Quinoa Dressing with Almonds and Craisins

I started making this quinoa dish in November, in the hopes of having it ready for Thanksgiving. As you can see from the date of this post, the recipe wasn't ready in time for this past year's Thanksgiving, but it will be ready in plenty of time for the next Thanksgiving coming up. However, this quinoa is so tasty that I don't want to wait ten months before posting it.

I found both regular white quinoa and red quinoa at our local Trader Joe's. If you can't find red quinoa, you can double the amount of the white quinoa. The dish will taste about the same but just won't be as colorful. If you can't eat almonds, try using pine nuts instead. The recipe can easily be doubled to serve more people.

Quinoa Dressing with Almonds and Craisins
serves 4 adults

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup regular quinoa. Try to find a brand that is labeled gluten-free.
  
• 1/2 cup red quinoa. Try to find one that is labeled gluten-free.
  
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• olive oil
  
• 1/4 cup blanched slivered almonds
  
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1 large stalk of celery
• 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp. ground sage (or 1/2 tsp. dried sage)
• 1/3 cup craisins

Instructions:

Soak each kind of quinoa in a separate small bowl filled with tap water for 5 minutes. While the quinoa is soaking, finely chop the onion and celery.

Rinse each kind of quinoa thoroughly in a sieve and transfer each kind to a separate small pot. Add 3/4 cup of water and 1/4 tsp. sea salt to each pot. Stir to combine, and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer. (If your water doesn't simmer over low heat, then increase to medium-low.) Simmer each pot of quinoa until all of the water has been absorbed. For the white quinoa this will take about 15 minutes; for the red quinoa it will take about 20 minutes. When the water has been absorbed, remove each pot from the heat and let the quinoa rest, covered, for 5 minutes before stirring it together with the other ingredients.

While the quinoa is cooking, place a small pan over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the almonds to the pan and stir them frequently until they have turned a golden brown and smell fragrant. Transfer the almonds to a small plate and set aside. Add 1 more tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Then add the chopped onion and celery, and saute until the vegetables have softened. Add the minced garlic and stir for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sage.

When the quinoa is ready, transfer the two kinds of quinoa, almonds, onion mixture, and craisins to a medium bowl. Gently stir all of the ingredients together until thoroughly combined. Serve immediately.

Note: If you will not be eating all of the quinoa dressing at one sitting, leave the almonds on the side and just sprinkle them on top of each serving. They lose their crunch and turn soft if left in the dressing overnight.

Black-eyed Pea and Sausage Soup

A while ago I got a cook book called Make It Fast, Cook It Slow, which is filled with gluten-free slow cooker recipes. This month I tried out the black-eyed pea soup, although I modified it to make it corn-free. I hadn't ever cooked with black-eyed peas before, but the recipe looked easy, so I thought it was worth trying. I'm glad I did, because it turned out great. The sausage is essential for the flavor of the soup, so be sure to get some kind of spicy sausage. I cut the sausage up into small pieces, and it wasn't too hot, even for the girls.

This recipe requires a 6-quart slow cooker, or 5-quart at the smallest. If your slow cooker has a 3 or 4-quart capacity, cut the recipe in half so that the soup doesn't overflow while cooking.

Black-eyed Pea and Sausage Soup
serves 6 to 8 adults

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. dried black-eyed peas, soaked overnight
• 1 large yellow onion
  
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 cup diced celery
  
• 12 oz. to 1 lb. of hot Italian pork sausage or Cajun Andouille pork sausage. Michael reacts to chicken sausage, so please buy pork sausage if cooking for us. Look for a sausage that doesn't contain any words that aren't recognizable as foods. Also, don't get low-fat sausage since it usually contains wheat, soy, or corn to replace the fat. I get my Italian pork sausage at BJ's, and I buy Aidells Cajun Style Andouille smoked pork sausage at Shaw's.
  
• 4 cups (1 32-ounce box) of chicken broth. The two kinds that I recommend are Imagine Organic Free Range chicken broth and Kitchen Basics Original chicken stock. Do not get the Imagine Organic chicken cooking stock, which contains "natural flavor" that probably comes from corn.
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp. dried basil
• 1/4 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. kosher salt or sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper

Instructions:

The night before you want to make the soup, put the beans in a large bowl filled with water. In the morning, drain and rinse the beans, and place them in the crock pot. Chop the onion, carrots, and celery, and add them to the crock pot. Add the chicken broth, garlic, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper, and stir to combine.

If you are using uncooked sausages, cut them into thin slices and stir them into the mixture in the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 6 hours. Before serving, scoop 3 cups of the soup out of the crock pot and pour into a blender. Remove the sausage pieces from the soup you have scooped out, and blend the soup until it is creamy. Pour this blended soup back into the crock pot and stir. The blending of part of the soup gives it a thicker, creamier consistency that we really like.

If you are using pre-cooked sausages, wait until after you have blended up part of the soup, and then add the slices of sausage. Let the sausage pieces heat up in the crock pot for about 30 minutes before serving.

Sun Butter and Maple Baked Oatmeal

Recently I've been making a lot of baked oatmeal for the girls and myself. Since I like variety, I decided to come up with another version. There are lots of recipes on the internet for peanut butter baked oatmeal, but Sabrina and Naomi are still allergic or sensitive to peanuts. (We'll go back to the allergist for more testing this spring.) I thought that sunflower seed butter would probably work just as well as the peanut butter, so I gave it a try. Because the sun butter -- as we call it -- has a pretty strong flavor, I like to pair it with maple syrup and a bit of cinnamon. I think the flavors of the maple syrup and cinnamon do a good job at complementing and balancing out the flavor of the sun butter. And because we all love chocolate, I threw some chocolate chips in as well. Another time, instead of using chocolate chips, I'm going to try placing diced apple or apple slices in the bottom of the ramekins like I did in this recipe. I think the apples would go well with the sun butter, too.

If you can eat peanut butter, I recommend trying to make the baked oatmeal with 1/4 cup of peanut butter and 1/4 cup of honey or brown sugar instead of the sun butter, maple syrup, and cinnamon.

Sun Butter and Maple Baked Oatmeal
serves 4 adults

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups gluten-free rolled oats
• 1 1/3 cups almond milk. I like the flavor of Blue Diamond Original Almond Breeze.
• 1/4 cup sunflower seed butter. We use Trader Joe's brand.
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips. I recommend Ghirardelli, Trader Joe's, or Enjoy Life brand.
• OR 2 medium apples (to make 1/4 cup of sliced or diced apple for the bottom of each ramekin)

Instructions:

The night before, put the oats in a medium bowl. Warm the milk in the microwave and pour it over the oats. Stir the oats and milk; then cover the bowl with saran wrap or a plate. Leave the bowl on the counter overnight.

In the morning preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Measure the sun butter and maple syrup into a small bowl. If you keep them in the refrigerator like I do, microwave them until warm. Whisk the sun butter and maple syrup together; then pour them into the bowl with the oats. Add the baking soda, cream of tartar, and cinnamon to the bowl as well. Stir all of the ingredients together.

If using chocolate chips, stir them into the oat mixture. If you prefer to add apple pieces, follow the instructions at this recipe. Transfer the oat mixture evenly into four 5 to 7-ounce ramekins. Put the ramekins in the oven and let the oatmeal bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

In December the girls really wanted to make cookies using the Christmas cookie cutters they got as a present last year. Well, that meant I needed to find a sugar cookie recipe that did not include any eggs or butter, but that still resulted in cookies that tasted and looked like sugar cookies should. I tried a couple of recipes, but they didn't work well with gluten-free flour: they tasted either beany (due to using bean flour) or gritty (due to using rice flour).

I was feeling a little discouraged until I came across a recipe for chocolate sugar cookies. Why hadn't I thought of that before? To be honest, I've never liked regular sugar cookies all that much since they just taste like a lot of sugar. Chocolate sugar cookies sounded so much better. And, fortunately, they tasted a lot better, too. After playing around with the recipe a few times, the girls and I came up with a chocolate sugar cookie that we think any chocolate lover would enjoy. Besides the taste, the other thing I like about these cookies is that the dough doesn't need to be refrigerated before being rolled out and cut into cookies. So you can enjoy eating your cookies much sooner than you could with regular sugar cookies.

My next project (maybe for next December) is to find a recipe for a white or chocolate icing to go on top of the sugar cookies. The challenge will be to find one that does not contain any egg white or butter, but that still hardens like sugar cookie icing is supposed to. We'll see what I'm able to come up with.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies
makes about 18 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa. I use Ghirardelli brand.
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon or Starbucks Instant Decaf Via
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/3 cup and 1 Tbsp. canola oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract. Use Trader Joe's alcohol-free vanilla extract or another vanilla extract that does not have corn syrup and is preferably alcohol-free, since the alcohol could be derived from corn. Recently I have been using Rodelle Vanilla Flavor alcohol free all natural extract, which I found at Stop and Shop.
• dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips. I recommend Ghirardelli, Trader Joe's, or Enjoy Life brand.
• sprinkles -- the girls can have regular sprinkles, but if you want them to be corn-free, at Whole Foods I found India Tree brand sprinkles that are made with cane-sugar crystals.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, cinnamon (or instant coffee), sea salt, and baking soda. In a separate small bowl stir together the sugar, applesauce, canola oil, and vanilla. Then pour the liquid ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Spread a large piece of parchment paper on a flat surface. Separate the dough into two evenly-sized balls. Place one of the balls of dough on the parchment paper. With a rolling pin, roll the dough until it is 1/4" thick. (If the dough begins to stick to the rolling pin, sprinkle a little cocoa powder onto the dough and the rolling pin.) The rolled dough should be big enough to make 5 cookies using cookie cutters that are about 3 inches tall and 2 to 3 inches wide. Roll the remaining dough a couple more times to make 4 more cookies.

Place the cut-out cookies onto the baking sheet. Add sprinkles and chocolate chips (or other candies) for decoration. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cookies rest on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Repeat the procedure with the second ball of dough to make another sheet of cookies.