Boneless Buffalo Wings - Dairy, Wheat/Gluten, Soy Free

  It's football season...hooray. I guess marrying the man I did and then having two boys I should have known it wasn't going to be all Mystery Diagnosis and The People's Court on tv all day long but come on, man! It's baseball 24/7 until it's Football 24/7, until it's Baseball season again, with brief periods of golf and hockey in between. Oh yeah, and Nick Jr. Can't a girl get a break?!

  *Fwew* Glad I got that off my chest! So anyway, we wanted to try to make some sort of hot wings to eat while we watched the game, but since it seems almost impossible to get turkey wings around here (plus they'd be huge), I used turkey cutlets cut into chicken nugget-sized pieces. These were really tasty though the breading of course is not exactly like wheat breading. I'm not a fan at all of pan frying things, and I'm terrible at it, so you can pan fry these at your own risk but I can't tell you how, sorry.

  Also, Frank's Buffalo Sauce is vegan (it contains "natural butter type flavor" but when I called their 1-800 number I was assured that it is dairy free) and gluten free... its basically vinegar, cayenne, and butter flavor. But if you would like to make delicious vegan buffalo sauce from scratch, here's a great recipe.

Boneless Turkey Buffalo Wings

1 lb turkey cutlets, cut into 1 inch strips or nugget size pieces
1 cup corn meal (or use 1 cup Zatarain's Crispy Southern Fish Fri and omit the lemon pepper seasoning from the recipe)
1/2 cup GF All purpose flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning, optional but recommended
3 Tbl FRANK'S buffalo sauce
*Optional 1/2 cup plain unsweetened almond milk

Preheat fryer to 375.
In a shallow dish or pie pan, stir together fish fri, flour, salt, and lemon pepper.
Toss turkey in flour mixture until well coated. We've found you get a slightly crunchier crust if you squeeze the turkey in your palm after flouring and then let them sit a few minutes before frying, but this is no way necessary. Fry in batches for 3-5 minutes, until just browned and crispy. Drain on a brown paper bag.
In a medium mixing bowl, toss fried turkey in buffalo sauce.
Serve hot, with carrot sticks and celery and dairy free soy free ranch.

*If you prefer a thicker, crispier crust, after tossing turkey in flour mixture, dip into almond milk (or other dairy free milk or melted Soy Free Earth Balance buttery spread) and re-dip in flour mixture before frying.

Potato and Sausage Breakfast Bake - Wheat/Gluten, Diary, Soy Free

 We needed breakfast and had some left over produce laying around that needed to be used before it went bad (I HATE throwing away money by letting food spoil!), so I threw this together this morning and it was so yummy I had to share!

Potato and Sausage Breakfast Bake

I sprinkled mine with fresh cilantro and ate it with salsa!

1lb ground turkey sausage (We use cheap ol' Jenni-O in a tube)
4 medium russet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 medium white onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 tsp olive oil
6 (or so) white mushrooms, washed and sliced
1 cup Daiya cheese shreds (pepper jack or cheddar)
1/2 tsp salt
4-5 cracks of fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375.
In a skillet heated to medium-high heat, add turkey sausage, onion, and bell pepper. Break up the sausage with a wooden spoon, and cook stirring occasionally until all the sausage is browned and onions are translucent. Drain grease thoroughly.

Add the olive oil to a 3 qt casserole dish and spread it around with a paper towel to evenly coat the bottom. Place potatoes, mushrooms, Daiya, , salt, and sausage/veggie mixture into casserole dish and stir until well mixed. Sprinkle black pepper on top and bake for 40 minutes.

Turn broiler on to  high and broil for 2-5 minutes, until tops of potatoes are browned and crisp.

Great on it's own or with salsa.

Pumpkin Pancakes - Wheat/Gluten, Soy Free and Vegan

  This recipe for pumpkin pancakes came from the most recent issue of Something Special, a magazine for parents of children with special needs (for those of you new to this blog, my 3 year old son who has all these fun food allergies also has a rare chromosomal deletion resulting in intellectual disability). This is one of the few recipes I've ever found that we could follow exactly as written and these were wonderful. They tasted great, and not just for gluten free pancakes!
  Enjoy this yummy fall treat with other mix-ins like chopped nuts, raisins, or even vegan chocolate chips.
Makes approximately 12 5-inch pancakes (and several silver dollar sized pancakes, which my kids love!)

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 cups gluten free all purpose flour (We used Bob's RedMill GF All Purpose)
2 Tbl brown sugar
1 Tbl baking powder
1 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp ginger and 1/8 tsp ground cloves)
1 tsp salt
egg replacer for one egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 3/4 cup almond milk (or other non dairy milk), we used vanilla flavored
2 Tbl olive oil
Optional Soy Free Earth Balance buttery spread

Preheat a skillet on medium high heat.
Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix all wet ingredients together. Whisk wet ingredients into flour mixture and stir until thick and slightly lumpy.
Pour about 1/4 cup at a time onto hot skillet. Once top of pancakes are no longer shiny (1-3 minutes), flip and cook other side. Spread with a layer of Earth Balance and top with maple syrup.
*Tip* keep finished pancakes warm while you cook the rest, place in an oven heated to 200 degrees.

Lazy Peach Crisp - Wheat, Dairy, Soy Free

  Here's a fun fact; I used to work in the kitchen at a hospital birthing center. My job was to make the desserts for lunch and dinner everyday for all the new mamas, and one of my specialities was "Peach Crisp". When I was first introduced to the hospital's current version, I was horrified to see a gelatinous bowl of peach pie filling with a handful of graham cracker crumbs thrown on top and a plop of melted whip cream. Nothing screams "Get well soon so you can get the hell out of here and eat real food again!" like that sad, sorry dish.
  I only had what was available to us in the kitchen to work with, but with some ingenuity I morphed that worthless recipe into the best tasting institutional peach crisp that's ever been tasted, and we'd get plenty of post dinner calls from nurses, "*Sigh* Do you guys have any more peach crisp? Room 134 is requesting more".
  My recipe? Crushed frosted flakes, graham crackers, brown sugar, and melted butter mixed together into a crumbly mess and then scattered onto a casserole dish of drained sliced peaches and peach pie filling, baked until actually crisp. Yum!

 Oook, so where was I going with that? Oh yeah, I made a lazy version tonight (I would love to recreate teh real recipe once I find a decent graham cracker substitute) that I did not take a picture of because it in fact resembled the original sad, lame looking peach crisp recipe. Even though it wasn't a pretty presentation, I'm putting it on here because it tasted really very good and only required a few ingredients.

This recipe serves two generously.

Lazy Peach Crisp

1 can sliced peaches in light syrup
1/2 Tbl corn starch mixed with 1 Tbl water
1 Tbl brown sugar (or agave nectar, honey, stevia, etc)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup frosted corn flakes, crushed
1/2 cup vanilla SO Delicious coconut ice cream
cinnamon for sprinkling

In a small saucepan, heat peaches and syrup over medium heat.
Add in vanilla and brown sugar. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, stirring frequently. Once peaches begin to fall apart (about 10 minutes), slowly stir in corn starch/water mixture. Continue to stir until the syrup thickens, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool until luke warm. Serve in bowls with corn flake crumbs sprinkled on top and vanilla ice cream on the side.

Turkey Sausage Stuffing (Dressing) - Wheat, Dairy, Egg, Soy Free

  We're having a cold spell here in North Texas. With Fall just around the corner, it's like we got to start celebrating the new cooler season a little early. So today we had a mini Thanksgiving just for fun. We had grilled turkey cutlets, stuffing, and mashed potatoes and peach cobbler!
  I decided to make the stuffing on a whim and as such did not have all the ingredients, no celery or carrots and I usually would have made this with ground turkey sausage, but it was really good! I'd never thought of eating stuffing on any day other than Thanksgiving but this was easy enough that I think it could become a side dish (or even entree) we have often.

By the way, you could easily leave out the turkey to make this completely vegan and it would still be delicious, and add in sauteed celery and carrots for a more traditional stuffing.

This recipe makes 4 large servings.

Turkey Sausage Stuffing

6 slices of wheat free bread of choice (Food For Life White Rye)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup vegetable broth
1  turkey kielbasa sausage, sliced into coins OR ground turkey sausage
1 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp celery salt
1/8 tsp poultry seasoning
1/2 green apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
1/2 cup raisins
Soy Free Earth Balance buttery spread to grease pan

Preheat oven to 400.
Cut bread into half inch cubes, spread evenly on a cookie sheet, and bake 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and saute until transparent. Add vegetable broth to pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat slightly. Stir in salt, celery salt, and turkey sausage. Continue to simmer about 5 minutes (If using ground turkey sausage, cook until completely browned) .
In a mixing bowl, stir toasted bread cubes, apple, and raisins together. Pour broth mixture over bread cubes and stir until evenly coated. Sprinkle on poultry seasoning and toss to incorporate.
Spread a thin layer of Earth Balance around a 1.5 qt casserole dish. Pour stuffing mix into casserole dish and bake about 15-20 minutes, until the top begins to brown slightly.

Turkey Enchilada Casserole - Dairy, Wheat, Soy Free

  Ok, look. I know I am always saying everything is delicious but this is seriously DELICIOUS. I mean it. My dad came over for dinner tonight and I was nervous because he can sometimes have a hard time accepting Daiya cheese, but he raved how great it was through the whole meal, as did the rest of us.

  This involved a lot of cheese, it's not a typo, but trust me, it's great. The recipe made enough for 3 adults who ate way too much and two kids plus one portion leftover; you could halve the recipe pretty easily if making it for fewer people.

Mexican Enchilada Casserole

2 cups canned tomato sauce
3 Tbl chili powder
1/2 cup water

1/2 Tbl olive oil
1 1/2 lbs ground turkey
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 Tbl paprika
2 Tbl chili powder
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 bag Daiya cheddar shreds
1 bag Daiya pepper jack shreds
12 corn tortillas, cut in half
olive oil to grease dish

Preheat oven to 425.
In a medium sauce pan, stir tomato sauce, chili powder, and water together. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Simmer, stirring often, until sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a medium skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onion, turkey, and seasonings. Break turkey up while cooking until well crumbled and browned. Stir about 1/4 of the tomato sauce mixture into the turkey. Remove from heat.

Grease a 3 quart casserole dish. Mix pepper jack and cheddar cheeses together in a bowl or large ziploc bag. Place 8 tortilla on the bottom of the dish, arranging to cover as much of the bottom as possible. Spread about 1/3 of the cheese on top. Add 1/2 of the meat mixture, 1/3 of the remaining sauce, and repeat with the cheese, meat, sauce again. Top with remaining 8 tortilla halves, then spread on the rest of the sauce, making sure to completely wet all parts of the tortillas (other wise they will dry out and be pretty inedible). Sprinkle with the last of the cheese and bake for 20-30 minutes, until the edges are bubbly and brown.

Allow to cool 10 minutes and then cut and serve with black olives, sliced green onions, and cashew sour cream.

Ranch Mashed Potatoes - Vegan and Soy Free

  I don't know if anyone else does this, but my husband used to eat mashed potatoes with ranch dressing stirred in. Legend has it that he and his sister would never eat potatoes (or any vegetable, for that matter) unless properly coated in ranch and so this is how he learned to eat them. His palette has refined somewhat now, he will eat most any vegetable except broccoli, but he does still like his ranch potatoes.
  Rather than make ranch dressing to stir into the potatoes tonight I thought I'd try just adding most of the ingredients that go into ranch. It was much easier and tasted wonderful, so I am passing the recipe on down to you!

 You can use any instant mashed potato flakes that suit your needs, just prepare them as per package direction using unsweetened plain non dairy milk in place of milk and soy free Earth Balance in place of butter, OR you can boil and mash your own potatoes using the same ingredients.

Ranch Mashed Potatoes

By the way, that other thing is a turkey patty with gravy on it.
Not the prettiest looking thing.

4 servings of hot prepared mashed potatoes
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dried dill weed
1/8 tsp dried parsley
1/8 tsp dried basil
a few cracks of fresh ground black pepper
2 Tbl Soy Free Earth Balance

Stir all ingredients together. That's it!
Ideally these would be slightly thinner than normal mashed potatoes (imagine that you'd poured real ranch into regular potatoes), but if you want them to still be stiffer, leave out the extra Earth Balance.