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: Vegtable Stir Fry

Here is a quick and simple meal I threw together last night. It went over much better then I expected! You never know how new foods will go over over with little ones, but I did some things to help make it more appealing. I used corn spaghetti noodles-which they love, and I used vegetables they were familiar with. It really is beautiful with all the colors- I really wish I had taken a photo so you could see!

With this stir fry, I gave the girls some tuna fish (made with canola mayo and chopped up celery), and some black beans. For Mara, I just added the black beans into the stir fry and she ate it all up!

Ingredients:

• 1-2 carrots, chopped
• 1/2 cup broccoli
• 1 stalk celery
• 1/4 cup peas
• 1/4 cup green beans
• 1/4 cup corn
• 1-2 tbsp canola oil
• 1/2 tsp basil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1-2 tbsp alternative bread crumbs (I used Orgran's All Purpose Crumbs)
  
• corn spaghetti, or any other alternative pasta

Cook pasta as directed. In a wok or frying pan, add the canola oil and carrots. Cook for a few minutes to soften the carrots, and then add the rest of the vegetables. As the vegetables begin to soften, add salt and pepper to taste. When pasta is finished cooking, add it into the vegetable mix. Add the basil, and then the bread crumbs. With the bread crumbs, I just added a bit at a time, stirring and adding until noodles were completely coated.

Very simple and delicious!

Recipe: Turkey Meatballs with Honey Mustard Sauce

If your children are anything like mine, they love to dip! My girls are somewhat obsessed with honey at the moment, dipping everything from their broccoli to eggs! So I made this meal especially with them in mind (as always). The dip was too sweet for Mara, but she loved the meatballs. Analese loved the dip (they are such opposites)
I modified this recipe to fit our needs. I also slipped in 1/2 tbsp of garbanzo bean flour to pump up the nutrition, and used precooked rice to hold the meatballs together. Once again, I am using turkey, but beef or ground chicken would work as well. The original recipe calls for 1/4c onion mixed in with the meat, which we omitted but I think it would be really good!

* This recipe calls for an egg, but we didn't use one tonight and it was still great. So I put it in the ingredients as optional

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey
1/2 tbsp garbanzo bean flour
1/4 c cooked rice
1 egg (optional)
2 1/4 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp tarragon
1 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
2 tbsp honey
1 tbs potato starch

Mix thoroughly: turkey, gb flour, rice, egg, tarragon and 1/4 t of the dry mustard.
Shape into small balls. Place on a greased baking sheet, and bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes.
In a small saucepan, stir remaining dry mustard, pineapple juice, honey and potato starch. Cook over medium-high heat until sauce thickens and begins to boil. Serve as dipping suace for meatballs.

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.

Porcupine Meatballs

This recipe is a combination of two recipes. The ingredients for the meatballs have been adapted from "Sophie-Safe Cooking" by Emily Hendrix.
Our family does not eat beef, so we use ground turkey in its place. Onions would probably be good as well!
Also-you may want to play around with the spices a bit...every family has different tastes. I made this last night for dinner-the sauce has a bit of a bite to it, which surprisingly went over very well!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup rice, uncooked
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (reg. vinegar works as well)
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 tbsp basil
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
2 bay leaves
1 egg (optional)
one 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
one 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, chopped with juice
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups cooked rice

1. Put the tomatoes, oregano, basil, pepper, salt and bay leaves into a pot and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, cover and reduce to simmer.
   
2. Combine the turkey, egg, uncooked rice, vinegar, and mustard. Squeeze together with your hands to really mix the ingredients together. Shape into balls.
   
3. Heat olive oil in frying pan. Brown the turkey balls (if time is an issue, you can just skip this step and place balls into sauce, cooking on simmer for 25 minutes)
   
4. Add the meatballs to the sauce, cooking for another 10-15 minutes. Remove bay leaves.
   
5. Serve over rice.
   

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.