My Stuffed Mushroom and Other Simple G-Free Meals

I found this giant mushroom at my local health food store, but I've also seen them in grocery stores. I had to have one. I cut up veggies ~ asparagus, green onion, garlic, celery, ordinary mushroom, red pepper, etc., and I nuked a small, red-skinned potato which I cut up, unpeeled. All went into a small mixing bowl where I added dressing: 1 tsp. garlic olive oil, dash of Tamari sauce, a little g-free dijon mustard, pepper, dried sweet basil and parsley and a sprinkling of fake parmesan cheese. Mix well.

I washed the mushroom and scooped out the gills. Then I stuffed it with the veggie mixture.

It would probably be best baked in a covered dish, but it was too hot to put the oven on, so I put it in a little enamel frying pan, covered it and cooked it over low-medium heat for about 20 mins. The bottom got blackened a bit, but the stuffing was steaming and it was all still really, really good. You could serve this with a crisp green salad, but I just put some sliced black olives and a dill pickled on my plate and enjoyed.


I needed to come up with a simple lunch for the teenager who is also now gluten-free. I had some leftover white meat from a roasted organic chicken, so using g-free mayo and adding some salt, pepper, dried parsley and sweet basil, I whipped her up some chicken salad. But how to serve it in an attractive way that was also yummy? My eyes fell on a package of blue corn chips, so I laid some out on the plate and put the chicken salad on top, then stuck one corn chip into it. My girl likes cucumber dipped in French dressing and we had some g-free dressing at hand, so this completed her lunch. She said, "Mom, some of my meals look like something I'd be served in a restaurant." Hey, cool. :)

We've gotten away from the meat and potatoes model in the last long while, but sometimes it still gets the job done. I made some natural beef patties and since it's asparagus season here, I fried some of that, along with some mushrooms in just enough garlic olive oil to coat the pan, and I nuked a nice little red skin potato. Served with homemade g-free catsup and some butter for the spud, the teen was smiling when she was through. :)