Brown Rice Pasta with Chicken Sausage!

Hey there people! Looking for a quick and easy recipe? This dish was super fast, delicious, and loaded with nutritional benefits. Here are the details:

Ingredients:

1 cup of brown rice pasta

2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach

1/2 can of kidney beans

2 links of chicken sausage (can usually be found in your grocers meat section)

3 tablespoons of olive oil

Dash of salt/pepper

Boil a pot of water and cook the pasta for about 10 minutes over medium heat. Strain and put aside. In a separate pan, cook bite sized pieces of chopped sausage links in a skillet over medium heat. Be sure to flip each pieces every few minutes to ensure all sides are golden brown. Cook sausage completely through and put aside with pasta. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the same pan and toss in all of the baby spinach over medium-low heat. Stir often and cook until spinach has decreased in size. Then add the kidney beans. Allow the ingredients to cook for an additional minute and add them to the pasta/sausage that was set aside. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the mix, dashing in salt and pepper. Mix and enjoy!

xoxo AA

Gluten Free Fair!

This weekend I had the awesome chance to attend a gluten free fair. To me...this was Mecca!! Walking into the rather small banquet hall, I had my reservations. Those reservations completely vanished when I hit up my 1st booth for a free sample. Chocolate chip cookies? I think yes :) Not only was the food delicious, but the people were wonderful, and for me, I think that was the best part. Because I am so new to the vegan/vegetarian/gluten free/dairy free/nutritionally packed world- I was overwhelmed with the friendly feeling and willingness of others to share their experiences. 1 of my goals at the moment is to learn how to make delicious gluten free, dairy free cupcakes. Luckily, many booths were geared towards just that. Each representative gladly shared with me the types of flours they used, what xanthium gum was, and what tasted best- after sharing my goal with them. At 1 booth, I encountered an older couple who had discovered how to make gluten free bread mixes with almost no loss in taste from a typical gluten filled loaf. I immediately supported their efforts after tasting an amazing buckwheat loaf and I am excited to bake my 1st loaf of bread! I was also able to find some kelp noodles- delicious clear noodles made from sea kelp and high in minerals. They are great in salads- and I will be posting a recipe once I am able to use them :) Hint- chickpeas, hot peppers, and tomatoes go best with just a little olive oil and salt! My favorite part of the day- seeing a fellow School of Integrated Nutrition member- on the main stage, teaching a class of people how to cook! Not only was she confident, cool, and collected, but also inspiring and cooking a wonderfully delicious and nutritious meal. I was able to snap a photo of her in action.



She kicked some serious gluten free butt! I will be sure to share my new food learnings and recipes from this fair here soon and encourage all of you to get out there and try something new! I am so grateful for the experience I had today with the wonderful and supportive community within the nutrition world and I so look forward to my many more experiences with others here on the West Coast who have a love for delicious food and a happy life :)
xoxo AA

Quinoa Stir Fry with Bok Choy and Chicken Recipe

Hello world! I wanted to share this delicious new recipe with you because not only is it savory and full of flavor, but is loaded with nutrients and can be cooked in a variety of ways to suit your tastes! Here are the main ingredients to get ya cookin' in the kitchen:

1 cup of cooked quinoa
1/2 cup Bok Choy (both the leafy green and the crunchy crisp white stems!)
2 full chicken breasts OR the vegan route: 1 container of hard tofu
1/2 chopped yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons or rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons of soy sauce OR Tamari (Gluten Free!)
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Optional add in!:
1 chopped red pepper

Start in a medium heat pan by sautéing the onions in garlic in a touch of olive oil. Add in the quinoa, veggies, and tofu and stir fry together until softer in texture. Add in the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and sesame seeds and mix together into the all parts are combined! If you are using chicken instead of tofu, be sure that the chicken is cooked through fully 1st before adding in the other ingredients.

Nutritional benefits:
Quinoa is a super food! Loaded with vitamins, nutrients, and minerals
Boy Choy is a leafy green vegetable high in minerals and proteins
Red Pepper is high in alkaline, helping the body to break down acids more easily!

For more healthy, delicious, and easy recipes- keep your eyes peeled here!
xoxo AA

Mac and Cheese Recipe- Gluten Free, Dairy Free!

To me, this is one of the most exciting recipes I have come across since I started living gluten and dairy free a year ago. A little backstory for you here: I had a serious macaroni and cheese obsession as a child. I know many of you are saying, yes, we all did...no trust me- it got so bad that by the age of 6 my parents taught me how to make the blue box (Kraft) on my own. Whether it was my 6 year old smarts that had convinced them, or the sheer convenience of me making it myself as appose to them getting in the kitchen 3 times a day to do it for me- it happened. These days, finding a substitute for the real thing has been a tough journey. Luckily, I have a smart and dedicated man who was up for the challenge. This picture is the dish he created- a masterpiece:

Source: Uploaded by user via Amanda on Pinterest

I will be attempting the dish on my own this week and I have a feeling I will have similar success so I wanted to share the recipe ASAP and get the word out there for all of you crazy mac and cheese obsessed fans such as myself:

1/2 bag of GF pasta (rice pasta shells work great)
1/2 cup of Coconut milk (or creamer)
2 cups of Almond milk
1 tablespoon GF yeast flakes
1 tablespoon GF breadcrumbs (set aside)
1 package of Soy cheeze or Rice Cheeze (stay away from vegan cheese- the flavor is lacking)

Boil the pasta and set aside. In a small sauce pan over medium heat combine and continually stir all of the ingredients. Once the cheeze is fully melted, add the mixture to the pasta and stir until all of the shells are completely covered. Finally, add the breadcrumbs to complete!

I hope you enjoy this masterpiece as much as I did/will continue to do :)

xoxo AA

Cilantro Thai Chicken Recipe- Gluten Free, Dairy Free!

Hello world- With a lot of cooking going on these days I've decided it's time to start sharing my yummy creations on my blog. The main reason is because I live a gluten free/dairy free lifestyle 80% of the time (those other 20% are for on the weekends when I decide to indulge and deal with the consequences) so when I am able to get something to taste good on my diet...I better spread the word! Here is the Cilantro Lime Chicken dish I snagged and successfully cooked from a link on Pinterest:

Source: Uploaded by user via Amanda on Pinterest

It was super easy to make and extremely tasty- here are the ingredients/directions:
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup cilantro
2 tablespoons asian fish sauce
1 tablespoon of GF soy sauce (also known as Tamari)
Put all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until a paste like consistency.

Marinate (place the mixture in the fridge with) the 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts for 15-30mins. Put the mixture with the chicken into a non-stick pan and cook in the oven on 425 degrees for 30 minutes or until the chicken is golden brown (you can also broil for 20 mins).

This is served over gluten free rice pasta noodles with sugar snap peas- but any variation of the 2 will work!

Enjoy :)
xoxo AA