Chicken Tortilla Soup with Lime and Sundried Tomatoes

Let's say you want to feed a family with one chicken breast. And let's say that you also want to to feed them something nutritious, with lots of whole foods and fresh ingredients. And lets ALSO say that whatever you make, it has to taste AMAZING. Well do I have a recipe for YOU!

When Nate and I got married (has it been 3 years already?) my parents gave us a week at a timeshare in Cancun, Mexico. If you are like me, you like to pack your vacations as full of activities and sightseeing as possible. Mayan pyramids! Freshwater lagoons! Underground rivers! Swimming with Dolphins! Jet skis! Snorkeling! Dancing! Dining!



But not this time. If you have ever been through the insanity of a wedding, you know that once the rings are on and the gown is off, all you want to do is lay on a white sandy beach for a week and chilaaaax. Which is exactly what we did. Every day we got up at noon, wandered down to the palapa for a quick bite, and then spent the rest of the day zoned out on a beach chair, piña coladas in hand. Oh, I suppose occasionally we also, I don't know, read a novel or two as well. It was kind of heavenly.

One of the great things about Mexico is, well, Hot Damn! Do they have great Mexican food! We had some pretty amazing meals while we were there. But honestly, I think one of my favorite meals from that trip was the tortilla soup we had at the palapa every day. It's simple, requires few ingredients, is healthy and low in calories (if you care about those things!), and packs a lot of punch in the flavor department. Limes. Sundried tomatoes. Queso Fresco. It's kind of amazing. Don't trust me? Try it. You'll like it!

Chicken Tortilla Soup with Lime and Sundried Tomatoes

In this recipe I had to use "mexican cheese blend" because, well, when you have a newborn baby you can't exactly just run out to the store everytime you forget something. So I had to make do. If you CAN find it near you, I recommend buying "queso fresco" a mild and crumbly fresh Mexican cheese. If you can't find it that's ok: a mild cheddar should do you just fine.

SOUP INGREDIENTS
1 quart low sodium chicken stock
1 chicken breast
4 corn tortillas, slightly dried out (just leave them out while you do other stuff)
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1 jalapeño (optional) seeded and minced
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 large juicy limes
2 splashes olive oil
kosher salt
freshly cracked pepper
1 pint cherry tomatoes
queso fresco

OTHER OPTIONAL TOPPINGS
avocado cubes
chopped cilantro


RECIPE
preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pat the chicken breast dry, then add a splash of olive oil to chicken. Salt an pepper liberally on both sides, and roast in over for 25 - 30 minutes until golden and cooked through.


Meanwhile, heat a splash of olive oil in a large heavy bottomed cast iron pot (a regular soup pot us ok too). Saute onions, garlic, and jalapeño in the oil until just golden.

Add the stock to the pot.

And add the fire roasted tomatoes.

Add the juice of two limes. Mmm. Limes. Yummy. Bring to a simmer.

Remember that chicken? Bring it out of the oven, and let it cool down for 10 - 15 minutes, until it's cool enough to handle. Then, shred that sucker. Use two forks. It's easy!

When it's done, it should look like this. Add that to the pot with the stock. Ok.

THE END. Goodbye.

Just kidding.

Oh yeah. Toppings. DUH. Remember those tomatoes? We are going to roast them! Cut them all in half, and toss them with a splash of olive oil, some kosher salt, and some pepper. Roast them in the over at 200 degrees. When they are chewy (40 minutes or so?) they are done.

Slice the tortillas into matchstick thin slices.

Until they look like this.

Saute them in a little oilve oil on high heat, until they are crunchy.

Ok. NOW you are done.

Unless you want some other stuff. Like avocados. Or cheese. Oh, and those tomatoes? I was totally going to take a picture of them. But I ate them all before I could. They were really good. No. Really, REALLY good.

To assemble, ladle soup into bowls. Top with tortilla strips (don't add the tortilla strips until JUST before serving. Otherwise they will get soggy. Ad nobody like soggy tortillas. Yuck.) Top with tomatoes, cheese, avocado, whatever.



Enjoy!

Grandmommy's Gluten-Free Flourless Chocolate Cake with Macerated Strawberries and Real Whipped Cream

One of the hardest parts about being on a "restricted diet," as they call it, is that you become "that girl." You all know what I'm talking about. Haven't you ever stood behind some blond toothpick of a girl at Starbucks who orders a tall, half-skinny, half-soy, quad split shot (2 shots decaf, 2 shots regular) latte, extra hot 160 degrees, with extra foam (and can that be whole milk foam please?), in a double cupped grande cup, with a 1/2 pump of sugar free cinnamon dolce syrup, 1/2 pump vanilla syrup, and 1 packet of splenda, and can you put the splenda in first before anything else? And sprinkle the top with extra cinnamon?

Who hasn't rolled their eyes at that girl?

The thing is, when I see a waiter coming at me in a restaurant, I start to feel like I'm that girl. Take the first night I was in the hospital as an example: the nurse brought me my "gluten-free meal" and I pulled off the cover to find... lasagna with wheat noodles. Doubting that the hospital kitchen had gone through all the trouble of making gluten-free lasagna just for me, I told her I couldn't eat it. It wasn't gluten-free. She was taken aback, but she took the meal away and brought me... a breaded chicken cutlet. "I can't eat this either!" I said. Obviously very annoyed with me now, she asked, "can't you just scrape the bread off?" No! I said. It will make me very sick! And then she told me, in so many words, "tough luck! If you don't like what the kitchen is making, your husband can go buy you something else. This is all there is." So Nate had to leave the hospital and find me a gluten-free meal somewhere else.

Look, if this were your normal average Joe, I would get that she didn't really know what gluten is. I didn't have a clue about it until little over a year ago. But this is a NURSE in a HOSPITAL. Shouldn't she, somewhere in her education and experience, have heard of celiac disease? Or gluten intolerance? Or even a wheat allergy for goodness sakes? (Thankfully the next morning the nutritionist came in, arranged all the rest of my meals, and slapped a red hot "ALLERGY: GLUTEN" bracelet on my wrist, confirming that I was, indeed, actually afflicted with something besides being a snobby picky eater).




I guess what I'm trying to say is, the hardest part about being on a restricted diet is when people mistake your real, life-threatening health issue for snobby picky eating. No, I can't just scrape the breading off a chicken cutlet. I'm not refusing to eat it because I'm too good for it. If my food even touches gluten, I'll get sick. If my food is cooked in the same pan as something breaded, or handled with the same utensils, of if someone say, handles a piece of bread and then touches my food without washing their hands, I'll get sick. For me, even a little contamination means three days in the bathroom being miserable. So I have to be "that girl," because if I'm not, I'll get really, really ill. And I hate being that girl.

So when someone goes out of their way to accommodate my special diet, to make sure that I am safe, I really, really appreciate it. Like all the wonderful people who have brought us gluten-free meals over the past two weeks. You rock!



When I first told my family I thought I had celiac disease, they thought I was crazy. Another one of Beck's hypochondriac self-diagnoses, to be tolerated until she gets over it and moves on to the next crazy thing. Except, of course, I just felt so DAMN good being off the gluten. EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERY ONE of my other undiagnosable "mystery" conditions improved or went away. Diabetes. PCOS. Fibromyalgia. Peripheral Neuropathy. And of course, the bloating, cramping, constipation, lethargy, fatigue, depression, acne, and facial flushing. Gone! Like a miracle!

So I've been off the gluten for almost a year and a half, and I have never felt better. My mom, in particular, has always been the skeptic about my million health issues. So I can't tell you how touched I was when my mom, she who sort of hates baking, made this gluten-free, flourless chocolate cake just for me. And it was really good!

So here's to grandmommy's chocolate cake. Look, if MY mom can make it, you can do! So if you only have one gluten-free recipe in your repertoire, let it be this one!

Grandmommy and baby James





Grandmommy's Gluten-Free Flourless Chocolate Cake with Dar Chocolate Glaze, served with Macerated Strawberries and Homemade Whipped Cream

1 gluten-free flourless chocolate cake
2 pints fresh strawberries
1 pint whipping cream
1/4 cup + 2 tbs sugar
1 tbs balsamic vinegar

1. Bake the cake according to the directions. Set aside (can be prepared up to a day ahead).

2. Rinse, hull, and quarter the strawberries. Sprinkle the strawberries with 2 tbs sugar and the balsamic vinegar. Toss to coat. Let sit at least 10 minutes.

3. In a stand mixer or with a hand blender, beat the whipping cream on high until soft peaks begin to form. Add the 1/4 cup of sugar slowly, and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Don't overbeat, or you'll end up with butter!

4. Cut a slice of cake. Top with a dollop of whipped cream, and a big spoonful of strawberries. MMmm. Enjoy!

Picking the Perfect Tomato

If you had told me a year ago that come next March, I would be nine months pregnant with my very own bouncing baby belly, well, I would have laughed at you. Moi? Pregnant? Doctors have been telling me for YEARS that's never going to happen. I have been blessed cursed given an especially infertile body. Since I was about 16 the message has been clear: NO BABIES. I always thought that when the time came for children, I would just skip the whole heart-rending saga of failed rounds of fertility treatments and adopt.

This does have something to do with tomatoes. I promise.

Have you ever eaten a perfectly ripe heirloom tomato, picked that very morning? I think a ripe heirloom tomato is sure proof that God loves humankind. If we could all just stop fighting wars, destroying the planet, wrecking the economy, and grow tomatoes instead, I think there would be more peace on Earth. The perfume is so sweet, the texture so melting, the taste so intensely pleasurable it's (forgive me) orgasmic. Eat a plate of them, and you'll want to lean back in your chair, close your eyes, and moan with pleasure.

And that's exactly what I did when I ate THE BEST TOMATO SALAD EVER in my life. We were in San Francisco for a week, and we were eating at a restaurant in North Beach. It was early August so we sat outside under twinkly lights drinking California red wine and watching what seemed like the the whole city walk by. And then, this salad: perfectly ripe, thinly sliced red, yellow, orange and black heirloom tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil and mild vinegar, chopped fresh basil and crumbled blue cheese. Really, a very simple salad. But the tomatoes. Oh, the tomatoes. They were blissfully good. There was a lot of sighing. Quite a lot of happy contentment. Maybe even some moaning. And at the end of the night we staggered arm in arm back up the hill to our hotel, tipsy and happy and at peace with the world.

And that was the night the baby was conceived.

Infertile woman conceives baby? Infertile woman eats BEST HEIRLOOM TOMATO SALAD EVER? Coincidence? I THINK NOT. That was one, powerful salad folks. Never underestimate the potency of fresh, local food.

(See? I told you babies and tomatoes had something to do with each-other.)

Since then I have been craving that salad, not only for its magical fertility properties, but also because it was just so good. You know what I found? A good tomato is hard to find. In fact, it's almost impossible to find a really perfect, heirloom tomato. Supermarkets don't carry them. Farmer's markets are better bets, but not always reliable. No: the only was to pick the perfect heirloom tomato, to have it fresh and alive and glowing for your table, is to grow it yourself.

So that's what I'm going to do. And you should too.



Picking the Perfect Tomato: Grow Your Own

Tomatoes can be grown anywhere, in almost any climate. And you don't need to have a big yard or live on a rural farm to have some fabulous tomato plants. If you live in a small apartment in the middle of the city, you can still grow tomatoes. All you need is a sunny spot (maybe your deck, patio, rooftop, or a sunny window), some seeds, and an an EarthTainer, which you can make yourself with supplies from your local hardware store.

I myself have a yard, but I'm going to be using the EarthTainers, if simply because they are so simple to use and conserve water so efficiently (we are in a drought, after all!). I am also going to be buying my tomato seeds from TomatoFest.com. I'm not affiliated with this website in anyway, I just think they are a great, local company, and I really love what they are doing! They have a fantastic selection of heirloom tomatoes seeds, with great pictures and descriptions of each variety. They also have some great pages on how to plant and cultivate your seeds, and how to care for and maintain your plants.

So, what will be growing in my garden this summer? And what should you grown? Well, it depends on what you want, how ambitions your plans are, and how much space you have. I myself want a good variety of salad tomatoes: reds, oranges, yellows, and blacks. I also want a few kinds of cherry tomatoes. Lastly, I love, love, love making my own marinara sauce, so I want a few kinds of "paste" tomatoes so we can enjoy homemade pasta sauce all winter.

Below, I am going to share what I am ordering, but if you are feeling overwhelmed by all the possibilities and don't know where to start, TomatoFest.com offers a bunch of different seed collections, including a Short Season Collection for those growing in cooler climates, a Children's Seed Collection full of varieties sure to please kids, and a Patio Seed Collection of varieties most suited to growing in containers in limited spaces.

I myself want some really fabulous gourmet heirloom tomatoes, and I've got the space to grow A LOT of kinds, so I'm going to be ambitious this summer. (What I really want is a full garden, but being nine months pregnant, I don't think I am up to digging up the law this year and tending an enormous garden with a newborn. So tomatoes is all I get for now).

First, I want the classic heirloom tomato: the brandywine. Brandywine varieties are offered by most heirloom seed companies, and most strains seem to date from the 1880's and/or Amish country. I think I'm going with the Brandywine OTV..

I'm also going with the Black Zebra and the Green Zebra tomatoes, the yellow beefstake Hillbilly tomato, and the Amana Orange.

For Cherry tomatoes, we are going with the Blondkopfchen yellow tomatoes, and Camp Joy red cherry tomatoes.

Finally, for canning and sauce making I am going with the classic Amish Paste and the Italian San Marzano Redorta, as well as Costoluto Genovese. Finally, for making sun-dried tomatoes I am going with Principe Borghese.

So, that's me! (What? You're still here? Bravo!) How about you?

Also, this is part of the "Fight Back Friday" event over at Food Renegade. Enjoy!

Gluten Free Girl Scout Cookies - Thin Mints!

Once upon a time in a faraway land, I too was once a wee little girl scout. And like any good little girl scout, I sold my fair share of girl scout cookies.

No. Wait a minute. I sold WAY more than my fair share.

In fact, being the competitive, over-achieving fiery little red-head that I was, I sold thousands and thousands of boxes every year. I sold so many boxes of girl scout cookies that (gasp!) they gave me awards and my whole troop went to Maui for three weeks, free. (That's a true story btw. My troop really did go to Hawaii off the proceeds from our cookie sales. Twice!).

I've always loved girl scout cookies, and I bet you do too. And those little girls hawking their totally over-priced cardboard processed confections? Irresistible little salesmen. No wonder Thin Mints are the best selling cookies in America after Oreos and Chips Ahoy! It's the marketing.



The thing about girl scout cookies is, those processed factory cookie-like-substances are totally crammed with hydrogenated trans-fats, preservatives, and kooky unpronounceable ingredients. Definitely not natural. Certainly not healthy. And if you can't eat gluten like me? Well, you try explaining to an adorable 9 year old girl scout that you can't buy her cookies because the cookies will kill you. It's no fun. You can't even eat the stupid cookies as a midnight secret indulgence.

UNTIL NOW! I came home the other night to Nate, watching TV, covertly eating his way though a box of thin mints. I had a surge of the familiar "it's not fair!" feeling wash over me. Because it's NOT fair. Some people get to eat boxed $5 girl scout cookies. And some people don't.

Some people get to eat these instead.



I think these people are luckier, because these cookies are as good as the "real" thing. In fact, I think they're better. A light crunchy cookie, dipped in rich minty chocolate. They taste fantastic, and as an added bonus, better for you. So, here you go! Enjoy the recipe! I know I did.



Gluten Free Girl Scout Cookies - Thin Mints!
by me

makes 25 - 30 cookies
Active time: 30 minutes
Total time: 4 hours

I struggled to get a good recipe for these cookies, and I started by trying to adapt some of the other "home-made" girl-scout recipes out there (some of which call for box cake mix! Ug!). The results were.... awful. Some recipes just do not work gluten-free. Nate and I agreed the first couple of batches tasted like grainy mint flavored dog biscuits.

After enough failed batches, I finally decided to just start from scratch and make my own recipe. I wanted a cookie with the crunch and lightness of the original, but, you know, without the wheat. These cookies? Fantastic. The chocolate? Wow.

Please keep the following two rules in mind:

1. USE GOOD CHOCOLATE. My first batch, I used cheap milk chocolate. Big mistake. So yucky. Please, learn from my mistakes.

2. Mint flavoring and peppermint oil are NOT the same thing. You MUST use peppermint oil (I found some at the health food store), because mint extract/flavoring have alcohol and water in them which = seized up chocolate. And that just leads to tears and ruined chocolate. Please learn from my mistakes and get this!



INGREDIENTS
2/3 cup brown rice flour
2/3 cup sweet rice flour
4 tbs cocoa powder
2 tbs corn starch
1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature
1 cup + 1/4 sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp mint extract (or peppermint oil)
1 egg

1 lb fine quality semi-sweet chocolate
1 tsp peppermint oil


First, mix together your dry ingredients - the brown and sweet rice flours, cocoa powder, corn starch, and baking powder.

In a stand mixer, beat butter on high until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add in sugar, and beat on high until smooth, another 2 minutes (this aerates the dough and keeps it from getting too heavy).

Add egg, vanilla extract, and mint extract, and continue to beat until egg is incorporated, and batter is light and smooth, 2-4 minutes.

With mixer on low, fold in flour mixture until just combined. You can even stop the mixer once large crumbs form, and mix the last bit by hand with a spatula. You don't want to overmix, or the dough will become too heavy. Dough will be soft and pliable.

Remove dough from mixer bowl and place on a piece of wax paper, form into a log about 1" thick, and roll it up in the wax paper. Set in freezer for 1-2 hours, until dough is very firm (or, you know, however long you want. Make these next year if you want).

Are we back yet aleady? Ok! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Pull your dough out of the freezer, and cut it into thin slices - no more than 1/4 on an inch thick.


Line a cookie pan with parchment paper. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes. Cookies should be crunchy, but not burned.


Get out your fancy chocolate. Can you tell I really splurged?


Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments, until it's smooth, stirring between sessions. Add 1 tbs peppermint oil (NOT mint extract. Mint extract bad! Will make chocolate seize and get hard).


Now place a cookie in the chocolate.


Gently turn the cookie over so it is coated with chocolate.


Pick the cookie back up with a fork, and gently tap the fork against the side of the bowl, so any excess chocolate dribbles back into the bowl.


Place cookies onto parchment paper, and let dry (you can refrigerate them or freeze them to help the chocolate faster).

Enjoy!

Healthier Beef Stroganoff

I was talking on my mom to the phone this evening when she offered to bring me some chicken soup. You may or may not recall, but I have a cold. A bad cold. A cold so bad abd miserable that it could very well be, well, a man cold. Can I please get someone to give ME a little bell, rub my head, and say "poor little bunny?" Please? hello? Hm.

Anyway, she offered to bring me some soup, but when I told her that I had just bought a ton of stuff to make beef stroganoff because I had to have some, she dissolved into laughter. Back in the day, one sweltering August night when my mom was 40 weeks pregnant with me, my due date actually, she woke up in the middle of the night and HAD TO HAVE BEEF STROGANOFF. And well, pregnant women have craved crazier things. So she got up, in the middle of the night, and started cooking. And cooked for hours.

An then she went into labor.



And she kept cooking. There was NO WAY she was going to go to the hospital without finishing that stroganoff. She didn't even tell my dad she had gone into labor, because if he knew he would, I don't know, take her to the hospital? Because she was having a baby? I guess she just really wanted that stroganoff.

I never knew about that story, but I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree: since I have been pregnant I have suddenly been hit with crazy beef stroganoff cravings, even though I haven't had it in years and years. In fact, the last time I had this dish I didn't even like it: It was heavy and starchy and flavorless. It was the epitome of heavy 1950's cooking, with big chunks of meat paired with heavy starches and fats. No veggies. No flavor. No complexity.



This recipe is different. It's an updated version of the old classic and it packs a lot of punch. In the old days you used a big chunk of cheap meat and braised it for hours to tenderize it, then you slathered it with sour cream and plopped it on top of some egg noodles. Here we use a more tender cut, but we use less meat and more mushrooms, and we sear it quickly. The sauce is really rich and complex. It's so good I almost want to forgo the meat altogether and make this vegetarian. And finally, I am serving it over whole grain brown rice noodles with broccoli. Gluten-free, and better for you!

Now let's just keep our fingers crossed that I don't go into labor the next time I make this!




Healthier GF Beef Stroganoff

Adapted from Bon Appétit
Serves 4 - 6
Cooking time: 30-40 minutes


Ok! You will need this stuff:
You need 1 lb brown rice fusilli (or other small curly noodle) 1 lb broccoli florets, 1 lb baby bella mushrooms (or other small brown mushroom, such as crimini) 3/4 lb tender beef such as tenderloin, 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), a yellow onion, fresh dill, beef stock (use GF vegetable stock if you can't find GF beef stock), sour cream, dijon mustard, and congac.


I have this problem where I forget to put stuff in the picture. So please, don't forget the congac. It's like a secret weapon. Get a baby bottle if you have to, or you can substitute sherry or vermouth. But really, this ingredient MAKES the sauce.

Ok! First, prep your ingredients. This dish cooks fast, and you will be very sorry if your onions are burning while you are quartering a lb. of mushrooms. So!


Cut the mushrooms into quarters. Really big ones can be cut into slices.


Chop up 1/2 of the yellow onion


Now salt and pepper your beef, and trim off any excess fat.


And slice into small pieces, about 1" - 2" long.


Heat 2 tbs of butter in a heavy skillet, until the butter bubbles and froths, and just starts to get golden. We want it hot. Then add the beef in a single layer. You don't want the pieces touching. Cook in batches if you have to.


Cook the beef until one side has just browned, then flip the pieces over. You want them to be caramelized on the outside, but only medium on the inside, so it stays tender. Once they are browned on both sides, remove the beef from the pan and set aside in a bowl or on a plate.


Add 2 tbs butter and the chopped onion to the pan. Scrape up any browned bits left over from the beef. Cook for 2 minutes, until the onions are golden. Then add the mushrooms. The mushrooms will begin to release their water. Let cook until the water has mostly evaporated, about 14 minutes.


Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil, and cook the noodles until al dente. I like to throw the broccoli in during the last 2 minutes of the cooking the noodles. Strain, and add 4 tbs of butter.


Mix it all up, and set aside.


By now our mushrooms have simmered down. Let's add 1 cup of beef stock. If you can't find any GF beef stock, it's ok to use vegetable or chicken.


Now for the SECRET INGREDIENT. It's cognac. It's SO GOOD. Please don't skip, if at ALL possible. Really.


Let the broth and cognac boil down until the sauce just coats the mushrooms, about 14 minutes.


Now add 3/4 cup sour cream and 1 tbs Dijon mustard. I was going to use yogurt.

But I chickened out.

Sorry.


Remember the beef we made? Add it into the sauce now.


Top with 1 tbs chopped dill. Let sauce simmer a bit to warm up the beef, but not TOO long. We want it to stay tender.


Serve atop of the buttered noodles/broccoli.

Enjoy!

Lemon Cheesecake Disaster

I think I have a nemesis.

It's Cheesecake.

It hates me.

I CANNOT WIN!

I'm going to go wallow in the pits of despair now. Goodbye FOREVER. Really.

Ok, maybe not. But seriously, I tried to make cheesecake today. I was so excited about sharing this lemony cheesecake with you. It took me three weeks to assemble all the ingredients (not because it was especially exotic. More because I am disorganized and could not seem to get 4 boxes of cream cheese together). And it was a total disaster. And you know what? Cheesecakes have always been a disaster. They crack, they burn, they sink in the middle, they don't gel up, the water bath breaks through the foil and turns the crust into goopy goo. Le sigh.




I'll spare you the gory blow by blow, let's just say that everything that could have possibly gone wrong did. The texture was too soft, it burned, the crust was soggy, blah blah blah.

Well, better luck next time I guess. :(