Low FODMAP Ninja

I’ve been making a lot of this recently as I try to keep my immune system strong while all these creepy viruses make their way through humanity. 

Ingredients:

• 1 organic roaster chicken (3-5 lbs, generally - I just buy the organic one at Trader Joe’s)
• Pacific Foods organic chicken broth OR Trader Joe’s chicken broth (little gel packets)
• 2 lbs carrots, peeled and sliced (or just use baby carrots - even lazier, just how I like it)
• Optional: 3 cups shredded green cabbage
• Optional: 3 stalks chopped celery
• Herbs to season - I use dill, but use whatever you like

Instructions:

• Place chicken in very large stock pot; cover with broth or water (and add Trader Joe’s gel broth if using water)
• Add vegetables
• Bring to boil; reduce heat to low
• Cook for 1 hour or until chicken meat is falling off of the bones
• Remove chicken from liquid; allow to cool slightly
• Separate chicken from bones and skin; return meat to pot
• Add herbs. 

Pretty easy!  This makes enough for about 6-8 large servings.  You could also add rice, quinoa, or gluten-free noodles; as I discussed in my last post, I’m trying to eliminate extra starchy carbs, so I’ve been omitting these. 

My local Trader Joe’s recently started carrying seafood - very exciting!  When I’m not feeling particularly ambitious, I’ll pick up some salmon or tilapia, heat a tiny bit of oil or butter in a pan, dry the fish, season with a dash of salt and pepper, and cook it for a few minutes per side until done.  I like it with a spinach salad or roasted veggies, or perhaps a splash of gluten-free soy sauce and a side of rice noodles and green onions.  Fast and easy!  

My low-FODMAPping was bland bland bland before I realized I could eat these guys.  

Unfortunately, being able to eat only the green parts meant the white bulbs went to waste (unless there was a high-FODMAPper around to eat them). 

But wait!  You can plant the bulbs and they will REGENERATE THE GREEN STALKS!!  Yes!!

I’ve been sticking my leftover bulbs in a pot on the roof and they are growing lovely deep green stalks.  If I have to buy a fresh bunch at the store (hopefully in a few weeks I won’t need to do that for awhile), I’ll replant those bulbs as well.  

*Note - quick if you’ve already roasted some veggies! ;)

Roasted veggies:

• Preheat oven to 400 F
• Cover baking sheet in foil
• Slice zucchini and/or yellow summer squash into no thicker than 1/4 inch rounds
• Slice cherry and/or grape tomatoes in half, place skin down on foil (or just do them whole - I do this when I’m lazy - that’s most of the time)
• Drizzle with high-heat olive oil
• Season with salt, pepper, and herbs (I like oregano)
• Bake on middle shelf for 20-30 minutes, until soft
• (Note - you can roast pretty much any vegetable using this method.  I like roasting carrots (though they take longer to cook) and potatoes - just roast until fork tender)

Polenta:

To speed this up, I used Trader Joe’s tube polenta

• Heat high-heat olive oil in 12-inch frying pan
• Slice polenta into 1/2 inch disks (about 4-6 slices per serving)
• Place polenta in pan.  Sauté 5 minutes per side
• Top with thinly sliced or shredded parmesan cheese and roasted tomatoes/vegetables

This dish usually hits the spot for my fishstick cravings.  This is another recipe where I never measure any of the ingredients ahead of time; accordingly, the amounts listed below are approximate.

Ingredients

• Approx. 1 lb fresh white flaky fish (I prefer hake or cod)
• salt and pepper
• Coarse corn meal, approx 2/3 cup, in a bowl
• high-heat olive oil or canola oil

Instructions:

• Heat non-stick or cast-iron pan on medium to medium-high heat.
• Heat 3 (ish) T oil in pan.
• While oil is heating, slice fish into filet-sized portions.
• Season fish with salt and pepper on both sides, then dredge in cornmeal.  Press until coated. 
• Once oil is hot, add fish to pan.  Cook undisturbed until cornmeal is golden brown, approx. 8-10 minutes; flip once.  Cook until golden brown on both sides and fish flakes apart with a fork. 

I was pretty lazy last time I made it (pictured) and just made a side of summer squash.

is Whole Foods’ Gluten-Free Light White Sandwich Bread.

It makes beautiful grilled cheese and french toast that is pretty darn close to the real thing.  

At 150 calories per slice (!!!!), this bread is not something that I try to eat every day lest I feel too starchy afterward.

Whole Foods also makes a pretty tasty GF Cinnamon Raisin bread that isn’t so heavy on the raisins that it would be unfriendly to Low FODMAP folks.  Toasted with butter, it made an excellent dessert for me. (Bread for dessert - I know, I know.)

I wanted a mediterranean fix this week but didn’t have the time or energy to make the meatloaf required for proper gyros.  So I did made a deconstructed (lazy) version instead.  Ingredient amounts are approximate because I didn’t really measure anything (except for the lamb); I just tossed everything together — modify to your preferences.

Ingredients:

(adapted from SkinnyBlog)

These are great by themselves or on top of pasta.  The trick is to make sure the cheese is frozen prior to baking the sticks.  I haven’t had complete success preventing the cheese from oozing out of the crust (it could be the lack of glutenous flour) but hey, it’s baked, melted cheese - I’m not complaining. 

Ingredients:

• 12 sticks part-skim, reduced sodium mozzarella string cheese (Sargento), frozen
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 2 tbsp gluten-free flour (I use King Arthur Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour)
• 5.5 tbsp gluten-free breadcrumbs (I use Glutino Breadcrumbs)
• 2 tsp parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp dried parsley
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1.5 tsp dried basil

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 400 F. 
• Line a baking sheet (with sides) with foil and lightly oil.
• Remove frozen cheese sticks from packaging and cut in half to yield 24 pieces.
• Place flour on a plate; beaten egg in a bowl; and breadcrumbs, parmesan, and herbs in a second bowl, stirring to combine.  (Be sure to release the flavor of the dried herbs by crushing the leaves with your hands to turn them into a finer powder.)
• Roll the frozen cheese sticks in the flour, then tap to remove excess. 
• Roll the cheese sticks in the egg bowl to coat. 
• Place the cheese sticks in the breadcrumbs bowl and gently shake or stir until coated. **
• Place coated cheese sticks on oiled foil on baking sheet. 
• Bake for 3-4 minutes.  Turn.  Bake for another 3-4 minutes until crust starts to turn golden brown OR until enough cheese oozes out that you feel silly calling them mozzarella sticks. 

** - the original recipe calls for the sticks to be placed back in the freezer at this point.  This is probably not a bad idea because I have yet to successfully bake them without the cheese melting too soon as I cannot wait this long for melted cheese once I start making them.  I will try to experiment in the future and update if I can manage it. 

While perusing the noodle aisle at the local asian supermarket looking for buckwheat noodles to add to my stir-fry, I was very sad to find that all of the buckwheat noodles also contained wheat.

Then, I spied a package of millet noodles.

Ingredients:  Millet and water.  Excellent!

I wouldn’t know millet if it hit me in the face, but these noodles have risen above rice noodles in my book.  I cooked and drained the noodles like normal pasta, sautéed them in a little bit of sesame oil, placed them in the bottom of a bowl, and topped with the stir-fry.  Although the millet noodles did not get crispy like wheat noodles do, they were softer than quinoa pasta, more substantial than rice noodles, and maintained their structure without crumbling like brown rice pasta (the worst!). The package’s pictured “serving suggestion” appears to have tomato sauce on top, suggesting they might also be a good spaghetti alternative.  I’ll just stick with the stir-fry. 

I believe millet is also gluten free but please don’t quote me on that. 

Finally!

I’ve been wanting to share this recipe since last week, but since I made a ton of changes to the original recipe I found, I wanted to test it again before sharing to make sure I got it right!  

Ingredients

• 1 tsp to 1/2 T olive oil (to prepare baking dish)
• 1.5 T olive oil 
• 1.5 T butter 
• 2.5 C green spring onions/scallions, chopped (green parts only!) 
• 3 T chives, chopped 
• 1 clove garlic, sliced (you will remove this after cooking) 
• 2 pounds spinach, rinsed and chopped OR use triple washed bagged baby spinach (I found one brand called “Spinach is easy to cook!”) 
• 2 T dill, chopped 
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten 
• 1 lb crumbled feta cheese 
• 1/2 tsp kosher or sea salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper 
• 6-8 rice flour spring roll wrappers (fewer if larger in size)

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2.  Lightly oil a 9x9 inch square baking pan.

3.  Heat 1.5 T olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté green onions, chives, and garlic, until soft and lightly browned. ** It is very important to use a LARGE skilled because 2 lbs of spinach will make a huge pile before it wilts down.

4.  Set aside approx 1/2 T of beaten egg.

5.  While pan mixture is cooking, in a large bowl, combine remaining eggs, feta, salt and pepper, crumbling feta until mixture is slightly lumpy.

6.  Add spinach to pan and continue to sauté mixture until spinach is limp, stirring and turning frequently so that the raw spinach gets mixed to the bottom of the pan, about 10-15 minutes.  I add about half of the spinach, let some of it wilt, and then continue adding so that I don’t have spinach falling out of the pan.

7.  Once all the spinach is within the confines of the pan, wet the rice spring roll wrappers in a large bowl of warm water.  Lay 2 wrappers in prepared baking pan, overlapping them in the middle and slightly overhanging the side (like a Venn diagram).  Place 1 more wrapper in the middle of the pan.

8.  Once spinach has cooked down, remove from heat, drain, and set aside to cool. Remove garlic slices (if used).  It is very important to drain the mixture so that there is no extra liquid in the mixture.  

9.  Once spinach mixture has cooled, combine in bowl with egg and feta mixture and add the dill.  

10.  Spread spinach and cheese mixture into pan and fold overhanging wrappers over filling.  Layer remaining 2-4 wrappers on the top of the mixture, brushing each wrapper lightly with oil. Brush top layer with remaining egg.

11.  Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until top layer of wrappers begins to lightly brown (rice paper wrappers never get the same golden brown as regular wrappers, so if it’s kind of slightly browning, that’s about done).

12.  Cut into squares and serve while hot.  OR!  Heat frying pan to medium.  Place the pieces you are about to eat in the pan and cook on both sides until more golden brown.  **Trust me, pan browning this stuff makes it exponentially more delicious. 

13. Reheat leftovers (if any) in a frying pan, until golden brown. 

I had attempted to make spring rolls with these but I just couldn’t find the right way to cook them in the rice spring roll wrappers.  Baking them for a long time (I forgot to put on a timer so I don’t remember how long it was) seemed to make them a bit crispier but I just don’t have the patience for that and I don’t think it’s worth the effort for this dish.  Multiple pan-frying methods resulted in soggy rolls.

failed spring rolls:

 So, baking it in the pan it is!

That said, if you have any spring roll tips, I’d love to hear your comments. 

I’m not usually a fan of salmon, but the grocery store had a great special on re-freshed wild-caught Coho salmon, so it seemed as good a time as any to try this recipe.  I didn’t feel like firing up the grill so I cooked this in a large cast-iron skillet and I think it turned out great!  The sauce will be close to overpowering on its own but stands up well to the salmon.

(Recipe adapted from Chow.com: Maple-Mustard Glazed Salmon)

General Ingredients:

• 1-1.5 lb salmon, responsibly fished, skin on
• olive or vegetable oil for frying
• kosher salt and pepper

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1/4-1/3 cup maple syrup (more if you want more extra glaze)
• 3 tablespoons mustard
• 1 teaspoon rice or white vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves or dried thyme, crushed
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions:

1. Place all of the glaze ingredients in a medium sauce pot and whisk until combined.
2. Heat glaze on medium-high just until the glaze just comes to a boil, about 3 to 4 minutes, continuing to whisk.  
3. Remove the glaze from heat; set aside.
4. Preheat pan on slightly more than medium heat.
5. Pat the salmon dry with paper towels. Brush both sides of the fillets with oil and season both sides generously with salt and pepper. 
6. Add about 1 T oil to pan.  Place the salmon in the pain, skin-side down, cover, and cook undisturbed until the skin starts to crisp, about 2 to 3 minutes. 
7. Using a flat spatula or fish spatula, carefully flip the fillets over and brush the skin with some of the glaze.  Cover the pan and continue to cook until the salmon is just opaque in the center, about 2 to 4 minutes more. 
8. Transfer to a serving plate and serve immediately, passing the remaining glaze on the side.

Serve with rice or side of your choice.  I served this with quinoa salad and it was delicious!

Oh, meatballs.  Is there anything they can’t do?

(Recipe adapted from Mark Bittman’s Meatballs Three Ways in How to Cook Everything)

Ingredients:

• 1 thick or 2 thin slices of gluten-free bread (I’ve used Udi’s white bread with success)
• 1/3 cup milk (I don’t have dairy issues but you can try substituting rice or soy milk)
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1/2 cup finely chopped green spring onion (just the green part!)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper
• 2 T fresh chopped parsley or 1/2 T dried parsley, ground

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Soak bread in the milk until soggy, about 5 minutes.  (I prep the green onions and remaining ingredients during this time.)
3. Squeeze the milk from the bread and combine with all other ingredients.  Break up the bread into small bits while mixing. 
4. Shape mixture into 1-inch balls (about 1 rounded tablespoon), pressing no more than necessary.  Important! - don’t make the balls too big. 
5. Place meatballs on ungreased baking sheets.  Bake 7-8 minutes until no longer pink on the inside. (I like to cook them a little bit longer until the cheese slightly crisps on the bottom.)
6. Eat a few under the guise of “testing the seasoning,” add salt and pepper to taste (if needed), and then serve the rest warm. 

Enjoy these with some Quinoa Pasta, roasted veggies, or a salad.  Keep in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze and reheat later.