GF Yum Yum Bars

Instead of using graham crackers I substituted a 8 oz pkg of gluten free animal crackers. They turned out yummy. So here's what you'll need: one 8 oz pkg gluten free animal crackers, 1 stick of butter melted, 1 cup of chopped pecans, 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup of toffee chips, 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips, 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes, one 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk.
What to do: preheat oven to 350, in a food processor pulse the animal crackers to a fine texture, add animal crackers to a bowl and add melted butter, mix well. Press mixture into a 12"x9" baking pan. Layer pecans over the crackers followed by chocolate chips, then the toffee chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, coconut flakes, lastly pour milk evenly over all. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely before serving. Yum Yum!!!

GF Mexican Lasagna

This is another gluten free recipe. Really good, especially the next day. What you'll need is 2 rolls prepared polenta, 1 lb ground turkey, 1 15 oz can diced roasted tomatoes, 1 can black beans rinsed & drained, 1 c of your favorite salsa, 1 green bell pepper diced, 1 med onion diced, 3 cloves garlic chopped, 1 tbs olive oil, 1 pkg of taco seasoning, 1 pkg shreddedMonterey Jack cheese, 1 pkg shredded quesadilla cheese.
What to do:

• preheat oven to 375
• Over med heat, heat oil in large skillet
• Add pepper, onion, garlic sauté until softened
• Add turkey and cook thru
• Add black beans, tomatoes, salsa and taco seasoning mix and bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Remove polenta from wrapper and add to food processor and pulse until it's broken and has a crumb like texture. 
• Take 3/4 of polenta and press into bottom of 13"x9" pan. Sprinkle with 1pkg of the quesadilla cheese.
• Add the turkey mixture and spread over polenta evenly.
• Dollop remaking polenta overtop
• Sprinkle Monterey Jack cheese overtop
• Bake for 35 minutes
• Remove from oven and let stand 15 minutes before serving

Oven Tacos

Yummy! Very good eats. What you'll need:

• 1lb ground turkey
• 1 small onion small diced
• 12 super size taco shells
• 1 16oz can refried beans
• 1 small can diced green chilis (drained)
• 1 pkg taco seasoning
• 8 oz salsa verde
• 2 c shredded Colby Jack cheese

Toppings:

• Shredded lettuce
• Chopped cilantro
• Sour cream
• Avocado
• Chopped jalapeños
• Chopped black olives

What to do: 

• Preheat oven to 400
• Grab a  12x9 baking pan
• Heat a med pan, cook turkey and onion. Drain off excess liquid.
• Add taco seasoning, green chilis, refried beans, salsa verde.
• Mix well in pan and cook 5 minutes. You want very little moisture, otherwise your taco shells may become soggy.
• Once your meat mixture is heated through, add the mixture to the shells and line them in the baking pan. Sprinkle cheese overtop and bake for 10  minutes.
• Remove and add your toppings.

This are Good Eats!

My Tfal ActiFry

Purchased the Tfal ActiFry today from Bed Bath & Beyond today. What a deal was $ 249 but they had $50 off sale on the item plus I had a 20% off coupon, so basically got $90 off. Love this thing, the fries were crispy, not greasy at all. This was a very good buy, can't wait to try some more foods from the recipe collection.

Slow Cooker GF Chix n Dumplins

Yep, gluten free chicken & dumplings. Used a Rachel Ray recipe, but modified it for GF dumplings. The tasted fine, but way too big. I would make this dish again, but I would omit the potatoes and I would dice the carrots.  I would add a touch more seasonings. This dish was just too chunky for my liking. Just Ok Eats

Ninja 3 in 1 Slow Cooker Chicken Curry

Chicken Curry

Recently purchased the Ninja 3 in 1 Cooking System and LOVE IT!!! This is the third dish I've made so far. The first thing we tried was pulled pork. That turned out AWESOME. Yesterday we did a Food Network Texas Chili and today we did a Food Network Slow Cooker Chicken Curry, both dishes delish!!! Love this thing. You can use it as a stove top, so you can sear and sauté and it can be used as an oven for baking. You can even bake a cake in this thing. It's a little pricey, but I used my 20 % off one item coupon from Bed Bath and Beyond, so I got a little over $30 off. Not bad!! Will continue to post more stuff from my Ninja adventures!!! Good eats to all!!

Gluten Free Polenta Lasagna

Two words! GOOD EATS! This lasagna is one of the best I've had, it's easy and it's Gluten Free. My hubby has some tummy issues, so I try to limit the gluten quantities. Anyway, found this dish on the Food Network. It's a dish from Chef Michael Chiarello. Not going to list ingredients or how to, just click HERE if you want to try it. BTW, be sure to drain and squeeze the cooked spinach otherwise you're going to have a lot of liquid in the dish, which I had to drained off, otherwise you'll have eat from a bowl with a spoon;-).
Good eats everyone!!

Stuffed Poblanos Straight From The Garden

I've had an abundance of peppers this year, especially Poblanos. So tonight when I got home from work I went straight to the garden and picked 12 of them. It's been years since I've done stuffed peppers, so I kind of made this up. First thing off cook some rice, I used brown rice. Preheat your oven to 350. Things you'll need:

1. Some peppers 8-12
2. 1 tsp olive oil
3. 1/2 white onion chopped
4. 4 garlic cloves chopped
5. 6 button mushrooms chopped
6. 1 jar of your favorite marinara 
7. 1 egg
8. 2 tbsp if Italian seasoning
9. 1 tsp of salt
10. 1 c of cooked rice
11. 1 lb of ground chicken 
12. 1.5 c of shredded italian blend cheese

While rice is cooking, over medium heat, heat olive oil and add onions, garlic, and onion and saute until soft. Add the marinara sauce and simmer. In a large bowl add chicken, egg, 1/2 c of cheese and your seasoning & salt, and 1 c of cooked rice. Mix together. Mix in 1/2 c of the marinara. Grab a deep baking pan and spread a layer of marinara on bottom. Begin stuffing the peppers and place them in the pan. Once that's done if you have remaining meat mix crumble over top of peppers and layer remaining marinara over top. Place in oven for 55 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle remaining cheese overtop and baked for an additional 5-10 minutes until melted, not browned. Remove from oven, let cool for 10 minutes. Serve and enjoy!!

The Best Stuffed Mushrooms

These are awesome! Easy to make and delish to eat. What you'll need: 2 pkgs of very large button mushrooms, 1.5lbs of turkey Italian sausage (cooked, drained and broken into very small pieces), 1 pkg garlic & herb Boursin (at room temp), 2 C of shredded mozzarella cheese.
Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Mix cooked sausage, Boursin and 1.5 C mozzarella cheese together
3. Remove stems and scoop out gills from the mushrooms
4. Stuff each mushroom w/ sausage cheese mixture
5. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese over each mushroom
6. Place mushrooms on baking rack and place rack over  a cookie sheet lined w/ parchment for easy cleanup
7. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes
8. Remove from oven, cool for 5 minutes and enjoy.

You're gonna love these and they'll be a hit at your next party.

Chorizo Fiesta

Spicy Chorizo Mac N Cheese

Went to the grocery and they had chorizo on sale so I bought a few pounds and yesterday we had a chorizo fiesta.  Will wanted a chorizo con queso dip, so I googled a few recipes and these are the ones I tried.  This recipe from food.com was very easy, but Will didn't like it.  He's not fond of cream cheese, so that would explain it.  The other one I found on food network.  Will liked this one much more and that is the one he proceeded to eat in its entirety.  I also made a spicy macaroni and cheese also from the food network.  Yummy!!  This is one of he best mac and cheese dishes I've had in a long time.

Since Will didn't like the recipe from food.com I took the dip and added an additional pound of cooked chorizo (casing removed), a few TBS of my own mexican spice blend and a blended a can (to eliminate the chunks) of Rotel tomatoes to it and I simmered it for about 20 minutes.  I served it over a pasta with cilantro.  This was a very good use of the dip that wasn't a huge hit and it really tasted good.

All of these dishes were easy to make and not too time consuming.  Give them a try and good eats!!

New Years Peas & Ham

We need all the luck we can get so today I made Black eyed Peas with Ham, mixed greens and  cornbread.  For the peas you will need:

• 1/2 large green bell pepper chopped
• 1/2 large yellow onion chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 C of cubed ham
• 1 15 oz can of black eyed peas
• 1 C of chicken broth or stock
• To make the pea dish I sauteed 1/2 green bell pepper chopped, 1/2 yellow onion chopped, 3 cloves garlic chopped for about 4 minutes.  I added 1 cup of cubed ham (leftover from Christmas) and cooked an additional 3 minutes just to get the smokiness out of the ham.  I then added 1 15 oz can of black eyed peas, 1/2 C of basmati rice and 1 C of chicken stock.  I stirred to mix it all the ingredients.  I brought it to a boil, covered and reduced heat and simmered for 20 minutes.

I bought Glory canned mixed greens which were ok, but not great.  Not sure what they should taste like, but again they were just ok.

For the corn bread.  I preheated my oven to 450.  I took my cast iron skillet and added 2 tbsp of bacon fat to it and placed it in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes.  Yes, I store leftover bacon fat in a container in my fridge and use it periodically.  Anyway, for the corn bread you will need:

1 C of Martha White Self Rising White Corn Meal Mix

3/4 C of milk

2 tbsp of bacon fat.

Mix the corn meal and milk together and then add the hot melted bacon fat.  Mix together, pour into hot cast iron skillet and bake for about 20 minutes in the oven.  This corn bread is very thin and crunchy, not fluffy at all, so you might not like it if you're used to fluffy cake like corn bread.

Anyway, that's all their was to this meal.  Let's hope it brings us lots of good fortune in 2013.  Good Eats in 2013!!