WFDW- 2012 Cleanse Edition

How's everyone doing after the frivolities of New Year's Eve?  Kevin and I kept it low-key and stayed home for our celebration, indulging in ribeye steaks, mussels in a lovely butter-wine sauce, garlic bread, Parisian salad, and rosemary-garlic roasted red potatoes.  We watched movies and shared champagne kisses at midnight.  It was exactly what I needed after the hectic Christmas holiday.

Yes, please.

It was a wonderful meal to say goodbye to 2011 and hello to my two week cleanse.  I covered all of the cleanse no-no's yesterday: Caffeine, alcohol, simple carbs, artificial sweeteners, huge portions, and naughty fats.  I look forward to going without after so much delicious indulgence.

Last year I did the Bon Appetit Food Lover's Cleanse.  It was pretty damn difficult- the ingredients were hard to find, the meals took a long time to cook.  There was a lot of preparation that went into everything.  It's hard to plan each and every meal in a day, let alone stick to a dinner plan.  So, this year, I'm using the Cleanse Guidelines as inspiration, and rocking my own menus.

Bon Appetit

Note on the following menu I specifically state the veggies- sometimes I just imply that we're going to have a salad or cook some peas and it never happens.  I'm planning to incorporate vegetables and fruits into each meal, have at least one salad a day, and really stick to the correct portions.

Sunday
Chicken Fried "Rice" (I'm actually using quinoia), Asian Salad with Miso-Lime Dressing, Steamed Baby Bok Choy
Monday
Lemon-Garlic Trout, Lentils, Roasted Zucchini and Mushrooms
Tuesday
Cider-Glazed Chicken Breasts with Apple-Fennel Salad, Brocolli Rabe with Chili-Garlic Black Bean Oil
Wednesday
Pumpkin Shrimp Curry, Leftover Lentils, Leftover Brocolli Rabe
Thursday
Pork Chops with Red Wine-Grape Sauce, Roasted Butternut Squash, Salad with Cranberries and Almonds
Friday
Maple-Cayenne Salmon, Salad, Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Are you making any 2012 adjustments? What are your thoughts on cleanses? 

WFD? Deliciousness

Ugh, blurry. 

This week I was focusing on the usual- gluten-free and delicious.  This week may be a teensy bit more indulgent than usual, as you can see.  Steak.  Carbs.  An avocado curry that will certainly have me on the elliptical until it's time to do make the shrimp fra diavolo- where I will eat more carbs.

Speaking of carbs...After cooking tonight I plan to post my results of Bob's Red Mill Pizza Crust Mix as soon as possible.  With our Christmas trip coming up I've been anxiously awaiting the struggles of being gluten-free for the holidays.  I'm mostly thinking about my father-in-law's delicious calzones and my mother-in-laws amazing Christmas morning breakfast- which typically includes both monkey bread AND orange-coconut rolls.  *swoons*

And now, something important: This Christmas will be without a very special family member.  The magnet in the upper left corner is representative of my in-law's family cat, Schmily (See how much I love you), who was put to sleep last week.  She was ornery, she was pretty, and she generally didn't like people.  But, she was family.  We love family even when they bite.  Rest in peace, Schmily.

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Wfdw- Turkey Edition

Pardon the dark pic...

I hope everyone had a great day yesterday and celebrated with loved ones. Today makes the beginning of me trying to cram all of my thanksgiving leftovers into new recipes. Lunch was a delicious turkey sandwich on Against The Grain baguette with avocado, tomato, havarti, and spicy mustard.

(Source- Celiacs in the House)

This bread was chewy and delicious.  It had a bit too many air bubbles that made me wonder what I was paying for, but I cannot argue with that sandwich... Mmmmm....  I also used it for garlic bread.
Now, dinner recipes are a bit more difficult since I've yet to find gluten free noodles that can stand up to a soup. Tonight, turkey pho-which will hopefully help me forget that I'm eating turkey. Sunday, I'm throwing leftover turkey AND leftover sweet potatoes in rich curry sauce. Barbecue sauce will mask the flavor in our final turkey meal. Anything leftover from our ten pound turkey at that point will be thrown in the freezer (hopefully for future pho).

Happy leftovers, everyone!

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Wfdw post with some added cute

It's a bit small, but here's the menu for this week. Spartacus was laying in the sunshine and I couldn't resist. This is the beginning of trying really hard to stay on a budget. Beans, rice, frozen veggies, and cleaning out the freezer before I buy anything new. The Thursday/Friday meals are courtesy of SkinnyTaste. I've been adding pumpkin to everything. I'm a mad woman. Watch your pumpkin patches. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

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Wfdw- Mmmmmmmm, Autumn

We spent our Saturday running up to Apple Hill to find some (hopefully hard) apple cider and have a picnic.  We weren't the only ones- as soon as October hits the drive up the hill gets a bit more congested.  Plus, there was some sort of event going on, which made getting off the freeway tons of fun.
We landed at Jack Russell Brewery, pretty sure that this would be our only stop for the day.

(Source)

Their name is a bit deceptive- they also opened a cool new winery cave as of this fall!  Beer is available on one side of the building, then you meander over to the cave to find a selection of mead, cider, and wine.  Did you know that mead happens to be delicious?  It made this gluten-free girl very happy!
In addition, the brewery has a great little picnic area and they had vendors lined up around the edges of the property selling everything from hotdogs and tri-tip, to clothes and jewelry, even blown glass "art".  There was a lady doing chair massages that I really wanted to take advantage of, but I worried that I would be cheating on Don.
So, for my What's for Dinner weekend post, I'm featuring some butternut squash in a nice risotto and plenty of other comfort foods, including a roast recipe from the Gluten Free Goddess. Despite the eighty degree weather, it's still fall to me! Hence the autumn mix in the halloween bowl (upper left corner)-my favorite fall candy. Have a great weekend everyone!

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Wfdw- hello, autumn!

I'm taking the beginning of autumn and the onset of cooler weather to signal that I should start making soups, stews, and anything and everything squash!

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Wfdw short week!

Here's the plan for this short week, although I have to do some rearranging- today is National Taco day! I hope you're all celebrating! And, of course, all this deliciousness is sans wheat.

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WFDW: Gluten-Free Not Sucking!

I'm on day six and not completely dying, so I'm plugging on. A friend suggested the squash ribbons in place of rice spaghetti (yuck) and I'll be trying gluten-free buns for the first time. Stay tuned!

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WFDW- New Cookbooks!

This week is full of lots of new recipes from my two new cooking light cookbooks.

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