The Gluten Free Weekly Menu June 1

Hello Summer!

So it’s time for the casein free, gluten free weekly menu for June 1, 2015.

And welcome new followers on Twitter, Pinterest and the Facebook Fan page! Take a look around the blog to find lots of clean eating but flavorful recipes.

I love to use spices. The weekly menus are a great round up of recipes, too.

This week I’m going to try a couple new recipes. I really want to try the chili pork tenderloin and mango salsa recipe McCormick’s has been sponsoring on Facebook. Have you seen it? The ad worked. I’m totally gonna make it! 🙂

And the time has come to stock my freezer with Chicken Andouille Sausage Gumbo again!

What’s in Your Freezer?

One of the best investments we’ve made is an additional freezer and storage containers.

It really helps prevent food waste to freeze meat or portion out things like rice, soup or sauces and freeze them.

It saves so much money, too!

I’ve learned to make extra when I’m prepping fresh ingredients so that I can freeze them and reduce the prep time the next time I need a specific ingredient.

For example, I cook up lots of sweet potatoes and freeze the puree so I can pull out what I need to make sweet potato muffins or sweet potato chocolate brownies. That way I’m not laboring over the fresh ingredients all of the time.

Make sense? Here are some of the many things you’ll find in our freezers:

• meat
• bread (so it doesn’t mold)
• homemade hamburger buns
• homemade turkey meatballs
• extra soup
• gumbo
• cooked rice
• sauces like chimichurri or pesto or faux hollandaise
• lemon, orange and lime juice (buy on sale and squeeze into an ice cube tray and freeze the cubes)
• tomato paste, tomato sauce, or extra pizza sauce (come in BPA-free containers or glass jars and if not using all of it at once freeze the tomato sauce in 1-cup containers and the tomato paste as 1 tablespoon cubes)
• ripe banana puree
• pureed sweet potatoes (used in baking)
• black beans (make a big batch from scratch and freeze them in 1-cup containers with with cooking liquid)
• ranch style beans
• homemade chicken stock/broth (made from the saved chicken bones)
• flour
• frozen veggies (peas, corn and broccoli)

Time to Make the Gumbo!

So I make this gumbo about every other month.  I live for this gumbo!

The original recipe came from The Gumbo Shop in New Orleans. No matter who I’m with, every time I’ve been to NOLA we wait in line for it.  It was pretty upsetting that I wouldn’t be able to have it again because the roux is made with flour (not gluten-free). But then they published a cookbook!

So I spent a lot of time and testing to make the recipe gluten free (and casein free depending on the sausage you use).

I use ghee as the fat (any fat will work even coconut oil), Bob’s Red Mill certified GF oat flour and Aidell Andouille sausage.

It is a process to make it so I like to cook up a big batch then freeze it for lunches. And I portion out and freeze the rice, too. It’s just so good!

The Weekly Menu June 1

Meatless Monday – Seasonal Salad

Tuesday – Chili Pork Tenderloin, Mango Salsa & Cilantro Lime Rice

Wednesday – Burrito Bowls with Leftovers 

Thursday – Chicken Andouille Sausage Gumbo & White Basmati Rice

Friday – Italian Turkey Meatballs & Pasta 

Saturday – Orange Ginger Beef Stir Fry (from McCormick’s Recipe Pages – make half the recipe)

Sunday – Singapore Street Noodles (recipe in The Weekly Menu Cookbook)

Have a healthy, happy week everyone! 🙂