The Week of Free

     After reading another blog about a month's worth of grain, gluten, and dairy free eating, I decided to challenge myself: a week of fruits, veggies, and meet. So sue me: I know myself well enough to not do this for a month. Me love cheese. I also know the power of the connotative word, so I didn't call it "dairy free, grain free" all in an attempt to trick myself. Oh the dramatic irony. I will say, this week I had a lot more energy, and I found myself not craving a second or fifth cup of coffee. I found myself not craving sweets. It was a commitment to myself, and it was really about changing habits.
Day one:

Breakfast was a yummy fruit salad.
I munched on almonds for snacks.
Lunch was leftover veggie soup
Dinner was salmon, baked potatoes with salsa, and green beans.
Day two:
Crazy curriculum day. I had an apple for breakfast and almonds for a snack.
We went out for lunch and I ordered sweet potato sushi rolls..... I know, two days in and I caved. But damn, it was good, and I immediately noticed how filling the rice was!
Dinner was Chicken Sausage Kale Stir Fry

Sauté gluten free chicken sausage. Remove from pan.
Add shredded kale, sliced carrots, minced garlic, diced sweet potato, quartered mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper.
Easy. Delicious. Filling.
Day three:
Breakfast: fruit salad and almonds
Lunch: strawberries, carrots with hummus, clementine, almonds
Dinner: Chicken Fajita Lettuce Wraps and Oven Fries

       In a glass baking pan, add sliced chicken breast, peppers, onions, tomatoes. Season with cumin, chili powder, garlic salt. Bake at 425 for about 40 minutes; as an alternate, you can wrap all this up in foil and throw it on the grill.
"Wrap" your fajita mix in bib lettuce. Top with avocado.
Cut potatoes in wedges. Mix with olive oil and cumin and chili powder and garlic salt. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes or so. Top with salsa.
Day Four:
Breakfast: Monkey Salad
Slice bananas and mix with cashews and organic coconut flakes.
Lunch: leftover sushi, clementine
Dinner: ChickUn-Parmesean
Bake chicken breast at 375-400 for about 40 minutes. Top with marinara sauce. Serve with zucchini, green beans, asparagus.
Day five:
Breakfast: Monkey Salad
Lunch: leftover ChickUn
Dinner: Grilled Grass-fed Burgers and Oven Fries

I splurged on organic, grass-fed beef. I mixed it with garlic salt and pepper and grilled them. I made a "bun" of bib lettuce and topped them with veggies and a sauce of Veganaise and Dijon mustard.
St. Patrick's Day
I trimmed all the fat off of the corn beef brisket . What a difference!!!
I then sautéed some shredded cabbage and green beans with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Added diced potatoes mixed with olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper....bake at 425 for 30 minute. A much lighter traditional Irish meal.

Overall, I lost two pounds this week. I noticed I felt more alert. Once you commit to changing the habits, your body will take care of the rest.

Jumpin Shrimp Jambalaya

Don't know why...I was on a cajun kick this week.  It never hurts to spice it up, right?
I threw together this jambalaya mix pretty easily.

G Free Shrimp Jambalya
1 pound peeled and deveined shrimp
1 large red pepper, diced thickly
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 stalks of celery, sliced
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick
2 small russet potatoes, diced
1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes with juices
1 cup brown rice, prepared
1 tsp. or so of Frank's Red Hot sauce
1 TBSP of cajun seasoning
salt and pepper

Sautee all veggies. and garlic in 2 TBSP olive oil until soft. Add the crushed tomatoes, with juices, and then add your hot sauce and seasoning. Let it simmer for a few minutes.
Boil your shrimp, adding some cajun seasoning to the water.  Add shrimp and rice to the sauce, toss, and enjoy with a bold, spicy red wine.

Dirty Rice for Mardi Gras

We made some cajun tilapia for Mardi Gras, and I threw this together, last-minute, for an easy GFree side.

Cajun Dirty Rice

1 cup brown jasmine rice
2 cups water
Boil for 30-40 minutes.

While the rice is cooking, prepare the veggies:
1 shallot,diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2-3 carrots, diced
Sautee the veggies in olive oil until golden and soft.

Add to the veggie saute some frozen peas and corn (about 1/2 cup each)

Mix the rice and veggies and add 1-2 TBSP creole seasoning...depending on how hot you like it.

E.T. Movie and Dinner

It was fun to come up with a movie-themed dinner and to relive a classic from our childhood.
We made:
Alien Fingers
These were cocktail hot dogs from Trader Joe's. They were all beef and nitrate free, so I didn't feel too guilty about feeding them to the kids...and myself.
We simply grilled them for a few minutes on our indoor grill

Bicycle Moon Fries
Slice russet potatoes into thin discs.
Coat with olive oil, sea salt, and garlic salt.
Bake at 425 for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown; you may need to flip 1/2 way through.

Alien Pods
Edamame pods...simple.

Of course....serve Reese's Pieces and popcorn.

Chicken Sausage Jambalaya

On my last trip to Trader Joe's, I made an impulse purchase....Tomato Basil Chicken Sausage. I wasn't sure what I would end up doing with it, so I mashed a few recipes with my own instincts, and came up with this...just in time for Mardi Gras!!!!!

Chicken Sausage (our package had 5 good-sized links), cut diagonally into 1/2 inch chunks
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 green pepper, sliced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 russet potatoes, diced
1 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 can (14 oz.) crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup or so of water (for thinning)
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp (or so) Frank's hot sauce
some basil
some oregano
salt
pepper

2 cups Brown Jasmine rice
4 cups chicken broth

Cook your rice with the broth.
Add some oil and 1/2 your garlic to a pan and heat.
Add your chicken sausage to brown.
Remove the chicken.
To the remaining oil, add the remaining garlic, onion, potatoes, pepper, celery, and tomatoes.
Saute until soft.
Add your wine and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add crushed tomatoes, hot sauce, and spices.
Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.
Serve over rice.

Lunch: Fish Tacos...super easy!!!!!

I threw this together after being on Pinterest and seeing lots of yummy fish taco recipes.  Make it with what you have.....it literally came together in less than 10 minutes...and was DELISH!!!!

1 filet of tilapia
1/3 cup of corn/canola oil
1 lime
1 TBSP creole seasoning
2 TBSP plain greek yogurt
2 TBSP black bean and roasted corn salsa (Trader Joe's ...is awesome!!!)
1/2 avocado, sliced
2 white corn tortillas

Heat oil in a pan.
Sprinkle creole seasoning on both sides of fish.
Fry/saute your fish for about 3 minutes (or so) on each side.
Remove from pan and squeeze the lime over the fish.
Layer your tortillas with yogurt, fish, salsa, and avocado.
Serve with some corn chips...OLE!!!!!

Kyle's Famous Buffalo Chicken Wings

You are in for a treat. No one makes wings like my hubby.

2 parts Frank's hot sauce
1 part melted butter

Let your wings marinate in the sauce for a few hours.
Grill. Devour. YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!