Breakfast success! 

Brent changed things up a bit this weekend with his crepe recipe!  He made an awesome breakfast, thanks to Food and Wine and the recipe posted by Recipes.com.  His bacon turned out great, nice and crispy (but not burnt) just the way Jaxon and I like it!  Oh, and he even made Jaxon his own gluten free crepes again…although these aren’t quite as easy as regular crepes, Jaxon is in heaven every weekend when he sees his Dad making breakfast.

I highly recommend this recipe, doesn't it look awesome!  It was a nice change to our regular “crepes and strawberries” that have become a weekly tradition in our house!  Brent said that next time he needs to double the yogurt sauce, and double or even triple the raspberry sauce so I definitely recommend you take that into consideration when you make this recipe.

Gluten Free Crepes...
Brent followed the same Crepe recipe, but he uses Bob's Red Mills All Purpose Gluten Free Flour.

Are you ever having one of those Monday’s when you get busy doing all the random things you didn’t do over the weekend and then feel like you need to make a quick meal since you already ordered pizza a few nights ago?  Well, today was one of those days in the Tschikof house.  I was trying to put laundry away, drive the boys to school, pick them  up, take them to speech, go to the doctor myself, clean up the playroom (wait, that shouldn’t be my job) and when I finally looked at the clock it was almost four and I hadn’t even thought about dinner yet!  
 
I knew Brent was on his way home so I needed to do something quick, but gluten free, healthy and tasty. My usual “go-to” quick meals include, taco’s, meatloaf, breakfast for dinner, sour cream enchilada’s, or soup and sandwiches…none of this was sounding good tonight.  Luckily I had bought some penne pasta the other day with the idea of making baking ziti for Brent (he really likes baked ziti and I haven’t ever made it).  Let me tell ya, this meal was quick, easy, and good! 
Here is how I did it…

1 pound ground beef (browned and drained…I don’t like any grease on mine)
½ - 3/4 box of penne pasta cooked and drained.
1 recipe for homemade spaghetti sauce (You can definitely use a jar if you don’t want to make sauce. I like to make a batch of sauce and freeze it so I have it when I need it.)
4 oz. of cream cheese
1 – 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella cheese (I used about ½ cup of Muenster and ½ cup mozzarella because I needed to use up my Muenster cheese).  
1 Tbs Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper
 
Ok, here is what you do…
Cook the ground beef and set aside.  Boil the pasta, then drain, then add the cream cheese and stir on low until it is mostly melted, add the spaghetti sauce and seasonings, then add 1 cup of cheese and stir until it is mostly melted.  Put in a baking dish (I used a pampered chef dish so it didn’t need sprayed) and then sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese.  I baked mine on 350 for about 20 minutes.  Serve with some garlic bread or crusty Italian bread. 

For Gluten Free, you can do all of the following except use gluten free pasta instead of regular pasta. I used gluten free elbow noodles for this recipe.

My Homemade Spaghetti Sauce… GLUTEN FREE
2 pounds ground beef (browned) (I like to add ½ an onion and a little garlic as my beef is browning)
1 16 oz. box of Imagine brand Tomato soup (this is gluten free, but you should always check the box to make sure)
2 cans of diced tomatoes
2 cans of tomato sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ tsp. basil
¼ tsp thyme
¼ tsp oregano

Mix all ingredients together and let simmer on low for about an hour.  You can also put it in the Crockpot and cook on low for about 4 hours.  Make sure to stir the sauce so it doesn’t stick or burn.

I have never been a fan of big breakfasts on the weekends unless I am the one doing the cooking…only because my husband tends to use every pan/dish in the kitchen (is this normal or just something my husband does?) and then it takes me all morning to clean it up.  Don't get me wrong, I don’t mind doing the cleaning when he does the cooking because he is very good about doing the cleaning when I do the cooking, but I try to do some cleaning as I cook so he doesn’t have too many dishes.  We usually have plans on the weekends and I am in too much of a hurry to spend time cleaning.  However, lately I have been trying to relax, and seize the day more often so I have given in to his new Saturday morning tradition of fixing homemade crepes and bacon.  Ok, so it has only been two weeks in a row, but he is going to make it a tradition…especially since Jaxon told him he made the best breakfast ever, and that he was the best dad ever!

Anyway, I thought I would share some pictures with y’all since he did such a great job this weekend. He made regular crepes for us and gluten free crepes for Jaxon.  I will have to say that the bacon didn’t make it to the table… I think being in charge of too many things at once was a little overwhelming for him.  I started the bacon and he said, “go sit down honey and let me do this…” against my better judgment I did what he said…and here is our breakfast!

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour (We used Bob's Red Mills Gluten Free All Purpose Flour for Jaxon's)
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the  milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly. 

Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.

Fried Rice
2 Cups Rice (cook as directed)
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup chopped carrots
1 small onion chopped
¼ cup soy sauce (can use GF!)
2 eggs slightly beaten
3 Tbs Sesame Oil (I used grapeseed oil)

Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok.  Add the peas, carrots, and onion.  (You can add chicken, pork, cashews, pineapple, any variation of things.) Stir fry vegetables until soft. Push the veggies off to one side and add the eggs, let cook for a minute and then stir it all together.  Add the rice and soy sauce and mix well.  Cook until heated throughout.  **If you are doing pineapple and cashews, you want to add a little ginger**

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken
3-4 Boneless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Cup cornstarch
2 eggs slightly beaten
¼ cup canola oil

Sauce
¾ cup sugar
4 Tbs ketchup
½ cup rice vinegar (can use GF white vinegar)
1 Tbs soy sauce (can use GF)
½ Tsp garlic salt

Preheat oven to 325, and heat ¼ cup oil in a skillet.  Cut chicken into bite size pieces and season with salt and pepper.  Put the corn starch in either a large ziplock bag or a bowl. Coat the chicken with corn starch and then dip the pieces into the beaten egg.  Flash fry your chicken pieces until brown but not completely done. Put the chicken pieces in a baking dish. Mix the sauce ingredients; you might need to heat the sauce to make the sugar dissolve so I use a glass dish to mix it in. 
Pour the sauce over the chicken coating it completely.  If you have left over sauce you can save it to put on the chicken after it is cooked.

Pulled Pork Tacos and Spanish Rice

1 pork roast
1 can rotel (you can use salsa, spicy rotel, mild rotel, or chilis in adobo sauce)
Shake or two of salt and pepper
Cook roast on high for 4 hours and then turn down to low and cook for another 5-6 hours until it will pull apart with a fork.
Once the pork is cooked, take it out and put it in a bowl or on a cutting board, shred the pork. Strain the rotel or salsa (not the
chilies if you used those) and set aside for rice.

Spanish Rice
1-2 cups of cooked rice (depending on how many people you are feeding)
1 can tomato sauce
Strained rotel or salsa
Put all ingredients in a frying pan and cook on low until heated through, you can add garlic, salt and pepper to taste.
Pico de gallo
2-3 tomatoes diced
1 avocado diced
1 lime cut in half (squeeze juice from both sides)
Handful of cilantro chopped
½  jalapeno chopped (you can use more if you want it spicy)
1/8 cup of diced red onion

Mix all together and add a little salt.
Serve with soft corn, hard shell, or soft shell taco’s!

 Enjoy!!

Ok, so another AWESOME recipe, with an easy GF option!  

Chicken enchiladas have always been a staple in our houes, but thanks to Joyful Mamma’s Kitchen (a fellow pinner) I have found a recipe that is easily made gluten free and doesn’t contain any “condensed soup” which makes me even happier!

 Here is the recipe… (Found at http://www.joyful-mommas-kitchen.blogspot.com/2011/09/white-chicken-enchiladas.html)


GF Option

 Use Bob’s gluten free all purpose flour (or your favorite GF flour) instead of regular flour.
 Use corn tortillas or brown rice tortilla’s instead of flour tortillas.

 AND THAT IS IT, you will have a wonderful GF dinner!!

I hit the jackpot tonight! Jaxon was in heaven while he devoured his gluten free chocolate chip sundae!  Thank you to Immaculate Baking Company for inventing a quick and easy gluten free cookie dough! Having homemade gluten free cookies are ideal, but sometimes I need something quick that I can serve Jaxon when everyone else is having a treat!  These are great for keeping in the freezer and sending to school when I am told at the last minute that someone is having a birthday party!

Our next experiment with these cookies will be ice cream sandwiches made with coconut milk ice cream…can you say DELICIOUS!  Now if only they would add more items to their gluten free inventory!  I have made these for play dates and
the kids do not even notice the difference!  I got my cookie dough at Target, but I have seen them at Whole Foods, Publix, and even online!  Pick some up and enjoy!  Check out a few other gluten free recipes in the August Feed of my blog at www.autismdeal.com/blog.html  ...