Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Chicken and Summer Squash

Summer here in northern Arizona means gardening, and yellow and zucchini squash are among our most prolific garden veggies! This recipe is a little complex, but worth the effort, for using your summer vegetables. If you have some stale bread cubes sitting around and some leftover chicken, it’s very simple to make!.

1 medium onion, chopped
1 stick butter or GF butter substitute
1 ½ T. GF flour blend
8 ounces of either low fat sour cream or low fat cream cheese
1¼ cup milk or half broth and half milk
2 pounds squash, thinly sliced on the side of a cheese grater


Approximately 6-8 cups of stale GF bread cubes
3 cups chopped chicken, cooked
Celery salt, garlic powder, toasted onion, thyme, sage, and marjoram, poultry seasoning, etc.
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion in two tablespoons of the butter. Stir in the flour and add the milk until the sauce thickens and comes to a low boil. Fold in sour cream or cream cheese until you have a thick, creamy sauce.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss in the sliced squash, and the chopped cooked chicken and set aside.

Melt remaining butter in large mixing bowl. Toss bread cubes* in the butter and add seasonings of your choice. The cubes should taste somewhat like stuffing when you are through merging the butter and spices and seasonings.

Assemble the casserole:
Oil a large casserole. Begin with a layer of the stuffing cubes on the bottom. Then layer the squash-sauce-chicken mixture, then the stuffing mixture again as a final topping layer. Bake at 350˚F for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

 *Notes: I used part of a loaf from Pamela’s Brand Bread Mix and it worked very well. Make sure the bread cubes are either stale or toast them ahead so they will be crunchy.

Makes: 8-10 servings.

For more recipes, check out my cookbook: Delicious! The Very Best of Gluten Free and Wheat Free Cooking

The cookbook is available at:

http://www.celiacdiseaseinfo.org   OR   http://amzn.com/B002GQ2ZJ

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Mexico City Style Enchiladas

An authentic Mexico City style enchilada that is fairly simple and lower in fat than many enchiladas. These are even better as leftovers!

12-24 corn tortillas
Vegetable oil for sautéing tortillas

Sauce:
6 T. GF chili powder
6 T. GF flour blend
2 t. cocoa powder
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. onion powder
Pinch of sugar, to taste
Salt to taste
1-2 t. oregano
1 t. cumin, optional
4-4½ cups water
8-12 ounces of tomato sauce or salsa

Filling:
   3 cups chicken, cooked and shredded, or cooked ground turkey*
   2 T. chopped green onions
   4-8 ounces of low fat sour cream

Topping:
2 cups grated low fat cheese (cheddar-jack works well)
Sliced olives

Preheat oven to 350 ˚F.

Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl. Stirring constantly, slowly add enough of the water to make a thick paste. Pour the thickened sauce into a saucepan and add the remainder of the water.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens; about 15 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce and bring to a second thickening. Sauce should now be the consistency of gravy. Set aside and allow to cool.

Briefly sauté the corn tortillas in a small amount of vegetable oil and set aside.

Toss chicken with 2 T. chopped green onions and 4-8 ounces of sour cream.

Dip tortillas into the enchilada sauce, (reserving enough extra sauce for topping the enchiladas later) then fold enough of the filling into the sautéed tortillas to fill them, but so that the enchiladas roll up nicely.

Place the filled and rolled enchiladas into an oiled casserole or 9 x 13 baking pan. Top with the reserved sauce, grated cheese and sliced olives if desired. You may have some extra sauce leftover. Because the sauce in this recipe is low fat, you may choose to use extra sauce so the enchiladas do not dry out.

Bake at 350˚F  for approximately 30 minutes or until bubbly. Do not over cook the casserole or the tortillas will dry out.

Notes
: *You may prefer to just fill the enchiladas with 2 more cups of grated cheese instead of the chicken.
Makes: 12-24 enchiladas.

This recipe is from my cookbook: Delicious! The Very Best of Gluten Free and Wheat Free Cooking

My cookbook is available at:



http://www.celiacdiseaseinfo.org      OR at Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Delicious-Cooking-Collection-Celiacs-Sensitive/dp/0615305709/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282852260&sr=1-1

Monday, July 12, 2010

Strawberry Trifle



Change out the fruits that are used in this gluten free trifle to create a very special dessert year round and with what fruit is available and in season. Vary the liquor by using sherry, rum, amaretto, and even more exotic liquors like Tuaca… and as in this case, honey liquor. It’s fresh, colorful and fruity…for any holiday or season!

1 quart or about 4 cups of strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced
¼ cup of sugar
16 ounce carton of whipping cream
10 ounce jar of strawberry preserves
1 package Pamela’s pound cake or Betty Crocker GF yellow cake*
8 ounces of low fat sour cream
½ cup liquor of choice
1 bottle of GF strawberry ice cream topping, optional
Slivered or sliced almonds for garnish

Make the cake in advance. I prefer baking the cake in an approximately 10 x 13 inch sheet cake pan. When ready to use, break apart cooled cake into cubes.

Mix the strawberries with sugar, cover and allow to macerate in the refrigerator for an hour or so. Whip the whipped cream in a large bowl until it holds stiff peaks and mix in the sour cream on low speed.  (Adding the sour cream is optional, however, it does add more of a crème fraiche richness to the trifle.) Fold the jar of strawberry preserves into a separate bowl with a little over one half of the cream mixture.

Place half the cake cubes in a large glass bowl or trifle dish. Drizzle one half of the liquor over the cake cubes. If using, drizzle about 4 tablespoons strawberry ice cream topping over the cake. Now spoon half the berries and accumulated juices over the cake. Spread half of the berry preserves with whipped topping mixture over the berries. Repeat the layers again, beginning with the cake cubes, the remaining liquor, roughly four more tablespoons of the strawberry ice cream topping, the remaining strawberries, the other half of the preserves mixed with whipped cream... and end with the plain whipped cream (that doesn’t have the preserves mixed in) and the almonds for garnish.

Refrigerate the trifle for up to 4 hours. Take care not to allow the trifle to sit more than a few hours, or it will over macerate and become too soft and mushy.

Makes: 8 servings.

*Add 1 extra egg if using Betty Crocker yellow cake mix to create a “pound” cake.

For more recipes, check out my cookbook: Delicious! The Very Best of Gluten Free and Wheat Free Cooking

The cookbook is available at:

http://www.celiacdiseaseinfo.org   
OR 
http://amzn.com/B002GQ2ZJ


 ( Amazon.com)