Easiest, Tastiest GF Pancakes - Buckwheat

We love pancakes. Leena has never had 'real' pancakes with 'real gluten' - so she really doesn't know the difference. However, Ben and I do. And I think there are three categories of pancakes:
1. Super fluffy and light
2. Dense and more of a healthy 'wholesome' pancake (these are usually the whole wheat pancakes)
3. Something in between

This is a #3 recipe. They are not super light, but not super dense. They are so delish. I hope you try them, even if you are not gluten free. The best part is the base is buckwheat. For those of you not familiar with buckwheat - it is neither wheat, nor a grain. It's actually a seed. And it's delicious. My boss is Russian (where buckwheat is a daily staple) and we always talk about how this is 'the' food. It has so many ways of being cooked, and it's so good for you, so filling and so tasty.

Basically, buckwheat flour is just taking what are often called buckwheat groats (these) and blending them in the blender for 2-3 minutes, or until a flour. Easy. And just one extra step. I promise - NOT HARD! :)

Next, you can use 2 eggs if you don't want to do this vegan. But grinding flax seeds is also, very, very easy. It provides some extra fatty acids (translation - more filling so you will skip the sugar later in the day) and extra fiber (translation - fills you up).

This is now our Sunday morning 'thang'. Try it!

Ingredients
2 cups Buckwheat Flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbls coconut or date sugar or regular old sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup ground flax meal (or 2 eggs)
2 cups 'milk' (we have used all sorts, but it's extremely delicious with a full can of coconut milk)
1/4 cup melted spectrum butter flavored margarine, or butter (we like the butter flavored margarine because the buttery-ness makes this really nice)

Method
Preheat your skillet or griddle on a medium-high heat.

Follow a standard 'mix the dry'. 'Mix the wet'. Mix together.

Take a 1/4 cup measuring cup and spoon into the pan. Let the bubbles form and pop. When it completely stops, and the top looks kind of dry/almost done, flip over and cook on the other side for another 2 minutes.

The best way to keep these warm is a tortilla warmer. But you can also stack two plates on top of each other.
These refrigerate very well too.

Toppers
Real maple syrup
Fruit
Coconut oil

Crispy Salmon with Garlic, Caper Mustard Sauce

I love the idea of "Seafood Saturday". Something about the weekend makes it easy to go get fresh seafood, prepare it and then clean it up - because ain't nothin' worse than the smell of any fish that had been sitting around from the night before. Gross.

So last Saturday, we cooked this up. Actually, Ben did all the work. But hey, now I am doing the work of blogging about it so we can all enjoy it and I can remember what we did!

This was a hit with the little one too - and great for her growing body too!

Note that the type of salmon you get really matters. I follow these rules:
1. SMELL it! Always smell your food. Who cares if you look weird doing it, your fish should smell fresh. If it doesn't, pass and move on.
2. Do not buy farmed salmon. As a matter of fact, steer clear of all farmed salmon. Do a basic web search on this and you will know why.
3. Buy in season and you will get the freshest, most local fish.
4. I personally prefer King Salmon. Sockeye is everywhere, but it has a mushy texture to me. King is firm and the tasiest.

Ingredients
1 lb of fresh salmon, Skin off for maximum crispy  
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbls dijon mustard
1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
1 tsp fresh chopped thyme
1-3 tbls dry white wine
Few tbls olive oil
1/4 cup capers
1 lemon sliced thin
1 lemon, cut into wedges

Method
Mix the garlic, mustard and herbs in a bowl. Whisk in the wine and olive oil.

Heat your skillet. Add a few good rounds of olive oil. Toss in the lemon and capers and just start to heat. Lay your salmon in. Let brown on one side. Toss in sauce. Flip salmon. Let cook until just done.

Serve on plate with more lemon. Enjoy!

Pictured here with a fresh green salad (from my garden!) and quinoa flakes (we used homemade broth as the base). I love quinoa flakes - it's so quick and so creamy! You can find them here (and local folks - New Leaf and Whole Foods both carry these)

Turkey Sweet Potato Soup

It's become somewhat of a meditation for me to spend one of my weekend days making soup for Miss Leena. Her meals are always balanced, but the soup is the easiest way she gets it all in one. Plus, she still lets her day time care provider feed her (all bets are off for mom, dad and Nana to do this - she insists she feed her-own-self!).
As I have mentioned before, I do something different each week. I try to mix up the veg and the meat and grains (or no grains) each week. This particular mixture was a 'no grain' week. I doubled it and have been enjoying it myself! The only difference is when I warm it up for myself, I season it with salt.

Here goes - wholesome and tasty goodness for your little ones!

Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey (ideally you get this fresh, organic/natural - pre-packaged ground meat usually has a filler of some sort in it)
1 medium sweet potato (in this case, I used a jewel yam - not a white sweet potato) small chop
1 zucchini, small chop
1/2 onion, small chop
2 carrots, small chop
1 stalk of celery, small chop
6 Cups of stock (or water - but homemade broth is my preference)

Follow the usual method here - Enjoy!

Remember, you can always puree these same soups for little, little babies - but once your kiddo can chew and handle more solid foods, starting with the ground meat seems to be the easiest. And then small chopping any veg so they don't choke and they can fit it in their mouth is ideal. You can cook this for an hour, or two or three - and everything gets really soft. So I never really worry about her handling it in her mouth (although - she has all her teeth now :))

Easy Skillet Chicken and Rice

This was inspired by an America's Test Kitchen recipe - but made GF/DF and some added umph it needed. It's such a comforting meal. So simple to make and so simple in taste. And I like that sometimes. This is a great weeknight meal and it takes only 30 minutes and can be mostly made from things I usually have in the freezer and fridge.

**Notes: I would really urge you to use a flavorful rice like basmati here. And good basmati. The dish is quite plain and the yummier the rice the better. Also, I always use a Le Crueset here. You can use any heavy bottom pan, but my preference for even cooking is always LC.

Ingredients
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 tbls olive oil
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
1 medium onion, finely chopped
pinch of chili flakes
1/2 cup white wine of your choice (always cook with something you want to drink)
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup chopped green olives
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1-2 lemons, juiced
salt and pepper to taste

Process
In a pan heat the oil (make sure you've picked a pan with a lid). When good and hot - sear one side of the chicken. Take out and set aside.

Next warm up the onion and cook until soft. Add the chili flakes and garlic and stir for about 30 seconds. Add in the rice and let it cook until most of the kernels are white. Stir in the wine. And you are going to do a risotto type thing here where you really let the rice soak up the wine before adding the stock in.
Once the wine is absorbed, put the stock in and place the chicken back in the skillet. Cover and cook until the chicken is done - about 10 minutes.
Throw in the peas, green onion and olives. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes.

Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Enjoy with a hearty serving of chard.