roll your tortillas and place face down in the casserole dish; continue until they're all lined up and ready to go.

9. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over your lovely creations, and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. You can see that I made 2 separate pans - a reeeeeal cheese and one sprinkled with leftover cabbage. Guess which is for who.

10. Pop in the oven for about 20 minutes until it's all hot and, well, saucy.