RECIPES: Gluten-Free Chicken Spaghetti Casserole

With the cooler temperatures and fall weather, I have been craving comfort food. I have heard rave reviews recently on Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti, and decided to try making a gluten-free version.

Since this is an experiment, and it's only me and my little girl here for dinner tonight, I halved Pioneer Woman's recipe.  Here is what I did:

Gluten-Free Chicken Spaghetti Casserole

~1 1/2-2 cups of cooked chicken (I used what I had taken off of the chicken last week and frozen in some homemade broth made from the same chicken)

~half a package of Tinkyada brown rice pasta, broken into 2-3 inch pieces

~1 box Pacific Foods Condensed Cream of Mushroom soup(you could use Cream of Chicken instead)

~1 8oz block of cheese, shredded (reserve enough to top off the casserole)

~1/4 cup + diced green pepper

~1/4 cup diced onion

~1 cup or so of chicken broth

~1/2 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt 

~1/16-1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, more or less to taste

~Salt and Pepper to taste

~A sprinkling of paprika (because I don't stock pimentos in the house, and thought I needed some red color to add pizzaz)

1. Boil your spaghetti until a little al dente (because you will be cooking it further in the oven), preferably in homemade chicken broth (unsalted or lightly salted) or in a mix of commercial stock cut with water to reduce salt content in your cooked noodles.

2. Meanwhile, in large bowl, combine remaining ingredients (except for reserved cheese for the top). 

3. Add spaghetti noodles once they are cooked, and add enough water to allow the mixture to stir easily.

4. Pour into greased casserole dish and top with remaining cheese.

5. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly and the cheese is a bit browned.

Enjoy!

October 2011, Week 4: Can I really feed a family of five for $450/month?

After 3 days of being homebound with a sick child, I finally made it out to run to the store. I've really been holding out for the health food store, as they carry the foods I do best with. They are open Monday nights, but somehow that didn't work out so I had to wait until today to go.

I decided to go ahead and use up the remainder of my $450 for the month. Some/much of this I will be using next month.

Here's what I got:

Health Food Store

3 dozen eggs $3.35/dozen

2 half-gallons Organic Valley milk $4.89 each

huge bag of gf oatmeal $9.51

Udi's bread (the kind with millet/chia) $5.49 (had a 1.50 coupon for this one!)

2 pkg of pastured ground beef $5.35 and $5.89

Total came to $44.56

Local Grocery

3 cheeses @ 2/$3

La Creme coffee creamer marked down to .79

package of whole wheat tortillas for the kids $2.69 (bummed that they don't carry ones w/o partially hydrogenated oils)

4 bags frozen broccoli $1/ea

1 bag frozen peas (son #1 will be thrilled) $1

Rice Chex $3.99

ground beef $3.05 and $3.16

2 heads lettuce $1.28 ea

bulb of garlic $.56

bag of onions $1.99

3# bag of tangelos $2.99

-2.50 store coupon

Total came to $28.78

So....from last shopping trip, I had $72.99 to work with. 


$72.99 - $44.56 - 28.78 = -$.35

Ok, I went over. Should have not gotten that impulse coffee creamer, huh?

But, it's pretty close, and I can almost say I did it! I don't plan on another trip to the store before the end of the month.

With my oats, I can now make next month's GF granola. With the Chex, I can make another batch or two of GF Chex mix (I still have some GF pretzels from earlier this month).  I suppose I could have waited until next month to get these things, but it's rainy today and I feel like turning on the oven and making something! :)

October 2011, Week 4: Can I really feed a family of five for $450/month?

Well, it's week 4. :)
Last Friday I went to the store and got the following:

2 Gallons rbgh-free milk $5
2 packages of cheddar cheese $3.29 ea
4 tubes of Grand's Biscuits (couldn't pass up at 50 cents/each!)
Marshmallows $1.89
3 cans baked beans $2.15 ea
Trident 1.29
Can olives 1.59
pork sausage 2.05
18 lbs apples for $15
Head lettuce $1.49
2 jugs cider $3.99 each
pack of mushrooms $1.98

I had $1.55 in coupons.

Total came to $51.75

So....Last week's total left: $124.74 - $51.75 = $72.99 left for the month

I plan to dry most of the apples I bought. Used much of the baked beans/marshmallows/cider in a weekend gathering.

I had a sick kiddo yesterday and she's home again today, so that makes me essentially homebound from going shopping (especially at the health food store, which closes before hubby gets home). I do want to pick up a few things...probably use the rest of my alotted amount up there as we are near the end of the month.



The menu for this week looks like this:


Monday: Biscuits and gravy (took advantage of the cheap biscuits and milk...for me, I had sausage, some leftover green beans/mushrooms from the fridge, and some canned peaches from the pantry. Had my little miss not been sick, I would have gotten some more GF baking mix and made myself some GF biscuits and used a GF thickener in the gravy and had biscuits and gravy with the rest of the family...).

Tuesday: Hamburgers, Salad, perhaps Tailgate Salad, Garlicky Pasta (to help fend off the sickies)

Wednesday: Sandwiches, cut up apples or Apple Salad?, Cole Slaw?

Thursday: Pinto Beans and ? (Tamale Pie?), Tortilla Chips?

Friday: Maybe leftovers, since the kids will likely be away that night...we'll see. I do have chicken and broccoli and carrots in the freezer...and rice, if I do need to make a full meal...

October 2011, Week 3: Can I really feed a family of 5 on $450/month?

So it's Week 3 of my little trial.

On Monday, I re-evaluated my menu and wrote a short list of things I needed from the store for this week.

I purchased the following from the health food store:

4 boxes of herbal tea $3.49-$3.59 each
2 half-gallons of Organic milk $4.89 each
half pound of pastured butter $4.49
Dozen local pastured eggs $3.35
Total came to $31.88

So....last week's tally showed I had $124.74 left for the month.

$124.74-$31.88= $92.86 left for the month


The breakfast selection is narrowing a lot, which is causing some of my kids to balk. Oh well, they still have options (which I don't really deem a necessary thing to provide) and they haven't chosen to go hungry yet! ;) I may make some muffins for the kids today...



 Rather than hamburgers last Thursday, I made a sort of enchilada casserole using a recipe working from the bag of corn tortillas, some cheese, ground beef, a can of green chilies, leftover sour cream/chipotle sour cream that was begging me to use it up...and a box of my gf Pacific Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup. It was a hit! (and no tomatoes!)

~Monday night we had the MuShu Beef(actually, venison) and Cabbage over Rice
~Tonight is Roasted Chicken and Roasted veggies (planning on making bone broth with the carcass)
~Wednesday night is Tuna Sandwiches, cut up apples and oranges, and part of our token bag of potato chips (Probably Tuna and GF crackers for me since I only have one slice of Udi's regular bread left...for some reason I don't think Tuna salad would be good on cinnamon raisin bread!)
~Thursday night is going to be Hamburgers, maybe a Tailgate salad (which I might double for our gathering on Saturday) and I'm thinking about making a big pot of baked beans to go with it or even have instead of the hamburgers--especially if I get around to making cornbread!
~Friday is Nachos, using the other pound of venison/onions I browned last night
~For our Saturday gathering, we are contributing a cold dish and a hot dish... still brainstorming, but am thinking maybe a white/green chili utilizing the leftover chicken meat, and Tailgate Salad? Or maybe instead of tailgate salad, I will bake a cake with one of the boxes of regular cake mix I still have around here...or...GF Crustless Pumpkin Pie?



So, that leaves a few things to work with for next week's menu:
~Venison Roast
~Chicken thighs
~Sandwiches
~Beans/Lentils and Rice/Cornbread
~Something Simple with quick clean-up --Church Game Night

My garden is offering up the following for me to incorporate into our menu: Beets, Butternut Squash, Chard, Kale.

Help Support our Scouts! (And our Military!)

Our two sons are in Cub Scouts and are currently selling Trails End popcorn products to raise money for their various activities.

Now, you may ask "Why would I, a ______-allergic person, buy this stuff?"

Because...you don't have to bring the stuff into your house. Instead, you can give money towards popcorn that will then be sent to our Military. Support the Scouts AND our Military troops? Sounds like a plan!


Or, if you are one of the fortunate and don't have to worry about food allergies, you can certainly order some popcorn and it will be delivered to your door! :)

Either way, if you are interested, the details are in the links below:

Son #1: Webelo

Son #2: Bear Scout

Thanks for your support! :)