Another Post!

Last night I made BBQ chicken and bean chili! With Fries!

It was SO good, and Gluten free for the most part. If I left out the Schwan's Tuscan bean soup it would have been completely but it adds a lot of flavor, and has extra veggies that I can't get the family to eat otherwise! Then I add a can of white beans, some tomato sauce, had browned some ground chicken, added BBQ sauce and Honey Mustard! Then some Garlic and freeze dried dill to taste!

Topped the chili over some fries with some Cheddar cheese and it was heavenly! Some of my favorite dishes haven't been planned they just develop!

Trying to develop more Gluten Free Ideas and I will post them as I work on them! GF can be amazingly good, and still stick to my southern roots and favorite foods with just a few modifications!

Hey Everyone!

Well it has been WAY too long since I've put in a note! Everything has been a little crazy! Hubby made his rank and his party went AMAZING at the amazing place The Orapax in Norfolk, VA located in Ghent!

The food was Fantastic, the service and incrediable, and I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!

The USS Wisconsin was accomidating as was those that helped make sure everything ran smoothly!

Our Pastor was on hand to say the prayers! What a BLESSING to have a minister who is Former Navy as Well!

Have been tweeking a few recipes and will see what I can do to post a few here in the next couple of weeks! Will try not to have it take so long till my next posting!

Lots of love!

No new recipes

Well I need to work on some new recipes seeing as that I have a new diagnosis! Idiopathic Hypersomnia! Basicly a nice way of saying..."You can't sleep, your tired and we don't know why!" Kinda stinks! I love to see if CPAP would help my snoring, but my apnea isn't bad enough to qualify me for one! At least my husband has been used to planes landing over top of him so my snoring is nothing and he can sleep through anything!

Naps, haven't helped this, meds haven't helped a whole lot except one, and my Government run medical insurance (compliments of the US militarty) doesn't want to pay for it!

Tonight's easy dinner though was taco's! I did make guac and slice a tomato to go with the meat and taco chips! Lemonade was the girls drink of choice! Yummy!

So just a Lazy day at our house with spring colds that won't go away due to the weather cutting back and forth from warm to cold! Just wish the weather would make up it's mind! 'Tis the season!

Cheers!

Corn Chowder

If you've ever been to a Mimi's Cafe then you will LOVE this...Their soups are amazing! This was redesigned to be Gluten Free! I also took info from three other cook books for the option of the bacon drippings if you wanted to make something really over the top! I didn't have a whole quart if half and half but had a pint of half and half and a half pint of cream! I think the added cream really made the soup richer! My husband found the crab and wanted to make it ito a crab chowder!

I'm sure that you could add some sherry, shrimp or other seafood if you wanted to make a seafood chowder! or Just use the butter add some extra veggies and keep it all creamy veggies soup! I'm telling ya it's very yummy that way too!


4 Tbsp Butter or Bacon and drippings
6 Tbsp Onion or one small onion chopped fine
¾ cup celery diced
2 ½ cups Hot water or chicken stock
2 cups raw potato
3 cups frozen corn, thawed or canned corn
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 pinch white or black pepper
3 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 Quart half and half or 1 pt half and half and 1 half pt cream and one carton water
1 can real crab meat (optional) I used refrigerated kind

Melt butter or rendered bacon drippings. Add onions and celery sweat for about 5 minutes brown if you like that way! I do!

Add warm to hot water, potatoes, corn and seasonings. Cover and simmer for about 30 min. On a gas stove and small dice on potatoes it can be ready to do the next step in as little as 12 min so check the pot a little before half way!

Whisk cornstarch into 1 cup of half and half, and then stir well blended mixture into soup. Then add remaining half and half. Simmer about another 12-15 minutes with the lid off. Occationally stirring from the bottom so the corn starch does not scorch as it thickens!

Add more salt and pepper if needed. To thin soup, add milk. To thicken soup simmer an additional 5-10 minutes for desired thickness!

Great base as a seafood chowder! Yummy!

Easy Chicken Chili

As the snow was falling I was trying to decide what I wanted to make for lunch. I was going to do potato soup, and then I was inspired to try to make White chicken chili again by one of my friends on Facebook!



Granted it isn't a Glueten Free version that I have been striving to eat more often, but I was trying to clear out my pantry and find something quick to make with what I had on hand!

Easy Chicken Chili

1 can cream of chicken soup
1 lb ground chicken
1 can beans of choice
1 can of corn
2 tsp chili powder (heat of choice)
4 oz salsa (heat of choice)
1 cup or 8 oz of favorite cheese (Cheddar works well)

Brown chicken or you can use leftover chicken! Then add in cream on chicken soup with almost one can of water stir to blend together. Then add salsa, beans, corn, and chili powder to taste! Heat till hot, and allow to simmer a little while. You can top or mix in cheese if desired! Top with bacon, sour cream, or torita chips, etc!

Enjoy!

Did you know they were putting sand in our tootpaste?

I've called Crest, Aquafresh, and Colgate today and every single one is putting Silica in there tootpaste. That's right sand! Oh, but it's processed and cleaned. Sanatized and pluverized, but it's in our toothpaste. OK now I've been cleaning my teeth for years with tooth paste that didn't have sand in it and I only have 4 cavities. Not bad for a child who LOVED candy.

Also if you look up Crest they don't give you their 1-800-492-7378 number they want you to send them an e-mail and someone will get back to you shortly. I found the Crest 1-800 number on the back of a sample tube from the dentist! Aquafresh wasn't all that nice, but Colgate and Crest were very friendly. It's difficult when you don't want to brush away your teeth, and the flavor doesn't taste quite right anymore! Kinda gritty like sand although they would swear that you shouldn't be able to taste it!

Ranch Dressing

1/2 cup dried parsley
2 tsp dried dill weed (or more to taste)
8 tsp onion powder
8 tsp salt (optional) I don't use the salt at all!
4 tsp garlic powder (I add more)
2 tsp ground pepper (white or black pepper works well)
8 tsp dried onion flakes

Mix one-two Tablespoon(s) of dried mix with 1 cup sour(8oz.) cream for dip or 1 cup mayo and enough milk to make it smooth (regular or buttermilk will work). You can also use some of the sour cream dip with some milk to make dressing too...Also half sour cream (4-8 oz) and half Mayo makes a good dip! Then if you need a dressing add milk to make it the consistancy yo want!

When using fresh herbs you may need to crush them and use less than above, but a blend of the two types would work well.

I also like to use freeze dried herbs and I like the Litehouse Salad blend that I have found at Farm Fresh! I've thrown it into this mixture to make it go further, and it just brings the whole mixture to a whole different flavor level..I .Like it as is without the salt to me is good, but add the freeze dried herbs and wow As little as a Tablespoon of the freeze dried herbs to the rest of the mixture. Strange as it may seem!

The dried and freeze dried together keeps really well in a sealed container on the counter I've never done fresh, but of course your mixing it all and puting it in the frig so it's going to keep! I do know that you will need three times the amount of fresh stuff than the dried because the dried is more powerful or concentrated!

1 tablespoon of fresh oregano, you need only 1 teaspoon of dried, since 3 teaspoons equal 1 tablespoon

So if you want to do a mix of fresh and dried I bet for dill and parsley that would taste amazing! Tinker with it and let me know what ya think!

Let me put it this way! I've had a really difficult time eating anything out of a bottle with maybe the exception of Ken's Steakhouse, but even my husband doesn't want Ranch from anywhere but home!

And he's asking me to try making other dressing too...So we shall see...as I keep testing stuff!