Below is a delicious recipe I found on a box of gluten free pasta (Ancient Harvest Quinoa brand, www.quinoa.net). I asked for permission to post the recipe and they allowed it. This is the second time I asked for permission to post a recipe and each time the people were nice and allowed it. The first time was a recipe from Whole Foods Market, so asking for permission is not as difficult as I thought, and you probably do not have to worry about never hearing back most of the time. I want to try some of the other recipes posted on quinoa.net. You probably could post many recipes without permission, but it is often recommended to always ask.

Prepare Supergrain Pasta as per directions. Drain. In large skillet or wok, stir fry meat in 2 Tbsp oil until done. Add chopped vegetables, water chestnuts and garlic. Stir fry approx. 60 seconds. Remove mixture. Add remaining oil and stir fry Supergrain Pasta approx. 60 seconds. Return mixture to skillet, heat & toss. Season with soy sauce. Serves 4

Websites from ingredient tags, boxes etc.

• www.quinoa.net – has additional recipes and information, found on box of SUPERGRAIN Pasta
• www.kame.com – has Asian recipes, found on can of water chestnuts
• www.calorganicfarms.com – recipes and nutritional information, found on certified green onion tag

With so many websites like the ones above with good recipes it is not really necessary to have a great deal of cookbooks anymore. Maybe just a few nice ones for the luxury or occasional reference of if desired. Of course, if the electricity or Internet is down then it might be mandatory to have cookbook or know how to make something decent without either a recipe and or Internet.  I liked this recipe, and it definitely tasted good to me. I actually used a Griddler/sandwich press to make the steak and it worked well. In the past I used regular yellow or red or white onions in place of green onions and it was a bad idea. The regular onions taste much stronger than the green onions and present differently. Green onions are very different than regular onions and I would not consider regular onions a good substitute for them in my experience. It might be better to just skip the green onions. One nice thing about this recipe is it is gluten free as there are people with gluten sensitivity and or even celiac disease and gluten can cause bloating.

This is a good casserole recipe I picked up at a Whole Foods Market in Chicago. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the prepped ingredients and the recipe card, but can do that later or next time I make this. It was delicious, definitely acceptable for a potluck and has no gluten. All of the soups at Whole Foods supposedly have no MSG in the ingredients also. =) I should look up more about what MSG is, and add that to this post later. Anyway, the recipe is entirely copied verbatim below.

New King Ranch Casserole

Power To the Pepper – Every purchase of Whole Trade (R) bell peppers supports education programs for farm workers and their communities.

Serves 8

A slightly healthier version of a classic dish, this chicken and vegetable casserole is loaded with flavor and mild enough for any crowd. Assemble up to a day in advance or cover tightly and freeze unbaked. To cook, thaw overnight in the refrigerator before baking.

• 1 (2-pound) bag Nature’s Rancher Frozen Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
• 2 red and/or green Whole Trade (R) bell peppers, finely chopped
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can cream of chicken soup
• 1 (15-ounce) can tomatoes with green chiles
• 12 corn tortillas, halved
• 1 bunch Swiss chard, thick stems removed, leaves chopped
• 2.5 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Put chicken in a large pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Skim off and discard any foam, and then reduce heat and simmer until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Drain and set chicken aside to cool, and then chop roughly. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine peppers, onion, soup and tomatoes. Layer one-third of the tortillas in the bottom of an oiled 9×13-inch casserole dish. Top with one-third of the chard, one-third of the chicken, one-third of the vegetable mixture and one-third of the cheese. Repeat process two more times and bake, uncovered, until bubbly and golden brown, 50 to 60 minutes.

Nutrition

Per serving: 320 calories (60 from fat), 7g total fat, 2.5g saturated fat, 85mg cholesterol, 890mg sodium, 27g total carbohydrate (5g dietary fiber, 3g sugar), 38g protein

Find recipes, menu plans and cooking videos at wholefoodsmarket.com.

http://wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/new-king-ranch-casserole – this is exactly the same as the recipe here, the picture looks different and there is a video.

I made this a few times and once used fresh chicken as the store was out of frozen chicken breasts and there was no issue. Looking through cookbooks I could not find any cheese substitutes. Searching online the options for cheese substitutes are to buy a vegetarian or tofu style cheese or to use a recipe such as ‘Melty Cheese’ that could be found on sites like VegWeb (the link is http://www.vegweb.com/recipes/melty-cheese-mock-cheese-sauce). Also, in the picture you can see that parchment paper is used which is helpful as it prevents burning and sticking of food to the cookware.

This dish is delicious, healthy, and gluten free. I love it, and it is one of the few dishes I make at home that rivals restaurant food. It is great for winter and fall as you have the oven at 350° C (176.67° F) for about 45 minutes. It warms up the house. The recipe is from one of those Whole Foods Market recipe cards they have in the stores for free. This is completely copied from the card and I was unable to find the recipe on their website! You can see the card from the Whole Foods Market in the picture on the right. Even the Taste For Life magazine at Whole Foods is not online, you have to go to store every month to get it, and sometimes they are all out before the month is over. I was concerned it may not be allowed or considered plagiarism if I put the recipe here, but when I went on the Whole Foods website forum they replied that it was fine especially because the pictures are my own and the recipe is modified to the locale and that I may post a link to a recipe on the Whole Foods site. Below are the links to the forum and a paella recipe on the wholefoodsmarket.com site:

• http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/stovetop-vegetarian-paella
  
• http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/forums/?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3aac80c666-ce42-49c8-8941-7c335cf4efcbForum%3aebe18503-0a9e-41d9-bad9-82a76162513bDiscussion%3a85acb464-a290-483c-9f49-e7efd989f287

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced 1/4″
• 1 T minced garlic
• 8 oz seitan or optional diced chicken breast
• 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 2 cups long grain brown rice
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 tsp saffron
• Optional: 1 lb mussels, cleaned and beard removed
• 1  14 oz can artichoke hearts, quartered
• 1/2 cup pitted kalamatta olives drained, rinsed and roughly chopped
• 1   15 oz can garbanzo beans no salt added, drained
• 1   15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes no salt added
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 T tamari, low sodium

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
• Heat the wine in an ovenproof skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat, add the onion, bell pepper and garlic and sweat 3-5 minutes, until onions are translucent.
• Add the chicken or seitan, rice, vegetable stock, water and saffron to the skillet and bring to a simmer. Cover and place in the oven and bake 45 minutes until most, but not all, the liquid is absorbed.
• Stir in the diced tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, garbanzo beans, paprika, pepper and tamari. **If desired place the mussels on top of the rice. Cover and continue to bake for an additional 15 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed and mussels have steamed open (if added).

I have made this several times and am happy not adding the mussels, chicken, and or seitan. Even the saffron I have skimped on due to the price. Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice because it is labor intensive and does not grow well in most areas outside of Spain. I am sure the saffron is good for you, but I did not notice it in the taste and have added less or none at all and the dish is still delicious. It is embarrassing, but one time I left the mussels in the fridge for too long and they started to smell really bad. Seafood will smell bad. One time a shrimp plate was left in the garbage and it caused the kitchen to smell bad until it was disposed of outside. Use seafood quickly and make sure any packaging is placed in the garbage outside. The chicken is not necessary, you can put it on the side. Seitan has gluten, and it is possible I have a sensitivity to gluten so decided against it. If you start this at 3:00 pm it should be done by 5:00 pm and be fresh out of the oven for dinner. I like listening to the radio while I am prepping the food. The smell of the food is uplifting too; cooking probably could help with depression. The one picture also has avocado. It is in a molcajete from the Sur La Table store and has parchment paper because of concern the pumice could have bacteria especially because it says not to use soap to wash it. I used to follow a nice guacamole recipe from marthastewart.com but now only do that occasionally. The avocado is what makes the guacamole taste great and I just smash the avocado and add garlic and lemon juice and pepper, chile powder, whatever is in the kitchen that is a common ingredient for guacamole. It still tastes great because of the avocado mainly. You can stock up on a lot of the ingredients and then just buy the some of the ingredients fresh at Whole Foods Market like the kalmatta olives and red pepper. I did cook the paella in a wok, I just like using the wok. It is different and I find it fun. Not sure what they use in Spain to cook paella, though. Looking at Wikipedia this looks like at least a slightly Americanized version of paella, but it is still delicious if you ask me. The seafood paella with shrimp probably tastes better, and the mixed paella also has my interest.  This is not authentic, but healthy and delicious and gluten free. Nevertheless, this recipe tastes good and I would make it again.