What would happen if you took 15 minutes and planned out your menu for the whole week?  Would it save you money? Yes Would it save you time? Yes Would it happen exactly as planned?  Sometimes Is it still worth it?  Yes.

If you want you can just cheat and use my menu and that will take you less than 15 minutes but but don’t forget to make the grocery list so you have the ingredients on hand.  The good thing about making your own menu is that you can see what you already have on hand and let that be your guide.  It will save you time and money no matter what, that’s a promise.

This week my youngest and I came up with a menu that was all C food.  No not seafood, C food.  That means each meal starts with the letter C.  Yeah I’m really that silly.  I thought you were already warned about that.

If you don’t like something I named just come up with another food or recipe that starts with C and keep going.

This is going to a fun week of blog posts too so make sure you check back.  If you don’t subscribe via email or RSS now is the time to do that.  Top of this blog right above my photo with one of the first two icons.  The flame is the email subscription and you can unsubscribe anytime but I hope you stick around.  Let me give you a peak with my post menu:

Monday is the menu plan for the week, you’re reading it.

Tuesday will be a post on 5 tips

Wednesday I’ll be spotlighting a wonderful food blogger.  This will be a weekly feature.

Thursday is Real Food Weekly blog carnival where folks share lots of great recipes

Friday I’m sharing a tasty dessert along with giving away a cookbook

Here’s what we’ll be eating this week:

Monday- Cod Piccata by Elana’s Pantry

Tuesday- Cubano Jerk Chicken Burger

Wednesday- Cajun Burger or also known as Turducken Burgers

Thursday- Corn Chowder by Gluten Free Goddess

Friday- Crab Cakes

Saturday- Chima restaurant

Sunday- Chebe Pizza (this was a special request that I only honor once every other month)

Crab cake, shrimp, fries and slaw ©Diane Eblin

This week’s worth of gluten and dairy free menu ideas is brought to you by having too much food in my house!  So it’s my leftover week.  It starts with Super Bowl Sunday leftovers.  But first congratulations to the Green Bay Packers for winning the Super Bowl 31-25.

Don’t let those Buffalo Chicken Wings go to waste.  Pull the meat off the bones and make a great salad or wrap sandwich.  That is how my menu starts along with making those stuffed jalapeno peppers I never got to make on Sunday.  Then it continues with using up the cooked meats I have in the freezer and adding fresh vegetables to make new meals.

Monday- Super Bowl Leftovers

Tuesday- Stuffed Jalapeno Peppers

Wednesday- Shepard’s Pie with a Twist

Thursday- Chicken and Green Chile Soup

Friday- Crabby Veggie Pizza

Saturday- Turducken Burger

Sunday- Beef Brisket Soup

This menu was shared on OrgJunkie.

Snow out my front door

Snow, snow, snow.  I hope we are done with snow but I hear it’s coming back this week.  Last week’s storm hit right at rush hour which caused huge problems.  Many people were stuck in their cars on the roads for anywhere from 2 to 10 hours.  If you live somewhere that this may happen please make sure you have supplies in your car.  Water, coconut water, snacks like a really good trail mix.  And don’t venture out without a full tank of gas.

This week I’m sharing what some of my favorite bloggers are cooking.  Please check out these recipes and make sure you stop and say hello on their blog.

I’ll be clearing out my refrigerator this week so I can make room for the Super Bowl Party foods.   Later this week I’ll share my menu  with recipes and tons of great recipes from other blogs that you’ll just love.

What do you have on your menu for the week?  If you’re not checking to see what food you have on hand and then working them into your menu then you’re wasting money.  If you just can’t come up with any ideas, well use the menu below.

Menu and Recipes

Monday- Crepes with fruit and surprises from Lexie’s Kitchen

Tuesday- Kale, Cabbage, Bean and Sausage Soup from Cook It Allergy Free

Wednesday- Hawaiian Meatballs from Simply Gluten-Free

Thursday- Crockpot Carne Asada Stew from Glugle Gluten Free

Friday- Quinoa Black Bean Burger from Book of Yum

Saturday- Potato-Sunchoke Soup with Homemade Chile Oil from Gluten Free Girl and The Chef

Sunday- Super Bowl Foods- check back for tons of ideas and recipes!

This menu was shared on OrgJunkie.

Kalua Pork for Hawaiian Pro Bowl ©Diane Eblin

A week’s worth of gluten and dairy free menu ideas and recipes.  This week I’ve decided it’s time to start eating the leftovers from the freezer.  They are taking over and should be consumed.  So I made a list of all the ready to go meals and cooked meats.  I think I can make it through a long time eating from the freezer in one form or another.

The week will end with an Hawaiian celebration as we watch the NFL Pro Bowl.  That means the following Sunday is the Super Bowl.   Have you started planning where you will be watching the game and what you will be eating?  Well some of you may not be a sports nut like me but start thinking about your game plan.There were some great recipes shared this week.  I hope you’ll check back this Thursday too.

Don’t forget Thursdays are Real Food Weekly blog carnivals.

Have a great week and if you’re in the Northeast with me, stay warm my friend.

Weekly Menu

Monday- Chicken Vegetable Soup

Tuesday- Unstuffed Beef and Cabbage Rolls Stew

Wednesday- Onion Soup and Scones

Thursday- Asparagus and Bacon Quiche with Arugula Salad

Friday- West African Chicken and Peanut Stew

Saturday- Chili Piquin Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

Sunday- Hawaiian Celebration for the NFL Pro Bowl

For some of you this will be a short week having Monday off for Martin Luther King Day.  You may have off but you still have to eat.  Have you planned a menu for the week?  Just in case you have not I’ll share mine along with some recipes from other gluten free blogs.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the first Real Food Weekly.  Every Thursday you will be able to link up and find lots of great recipes where people are cooking with real food.  Check out last week’s Real Food Weekly for more menu ideas and stop back on Thursday to share again.

I hope you have a great week and take time to cook yourself a good meal.

Monday- Scallop, Chorizo and Purple Sweet Potato Tacos

Tuesday- Wild Rice and Mushroom Bake

Wednesday- Easy Chicken Chipotle Tortilla Soup from Cook It Allergy Free

Thursday- Prosciutto Wrapped Salmon with Shrimp, Roasted Asparagus, Green Flageolet Beans and a garlic wine sauce

Friday- Sheppard’s Pie with a Twist from Celiacs in the House

Saturday- Black Bean Cakes

Sunday- Chipotle Chicken and Rice Stuffed Squash from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen

Chocolate Frogs in Hogsmead (Wizarding World of Harry Potter)

A new year and a new menu with a new way of eating.  For the past week I’ve been doing a gentle detox that my body has fallen in love with.  It’s really gentle on the body compared to some things I’ve read.  I basiclly eat fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds.  No grains, dairy, processed foods or processed sugars, and no alcohol.  Oh and no Chocolate Frogs.  I do eat wild caught fish and organic chicken but condiment size portions.  I’m drinking lots of water, green smoothies, and 1 cup of tea a day.   This is what my nutritionist, Melissa McLean Jory who writes Gluten Free for Good, suggested for me at this time.  If you are looking for a good detox check out her post on Detox.  You’ll be to see all the information and the few modifications I made.

This detox was not harsh for me because I had already moved to more fresh fruits and vegetables making up most of what I ate each day.  If you live on gluten free food from boxes then it will be a little more of a shift for you.  But, this is an important shift to make.

If one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to start eating healthier then please take the time to make that more specific.  Make statements like I will eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and less processed foods, sugars and alcohol.  Both say the same thing, it’s just the later statement is more actionable.

I will warn you however, your body will LOVE it.  If you’ve been living gluten free for some time now think back to when you first gave it up.  Your body started to feel better and rejoice.  Now think about when you accidentally ingest gluten and how your body is totally pissed off and lets you know.   Same thing.

I also went back to  yoga.  I kept waiting for when I felt better and then remembered that going to  yoga helps you feel better.  Gheeze why do I forget these things.  So I went to the noon hour long classes.  One of the great things about yoga is you can really see the incremental improvements you make better than anything else I’ve ever done.  It’s wonderful.  On Monday I took a nice long nap in the afternoon.  As the week went on I didn’t need a nap and my body was really starting to get happy inside.  In just 3 classes.  Now in my book that’s pretty cool.

Melissa always tells me, “it’s all about food and movement…”.  This week I finally totally got what she meant.  My wish for you in 2011 is that you also have the opportunity to really “get” what that means.  It’s life changing.

So, here is my menu for this week.

Monday- Turkish Seasoned Black Bean Patties, hummus with Zaatar, Salad with Avocado and Pumelo

Tuesday- Sloppy Lentil Joes from Stephanie O’Dea’s new cookbook- More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: 200 Brand-New, Budget-Friendly, Slow-Cooker Recipes

Wednesday- Vegetable Frittata, fruit salad

Thursday- Maple & Red Pepper Flake Roasted Pumpkin Salad with Arugula from Power Foods Cookbook, with Grilled Trout

Friday- Kiwi Lime Relish Shrimp with black lentils from Power Foods: 150 Delicious Recipes with the 38 Healthiest Ingredients

Saturday- Grilled Portobello Stack with grilled onions, roasted red peppers, hummus and rocket

Sunday- Braised leeks with prosciutto and a porcini mushroom topping, papaya kiwi and cashew salad

Power Foods: 150 Delicious Recipes with the 38 Healthiest Ingredients

This menu was shared on OrgJunkie.

Well I missed the first of December with my monthly menu but I’m going to make up for it with sharing some different combinations that you may or may not have tried before.  I’m guessing things are probably busy around your house too so first thank you for taking time to stop by and see what I’m sharing.   I hope you take a few minutes to write out a menu for the week or month or just use mine.  It will help avoid frustrating evenings.  Don’t forget with all the hustle and bustle to try to eat more vegetables and fruits than those tasty desserts and spirits.  If you are heading out to parties eat a good salad before you go and make sure you’re not hitting their front door starving.  That is a recipe for over indulging and possibly eating something that is not safe for you.

I hope you all have a wonderful month of December.  Happy Hanukkah to those celebrating.

Don’t forget A Gluten-Free Holiday is open until December 8th at 10pm.  Head to that post and share your favorite Hanukkah and Christmas Entrees and Side Dishes.  You can use the linky provided to link your blog post.  Make sure you leave a comment and follow the other options to be entered into the drawing for some wonderful cookbooks.  Shauna and Danny Ahern are giving away their new cookbook, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef and Shauna’s first book, Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back…And How You Can Too.  Ricki Heller is sharing her cookbooks, Sweet Freedom: Desserts You’ll Love without Wheat, Eggs, Dairy or Refined Sugar, Dessert Without Compromise, and Anti-Candida Feast Book.

December Menu as always, gluten and dairy free

1 Pancakes (Elana’s Pantry)  with Chipolatas and a fruit salad

2  Crab cakes, sweet potato fries, peas

3  Braised Short Ribs with Green beans

4  Veggie stuffed fritrata- spinach, mushroom, onions, potatoes topped with crispy prosciutto

5  Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls Stew (I added a little worcestershire sauce)

6  Trout, green beans, quinoa and romaine salad

7  Sweet potato and Chorizo Soup (Jamie Oliver) and a large salad

8  Birthday dinner!  Spatchocked Lemon Rosemary Chicken, Zucchini fritter, Broccoli, Roasted Potatoes

9  Dairy free ground beef roll up (similar to Danny’s Kitchen)

10  Spaghetti with chicken meatballs

11  Bacon wrapped Cod with roasted leeks, thyme and rosemary

12  Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad with Spiced Shrimp Salad

13  Cod Cakes, dark green salad, sweet potato fries

14  Roasted Chicken thighs with tomatoes, potatoes and sausage and a large salad

15  Quick fry pork chops with roasted vegetables

16  Winter Salad (Jamie Oliver)

17  Chickpea Veggie Pizza

18 Ginger and Parsnip Soup (Jamie Oliver), and a big salad

19  Salmon Cakes, black beans, kale salad

20  Sausage and pepper potato hash with spinach

21 Hamburgers, french fries, and peas

22  Chicken roll-ups stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, and caramelized onions with Cauliflower Rice

23 leftovers

24 Christmas Eve- mushroom and spinach lasagna, whole roasted Salmon, beef brisket,  roasted potatoes- white and red garnet yams with onions and garlic, and a fennel salad with pistachio pesto

25 Christmas- Spatchcocked turkey, Pancetta Sage Sausage Stuffing, spinach salad, macaroni & cheese, roasted cauliflower and broccoli

26 Boxing Day Party- Lunch- Fire Roasted Tomato Soup, Six Onion Soup, Italian Wedding Soup, Seven Minute Egg Salad and Pasta Salad, BBQ beef, hummus with cucumbers, celery, carrots,and peppers.

Trail mix- roasted chickpeas, seasoned pecans, almonds, raisins, cranberries, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, chocolate chips

Dinner- Chipolatas, Ham, Turkey, Mac & Cheese, Lasagna, Carrot Soldiers and Scotch Stovies (Jamie Oliver), Kale Salad with mango, pomegranate and pumpkin seeds, and roasted brussel sprouts with bacon.

Desserts for the holidays- Captain Jack’s Chocolate Rum Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies (Elana’s Pantry), Brownies, Twisted Chocolate Bark, and Mincemeat Pies

27 Leftovers

28 Leftovers

29 Leftovers

30 Leftovers

31 New Year’s Eve- Organic Black Bean Pasta with Lobster, Shrimp, Scallops with a Black Garlic wine sauce.

This was shared on OrgJunkie.

Those who know me and read this blog will know there is only one thing on my mind this week, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1.  I’ll be in line early on Thursday evening to watch the midnight showing.  Don’t worry I’ve had my tickets for weeks.  The London Premier happened last week and it was great fun to watch the stars on the red carpet.  Yeah, I’m that into HP.   So far no one has contacted me to say I won tickets to the New York City Premier so I guess I’m waiting until Thursday.

If you want to see the movie in the best possible way, go at midnight with a bunch of people that are really into it and knows a lot about the books and movies.  I promise it will be an incredible experience.  You will understand more of the nuances just by the reaction of the audience.

If you are a fan of the Harry Potter books and/or movies I’d love to hear the following:

what do you like better, HP books or movies

who is your favorite HP character

what is your favorite HP book

what is your favorite HP movie

what do you think of The Deathly Hallows Part 1

OK enough about the movies, what about meals for the week.  Here is what I’m planning, what about you?

Monday- Duck Burgers with Simple Asian Slaw

Tuesday- baked Sole with roasted fennel, potatoes, asparagus and harricot verts

Wednesday- turkey ham with Sticky Sauce Carrots and spinach salad

Thursday - Hogwarts favorites to include homemade chipolatas and chocolate frogs, for more check outGo Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free at Hogwarts (I’m heading to the midnight screening of The Deathly Hallows)

Friday- shrimp and quinoa with roasted vegetables

Saturday - hearty roasted vegetable soup

Sunday- leftovers

Last week I shared my menu for the month of November and issued a challenge- share with me your monthly menu and  you could win prizes.  I offered 3 different prizes and a week to send me your menu.  Melissa sent me her menu in hopes she would win the $25 gift card.  Well congratulations Melissa, you did win!  You were actually the only person to send in their menu plan so you get your choice of prizes and I’m guessing you want that gift card.   I hope you spend it well and thank you so much for taking up the challenge and creating a menu for the whole month and then emailing me.

For those of you who missed out on this I may run this contest again in a couple of months so be on the look out.  It’s really that easy to do and to win.  To see Melissa’s menu scroll to the bottom.

We are heading into week 2 of A Gluten-Free Holiday.  If you missed the kick-off last Thursday you still have time to visit Diet, Dessert and Dogs for your chance to win some great cookbooks, hurry the deadline is Wednesday.  Her theme is Healthy Through The Holidays and it’s your chance to share and find great tips and recipes.  This Thursday visit Shirley at gluten free easily for Thanksgiving Favorites.  She will be giving away prizes too!

With the countdown to the big Thanksgiving meal started, have you started planning?  Maybe even trying out some of the recipes you are going to cook that might be new to you?  Do you have any questions about making changes to an existing recipe so it will fit your gluten free or dairy free needs?  Let me know what questions you have and I’ll be answering them in my post this Thursday.

This week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is Cinnamon!  Link up to share your recipes and stop  by to find some great ideas.  If you ever miss any of the secret ingredients you can find every past one on the dedicated Friday Foodie Fix page.

Menu Plan for the Week

Monday – English onion soup with Daiya cheese crsips and romaine salad

Tuesday - Boeuf Bourguignon Burger with potatoes and green beans

Wednesday – chicken breasts with Orange Pecan Wild Rice and a spinach salad

Thursday – pork roast with roasted leeks and bacon, baked red garnet yams

Friday –  leftovers

Saturday - Scallop Pasta with Chorizo, tri-leaf salad

Sunday – roasted chicken with Scotch Stovies and peas

This menu will be shared on OrgJunkie.

Melissa  Monthly Meals:

1. Fish Tacos
2. Sweet n Sour Chicken, coconut rice, Asian veggies
3. Hot Dogs, Chips, Fruit
4. Meatloaf, Baked Potatoes, Salad
5. Roasted Chicken and Veggies
6. Beef & Chicken Tacos
7. Chili
8. Grilled Cheese, chips, Fruit
9. Chicken Sausages with oven roasted veggies
10. GF Pizza, salad
11. Potato Leek Soup
12. Chicken Enchilada Casserole
13. Bean & cheese Enchilada
14. GF Veggie Lasagna
15. Chicken Rice Bake
16. Beef roast with veggies
17. Teriyaki Beef, rice with broccoli and carrots
18. Rosemary GF Penne with chicken
19. Tangy Cranberry Chicken, rice and veggie
20. Taquitos (Delimex said GF when I called) rice & beans
21. Ham & Beans with cornbread
22. Chicken Soup
23. Sweet n Sour Meatballs, rice and veggie
24. GF Pasta with Sauce
25. Thanksgiving Dinner
26. coconut curry Chicken (or will use leftover turkey if any), Coconut Rice
27. Southwest White Chili with Turkey
28. Turkey, stuffing and cranberry wraps ­ not sure what I¹ll wrap it in
yet, used to use flour tortillas, maybe a thin protein pancake/crepe.
29. Cheeseburgers, Butternut Mac & Cheese
30. Quesadillas, rice and beans

I’m finally back to working on my monthly menus instead of just the weekly ones.  I still find that this is the easiest and best way for me to save a lot of money and time.  Two things I never seem to have enough of especially at this time of the year.  A monthly menu only takes 5 minutes longer than a weekly one to create.  As I was checking to see how many weeks were in November so I could print my menu planning worksheets, I decided to count up December too and print them all out.  There are only 9 weeks left in this year.  Yikes.  Only 9 weeks and a list that would take much longer to finish.

So what’s a girl to do? Plan, Plan, Plan and reward those who do (keep reading).

Now I know to some of you this sounds crazy.  How do you have time to plan out a monthly menu when you don’t even plan a weekly menu?  It sounds too rigid!  Too much information?  Your life is too unpredictable!  I’m sure you are coming up with your own excuses and reasons right now.  Actually, what are they?  I’d love to hear them and help show you how to overcome them.

OK, so I’m going to ask you to stick with me here. Read to the end to find out how getting past this can win you a prize!

If you are hosting company for Thanksgiving this month I’m guessing you’re not going to serve up hamburgers and fries.  Last year I shared some tips on How to Cook Your Thanksgiving Meal Without Going Crazy.  This comes with my entire meal and the work needed to serve that meal on a worksheet.

With such a big meal coming this month and next month, take time to plan out what you’ll be eating the rest of the days.  Make the meals leading up to the big day easy and even ones you could re-purpose or just reheat and eat.  Also plan on what you’ll do with the leftovers from your big meal.

Start by checking in your cabinets, pantry, freezer and refrigerator.  Use The W.H.O.L.E. Gang Kitchen Inventory 2010 or your own list.  Leading up to the big meal is a great time to cook up food you already have on hand so you’ll have room in the refrigerator, freezer and pantry when needed.  Also, if you already have a couple of cans of organic pumpkin, don’t buy it now.  Wait for it to go on sale and use what you have first.  Now if you have 5 jars of poultry seasoning or pumpkin pie spice and you check the dates and they are all older than a year, toss them.  Using the freshest possible herbs and spices will always make a difference.

Now that you know what you have on hand start by adding the proteins to your menu.  You can write your menu on your calendar or use The WHOLE Gang Weekly Menu 2010.  Then add in the side dishes by incorporating what’s in season and what’s in the refrigerator, freezer and pantry.  If you get into the habit of doing this every month you can just keep using your food inventory and adjust to the amounts on hand.  I always use a pencil when working with both the inventory and menu planner.

Don’t forget before you start adding food options to your menu planner that you look at the calendar and add events.  School sports, banquets, plays, class events, business trips, holiday shopping trips, and company arriving.  Anything that will take up your time in either preparing your meal or when yo get to eat it.  If you do this you’ll save the money that would be spent grabbing something on the go and the aggravation of being all ready to bake that pumpkin pie and not have any cinnamon on hand.

So how important do I think having a menu plan is.  If you send me your Monthly Menu Plan for November by the end of the week you will be entered in a drawing.  Prizes available will be a $25 gift card, The Gluten-Free Diner Cookbook and a 15 minute phone consultation with me.

How to enter:

1. Email me your menu plan for November and make sure your name is on the menu.  I will print out the menus and draw 3 out of the pile.  If you don’t do this first step, you are not entered to win. You cannot just copy and email me my menu and say it’s yours.  I seriously doubt you have the same foods in your freezer as I do in mine.

Once you’ve sent me your menu, you can also have more opportunities to win by doing the following:

• Tweet a link to this post and let people know they can win by sharing their monthly menu plan.  You must come back here and leave me a comment letting me know that you tweeted.
• Leave a comment here on what you have used as a reason/excuse for not making a menus in the past.  or
• Leave a comment on your tip for menu planning.

Entries due by Saturday November 6th, the drawing will take place on Sunday November 7th.

I’d love to hear if this is your first monthly menu plan too.

Ok, now here is my menu plan for the month.  You may notice some things that are different than I usually make and a bit more British.  I’m getting in some practice for our Boxing day event where lots of family will be here including relatives from London.  I’m very excited and I’m looking to one of my favorite chefs, Jamie Oliver for a little guidance.

1- mushroom and wild rice bake

2- quick fry pork chops, applesauce, and peas

3- Italian wedding soup

4- BBQ turkey legs in the crockpot and kale salad

5- pesto crusted cod, polenta squares and zucchini spears

6- veal scallopini, cremini mushrooms, cippolini onions, and risotto with asparagus

7- London broil, baked potato, and roasted broccoli

8- English onion soup with Daiya cheese crsips and romaine salad

9- Boeuf Bourguignon Burger with potatoes and green beans

10- chicken breasts with Orange Pecan Wild Rice and a spinach salad

11- pork roast with roasted leeks and bacon, baked red garnet yams

12-  leftovers

13- Scallop Pasta with Chorizo, tri-leaf salad

14- roasted chicken with Scotch Stovies and peas

15- Duck Burgers with Simple Asian Slaw

16- baked Sole with roasted fennel, potatoes, asparagus and harricot verts

17- turkey ham with Sticky Sauce Carrots and spinach salad

18- Hogwarts favorites to include homemade chipolatas and chocolate frogs, for more check out Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free at Hogwarts (I’m heading to the midnight screening of The Deathly Hallows)

19- shrimp and quinoa with roasted vegetables

20- hearty roasted vegetable soup

21- leftovers

22- meatloaf, peas, parsley potatoes

23- oven roasted cranberry buffalo sausage, potatoes, leeks, and tomatoes

24- tomato soup and zucchini fritters

25- Thanksgiving menu

26- egg bake with hashbrowns, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes and half with feta cheese

27- leftovers

28- pot roast with root vegetables and a salad

29- teriyaki salmon with stirfry vegetables and rice

30- Mediterranean Tuna Pasta with Artichokes

This was shared on Orgjunkie.

From what I hear there are lots of folks like me with some stupid cold or something hanging around that we just can’t shake.  It has definitely slowed me down but I’m not letting it stop me.  This could be the last week of soccer season so that means 4-5 games this week or one every night.  So my plan was to cook some of my menu over the weekend.  This way as the week rolls on I’ll have food ready and others will only take a few minutes to fix.  I also am making big pots of Chili and Soup so if I decide I’m just too tired to cook we can eat from those large pots all week.  Not a creative mix if we do that but I know we’ll be getting real food made with ingredients I know and trust, not fast food.

Also this week I’m really excited to be sharing on Thursday Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free.  This is an event as I mentioned before that was started by Naomi Devlin from Straight To Bed, Cake Free and Dried.  There is always a theme and this one is Scared Silly.  These are foods people were either scared to eat or cook but once they tried, realized it was silly to be scared.  Sometimes these recipes even become family favorites.

Now just to give you a tease there are green things, brown things, red things, purple things, yellow things and some that have all of those colors.  There’s even chicken feet!  OK I’m scared and I think I might eat all of these recipes, well some I think I’m still scared of.  Either way don’t miss these recipes being shared on Thursday!

Don’t forget that this week’s secret ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is Pepitas!  I can’t wait to hear the creative ways you use these in recipes.

This week’s menu:

Monday- Crockpot 3, 2, 1 Chili

Tuesday- Chicken and Roasted Green Chiles Soup

Wednesday- Spaghetti Squash and Homemade Sweet Italian Sausage

Thursday- Chicken Meatballs and Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Bacon

Friday- Leftovers from this week!

Saturday- Mexican Seafood Soup

Sunday- Spicy Potato Skin Nachos

Buffalo Shrimp

I don’t know about you but these weeks are flying by.  I think with constant activity in our family some things can get pushed to the side.  Last month was so busy I didn’t get to make a monthly menu.  So now I’m making weekly menus.  It really does not take a lot of time to open the freezer to see what proteins I have in there and check the calendar for who has to be where and when.  With that information in hand over the weekend,  I write up my menu.  Feel free to gather ideas from here, use my menu or just my process and create your own menu according to your freezer and your calendar.

This week I’m going to cook a couple of recipes from Silvana Nardone’s new cookbook- Cooking for Isaiah.  I met Silvana at the BlogHer Food Conference.  She is such a warm and friendly person.  I enjoyed talking with her about her book and sharing food ideas.  While looking through her cookbook the first thing that jumped out at me was her Hash Brown Belgian Waffles with Apple Sausage and Fried Eggs.  Oh yeah, I’m making that one on Monday.  I’m also going to try her Maple Mustard Pork Loin with Roasted Potatoes.  After I have played with her recipes in the kitchen, I’ll share my experience.  You can find Silvana at dish towel diaries.

I hope you have a wonderfully delicious week full of real food, lots of fun in the kitchen and you explore the many choices of living a gluten and dairy free life!

REMINDER:  Your Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free submissions are due Saturday, October 23rd!

Monday- Hash Brown Belgian Waffles with Apple Sausage and Fried Eggs

Tuesday- Eating out

Wednesday- Maple Mustard Pork Loin with Roasted Potatoes and Peas

Thursday- Fantastic Freezer Finds- love those leftovers

Friday-Grain Free Mexican Pizza with a colorful salad

Saturday- Salmon on a bed of spinach with a Roasted Red Pepper Aioli from Kalyn’s Kitchen

Sunday-Buffalo Shrimp with Hand Cut Oven Fries and salad

This menu has been shared on Orgjunkie.

This week I’m not making a menu plan.  Right now I’m sick so my wonderful hubby is learning to cook for me.  Melissa from Gluten Free For Good suggested a good Chicken and Green Chile soup would be good. (I hope she’ll share her recipe)  So he went to the store and bought some ingredients.  I gave him directions from the couch and he made me a great soup.  I’m planning on that getting me better and ready to fly out to San Francisco for the BlogHer Food Conference this week.  I’ve been looking forward to that conference and seeing my blogging foodie friends.

Here is what we did at the Blogher Food Conference in 2009.

If you are looking for a menu please check out my menu from this time last year.  Since I really try to cook seasonally it should have some good eats that you can find fresh at the markets now.  Menu Plan Monday- October 5, 2009.

Don’t forget to come back on Friday for our Secret Ingredient of Grapes for Friday Foodie Fix.

Have a great week!

West African Chicken Peanut Stew

What do you have cooking this week?  Still soccer season here so we’re keeping it simple.  Salads with lots of good greens, veggies tossed in wherever I can and lean organic protein.  That’s a good recipe for any week.  If you are a fan of honey and you missed Friday Foodie Fix-Honey then you missed almost 40 recipes using honey.  Make sure you take a peek before you leave.

This week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is tomatillos.  Head to the grocery story or farmers market and pick some up.  They are very tasty and versatile.

Monday- Spaghetti and Meatballs with Spinach Salad

Tuesday- Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Stew – Beef, Pork, Tomatoes, Onions, Cabbage

Wednesday-  Pork Chops with apples, sauteed kale and quinoa

Thursday- Chicken with Onions, Tomatillos and Jalapeno Peppers cooked in the crockpot

Friday- Spinach and Artichoke Dip Pizza

Saturday-leftovers

Sunday- West African Chicken and Peanut Stew

This was shared on OrgJunkie.

Wow, I don’t know about other families that have kids in school, but these first few weeks are a huge adjustment.  New schedules, lots of driving, soccer practices and soccer games, school meetings, school paperwork, and the list goes on and on.  I always try to plan and get ready for the onslaught but it seems it’s never enough.  I am glad however I did take the time to plan out my menu for the month.  It’s been really helpful and has kept me from eating tons of meals on the run with not as good choices as what I’m going to make.

I was happy to have lots of Danny’s meatloaf to take me through the week either for lunches or dinners.  If you didn’t read about that recipe and get that cookbook, that recipe alone is worth the price of the cookbook.   This week we’ll have 3 soccer practices and 3 soccer games, all far away.  That means fast meals, crockpot meals  and only 1 meal out instead of 6.  With my menu I’ve included approximate prep times, active cooking and inactive cooking times.  Of course these vary from person to person.

What about you and your schedule?  What type of week will this be for you?  Have you made plans for your meals?  What ingredients do you have on hand that you can use?  I would love to hear what your week is like and what you do to make sure you are getting good meals.

Menu

Monday- Shrimp and Chorizo with Cauliflower Couscous and greens (Takes 10 min prep time, 15 min active cooking)

Tuesday- Roasted Balsamic Chicken with Figs and Onions (Takes 10 minutes to prepare, let the crockpot do the rest, 4-6 hours)

Wednesday- Crab stuffed Trout with garlic asparagus (takes 15 min to prep, 20 min inactive cooking)

Thursday- Eating out

Friday- Homemade Pizza with Udi crusts and I’m going to try it with La Cecina- Mushrooms, carmelized onions, roasted garlic, peppers, tomatoes from my garden (bread will have to be made ahead of time but if using Udi crust 15 min prep, 10 min active cooking, 15 min inactive cook time)

Saturday- leftovers

Sunday- Veal Goulash from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef’s new cookbook (not sure since this is a new recipe to me)

This menu was also shared on OrgJunkie.

Veal Paprika resting to intensify flavors

This is going to be one of those busy school weeks.  Back to school night, soccer games, meetings and anything else you can list that will keep me out of the kitchen most nights.  So I’m cooking over the weekend for the week.  Some things I can finish up the night I serve, some I just need to reheat and on Wednesday I’ll be home to cook!

Later this week I’ll show you all of the amazing recipes I’ve been cooking from Shauna James Ahern and Danny Ahern’s new cookbook.  I am going to love cooking my way through this book.  Of course the story in the book is amazing but more on that later this week.  For now I’ll just tease you with my menu.

Monday- Picnic at school- cold orange ginger cardamom chicken breast (recipe from Artie’s Party) and Salad

Tuesday- Veal Paprika from Gluten-Free Girl and The Chef’s new cookbook with roasted potatoes

Wednesday- Danny’s meatloaf  with Potato Puree ( both from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef- a Love Story with 100 Recipes)

Thursday- Petrale sole with mushroom duxelle and cilantro- mustard sauce from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef

Friday- Chipotle Chicken and Sweet Potatoes in the crockpot from Stephanie O’Dea- Make It Fast, Cook It Slow

Saturday- Leftovers

Sunday- Pesto Shrimp on Polenta Portobellos

First thing I want to do is congratulate Jamie Oliver and crew for winning an Emmy for Outstanding Reality Show with Jamie’s Food Revolution.  How exciting is that!   You the reader, have been and still are part of the Food Revolution.  Keep it up!  We were fortunate enough to have Jamie’s Food Stylist, Anna Helm-Baxter, join in on the 30 Days to a Food Revolution and share her recipe for Granola Bars on Day 30.  Congratulations to everyone.  I hope this continues to move the Food Revolution along.

I am soooooo excited about this week I can’t hardly stand it.  I’m not even sure what I’m going to eat.  It will most likely be leftovers since my entire family will be going in different directions.  What I’m excited about is on Thursday morning I’m getting on a plane and heading to Seattle.  My first trip there.

But that’s not the best part. I’m going to attend the IFBC (International Food Bloggers Conference).

But that’s not the best part. There will be lots of food bloggers from all over the world and gluten free bloggers.  There will also be  amazing chefs, celebrties in the food world like James Oseland, Editor-in-Chief of Saveur, Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me creator), tons of amazing presenters teaching me about recipe writing, food photography and other blog technology.

But that’s not the best part. Almost the entire event is being held in a chocolate factory, Theo Chocolate.  Yes, I said I’ll be in a chocolate factory for 2 full days.  Move over Charlie, my childhood dream has finally come true.   If I don’t come home, you’ll know where to look.

But that’s not the best part. On Sunday when most folks are eating from the Lunch Truck (cool meals) I will be joining my fellow gluten free bloggers who are being treated to a meal prepared by Shauna and Danny Ahern (Gluten-Free Girl and The Chef).  Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited about the whole event, but to hang out with other folks in the gluten free blogging world and have one of the best cooking for you, well that’s pure heaven.  They sent out the menu and it sounds amazing.  They’re even making sure that there is no dairy or rice in the meal.  You know even most gluten free folks don’t want to cook for me when I toss in the line, I can’t eat rice either.  I believe the recipes they are cooking can be found in their new cookbook coming out in September.  Have you pre-orderd yours? I have!  If you missed their video I shared a couple of weeks ago, make sure to check it out.

I’m going to work really hard before I go to share some recipes from last week’s menu.  Thank you for all of the notes asking for them.  But while I’m there I can’t promise I’ll get very many posts up.  I will however be tweeting (using #IFBC) and sharing info on my personal Facebook page as it happens. (also check out IFBC’s website for more info during the events)  Right now I’m really wishing I had one of those new iPhones 4 instead of my 3G.  The 4 takes amazing photos that I could tweet and share right away.  I’ll give it a try with my little 3G.

Well that’s it for now.  I don’t know how I’m ever going to be ready to go by Thursday but ready or not, I’m going!

Oh, one more thing.  Don’t forget to join in for Friday Foodie Fix. The Secret Ingredient is School Breakfasts and Lunches.  I hope you will share your tips and recipes and find some new ones too!  Have a great week everyone.

First, thank you to all who took the time to answer the 1 question poll on what you want to see on this blog.  Also, thank you to those who found out what was The Big Deal.

This summer is winding down but not before we celebrate my youngest son’s birthday.  He’ll be 17 on the 17th.  He’s asked me to make him a two tier birthday cake with frosting.  He’s a brave kid.  I’m totally doing what I call cheating and using a box mix from Cherry Brook Farms and the frosting was made by Whole Foods.  All are gluten and dairy free.  Someday I’ll learn the fine art of cake making in the world of gluten and dairy free, but for now I’m focusing on other foods.

This week I’ll continue to play with my green smoothies to see what different combos taste like.  Over the last week I picked up some new hot peppers I’d like to cook with and some different types of plums to snack on.

As part of taking care of myself and trying to get my body to settle back down and release some of the weight, I’m walking everyday for an hour, stretching (helps get rid of the Fuzz) and journaling everything I eat.

I write down what and how much of everything I eat and if I feel not as good as I should after eating anything in particular.  So far I’ve noticed that all grains seem to be bothering me and corn kernels.  I’ll need to stay away from them as the swelling is not something fun.   I’ve also noticed that my body is not that happy with Frank’s Buffalo Wing sauce.

I’m not sure just yet what all of that means, but by keeping track I’m becoming a detective as far as what my body is irritated by and that is a huge help.  I find that sticking with mostly vegetables, fruits and small portions of lean fish and chicken, some pork and very little beef, my body does seem happier.  Funny I think I’ve heard this was good for a person before.  Why do I have such a hard time learning this?

If you are experiencing swelling or irritation, keeping track of everything you eat might be a great way to start to detect what else is bothering you.  If you live gluten free and cheat, well you already know what’s bothering you.  But if you are sure you are not having cross contamination and you are still having issues, time to become that detective and start eliminating other foods.

Sometimes it’s hard for me to be patient with this but I know in the end I will feel so much better.

So for my menu this week it will be vegetable heavy but I’ll be including some seafood and chicken and letting the rest of my family eat the quinoa and rice.

Monday- Italian Torta- Budget Friendly and Minute Meal

Tuesday-Birthday Dinner out at Brad’s favorite place- Chima

Wednesday- Guajillo Chile Shrimp and Chorizo over quinoa – Minute Meal, Budget Friendly if you buy shrimp on sale.

Thursday- Greek Meatloaf (recipe can be found in The Gluten-Free Diner cookbook), boiled potatoes and green beans- Budget Friendly

Friday-POM Chicken with vegetables and quinoa- Budget Friendly

Saturday- Chicken and Vegetable Kebobs- Budget Friendly

Sunday- Ham and peas with pototes au gratin- Budget Friendly and Minute Meal

More menus from lots of bloggers found on OrgJunkie.

Back from vacation and still trying to unpack my bags and my stories.  They will be coming soon.  Coming back from the west coast to the east coast can really make me tired but I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to head to the farmers market.  I picked up these tomatoes and peppers.  You can guess what I’ll be cooking with this week.

I love these orange tomatoes because they are so sweet.  So the first thing I made was a BLT.  Oh and to brag on luck, the cherry tomatoes are from my own garden.

These peppers will go into my pasta for dinner along with the Roma tomatoes, some capers, red wine, yellow squash and mushrooms.  Add in a little garlic, fresh basil, sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste.

I also picked up some corn on the cob, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatillos and beets.  I’ll be using the beets in my smoothie tomorrow morning.  I need to go back and search on the ideas for the beet greens.  I don’t want to waste anything.

I also received a wonderful gift of POM juice from POM.  I can’t wait to start playing with it.  I love it in my smoothies but I want to bake with it, make sauces, and I will have to give Shirley’s gluten free easily’s Pomerdoodle Ice Cream a try.

I picked up some arugula this weekend too so I’m going to try some of the recipes shared last week on Friday Foodie Fix.

I’m also going to sort through my menus and pictures of food from my trip and try to recreate some of those great meals.

Now if you want a list of ideas for each day of the week, check out this week’s menu from last year- July 27th.

Have a great week!  I hope you will join in on for this week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix- Whipped Cream!

More menus available on Orgjunkie.

I am one lucky girl.  I’m working and vacationing in California this week and next.  I hope I can keep the work to a minimum but somehow I’m guessing that will be difficult.  Either way I have a break from cooking to re-energize myself and eat what some great chefs are creating.

Right now I’m in Southern California staying in Santa Monica.  I’ve been drooling over Karina’s photos (The Gluten-Free Goddess) of the local farmers market.  Well this weekend I got to go myself.  It was amazing.  So much fun and so much fresh food and flowers.  Not having a kitchen to cook in I mostly just looked and sampled.  I did purchase some lavender to refill my pillow case and some great pistachios to munch on.  Scott sampled the Pomegranate Apple juice and some fresh shucked oysters.  Being this is on the California coast, there are so many options at this farmers market.  I wish I was here every week!

I’ve also been eating some amazing meals.  Before I came I tried to read up on as much as I could on dining gluten free in the area.  I also made reservations via OpenTable and made sure they could accommodate my gluten, dairy and rice free needs.  Since I arrived late in the evening and got up to drive at 5am to a meeting 2 hours south, my first meal was at one of my favorite restaurants in La Jolla, George’s on the Cove.  We ate on their open terrace that overlooks The Cove and the Pacific Ocean.  It’s a spectacular view.  If you get there at just the right time for dinner, you will witness the most amazing sunset.  The food was fantastic as I had remembered.  After a little shopping at one of my favorite clothing shops there, Fresh Produce, we headed back to Santa Monica.

Being we were still on east coast time we took advantage of the hotel’s restaurant Fig offering 50% off the entire menu at 5pm.  This gave us lunch for the next day too as I ordered an entire chicken cooked under a brick.  I just love those!  Fig is great at accommodating and even going above and beyond by going to Whole Foods just to get the bread and buttery substitute I can eat.  I actually had a sandwich for lunch yesterday.  I’m feeling very pampered and enjoying every minute.  So far everything Erin Wiley has served and Ray Garcia has created in that kitchen has been great and worth your visit for sure!

OK are you ready to just kill me?  Sorry.  But this is such a treat and a learning experience for me.  You never know what you might get if you engage in conversations with the food personnel.  I like to use every opportunity to share and teach.  It often gets you just what you need although this is the first time someone has made a special trip to the store just for me.

If you want to hear and see more read on.

We went to Border Grill for an amazing Mexican Dinner.  (found that recommendation from Karina too) It is owned by the Too Hot Tamales (Food Network) stars Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger.  Susan was recently on Top Chef Masters this year, has written many cookbooks on the Mexican Cuisine.  They were great at getting me a version of what they make that was right for me.  I ordered their Cochinita Pibil-
achiote pork roasted in banana leaves • caramelized onion • orange • cinnamon • roasted plantains • guacamole.  It was out of this world.  They happen to roast their plantains in butter so they made, just for me, tostones with a chimichuri sauce.  Well you know how I love tostones.  I was delighted.  The only problem was it was one of those meals that tastes so good and has great mouth feel that you can’t stop eating even if you are full.  So I waddled back to the hotel and even brought leftovers which I’ll be eating tomorrow for lunch.

Well I have a lot more great restaurant meals to share with you that you will most likely see me trying to recreate at home.   I’ll be sure to share those with you too.  But for now I’m signing off to go catch some rays!  If I have not totally made you mad, come back and see what I find next in Santa Barbara.

What a week this is going to be.  So much going on, vacation to get ready for and learning to trust things will be great at home even when I’m not there to supervise in my kitchen.  I’m one of those people that are really freakish about anyone bringing gluten into my house and kitchen.  Just ask my family.  It seems that almost every time someone does,  I get sick.  I know it’s hard to understand how careful someone like me has to be about gluten, which is why I just ban it from the house.  Well I hope all is taken care of in my absence.  I did contemplate getting one of those security cameras that I could check on from the internet, but decided I would rather spend my time at the Santa Monica farmers market or shaking the sand out of my shoes.

So my menu this week is a mix of fun for me to cook and fun for me to explore in different cities.  I hope to share next week some of the great photos of my food travels.  I am hoping it is not as hot there as it has been here.

For those of you that missed my stay cool and happy treat, here it is.  Take a lime Popsicle, dip it into Tequila, then roll it around in your favorite Margarita Salt.  We ran out of the popsicles so I’m going to make my own with my limes and my vitamix.  Not sure exactly but I’ll let you know how they turn out!

Monday- Steamed Mussels

Tuesday- Crab Cakes (this week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix)

Wednesday- Roger Mooking inspired two versions of Macaroni and Cheese

Thursday- Pork Cutlets inspired by Roger Mooking

Friday- Dinner in San Diego

Saturday- Dinner in Santa Monica

Sunday- Dinner in Santa Barbara

Find lots of menus at OrgJunkie today.

Quick and easy with great summer farmer market ingredients is on tap for this week, plus freezer finds.   This weekend I picked up some great berries, cherries, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow summer squash, cucumbers, onions, rainbow Swiss chard, green beans and potatoes.  That will make some great meals.

I love going to the farmers market.  You get to talk with the people that are growing the food you eat.  You are surrounded by the most beautiful and vibrant colors of nature.  The possibilities of recipes start racing through my mind as I wander along.  I hope you are visiting your local farmers market.  If you’re not sure where the closest one is located, on the far right side of this blog scroll down and you can use the Farmers Market Finder.

Monday- Jamie Oliver’s BBQ chicken (Jamie at Home), grilled zucchini and squash

Tuesday-Swiss Chard, Mushroom and Onion Frittata with Sausage (more frittatas in The Gluten-Free Diner)

Wednesday-Mexican Pizza

Thursday-Shrimp with a Hawaiian inspiration from Bev Gannon ( The Hali’imaile General Store Cookbook-Maui )

Friday-  Burgers topped with a cucumber relish

Saturday- Fresh salad with Cherry Zucchini Bread from Gluten Free For Good

Sunday- Variations of Individual Macaroni and Cheese- gluten, dairy and soy free

What a great weekend of soccer we were treated to.  First, my son’s team played in a round robin tournament and just tore up the field.  They are so fun to watch.  Oh, and that FIFA 2010 Cup thing going on.  Anyone watching that?  Did anyone see the 1-1 tie between US and England?  Not a bad start.  But there will be a lot more soccer to watch.  I just wish they had banned those horns.  I feel like have bees in my ears.

School is out here at my house and that means my oldest is home from college and working in DC (Yeah!!!) and my 16 year old is going to spend the summer learning how to drive.  Does anyone want to teach him?

So I think this week’s menu will need to be flexible to accommodate a new palate in the house (vegetarian), soccer games to watch, upset stomachs from driving and whatever we can harvest from our tiny garden or the farmer’s market.  I love when Andy (oldest) goes to his local farmers market and brings me home some treats.  Today it’s peas and zucchini.  Lots of zucchini.

But also this week contains my favorite day of the year, my wedding anniversary.  23 years and going strong.  So to celebrate we’re headed out to a local crab restaurant in DC that I hope lives up to it’s billing.  I do love to crack and pick crabs.  I could spend all day on that!

Don’t forget to join in this week’s Friday Foodie Fix with our Secret Ingredient being Father’s Day Favorites!

Our gluten, dairy and soy free menu for the week:

Monday- Fresh peas, ham, and potatoes au gratin.

Tuesday- Zucchini spaghetti with mushrooms and chilies

Wednesday- Grilled Kebobs with a mix of vegetables and some with shrimp

Thursday- Easy Pork Stuffed Zucchini and a vegetarian version

Friday- Dancing Crabs!

Saturday- BBQ Bacon Jalapeno Poppers plus a vegetarian version, garden salad

Sunday- Father’s Day Favorites

Check out Laura’s website OrgJunkie where hundreds of people share menus.

Wow, it seems so strange to be back to a “normal” blogging routine.  In case you totally missed it, from April 26th through June 4th there was a really special event going on.  30 Days to a Food Revolution.  There was so much amazing information shared.  I’m still sifting through it all and making sure you have all of the links on our dedicated page up at the top here, 30 Days.

It’s taking me days to sift through all of the tweets, comments and newsletter sign ups to draw winners for the cookbooks being given away.  I’ll be announcing those winners later so keep watch on Twitter, Facebook and here!

Tomorrow I have a treat for you.  Just in case you are already missing the 30 Days to a Food Revolution, not to worry.  Every Tuesday, for as long as I can, will be a guest blogger sharing their recipe and tip as we continue our 30 Days to a Food Revolution!

Make sure you check in on Friday to learn what the Secret Ingredient will be for Jun 18th when we start back with that weekly event.  If you have never participated in that event, well now is the time.  Check out our dedicated page to Friday Foodie Fix at the top of this blog for all of the details and past Secret Ingredients.

mushroom, spring onion, spinach, yellow squash, red onion, tomato, Old Bay seasoning, Daiya Cheese-mozzarella & cheddar (gf,df,sf)

Monday- Garlic Scapes Stir-fry with Salmon and Quinoa

Tuesday- Pork Tacos with stewed pickled  jalapenos, tomatillos, onions, and mushrooms, side of beans

Wednesday- Homemade Hamburger Helper

Thursday- Chicken Chow Mein

Friday- Farmer’s Market Veggie Pizza

Saturday- Leftovers

Sunday- Individual Lasagnas with homemade pasta

For more menus visit OrgJunkie.

I hope to be sharing more on the weekends but this one seemed to get away from me.  Big deadline in our house on Friday of a book manuscript from my husband, Scott.  He’s working on the second edition of  The Next Level:  What Insiders Know About Executive Success.  He’s added a lot of new information which meant lots of work around here.  I’m still working on my e-cookbook and hope to have that ready soon.

I’ve also been working on a fun way to show our love for cooking real food.  I’ve created products in thewholegang Zazzle shop.  Still working on arranging things but it’s been fun to make aprons, mugs and tote bags.  I can’t wait for mine to arrive.  I hope the magnet will stick to my car.  ** 50% of any profit received will be donated to the Huntington’s Kitchen, formerly Jamie’s Kitchen.  If you want to donate directly, the kitchen is now being run by Ebenezer Medical Outreach.

I wanted to make sure I shared with you my menu for the month.  I’ve had to go back what I call a 50′s style menu where I’ve chosen a protein for the same night of the week.  It’s mostly like that but with some changes.  Nothing in our house can ever be exactly the same all the time.  Our lives are too busy and constantly changing.  But I find with a menu and a plan, it does make things easier and I spend less money.

I also had Brad, my picky eater, go through Jamie’s Food Revolution cookbook and pick out recipes he wants to cook with me and then he’ll have to eat them.  He choose carefully and mostly beef but with a few surprises in there.  Can’t wait to try more of Jamie’s recipes and get cooking with Brad.

Gluten and Dairy Free Hamburger Helper from scratch

May’s Menu

1- Gluten & Dairy Free Hamburger Helper without a box!

2- Jamie’s Bacon Wrapped Cod

3- Chicken Pot Pie

4- Sweet Potato & Shrimp Tacos

5- Pork Enchilada Casserole – Happy Cinco de Mayo!

6- Jamie’s Posh Chicken with Proscutti

7- Sirloin Steak, baked potatoes and sugar snap peas  Celebrating end of AP exams!

8- Oyamel- their taking me out for Mother’s Day!

9- Crab cakes and broiled flounder and  green beans

10- Jamie’s Sweet and Sour Pork with rice and butter lettuce

11- Handmade Mushroom Ravioli- I can’t wait to try my hand at this now that I know how easy fresh pasta is to make.

12- Treating my two son’s to dinner out

13- Leftover Thursday

14- Rick Bayless Chicken with carrots, jalapeno peppers and caramelized onions

15- Fried Rice 3 ways, vegetarian, seafood, pork

16- Pan fried Sole, farmer’s market fresh veggies (yeah)

17- Ostrich Burgers, sweet potato fries, cucumber salad

18- Jamie’s Pasta, Peas and Pancetta with a salad

19- Roast Beef with  roasted vegetables

20- Leftover Thursday

21- Crispy Chicken with yucca fries and peas

22- Roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, local vegetables

23- Pan fried Tilapi, polenta fries, chopped salad

24- Quick fry pork chops, apples, green beans

25- Shrimp and Scallop Pasta with salad

26- Skirt Steak with zucchini cakes

27- Leftover Thursdays

28- Chicken Chow Mein with rice

29- Ostrich fajitas, salsa and homemade tortillas

30- Grilled Mahi Mahi with mangos and avocados

31- Jamie’s Pork and Mushroom Kebobs with grilled vegetables

I hope you will find some ideas in here to make your own Monthly Menu Plan!

I hope you will check in daily to see what great tips and recipes these bloggers will be sharing. Also, I hope you will also find your way to their blog too.

If you are a member of Facebook please check out our Group page for 30 Days to a Food Revolution.

Monday- Italian Vegetable Soup, homemade rolls

Tuesday- Sundried tomato shrimp pasta with a spinach salad

Wednesday- Calzone

Thursday- Pork tacos with spicy slaw

Friday- Scallops and black beans on polenta

Saturday- Buffalo Chicken Mini Burgers

Sunday- Chili Piquin Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

Find more menu ideas on OrgJunkie.

green smoothies taste great, make me feel great

The weather has been so wonderful it has me itching for the farmer’s markets to open but around where I live that’s not until May.  So for now I keep grabbing a few little plants to add to what used to be just an herb garden.  Today I brought home a potato plant and lettuce.  We’ll see how they grow.

This week promises to go just as fast as the last one I’m sure.  Keep watching because I have an exciting announcement about something really cool that will start April 26th and involves food.  Well I guess involves food is not much of a clue for this blog.  Keep checking.

If you missed last week’s Friday Foodie Fix- Coconut Milk you need to check out all of the recipes shared.  So cool!  This week’s Secret Ingredient is Pasta!

Well this is a short one.  Time to go grab a piece of Double Chocolate Clementine Vita-Mix Cake that Brad and I made this weekend and watch the season premier of  The Tudors.  I think we need to change the name of this cake to Triple Chocolate since we added chocolate chips to the cake.  Brad’s idea and it’s great!  Can you really have too much chocolate?

Monday- Pork chops with carrots and polenta

Tuesday- Tilapia with bok choy, onions, spinach, mushrooms

Wednesday- Chicken Tandori Pizza with salad

Thursday- Cubano Jerk Burgers

Friday- Fried Shrimp and noodles

Saturday- Mushroom Rissoto

Sunday- Beef Burritos

Don’t forget Orgjunkie has lots of menu plans.

Yesterday we celebrated Easter and my husband’s birthday.  We have a lot to be thankful for and it was great to take time to remember that.  I asked him what he wanted for this next year of his life and his answer was simple, to be happy and healthy as well as the members of his family.  How I love that man.

Double Chocolate Clementine Vita-mix Cake with Whipped Cream

I hope you had a great weekend too.  I’m looking forward to this week to hopefully more sunshine and a detailed report from my dear friend Lady A who just got back from Napa Valley.  She was able to have a meal at the French Laundry (Thomas Kelller) and Bottega (Michael Chiarello) and I can’t wait to hear all about it.  I hope she took pictures.  Maybe she’ll share.

Don’t forget to go back and check on the Great Gluten Free Pasta Challenge.  Let me know how yours turned out.  I think I’ll give it a go this week on Saturday. Quinoa pasta will be my back up plan.  Also, this week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is Coconut Milk.  I hope you’ll join us.

Monday - Roasted Balsamic Chicken with Figs and Onions

Tuesday - Chicken LoMein

Wednesday- Spinach Dip Pizza

Thursday - Burger with yucca fries, salad

Friday - Broiled flounder, broccoli, quinoa

Saturday -  Quinoa pasta with roasted vegetables

Sunday- Chicken cacciatore with rice

For more menu plans visit Orgjunkie.

Today instead of just sharing my weekly menu I’m sharing my monthly menu for April as it begins mid way through the week.  If you want to see what is on the menu for the first 3 days of this week or you may have missed a weekly menu plan, visit the Monthly Menu Plan – March 2010 post.

I’m working on creating my menu as I wait for my gluten free flours to come up to room temperature.    This week I’m baking extra to send back with my JMU college son.  He’s really been wanting me to bake Shirley’s (gluten free easily blog) Double-Chocolate Clementine Cake ever since she shared it on Friday Foodie Fix- Clementine.  I’m also making the most requested Pumpkin Bread and Carrot and Raisin Muffins from Ali Segersten’s( Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen blog) Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook.  I’m trying a new recipe from Susan O’Brien for Granola Bars using a new product so I’ll let you know next week how they turned out.

One of my goals this month is to only buy fresh fruits and vegetables to add to the other ingredients filling my freezer and pantry.  I love when my favorite proteins go on sale and I take full advantage.  I rarely buy them at full price which is how I can have supplies of seemingly expensive ingredients in my recipes when in actuality, I got them at a much lower cost.  The seafood and meat department have weekly and even daily specials.  Get to know your fishmonger and butcher even if you are shopping where all of the products are packaged and out in the cooler shelves.  They often know what specials are coming up, what is the freshest and will look out for you.  After all, most people don’t pay much attention to service employees and your attention will be noticed and appreciated.

Another one of my goals this month is to pay attention to how much fat we are consuming.  Did you happen to catch the second episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution?  He trucked in the amount of fat a school was consuming in a year.  It was totally disgusting.

We very rarely eat processed foods and when we do it’s a box of pasta, jar of pasta sauce, can of beans, jar of mayonnaise, some mustard or ketchup which does not have more than 5 ingredients and very little fat.  But you will also find in my freezer two boxes of Amy’s frozen meals and  two boxes of Organic Bistro meals that have been in there forever.  No one eats them because the have the taste for real food.

So our fat consumption comes from the oils I cook with and the cuts of meats we eat.  I do like to buy the inexpensive cuts of pork and beef that I cook very slowly and freeze the extras to have ready for meals.  Those cuts of meat have a higher fat content.

So when I was creating my menu this month I thought about eating more of the leaner versions of protein like chicken and turkey breasts, seafood, beans, vegetables, and quinoa and keeping the amount of the other meats to smaller portions.  I worked on incorporating them into my meals and my baked goods.  Because, even though I can try to sit on my high horse and say my kids don’t eat processed foods or school lunches like the people shown on Food Revolution, we still could do better.  I could do better in planning and making my meals.

So I’m offering a challenge to everyone, even those who don’t eat processed foods often.  What can  you do with your menu and your cooking to bring more of what our bodies need and less of what we don’t need? If you are eating a lot of packaged and processed goods are you willing to try and learn to make some of those dishes from scratch this month? I can tell you from experience that when most people find out they need to live without something like gluten, our first step is buying the frozen gluten free meals.  I did it A LOT!  I believe it’s really part of the learning curve and getting comfortable with a new lifestyle.  But I implore you to start to take walk away from those meals  and then run as fast as you can.

The Food Revolution starts in our homes.  Will you take this challenge with me this month?  If there is something you would like to learn how to make instead of eat from a box and you don’t know how, I’m here to help.  There are many of us here to help.  Just ask for help.

Finally, here is my menu.

1-Pastelón – Plantain Lasagna

2- Eating out at Poste Restaurant

3- A version of Steamy Kitchen’s  Ham with Mango Ginger Glaze, sweet potato hash, asparagus

4- Salmon with wild rice, mushrooms and harricot verts

5- Roasted Balsamic Chicken with Figs and Onions

6- Chicken LoMein

7- Spinach Dip Pizza

8- Burger with yucca fries, salad

9- Broiled flounder, broccoli, quinoa

10-  Quinoa pasta with roasted vegetables

11- Chicken cacciatore with rice

12- Pork chops with carrots and polenta

13- Tilapia with bok choy, onions, spinach, mushrooms

14- Chicken Tandori Pizza with salad

15- Cubano Jerk Burgers

16- Fried Shimp and Noodles

17- Mushroom Rissoto

18- Beef Buritos

19- Italian Vegetable Soup, homemade rolls

20- Sundried tomato shrimp pasta with a spinach salad

21- Calzone

22- Pork tacos with spicy slaw

23- Scallops and black beans on polenta

24- Buffalo Chicken Mini Burgers

25- Chili Piquin Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

26- Ostrich burgers, sweet potato fries, salad

27- Mahi Mahi with pineapple glaze, rice, salad

28-  my version of Steamy Kitchen Cookbook Thai Style Chicken Flat bread

29- Steak fajitas, beans, rice

30- Mexican Seafood Stew using whatever seafood I have on hand

Shared this menu on OrgJunkie.

This week is our Gluten Free Progressive Easter Dinner Party.  I hope you will visit everyone and check in to see what they are making.  Here’s the schedule:

Monday March 22nd Shirley at gluten free easily will be serving the Appetizer.

Tuesday March 23rd I will be serving the Salad.

Wednesday March 24th Katrina at Gluten Free Gidget will be serving the Main Course.

Thursday March 25th Shirley at gluten free easily will be serving the side dish.

Friday March 26th Shirley from gluten free easily will be serving Dessert.

Now here is our family menu for the week:

Monday - Scallop Pasta with Chorizo

Tuesday – Chipotle Burger on a Bun with Tomatillo Salsa

Wednesday - Have on Hand Soup

Thursday - Buffalo Shrimp

Friday - Beef and Noodles

Saturday - Pork and Lentils

Sunday - Winter Fire Roasted Tomato Soup with Prosciutto Topping

Don’t forget this week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is Carrots.  If you have a lamb recipe head to the Friday Foodie Fix page and revisit last week.

More menus can be found on OrgJunkie.

Well here is our gluten and dairy free menu for the week.  I’m hoping for dry warm weather.  Maybe I’ll get lucky.  My maiden name was Dougherty.  I’d say that should give me at least one day of luck this week.

Monday -Chili

Tuesday - Pork Noodle Soup

Wednesday – Irish Beef Stew

Thursday - Roasted Balsamic Chicken with Figs and Onions

Friday - Whole Roasted Fish

Saturday – Roasted Pork Loin

Sunday - Chicken Enchiladas

For more menus visit OrgJunkie.

I hope you have a great week!

Monday – Beef Brisket Vegetable Soup

Tuesdays – Pizzas

Wednesday – Shrimp and Cauliflower Couscous

Thursday – Pastelón or Sweet Plantain Lasagna

Friday – Scallop, Chorizo and Purple Sweet Potato Tacos

Saturday – Garlic Garbanzo Bean, Swiss Chard, Pancetta Soup

Sunday – Pesto Shrimp on Polenta Portobellos

Check out more menu lists on OrgJunkie.

Best Ever French Onion Dip from February Newsletter

March madness is upon us.  Whether it be with college basketball, Spring Break, kids spring sports starting or digging out of the winters last snow storms, it’s here.  For me that means going back to some tried and true recipes.  It also means more hands off cooking and more minute meals.  So this month’s menu plan you’ll see some past recipes and some new fast and easy ones.

Don’t forget coming up on Sunday March 7th is the Oscars.  Last week we shared some ideas on what to serve while watching the show with our Gluten Free Progressive OSCAR Dinner Party.  Check out all of the great recipes shared.  Other celebrations this month include St. Patrick’s Day on the 17th, first day of Spring on the 20th and Passover begins March 29th.

Also, if you want the recipe for the Best Ever French Onion Dip, it is part of the February Newsletter.  All newsletters will be archived under our News page.  If you signed up for the newsletter after that edition went out, you will need to visit the News to view the February edition.  You will receive March’s newsletter directly.  If you have not signed up yet, what are you waiting for?

Have a great month and as always, share with us your experiences with making any of these recipes.  Love to hear from you!

1- Roasted Spatchcock Chicken with Mushroom Stuffing

2- West African Chicken Peanut Stew

3- Pizza Soup

4- Beef Brisket with mashed potatoes and gravy

5- Posole

6- Calzones

7- Spinach Artichoke Dip Pizza, Roasted Potato Slices with Smoky Aioli Dip, Southern Fried Oysters, Flourless Sparkling Chocolate Cookies with Whipped Cream

8- Beef Brisket Vegetable Soup

9- Pizzas

10- Shrimp and Cauliflower Couscous

11- Pastelón or Sweet Plantain Lasagna

12- Scallop, Chorizo and Purple Sweet Potato Tacos

13- Garlic Garbanzo Bean, Swiss Chard, Pancetta Soup

14- Pesto Shrimp on Polenta Portobellos

15-Chili

16- Pork Noodle Soup

17- Irish Beef Stew

18- Roasted Balsamic Chicken with Figs and Onions

19- Whole Roasted Fish

20- Roasted Pork Loin

21- Chicken Enchiladas

22- Scallop Pasta with Chorizo

23- Chipotle Burger on a Bun with Tomatillo Salsa

24- Have on Hand Soup

25- Buffalo Shrimp

26- Beef and Noodles

27- Pork and Lentils

28- Winter Fire Roasted Tomato Soup with Prosciutto Topping

29- Chicken Chow Mein with Gluten Free Soy Sauce

30- Fast Pantry Soup

31- Shrimp Tostados

Don’t forget OrgJunkie has more menus.

If you have not already signed up for the newsletter jump in know so you can get this month’s news. (top right corner of this blog)

ALL this week join in our Gluten Free Progressive OSCAR Dinner Party.  Here’s the party schedule.

Monday February 22-  Shirley from gluten free easily sharing Veronica’s Pumpkin Soup

Tuesday February 23- SEA from Book of Yum with appetizers inspired from the movie Avatar

Wednesday February 24- Karen from Cook4Seasons and Diane from The WH.O.L.E. Gang using inspiration from Julie and Julia

Thursday February 25- Alison from Sure Foods Living

Friday February 26- Ellen from I Am Gluten Free

Get ready for your OSCAR party by printing a ballot to share with your guests or for just your family!  Also check out this page an Oscar Party Kit.

Here’s my menu for the week.

Monday – BBQ turkey leg and slaw

Tuesday - Cornmeal crusted fried fish, fries and peas

Wednesday - London broil, yucca fries, spinach salad

Thursday - Pork chops, applesauce, sugar snap peas

Friday - Shrimp tacos

Saturday - Greek chicken, rice and broccoli

Sunday -Mini crab cakes, broiled lobster, corn on cobb, chocolate cake with chocolate icing

For other menus please visit OrgJunkie.

Aphrodisia, Wild Rose, Cupuacu Truffles by Gnosis Chocolate

Happy Presidents’ Day!  I hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day yesterday and had the opportunity to do something nice for someone else.  I spent the weekend cooking for my two guys here and  I hope to be sending my college guy something in the mail.  Wish he was here.  My dessert treat was two fold over the weekend.  First I had chocolate truffles from Gnosis Chocolate.  They are raw,vegan, organic, handmade, gluten free, soy free, no refined sugar and low GI.  I really liked the Cupuacu chocolate with a cream filling and would buy a huge box of those.  Then I created an amazing whipped cream from chilled coconut milk cream (good stuff from the top of the can) and powdered sugar to top off fresh berries.  It was divine.

But yesterday was more than just Valentine’s Day, it was my mothers birthday.  Her 80th!  She looks amazing and no one would ever guess her age.  She’s an amazing cook, has the biggest heart and is the best mom ever.  I got really lucky that she decided to make me part of her family.  Thanks Mom!

Charlotte, Andrea, Abby Girl, Dorothy, Diane

Before the blizzards hit we traveled to visit my mom and met up with my niece, her husband and 1 year old daughter.  We got to spend some of the day together but when the snow started we had to leave.  I hope we can do that again real soon.  Isn’t this a cool photo!

This week you only get a couple of days to recover from Valentine’s Day and it’s time for Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday!  Oh the foods that go along with that holiday.  It’s a tough choice for me, chocolate or spicy gumbo with andoullie sausage.  hmmm

Well enough chat, on to the menu for the week.

Monday - Pulled pork tacos, salad

Tuesday - Shrimp Creole, red beans and rice, King Cake(some version of Jules Shepard)

Wednesday - Soy Citris Salmon, rice, haricot verts

Thursday - Skirt steak, black bean, sweet potato, red onion hash

Friday - Chipotle Shrimp

Saturday - Roasted vegetable pizza

Sunday - Buffalo and pork chorizo hash

Don’t forget this week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is Agave!

Check out OrgJunkie for more menus.

Great food week coming up with Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day.  So are  you going out or are you going to cook?  It’s always more impressive to cook a meal for someone.  You know you could practice it before the big day.  That’s what chefs do!

Have a great week and let me know, are you cooking or going out to celebrate this week?

Monday - Buffalo Cranberry & Wine Sausage with Pork

Tuesday - Sesame crusted mahi mahi, grilled onion and pineapple

Wednesday – Chinese Beef and Broccoli from Jaden Hair’s book Steamy Kitchen Cookbook

Thursday - Lobster and black bean tacos with tomatillo salsa

Friday - Rosemary chicken with dates and olives

Saturday - Dinner at Charlie Palmer Steak House

Sunday - Mexican Seafood Soup, Chocolate Macadamia Nuts

For more menu ideas visit Orgjunkie.

Chocolate Macadamia Nuts

February is a month full of food celebrations and I have a gluten and dairy free menu to match.  Super Bowl- 7th (New Orleans Saints vs Indianapolis Colts), Chinese New Year -10th, Valentines Day -14th , Mardi Gras -16th.  My favorite of course is the Super Bowl.  It’s a bitter sweet day since it’s the last game of the year.  It’s a great excuse to have people over, who watch the game, and eat, cheer, and watch the commercials.

1- Tilapia, snow peas, baby corn, bok choy, onion, red quinoa

2- Spinach Artichoke Dip Pizza

3- Slow cooked Chicken with Tomatillos, Potatoes and Jalapenos- Rick Bayless- Mexican Everyday

4- Ostrich steak, yucca fries, green beans

5- Scallop, chorizo and potato tacos with salad

6- Veal roast, purple sweet potatoes, mushrooms

7- Jambalya, Canjun chicken wings, Turducken Burgers, bean dip and chips, mini muffuletta, creme brulee, Crustless Peacan Pie, Chocolate Chip Scones-Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook

8- Buffalo Cranberry & Wine Sausage with Pork

9- Sesame crusted mahi mahi, grilled onion and pineapple

10 – Chinese Beef and Broccoli from Jaden Hair’s book Steamy Kitchen Cookbook

11- Lobster and black bean tacos with tomatillo salsa

12- Rosemary chicken with dates and olives

13- Dinner at Charlie Palmer Steak House

14- Mexican Seafood Soup, Chocolate Macadamia Nuts

15- Pulled pork tacos, salad

16- Shrimp Creole, red beans and rice, King Cake(some version of Jules Shepard)

17- Soy Citris Salmon, rice, haricot verts

18- Skirt steak, black bean, sweet potato, red onion hash

19- Chipotle Shrimp

20- Roasted vegetable pizza

21- Buffalo and pork chorizo hash

22- BBQ turkey leg and slaw

23- Cornmeal crusted fried fish, fries and peas

24- London broil, yucca fries, spinach salad

25- Pork chops, applesauce, sugar snap peas

26- Shrimp tacos

27- Greek chicken, rice and broccoli

28-Mini crab cakes, broiled lobster, corn on cobb, chocolate cake with chocolate icing

I’m looking forward to the end of this week.  On Saturday is the annual meeting for AIWF, American Institute of Wine and Food.  I’m very excited to go.  I’ve not been able to attend any local events.  Actually the last event I went to for this group was when I belonged to the NYC chapter and Julia Child, founder, was actually there.

Sunday is the ProBowl.  It will be interesting to see it take place in Miami instead of Hawaii and the week before the Super Bowl instead of after.  I’m guessing if your team is playing in the Super Bowl you’re not going to play more than 1 play if at all.  I think if I was a player, I’d rather go to Hawaii.  I was fortunate enough to attend this event in Hawaii a couple of years ago and it was great.  The sad part of these next couple weeks for me is, I’m down to just a few more football games to watch.  Then I have to wait until next pre-season.  I am looking forward to the Colts/Saints Super Bowl and will have lots of gluten and dairy free food to eat while watching the game.  So who will Archie Manning be rooting for?  Yeah, I know, I’m a football junkie.

Monday - Fresh Chorizo casserole

Tuesday - Lamb Al Pastor Burgers, tortilla chips, salad

Wednesday - Chicken Freezer dish

Thursday - Roasted Vegetable Pasta, spinach salad

Friday - Turkey Meatballs Albondigas

Saturday - Shrimp and Scallops Skewers, rice, greens

Sunday - Pro Bowl!  Miami Cuban Feast

Reminder- the Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is beans.

For more menus visit OrgJunkie.

This week is our January Gluten Free Light Winter Warmers Progressive Dinner Party.  Make sure you make it around to the different blogs to gather up some great winter recipes.  New to the party we welcome Amy from Simply Sugar and Gluten Free.

Monday January 18th Karen from Cook4Seasons made Creamy Potato Leek Soup and Roasted Cauliflower Soup With Gluten Free Croutons by Alison from Sure Foods Living.

Tuesday January 19th - Winter Fire Roasted Tomato Soup w/ Prosciutto topping from Diane- The W.H.O.L.E. Gang.

Wednesday January 20th -Mexican Seafood Soup from  Diane- The W.H.O.L.E. Gang and SeaMaiden from Book of Yum with an Un-Chicken Vegan Savory Soup.

Thursday January 21st – Amy from Simply Sugar and Gluten Free and Shirley from gluten free easily.

Friday January 22nd -Ali from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen.

Make sure you stop by for Friday Foodie Fix for recipes using Clementines.  If you’ve never participated in this blog carnival I hope you will  consider sharing one of your recipes.  It’s really easy to use Mr. Linky.  You can also share via the comments.

Here’s my menu for the week.  I have a feeling it will change but we’re not going to miss out on Pizza night.

Monday - Pizza!  Zaatar, Spinach, tomato and cippolini onions, BBQ Chicken

Tuesday - Sheppard’s Pie

Wednesday - Buffalo & Pork Chipotle Chorizo Tacos

Thursday - Freezer Finds

Friday - Turducken Burgers, Corn Bread, green beans

Saturday - Blackened Fresh fish fillets, polenta, salad

Sunday - London Broil, parley potatoes, broccoli

For tons more menus from all sorts of blogs, OrgJunkie.

Last week my new Sur La Table catalog came.  As I sat looking through it, I couldn’t stop myself from making all sorts of sounds. I was drooling over the new Le Crueset Cassis color cast iron and stoneware.  So, I made a trip to the store and bought a 3 1/2 quart French Oven and a 10.5 inch rectangular baker that came with a free 7″ x 5″ baker with my Christmas money.  It’s beautiful!

I will have to use it this week, but what to cook.  I know I have this menu planned, but I may need to make a little something new.

Keep in mind that the Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is broccoli.  If you have not checked back on last week’s cauliflower, you should.  There are some really good ones.  I’ll also be adding one with a delicious lunch I made today.

Monday - Turkey Burgers (Greek), Hand Cut Oven Fries, peas

Tuesday - Pork Pupusas, refried beans, Jicama and Watercress Salad

Wednesday - Ostrich steaks, Polenta Fries, roasted broccoli

Thursday - Shrimp Scampi with pasta

Friday - Unstuffed Cabbage Soup

Saturday - Red Chileatole with mushrooms, chicken & zucchini (R.B.)

Sunday - Roasted Whole Fish, rice, sauteed vegetables

For more menu ideas visit OrgJunkie.

My menu this month will include recipes I’m trying or changing from one of my new cookbooks, Rick Bayless Mexican Everyday.  I really love the flavors of Mexican cooking.  Most of it is naturally gluten free!  This month I’ll be diving into as much flavor as possible while keeping the calorie count down.  This will mean more of the vegetables and seafood in my meals with high flavor spices.

So have you made any culinary resolutions for this year?  Do you want to learn how to cook a certain dish, cuisine, eat more or less of something?  I’d love to hear what your goals around food are for 2010!

1- Pork Roast, Lentils and Rice, Braised Cabbage

2- Old Bay Crab Hash Eggs Benedict with dairy free blender Hollandaise Sauce

3-  Skirt Steak, sweet potato fries, spinach salad

4- Turkey breast tenderloins on Stuffing with Pancetta Sage Sausage

5- Sea Scallops Pasta

6- Ostrich Burgers, Jicama and Watercress Salad (R.B.)

7- Mushroom Potato Soup with Pablanos (R.B) adding my homemade chorizo

8- Whole Roasted Spatchcock Chicken, roasted white sweet potatoes and pablano peppers

9- Veal Roast with root vegetables and a leek and mushroom sauce

10- Mexican Seafood Soup

11- Turkey Burgers (Greek seasoning), Hand Cut Oven Fries, peas

12- Pork Pupusas, refried beans, Jicama and Watercress Salad

13- Ostrich steaks, Polenta Fries, roasted broccoli

14- Shrimp Scampi with pasta

15- Unstuffed Cabbage Soup

16- Red Chileatole with mushrooms, chicken and zucchini (R.B.)

17- Roasted Whole Fish, rice, sauteed vegetables

18- Pizza!  Zaatar, Spinach, tomato and cippolini onions, BBQ Chicken

19- Sheppard’s Pie

20- Buffalo & Pork Chipotle Chorizo Tacos

21- Freezer Finds

22- Turducken Burgers, Corn Bread, green beans

23- Blackened Fresh fish fillets, polenta, salad

24- London Broil, parley potatoes, broccoli

25- Fresh Chorizo casserole

26- Lamb Al Pastor Burgers, tortilla chips, salad

27- Chicken Freezer dish

28- Roasted Vegetable Pasta, spinach salad

29- Turkey Meatballs Albondigas

30- Shrimp and Scallops Skewers, rice, greens

31- Pro Bowl!  Miami Cuban Feast

The other exciting news this weekend was being able to give two people the wonderful news that they won Elana Amsterdam’s Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook.

Congratulations to Erin and Nancy.

The winners were drawn using a random number generator.  They both had signed up for the newsletter and left comments.  I believe there was even a RT (retweet on Twitter) in there.

Thank you all for entering to win.  If you were hoping to win this book for a Christmas Gift there is still time to grab one from the bookstore.  It’s a great gift to give and to receive.  I say this as I am munching on the Chocolate Chip Cookies I made from Elana’s recipe.  Yum!!!

If you signed up for the newsletter you should be receiving 6 of my Top 10 lists via email.  I hope you are enjoying them.  If you have not signed up for the newsletter, what are you waiting for?  See that green box to the right that starts with Get My Gluten Free….  Sign up right there.

I’ve read through all of the comments you left sharing your ideas on what should be included in the newsletter.  If you have more, please share them here.

Just a reminder that this week there will be no Friday Foodie Fix.  We will pick it back up next year on Friday January 1st with your favorite New Year’s Day Celebration Foods or Meals (can include best hangover cures).  I know a lot of families have traditions for the first meal of the new year.  I hope you’ll share yours.

Have a wonderful week, stay warm and safe.  If you are celebrating Christmas I hope it is a joyful day.

Monday - Roasted Pork Loin with  baked apples

Tuesday - Whole Roasted Spatchcock Chicken, roasted root vegetables

Wednesday - Ostrich Steaks, green beans, quinoa

Thursday - Veal Shoulder Roast

Friday - Mushroom Risotto

Saturday - Winter Fire Roasted Tomato Soup and sandwiches

Sunday - Italian Calzones

For more menus visit OrgJunkie.

Also, if you have not gotten in on your chance to WIN Elana Amsterdam’s Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook read up on all the ways to enter.  You get TWO entries for signing up for the new NEWSLETTER.  Check out the original post so you can enter to WIN.  The contest ends with this week’s Friday Foodie Fix where the Secret Ingredient is Almonds!  Good luck to everyone.

If you have not taken a look at all of the amazing Chocolate recipes shared for Friday Foodie Fix, you are missing out.  If you have a recipe you would like to share, please feel free to leave one.  At last count there were 23 recipes.

So here is what I was going to have this week.  But I’m changing it up to soup week.  We need to increase our volume of food and decrease our calories with all of the holiday parties and opportunities to eat.  So instead we’ll have:

Monday - not Turkey Tacos…………………………..Turkey Vegetable Soup

Tuesday - not Burgers with potatoes……………….Beef Brisket Vegetable Soup

Wednesday- not Mahi Mahi…………………….Mexican Seafood Soup

Thursday - not Pasta with vegetables………………….Posole

Friday - Dinner out at Pazo

Saturday - Dinner out at Black Olive

Sunday - Freezer Finds

Have a great week everyone and don’t forget to enter to WIN a cookbook and sign up for our Newsletter!

For more menus visit OrgJunkie.

This week will also contain an announcement of a new offering.  Here are some fun things happening this week:

Gluten Free Dessert Progressive Dinner Party starts on Monday with Shauna the gluten free girl and the chef, Alison Sure Foods Living and Ali The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen.

A Cookbook to Give Away

Something New For You

Friday Foodie Fix Secret Ingredient is Chocolate

Julie & Julia DVD released and Harry Potter and The Half  Blood Prince DVD released (hoping I get these for my birthday)

You won’t want to miss a posting for sure.  You can receive blog posts via email or with my RSS feed.  If you don’t know what an RSS feed is, subscribe by email.   At the top of the blog you’ll see Connect.  If  you enter your email you will receive an email every time I write a new blog post.

MENU

Monday - Hash with sausage and peppers

Tuesday - Birthday Dinner- Seafood Kabobs wrapped in bacon, mini crab cakes, salad, Chocolate frogs, popcorn, maybe even a cake.  I will also be serving a Cold Gluten Free Dessert for the Progressive Dinner Party.

Wednesday - Chicken Taquitos, refried beans and rice

Thursday - Chorizo and Potato Frittata and my No-Bake Gluten Free Dessert for the Progressive Dinner Party.

Friday - Beef Brisket Vegetable Soup

Saturday - Pizzas including Zaatar

Sunday - Book Party

More menus on OrgJunkie.

Summer flowers from butterfly bush

Wow, I can’t believe it’s the last month of 2009.  This has been an amazing year of growth for me.  I’ve met so many wonderful people through blogging.  This wonderful community continues to grow and I continue to learn.  I have a goal that every day should include fun and I learn something new.  Some days the two are the same and others, well you know.

As we make our way through this last month I hope you will take time to reflect on this year and make plans for the coming year.  I’m not talking about a few New Year’s Resolutions.  I’m talking about really taking some quiet time to think about how you would like to see your year play out.  You can write down your ideas, cut out pictures and paste them onto a Treasure Map, or even just make a little list.  Everyone has their own way of planning but I can tell you something that I’m certain of.  If you don’t take the time to evaluate what you’ve done and plan out how you would like things to go, you will spin your wheels repeating the same mistakes and not even realizing what made something really work.  Make a bold statement this coming year and then write it down.

More on ideas how to do this later in the month.  Also coming later this month some new and exciting additions that I’ve been working on.  Sorry, you’ll have to wait for the details on these until later this month too.

This is my last monthly menu plan for 2009.  I’ve made one each month and looking back I can say it has made a huge difference.  I’ve done a much better job of getting dinner on the table.  I’ve saved us tons of money.  Enough to take a really nice vacation for our family of four.  It also gave me a great way to make sure our family had balanced meals throughout the week and stuck to the rotation diet.

I will definitely keep up this new habit.  My goal for 2010 with my menu is to continue to save money, mix up the meals, eat from the freezer and notice if I keep making the same thing too often.

December will also be a month of celebrations.  My birthday and the release of the Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince DVD 8th, Hanukkah 12-19th  , Christmas 25th, Kwanzaa 26-Jan 1, and New Year’s Eve 31st.  Of course we’ll throw in a few more things to celebrate like date night, end of the semester, winter break and our office being closed for vacation.  What will you be celebrating this month?

Reminder that this week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is pecans. Can’t wait to share my truffles with you!

1- Lemon Sole, broccoli, red quinoa

2- Steak, fries, salad

3- Fried Chicken for Brad

4- Turkey Vegetable Soup

5- Turducken Burgers

6- Beef and Noodles

7- Hash with sausage and peppers

8- Birthday Dinner- Seafood Kabobs wrapped in bacon, mini crab cakes, salad, Chocolate frogs, popcorn, maybe even a cake.

9- Chicken Taquitos, refried beans and rice

10- Chorizo and Potato Frittata

11- Beef Brisket Soup

12- Pizzas including Zaatar

13- Book Party

14- Turkey Tacos

15- Burgers with potatoes

16- Broiled Mahi Mahi

17- Pasta with vegetables

18- Dinner out at Pazo

19- Dinner out at Black Olive

20- Freezer Finds

21- Roasted Pork Loin with  baked apples

22- Whole Roasted Spatchcock Chicken, roasted root vegetables

23- Ostrich Steaks, green beans, quinoa

24- Veal Shoulder Roast

25- Risotto

26- Winter Fire Roasted Tomato Soup and sandwiches

27- Italian Calzones

28- Shrimp and black beans

29- Veal Scaloppini, grilled onions and asparagus

30- Pasta with lamb ragu

31- Chateaubriand  stuffed with lobster tail, Italian green beans, salad and champagne.

Also, did you realize this week is Thanksgiving.  It totally snuck up on us, I wish.  If you are still looking for some great gluten free recipes I hope you will review the great ones shared for the Gluten Free Thanksgiving Progressive Dinner.  Here is what was shared from The Whole Life Nutrition, gfe-gluten free easily, Gluten Free Girl, Cook4Seasons, Gluten Free Organics, A Year of Slow Cooking, Book of Yum and me:

Drinks: Sugar-Free Cranberry Orange Punch and Hot Ginger Lemon Cider

Appetizers:  Goat Cheese with Cumin and Mint, Lemon Chili Olives and Spiced Honey Almond Nibbles and Allergen Free Casein Free Pumpkin Kabocha Soup

Main Course:  Orange-Pepper Salmon with Cranberry Sauce and Special Turkey Breast

Side Dishes:  Wild Rice Salad, Gluten Free Stuffing with Pancetta Sage Sausage,  Slow Cooker Cornbread Stuffing and Pear Pomegranate Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

Desserts:  Pumpkin Pecan “Cheese” Cake, Vegan Dark Chocolate Almond Tart with a Pastry Crust, and Gluten Free Blueberry Pie

This week’s Friday Foodie Fix will be a review of this fall’s recipes with the Secret Ingredients of red or green peppers, apples, potatoes, figs, pomegranate, chicken, pumpkin, sweet potato, cranberries, squash and turkey.  We will resume Friday Foodie Fix with the Secret Ingredient of Pecans on December 4th.

Monday - Buffalo Cranberry & Wine Sausage with Pork

Tuesday - Eating Out – Central Richard

Wednesday - Leftovers from the freezer

Thursday - Thanksgiving Menu- Oven Roasted Spatchcock Turkey, Pancetta & Sausage Sage Stuffing, Creamy Dairy Free Mashed Potatoes, Turkey Gravy, Shallot Green Beans, Cranberry Salsa, Cranberry Walnut Bread by Elana Amsterdam,   Elana’s Chocolate Chip Scones, Pumpkin Pudding

Friday - Leftover Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup or Vegetable Soup

Saturday - Stuffing Stuffed Pork Chop Loaf

Sunday - Italian Meatball Wedding Soup

Your hosts this week will be Gluten Free Girl, Book of Yum, gfe-gluten free easily, The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen, A Year of Slow Cooking, Gluten Free Organics, Cook4Seasons and me!  Feel free to RSVP and let us know if you’ll be stopping by so we’ll know how much to cook.

Here’s the schedule:

• Ali and Jean will be serving DRINKS on Monday, Nov. 16 at The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen and Gluten Free Organics

• Karen, Jean and Seamaiden will be serving APPETIZERS on Tuesday, Nov. 17 at Cook4Seasons,  Gluten Free Organics and Book of Yum

• Ali and Shirley will be serving MAIN COURSE on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen and gfe-gluten free easily
  

• Diane, Stephanie, Ali and Shauna will be serving the SIDE DISH/SALAD on Thursday, Nov. 19 at The W.H.O.L.E. Gang, A Year of Slow Cooking, The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen and Gluten Free Girl

• Karen, Jean and Ali be serving DESSERT on Friday, Nov. 20 at Cook4Seasons, The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen and Gluten Free Organics

If you’re looking for a good Mexican meal out and you live near Washington, D.C. you’ll want to read my restaurant review, Oyamel Restaurant Gluten Free Review.  They have a very interesting menu including all of the ingredients you’re used to and  goat, beef tongue, cactus and grasshoppers.  You’ll have to read the review to see which ones I ate.  I’m headed back this weekend so maybe I’ll try what I missed.

We’re also having company!  We’ll have a mix of eating out and my cooking.  I love to cook for company.  It’s just as easy to cook for 2 or 22, so the more the merrier.  Either way I’m playing in the kitchen.  Next week’s menu will be a mix of eating out and really easy meals with all of the Thanksgiving preparations that will be going on in my kitchen.

This week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is Turkey.  If you missed Friday Foodie Fix – Squash, you’ll want to go back and check out all of the great recipes shared.

Monday - Mediterranean Tuna Pasta with Artichokes

Tuesday - Beef and Pork Cabbage Soup

Wednesday -Garlic Garbanzo Bean, Swiss Chard and Pancetta Soup and Sandwiches

Thursday - Shrimp With Buffalo & Pork Chipotle Chorizo

Friday- Soccer Pot Luck meal- Chicken Wings and Gluten and Dairy Free BBQ Jalapeño Poppers

Saturday - Eating Out – Oyamel

Sunday - Strip Steaks, Hand Cut Oven Fries, Broccoli

For more menus visit Orgjunkie.

One more thing.  Have you heard about Drop In and Decorate?  Why not make gluten free cookies for donation! You can read all about it on A Year of Slow Cooking.

I did get to sneak out this weekend with my friend, Lady A, and head to the Metropolitan Cooking Show where we saw Guy Fieri cook.  He was great in person.  If you’ve ever seen his live show Off The Hook it was a lot like that.  I enjoy Guy’s Big Bites but my favorite is Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  He was very funny and informative all at the same time.  If you ever get a chance to see Guy live, do it.  You won’t be disappointed.

Don’t forget this week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is Squash! I hope you will all share your recipes with us. Check out last week’s great recipes shared for Cranberries.

Monday - Eating out – The Counter

Tuesday - Freezer Finds

Wednesday - Lamb Ragu

Thursday - Fish and Chips

Friday - Chicken Hash

Saturday - Eating Out – Restaurant Eve

Sunday - Handmade Tamales

For more menus check out OrgJunkie.

Chocolate Chip Scones from Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam

We’re in the home stretch of 2009 and speeding towards 2010.  This month’s menu includes the Thanksgiving holiday, what to do with those leftovers and fast meals that keep you on schedule.  As usual, these are gluten free and dairy free recipes and stay true to my motto,  Good Food No Matter What!™

1- Mexican Seafood Soup

2- Burgers, oven roasted potatoes, green beans

3- Chicken Stirfry

4- Posole with homemade tortillas

5- Mini Buffalo Sauce Turkey Burgers, potato skins and bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers

6- Pupusas

7- Chili Piquin Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

8- Mexican Scallops

9- Eating out – The Counter

10- Freezer Finds

11- Lamb Ragu

12- Fish and Chips

13- Chicken Hash

14- Eating Out – Restaurant Eve

15- Handmade Tamales

16- Mediterranean Tuna Pasta with Artichokes

17- Beef and Pork Cabbage Soup

18- Sports Banquet Pot Luck

19- Shrimp With Buffalo & Pork Chipotle Chorizo

20- Garlic Garbanzo Bean, Swiss Chard and Pancetta Soup and Sandwiches

21- Strip Steaks, Hand Cut Oven Fries, Broccoli

22- Eating Out – Oyamel

23- Buffalo Cranberry & Wine Sausage with Pork

24- Eating Out – Central Richard

25- Leftovers from the freezer

26- Thanksgiving Menu- Oven Roasted Spatchcock Turkey, Pancetta & Sausage Sage Stuffing, Creamy Dairy Free Mashed Potatoes, Turkey Gravy, Shallot Green Beans, Cranberry Salsa, Cranberry Walnut Bread by Elana Amsterdam,   Elana’s Chocolate Chip Scones, Pumpkin Pudding

27- Leftover Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup or Vegetable Soup

28- Stuffing Stuffed Pork Chop Loaf

29- Italian Meatball Wedding Soup

30- Turkey Tetrazzini

Here is my gluten free and dairy free menu for this last week of October.  We end with Halloween on Saturday and then we get to start November off getting an extra hour of sleep!  I’m all for that.  Before we jump into the last two months of the year let me point out some cool videos if you missed them.  For the past three weekends our tip has been given by three different food bloggers.  Great information and tips.  I hope you will view our Weekend Kitchen Tip.

Also, if you missed last week’s Friday Foodie Fix - Pumpkin, you missed TONS of great recipes and information.  This week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is Sweet Potatoes.  Can you tell I’m working you towards our big November eating holiday.

Just a reminder, with this being the last week of the month it’s time to inventory your food on hand.  Use your list from last month to start with, go through the pantry, freezer and refrigerator.  Then make your menu for the month!   I promise you, you can save 20-40% off of your food bill.

Have a great week!

Monday – Boeuf Bourguignon Burger

Tuesday – Pork Tamales

Wednesday – Tilapia

Thursday -Chicken Pot Pie Cheesy Sopes Style Dairy Free and Gluten Free

Friday – Turkey-roni

Saturday – Scallops with andouille sausage, plantains and tomatillo salsa

For more menus visit OrgJunkie.