This Week's Changed-Life Plan

It's been a difficult week.  On Wednesday, I was diagnosed with either gluten intolerance or Celiac's Disease.  Still waiting for the test results, but regardless of which outcome it is, I have to figure out how to eat and live without gluten.  Wheat, barley, rye, most flour, pasta, bread, baked goods - all are gone from my life.  I'm still in a bit of shock and denial, and I have reached the point of sadness and depression yet - but I'm sure they'll come.

So my new challenge is making meals that I can eat and the boys in my house will enjoy.  They should not have to live without pasta and bread just because I do.   Fortunately, as gluten intolerance has become more common and high-profile, there are a host of books, websites and products that cater to this population.

So, this week's plan:

Saturday:  Microwave Risotto with Chicken and Asparagus 

Sunday:  Roasted Chicken with lemon and garlic, roasted potatoes and carrots, roasted Brussels sprouts.  (I'm roasting 2 chickens so I have leftovers throughout the week).

Monday:  Mixed green salad with chicken, apples, dried cranberries, and caramelized pecans.

Tuesday:  Chicken Tacos with avocado, tomato, sauteed peppers, and black beans

Wednesday:  Garbanzo Bean Stew with steamed basmati rice

Thursday: Grilled hamburgers with Sweet Potato fries, white potato fries, and coleslaw with vinaigrette

One of the hardest things is desserts.  I LOVE brownies, cakes, pastries, beignets, pies, and all kinds of baked goods.  Combining this with the fact that I need to lose some weight, I need some good answers for dessert.  I crave something sweet after dinner, and so do my boys.  So here are my dessert plans for the week:

Fruit with Chocolate Fondue:  Chocolate fondue is super easy to make, and it's a great way to get the boys (and me!) to eat a ton of fruit.  You can dip almost any fruit - we love bananas, strawberries, diced pineapple, and sliced mango.

Sliced strawberries macerated in sugar and tossed with a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar - alone or over vanilla ice cream!

Dark Chocolate-covered caramels - I like Reisen - I can eat just 1-2 and be perfectly happy for dessert.

Greek yogurt flavored with vanilla and sweetened with Splenda - creamy, delicious, and healthy!

That doesn't look like a bad menu to me!  The weeknight meals are quick and easy.  Maybe I can get through this week without feeling deprived.

Dinner is somewhat easy because I'm used to planning, so making adjustments is not hard.  Breakfast and lunch are much harder, because I generally don't think about them until mealtime.  I am not in the habit of planning these meals.  I'm used to grabbing a quick breakfast that I can eat in the car - peanut butter toast or English muffins with Laughing Cow cheese are my favorites, with a banana.  So I'll have to make a little more time in the morning and scramble an egg, make a smoothie, or mix fruit and yogurt with a gluten-free granola. The food is not as hard as adjusting my schedule to sit down and eat.

Lunch is more challenging.  I'm so used to going to one of the delis and grabbing a sandwich.  I can't just grab soup because most commercial soups either contain pasta or are thickened with flour.  I think I'm going to have to start making lunches at home and bringing them into the office.  It's probably much better for my health and my wallet.  It's just more work and more time - and lots of planning.

Thanks for reading.  I'll keep posting Now We're Cooking recipes over the course of this week.

Chef Dane's Offers Now We're Cooking Meals

One of my favorite competitors when I was in the meal assembly business was Chef Dane's Kitchen in Santa Clara.  Chef Dane Mechlin came into Now We're Cooking soon after we opened, on a reconnaissance mission to see what was going on in the industry.  We quickly became friendly and we regularly checked in with each other to see how things were going.  I also checked out a number of other assembly kitchen in the area, and I thought Dane's food was by far the best.

When Now We're Cooking went out of business, Dane began delivering meals to pickup locations in the Tri-Valley area.  Although he doesn't do home delivery in this area, he does deliver freshly-made meals to Crow Canyon Wines in San Ramon and Gene's Fine Foods in Pleasanton.  

He's now expanded his menu to include a number of favorites from Now We're Cooking.  I've given him recipes of a bunch of your favorites (in exchange for a VERY generous donation to my kids' school auction).  He's incorporating them into his menu, a few at a time.

In March, he's offering three of your all-time favorites:  Marinated Skirt Steak with Bleu Cheese or Shallot Butter (he's adding sesame noodles, too!); Southern Pulled Pork Sandwiches, which he's improved with a side of Linguica Baked Beans; and Hoisin-Glazed Meatloaf.  In addition to these dishes, he has other delicious offerings, including Thai-Coconut Bouillabaisse and Chicken Puff Pastry Pot Pies.

Place your order at Chef Dane's Kitchen in Santa Clara.  Let him know about your Now We're Cooking favorites, and I'll make sure he gets those recipes, too!  Thanks so much to Dane for keeping some of our favorites available.

Academy Awards Party Menu

I love to host parties.  However, my friends have picked most of the traditional holidays for their annual parties.  BJ has the 4th of July, my sister-in-law has Christmas Eve, Rebecca has Memorial Day, and Heather has Labor Day.  So when I was trying to find an occasion for my annual party, the only thing I could think of was the Academy Awards.  I don't care much about the Academy Awards. Since I've had kids, most of the movies I've seen involve animation or talking animals.  But it's a reason to host a party, and people have a great time.

This year, I decided to have a Bollywood theme.  The guest are coming in festive Bollyw00d-style attire (saris, or bright clothes and lots of jewelry).  Jessica will be doing henna tattoos for those who'd like them.  And I'm doing an Americanized Indian feast.  I'm combining dishes in ways that are neither authentic nor respectful of regional variations.  And I'm modifying the spices to be more palatable to American tastes.  But we'll still get the idea.

One of the things I love about Indian cooking is that it's very easy to put together a menu that accommodates vegetarians without making them feel like they're missing something.  In addition, the heavy incorporation of legumes makes Indian food a great choice for an inexpensive but sumptuous feast.

Bollywood Academy Awards Menu

Veggies and Pita with hummus and chutneys 

Chicken Tikka Masala  (spiced chicken in a tomato cream sauce)
Saag Paneer  (spinach and cheese)
Gajar Matar (spiced peas and carrots)
Empress Dal (spiced lentils)
Chana Masala (chickpea stew)
Raita (yogurt sauce to cool the heat)
Various chutneys
Naan (bread)
Basmati Rice with Cinnamon & Saffron

Red Carpet Cake (banana cake with cream cheese frosting)
Chocolate Fondue (OK, not Indian, but it's yummy!)

This Week's Plan

I had a minor surgery a couple of weeks ago on a Friday.  So when I should have been food planning and grocery shopping for last week, I was lying in bed feeling sorry for myself. Combine that with an exceptionally busy week for work, and my family ate terribly last week.  Hot dogs, mac & cheese from a box, and pizza 2 nights, and McDonald's one night.  Barely a fruit or vegetable passed their lips at dinner for 6 solid nights.

No wonder they all have bad colds now.

So I failed the "feed the family" aspect of parenting last week, and I'm not doing it again this week.  So here's the plan:

Sunday:  Mexican-Inspired Salad with spiced grilled chicken, grilled peppers, jicama and cotija cheese.

Monday:  Salad with grilled chicken, apples, dried cherries, and pecans.

Tuesday: Tacos with seasoned ground beef, broccoli slaw (instead of shredded lettuce), grilled peppers, tomatoes, salsa, and cotija & shredded cheddar.

Wednesday: Chicken salad with apples, raisins, celery, and green onions.

Thursday:  Traditional stuffed bell peppers.

It's another really busy week.  The company I consult for is 2 weeks away from a major software release, and we're in "deathmarch" mode.  The key to all these dinners is that they're simple and take very little time to prepare.  Plus they're pretty healthy - lots of fruits and veggies.  Recipes to follow.