Honey Mustard Potato Salad

Well, I looked and apparently I have never posted this recipe before.  So I will tonight.  It was in my recipe database (the 21st century version of my "keeper book") so that means we've liked it in the past.  I had a few potatoes left over from a recipe last week, so this is what I made to go along with the pork tenderloin recipe we had tonight.  I never even wrote down where this recipe came from.  So I have no idea who to give credit to.  If it was you, let me know and I'll add my source ;)

Ok I will just remind you all that I hate mayo.  So so much.  I feel like if I was a spy, I would spill all the secrets if threatened with mayo.  There is no mayo in my house.  If people are coming over for like sandwiches or something, I tell them to bring their own if they're going to want it, and send it right back home with them when they leave.  If I am looking through a new cookbook, I will not even take a recipe seriously if it calls for mayo.  I am not interested in subbing Miracle Whip (blech blech blech), Greek yogurt (which I also think is gross), or sour cream (another gross thing, but I will use it as an ingredient, NEVER as a condiment).  So therefore I have 3 recipes that are called potato salads that do not have mayo.  Also it's a public service because you can't bring mayo to a picnic or a potluck or it will spoil.  I'm just thinking of others here.  This one is really really tasty.

Honey Mustard Potato Salad
1 ½ lbs red potatoes, quarted and cooked
¼ cup honey
¼ cup mustard
1 cup sliced celery
½ cup chopped red pepper
2 tbsp chopped green onions
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Mix honey, mustard, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.  Place all remaining ingredients in a bowl and drizzle with honey mustard dressing.  Stir gently to combine.

See how easy?  And it's really good.  The last time I made this, the kids didn't like it.  Today, Emma helped me make it and said it was really good (it was).  The youngest still did not like it, he only had 2 small bites.  But we are making progress with him.  You guys should save this one for your summer bbq's and throw your mayo right in the garbage.  You could be saving a person.

"Bourbon"-Brown Sugar Pork Tenderloin

I put the bourbon in quotes in this title, because I didn't use any ha.  The reasons are multi-factorial.  First of all, we don't drink alcohol.  I am not morally opposed to cooking with it, and lots of the cooking shows I watch are like white wine this, rum that, etc.  However, it can be expensive, especially because I'm not gonna drink the rest ha.  And it's not like I'm going to shell out top dollar for a good bottle of bourbon when I only need 1/4 cup.  So I googled "emergency substitution for bourbon" (I mean, it wasn't really an emergency but that's a good way to find substitutions when you've already started a recipe and realize you don't have something and you don't want to go out to the store right then...so it's a First World Emergency) and found a website that said you could substitute a third of the amount called for with vanilla.  So that's what I did.  I'm sure it altered the flavor, but really we have no idea what actual bourbon tastes like so I figured it would be a transparent trade.  And maybe it's a similar taste to cheap bourbon, which, if I was buying bourbon, is what I would have gotten.  Like, Great Value Bourbon or something.

This recipe is the second one we've tried from one of the cookbooks I got for Christmas, America's Best Recipes: Comfort Food (from my mom).

"Bourbon"-Brown Sugar Pork Tenderloin
2 lb pork tenderloin
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup minced green onions
1/4 cup bourbon (or 4 tsp vanilla haha)
1/4 cup soy sauce (I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos for a GF sub)
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cornstarch

Remove silver skin from tenderloins, leaving just a thin layer of fat.  Place meat in gallon-size ziploc bag.  In a small bowl combine brown sugar, onions, bourbon, soy sauce, mustard and pepper.  Pour over meat.  Seal bag and turn to coat.  Refrigerate 8-18 hours, turning bag occasionally.  Remove pork from marinade, reserving marinade.

Grill the pork (if you live in Maine in January, this is tricky...I cut mine to even sizes and used my George Foreman grill) until thermometer registers 155* (this didn't seem high enough to me, and I don't like to mess around with pork...I went to 165/170ish which is what my meat thermometer says is done for pork).

Meanwhile, combine reserved marinade and cornstarch in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute (mine seemed way too thick, so I added some chicken stock to thin in out...it worked well).

Okay so I didn't like the way the sauce smelled.  Maybe because I am not used to vanilla in a savory application vs a baked one.  I didn't even want to put the sauce on my plate.  Steve did though, but just in a little cup on the side (you'll see it in the picture).  I did dip one bite of my meat in the sauce, and it was good.  VERY vanilla.  Sam tried some of it too, and ended up saucing all of his pork.  The meat itself was tasty too.  We had this with Honey Mustard Potato Salad (I'll repost if I've put it on the blog in the past) and corn...felt like a faux bbq in here.  Just like we used faux bourbon ;)

Black Forest Mousse Dessert

My dad loves Black Forest Cake.  He was in Germany for several years as a (much) younger man and has fond memories of this actual genuine Black Forest Cake that his and my mom's landlady used to make.  I'm sure this dessert only tastes like the real thing in his memory...but this is the dessert he wants every year for his birthday dinner.  I've tried fancier (actual cake) versions that have been good also, but he hasn't asked for those again haha.  This is the thing he likes.  I can't blame him, because chocolate + fruit is usually very awesome.  I didn't make this GF, because that would be unfair (here's your dessert dad, and you probably won't like it...happy birthday. LOL).  They do make GF "oreos" but they are a far cry from the original...and they would probably disintegrate in the pudding layer of this dessert.  This is a recipe I've had for years so I can't exactly remember where it came from but I THINK it's from Kraft, because I used to get their magazine in the mail, and they had like 1001 recipes to do with pudding.

Black Forest Mousse Dessert
1 ½ cups cold milk
1 pkg (4-svg size) instant chocolate pudding
1 pkg (8 oz) cool whip, thawed
16 oreos, crushed
1 ½ cups canned cherry pie filling

Pour milk into a large bowl.  Add dry pudding mix.  Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes or until well blended.  Fold in about 1 cup of the cool whip.

Set aside about 1/3 of the crushed oreos.  Stir remaining cookies into pudding mixture. 

Spoon half of the pudding mixture into a trifle dish or serving bowl.  Spread about 1 cup of remaining cool whip over pudding.  Top with half of the pie filling.  Top with remaining pudding mixture, remaining cool whip, and remaining pie filling.  Sprinkle with reserved oreo pieces.  Refrigerate until serving and refrigerate leftovers.

See how yummy?  And easy.  And my dad likes it.  Maybe yours will too.

No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bites

I found this recipe in a gluten free Better Homes & Gardens magazine.  These are really good little snacky things, or good for breakfast too.  They are a big hit here because of the peanut butter and chocolate.  I use Skippy Natural peanut butter, which has the texture of commercial peanut butter but without the other oils...but I don't think that the natural peanut butter that you have to stir and keep in the fridge would work in this recipe, because of the texture/structure.  I made a double batch of these just now (at like 2:30 in the afternoon) and they are almost half gone (of course two of the kids have friends over).  I secreted away a few of them so I can eat them over the weekend. 

No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bites
½ cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 ¼ cups shredded unsweetened coconut, divided
1 cup rolled oats
¼ cup semisweet chocolate pieces
¼ cup dried cherries, cranberries, or raisins

In a medium bowl, stir together peanut butter, honey, and vanilla until well mixed.  Stir in 1/2 cup of the coconut, the oats, chocolate, and fruit.  Cover and chill for 30 minutes.

Place the remaining 3/4 cup coconut in a food processor.  Cover and pulse until chopped.  Using hands, shape peanut butter mixture into 30 balls, each about 1" in diameter.  Roll balls in chopped coconut to coat, pressing slightly to adhere.  Cover and chill for 30 minutes before serving.  Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 1 week.

I used my Pampered Chef cookie scoop to scoop them from the bowl and onto a plate, all at once.  Then shaped them into balls, then dipped them in the coconut and put them in the container.  This way my hands only had to get gross one time, and I didn't get the scoop gross going from rolling into a ball and then back to the scoop to scoop more, because I hate that.  The picture above is a double batch, minus the 7 that I hid in the fridge in a different container.  So if you even remotely think your kids will like this one, you should make a double batch.

Also, if you buy the unsweetened shredded coconut in the green bag ("Lets do...Organic" is the brand name...which wouldn't have been my first choice but whatever), it's the perfect size already and you wouldn't have to chop the coconut before rolling the balls into it.

Easy and yummy AND healthy...perfect storm. Enjoy ;)

Greek Lemon Chicken and Rice Soup

Here's a short story to start the post...the medical diagnosis I have has no medical treatment, really, and they recommend diet modification for symptom control...and they say to eliminate the Big 8...shellfish, gluten, dairy, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, eggs and....I forget the last one but you get the idea, and also you can see that I am not all the way compliant with that list...maybe fish is actually 2 of the things.  When I got the diagnosis, I was like, well, I already don't like shellfish, so there's 1...and I was already mostly dairy-free by then, so that's 2.  I decided to give up gluten and see what happened and how my symptoms reacted.  I had really good luck with doing that.  I'm mostly soy-free, too, except in a couple prepared foods I use (the GF pretzels I like have soy in them).  I have peanut butter like every day (right off the spoon) so I'm glad I didn't really have to give that up (yet).  My husband's friend is our (very close) neighbor, and he gave us this cookbook for Christmas called Pure Delicious and guess what?? It has none of the Big 8 allergens in any of the almost 200 recipes! That's crazy and I #1 can't believe there could be a whole cookbook with good recipes with those restrictions and #2 that I would mark SO many recipes from it to try!  I was skeptical in reading the cover, but there are good chapters at the beginning setting it up, and then all these awesome recipes.  You'll see as we go along.  After being GF for over 2 years, I have been able to modify almost any recipe I see and like the looks of, but this book will eliminate that step for me, even if some of the prep times are longer.  Incidentally, this is the first GF cookbook that doesn't say you have to use their GF flour blend for the baked goods...I thought that was weird ha.

Okay so this is the first recipe we've had from this book.  It seemed like a good introduction, since it's basically chicken & rice soup with a twist.  We had this with GF Bisquick biscuits, which I tend to make pretty often because they come together so well and everybody eats them.

Greek Lemon Chicken and Rice Soup
 ¼ cup olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
4 celery stalks, thinly sliced
3 lg carrots, thinly sliced
2 lg bone-in skin-on chicken breasts
8 cups chicken broth
1 cup long-grain white rice
zest of 2 lemons
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from the 2 zested lemons)
1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, minced
kosher salt

In a large heavy pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion and saute until soft and tender, 5-7 minutes.  Add the celery and carrots and cook 2-3 minutes more.

Add chicken breasts and broth.  Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes. 

Transfer chicken breasts to a plate and let sit until just cool enough to handle.  Shred the chicken meat, discarding bones and skin, add the meat to the pot along with the rice.  Cover and cook over low heat for 15 minutes or until the rice is tender.

Stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and parsley and stir well.  Season with salt and serve hot.

Note: if the soup gets too thick (the rice absorbs the liquid), add some water and more salt as needed. (that's her note, not mine)

I was running out of time, since it's a church night, so while the chicken was cooking, I made the rice in my rice cooker, so once the chicken was done and shredded, I just added the rice and other ingredients and we could eat it right then.  It cut down on the prep time.  Which I always think is good.  I also already had boneless skinless chicken breasts, so that's what I used instead of buying the chicken it said to use.

This smelled so good.  The youngest didn't eat it, but he wasn't feeling well so we can't go by that.  He probably wouldn't have liked it anyway though because that's how he rolls.  Everyone else liked it.  There's enough left for us to have for leftovers for work.  Easy, yummy, and a good introduction to the recipes in this book :) 

Smothered Swiss Steak

If you've been reading my blog for a while, then you won't be surprised to learn that my mom gave me a new cookbook for Christmas :)  I get one every year from her, and also a subscription to Simple & Delicious, which is the easy version of Taste of Home.  This is the first recipe we've tried out of this cookbook, called America's Best Recipes: Comfort Food, 175 Made-with-Love Family Favorite Recipes.  I guess only time (and trial and error) will see if this is true.  For this recipe, the sauce sounded like it would be so good.  I haven't done much with cube steaks before, so it was a new-ish cut of meat for us.  Some people here may have prejudged this by the name alone ("just so you know, mom, I don't like steak, remember?") but everyone had to eat it because that's how we roll.

Smothered Swiss Steak
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp seasoned pepper (I already had this but I think regular pepper would be fine too)
1/2 cup flour (I used Bob's Red Mill GF flour blend)
6 (4 oz each) cube steaks
4 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 med onion, diced
1 med green pepper, diced
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (12 oz) Coca-cola
1 tbsp beef bouillon granules
2 tbsp tomato paste

In a shallow bowl, combine salt, pepper, and flour.  Dredge cube steaks in flour mixture.

Brown 2 steaks in 1 1/2 tbsp hot oil in a large nonstick skillet over med-high heat for 3 minutes on each side; drain on paper towels.  Repeat with remaining oil and steaks.  Drain drippings from skillet, reserving 1 tbsp in skillet (I didn't do this...there didn't seem like that much more than 1 tbsp left).

Saute onion and green pepper in hot drippings for 7 minutes (weird number...but that's what it says) or until tender.  Add diced tomatoes, coke, bouillon, and tomato paste.  Bring to a boil and cook, stirring often, 5 minutes, or until slightly thickened.  Return steaks to skillet; cover and cook over low heat 55-60 minutes or until tender.

The recipe suggests serving over cooked rice, but I had some potatoes left from another recipe, so we had ours with mashed potatoes.

The youngest child looked at his skeptically.  He asked "mom, where's the bone in a steak like this?", afraid that it would sneak up on him.  I assured him there was no bone.  But I didn't want to tell him it was more like big hamburgers because he thinks he doesn't like those either.  I settled on "it's not that kind of steak."  He still didn't like it.  He ate half (because he was made to) but he dealt with it much better than he has in the past, as he is growing up.  The middle child also did not care for it, even though she helped me make the whole thing (so there goes that myth...let them help you in the kitchen, they say...your kid will like the food then, they say) but she was also made to eat it, and did so much faster than her brother.  The rest of us liked it! 

This was not expensive meat.  I also have no idea really which part of the cow it's from etc so I don't know how healthy it is compared to other cuts.  Even though the final product had the texture of ground beef, it definitely didn't start out looking like that...I really have no idea how they get it that way, and I could google it but I'm not going to. But go ahead and try it if you want.  It's a relatively inexpensive dinner and definitely edible haha even if you have picky children.

ATK All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend

Here is the flour blend that America's Test Kitchen recommends using in their recipes, which are in the How Can It Be Gluten Free Volume 2.  To be fair, when I was eating my blondies today, IF I hadn't made them myself, I would really have wondered.  I even thought back and retraced my steps in my mind to make sure I had grabbed the right Tupperware canister.  Also if you need Tupperware I know a lady who can get you a great deal ;)

ATK All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend
4 ½ cups plus 1/3 cup white rice flour
1 2/3 cups brown rice flour
1 1/3 cups potato starch
¾ cup tapioca starch
3 tbsp nonfat milk powder

Whisk all ingredients together in large bowl until well combined.  Transfer to airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 months, or freeze for up to 6 months.  Bring to room temperature before using.