Easy Home Made Pasta Sauce + Baked Mini Turkey Meatballs - Dairy/Soy/Egg/Wheat Free

 We signed up for a food Co-op! We pay $15 every two weeks to get a laundry basket full of assorted fresh in-season fruits and vegetables! (You can find out if there's one in your area here BountifulBaskets.org).

 Anyway, with that said, we've ended up with some produce that we normally would not purchase, namely tomatoes. I hate tomatoes (HATE them!!), but I can eat them once processed, like in pasta sauce. Pasta sauce is so cheap that I usually just buy it in a jar, but since we a. are trying to get away from pre-packaged and processed foods and b. have a bunch of tomatoes to get rid of, I decided to try to make my own. It turned out to be surprisingly easy and so much tastier than purchased sauce. I think I may try to make some in a larger batch and can it. Hmmm...

Easy Pasta Sauce

1 tsp  olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil (or 1 tsp dried)
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/8 tsp sea salt
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
7 medium tomatoes, coarsely shopped and juices retained

In a medium sized saucepan, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add in the remaining ingredients, including tomato juices, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer about 30 minutes.

Baked Mini Turkey Meatballs

16 oz 85% ground turkey (you can use leaner meat but you will have drier meatballs)
2/3 cup quick cooking oats (use GF oats if you choose)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 Tbsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp chopped fresh basil

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until just mixed. Do not over work the meat mixture or your meatballs may get tough!
Spread about 1 cup pasta sauce on a baking sheet.
Form the meat into balls about the size of large grapes (about 1 Tbsp meat each), to form about 30 meatballs, and place them evenly on the sauced baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

You can then either serve this with your pasta sauce and pasta, or once cooled, place the entire cookie sheet in the freezer. After the meatballs are frozen you can place them in a freezer bag and reheat them in the oven, in boiling pasta sauce, or in the microwave!

Turkey Fried Orzo - Soy, Rice, Egg Free

 The first Saturday of every month, Chris and I leave the kids at Parents Night Out and go to a Chinese buffet. The place we go to isn't extravagant or anything, but I love going because I can get my fill of fried rice that otherwise is totally off limits to us. We've done fried quinoa at home and while it's good, it just doesn't hit the spot the same way.
  Maybe I'm the last person on earth to know about orzo, but I had no idea what it was until I was walking down a grocery store isle this morning and noticed a box of what looked like rice in well known pasta brand box. Intrigued, I bought a box and then went home and Googled "What to do with orzo" and found that most people used it in place of rice in recipes. (For those like me who don't know, orzo is tiny rice shaped pasta. The brand I found was made entirely out of wheat, no eggs or other ingredients.)
 I decided to try to make fried 'rice' with the orzo and it was great! Of course, with no real traditional soy sauce and without the egg, it still isn't spot on, but it's much closer than fried quinoa!

Turkey Fried Orzo

1 package turkey cutlets, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 Tbl olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
several cracks of fresh ground black pepper
1 Tb olive oil
half white onion, diced
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups cooked orzo, drained
2 Tbl coconut aminos (soy sauce substitute)
1/2 cup frozen peas and carrots, thawed
3 stalks green onion, diced

In a wok or large skillet, 1/2 Tbl heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add turkey to wok, sprinkle with salt and pepper and stir fry until completely cooked. Remove from wok and set aside.
Add 1 Tbl olive oil and fry onions until transparent. Pour vegetable broth into wok and cook until it is reduced by about half. Add in cooked orzo and stir constantly, scraping the bottom to avoid sticking, until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add coconut aminos, peas and carrots, and stir rapidly, about 5 minutes. Return turkey to wok and stir until heated through. Stir green onions is just before serving.

Baked Turkey Meatballs - Egg, Dairy, Wheat/Gluten Free

  Still haven't found the camera, and my phone's camera leaves a little something to be desired...

  We had spaghetti and meatballs last night and think I am in love! The meatballs were yummy and so easy to make and can be made ahead and frozen (directions for freezing and reheating at the bottom). Everyone loved them, and they were easy to cut into bite size pieces for Jack to pick up without falling apart. Yay for meatballs!

Baked Turkey Meatballs

1.25 lbs lean ground turkey
2 Tbl Worcestershire sauce (or ketchup)
2 slices allergen free bread of choice, processed into crumbs OR prepared wheat/gluten/allergen free bread crumbs
1 Tbl olive oil
2/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 Tbl Italian seasonings
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup Daiya Mozzarella Shreds (optional)

Preheat oven to 375.
Line a small casserole dish with parchment paper.
Mix all ingredients together until well blended. Form about 1 1/2 Tbl scoops of meat mixture into balls with your hands. Place meatballs in casserole dish leaving about 1/8 of an inch or more in between each to allow even cooking.
Bake for 25 minutes, until cooked all the way through and lightly browned on top.

To freeze, drain fat/juices out of casserole dish. Cover dish with a paper towel and let cool about 20 minutes. Remove paper towel, place casserole dish in the freezer, and freeze about 1 hour (This step will keep your frozen meatballs from sticking to each other). Remove meatballs from casserole dish and place in zippered freezer bag. When you want to reheat, remove as many as you need and heat at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. You could boil them in pasta sauce or microwave them too, I'm sure, but I can't guess at the time.

"Pizza" Pasta - Wheat/Gluten, Soy, Dairy Free

 So this is not so much of a recipe as a meal idea, but this was so yummy and quick I had to share! It was brought about by a mistake I made. Before leaving the house to run some errands, I pulled what I thought was ground turkey out of the freezer to thaw as I was planning on making a quinoa/turkey meatloaf. Well, when I got home I realized I had grabbed turkey breasts that my husband wants to smoke tomorrow. So I started digging through the fridge hoping for some inspiration and happened upon some smoked turkey sausage (Butterball brand, as others have soy and/or beef or pork casing) and figured, what the heck.

Anyway, what we came up with was actually super yummy. I have mixed Diaya with pasta with red sauce before and it wasn't as good and the reason, I discovered, is the order you mix them together in. The way the melted cheese mixes with the pasta sauce makes a creamy, orange-ish sauce reminiscent of Chef Boyardee, rather than red sauce with pieces of mozzarella in it.

  So here is the recipe, I hope you like it! It's super kid friendly!

Pizza Pasta

1 package corn pasta, any small shape (read: not spaghetti)
2 Butterball smoked turkey sausages, cut into bite size pieces
1 jar (about 20 oz) your favorite allergy free pasta sauce. We like HEB brand garlic and herb sauce.
1 cup Daiya mozzarella shreds

Cook pasta according to package directions. Once drained, immediately return to pot and add Diaya. Stir until cheese is completely melted. Stir in pasta sauce and sausage. If it's not hot enough, heat over medium heat while stirring constantly since Diaya can burn easily.

Actually Good Vegan Mac and Cheese- Soy/Wheat/Gluten Free

  So I've already posted a recipe for cheese sauce in the recipe for Cheeseburger Macaroni, but since Macaroni and Cheese is a more common (and much easier) dish, I thought I'd make it a seperate post.
 Most vegan 'cheese' sauce is one of those things that is so hard to get used to. A lot of people say that you'll like it more the longer it's been since you've actually had cheese... well as someone who eats real cheese when we eat out occassionally (since we are not vegans but rather avoid almost all animal products at home due to our son's severe allergies), I don't have months or years to dedicate to forgetting what real cheese tastes like! This cheese sauce is delicious and DOES taste (and feel!) like cheese sauce though. It's a milder flavor than that neon orange powdered Kraft stuff, but that stuff isn't cheese either... if you've ever had homemade mac and cheese, the flavor is very similar to that.

 Keep in mind that when making this sauce, it's really not necessary to measure exactly. I'll put measurements to give you an idea of how much you need and you can certainly use them, but you'll probably want to tweak this a little for your own tastes anyways. Enjoy!

Vegan Macaroni and Cheese

12 oz corn or corn/quinoa pasta elbows, cooked according to package directions
3 Tbl Earth Balance Soy Free Buttery Spread
3/4 cup unsweetened plain almond milk, divided (or other plain non dairy milk of your choice)
1/2 package (about a cup) of Daiya Cheddar Cheese shreds
big pinch of each garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt, ground mustard and turmeric*
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup of water (if needed)

In a small saucepan, heat buttery spread and 1/2 cup of almond milk on medium heat until butter is completely melted. Add Daiya cheese shreds and stir until almost all melted. Add in the seasonings and stir to incorporate. Whisk in lemon juice and remaining milk and continue stirring until all the cheese shreds are melted. Remove from heat. If sauce is too thick, add water. The sauce will thicken slightly when it cools. Pour cheese sauce over cooked macaroni, stir well and enjoy!

*The turmeric is just for color. If you don't have it, it's not a big deal

Bacon Cheeseburger Macaroni - Wheat, Dairy, and Soy Free

  So let me preface this post by saying that I have tried for quite some time to find a reasonable tasting 'cheese' sauce to make vegan macaroni and cheese. I've found recipes calling for tofu, I've found recipes calling for heaps of nutritional yeast flakes and flour, I've found recipes that call for copious amounts of mustard and it all tastes terrible. And even those in which the flavor is at least decent, it's nothing like cheese.
  Today I was making lunch for the boys and this just came to me. It's so simple... this recipe surely must already exist but if it does I have never come across it in all my vegan cheese searches. AND IT ACTUALLY TASTED LIKE CHEESE!

 I knew I had to do something with it this very night and so I settled on a version of one of Chris and my favorite dishes from our past life: Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper. How can you go wrong with ground meat, noodles, and cheese??

Bacon Cheeseburger Macaroni



1 small white onion, chopped
1 Tbl olive oil
1 lb lean ground turkey
2 cloves garlic, minced
a few dashes of Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce (optional)
3/4 cup unsweetened plain almond milk
3 Tbl Soy Free Earth Balance Buttery Spread
1 cup Daiya Cheddar Shreds (plus more for topping)
1 tsp sea salt
a dash of turmeric (optional, mainly just for color)
3 tsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 Tbl cornstarch + 2 Tbl cold water, mixed until there are no lumps
12 oz cooked corn pasta elbows, spirals, or shells
2 slices Food For Life White Rye bread
1/8 tsp sea salt
2 slices turkey bacon, sliced into pieces

Pre Heat oven to 350.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Add onions and garlic and saute until onion is transparent, about 3 minutes. Add turkey and Worcestershire sauce, if using, and brown about 6-7 minutes. Remove from heat. Drain if excess fluid remains, though with lean turkey there really shouldn't be much.
Meanwhile in a small sauce pan, heat butter and almond milk over medium heat until steaming and butter is completely melted. Add Daiya and stir frequently until shreds are almost all melted. Add salt, turmeric, and nutritional yeast and stir well. Slowly stir in cornstarch/water mixture and continue to stir until cheese sauce has thickened.
Pour the cheese sauce into the skillet and stir until the turkey and cheese are mixed well. Add pasta and toss to coat everything evenly.
Pour the pasta mixture into a large casserole dish. Set aside.
In a blender or food processor, process bread slices and salt into bread crumbs. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of pasta mixture, then top with a small handful of Daiya Cheddar Shreds and turkey bacon pieces.
Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until turkey bacon is crisp and bread crumbs are toasted. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

Quick Minestrone Soup - Vegan and Wheat Free

 It's Meatless Monday! Today I actually got a call from a project director of Meatless Monday. She wanted to interview me about how going meatless has changed and enriched our lives. I know, as the mom of a child with multiple food allergies, it seems almost stupid to commit to restricting our diets even more one night a week. But for us, realizing that not every meal had to follow the meat/veggies/carb model really opened my eyes. I started looking at and adapting vegan and vegetarian recipes and a whole new world was suddenly made visible to me. I discovered polenta, all the ways chickpeas can be used, and that you can create whole meals that satisfy everyone for half the price of a recipe including meat. Allergies suck, but even though we've removed whole food groups from our diet, we eat more varied and nutritionally complete foods than the typical american diet, and for that I am (almost) thankful for multiple food allergies.

  Anyway, I would like to make minestrone from scratch soon, the kind you simmer on the stove for 5-6 hours. But in the meantime, here is a super fast and tasty version to make on busy nights :)

Quick and Easy Minestrone Soup

28oz vegetable stock 
1 can italian seasoned stewed tomatoes, drained
1 can black beans (or kidney beans), drained and rinsed
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables, such as italian style or country mix
2 tsp italian seasoning, crushed
1 1/2 tsp onion powder
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp sea salt
a few cracks of fresh ground black pepper
3 Tbl marinara sauce (optional)
14 oz corn-quinoa pasta elbows or other shapes

In a medium/large stock pot over high high heat, add vegetable stock, tomatoes, beans and chickpeas, and bring to a boil, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add the rest of the ingredients except pasta. Return to a boil, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add pasta and cover, simmering for 6-9 minutes, or until pasta is tender. Remove from heat, adjust seasonings to taste, and serve with nutritional yeast flakes sprinkled on top and yummy garlic toast to dip in it!

Dairy, Egg, and Wheat Free Italian Turkey Bake

  I love cooking from scratch! I love taking whole ingredients and turning them into something yummy. But I'm also a busy mom and often have to find something that can be made without much thought, time, or prep work. I thought I was on to something with chili until my darling dearest husband revealed that he actually doesn't care for chili all that much, so now he's sleeping on the couch (just kidding!) and I'm onto the next thing!
  As a side note, since finding out Jack is also allergic to rice, bread-type products (including cookies) have become even harder to find. We did find one great bread, Food For Life's White Rye. It's all of our allergies-free and while it's tougher than wheat breads, it had that 'gluteny' quality that gluten free rice based breads simply lack. Pasta wasn't quite so difficult, we found lots of corn based pastas and even some made from a quinoa/corn mix by Ancient Harvest that is very good. The only pasta that we haven't found is a non-wheat, non-rice lasagna noodle. We're still on a search for a good, non-crumbly cookie that travels well.

  Anyway, tonight was one of those nights where I was very uninspired and wanted to find something quick and comforting, and this meal definately fit the bill! There's nothing really 'from scratch' about this recipe, except the bread crumbs, but that was fine by me tonight. Everyone loved it, even Jack had seconds!

Italian Turkey Bake

1 lb ground turkey
2 cups dried corn/quinoa pasta (whatever shape you like except spaghetti)
1 can italian seasoned stewed tomatoes, drained
1 cup soy/dairy free pasta sauce (We used Bertolli garlic and mushroom)
1/2 cup baby spinach leaves
1/2 cup Daiya mozzarella shreds
1 clove minced garlic
1 Tbl italian seasonings
6 cups water
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup wheat/dairy/egg free bread crumbs*

Preheat oven to 350.
Add 6 cups water and a shake or two of salt to medium saucepan and heat over medium high heat. Once boiling, add pasta, reduce heat and cook 6-8 minutes or until pasta is al dente. Drain and set aside. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat garlic for 30 seconds and then add turkey meat, stirring frequently to break it up while it browns. Once brown, add stewed tomatoes, pasta sauce, and spinach. Stir well and cook over low heat until spinach is wilted. Add pasta to sauce/meat mixture and stir well. Place pasta in medium casserole dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs and mozzarella shreds. Bake 15-20 minutes, until cheese is melted and slightly browned. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

  Some sauteed onions and/or bell peppers would be nice thrown in here. I also sprinkled mine with red pepper flakes for some extra kick. I can't get enough of spicy food lately.

* I made bread crumbs by placing 2 slices of Food For Life brand White Rye bread into the food processor with 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp parsely, and 1 tsp onion powder, that I then processed until it was all evenly broken up, and then spread the crumbs onto a cookie sheet and put them in the oven while it preheated (10 mins or so).

Homemade Ravioli - Gluten, Wheat, Egg, and Dairy Free

  Chris had a bad day today... he had to run a route he wasn't used to and his GPS died on him, he worked almost 12 hours and then when he got out to the truck it wouldn't start. He went looking for someone to help jump him but everyone else had left at a more reasonable time. Anyway, he finally got it started and came home. I am thankful that this was the night I chose to make pasta from scratch, because he said it was so good it really helped make his day a lot better <3

  I don't know why I got it in my mind that I should make ravioli or tortellini by hand but I searched high and low for recipes and ended up making a version of the recipe I found on adventuresofaglutenfreemom.com. I didn't have tapioca starch so I used potato starch, otherwise it's the same recipe. And it was FABULOUS! I won't say it was easy, but it wasn't hard, it was mostly just time consuming. It was nice though, I got into a little bit of a zone making the tortellini and it was actually pretty relaxing.

  Here's the recipe for the dough. You can make any type of pasta shape you want out of this, even noodles. I watched this video and learned how to make tortellini (a lot easier than it seems), and did a super simple ravioli by cutting a small square of dough, placing a tsp of filling in the center, then folding all the corners to meet in the middle like a little pyramid and pinching the seams. Everyone agreed the tortellini was better for catching the sauce, but of course they all tasted the same.

Wheat and Egg Free Pasta Dough

2/3 cup brown rice flour (plus more to flour your work surfaces)
1/3 cup potato starch or tapioca starch
1/2 tsp guar or xanthan gum
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup warm water
1 Tbs olive oil
*more water if needed

Combine flour, starch, gum, and salt in a small bowl. Pour into  bowl of stand mixer. Turn mixer onto the lowest setting and slowly add in the 1/4 cup warm water and olive oil. Gradually increase speed of mixer to medium and mix about 2 minutes. Evaluate the dough. If it is crumbly and not sticking together, slowly add 1 Tbs at a time of water. You want the dough to form a "ball" but not be sticky to the touch.
Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
For any shape you decide on, you'll have to lightly flour a cutting board, lightly flour your rolling pin, and roll 1/4 of the dough at a time (keeping the rest in the fridge). Roll the dough very thin, about 1/8 of an inch or less.
Wet the edges with a wet finger ever so slightly before pressing together.
After filling, add prepared pasta to salted boiling water. When they float (about 3 minutes) they are done!

Turkey Pasta Filling

1/2 lb ground turkey
1 small onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbl dried oregeno
1 Tbl dried basil
2 Tbl Daiya Mozzarella Cheese Shreds (optional)
salt to taste
1 Tbl flax meal mixed with 3 Tbl water (called flaxgel)

Over medium heat, brown turkey, onion, and garlic. Cook until meat is done, onion is soft, and no pan juices remain in the skillet. Remove from heat and stir in herbs, cheese and salt. Mix in flaxgel.
Cool before using to fill pasta.

This made way more filling than I ended up using, so I mixed the rest in with the pasta sauce.



And there you have it. After the pasta is shaped, you can either cook it immediately, or freeze it until you are ready. Eitherway, just throw them in lightly salted boiling water. When they float, they are done.