Meals for the week of Aug 22-28th

This was our menu  for the last week of Aug. Sadly there are no pictures for this week because we hadn't really thought of this blog yet.

Toasted Coconut Shrimp with Peach Marmalade Dipping Sauce and White Rice
Cookbook: Gluten Free Everyday by Robert M. Landolphi

Yay or Nay: Yay! Pretty tasty.

Substitutions and Comments: We substituted the tapioca flour for white rice flour because we were out. Also instead of Old Bay seasoning, which we didn't have, we made our own version. You can find the recipe for it here - Make Your own Old Bay . We found that 3 inches of oil is WAY TOO MUCH. Help yourself and your heart and use less - just make sure there is enough oil to fry the shrimp.

Recipe

• 1 dozen medium shrimp, peeled
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 tapioca flour
• 1/2 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups finely shredded coconut
• Canola oil

Peach Marmalade Dipping Sauce

• 1/2 cup peach marmalade
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup honey

1. Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels and set aside.
2. For the coating: In a medium bowl, whisk cornstarch, tapioca flour, and Old Bay seasoning.
3. In a second bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy. Put coconut on a flat plate.
4. Coat each shrimp with cornstarch mixture and shake off excess. Then dip into egg whites, and finally roll in coconut.
5. In a heavy saute pan heat 3 inches of oil over medium-high heat. Fry 6 shrimp at a timeuntil lightly browned. Transfer to a plate with paper towls to drain.
6. For dipping sauce: In small bowl, whisk together dipping sauce ingredients

Smoked Gouda Polenta
Cookbook: Gluten Free Everyday by Robert M. Landolphi
Yay or Nay: Yay for sure!! This recipe was DELISH! Very fast and easy to make as well.
Substitutions and Comments: For those who have never had polenta before, it is cornmeal. It is a staple of Italian cooking and gluten-free to boot! We used a combo of beef broth and veggie broth instead of chicken because we already had a carton open.
Recipe

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp minced shallots
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups chicken stock or broth
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 3/4 smoked Gouda cheese
• salt and black pepper

1. In a medium saucepan, heat oil ove medium-high heat and saute shallots and garlic for 2 minutes
2. Add chicken stock and milk and bring to a boil
3. Gradually whisk in cornmeal. Decrease heat to medium and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, whisking frequently until mixture is thick and creamy.
4. Whisk in cheese until melted and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve at once.

Yellow Tomato Soup
Source: Cheap Healthy Good

Yay or Nay: Yay! This soup was great!

Substitutions and Comments: This soup was incredibly fresh because we used fresh yellow tomatoes from our garden. Andria burned herself really badly during the making of this soup. At one point the recipe calls for you to put the hot soup in the blender and even warns you to watch out that the blender doesn't explode. She heeded the warning and barely filled the blender up to a quarter full clamping down the lid...it still exploded. We ended up tranfering the soup to our food processor, which has a lid that locks in place to finish the recipe. In the confusion of the burn, we forgot to add the evaporated milk! D'oh! It's ok though, the soup still tasted great, just wasn't as creamy as originally intended. Eventually we want to try making this again, but with the milk and sans the burn.

Recipe: Yellow Tomato Soup


Ropa Vieja
Cookbook: The Slow Cooker Collection by Canadian Living

Yay or Nay: Yay! An interesting and unique dish full of flavour.

Substitutions and Comments: Ropa Vieja is a cuban shredded beef dish. The beef is then slowly cooked in a tomato sauce based mixture and shredded at the end. I just made my own dried Italian herb seasoning by combining dried oregano, parsley, basil, sage and thyme. We also used our own homemade tomato sauce and tomato paste for this! Instead of a dutch oven we just used a large sauce pot.

Recipe

• 2 lbs flank steak
• 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 1 cubanelle or sweet red pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander
• 1 can (398 ml) tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 2 bay leaves

1. Sprinkle both sides of steak with salt and pepper. In dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat and brown steak on both sides. Transfer to slow cooker.
2. Adding a little more oil if necessary, fry onions, pepper, garlic, cumin and oregano over medium heat until softened - about 5 mins.
3. Add broth and 1/2 cup of water, bring to boil scraping up brown bits from bottom.
4. Stir in 1 tbsp of the coriander. Stir in tomato sauce and paste, vinegar and bay leaves. Scrape over steak.
5. Cover and cook on low until steak is tender enough to pull apart with 2 forks, about 5 hours.
6. Discard bay leaves. Cut steak across grain into quarters. Shred with 2 forks. Garnish with remaining coriander. Return to sauce, coat and heat through.

Rosemary Risotto with Borlotti Beans and Mascarpone
Cookbook: Three and Four Ingredient Cookbook by Jenny White and Joanna Farrow

Yay or Nay: Yay! This recipe was very creamy and tasty!

Substitutions and Comments: Just want to say that this cookbook is both our favourite and has the TASTIEST recipes ever. We have never made a recipe from this book that did not turn out to be delicious. We didn't use a store bought risotto pack for this recipe. Instead we made our own simple chicken broth risotto using the followings steps.

1. Bring 6 1/ 2 cups of chicken broth to a simmer
2. Put 1 3/4 cups arborio rice into a pot with a small dab of oil and fry for 1 minute.
3. Add a ladleful of chicken broth and stir continously ntil broth is absorbed. Repeat until all broth is absorbed by the rice.
4. TAA DAA! Your own simple plain risotto!

Recipe

• 1 can (14 oz) borlotti beans (borlotti beans are sometimes called romano beans)
• 1 packet (10 oz) vegetable of chicken risotto
• 4 tbsp mascarpone cheese
• 1 tsp finely chopped rosemary

1. Drain beans and rinse in strainer under cold water.
2. Process 2/3 of the beans into a fairly coarse puree in food processor or blender. Set aside remaining beans
3. Make risotto according to package (or according to our handy directions above!).
4. Immediately after the rice is cooked, stir in bean puree. Add the reserved beans, mascarpone and rosemary. Stir throrougly, then cover and leave to stand for 5 mins so that risotto absorbs flavours.

Whew! Ok that was alot for one post. We are gonna try and do daily posts or at least once every other day so that we dont have like 7 recipes in one post!