Shrimp and Vegetable Lo Mein (gluten-free)

Slowly simmer three millet-brown rice ramen noodle 'cakes,' separating them as much as possible since they tend to stick together if you don't stir while cooking. I cooked them in fresh boiling water with a little lobster flavor Better Than Bouillon. Don't overcook this.

Drain and put in a big baking dish while still hot. Mix them with the snipped green onion tops and 4oz. frozen peas. Add some toasted sesame oil to keep the noodles from sticking together.

4oz. thin sliced carrots
2 mini peppers
3 baby bok chop
~ use the chopped, crunchy white parts now - thin slice the green tops to add later
2 big garlic cloves
~ crushed and chopped

Sauté-stir-fry these in some toasted sesame oil for a few minutes then add:

8oz. thawed Argentinian shrimp
~ cut each one in a 2-3 pieces
4 green onions
~ the white part
the green leaves from the bok choy
1 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped

Cover and turn off the heat while making the sauce.

3/4c peanut or mixed nut butter
1/3c sweet chili sauce
1/3c mushroom soy sauce
2-3T finely chopped candied ginger

Stir these together in a small glass bowl. Heat 20 seconds in the microwave. Check the flavors. I added a little garlic salt and black pepper

Gently stir the vegetables into the noodles, add the sauce and fold together until everything's combined and coated with the sauce.

Heat this until steamy in the microwave. . .Lin

Another Chicken Cacciatore Redux. . .

I've been making Chicken Cacciatore since the the late '60's!
I would splurge, and buy a copy of Women's Day and Family Circle once a month when grocery shopping. Back when my $20.00 grocery budget bought 4 bags of groceries for the week, and 20¢ for each magazine seemed extravagant. . .Money well spent. I'd read them cover to cover!

I found a recipe for it in Family Circle - and loved it - each time. Even though I made it a bit different from the time before. Sometimes serving over linguine, sometimes over Uncle Ben's 20 minute rice. You know I can't follow someone else's recipe, much less make it the same way twice. So, this one is similar, to that first one of the early '70's, same ingredients, but also way different with additions and different techniques.

This one was really fun. First time ever making a roux to thicken it, or adding kalamata olives, or serve it over gluten free, brown rice and millet ramen noodles! Mmmm!

So here it is, my latest rendition of the original Family Circle's Chicken Cacciatore. 

I started with a package of rotisserie chicken, only using 1# for this recipe! If you roast your own, let it cool enough to touch. Separate it into meat and another container of the skin, bones and tendons. Use that to make bone broth.

I froze all the skin, tendons and bones, shown here, on the right, and will use that for future bone broth.

24oz. baby portobello mushrooms

1 yellow and 1 orange bell pepper
5-6 sm. yellow onions
1 whole bulb of garlic, cut in half, horizontally

I roasted the mushrooms separately from the other vegetables. Slice them, spread on a big baking sheet, drizzle them with a good quality, single source, EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). Season with salt, pepper and Italian seasonings. Chop, oil and season the vegetables. 

Roast everything in a 375°-400° oven, moving them and flipping if possible, so everything develops a bit of a char on all sides. Roasting pulled a lot of liquid from the mushrooms! Shown in the mug. I used a turkey baster to remove it before combining with the vegetables. It's a wonderful flavorful Mushroom Broth! Use it!

While the vegetables are roasting, make a golden roux, using 1/2c butter and 1/2c all purpose flour. I only used part of this, freezing the rest to thicken future soups, etc.

In a big pot, mine holds 6+ quarts, combine the following:

12oz. bone broth - mine was made previously

1 28oz. can diced tomatoes

5 bay leaves

mushroom broth

1-2t brown or coconut sugar

12oz. your favorite red pasta sauce

Gently stir all this together, with the roasted vegetables. Simmer 15 minutes or so. I kept one onion raw and added it now for a little different onion flavor and texture. When adding the garlic, squeeze the cloves out of their papery coverings  Cut them up a little.

Add the chicken and:
1c+ Kalamata (dark red-purple) olives

Simmer 5-10 minutes then check the flavors.
Add chicken soup base, or salt and pepper if needed, to wake up the flavors.

Cook as many blocks of ramen as you need. This is a wonderful, gluten-free, wheat pasta alternative I found at Costco. When cooked it's a lot like slightly curly angel hair pasta. I just love it! It's great in soup.

Since I'm not serving this until Sunday, just visualize how it will look plated, accompanied by a big green salad! This last photo shows everything simmered and ready to eat. It will taste even better with additional reheating. 

Be Bold! . . Be Adventurous! . . Happy Cooking! . .😁. . .Lin

Gluten Free Chicken Noodle Soup

3 big carrots

3 stalks celery

1/4 med. onion - minced

2-3T EVOO

Chop the carrot and celery and sauté over medium heat, with the onion, until it they begin to brown. Add 32oz. chicken or vegetable broth. 

Slice then cube half a medium green cabbage. Rough chop the onion and add those to the pot with the bay leaves. Sauté  adding a little water as needed. You'll need about 32oz. fresh cold water in total. Add 2T powdered chicken soup base, pepper and simmer this for about an hour.

I roasted a chicken the other day and froze half. I'm using the rest for this soup. Remove the skin and bone from the chicken, saving those for bone broth. What remained was 12oz. of roasted chicken meat.

Add 2 blocks - 5oz. of millet and brown rice ramen noodles. Stir gently, until the noodles soften and separate. Add the chopped chicken. Stir and simmer another 10 minutes or so. At the end, I also added  a little lemon zest and 2T fresh lemon juice. This turned out SO well! . . Lin

Chicken Noodle Soup with Vegetables, and Millet and Brown Rice Ramen Noodles

I bought a whole, organic chicken at our local Co-Op the other day. Roasted it for lunch, while we were at church. Then served it with roasted potatoes, steamed vegetables, homemade ramen and tabouli when my daughter, granddaughter and her boys came over. 

Last night I made bone broth from the skin, ligaments, tendons, bones, filtered water, bay leaves, fresh ground black pepper, garlic-parsley salt, a little white vinegar, and some rough-chopped soup vegetables and greens. After several hours of simmering, I strained it well, then chilled it overnight.

Today, I scraped off the little bit of fat on top of the chilled broth, and added that to my dog's dry food.

To the cold broth I added bay leaves, garlic salt, fresh ground black pepper, about 3 tablespoons of Better Than Bouillon - chicken or vegetable, and simmered that while sautéing the sliced vegetables shown in the first photo. Organic carrots, celery, garlic, purple onion and cabbage. Just before serving - 8oz. roasted chicken.

Carrot and celery first, in a good amount of pure, single source, EVOO, since they take longer. Then purple onion, cabbage, and lots of finely chopped garlic. Those all went into the pot of the lightly simmering, seasoned bone broth, after their initial sauté.  I crunched up the millet and brown rice ramen just a little, and added that to the broth.

Simmer everything until the carrots and celery are the way you like them and the noodles are al denté. Serve with cheddar biscuits, cornbread or a fresh green salad. . .Lin