Crispy Carrot Fries

Crispy Carrot Fries

I came across these Crispy Sweet Potato Fries on Pinterest, but had no sweet potatoes on hand. I actually have very little on hand for dinner side options on this particular day but I had some carrots.  So I'm not sure why but I decided to make Carrot Fries using the method from The Art of Doing Stuff that she used on her sweet potato fries.  

First I peeled and cut up  my carrots into french fries and placed them in a bowl of salt water.

Put some cornstarch in a paper bag, drop the carrot fries in and shake thill they are all coated.

Spread out on a sheet of parchment paper and drizzle with olive oil.

 Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, check if they are crispy enough, if not, bake a few more minutes.

The carrot fries were pretty good, they reminded me of sweet potato fries, in that carrots are also kinda sweet.  I think I would prefer to just have sweet potato fries....or regular fries because I love french fries, BUT if you are looking for something new to do with carrots as a side dish, it definitely was a good alternative and will probably do it again sometime.  Normally we just eat carrot sticks raw or diced up and in a stir fry.  Definitely pop over and check out the crispy sweet potato fries post from The Art of Doing Stuff, her photos are awesome and those sweet potato fries look bomb!  I can't wait to try it next time I get some sweet potatoes!

Leftover Turkey?

Have any Leftover Turkey from the holidays?  We got a free turkey from my husband's office that was like 25 pounds and between the two of us and 2 little ones (one who won't even touch it), and being that our turkey was pretty well cooked (if you saw my last post, we slacked on Christmas, took naps all afternoon and got a dry turkey).  Anyways, so what to do with those rather dry turkey leftovers?

Yesterday I made Turkey Tetrazinni for my husband.  I found some recipes on AllRecipes and ended up doing a mix of the Turkey Tetrazzini II and Chicken or Turkey Tetrazzini.


For my daughter and I, I needed something gluten free and dairy free (I doubt she would have eaten the tetrazinni even if it was gluten free anyways) so we made turkey noodle soup with gluten free animal noodles.  It's Super simple, just poured gluten free chicken broth in the pot, added some mixed frozen vegetables, a bunch of turkey chopped up small and lastly, the gluten free farm animal noodles.

These noodles are great by the way, it's not always easy to find good gluten free noodles that the kids will enjoy and these are good, made with vegetables, are fun and my daughter always is excited to have them.  My 20 month old on the other hand....I have YET to get a noodle in his mouth of any kind!  No matter how we try it, he is determined to never touch one....He is a picky eater visually AND he refuses to eat anything we give him...we have to put food we think he might eat somewhere in his line of sight, casually without actually giving it to him or saying anything about it and wait for him to notice it, then we can say "Oh you want this? you sure?' then we can give it to him without him freaking out and acting like we are trying to force it down his throat! lol!  (they say payback is a b!@#$...I was a super picky eater the same way growing up and drove my parents crazy).

Anyways, next on the menu that we can all eat will be Turkey and Rice Soup.  Other years I have made Turkey Enchiladas with a cream sauce.  Another option to use up small amounts of leftover turkey or taco meat is to make quesadillas.  I like to put a little oil in the frying pan then use corn tortillas, add shredded cheese, leftover meat and top with another corn tortilla, fry about 2 minutes on both sides, then place on a paper towel and serve with franks hot sauce.  

After the Turkey and Rice soup, if there is anything else left...too bad....we will be turkey-ed out and I have sliders and fries on the menu!!!

PS- Thanks everyone who voted for my embarrassing stories over at Wanna Be Balanced!  Crystal just told me I won the personal microderm system!!!! YAY I AM SOOO EXCITED! THANK YOU!!!  I'll be sure to let you all know how it works and if it helps!  I've recently started getting the worst acne of my life!  I didn't break out this much in high school! UGH!  Crystal, I really appreciate you doing this awesome contest/giveaway!  I love your blog it's always so fun, interesting, inspiring and educational!!! :)

Pan-Fried Kielbasa and Caramelized Onion Rice Cakes

Pan Fried Kielbasa and Caramelized Onion Rice Cakes

Two nights ago we made stuffed bell peppers and had a bunch of left over rice.  Yesterday we made sliders (mini hamburgers topped with caramelized onions) and we had a bunch of the caramelized onions left over.  I had seen the recipe for pan fried shrimp rice cakes in the Cooking For Isaiah book which gave me this idea, although I made these completely different, that is where I got the idea.  After trying the first batch of fried rice cakes, I decided to add some Tamari to the mixture and that added a really nice touch.

What You'll Need

~ 2 cups cooked rice (we like Jasmine Rice)

~ 1/2 cup chopped Kielbasa

~1/2 cup diced caramelized onions

1/2 tsp salt

little pepper

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1-2 Tablespoons Tamari (a WAY tastier alternative to soy sauce)

Chop up some Kielbasa

Dice up your caramelized onions

to make caramelized onions, just chop up an onion and saute in vegetable oil over med-high till onions turn golden brown, stirring occasionally

Add the Kielbasa, onion, salt, pepper, beaten eggs and tamari to cooked rice and stir together.

Add some vegetable oil (and I likeadd a tablespoon of coconut oil because it has a higher cooking temperature) to a medium size skillet and heat over medium/medium/high heat.  When oil starts to sizzle, use a tablespoon and spoon the mixture into the pan, creating a mound and then use the spoon to flatten out your rice cake a bit. 

Let the rice cake cook for about 2 minutes or until golden brown on bottom and then flip over and repeat til golden brown on both sides. 

Remove from frying pan and set on paper towel covered cooling rack and then start the next batch.

If bits and pieces of rice start to burn in pan after making a few fried rice cakes, try to scrape out the burning pieces with a spoon or just dump out the oil, wipe clean and then start again with fresh oil. 

You could also leave out the Tamari sauce from the recipe and then use the Tamari as dipping sauce when eating.

ENJOY!

Gluten Free "KFC" Popcorn Chicken

Gluten Free "KFC" Popcorn Chicken

aka  gluten free Chicken Nuggets

No there isn't really gluten free fried chicken at KFC (not that I know of!) but I have this recipe for mock "KFC" chicken seasoning in my family cookbook that my aunt put together one year for our family reunion so here it is, but made into gluten free chicken nuggets.  My daughter was very happy to have chicken nuggets once again, the first time in months.

Gluten Free "KFC" Chicken Seasoning Mix

1 Tbsp salt (I like kosher)

1 Cup gluten free all-purpose flour blend (like silvana's or gluten free cooking school or bob's red mill)

1 Tbsp pepper

2 Tbsp paprika

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1/2 Tbsp mustard powder

1/2 Tbsp fresh thyme

1/2 Tbps basil 

1/2 tsp oregano 1/3 Tbsp ginger

(I don't always have every single ingredient, that's fine, just use this as a base)

Take 2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts and cut into bite size pieces

In a large frying pan, add about 1/2 inch oil and heat over medium-high.

Mix all ingredients together in medium size bowl.

In another medium size bowl, break two eggs and slightly beat them.

Place chicken pieces into bowl with slightly beaten eggs and toss to coat.

Using a fork, transfer chicken pieces to flour mixture and toss/stir to coat pieces evenly with seasoning.

Space the gluten free chicken nuggets around the frying pan/sauce pan in a single layer and cook till golden crisp on one side, then flip over...about 5-7 minutes total.  Adjust your temperature if you notice chicken nuggets are browning too fast or not cooking fast enough.  When you think they look done, pick out the largest one and cut open with a knife to make sure it is cooked all the way through (no pink!).  Work in batches.

Remove chicken nuggets from heat and place on paper towel lined cooling racks.

ENJOY!

Serve with russet potatoes cut up into french fries, coated lightly with oil and baked on parchment paper at 450 til crispy, then sprinkled with kosher salt and paprika.

Ps- These chicken nuggets make great left-overs...hubby loves to eat them cold out of the fridge the next day

Be sure to enter my current giveaway!  See previous post or click on the giveaway tab up top!

Yummy Roasted Veggies

Roasted Potatoes, Onions and Peppers

So this is my new favorite side dish this summer!  Anytime I can eat potatoes at dinner and not have my husband tease me about how "a bunch of french fries are not a real meal" (he also says this about popcorn and cereal! Seriously??!!! lol)  So anyways, these are really good and are definitely part of a "real meal".  Just slice up some potatoes between 1/4-1/2 inch thick, slice up some vidalia onions (love Walla Wallas) and some red bell peppers.  Place in a large bowl and toss with olive oil.  Cover your baking sheet with parchment paper (no trying to scrape up the food and having it rip apart!) and spread out your veggies then sprinkle with kosher salt.  Bake at 450 until crisp and roasted.  I made these again at my moms house for everyone during out visit this past month using fresh potatoes out of her garden and it was amazing!  This dish is easy and just makes me happy :) I like to serve this with grilled honey dijon lemon chicken! 

Grilled Honey Dijon Lemon Chicken w/ Grilled Onion and Potato Slabs

Grilled Potato Slabs and Vidalia Onions

Tonight's dinner inspiration came from my new cookbook (yes as you can tell from my last couple of posts I've been enjoying it!) Cooking for Isaiah.  One of the meals in the book was Grilled Chicken with Potato Slabs, you can actually view this recipe yourself on her website Silvanas Kitchen.  However, I made my own marinade, mixing olive oil, dijon mustard, honey and some lemon juice in a bowl, whisking it together and then putting it in a ziplock bag with 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts and letting them marinate about 30 minutes in the fridge while I got the charcoal grill ready.  I made the potatoe slabs as Silvana does and decided to slice up a vadalia onion, brush with olive oil and grill as well.  We have the tiniest grill, it's a portable charcoal grill so we can only fit so much on it at a time.  The chicken cooked first and turned out really good, I just love that smokey flavor you get from the briquettes.  However, we were all so hungry, that when I took the chicken off and put the potatoes and onions on the grill, we ate the chicken right away then ate the rest of the meal later when it was done.  My tip is to take those soft grilled onions, they will fall apart when you pick them up and then place those yummy onions on top of the potato slabs...trust me!  My mouth is watering with that left over smokey flavor in my mouth and it's making me want more even though I feel so full!!!  ALL IN ALL....A super mouthwateringly good BBQ dinner! mmmmmmm......

Easy Go-To Gluten Free Dinner

 

We love Peppers and Onions!

We are pretty busy most weeknights and like to eat healthy dinners that are fast and easy.  Often we will cook a bunch of chicken early in the week and then eat it throughout the week in different ways to save time,  This is one of our favorite go to dinners that is really tasty, refreshing, and gluten and dairy free!

Peppers, Onion, Chicken and Rice dish

4 bell peppers (a combo of at least 2 colors)

1 yellow onion

olive oil

Jasmine Rice

Cooked Chicken, cut up in smaller pieces

1 lemon

• Dice the bell peppers and onions. (I usually do this earlier in the day so dinner making time goes super fast) 
• Cook Rice like THIS
• While rice is cooking, in a large frying pan, sautee bell peppers and onion until tender.
• When Rice is finished, add to the bell pepper mixture along with cut up cooked chicken.  
• Cut a lemon in half and squeeze both halves of the lemon over the entire mixture.  Toss together and serve with salt and pepper.

If the chicken and veggies are prepped before, this dinner will be ready in a little over 20 minutes.

Dinner - Spaghetti Carbonara

Tired of boring spaghetti for dinner? If you are like us, we eat a LOT of pasta...it's fast, easy, cheap, convienient and we always have plenty in the pantry. However, my hubby was getting tired of the same old same old so he (my sexy chef) went over to Video Jug, a website he uses often for inspiration when cooking. He found this great How to Make Spaghetti Carbonara video with the recipe and instructions. It's still a rather quick meal, but is something a little extra rich and special than your ordinary pasta diner!

ENJOY!

Spaghetti Carbonara
by Videojug

Step 1 :You will need…
7 oz dried spaghetti 2 tbsp olive oil 6 bacon slices, chopped 2 egg yolks 1 ¼ oz parmesan cheese 4 tbsp cream salt and pepper 2 tbsp parsley, chopped 2 saucepans 1 wooden spoon 1 colander 1 bowl 1 spoon Step 2: Cook the pasta Prepare a pan of boiling water and season with salt. Place the pasta into the pan and push it down with your wooden spoon, so that all the spaghetti is submerged under the water. Add half of the oil and cook for roughly 7-10 minutes. Step 3: Render the bacon Meanwhile, into a warmed second pan add the olive oil, then the chopped bacon. Stir and let it render, stirring for a few minutes. To render simply means to melt the fat. Then turn the heat off. Step 4: Combine the egg yolks, parmesan and cream Place the egg yolks into a bowl, then the cream and the parmesan cheese. Combine it all together. Step 5: Drain the pasta When the pasta is cooked, transfer it into a colander, then place the colander back on top of the saucepan to drain the excess liquid. Step 6: Cook the egg mixture Once the pasta is thoroughly drained, quickly place it back into the pan of bacon fat and stir well to coat the pasta. Then pour in the egg mixture and mix thoroughly. VIDEOJUG TIP It is very important to use the warmth of the pasta to cook the egg yolks. But do not overheat as you'll end up with scrambled egg

Step 7: Serve

After mixing thoroughly, season with salt and pepper and add the chopped parsley. Use the tongs to place a generous helping onto each plate.