Month: June 2013

Chicken Shepherd’s Pie

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I hope this savory shepherd’s pie, free of the eight common food allergens, is something you find delicious, comforting and satisfying. I want to tell you a secret about the mashed potatoes: keep the colander in the cabinet and don’t pour out all of the potato water. Leave about an inch of the potato water in the bottom of your stockpot as your liquid for mashing. There is a lot of flavor in that water (and also nutrients). Also, it’s easier and less expensive than using a milk substitute. As you know, I’m a fan of spending as little of my money on special ingredients as I can, so I used olive oil instead of earth balance, at least for the potatoes. Many of these ingredients are from ALDI. I shop there for many things so that I can save my money for things like the special ingredients I can’t do without. Okay, enough chit-chat, here is the recipe:

Peel, wash and put your potatoes in a large stock pot with boiling water. You only need about 6-8 potatoes but I make a whole bunch to save for leftovers. Start boiling your potatoes (Idaho potatoes work best for mashing but feel free to use what you have on hand). While those are cooking, prepare your chicken filling.

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In a deep skillet add:

One package of chicken tenders (about 2 pounds) – you can even put them in frozen, they’ll just have to cook longer until done. I do this all the time since I’m not a fan of using the microwave. If you have only chicken thighs or legs, or you’d rather do this with beef, lamb or pork, go for it!

1 yellow or white onion, medium diced

1 green bell pepper, medium diced

8 fresh mushrooms, sliced

4 stalks celery, small diced

10-15 baby carrots

water for simmering (the water will pick up flavor of everything, no need for broth)

1 tsp dried sage

1 Tbsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp onion powder

1-2 tsp salt

fresh cracked pepper to taste

Cover and simmer over medium heat until your chicken is cooked all the way through and your carrots and celery are tender. Watch and add more water if needed as you don’t want it to burn. When done, lower temperature and add:

1/4 cup of earth balance or olive oil

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp yellow or dijon mustard

If you don’t have the earth balance or nutritional yeast, don’t fret, this will still taste good!

Stir and keep warm while you prepare the potatoes as follows:

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Drain the potato water until you are left with about 1 inch of water at the bottom. Keep the water in there. Add 1/3 cup olive oil, 1 Tbsp onion powder, 1-2 tsp salt and cracked pepper to taste. Always taste and be sure you like it.

Set your oven to broil (or 500 degrees Fahrenheit) and then assemble the pie. Add the filling to an 8-inch or 9-inch pie dish, top with enough mashed potatoes to cover and then sprinkle 1/4 cup rice flour or your favorite gluten free flour blend on top. Using a pastry brush, lightly drizzle 1/8 cup of olive or vegetable oil over the the flour, getting as much of the flour oiled up as you can. Dust with paprika, salt, pepper, and ground mustard. I found a spice grinder at ALDI for poultry and I love it for this application (it has all of the spices I just mentioned and no bad additives).

Put your oven rack to the top of your oven, put in your pie and broil for 5-15 minutes or until golden brown on top. Depending on the type of oil and flour you use for your topping, this time can vary so keep a close watch on it to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Serve with chopped fresh rosemary. If you don’t have fresh rosemary, dried rosemary or dried Italian seasoning would also work.

If you have any questions, let me know. Happy Eating!

Chicken Nuggets

Again, all allergens avoided. And this is very simple and easy to make on a busy weeknight. I just made these for my son and his friend that I’m watching. She doesn’t have food allergies and absolutely loved these and wanted more. How cool is that? They kept eating these nuggets until I distracted them with the banana bread that I had just pulled out of the oven (see previous post). Lol. Enjoy!

Chicken Nuggets

In a bowl, stir together:

1/2 cup gluten free flour mix (see banana bread post for the gf mix I use but it doesn’t have to be exact like it has to be for baking because the gritty of whatever you choose will add to the overall crispy effect of these nuggets).

Then add 1 teaspoon each of salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika and stir well.

Add 1/4 tsp of back pepper if you like.

Then cut up 2 – 2.5 pounds of chicken tenders into 1 inch pieces. Toss into the flour mixture. No egg coating is needed.

Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a skillet over medium heat. When oil gets up to about 325 degrees Fahrenheit,  carefully add the chicken pieces. Cook in two batches if needed and do not crowd the pan. Cook the nuggets about 5 minutes on each side or until golden brown and cooked through. Before cooking the second batch, lower the heat a bit before adding the second batch as the second batch will not cool down the oil as much and may burn.

Totally Allergen-Free Banana Bread

Banana BreadThis tastes sooooo good. And I’m so excited about this accomplishment because I’ve been working on this for almost a week. This has zero allergenic foods, meaning it is gluten free, diary-free, egg-free, soy-free, corn-free, peanut-free and nut-free. No coconut, either. I promise you that I test my recipes before I post and the picture of this bread was just taken after we devoured a couple of pieces. My son’s friends are over and they begged for another. I will have to guard the rest for sweetheart since he’s been wanting me to make another banana bread for him and I need him to taste this. I think it actually came out better than the egg version I made last weekend. So far, the biggest challenge has been baking things without eggs. A friend suggested applesauce and upon reading more about it, the pectin in the applesauce helps act as a binding agent the way eggs do. Flaxseed meal mixed with water is suggested in some recipes as an egg replacer but if you are trying to avoid treenuts or soy, you may have to be extra careful with flaxseed meal. I have also used Ener-G egg replacer but that is just one more expensive special product to buy, and as you can relate, it is expensive enough to buy different kinds of flours. So, if I can use oil and applesauce instead of Earth Balance and Ener-G egg replacer, all the better.

Enough chat. Here is the  the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat an 8 inch loaf pan with a little bit of canola or safflower oil (do not use the spray if you are avoiding soy because most oil sprays use soy lecithin). If your applesauce is cold, warm the 1/2 cup of applesauce in a saucepan on low heat while you prepare the ingredients. (Warm ingredients help fats coat the flour and improve performance of leavening ingredients).

In a large bowl, mix together the following:

  • 2 cups of gluten free flour mix (either use your favorite one for quick breads or you can use mine as follows: 6 cups superfine brown rice flour + 2 2/3 cup potato starch + 2/3 cup tapioca flour or starch + 2/3 cup sweet rice flour OR an addition of 2/3 cup tapioca starch if you do not have sweet rice flour).
  • 11/2 teaspoons of baking soda
  • 3/4 cup of sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp xanthan gum

In the saucepan of warm applesauce, mix the following wet ingredients together:

  • 1/2 cup applesauce (warmed up if cold)
  • 1 cup of mashed bananas (about two very large ripe bananas or 3 small ones)
  • 1/3 cup of oil

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit in the center of the oven for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy warm with some soy free Earth Balance or cooled down – however you like, right?