Mara's favorite Chicken Salad

I made this chicken salad for Mara a few weeks ago, and she now asks me for it ALL the time! She has definitely developed a love for salads-chicken, egg, her avocado salad....

This chicken salad couldn't get any easier, and its definitely a toddler-pleaser. Even Analese-who is a "peabutter and jelly kind-of-girl", loves to eat this for lunch. We serve it on the Chebe Flatbread-which is truly the best gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free bread for sandwiches and salads.

As for measurements, again we just kind of throw everything together, so feel free to add as much or as little of something, depending on what you like.

Ingredients

• boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and chopped or shredded
• apple, diced
• celery, chopped
• dried prunes, chopped thinly
• canola mayonnaise (we use Spectrum's Canola Mayo, but safflower mayo would work, or any other acceptable choice that works for you)
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

Combine ingredients. Done! Serve on a bed of lettuce or spinach, or on warm flatbread....yum!
My husband has also added the following to his: curry powder, or old bay seasoning...both were very good!
(I do recommend making it a few hours beforehand so that the ingredients can combine together in the fridge for better taste, but this isn't absolutely necessary.)

Recipe: Creamy Pasta with Mushrooms

I have been so excited to share this recipe, as it is a personal favorite of mine at the moment! One thing I really miss about being off of dairy is the ability to have creamy pasta dishes. I saw this recipe in one my of favorite cookbooks at the moment (which I do highly recommend!) I saw that she used white beans in order to create a creamy texture and I just had to try it!

We modified the recipe a bit. For one, it calls for 3 strips of uncured pork or turkey bacon (cooked and chopped). We could not find any turkey bacon that declares itself "gluten-free" so we skipped this. We also changed the ingredient amounts, adding more beans for an even creamier texture, less garlic (so the girls would eat it) and 1/2 the canola oil mentioned.

We also added 2 cooked skinless chicken breasts, sliced up. This was a wonderful addition! It reminded me of my favorite Italian restaurant's "House special"-with the only difference being that their chicken was breaded. Next time I hope to "bread" the chicken beforehand.

I was very impressed, and absolutely loved it! I have made it a couple times since, in order to have it for lunch. I even made it for my husband's parents, and I don't think they even realized it had beans in it :)

So enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4-5 tablespoons of white beans, pureed (we used some of the canola oil to puree beans in blender)
• 3-4 medium mushrooms, sliced
• 3 fresh basil leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
• 1/2 pound cooked corn spaghetti (or any other acceptable spaghetti noodle)
• 1-2 skinless chicken breasts, cooked and sliced.
  

In a small saucepan, combine the oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Simmer over very low heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the beans, mushroom and basil (if you wish to add bacon, add this as well)
Simmer for another 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add to the cooked pasta, and toss to distribute the sauce evenly. Add the chicken slices and serve!

If you plan to fee more people and use more pasta, definitely double the sauce!

Recipe: Fried Chicken Wings

Ok, so frying isn't the healthiest thing to do with your food, but I had such a craving for chicken wings! What I REALLY wanted was the blue cheese dressing to dip them in, but we all know that cannot happen.

We tried this recipe from my new cookbook: Balancing the Bowl, a food allergy cookbook: recipes free of wheat, rice, barley, egg, milk, soy, peanut, tree nuts, shellfish and fish" Remember how excited I was to get this cookbook? I am just getting to try out some of her recipes. Overall, I am happy with the variety of recipes offered in this book, but I must admit that I was sad to see how often oat flour was used. We are tempted to try some gluten-free oats with Mara and see how she does...always a scary thing, isn't it? If your diet allows oats, I would definitely recommend this cookbook! I will post more recipes as we try them out.

Anyway-we followed the recipe exactly and the wings were delicious! The girls could not get enough-even Ms. Picky Analese ate them up with no complaints. I found that I was not even craving my blue cheese dressing, as these really do not need anything! The orange peel makes them very sweet-but not too sweet :)

* The only thing we thought about doing differently next time is having the wings marinate in the seasonings for a few hours before frying.

I hope you enjoys these as much as we did!


Fried Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

• Corn or canola oil for frying
• 5 chicken wings, separated to make 10 pieces
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tblspns fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 1/4 cup orange peel, minced

Method:

• Preheat oil in deep fryer. Line a plate with two layers of paper towels and set aside.
  
• Clean wings thoroughly and discard wing tips if desired. Pat chicken with a paper towel to drain excess water.
• Combine chicken, sugar, salt, ginger and orange peel in a medium bowl. Blend well to cover chicken with seasonings.
  
• Dip 4-6 chicken pieces into hot oil. Use caution, as oil may splatter.
• Fry until chicken is completely cooked (approximately 4 minutes) Stir frequently to distribute heat.
  
• Remove chicken and place on lined plate to drain excess oil.
• Eat and enjoy!
  

Recipe: Chicken with Apples and Cranberries

My girls love apples, and I thought this would be perfect.....but it was not. The original recipe called for tart apples, which was a bit too tart for them. Next time, I am going to try a different type of apple. The original recipe was also for a whole chicken, and was to be baked. I changed it a bit to make it easier and faster for us. My husband and I thought it was very good!

Ingredients:

4 skinless chicken breasts, cut up into chunks
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp salt (optional)
1 tsp pepper
4 apples, peeled and diced
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1-1 /2 cups of apple juice

Heat the oil in a frying pan, and add chicken. Cook chicken until its almost done. Add apples, cranberries and apple juice. Sprinkle cinnamon, salt and pepper over mixture.
Heat to boil and then simmer for 10-15 minutes, until apples are soft.
Serve over rice or pasta.

We used Mrs. Leepers rice vegetable twists with this recipe. I added them right into the chicken mixture, and it worked well. The best thing is that this pasta is not one we usually save for leftovers because it doesn't save well. But adding it into the dish worked well, and we could eat it for lunch the next day.

Recipe: Peared Chicken

I have had this recipe for so long, I cannot remember where I got it from. This is a simple, quick and easy meal. For variation, we also use mango pulp instead of the pears, which my family likes even better. Enjoy!


Ingredients:

3 pears, peeled and cubed
2 to 3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 to 2 Tbsp vinegar
4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless

(You don't have to be exact with measurements-I used 3 Tbsp of maple syrup with 2 Tbps of vinegar)

Directions:
Stir together maple syrup and vinegar. Pour over pears in a medium sized bowl.

In a pan, fry chicken breasts. When chicken is cooked through, add the pears and their juice. Cook on very low heat, covered, for 10 more minutes.

Serve over white rice.