Brazilian Fish Stew

I've long said that I don't like fish.  And I don't.  The fishy taste really grosses me out.  So other than a time on our honeymoon where Scott tricked me into eating a bite of it (don't listen to his version of the story, it's gets more far-fetched every time I hear it), I haven't ever really eaten it. 

I want to like fish though.  So I'm trying.  I can now handle a little bit of salmon on a salad with lots of other flavors and tilapia.  For this stew I used tilapia, but you really could use any other fish you like...if you're one of those people that like fish. 

Brazilian Fish Stew

Marinade:

• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 4 T lime juice
• 3/4 tsp sea salt
• 2 T paprika
• 2 T cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp black pepper

Stew:

• 4 filets of tilapia cut into 1 inch pieces
• olive oil
• 2 medium onions, sliced thin
• 2 bell peppers, cored and sliced (I used one orange and one yellow)
• 2 medium tomatoes, sliced
• salt and pepper
• 1 can full fat coconut milk
• 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Coat fish in marinade and let sit for about 2 hours.

Coat the bottom of a large dutch oven with a couple tablespoons of olive oil.  Add a layer of sliced onions, a layer of peppers, and a layer of tomatoes.  Place fish pieces on top of this.  Cover with another layer of onions, peppers, then tomatoes.  Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle the cilantro over the top.  Shake up your can of coconut milk then open and pour over the layers.  Drizzle a few more tablespoons of olive oil over the top.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Serve over rice.

This is my modified version, the original recipe can be found on www.simplyrecipes.com.

Gluten-Free Beef Stew

Thick and delicious! You could easily make this non-gluten-free if you're no where near our house. Bella thought the meat was amazing, but threw the potatoes on the floor. I thought it was the perfect dinner for a night where the weather is turning colder again (BOO!).

In the ingredient list there are a bunch of things without quantities. Use however much you want. This will drive people like my sister, Melissa, crazy. It's payback for my childhood dear sister.


Beef Stew

1/2 cup GF flour mix
garlic powder
dried thyme
dried basil
sea salt
black pepper
2 lbs. stew meat
olive oil
1 chopped onion
1 sprig rosemary
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups beef broth
1 1/2 cups red wine (you can sub unfiltered apple juice, but it's not as good)
2 super large carrots, cut into largish chunks
3 golden potatoes, chunked up as well
8 baby portabella mushrooms, quartered
1 can tomato paste

Place 1/2 your flour and seasonings in a gallon sized plastic bag. Add half you meat and shake to coat. Brown in your Dutch oven in olive oil. Repeat with the rest of the meat. Remove the meat and set aside.


Add some more oil to your pot and saute the onion for about 5 minutes. Add your garlic and saute for a minute more.


Return the meat to the pan. Pour in your beef broth and wine and scrape the bottom to get all the delicious brown bits up. Throw your sprig of rosemary in. Bring to a slight boil and then turn to lowest burner setting. Put a lid on it and let it do it's thing for 90 minutes. It should be at a very, very low simmer. This works best in a cast iron pot. You may have to turn the heat up a little bit to keep other types of cook wear as hot.


Add your potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms into the party. Turn the heat up the slightest notch, put the lid back on, and leave it be for another hour.


Stir in your tomato paste until well incorporated. Serve it up.


This would be great with some hot dinner rolls. Whenever I figure out how to make the perfect gluten-free dinner roll I'll be all over that. Until then, enjoy the hot, flaky goodness for me.

Duten

Evelyn and I were reading the book "David Gets in Trouble". We were talking about what David did wrong on each page. On this page David did something wrong because he ate dog treats. Why was that wrong I asked Evelyn. Her response, "Cause they have duten".

She is quickly learning what things do and do not have gluten in them, and she knows she's not supposed to eat dog food (something that has indeed happened several times) because it has gluten in it. Not to mention it's DOG FOOD! Blech.

Homemade Maple Vanilla Yogurt

I have two crazy yogurt eaters in my house. We literally go through a gallon of the stuff a week. I used to buy Stonyfield Cream Top yogurt, but they changed their formula and they homogenize it now. :( So sad. But, it renewed my desire to figure out how to successfully make my own at home. I have a yogurt maker for goodness sake, I should be able to do this!

My first couple attempts totally flopped. Everything I found online told me that I needed to add powdered milk, which I wasn't going to do. Finally though, I found the magic formula for us. Here's my process to make a 1/2 gallon of yogurt.

Step 1: Buy a gallon of raw milk from Farmer Doug. Literally. I have a farmer named Doug who sells milk outside my house on Saturday mornings as well as eggs, cheese, and butter. We're weird. I know. I've accepted that and moved on.

Step 2: Heat up the milk to 185 degrees. I fought this step in the past. Didn't that defeat the point of using raw milk? Not really is what I ended up deciding. Me gently heating local delicious and un-messed with milk on my stove is (in my mind) better than whatever they do at the milk factory.

Step 3: Stir in 4 tablespoons of real maple syrup (Costco has it the cheapest I've found) and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Step 4: Cool the milk down in an ice bath. I fill my sink up with cold water and dump some ice in. I put the whole pot down in the water and whisk away until it cools to 110 degrees.

Step 5: Stir in 3/4 cup yogurt. Whisk it up really well so that it's not lumpy.

Step 6: Pour it into the containers of your yogurt maker (or crockpot or anything that will keep it at 110 degrees) and let it do it's thing for 10 hours.


Step 7: Put the lids on and let it cool in the fridge.

Don't start this process during your children's afternoon nap. Otherwise you will end up having to put your yogurt in the fridge at 3 a.m.; and while you may be up at that time anyway if your children are anything like mine, you won't want to be messing with yogurt then.

Heart Shaped Treats

When we were growing up my mom would always make us giant heart-shaped cookies for when we got home from school on Valentine's Day, so in the spirit of eating heart shaped goodies, here are my loves enjoying their treats!

Gluten-Free Sugar-Free Banana Pumpkin Bread

Here's the recipe for the Valentine's Day treat I made the girls. I'll post pictures of them later devouring it!

2 ripe bananas
2 eggs
1/3 cup olive oil or melted butter
1 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup honey
2 1/2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour mix (Arrowhead Mills or Bob's Red Mill works great)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 T pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Combine wet ingredients in a large bowl. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl then stir them into the wet ingredients until just combined.

Makes 1 large loaf, 2 small loaves, or 4 mini loaves.

Bake 30-45 minutes (depending on size of the loaf) or until a toothpick comes out dry.

First Foods

I can hardly believe that Annabelle is already old enough for solid food! She was showing all the signs of readiness though, so we went ahead and let her start experimenting.


It's made dinnertime much more enjoyable because Scott and I don't have to take turns eating while the other keeps the baby happy.

The wrist rolls make me gush.

She is more than content (at least for a short while) to sit in her high chair and play with food.


Her first attempts were with roasted sweet potato, but she has also tried banana, chuck roast, mashed potatoes, potato soup, spaghetti, and pork roast.

She has yet to meet a food she won't attempt to shove in her mouth!