Cooking for Paleo and Gluten-Free Eaters

My friend Abby recently had a baby, and I wanted to bring her some food. However, in addition to me being vegetarian and not knowing how to cook meat (or having any desire to), Abby has a few dietary restrictions of her own that made cooking for her a bit of a challenge -- albeit a fun one. First, her husband cannot tolerate gluten, so the whole family eats gluten-free. Second, she is on the paleo diet to lose her baby weight.

I didn't know anything about the paleo diet. Apparently, the idea is that you should eat like our caveman ancestors ate -- lots of meat, fruit and veggies, but no grains, legumes, or dairy.  Many of the meal suggestions I came across were heavy on the meat. But, you can find just about anything on the internets, and I was eventually able to find a few recipes that fit the bill of being vegetarian and gluten-free and paleo.

Apple pie bars, to help the nursing mama keep up her energy levels.

Sun-dried tomato broccoli soup...when cooking for an omnivore, vegetable soup is something I often turn to.

Grain-free chocolate chip cookies.

After delivering all the goodies and cuddling with a sweet two-week-old (new baby smell! ahhh!), I came home and fixed a simple dinner. I made the tamarind quinoa from Appetite for Reduction. I love its exotic, sweet/spicy flavor! Gotta remember to bookmark that recipe for sure. I served sauteed garlicky kale on the side.

Water Baby

This morning I took Olivia to play at the creek. We haven't had enough rain lately, so there's only a few inches of water.  But she was perfectly content to splash around and shovel some sand into a bucket.

For dinner I made Thai quinoa salad. The recipe called for red quinoa, which I had not used before. I think it's slightly chewier and more substantial than regular quinoa. I loved this salad. The coconut, cashews and kale gave it a great variety of textures and the gingery dressing was to die for. Jackson the kale lover was also a big fan of this salad.   

Along with the salad, I made spicy tamarind potatoes. So awesome. We all loved these potatoes, and they were so easy to prepare on the stovetop. The recipe calls for some rather exotic ingredients, but I subbed regular soy sauce for the Indonesian soy sauce, and brown sugar for the palm sugar, and it was still absolutely wonderful.

Invasion of the Alien Flowers

Some weekends, it feels like we are barely home at all. Which is fine because I am not a homebody. This weekend, however, we purposely kept our plans to a minimum so we could get stuff done around the house.

I made a curtain for the guest bathroom.

I also worked in the yard, and noticed some crazy-looking purple flowers that have bloomed almost overnight. We don't know what they're called, so we've christened them "alien flowers."

We did go out to dinner on Saturday, with a couple we met in our childbirth class when I was pregnant with Jackson. It was really neat to see our two little dudes, born one day apart, now nearly three years old and playing side by side. It's amazing how fast you go from this...

to this!

For Sunday dinner I made the Tamarind Tofu Cabbage Bowl from Vegan Yum Yum.

I wanted to use up the last of my terrible, seedy tamarind paste.  Now I can buy a different brand and enjoy the sweet and sour flavor of tamarind without having to pick out rock-hard seeds. 

Tony and I enjoyed the flavors and textures of this dish, but the kids were not into it. Jackson ate some tofu cubes, but neither he nor Olivia would touch the cabbage. I guess I need to serve cabbage more often and get them used to it.

I had a hard time cooking this meal with Jackson, too. I'll be honest -- as much as I love having the kids in the kitchen with me, it doesn't always work out. There were many steps to the recipe. Making the rice. Pressing, cubing, and sauteeing the tofu. Chopping and sauteeing the cabbage. Making the sauce. Toasting the almonds. Jackson is good at adding things to a bowl or stirring a pot, but he does not have much patience for waiting around while I get everything out and do the prep work. I want to come up with a solution for this that doesn't involve sending him in the other room to watch Cars while I get everything ready. But he is still just a little guy.

For dessert we had rice pudding with pineapple. So good! Rice pudding on its own is not that exciting, but there is something about the addition of pineapple that makes it pretty amazing.

Have a good week!

Happy Birthday, Monster!

Today is Monster's birthday. He is five years old. In dog years, he is 35. He is older than me now! I asked him if he has any words of wisdom, anything he has learned in all his dog-time on earth. He responded by licking Olivia's face.

Then I asked the kids to make him some drawings for his birthday. They tried to eat the crayons. Monster was proud. He has taught them well.

Later we are going to bake him some special treats. Monster really is our "oldest child" and we always like to spoil him on his special day.

Monster, your tongue makes everyone laugh.

You are a goofy dog. Sometimes, I wonder if you get into the Scotch while we are not home.

A lot has changed since you joined our little family. Mama learned that bangs do not flatter her, for one thing.

You've rolled with the changes.

Lots of changes.

We love you, buddy!

Last night, I tried out my new grill pan. I made the Chimichurri Grilled Vegetables and the Grilled Tofu with Tamarind Glaze, both from 1000 Vegan Recipes.

The first thing I learned about a grill pan is...have a chair ready so you can stand on it and disable your smoke alarm! It never occurred to me that indoor grilling might produce a lot of smoke. Especially if you have your burners turned up too high, ahem. I had to open all the windows and send Jackson outside to play while the smoke cleared. Yikes.

After I adjusted my burners and got some ventilation going, things were much better.

The chimichurri sauce -- a blend of garlic, parsley, and basil -- was super flavorful on its own, but its herbaceous punch diminished once it was brushed onto the veggies and grilled. I had some sauce left over, so I dabbed it onto the finished veggies to give them some extra flavor. Not that grilled veggies need to be dressed up much. They are pretty tasty on their own.

The tofu was a big hit. The tamarind sauce was sort of like a BBQ sauce -- sweet and spicy. It had just the right amount of heat for me. I pressed the tofu steaks in my Tofu Xpress and they were nice and firm. I marinated them overnight in the sauce, so they soaked up a ton of flavor.

I served everything on a bed of quinoa. The tamarind sauce soaked into the quinoa and it all tasted delicious. I loved the rainbow of colors on the plate. Not bad for my first grilling attempt.

Grilling takes patience. My grill pan is large, covering two burners, but I still had to divide the veggies into two batches, and then grill the tofu. Halfway through, I realized I should be drinking beer to pass the time.

I doubt I'll be using the grill pan much in the coming months -- might as well use the outdoor grill when the weather allows it. That way my house doesn't get all warm and smoky. But it was fun to try it out. What foods do you like to grill?