Baked Apple Puff Pancake

There are restaurants around here that serve a wonderful puff pancake but it is not gluten free, of course. Here is a recipe for a puff pancake that is easy and really delicious. I remind twice to use potholders because I have burned my hand more than once making this!

Gluten Free Puff Pancake

2 T butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup flour mix of choice
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. salt (none if butter is salted)
2 medium apples, peeled and sliced thinly
1/2 cup brown sugar
1-2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place apple slices in a microwavable cooking dish covered and microwave a minute at a time until tender but not mushy. Add 1/4 cup of the brown sugar and the cinnamon to the apples and stir. Place a skillet with the butter into the oven for 3-5 minutes until butter melts (watch it or it will burn). In a bowl using a whisk or beater, beat the eggs slightly. Add the flour, milk and salt and beat until smooth. Pour the batter into the very hot skillet and bake for 25 minutes or until puffed and set. Remove pan from oven (use potholders!) and turn oven to broil. Pour the apples over the top. Sprinkle with remaining brown sugar and more cinnamon if desired. When broiler is hot, place the pan back in about 6 inches from the heat source and watch carefully until brown sugars is bubbling and melted. Using potholders, remove from oven, cut into pieces and serve hot.

Any Fruit Salsa

This recipe for salsa can be made with any soft fruit available depending on the time of year and your preference. I have made it with mangoes, peaches, nectarines and sometimes add chopped avocado. It is delicious freshly made and gets better after it sits for a while in the fridge. I serve it with tortillas or gf crackers or as a condiment for chicken, pork or ham. It would be good with fresh fish as well.

1 cup (or so) finely chopped soft fruit (peach, mango, nectarine)
1/3 finely chopped green, red, yellow or orange pepper
2-3 chopped green onions
1/2 cup (or so) finely chopped cilantro or 2 tsp. dried
juice of 1/2 lime
finely chopped hot pepper to taste, fresh or bottled
salt to taste
finely chopped avocado if desired

Mix ingredients. Taste and adjust peppers and salt. Store in refrigerator.

Summer Chicken Salad

This is another recipe I adapted from a restaurant. If you are boiling the chicken adding the celery, onion and carrots gets you chicken soup that you can serve before the salad or at another meal. Don't put too much mayo or it is watery. You don't need it with the pineapple. I serve this with raw veggies, black olives and bread or crackers, gluten free or regular. Yum!

4 Chicken breasts with bone (or buy precooked)
2 stalks celery sliced
1 onion, quartered
2 carrots sliced
salt and pepper to taste
water to cover.

2 stalks chopped celery
2 green onions, sliced
1 small can crushed unsweetened pineapple, drained
1/2 cup mayo (low fat is good) or to taste
1/2 tsp. salt or to taste
1/2 cup toasted almonds

Boil the chicken in water with the veggies, salt and pepper until tender, about 45-60 minutes. Let chicken cool and then remove from bone and chop into bite size pieces. Add the rest of the ingredients and toss to coat. Refrigerate.

Millie's Apple Chicken Salad

This is a quick, nutritious and delicious salad recipe that I copied from a local restaurant. It makes a good meal or sidedish.

Lettuce/greens of choice, torn
1-2 stalks celery, sliced
1 green onion sliced
1 apple, quartered and sliced thinly
chicken breast in thin strips (either deli or home cooked)
1-2 slices swiss cheese, in thin strips
yellow raisins
your favorite sweetish dressing such as poppy seed, celery seed, raspberry vinaigrette (see below)

Mix the ingredients together in the proportions and amount you need. Toss with a small mount of dressing.

Quick Berry Vinaigrette

In a blender, puree 1 tbls. chopped onion, 1/4 cup vinegar, 2-3 berries of choice. 1/2 - 1 tsp. sugar or stevia. While the blender is running, drizzle in 1/2 cup oil (canola or light olive oil) until blended.

Simple, creative meals

Eating does not have to involve elaborate preparations. Sometimes the simplest things are the tastiest. It takes just a little creativity to discover new foods that may become part of your recipe collection for a long, long time. Get out of your recipe and eating rut and go crazy!

Grilled cheese, for example, may be pretty boring. But, if you look for new bread options--gluten free or not, different cheeses and a few surprise ingredients, you have a delicious, easy, new food. Try raisin bread with gjetost cheese. Try a whole grain english muffin (or a gf option) with fresh mozzarella and tomato. How about pita or Chebe (GF) sandwich buns with horseradish cheddar and carmelized onions? Go crazy. Add pickles, artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, ham, apple or pear slices, pistachios, peanut butter, cream cheese, chocolate, dried cherries.....the point is to play with food. Don't take it so seriously.

Peanut butter sandwiches are also good but get really boring after a while. Do you feel a little guilty eating PB sandwiches for dinner? Not putting any effort into it? Again, try something new. Peanut butter on a different type of bread (GF or regular whole grain if possible) with low fat cream cheese and raisins is delicious. Try other types of nut butters and add some surprising ingredients. Adding fruits or vegetable to the sandwich makes it a balanced and healthy meal. Serve it with any fruit or vegetable you have on hand--cooked or raw--and you have a tasty meal.

And don't forget presentation. If you have the time and inclination, serve that grilled cheese on your good china with your drink in a crystal glass. Light some candles and turn down the lights. Even if you are eating alone! Eat picnic style, even in the winter. Roast chicken saugsage on sticks in the fireplace. Have fun.

Stuffed Cabbage

This recipe for stuffed cabbage is one that my mother learned from her mother and I learned from her. It really is quite simple and really good. I find it therapeutic to roll the cabbage. I am posting this in honor of my Aunt Emilie whose funeral was yesterday. Her son brought an arrangement of cabbage and flower in her roasting pan to the funeral home and altar in honor of the "gwumpke queen." Spelling is probably way off but you get the point! I serve this with the traditional Polish cucumber salad--sliced cucumber with sour cream or mayo (low fat is fine), salt, pepper and dill.

1 head of cabbage
1 cup of rice, cooked (makes 2 cups, I use brown for healthier version)
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 can tomato sauce

Cook the chopped onion in the olive oil till soft either microwave or stovetop. Mix in ground beef and cooked rice, salt, pepper, garlic powder. Insert a knife around the core of the cabbage then steam in a microwaveable dish with about 1 cup of water till soft enough to roll. Remove the cabbage leaves from the head. Place filling (1/4-1/2 cup depending on size of leaf) on one end. Fold over the end, then the sides then the opposite end to make a package. Place seam down in a roasting pan. Pour tomato sauce over top of rolls and bake about 1 hour in a 350 degree oven. Serve with catsup.

Why does chicken soup taste better sometimes than others?

This may seem elementary to some of you but I have been making chicken soup with water, salt, pepper, chicken parts, celery, carrots, onion and sometimes a little parsely forever. Yet every time I make it it tastes differently. Sometimes it is great, sometimes OK and sometimes pretty bad. I have come to the conclusion that it mostly depends on the chicken! These days I use organic chicken breasts with the bone and skin, removing the skin and bone after it is cooked. This seems to make the best soup. Amish chicken appears to work as well. (If you use a mixture of dark and white meat it tastes even better but snce I am cutting fat, I don't use the dark pieces.) These chickens are not processed and are raised in a way that makes them taste better, hence the better soup. The other "secrets" are using a lot of chicken and vegetables to the amount of water. If you want more chicken soup, add more "stuff," not just more water. I cook the GF noodles, usually the spiral kind, separately and only add them to the bowl when serving. They basically dissolve if you leave them in the liquid. Try using whole grain brown rice or quinoa noodles for added nutrition and fiber. Brown and wild rice make good additions instead of noodles as well. Good homemade chicken soup is one of the foods I call "a love pat for your tummy."