Best Green Beans Ever with Bacon and Diced Peppers

These were the best green beans that I have ever had. They carmelized nicely towards the end of cooking and turned out perfect. This recipe is adapted from The Pioneer Woman's Best Green Beans Ever (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/the-best-green-beans-ever-recipe.html#). I can see why she calls them that. She used chicken broth but I had some beef broth in the fridge that needed using and it still turned out wonderful.

 

Best Green Beans Ever with Bacon and Diced Peppers

Ingredients:

3-4 cups Green Beans

2 tbsp. Olive oil or Butter

1 onion, diced

1 cup Diced Peppers

1-2 cloves Garlic

1 cup Beef Broth

salt and pepper

 

Directions:

Snap ends of fresh green beans off.

Chop up onion and 1-2 cloves of garlic, saute in olive oil in a large skillet.

When onions are translucent, add green beans to skillet until they turn a nice, bright green color.

Add in diced peppers, salt/pepper, and broth and simmer 20-30 minutes.

When finished top with cooked bacon crumbles.

 
Enjoy!

Sausage Lettuce Wraps and Peanut Dipping Sauce

This was a nice, refreshing dinner for a change of pace from our regular dishes. You can adjust all of the ingredients according to what you have or flavors you enjoy. I would have made it more spicy, if the kids weren't going to be eating it.

 

Sausage Lettuce Wraps and Peanut Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

2 lbs sausage

1 onion, diced

Spices: Cumin, garlic salt, chili powder

2 stalks Celery, chopped

2 cloves of Garlic

3/4 cup Green Onions

2 tbsp Lime juice

1 cup Soy Sauce

2 tsp Pepper Sauce

Lettuce Leaves

 

Directions:

Cook sausage with diced onion until browned, adding in spices according to taste.

Add in celery and garlic and cook until softened.

Stir in lime juice, pepper sauce, and soy sauce and simmer about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, rinse and prepare lettuce leaves and prepare peanut sauce, if using.

When finished cooking, top with green onions and serve over lettuce leaves. You can also mix in rice like I did. 

 

Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup Peanut Butter

3 tbsp Soy Sauce

1 tbsp Lime Juice

1 tbsp Sugar

1 clove of Garlic

1 tsp Cayenne Sauce

 

Directions

Mix all ingredients together, adjusting according to taste, until smooth (add water as needed).

 

 

Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

This was a great way to use the shredded frozen beef I had. Everyone definitely ate this right up! I will be making this one again!

I love using the slow cooker in the summer when it's too hot to turn the oven on. I'm finding all sorts of ways to use it this summer!

Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

 
Ingredients:

2 pounds shredded steak meat

1/4 cup corn starch

1 cup soy sauce (make sure it's gluten free)

1 cup beef broth (or you can use water)

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 cloves minced garlic

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp onion powder

green onions, sliced

 

Directions:

-In a large skillet, sear steak pieces until nicely brown.

-In a large bowl, mix together steak and cornstarch until it's coated and place in slow cooker.

-Pour the rest of the ingredients, beside the green onions, over top of the meat.

-Cook on low 6-8 hours.

-Serve over rice and top with sliced green onions.

Enjoy!

Creamy Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

I have had an awful head cold the last few days and really wanted some soup to make me feel better. I also had a lot of frozen broth from when I made the whole chicken in the slow cooker. I wanted to see how my homemade broth turned out, so here is what I did with it! The dumplings turned out more "biscuity" than we were used to but still tasted great in the soup.

 
Creamy Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

Soup:

6-8 cups chicken broth (I used my homemade stuff from my previous recipe)

1 bag whole carrots, sliced

4 cups cooked, shredded chicken

1/2 bag celery stalks, sliced

2 tbsp fresh or dried parsley

1 large onion, diced

4-8 oz. cream cheese

seasonings of your choice, salt, and pepper

 

Dumplings:

1 1/2 cups gluten free Bisquick

2 egg

2/3 cup milk

4 tbsp of butter

1 tbsp parsley

pinch of salt and pepper

 

Directions:

-Add chicken broth, vegetables, and chicken to your slow cooker.

-Cook on low 6-8 hours or until vegetables are soft.

-45 minutes before eating, turn your crock pot on high and add in cream cheese until it's melted.

-While that's mixing in with your other ingredients, start mixing together your ingredients for dumplings.

-Mix together all dumpling ingredients in a medium sized bowl.

-Drop by large spoonfuls in the crock pot on top of the veggies and chicken.

-Cook on high an additional 30 minutes until dough is cooked through.

-Top with grated parmesan, if desired.
 
Enjoy!
 

2 Years Gluten Free

Two years ago today my life changed completely. I would like to think for the better, although some days saying that's actually true can be really hard. After losing 30 pounds, within only a couple months after having my daughter, and being back and forth between the doctors office and ER, I finally had a diagnosis. Having something concrete was a comforting relief. Just knowing that I wasn't crazy, it wasn't all in my head, and that I had a way of fixing myself. I was incredibly grateful to whomever it was that told my mother-in-law (and my mother-in-law for making them order the test) about Celiac Disease. But the days to come would prove to be incredibly hard and some days still are.

It is a disease that you really do suffer in silence. Fatigue, weakness, nausea, brain fog, feeling emotionally drained, headaches, vomiting, and bloating were just some of the symptoms I had along with the gut-wrenching stomach pains. Even when getting cross-contaminated from eating out, one crumb can cause these symptoms to come back for days or even weeks at a time. It's a lot of pretending you're fine on the outside when you feel like you are dying on the inside. I refuse to miss out on life from this disease so I put on my face and keep moving forward.

Some people have no symptoms of this disease at all and are unfortunately left untreated, later developing other diseases or even cancers. If everyone was just a little more informed, we could stop so many people from getting sick!!

The ignorance of so many people on movies and television can hit me right in the heart. Making jokes or making fun of people who are "gluten-free"... I will never understand why people feel the need to bully people. Have some compassion people! This is not a made-up disease! And the "well, what can you eat?" statement is just ridiculous. I can make anything gluten-free with a little effort and it will taste better than your gluteny boxed garbage. It's just sad that people know so little about the foods they are putting into their bodies and the effects they can have. I really wish testing for Celiac Disease was done more often but from my experience with the doctors at my hospital, they are also ignorant to this disease. I had 5 different doctors tell me they didn't want to test me for it because "that's not what it is"... seriously.

I no longer have the ease of driving through a fast-food restaurant to pick up a meal, or stopping for a frozen pizza, or even having samples of food at the grocery store. I think your entire thought process has to change in order to embrace this disease, if that's ever really possible. I had to get rid of half of the food in my kitchen and even some of the appliances and cookware I used. I had to chuck some of my makeup, lipsticks, hair products, lotions, etc. Gluten is everywhere, not just food items. Events and outings can be very difficult as a Celiac. Going out to eat sucks (besides Twigs Restaurant) because of fear of cross-contamination or someone not knowing what they're doing. I'm still finding it the most difficult to go to the fair and smell the cheese-curds that I can no longer have. (If you want to tears well up behind my eyes, eat a cheese-curd in front of me.) 

The next hardest thing as a Celiac, would be trying to attend family functions or weddings and having to bring an entire meal to lug around with me. It seems to be easier than trying to explain cross-contamination issues or feel guilty for having people "cater" to my disease. That is one thing I will always tire from, is feeling so dang guilty over having this disease. Essentially, this is not my fault, I know...but having so few people really understand the disease is what makes it so difficult. I, thankfully, have some wonderful people in my life that have truly embraced me having this disease, who have really tried to learn what it is and what I need. (Thank you everyone who has done this for me! You know who you all are! xoxo). It really helps to have a support group to not feel so alone in this!

I will forever be grateful for this disease. It's true! I now am so much more knowledgeable of the foods I am feeding my family. I have also become a killer cook! Cooking is now my favorite hobby! I have finally found something that I have a talent for, something I was meant to do. I love the challenge of cooking now! I love figuring out how to make something gluten-free! I love starting something from scratch and really putting your soul into the foods you are making. I also love knowing exactly what I am eating since I now have to read labels.

So today I have successfully accomplished being gluten-free for two years and here's to...well, the rest of my gluten free life!

Tofu French Toast

Don't be discouraged thinking that this is some sort of "healthy" recipe because it's really not. At all. It is delicious though! They recently had an Udi's Hack-a-Thon that you could pick and choose between the ingredients they listed to create a recipe so here is what I created!
 

Tofu French Toast

 

Ingredients:

16 slices of Udi’s Millet-Chia Bread

4 ounces of tofu

4 cups of milk

2 cups Domata Living Flour

2 tablespoons of coconut shreds

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1 tablespoons of vanilla

4 tablespoons of butter

½ cup nut butter

¼ cup chocolate chips

 Directions

1. Combine tofu, milk, flour, coconut, cinnamon, and vanilla in a blender until smooth.

2. Put tofu mixture in a large bowl.

3. Take Udi’s Millet-Chia Bread and dip into the tofu mixture until covered on each side.

4. Melt butter in a pan and toast the bread on each side until golden brown, sprinkle with extra cinnamon if desired.

5. Meanwhile, two separate saucepans, melt the nut butter and the chocolate chips.

6. When bread is nice and toasted, slather on some of the nut butter and drizzle with the chocolate chip sauce for a wonderful topping to this delicious breakfast!

One-Pan "Stuffed Peppers"

I love stuffed peppers...but I didn't have any whole peppers to stuff nor did I want to have the hassle of making them. This was a simple way of getting the same flavor without all the work! I had the husband brown the ground beef before I got home, I added in everything needed, and let it simmer! Quick, easy, and healthy!

One-Pan "Stuffed Peppers"

Ingredients:

2 lbs hamburger

1 onion diced

1 bag frozen peppers, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minded

1 can diced tomatoes, with juice

2 cans beef broth

3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 cups rice

2 cups cheese

Salt, pepper, and any other seasonings for flavor you like

 

Directions:

-Brown hamburger in a large skillet with onion.

-When meat is done, add in the peppers and garlic.

-Add in tomatoes,beef broth, and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a boil.

-Add in rice and return to a boil.

-Simmer 20-30 minutes, until rice is done.

-Mix together with salt and pepper, add cheese, and serve!

Enjoy!