A simple Loaf

I've had this box in my baking cupboard for a while now, sense the cinnamon raisin bread (which was only half eaten before needing to be tossed) I haven't felt like making bread. And if I did It was going to be used in my smaller loaf pan or even my cupcake pan. But with this meal planning thing I'm finding myself in need of full size slices, so I grabbed the box and began.

 I have to say upfront that I was not impressed with the instructions (unless your using a bread maker, they put more time into explaining that method), but with common sense it's easy enough.

It had to sit and rise so I busied  myself with another cooking project (baking eggs instead of boiling, more on that later)  Once it was baking it made my entire apartment smell like bread-y heaven and when it was done cooking, oh man it looked beautiful, it was so hard not to cut into it right then and there.

Once it cooled I made a sandwich for dinner and paired the rest of the slices, separated them with foil and put them in a freezer bag for later use. The bread was dense and chewy with the crumbly top, it was close to the french bread my mother would make from scratch when I was little.

I used some for toast the other morning, just went from freezer to toaster just fine (it took a bit longer to toast then the store bought GF bread that I used to keep in the freezer). All in all I was happy with the results, next time I'll have to use it as pizza crust and see how it turns out!

My first go at meal planning

With money getting tight around here I looked at my finances to see where I could cut back, the three big ones were, eating out, grocery's, and gas.  I had already been watching my gas so that one couldn't be helped much but the other two, I knew I could do something about. I sat myself down and looked at  anything to do with pre-made meals, freezer meals, crock-pot meals, meal planning etc. I was over loaded with information and ideas and was running out of time (my kitchen was empty!)  I wrote down things I would like to make and what ingredients they all would need and even tried to  plan what days I would eat them (Ha! like that happened) Looking back I was a little overwhelmed and rushed (all of which I did to myself) but I planned the next two weeks of breakfast, lunches and dinners and went to work.
First I'll share my menu.

Breakfast could be anyone of the following; Oatmeal, Quinoa porridge, breakfast sandwiches, homemade pop-tart, or a breakfast shake.

Lunch Items were either a salad, or stir-fry  and on weekends it was either clam chowder or split pea soup.

Dinner menu sounded like this;
Beef stroganoff with roasted zucchini.
Meatloaf with Dijon roasted potatoes and green beans.
Burrito pie (your typical burrito ingredients but assembled like a lasagna , so I could use corn tortillas)
Orange chicken, rice and broccoli
Chicken pot pie
Lemon baked chicken with mushroom and asparagus risotto
Honey mustard chicken with salad
Shepherds pie
Honey sesame chicken, rice, and broccoli
Meatloaf with mash potatoes and green beans
Chicken pot pie
And on Saturday nights we would have whatever soup was made for the weekend and a salad.

Snack options were; Frozen yogurt drops, homemade chicken toquitos, peanut butter granola bars, a protein shake, meatballs, and fruit.

Sounds like a yummy menu right? Well some of these are tired and true recipes I've always loved and others, well the others were awesome ideas I thought I'd try. Some of those awesome ideas didn't turn out (the toquitos) or I was so burned out making all of this stuff that I never got around to making it(the pop tarts). Some however turned out and I will be using them again someday, like the burrito pie or the frozen yogurt drops.

I didn't get to the store until the late afternoon and once I got home I prepped all my meat, and there was a lot of it. Most went into the fridge and I didn't cook or assemble most of the meals until the next day, and it took me ALL day.






Mr.Beam was happy to see and smell all the food and I tried stacking it on my counter for you to see it all but all the salads  and stir-fry's were in bags and look a little lost. It was a LOT of food that I carefully crammed into my small fridge and freezer.

This was everything that needed to be in the freezer and  I almost didn't have room for it all! the burrito pie was thankfully in the fridge for the next day or I don't know what I would of done.

 I will slowly share each of these recipes with you (at least the successful ones) at a later time. But I will not ever take on that big of a project in that short amount of time again. I can see repeating a lot of these meals for my winter menu but now that its summer this meal planning thing is easier, I'll share with you how much easier in a later post, until then here is the cost break down for each meal


Beef Stroganoff: $2.34 a serving
Meatloaf: $1.25 a serving
Burrito pie: $1.01 a serving
Orange chicken: $1.46
Chicken Pot Pie; $1.06 a serving (6 servings in a pie tin)
Lemon chicken: $1.90 a serving
Honey mustard chicken: $1.96 a serving
Clam chowder: $0.80 a serving (should feed 8)
Split pea soup $0.58 a serving (should feed 8)
Lunch salads $1.38 for 2
Dinner salads $1.55 for 2
Stir-fry $1.57  for 2+  (the + means there was so much it could easily feed an extra person or two)
Roasted Zucchini $0.93 for 2+
Dijon roasted potatoes $0.93 for 3+
Broccoli $0.24 for 2
Mushroom Asparagus risotto $1.11 serving
Sesame honey chicken $1.07 serving
Breakfast sandwiches $1.27 a serving.


Breaking it down this way defiantly help show Mr. Beam just how much we can save eating at home verses eating out. I also did all my shopping at one store which I won't do next time, I'll bargain shop next time to help bring down the prices :)

Orange chicken

Mr. Beam loves eating at panda express, I on the other hand cannot (and before I was gluten free I tried it three different times and got food poisoning all three times, No thank you)  He raves about how much he loves the orange chicken and how he wishes I could go there with him. So when preparing my planned meals I looked for a gluten free orange chicken recipe.  http://glutenfreeinslc.blogspot.com/2010/03/gluten-free-panda-orange-chicken-when.html

For under $4 I was able to make this for Mr. Beam and myself. (the chicken, rice and broccoli)

 It tasted amazing (although I added a little to much ginger to my sauce). There were no leftovers and our bellies were very happy indeed.



 I am now in the process of finding a sesame beef/chicken recipe that I can convert to Gluten free using the method from the orange chicken.

Restaurant review

My list of restaurants that I can dine at is currently quite small. I can always go in someplace and see if anything they serve is gluten free or possibly safe for me to eat, sure, but I always eat feeling nervous about if gluten has gotten into my food one way or another.

None of the Thai  places around here use gluten free soy sauce, so I haven't had Thai in a while. I stopped eating sushi after I found out if they use imitation crab I could be ingesting gluten. I have 3 sushi places within reasonable driving distance of my neighborhood, two of which I was not impressed with, the ingredients were poor and I left feeling gross, even avoiding rolls with crab (And I don't ever dip my sushi in sauce). But last  night Mr.beam wanted to treat me. I had been stuck in the house far to long and needed the outing.

We were going to try the third sushi place,  Mio Sushi had  been around for months in the corner of a building we had to drive by to go to  Mr. Beams mothers, I was always curious to try it as the last 4 business's to rent that corner quickly went out of business and this place seemed to thrive. Unlike the other sushi place's this one was not dominated by a sushi bar, It had a bright and clean feeling, we were seated and given our menus, two menus each. One was a  tri-fold menu of all there items (from sushi to soup and salad to bento) while the other one was two sided with pictures and laminated. We were given a wet erase marker for the laminated menu, which featured there sushi selection, a description of what was in it and price, along with a blank box for you to write the quantity you wanted. I got very excited when I saw that they specifically put that they used REAL crab (and the prices reflected it as well, I don't mind paying for quality as long as I get what I pay for) and they stated that ALL there sauces were made with gluten free soy sauce (with 3 exceptions, which came with gluten noodles or tempura anyway!)

 Ordering was prompt, friendly, and respectful, answering all of our questions. The prices are very reasonable (the more seafood you have in the roll the more expensive it is) We stuck with what we knew and usually like, we shared an order of Ichi (crab, cucumber, shrimp, & sweet chili sauce, topped with peanuts) rolls, I got an Alaska (crab, cream cheese, cucumber, & sesame seeds) roll and Mr. Beam got a double crunch  (spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, crab, avocado, &sweet sauce) roll. Everything was delicious and I felt so satisfied afterwards. It has defiantly earned its spot on my approved dining out list :)

http://www.miosushi.com/

Quinoa pesto

 I was home alone (which hardly happens anymore) and feeling a little lazy for dinner. I wanted pesto but had no pasta! I grumbled about making my own while I  picked through the cupboards looks for something to spark my interest, what I found was my box of Quinoa.  I've been trying to eat healthier and while the Quinoa cooked I rummaged through the fridge to find what else I could toss in with it.

I had some asparagus and spinach that needed to be used so I brought it to the cutting board and prepped.
I don't buy pine nuts because they are way to expensive so I finely chopped some walnuts instead and I also chopped my garlic and fresh basil. When the Quinoa was done I tossed all of it together with some olive oil in the pan the Quinoa had cooked in and put the lid on it. After a few minutes the spinach had wilted and I dished up, topping with some Parmesan cheese.

Not the best pictures but hey, at least I'm remembering to take them :) I loved this Pesto and will be doing it again, hopefully Mr. Beam will like it as much as I did.

Size matters when baking

 I have one of my kitchen cabinets stuffed full of gluten free flours, mixes, and other baking necessities. I realized after making the gluten free raisin cinnamon bread that neither I or Mr. Beam eat a lot of bread anymore.  It's always to much for us to eat before it goes bad or in the case of the cinnamon bread, half eaten then forgotten until it was harder than a rock :(


 It could just be flavored bread that gets this kind of neglect or it's just the fact that I'm getting absent minded in the kitchen as of late. I remember when I would make a loaf of  GF bread and it would be gone  before the next day. I would make sandwiches, toast, bread pudding, croutons and even bread crumbs out of it.



After this wasted cinnamon bread I didn't want to bake anything else, almost like a punishment I guess. I didn't want to waste anymore of my precious  ingredients in the baking cupboard, if you bake gluten free you know that this stuff isn't cheap. Size matters, I now have tiny baking pans for personal loafs of  bread or I use my cupcake pan and don't pull out the big pan unless I need sandwich bread size loaves. It was a hard lesson to learn but one everyone should realize at some point.

P.S. The cinnamon bread was delicious (I'm not a fan of raisins and I even liked it) I will be making this again for Mr. beam but definitely in the smaller pans :)

An Easy Breakfast

Breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day, but lately I'm so sluggish in the morning I don't feel awake enough to make anything and settle for a handful of almonds until I'm extremely hungry  which can happen from 40 minutes to two  hours later. It's bad I know but some days I cannot help it. When I began researching for planning my meals I stumbled on a recipe for making your own breakfast sandwiches and freezing them. http://www.theyummylife.com/Egg_McMuffin

 I got pre-made Gluten free bread for mine and I used blueberry English muffins for Mr. Beams (they smell like heaven). I used cheddar cheese and Canadian bacon and I got extra eggs from my parents (I love farm fresh eggs!)

I did not read the up-date on their website about cooking the eggs, so the first time I made them my eggs were small and a little deformed, but they worked. I made these again recently and used my creme brule containers as well as a few of their other tips and the eggs turned out better.

While my eggs cook in the oven I slice the cheese and toast my bread (if your only going to reheat them in the oven you don't need to toast if before hand, but I suggest it for when reheating in the microwave for the bread to have a better flavor and texture)

When the eggs are done I start assembling them...

(this picture was from my very first batch when the eggs were really small and thick, after using the other pans and breaking the yolk before cooking the eggs fit much better)

When they were all assembled I wrapped them individually in wax paper and stacked them in a cheap foil baking dish and covered them with foil so they would stay nice and tidy in my freezer.
After breaking it down each sandwich cost me roughly $1.27. If I needed to make more than a dozen I could probably buy in bulk and reduce the price even more, but with just me and Mr. Beam 6 sandwiches each is perfect :)