Enchilada Rice

Happy Sunday!  I hope you had a great weekend!  Our weekend was pretty relaxing.  Saturday we took in our town's parade as part of its summer festival.  Someone in our house got especially good at collecting candy (and it wasn't me!)

Today we did a little retail therapy at the mall and got the house ready for a play-date I am hosting tomorrow.  When we moved I joined a mom's group here in town and July is my month to host an event.  I haven't been as active in the group as I should be, so I'm hoping tomorrow will be a chance to meet some mom's in town. 

For supper tonight we tried a new dish - Enchilada Rice.  Rice, ground turkey, beans, peppers, onions, olives and some spices make this dish delicious.  It's not too spicy, which I like, and was kid approved! 

I modified a recipe I found on Pinterest to make it allergy friendly.  You could totally change up the recipe and use ingredients you already have at home!

I started by making 2 cups of rice.  I used Minute Brown Rice.  While the rice was cooking, I sautéed one chopped red pepper, half of a red onion chopped and a pound of ground turkey in a sauce pan.  You could totally use ground beef instead.  We've just had a lot of hamburger lately, so I decided to change it up a bit. 

While the turkey is cooking, make up your 'sauce.'  I used a container of soy yogurt.  It happened to be vanilla flavored because the local grocery store was out of plain.  I thought the vanilla was fine.  I couldn't taste the vanilla flavoring.  You could use sour cream or plain Greek yogurt instead too!  To the yogurt add a can of black beans and 2 cups green enchilada sauce.

Once the turkey mixture is fully cooked, add in a few dashes of ground cumin and chili powder.  We don't like things too spicy around here so I didn't add very much.  It's totally up to you!

Then add the 'sauce' and rice to the meat mixture.  Allow it to heat up and you are set!  I chopped up some olives for the hubs and babies.  Well baby.  The little one just stared at me while I ate.  Pretty sure he's ready for big boy food.  Our daughter stuck olives on every finger and then ate them.  She's such a goofy girl sometimes.  I am not an olive fan.  Cheese would be delicious on top of this, but we are a cheese free house and I haven't found any fake cheese that is as good as the original.  If you had a brand you like - let me know!

 

I hope you enjoy it.  We really liked it and will be adding it to our eat again list!  Have a great rest of your weekend!

Enchilada Rice
modified from http://www.heatovento350.com/

Ingredients
2 cups uncooked rice
1 pound ground turkey
1 red bell pepper chopped
1/2 medium red onion chopped
1 can of black beans
2 cups green enchilada sauce
1/4 cup or one container soy yogurt
1 can of black olives
Cumin
Chili Powder

Directions
1.  Make rice according to package directions
2.  Brown turkey in a large pan with pepper and onions
3.  In a bowl mix together black beans, enchilada sauce, yogurt and olives (or sprinkle the olives on top when you are done!)
4.  When meat mixture is fully cooked add cumin and chili powder to taste
5.  Add black bean mixture (the sauce) and rice to the meat and allow to heat on the stove. 
6.  Once heated - ENJOY!

The gluten free - meat eating - vegan

Eating entirely wheat, corn, pea, dairy, egg and nut free isn't easy.  We've decided we are basically gluten free, meat eating vegans.  I've been working hard to adapt recipes I find online and meals that we normally eat to things we can eat as a family.  Most recipes I find specially geared toward eating a specific diet have a bunch of 'weird' ingredients in them.  I'm not into that.  We've also decided that since our 'little lady' can't eat these foods, we shouldn't either.  Unless we shame eat them in the pantry while she's doing something else.  Not like that has ever happened : )  It IS much easier not to have the food in the house.  Jim and I will eat food she's not suppose to at a restaurant, but she usually has something she likes then!

When shopping I try and find foods that are gluten free and vegan.  That usually encompasses all of the foods we shouldn't eat.  Corn can be a bit tricky.  Some gluten free foods are made with corn flour instead of wheat and corn starch or corn syrup is in quite a few things!  Our doctors did say that she can have corn starch or corn syrup if it is lower on the ingredients list.  I've still been trying to cut it out though!

Here's an outline of her menu from yesterday!

Breakfast - Homemade granola bars.  These are AMAZING!  I'll be posting the recipe soon!

Lunch - Homemade chili.  I used a recipe from iowagirleats.com and skipped the cheese and cornbread.  It was yummy! We also had unsweetened applesauce and lettuce.  She likes her lettuce!

Dinner - Spaghetti.  This was tricky.  We've tried multiple types of noodles and haven't found one we liked.  Tonight we did!  We began using rice noodles and they actually taste pretty good!  They take a little longer to boil and need to be rinsed, but there wasn't much of a taste difference and no crazy after-taste!  We did skip the garlic bread and Parmesan cheese.  We had fruit on the side.

Dessert -  Brownies.  These did NOT work well!  I tried buying the Betty Crocker gluten free box mix of brownies.  I thought I could use egg substitute and vegan butter instead of the eggs and butter listed on the box.  Not a good idea.  The brownies were NOT thick and fudgey but very flat and hard.  I had to struggle to cut them.  Next time I think I'll try my own mix!

This weekend I want to try my own enchilada rice dish and shredded chicken! Happy weekend everyone!

Here We Go

Yesterday we found out the results of my daughters allergy testing.  Not only is she allergic to mold, dust mites and kitty cats, but we have been asked to remove the following foods from her diet:  gluten, dairy, milk, corn, peas, eggs and nuts.  Can you say OH MY GOODNESS!  My first thoughts were, "how in the world am I going to do this?"  I love me some carbs … mmmkay.  She’s also 3 and very used to eating all of the foods she’s not suppose to anymore. How am I going to take away her beloved granola bars?  So we are starting today.  Below I’ll outline what we ate today and how we dealt with all sorts of new challenges – today’s tackle, a snack at the mall.

Breakfast – Vanilla Rice Chex and a banana.

Snack at the mall – A fruit cup (I had a minor panic attack when I realized she couldn’t get a muffin at Panera or a piece of banana chocolate chip cake at Starby’s.  And she HAD to have a snack!)

Lunch – Oatmeal and an apple

Dinner – Pork burgers, potatoes and some vegetables

Dessert – An all fruit Popsicle

Day 1 done!  Not exciting food, but I’m working on it!  Hopefully I’ll be able to try some more homemade meals that are actually meals!  Itchy’s be gone!