Fish Sticks!

What a hit - Ian's frozen fish sticks - Lucy loves them!

http://www.foodservicedirect.com/product.cfm/p/167383/Ians-Natural-Foods-Fish-Stick.htm

We got them at Kroger in the organic & natural foods section for about $5.99.

Amazon deals

Cooking for the entire family GF on a budget can be tough! Thank goodness for Amazon and their Subscribe & Save. I buy pasta in bulk and then get it shipped to me! Love it! And of course their prices beat the grocery stores!!

A lot of their products are on sale 30% off right now so be sure to check them out!
Gluten Free Store

Chicken Soup Recipe

When I see vegetables on sale/clearanced out as they are ripe and ready to eat, I grab them. I grated up about 5 or 6 zucchini and 6 or 7 summer squash, sliced up orange bell peppers and organic carrots. Then I froze each little sandwich baggie (each containing a pepper, a squash or a cup or two of carrots) and put them in a larger freezer baggie.

It saves time since they're chopped and ready to go. It saves money because I got all of it for practically nothing! I think the zucchini and squash were less than $1 total.

Anyways, so I wanted to make a chicken soup this week for the cooler weather and so I pulled out my frozen veggies and some chicken breasts and made it! It was delicious. Here is my recipe.

Boil raw chicken breasts in a saucepan with a few cups of water. After it reaches a boil you can turn down the water and cover the chicken to let it simmer until it is cooked through. When the chicken is done, cut up the chicken into bite sized chunks and put them, along with the "broth" into a big soup pot. Then I added more broth from a carton. I ended up using about 1/2 the container but you can add more or less depending on how thick you like your soup. Imagine Free Range Chicken Broth
is my favorite chicken broth and it's safe for Lucy. Add 1 cup chopped carrots (mine weren't even peeled!), 2 C grated summer squash, 2 small onions, 1 bell pepper and spices. Let it simmer for several hours.

I started the chicken around noon, started the soup around 1pm and served it at 6pm. It was so good.

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Chicken Soup

2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 small onions (or 1 large) diced
1 C sliced carrots
1 bell pepper, diced
2 C summer squash, grated
1/2 carton of chicken broth (GF/DF) I like Imagine Free Range Chicken Broth
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dill
salt & pepper to taste

Bring chicken to boil in a pot with 3-4 cups of water in it. Turn down the heat and cover.

When chicken is cooked through, chop it into bite-sized pieces. Add vegetables, water that chicken was cooked in, along with chicken broth and spices to a soup pot. Simmer for several hours.

Serve with brown rice in the soup or on the side, or GF/DF bread.

Dairy free/Gluten free warning

So I like quick & easy during the week for lunchtime. I just don't want to spend all day cooking between breakfast, lunch & dinner. Not to mention the cleanup. Fortunately #1 likes peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter crackers so she's easy!! Obviously that won't work for a GF/DF peanut allergy with #2.

So I bought Hormel Natural lunchmeat - it was some flavor of turkey breast (oven roasted or the like) and it had some lactate ingredient but it said "not from milk". Lucy STILL broke out from it with hives all over her face. I just wanted to warn others about it, since it was a huge shock to us!

I did find some "carving board" chicken that is rotisserie style today and she ate it, loved it and didn't break out. Hopefully that would be safe for those with allergies. Just a little FYI!! We learned the hard way and fortunately it's not a life or death situation for her.

Wonderful pasta

Spaghetti is a staple in our house. Prego Heart Smart Traditional seems to be GF/DF at least as far as we can tell.

This is the cutest pasta I came across from Amazon. I love shopping through their subscribe & save. This brings each 1 lb bag to under $3, which is definitely a steal!

Mrs. Leeper's Pasta Organic, Rice Shapes For Kids, 12 Ounce Bags (Pack of 12) (See all Spaghetti)

Chunky chicken chili

I was going to make this in the slow cooker, which I'm sure you could do if you wanted to. But the day got away from me and I did it the "quicker" way. Which is why this will probably taste even better as leftovers for lunch today!!

My recipe for chunky chicken chili was a huge success. Miss Lucy LOVED it. She had seconds. This is her having seconds in the picture. It was great because there wasn't a ton of liquid, which is how I like soup, but if you want more you can definitely add chicken broth, tomato juice or V8.

I love Mama's chili!

Here is what I did. First I got a huge pot hot with some olive oil. I threw in bite sized chunks of chicken and chopped up a sweet onion. When that was cooked through, I threw in two 28 oz cans of petite diced tomatoes (juice & all!), 1 can of black beans (rinsed) and 1 can of sweet corn (drained). To season it, I put in 1 Tbsp of chili powder, 1/2 tsp celery salt, 1/2 tsp garlic salt. Yum!

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Chunky Chicken Chili

1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 medium onion, diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 28 oz cans diced tomatoes and juice
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp celery salt

Brown chicken and onion in a big soup pot with some olive oil on medium high, stirring often. When chicken is cooked and onions are clear, turn down the heat to medium low. Add cans of tomatoes, rinsed beans and drained corn. Stir. Add spices. Cover and cook on low for 2-4 hours.

Serve with cheese on top (for those who can have it), crushed tortilla chips, tortilla strips, etc.

Enjoy!

Chicken Tacos

Another great meal option is chicken tacos. We had them because Maddy has dance from 3:30-4:30 and it becomes difficult to cook a nice meal. We had such an insane day on Thursday that I didn't even think about dinner until 2:00 and pulled three chicken breasts out of the deep freeze, threw them in the crock pot with a 16 oz jar of salsa, another jar-full of water, a fresh bell pepper chopped from the garden (red) and a jalapeno pepper from the garden as well. My slow cooker is super hot so it was done in 4 hours on high and I just shredded the meat and left the lid off for the last 30 minutes or so to thicken it up a bit. Then I used a slotted spoon to scoop out the meat onto corn tortillas, topped with cheese (for those who can have it), shredded lettuce, tomatoes, etc. Lucy actually enjoyed them, for being "spicy" with peppers.


Here's what you need:

corn tortillas
3 chicken breasts frozen (about 2 pounds)
16 oz jar salsa (whatever heat level you like)
water (to cover chicken halfway)
jalapeno pepper
bell pepper (I used red)
shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, chopped onions
shredded cheese (optional, or you could use the dairy free cheese)
sour cream or plain yogurt (dairy free options as well)

Place frozen chicken breasts in slow cooker, cover with peppers (jalapeno & bell). Add salsa. Add enough water to cover chicken half way. Place on high for 5 hours. Shred chicken meat. Remove lid and leave on for another 30 minutes. Serve chicken/veggies on corn tortillas and top with additional veggies, more salsa, sour cream, cheese, etc. Enjoy!