My Gluten-Free Journey, Day 1

Well, I have been battling with diverticulitis this past week (my first and hopefully LAST bout) and I was really too sick to eat. During this time I decided to try a gluten-free diet once I was able to eat again. Today was that day! I was SO hungry for REAL food that I drove my sick self to the store to shop for what I needed (just that short trip made me break out into a sweat).

I looked online for some gluten-free recipes and I saw a quinoa recipe that looked amazing! I gave it a try and it turned out wonderful! The recipe is in my post below, along with the roasted chicken I made to go along with the quinoa.

I hope I am able to stick with this longer than I did my stab at eating vegetarian! lol.

So that's my story...if any of my readers are gluten-free eaters, I'd love to get some of your recipes to try.

ROASTED CHICKEN (IN THE CROCK POT)

This dish is SO simple and yet, so good. It has such a nice, roasted flavor that you might find it hard to believe it came from the Crock Pot. I don't know where the recipe came from originally, or if it came out of my head lol.

Roasted Chicken in the Crock Pot

1 4 lb roasting chicken, whole
2 carrots, sliced thick
2 celery ribs, sliced thick
2 cups chicken broth
Salt
Garlic powder
Black pepper
Paprika

Cut up veggies and place in bottom of your Crock Pot. Add the chicken broth. Sprinkle salt, garlic powder, pepper and paprika over all sides of the chicken. Place the chicken breast side up in the Crock Pot and cook on high for one hour, and then low for 8 hours…or on high for 6 hours. This was VERY yummy!!!

Lemon Quinoa

I found this dish while on my healthier eating quest. It really has great flavor and you don't miss rice or potatoes when you eat quinoa! Click on the heading below for the link to the recipe from allrecipes.com.

Lemony Quinoa from AllRecipes.com


Toast the pine nuts briefly in a dry skillet over medium heat.

This will take about 5 minutes, and stir constantly as they will burn easily. Set aside to cool. In a saucepan, combine the quinoa, water and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook until quinoa is tender and water has been absorbed, about 10 minutes. Cool slightly, then fluff with a fork. Transfer the quinoa to a serving bowl and stir in the pine nuts, lemon juice, celery, onion, cayenne pepper, cumin and parsley.

Adjust salt and pepper if needed before serving.

This was SO good!!! I was very happy with how it turned out and even hubby would eat it over and over again. 2 forks up!!