NEW BLOG

Hello everyone!!!

Please follow my new blog at scratchthegluten.wordpress.com!!! 100% gluten free recipes!

xo

giana

Pork Chops with Mushrooms

What you will need:

1 tsp butter

4 bone-in pork chops | 1 inch thick

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/4 cup scallions | chopped

1 cup of low sodium chicken broth

10 oz sliced baby bella mushrooms

1 tbsp honey dijon

2 tbsp fresh parsley | chopped

In a large frying pan heat the butter over  low heat. Season pork with salt & pepper. Add the chops to the pan and sauté for 7 minutes, raising the heat. Turn and cook until chops are browned and done to medium, about 7-8 minutes longer. Remove the chops and keep in a warm spot.

Add scallions to the pan & cook for about 2 minutes. Add the stock to deglaze the pan, then stir in the dijon, 1 tbsp parsley and mushrooms | cook for about 3 minutes.

Put the chops on a platter  & pour the mushroom sauce over the meat, top with parsley.

Enjoy!

xo G

recipe adapted from: skinnytaste.com

 

Minestrone Soup

I just realized the last time I blogged was a YEAR ago! I don’t know where the time goes, but it feels good to be back! I have been meaning to share this Minestrone Soup recipe that I made not too long ago. Everyone that tried this recipe loved it, it is perfect for a rainy movie night. I definitely recommend giving it a try, its super easy & delicious. Enjoy..xX

What you will need:

1/2 cup onion || chopped

1 1/2 cup carrots || diced

1 zucchini || diced

2 garlic clove || minced

1 15.5 oz. can white beans

1 15.5 oz. can chick peas

1/2 cup fresh peas

1 can of plum tomatoes || drained (save 1/4 cup of juice)

2 handfuls of baby spinach

2 beef bouillon cubes

7 cups of water

salt, pepper, oregano || to taste

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

In a pot with 2 Tbs of oil, saute onions | carrots |zucchini & garlic on middle heat. Add beans, peas, tomatoes, bouillon and water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat & simmer for an hour. With 10 minutes left of cooking time, add spinach | salt | pepper | oregano & cheese…stir & simmer for remaining time.

xO,

G

Coincidence?

This past weekend as I was looking for new recipes to try out I came across lolfoodie.com, a food blog with a lot of good looking food. After looking through a number of recipes, the Chick Peas & Greens Salad really stood out to me. As I jotted down the recipe & headed to the grocery store I made a pit-stop at good ole Target :). As the cooking isles obviously distracted me I noticed Food Network’s Giada  De Laurentiis’s line for Target. There was so much, I wanted to buy everything! After 20 minutes of staring & wishing I had every cooking piece, I decided to move along UNTIL I saw Giada’s starter kit for Tuscan-style white bean & garlic soup! It was almost exactly the same recipe I was going to the grocery to get!!! WHAT A COINCIDENCE…. thank you Giada for allowing me skip a couple steps &  being able to have my dinner ready in 2o minutes 🙂

Do you see the similarity?? (Both have bacon, greens & white beans)

The Starter Kit comes with a packet of garlic seasoning & white beans

::what you will need:: 3 slices of bacon, 4 oz. of spinach & 4 cups of chicken stock
Start by chopping the bacon into little pieces & cook for 4 minutes.

Next add the chicken stock, white beans & packet of seasoning to the pot…

LET liquid come to a BOIL, then cover & simmer for 20 minutes until beans are soft.

Time for the greens 🙂

Let spinach wilt & cook on low for 2 minutes…
AFTER a TOTAL of 20 MINUTES…. its time to EAT 🙂

Thank you Giada for making my night alot easier! 🙂 Manja!

im BACK!

well, well, well it feels good to be back! 🙂 I haven’t posted a blog in 2….3…5 months,which felt like a year. Who knew learning the whole gluten-free diet would take this long? After months or reading & learning I’m pretty confident that I have mastered the diet…LOTS of meats & veggies. I must say that I have found a love for gluten-free pasta, it tastes exactly like wheat pasta to me now. I’m still testing out new products to see what brands I like the best so that I know for the future. My mom was at an organic store last week & was kind enough to pick me up all sorts of goodies… GF bagels, english muffins, pizzas, oats ETC. can’t wait to try them out! ANYWAY enough about gluten, last week at the grocery I came across a HUGE bag of shrimp on sale…score! After searching for a new recipes to try I came across Black Bean, Corn & Shrimp Salad on the Myrecipes.com website & I decided to try it!

What you will need:

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• Cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, divided
• 1 1/2 cups frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
• 3/4 cup bottled salsa
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

YIELD: 4 servings (serving size: 1/3 cup shrimp and about 2/3 cup bean mixture)

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Combine first 2 ingredients in a large bowl. Add shrimp; toss to coat.

Coat pan with cooking spray. Add shrimp; sauté 3 minutes or until done. Add 1 tablespoon lime juice. Remove shrimp from pan.

Add corn to pan; sauté 1 minute.

Stir in salsa,  and beans; cook 30 seconds or until thoroughly heated. Stir in 1 tablespoon lime juice.

Serve shrimp over bean mixture.

If you love chili or Mexican food you will love this recipe, guaranteed! 🙂

Recipe adapted from http://www.myrecipes.com

Not much has changed with me over the last couple months, except for our Boston Terrier Mimi passing away 😦 She became sick so unexpectedly, we were heart-broken. No dog will ever replace her, she was truly the BEST xoxo

Love MIMI, miss her everyday ❤

As hard as it was to think about a new dog, we decided it was only right to take in another Boston Terrier and show it the same love we showed Mimi ❤

Introducing Sammy Jo ❤

Well, that sums up my last 5 months...boring I know 😉 Hope everyone is well & Happy FRIDAY!! 😀

Eggplant Parmesan.

I’m back! Its been a while since I’ve posted, due to the fact that this past month I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease (meaning NO more gluten). 😦 It has been a hard transition learning how to eat gluten-free, but I am finally starting to get used to it. I felt like making Eggplant Parmesan tonight & since flour is now a NO-NO, I opted for a healthier version of one of my favorite dishes. I decided to roast the eggplant instead of flouring & frying them. Same delicious taste,  just a lot healthier & gluten-free!

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

• 3 or 4 eggplants
• Olive Oil Spray
  
• Homemade tomato sauce or 1 jar of your favorite (make sure you add basil)
  
• Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• Salt & Pepper

Preheat oven on 400 degrees. Cut the ends off of the eggplant & discard. Slice eggplant into 1/2 inch slices, season with oil, salt & pepper. Arrange eggplant on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes (flip half-way).

When eggplant is soft, remove from oven and set aside.

Lots of Eggplant 🙂

In a baking dish; layer sauce, eggplant & cheese :repeat: repeat: repeat: 
until you are out of eggplant.

Load up the cheese!

Bake for an additional 15 minutes until cheese is melted.

Time to Eat!

healthy & delish !! A perfect twist on eggplant parm. 🙂 Enjoy

Banana & Walnut Wheat Pancakes!

Growing up, I hated…I repeat hated nights when my mom would say breakfast for dinner! My sisters grew up loving it & used to actually get excited about it, I on the other hand couldn’t stand it. Mainly, because there was never really any breakfast foods that I enjoyed. I definitely ranked it number 3 out of my 3 daily meals. It wasn’t until recently that I actually craved pancakes or Belgium waffles 🙂 I like pancakes & waffles because you can get creative. Pancakes you can add whatever you want into the batter, and waffles you can add whatever toppings you want. Tonight, I made very healthy banana & walnut wheat pancakes adapted from http://www.skinnytaste.com. Yum!

What you will need:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2  tsp cinnamon
• 1 large banana, very ripe, mashed
• 1 cup 1% milk
• 3 large egg whites
• 2 tsp oil
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp chopped walnuts
• butter flavor cooking spray

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.

Combine milk, egg white and mashed bananas in a bowl and mix until smooth. Combine wet ingredients with the dry and mix well with a spoon until there are no more dry spots. Don’t over-mix.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat. Spray oil to lightly coat and pour 1/4 cup of pancake batter.

When the pancake starts to bubble and the edges begin to set, flip the pancakes. Repeat with the remainder of the batter.

Time to Eat 🙂

bon appetit!

Tomato Soup with Garlic Bread.

So, tonight I was roaming through our cabinets and came across this…A HUGE CAN OF TOMATOES.

if you don’t think this is big…look again!

6 LBS of tomato!!! My dad gave us this can of tomatoes a couple month’s ago & at the time I thought to myself when am I ever going to use this???? I finally figured out a way to us it, homemade tomato soup!! Of course there will be extra with this recipe considering its 6 lbs of tomato and a normal tomato soup recipe would only call for 2 lbs 🙂

Serves: 8-10

What you will need:

1. 6 lbs of plum tomato (can or fresh)
2. 3 medium onions
3. 16 garlic gloves
4. fresh oregano
5. salt/pepper
6. 6 cups of chicken broth
7. 3 tbsp of sour cream
8. fresh basil

In a large sauce pan, heat olive oil on medium. When hot, add the chopped onion & saute for 6 minutes. Add garlic & crushed red pepper, saute for an additional minute.

Add tomato, oregano & salt, stir for 10 minutes then add 6 cups of broth. Simmer for 10 minutes & add basil leaves.

Let soup cool then add to blender and blend all ingredients. Add additional broth if needed to reach the consistency.

After soup is blended, cook on low for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add sour cream & cook for 5 more minutes. Preheat oven on 400, cook garlic for 10 minutes. Serve soup hot with garlic bread on the side 🙂

** I wanted to use the wheat pizza dough that has been seating in my fridge, so I decided to make a quick bbq, onion & Gorgonzola pizza as well.**

What you will need:

• a bag of wheat pizza dough
• handful of flour
• bbq sauce 1/2 cup
• 1/2 medium white onion
• Gorgonzola cheese crumbles

Preheat oven on 450 degrees. Flour your counter or cutting board and roll out pizza dough. In a small skillet heat butter on medium, add sliced onions & caramelize. When pizza is rolled out, add to a baking pan and spray with oil;bake for 20 minutes. When dough is browned, add bbq sauce, onions & Gorgonzola cheese & bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Ok, pizza is ready!

TIME to EAT!

Perfect for a cold fall night!!! 🙂

Blackened Scallops.

Time to change it up, tonight Maddie requested scallops! The last time I made scallops they turned out perfect, I could of just went with the same recipe from before but I had an urge to try something new. You know what they say, you never know until you try. When the word got around to my sister Mia what we were having for dinner, she then requested…BLACKENED scallops. Perfect, that was easy I didn’t have to put any thought into dinner thanks to my sisters. EXCEPT the fact that I was a little nervous to blacken the scallops because I wasn’t sure how spicy they would turn out. I crossed my fingers & this is how it turned out…

What you will need…

• 16 oz (about 12-14) sea scallops
• salt and fresh pepper
• 2 tsp butter
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 shallot, minced
• 10 oz baby spinach, washed
• 2 cups of brown rice
• 2 tsp butter
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 cup white wine
• 4 cups fat free chicken stock
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 2 tsp each of onion powder, garlic salt & cayenne pepper (blackening spice)

In a medium size heavy sauce pan, add butter on medium-low heat. Add shallots, sauté about 1 minute.

Add rice mixing well until well coated and translucent, about 2 minutes. Add wine, salt and pepper and mix well until it is absorbed into the rice. Ladle 1 cup stock into rice and mix until all stock is absorbed, add another ladle, and continue adding and stirring until all broth is absorbed, about 20-25 minutes. Add Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Wash scallops and pat dry with a paper towel. Season with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, mix 2 tsp of onion powder,garlic salt & cayenne pepper together and drench scallops in blackening spice until fully coated. **NOTE** This was extremely spicy, if you don’t like spice I would cut the cayenne pepper to 1/2 tsp***

Heat a medium size pan, when pan is hot melt 1 tsp butter and place half of the scallops in the pan. Sear without touching them for a few minutes until the bottom forms a nice caramel colored crust. Turn over and cook about another minute or 2, until the center is slightly translucent  and the bottom is seared. Be careful not to overcook. Remove from the pan and set aside on a warm plate.

Add olive oil to the pan and sauté shallots, add spinach, salt and pepper. Toss until spinach wilts.

Serves 3…hot, hot, hot 😉

adapted from: http://www.skinnytaste.com

Sweet tooth kicks in again tonight! This time I went with Jell-O’s Instant Cook & Serve Pudding!

mmmMmm much better! 🙂

Pasta with Asparagus.

Being Italian, I have a serious love for pasta. I mean what is not to love? It cooks quickly, the variety is endless & it tastes delicious. Today I came across a couple different blogs & I found a recipe that I wanted to try; Pasta & Asparagus with a oil, garlic & cheese sauce. And for those of you who do the weight watcher diet this is only 4 points! Simply delicious.

Serves: 4

Calories: 227.6

What you will need:

• 1 lb of asparagus
• 1 pd. wheat spaghetti
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 7 garlic cloves, crushed
• salt & pepper to taste
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

In a large pot boil 4 cups water with salt. When boiling, add asparagus & cook 3-5 minutes, until tender crisp. Drain asparagus & reserve 1 cup of liquid before draining. Fill pot with salted water, cover and boil for pasta. Cook pasta according to package direction when water boils.

In a saute pan heat olive oil. Add garlic and cook until golden, add asparagus, salt & pepper and saute for about 2 minutes, tossing with oil and garlic.

In a small bowl combine egg yolks, cheese, 1/2 cup of reserved water, salt & pepper. Mix well. After pasta is drained return to pot and mix with egg mixture. Cook on medium-low about 2 minutes, until sauce thickens and sticks to pasta. Toss in asparagus and mix well. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with additional grated cheese.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.skinnytaste.com

Ohhhh & my sweet tooth kicked in around 8 o’clock… I made myself a quick baked banana with brown sugar, cinnamon & raisins!

😉